Three great virtues of a programmer: laziness, impatience, and hubris
“We will encourage you to develop the three great virtues of a programmer: laziness, impatience, and hubris.” — LarryWall, ProgrammingPerl (1st edition), OreillyAndAssociates
Laziness
The quality that makes you go to great effort to reduce overall energy expenditure. It makes you write labor-saving programs that other people will find useful, and document what you wrote so you don’t have to answer so many questions about it. Hence, the first great virtue of a programmer.
Impatience
The anger you feel when the computer is being lazy. This makes you write programs that don’t just react to your needs, but actually anticipate them. Or at least pretend to. Hence, the second great virtue of a programmer.
Hubris
Excessive prider. Also the quality that makes you write (and maintain) programs that other people won’t want to say bad things about. Hence, the third great virtue of a programmer.
culled from
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?LazinessImpatienceHubris
Honestly, there is some truth to the above points, but I personally do not like to think of them in the negative light portrayed.
However, I struggle to find the right antonyms for the above three. When I find them I’ll post again.