QuantifiedSelfA Mega Trend or just a fad

@harscoatDisclaimer: I am no official speaker of the QS group,

just a very interested amateur. I myself track with “Chocolate method” ;)

Agenda• Intro• QS: a fad or emerging power trend?

– General pb– Context– QS community

• Personal Informatics• Issues• Our proposal…

!! I thank in advance the people who share publicly their workit’s THEIR copyrighted material always reference to them

when you can to say thank you

@harscoat – Denis / Hello!

Father & 39 = soon 40

"Words, words, words" (Hamlet, 2.2.191)

The web today is « bavard » as we say in french• blogs• Twitter• Facebook• Politics• Advertising/marketing• New years resolutions

Words (vs evidence based methods)

• = Blah blah blah… !!!

My personal pain = Achieving measurable goals

Getting 40…it is not time to talk, But time to achieve goals & leave sthg behind:

Eg.1. Saving money to buy a house2. Writing a book3. Spend quality time with family… and also4. Drinking enough water to not have tendinites5. Make pushups to keep fit even if traveling

To achieve! Leave sthg concrete/objective behind

No BS = numbers!

We need to Focus on numbers

What matters are your numbers – and the value they indirectly create

From any which way

Numbers9123235262

#

Sales

expenses

Heart rate / blood pressure

Miles running Lines of code

Pages for my book

Money$

Loosing weight

Concentration Flows

Cigarettes/beer… per day

Hours of practice

Series of

push-ups

Vaccines against Malaria

Even Charities!

Btw go & give to Charity:Water !!

Massive ZeitGeist

Concurrent waves:

1. new mobile tools can unlock productivity Context:

1. The underachiever syndrome – no superman2. GTD blogs 3. life hacking – Seinfeld chain

2. Data are available SENSORS revolution3. Numbers driven: Metrics kissmetrics, Salesforce, lean

startup...4. 10k hours rule – Deliberate Practice5. Statistics visualization6. Accountability = precise numbered goals

Frog Design for Nike

It is a big big trend

It is a necessity

accountability

achieve

By NUMBERS

2009! =ok Recent

Those are BHAGs that have to be measured with numbers

Quantified Self community – SF, USAMouvement founded by Kevin Kelly (founding exec. editor Wired)

– Quantified Self is a collaboration of users and tool makers around self-tracking. Kevin Kelly and Gary Wolf maintain and moderate the blog + authors includesAlexandra Carmichael, Joe Betts-Lacroix, Steve Dean, Robin Barooah, Mike Kirkwood, Ian Li, Rajiv Mehta, and Chris Finlay.

– monthly meet up which started in the San Francisco Bay Area, but local chapters are springing up all over the world.

Kevin Kelly Gary Wolf Alexandra Carmichael

Today’s offering… already plethorus

•The reference ressource on all tools:–http://personalinformatics.org/tools

•Famous:–Nike+ (Frog Design)–miCoach (Adidas)–Curetogether–Getupandmove.me–Runkeeper (2,5 M members)–But also Mint for finance –HealthSeeker–Dailyburn acquired …

•Take aways:–Hardware–Software–For any niche of number producing activities

$ Acquired!

$ Acquired!

One of the most interesting offering out there. Why?* Simplicity* Behavior programming:

“if” you do x “then” I do y

Academic Perspective

• Ian Li – PhDCarnegie Mellon UniversityPittsburgh, USA

http://www.slideshare.net/ianli/personal-informatics-and-hci-ian-li-june-2010

Among the issues

Other issue:

•Representation

•Visualization

• THE PROBLEM:

It is tough

splash

@accarmichael

40 A DAY !!! Chapeau !

Alexandra Curetogether Founder & well known contributor to the QS movement explains

I don't need data to tell me thatAnd I don't need to punish myself anymore

Will I ever track again?

Yes, probablyFor a specific goal or experimentOr to observe a patternI'll try to keep an objective, non-judging eyeBut then I'll stop When I've seen what I needed to seeAnd learned what I wanted to learn

Like any toolSelf-tracking can be used for benefit or harm

I won't let itBe an instrument of self-tortureAny. More.

Tracking can bea monk discipline

We Still think QS holds!

• Numbers are objective evidence based

• They speak as universal language

PS: Alexandra Carmichael is now Director of QSelf blog

& we have a sthg to propose you

• It is called Quantter: starting today with you #BCBS10

• I have a questionnaire !

I am very open! And guarantee I will listen all your remarks and critics

Value at the end of the day

That a children can learn by evidence based examples that:

1. nothing great was achieved without big repetitive numbers of daily simple tedious focused tasks

2. little numbers with regularity are much superior force than big 1time splash numbers (even for becoming a world class rapper)

Talent is overrated! Don’t wait for magical inspiration, genes or genius, «Fleissig sein» (as said in german)

Thank you

@harscoat

denis@quantter.com

Numbers with a Purpose