Yup, some even created a website dedicated for denying 10x engineers: http://10x.engineer/
But there are people like Linus Torvalds, Satoshi Nakamoto (if they were one person), and those two programmers you mentioned. I doubt I could beat any one of them even if I replicated myself 20x.
I think, part of it caused by the wrong stereotypes of 10x engineers (for example, perpetuated by a VC in a recent Twitter storm) and it became a myth that people accepted. Another part is some people are new to programming and have not "encountered" these god-level programmers yet.
I question the inclusion of Nakamoto in that list. Is there anything to suggest that they have 10X engineering abilities? Nobody says Einstein was a 10Xer even if his Annus Mirabilis had orders of magnitude more positive effect on humanity. We can respect different forms of ability and achievement without conflating them.
You brought an interesting point. Maybe we should differentiate 10x engineers (if we should keep this term alive) into two camps:
1. Super hardcore engineers like Fabrice Bellard, John Carmack or Linus Torvalds,
2. Engineers who bring insane amount of value to society, like Satoshi Nakamoto (if they were one person), and Markus Persson (founder of Minecraft).
But there are people like Linus Torvalds, Satoshi Nakamoto (if they were one person), and those two programmers you mentioned. I doubt I could beat any one of them even if I replicated myself 20x.
I think, part of it caused by the wrong stereotypes of 10x engineers (for example, perpetuated by a VC in a recent Twitter storm) and it became a myth that people accepted. Another part is some people are new to programming and have not "encountered" these god-level programmers yet.