For a 10x engineer, heads down coding is the best state you can get them into.
If you suspect someone is a 10x engineer, throw them your hardest, seemingly impossible problems, where they can stretch their legs and spend long periods of time in a flow state solving and thinking about the problem and writing large amounts of code with little to block them.
The quickest way to waste your 10x engineer’s potential is throwing them lots of little, bite size problems, that require frequent interruptions and little concentration. They will do this work just fine but they’ll never end up producing a cathedral of code that leaves you in awe.
If you suspect someone is a 10x engineer, throw them your hardest, seemingly impossible problems, where they can stretch their legs and spend long periods of time in a flow state solving and thinking about the problem and writing large amounts of code with little to block them.
The quickest way to waste your 10x engineer’s potential is throwing them lots of little, bite size problems, that require frequent interruptions and little concentration. They will do this work just fine but they’ll never end up producing a cathedral of code that leaves you in awe.