Despite the fact that our human existence relies on pregnant women and birth, there is surprisingly very little understood when a woman doesn’t fall within the “averages” and the “knowns.” We are all so different, and any woman knows that her body at some point will most likely not fall within the “average” range and…
Vivienne Ming is an accomplished neuroscientist and an entrepreneur, however this project is not about her kick-ass professional work, instead, it’s deeply personal about how she manages her son’s diabetes. Vivienne presented her project, Tracking My Son’s Diabetes at the 2013 QS Global Conference. When Vivienne’s not conducting research or working on new ideas she’s…
Women are increasingly (albeit slowly) taking more control in work, politics, life and society. However, unfortunately, being a woman means one has to consistently work extra hard to understand and know her own body to stay in control, because, unfortunately according to the laws of many governments and society-at-large, her body isn’t truly hers. At…
Another thoughtful project that studies the human’s physiological response to music is one by Elliott Hedman who studied himself and others’ physiological measurements during a classical concert. In addition to tracking himself and others with EDA sensors, Elliott also videotaped the sensors to track where in the music, people’s sensors were triggered and shifted. He learned…
Justin Lawler, the organizer of Quantified Self Dublin, has been doing some interesting self-studies about how various changes in his life affect his blood glucose levels. Blood glucose is typically tracked as part of diabetes care, and there are some excellent emerging tools for convenient tracking without doing finger stick tests. (Although these systems are…
The recent report by Victoria Rideout and Susannah Fox, “Digital Health Practices,Social Media Use,and Mental Well-Being Among Teens and Young Adults in the U.S.” deserves sustained attention for its exploration of the relationship between social media and mental health in teens and young adults. While the study is designed to contribute some realism to the…
Joost Plattel studies chemistry and loves experiments. He discovered while running experiments on himself that the simple act of tracking had a profound affect on how his brain functions. In this talk, Fitting Mental Models, Joost shares some of those discoveries. During the last three years of tracking his food, activity, and productivity, Joost noticed his…
In honor of today being the last day of the existence of Moves, the app from which so many Quantified Self projects drew their location data, I thought I’d post this artwork by Sabastian Meier and Katrin Glinka, who constructed city models based on connecting Moves data with their memories. For discussion of the demise of…
Following Dana Greenfield’s post about her project Leaning Into Grief, it feels fitting to share Mark Krynsky‘s project that contemplates our own mortality digitally. How will our digital lives be archived after we die? (Spoil alert: we are all going to die).Mark Krynsky started a blog about five years ago and began live-streaming. Having his data in…
As we’ve been thinking about mood lately–tracking it, nudging it and even reversing it, here’s a project that contemplates one experience that accumulates all moods – mourning. For anyone who has experienced grief and mourning, grab your tissues; and if you haven’t yet had the profound experience, grab a pen and take notes. I wish had this project…
Many of us track our moods to gain insight into what we are feeling or going through. Dr. Alan Greene developed a way to use his mood to gain insight into what others are feeling or going through. Alan calls it Reverse Mood Tracking and he uses it in his work as a pediatrician. Here’s how…
As we gear up for QS18, we understand that the cost of a conference ticket can be challenging for scholars. So, for students who really want to attend, but don’t have the cash–this post is for you. Our good friends and QS18 Exhibitor, Beeminder, wants to offer five lucky students a chance to attend the…
When talking about tracking mood and happiness at Quantified Self, we have to mention Jon Cousins, an active QS member and long-time mood tracker. In 2010, Jon created Moodscope to track is own mood, and left in 2013 to begin Moodnudges, where he writes short messages to help nudge one’s mood in a positive direction. He released a book on the topic called Nudge Your…
Sharing Ellis Bartholomeus, again–not only because she’s awesome–but, the project she presented at 2015 QS Europe Conference in Amsterdam, Draw a Face a Day relates to a recent post on Tracking Happiness. Like Ashish’s project, Ellis tracks her mood with 1 simple task at the end of the day–but, instead of using a number (at least…
We are excited to announce InsideTracker as a QS18 Exhibitor. Gil Blander, President and Initial Founder, gave a great talk introducing InsideTracker at the QS15 Conference + EXPO. InsideTracker puts the power of personalized nutrition into your hands, using your blood, DNA, and habits. They create evidence-based solutions that are simple, actionable, and personalized –…
Another conceptually simple idea, but still just as profound, comes from a project by Ashish Mukharji called Tracking Happiness, presented at a Bay Area Meetup in 2013. It’s another great example of the timelessness of QS projects. QS’ers are constantly asking ageless questions where the answers are often in flux as our bodies and minds…
Dan Armstrong kept a gratitude list for two years and shared his project Learning from Gratitude at a New York Meetup in 2015. Armstrong is a writer and in this talk, he shares how keeping a gratitude list every day for the past two year has changed his habits, actions and outlook. Every morning Armstrong…
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…
Steven Jonas presented his interesting project, Spaced Listening to the Bay Area Meetup Group at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley in 2017. In this project, Steven takes a very active role in his music engagement to increase his listening palate. Steven knows that he needs to listen to an album a few times…
Listening to music is often a passive past-time; we listen to what we like, while enjoying the lyrics and beats. Even without much thought, music can be a tool to help motivate a work-out, stimulate a drive, or simply aid relaxation in a spa. However, when we take an active role in our listening, we…
