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kidintech | 1 year ago

Why does every category theory primer use this exact formulation: (.*) is just an [arrow|object] in the category of (.*)`

Every undergrad course, office hour, research paper, and manual that I've ever seen spams it.

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cryptonector|1 year ago

Because arrows are functions/mappings, and everything we do in programming involves arrows, even in languages where arrows aren't used as notation.

The common formulation is that a "monad is just a monoid in the category of endofunctors", which is not saying much but with big words, and the joke lies in understanding what it's saying. Bartosz Milewski has a lecture video series on youtube that's all about explaining that joke, and I highly recommend it because it's actually a wonderful CS lecture series.

GrantMoyer|1 year ago

As I understand it, it's a bit of an inside joke to minimize the complexity of mathematical structure. It's frequent use is along the same lines as the frequent use of "* Considered Harmful" in CS.