Month: November 2021

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.

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 …

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 …

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. …

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 …

Our new design philosophy and aspiration: hyperlight. Even though it’s not always wise, as an aesthetic notion, hyper light is best.

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 …

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 …

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 …

What kinds of humans do we desire to design?

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 …

Another reason why standardization or categorization is bad: it assumes that all human beings can be put on the same scale.

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 Whereas retrospectivism thinks “Everything in the past was better, and the best… and can never be superseded”.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.

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 …

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 …

Barbara Kruger. This is essentially the route that all individuals make, when they are filled with outrage and anger.

What is the role of the difference between national versus individual pride?

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 …

A fun creative activity we could do is this: remix our photos.

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.

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.

When it comes to notions of “work“, we must differentiate the difference between Ergon and Arbeit.

Some real ideas on branding:

Rather than trying to build $1 billion company, why not try to create a $1 billion you?

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 …

The best way to learn from others is to not emulate what you don’t like in them.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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!

Just had a realization: Philosophy is not a ‘lifestyle’ approach, and not a guide on ‘how to best live life’, but rather– setting values.

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 …

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 …

Life is growth. If you’re not busy growing, you’re busy dying (Bob Dylan)

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 …

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 …

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. …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

We are always looking for a purpose, a new desire, and reason in life. Why not just dictate that as photography?

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Although this sounds contradictory to what I believe in, perhaps if you want to buy something, the best thing is to just buy it. Why is that? Because thinking about buying something waste valuable …

ARSBETA.COM — the new future for photographers. Your own currency. What do you value, and why? For me, time (money), energy, focus (‘bother coin’ as a concept), attention (focus coin), health (health coin), friends.

Do not base your own values based on money, popular acclaim, fame, or the number of people who buy into something. Instead — you the philosopher and legislator — you can create your own …

There are a trillion crypto coins out there. But– Instead of betting on a foreign coin, why not bet on your own personal coin? arsbeta.com and ARS COIN.

Certainly from a pragmatic perspective in an evolutionary perspective, having insurance for more than one is better. For example, we have two kidneys, two eyes, two ears, and two hands. Also when it comes …

Everyone likes to believe in conspiracies. Why? If you believe in a conspiracy, you are somehow dissatisfied with the life already got, and you want to see blame somewhere else. But what if there …

Not the will to truth, as there is no ultimate truth. Rather, the will to art.

A random thought: perhaps it is a more interesting and fun speculation to buy Dogecoin, instead of buying a Tesla.

ERIC KIM NEWS >> Some Lamborghini thoughts — They took the soft, boring, easy, and risk-averse route. What is the main takeaway for us then? Opt for daring.

Your value as a street photographer is dependent on your appetite for risk. And what is ‘happiness’ for us as photographers? Living the maximally risk-loving life!

Why be pessimistic? Is there any upside to pessimism? I don’t think so. Perhaps ‘optimistic nihilism‘ is a better route. The idea– There is no ultimate ‘reason’ or rhyme to anything, but in spite …

Perhaps why I am a futurist: Retro, thinking backwards is bad. Perhaps why I am a futurist: Retro, thinking backwards is bad.

Lamborghini was always interesting to me because it seemed to be the ultimate audacious design, and the ultimate booster of the ego. But now — no more. Why? The recent scandal with the ‘new’ …

Just watched the new “Free Guy” film I loved it. It’s like the Truman show meets the matrix meets ready player one, with Fortnite in Grandtheft Auto baked in. I think what people don’t …

Dear friends, A thought: We are artists. And perhaps in order for us to grow and become stronger artists, we must add our means for creative expression and creative outpression?

The more multi-variegated you can make your photography and art, the better. Take photos of everything. Take photos of photos you’ve already shot and printed (meta-photography). Take screenshots of photos you’ve made.

A photography entrepreneurial thought: Perhaps in order to augment our artistic self-expression, the photographer should also create music? Simple — GarageBand on MacBook Laptop (use loops, the easiest way), and make iMovie slideshows with …

What is the joy of the philosopher? To think insanely lofty thoughts. Beyond notions of self, self-preservation. Being able to see far — hundreds of years, even thousands of years in front of him/her!

I love chaos. Chaos stimulates me. In praise of Costco chaos. Also shooting street photography in more chaotic cities. The ideal city for street photography as being the maximally chaotic, not like a Singapore.

The downside to low prices is: you just buy more of them, and they all ultimately die in your closet. At least when you buy expensive stuff, you’re more likely to use it. And …