The essential skill needed to be an <anything> is to be interested in it and enjoy it. Paul Graham writes (somewhere in his essays, couldn't find it with a qui

The essential skill needed to be an <anything> is to be interested in it and enjoy it. Paul Graham writes (somewhere in his essays, couldn't find it with a quick scan) that the notion of 'aptitude' is highly suspicious. We get better at things by doing them, and after doing them for a long time we look like we have an aptitude. A caveat: Just as being interested in and liking to play a sport won't get you to play at the top levels without talent as well, there are lots of programmer's jobs that will be out of reach, but others WILL be in reach.