Want to throw out a couple of thoughts though… the idea of design patterns caught a lot of traction several years ago – every hiring manager had to ask about singleton, factory, etc.. it seems like it’s tappered off a little…

The general thinking about design patterns is a little off – they aren’t cogs that you can grab and throw at a problem and *bang* your problem is solved. (This may be a simplification – but I get the impression it’s the general feeling about patterns by many)

I think a more appropriate analogy would be that they are like musical riffs that a master improvisational musician learns… she learns them not to (necessarily) play the exact riff in a performance – but so that she’ll have a large base of ideas from which to form her own (which will have to be specific to her current context).

That being said, the power of patterns are greatly underestimated – not in their specific technical application – but in their ability to expand the thinking of the practioner of the Craft.