You might see the value of knowing some abstract algebra in "Monoidify! Monoids as a Design Principle for Efficient MapReduce Algorithms" https://arxiv.org/abs/

You might see the value of knowing some abstract algebra in "Monoidify! Monoids as a Design Principle for Efficient MapReduce Algorithms" https://arxiv.org/abs/1304.7544 https://arxiv.org/abs/1304.7544 In general, if you can model a distributed or concurrent system in terms of a monoid (or better, a commutative monoid) you're onto a winner.