[ncmncm]

I know an objectively-measured 500x engineer.

On a 6-month crash project with 1000 engineers assigned, at the end, fully half the code delivered was his. You can't get any more objective than that.

To be clear: this was a project where, if not delivered on the 6-month mark, the company would not be paid. It is hard to see how, without his work, the project could have delivered on time.

I have worked with a few others of similar ability. I have never had a bad experience with one.

[MaxBarraclough]

It may be that this developer really did single-handedly save the day, but:

> half the code delivered was his. You can't get any more objective than that.

Counting lines of code is a famously ineffective way to measure productivity. It encourages low-density code style, and encourages working on easy development tasks. It also encourages prioritising velocity over quality, although in many contexts that may be what you want.

[ncmncm]

It can be quite effective after the fact. Our 500x engineer had no reason to pad, and every reason to avoid wasting time writing anything nonfunctional.

In the event, he assigned two-week tasks, and where not done on time he would do them himself over the weekend. During the two weeks, he would do up to ten such tasks, despite that he reserved the harder tasks for himself.