·2 min read
The body as a dataset
Self-tracking is a mirror, not a microscope. A quick note on how I think about wearables, labs, and paying attention.
I track a handful of things about my body. Not because I believe the data is the truth — it isn’t — but because tracking is one of the few honest ways to notice change.
A wearable will not tell you when you are tired. Your HRV will not explain why you cried on Tuesday. But over months, those numbers become a second pair of eyes — less emotional than you, less forgetful, more patient.
The self is a slow dataset.
Here are three rules I try to follow.
1. Collect what you’ll actually look at
A number you never revisit is not information, it’s storage. I track sleep, resting heart rate, and a weekly subjective “energy” score on a 1–5 scale. That’s it.
2. Let labs humble your wearable
Wearables tell you trends; labs tell you ranges. Once or twice a year, I pull a broad panel and compare it to last year’s. If a wearable tells you a story, the lab is the editor.
3. Beware the dashboard
The moment a tracker starts feeling like a scoreboard is the moment it starts lying to you. Optimize for the months, not the mornings.
Health, in the end, is mostly the boring stuff — sleep, movement, the people you love, what you eat. Tracking just helps you tell the truth about whether you’re doing those things.