Okay this is the graph that made me decide to quit my job as a science
teacher. This is the graph that shows the jump in my heart rate when I said I was
quitting, and this is the graph that made me decide to try doing YouTube full-time...
but before any of those graphs can make any real sense we need to rewind. Rewind
back to high school, back to when I hated science. Alright enjoy the ride.
It's March 31st 2007 I start taking a picture of myself every day. It's an art
project. I have no interest in science. It seems like a big and boring list of
unrelated facts. I graduate from high school and move from the farm to Toronto
to study media in university. I want to film movies about dreams, I want to make
music videos, I want to entertain people. I'm 17. I'm bored and I'm frustrated by
my classes because everything I'm learning is just theories based on other
people's theories and it all feels like meaningless hearsay, and I decide to
leave. I move to Waterloo to start my second year at a different University in
communication studies it's not long before I'm feeling bored here too and I
start thinking that maybe - despite that I love to learn - maybe University just
isn't for me. I'm learning more from things like YouTube than from my
professors so I decide to just do one more year and graduate in general arts.
My brother recommends a book about genetics it's called 'The Selfish Gene'
and I am fascinated I decided to take an introductory biology course just for fun.
I haven't taken a science class since grade 10 and I am stunned by the
scientific method. I mean for the first time I realize that science is a
process it's a way of exploring it's not a list of facts. I am hooked and I decide
to fast-track through a science degree. For the first time University feels
right. I stop taking daily photos; it's pretentious and narcissistic and who
knows if I'll ever make another artistic film anyway.
I graduate with a biology degree I move to Vancouver I'm finishing up a master's
of science four years have gone by I now think that data is beautiful and so I
collect it. My phone tracks what songs I listen to, I log my mood every day with
an app, I journal my activities, I get a watch that tracks my steps and my heart
rate, the list goes on. I want to use statistics to figure out how to live a
happier, healthier life. On an average day I fall asleep at 11:02 p.m. and I wake
up at 6:44 a.m. I'm Restless or awake for about an hour through the course of
the night so overall I sleep about a half hour less than the average person
but I catnap three days a week - that's what the hammocks for. I spend five hours
a day on my computer including 67 minutes on entertainment sites like
YouTube another 67 doing creative work 46 on social networks 32 on things like
email and another 90 minutes on everything else I listen to 47 songs a
day I read 1.7 books a month I walk about eight kilometers a day which is
three kilometres more than the average American I burn 2871 calories a day
which is equivalent to this much olive oil though I promise my diet is more
diverse than that. On average I drink 0.6 beers a day, which is an
example of why averages can be silly things.
Most days I drink 0 beers sometimes one rarely more than one I'm drinking
less and less over time and that's not an accident
see, I started to suspect that maybe more beer doesn't make me more happy and so I
looked at my data and I couldn't find anything in my data that suggests that
drinking more beer really does make me any happier so now I barely drink. On a
scale from one to five my average mood is 3.85 which is good.
Doing this means that every day I reflect on how I'm feeling
and that self-awareness has been game-changing for me.
mondays are meh but my week gets better up until Sunday which is totally the
best day of the week. I'm a tiny bit less happy on days when it rains a lot and
then much less happy on days when it snows and happier on days when I run
even happier on days when I bike still even more happy on days when I go rock
climbing and I basically max out my happiness on days that I dance
compared to days when I don't do those things, though it's hard to say if I'm
dancing because I'm already happy or if dancing makes me happier but either way
it's one more excuse to dance. I'm happier on days that I spend with my
friends though that's probably something I didn't need statistics for. Okay now
let's look at those first three graphs again. It's February 1st 2017, I'm a
science teacher working with gifted and special needs children. It is a stressful
job and I think it might be making me depressed. I look at my data for the days
that I teach compared with the days that I don't teach and I find a bigger
difference in my mood that I have seen with any other factor. I realize that I
need to change something. It's June 7th I decide to quit teaching and go do
educational videography for universities. This is a big exciting moment for me and
my heart rate jumps when I tell HR I'm leaving. It's June 22nd, after three years
of making these science videos on YouTube I watch as my viewership
suddenly does this and I decide to try doing YouTube full-time for at least a
year because, hey, I mean you only live once. It's August 16th 2017 I start
taking daily photos again. It's for art and it's for science. I think that data
and systems of logic can help us answer questions about the universe
but it can also be a way of seeing the world that improves our day to day lives,
it certainly has for me. Today is May 24th 2018, when I started this YouTube
channel three years ago I named it The Scope of Science, and I really wasn't
sure honestly what I wanted it to be, but making this video has reminded me
that science is a personal voyage (at least for me) and it's one that I want to
explore in creative ways. And that's why as of today I am no longer calling this
channel The Scope of Science, because really it's just me making these videos
here and my name is Kurtis Baute and from now on I'm going to be calling my
channel that: Kurtis Baute. also starting a patreon page launching today, so please
go check that out if you want to support what I do and help me share my passion
for science with others, and if you don't think you can support it
you should still check it out because I made some pretty bizarre and fun rewards
on there that are kind of cool to check out! If you're new here I should also
introduce you to your friend and cactus Sir Stabbington. by subscribing to my
channel this machine automatically makes a single drop of water fall onto him
that's all that's keeping him alive lastly thanks to Daniel for playing a
bunch of instruments for this video and thank you for watching