what makes a good it professional?

Locutus has an awesome post about what he feels makes a good IT professional, and I totally agree with him. Here is a quick summary in his presented order:
1) A passion for the work
2) Ability to solve problems and research solutions
3) Ability to solve problems and research solutions with time and organizational pressure
I like his first point the most, as it is what I call the “geek” trait. I’m a computer geek meaning work is also my hobby is also my enjoyment. My tinkering with technology does not stop at 5pm nor start at 8am. It bleeds into every part of my day and life for the most part.
This is the whole reason why I fight to have jobs where I can treat both “lives” as similar as possible. When at home, I don’t wear a tie when ironing out a problem, so wearing one at work takes me out of my normal, and productive, state of comfort. (Not that I truly HATE it or something, it’s just a little thing.) Likewise, I might have days where my productivity would be huge at home compared to at work, or at least huge when I’m happy. And if this is my hobby and what makes me happy, it follows to help me be happy at work so that I can be productive there as well.
Ok, end rant. 🙂 I’m sure I’ll complain about this until I actually have a job that doesn’t require a tie 80%+ of the time…and even then wear one regularly.