Tracking Oneself

Technological progress and decreasing prices have given rise to an interesting movement. Quantified self or self tracking describes the idea of people collecting and analyzing data about themselves. This is now possible in ways that really was not practical a decade earlier.

Technology Review highlights the movement in The Measured Life, including a feature article of the same title in the magazine’s August print edition. Quantified Self looks like a good blog to follow to keep up with developments in the area. There are also numerous Meetup groups as well as a conference.

Gary Wolf, who wrote about self tracking in Know Thyself: Tracking Every Facet of Life, from Sleep to Mood to Pain, 24/7/365 and The Data-Driven Life also gave the following Ted talk:

From the video:

I would like to tell you that it’s also for self-knowledge. The self isn’t the only thing, it’s not even most things. The self is just our operation center, our consciousness, our moral compass. So, if we want to act more effectively in the world, we have to get to know ourselves better.

I think, people generally like data. The ability to collect and subsequently analyze and view the data, can lead to powerful feedback loops that can help us make better, more informed decisions about how we live.

We will be hearing a lot more about this.