7 Signs you're a good programmer

I always wondered if I was a good programmer or not, the fact is that most developers are 'average'.

For example, I'm not a good developer, but I try to improve my skills every day and put them into practice.

Starting from this need, I wanted to find out how I could improve and what leads a developer to be above average.

After reading various articles I was able to make a brief summary of the things that seemed most interesting to me.

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7 Signs You're a Good Developer

1.Try and experiment before asking
Instead of going for help at every obstacle, a good programmer first tries to solve the problem on his own.
This prepares him to face problems in the future regardless of their difficulty.

Sintoms

• You create and work on private/personal projects to better explore new features or to experiment with certain cases
• Think about alternative solutions with the aim of solving the problem encountered

2.You have a lot of patience
Sometimes it may happen that the environment in which you work is noisy or that due to many tasks / commitments or activities to carry out, you are a little mentally stressed.
It must be remembered that a good programmer must have patience to fight with these situations and associate priorities with his activities.
Most good programmers are tolerant and humble, attributes that help them fit in with the rest of the team, and produce fantastic work.

Sintoms

• You can predict a bug before running the code (it means you paid close attention to the code you wrote before running it)
• You don't know how many times your colleague went for a coffee or to the bathroom because of your concentration

3.You are hungry for knowledge
Developers who learn for their own interest are the best.
Because consuming knowledge is an art and you cannot defeat hunger with pressure.

Since our modern world is being filled with new technological innovations every second, a good programmer should have strong domain knowledge and should know multiple languages.
There's little point in learning everything you need to know about a specific technology to be a good programmer.

Since every technology present or coming in the future is nothing more than an evolved variant of something previous, if a programmer's skill set has continuously evolved over time and has an encyclopedic understanding, there is really no need to worry .

Sintoms

• You focus less on promotion and money, and more on learning new things for yourself
• You always complain about product delivery times

4.You teach
The best way to learn something is to know how to explain it to others, which is why teaching helps you understand a topic better and more deeply.

Sintoms

• You enjoy sharing new skills with others
• You like to bring conversations about new technologies/tools
• Sometimes reply on StackOverflow
• You help others solve their problems

5.You are always looking for perfection
Perfectionist developers often focus on performance, architecture, code cleanliness etc., they know that greatness will come after them if their work is perfect, and this is why they obsess.

Sintoms

• Would you be willing to do a substantial code refactor shortly before the deadline
• You always complain about product delivery times
• You don't like to compromise when it comes to code
• Check what you wrote 10 times before launching the application / software / product

6.You are not attached to a specific tool/framework
In the end, the language and the framework are just tools.
For a good programmer it is more important to first define the needs of the product and its architecture, and then continue with the technology that brings more advantages compared to the requirements.

Sintoms

• Assume your own code is the source of a bug before blaming the compiler, library, or operating system
• You don't care or depend 'too much' on a certain framework / tool
• Don't get involved in “language wars”

7.You are not emotionally involved in the code
We often get too attached to our code and sometimes we regret deleting/updating certain parts we've worked hard on.
A good programmer is not emotionally attached to his code and makes necessary changes when needed without any regrets.

Sintoms

• You have no commented code within your software / application / product
• You refer to it as “the code” rather than “my code”
• You don't get defensive when someone tells you your code needs to be updated.

Conclusions

There are actually many other signs of being a good programmer besides these 7 mentioned in this article.
But surely the first thing you need to do is start trying and putting it into practice.

Little by little you will get closer and closer to your goal 🙂