Linus is (was?) one of my living heroes. But he controls the Linux kernel.
FTA:
"It's worth noting that the maintainer of record (me) for the Linux RNG quit the project about two years ago precisely because Linus decided to include a patch from Intel to allow their unauditable RdRand to bypass the entropy pool over my strenuous objections. " -- Eugen* Leitl
Linus has close ties to Intel and has for a long time.
Well, it is documented that the NSA made DES weaker by using less bits for key size (this makes brute forcing easier). I aslo noted that Schiener's AES submission was passed over (I speculate that Rijndael is easier to brute force).
The feds used to fight civilian crypto tooth and nail. Then they allowed it, and in one of the crypto books a story was related that the feds were bummed about RSA and friends. The listener questioned why, when surely their efforts were feeble compared to the government's. The response was the pace of development was much faster than expected.
I do not mean to be so negative about higher education, or any education. I just believe getting a CS degree to learn how to program contemporary technologies is a poor path to take.
When you are bootstrapping, save all your cash. Once you have a lot of customers and income you can invest in administrative infrastructure. I assume since you are 18 you do not have large assets to protect.