So we are going to talk about function overloading and conditional types in TypeScript, which is an area of the language that I think lots of people find unsatisfactory.

The intersection between these two features appears to be a common theme from helping people on the offically unoffical TypeScript community discord server and at work. People try to combine different language features in ways that often feel conceptually and syntactically natrual, but often leave them confused and frustrated. Their motivation is type safety, but the result is confusing compiler errors.

Cathy Newman of Channel 4 News, a UK news broadcaster, asks on Twitter:

Ok…Mastodon…erm…which server to use?

The responses are a combination of mutual confusion and assurances that it does not matter and that she can correct any mistake later. What all of the responses fail to mention is that she might not have a choice at all. In at least one possible future where some version of the fediverse prevails, her Mastadon handle will be:

cathy.newman@channel4newsuk.social

This has potentially major implications for Newman's future relationships with both with her audiences and her employers.