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Do you use your own data to explore your own questions? Then this newsletter is for you.
My name is Gary Wolf. I’m a journalist, author, researcher, and the founder of Quantified Self. Previously, I was a Contributing Editor at Wired Magazine and Executive Editor of Wired Digital.
I started organizing Quantified Self meetings in 2008 to support and learn from people doing empirical self-research. The late Seth Roberts, an emeritus professor of experimental psychology at UC Berkeley and a frequent participant in our early years, called this personal science.
When I first began exploring this type of science at a human scale I didn’t realize how widespread it was, or what a long history it had. But through our meetings and conferences, I soon met many hundreds of people far more expert than I was, and I learned a ton.
Over the last few years, the research community around personal science has thrived, while the popular practice of tracking and learning from our own data is now mainstream and widespread. Recent survey data reports most U.S. adults own at least one wearable.
Sometimes personal science involves wearable devices or apps. Sometimes it involves a spreadsheet, a notebook, a sensor, a calendar, a lab test, or a question that can only be answered through careful self-observation.
Throughout this change and growth, my interest has stayed focused on what individual people can discover for themselves using the tools of self-measurement and empirical reasoning.
What you’ll get
Updates on events, talks, tools, methods, research links, discussion threads related to Quantified Self practice, along with occasional longer essays. The goal is not to flood your inbox. The goal is to send useful signals about what is worth noticing and where the conversation around personal science is going next.
You may be here because you use an Apple Watch, Oura Ring, continuous glucose monitor, sleep tracker, training log, mood journal, productivity system, or some other form of self-tracking and have wondered: What can I actually learn from this?
You may be a researcher, technologist, clinician, patient, athlete, artist, student, writer, or simply a person with a question about your own life that deserves more than a generic answer.
Whatever your reason for subscribing, I hope you will find something useful.
I enjoy hearing from people involved in personal science and the Quantified Self community, so if you have a link to share or comment to offer, please don’t hesitate to get in touch by leaving a comment.
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