What is holding us back? The mentality of entitlement. My thoughts:

The nonsense of an “immortal soul”. A more empirical approach — the mortal soul. The soul that dies when you and your body dies. Thus my thought:

The soul IS the body.

We have proven that with Alzheimer’s patients, a body can exist without a mind. But can a mind exist without a body? No.

If we think historically, men were actually seen as the more beautiful sex. In modern times, a man is not called beautiful nor should he be considered beautiful. But why? Why not? My thoughts:

To create values, and to create art … isn’t this the apex?

‘Mixed’ sounds bad. Hybrid is good. Some thoughts:

In praise of Uber-long term thinking:

Upon the bedrock of philosophy can we build all our ideals, values, and rules of life.

Would this be the most robust way to “fix” social problems and ills?

In praise of open spaces. The park as the new social space. The new open air gymnasium like the ancient Greeks.

The ultimate social equalizer. Free and open to all. The chance to meet folks from all walks of life; not just the rich and high class.

A sort of memento mori approach to life, and also …. to live a more genuine life. Don’t do nada for the money. Do it for what you truly believe in.

Philosophy is apex. Philosophy is king. All of our assumptions and thoughts is grounded in philosophy, not science. This means

1. Philosophy
2. Science
3. Everything else ….

Once again, philosophy as superior and above science.

Towards a philosophy of masculine and feminine:

In praise of diversity.

Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a superior form of fighting compared to more “pure” martial art forms like Tae Kwon Do, boxing, wrestling, etc. Thus shouldn’t we extend this notion — mixed things, hybrid things, mixed people, mixed ideas are better than “pure” or “pure-bred”?

Okay it looks like with our new quarantine lifestyle, a lot of us have barbells and weights but no squat rack or bench. How can we still workout at home with this equipment? Some thoughts:

Carefree, fun, and irreverent.

Steve Jobs is one of my biggest inspirations. Same with Kanye. Why? Because they truly thought different.

But how do I think different and why? This is the topic of this essay.

Who to trust and who not to trust? Simple filter:

Follow the money, and see where the interest of others lie.

How much are we driven by hormones? How does this affect our notions of free will?

My thought:

As time goes on, we will continue to become more over-fat, more unhealthy, get more diabetes, get more cancer, get more Alzheimer’s (which is starting to get characterized as ‘Type 3 Diabetes”), we ain’t leaving our homes, and we are denigrating the body.

What lies in the future? More importance of the human body, flesh, and physiology.

It seems many individuals resent others for reasons x, y, z. But why?

Towards a philosophy of food:

Why work out?

What does it mean to be masculine and why does it matter? Some thoughts:

I was born an artist. And so we are all. I’m just lucky — my mom indulged my early interest and passion in art. And as of late … it has been about unlearning the silly notion that an “artist” is this sickly looking emo Parisian hipster. No — we are all artists, and the goal is to develop our artwork further …

Photography is a muscle. You gotta exercise it and keep it fit.

I wonder —

If you are more muscular, more physically strong and have more testosterone … does this better regulate your mood in order to be more kind and be less of an asshole?

Not everyone has the riches to buy an expensive sports car, a convertible Porsche 911 or whatever. But every person has the ability to transform their body into a beast.

In other words:

You cannot buy a great body. You can buy a great car, watch, clothes, house etc … but all of us rich and poor— the body is the ultimate equalizer.

As streettogs, we are street photographer, soldier, and everything in-between.

The strange thing with modern times:

We intellectuals, free thinkers and free spirits are not allowed to indulge our body. We are not allowed to look like the Spartans of the movie 300 (or the Greek demigods etched in marble).

Why this bias?

We cannot ‘control + z’ reality. We can do nothing but bravely march forward!

Too many options are bad for creativity.

First sent on ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER:

Society says:

You are a despicable person. If you do x, y, z … then you can become virtuous, good, praised, and happy.

But isn’t this a horrible line of thinking?

If you want to be ‘happier’ and become more self-realized in life, prioritize your body above all.

You can only ever become yourself.

To become harder:

Temper yourself with the fire.

My critique of modern society:

We are too soft.

Better to be hard than soft.

My scars — experiencing the deepest pain and trauma gives birth to new light, and true and genuine optimism for the future.

Don’t let fear get in your way. You will always feel fear when pursuing your passions. Just don’t let fear PREVENT you from doing what you desire to do.

In praise of starting. Better to just start and do a ‘shitty’ job than not to try, attempt, or essay at all.

The practical goal:

EXTEND YOUR REACH.

How do we do this? Some thoughts:

The three pillars of marketing. You must maximize all three. My thoughts:

Classicism — the biggest ism I find a problem in America and beyond:

A look at my personal home gym workout (apartment building):

This is my personal blogging workflow:

My personal philosophy on food, diet, nutrition:

Anti consumerism. Just MACGYER it, which means:

Use your creative constraint as a POSITIVE condition … in which you pride yourself in your own personal ingenuity to come up with a fun, clever, and epic solution.

Towards a hard society:

What is the ideal diet for a photographer artist? My thoughts:

Your art works are your children and in effect … are you.

Your Artwork IS You.

Something that people cannot understand:

Your artwork IS you.

Or in other words, you cannot divorce the artist from the artwork.

It ain’t about “freedom of speech”. We all practically have freedom of speech, but don’t exercise it. What’s the bigger thing? Having the guts, the balls, and the courage to say what is really on your mind … and taking extreme responsibility for your actions, thoughts, and the consequences.

I wasn’t born confident. It was a muscle that grew. How? My mom is insanely social. She taught me social skills.

To grow your social skills you must exercise them — like a muscle.

My theory:

The more you workout and boost your testosterone, the more creatively inspired, productive, and motivated you will become.

Real ideas:

All the goodies here:

No more genre. No more specialization. Remember and know — it is all connected.

Street photography and society is essential because we human beings live in society.

My thoughts on elitism in society:

If street photography is all about loving other people, regardless of their background, race, socio-economic class, etc … then perhaps street photography is the answer to promote more love, tolerance, and mutual understanding all around the globe.

I think I got street photography figured out. It is about love for all people, regardless of background, ethnicity, morphology, race, nationality, etc.

I currently rate ‘A written testimony’ by JAY ELECTRONICA as the greatest rap album (of all time) thus far.

This is what I realized:

There are some people who like real life people (in the flesh, face to face, embodied reality) and some people who like abstract people (people in movies, TV shows, moral theology, religion, spirituality, video games, MMORPG, etc).

Then the question comes:

Which do you prefer?

What is research? To search. To search MORE for deeper truths, answers to questions you are personally interested in.

You don’t research for the sake of doing research. You don’t research for the sake of being a good student or becoming more ‘informed’ or ‘smarter’. No — you research out of personal curiosity.

Or better yet:

Start off with something you’re interested in, THEN think about your personal experiences and write about your personal experiences. THEN do external research at the very end!

The more testosterone, the better. Some philosophical and practical thoughts on testosterone and how to boost it:

In praise of Apple Keynote:

Typically this is how I do it:

To start is the hardest. This is how I do it: