I'm actually not quite sure what this is supposed to mean. If you stick to using pointers for these things:
- acquiring memory
- pass by pointer semantics in functions
- making data structures like arrays, or self referential structures like lists and trees
You will get the usefulness out of pointers and stay away from cleverness of questionable importance. You will still make mistakes with pointers of course, but trial by fire can be the best way to learn what not to do. And with practice, it sinks in and you just make more advanced mistakes.
But by then you learned how to debug!