Why the Free Monad Isn't Free

Scala developers love to discuss Monads, their metaphors, and their many use cases. Recognizing that monadic design and development patterns have their place, this talk will discuss the price of implementing the Free Monad in your code - spoiler alert - it's not free. We will define the Free Monad (while proving you don't have to be an expert in category theory to understand) and give you the confidence to know when it is is not the answer in your code. We will also provide alternatives that provide greater maintainability and discuss the tradeoffs in performance and design.