Making it in Tech: Child Prodigy Vasav Trehan carves his own niche in the Tech World

In a world rapidly wrapping itself up in technology, the power to effect change lies with those who know, not only how to shape the rules of the game, but the game itself. That is where technophiles take center stage. Their love and enthusiasm for technology propels them to tackle the biggest challenges facing humanity and solve complex issues using the 1s and 0s of the binary code. However, even the most simplified User Interfaces (UIs) are distilled using years of patience and practice backed by hours of code. It is enthralling to see a child prodigy like Vasav Trehan, jump into the tech industry so young.

Vasav Trehan, a student of class 8th, passionately describes his website ‘Technifyed.com,’ a website he founded during the COVID-19 lockdown. He noticed that there is a prevalent gap in the technological know-how among the public. The goal of making technology accessible and easier for everyone is the goal that motivated him to create Technifyed.com.

Research lies at the heart of the work Vasav does and he obsesses about getting it right every time. With two years of blogging under his belt, he continues to research each topic resolutely. When he wrote a blog on the seven ways to make an iPhone faster, he already had knowledge about the subject. However, instead of just relying on his knowledge, he took it upon himself to talk to experts and consult books on the subject. This allowed him to learn even more about the same so he could present the available solutions with more clarity to his readers.

Vasav continues to use all forms of social media including Instagram reels to reach a burgeoning viewership of approximately more than 1 Lakh followers across all his platforms.

Vasav, unlike children his age, loves mathematics and believes that it forms the cornerstone of programming. He says, “Programming is just mathematics on a different scale,” adding that he solves many mathematical equations to keep his skills sharp. Vasav shares, “my stepping stone into the world of programming was Python,” detailing that learning code is not one field but a multitude of fields that come together to help solve problems in the real world. He also has command over HTML, C and CSS.

Vasav says, “When one starts, programming seems challenging. It’s all in your mind if you say it is difficult, it is bound to feel that way. But if you keep trying, you will learn how to create magic with code and there will be no better feeling.”

He staunchly believes that anyone who is remotely interested in the world of coding should look into career options like that of being an app developer, website developer, software developer, game developer, data scientist etc. Vasav says: “When a person picks up a phone, they are holding a universe of code in their hands. They can play games, browse the internet, take photographs, text each other, and do simple and complex calculations. The options are endless. We are currently using Web 2.0, the second phase of the internet. Round the corner lies Web 3.0 and is set to be quite different. One can also become a Web 3 developer. This never-ending list of opportunities is waiting for people.”

One particular field that most fascinates him is cyber security. “In the digital world, anyone can be cyber-attacked. It is fascinating that in such scenarios, a system’s operating software is critical in protecting us.”

According to him, there are no specific skills to start programming. He says, “computer science and coding are great levelers. Anyone living anywhere in the world at any age can learn how to do it. All one needs is focus and determination.”

Vasav says, “Becoming a front-end developer requires front-end languages like HTML and CSS. If one wishes to become a data scientist, it requires Python, and if someone wishes to become an app developer, it requires JAVA. Similar to the life cycle of a frog where first, the egg hatches into a tadpole to become a young frog and then an adult frog, coding is mastered in phases. The transformation from beginner to advanced level is not done in months, but it takes a lot of years and practice. One must have courage to start in the first place.” His words are full of wisdom beyond his age.

Vasav recommends being focused and determined in the pursuit of programming and to keep learning from one’s mistakes. He says: “One is bound to have many code errors and failures. This doesn’t mean that we have failed, and should stop. Instead, we should learn from our mistakes and make ourselves even better. For example, on December 14, 2009, Google was hacked. If such a big company can get hacked and has vulnerabilities, why can’t any other app? The fact is that humans make errors and learn from their mistakes. So one must never stop and keep going on.”

This, he learned from his idol, legendary basketball player Michael Jordan who famously said: “I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life.”

Vasav staunchly recommends using content from Youtube as a place to start as it has a plethora of content from which one can learn and build a foundation for coding. He adds that social media in general helps people share their knowledge with each other. The mantra he shared is “if success is equal to true, then celebrate, while success is false keep trying and be awesome.” He beams ready to empower the world with his knowledge and to reshape our relationship with technology.