People spend far too much time ruminating about what makes an especially productive programmer. Essentially it comes down to making good choices most of the time, so basically IQ.
Bad developers are bad because they do stupid things. Hallmarks are wheel reinvention, misuse or abuse of patterns, excessive abstraction or complexity, ignorance of security ramifications. You could go on forever but really it just boils down to someone making bad decisions from inadequate knowledge and lack of foresight.
Code written by good developers can be understood and read easily and often appears simple. The extreme complexity that many companies are proud of is just a sign that their developers lack the foresight to build an elegant system.
Bad developers are bad because they do stupid things. Hallmarks are wheel reinvention, misuse or abuse of patterns, excessive abstraction or complexity, ignorance of security ramifications. You could go on forever but really it just boils down to someone making bad decisions from inadequate knowledge and lack of foresight.
Code written by good developers can be understood and read easily and often appears simple. The extreme complexity that many companies are proud of is just a sign that their developers lack the foresight to build an elegant system.