At the kind of project sizes you see at Google, you start to measure compilation time in tens of minutes. If you have a source control system that triggers an automatic build every time you upload a change for review, can you see how waiting 45 minutes (a number I got from a current Googler) to compile and verify that your change doesn't break the build might just be an inspiration to put a focus on compilation speed?

Also, when you code with generics, you're coding with Hitler.