Month: February 2022
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BECOME AN ICON.
Literally and figuratively.
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NICHE OVER MASS MARKET
Another key to success. Specialized vs general equipment and tools.
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JUST KEEP SHOOTING.
With photography, don’t think too much. Just keep shooting:
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NO CAMERA IS FOREVER.
Something I have learned: The thought — ‘I will just “invest” in this one really great camera, this really great lens and own it forever’ is an un-true notion. For example, a thought I had in the past: If I just had a Leica M9 and a Leica 35mm Summilux/Summicron lens, I will stay with…
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NEW IDENTITY
Once you get a kid, you gain a new identity — not just you, but you and your kid (an ultra-ego).
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KETTLEBELL CLEANS
An easy, quick fun ‘bang for the buck’ workout at home:
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SHOULD WE BUY THINGS AS IF WE WILL OWN THEM FOREVER?
The tricky thing — some things cannot really last forever. For example, you cannot own an iPhone forever. You also cannot really own a digital camera forever. Same goes with laptops, computers, etc. No device or digital thing is ‘future-proof’.
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THE FEWER PLUGINS, THE BETTER.
A good ethos for website building, and technology in general. Rather than figuring out which plugins to add, figure out which to disable and delete.
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‘WASTEFUL’?
Something very annoying: Why is it that when certain things stop working or break (like my beloved RICOH GR III), it cannot be easily fixed by me, and has to be sent elsewhere? Or another example, I find a pair of NIKE shoes I really like (Air Force 1, Flyknit, special edition), but once the…
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LIMITING YOURSELF TAKES MORE RESTRAINT AND WILL POWER
The notion of ‘unlimited’ seems to be a good one, but in actuality, not good. For example, better to limit your reps when it comes to lifting weights (better to do fewer reps, with higher intensity/difficulty/weight) than crunching out mindless repetitions until ‘failure’. Ironically enough, you are more prone to injure yourself through doing too…
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THE DOWNSIDE OF MINIMALIST DESIGN
Something bad about minimalist and streamlined designs: Either the difficulty, or the impossibility of ‘fixing’ it, ‘upgrading’ specific components, and issues with longevity. For example, once your iPhone is outdated, it is outdated. No ‘upgrading’ certain components of your iPhone. After purchasing it, you cannot upgrade the camera module, the processor, the memory storage amount,…
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105 POUND FLOOR KETTLEBELL PRESS
In trying to discover new types of workouts with the 105 pound kettlebell (the beast, 48 kg), a floor press (‘bench-press style) is a good one:
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THE PHOTOGRAPHER-ARTIST
Our ideal, pursuit and goal.
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BEACH IS BETTER.
When you have the choice, go to the beach, go on a hike, take photos:
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Upgrade Yourself, Not Your Car.
Many people spend tons of money upgrading their car (buying new parts, additions, customizations, rims, performance parts, etc), or by upgrading their entire car (buying a Tesla, Lamborghini, Porsche, etc)– But much more effective than spending all that time upgrading your car and vehicle, why not spend that money on upgrading yourself instead? For example:…
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WHEN IN DOUBT, CHOOSE NEITHER.
If you’re torn between deciding between two things, it often means both are mediocre choices. Thus opt for *neither*.
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THE LAST PHOTO IS TYPICALLY THE BEST.
The upside of reviewing your photos in reverse chronological order: Your best photos tend to happen towards the end or the very end.
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DON’T SHOW IT ALL.
To make better photos, don’t show it all. Intentionally obscure parts of the frame, and don’t include certain parts of the frame. For example in order to make better landscape photos, don’t include all the foreground, middle ground and background. *ONLY* show the foreground or the middle ground or the background. In other words, if…
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WILLPOWER IS RESISTING STIMULI
What is ‘willpower’? Having the stubbornness to *RESIST* a given outside external stimuli/stimulus.
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WALKING IS SUPERIOR TO DRIVING
After a pleasant weekend trip to San Diego, a thought when visiting this beautiful coastal beach: Walking across it and hiking it was 1000x more enjoyable and great than driving through it.
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I’ve Never Met a Depressed Person Who Walks 30,000 Steps a Day
Physiological depression — can be remedied by extreme hiking and walking?
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Concepts.
What we desire — new ideas and concepts.
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Don’t Acknowledge the Existence of Others
The best way to become “non-judgemental”.
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PUT YOUR HAND IN IT.
What makes a more personal photo? A photo in which your hand is also in it:
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FADED
With aesthetics, faded is good. Why? The more faded it is, the more wear and tear, the better. What is ‘cool’? The more you use something, the more wear and tear it has, it is a badge of honor.
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WITH BLACK, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.
Like Leonardo da Vinci said– start with a black canvas, and then on top of the black canvas, paint whatever you desire. With black, your possibilities are limitless.
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PHOTOGRAPHY IS EVERYTHING.
After doing the whole Silicon Valley thing, going through the whole crypto billionaire thing, etc — what is the end of all of it? Simple: photography.
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COURAGE OVER DIFFERENTIATION
In Ancient Greek times— being “different” wasn’t the goal… courage was. In the Iliad, strength courage and might is what is valued, not being “different”.
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Turbochargers
Turbochargers are good— better to have less displacement with a turbo than all motor with high displacement.
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SEE IT IN PERSON.
What designs impress you? You gotta see and perceive it in person. For example, ignore marketing materials and photos. See it in person, touch it in person, hold it in your hand. For example, I don’t really like any of the new iPhones. iPhone Pro is too big, thick, heavy, and doesn’t feel good in…
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Branding is Everything
What is a ” brand “? An aesthetic taste and ethos in the commercial, capitalist world in which we live.
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ROAD TRIPS ARE THE FUTURE.
Covid ain’t ever going away. Perhaps road trips are the future?
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BLACK IS THE LEAST EYE-SORE
Black isn’t the ‘best’ color, but the least eye-sore.
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EVERY INCH CONSIDERED.
When it comes to design, best for us to consider every single inch; to not compromise any inch of a design of a thing. For example, my insane huge disdain for chrome accents (cheesy), and also plastic trim on cars. If I were the creative director of Apple, I would become 1000x more insanely discerning…
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THE BEAST KETTLEBELL WORKOUT (48 KG, 105 POUNDS)
In praise of the 48kg (105 pound) kettlebell workout:
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THE IDEAL CREATIVE PHYSIOLOGY
Ideal– Standing desk on your laptop, outdoors, with direct sun on your back.
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HOW TO BECOME A PHILOSOPHER
When I meet uber-successful people, after all their success, riches, etc … what is it they all strive towards or ultimately do and become? They become philosophers, or focus on philosophy. For example one of my friends at the gym, who is a crypto-whale (apparently is paying $10M in taxes this year alone), after he…
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LAPTOP AS THE MINUM VIABLE DEVICE
Phone, tablet– ‘nice to have’ things, but not essential. Only essential device is a laptop.
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DYNAMIC PREFERENCES
Not your past preferences, your new and present day preferences.
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The 1 Meter Challenge
Currently I’m having an issue in which my RICOH GR III doesn’t focus or startup properly anymore (lens error). A workaround– Shoot in snap focus mode, with the pre-focus set to 1 meter. Funny enough, this has been very liberating. Why? It reduces one thing in your photography process; worrying about focus. Certainly you cannot…
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KETTLEBELL HOME WORKOUT (48 KILOGRAM, 105 POUND): 1 HANDED CLEAN AND SQUAT
Assuming you don’t have a gym membership, you’re a parent and have a kid, and just want more efficiency with time, home kettlebell workout seems to be the best bang for the buck in terms of time and effort and results. Just get one 48 kilogram (105 pound) kettlebell, and have fun with it at…
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Car only useful when driving not parked.
Car which promotes flow?
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Too much money?
Having too much money is bad—you spend more time thinking about how to spend or invest your money over just doing things and physical activity or making things.
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JUST ONE OPTION.
Less paralysis by analysis, more action. Choose your defaults wisely.
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JUST DON’T REACT.
Stoic indifference.
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Just disable it all.
I don’t want any recommendations or “suggestions” from my services or devices.
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WHY CATEGORIZE YOUR PHOTOS?
Perhaps when we categorize our photos, we make sense of them?
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Ultralightweight
Using the new WPASTRA theme, and even though there are many things I don’t like about it, the biggest benefit is how ultralightweight it is in terms of frontend file size, which means the site just loads insanely fast.
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BLOOD FLOW.
Not ‘working out’, but physical activity as a means to flow your blood? For example, not ‘stretching’, but physical movement to motivate blood flow?