This is a very insightful list. But there is one thing I'd quibble with: while it's inherently a super-subjective metric, I would say that 10x programmers do exist. Both in the "can support a company by themselves" sense and the "mad lone genius" sense. Not all the 10x programmers are good at working with other people or on other people's ideas.
0.1x programmers are often lost or afraid, although they may just be unimaginative. The real risk of fear is introducing 0.1x processes. People are often willing to sacrifice any amount of development velocity to avoid being seen to make mistakes.
Sometimes this makes sense, sometimes it doesn't. Arguably the reason for the success of SpaceX is that they were willing to fly, crashland, and improve a dozen rockets in the time that a conventional company would spend agonizing over whether to launch at all. On the other hand, nobody wants to be on the same roads as the "move fast and break things" self-driving car.
0.1x programmers are often lost or afraid, although they may just be unimaginative. The real risk of fear is introducing 0.1x processes. People are often willing to sacrifice any amount of development velocity to avoid being seen to make mistakes.
Sometimes this makes sense, sometimes it doesn't. Arguably the reason for the success of SpaceX is that they were willing to fly, crashland, and improve a dozen rockets in the time that a conventional company would spend agonizing over whether to launch at all. On the other hand, nobody wants to be on the same roads as the "move fast and break things" self-driving car.