“He is a 10x Engineer.” This phrase is controversial. It implies one person is worth ten. It sounds arrogant. But in software, leverage is real. A construction worker cannot lay bricks 10x faster than another. Physics limits them. A software engineer can solve a problem in 1 hour that takes another 100 hours (or that the other never solves). The 10x Engineer is not a better typist. They are a better Decision Maker. They don’t write more code. They often write less code. They know what to write, and more importantly, what not to write.

Why Maison Code Discusses This

We interview for “Productive Laziness”. If a candidate loves Manual QA, we don’t hire them. We want the candidate who says: “I built a script to do this because I was bored.” We hire Engineers who hate inefficiency more than they love coding. Our best engineers spend 50% of their time building tools to make the other 50% faster.

1. The Leverage Equation

$$ Value = (Skill \times Leverage) - Friction $$

Skill: Knowing React / Python.
Leverage: Tools, Libraries, Automation, AI.
Friction: Bad meetings, unclear specs, technical debt.

The 1x Engineer focuses on increasing Skill. The 10x Engineer focuses on increasing Leverage and reducing Friction.

2. Betting on the Right Abstractions

The Junior Engineer generates 500 lines of custom CSS to build a button. The Senior Engineer installs shadcn/ui and builds the button in 1 line. The Senior just saved 2 days of debugging cross-browser issues. 10x Behavior: realizing that “Inventory Sync” is a solved problem and buying a tool, rather than building a custom ERP from scratch. (See Build vs Buy). Choosing the wrong abstraction (e.g., Redux for a simple toggle) adds negative leverage.

3. The Power of “No”

The Product Manager says: “We need a custom font for the checkout page.” The 1x Engineer says: “Okay.” (Spends 3 days fighting CORS errors and loading jank). The 10x Engineer says: “No. The checkout must be standard for familiarity and speed. Custom fonts will hurt conversion by 1% due to layout shift. Let’s stick to system fonts.” Result:

Saved 3 days of dev time.
Saved $50k in lost revenue.
Total Value: Massive. The most efficient code is the code you delete. The second most efficient is the code you never write.

4. Automation over Repetition

If you do it twice, do it manually. If you do it three times, write a script. The “Lazy” Virtue: A 10x Engineer hates manual work.

Deployment: They write a CI/CD pipeline. (See CI/CD).
Testing: They write E2E tests.
Data Entry: They write a Python scraper. They invest upfront time to buy back future time. This is Compound Interest for Engineering.

5. Mastery of Tools (The IDE)

Watch a 10x Engineer work. They don’t touch the mouse.

Cmd + P: Open file.
Cmd + Shift + F: Global search.
Option + Click: Multiple cursors. They use Vim keybindings. They use Snippets. They use GitHub Copilot to autocomplete boilerplate. They move at the speed of thought. The keyboard is not a bottleneck. If you save 2 seconds every minute, you save 15 days a year.

6. Writing for Humans, Not Machines

Code is read 10x more than it is written. The 10x Engineer optimizes for Readability.

Bad:
```
const x = d.filter(i => i.p > 10);
```

Good:

const premiumProducts = database.filter(product => product.price > 10);

The first one requires the next developer to burn mental energy decoding x. The second one explains itself. Clean Code is an investment in your team’s velocity. If your code is clever, you failed. Code should be boring.

7. The Debugging Method (Scientific Approach)

When a bug happens:

1x Engineer: Changes random lines until it works. “I think it’s fixed.”
10x Engineer:
1. Reproduces the bug reliably.
2. Isolates the variable.
3. Forms a hypothesis.
4. Tests the fix.
5. Writes a regression test so it never happens again. They don’t just fix the bug; they fix the system that allowed the bug.

8. The Architectural Bet (Seeing the Future)

A 10x Engineer predicts where the puck is going. In 2013, they bet on React. In 2023, they bet on AI. They choose technologies that have community momentum. They avoid “Resume Driven Development” (using a niche tool just to learn it). They choose boring technology for critical paths (Postgres, Redis) and bleeding edge for competitive advantages (AI).

9. The Mentorship Scaler

A true 10x Engineer creates ten 1x Engineers. They document everything. They write “Why” in the PR comments, not just “Fix this”. They hold “Lunch and Learns”. They raise the bar for the whole team. If you leave the company and the team collapses, you failed. If you leave and the team thrives, you succeeded.

11. The Deep Work Chamber (Flow State)

Context Switching is the enemy. If you check Slack every 10 minutes, your IQ drops by 10 points. The 10x Engineer blocks time. The Protocol:

09:00 - 13:00: Deep Work. Slack closed. Phone off.
13:00 - 14:00: Lunch + Reply to everyone.
14:00 - 18:00: Meetings + Code Reviews. They protect their “Maker Time” (Morning) from “Manager Time” (Afternoon). (See Downtime Cost).

12. The Full Stack Myth (Specialization)

Can one person truly master CSS, React, Node, Postgres, Docker, and AWS? No. The “Full Stack” engineer is often a “Jack of all trades, master of none”. The 10x Engineer goes T-Shaped.

Broad knowledge: Knows enough CSS to not break things.
Deep knowledge: Is a world-class expert in Distributed Systems. They know their superpower. They outsource the rest.

13. The Code Review Etiquette (Ego Death)

A 1x Engineer takes code comments personally. “You hate my code, so you hate me.” A 10x Engineer detaches entirely. “Great catch. Thank you for saving me from a bug.” They review code to teach, not to punish. The Guideline:

Don’t just say “Fix this.”
Say “If we change this to a Map, lookup becomes O(1) instead of O(n). Recommendation: Use a Map.” Improve the conversation.

13. The Hiring Rubric (How to Spot Them)

We don’t ask LeetCode questions (“Invert a Binary Tree”). We ask Real World questions.

Question: “The site is slow. Walk me through how you debug it.”
1x Answer: “I’d check the database.”
10x Answer: “I’d check the Metrics first. Is it the TTFB (Server) or LCP (Client)? If Server, I check APM traces. If Client, I check the bundle size.” We test for System Thinking. We look for “Scars” (experience with failure), not “Certificates”.

14. The Retention Strategy (Keeping Them)

You don’t retain a 10x Engineer with money (though you must pay top of market). You retain them with Autonomy and Impact.

Bad: “Jira Ticket #123: Move button 3px left.”
Good: “Conversion is down 5%. Here is the data. Fix it.” Give them a problem, not a task. If you micromanage a 10x Engineer, they will quit in a month.

15. Conclusion

You don’t become a 10x Engineer by working 80 hours a week. You become one by:

Refusing to build useless things.
Automating boring things.
Learning your tools deeply.
Communicating clearly. It is an intellectual sport, not an endurance sport. Stop typing. Start thinking.

Still coding manually?

We architect Engineering Cultures based on high-leverage principles.

Hire our Architects.