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<title data-rh="true">Why "What Happened First?" Is One of the Hardest Questions in Large-Scale Systems </title>
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<meta data-rh="true" name="theme-color" content="#ffffff"/><meta data-rh="true" property="og:type" content="article"/><meta data-rh="true" property="og:title" content="Why "What Happened First?" Is One of the Hardest Questions in Large-Scale Systems "/><meta data-rh="true" name="twitter:title" content="Why "What Happened First?" Is One of the Hardest Questions in Large-Scale Systems "/><meta data-rh="true" name="description" content="Understanding Why Exact Ordering of Events is Hard in Large Scale Systems"/><meta data-rh="true" property="og:description" content="Understanding Why Exact Ordering of Events is Hard in Large Scale Systems"/><meta data-rh="true" name="twitter:description" content="Understanding Why Exact Ordering of Events is Hard in Large Scale Systems"/><meta data-rh="true" property="og:image" content="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9Eq5!,w_1200,h_675,c_fill,f_jpg,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb80b6ead-2385-4225-ba76-f76370efac06_1456x1048.png"/><meta data-rh="true" name="twitter:image" content="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!dIw6!,f_auto,q_auto:best,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fscalablethread.substack.com%2Fapi%2Fv1%2Fpost_preview%2F163728719%2Ftwitter.jpg%3Fversion%3D4"/><meta data-rh="true" name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image"/><meta data-rh="true" property="article:modified_time" content="2025-08-30T21:47:00.559Z"/>
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6-6-6-6"></path></svg></button></div><h1 dir="auto" class="post-title published title-X77sOw">Why "What Happened First?" Is One of the Hardest Questions in Large-Scale Systems </h1><h3 dir="auto" class="subtitle subtitle-HEEcLo">Understanding Why Exact Ordering of Events is Hard in Distributed Systems</h3><div aria-label="Post UFI" role="region" class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-paddingBottom-16 pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-paddingTop-16 pc-paddingBottom-16 pc-justifyContent-space-between pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-12 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset byline-wrapper"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-4 pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-secondary-ls1g8s line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA"><time datetime="2025-08-30T21:46:10.117Z" title="2025-08-30T21:46:10.117Z">Aug 30, 2025</time></div></div></div></div></div><div class="pencraft 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class="header-anchor-post">The Problem with Time<div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-position-absolute pc-reset header-anchor-parent"><div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA"><div id="§the-problem-with-time" class="pencraft pc-reset header-anchor offset-top"></div><button tabindex="0" type="button" aria-label="Link" data-href="https://newsletter.scalablethread.com/i/163728719/the-problem-with-time" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft iconButton-mq_Et5 iconButtonBase-dJGHgN buttonBase-GK1x3M buttonStyle-r7yGCK size_sm-G3LciD priority_secondary-S63h9o"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="18" height="18" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-link"><path d="M10 13a5 5 0 0 0 7.54.54l3-3a5 5 0 0 0-7.07-7.07l-1.72 1.71"></path><path d="M14 11a5 5 0 0 0-7.54-.54l-3 3a5 5 0 0 0 7.07 7.07l1.71-1.71"></path></svg></button></div></div></h2><p><span>Imagine you and your friend are in different cities. You both look at your watches and agree to clap at exactly 1:00 PM. You clap, but did you both clap at the </span><em>exact same instant</em><span>? Probably not. Your watch might be a few seconds faster than your friend's, or maybe it runs a tiny bit slower.</span></p><p>Computers in a large system face the same problem, but on a massive scale. A system like FAANG’s runs on thousands of computers spread across the globe. Each computer has its own internal clock, just like you have your own watch. These clocks are never perfectly in sync.</p><p>This creates a big problem: if two events happen on two different computers, it's hard to say with 100% certainty which one happened first just by looking at their timestamps.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BGXU!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F55983bfe-6e59-45c2-bf38-6d3e0979143d_2073x1423.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM" class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img can-restack"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BGXU!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F55983bfe-6e59-45c2-bf38-6d3e0979143d_2073x1423.png 424w, 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data-attrs="{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/55983bfe-6e59-45c2-bf38-6d3e0979143d_2073x1423.png","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":999,"width":1456,"resizeWidth":null,"bytes":251901,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":"image/png","href":null,"belowTheFold":false,"topImage":true,"internalRedirect":"https://newsletter.scalablethread.com/i/163728719?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F55983bfe-6e59-45c2-bf38-6d3e0979143d_2073x1423.png","isProcessing":false,"align":null,"offset":false}" alt srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BGXU!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F55983bfe-6e59-45c2-bf38-6d3e0979143d_2073x1423.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BGXU!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F55983bfe-6e59-45c2-bf38-6d3e0979143d_2073x1423.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BGXU!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F55983bfe-6e59-45c2-bf38-6d3e0979143d_2073x1423.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BGXU!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F55983bfe-6e59-45c2-bf38-6d3e0979143d_2073x1423.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high" class="sizing-normal"/></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><h2 class="header-anchor-post">Why Clock Synchronization is Hard<div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-position-absolute pc-reset header-anchor-parent"><div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA"><div id="§why-clock-synchronization-is-hard" class="pencraft pc-reset header-anchor offset-top"></div><button tabindex="0" type="button" aria-label="Link" data-href="https://newsletter.scalablethread.com/i/163728719/why-clock-synchronization-is-hard" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft iconButton-mq_Et5 iconButtonBase-dJGHgN buttonBase-GK1x3M buttonStyle-r7yGCK size_sm-G3LciD priority_secondary-S63h9o"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="18" height="18" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-link"><path d="M10 13a5 5 0 0 0 7.54.54l3-3a5 5 0 0 0-7.07-7.07l-1.72 1.71"></path><path d="M14 11a5 5 0 0 0-7.54-.54l-3 3a5 5 0 0 0 7.07 7.07l1.71-1.71"></path></svg></button></div></div></h2><p><span>The obvious solution seems to be to just synchronize all the computer clocks. We have protocols like the </span><strong>Network Time Protocol (NTP)</strong><span> that try to do this by connecting to ultra-precise atomic clocks. However, even with NTP, achieving perfect synchronization is impossible for two main reasons:</span></p><ol><li><p><strong>Network Latency:</strong><span> Information doesn't travel instantly. When a computer asks a central time server, "What time is it?", the question takes time to travel to the server, and the answer takes time to travel back. This delay, called </span><strong>latency</strong><span>, is unpredictable. It can change based on network traffic, distance, and other factors. It's like asking your friend for the time over a walkie-talkie with a random delay. You can't be sure if the time you hear is still accurate.</span></p></li><li><p><strong>Clock Drift:</strong><span> No two clocks are built exactly the same. The quartz crystals that regulate time in computers vibrate at slightly different frequencies. This causes some clocks to run a little faster and others a little slower. Over time, these small differences add up, and the clocks "drift" apart. Even if you sync them perfectly, they will start to disagree again almost immediately.</span></p></li></ol><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GehS!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae4bb5e7-805d-482a-aa73-08ed4f43410e_1582x607.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM" class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img can-restack"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GehS!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae4bb5e7-805d-482a-aa73-08ed4f43410e_1582x607.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GehS!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae4bb5e7-805d-482a-aa73-08ed4f43410e_1582x607.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GehS!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae4bb5e7-805d-482a-aa73-08ed4f43410e_1582x607.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GehS!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae4bb5e7-805d-482a-aa73-08ed4f43410e_1582x607.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"/><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GehS!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae4bb5e7-805d-482a-aa73-08ed4f43410e_1582x607.png" width="1456" height="559" data-attrs="{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/ae4bb5e7-805d-482a-aa73-08ed4f43410e_1582x607.png","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":559,"width":1456,"resizeWidth":null,"bytes":70230,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":"image/png","href":null,"belowTheFold":false,"topImage":false,"internalRedirect":"https://newsletter.scalablethread.com/i/163728719?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae4bb5e7-805d-482a-aa73-08ed4f43410e_1582x607.png","isProcessing":false,"align":null,"offset":false}" alt srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GehS!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae4bb5e7-805d-482a-aa73-08ed4f43410e_1582x607.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GehS!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae4bb5e7-805d-482a-aa73-08ed4f43410e_1582x607.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GehS!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae4bb5e7-805d-482a-aa73-08ed4f43410e_1582x607.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GehS!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae4bb5e7-805d-482a-aa73-08ed4f43410e_1582x607.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" class="sizing-normal"/></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><span>Because of these issues, we have to accept that we can never know the </span><em>exact</em><span> physical time across a distributed system. The time on one machine might be a few milliseconds ahead of another, and in high-speed large-scale systems, a millisecond is a very long time.</span></p><h2 class="header-anchor-post">A Workaround: Logical Clocks<div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-position-absolute pc-reset header-anchor-parent"><div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA"><div id="§a-workaround-logical-clocks" class="pencraft pc-reset header-anchor offset-top"></div><button tabindex="0" type="button" aria-label="Link" data-href="https://newsletter.scalablethread.com/i/163728719/a-workaround-logical-clocks" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft iconButton-mq_Et5 iconButtonBase-dJGHgN buttonBase-GK1x3M buttonStyle-r7yGCK size_sm-G3LciD priority_secondary-S63h9o"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="18" height="18" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-link"><path d="M10 13a5 5 0 0 0 7.54.54l3-3a5 5 0 0 0-7.07-7.07l-1.72 1.71"></path><path d="M14 11a5 5 0 0 0-7.54-.54l-3 3a5 5 0 0 0 7.07 7.07l1.71-1.71"></path></svg></button></div></div></h2><p><span>If we can't rely on wall-clock time, how do we solve the ordering problem? Computer scientists realized that we don't always need to know the </span><em>exact time</em><span> an event happened. Often, it's enough to know the </span><strong>causal order</strong><span>—that is, if one event caused another.</span></p><p><span>This is called the </span><strong>happened-before</strong><span> relationship. It's simple:</span></p><ul><li><p><span>If event A happens on a computer before event B on the same computer, then A </span><em>happened before</em><span> B.</span></p></li><li><p><span>If event A is the sending of a message and event D is the receiving of that same message, then A </span><em>happened before</em><span> D.</span></p></li><li><p>If A happened before B, and B happened before C, then A happened before C.</p></li></ul><p><span>Events that don't have a happened-before relationship are called </span><strong>concurrent</strong><span>. We can't say which one happened first, and it might not matter. For example, if you send an email to Alice and your friend sends an email to Bob, these events are concurrent.</span></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y1uq!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9780b7ea-54e1-4b4f-b444-8010ccb80e79_2137x1376.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM" class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img can-restack"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y1uq!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9780b7ea-54e1-4b4f-b444-8010ccb80e79_2137x1376.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y1uq!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9780b7ea-54e1-4b4f-b444-8010ccb80e79_2137x1376.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y1uq!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9780b7ea-54e1-4b4f-b444-8010ccb80e79_2137x1376.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y1uq!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9780b7ea-54e1-4b4f-b444-8010ccb80e79_2137x1376.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"/><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y1uq!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9780b7ea-54e1-4b4f-b444-8010ccb80e79_2137x1376.png" width="1456" height="938" data-attrs="{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/9780b7ea-54e1-4b4f-b444-8010ccb80e79_2137x1376.png","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":938,"width":1456,"resizeWidth":null,"bytes":151823,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":"image/png","href":null,"belowTheFold":true,"topImage":false,"internalRedirect":"https://newsletter.scalablethread.com/i/163728719?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9780b7ea-54e1-4b4f-b444-8010ccb80e79_2137x1376.png","isProcessing":false,"align":null,"offset":false}" alt srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y1uq!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9780b7ea-54e1-4b4f-b444-8010ccb80e79_2137x1376.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y1uq!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9780b7ea-54e1-4b4f-b444-8010ccb80e79_2137x1376.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y1uq!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9780b7ea-54e1-4b4f-b444-8010ccb80e79_2137x1376.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y1uq!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9780b7ea-54e1-4b4f-b444-8010ccb80e79_2137x1376.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy" class="sizing-normal"/></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><h4 class="header-anchor-post">Logical Clocks<div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-position-absolute pc-reset header-anchor-parent"><div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA"><div id="§logical-clocks" class="pencraft pc-reset header-anchor offset-top"></div><button tabindex="0" type="button" aria-label="Link" data-href="https://newsletter.scalablethread.com/i/163728719/logical-clocks" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft iconButton-mq_Et5 iconButtonBase-dJGHgN buttonBase-GK1x3M buttonStyle-r7yGCK size_sm-G3LciD priority_secondary-S63h9o"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="18" height="18" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-link"><path d="M10 13a5 5 0 0 0 7.54.54l3-3a5 5 0 0 0-7.07-7.07l-1.72 1.71"></path><path d="M14 11a5 5 0 0 0-7.54-.54l-3 3a5 5 0 0 0 7.07 7.07l1.71-1.71"></path></svg></button></div></div></h4><p><span>To track this "happened-before" relationship, we can use </span><strong>logical clocks. </strong><span>Imagine each computer in the system has a counter, like a ticket dispenser at a bakery.</span></p><ol><li><p><span>Every time an event happens on a computer, it increments its own counter and assigns that number to the event. (e.g., </span><code>counter = counter + 1</code><span>).</span></p></li><li><p>When a computer sends a message, it includes its current counter value in the message.</p></li><li><p><span>When a computer receives a message, it compares its own counter to the counter in the message. It sets its own counter to the </span><em>maximum</em><span> of the two values, and then increments it by one.</span></p></li></ol><p>An example with two computers, P1 and P2:</p><ul><li><p><strong>P1</strong><span> has an internal event. Its counter goes from 0 to </span><strong>1</strong><span>.</span></p></li><li><p><strong>P1</strong><span> sends a message to P2 with the value </span><strong>1</strong><span>.</span></p></li><li><p><strong>P2</strong><span> receives the message. Its counter is 0. It sees the message's value is 1. It updates its counter to </span><code>max(0, 1) + 1 = 2</code><span>.</span></p></li><li><p><strong>P2</strong><span> has an internal event. Its counter goes from 2 to </span><strong>3</strong><span>.</span></p></li></ul><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NrMD!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F351cad14-b0c0-4480-98fb-2c372d52b67e_2449x929.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM" class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img can-restack"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NrMD!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F351cad14-b0c0-4480-98fb-2c372d52b67e_2449x929.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NrMD!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F351cad14-b0c0-4480-98fb-2c372d52b67e_2449x929.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NrMD!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F351cad14-b0c0-4480-98fb-2c372d52b67e_2449x929.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NrMD!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F351cad14-b0c0-4480-98fb-2c372d52b67e_2449x929.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"/><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NrMD!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F351cad14-b0c0-4480-98fb-2c372d52b67e_2449x929.png" width="1456" height="552" data-attrs="{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/351cad14-b0c0-4480-98fb-2c372d52b67e_2449x929.png","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":552,"width":1456,"resizeWidth":null,"bytes":126522,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":"image/png","href":null,"belowTheFold":true,"topImage":false,"internalRedirect":"https://newsletter.scalablethread.com/i/163728719?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F351cad14-b0c0-4480-98fb-2c372d52b67e_2449x929.png","isProcessing":false,"align":null,"offset":false}" alt srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NrMD!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F351cad14-b0c0-4480-98fb-2c372d52b67e_2449x929.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NrMD!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F351cad14-b0c0-4480-98fb-2c372d52b67e_2449x929.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NrMD!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F351cad14-b0c0-4480-98fb-2c372d52b67e_2449x929.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NrMD!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F351cad14-b0c0-4480-98fb-2c372d52b67e_2449x929.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy" class="sizing-normal"/></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><span>By looking at these logical timestamps, we know that the event at P1 (timestamp 1) </span><em>happened before</em><span> the event at P2 (timestamp 3). 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9.70374 5.28963 9.99915 5.83569C10.299 5.28516 10.6951 4.84204 11.1875 4.50635C11.6843 4.16618 12.2707 3.99609 12.9465 3.99609C13.4836 3.99609 13.9894 4.09904 14.4639 4.30493C14.9428 4.50635 15.3613 4.79728 15.7194 5.17773C16.0774 5.55819 16.3572 6.01025 16.5586 6.53394C16.7645 7.05762 16.8674 7.63725 16.8674 8.27283C16.8674 9.23067 16.6145 10.1818 16.1088 11.1262C15.603 12.0662 14.8891 12.9815 13.967 13.8722C13.0495 14.7584 11.9708 15.6044 10.731 16.41C10.6056 16.4906 10.4758 16.5622 10.3416 16.6249C10.2118 16.692 10.0976 16.7256 9.99915 16.7256Z"></path></g></svg></div>Liked by Sid</button></div></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-reset flex-grow-rzmknG"></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-reset comment-menu-trigger-container triggerContainer-eX588u"><button tabindex="0" type="button" aria-label="Ellipsis" id="radix-P0-80" aria-haspopup="menu" aria-expanded="false" data-state="closed" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft trigger-j08Uop iconButton-mq_Et5 iconButtonBase-dJGHgN buttonBase-GK1x3M buttonStyle-r7yGCK size_sm-G3LciD priority_quaternary-kpMibu"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-ellipsis"><circle cx="12" cy="12" r="1"></circle><circle cx="19" cy="12" r="1"></circle><circle cx="5" cy="12" r="1"></circle></svg></button></div></div><div class="comment-body expanded"><p><span>A tough concept explained easily. Pls keep ‘em coming!</span></p></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-paddingTop-8 pc-justifyContent-flex-start pc-alignItems-center pc-reset comment-actions withShareButton-hQzuEn"><span class="pencraft pc-reset decoration-hover-underline-ClDVRM reset-IxiVJZ"><a class="pencraft pc-reset link-_X6et2 link-LIBpto"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-6 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="var(--color-fg-secondary-themed)" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-message-circle"><path d="M7.9 20A9 9 0 1 0 4 16.1L2 22Z"></path></svg><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA comment-actions-label">Reply</div></div></a></span><span class="pencraft pc-reset 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href="https://newsletter.scalablethread.com/p/why-what-happened-first-is-one-of/comment/150904201" class="more-replies">1 reply by Sid</a></div></div><div class="comment"><div id="comment-151469970" class="comment-anchor"></div><div id="comment-151469970-reply" class="comment-anchor"></div><div role="article" aria-label="Comment by Sourish" class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-12 pc-paddingBottom-12 pc-reset comment-content"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-reset"><a href="https://substack.com/profile/387627906-sourish?utm_source=comment" aria-label="View Sourish's profile" class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset"><div style="--scale:32px;" tabindex="0" class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-width-32 pc-height-32 pc-justifyContent-center pc-alignItems-center pc-position-relative pc-reset bg-secondary-UUD3_J flex-auto-j3S2WA animate-XFJxE4 outline-detail-vcQLyr pc-borderRadius-full overflow-hidden-WdpwT6 sizing-border-box-DggLA4 pressable-sm-YIJFKJ showFocus-sk_vEm container-TAtrWj interactive-UkK0V6"><div style="--scale:32px;" title="Sourish" class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-width-32 pc-height-32 pc-justifyContent-center pc-alignItems-center pc-position-relative pc-reset bg-secondary-UUD3_J flex-auto-j3S2WA outline-detail-vcQLyr pc-borderRadius-full overflow-hidden-WdpwT6 sizing-border-box-DggLA4 container-TAtrWj"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ryS2!,w_32,h_32,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack.com%2Fimg%2Favatars%2Fyellow.png 1x, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ryS2!,w_64,h_64,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack.com%2Fimg%2Favatars%2Fyellow.png 2x, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ryS2!,w_96,h_96,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack.com%2Fimg%2Favatars%2Fyellow.png 3x"/><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ryS2!,w_32,h_32,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack.com%2Fimg%2Favatars%2Fyellow.png" alt="Sourish's avatar" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ryS2!,w_32,h_32,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack.com%2Fimg%2Favatars%2Fyellow.png 1x, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ryS2!,w_64,h_64,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack.com%2Fimg%2Favatars%2Fyellow.png 2x, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ryS2!,w_96,h_96,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack.com%2Fimg%2Favatars%2Fyellow.png 3x" width="32" height="32" draggable="false" class="img-OACg1c object-fit-cover-u4ReeV pencraft pc-reset"/></picture></div></div></a></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-reset flex-grow-rzmknG"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-gap-4 pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-minWidth-0 pc-gap-8 pc-alignItems-center pc-justifyContent-space-between pc-reset line-height-20-t4M0El font-text-qe4AeH size-15-Psle70 weight-regular-mUq6Gb"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-minWidth-0 pc-gap-8 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset flex-grow-rzmknG"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-6 pc-reset color-primary-zABazT line-height-20-t4M0El font-text-qe4AeH size-13-hZTUKr weight-regular-mUq6Gb reset-IxiVJZ comment-author-name"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-4 pc-minWidth-0 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><span class="pencraft pc-reset ellipsis-Jb8om8 line-height-20-t4M0El font-text-qe4AeH size-15-Psle70 weight-medium-fw81nC reset-IxiVJZ"><span style="min-width:0;" data-state="closed"><span class="pencraft pc-reset decoration-hover-underline-ClDVRM reset-IxiVJZ"><a href="https://substack.com/profile/387627906-sourish?utm_source=substack-feed-item" showBack data-native="true" class="link-LIBpto">Sourish</a></span></span></span></div></div><a data-native="true" href="https://newsletter.scalablethread.com/p/why-what-happened-first-is-one-of/comment/151469970" rel="nofollow" title="Sep 1, 2025, 11:34 PM" class="pencraft pc-reset color-secondary-ls1g8s decoration-hover-underline-ClDVRM reset-IxiVJZ"><span class="pencraft pc-reset color-secondary-ls1g8s line-height-20-t4M0El font-text-qe4AeH size-13-hZTUKr weight-regular-mUq6Gb nowrap-QngyoB reset-IxiVJZ">Sep 1, 2025</span></a></div></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-4 pc-reset"><button tabindex="-1" type="button" class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-4 pc-height-20 pc-paddingLeft-6 pc-paddingRight-6 pc-paddingTop-2 pc-paddingBottom-2 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset font-text-qe4AeH size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC pencraft tag-XbOVLt theme_accent-Y2sqZY priority_secondary-outline-RpooJS pencraft pc-display-flex pc-height-20 pc-paddingLeft-6 pc-paddingRight-6 pc-paddingTop-2 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9.99915 5.83569C10.299 5.28516 10.6951 4.84204 11.1875 4.50635C11.6843 4.16618 12.2707 3.99609 12.9465 3.99609C13.4836 3.99609 13.9894 4.09904 14.4639 4.30493C14.9428 4.50635 15.3613 4.79728 15.7194 5.17773C16.0774 5.55819 16.3572 6.01025 16.5586 6.53394C16.7645 7.05762 16.8674 7.63725 16.8674 8.27283C16.8674 9.23067 16.6145 10.1818 16.1088 11.1262C15.603 12.0662 14.8891 12.9815 13.967 13.8722C13.0495 14.7584 11.9708 15.6044 10.731 16.41C10.6056 16.4906 10.4758 16.5622 10.3416 16.6249C10.2118 16.692 10.0976 16.7256 9.99915 16.7256Z"></path></g></svg></div>Liked by Sid</button></div></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-reset flex-grow-rzmknG"></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-reset comment-menu-trigger-container triggerContainer-eX588u"><button tabindex="0" type="button" aria-label="Ellipsis" id="radix-P0-86" aria-haspopup="menu" aria-expanded="false" data-state="closed" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft trigger-j08Uop iconButton-mq_Et5 iconButtonBase-dJGHgN buttonBase-GK1x3M buttonStyle-r7yGCK size_sm-G3LciD priority_quaternary-kpMibu"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-ellipsis"><circle cx="12" cy="12" r="1"></circle><circle cx="19" cy="12" r="1"></circle><circle cx="5" cy="12" r="1"></circle></svg></button></div></div><div class="comment-body expanded"><p><span>Really nice explanation! Glad to find it.</span></p></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-paddingTop-8 pc-justifyContent-flex-start pc-alignItems-center pc-reset comment-actions withShareButton-hQzuEn"><span class="pencraft pc-reset decoration-hover-underline-ClDVRM reset-IxiVJZ"><a class="pencraft pc-reset link-_X6et2 link-LIBpto"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-6 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="var(--color-fg-secondary-themed)" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-message-circle"><path d="M7.9 20A9 9 0 1 0 4 16.1L2 22Z"></path></svg><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA comment-actions-label">Reply</div></div></a></span><span class="pencraft pc-reset decoration-hover-underline-ClDVRM 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href="https://newsletter.scalablethread.com/p/why-what-happened-first-is-one-of/comment/151469970" class="more-replies">1 reply by Sid</a></div></div></div></div><a href="https://newsletter.scalablethread.com/p/why-what-happened-first-is-one-of/comments" class="more-comments">4 more comments...</a></div></div></div><div class="single-post-section"><div class="container"><div class="visibility-check"></div><div style="margin-left:-8px;margin-right:-8px;" aria-label="Top Posts Footer" role="region" class="pencraft pc-paddingTop-24 pc-paddingBottom-24 pc-reset"><div class="portable-archive empty-list"><div aria-label="Archive sort tabs" role="navigation" class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-12 pc-paddingLeft-8 pc-paddingRight-8 pc-paddingBottom-16 pc-justifyContent-space-between pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-position-relative pc-minWidth-0 pc-reset bg-primary-zk6FDl outline-detail-vcQLyr pc-borderRadius-sm 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data-attrs=\\\"{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/55983bfe-6e59-45c2-bf38-6d3e0979143d_2073x1423.png","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":999,"width":1456,"resizeWidth":null,"bytes":251901,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":"image/png","href":null,"belowTheFold":false,"topImage":true,"internalRedirect":"https://newsletter.scalablethread.com/i/163728719?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F55983bfe-6e59-45c2-bf38-6d3e0979143d_2073x1423.png","isProcessing":false,"align":null,"offset":false}\\\" class=\\\"sizing-normal\\\" alt=\\\"\\\" srcset=\\\"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BGXU!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F55983bfe-6e59-45c2-bf38-6d3e0979143d_2073x1423.png 424w, 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width=\\\"20\\\" height=\\\"20\\\" viewBox=\\\"0 0 20 20\\\" fill=\\\"none\\\" stroke-width=\\\"1.5\\\" stroke=\\\"var(--color-fg-primary)\\\" stroke-linecap=\\\"round\\\" stroke-linejoin=\\\"round\\\" xmlns=\\\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\\\"><g><path d=\\\"M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882\\\"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex=\\\"0\\\" type=\\\"button\\\" class=\\\"pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image\\\"><svg xmlns=\\\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\\\" width=\\\"20\\\" height=\\\"20\\\" viewBox=\\\"0 0 24 24\\\" fill=\\\"none\\\" stroke=\\\"currentColor\\\" stroke-width=\\\"2\\\" stroke-linecap=\\\"round\\\" stroke-linejoin=\\\"round\\\" class=\\\"lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2\\\"><polyline points=\\\"15 3 21 3 21 9\\\"></polyline><polyline points=\\\"9 21 3 21 3 15\\\"></polyline><line x1=\\\"21\\\" x2=\\\"14\\\" y1=\\\"3\\\" y2=\\\"10\\\"></line><line x1=\\\"3\\\" x2=\\\"10\\\" y1=\\\"21\\\" y2=\\\"14\\\"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><h2>Why Clock Synchronization is Hard</h2><p>The obvious solution seems to be to just synchronize all the computer clocks. We have protocols like the <strong>Network Time Protocol (NTP)</strong> that try to do this by connecting to ultra-precise atomic clocks. However, even with NTP, achieving perfect synchronization is impossible for two main reasons:</p><ol><li><p><strong>Network Latency:</strong> Information doesn't travel instantly. When a computer asks a central time server, \\\"What time is it?\\\", the question takes time to travel to the server, and the answer takes time to travel back. This delay, called <strong>latency</strong>, is unpredictable. It can change based on network traffic, distance, and other factors. It's like asking your friend for the time over a walkie-talkie with a random delay. You can't be sure if the time you hear is still accurate.</p></li><li><p><strong>Clock Drift:</strong> No two clocks are built exactly the same. The quartz crystals that regulate time in computers vibrate at slightly different frequencies. This causes some clocks to run a little faster and others a little slower. Over time, these small differences add up, and the clocks \\\"drift\\\" apart. Even if you sync them perfectly, they will start to disagree again almost immediately.</p></li></ol><div class=\\\"captioned-image-container\\\"><figure><a class=\\\"image-link image2 is-viewable-img\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" href=\\\"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GehS!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae4bb5e7-805d-482a-aa73-08ed4f43410e_1582x607.png\\\" data-component-name=\\\"Image2ToDOM\\\"><div class=\\\"image2-inset\\\"><picture><source type=\\\"image/webp\\\" srcset=\\\"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GehS!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae4bb5e7-805d-482a-aa73-08ed4f43410e_1582x607.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GehS!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae4bb5e7-805d-482a-aa73-08ed4f43410e_1582x607.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GehS!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae4bb5e7-805d-482a-aa73-08ed4f43410e_1582x607.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GehS!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae4bb5e7-805d-482a-aa73-08ed4f43410e_1582x607.png 1456w\\\" sizes=\\\"100vw\\\"><img src=\\\"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GehS!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae4bb5e7-805d-482a-aa73-08ed4f43410e_1582x607.png\\\" width=\\\"1456\\\" height=\\\"559\\\" data-attrs=\\\"{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/ae4bb5e7-805d-482a-aa73-08ed4f43410e_1582x607.png","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":559,"width":1456,"resizeWidth":null,"bytes":70230,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":"image/png","href":null,"belowTheFold":false,"topImage":false,"internalRedirect":"https://newsletter.scalablethread.com/i/163728719?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae4bb5e7-805d-482a-aa73-08ed4f43410e_1582x607.png","isProcessing":false,"align":null,"offset":false}\\\" class=\\\"sizing-normal\\\" alt=\\\"\\\" srcset=\\\"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GehS!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae4bb5e7-805d-482a-aa73-08ed4f43410e_1582x607.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GehS!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae4bb5e7-805d-482a-aa73-08ed4f43410e_1582x607.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GehS!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae4bb5e7-805d-482a-aa73-08ed4f43410e_1582x607.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GehS!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae4bb5e7-805d-482a-aa73-08ed4f43410e_1582x607.png 1456w\\\" sizes=\\\"100vw\\\"></picture><div class=\\\"image-link-expand\\\"><div class=\\\"pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset\\\"><button tabindex=\\\"0\\\" type=\\\"button\\\" class=\\\"pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image\\\"><svg aria-hidden=\\\"true\\\" width=\\\"20\\\" height=\\\"20\\\" viewBox=\\\"0 0 20 20\\\" fill=\\\"none\\\" stroke-width=\\\"1.5\\\" stroke=\\\"var(--color-fg-primary)\\\" stroke-linecap=\\\"round\\\" stroke-linejoin=\\\"round\\\" xmlns=\\\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\\\"><g><path d=\\\"M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882\\\"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex=\\\"0\\\" type=\\\"button\\\" class=\\\"pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image\\\"><svg xmlns=\\\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\\\" width=\\\"20\\\" height=\\\"20\\\" viewBox=\\\"0 0 24 24\\\" fill=\\\"none\\\" stroke=\\\"currentColor\\\" stroke-width=\\\"2\\\" stroke-linecap=\\\"round\\\" stroke-linejoin=\\\"round\\\" class=\\\"lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2\\\"><polyline points=\\\"15 3 21 3 21 9\\\"></polyline><polyline points=\\\"9 21 3 21 3 15\\\"></polyline><line x1=\\\"21\\\" x2=\\\"14\\\" y1=\\\"3\\\" y2=\\\"10\\\"></line><line x1=\\\"3\\\" x2=\\\"10\\\" y1=\\\"21\\\" y2=\\\"14\\\"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>Because of these issues, we have to accept that we can never know the <em>exact</em> physical time across a distributed system. The time on one machine might be a few milliseconds ahead of another, and in high-speed large-scale systems, a millisecond is a very long time.</p><h2>A Workaround: Logical Clocks</h2><p>If we can't rely on wall-clock time, how do we solve the ordering problem? Computer scientists realized that we don't always need to know the <em>exact time</em> an event happened. Often, it's enough to know the <strong>causal order</strong>\u2014that is, if one event caused another.</p><p>This is called the <strong>happened-before</strong> relationship. It's simple:</p><ul><li><p>If event A happens on a computer before event B on the same computer, then A <em>happened before</em> B.</p></li><li><p>If event A is the sending of a message and event D is the receiving of that same message, then A <em>happened before</em> D.</p></li><li><p>If A happened before B, and B happened before C, then A happened before C.</p></li></ul><p>Events that don't have a happened-before relationship are called <strong>concurrent</strong>. We can't say which one happened first, and it might not matter. For example, if you send an email to Alice and your friend sends an email to Bob, these events are concurrent.</p><div class=\\\"captioned-image-container\\\"><figure><a class=\\\"image-link image2 is-viewable-img\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" href=\\\"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y1uq!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9780b7ea-54e1-4b4f-b444-8010ccb80e79_2137x1376.png\\\" data-component-name=\\\"Image2ToDOM\\\"><div class=\\\"image2-inset\\\"><picture><source type=\\\"image/webp\\\" srcset=\\\"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y1uq!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9780b7ea-54e1-4b4f-b444-8010ccb80e79_2137x1376.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y1uq!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9780b7ea-54e1-4b4f-b444-8010ccb80e79_2137x1376.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y1uq!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9780b7ea-54e1-4b4f-b444-8010ccb80e79_2137x1376.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y1uq!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9780b7ea-54e1-4b4f-b444-8010ccb80e79_2137x1376.png 1456w\\\" sizes=\\\"100vw\\\"><img src=\\\"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y1uq!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9780b7ea-54e1-4b4f-b444-8010ccb80e79_2137x1376.png\\\" width=\\\"1456\\\" height=\\\"938\\\" data-attrs=\\\"{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/9780b7ea-54e1-4b4f-b444-8010ccb80e79_2137x1376.png","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":938,"width":1456,"resizeWidth":null,"bytes":151823,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":"image/png","href":null,"belowTheFold":true,"topImage":false,"internalRedirect":"https://newsletter.scalablethread.com/i/163728719?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9780b7ea-54e1-4b4f-b444-8010ccb80e79_2137x1376.png","isProcessing":false,"align":null,"offset":false}\\\" class=\\\"sizing-normal\\\" alt=\\\"\\\" srcset=\\\"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y1uq!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9780b7ea-54e1-4b4f-b444-8010ccb80e79_2137x1376.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y1uq!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9780b7ea-54e1-4b4f-b444-8010ccb80e79_2137x1376.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y1uq!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9780b7ea-54e1-4b4f-b444-8010ccb80e79_2137x1376.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y1uq!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9780b7ea-54e1-4b4f-b444-8010ccb80e79_2137x1376.png 1456w\\\" sizes=\\\"100vw\\\" loading=\\\"lazy\\\"></picture><div class=\\\"image-link-expand\\\"><div class=\\\"pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset\\\"><button tabindex=\\\"0\\\" type=\\\"button\\\" class=\\\"pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image\\\"><svg aria-hidden=\\\"true\\\" width=\\\"20\\\" height=\\\"20\\\" viewBox=\\\"0 0 20 20\\\" fill=\\\"none\\\" stroke-width=\\\"1.5\\\" stroke=\\\"var(--color-fg-primary)\\\" stroke-linecap=\\\"round\\\" stroke-linejoin=\\\"round\\\" xmlns=\\\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\\\"><g><path d=\\\"M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882\\\"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex=\\\"0\\\" type=\\\"button\\\" class=\\\"pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image\\\"><svg xmlns=\\\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\\\" width=\\\"20\\\" height=\\\"20\\\" viewBox=\\\"0 0 24 24\\\" fill=\\\"none\\\" stroke=\\\"currentColor\\\" stroke-width=\\\"2\\\" stroke-linecap=\\\"round\\\" stroke-linejoin=\\\"round\\\" class=\\\"lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2\\\"><polyline points=\\\"15 3 21 3 21 9\\\"></polyline><polyline points=\\\"9 21 3 21 3 15\\\"></polyline><line x1=\\\"21\\\" x2=\\\"14\\\" y1=\\\"3\\\" y2=\\\"10\\\"></line><line x1=\\\"3\\\" x2=\\\"10\\\" y1=\\\"21\\\" y2=\\\"14\\\"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><h4>Logical Clocks</h4><p>To track this \\\"happened-before\\\" relationship, we can use <strong>logical clocks. </strong>Imagine each computer in the system has a counter, like a ticket dispenser at a bakery.</p><ol><li><p>Every time an event happens on a computer, it increments its own counter and assigns that number to the event. (e.g., <code>counter = counter + 1</code>).</p></li><li><p>When a computer sends a message, it includes its current counter value in the message.</p></li><li><p>When a computer receives a message, it compares its own counter to the counter in the message. It sets its own counter to the <em>maximum</em> of the two values, and then increments it by one.</p></li></ol><p>An example with two computers, P1 and P2:</p><ul><li><p><strong>P1</strong> has an internal event. Its counter goes from 0 to <strong>1</strong>.</p></li><li><p><strong>P1</strong> sends a message to P2 with the value <strong>1</strong>.</p></li><li><p><strong>P2</strong> receives the message. Its counter is 0. It sees the message's value is 1. It updates its counter to <code>max(0, 1) + 1 = 2</code>.</p></li><li><p><strong>P2</strong> has an internal event. Its counter goes from 2 to <strong>3</strong>.</p></li></ul><div class=\\\"captioned-image-container\\\"><figure><a class=\\\"image-link image2 is-viewable-img\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" href=\\\"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NrMD!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F351cad14-b0c0-4480-98fb-2c372d52b67e_2449x929.png\\\" data-component-name=\\\"Image2ToDOM\\\"><div class=\\\"image2-inset\\\"><picture><source type=\\\"image/webp\\\" srcset=\\\"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NrMD!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F351cad14-b0c0-4480-98fb-2c372d52b67e_2449x929.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NrMD!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F351cad14-b0c0-4480-98fb-2c372d52b67e_2449x929.png 848w, 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