if you learn cooking from fast‑food ads, don’t expect to become a chef.”
the internet is bigger than your search bar
people think “internet” means whatever shows up on the first page of a search engine. that is the first mistake. search engines are built for popularity, not accuracy. they show what is loud, not what is true.
search engines have almost zero value here
security is not a trending topic. security is not a keyword game. security is not something you discover through biased ranking algorithms. if you rely on a general search engine to learn infosec, you will end up with the same recycled nonsense everyone else consumes. that is how we created generations of “experts” who can’t explain a simple mechanism.
the real internet is layered
there are communities, archives, old forums, mailing lists, research corners, forgotten repositories, and technical discussions that never appear in search results. most people don’t even know these layers exist. they live on the surface web and think they have seen the ocean. learning security requires going deeper than the default interface.
use the right tools, not the loud ones
the internet has tools far more valuable than a search engine: protocol-level archives, raw feeds, old RFC discussions, niche communities, technical mailing lists, and places where people actually think instead of advertise. these are not “discoverable” through a search bar. you have to know they exist before you can reach them.
you don’t find a good mechanic by looking at billboards.”
learn from the internet, not from the algorithm
the internet is still the best teacher. but only if you treat it as a network of knowledge, not a list of ranked pages. security is learned by exploring, reading deeply, questioning assumptions, and finding the corners where real practitioners talk. the algorithm will never take you there. you have to walk there yourself.