For 90+% of the problems out there, a business programmer doesn't need to know anything about memory#. Short of a few rules, I don't see why they can't ever go without learning about memory space, allocation, reference types, etc.

They will make mistakes, sure. But they will get the work done, and that's pretty much what most businesses need. Eventually, as problems creep in, the messes created by lack of knowledge get resolved/cleaned up.

Programming is incredibly easy and powerful, when made simple. The problem is that learning programming in C/C++ is anything but simple! And the only reason we'd think otherwise is because we already went through it, somehow.

I've seen non-technical minded people learn programming with C/C++ as their first language. They get frustrated because they don't know why certain things work magically while similar things don't. So they end up learning to memorize what works and what doesn't, and copy-pasting what the book tells them. Eventually kludging together a working solution to a problem in the book. With no hint of understanding why.

#Yes I pulled that statistic from thin air.