Contrarian opinion here: I've instead found the constant philosophizing tiring. But I still commend his effort because as he explained, he's trying to articulate the inarticulate and the visceral. Most programmers would probably benefit from reading a book in the style of Effective C++ (Scott Meyers) or Effective Java (Joshua Bloch), where recommendations are more concrete and more unequivocal. Once you've done that, the matter of software design only really comes with experience—experience designing software and having an almost tactile reaction to the future maintainability and readability of the code; it doesn't really come from reading a book like this.
I can't recommend Effective Java enough. Even if one hates Java with passion. I haven't managed to find a better book on how to design an API in any language. It learned me to think about the consumers of my code all the time (even if I'm the only author on a given project) The chapters on exceptions, defensive coding, generics are brilliant. The whole book is written in an effective manner. Dense with information, short and still readable. The second best: Eloquent Ruby. Brilliantly written and mature. Instead of hyping everything up, the author elaborates the downsides of each described technique and power tool.
