A good programmer is a good problem solver. But it also requires technical knowledge or ability to acquire it, as well as a good ability to communicate ideas.

A good programmer is a good problem solver. But it also requires technical knowledge or ability to acquire it, as well as a good ability to communicate ideas. Now, you can solve problems in many ways. They can be solved in the best interest of the programmer, or in the best interest of the company. If I have a sales team, and give them a goal to sell $100, and they make a loan for $100 on behalf of the company and give me $100, that's probably not a good sales team. Let alone a 10x sales team. But in software, technical debt (equivalent to buying with a loan) is something done frequently and some people mistakenly perceive it as being a good programmer. Usually because they cannot perceive the build-up of accrued work.