Rust Is Just a Tool

Hacker News · Feb 28, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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4 Feb 2026 I like Rust. It's versatile enough that it can be used for application and systems programming. It has the best tooling of any language I've seen. It has a fairly pleasant type system. And I think most importantly it does a great job in bringing higher level language features into an environment without a garbage collector. Rust has arguably set the bar for "fast languages that are also decently expressive". But it's just a programming language. Programming Rust does not mean I have to: like every popular crate buy into their marketing hype follow community "best practices" attack someone who prefers to solve a particular problem in C, or Zig refuse to admit it has design flaws refuse to admit the language is complex refuse to admit there are alternatives to RAII give the same smug lectures about "safety" we have all heard dozens of times before I'm picking on rust here because it's no secret it has a long history of having some very... enthusiastic users. But my broader point is that tools are just tools. They're not our identity, a mark of our wisdom, or a moral choice. Other people have different perspectives, tastes, and skills - and they may prefer different tools to us. We would do well to accept this. I'm available for hire.