It's harsh to say this is due C++ fault, more likely due development culture and desire to be cool by using all the new cool features, without understanding ben

It's harsh to say this is due C++ fault, more likely due development culture and desire to be cool by using all the new cool features, without understanding benefits vs price. I was running medium-sized C++ project that included full GUI library - everything compiled under 2 minutes (including tests) on a single core. Formula known for years: keep it simple, minimal template (ab)use and know what you are putting in .h/.cpp files. Cramming everything into headers hoping compiler will inline stuff is a bed time story. Also, your build system will be grateful knowing that every compilation unit is independent as possible; it will take less time to calculate dependencies and will easily distribute compilation across cores, if requested.