Average developers are those who aren't committed to getting better or keeping up. In some software areas, those two terms are synonymous. To use a specific ex

Average developers are those who aren't committed to getting better or keeping up. In some software areas, those two terms are synonymous. To use a specific example, in the mobile development world, which is arguably one of the "hottest" development jobs (the dot-com-like hype gold rush aside), you have to keep improving to continue to be relevant, let alone 'realize your potential'. The above average mobile developer keeps up with the best-in-class practices and the ability to deliver to the baseline customer experience expectations for the platform (which keep going up and up - customers are spoiled by the Instagram/Airbnb-type apps of the world). For example, iOS has gone through significant changes from iOS 2 (original) to iOS 6. Maybe three or even two years ago, using ASIHttpRequest was good enough for async network operations. Now, everything has gone to blocks. Sometimes enough blocks tied/nested together to put Lego to shame. Storyboards have started to replace tedious UIViewController plumbing. Modal dialogs used to be tolerated by customers, now obvious use of them make your app look cheap and outdated. Custom animations (and yes maybe even custom tab bars) are almost expected (this is good and bad) - but simple stuff like tapping on an image to expand it to full-screen and tapping on it to collapse it back to thumbnail - the customer expects that. As for Android, Android is running at a pace that leaves average developers behind. Someone who still uses TabActivity for apps is rightfully categorized as out-of-touch with the post-Holo look and feel. If you don't have an ActionBar in your app, your app is out of date. Someone who uses BroadcastReceivers for piping data between Activities and Services is out-of-date (see Square's Otto or GreenRobot's EventBus). I know this devolved into a bit of a rant - but developers have to keep up with the best-in-class practices - and in the best case - "rockstar" class developers like Jake Wharton of Square for Android - can inspire others and give the community the right tools to push the entire platform forward and make it more competitive (in this case, with iOS). I believe the best developers share their knowledge (whether in a closed environment like a team - or best - Github and conferences and podcasts/screencasts) so that others can become better.