Open speeding data

Rather than only get feedback from a speed camera when the speed limit has been exceeded, why not provide a website where all speeding data is published, allowing drivers to log in and see how close they got to breaking the speed limit, and providing email warnings when drivers are close to exceed the speed limit.

Thinking with a cool head

It would be interesting to test whether people do think more clearly when they have a cool head (e.g. actively cooled down with a cool pad). And if so, develop a productivity had that maintains the head at the optimum temperature.

Periscope glasses

I would like a pair of glasses with dynamic periscopes attached that would track the TV whatever my head position. Such glasses would need to have a camera and image recognition functionality, together with actuators to rotate and swivel the mirrors in the periscope.

Semi-strong agnosticism

Whilst strong agnosticism states that "I cannot know whether a deity exists or not, and neither can you", and weak agnosticism states that "I don't know whether any deities exist or not, but maybe one day, if there is evidence, we can find something out", I propose a middle ground: semi-strong agnosticism.

Semi-strong agnosticism states "it is probably the case that I cannot know whether a deity exists or not, and neither can you, but there is a possibility that my mental model of the certainty of information is flawed, and hence there is a possibility that it is possible to know for certain whether a deity exists or not".

My belief in strong agnosticism stems from my general stance on what I can know (I first thought this after spending some time thinking about Descartes' I think therefore I am):

That which I perceive exists, but I cannot know the nature of its existence.

So, I perceive myself, but I cannot know the nature of my existence, for example I cannot know whether I have free will. I perceive the world around me, but I cannot know whether it is real, a dream, an illusion or a simulation.

Hence, I may perceive a deity but given that I cannot be certain that I'm not in a dream, I cannot be certain that the deity is not merely a figment of the dream.

However, I have to accept the possibility that my general stance on what I can know might be wrong, and therefore have to accept the possibility that there could be some kind of mathematical proof of the nature of what I perceive, and hence of a deity.

App ratings and reviews

This blog post is on the app ratings and review systems on Apple iTunes, Google Play and Amazon App Store. All three of these stores provide a 5 star rating scale and a text review (title + body text).

The problems I see with the current review/rating systems are as follows:

• Single score doesn’t communicate in much depth what the reviewer is trying to say
• Single scores don’t benefit content discovery
• Review text is unstructured

To improve upon the existing rating/review system, it's worth considering:

• what the reviewers are trying to communicate
• who the reviewers are communicating to
• of that which is being communicated, which is the most important

What reviews/ratings are trying to communicate:

• Quality
• Look and feel / graphics
• Features
• Bugs
• Extent of recommendation
• Value for money
• Ideas for the app / ideas for derivative apps
• That there is / isn’t a market for future apps of this type

Who reviews/ratings are trying to communicate to:

• Other potential customers
• Developer
• Other developers
• The App Stores (typically to complain about an app)

What is most important:

• For me, the most important thing that reviewers are communicating is the extend of recommendation

Suggestions for a better system

Each review would have the following sections:

• Message to the developer (private)
• Over-all rating (5 star scale)
• Over-all review
• Set of recommendations (see below)

Three-variable recommendation system:

• Who the recommendation is for (tag-like system, when the user starts to type the name of a group, they're shown options to pick from) (e.g. fans of X)
• Why you're recommending it / What you think they’ll get out of it
• How much you're recommending it

Users would be able to follow recommendations streams to help them find new content.

Structuring notes with time

Consider the following two scenarios:

• you write a diary, in which every now and then you write something about your objectives
• you have a list of objectives that you add to every now and again

The former scenario is less structured. Whilst it might be possible to search the diary for entries containing text about career objectives (or use tags), there may be duplication in the results, or incompleteness. And the data is unlikely to be in exactly the same format (unless some kind of standard format is specified in advance).

The latter scenario doesn't (generally) have time information, which inhibits the ability to track how one's objectives change over time. Even if the objective list was actually a table with two fields, objective and date added, that still wouldn't capture whether the objective made the list at each review point over time.

Is there a general name for this type of problem?

Gamifying lifehacking

The following is a high-level concept for an app that gamifies lifehacking/self improvement.

Users input into the app the details of all goals they are working towards improving, and decompose these into sub-goals. Each sub-goal has a set frequency, and time for check-in. For example, the top level goal might be eating heathily, and this might be decomposed into the following sub-goals:

• Eat a healthy breakfast, checkin daily 10am, 10 points
• Don't snack between breakfast and lunch, checkin daily 12:30pm, 10 points
• Eat a healthy lunch, checking daily 1pm, 10 points
• Don't snack between lunch and dinner, checkin daily 7pm, 10 points
• Eat a healthy dinner, checking daily 8pm, 10 points
• Don't snack between dinner and bed, checkin daily 10pm, 10 points

The app creates a reminder at the specified checkin time and asks the user, "Did you complete the sub-goal". If the user answers "Yes", they get points, if they answer "No" they don't.

The user can see their points trend, which may help motivate them to achieve higher points.

It may be possible to standardise the points awarded for each sub-goal, allowing users to compare points with their friends and compete on leaderboards.

Kinds of goals the app would work with:

• Go to the gym for 1h daily
• Brush your teeth for 4 minutes
• Meditate daily
• Drink 8 pints of water a day