I was just in a conversation, and lamenting the fact that the one bit of functional programming that I just don't *get* yet is Monads. They're clearly terribly important, at least if you like to program at the high level as I like to, but I haven't yet managed to internalize them -- none of the explanations have clicked yet. In general, most get lost in the abstraction, and don't have enough solid and clear examples. This is, I suspect, one of those paradigm-shift concepts like OO, that are blindingly obvious once you *do* get it, but kind of opaque until then.
So I'm curious: do any of my programmer friends have a *good* pet site on the subject? I've read several that didn't manage to get the concept across, but I have to believe that it's possible to find the right blend of the abstract and concrete to drive the idea into my brain, expressing not just what they are but when and why you want to use them...
