There Are Good Programmers And Bad Programmers

It's undeniable that in the modern software development industry, there is a massive variation in the skill levels and ability levels of various programmers. There is a vast majority of people who lack the education/drive/ability to go beyond doing simple programming tasks. These people tend to write poor, unmaintainable code, know few computer languages, tend to over-use solutions, and seldom push themselves to find new and creative solutions. They may not know (or care) that they are not as skillfull as some of their peers, but in either case they make the vast majority of programmers today.

This wiki tends to be populated by the opposite kind of people. People who are motivated to explore their profession and learn new things. These kinds of people invent new tools and methodologies to tackle problems. The tend to write better, more maintainable code. They tend to lead projects (if not socially, then technically).

This type of programmer is significantly rarer, and can be hard to identify unless you work with them, as PaulGraham suggested in his essay "GreatHackers?".