The Strava platform has a bunch of monthly challenges that makes things fun for users. For example, run 100, 200, or 300 km, or walk 50 km, or cycle numerous distances. These are great! However, I am surprised they are missing some that are not only beneficial for users, popular from science backings in at least Western culture, and just systematically to be comparable across activities. I have listed some below and hope Strava will add them as I don’t think they would be hard to add, considering there are already algorithms for some similar challenges in place, so it should just a matter of switching the limits. For other challenges, there is other data available from fitness apps that Strava takes into account for other calculations, like # of steps for average stride length calculations, so it’s a matter of the new data totals and a limit, or two changes, to existing algorithms, to create new challenges that would be fun and beneficial beyond fun for users!
challenges
An Algorithmic Idea for Strava to Eliminate Cheating
The Strava platform has a definite cheating problem. Not definitely got a cheating problem. They got a definite cheating problem that is unquestionably possible to prove. People are able to complete their segments at record speeds not even possible in a car to get top place in those standings. They are able to traverse distances or elevations not even possible in machines accessible to the normal person to top the standings in monthly challenges. Some of this is unintentional, due to fitness device GPS confusion, but a lot of it is not. Data just don’t, and definitely can’t, match up like with lower than even regular cadence in running point to point distances, resulting in multiple blocks per stride.
A Life Without Challenges Is A Life Wasted
The story of your life is, well, a story. How interesting would that story be if its protagonist, you, had no challenge to overcome? Would it be a story you would want to tell? Would you feel good about telling it? What did you live for if you had no challenge to overcome?
Do You See the Future of Tech This Way?
President Obama recently outlined six huge challenges he saw to the tech industry via Wired Magazine. Today, six of the tech industry’s leaders answered back in a very insightful article:
- Tim O’Reilly on tackling inequality
- Chris Dixon on strengthening cybersecurity
- Mark Zuckerberg on ensuring that artificial intelligence helps rather than hurts us
- Yasmin Green on keeping terrorists from using technology to plot and do harm
- Mary Barra on developing tools that will take climate resilience and clean energy mainstream
- Satya Nadella on making it easier for citizens to participate in their government
Digital Citizen 