indeed. i dont think its wise to dismiss the corporate aversion to 'heroes'. while its certainly possible to make an outsized contribution without getting burned out or devaluing other contributors, thats often not what happens.
Maybe this isn't what you meant, but why is it that human beings see someone they know producing a lot of value as diminishing the value produced by others, especially in technical matters?
Because people compare and if someone is doing a lot morr than everyone else it makes everyone look bad.
Why? Because the mba will see a metric elevated and use that to define a norm. Now they only want to hire 10x performers. They don't know how to find them so they invent this complex hiring process that filters out so many good candidates they have no chance of ever finding that 10x developer. They settle on the fake 10x who speaks well and presents all of the right signals. The dev comes in and struggles and blames the code/past developer/way something is done and claims a rewrite is needed in a new and trendy language. This prompts a huge rewrite that takes place over a year at the end of which its determined that nothing works and that project gets cancelled. By this point that developer has been promoted to your manager.
