We’ve all heard the term “rockstar developer.” For many, it conjures images of a reckless “cowboy coder”—a lone wolf who moves fast, breaks things, and leaves a trail of messy, unmaintainable code for the rest of the team to clean up.

The tech industry narrative has soured on this archetype, painting them as a short-term gain for a long-term headache. Many have even concluded that the true 10x developer is a myth, a cynical recruiting buzzword with no basis in reality.

But what if this narrative is wrong? What if, in our rush to criticize the stereotype, we’ve started celebrating mediocrity and allowing ourselves to just bumble through?

Redefining the “Rockstar”: It’s About Taste

A true rockstar developer isn’t defined by the sheer volume of code they can churn out. Their true value lies in a powerful combination of focus, clarity, and taste.

While focus and clarity allow them to cut through noise and find the most direct path to a solution, “taste” is their underrated superpower. In software, taste is the earned wisdom that separates the exceptional from the merely good. It’s an intuitive feel for elegant solutions, clean architecture, and high-quality code, much like a master chef instinctively knows how flavors and textures will combine.

A developer with taste doesn’t create complexity; they produce elegant solutions that are easier to understand and maintain. They’ve already seen the future multiple times, and can draw from their experience to ensure that software they architect and code won’t fall prey to traps that others would never even think to consider. Their clear vision eliminates the need for “design by committee,” saving countless hours of meetings and churn.

Are We Just Cutting Down the Tall Poppies?

So, if these developers are so valuable, why the bad reputation?

Often, it comes down to “tall poppy syndrome”—a cultural tendency to resent or criticize those whose talents elevate them above their peers. Instead of admitting that some people are exceptionally good at building quality software quickly, we find faults to drag them down. We make excuses:

• “Sure, they’re fast, but the code quality must be terrible.”
• “They’re not a team player.”
• “Nobody else can maintain their code.”

These criticisms are often a defense mechanism for a culture that is uncomfortable with outliers, and they are a handicap to learning for everyone else.

What To Do About It?

This leads to a critical dilemma for any CTO or tech lead: What do you do when one developer is vastly outperforming the rest of the team?

Conventional wisdom often suggests reining in the rockstar. Force them to slow down, to write “simpler” code, to spend more time hand-holding.

Your job as a leader is not to manage your best person down; it’s to manage the rest of the team up. If your team can’t understand or maintain the code your best engineer is writing, you don’t have a rockstar problem—you have a hiring or training problem.

And the others on the team, or in the world as a whole? How should rockstars be treated? With a student’s mindset: if there is something to learn from them, then learn it. Why take potshots from the crowd? It’s like the moral from Roosevelt’s Man in the Arena speech, only those who are making attempts matter, everyone else may be ignored.

If you’re interested in more, I have a longer-form post you can read: Taste: In Defense of the “Rockstar Programmer”.