When I started to learn functional programming I asked myself: "What the hell is this?"
Fast forward a couple of years, I still wonder what 'this' is.

..

When I learned functional programming (Haskell) about 20 years ago I asked myself "Why the heck didn't I do this before? This is so much better! Cleaner, less code, fewer bugs".

What I didn't like about Haskell was the lack of good tools, so when the F# preview was released, I took to it like a fish takes to water.

I'm fascinated by the idea of functional programming, but I still struggle figuring out how to actually apply it. I don't think I'll really be able to grasp it until I am able to build something with it. Currently trying with F# and Akka.Net.

@mclark1129 Don't feel bad about that. The ONLY way to figure out how to apply anything, is to build stuff with it.

@Grumpy I agree, but that's kind of a catch 22 for me! If I cant figure out how to apply something I can't build anything with it. But if I cant figure out how to build anything its hard to figure out how to apply it! Oh well, just gotta keep trucking along and hopefully have some kind of a breakthrough. Maybe then monads will make sense to me! 😂

@mclark1129 If think visually like me (visual folks are a minority in IT, but just in case you're one of us...), here's a great way of visualising a concept by viewing it as railroad switches, by Scott Wlashin:

http://fsharpforfunandprofit.com/po...
https://vimeo.com/97344498

This will make it easier to understand monads. BTW, all Scott Wlashin's videos about FP are worth seeing.

@Grumpy Ive seen his talk on ROP before, but never really connected it to Monads. I'll have to watch again with that context in mind. Thanks!