Discussion on: I have been a professional developer for 31 years and I'm 53 now, Ask Me Anything!

[John Munsch]

1. Learning - The ability to pick something up rapidly and see how it integrate with your other skills quickly is your most important skill of all.
2. Collaboration - This is hugely under appreciated and covers ground as wide ranging as fixing problems in groups working together (I started at a company many years back and there was real hatred between the software developers and the IT people; it was nuts!) and working with customers who are not necessarily well versed in jargon and may not know exactly what they want initially.
3. A love of "the" work, but not "your" work - Don't fall in love with your code. It will break your heart. Be prepared to discard it at any time. It's not important, even if you put blood sweat and tears into it. It may be that it needs to be replaced or changed for any number of reasons; including that the project owner simply asked for the wrong thing. It happens. Move on, don't let it get to you, build something that hopefully serves the needs better.
4. Teaching - A willingness to share what you've learned early and often with other developers. Also, take some time to learn to teach. I so often see someone say, "I don't understand," and then basically the same thing comes out of the teachers mouth again. Stop. They didn't get it. Try a different way of showing or explaining the thing you're trying to communicate.