Currently being in the blazing hot, ruthless Southern California sun, this is what I have realized about white cars: they are an eyesore. That means, they have too much contrast, and they are too bright. Also when the light reflects on the white car, it blinds you. Black is a good option in terms of…
It seems in today’s world, we are obsessed about upgrading. For example we want to upgrade our clothes, our phones, our laptops, our cars, our homes, etc. But when we desire upgrades, what is it that we really seek? The first part is maybe we desire more higher power and ammunition, thinking of our tools…
Perhaps this is the proper task: to have the will to create. But the question is, why the will to create, and where does the will to create come from?
What is ultimate privilege? The privilege to create. The privilege to procreate and create children, the privilege of having abundant leisure and mindspace in order to create, and having via negativa mind space in order to come up with creative thoughts. In fact, I think the reason why a lot of people desire to become…
A random thought: would you desire a life in which everything were beautiful? That you were only surrounded by beautiful people, beautiful objects, beautiful architecture, beautiful landscapes, beautiful things, and beautiful thoughts? Maybe not. Why is this? Perhaps we need the ugly in order to appreciate the beautiful, and vice versa. And also maybe the…
One thing I’ve discovered is that I am insanely picky. And even the best things aren’t good enough for me. therefore, what I either do is buy nothing, or keep looking for something I consider perfect. For example, I love cars and car design, yet, I have never seen or experienced a car which I…
Now that I have a kid, my son Seneca, I think a lot about how I desire to raise him. Something I’ve been thinking about a lot about is schooling, particularly modern day schooling.
How do we cure, or overcome our creative impotency?
I have a concept called meta-editing — in which you publish a bunch of photos in a blog post, and then you review the blog post and you re-save the photos which pop out in your eye. Then you re-upload and re-publish it. It is like a recursive form of editing and filtering, and republishing.
One thing I’ve discovered is that the notion of creativity is not a good one. Why? When people talk about creativity, what they really mean to say is creative ingenuity. Or another words, originality. When we call somebody creative, we mean to say that they are able to formulate novel ideas, and novel ways of…
One of the thoughts I had after reading the book Ready Player Two is this: what if there will be no earth death? What if in theory, humans can continue to inhabit planet earth for another billion years?
It seems nowadays the focus on life is wealth accumulation, novelty searching, purchasing and consumerism, fashion, or watching entertainment, traveling, etc. But, ultimately I think what we really desire is to create. To create things, to create products, to create ideas, etc. When you create, you take your soul energy force, and you impute it…
After over a decade of being addicted to coffee, some quick thoughts: First of all, how much coffee should one drink? I say as much as you can tolerate, as long as it is before 12 o’clock noon. Absolutely in every condition, no coffee after 12 o’clock noon. Even if you’re tired, just take a…
I just finished the book ready player two. Some quick thoughts: First of all, I found the imagination of Ernest cline to be great, extending the metaphor of virtual reality, by being able to completely use one’s mind with the.ONI files. To me, reading the book was good because it was very philosophical in nature.…
A life experiment thought: in the evening, shut off your iPhone, and also, shut down your laptop. With iPhone, you have to do the strange sequence: up volume down volume and side button and literally shut your iPhone totally off. This will prevent you from having the temptation to check it or use it. With…
One of the things I’ve learned from Cindy, and history as a discipline, is the notion of significance. Ultimately, with almost all matters, you could put it in a binary: is it significant or not significant? Or when you are trying to advance an argument, you must be clear what the significance of your statement…
One of the things I am the most grateful for is having the opportunity for me to shape the culture of street photography, and photography in general. Also notions of Minimalism, zen, taoism, stoicism, and philosophy and photography. Therefore what I suggest to you is this: do not be a slave or a follower of…
Something I realized: in our basic human minds, we love the idea of a buffets. But in reality, buffets are not good. Why? For example, we like the idea of having unlimited options, but the downside of buffets are that most of the options are very mediocre.
This is how and where philosophical thinking is very useful. Rather than how to do it, consider the deeper question — What should it do? What should social media or photography social media do? Or what should a car, clothes do? How should a parent raise their kids, and what should a child become? What…
Optimize for you.
Avoid intervention.
I must move! What is it that we biological human organisms desire? To move! What is my passion in life? To move. To move myself, to move weight, to move ideas, to move products, and to move people. In fact, when I think about it, the reason I hated my 95 job so much is…
To bet on crypto, Bitcoin etc is actually to bet for the demise of fiat currency. Thus when the traditional stock market is tanking, it is a very good sign for cryptocurrency.
A thought — While everyone wants to create a billion dollar company, or a billion dollar brand, etc … perhaps we should go back to some old-school notions. The original notion of this nomadic, world-witnessing photographer. A photographer whose life task is to witness as much of the world (planet earth), and photograph as much…
Beware who owns the platform. Even if he become the number one person in virtual reality, or the number one person on the oculus/meta-platform, you still don’t have full control. In theory, Facebook can just strip away all of your items, equipment, points, and virtual money. Who holds the keys? Also another unrelated note: even…
Many individuals think that the purpose of life is to maximize one’s pleasure. For example, maximizing your sexual pleasure, maximizing your aesthetic pleasure, maximizing your pleasure from possessions, things, food, and lifestyle. But, pleasure for the sake of pleasure isn’t the goal. One of the very interesting ideas I got from the book Ready Player…
Perhaps it is a good idea to set a binary to things: either it is beautiful, or ugly. No in between. This is a much more effective filter and approach to make more precise decisions in life.
If you have the option in life, do not opt for steady.
Something I realize, the best flex in terms of outfit is to where all white everything, especially when going to a restaurant. Why? You signal that you are so rich that you can afford to dirty up your clothes. Compare this to workers, who were all black everything, in order to hide just in case…
Photos from the life of Seneca, ERIC, and Cindy:
It is man which sets values on things, and all beauty goes back to man. Ultimately, all value is deeped in the social, in relationship to one another, with man being the judge. Therefore, the more that we could optimize and design around human beings, the better.
If you want motivation to make photos, just go on a hike. Or make photos at home, or go on a walk around your neighborhood.
Anything you could invest in, which allows you to walk more in a given day is good. Minimalist shoes, hiking, mobile lifestyle. Living in a downtown city area. The luxury of not owning a car, and being able to walk everywhere, and even walk to buy groceries. In life, the best optimization to do is…
What is a Luxury, and what is not? Simple: everything is relative to another. What seems like a luxury today is because what we compared to the past. For example, fast and free Wi-Fi and high-speed Internet is a luxury, but we no longer consider it a luxury because it is so wide spread and…
Are you truly unique, or just a subtly different iteration of others around you? The best way to become more unique is creative isolation. turning a blind eye to social media, current events, news, and the concerns and desires of others. Also, caring less for the well-being of others. Also, not wasting your breath to…
In life, vanity is good, but only if the vanity is deep. Shallow and superficial vanity is a detractor and a distraction. For example, pride in one’s possessions is a very superficial form of vanity. A better source of vanity is the vanity you get from your artworks, your character, or your own personal innovations.…
Make it easy and simple. Why? Things which are more easy to use or do will be used more. Easy things have greater utility. How do you make things easier? Make it simpler. Fewer options, make it more intuitive, and make it more automatic. Also, better interoperability. The reason why I really like Coinbase as…
Once you got perfect, then what? Our goal is we must go beyond perfection. Then focus on just play? Having fun! “Just have fun with it” Also just don’t take things too seriously. No more need or desire to optimize things. Rather, “unoptimal” is better and our new luxury. Also, art. Art does not need…
Not hunger but the desire to consume more is the motivator.
Once you’re perfectly satisfied, then what? Or once you got everything perfect, then what?
Not “does the world need it”, but “do you need it”, or do I need it? And if you care badly enough, be the one to make and create it.
Something that I am actually very personally curious about, in which I do really care for, is figuring out how that we could maximally thrive. What does it mean to thrive? For us to have the maximum peak health and motivation, the maximum strength, the maximum uplifted mood, and energy, and the best gratitude towards…