Most people struggle with Terraform for the wrong reason.
They assume the problem is syntax.
Or provider quirks.
Or missing arguments.
In reality, the biggest source of confusion comes much earlier than that.
It comes from thinking about Terraform the wrong way.
Terraform is not a tool where you tell the system how to build infrastructure.
It is a tool where you describe what should exist and let the system decide how to make it so.
That mental shift sounds simple.
But until it clicks, Terraform feels unpredictable, frustrating, and fragile.
In this lesson, we break down what vs how, also known as desired state thinking, using clear mental models rather than command lists or tricks. You will see why Terraform behaves the way it does, why execution order is not something you control, and why the plan phase exists at all.