The word monad is all around us. I've heard long explanations of it that seem to over complicate it or make it intimidating. At Hacker School one of my goals was to learn some category theory, and understand the beast. I finally got it, and it wasn't so bad. I wanted to explain monads in a way that would not intimidate people and that would so some solid examples so if they felt like i had before, I might be able to help.