Quantified Self Magazine on Flipboard
Check out awesome Quantified Self magazine on Flipboard created and curated by Alex Melnikov of VisualData (Russia). Over 600 articles on dozens of topics from self-tracking to mobile health to newest gadgets and and apps for self-monitoring and self-experimentation. Contributors are always welcome!
Self-Quantification vs Self-Tracking
In this post I would like to briefly discuss differences between self-quantification and self-tracking. These two terms are sometimes confused with one another because they both concern with measurement. To me, however, they are conceptually different, and seeing them used interchangeably kind of bothers me.
My Notes from New York Quantified Self Meetup #21
On May 30, New York chapter of Quantified Self held its 21st meetup. This time, self-tracking community of NYC was treated to awesome presentations on reducing sleep time, using life logging tools for quantifying health and diabetes, confronting chronic pain and other challenges of life, detecting depression and happiness by analyzing social media activities, and experimenting with ways to track triglycerides.
Tracking Willpower and Self-Control: Updated with Charts
(This is an updated version of previous post about tracking willpower, with interactive charts). Winslow Strong of Biohack Yourself (check out his awesome blog, by the way!) recently posted a great question on Quantified Self Facebook page, asking about ways to quantify restraint. This is when I remembered about my attempt to track willpower in March that was partially inspired by our conversation with Hiren Patel of Becoming the Best (another awesome blog!). My method for tracking willpower (self-restraint/self-control) was rather simple and straightforward.
Guest Post: The Confidently-Quantified Self
The following post was written by Dr. Alan Dabney. Professor Alan Dabney received his Ph.D. in biostatistics from the University of Washington in 2006. He joined the faculty in the statistics department at Texas A&M University later that year and received tenure in 2011. Dr. Dabney conducts research in the analysis of “big data,” particularly the kind that originate from biological applications; for a list of his research publications, please see his Google Scholar profile. In addition to his research activities, Dr. Dabney is an award-winning teacher of both undergraduate and graduate students in the statistics department at Texas A&M. He is also active in the creation of non-standard educational media that is broadly accessible. Examples include his upcoming “graphic novel,” The Cartoon Introduction to Statistics, and his featured role in W.H. Freeman’s Stat-Clips video lecture series. He can be reached at adabney (at) stat.tamu (dot) edu.
Tracking Willpower and Self-Restraint
Winslow Strong of Biohack Yourself (check out his awesome blog, by the way!) recently posted a great question on Quantified Self Facebook page, asking about ways to quantify restraint. This is when I remembered about my attempt to track willpower in March that was partially inspired by our conversation with Hiren Patel of Becoming the Best (another awesome blog!). My method for tracking willpower (self-restraint/self-control) was rather simple and straightforward.
The “Ultimate Guide to the Quantified Self” from Narrato
Narrato put together this awesome slide presentation on what the Quantified Self is, what and why people self-track, and major self-tracking tools currently available on the market:
My Attempt at Tracking Creativity
The pursuit of creativity and self-expression are among the personal values that influence my happiness. Unfortunately, most of the creativity tests that exist today require you to perform certain tasks (e.g., solve a problem, draw something, etc.), involve other people rating your performance, and thus are not suitable for everyday self-tracking. I needed something more simple and more general, so one of my Quantified Self challenges this year was to develop a method to measure and track my creativity on a regular basis. After several unsuccessful tests in January-February, I finally ended up with a 4-question measure that may have a great potential.
Smart Food Scale Project – Support It on Kickstarter!
Just last month I shared with you my vision of the perfect tool for tracking diet. Turns out, Chef Sleeve’s team has the same idea, and they are now trying to raise funds to build a smart digital food scale connected to iPad. Check out their awesome Kickstarter campaign and join me in supporting this great project. I personally just pledged $79 for a promise to receive the scale before it is available to general public (at projected price of $99). The estimated shipping date is November 2013. Watch the video pitch after the jump.
Exploring Stress Through Self-Tracking
In an attempt to understand what causes psychological stress and how it affects quality of my life, I have been tracking its various sources. Contemporary stress theory recognizes three major types of stressors: intrapersonal (my personal thoughts, emotions, inner conflicts, etc.), interpersonal(relationships and interactions with other people, and non-personal (weather, workload, time constraints, etc.). I have been rating exposure to each of these stressors three times a day throughout March, using 10-point scale in my rTracker log. The objective was to find out what kind of stressors bother me most often, my sensitivity to each of them, and how stressors influence my everyday psychological states and behavior. This week, I finally had a chance to aggregate all that data, and run some quick analysis.
