1. Good, solid knowledge of programming language is one pillar of a super programmer. The knowledge bank of language, a person have, dictates how he/she will handle the problem. For example, If I am working on graphics in PHP language, It depends on my level of knowledge of its GD library or other graphic related functions of PHP. If I have strong hand in it, I will solve my problem more quickly and efficiently than a person who do not have know how.
Now put the example of super programmer who write difficult algorithms that control caches on hard drives and that super programmer do not know how to write RESTful web service in cakePHP (a PHP framework) and he never did that before. Now assign him task to write RESTful web service in cakePHP along with a simple application developer who did that before thrice. You will see application developer will do that more quickly. Your super programmer will lose the contest.
Now give application develop the books of hard level / network programming and give him adequate time to learn. After his/her learning cycle, you will see the application developer will start to do such stuff. Does he become super programmer huh :).

2. Another important aspect is the person mathematical/programming attitude. Programmer with good maths will write good equations in complex situation. A person will poor mathematical skills will also do that, but with the cost of more time and less efficiency. A super programer will be good observer. For example I assign a buggy code to 2 different programmers. 1 has good observation and analytical skills while the other one just have a bird eye view on code. The person with good observation will fix the issue quickly whereas other one will also do the job but take more time. Same goes for problem solving skills.
Take the example of doctor. A good doctor will diagnose the chronic disease more quickly in patient, because he has adequate knowledge and strong senses to find the culprit.
I want to give another example to be more clearer my point of view. Lets assume, I have a video game program of space ships (with no helping comments in code). I deliberately change the area of code where space ships fires and ,in a way, that fire’s angle is changed. Now space ships fire in an incline angle instead of firing straight. Now I gave this program to 2 programmers who both have knowledge of that language and have same weight of experience. But one is strong observer and other has weak observation. The programmer with strong observation will find the area of code, that is, responsible for firing more quickly. Then he will find the section of code that is responsible for firing angle. and then he set the right angle in that. The person with poor ability will also do that, but he will be second in this contest.

So I conclude the 2 points above make a programer super/simple. The task of writing algorithms that control caches on hard drives, writing google search indexes, network programming, reading/writing sockets, business application development and website development has nothing to do with super / simple programmer. These are simple nature of projects.

Your article is great to distinguish “normal” programmers, but talking about “Super Programmer” is not to focus on hard (looking) problems, it’s about complexity.

You can only reason about something that fits in your head. And these “special” and rare once can simply handle more and more complex things than other people. Sometimes up to an unbelievable grade. They can play with it in real time, chance or extent things, go back and forth, transform systems, and so on, until they “see” the solution or something totally unexpected new way of doing stuff. At that point they write down the code in one rush.

“Normal” people have to break down the complexity, but they are not able to reason on the hole system at once. Yes, you can write down the hole system, which we all do, but the problem remains.

Hope you get my point.

Hah. Nice. You are right though. We are spending so much time rebuilding and rebuilding the same thing.