What fp-ts teaches TypeScript developers even without using it in production

A developer argues that fp-ts, the functional programming library for TypeScript, is more valuable as a learning resource than as a production dependency. The article focuses on three core concepts — Option, Either, and pipe — which can be internalized and applied in plain TypeScript without importing the full library. Option makes nullable return values explicit in a function's signature, while Either models errors as typed values instead of relying on thrown exceptions. The author demonstrates how these patterns improve code clarity in real-world stacks involving Next.js Server Actions, Zod schemas, and Prisma. The central thesis is that fp-ts's true value lies in the mental vocabulary it provides, not in the ecosystem itself.