Aminah Aliu—Outlier 2021—Becoming a Data-Driven Learner

Becoming a Data-Driven Learner After investing time, energy, and even money into optimizing their productivity, people often hit a wall. What next...where does one turn when they know they haven’t reached their fullest potential, yet optimization and motivation have plateaued? That’s where the data comes in. This talk is for those–like me–who want out of the productivity hamster wheel in favor of a more focused approach to self-improvement. In this talk, you will hear about the experimental design I used to collect academic data and how that data can be used to generate specific avenues for self-improvement and optimization. More precisely, this talk focuses on how personal data can be used to improve the ways we consume information and learn from the educators around us. As a senior in high school, productivity is of utmost importance. How else would I be able fulfill the many roles I play in any given 24 hours: student, club leader, volunteer, college applicant, friend, and the list goes on. My interest in productivity has only been nurtured for the past four years, and as a student who has been in advanced STEM courses for many years, I approach life with the scientific method. It is crucial that conversation around self-improvement is addressed from a younger perspective because older generations often have the tendency of turning habits into identities and becoming set in their ways. My fresh perspective combined with salient and comprehensive data analysis is exactly what is needed to get people out of their ruts and on to fulfilling their fullest potential.