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Eric Burke has fallen into a pattern while trying to use Java generics:

Eric Burke:
... I foolishly tried this:
... Oops. Won’t compile.
... Foiled by erasure!

Brian Gilstrap, who's also experimenting with generics, has coined a name for this phenomenon—The Wall Of Erasure.

In plain English: Every really cool idea involving Java generics will invariably lead to insurmountable difficulties the root cause of which is erasure.