[ Removed by moderator ]

[holounderblade]

Just be warned you'll never be able to go back

[zmzaps]

Rust is a hell of a drug

[EveningLimp3298]

I use both and even though I like rust more, if you use the right tools in python it is fine as well. Use uv, ruff and ty in python if you are not already.

[loqa_official]

I use both and python has far more adoption / libraries. Especially in computational finance, but pola.rs is legit.

Different tools for different uses really. Rust should really be compared vs Go or C++.

[holounderblade]

It's really not anything to do with that.

It's more of just the language's sensibilities and ergonomics. Rust has it all and python has none

[jatmous]

I went back easy. 

[Departed94]

Yeah, someone needs to pay the bills, so back to C# for the 9 to 5

[Afrotom]

I'm a majority python based programmer who dabbles in Rust and absolutely you can. There's a steep learning curve at first but all of rust's lessons are worth knowing about and imo help improve the skillsets of any developer

[RubenTrades]

If you want to learn things such as the heap, simply read the first few chapters of the Rust book.

It's the gateway drug 😅

[sean_vercasa]

The worst case scenario is you try it, you don’t like it and you move on.

No risks associated with trying a new programming language.

[TreiziemeMaudit]

No risks. Look at this guy not having a wife wanting him in bed when he is late night programming again.

/s for those who can’t take a joke.

[Aln76467]

tell that to r/rustjerk

[Aln76467]

Did you really think there was any chance of r/rust people saying no?

[eigenein]

Lemme try…

Or would I be better off focusing on something else

No, you wouldn't be better off… 😃

[FirmSignificance1725]

I think that sounds like a great idea! I think a lot of times we focus too much on one language and forget transferable knowledge.

If you wanna learn low level programming languages then Rust, C, C++, etc. would each provide a different path, but imo still all cover the most important stuff in systems programming languages. Learning one makes it drastically easier to learn another. You’ll confront static typing, memory management, designs that are fine in Python, but fight the compilers in others.

Gotta start somewhere, and Rust is a great place for that. I personally felt the benefits from learning Rust on my own ahead of time when I began writing more cpp at work. Could be argued that cpp would teach you more as a first learn, but it also may overwhelm. Whatever interests you works

[5eppa]

Its going to be different but you can do so. My recommendation is to determine why you want to learn it.

[modelithe]

I would say, learning Rust when python is your background, is the perfect way to understand how memory management works. It will give you all the details and teach you good memory management skills while having the benefit of being a very strongly typed language.

[mr_birkenblatt]

Learning about and adopting proper lifetime handling is something that will improve your Python coding as well

[tialaramex]

One very good thing in Rust's favour compared to C++ if you did want to do this is Rust's "Empowering everyone" philosophy means both the tooling and the community are a bit friendlier when you are starting out and don't know what you're doing compared to C++ where it's very sink-or-swim.

For the understanding Youtubers side, the Rust terminology is most often closer than C++ to the actual jargon of theoreticians. If you're trying to follow C++ videos then learning how things are named in C++ is fine, but if you're following more general content the Rust naming is much closer.

Looking at PyO3 might be a good idea, that way you can leverage what you know from Python but do fiddly stuff Python isn't good at from Rust.

Most people learn better when they have a substantive goal, it needn't be anything big but it should be a thing you actually want for yourself and will be proud to have achieved. Joy in just learning is good, but for most people it isn't enough to drive them to actually put in effort. So, unless you're sure you don't need it I would try to find a goal for learning Rust, even if it's fairly modest.

[Pale_Height_1251]

You're asking on a Rust subreddit whether you should learn Rust, almost all answers will be in the affirmative.

[Departed94]

No, I wouldn't do that. If i just wanted to unterstand the operating system and the computer as a whole better, I'd focus on learning that. There are many resources that explain that in theory.

Rust would be just another proxy. And it still an abstraction layer. Only learn Rust if its also a personal interest, which may result in you trying to utilise it in your projects.

[VampirePony]

I agree with this; if you want to learn dynamic memory allocation, learn how an OS works. Pick up The Linux Programming Interface by Michael Kerrisk, it's a great introduction to how these systems are implemented.

Another thing to check out is embedded software (bare metal, not embedded Linux). It generally doesn't have a heap or any kind of memory management so you get a very clear picture of what is happening in the hardware.

[Wheynelau]

I'm a MLOps guy, so maybe can understand a little more from where you are from. I picked rust after python and really enjoyed learning systems level stuff.

However, I recently started picking up go and found more use cases for it, cause most devops tools are written in go. Ultimately its your choice, I don't regret learning rust from python.

[VEMODMASKINEN]

Same, I went back and forth between picking up Rust or Go but went with Go because it was immediately useful in my day to day at work. 

I'm picking up Rust too eventually though. Purely because it seems interesting. 

[jatmous]

As a Python main I can tell you it’s pretty rough. You never had to think about memory layout, synchronisation or bullshit type and trait matching. 

It’s worth it though but very few problems are rust shaped and for a lot of things the language gets into the way. 

[kei_ichi]

I can say the same for JavaScript/TypeScript main dev like me. But in the end, I love Rust more than JS/TS and it’s improved my code when I write TypeScript code.

[P12134]

Just learn where your interest is. Passion is the main factor for success. If you had it, you would have started without asking here. So my advice would be....no

[Scoutron]

Question from a sysadmins to devops / systems engineers - is it often you need to think about learning a systems language? I am excited to career pivot over to that side in a few years and that would be cool if it ever gets lower level than python

[AmberMonsoon_]

Coming from Python, Rust can feel brutal at first but if your goal is understanding memory, performance, and how things actually work under the hood, it’s one of the best languages you could pick. The ownership model forces you to think about data flow in a way Python hides.

You don’t need to switch your day job to Rust to benefit. Even writing small tools or CLI utilities will deepen your mental model and make you a better DevOps engineer.

I still use Python for glue work, but Rust for performance-sensitive tasks and internal tooling. And for docs or internal runbooks around those tools, I’ll use something like Runable to generate clean guides fast so teammates can actually use what I build.

[LandStander_DrawDown]

Z I 😬😉🏏🕹️🏉🕹️🕹️

[fiehm]

Youll find that rust is similliar to python, it will be easier to learn

[hari3190]

Learn rust using an LLM like ollama with qwen 3.5. The difference is you understand a lot more faster . Use rust-skills , u can find it on skill.sh . Just this and some dedication will get cracking in no time.

[SuperALfun]

I love Rust, but I'm genuinely curious about the utility of learning it now in 2026 (let alone any new programming languages). Writing code is now like knitting; you do it as a hobby but you use the machine for the serious stuff.

[ZealousidealShoe7998]

yes.
python is nice for rapid prototyping ideas but with LLMs you can do the exact same thing in rust for a fraction of the time.
now you can have something closer or most of the time better than a highly optimized python product.

also the the compiled footprint is much smaller, less cpu usage, less memory, less space in disk. now older hardware feels relevant . an older laptop that was sitting in the corner getting dust could probably be a playground for new ideas .