When I think of great programmers and think about what distinguishes them from me, I'd say it's probably their experience. The more you do it the greater you become at it. I've never looked at a project and thought to myself "wow I couldn't make that even after 10 years". I always think "I bet I can do it too if I spent the last 10 months working on it".
I have a friend who, when he does stuff, I can look at and say that there is no-way I would ever come up with that. Once I've seen it, I can say that I could repeat that, given some time, but that isn't the same as coming up with the original idea and implementing it really well
That is a great programmer.
"implementing it really well" mostly comes from dedication and attention to detail, in my opinion. And of course, you have to actually care about the thing you're doing, and always keep in mind the user's experience.
"Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world. If I moved to a martial-arts monastery in China and studied real hard for ten years. If my family was wiped out by Colombian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge. If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, devoted it to wiping street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad." - Neal Stephenson, "Snow Crash".
How old are you, hasenj?
I'm 26. off by one!
I see the point of the quote.
I didn't mean what I said in the naive dismissive attitude that a reckless teenager might have.
I'm not talking about the difference between the lousy and the great. I'm talking about the difference between the good and the great.
I consider myself a good developer, in the sense that I'm not a lousy one. I don't see myself as a great/awesome hacker.
What I'm trying to get at, is that the difference is dedication and experience. Yea I didn't create the first ever 3D game, but I never had the required mathematical knowledge, never had much experience with 3D modeling, nor the dedication to go through with such a project.