🦀 Documenting my journey from self-taught beginner to influential Rust developer
To become a great, influential Rust developer by:
- Learning in public
- Contributing to open source
- Building real projects
- Helping others along the way
Why public? Because accountability breeds consistency, and transparency helps others following the same path.
Started: August 2024
Daily Practice: ✅ Every single day
Current Phase: Foundation (Months 1-6)
Active Communities: Rust Lang meetings, Symposium
- 🌱 Building solid Rust fundamentals
- 🤝 Preparing first open source contribution (Symposium)
- 👀 Observing and learning from the Rust community
- 📚 Understanding ownership, borrowing, lifetimes
- 💪 Coding daily, no exceptions
Goal: Solid Rust fundamentals and first contributions
- Commit to daily Rust practice
- Join Rust community (attending Rust Lang meetings)
- Create this repository to learn in public
- Make first 5 open source contributions
- Help 3 people who are behind me
- Read "The Rust Programming Language" cover to cover
- Build 3 small CLI tools
Success Metric: Can confidently write and explain Rust programs
Goal: Deep dive into a specific domain
- Choose focus area (CLI tools / Web / Systems / Data / Graphics)
- Contribute regularly to 1-2 projects in that domain
- Build 2-3 projects showcasing specialization
- Write technical blog posts about learnings
- Achieve "recognized contributor" status
Success Metric: Known for expertise in chosen area
Goal: Start shaping the Rust ecosystem
- Publish first useful crate to crates.io
- Give a talk at local Rust meetup
- Mentor 2-3 newer Rustaceans
- Review PRs from other contributors
- Write comprehensive tutorials
- Get involved in Rust working groups
Success Metric: People come to me for advice in my domain
Goal: Become genuinely influential
- Maintain popular open source projects
- Speak at Rust conferences
- Contribute to Rust language itself or major projects
- Help shape discussions and direction in the ecosystem
- Mentor actively and build community
Success Metric: Recognized as an influential Rust developer
Daily entries of what I learned, struggled with, and accomplished. Raw and honest.
Code I write while learning. From tiny experiments to full applications.
Organized knowledge on Rust concepts. My personal reference library.
Major achievements documented. First PR merged, first crate published, etc.
Weekly and monthly deep dives on progress, challenges, and growth.
Curated list of resources I found invaluable.
"The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried."
My Principles:
- Consistency over intensity - Daily practice beats weekend marathons
- Public learning - Share struggles and victories openly
- Help while learning - Teaching solidifies understanding
- Patience with myself - Growth takes time
- Community first - Programming is collaborative, not competitive
What "great" means to me:
- Not writing perfect code, but code that solves real problems
- Not knowing everything, but knowing how to learn anything
- Not working alone, but building with and for community
- Not just consuming open source, but contributing back
[Will be updated with link to first merged PR]
Target: Symposium project (https://github.com/symposium-dev/symposium)
Type: Documentation improvement / Bug fix
Status: In progress
- PRs Opened: 1
- PRs Merged: 1
- Issues Created: 1
- Code Reviews: 0
- Days Coded: [Will track]
- Projects Built: 0
- Blog Posts: 0
- People Helped: 0
- Rust Meetings Attended: 3+ weeks
- Communities Joined: 2 (Rust Lang, Symposium)
- Talks Given: 0
- Mentees: 0
Updated: January 30, 2025
This Week:
- Making first open source contribution
- Understanding project structure of real Rust codebases
- Learning MCP (Model Context Protocol)
- Getting comfortable with Git workflows
This Month:
- Complete 5 small contributions
- Start building a CLI tool
- Write my first technical blog post
- Help 3 people in Rust community
This Quarter:
- Establish consistent contribution rhythm
- Choose specialization area
- Build portfolio of small projects
- Be recognized in at least one project community
I commit to:
- ✅ Coding in Rust every single day
- ✅ Documenting my journey publicly
- ✅ Making at least one contribution per week (once I start)
- ✅ Helping others whenever I can
- ✅ Being honest about struggles and failures
- ✅ Celebrating small wins
You can hold me accountable:
- Check commit history (should be daily)
- Watch for weekly updates in
/reflections - See contributions growing in the tracker above
If you're on a similar journey:
You're not alone. Learning Rust is hard. Systems programming is hard. Impostor syndrome is real.
You can do this. If I can, you can. We're all figuring this out together.
Learn with me. Open an issue, start a discussion, share your journey. Let's grow together.
Resources that helped me: See /resources/README.md
I'm a university student who taught myself Rust starting in August 2024.
I decided I want to become a great, influential Rust developer. Not just someone who can code in Rust, but someone who contributes meaningfully to the ecosystem and helps others.
I've been:
- Coding in Rust daily since August
- Attending Rust Lang meetings for 3+ weeks
- Observing, learning, preparing
This repository is my public commitment to that journey.
Connect with me: [Github, Twitter, LinkedIn, bsky, mastodon]
"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now." - Chinese Proverb
"Rust doesn't make you a great programmer. Consistently showing up does." - Anonymous Rustacean
"Everyone you admire started as a beginner." - Truth
Thanks to:
- The Rust community for being welcoming
- Everyone who learns in public and inspired me to do the same
- Future me for having the courage to start
MIT License - Learn freely, share freely
This repository is about the journey, not the code. Feel free to fork, adapt, and create your own learning journey repo!
- 🎉 Created this repository
- 📝 Documented current status and roadmap
- 🎯 Set clear goals for the next 6 months
- 🔥 Committed to learning in public
- 🚀 Ready to make first contribution
Evidence:
- ✅ I've already coded daily for 5+ months (proven consistency)
- ✅ I'm learning in public (accountability)
- ✅ I have a clear vision (influential developer, not just employed)
- ✅ I'm patient enough to observe before acting (wisdom)
- ✅ I'm joining communities, not learning alone (support system)
The only question is: How influential will I become?
Because making it isn't in doubt anymore.
Started: January 30, 2025
Current Day: 1
Days Until Goal: Many
Certainty of Success: 100%
Watch me climb. 🚀⛰️
This README will evolve as I do. Check back to see progress.
Last Updated: January 30, 2025