Month: May 2021

It seems a lot of entrepreneurs want to build $1 billion unicorn company and then sell it off. But perhaps better to build up your own billion dollar first and last name brand, yourself, and never decide to sell yourself.

I just consolidated all of my cryptocurrency. Just sold off all of my DOGE, dodge coin, chain link, and DGB (digibyte) and converted it all into bitcoin. Why did I do this? My thoughts: first of all, it is easier to remember how much bitcoin I have on the top of my head then track…

To master street photography for yourself and others — this is the goal. Keep augmenting your experiences, knowledges and insights, create your own self hosted blog (wordpress.org) and share your insights, experiences and wisdom with others.

Now available for chestnut brown and velvet red. See in HAPTIC SHOP > HENRI NECK STRAP MARK IV

Barbell health. This is a Concept I got from the philosopher Nassim Taleb. The general concept: have as much coffee and stimulants as you want first thing in the morning, but fast after afternoon. And during the day don’t eat any food until you break your fast in the evening, and when you break your…

This is based off the warren Buffett quote “be fearful when others are greedy, be greedy when others are fearful quote. Perhaps when people are scared when it comes to crypto and cryptocurrency, and also bitcoin prices, it is the best time to buy. This is the best time when I chose to buy more…

Brighter is always better for devices, homes and life.

The goal is to study the masters of the past in order to improve your own photography composition and vision!

If you desire to improve your ‘visual acuity‘, note and study composition … everywhere! In compositions when you’re watching films/cinema (in praise of watching animated films, especially Studio Ghibli films like ‘Princess Mononoke’) as you can find epic compositions everywhere!

For so much time in my life, I have searched for the perfect and the optimal and the best x, y, z. The perfect clothes, tools, car, lifestyle, city, etc. But in fact … perhaps being perpetually dissatisfied, inexorable and impossible to placate is a good thing …

Contrary to popular belief that once you become a parent, your ‘life is over’… in fact, your life truly *begins*.

I am convinced– the future of photography ain’t cameras or hardware, but software– publishing software, and new innovative ways to share and publish your photos (digitally). Not social media, but publishing PDF e-books, PDF ‘zines‘ (magazines), new innovative ways to blog, and more!

I don’t know about you, but I find the new Adobe subscription model a bit annoying. If I have multiple devices, I always get booted out, and I (always) forget my login passwords, having to reset my password, etc. Easier to just buy and own it forever — in praise of the new Affinity Publisher…

Photography captures, encapsulates and glorifies life.

Now that I have become a street photography OG, I have a lot of time to think, reflect and meditate on street photography. One thought — perhaps we should think of street photography as a practical practice, skill, and an active *doing*, rather than a ‘thing’ or genre. Some thoughts:

The key to a more productive, seamless and frictionless life.

The benefit of shooting black and white photos: When I go back and look at my old photos … I have to use my brain-power more to *remember* the scene, as monochrome abstracts the scene. For example when I walk in the forest and see beautiful green, I think to myself — ‘Oh, I should…

Isn’t photography magical? You can take reality, and re-imagine, re-see, and re-interpret it through photos. No other art form allows for this!

When I see certain scenes and shoot them both in black and white and color, the high contrast monochrome photos feel so much more enigmatic. But why?

Simple thought: if you look at something and it brings you joy and happiness, just shoot it! Whenever you see something you love, photographing it is a signal and stamp of your approval of love!

Privacy is overrated. Attention and focus are underrated. The problem with Google and other “adware” services — they rob you of your focus for a utility and use. This is how iOS and iPhone and Apple is superior to Android. In praise of Apple and iOS for prompting you to turn on notifications or turn…

Or in other words, how Fujifilm is superior to Leica in innovation:

Don’t analyze or philosophize while you’re shooting photos. Rather, analyze your photos after the fact.

Perhaps in terms of investing and building the future, we should focus our efforts on ‘real world’ applications, not theoretical or conceptual ones. Or in other words: Think of yourself as your own ideal end-user. Ask yourself — is this thing or a service a thing I would actually use or do? The impetus behind…

Life and photography is a continuum and stream. Rather than separate single images, think of all the photos as a visual stream.

Photography not as a separate activity from your everyday life. Rather, just live your life and take your camera along for the ride!

The funny irony — I feel the most peaceful, calm and zen when I’m shooting (high adrenaline) street photography.

The future of your photography is based on how you share and publish your works. Some ideas: Publish your work as ebooks or e-zines via PDF using Affinity Designer or Indesign. Publish your work as slideshows via iMovie and put them on YouTube and your blog. Publish your work on blog posts and experiment with…

The mind of a child — maximally pure, open and wise. Perhaps also for us adults to return to a child’s mind as the greatest boon to our creative mind, soul, and creative opportunity!

Chicago — the great American city; one of the most phenmoanl places for street photography and beyond:

Crimson RED & BLACK imagery:

Once you’ve become “successful”, or if you’ve achieved what you consider “success” in your life — then what? Simple thought — Perhaps the next step is then to focus on our artwork, our arts creation, and also self-formation!

What’s the best car? The car that *DOESN’T* kill you in a car accident. The best car doesn’t have any “stalks”(lame automatic transmissions). Doesn’t require oil changes or any other annoying forms of maintenance). So preferably an electric car. Also, a car at the bottom of the depreciation curve (so perhaps an older model used…

When making any life decisions or consumerist purchasing decisions, always first ask yourself: “What is the purpose of this, and my desired outcome?”

Let us not be fooled — photography as a strong form of artistic creation — photography is our art. And as children, we should take our artwork and play very seriously!

The funny realization I had: I am the most zen, peaceful and tranquil when my adrenaline and focus is at its peak. For example, powerlifting before a one rep max attempt for deadlift or squat. Theory: The reason why we aren’t so tranquil and zen in everyday life is that everyday life isn’t physically challenging…

It is impossible to know how things will turn out unless you test it out for yourself. This is the root of all scientific experimentation, and empirical self knowledge augmentation!

My personal ethos to life: Enough is never enough. Perhaps this desire for more is the great stimulus and hope to life. A life in which we are satisfied — how does this differentiate us from the happy grass munching cows?

What makes photography so great? Not only is photography augmented living, photography augments your life experiences. Furthermore, all life experiences of yours is ongoing, and photography helps you capture, record and experience these ongoing life events even deeper, more beautifully and more purposefully and profoundly!

The function becomes the fashion! For example, drug dealers in NYC winters wearing timberland boots — turns into hip hop fashion. Fighter jets and matte black for stealth turns into cars “murdered out” design. “High visibility” (neon orange and yellow) for construction workers NOT to get run over goes into fashion. Lesson: Always think function…

Things that become more valuable over time and things that become less valuable over time:

If you know what you like and what you don’t like, it is easy to quit or to continue a habit of doing things. The difficult thing— most of us don’t know what we like or don’t like (our tastes are often superimposed on us via guilt and ethics by others). Lesson: spend much time…

Why photography? It arguments our lives, *improves* our lives, and makes existence and embodied reality 1000x more enjoyable, fun, joyful, interesting, and wonderful.

The joy and zen of just looking, and looking around— this is my looking meditation in photography

To draw, sketch, trace, and analyze and deconstruct a design is more fun and interesting than buying it!

Let your body self motivate itself … you don’t need your mind and “willpower” to motivate you. Or in other words: Never “force” yourself to do entering, to be “productive” or anything, unless your body self motivates itself to do anything! Perhaps the notion of “discipline” is a bad American Utilitarian notion — effortless and…

A thought when photographing with my RICOH GR III [high contrast mode] of a (color) wedding photo I had on my refrigerator: The joy of black and white is having the power to re-interpret and re-imagine reality around us! Then perhaps what makes photos more artistic — when it is a *reinterpretation* and re-imagination of…

A design thought: Perhaps the interesting design aesthetic and trend is to make things more powerful and muscular, but in a smaller radius or footprint. For example, this new breed of “crossover” or “compact SUV” cars. The Tesla Model Y, the Mercedes “coupe” SUV, similar offerings from Porsche (Macan), and BMW. With devices like the…