From: Eric Young <eay@mincom.oz.au>
Date: Mon, 6 Nov 1995 13:31:54 +0800
To: Cypherpunks Mailing List <cypherpunks@toad.com>
Subject: Re: Many Topics are Appropriate for Discussion Here
In-Reply-To: <199511040030.TAA28181@opine.cs.umass.edu>
Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.91.951106125951.9610D-100000@orb>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



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 :-)