What makes a coder to a rockstar-coder?
just a quick question. see above.
Who cares? Rockstar coders are not the avenue to quality, maintainable code. Quality code production results from discipline, cooperation and adherence to rigorous coding principles, the very traits that the rock star mentality finds annoying and injurious to their narcissism.
What businesses want are disciplined professionals, not rock stars. I've been in this business for 35 years and in my experience, the best, most reliable coders were disciplined and creative in equal measure, took their responsibilities very seriously, and avoided the spotlight.
Compare that to the sad stories coming out of Microsoft, where they really do have cowboy coders adding to and maintaining the Windows code base:
Title: "Ending Microsoft’s Cowboy Spaghetti Code"
Link: http://www.vexite.com/2005/ending-microsofts-cowboy- spaghetti-code-culture/
Quote: "Provided that the new processes would be followed religiously by all Microsoft software engineers, Windows Vista should be able to exhibit a leap of improved level of quality."
Most of you know that as a product, Vista instead failed quickly and absolutely.
Most of the people I've met that have done exceptional work were not unusually clever or posses genius level intelligence, but they universally had phenomenal self-discipline, time management skills and had non-abrasive personalities. Maybe that's really all it takes to be a good at coding or really any other job.
Not only can they kill projects, they spread misery to those around them, almost like a cancer. It's up to management to deal with them, but of course, if management is part of the problem, there's little else you can do.
In such a case, you can perhaps voice your concerns, but I usually tidy up my CV because I know I won't be working in a place that tolerates (or in some cases promotes) people like that for long.
just, i'm sure that kind of programmer don't like to be called rock-star programmer.