Study lambda calculus first. An Introduction to Functional Programming Through Lambda Calculus Book by Greg Michaelson It's amazing it was published 31 years

Study lambda calculus first. An Introduction to Functional Programming Through Lambda Calculus Book by Greg Michaelson It's amazing it was published 31 years ago (1989) which shows that it's a timeless book to read. This has been referenced from discussions a couple of times: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6093386 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6093386 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3851352 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3851352 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11578961 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11578961 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10714770 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10714770 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=773369 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=773369 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16973546 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16973546 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14395620 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14395620 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13211603 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13211603 To quote a SO answer on why learn lambda calculus[0]: If you want to program in any functional programming language, it's essential. I mean, how useful is it to know about Turing machines? Well, if you write C, the language paradigm is quite close to Turing machines -- you have an instruction pointer and a current instruction, and the machine takes some action in the current state, and then ambles along to the next instruction. In a functional language, you simply can't think like that -- that's not the language paradigm. You have to think back to lambda calculus, and how terms are evaluated there. It will be much harder for you to be effective in a functional language if you don't know lambda calculus. [0] - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/114581/how-helpful-is-knowing-lambda-calculus/114701 https://stackoverflow.com/questions/114581/how-helpful-is-kn...