nississima

Here are some of the apps I use on a daily basis:

Bearable: GREAT symptom tracker for those trying to identify trends between different factors, like sleep, diet, exercise, stress, etc.

Calm/Headspace: love both. Calm offers custom breathing exercises, but Headspace has the best sleep story ever: Cat Marina. I will die on this hill. I wish both had hours-long sleep stories as I wake up in the middle of the night. Calm’s newsletter is surprisingly good to read.

Day One: daily journal, this is a great one.

Whereing: I’m trying to track my clothing use so found this promising wardrobe manager and tracker.

Cozi: honeydo list, menu planner, grocery list, kinda planner. The f*cking default title case drives me crazy, but it is a very nice (and free) way to manage menu/groceries that I found.

NYT Cooking: consistently great recipes. I think we’ve had two duds out of dozens.

Google calendar

Google drive (article TK on the document I use to plan/document)

Outlook for iOS. Don’t sniff at this choice. Quite robust and simple to use

Duolingo: registered years ago and recently returned to this. No reason it’s so popular. I’m bouncing around between French, Spanish, Italian, and Arabic, thinking about doing the music one as well.

Noom: I needed a jolt and a friend recommended it. I’ve lost 10% of my body weight. I am not a fan of the UI but the little lessons have changed some perspectives around food and activity, even stress.

Audible: Since Calm and Headspace don’t have sleep stories long enough, I listen to 8-hour+ books instead. The kids also listen to books and we’ve found some real gems

I'm amazed at the viral popularity of the term "big data." Initially, I was excited since the phenomenon seemed to be a bellwether signalling that businesses leaders had finally recognized the importance of data in decision-making.

But then - I read an article by Christopher Mims on Quartz. "Most data isn’t “big,” and businesses are wasting money pretending it is."  And I realized I had been about to fall into the same trap as so many others.  

You see, the data I analyze these days is big - but only to me.

It’s hugeness on a personal scale - I think that's why the phrase has resonated with so many. It articulates so succinctly (and without abstruseness) the challenge that any amount of data presents to a business.

But what's the key finding out of all of this data? Do I see it?

That's often my biggest fear, and probably the underlying reason for why I am so painstaking in running multiple queries, pivots, scenarios, and reports.