Individual assembly instructions are basically trivial to grasp (the actual syntax is probably the hardest part.) The challenge is synthesizing larger, useful

Individual assembly instructions are basically trivial to grasp (the actual syntax is probably the hardest part.) The challenge is synthesizing larger, useful programs from the little tidbits of data manipulation. It's a great exercise in bottom-up hierarchical integration. As deaddodo notes, this is why higher level languages were developed, to raise conscious focus away from having to use such tiny primitives.