It came to my attention recently that there are quite a number of wearable activity tracking devices these days. From wrist bands for the sporty (Nike+ fuel band), and products for well-being (Fitbit Ultra, Jawbone Up, Lark Life), to the devices that monitor physiology (BodyMedia Fit & Basis), there's something for everyone. The idea is that you can wear those devices all the time, and it would track your daily activities, see if you are meeting the 10,000 steps a day recommended for healthy/active living (or whatever goal you set for yourself), and so motivate you to stay active and maybe even save you from a health condition such as diabetes.
I did a post about how these devices generally work and basically they have sensors to measure movement, heart rate, skin temperature and even sweat. Short of a mind reader that could document your thoughts and emotions (something this aims to do), and a video cam to record what you see (like the Google glass project), they function almost like an old fashioned diary.
Actually, I wonder if many people still journal, whether physically on a diary or electronically on their computers or tablets. I think the diary works very differently from tracking your life with whatever wearable equipment. That's because when I want to pen a journal, I am often in a reflective mode - thinking about stuff, like why something happened, what went wrong or right, what was the significance, how things could be improved etc. It takes a bit of time; quiet, uninterrupted time, not doing anything else, just reflecting.
Those wearable activity trackers on the other hand aims to keep people moving and doing stuff - go set a goal, try and achieve it, don't stop till you do, then repeat the next day. The positive outcome would be to have developed a healthy and active routine; and sure, its good to have a routine and stick to it, but if I don't have a think about the specifics and keep doing things the same way over and over, I might not realise that something was not right while getting injuries or not getting enough rest and getting burnt out.
Anyway, the past couple of months for me was extremely mundane. I was occupied with 3 things: 1) writing the research thesis, 2) taking care of Gideon and 3) thinking about what I am going to do after I submit my thesis. On a typical day when Gideon goes to childcare, I would drop him off in the morning, head to Uni to spend the next 6-7 hours working on my thesis, followed by going home to make dinner, then pick up Gideon from childcare, and finally feeding, bathing and settling him. About once a week (or fortnight), I try to squeeze in a run around the neighbourhood. So activity wise, there's really not much to track since I am obviously not that active these days. In the evenings or in between thesis writing, I 'ponder' about stuff like what to do next and how to take over the world.
At some point, I contemplated becoming a house husband to take care of Gideon and our home because as far as I could see there aren't any opportunities to do what I would like to do (and get paid to do it), not in the private companies or in the university (Well there might be contract research work to do but nothing is confirmed). Since we have decided to stay put in Melbourne, applying for overseas positions was ruled out. The other 'option' was to start my own business: research and product development of sports and health related products. I had that thought for a while and its one of those things that gets me excited but I think I still lack certain experience and certain level of drive, so I will hold that thought for a later day. So with no known opportunities in sight, I decided to send out emails to a few companies that (in my opinion) might explore product development in sports and wellness. The emails were of course expressions of interest to work for them if there are possible openings in the near future. After 2 weeks, there was actually a positive reply, that led to a casual meeting the week before Christmas, and I think the outcome of the meeting was rather positive. We shall see.
During the whole time of 'pondering' and exploring opportunities, there were two proper job applications that sort of didn't go through. In fact they happened before that 'good outcome' meeting. The first one was a product design job which I applied after I was approached by a recruiter. Not having much design experience (specifically industrial design), it was obvious why I did not get a reply. The second one was a mechanical design job that wasn't so much industrial design but more engineering design specifically in medical devices. I did get interviewed for the role but at the end of the discussion, the interviewer made a very keen observation - based on my resume and our discussion, I had very diverse experience but it was not focused on mechanical design. He used the term 'generalist'. The proper term would be 'project engineer'. True enough, I have dabbled with electronics, programming, mechanical design, data analysis, manufacturing, blah blah blah... but I can't say I am specialised in any. So there, I am a generalist. Jack of
