
Can filming one second of every day change your life? [video] - soitgoes
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20937759
======
xefer
I recall a Nova or something on PBS several years ago where an MIT student had
built a contraption that did essentially that. The thing that struck him when
analyzing the data was how much every day was more or less exactly like the
other.

He wasn't particularly philosophical about this fact, but I remember thinking
this could be very depressing to some people - and jostle others into doing
more with their lives. Still, as the narrator of the linked video says,
"trying to make the best documentary of my life" seems to take an odd third-
person perspective of one's own existence.

In another vein entirely, I've always felt there was something bordering on
the "sacred" about memories. They're as personal a thing as you can have.
Being able to rewind and see everything that ever happened to me would take
something away from that for me. As with many technologies, you'd gain
something, but lose something precious too.

~~~
jwco
Not clear what you lose. Your brain probably still has whatever memory of
these moments it would have without the video, and you can choose not to watch
the video. All I think you lose is the time you spend taking the video. But if
the moments you spend taking the video are just moments you would spend simply
observing, the difference is very little.

~~~
mmahemoff
Your brain doesn't have a cinematic memory of every moment. It's very
malleable and memories will probably degrade more as you rely on this kind of
thing more. Net effect may well be worthwhile, but it's definitely a downside
to consider.

~~~
atsaloli
I agree with mmahemoff, your mind will be weaker to the extend you don't use
it. Just like math -- if you start using a calculator, then when you don't
have one, it'll take longer and harder to do it in your head.

Every moment of your life is recorded in your mind with full perceptions and a
time tag and is /potentially/ accessible.

Dianetics posits it's pain and unconsciousness that obscures memories, and if
you contact and discharge them, memories return (<http://www.dianetics.org>).

Personally, I found this to be true. It's very interesting (and pleasurable)
to recover a "forgotten" experience in a Dianetics session, which you can do
by twinning up with another person that's read _Dianetics_ , or by getting a
free intro session at a local Scientology organization.

[http://www.amazon.com/Dianetics-Modern-Science-Mental-
Englis...](http://www.amazon.com/Dianetics-Modern-Science-Mental-
English/dp/140314446X)

~~~
lwat
Ah you're a scientologist - that explains your aversion to psychologists.
Scientology is the worst, most evil organization I've ever had contact with.
Just disgusting.

------
sethbannon
The key line for me was at the end, when he says "trying to make the best
movie possible is making me live the best life possible". If this is nothing
but a trick to make one more introspective and aware of one's own life, I
applaud it.

~~~
startupfounder
"a trick to make one more introspective and aware of one's own life"

Meditating is one of the most introspective activities, but might not make the
best film. If people make a 1 second film for themselves then I think this
could have a really positive impact.

If instead people make films for others then this might not be very positive
because you are living out entertainment for someone else.

~~~
stephengillie
Instead of focusing on the tool we're using, the specific path we're
following, look at the job for which you chose the tool, the destination
toward which you're moving.

Introspection is a very useful way of analyzing the patterns our thoughts and
actions take. Some people like to think while driving, others find ocean waves
to clear their mind. For some it's their children, or a jazz song. Don't
begrudge others for how they get there, just be happy you've both arrived.

------
zeedog
I've always been inspired by the story of Jamie Livingston, who took a
Polaroid everyday from 1979-1997. The photos follow his life as a circus
performer and photographer/videographer in NYC. He was killed by a brain
tumor, and his photos follow him up until his last day in the hospital (his
friends took the photos for him). Incredibly moving to see his life unfold in
thousands of "in-between" moments.

<http://photooftheday.hughcrawford.com/1979.htm#1979/1>

More on Jamie: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Livingston>

------
unicornporn
I doubt it was only the act of filming 1 second per day that changed his life.
It was the discovery of the method and the process of refining it that lead to
a life changing experience.

I don't think you will experience that by downloading an app. Come up with an
own idea on how to reflect upon your life.

------
netcan
The article doesn't say a lot about the app. But, for people with a
"creativity through technology" mind, the current tech climate is great for
these sorts of ideas. Documenting is something we can do more of. It's
valuable. It can be fun. Maybe all we need is better tools.

How about better ways of documenting your children growing up. Documenting
yourself getting old. If we want to get really into it, maybe there are ways
of finding lessons in our life that can be passed on.

I've heard interesting anecdotes about taking a picture of all food before you
eat it leading to much healthier eating.

There have always been great diarists. Sometimes their benefit could only be
seen years later. Maybe we can do it beter now with apps and web and video
cameras in every pocket.

~~~
ozgung
My intention was to make a similar app as a side project but he's way ahead of
me. It was still very inspiring though. This whole idea of using smartphones
as a documentary and creative tool and improving people's lives through
unlocking their creative side seems very attractive to me.

~~~
netcan
Don't give up. I reckon that for someone with a mind that works that way, this
is a great space to work at. Its also something "we" need to experiment at to
get right.

------
adyersmith
This reminds me of an Android app I wrote a while back. It's called PhotoChron
(free! -
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.photochron...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.photochron&hl=en))
and lets you take a photo a day to join into a video.

I've used it mostly for recording my kids growing up (e.g.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_Nr7pw-I0g> ). It's amazing having a
chronicle of them imperceptibly turning from newborns into kids and I
recommend it for any new parent. Apps like Everyday ( <http://everyday-
app.com> ) do a similar thing on iOS.

------
shocks
I'm surprised no one has linked to this: <http://noahkalina.com/36/44#1>

He's been taking pictures every day since 2000.

~~~
ljf
Or this chap, who took a polaroid a day until the day he died:
<http://photooftheday.hughcrawford.com/1979.htm#1979/1>

~~~
anubhavjha
That looks pretty cool.

------
CWIZO
I've started doing something similar this year. But instead of video I take
one picture that represents the highlight of that day. I also take a picture
of myself. Then I'll write a small program that will combine the image, self
shot, title and a map into one image and finally generate a video from those
images.

Combining this with my OhLife daily diary I hope I'll have a pretty good
overview of my life and a treasure of memories (I'm very bad at remembering
things from my past).

edit: I've now realized that this man was the inspiration for my project (I've
seen this before new year) :)

~~~
mikle
OhLife is interesting, but I feel weird sending my personal info to OhLife.
Thanks for this suggestion though, I guess I could always just forward the
answer to my own address instead of them.

------
gimlids
Reminds me of another cool "picture every day" project -- this guy took a
photo of himself once a day for 6 years with the lens cap on --
[http://www.mrwillvincent.co.uk/Two-Thousand-One-Hundred-
and-...](http://www.mrwillvincent.co.uk/Two-Thousand-One-Hundred-and-Ninety-
One)

------
aes256
> Everyone will probably have a different experience with their videos, he
> says, but he says self-reflection is never a bad thing.

People's infinite capacity to forget things is both a blessing and a curse.

Be prepared, when reminiscing about the good times, to be reminded of some
equally bad times.

~~~
cabbeer
“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human
mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in
the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should
voyage far. The sciences, each straining it its own direction, have hitherto
harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge
will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position
therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the
deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.” -From the opening
paragraph of ‘The Call of Cthulhu’, H. P. Lovecraft

~~~
laurent123456
Love how Lovecraft's writing is weirdly relevant to today's interconnected
world. If he was born today he would probably be working on pattern
recognition and machine learning to "piece together the dissociated knowledge
to open up terrifying vistas of reality".

~~~
TruthElixirX
Or writing angry posts on StormFront.

~~~
laurent123456
Could write books about all that was wrong with him... Yet he would probably
get bored with StormFront faster than with actual science.

------
cduser
This girl takes a photo daily: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgxxxKwlra8>

------
huskyr
ROOM for thought is a similar app that asks you to make a photograph every day
at a random moment. The app (iOS-only for now) is free:

<https://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/id585556618?mt=8>

~~~
ehamberg
Really cool idea. The descriptions in iTunes are all in Dutch, though…

edit: actually, even the app itself is mostly in Dutch. :)

~~~
huskyr
Oh well, you might learn a new language as well ;)

~~~
ehamberg
Heh, actually as a speaker of Norwegian, English and German, (written) Dutch
is surprisingly easy to understand. I kept the app, at least for now. :-)

------
mbrock
I thought a video of 1-sec clips would just be glitch and confusion, but it's
actually pretty cool. I bet if it were my own life it'd be really fun to watch
at the end of the year. This year I'm doing a phone photo a day at least.

------
tga
This brings to mind Lifelapse (<http://www.lifelapse.com/>) -- you hang your
smartphone around your neck and let it take snapshots of your day. I always
thought it was a fun idea but never got to try it. Probably a great thing
while traveling.

I used to do this with my desktop using TimeSnapper
(<http://www.timesnapper.com/>), it does provide an interesting view on where
your time goes throughout the day.

------
iansinke
A one-second video is seldom going to show more than a single photograph.
Sure, there's a little motion, but the quality is worse and if you want to
stop and take a look you have to pause the video. I'd stick with taking one
photo a day.

I know there are counterexamples. But for those things, you'd probably want to
take a longer video anyway. What kind of events is a 1-second video the best
way to capture, anyway?

------
arram
I'm considering trying this. It seems like the bias of choosing the second to
record would be mean that it wouldn't actually represent your day well. I'd be
interesting if someone made two videos from two seconds from each day: one
they chose and one taken after they were prompted by a random timer. The
videos would probably be completely different.

~~~
netrus
Mostly, id would show the inside of my pocket (or the floor in front of me, if
you activate it with usage :)

------
denysonique
One screenshot every day.

~~~
thomseddon
I have inadvertently being doing this for the last three months due to the
proximity of the print screen and backspace buttons on my keyboard.

It also acts as a fallback version control :)

------
tesmar2
Any way in which you can record bits and pieces of your life now will most
likely come in very valuable later on when you have children and
grandchildren. You don't have to record everything, of course, but having a
nice overview of each year with a few pics here and there with stories to tell
is very cool.

------
wiradikusuma
This is an interesting idea, but how did he decide which one from 86,400 sec
in a day that's worth to keep?

~~~
tonylemesmer
Indeed. He mentions he is living a better life, but it takes more than a
second to record something to remember a day by. He must be taking quite a lot
of clips. And then sitting down and chosing and combining. Could get a little
onerous.

------
baby
That would be an awesome app! BUT, I think 1 second is WAY too short. It's
actually annoying to watch such a video, and you don't really get something
out of it. I think 5 seconds is already a better number.

------
laurent123456
Anybody knows if the app is available yet? A search for ""1 Second Everyday"
on the Apple App Store doesn't return anything.

~~~
unwind
It seems to be a Kickstarter project
([http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cesarkuriyama/1-second-e...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cesarkuriyama/1-second-
everyday-app/)) to get the app out.

~~~
waitwhat
"Pledge $1 or more (7525 backers) For just $1 the iOS App is yours!"

The iTunes store doesn't actually have a mechanism to achieve this, does it?
Other than making it free for everyone for quite a while (months?) and using
promo codes to fix up any backers who didn't download it in time. Promo codes
are limited to 50 per release, I believe.

~~~
kranner
They could always have an in-app purchase item that can be bypassed with a
code.

~~~
waitwhat
I assume that isn't allowed by Apple. EDIT: It appears that it might be (or
something functionally equivalent) -- see the post by bhaak.

------
jisaacstone
I am reminded of Betteridge's law of headlines:

>"Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no."

------
denzil_correa
I jus downloaded his app - I will try doing what he says for 1 month for
starters and check the result.

------
samstave
Tout is the twitter of video apps in that its supposed to be 15second vids.

I think 1 second is a little too short...

------
alexkus
Quite a bit in common with Memoto...

------
MrBra
no it really can't

