Month: April 2022

The new trend and ethos. Black, imposing, heavy, menacing.

For example, calligraphy as also a form of communication

The best modern-day flex, Tyler Durden fight club style.

In praise of the minimalistic Tesla model 3, and Tesla model Y interior, and central screen. It is much more future proof than many modern cars being built today, even modern electric cars, with all the superfluous interior flourishes.

Assuming that Tesla could really make autonomous vehicles possible, all electric, it will eat Uber‘s lunch.

Also, if one day in the future Tesla self-driving cars will fulfill Amazon packages and delivery, it will change everything.

Don’t just use buzz words, or follow what’s trendy, or try to placate to the popular society trends. Rather, have a strong, singular, an obsessive creative vision for how things should be.

You don’t need to “prove” anyone “wrong”.

The interesting thing with cars, is that you technically own the physical space within the car.

The best car is the one you can nap in.

A fun creative constraint.

Letting Seneca play by himself, and keeping my distance, and just letting him do his own thing. But closely observing him.

Why is sun exposure so good for our well-being?

For myself, spending as much time in the direct sun as humanly possible. Shirt off, and short shorts.

A thinker– someone who thinks.

How to think more? Via negativa:

Spend less time reading, listening to podcasts, watching movies, TV, shows, music.

Let your mind and visual-audio sensory go more quiet and deaf.

Some ways:

1. Epic hiking is like something you do in a video game.
2. Transform your body: Let us assume that real life is like Diablo II — certainly you want to become like a Paladin, Barbarian, or Elden Ring, Assasin’s creed, HALO, etc — you want to become the most muscular, imposing, and heroic body. High muscle, physical strength, courage.
3. Technically all you can carry is what is in your inventory (your backpack).
4. A real hero doesn’t own a ‘home’ or stay at home.
5. Transform your clothing like your armor.
6. LINK (the hero of Zelda) — doesn’t own a ‘car’. He has a horse. This seems to be a trend. Thus perhaps you should see your car less as a fashion accessory — but more like a tank or as a vehicle to go further distances in less time.
7. It seems the closest way to live real life like a video game is a nomadic life, traveling, etc.
8. The purpose isn’t to become the richest player in the game, but the most powerful, the strongest, the best PVP (player vs player) with the highest stats (for strength, vitality, abilities, etc) with all the best weapons (the best armor, the best attack weapons). Compare this to real life, in which the name of the game is to become the richest billionaire on planet earth.
9. Therefore my personal ideal is to be this digital nomadic, blogger, photographer, traveler, thinker, philosopher, innovator, product and technology creator.
10. Street photography is interesting, because it is the closest thing to a ‘first person shooter’.
11. We desire to discover new worlds, thus the penchant for traveling to new exotic places.
12. It seems we want epic challenges, maximal danger without death.
13. The best ‘environments’, include Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Saigon, Hanoi, Mexico City, New York City, Downtown LA, San Francisco, London.
14. Perhaps spend more money on your clothing (the best equipment, the best materials) and consider it your (gangsta) armor.

How do we live a virtuous life in the suburbs?

1. Mall street photography
2. Hiking
3. Lots of walking around the house, front porch, backyard
4. Mini road trips and day trips
5. Date nights at new trendy places
6. Walking to the local grocery store/ALDI
7. Working out at home and in the front yard (Kettlbells)
8. Trips to the local Costco (business center is best)
9. Maximal walking (steps) with Seneca
10. Walking much, thinking much, philosophizing

Better to workout insanely intensely once a week than everyday with “high” intensity.

For example, better to do a one rep max attempt, powerlifting style, once a week, than bodybuilding style every single day.

Very cool car.

Google Maps has too many ads now. Apple Maps as an inferior product, but cleaner and more beautiful without ugly advertisements.

Take your shirt off!

Think at the week level, not the day level.

Build equity in yourself.

The game changer, especially for getting beef, eggs, and other meat items.

You can access it, even if you just have a normal Costco membership.

Or get a Costco gift card as a “golden ticket” to entry. If you don’t have a Costco membership but have a friend or family member who does, ask them to buy you a Costco gift card, and you can use it to enter a Costco. And pay the remaining balance with cash or debit card.

Life gets better when you close doors and options.

Before working out, have as much of a dynamic warm-up as possible. Push-ups, bodyweight squats, Burpee‘s, pistol squats, dive bombers, One arm dive bombers, hip openers with kettlebell, kettlebell swings, Turkish get up, etc.

For shoulders and joints, chin ups, mixing up your grip. Also the broomstick stretch.

Dear friends,

To advertise my upcoming new ONLINE PHOTOGRAPHY CREATIVITY WORKSHOP, I wanted to share some quick thoughts with you on photography, art, and creativity:

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1. Photography as the ‘Occam’s razor’ of artistic creativity

I like the notion of Occam’s razor (as simple as possible, nothing superfluous). Digital photography is this. What I mean is that with photography, you can most directly create art objects (your photos), with as little effort and mess as possible.

There is no other form of art which is as simple and direct as photography.

Even nowadays, I believe the RICOH GR IIIX as the supreme camera. And the upside of digital over film is that digital is 1000000x more cheap, convenient, and fast than film.

I feel that COVID-19 might have been the final nail in the coffin for film. Even though I love film, the aesthetics, the process, and the zen associated with it, film is now dead to me. Long live digital.

With RICOH GR IIIX, somehow they made the optics even more superior to Ricoh GR III. And I’ve actually discovered I actually really like the 40mm perspective. Now, I no longer think about the focal length — I just see, point and shoot.

2. Extra Small JPEG (high contrast black and white)

Assuming we create a ‘full stack’ digital photography solution, and assuming we won’t print our photos super big, then it seems that extra small JPEG (around 2000px wide) is ideal. Why? Even on a 13” MacBook Pro (or perhaps even the new 14”), your JPEG photos full-screen are big enough for your laptop wallpaper.

Also, the upside of extra small JPEG is that you can shoot more, more freely, with less risk. Why?

With extra small JPEG, you don’t need to think twice. It won’t take up much space, the photos will import super fast, and also upload super fast. In fact, shooting extra small jpeg on my RICOH GR IIIX has made my photographic workflow probably at least 10x as efficient even when compared to shooting ‘normal small’ JPEG.

Also, after extensive testing of the iPhone Pro, I’ve discovered the optimal is to just get the new iPhone SE (just use the iPhone as a phone), and optimize your photography with RICOH GR IIIX. As much as the new iPhone Pro seems to be the ultimate photo solution, it isn’t. In fact, I think that only lemmings will get the iPhone Pro. Even now when I observe people who have an iPhone Pro, they tend to be millennials (or zillenials, or gen-Z) Instagram-addicted folks who want to become ‘influencers’ or go to ‘festivals’, and simply want the best internet-connected camera/phone to flex their festival-centric lifestyle.

If your true goal is to focus on photography, just have a ‘standalone’ digital camera. RICOH GR IIIX.

3. New ways to share and publish your work

Something I learned from Cindy and her students is how well they use new technologies like Google Slides (it is like the new version of making a linkable website), Canva (the new ‘Photoshop killer’), Google Docs, etc to publish and share their artwork and ideas.

For example, you can easily make a photo book designed in Google Slides (export as PDF) or even using Apple Keynote to make a digital photo book.

Affinity Publisher is also a great solution for us when using our Mac (MacBook laptop) to publish digital works of art (beautiful e-books). I truly believe PDF is the future.

4. Retire Adobe products

I’ve been a hardcore Adobe Lightroom user ever since I was in college, but now, I just use Apple Photos (the default one baked into MacBook laptops, and also your iPhone/iPad). Why? Deeper integration. I love how Apple Photos easily syncs everything — the Adobe ‘Cloud’ is clunky.

For us photographers, assuming you just stick to JPEG, you can just cancel your Adobe Cloud service, and just stick to Apple Photos which is free. Of course you’re locked into the Apple Ecosystem, but we all already are anyways, so it isn’t a big deal. For me personally, I don’t pay for any subscription services (no Spotify, no Netflix, no Adobe cloud, etc) — only YouTube premium (for my family, so I don’t overhear annoying advertisements) and Dropbox Pro (and also pay for extra cloud storage for Google Drive and Apple iCloud). The fewer subscriptions you gotta pay, the better.

5. Use more of your money on experiences which will expose you to making new photos

Even beyond photo books— the best money you can invest in your photography is experiences. For example, use your money to travel (either domestically or internationally), use your money on hotels/airbnb, use your money for a cruise, or gas for a road trip.

In fact, I am becoming less price-sensitive when it comes to paying for AirBnb, or even Hotels, because I know in that kind of scenario, it will motivate me to make more new photos.

Some recent trips I did which I loved:

1. Socal to NorCal (Berkeley) road trip // stopped by Sacramento which I thought was actually very cool (Sacramento x Berkeley Road Trip 2022) also Morrow Bay
2. Lake Arrowhead mountain retreat
3. JOSHUA TREE (love love love it).

Some things which might be in the pipeline for me:

• Cambodia, Phnom Penh

A simple heuristic to life:

Optimizing your life for experiences and adventures is good.

6. Creative Resources

Creative Products:

1. Embark On Your Own Photography Adventure Flowchart
2. Creative Everyday Print Edition (FREE MOBILE EDITION HERE)
3. FREE Photography Visualization PDF Resources

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7. Creative books

Also some creative books:

1. PDF: Josef Koudelka Photography Composition Studies
2. PDF: Henri Cartier-Bresson Photography Composition Studies
3. PDF: ERIC KIM Photography Composition Studies

More books

8. What’s been inspiring me

Got a good source of inspiration from the new HALO show on Paramount+, and great new ideas from the new BATMAN movie.

Ultimately I prefer John Wick over Batman

9. More turbo ideas for you

1. “He who has started is already more than halfway done.” – Aristotle / Marcus Aurelius
2. Low-key photography is more artistic
3. Why I like crypto
4. Channel your anger into focus
5. Is beef liver the true ‘super-food’?
6. Praise is bad
7. ‘Sustainability‘ is a trap.
8. Theories on why hiking is so great
9. Photos for self
10. Stoicism is aesthetic

More on blog >

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2. Henri Neck Strap MARK IV
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Start here / Books / Products / Workshops

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If this sparked any creative ideas within you, feel free to forward to a friend!

The upside of shooting photos with strong streaks of light, and just shoot with ‘highlight‘ priority as your exposure setting.

With Crypto, you don’t feel tied down, or tied to a bank or banking institution. More freedom to move your money, store it, or have the joy in speculation or seeing it go up (or down).

Typically, whenever I see Bitcoin go down, I see it as a ripe opportunity to acquire MORE Bitcoin. I like the notion of the 10+ Bitcoin club.

If your goal is to eat less, eat more fat.

For example, pork belly, beef belly, beef neckbones, beef liver.

For public speaking or a book or an article or argument, the goal is clarity, and confidence.

Make your argument as clear as possible, and say it as confidently as possible.

You are what you eat, you are what you shoot.

And if you wanted things to have manifested differently, just use your past experiences as information, to make a different decision in the future.

And for the decisions that you made today, yesterday, or in the past, always think to yourself: everything happened as it should have happened.

Do you need to praise your kids? Or praise others? Not necessarily.

Better to live a short yet intense life, than a long and mediocre one.

Disregard notions of “sustainability“. People always ask, “But is it sustainable?” Sustain simply means “to hold on” (tenere).

What should be done manually, what should be done automatically?