Oh, and this blog has something neat…
The author discusses the idea of simplifying a data collection so that it represents something tangible to the user. In this case the users are companies/management and to get his point across he relies on a consumer product in the form of an Android application that tracks your workout stats. What I found interesting is this idea of simplifying. For example, in the old days of fitness past you might come to some conclusions on your training pace by recognizing the signs and signals from your body; breathing rate, stride, energy output (sweat) or even through the twinges and pains in your legs or the tightness in your chest. As training became more serious you’d measure out your run and time yourself, perhaps even monitoring your heart rate at certain points to see if your pace was on track. Accomplishing this was simple; you’d need a watch, a measured distance and some basic knowledge of your body’s specific cardio training rates.
This basic knowledge helped by doing more than just giving you the results you came to expect; it also provided you with a deeper understanding of how your body works, allowing you to transfer those newfound skills into other areas of fitness and physical health. You became the brain of your body …you knew what you could and couldn’t do as well as what you needed and didn’t need to do to achieve your goals. Fast-forward to the Android app in question and the appeal of a simple ‘2 pears‘ sort of sums up our current and basic understanding of fitness: Nothing! With all the technology that goes into making our life easier we’ve inadvertently passed up on that which we need more than ever; a more complete and thorough understanding. We’ve allowed technology to take over the need for actually knowing what it was we were doing. In our desire to be cutting edge we’ve cut ourselves out. You can argue that our task and goals are the same, but I would suggest the residual benefits of knowing the underlying process are far more important. To the untrained novice a simple ’2 pears’ is not only convenient and appealing but also keeps that person dependant on this product to make any sense of their accomplishments. It seems we’ve sacrificed knowledge for the perception of knowledge …or something like that.
I think that’s what I want to say.
I read this blog from time to time and the author presents interesting views on things that I just don’t consider in the course of my life – his post today, although not at all related to my rant, was just something that inspired my wayward thoughts. Check out Occam’s Razor by Avinish Kaushik when you have some time.
