Month: August 2020

Photography— the gift that keeps on giving!

Why have I never met a self-confident photographer with high self-esteem? My thoughts:

The world is your visual oyster:

An individualistic economics perspective: Don’t worry about world global and macro economics. Focus on your individual economics. Let us remember the first notion of “economics” is actually regarding home economics (Aristotle on Home Economics …

A life without photography ain’t a life worth living.

Just experiment and have fun:

I think I got it figured out: it ain’t about the country life *VS* the city life … instead, it is about a ‘virtuous cycle’ between the both. Harnessing the barbell of both the …

According to the Ancient Greeks of the high period, they didn’t believe in “sin”. However they did believe in folly, foolishness and cowardice. Therefore in life don’t worry about becoming more “virtuous” or “good”. …

Super simple: Just don’t do anything in life which bores you. Is such a life possible? Of course!

The new digital caste system: The elite tech folks on top who ironically use almost no technology. No Google account or Gmail. No Facebook, Instagram or What’s App. Preference for hiking and doing outdoorsy …

An essay on Millenials.

Simple: Become self employed (you are the sole proprietor of your business). In praise of solo entrepreneurship. Don’t desire to buy stuff … desire to make, design and create stuff! In praise of design …

My photos are my photos. Your photos are your photos. Then the goal: Keep shooting (more of) your own photos!

As long as you got a boss, you’re not economically independent. As long as you got a mortgage, you are not economically independent. As long as you desire to buy a house, buy a …

The best life is mostly “via negativa”. For example to become happier subtract more bullshit from your life. The best life is the life with the least amount of bullshit, unnecessary stress, cares, worries, …

The natural world is soooo insanely beautiful!

A Maverick essentially means an “unbranded cattle”. Essentially the gist was this: In order to *NOT* be controlled, don’t let anyone ‘brand’ (poke you and brand you with the hot-iron, to mark you as …

An interesting idea from the economist Henry CK Liu: this notion of “hedonic Inflation” . Similar to the notion of “hedonic adaptation” except more nuanced and also from an interesting economist’s perspective: Why do …

My ideal: Tools which are the smallest possible size, with the highest quality. For example the best iPhone is iPhone SE. Best camera is RICOH GR III. Best clothing is Outlier.NYC black merino wool …

Let us not lie. There is certainly a hierarchy of human male forms. For example a man with more muscle mass and less body fat (also taller) is preferred over a man with less …

With almost everything, subtraction is simpler, easier, more effective and often superior to adding. For example:

Something people don’t think about: I think the iPad as a creative tool is 1000x more interesting, useful and artistic than an iPhone. Or in other words, better to get iPad Pro over an …

The ultimate secret on how to become more productive: Identify that which kills your productivity, and then ruthlessly kill the nodes of “unproductivity”. For example for me it is the phone. So no phone …

Why I love to shoot videos of my food, or the food of others. Simple reasons:

The notion of ‘calories in, calories out’ or the notion that we ‘burn calories’ when working out is insane. Trust no person who actually believes in this myth (as long as I keep my …

Something interesting I got when reading Juvenal’s “Satires”: “Humanity has been on the decline, even since Homer’s time!” And thinking about today’s brave new world, and today’s modern world-society I can also say: Yes, …

My heuristic: If I can plug-in the vacuum in the middle of the apartment and I can vacuum every single corner, the apartment is a good size. Why this preference for such huge living …

Simple: When others criticize or insult you it is because of their own personal anxieties, their own personal self-hate, and their own personal misery. Morale of the story: Disregard any criticisms and insults of …

I hate to admit this but it seems life and society is only worth it if there is division, there is hierarchy and there is distance (“pathos of distance” as Nietzsche says) between different …

The Coca Cola Corporation as well as Pepsico has probably *CAUSED* more death in America than any other entity (indirectly through diabetes (Type 2 Diabetes which is via over-sugar consumption and also Type 3 …

Your voice is your own voice and cannot and *should not* be changed.

I think it comes down to fear, envy or jealousy. For example I’ve noticed a lot of (rich) folks in Hong Kong hate the “mainland”Chinese because they’re so rich. Then in Vietnam there is …

Just use and abuse it! The more wears, tears, holes and patina it has… the better.

Free inspiration and motivation on ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER Dear friend, Some quick thoughts on discovering your own voice in photography: First of all, start with your voice. Each person has a unique voice particular …

The brave new world of education: First of all… we have proven we can still teach (although not as effectively) online vs in person. Certainly the in person learning experience will always be superior …

The biggest difficulty in our photography: How to cull down our photos and get down to our best phones. Or to “separate the wheat from the chaff”. Some thoughts:

We must think it ain’t just about shooting, taking or making photos — it is the whole *experience* of making photos. The word ‘experience’ is also tied to the word ‘empirical‘ (tied to reality, …

To be self motivated in photography means: I love the act of making photos, I love looking at my photos … I love the whole photography *experience*. Thus because you love it … you …

The first step to sincerity as a photographer — ask yourself: “If nobody could ever see my photos but myself … would I still make photos?” If the answer is ‘yes’ … this is …

In life, and in photography and art design think and shoot outside the frame! The frame can often be a “Procrustean bed”. Refuse to be bounded!

All lives are equal, and all lives are equally legitimate. Thus your goal then is: Just share your own life as openly, freely, and open-heartedly as possible!

In life, we are constantly in a stream of becoming. Thus when it comes to your life pursuits or how you live your life … recognize: You are always becoming (more of) yourself, and …

When in doubt, prioritize your own body and personal form, physique and bodily composition above all.

A quick pump at my home gym:

Questions: Why do we love growth so much? How do we perceive growth and quantity it? Is it useful or good to quantify growth? If you don’t track your growth but you’re still growing, …

Sketches from Bugatti — The perfect synthesis of beauty and force.

If we study the highest point of human civilization and culture (Ancient Greeks and Romans) you will see they deified the human body and form above all. In modern times, we prefer luxury goods, …

Something I don’t really get or understand: If you’re an American, why be anti-American? Or in other words: If I’m an American, why am I not allowed to be “proud to be an American”? …

Extreme otium (leisure) necessary to pursue very interesting ideas and to plumb more interesting thoughts, knowledge, ideas, and wisdom.

Pseudo-choice, pseudo-individualism in modern capitalistic and modern consumerist society. For example: Did you know that a Lexus is just a re-branded and expensive Toyota? Or, Hyundai owns both Hyundai *AND* Kia? Or, The Volkswagen …

Schizophrenia: Having a “schism” or a split in your mind. I think I might have “low-key” schizophrenia. When I write, I am no longer me (ERIC KIM). I feel as if when I write …

The trend I see happening to men: Softer, more fat (more adipose tissue on men above 10%). Less consumption of meat. More trends towards “plant based” diets, or “meat in moderation”, or “only lean …

A realization while living abroad in Vietnam and Japan for around 2 years: We in America have too much stuff… stuff as codified as “matter”. The reason I’m an elitist minimalist is because I …

The bad trend: Rather than following and listening to our own design aesthetics, we are always so quick to kowtow and bow down to the design trends and aesthetics of others. For example, the …

A bad trend in design: You cannot open it, you cannot fuck with it, you cannot fix it (yourself), you cannot modify or change it. This is due to the genius and tyranny of …

My belief: There are no “problems” in the world to be “fixed” (this implies there are ‘broken’ things in the world or that somehow people are ‘broken’ or need to be ‘fixed’). Instead I …

A day in the life of ERIC KIM. My fun workflow: Shoot all videos on RICOH GR III in cross process filter mode, 1080p, 60fps. Import all .mov videos to folder on MacBook laptop. …

Is it truly your own personal moral and ethical imperative to help others?

Is it the duty of the strong to help the weak? I think so.

When others are critical of me, they judge me, or they criticize me … I don’t mind so much. I just hate it when people insult me or harass me. For the most part, …

To be judged is fine. However to insult is bad. Then for us our ethics should be: Judge others with love and sincerity. But don’t insult them. Certainly not behind their back *nor* to …

The closest link to the word ‘think‘ comes from the Proto-Indo-European ‘*teng-‘ which means to think, to know, and to feel. Some thoughts: First of all, why think? What is the critical importance of …

I am totally for people who decide to go vegetarian or vegan for ethical reasons or religious reasons … but for physiological or ‘health‘ reasons … this seems nonsense.

A further inquiry on why we think laziness is a vice:

To be ‘critical’ comes from the Ancient Greek ‘kritikos‘ which literally means “to judge”. Thus when it comes to any knowledge, informations, opinions or ideas… go to the source (primary documents, not human-centipede secondary …

We all go ga-ga over how to get more followers, likes, blah blah blah. But how come we never ask: *WHY* share your photos? Some of my thoughts:

Simple reasons: First of all, I like having the control. The control what goes into my food and what weird crap *DOESN’T* get put into my food. For example with restaurants my biggest problems …

Towards a critique of the false narrative that human nature is to be ‘lazy’:

The best ideas: You wake up, and you already have an idea you want to write about. The problem of modern society: We wake up, and we are spurred by external promptings (checking our …

There is no difference between watching the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) or “professional wrestling” and politics. If you don’t think that wrestling is real, then you should also accept politics also ain’t real.