Things I want to do before I die. Please let me know if you have any recommendation.
Progress as of Dec 31, 2023: 40.75/92.

  1. ✓ Learn Spanish
  2. ✓ Live in another country
  3. ✓ Start a nonprofit organization
  4. ✗ See my book being sold at an airport outside Vietnam
  5. ✓ Be in a movie/commercial (I’ve actually done this in 3 countries: Vietnam, India, US)
  6. ✗ Become the first author of a paper at a top-tier conference
  7. ✗ Get published on the New Yorker
  8. ✗ Read 1000 books (~60% done)
  9. ✓ Teach a graduate-level course
  10. ✓ Start a company
  11. ✗ Author a patent
  12. ✗ Write for a TV show that I watch
  13. ✗ Design and publish a game
  14. ✓ Fall in love
  15. ✓ Build a home (a simple one, but it’s mine)
  16. ✗ Have a salad from my garden
  17. ✗ Become a parent
  18. ✗ Be a writer in Paris
  19. ✓ Go on a trip overseas with my whole family
  20. ✗ Take a hot-air balloon ride
  21. ✓ Be in a submarine
  22. ✗ Swim a mile
  23. ✗ Run a half marathon
  24. ✗ Scuba dive
  25. ✓ Learn to ski
  26. ✓ Surf in Hawaii
  27. ✓ Fly an airplane
  28. ✓ Learn to drive a car
  29. ✗ Get a PhD (in CS, Neuroscience, or Psychology)
  30. ✗ Body transformation
  31. ✓ Dance on stage at a concert (thanks Flo Rida!)
  32. ✗ Ride a horse in Mongolia
  33. ✓ Publish a Python package
  34. ✗ Create my own programming language
  35. ✗ Start a scholarship to support brave young kids
  36. ✗ Volunteer 1000 hours to help to the elderlies
  37. ✗ Get involved in a publishing house that focuses on math, science, and engineering books
  38. ✗ Start a research lab
  39. ✓ Take a walk in the rain
  40. ✓ Eat at a 3 Michelin star restaurant
  41. ✓ Ask a stranger out (he said no)
  42. ✓ Invite a stranger to my home (CouchSurfing)
  43. ✗ Sleep in a castle
  44. ✓ Sleep outside on the beach, under the sky (Eilat, Israel)
  45. ✓ Go on an African safari
  46. ✓ Camp in a desert
  47. ✗ See auroras
  48. ✓ Learn to salsa
  49. ✗ Learn to play a music instrument (tried 3x)
  50. ✗ Zero gravity
  51. ✓ Work in a casino
  52. ✓ Do stand-up
  53. ✓ Travel Southeast Asia
  54. ✓ Hitchhike across Africa (Egypt to Mozambique)
  55. ✗ Spend at least a month in Western Africa
  56. ✓ Hike Los Andes
  57. ✓ Visit South Omo valley, Ethiopia
  58. ✗ Sail around the Caribbean
  59. ✗ Drink vodka in Russia
  60. ✗ Eat sushi in Japan
  61. ✗ Travel around Eastern Europe
  62. ✓ See Kashmir
  63. ✗ Visit Mecca
  64. ✓ Do the Bible tour: Jerusalem, lake of Galilee, Jordan river, Bethlehem, Nazareth
  65. ✗ Stay with an Amazonian tribe
  66. ✓ Visit an Amish community
  67. ✗ Visit Vatican
  68. ✗ Visit Tehran
  69. ✗ Visit Sicily
  70. ✗ Visit 100 countries (~40% done)
  71. ✗ Go to South Pole or North Pole
  72. ✓ Climb Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt
  73. ✗ Climb Great wall, China
  74. ✗ Hike to Everest base camp
  75. ✗ Reed Dance, Swaziland
  76. ✗ Burning Man, the US
  77. ✗ Carnival in Brazil
  78. ✓ Watch a Broadway show in New York
  79. ✓ Pashut Festival, Israel
  80. ✓ Laos’ new year
  81. ✗ Watch bullfight in Spain
  82. ✗ Watch a soccer game at Camp Nou (Old Trafford is fine too)
  83. ✓ Visit Googleplex
  84. ✗ Speak at TED
  85. ✗ Meet the Pope
  86. ✗ Meet a prince
  87. ✗ Meet JK Rowling
  88. ✓ See a comet
  89. ✓ Meet Dalai Lama
  90. ✗ Have my own ice cream flavor
  91. ~ Be awesome
  92. ~ Be kind

P.S.: I spend a lot of time thinking about how to live, and occasionally write about it.