@simon_brooke as for my own thoughts: I think Zig is interesting, especially for those coming from C, and it might even be the correct choice depending on your project. However, i still highly recommend spending some time learning Rust, if its at all interesting to you and you can manage finding the time and energy for it. Even if you don't end up using it (much), a common statement to hear from people who have learnt Rust and for whatever reason use a different language is "Learning it made me a better programmer in other languages" - its compiler and common patterns teaches a certain way of thinking about code and what to pay attention to thats surprisingly valuable.

Its also the kind of thing where its inherent structure, constraints, and patterns can really click with some people, especially those who excell at recognizing abstract patterns and transferring them to related areas.