You know why CRUD apps are called that? Because skilled developers know that once you have built a CRUD app a half dozen times, the work is simple and straightforward with no challenge. This work is called crud work because it is not very desirable by people who look for challenges.<p>On the other hand, it is easy to build these CRUD apps 10 times faster than a developer who has not learned all the ins and outs of such work. CRUD apps happen to be highly useful in most companies, i.e. there is a lot of market demand. Some people like this kind of work just like some people like to work on an assembly line. And it may even be worthwhile to pay someone a higher salary to churn out apps like this.<p>But that does not make someone a 10x engineer. It just means that they happen to be working in a 10x environment right now. Next year they may be struggling to keep up with iOS developers who are all on their 3rd iOS app.<p>My takeaway is that if a company really needs and wants 10x engineers, they should advertise the narrow details of the job that needs to be done and avoid listing irrelevant stuff like education and all the technologies involved. The ad should say something like Ruby on Rails for over 3 years with at least 10 apps built using MySQL backends.<p>But if you need someone who is creative, can adapt to change and new technology, has experience with certain generic technologies like async servers, then please say that in so many words. And pay them more than average.<p>Because the majority of developers are average developers and they share some characteristics. They have been working with more than one kind of technology. They are good at learning new things. They know how to adapt to new tools and new business requirements. They have used some stuff in the past, but because they have no desire to become 10x well-paid developers using that exact same set of technology, you should not be judging them by matching up lists of acronyms and names.