Tony Morris

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.

In the last 4 weeks, I have taught three classes of [80, 60, 30] what monad means, and how to apply it in practice, comprehensively and without compromise. I have been doing this for 15 years. I assure you that the inappropriate metaphor does not lead to a cogent understanding.

Heh, keep it. I really do get what you’re trying to say, but I only care about the practical aspects of it.

The inappropriate metaphor is explicitly and profoundly counter-productive to gaining any understanding of practical application. PS: it's also not a difficult subject to understand. We cover it on day 2 of an introductory course.

“Well defined interfaces. Known good state.” Let’s just agree there’s things to apply here about defining well and knowing good. Or not!