I believe great programmers are not born, they are made. Or rather, they make themselves, carefully and deliberately over time. I am not talking about the folks who rote-learn the l33t answers and throw their egos around; I mean the ones who build great products using simple, understandable code, while lifting up those around them.

I have worked with some great programmers over the years, and met some others along the way. I want to tell you about the best programmer I know. As I have said elsewhere, they have “an insatiable curiosity and the belief they can convince a computer to do anything. Plus a healthy disregard for language and tool zealotry.”

As I describe them, you might recognise some of their traits in yourself; you might decide you want to aspire to some of them; you might choose to refer to them as an interviewer, or as a candidate. My hope is simply that you find them useful and in some way inspiring.