What makes a better programmer

When reading The Insanity Defense at Worse Than Failure (formerly known as TheDailyWTF, gosh I hate the new name..), I found one interesting comment.

clipped from worsethanfailure.com

2007-03-23 09:07
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by kanna
(unregistered)

I guess they should be greatful it's not *all* on one line. Seriously though, that's impressive. Sometimes you have to wonder how these people survive a day. It never occurs to them to think "there *has* to be a better way than this."?

That's exactly what I've been pondering. For me, that's the difference between the good and bad programmer:

"It never occurs to them to think 'there *has* to be a better way than this.'?"

A good programmer will think that he/she is doing either stupid or too difficult things. One long line of condition is difficult to understand. There HAS to be a better way to do it. Deeply nested if statements are just wrong, it's hard to comprehend. There HAS to be a better way to do it. And then the search for greatness begins.

And talking about the bad programmer, I sometimes think: this people, either they are genius for being able to understand the mess or just plain average Joe, at which the latter is more possible. Understanding crazy codes is really beyond my ability. I simply hate it. That's why I always keep it simple for the sake of my future self and other programmers.

But the bad programmers, if they are such a genius that they're able to understand it with ease, they're not smart for not being able to see the simpler form. If they're just average, well, too bad, being average in programming world equals to being bad programmer.

There is just a vast divide between those who can, those who can't. And for me, another vast divide between those who are good and those who are bad. For the good programmer, he/she will always think when stumbling upon stupid or repetitive things: there has to be a better way than this.

And by the way, I'm not implying that I'm good myself. I'm just someone learning to be better.