So list-load-path-shadows tells which .el files shadow other files. Most of the times the native files found in my emacs distribution shadow newer files I downloaded which I preload in my init file.
For example I have cloned the cedet repository and have that always up to date but the cedet files inside my Emacs 23.4 shadow the newer cedet files i load in my init file.
I can't clone cedet over the directory in /lisp/cedet since packages like eieio or speedbar would still not get overwritten since they are in a different folder. The temporary solution now is to delete the older packages that came bundled with emacs in order to give priority over the ones I load via my init file.
Is there a way to prioritize the load of my init file over the load of the default emacs packages?