java generic: declaration of recursive types

Question

In Effevtive Java I see a declaration: public static <T extends Comparable<T>> T max(List<T> list), type variable T is a type can be compared to itself. My question is what's the difference when I remove <T> from Comparable ? I mean this public static <T extends Comparable> T max(List<T> list) .

Answer 1

That means that you will then expect a type that is comparable to Object, since java infers generic types to be Object when not provided.

<T extends Comparable> // The generic type for Comparable is inferred as Object as it was not provided.

This means that the type provided to the list would need to implement compareTo(Object o) and implement Comparable (notice the missing generic type to Comparable), which I assume is not intended.