Back when I was a developer, I tended towards the competent jerk. I was pretty good, but not 10x and I was a bit short with people not a raging asshole, though looking back I am ashamed of my behavior. The good thing is that it makes it really easy for me to recognize now.
On my teams, I don’t accept incompetence, so even the nice folks get managed out quickly.
I do have a strategy for handling the 10x assholes, though. We have a difficult problem domain (lots of math and physics) so I need those smart folks. I’m also lucky to have 2 hyper-competent nice devs too. I use them like jiu jitsu gyms use their enforcers.
When an extra aggressive 20 something shows up to a gym and starts making it unsafe to train, the gym will pair them up with a black belt who will humiliate them but be super nice about it and put them in their place.
I do the same. If I see asshole behavior surfacing, I’ll pair them up with my one of my super competent devs and have a them do a in depth code review or something like that.
Most of the time it works and the bad behavior goes away. If that doesn’t work (very rarely), we’ll manage them out.
Sometimes the 10x jerk is a jerk because he’s used to dealing with incompetence. But if you can show them competent-nice behavior, they’ll often pattern match to that.
On my teams, I don’t accept incompetence, so even the nice folks get managed out quickly.
I do have a strategy for handling the 10x assholes, though. We have a difficult problem domain (lots of math and physics) so I need those smart folks. I’m also lucky to have 2 hyper-competent nice devs too. I use them like jiu jitsu gyms use their enforcers.
When an extra aggressive 20 something shows up to a gym and starts making it unsafe to train, the gym will pair them up with a black belt who will humiliate them but be super nice about it and put them in their place.
I do the same. If I see asshole behavior surfacing, I’ll pair them up with my one of my super competent devs and have a them do a in depth code review or something like that.
Most of the time it works and the bad behavior goes away. If that doesn’t work (very rarely), we’ll manage them out.
Sometimes the 10x jerk is a jerk because he’s used to dealing with incompetence. But if you can show them competent-nice behavior, they’ll often pattern match to that.