[zbentley]

I'm not sure "high functioning" is the right term when discussing individuals rather than teams. I suggest using "leaders" or "mentors", since "high functioning" as in personal contribution productivity is, as you pointed out, often a toxic thing to optimize for.

Consider this: a team with one insanely productive contributor and three new/less-than-productive folks is tasked with a bunch of projects. As expected, the productive person does most of the work. The others might learn a bit by example, or not. Productive person moves on/gets bored/gets significant non-work commitments/burns out/gets hit by a bus. The team is no longer productive or functional.

Then consider this: a team with one person with a talent for teaching and leadership, and three new/less-than-productive folks is tasked with a bunch of projects. At first, they aren't that high-functioning as a team. The teacher/leader spends a lot of their time mentoring, going over the basics, reviewing, and planning. Over time, they get more productive. If the mentor/leader leaves the mentorship/leadership role, at worst they leave a high-performing team behind. At best they leave a high-performing team of people who are additionally prepared to assume a mentorship/leadership role in the future.

Depending on how "10x" (ugh) the developer in the first scenario is, the team in the second example might never reach their productivity. But I think it's pretty obvious that organizations are benefited more by second-example-type teams.

[iateanapple]

> Then consider this: a team with one person with a talent for teaching and leadership, and three new/less-than-productive folks

In practice it is more complex - people with a talent for teaching and leadership and are experts are incredibly rare.

What we often end up with is a mediocre dev taking on the teaching role and helping build a mediocre team.

[zbentley]

Well, there are teachers and there are teachers.

More specifically, some folks like to teach because it makes them feel like an expert when they're not. That's bad.

Some folks like to teach because it helps them learn-by-teaching and helps their pupils learn-by-questioning (and learn by questioning and receiving an honest "no idea/I might be wrong!").

The quantity that's in short supply is not expertise. It's humility.

[BeetleB]

> In practice it is more complex - people with a talent for teaching and leadership and are experts are incredibly rare.

Not in my experience. While there are obviously fewer people who have both traits, they're not at all rare. In practice, what I see is that such people shift away from teaching/mentoring as it takes time/effort that their manager does not reward.

If you want talented people who mentor well, make sure such mentoring is rewarded.

[iateanapple]

> what I see is that such people shift away from teaching/mentoring as it takes time/effort that their manager does not reward

I don’t think it’s that simple. I work with tons of talented engineers who put a huge amount of effort into tasks that management doesn’t care about - like refactoring our codebase.

In contrast everywhere I have worked management has cared about being able to level up new developers and under performers (assuming it’s a skill deficit).

[iateanapple]

To add to this one of the most soul crushing tasks I’ve had to do is to manage out good people who are under performing.

If I could say “BeetleB, I’m pairing you with Joe for the next 6 months - I don’t care if your output halves but I need you to bring him up to speed or we have to let him go” and you could train him up - well you would be worth your weight in gold.