The virtuous circle

Source: Dev.to

The 10x developer

In a 1968 study, researchers found a gap between the most productive developers and the average developer. The “best” developers were producing 10 times more output than the average.

Something about this number stuck. Many of us believe that there are 10x developers out there. We either want to be a 10x developer or we feel inadequate because we aren’t.

Or maybe we simply enjoy imagining our heroes as 10x developers. After all, there are rock stars out there – both in open source and within our companies. But I think it’s unhelpful, and it misses the point.

Building together

There are a couple of interesting studies that suggest that iteration beats one‑off design (at least under time constraints), or that working in parallel produces better results than a traditional serial waterfall. Research also shows that teams outperform individuals on complex tasks.

This doesn’t refute the idea that some individuals might be 10x developers, but it does suggest that looking for individuals isn’t the best approach. We would be better off finding highly motivated teams who can iterate and build together.

The virtuous circle

I started thinking about the idea for npmx late one night (I couldn’t sleep, and spotted a Slack message that nerd‑sniped me). I posted on Bluesky to ask for people’s wishlist for npmjs.com – and started building npmx almost immediately. By the next day, I had an MVP.

The real key was the response on Bluesky. Everyone wanted something. Everyone wanted to make npmjs.com better. Seeing that response, I messaged a friend.

As we reached out to friends, then to people we respected on Bluesky and elsewhere, it became clear: this was a project where the virtuous circle would work.

What’s a virtuous circle? It’s the positive form of a vicious circle. In our case, the audience for npmx.dev are the same people who can contribute and build it. If we want to improve our experience using the npm registry, we hold all the tools to make it better. The better it gets, the more we use it – and the more people might contribute and make it even better.

The great thing about this is that we aren’t being driven by a corporate agenda or limited by lack of funding. npmx will continue to grow to make our lives as developers better, incrementally, in parallel – and as a team.

Where we’re going

I don’t think we need 10x developers to build great things. I think we need 10x teams – groups of people who care about the same problem, who iterate together, and who make each other better.

npmx is community‑driven and open source, with open doors for anyone to contribute. If you’ve ever felt the pain of navigating the npm registry, you already have something to offer.

Come and build with us.