[c_shu]

They are not really bad. Reading about them can help you get familiar with how programmers usually name their patterns. But I don't think one needs to study "design patterns" to come up with code using builders, factories, and singletons. People should always know the optimal way to write their code (or almost optimal). They can come up with any design patterns when coding, instead of choosing some among the well-known ones.

[jxub]

In most cases, I think they are a solution waiting for a problem. Let the code grow organically at first and see later if a design pattern helps make it simpler, because we humans are terrible at predicting things, moreso the abstract ones.

But getting lost in a sea of abstraction is easy, it makes you a better architecture astronaut than the one that's sitting on a Tesla now on the orbit listening Bowie's music. Looks good, makes you feel an expert, but really it's almost as bad as selling snake oil.

We programmers, as a whole, should have a code of ethic conduct and a better moral ethos.