[increment_i]

I suppose the main snag will be pointers. The approach that worked for me was the holistic approach of using C as a way of controlling the machine's memory itself.

In my view, C really only makes sense in the context of manipulating data in and out of the heap and the stack. So once you're past basic syntax, I guess start there: the heap and the stack. When you grasp that, I feel like you can stand on solid fundamentals on how computers work going forward.