My own introduction to AES and developing further variations was via the print version of the algorithm in 1981 edition of Computer Networks by Andrew S. Tanenbaum & David J. Wetherall, talking about combinatorics and groups at length with people good in that field, and then tinkering with extending early versions of Cayley [-1]
If you are going to dabble in cryptography it might be wise to approach it via the theory, work in the domain symbolically, and generate code that provably "works as designed" so that you can focus on attacks on the design in a symbolic domain.
You then have a secure element in a security eco-system ... which leaves the issue of wether the end-points of that element are insecure or indeed whether the entire security locale can be avoided [pi]
If you are going to dabble in cryptography it might be wise to approach it via the theory, work in the domain symbolically, and generate code that provably "works as designed" so that you can focus on attacks on the design in a symbolic domain.
You then have a secure element in a security eco-system ... which leaves the issue of wether the end-points of that element are insecure or indeed whether the entire security locale can be avoided [pi]
[-1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magma_(computer_algebra_system...
[pi] insert picture of padlocked gate with no fence in otherwise open field.