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Wow so much dismissal and negativity here. I admit that some of these metrics are trivial and perhaps useless, but I think this is a looking glass into how lif

Wow so much dismissal and negativity here. I admit that some of these metrics are trivial and perhaps useless, but I think this is a looking glass into how life will be in the future. Everything in your life will be monitored and there will probably be interesting knowledge that surfaces. For example, I would like to know what foods I eat that effect my mood positively or negatively. I would like to know emergent routines that are detrimental to my health. I would like mountains of data to tell me if I am really happy in my life, and if not what I might consider doing to change that. Understanding these things for ourselves is difficult because we are completely biased and effected by short term noise. Is this service the answer? probably not - but starting somewhere is good.

DanielStraight 13y ago
> I would like mountains of data to tell me if I am really happy in my life Is happiness really found in measurable things? How am I supposed to measure how happy it makes me when my son grins ear to ear when I get home from work? Happiness, as far as I'm concerned, is found in contentment, love and purpose. I don't see a way to measure any of these things. And I certainly don't need a website to tell me if I have them.
- npizzolato 13y ago
  Agreed. I actually like these types of products, but I object to the idea that a massive amount of data is going to define whether or not you're happy. If you need to sift through a massive amount of data to determine that, then no, you're probably not happy. On the other hand, these products can help you achieve some "thing" that might make you happier. For instance, being fit might make you happy, and seeing how far you traveled each day may motivate you to walk further every day. But the amount of steps you walk shouldn't define your happiness. And if you try to draw happiness from that, I would guess it's going to be a failed endeavor.
erichmond 13y ago
I think what people are saying is that this concept has already been started by many companies already. It's just another take on a model that people who've tried QS for awhile already understand it's not the right solution. I had gotten into QS for a bit, but as others have said, once you start to use the products and follow the methodology, you start to see how what sounds great in theory doesn't work so well in practice. That said, I hope they do well, because, why not. I just know that this isn't as interesting to me as it would have been 6 months ago, having some experience in the space.
pavlov 13y ago
How will you measure whether the constant act of measuring affects your mood positively or negatively? "Quantified self" is a bit like trying to turn a quantum phenomenon into classical physics by taking precise measurements and bounding the parameters until some structure appears to emerge. You've got a theory then, but instead of describing the original phenomenon it's an image of the choices you made to get that data.

DanielStraight 13y ago

> I would like mountains of data to tell me if I am really happy in my life Is happiness really found in measurable things? How am I supposed to measure how happy it makes me when my son grins ear to ear when I get home from work? Happiness, as far as I'm concerned, is found in contentment, love and purpose. I don't see a way to measure any of these things. And I certainly don't need a website to tell me if I have them.

npizzolato 13y ago
Agreed. I actually like these types of products, but I object to the idea that a massive amount of data is going to define whether or not you're happy. If you need to sift through a massive amount of data to determine that, then no, you're probably not happy. On the other hand, these products can help you achieve some "thing" that might make you happier. For instance, being fit might make you happy, and seeing how far you traveled each day may motivate you to walk further every day. But the amount of steps you walk shouldn't define your happiness. And if you try to draw happiness from that, I would guess it's going to be a failed endeavor.

erichmond 13y ago

I think what people are saying is that this concept has already been started by many companies already. It's just another take on a model that people who've tried QS for awhile already understand it's not the right solution. I had gotten into QS for a bit, but as others have said, once you start to use the products and follow the methodology, you start to see how what sounds great in theory doesn't work so well in practice. That said, I hope they do well, because, why not. I just know that this isn't as interesting to me as it would have been 6 months ago, having some experience in the space.

pavlov 13y ago

How will you measure whether the constant act of measuring affects your mood positively or negatively? "Quantified self" is a bit like trying to turn a quantum phenomenon into classical physics by taking precise measurements and bounding the parameters until some structure appears to emerge. You've got a theory then, but instead of describing the original phenomenon it's an image of the choices you made to get that data.