The catch with trying the reasonable compromises that are acceptable in other specialist areas often backfire in cryptography. "It's fine, this isn't serious, we'll fix it later" is something you can live with when it just results in a half-baked ORM, but much less fine when it results in seriously flawed cryptography that endangers people.

Cryptocat - and decryptocat - is a good example on both points.

In an ideal world, that is what university should be for. I rolled a whole bunch of my own numerical code while working on my degree, and got to learn in a 'safe' environment how hard it actually can be and all the pitfalls there are. When people say don't roll your own crypto, what they really mean is don't roll your own crypto and use it in production.

Completely off topic. If I was forced to choose between a slow cooker and a stand mixer, I would keep my stand mixer every time.

That's true, but since we're supposed to be learning our whole career, this could work for CS fundamentals but not for new things that appear after.

> Completely off topic. If I was forced to choose between a slow cooker and a stand mixer, I would keep my stand mixer every time.

A big reason that makes me love my slow cooker is that I only have a small induction plate that can either burn food or not cook it at all.