A quick AI roadmap of my bucket list to help with planning. --- # 🗺️ The "Life Stages" Bucket List Roadmap ## Phase 1: The "Home & Hustle" Years (Ages 33 - 38) **Context:** Kids are 1–6 years old. Travel is hard/expensive. Focus is on career growth, home-based skills, and "nap-time" hobbies. **Strategy:** Knock out the skills you can learn at home (integrating with your Tech Roadmap) and short, intense physical challenges. - **Immediate Wins (Year 1):** - **[[Solve a Rubik’s Cube]]:** Do this now during your evening wind-down (Phase 0 of your Tech Plan). - **[[Bowl a Game of 200+]]:** A perfect winter activity. Join a casual league or go once a week for a month. - **[[Do 25 Pull-ups]]:** Install a bar in the doorway of your home office. Grease the groove (do 1-2 every time you pass it). - **[[Give Away $100 to a Stranger]]:** Do this around the holidays this year. It requires no prep, just courage. - **The "At Home" Skills:** - **[[Cook Sourdough Bread]]:** Biology experiment for the kids. - **[[Brew a Homemade Beer]]:** Chemistry experiment for you. - **[[Create an iPhone App]]:** Synergy: Make this the outcome of **Year 2** of your coding journey. - **[[Read 100 Best Books Ever]]:** This is a marathon. Aim for 5-10/year starting now. - **The Big Event:** - **[[Go to a World Cup]]:** **CRITICAL ALERT.** The World Cup is in the USA/Mexico/Canada in **Summer 2026**. You will be ~35. This is your best chance to do this cheaply and easily. Start a savings fund for tickets now. --- ## Phase 2: The "Active Dad" Years (Ages 39 - 48) **Context:** Kids are 7–16. They are independent enough to travel and physically active. Your career earnings should be peaking. **Strategy:** Focus on physical feats (before the knees go), family adventures, and expensive experiences. - **Physical Peaks:** - **[[Finish a Marathon]]:** Age 40 goal. - **[[Hike a ’14er’]]:** Great trip to take the kids on when they are 10+. - **[[Get SCUBA Certified]] & [[Swim with Sharks]]:** Do this together on a family vacation. - **[[Become a 10 Handicap in Golf]]:** Requires consistent weekend play. Easier as kids get into sports/activities of their own. - **Family Adventures:** - **[[Do a Cross-country Road Trip Only Staying in Small Towns]]:** The classic "Summer Vacation" when kids are ~10 and ~12. - **[[See a Total Solar Eclipse]]:** Next major US one is 2044 (long wait) or 2026 (Europe/Greenland). Combine with... - **[[Dogsled in Greenland]]:** Combine this with the 2026 Eclipse or a Northern Lights trip. - **[[See the Northern Lights]]:** Do this while you still tolerate the cold well. - **Career/Creative:** - **[[Make a Social Media Video with 1M+ Views]]:** Synergy: Use your "Public Speaking/Biographer" skills from your Tech Plan. - **[[Get a Patent]]:** If you get deep into "AI Agents for Home Labs," you might invent a novel workflow. File for it. --- ## Phase 3: The "Empty Nest" Freedom (Ages 49 - 60) **Context:** Kids are in college/adults. You have time and money. **Strategy:** High-cost, high-time commitment items. - **The "Expensive" Sports:** - **[[Attend All Four Golf Majors]]:** One per year for 4 years. - **[[Go to a Super Bowl]]:** A 50th birthday present to yourself? - **[[Experience Zero Gravity]]:** This technology will be cheaper and safer by the time you are 50. - **Legacy & Giving:** - **[[Put our Children Through College]]:** The finish line for the savings account. - **[[Be a Mentor]]:** You will have 25+ years of tech/analytics experience. - **[[Renew my Vows Somewhere Special]]:** 20th or 25th Anniversary. - **Travel Grind:** - **[[Travel to 100 Countries]]:** You need to average ~2-3 new countries a year to hit this by 60. - **[[Go on an Amazon River Boat Cruise]]:** A bucket list trip for just you and your wife. --- ## Phase 4: The "Wise Sage" Years (Ages 60+) **Context:** Retirement (or semi-retirement). Deep focus. **Strategy:** Things that take months of uninterrupted time. - **The Long Grinds:** - **[[Hike the Appalachian Trail]]:** Takes 5-7 months. Very hard to do while working. A classic retirement challenge. - **[[Publish a Book]]:** You have a lifetime of stories now. Write the memoir or the technical retrospective. - **[[Learn Another Language]]:** Keeps the brain sharp in retirement. - **[[Spend a Week in Silence]]:** Much easier when the house is already quiet. - **[[Polar Plunge in Antarctica]]:** The ultimate retirement expedition cruise. --- ## 🎲 The "Random Saturday" List (Slot these in anywhere) These require very little prep, just the decision to do them. - **[[Spend an Hour in a Sensory Deprivation Tank]]:** Do this next month. It costs ~$60 and takes 90 mins. - **[[See a Psychic]]:** Do it for a laugh on a date night. - **[[Get a Tattoo]]:** Do this after a major milestone (Marathon? 14er?). - **[[Eat at a Fancy Omakase Restaurant]]:** Anniversary dinner. - **[[Watch a Play on Broadway]]:** Weekend trip to NYC. - **[[Be an Extra in a Show or Movie]]:** Look for casting calls in your city (Atlanta/LA/NY/Chicago). - **[[Learn How to Play Guitar]]:** The permanent background project. ## 🏆 The "Moonshots" (Require Luck + Skill) - **[[Get Something Named After Me]]:** Strategy: Donate a bench to a park, or open source a popular software library. - **[[Hit a Hole In One]]:** Pure luck + volume of play. - **[[Set a Guinness World Record]]:** Strategy: Look for "obscure" records (e.g., "Most AI Agents running on a single 2020 MacBook"). - **[[Compete on Jeopardy]]:** Take the online test every year starting now. - **[[Catch a Really, Really Big Fish]]:** Hire a charter. ---