So what are we searching for, what are we looking for?
I think what we see is some sort of sublime beauty, joy, flourishing.
How do we attempt to achieve this? Through our cars our homes our clothing etc. 
However… I think true sublime beauty can only be achieved by yourself, through your own artistic creations.
For example, your own child, producing begetting and making and birthing your own child; there is seriously no greater joy.
Also, your artistic creations. Your photos, the artwork you produce. I also qualify DALL-E 3 images, ChatGPT and AI art in it!  Why? Ultimately it is your brainchild; doesn’t really matter whether you produced it by yourself by hand or whatever. For example, Matisse in his advanced years apparently lost mobility in his body and hands, and would simply point with the stick to his assistance to create artwork for him.
Also, Andy Warhol. He was notorious for having an army of assistance producing work for him.
My thought on artificial intelligence and AI generated art is free. The idea is that the artwork we create is ours.
One thing I find surprising is that the greatest boon for AI generated art is that it is all open source! Isn’t this phenomenal? 
Open art
Art wants to be free! Art wants to propagate into the real world, not be constrained by nothing, whether digital rights management, closed doors or borders etc.
This is my general idea with open source artwork; I hit that so much of great photos and art is simply trapped within printed books, not easily accessible or findable on the internet. My huge frustration with photography:
if I am trying to find the book “the Americans“, or any other book out there, any photo book… Why can’t I just Google it or find it online for free?
I have a very simple suggestion: make the images online for free, everything open source and full resolution… And what you do instead is you charge money for the printed physical book.
For example, let us say that you’re planning to publish a photo book. The easiest way to approach this is have an open source free full resolution PDF available online to download, to give your potential customer and clients a taste of what to expect. And then if they like your photos enough, they will buy the printed book.
why? people like physical things. i think the bias is that people don’t like to pay for digital things, but we are more than happy to pay for physical things.
 For example, a very simple strategy to thrive as a modern day guitar for an entrepreneur and artist visual artist, Fatar for it to have all of your artwork open, open source, full resolution JPEG or PDF or whatever… And barbell that with charging a lot of money for your products, physical products, embodied workshop experiences etc.
How to create sublime beauty?
For me, sublime beauty in the context of photography is high grain, gritty high contrast black-and-white. It is a simple aesthetic taste for myself; to me there is nothing more beautiful more sublime.
Also, taking photos of your loved ones. This involves your kids, your wife or your spouse, and even yourself.
Even my friend Josh White said it wisely: At the end of your life, are you going to care about all these photos that you shot of strangers, or are you going to care about photos that you shot of your loved ones? 
Love
I think instead of thinking about love, better to think about heart, care, creation, what you care for.
For example, the word coeur– same as courage, curate, care.
It all comes down to the heart.
Just don’t do nothing you don’t care for
One of the via negativa ways we could live life; just don’t do anything you don’t care for.
For example when you’re talking to kids, best to ask “What don’t you want to be when you grow up?â€ï¿¼
Also happiness is via negativities; better to ascertain what makes you miserable what you hate, what you despise… And figuring out how to subtract or delete that from your life, rather than doing things that make you “happyâ€.
For example, personal annoyances of myself include being stuck in traffic, dealing with subscriptions and subscription model things, clothes source things, modern day news and media and Facebook Instagram, YouTube, family an annoyances and drama, other peoples problems etc.
Also, typically I despise email; and also I typically hate being automatically subscribed to some BS newsletter that I did not opt in. Therefore the silver ethical rule here is interesting:
 If something annoys you, don’t do that to others.
For example, I hate when people automatically subscribe me to some email newsletter without me checking a button to confirm that actually wanted. Therefore I will never send an email newsletter to anybody who has not intentionally opted in.
 Also, trying to do things for other people that I would myself like. For example, I don’t think I’ve ever received an email or an email newsletter that I actually liked to work for. Therefore as a consequence, my simple strategy is to drive to send emails or email newsletters that people actually look forward to reading. 

Or in other words, make people actually positively excited to check their email inbox!
What you yourself do
Ignore the “advice†of others, and also… best to simply observe what other people do.
Also, the best way to study success is to figure out what people don’t do, what they don’t own, etc. 
For example, Elon musk and Kanye West; neither of them wear watches.
Also, neither has an Instagram, both deleted it.
Also, Elon Musk doesn’t own a home or live in a home. I think he just rents some sort of random two bedroom one bath home hut somewhere in Austin Texas.
Also, Elon Musk does not own any Lamborghinis Ferraris or loser cars.

Also, the greatest courage of a Kanye West; he doesn’t censor himself, he says what is really on his mind.
Maybe is he the most courageous man alive? Maybe. There is no right and wrong, all is permitted. Therefore to not censor yourself in modern-day society is the ultimate act of courage? 
Sublime thoughts
Beautiful body, beautiful thoughts.
How to gain more beautiful thoughts? My simple suggestion is maximum time in the direct sun, ideally topless. Also, sleep early — shoot for 8pm?
A simple suggestion is limit your coffee and caffeine intake only between 4 AM to 9 AM, or only the morning hours.
And also during the day, lift weights at least once, maybe even twice.
Also my supreme luxury; the last few days, in a single day I have done all three: at least one hot yoga session, at least one hike in nature, and at least one weightlifting session.
A life post-work?
Why work? I thought which interest me while in Vietnam, when Cindy and I were living in Hanoi, paying only $320 USD a month for rent, a position in which literally even if we wanted to spend all our money, we cannot spend it fast enough. Eating out every day, living in a small hotel room, no possessions no nothing.
Living in America seems a bit foolish if you don’t need to. I think it is far superior to live in Hanoi, Saigon, Pom pen, ironically even Japan; I think when we were living in Kyoto, we were subbing an apartment for only $500 USD a month.
Why think abroad?
TRAVEL NOTES (PDF)– the simple financial life leverage is simple:
Earn US dollars, American standards, live abroad.
For example, Mexico City, Roma Norte, even Doctores. Condesa — all good.
Trippy told, if Cynthia was not employed in America, I see zero reason to live here. I would probably be living somewhere else; and also assuming I didn’t have a kid, I would definitely be some sort of weird digital nomad. 

Writing is leisure
People don’t seem to get it; the primary function of writing is meta-thinking, a fun leisure activity. A fun luxury.
This is where I don’t understand 99.9% of writers; it seems some sort of weird self-flagellation here. Most writers I know… don’t actually enjoy writing. 
This is where ChatGPT is no threat; honestly we got a rethink this whole K-12 education in college things; the point of writing isn’t right for the sake of good writing; the point of writing is to flesh out our thoughts, to share ideas that we find interesting.
What is the point of life anyways?
A simple one is to have offspring; to have at least one kid, perhaps ideally two kids, or if you’re willing… More.
I think the funny thing about kids and family is that typically we use ourselves in our own life experiences as a barometer and framing. For example, I have one younger sister two years younger than me, and I always wanted to have at least one boy, one girl. It is because that is how I was raised.
Having kids make sense in so far much as if people stopped having kids, quite literally there would be no future humanity. What’s the point of having all the wealth in the world if there are no future children or humans to enjoy it?
What do you want your kids to become?
Being self-employed, probably the best thing is that I literally can just spend all day with Seneca, being his personal trainer and tutor. I think of myself like Chiron the centaur, the private tutor of Achilles. Things I like to do with Seneca include physical activity exercise and exploration, His diet, which is close to 100% carnivore, 100% grass fed beef or Wagyu ground beef, and more recently… Finding this “ancestral blend“ ground beef thing at Erwhon (force of nature brand)– which has the consistency of normal ground beef, but has mixed in it beef liver and beef hard, which are natural steroids.
In fact I think the optimal diet is 100% organ meat diet; organ meats are probably at least 100 times higher in nutritional density than even flesh meat.
Everyone says that eating red meat is bad; how about organ meats?
People say that eating meat is bad for the planet, but let us consider how much waste and scraps is thrown away from the animal, which include the heart, the liver, the kidneys, the tendons and ligaments, etc.
So if you really wanted to be a “woke†person, perhaps the wisest way to do this is just only eat a pure organ meat diet.  
