Category theory, *very basically*, is the study of functions. ANY functions. ANYTHING that changes some object to another object is fair game here. Because of this FUNDAMENTAL property of "changing stuff into other stuff" being everywhere (lambda calculus, programming, normal math functions, even) it can reason about MANY disciplines of math, programming, and even language! So basically, it's universal tools for many things. Pretty useful! :)
My buddy has a PhD in pure mathematics and says.. "Studying category theory is like eating your vegetables." Not sure what that means but it has never left my mind. // Also it is technically composition not functions but shh we don't want to scare away the people who just saw this definition straight away
by mb6fbhsphdrcb April 23, 2025