> Like you said, the fundamental idea behind the book was that consciously naming, cataloging, and studying design patterns would improve communication among programmers.

> The younger programmers I work with who had no exposure to the GoF book.....and they communicate amongst themselves just as efficiently as my generation

> The generation that learned to program after design patterns had faded as an idea learned just as quickly and communicates just as well as the generation that studied them assiduously as junior programmers like I did.

I've never read GOF so I don't know if they emphasize communication, but I have read and studied many other programming pattern books and communication is low on the list of reasons to learn them in my opinion. Their only purpose for me is to organize code in a way that has been proven to "scale" along with a codebase so that you don't end up with a plate of spaghetti.