Everybody is claiming that using lift is a bad thing.

So, I come to remedy this problem.

Stop lifting, start using shinny operators like this one:

(^$) :: Monad m => m a -> (a -> b -> c) -> m b -> m c

(^$) = flip liftM2

Then you can do wonderful stuff and you will never read the four-letter word in your code again:

\> Just 42 ^$(+)$ Nothing

Nothing

\> Just 10 ^$(+)$ Just 20

Just 30

\> let add = (+)

\> Just 30 ^$ add $ Just 12

Just 42