Re:Yahoo is shutting down about half of its content verticals
by msellout on Thursday February 18, 2016 @12:24AM
(#11123887)
> monad ... poorly named.
Depends on your study of history. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monadology#The_metaphysics_of_...).
... on second thought, I guess that's exactly what you were saying.
Re:Yahoo is shutting down about half of its content verticals
by tarblog on Wednesday February 17, 2016 @11:05PM
(#11123653)
Do you have a suggestion for a replacement for "monad"? It's always been such an opaque term to me, even as I began to get a grasp of it.
Re:Yahoo is shutting down about half of its content verticals
by jonahx on Wednesday February 17, 2016 @11:41PM
(#11123768)
This post (http://stackoverflow.com/a/194207/438615) makes a good case for "computation builder." Also, as there are abstract data types (stack, queue, etc), monads are abstract control flow types. Another answer there suggests "control type". Something even better is probably possible, but I like both of those better than "monad".
1. It's a genuinely useful term, descriptively named, for which no good succinct alternative exists: eg, "outrage porn."
2. A genuinely useful term, poorly named, but excusable because it already has an entrenched history and community using it: eg, "monad" in functional programming.
3. A confusing term, poorly named, for which many good alternatives exist, but which continues to thrive on meme status, or for political reasons, within a particular community. A lot of marketing and business slang, and PC terminology, falls into this category.
So I think it's valid to criticize slang in category 3. That is, not all slang is created equal, or for equal reasons.