There are a few things that are common amongst all good programmers. So here is the list of things that I have noticed is common amongst the programming community.
- Your ability to follow rules, so that you can follow the rules of a technique or code library, there are many coding techniques that you can be slack on and bend the rules which often effectly ruins the point of using the code technique
- Your ability to think logically (thinking inside the sqaure), this helps when it comes to fixing bugs in your code because it is all just logic and as long as it is not a syntax error then logic will prevail.
- Your ability to think illogically (thinking outside the square), this helps when you need to provide a solution to a hard problem, like dealing with complex loops, if you can look outside the square you will often find the answer.
- Your ability to adapt and learn, the world of technology is constantly changing and new languages, “sub-languages” and libraries are always appearing and your ability to adapt to this changing world will help you become a great programmer.
- Your ability to communicate, this comes in handy when you are working on a project that requires more than one person. You need to be able to put forward your concepts or idea’s and make sure your voice is heard.
- Your ability to organise and proiritise, to make sure certain tasks are done on time and that important tasks are done first.
- Your ability to explore, this helps when your trying to find fixes to already solved problems and to find new ways to do something. There is often a library or class that someone has created to do the job and do it well, these are also normally thoroughly tested aswell.
- Your ability to be humbled, to realise when there is something great that you should know and be using rather than ignoring it because its different.
This is not an exhausted list, if you think there is anything I have missed, feel free to let me know via the comments below.
Disclaimer: This list is my observation of the community and does not represent actual requirements to become a good programmer as there may be an execption to the rule.

mark
May 18th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
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May 18th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
I very much agree with you, especially about the ability to explore. I could waste so much time creating code if it wasn’t for finding code libraries.
Thanks,
Steve
May 18th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Great post!
May 18th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
I never really thought about most of these but it makes sense. Thanks for shedding some light on it!
May 21st, 2007 at 4:37 pm
I don’t fully agree with the last one but all the rest a good.
-Ali