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Comment by notesinthefield | Hacker News Reader

Why so many different devices? (Assuming this is the only reason there could be this much sprawl)

Device based strength tracking is still so weird to me.

Have you seen that meme template, where the midwit wants to use a thousand complicated things to optimize their experience, but the grug and the genius both keep it simple?

I think this is a perfect example... somewhere out there a genius and a grug are happily exercising together for the simple joy of doing so and feeling good in their bodies, and nearby is a midwit with the GDP of a small village worth of wearable electronics wondering where the joy has gone as he laments the 0.1% of VO2MAX he's dropped since his last gadget-run.

I haven’t trained for an Ironman but have for a marathon. I do think some metric oriented work is helpful! But I laughed at your post. Happy to see both sides.

In this case it might not be as complicated as it seems, they might be using a Polar device for workout tracking, Suunto for marathon training/hiking, a Garmin as daily watch (payments, music etc). Add to that a Withings scale and an iPhone, and you're dealing with a melting pot of apps.

Yeah that's exactly that: - Polar watch + Verity Sense for workouts / running - Garmin pedals / monitor for cycling - Withings for the scale And I had to integrate .fit file upload for Zwift / Trainerroad trainings.

Turns out you actually don't even need shoes

I'm a Polar fan, but unfortunately for cycling it's missing devices like the pedals power meter. Withings, only the scale with body measurements.

Then you have friends and family that don't have the same devices than you and are nice enough to want / try your app.

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