The 'Quantified Self' Craze: Tracking Your Own Data Can Be Dangerous

These days, you can digitally track pretty much everything about your health. But how you interpret that data might be problematic.

With growing numbers of digital health trackers on the market (the wearable tech craze adding more fuel to the fire), it is not surprising that more and more consumers are tracking their health on their own.

An awareness of one’s health is by no means a bad thing, but according to USA Today, there may be some downfalls to this new trend of the "quantified self"-- this idea that one can use data to monitor oneself.

Dennis Nash, president of Data Speaks Health Solutions, told the outlet that the data aggregated by tracking technology can be hard--even dangerous-- to analyze without a doctor. Additionally, he said that the act of tracking can consume users.

“Once you start doing it, you can start to get addicted to collect more data,” he added, saying the stress of monitoring can actually harm a person's health. Even with those obvious dangers in mind, the outlet profiled several data-tracking-to-better-health success stories.

Dangerous or not, just how big is the "quantifiable self" movement?

A recent survey done by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project found that seven out of 10 people have regularly tracked some aspect of their health. The survey also found that 60 percent of adults track their weight diet and exercise routines, with just 33 percent of people tracking health indicators or symptoms. Tracking has influenced 46 percent of trackers’ approach to their health and it has affected how 34 percent of people tracking their health data have responded to an illness or condition.

And from sleep patterns to weight loss--even a dog's health--it looks like this need for tracking has been somewhat a boon for start-ups.

Silicon Alley Hiring on the Rise

After four consecutive quarterly declines, hiring is creeping back up in New York tech.

Silicon Alley hiring is back in a big way.

According to the New York Internet and Digital Media Jobs Index, conducted by talent search firm Cook Associates, New York City's job market showed a 7.3 percent uptick in the second quarter of 2013, its highest point since the second quarter of 2012.

It may not sound like much, but that percentage means the NY tech scene added approximately 2,200 jobs in the second quarter alone. According to Cook, the businesses surveyed represent more than 90 percent of the Internet and digital media workers in New York.

Comparatively, last quarter’s jobs index showed 4.8 percent in growth. Looking back at 2012, when the New York tech boom was slowing, the study showed four consecutive quarterly declines, starting with 6.2 percent in the first quarter and ending with 3.4 percent growth.

"It appears that the digital media and Internet sectors in both Boston and New York are running on all cylinders right now," said John Barrett, the managing director at Cook who conducted the study.

Cook surveyed only pure-play Internet and digital media companies -- from goliaths like Google to up-and-comers like Rent the Runway -- with 10 or more employees. Nearly all companies were financed with venture capital.

The overwhelming majority of hiring is happening in the digital ad tech and consumer web sectors. Unsurprisingly, Google ranked number one among the ten companies showing the largest headcount gains, adding more than 600 jobs over the past 12 months. Amazon came in second with about 330 jobs. The rest included AppNexus, Facebook, Spotify, eBay, ZocDoc, LinkedIn, Yahoo, and TD Ameritrade.

Barrett attributed the trend to a "perfect storm" of factors: As the Internet disrupts established media, advertising, and financial services companies, a massive influx of venture capital money is fueling their companies' growth.

"Venture capital investing in NYC has been surging for the past three to four years, but now the overall economy is strong enough again to help accelerate the growth of many of those start-ups who've received venture funding," he said.

Not all of this is good news, however, as all these employees can't hack their jobs.

"New York City is inevitably headed toward a talent gap," explained Barrett, adding that the digital headcount is projected to double in the next four years. "The surge in growth that's been happening the past couple of years in unsustainable unless the city has the right talent to fill these jobs."

Most of the hiring has been for sales and marketing, with the biggest gap being in software engineers. But Barrett said the VC community should invest in tomorrow's tech leaders. "The VC investors perhaps have the most to gain from making sure there's an adequate talent pool to make the most of their investment dollars."

The Start-up Giving Factory Workers a Voice

LaborVoices helps companies like Walmart end labor abuses in overseas factories by giving employees a safe way to speak up.

Labor rights around the world are in a sorry state. So sorry, in fact, that last week, when China Labor Watch released a damning account of conditions inside the Pegatron factory where some Apple products are manufactured, the tech community all but ignored the labor issues listed. Instead, they breathlessly buzzed about the low-priced, plastic iPhone revealed in the report.

The fact is, the pitiful working conditions in many of the world's factories seem to be such an insurmountable problem that when news of this sort breaks, it's typically met with a collective shrug or considered old news in the developed world. It seems to take a total catastrophe like the factory collapse that left 1,132 dead in Bangladesh this April to get people's attention.

Kohl Gill is one entrepreneur who's not looking away. As founder and CEO of LaborVoices, a six employee company based in Sunnyvale, California, he wants to change factories from the inside out by arming workers with information and an anonymous way to report abuses. LaborVoices has created what Gill refers to as a "smartline," a number workers can call to get access to information about their rights as well as services that can assist them with things like transportation and childcare. LaborVoices also conducts automated surveys with the callers, asking them questions about the how they're being treated and compensated and gives them the opportunity to report any urgent issues. Each caller is given an anonymous profile so LaborVoices can track these workers over time.

For this trove of data, major brands are willing to pay LaborVoices handsomely. This May, the start-up announced its first corporate partnership: a $600,000 deal to work with Walmart on cleaning up 279 of its factories in Bangladesh.

"These companies care about being able to provide work, and decent work, to everyone in their supply chain. They just haven't had access to real-time metrics to measure social responsibility," Gill says. "We think having a real-time view of the supply chain will give brands more control over whether those rights are being respected."

The Backstory

When Gill was growing up, his own mother, who had come to the United States from India as a teenager, worked at a local garment factory in Sherman, Mississippi. As outsourcing became more common, however, the factory eventually shut down. "We began shifting our jobs overseas, but not our working conditions," Gill says. "It got me thinking that if we're going to outsource jobs, we need to also ship over our labor and environmental standards."

In 2008, he began working in the State Department as an international labor affairs and corporate social responsibility officer. It was in that position that he traveled to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to ensure both countries were upholding international labor rights provisions. Though the factories, themselves, had been cleaned up for his arrival, Gill says he heard story after story of employees who had spoken up about labor abuses and been subsequently blacklisted.

"They essentially couldn't get a job anywhere because all of the factories were sharing that list of workers," he says. "I thought, if employers are sharing information on workers, shouldn't the opposite be possible as well? At least we could try to make it a level playing field."

It wasn't until 2010, when Gill's State Department fellowship ended, that he returned to the Bay Area, and thanks to the encouragement of some friends, decided to launch LaborVoices.

How It Works

In order to engender trust with workers, LaborVoices partners with non-governmental organizations on the ground to spread the word about the service. The company also informs the factory managers, themselves, that they are being monitored.

"The last thing we want is to surprise them," Gill says. "We want them to know we're listening."

Workers can then call in to the automated line either to get assistance or report an abuse. Customers like Walmart get feedback on all of their factories, compare their conditions, and use that information as a bargaining chip to improve them if necessary.

"The brands can get suppliers to change their practices with the understanding that they could always shift their business to another supplier," Gill says. "The flip side is workers can drive each other to the best in class employers and away from the worst, thereby providing two incentives for employers to improve conditions."

Though Gill says it's too early to disclose the number of calls LaborVoices has received, in pilot programs, he says the company has gotten reports of everything from verbal abuse to an infant death in a Bangalore factory (Fair Labor Association reported the latter took place in a factory manufacturing Gap clothes).

The Challenges

Gill's cause is undoubtedly noble and has earned him recognition as a 2013 Echoing Green fellow for civil and human rights innovation. Still, LaborVoices runs the risk of being a victim of its own success. Though Gill espouses the start-up's commitment to anonymity, it is possible that some factory owners could punish workers en masse for negative feedback. While Gill acknowledges this as a risk, he hopes that maintaining a long-term relationship with workers will encourage them to report any employer retribution, as well. Of course, gaining that trust in the first place will be equally tricky.

Still, Gill says, no amount of surveillance cameras or inspections could ever be as effective as giving workers, themselves, a platform to share their stories. "You can never have an inspector everywhere all the time," he says. "If you really want to understand what's going on inside a factory, you need to have an empowered work force. Then they can stand up for themselves rather than having a huge multinational attempt to do it for them."

Why Our Worst-Selling Item Is My Favorite

Warby Parker sells a monocle. Which just about no one buys. But don't underestimate the value of a great brand statement.

One of my favorite products at Warby Parker also happens to be our worst-selling item: the monocle. When we launched in 2010, our debut collection featured 27 pairs of eyeglasses and one monocle--a handsome tortoiseshell model named after Colonel Mustard. Despite dismal sales and growth prospects that roughly equal zero, the monocle has remained in rotation ever since. My wife Rachel even waged a bet with my co-founder Jeff that we'd never sell out of our first order.

Her skepticism made sense. On its face, a monocle is a strange item for a 21st-century company to sell. It seems like the equivalent of Apple unveiling an iTypewriter or Schwinn manufacturing a penny-farthing bicycle (the kind with the gigantic front wheel). Or SanDisk rolling out a line of floppy disks. In general, obsolete technology is obsolete for a reason. Monocles are no exception.

But that's exactly why I love it. Nobody expects to stumble across a monocle while shopping in 2013. We have a showroom right inside our office headquarters in New York, and one of my favorite things to do is catch sight of customers discovering the monocle. A familiar behavioral arc follows: it starts with a "What the hell?" expression, proceeds to a smile, and usually ends with trying on the monocle, forcing various companions to try on the monocle, imitating a historical figure, and/or snapping a picture.

The truth is that the monocle creates a sense of surprise in customers while maintaining an intuitive connection to our core products--which is an important distinction to make. It's not a random gimmick. We could sell fly-fishing rods or bean bags and provoke an equally surprised response, but it would also be a mystified response. The goal is to surprise customers, not confuse them.

The monocle is also a succinct and quirky way to represent what Warby Parker stands for--in other words, a brand piece. It's unexpected, it starts conversations, and it's fun to share. (Where else can you buy a monocle?) And because it lives entirely outside any remotely relevant trend cycle, it's also, in its own peculiar way, sort of timeless. A handful of chefs have even told me that they use the monocle in their restaurant kitchens to read recipes; it's easy to store in a pocket and doesn't fog up as easily as glasses. I think of it as our own version of the stick of gum that used to come in packs of baseball cards--a small gesture that sets the brand apart.

My wife still owes Jeff ten dollars.

4 Smart Ways to Keep Things Cool When Tempers Flare

A new study says: As temperatures rise, so will arguments. Here, Inc. columnists give you their suggestions for keeping your cool in business.

Rising heat and extreme rainfall, both related to climate change, will also make people emotionally heated and more likely to get into fights. At least, that's the takeaway from an extensive new study from U.C. Berkeley. Three respected researchers studied the historical correlation between extreme weather and interpersonal conflict. They claim that their results point to large increases in anger, violence and unrest likely to come over the next 50 years.

I suppose it's possible that, when people are uncomfortable with their physical environment, they are likely to show it in anger and frustration, especially when the cause is totally out of their control. If nothing else, the prospect of tumult is a great excuse to start making your office a happier place to work. So ramp up the pleasantries and the air conditioner before conflicts occur. Make plans for more social activity where people can lighten up and laugh a little. That way you'll keep things cool and good-humored in any kind of weather.

And here's more cool-headed advice from my expert colleagues:

1. Plan Ahead

Anyone who's been in or near New York City for the past few months is familiar with the mood-altering effects of extreme heat interspersed with torrential rain. Be aware of this dynamic and address workplace conflicts early, before they escalate. But there's a much darker side to this: a warming Earth can mean disruptions from power outages, severe storms and global unrest. What would you do if electricity, Internet, phone lines, key personnel or key supplies were temporarily unavailable? Companies that have thought out the answers ahead of time will do better than those that haven't. Minda Zetlin--Start Me Up

Want to read more from Minda? Click here.

2. Build Bridges Before Troubled Waters Flow

It's not in the easy conversations that your company is truly tested--it's in how you handle conflict. Dealing with inevitable conflict is one of the most important skills you can develop as a leader and nurture in your company culture. Start by reminding everyone involved that you have the same goal: the very best outcome. Doing so unites all parties and diffuses the tension that can build up when people feel they aren't being heard. Use this common ground as a way to move the conversation forward productively. Eric Holtzclaw--Lean Forward

Want to read more from Eric? Click here

3. Promote Health and Serenity

Frankly, this whole theory pushes my hot button. Researchers can link violence to just about anything if they look hard enough. Why waste valuable resources to predict tragedy and upheaval instead of focusing on the evolution of technology and the human mind? Whatever the future brings, mankind will manage to thrive. Added dimensions of corporate social responsibility will help. Empower employees with programs that promote a healthy and peaceful environment. Teach advanced communication skills, educate on diversity and bulk up the benefits package to offer tools that improve stress levels and brain function, like meditation and life coaching. Marla Tabaka--The Successful Soloist

Want to read more from Marla? Click here.

4. Gratitude Is the Perfect Remedy

When you're feeling angry or upset, drop everything and handwrite a thank-you note. You'll instantly feel better, as it's physiologically impossible to experience both anger and gratitude at once. You can even institute a thank-you note writing program at the office, as Likeable did last summer. We went from feeling heated to feeling appreciative and appreciated--and so can you. Dave Kerpen--Likeable Leadership

Want to read more from Dave? Click here.

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