ERIC KIM

Least Activation Energy

A concept I got from my friend Jeffrey Lam:

The great thing about living in very close walking distance to a park (2 minute walk) is that it requires little to no ‘activation energy’ to go there to workout.

Also another thing I realize now I got a kid:

If I want to quickly get in and out of the house, I need the ideal shoes with the least ‘activation energy’ to quickly slip on and off (which has ended up just being simple black slippers).

Which makes me then think:

What are some other domains in life which we can best harness the ‘least activation energy’ concept to thrive more in life?

Some ideas:

  1. In the domain of photography, the least activation amount of energy in photography: Simple point and shoot compact camera (RICOH GR III) always in your front pocket, shooting in P program mode, small JPEG, high contrast black and white (the ‘set it and forget it‘ ethos). Autofocus. Ability to use with one hand. Being able to shoot without thinking. Any superfluous technical settings (like shooting manual, etc) as a positive detriment to your photography.
  2. With working out, just do the simplest workout which is the easiest for you to do. For example if you’re just stuck at home, buy a kettlebell and do kettlebell swings and lifts. Or if you go to the gym, stick to the simple and highly effective workouts (deadlift, squat, floor bench press/dumbbell press).
  3. With music, don’t use bluetooth headphones (having to get them to sync is always a pain in the ass). Best to just play it off your speaker. For example as I write this, its easier to just play music off my laptop speakers than trying to find my bluetooth headphones to sync it to. Same goes with playing music directly off my phone speakers (I’ve started to just play music real loud off my iPhone at max speaker setting when at the gym, so I don’t need to use headphones).

The least amount of activation energy, and the maximal amount of force expression is the goal!

ERIC

Productivity by KIM