How does one become stronger? Simple: hyper nourishment and hyper nutrition. Even in bodybuilding, the notion of hypertrophy means hyper nourishment. One can only grow more, if one has more nutrition. More meat, and also more physically demanding challenges.
In today’s brave New World in which we have we don’t really go to public places anymore, it seems that which is functional is more important. Aesthetics are becoming more private.
What can you photograph when there is nothing to photograph? Go to the local mall Shoot macro things at home Photograph your street block, shafts of light. Shoot the suburbs. Shoot your coffee, and your own meals and food Shoot abstracts
“Enthusiasm is virtue.” – Galiani Enthusiasm literally means ‘a god dwelling within’. In American English when we say ‘passionate’, what we really mean to say is ‘enthusiastic’. Passionate actually means ‘suffering’, whereas enthusiasm is more about a godly-like overwhelming of love for something. For us, photography is our primary preoccupation. To discover the fullest soul…
Something I learned for myself: The most virtuous thing you can do is plumb your own thoughts and ideas, and ignore the suffering, pity of others. Too much interest in others is a bad sign — it means we get some sort of low-key schadenfreude (delight in the suffering of others).
Photos I’ve been making back home:
Upon much consideration on what the aesthetics of the future are, a thought: Perhaps the aesthetic of the future is white and black. For example, when you think SpaceX and space ships … what aesthetic are they? Mostly white with black accents. Same goes with the new SpaceX astronaut outfit. Why white? It seems to…
LEICA, we off that. We onto the RICOH and the HASSELBLAD. We off social (anti Instagram), and we’re onto ARS and our own blog. We off Lamborghini, and onto that TESLA PLAID. We off that Silicon Valley, we’re onto our own new thinking and thoughts. We off NIKE and Jordan, and onto our own new…
In praise of Starbucks. Even though Starbucks is seen as to coffee aficionados as anti-coffee, I really like getting a treinta cold brew (no water, no ice) there, as well as a big cup of water. Also fast reliant Wi-Fi, and friendly staff, high activity with people — good to go now in this brave…
Some ideas for the new year: Your own city and neighborhood project: For an entire year, you are only allowed to photograph your own (boring) city or neighborhood. Just call the project by the name of your own city, and at the end of the year, publish your best 20 photos from the city. One…
To ‘edit‘ your photos means to ‘bring forth’ (your best photos), from Latin ‘edo‘. To edit is also from the French (editer) which literally means ‘to publish’. A simple workflow: Look at all your photos as small thumbnails Flag or select/pick/favorite your favorite photos based on small thumbnails If you see a photo which interests…
If you give people what they want, then … you would just keep giving people soda, high fructose corn syrup, Facebook and Instagram feeds, mindless Gmail reloads, sugar, ‘natural’ sugar, weed, alcohol, etc. Tricky — offer people what you think they *should* need (based on your own taste). However, do not *FORCE* others to have…
A thought on my mind: what are the clothes of the future, and future clothing?
In order to become more productive, take more naps. I called this a minimum viable nap, just lying down on the ground for even five minutes is quite sufficient. To sleep more, to nap more is virtuous. Productivity by KIM OPTIMAL SIMPLICITY. Never Do Anything Which Feels Like “Work“ THE MORE DEVICES YOU GOT, THE…
My ideal: Eagles don’t fly in company, leave that to the partridges and pigeons (Galliani). What if you stuck for a year — to just go solo? True and deep independence.
Simple idea: Strip yourself of all foreign brands. Wear no clothes with have branding on it. Wear no watches. No association with any brands with yourself. If you want to choose a brand, just choose yourself (your first name, last name is the ultimate brand).
One of the life hacks I learned from my friend Jeffrey Lam, something he learned on a podcast. One way to hack your metabolism is immediately after waking up, go outside and expose yourself to some natural light. Personally natural light as something I believe in for myself, my ideal house would just be a…
Inherent in every photography, and every photographer is a certain psychology. For example, it is very easy to smell optimism or pessimism in a photographer, or their photographs. For example, when I look at the photos of a Araki or Daido, I don’t really see hope or optimism, I only see confusion, despair, and suffering.
My anti-retrospective life philosophy. Spend a long time thinking before making a certain decision, but after you’ve made your decision, don’t second-guess yourself or turn back. Stay firm and keep marching forwards. No looking back. No regrets and no pangs of conscience. No being wishy-washy, and certainly don’t keep flip-flopping your decision, like John Kerry.
Something I learned from psychology and sociology is the notion of thin slicing. Basically the notion of thin slicing is that when you meet somebody, you could get a pretty accurate sense of who they are even the first five minutes. Certainly you will not get a hundred percent depiction of who they are, but…
One of the most badass ways to stay fit, and become hard and harder is just have one heavyass kettlebell. That is all you need.
Which designs are the best? The lightest ones. For example, even with website design, the website that is the lightest in terms of code, and the smallest file size is best. Loads quicker, and has less bloat. The enemy of modern technological design is bloatware. This is why I am very anti-Samsung, because it packages…
Do not dwarf yourself. Do not make yourself small. What is the role of modern society? To make you as generic and insignificant this possible. It seems that this preaching of equality of rights is anti-extraordinary individual. It is a disbelief in great individuals. Why are so many people anti-Elon Musk? Because the critics themselves…
When it comes to design matters, design for yourself. Design as if you were your own ideal user.
What is it like traveling with a kid or a baby, and doing photography? Difficult. But maybe not as difficult as you would think.
My new personal metric when it comes to decisions when to buy things, upgrade things, create things, share things, etc: Is this 1000x different? For example, don’t upgrade your iPhone unless you think the new version is at least 1000x better. Same goes with clothes, cars (perhaps electric cars are indeed 1000x better than gasoline…
Look at your photos as small thumbnails in iPhone, and click and hold a photo to favorite it. Then filter your photos by your favorites, and make a new album with it. This is the small thumbnail test applied to iPhone.
To become happier, live more boldly.
Much of the social world is a simulation. Which means, we follow the same old Scripps, and we always talk the way others talk. Therefore the notion of breaking the simulation is simple: go off script, and refuse to talk like others. Surprise people a little bit, and be fun and clever with your socializing…
How to become more extroverted:
In praise of Nike. Now anyone could afford to have a cool pair of shoes.
Many people think that cryptocurrency is all overhyped, yet I see it as one of the most under exploited opportunities, for us and our future. If anything, I think cryptocurrency and crypto technologies is under hyped, and undervalued.
In praise of goretex.
Dear friends, the new year is ahead of us. As 2021 comes to arrive, incipit is 2022.  I have great optimism for the next and upcoming year. Why? Our philosophy as photographers is to make new, and become new. Therefore the idea is that this upcoming year, we will make new photos, go on…
A thought: If you got cool shoes, or a cool car, or cool clothes, but nobody is there to witness you wearing it or using it … does it make it still ‘cool’? No. Thus, we must have things or use things or wear things as if we were the only one to witness it…
The best clothes are the ones in which you forget you’re wearing clothes, the ones that feel invisible. For example when I wear merino wool (very fine high micron), I forget I’m wearing a shirt — which is good! Or, perhaps the best clothes are the ones that let you be the maximally low-key and…
In order to become more productive, you must do less.
What is progress, and why?
Something on my mind: what will be the Aesthetics of the future? For example, which colors or color combinations evoke the strongest feelings of progress in the future? Maybe hyper yellow, hyper orange? Or aesthetics that provoke healings of progress? For example, my new favorite camera design is the hasselblad XD II — more so…
Enjoyed a great two weeks in Mexico City and now I’m back to back to Cali Cali:
Be more clever on how to use or reutilize things you already got than buy something new.
The goals of modernity.
I say the purpose of cinema and literature should be to expand your mind, and to motivate you to new opportunities and worlds. Bad cinema and literature restricts and closes off your mind.
My personal ambition: To plumb the depths of the soul for photographers, and to expand our opportunities and souls as photographers.
I believe it is possible to live a happy life regardless of where you are. And truth be told, there are certainly certain places and certain cities *more conducive* to living a happy and productive life. Yet, after realizing that Mexico City is a perfect city (as well as Hanoi, and Saigon), also Kyoto/Osaka/Tokyo —…
Just finished watching the Matrix 4, and I really didn’t like it. Some reasons:
My personal joy and interest: the best design and innovation is thinking about the future, and making a clean break from the past. Perhaps homages and nostalgia are bad.
I’m currently watching the new MATRIX 4 (I love the original), and I really don’t like it. Granted I have not finished it yet, so I cannot make a proper critique or criticism yet. Yet the question that comes to my mind: what is the purpose of criticism or critique? The only idea I have…
Simple– when your income/money outstrips your expenses and costs. Thus, if you’re ‘net positive’ with money, you’re technically rich. My binary.