> If I do address math on the pointer in order to find a payload, then isn’t the payload tied into exactly one next pointer, and thus exactly one list? The con

> If I do address math on the pointer in order to find a payload, then isn’t the payload tied into exactly one next pointer, and thus exactly one list? The container_of macro takes the type and member - so for a different member it can subtract a different offset. Going more basic, you could imagine creating something like: struct Node { Node* next; Node* next_10th; Node* next_100th; }; The normal, 10ths, and 100ths lists are distinct collections, this is the basic idea. The macros just help generalise it and make it more usable.