Comment by datagram

> So, having said all of that, is there hope for adding things like this to my toolbelt? And where do I even start?

HN is a decent place to start. Now that you've read this article, you're aware of the general landscape of concurrent document editing algorithms.

Ultimately, all you really need is the language to a) describe your problem and b) compare potential solutions. I have a CS degree, and it's not like we spent semesters learning every algorithm under the sun. But what we did learn was the language to describe and compare the performance of algorithms (computational complexity theory). Beyond that, it's just about knowing enough terminology to be able to describe your problem, which you could learn just by skimming through an algorithms textbook (or random Wikipedia articles, honestly).

For example: a friend of mine was recently trying to devise an algorithm for ordering buff applications for a collectible card game. Once I was able to find the right language to describe the problem (topological sorting), finding an algorithm to use was easy.