Does someone have a problem? Can you build a solution to that problem? If not can you learn to build a solution to that problem? Once built, can you learn to improve that solution?

The best advice on the profession that I was ever given was simply, "Learn to learn."

The vast majority of this profession is just being interested in figuring out how to solve different problems. Sometimes that means it's all you and sometimes it means learning new things or doing research.

You know that you are not a good programmer when you don't see any problems that need to be solved.