Everyone wants to be happy, even our best friend Aristotle said it is the one thing that men seek for the sake of itself.
What what is happiness? I think I got the answer; walking is happiness. Any sort of life, lifestyle, lifestyle approach which allows you to maximize your walking is happiness.
Strategies
I cannot speak for most people, because I don’t have a “real job“. That is, I don’t have a workplace, an office, or a place I must typically commute to.
A simple thought that I had is if you have the option, spend extra money which affords you the privilege to walk. For example, I wonder if in fact, shelling out the extra thousand, 2000, 3000, 4000, $5000, maybe even $10,000 a month would be positively beneficial to give you the privilege of walking.
It seems that the modern-day strategy that people partake in is that they sacrifice time in foolish ways. They decide to live further out, further away from work, in the suburbs, which means that they must spend more time driving in order to get to their workplace, in order to have the privilege of having a bigger house, a cheaper house, a smaller mortgage, cheaper rent etc.
Enemies to happiness?
Being forced to be indoors against your own will, this is cruel.
Also, being forced to be stuck in a car, in a bus, in an Uber, even if you had your own private driver, this is cruel.
For example, I once read an interview with Jony Ive, this is when he was still at Apple, in which he would commute for almost 2 hours a day (one way, so 4 hours every day in total), going from a desirable area of San Francisco to the Apple office in Cupertino, having a private driver chauffeur him in his Bentley,and I suppose Jony would just be in the backseat, doing work on his iPhone, iPad, MacBook laptop, etc. If I was Joni and truly committed, I would not make this foolish decision. I would literally just rent a hotel or an apartment or a house literally right next to Apple campus, or who knows, be like Elon Musk and just sleep in a sleeping bag in the office.
However, if you were forced to be sedentary or sitting, for four hours a day, or five hours a day, even if you were the backseat of a Rolls-Royce, a Bentley, Lamborghini, a McLaren, whatever; would it be worth it? No. Even as a thought experiment, if you had a totally maxed out Tesla model S plaid, or a Tesla model X plaid, with 100% auto pilot, assuming the technology was flawless, and you could do other stuff while being autonomously driven around, would you still want to be forced to be sedentary, for 4-5 hours a day? No.
Can happiness be purchased?
You cannot buy happiness. You can buy insanely great coffee, ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE, 100% fine robusta which physiologically speaking, will give you a marvelous happiness bump and boost, but ultimately, beyond coffee, happiness cannot be bought.
Things that money can do which can assist you and aid you in happiness include,
Using your money to buy a gym membership, or a yoga, CorePower membership
Using your money to buy beef and meat, either at Costco or the Costco Business Center. I recommend the beef ribs, or the beef tri-tip!
Using your money to pay for rent closer to your workplace, which allows you to have a 100% walking pedestrian lifestyle.
Having a situation which allows you to work outside, outdoors, without having to be stuck indoors or inside an office.
Buy an iPad Pro, the 11 inch smaller one, no accessories. The ultimate photo viewing device, and productivity device, it has brought me 1000 times more joy than any iPhone.
Physiology for the sake of what?
There’s a strange bias in today’s world that we have to somehow maximize our productivity, in order for the sake to work more, contribute more to society, “make a difference“. For example, the modern-day notion of going to the gym and working out and exercising, the only thought is this:
It is critical for you to exercise daily, because it will make you healthy and healthier, in order for you to keep working more.
The reason why this line of thinking is so twisted is that it is for the sake of maximizing your work capacity, not your own personal happiness. Man is not permitted to be happy for the sake of being happy.
Happiness is also a flawed end goal
The other day, I was so insanely happy, maybe a 50 out of 10. But at the end of the day, happiness is a bit inconsequential. For me what is more critical is having the opportunity, physiological energy to pursue my creative tasks. Whether it be reviewing my photos, writing and blogging, thinking, producing knowledge, sending out email newsletters, etc.
A cool trend I see is the trend towards philosophy. Why? This is what I think:
“Self development” is just philosophy in (modern day capitalistic) disguise.
And what do I mean by this? Ultimately any sort of business, self development book is centered around a certain philosophy. And the book typically preaches some sort of strategy and technique in order to achieve that philosophical end.
Don’t be a dummy.
In life, there is no such thing as virtue, or sin, vice. To me, it is all about wisdom, knowledge, becoming less foolish, and “not being a dummy.”
I like the word dummy, because it is not so serious. For example, we joke around with kids to not be a dummy. Maybe this is a better path for us.
You should start your own philosophy blog
Oh and today’s world of ChatGPT, AI assisted writing, the question,
How do you know if something was written by ChatGPT, or a real human being?
For the most part you can’t. However, anything written by ERIC KIM passes the Turing test. Why? The way I talk is non-standard, the way I write is genuine, and ultimately I think the future of writing and thinking is predicated around philosophy. That is, there is already enough information and wisdom on the Internet on how to do anything. But not much information on why do XYZ. Or, should we do XYZ.
For example, I firmly believe that if your goal is to become superhuman, eating beef and meat is critical. But I philosophical question is should we eat beef and meat? Even if it is bad for the planet?
For example, if someone tells me, “Eric, you shouldn’t eat meat because it is bad for the planet“. But what if I say, “I know that eating meat is bad for the planet, but eating beef is best for me. So I don’t care.” Is one permitted to talk like this? This is the task and role of philosophy and ethics.
Hygiene?
The etymology of hygiene, in ancient Greek is the art of health.
In modern day times, hygiene as a concept has fallen out of vogue. Why? In the states, a lot of the modernized westernized world, we take it for granted. There is regular trash pick ups, we have clean albeit not too tasty running tapwater, and mostly clean air. And also, most foods we buy or eat, whether it be at the grocery store or a restaurant will not cause us food poisoning.
Food hygiene is very underrated as a concept. We moderns prefer tasty or good tasting food, we don’t really care much for hygiene anymore.
Hygiene as a metaphorical or philosophical concept
Here is where I find hygiene critical; some people, mentally, physically or unwell, their mental hygiene is poor, and their physical physiological bodily hygiene is also probably poor. Used as a metaphor.
If you see weird homeless people on the street, cracked out, smelling bad, do you distain the way they act? No. You just keep your distance, and run away.
In the zone?
Another thing that I’ve discovered is when I’m in the zone, I get so focused on the task at hand that when other people say random maybe possibly demeaning stuff to you, I don’t even have to forcibly ignore them, I just literally can’t hear them, I hear them literally, but because I’m so focused at the task at hand, what they said or intended doesn’t upset me.
What does it even mean to be happy?
I was doing some research on the etymology of happy, and no one is really quite certain where that word comes from. There are certain theories, like “happen”— fortunate, happen chance, hap— chance, luck, fortune, hampa— good luck, chance, from Proto indo European *kob— which means good fortune, prophecy, to bend, bow, fit in, work, succeed.
So why does this matter?
It seems that nowadays, English is the dominant world language. And if we operate in a certain linguistic manner, perhaps the common day words we use should be used with more precision and clarity.
For example, John Stuart Mill, a lot of the early American developers preach notions of the “pursuit of happiness“. But the issue is, if you can’t even define happiness, or if the notion of happiness is a modern day one, then perhaps this is not a good goal or path.
I say instead of seeking to be “happy“, maybe it is better to seek to be strong, well, powerful, and in a great mood. It seems that also, one of my passions being thinking, having the opportunity and clarity of thought is supreme to me.
Now what?
I still think certainly at the end of the day, it is fine to use every day words colloquially. So for example, what contributes a great life to me?
First, artistic and creative productivity. To me this pertains to photography, both shooting and making photos, reviewing photos, enjoying my photos, sharing my photos, thinking about photos, and the aesthetic joy that I get from looking at my own photos.
Second, philosophical and thinking power; this means, I have a passion for thinking, and thinking interesting thoughts. A life without thoughts is not a life worth having.
Third, the health, strength, growth, and muscles of my family. This pertains to my son, and also my wife. And of course certainly myself. Other day I took Seneca to the jungle gym, and at two years seven months old, the pure undiluted joy that he gets from running across the suspension bridge and the jungle gym is pure bliss to me.
Also, witnessing his muscular development, and how much pride and joy that I get watching him eat 100% grass fed ground beef, in super mini burger patties for him, and also him eating while you thinly sliced meat that we buy from H Mart. Seeing Seneca consume beef, and building his muscles brings me great joy.
As a tangent, I think a lot of this modern-day notions of child development are skewed. Rather than trying to educate your kids, make them brain smart, I think a better goal and path is instead, to develop their muscles.
Seeking happiness towards what ends?
First and foremost, as biological beings, I think perhaps it is critical for us to first seek to be physically, physiologically strong and well. An optimization towards physiological well-being is a good one.
Why? It is the necessary path. Without physiological strength and well-being, you can’t do anything. For example, it doesn’t matter if you have $100 billion in the bank, if you are physically or physiologically unwell, if you only sleep two hours a night, if you have no muscles or hotspots in your body, Nothing can be done.
Willpower is not real. Muscle power is real.
Society living is the best living
What is the point of money? Having the privilege of being around other human beings. This, paying rent, and buying beef as well. But beyond this, the additional utility of money is slim; once you have your digital camera, your Internet Wi-Fi connection, your iPad Pro etc., what else do you need? Not much.
Think more with KIM
If you’re hungry to think more, deeper and further, think with me at one of my upcoming workshops:
If you’re having a hard time sleeping, my simple suggestion; start going to the gym at least once every single day, and use a hot sauna at least once a day, or really severe cases, go to the hot sauna twice a day.
One thing I found really interesting being in Japan, being at those random Japanese businessman hotels, or the wonderful Ryokans in Kyoto Uji, is at least in Japanese culture, the hot baths, are an integral part of their life and culture. That is, before they sleep, doing a really really hot bath is critical.
The same thing is in Korean culture, the jjim jjil bbang. Apparently in northern Scandinavian and Swedish countries, the really really hot sauna, whether it be dry or humid and steamy is also a critical part of their health.
According to the biological phenomenon hormesis, port duration of extreme heat and humidity is positively good for our physiological health and well-being.
I never really knew, but I suppose I have very strong opinions on homes and living quarters and situations. That means for the most part I hate ugly. I hate old and ugly danky dark, dim, and ghetto apartments, especially here in LA.
I have a theory:
Perhaps ugly aesthetics actually causes our physiological happiness and well being to go down.
What is ugliness? Anything which causes our physiological well being to go downwards.
For example, I think the reason why old and danky and ghetto apartments have such an adverse reaction to us is because they scream “hygenically dangerous”. Hygiene as “the art of health”.
For example, the dark and danky typically means moldy. Mold is a poison.
Thus, the simplest thing with homes, houses, condos, duplexes, town houses, flats, hotels, airbnbs, motels sleeping or living quarters etc:
Ensure there is no mold
No poor air circulation (good air circulation is nett we for our health)
Not dark and dim and danky (sunlight, the sun as the best disinfectant, and mold killer)
Not loud
Not dirty
Not old
Now what?
After my Ricoh GR IIIX died, I’ve just been using my LUMIX G9 and Leica LUMIX 12mm f1.4 Lens and it produces insanely beautiful photos! Downsides — insanely big and heavy, which is bad.
I want something insanely different
At this point, money is no concern for us.
In terms of innovative cameras, I’m trending towards the point and shoot, integrated flash department. For example,
Arsbeta.com — upload and share your best photos now!
What’s on my mind?
Still house apartment hunting in LA — checking out Culver City (downtown Culver City is insanely cool and walkable). Also going to check out Westwood and Sawtelle
Still backlogged around 7,000 photos on my LUMIX g9– on iPad Pro. Working on reviewing them!
Future photo innovations?
An AI-assisted Tool to help us cull down and curate our favorite photos.
Or an AI app thing that helps us automatically pick our best photos?
The other day when going to a ReStore, some sort of random secondhand furniture store, I stumbled upon one of the greatest finds of my life; about 900 pounds of steel; a shitload of 45 pound plates, neatly talked into a container, only $.50 a pound!
I think I counted it and it was around in total 14 45-pound plates, two 35-pound plates, two 10 pounder Rogue bumper plates, two 5 pounders, and two 2.5’ers.
This was such an insanely big deal for me because the last year or so I’ve been toying with this idea of creating and starting my own gym. But the big problem was this;
Getting access to steel plates, or any 45 pound plates is insanely expensive. The cheapest I could find on Amazon was around $90 for a single 45 pound plate!
The true cheapest option which a lot of commercial gyms do is get them produced in China at one of those mega industrial factories, and get them re-branded and shipped directly to the states but via cargo ship, on boat overseas. You can get a good price on this, but the big problem is that it just takes too long; you often have to wait several months before getting your package. And also you have to deal with international commerce which is always a little bit concerning when you’re dealing with credit card transactions, financial international exchanges etc.
Anyways, a thought on my mind:
Is it best for me to continue being the goat at the gym, and continue to keep going to the gym, having fun at the gym, keep making friends and making new friends, keeping in touch with friends and making new friends, hitting your personal records, enjoying the gym life, or, is it more interesting and better for me to start something epic and interesting myself?
I think the simple solution and answer is perhaps it is more important, or more interesting, or more critical to use this opportunity to start my own gym concept.
A movie that has made a massive impact on me is FIGHT CLUB. I read the book and watched the movie, I think I actually might prefer the movie. Why? Even though I like imagination blah blah blah, I like visuals.
There is something interesting that I’ve discovered about society;
The bias of how we “should” be versus how things truly are.
For example let me give you example, society, modern day society, notions of chivalry etc. says that if a man wants to attract women, he must be prim and proper, nice kind, and romantic and cartel to all of the desires of the woman.
However based on my true observations, it seems different; the best ways to be loud, rambunctious, some sort of wild untamed beast, happy, good eye contact, smiling etc.
You don’t need to drink beer
Another way to reprogram yourself; don’t drink beer, don’t grow facial hair or a beard or a mustache, don’t wear a hat, a trucker hat, don’t wear sunglasses, don’t drive a big ass car with limo tint, etc.
I think the funny new modern day bias in today’s society is everyone wants to feel dominant, without having to somehow engage with other human beings. Therefore, people always hide behind something; once again people hide behind the tint in their cars, when they’re out in public they hide behind sunglasses, a hat, they hide behind being antisocial etc.
I would say instead, the better goal is to be insanely friendly, insanely cordial, and also insanely kind.
Making money?
What is money? The current thought I have about money is that it is like some sort of legal tender for debt, both private and public.
For example, the other day I critically looked at a $100 bill, after not having looked at cash money for a long time, and I was extremely discerning and read all of the text on it. It read:
This note is legal tender for all debts, both private and public.
There are many theories behind money, debt being one of them.
When we do entrepreneurial things, create businesses, become self-employed, start selling or services and products etc., what are we doing? Technically we’re not making money, assuming that money has to do with that. Instead it seems that we are doing something else; creating new sources of value.
What is value?
What is value? Value comes from valere which means strong. Colloquially, value means that which we care for, what we have heart for.
A simple approach to things in life is simply create things which we value, put yourself on the other side;
How do you know if something has value or not? Use yourself as your own litmus test; that means, if it has value to you, assuming that you used yourself as your own barometer, there is a high likelihood that it will have value for others.
How do you know? Simple; assuming that there are 7 billion people on the planet, 300, million Americans plus, and you’re using the Internet, or website a blog some sort of Ford facing platform, certainly there will be at least one human being on planet earth who will drive value from what you create and share.
I think for myself, ultimately one of my greatest passions is thinking and thoughts. And also health. But the question is this; how does one actually think better, and also, towards what ends?
1. Outside?
Whenever I wake up, it is typically a slow start. It takes a while to get my thoughts going.
Typically I start off the day with ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE, and I permit myself to have as many shots of espresso as I would like. I keep taking shots until I feel good.
Then I actually think the more critical component is just going outside, going outside in the direct sun, getting direct UV exposure, to the direct sun and the direct light. Some theories:
First, I have a theory that man is not that different from plant, except we move quicker. Let us consider how plants and flowers bloom when the sun is out, and the shrivel when there is no sun.
There’s a funny saying amongst gardeners that the most critical thing to grow plants is lots of love, sunlight, water, and good soil. I wonder if the same applies to humans?
The question is how much sun is enough sun? And how long should we be outside? I say just follow your gut; it is just a feeling. If I haven’t had enough time outdoors, I spend more time outdoors. But if my skin is starting to hurt because the sun is starting to get too strong on my skin, I just go inside.
2. Your skin is the most important organ?
Another thought on health; I’ve discovered that actually, it seems that the best indicator of health is skin. That is, you could determine the health of somebody just by looking at the quality of their skin.
Also one thing that I’ve learned from one of my doctor friends, a past workshop student is that the best way to determine how old somebody is, to look at their hands. You can get lots of cosmetic surgery on your face and other parts of your body, but typically the hands tell all.
Even common gym dwellers; even though they may spend all day in the gym, and get impressive muscles and physique, typically bodybuilders before they get ready for a competition they either go out in the sun, and sunbathe a lot, or they get these fake dark brown spray tans to accentuate their muscles. But what I actually think what they’re trying to do is trying to show that they’re healthy by getting a fake spray tan.
This is tricky because there is a dosage issue here; too much time in the sun causes your skin to wear too quickly. If you are a poor migrant worker, and do not have any protective covering when you’re in the sun all day, your skin will age poorly. So there’s a fine line here; you don’t want to be the typical office worker or tech worker who is simply stuck indoors all day, without access to adequate sun or sunlight.
In fact, even going to some of the most elite shopping malls and places and looking at other humans, it is actually very rare that you could see somebody with healthy looking real skin, with healthy skin and a healthy tan.
Even a lot of people, I think they would look more beautiful if they spent more time outdoors in the direct sun, without a shirt on, getting a good tan.
3. Physical activity, walking and moving
Nietzsche one said, ”Trust no thought which doesn’t come to you while walking outdoors!” Also, don’t trust any thoughts while you are sitting. He had a funny Latin pun, in which the only sin against the Holy Spirit was sitting on your ass.
The last few days and week, I’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time driving in a car, and I’ve been away from the gym for about five days. As a consequence, I actually literally feel my ligaments, tendons, sinews, and body atrophying. My theory is that when you spend a lot of time sitting or sedentary, there is not as much an opportunity for your body to bear the weight of your body on your hips, your back, your knees, ankles feet etc. Therefore literally any time spent sitting is bad for you.
My personal theory on happiness is that happiness is walking. Any life or lifestyle which promotes walking is the greatest blessing.
4. Thinking and thoughts for the sake of what?
One of the greatest things on my mind is that ultimately, what is the point in desired end of thinking and thoughts?
The first of the hugely pragmatic one; often your thoughts manifest your desires and motivators etc.
For example, if you’re always thinking about money, making more money, buying that new car, etc., then your real life activities will manifest in wasting lots of time to trying earn more money. But, what if a more effective approach instead would be to think; what is my personal philosophy of money? What do I want money for, what is the meaning of money, is this a worthwhile goal for me? And or how much time should I devote to trying to earn money? Also, how much money is enough?
Even Seneca once said,
What if right now, you already have too much money?
Nobody ever thinks this! Even back in ancient Roman times.
5. Ultimately, it comes down to philosophy?
Currently speaking, the most worshiped thing is business, economics, entrepreneurship, capital, capitalism, production, producerism, consumerism, media, or money and money accumulation.
However, perhaps a more interesting thing to consider is that philosophy is more critical.
For example, Elon Musk. Tesla and SpaceX. The underlying philosophical question is; should we strive to go to Mars or become an intergalactic species? Because in theory, I think if we took all the world resources, human talent and effort to create spaceships and stuff, we probably could do it.
Also with Tesla; the philosophical question is should we produce, drive, and operate electric cars? Certainly the execution of producing electric cars and putting them into existence is more difficult, but the first philosophical question is, should we do this?
6. What we eat, how we eat?
Currently speaking, my new favorite food may be beef intestines, specifically, large beef intestines. The other night Cindy and I went to our favorite all you can eat Korean barbecue restaurant, and after sampling and eating all of the foods, I think my personal favorite was the large beef intestine. It is so insanely rich, it feels like you’re eating liquid gold. Similar and akin to bone marrow. Maybe even better than beef liver?
I personally believe this to be critical. Why? I think a lot of the modern day philosophies on diet and nutrition is nonsensical. Example there is a strange quantification of calories, protein, carbs, sugar, etc. But I think maybe a more interesting thought is trying to be more critical about the substances we consume.
For example, let us say that we broke down beef intestines into a certain quantified measure, and compared it and measured it to some sort of fake vegetable supplement. Would it yield the same thing? No.
Or another example; is eating 4 pounds of ribeye beef steak equivalent to eating 4 pounds of pea protein powder a day? Assuming that the grammage of protein was the same? No.
My personal thought on the anti-meat conspiracy is that ultimately it comes down to economics; meat is not efficient. It spoils to quickly, it’s not shelf stable, and also doesn’t yield great profit margins.
Also, this strange modern day trend we have towards “animal rights“; for example, animals, pets, dogs and cats have just become another consumer item. For example, getting that pug or Shiba Inu is almost like buying a new Louis Vuitton bag, or a Cartier watch. Also social media; for the most part everyone likes cute dogs and pets and animals. They don’t really offend anybody.
7. Take on the sun!
I thought while weightlifting and taking on things, I think my only enemy is the sun and physics!
It is so funny because just other day, I remember Southern California being so cold during the cruel winter. Now the sun is insanely hot, even I can barely take it. Now I understand why people wear baseball caps; it keeps the top of your forehead from burning, and also gives you a little bit better visibility when looking into the distance.
This is also another plus one for Tesla solar, or Tesla in general; if you could indeed harness all the power from the sun and convert into electricity energy, we’re set.
8. Think Beyond
To think beyond and look beyond — the generalized idea I have is that life is too short for the petty and inconsequential. Perhaps the greatest thing we could do it is to think beyond, and look beyond, which means, only grant yourself the privilege of attempting monsters of a task, things that the normal human being would not even think of or attempt!
For example, as I write these words it is currently the year 2023. Just three years ago, before all this Covid stuff happened, it was the year 2020. This was supposed to be an insanely important and pivotal year; the future.
Yet, we are still falling into the same memes, the same modes of living, the same boring old stuff. Why not attempt to look beyond, and become beyond?
9. Becoming the uberman
What is the time modern day man deserves to become? A beast, a monster, something else?
Why not just drive to become man? The most glorious and peak and over notion of a man?
Thus, my current life task and direction is becoming my own over man, the uberman as Nietzsche says.
Ignore what all of this nonsense call modern day advice on food; just look at what the ancient Greek heroes ate. Bone marrow, oxen.
10. Sleep
The last critical ingredient is sleep. Sleep is the ultimate tonic; even the gods sleep.
Throughout the day if you’re tired, the most effective thing to do is just take a nap. Also ironically enough, if you’re tired, don’t drink coffee. I think coffee ironically should be done this way:
Only drink coffee when you feel good.
During the day, if you’re tired, just take a nap! Power Nap or turbo nap.
Also, one of the best ways to deal with insomnia is simple; hit the hot sauna at least once or twice a day. Just go to your local gym membership place and do it there, or sign up for some sort of hot yoga, CorePower, local studio etc.
I think for myself, ultimately one of my greatest passions is thinking and thoughts. And also health. But the question is this; how does one actually think better, and also, towards what ends?
1. Outside?
Whenever I wake up, it is typically a slow start. It takes a while to get my thoughts going.
Typically I start off the day with ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE, and I permit myself to have as many shots of espresso as I would like. I keep taking shots until I feel good.
Then I actually think the more critical component is just going outside, going outside in the direct sun, getting direct UV exposure, to the direct sun and the direct light. Some theories:
First, I have a theory that man is not that different from plant, except we move quicker. Let us consider how plants and flowers bloom when the sun is out, and the shrivel when there is no sun.
There’s a funny saying amongst gardeners that the most critical thing to grow plants is lots of love, sunlight, water, and good soil. I wonder if the same applies to humans?
The question is how much sun is enough sun? And how long should we be outside? I say just follow your gut; it is just a feeling. If I haven’t had enough time outdoors, I spend more time outdoors. But if my skin is starting to hurt because the sun is starting to get too strong on my skin, I just go inside.
2. Your skin is the most important organ?
Another thought on health; I’ve discovered that actually, it seems that the best indicator of health is skin. That is, you could determine the health of somebody just by looking at the quality of their skin.
Also one thing that I’ve learned from one of my doctor friends, a past workshop student is that the best way to determine how old somebody is, to look at their hands. You can get lots of cosmetic surgery on your face and other parts of your body, but typically the hands tell all.
Even common gym dwellers; even though they may spend all day in the gym, and get impressive muscles and physique, typically bodybuilders before they get ready for a competition they either go out in the sun, and sunbathe a lot, or they get these fake dark brown spray tans to accentuate their muscles. But what I actually think what they’re trying to do is trying to show that they’re healthy by getting a fake spray tan.
This is tricky because there is a dosage issue here; too much time in the sun causes your skin to wear too quickly. If you are a poor migrant worker, and do not have any protective covering when you’re in the sun all day, your skin will age poorly. So there’s a fine line here; you don’t want to be the typical office worker or tech worker who is simply stuck indoors all day, without access to adequate sun or sunlight.
In fact, even going to some of the most elite shopping malls and places and looking at other humans, it is actually very rare that you could see somebody with healthy looking real skin, with healthy skin and a healthy tan.
Even a lot of people, I think they would look more beautiful if they spent more time outdoors in the direct sun, without a shirt on, getting a good tan.
3. Physical activity, walking and moving
Nietzsche one said, ”Trust no thought which doesn’t come to you while walking outdoors!” Also, don’t trust any thoughts while you are sitting. He had a funny Latin pun, in which the only sin against the Holy Spirit was sitting on your ass.
The last few days and week, I’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time driving in a car, and I’ve been away from the gym for about five days. As a consequence, I actually literally feel my ligaments, tendons, sinews, and body atrophying. My theory is that when you spend a lot of time sitting or sedentary, there is not as much an opportunity for your body to bear the weight of your body on your hips, your back, your knees, ankles feet etc. Therefore literally any time spent sitting is bad for you.
My personal theory on happiness is that happiness is walking. Any life or lifestyle which promotes walking is the greatest blessing.
4. Thinking and thoughts for the sake of what?
One of the greatest things on my mind is that ultimately, what is the point in desired end of thinking and thoughts?
The first of the hugely pragmatic one; often your thoughts manifest your desires and motivators etc.
For example, if you’re always thinking about money, making more money, buying that new car, etc., then your real life activities will manifest in wasting lots of time to trying earn more money. But, what if a more effective approach instead would be to think; what is my personal philosophy of money? What do I want money for, what is the meaning of money, is this a worthwhile goal for me? And or how much time should I devote to trying to earn money? Also, how much money is enough?
Even Seneca once said,
What if right now, you already have too much money?
Nobody ever thinks this! Even back in ancient Roman times.
5. Ultimately, it comes down to philosophy?
Currently speaking, the most worshiped thing is business, economics, entrepreneurship, capital, capitalism, production, producerism, consumerism, media, or money and money accumulation.
However, perhaps a more interesting thing to consider is that philosophy is more critical.
For example, Elon Musk. Tesla and SpaceX. The underlying philosophical question is; should we strive to go to Mars or become an intergalactic species? Because in theory, I think if we took all the world resources, human talent and effort to create spaceships and stuff, we probably could do it.
Also with Tesla; the philosophical question is should we produce, drive, and operate electric cars? Certainly the execution of producing electric cars and putting them into existence is more difficult, but the first philosophical question is, should we do this?
6. What we eat, how we eat?
Currently speaking, my new favorite food may be beef intestines, specifically, large beef intestines. The other night Cindy and I went to our favorite all you can eat Korean barbecue restaurant, and after sampling and eating all of the foods, I think my personal favorite was the large beef intestine. It is so insanely rich, it feels like you’re eating liquid gold. Similar and akin to bone marrow. Maybe even better than beef liver?
I personally believe this to be critical. Why? I think a lot of the modern day philosophies on diet and nutrition is nonsensical. Example there is a strange quantification of calories, protein, carbs, sugar, etc. But I think maybe a more interesting thought is trying to be more critical about the substances we consume.
For example, let us say that we broke down beef intestines into a certain quantified measure, and compared it and measured it to some sort of fake vegetable supplement. Would it yield the same thing? No.
Or another example; is eating 4 pounds of ribeye beef steak equivalent to eating 4 pounds of pea protein powder a day? Assuming that the grammage of protein was the same? No.
My personal thought on the anti-meat conspiracy is that ultimately it comes down to economics; meat is not efficient. It spoils to quickly, it’s not shelf stable, and also doesn’t yield great profit margins.
Also, this strange modern day trend we have towards “animal rights“; for example, animals, pets, dogs and cats have just become another consumer item. For example, getting that pug or Shiba Inu is almost like buying a new Louis Vuitton bag, or a Cartier watch. Also social media; for the most part everyone likes cute dogs and pets and animals. They don’t really offend anybody.
I think for myself, entrepreneurship is in my veins. It is my passion, my lust, my personal interest, that which I am the most passionate about.
I think this is the great glory and gratitude and joy of America, being born in America, etc. Essentially the gist is that in America, you could do anything, become anything, create anything, attempt anything.
In America the nuance is that success or “making it“ is not guaranteed or promised. In fact, in America, the only privilege you have is the freedom to attempt something, not to succeed.
How does this matter?
Several things to consider;
First, you are alive, and one day you will die.
Second, it seems that a lot of life is personal preferences, and also, you have the power to dictate a certain type of lifestyle approach.
For example, we all have certain preferences, and to some degree we can control where we want to live, what kind of work to do, what to spend money on, what not to spend our money on, etc.
I think the biggest thing in modern day times is in regards to media. The reason why I discourage any sort of consumption of watching of sports is that it is essentially prostituted athleticism.
Let us consider why we like to watch sports. Essentially what it is is we get a second hand adrenaline high from watching and consuming sports.
I think the best visual that I have is from battle Angel Alita, the manga comic, in which in this dystopic future, we can get a first hand, POV of other athletes fighting racing and doing other dangerous things. Essentially we literally put ourselves in the shoes of others.
Unstoppable!
Perhaps a good way to visualize things or how to think about it is this; there is a certain desired outcome that you have, and, there might be a certain things which get in your way.
But is this true?
I think not.
For example, I think the big problem is in today’s world, we simply don’t know what we want in life. The reason why I innovated Zen of Eric, or the why app is essentially a means to encourage people to think more critically about their desired outcomes in life.
It seems that a great downside of modern day times and living is that we believe that we must kowtow to some sort of other foreign authority. That we are not permitted to become our own authority.
For example, now that I critically think about it, maybe studying too much Taoism, zen, stoicism has been detrimental to myself.
I think aesthetically, to read philosophy is almost like reading practical and pragmatic philosophy. But ultimately we shouldn’t take things too literally.
Also another strange bias; in modern day times we are indoctrinated that reading more books is more better for us. That is, to read 1000 pages a day is considered virtuous.
However what I believe in is the opposite. Perhaps actually we should read less, walk more, think more, contemplate more, go to the gym more frequently, use the hot sauna more, drink more fine robusta, lift more, one rep max more, etc.
Why thoughts, innovation is critical
I think the problem in modern-day society, America, most of the westernized world, capitalism and consumerism is that we have to purchase happiness, well-being, innovation etc. For example, I’m a huge fan of Tesla Musk, Tesla, electric cars, car culture design, aesthetics etc.
I think the reason why critical thinking is so useful is that it cut to the chase.
For example, a lot of people desire or lust after a certain car; a Mercedes-Benz AMG wagon, a Porsche GT3 RS, a certain model of Tesla, Ferrari Lamborghini etc. Often times people spend an inordinate amount of time thinking and considering these things whereas maybe the best timesaver is this:
What if I just took all of that time effort and money and just invested in my self in my own body, perhaps this would give me more happiness?
For example, the other day while househunting in LA, I walked down Rodeo Drive with Seneca, and trolled around Beverly Hills a bit, and I realize that in regards to cars, everyone is just following the same old memes.
Also a fun trick; instead of looking in the car, look really hard at who the driver is.
For example the typical trope I see is that a lot of these high powered big SUVs are driven by women with sunglasses on, or a lot of these convertible sports cars with the top down is driven with men for balding, old, often over-fat.
So the funny thing is in regards to cars, when we see impressive cars, the question is this:
Do you desire the car, or find the car fascinating? Or do you desire to become the person who is driving the car?
Most people are unwell. Most people have poor health, even people who go to the gym every single day. Health can be characterized by many things, some of it is mental health, some of it is physical health, but ultimately all of it is physiological. That is, happiness joy and health cannot exist outside of your human body.
I personally believe in a “mortal” soul. That is, we all have a soul, which is essentially a metaphorical configuration of the blood, sinews, electric impulses, DNA, everything which is contained within this 3-D wire mesh which we call our human body. When we die our soul dies with us.
How are people unwell? People are unwell in regards to many things;
A lot of modern day people do not spend enough time outside, in the direct elements, in the direct sun. Therefore I wonder if a lot of people are lacking melanin in their skin.
A lot of people have weak legs, thighs, calves, hips, back, shoulders, feet. Even guys who go to the gym every single day, my simple heuristic is first to look at their legs and then look at everything else. If a man does not have calves or thighs or legs which resemble the Farnese Hercules, write them off.
The modern day mode of living is bad; too much time sitting, while sitting in a car stuck in traffic, sitting at a desk at the office, even a standing desk is bad in so far much as you’re stuck in a static position. Even a walking standing desk treadmill desk is bad in so far much as the movement is too regular; a more optimal thing is perhaps walking in some sort of uneven terrain, like walking in some sort of park or natural place with random tree roots bulging out etc., maybe just walking around with your iPad Pro and voice dictating your thoughts. Or just doing work on your iPhone.
I think the modern day man, or even woman can be characterized as some sort of sick animal; domesticated, caged, both literally and metaphorically, and are essentially like little battery pods in the Matrix, in which metabolic energy is extracted for driving consumerism.
Over consumption of sugar, fake sugars, strange beverages, and anemic plants. For example, in terms of beverages, I truly believe that the best approach is to just stick to water, plain tapwater or filtered tap water is fine, and black coffee with nothing added to it. I prefer EK COFFEE, straight up. I don’t drink any sort of alcohol, no beer, no wine, no whiskey, no spirits, nothing weird and foreign. I don’t even smoke weed or do drugs.
What do I desire to do?
Currently speaking, there are a lot of things on the chopping block:
Coffee innovation: it seems that in modern-day times, most adults drink coffee every single day, often several times a day. I think it is actually one of the things which is the most overlooked; we are not critical about the coffee we consume, we just simply treat it as a thing that gives us more power and energy. Yet perhaps we should become more discerning; everyone seems to be obsessed about health, but how come nobody ever talks about health in regards to coffee? ERIC KIM OMAKASE FINE ROBUSTA as the first step.
Diet health and fitness; I believe this to be really really critical; I’ve been obsessed with diet health and fitness ever since I was a fat kid, a fat kid at 11 and 12 years old in Bayside Queens New York. Now at the age of 35, being born in 1988, I’ve experimented and gone through a lot of the exercise fads, food fads, etc. Why is diet health and fitness so critical? I think people want to feel good, to feel strong, abundant, healthy and strong. It seems that the most critical thing then to consider is this trifecta. What do you eat and what you don’t eat, what you drink and what you don’t drink, what you consume and you don’t consume, when to eat, how much to eat, went to stop eating, went to start eating, etc. For example my recent visit to LA, going to Erewhon etc — LA people simply do not look well. They think it is “healthy“, to consume strange juices, and also don’t eat enough meat. It seems that nowadays the big moneymaker is beverages; some sort of miracle tonic, which promises a lot, but ultimately had some sort of fake sugar added to it. Also the reason why you should not trust a lot of these beverages which have “zero sugar added” is that they just put another strange chemical in it, which taste sweet. My personal theory is that even zero calorie sweeteners make you fat, because when your body senses or taste something sweet, your body will excrete insulin, which is one of the precursor to fat storage.
Weight lifting approaches — my one rep max atlas lift as example. Fitness is also another huge industry, and I think a lot of people follow fitness regimens like sheep. This is why I don’t trust anyone who does CrossFit, yoga, or any sort of standardized way of exercise. Also I don’t trust “powerlifters“, or “bodybuilders“; a more robust term to use is weightlifter. Why? My joy and passion is simply lifting weights, I consider it very fun and enjoyable and interesting and thrilling. A lot of these other categories follow some sort of strange approach and regimen.
Innovative thinking, philosophy; I think at the end of the day, what a lot of people desire is discovering some sort of deeper meaning in life. This means, philosophy is the way.
I’m super pumped to announce my first, insanely unique INTRODUCTION TO STOICISM WORKSHOP. This workshop is limited to only three passionate individuals, and it will take place in downtown LA, December 2, 2023. If you’ve been curious about learning more about stoicism, or deepening your philosophical inquiry to life, this workshop is for you!
Also, I am very excited to go back to Philly, October 14th! Cindy is going to Philly for a conference, and concurrently I will also teach a CONQUER STREET PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP there!
Also, November 4th I am also teaching a DISCOVER YOUR CREATIVE MISSION IN LIFE WORKSHOP in DOWNTOWN LA, NOVEMBER 4th. If you want to turbo charge your creativity and artistry, this workshop is for you.
I encourage you to start your own blog! My new thought is don’t limit yourself by anything. Permit yourself to talk about anything and everything your heart desires.
For example for myself, my passion not only for photography, street photography, but philosophy, life, entrepreneurship, and everything in between.
I think for myself, entrepreneurship is in my veins. It is my passion, my lust, my personal interest, that which I am the most passionate about.
I think this is the great glory and gratitude and joy of America, being born in America, etc. Essentially the gist is that in America, you could do anything, become anything, create anything, attempt anything.
In America the nuance is that success or “making it“ is not guaranteed or promised. In fact, in America, the only privilege you have is the freedom to attempt something, not to succeed.
How does this matter?
Several things to consider;
First, you are alive, and one day you will die.
Second, it seems that a lot of life is personal preferences, and also, you have the power to dictate a certain type of lifestyle approach.
For example, we all have certain preferences, and to some degree we can control where we want to live, what kind of work to do, what to spend money on, what not to spend our money on, etc.
I think the biggest thing in modern day times is in regards to media. The reason why I discourage any sort of consumption of watching of sports is that it is essentially prostituted athleticism.
Let us consider why we like to watch sports. Essentially what it is is we get a second hand adrenaline high from watching and consuming sports.
I think the best visual that I have is from battle Angel Alita, the manga comic, in which in this dystopic future, we can get a first hand, POV of other athletes fighting racing and doing other dangerous things. Essentially we literally put ourselves in the shoes of others.
Unstoppable!
Perhaps a good way to visualize things or how to think about it is this; there is a certain desired outcome that you have, and, there might be a certain things which get in your way.
But is this true?
I think not.
For example, I think the big problem is in today’s world, we simply don’t know what we want in life. The reason why I innovated Zen of Eric, or the why app is essentially a means to encourage people to think more critically about their desired outcomes in life.
It seems that a great downside of modern day times and living is that we believe that we must kowtow to some sort of other foreign authority. That we are not permitted to become our own authority.
For example, now that I critically think about it, maybe studying too much Taoism, zen, stoicism has been detrimental to myself.
I think aesthetically, to read philosophy is almost like reading practical and pragmatic philosophy. But ultimately we shouldn’t take things too literally.
Also another strange bias; in modern day times we are indoctrinated that reading more books is more better for us. That is, to read 1000 pages a day is considered virtuous.
However what I believe in is the opposite. Perhaps actually we should read less, walk more, think more, contemplate more, go to the gym more frequently, use the hot sauna more, drink more fine robusta, lift more, one rep max more, etc.
Why thoughts, innovation is critical
I think the problem in modern-day society, America, most of the westernized world, capitalism and consumerism is that we have to purchase happiness, well-being, innovation etc. For example, I’m a huge fan of Tesla Musk, Tesla, electric cars, car culture design, aesthetics etc.
I think the reason why critical thinking is so useful is that it cut to the chase.
For example, a lot of people desire or lust after a certain car; a Mercedes-Benz AMG wagon, a Porsche GT3 RS, a certain model of Tesla, Ferrari Lamborghini etc. Often times people spend an inordinate amount of time thinking and considering these things whereas maybe the best timesaver is this:
What if I just took all of that time effort and money and just invested in my self in my own body, perhaps this would give me more happiness?
For example, the other day while househunting in LA, I walked down Rodeo Drive with Seneca, and trolled around Beverly Hills a bit, and I realize that in regards to cars, everyone is just following the same old memes.
Also a fun trick; instead of looking in the car, look really hard at who the driver is.
For example the typical trope I see is that a lot of these high powered big SUVs are driven by women with sunglasses on, or a lot of these convertible sports cars with the top down is driven with men for balding, old, often over-fat.
So the funny thing is in regards to cars, when we see impressive cars, the question is this:
Do you desire the car, or find the car fascinating? Or do you desire to become the person who is driving the car?
Most people are unwell. Most people have poor health, even people who go to the gym every single day. Health can be characterized by many things, some of it is mental health, some of it is physical health, but ultimately all of it is physiological. That is, happiness joy and health cannot exist outside of your human body.
I personally believe in a “mortal” soul. That is, we all have a soul, which is essentially a metaphorical configuration of the blood, sinews, electric impulses, DNA, everything which is contained within this 3-D wire mesh which we call our human body. When we die our soul dies with us.
How are people unwell? People are unwell in regards to many things;
A lot of modern day people do not spend enough time outside, in the direct elements, in the direct sun. Therefore I wonder if a lot of people are lacking melanin in their skin.
A lot of people have weak legs, thighs, calves, hips, back, shoulders, feet. Even guys who go to the gym every single day, my simple heuristic is first to look at their legs and then look at everything else. If a man does not have calves or thighs or legs which resemble the Farnese Hercules, write them off.
The modern day mode of living is bad; too much time sitting, while sitting in a car stuck in traffic, sitting at a desk at the office, even a standing desk is bad in so far much as you’re stuck in a static position. Even a walking standing desk treadmill desk is bad in so far much as the movement is too regular; a more optimal thing is perhaps walking in some sort of uneven terrain, like walking in some sort of park or natural place with random tree roots bulging out etc., maybe just walking around with your iPad Pro and voice dictating your thoughts. Or just doing work on your iPhone.
I think the modern day man, or even woman can be characterized as some sort of sick animal; domesticated, caged, both literally and metaphorically, and are essentially like little battery pods in the Matrix, in which metabolic energy is extracted for driving consumerism.
Over consumption of sugar, fake sugars, strange beverages, and anemic plants. For example, in terms of beverages, I truly believe that the best approach is to just stick to water, plain tapwater or filtered tap water is fine, and black coffee with nothing added to it. I prefer EK COFFEE, straight up. I don’t drink any sort of alcohol, no beer, no wine, no whiskey, no spirits, nothing weird and foreign. I don’t even smoke weed or do drugs.
What do I desire to do?
Currently speaking, there are a lot of things on the chopping block:
Coffee innovation: it seems that in modern-day times, most adults drink coffee every single day, often several times a day. I think it is actually one of the things which is the most overlooked; we are not critical about the coffee we consume, we just simply treat it as a thing that gives us more power and energy. Yet perhaps we should become more discerning; everyone seems to be obsessed about health, but how come nobody ever talks about health in regards to coffee? ERIC KIM OMAKASE FINE ROBUSTA as the first step.
Diet health and fitness; I believe this to be really really critical; I’ve been obsessed with diet health and fitness ever since I was a fat kid, a fat kid at 11 and 12 years old in Bayside Queens New York. Now at the age of 35, being born in 1988, I’ve experimented and gone through a lot of the exercise fads, food fads, etc. Why is diet health and fitness so critical? I think people want to feel good, to feel strong, abundant, healthy and strong. It seems that the most critical thing then to consider is this trifecta. What do you eat and what you don’t eat, what you drink and what you don’t drink, what you consume and you don’t consume, when to eat, how much to eat, went to stop eating, went to start eating, etc. For example my recent visit to LA, going to Erewhon etc — LA people simply do not look well. They think it is “healthy“, to consume strange juices, and also don’t eat enough meat. It seems that nowadays the big moneymaker is beverages; some sort of miracle tonic, which promises a lot, but ultimately had some sort of fake sugar added to it. Also the reason why you should not trust a lot of these beverages which have “zero sugar added” is that they just put another strange chemical in it, which taste sweet. My personal theory is that even zero calorie sweeteners make you fat, because when your body senses or taste something sweet, your body will excrete insulin, which is one of the precursor to fat storage.
Weight lifting approaches — my one rep max atlas lift as example. Fitness is also another huge industry, and I think a lot of people follow fitness regimens like sheep. This is why I don’t trust anyone who does CrossFit, yoga, or any sort of standardized way of exercise. Also I don’t trust “powerlifters“, or “bodybuilders“; a more robust term to use is weightlifter. Why? My joy and passion is simply lifting weights, I consider it very fun and enjoyable and interesting and thrilling. A lot of these other categories follow some sort of strange approach and regimen.
Innovative thinking, philosophy; I think at the end of the day, what a lot of people desire is discovering some sort of deeper meaning in life. This means, philosophy is the way.
Everyone wants to be happy, even our best friend Aristotle said it is the one thing that men seek for the sake of itself.
What what is happiness? I think I got the answer; walking is happiness. Any sort of life, lifestyle, lifestyle approach which allows you to maximize your walking is happiness.
Strategies
I cannot speak for most people, because I don’t have a “real job“. That is, I don’t have a workplace, an office, or a place I must typically commute to.
A simple thought that I had is if you have the option, spend extra money which affords you the privilege to walk. For example, I wonder if in fact, shelling out the extra thousand, 2000, 3000, 4000, $5000, maybe even $10,000 a month would be positively beneficial to give you the privilege of walking.
It seems that the modern-day strategy that people partake in is that they sacrifice time in foolish ways. They decide to live further out, further away from work, in the suburbs, which means that they must spend more time driving in order to get to their workplace, in order to have the privilege of having a bigger house, a cheaper house, a smaller mortgage, cheaper rent etc.
Enemies to happiness?
Being forced to be indoors against your own will, this is cruel.
Also, being forced to be stuck in a car, in a bus, in an Uber, even if you had your own private driver, this is cruel.
For example, I once read an interview with Jony Ive, this is when he was still at Apple, in which he would commute for almost 2 hours a day (one way, so 4 hours every day in total), going from a desirable area of San Francisco to the Apple office in Cupertino, having a private driver chauffeur him in his Bentley,and I suppose Jony would just be in the backseat, doing work on his iPhone, iPad, MacBook laptop, etc. If I was Joni and truly committed, I would not make this foolish decision. I would literally just rent a hotel or an apartment or a house literally right next to Apple campus, or who knows, be like Elon Musk and just sleep in a sleeping bag in the office.
However, if you were forced to be sedentary or sitting, for four hours a day, or five hours a day, even if you were the backseat of a Rolls-Royce, a Bentley, Lamborghini, a McLaren, whatever; would it be worth it? No. Even as a thought experiment, if you had a totally maxed out Tesla model S plaid, or a Tesla model X plaid, with 100% auto pilot, assuming the technology was flawless, and you could do other stuff while being autonomously driven around, would you still want to be forced to be sedentary, for 4-5 hours a day? No.
Can happiness be purchased?
You cannot buy happiness. You can buy insanely great coffee, ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE, 100% fine robusta which physiologically speaking, will give you a marvelous happiness bump and boost, but ultimately, beyond coffee, happiness cannot be bought.
Things that money can do which can assist you and aid you in happiness include,
Using your money to buy a gym membership, or a yoga, CorePower membership
Using your money to buy beef and meat, either at Costco or the Costco Business Center. I recommend the beef ribs, or the beef tri-tip!
Using your money to pay for rent closer to your workplace, which allows you to have a 100% walking pedestrian lifestyle.
Having a situation which allows you to work outside, outdoors, without having to be stuck indoors or inside an office.
Buy an iPad Pro, the 11 inch smaller one, no accessories. The ultimate photo viewing device, and productivity device, it has brought me 1000 times more joy than any iPhone.
Physiology for the sake of what?
There’s a strange bias in today’s world that we have to somehow maximize our productivity, in order for the sake to work more, contribute more to society, “make a difference“. For example, the modern-day notion of going to the gym and working out and exercising, the only thought is this:
It is critical for you to exercise daily, because it will make you healthy and healthier, in order for you to keep working more.
The reason why this line of thinking is so twisted is that it is for the sake of maximizing your work capacity, not your own personal happiness. Man is not permitted to be happy for the sake of being happy.
Happiness is also a flawed end goal
The other day, I was so insanely happy, maybe a 50 out of 10. But at the end of the day, happiness is a bit inconsequential. For me what is more critical is having the opportunity, physiological energy to pursue my creative tasks. Whether it be reviewing my photos, writing and blogging, thinking, producing knowledge, sending out email newsletters, etc.
A cool trend I see is the trend towards philosophy. Why? This is what I think:
“Self development” is just philosophy in (modern day capitalistic) disguise.
And what do I mean by this? Ultimately any sort of business, self development book is centered around a certain philosophy. And the book typically preaches some sort of strategy and technique in order to achieve that philosophical end.
Don’t be a dummy.
In life, there is no such thing as virtue, or sin, vice. To me, it is all about wisdom, knowledge, becoming less foolish, and “not being a dummy.”
I like the word dummy, because it is not so serious. For example, we joke around with kids to not be a dummy. Maybe this is a better path for us.
You should start your own philosophy blog
Oh and today’s world of ChatGPT, AI assisted writing, the question,
How do you know if something was written by ChatGPT, or a real human being?
For the most part you can’t. However, anything written by ERIC KIM passes the Turing test. Why? The way I talk is non-standard, the way I write is genuine, and ultimately I think the future of writing and thinking is predicated around philosophy. That is, there is already enough information and wisdom on the Internet on how to do anything. But not much information on why do XYZ. Or, should we do XYZ.
For example, I firmly believe that if your goal is to become superhuman, eating beef and meat is critical. But I philosophical question is should we eat beef and meat? Even if it is bad for the planet?
For example, if someone tells me, “Eric, you shouldn’t eat meat because it is bad for the planet“. But what if I say, “I know that eating meat is bad for the planet, but eating beef is best for me. So I don’t care.” Is one permitted to talk like this? This is the task and role of philosophy and ethics.
Hygiene?
The etymology of hygiene, in ancient Greek is the art of health.
In modern day times, hygiene as a concept has fallen out of vogue. Why? In the states, a lot of the modernized westernized world, we take it for granted. There is regular trash pick ups, we have clean albeit not too tasty running tapwater, and mostly clean air. And also, most foods we buy or eat, whether it be at the grocery store or a restaurant will not cause us food poisoning.
Food hygiene is very underrated as a concept. We moderns prefer tasty or good tasting food, we don’t really care much for hygiene anymore.
Hygiene as a metaphorical or philosophical concept
Here is where I find hygiene critical; some people, mentally, physically or unwell, their mental hygiene is poor, and their physical physiological bodily hygiene is also probably poor. Used as a metaphor.
If you see weird homeless people on the street, cracked out, smelling bad, do you distain the way they act? No. You just keep your distance, and run away.
In the zone?
Another thing that I’ve discovered is when I’m in the zone, I get so focused on the task at hand that when other people say random maybe possibly demeaning stuff to you, I don’t even have to forcibly ignore them, I just literally can’t hear them, I hear them literally, but because I’m so focused at the task at hand, what they said or intended doesn’t upset me.
What does it even mean to be happy?
I was doing some research on the etymology of happy, and no one is really quite certain where that word comes from. There are certain theories, like “happen”— fortunate, happen chance, hap— chance, luck, fortune, hampa— good luck, chance, from Proto indo European *kob— which means good fortune, prophecy, to bend, bow, fit in, work, succeed.
So why does this matter?
It seems that nowadays, English is the dominant world language. And if we operate in a certain linguistic manner, perhaps the common day words we use should be used with more precision and clarity.
For example, John Stuart Mill, a lot of the early American developers preach notions of the “pursuit of happiness“. But the issue is, if you can’t even define happiness, or if the notion of happiness is a modern day one, then perhaps this is not a good goal or path.
I say instead of seeking to be “happy“, maybe it is better to seek to be strong, well, powerful, and in a great mood. It seems that also, one of my passions being thinking, having the opportunity and clarity of thought is supreme to me.
Now what?
I still think certainly at the end of the day, it is fine to use every day words colloquially. So for example, what contributes a great life to me?
First, artistic and creative productivity. To me this pertains to photography, both shooting and making photos, reviewing photos, enjoying my photos, sharing my photos, thinking about photos, and the aesthetic joy that I get from looking at my own photos.
Second, philosophical and thinking power; this means, I have a passion for thinking, and thinking interesting thoughts. A life without thoughts is not a life worth having.
Third, the health, strength, growth, and muscles of my family. This pertains to my son, and also my wife. And of course certainly myself. Other day I took Seneca to the jungle gym, and at two years seven months old, the pure undiluted joy that he gets from running across the suspension bridge and the jungle gym is pure bliss to me.
Also, witnessing his muscular development, and how much pride and joy that I get watching him eat 100% grass fed ground beef, in super mini burger patties for him, and also him eating while you thinly sliced meat that we buy from H Mart. Seeing Seneca consume beef, and building his muscles brings me great joy.
As a tangent, I think a lot of this modern-day notions of child development are skewed. Rather than trying to educate your kids, make them brain smart, I think a better goal and path is instead, to develop their muscles.
Seeking happiness towards what ends?
First and foremost, as biological beings, I think perhaps it is critical for us to first seek to be physically, physiologically strong and well. An optimization towards physiological well-being is a good one.
Why? It is the necessary path. Without physiological strength and well-being, you can’t do anything. For example, it doesn’t matter if you have $100 billion in the bank, if you are physically or physiologically unwell, if you only sleep two hours a night, if you have no muscles or hotspots in your body, Nothing can be done.
Willpower is not real. Muscle power is real.
Society living is the best living
What is the point of money? Having the privilege of being around other human beings. This, paying rent, and buying beef as well. But beyond this, the additional utility of money is slim; once you have your digital camera, your Internet Wi-Fi connection, your iPad Pro etc., what else do you need? Not much.
Think more with KIM
If you’re hungry to think more, deeper and further, think with me at one of my upcoming workshops:
If you’re having a hard time sleeping, my simple suggestion; start going to the gym at least once every single day, and use a hot sauna at least once a day, or really severe cases, go to the hot sauna twice a day.
One thing I found really interesting being in Japan, being at those random Japanese businessman hotels, or the wonderful Ryokans in Kyoto Uji, is at least in Japanese culture, the hot baths, are an integral part of their life and culture. That is, before they sleep, doing a really really hot bath is critical.
The same thing is in Korean culture, the jjim jjil bbang. Apparently in northern Scandinavian and Swedish countries, the really really hot sauna, whether it be dry or humid and steamy is also a critical part of their health.
According to the biological phenomenon hormesis, port duration of extreme heat and humidity is positively good for our physiological health and well-being.
I never really knew, but I suppose I have very strong opinions on homes and living quarters and situations. That means for the most part I hate ugly. I hate old and ugly danky dark, dim, and ghetto apartments, especially here in LA.
I have a theory:
Perhaps ugly aesthetics actually causes our physiological happiness and well being to go down.
What is ugliness? Anything which causes our physiological well being to go downwards.
For example, I think the reason why old and danky and ghetto apartments have such an adverse reaction to us is because they scream “hygenically dangerous”. Hygiene as “the art of health”.
For example, the dark and danky typically means moldy. Mold is a poison.
Thus, the simplest thing with homes, houses, condos, duplexes, town houses, flats, hotels, airbnbs, motels sleeping or living quarters etc:
Ensure there is no mold
No poor air circulation (good air circulation is nett we for our health)
Not dark and dim and danky (sunlight, the sun as the best disinfectant, and mold killer)
Not loud
Not dirty
Not old
Now what?
After my Ricoh GR IIIX died, I’ve just been using my LUMIX G9 and Leica LUMIX 12mm f1.4 Lens and it produces insanely beautiful photos! Downsides — insanely big and heavy, which is bad.
I want something insanely different
At this point, money is no concern for us.
In terms of innovative cameras, I’m trending towards the point and shoot, integrated flash department. For example,
Arsbeta.com — upload and share your best photos now!
What’s on my mind?
Still house apartment hunting in LA — checking out Culver City (downtown Culver City is insanely cool and walkable). Also going to check out Westwood and Sawtelle
Still backlogged around 7,000 photos on my LUMIX g9– on iPad Pro. Working on reviewing them!
Future photo innovations?
An AI-assisted Tool to help us cull down and curate our favorite photos.
Or an AI app thing that helps us automatically pick our best photos?
Marketing, Branding, Entrepreneurship Principles For SuccessMODERN PHOTOGRAPHER is your new philosophical and practical primer to succeed as a modern photographer in today’s digital world.
If you want a quality-education in street photography, I recommend either buying, borrowing, or browsing though some of the books below. Books that are bolded are some of my personal favorites.
If you’re starting in street photography, here is my free and open-source ‘MINI Street Photography Starter Kit’. For more inspiration and dopeness, see the full version: “Street Photography Starter Kit“.
Buy the full STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT >
Here are all of the free downloads available to you, with love:
Dear friend,
I want you to download me — download all these books, articles, and information for free– for you to remix it however you would like.
For you to use these images to illustrate blog posts. For you to look at these full-resolution images to analyze composition.
For you to use these free Lightroom presets to actually make your digital RAW photos look good.
For you to empower yourself. Because I think that information is power. Information is everything.
Information is money and control of the world (just consider that scene from the James Bond 007 Skyfall at the end of the film — the guy who controlled the information controlled the world).
With this information, you can learn how to conquer your fears, find more personal meaning in your photography and life, and seek to empower others through the art of photography.
All the information on this site, including photos, images, videos, articles, books, or text is free and open source– meaning you can do whatever you want with it.
You can remix it, translate it, or sell it for a profit.
The reason why I am doing this is to help empower you with information. And I feel that freedom is information, and power.
Be strong,
Eric
Eric Kim Blog Offline
If you plan on going on a flight, or going somewhere without internet access (and still want access to this blog), you can download this entire blog (offline, without images) as a 1.4GB (yes, very big) direct download. All you need to do is extract this .ZIP file, and open up ‘index.html’ to access the entire site. Have fun 🙂
Everyone wants to be happy, even our best friend Aristotle said it is the one thing that men seek for the sake of itself.
What what is happiness? I think I got the answer; walking is happiness. Any sort of life, lifestyle, lifestyle approach which allows you to maximize your walking is happiness.
Strategies
I cannot speak for most people, because I don’t have a “real job“. That is, I don’t have a workplace, an office, or a place I must typically commute to.
A simple thought that I had is if you have the option, spend extra money which affords you the privilege to walk. For example, I wonder if in fact, shelling out the extra thousand, 2000, 3000, 4000, $5000, maybe even $10,000 a month would be positively beneficial to give you the privilege of walking.
It seems that the modern-day strategy that people partake in is that they sacrifice time in foolish ways. They decide to live further out, further away from work, in the suburbs, which means that they must spend more time driving in order to get to their workplace, in order to have the privilege of having a bigger house, a cheaper house, a smaller mortgage, cheaper rent etc.
Enemies to happiness?
Being forced to be indoors against your own will, this is cruel.
Also, being forced to be stuck in a car, in a bus, in an Uber, even if you had your own private driver, this is cruel.
For example, I once read an interview with Jony Ive, this is when he was still at Apple, in which he would commute for almost 2 hours a day (one way, so 4 hours every day in total), going from a desirable area of San Francisco to the Apple office in Cupertino, having a private driver chauffeur him in his Bentley,and I suppose Jony would just be in the backseat, doing work on his iPhone, iPad, MacBook laptop, etc. If I was Joni and truly committed, I would not make this foolish decision. I would literally just rent a hotel or an apartment or a house literally right next to Apple campus, or who knows, be like Elon Musk and just sleep in a sleeping bag in the office.
However, if you were forced to be sedentary or sitting, for four hours a day, or five hours a day, even if you were the backseat of a Rolls-Royce, a Bentley, Lamborghini, a McLaren, whatever; would it be worth it? No. Even as a thought experiment, if you had a totally maxed out Tesla model S plaid, or a Tesla model X plaid, with 100% auto pilot, assuming the technology was flawless, and you could do other stuff while being autonomously driven around, would you still want to be forced to be sedentary, for 4-5 hours a day? No.
Can happiness be purchased?
You cannot buy happiness. You can buy insanely great coffee, ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE, 100% fine robusta which physiologically speaking, will give you a marvelous happiness bump and boost, but ultimately, beyond coffee, happiness cannot be bought.
Things that money can do which can assist you and aid you in happiness include,
Using your money to buy a gym membership, or a yoga, CorePower membership
Using your money to buy beef and meat, either at Costco or the Costco Business Center. I recommend the beef ribs, or the beef tri-tip!
Using your money to pay for rent closer to your workplace, which allows you to have a 100% walking pedestrian lifestyle.
Having a situation which allows you to work outside, outdoors, without having to be stuck indoors or inside an office.
Buy an iPad Pro, the 11 inch smaller one, no accessories. The ultimate photo viewing device, and productivity device, it has brought me 1000 times more joy than any iPhone.
Physiology for the sake of what?
There’s a strange bias in today’s world that we have to somehow maximize our productivity, in order for the sake to work more, contribute more to society, “make a difference“. For example, the modern-day notion of going to the gym and working out and exercising, the only thought is this:
It is critical for you to exercise daily, because it will make you healthy and healthier, in order for you to keep working more.
The reason why this line of thinking is so twisted is that it is for the sake of maximizing your work capacity, not your own personal happiness. Man is not permitted to be happy for the sake of being happy.
Happiness is also a flawed end goal
The other day, I was so insanely happy, maybe a 50 out of 10. But at the end of the day, happiness is a bit inconsequential. For me what is more critical is having the opportunity, physiological energy to pursue my creative tasks. Whether it be reviewing my photos, writing and blogging, thinking, producing knowledge, sending out email newsletters, etc.
A cool trend I see is the trend towards philosophy. Why? This is what I think:
“Self development” is just philosophy in (modern day capitalistic) disguise.
And what do I mean by this? Ultimately any sort of business, self development book is centered around a certain philosophy. And the book typically preaches some sort of strategy and technique in order to achieve that philosophical end.
Don’t be a dummy.
In life, there is no such thing as virtue, or sin, vice. To me, it is all about wisdom, knowledge, becoming less foolish, and “not being a dummy.”
I like the word dummy, because it is not so serious. For example, we joke around with kids to not be a dummy. Maybe this is a better path for us.
You should start your own philosophy blog
Oh and today’s world of ChatGPT, AI assisted writing, the question,
How do you know if something was written by ChatGPT, or a real human being?
For the most part you can’t. However, anything written by ERIC KIM passes the Turing test. Why? The way I talk is non-standard, the way I write is genuine, and ultimately I think the future of writing and thinking is predicated around philosophy. That is, there is already enough information and wisdom on the Internet on how to do anything. But not much information on why do XYZ. Or, should we do XYZ.
For example, I firmly believe that if your goal is to become superhuman, eating beef and meat is critical. But I philosophical question is should we eat beef and meat? Even if it is bad for the planet?
For example, if someone tells me, “Eric, you shouldn’t eat meat because it is bad for the planet“. But what if I say, “I know that eating meat is bad for the planet, but eating beef is best for me. So I don’t care.” Is one permitted to talk like this? This is the task and role of philosophy and ethics.
Hygiene?
The etymology of hygiene, in ancient Greek is the art of health.
In modern day times, hygiene as a concept has fallen out of vogue. Why? In the states, a lot of the modernized westernized world, we take it for granted. There is regular trash pick ups, we have clean albeit not too tasty running tapwater, and mostly clean air. And also, most foods we buy or eat, whether it be at the grocery store or a restaurant will not cause us food poisoning.
Food hygiene is very underrated as a concept. We moderns prefer tasty or good tasting food, we don’t really care much for hygiene anymore.
Hygiene as a metaphorical or philosophical concept
Here is where I find hygiene critical; some people, mentally, physically or unwell, their mental hygiene is poor, and their physical physiological bodily hygiene is also probably poor. Used as a metaphor.
If you see weird homeless people on the street, cracked out, smelling bad, do you distain the way they act? No. You just keep your distance, and run away.
In the zone?
Another thing that I’ve discovered is when I’m in the zone, I get so focused on the task at hand that when other people say random maybe possibly demeaning stuff to you, I don’t even have to forcibly ignore them, I just literally can’t hear them, I hear them literally, but because I’m so focused at the task at hand, what they said or intended doesn’t upset me.
What does it even mean to be happy?
I was doing some research on the etymology of happy, and no one is really quite certain where that word comes from. There are certain theories, like “happen”— fortunate, happen chance, hap— chance, luck, fortune, hampa— good luck, chance, from Proto indo European *kob— which means good fortune, prophecy, to bend, bow, fit in, work, succeed.
So why does this matter?
It seems that nowadays, English is the dominant world language. And if we operate in a certain linguistic manner, perhaps the common day words we use should be used with more precision and clarity.
For example, John Stuart Mill, a lot of the early American developers preach notions of the “pursuit of happiness“. But the issue is, if you can’t even define happiness, or if the notion of happiness is a modern day one, then perhaps this is not a good goal or path.
I say instead of seeking to be “happy“, maybe it is better to seek to be strong, well, powerful, and in a great mood. It seems that also, one of my passions being thinking, having the opportunity and clarity of thought is supreme to me.
Now what?
I still think certainly at the end of the day, it is fine to use every day words colloquially. So for example, what contributes a great life to me?
First, artistic and creative productivity. To me this pertains to photography, both shooting and making photos, reviewing photos, enjoying my photos, sharing my photos, thinking about photos, and the aesthetic joy that I get from looking at my own photos.
Second, philosophical and thinking power; this means, I have a passion for thinking, and thinking interesting thoughts. A life without thoughts is not a life worth having.
Third, the health, strength, growth, and muscles of my family. This pertains to my son, and also my wife. And of course certainly myself. Other day I took Seneca to the jungle gym, and at two years seven months old, the pure undiluted joy that he gets from running across the suspension bridge and the jungle gym is pure bliss to me.
Also, witnessing his muscular development, and how much pride and joy that I get watching him eat 100% grass fed ground beef, in super mini burger patties for him, and also him eating while you thinly sliced meat that we buy from H Mart. Seeing Seneca consume beef, and building his muscles brings me great joy.
As a tangent, I think a lot of this modern-day notions of child development are skewed. Rather than trying to educate your kids, make them brain smart, I think a better goal and path is instead, to develop their muscles.
Seeking happiness towards what ends?
First and foremost, as biological beings, I think perhaps it is critical for us to first seek to be physically, physiologically strong and well. An optimization towards physiological well-being is a good one.
Why? It is the necessary path. Without physiological strength and well-being, you can’t do anything. For example, it doesn’t matter if you have $100 billion in the bank, if you are physically or physiologically unwell, if you only sleep two hours a night, if you have no muscles or hotspots in your body, Nothing can be done.
Willpower is not real. Muscle power is real.
Society living is the best living
What is the point of money? Having the privilege of being around other human beings. This, paying rent, and buying beef as well. But beyond this, the additional utility of money is slim; once you have your digital camera, your Internet Wi-Fi connection, your iPad Pro etc., what else do you need? Not much.
Think more with KIM
If you’re hungry to think more, deeper and further, think with me at one of my upcoming workshops:
Everyone wants to be happy, even our best friend Aristotle said it is the one thing that men seek for the sake of itself.
What what is happiness? I think I got the answer; walking is happiness. Any sort of life, lifestyle, lifestyle approach which allows you to maximize your walking is happiness.
Strategies
I cannot speak for most people, because I don’t have a “real job“. That is, I don’t have a workplace, an office, or a place I must typically commute to.
However Cindy does.
A simple thought that I had is if you have the option, spend extra money which affords you the privilege to walk. For example, I wonder if in fact, shelling out the extra thousand, 2000, 3000, 4000, $5000, maybe even $10,000 a month would be positively beneficial to give you the privilege of walking.
It seems that the modern-day strategy that people partake in is that they sacrifice time in foolish ways. They decide to live further out, further away from work, in the suburbs, which means that they must spend more time driving in order to get to their workplace, in order to have the privilege of having a bigger house, a cheaper house, a smaller mortgage, cheaper rent etc.
Enemies to happiness?
Being forced to be indoors against your own will, this is cruel.
Also, being forced to be stuck in a car, in a bus, in an Uber, even if you had your own private driver, this is cruel.
For example, I once read an interview with Jony Ive, this is when he was still at Apple, in which he would commute for almost 2 hours a day, going from a desirable area of San Francisco to the Apple office in Cupertino, having a private driver show for him and his Bentley, and I suppose Johnny would just be in the backseat, doing work on his iPhone, iPad, MacBook laptop, etc.
However, if you were forced to be secretary or sitting, for four hours a day, or five hours a day, even if you were the backseat of a Rolls-Royce, a Bentley, Lamborghini, a McLaren, whatever; would it be worth it? No.
Can happiness be purchased?
You cannot buy happiness. You can buy insanely great coffee, ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE, 100% fine robusta which physiologically speaking, will give you a marvelous happiness bump and boost, but ultimately, beyond coffee, happiness cannot be bought.
Things that money can do which can assist you and aid you in happiness include,
Using your money to buy a gym membership, or a yoga, CorePower membership
Using your money to buy beef and meat, either at Costco or the Costco Business Center. I recommend the beef ribs, or the beef tri-tip!
Using your money to pay for rent closer to your workplace, which allows you to have a 100% walking pedestrian lifestyle.
Are having a situation which allows you to work outside, outdoors, without having to be stuck indoors or inside an office.
Dear friends, as I voice dictate these words into my iPad Pro, something that I am currently doing is using this opportunity to review my photos. The general gist is this; use an iPad Pro, 11 inch sure, no case no stylus no keyboard, and stand up. Be outside outdoors, and pinch in your photos to see your photos in which three photos fills your left to right columns. Imagine looking at like an old school contact sheet. See street photography contact sheets II and PDF DOWNLOAD. Also see volume 1, PDF DOWNLOAD.
Why does this matter, why is this so critical?
One big issue that I have is that there’s not enough time or hours in a day, or enough physiological energy for me to keep pace with reviewing my photos. One solution is going to the gym early in the morning, and then using the mid day to review my photos while Seneca sleeping. Had a great 850 pound rack pull, and after coming home and after napping Seneca, drinking some Eric Kim OMAKASE coffee, THE THINKER, the white bag, 100% fine robusta with white cherry notes.
I do think that freaking some insanely great coffee as a stimulus to motivate you to review your photos is a good one.
Also, even though the iPad is not perfect, I really truly do believe that the 11 inch iPad Pro, without any accessories, is the ultimate and perfect photo reviewing device.
Why? The upside is that you could look at your photos, as if you were holding them like a print. Not only that, you could be mobile while reviewing your photos, instead of being hunched over a computer or a desktop or laptop, even a standing desk is too static.
Another fun idea I have is review your photos at the gym. Just bring your iPad Pro with you to the gym, ask for the Wi-Fi, and review your photos while you’re there.
Why? I believe that going to the gym is more virtuous than going to a coffee shop. Just drink your ERIC KIM OMAKASE coffee at home, hit the gym, and just review your photos on your iPad, whether you be in the hot sauna, if you’re just stretching out on the gym floor, or in between sets. I have a theory that with a physiological pump, it also gives you a creative pump.
Why review your photos?
A thought experiment; if you could never review your photos, the photos that you shot, would you shoot them? Probably not.
And I still really really love shooting photos for the sake of shooting photos, but still at the end of the day, there’s a desire a strong desire for me to see the photos that I made, to share them and publish them, put them out there.
There is no “perfect” camera. Don’t fall into GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) and falsely believe that buying a new camera will make you a better photographer.
Of course this is just a list of stuff that work for me. It probably won’t work for you.
But I got inspired to make this list– because it took me about 10 years to figure out the best equipment for me. And this works for me, and I hope it can help simplify your purchasing decisions (at least in photography and some other details).
I’ll continue to do articles and videos related to equipment– because I do believe (up to a certain degree) having the ‘right’ equipment in life makes life easier. But the problem is falling victim to GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) where we are buying stuff for the sake of it (has happened to me).
If you already have a bunch of equipment that works for you– stick with it. But if you need some help, I hope this list helped you.
Dear friend, a thought on my mind; perhaps the best way to approach life is to consider our life goals, and also for us to become more critical and discerning on how to achieve those life goals.
For example, our creative life goals, and also, what we want to achieve in a single day, in a week, or our lifetimes.
For example, it seems at least for myself, the direction and path I desire is to always have higher numbers.
For example, when I consider my younger days when I was 16 years old, and I had my 1991 Sentra SE-R, 5 speed coupe, and the joy that I had was always changing the modifications and things on it, do you ever give it more horsepower, torque, improve performance, etc.
However, I was never interested in comparing my car with other people. In fact, I had deep pride in my car, and how unique it was. The Sentra SE-R, the B 13, a unique model built from 1991 to 1993, was practically unheard of, even when I was a teenager. Similar to performance to an old-school BMW M3, and superior performance to the Honda Civic SI, which was also very popular when I was a teenager.
It seems that nowadays, at least in cars and car culture, we are obsessed with having more horsepower, more performance points, etc. It seems that the traditional benchmark in holidays is to have the Tesla model S plaid, 1000+ horsepower etc. I think this is what drives us, both metaphorically and literally, for example the dodge hellcat, SRT, dodge challengers etc., everyone wants to have the mythical 1000+ horsepower. But a funnier life goal and path:
Maybe a better life goal is instead, to desire to lift 1000 pounds.
I am fairly certain that I should be able to atlas lift over 1000 pounds, within the next year or two. I find this to be an interesting pursuit, because the only things I require is courage and time. The courage to attempt it, and time.
Also, focus. I think focus is a critical part of the equation, as the criticality of focus is that before you attempt a certain lift, when you load up over 10 plates on the bar, you gotta focus. You must focus to channel all of your energy, guts, courage, chutzpah into that one single given moment.
Why? Several things. First and foremost, you must focus and hype yourself up in order to have the courage to even attempt it in the first place.
Second, you want to be successful. The courage necessary for the attempt is critical, but technically the desired outcome is to be successful. To succeed.
Truth be told I don’t really care for “failure“, that is not being successful. If I try a given day give it my all, even if I had supreme focus and I was not successful, it doesn’t bother me that much. I’ll just try again in a few days, in a week, and if I have a long enough runway, I know I will eventually be successful.
2. Time
The reason why I believe time to be a critical component is at least in the context of weightlifting, if you attempt a one rep max, consistently, at least once a week, every week, let’s say for 10 years straight, certainly you’ll get stronger in the long term.
Are having a more long-term vision towards the future is a good one. Why?
I’ll give you an example. This summer me Cindy and Seneca spent about a month and a half in Asia, about two weeks in Hadong South Korea, and about a month in Saigon Vietnam. Because I did not have my typical gym, I noticed that my strength went down a little bit, or at least my technique and familiarity went down a little bit. But ultimately in the long term vision of things, I was not really affected. Actually, within about a week of coming back, or two weeks of coming back, I’ve been able to hit greater personal records than I had before I left to Asia. For example my rack pull, before leaving I was able to do eight plates, 25, five, and a 2.5’er. But a few days ago, I was able to supersede that old personal record, by doing a plate and a 35, 845 pounds. Therefore, even though I was gone from the gym for about a month and a half, I was able to achieve a new personal record that was 5 pounds greater than I was before my trip.
Also my atlas lift. 970 pounds was my new personal record before my trip, and after my trip, I was a little bit concerned if I lost too much strength and chutzpah. But even though I am still jetlagged, and I am sure that my strength waned a bit, I’ll be able to hit a new personal record of 975 pounds. That is 5 pounds more than it was before!
Therefore my big suggestion life is this; maybe in terms of vision, it is good to think at the three month, six month, year, 1-3 year, five year, 10 year, 20-30 year spans.
For example, I remember after I graduated UCLA, and I was living in West LA, and there was a tiny Tesla showroom dealership in the area. This is when Tesla was still just the rebranded lotus car. This is one there was only a Tesla roadster. I think Tesla was already IPO’d public at the time.
I think the genius of Musk, Jeff Bezos, etc. is that their vision encapsulates very long periods of time.
For example, SpaceX. Or thinking about colonizing space and mars. Certainly we have to think at the decade, 20 year, 30 year, 40 year time span. To think short periods of time is not useful.
I think the reason why I enjoyed reading Invent and Wander by Jeff Bezos so much, which is just a collection of his shareholder letters is that it is clear that Jeff Bezos had at least a 30 year vision. For example with Amazon prime, it was seen as pure insanity. Now we just take it as an expected thing. Fortunately for myself, I still see Amazon prime as pure magic and phenomenal. The same thing goes with Uber, etc.
3. Photo time
A thought that I’ve been having recently, I love the gym, but in someways, going to the gym eats into my photography time. That is, time it takes me to review my photos, time it takes me to process my photos and upload them, or even time necessary for me to blog, write, send out email newsletters, do more website stuff, backend stuff, building websites, blogs, etc.
Time is a critical component. But the question is, how do we gain more time?
Technically you can’t gain more time in a given day, or even a single lifespan. Let us assume that the maximum possible human lifespan is 120 years, but more realistically it might be around 80 to 90 years. I personally aspire to live to 120 years old, but whether I will be successful or not is uncertain. Why? I don’t know if I will die traumatically in a car accident, if I catch some sort of random cancer or a disease, life is always uncertain. Therefore the consequence is in life, we must always be cautious, in terms of our time and our life.
The first thought I have is it is a good idea to be insanely discerning with your time in your life. That is, do not trade your time or your life for anything else what you do not consider important or critical to you. For example nowadays, the only thing I really care to do is my creative work, spend maximum time with Seneca, etc. Everything else doesn’t really matter to me anymore.
I think in life, focusing on innovation is a good one. Why? I believe the greatest boon to being American is our ethos of innovation.
4. Thinking beyond?
As humans, human beings, what is a good way to think about life in approach life?
I think a basic notion is to think beyond. Do you think beyond our small little bubble, or small town or city or county or state, or even our nation. It seems much more interesting to focus on the planet, the globe, etc.
I think one of the best things of traveling internationally is that it widens our perspective and worldview, that is, we can think bigger, more globally and beyond.
5. Mad max world
I think it is clear that climate, the world, weather temperature and other things are becoming weirder and weirder. My friend Seth calls this “global weirding”— the general idea is that certainly notions of “climate change“ and “global warming“ is too political and misleading. I think more robust concepts include pollution, and weird weather or climate patterns.
For example as I write these words, there is big news that this upcoming Monday or Tuesday there will be a massive hurricane in Southern California. I consider this very weird because currently they speak this, the sun is insanely bright and it’s close to 100° degrees Fahrenheit. That’s around 40°C.
I think currently we’re living in a Mad Max world. What I currently witness is this:
During the day, it is almost too bright, the sun is too strong to go outside in the direct sun. The only solutions include wearing a baseball cap, a wide brimmed hat, long pants and long sleeves, protect your skin.
For myself the heat doesn’t really bother me, but certainly if the UV radiation from the sun is too strong, you can’t really go outside.
I still prefer this insanely hot and bright and scorching sun weather over cold and damp and bone chilling, but still, the climate and the sun is brutal.
I was talking with some people, why California, why southern California, it seems that other states, the climate is not so good. For example Arizona Utah and Nevada, Las Vegas, Texas, Austin is almost too hot. Certainly the east coast has lots of great options, but for some reason people seem reticent to move to the East Coast.
Imagine living in the world in which the pollution and the sun and the climate is too unwelcoming outside. Then what do you do, just live in a mall for the rest of your life? Or live indoors for the rest of your life? Not desirable.
So my general takeaway point is given that climate, outdoors, the world outside everything is shitty, still make the best out of it!
6. Life philosophy?
It seems that the things which need to be beefed up is our thinking and our philosophy towards life, being alive, innovation and beyond. This will be the topic that we continue to work on.
Some new workshops I’m currently working on include a visual artist workshop, an introduction to stoicism workshop, etc. Stay updated on the workshops page or the newsletter.
