I don’t get it. 

Why would anyone want to record everything they do, said, to whom they said it, or where they went? What  need does this satisfy?

Some of the comments to this article are … at best, naive. One commenter said this would really help us to “know ourselves” better. Really?? No. I don’t think so.

You come to know yourself by taking the time to focus the reflective part of the mind on the self as you evaluate experiences you have had and the associated emotions they are wrapped in. Introspection does not need a realtime recording of all events in the day you experienced. If it did, you would never complete a reflection as it would take just as long to reflect as it did to experience in the first place. [We do need some time to sleep ]

Another comment from a “future economist” stated he was “blown away” by what we can learn “from the data”. Really? I don’t think economics suffers from a lack of data, it suffers from a lack of understanding about how humans make decisions. [IMHO, this is due to separating our emotional motivations out of the economic algorithms]. Since lifeblogging of all events in your day does not convey the emotional state of you or other people involved (and thank goodness for that), it adds little useful learning to economics as best I can tell.

And finally, this article is more interesting due to what it does not say. It does not talk about the destructive power of this information. If it’s digitally recorded assume it can be used by anyone for any reason. If it’s centrally stored, it is very easy for any government entity to get access. Finally, why would you ever provide this much personal information about your going and coming to any commercial enterprise? Do you think their motivations are more noble than the government?  Really? Truly?

I’m left with several questions:
- Is the interest in lifeblogging a symptom of an inability to be comfortable in your annonimity?
- Does it reflect a deep longing to have your existence acknowledged despite your ability to text and tweet at will?
- Are people uncomfortable with quietly engaging in deep introspection to make sense of their emotions, decisions and interactions with other people?

To quote Alice in “Alice in Wonderland”:
“Curiouser and curiouser”. 

And even more to the point:
“I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night? Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same, the next question is ‘Who in the world am I?’ Ah, that’s the great puzzle!”

Indeed, that is the great puzzle, but I doubt a quantified life will help you put the pieces together.

Nigel’s advice can be summarized as “Monitor the process becoming who you and aim to be engaged with and connected to multiple experiences”.  If living is about the process of becoming, it makes sense to avoid “lock-in” so becoming who you are is as rich an experience as it can be.

He makes four points about how to achieve balance.

1. Some job choices leave no time for proper attention to marriage and children. Confusion of wants with needs leads to working for money, not joyful experience.
2. The problem is within us, so we can’t look for a solution outside ourselves. We are responsible for the experiences we choose, work being one of our choices. Your company will not/does not concern itself with how work is experienced by you.
3. Measuring balance requires a timeframe for the accounting as does balancing the books in finance. We don’t balance them every minute nor every five years. Choosing the timeframe avoids anxity (too short) and regret (too long).
4. Approach the goal of achieving balance in a balanced way. Intellectual, emotional, spiritual, physical and sexual activites require proper attention, time and contemplation. They are not well served by multi-tasking. Full attention to each in the proper place and time creates the balance of experience that results in a fulfilling process of becoming who you are.

Nigel’s final point is about a deep subject, measurement. He says what we choose to measure changes what we become.

The powerful effect of measurement on what is known is elegantly stated at the quantum level by the Hiesenberg Uncertainty Priniciple. The reality of a particle is unknown until you measure it at which time it ”becomes” what you measure. If you measure position, you miss out on knowing the momentum and vice versa. When you change what you measure you directly change the reality of the particle you experience.

This principle seems to apply to people and the process of becoming as it does to electrons. Make your measurements balanced and the life you live will balance itself.

My most memorable incident was with a VP who would come out to Denver and invite me to breakfast. We would chat, and then his phone would beep with a text message and in mid-sentence he would start tapping a note on it, often stopping the conversation. The next time we had breakfast and he started to do this, I asked him what was more important, our conversation or a text that could be responded to at any time? He said he could multi-task, so it wasn’t a problem. I said being in the here and now in a conversation required attention and engagement with the person you are talking to.  Would he kindly refrain from texting.  We continued to debate the value of multitasking when another text came in. Again he began to tap out a message looking at his phone.  I excused myself and left. After that, whenever we met, he purposely took his phone out of his pocket, turned it off and put it on the table. We can control our impulses, but sometimes you need a pointed reminder.

One of the comments to Tony’s article mentions a simple exercise to show that you are not more efficient when multi-taking. The task is to write the alphabet, a-z and underneath each letter, write the number 1-24 at the same time and as fast as you can.  The next time, just write all the letters and then all the numbers underneath. them as fast as you can. How do you feel when you do it each way? Did you make mistakes? The claim is you can complete this task in less time, with fewer mistakes and minimal effort if you do it as two separate tasks, one at a time.

I have become a strong believer that multi-tasking is not a virtue but a bad habit and a vice. It can be turned around, like any habit, by learning to recognize when you are about to start doing it, and then not do it. As happened with the VP, maybe it just takes each of us reminding our friends to stay in the “here and now” when talking with you.

Yesterday, there was an example of the great power of celebrity and social media (the greatest power?) exercising small responsibility.

The story about Trayvon Martin being shot to death by a member of a  neighborhood watch patrol is well know. I noticed this morning an article about Spike Lee. He retweeted the address of a family “reported” to be the parents of Mr. Zimmerman, the man who shot Mr. Martin.

Mr. Lee is an internationally known personality. He has great power. He should take great responsibility for his statements. IMHO, retweeting what someone else said on this subject is being an electronic gossip. If he was not in possession of “the facts” he should stay silent.  To his credit, Mr. Lee has apologized and paid for the inconvenience to the Zimmermans demonstrating he understands the principle of responsibility. I’m optimisitic he will learn what great responsibility is.  

On a similar note, I think President Obama should have considered his great power when asked to comment on this tragedy. No comment would be reasonable from the President of the United States in a local case still under review and investigation by the Justice Department. Instead, bowing to pressure to express his opinion on such matters, he made some comments. He has weighed in on local issues before and it has not worked well for him, lest we forget the “beer in the rose garden” apology and comments about Occupy Wall Street.

Finally, social media is “Great Power” and it transfers to all who use it. The most powerful celebrities and public figures should be examples of how “Great Responsibility” is exercised so the least of us can benefit from their lessons.

Social vs. Solitary

20 years ago when I was a regular bus commuter, some folks read the paper, or a book, and some would talk to each other much as neighbors did when I was a kid.  This week, most folks who would have read a paper back then were using their smart phone Kindle or iPad to read. I was the only one reading a real paper. Comfortingly enough, the percent preferring solitary pursuits vs. social was about the same. There was one debate between an older gent and an older lady with a Kindle about his preference for a book and the feel of paper and her preference for many books in a light weight form so she could read whatever she wanted whenever convenient. It was a draw in my opinion. Each to their own.

Women Prefer eBooks

I read an article that Kindle readers et al have sold very well to women. This also has led to a boom in romance novels, aka, “bodice rippers”, in eBook format. It seems that a Kindle provides the “plain brown wrapper” of anonymity lacking in print copies of the same book.  Being anonymous shapes human behavior when passion and romance are involved.

End of Encyclopedia Britannica Sales

I get to read the paper on the commute and noticed a WSJ article about the demise of the Encyclopedia Britannica door-to-door salesman. Why?  Because the Internet, Google and Wikipedia have replaced it.  In the 1960′s and 70′s when I had to do research papers in class, access to an encyclodedia was the fastest way to get the project done. Today, the information available to a person on a given day via a laptop, smart phone or desk top computer surpasses the total content in the Encyclopedia Britannica, (and in fact, the entire contents of my public library) and it’s available on demand pretty much anywhere you are if you can afford a smart phone.

Social Networking and the Power of a Single Voice, Part #1

The news this week included the letter from the disgruntled employee of Goldman Sachs, Greg Smith. His letter in the New York Times triggered a twitter/blog echo.  Result, the CEO and the President of Goldman publicly had to respond promising “investigations” into the claimed abuses of customers by Goldman.  A Senate investigation with Lloyd Blankfien’s grilling didn’t achieve that much impact after the recession. One man, one letter and then the echo chamber of social networks created more pressure than the US congress.  Hmm, participatory democracy in the extreme?

Social Networking and the Power of a Single Voice, Part #2

The trial of the university student who video taped his roommate’s homosexual encounter with a fellow student and then promoted it using Twitter resulted in his conviction on charges of invasion of privacy, among other charges. If he had made the same comments in the student union and in conversations with friends, would he have been prosecuted?  Would there have been any hard evidence prosecutors could have relied on? Does social networking impose harsher restrictions on what you say then a private conversation in a public square?

Something to consider when next you tweet or post a comment to any blog.

IT Administrator Perspective on Social Media

My class mates are IT administrators in private companies, local government, and not for profits. A comment overheard about Google and Facebook, “I don’t worry about privacy when I use these. Sure they collect information, but I don’t think the government would really be interested in mining this to learn all about me.” 

Most of the people in this class were born long after the Joe McCarthy era. the late 1960-early 1970′s with the infiltration by the FBI of various “left-wing” organizations, or Nixon’s Watergate break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters.  I made the comment that a rereading of “1984” was in order to appreciate the ability of government to abuse surveillance powers. Sadly, I don’t think many understood my 1984 reference.

Today, substitute “advertising funded free applications” for Big Brother in the story of 1984. It seems in the 21st century the power of “free” is far more effective, and less costly, then overt surveillence to collect an in-depth dossier of Winston’s comings and goings. How much more powerful is surveillance when human nature is leveraged to collect the information instead of covert means?  It’s well worth considering I think since we do have a choice in our use of social media applications.

Skiing and Genomics

On the way up on the gondola at Keystone on Friday, I struck up a conversation with two fellows. They were at Keystone for a conference on immunology and Friday was the play day. We chatted about the acceleration of discovery in biology driven by sequencing the genome. They said there was a growing excitement at the conference over discoveries about the ecology of bacteria and viruses in the body. By count, there are more bacteria in our bodies by a factor of 10 than human cells. So who and what we are is likely more about the bacteria and interactions with our cells than it is about the DNA of our cells.  This seems similar to the revolution in cosmology where we learned  how small matter and energy are in the universe. Dark energy and dark matter make up 90% of the total. Our ideas about the universe are based on about 10% of what’s actually there.

Epigenetics is the emerging study of the interactions of DNA with the environment, bacteria and viruses. Science finds that gene expression is influenced by virus and bacterial interactions that can activate or inhibit gene expression. In some cases, this is the casue of disease. One of them pointed out a recent experiment with the Toxoplasma virus. It reproduces in cats and uses rats to infect other cats. The eggs move from cat feces to rats. Inside the rat, it causes changes in gene expression in rat brains making them less afraid of cats and easier to catch. When the cat eats a rat with Toxoplasma, it infects the cat thereby ensuring it’s survival. At that point, we got to the top of the mountain and bid adieu.

On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal had an article on this topic including a discussion about the Toxoplasma study. Serendipity.

As we improve our ability to measure and see at smaller and smaller scales in biology, we find once again that human’s aren’t center stage. We keep confusing our ability to ask questions and make connections with our overall importance.

Pay for Maming in Sports

When did we forget that sports should showcase sportsmanship and serve as a platform for the higher qualities of human character. There was a letter in the Saturday Wall Street Journal that asked why “assault” was not a prosecutable offence in the NFL? Or, said differently, why is premeditated intent to maim, or kill, not a criminal matter?  At a minimum, why doesn’t the NFL at least expel for life any player or coach for this kind of behavior? We do that in other “professions” when members violate the code of conduct.  I don’t get it.

We took a ride up to Golden Gate State Park and continued on CO-119 on Saturday. It was a day with really clear skies the color of blue you only see at 8000 feet or more. The wind was blowing the snow off the peaks creating the only clouds in the sky. Tis a priviledge to live in Colorado.

If you want to do this, Randy Bishop has a great site with helpful resources to help you plan you ridding

Here is link to Google Maps showing all the passes we have ridden over.  Click on any of the markers to see the pictures we took at each pass. 

And, you can look at all the pictures of the passes in the order we rode over them on Flicker as well.

The stories document our culture over much of the 20th century (at 70, the youngest were born in 1941) as much as they do the experience of living. Their values, challenges, triumphs and observations are rooted in what it is to be human which is a process of continually becoming, not a static goal achieved once and put on the shelf like a trophy.  

Those in their 20′s and 30′s may think folks over 70 are near the end of their lives. But none of the writers seem focused on the end as much as they are on the living process of becoming who they are.  Despite the bad behavior some confess to, none of them are static, unchanging, nor accepting of the ultimate end, their deaths.  Instead, they are actively engaged in writing the next pages and chapters of their lives. 

Their stories underscore what I hear in Dylan Thomas’s poem, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night“.