Your first-class functions don’t make you functional

This post is published externally at https://medium.com/@MrJamesFisher/your-first-class-functions-dont-make-you-functional-bcecd458f5aa .

I’m sure you’ve heard the following claim before: “finally, language L has first-class functions; now we can do functional programming!” But first-class functions are simply not relevant, and here’s why.

What can computers do? What are the limits of mathematics? And just how busy can a busy beaver be? This year, I’m writing Busy Beavers, a unique interactive book on computability theory. You and I will take a practical and modern approach to answering these questions — or at least learning why some questions are unanswerable!

It’s only $19, and you can get 50% off if you find the discount code ... Not quite. Hackers use the console!

After months of secret toil, I and Andrew Carr released Everyday Data Science, a unique interactive online course! You’ll make the perfect glass of lemonade using Thompson sampling. You’ll lose weight with differential equations. And you might just qualify for the Olympics with a bit of statistics!

It’s $29, but you can get 50% off if you find the discount code ... Not quite. Hackers use the console!

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