ERIC KIM

What is the best design? The design which invigorates you. Design which pumps you up, and get you going. Perhaps this is why we also love red cars, as the color red invigorates us. This is why we also are attracted to women and red dresses, as it sparks our erotic invigoration. Apparently even men who were the color red or seen as more attractive by women.

Therefore when it comes to design, or aesthetics, Focus on what invigorates, and excites you, rather than design which is stale, boring, or depresses you.

Also with music, literature, and films, only intake and consume that which invigorates you.

What are the best shoes? The shoes which are most barefoot. Who is this I have all these L run shark shoes slippers, which are actually water shoes. They are great because they practically weigh nothing, and I could walk dozens of Miles and them without any fatigue

I think you could live a happy life anywhere you are. Yet, it seems that in order to become happier, more productive and more photographic, the more you walk the better.

Therefore I think that if you want to extract the maximum out of life, optimize for walking. Optimize your clothes, lifestyle, and occupation for walking.

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Optimize your life for walkingRead More »

Nowadays, I find the masculine aesthetic or concept as very bizarre. for example, on one hand you have the steroid obsessed, bodybuilder look, and on the other hand you have the emasculated skinny-fat artist look.

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Towards a New Masculine AestheticRead More »

Why it is good to be polarizing

I think it is perhaps Christian morality that says, make everybody like you, be an enemy to nobody, and do not polarize. But what if the best secret was to polarize? That the road to success and victory is through polarization, not having everyone like you?

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POLARIZE.Read More »

Hey friends a thought: when you think about buying something new, just ask yourself, do you think it is 1000 times better than what you already got, or will it improve your life by 1000 times?

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Will it improve your life by 1000x?Read More »

Beyond basic ways to use YouTube:

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CREATIVE WAYS TO USE YOUTUBERead More »

Document your morning routine:

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MORNING COFFEE ROUTINE (NO ESPRESSO, NO LIFE).Read More »

A thought when it comes to black and white, and monochrome aesthetics in photography:

When you make photos as dark as possible, and crush the blacks, and make the contrast the maximum, what we are doing is applying more black ink to our photos.

Like calligraphy, we love the black ink!

Thus when you’re composing and framing a photo, don’t include the bright — optimize for the dark.

Once again, do not include anything that which is bright in your frame, especially in the corners of the frame when composing. Just get closer. Stick with your wide-angle prime lens, and just use your ‘foot zoom’ to get closer to your subject-matter, and fill the frame with that which you find interesting.

Fill the frame with black. Our disdain for that which is *NOT* black.

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BLACK INK.Read More »

The privilege of being able to live without a car supersedes the privilege of having the most expensive car.

In other words, it is a bigger and stronger flexed to tell other people that you don’t own a car, rather than you owning a car. “Via negativa success” is what I call it. Similarly speaking, the ability to live without a smart phone is actually much more impressive than owning the newest iPhone Pro.

Therefore, the best way to distinguish yourself is not by owning the most expensive and obscure things, but rather, distinguishing yourself on what you don’t have, even though you can afford it.

The purpose of life isn’t to maximize your happiness. But to maximize your power influence, and impact.

Thus, with living matters, optimize and invest in anything that will help you become more influential, powerful, and will leverage archimedes lever to make a stronger and greater impact on society, the world, and humanity.

You become the prime mover, that is, you are the first one to start things. don’t wait for things to happen to you, have yourself happen to things.

In order to get more out of life, rather than wishing things were different, better to best harness what you already got, and to exploit it to the maximum.

For example with photography, rather than desiring to live in interesting place, best to just exploit your current city to the maximum. Better to be the first person to photograph your own boring town, than be one of the billion photographers who already photographed New York City to death.

Or consider all of the great philosophers who decided to intentionally not live in Greece, even though Greece was the epicenter of all philosophical activities.

Or in other words, better to transform your boring city or town into a great place, instead of moving to a great place and thinking that the place will form you. Rather than seeking to move to New York City in order to “find yourself“, best to stay home and figure out how to transform it into an interesting place. And you become the prime mover.

When you ask others for life advice, best to ask them for via Negativa advice or anti-advice: that is, asking them what not to do in order to achieve your desired outcome.

For example, when you look at rich and successful people, figure out what they don’t do in their daily lives rather than what they do do. Or rather than figure out how to become rich, best to figure out how to not waste money.

This is the irony of being rich or being a millionaire, that is in order to become a millionaire you must not spend $1 million. When people aspire to become millionaires, they think it means that they could go out and spend $1 million. But the real millionaire is the one who is insanely thrifty with their money, not the one who flexes the hardest with the most expensive things. Or in other words, the real rich person is probably the one who drives up the beat up Prius, rather than the one who buys a brand new Tesla.

In order to get more out of life, in order to be less distracted more focused and productive, perhaps being anti-optimal is a good idea.

This is called “satisficing”— A combination of the word satisfy and suffice. Also known in the same realm is the notion of heuristics, seeking a productive and good enough solution, rather than the “best”.

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Anti OptimalRead More »

Having a kid is the world’s best thing of all-time:

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SEN LIFE.Read More »

No amount of money will purchase your freedom. There is also no product or lifestyle that will also give you your freedom.

True freedom is a mindset. As wealth is a mindset.

Even though I’m pretty anti-video games, I think that studying video games is actually a very fascinating way to understand humanity. For example, when you think about the initial grand theft auto and World of Warcraft, what is it that people love the most? The open world concept. That you could go anywhere, do anything, and unlock any and every single door.

And what is it that we want from crypto technologies? We also like the idea of getting rid of borders, and restrictions. Even notions of “decentralized finance“, is more about having open borders when it comes to the movement of money or resources.

Is real life open world?

So the trillion dollar question is this: is embodied reality, what we often refer as “the real world“, truly open world?

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Why Open World?Read More »

What is it that we desire? Popular acclaim. It seems the common prejudice is the more, the better. for example, if you have an event, it is deemed more successful as the more people who attended it. Also the popularity of a video, in terms of how many views he gets, is considered the ultimate badge of worth.

But is this true? I think not. if we think that popularity, the numbers were the Apex importance, then McDonald’s would be the worlds best “restaurant“, that Starbucks would be the worlds best coffee, and whatever product has the most five star reviews on Amazon would be the best product (often not the case). Or whatever pop song is trending right now is the best music.

The rare for the rare. The more rare the better. For example, better to be the one guy who owns the Porsche GT 3 than be the same guy who has a Tesla model 3. And certainly better to think differently from the masses, and to own your own table of values, than follow the common prejudice that the more money you have, the more successful you are.

In the past, travel almost became too easy. When I was in college, traveling abroad was really difficult, especially before smart phones.

Now with the global pandemic, and the never ending stream of Covid variant, it seems that the future is going to be more difficult for travel, than easier.

What does this mean for us travelers and adventurers? It means that travel will truly become a privilege for the brave.

Whenever I think about my personal happiness, health and well-being, it seems that the more time I spend outdoors, that is simply time outside the house, the better.

Why is this? I have some theories. One theory is that to be human is to walk. The more we walk, the more human we are. Even though Silicon Valley mentality now is the most virtuous human is the most productive human, that spends most of their time in front of the laptop.

Why do we have eyes? Why do we have two eyes? Why do we have depth perception? Why are we bipeds? It seems that all of this is in order to transverse difficult terrain, walking much, and seeing far.

Thus a human being which does not fulfill their natural faculties, seems to fall into physiological degeneracy. Very much like when dogs are no longer able to hunt, they become passive inferior versions of themselves.

We love dynamic environments

Why is it that we love movies films and TV shows? My theory is that it is because most of modern living is very boring. Our environments are static, and don’t change much. Whereas if you think about epic movies or films, the protagonist and hero often goes on insane and interesting journeys, something that we modern humans desire to do.

Why not obey your wise animal instincts, moment by moment?

Having the ability to study philosophy, think about philosophy, and any philosophical matters is a true luxury. When you no longer need to worry about basic financial things, let us think about Maslow‘s hierarchy of needs. The top is self actualization, and then beyond self actualization is going beyond the self, thinking of yourself as a philosophical tool in instrument, no longer concerned with your self-preservation or ego.

Human, all too human once said Nietzsche.

A thought: in life, why does everyone want to become more human, that is become more like everyone else, the masses? Perhaps it is better to become more inhumane, or less human?

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On Becoming Less HumanRead More »

Being frugal is the new luxury.

When you’re rich enough that you no longer desire or need to buy the most expensive stuff, this is true luxury. when you got nothing left to prove to anybody, not even yourself.

When you have the option, deciding to choose the cheaper option, as a pure aesthetic choice. Also, being frugal is often much more simple in life. For example, the simplicity of find groceries at ALDI, instead of Whole Foods (too many products).

Choosing simple.

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The more photos, the merrierRead More »

The barbell theory to life, avoid the middle. For example, with cars don’t buy a V6 engine, either get a 4 cylinder or a V-8.

With investments, don’t do the boring middle risk funds. Rather, either keep boring cash which is super safe, or extremely speculative cryptocurrency investments.

Also with friends and the company you keep, avoid the middle. Avoid your lukewarm friends, and keep your hard-core friends.

It seems right now, it is the worst time to buy a brand new car or a used car. The used car market is absurdly high.

With new cars, it seems that the only reason people are buying new cars right now is that people are bored at home, and they just want something to spend their money on, to give themselves a little bit more excitement in life (this is what they expect, yet it never really happens).

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WHY RIGHT NOW IS A HORRIBLE TIME TO BUY A NEW (OR USED) CARRead More »

Just finished watching the last duel, the new film from ridley Scott. some thoughts:

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THE LAST DUEL REVIEWRead More »