> His actual argument is that the "everyone should learn programming" camp is wrong, it is not an opinion that no one can gain much from learning programming.

I agree with you that this was the point of the post. I respect Mr. Atwood tremendously, but I think that you and he overshoot the goals of Codecademy and its ilk by a long shot.

As others have stated, the goal is to have a bit more about how the computer works and a bit more about what computer programmers do at work.

Anything beyond that is gravy.