[TrackerFF]

10x is not literal - the origins is from the 60s, and stem from some study where the best engineer was found to be 10x more productive than the worst engineer.

Average, is of course relative to the sample. If some "elite" company only hires 10x engineers, there's likely not going to be any 10x engineers there. The most productive engineer will probably only be slightly more productive than the worst.

If some other company has zero standards for hiring, to a degree where you can basically pick anyone off the streets and put them to code, the best will probably Nx (where N is very large) more productive than the worst.

But even then, there are so many dimensions and aspects to this.