Something very interesting about being here in Hadong, in the Korean mountainside is this; everything is super optimal and supreme. What I meant to say is that it has the best weather, the best amount of sunlight, the best sleep (no annoying honking at night), and also grandma power, a.k.a. my mom.
Also, Seneca loves being here, throwing around rocks, going on little adventures with me, discovering new things in the forest, discovering new terrains, etc.
For myself, I also love it. I love the higher altitude and terrain, I loved insanely fast Wi-Fi at home, etc. Truth be told, there seems to be nothing lacking.
Then the question becomes; then what?
Thoughts move the world
Funny thing, I can do a video Vlog and upload to YouTube, and organically, it might only get five views. In terms of efficiency and reach, this makes no sense. However, I still like uploading to YouTube because I like the idea that somewhere, my videos can live on, almost indefinitely. Also, I like experimenting with creating more 4K videos, being able to harness insanely fast Wi-Fi at my mom‘s house. There’s a certain joy I have been enjoying watching certain videos I’ve shot on my GoPro at 4K at 60 FPS.
Also, even shooting 5K, and being able to upload that.
However, it seems that currently at least on YouTube, only 4K is displayed. That means that 4K is big enough, 5K and 8K will probably not render on YouTube.
Supreme mode of being
Compared to when I was in Seoul, my health and personal strength feels much higher here. I feel stronger, more motivated and inspired, and overall happier. As much as I love the city, even spending time on the Seoul subway, and shooting street photography, it does seem to be more efficient to just be here, being able to do quick walks uphill, mountain scenes, looking at the nice nature, and having interesting thoughts. For example, the moment I step outside my mom‘s minimalist millennial house, I can immediately do a quick walk over to the neighbors house, and enjoy their forest. Something about being surrounded by trees and varying terrain gives life to new interesting thoughts.
Power vs Strength
So the first thought I had today was this; seeking more power at the expense of anything. However, what is power? And also, what is the difference between power and strength?
For example, let us inspect man. Who is more powerful, the billionaire who is 40% body fat, and weighs 200 pounds and cannot even lift 100 pounds off the floor, or the powerlifter who looks like a Greek god, or a demigod, and can deadlift 800 pounds at 200 pounds, with 8% fat?
In modern-day society, for the most part, there doesn’t seem to be a real practical use of physical strength. In today’s modern world, money reigns supreme. That is, if you desire to become the most powerful man, it seems the most important metric is either your net worth, or how much US dollars you have in the bank. Zeros and commas.
However for me, I do not judge a man’s worth based on how much money he earns, or how much he has saved in the bank, etc. I am more impressed by people who have courage, whether mental courage, or physical courage, in the context of powerlifting and hypelifting, and also, the individuals who have the ability to skirt social norms.
For example, typically this is why I like engaging with entrepreneurs, because in order to become a successful entrepreneur, they had to overcome a lot of social pressures and norms in order to build their company and become successful. But at the same time, entrepreneurs are not enough. Physique and physical strength is also important to me. Even I saw a random interview with Peter Thiel recently, and it looks like he has a massive skinny fat beer belly now. At least it looks like Elon musk spends some time lifting weights.
Not consumerism, but something else.
Another big thing I have reflected on and thought about about life in America, or just the state of global affairs; it seems that now everything is optimized towards buying things. For example, the insane amount of mind space which individuals make in terms of figure out which car to buy, which configuration, which color, etc. And it doesn’t even matter if you’re a billionaire or not, having to waste precious brain power on this seems to be inefficient.
Also, when it comes to health, there are too many superficial choices now. For example, does it really matter whether I use toothpaste which has fluoride or doesn’t? I think not.
Or technology; even for myself, excruciating annoyance that I experience when trying to buy a new phone or any new device, trying to optimize every single factor.
The downside of all this is that ultimately, what you decide to buy or not buy doesn’t really matter. For the most part it is superficial. It really doesn’t matter that much.
What matters more is the things you make and create and share. Your photos, your thoughts, your videos, your blogs your Vlogs, your art, your photos, etc.
How living in Vietnam was so beneficial
When me and Cindy lived in Vietnam for about a year, our mode of living was hopping between hotels, and small minimalist studio apartments. Even at our old Hanoi apartment, a brand new fully furnished studio apartment, I think we only paid $350 USD a month, Wi-Fi electricity and water included.
The big upside of all this wasn’t some sort of virtuosity, but rather, we could just focus on what mattered to us; making art, writing, thinking, playing and having fun. Cindy made a lot of great films, and also I came up with a lot of interesting philosophical turbo thoughts.
Even now being here in Hadong with Seneca, I am very very grateful and glad that Seneca has his epic 2-3 hour midday nap, which gives me a chance to just walk around and write out and dictate my thoughts, and end up sharing them with others. Even now, as I walk around the hills here with my iPad Pro, and using the built-in voice dictation to write out my thoughts in IA WRITER, I feel great.
So what’s next?
Thinking more?
In some ways, thoughts are superficial. That is, thoughts without action are inconsequential.
Also, it seems kind of empty to have the strategy of just living here in Hadong forever, continually improving my health, and continually innovating and sharing turbo thoughts, videos and photos, etc.
I think what I am interested in is new experiences, new places, new environments. Because this is a big thing, whenever you are in the new environment, you have new types of thoughts. Also, whether we like it or not, we are a lot more affected by our environment than we would like.
For example, Americans tend to be very foolish in thinking that willpower alone can supersede any environmental issues. However, an individual will have a different mood and type of thoughts, depending on the environment and the weather, the climate and the altitude.
For example, you’ll probably be a lot more miserable being in Moscow in Russia during the winter time, than being in the beautiful spring in the Korean mountainside. Similarly speaking, for the most part I am much happier in Providence Rhode Island, than being in the dry Orange County suburbs.
Power for the sake of what?
Let us than assume that money is the metric for power. But then what? If you have $100 billion in the bank, what would you really want to do with it? Buy a bunch of companies, and buy a bunch of things, and change how the world is?
One of the very interesting and admirable things I think that Elon Musk did was he actually did use his personal wealth, in order to combat something he’s really cared for. That was, the soft censorship of the Internet, via Twitter and Jack Dorsey.
“Jack off the board!†-Elon Musk twitter
I have always admired Jack Dorsey, and I think he’s one of the greatest modern entrepreneurs of all time. However, it does seem that he had to compromise in order to make Twitter profitable. That is, change the Twitter algorithm and tweak it to maximize engagements, very similar to the Facebook news feed algorithm. I don’t think what Jack Dorsey did was bad or evil, he simply was trying to be a responsible CEO. Hopefully his next startup will be free from such considerations, it seems the best way to stay pure and honest is to never go public.
Not compromising
A very simple thought is that to compromise is both cowardly and it’s a sign that you are too chained to to your personal code of ethics. For example, when a CEO or leader has to compromise his or her vision in order to please shareholders, the stock price, etc., I think there is a lot of regret. For example, the guy who sold WhatsApp seems quite depressed about his decision. Also, I’m sure that Kevin Systrom is not happy that he sold Instagram either. As much flak as Mark Zuckerberg gets, at least he had the balls to not sell Facebook in the early days.
Why sell?
I think the pressure to sell your company in cash out is a combination of people not being philosophical or deep enough, and also people just following the traditional motive doing things:
- Build up a company
- Build up it’s user base and profitability
- Make it appealing to the market
- Go public, IPO, initial public offering
- Make the stock price go really really high
- Share a “reasonable“ amount of shares, and add that money to your bank account
- Then use that money to either build other companies, to just live “off the grid,†etc.
The building is the joy
For me, arabeta.com, the Why app? my blog and my YouTube channel, etc., the joy is always having an idea which appeals to me, and seeing it come to fruition.
The difficult thing is maintenance. That is, for me to have the personal skills in the know how to actually do it myself.
For example, I do not know how to code, and it seems realistically speaking, I might never. As a consequence, it seems better for me to simply stick to what I can do, with no obstructions.
When to Archimedes lever, when to learn new things?
A simple thought I have is this; utilize your Archimedes lever as a publishing channel to innovate new things.
For example, my Archimedes lever is my blog, and now this email newsletter. Then, what seems to make the most sense is to best utilize my publishing platform, and inside of that, both create new ideas and share new ideas. Things that do not necessarily have to be in the realm of photography, or anything I’ve done in the past.
The power of going solo
A thought on my mind is this; why is it that Lisa from BLACKPINK does not just go off and start her own solo career? I think she will become the next Beyoncé.
Cindy and I made a joke, after watching so many LALISA practice dance music videos, and then seeing the new music videos with Lisa and the three other members. I asked Cindy as a joke, “who are those other people behind Lisa? Cindy laughed and said, “probably some random backup dancers.â€
My personal theory is that Lisa is probably held to some sort of contract with YG entertainment, the holding group which controls the life and souls of the BLACKPINK members. That is, I am certain there’s a part of their contract which prevents them from just leaving, dating, doing anything without the approval of YG entertainment, etc.
But, I think sooner or later, once Lisa comes to her wits, and her contract expires, she might just go off and sign with some sort of American or Korean American company, and start her own thing. If she was very very intelligent, she would just become a solo entrepreneur, and just do everything in a more ghetto fashion, uploading stuff to YouTube for her fans, and becoming a full stack personality. Lisa could probably make a good living just getting donations from her fans, selling merchandise, or touring around, or even selling tickets to online shows.
Why this notion of building a company?
Truth be told, more difficult to be a solo trillionaire entrepreneur, with just yourself at the helm, then having a full company like Apple or Amazon.
A theory I have is this; most people who work in the tech industry are not radical solo individuals, but nerds, who are just really good at building stuff. Therefore, there is no thought to become solo, because that is not even a concept to them. There is more safety and peace of mind to be in a group or herd, than being solo.
For example, nobody has intuition anymore in Silicon Valley. For example, I am sure that the head designers at Google simply kowtow to the metrics of what gets clicked on more, and also Apple is trying to optimize the profitability, and simply feeding people new products which will sell well, and have a high profit margin.
Same thing with Amazon; now that Jeff BEZOS has left, it is more of a race to make things more efficient, faster, and ultimately, more profitable.
Even a bad trend I see with Kanye West and his Yeezy line, it seems that Adidas is taking more and more control, suddenly increasing the flow of products, the prices, etc. Instead of just having his products on his exclusive yeezysupply.com, a lot of the new “Adidas Yeezy sneakers“, are available directly on the Adidas website.
So what do you really want?
My personal goal is to keep on exploring, discovering new places, and also coming up with new ideas. Also, I aspire to keep making photos and sharing thoughts until I die at the age of 120.
I cannot speak for you. What you require instead is a frank and focused thinking process by yourself. Maybe it is a good idea to go off the grid for a few weeks, or just fuck off to a random country, and go super zen mode for a year or two.
Also check out WHY APP? to do it at home.
No thought is final
There is no such thing as an ultimate immutable truth. Seeking this is creative and philosophical death. For example, if you did really discover a “theory of everything“, what motive would you have to keep on living and thinking?
Keep throwing rocks into the pond
Currently, Seneca‘s favorite activity in the world is picking up rocks of varying sizes, and throwing them into bodies of water. He loves to pick the rock, hold it, carry it over to the ledge, and then throw it into the water, and he laughs whenever he sees the ripple or the splash it makes in the water.
Maybe we could take a similar philosophy to life. That is, whatever we do in our lives is kind of similar. We like to pick up and throw things at varying sizes, and just see what happens.
ERIC
Think with KIM
Do you want to turbocharge your thoughts? Invest in an upcoming ERIC KIM EXPERIENCE, and you’ll never be the same.
What now?
- Upload your favorite photos to arabeta.com, for honest feedback, and also contribute your thoughts to others.
- Read some ZEN OF ERIC THOUGHTS
Think more, share more
Spend some more time thinking, and sharing and publishing your thoughts. You could do it super easy by just recording a Vlog of yourself sharing your thoughts on your phone, and directly uploading it to YouTube. Or, just post your thoughts to your blog, and share a link with friends and family who might be interested.
Google SEO approach, search engine optimization is this; create a website and blog which includes your first and last name, and whenever you write about a certain topic, create a title that you think others will search, in order to find more personal meaning in their lives.
Sharing is caring, it can be fun!
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New thoughts on https://youtube.com/@erickimphotography