Found an interesting read from Quora:

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-kept-secrets-of-great-programmers

I like some the answers;excerpted below:

James Liu, CS can solve mankind’s greatest problems.
24.8k Views • Upvoted by Austin Kelleher, Software Engineer
James has 30+ answers in Computer Programmers.
Jens Rantil’s answer pretty much covers most of it. (Link: Jens Rantil’s answer to What are the best-kept secrets of great programmers?)

I’d like to add:

Regarding career

Write code that can be read, understood, and malnipulated by others. This allows you to hand-off and take on new challenges.

If you horde your knowledge, you’ll be the only care taker of it — or in an engineering/business minded organization, a risk.

Stop taking pride in code or hackatons survived, means nothing in a permenat team. Execution and collaboration will serve you greater.

Regarding solutions and coding

If you can’t explain it to a non-programmer, you might be over-complicating or over-optimizing.

If you can’t draw a architecture diagram, you also might be over-complicating it.

Don’t show off by writing “compact code”

Regarding personal improvement

Don’t be a Java or C/C++ (or other) fan-boy/girl. You’ll be learning 10+ languages in a long-term career. Treat them as tools, not bandwagons.

There will always be a better programmer and they are hard to identify. Learn from them all.

You are not defined by the quality of your code. Don’t judge yourself that way.

Regarding philosophy

Programming is the art of enabling non-programmers to do more than what they can do alone.

Computer science is a catalyst to nearly every field of study or industry in the world. CS enables humanity to do more, solve more, be better.

Computer science != programming. If your college only taught you how to program, go ask for your money back.