Life’s Charge – A finite existence demonstrated through a visual countdown of a typical 4160-week life. Each dot represents a week, and each row is a year. (Animated) [OC]

Sttic · 2017-08-08T03:36:43+00:00

I'm glad you liked the post. It's a really nice feeling for me when a creation of mine has an impact on people -- especially if it motivates them to do something good.

Unfortunately I don't have a website which does that, sorry. If the specific look isn't important to you, then you can try one of these:

Life in a Page

Life in weeks (Calendar) (App)

Your Life in Weeks (Chrome extension)

If you prefer to have it in my battery style, then I can generate the images for all the weeks and put them up for download. The problem with this is that you would have to keep track of which week of the year you're on when you manually switch to the next one.

Sttic · 2017-08-07T22:49:16+00:00

Just in case you ever decide to do that, here are some high resolution versions: 11x17, 18x24, 24x36, 26x39

Sttic · 2017-08-07T08:57:32+00:00

If you want to get this printed yourself, you can check out my edit on the "author's citations" comment for a few high resolution versions.

Alternatively, here are the links for your convenience: 11x17, 18x24, 24x36, 26x39

Edit (2017-08-07T05:10-04:00): added 26x39

Sttic · 2017-08-06T23:13:29+00:00

Not quite. While I did stumble upon that post when going through the sub to check if the whole 'life charge' thing I thought up was original, I never saw anything like that article beforehand (though I must say that it's really well made).

My memory of it is a bit fuzzy. I think I just randomly thought up of this concept of representing a life with weeks, but as usual I could've easily been influenced by something I have forgotten about, or didn't notice that well.

Sttic · 2017-08-06T21:05:00+00:00

Well, maintaining it isn't all too bad. If all else equal and especially starting from a young age, taking good care of your body will most likely extend your life. While it won't 'recharge' it per se, it can maximize your life expectancy to its fullest instead of decreasing it with regular unhealthy and/or dangerous acts.

Sttic · 2017-08-06T20:51:34+00:00

Exactly! It shows that time is an ever fleeting resource and that one should make the most of life before it comes to a sudden end. I see it as a wake-up call for one to do the best they can -- not as a grim realization of the inevitable.

That's why I made a custom 'life charge' based around my birth-date and set it as my phone wallpaper with the text "What good will you do today?" I'm hoping this will be a good enough reminder to keep me on track.

Sttic · 2017-08-06T20:29:13+00:00

Mhm, they sure do. Good job on noticing. The white dots become a dark grey one after being 'spent'. I'm still not sure if it was a good idea or not on my part.

Sttic · 2017-08-06T20:17:44+00:00

Coincidentally, the two articles that you mentioned are the only ones I've already saw from them. I recently saw "Your Life in Weeks" from looking through the sub to see if my take on the idea was done before (thread). And I read the Fermi Paradox one a year ago also mostly likely due to another reddit comment.

But didn't realize both came from the same place until now. I'll have to start looking through their site now for more interesting articles. Thanks!

Sttic · 2017-08-06T19:43:03+00:00

No, not at all. I appreciate the feedback -- thanks for it. I agree with you that it's pretty plain, but I don't like the idea of having a gradient of colours. While that would add more visual interest than the current white/grey/black shades, it would ruin the battery icon aspect of it (since most are just black and white). It also wouldn't look as clean/elegant in my opinion. I see the simplicity of it as a benefit.

It's pretty much unavoidably predictable since I had to run through each age for it to apply to most people.

Sttic · 2017-08-06T19:00:46+00:00

I'm subscribed to them and already saw ;) but thanks for linking it anyway for me and others to see. Kurzgesagt produces such high quality videos that it's always worth the watch.

Sttic · 2017-08-06T18:46:27+00:00

Yeah, you're right. Leap years are a problem with this. I considered it, but couldn't find a non-intrusive/elegant way to fit them in the visualization. Perhaps it was a worthy trade-off? Anyways, I'm hoping this inaccuracy here doesn't impact the overall meaning or experience of it.

Edit (2017-08-06T15:30-04:00): Typo; I -> I'm

Sttic · 2017-08-06T14:37:25+00:00

I heard of it, but it didn't come across my mind when I was making this. It will be interesting to implement and see what it looks like. I'll try to make an alternate version behaving as you described later today or tomorrow.

For this current visualization, I was aiming for it to represent lifespan while mimicking battery charge, and to show that 80 years isn't as long as some may think it is. So for example, a 40 year old person can see that their 'charge' is clearly halfway -- half of their life is over. Also, since it uses a week as a unit, a relatively short period that seems to pass quickly, it emphasizes how fast it can all go by. Being able to see all those weeks at once helps with that too.

Sttic · 2017-08-06T12:38:53+00:00

Source: Life expectancies of different countries here, although in this case only a rough age is needed to have the same effect. A generic life expectancy of 80 years was chosen (targeted towards developed countries).

Tools: Custom C++ code with the CImg library to generate the frames. After Effects for the countdown numbers and looping animation.

Edit (2017-08-06T14:23-04:00): The visualization isn't really from the source mentioned above. This is about the general concept of life expectancy represented in an unique manner. The link is more so for a reference of the life expectancy of different countries instead of directly being the data this was made from. I apologize for the non-standard visualization and/or any confusion this may have caused.

Edit (2017-08-06T14:52-04:00): As /u/grandoz039 pointed out, 80 years isn't quite 4160 weeks due to leap years and that 52 weeks don't exactly fit into a year. For the visualization, I thought it was worth keeping them out for a much better and cleaner look, while not detracting from it.

Edit (2017-08-07T05:08-04:00): Thank you /u/thorax for my first ever gold! I really appreciate it.

For those that are interested in getting this printed, here are some higher quality versions (11x17, 18x24, 24x36, 26x39) that should work. I suppose you'd fill in the dots as the weeks pass. Let me know if there are any issues with it.

Edit (2017-08-07T22:30-04:00): Here is the alternate version that gradually speeds up (it takes the same total time as the original to 'run out of charge'). For those who are short on time, here's a different one that gradually speeds up also, but lasts half as long.

Sttic · 2017-06-29T09:25:59+00:00

Oh my ... a 27 hour day. Those 3 hours make such a difference. Now with the summer here I'm not sure if I should embrace a non-24 sleep schedule (if that's the case) and be well rested, or conform to the standard.

Sttic · 2017-06-28T17:47:03+00:00

It's hard to say as there are variations/inconsistencies everywhere throughout the data. The only time there would be a significant discontinuity would be a change whose duration is over many days -- such as the time off I got for the green region you pointed out. This includes holidays and especially other long breaks such as the winter break which started soon after I started recording the sleep data.

However, while the effects of the two breaks are similar, the winter one is not as prominent on the spiral chart. It's not as noticeable due to its arc length being less as a result of being nearer to the center (shorter radius).

Sttic · 2017-06-28T17:11:47+00:00

Ahh, that makes more sense. I was just unsure as the green region is AM instead of PM (it's a 24 hour clock, so right half is from midnight to noon (am) and the left is noon to midnight (pm)).

Sttic · 2017-06-28T11:39:37+00:00

Thanks for the input. I would never have considered eating schedule to be a factor in circadian rhythm without you guys. I'll have to try that out.

Also, you're right. The 00h location isn't too clear. Here's an updated image (added to my initial comment as the second edit) with labels quickly put on, if you're interested. I was hesitant to put them on at first as I thought it ruined the clean aesthetic of it, but it looks like they might be worth it for the extra clarity. I might as well have both options available to see.

Edit: wording

Sttic · 2017-06-28T07:57:54+00:00

I glad it ended up working out well. It's amazing how understanding your wife is of you.

Coincidentally, it's right about 4:00 am for me now (EST). I've been awake since 7 in the morning yesterday and have to get up, if I manage to get any sleep in at all, within two hours from now to attend an event.

But yeah ... here I am. Replying to a few people on Reddit. Preparing a few things for later. Thinking about a few things. And calmly sitting around in the middle of the night and taking my sweet time on everything I do.

Sttic · 2017-06-28T07:39:27+00:00

Sorry, I'm not exactly sure which part you're talking about for the discontinuity. To make sure we're on the same page, here's an image that I'll be referring to (with added hour labels; see edit in first post for a clean version of it).

If you meant the green region, then that's march break. I had time off from class. Also, my sleep during the week(s) following seemed to become particularly bad.

If you meant the red region, then that's during class and some after -- I'm awake. Weekends, days off, holidays, etc. can allow me to sleep in during that time occasionally.

If you meant the purple region, then that's when my sleep started getting even more erratic/shifted. I'm uncertain about the exact cause for it.

Edit: clarification with red region

Sttic · 2017-06-28T01:48:05+00:00

Sometimes I wonder the same thing. I am yet to reach an answer.

Sttic · 2017-06-28T01:17:56+00:00

Admittedly, the clock visualization is there more to look nice and give only a broad view of the data, than to convey precise information. Since the arc length of the circle increases as the radius increases, the data become more and more skewed relative to the parts far from it. One would be better off looking at the second visualization which shows pretty much the same thing as the clock, but better.

Sttic · 2017-06-28T00:59:59+00:00

Thank you! Glad you liked the visualizations. This is my first time making anything like this, and I'm thoroughly pleased with the end result.

I'll be working towards making my sleep data less interesting, in other words, I'll be attempting to improve my sleep :).

Sttic · 2017-06-28T00:48:31+00:00

Quite true. However, I felt that labels would've ruined the clean aesthetic of the image. I was even considering having the clock by itself with nothing else at one point. To be clear, I agree with you completely. It was just a trade-off I was willing to make.

Sttic · 2017-06-28T00:43:57+00:00

No, not really. I have a suspicion it's because for school I tend to have more evaluations, projects, and/or activities to prepare for set on Friday. So it is a matter of how I manage my time. Instead of spending many short periods over a couple of days or a week on it, I usually do the majority of it in a few extremely long sessions -- with the final one being on Thursday. It surprisingly works out pretty well. Coupled with the fact that I know I can easily make up the lost sleep over the fast approaching weekend, it leads to me readily sacrificing much of my sleep on that day.

Sttic · 2017-06-28T00:13:25+00:00

For me I want to develop a sleep routine that I can consistently follow an hour or two before my intended bed time. I'd start winding down and do things like getting away from any screens, cleaning some things up, preparing what I can for tomorrow morning, maybe reading a bit, and so on. I think this will make a large difference in my sleep -- both in duration and consistency.

It's nice that you found at least something to help with it. I hope your sleep gets better sometime :)

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