We always have some good programmers around us who are capable of doing work at hand, but to success in long term we need better programmers. Here are some traits I found important to become better programmer. Good programmer start coding right away after picking up the task, better programmer first do some little design upfront (may be draw some UML, flowcharts etc), write the simplest readable tests first and then write minimum production code which makes that test pass. Good programmer stick to the tool, framework, workflow he/she knows best, better programmer keep the affinity towards any technology aside and evaluate and use the best possible tool, framework available. Good programmer focuses on working code, better programmer too focused on working code but also gives the utmost importance to code readability, flexibility and other design principles . Good programmer ever read technology books when he/she was in college, better programmer subscribed to feeds, question...
Some#random('thoughts'); // technical, non technical