I am an odd duck, even for my odd little field: I'm a software security person who has spent a couple years getting decent at breaking crypto, and (weirdly) few

I am an odd duck, even for my odd little field: I'm a software security person who has spent a couple years getting decent at breaking crypto, and (weirdly) few people in my field do that, so I sound like more of an expert than I actually am. Interesting. When I worked at Entrust, our cryptology team consisted of both cryptographers and cryptanalysts. The former were math PhDs who spent their entire graduate careers designing cryptosystems, so by the time they came to us, they knew what they were about. The latter - well, there was only one when we got started - was a B.Eng. who got interested in crypto at BNR, taught himself the basics, and became one of the top cryptanalysts in the world. You and he probably have much in common - including not being qualified to design cryptosystems! Like you, he would have said to leave that to the experts. Then he would have quite happily spent weeks and months figuring out what those experts missed, thereby advancing the field. It puzzles me to this day that so few in the security field appreciate the difference between the two types of cryptologists.