Ellis Bartholemeus is a big fan of quantifying and at QS17 she presented her project My Health Scars that shares her “quantified body” from tracking and measuring her physical scars. Scars represent memories from the past that are often derived from traumatic events. However, there can be deep learnings lived through each “representative” scar and…
After hitting the wall midway through a marathon, Thomas Blomseth Christiansen turned to instrumentation. Along with coding his own negative split plan generator, his project evolved to include an olympic swimming coach, many new devices, a metronome – and ultimately mastery of the art of pacing.
Mark Moschel shares his experience with the ketogenic diet, including his insights into the correlation between perceived energy levels to blood ketone levels, the inverse relationship between ketones and glucose, and the ceiling effect of too-high ketones.
A Show&Tell talk presented by Kyrill Potapov discussing the idea of digital family heirlooms and ways of emotionally engaging with productivity data through representations in physical space.
Jakob Eg Larsen has tracked his sleep and resting heart rate (RHR) for the past four years. His 7 minute talk is far better watched than read about: it’s a great illustration of data validation, longitudinal tracking, and data assisted self-awareness. Briefly, by tracking his RHR over a long period of time, Jakob has developed…
It rains a lot in Portland, Oregon. And if you’re 8 years old like Cantor, recess gets cancelled a lot. But unlike most 8-year-olds, Cantor is doing something about that. By tracking his steps, he’s able to show that every cancelled recess takes about 600 steps out of his day. Compared to his average of…
Ellis Bartholomeus gave a talk at QS17 that is a definite “must watch.” We all accumulate physical scars throughout our lives. My own history consists of scrapes from trees, kitchen burns and a misadventure with liquid nitrogen. Ellis has taken a quantitative and thoughtful look at the form and meaning of her scars. At left, is…
A persistent theme at QS17 was how self-tracking can help those with chronic conditions spot associations between symptoms and lifestyle that a clinician might not have time to uncover. In this Show & Tell, Justin Lawler talks about his experience with early onset osteoporosis and the several metrics he tracks to help manage and understand his condition.
I was thrilled to have the chance to do a Show&Tell talk about tracking my ovulatory cycle via minute-by-minute body temperature during the final plenary session at QS17 Conference. It’s an ongoing project that explores what high-temporal-resolution body temperature can help us learn about our reproductive state. Daily body temperature readings are already used to…
At QS17 Amsterdam, Robin Weis presented the opening Show & Tell on her self-tracking project examining a very personal metric in her life: crying. Robin uses the data-driven spirit of QS to navigate her emotions and piece together insights on personal discovery.
We’ve just returned from the latest Quantified Self Conference in Amsterdam and we’re working on the slides and videos of talks to share with everybody. It always takes a few weeks of work to get them ready for posting, so be patient. If you are already nostalgic (or wishing you’d been there) you can check…
QS17 is here! We can’t wait to see old friends and meet new people who have never been to a QS conference before. If you are reading this because you are attending QS17, you are in for something special. Our program is filled with engaging talks, fascinating discussions, and informative workshops. Here is a PDF…
Kyrill Potapov wanted to design a system that didn’t just track his productivity, but motivated him through personal growth. This led him to design a project that appealed to his altruism while incentivizing productive and satisfying behavior. At QS17, Kyrill’s talk will explain how he uses the productivity output of RescueTime to power the light bulb keeping his house plant “Pip” alive.
While the terms ”dashboard” and ”machinery” may bring to mind the tidy and separable systems operating within a car, it’s the crossed wires of human neurophysiology that will be the subject of this conference preview. Dr. Tara Thiagarajan, founder of Sapien Labs, brings demonstrates how she has captured her ‘human music‘ by looking at interactions between her sleep, diet, water intake, and brain activity.
At QS17, “game alchemist” Ellis Bartholomeus will share her quantification of one of the inevitable and unpredictable outcomes of her study of play: scars. Her talk will explore the narrative scars tell us about our bodies and our activities—from fun childhood games to recovery from car accidents.
At QS17, Sara Riggare will share the insights health tracking has allowed her to glean from decades of experience with Parkinson’s.
At QS17, Justin Lawler will share how he uses several biomarkers, including his microbiome and liver metabolites, to manage factors contributing to his osteoporosis.
For Matt Manhattan, what started as an effort to keep track of his electronics turned into a practice spanning his entire material life. Taking inventory of his all possessions ultimately changed the way he thought about his purchases and ended up saving him a substantial amount of money. At QS17, Matt will share what he learned by framing decisions to make new purchases in the context of his past purchases.
At QS17 Amsterdam, Whitney Erin Boesel shares her experience tracking anti-mullerian hormone (AMH) levels, currently considered the “Gold Standard” of women’s fertility, and her successful pregnancy demonstrating the limitations of this fertility metric.
David de Souza is tracking 35 metrics on what he considers the most important areas of his life. His streamlined workflow allows him to record everything from sleep, weight and food intake to productivity, yoga and meditation. At QS17, David will share his dashboard and the correlations he’s drawn between diverse aspects of his behavior.
