As birthday #55 rapidly approaches I say to myself: Self, if I were dying what would be my regrets? The first thing I did was ask The Google because I’m not coming up with anything really interesting myself. Also, it really isn’t a pressing problem for me as my life expectancy has increased quite a bit over the last 30 years, or so I’m told. Of course I could die from a Taiwan taxi ride this week so it is something to think about no matter what your circumstances are.
When my wife and I decided to start a family I purchased a very large life insurance policy. We both agreed that one of us should stay home and care for the children (we have two boys and two girls) so we would be single income for quite a while. I was a rising star in Silicon Valley so she stayed home. During the life insurance policy process they came up with a life expectancy for me of 68 years. At the time that sounded pretty good since my father died in his early forties and I lost a younger brother.
Fast forward to today, based on a recent study my life expectancy is now about 15- 20 years longer. Part of it is my fitness, diet, and family life, which is excellent. The other part is advancing medical science and being proactive with regular blood tests and check-ups. I had a very near death experience and that put me on this journey of health and wellness but I digress…
According to The Google here are the top ten regrets of dying people:
[LIST=1]
Okay, that was no help because I have all of those pretty much covered. I have also traveled extensively and have but one thing left on my official bucket list (run with the bulls in Spain) but my wife won’t let me. I think my greatest concern is living long enough to enjoy my grandchildren with a reasonable quality of life and that brings us to semiconductors.
Quite frequently I’m asked where semiconductor growth will come from after smartphones. IoT is an easy answer but specifically what in IoT? For me it is health and wellness. Picture this: You swallow a pill sized nanochip and the doctor uses a VR headset to see what is really going on inside your body. If he finds something, you swallow a nanobot to make the appropriate adjustments. Not too far-fetched if you watch Game of Thrones and see what kind of medical science was available back then.
Circling back to the dying regrets thing, what I would really like is a five minute warning before I die because I think my biggest regret would be dying in a Starbucks or on the toilet like Elvis. Make an app for that and it would be the next Uber sized unicorn, absolutely.
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