The CS Primer Show

Brian "Beej Jorgensen" Hall joins Oz and Charlie to dive into the joy and art of learning computer science. It's all here - achieving flow, "How to Solve It" by Polya, self-publishing guides/books on the web, Beej's take on AI and coding, and, of course, the origin of the "Beej Jorgensen" moniker.  Shownotes: * Beej's website: https://beej.us/ [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbkJTRTl1bE1DRWJ4ZHVMNmQzLVF5WFpaZjV3UXxBQ3Jtc0ttcGdzUTJacUFuaTl2ai0yOU1yOXZOU0FpWU5XRlRBR3RwN2N3REJSVXFtYl9TRkdRRVllRlFVN2c4YXEtd3Z6N1BkbndQNmU1bnptZ3BjREV2S1B4UEFxbjNOdVFESzQzVDJ4aER3dmxqREVWa0hvWQ&q=https%3A%2F%2Fbeej.us%2F&v=EyRIKIQZDZU] * Beej's guide to learning computer science: https://beej.us/guide/bglcs/ [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbnNGLUVINTU5WnRCZUxtelBqRVRsdDFOVERYd3xBQ3Jtc0tuSkNjdmZ4bWZPYzZOUjBKZTloWEJoMkJkRlMwWE8wbmI4M2VlYVU1Z1dkM2h2UnVzNUtTM2FKVThmUnJLSjNtSy15SE1vZ25MeVVyeVpfT3pIbGNTWnAtczByalM3TnVIOHo5ckRwWnlxbHd2SVgtUQ&q=https%3A%2F%2Fbeej.us%2Fguide%2Fbglcs%2F&v=EyRIKIQZDZU] * Hacker News post on Charlie's short story about a giant diamond asteroid [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33906604]

Oz and Charlie vibe-chat their way through respective Mathacademy experiences + reviews, leading to a discussion of "binge learning" vs more-structured, consistent learning / time-tracking. Also, Oz shares that he's currently reading a math textbook with this incredible sentence in its introduction: "I consider the mathematical treatment of these problems to be among the chief glories of Western civilization, and I hope you agree." Shownotes: * mathacademy.com [https://mathacademy.com] * csprimer.com [https://csprimer.com]

There's something about MathAcademy that just works for learning math (for both kids and adults - ask Reddit!), and we're chatting with Justin Skycak - Chief Quant & Director of Analytics at MathAcademy - to try to figure it out. Shownotes: * justinmath.com [http://justinmath.com/] -- Justin's personal website * mathacademy.com [http://mathacademy.com/] * 3blue1brown [https://www.3blue1brown.com/] * Cell biology by the numbers [https://www.amazon.com/Cell-Biology-Numbers-Ron-Milo/dp/0815345372] * ExecuteProgram [https://www.executeprogram.com/] * Star Trek 2009 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_(2009_film)] * The Math Academy Way [https://www.justinmath.com/books/#the-math-academy-way] -- Math Academy's working draft book, authored by Justin, which answers the following questions: What techniques exist to maximize student learning and talent development, particularly in the context of math? Why are these techniques so impactful, and if they are indeed so impactful, then why are they so often absent from traditional classrooms? How does Math Academy leverage these techniques? * Math Academy Origin Story, 2014-20 [https://mathacademy.com/about-us] -- from Sandy & Jason's perspective, with a focus on how the original in-school program and early software came to be * Math Academy Origin Story, 2019-23 [https://www.justinmath.com/bio/#2018-23] -- from Justin's perspective, with a focus on teaching in that school program and getting the algorithms in place to turn it into a fully automated system * News Articles [https://www.mathacademy.us/press] about Math Academy's original in-school program * Oz on X [https://x.com/oznova_] * Charlie on X [https://x.com/whatrocks] * Oz's website [https://ozwrites.com/] * Charlie's website [https://charlieharrington.com/]

Ammar Mian is a software engineer and the co-founder of startup health tech company Malla - and another former student of Oz's and Bradfield School of Computer Science! Many software engineers daydream about starting their own company one day, so we've got Ammar on the show this week to give us the goods. Is it still fun? Can you still get into flow? Are you still coding? Does Oz want to die on Mars? All this and more! Shownotes: * Malla [https://malla.co/] * The Wiggles [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wiggles] * The Six Levels of Interaction with a System [https://charlieharrington.com/the-six-levels-of-interaction-with-a-system/] * Zone of proximal development [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_of_proximal_development] * Red-bellied black snake [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-bellied_black_snake] * Reentry [book] - more recent history of SpaceX [https://bookshop.org/p/books/reentry-spacex-elon-musk-and-the-reusable-rockets-that-launched-a-second-space-age-eric-berger/21156398] * Red Mars [book] - Kim Stanley Robinson [https://bookshop.org/p/books/red-mars-kim-stanley-robinson/11459300?ean=9780593358825]

Madison Kanna is a lifelong learner and self-taught programmer who learns in public, and Madison joins Oz and Charlie to share tactics for getting things done (with their learning goals) - and the importance of having fun along the way when learning computer science. Shownotes * Madison Kanna's site [https://madisonkanna.com/] * The Cost of Forsaking C [https://blog.bradfieldcs.com/the-cost-of-forsaking-c-113986438784] * Flow - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi [https://bookshop.org/p/books/flow-the-psychology-of-optimal-experience-mihaly-csikszentmihalyi/8937185] * Ryan Holiday - Don't Talk about Writing a Novel [https://ryanholiday.net/so-you-want-to-write-a-book-want-is-not-nearly-enough/#:~:text=%2DDon't%20talk%20about%20the,already%20right%20then%20and%20there.]