[misja111]

I think this is because most literature focusses on exactly those things. Design patterns to be one step ahead of some obscure future usage of your API, FP patterns to abstract your API into a 'something' that you could not just use to aggregate customer account balances in the database but, say, merge arbitrary lists as well etc.

It's rare to find literature that tells you -not- to use new frameworks or design patterns, and if it exists, if probably doesn't sell very well because it's just not sexy.

[turnsout]

Yeah, you've hit the nail on the head—no one got rich selling a book called "There Is No Magic Bullet: Everything Sort of Depends"

[reidjs]

Now I'm tempted to write that book, maybe it could work. Find examples of things people desire and write the simple 'common knowledge' rules to achieve it, acknowledging the role of bad/good luck.

Want to be healthy, in good shape? Get lots of sleep, eat well, exercise. Unless you suddenly get cancer.

Want to be rich? Work a steady, boring job that pays well and live below your means. Unless a financial disaster occurs and you lose all that money you saved up.

etc.

[turnsout]

Honestly I think that would be a really interesting book! It could be case studies of people who were 100% invested in a "system," but found that they got just as good (or better) results from following common sense guidelines and not sticking to them too rigidly.

[mostlylurks]

People often learn the wrong lessons from literature. Design patterns, for instance, are something you should learn, not as tools that you should eagerly find applications for, but rather as a shared understanding of the kinds of patterns that commonly occur in code, such that you have the right vocabulary to communicate about them with others, and such that you can easily recognize them when they occur in the code. You'll almost inevitably utilize various design patterns extensively in your code even if you've never heard of "design patterns", learning about them simply lets you understand what's happening.