Kotlin isn't a magic bullet that prevents NullPointerExceptions.

Not at all.

What Kotlin does do is force you to think about how you want to handle your nulls. through Kotlin forcing you to think this through, the hope is that you'll avoid NullPointerExceptions. The only problem is, Kotlin has the !! operator, also known as the "Not Null Assertion Operator". This operator basically says "Hey Kotlin, trust me, I'm a pro, I know what I'm doing ... I KNOW THIS WON'T BE NULL".

This... is a code smell.

In this episode, Donn walks through why Kotlin's Not Null Assertion Operator (!!) is a code smell and what you can do to alleviate it.

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Shouldn't I be happy with just "better-than-average"?