So I get the Andreessen Horowitz newsletter. It has a topic called "Security is a protoscience (and more on 'so you want to work in security') - Michal Zalewski" I'm intrigued so I click on it and I get a short blog post that lays it out pretty clearly. This is a cross-post of what he states, and I have to admit what Michal states rings true. You can discuss it on his blog.
So you want to work in security (but are too lazy to read Parisa's excellent essay)
My own experiences align pretty closely with Parisa's take, so if you are making your first steps down this path, I strongly urge you to give her post a good read. But if I had to sum up my lessons from close to two decades in the industry, I would probably boil them down to four simple rules:
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Infosec is all about the mismatch between our intuition and the actual behavior of the systems we build. That makes it harmful to study the field as an abstract, isolated domain. To truly master it, dive into how computers work, then make a habit of asking yourself "okay, but what if assumption X does not hold true?" every step along the way.
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Security is a protoscience. Think of chemistry in the early 19th century: a glorious and messy thing, chock-full of colorful personalities, unsolved mysteries, and snake oil salesmen. You need passion and humility to survive. Those who think they have all the answers are a danger to themselves and to people who put their faith in them.
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People will trust you with their livelihoods, but will have no way to truly measure the quality of your work. Don't let them down: be painfully honest with yourself and work every single day to address your weaknesses. If you are not embarrassed by the views you held two years ago, you are getting complacent - and complacency kills.
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It will feel that way, but you are not smarter than software engineers. Walk in their shoes for a while: write your own code, show it to the world, and be humiliated by all the horrible mistakes you will inevitably make. It will make you better at your job - and will turn you into a better person, too.
