When overriding equals in Java, why does it not work to use a parameter other than Object?

Question

I ran into an interesting behavior recently. It seems that if I override .equals() to take a parameter other than Object, it doesn\'t get called. Can anyone explain to me

Answer 1

Ok let me re-phrase.

(1)Because the compiler eliminates all information regarding to Generics (erasure, see here), and (2) because you cannot override a method without the exact same signature (equals(Object)), (3) during runtime all objects inside the List are treated as Objects and not as instances of MyClass. Hence, the method that gets called is equals(Object) since this is the one that is been overwritten by your class.