When Matt Damon decided to “science the shit out of this” as he was stuck on Mars in Ridley Scott’s space epic The Martian, one would be forgiven for thinking his parents brought him up on LittleBits.
The groundbreaking US start-up is empowering kids to create inventions using easy-to-use electronic building blocks.
At a time when hands-on problem-solving skills are lacking in education and early-stage entrepreneurs seem more interested in starting a company than the value the company will offer, LittleBits’ mission to build something meaningful seems refreshing.
“We’re trying to trigger an attitude shift, even a personality change – that moment when someone goes from being afraid or intimidated or thinking, ‘I’m not technical,’ to thinking, ‘Wow! I made that happen,’” founder Ayah Bdeir told Wired magazine.
The educational toy market has infamously struggled. My insight suggests they are usually either too didactic or too toy-like, and kids have historically ended up getting too little education and too little fun. It will be interesting to see where these guys are in 3 years from now. This is a brilliant way for kids to prototype an invention from a very young age, invent something cool, and get excited about robotics.
Next time Matt Damon is using every scientific trick in the book to survive, hopefully, a rescue mission of 8-year-old LittleBits aficionados will be on that rescue fleet to save him.
