[atulatul]

>Software design/architecture is a strange beast

Yes. At one point I thought a set of good programs can be composed into a good architecture. Then at another stage- with agile, etc.- I was thinking about evolutionary architectures.

But experience and dealing with different kind of problems and systems work best. Also, I have seen Conway's law hold when many other patterns, principles fail.

Books like Garlan Shaw are good but help if you have some experience. Some other books/ courses like Neal Ford's help, but for me those helped only to know the terms/ ideas. Practice and rewrites, tech-upgrades helped more. Also, books like Michael Nygard's Release It.