Review of Cumin Club freeze-dried Indian meal kits: authentic Dal Makhani, Palak Paneer, and more delivered to your door with fresh roti.
Why motivated individuals can rival career experts. Examining the replication crisis, overconfidence research, and personal science advantages.
Nootroflix lets you rate nootropics and get personalized recommendations. But are the results just placebo effects and effort bias?
Defining personal science: prioritizing direct experience over authority, humble curiosity, and self-experimentation in the Quantified Self tradition.
Stanford psychiatrist David Spiegel reframes hypnosis as a flow state. Overview of the science, the Reveri app, and Huberman Lab episode.
Reading notes on Feng Youlan’s survey of 2,500 years of Chinese thought, from Confucius and Laozi to Neo-Confucianism and Zen Buddhism.
Moxie Marlinspike’s critique of Web3: most dApps rely on centralized services like Infura and Alchemy, undermining decentralization claims.
Anne Scheel’s paper on how underspecified claims in psychology research make most findings impossible to evaluate or replicate.
Tracking resting heart rate with Apple Watch before and after Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses. Result: no significant heart rate change.
Why motivated individuals can match or exceed career experts. Examining overconfidence, the replication crisis, and personal science.
Why self-trackers inevitably build their own tools, and the challenge of finding truly actionable insights in personal health data.
Testing Apple Watch and Amazon Halo heart rate accuracy against a clinical ECG during a treadmill stress test. How accurate are wearables?
Review of Shef, a meal delivery app connecting home cooks with local customers. Trying authentic Oaxacan mole and tamales in Seattle.
Head-to-head comparison of Amazon Halo and Apple Watch for heart rate, sleep tracking, body fat, and tone analysis using R.
Self-experiment testing whether reheated rice lowers blood glucose response compared to fresh rice, measured with a continuous glucose monitor.
Migrating 35,000 notes from Evernote to plain-text alternatives. Comparing Joplin and Obsidian for future-proof note-taking.
How to calculate Mercer Island precinct-level 2020 presidential election results using R and King County CSV data.
Second keto diet experiment tracking ketone levels with Keto Mojo GK+. Observations on daily ketone variation, measurement timing, and carb sensitivity.
R analysis of the correlation between COVID-19 death rates and GDP decline by country, computing R-squared from Our World in Data.
10-day ketogenic diet experiment tracking ketones, glucose, macros, and blood panel results showing dramatic triglyceride drop.
Review of 2030 by Mauro Guillen on demographic megatrends, aging populations, emerging markets, and technology disruption ahead.
How the same COVID-19 data can prove opposite conclusions about mask mandates, demonstrating chart manipulation and statistical bias.
Personal experience recovering from bowel obstruction surgery with suspected SIBO, treated with a low-FODMAP elimination diet.
Curated collection of COVID-19 resources: tracking dashboards, scientific research, data sources, projections, and local info.
Using mitmproxy to inspect iPhone network traffic and discover data sent to Chinese servers by WeChat and Wyze camera apps.
Prolon FMD day 5 finale: high ketosis at GKI 2.52, 5 pounds lost, and reflections on completing the fasting mimicking diet.
Prolon FMD day 4: deep ketosis at GKI 2.74, back pain resolution, 3 pounds lost, and managing social meals while fasting.
Prolon FMD day 3: ketones at 1.2 mmol/L with GKI of 3.56, reduced hunger, lower back pain side effects, and glucose tracking.
Prolon FMD day 2: entering ketosis at 0.9 mmol/L, keto flu symptoms, brain fog, and tracking glucose ketone index (GKI).
Day 1 of the Prolon fasting mimicking diet: 1100 calories, meals, and continuous glucose monitor data showing carb spikes.
R analysis of a wisdom of crowds experiment where Google+ followers guessed cheerios in a jar, with outlier detection and plots.
Step-by-step guide to creating an R package with documentation, unit testing via testthat, data storage, and RStudio workflow tips.
How to download and read Microsoft OneDrive Excel files into R data frames using readxl and curl_download.
Review and notes on Conscious by Annaka Harris, exploring the hard problem of consciousness, panpsychism, and free will.
A simple vegetarian dinner with sauteed eggplant, sweet potato, and Tajin chili-lime seasoning for a unique flavor kick.
Review of Ball Lightning by Liu Cixin, a Chinese sci-fi novel about a boy obsessed with understanding static lightning after tragedy.
Overview of Health Nucleus (formerly Human Longevity Inc), Craig Venter’s genomic health screening service now available from $5,500.
Apple Watch heart rate data shows a curious spike 15 minutes before a 4.6 magnitude Seattle earthquake while sleeping in July 2019.
Summary of the 2019 Personalized Nutrition Summit covering genomics-based diet startups, microbiome testing, and nutrition tech devices.
Genopalate’s DNA-based diet recommendations using nutrigenetic scores to personalize food choices based on 28 nutrition-related traits.
Trending food flavors and restaurant trends from Datassential research: Levantine cuisine, Asian sweets, regional Japanese, and more.
Self-experiment showing how wearing a sleep mask and staying in bed a full eight hours dramatically improved watch-measured sleep duration.
Accuracy comparison of Freestyle Libre CGM versus Contour Next finger prick glucose meter, testing food response after whole wheat bread.
Overview of continuous glucose monitoring products including Medtronic Guardian, Nutrino FoodPrint, and the OnDuo diabetes platform.
Response to NYT claim that glucose self-testing is unhelpful, arguing continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) provides far more actionable data.
Review of Baze at-home blood test kit measuring zinc, vitamins D, E, B12, omega-3, and other biomarkers for personalized supplements.
Quick R tutorial showing how to add text labels directly on a ggplot chart using geom_text with microbiome colon cleanse data.
Book review of Rodney Stark’s Bearing False Witness, challenging common myths about the Inquisition, Crusades, Dark Ages, and more.
R tutorial creating a calendar heatmap visualization of Bifidobacterium gut microbiome abundance levels tracked over multiple years.
Statistical reanalysis of self-tracked sleep data testing whether potato starch, alcohol, or Vitamin D supplements affect sleep quality.
Comparing SNP results from 23andMe, Helix, and Psomagen genetic tests to check consistency across consumer genomics platforms.
Interactive R tutorial exploring how averages, standard deviations, and subpopulations shape normal distributions with Shiny visualization.
Book review of Marjorie Plummer’s history of clerical marriage during the early German Reformation and the end of priestly celibacy.
R programming exercise using tidyverse to analyze and visualize sleep location data tracked over several years in a personal spreadsheet.
R analysis of Washington driver’s license data showing which states send the most people to King County, normalized by population.
R simulation of a counterintuitive coin-toss probability puzzle: why heads-tails takes fewer flips than heads-heads.
Growing oyster mushrooms at home with a simple kit — no effort required for a pound of fresh, organic mushrooms.
Monte Carlo simulation in R showing how a small skill advantage between two teams leads to outsized winning percentages.
How to sprout black beans at home by soaking and drying, plus a quick Instant Pot soup recipe with lentils and ham.
Analyzing sleep data in R to compare rest quality on a low-carb high-fat diet vs regular diet using ggplot and t-tests.
Personal food philosophy covering sugar avoidance, carb reduction, exercise balance, and practical tips for healthy eating.
Why MSG fears are a myth — the science of monosodium glutamate, umami flavor, and why glutamate is safe and natural.
Self-tracking blood glucose levels after sugar water using a Contour Next EZ monitor and plotting results with R and ggplot.
Book review of Scott Adams’ Win Bigly on Trump’s persuasion techniques, cognitive dissonance, and the Master Persuader theory.
Linear vs quadratic regression in R applied to physics ball-toss data captured with the Video Physics app.
Using koji fermented rice as a shortcut for dry-aging ribeye steak at home for tender, umami-rich results.
How to make clabbered milk from raw unpasteurized milk — the traditional fermented leavening agent for biscuits and cornbread.
Using R to analyze 2016 presidential election results by precinct on Mercer Island from King County data.
A heartfelt eulogy for my brother Gary — remembering his diligence, family devotion, and the bond we shared growing up.
Gut microbiome experiment tracking bacterial recovery after a colon cleanse using uBiome tests and diet changes.
Book review of Ben Horowitz’s The Hard Thing About Hard Things with notes on management debt, CEO types, and startup culture.
My 1981 MIT rejection letter — a personal memento from college admissions before the digital age.
