There’s been a lot of flak over this tweet about recognizing the mythical “10x engineer”—the engineer that is so good that it doesn’t matter if they reduce the productivity of everyone around them.
10x engineers
— Shekhar Kirani (@skirani) July 11, 2019
Founders if you ever come across this rare breed of engineers, grab them. If you have a 10x engineer as part of your first few engineers, you increase the odds of your startup success significantly.
OK, here is a tough question.
How do you spot a 10x engineer?
The list, which you can read below, goes on to describe some of the key characteristics of brilliant but broken engineers. The ones that C-Suite managers and investors love to hire, because it’s easier to spot a heroic misfit than a well-oiled team.
I’m reminded of the people who say of some misogynistic artiste, “We can’t blackball them just because they sexually harassed people—they’re brilliant!” Sure, they weren’t bad, but were they better than all dozen of the people whose careers they ended? We see the productivity of the star, and we fail to see what the team could have done if the “star” hadn’t gotten in the way and left them with to deal with all the crap.… Continue reading “Spotting the 10x Team Contributor”
I’m Kee Hinckley (he/his). That’s my wife 
