This is very specific for people who work on systems, such as programmers.<p>I have a devshop and have sent his over and over again. The actual cost per employee isn&#x27;t really paying them salaries to do stuff, but rather the salaries you pay them to learn stuff and get acquainted with the system. We call it ROL (Return on Learning). We&#x27;ve learned that on average it takes 3-8 months for an intelligent person to become fully productive within any system.<p>Since we started hiring for the <i>capacity</i> to learn and culture fit, rather than <i>existing</i> technical skill, it&#x27;s changed our business for the better.<p>That said, turns out even if you&#x27;re in the Bay area with all that great talent pool, chances to find <i>local</i> people who just happen to want to work with you are practically nill. Once you truly internalize this concept of ROL, there is no other way but to work globally with remote people and teams. Without that, you can&#x27;t access a sufficiently large talent pool.<p>I think the ROL is actually the leverage factor people have in mind when they say &quot;10x&quot; engineer.