Suggestion: Category theory book with 80% of the examples /before/ the definitions. Demonstrate a pattern in concrete examples, then capture it in categorical terms.
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The examples in category theory books tend to come from a narrow range of application, which is ironic given how broad the theory applies.
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Have you seen “Seven Sketches in Compositionality: An Invitation to Applied Category Theory”? arxiv.org/abs/1803.05316 - some neat examples there, but perhaps you are looking to push things even further?