The ability to master complexity. A master will be able to understand the relationship between systems so he can reduce combinatorial possibilities and reduce

The ability to master complexity. A master will be able to understand the relationship between systems so he can reduce combinatorial possibilities and reduce complexity to a minimum. In other words, a master will not shoot herself in the foot. She will also not let others shoot themselves in the foot. Then, depending on what you do, you will need technical ability: -Understanding basic physics or economics or whatever you interface with your software. -Understanding of low level systems (assembler and C) -Understanding of different paradigms(objects, functional) -Understanding of very High level systems (Lisp, Haskell) -Understanding of serialization(parsing and binary) -Understanding communications. -Understanding data handling. -Understanding interfaces(like command line, desktop or Web). -Understanding standards. But this depends on the particular work you need or want to do. You will be stronger or weaker in different areas. But complexity handling is common to any area in engineering.