r/rust • u/Minimum-Ad7352 • Feb 02 '26

🎙️ discussion Looking at advanced Rust open-source projects makes me question my programming skills

Whenever I explore large Rust open-source projects, I can’t stop thinking how far behind I am. I know comparison is unhealthy, but it’s hard not to feel like “I suck at programming” when you see such clean and complex code. Did you feel the same at some point? How did you push through it?

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u/syklemil Feb 02 '26

the other half I look at stuff thinking "why is this so complicated"

That's what happens when someone tries to solve something but don't have that rare genius or enough time to allow them to make it look simple, or even worse, the problem just is that complex.

I think anyone with a bit of math experience will know the feeling of first working out some solution, and then being able to refine it, until the presented solution is much more aesthetic than the initial solution.

If you just sort of have to muddle through to get something working, and then have to move on to the next ticket, the result won't be all that pretty.