Mobility

Why move?

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Lamborghini mercy

The other day I learned that the Lamborghini Huracan and Audi R8 shared the same engine, and that VW owns a ridiculous amount of brands (Bugatti, Porsche, Lamborghini, Ducati, Volkswagen, Audi, etc). What’s interesting is a lot of the cars share a certain design aesthetic or ethos. For example, the Porsche Cayenne is essentially a fancier VW Tiguan. Or the new Lamborghini Urus is very similar to the new Audi R8. Or the Audi R8 takes some design cues from Bugatti.

What I find funny is this:

Many people don’t know that the VW group owns all of these brands.

Thus as consumers when we buy a certain car, we feel delighted in our “individuality”— because we select a car which we feel is a reflection of our personal ethos. We see our car as our external avatar.

But if the truth is that all of these brands are owned by the same company and group, it doesn’t really matter which sub-brand you buy. Why? It’s all eventually the same thing. The only difference is the outside skin and verneer.

The mission statement of the VW group is “mobility”— not design, or flexing how fancy/rich/unique you are. Therefore if you are buying a car as a sculpture-object to express your own individuality and uniqueness, it seems you are doing it wrong. Ultimately the purpose of a car is mobility. And 99% of the cars on the market aren’t optimized for mobility (bigger cars are less mobile, and more difficult to park).

If your goal is true mobility, better to:

Live in a downtown area where you don’t even need to own a car.
If you need to get somewhere, either walk there, or take an Uber/Lyft.
Better to take public transit than drive, because with public transit you can do other stuff (read, write, think, do work, etc).

Why mobility?

Movement=motivation. The reason we have a brain and legs (biped) is to walk, move, procure food, explore, hunt, etc.

To be human is to be mobile.

Furthermore, we see technologically speaking, more of a movement towards mobility.

For example, a smartphone is a “mobile computer”. Even though using a laptop is more effective than a smartphone, the smartphone can theoretically do (almost) everything that a laptop or traditional computer can do. But the biggest benefit of a smartphone— its insanely mobile.

What’s the upside of mobility?

Walking more (which is good for our health, our mental health, our hips, and good for coming up with new ideas [ideation])
More art creation: As a photographer the more mobile we are, the better. The ideal camera is the smallest, lightest, and most compact camera (iPhone Pro or RICOH GR III). The lighter your camera, the more mobile you are, and the more you can walk without fatigue, witness more photo opportunities, and shoot more! And the more art we create, the happier and more epic we become.

The more mobile we are, the more art we make.

The more mobile we are, the healthier, stronger, and happier we are.

Move more

It seems evident that to optimize our lives for “mobility” isn’t an abstract concept. It literally means for us to move more. Ideally for us to walk more (the best form of movement for us as photographers and thinkers).

When studying the etymology for the word “moveo”, I find some interesting ideas:

To move, stir, set into motion
To disturb, shake
To arouse, excite, promote, produce
To begin, commence, undertake
To excite, to inspire
To exert, to exercise

When we think about this literature of “motivation”— this is everything we are aiming for!

Therefore if you desire to find more inspiration, excitement, or artistic creation… movement is the starting point!

Move first, make second.

This is big. This essentially means that we must FIRST MOVE (walk), and then everything else follows.

This means we aren’t looking for motivation to move. We first move, then we find inspiration to do other stuff.

How to move

How do we first get the initial spark to want to move?

My thoughts:

Hunger: If we are hungry, biologically we want to move in order to procure food. Therefore if your goal is to maximize your movement and productivity through the day, strive to not eat during the day, only at night. For myself I would only ideally eat food right before I sleep (my ideal is to not eat breakfast, not eat lunch and not eat dinner until around 9-10pm).
Desire to feel pleasure: When we are bored at home, we feel extreme displeasure. The desire of feeling pleasure — pleasure via activity, pleasure via walking, pleasure of social interaction, and pleasure of artistic creation.
Curiosity: When I’m in a new city, I’m curious to see more stuff. Therefore the desire to move is to witness, capture, and understand a city.
Desire to be around other humans: I think it is quite evident that we as social beings desire to be around other humans. Therefore when we are home by ourselves and feeling lonely, we desire to interact with other humans.

My theory is the desire to move is purely physiological — something that originates FIRST in the body, muscles, and sinews (not the mind). The body first moves, then the brain comes up with an explanation “why” we moved.

Conclusion: Mobility is the goal

Perhaps we can optimize our lives towards mobility:

Move more (walk more, travel more, adventure more in your own city)
Spend less time at home or indoors
Go to the gym everyday
When it comes to our physical possessions, optimize for hyper light. For the most part I don’t take my laptop with me when I leave the house (I think of my laptop as a mobile desktop). Much easier to just carry my iPad (I’m writing this all in IA WRITER at a coffee shop). For standalone camera, the ultimate camera is RICOH GR III. The best headphones are “in ear monitors”. The best clothing is black merino wool. The best material is the lightest and most powerful (titanium, carbon fiber).

MOVE MEAN!
ERIC