Stephen Wolfram analyzes 20 years of his own keystroke activity

"One day I’m sure everyone will routinely collect all sorts of data about themselves," writes Stephen Wolfram (founder of the eponymous technology company). "But because I’ve been interested in data for a very long time, I started doing this long ago. I actually assumed lots of other people were doing it too, but apparently they were not. And so now I have what is probably one of the world’s largest collections of personal data."

Above, a plot with a dot showing the time of each of the third of a million emails he's sent since 1989. In this mind-blowing post, Wolfram digs into all sorts of data from his digital output over the past two decades. (via demarko)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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deeznuts

We can only hope that when he takes over the world he is a benevolent dictator.
http://dannypizdetz.com/ Danny Pizdetz

Considering how self-obsessed he was when I met him in 2000, I’m not startled that he’s been collecting data like this.
nosehat

I really like this idea of automatically logging and graphing seemingly trivial details of your own life, to help you identify patterns in your own behaviour and learn from them. This can enable a kind of self-awareness that would probably be impossible without computer technology, and can be really valuable to an individual. It’s data-driven computer-aided introspection.

Of course, this level of insight into a person can be really valuable to a stranger as well, a stranger with motives other than simple curiosity or awareness. Facebook and Google et. al. are good examples of individuals putting these tools of analysis into a stranger’s hands, and giving them access to giant piles of accumulated data about themselves which they themselves don’t have have ready access to.
Robert

This is certainly a novel type of knowledge.
awjt

Was he clawed on the forehead by a bear, or a wolf, perhaps? What are the 4 parallel divots?
- Ultan
  
  Extra brain lobes, presumably.
Guest

perhaps companies like Facebook can now show data on your everyday life like that as well.
http://twitter.com/ethanwc ethanwc

There’s a great graphic designer that releases annual reports about himself.

http://feltron.com/
http://twitter.com/erg79 Evan G.

I can’t wait to see his graph analyzing his navel.
jheiss

333,333(ish) emails in 23 years? 14,500 emails a year? 40 a day. Wow. Since 1998 I’ve sent 30159 (plus or minus a few). (I lost all prior data in 1998.) So I’m running about 2150 a year. I sure thought I sent a decent amount of email, I can’t imagine how he gets anything else done.
- http://stephenrice.eu Stephen Rice
  
  He’s always had quite a high level position so I imagine quite a few of his emails look like short requests for updates from employees etc. It’s still a phenomenal amount, though.