How important is knowledge of patterns?

Question

Design patterns

Tell me, please, do real programmers really think “I’ll apply this pattern now”? It's just that, in my opinion, most people act on a whim, like "I'll stick this into this."
I learned to program almost exclusively in pure C, with examples from the linux kernel and other open source projects, and never asked myself questions like that. And now, after the world of microcontrollers and embedded linux, I'm wondering if I should go, for example, in C ++ (although it is absolutely unreadable, in my opinion).

Answer 1

On a whim, boobies act, most of the patterns are ready-made, honed, a good solution to a typical problem that can be applied in five minutes, instead of writing a bicycle for two days.

Answer 2

By itself, no one thinks in terms of "but I will now apply such and such a pattern."
As in any craft, such things with experience begin to be born on their own. It is important to understand what problem this or that pattern is intended to solve, what headache its creators got rid of.