Heroes of programming
The 10x developer myth
@francmichal
www.mfranc.com
Happy ++programmer day!
++256th day
Hey my name is Michal
Lead Dev @
Social Giving Platform
Supporting 100k of causes
I am on a mission
Dangerous myths
Waterfall is horrible
Agile is the silver bullet
I was told that waterfall is Bad!
Waterfall has its place
You can find both Agile and Waterfall companies
doing it horribly wrong
Agile is dead,
long live Agility
Context is King!
If you only know how to use hammer, everything looks like a nail to you
T in TDD
T is an unfortunate letter in TDD
Unit test is a nice to have by-product
TDD =/= Testing
-
exploring domain / problem
-
validating design of the code
-
emerging desing
Young founder miracle!
aka Silicon Valley Age bias
I am almost 30
Beacuse of this myth i get this feeling from time to time ... that Micheal it is over your chances are gone
I am 30 next month! I am actually doing a conference talk in London on my 30th birthday
And today btw is aniversay of me and my fiance engagement ... she is not happy about that :)
13th but we are lucky
Yet the statistics show that average company creators are in their 35-40s
It shouldnt be a surprise as you need experience, knowledge and wisdom to find a place for your company and product.
Brilliant Innovation
10x Developer
1x
10x
Sounds Great
Sign me up please!
10x number comes from 1968 study
Accidental 'Discovery' ...
Checking debugging
techniques ...
... found difference in programming abilities
Debugging
Coding
Execution
-
Is better at debugging
-
Solves problems faster
-
Their code execution time is better
10x Developer
10x Engineering skills
Are they out there ?
Digging deeper
similar finding
challenging the findings
Studies
Divide
Dev productivity
=
individual + context
Just like Lionel Messi plays great football in Barcelona but in his national Team he is not able to do this.
In barcelona he was trained to work as a team since beggingin of his career
Also the team tactic o playing footbal is set to use most of his advantages and provide as much as possible support to messi to amplify his most positive traits and mitigate the downsides
10x problem
-
diffcult to measure productivity
-
we don't work in vacuum
-
this is not assembly line work
My first problem with this myth!
We cant measure dev productivity just like this person is a singletone!
There are many different variables comming into play that affect dev productivity, enviroment, process, team culture, collaboration, motivation.
This is creative work not some assembly line with easy to follow instructions.
10x myth is simplifying complex world
There are extraordinary people
http://open.lib.umn.edu/intropsyc/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/d73ccd6f6f078851c839adbfac443d77.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Normal_Distribution_PDF.svg
http://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/53d00810-7387-11e5-900f-8f17a1e8f270-1020x670.jpg
They feel like out of this world
We even have favorite ones
Their success is so extra-ordinary
And there is no easy answer why and how
Just a Glimpse of their path to success
... which can be inflated
We create myths
... modern mythology
As Humans we need heroes
... just like ancient civilizations
Elon Musk works
100 hrs a week
... his source of success
Myth like this is a simplification
100 hrs / week
simple, easy, great promise
10x is kind of similar
It is a simplification of much more difficult process
10x is a promise
... that with enough work and talent, you can be a hero one day
The best programmers are up to 28 times better than the worst programmers, according to "individual differences" research.
A great programmer might be ten or a hundred times as productive as an ordinary one..."
http://www.paulgraham.com/gh.html
Paul Graham
Five great programmers can completely outperform 1,000 mediocre programmers.
https://hbr.org/2011/06/great-people-are-overrated
Marc Andersen Netscape
And the effect ?
There are more and more people talking about 10x and even 100x
10x Talent ... within reach
http://www.10xmanagement.com/
10x developer
Simplified promise!
10x productive ?
-
Is better at debugging
-
Solves problems faster
-
Their code execution time is better
10x Developer
Is Faster Code better ?
Yes it is!
Is better Code better ?
Yes it is!
Is solving problems faster better?
Sure it is!!
There is one catch!
But only if it brings Value!
Productivity
=
Value
You are more productive because you are solving the right problems
I have found some clues about being 'more' productive in those two sentences
{ what does it mean ? }
You are more productive because you are multiplier
{ what does it mean to be multiplier }
{ those need separate slides }
Good Enough Software
Our time is limited
we need to prioritize
Measure first
Prove there is value
... and then act!
{ slide with info about it doesnt make sense to optimize perfectly working app }
{ it makes sense with this code enchancement or otpimization will bring new customers }
{ it doesnt make sense to refactor the code if it wont make the product better, That is why before refactoring we should find out which part of the system is most buggy and most changed so that the refactoring investment will be worthwhile }
{ and it doesnt matter if you create product that is perefct in engineering sense if you cant sell it, or if you have lost the market opportunity, beacuse you took your time to creat perfect product, and in the meantime the competition has sold crappy product, customers dont mind to certain deegre }
Making better code is waste of time
... if you can't sell it
... if you lost the market opportunity
... because you spent too much time polishing the product
Making faster code is also a waste of time
... if users are perfectly happy about the speed of your product
Delivering features faster is not worth it
... if you are delivering non important features
... and confusing user with too many options
You need Team-Effort
... to find possible short-cuts
... and build good enough software
... to know when it is time to optimise
... or which features to deliver
How are products made ?
Find a Problem
Business Knowledge
Find a Solution
Domain Knowledge
Design it
UX skills
Create
Engineering skills
Sell it
Marketing skills
Support it
CS skills
Value =
Business Knowledge
Domain Knowledge
UX skills
Engineering skills
Marketing skills
CS skills
Team
Enginnering
1/6 of Value
Value is generated by a team!
... not a single genius
'Hunting' for 10x is not an optimal strategy
They are rare
How to find them?
If you are lucky
How to keep them!
Bus Factor
Is your org 10x?
https://patsylynnforg.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/bottlenecklogo1.jpg
Better approach
Don't look for 10x developers focus on building teams!
Creating business value is team effort
Finding proper problems to solve is team effort
... Make the team as a whole 10 times more productive / better!
As a Leader forget about
10x Developer and ...
As a developer
If you want to be 10x
- work on your team-work skills
- improve your soft skills
- work on becoming multiplier
10x is a myth to me
... a dangerous one
Too much focus
Enginerring
Too much focus
individual skills
... when collaboration is the true power
Adds pressure on people
... when they can be AVERAGE
... it is ok to be AVERAGE
... most of the people are AVERAGE!
“I want to work only with the best people. Are you a 10x software engineer?”
Success
Average people building something
extra-ordinary together
10x Developer?
10x Team!
Questions
@francmichal
www.mfranc.com
10x team!
Heroes of programming ( 40 min )
By Michal Franc
