I’ve decided I’m going to be bad at cybersecurity in public.
Not deliberately, obviously.
But if I’m going to write about what I’m learning, I can’t wait until I understand everything before I start sharing.
Because I’m nowhere near that point.
I’m still looking up Linux commands. I’m still wrapping my head around networking concepts. I’m learning Python slowly. Sometimes I’ll read something, think I understand it, and realise two days later that I only understood about 30% of it.
And that’s exactly why I want to document the journey.
This isn’t a cybersecurity expert teaching cybersecurity.
It’s someone learning cybersecurity and keeping notes along the way.
I’m starting from somewhere, not from zero
Calling myself a complete beginner wouldn’t be entirely accurate.
I’ve spent years working with websites and SEO, so I’ve already encountered parts of the technology that cybersecurity builds on.
DNS.
HTTP.
Servers.
JavaScript.
Status codes.
Bots.
Log files.
Website migrations.
I’ve worked around these things, but usually from the perspective of search.
Cybersecurity is making me revisit them with different questions.
That gives me a useful starting point.
It also creates a problem.
Sometimes familiarity makes you think you understand something better than you actually do.
I’m discovering those gaps too.
The Google Cybersecurity Certificate gave me a map
My first structured step into cybersecurity was working through the Google Cybersecurity Certificate.
It introduced me to security fundamentals, risk management, networking, Linux, SQL, threats and vulnerabilities, incident detection and response, and Python.
I wouldn’t say finishing a course means you’ve learned cybersecurity.
What it gave me was a map.
Before, cybersecurity felt like this enormous subject containing everything from ethical hacking to cloud security.
Now I can at least see some of the different roads.
The next challenge is figuring out which ones I want to explore.
Networking is exposing some gaps
Networking has been one of the most interesting parts so far.
It’s also one of the areas where I’m realising how much I don’t know.
I’ve worked with DNS for years.
I’ve talked about servers.
I’ve dealt with HTTPS.
I understand HTTP status codes extremely well because they’re part of technical SEO.
Then cybersecurity starts introducing networking in more depth.
TCP.
UDP.
Ports.
Packets.
Firewalls.
Routing.
Protocols.
Suddenly I’m back in beginner mode.
That’s useful.
Instead of memorising definitions, I’m trying to understand what is actually happening when one machine communicates with another.
I expect I’ll revisit networking many times.
Linux is teaching me patience
Then there’s Linux.
Sometimes I feel productive using the command line.
Other times I mistype something and spend far too long wondering why it doesn’t work.
It’s tempting when learning technical subjects to hide those moments.
You want to share the impressive part.
The command that worked.
The script you built.
The lab you completed.
But the mistake is usually where the learning happens.
If I enter the wrong command and have to understand why it failed, I’ve probably learned more than if everything worked immediately.
At least that’s what I tell myself while staring at another error message.
Python is another work in progress
Python is something I’ve wanted to learn properly for a while.
My interest isn’t limited to cybersecurity.
I can see uses for it in SEO, automation, data analysis and security.
Right now, though, I’m still building the fundamentals.
Variables.
Loops.
Functions.
Working with data.
Reading and understanding scripts.
Making mistakes that someone experienced with Python would probably solve in about seven seconds.
That’s okay.
I don’t need to become a Python developer.
My goal is to reach a point where I can recognise a problem and think:
“I could probably build something to help with this.”
Then actually build it.
I want to share the mistakes too
This is the part I’m most interested in.
The internet has enough success stories.
“How I mastered Python.”
“How I became a cybersecurity professional.”
“10 things every security expert knows.”
Those articles have their place.
But there’s another type of content I find useful when I’m learning:
What did you misunderstand?
What took longer than expected?
Which concept finally clicked?
What did you try that didn’t work?
What would you do differently?
Those are the things I want to document.
Maybe I configured something incorrectly in my home lab.
Maybe my first Python security script is terrible.
Maybe I completely misunderstand a networking concept and later have to correct something I’ve written.
If that happens, I’ll update it.
Learning doesn’t always produce a clean story.
Writing forces me to understand things better
There’s also a selfish reason for documenting this publicly.
Writing helps me learn.
It’s easy to finish a course video and think:
“Yeah, that makes sense.”
Explaining the same concept without looking at your notes is a different challenge.
That’s when you discover whether you actually understand it.
I’ve experienced this before.
Working as a lecturer taught me that explaining something to another person exposes gaps in your own understanding very quickly.
I want to use this blog in a similar way.
Not necessarily to teach cybersecurity, but to force myself to explain what I’m learning in my own words.
I want to build, not just collect certificates
Certifications can be useful.
They provide structure and give you something concrete to work towards.
But I don’t want my cybersecurity journey to become a collection of badges.
I want practical evidence that I’m improving.
A home lab.
Small Python projects.
Networking exercises.
Linux practice.
Incident investigation exercises.
Notes from security labs.
Maybe projects connecting cybersecurity with SEO.
I’d rather have five small things I’ve actually built and understood than another 20 courses sitting in my browser bookmarks.
I’ll probably change direction
I don’t know which area of cybersecurity I’ll eventually enjoy most.
Right now, defensive security and incident investigation interest me.
That might change.
I could discover something completely different six months from now.
That’s another reason I like documenting the journey as it happens rather than writing the story afterwards.
Most career stories become much cleaner in hindsight.
We connect all the dots and make every decision sound intentional.
Real life isn’t usually like that.
Sometimes you try something because it looks interesting.
Then another thing catches your attention.
Then something you thought you’d love turns out not to be for you.
That’s part of the process.
There is no finish line for this series
I’m not building towards a blog post called:
“I Finally Know Cybersecurity.”
I don’t think that moment exists.
Instead, I want this section of my blog to become a record of progress.
What I’m studying.
What I’m building.
What confused me.
What finally clicked.
What I got wrong.
What cybersecurity is teaching me about SEO.
What SEO unexpectedly prepared me for.
And whatever direction the learning takes next.
Maybe somebody else starting cybersecurity later finds one of these posts and realises they’re not the only person who had to Google the same Linux command five times.
That would be enough.
For now, I’m just getting started
One of the things I’ve had to relearn is that being experienced in one area doesn’t mean you have to be experienced everywhere.
I can be confident discussing SEO strategy in the morning and completely confused by a networking lab that evening.
Both can be true.
There’s something exciting about that.
So I’m going to keep learning cybersecurity in public.
I’ll share the useful notes.
I’ll share the projects.
I’ll share the connections I find with SEO.
And when I get something wrong, I’ll share that too.
Because progress is probably more interesting when you don’t pretend the mistakes didn’t happen.
