The current issue of Wired Magazine (17-07) is all about the importance of data collection. Data collection is a great way to measure progress. A major step to personal finance is finding out what you spend where. Most homes have a scale in them. This tool is wasted space unless you are tracking what you weigh. My father works in Excel and Access all day. It is not the numbers that make the difference. It is and has always been the data. But not just the data, the analysis of the data. Knowing what the numbers are telling you.
Knowing you weigh 200 lbs is meaningless unless you can analyze the data. Basketball players at 200 lbs are usually skinny considering there are a number of 7 foot tall players. Football linemen weighing 200 lbs don’t get drafted. A 200 lb 4 year old likely has a medical condition. Using that 200 lbs to get your Body Mass Index is much more useful.
One article in the magazine talks about cyclist Kristin Armstrong’s use of data to train for the Olympics and help earn the gold medal. Another talks about why Weight Watchers works. There is one on the Nike+ running system. You can learn the principles that make Volumetrics work. One data analysis tool i have been using for a while is The Daily Plate. They were bought by LiveStrong. You can track your food consumption, weight, exercise, body measurements and more. I also use it to save recipes. The power to the site is not in tracking but the analysis it will do of your data and the social interaction with others on the site.
What do you think? What data do you track?
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