[phroobster]

Lots of pushback in this thread against the idea of 10x, 50x, etc. engineers. If we’re just measuring performance relative to the average software developer then I don’t see why they wouldn’t exist. I’ve met developers who solve problems that the average developer would simply never solve no matter how much time they threw at it. You could make the argument that they are “infinityx” engineers, as silly as that might sound.

[knowtheworld]

I do feel that. Another way to view this is that programming sometimes is like solving a math problem. A top-tier mathematician can solve a difficult math problem 100x faster than an average person. 100x is even a bit understatement because most people can’t even come up with any solution given long enough time. For sure, programming is not solving math problems, but they have some similarities. But this is a way to conceptualize it.