It sounds like you don't do it because of the need of the income anymore, but just to have something to do. Basically a hobby that happens to be in the same area as your working profession.

About headphones and music. This is something that doesn't work for all, but can be a very, very efficient way of focusing on a job without worrying about the surrounding environment. I often sit in a room with a lot of computers - much fan and hdd noise. And in some situations, I work with people who are busy testing firmware programs, where each press on a keypad results in beeps, possibly followed by "ok" or "error" beep sequences.

People around me often needs to speak in phones, to discuss different design issues, schedule time for laboratory tests, haggling with distributors about availability and cost of components etc.

It is very easy to lose focus from these surrounding noises. Having head phones with music allows the brain to screen out all these noises. The brain may possibly let a background process move a foot in rythm with the music, but all the concious part of the brain deactivates any sound processing, allowing all focus to be directed at the work at hand.

With a normal semi-open headphones (the closed ones can't be used, since you cook your ears), you can stand beside me and may be able to hear that I do play music. But don't count on it. On the other side of a sound screen, you will not hear anything at all.

In the end, people are using headphones for the same reason why you may place blinders on a horse - to maximize the focus on the task at hand.

Thinking such a developer is not professional is normally far from the truth. It just shows that you have not spent time trying to figure out the difference between individuals. Complain about people who can't read, or why expects someone else to do their work. But in the end, we are all individuals. That also means that different approaches works best for different persons. Enjoy the variation - what sets us apart. Then you would see that you could just as well get a 25-year-old hungry developer to jump in and do an excellent job.

Another thing. A good way to improve is to be allowed to discuss problems. If you split up a project into small pieces that you dish out and expects people to work with these pieces without any communication - or at most with a limited amount of communication with you - you lose a lot of dynamism. On one hand, you hamper the people who do the job. They can't grow unless they get the chance to make decisions. On the other hand, you will get everything done your way, in which case you will not grow. You will lose the chance to pick up new tricks from other people. For most real-world problems, there are multiple alternative solutions that are good enough. There seldom are one solution that are perfect. Sharing information and decisions can allow the group to find alternative solutions that are better. Maybe cheaper to implement. Maybe cheaper hardware. Maybe faster execution time. Maybe the customer has even ordered the wrong design. When writing custom PC software, the companies who orders the software very often requests solutions that duplicates their current work flow. They put down their requests based on what they know. But at the same time, they may miss out greatly on alternative work flows that are impractical when done manually, but works far better than their current work flow if just augmented by good software applications.

A salesman is often an aligator. Big mouth, but no one has ever seen the ears. As a developer, it is quite important to have very big ears, and pick up nuances and ideas from all around us. Being different is the best way to make products that a customer likes. Doing the same as everyone else just means that you design a product that will have to fight the price pressure from a number of competing products. A great developer isn't defined by dress code, music preferences or age. A great developer is someone who can see the pattern before the pieces of the pussle has been laid. Someone who can think a couple of steps ahead.

But a great developer must work in a suitable environment. Be allowed to have a comfort zone. For some people, the availability of that mobile phone is part of the comfort zone.