Software Design

"There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies." -- Hoare, in The Emperor's Old Clothes

I'm studying software design at the moment. Every morning when I get up, I have to spend some 10 minutes convinceing myself that it is a good opportunity and not a "Total Waste of Time" and I learn some new (and not stupid) ways of thinking. I don't know why I disdane software engineering to this level. I was really hopeful that we would focus mostly on Agile Methods in our course, but beside a small part on XP, we still have some 600 pages of RAD and system and object design to study! :(