Patterns are not building blocks.

• Patterns are not building blocks.
• Patterns are cages. They are cages for complexity.
• Much of the simpler instances of complexity have been wrapped up in the chosen languages. Function calls, expressions, variables, structures, and so on. By caging this complexity we are now able to work with things that are even more complex than a few decades ago when the ideas of object oriented programming were being bantered about.
• One should not waste one’s time building a cage that will never be filled. Neither does one go about planning a zoo by building the cages and seeing what beasts fit in them afterwards.
• Plan the project and build it. And when you find out there’s a grizzly bit of complexity in the foundations of your code, then build the cage for the grizzly. Building grizzly cages in your basement for no reason just takes up space and confuses people who might inherit them.