Aryan Poduri is a Bay Area high school senior who likes to build. He’s the author of GOAT Coder, a beginner-friendly programming book for children that has sold over 2,000 copies, thanks to it’s concentration on making coding approachable, practical, and enjoyable.

In his words, Aryan is especially interested in how technology can be used to teach, empower, and bring people together, rather than intimidate them. When he’s not working on projects or thinking about his next idea, Aryan can usually be found playing basketball, watching football, experimenting with design and digital art, or working out.

He sees these hobbies as a creative reset. A way to step away from screens, move his body, and come back to problem-solving with a clearer head.

As we head into the holidays, we hope this conversation with Aryan inspires you to have conversations with the young people in your life about access and opportunities in tech; we can learn so much.

M.R. Rangaswami: In your opinion, what stops kids from getting into coding?

Aryan Poduri: One of the biggest roadblocks is that most kids simply don’t get early exposure. Coding is treated like some mysterious adult-only skill, when really it’s just another form of problem-solving. A lot of schools don’t have strong computer science programs, and even when they do, they usually start way too late. By the time students finally meet coding, they’ve already built this idea in their head that it’s “too hard” or “not for them.” It’s basically like giving someone a bicycle at 17 and saying, “Here, ride this like you were six.”

The other problem is the resources themselves. Most beginner books feel like they were written by robots trying to talk to other robots. Kids look at the first page, see a paragraph about “data types” or “object-oriented paradigms,” and immediately check out. It’s not that they don’t want to learn. It’s that the door is basically locked from the start. If you want kids to walk in, you have to make the entrance a little more inviting than a wall of academic vocabulary.

M.R.: Does giving kids more opportunities to learn coding matter if they’re not already thinking about it?

Aryan: Coding is becoming a basic skill like writing emails or understanding how not to burn toast. When kids learn to code early, they’re not just memorizing random commands; they’re learning how to think. They get better at breaking big problems into smaller ones, staying patient, and trying again when things fail. Those skills spill into everything else they do, whether it’s school, sports, or figuring out how to fix the family Wi-Fi (which instantly makes you the household hero).

On a broader level, expanding access to coding matters because it opens doors that many kids wouldn’t otherwise get. Not everyone grows up surrounded by tech or has a parent who can help them learn. When more kids have access, the tech world gets more voices, more creativity, and more people solving real problems from different angles. It’s basically the difference between a playlist with one song on repeat and an entire Spotify library. You just get way more possibilities.

M.R.: How do you hope GOAT Coder will help the next generation of coders?

Aryan: GOAT Coder exists because I got tired of seeing kids run into the same boring barriers I did when I first started learning. I wanted something fun. Something that felt more like a conversation than a textbook. So I wrote the book I wish younger-me could’ve opened: one with jokes, stories, and straightforward explanations that actually make sense. The whole point is to take away the fear factor and replace it with curiosity. If a kid finishes a chapter and thinks, “Wait, that was actually fun,” then I’ve basically won.

The book is my way of giving kids an easy entry point into a world that usually looks locked away behind complicated symbols and intimidating explanations. Instead of telling them, “Here’s everything you need to know before you start,” it says, “Let’s start, and you’ll figure things out as we go.” It’s a small step, but it helps build confidence, and confidence is everything in coding. If you can get a kid to believe they can do it, they usually will.

M.R. Rangaswami is the Co-Founder of Sandhill.com