[chriswarbo]

> Your nullable example is better compared to this, which also discards the required information:

Exactly. Your version is just doing what `join` or `>>=` would do, which I mentioned at the end; ie.

    mySpouseDB u = fmap getDOB (getSpouse u)

    -- Using join
    yourSpouseDOB u = join (mySpouseDOB u)

    -- Using >>=
    yourSpouseDOB u = getSpouse u >>= getDOB

> Maybes are just pointers. There's nothing magic about them.

Of course there's nothing magic; `Maybe` just increments types. I was phrasing myself in the context of a language like Java, which has NULL but no pointer manipulation.