This was the best insight in the article: Do 10x engineers actually exist? "This debate isn't something I want to weigh in on but I might have to. My answer is sometimes, kinda. When I have had engineers who were 10x as valuable as others it was primarily due to their ability to prevent unnecessary work. Talking a PM down from a task that was never feasible. Getting another engineer to not build that unnecessary microservice. Making developer experience investments that save everyone just a bit of time on every task. Documenting your work so that every future engineer can jump in faster. These things can add up over time to one engineer saving 10x the time company wide than what they took to build it."
So true, a lot of value and gains are had when tech leads can effectively negotiate and creatively offer less costly solutions to all aspects of a feature.
So true, a lot of value and gains are had when tech leads can effectively negotiate and creatively offer less costly solutions to all aspects of a feature.