Teaching crypto to newbies

[John W. Moore III]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512

reynt0 wrote:

>    Risk is objective; security is subjective.
>  ...
>    Looking for risk is being awake; feeling secure is being
> asleep.

Well said.  One also wonders if You also sell Insurance.  :)

> A newbie who is aware they don't know much, may well *feel*
> the reason they need crypto is because not much is trustable,
> and they *feel* a healthy anxiety.  And though it may well
> happen to be that what is called "Web of Trust" is among
> useful tools for dealing with the problems, one is not
> teaching newbies psychological skills of telling how they
> can trust or not, one is (should be) teaching how to *think*
> weighing "risks" and showing how crypto is a tool to reduce risk.
> So newbies may be due some slack when they don't do well with
> learning "trust" as logic, because it isn't logic.

Sadly, teaching 'how to think' is the most difficult task imaginable.
Everyone has a 'WoT' but they don't realize it most of the time.  All a
'Web of Trust' means is Who do You rely upon to consistently behave/act
in any given situation.  Most folks utilize their 'brain housing group'
to preform 'Trust Calculations' each & every time they interact with
another Human Being.  They just don't realize that this is what they are
doing.  "Weighing Risks" is done with every transaction with another
individual.  I feel that every encounter with another person is a 'trust
calculation' and is based upon the logic of past experience applied to
'1st impression' re-calculated with increased observation of behavior.
This is why the majority of people will kill to defend "Mom" because She
is assigned Ultimate Trust through lifetime experience.  Therefore, I
disagree with Your assertion that trust isn't based upon 'logic' since
all logic is the application of experience in the present moment.

JOHN ;)
Timestamp: Tuesday 02 Dec 2008, 08:17  --500 (Eastern Standard Time)
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.10-svn4878: (MingW32)
Comment: Public Key at:  http://tinyurl.com/8cpho
Comment: Gossamer Spider Web of Trust: https://www.gswot.org
Comment: Homepage:  http://tinyurl.com/yzhbhx

iQEcBAEBCgAGBQJJNTVjAAoJEBCGy9eAtCsP5REH/1JlgocBtZL+7DIoBkwoggvo
arwQYizWpK5WHdXhj0CI97xvWsRtVlT/3QgKV034GtK/AU4KHrRQWFLnf8BMVsKL
v52ZC7fc0kcE3C0y5QaxFSqR5MMPQMGrR8c15pN/u66greWQvdwF/ZErq04G3dX2
mRDZbyhbI4vlH/jEWXzSS9BykHA0zFOPI0U4iLAKrvarprBevSe355y3iVbyUCRW
/D+IXBfWLJHyfMtBR1pUvdgOzHw0HKcyQUuI2/yvN+rInmDmPpTAOq1iJ3mhgKJY
UvzzJjNdVKne4H4agW5JgT8HSgwQYYzQsGGazsb0znRGtc9UAZuFylExlgNKZNU=
=mNdv
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----