It's a classic book, but I'm in two minds if it actually helps or hinders new developers.

(Hear me out on this sacrilegious statement! :) It's just that some of the design patterns are really low-level and often described in terms that modern frameworks reuse with different names. Now this isn't the GoF's fault but it does get confusing for people. I'd pitch the book at someone with a bit more experience as I think 'getting patterns' helps when you've gone off the rails a bit and can see the benefit a bit more - otherwise they just seem too abstract and a bit arbitrary IMHO.

Good point, and of course it is sacrilege to dismiss the book. Maybe GoF addresses another chasm that comes later in the learning process.