Koans

See Haikus for similar humor.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Hacker_koan#Master_Foo http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/6tytl/functional_programming_koans/ http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/6twbn/the_koan_of_lazy_evaluation/ http://web.archive.org/web/20041012103936/http%3a//www.bagley.org/~doug/ocaml/Notes/okoans.shtml http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/6tytl/functional_programming_koans/c04uzsl

0:22:20 <gwern> 'Once, a programmer came to sclv, saying I wish to learn the ways of Haskell. How long would it take me, assiduously studying RWH?' 20:23:01 <gwern> 'sclv replied sagely, surely you could learn in 3 months. The programmer replied, three months is too long! What if I carefully recollect everything I know of my Java experience and study my computer science?' 20:24:14 <gwern> 'sclv thought, and told him, in that case, it will be no less than 4 months! The programmer despaired, and said, no! What if I study Knuth ferociously, and every minute of the day hack on C and Java and try to reimplement my programs in haskell? Surely I will learn Haskell much quicker than 4 months!' 20:24:29 <mxc> @hoogle stopwatch 20:24:29 <lambdabot> No matches found 20:24:32 --- quit: erg0t (Read error: 110 (Connection timed out)) 20:24:42 <dolio> I think this is going on too long. 20:24:49 <gwern> 'sclv said, alas, in that case you will never learn Haskell. If you wish to learn Haskell, empty your mind of all knowledge, and then you will be enlightened within the month'

20:27:37 <sclv> A student asks mater wadler, what is the nature of a recursive type? Wadler replies: Mu. http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~dons/irc/haskell/08.05.22

A good programmer can write FORTRAN in any language; a truly great one could write Haskell.