What most people will miss is that "presentation is important ".
As coders we spend a lot of time
And pride on the code. We evaluate our work based on its correctness, elegance, effeciency and so on.
But the way everyone else values it is on how it interacts with the world. We get frustrated when someone with clearly inferior skills perfects the presentation layer.
The solution is not to teach Julius to code. The solution is to understand the importance of what Julius is doing and prioritize adding that to our skillset.
Make no mistake, the 10x programmer doesn't write more code, rather they make their code more useful, more accessible, optimized for usefulness as much as effeciency.
Internalize phrases like "if it's not documented it doesn't exist" and understand that training is more important than creation.
I have tried this, I've solved problems that were deemed impossible and too expensive to solve. And not only did I manage to solve it technically, my solution was convenient and polished enough to be widely adopted across the company. However when I expected this to be recognized, the following things happened:
- Nothing. Other than my colleagues and immediate boss giving me props, nobody even knew something changed.
- When I tried to promote the stuff I did, I realized that most management a two or more levels up had zero clue what we did, and what our actual problems were. I needed to be like those made-for-TV guys where I needed to present a problem and a solution.
- I realized that most managers' mental model of the team is the check engine light model. If the light is on, the guy who makes it go away is a hero, no matter what he does. If it's not, then it's useless, and possibly fraudulent waste.
- I was often accused of being a pushy self-promoter, sleazily taking credit and overrepresenting what I did.
- Once I kind of got good at promoting things, I realized that doing the work is optional. This is probably the starting point for most Juliuses.
- Once I started getting recoginition, I started getting it from the weirdest places. I once got a shout-out from the company higher ups. When I talked to them informally during the christmas party, they admitted they had no idea what I did, or why it was important.
> Make no mistake, the 10x programmer doesn't write more code, rather they make their code more useful, more accessible, optimized for usefulness as much as effeciency.
Nope. Generally they push back on the requirements and make only the part that was needed. 10x programmers are much more like the top comment's "Pete" than the article's "Julius"
Not really. I know it hurts to hear but they are simply better.
The first one I worked with would come in the morning, sit down and code. Then take a lunch break and code some more until late in the evening. He was super prolific, his projects were well structured and followed all necessary conventions. He culled his code mercilessly and rewrote things that were going stale without hesitation. He delivered on time to happy customers.
He wasn't much for chit-chat but was friendly and would explain or help if approached. This was all in a small obscure European company. Now almost three decades later he is in a senior IC position at Arm I believe.
As coders we spend a lot of time And pride on the code. We evaluate our work based on its correctness, elegance, effeciency and so on.
But the way everyone else values it is on how it interacts with the world. We get frustrated when someone with clearly inferior skills perfects the presentation layer.
The solution is not to teach Julius to code. The solution is to understand the importance of what Julius is doing and prioritize adding that to our skillset.
Make no mistake, the 10x programmer doesn't write more code, rather they make their code more useful, more accessible, optimized for usefulness as much as effeciency.
Internalize phrases like "if it's not documented it doesn't exist" and understand that training is more important than creation.