Key Points

  • Your personal character directly affects your ability to write computer programs.

  • The characteristics that matter most are humility, curiosity, intellectual honesty, creativity and discipline, and enlightened laziness.

  • The characteristics of a superior programmer have almost nothing to do with talent and everything to do with a commitment to personal development.

  • Surprisingly, raw intelligence, experience, persistence, and guts hurt as much as they help.

  • Many programmers don't actively seek new information and techniques and instead rely on accidental, on-the-job exposure to new information. If you devote a small percentage of your time to reading and learning about programming, after a few months or years you'll dramatically distinguish ...

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