When I was in college, I had a year’s worth of classes where we did all of our homework assignments and projects in C.

I specifically remember hearing that if a person couldn’t grasp the concept of pointers and their associated functions, then they may not be best suited for programming. Although I think that understanding this is valuable, I’m not sure I fully agree. I digress.

Every now and then, I come across a new blog post that is breaking down pointers in C. They’re usually of the following flavor:

  • Pointers Made Easy
  • The 10 Step Guide To Understanding Pointers
  • Pointers: Let’s Get The Point!
  • …or something like that

Today, I came across another post doing the same thing. For what it’s worth, I think it’s well-written and I’m actually in favor of keeping this information current in the blogosphere.

But it did get me thinking about “WordPress pointers,” or what is WordPress’ equivalent of pointers?

Perhaps another way of phrasing it would be: What is the one of thing about WordPress development that you’d say:

If you can’t grasp this concept, you may not be suited for WordPress development.

Personally, I’d say it would be one of two things:

  • Actions and Filters
  • The page lifecycle

I could go into more detail, but I’m more interested in hearing what you guys think.

So what are your “WordPress pointers”? What’s the one thing that you consider critical for success in WordPress development?