Rust is a programming language that offers several strengths, including performance, low cost integration with C and C++ libraries, and the ability to create libraries that can be linked to other languages via FFI (Foreign Function Interface). The author of the text has been drawn to Rust's potential due to its relevance to their work on InfluxDB, a time series database. To learn Rust, the author has used a project-based approach, starting with implementing a lexer, parser, and tree walking interpreter, as described in Thorsten Ball's book "Writing an Interpreter in Go". The author has found Rust's documentation to be excellent, with built-in documentation for the standard library and third-party libraries, making it easy to learn and use. Despite some initial challenges, particularly with implementing a parser, the author has made significant progress in learning Rust and is excited about its potential for building secure systems software. The author plans to continue learning Rust and applying its principles to their work on InfluxDB, including creating an embeddable implementation of Flux, a new scripting language.