"Knowledge makes everything simpler."

Knowledge makes everything simpler.

From John Maeda's The Laws of Simplicity

Step 1: Just measuring, not judging

When doing the Try part of Think, Try, Learn, it is natural (for me, at least) to judge my progress. For example, right now in my Overeating reset experiment I'm working on how much drinking chocolate I'm taking each day. I'm focusing in it because it feels like I've gone a little overboard on it, and I'm curious. I'm applying the TTL principle of simply observing how many servings I have each day. The key is to not judge, as much as possible. That is, instead of thinking "Damn - this is my fourth today!" I'm trying to activate my curiosity, more like "Hmm - Interesting. The subject has had his fourth cup today." The thought is that it kicks off what I call the observation -> awareness -> change cycle. Ideally I'd also track comfort/fullness, but that's too much right now, so I'll just measure and see what happens.

Note that this approach applies to any change you might want to make - diet, of course, critical thoughts or comments, or distractions or interruptions at work. In a sense it's a distillation of Kaizen where you make one small change at a time, but it's making one small measurement at a time. I found the book One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way to be a helpful introduction to the ideas. Here's how Frederick Muench puts it at Self-Monitoring Made Easy on Psychology Today:

In fact, study after study has shown that simply monitoring your behavior is a powerful intervention in itself.

Thoughts?

A roundup of my Quantified Self posts

I haven't figured out how to have my Quantified Self posts show up here as regular posts, so I'll let you know about my latest ones:

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How do you celebrate the data?

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Patterns

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Where's the Universal Self-Tracking Gadget?

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TTL thinking in action: A case study of installing steam pipe insulation

(Here's a different type of post, one that I hope shows the Think, Try, Learn mindset in action. As an experiment, it is like my Cut-Throat post last year. While the project I describe seems mundane, the application of the ideas helped me enjoy it rather a lot. I'm still working on expressing how these connect to the TTL view of the world, so please bear with me.)

I spent half a day putting pipe insulation on our old house's steam pipes in the basement to reduce waste heat. The pipes are without insulation because we had the original asbestos insulation removed earlier this summer for health reasons. The pipes looked something like this before the removal:

The new insulation comes as shaped fiberglass tubes that are split so they can easily be installed on a pipe via a hinging "clamshell" action. It looks like this:

These are installed one piece at a time by:

• Measuring a "run" of steam pipe (there are many elbows and fittings that interrupt up the pipes),
• picking out the right diameter of insulation from the supply (we have three diameters in the basement),
• measuring and cutting a piece to fit, then
• installing that section of insulation on the pipe (hinge it in half, put it around the pipe, close it, then tape the seam).

I'd been putting this job off for a while and took the opportunity of my family being out of town this weekend to do the task. I found a lot of places where TTL thinking helped me get into it, and made the process actually fun. Following are examples of how that happened. Many of them were a result of self-reflection while working, which is itself a result of close observation and analysis - the scientist's perspective, in other words. The main thing that helped was telling myself before I got started that this was an experiment. I've never done it before, I was likely to make mistakes, and lots of learning was definitely going to take place.

• I enjoyed getting more accurate and faster at scoring the insulation for cutting, and then cutting it.
• I managed frustration at one point when I cut the wrong diameter insulation, but then reminded myself that the problem was not irreversible - I knew that I could use the piece later. (I suffer from perfectionism, so little things like this seem overly large to me.) This is an example of treating things as experimental prototypes.
• At one point I had to work behind an electrical panel that blocks access to the pipe behind it. After some frustrating trial and error (it's a very tight space to work in) I decided to take it on as a challenge, and show it who was boss! I had to compromise by leaving a few small sections uninsulated, but I enjoyed the feeling of success with this section. This is an example of the boldness that comes from the confidence of trying lots of things. (For me, any boldness is good boldness!)
• I enjoyed the feeling of mastering the tiny operations that made up the project - cutting, wrapping, and taping - and was able to use my observation skills to pretty much stay in the moment with them. A scientifically-inspired example of chop wood carry water, I suppose.
• I was pleased when an idea popped up for improving the product, in this case to print length markings right on the white wrap. This would eliminate the time-consuming marking-off task. Instead of having to hold the insulation section up to a yardstick, you could simply cut right at the exact point without measuring.
• I enjoyed playing with shortcuts through trial and error. For example, there are places where two steam pipe sections are connected by a fitting of slightly larger diameter than the pipes themselves. I tried "fudging" this by running the insulation right across the connector, instead of cutting it into two sections that did not overlap it. Result: The insulation didn't compress enough, and so there was a gap in the seam. Lesson learned!
• I was less intense about mistakes. Again, they were usually reversible, say when I cut too short or long, or used the wrong diameter. For this project, mistakes are easily forgiven.
• I got a strong feeling of delight when I found a piece I'd already cut that fit exactly in a place I needed it to fit. Surprise!
• I really enjoyed the long runs of steam pipe that allowed my placing entire 3' lengths of insulation without cutting. My record so far is three sections (9'). I tried to mix these up with the more tedious sections needing customized cutting, just so I wouldn't have all the "good" together.
• I really enjoyed the delicious moment at about the two hour point when I realized that the basement had started cooling down (it was pretty steamy before). It was satisfying to get relatively quick results.
• I took pride in doing quality work - making tightly-fitted sections, clean cuts, right angles, seamless taping, etc.

Finally, I loved the gradual process of coming up with a system and routine that made the project go smoothly - figuring out how to mark off the measurement, how to cut cleanly and quickly (and safely!), etc. It was a good project for that because the skills could be aquired quickly, but the scope was not too large.

Overall I might summarize by saying this kind of thinking helped me really savor the process of trying something new and figuring it out.

What do you think?

Experiment Ideas 2010-11: Silence, class!, Web apps only, Social irritation, and the Labeling hack

I'm a collector of interesting, entertaining, and self-expanding things to try, so I thought I'd share a few from the Think, Try, Learn Experiment Repository. How about you - any experiments you've been doing or thinking of trying? The odder the better!

50's, Baby

At Results from the 50s Housewife Experiment Jen Byck did an experimented with living a classic 50's housewife role:

Over the course of two weeks, yours truly attempted to live the life of a 1950's housewife - through recipes and meal planning, a housekeeping schedule, a dedication to being frugal, and by maintaining specific beauty standards.

She reported that she gained a few pounds, saved money on groceries, spent more time with friends, and had a cleaner house. Check out her post to learn more. Good work, Jen! Anyone care to try it?

This reminds me of A. J. Jacobs' books The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible and My Life as an Experiment: One Man's Humble Quest to Improve Himself by Living as a Woman, Becoming George Washington, Telling No Lies, and Other Radical Tests. The essential pattern is to go back in history, pick a lifestyle different from our own, try it as best you can, then reflect and make changes based on what transpired. In other words, Think, Try, Learn! Book deal, anyone?

Silence is golden. And rare?

I went to a ten-day meditation retreat quite a while ago that was held in complete silence by the practitioners (though instructors spoke). This changed permanently my thinking about talking and the value of silence, including realizing how much control I subconsciously try to exert in conversations. The most recent inspiration was by a book I'm reading with my daughter called No Talking by Andrew Clements. In it a school of fifth grader boys challenge girls to not speak for two days. They make some practical exceptions based on the setting, such as making it OK to answer teacher questions, but on the whole I really enjoyed the detail Clements went into to explain how the experiment changed the kids' thinking and relationships. Anyone tried silence before? Did it make space for anything new?

Finally, in my piece Is there a data-driven personality?, reader dorijoyreader shares her experience trying it for one day. I really love her conclusion:

what did i learn from it? not much, compared with the feeling that i am doing something EXTRAORDINARY when i first spoke on sunday morning.

Want to get smarter? Shock yourself!

Electrical brain zap 'boosts maths ability' describes how:

A tiny electric current applied to the back of the head can significantly improve a person's mathematical skills for up to six months, a study has found.

I find these kinds of "do something to the body and see if it makes you smarter" types of experiments to be fascinating. Like the first person who saw a lobster and thought, "I wonder what THAT tastes like!", our species is brilliant at finding things to try on our plastic brains.

Working the Browser

Here's a somewhat geeky experiment: For seven days he worked exclusively in his web browser (see Seven Days In The Browser). The idea is to use the many in-browser applications available instead of their desktop equivalents. There's a ton of them, including Google Docs, which gives you writing, spreadsheet, and drawing. Anyone working soley on the net?

Edgy Social Experiments

"Early Show" Special Contributor Taryn Winter Brill conducted a tech etiquette social experiment to find out just how long it would take to try people's patience. Via "Early Show" Tests Tech Etiquette:

• Talking loudly on her phone on a busy commuter train,
• Texting or IM'ing with the accompanying chirping sounds,
• Holding up the line in a supermarket with her phone conversation, and
• In a movie theater she let her phone's ringing go on without answering.

I'm not sure the value of these experiments. The only surprises seemed to be how patient people were. I prefer the more helpful variety of social tweaking, such as leaving a quarter next to a vending machine or putting letting someone go in front of you in line. These spread good feelings.

Counting helping

In 7 Secrets to Maximize Social Media with Minimal Time, Quantified Self editor and fellow blogger Alexandra Carmichael shares her goal of helping 10 people every day. This one resonates with me because one of the most satisfying things I do is to connect two people who really need to know each other. I've had a handful of "home runs" that people regularly thank me for, and they are rich.

The Listen Log

Part of the joy of blogging is using it as an excuse to explore and learn (something we humans are configured to love). I don't even know what a "Listen Log" might be, but it seems like a personal development thing, like a gratitude log. How would it work? I came upon it at the completely unrelated Introducing the VRM ListenLog.

The "I'm am doing" mind hack

Being present is important, but I find it hard to be mindful when I'm busy or stuck in my head. To get yourself back into the moment while doing something common, such as drinking your morning coffee, try this re-centering technique: Simply tell yourself what you're doing right now in very simple language, such as "I am drinking chocolate" or "I am playing with my daughter." This is an example of the power of labeling - care to generalize the concept?