I did`nt care about the underlying theory behind monads once I learn that the easy way to understand them is trough desugarization. Desugarize the "do" notation, after that, desugarize the >>= and >> operators down to the function call notation and suddenly everithing lost its magic because it becomes clear that a haskell monad is a sugarization of plain functional tricks.<div>
<br></div><div>But it seems that the trick is so productive because it comes from some fundamental properties of math, the reality, and maybe the human mind . Jost now I found this article: </div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000858?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+ploscompbiol/NewArticles+(PLoS+Computational+Biology:+New+Articles)">Categorial Compositionality: A Category Theory Explanation for the Systematicity of Human Cognition</a></div>
<div><br></div><div>That definitively gives me the motivation to learn category theory seriously.</div><div><br></div><div>Alberto</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000858?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+ploscompbiol/NewArticles+(PLoS+Computational+Biology:+New+Articles)"></a><br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">2010/8/7 Michael Mossey <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mpm@alumni.caltech.edu">mpm@alumni.caltech.edu</a>></span><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
When I started to study Haskell, I was surprised that so much emphasis was placed on simple things. Monads were introduced to me as basically a wrapper, and a bind function that unwrapped something and wrapped something else back up again. I didn't understand what the fuss was about. Later I saw the amazing feats of expressiveness that were possible. I scratched my head in confusion---"Wait, say that again?"<br>
<br>
Here's a quote from Bertrand Russell about philosophy (read: Haskell). He's actually being humorous, but it applies, in a way:<br>
<br>
"The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical no one will believe it."<br>
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</blockquote></div><br></div>