TypeScript developers often encounter situations where they need to determine the specific type of an object within a union of possible types, a process known as "narrowing." This article explores various approaches to type narrowing, including inline checks, type predicates, and discriminated unions. Inline checks are quick to implement but can become messy and are not reusable, while type predicates encapsulate logic but can be error-prone and require careful maintenance. Discriminated unions, which involve adding a property to each type to indicate its kind, offer advantages in maintainability and clarity by making explicit what combinations of properties are possible. They require more upfront modeling but lead to more robust and maintainable code by leveraging TypeScript's capabilities to handle changes across the codebase. The article concludes by advocating for discriminated unions over other methods due to their ability to simplify type checks and improve code reliability, especially in complex scenarios like modeling asynchronous requests in React components.