To explain like two fundamental rules (we can make wrapper types, and do flatmap) I will:
- Write 5 paragraphs setting up an imaginary scenario involving fantasy elements of aliens, dragons, and a magical kindom where they speak using message boxes
- Introduce basic category theory by starting with what a functor is
- Explain all the effects of a monad in such general terms that it basically amounts to anything and everything - since a function can be anything and do everything and it's just function composition
- Write some snippets of Haskell, and just assume that you're familiar with the syntax
I understood the monad concept for a few months in university. After the exam was over, I soon stopped understanding it. The same thing happened with the concept of VC dimension. It's kind of interesting, because we usually don't think of "understanding" as something that comes with a time limit.
I've spent a lot of time wrapping my head around monads; whenever I thought I "got it," I would come across some exotic monad that completely blew my mind. The best way to understand them is not to rely on analogies but just follow the rules—everybody says that, but it took me a while to truly realize it.
I tried understanding the rules but actually using it helped me to get it. Especially when I was using a parser combinator to parse a programming language.
I still don’t understand why it’s name is from Gnosticism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monad_(Gnosticism))
To explain like two fundamental rules (we can make wrapper types, and do flatmap) I will:
- Write 5 paragraphs setting up an imaginary scenario involving fantasy elements of aliens, dragons, and a magical kindom where they speak using message boxes
- Introduce basic category theory by starting with what a functor is
- Explain all the effects of a monad in such general terms that it basically amounts to anything and everything - since a function can be anything and do everything and it's just function composition
- Write some snippets of Haskell, and just assume that you're familiar with the syntax
- Talk about how delicious burritos are
I understood the monad concept for a few months in university. After the exam was over, I soon stopped understanding it. The same thing happened with the concept of VC dimension. It's kind of interesting, because we usually don't think of "understanding" as something that comes with a time limit.
Pretty cool!
I've spent a lot of time wrapping my head around monads; whenever I thought I "got it," I would come across some exotic monad that completely blew my mind. The best way to understand them is not to rely on analogies but just follow the rules—everybody says that, but it took me a while to truly realize it.
See, for example, the Tardis monad or the Cont monad: https://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/446d13/exotic_mona...
I tried understanding the rules but actually using it helped me to get it. Especially when I was using a parser combinator to parse a programming language.
It's an updating wiki.. but (2017) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15170328
Popular well.. submissions in:
2019 (3 points) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19207241
2022 (3 points) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30277518
2024 (11 points) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40332349
So weird, on the front page at the same time as this: "Biology is a burrito"
When I saw that link it immediately reminded me of this: https://blog.plover.com/prog/burritos.html
>Monads are like burritos
And then a few links down is this link to monad tutorials.
Weird coincidence.
> Monads are like burritos https://blog.plover.com/prog/burritos.html
I'm surprised that this tutorial isn't on the wiki.