Measuring Ourselves 2: What could possibly go wrong?

Last time, I wrote about the measures we have in our lives. We track and record finances, behavior, medical data, and assessments (including those related to our thinking), and then we fix these against ever-smaller increments of time. Measures have been a part of our life for a long time, and they provide both benefits … Leer más

Measuring Up: Our personal numbers on the Web

A friend of mine has lost over 100 pounds through diet and exercise. For many months, I saw her dedication to walking every day reflected in time and mileage reported to Facebook through a Nike application. I always made a point of clicking “like” when I saw one of these records so that I could encourage her good work. When I was at IBM, they had the option of keeping exercise records online as part of a health initiative for employees.