I would suggest there are many developers who have the potential to be 10x, but are constrained by their environment.
How many of you have suggested a course of action that is plain to you as a developer, but is shot down by non-technical management? Are you allowed to solve problems with new tools and languages or must you ensure compatibility with everything written at the company since 1970? Are you busy writing a great service, or are you expected to integrate with some clunky service that will limit your work in the future because using a third party is expected to be faster and cheaper?
I believe Jeff Dean in charge of healthcare.gov would have failed. Not because he's not great. It's just certain environments are not conducive to producing 10x results.
How many of you have suggested a course of action that is plain to you as a developer, but is shot down by non-technical management? Are you allowed to solve problems with new tools and languages or must you ensure compatibility with everything written at the company since 1970? Are you busy writing a great service, or are you expected to integrate with some clunky service that will limit your work in the future because using a third party is expected to be faster and cheaper?
I believe Jeff Dean in charge of healthcare.gov would have failed. Not because he's not great. It's just certain environments are not conducive to producing 10x results.