To get the hacking feeling away: the only way is to learn more of the details of how certain things work on lower levels. That will give you more control and a

To get the hacking feeling away: the only way is to learn more of the details of how certain things work on lower levels. That will give you more control and a better feeling that your solution is solid and better vs other solutions. For creating design, it helps to be mentored actually. Reading books about design patters and architecture helped me but nothing worked as much as a good mentor. You can always start with 'how would I desing a software that does X?' and think 'how would it change if I add Y' or 'how much can this scale?'. Find people around you or on the internet to discuss your ideas, that helps a lot, Look up system design software. Personally I like [aws this is my architecture series](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP03SkGbP-U&list=PLhr1KZpdzukdeX8mQ2qO73bg6UKQHYsHb https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP03SkGbP-U&list=PLhr1KZpdzu...). In general what you say it is true. It is very hard to do software design right, you need practice and there is very little material on it. Good luck!