Value: How do you decide what has it?

The value we place on things is so subjective. So inherited. So under-analysed.

I was sitting on the couch last Friday night working (sad I know). Hustle was on TV in the background. One scene in particular caught my attention: A handful of diamonds were laid down onto a velvet cloth lying on a black table. The diamonds had just been stolen from somewhere as a part of their latest con. All of the 'hustlers' were standing around marvelling at the sight of the diamonds, commenting in awe at how much they would be worth, what you could do with the money that could be made by selling them.

What struck me was the value that they associated - what we associate - with these small, clear, pretty rocks; that these particular small, clear, pretty rocks we call diamonds are worth a great deal. And the value that we humans place on diamonds, or anything else we have come to ‘know’ as valuable. It's funny, because what value do diamonds, or any other item we have come to ‘know’ as valuable - gold, silver etc. - really hold?

It is us humans that have created and spread this meaning, this perception of value.

But what are those diamonds really worth? In a world that is not run by capitalists and money, what good would they be to you? They're rocks. A little harder to find than the pebbles you kick accidentally on the street everyday, but still... What would happen if we erased everything anybody ever knew about diamonds - who would decide how much they were worth? Would you be willing to place the same level of value as those who decided? Are you now?

The richest man is the one who sees what diamonds really are. Rocks. And who can find happiness with the bare minimum. The happiest man is the one who is content when there is nothing left to take away; he whose freedom comes frome things that can't be stolen from us, but from knowledgeof how to live, how to survive. How to just 'be' happy.

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." - Antoine de Saint-Exuper

Quantified Self with Android Tasker and Google Forms

I've been interested in quantifying various activities I do and behaviours I have for a little while now, especially after hearing about the Quantified Self and guys like Nicholas Felton and his Annual Reports. I think the saying ‘you can't manage what you can't measure’ holds a lot of value, and knowing in quantifiable terms what aspects of your life are having a positive or negative affect on your happiness (or productivity or whatever) can be powerful thing.

I wanted to setup a simple way to keep track of a few things as easily as with a click of a button on my phone. I know there are applications out there like Daytum, but I don't want to have to type every time I want to add an item (plus Daytum doesn't have an Android application). So I got to thinking and came up with a basic way of keeping tracking of single instance items using Google Forms and the Tasker Android application. Eventually I'll get around to writing my own app to do this, but for now the Tasker/Forms method does the job nicely.

As a bit of a background, I've used this setup to start automatically tracking what time I wake up each morning. I find that I'm happier and more productive when I'm getting up early, so in order to help quantify this metric, I've created a Tasker profile that submits a Google Form when I unplug my phone in the morning, auto-magically recording the time I woke up. The best part about keeping the data in Google Spreadsheets is that it allows you the flexibility of creating your own charts, visualising and manipulating the data as you please. Here's how I did it: