The Stacks project

Example 14.26.7. The simplicial set $\Delta [m]$ is homotopy equivalent to $\Delta [0]$. Namely, consider the unique morphism $f : \Delta [m] \to \Delta [0]$ and the morphism $g : \Delta [0] \to \Delta [m]$ given by the inclusion of the last $0$-simplex of $\Delta [m]$. We have $f \circ g = \text{id}$. We will give a homotopy $h : \Delta [m] \times \Delta [1] \to \Delta [m]$ from $\text{id}_{\Delta [m]}$ to $g \circ f$. Namely $h$ is given by the maps

which send $(\varphi , \alpha )$ to

Note that this only works because we took $g$ to be the inclusion of the last $0$-simplex. If we took $g$ to be the inclusion of the first $0$-simplex we could find a homotopy from $g \circ f$ to $\text{id}_{\Delta [m]}$. This is an illustration of the asymmetry inherent in homotopies in the category of simplicial sets.