Becoming a 10x Developer Is Easier Than You Think. Here Is How to Start.

Sai Ramachandran
3 min readJul 25
Check this out! Photo by Sebastian Herrmann on Unsplash

This article by Guidance Talent says that the best candidates remain on the job market for 10 days.

The best candidates are off the market in 10 days.

Imagine that! If you are good at your job, you could quit your job today with no offers in hand and land a new job before your two week notice runs out.

Crazy!

But, how the hell does one become “good at [our] job”?

I don’t claim to speak for all industries and roles but after having hired and worked with dozens of talented and not-so-talented coders, I think I can put you on the path to become a 10x Developer (10xD).

Believe me, it is so simple, you will laugh.

Ready?

Analogies

Yes, it is as simple as ABC or taking candy from a kid.

A 10xD thinks in analogies.

They look at a problem, then try to find a similar situation they have either themselves encountered or seen someone else face and resolve.

The problem domain could be totally unknown to them. They still start start the same way — by repeatedly probing what the product owner wants to achieve until they can find an analogy.

Example

Say a team is working on creating a ChatGPT for Enterprises. To guide their thinking on the feature set, they could use WhatsApp as the reference design.

What would WhatsApp do? How does WhatsApp handle certain events?

How does this advantage them?

Explaining Decisions and Tradeoffs

Delivery of a coding project involves a series of tradeoffs and decisions — some good, others open to second guessing.

Agreeing on an analogy with the product owner lets the 10xD more easily explain decisions and tradeoffs which were guided by the analogy.

Independence

More than sportspeople, developers thrive on momentum.

Getting blocked, either to ask a clarifying question or for permission to move a…

Sai Ramachandran

Building https://squadgpt.ai - GPT for teams. Manage AI costs and retain visibility with SquadGPT. All views personal. Email = sai@squadgpt.ai