Solution: spending more time outdoors, at the park, at the outdoor shopping mall, and even working out outdoors at the closest park with good workout gym equipment. Ideally the park has rings!
A very cool thing I witnessed when visiting the UTC outdoor shopping mall in San Diego (La Jolla)— this great 24 hour fitness outdoor fitness training area. Imagine being able to enjoy doing deadlifts and squats outdoors, in the wonderful sun! I hate working out indoors.
A simple thought: what if going to the gym was more about training your mind, and when pursuing intellectual matters, you are actually training your body?
For example, it is good to be nervous before you try a new personal record attempt in a one rep max in powerlifting. For example, being or feeling a little bit nervous before attempting a new PR you have never attempted in sumo deadlift, the nervousness is good, as it increases your adrenaline, focus, and your ability to successfully hack yourself to do it.
Also the idea of selling your car and using that money to buy bitcoin is actually a good idea. On craigslist, I’ve already seen people start dumping their model S plaids, and also selling their Tesla model three cars in order to buy crypto and bitcoin instead.
Other day I visited a Tesla showroom and spoke with one of the sales people, he told me that one of their very rich customers who has literally bought and owned every single car just sold his Tesla model S plaid, and just bought a normal long range Tesla model X instead.
Also my very rich and successful pediatrician just sold his Tesla model S, was not impressed with the model S plaid, and just bought a Porsche 911 instead (cement grey color).
Make yourself a fully integrated, vertical-integration solution. You make the photos, you process the photos, you upload the photos, and you publish the photos, and share and market yourself.
Most photographers learn how to do the first few (how to operate their own camera, how to make their own photos, then how to process their own photos on their laptop). But the last stage they are lacking– the courage to publish themselves, to ‘self promote’ themselves, and to put themselves out there.
In fact, I like the idea of ‘marketing’, because the notion of a market is quite ancestral. Also, markets are fun! I love to go there to just people watch, check out new products, and make street photos of strangers I find interesting.
Something I think about a lot– always back to first principles. Rather than think:
What is the best way for me to do x, y, z?
Better to think:
How SHOULD we do x, y, z, — wherefore, for whom, and why?
Aristotle and first principles. The root of our philosophical undertakings.
By becoming a more philosophical photographer, it will challenge you to re-think and combat the status-quo, and help you innovate, innovate new ways and under-takings and ways of approaching things and your photography.
It is not often in everyday life we can exhibit physical courage (besides powerlifting). However, when we decide to make certain design decisions which will get huuuuge backlash (pretty much every design decision Steve Jobs proposed and held onto), and now more design decisions from Elon Musk for TESLA and Kanye for his products, I say:
Exhibit more balls and courage, especially when it comes to design.
For the sacrifice of ‘functionality‘ or mass appeal. Follow your own artistic, creative, and design vision.
For the name of progress, we will need to be ruthless and cut functionality in order to advance.
For example, whenever we start using new technologies, it will never work the way things *used* to work. And perhaps we should strive to overcome this ‘having to learn new things’ bias.
For example, TESLA and cars. For the Model 3/Y, the single central touchscreen is a bit bizarre and new and unusual. But perhaps in order to progress, this is a sacrifice we must make.
Even with WordPress, there are always these new improvements, changes, and advancements. I don’t quite understand them, and it is annoying to have to learn new ways, but in striving to figure out how things *now* work, I actually end up being able to innovate new methods and techniques.
Even my new joy with the new steering wheel (yoke steering) on the Tesla Model S and X. I like the idea you can focus on driving, and not have to lift your hands to do anything. Also, aesthetically it looks super cool. It challenges what a steering wheel in a car (especially in the world of automation, self driving cars, and AI), what a steering wheel *SHOULD* be for?
It has sacrificed innovate for the sake of ‘function’ and ‘functionality’ and ‘power’.
For example, getting rid of the Touch Bar was a cowardly design decision. After getting accustomed to the touchbar on my 13” MacBook Pro Touch Bar (I actually really like the touchbar, and the deep integration with apple products and Apple Photos for the favorite/flag button), and the ability to seamlessly change audio and program/re-program the buttons to my liking. Real designers have deep courage.
Photograph all your meals, your coffees, and what you consume during the day.
‘You are what you eat’ is a simple piece of wisdom. Perhaps we should apply it to photography as well.
Wider edits
The reason why social media is a trap:
The strategy is to just upload (1) of your best photos a day, in order to maximize your likes in photography.
I say share MORE photos. In a single blog post, why not share a hundred, 200, 300, 400, 500 or 1000 photos? It is a simple way to 1000x your photography.
Whenever I’ve made a breakthrough in my photography it has always been born out of some sort of frustration. Thus let us use our annoyances, our personal frustrations, and our dis-motivations to actually motivate us!
Eat a shitload of beef ribs (and eggs, whole eggs, fried/scrambled in bacon fat — 12 of them), and this will hit you like horse tranquilizer in the evening.
Costco Business Center (a normal Costco membership suffices) as the best place:
Why I like hitting my limit: it actually gives me assurance and quality information on what my “one rep max†is. And give myself a week to rest and re-strengthen myself, eat more beef ribs and eggs and try again next week!
Or in other words, I can sleep better at night knowing what my limit is, and my personal happiness and joy in having the courage to attempt my limit!
After studying composition much, I think I can *see* composition before my eyes, kind of like photography augmented reality (AR) but for composition. I actually see these red lines when I’m out and about:
What I desire– a truly ZEN driving experience. No distractions, no devices, no touch screens, no music, no LCD screens, etc. Only a pure driving experience– manual transmission, no CD player, no superfluous things.
Get a GoPro BONES— the ultimate minimalistic design. No LCD screen. The truly zen camera.
I intend to use this for my street photography GoPro POV videos, and vlogging. I don’t have a drone, but I intend to just use this for my self.
Just ordered one with my PayPal balance (cool I can buy stuff on the GoPro.com website with PayPal!) Next day shipping. Excited to test it out!!! To me this is 1000x more interesting, and exciting than even the newest iPhone Pro.
A fun zen thought:
Can they invent a new iPhone or Apple device that has no screen?
Also– I desire a car *without* a touch screen. Can there be any new cars made in the present or the future without LCD screens or touch screens?
Now that Seneca is over a year old (he’s currently around 1 year, 3 months old), I am currently out of the trenches (the first year of child rearing is like trench warfare, World War I style).
Some lessons I’ve learned, on ‘productivity’ and how to stay ‘productive’ with a kid:
Another big step towards our personal independence: become your own barista, make your own coffee at home. Even a cheap deLonghi single serving espresso machine is good, we got ours used for only about 100 bucks, and even a cheap Capresso grinder at home works well.
I don’t see my body as belonging to me. I look at my body like it belongs to someone else.
When I look at the Lamborghini of someone else, I admire it. When I see the muscles and physiques of anyone else, I admire it. Then I had the epiphany:
Ultimate democratic approach: Genetics doesn’t matter. Sex doesn’t matter. Racial ethnicity doesn’t matter. Anyone can both add muscle mass and subtract fat.
Beyond just basic notions of making a bunch of money from your photography. What’s new and interesting ways you can integrate crypto and crypto technologies for photography? Not just selling your digital photos as NFT’s, which is still a basic way to think about selling one’s photos by analogy. Think first principles.
Practice street photography every day. Just go to the mall or local downtown where there are other human beings. To improve your street photography skills, timing and ability to capture decisive moments, once a week on the weekends ain’t enough. Every day. Even the local Whole Foods, Costco is good to shoot street photography.
Small camera: RICOH GR III/X. The best, smallest, most low key stealth camera.
Get into powerlifting: One rep max sumo deadlifts, squats, and heavy dumbbell presses. Get your testosterone up (both men and women), and you will become less alarmed. The higher your testosterone is, the more calm you become and the less sensitive you are to fear. Same goes with eating more fatty meat (beef ribs).
Spend money on intrepid adventures: Hiking, camping, traveling, even going to new places. Go to new coffee shops, restaurants, bars and bring along your camera. Spend money to go on road trips, pay for gas, hotels, Airbnb, etc.
Delete instagram. The ultimate intrepid move you can do. Use arsbeta.com instead or upload photos to your own WordPress blog.
Put yourself out there: Promote yourself, put your skin and reputation and name on the line!
Publish your stuff open source: Free and open PDF EBOOKS of your work. Don’t fear that people will “steal†your stuff.
Get into crypto: Buy Bitcoin — will put some hair on your chest and make you more fearless.
Block all camera and gear and gear review websites and rumor websites. Use a web browser blocker to block your websites which get in the way of your artistic thriving. Whenever tempted by a new camera, just set a 15 minute timer on your phone and walk around the block and make some photos.
See your best photos as ahead of you and to come, not behind you.
