Recently, someone suggested to me that Rust would be a great first language for someone new to I.T. I was aghast at his suggestion.

So I wrote a reply: https://smalltalk.tech.blog/2023/04/13/rust-as-a-first-programming-language/.

Yes, Rust will kick any beginner's ass. This is not an easy language to learn. Painful, in fact.

Something else you mentioned in another comment is that Rust can be slow to compile. I love Go because it compiles lightning quick. If you use Smalltalk, there is no compilation time at all, none, nada, zilch!

Beginners want to see instant results. They don't want to wait for the compiler.