Should I call myself a developer?

     One of my coworkers today, when asked if he had a lot of Python experience, hesitated and said "well, I'm not really a developer like you guys, but I've written a lot of Python." I thought this was interesting; I'd seen his work, and I would definitely vouch for it's quality. Not everything is state of the art best practice code, but his work is well thought out and it works.  Definitely one of the sharper guys I've gotten to work with in my relatively short career. But his answer managed to describe exactly how I feel about calling myself a developer, or saying I "know" a language. Because I know what he's saying- "yeah sure, I program as part of my job, I'm good with computers... but I know there's a lot I don't know."

    I've never felt comfortable describing myself as a developer because it feels like there's an endless well of stuff I haven't learned yet. I don't know sorting algorithms, I've never written a custom search function for something novel. I don't know these things that everyone else seemed to learn as an undergrad. I didn't study computer science, so I feel like an outsider sometimes.

    Pretty much every time I pair program with someone, I learn something new, or they point out a much better way for me to do what I need. I've been fortunate to have someone throughout my career who is willing to share their knowledge with me. But I've always felt like I don't know the things that a lot of people around me seem to know intuitively. It's hard to say I feel like a developer.

    I feel the same way my coworker does- "I'm not a developer like you guys". Part of it might be imposter syndrome. After all, I have been writing code and developing technical solutions at Fortune 100 companies for 5+ years now. That might make me a developer by default, even if I don't claim it.

    It's something beyond imposter syndrome though. It's a healthy amount of respect for what it takes to be great at this. It's respect for people who write code for a living, not people like me who write it to simplify something else. I've never had programming take up most of my time. I've never been a pure developer, instead always in an operational/IT role with programming skills.

   Maybe some day I'll call myself a developer. It's certainly easier to say than my actual title.