diff --git a/pep-0484.txt b/pep-0484.txt
index 39d72b077cd..97de11cc4e9 100644
--- a/pep-0484.txt
+++ b/pep-0484.txt
@@ -984,15 +984,17 @@ for example, the above is equivalent to::
 
   def handle_employee(e: Optional[Employee]) -> None: ...
 
-An optional type is also automatically assumed when the default value is
-``None``, for example::
+A past version of this PEP allowed type checkers to assume an optional
+type when the default value is ``None``, as in this code::
 
   def handle_employee(e: Employee = None): ...
 
-This is equivalent to::
+This would have been treated as equivalent to::
 
   def handle_employee(e: Optional[Employee] = None) -> None: ...
 
+This is no longer the recommended behavior. Type checkers should move
+towards requiring the optional type to be made explicit.
 
 Support for singleton types in unions
 -------------------------------------