Your cart is currently empty!
Risk and Greatness
Your appetite for risk is what makes you great. Not even whether you win or lose, or if you’re right and wrong. No. The level of risk you’re willing to stomach, and attempt.
November 2021
-
-
Having the courage to be seen as lame?
What is the true courage, especially when it comes to fashion matters? I said it is having the courage to be seen as lame. All great fashion innovators are the ones who intentionally do what is not considered cool, but with great confidence. Or in other words, true courage is having the courage to stand…
-
ERIC KIM EQUIPMENT.
The equipment I am currently using: RICOH GR III in small JPEG, High contrast black-and-white mode, with highlight exposure metering. ERIC KIM WRIST STRAP MARK II. ERIC KIM WALLET with transcend SD card, with 64 GB. For my travel street photography backpack, think tank backpack. For clothing, black merino wool outlier.NYC T-shirt, black merino wool…
-
AS SMALL AS POSSIBLE (ASAP)
Our design philosophy for things, tools, and equipment. Optimize for as small as possible. For example, when you’re traveling, use or purchase the smallest bag as possible. With file sizes, as small as possible. Even in photography, the smallest JPEG size as possible. The best camera isn’t the one with the most megapixels, but actually,…
-
Eliminate anything that is white or bright
A simple way to practice photography composition: eliminate anything that is white or bright from the frame, when you are framing with your LCD screen. For example, strive to make your photos as dark as possible. Avoid anything that distracts from your frame. Composition is a matter of elimination, not addition. The best way to…
-
HYPERLIGHT*
Our new design philosophy and aspiration: hyperlight. Even though it’s not always wise, as an aesthetic notion, hyper light is best.
-
SUPREME LIGHTNESS
The best design is that which is insanely light. The lighter, the better. Never upgrade or change your things unless you find an option which is lighter. For example, iPhone mini is supreme, better than iPhone Pro. Same goes with laptops, MacBook Air is better than any MacBook Pro. With shoes, the lightest shoe possible.…
-
PRIDE IN YOUR OWN INNOVATIONS.
The supreme happiness and joy: having extreme pride in your own creations, your own designs, your own innovations. My pride in HAPTIC INDUSTRIES. ERIC KIM PRODUCTS. For example, I have zero interest in any luxury designs, which are not mine. I deserve to build it all myself, design it all myself, and create it all…
-
Critique of Corporatocracy
What’s the biggest problem in the modern world and society? The fact that corporations rule our lives. For example, do we just want our children to aspire to one day become a CEO or a corporate executive of a big company? Or do we desire them to become courageous entrepreneurs? The reason I love America…
-
HUMAN DESIGN
What kinds of humans do we desire to design?
-
DARKER IS BETTER.
When it comes to aesthetics, literature, films, and everything in between: darker is better. For example, this is why we love Batman, how dark he is, in terms of his psyche, and also his aesthetics. We must go darker. As dark as possible.
-
You do not fit in the template or mould
Another reason why standardization or categorization is bad: it assumes that all human beings can be put on the same scale.
-
The Philosophy of Futurism
The general idea of futurism (vs retrospectivism): The best is yet to come. Whereas retrospectivism thinks “Everything in the past was better, and the best… and can never be superseded”. We must be futurists.
-
Product Design I Like
My ideals when it comes to product design: Extreme minimalism Interesting aerodynamics, especially when it comes to automotive and car design Interesting and unique color palette, and colorways. Unexpected designs, designs that I didn’t think I’d like, but upon seeing them I actually really like. studying and thinking how design can be aspirational. For example…
-
10 Travel Street Photography Tips
Dear friends, With the new COVID variant out and about, it seems this is the reality: There will always be some sort of COVID out there. Then the question: In spite of COVID and ongoing pandemics … how can we still keep traveling (safely) and embarking on more travel street photography adventures?
-
“How Dare You Not Be Me!”
Barbara Kruger. This is essentially the route that all individuals make, when they are filled with outrage and anger.
-
National vs Individual Pride
What is the role of the difference between national versus individual pride?
-
SLEEP IS KING.
What is the number one productivity hack? Optimize your life for sleep. For example, the best home or apartment to have is the most quiet one, far away from street noise, anything which wakes you up. Also invest in some good earplugs, and eye mask for sleeping. And also optimize your bed, blankets, and bedroom…
-
Remix Your Photos
A fun creative activity we could do is this: remix our photos.
-
Photography Leisure
What do you do once you become a crypto billionaire, and once you’ve retired, and achieved financial freedom and independence? Simple: focus on your creative leisure activity, which is photography.
-
In Praise of Creativity
What should be your ultimate value? Not our ability to make a lot of money from work, but rather, our capacity, courage, and ingenuity for innovation and creativity.
-
Ergon vs Arbeit
When it comes to notions of “work“, we must differentiate the difference between Ergon and Arbeit.
-
Photography Branding 101
Some real ideas on branding:
-
BUILD YOURSELF.
Rather than trying to build $1 billion company, why not try to create a $1 billion you?
-
VIA NEGATIVA INNOVATION.
The best way to innovate is figure out what to get rid of, than what to add. In praise of Tesla for getting rid of doorhandles, getting rid of most of the dashboard, and getting rid of the shifter stalks. Also the great innovation of Tesla and electric cars is getting rid of all this…
-
Anti Learning
The best way to learn from others is to not emulate what you don’t like in them.
-
Why Work for Things?
Why it is good to work for things: What is the worst thing you do to a child? Give them things without having them work for it. Why is that? You can never value something until you’ve worked for it.
-
How To Improve Your Life
We all want to improve our lives. But how does one actually do that? Music: Nietzsche once said life without music would be a mistake. Thus, it seems that music is a very good investment. I recommend Apple Music over Spotify, because of the deep integration it has with iPhone and all your Apple devices.…
-
TESLA OVER LAMBORGHINI
A realization: What do we want out of our cars? Pure dominance. Unless there is a car which ever get faster than the 1.99 second (0-60 mph) Tesla Model S Plaid, all other cars (including Lamborghini, Porsche, Bugatti, McLaren, Rolls Royce, etc) are irrelevant.
-
LAPTOP IS THE ULTIMATE PRODUCTIVITY DEVICE
After playing with all the Apple Devices, all the Android devices, etc — a simple takeaway: Give me a laptop, and I can move the world!
-
PHILOSOPHY IS VALUE-SETTING
Just had a realization: Philosophy is not a ‘lifestyle’ approach, and not a guide on ‘how to best live life’, but rather– setting values.
-
PHILOSOPHY IS NOT LIFESTYLE
This morning I was reading some Oeconomicus (Economics, by Xenophon) in which ‘Socrates’ is having a conversation with a (rich) buddy of his, and Socrates tries to do this ‘clever flex’: Socrates: I am much richer than you, because my needs are little, and my surplus is great. But as Nietzsche figured out in Twilight…
-
Meta-Editing
How does one edit down (cull down) their photos, their photo sets, portfolio, etc? Meta-editing as a thought. This means: Publish a bunch of photos as a blog post, in gallery mode, or as an iMovie slideshow … and re-watch and re-experience and re-view your photos, and re-save the photos to your downloads, and re-upload…
-
SENECA GROWTH.
Life is growth. If you’re not busy growing, you’re busy dying (Bob Dylan)
-
WHY STANDARDIZATION IS BAD.
You are not alike. And what’s the goal of standardization? To make everyone quantifiable and measurable, on the same scale. But what if you don’t want to be part of this scale, or what if you cannot be measured in accordance with others? You’re not standard. Avoid any rules, games or arenas and competitions where…
-
Productive Clothing
Random thought: are there certain clothes which make you more productive, confident, and focused? I think so. For example, when I wear tighter fitting clothes, I actually feel more productive. Same goes with wearing all black clothing, it helps me focus on my thoughts and on my work. If you think the opposite it is…
-
I prefer an uglier more open world than a closed and beautiful world.
Or in other words, better to be stoic than epicurean. Or why Android might be better than iOS. Or why open files are better than closed ones. Or why decentralized is better than centralized. The open internet and now perhaps the blockchain — the future of free? Or why it might be a good idea…
-
Every single decision you made was a perfect decision
-
Share a Wider Selection and Edit
Why this bias against sharing a wide edit? My thoughts: 1. If you share more than a single image on social media, you don’t optimize your “like” potential. Thus social media is inimical to sharing wide edits. 2. Most photographers don’t have their own blog. Being stuck in the social media digital sharecropping notion, photographers…
-
I don’t want or need the best, I just want different.
-
It takes more skill *not* to buy it, than to buy it.
-
HYBRID LIVING
Your goal isn’t to spend all of your time in embodied reality, or all of your time in virtual reality, it is to do both. To spend some of your time in virtual reality and some of your time in embodied reality. To do both, to get the maximum out of both, via the barbell…
-
INCREASE DATA INPUT AND OUTPUT.
A thought this morning: How can we increase our data input and output rate? For example, better to use voice dictate via Siri on your iPhone, than texting with your thumbs. Why? The data output of your voice is 1000 times faster than texting with your thumbs. Information density Why are newspapers and academic papers…
-
How to Invest in Your Photography
In today’s world, it seems to only make ‘prudent’ investments towards your ‘future’ — in order to ‘retire’ and to ‘save’. But — what if this were all just a trap? Which just keeps us complacent, living our little cubes (like FREE GUY). What is a better investment? Towards our own life, our own current…
-
THE MEANING OF OUR LIFE IS PHOTOGRAPHY.
We are always looking for a purpose, a new desire, and reason in life. Why not just dictate that as photography?
-
LIFE IS TOO SHORT FOR PETTY SOCIAL DRAMA.
What is the biggest waste of time and human brain resources? Worrying too much whether you offended others, social relationships, etc. Perhaps better for us to ignore self-doubt, especially with social matters. To regard your own actions as 100% good, and just to keep on marching forward!
-
WHY SEEK INNER-PEACE?
The goal isn’t to find peace. What if *NOT* having inner peace is a stronger motivator than having inner peace? Because once you have inner peace, what is the motivation to do anything? When we get to focus on seeking inner peace, is it that we have just lost our physiological strength?
-
YOU ARE THE OUTLIER
You are the outlier. You are the most extreme. You are the most insanely different. More pride in standing out then standing in. To be part of a collective, a group, a club, is bad. Why? Because it suggests that there are others like you. Better to walk alone than with others. Galiani— “Eagles do…
-
EXTREME MINIMALISM.
From an aesthetic perspective, I like the idea of extreme minimalism. So minimalist that it is not practical. Because pragmatism is boring. If pragmatism were the ultimate ideal, then we were just all be driving boring Honda Accord‘s, and never leaving our homes, because that is not practical. And we would all have boring ass…
-
NO LOOKING BACK.
Once you discover the new solution, or you have innovated a certain concept, no looking back. No regret of the past, and not wishing that things were like they were in the past. And to some extent, once you’ve discovered a certain new aesthetic, not desiring to go back to your old self. To some…