You're Not a 10x Programmer

You're Not a 10x Programmer
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I know people who can just solve problems. If it takes me all day to solve something, I'll reach out to Ken and he'll say "oh, check this setting. It is probably X". Dennis has seen so many problems, he knows how I've tried to solve them and the solutions before I've finished describing what is going on.

If these guys solve something in 48 minutes that take others 8 hours, they are 10Xers.

But they are more than being "10x productive"; they solve problems that would otherwise not be solved. They get stuff done that other people would lose patience with before it is ever solved. And the best part: it isn't even HARD for them. When those guys rock, they do it with ease, they do it for FUN.

Sometimes I am a 10x programmer. Sometimes I spend 48 minutes solving a problem others work on all day before deciding it isn't possible. My goal isn't to "be a 10x programmer", my goal is to be "10x more often today than I was yesterday".

The “most people are average, therefor you must be average” line of reasoning is nonsense. We know that exceptional programmers exist. Why it’s even controversial is beyond me.

When I start thinking about software as a solution, I think about what stories I want to tell about that software. I think about the user and the problem space and how I could deliver value. I think about what events (past tense!) may occur in my system. I think about how I can deliver/deploy the system and I think of what incremental steps may be required to constantly deliver iterative work. The stories I want to tell are a god send when I write tests. Spending time setting up CI/CD pipelines up front is a habit.

I’ve been working on a hypothesis that creating software is actually easy and understandable. I eventually overcome challenges to that working hypothesis. I want it to be true, so I’m figuring out how it can be true even if just for me.

I study a lot. I practice a lot. Maybe this is where anyone similar enough to me would be at this level of learning.

At any rate, it’s obvious to me that there are mentalities that are more effective than others at certain tasks. Of course there will be some who are 10x more capable than others.

Someone who is meditated and practiced the craft of software will be much more effective than someone just starting out.