If you take a smart, motivated person and give them an objective for which there is a clear path, they will happily figure it out.
If you give that same person an open-ended project that they have to design, the likelihood of fear, struggle and stalling skyrockets.
Designing is hard because it takes risk and a point of view.
If you’re used to finding the quickest route to compliantly meeting specs, you’re probably going to become anxious when there are no specs.
Plus, design is “soft” in many senses.
You can’t objectively prove that a design is better than another one.
And there’s so much subjectivity depending on who it’s designed for and its objective that in order to do it, you may have to look bad.
That’s why it’s so valuable.
Most people are not eager to make design decisions, so if you are, then you’re on the right side of scarcity.
If you have been lulled into thinking thinking that your job is in such high demand that you don’t need to make design decisions, your value will be capped by whatever assignments someone else gives you.
If you design your projects and get comfortable with being uncomfortable, your value is only capped by you.