In collecting data about ourselves we naturally encounter information that is unpleasant or unwelcome. This can range in scope from the prosaic (“I’m not losing weight fast enough”) to the the profound (“I just found out I have cancer.”) While this is a pervasive aspect of being human – resolving the conflict between What Is…
From the Bay Area QS Show&Tell group: Indhira Rojas explains Indexer, a database she is building for tracking consumption and managing waste. She wants to help people answer two questions: How much do I throw away? and, How do I recycle properly? In the video below, Indhira explains her project. See what she learned from…
I am a strong supporter of self experimentation and citizen science, particularly when it comes to health (full disclosure: I’m CoFounder of CureTogether.com). Since our bodies all differ to varying degrees, we need to experiment with foods, lifestyles and medications to find out what will work best for each of us. And pooling our individual data…
Tracking location is a relatively new phenomenon, thanks to the ubiquity of cheap, embedded GPS receivers. When I was a kid, my parents had no idea where I was. Today, my daughter wants to see exactly where I am if I’m not in the same room as she is. As you might have guessed, this…
For those of you following our first Quantified Self group experiment, here is Eri Gentry telling the Bay Area QS Show&Tell meetup about the Butter Mind/Coconut Mind experiment. The question she wants to answer is, does eating 3 tbsp. of butter or coconut oil a day improve math scores? Hear more directly from Eri below….
Last night self-quantifying New Yorkers came out in the rain to witness another fascinating round of QS talks. A special thanks to our hosts Briana, Daniel and the crew at the digital innovation agency Zemoga. They’re doing some great work and be sure to check out their Follow Me app concept that they presented at our last Show&Tell….
Let’s admit it. People who do stuff are more interesting than those who don’t. Naturally we’re biased as Self-Quantifiers, but don’t you love running into folks at gatherings who have surprises and results to share about themselves, gained from experimentation and tasty data? It’s stimulating to hear about an insight (“I eat less when I’m…
Update: 10/19/10 – Study is now open to users at http://genomera.com/studies/butter-mind Will eating one of these fats improve your math performance? Based on Seth Roberts’ butter and math study, recently presented at a Bay Area Quantified Self Show & Tell, during which Seth ate half a stick of butter each day and performed better in…
From the Bay Area QS Show&Tell meetup: Randal Koene shows his Linux project “dil2al” (detailed item lists to activity lists). Every 20 minutes, Randal gets a prompt asking him to log his activities and recommending possible task changes according to his set priorities. He’s been using this system since 1999, as a memory assist and…
It was another electric night. On Wednesday, 124 people gathered at the futuristic Autodesk Gallery in San Francisco for the 16th Bay Area QS Show&Tell. The theme this time was location, transportation, consumption, and energy. The workshop part of the evening seemed to take off this time, with buzzing groups forming around half a dozen people…
At tomorrow night’s Bay Area Quantified Self Show&Tell, we are going to focus on transportation, consumption, and energy. Our meeting is in the incredible Autodesk design gallery at One Market Street, and there are some terrific talks planned. Some of the talks will be about tracking the things we buy, and in anticipation of this,…
Everything has a dark side (Photo by Pixelicus) Can self-tracking hurt you? We mostly talk about the positive aspects of self-tracking here, but it’s worth venturing over to the dark side now and then. Take this comment from Stefan on a recent discussion post: “After spending some time playing around with the idea of what…
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…
Finally and thanks to the enthusiasm and to-do attitude of Dennis Harscoat, last Thursday was the launch of QS London group, organised by myself and Dennis. What I saw at the meeting was nothing short of mind-blowing. We had three presentations, first by Dennis Harscoat talking about Quantter, then by Kiel Gilleade about body blogging…
Our first Quantified Self Show and Tell in Amsterdam took place on September 20 at Het Volkskrantgebouw. More than sixty people showed up to attend and some even came from Germany and France! Sebastiaan ter Burg kindly provided us help with the video and photos. All the videos can be found on Vimeo and all photos on Flickr….
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…
