I always just assumed the reason everyone says 10x or 1000x, or whatever new number is in vogue, is that the difference between a garden-variety competent software engineer and the (ill defined) best software engineer is closer to the difference between the fastest runner and the next thousand slower runners: a fraction of a second. And while that matters a lot in a race, it does not in software.
Humans intrinsically need to feel good about themselves and what they do. It's hard for ye olde ego to think of oneself as replaceable, so we tell ourselves stories about how good we are, or, in the author's case, how good we are at finding the best.
Humans intrinsically need to feel good about themselves and what they do. It's hard for ye olde ego to think of oneself as replaceable, so we tell ourselves stories about how good we are, or, in the author's case, how good we are at finding the best.