The Top 10 Attributes of a Great Programmer

1. Being a great problem solver – Hopefully everyone recognizes this one. Most good programming is all about being able to find solutions where others can’t see them. If you don’t have this skill the others matter far less.
2. Being driven and lazy at the same time – This one surprises some people. Programmers question things and are often “too lazy” to take the long route. The will spend countless cycles trying to simplify the problem and simplify their task. That said they having a burning need to get the job done, they just want to do it as efficiently as possible.
3. Ability to understand other people’s code – This point is essential but cuts some good programmers off from being great programmers. It doesn’t matter how well you can rewrite everything yourself – you need to be able to work with other people’s code on existing projects, lean on opensource in new projects, and learn good techniques from the code base that is already out there.
4. Having a passion for programming – on some level you have to love programming for programming’s sake. I suppose to be truly great at anything you have to love it in most cases.
5. Loving learning for the sake of learning – Programming is a moving target. Unless you love the art of edification you will sink fast. There are no laurels to rest on and no one cares what you did yesterday. Unless you are aware of the techniques on the horizon, you won’t be ready to embrace them when they become relevant.
6. Being good at math – Different people will have different opinions here – but at the very least having a strong grip on pre-Calculus math. I’ve never seen a great programmer without a solid grasp of at the very least algebra and trig.
7. Having good communications skills – This doesn’t mean that they can communicate with anyone and everyone. Specifically this means that they are able to clearly express their thoughts on their own terms. I’ve met plenty of great programmers who couldn’t communicate well with the world at large. However, given someone to talk to who understands the problem domain, they were all able to clearly state the problem and the solutions proposed.
8. Strong debating skills – This follows the same logic as #7.
9. Extreme optimism – Great programmers I have encountered have an insane certainty they can get the job done once they have chewed on it a bit.
10. Extreme pessimism – Great programmers I have encountered have an insane insistence that when they lack the information needed to make a good judgment that they won’t be able to make one at all.