[kstenerud]

It is my belief that there are three components which form the trinity of the super programmer:

* Tenacity

* Working memory size

* Creativity

You need tenacity because seemingly intractable problems come up all the time when programming. There are those who simply throw up their hands and give up, and then there are those who just won't let it go. They'll keep it in the back of their mind, mulling it over, poking at it, discussing with others, until they finally have an epiphany in the shower or on the bus or in a dream. They do great things because they go where others fear to tread. Without tenacity, there's little hope of becoming a great programmer.

If tenacity is the base signal, working memory is the amplifier. The greater your working memory, the more concepts you can hold at once, which means you can break down problems much faster. Your potential is increased significantly.

All of this is capped off by creativity. Tenacity and working memory will allow you to push through a problem, but if you're not stepping back and looking for patterns and meta patterns to exploit, you'll miss any chance of finding novel solutions that save time, space, and aggravation compared to existing practices.