

One time I got written up for stating that “failing to take cyber security seriously creates a massive potential liability” for the company. Apparently that was “out of line.”
Well you know what else is out of line? Critical infrastructure organizations (i.e. utilities) that don’t take security seriously.
I do not miss that dumpster fire.

Self hosting is a great opportunity to learn about some popular technologies and even acquire a few sysadmin skills. Required knowledge of a self-hosted solutions tech stack is not gatekeeping any more than required knowledge of tools and building materials is gatekeeping when it comes to renovating your bathroom. In either scenario, if you don’t know what you’re doing, it’s going to be a much more difficult job.
That said, you should not be exposing any of your services to the public if you don’t know what you’re doing. That’s a quick way to a bad time.