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Alex Collins's avatar

This is all correct. All the high-performing coders I’ve met have these attributes. While most engineers write flowery complex code, the 10x coder writes simple elegant code that is easy to understand and just enough to get the job done. Because they write less complex code, then achieve 10x more and they do it 10x faster. They be proud of a PR that deletes more code than it adds. They also have some other attributes too. They live and breath KISS, YAGNI, SRP, LSK, they can tell the O-complexity of the code by looking at it - these are not academic exercises to them - they’re practical things they use every day. You’ll never hear them say “it can’t be done”, they get on with and find a way. They have a bias for action and they don’t take BS, they probably not a fan of process because it gets in the way. They know results speak for themselves. They leave meetings early because they have more valuable things to do. There’s no “fat” or “padding”.

How do you become a 10x engineer? I don’t think you get there by being “safe”. You have to practice your craft, you write as much code as you can. You have to read about things like SRP and apply them. You focus on outcomes, not the process.

In 10 years most code will be written by AI. It’ll be the easies code, not the hardest code. This means only the best engineers will be needed. Every engineers working today needs to be working hard to become 10x to they have a job in the future.

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NoobScience's avatar

Really well written....will definitely try and follow a few of these

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