It’s relatively easy to mentally compile unoptimised C, or to look at an unoptimised assembly listing and correlate it with the source, but that’s about as far

It’s relatively easy to mentally compile unoptimised C, or to look at an unoptimised assembly listing and correlate it with the source, but that’s about as far as the metaphor goes. C is a high-level language. Only when I’m writing very performance-sensitive code do I actually think “here’s a branch, there’s a load, yonder is a divide”. Most of the time it’s “eh, compiler’ll get it”.