A bit late to the party, but I will chime in. - Every developer out there at some point in his / her life felt the same way as you do. Likely more than once.

A bit late to the party, but I will chime in. - Every developer out there at some point in his / her life felt the same way as you do. Likely more than once. - There aren't many developer who can look at their own code written 5 years ago and be proud of it; may be if you are John Karmack. - Being able to write beautiful code is definitely valuable, but being able to make a product is even more valuable. - The programmers you mentioned are kind of by definition exceptional. Otherwise they wouldn't get your attention. You are not missing anything. You are just like the remaining 99% of us. And it looks like you are already trying to get better - so you WILL get better. Every piece of code you read, every book you read, every time you get a code review - you will improve a little. Sadly, there is no formula to turn an average person into a prodigy. So don't beat yourself up.