-1x programmers also exist, in a variety of guises. From the dev with long cv of projects he’s contributed nothing to and been sidelined from, but who manages to keep getting hired because of his cv, to the dev who crowbars in new tech where it’s not needed and causes a ton of problems.
Presumably a 1x programmer is an average programmer. The type who does his job acceptably. He doesn't create huge problems, nor solve them. He is a fine team player and team member, but not a leader. Nobody despairs when he leaves, and he will be forgotten after a few months.
Now that I think about it, the worst code seem to lead to situations where the top developers can really show their value.
I mean if the code base is quite good and is kept that way, then a normal developer can deal with it quite well.
But if you get a legacy mess, then the hard-core developer can make really drastic changes that have enormous value to the maintainability, future development and bug-wise.
If a normal developer tries to tackle that mess, it's easy to get into trouble and drown in the sea of opportunities and not see the big picture and take a proper road plan to improve things.
So in a way -1 developers enable the top developers to show the gap between them and the normal devs.
This could be managers who deem themselves programmers or software architects. (Often they would use their authority to promote their ideas and effectively shut everyone else up.)
