A Game Where the Old Beat the Young

In June 2017, in San Jose, California, thousands of programmers gathered for Apple's big annual conference.

In the hall, the company's CEO, Tim Cook, greeted a guest from Japan. He introduced her as the oldest developer at the conference.

Her name was Masako Wakamiya. She was 82.

All her working life, she had been at a bank. Around 58, at retirement, she bought her first computer. She did not know how to use it. It took her three months to get online.

At that time, she was caring full-time for her elderly mother at home. Sometimes she went several days without seeing or speaking to anyone. Someone who loved people so much felt cut off from the world.

The computer became her window. Online, she joined Mellow Club, a site where seniors learn computing together. She would stay involved for more than twenty years, and become its vice-president.

One day, she noticed something. On phones, almost all the apps were made for young people.

"People of my generation find them boring," she said.

So, past 80, she learned to program. With help from an acquaintance, she created a game: Hinadan.

The game is inspired by Hina Matsuri, the doll festival celebrated in Japan in March. You have to place each doll on the right tier, in the right spot. What counts is not quick fingers, but memory and knowledge. A game where the old can beat the young.

She thought of everything. Hearing that fades. Eyesight that weakens. Fingers that are less nimble.

Apple approved the app in February 2017. By summer, it had already been downloaded 42,000 times.

When Tim Cook asked her what she had done so older people could use it, she explained all of this. He called her a "source of inspiration."

Masako Wakamiya did not stop there. She had taken up the piano at 75. She kept helping older people get comfortable with technology, even serving on a Japanese government working group on digital reform. Her principle fits in one sentence:

Technology can isolate. But in the hands of a curious grandmother, it can also reopen a door, and hold it open for others.