> ...suggesting that I could build ffmpeg and qemu the same as Fabrice if I was just given more time.
The way I see it, 10x programmers have something (or things) that most programmers lack. Usually some combination of raw intelligence, creativity and dedication, often combined with a much deeper understanding of theoretical fundamentals than other developers.
> And also, the 10x meme, and how it’s often used, implies that skills are interchangeable. Should a great database internals expert be able to build a great micro-services architecture?
As I indicated above, I think being a 10x programmer is not so much about learned practical skills as having innate talents, and then making use of them. Such talents can be surprisingly transferable between technical domains.
I know of cases where a developer unfamiliar with both a codebase and the language it was written in can, within an hour or two, identify bugs and vulnerabilities that the dev team spent months failing to find/fix.
I think one aspect of this is the ability to break ANYTHING down to first principles, when needed, without losing sight of the whole.