I love this question, and so I'll try to answer the best I can.
But first, in one word, PASSION.
If you don't have passion, you'll never become a great dev.
Although I don't like to say this, you also have to have some aptitude. I used to think that anyone could become a great dev with passion, but at the end of the day some people aren't cut out for it. I don't think that means you can't be a good dev, but to be great your passion has to meet with high aptitude. And passion should mean will and desire to achieve/deliver.
And in case anyone asks, for me, I think you need to be really good at Math, love Music, love Logic, love Problem Solving, love Patterns. Math and Music (not just listening) are the language of computers. Maybe that sounds weird, but over the years I've noticed that the really great devs are Math lovers and at least played Music and understand it more than just listening to it.
Oh, wait, are we talking about real skill here? I always associate the term rockstar developer with a know-best holier-than-thou attitude, that may or may not be backed up by any real skill, and my question was more towards how you developed that attitude and realised that it was a problem (since your title says recovering rockstar dev). But it looks like we're not on the same page here, so nevermind.
How did you become a rockstar developer?
I love this question, and so I'll try to answer the best I can.
But first, in one word, PASSION.
If you don't have passion, you'll never become a great dev.
Although I don't like to say this, you also have to have some aptitude. I used to think that anyone could become a great dev with passion, but at the end of the day some people aren't cut out for it. I don't think that means you can't be a good dev, but to be great your passion has to meet with high aptitude. And passion should mean will and desire to achieve/deliver.
And in case anyone asks, for me, I think you need to be really good at Math, love Music, love Logic, love Problem Solving, love Patterns. Math and Music (not just listening) are the language of computers. Maybe that sounds weird, but over the years I've noticed that the really great devs are Math lovers and at least played Music and understand it more than just listening to it.
Hope that helps!
Oh, wait, are we talking about real skill here? I always associate the term rockstar developer with a know-best holier-than-thou attitude, that may or may not be backed up by any real skill, and my question was more towards how you developed that attitude and realised that it was a problem (since your title says recovering rockstar dev). But it looks like we're not on the same page here, so nevermind.
I suppose you could have a cocky dev that isn't really that great, but I think people would just call them jerks, not rockstars :D
To be fair, I've been a jerk too, just ask any of my former or current co-workers! But to err is human right? I'm trying to get better! :D