A programmer ten times as productive as an ordinary one, as an industry myth and, after a 2019 thread listing their habits ('dark backgrounds, hates meetings'), a joke. The record's entry for the unicorn of engineering, and for the thread, which was sincere and ratioed.
Overheard in a supermarket queue, Apr this year: a parent saying "10x Engineer" to a toddler, entirely straight-faced. The toddler understood. I did not, for a second.
The record notes the '10x engineer' thread of 2019 was written by a venture capitalist, that it was mocked for a month, and that its author has said nothing since, which the record respects.
I remember when 10x Engineer was still a niche thing — 2010 — and you could use it without a footnote. The footnote arrived about six weeks later and never left.
What does it mean? Write it the way you would say it out loud.
