This is a good point of view to come from. I just think it's important to emphasize two things, to avoid the monad-insanity that people often get- 1) IO is not

This is a good point of view to come from. I just think it's important to emphasize two things, to avoid the monad-insanity that people often get- 1) IO is not the only monad, and 2) monads are not the only, or even best, of this kind of abstraction. Learning about monads without (applicative) functors makes everything look like an over-complicated nail.