I tried learning Borland Turbo C++ in the early 90's on my 286. I had the SAMS book "Learn Turbo C++ in 24 Hours". 15 year old me dutifully worked through it until I got to Pointers.
20 years later, a dev I worked with: "Oh, pointers are just a reference to a memory address".
Hmmm I wonder if my career would've been different had I learned Turbo Pascal or if I'd found somebody who could explain Pointers to me. Or, just skipped that subject until later. I really liked TC++ back then. I could even write small programs from memory. Ah, to be 15 again.
20 years later, a dev I worked with: "Oh, pointers are just a reference to a memory address".
GAH.