I had to start writing this reply from scratch several times, because I couldn't decide which issue to address first and yet do it in the politest possible way.

I had to start writing this reply from scratch several times, because I couldn't decide which issue to address first and yet do it in the politest possible way. I offer apologies in advance, just in case I don't manage to achieve that goal anyway. First of all, you're oversimplifying my comment, just like you oversimplified the original issue in your post. I never claimed I was unable to understand simple concepts. But the ability to understand a simple concept is quite a long shot from the ability to apply it properly to achieve quality results. Second, you neglected the better part of my comment where I talked about effort, results and time. Yes, I'm pretty sure I could do design; at least, as long as nobody (including myself) minds waiting for me to give it my best shot and produce results that are still not as good as those you could get from a good designer in less time. Maybe it doesn't take talent to design a log-in form, but talent sure helps do it faster and better. In the end, "faster" and "better" just isn't something you can toss out of the window. Third, if you really think that you can reduce either design or coding to following simple rules, then I'm wondering why you're bothering writing about this at all. Just follow some simple rules to code an application that follows some simple rules to churn out both quality design and code. Every now and then, I see someone write or hear someone talk about how they can do work in more than one discipline and, therefore, there's something wrong with people who specialize. Working in game development has given me tremendous respect for multi-disciplinary projects and the complexities involved. From that vantage, I can tell you that I don't mind when people are proud of their multifaceted nature; it's when they start dismissing specialization that it becomes a problem.