I'd like to point out that the article isn't disagreeing with you. It's saying inheritance is a dangerous interface for other users of your code (across package

I'd like to point out that the article isn't disagreeing with you. It's saying inheritance is a dangerous interface for other users of your code (across packages is their terminology). So, if you write a library, maybe don't design it around extending classes. This is a much milder stance than the title implies, and seems pretty reasonable to me. Edit: Totally with you on boilerplate though. +1.