The myth of the ready-made rockstar developer

In a famous 1995 interview, Steve Jobs explained why he thought software was such a unique field.

He said that in most areas of life, the dynamic range between “average” and “best” is rarely more than a 2:1 ratio.

But in software development, the performance difference between an average developer and the best one can be 50:1… or even as high as 100:1!

For decades since, tech companies have chased the elusive “10x developer.”

E.g., a software engineer who is 10x more productive than the average — a golden goose that must be hired, even if it takes an astronomical salary to keep them on board.

But when a company fixates on exclusively hiring 10x developers, that implies two faulty assumptions:

1. That 10x developers just pop into existence fully-formed at their current skill level

This is the opposite of a growth mindset!

In reality, a 3x developer can become a 10x developer over time if they are motivated, exposed to talented colleagues, and given proper training. This is especially true today when they leverage nascent technology like AI to optimize their workflows. 

2. That “10x” is the standard we should expect

If anything, this number is too low, and short-sighted.

History shows us that over the long run, real progress happens exponentially.

Look at the state of medical technology today:

In under a hundred years, we’ve gone from accidentally creating penicillin in a petri dish, to building brain-computer interfaces that let paralyzed people control robotic limbs.

That’s a lot more than just a 10x jump! 

And now, with AI accelerating the pace of innovation, we're entering an era where the breakthroughs that once took decades might happen in years—or even months.

But the most valuable developers aren't just those who can code faster – they're the ones who can harness AI to fundamentally transform how software gets built. 

Mindful innovation relies on creativity.  

Here’s the takeaway of all this:

Staffing your company with 10x developers is a worthy goal.

But the way we see it at AE Studio, that’s not nearly ambitious enough.

Because if you fixate on hiring only developers that simply “produce 10x the work,” without the ability to also invent new solutions, you’re stepping over dollars to pick up pennies.

We believe that to take a project from incremental to exponential progress, the people on your team also need to:

• Possess a growth mindset

• Take an ownership mentality

• Leverage new technological tools 

• And have the ability to think outside the box

That’s why we exclusively hire developers that meet this standard ☝️

And, it’s how we’ve delivered such great results for our clients over the years.

Because when you hire one of our teams for a project, you get immediate access to world-class specialists with expertise spanning every corner of the tech industry.

You get to skip months (or years) of having to hire and train a team of 10x developers in-house — instead, we come in, knock out the project fast, and then roll off once we’re no longer needed.

If you’re a founder or executive, and you have a tech project or idea that you’d like us to help with:

Book a call with us here, and let’s chat about it.

We’ll be back with more tech industry insights every Tuesday and Thursday.

See you then!