TypeScript is a Crutch. Here's Why You Should Learn Rust Instead.

Let’s be clear: TypeScript is a monumental improvement over plain JavaScript. It brought static typing to a wild-west language, catching bugs at compile time, enabling fearless refactoring, and making large-scale application development manageable. For the modern web ecosystem, it has been a godsend.

But that’s the point. It’s a patch. A brilliant, effective, and wildly popular patch, but a patch nonetheless. It’s a crutch that helps JavaScript walk more steadily, but it doesn’t teach it to run.

If you’re a developer who truly cares about performance, reliability, and building a foundational skillset for the next decade, you’re looking in the wrong place. You should be learning Rust.

This isn’t just about learning a new language. It’s about upgrading your entire mental model of what programming can be.

The TypeScript Compromise: Safety at a Cost

TypeScript operates on a fundamental compromise: it adds a type layer on top of JavaScript, but it ultimately compiles down to the same dynamic, runtime-governed language. This introduces inherent gaps in your safety net.

1. The “Escape Hatch” of any

The any type is TypeScript’s get-out-of-jail-free card. It silently disables type checking, creating hidden pockets of uncertainty in your codebase. While linters can warn against it, its very existence means your type safety is opt-in and can be easily bypassed under pressure, leading to runtime errors that TypeScript was meant to prevent.

// TypeScript trusts you... until it doesn't.
function fetchData(data: any) { // We've lost all type safety here.
    console.log(data.name); // This could be undefined at runtime!
}

2. The Illusion of Null Safety

TypeScript’s strict null checks are excellent, but they only protect you within the boundaries of your own code. The moment you interact with a third-party API, a DOM element, or any data without perfect types, you’re back to manual null-checking and runtime uncertainty.

// TypeScript can't save you from a missing DOM element.
const element = document.getElementById("my-button");
element.addEventListener('click', () => { }); // Object is possibly 'null'.

3. The Compile-Time-Only Guarantee

Your TypeScript types evaporate at runtime. All that meticulous interface design provides no runtime validation. If an API returns a malformed response that doesn’t match your type, your application will fail at runtime, not at compile time. You’re forced to duplicate your efforts with libraries like Zod to get true end-to-end safety.

TypeScript makes JavaScript predictable. Rust makes it obsolete for systems-level tasks and beyond.

The Rust Revolution: Memory Safety Without a Garbage Collector

Rust takes a radically different approach. Its core promise is memory safety without the overhead of a garbage collector. It achieves this through a revolutionary concept called ownership.

The Ownership System: A New Paradigm

Instead of a garbage collector running in the background or relying on manual malloc and free, Rust enforces memory safety at compile time through three rules:

1. Each value has an owner.
2. There can only be one owner at a time.
3. When the owner goes out of scope, the value is dropped.

This system completely eliminates entire classes of bugs:

• Null pointer dereferencing: Impossible in safe Rust.
• Data races: The compiler’s borrow checker ensures that either multiple parts of your code can read data, or one part can write to it, but never both at the same time.
• Use-after-free errors: The ownership model guarantees that once memory is freed, it can never be accessed again.

// Rust won't even compile this unsafe code.
fn main() {
    let s1 = String::from("hello");
    let s2 = s1; // Ownership of "hello" is *moved* from s1 to s2.

    println!("{}, world!", s1); // ERROR! s1 is no longer valid here.
}

This code fails at compile time. In TypeScript (or C++), this kind of error would manifest as a confusing runtime bug. Rust forces you to be correct from the start.

Fearless Concurrency

This is Rust’s killer feature. The same ownership system that prevents memory errors also prevents data races. Writing concurrent, parallel code is notoriously difficult and error-prone. Rust’s compiler makes it easy to get right.

use std::thread;

fn main() {
    let mut v = vec![];

    thread::spawn(move || {
        v.push(1); // The move keyword ensures the thread takes ownership of v.
    }).join().unwrap();

    // The compiler prevents us from using v here, as it's owned by the thread.
}

You can write blazingly fast, parallel code with the confidence that the compiler is your strict, unforgiving partner, ensuring thread safety.

Zero-Cost Abstractions

Rust’s mantra is “if it compiles, it probably works.” Its abstractions—like enums, pattern matching, and traits—are “zero-cost.” This means you get high-level, expressive code that compiles down to machine code as efficient as hand-written C++. You don’t pay for what you don’t use.

Beyond the Browser: The Expanding Rust Ecosystem

While Rust is making inroads into the frontend with tools like Leptos and Yew, its true power lies beyond the browser. It’s not just a “web language.”

• WebAssembly (WASM): Rust is the leading language for compiling to WASM, allowing you to write performance-critical parts of your web app (like image processing, games, or simulations) in Rust and run them in the browser at near-native speed.
• Backend & Infrastructure: Frameworks like Axum and Rocket are building incredibly fast and reliable web servers. Rust is a first-class citizen in the backend world.
• The Foundation of the Modern Web: Major projects are betting big on Rust. Next.js’s build system, Turbopack, is written in Rust. Deno, a modern JavaScript runtime, is built in Rust. React itself is now experimenting with a Rust-based compiler.

The Learning Curve: An Investment, Not a Cost

Yes, Rust is harder to learn. The “fearless” programming it enables comes from wrestling with the borrow checker. You will fight it. You will lose. And then, you will have a profound “aha!” moment, and you will emerge as a better programmer—not just in Rust, but in every language.

The concepts of ownership, lifetimes, and data race prevention will change how you write code in TypeScript, Python, or Go. You’ll start thinking more critically about memory, data flow, and API design.

The Verdict: It’s Not Either/Or, But What’s Next

You shouldn’t abandon TypeScript tomorrow. It remains the best practical choice for most large-scale web frontends today. It’s a powerful crutch, and sometimes you need a crutch to get the job done.

But if you see TypeScript as the final destination of your programming journey, you’re settling. Rust isn’t just another language to add to your resume; it’s an investment in a deeper understanding of systems programming that will define the next generation of high-performance, reliable software.

Don’t just build on a patched foundation. Learn to build the foundation itself.

Start your Rust journey today: The official The Rust Programming Language Book (aka “The Book”) is one of the best and most praised resources in all of software.