Something super powerful I’ve come across in visual science– the notion of a ‘hypercomplex cell‘:
Month: September 2018
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The Producerism Manifesto
Dear friend,
This is a call to arms. Let us break free from the shackles of consumerism; let us embolden ourselves with the new ethos of ‘producerism’.
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Brave New World of Social Media
Dear friend,
I am a huge Aldous Huxley fan, and one of the most influential novels I’ve read is BRAVE NEW WORLD — a future dystopia which is very very accurate in terms of how we’re living our lives today.
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My Vision for ARS
Dear friends,
We just launched ARS BETA VERSION II yesterday, with insane growth and feedback. We introduced the ‘constructive critique’ function; and I can truly tell you– this is a revolution.
I wanted to share with you what my personal vision for ARS is, and why I am so passionate about ARS.
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12 Tips How to Shoot Better Black and White Photography
How can we shoot better monochrome pictures?
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How to reach your full potential by having a more open mind. (First) Guest post by Annette Kim.
Hi friends,
I want to share the greatest personal breakthrough I reached today and how you can apply this to reach your full potential past your wildest dreams.
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ARS BETA: Breaking the Wall of Social Media
Dear friend,
I wanted to write you an essay about social media. Is social media a wall that is dividing us, or bringing us closer together? It is a curious question that has gnawed at the back of my mind from age 21 until now (age 30).
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You Are Hydra.
Dear friend,
A thought–
Think of yourself like hydra. You cut off one neck; and three will sprout out from that stump!
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Only a limited inventory left! SUITS, Henri Shoulder Straps, Eric Kim Case
HAPTIC hand makes limited edition creative tools. Here is an inventory update of our most popular HAPTIC tools soon to be sold out (ships worldwide from California). Pick one up before it’s too late! Thank you for the love over the years! <3 Cindy & Eric
- SUITS by Eric Kim Limited First Edition Hardcover Photobook [8 left] Invest in Eric Kim’s first photobook creation. Almost sold out!
- SAIGON SATCHELÂ [7 left] Your artistic on the go camera bag.
- MY FIRST PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK Children’s Hardcover Book [10 left] Inspire your kids and next generation to take photos! Perfect gift for all ages
- HENRI SHOULDER STRAPÂ [18 left] The perfect cross-b0dy camera leather strap.
- ERIC KIM CASEÂ [13 left] Carry your Ricoh, film, SD cards, and all your camera accessories
- HAPTIC NOTEBOOK x ERIC KIMÂ [2 left] Your handmade paper and photography poetry notebook.
- ERIC KIM PORTFOLIO BAG [4 left] For the photographer artist, fits the iPad and  exclusively available in HAPTIC shop.
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Brave New World of Photography and AI
Dear friend,
We are currently undergoing a phenomenally exciting time in photography– the marriage of (human) photographers and AI (artificial intelligence):
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Dictate Your Own Purpose in Life
Dear friend,
A very simple yet powerful idea:
Dictate your own purpose in life.
There ain’t a “right” or “wrong” purpose in life. It is your duty in life to dictate your own purpose in life.
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The Happy Photographer
Dear friend,
Simple idea:
If you want to be a better photographer, be a happier person!
In simple words:
First seek to be happier in your life (via studying philosophy and taking more real-life risks), and secondly — just going out more to take pictures!
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Use Your Strength to Empower the Weak
Dear friend,
I wanted to pen a quick essay on some personal thoughts on freedom, free will, and how you have (more) power than you think!
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OVERCLOCK YOURSELF.
Dear friend,
I remember when I was a kid– really into modding computers. There was this concept of ‘over-clocking’– you would push your computer processor to run faster than the ‘stable’ specifications. For example, if I bought an AMD processor that ran 2ghz, I could go into the BIOS and push it to 2.2 ghz, or if you got better cooling equipment in your computer (additional fans, better heatsink, cooling, etc) — you could actually push this processor even further to 2.5ghz or more!
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In Praise of JPEG
A fun idea for your photography:
For a month, experiment just shooting only JPEG (no post-processing) — and see if this helps librate you in photography!
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You Are Great!
You are great
Dont seek to placate the masses or the herd
Seek your own personal apotheosis; give yourself your own self-hyping hypnosis -
Lady Fortunate Gives Wings to the Audacious
We have all heard the saying, ‘Fortune favors the brave.’ I like the saying, but it ain’t accurate or specific enough for me:
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Kill the Leeches
I’m pretty excited for the new VENOM movie, and started to do a little philosophical musings on the concepts of:
- Symbiotic relationships
- Parasitic relationships
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In Praise of Being Naive
Dear friend,
I have been studying a lot of algorithms, AI, etc — and came across this concept of ‘naive’. For example in machine learning, there is a concept of ‘naive bayes‘. Now how can a concept in machine learning be ‘naive’ (like a un-wise and silly human being)?
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10 Lessons Elon Musk Has Taught Me
I’m an Elon Musk fanboy until I die. Here are some practical lessons I learned from him, from his recent interview with Joe Rogan:
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Why Have a Brain?
Dear friend,
A simple and funny idea:
Why have a brain?
In simple words: why have humans evolved to have a brain? And what is the best way we can use our brain?
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17 Lessons Steve Jobs Has Taught Me
Steve Jobs: one of my heroes. He has taught me the importance of staying true (and stubborn) on your creative vision, the importance of combining the liberal arts and engineering, and the importance of following your own gut and intuition.
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Avoid the Middle; Embrace the Extremes
To live a better life, embrace the extremes. Avoid the boring middle– either relax 100%, or go hard 100%. “Sleep hard, or work hard”. In this essay, I will try to combine personal thoughts on living, photography, working out, health, and diet (with this embracing the extremes strategy):
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Blank Slate Photography
Dear friend,
A practical idea I have for you:
Treat your photography like a blank slate (tabula rasa). When you start off in photography, be totally ignorant of the outside world, and learn on your own (don’t enroll into photography or art school). Then use this chance to build your own unique vision, and as you get more experienced, THEN learn some theory and outside concepts and ideas to challenge your pre-existing ideas, then decide through dialectics (testing two contrary opinions) what best works for you.
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Post-Traumatic Growth
My buddy Nassim Taleb posited a question in his book, ‘Antifragile’ that regarded ‘post-traumatic growth’. I think I’m one of the lucky few who was actually made stronger because of trauma– not weakened. I want to use this essay as a chance to share why I think I was able to grow from trauma, and some practical ideas on how we can help our future children thrive from stress and trauma.
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The Future of Photography is Editing
Dear friend,
A basic idea: the future of photography is going to be editing (the art of selecting your best work, and not showing your weak work).
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Set the Bar Higher
Set the bar higher, high-flyer
Don’t mind if you don’t reach the top— just keep hustling hard, and don’t you stop -
Use AI, Neural Networks, and Deep Learning to Judge Your Photography Compositions
Check out the Stanford ‘Image Painting‘ demo to see how AI and deep learning can re-construct your photos; helping you better judge your own picture compositions!
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Wisdom Augmentation
Dear friend,
I’m studying a lot of AI, and have been philosophizing (my entire life) about technology-human integration.
A realization today:
We are seeking to ‘augment our intelligence’ with technology, yet what I think we really want to do is to augment our wisdom!
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How to Conquer Fear and Anxiety
What if we lived a life without fear and anxiety — how much more of our potential could we reach?
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GO HARD: Supersede Your Self-Perceived Limits!
To live a more epic life — go hard, and supersede (your self-perceived) limits
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What is Your Dream in Life?
Dear friend,
Simple question:
What is your dream in life, and what are you willing to sacrifice in order to achieve it?
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How to Realize Your Potential
Dear friend,
Some practical ideas on realizing your potential (recognition of your talents), as well as having the strength to turn these skills into reality!
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How to Self-Motivate Yourself
Dear friend,
A lot of us want to be “motivated” (Latin means, ‘to move’). Some of us are self-motivated, and some of us lack motivation (the energy necessary to work, or act).
In this essay, I want to share some practical ideas on how you can self-motivate yourself.
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Visual Identification
Dear friend,
Something I realized– it ain’t enough just to shoot nice compositions of things. More importantly, we need to know how to recognize potentially interesting scenes BEFORE we shoot them. Or in more simple words,
“How do we know if a scene is interesting enough to photograph in the first place?”
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8 Blogging Productivity Tips
Dear friend,
I think I am currently one of the most productive bloggers on the internet (and the world). I want to share how I do it– and perhaps a little on why I do it.
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Why Be Normal?
“I’m an alien.” – Elon Musk
Dear friend,
Philosophical question — why do so many of us want to be ‘normal’? Wouldn’t it be more fun and interesting to NOT be normal? Wouldn’t it be better to be a mis-fit than a “square”? Wouldn’t it be better to be an alien than a “normal” human?
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Visual Intelligence
Dear friend,
I got a question I want to work out with you: what is visual intelligence, and what does it teach us about being human?
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10 Tips How to Make Pictures that Impress Others
To impress… literally means to IMPRESS (leave an indentation) upon someone else. I think what we are trying to do as photographers is to impress our viewers. Not necessarily to “show off”– but we are trying to make an impact on our viewers. Therefore it is essential for us to impress our viewers with our photos. But how do impress others with our pictures, and make a meaningful impact on our viewers? Some simple ideas:
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Plogging
I just watched the 2006 Werner Herzog documentary on the origins of the internet (“Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World“) and found this concept of a “log” interesting– specifically the concept of an “internet log” — nowadays we say “vlog” (video log) or “blog” (weB + log). And what are we as photographers in today’s world? PLOGGERS (photo-loggers); we use photographs to log and record our lives.
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Why We Need Friction in Life
Dear friend,
A philosophical epiphany I had:
We need friction in life in order to do or accomplish anything.
Why is this? Let me explain.
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The Future of Photography is Curation
Dear friend,
What is the future of photography? My opinion: image-selection, editing (choosing your best pictures), and curating your portfolio of your best pictures you care about.
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Josh White Leica Korea Artist Talk this Saturday, September 15th, 2018
My buddy Josh White is doing an artist talk at Leica Korea this Saturday, September 15th, 2018th. Don’t miss your chance to meet Josh, ask him questions about photography, and get inspired!
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Why Make Images?
As photographers, we make pictures and photographs of reality. But a difficult question to answer is:
Why make images?
And also, why are images important to society?
Let’s reflect.
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How Can AI (Artificial Intelligence) Help You Analyze Your Photos?
First of all, let us play with the Google Vision API and test it out:
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iPhone 8 Camera Review
Just tested out the new iPhone 8 camera, and I’m super impressed. All photos are straight out of camera, with no processing. Some personal thoughts:
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What Can AI (and AlphaGo) Teach us About Being Human?
Dear friend,
I’ve been philosophizing a lot about AI and studying AI (especially AlphaGo– just watched the Netflix documentary and was super inspired). Anyways, the question I have is this:
What can AI teach us about being human, or how can we better leverage AI to help us become smarter, more intelligent, or “better”?