Want to take over the world? Code young!

Tanmay Bakshi, Youngest IBM Watson Programmer in the World.Image Source — techsauce.co

“Age is Case of Mind Over Matter. If You Don’t Mind, it don’t matter.” — Satchel Paige

Gone are the days when kids could be mistaken to be mobile-games addicts and scolded for the same. They, now surprisingly, might be the creators of those games and even of the games to which you have been glued to. While some kids might be busy watching Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, there are some who are the CEOs of their ventures and paving the way for others to be successful entrepreneurs by organizing workshops worldwide. Be it a whack-a-mole game called ‘Bustin Jieber’, by Thomas Suarez or an AI integrated app ‘AskTanmay’, by Tanmay Bakshi which is designed by taking assistance from IBM Watson’s cognitive APIs. These creations by child prodigies would definitely blow your mind.

Sixth Grader Thomas Suarez, iOS Developer.Image Source — theverge

These kids developed their love for code at a very early age, not knowing that their ‘fun’ activities could eventually make them successful young entrepreneurs. Thomas, inspired by Steve Jobs, started to code in Python, Java, and C. He is the CTO and Founder of at WiTag, founded in 2015 and CarrotCorp, founded in 2009 when he was just 11 years old. All this not only helped him become a seasoned businessman at an early age but he is also known as an impressive public speaker. In his Ted talk, he discusses how students should be involved in designing the technology curricula in schools and advises that the younger generations should take up coding and get involved in creating new technologies.

Tanmay Bakshi started coding at the age of 5 and is the world’s youngest IBM Watson programmer. His first iOS app was accepted in the apple store when he was just 9. He is a co-author of a book called Hello Swift, which teaches the basics of iOS coding to the beginners. His genius can not only be seen in his creations but also in his passion to teach thousands of young coders by sharing his valuable knowledge.

The young CEO, Samaira Mehta at 11.Image Source — cnet.com

Let me also introduce to you Samaira Mehta, 11-year-old CEO of the company Coderbunnyz. Her love for programming kindled at the tender age of 6 which eventually led her to the creation of board games for kids to learn coding. Her praiseworthy efforts have not only helped her sell more than 15,000 games but have also garnered the attention and support of tech giants like Google and Facebook. With her motive to educate 1B children to code, she is now working on a sequel board game called CoderMindz to teach kids concepts of Artificial Intelligence.

What did such prodigies do? Well, they just realized the importance of early coding and its widespread impact on the whole world. Rather than being afraid of it and being daunted by the hurdles involved, they enjoyed the maths, science, and problem-solving.

So, don’t just let your kids’ screen time be passive but productive by involving them in programming activities. For kids, or even for adults learning is much easier when it is fun. Let your kids experiment with building games, applications, and robotics. Let them find their love and enthusiasm for technology. After all, you may find a future prodigy in your child.