Design Patterns Suck

In software engineering, the term "design pattern" (which, honestly, is kind of redundant — aren't all patterns designs?) gets thrown around a lot. It originally came from architecture — actual architecture, with buildings and floorplans — not software. But in 1994, the software world got its own version when the now-infamous book"Design Patterns" was published by Gamma, Helm, Johnson, and Vlissides — aka the "Gang of Four" (GoF). They introduced 23 canonical patterns as higher-level abstractions than function calls. These patterns were meant to be language-agnostic, reusable templates for solving recurring software design problems. Sounds nice, right? Almost too nice... The problem is that design patterns have been elevated from useful vocabulary into something closer to dogma. They're taught as universal solutions, applied where they aren't needed, and treated as a mark of good engineering. The reality is: Design patterns suck.