ERIC KIM

12 Creative Suggestions for You

Some pragmatic creative ideas for you:

  1. Spend some time in the mountains, buy a pair of Vibram five fingers shoes, and go on fun spirited walks upon elevated surfaces for fun.
  2. Buy the newest iPad Pro, currently the iPad Pro with M2 chip, do not buy cellular, do not get the big one, just get the small one. Also, no stupid keyboard or Apple Stylus. No case. Just get the medium storage, and practice going on walks with it, and practice using voice dictation to type out things, just use the built in microphone icon in the bottom left of the keyboard, for the iPad.
  3. Download and purchase the zen brush 2 app, the Procreate app, and use it as a fun opportunity to experiment making calligraphy, or abstract images. Do not think of photo realistic things, just use your camera for that. Instead, think like Matisse and Picasso, make things cubist, abstract, and unintelligible. Sketch like a child.
  4. If you want to become more creative, leave the house without your phone. Turn off your iPhone, leave it in the house, or put it in a drawer. When you go on creative walks, just take along your Ricoh GR 3X digital camera, your iPad Pro, and maybe your GoPro.
  5. Embrace plain text and mark down. Use the iA Writer app to jot out your thoughts.
  6. Invest money to get a faster Internet connection at home. Fiber optic, gigabit, is ideal. Currently, there are still lots of problems with upload speeds and processing times for 4K video and 5K video. Yet, I think it will be the wave of the future. Therefore he who has a faster Internet connection will get a competitive advantage.
  7. If you write a lot, and if you’re a scholar, or you do a lot of writing, get a kinesis ergonomic keyboard. I bought it for around 300 bucks almost a decade ago, and Cindy has used it well to write her dissertation and hundreds of articles. cindyanguyen.com for her academic stuff.
  8. Keep your downloads folder and your desktop clean. As a pragmatic habit, I always clear out the downloads folder and the desktop for my MacBook Pro laptop. Why? The more files you can delete, the more mental space you could free up to create new things. In fact, the best way to become more creative is to stop being a digital hoarder. It is funny because we criticize our parents for hoarding onto all this random crap in their basement or garage is, yet we hoard or digital files like there is no tomorrow. Deleting files is more robust than creating new ones.
  9. Drink more green tea. Why is it that Zen Buddhist monks drink so much green tea? My thought is perhaps there is a positive synergetic effect of green tea for thinking, meditation, and creativity. While I am still a hard-core coffee drinker, the pragmatic thought is limit your coffee consumption to first thing in the morning, and in the mid day or afternoon, just switch to green tea. Therefore you could harness best of both worlds. I never trust these pseudo-woke people who say that they’re giving up coffee because it is bad for you or whatever. I believe in life you could have your cake and eat it too. Harness the hybrid of the best of both worlds. Once again, strong black coffee first thing in the morning, and switch to green tea the rest of the day. I have been recently drinking a lot more green tea here in Hadong South Korea, and apparently there is also going to be a big green tea festival and world convention here next year. Experiment more with green tea, my suggestion is if you’re a hard-core coffee drinker, make the green tea superduper strong and concentrated, and enjoy the nice umami mouth feel to it.
  10. Throw around heavy rocks. There is definitely a hybrid between physical activity and creative thinking. That is, the more you can get your blood pumping and veins popping, the better. For example, some of my most creative thoughts actually happen in the gym, when I am trying to hype myself up before attempting a new one repetition maximum lift for deadlift or squat. No music. When you listen to music, it crowds out your own creative thinking. Be one of the elite lifters at the gym who can lift weights without the crutch or aid of music. In fact, having to force yourself to crowd out distracting noise in the gym actually has a focusing effect. Some distractions and background noise is good for you.
  11. Tomorrow is never: seize today. Better to do a poor or bad or shitty job today, than to never do it.
  12. Think digital: there is still this loser mentality that somehow analog is superior to digital. In fact, I might be one of the few heretics who believe that digital is superior to analog. Why? Can you imagine if we didn’t use a digital smart phone, and tried to use an analog phone instead? Also, we all love Apple, Tesla Elon Musk etc. yet we still have this backwards thought about analog things? Currently speaking, the most superior and supreme automobile on planet earth is certainly a Tesla model S plaid. To have a range of over 300 miles, and to go from 0 to 60 in 1.99 seconds is phenomenal. It is like owning your own personal rocketship, or jet fighter. The only reason why a loser would buy a Lamborghini, an Audi, a Porsche 911 GT 3 RS over a Tesla model S plaid is because they are trying to feel more sophisticated by giving fellatio to German design and German concepts. Nationally speaking, America is superior to Germany. Why do Americans still try to give head to German things?

Now what?

Have fun with things. Start your own blog, and start publishing blog posts. Make your own website, own your own digital domain, own yourself. 1and1.com, purchase your own domain name with your first and last name, or your first and last name photo, make sure to get a .com website, and install wordpress.org. Super easy. Owning your own website and domain is cheaper than a Spotify premium membership.

Also, just start uploading videos to YouTube. The other day I taught my mom how to create her own YouTube channel, simply by opening up the YouTube app on her iPad or iPhone, recording a video directly on her iPad or iPhone, and then uploading that video to YouTube. If my mom could do it, so can you.

Interview with my mom

Creative introspection

To think more about the philosophy behind your creativity, have a chat with Zen of Eric, why app? ERICKIMphotography.com/blog/why

Essentially, in order to stimulate more creative thoughts or deeper thoughts, ask yourself the question why? at least five times. Get into the root of things.

Stuff to buy

  1. GoPro hero 11 at GoPro.com
  2. iPad Pro M2 Chip at Apple.com
  3. Vibram five fingers shoes, either directly on the Vibram website or on Amazon.
  4. Ricoh GR 3X digital camera

Beyond this, I don’t think you really need to own anything else. Don’t buy the new iPhone Pro, get the iPad Pro instead.

Turbocharge your creativity

Become plaid. ERIC KIM WORKSHOPS in DOWNTOWN LA (Minimalism) and also HADONG SOUTH KOREA CREATIVE WORKSHOP RETREAT 2023 (Register intent here).

The best creative tools

HAPTIC INDUSTRIES:

  1. ERIC KIM WRIST STRAP MARK II
  2. ERIC KIM NECK STRAP MARK II

For books —

  1. CREATIVE EVERY DAY // DIGITAL
  2. MASTERS VOLUME 1 — DIGITAL
  3. HOW TO SEE DIGITAL

MORE HAPTIC PHOTO SUPPLY HERE: hapticindustries.com

Other random things on my mind:

  1. Why is it that South Koreans are apparently very anti-China mainland Chinese, yet mindlessly obey and follow Confucianism, which is essentially a Chinese concept?
  2. How to create a unique Korean design aesthetic? Koreans still see Japanese Zen and Wabisabi design as superior to their own. Perhaps South Koreans need to lean more into the traditional Korean architecture, and also traditional Korean concepts. More artwork in HANGUL, the Korean phonetic alphabet, rather than Han-JJA, the Sino Chinese Korean script.
  3. Why eat breakfast or lunch? Simply because you’re hungry? I say the night prior, in the evening at dinner time, try to eat at least 3 pounds of some samgyupsal pork belly, and I can guarantee you that you will not be hungry the next day.
  4. Hyundai Ioniq 6 is insanely epic. Probably the most innovative car design I’ve seen in a long time. If I had to lease a car, that would be it.
  5. Apple needs to work harder at getting South Koreans to buy iPhones. Especially the iPhone Pro. Why? Koreans love luxury goods, and they like to seem successful. The iPhone Pro, with the triple camera design in the back is a status symbol. There is really no reason for South Koreans to get Samsung phones anymore. Samsung phones suck. Rather, the only reason a South Korean would get a Samsung phone is that they get some sort of special deal from their telecom.
  6. Lululemon, and yoga should work harder to penetrate the South Korean market. Why? Most South Korean women understand that yoga is good, yet they don’t really have many opportunities to practice it, or display that they actually do it. If more South Korean women started wearing Lululemon tights, first of all, Lululemon would make a lot of money, and second, I think South Korean women will actually become healthier.

More thoughts on ERIC KIM BLOG: Erickimphotography.com/blog

Forward the ideas to a friend!

If this sparked any interesting creative thoughts within yourself, and you have a friend needing a little bit more creative motivation, feel free to forward this to them!

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Art is long, life is short – SENECA