Ego in Programming

Should programmers have big egos? Perhaps you think the obvious answer in 'no, of course not'. Although I had a pub conversation the other day which made me think. My friend suggested that technical experts ought to have bucketloads of ego, more ego than you could possibly shake a very large stick at! Counter-intuitive? The man's an idiot? Well, let's follow this one through.

An effective programmer ought to be self assured, able to recognise that they are good at their profession and decide that, "this is the correct way to do it and I will act upon my belief". Good programmers will be happy, if challenged, to back up their point with articulate and logical arguement. So far, nothing too controversial, but we should make no mistake that we are already describing someone with a reasonable amount of ego. A quick aside that an intelligent programmer will at least listen to other arguements or suggestions - perhaps a glimmer here of egolessness? However the killer blow was that a strong programmer will be able to unashamedly and graciously drop an incorrectly held belief and adopt another's, more accurate, arguement. This takes gallons of ego! The ability to recognise that everyone makes mistakes, but that doesn't change the fact that, "I'm still darn good at this!".

What is perhaps the dangerous sort is the one with a middling amount of ego. Where they don't truely belive that they are great and hence over-compensate by making every arguement a battle to be won.