Episode  

**Originally published Sep 5, 2013
What’s on your wrist right now? For many of us it isn’t a watch or a simple bracelet, it is a wearable technology that probably tracks the number of steps you take, the distance those steps have taken you and the calories those steps have helped you shed. Welcome to the fringe of the self-tracking era. Wether it is a FitBit or Nike Fuelband or Jawbone Up or even the new Misfit Shine around your wrist or clipped somewhere, you are part of the quantified self movement and there are more joining every single day.
For the die-hard self-trackers out there, this is not a new phenomenon but for many, new and old, the pervasive nature of mobile has made it easier. When I was a kid, I used to count steps: I knew how many there were from my house to my school, from the bus stop to my work, from the bedroom to the bathroom. Distance was measured that way, charted in my head and calculated as a daily running total. Today those numbers and calculations are relegated to my wrist and tracked through my smartphone.
Why do we do this and what is the value of all this data being collected?
Nora Young, CBC host of Spark and author of “The Virtual Self” went deep into the self-tracking world and comes on to share her insight on the industry, the influence mobile has had on the growth of self-tracking and what the future holds for the data. We also discuss the implications of tracking through technology versus pen and paper - going from quantifying emotions and feelings to simply quantifying the step.
This is a fascinating time of discovery in the mobile/wearable industry as companies big and small try to figure out the right strategy of entering this market and why. The race is on and this episode gives context to it through its history with a glimpse of where it’s going.
Key takeaways from this episode.
1. Who is Nora Young 2:15
2. How hard is it to find the fringe of technology? 4:22
3. The balance of openness 6:00
4. What was the inspiration for the book? 8:22
5. Are we losing our “self” 11:55
6. What has mobile done to self tracking? 17:00
7. Is there a superficial use of this technology in developed nations vs developing economies? 19:15
8. Will we ever be able to make a living out of our data? 22:00
9. Is the “you are the product” statement still viable? 26:15
10. Are we entering the data-driven insurance rate era? 31:00
11. When does social engineering push the boundary of usefulness? 33:30
12. Will this remove serendipity? 35:45
13. What is the impact of data on learning? 38:15
14. What does data mean for the future of the next generation? 40:00
15. Will big data be able to file our taxes for us? 43:30
16. In your career, has there been anything so surprising to you? 46:16