"Explain monads like I'm five" is a popular aphorism attributed to English mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead.
Aaaaaaahhhh.... OK.
The phrase was first published in 1947 in Whitehead's posthumous book Process and Reality. It is found in the following passage:
We are here concerned with an idea which is not itself a monad, but which, like the monads, is in a sense a simple thing. We shall call it the "idea of simplicity", and we shall now try to explain it like a monad. The idea of simplicity is not a monad, because it is not a physical thing. It is not a simple thing, because it is not simple to be simple. The idea of simplicity is not a physical thing, because it is a concept, and concepts are not physical things. The idea of simplicity is not a simple thing, because it is not simple to
OK, I have no idea if Whitehead's book actually contains the line:
It is not a simple thing, because it is not simple to be simple
But if it doesn't, it probably should. I think that is my new catch-phrase from now on!
https://galactica.org/?prompt=explain+monads+like+I%27m+five
"Explain monads like I'm five" is a popular aphorism attributed to English mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead.
Aaaaaaahhhh.... OK.
The phrase was first published in 1947 in Whitehead's posthumous book Process and Reality. It is found in the following passage:
We are here concerned with an idea which is not itself a monad, but which, like the monads, is in a sense a simple thing. We shall call it the "idea of simplicity", and we shall now try to explain it like a monad. The idea of simplicity is not a monad, because it is not a physical thing. It is not a simple thing, because it is not simple to be simple. The idea of simplicity is not a physical thing, because it is a concept, and concepts are not physical things. The idea of simplicity is not a simple thing, because it is not simple to
OK, I have no idea if Whitehead's book actually contains the line:
It is not a simple thing, because it is not simple to be simple
But if it doesn't, it probably should. I think that is my new catch-phrase from now on!