Comment by stereolambda

It's a good analogy! But it also shows that in FP you have to specify what is needed for what and what happens why. If you wrote that imperatively, you could include steps like "go outside, count clouds, return" or "place a metal bowl next to everything, put some cereals inside". And then never return to that bowl again, just leave it like that. The programmer wanted to use this bowl for something, but then forgot it was there.

And then, when someone returns to that code, they have no idea that these steps are unnecessary and why each step was taken. (Or maybe they are necessary, because cloud counting ensures there is time for ingredients to permeate?). So probably these steps will be left and more mess and jungle will accumulate.