[3grdlurker]

Of course it is subjective. This is literally what you said:

> That is my definition.

You obviously care about optimizing for salary expenses. Most companies have room to hire more people who can do a few things well, so their definition of 10x would be different because they’ll have different expectations of their employees.

And really, if your definition of a 10xer is some poor fool who’s willing to take the job of 10 people for a single person’s salary, good luck finding someone who wants to spend their lives living that way.

[Jensson]

> And really, if your definition of a 10xer is some poor fool who’s willing to take the job of 10 people for a single person’s salary, good luck finding someone who wants to spend their lives living that way.

Right, they are paid more. The going rate for good people is around 1.5x up to 10x for exceptional cases.

Edit: And I am not talking about minimizing cost of salaries, I am talking about how much a good software engineer should demand. If he can replace 10 salaries with one then he has a lot of leverage he should use to get a higher salary, if the company isn't paying him then he should leave for a company that appreciates his skills. Plenty of companies pays premium money for premium talent.

[3grdlurker]

I mean, if all you’re saying is that “better programmers deserve better pay”, then you’re not exactly saying anything groundbreaking and the concept of “10xer” is not going to be necessary to make that point. It should also be noted that the salary that you get isn’t just a product of your talent but also of how well you sell yourself. Amongst many other factors, of course.

[Jensson]

Salary isn't just a factor of skill, but willingness to pay high salaries is the same as belief that skill matters a lot. A manager who doesn't believe in high developer skill variation will not pay significantly above market rate, while a manager with strong beliefs in skill variation will pay huge amounts for the right people. Therefore I see any arguments against 10x developers as an attempt to supress wages, likely managers who wants to hire good developers without paying them more than average developers, or developers who are jealous of others salaries. Luckily a lot of companies acknowledges that talent matters a lot and pays a lot for it, and today the highest valued companies in the world belongs to that group.