Experience. A lot of being a good programmer doesn't have to do with technical skills. Take a compilers course. This was required at my school and I figured i

Experience. A lot of being a good programmer doesn't have to do with technical skills. Take a compilers course. This was required at my school and I figured it would be boring (I mostly likely the theory classes). I was wrong! Writing a compiler really made me understand what they do. I had seen a lot of people who were trying to appease the compiler. Instead, the compiler is now my slave.