What makes a good software developer? [closed]

Posted by David Johnstone on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by David Johnstone
Published on 2010-03-26T04:02:03Z Indexed on 2010/03/26 4:13 UTC
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Previously there have been questions on what makes a good team lead and what makes a good programming team, but I can't find any questions on what makes a good programmer.

I believe the answer to this question is especially important in the context of hiring. Hiring the best people you can afford only works when you are able to identify who the best people are. Being able to consistently identify the best people is only possible when you know what makes the best people the best people.

The easy answer is "smart and gets things done" (see "Done, and Gets Things Smart" for an interesting response). But surely there is more to being a good software developer than this aphorism.

So, what makes a good software developer a good software developer?

(Note: For the purposes of this question, I'm not interested in how to actually tell if somebody is a good software developer.)

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