C is not shorthand for assembly, but there are two reasons why it feels like it. 1. You do lots of pointer arithmetic. But I don't think being practiced at poi

C is not shorthand for assembly, but there are two reasons why it feels like it. 1. You do lots of pointer arithmetic. But I don't think being practiced at pointer arithmetic is important for developing as a programmer. Just learn what it is. 2. Local variables in C exist on the stack, not the heap. But I don't think programming in C is a great way to learn about stacks. Except when you try to return a reference to a local variable from a function, everything feels the same as in other languages. If you're making a list of languages you want to try out, I wouldn't put C above 5th place. I say this as someone who spent 12 years primarily coding in C.