What is a Rockstar Programmer?
When I think of qualities a good programmer (or developer, engineer, hacker...) should have, I just can't connect these to the characteristics of my image of a rockstar (these are subjective, of course). For example:
A good hacker should be a skillful coder. Which skills does a rockstar need? Does he really have to be that good a musician? Granted, you may have to posess a certain amount of musicality to become a rockstar, but the rockstar business is really not a contest of who can play the guitar the most virtuosly. I personally know several people who are better rock musicians than lots of those who are rockstars. And I wouldn't know how to translate skills like stage performance or a thrilling voice into the programming world.
A good programmer should be passionate about the product he works on. Ok, this would be true for a rockstar too. But not only for a rockstar. This should be true for every person who is a "builder", whether he creates software, essays, a painting or a skyscraper. Passion about his music is not a defining quality of a rockstar.
In fact, the word rockstar does not describe any personal quality whatsoever - the defining attribute of the word is fame. And no rock musician gets famous just for his skill, you have to want to get famous. For what I can tell, this is true for 90% of all famous people. Fame and skill do correlate, but so does fame and PR. Some people even are more famous for their escapades than for their great abilities. Now how should that be important for a good programmer? I would rather consider it harmful if someone has the unstoppable will to outshine everyone including those who are just as skillful und passionate. And being too focussed on one's own reputation can significantly distract the sight to the best solution for a problem, which would be another strength of a good hacker: open-mindness and out-of-the-box thinking.
Or is "rockstar" trying to express something like "extraordinary", "outstanding"? Then say outstanding, that's more precise. Even better would be so say "outstanding in <insert skill here>".
Or "excentrical but genius"? The better term for that would be nerd.
So what is meant by "rockstar programmer"? Maybe there is something I don't get, and I'm happy for every clarification since it would help me understand the conversations and articles better.