Best place to start brushing up knowledge on smarter coding/design patterns?

Hi,

I’ve been a PHP dev for quite some time now (>8 years, sort of), and like to think of myself as a decent coder. However, since I started coding at the age of 12 (hence the “sort of”), a lot of my years were spent floundering around mastering procedural-styled coding. I only picked up OOP and MVC around 3 years ago but was only able to work on these new skills sparingly since, at the time, this was just a hobby of mine.

I then discovered Laravel, which was great. I decided to use it for a few projects, and all was good. And then I discovered the world of repositories, service classes, design patterns, SOLID-conforming architectural choices… I know all of these things exist. I implement some of these patterns. But, truthfully, I’m a little overwhelmed. I’ve been making do with any random articles floating around I can find, but I feel like I’m 12 again and going into this blind. What I want to ask, is, basically: where did everyone learn this? What is the best resource I can use to brush myself up on all of these pattern and design choices? I feel like I’m doing it the excruciatingly painful way, trying to pick up hints and tiny pieces of the puzzle with every random article/video I find.

I have access to Laracasts, and am willing to buy a book/product if that’s what it takes.

Thanks in advance. Hope this is allowed.