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I put my whole life into a single database

krausefx.com

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Re: I put my whole life into a single database

#81

Post by elb2020 »

fjfaase wrote: post #59

About ten years ago, I started to track my life in a diary, recording when I got up, all my traveling, what I made for dinner, which pages I read and such. I started doing this because I felt time was flying. I have the feeling that it did a little to counter this feeling. But it also made me aware of the amount of procastination (web surfing), which at times has been kind of depressing. It did me give a good sense o…

I keep a diary for some projects that I work on. It's basically one large, never ending text file that I keep versioned in git. I like the simplicity of the scheme. It's rare that I need to go back and look at something that I've written earlier. But when I do need to do it, it's there, and easily available. I think I'm going to continue using this scheme for all projects through the rest of my career.

As for logging of structured data, I've sometimes thought of coming up with some kind of annotation scheme, so that, if I need, in my writing, to log a measurable quantity of some kind, I could just annotate it in a special way. And then, later on, if the need should arise, I could just extract the annotated data from the text document. I've not taken it any further, but I think it could be useful. A sort of a "hybrid approach" that would let me focus on the writing and the flow of thoughts, while also letting me log tidbits of structured data in between.

Re: I put my whole life into a single database

#82

Post by Tenoke »

karol wrote: post #77

This is super cool. However over the years I have seen super cool things being noticed by powerful organisations and made mandatory for the greater good of the corporation or the society. I would not like to see that happen with this one.

There's been a ton of cool QS stuff over the years. The main two things noticed by big companies are fitness trackers which are a nice development for the space and I'd like to see them create more devices like that, and some insurance companies using voluntary QS tracking (like steps) to give you rewards to motivate you which is arguably good.

So I definitely welcome them to get inspired to do more.

Re: I put my whole life into a single database

#84

Post by rjh29 »

throwaway20220a wrote: post #70

Quoted post unavailable.

There's a pretty hilarious split in the comments which I think is due to time zone. Americans think the project is cool because self-promotion is valued there. Europeans think it's narcissistic and self-absorbed.

I think it's in between. You have to be a pretty self-absorbed person to start doing this, but then I think it organically grows even bigger over time, and then becomes cool enough to actually show other people.

Re: I put my whole life into a single database

#85

Post by rjh29 »

caust1c wrote: post #31

Looking through his travel history, this man must have a massive carbon footprint. I really hope that the world stops idolizing the digital nomad lifestyle.

Well, he probably doesn't drive given he lives in capital cities. So his total footprint may be lower than average.

edit: it is not, he uses about 3x as much carbon flying (14.2 tons of CO2) as emitted by a typical passenger car per year (4.6 tons of CO2).

Re: I put my whole life into a single database

#86

Post by lbotos »

SamBam wrote: post #20
scrollbar wrote: post #7

This is super cool. In case you don't make it through to the project's webpage howisfelix.today, and read through to the end, here is the creator's conclusion: Overall, having spent a significant amount of time building this project, scaling it up to the size it’s at now, as well as analysing the data, the main conclusion is that it is not worth building your own solution, and investing this much time. When I first s…

> There were some, and it’s super interesting to look through those graphs, however retrospectively, it did not justify the hundreds of hours I invested in this project. This is my general feeling towards all quantified-self projects. Perhaps it creates interesting insights for some people, but I can imagine the kinds of conclusions I'd actually get from it will be things like "I'm happier on sunny days" and I'll say…

For me "quantified self" has been half meditative. I have tracked daily water intake (and only water to keep it simple) and that has been a huge noticeable quality of life improvement. Waterminder on apple watch is the best.

This year I added in daily mood tracking, and it's mostly focused on taking 5 minutes a day for myself to just jot notes down quickly. I'm using dailo and I have a few categories too (work good/ok/bad - food homecooked/takeout - vices) and just the space I've created to do that has been worth it. I don't expect to get anything too interesting long term besides patterns in takeout/cooking, but I find myself more connected to my day good or bad, and that presence of mind to combat the autopilot is worth it.

Re: I put my whole life into a single database

#88

Post by rjh29 »

pigiou wrote: post #65

Slightly Off Topic: I recently began having the urge to measure and record everything that is measurable in my day to day life. I do not know why it started, but if I stop doing it, I feel guilty. Maybe this kind of behaviour has (or needs) a name?

What impact is it having on your life? If it's making you miserable, definitely consider a therapist or reading up on CBT.

Re: I put my whole life into a single database

#89

Post by grsmvg »

dabedee wrote: post #45

This project is super cool. I would recommend the author starts tracking the amount of CO2 he emits in a year, which could easily be approximated with the flight/transportation and food data he has. Carbon emissions per Capita per year in the US: 18 metric tonnes. In Italy: 8 metric tonnes [1]. Author is probably close to 60-80 with all the transatlantic flights. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/datablog/2…

I'm happy to return to the comment section here and see I'm not alone in my frustration over the author seeming to take pride in this crazy amount of air miles. Until that chart I really enjoyed scrolling through the page, seeing all the time and obsession the author put into this.
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