-- Why does replicateM (10^6) $ return 0 produce output in the IO monad, but overflow the maybe monad? iterateNTimes i f x = foldr (.) id (replicate i f) $ x tntIO :: IO Int -- same as replicateM (10^6) $ return 0, same as sequence . replicate (10^6) $ return 0 tntIO = return . head =<< (iterateNTimes (10^6) (mcons . return $ 0) (return [])) -- produces output tntMb :: Maybe Int -- overflows tntMb = return . head =<< (iterateNTimes (10^6) (mcons . return $ 0) (return [])) -- stack overflow -- equivalently: mcons m ms = (:) <$> m <*> ms mcons m ms = ap (liftM (:) m) $ ms I guess the maybe version builds up a huge chain of unevaluated thunks somewhere, that's usually the reason. But specifically where and why, and why doesn't IO do the same thing? Equivalent, with 3 element list: (mcons $ return $ 0 ) $ (mcons $ return $ 0) $ (mcons $ return $ 0) $ (return []) (ap . liftM (:) . return $ 0 ) $ (ap . liftM (:) . return $ 0) $ (ap . liftM (:) . return $ 0) $ (return []) (ap $ liftM (:) $ return $ 0 ) $ (ap $ liftM (:) $ return $ 0) $ (ap $ liftM (:) $ return $ 0) $ (return []) t.