[lobsang]

Conversely I've worked with lots of designers who also suck at UX.

I think the first paragraph nails it. The people who are good at UX are the people who have the benefit of testing designs with users and iterating on them. Either for the problem at hand or with the benefit of past experience.

As an industry I wish we could get past the idea that your job title denotes your ability in one area or another.

[neilpanchal]

Also, we need consider design as not something that needs to be trendy or has a finite time. A lot of design choices made in early 90’s are totally sound - technology has changed ofcourse so we should adapt but the way things are today - it’s chasing trends after trends without giving any thought. Design is not fashion. Changes should be made only when they’re needed, not because designers like a particular aesthetic or want to make things flat, or remove borders because it’s sexy, or go after magenta/purple themes today that are rampant cliches.

Have you tried searching for anything UX/UI on the web and only to find shallow articles, blog spam, nothing authoritative?

I have a hard time finding a good textbook in this area. Why aren’t there any textbooks one may ask?