JSON often means data is crossing a boundary, and JSON has `null`. So if you have a PATCH endpoint that accepts a partial object, how do you determine what was actually set in the request vs what go has initialized to an empty value.

Use the same `Option[T]` type that you will need to define for strings and numbers and structs.

What was the solution before go had generics? I thought it was nil pointers.

I don’t think there was a single canonical solution, but pointers to everything was a pretty common one. Everything in the AWS SDK was a `string` or a `float64` or similar—it was exceedingly annoying, not least of all because it basically forced tons of unnecessary allocations.