The reason I like going to sleep, and wake you up in the morning is that it is almost like you died and came back to life. Every day you wake up in the morning is like a metaphorical and literal rebirth, starting off the day with no prejudices, no biases, no things in the past holding you back.
Being forgetful is a virtue
In America, being forgetful is seem as a bad trait. I remember as a kid, I would always forget my water bottles, my umbrella, my jacket, and my thermoses at school, or at my friends house.
Also nowadays, I think being forgetful still afflicts me.
Yet, what if being forgetful was actually a superior quality? That remembering too much was in fact, a bad thing, a vice?
Why being forgetful is good
For example, in terms of social things; it is good to be forgetful of the ways that people might’ve snubbed you the wrong way in the past, and also, some sort of negative memories of the past. It is good to forget your scars.
In fact, from a philosophical perspective, it is better to be magnanimous and simply forget your past injustices, rather than to “forgive“.
Remembering too much is bad. It is like caring the weight of 1000 cares on your shoulders. In fact, I think the modern day human, with too many of these Evernote type apps, almost remember too much. I think that the human brain is an intelligent filter; when it forget something, in fact it rings it as unimportant, and not critical. The brain forgets that which is not critical.
For example, there are certain things that we must do, versus things that we think we “should doâ€.
Things that we must do are critical, things that we “should do“ is actually not critical.
Why is it so hard for us to curate?
Curate comes from couer, which means heart, which comes from care. I think the modern-day human doesn’t know what he or she cares for.
In fact, perhaps wisdom and self intelligence is more about figuring out what you care for, and what you don’t. Even for myself, I am starting to try to think deeper about this; to barbell it. For people that I really care for, to pour even more heart and soul into them, and for people I do not care for, to become even more cold and not acknowledge their existence.
Affection?
Another big way to think about it is when it comes to affection. Perhaps we should just categorize and separate people into two categories; people who you have affection for, and people you do not have affection for.
Disregard and discount people you have no affection for. Once again, put more heart and soul into the people you care for.
“We on Bezos, trips to Lagos†(Kanye)
What would Jeff Bezos do?
I think out of all of the modern day entrepreneurs, Jeff Bezos might be one of the most underrated ones. Why? First of all, he is swole. Just Google images the photo of him looking like the Terminator, and his massive, super jacked arms. Maybe he is the only great entrepreneur that we know who actually lift weights.
Secondly, just read invent and wander by him, he has major balls. For example, during the dot com boom and bust, Amazon went from $99 a share down to $.99 a share. Ouch. The fact that Bezos was able to ride through that is phenomenal. It really shows his courage as a man.
Third, in someways, he is extremely admirable, in terms of his mindset and approach. In someways he is very zen; his notion that every day is day one has permeated for decades. Treating every day like they one is actually a good blank slate, tabula rasa strategy.
The right entrepreneurial mindset
We are entrepreneurs. We are risk takers, we are risk lovers, and we are interested in attempting the new, the foreign, the exotic, the unknown. For me anything that you do which do you hundred percent know the outcome is uninteresting.
For example, I think we could also take an entrepreneurial mindset towards muscles. That is, weight lifting is only interesting and fun if we don’t actually hundred percent know what the outcome will be.
For example, the reason why I am so fascinated with “one rep max†style lifting, or attempting your personal records whenever you go to the gym is that I have zero idea whether I will be successful or not. Certainly I want to be successful, but what the actual outcome will be is uncertain.
The reason then why I find this so enjoyable is then every time I lift something, it is a certain risk, and the uncertainty and the challenge, the danger, is what I love.
Also, with muscle entrepreneurship, it is all about attempting new approaches to weightlifting, lifting weights in a manner that other people have not lifted before. I called this powerlifting 2.0, or HYPELIFTING.
For example, don’t benchpress off the bench, rather, just do it on the floor with the weight and barbell elevated up high on the power rack/safety pins. Using this method, I was a bowl to easily floor bench press five plates, that is, five 45-pound plates on each side, which is considered godlike by most gym standards. 495 pounds.
Also, instead of doing squat the gym, do the atlas lift. That is, just rocking insanely heavy amount of weight on the bar, and just see if you could lifted off the ground off the rack, and hold it on your shoulders for a few seconds, and put it back.
Think insanely epic or nothing
8 plates and beyond or nothing.
I think in order to innovate and pave new methods, new approaches etc. you must allow yourself to become a little bit more “insaneâ€, or “irrationalâ€, or “delusional.â€
Why? We always must think first principles. This is where physics is a massive boon to us; you got to ask yourself:
According to the laws of physics, is this possible or not?
The difference between possible and plausible
Ludo, ludus— just means “game†or “to playâ€.
To delude, or being delusional, means that you are deceiving, or just playing a game with yourself or others.
Once again, going back to first principles: the facts are that you are alive, and you live in a physics world. Then, with your life, what kind of fun games do you want to play?
How to do first principles thinking today
The first one is simple; reformat your phone, your iPad, your laptop back to scratch, don’t restore anything. And when you start again fresh, uninstall all of the superfluous apps, and reinstall apps which you find truly critical.
The second thing is imagine like you’re starting from zero. If you had zero dollars in your bank account, how would you approach life differently?
Third, think blank slate. Talk to nobody, read nothing, listen to nothing, just go to the gym, lift weights, no headphones, and just spend more time thinking. Go on a long random walk somewhere, and just think.
Fourth, reformat your contacts list. That is, delete all the contacts in your contacts list, and then, re-populate it.
Fifth, stop using Gmail. Just start a new iCloud email account with the iCloud+ account. Custom domain email mapping. For example, Cindy bought me and I currently on erickim.com, and I custom mapped with the iCloud+ Apple plan eric@erickim.com — I find that using iCloud, Apple, and your own custom email is at least 1 billion times better than using Gmail. Also it just looks more legit. Having an @gmail.com account almost looks like the new @aol.com account. One of the best ways you could now differentiate yourself as an entrepreneur or individual is by telling others that you don’t have Instagram, and instead to go to your own website, or email you with your own custom email. Also funny enough, I think it is actually better to just give strangers your phone number than your email.
New beautiful futures?
The sun is out, and think of limitless possibilities. Think global, travel more, think more unorthodox and aberrantly, and utilize your life as a tool for great fun, play, experimentation, new innovations and discoveries, and new entrepreneurship!
EK
Innovate your life
Life is for fun!
EK WORKSHOPS & YOU:
- STREET IN BOSTON
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What shall you conquer next?
Random thoughts on my mind
- Perhaps becoming more flashy is a virtue. In life, strive to become flashier. For example, with your car, assuming you buy a new car, or even a new used car, maybe instead of trying to be low-key, strive to be as flashy as possible. The flashier, the flashiest style. I really like this neon blue color nowadays.
- With your clothes, also, optimize for flashy.
- Black is boring. Maybe if you want to become flashier, instead of wearing all black everything, wear all white everything.
Other craziness
New thoughts, new pursuits:
- Thinking more about innovation in the context of clothing
- Seeking you were innovations in terms of weightlifting approaches and philosophies.
- Advancing notions of 100% carnivore diet
- More philosophizing on money, fiat currency, and the future of the economy
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