In C (and C++) something as simple as forgetting to initialize a variable lands you in UB-land already, nearly every person I knew when I was learning myself (a

In C (and C++) something as simple as forgetting to initialize a variable lands you in UB-land already, nearly every person I knew when I was learning myself (and still now) ran into these things _very quickly_. Not to mention compilers make fun-times out of this by sometimes zeroing memory in debug and then not doing so for release builds (Hi MSVC!).. The "thin layer over hardware" idea is a thing of the past as soon as optimizations come into the picture, and even then.