[natch]

1) Sometimes they do.

2) Sometimes 10x or 50x or whatever Nx is not really what it's thought to be.

I've had to deal with the aftermath of some "10x" engineers and it's not always pretty. Now you can say that this just means we aren't measuring properly, and the person wasn't really 10x (more like -100x in fact, that minus before the 100, in case you missed it, is for "negative" as in negative 100x) but there are still people around thinking this person was 10x, because they still think highly of the elaborate and tightly integrated ongoing catastrophic disaster fountains he planted in the code base.

But then... yes there are some real 10x engineers. Again this is misunderstood though. I think many people can be 10x (or 50x) engineers, depending on circumstance. It's not always about the person. It's the right context plus the right person.

[knowtheworld]

The right circumstance + the right person can make someone 50x. It appears to me the ability to identify circumstances and people and put them in the right place is also very important? It might be another 50x worth thing.

[_y5hn]

I'm not going to create those contexts by focussing on metrics devoid of content though.