On Fri, 3 Nov 1995, Futplex wrote:
Suppose I have serious and plausibly realistic aspirations to become an authority in some subtopic of cryptography, network security, etc. (sometime well into the next millenium). Am I more likely to learn and hone my skills by actively participating (sticking my neck out) or merely lurking indefinitely ? Regardless of the answer to the previous question, should the list suffer me my missteps and naivete ?
I too have though about this question. While I write crypto code and know some areas quite well, I also seem to be blessed with the ability to displaying my total ignorance in other areas in very public forums. Since I have no professional reputation to protect (I don't work in the crypto field) and don't really have any 'aspirations to become an authority', I feel I can do this so long as I also make an effort to answer the question in the area of my expertise and to also share the information I gain. The difference between ignorance and stupidity is that one decreases with time :-). eric (who is quite happy to admit his ignorance :-) -- Eric Young | Signature removed since it was generating AARNet: eay@mincom.oz.au | more followups than the message contents :-)