November 2022

EK

PART I

Part II

How does one build willpower? Through resisting.

Also, how does one’s muscles get stronger? Resistance training.

The right duration to think.

My favorite phrase.

First, I consider Facebook net positive for society, especially for poor people, or for emerging economies.

However, there is a deep disdain of Facebook in Silicon Valley, especially amongst the tech elite.

The first proposition I have is create some sort of Facebook Pro, or Facebook “Zen“, in which you could pay money to disable notifications and ads. I suggest a premium membership of $4.99 a month.

Second, it is not too late. Facebook must ditch notions of the meta-verse, and virtual reality. I overheard my brother-in-law tell me how the meta-verse has only 100 people in it. We will not be using virtual reality 30 years from now.

Third, I think Facebook should get out of the hardware game. Facebook hasn’t been able to make any interesting devices, and all of their for Facebook Portal nonsense is irrelevant.

Fourth, I think it is a good idea to just merge Instagram with Facebook, essentially getting rid of Instagram as a solo app, and just making it into “FaceGram”. Short term, there will be lots of bad PR, but in the long run, I think it is intelligent decision. Millennials and zillenials love Instagram, but do not touch Facebook. Facebook is the core app, and consolidating the app lineup should reflect that.

+1 for Mark Zuckerberg. He didn’t sell out.

How to make Facebook more Zen?

Instead, I desire a totally brand new concept and category.

Nothing new in the world of photography. Here, I plan to innovate.

Arsbeta.com as the first step.

Second, WHY APP? for photographers.

WHY do you like this photo?

My friend Anton had a new iPhone 14 Pro, and some quick thoughts:

First of all, I really do not like the new dynamic island thing. The punch that hole in the center of the screen, with a little bit of the LCD screen at the top is insanely annoying.

Second, it is great that the brand new camera is so great, but don’t we already have a Ricoh GR 3X for that?

More fun to take an old random car, getting it for very little money, and customizing it in unique ways, rather than buying an already interesting brand new car.

For example, more fun to take your mom’s old Hyundai Sonata and customizing it, rather than buying a brand new car.

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Also, places of commerce tend to be more hygienic than public places. For example, places of commerce tend to be more hygienic than public places. For example, the bathrooms are always clean or at a commercial place then a public place.

Or another words, capitalism is more fun and interesting than public things.

What is the best way to approach life? Think long.

For example, just imagine like you’re going to live until you’re 120 years old. If that were the case, how would this affect your every day life behavior, your purchasing behavior, your investment behavior, etc?

For example, I am quite certain that 100 years from now, Bitcoin and cryptocurrency will be more relevant than less relevant. Certainly in the next 30 years.

When you think long enough, you filter out more signal, and cut the noise.

Long creativity

Then the thought is how do you remain creative and motivated for the long term?

I say first, allow yourself to become more of a child. To a child, the world is infinitely fascinating. Either have a kid, or spend more time around kids.

Also, build things in which the architecture will last the next 20 to 30 years. For example, will Facebook still be relevant 20 to 30 years from now? Maybe not. Also, I am still bearish on virtual reality, even 30 years from now, I think people prefer using their smartphones instead of putting on a bulky virtual reality headset on. Virtual reality will always be for the niche nerds, not the main populace.

I think 30 years from now, we will still be using smartphones and iPhones. Also, laptops will still probably be a thing.

We will still love photography

I predict 30 years from now on, we will still love photography. Even 100 or 300 years from now. Why? Photography is the most immediate and artistic way of capturing things. Video and photography are similar but different, people will still love to make still photos.

Even into the future, most people will prefer shooting photos because it is easier. Even now that there are all these automated forms of creating a video, cinema and doing film is still a niche thing, which requires too much cumbersome training. Instead, the future will be more about bloggers, people who just document every day lives on professionally, and making it more immediate and personal.

Why does it matter?

I think superficially, people choose happiness. I know when I am working out, exploring the world, making photos, playing with Seneca, etc., I am very happy. It doesn’t hurt to be happy.

Then secondly the more existential thing; I think all humans desire or sick some sort of future legacy or thing that will last. What will last? Either your kids or your artwork, ideally both.

For example, I consider the rapper Future very successful, why? He has remained so prolific and has had great longevity up until now.

Therefore, rather than thinking about success as money or fame or some other metric, think of success as in decades. If you have stayed in the game for over a decade, two decades, or three decades, consider yourself successful. Dr. Dre is very successful in music, as he has been producing music for over 30 years.

Even other rappers like 2 Chainz, Snoop Dogg, even a little bit of 50 Cent, are successful, because they are still making music up until now. Even the Bay Area rapper E-40.

Therefore as a simple thought, do not chase success, instead, chase longevity.

A thought, in order to have a more fun and enjoyable life, allow yourself to become more of an animal.

Specifically, a predator, a beast. Like a grizzly bear, a savage wolf, a bloodthirsty eagle, etc.

This means, become more carnivorous. If you were a real predator, animal and beast, would you be eating kale and quinoa? No. More organ meat, beef liver, heart, ribs, etc.

Also, to become more of an animal, this means being more loud, rambunctious, and irrespective of social traditions and norms. Walking around more in public without your shirt on, as long as you’re not breaking the law.

Issues with torsion slippage.

Both are great

Then, the ideal is not a certain state, but ever greater

Differo— dis + fero. Apart, carry, bear.

Become more “apart”. To carry other things?

Philosophically, become more foreign, strange and different from others. More apart.

For example, in the realm of cars, all of the differences are very superficial. The only real way to be different with cars, is just not owning a car.

Also with clothes, all clothes are far more similar than dissimilar. The only real way to make a huge difference in the realm of clothing is just opting not to wear clothing, for example, not wearing a shirt in public.

Also with technology, how different is it really?

Then my suggestion is this: strive to make really critical and core differences and changes, rather than the superficial.

Communis— munus. To change, to swap. To exchange.

A place of commerce, like the marketplace, or even the mall is a place of “community”, as there is an exchange of goods and money.

To change, to swap.

This is why I do not like going to the park, it is boring, because it is not natural. A park is a planned, top down concept, which lacks a real soul or meaning.

This is where money is good, as it is a real social tool of exchange. Money allows us to more easily swap, and exchange things.

The calm before the storm

The more you walk, the more you will shoot.

Even if you were a quadrillionaire, the best life would probably revolve around being able to be outdoors as much as humanly possible, and walk as much as humanly possible

Mentors?

You cannot use more than one device at Once.

Also, you cannot drive more than one car at once.

How to shoot the suburbs

Why I have zero doubts in my parenting

Sublime Bliss

The look on Seneca‘s face when he is playing something so so fun.

Moon Rocks

How does composition matter or not matter?

Good enough composition

The funny thing is in bodybuilding, currently the ethos is high repetitions until failure, to encourage muscle hypertrophy. However, it is boring and hateful.

Instead, lately I’ve just been doing more very very heavy one rep max attempts for squat and rack pulls, and my back and my biceps are getting insane. Also my traps are out of control.

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AUDIO BACKGROUND NOISE ASMR PODCAST

Go heavy:

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The word fail just means to fall.

The problem in American society, and a lot of the world, people are so scared of failure. But what is failure anyways? Failure is when you’re texting while walking, and you trip on some thing, and you fall in your face.

If you attempt something great, and you did not meet your expectation, that is not failure. It is something else. Perhaps it is just feedback?

For example, if I attempt to lift a very very heavy weight, and I am not successful in budging it, is that a “fail”? No. It is simply feedback that I am not strong enough for it, yet.

Another reason why not to wear headphones at the gym, I love these fools dropping dumbbells, can easily crush your toe.

Lift like a powerlifter, look like a body builder.

For example, how quotable Jay Z rap lyrics are, how quotable Kanye West is in political matters, or how quotable Donald Trump is.

Also, Friedrich Nietzsche as one of the most quoted modern philosophers in the last 300 years.

Some thing which is lacking in today’s world is critical thinking. But the question is, how does one think more critically?

Empirical

Put more faith in which you have experienced in real life in the flesh, rather than hearsay.

Also, become insanely skeptical of everyone and everything.

Furthermore, no faith in the media or the Internet. Only faith you could put on is your own self and experiences.

For example, with muscle and fitness, it is impossible to put faith in any other human being but yourself. Why is that? It looks like everyone out there is either trying to make a buck, or trying to gain some sort of influence or fame. This leads to people either exaggerating the truth, or, hiding something critical.

For example, the disingenuity of someone like Chris Hemsworth; he gets super duper swole for his role in Thor, which he was probably doing steroids or some other human growth hormone, and then a few years later he advertises some sort of fitness app, giving people the wrong idea that just by doing bodyweight stuff, and light weights, you could look like him in Thor.

What to avoid

I say, if you want to become the uber critical thinker, things to cut out include social media, the news, Twitter, magazines, podcasts, or anything that has advertising in it.

Also even nowadays, a lot of published hardcover business books are just advertisements for the fame of the author.

Better to trust dead people than people who are still alive

With thinking, more faith in dead people than people who are still alive. Why is that? The truth of people have not yet been fully revealed while they are still alive, while the truth of people who are dead is typically more accurate. For example, learning more about the skeletons of Steve Jobs after he died, via Walter Isaacson.

And this is the tricky thing, any modern day living biography on Elon Musk will not be useful, as he will not know until after he dies, did he make it to Mars or not?

Who should I put faith in?

Funny enough, more faith in people who are considered “assholes” or “arrogant” than the nice guys. For example, I have zero faith and credence in Dwayne The Rock Johnson, because he juices out his eyeballs, yet he advertises the virtues of “hard work.” He should just be honest and tell everyone that he does steroids or other testosterone injections or whatever, if he really wanted to be authentic.

Also, my deep distrust of Ellen DeGeneres, who preaches the gospel of “be kind“, yet probably treats her staff as subhuman. A tip that I got from Nassim Taleb is this; when you meet seemingly “altruistic“ people who does all this philanthropy, see how they treat waiters and waitresses at gala events.

Also, do not trust Bill Gates. How he cheated on his wife.

In fact, do not trust anybody who cheats on their wife.

Also, the disingenuity of Beyoncé, after her knowing and making public that Jay Z blatantly cheated on her, she still “forgave” him, and got back to gather with him. Beyoncé would have just been much more honest if she just divorced him. Perhaps this is where Kim Kardashian is actually more honest than Beyoncé, Kim Kardashian actually having the guts to split ties with Kanye.

In other words, put zero trust in Beyoncé whenever she talks anything about female empowerment, or feminism. It seems that all she cares about is being famous and being rich.

How to not be suckered by conspiracy theories

What is a conspiracy? It literally means people who share the same air. That you have a bunch of dudes in a single room, breathing the same air, and seemingly plot some sort of sinister thing. However, the reason why conspiracy theories probably do not exist is because even if you get a room full of intelligent people in the room, and intentionally try to plot something evil, nobody is actually responsible enough to get the evil thing done.

For example, let us consider a bunch of academics who come to a round table, and try to plan on co-writing a book. They might plan to take them five years, but in fact, it might take them 20 or 30 years, or, it actually never gets done.

Also, I think the human biases that we put too much faith in other human beings. Most people are quite inept, even the intelligent ones. Just look at Bill Gates and his beer gut, he apparently is one of the worlds worlds richest men, yet also one of the most obese? He could afford to hire the worlds best physical trainer, yet, he looks like he lacks any muscle mass, and is over fat. Put no faith in “plant-based diets”.

Trust non-experts

The funny thing, is with me, I am famous for photography, not for health or fitness or any of that other stuff. Therefore, ironically enough, perhaps you should actually put more faith in me than a famous fitness star or YouTuber. Why? I literally have nothing to gain from my thoughts on diet health and fitness. It is simply my side hobby, something I’m interested in superficially for fun.

Or my thoughts on powerlifting and hypelifting. Also, because I put no advertisements on YouTube, and I also do not make money on YouTube, you should put more faith in my videos than other people who put advertisements in their videos.

Follow the money

Money talks and walks. Ultimately, in today’s capitalist world, in which we are all a part of, even the hippies, money drives all of us. Some of us are more driven by money than others, but all of us are honestly tied to money.

A simple thought is this; if somebody has a certain opinion or thought, yet, might have potential financial gains from it, should you trust his or her opinion? No. Why? Whether the individual likes it or not, he or she will bias his or her opinion for the thing, given that he or she can make a direct or indirect financial gain from it.

Also funny enough, you should actually put less faith on people who are either married, in a relationship, or has a family. Why? Anybody will do unsavory things to “support their family,” just like the CEO of Coca-Cola and also the CEO of Phillip Morris. Ethics are important; by promoting a product that either directly or indirectly causes heart disease cancer, and obesity, how can you trust them?

Follow the links

This is also why you should also never trust websites with advertising, or affiliate links.

For example, if I link to a product on Amazon, and by clicking it, and you purchase it, you give me a 3% financial gain from it, is it really in my best interest to tell you the full truth of it? Will I really tell you the full gamut of pros and cons? Probably not.

Therefore, a simple thing to do is whenever you see a hyperlink, copy it, and inspect the URL. Does it have any funny code that links to some sort of affiliate program? Don’t trust it.

Don’t trust anybody on social media

Only put faith on people who own their own website/blog. This affords people greater freedom of expression, because what happens with social media is that the algorithm programs you to write uninteresting things, in order to maximize your likes, shares, and follows. The best way you could become a more critical thinker is uninstall YouTube, uninstall your podcast app, uninstall Twitter, uninstall Facebook, and also uninstall Instagram.

Better to just read books. For example, read Zero to One by Peter Thiel, and also read invent and wander by Jeff Bezos.

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What is the point of critical thinking?

I think the point is not to be suckered, and not to be a fool. Everyone wants to live a better life, yet, we get suckered in vacuous directions. If you want to make more progress in life, and advance your own personal aims, you must become more critical, judge mental, intelligent and wise.

What is the purpose of wisdom? To advance yourself.

It is probably more random than you think it is.

Better instead to think of your photos as a stream or a continuum:

For example the rapper Future — he should definitely have his own website!

Consider the stubbornness of kids — perhaps this should be more encouraged?

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Honestly, the biggest problem about living in a place is issues with maintenance; stuff breaking, toilet breaking, getting clogged, hot water boiler needing fixing, etc.

Paying rent is intelligent because you can outsource the stress of maintenance to someone else!

Even I am shocked:

Perhaps more bodybuilders should shoot pictures of their muscles with the Ricoh GR IIIX.

Become stronger than the rest:

Newest to oldest.

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