> It seemed like all the hard work I had spent learning the various pointer types would end up being useless! I always joke about this being "programmer Stockh

> It seemed like all the hard work I had spent learning the various pointer types would end up being useless! I always joke about this being "programmer Stockholm syndrome": When you've mastered something that's actually not good at all, don't want that time and effort to have been for nothing, and become a champion for crap. It happens a lot and usually unintentionally - the champion feels genuine joy about the intricacies of what they're pushing and just wants to share it with others. You can see this happening a lot around poorly thought-through and/or overly complex technologies. This is why Rust's progressive trimming and slimming over the last 1-2 years has been really impressive and gratifying to watch - it really takes a lot to reevaluate and let go. Critics will point out that Rust still is plenty complex, of course, and I think that's healthy skepticism too.