Actually my complaint is that "it's supposed to catch all kinds of potential errors", but first all, those "potential errors" don't seem to happen much in reality; second it often seems I'm helping the compiler, rather than the other way arounrd. For example:

  List list = getList(); // from somewhere, say a list of Person
  Iterator it = list.iterator();
  while(it.hasNext()){
     // the following line makes perfect sense to me,
     // but it causes a compiler error, I'm supposed to write:
     //     Person p = (Person)it.next();
     // my question: Is the compiler helping me or I'm helping the com
+piler?
     Person p = it.next();


     // now call some method on p.

   }
[download]

Furthermore, as others have pointed out, the fact that I can cast anyway I want to get by the compiler means the compiler won't really catch serious bugs. It's like the compiler is saying: if you claim you really know what you're doing, I'll let you; but if you don't, I'll try to help by asking you to type a little more.