Heroes of programming
The 10x developer myth
@francmichal
www.mfranc.com
Hey my name is Michal
Lead Dev @
Social Giving Platform
4 bln $
I am on a mission today
10x, 100x ... developer
Truth behind
1x
100x
10x
A great programmer might be ten or a hundred times as productive as an ordinary one..."
http://www.paulgraham.com/gh.html
Paul Graham
I don't want to be ordinary!
10x number comes from 1968 study
Debugging
Coding
Execution
-
Is better at debugging
-
Solves problems faster
-
better code execution time
10x Developer
Cool
... with enough work I can stop being 'ordinary'
... I can be a hero one day
Sounds cool!
... but we are not connecting dots correctly
... and wasting time thinking about only the part of the picture
... when the answer is completely else
10x developer
?
10x productive
There was a project
It was succesfull
And a hero emerged
10x dev ?= 10 devs
Just a Glimpse of their path to success
... which can be inflated
Elon Musk works
100 hrs a week
Productivity
-
Is better at debugging
-
Solves problems faster
-
Their code execution time is better
10x Productive?
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
Value
Productivity
=
Value
10 x Developer
=
10x Value
value
=/=
individual skill
value
=
individual + (context)
IT context
-
work culture
-
team
-
organisation
Value is generated by a team
... not a single 10x 'hero'
... and cross functional skills
Making 'better' code is waste of time
... because you spent too much time polishing the product
...if you can't sell it
... if you lost the market opportunity
Making faster code is also a waste of time
... if users are perfectly fine with 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
... to know when it is time to optimize
...which features to deliver
...good enough software
Value =
Business Knowledge
Domain Knowledge
UX skills
Engineering skills
Marketing skills
CS skills
Team
Engineering
1/6 of 'Value'
'Hunting' for 10x is not an optimal strategy
Building Teams Is
10x is a myth to me
... a dangerous one
Too much focus
Enginerring
Too much focus
individual skills
... when collaboration is the 'king'
Adds pressure
... it is ok to be AVERAGE
... most of the people are AVERAGE
Success
Average people building something
extra-ordinary together
10x Developer?
10x Team!
Thank You
@francmichal
www.mfranc.com
what do you mean they're no good you were very clear you wanted to hire 10 ex-engineers