> (You can tell that monads are hard to work with because
  > there are so many articles telling you that they're easy)

lol yeap, you made me curious so I went to search for those articles, and sure enough, there are plenty. My favorite quote was: "Monads are easy, you just need to put in the work."

My second-favorite quote was: "if someone is really convinced that monads are easy, they are going to be in for a demoralizing shock"