IMO the best way to introduce monads to the average programmer is to say that they are a kind of functional design patterns (which is a valid analogy if not an

IMO the best way to introduce monads to the average programmer is to say that they are a kind of functional design patterns (which is a valid analogy if not an exact categorization). DPs in object-oriented programming are also an abstract concept that is difficult to grasp at first, but most senior programmers have already gone through it and succeeded; so liking monads to them can inspire an initial sense of confidence that will be useful when learning the concept, and provides a useful frame to understand the purpose of using monads in functional code (which unfortunately is missing in most monad tutorials).