Blog
The State of Self Tracking (QS London Survey)
Ernesto Ramirez
March 25, 2014
The excellent organizers of the London Quantified Self Show&Tell recently fielded a detailed survey about the self-tracking practices in their group. In the video below Ulrich Atz presents their findings. Some of the interesting results from the survey: 105 respondents (22 identified as female, 76 as male). Over 500 unique tools were being used. 47% of…
Thomas Christiansen on Learning from 60,000 Observations
Ernesto Ramirez
March 21, 2014
It’s an iterative process. I’m peeling an onion, and I can continue peeling that onion for the probably the rest of my life. How many times have you sneezed today? This month? Over the last 3 years? Thomas Christiansen knows his sneeze count because he’s been tracking them since 2011. We’ve actually heard from Thomas…
Nancy Dougherty on Quantified/Unquantified
Ernesto Ramirez
March 19, 2014
Nancy Dougherty has talked to us in the past about her experiences with exploring self-tracking and how mindfulness interacts with the technological processes of gathering and understanding personal data. In this short Ignite talk, given at the 2013 Quantified Self Global Conference, Nancy digs a bit deeper into her personal experiences when she gave up…
QSXX Boston Meetup Recap
Ernesto Ramirez
March 17, 2014
This post comes to us from Maggie Delano, an organizer for QSXX Boston- the Boston Women’s QS Meetup group. The QSXX Boston Chapter held our fifth meetup on March 3rd, 2014. We had a guest Amy Merrill from The Hormone Project talk about the direction of this new project. As a group, we discussed how something…
How to Map Your Moves Data
Ernesto Ramirez
March 14, 2014
In the Quantified Self community we focus on projects and ideas that help people access and get meaning out their personal data, including the information you can collect with your smartphone. If you have an iPhone, Android, or Windows phone you’re already have carrying of the world’s most sophisticated self-tracking tools. The GPS, accelerometer, the…
Max Gotzler on Tracking Testosterone and Diet
Ernesto Ramirez
March 13, 2014
Max Gotzler was smack dab in the middle of a long Berlin winter and he started experiencing reductions in this mood, energy levels, and sleep. After getting a blood test he found out he had low levels of vitamin D and testosterone (among other biomarkers). His prior reading and research led him to experimenting with…
The Quantified Self Institute
Ernesto Ramirez
March 12, 2014
We are excited to be bringing a scientific and research track to the upcoming 2014 QS Europe Conference. We’ve been pushed and prodded by many of our friends in the QS community to make this happen. Today we’re highlighting one of those friends and collaborators, the Quantified Self Institute. Read below to learn more about…
Submit Your Quantified Self Research
Ernesto Ramirez
March 10, 2014
We’ve been holding Quantified Self Conferences since 2011. Every year since then we’ve been approached by scientists and researchers in the academic community to help them find a way to incorporate their work and their ideas into our structure. After a few years of holding back, listening, and watching the research community become engaged with…
Mark Drangsholt on Understanding His Heart Rhythm Disorder
Ernesto Ramirez
March 6, 2014
Mark Drangsholt has been dealing with an issue with his heart since he was a young man. Since his early twenties, when he as diagnosed with paroxysmal atrial tachycardia he’s had to deal with irregular heart rhythms. In this talk Mark explains how the transition into adulthood negatively impacted his health and then how he…
QS: Five years, Five lessons
Rajiv Mehta
March 4, 2014
Today’s post comes to us from Rajiv Mehta, our longtime friend and co-organizer of the Bay Area Quantified Self Meetup group. Rajiv is also leading the team behind UnfrazzledCare, a media and application development company focused on the caregiving community. “What lessons have we learned through Quantified Self meetings and conferences that would benefit entrepreneurs…
Ian Eslick on Self-Tracking, Self-Experimentation, and Self-Science
Ernesto Ramirez
March 3, 2014
In order to manage his psoriasis, Ian Eslick used a self-tracking technique of making mental notes to himself on triggers and symptom severity. Surprisingly, Ian found that these mental models actually informed more consistent and rigorous tracking methods. In this talk, Ian describes his research on exploring how to help people create and engage with personal experimentation.
Enrico Bertini on Tracking Focused Work
Ernesto Ramirez
February 28, 2014
We’ve all come face to face with tracking some aspect of our life only to realize that we’re not quite sure how to get started. Enrico Bertini encountered this roadblock when he began thinking about tracking the amount of time he spends engaging in “focused work.” As an information visualization researcher at NYU he decided…
Our 2014 Friends of QS
Gary Wolf
February 27, 2014
In 2013, Kate, Ernesto, and I created a Friends of QS program to help fund our work at QS Labs, which includes putting on our QS conferences and events, maintaining the web site and video programming, and creating opportunities for our vibrant global community to connect. We reached out to friends in our network of…
An Introduction to the Quantified Self
Ernesto Ramirez
February 26, 2014
A big piece of our work at QS Labs is supporting our worldwide community through the over 100 Quantified Self Meetups (see our sidebar at right). At our local meetup in the Bay Area, and others we’ve had the pleasure of visiting, we are consistently observing that nearly half of the attendees are new to…
Ulrich Atz on Tracking on Paper
Ernesto Ramirez
February 25, 2014
“If I look at this, I have these memories, and I remember this was a good year.” Collect it and forget it. This could be be hidden mantra of many people engaged with self-tracking, myself included. I will readily admit to buying a device or application with the hope that I can collect enough information…
Nick Alexander on Running in the Cold
Ernesto Ramirez
February 24, 2014
Science. Someone makes an observation, creates a hypothesis, tests it, then analyzes the results against the hypothesis. Hopefully once a conclusion is reached it is tested again and again for validity and reproducibility. With self-tracking, the world of personal science and experimentation is opening up real-world personal laboratories to test the findings, claims, and promises…