[vorg]

The article used his own example of programming fixed-point arithmetic, plus Ken Thompson and Linus Torvalds. In everyday use, "10x programmers" describe those who produce work much quicker in everyday IT shops using Cobol or Java. Many programmers in these places are typically low on aptitude, and are only as productive as the number of years they've worked on the systems for their particular employer. Occasionally someone with some more aptitude ends up in one of these places and soon works a lot quicker, and gain the title "10x programmer", though may only do stuff 3 or 5 times quicker than average. Most of them get transferred out to some more meaningful project in the company, but management usually keep one or two of them stuck in that maintenance team, generally whoever agrees to do after-hours standby work.