A heat map of my life
As told by the places I eat
I’m an engineer. I’m also OCD about tracking things. Combine those two traits and you get some interesting, if a little odd, results.
Take, for example, the fact that I once calculated how much I save by taking my bike to work over driving, after accounting for the cost of the extra food I consumed on days I biked. It was a 15-mile bike ride each way, so those calories were non-trivial. (I went on to co-found Penny. Go figure.)
So yeah, sometimes I go a little overboard with the whole keeping track of my life thing. But sometimes, I can also do some cool things with that data.
Case in point: the heat map of my life.
Setting the stage
Towards the start of 2012, two important things happened in my life: I acquired a love for trying new places to eat, and I acquired the funds to start eating at those new places.
Love for new places
My (now) fiancé and I started dating in 2011. I didn’t know this before we started dating, but it turns out her family runs a kick-ass popcorn company. (Yeah, that’s right: I’m marrying into a popcorn and candy business. Dreams really do come true.)
The more I learned about the sweat equity her family put into that business, the more inspired I became to support local restaurants and shops over chains. Local restaurants and shops are a labor of love, sweat, and tears; chains are (in their mature state) an exercise in unit economics, clever marketing, and mass market appeal.
My fiancé was already a big proponent of local over chain, but I took it to a whole new level. Not only did I stop frequenting chain restaurants—over the past four years, I’ve done my best to never go to the same restaurant twice. I make an exception for local coffee shops or sports bars, but even then I only do so after patronizing all of the ones in my area.
Funds to start eating
In 2011, I graduated from college with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. I had spent the previous four years studying my butt off, working odd jobs, and living off of just-add-water pancakes and the occasional quesadilla.
I’m not joking about the pancakes, either. During my senior year, I bought a 10-pound bag of instant pancake mix from Costco and made those for breakfast, lunch and dinner nearly seven days a week. For variety, I bought some Costco-sized bags of shredded cheese and tortillas and made the occasional cheese quesadilla. Needless to say, my body was craving variety coming out of college.
I started my foray into the real world in the fall of 2011 after taking the summer off to revel in my last moments of freedom. It took me a while to build up a safety net, but given the job (Boeing) and the affordable locale (Phoenix) it was only a matter of time until I could afford to eat out a little more frequently.
The heat map
As I ramped up my non-pancake eating and cultivated my love for trying new places, I began to star every place I ate on Google Maps.
Every. Single. One.
To date, I’ve starred over 650 different places across the country. I also rate and review each place, so if you happen to see a review by “Mitchell Lee, Local Guide” pop up when googling for restaurants… hi!
In fact, I’m pretty sure I’m one of the most prolific reviewers on Google Maps. At the very least, I’m crushing the threshold for the highest level of “Local Guide” they have, even after they’ve raised said threshold, added additional levels, and changed the scoring mechanism. Take that, Google.
The result of my incessant starring? A very pretty map that looks like this.
But why?
Great question. For one, because I’m OCD and that’s what people like me do.
That’s not the only reason, though. Here are a few more:
- Every time I open Google maps, I’m greeted by stars! 🌟
- I get free perks because Google now considers me a “Local Guide.”
- Restaurant recommendations for friends are only ever a few clicks away.
- I have a way to jog my memory about places I’ve eaten at before.
But most importantly, this has become a heat map of my life. Keeping in mind that almost every meal out results in a new star,
The higher the density, the more time I’ve spent there.
With that fresh perspective, I can draw some interesting conclusions.
- A stranger with access to a zoomable version of this map could easily deduce which places I’ve lived since 2012. That’s not creepy.
- For as much as I love traveling, I have so far turned a blind eye to the south.
- Clearly I’m only interested in Denver for its mountains.
- In my one weekend there, I did damage in Austin.
- Apparently I went to Albuquerque once.
What’s next?
If anyone has ideas for what to do with this data (stars, numerical ratings, or both), let me know in the comments. You can also follow me on my blog and Twitter for more updates!
If you enjoyed this, don’t be shy about 👏 for it!
