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> But as a society, we stand to benefit from educating people. Someone has to actually build the off-the-shelf crypto, right? So if strictly everybody is told "

> But as a society, we stand to benefit from educating people. Someone has to actually build the off-the-shelf crypto, right? So if strictly everybody is told "nah, don't roll your own", who's going to advance the field? I'm sorry but I don't buy that argument. The main problem with that line of argument is where do you stop. I mean sure, its great to "educate people" but in the end each person only has so many hours in the day. They also have other constraints on their time (jobs, families etc.). If we take your argument to its logical conclusion then you will tell me that I cannot consider visiting a Chinese Restaurant unless I have educated myself by learning Chinese and the intricacies of Chinese cuisine and cooking techniques so then I can make "smart decisions" about what I eat for dinner when all I really want is some roast duck and some steamed prawn dumplings ? Sheesh.

vladvasiliu 5y ago
That's really not my argument. I'm not talking about forcing education on anyone, and preventing them from doing things if they're uneducated. Rather, I'm all for making education easily available. Sure, if you want to roll your own crypto or go to a Chinese restaurant without learning about those things, go ahead. I have absolutely no problem with that. My point is that education about those (and really, any) topics shouldn't be hard to come by if you're interested. That doesn't mean that you should have to pass a Chinese culture exam in order to be allowed in a restaurant. But if you're curious about Chinese cuisine, it's better if you don't have to jump through hoops to learn about it, or have to visit 10000 restaurants for 10 years, so you can learn about it through "trial and error". --- edit: The specific line your first comment cited from its parent is, emphasis mine: >> people have said "don't roll your own crypto" - but really, that's stupid. What we need is accessible information to explain cryptography to people, so they know how to make smart crypto decisions This is what I'm replying to. Easy access doesn't mean forcing anyone to learn anything.

vladvasiliu 5y ago

That's really not my argument. I'm not talking about forcing education on anyone, and preventing them from doing things if they're uneducated. Rather, I'm all for making education easily available. Sure, if you want to roll your own crypto or go to a Chinese restaurant without learning about those things, go ahead. I have absolutely no problem with that. My point is that education about those (and really, any) topics shouldn't be hard to come by if you're interested. That doesn't mean that you should have to pass a Chinese culture exam in order to be allowed in a restaurant. But if you're curious about Chinese cuisine, it's better if you don't have to jump through hoops to learn about it, or have to visit 10000 restaurants for 10 years, so you can learn about it through "trial and error". --- edit: The specific line your first comment cited from its parent is, emphasis mine: >> people have said "don't roll your own crypto" - but really, that's stupid. What we need is accessible information to explain cryptography to people, so they know how to make smart crypto decisions This is what I'm replying to. Easy access doesn't mean forcing anyone to learn anything.