Hi there folks, today this question came to me.
I understand that it is great that you hire a very capable person and that unblocks certain things, fixes long broken projects and so on.
But why did these things got blocked and broken in the first place?
For me, the reliance on "genius" developers, or "newtype" or "10x developer" (even I saw 100x because of AI 🤦) is showing something very disturbing:
The lack of quality company (tech) leadership.
Either they are not capable or they are capable but unable to really influence decisions because of a strong push from business.
You see, if main stability features, like a comprehensive test suite depends on finding the right candidate who does that job outside of weekly responsibilities (and potentially on their own unpaid free time) then we are talking about serious, serious management issues.
I heard this idea about Japanese school system, that it's aim to bring all students up to a good average standard. I saw on the streets in Japan what it meant: they were clean and orderly. The bicycles were left in public without any safety on them, because they could trust the good average standard that they won't be stolen.
So in conclusion, behind the cult of the "rockstar developer" is a company that should invest in hiring at least a capable management who are going to coordinate the important work required for engineering longevity and velocity.
And if you do hire a "rockstar"... They would make your company fly.
(Photo: me as a ""rockstar"" about a decade ago.)
