ERIC KIM

Extreme risk-taking to strive to become yourself:

[Read more…] about SELF-ENTREPRENEURSHIP

In this short game of life, why not grant yourself great exceptions? To disdain the popular prejudices and virtues of our time. To form ourselves, to select our own virtues for ourselves, and to cultivate ourselves into something new.

[Read more…] about YOU ARE THE EXCEPTION.

What makes an artist or what is an artist?

Someone who is passionate about aesthetics, and how he or she perceives external visual stimuli.

[Read more…] about The Artist

Certainly nobody makes it through life without experiencing or feeling regret. But what is regret? How can we positively channel it? What wisdom is there in regrets, and do we desire a life in which we don’t have regret?

[Read more…] about The Philosophy of Regret

Or how every moment is a photo moment:

[Read more…] about PHOTOGRAPHIC OPTIONALITY.

It seems the art (photo) world sneers at digital photography, and somehow puts film photography on a pedestal. But what if digital photography (given COVID) is the only reasonable and logical step forward? And what would it take for us to rate digital photography as artistically and aesthetically *equivalent* to film photography, or perhaps even *superior*?

[Read more…] about In Praise of Digital Photography

Thought:

We obsess over luxury cars, luxury homes, luxury lifestyles, luxury goods, luxury devices, clothes, etc … but what is *true* luxury versus ‘weak’ (unsubstantive) luxury?

My belief:

Health as the ultimate luxury.

Health as defined via great sleep, great tranquility/peace/quiet, great physiological strength, clean air, bright light (lots of natural light), freedom from the cold and ill weather, and surrounding yourself with lots of green and verdant surroundings (in praise of homes with floor-to-ceiling windows, facing the sun [lots of natural light], and also overlooking trees or nature).

[Read more…] about Health is the Ultimate Luxury

In these extreme times, the best way to approach life seems to be through extreme adaptation — to never plan a day or moment in advance, extracting the maximum from every moment in the day, and creating new values for ourselves and despising the values of the old (predictable) past.

Towards a non-planning future. Instead, an ethos which maximizes opportunity, situation, optionality, positionality, and unique and present circumstances.

[Read more…] about EXTREME ADAPTATION.

To plan is the current ethos of modernity. But why plan? Is it even a good idea?

[Read more…] about Why Plan?

You best show your beliefs via what you are anti, more so than what you are “for”.

Also you exhibit your true beliefs via what you decide *not* to do, *not* to say, and actions and behaviors you decide *not* to engage in!

What if your present scenario and situation were in fact, the best?

Or in other words, how to extract the maximum from existence.

Not RAW like the file format, but RAWNESS, in terms of emotional rawness, directness. Your soul imputed into your photos.

This means:

1. More contrast (crush the blacks in monochrome)
2. More chiaroscuro (dark blacks, deep shadows)
3. Strong emotional content
4. Personal photos (photos of things and people and moments you personally care for)
5. Direct emotional impact.

[Read more…] about RAW PHOTOS.

A thought and realization:

We often speculate too much on investments, future returns on certain gains, speculate with stocks and crypto, speculate with real estate, and speculate about money in general.

But what if we speculated more in ourselves? For example, instead of putting so much money into crypto investments and speculations, investing that money into ourselves, our self development, lifestyle experiments, self edification, self education, and self growth?

[Read more…] about Self Speculation

What is the secret to intimate story telling through photography? The focus on the specific moments, and specific details:

[Read more…] about DETAILS.

A new realization ever since becoming a father, and having a newborn child:

Making long-term, or even weekly plans is not good. Best to take it moment by moment, day by day.

[Read more…] about Take it Moment by Moment, Day by Day.

We speculate on investments, money matters, economic matters, and things *outside* of ourselves.

But what if we instead put these resources to ourselves? To our own self-development? To use ourselves as experiments unto ourselves … to see how far we can soar to the heavens?

[Read more…] about Use Your Life as an Experiment to Self-Develop Yourself to Heights Never Seen Before

What is the end? To focus on photography. Your photography.

Perhaps then the simple idea:

Optimize your life, lifestyle, living choices, city, neighborhood, etc to maximize your photographic optionality!

A thought:

When you have the option in life, opt for the riskier, more interesting, newer developments.

This can be in regards to life, lifestyle, homes (new luxury apartment buildings), new development neighborhoods, new economic developments, or perhaps the ultimate development … in yourself!

[Read more…] about Invest in New Developments

A thought when driving downtown the other day:

Wow, how blessed I am to be alive, having the chance to experience the beauty of a city, the joy of photography, the joy of interacting with other humans!

What a huge blessing (the greatest blessing of all) of just having being born!

In other words:

Let us not forget how blessed we were to being born… but also … how much of a huuuuge blessing it is to have GIVEN BIRTH to new life!

Another modern societal critique:

Stress is not a virtue, it is a vice.

For example when you ask any working class professional or educated person, “How are you doing?” it seems 99% of the time they will respond with “busy, stressed, sleep deprived, tired, depressed, or anxious”. And somehow this is supposed to be virtuous. To say “I feel great! I slept 10+ hours last night, and I’m in a fabulously great mood” seems to be bad manners, or bad taste.

How and why did we believe stress to be a virtue? Perhaps we should abolish this notion, and change the table of values the opposite way:

Stress is a vice.

And tranquility, calm, peace, zen, exuberant high spirits as a virtue!

ERIC

[Read more…] about STRESS IS A VICE.

Too often than not, we feel we need to justify ourselves, justify our decisions, justify our purchases and our lifestyle choices.

In today’s world, it seems the apex justification is economic. For example, we justify our need to exercise and sleep “in order to be more productive at work, and thus make more money, or increase our earning potential”.

We justify our “vices”, because we “deserve” a break from work, or we just want to “treat ourselves”.

But isn’t it more robust to just do what we desire, without a need to justify ourselves, or to kowtow to some third party or authority?

[Read more…] about You Don’t Need to Justify Yourself

In Silicon Valley we talk much about the “minimum viable product” (MVP). But how can we cross pollinate this concept to living?

[Read more…] about Minimum Viable Thriving

Towards a new way of thinking about the ego:

[Read more…] about The Philosophy of Ego

True passions: an unadultured passion you’ve had since you were a kid, teenager or high school/college student. For example my passion for working out, fitness, diet and nutrition, modding cars, photography, blogging, travel, new experiences, desire to become self employed.

False passions: passions society superimposes unto you — for example, desire for luxury cars, buying a home, money, etc.

Then it seems in life, one of the great steps towards self wisdom is learning how to distinguish between true and false passions, and to devote more time and effort towards your true passions, while becoming even more mercurial towards the false passions.

[Read more…] about True vs False Passions

You are the camera, the tool, the instrument. You decide what to photograph and what *not* to photograph.

You don’t need to ‘buy’ a new camera if *you* are the camera!

Photos not reviewed aren’t worth shooting:

[Read more…] about Why Review Your Photos?

Typically we are taught: “The more space, the better”. But through my life experiences, I’ve found this to be patently false. More often than not (due to complex scaling effects) bigger, more space, more heavy, more stuff is worse.

In terms of space, let’s talk about living scenarios. The more space you got, the more difficult it is to light up and brighten, the more difficult it is to keep clean and vacuum, harder to reach or find your stuff, etc.

[Read more…] about The Philosophy of Space

If you have the option, always opt for a good home (your ideal apartment or living situation) over having a fancy car.

If anything, because we spend so much time at home now, being extremely picky with our living situation and abode is more important than ever!

Or in other words, optimize for your lifestyle over your material possessions, tools and things.

[Read more…] about Good Homes Over Good Cars

What do we desire? Exuberant, high spirits. Ideally, permanently elevated high mood and spirits.

[Read more…] about Exuberant, High Spirits

Rational — ratio, to compute (reor). Comes from PIE (hreh) to think, which is a reanalyzed root of her- (to put together).

So in some ways, to be “rational” means:

Make decisions based on a “well put together” series of thoughtful reflections.

But this is to give too much credence to “thinking” or “rational thought”. It is of my belief that much of our “thoughts” are simply after-the-fact rationalizations of our “irrational” body-mind.

Thus, rationality doesn’t exist. It is simply a phantom or chimera of our bodily sensations. The mind and brain as the laggard behind our true decision making processes which actually occur in the body.

[Read more…] about The Philosophy of Rationality