i use to believe that i am a well growing cyber security enthusiast, learning something new everyday. constantly discovering new exploitation methods to perform, new bypasses to previous methods, capturing flags on flags and so on. taking small steps towards learning everything i possibly could, anything i feel fun to learn until yesterday... i found a critical bug in my learning process.
i mean, i dont know, but i surely did realized that i am not actually making good progress overall. yea, i know web security, i know little reversing stuffs, i can also write small scripts, but i am not best in any of these.
most of the time we spend in solving boot2root challenges, playing competitive CTFs, but what actually is the purpose of playing CTFs? to use those skills in real world.
just ask yourself a question...if your answer is yes, congratulation. you are on the right path and can close this tab. but if it's no. continue reading. maybe we both are dealing with the same bug.
there are 2 problems i figured out:
i use to felt that bug hunting is really boring, but the truth was its hard. it's not always like ctfs that we are sure there is a bug. real world programs are huge, we could find anything there at anywhere. and everytime there is a battle between you and the developers. other questions also came in my head is "am i actually capable of using my hacking skills for the betterment of society? and i found it really shameful that i am not really capable of hacking even a CP site and able to punish those people working behind it. did i ever tried? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
why are we dangling around web to reversing then programming then something else. "it's fun bro!" ok, but is it maturity? same question arises again. can you use those multiple little knowledge in achieving something great?
what's the point of learning when you can't use it in real life?
focusing on one area and mastering it till getting fully satisfied is the best way to be good at something.
first figure out the area you love to study the most. second, stick with it until you have 100s of things to share about it with friends about how you used your skills in real world and now you will realize your journey becomes way more harder but lot more focused and knowledgeable. soon, you will be really good in one field. and then can freely jump onto another journey.