True, true...

IMHO you can always improve your coding skills (coding = writing workin code), but then you are just the programmer.

IMHO *great programmer* is someone who knows exactly what s/he want to do and understands the way the solution follows... and as a last virtue i'd mention his/her coding skills.
As for me it's some kind of genius - to trully understand the WHOLE big problem, split it into small tasks and write an efficient code, that makes me feel the magic when i look at it :-)

Greetz, Tom.