MILLION-DOLLAR BODY

Everyone wants the million dollar Ferrari … why not the million dollar body?

December 25, 2023

LA LOS ANGELES IS PHOTO AND LIFE PARADISE!

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
UPCOMING LUCAS MUSEUM OF NARRATIVE ARTS [STAR WARS LAND!!]
CALIFORNIA SCIENCE CENTER
STONEVIEW NATURE CENTER
KENNETH HANH NATIONAL PARK

Sooo much to do and see! Barely scratching the surface here;;

December 24, 2023

ERIC KIM PHOTOGRAPHY PHILOSOPHY: PHOTOLOSOPHY

VIDEO

THE PHOTO WISDOM OF ERIC KIM-

Here are selected quotes from Eric Kim’s philosophy on photography:

Photolosophy Course – Intro Transcript: “Photolosophy: no right or wrong. It’s your personal photography philosophy.”

Photolosophy – What is Photolosophy?: “Use photography as a tool to impress yourself; not others. Let us be like children, to have fun and joy in photography!”

Street Photography Confidence: “Don’t photograph others, as you don’t want others to photograph you.”

Street Photolosophy – Beauty in the Mundane: “The more we can find beauty in everyday life, the more inspired and grateful we will be about being alive!”

Street Photolosophy – Create Art for Mental Health: “Photography is a holistic process of finding more joy and happiness in the world!”

Street Photolosophy – Walking Meditation: “Treat street photography as a walking meditation; and clear your mind.”

Street Photolosophy – Everything is Editable: “Remember, everything is editable!”

Personal Photolosophy – Intro: “The more personal the photos are, the more authentic they are, and the more others can relate to them!”

Personal Photolosophy – Make Photos for Yourself: “Make photos to impress and please yourself; instead of pleasing others!”

Personal Photolosophy – Gratitude: “Photography helps us recognize what we are grateful for and what we love.”

Entrepreneurship Photolosophy – Empowerment: “Risk taking, and making a positive change in the world which is beyond yourself.”

Entrepreneurship Photolosophy – JUST DO IT: “There is no failure, only feedback.”

Entrepreneurship Photolosophy – How Much is Enough: “You only have joy when you’re making new photo projects and innovating as a photographer.”

These quotes encapsulate Kim’s emphasis on personal fulfillment, continual innovation, and the emotional impact of photography.

The philosophy of photography, as discussed by Eric Kim, covers a broad range of topics. It emphasizes finding personal meaning in photography, moving beyond the pursuit of social media likes to create photographs with personal significance. Key themes include seeing beauty in the mundane, using photography as a form of mental health therapy, and treating photography as a meditative practice. Additionally, Kim discusses personal photography as a form of self-expression and empowerment, and the concept of photography entrepreneurship, encouraging photographers to take risks and make a positive impact. The philosophy overall advocates for an introspective and innovative approach to photography, prioritizing personal fulfillment over external validation.

December 24, 2023

Street Photography IS Applied Visual Sociology

Street photography is just applied visual sociology!

Laughing lady Eric Kim street photography — Processed with VSCO with a1 preset

Quotes

Eric Kim’s quotes on the intersection of sociology and street photography highlight the role of sociological understanding in his approach to photography:

“Street photography is just applied sociology — with a camera. A visual sociology” oai_citation:1,The Sociology of Street Photography – ERIC KIM.

“I loved learning all of the ways that people interacted, communicated, and collected in groups. It really opened up my eyes to the world around me… all these things I have learned in Sociology… would apply so much to street photography” oai_citation:2,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.

“People react more similarly than dissimilarly when it comes to street photography” oai_citation:3,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.

“Most people when you take photos of them will at worst get upset, yell at you, and ask you to delete their photograph. Rarely do people become physical or confrontational, so shoot with confidence” oai_citation:4,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.

“When you shoot street photography in a group, your courage skyrockets” oai_citation:5,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.

“93% of communication was nonverbal… If you show via your body language that you are not threatening or harmful, people won’t suspect you when you are shooting on the streets” oai_citation:6,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.

“You can easily resocialize yourself into thinking the opposite—that you are doing a good thing by capturing the beauty of a person through street photography” oai_citation:7,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.

“Having a camera in your hand gives you authority and power… Speak confidently and with authority” oai_citation:8,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.

“Sometimes the meanest looking people can be the nicest” oai_citation:9,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.

“To become a better street photographer, it is crucial to have a community helping and supporting you” oai_citation:10,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.

“Street photography is a lot like swimming. You can read a hundred books on it, but until you jump into the water—you will never learn anything” oai_citation:11,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.

Through these quotes, Kim encapsulates how sociology informs and enhances his practice of street photography, providing insights into human behavior, communication, and societal norms.

Eric Kim’s perspective on the intersection of sociology and street photography is quite insightful. He views street photography as a form of applied sociology, using it as a medium to explore and understand human behavior and society. Here are some of his key thoughts:

Sociology’s Relevance to Street Photography: Kim acknowledges his sociology education as a significant influence on his street photography. He appreciates the insights gained from studying human interaction and group behavior, which he finds applicable to street photography oai_citation:1,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.

Similarities in Human Reactions: Traveling and shooting street photography worldwide, Kim observes that despite cultural differences, people’s reactions to street photography are more similar than dissimilar. This realization comes from his sociological understanding of human nature oai_citation:2,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.

Non-Confrontational Nature of People: Kim notes that people are generally non-confrontational, a concept he applies to street photography. He rarely encounters aggressive responses, even when shooting close to his subjects, which aligns with his sociological observations oai_citation:3,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.

Group Dynamics in Photography: Shooting in groups can build confidence in street photography. Kim explains that this is because people perceive the group as part of a class or project and are thus more receptive to being photographed oai_citation:4,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.

Importance of Non-Verbal Communication: He emphasizes that non-verbal communication, like facial expressions and body language, plays a crucial role in street photography, similar to its importance in sociology oai_citation:5,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.

Resocializing Perceptions: Kim discusses the idea of resocializing oneself against societal norms, such as the notion that taking photos of strangers is inappropriate. He encourages street photographers to adopt a positive mindset about their work oai_citation:6,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.

Authority and Photography: Reflecting on experiments like the Stanford Prison Experiment, Kim draws parallels to street photography, where holding a camera gives a sense of authority, influencing how subjects respond oai_citation:7,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.

Expecting the Unexpected: His experience in sociology experiments taught him that people’s reactions can be unpredictable, a lesson he finds valuable in street photography oai_citation:8,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.

Appearances vs. Reality: Kim has learned not to judge people based on appearances, a principle he applies in his photography, finding that sometimes those who look intimidating can be quite friendly oai_citation:9,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.

Community Importance in Photography: He stresses the importance of community in improving as a street photographer, advocating for constructive feedback and engagement with fellow photographers oai_citation:10,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.

Learning by Doing: Finally, Kim compares street photography to learning how to swim – emphasizing the importance of practical experience over theoretical knowledge oai_citation:11,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.

Through these reflections, Kim illustrates how sociology provides a framework for understanding and engaging with the world, significantly enriching his approach to street photography.

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December 23, 2023

First, seems that American people are suspicious of Jewish people because they don’t understand Jewish people –their customs their beliefs, their names their clothing, how they talk, their last names, cultural thoughts etc.

For example, Hanukkah. A menorah dreidel etc.… going to the temple? The average Christian, Catholic protestant in America has no idea what Judaism, being Jewish is all about.

I’m speaking from the perspective of being born and raised, baptized Roman Catholic, growing up in a liberal Korean American Catholic circle, and also later becoming Sunday school teacher and even Sunday school principal.

First, at least for Catholic people we don’t really care for Jewish people. We don’t really think about them, nor care, and we don’t criticize or critique them. We don’t even know who Jewish people are what they are, and we really don’t care.

I think for Christian protestants, Lutheran’s Baptists or whatever… also, they don’t really care about Jewish people that much either. There are more interested in leaving Jewish people alone, and trying to proselytize and convert more normal people into their protestant sect.

Catholicism is interesting because we are not rabid religious zealots. We are very tolerant actually; we allow other people to do as they please, even one hot fact that people don’t know, the Catholic Church is actually very open to the LGBTQ community, and being gay. The only thing that the Catholic Church doesn’t like is gay people having intercourse, as the Catholic Church believes the purpose of intercourse is for a man and a woman to get a child, which I get.

So who is anti-Jewish?

I think actually, the African-American community the “black” community is actually the ones who are anti-Jewish. Why? I think there actually is a history of exploitation or perhaps power dynamic issues between powerful and rich Jewish executives in the music rap industry and poor African-American aspiring rapper kids, who come from the hood.

I heard from this one cool African-American guy that I met who’s been to Nigeria Lagos and traveled a bunch and knows history told me that even a lot of the original jazz divas, jazz musicians, James Brown and all of that music was mostly bankrolled by Jewish media executives, even if you read Henry Ford’s anti-Semitic publication, the international Jew, there is actually a section on which it is mentioned that jazz is a Jewish phenomenon.

A funny thought:

Then is rap music, Jewish music?

Even Ben Horowitz, the great Silicon Valley entrepreneur and venture capitalist, who is also Jewish American, put out a rap album as a kid! Even apparently Kanye West has ties with Ben Horowitz.

Who doesn’t care?

So at least for Asians, Asian Americans, or the new elite rich Asians in Asia, they are unapologetically racist. Also, there is a strict caste system and hierarchy in Asia. Only poor slave like indentured people do the dirty work of sanitation and hygiene, sweeping and mopping at the mall, cooking food, taking care of kids, waiters and waitresses, working at coffee shop etc. The rich just lounge, hang out, drink coffee, wear luxury clothes, and want to be seen. Compare this to funny America where everyone thinks that kind of labor is beneath them — the notion of the benevolent virtue of “work, respect for one’s work” and “career”.

Why so many cultural clashes in America?

America is a very strange hodgepodge of things because in America, we are almost too multicultural.

For example, let us consider that essentially the first founding fathers of America were British people who didn’t like Britain, and fled. The early American settlers came to America and colonized America because it didn’t like the policies of the British monarchy and king, they were essentially the first troublemakers.

Fast forward to today, cultural vestiges of Quakerism, Protestantism, Benjamin Franklin and the protestant work ethic etc.… the new world order and ethos is towards capitalism. Like Kanye said:

White people make money don’t spend it. But I’d rather buy 80 gold chains and go ‘ignant’!

How people profit

One of my workshop attendees when I was in New York told me a funny Jewish or a Yiddish thing; one generation makes the money, the next generation conserves the money, the third generation spoils all the money, and thus, the cycle continues.

Jewish people just want to be left alone

I think the truth is Jewish people just want to be left alone, and like any good immigrant, they were actually very pro assimilation. For example Kirk Douglas, changed his last name because he wanted to “fit in” in Hollywood, and not be stigmatized for his Jewish background. His real name is Issur Danielovitdh. Doesn’t sound as catchy as a good simple “American” sounding name.

Kirk Douglas was the son of Jewish immigrants fro, Belarus, spoke Yiddish growing up and faced poverty and antisemitism early on.

Apparently Walt Disney was very anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish.

Even in today’s world, why is the modern-day American or person so anti-Jewish?

Just look at these podcasts, anybody who has anything bad to say about Jewish people. They tend to be weak, skinny, anemic, probably drink too much vegetable juice or green fruit juice or whatever, don’t eat enough meat, has too low testosterone.

I have a theory that actually, the higher your testosterone, the more tolerant and open minded you are. It seems only low testosterone men are the ones who blame others, hate, etc.

Scapegoating is a tactic of the weak, meek, powerless and castrated.

Solution ideas

First and foremost, I think everybody should do some sort of DNA test, DNA testing or whatever, and find out that their genetic heritage is actually more diverse than they thought it was. For example imagine if you are anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic, and you did a DNA test and you actually found out that you were part Jewish? Even the fun fact, people don’t want you to know this… Japanese people descended from Korean people and the Yayoi people — and also I think Korean people we descended from the Chinese Mongolians? And ultimately if you go back far enough we all came from Africa anyways.
I really do believe that ChatGPT 4, AI can actually make people more tolerant. Why? For example get the paid ChatGPT paid plus premium, and ask it “What are some common misconceptions about Islam“? Or, “What are some common misconceptions about Catholicism?” or, “what are some misconceptions about Judaism?”. To debunk conspiracy theories, myths, and other insane nonsense is critical.

It ain’t my fault you’re so poor!

A lot of people who talk about Jewish people owning the whole banking system international finance whatever, I think these individuals were complaining are because they themselves are poor, in poverty, or have financial problems, and once again they are looking for a scapegoat. Nobody likes to think:

Wow, perhaps I should go back to medical school, law school, become a doctor or lawyer, or do a coding Boot Camp, or go to community college and teach myself computer programming, and get a better pay job as a programmer, etc.

Why don’t people like to take responsibility of themselves?

I think the big issue here is that I don’t know if it is a learned behavior, a cultural behavior or something else?

One of the good things about the immigrant mentality is the ethos, which I think is a good one… That “if you work hard enough“, you will become successful“.

For example just watch fight club, do you remember that scene where Brad Pitt puts a fake gun with no bullets in the barrel against the kids head, telling him to go back to law school or doctor school or whatever? There were no bullets in the gun!

I think maybe the issue is if you were born in the states, to all occasion family, or maybe something else… And there hasn’t really been a history of struggle in your family or your life, there is this “learned helplessness” which occurs and happens.

Instagram, YouTube is to blame?

OK, if you spend too much time on Instagram, or read it, or Google, Wikipedia, YouTube etc.… Sooner or later you all fall into weird weird conspiracy theories.

In fact, my greatest shock is often, the most intelligent people that I know fall into the conspiracy theories.

For example one of my friends who is a PhD graduate from UC Berkeley, theorized that Kanye West was in fact, and the reason why he was so into fashion and going to Paris was to go see his gay romantic partners, and that Kim Kardashian was just a cover-up for his gayness, and that in fact Kim Kardashian was secretly fly on a private jet to Saudi Arabia or the Middle East to have sex with some princes or whatever, for high sums of money etc.

I was so insanely shocked because here is this area date scholar man, well-versed in history, insanely intelligent and critical, falling victim to these weird conspiracy theories?

Also, some thing I have learned about academics, scholars at the Ivy League schools, Harvard Yale Princeton Brown University, UC Berkeley UCLA etc.… They are all addicted to Netflix, checking their Gmail for too many times a day, not eating enough meat, not exercising enough, drinking too much alcohol (it seems that universally all academic scholar professors are either alcoholics, or smoke too much weed). Let us consider the height in Apex of these intelligent scholars; the ones that shape public opinion and policy… If they themselves are the ones who are also physically and mentally sick, what will the public opinion be?

Have you really met these rich famous people in real life in the flesh?

Spending a lot of time in Beverly Hills Holby Hills, Culver City etc.… I have definitely rubbed shoulders with a lot of famous, notable, “beautiful” people. And truth be told, in the flash when you see them face-to-face are not very impressive.

First and foremost, a lot of them are actually quite short. Isn’t Tom Cruise like 5 foot seven or something? Or 5 foot six?

Kanye West I think is also 5 foot seven.

So a lot of these “Shorty guys”, have Napoleon syndrome here; they try to make up for their insecurity of being short through other weird ways like buying an expensive car, whatever?

Even a lot of these “beautiful women“ in LA; if you look at them up close and in person in the flesh, indirect sunlight, in fact, a lot of them look quite repulsive in the flesh because you can tell that they’ve had some weird Botox lip fillers or face fillers or something, they essentially look like Hyenas who had some sort of allergic facial reaction.

Even something that’s becoming more mainstream now, people injecting stuff in their face? Collagen, other things in their face? Even for men in their 50s and 60s, apparently it is popular to Botox surface as well? I think this is a bad idea.

Who to trust?

First and foremost, don’t trust nobody but yourself. Why? You yourself are the center of all intelligence wisdom and critical thinking. To outsource your intelligence wisdom and thinking is base.

Also, even when you meet really intelligent people, a lot of them are also not very critical. They can quote all of these boring old French thinkers until no end, as Nassim Taleb calls them “international Association of named droppers“, they themselves have no true original ideas which is vested in themselves.

Also, it also seems that a lot of these academics spend too much time watching sports – Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors, other sports etc. Into me watching sports on television is almost like the male version of pornography.

Critical thinking

To me critical thinking is being the judge, weighing the information yourself. For example, even if you discover the truth, you gotta ask yourself “Does this even matter?”

“So what?”

For example, let us say all the conspiracy theories are true, we never landed on the moon yada yada yada, Jewish people run the world whatever, you gotta ask yourself:

Does this even matter?

I don’t think so. Why? The joy and the glory of free market capitalism in America is that in theory, you as a sole proprietor can start your business right now, start selling products and services on PayPal, your own woocommerce enabled wordpress.org website, or using Shopify or whatever else — and you could take a profit.

Actually the benefit of having a day job is you could do very very risky entrepreneurial ventures on the side, while still being able to pay your rent.

Certainly having to be employed full-time is hiring, but there are very creative ways you could leverage your time. For example, my pragmatic thought is this:

Do the bare minimum of work necessary without getting fired.

So let us say that you work at a tech company or whatever, Google Amazon Facebook Apple whatever, just show up, click your paycheck, or zoom in, and during all your extra time, build your empire on the side.

Now what?

Just think to yourself, at what point do we scapegoat others?

A funny intervention that I had was thinking; what if in fact I am actually the bad guy? And I was the bad guy all along?

Everyone likes to see themselves as the judicious hero in their own life’s narrative, and everybody else is the bad guy, doing them injustice.

Personally speaking I witness this with my father; he was always blaming other people for everything. Blaming my mom, blaming my grandfather on my mom‘s side, my mom‘s relatives family members etc., yet, he never blamed himself?

Also something really weird; he would always blame other people, all the time, yet, ever since I was two years old, he never had a job?

I think as a child, you are keenly aware of things. Kids are 1 trillion times more intelligent than their parents think. Kids are no fools.

Now what?

This is what I say, fuck it! Lettuce assume that all the conspiracy theories are true, that we never landed on the moon, we never kept it Hitler and he went to some sort of bunker in an article or whatever, and that also, there are some sort of world conspiracy illuminati thing happening. So what? Does it matter?

No. You control your own destiny, you create your own future.

Simple things:

Don’t waste money. We waste money by buying new cars, luxury goods and things, going to debt use credit cards etc. I’m even starting to think that the new millennial trap is buying a house, it looks like this is the new modern day trip, because technically even if you buy a house, you yourself don’t really own that house, the bank owns your house! You never really own it until you have hundred percent paid it all off in cash, or if you bought it with 100% cash offer. But even still, the big issue at hand is you still gotta pay property tax on it! This is literally money you’ll never ever see again, money which is essentially thrown in the gutter. And let us say you own expensive house, and you bought it in all the cash, you might have to still pay it around $1500-$2000 month just in property taxes! Just add another thousand dollars and you got rent money!
Start a website a blog posted on wordpress.org and bluehost.com — what is a quadrillion times cheaper than owning property, buying a new car etc.? Starting a website! It is so easy, so chief, so accessible, the barrier to entry is only entering your credit card information. Consider how less tedious this is than having to go through the whole escrow process of purchasing a house, which can often take up to a year!
Start publishing your thoughts on anything and everything: to me, all ideas are good ideas, as long as they are personally motivated, something you are genuinely interested in, and also something you genuinely care for. The only crime is when you create something or publish something because you think other people like it. To me this is a sign of cowardice.

So what do you want to build?

“I want to build now!” – Cindy

The greatest muse in my life is my wife and partner Cindy. To me, she is an exemplary figure of somebody who has taken the rain by her arms, her hands, and steered and crafted her own unique future.

cindyanguyen.com and mis-reading.com and also hapticindustries.com — her own brain children!

I think the life the ultimate thing to seek is a great creative partner. Somebody who has your creative compliment, part of your own plan, your own party, your own squad.

For example, the personality of me and Cindy differs greatly, yet we are both still committed to being curious, creative, and we both have a passion for the arts, the world, travel etc.

Also, if you’re a man, I just suggest you to go out and look for wifey material. Ignore everything else.

Either find a wife get married and have kids, or stay a bachelor.

Creating your own future

The best way to create your own future is maybe through your art?

The other day Cindy myself and Seneca went to the Getty, in LA, on top of the hill, our minds were blown! Parking is 20 bucks, but admission is free!

We took the tram to the top of the hill, and marveled at these great architectural wonders of the space, the breathtaking view, and also all the great artwork enclosed in the gallery.

It seems at the end of the day, after all the wealth and riches and whatever, whatever everyone loves and inspires for is art. Art, art production, art Curation whether it be paintings photos videos sculpture, drawings, printed matter, objects etc.

To me anything and everything could be art, what I just think is art is simply something that you create with love and care and attention, and put it out into the world, whether digitally or physically or both.

Art profiteering

To make a profit off your art, not a bad thing, but also not critical. Some people think the typical capitalist way; in order to become a legitimate artist, I must sell my artwork for a lot of money, as money as a metric of success in America and beyond.

But is this true? No.

McDonald’s might be the most profitable and most consumed restaurant in the world, but is it of the highest grade? No. Also Starbucks is the number one most consumed coffee beverage in the world, but is Starbucks coffee the apex of great coffee? No.

Technically android is actually more popular than iPhone, there are more android devices in the world than iPhones, but does that make android better than Apple and iPhone? No. The URX of the iPhone is at least 1 trillion times better than android.

Also, iPhone the iPhone camera is the most used camera on the planet, what is it the best quality? No. The best quality would probably be some sort of Rico Pentex camera, or some sort of Panasonic Lumix camera. And let us not forget that Leica cameras essentially used borrow technology from Panasonic Lumix.

The world is inconsistent

I think one of the greatest things I have learned starting sociology philosophy etc. is that the world is very inconsistent.

For example, we are told that it is virtuous to be meek, humble or whatever… Yet everybody in America wants to flex on how rich successful famous they are, or what part they drive?

For example even Christian theology? Humbleness and meekness is praised, yet people will “virtue flex“, by broadcasting into the world how “good” other person they are?

For example, people who post to social media about donating to some sort of cause nonprofit or adopting an animal or whatever. We’re posting Bible scriptures or whatever. I don’t think this is virtuous at all. In fact, isn’t it Jesus that said, when you give to the temple, or you donate to charity, let your left-hand not know what your right hand is doing?

I wonder if Jesus was alive today he would say:

If you’re going to donate to charity, don’t name the building after yourself or a family member, don’t name the foundation after yourself, never publicly donate money under your name, and never publish it to the news or social media.

In fact, I think the rapper Pusha T actually donated 18 wheelers of freshwater to Flint Michigan, anonymously without telling nobody, he is truly virtuous.

Why so miserable?

If you’re dark depressed and EMO or whatever… Just moved to LA, I recommend Culver City, I especially really like the Culver City arts district. I really like the platform park, the new downtown Culver steps area, in front of the Philz Coffee, the whole area.

I wonder if the reason why a lot of people are so dark and grim is simply because they live somewhere with poor weather?

I know personally that when I was in Berlin, eastern Europe, Prague, Marseille in the winter time, it was some of the most depressive times of my life.

And on the contrary, some of the happiest times in my life or when I was in Vietnam, in Hanoi and Saigon, in Panam Cambodia, other places with good climate, bright light and sun good weather.

Your mind and your body is precious.

Don’t prostitute your mind, your body your soul.

Prostitution is not just sexual, it could be your mental abilities, your physical body whatever.

Prostitution isn’t just about your sexual organs, your penis or vagina your butt hole your mouth your hands or whatever, maybe… the more critical thing is your soul?

Your soul not as some hocus-pocus concept. Rather, your soul is a combination of your personality, your thoughts, your body, your opinions your beliefs your thoughts your abilities your capabilities, your skills etc.

The mortal soul. That is when your body dies, your soul also dies.

Memento mori

Remember that you must die, and you will die. Death is also also one of our final duties.

Therefore just thinking consider an ask yourself, in this short and cruel life that we live in, how can we discover more more joy, more thanksgiving, more happiness, more Thanksgiving?

How can we contribute more to the world to others to our progeny, our children are friends and communities and the world?

ERIC

December 23, 2023

PHOTO IS PURE.

Photography, visual images —

No malice
No hidden agenda
No politics, “isms”, or hate

Nothing but pure, unadulterated love!

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Don’t Work on Too Many Projects

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Learn From the Masters of Photography

“He without a past has no future.”

Start here:

The Masters of Photography

Prague, 1968. Josef Koudelka / Magnum Photos

Classics never die:

December 22, 2023

ERIC KIM LEARN FROM THE MASTERS OF PHOTOGRAPHY

MASTERS MOBILE PDF

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Masters

Quotes

Eric Kim, in his reflections on learning from the masters of photography, offers several thought-provoking quotes:

On the Enduring Value of Master Photographers’ Work: “The work of the masters (if it still exists today) is probably still around for a reason. 99% of modern photography is just noise” oai_citation:1,Why Learn From the Masters of Photography? – ERIC KIM.
On Overcoming Excuses: Reflecting on the limitations of early photographers, he states, “If they can make phenomenal photos on their old school, cumbersome cameras, on film… Why can’t I just make good photos on my phone?” oai_citation:2,Why Learn From the Masters of Photography? – ERIC KIM.
On Inspiration Over Envy: “All the master photographers are dead. We don’t feel envy or jealousy with dead people… For me, the dead masters are like my guides, who want me to become better photographers than them” oai_citation:3,Why Learn From the Masters of Photography? – ERIC KIM.
On Learning from History: Kim emphasizes the importance of understanding the past to innovate in the future: “He without a past has no future. Study the history of street photography, to find more appreciation of the Masters who paved the path for us today” oai_citation:4,Why Learn From the Masters of Photography? – ERIC KIM.

These quotes reflect a deep appreciation for the history and art of photography, urging contemporary photographers to learn from past masters and to use their legacy as a foundation for innovation and personal growth.

Learn from the Masters

“He without a past has no future.”

Start here:

The Masters of Photography

Classics never die:

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ChatGPT

Eric Kim, a photographer and blogger known for his work in street photography, has shared insights and perspectives on the masters of photography. He often analyzes and discusses the styles, techniques, and philosophies of iconic photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson, Daido Moriyama, and many others. These masters have significantly influenced the field of photography, and Eric Kim delves into their work to draw lessons and inspiration for contemporary photographers.

His approach typically involves a blend of practical advice, artistic critique, and philosophical reflection, making his content appealing to those who are interested in the deeper aspects of photography as an art form. He encourages photographers to learn from the masters not just by imitating their techniques, but by understanding their thought processes and the contexts in which they worked.

Kim’s work resonates particularly well with those who have an interest in philosophy, innovation, and thinking, as he often connects the art of photography with broader themes in these areas. For entrepreneurs and innovators, his insights can be a source of inspiration, showing how creative thinking and learning from past masters can apply to various fields of endeavor.

December 21, 2023

GENIUS

December 20, 2023

Money Thoughts

The etymology of the word “helot” is quite intriguing and reflects a deep historical context. It originates from Ancient Greece, specifically within the region of Sparta. The term “helot” referred to a class of serfs or slaves who were owned by the state and primarily used by the Spartans.

Historically, the helots were originally free Greeks, particularly from the region of Laconia and Messenia, who were conquered by the Spartans and subsequently reduced to a servile status. This transformation into state-owned serfs was a cornerstone of the Spartan social and economic system, supporting their military-focused society.

The exact origin of the word “helot” is somewhat unclear. One theory suggests that it might be derived from the Greek verb “ἁλίσκομαι” (haliskomai), meaning “to be captured, to be made a prisoner”. This derivation would directly reflect the helots’ status as conquered peoples. Another theory posits that the name could be related to the village of Helos, located in Laconia, which was known to have been subdued by the Spartans and its inhabitants reduced to serfdom.

In either case, the term “helot” came to symbolize not just the specific class of Spartan serfs, but also the broader concept of subjugation and state-controlled servitude in Ancient Greece. This historical context provides a rich tapestry for philosophical exploration, particularly in terms of power dynamics, societal structures, and the nature of freedom and servitude. For someone interested in philosophy and the evolution of societal systems, the story of the helots offers a compelling case study of how economic and social imperatives can shape and define human relations.

December 20, 2023

HAPPY PHOTOS

December 19, 2023

LUMIX G9

LUMIX G9 camera is actually really good?

December 19, 2023

THE LIFE OF SENECA

December 19, 2023

Photography motivation

I may be the most motivated photographer out there. Why? Some thoughts:

First, it seems that the most critical thing to consider is shooting like a child. A child has no boundaries, no limits, no notions of “right” and wrong. In fact, what is the biggest detriment to photographers? The moment they learn about social media, comments and views, favorites and likes, etc.

Even when I recall in the early days, my extreme confusion; how do I become “successful“ as a photographer, and also, what is the significance of it?

How does one become a more motivated photographer, and why does it even matter in the first place?

My personal thought is that photography motivation is deep seeded in the notion of curiosity. Curiosity of the world, curiosity in yourself, curiosity and others, curiosity about society and also, a passion for the visual, visual arts.

Why does this matter?

I think 99.9% of the angst of being a modern day photographer is that we have such a difficult time being motivated.

How and why is this? Some theories:

First, modern day work slavery. If you got to go to an office for a living, be indoors with some sort of artificial lighting, not in the direct elements not the direct sun, if you’re stuck on the grid, this is not conducive to your photography.

Also

Also some other big issues at play is that the whole photography industrial complex don’t want you to be happy and motivated with your camera, your lenses, your equipment or your gear.

let us consider, 99.9% of websites and blogs on the interest is typically around cameras, camera reviews, etc.

As a consequence, we always lust for that other camera, which doesn’t really lead anywhere productive.

So what do we have to do instead?

Some simple ideas:

The 30,000 step a day challenge. Just think to yourself, if you walk 30,000 steps a day, and you always have your camera with you, certainly, you’re going to see some photo opportunities here and there. The best camera is either a Ricoh GR 3 or 3X, the 3X is better.
Small JPay: I recommend shooting high contrast black-and-white, add additional green and contrast, and just shoot in small JPEG or even extra small JPEG. Use Apple photos to sync everything, keep it simple. I no longer use Adobe Lightroom because it is too slow, fragmented, and at full photos is at least 100 times faster and simpler.
Delete your Instagram: the greatest detriment to modern day Fatar for is Instagram. Instagram is bad for photography, deleted and just post your own photos to your own website and blog instead.

December 18, 2023

CRYPTO GODS

HOW TO GROW BALLS

December 18, 2023

Chainlink for Dummiez, DUMBOS, Made Simple.

Currently I am invested in chainlink, a new type of technology which leverages the blockchain for interesting use cases.

Dumb it down!

So the first thought is this; what is it why does it matter?

First, issues. The first really big issue at hand is that now and into the future, it will be very difficult to ascertain what is true and what is false, especially on the Internet.

What is the biggest issue? Especially with the upcoming elections, the fear that Donald Trump is going to be reelected or whatever… It seems that chain-link, and the block chain would be very good in terms of voting. For example, a voting system built on the block chain or chain-link could be useful in so far much as you know it cannot be tamperproof.

Therefore the first idea is this;

Chainlink identity.

Web 3.0 is identity

Another hot take I have is that what is Web 3.0? Not all of this mumbo-jumbo, But instead… Having a true online identity.

For example, I often forget my passwords and other things, my identity card etc. As a consequence, it seems that the easiest one is to just remember my phone number and use that as a login, whether it be for Facebook, etc.

The future?

I have always been fascinated with the future, it is a topic which endlessly fascinates me. Why? I think technology is all about the future. To me as a kid, technology was amazing because it was almost like the supercharger for myself.

One thing I find very interesting is how ERIC Schmidt is on board with chain-link. This is hugely fascinating to me because at this point, Google runs the world, Google *is* the Internet.

However what is the biggest issue here? If you spend enough time on Google, googling around, eventually sooner or later you’ll find weird conspiracy websites.

Not only that, but ERIC Schmidt also talks about how he is sick and tired of all these weird conspiracy theories, like how we never landed on the moon etc. As a consequence, maybe one of the interesting use cases of chain-link is that it could debunk, or false fly conspiracy theories?

KARL POPPER —

True wisdom knowledge and intelligence is to falsify or to debunk nonsense?

Why does this matter?

Truth be told, Facebook might have been indirectly culpable for strange results in the US American presidential elections. Why? Essentially Donald Trump got trillions of dollars a free advertising from all this fake news being spread around, etc. As a consequence, he got into office, and all of this weird stuff happened. My personal thought is if Facebook did not exist, if Twitter did not exist, Donald Trump probably wouldn’t have been elected into office.

What else?

What is real and what is fake?

i’m currently playing a lot and playing around with ChatGPT, AI, DALL-E, and this is what I have learned:

Even ChatGPT doesn’t know whether something was created by ChatGPT or not!

Similarly speaking, I’m also certain that it is difficult to ascertain whether an image was created by AI or not.

ChatGPT probably doesn’t know whether an image was created by DALL-E or not.

An interesting use case for chainlink;

Could chain-link or block chain or some sort of crypto technology allow you to verify whether something was created by human or a robot?

Truth verification for NFT things and art?

Even another thought on NFT, non-fungible tokens; can you figure out whether the NFT was created by human or a bot?

Why does this matter?

I find this highly important for many reasons. One of the main reasons is that I think a lot of the mental health issues re-facing today’s world is because of the Internet, all of this fear porn, fake news etc.

Quotes

Certainly! Here are some quotes from Eric Kim’s perspectives on Chainlink:

On Chainlink’s Essence: “Essentially it is a platform built upon Ethereum, solidity, the block chain… That strives to solve real world problems” oai_citation:1,Why Chainlink? – ERIC KIM.

On the Oracle Problem: “The general gist of the Oracle problem is that you have all these people purporting to say something… How do you know if someone is really telling the truth or not?” oai_citation:2,Why Chainlink? – ERIC KIM.

On Chainlink’s Potential: “My personal thought and prediction is that chain-link could become the next Google; Google index the whole Internet, and made it easy for you to find any sort of website. What I think chain-link will do is link all of this information on the Internet and computers and make them accessible, trustworthy, tamperproof” oai_citation:3,Why Chainlink? – ERIC KIM.

On Investment Decision: “Therefore, I sold or transferred or converted nine of my bitcoin and put it all into chain-link, at the time it was valued at ~20,800 LINK (CHAINLINK), with bitcoin at around $35,000 a bitcoin” oai_citation:4,Why Chainlink? – ERIC KIM.

On His View of Bitcoin: “I love bitcoin but maybe one of the big issues here is that bitcoin is like digital money and gold; most people just hold onto it, and I don’t think actually aspire to use it to actually pay for your latte at Starbucks or whatever” oai_citation:5,Why Chainlink? – ERIC KIM.

On Technology and Future: “I am obsessed with the future. Future thinking, future technologies, new brave worlds to discover” oai_citation:6,Why Chainlink? – ERIC KIM.

On Life Beyond Wealth: “For me, I think a more interesting life trajectory is to then no longer care for money, and use your power mind and soul and body for more interesting things which can include philosophy, writing, thinking, doing research, reading, making art, publishing art, etc” oai_citation:7,Why Chainlink? – ERIC KIM.

On Practical Applications of Chainlink: “I think chain-link can be a technology which motivates and enables more streamlined home buying processes” and “Imagine a future in which you could use chain-link or some sort of block chain enabled identification, which can essentially be your global citizen passport to all of the world and the Internet” oai_citation:8,Why Chainlink? – ERIC KIM.

Summary

Here’s a numerical summary of Eric Kim’s perspective on Chainlink:

Platform Basis: Chainlink is built upon Ethereum and Solidity.
Key Problem Addressed: Focuses on the Oracle problem.
Innovation: Decentralized oracle network.
Personal Prediction: Chainlink could become as integral as Google in organizing internet information.
Investment Strategy: Converted significant Bitcoin holdings into Chainlink, aiming for a 30-year hold.
Technological Interest: Has been involved with technology since around 11 years old.
Beyond Financial Goals: Envisions using resources for philosophy, writing, art, and more.
Practical Applications: Potential use in real estate and identity verification.

Why Chainlink?

Eric Kim’s perspective on Chainlink, as found on his blog, reveals a multifaceted view of this blockchain platform. He regards Chainlink as a platform built upon Ethereum and Solidity, aiming to address real-world problems like the Oracle problem, which pertains to verifying truth in data provided by different sources. Kim emphasizes the innovation of Chainlink’s decentralized oracle network, which he believes adds robustness compared to centralized systems oai_citation:1,Why Chainlink? – ERIC KIM oai_citation:2,Why Chainlink? – ERIC KIM.

Kim perceives Chainlink as akin to the internet’s hyperlinks, binding various elements together to form a coherent whole. He predicts that Chainlink could become as integral as Google in organizing and making accessible a vast array of information on the internet, ensuring it is accessible, trustworthy, and tamper-proof oai_citation:3,Why Chainlink? – ERIC KIM.

Regarding his personal investment strategy, Kim shares that he transferred a significant amount of Bitcoin into Chainlink, motivated by a long-term view of holding onto Chainlink for at least 30 years. This decision reflects his belief in Chainlink’s potential and a strategic move away from Bitcoin, which he sees as more of a digital asset to hold rather than a currency for everyday transactions oai_citation:4,Why Chainlink? – ERIC KIM oai_citation:5,Why Chainlink? – ERIC KIM.

Kim’s long-standing interest in technology and the future underpins his enthusiasm for blockchain and cryptocurrency. He has been involved with technology from a young age and sees cryptocurrencies

December 17, 2023

ERIC KIM PHOTOGRAPHY PORTFOLIO

I want my photos to last forever?

December 17, 2023

HOW TO BECOME A MORE PHILOSOPHICAL PHOTOGRAPHER

PHOTOLOSOPHY: WHAT CAN YOU BECOME AS A PHOTOGRAPHER-VISUAL ARTIST?

DOWNLOAD FULL COURSE (7.4GB)

See the full course here.

Overview

The “Photolosophy” course by Eric Kim delves into the philosophical aspects of photography, aiming to help photographers find deeper meaning and purpose in their work. Here’s a brief numerical summary of the key elements:

Introduction to Photolosophy: Focuses on finding personal meaning and critically thinking about why and for whom you take photos oai_citation:1,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM.
What is Photolosophy?: Encourages photographers to seek purpose beyond social media validation, using photography as a tool for life meditation and personal expression oai_citation:2,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM.
Street Photography Confidence: Highlights the importance of human interaction in photography, promoting an empathetic approach to subjects oai_citation:3,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM.
Create Art for Mental Health: Discusses photography as a joyful, creative process beneficial for mental health and happiness oai_citation:4,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM.
Walking Meditation: Advocates using street photography as a meditative practice to relax, be creative, and reduce stress oai_citation:5,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM.
Everything is Editable: Emphasizes the evolving nature of photography and the importance of being active and open to changes in your work oai_citation:6,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM.
Personal Photolosophy: Encourages taking photos for yourself, emphasizing the significance of personal perspective in photography oai_citation:7,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM oai_citation:8,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM.
Gratitude in Photography: Stresses the importance of gratitude, encouraging photographers to appreciate their tools and subjects oai_citation:9,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM.
Entrepreneurship Photolosophy: Defines photography as a form of entrepreneurship, focused on risk-taking and making a positive change oai_citation:10,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM.
JUST DO IT: Encourages photographers to pursue their interests without fear of failure or external validation oai_citation:11,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM.
How Much is Enough: Challenges photographers to continually innovate and create art that pleases themselves, not just for financial gain or fame oai_citation:12,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM.
Motivation: A closing note encouraging continued inspiration, motivation, and exploration in both photography and philosophy oai_citation:13,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM.

These numbers encapsulate the essence of the “Photolosophy” course, offering guidance on using photography not just as an art form, but as a means of personal development and philosophical exploration.

Quotes

Here are the key quotes from Eric Kim’s “Photolosophy” course:

Introduction: “This starter kit will be your unique opportunity to find more personal meaning in your photography, and to motivate you to think more critically why you take photos” oai_citation:1,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM.
What is Photolosophy: “Photolosophy is a word we made up which means ‘photography philosophy’. The purpose is for you to find more purpose and meaning in your photography and life” oai_citation:2,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM.
Street Photography Confidence: “Photography is one of the best tools to HUMANIZE people… use photography as a tool to bring you closer with them!” oai_citation:3,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM.
Create Art for Mental Health: “Photography is a holistic process of finding more joy and happiness in the world!” oai_citation:4,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM.
Walking Meditation: “Treat street photography as a walking meditation; and clear your mind” oai_citation:5,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM.
Everything is Editable: “Don’t let finality or perfection hold you back… everything is editable!” oai_citation:6,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM.
Personal Photolosophy Intro: “The best type of photos is personal — because the more personal the photos are, the more authentic they are, and the more others can relate to them!” oai_citation:7,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM.
Make Photos for Yourself: “Make photos to impress and please yourself; instead of pleasing others!” oai_citation:8,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM.
Gratitude: “Use photography as a tool to find more gratitude in your life” oai_citation:9,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM.
Entrepreneurship – Empowerment: “As a photographer, ask yourself: ‘How can my photos empower myself and others?’” oai_citation:10,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM.
JUST DO IT: “There is no failure, only feedback” oai_citation:11,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM.
How Much is Enough: “Never stop making art; you can’t take money with you when you die!” oai_citation:12,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM.
Motivation: “Stay inspired and motivated… ask yourself: ‘Why do I make photos, and what is the purpose of my photography?’” oai_citation:13,Photolosophy Course – ERIC KIM.

These quotes capture the essence of the course, focusing on finding personal meaning, embracing creativity, and pursuing photography

December 17, 2023

FREE PHOTOGRAPHY

FREE PRESETS

Download Presets as .ZIP Direct here: https://erickimphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/ERIC-KIM-ADOBE-LIGHTROOM-PRESETS-2020.zip

Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/s/lx8svdtyx0cbkcu/ERIC%20KIM%20ADOBE%20LIGHTROOM%20PRESETS%202020.zip?dl=0

Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XFG0thHQnvJGi-ET6XMHOvn5rvQcUUPg

FREE PDF VISUALIZATIONS

1) Link to download all free visualizations.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6kyqr30jo2s2974/AABHHiuXSwkJZGQTU3gpTTYna?dl=0

2) Link to download all free Photography Series Ebooks by Eric Kim:
https://erickimphotography.com/blog/2018/06/26/monochrome-free-black-and-white-street-photography-pdf-ebook-by-eric-kim/

3) Link to download all free photography education ebooks by Eric Kim: https://erickimphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/ONLY-IN-AMERICA-by-ERIC-KIM.pdf

https://erickimphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/SUITS-by-ERIC-KIM.pdf

https://erickimphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/MONOCHROME-Street-Photography-by-ERIC-KIM.pdf

December 17, 2023

AI ART

December 16, 2023

PICTURES

December 13, 2023

LOVE

December 13, 2023

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CRYPTO BY KIM

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Brave new world for photographers and crypto:

Soul Photography

Learn how to photograph with your soul:

POEMS by KIM

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BECOME A PHOTOGRAPHY ENTREPRENEUR

Advice I would have given myself in photography, if I started all over again:

Until You Own Yourself You Can’t Be Free

Photography Entrepreneurship 101 by ERIC KIM

De-lamify the future.

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STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 101

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Master street photography with STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT.

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Entrepreneurship by KIM

Become the change which you desire to see manifested in the world!

Become you.

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December 13, 2023

Pure Thoughts

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BECOME A PHOTOGRAPHY ENTREPRENEUR

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Photography Entrepreneurship 101 by ERIC KIM

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December 13, 2023

PHOTOGRAPH LIKE A CHILD

December 12, 2023

Spartan Picks

December 12, 2023

Spartan Philosophy

One of the things I love the most is Spartan philosophy, thinking about ancient Sparta etc.

Why? Aesthetically, ethically, and in terms of the ethos — I love it!

Just watch the movie 300

I watched the movie 300 at a good time; I think it came out when I was in high school, maybe my junior year, at the peak of my hormones.

Watching the movie 300 when I was around 17 years old was good, because it’s solidified a certain aesthetic and physique ideal.

But now, I feel bad for all these modern day kids, who being raised with these weird aesthetic and physique ideals?

First, it seems that the new modern day trend is towards notification. Ugly bodies, everyone is skinny fat, no muscle mass, not permitted to be happy gay jubilant and ratchets; everybody is antisocial weird and awkward.

On the other extreme is all these dudes hopped up on steroids. Apparently it is even OK to be on steroids nowadays, which I also think is a bad thing. I think we need to inject more shame into steroids; it is really really bad.

For example, everybody knows that Dwayne The Rock Johnson is on steroids, yet everybody turns the blind eye. Why? We like the idea of the rock, yet, we don’t want to acknowledge that he is juicing his eyeballs out?

Think muscle

Even Nietzsche talks about muscle.

Even in his book the Walter power, or was it twilight of the idols… he posits the future man as being more carnivorous, with more muscle?

Nothing is natural

The weird thing in diet health physiology fitness… Everyone is always trying to do what is “natural”. But nothing is natural.

For example, people say the lame response, that eating meat is not natural, or being a carnivore is not natural whatever. But it doesn’t matter… Neither is being vegan or vegetarian, everyone is and should be permitted to do whatever they want to do.

You can be whatever you want to be

The philosophy of becoming; you can become whatever you want to become.

Technically, nothing you will do will cause you to die. For example, doesn’t matter if you’re vegetarian or vegan, it won’t kill you. You won’t die. Yet you probably won’t be that muscular or strong, or well… But once again that is your imperative not mine.

Most people don’t know what they want to become?

I think this is the big issue in today’s world; nobody really knows what they want to become.

One of the easiest things that you would ask a kid was this: “what do you want to be when you grow up? Perhaps this should be the same question for adult; what do you want to be when you grow older?

***

So why does this matter?

I have some interesting thoughts; one of them is towards some thoughts on life, living approaches etc.

First, think of the ancient Spartan gymnasium, in which all the guys are just naked working out, hanging out in the open air plot of land, lifting weights, being manly.

Second, think about what the ancient Spartans wanted; they just wanted to be left alone.

For example, the reason why Sparta was military state was because she just wanted to be left alone, and the military power of Sparta was simple;

If anybody tried to invade Sparta, and subjugate it… Sparta would have a formidable army to protect itself from being taken over.

All you need is 300

In today’s world everyone wants billions of followers, but think… Would you rather have 1 billion Persian slaves or 300 Spartan elite?

I would choose the 300.

King Leonidas was a historical fact

What I think blows everybody’s mind is the fact that King Leonidas was in fact a historical fact. He existed in real life, and the 300 were real. It was not just a fantasy or hocus-pocus story, like anything written by Moses. Or the ancient early Christian fathers.

Even the ancient Romans and Greeks were so inspired by the ancient Spartans — laconic, Lacadonia — there were lots of big fans.

Laconic sayings

Another manly thing; true men speak few words.

For example when Persian emissary told king Leonidas that they would have so many arrows that they would blocked out the sun, I think it was Kingsley Leonidas or one of his generals who joked and said “Then we shall fight in the shade.”

Also, another saying:

When the ancients Spartans were told, that the enemy was approaching … instead of asking “How many are there“? They would ask, “Where are they?”

John Wick doesn’t say more than 200 words in John Wick 4?

John Wick as the ultimate zen stoic spartan.

My self ideal?

Body of a demigod, mind of a spartan, zen aesthetics.

December 12, 2023

Lit Life

December 12, 2023

The Philosophy of Risk Taking

Greater fates, greater futures.

Force finds a way.

Nietzsche once said; the secret to the greatest amount of happiness is living the life with the maximum amount of danger! I think this was from twilight of the idols, or maybe from the will to power at the end.

I think we live in an interesting time. I think currently the world has been hijacked by Internet website advertising, mostly Google and Google ads to blame, as well as pernicious sneaky sponsored advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, Google Chrome etc. Same goes with YouTube.

Also something I have learned from things; I think we are actually much more visually sensitive, image sensitive, sound sensitive then we think we are. Also, the mind is subtle; even if I accidentally see some sort of weird thumbnail image, in fact, it puts me in a bad mood for the rest of the day etc.

I think the big problem here is that the news and information has become so hyper sensationalized. Why? Everyone is trying to maximize their income earning potential of the Internet and media, assuming that whatever they are posting is on a website or blog or news agency leveraged by Google sense, the drive is to maximize eyeball viewing time, and Click through rates, for the publisher to make money.

Also, something that I have learned about solo entrepreneurs in the media space; everyone is trying to search and seek and strive for some sort of “legitimacy”, or, they’re just struggling to pay their rent.

For example, let us say that I am some sort of Internet personality, some sort of fitness influencer, even Fraher. Perhaps the only way I could pay my rent is through some sort of sponsorship or brand deal, in which I am being paid maybe only $500-$1000 a month, and barely maintaining even my expenses.

Also, even some inside intelligence on YouTube; the super fax is that even if my video gets 100 million views, assuming I had advertisements on it I might only make about seven to $8000 USD. That is actually not that much. You’re probably better off Working as an Amazon prime delivery driver, or even Uber driver. And even the best craters, it is very rare that they make a video with so many views.

As a consequence, there is this low-key bias or optimization towards creating videos or things which strive to hit that benchmark. Once again it is things that have to deal with more with the sensational, audacious, the bizarre, even the morose?

Who to trust

Truth be told, in today’s world especially with internet blogs, ChatGPT 4, the funny thing I learned:

Even ChatGPT doesn’t know if ChatGPT wrote it or not!

For example, instead of just googling myself, I have just been ChatGPT’ing myself. For example I have the paid premium version of ChatGPT, which gives me access to the new newest version of ChatGPT which is version 4, which I rate at least 1000 times better than the free ChatGPT 3.5.

So for example I’ll do something like search “ERIC KIM“, and just see what ChatGPT tells me, and I will just copy and paste that into a new blog post on my own personal blog titled “ERIC KIM“, And within a week, ChatGPT indexes that and links back to that. It is almost like a snake eating its own tail, the ourubus.

As a consequence, let us just think and consider; how today’s media landscape is created within the Internet. Let us say that I am some sort of newsagency or publishers; I will hire writers, and a lot of these writers will use ChatGPT or other artificial intelligence editing and writing and text generation tools. It is impossible to ascertain how much of it was written by human or ChatGPT or whatever whatever; and even so… Assuming that even if 100% of the information was hand typed by human being, it almost doesn’t really matter because a lot of these writers tend to be dark morose and sick people.

Currently speaking I live in Culver City Los Angeles California, where Jeff Bezos Amazon, Amazon prime, Amazon prime studios just least a huge lot of land, the Culver studios, owned by the developer Michael Heckman, apparently even Jeff Bezos spot out the movie theater, the culvert theater next-door. Also slowly but surely apple is getting in bed with Sony entertainment, producing movies like the new Napoleon movie as well as the new killers of the flower moon with Leonardo DiCaprio.

During this whole period I saw a lot of people from the writer strike, and honestly… A lot of these people look very unwell. Most of them do not look very physically fit, and you could just see; they don’t spend enough time outside, none of them look happy jubilant and gay, and just think simply; if the physiology and health of somebody is poor, what kind of artwork or ideas do you think they will produce? There is this weird bias that we think that somehow the mind is divorced from the body, but in fact, the mind is the body. That is if your body is sick, your mind is sick. However, if your body is strong robust and great, so will your ideas.

How we lose our backbone

I don’t think it’s a modern day trend or shift; my thought is honestly all generations all histories people in the past, seems like everyone has always left a spine or a backbone. I wrote a nice little piece back in Vietnam titled Adamantine Spine; imagine yourself like wolverine; the best way to imagine things is that you are actually like wolverine, your body is made out of adamantine metal, and what happens is every time that somebody tries to destroy you, you regenerate and you re-heal, I’ll be at a very painful process, you still do it.

Kind of like Deadpool; the reason why I really love Ryan Reynolds and the Deadpool character is there is a little bit of fun dark humor here; I think when people take things to literally, too seriously, life loses its bigger it’s fun it’s jubilance.

However a bad example is when you turn the needle too much towards the comedic; for example there is this notion called “Campi“, when things are almost too cheesy, and lame. For example all of the new Thor movies, as well as all the new Disney Marvel movies, they are insanely lame.

What are good examples?

All modern day media is bad. Only good ones I think are actually ancient Greek epics; the Iliad, after that the Odyssey. If you’re curious, I think that the Iliad is at least 100 or 200 times better more interesting and more fun than the odyssey. Whether or not both were written by Homer or not doesn’t really seem to matter; I think the overall storyline of the Iliad is much more exciting and intense whereas the odyssey is a bit boring.

The Odyssey just drags on and on… Odysseus is a good character but not as grand as Achilles.

Greater risks, greater futures

It seems that a lot of modern day humans want some sort of weird free lunch; somehow… We want to live a better more greater more grand life that is more exciting and fun, yet we seem to not desire taking any personal risks.

For example let us think about video game culture. My simple heuristic is this; don’t play no video game in which you have actually not done the real thing yourself. For example, all these grown men playing video games in which they are shooting each other with guns, and they have actually never shot a real life gun seems little bit weird.

Also I have a rule; video games should only be permitted for poor kids in the hood, we have nothing better else to do.

Also a cut off time; no adult over the age of 18 years old should play video games anymore. I think it is fine for highschoolers and middle schoolers video games, but not grown men.

I ended up quit playing video games when I was around 18 or 19 years old, my freshman year of college. Why? I literally had no time! I had a part-time job, working around 20 hours a week as tech-support for the UCLA undergraduate admissions office, I was active in many clubs, having to study, and do other stuff.

I actually think that some weird ways, if you do games are like pornography for the mind-body and soul. The generalize just a most video games is everyone wants to be a hero, take risks, go on quest, obtain some booty whatever. Yet, embodied reality real life doesn’t seem to allow any outlets for this. Therefore, people escape into video games.

How video games are bad.

The big issue with video games is that ultimately, you are a slave to the platform, the close loop system, the video game producer and publisher etc.

For example, already… It seems that the video game Fortnite which was insanely grand is already being forgotten. Let us say you are a person who devoted 10,000 hours to playing the Fortnite game, but now no longer anybody plays it. All of your time has been wasted.

Even StarCraft, StarCraft professional players; nobody really plays it anymore, let us say that you’re a professional gamer sponsorships making money playing StarCraft tournaments, now you no longer have any sponsors. All of your time was for naught.

More thoughts

A critical thing I believe for men, us men, is that we require some sort of physical risk, physical challenge, some sort of physical risk taking.

For example, in my mind the only type of weightlifting which is interesting includes some sort of “risk”; for example, when I would atlas lift seven plates, eight plates, nine plates, 10 plates, max out the bar, and then clip on an additional 25 pounder in between and on top of the 10 plates, the jaws of others would drop; and then a few people would actually have the chutzpah to tell me:

“… be careful.”

My thought;

People actually want to see me get hurt, or “fail”. When I succeeded, I have somehow dismantled their narrow worldview.

Is ERIC KIM on drugs?

another funny bias; when I was doing so much crazy turbo thoughtting while in Vietnam (I was off the grid, got rid of my phone, didn’t communicate for about two years, no email no communication no social media no nothing… People would ask…)

is ERIC KIM okay?

Or,

is ERIC KIM on drugs?

Or–

What happened to ERIC KIM?

Simple; when you are disconnected from the BS of traditional American media thinking… Do you think different. Also, not having a phone, I think this is the 10,000 X secret cheat code to life. Assuming that you were a crypto trillionaire, and you no longer needed other people “opportunities“, or you didn’t really desire to get paid money from other people or corporations… What real use do you have of email anyways?

When people say “opportunities”, I think it is a weird keratin stick; part of it is chasing some sort of legitimacy, part of it is chasing some sort of financial opportunities, brand sponsorships etc.

Something I have personally discovered is this:

brand Sponsorships are a trap.

Example, if you are sponsored by any sort of company or corporation or whatever… You are not really going to hundred percent say what is really on your mind. This is the same thing that goes with “brand ambassadors”– I find the whole thing a bit base; why? He or she who focuses too much on getting some sort of “ambassador ship is a signal that they are just chasing clout in some sort of mean way.

Once again, if you already have $200 million worth of cryptocurrency bitcoin or chainlink or whatever – why do you need to get some sort of brand “ambassadorship” from anybody? Why do you want free equipment gear or stuff? Why not just buy it yourself?

This is actually something I have discovered with a lot of guys in the photography space; they are already independently wealthy from some sort of other ventures, whether it be business etc. And then they go seek to try to become some sort of “ambassador“, for Leica camera whatever.

That is not forget that Leica camera, the modern day rendition is essentially the brainchild of Dr. Andreas Kaufman– who I discovered is not a “real“ doctor; he caught his PhD in philosophy, which I think is a good idea but I think when people talk about him they assume that he has some sort of medical doctor or something.

December 10, 2023

Buy Chainlink

Why I Bought Chainlink

A simple heuristic that I learned from Nassim TALEB; don’t ask people what you should invest in, ask them… What did you invest in?

For example, I recently swapped a bunch of my bitcoin for chainlink. Why did I do it? My thoughts:

What is chainlink?

Essentially it is a platform built upon Ethereum, the blockchain… that strives to solve real world problems.

The first critical issue at hand is the notion of the “Oracle problem”, and cryptographic proof and truth.

The general gist of the Oracle problem is that you have all these people purporting to say something… How do you know if someone is really telling the truth or not?

Also, they’re great innovation of a decentralized oracle network. I think anything that is decentralized and can be done offline is a good idea; anything that has to be done when you’re connected to the web is fragile.

For example, the “internet of things”, which includes all of your home devices, your home stuff etc. I think this includes your home speaker things, your Amazon echo or echo dot, your Apple HomePod thing, your ring Amazon nest devices etc.

Enabling transactional value?

TVE — transactional value enabled?

Chainlink staking?

What is the purpose of technology and these things? A very basic idea is that the point is to help enable commerce and other things. Money makes the world go round, Publilius Syrus.

What is money anyways? Money is movement. Anything that literally physiologically moves human beings in time and space is money.

For example, if you promise somebody $30 an hour, they will walk around, move their bodies to clean toilets, etc.

Also, money movement. The whole global economy to me is so fascinating; because we process and move information so quickly and so globally… how do you link it all together?

Chain – Link

I find chainlink to be an interesting concept because wherever you go in real life, there are physical chain links everywhere.

Also, technically the internet, the World Wide Web, is a bunch of hyperlinks which link websites together.

My personal thought and prediction is that chainlink could become the next Google; Google indexes the whole internet, and made it easy for you to find any sort of website. What I think chainlink will do is link all of this information on the internet and computers and make them accessible, trustworthy, tamperproof.

Just read it

Only read stuff that you find interesting, skip over stuff you find boring.

About a week or two ago, I reread the original bitcoin white paper, and I was so impressed with how short it was, how minimalistic it was, and how to the point it was. But… reading it… this time around… felt a bit boring.

And this is the big thing: if something bores you, you gotta get out of it.

Therefore, I sold or transferred or converted nine of my bitcoin and put it all into chainlink, at the time it was valued at ~20,800 LINK (CHAINLINK), with bitcoin at around $35,000 a bitcoin.

I think what I try to do is think at least 30 years into the future. 20 or 30 years. It is funny, as I write this at the age of 35, 30 years from now Seneca is only going to be 32 years old, still a few years younger than me. My personal aspiration is to hold onto chainlink for at least 30 years, and then maybe transfer it to Seneca when he grows up. Or I just help him build some sort of company or entrepreneurial venture etc.

Investing in things actually do something?

I love bitcoin but maybe one of the big issues here is that bitcoin is like digital money and gold; most people just hold onto it, and I don’t think actually aspire to use it to actually pay for your latte at Starbucks or whatever. I think because bitcoin and cryptocurrency is so volatile; Everybody’s hope and dream and ambition is that their coin will rise value astronomically and they will become rich, buy the Lamborghini or whatever… and be happy.

Trust nobody who drives a Lamborghini — only trust people who drive Toyota Priuses, in white.

Why? If you drive a Toyota Prius, in white… it is a signal that you really don’t care for appearances.

How do you know if somebody is unsuccessful?

If they drive a Range Rover, a Mercedes AMG G wagon, murdered out, all matte black, a baselevel Mercedes car, a baselevel Audi car, like an A3 or a Q3, drive some sort of Audi electric car which is just the same as the Porsche Taycan, don’t forget that the Volkswagen group owns Lamborghini Audi Volkswagen Porsche etc. same thing goes with anybody who drives a BMW car.

Foreign cars are bad.

It is just a game!

I think crypto, cryptocurrency speculation is an interesting game; prediction, prediction markets, trying to predict the future… is just a luxury and a fun thing.

Some predictions are pretty obvious

When I was in college, my sophomore year, and I was starting to get into trading stocks, daytrading… I had a pretty certain thought that Blockbuster was going to go under. I tried to figure out how to short stocks, but I really couldn’t figure out how to do it.

Also I remember when the prime mortgage meltdown happened, and the value of Ford went to almost 2 dollars a year. I wanted to buy some Ford stock but I had no money, no capital.

It is interesting to think about this in hindsight because when I was incorrectly trading pennystock, for some sort of oil producer company which was actually running at a loss… I had no idea because I misread the financials… I lost my whole life savings which was maybe $3500 USD or something. It was insanely tragic. But now that I am playing with higher sums more like $300,000 USD, I realize that it was just a valuable lesson at the time.

Therefore, with any sort of financial speculation, think about it at the 30 year span. Even when you are 70 or 80 years old, I met this lady at the park who looked phenomenal and she told me she was 82… she looked like a very fit 45-year-old!

My personal aspiration is when I’m 82 years old, to still be able to lift 1000 pounds. Google or YouTube “ERIC KIM thousand pound atlas lift”

It seems that the way things are going, I don’t think it’s that ridiculous to think that we can live to be 120 years old. Try to think that far.

What is the use of money anyways?

I think actually the big thing is that everyone now aspires to buy a house or home or property. It is getting pretty ridiculous, even in Los Angeles, even buying a single-family home in Inglewood… you’re looking easily at around $1.5 million for a whatever house.

My prediction is that the prices of homes will continue to soar astronomically high. I think a lot of these $1.5 million homes can easily balloon two $3 million, $5 million, 10 and $15 million, $150 million or whatever. Why? The biggest issue at hand is runaway inflation, which means the value of the US dollar and currency is continually going lower and lower, because the US is what, currently speaking $30 trillion in debt? And what America thinks the smart idea is to just keep printing money ad infinitum, into infinity, in order to “stimulate” the economy.

But does this work? No.

For example talking to my friend Noel who works in hygiene, he says that a lot of these young guys, around 25 to 30 years old, are so lazy. Why? After Covid and people started giving away these free checks… and from unemployment you could literally make $5000 USD a month by sitting on your butt and doing nothing… people lost the motivation to work. A lot of people moved back home, live with their parents, and are essentially living for free. As a consequence you have a huge generation of unmotivated people, unwilling to do any sort of manual labor, which is bad because having manual and physical labor is critical.

For example, being in Beverly Hills a lot; and Holby Hills, there is this new funny caste systems; really rich people getting mansions built, and the army of construction labor people, mostly from Mexico doing the labor to build these mansions.

Also, think about Amazon prime delivery drivers, people who bag your food at Whole Foods, Erwhon etc, all these contractors electricians plumbers etc.… the truly critical labor. Doesn’t matter if you pay them $30 $40 $50 or even $60 an hour, it seems at this point money doesn’t really motivate them anymore. Therefore what do you do? It seems that America we are just importing more people from Mexico to do labor for us, because they are motivated. Americans are no longer motivated.

Crypto, crypto technology and cryptocurrency is optimistic

I am obsessed with the future. Future thinking, future technologies, new brave worlds to discover.

Why? I have always been into technology ever since I was a kid, getting my first Acer aspire Pentium one processor computer when I was around 11 years old. Even teaching myself how to program visual basic 3.0 in the early days, creating my own AOL “punter“ etc.

Also, I still will never forget when I read the Maddox article on why you should beat your kids, in computer class in Bayside Queens at PS 169 when I was in the fifth grade, and all of me and our friends, a bunch of 11-year-old laughing and saying “It is true!”

Even I remember as a kid, when I first moved to New York, maybe it was I had some sort of school in the Bronx, when kids in the hallway would “the South Park movies “blame Canada, blame Canada”…

Anyways the generalized thought is I love media information, and also I have a passion to innovate, write and to think, to motivate and to also disprove nonsense.

Ever since I was young I was always bred with an insanely huge ego; the eldest son of the eldest son of the eldest son, (jang-son), being raised with the “prince disease“, was unusually good for me. Always getting the finest cuts of meat and galbi from my grandmother, always showered with praise love and attention and how smart tall and good-looking I was. Very good for me.

The US dollar is static

Anybody who is a wage slave, which means anybody who is paid a biweekly or monthly salary… doesn’t matter if you’re being paid $10 million a year from Apple… You’re still a wage slave.

A simple heuristic:

Can you go two years without checking or responding to any of your emails or not?

If you have to use email for a living, you’re not free.

Once you’re a crypto trillionaire, then what?

Let us say that your cryptocurrency goes to the value of $1 trillion USD. Then what? Then do you just dissolve it all into US dollars, buy a mansion and a yacht somewhere, and live indefinitely into the horizon for infinite bliss?

This doesn’t seem to be the goal. For me, I think a more interesting life trajectory is to then to no longer care for money, and use your power mind and soul and body for more interesting things which can include philosophy, writing, thinking, doing research, reading, making art, publishing art, etc.

Money as it means to creative leisure and production.

Seeking immortal fame and glory?

One thing I am very happy about is ChatGPT knows exactly who I am, why I am so significant and influential, etc. As a consequence, I already feel like my legacy is secure, and I don’t have anything left to prove to nobody else.

As a consequence, at this point life is all upside no downside. Even one of the happiest moments of my life, Cindy and I begetting our first son Seneca, at this point life is all upside no downside.

As a man, as long as you have one male heir, you can die happy.

Now what?

Things that I find interesting use cases of chainlink:

Real estate, homebuying, escrow: even NASSIM TALEB has said that traditionally, most wealth generation in human society is through land, land ownership land property etc. For example let us say that you buy that 1.5 million dollar home, and 20 years from now it’ll be worth $3.2 million. And then let us assume that 30 or 40 years from now it is worth $5.7 million, and your kid inherits it. And when your kid is 57 years old it is worth $22 million, and he will able to pass it on to his son or daughter, and maybe that will be worth $120 million into their future. The whole escrow process and verification process is quite fragmented, unreliable. I think chainlink can be a technology which motivates and enables more streamlined home buying processes.
Identity verification: it is so easy for people to just steal your social security number, and pretend it is you. Imagine a future in which you could use chainlink or some sort of blockchain enabled identification, which can essentially be your global citizen passport to all of the world and the internet? This seems especially useful in today’s world in which everything is so fragmented, between our Apple ID, our Gmail, Etc. Or think about border control; certainly it would be easier to travel if there was some sort of blockchain or global ledger to verify your identity, this could help facilitate movement and verification, and deal with issues of forged passports etc.

Military

I think an inconvenient truth is that truth be told, a lot of the world is run by the military. Certainly there are lots of bad things about the military, but truth be told, without the US military, our precious US dollars would be worth nothing.

For example, I think the American government we are $31.46 trillion dollars in debt? To where… China?

As a consequence, how does America’s stay afloat and print more money? Simple, she simply prints more money because she can because we got the military to back us.

For example, let’s say that mainland China comes knocking and asks for her money back. Is America going to give it back? No. We will just wave our big stick, and say we are not interested.

So the interesting use case of chainlink and the US military is especially in the future drone warfare or whatever… It actually does seem that having some sort of crypto technology will be useful here.

For example the internet of things, chain-link solves this issue. Also, I believe a lot of the US military intervention stuff is going to be unmanned, and having access to some sort of technology which allows automation without meddling in the Internet seems like a good idea.

Even look at the company Anduril– it has a major investment from founders fund, Peter Thiel’s venture capitalist fund. It looks like the future of autonomous flying drones to bomb the bad guys is going to be the future.

So why did I buy it?

I think in life, big opportunities only come infrequently. As a consequence, I think in life… it seems better to take really big bold bets, rather than just stand on the sidelines.

At the end of our lives, we will regret more the decisions or the risks we failed to do, rather than the ones we did.

For example, if a big opportunity comes up, and you’re interested, go for it. You don’t want to be 90 years old on your deathbed, kicking yourself in the butt wishing that you had taken that risk. In hindsight, everything is regret.

Think Eric Schmidt

My personal speculation is that I think chainlink will become the next Google. Why? ERIC Schmidt is on the board of trustees for chainlink, and ERIC Schmidt is the one who built Google into what it is today. Just watch the interview between him and Sergey. In a telling quote, ERIC Schmidt said:

The secret to success of Google was that we tried to put a little bit of Google into everything.

Genius. For example, this is evident in how whenever you Google search something, there is a little bit of that Google code in the URL.

Therefore my prediction is chainlink… whether you know it or not there will be a little bit of chainlink in everything. For example, their decentralized oracle network to show accurate prices for any cryptocurrency asset down to the penny. Also, maybe the future of international banking, the SWIFT system… Will be enabled with chainlink?

Who is Satoshi?

Apparently there’s a rumor that Sergey Nazarov might be Satoshi.

Also the reason why I trust Sergey as a founder is this:

He doesn’t really care for social appearances.

I think I learned this from NASSIM TALEB; only trust doctors who look like butchers. Why? When somebody looks too much the part of something, they are not.

For example, when you go to a party, who is the real successful person? The person who could show up and meet the prime minister and shake hands wearing T-shirt and jeans and sneakers, just like my friend did meeting the prime minister.

Also, the really really rich successful person will just drive some sort of white Toyota Prius or old beat up Honda Civic, in silver. Even the family car; very specifically… White Honda Odyssey. Not even a Toyota sienna!

Even family connections, my $500 million net worth familia– the dad gave all the kids Ford fusions, and even though the dad is a major player in Tesla, they only have a super base level Tesla model three in white. No Tesla model Y, X, S.

Anyways, the founder Sergey — he always wears the same blue flannel, and really has an air of insouciance that is good. He isn’t the one looking all flashy driving around in the Lamborghini. He probably just drives a Honda Civic or Honda Accord, and I think he is really trying to build something he cares for.

I think there’s a saying in Silicon Valley amongst venture capital firms, bet on the jockey not the horse. That means, better to invest in the founder of a great thing, rather than the company or the product. For example, it is wise to bet on Elon Musk and anything he built, rather than Other companies which are built by random CEOs and non-visionaries.

I bet on Sergey N.

Investors

My brother-in-law Khanh told me: if you spent $80,000 to buy a Tesla model S several years ago, that would be worth $500,000 today!

True investors live like poor people, and speculate on the thing, rather than buying the thing.

For example, instead of spending $120,000 on Tesla, I would instead prefer to buy $120,000 worth of Tesla stock.

Why? Things that go up in value overtime versus things that go down in value.

For example, even though a Tesla car gets software updates over the air, eventually over time, the value of it will slowly depreciate. The battery range will become less, more wear and tear on the vehicle etc. Even the world’s best car can be robust at best, not antifragile.

What is antifragile? Something that overtime gets better and stronger and more powerful and better and more robust… rather than the opposite.

This might be the intelligence of collecting rare collector cars, like old Ferraris or whatever… even old Porsche cars, over time, the value of them will go up.

Even apparently the old Toyota Supra, the one that showed up in fast and the furious, they are worth close to $250,000 now!

So perhaps the best way to think about things is to think of them like financial investments, rather than toys.

Other good news

It looks like their new chainlink staking, chainlink economics is also doing very well. The full pool has been filled already!

Now what?

I think at the end of the day, I don’t really care for money that much, I am more interested in speculation, risk, and thinking and predicting the future. This is my prime joy and bliss.

Don’t simply sit on the sidelines, twiddling your thumbs for some sort of magical future to get better. I say rather than waiting for the future, speculate and invest in it right now!

ERIC

***

So what do you want for Christmas this year?

I think for Christmas, simple things you could do:

For family, invest in a collective experience. This means take a fun family trip somewhere, maybe go to Joshua tree and rent an Airbnb, go on some great hikes etc. Make the experience memorable.
Just write somebody a handwritten card, or just give them a FaceTime call! Love attention and care is the best present you can give.
Buy somebody a good bag of coffee, or, gift them some ERIC KIM Omakase coffee; 100% fine robusta, the best coffee on the planet. It seems that everyone drinks coffee now, even for myself the best random presents I’ve gotten were bags of great coffee!
Weightlifting equipment like Titan.Fitness, or rogue fitness; gift it to yourself or to a friend or family member! From Titan.fitness — I personally bought some farmers carry handles which I love, a loadable Olympic dumbbell. I bought a rogue fitness 400 pound sandbag, and a Texas power squat bar which I love. Giving the gift of fitness might be one of the best things you could do, or just buy somebody a core power yoga membership, or buy it for yourself! I’m really a big fan of hot yoga; something about the hot temperature sauna and sweating feels therapeutic.
Vibram five finger shoes, the toe shoes. For yourself or a family member. Just go on their website and order three pairs, and keep the one that fits and return the other sizes.

What else?

Some thoughts on sublime beauty:

Sublime Beauty

So what are we searching for, what are we looking for?

I think what we see is some sort of sublime beauty, joy, flourishing.

How do we attempt to achieve this? Through our cars our homes our clothing etc.

However… I think true sublime beauty can only be achieved by yourself, through your own artistic creations.

For example, your own child, producing begetting and making and birthing your own child; there is seriously no greater joy.

Also, your artistic creations. Your photos, the artwork you produce. I also qualify DALL-E 3 images, ChatGPT and AI art in it! Why? Ultimately it is your brainchild; doesn’t really matter whether you produced it by yourself by hand or whatever. For example, Matisse in his advanced years apparently lost mobility in his body and hands, and would simply point with the stick to his assistance to create artwork for him.

Also, Andy Warhol. He was notorious for having an army of assistance producing work for him.

My thought on artificial intelligence and AI generated art is free. The idea is that the artwork we create is ours.

One thing I find surprising is that the greatest boon for AI generated art is that it is all open source! Isn’t this phenomenal?

Open art

Art wants to be free! Art wants to propagate into the real world, not be constrained by nothing, whether digital rights management, closed doors or borders etc.

This is my general idea with open source artwork; I hate that so much of great photos and art is simply trapped within printed books, not easily accessible or findable on the internet. My huge frustration with photography:

If I am trying to find the book “the Americans“, or any other book out there, any photo book… Why can’t I just Google it or find it online for free?

I have a very simple suggestion: make the images online for free, everything open source and full resolution… and what you do instead is you charge money for the printed physical book.

For example, let us say that you’re planning to publish a photo book. The easiest way to approach this is have an open source free full resolution PDF available online to download, to give your potential customer and clients a taste of what to expect. And then if they like your photos enough, they will buy the printed book.

Why? people like physical things. I think the bias is that people don’t like to pay for digital things, but we are more than happy to pay for physical things.

For example, a very simple strategy to thrive as a modern day photographer entrepreneur and artist visual artist, Fatar for it to have all of your artwork open, open source, full resolution JPEG or PDF or whatever… and barbell that with charging a lot of money for your products, physical products, embodied workshop experiences etc.

How to create sublime beauty?

For me, sublime beauty in the context of photography is high grain, gritty high contrast black-and-white. It is a simple aesthetic taste for myself; to me there is nothing more beautiful more sublime.

Also, taking photos of your loved ones. This involves your kids, your wife or your spouse, and even yourself.

Even my friend Josh White said it wisely: At the end of your life, are you going to care about all these photos that you shot of strangers, or are you going to care about photos that you shot of your loved ones?

Love

I think instead of thinking about love, better to think about heart, care, curation, what you care for.

For example, the word coeur– same as courage, curate, care.

It all comes down to the heart.

Just don’t do nothing you don’t care for

One of the via negativa ways we could live life; just don’t do anything you don’t care for.

For example when you’re talking to kids, best to ask “What don’t you want to be when you grow up?”

Also happiness is via negativa; better to ascertain what makes you miserable, what you hate, what you despise… and figuring out how to subtract or delete that from your life, rather than doing things that make you “happy”.

For example, personal annoyances of myself include being stuck in traffic, dealing with subscriptions and subscription model things, closed source things, modern day news and media and Facebook Instagram, YouTube, family annoyances and drama, other peoples problems etc.

Also, typically I despise email; and also I typically hate being automatically subscribed to some BS newsletter that I did not opt in. Therefore the silver ethical rule here is interesting:

If something annoys you, don’t do that to others.

For example, I hate when people automatically subscribe me to some email newsletter without me checking a button to confirm that actually wanted. Therefore I will never send an email newsletter to anybody who has not intentionally opted in.

Also, trying to do things for other people that I would myself like. For example, I don’t think I’ve ever received an email or an email newsletter that I actually liked to work for. Therefore as a consequence, my simple strategy is to drive to send emails or email newsletters that people actually look forward to reading.

Or in other words, make people actually positively excited to check their email inbox!

What you yourself do

Ignore the “advice” of others, and also… best to simply observe what other people do.

Also, the best way to study success is to figure out what people don’t do, what they don’t own, etc.

For example, Elon Musk and Kanye West; neither of them wear watches.

Also, neither has an Instagram, both deleted it.

Also, Elon Musk doesn’t own a home or live in a home. I think he just rents some sort of random two bedroom one bath home hut somewhere in Austin Texas.

Also, Elon Musk does not own any Lamborghinis Ferraris or loser cars.

Also, the greatest courage of a Kanye West; he doesn’t censor himself, he says what is really on his mind.

Maybe is Kanye the most courageous man alive? Maybe. There is no right and wrong, all is permitted. Therefore to not censor yourself in modern-day society is the ultimate act of courage?

Sublime thoughts

Beautiful body, beautiful thoughts.

How to gain more beautiful thoughts? My simple suggestion is maximum time in the direct sun, ideally topless. Also, sleep early — shoot for 8pm?

A simple suggestion is limit your coffee and caffeine intake only between 4 AM to 9 AM, or only the morning hours.

And also during the day, lift weights at least once, maybe even twice.

Also my supreme luxury; the last few days, in a single day I have done all three: at least one hot yoga session, at least one hike in nature, and at least one weightlifting session.

A life post-work?

Why work? I thought which interested me while in Vietnam, when Cindy and I were living in Hanoi, paying only $320 USD a month for rent, a position in which literally even if we wanted to spend all our money, we cannot spend it fast enough. Eating out every day, living in a small hotel room, no possessions no nothing.

Living in America seems a bit foolish if you don’t need to. I think it is far superior to live in Hanoi, Saigon, Pom pen, ironically even Japan; I think when we were living in Kyoto, we were subbing an apartment for only $500 USD a month.

SUITS PDF BOOK >

Why think abroad?

TRAVEL NOTES (PDF)– the simple financial life leverage is simple:

Earn US dollars, American standards, live abroad.

For example, Mexico City, Roma Norte, even Doctores. Condesa — all good.

Truth be told, if Cindy was not employed in America, I see zero reason to live here. I would probably be living somewhere else; and also assuming I didn’t have a kid, I would definitely be some sort of weird digital nomad.

Writing is leisure

People don’t seem to get it; the primary function of writing is meta-thinking, a fun leisure activity. A fun luxury.

This is where I don’t understand 99.9% of writers; it seems some sort of weird self-flagellation here. Most writers I know… don’t actually enjoy writing.

This is where ChatGPT is no threat; honestly we gotta rethink this whole K-12 education and college thing; the point of writing isn’t writing for the sake of good writing; the point of writing is to flesh out our thoughts, to share ideas that we find interesting.

What is the point of life anyways?

A simple one is to have offspring; to have at least one kid, perhaps ideally two kids, or if you’re willing… more.

I think the funny thing about kids and family is that typically we use ourselves in our own life experiences as a barometer and framing. For example, I have one younger sister two years younger than me, and I always wanted to have at least one boy, one girl. It is because that is how I was raised.

Having kids make sense in so far much as if people stopped having kids, quite literally there would be no future humanity. What’s the point of having all the wealth in the world if there are no future children or humans to enjoy it?

What do you want your kids to become?

Being self-employed, probably the best thing is that I literally can just spend all day with Seneca, being his personal trainer and tutor. I think of myself like Chiron the centaur, the private tutor of Achilles. Things I like to do with Seneca include physical activity exercise and exploration, his diet, which is close to 100% carnivore, 100% grass fed beef or Wagyu ground beef, and more recently… Finding this “ancestral blend“ ground beef thing at Erwhon (force of nature brand)– which has the consistency of normal ground beef, but has mixed in it beef liver and beef hard, which are natural steroids.

In fact I think the optimal diet is a 100% organ meat diet; organ meats are probably at least 100 times higher in nutritional density than even flesh meat.

Everyone says that eating red meat is bad; how about organ meats?

People say that eating meat is bad for the planet, but let us consider how much waste and scraps is thrown away from the animal, which include the heart, the liver, the kidneys, the tendons and ligaments, etc.

So if you really wanted to be a “woke” person, perhaps the wisest way to do this is just only eat a pure organ meat diet.

What else?

START HERE

New stuff:

Also… more books here!

When in doubt, go back to the source!

ERIC KIM BLOG >

***

“Greater fates, greater fortunes.” – Heraclitus

December 9, 2023

Why I Bought Chainlink

A simple heuristic that I learned from Nassim TALEB; don’t ask people what you should invest in, ask them… What did you invest in?

For example, I recently swapped a bunch of my bitcoin for chainlink. Why did I do it? My thoughts:

What is chainlink?

Essentially it is a platform built upon Ethereum, the blockchain… that strives to solve real world problems.

The first critical issue at hand is the notion of the “Oracle problem”, and cryptographic proof and truth.

The general gist of the Oracle problem is that you have all these people purporting to say something… How do you know if someone is really telling the truth or not?

Also, they’re great innovation of a decentralized oracle network. I think anything that is decentralized and can be done offline is a good idea; anything that has to be done when you’re connected to the web is fragile.

For example, the “internet of things”, which includes all of your home devices, your home stuff etc. I think this includes your home speaker things, your Amazon echo or echo dot, your Apple HomePod thing, your ring Amazon nest devices etc.

Enabling transactional value?

TVE — transactional value enabled?

Chainlink staking?

What is the purpose of technology and these things? A very basic idea is that the point is to help enable commerce and other things. Money makes the world go round, Publilius Syrus.

What is money anyways? Money is movement. Anything that literally physiologically moves human beings in time and space is money.

For example, if you promise somebody $30 an hour, they will walk around, move their bodies to clean toilets, etc.

Also, money movement. The whole global economy to me is so fascinating; because we process and move information so quickly and so globally… how do you link it all together?

Chain – Link

I find chainlink to be an interesting concept because wherever you go in real life, there are physical chain links everywhere.

Also, technically the internet, the World Wide Web, is a bunch of hyperlinks which link websites together.

My personal thought and prediction is that chainlink could become the next Google; Google indexes the whole internet, and made it easy for you to find any sort of website. What I think chainlink will do is link all of this information on the internet and computers and make them accessible, trustworthy, tamperproof.

Just read it

Only read stuff that you find interesting, skip over stuff you find boring.

About a week or two ago, I reread the original bitcoin white paper, and I was so impressed with how short it was, how minimalistic it was, and how to the point it was. But… reading it… this time around… felt a bit boring.

And this is the big thing: if something bores you, you gotta get out of it.

Therefore, I sold or transferred or converted nine of my bitcoin and put it all into chainlink, at the time it was valued at ~20,800 LINK (CHAINLINK), with bitcoin at around $35,000 a bitcoin.

I think what I try to do is think at least 30 years into the future. 20 or 30 years. It is funny, as I write this at the age of 35, 30 years from now Seneca is only going to be 32 years old, still a few years younger than me. My personal aspiration is to hold onto chainlink for at least 30 years, and then maybe transfer it to Seneca when he grows up. Or I just help him build some sort of company or entrepreneurial venture etc.

Investing in things actually do something?

I love bitcoin but maybe one of the big issues here is that bitcoin is like digital money and gold; most people just hold onto it, and I don’t think actually aspire to use it to actually pay for your latte at Starbucks or whatever. I think because bitcoin and cryptocurrency is so volatile; Everybody’s hope and dream and ambition is that their coin will rise value astronomically and they will become rich, buy the Lamborghini or whatever… and be happy.

Trust nobody who drives a Lamborghini — only trust people who drive Toyota Priuses, in white.

Why? If you drive a Toyota Prius, in white… it is a signal that you really don’t care for appearances.

How do you know if somebody is unsuccessful?

If they drive a Range Rover, a Mercedes AMG G wagon, murdered out, all matte black, a baselevel Mercedes car, a baselevel Audi car, like an A3 or a Q3, drive some sort of Audi electric car which is just the same as the Porsche Taycan, don’t forget that the Volkswagen group owns Lamborghini Audi Volkswagen Porsche etc. same thing goes with anybody who drives a BMW car.

Foreign cars are bad.

It is just a game!

I think crypto, cryptocurrency speculation is an interesting game; prediction, prediction markets, trying to predict the future… is just a luxury and a fun thing.

Some predictions are pretty obvious

When I was in college, my sophomore year, and I was starting to get into trading stocks, daytrading… I had a pretty certain thought that Blockbuster was going to go under. I tried to figure out how to short stocks, but I really couldn’t figure out how to do it.

Also I remember when the prime mortgage meltdown happened, and the value of Ford went to almost 2 dollars a year. I wanted to buy some Ford stock but I had no money, no capital.

It is interesting to think about this in hindsight because when I was incorrectly trading pennystock, for some sort of oil producer company which was actually running at a loss… I had no idea because I misread the financials… I lost my whole life savings which was maybe $3500 USD or something. It was insanely tragic. But now that I am playing with higher sums more like $300,000 USD, I realize that it was just a valuable lesson at the time.

Therefore, with any sort of financial speculation, think about it at the 30 year span. Even when you are 70 or 80 years old, I met this lady at the park who looked phenomenal and she told me she was 82… she looked like a very fit 45-year-old!

My personal aspiration is when I’m 82 years old, to still be able to lift 1000 pounds. Google or YouTube “ERIC KIM thousand pound atlas lift”

It seems that the way things are going, I don’t think it’s that ridiculous to think that we can live to be 120 years old. Try to think that far.

What is the use of money anyways?

I think actually the big thing is that everyone now aspires to buy a house or home or property. It is getting pretty ridiculous, even in Los Angeles, even buying a single-family home in Inglewood… you’re looking easily at around $1.5 million for a whatever house.

My prediction is that the prices of homes will continue to soar astronomically high. I think a lot of these $1.5 million homes can easily balloon two $3 million, $5 million, 10 and $15 million, $150 million or whatever. Why? The biggest issue at hand is runaway inflation, which means the value of the US dollar and currency is continually going lower and lower, because the US is what, currently speaking $30 trillion in debt? And what America thinks the smart idea is to just keep printing money ad infinitum, into infinity, in order to “stimulate” the economy.

But does this work? No.

For example talking to my friend Noel who works in hygiene, he says that a lot of these young guys, around 25 to 30 years old, are so lazy. Why? After Covid and people started giving away these free checks… and from unemployment you could literally make $5000 USD a month by sitting on your butt and doing nothing… people lost the motivation to work. A lot of people moved back home, live with their parents, and are essentially living for free. As a consequence you have a huge generation of unmotivated people, unwilling to do any sort of manual labor, which is bad because having manual and physical labor is critical.

For example, being in Beverly Hills a lot; and Holby Hills, there is this new funny caste systems; really rich people getting mansions built, and the army of construction labor people, mostly from Mexico doing the labor to build these mansions.

Also, think about Amazon prime delivery drivers, people who bag your food at Whole Foods, Erwhon etc, all these contractors electricians plumbers etc.… the truly critical labor. Doesn’t matter if you pay them $30 $40 $50 or even $60 an hour, it seems at this point money doesn’t really motivate them anymore. Therefore what do you do? It seems that America we are just importing more people from Mexico to do labor for us, because they are motivated. Americans are no longer motivated.

Crypto, crypto technology and cryptocurrency is optimistic

I am obsessed with the future. Future thinking, future technologies, new brave worlds to discover.

Why? I have always been into technology ever since I was a kid, getting my first Acer aspire Pentium one processor computer when I was around 11 years old. Even teaching myself how to program visual basic 3.0 in the early days, creating my own AOL “punter“ etc.

Also, I still will never forget when I read the Maddox article on why you should beat your kids, in computer class in Bayside Queens at PS 169 when I was in the fifth grade, and all of me and our friends, a bunch of 11-year-old laughing and saying “It is true!”

Even I remember as a kid, when I first moved to New York, maybe it was I had some sort of school in the Bronx, when kids in the hallway would “the South Park movies “blame Canada, blame Canada”…

Anyways the generalized thought is I love media information, and also I have a passion to innovate, write and to think, to motivate and to also disprove nonsense.

Ever since I was young I was always bred with an insanely huge ego; the eldest son of the eldest son of the eldest son, (jang-son), being raised with the “prince disease“, was unusually good for me. Always getting the finest cuts of meat and galbi from my grandmother, always showered with praise love and attention and how smart tall and good-looking I was. Very good for me.

The US dollar is static

Anybody who is a wage slave, which means anybody who is paid a biweekly or monthly salary… doesn’t matter if you’re being paid $10 million a year from Apple… You’re still a wage slave.

A simple heuristic:

Can you go two years without checking or responding to any of your emails or not?

If you have to use email for a living, you’re not free.

Once you’re a crypto trillionaire, then what?

Let us say that your cryptocurrency goes to the value of $1 trillion USD. Then what? Then do you just dissolve it all into US dollars, buy a mansion and a yacht somewhere, and live indefinitely into the horizon for infinite bliss?

This doesn’t seem to be the goal. For me, I think a more interesting life trajectory is to then to no longer care for money, and use your power mind and soul and body for more interesting things which can include philosophy, writing, thinking, doing research, reading, making art, publishing art, etc.

Money as it means to creative leisure and production.

Seeking immortal fame and glory?

One thing I am very happy about is ChatGPT knows exactly who I am, why I am so significant and influential, etc. As a consequence, I already feel like my legacy is secure, and I don’t have anything left to prove to nobody else.

As a consequence, at this point life is all upside no downside. Even one of the happiest moments of my life, Cindy and I begetting our first son Seneca, at this point life is all upside no downside.

As a man, as long as you have one male heir, you can die happy.

Now what?

Things that I find interesting use cases of chainlink:

Real estate, homebuying, escrow: even NASSIM TALEB has said that traditionally, most wealth generation in human society is through land, land ownership land property etc. For example let us say that you buy that 1.5 million dollar home, and 20 years from now it’ll be worth $3.2 million. And then let us assume that 30 or 40 years from now it is worth $5.7 million, and your kid inherits it. And when your kid is 57 years old it is worth $22 million, and he will able to pass it on to his son or daughter, and maybe that will be worth $120 million into their future. The whole escrow process and verification process is quite fragmented, unreliable. I think chainlink can be a technology which motivates and enables more streamlined home buying processes.
Identity verification: it is so easy for people to just steal your social security number, and pretend it is you. Imagine a future in which you could use chainlink or some sort of blockchain enabled identification, which can essentially be your global citizen passport to all of the world and the internet? This seems especially useful in today’s world in which everything is so fragmented, between our Apple ID, our Gmail, Etc. Or think about border control; certainly it would be easier to travel if there was some sort of blockchain or global ledger to verify your identity, this could help facilitate movement and verification, and deal with issues of forged passports etc.