ERIC KIM

Straight Line Philosophy

Dear friend,

A practical life philosophy: live in a straight line.

Do you know what your (self-determined) life purpose is?

Processed with VSCO with a6 preset

What I mean to say is this:

Determine what your purpose in life is, and directly live your life to achieve that.

For example, you want to avoid distractions in life that take you off the path from achieving what you truly desire to achieve in life.

Let me give you some practical ideas:

  1. If your purpose in life is to philosophize; do it directly. Read philosophy, then write about your philosophical ideas on your blog and share it publicly.
  2. If your life’s purpose is to make beautiful pictures, use any free time you have to achieve that purpose. Don’t waste time to try to buy newer cameras (that you probably don’t need). Use the ‘shitty’ camera you already own to make good photos.
  3. Determine what is a distraction in your life, and ruthlessly cut it from your life #subtractthesuperfluous

Reduce kinks in the pipeline

If you know what your purpose in life is, reduce any kinks in the pipeline which helps you achieve that.

For example,

  1. I determined the reason why I like working out and lifting heavy stuff (deadlift) is in order to come up with new ideas to share and blog about. I figured this out by asking my new Facebook chat bot, “ZEN OF ERIC“. Thus, it doesn’t really matter how I workout — I just need to stress my muscles. I can do this by walking directly to the park and doing chin-ups or dips, or I can just do pushups at home. The less time I can spend commuting to the gym or working out, the better — because I can go into the DIRECT LINE of getting a “pump” from working out, which often sparks creative ideas inside me.
  2. One of the reasons why I like shooting with a phone is this: You can shoot, edit, and post-process your pictures easily all inside your smartphone (using VSCO), then directly upload it to your website or blog.
  3. If anyone is holding you back from flying to the heavens, ruthlessly cut them from your life. This means if you got negative or toxic folks in your life, be brutal. Cut them from your life. I cut my dad from my life, and this has been one of the best things I’ve ever done in life.

Mandrel Bent vs Crush Bent

bend

Flow of energy and ideas: Reduce kinks.

When I was really into modding my 1991 Sentra SE-R (with the legendary 2.0L SR20DE engine), I had the option between a 2.5 inch ‘crush bent’ or a 2.0 inch ‘mandrel bend’ exhaust. Essentially the concept was this:

In terms of exhaust flow, they are equivalent.

Why? The ‘crush bent’ exhaust was less effective at exhaust flow than the ‘mandrel bent’ exhaust (because the crush bent exhaust has more kinks in it).

The practical idea is this:

In your real life, reduce kinks or what obstructs your flow.

What obstructs your flow?

For myself,

  1. My flow is disrupted with emails, phone notifications, etc. Thus, I got rid of my phone, and I use email almost never.
  2. My flow is disrupted by worrying about money, finances, etc. Thus, I try to live as frugally as I can (my infamous ‘egg snacks‘ diet), and I direct all my energy towards studying, doing research, philosophizing, and making art (videos, photos, poetry, essays, music, etc).
  3. Commuting wastes my time. Thus, I will do my “content creation” at home, or at a local coffee shop (short drive).
  4. Jetlag obstructs my flow of work, thus I minimize international travel as much as humanly possible. When I do travel or live internationally and need to take a long flight, I try to maximize my time in that area.

Takeaways

Processed with VSCO with d2 preset
  1. Reduce friction
  2. Remove unnecessary movement (Japanese call this ‘muda‘–unnecessary movement, or no good // 無駄). Learn more on Muda, Muri, Mura (Toyota Way).
  3. Figure out why you really want to do something– then figure out how to best directly do it– straight line. For assistance, chat with ZEN OF ERIC Facebook Bot.
  4. Subtract the superfluous; ruthlessly prune distractions from your life!

FOCUS.
ERIC

Philosophy

Dictate your meaning and purpose in your life with ZEN OF ERIC:

Philosophical Essays

Masters of Philosophy »

Personal Philosophy »

Stoicism »

Zen Philosophy »

Life Lessons »

Learn more: Start Here >