Last week I asked Twitter if there the 10x programmer is real:
Is there really such thing as a 10x developer? Why or why not?
— Matt Zagaja (@mzagaja) October 21, 2022
While the consensus from a few followers was no, the research does not quite agree.
By the Numbers
- Shortest Development time: 36 minutes
- Longest development time: 63 hours
- Limiting the data to Java the ratio between the shortest and longest times: 17x.
- 3.7x is the difference between the 90th and 50th percentile Java programmers.
Why It Matters
The fact there is such a large variation in speed means if you are delivering software more slowly than your peers, there is room to improve. The goal should not be to become the world champion speed coder, but if you find your consistently taking more time than others to do things, you should be able to bring yourself up to average by looking at the factors that impact productivity.
Get Yourself a Private Workspace
Another study of programmer productivity showed that rather than personal factors making a difference, having a quiet dedicated workspace was the largest factor in productivity.