Should I Learn Win32 API? Video Lecture - IT & Software

Should I learn Win32 API?
In theory, it teaches you a lot about how
Windows works at its most basic level.
Like Basic and Visual Basic.
No, those are obsolete programming languages
except for VB.net - and that's Microsoft's,
too.
I've heard that .Net is based on Win32.
You should learn Win32 API if you want to
be the person who can explain the inexplicable
Windows error messages.
I don't want to try to decode a blue screen
of death.
Telling people to hit restart should be good
enough.
Learning Win32 is like learning an assembly
language.
For 99% of programmers, it improves their
knowledge of the system but it doesn't affect
their day to day work much.
At least if you know assembly language, you
can get paid to program medical pumps, electric
smart meters, health monitors and other devices.
That's a job in and of itself.
In some ways, C replaced the need to learn
the API.
But if you know the API, there are things
you can do with the Win32 API you absolutely
can't do with C.
That's like being the one programmer who can
fix the hardware problem.
There are jokes about software programmers
trying to solve everything via software code,
instead of plugging in the hardware they need.
It sounds like there isn't much use of learning
Win32 API.
If I only have so much time, I could put it
into getting better with the tool set.
Yet Windows Forms and WPF are based on Win32
API.
Learning the API improves your understanding
of those, too.
I think I'll end up working in C.
Using the Win32 API can result in small and
thus faster C and C++ programs.
What about Objective C?
That's the purview of the Cult of Apple.
We're not going there.