Right. And monads are burritos. (http://byorgey.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/abstraction-intuition-and-the-monad-tutorial-fallacy/ http://byorgey.wordpress.com/2009

Right. And monads are burritos. (http://byorgey.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/abstraction-intuition-and-the-monad-tutorial-fallacy/ http://byorgey.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/abstraction-intuitio...) > The heart of the matter is that people begin with the concrete, and move to the abstract. Humans are very good at pattern recognition, so this is a natural progression. By examining concrete objects in detail, one begins to notice similarities and patterns, until one comes to understand on a more abstract, intuitive level. This is why it’s such good pedagogical practice to demonstrate examples of concepts you are trying to teach. It’s particularly important to note that this process doesn’t change even when one is presented with the abstraction up front! For example, when presented with a mathematical definition for the first time, most people (me included) don’t “get it” immediately: it is only after examining some specific instances of the definition, and working through the implications of the definition in detail, that one begins to appreciate the definition and gain an understanding of what it “really says.” Inheritance is not taxonomy. If you want to teach inheritance, show a couple of realistic examples of code which, when you add inheritance, becomes clearly better. We can see the pattern; we can make our own intuitive, abstractive jumps.