HA! I think about this fact every time it takes me way longer than expected to figure out a coding problem. I'm like "Man a pro would have whipped this up in 1/10th the time it took me". 
But I'm moving at my own pace and this trial and error is what made the Pro a Pro in the first place.
I guess it is not that different from any other field. Take professional sports players and compare them to those in the minor leagues - the difference is enormous.
The thing is that coding is not an end unto itself. We write code for a purpose and that purpose could include a number of other factors such as business models, relationships with stakeholders, real world testing / data. I am sure I am a 1x (or less coder) but I hope I can deliver a valuable solution as I bring together all the pieces.
Still, it is cool to know that these mythical 10x folks may well exist. Perhaps we can watch them code on Twitch or something.
Chip
It’s not necessarily about the pace of the work, but the quality…
In some of these cases, people emphasize speed (which is important) but if it takes you three days to come up with something that you spend one day writing, you’ve still got an advantage over someone who spent a week solid banging out the module.
But even if you took longer, the benefits start rolling in-- your well thought out module is probably smaller and more focused, meaning there is less code to maintain and less bug exposure surface area. It’s probably also easier to modify because there are fewer moving parts, or those parts are more isolated and containerized (and more testable!)
Agree on quality vs pace, to a point. I try to remind myself that less than perfect is okay for first or second iterations.
I have a mechanical engineer friend I used to work with who was one of these so-called 10x engineers. Maybe 100x. He used to get written up, passed up for advancement, derided in meetings all the time due to his supposedly unrealistic time estimates. He was designing large metal housings and antennas for 10GHz fixed wireless radios. When tasked with designing a new antenna, his estimate would typically be something like 3-4 hours. His management and coworkers laughed and gave the assignment to someone else. Their designs took several iterations.
My friend finally started giving estimates more like “3-4 weeks” or “2 months” and then people believed him and gave him the work. On the day he was supposed to deliver the design he would start working on it. It took him one iteration and 3-4 hours to complete.
Those types of engineers are exceptionally rare. I am not one of them. 
wow, that's an amazing story!
oh this is a good one (found during a visit to adafruit)
"Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos"
I can relate to the chaos part, for sure…
I love this! It reminds me of a Ben Franklin quote " Trouble knocked at the door, but, hearing laughter, hurried away"
