The point is that you should check for null, then be able to represent the variable as something that can't be null. That way once you've checked it's not null

The point is that you should check for null, then be able to represent the variable as something that can't be null. That way once you've checked it's not null (somewhere you're not forced to panic ideally), you can pass around the pointer & be confident you don't need to ever check it again.