From the New York QS Show&Tell group: Bethany Soule and Daniel Reeves talk about self-trickery that helped them get motivated to meet their long-term goals. They each pledged $2,000 one summer – they would lose this money if they didn’t daily follow their “yellow brick road” targets for everything from pushups to desserts to spending…
How do you measure your fitness? (image by byam) Do you track your running, cycling, steps, weight, or calories? What’s your favorite tool? This week’s roundup is focused on fitness. It’s part of our regular weekly tool roundup for the complete catalog we’re putting together of all the self-tracking tools out there. Please help us…
At the last Bay Area Quantified Self Show&Tell, Seth Roberts presented new findings on his “Arithmetic and Butter” experiment. Seth does arithmetic problems every morning as a measure of his brain function. He found that eating half a stick of butter every day shaved 30 milliseconds off his time to solve the problems. Does butter…
Gary Wolf’s TED talk on the Quantified Self was just released today, so if you’re here because of that, a hearty welcome to you! Here are some helpful links if you are new to this blog. QS is a collaboration of users and tool makers interested in self-knowledge through self-tracking. For more on this, go…
Here’s a new Friday experiment. We thought it would be fun to hear from QS thought leaders and spotlight innovative people. Today we’re talking to Steve Dean, organizer of the Quantified Self Show&Tell meetups in New York City. Thanks, Steve! —- How did you first hear about the Quantified Self? In August, 2008 I learned…
A few exciting things have happened in the past week that I wanted to highlight. Two New Groups There are now 10 global Quantified Self Show&Tell Meetup groups, with the newest ones in: – San Diego, organized by Ernesto Ramirez, John Amschler, Cece O’Connor, and Gregg Masters, and – Toronto, organized by Carlos Rizo and our own…
How do you feel today? (Image by toby) Thanks to everyone who participated in last week’s energy tool roundup. This week we’re looking for tools to help track happiness, emotions, and other mood-related things. It’s for the complete catalog we’re putting together of all the self-tracking tools out there. Please help us to make sure…
At the last Bay Area QS Show&Tell meetup, Gordon Bell gave a candid, engaging talk on his MyLifeBits project. He showed pictures from his SenseCam that takes a picture every 20 seconds while he’s wearing it and contributes to the 1 GB of data he generates every month. Watch the controversy below that emerged when Gordon speculated that if…
Social media is an addictive time suck. We know that, but we still spend almost a quarter of our time on social networking sites. Can this be optimized? Can we get most of the benefits of Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn without such a time cost? People have increasingly been asking me these questions, so I…
Quantified Self is excited to be part of HealthCamp again this year, with a self-tracking discussion session led by Gary Wolf. And yes, it’s the same day as our Quantified Self Show&Tell Meetup at Autodesk. October 6 will be a full day. This is a guest post from Maren Connary, organizer of HealthCamp and QS regular:…
Thanks to a flurry of wonderful comments on last week’s discussion about what people are tracking, these discussion posts will become more regular. Feel free to also comment if you have an idea for future discussions! This week’s topic: How has data surprised you? Did you learn something new from self-tracking that you weren’t expecting? Did you…
In the past few months, I’ve gotten to know Denis Harscoat on Twitter. He is the founder of Quantter, one of the organizers of the brand new London QS Show&Tell meetup group, and a genuinely helpful, wonderful person. In the video below, Denis gives an excellent, energetic overview of Quantified Self from his rooftop in…
At Quantified Self, we’re starting to put together a complete catalog of all the self-tracking tools out there. We’d love your help to make sure we include your favorite tool, your company, or your project. Self-promotion is allowed! This week’s tool roundup is on Energy. Here are all the energy tools we’ve found so far,…
Karen Herzog and Richard Sachs of Sophia’s Garden and Valley Design Group were the last to speak. They stood before a hushed audience at the last Bay Area QS Show&Tell, telling the incredible, moving story of their late daughter Sophia. Sophia had Niemann-Pick Disease Type A, a rare lysosomal storage disease. Karen and Richard coordinated…
Let’s extend a warm welcome to our brand new Quantified Self Show&Tell Meetup groups! Quantified Self Amsterdam, powered by James Burke, Joost Plattel, and Maarten den Braber – first meeting September 20. Chicago Quantified Self, powered by Bryan Campen, Jessica Charlesworth, and Jeff Heath – first meeting September 30. Seattle Quantified Self, powered by David…
A post from Michael Nagle, host of the Boston Quantified Self Show&Tell, recapping the QS meetup that took place on August 10th 2010 at MIT’s Media Lab.
Our last discussion post was so popular that we’re doing it again. Today’s topic is: What metrics are you currently tracking about yourself? What do you measure daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly? You get bonus points if you share what tools you use to track your data or any insights you’ve learned. I’ll start off…
At our June Bay Area Quantified Self Show&Tell, Jim Keravala of Flaii gave us a brief tour of the mind map he developed using TheBrain. He spends 1-2 hours a day entering information into his virtual brain, and has recorded about 65,000 thoughts so far. He feels that the main benefit he gets from it is enhanced recall, which has given…
A guest post by Matthew Cornell about his presentation given at The Boston Quantified Self Meetup Group #3 in Cambridge, MA based on his essay The Experiment-Driven Life.
A guest post by Seth Roberts in response to his talk “Arithmetic and Butter” based on his self-experimentation with eating butter and math performance.
