Originally Posted by jwenting

ever more you'll notice that if your main skill is plugging away at code, turning technical designs into source using an editor, that you're quickly going to become an interchangable resource easily replaced by some cheap kid from India or some other low-wage country.

Develop domain knowledge, interpersonal skills, management skills, design skills.
Learn how to not just hack away at that code but find out from vague requirements what it's supposed to do.
Learn not just what the customer wants (he'll often tell you that) but what he needs (he may not even know what he needs...).

Remember that commercial software development is no one man show. And the programming is only a part of the equation, and usually the easier part (though often among the most time consuming).

I at the moment spend probably only about 2-3 hours a day on average with my nose in code, and only half of that is spent writing or modifying code.
The rest is spent testing, trying to reproduce problems, communicating with customers and colleagues, analysing requirements and problems, etc. etc.

But then I'm no junior, so my tasks are more varried than those of a beginning programmer (and you'll likely notice that there is precious little work for those in north America or western Europe, unless you have good skills elsewhere so you're flexible).