It's not rising as much as become a drone assimilated by the Oracle collective -- sorry, I won't use a language who's parent company packages the runtime with crapware toolbars.

Partially joking of course -- however my experience with Oracle has not been pleasant (with the exception of VirtualBox).

OK, I love the tide of unbridled machismo -- here's a little secret: No one is special, but one of the precious gifts we get from our parents or guardians is unconditional love. And given the harsh reality of our situation: that we live in a world which is indifferent to our survival, that it will only briefly remember any of our accomplishments, that we are more likely to go on forever struggling with our own mediocrity, we are deserving of that love and it is invaluable. It is something that (as far as we know), our species creates that is unique. And if it chokes us a little bit and if it stunts our growth, then that is acceptable bargain for the brief memories of peace and happiness that it will create for us, which we can carry with us on our long journey to the grave.

I doubt he can be a nihilist if he in turn values his own happiness (after all if nothing matters than why should it matter if I am happy or not). His philosophy seems more egoistic:

"it makes absolutely no difference to what you are doing as long as it makes you happy (ideally, while staying within the bounds of morality and not impinging on others)."

Which is not to say that it's bad, but it's not nihilism -- there is a belief there, it's what makes me happy has value. Which is fine, but simplistic. There are different types of happiness, happiness from immediate gratification and happiness from long-term goal reaching (ex. learning to play the piano).

If you try to make yourself happy all the time, I think you'll find yourself seeking (or reaching) immediate gratification too often, when the long-term goals are hard, difficult, but worthy of your effort. I started running the past year, and incrementally it's difficult, uncomfortable, and painful (especially at 7:00 AM at 30 F) -- but I feel so much better and consequently happier then I did a year ago.

My point is to not ignore the fact that time is running out, but to absorb the point, come to terms with it, and act with it (sort of mental Judo if you will). I prefer to understand that my time-span is limited, to accept the reality of that, and let it influence my judgment.

Not in that I'm adjusting my will everyday, or worrying endlessly about the issue. However, I do make important decisions with the knowledge that my life could end tomorrow, or the next day, or next year - and how would I feel about that decision given that context.

Honestly I'm not a huge fan of programmers -- in the beginning I thought it would be a good place where we could have these debates and talk about general programming/programmer issues. Stack Overflow was the place for specific technical questions, "how can I do X?" -- programmers could be a good site to have a Socratic debate on the virtues of various programming methodologies - "Why should I do X over Y?". Honestly we need a good forum for debunking the various cargo-cult ideas or at least presenting all sides in a debate in one location.

I understand the stack overflow format may not be the most appropriate -- after all these questions may not have a "best" answer, or that best answer may change over time. To counter that, perhaps the person asking the question could just pick the answer they went with and offer some context why it worked for them.

If all the questions must have a specific answer, then I fail to see what the difference is between SO and Programmers -- I would follow the DRY principle and remove the duplicate code.