> static types are ... checking whether the shapes of your data and functions all line up They definitely do more than that in Haskell. You can define distinc

> static types are ... checking whether the shapes of your data and functions all line up They definitely do more than that in Haskell. You can define distinct types with the same "shape", and the `newtype` keyword specifically creates a new type that has the same "shape" as an existing one, but is nominally distinct. This nominal typing, as it's called, allow you to express intent in types. Type checking then doesn't just check whether "shapes" line up, but also whether your intentions line up. If you express contradictory intentions, you probably made a mistake. Practically speaking, if the only types ever used in a Haskell program are `Int`, `Float`, `Char` and nested lists of those, all the type checker can ever do is tell me when I miscount square brackets or forget a `fromIntegral`. Those programs never run on the first attempt.