Do you suffer from TDS?

TLA Dissonance Syndrome (TDS) affects people of all ages in all walks of life, where their job requires them to know the meaning of various three letter abbreviations (or TLAs) but where there are identical TLAs with different meanings. Often context does not even allow them to differentiate between TLAs, leading to elevated levels of stress, producing harmful toxins, dizziness, nausea and irritability.

My name's Peter Clive, and I work in the wind power industry. I find context can often be helpful when dealing with TLAs. It is usually clear, for example, when EDF means Électricité de France (a utility with a large renewable energy portfolio) and where it means Erbium Doped Fibre (a key component in some laser based remote sensing systems for measuring wind conditions).

But sometimes context doesn't help. I can find myself wondering if PPA is used to refer to a Power Performance Assessment (which tells me how efficient a wind turbine is) or a Power Purchase Agreement (which tells me how much I can sell the electricity it generates for). I find myself experiencing increasing levels of TDS related anxiety as I struggle to discern if NWP is used to mean Numerical Weather Prediction or Normal Wind Profile.

Critically, even those engaged in the study and mitigation of TDS are forced to endure the most hideous TDS related injuries, as wikipedia's disambiguation page for TDS itself shows. And studies have yet to determine the relationship between Three Letter Acronym Dissonance Syndrome and Three Letter Abbreviation Dissonance Syndrome - whether they are related but distinct disorders, or the same thing. The data simply is not yet available.

Please help us raise awareness of this debilitating condition, and hopefully we can get legislation passed to ensure that clear and unambiguous TLAs are adopted across the various industries that rely heavily on their use. Please help curtail the unregulated use of ambiguous TLAs and provide some relief to the country's estimated 7.5 million suffers of TDS.

Don't suffer in silence from TDS.