Search, Develop, Share and Listen. The four traits a good software developer must have.

1.) Resourceful (Be able to Search) - a developer would not succeed in his work if he lacks the capability to find resources. Admit it, even though you're a seasoned pro, still there are problems which you alone cannot solve. So you must find resources to solve these problems. Listed below are some useful sources:

• Books
• E-Books
• Video Tutorials
• Developer Forums
• Mr. Google (everybody's bestfriend.. :) )
• Dev Tool/API Documentation

2.) Able to "Develop" - i quoted the word develop as this is a very important word attached to programmers. It is nice to be called a "Software Developer", but are you really worthy of the name? The word "develop" is really heavy. A programmer cannot be called a developer if he cannot "develop". What i mean here is to "innovate". We know that source codes and tutorials are all around. We can study these codes and apply it to fit our needs. But we must take this approach deeper. By studying other people's codes we are immersing ourselves into his/her thoughts, the way they think, and analyze problems to come up with the proper solution. Also, by studying other people's codes, we must be able to figure out a solution to come up with something "better". Just take this as an example: Why do we have a light-weight configurable framework now known as Spring? It's because developers "developed" Spring based on the original code of Rod Johnson. Using other people's solution to come up with something better.

3.) Able to "Share" - How can you know that you know what you know? By sharing and educating others with the knowledge you acquire.

4.) Able to "Listen" - admit it, there are people better than you. By being able to listen to other people's suggestions and comments, you can greatly improve your way of thinking. You will learn a lot from others.

If you still have other things to add to this list of traits, you can post your comments. Thanks.