[slededit]

They are Unicorns but you know them when you see them. Cranking out code at high velocity that looks and feels right. When they don't know how to do something they actually research and look at the field. If no prior art exists at all (they frequently find themselves in this situation) they're already on their third iteration before anyone else has a prototype - even they can't get it perfect the very first time.

E.g. If they previously wrote compilers and you tasked them with graphics you'd see a book explaining affine transforms on their desk. Or parsing theory for the reverse transition.

A key part however is the ability to switch between fields. I've seen people I thought were 10x completely fail when tasked with something new.