Testing as a life ethos or a life approach:
“Life is not a testâ€
Or is it?
To me, the differentiation I make is this: whether the testing is done by yourself, and using your own personal metrics, or whether the testing is external, that is, being judged by some sort of external authority.
For example, the type of testing that I personally despise standardized testing. To standardize things is to make our children more mediocre, more uninteresting, and more bland.
Why does standardized testing exist?
I think the purpose of standardized testing is a hierarchy thing; for example, if you are born to rich family, and your family could afford private tutoring, and SAT prep, certainly you’ll score higher than a kid from the ghetto of Compton.
Also, a legitimacy thing. If you were born to a high aristocrat family, the Confucian examination as a test of moral uprightness, and your family honor. The history of testing on Wikipedia is hugely fascinating.
Creating a new notion of self testing
If we think about this philosophically, how does one build willpower? Not by actively forcing yourself to do things, but actually, through self-restraint. For example, the hilarious “no fap†challenge. That is, can you go a full year, that is 365 days without fapping? Also my funny thought:
Is it porn if you don’t fap?
What types of self testing should you institute for yourself?
One of the reasons I love powerlifting, or hypelifting is this: to test your strength and to test your courage. And for me it doesn’t really matter whether I succeed or fail, what I’m more curious about is fulfilling my personal curiosity on my strength.
For example, the other day I attempted to deadlift 540 pounds, that is, 245kilograms (YouTube video). Long story short, I failed the attempt. However, what was very fascinating is that I was able to successfully lift the weight off the ground, about a centimeter. Or a few inches. And this is where my pride comes in:
I am simply proud that I even had the personal audacity to attempt it.
Also, I am quite confident that with more time and training, I will be able to successfully lift it.
Don’t hype yourself out
An interesting turbo thought I had while being here in Cambodia, Phnom Penh is this: I am grateful that at the gym, all of the weights are in kilograms. Why is this? Back in the states, I think I hype myself out with the standardized weights that I am accustomed to. For example, in America, the standard “plate“ is a 45 pound, typically red weight. therefore, there are certain standardized measures of strength:
For example, most guys desire to deadlift four or five plates, squat three plates, and bench press at least two plates. And from a glance, you can see how strong somebody is by the number of plates they have on the barbell.
However, the downside of the standardization is that you become stuck on the “plate“ notion. For example, if whenever I attempt a dead lift, and I see four 45-pound weights on each side of the barbell, I believe it to be very very heavy weight, which strikes a little bit of fear in my breast.
Why I have less fear with the metric system
However, with the metric system, or kilograms, because of my ignorance, I have no fear. The same thing goes with temperature; I have no idea how hot weather is when it comes to centigrade, yet I am very clear with Fahrenheit. For example, I have no idea how hot it is when it is 30° or 40°C out, but I know it is very hot when it is 90° or 100°F.
Therefore my thought is this: numbers strike fear in us. In order to feel less fear, perhaps becoming more ignorant of numbers, standardized numbers, standardized systems, or metrics is good. Also, in order to achieve more in life, I believe it to be a good idea to “demetricate yourselfâ€. Demetricate your life.
Also, to Demetricate Your Photography — to detach your self worth as a photographer from numbers.
How to test yourself
Now, our topic of interest is this: how do we test ourselves, in a substantive, and meaningful way?
1. Do not use numbers
The first thought is that when it comes to self-testing, don’t use numbers. All numbers are bad.
Maybe even with weightlifting: we should stop measuring the number, just rate your personal difficulty. For example, when you go to the gym, just keep adding weights onto the barbell, until you can no longer do it. Actively keep pushing it until you fail the attempt.
2. Failure is success
Maybe we can also invert this notion: “success“ is when you fail. That is, a successful trip to the gym is when you push yourself to the max, and you attempt an insanely high weight, and you discover the point in which you can no longer physically lift the weight anymore, not even a centimeter.
As a practical suggestion, I suggest using a hex bar, or a trap bar at the gym for deadlifts, as the motion is more natural, offers better leverage, and is “saferâ€.
3. Motivation testing
My friend Mark Diekhans said something very funny: his goal for the new year was to drink more coffee, not less. Certainly there are practical limits to this, that is, probably not a good idea to drink 50 cups of coffee in a day. However the thought for me is interesting:
How much coffee can my body tolerate?
Also, I try to make it a personal rule to cut off caffeine after midday. That is, I am 100% certain that consuming coffee, caffeine, tea, or any caffeinated beverage, or stimulating beverage like cacao powder, cacao nibs, etc. are positively bad in the evenings.
However, during my waking hours, that is in the morning, and early morning, how much coffee can I drink?
Also, I have a personal fun challenge, that is, a “meat PR†(the personal record for how much meat I can consume in one sitting). For example, my Tabu Shabu challenge of being able to eat over 3 pounds of meat in less than 30 minutes.
Therefore my first thought about setting personal challenges is testing your own personal motivation, for something which personally interests you, regardless of how silly it made seem.
Nassim Taleb has a good aphorism on this:
What fools call out “waste of time†is often the best use of your time. (Taleb, Bed of Procrustes)
I personally believe that we should inject more humor in our lives. This is why I love the Twitter of Elon Musk; she is very funny. It doesn’t take himself too seriously. This actually makes him a lot more likable, and interesting.
“Jack off the board!†(Referring to Jack Dorsey, the founder of twitter who apparently left the board of directors after the Elon acquisition of Twitter).
4. Integrate your learning lessons
One of the most useful things about judging the misbehaviors of others; it is a good shortcut for you to live a more virtuous life yourself.
For example, with parenting; whenever I witnessed certain things that parents did, before the birth of Seneca, I made a mental note of it, in order to not copy it myself.
Testing, and self testing yourself, you must learn these lessons, and integrate it into your future behavior. Otherwise, it is not worthwhile.
5. Street photography as courage testing
One of the best ways to figure out whether a potential street photo might be good or not; how much courage you had to exhibit in order to attempt the photo.
Therefore, nowadays, I judge my photography and street photography based on how much courage I had to risk in order to make the photo. Therefore, testing your courage in street photography is good.
Also, if you want to make a certain photo, test your social courage. For example, testing your social skills— this means when you’re in doubt, you could just approach the person and ask for permission. Asking for permission actually might take more courage than shooting the photo without permission.
Same goes with approaching a beautiful person, and striking up a conversation with them. Testing your courage is good.
How far can your courage fly?
ERIC
Test your photo courage
ERIC KIM WORKSHOPS — test your personal courage for adventure:
- September 30-October 2nd: DISCOVER YOUR SEOUL: ERIC KIM SEOUL SOUTH KOREA STREET PHOTOGRAPHY TRAVEL EXPERIENCE 2022
- November 5th: DOWNTOWN LA MINIMALISM WORKSHOP (New!)
- November 12th: VANCOUVER STREET PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP EXPERIENCE (New!)
HAPTIC INDUSTRIES
- HENRI NECK STRAP: Test your limits.
- ERIC KIM NECK STRAP: Test your courage
- HENRI WRIST STRAP PRO: Test your weight
Engineered to take your further >
Testing assignments
- Go out and intentionally try to get 10 people to say “no†to you when asking for a street portrait
- Test your directions: leave the house without your phone, and go somewhere without Google maps, and take along your camera and make photos
- Test your ability to live off the grid: when traveling, don’t get a Sim card.
- Test your self-esteem: delete your Instagram
More assignments in STREET NOTES MOBILE // PRINT
Did this spark any interesting ideas within you?
If so, feel free to forward to a friend!