To me the concept doesn't even have to mean that individual is outputting 10x amounts of code or closing 10x stories...
More so it means that there ideas, abstractions and frameworks result in substantially higher productivity for anyone working on the project than the average dev.
Beyond just the talent to do this successfully, you also have to give people the space and freedom to actually do 10x work... This tends to extend well beyond the narrow scoped requirements written in the current sprint of tickets.
Bingo. 10x is not about how fast someone codes. That is why there is confusion here. Of course someone cannot write code consistently 10x as fast or write 10x as much code. On a regular basis? That is nonsensical.
When talking about 10x devs (or 10x any type of employee), it is about Judgement. The decisions they make on what they work on, how they achieve it, and (probably most importantly) what they choose NOT to work on. Judgement is the deciding factor in whether someone has a 10x impact on the business over time. It absolutely is not how much code they write. As a matter of fact, removing code can be a 10x improvement as well.
More so it means that there ideas, abstractions and frameworks result in substantially higher productivity for anyone working on the project than the average dev.
Beyond just the talent to do this successfully, you also have to give people the space and freedom to actually do 10x work... This tends to extend well beyond the narrow scoped requirements written in the current sprint of tickets.