Is learning C really a must for a programmer?

Many have this opinion. Somehow, by doing manual memory management allocation and garbage mangement one would become a better programmer.

I have little experience in C mainly because I can write terser and more readable code in Racket or Haskell. However I'm willing to give C a try just to learn these lessons that everybody keeps talking.

But I have a sneaking suspicion that I already know most of what is there to know. Can you list some useful lessons that a typical high level code dweller would be oblivious of?

>>1

you should learn C and write one super fast application that does something non trivial and never calls malloc once. Simulations and 3D physics engines are always a good choice. Allocate all of your dynamic data in global statically allocated memory pools. Do not use any data structure other than arrays and spacial trees. Make minimal use of polymorphism. Try to get the game play as smooth as possible. Finally, once the simulation is finished, introduce a FFI for it from racket and then make complex AIs for it. Sound good?