[bguthrie]

I think that talking about a 10x engineer or 0.5x engineer misses the right optimization: good software is built in teams, so build a strong team. Cross-skilling, pairing, and blocker removal all help give people a collective sense of commitment and autonomy: you have the right to touch the systems you need to accomplish your job, and it's my job as servant-leader to remove whatever's stopping you. But you have less leverage and less resilience without that sense of collective ownership.

I've likewise experienced both 10x and 0.5x situations. The latter invariably arose from sitting in a corner, divorced from context or support. The former is extremely rare and I've only achieved it on personal projects. But I'll settle for a motivated and healthy team of 5xers any day.