> Just no. This idea that people are not allowed to learn by doing things and must read huge books first is absurd.
No, its not absurd.
Sure, I agree, for many things in life you can "learn by doing".
But this is cryptography.
There is no escaping that cryptography IS mathematics and an algorithm built on top of that mathematics.
Unfortunately the only way to learn the theory is by reading and understanding books or academic papers.
Otherwise you are just taking shortcuts based on a summary that someone else has written for you on a short blog or forum post. Which, aside from the fact that you are skipping the detail and hence not really learning, also brings us into the region of trust...
If you have no interest in learning the dry theory behind the cryptography, then you have no business rolling your own crypto. Because if you are not willing to understand the theory then you are going to make serious mistakes.
This is kind of ridiculous. Everyone has to start somewhere whether it is by doing or by reading books. Even crypto experts started by doing at some point. It's not like the person is going to be using their own crypto in production.
> If you have no interest in learning the dry theory behind the cryptography, then you have no business rolling your own crypto.
As someone who wholeheartedly buys into the “thou shalt not roll thine own crypto” mantra, this attitude is just sad. Everyone who wants to has all the business rolling their own crypto for learning purposes, and you have no business telling them they shouldn’t. Stifling this sort of exploration is fundamentally wrong.
First, majority of exploits are not even in math, they are in implementation. Second, as much as math is fun, the claim that you need to start with it is plain absurd.
First thing this mantra does is that we collectively know less a out crypto and security. Second thing it does is that it selects stick-in-ass rule followers away which is exactly contraproductive. And third, it makes us stuck with crappy convoluted code crypto libs had twenty years ago, cause supply of people capable to improve it is not build up.
No, its not absurd.
Sure, I agree, for many things in life you can "learn by doing".
But this is cryptography.
There is no escaping that cryptography IS mathematics and an algorithm built on top of that mathematics.
Unfortunately the only way to learn the theory is by reading and understanding books or academic papers.
Otherwise you are just taking shortcuts based on a summary that someone else has written for you on a short blog or forum post. Which, aside from the fact that you are skipping the detail and hence not really learning, also brings us into the region of trust...
If you have no interest in learning the dry theory behind the cryptography, then you have no business rolling your own crypto. Because if you are not willing to understand the theory then you are going to make serious mistakes.