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by ytoawwhra92 14 days ago
> Can I do in a month what a junior cannot in 10 months? Can I do in 6mo what a junior cannot do in 5 years?

I briefly worked at an organisation where I was consistently and sustainably able to ship in two month blocks what other teams of 3-6 engineers at that organisation could not successfully deliver at all. I would consider myself around 75th percentile productive compared to the industry, but in that specific organisation I was at least 10x as productive as the median engineer - regardless of their seniority.

I think engineers tend to form clusters where everyone is roughly as intelligent/competent/productive as each other. Outliers tend not to join the cluster, or they leave quickly. I've seen this happen at the level of a company, but also in larger engineering orgs at the level of a team or group. High performers don't stick around when their median colleague is a low performer and vice versa.

Perhaps you've had the good fortune to work mainly in organisations with a high competency floor. Looking around, you may not see anyone who's 10x as productive as anyone else, but maybe you're ignoring that everyone is in the 90th percentile of the industry.