ERIC KIM

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No, Meat is Not Bad for You.

Why do we think meat is bad for us? Simple —

We conflate (confuse) the difference between dietary fat in meat and the fat on our stomach (adipose tissue).

Thus the simple thought:

Eating red meats and meats high in saturated fats will lead me to gain more bodily fat (adipose tissue).

This is not true.

I Hate You Because I Cannot Be You

Or I hate you because I am no match for you.

As Nietzsche says … has any men ever admitted to this?

My theory:

When we hate people, we hate them because we are actually envious or jealous of them… because deep down, we want to be like them and act like them, but we would feel guilty or bad if we did so.

For example … perhaps everyone hates JAY Z because they wish they were as rich and successful as him. They hate Kanye West because he is married to Kim Kardashian, and they hate Kanye because he is now a billionaire, so successful, so musical, so creative, and so outspoken. Perhaps people wanna be like Kanye and speak their mind… but they lack the courage, are too cowardly, or perhaps secretly they wanna *act* like Kanye, but society or their morals-ethics have taught them that to do so is immoral?

[Read more…] about I Hate You Because I Cannot Be You

Soft Coercion

Very rarely are people actually coerced to do something against their own free will, forcibly. Typically the coercion is more insidious, sneaky and low-key: fear tactics include potential loss of income, blackmailing personal family information, or other forms of coercion.

Why does this difference matter? Well, realize most people will not coerce you to do something against your own free will in your face; they will do it against you in far more sneaky and hidden ways. Thus when you are pressured to do something or make a decision take a step back, pause and delay. Wait at least 48 hours before making the (potentially irreversible) decision.

Only Practitioners Should Critique, Judge, and Commentate

My belief:

Unless you are a practitioner, one should not critique, judge, or commentate.

Why? You don’t got real-life (experienced, empirical) experience. Better:

Only talk about your real life experiences and talk about what you’ve actually done or not.

For example:

  1. Susan Sontag shouldn’t have written On Photography, considering she didn’t (really) make photos.
  2. People who don’t practice street photography shouldn’t critique it, having never tried or done it themselves (seriously) themselves.
  3. Unless you’ve actually built your own company before, or became a sole proprietor of your own company, one should not commentate or write business books or talk about entrepreneurship. Or better yet, only those with risky souls should write about risk-taking.
  4. If I am a man, I should not comment on women matters. Similar, I wouldn’t want other non-men to comment on masculinity.
  5. I should not talk about the racial experiences of others (unless they are Asian). Why? I grew up Asian-American (Korean American) in America– and I can only draw upon and talk about my own experiences. I cannot and *should not* talk about the lived experiences of others.

Practice the Motion

With anything in life, just keep practicing the motion and you’ll get better at it! Even weight lifting and powerlifting — it’s all about practicing the motion.

Degrees of Free Will

My turbo thought when walking around:

Certainly free will exists. However this is the caveat —

Some people have *MORE* free will than others. Also, free will can be cultivated like a muscle.

It don’t matter how ‘genetically gifted you are’ (I am not), but with enough time, training, and meat consumption … any human being can become incredibly strong and muscular. For me, I am Korean-American and around 5 foot 10 inches, with no remarkable physical traits (my dad is a typical ‘skinny fat‘ degenerate). I have relatively small hands and wrists. Yet I was able to train to get a 1-rep max (sumo) deadlift of 455 pounds (4 plates and a 25 on each side), with no belt, no steroids, no protein powder, no straps, no weird stuff. And while fasted!

[Read more…] about Degrees of Free Will

13 New Photography Assignment Ideas for You

Fresh from the ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER >

Dear friends,

Sending you lots of love from sunny Providence Rhode Island. Feeling pretty good, and have a good caffeine buzz from my light-roast blonde coffee (Wink Coffee from Amazon), and had some turbo photo thoughts to share with you:

  1. Play around with Google Photos: photos.google.com is quite fun from the desktop. You can also play around with their desktop Google Photos app for auto uploads. Upload your favorite photos, organize, and figure out how to best represent your work.
  2. Upload your best photos to arsbeta.com and also start giving real critiques to other photos in the ARS community.
  3. If you got a digital RICOH GR I, II, or III, play around with the ‘cross process’ JPEG filter. It looks really good. I think Fujifilm also has one too.
  4. Peruse my free BOOKS section, and download the ones which interest you. Just steal an interesting idea here or there. I also encourage skim-reading.
  5. Buy a Fujifilm Instax Mini camera (Amazon, or BH Photo) and just start having fun shooting instant photos during COVID or quarantine!
  6. Start shooting selfies of yourself at home. Experiment with different lighting, angles, etc. Shoot yourself in the bathroom, hallway, next to the window. Also shoot selfies of your hands and feet.
  7. Create your own e-book of your best photos (publish as PDF) in Google Slides or the iBooks Author tool (free for Mac computers on desktop Mac or MacBook laptop).
  8. Ditch Adobe Lightroom and start experimenting with the default Apple Photos (I do not like Adobe’s new subscription model). If you got a PC, get Photo Mechanic instead. If you got a MacBook Pro laptop with a Touch Bar, using Apple Photos and the Touch Bar to favorite or rotate or edit your photos is actually very fun!
  9. If you got a new iPhone or a new smartphone with an ultra-wide angle lens, only shoot ultra-wide angle for a week!
  10. Start your own website-blog. Signup on bluehost.com and install wordpress.org. Prices start at only $3.95 a month … that is even cheaper than Netflix!!! If you want to learn how to build your own website-blog on WordPress, enroll in my online Udemy Course: “Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Photography Entrepreneurship“.
  11. Peruse the HAPTIC SHOP for cool stuff. You can also peep our shop on AMAZON >
  12. Perhaps use quarantine as a chance to learn how to shoot film. You can learn how to process your own film at home … you got so much free time now!
  13. Give away one of your old digital cameras to a friend, family member, niece, nephew, child, or someone who you think can use it better than you! Double-dipping; you feel good about it, and you give them a tool to empower them to make new photos!

What is ERIC KIM up to?

A list:

  1. Currently reading Galen on the Natural Faculties (PDF link). Galen was essentially the second-best physician-philosopher of all-time after Hippocrates (we know the Hippocratic oath, “First do no harm”). Now in the COVID-19 time, it seems medical ethics is far more important than ever. My essay: “Growth vs Becoming“
  2. Working out a lot at home and in my home gym, trying to maximize my gains!
  3. Maximizing my blogging, photo-making, vlogging, video, YouTube, and Podcast. Taking life less seriously; having more fun!

Your photo assignment

Simple photo assignment:

Photograph your own hand.

Make it as artsy-fartsy as you want. Use high contrast monochrome, or color. Use a flash or natural light. Experiment with different angles, or your different hands. Then upload your #1 best photo to arsbeta.com to get (and give) feedback.

Have fun and go shoot!
ERIC

You can subscribe to ERIC KIM Newsletter Here (or subscribe with a new email).

How I Come Up With My Ideas (Ideation 101)

  1. I go on walks without a phone or headphones. While I walk outdoors, I get new ideas.
  2. I read a lot of old school classics. Read Ancient Greek philosophy for the best ideas — to steal and repurpose these ancient ideas in a modern context.
  3. Lift weights or workout. Hormonal rush from exercise gives birth to new ideas.
  4. Read poetry or listen to music.
  5. Play with kids, or have a deep philosophical discussion with an adult.
  6. Observe nature.
  7. Shoot photos. While shooting photos or videos I come up with ideas.
  8. Drink a lot of black coffee.
  9. Intermittent fasting during the day to keep your mind sharp.
  10. No email, social media, phone, or news to crowd out your thoughts. Quit the news and quit social media.
  11. Get to bed early (7:30pm, 8pm, 9pm). Good sleep leads to better ideas. Don’t drink alcohol or smoke weed — it messes up your sleep.
[Read more…] about How I Come Up With My Ideas (Ideation 101)

Growth vs Becoming

“That which is, grows and that which is not, becomes.” – Galen on the Natural Faculties

Galen natural faculties
Book 2 of On the Natural Faculties by Galen

Or in other words:

If you already exist, you grow. If you don’t exist yet, your genesis is a process of “becoming”.

Thus perhaps:

  1. We as humans, our task is to keep growing. We are already alive!
  2. Entrepreneurially speaking, our goal is to make NEW things, NEW platforms, and NEW ideas which have yet “become”.
[Read more…] about Growth vs Becoming

Consult Your Own Conscience

Before asking others whether something is ethical or not, first go on a long walk and ask yourself:

Do *I* think this is ethical? Yes or no?

If anything best to NEVER ask others whether your actions are ethical or not. My heuristic:

If you’re asking others whether something you did was ethical or not, if probably wasn’t (this is why it is hounding your conscience).

Thus the maximally robust position in life: never do anything (no matter how others threaten or guilt you) which is contrary to your own personal code of morals and ethics.

ERIC

[Read more…] about Consult Your Own Conscience

Bitter is Better

In life, foods, and almost everything in life … bitter is better. For example coffee is sweet and enjoyful to us because it is bitter (small dose of poison, hormesis). Also, bitter greens (kale, collard greens) are only “healthy” to us because it is bitter (bitter substances stimulate our body’s physiological response).

Similar in real life, it is the bitter experiences which make us better and improve us. A life with no bitterness, sadness, sorrow, pain or suffering isn’t a life worth living.

[Read more…] about Bitter is Better

The Ethics of Shit Talking

Talk about others as if you were talking to their face, or if they could hear you in real time. Because sometimes the truth will leak out, or they actually might be in the room with you, or behind your back, unbeknownst to you.

To talk shit is fine— everyone does it. But the question:

If you say x, y, z …. would you actually say it to the face of another human being?

For example before you say anything sexist, racist, classist, or whatever … would you actually say it to that person in real life, to their face?

[Read more…] about The Ethics of Shit Talking

Self Control

Yes, we have self control. We can decide whether to do something or not to do something. Free will is:

I am pressured to do x, y, z or NOT to do x, y, z .. but I still have the ultimate choice to choose.

So What?

Let us say all the hoaxes, conspiracy theories or whatever is true. Then what? Like Andy Warhol said:

Whenever I was criticized in life, I would just ask myself: “So what?” This fixed a lot of things.

This is my point of interest. Let us say all the isms which exist in America and beyond are true and irrefutable. Then the question comes:

So what are you gonna do about it?

[Read more…] about So What?

CONTROL OVER MONEY

The epiphany:

More important to have control over yourself, your life, your thoughts, and your body and your own company than to ‘sell out’ to a company for $100 Billion Dollars.

Notta bene:

  1. Kevin Systrom who sold Instagram to Facebook for $1Billion Dollars, only to quit the company. My theory — once Kevin and Instagram got bought out by Facebook, they lost all control over the company.
  2. Brian Acton who sold What’s App to Facebook for $19 Billion dollars. Brian seems to have profoundly regretted his decision to ‘sell out’ to Facebook. Note Brian Acton wrote: “It is time. #deletefacebook“. What does Brian know that we don’t know? Best to use Signal (his new private messaging company) instead.

Thus the lesson:

Build your company as if you can (or never *WOULD*) sell it!

ERIC

[Read more…] about CONTROL OVER MONEY

Better to Subtract than to Add

Subtraction is often better than addition. For example to become “happier” in life, better to SUBTRACT or GET RID OF things which stress you out or make you miserable. To become more productive, better to SUBTRACT and GET RID OF distractions which sap away your focus. Even when it comes to technology, tools, gadgets, gizmos and certain lifestyle things, subtraction is superior to addition.

However this is the problem— much of capitalism and consumerism depends on adding stuff to our life and buying stuff. To be a minimalist or to simplify or get rid of things is kind of anti capitalist and consumerist.

An idea:

What if you can build a “via negativa” business like Marie Kando in which you can make money by helping people subtract BS from their life?

Or like the great Freedom application which TURNS OFF and DISABLES your wifi on your laptop to encourage more productivity.

For photography to build your self esteem and to augment your photographic creativity, CUT OUT or DELETE Instagram!

Self Flagellation for Your Privilege

Why is it that the rich and privileged kids get so suckered by communism, anarchism, Marxism, and fascism? My thought:

Kids feel guilty and feel the need to self-flagellate themselves for their privilege, wealth, and high class.

Why? Perhaps the Puritanical guilt in America. Perhaps liberal left-leaning radical professors (a lot who are either closet or overt Marxists) which brainwash their high class students in the top UC schools and even liberal Ivy League schools. Perhaps the desire to sacrifice themselves for a cause— the Christian martyr complex?

Why I Love America

It seems to be in vogue to be anti-American, or Anti-American government, or anti America … anything, especially if you’re non-American (European) or if you’re part of the Liberal-Left Intelligentsia of America. For example, the funny bias:

If you are an intellectual or part of the elite class in America, you are not allowed to openly say: “I love America, and I love being an American”.

Very strange. Why this bias? Let us unravel it:

[Read more…] about Why I Love America

Society *Shouldn’t* Be Fair

I believe in notions of ‘equal access’ and ideas of meritocracy (your merit, effort, hard work and hustle pays off). This is where America is probably the *least bad* nation to climb the socio-economic ladder.

However a lot of people who encourage ‘fairness’ in society is misguided. A fair society … a 100% equal society, a 100% level-even-playing-field-horizontal-no-hierarchy society is not a good one. Why? It kills and saps away all ambition, spirit and soul from the individual.

[Read more…] about Society *Shouldn’t* Be Fair