10X is real. Spend some time in the enterprise. There really are programmers who only write 10 lines of code per day, maintaining bullshit that should have been taken out to pasture years ago, and who "flip the switch" on learning at age 23. And they're paid good money for it, too! Probably more than 90+ percent of the people here.
It's not necessarily "10". It's somewhere between 1.5 and 1000 depending on the project. It's 2-3x for typical business work; 10+ for infrastructural work that multiplies across the company (i.e. makes everyone more productive). I'm writing about developer economics (Part 22 of a series that was supposed to be 22 parts, but will be 23).
What 10X means is: give me a million bucks a year, or let me have 90% autonomy, or we both lose. And if more developers took that attitude, we'd have better software, more learning, and a better fucking world, too.
Ok, I declare myself winner of this thread and I am taking it home with me.