Month: October 2022

  • Rib meat is the best meat?

    Short ribs, galbi, beef or pork ribs.

  • How to use money

    • 1. Buy meat
    • 2. For travel
  • Double Dip Lifestyle

    How to harness the maximum.

  • Rock Thoughts

    No two rocks are alike

    No two steps are alike.

    Not hiking, but steep walking uphill at a high grade, with lots of rock steps.

  • Digital Data is Fragile

    The wisdom of importing your photos and culling them as quickly as possible, because your kid might accidentally reformat your camera SD card when you’re not looking.

  • HYBRID IDENTITY.

    I love being Korean American. 교포, 2세— second generation Korean.

  • ANTI BETA.

    I just want it to work!

  • NEWS: THOUGHTS ON CREATIVITY

    NEWS: THOUGHTS ON CREATIVITY

    It seems that what we all desire in life is to become more creative. To become more creative as meaning as finding more joy and satisfaction in our creative creations, and also having more motivation and time and energy focusing realize to actually do it.

    Some thoughts I have on creativity:

    What is creativity?

    I think the best definition I have heard on creativity is “the propensity to create“. That means, the more inclined you are to create, and create stuff, the more “creative“ you are.

    I do not see creativity as some sort of demigod genius innovation. I think that is a myth.

    Also, what makes somebody “innovative”? Their strangeness, their lack of following the status quo, their social eccentricities, and their stubbornness. Therefore, to call somebody a “genius”, means to simply classify them as being more of a hermit, strange, and unclassified by modern standards and “standard standards”. For example, when people often ask me, “What do you do“? I actually am very dumbfounded in terms of how to respond. I don’t think anybody knows what I do, even Cindy, or my mom. Even for myself, I do not have a 100% pre-charted vision of what I want to do or what I will do next. I am more driven by curiosity, enthusiasm, and ideals.

    So how do we actually become more “creative”?

    Simply put, to become more creative means to create more. That is, to create more stuff of anything. To create more photos, to create more videos, to create more blog posts, to create more words and prose, to create more poems, etc.

    I think perhaps a more accurate adjective is “prolific“. Prolific means to bear much offspring. There is no talk of “quality“.

    Quantity is king

    The notion “quality over quantity has its merits, but in the realm of creativity, it has none. In order to create more, and to become more creative and prolific, you must abandon all notions of what is “good”. Also, become less discerning. Edit less.

    For example, even nowadays when I write stuff, voice dictate stuff like I’m doing now, I only am really interested in basic checking my spelling, or, making sure I did not accidentally type or say the wrong word. What I am more interested in is word accuracy, not grammar, not spelling, etc.

    So how can you actually create more?

    The first simple solution is with photography, shoot extra small JPEG, with a preset filter in camera. This is what I do in my RICOH GR IIIX digital camera, shoot extra small JPEG, and use high contrast black-and-white.

    Also, voice dictation. I believe that talking is 1000 times more robust than typing things. For example, our lungs and our larynx in our throat is 1000 times stronger than our weak carpal tunnel muscle. For example, I only typed for about an hour on my 2017 MacBook Pro Touch Bar 13 inch laptop, and almost immediately caught shooting horrible right thumb carpal tunnel pain both from typing and using the trackpad. Upon immediately switching to the iPad, iPad Pro, it has disappeared.

    I am much healthier happier and more creatively productive on the iPad than any laptop. in fact, I am still dependent on a laptop for basic server related file stuff, I really like using filezilla, but besides that, deleting old files, and freeing up storage space, I have zero desire in procuring another laptop. In fact, I almost prefer the idea of owning two iPads instead. Also no phone, the phone is 1000 times worse than iPad for creativity. If you desire to augment your creativity, instead of buying the newest iPhone Pro, get the newest iPad Pro, no stupid stylus “pencil”, andand no stupid keyboard. Just use voice dictation instead, and if you sketch stuff on Procreate or Zen Brush 2, just use your finger. Just like the way kids like it. Also I like the idea of being able to get a cellular connection for your iPad, if it is easily accessible to you.

    Full stack creativity

    I like this notion of full stack creativity, that is, you do it all yourself, without the need of any foreign agents. For example, the reason why film is no longer interesting to me is that I neither have the time nor desire to process my own film, and scanning my own film is an insane pain in the ass. Shooting with my Ricoh GR 3X digital camera, I have now discovered a black and white aesthetic which I consider superior to film. Even Kodak TriX 400 pushed to 1600. Also the massive benefit of macro mode on the Ricoh GR digital camera, which afford you at least 50 times more photo opportunities all around you.

    PROCREATE

    Currently speaking, I consider the Procreate app for the iPad as the killer app. To me, there is no other app which is as intuitive, fun to use, and interesting than the Procreate app for iPad. It is really the only app you need, And even if it was the only app for iPad, it would still be worth it. In fact, if Apple was very intelligent, they would just buy out the Procreate team and business, and figure out how they could add all those great features to their Apple devices and iPad natively. I would actually rate Procreate being worth at least $300-500 million. Maybe more.

    The photo is not sacred, it is profane.

    Ever since Henri Cartier Bresson, there is this strange notion that somehow a photograph should be sacred, be unadultered, not modified, etc. For example, do you remember the huge hubbub when Steve McCurry was caught photoshopping out distracting elements from his photos? Perhaps moving forward, we photographers should not seek any sort of reality or truth in our photos, leave that to the lemmings with iPhone cameras. Our task instead as visual artists is to create images which we consider our artwork, free from any prejudice or ethics.

    We do not see the world in black-and-white.

    Both literally and metaphorically. This is why I believe black and white to be intuitively more artistic than color. A nuance is when you could adjust colors to make them look more surreal, like cross processed film (Sean Lotman SUNLANDERS book), or even the cross process filter in the RICOH GR DIGITAL CAMERA, or the classicchrome or any of the film simulation presets in the Fujifilm cameras. For example, I really liked the classic chrome And the other color film simulations on the Fujifilm X pro 3.

    Therefore, my simple suggestion is try to either use presets or process your photos in such a way that looks as surreal as possible. Don’t make it look like reality. Reality is boring.

    Technically, if you want to make something look as real as possible, the ideal is just shoot the scene on an iPhone using video, with all the types of smart HDR enabled. Why? Video is also much more real than photo, because you can get certain nuances like motion, depth, and voice and scenario. Even still photos shot on HDR with an iPhone lack a sense of realness. Photos don’t feel real, videos do.

    Make creativity your priority

    I don’t think anybody cares to have written on their gravestone, here lies John, he answered all his emails promptly, and died with inbox zero. He was the most efficient human known to man, a master of the GTD, get things done method.

    If you think about all the great human beings who are remembered, they were all inaccessible, unresponsive, “unreliable“, disconnected, and had no real order in their lives. Consider Albert Einstein, and all of the unsolved documents he had on his office table. Also note Leonardo da Vinci, who on his deathbed, was still sketching out ideas and thoughts. Even Picasso, probably one of the most prolific artist who have ever existed, died not finding some sort of ultimate answer or solution in art.

    Kanye West is the best artist has ever come yet far

    Currently, in terms of art and creativity, I believe Kanye West to be the goat, the greatest of all time, thus far. Why? Consider, his personal life tragedies, as well as the way he has been able to percolate into all forms of art. Fashion, Sneakers, clothing, aesthetics, music, music videos (Runaway), cinema (4D video), business, his YEEZY line, his music production and rapping, and changing the hip-hop aesthetic, a guy wearing skinny jeans, a pink polo shirt, and a Louis Vuitton backpack.

    I think if we seek to become more creative, we must study Kanye West. Also know that the most creative people are also the most hated and the most controversial.

    Therefore, if you want to become more creative, effectively you need to become more of an asshole. To not respond, to be inaccessible, and allow yourself more creative isolation. For example, the most creative I have been in my life was when I was in Vietnam for about a year and a half, totally inaccessible, in my creative zen zone.

    If you desire to become more creative, care less about money and fame

    I think the most despicable idea is giving your kid money in order to motivate them to make more art, or spend more time drying on a huge piece of paper with crayons.

    One of the most despicable things I have seen was seeing somebody try to catch the attention of Seneca by offering him money, essentially a $10 bill (10,000 Korean won, the green one). Using money as a way to motivate people or catch their attention, or gain their favor is to me, purely disgusting.

    First of all, Seneca at one year seven months old has no concept of money. At which point do kids become corrupted by money? Probably by their parents, and society, and the random crap they watch on YouTube, YouTube kids, the media, etc. This is why I avoid YouTube like the plague, especially with Seneca.

    I still remember vividly, when I was in high school, I really liked the idea of being paid $100 an hour, and after working for a single hour, not to work for the rest of the week.

    Self defense

    Nietzsche made a funny observation, that with ethics, and the state, one is legally allowed to kill a man in self-defense, but one does not have the law to rightfully kill another man, in self-offense.

    Self-defense is an innate thing, critical to humans, the state, and society. For example, even the US military calls themselves the “department of defense,” not the office of offense, which is more accurate.

    What robs us of of our creative power? Simple: waking up in the morning, checking our email and social media feeds on our phones, which are charging right next to our bed. I really do think that the worst thing you can do for your creativity is check anything, any news, any email, any text messages, any anything first thing in the morning. First get enough sleep, then, defend at least the first two hours of your day.

    What if you cannot do this? Then I say sneak in some time during lunchtime, or when your kids are asleep.

    Another huge pragmatic tip I have is this; seek to sleep early. Strive to sleep at around 730, or 8 PM. Then realistically, you probably will not fall asleep until 10 PM, or 10:30 PM. But then at least, you might be able to naturally wake up at around 6 AM or 6:30am, not being sleep deprived.

    In order to do this, cut coffee consumption after 9 AM. I think coffee is best served between 6 AM and 9 AM. The rest of the day just drink lots of green tea or water.

    Also in the evening, no media or stimulation of any kind.

    Don’t wake up early

    Anyone who tries to force themselves to wake up at 4 AM, or 4:30 AM, via unnatural methods or alarm clocks is a fool. I don’t think anyone should ever wake up at 4 AM, or 4:30 AM, unless perhaps they sleep at 6 PM or 6:30 PM every day.

    Waking up early is not a virtue. In fact, the only virtue is being able to sleep early. It takes more intelligence scale and willpower to sleep at 8:30 PM than it is to wake up at 3:30 AM.

    So where should I share my creative stuff?

    The first solution is to just share it on your own blog. If you don’t have your own blog, or don’t desire to make one, I suggest uploading it to arsbeta.com instead. No Facebook, no Instagram, etc.

    If I told you that you could become the number one most followed person on Facebook and Instagram, and make $10 million a year in sponsorships, but be perpetually depressed, anxious, sleep deprived, and hate your photography and artwork as a result would you take the trade? I think not.

    Don’t be a fool. Be wise. Nowadays, to use Facebook or Instagram is like the new smoking. We shame people for using cigarettes, why not shame people for using Facebook and Instagram as well?

    ERIC


    More creative tools

    1. Creative every day print edition // free digital

    HAPTIC INDUSTRIES >

    Become a more creative photographer

    ERIC KIM WORKSHOPS >


    Things that have been making me feel more creative

    1. Studying etymology, using wiktionary.org to study the root of certain words and concepts. For example, currently being here in South Korea, my curiosity about a lot of Korean words, and figuring out the origin of the word.
    2. And being in the mountains. I think there’s something about the mountain air, the mountain elevation, and the mountain top water which is actually a huge benefit to our creativity. Also, spending a lot of time in the direct sun, maybe absorbing more UV radiation from the sun is actually beneficial to becoming more creative.

    More creative thoughts to come on blog.


    Share the creativity!

    ERIC KIM GOOGLE TALK

    If this inspired you feel free to forward to a friend!

    ERIC


    Life is short, art is long. – Seneca


  • Art Photography

    Art Photography

    Art, artistic. I want to become the most artistic photographer of all time.

  • WHY THE RICOH GR IIIX IS THE GOAT (GREATEST OF ALL TIME).

    Currently speaking, the RICOH GR 3X is the least worse camera at our disposal. Also great not only for photography but for video.

    Perfect will never come, and is not even a thing.

    Youtube

  • JUST SHIP IT.

    When in doubt, just ship it.

    AUDIO

    JUST SHIP IT

    Real artists ship.

    PODCAST

  • We Need Capitalism

    Why are Wikipedia writers and editors so anti-capitalism?

    Why Are Liberals so Anti-Capitalism?

  • Google Pixel Marketing Ideas

    Not the most ‘helpful’ phone, but the most powerful phone.

    Google Pixel Camera (‘Phone’)

    Or, don’t even call it a phone… call it a camera! The Google Pixel as your best camera. Market the ability to say:

    “Goodbye DSLR”

    Also, get rid of all this ugly financing information. It looks ugly and unaesthetic.

    Also I find it very weak how Google simple stole the ‘Pro’ moniker from Apple. They should have called it something else, like the Pixel ‘Epic’ or something else.

    For the most expensive Pixel Pro, the tagline should just read ‘Your Best Camera’

    For the normal Pixel, just write ‘Simply Powerful’. Nobody cares for a phone which is ‘helpful’. We want a phone which is *sexy* (thus the desire for the iPhone Pro).

    For the cheap Pixel, say something like ‘Insane Value’.

  • WHY GOPRO?

    VIDEO

    AUDIO

    WHY GOPRO?

    Make it insanely easy:

    PODCAST

    Think and worry less, create more:

  • KOREA IS BIG.

    Funny enough, America is (waaaay) bigger.

  • Everything is a work in progress

    Just share your screenshots, or what you’re working on now and today!

  • ZERO 0 VIEWS

    Even having zero (0) views is enough!

  • HELP OTHERS FIND ANSWERS YOU WERE ONCE LOOKING FOR.

    HELP OTHERS FIND ANSWERS YOU WERE ONCE LOOKING FOR. VLOG

    AUDIO

    PODCAST

    YOUTUBE

  • I don’t care for my physique anymore

    Or, I won’t care for my physique anymore moving forward.

  • JUST SHIP IT (FASTER).

    JUST SHIP IT FASTER. VLOG

    YOUTUBE

  • Money Thoughts

    Money Thoughts

    What makes the world go round? Money. But why are Americans so crazy about money?

    Some thoughts and meditations on money:


    Why are Americans so crazy about money?

    One of the interesting things about being here in Korea, and thinking about Korean Confucian values, etc., essentially, money is not the supreme thing here. Instead, neo(new)-Confucian notions of virtue, morality, success, rank, hierarchy, etc.

    However, in America, the supreme value is money. How much money you have, how much money you make, your ability to buy certain things, you’re spending power, etc.

    The funny thing is I have spent so much time in America, that when you’re so indoctrinated in that school of thought, you never really question it. So the question is, why care so much for money?

    The difference between owning a Lamborghini, buying a Lamborghini, versus having the money in the bank which could buy the Lamborghini

    I once talked to a guy at a wedding who once wrote for the Motley fool, the online website about investing in stocks etc. I asked him that after all of his experiences writing about personal finance, etc., what his ultimate takeaway points were. He told me something interesting and quite precise:

    People don’t want to become a millionaire, they just want to spend 1 million dollars.

    For example, there’s a difference between having $1 million in your savings account, and the difference between spending your $1 million, and having zero dollars in your bank account.

    Financial freedom?

    When people talk about “financial freedom“, what do people really mean to talk about? I think the first thing is not having to work at your 9-6 job. It doesn’t matter if you work at Facebook, Amazon, Google, Apple. It doesn’t matter whether you’re earning $500,000 a year, $1 million a year, or $10 million a year. I don’t think anyone likes to work for a company, or someone else, or have a boss.

    I am lucky that I’ve only ever had a boss for about 10 months of my life, after I graduated college and got my first tech job. Fortunately since then, from 2011 until 2022, I have not had a boss. I have been a sole proprietor and self employed.

    What is the problem about working for a company, somebody else, or having a “job“? I think it is that people don’t like having to go to the office (if they don’t feel like it), they don’t like feeling unable to just randomly go on a trip and skip out on work duties, and I know for myself personally, I hate pre-scheduled meetings. I like interacting with people in real life, in person, anything that requires me to schedule some thing is my hell.

    So what is your job? What do you do for a living? How do you earn money?

    I was randomly thinking, imagine if Larry Page and Sergey Brin were at a dinner meeting with some in-laws or family members, and somebody who was ignorant of them would ask them, “How do you earn money?”

    I am not sure if they would be able to answer that question.

    Let us consider, if you sold your company, or sold a bunch of shares in a company, and let us assume that you have at least $1 billion in the bank. Do you need to continue earning more money?

    Or, let us say you owned $1 billion worth of Bitcoin. If that were the case, do you still need a continual steady income stream?

    Don’t spend the money

    The hilarity is things are so expensive. For example, my personal thought is that only poor people buy iPhone Pros, buy BMW three series, etc. In fact, only poor people buy expensive German cars. Why? I think the best way to classify somebody as being rich or not is how much liquid money they have in their savings account, not their “investments“. Also not their “net worth”. Certainly not their positions or their house.

    The really really rich and successful people that I know all just go and and use iPhone SE‘s. Why? They are intelligent enough to know that the iPhone Pro is a waste of money, and they would rather spend their money somewhere else.

    In fact, my critique of Apple is that they are starting to become some sort of sleazy financial quick money loan institution. Let us consider that even if you flip McDonald’s hamburgers for a living, you can still afford an iPhone Pro. How? Just sign up for the Apple Card, or the Apple Bank, and you only have to pay $30 a month for two or three years. And then what do you do when the next iPhone Pro comes out? Easy! Just trade in your old iPhone Pro, and continue the process, forever until you die.

    The same thing goes with cars. It seems now at this point, every new Lexus comes out six months, and even the Tesla is insanely expensive, regardless of how well paying your tech job is. I am a huge fan of Elon Musk and Tesla, yet, I think to buy a Tesla is insane. Why? It is too expensive. Also, it is like buying a really really expensive iPhone with wheels. Can you imagine owning your iPhone for 20 years? Probably not. Similarly speaking, can you imagine owning your Tesla car for 20 years? Probably not.

    My friend Christophe is somebody I admire who is very successful in Silicon Valley. Even though he could afford a Tesla, I love how he told me that it is too expensive, and he just bought an Audi Q3 instead.

    Think insanely long-term

    I like the idea of thinking at least 30 years ahead. At this point, it seems that we will all live to be around 120 years old. Not any further than that, and also, some of us will live to be 120 years old in supreme health, and some people will essentially be physiologically handicapped until they die at 120.

    Therefore, the first consideration before money is health. It doesn’t matter if you’re a trillionaire, if you’re constantly sick, cannot walk on your own, and dependent on something else in order to just live, is it worth it? No.

    How much health is enough?

    I think being able to sleep 8 to 12 hours a night, having strength in your legs, having a good and elevated mood throughout the day, and sleeping well at night is good enough. Ideally some sort of combination of going on nice leisurely walks, enjoying some sort of variation in environment climate and elevation, every once in a while lifting up something very very heavy, etc. Also, the big thing is just being able to keep up with your kid.

    A big wake up call I had was when I realized that my one year six month year old child had more energy than me. Not a good sign.

    Then what?

    Truth be told, I think people need to have an honest discussion with themselves; do you really want to be self-employed?

    My friend Stan Hudecki said it funny. What is the difference between having a 9-5 job and being self-employed? If you’re self-employed you work 14 hours a day, if you’re working for someone else, you only work 10 hours a day.

    This seems to be quite true. However, it depends. If you’re self-employed, you can control and dictate how much or how little to work, and when.

    Also, the myth of “passive income”. No income is passive. All income is active. Even if you own an Airbnb property and manage it, there are also a quadrillion headaches that come from this. My friend Martin K (all about photo) runs an Airbnb in Prague, and he made it known to me that it is not just like setting up a passive income stream. There is a lot of management, communication, preparation, and physical labor you need to do, like helping female South Korean tourists lug up their heady RIMOWA bags up five flights of stairs. Also having guests who get locked out at 2 AM need a rescue.

    Or, even if you have some sort of “passive income” from your investments, these still require looking after, and maintenance. Even one of my friends who is a cryptocurrency whale, a.k.a., he will spend $10 million this year paying taxes, told me that he still requires to check his cryptocurrency investments at least once a day.

    So what do you really want?

    WHY APP? ZEN OF ERIC.

    To be able to have a frank discussion with yourself is critical. Nobody ever has the opportunity nor the mental bandwidth to actually question what they want in life. The direction you desire to go, or having the courage to dictate your own modus operandi in life (your mode or way of doing things).

    The first financial innovation I think can made is technique. That is, what technique do you approach money with? For example, I make it a point to only check my cryptocurrency investments maybe once a year, maybe once every other year. Or when I accidentally see the price of Bitcoin or Ethereum when surfing the web, seeing it in the newspaper, a magazine, or having somebody tell me in real life. Or overhearing conversations.

    For myself, what I seek is some sort of zen stoic-spartan focus, a life free of superfluous distractions, and being able to maximally funnel my physiological energy into my creative work. For me that is the quality of my thoughts, my mood, my health, etc.

    Also, now that I have Seneca, becoming his number one trainer and essentially to breed him to become the next King Leonidas, or King of the Spartans. Or to become the next great entrepreneur.

    Billionaire thoughts

    Imagine if you were Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, etc. How, where, and with which technique do you desire to funnel your physiological energy, time, and strength?

    Embodied reality

    Honestly, the best thing I currently do is just spend time with my mom and the beautiful mountain side of hot on. To me the greatest blessings just being able to see my mom interact with Seneca, and having this time together.

    Also, my very pragmatic thought is I just desire enough money to feed my meat habit. Eat enough pork belly, pork ribs, etc.

    Also, with technology having a fast Wi-Fi connection, an iPad Pro, and some sort of MacBook laptop.

    Also, just having enough money to pay for my website server bill which is around $300 US a month.

    Beyond that, I have zero interest in actually owning a car, or even owning a house. I want to be like the Major in ghost in the shell; being able to plug myself into the information web, and become something greater.

    ERIC


    So do you really want to become self-employed?

    Truth be told, if you have been working for traditional company for over a decade, and you have yet attempted a side hustle, starting up something on the side, seeking to become self-employed, it will probably never happen. Unless you have a major self intervention.

    But the truth is, maybe you don’t really want to become self-employed, and that is OK.

    Everyone is different. For myself, the thought of having to work for somebody else, not at my own pace or on my own time, and not by my rules is my personal Hades. Even if I was head of the Apple Photos team, making $100 million a year, but with no personal freedom in my life, I would politely decline.

    Or even if I were the chief photography officer of Apple, making $1 billion a year, with zero freedom in my life, I would say no.

    What if I really do want to become self-employed?

    Just google eric kim photography entrepreneurship, or eric kim entrepreneurship, and you’ll find some thoughts.

    One personal interest I have is helping give the ideas, the courage, and the knowledge tools to help more photographers and entrepreneurs become self-employed, and do something greater with their lives. This is what sparked my initial interest in my photography entrepreneurship 101 series. Because truth be told, when I was 21 years old and passionate in photography, I thought there was a zero chance that I would be able to transform my passion into a living, which is photography. But now that I have made it, And I am on top, I feel the passion and joy to share my information and knowledge and experiences in a frank and candid manner with others. Without lying, and without being pretentious.

    Also, a lot of my workshop students, people I know, or people who end up attending my experiences are already self-made successful entrepreneurs, financially independent, and do not need to work for a living anymore. What they seek is something deeper and more meaningful with their photography, creative work, etc.

    If that is you, check out upcoming eric kim workshops and experiences.

    Next steps?

    If not already, purchase and register your own domain name, I just use 1and1.com. Ideally, you would own your first name last name .com (ERICKIM.com), otherwise, just name it first and last name photo .com or first and last name photography .com (ERICKIMphotography.com)

    Everyone wants to own a house and land, why doesn’t anyone want to own their own name domain on the Internet, which is infinite?

    Start publishing your thoughts online

    Avoid superficial things like aspiring to have a Ted talk, write a piece for the New Yorker, etc. This is all superficial, and truth be told, and only uninteresting people write successful business books, autobiographies, and seek fame.

    Also, something I have realized:

    What is a sure fire way of knowing that somebody will no longer become relevant? If they publish a book autobiography of their lives.

    For example, I was a big fan of the actress comedian Ali Wong, but once she published her own self memoir, I knew it was sign that she was on the way out.

    Also, some signs. For example, probably the most foolish thing that the entrepreneur Ray Dalio did was revoke his free PDF book on his principles on his website, and instead, sell his soul to Simon and Schuster for prestige, and seeking influence. Now, nobody cares for Ray Dalio anymore.

    Or, Barack Obama. I find what Barack Obama is currently doing as insanely shameful. When I was an optimistic undergraduate student, I really liked Barack Obama. But surely, overtime I’m starting to realize that he was just effectively a “white guy“, who happened to look more African-American, and he used the race card to become president, and now it seems that all he is interested in doing is promoting his fame, seeking legacy, and making a bunch of money. I think in the long run, future historians will show that even though Donald Trump is one of the biggest insane assholes of all time, he was actually more honest than the deceitful Barack Obama.

    Think more for yourself, by yourself.

    What is the biggest thing that we are lacking in the world? Independent thinkers. There are no independent thinkers in the world, and also, there is no country which actually promotes more independent thinking. Even in America, which is probably the most freethinking country, truth be told it is not really encouraged. Freethinking is only promoted for the sake of consumerism.

    Even myself ERIC KIM, I aspire to become more free thinking, and spending some time on my own has been very beneficial to becoming more of a free thinker and more of a free spirit (Nietzsche). However, I know I will never become 100% of a free thinker, as I have a wife and a kid, and also, philosophically speaking, I don’t really think it is possible to become 100% of a free thinker. Maybe so far the closest person who has reached it was Nietzsche but he had a lot of his own personal problems and poor health. Currently alive is probably Nassim Taleb, who I greatly admire. The only philosopher with balls and deadlifts.

    It seems everyone else is superficial and or cowardly.


    Publish your thoughts to your own blog

    You could start a YouTube channel, or your own podcast either with anchor.fm. You could even start a blog with wordpress.com. Even my friend Josh White has had a good longevity with his blog at jtinseoul.Wordpress.com

    Besides my friend Josh White, I don’t know any other photographer who blogs, and as a consequence, they have all fallen to the wayside. Also I consider YouTube as a trap. Focus 90% of your efforts on blogging, and only 10% of your efforts on YouTube. He who builds his land on foreign soil will not own anything, nor himself. YouTube, and social media is just another form of digital sharecropping, slavery 3.0.

    ERIC

    Feeling brave enough? If so, feel free to forward the thoughts to a friend!

    Google ERIC KIM NEWS


    Virtue is courage (thanks Cindy Nguyen)

  • MONEY THOUGHTS VLOG

    PODCAST

    AUDIO

    MONEY IN THE BANK is king.

    Money in the bank over possessions: