People say it is not worth learning because it is not a good strategy for making money. If, however, your goal is gaining a better understanding of how computers work, then clearly it is “worth it” to learn Assembly. Many people consider it a waste of time because they can write software faster in C or C++ than they could in Assembly.
In programming, you can either spend a lot of time writing software that runs fast, or you can write it fast and then let the compiler optimize it and expect people to run it on faster machines. There is always a tradeoff between quality work and the time limits imposed by the industry. But when you are a hobbyist, you have no time limit and can do what you like.
People are still learning old Assembly languages for machines that no longer exist for pure joy. I will always fondly remember the 6502 as a relic of the past that was simple to understand and powered the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Intel Assembly will serve you well because most desktop and laptop PCs are still using 32-bit and 64-bit descendants of the Intel 8086 CPU.
ARM assembly may interest you if you are using special Linux or Mac laptops that use ARM chips for their lower power consumption compared to Intel.
RISC-V Assembly is one of the newer architectures, but it is an open standard, and some people believe it will replace Intel and ARM one day because of its lower cost to produce, as it doesn’t require licensing fees paid to the makers of Intel or ARM.
Of all these, I have the most experience with Intel Assembly, and I have written books on programming using Assembly for DOS and Linux. If you are interested, I can help you get started.
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