About the Reading Club
Are you interested in diving into the world of Category Theory? Join our NYC Beginners-friendly Reading Club!
Goal: Learn category theory!
Who: Anyone interested in learning category theory, beginner friendly!
What: Discussion of sections of the book, exercises and insights. Progress is non-linear so feel free to drop in even if you missed previous meetings.
We are hoping to keep the mathematical requirements low, though you might want to grab a copy of the book in advance and check it fits your taste.
The Book
We are currently reading Seven Sketches in Compositionality: An Invitation to Applied Category Theory by Brendan Fong and David Spivak. It is freely available online and beginner friendly, with lots of worked examples.
We previously started with Category Theory by Steve Awodey but switched in March 2026. See the meeting log.
How to Join
- RSVP on Meetup to get notified of upcoming meetings
- RSVP on Luma as an alternative if you prefer
- Join our Discord for discussion between meetings
Progress is non-linear, so feel free to drop in even if you missed previous meetings!
NYC Category Theory Running Club
A gentle Sunday morning run for the reading club and friends. We meet at Grand Army Plaza and do the large loop around Prospect Park together.
When: Every Sunday, 9:30am
Where: Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn (the start of the Prospect Park loop)
Distance: ~3.35 miles (the full park loop)
Pace: Gentle. Everyone welcome.
We coordinate week-to-week on the Discord.
Meeting Log
- Meeting 7: Monoidal preorders and string diagrams6 May 2026First Chapter 2 meeting. Monoidal preorders and string diagrams. How different axioms give different kinds of scenarios.
- Catch-up session29 April 2026Extra mid-week catch-up. Same material as Meeting 6.
- Meeting 6: Pullbacks and upper sets22 April 2026Pullbacks. Every bijective map to the booleans is one-to-one with an upper set.
- Meeting 5: Upper sets, Yoneda for pre-orders8 April 2026Continuing Seven Sketches Ch 1. Upper sets. Yoneda lemma for pre-orders.
- Meeting 4: Seven Sketches Ch 1, warming up25 March 2026First Seven Sketches meeting. Working through the first few exercises. Hasse diagrams. Every pre-order is a directed graph.
- Meeting 3: Fundamental property of monoids, and a book switch11 March 2026Proved the fundamental property of monoids. Awodey was too challenging for our experience level, so we switched to Seven Sketches in Compositionality.
- Meeting 2: Awodey Ch 1 exercises25 February 2026More Awodey Ch 1 exercises. Working towards the fundamental property of monoids.
- Meeting 1: Introduction & Chapter 111 February 2026Kick off meeting. Introductions, overview of the book, and Chapter 1 — Categories.
- Meeting 0: Introduction28 January 2025Last minute kick-the-tires inaugral meeting.