A friend sent me a link to a Real Age calculator which takes you through a series of simple-to-answer questions and gives you insights to how old your body is actually functioning as and what your life expectancy is based on your answers. The thing I found interesting was that this calculator asked about 34 different factors that can contribute to your “real age” — talk about a comprehensive model. It covered everything from the typical health items (smoker, cholesterol, etc) to unexpected characteristics such as whether I am bald or not, whether I feel happy or not, how far I drive each year, etc.

I can image a day when it becomes more commonplace to use more comprehensive models for our decision making activities. The thing is there are a bunch of less-known factors which can alter outcomes in meaningful ways. In the application requirement world, we typically consider things like who is sponsoring the item, which user groups it is beneficial for, how much it will cost, etc. Unfortunately we don’t have well defined models for getting at some of the other unexpected but influential characteristics… is it “sexy” and fun, will it generate buzz, is it part of a critical process, etc.

Look, I’m an overweight guy and have been most of my life. If my life expectancy was based on just that factor, I should be on my deathbed by now. Fortunately, its more complex than that. So I like to know that my encroaching baldness and my happiness levels and many other things are other indicators of my “real age” so I can keep on going. Sure, I still need to lose weight but at least I won’t statistically keel over tomorrow.