<story><title>Category Theory Illustrated</title><url>https://abuseofnotation.github.io/category-theory-illustrated/00_about/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>civilized</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m a sympathetic mathematician but I found this whole passage bizarrely off-base:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; mathematics is in a weird and, I’d say, unique position of always having to defend what they do with respect to it’s value for other disciplines. I again stress that this is something that would be considered absurd when it comes to any other discipline.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; People don’t expect any return on investment from physical theories - noone bashed string theory for failing to make useful predictions.&lt;p&gt;Huh? Tons of people bash string theory for failing to make useful predictions! There was a whole book criticizing it called &amp;quot;Not Even Wrong&amp;quot;, meaning it didn&amp;#x27;t even reach the point of being testable.&lt;p&gt;A better argument for advanced math: it&amp;#x27;s not always clear in advance what math will be useful. A popular example is Riemannian geometry, which had no clear real-world value when developed, but ended up being used for General Relativity a few decades later.&lt;p&gt;I also support the argument that math is intrinsically and aesthetically valuable, but for those who don&amp;#x27;t agree, the argument above may make some headway.</text></comment>
<story><title>Category Theory Illustrated</title><url>https://abuseofnotation.github.io/category-theory-illustrated/00_about/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>timmg</author><text>Working as a SWE for lots of years, I&amp;#x27;ve worked with people that always feel the need to &amp;quot;add a level of abstraction&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;build a framework&amp;quot; for (and out of) everything.  A lot of the time it doesn&amp;#x27;t make things better (and often makes things worse).&lt;p&gt;Every time I try to learn about Category Theory, I get to a certain point and just start wondering &amp;quot;why?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I can&amp;#x27;t tell if I&amp;#x27;m not smart enough to get it (I think that&amp;#x27;s the most likely answer).  But it &lt;i&gt;feels&lt;/i&gt; like some math people -- who have nothing better to do -- are just trying to create another level of abstraction.&lt;p&gt;Are there things that Category Theory does that other branches couldn&amp;#x27;t already do?  I&amp;#x27;m curious to hear other takes on this.</text></comment>