Lifetimes and types are different, but the part where they are generic is the same. I think of it as "who controls/decides the value of this parameter". It's a crucial part of understanding lifetimes, not just a misconception.
Exactly, so it seems like a category error to say (as the article does) “generics and lifetimes are tightly intertwined in Rust”. I mean, would you say “generics and types are tightly intertwined in Rust”? If anything, types and lifetimes are intertwined — by generics!
Rust tutorials introduce lifetimes and stick them into the brackets, but I don’t remember one that explains genericity in a general way first, then applies it to both types and lifetimes. Lifetimes come across as a special thing that happens to be in the same brackets. (Or maybe that was just me!)
I believe the model in the compiler isn’t quite so pure in reality (IIRC, struct lifetimes can affect type unification), but most of the time this is the easiest way to understand it.
