Let me copy part of my comment to another submission:
Different people view programming very differently. For example for me programming is mainly a way to understand things. I program things I want to learn about. My understanding of programming helps me understand computers and computing. Then I have a friend who couldn't care less about how exactly things work under the hood, or in theory. All he cares about is making a product, and programming is his tool.
I think this is one of the main distinctions. Some are motivated by curiosity and love of tinkering with the machine and see it all as a playfield with toys, while some others are motivated by the opportunities to build things and make money out of it, seeing it all as a tool and material. I am not saying this is the dichotomy or that one even exists, but it illustrates that "programmer" doesn't really say all that much. We're a broad and varying bunch!
You might not want to self-identify too much with those who "couldn't care less about how exactly things work under the hood". When you've spend the best part of a day carefully explaining how NOT (a OR b) is the same as (NOT a) AND (NOT b) to the "programmer" at the next desk who got his job because someone else of the same gender and ethnicity filled in for him at the aptitude test, you'll quickly curse how HR people turn a blind eye to closely checking such stuff so they can meet their hiring quotas.
It's not even inconceivable that someone like this has conned their way into running open source software projects, perhaps even project managing a "Top 50" programming language!
Different people view programming very differently. For example for me programming is mainly a way to understand things. I program things I want to learn about. My understanding of programming helps me understand computers and computing. Then I have a friend who couldn't care less about how exactly things work under the hood, or in theory. All he cares about is making a product, and programming is his tool.
I think this is one of the main distinctions. Some are motivated by curiosity and love of tinkering with the machine and see it all as a playfield with toys, while some others are motivated by the opportunities to build things and make money out of it, seeing it all as a tool and material. I am not saying this is the dichotomy or that one even exists, but it illustrates that "programmer" doesn't really say all that much. We're a broad and varying bunch!