I'm very top-down, always starting by sketching the API I'd like to see for the feature, and then filling in the implementation. A lot of people I know from C++ are bottom-up, they toy with the implementation and then go up to the API. I found that what they like in systems programming is being close to the machine, while my interest lies in the OS boundaries and interfaces, not really the hardware.
I'm thinking maybe those different ways of approaching programming make it easier or harder to learn rust.