E26: Do coding agents help or hinder learning?

Charlie and Oz reconnect after a year to tackle the question of our times: now that coding agents actually work, does learning computer science still matter — and is the agent an asset to your growth or a liability? They get into RLVR and why agents crossed the threshold, Amdahl's law as a metaphor for automated productivity, why Oz still wants everyone to write a little assembly, and the creeping fear that agents sap "the will to learn" the same way social media saps attention. 

Then the constructive turn: using agents to build your own challenges within your zone of proximal development, why you should read the back of the textbook chapter first, and Oz's homework for Charlie — figure out what you earnestly want to learn, not what you feel you should.

Shownotes:

• Steve Krouse of Val Town's post on why coding is still worth learning 
• Amdahl's law
• Vygotsky's zone of proximal development
• Bloom's 2 sigma problem
• Oz's blog
• Charlie's blog