Graphstravaganza, in which it becomes apparent that there is something wrong with me

Since my first post here at The Penguin Blog back in February, I have made two discrete references to Transformers, two to Army of Darkness and a single reference to Kung Fu Panda (this last also mentioned once by Jennifer).

Well, if that seems like glib, pop culture nonsense, NOW I AM PULLING OUT THE BIG GUNS.

As SOCRATES is reported by PLATO to have said at his trial: ‘The unexamined life is not worth living.’

Socrates. Plato. Impressive. Try to keep that sense of wonder and susceptibility in your mind for the time being.

In January, Sam wrote ‘the world will have to live without knowing the historical library of a Penguin copywriter’, which is no longer the case. Now that I am here, the world only has to ask and I can supply it with a list of every book that I have read since 2006. The world won't ask - the world doesn't care - but nevertheless, there it is.

This post isn't about why I would be obsessive enough to keep that list (but, hey, it's nice - like looking through a passport at stamps of places visited), it's about the fact that I would be far more obsessive if only I could.

My memory isn’t great and, if it was only easier, I would be delighted to outsource to an external record all kinds of information about my life (just as I'm in the process of outsourcing my knowledge of all things not-me to Wikipedia and Google). Not just books read, but music listened to, meals eaten, alcohol consumed, trips taken, blurbs written, blurbs that should have been better, words misspelled, photographs taken (by location, competence and subject) ...

And then I would have my experiences fed back to me as pie charts, spark lines, bar and radar graphs. So whenever I lose my nerve or my determination, whenever my bad habits beat out my better nature and I repeat old mistakes, my failure can stare me in the face as hard data, all my flaws plotted and handsomely laid out.

Because the unexamined life isn't worth living.

Nicolas Felton, who designed the beautiful 'Hard Times' for the We Tell Stories series, produces a personal annual report, documenting the minutiae of his life in this way.

And now he’s working on Daytum, a tool designed to make this kind of tracking and presentation of personal habits easy. I’m very excited. You can see how it works in this video.

Only Daytum’s in private beta. So if anyone happens to have an invitation, please let me know – I can offer only gratitude, but it will be grand and sincere.

There is also Mycrocosm, that is similar, but not as well-designed, and with an interface that is a bit too bare-bones. Still, how can you not love something that leads to users making graphs like this:

Now Scottobear will always know that he gets headpain twice as often as pain 'in the butt'. Probably not quite what Socrates was thinking of in his 'Apology', but noble all the same.

Alan
Copywriter

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Comments

[smallgirl]

wow just think how much better one of those personal annual reports would be rather than the usual Christmas round-robins.

[scottobear]

too true. surprising, given how many things have the capacity to be a pain in the butt in this world.

[Katie]

Seriously, I am incredibly jealous. I have documented my book and film consumption for the past 2 1/2 years, but allconsuming.net, the site I use, doesn't allow for any kind of interpretation. I definitely need some Daytum analysis in my life.