My theory —

The reason we are always so tired, weak and anemic is because we are under-nutritioned.

In other words, we need to eat more meat. Towards a more carnivorous diet.

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As much as color is beautiful and fun, black and white is the ultimate bliss:

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When you got nothing else to shoot, look up and shoot the sky!

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The goal of photography:

To never stop shooting!

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My philosophy on work flow:

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Let us not get suckered. Computers should be ‘bicycles for the mind’ (Steve Jobs). Don’t think that humans can be made redundant. We can get rid of all computers with zero downside. But can we get rid of all humans with no downside?

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When people pay real money for something, they will value it more.

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Does being more productive make you more happy? My thoughts:

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If you never shared your opinion (what you think), how could society or humanity advance?

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My personal passion and interest in life:

Striving towards the simplest, most optimal work flow.

To create with the minimum amount of resistance. To just flow:

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Nobody really knows what they want out of life. Some people want to be ‘happy’ or to maximize their hedonic pleasure. But … shouldn’t we think *BEYOND* these base pleasures, and towards something deeper and more profound?

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To become wiser, become *MORE* skeptical of everything.

Also — know that ‘absence of evidence isn’t absence of evidence’ (Nassim Taleb). There is much hidden information unbeknownst to us. Hidden facts which are hidden from us.

“The truth is hidden deep, otherwise it wouldn’t be the truth” (Heraclitus)

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Towards a more autotelic (self-driven) approach to life:

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“I see the po-po behind me, I ain’t ‘gon stop!’” (JAY Z)

‘Top Off’ JAY Z song.

99.9% of the time you ain’t gonna get ‘in trouble’.

Also — most people are too slow. Don’t let anyone slow you down!

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My thought:

Let us not talk about ‘health‘ in the abstract. Perhaps it is better for us to think about body composition, our physiology (empirical bodies) and fat percentage (adipose tissue) and the amount of muscle mass (skeletal muscle mass) we got.

‘Health’ is insanely vague, not empirical, and a very confusing topic. Better to talk about reducing our body fat (adipose tissue) instead of becoming ‘healthier’:

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Towards a zen-aesthetic, ascetic, micro luxury form of living:

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A concept from my friend Jeffrey Lam:

To get more interesting in life, empty your mind. Zen emptiness of your mind for creative ideas.

Hypertrophy as ‘hyper [above] + nutrition’:

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Would you rather seem happy on the outside or actually be happy in reality? Would you rather be thought of as rich (outward appearances) and in reality be poor, or would you rather seem poor, and be rich in actuality?

I choose the “be” over the superficial “seem”.

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My leading force in life. A “fun-first” driven approach to life. This includes exercise, conversation, friends, work, play, entrepreneurship and beyond.

Smile, don’t be creepy, and don’t hide the fact! Talk to the kid and dad while you’re shooting photos:

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In life there ain’t no right and wrong. The best goal is to simply share your uncensored personal truths with others.

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Prestige literally means ‘trick‘ in Latin [delusion, illusion, magic trick].

When we flatter others, we simply flatter ourselves.

To psychoanalyze means to look at a person, study them, study their mind and perhaps strive to understand their own personal motives, incentives … that which they themselves may not understand or know!

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I barely trust myself, why trust others?

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I think perhaps my Archimedes lever is motivating others and of course my self.

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The worst myth:

Eating meat makes you fat.

Even worse:

Eating fat makes you fat.

Even worse:

Eating fatty meat (red meat, like steak, pork, beef, etc) is ‘bad’ for you, because it will make you fat.

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The ancient gymnasium of the ancient greeks (gymnos means ‘naked’, how the ancient greeks used to workout naked at the open-air parkesque area).

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How I workout at the park with a (very big) rock:

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I am just writing this for myself; advice I wish I could have given myself:

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The best way to become happier and live more carefree:

Lower your standard of living.

For example:

1. I only eat cheap industrial meats — 99 cents a pound for pork, $1 a pound for chicken, $2.99 a pound for beef. Only shop at “ghetto” or “poor people” grocery stores.
2. Prefer to look or seem poor, than to seem rich (and actually be cash poor in reality).

Because I need a reason to move … if I do not have a reason, I will not move!

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The best way to create things that will not perish:

Create for yourself.

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A simple tip:

If you want to rank higher in Google or YOUTUBE for anything … think to yourself, ‘How would I type it and search it myself?‘

For example things I might type:

1. Why am I so unmotivated?
2. How to inspire myself
3. Photography tips
4. Photography motivation
5. etc…

And then you create a blog post or a YouTube video with the same exact title specified above. And the thing:

Only create things which have personal interest to *YOU* the creator! Don’t create for your audience; create for yourself.

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If you want to boost your mood and be happier, just walk over to the local park and workout!

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When in doubt, just toss it.

For too long we have been socialized that it is a sin to throw away things. The Puritan-Quaker ethics in America. But perhaps just throwing things away is the most effective way to move on with your life, to literally move houses, and live more carefree.

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Architecture is a thing of beauty. Let us also take the same analogy to websites. When you build a website, you are building an edifice, a building, a beautiful (ephemeral) piece of architecture!

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I am not certain what your life passion is, but right now (COVID) is the BEST time to start your side-hustle. The workflow:

1. Do the minimum amount of work for your 9-5 job (NOT) to get fired.
2. Allocate all your extra time and energy to work on your passion side project and hustle.

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What is a cult? A cult is just a culture. “Cultus” in Latin meaning “to till, to cultivate (agriculture), or to workshop”. From “colo”— worship, honor.

So the tricky thing — a “cult” can have many connotations.

First, to cultivate. Like to cultivate the land. Or to cultivate an idea, or to cultivate a group of people towards a common good.

Second — a worship group (like the cult of Dionysus, Bacchus) like the Danaeds who would worship Dionysus, get drunk and participate in weird orgies (consider Brave New World and the “orgy porgy” idea).

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When in doubt, shoot more selfies.

Why selfies? Nobody can reject you. You won’t offend anyone. You don’t need permission — you have your own consent!

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Don’t take photography and life too seriously. Just shoot and love it!

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SELF RESPECT is the most robust (and only form) of respect you need.

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99% of success is pure perseverance. But … only pursue what you truly care for… for autotelic (self telos, self reason) motivations.

In modern society to always be busy and stressed is to be seen as good and virtuous. Let us not get suckered. True virtue is to *NOT* be busy doing bullshit work, and not be stressed with BS.

Every day is a new day, and every day is equal to every other day.

What does this mean?

Disregard your past; think about today, tomorrow, and your future!

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This sounds uber-obvious, but the future is digital photography. RICOH GR III and JPEG, cross process JPEG, or even the excellent high contrast monochrome black and white on RICOH GR III.

Also the future of digital videography — vlogs, short films, longer films, documentary films, or even video art photography.

Considering that everyone with a smartphone (all several billion of us) have a digital camera, don’t get left behind in the dust!

ERIC

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Do not criticize or critique others that which you are guilty of.

For example:

1. If you hate it when others cut you off in traffic, don’t cut others off in traffic.
2. If you don’t like it when others silence you, don’t silence others.
3. If you hate it when others talk to you (while looking at their phone), don’t use your phone while talking to others.

Nassim Taleb refers to this as the ‘silver rule of others’ (don’t do unto others as you don’t like others doing unto you). The silver rule seems quite robust in everyday life and just in life in general!

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The funny thing:

A lot of liberals and left-leaning Silicon Valley folks and the ‘intelligentsia’ crowd are all hooked on Amazon (Kindle, Amazon Prime, Whole Foods, etc) yet they see Walmart as evil.

But how little do they realize that Amazon is just Walmart 2.0 — Walmart with a good conscience.

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Don’t debate or argue or try to change the mind with an empty house — an empty mental house or home.

It seems that many organizations, religions, or even brand-worshipping groups are cults. Cult as in a shared body of people who follow a certain culture.

Religions, cults, or groups are fine, as long as they aren’t intolerant towards the beliefs of others, and as long as they aren’t militant (physically violent) in trying to proselytize and convert others. In other words:

Leave others alone, and don’t force them (by threat of physical violence or socio-economic violence) to do as you do, or do as your group does.

Note the intolerant left and what they are currently doing.

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And also never do anything to make others happy.

Caveat:

Of course be loving, kind and generous with others, but just don’t do things for the sake of pleasing others.

Also more critically — if trying to please someone else at the expense of you doing something contrary to your own personal morals and ethics for yourself, or if it relates personally to you … never do it!

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Just let me be me.

What is money? Some of my philosophical thoughts on money:

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To best understand the world, let us not be fooled:

1. It isn’t about racism
2. It isn’t about politics
3. It isn’t about entertainment or even the news

Instead, it all boils down for our human desire to augment our power. Power through influence, persuasion, clout, money, and getting other humans to do as we desire them to do (or what to get them NOT to do).

Or “pathema mathemata” (via Nassim Taleb)— that pain ain’t a bad thing. It is our guide. For example if we got a headache, don’t just take a pain killer but ask yourself:

Why is my body and brain signaling pain? What’s the root cause of the pain which needs to be addressed?

For example, overwork, unergonomic computing setup, lack of sleep, hangover, or something else.

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To quote our best friend JAY Z (Jigga), this rings true:

You are who you are.

Also —

When judging or psychoanalyzing others, consider their roots and where they came from, and how they became who they (currently) are.

Exception … the basic gist:

You are different.

Exceptionalism:

Those who are more different are better.

The irony:

Modern society tries to make us all fit a cookie-cutter mould (Bed of Procrustes), yet still *PREFERS* the exception.

For example, we all eventually go Gaga for celebrities, and rich and famous and beautiful people. People magazine as probably the most prominent magazine in America (People magazine owned by the Meredith corporation).

Before getting salty or upset that others don’t respect you, or instead of getting angry that others disrespect you or don’t respect you, better to do what is most robust:

Respect yourself.

Don’t demand or expect the respect of others. In fact, expect others to NOT respect you. Expect people to intentionally DISRESPECT you. Then perhaps you can truly start to thrive.

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I love looking at my old photos and thinking about the past… to an extent. This is the thing:

If you are too obsessed about the past, your past photos, your past works, your past accomplishments… this becomes the ball-and-chain to prevent you from thinking about the future and pursuing the future.

The future of making new things, building new things, and creating new things!

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What is elitism? Or what is the ‘elite’?

Latin ‘eligere‘– to elect. “Eligo” means to choose or elect. Then what does this mean?

The elite are those who are elected into positions of power.

And also —

Elitism is the belief that some people are higher than others.

I then do believe in elitism. However to me, elitism ain’t about who is richer or poorer, it is more about courage, bravery, chutzpah and having the balls and guts to stand up for what you believe in, and having the courage to be tenacious, stubborn, and to *NOT* compromise your core beliefs … no matter what!

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The more things you own, the more things own you.

A “via negativa” approach to wealth and money. It ain’t about money making; it is about NOT money LOSING!

Ironically enough, studying the ‘easier’ AP [advanced placement] class (AP Statistics instead of AP Calculus) in high school paid off huge. It let me eventually end up flourishing in Sociology (statistics always made sense to me, and had real, practical ramifications). The gist is this:

Statistics can be gamed however you want it to be, and there is no truth in statistics.

In fact, statistics can probably only be useful in DISPROVING (Karl Popper’s notion of ‘falsification’) fallacious or misleading ideas. But even statistics has a weak ability to dis-suggest or “disprove” things. One thing I learned from statistics from Cindy is this:

Statistics comes from the word ‘state’ — it was the way a state quantified their progress, and how leaders in power could “prove” their advancement and growth in certain politics … especially in the socialist-communist governments of China/Russia (to prove their economics theories were ‘working’, even when they really weren’t).

A new thing I might have innovated in:

GoPro POV workout video:

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The solution — PREFER a life full of risk, uncertainty and fun!

From a moralistic and ethical perspective, nothing wrong with weed or alcohol. Consider how the ancient Greeks loved wine, Bacchus and Dionysus the god of alcohol and the grape, and also how alcohol in small doses is probably good for us (hormesis). Weed is good for pain medication, and the “hangover”of smoking weed is far better than an alcohol hangover. Yet this is my critique:

1. Weed makes a lot of kids lazy and kills their ambition. The normalization of smoking weed in poor neighborhoods kills ambition for kids to leave the hood.
2. Alcoholism is normalized in modern society. Most people in modern society are essentially functional alcoholics. Nobody critiques alcohol, yet it kills sooooo many people a year (drunk drivers, alcohol overdose, etc).