[sime2009]

Design patterns, for example, really should only be studied once you have quite a bit of experience with complex code bases under your belt. You need to have done battle with some nasty code problems in bigger code bases before you really understand the problems design patterns are trying to solve. Inexperienced developers can't be trusted to apply them because they don't have that judgement. It just looks like a shiny thing.

[farhanhubble]

True for so much of compsci stuff. You won't understand regular languages, automata, grammars etc until you have done a fair bit of pattern grokking yourself.