I think one of the greatest notions which have entered our psyche is the notion of ‘streaming’.

When I think about streaming, I think about a flow of water. Taoism loves the idea of streaming (flowing like a stream of water). The Taoist notion of ‘wu-wei‘ is ‘action without action’ — not forcing yourself to work, yet you’re very productive.

And with photography, life, and everything digital-in-between; this ‘streaming’ philosophy is what under-pins our modern lives.

A visual stream of images

For myself, I thought the end-game of photography was to create a portfolio of timeless images, and once I achieved this masterful perfection I would be able to ‘retire’ and reap the rewards of becoming a master photographer.

Now I’m starting to realize this deeper truth:

Perhaps the point is to never stop shooting and to never stop streaming images.

What this means is that a single photograph is just another molecule in the stream of water. It means we shouldn’t hold unto our photos; we need to let the photos and images continually flow. The point ain’t ‘perfection’ nor is the point to create something which is ‘timeless’. The point is to continually stream images from your visual well-spring.

Never stop sharing

Life is more fun when we share.

When you have certain life experiences, thoughts, ideas, or when you create artwork — of course you want to share this with others!

Generally speaking, we share our experiences with social media (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat). We keep streaming our life-experiences with others with these platforms. Yet the problem is that we are starting to stream our lives in order to gain more followers and likes, instead of sharing the pure joy we have for life.

Thus the question is this:

Are you streaming your life with others in order to gain likes/followers, or for you to share your personal happiness for the sake of it?

Never stop learning, evolving, and becoming stronger

Another simple principle:

Life is more fun when we never stop learning, growing, evolving, and becoming stronger.

We easily adapt to anything and everything. We adapt to the gear we own, we adapt to our lifestyles, we adapt to the food we eat, we adapt to the money in our bank account, we adapt to sensory pleasures (hedonic treadmill/adaptation), etc.

But what don’t we adapt to? Our creations. Thus perhaps a good direction to our lives is to never stop learning, never stop creating, and to never stop living! Perhaps this is the ‘optimal‘ way to live our lives.

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There are no ultimate truths

I don’t believe there are any ultimate truths in philosophy/life. Thus perhaps the goal should be to never stop learning, to never stop challenging ourselves, and to never stop seeking DEEPER ideas/DEEPER truths.

I like to call this notion ‘truthiness’. Truthiness means in philosophy there aren’t any ultimate truths, but there are certain DEGREES of truth in life.

Furthermore, all truths are in flux, changing, and never static. Thus as a knowledge-seeker, you’re constantly swimming in the stream of knowledge/information/truths in the world. And your job is to remain a shark: never stop swimming.

STREAM ON!

ERIC