Society - Written Wednesday, May 12, 2010 by Tim Bevins - 3 Comments

“The Data-Driven Life”: Who’s not interested in discovery?

Gary Wolf writes in The New York Times about self-measurement, the desire of some people to measure what they do, say, think, eat, and more, sometimes just for the sake of doing it and other times for a specific purpose. Sometimes the measurements end up creating a reason for doing them.

Wolf’s interest in self-measurement prompted him, with colleague Kevin Kelly, to set up a website, The Quantified Self, where people can find “tools for knowing your own mind and body.” A variety of contributors, including Wolf and Kelly, write about their own experiences with self-measurement and, of course, comment on others’ postings.

I won’t re-tell individuals’ stories Wolf recounts; you can read the piece for yourself and it is absolutely worth the time to do so, probably worth re-reading. Continue…