Like others here, I don't consider 10x programmers to be someone who writes 10x the amount of code. In fact, most 10x programmers actually write less code but get more done with it.
Personally I think the narrative works better when you think there are 1x programmers and 0.1x programmers. And a very large number of developers are actually between 1.0 and 0.1. These 0.1x programmers somehow manage to solve problems by simply puttering away at it over time. For example, these programmers might start out reading a web service into an XML file, re-opening that XML file to process the result, copying that file someone else that is never read again, taking the result and inserting it into a database table, reading the table to create an aggregate result, and then finally inserting that result into another system. And they do this all day long every day for every problem they come across.
Not everyone is quite that bad, there are 0.5x programmers who know better than that but still manage to write 6 classes to solve a problem that could be done in a single 2-screen long function.
Tools and processes can help and code reviews are pretty invaluable. Any good process will have weeded out 0.1x programmers already and they will settle in those places without them.
Personally I think the narrative works better when you think there are 1x programmers and 0.1x programmers. And a very large number of developers are actually between 1.0 and 0.1. These 0.1x programmers somehow manage to solve problems by simply puttering away at it over time. For example, these programmers might start out reading a web service into an XML file, re-opening that XML file to process the result, copying that file someone else that is never read again, taking the result and inserting it into a database table, reading the table to create an aggregate result, and then finally inserting that result into another system. And they do this all day long every day for every problem they come across.
Not everyone is quite that bad, there are 0.5x programmers who know better than that but still manage to write 6 classes to solve a problem that could be done in a single 2-screen long function.
Tools and processes can help and code reviews are pretty invaluable. Any good process will have weeded out 0.1x programmers already and they will settle in those places without them.