The old term 10x engineer has come under scrutiny these past few months. A widely shared Twitter thread essentially suggests companies should excuse antisocial and damaging behaviors in order to retain engineers who are perceived as having immense individual output. Thankfully, many people on social media made fun of the concept, but the stereotype of the "rockstar developer" is still pervasive. In our experience, great engineers are driven not by individual output but by working in amazing teams. It's more effective to build teams of talented individuals with mixed experiences and diverse backgrounds and provide the right ingredients for teamwork, learning and continuous improvement. These 10x teams can move faster, scale more quickly and are much more resilient — without needing to pander to bad behaviors.
