I think problem with lot of bad programmers are that they do not take the top down approach and often get way too attached into the micro-details when they are just beginning. From my experience, it invites a lot of trouble. They open the editor and start coding stuff when they don't even have big picture in their head. Not only this increases the total time to have it developed by 2-3 folds, but you get stuck at times. It just makes programming so much easier when you spend couple hours thinking about the problem before you actually throw yourself into actual coding. This is probably the biggest lesson I have learnt about programming.