Minor idea I've been wiggling over: the best way to explain a monad is "it's a mathematical abstraction with some nice properties that make it good for explaining a lot of things."
Why do I like this? Because matrices and numbers are the same way! Numbers aren't anything, they're just math. We just use them in so many contexts that we've internalized them as natural!
Similarly, enough use of monads and they become internalized.
Minor idea I've been wiggling over: the best way to explain a monad is "it's a mathematical abstraction with some nice properties that make it good for explaining a lot of things."
Why do I like this? Because matrices and numbers are the same way! Numbers aren't anything, they're just math. We just use them in so many contexts that we've internalized them as natural!
Similarly, enough use of monads and they become internalized.