Michael Chen

Age 44. Grew up in a small farm village outside of Wuhan with only 30 families living there. Feeding pigs and such. When he got sick, his mother had to strap him to her back and walk an hour to the next village to the doctor.

He said his life has been a parallel of China's development. Dad insisted he study hard. He went to a middle school that was 30 boys staying in bunk beds in one classroom 6 days a week, returning back home once a week. Then high school same but only returned home once a month. Did so well in high school that Xi'an university picked him in advance, so he didn't even need to take the legendary university entrance exams.

After university, Beijing with Thoughtworks, then other cities before moving to Chengdu.

Talking travel, he said he likes Melbourne, but went back seven years later and was disappointed that it was the same! I laughed and said China is one of the only places in the world where a city is *not* the same after seven years.

He's the first non-Indian person I've met that also loves Bangalore! We talked about our love of Indians' masterful skill of conversation.

He's done three startups now, and we talked about ways to get people more engaged with museums. We were so busy talking about life and parenting and travel that we forgot to talk about programming. Next time.