The borrow checker is deterministic, so the commenter in [2] is mistaken about it “deciding” that a previously-OK borrow was suddenly no good.
I do recall the steep learning curve and the frustrations with the borrow checker, but I haven’t had it impede me at all in probably two years now and I’m writing Rust most of the day every day.
Also, most of the knowledge I gained by learning to work with it is general knowledge that made me a better programmer, not specific knowledge of how to “work around” the borrow checker.
Meanwhile in the real world: "I find myself hanging for long periods of time on borrow checker errors. One of the errors has stopped my progress dead for a week now, I swear it worked a week ago and then Rust decided that a borrow I was doing was no good." [2]
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26929012
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23807574