A Crash Course in Category Theory
summary
Starts from concrete type constructions—void, unit, product, sum, List/Option/Either—and shows how they arise from categorical universal properties; models functors as Scala/Haskell type constructors and fmap, natural transformations as polymorphic functions, and explains currying as an adjunction (product ≃ exponent). Claims programming lives in a Cartesian closed category, uses denotational/semantic framing, and culminates in the Yoneda lemma / Yoneda embedding: an object is determined by its incoming arrows.
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chapters (14)
- 0:00Intro
- 1:10Why Categories?
- 2:08Paradox of Programming
- 12:23Semantics
- 14:00Functional Programming
- 22:31Void
- 30:24Unit
- 38:08Product Types
- 39:17Sum (Coproduct)
- 41:13Sum Types
- 41:53Monoidal Category
- 45:34Algebra of Types
- 50:40Functor
- 57:29Adjunction
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