---
type: "article"
title: "The myth of the 10x engineer, revisited"
summary: "High performers aren't ten times faster. They're ten times better at choosing what not to build."
newsletter: "The Weekly Shift"
newsletter_handle: "weekly-shift"
newsletter_url: "https://staging.in.usecommune.com/n/weekly-shift"
author: "Fran Méndez (@fmvilas)"
published: "2026-07-15T08:30:00.000Z"
canonical_url: "https://staging.in.usecommune.com/n/weekly-shift/a/the-myth-of-the-rockstar"
markdown_url: "https://staging.in.usecommune.com/n/weekly-shift/a/the-myth-of-the-rockstar.md"
chat_url: "https://staging.in.usecommune.com/n/weekly-shift/a/the-myth-of-the-rockstar/chat"
body_source: "native"
likes: 4
replies: 0
body_words: 38
---

# The myth of the 10x engineer, revisited

The '10x engineer' is usually just someone who's excellent at deleting work before it starts.

> The best code is the code you talked the team out of writing.

Speed is a red herring. Judgment is the multiplier.

***

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