I think what's really interesting here is not what makes a good or great programmer but rather how everybody has different criteria for "greatness". I found this thread more enlightening about the commenters than about greatness.
This isn't that surprising: different people do different things, and their ideal programmer is relative to what they do. Somebody more business oriented would value more maintainable software and good team-working; a hacker type would value "getting things done" and "worse is better"; a more academic type would value novel and nontrivial work. Of course, in reality, what different people value is more nuanced, but the core point remains: there is no single definition of greatness.
This isn't that surprising: different people do different things, and their ideal programmer is relative to what they do. Somebody more business oriented would value more maintainable software and good team-working; a hacker type would value "getting things done" and "worse is better"; a more academic type would value novel and nontrivial work. Of course, in reality, what different people value is more nuanced, but the core point remains: there is no single definition of greatness.