Cam you recommend some easy* literature to understand the things you're referring to? I'm interested in particular in things more flexible and easier to understand than the monad.
*as in not written by and for mathematicians
I'd recommend checking out Phil Freeman's article, which provides a nice overview along with many concrete examples [0]. Unless you've had prior exposure to Haskell, I wouldn't get too hung up on the syntax--but if you're curious, the PureScript learning resources are fantastic; I wish such resources existed when I was trying to learn Haskell! And frankly, these concepts require repeated exposure, practice, and some time to marinate in your brain before their usefulness/power become clear.