How is a dev claiming that they are a 10x coder any different?

Maybe if they state they are a l33t athlete, it would be less strange?

Does someone describing themself as elite come off as bragging to you vs correctly identifying their skill/competitive level? Just trying to grok the reason to your reaction to this word.

i think all are strange if you are referring to yourself in this way. i think talking about your own achievements is ok, but if the listener thinks that is "elite" than that is just praise, which is also fine. but if you are saying you are better than everyone else you are tooting your own horn

I honestly envy you if you've never had to interact with egotistical people that refer to everything they do as vastly superior to others. I guess you've never worked in advertising ;-)

Competitive in the sense of 'competitive compensation'. I occasionally compete in running races and invariably perform terribly. I'm a competitor in the sense that I'm competing but not in the sense that there's any risk of me winning.