Okay, the title of this post is a bit of a lie. There's no one secret trick to becoming a genius programmer - there are two, and they're more habits than tricks. Nevertheless, these kind of 'secret tricks' seem to resonate with people, so I went for this title anyway.
Every once in a while, a somewhat strange thing happens to me. I'll be helping somebody out on IRC - usually a beginner - answering a number of their questions in rapid succession, about a variety of topics. Then after a while, they call me a "genius" for being able to answer everything they're asking; either directly, or while talking about me to somebody else.
Now, I don't really agree with this "genius" characterization, and it can make me feel a bit awkward, but it shows that a lot of developers have a somewhat idealistic and nebulous notion of the "genius programmer" - the programmer that knows everything, who can do everything, who's never stumped by a problem, and of which ther