The author states that learning how to compromise a system is wasteful and stupid. On the level of learning to use a particular exploit that's hot this week, th

The author states that learning how to compromise a system is wasteful and stupid. On the level of learning to use a particular exploit that's hot this week, that's true. Learning how a class of exploits takes advantage of a class of security bugs is a good way to spot where those bugs are in your code and to evaluate how well you're avoiding them.