This presentation was created for the Quantified Self Portland Show & Tell in Portland, OR on April 10th 2012 at Wieden + Kennedy. It is based on my research with my project "Emoome" which you can check out at http://emoo.me

1. The Secret Lives of
Words & Brains

2. “Mapping Human Emotion”
Sounds Coooool!

3. ...but how does one go
about doing this?

4. With Maps. Duh!
Why? Because maps are useful.

5. Maps are great for
Directions from point A to B

6. Maps are great for
Informational Layers

7. Mapping Large Data Sets
In recent years mapping
has started being used
for other sorts of things
like large complex data
sets.
Human Genome Project

8. However, maps are
usually not used for
Psychology
Emotions
Personality
Behavior

9. How do you map what
“Passion” means to a human?
Passion ?

10. “Passion”
Passionate about their
jobs- e.g. “making
money”
Wall St. Day Traders Rejoicing

11. Passionate about making
“Passion”
social change
An Occupy Wall St. Demonstration

12. “Passion”
Olympic Athletes Running

13. So what?
People are different!
What’s your point?

14. Lets do an experiment!

15. Describe what you see below
in three words [QUESTION]
1.
2.
3.

16. Describe what you see below
in three words [QUESTION] What are
some of the words you
thought to yourselves
when you saw this
picture (that wasn’t
1. Apple
2. ?
3. ?

17. Words are an interface
Apple
PHYSICAL INTELLECTUAL

18. Triangulation
Or Indirect Mapping

19. “Passion” of an Activist
Passion

20. “Passion” of an Activist
But if you are a Wall St
day trader you probably
Empowerment would use different
words to describe the
Perseverance Diligence “passion” of an activist
Passion Unity
Fight
Awakening
Strength
*Data gathered from actual activists

21. The brain as an interface
Imagine language as an
interface to the unique
and complex map of a
persons brain

22. Like all interfaces
Some are well
designed!

23. No disrespect to the Web
and others are...
King. I’m sure he does
quality work.

24. Hand written data
I first created a simple
experiment I conducted
on paper with probably
about 100 friends and
family. I started seeing a
pattern develop. Then I
figured I needed to make
a proper app.

25. A pattern emerged!
But I needed more data...

26. So I made a simple app
So I could get a fair
amount of data and
see what my brains
interface in terms of
word ussage looks like

27. To record feelings & actions
So I could get a fair
amount of data and
see what my brains
interface in terms of
word ussage looks like

28. And descriptions
So I could get a fair
amount of data and
see what my brains
interface in terms of
word ussage looks like

29. And I got my data!
Oct. 2011 - Present

30. My Most Common Words

31. The pattern I noticed
was differing word types
Emotional Sensory
Intellectual Action
Descriptive Physical

32. My Word Type Map Oct. 6th - 16th, 2011

33. My Word Type Map
Oct. 7th - Dec 6th
Dec. 7th - April 6th

34. My Word Type Map Healthy Breakup
Oct. 7th - Dec 6th
Really Painful Breakup
Dec. 7th - April 6th

35. Personality
Comparisons
How are people different?

36. Mutual Experience Comparisons

37. Word Type Composites
Emotional Intellectual Descriptive Sensory Physical Action
6% 10%
8% 27%
8%
11% 36%
14%
19% 21%
19% 20%
Me Ex Girlfriend

38. Word Type Composites
Emotional Intellectual Descriptive Sensory Physical Action
6% 7%2%
8% 23%
11% 36%
31%
18%
19%
19% 19%
Me Barista Friend

39. Word Type Composites
Emotional Intellectual Descriptive Sensory Physical Action
7%3%7% 7% 7%2%
23%
15%
31%
18%
61% 19%
Other Barista Friend Barista Friend

40. Word Type Composites
Emotional Intellectual Descriptive Sensory Physical Action
3%
3% 3%
14%
29%
3%
50%
11%
67% 7%
11%
Actor Friend #1 Actor Friend #2

41. The words people use to
describe reality are more
accurate indicators of who
they are than the words they
use to describe themselves.

42. How is this data useful?
Self Reflection
Self Understanding
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Interpersonal Communication
NLP (Natural Language Processing)
Sentiment Analysis (of social media)

43. What I’ve learned
Emotional Intellectual Descriptive Sensory Physical Action
6%
8%
11% 36%
19%
19%

44. http://emoo.me
@projectemoome
http://brennannovak.com
@brennannovak