A reader over at my blog shared the NYT article Wandering Mind Is a Sign of Unhappiness, which reports on research by Killingsworth and Gilbert showing some surprises about distractedness. (My take: First, the least surprising result may be that the world’s happiest activity is reproduction. Second, almost half of the time we are not…
This past Tuesday Evening over twenty people attended the first Quantified Self San Diego Meetup hosted by West Wireless Health Institute in La Jolla, CA. There was a great group of people from varying backgrounds including Bio-Tech, Neurobiology, Engineering, Wireless, Academia, Finance, Philosophy, Physics, Health Care, Medica and many more! The first talk of the…
From the New York QS Show&Tell group: Robert Rabinovitz, a design teacher at the Parsons New School of Design and a designer himself, mapped the 40-minute period on January 19, 2007 when he experienced his first brain seizure. He takes us through his gripping story, moment by moment, with images of what he saw that…
In this review, I will take the considerations that I wrote about in my last article to analyze some self-tracking tools. The considerations are: 1) What questions are the tool answering? 2) How is the data collected? and 3) How do you reflect on the data? I’m also adding a fourth consideration, data portability, as…
From the Bay Area QS Show&Tell meetup group: Andrew Hessel from Singularity University talks about his 2010 flight log. He has traveled 79,922 miles this year – 57 flights, 22 airports, 16 percent of his days in the air. Andrew tracks his flights for the sake of tracking them, with no goal to minimize consumption….
There’s a great new post over at the Zeo blog by an experienced polyphasic sleeper – instead of sleeping in one 8 hour chunk, he breaks it up into three segments throughout the day. In his post he shows how he used Zeo to help optimize sleep quality and create a polyphasic schedule that feels better…
When was the last time you stepped back and gave yourself credit for your data-driven work? In our busy lives it is easy to forget to celebrate our accomplishments. It’s especially true when what we’re doing is heavy, like working with a medical ailment or a relationship problem. Fortunately, treating life as an experiment –…
From the London QS Show&Tell meetup group: Kiel Gilleade talks about his experiences with tracking his heart rate 24×7 and sharing it in real-time via the Internet. More information about the project can be found at Kiel’s Physiological Computing Site and at his BodyBlogger Twitter stream. Watch the video below to hear Kiel talk about…
This is the second article of a series where I review several self-tracking tools. I will go on a little tangent this week. To make it clear what I look for in different tools, I will discuss the different aspects of self-tracking tools to consider when making a selection. These considerations are based on my…
Identifying patterns is crucial in experimentation because patterns can indicate useful correlations. After all, the whole point of experimenting on ourselves and collecting data is to find ways to make changes that help us to be happier, and patterns tell us where there are points of leverage. Patterns should make us curious, and we should…
This is our first roundup topic by request! Michael Nagle, organizer of the Boston QS Show&Tell meetup, wrote to say that the founder of StickK is coming to speak at their next meetup. He asked if we could do a roundup of goal-tracking tools in advance of that, so here it is. Thanks Nagle! It’s part…
From the Amsterdam QS Show&Tell Meetup group: Beer van Geer (aka Universal Media Man) shows his award-winning Dagaz Project. His application uses the Neurosky EEG headset to quantify brainwaves during meditation on Mandala symbols. As you meditate you can see your progress in real-time. Watch his mind-blowing talk below. Beer van Geer – Project Dagaz…
This is the first part of a series in which I will review several self-tracking tools. For each tool, I will highlight the features of the tool to help you track and explore data about yourself. There are two goals for these reviews: 1) we want to help users find the right tools for them;…
From the Bay Area QS Show&Tell group: Max Winter Osterhaus (tagline: “I make charts”) talks about tracking all of his purchases for the past 5 years in incredible detail. He tracks right down to the kind of fruit or bread he buys, and admits to being somewhat addicted to combing through receipts. Watch the video…
A few months ago I was fatigued and decided to try a more rigorous sleep hygiene routine to see if it would help (it did). To make the experiment fun I thought I’d look for a nifty iPhone app to track the data. After a fairly extensive search I noticed that most of the tools…
From the New York QS Show&Tell group: Brennan Moore, co-founder of Poyozo with Max Van Kleek, talks about his thoughts on using life tracking data to help people manage their lives. His vision is to build an automatic personal assistant that respects your time/attention and reminds, recommends, and filters things for you. Watch a demo…
Hello from San Diego where we’re excited to announce our first Quantified Self Show & Tell! San Diego has a rich history in both Wireless Technology and the Life Sciences. Many companies have combined talent from both fields and are collaborating to create future technologies. These technologies will be small, low power, minimally invasive, easy…
Given that the United States eats more average daily calories per person than any other country, it’s probably a good idea for us to track what we eat a little more closely. QS Amsterdam folks can sit this one out if you like! This week’s roundup is for food tracking tools. It’s part of our…
From the Bay Area QS Show&Tell group: Matt Haughey from Fuelly talks about tracking, sharing, and comparing gas mileage data. He tells the story of his efforts to move from 18 to 20 mpg – it required a great amount of concentration, and only ended up saving him $6. Watch the video below to hear…
From the Amsterdam QS Show&Tell group: Peter Robinett talks about a simple system he created to track, visualize and predict his productivity. Using Google Spreadsheets, he color-coded his activities by week to help him manage multiple consulting contracts. Watch the video below to see what tweaks he found most useful and how closely his predictions…
