This repo collects notes for Rust-focused mentorship and project collaboration. I (Chris) provide pairing or async guidance while mentees drive the work, mostly on open-source initiatives under permissive licenses.

THIS IS NOT AN OPEN INVITATION OF TUTORING/ASSISTANCE TO ANYONE WORKING ON ANYTHING

I work a lot and I have several young children, my time is very limited so you must be working on something interesting or useful to me in order for me to spend time assisting you.

• Reach out before claiming a project so we can sync on goals and time commitments; if interest grows, expect shared office hours alongside 1:1 sessions.
• Preferred tooling: a Mac or Linux setup with a comfortable desk environment; Windows users should run WSL2 + Ubuntu LTS.
• Communication happens primarily online (Telegram recommended); Twitter DM (@theodorvaryag) is open for initial contact.
• The mentorship emphasizes learning, portfolio building, and OSS impact rather than direct job placement.

• New to Rust? Follow the official learning path at https://www.rust-lang.org/learn and work through Rustlings (clone the repo locally for the best experience).
• I can help unblock you as questions arise—pairing is encouraged when you get stuck.

I can support a wide range of Rust work, with deeper experience in some areas than others:

• Full-stack Rust for web frontends (incl. browser!)/backends, async systems, and services.
• Performance tuning, benchmarking, low-level efficiency, SIMD/vectorization.
• Data platforms, ETL schedulers, Kafka (including rdkafka), and large-scale state handling.
• Crypto, blockchain, and peer-to-peer applications.
• Virtual machines, interpreters, compilers, and programming languages.
• Testing strategy, CLI/TUI tooling, GTK/egui GUIs, and emerging MCP/LLM integrations.
• I have some experience implementing and optimizing GPU/CUDA kernels
• I have limited experience with but growing interest in applying formal methods (Lean 4, TLA+).

Nockchain (https://github.com/zorp-corp/nockchain) is an example project we might tackle together. Current threads include:

• Moving from full state snapshots to incremental persistence optimized for SSD durability.
• Designing write-ahead logging plus change-data-capture streams for external subscribers.
• Exploring faster Hoon-to-Nock compilation via a Rust-native parser/compiler for a useful subset of the language.
• General Nock VM improvements aligned with your interests.

If Nockchain isn't your focus, we can identify other projects that match your goals—use this repo as a staging point for ideas and upcoming GitHub issues.

My Telegram is @bitemyapp. We have a Telegram group for coordinating/helping each other.