I think the attitude that rolling your own crypto "is serious deep ninja-god black magic voodoo stuff that is beyond mere mortals" has a lot to do with why we've been blythly taking NSA's deliberately broken crap.
While I know it's hard, very hard, we shouldn't be discouraging people from making up new stuff, let a thousand flowers bloom around the NSA's walled garden .... what we should be doing is getting rigorous about testing and verification of new crypto be it from the NSA or the good guys
I don't think anyone wants to discourage people from learning about, playing with, and trying to invent new crypto.
The usual problem here is that people new to crypto frequently don't treat their whizzy new supercool algorithm as a toy that has almost certainly been done, cracked, improved, cracked and eventually abandoned. For whatever reason, it is entirely too easy for people new to crypto to convince themselves they've made a really cool discovery. There's even a cliche for this: "Anyone can create an crypto algorithm that they themselves cannot crack."
Absolutely, learn, play, and try to make something great. But keep perspective. You wouldn't invite your loved ones to be the first to test your first attempt at a home-brew parachute; similarly, don't use your home-brew crypto to protect important things.
We should put this part of the thread to bed, because CryptoExperts is the real deal, and it's kind of silly to debate "homebrew crypto" on a thread about their research.
While I know it's hard, very hard, we shouldn't be discouraging people from making up new stuff, let a thousand flowers bloom around the NSA's walled garden .... what we should be doing is getting rigorous about testing and verification of new crypto be it from the NSA or the good guys