I should do it seriously. I had better try more.

My 10 years old son said after he couldn’t pass the final competition in the programming contest.

He felt regret and so did I. Fail, regret, or disappoint is good sign for him because he didn’t do most of the things seriously before and if he regrets it has the next step.

I said, however, one more further word to him:

Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try.

This is a famous word that Yoda said in STARWARS episode 5 to Luke Skywarlker. When Luke was “Trying” to learn the Force Yoda said if he thought it’s trying it fails. Do it. Just do it once he or she decided.

And this is related to his product made in the competition that Yoda Force Tank: Remote control battle tank using Yoda doll as a controller.

He did a good job.

He started this project late August as I push him to go a programming class which is hands-on Raspberry Pi and Scratch GPIO physical computing. If you’re not familiar with a recent computing it’s all wired words like “Raspberry” and “Pi”? What GPIO stands for? Does 10 years old boy understand such a geek tech staff and learn something?

Yes he did.

And all of the kids in the class were excited to learn and made something wonderful products even in the 4 hours class.

The class was held in Meiji University at Nakano and some of the parts are broadcasted by Tokyo MX TV. We got an interview that the reason why we start to learn program and make something with 10 years old boy.

Normally he is shy. And he was shy on TV. That’s why I answered some of the questions.

It was actually nice class that he learned Raspberry Pi, Scratch GPIO,  wiring, programming, and fun to make. After the class he started to customize the thing not completed yet.