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A deep dive into the mental models that underpin effective TLA+ use for distributed systems design. Seven key thinking patterns are articulated: (1) abstraction as knowing what to ignore, illustrated with CosmosDB and Aurora DSQL examples; (2) embracing TLA+'s global shared memory model for state-centric reasoning; (3) refining guards to locally stable or monotonic predicates so protocols require less coordination ('slow is fast'); (4) deriving tight, non-trivial invariants that capture genuine protocol understanding; (5) exploring design alternatives through stepwise refinement rather than patching corner cases; (6) aggressively splitting atomic actions to expose real concurrency interleavings; and (7) using TLA+ specs as communication tools for teams. The post draws on industry experience at AWS (Aurora DSQL, CosmosDB) and MongoDB, and connects these patterns to Lamport's derivation of Paxos as a canonical example throughout.

TLA+ mental models

2. Embrace the Global Shared Memory Model

3. Refine to local guards and effects (slow is fast)

5. Explore alternatives through stepwise refinement