The average guy doesn&#x27;t have the time to read enough about cryptography to have the sort of knowledge you&#x27;re wanting. This very article debates an understanding created by incomplete and poor cryptographic knowledge.<p>If there&#x27;s anything I&#x27;ve learned by studying cryptography, it&#x27;s that the average person needs to invest <i>significant</i> resources to become a pseudo-expert in cryptography - all before they can make any meaningful decision.<p>Applied Cryptography is not a terribly good starting point for cryptographic understanding these days. That&#x27;s just another facet of difficulty: where does one even start? Do you want a theoretical baseline understanding? Do you want the high-level, quick-and-dirty overview which only gives a summary? (That&#x27;ll make it hard to make real, informed decisions...)<p>If we really want to make cryptography accessible to many developers, the best solution is for the cryptographic community to make our libraries and interfaces better. At the same time, there comes a point where a developer has to stop and say &quot;this is beyond what is standardized in ${widely used library}; we need to hire a cryptographer.&quot; In that sense, we need to instill a better anti-crypto ethic.