[jeffbee]

I have no disagreements with the article at all. I only disagree with the idea that "doesn't understand the language/codebase/requirements" can only cause slowness. That condition is at least equally likely to cause the fast solution.

The real "10x programmers" I have known spend practically all of their time deleting and refactoring code. A handful of fake 10x'ers I have met in my career, who enjoyed a reputation of rapidly dashing off MVPs, were stone-cold idiots, one of whom wrecked an entire company with his 10x-ness.