Agreed 100%, sometimes the FP community is its own worst enemy. Too many FP enthusiasts seem to think that "real" FP requires mastering category theory, which is cool and all but really just a particular subset of the paradigm, and a particularly Haskell-centric subset at that.
I encourage anyone who wants to learn functional programming to pick up the classic "Little Schemer" by Friedman and Felleisen. It's a charming book, designed for undergraduates, that teaches you all the important and appealing aspects of FP. And you won't be made to feel like an idiot because you don't know what a monoid is.
I encourage anyone who wants to learn functional programming to pick up the classic "Little Schemer" by Friedman and Felleisen. It's a charming book, designed for undergraduates, that teaches you all the important and appealing aspects of FP. And you won't be made to feel like an idiot because you don't know what a monoid is.