Yegor Denisov-Blanch (@yegordb) / X

Yegor Denisov-Blanch

548 posts

Yegor Denisov-Blanch

@yegordb

Stanford | Research: AI & Software Engineering Productivity | 8th grade dropout | ex-Olympic Weightlifting National Champion (Master of Sport)

Stanford, CA

Joined February 2021

Pinned
Yegor Denisov-Blanch
@yegordb
Nov 20, 2024
I’m at Stanford and I research software engineering productivity. We have data on the performance of >50k engineers from 100s of companies. Inspired by @deedydas, our research shows: ~9.5% of software engineers do virtually nothing: Ghost Engineers (0.1x-ers)
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Yegor Denisov-Blanch
@yegordb
Nov 19, 2024
Replying to @deedydas
I'm part of a group at Stanford that runs research on software engineering productivity. We get access to Git data. I sometimes run into people who are working at more than one company, without the knowledge of their employer.
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Yegor Denisov-Blanch
@yegordb
Nov 20, 2024
Replying to @yegordb
Comparison between remote and office engineers. On average, engineers working from the office perform better, but "5x" engineers are more common remotely.
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Yegor Denisov-Blanch
@yegordb
Nov 20, 2024
Replying to @yegordb
We found that 14% of software engineers working remotely do almost no work (Ghost Engineers), compared to 9% in hybrid roles and 6% in the office.
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Yegor Denisov-Blanch
@yegordb
Nov 20, 2024
Replying to @yegordb
Why does this matter? It’s insane that ~9.5% of software engineers do almost nothing while collecting paychecks. This unfairly burdens teams, wastes company resources, blocks jobs for others, and limits humanity’s progress. It has to stop.
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Yegor Denisov-Blanch
@yegordb
Nov 20, 2024
Replying to @yegordb
How do we know 9.5% of software engineers are Ghosts? Our model quantifies productivity by analyzing source code from private Git repos, simulating a panel of 10 experts evaluating each commit across multiple dimensions. We've published a paper on this and have more on the way
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Yegor Denisov-Blanch
@yegordb
Nov 20, 2024
Replying to @yegordb
Assume every company below (inspired by @deedydas post) has 9.5% of its software engineers doing virtually nothing, in line with our research findings. Here's how much each could save annually by letting them go x.com/deedydas/statu…
Deedy
@deedydas
Nov 19, 2024
Everyone thinks this is an exaggeration but there are so many software engineers, not just at FAANG, who I know personally who literally make ~2 code changes a month, few emails, few meetings, remote work, < 5 hours/ week, for ~$200-300k. Here are some of those companies:
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Yegor Denisov-Blanch
@yegordb
Nov 20, 2024
Replying to @yegordb
Another way to look at this is counting code commits. While this is a flawed way to measure productivity, it reveals inactivity: ~58% make <3 commits/month, aligning with our metric. The other 42% make trivial changes, like editing one line or character--pretending to work.
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Yegor Denisov-Blanch
@yegordb
Jan 8, 2025
Replying to @ChShersh
I disagree. Python might be beginner-friendly, but it’s far from a “toy language.” It’s at the heart of modern ML thanks to its library ecosystem, and is used extensively by the likes of Google & Amazon. If that’s just playing, then we’re all playing for real!
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Yegor Denisov-Blanch
@yegordb
Nov 20, 2024
Replying to @yegordb
If each company adds these savings to its bottom line (assuming no extra expenses), the market cap impact of 12 companies laying off unproductive engineers is $465B–with no decrease in performance!
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Yegor Denisov-Blanch
@yegordb
Nov 20, 2024
Replying to @yegordb
Help us stop this insanity and participate in our research. If your company fits our research directions, you can use the platform for free and receive insights for the research duration. Our portal is …eengineeringproductivity.stanford.edu
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Yegor Denisov-Blanch
@yegordb
Jul 2, 2025
My research group at Stanford has access to private code repos from 100K+ engineers at almost 1,000 companies, ~0.5% of the world’s developers. Within this "small" sample, we routinely find engineers working 2+ jobs. I estimate that easily >5% of all engineers are working 2+
Suhail
@Suhail
Jul 2, 2025
PSA: there’s a guy named Soham Parekh (in India) who works at 3-4 startups at the same time. He’s been preying on YC companies and more. Beware. I fired this guy in his first week and told him to stop lying / scamming people. He hasn’t stopped a year later. No more excuses.
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Yegor Denisov-Blanch
@yegordb
Nov 20, 2024
Replying to @yegordb
What if we extrapolate this to the entire world? Conservatively assuming just 6.5% of engineers worldwide are unproductive (instead of 9.5%), that’s $90B effectively wasted
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Yegor Denisov-Blanch
@yegordb
Feb 13, 2025
Replying to @gregisenberg
I have acess to historical Git data from >50,000 engineers through our research on software engineering productivity group at Stanford. I haven't seen data to support your claim that one good Dev is 5-20x more productive than pre-AI
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