The 10X Engineer “He’s a 10X engineer.” I remember hearing this expression from recruiters and product managers a few years ago. It’s a funny term but quickly conveys the point. A 10X engineer is someone who can get 10X more done than the average engineer. Let’s think through this logically. How many hours are there in a normal working day? 8 hours. So does a 10X engineer work 80 hours a day? No, of course not. That’s silly and impossible to do unless you have a tardis. So it’s not about how much you work but how you focus your efforts. A 10X engineer is smarter about how about he choses to spend his time and is better able to focus on higher leveraged activities. He or she focuses on things that make the most difference. This is nicely explained in Edmond Lau’s The Effective Engineer book, which I recommend.