[robotwholearned]

not saying that I know anything, but from what I can tell it is time and practice. Don't think that something is "beneath" you, just keep building stuff. Read books, talk to other people that know something. Talk to people who don't. I am not sure if you should ever reach being an exceptional programmer, because there is always more to learn. Also: depending on the language, try to solve problems without looking up how to solve it, and then compare your solution to other peoples. You may solve the problem, but sometimes you can be quite surprised about how much more someone knows, so they can teach you little things that really deepen your understanding of a language.