What is 100X Engineer, and how you can become one.

In the world of tech today, terms like cracked 10x, 100x are thrown left, right, and center. So much that in some time if the usage keeps increasing these words might lose their meaning, Yes, be prone to Semantic satiation.

Now that I have briefly touched and introduced the topic, let’s get down to it from the start/fundamentals/basics.

1X is a freshly minted Engineer right out of the college with his Engineering degree, after working hard, or hardly working to get it for 4+ years.

As a 1X, you should have keen interest in the basics, know a bit of CS/IT or core engineering whatever stream you subscribe to. You’re a generalist which can be molded into anything as per the need/requirement at the shops (IT Firms). You’re lazy, but driven to learn and contribute quickly, while not breaking the system. You’re the butt of all jokes, that infamous intern, who broke prod. (you know the memes)

Vivid, and vibrant stories of fancy snafus and awesome glitches, that can leave even the seasoned engineers in awe of your inglorious messy incidents.

As/at 10X, you’re a force multiplier, and insanely productive, know what to prioritise, are a good executor, Like to simplify everything and helps accelerate others get good and solve/optimize for their challenges.

Every 1X, is capable of being 10X. By understanding the limitations and challenges of the 1X engineer, and trying to resolve, engineer for these problems, you can be amazed at the level of productivity and the scale of output that you produce skyrockets once you really focus on small ongoing marginal improvements that combine and compound to move mountains overtime.

Transforming from 10X to 100X is where the real fun begins, lot of 10X engineers hit the mind block that it (such a transformation) is not possible, an unrealistic goal, truly a unicorn, myth, legend to strive for. Those that are unfazed by thoughts like this, try grinding and pushing harder. But at this scale/volume/quantum it is not also about trying hard, and perseverance. Remember less is more. 10X Engineers could often be in an illusion of knowing everything there is (Know it all) This makes them blind and oblivious to their knowledge gaps and flaws in reasoning and comprehension. Sometimes too much logic and not enough emotion, interpersonal skills, communication, collaboration, love, respect, feelings can make you isolated and robotic, which is a sure fire way to be less productive, or neutralizes your aura (-10000) and reduces your efficiency and leverage being a force multiplier and effective problem solver.

I hear you want to unlock 100x, ooooh ambitious! I applaud your courage.

Step 0: Honest Self introspection. Be factual. Try to be as objective as possible (yes it’s hard, no one said it will be easy)

Step 1: Understand your skill issues and be the best 1x, this is your baseline.

Step 2: Become 10X

Step 3: Be 10x in 10+ domains. (basically a genius) with the help of AI, leveraging learning to acquire and stack skills. Becoming 100x is very plausible and highly recommended.

Step 2 and Step 3 are difficult, lot of people struggle to realize their potentials and consistently performing at these levels is not humanely possible. Why? The obsession, the drive, curiosity, passion, focus, mindset, consistence, discipline, chaos, proactiveness, inherent skill issues, and the more you know the less you know paradox every constraint is against what humans are acclimatized and normally operate with.

Some broad topics that can help you become 10x and 100x and sustain it for a project/or short burst of time are:

Skill Stacking

Developing/cultivating Intuition for Problem Solving

Simplification

Time Management (Better Prioritization), Better Efficiency and High productivity

Communication, Collaboration, Interpersonal skills (humor, conflict deescalation, empathy) Connecting large unrelated concepts/topics/dots and visualizing how they influence each other First Principles thinking Listen (actively) more than you speak Dont ask to ask

Don't react, always respond.

Understand, ask clarifying questions, What is it that is truly needed? hit the nail hard on its head.

Be creative, curious, non judgemental, assume positive intent, embrace lifelong learning, never pass on a opportunity to lead by example, spot, mentor and nurture talent. Remember Real recognizes real.

Growth mindset focusing on resilience, adaptability, and a continuous drive for self-improvement

Stoicism, the world is not good or bad, it is neutral, our actions/situations decide/give context/meaning. By focusing on what you can control, cultivating resilience, maintaining focus, practicing rationality, building inner peace you are better placed to be 100x

No amount of knowledge or learning is ever wasted, Books are your friends, text in any format should be your best friend.

Practice Good habits, replace bad ones. (Define good and bad for yourself.)

Always evolve, and keep updating this list with your varied experiences so we can move ahead and closer to our dream goal/shared understanding and unlocking 100X capacity/potential.

You know the answers, you just gotta do the work. It is that simple.

Originally published at https://okdevops.substack.com.