Programmers, as creators, are forever impressing their version of how something should be upon the world, so it's almost impossible to not, at times, feel a sense of pride over our work. If not kept in check, this can easily spiral into a place where we are writing code to impress people, and to boost feelings of our own superiority, without considering whether the code we're writing is maintainable or usable. But if our natural ego is not allowed to flourish, then we will have no pride in our work and no inclination to foster excellence in what we do. As such, in programming, as in other areas of life, the key is a balance of ego where we retain its good parts without letting its bad parts affect things too much.