You do need to understand the mechanics of monads in order to do even simple IO. E.g you can write: do name <- getLine putStrLn ("Hello " ++ name)

You do need to understand the mechanics of monads in order to do even simple IO. E.g you can write: do name <- getLine putStrLn ("Hello " ++ name) But you cant write: do name <- "Buddy" putStrLn ("Hello " ++ name) You have to write: do let name = "Buddy" putStrLn ("Hello " ++ name) Now try to explain that without basically explaining what a monad is.