Summary:

1. You will never know everything, and you don’t need to know everything.

2. It’s just a job. Your company doesn’t care about you. Leave work at work.

3. Look for stuff you enjoy.

4. Do something else.

But if you really wanna spend your limited free time reading in more detail, continue on.

Lesson 1: You will never know everything, and you don't need to know everything.

Methodology wins out over technical knowledge every single time.

One of the hardest parts of security is the sheer volume of attack tactics, defensive methods, systems, programming languages, and procedures in use at any given time. There's hundreds of thousands of ports, all manner of protocols, and hundreds upon hundreds of OS processes across both Windows, Mac and Linux.

You cannot, and will not, know all of them.

To know all Windows API calls, all Mac process hooks, and all Linux kernel details across all distros is impossible, and anyone who claims otherwise should be punched in the neck for being an insufferable dickbag. Their parents failed to beat them into a decent human, but now the opportunity to correct that mistake is yours for the taking.

Just because you don't know this stuff doesn't mean you are a failure. At times I don't even know what the hell the standard port for DNS is, or how to do a simple SSH command without stopping to think for a second. What matters in security is having a general understanding, with the ability to rapidly research and comprehend everything else.

Know the gist of what the Windows API is.
Know the summary of how networks talk to each other (TCP/IP and OSI layers).
Know the overview of what the Linux kernel is as a concept and where it fits in the OS.

Something attacked via the Windows API? You know the concept of it, time to start researching what API calls and process hooks could lead to the attack, then work based on your findings.

Someone got in through an exposed SSH port? You know how a typical network is structured, cut off their access and begin remediation.

Someone loaded up a kernel exploit to a Linux system? They more than likely got it off ExploitDB, see how it leverages the kernel to get permissions they shouldn't have.

Find starting points.

Doesn't matter if you're attacking or defending.
From a starting point you can branch out, get into more detailed matters, more intricate systems. If anyone claims to know how an attack happened immediately after hearing about it, accuse them of being compliant in the attack, and then punch them in the neck.

Got a solid general understanding of how systems work?
Got a starting point?
Ready to do some research and pair what you find with what you already know of the system?

You're ready to handle anything from script kiddies to APTs. Unless it requires Ghidra, usually I just cry at that point but maybe you're built different.

Lesson 2: It's just a job. Your company doesn't care about you. Leave work at work.

If you had a heart attack on Monday, your company will have a new warm body in your chair by Tuesday.

If you absolutely destroy yourself working nonstop after hours, the only ones who will notice are the friends and family who never see you.

You're never going to lie on your deathbed and have your final thoughts be "I wish I had worked more".

Your hours of effort and incessant nights of burning yourself out to do something or achieve some milestone will be met with "Oh, okay, cool".

Fucking stop it.

The best operatives and experts in security are the ones who do their work within a window of time and are relaxed in all situations. Most of all, understand that unless you're running offensive ops in a warzone or defense in a hospital with some jank ass IoT stuff running patient life support, then nobody is going to die.

Generating that report from logs at 2am won't make it anymore special. It can be done at 9am when you're fully rested.

The SOC manager wants someone to look at a suspicious event by staying five hours after the day ends?
They can wait, there's numerous other measures in place on the network if its anything really bad.

If an entire operation breaks because of one person leaving on time, there's far larger organizational issues to be worried about. All of which are none of your problem unless you're at the top of that corporate hellscape of a totem pole.

The only place you'll end up after overworking and letting yourself be used like a wash rag is an early grave.

You’ll be cold in the ground from either the numerous permanent health issues that you’ll contract or when you finally break and make the decision to suck start a shotgun.

Take care of yourself first. And if anyone pushes back on it, drop them like a bad habit and find a job who understands the concept.

Lesson 3: Look for the stuff you enjoy.

Work sucks, and that’s never gonna change.

But if you’re gonna be chained to a desk, at least try to find the stuff that you enjoy working on. Ideally, you’ll break free at some point or find your smokeshow goth GF sugar momma that’ll set you up for life, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. (I believe in you.)

With that not being the case (yet), the best way to stay interested is to hone in on an area you like.

Knowing how to break into Linux, Windows, websites, databases and MacOS systems is cool and all, but that’s a general set of skills. In a security role, everyone (as much as I regrettably know otherwise) understands at a high level how someone could go about doing all that.
So, what granulated area in those fields do you find the most interesting?

You aren’t gonna be a subject matter expert in all fields, but you can become an expert in one particular area.

Awhile back (I’m not gonna look at the exact number of years, that’ll make me feel like shit), Valve referenced how they like to find “T Shaped” people. Which is people who are good at a wide range of things, but then experts in one area.

What you need to do is find that “one area” you can tolerate more than others. The stuff you enjoy researching, experimenting on, and testing.
There are people who have whack ass freak levels of insight into APIs, attacks based in memory, bopping network switches that run freeBSD, or compromises via hardware.
I mean hell, some people in security exclusively focus on enforcing framework compliance.

Those cryptids scare me, because they’re lizard people who exchanged their humanity in exchange for knowing the difference between a “wall” and a “barrier”.

Give a look through everything, give extra attention to one thing.

Lesson 4: Do something else.

Cybersecurity, security, netsec, etc…
Whatever you want to call it, that’s your job/career.
That is not your life.

One of the largest issues you might have is comparing yourself to others in the field. You’ll look at your 25 line Bash exploit or script that does nothing more than simple information disclosure on a target. Then you’ll look at the 500+ line exploit you found on ExploitDB, written entirely in Assembly, that can turn an air gapped Casio wristwatch into Helios.

How do you reach that point?
The answer is not to sit inside all day, working on security stuff for 14+ hours even on weekends, forgoing everything else in life.
The answer is not to make your entire existence revolve around studying software, hardware, and security related matters.

You may wonder how others have gotten to such advanced positions in cybersecurity, and in my experience and completely personal opinion, there’s two ways.

1. They have a modicum of charisma and know the right people.

2. They have certain types of Autism, Asperger’s, crippling ADHD, savant syndrome, etc…

People that fall into category 2, for the most part, are the ones who create the most batshit insane exploits and other stuff.

Let me outline what that usually entails.

• Their minds work far, far different than most people’s. Certain things like abstract logic and immensely complex mathematics simply make sense to them right out of the gate. To them, the fact that nobody else can see it the way they do is incredibly confusing.

• They find immense enjoyment in solving puzzles such as ciphers, encryption, and other related fields. To them, it’s more fun than any video game or book could ever be. In fact, it’s often an addiction.

• They obsess over small details and efficiency to the degree it’s actually crippling to their lives.

• They spend all waking hours toiling away at coding, math, and logical challenges at the expense of their health and wellbeing.

Do not compare yourself to people whose brains are wired differently than yours.

Do not attempt to try and match people whose entire existence revolves around making something .00005% more efficient.

You have a limited number of hours that you will be alive. Do not dump them into what will eventually become a singular, easily forgettable Github merge request.

The only person you should ever compare yourself to, is the person you were yesterday.

Study, do the work within the hours your job asks of you, and then go do something else afterwards. If you’re feeling good about your progress, give it another hour of studying on the weekend, but no more than that.

Go hop into a voice call with your friends and play some games, go take that person out on a date to a bookstore or a park, go chug an overpriced beer with some strangers, go to that concert, go visit your grandparents, go fiddle around with an instrument, go sketch some offensively terrible artwork.

You won’t be the all powerful cyber druid that can compromise Bitlocker with three lines of code after 5 years of around the clock work and numerous mental breakdowns.

But you’ll be far more fulfilled.

They’re gonna patch that Bitlocker exploit within two hours of you revealing it anyway.