... except that "things should be done RIGHT", "my professor would hate these hacks", "why are you using boring-tech when everyone else on the intertubes is using OMGTEKK", etc etc.

I think the "stubborn" label on older men is very similar to the "bitch" label on women: whenever one meets a person who can actually fight his/her corner with calm and rationality in a way that is not easily assailable by "common feelings", it is rationalised as s/he being fundamentally unreasonable, not as my arguments being weak.

100% true. It's the dichotomy of leadership. Typically in engineering environments, the debate will be to take a risk or not. Risks can have rewards, but they can also have costs. The old guy knows the costs, but the rewards are less certain. The young guy only has a fuzzy idea on the rewards and the risks. As a leader, you have to look at both sides and assess if the reward is worth the risk. Sometimes that means telling the old guy, you're right... but I want to try anyways.

Haha, that never stops the ones I work with. They just dig in on the exciting idea they had.