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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

#101

Post by krausefx »

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…

Author here - thanks for the feedback to include CO2 emissions, I just updated the page to include the numbers, via Nomadlist's built-in CO2 emissions calculator: https://github.com/KrauseFx/howisFelix.today/commit/91c766b7...

Re: I put my whole life into a single database

#102

Post by krausefx »

ge96 wrote: post #2

Wow that's impressive. I've been thinking about doing this too. How do you ensure that you consistently track? Automated pings? Physical buttons/sensors at your desk or I guess computer uptime maybe. Other thing is did you have any concerns about making this info public, I guess it's not locating you exactly.

Author here: Yes, exactly which is why I chose to use Telegram to enter my data. If you go all the way to the bottom of howisFelix.today and check out the "Data Inputs" section I wrote a little about it. Being able to easily answer on whatever device you're on right now makes everything easier

Re: I put my whole life into a single database

#103

Post by krausefx »

code_scrapping wrote: post #60

TLDR: It's Postgres. (I don't have any big opinions about the effort, I just wanted to hear what was the database chosen that was able to track all different data formats... and it could have been sexier, but yes - Postgres would do.)

Author here - Yes, sorry for not putting that somewhere more visible. In my mind, the actual database running it was actually not relevant at all, it would have worked just as well with any database, including SQLite, as the basic structure, and size (~380,000 rows) could be handled by them.

Re: I put my whole life into a single database

#104

Post by krausefx »

belkarx wrote: post #33

Now the question is: how much time did he spend tracking all of that?

Author here - I actually talked about this at the very bottom of the howisFelix.today page, in the "Conclusion" section:

> 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 started building this project 3 years ago, I expected to learn way more surprising and interesting facts. 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.

Re: I put my whole life into a single database

#105

Post by basisword »

grsmvg wrote: post #89
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.

Why get frustrated over something like this? You’re seeing one data point on how the author lives their life. I see these kinds of comments more and more and can’t understand the need to judge someone else, without full information, based on your own personal standards.

Re: I put my whole life into a single database

#106

Post by basisword »

I came across this a few years ago, it’s very cool. I enjoy the quantified self thing but personally struggle to do anything useful with the data I collect. It’s always interesting comparing time spans but other than that nothing actionable. Do any quantified self people have any advice on how to utilise data for positive effect?

Edit: after reading the full thing something that jumped out to me was summer/winter comparisons. If you have the freedom to work anywhere, chasing sun seems like it could have quite a positive impact on your general health and well-being.

Re: I put my whole life into a single database

#107

Post by petercooper »

Only mildly related, but is a "sleeping HR" of around 60-61 normal for someone who's really fit and active like this guy? I do not engage in organised exercise (gym visits "0% of days"!) and my HR during sleep tends to be ~48. I have a regular medical and was told this is fine though.

Re: I put my whole life into a single database

#108

Post by joshspankit »

toto444 wrote: post #93
dpeck wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’ve verbalized more about data science than most executives ever will.

Maybe the executive is asking the wrong questions and puts it on the data scientist. Hint : 'Can you create a report that shows that my last decision was a success ?' is not a good question.

It’s a great question when the desired outcome is climbing the corporate ladder

Re: I put my whole life into a single database

#109

Post by polote »

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…

I don't feel you will be able to detect big correlation by using that kind of system. If there is a big correlation to be found, it is likely to have already been found by researchers.

I'm tracking my life by a similar system than OP, but the error with tracking is to start tracking useless things. For example OP track his calorie intake, it is a lot of work, and it is not really usefull at the end. It is unlikely to correlate with any other measures he is doing (apart from weight).

I personally only track mood, activities and position. Each tracking has a specific goal, and only take me 1 minute per day. I have a lot of headaches and could be tempted to track headaches to understand what triggers them. But now that I know what triggers them (when I'm hungry, or I spent too much time exposed to the sun) I would never have been able to detect that correlation from data.

So my advice to people wanting to track their life, identify first what you need the data for, and increase the number of data you track if you have a lack of data to achieve a specific goal, but don't track for the sake of tracking.

For example I track my position, to know where I have been, but also to warn my parents in case I go missing and nobody know where is my last position

I track my mood, to know if I am doing better over time, or if I'm able to improve my sleep not only by feeling it, but by having numbers on

I track my activitites, because I want to know If I work too much, if I do enough sport, or if I spend too much time on my computer in a week

Re: I put my whole life into a single database

#110

Post by joshspankit »

stavros wrote: post #95
lbotos wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/o…

What was the quality of life improvement in tracking water intake? I find it interesting, because your body tracks it whether you want to or not, and I never found forcing myself to drink more water beneficial.

It’s surprisingly easy for some to get disconnected from the signs of dehydration. For example: when focused on a project I can go a couple days before realizing that I did not drink any water at all.
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