[zmxz]

You can't "create" 10x engineer. You either have work ethic or you don't. If you have the work ethic, if you're disciplined, if you genuinely enjoy programming and the feature/software you work on - then you have the capacity to be better than engineers who enter this line of work purely and only for the money.

That's what makes the difference. And no company can make you like the software you're making, to be disciplined if you don't train yourself so and to genuinely like and enjoy what you produce. It'd be equivalent to brainwashing.

[ranting-moth]

>no company can make you like the software you're making

But it's worth mentioning that a company can make you dislike the software you're making.

[hoseja]

I can confidently say some sort of friendly but firm "work trainer" could 2-3x my performance.

[zepolen]

> I distinguish four types. There are clever, hardworking, stupid, and lazy officers. Usually two characteristics are combined. Some are clever and hardworking; their place is the General Staff. The next ones are stupid and lazy; they make up 90 percent of every army and are suited to routine duties. Anyone who is both clever and lazy is qualified for the highest leadership duties, because he possesses the mental clarity and strength of nerve necessary for difficult decisions. One must beware of anyone who is both stupid and hardworking; he must not be entrusted with any responsibility because he will always only cause damage.[32]

from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_von_Hammerstein-Equord#:~....

[jstx1]

As someone with ADHD, it’s kind of sad that I’ll hit some career ceiling because I can’t get myself to put in the work.

[autotune]

ADHD isn't really an excuse. I have ADD. The only thing that separates me from someone who doesn't is it takes 20-30 minutes or so of being distracted before getting into "hyper focus" mode and getting things done. Yeah, it took some more time to find a gig I liked because I can't focus on bullshit, but now that I have it I am able to get the some work done by the time standup hits as any other individual.

[ParetoOptimal]

> ADHD isn't really an excuse. I have ADD. The only thing that separates me from someone who doesn't is it takes 20-30 minutes or so of being distracted before getting into "hyper focus" mode and getting things done.

This works for some things but not all for me. Also there is no universal add or adhd experience.

For me the difference between work ethic on adhd meds versus without is night and day.

I'm not lazy without them, it's just all of my energy can get consumed by a million other things than the task at hand.

[zmxz]

That sounds like quitting before even trying. If I were you, I'd first exhaust every possible option I have at my disposal to become better before calling it quits.

You might have ADHD but you can also adjust to it and work around it. Don't call it quit until you literally exhaust everything you can.

[ParetoOptimal]

> You might have ADHD but you can also adjust to it and work around it.

Most can't really work around it in the sense I think you mean.

If everyone else prioritizing and doing work us like walking, for someone with ADHD it's like walking underwater.

Not only is it much harder but:

- it looks and feels ineffective

- you have to stop progress to come up for air iften

- when comparing to others it's easy to feel lazy and get demotivated

[rovr138]

As someone with ADHD, find a job that works for you.

For me, the way teams are structured where I worked there where 2 sides, build and support.

Build focuses on new builds. One project, until it's launched. That didn't work for me.

Support is projects that are already launched that need new things built out, maintenance, etc.

New builds is usually backend dev, front end and one that can do a bit of both. Support usually has a dev per 5 clients.

I loved being in the support side and floating to new build as needed for my expertise. While most other teams have a dev per 5 clients, I was able to automate parts of the maintenance and by myself I handled 35 clients.

I worked with the leadership at the company. I was able to create my own department afterwards. I had the ears of everyone.

With 35 clients, I was switching all the time. Priorities shift. Goals shift. It was great for my ADHD brain. Blast some fast paced music and start my day.

-----

Find what works for you. Do you need to switch it up often? Do you need things written out and longer projects? How does your ADHD brain work?

[nonameiguess]

My wife has ADHD and does really well with the jobs she's had. I'd easily call her a 10x engineer in her field. I'm not sure how well you can translate this to an arbitrary job, but one thing that seems to help her is doing classified work. She still gets distracted, but she doesn't get distracted by Reddit and Hacker News, because they're not available on the network she's working on. She gets distracted by old documentation troves, reading more of her own product's code base, studying test cases, actually looking at the logs of all the overnight regression test failures that other developers ignore. Absorb all of that tribal knowledge that usually takes years or even decades to accumulate. (It's also a very old government program she's involved in, so tons of history and context to absorb.)

[misja111]

It's not as much about putting in the work, but it's about putting in the right work and at the right moment. I've know some brilliant programmers with ADHD. They were perhaps not always the most active behind their computer, but when it mattered they got more work done than everybody else.

[ParetoOptimal]

> It's not as much about putting in the work, but it's about putting in the right work and at the right moment.

A lot of truth here. Many times it's nigh impossible to work at 8am, but at 2pm I can nearly always be productive.

[CoastalCoder]

I might have something that might help. (I'm really not sure, but no harm in mentioning it.)

I'm kind of in the same boat. I don't really like the open-source software I'm paid to develop. Some combination of that, my ADD, and maybe burnout, make it really hard to plug away at developing that software. I have no doubt the ennui seriously dings my productivity.

Then a few weekends ago, I started working with some open-source software that's adjacent to my day job. I get to work at my own pace, focus on the parts that interest me, etc. I'm really enjoying myself.

I see two possible benefits to this weekend activity:

(1) It's helping me to enjoy programming again.

(2) If I'm really lucky, the knowledge and/or software I'm developing will become relevant to my day job. I think that would make my day job a lot more fun.

[mjlee]

It's still possible, just the path is different to most. There are career/executive function/ADHD coaches who specialise in technology. Finding one is the hard part, but ask around for recommendations and look in to ADHD support groups. A good coach will be able to point you in the right direction and you can always change who you see.

[oneoff786]

Being a 10x engineer has basically nothing to do with your career ceiling

[azangru]

Taylor Hunt, who says he has ADHD, has written a series of very in-depth posts about website performance, and how, after a lot of research, he created a super fast site demo while working at Kroger [0]. His example demonstrates that ADHD is no barrier to being a 10x developer

[0] -https://dev.to/tigt/making-the-worlds-fastest-website-and-ot...

[sneak]

> You can't "create" 10x engineer. You either have work ethic or you don't.

I don't think that anyone who believes in the "10x engineer" (myself included) thinks it has anything to do whatsoever with how much they work, or their attitude toward the work. "Work ethic" suggests that it's about how much effort they choose to put into it, and that's nothing to do with it. 10x engineers will do more per hour than median engineers, whether they work one hour or ten in a day.

[cies]

While I agree with all you said, I hold the belief that intelligence is mostly determined by birth (probably genes).

So that may be a limiting factor even when your work ethic is high.

[tartoran]

But there are plenty with average inteligence with good work ethic and good productivity. I think work ethic is something to be cultivated individually and has mostly no bearing in genetics.