Slate has recently published several articles on self-tracking. “How should we use data to improve our lives?” is a nice way to frame it. By data, the author, Michael Egger, means data we collect ourselves — leaving the traditional collectors of data, such as government and scientists, out of the loop (act –> collect data –> act). The first person to close the loop like that was Richard Bernstein, who measured his own blood sugar levels several times/day — omitting his doctor, who had measured Bernstein’s blood sugar level once/month, out of the feedback loop. The consequences were huge. Bernstein’s health got much better. And the treatment of diabetes changed forever when what Bernstein did became common. Hanna Rosin wrote about tracking her blood sugar levels in an article with a completely misleading subtitle (“Diabetes has forced me to become a self-tracker, and I can’t stand it”).
Another article — titled ”Living the Quantified Life: Some of the most inspiring self-tracking projects” but promoted as “The guy who eats a half-stick of butter a day and other strange ‘self-trackers’ ” — is about three examples of self-tracking: my butter research, the benefits of categorizing one’s possessions, and Jon Cousins’s discovery that telling other people his mood greatly improved it.
Slate is running a contest about this:
We are looking for great ways that we can collect and analyze data to improve our lives. You can submit your idea by clicking the button below. The deadline for submitting ideas has been extended until Wednesday, Dec. 8. We’ll be tracking your most interesting ideas throughout the month. And don’t forget to vote on the proposals you like best. We’ll take a closer look at the three top-vote-getting ideas and write about them.