This article is both helpful and thought-provoking in the context of a photographer's development. Worth perusing and may even start some interesting discussions here.

From the Introduction:

Photographers go through stages of development, and while we don’t all follow the same path, an understanding of our current level of skill, creativity and artisty is, I think, an important exercise. If we know where we are and we have an idea of where we want to be, it becomes a lot easier to determine the path from here to there and to take steps to get us there. Most of us have never given much thought to where we are in terms of skill, creativity and artistry, and even if we did, are not necessarily good judges of our own skills and levels so this is not a trivial process. While gradually and continuously striving to improve does in the end result in progress, I propose that we find a better and perhaps more direct route to becoming better photographic artists.
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/es...xt-level.shtml

BTW the luminous-landscape site itself is worth sampling.