* first learned about CRDTs, kickstarting an interest in distributed systems
* first learned about TLA+, kickstarting an interest in formal specification
* first saw the book Quantum Computing Since Democritus recommended (in a post about Professor Sussman’s reading list), kickstarting an interest in quantum computing
* first learned about the LEAN theorem prover, kickstarting an interest in machine-checked proofs of correctness for mathematical theorems
* first learned about tree-sitter, leading me to write a tree-sitter grammar for TLA+
All of these (well, except quantum computing really - that remains a pleasant side-hobby although I did work in Microsoft’s quantum program for a bit) are now things I use in the contracts I work on as an independent software engineering consultant, and the open source work I do in between. TLA+ especially has had an enormous impact. Five good posts over the course of ten years is still a pretty good signal/noise ratio!