We are all accustomed to IT success stories - films, books and articles about Silicon Valley are poured into parents who think: where else to give their child? And while some see programming as the only way to success for their children, others argue that programmers will be out of work in 10 years. Together with the International Computer Academy STEP, we studied non-obvious success stories and figured out: is it worth teaching a child to code?
Brothers Igor and Dmitry Bukhman: were born in Vologda, their grandfather gave their first computer, 35 million people play their games every day
Igor and Dmitry grew up in a place and time that seemed to be as far as possible from the IT industry - in Vologda in the 1990s. But the guys from early childhood were interested in everything new, and they were lucky. First, my grandfather gave me a simple computer, and already at the university (the brothers took turns entering the Faculty of Applied Mathematics) the teacher helped. The teacher talked about the try before you buy model - when the game is first given free to try for a certain period.
The brothers wrote the first game with this option in a month - four people bought it. Today, the fortune of each is estimated at $ 3.1 billion. Their company employs more than 2,000 people, and Igor and Dmitry live in London.
Daniel Dines: parents met during the dictatorship, grew up behind the "iron curtain", built an empire of bots
When we hear a "bot", we immediately think of some hacker who decided to organize an attack on an important site. Billionaire Daniel Dines disagrees: he dreams that every person has his own bot, because his idol, Bill Gates, adhered to the same principle (only he talked about computers).
Daniel's parents were Romanians and met at the construction site of a chemical plant, where they were sent by order of Ceausescu. The boy grew up without knowing anything about the technologies that were rapidly developing outside the country. But at school he was very fond of mathematics - he considered the rest of the lessons boring.
Then the boy became interested in programming - he took almost the only book on the C ++ language from the library and studied the subject on a friend's old computer at night while his friend was sleeping. The result is an internship at Microsoft and the creation of your own company, which helps improve your business through bots. It is estimated at $ 7 billion.
Ian Kum: was an immigrant, washed the floors in a grocery store, lived on a mother's allowance, created the world's largest instant messenger
When Jan was 16, he moved from Kiev to California with his mother and grandmother. The migrants had a hard time - the guy worked as a laborer, washed the floors in shops. Then my mother was diagnosed with cancer - the whole family lived on her disability benefits.
Ian studied programming himself - he rented books in stores, since there was nothing to pay for them. But he memorized new things with incredible speed. Then the gifted guy got an internship at Yahoo and met Brian Acton. Together they created the world's most popular messenger, WhatsApp, which sold to Facebook in 2014 for $ 22 billion.
Markus Persson: grew up in a poor family, but programmed, programmed, programmed. Created a game development company that he sold for 2.5 billion
Chances are, the name Markus Persson won't tell you anything, unless you're a gamer. And if we say - the creator of Minecraft? Another thing, right?
Persson's entire life before the creation of the game with millions of fans went just as quietly and imperceptibly. With only one peculiarity - he loved to program. Very. So much so that I wrote my first game at the age of 8 on an 8-bit home computer (modern children are unlikely to even understand that this is a computer).
When Persson created Minecraft and sold his company to Microsoft, he just didn't know what to do with his wealth. I decided to transfer most of it to charity.
Susan Wojitski: struggled with stereotypes, took risks while pregnant, became the "Queen of Silicon Valley"
Susan's fortune is now just under $ 500 million, but we could not help but include her on our list. Firstly, because she proved by her example that it is never too late to learn programming (Susan took a course on the basics of programming as a student) and that a child does not have to be a born mathematical genius.
Secondly, because throughout her career, she has fought against gender stereotypes in an industry that is still considered "masculine." In her fourth month of pregnancy, Susan had a stable job at Intel, but there was still not enough money for a mortgage - and she and her husband decided to rent out the house. The tenants were Sergey Brin and Larry Page. In the garage of this very house, Goggle was "born". Susan quit her job and became the sixteenth employee of an unknown startup. Since 2014, she has been the CEO of YouTube.
Of course, it is up to the parents to decide whether to send a child to programming courses or not. These success stories do not mean that programming alone in the future will help children succeed - there are many other equally interesting (and profitable!) Activities.
But to deny that technology is increasingly affecting our lives is pointless. And today children have much more opportunities to learn everything about IT than the heroes of this material had. An excellent place for such a meeting would be the STEP International Computer Academy.
Children from 9 years old can study here online or offline - in computer labs equipped with the latest technology. The main feature of the academy is the playful form of education. Working on joint projects in a trusting atmosphere, children learn:
the basics of programming, robotics, game design, 3D modeling, startup rules and other useful skills.
The STEP Academy has courses for children who are just learning about programming
So it is for teenagers who have already written a couple of games and sites
Children will also be introduced to virtual reality
You can see the conditions in which training takes place and get acquainted with the teachers on October 3 at the open day. Children aged 7-14 will be able to take part in a master class held in 5 branches of Moscow (metro Kutuzovskaya, metro Park Pobedy, metro Maryino, metro Belyaevo, metro Sokol, metro Perovo), and parents - learn about the main educational programs and prospects that the child will have in the near future. You can sign up by phone 8 (495) 151-19-01 or WhatsApp.
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Especially for our readers, STEP has made a 10% discount on any course with the CHIPSIT promo code.
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