Tony Morris

Want to hear some serious nerd bullshit? Monads, the hardest concept in all of computer science for anyone to understand are just the things between pipes monad | monad | monad | monad | no --really "But they're pipes with types!" "Oh, that's always a mess." "I KNOW!!!"

Monads are definitely not hard to understand, and are most certainly not "just pipes." It is broken metaphors like these that lead to the endless confusion, over what is otherwise simple.

It was impossible for me to understands monads through analogies. Only by looking at the definition, laws and direct examples did it become clear. And frankly, they aren't that hard to understand.

Importantly, if you believe monad means "the bit between the pipes", you do not have a sound grasp on the subject. Not even the beginning of a reasonable understanding. The use of broken metaphors perpetuates the myth that it is "hard to understand", and the cycle continues.

I’ll say diplomatically other unnamed things can learn a thing or two from this approach. You can keep your name, it’s code that matters.