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&#x27;s my job as servant-leader to remove whatever&#x27;s stopping you. But you have less leverage and less resilience without that sense of collective ownership.<p>I&#x27;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&#x27;ve only achieved it on personal projects. But I&#x27;ll settle for a motivated and healthy team of 5xers any day.