> Those abstractions are like the steering wheels and pedals for Haskell, not like the car's engine. Agreed, but you also don't have to understand anything abo

> Those abstractions are like the steering wheels and pedals for Haskell, not like the car's engine. Agreed, but you also don't have to understand anything about the mechanics of the steering wheels and pedals to drive a car, only about when to use which. Monads and other scary-sounding terminology are the same. People really do know these patterns from other programming languages, and attaching a name might be scary, but it doesn't make them intrinsically harder. On the contrary, it makes it easier for people who want to peer into the theoretical internals to do so—though no one has to do it.