Cheap phone rocker for boosting your daily step count

[frauenfelder]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/12/11/cheap-phone-rocker-for-boostin.html

…

[HMSGoose]

When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure

Goodhart's law

[jab]

Forgets to take phone off rocker, insurance company thinks i didn’t sleep for 4 complete days and walked non-stop for 384 miles…promptly cancels my insurance.

[lastchance]

[RickMycroft]

How else will you hatch your Pokemon Go eggs?

[d_r]

Can these be used to wind a “self-winding” watch? $2 is a tiny fraction of the cost of most automatic watch-winders.

[leicester]

[howaboutthis]

Yeah, certain insurance providers in the US have similar optional health and wellness programs which include walking a certain number of steps per day, among other hoop jumping, to lower a participant’s outrageous insurance premium.

[GulliverFoyle]

@d_r

Can these be used to wind a “self-winding” watch? $2 is a tiny fraction of the cost of most automatic watch-winders.

As long as you can attach the watch so it rocks in the axis of the winding rotor, it should work just fine.

Alternatively, you could make an inexpensive one…

Easy…

Easy DIY Homemade Automatic Watch Winder

Less easy…

Make a beautiful DIY gyro watch winder from plywood

[gracchus]

Some of us need a little extra help to earn those 15-million Merits.

[anon61221983]

@frauenfelder

Why? “Some insurance companies in China allow people who consistently reach a certain daily step count to get discounted health insurance premiums,”

Oh… that makes sense, I guess (meaning with regards to people’s motivations)…

[d_r]

I have one that I made years ago (by hacking a solar-powered rotating display stand), but it never worked very well and finally failed. Repair parts would cost more than $2, and what was fun doing once would just be a chore the second time.

[DukeTrout]

@howaboutthis

Yeah, certain insurance providers in the US have similar optional health and wellness programs which include walking a certain number of steps per day, among other hoop jumping, to lower a participant’s outrageous insurance premium.

Exactly. The author could have just as easily written

@frauenfelder

“Some insurance companies in China America allow people who consistently reach a certain daily step count to get discounted health insurance premiums,” writes Matthew Brennan.

[Wanderfound]

@frauenfelder

Why? “Some insurance companies in China allow people who consistently reach a certain daily step count to get discounted health insurance premiums,” writes Matthew Brennan.

Balloon Juice - Wellness programs and the West Virginia Teacher's strike

As per usual, most China-is-a-SF-dystopian-nightmare reporting merely echoes long-established trends in the West.

[anon59592690]

Last year my aunt discovered her fitbit-thingy registered using an electric whisk to fluff up a bowl of double cream as about 100 steps.
We then ate all that cream on dessert, so I guess she cheated twice.

[TobinL]

@RickMycroft

How else will you hatch your Pokemon Go eggs?

That uses your GPS. I have hatched eggs with phone sitting still on wifi thanks to satellite drift.

[Speaker-to-Lampposts]

Reminds me of a comment I saw back when Fitbits were new. Something like “My Fitbit says I need to get in 10,000 steps in the next 20 minutes. I have duck tape, and I have a Sawzall. No problem.”

[hecep]

Sounds like this helps explain the nasty effect of ticketing/arrest quotas.

[dontpanicbobby]

This should make the “Best Life Hacks of 2019” list.

[HMSGoose]

Wait, hold on, why are people in China paying health insurance premiums? I thought China used the threat of jail or social exclusion to control motivation, not pricing. What kind of shitty communism is that? Or is it just, like “company store” communism (the mirror image of “freedom dividend” company store libertarianism…)