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hi guys, spent a while today learning category theory today... my head hurts, i still dont get what a functor is.
5 months ago · 👍 five_over_four, lykso
@five_over_four Zero experience with proof writing, unless we count a tiny amount of dabbling in Coq for the sake of learning how to write formally verified software. I think there's a recall issue for me, where I just don't remember the tools available unless I'm looking at "source code," so to speak. Probably just need to study more or write better notes or something. Also, the last time I attempted category theory was as a one week intensive, which was probably too dense for that kind of internalization, but I do tend to have this problem with math in general as well. · 5 months ago
@lykso ah. how much experience do you have with proof writing? my first touch with actual category theory was after 2.5 years of a math degree where >90% of courses were all proof writing and it was still challenging to get started due to the abstractness of it. · 5 months ago
@five_over_four I mean, even in the sense of just doing exercises. 🙃 · 5 months ago
@lykso frankly, one of the more abstract parts of math where the applications tend to be "i'm doing postgraduate algebraic geometry/topology and all the research is categorical" rather than anything concrete. · 5 months ago
My experience with trying to learn category theory was a lot of, "okay, I think I understand this" and then drawing a complete blank when trying to apply it. I oughta give it another go. · 5 months ago
the *layeredness* of category theory is super confusing at the start. i was taking a course on algebraic topology a couple years ago and remember finding the notion of a "natural transformation" really difficult to grasp. good friggin luck, lol. · 5 months ago