I will never use Java&#x27;s Optional. I&#x27;m baffled why it even exists. Further, I remain unclear on the value (haha) of the @Nullable and @NotNull annotations. If it&#x27;s not baked into the language, why bother?<p>I&#x27;ve been using NullObject since (checking...) 1996. This is The Correct Answer.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;c2.com&#x2F;cgi&#x2F;wiki?NullObject" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;c2.com&#x2F;cgi&#x2F;wiki?NullObject</a><p>I first read about NullObject here:<p>Object-Oriented Design Heuristics
<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;amzn.to&#x2F;1ND1YSU" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;amzn.to&#x2F;1ND1YSU</a><p>What&#x27;d be really neat is some mojo to remove the boilerplate of implementing NullObjects.