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QS Amsterdam Mindfulness Pills Breakout

by Nancy Dougherty

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The slides for my breakout session on M

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In QS, we think a lot about numbers- basically in terms of putting a data recorder on our lives, and seeing what we can figure out to optimize ourselves. And I think that’s really cool- I make biometric sensors for a living.But what I find even more interesting is going beyond data gathering, finding ways to make QS about more than gathering data and drawing conclusions, and actually use it as an active intervention; to kind of hack our psychology and make us better through more avenues than just self-knowledge. I also really wanted to find ways to not just look at biometric data, but to look at things that are more meaningful to me- because to me, non-tangibles, like emotions, are really what determines my day to day flourishing.So I’m going to talk a bit about the experiment I did to try hack my moods with quantified self, and then merge it into what I’m excited to see QS becomeThis is a discussion- feel free to interrupt with questions, ideas, etc.
For me, I thought it would be very meaningful to track my moods- because I am a very emotional woman. But the problem is, mood tracking tends to be tedious and unrewarding, and I’m BAD at just recording them. So I decided to try something new.I labeled a bunch of placebo pills with the “antidote” to my negative emotions. Now this decision wasn’t out of the blue- the placebo effect and the power of the medical ritual is a strongly established phenomenon. An IBS study found that even giving patients a placebo *labeled* placebo was as effective as the real drug in relieving symptoms! So the hope was that the power of the medical ritual would give me an incentive to track my emotions- more than just writing them down.
But, in the spirit of QS, this system was more than just taking placebos corresponding to emotions. These were smart pills; they can talk to my cell phone when I swallow them, so I can automatically create charts of each ingestion of one of my emotional antidote pills.
The pills communicate via a patch that relays the information to my cell phone. The patch also records and transmits heart rate, exercise, sleep length and quality, posture, and temperature. So what I ended up with was a time-stamp of every tech-enabled pill, along with the complete biometric environment, with no user recording or effort required. This enabled me to have a readout of more than just my moods- I had a full system to see how my physical lifestyle affects (and is affected by) them.
What I found during this experiment was actually pretty….weirdMood tracking often fails because it feels like a burden, but this system felt like a perk! Even though I knew the pills were placebos, I felt like I got some sort of “power” out of them- I would even give myself 10 minutes to “indulge” in my negative emotion, before it “hit my bloodstream”. So the ingestion itself gave me an enormous sense of agency over my moods.In fact, I found that this system made me so mindful of how I was feeling, that whenever I began to feel negative, I would give myself my “pre-emptive power up” to tackle the stressors early on, and in doing so avoided getting to the “high stress” or “despair” level. In fact, in the entire experiment, I didn’t use a single happiness or calmness pill- only focus and willpower- since I was so cognizant of avoiding downward emotional spirals.I also had the data to see the effect of my mood boosts in my biometric data- I was exercising more consistently, and put more effort into it than I ever had before- through my HR info I even found that I was reaching higher Hrpeaks during exercise when using my willpower pills.
The effects I saw here- is something we commonly see in QS as far as behavior change goes. It’s an established phenomenon- by being more aware of the variable you’re tracking- whether it’s the number of steps you’re taking or the meals you’re eating, you control it more favorably. This is the benefit of mindfulness. Just by knowing, seeing the display, and thinking about something, you start to improve your habits a little bit in that areaIn QS, since we’re all about the numbers and data, we’re very much into this type of mindfulness. However, the idea of mindfulness is actually much more established and older than this view; and it’s this core idea of mindfulness that I find very interesting
So the idea of mindfulness itself has its roots in Buddhist meditation; also translated as “awareness”. It’s all about bringing your thoughts into the present, and maintaining of awareness of yourself and your state of mind. It often falls under the umbrella of positive psychology, and research shows that it’s useful in treating problems as widespread as pain, stress, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and addiction.So the experiment I ran tried to create the environment of Buddhist mindfulness without the meditation, in a more QS inspired way- by constantly incentivizing being aware of my present emotions, and tracking them.This whole line of thinking translates very well into modern medicine through the placebo effect- when we take a pill that we think should help us, we’re constantly evaluating what effect it’s having on us, and we feel like we have an assist in controlling how we feel favorably. So we get a whole host of unintended benefits from the mindfulness and ingestion.
So the first “power” of being a quantified self is picking a variable to track, and getting the mindfulness advantage from being more aware of that variable. So whatever is chosen here is very important.Buta second and powerful layer can be added on top of that, based on applications, gamification, and social networks, that can help create positive behavior change.For example, every time you take a “happiness” pill, the system could automatically reach out to your social network for support. Competitions based on the data are also popular, either competing directly with your social network like in FitBit, or getting points through specific challenges, like the jawbone up here.
So I want to tie this back to the idea of using QS to make a meaningful impact on people-The first step is effortless data collection- where we need better technology. Tracking can’t be hard. Or we won’t do it. And it has to be the right data-which isn’t always the easiest to gather data. It has to be data that means something to us; that we can do something about. Picking the right thing to track is what makes step 2 valuable.Because step 2 is motivation and regulation from our mindfulness of that variable. But the next leap- and a still somewhat unexplored space- is to make effective applications on top of the data to help people achieve goals, and be basically an external gas tank of motivation.The Eatery: example of a social system; what that is lacking is the effortless data collection; combo of 2 and 3 (but missing 1)Fitbit: slightly easier data collection, have a few interesting systems on top, but the variables tracked easily are very limited
And here’s where I want to open up to discussion; on two fronts; one is the idea of picking what to track, and how we can tap into more than just biometric variables, and use unconventional tracking means like ingestions to track more meaningful data in the areas of emotions, diet and exercise, mood regulation, focus and productivity, or other areas you’re interested in.And the second discussion is what we need on top of the biometric data- as well as why we need it. How can we put systems on top of raw data for both more meaningful displays, and also for adding motivation.Basically, what would your arc be- what would you track, and what would you do with that data.

QS Amsterdam Mindfulness Pills Breakout Presentation Transcript

Finding theMeaning in QS
• Focus for a distracted, unproductive state• Will Power/Energy for facing a daunting task• Calm for stress or anger• Happy for sadness
Positive Behavior Motivation from Change Applications, Social Layer Motivation from MindfulnessEffortless Gatheringof important metrics
What would your arc be? Positive Behavior Motivation from Change Applications, Social Layer Motivation from Mindfulness Effortless Gathering What would you track with of important metrics ingestibles or other sensors? • Diet, exercise, emotional regulation, symptoms, focus, productivity, etc. What would you do with the data?
theengineeress.com/ mindfulness Nancy Dougherty ndougherty@proteusbiomed.com @nancyhd

QS Amsterdam Mindfulness Pills Breakout

by Nancy Dougherty

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QS Amsterdam Mindfulness Pills Breakout Presentation Transcript

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