I was always fancied by those stories that some computer scientist wrote a great piece of software in a weekend. Examples: TBA. (Unix编程艺术，programming pearls author wrote chemical diagram tool? many Unix CLI tools. Git by Linus. Does Overcast and Dash count?) I dream about being like them, make something useful in a weekend’s time. That sounds like a 10x programmer to me.

Until more and more articles think that is a myth, like this one, The mythical 10x programmer.

Think about this for a second: why people desire 10x programmer, but not 10x product manager?

People want to get things done quickly. So it’s a production process thing, not a creative process one. Designing something right takes time and people get that. So 10x isn’t the sliver bullet of everything. People genenlly want to magically make something fast. It’s a productivity dream, not a creativity dream. Don’t dream it. Focus on creativity instead, which takes time.

Don’t expect to finish something tangible in days, no matter how productive you are (unless you are a genius).

The making of games or any product, isn’t a one man job (forget about those geniuses for a moment), it’s hours and hours of teamwork among creative professionals. Daily activities ranging from brainstorming, ideation, management, coordenation, prototyping, production. For some projects, they sometimes do this for 3-5 years, with a team ranging from 10-50 or more.

So instead of dreaming about making some great product as an one man job, like those geniuses, such as Steve Worzniack, Linux Torvards, Marco, people who can make something (wonderful) in days, I should first get this stright: not everything can be built by one man in days. Some genius might be able to start something in days. Even Linus couldn’t write all the kernel in days. The core feature maybe is able to be implemeneted in a short time, but a complete package takes more effort.

For one man job, don’t expect it to be done in days, unless it’s some small jobs. Anything tangible usually takes longer, it’s simple math.

Optimize on how to do something effectively, not how to do more faster. 需要优化的是该做什么最有效，而不是怎么做得更多更快。

Plan your project if it’s bigger than a one-week job, even it’s hobby side projects, don’t expect to finish something in days.