ما هي الحديقة الرقمية وهل عليك إنشاء حديقة رقمية لك؟ [مع أمثلة عليها]
ما هي الحديقة الرقمية وهل عليك إنشاء حديقة رقمية لك؟ [مع أمثلة عليها]
مساء البساتين،
اقترح عليّ الأستاذ خالد هذا الموضوع فشَكَر الله له، مشترك في رديف فاشترك أنت أيضًا في رديف.
ال digital garden وهل من المهم إنشاء واحدة أم لا؟— Khaled Mo (@KhaledMosllim) September 11, 2022
تغريدة خالد
جدول المحتوى
جدول المحتوىما هي الحديقة الرقمية (digital garden)؟أمثلة على الحدائق الرقميةالأدوات المستخدمة في بناء الحدائق الرقميةهل إنشاء حديقة رقمية نافع وهامّ لكُتّاب…
Cognitive biases are just tools, useful in the right contexts, harmful in others. They’re the only tools we’ve got, and they’re even pretty good at what they’re meant to do. We might as well get familiar with them and even appreciate that we at least have some ability to process the universe with our mysterious brains.
Give yourself 1 point when you do something that counter acts one of these regrets of the dying.
1 point when you get quality alone time, diving into your own unfiltered, real self.
1 point when you spend quality time with your favorite people.
1 point when you get in the flow working on something you’re really interested in.
[…]
I’ve been doing this for a couple weeks and I get about 5 points a week. It has shifted how I think about the day.
I don’t take time to myself for granted. I don’t go to work without thinking about how I can do my most meaningful work. I don’t come home without thinking about how I can have the best quality time with my wife and son. I don’t go out with friends without thinking about how I can connect and share with them on a real level.
via Buster Benson
Following on from my last morbid post, here’s another one. This snippet from Buster comes at a time when I’m thinking long and hard about choosing my next job, and how I should choose it. The death bed game is a clever way of leveraging the fear of death for the willpower to lead a life with few regrets.
I can’t help but wonder, however, why it is so hard to do these meaningful, death-bed-points-scoring activities? Why do we need a gimmicky game to do it if it is so great for us? I am reminded of this anecdote from Thinking Fast and Slow:
Kahneman demonstrated the principle using two groups of patients undergoing painful colonoscopies. Group A got the normal procedure. Group B, unknowingly received a few extra minutes of less painful discomfort after the end of the examination, i.e., more total discomfort. However, since Group B’s procedure ended less painfully, the patients in this group retrospectively minded the whole affair less.
via Wikipedia
In Thinking Fast and Slow Kahneman distinguishes between two selves. There’s the remembering self, which reflects and deliberates (eventually on our deathbeds), and the experiencing self that does the day-to-day cooking, living, and experiencing.
Odd as it may seem, I am my remembering self, and the experiencing self, who does my living, is like a stranger to me.
from Thinking Fast and Slow
There’s a conflict between the two selves - their priorities are often misaligned. If you’ve ever pushed yourself to keep running when you would much rather stop, you’ve experienced the conflict between your two selves. Ambition is entirely the remembering self’s burden. Pleasure belongs to the experiencing self, and the remembering self knows only it by reputation.
The death bed game as proposed by Buster appeals to the remembering self, while recognizing pleasure and joy belongs to the experiencing self. To be able to remember a life well lived, one choose carefully the experiences one engages in, and then deeply engage with the experience. It’s an interesting attempt to resolve the conflict between the two selves.
But what do I know? This is the remembering self doing the writing.
So... side note for all those making New Years resolutions this year. You might be interested in one of my favorite fun sites. Healthmonth(dot)com. It's a fun way to practice accountability for the rules you set up for yourself and you can pick or make up whichever ones you want and give yourself rewards or punishments for finishing or not finishing them every month. I had a lot of fun with it when I did it last year and I'm starting it again tomorrow for the new year. (Lemme know if you join and maybe we can be buddies!)
ALSO, interesting note. Buster Benson, the site founder, who also set up 750words(dot)com which I freakin' ADORE, and live by, actually kind of was the one to introduce me to Tumblr. I'm here because of Buster. I was on 750 and Health Month first. I gave up on Facebook completely, and then when I found Tumblr, I deactivated Facebook, moved here, and have never been happier!
I wrote this feature on Health Month, Buster Benson and the QS movement as part of a graduate writing course last November, and remembered recently that I had never posted it anywhere. Please keep in mind -- this is in no way a fully polished piece of journalism, but I gave it my best effort at the time. If I were to do it again today, I already know some of the things I would probably change. Note: statistics cited in the story are dated to November 2011.
Thank you to Buster Benson for kindly answering my questions via e-mail just days before delivering a keynote, and to Craig Carignan for providing such a helpful phone interview. Thanks also to Maura McGovern for providing the inspiration, after talking about what it means to create a habit.
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Tracking the beating heart of a health community
What makes Health Month different from other self-improvement communities? For one thing, there's fruit.
In Beaumont, California, Craig Carignan wakes up to make his coffee, the first of only two cups he's allowed himself daily, and opens his computer. While his children sleep, their Dad hones his superpowers. Did I walk my 10-mile goal yesterday? Check. Have I recorded my blood pressure? Check. Did I remember to call my mom?
On HealthMonth.com, Carignan browses the 14 goals he's set for himself -- ones he has paid to create -- and then dives into the community. Who needs encouragement? Who missed out on their evening run and needs a little forgiveness? He leaves a few comments, and offers a piece of fruit to a teammate. Not the grocery store variety, mind you, but a virtual one. As members' self-mandated goals are broken by illness, injury or daily struggles, they lose valuable Life Points, which can be earned back by asking other members for a little encouragement in the form of fruit -- icons that add up to bring you back to health, like in a video game.
Carignan is a teacher, and identifies with his inherent desire to help people in need. Combining his love of video games and his goal of living a healthier lifestyle, Health Month seemed like the perfect fit for him. "They've always talked about the 'gamification of life,' and so I felt if I can make a game out of getting healthy, then I think that would be a really positive thing... We try to work together -- to help boost each other up."
Gamification and the loss of intrinsic benefit
The word "gamification" has emerged in the past few years as a method to make social networks like Health Month irresistible to users. The theory goes that by earning "badges" and points for completing small tasks, members will become addicted to gameplay and more faithful to the site. Location-based tools like Foursquare offer loyalty badges to members who "check in" to their favorite stores, coffee shops and restaurants using their mobile devices, and even partner with businesses to offer discounts to those who visit most often.
Khan Academy, an award-winning web-based learning tool, offers "a free world-class education for anyone anywhere" using YouTube videos on every subject from algebra to venture capital. With module-style assessment tools, Khan Academy offers points and coveted badges to encourage math learners as they progress through tougher equations. In his talk at the 2011 TED Conference, founder Salman Khan urged attendees to think differently about classroom learning, and how games can allow students to learn at their own pace, ultimately helping to improve individualized attention in the classroom .
In spite of its recent gains in popularity, the true long-term benefits of gamification in social media and real-life applications still remain hotly debated. In December 2010, Zachary Pincus-Roth of the LA Times wrote about the popularity of gamification in marketing, and referenced some not-so-new research that pointed to a more nuanced view of human motivation. Citing a 1973 Stanford University study, the author explained the "over-justification effect," where "people pay more attention to the reward and less attention to their enjoyment." In other words, users may become more interested in points and badges earned during gameplay, rather than the intrinsic good in going for a long walk, supporting a local business or learning a new skill.
Getting healthy as a game
Can improved health become a game that we play against ourselves? If so, can we become any good at the sport? Joan Salge Blake, a registered dietitian and Boston University professor, is skeptical. According to Salge Blake, "I have tons of clients that try to do it on their own, and they reason why it doesn't work is because they're doing something wrong -- they're dieting, they're cutting too many calories out."
If health is a game, Carignan is like the hero with enhanced weaponry. He has since invested in a Fitbit, a small clip-on electronic device the size of a beeper which tracks his daily steps and heart rate; a blood pressure monitor and a digital scale, all of which hook up to the internet to give him real-time statistics about his body. "I decided, hey, this is for me. I can spend a little bit of money." Even his doctor is on board, checking his virtual chart between visits.
Carignan says, "I don't want to be some kind of super-fit, macho man. I just want to be a healthy, happy person. I don't have time for the other stuff, you know? I have little kids. I've got to pay attention to them."
Graphing the progress of a startup
Meanwhile, in Seattle, Buster Benson checks his e-mail. The statistics on his homepage tell him the grim news: "...it looks like I have 33 unread emails, and have sent out 11 emails so far today. I've received [...] 184 earnest missives since midnight." According to his personal pie charts, he's been thinking about health 18% of the time, and death 21% of the time.
Benson logs into Health Month, and he's checking on his goals, too. In two days, he will be presenting his ideas to a room full of bloggers and influential thinkers at Camp Mighty, an adult summer camp-style weekend retreat in Palm Springs, California, as Health Month's developer and co-founder.
According to the website, since Health Month launched quietly in summer 2010, it has gained over 42,000 members who log in each day to track their journeys of self-improvement. What began as a small group of friends on Livejournal in 2008 now boasts its own proprietary community, with press coverage from tech-friendly sites like Wired, Mashable and ReadWriteWeb. In August 2011, Benson announced on the Health Month blog that his passion project would soon become much more. With Jen McCabe of Y Combinator-funded Contagion Health jumping on board to form Habit Labs, the team began perfecting the framework that would set Health Month apart from other mainstream social networks and health communities.
For the Harry Potter fanatics among us, joining the Health Month community is not unlike the great Sorting Hat Ritual. After creating a few goals and rating them on difficulty, affinity, and importance among all other rules, new members are mysteriously "sorted" under four Spirit Animals (Crane, Fox, Polar Bear and Lizard, chosen based on personality traits) and colored brackets (matching the user with other community members of similar goal count and difficulty level). While the terminology and rules of the community seem daunting at first, for a gamer, many of the ideas should seem familiar. Perhaps the most unique trait of Health Month, however, is this: before logging a single day's thoughts into the site, each newcomer is already part of a team, providing community encouragement and reinforcement.
To Benson, the community aspect of building healthy habits is a must. "When our whole idea of self is internal, never shared, it's a lot easier to stop thinking about that particular goal. There's an old saying, 'The best place to store food is in the bellies of others.' I think the same thing is true about our goals, passions, and sense of self," Benson said.
The heart (rate) of a founder
Nestled in the Health Month FAQ, a vast encyclopedia on community glossary terms, points systems and rules, a "Book Recommendations" section links readers to books that inspired the community's creation. Daniel H. Pink's Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us and George Leonard's Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment are among the titles listed. It should be no surprise that a founder with charts and graphs decorating his homepage would list "drive" and "mastery" as key pillars for his community. It's clear that Benson isn't just the creator, developer and community cheerleader; he's a die-hard member.
When asked about using data as a vehicle for self-improvement, Benson replied, "It must be genetic because I've had this condition my whole life. I just feel like the big questions of life can be more easily tackled if you create simpler, charts-and-points-driven models for them, and then turn it into a game or a challenge."
'Quants' and statistics overload
The "condition" that Benson refers to is at home in a movement called the Quantified Self, a community which prides itself on self-analysis for the purpose of improvement and fulfillment. "Quants," as they're called, measure every bodily output from blood pressure and heart rate to urine content and mood fluctuations. Benson admits, "I've been a huge fan of the QS movement since it started. It was like finding kindred spirits, really." He explains that Health Month, while inspired by Quants, was not created with them in mind as the primary audience. "I know they will like [it], as I feel like we're all lost astro-siblings, but in a way my goal is to take the ideas of that movement and make them more accessible, simpler, and much more widely known."
Carignan, too, discussed his involvement in the QS movement. Besides the metrics he's already tracking, he's also taken a genetic test through a company called 223 and Me, and has attended meetups in San Diego for other Quants. "You can actually do a lot of quantifying on your own," he explains. "All of that stuff I've done to try to find out a little more about me and how I can make myself healthier."
Sports psychologist Adam Naylor of Boston University recommends methods of self-analysis regularly as part of his regimen with college athletes, but warns against information overload. "I like [statistics] because they could help us get better if we need to learn something. I think they're awful if we look at them in an unregulated manner." Naylor advises that getting buried in numbers can be counter-productive. He believes, "That's the big challenge in this exercise culture we have [...] You can download something that gives you all of your numbers. You don't know what half of them mean. But we sit there deciding they mean something."
And yet, Quants continue sharing their stories of success. Carignan boasts having lost seventeen pounds since he began using Health Month this past April, and says that he's never felt healthier. Could it be that the key to healthier living lies not in the numbers, but in the goals we set in the first place?
Effective goal-setting makes new habits stick
Naylor advises the fitness-conscious to be mindful while setting their goals if they want a community like Health Month to be useful, and their new habits to stick. "Goal-setting itself, if not coached very well, can be a very frustrating thing. It should be something that's within the person's control, and that they have the expertise to pull off." Using Naylor's guidelines, a goal that says, "This week, I'm going to show up at the gym five times for thirty minutes," is much more useful than "I want to lose fifteen pounds." For the motivated, the site's flexibility allows them to be as creative as they want in choosing games to adopt. For those who require external motivation, feeling accountable to the community may be just what they need.
Salge-Blake agrees that setting realistic, achievable goals is the key to success. Instead of letting clients set new goals that deprive their bodies of whole food groups, like dairy or refined sugars, Salge-Blake recommends replacing poor habits with better ones. "Instead of saying, 'I don't want you having that chocolate bar every afternoon from the office vending machine,' I'll say to them, 'Do you think you could add a piece of fruit?' "
A game where everyone wins -- and no one really loses
One final thing that sets Health Month apart from other games: Though members may lose Life Points (and even lose their way), they can never lose the game. "Health improvement in general has a ton of emotional triggers related to failure, and I think games are necessary to help lighten the mood a bit," says Benson. Buster Benson's philosophy is one of encouragement. "'Losing' the game is an outcome that should never be necessary unless you simply give up. If you miss every single one of your rules every single day […] it is possible to live through the game. And this is a great metaphor, in my opinion. The important thing is to show up, be earnest, and ask for the help of others. Great things will happen if you do."
