There are multiple definitions of a “10x Engineer” and people have different interpretations of the same. Based on these interpretations and understanding, some feel having a 10x engineer in the team is a blessing while others might consider them a nuisance.
My definition of a 10x engineer is rather simple.
For me, these are just really practical people who spend a few extra minutes thinking about the future when they design a solution. They code a bit, then test a bit, check their assumptions and are very diligent about refactoring the area where they are coding, especially when they are writing conflicts while making assumptions about the environment / database.
This defensive approach of coding while keeping their code clean and always planning for the future is what enables them to implement future features in a fraction of time of what other engineers would usually take. While other engineers would first write junk code which is kept together with duct tape and monkey patching, 10x engineers have already designed a system where this complicated web isn’t created.