Several valid points, but remember that dead horse badge created for flat design?

As a designer, you should have knowledge of the systems you are designing for be that print, desktops, mobile, tablet, billboards, stadiums, footwear, etc...it's pretty simple.

I code. I design. I write. I cook. I walk the dog...

I like doing/learning. The right and left side of the brain are proven to be the areas that give us empathy/understanding and the bigger picture on one hand, and focus on the other — NOT the aged–old logic/creativity theory. (source: http://www.echoandrepeat.com/video/rsa-animate-the-divided-brain) — If you want to learn to understand both, you can (talent is another matter entirely).

What I've find is that developers who understand design are actually are a rarer beast than designers who understand development (now expected). So for me the question "why" is mute - should we not now expect this of both disciplines, to properly understand processes and limitations — for a balanced end product?

I'm a designer and due to constraints (non-profit, one other guy on the project) I'm also coding. Waist deep in Sass, JavaScript, PHP with foundation and drupal.

It's not all that great ;-)

Disclaimer: I also have no idea what I'm doing. I'm like that little kid at the beach who tries to body surf the big waves and gets a mouthful of ocean floor. But, hey, learning!

If this isn't one of the all time most talked about topics on DN.

That's cool! Any other developer doing the Design+Code Giveway? Here's my WIP: https://github.com/hery/DN

When I was seeking for job offers in the last time, I found that many of them required a knowledge of Xcode and implementation skills (in iOS designer branch of course). I think that it's a good point to have on board a designer, who's not only painter/artist/pixel-pusher, but who can participate in the project also outside of .psd. I can code a little bit, I appreciate this skill, but I'll never say "coder" about myself :P