And easier

I went from very high level (C# web and even webassembly) to C

and while I believe I learned a lot and my understanding of computers improved,

then I think the biggest lesson is that one of the most important programming ecosystems (C) is a very messy and painful.

Not because it must be painful, but because of decisions made decades ago, maybe some inertia, maybe backward compatibility, maybe culture, who knows?

Low quality compiler messages, ecosystem fragmentation, terrible standard lib (where are my basic datastructures), memory management being minefield, etc.

There's a lot of unfamiliar territory, but I'm really enjoying it. When it's complex, it feels like it's just inherently complex. Which is a breath of fresh air for a web developer. I'd gotten so sick of the bullshit complexity that comes along with the high-level work; programming feels fun again.

C has a standard library which students should understand even though it's making system calls deep down. Rust has a standard library which students should understand even though it's making system calls deep down (in fact, sometimes through the host C library).

I certainly see the value in knowing C and Unix and that was my education over two decades ago as well. But I also watched many people quit computer science altogether because they struggled with heisenbugs with C pointers. If they could have been kept on track by Rust compiler errors and higher level abstractions, maybe they would still be in the industry today, learning whatever else they needed instead of quitting in their first semester.