IF there are 10X engineers out there, would they not be charging at least 2X what regular engineers charge?<p>And where is the startup who is willing to pay even 1X what an engineer is worth?<p>The people going on and on about "hire the best of the best" all seem to be type-A Bros with MBAs who decided they should be CEO at 22 and confuse teenage testosterone for savvy business sense.<p>And of course these are also to the type that claim %2.5 in the company (5 year vesting 1 year cliff, natch) and a $80k salary is going to really make you rich when the company takes off.<p>If I was a 10X engineer (I've never seen one, in fact, I've never even met anyone who has met one) I wouldn't fall for that. Assuming I'm a 1X engineer, well, I'm already smart enough not to fall for that.<p>(So, my advice is, only take the risk of joining a startup if you're earning %33 of the equity-- eg you're a founder, and that's borderline- take %33 if the other two founders are stronger than you... otherwise try to cofound and take $50 of the pre-investment (or %51). My other advise is, the CEO should be an engineer. MBAs are cheep, young MBAs need guidance.)
I have yet to see some proof that 10x developers exist. I watched some videos of pair programming, and they are the closest thing I have seen to some sort of mastery of the stack. I think they are a myth.