My TLA+ Saga

• Learning together is more fun, and you may not be as self-taught as you believe.
• The stories we tell ourselves deeply impact our ability (or inability) to grow.
• The more you learn, the more challenging the material becomes to continue growing. (a.k.a. Duh, but it took me time to realize it, regardless)

This year mark’s my 3rd attempt to learn TLA+.

The first time was likely around the same time Hillel Wayne also discovered it. Although where Hillel (obviously) grokked it the first time, when I discovered that TLA+ is not a tool for auto-generating property based tests, I quit.

The second time, I attended the TLA+ conference in 2019. I was better prepared to understand the purpose of a spec. This is, in part, because I was aware of the “big picture” of the day-job’s work. Where I had work in aviation, and and embedded systems for awhile, I was compartmentalized. Understandably so as I earned more experience, however I was unprepared to understand large scale the purpose of a specification. 2019 I was just starting to see the value. However, I had a second personal hurdle: I was “self taught”.

Being “self-taught” was a point of pride for me. I encapsulated my value to an team by my ability to understand new ideas and be effective reasonably quickly. So much so, that I realized I would hamper myself my not asking for help so I could carry the badge of “I’m self taught”. Guess what, no one cares. If you learn something with a group, from a teacher, or on your own… NO ONE CARES.

Also, it was at least partially a lie. Up to this point, I told myself: “taught myself C++”. Ya, no. I was surrounded by colleagues who knew a plethora of languages: Python, Go, D, C. Yes, I would self-study, but being surrounded by those who can provide a contrast for your own understanding of a material is invaluable!

This third time, I posted to reddit: Who’s coming with me!??!!? It’s going better. Stay tuned for a series on my todo spec.

Finally, thank you to all those in my life who helped me learn the things I know. I am self-motivated, but my knowledge is because of the people in my life.