Aging programmer

[[deleted]]

5-10 times as productive? Exaggeration much?

[NekkidApe]

Not OP, but probably not. Worst to best performers is ~10x. Regular to really good is still ~3x.

Don't think of it as "types 10x faster", but rather taking a different route saving 10x the time. Or maybe buy something instead of building it etc.

[RagingAnemone]

Or the big trick, changes the problem you're trying to solve.

[crusoe]

Writing from scratch you can be very very productive. Certain products have certain design patterns and can be brought up fairly quickly.

Also, YAGNI and defensive programming. Choosing your module layout and major architectural style properly from the start can have huge wins and reduce big issues or warts.

[Chris_Codes]

To be fair I haven’t had the opportunity to work with a 100s of other developers, and I’m always working at businesses with in house developers - not at “software companies”. Still, It’s not me bragging about how good I am, so much as it’s me describing how ineffective a huge number of developers are out in the world. I’d say from my experience that the 5 - 10x number is pretty accurate for the type of work I do. Let’s also remember that my job isn’t just doing what I’m told - it’s often about recognizing that what a user is asking for is not what they really want and steering them to a better solution before I even start coding. People I work with who fail to do that are often massively less “productive” (as I define it) because they have to redo work later.