ERIC KIM ₿

Month: January 2024

  • SMALLER APARTMENTS ARE BETTER.

    Why? Easier, faster and cheaper to heat!

  • Visualize Spartan demigod deadlifting 1,500 pounds

    GOAAAALS!

    Haha

  • Matte black Spartan coin

    Use and promote your own shit!

    External vs internal promotions?

  • Spartan Street Photographer

    The new vision:

    Becoming the uber-street photographer:

    MASTER THE STREETS:

    Ultimate-Beginners-Guide-to-Mastering-Street-Photography-by-Eric-KimDownload
    The-Street-Portrait-ManualDownload
    100-Lessons-From-the-Masters-of-Street-Photography-by-ERIC-KIMDownload
    Bitcoin camera Eric Kim Back

     ERIC KIM CHATGPT BOTS

    1. ZEN OF ERIC
    2. ERIC KIM BOT

    STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT

    Open source:

    1. What is Street Photography? (2.4gb) / Download
    2. Black and White (2.3gb) / Download
    3. How to Shoot Street Photography (2.2gb) / Download
    4. Street Portraits 101 (1.9gb) / Download
    5. Conquer Your Fears (430mb) / Download
    6. Composition (460mb) / Download
    7. Masters (107mb) / Download
    8. Editing and Post-Processing (1.3gb) / Download
    9. Photography Projects (1.4gb) / Download
    10. Motivation (3.7gb) / Download

    View all >

    Video

    STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 101

    walking woman umbrella crimson red
    1. How to Become More Stealth in Street Photography
    2. HOW TO BECOME A BETTER STREET PHOTOGRAPHER
    3. Street Photography Mastery
    4. How I Became the Greatest Street Photographer Alive
    5. Antifragile Photography
    6. How to Conquer Your Fears in Street Photography
    7. INSANELY AUDACIOUS AND BOLD
    8. 5 Simple Street Photography Techniques
    9. STREET PHOTOGRAPHER.
    10. The Street Photographer Ideal
    11. 50 Street Photography Tips, Techniques and Ideas
    12. Street Photography Values
    13. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY DOESN’T NEED TO HAVE PEOPLE IN IT.
    14. Why Street Photography is So Great
    15. WHY BECOME A STREET PHOTOGRAPHER?
    16. Society Photography, Not “Street” Photography
    17. How to Street Photography
    18. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY OPTIONALITY.
    19. 10 Street Photography Tips
    20. The Street Photographer as the Apex Photographer
    21. Street Photography & Adrenaline
    22. STREETTOGS STARTING GUIDE
    23. 50 Street Photography Tips by ERIC KIM
    24. What I Wish I Knew If I Started Street Photography All Over Again
    25. Photograph like it’s not a big deal
    26. Suburb Street Photography
    27. What is Our Personal Motivation Behind Street Photography?
    28. WHY I’M SO PASSIONATE ABOUT STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
    29. Personal Street Photography
    30. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY AS A PRACTICE.
    31. Pandemic Street Photography
    32. AIRPORT STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
    33. How to Shoot Street Photography Right Now
    34. Towards a More Independent Street Photography Approach
    35. How Street Photography Improves Your Life
    36. How to Tell Stories in Your Street Photos
    37. Face Street Photography
    38. How to Start Shooting Street Photography
    39. How to Shoot Street Photography During a Pandemic
    40. 7 Street Photography Assignment Ideas

    STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT

    street photography starter kit by ERIC KIM

    Master street photography with STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT.

    STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 101

    Hearts. Hollywood, 2011 #flash

    If you’re new to street photography, start here:

    Brave New Street Photography

    Street Photographs

    ERIC KIM layers hong kong
    1. How to Shoot Street Photography with Dads and Kids
    2. HOW I BECAME SUCH A GREAT STREET PHOTOGRAPHER
    3. Use Quarantine as an Opportunity to Pick up Film Photography
    4. Hong Kong Street Photography by ERIC KIM

    Street Photography Philosophy

    Street Photography Articles

    Street Photography Techniques

    Street Photography Ideas

    Street Photography Composition Techniques

    STREET NOTES.

    Push yourself out of your comfort zone with STREET NOTES: Mobile Edition.

    STREET NOTES PAPER EDITION ON AMAZON >

    LEARN FROM THE MASTERS OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

    Timeless wisdom from the masters of street photography.

    Learn more about MASTERS >

    FUNDAMENTALS OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

    Street Photography Inspiration

    Beginner Street Photography Articles

    Get started in street photography:

    Definitions in Street Photography

    How to Shoot Street Photography

    Street Photography Equipment

    See all equipment articles >

    How to Conquer Your Fears in Street Photography

    See all articles to conquer your fears >

    Intermediate Street Photography Articles

    Take your street photography to the next level:

    Advanced Street Photography Articles

    Find deeper meaning in your street photography:

    Street Photography Tips & Technique

    Learn how to shoot on the streets:

    See all street photography tips and techniques >

    Street Photography Guides

    In-depth guides on street photography:

    Street Photography Equipment

    The best equipment for street photography:

    See all equipment articles >

    Street Photography Editing and Workflow

    How to Start a Street Photography Project

    Learn From the Masters of Street Photography

    “He without a past has no future.”

    Start here:

    1. Why Study the Masters of Photography?
    2. Great Female Master Photographers
    3. Cheat Sheet of the Masters of Photography
    4. 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
    5. Beginner’s Guide to the Masters of Street Photography
    6. Download All Articles >

    The Masters of Photography

    Classics never die:

    Free Downloads

    See all free downloads >

    Free Street Photography Books

    Distilled information on street photography:

    For more resources on photography, Start Here >

  • Visa and Bitcoin

    Visa has been actively engaging with the world of cryptocurrency, particularly Bitcoin, by forming partnerships and launching innovative services. They are focusing on integrating cryptocurrency into their vast payment network and exploring blockchain technology for various applications.

    1. Partnerships with Crypto Platforms: Visa has collaborated with over 50 crypto platforms to develop card programs. These cards allow users to convert and spend digital currency at millions of merchants globally. This initiative bridges the gap between traditional financial services and the emerging crypto market, making it easier for consumers to use their crypto assets for everyday transactions oai_citation:1,Visa Partners with 50 Crypto Platforms on Card Programs – Blockworks.
    2. Crypto Advisory Services: Recognizing the growing interest in digital assets, Visa has launched crypto advisory services. This service is aimed at helping banks and other financial institutions navigate the complex world of cryptocurrency. It includes guidance on everything from implementing crypto features to understanding the regulatory landscape oai_citation:2,Visa Launches Crypto Advisory Services for Banks as Demand for Digital Assets Grows.
    3. Exploration of Blockchain Technology: Visa is deeply exploring blockchain technology. They are investigating various aspects like Solana’s high-performance blockchain for stablecoin settlements, understanding Ethereum’s economics and staking model, and examining privacy-enhancing technologies in finance. These efforts show Visa’s commitment to understanding and leveraging blockchain technology for improving and expanding their payment services oai_citation:3,Crypto | Money is evolving | Visa.

    Visa’s proactive approach in integrating cryptocurrency and blockchain technology into its services demonstrates the company’s foresight in adapting to emerging financial trends. By bridging the gap between traditional financial services and the evolving digital asset space, Visa is positioning itself as a forward-thinking leader in the payment industry.

  • V (Visa Inc.)

    2008– I graduated 2010, my sophomore junior year at UCLA undergrad?

    $44 a share, raised $17.9 billion!

    Over the last five years, Visa Inc.’s stock has shown a trend of growth and resilience. While I couldn’t retrieve detailed day-by-day historical data for the entire five-year period, the overall performance can be summarized based on its recent market presence and known historical trends:

    1. Steady Growth: Visa’s stock has generally experienced steady growth over the past five years. The company’s strong position in the global payment technology sector, its continuous adaptation to digital payment trends, and expansion into new markets and technologies have contributed to this growth.
    2. Market Resilience: The stock has demonstrated resilience in various market conditions. Visa’s business model, which focuses on transaction processing rather than lending, provides a degree of insulation against economic downturns that affect the broader financial sector.
    3. Recent Performance: As of January 17, 2024, the stock closed at $266.63, with a slight increase in pre-market trading to $266.80. This is close to its 52-week high of $267.10, indicating strong recent performance.
    4. Analyst Perspectives: Analysts generally maintain a positive outlook on Visa, often rating it as a “Buy.” The 12-month target estimate for the stock suggests potential growth, with targets around $278.65, indicating confidence in its future performance.
    5. Innovations and Acquisitions: Visa’s recent years have been marked by innovations in payment technology and strategic acquisitions, further strengthening its market position and potentially influencing its stock performance.
    6. Dividends and Financial Health: Visa has also been notable for its approach to dividends and overall financial health, contributing to its attractiveness as an investment option.

    For detailed day-by-day historical stock prices and in-depth analysis, it would be advisable to consult financial news websites or financial services that offer comprehensive stock market data and analysis oai_citation:1,Visa Inc. (V) Stock Historical Price Data oai_citation:2,Visa Inc. (V) Stock Price, News, Quote & History – Yahoo Finance.

    As of the latest available information, Visa Inc.’s stock (NYSE: V) is performing well in the market. The stock closed at $266.63, with a slight increase in pre-market trading to $266.80. This demonstrates a steady performance, with the stock price near its 52-week high of $267.10. The company has maintained a stable market cap of approximately $547.975 billion and a PE ratio of 32.16. Analysts generally hold a “Buy” consensus on Visa stock, with a 12-month target estimate of $278.65, suggesting a potential upside from the current price.

    Visa Inc. has shown consistent financial growth. In 2023, its revenue was $32.65 billion, marking an 11.41% increase compared to the previous year. The earnings for the same period were $17.27 billion, an increase of 15.48%. This financial performance reflects the company’s strong position in the payment technology sector and its continuous adaptation to the evolving digital payment landscape.

    For the most up-to-date and detailed information, it’s always a good idea to consult the latest market data or financial news sources oai_citation:1,Visa Inc. (V) Stock Price, News, Quote & History – Yahoo Finance oai_citation:2,Visa Inc. (V) Stock Price, Quote & News – Stock Analysis.

    Visa Inc.’s stock history is a tale of consistent growth and market resilience, reflecting the company’s strong position in the global financial services sector.

    1. Initial Public Offering (IPO) – March 2008: Visa’s IPO was one of the largest in U.S. history. The company priced its shares at $44 each, raising $17.9 billion. The IPO came at a turbulent time in the financial market, amid the unfolding global financial crisis, yet it was remarkably successful.
    2. Post-IPO Growth: Following its IPO, Visa’s stock showed strong performance. The company benefited from the increasing global shift towards electronic payments and away from cash and checks. This trend was bolstered by Visa’s expansive network, brand strength, and technological advancements in payment processing.
    3. Stock Splits: In March 2015, Visa announced a 4-for-1 stock split, an indication of its strong market performance. Stock splits are often used by companies to make their shares more accessible to a broader range of investors.
    4. Resilience During Economic Challenges: Visa’s stock has generally shown resilience during economic downturns. While the financial sector can be volatile, Visa’s role as a payment processor, rather than a lender, shields it from some of the direct impacts of economic downturns, like credit defaults.
    5. Continued Growth and Innovation: Over the years, Visa has continued to grow, both organically and through strategic acquisitions, expanding its capabilities and global reach. The company has also been investing in new technologies such as blockchain and contactless payments, positioning itself well for the future of digital transactions.
    6. Market Performance: As of my last update in April 2023, Visa’s stock has been considered a stable and profitable investment by many analysts, reflecting the company’s strong financial performance and dominant position in the global payments industry.

    It’s important to note that stock market performance can be influenced by a wide range of factors, including economic conditions, company performance, and investor sentiment. Therefore, past performance is not always indicative of future results. For the most current information and detailed financial analysis, consulting a financial expert or accessing the latest market data would be advisable.

  • Story of Visa company

    Standardization — VISA *is* the credit card, only credit card to have? Whether debit or credit?

    VISA

    Revolving credit — buy now, pay later?

    BankAmericard— Bank of America in 1958–

    VISA at Costco?

    Who owns

    Visa Inc. is a publicly traded company, meaning it is owned by its shareholders. These shareholders include individual investors, institutional investors, and mutual fund holders. When Visa went public with its initial public offering (IPO) in March 2008, it was one of the largest IPOs in U.S. history at that time.

    Before its IPO, Visa was owned by a consortium of banks that issued its cards. These banks became some of the initial shareholders of the company after it went public. However, with the transition to a public company, ownership diversified widely among the investing public.

    As a publicly traded company, no single entity owns a controlling share in Visa. The ownership is spread across anyone who purchases its stock, which is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “V.” The largest shareholders typically include large institutional investors like mutual funds and pension funds. The exact composition of these shareholders can vary over time, based on stock trading and investment trends.

    How evolved

    The evolution of Visa reflects a remarkable journey of innovation, adaptation, and global expansion, deeply intertwined with the evolution of financial services and consumer behavior.

    1. Early Innovations (1950s-1970s): Visa’s predecessor, BankAmericard, introduced the concept of a revolving credit line and electronic data processing for financial transactions, revolutionizing the way people borrowed and spent money.
    2. Establishment of Visa and Global Expansion (1970s-1980s): Under Dee Hock’s leadership, the transformation from BankAmericard to Visa was not just a rebranding, but a reimagining of the credit card as a global financial tool. Visa standardized credit card operations, making it easier for banks worldwide to join its network, and thus began its global expansion.
    3. Technological Advancements (1980s-2000s): Visa was at the forefront of technological innovation in financial transactions. It introduced electronic authorizations and settlements, and the use of magnetic stripes made transactions quicker and more secure. These changes greatly increased efficiency and security, making credit cards a more attractive option for consumers and merchants alike.
    4. Adapting to the Digital Age (2000s-present): In the internet era, Visa adapted to the digital revolution. It embraced online payments and later, mobile payments, ensuring its relevance in the rapidly changing digital marketplace. Visa also invested in security technologies like chip-and-PIN and contactless payments, which provided greater security and convenience.
    5. Fintech Partnerships and Future Directions: Today, Visa not only competes in the traditional financial landscape but also collaborates with fintech companies. This symbiotic relationship has led to innovative payment solutions in e-commerce, peer-to-peer payments, and digital wallets.
    6. Sustainability and Social Responsibility: Recently, Visa has also been focusing on sustainability and social responsibility. This includes efforts to reduce its carbon footprint and initiatives to bring financial services to underbanked populations.

    Throughout its evolution, Visa has shown an ability to foresee and adapt to changing market dynamics, consumer needs, and technological advancements. This adaptability, underpinned by a commitment to innovation and strategic partnerships, has ensured its ongoing success and relevance in the global financial ecosystem.

    The story of Visa, the company, is a fascinating journey of innovation and entrepreneurship in the financial world. It began in the late 1950s and early 1960s when consumer credit was starting to gain momentum.

    1. Birth of BankAmericard: The story of Visa is essentially the story of BankAmericard, which was created by Bank of America in 1958. This was the first mass-marketed credit card program. It was a revolutionary idea at the time, offering a revolving credit system that allowed people to purchase things and pay for them later.
    2. Expansion and Challenges: Initially, the program faced numerous challenges, including financial losses and organizational hurdles. However, its convenience and utility soon made it popular among consumers.
    3. Formation of Visa: In 1970, Dee Hock, then a vice president at Bank of America, took charge of the troubled BankAmericard program. He proposed a new structure, transforming it into a separate entity. This led to the formation of National BankAmericard Inc. (NBI), a consortium of BankAmericard issuer banks. In 1976, NBI was renamed Visa, a simple, universally recognizable name.
    4. Innovation in Technology: Visa has been a leader in payment technology. It introduced electronic authorization of transactions and the magnetic stripe, key developments in the convenience and security of credit card transactions.
    5. Global Expansion and Dominance: Visa expanded globally by licensing its card program to banks in other countries. Today, it is one of the largest and most recognized brands in the world, with its cards accepted in millions of locations across numerous countries.
    6. Visa Inc. Today: The company has continued to innovate, embracing digital payments, mobile technology, and cybersecurity advancements. Visa’s journey from a Bank of America credit card program to a global financial giant mirrors the evolution of modern consumer finance and the rise of a globalized economy.

    This story resonates with themes of innovation, thinking ahead of the curve, and entrepreneurial spirit, key elements in revolutionizing the way the world engages in financial transactions and perceives credit.

  • PRO-VISA

    https://usa.visa.com

  • Apple Card Ideas

    https://www.apple.com/apple-card/

    1. Partner with VISA — not Mastercard? Nobody uses Mastercard!!!

  • APPLE IS THE NEW BANK?

    Trade in is a scam. Anyone who trades anything in is a fool!!!

    3% Daily Cash back with card? Super scammy.

    Simple marketing for Apple Card:

    One card to rule them all.

    Or more PC—

    One card and done.

    Bad marketing

    Don’t call it a “credit card”!

    Say—

    Apple Card— designed to simplify your life.

    With Apple Card, we completely reinvented the credit card. Your information lives on your iPhone, beautifully laid out and easy to understand. We eliminated fees1 and built tools to help you pay less interest, and you can apply in minutes to see if you are approved with no impact to your credit score.2Advanced technologies like Face ID, Touch ID, and Apple Pay give you an enhanced level of privacy and security. And with every purchase you get Daily Cash back that you can spend 3or save.4 Apple Card. It’s everything a credit card should be.

  • Apple Fitness+ Ideas

    Ideas —

    First, the url is ugly. https://www.apple.com/apple-fitness-plus/

    Simplify it!

    just apple-fitness

    or

    apple.com/apple-fitness

    Simpler language

    Just make it say:

    “Get fit”.

    Criticisms

    1. Why do the images suck and are so ugly?
    2. Get rid of the guys with the man buns
    3. Get rid of the overfat models
    4. Fewer options — 3 months, 1 year or whatever ,,, too many options?

  • I can’t wait until the iPad Pro M3 chip comes out!!

    It’s finna be a game changer!!

  • THINK TRANSIT.

  • ARE PEOPLE FROM UKRAINE “White”?

  • LEGACY LEGACY LEGACY

    Hmmm… a lot of titans had the startup capital from already family wealth?

    The surname “Pritzker” is a Jewish habitational name for someone from Pritski in Ukraine. This suggests that the origins of the Pritzker family name are geographically linked to the Pritski area in Ukraine, a detail that aligns with the family’s Jewish heritage and Ukrainian roots oai_citation:1,Pritzker Name Meaning & Pritzker Family History at Ancestry.com®.

    1871–

    Nicholas J. Pritzker, born in 1871, was a Jewish immigrant from Kyiv who established the Pritzker & Pritzker law firm in Chicago. He was part of the family’s initial generation that immigrated to the United States, escaping the Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire in the late 19th century. Nicholas played a crucial role in laying the foundations for the Pritzker family’s future success in America. He passed away in 1957, leaving behind a legacy that his descendants would continue to build upon. For more detailed information, you can visit the Wikipedia page on the Pritzker family.

    Nicholas Pritzker

    Nicholas J. Pritzker, the patriarch of the American Pritzker family, was a Jewish immigrant from Kyiv. He was a key figure in establishing the Pritzker family’s roots in the United States. Nicholas founded the Pritzker & Pritzker law firm in Chicago and was also a cousin of the existentialist philosopher Lev Shestov. His emigration to the USA at the end of the 19th century was motivated by escaping the Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire. His legacy continued through his children and grandchildren, who expanded the family’s business and philanthropic endeavors, most notably in the creation of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation oai_citation:1,Pritzker family – Wikipedia.

  • Jay Pritzker

    Jay Pritzker, the co-founder of Hyatt Hotels Corporation, was born to Abram Nicholas Pritzker and Fanny (née Doppelt). His father, Abram Nicholas Pritzker, was a significant figure in the family’s business endeavors. Born on January 6, 1896, in Chicago, Abram was the son of a Ukrainian Jewish immigrant who arrived in Chicago in 1881 from Kiev. He graduated from Harvard University with a law degree in 1920 and subsequently worked in his father’s law firm, which later became known as Pritzker & Pritzker.

    Abram, alongside his brother Jack Nicholas Pritzker, ventured out of the law firm in 1936 to explore opportunities in commerce. They invested in real estate and small companies, particularly around Chicago, which led to the rapid growth of the family fortune. They successfully managed to shield their profits from heavy taxation by setting up a number of trusts. Apart from his business acumen, Abram was also known for his philanthropic efforts, notably contributing to the establishment of the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago and donating several million dollars annually to various causes.

    The Pritzker family’s business empire continued to expand under the leadership of Abram Nicholas’s sons – Jay Arthur, Robert Alan, and Donald Nicholas. They were instrumental in transforming the Hyatt House hotel in Los Angeles, purchased in 1957, into the extensive Hyatt Hotels chain. Additionally, Jay and Robert were adept at rejuvenating financially troubled companies into profitable ventures. By the mid-1980s, their business interests included significant real estate holdings and hundreds of companies and subsidiaries, encompassing a wide range of industries from hospitality to credit reporting and water treatment.

    This remarkable journey of the Pritzker family, from their humble beginnings to establishing a multibillion-dollar empire, is a testament to their business prowess and philanthropic legacy oai_citation:1,Jay Pritzker – Wikipedia oai_citation:2,Pritzker family | Real estate, philanthropy & hospitality | Britannica.

    Who was his parents and their history

    Jay Pritzker, the co-founder of Hyatt Hotels Corporation, was born to Abram Nicholas Pritzker and Fanny (née Doppelt). His father, Abram Nicholas Pritzker, was a significant figure in the family’s business endeavors. Born on January 6, 1896, in Chicago, Abram was the son of a Ukrainian Jewish immigrant who arrived in Chicago in 1881 from Kiev. He graduated from Harvard University with a law degree in 1920 and subsequently worked in his father’s law firm, which later became known as Pritzker & Pritzker.

    Abram, alongside his brother Jack Nicholas Pritzker, ventured out of the law firm in 1936 to explore opportunities in commerce. They invested in real estate and small companies, particularly around Chicago, which led to the rapid growth of the family fortune. They successfully managed to shield their profits from heavy taxation by setting up a number of trusts. Apart from his business acumen, Abram was also known for his philanthropic efforts, notably contributing to the establishment of the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago and donating several million dollars annually to various causes.

    The Pritzker family’s business empire continued to expand under the leadership of Abram Nicholas’s sons – Jay Arthur, Robert Alan, and Donald Nicholas. They were instrumental in transforming the Hyatt House hotel in Los Angeles, purchased in 1957, into the extensive Hyatt Hotels chain. Additionally, Jay and Robert were adept at rejuvenating financially troubled companies into profitable ventures. By the mid-1980s, their business interests included significant real estate holdings and hundreds of companies and subsidiaries, encompassing a wide range of industries from hospitality to credit reporting and water treatment.

    This remarkable journey of the Pritzker family, from their humble beginnings to establishing a multibillion-dollar empire, is a testament to their business prowess and philanthropic legacy oai_citation:1,Jay Pritzker – Wikipedia oai_citation:2,Pritzker family | Real estate, philanthropy & hospitality | Britannica.

    Oh wow,,, also acquiring Ticketmaster in 1982–

    Jay Pritzker, born in 1922 in Chicago, was a prominent American entrepreneur and member of the Pritzker family. He played a pivotal role in diversifying the family business, which initially consisted of the Pritzker & Pritzker law firm, into the Marmon Group holding company. Alongside his brother Robert, Jay built a portfolio of 60 diversified industrial corporations.

    One of Jay Pritzker’s most notable achievements was the creation of the Hyatt Hotel chain in 1957, a venture he undertook with his brother Donald Pritzker. This marked the beginning of what would become a global hospitality brand. Besides Hyatt, he also owned Braniff Airlines from 1983 to 1988.

    In 1979, Jay Pritzker established the Pritzker Architecture Prize, now considered one of the most prestigious honors in the field of architecture. He was also involved in the acquisition of Ticketmaster in 1982, which he expanded before selling a significant portion to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 1993.

    Pritzker was married to Marian “Cindy” Friend for 51 years, and the couple had five children. He was recognized for his contributions to various fields, receiving the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1979 and, along with his wife, the National Building Museum’s Honor Award in 1996.

    Jay Pritzker passed away in 1999 in Chicago, leaving behind a legacy marked by significant contributions to the hospitality industry, architecture, and various business ventures oai_citation:1,Jay Pritzker – Wikipedia oai_citation:2,Jay Pritzker Biography | Infoplease.

  • Who owns the Shay Culver City

    1957– Jay Pritzker bought Hyatt House motel next to LAX.

    Hyatt Hotels Corporation, known for managing and franchising a diverse portfolio of hotels, resorts, and vacation properties, is substantially owned by the Pritzker family, a notable name in the hospitality industry. The company’s origins can be traced back to the entrepreneurial ventures of the Pritzker family, which have significantly influenced the expansion of the Hyatt brand over the years.

    The foundation of Hyatt dates back to 1957 when Jay Pritzker purchased the Hyatt House motel adjacent to the Los Angeles International Airport. This marked the beginning of a major expansion and evolution of the brand. The Hyatt brand saw significant growth under the guidance of the Pritzker family, evolving through various phases including the introduction of luxury brands like Park Hyatt and Grand Hyatt, as well as Hyatt Resorts which are designed to reflect the local area and offer numerous activities and facilities.

    Throughout its history, Hyatt has undergone several key developments. For instance, in the 1980s, the company experienced both growth and challenges, such as the tragic collapse of skywalks at the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel. In the 1990s, Hyatt focused on streamlining operations and cost savings to address challenges related to the high cost of running its hotels. This period also marked the beginning of Hyatt’s venture into franchising, expanding its reach further.

    In the 2000s, Hyatt and Hyatt International were consolidated under a single entity named Global Hyatt Corp, which later became Hyatt Hotels Corporation. The company continued to grow and diversify its portfolio, including the launch of its first lifestyle brand, Andaz, and the acquisition of various hotel chains and groups such as AmeriSuites, Summerfield Suites, and Apple Leisure Group.

    This journey reflects the dynamic evolution of Hyatt Hotels Corporation, from a single motel in Los Angeles to a global hospitality leader, under the leadership and vision of the Pritzker family and other key figures in the company oai_citation:1,Hyatt – Wikipedia oai_citation:2,Hyatt Corporation — Company History.

    Who owns Hyatt and founder story

    The Shay, located in Culver City, is part of the Destination by Hyatt brand, which is owned by Hyatt Hotels Corporation. This 148-room boutique hotel, notable for its diverse collection of independent hotels, resorts, and residences, embodies the spirit of its location while being connected to a larger brand network. It opened as Hyatt’s first urban hotel in Southern California, aiming to celebrate the area’s creative community and rich history oai_citation:1,The Shay will open as part of Destination by Hyatt Hotels oai_citation:2,The Shay, A Destination By Hyatt Hotel, Debuts In Los Angeles oai_citation:3,LA’s Newest Hotel, The Shay, Now Open.

  • History of the Spartan helmet design?

    The Spartan helmet, known for its distinctive design, has a rich history deeply intertwined with Spartan culture and military philosophy. Here’s a brief overview:

    1. Origins and Design: The Spartan helmet evolved from earlier Greek designs, particularly the Corinthian helmet. It was made of bronze and covered the head entirely, leaving only slits for the eyes and a small opening for the nose and mouth. This design provided maximum protection in close combat.
    2. Crest and Plume: Some helmets featured a horsehair crest or plume, running from front to back. This was not just decorative; it also served to make the wearer appear taller and more intimidating on the battlefield. The color and style of the crest could indicate rank or unit.
    3. Symbol of Spartan Identity: The helmet became a symbol of Spartan identity, reflecting their reputation as disciplined, elite warriors. Spartans were known for their strict military training (agoge), and the helmet was part of their distinctive hoplite (heavy infantry) panoply.
    4. Practical Considerations: Spartan helmets were designed for the phalanx formation, a tight infantry formation where the side of one man’s shield protected the man next to him. The helmet’s design complemented this formation, offering protection while allowing for visibility and breathing.
    5. Cultural Impact: The Spartan helmet has become an enduring symbol of ancient Greek military power. Its image is often used in modern media to represent strength, discipline, and warrior ethos.
    6. Variations and Evolution: Over time, the design of the helmet evolved. Later versions in the Hellenistic period became more open, possibly for better visibility and hearing, reflecting changes in warfare tactics.

    The Spartan helmet’s design wasn’t just a matter of practicality; it was also a reflection of the Spartan ethos, emphasizing the values of strength, discipline, and unity. In this way, the helmet is not just a piece of military equipment, but also a cultural artifact that tells us about the society that created it.

  • JUST CONTEST IT.

    Call to witness. Testor— witness.

    testis: just call yourself to a judge and witness and plea your case!

    For *terstis, from  Proto-Italic *tristos, from Proto-Indo-European *tristhâ‚‚s (“a third party standing”, after the two parties to a contract or dispute), from *tréyes (“three”) and *stehâ‚‚- (“to stand”). 

  • MATTE BLACK STOIC SPARTAN COIN

    The artist meets innovator and visionary, meets economist?

  • STOIC COIN

    “Spartan Coin” could refer to a few different things, so I’ll provide a practical and philosophical perspective on two possibilities:

    1. Historical Spartan Coins: In ancient history, Sparta was known for its unique approach to economy and currency. Unlike other Greek city-states, Sparta was famously averse to wealth and luxury. They used heavy iron bars as currency instead of gold and silver coins, which was impractical for trade but aligned with their philosophy of austerity and discouraging accumulation of wealth. From an entrepreneurial perspective, this was a strategic move to keep citizens focused on military and communal values rather than individual wealth. However, it was also a limitation in terms of economic innovation and trade expansion.
    2. Cryptocurrency Concept: If “Spartan Coin” is a hypothetical or real cryptocurrency, it’s interesting to think about it in the context of Sparta’s values. A cryptocurrency named “Spartan Coin” might symbolize strength, resilience, and perhaps a no-frills, practical approach to digital currency. In the world of innovation and entrepreneurship, such a coin could appeal to those who value security, simplicity, and a back-to-basics approach in the often complex and speculative world of cryptocurrencies.

    In both interpretations, the Spartan philosophy of simplicity and strength plays a central role, highlighting how values and ideologies can deeply influence economic practices and innovations.

    Spartan coin.

  • STOIC ECONOMICS.

  • Stoic Money?

    Stoic Money?

    Vs fake money?

    silver certificate US dollar

  • HUMANS PREFER IMAGES

    Machines prefer text?

  • Why is 2032 pivotal for Bitcoin

    Controlled supply

    A fixed money supply, or a supply altered only in accord with objective and calculable criteria, is a necessary condition to a meaningful just price of money.[1]

    —Fr. Bernard W. Dempsey, S.J. (1903-1960)

    Every 4 years… halving effect?

    What can you surmise will be the price of bitcoin in 2032

    Predicting the price of Bitcoin, or any cryptocurrency, in 2032 is highly speculative and uncertain due to the myriad of factors that influence the market. However, one can consider various elements that might impact Bitcoin’s price:

    1. Market Adoption: If Bitcoin continues to gain adoption as a store of value, a medium of exchange, or as an investment asset, this could positively impact its price.
    2. Technological Developments: Improvements in blockchain technology, scalability solutions like the Lightning Network, or advancements in cryptographic security could enhance Bitcoin’s utility and appeal.
    3. Regulatory Environment: Regulations can have a significant impact on cryptocurrency prices. Supportive regulations could lead to increased adoption, while restrictive policies could hinder its growth.
    4. Economic Conditions: Global economic factors, such as inflation rates, currency devaluation, or economic crises, can influence investor behavior regarding cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
    5. Halving Events: The next Bitcoin halving is expected in 2024, which will further reduce the rate at which new bitcoins are created. Historically, halving events have led to price increases, although past performance is not indicative of future results.
    6. Competition from Other Cryptocurrencies: The rise of other cryptocurrencies or digital assets could either detract from or complement Bitcoin’s value proposition.
    7. Institutional Investment: The entry of more institutional investors into the Bitcoin market could provide a significant boost to its price.

    Given these factors, and considering the historical volatility of Bitcoin, its price in 2032 could range widely. It’s crucial for investors to perform their own research, consider the inherent risks, and, if necessary, consult financial advisors before making investment decisions in the cryptocurrency space.

    Bitcoin in year 2032… just 8 years from now?

    When 21 million bitcoin all mined

    The 21 million Bitcoin limit is expected to be reached around the year 2140. This is a fundamental part of Bitcoin’s design, as outlined in its original whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto. The reason it takes so long to reach this limit is due to the process of halving, which occurs approximately every four years. During each halving event, the reward for mining new blocks is cut in half, which slows down the rate at which new bitcoins are created.

    Once the 21 million limit is reached, no new bitcoins will be created. This limit is intended to give Bitcoin a degree of scarcity, which mimics the supply limitations of physical commodities like gold.

    After the last Bitcoin is mined, miners will no longer receive block rewards. They will instead be compensated through transaction fees for processing transactions and securing the Bitcoin network. The dynamics of how this will affect miners, transaction fees, and the overall Bitcoin ecosystem are subjects of considerable speculation and debate within the cryptocurrency community.

    The year 2032 is significant for Bitcoin due to its halving events, which are a fundamental part of its design. Bitcoin halving is an event that occurs approximately every four years, where the reward for mining new blocks is halved, meaning miners receive 50% less bitcoins for verifying transactions. This process will continue until the maximum supply of 21 million bitcoins has been reached.

    By 2032, a significant proportion of these halving events will have occurred, resulting in a dramatic reduction in the rate at which new bitcoins are created. This scarcity is expected to have several potential implications:

    1. Increased Value: The reduced supply of new bitcoins might lead to an increase in value, assuming demand for Bitcoin remains strong or increases. This is due to the basic economic principle of supply and demand.
    2. Mining Impact: As the reward for mining decreases, smaller miners might find it less profitable to continue, potentially leading to greater centralization of mining power in large-scale operations.
    3. Network Security: Some speculate that reduced mining rewards could impact the security of the Bitcoin network, although this is a topic of debate among experts.
    4. Investor Interest: The anticipation of halving events and their historical impact on Bitcoin’s price often attracts investor attention, potentially leading to increased market activity.

    It’s important to note that while these are educated speculations, the actual impact of Bitcoin halving events, especially as far out as 2032, can vary depending on a wide range of factors including technological developments, regulatory changes, and broader economic conditions.

  • TRUE INNOVATORS

    True innovators, true visionaries are incomprehensible, “crazy”— “irrational”, cannot be deciphered?

  • Simple, Short, Elegant

    The original Bitcoin paper from Satoshi… only 8 pages long???

    bitcoinDownload

    Don’t trust long papers

    I think this is the simple heuristic:

    If a paper is too long and convoluted, it is no good.

    Why?

    Typically when a paper is too long, it is a signal that “something didn’t distill right!” Taleb

    Or for me —

    When a paper is too long, it is a signal that the author doesn’t really know what they’re talking about, or the idea is too convoluted and requires *MORE* text and *MORE* fake graphs and statistics and fake math to support their feeble point(s).

  • A BIG, BOLD MISSION STATEMENT.

  • Banks Are the True Menace to Society

    For example, consider how insidious overdraft fees are, credit cards, credit card debt, APR, almost everyone I know in LA has a large amount of credit card debt?

    Also, a really big problem is that banks finance homes and cars and other things, which once again, further enslave people into debt.

    Economics by KIM

    Money from nothing ERIC KIM
    Money dollar sign abstract ERIC KIM
    Andrew Jackson money macro ERIC KIM
    Money dollar Bill ERIC KIM
    money black red abstract
    building money bank
    Hong Kong money reflection
    orange bitcoin tilt camera ERIC KIM
    gold camera bitcoin money ERIC KIM
    benjamin franklin red fade eye
    Benjamin Franklin eye ERIC KIM money 00 005

    1. THE PROMISE OF FUTURE MONOPOLY PROFITS?
    2. High gas prices are good
    3. What is Capitalism?
    4. Pride in What You Paid For
    5. On Making Money from Nothing
    6. Save Money Towards What Ends?
    7. No Regret Investment

    Money thoughts:

    1. DONT BUY IT, BUILD IT!
    2. Silver US Dollar
    3. THE PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY
    4. THE FUTURE OF MONEY
    5. Price Insensitive
    6. WHY JOBS?
    7. The Future Economy
    8. What is Money?
    9. Individual Economics

    The Philosophy of Money

    1. How to Become Economically Independent
    2. Economic Dependency
    3. It’s the Economy, Stupid
    4. ERIC KIM PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY
    5. Debt is the Devil
    6. Capitalism is Cruel
    7. In Praise of Capitalism and Consumerism
    8. Capitalism as the Road to Tolerance
    9. DIGITAL CAPITALISM
    10. Capitalism 2.0
    11. In Praise of Capitalism
    12. CREATIVE CAPITALISM
    13. ZEN CAPITALISM
    14. Universal Basic Income
    • silver certificate US dollar

  • TRULY REVOLUTIONARY

    Electric coin — chain of signatures?

    What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party.

    Bitcoin PDF

    Bitcoin open source implementation of P2P currency

    I’ve developed a new open source P2P e-cash system called Bitcoin. It’s completely decentralized, with no central server or trusted parties, because everything is based on crypto proof instead of trust. Give it a try, or take a look at the screenshots and design paper:

    Download Bitcoin v0.1 at http://www.bitcoin.org

    The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust. Banks must be trusted to hold our money and transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles with barely a fraction in reserve. We have to trust them with our privacy, trust them not to let identity thieves drain our accounts. Their massive overhead costs make micropayments impossible.

    A generation ago, multi-user time-sharing computer systems had a similar problem. Before strong encryption, users had to rely on password protection to secure their files, placing trust in the system administrator to keep their information private. Privacy could always be overridden by the admin based on his judgment call weighing the principle of privacy against other concerns, or at the behest of his superiors. Then strong encryption became available to the masses, and trust was no longer required. Data could be secured in a way that was physically impossible for others to access, no matter for what reason, no matter how good the excuse, no matter what.

    It’s time we had the same thing for money. With e-currency based on cryptographic proof, without the need to trust a third party middleman, money can be secure and transactions effortless.

    One of the fundamental building blocks for such a system is digital signatures. A digital coin contains the public key of its owner. To transfer it, the owner signs the coin together with the public key of the next owner. Anyone can check the signatures to verify the chain of ownership. It works well to secure ownership, but leaves one big problem unsolved: double-spending. Any owner could try to re-spend an already spent coin by signing it again to another owner. The usual solution is for a trusted company with a central database to check for double-spending, but that just gets back to the trust model. In its central position, the company can override the users, and the fees needed to support the company make micropayments impractical.

    Bitcoin’s solution is to use a peer-to-peer network to check for double-spending. In a nutshell, the network works like a distributed timestamp server, stamping the first transaction to spend a coin. It takes advantage of the nature of information being easy to spread but hard to stifle. For details on how it works, see the design paper at http://www.bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

    The result is a distributed system with no single point of failure. Users hold the crypto keys to their own money and transact directly with each other, with the help of the P2P network to check for double-spending.

    Satoshi Nakamoto
    http://www.bitcoin.org

    Views: 779763

  • 2032

    Projected Bitcoins Short Term

    This chart shows the number of bitcoins that will exist in the near future. The Year is a forecast and may be slightly off.

    Date reachedBlockReward EraBTC/blockYear (estimate)Start BTCBTC AddedEnd BTCBTC IncreaseEnd BTC % of Limit
    2009-01-030150.002009026250002625000infinite12.500%
    2010-04-2252500150.002010262500026250005250000100.00%25.000%
    2011-01-28105000150.002011*52500002625000787500050.00%37.500%
    2011-12-14157500150.002012787500026250001050000033.33%50.000%
    2012-11-28210000225.0020131050000013125001181250012.50%56.250%
    2013-10-09262500225.0020141181250013125001312500011.11%62.500%
    2014-08-11315000225.0020151312500013125001443750010.00%68.750%
    2015-07-29367500225.002016144375001312500157500009.09%75.000%
    2016-07-09420000312.50201715750000656250164062504.17%78.125%
    2017-06-23472500312.50201816406250656250170625004.00%81.250%
    2018-05-29525000312.50201917062500656250177187503.85%84.375%
    2019-05-24577500312.50202017718750656250183750003.70%87.500%
    2020-05-1163000046.25202118375000328125187031251.79%89.063%
    2021-05-0868250046.25202218703125328125190312501.75%90.625%
    2022-05-0573500046.25202319031250328125193593751.72%92.188%
    2023-04-2978750046.25202419359375328125196875001.69%93.750%
    84000053.125202519687500164062.519851562.50.83%94.531%
    89250053.125202619851562.5164062.5200156250.83%95.313%
    94500053.125202720015625164062.520179687.50.82%96.094%
    99750053.125202820179687.5164062.5203437500.81%96.875%
    105000061.562520292034375082031.2520425781.250.40%97.266%
    110250061.5625203020425781.2582031.2520507812.50.40%97.656%
    115500061.5625203120507812.582031.2520589843.750.40%98.047%
    120750061.5625203220589843.7582031.25206718750.40%98.438%

    * In Block 124724, user midnightmagic mined a solo block to himself which underpaid the reward by a single Satoshi and simultaneously destroyed the block’s fees. This is one of two only known reductions in the total mined supply of Bitcoin. Therefore, from block 124724 onwards, all total supply estimates must technically be reduced by 1 Satoshi.

  • Bitcoin Wiki

    21 million bitcoin hard cap.

    https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Main_Page

    ”swiss bank account in your pocket”.

  • Never follow a schedule, just follow your gut.

  • Don’t spend money.

  • Speculative Thoughts 

    Speculative Thoughts 

    Matte black bitcoin icon Eric Kim
    Speculative-Thoughts-1Download

    The joy of speculation:

    The limits to money, the limits to wealth

    So the first thing I find really interesting and fascinating is thinking about money, the limits of money, wealth, etc.

    For example, Seneca once said, “Nobody ever thinks to themselves, what if I am already too rich?”

    Simply put, my thought of the proper limit of money is once you have enough money to pay rent, utilities, and trips to Costco to buy meat, then, the positive utility of money diminishes. That is, sometimes having too much money is a positive distraction and burden; a lot of people who are too rich have issues diversifying and investing their money because they have no idea what to do with it.

    A simple crypto hedge fund idea

    If you want to invest in my fund, just shoot me an email at eric@erickim.com

    So a very simple crypto hedge fund idea is this: 90% of your money in bitcoin, 10% in chainlink, or the opposite; 90% of your money and chainlink, and 10% of your assets in bitcoin.

    The reason why I find this to be such an interesting and dynamic hedge, to quote TALEB is this –

    How can you take a maximally risky and speculative bet, that is both “safe”, reducing risk, and also maximizing upside?

    The first thought that NASSIM TALEB had was never put more than 10% of your life savings into one single investment or acid. For example, I heeded his words of wisdom, and when Cindy and I had around $250,000 of savings, I only put 10% of that into Digibyte and Bitcoin — around $22,000, I bought some bitcoin at $6000 a bitcoin, and I think I bought some digibyte at one cent or two cents a digibyte — and eventually I rode it all the way up to around $250,000 worth of investments, one bitcoin hit an all-time high at around $60-$65,000 a bitcoin. I did some swapping here and there, consolidating my digibyte back into bitcoin, a good move, I speculated and played around a little bit with Dogecoin, rode it up, eventually consolidated it back into bitcoin, etc.

    More recently, I wired $125,000 back into my crypto account, and bought more bitcoin.

    Why?

    People seem to hate the volatility of crypto, but I love it. Why? Perhaps for myself, I thrive off of high intensity, and adrenaline.

    Also one of the upsides of growing up poor, seeing my mom go through bankruptcy twice is that actually… I have almost close to zero anxieties when it comes to money. I’ve lived super poor before, on the brink of being homeless, as a kid, and that is what naturalistically made me so stoic.

    The reason why I don’t trust or give any heed to people like Tim Ferris or Tony Robbins is that it seems that once upon a time, both of them were super depressed, fat, losers, planning ways on how to commit suicide and kill themselves, and how to do it gracefully. Tony Robbins was the fat depressed one, Tim Ferriss was the suicidal one.

    I think it is very courageous that Tim Ferriss outlined the story of when he was an undergraduate at Princeton, he actually took out books to plan his own death, reading books on suicide and how to kill himself, and how to do it in a graceful manner, but fortunately somebody found out, had an intervention, unfortunately Tim didn’t do it. I don’t think anybody should ever commit suicide, under any costs.

    Anyways, I think the reason why it matters is that when people try to commit suicide, or have been severely depressed in the past, in high school middle school college elementary school etc.… that trauma stays with them.

    For myself I am a unique case; I experienced severe and potentially destroying trauma as a kid, for some reason, those experiences actually made me stronger. How and why?

    First, think I was fortunate because of random life things. For example, a formative time in Bayside queens in a very safe community, hanging out with my friends Spencer, Aditya, Jonathan etc and living like free range kids, at the ripe age of 11 to 12 years old, and also some great mentors along the way, Troop 11 in Alameda California, my Boy Scouts troop leaders, my coach Greg Lowe who essentially became my Mr. Miyagi private tutor and father figure guide, who taught me life lessons through tennis.

    Good schools

    Also fortunately, the good timing; my mom moving our family out of Alameda, which was bordering Oakland; even though Alameda is a nice town, it borders Oakland, and so even Alameda high school was full of a bunch of these ghetto kids, gangbangers and bad influences. I went to high school at Castro Valley High, a very nice school with no drama, good teachers and good AP classes, eventually I was able to get to UCLA as an undergraduate, which helped accelerate my roadmap to success.

    Think long

    Along the line, meeting Cindy, then just another person I met my freshman year, at our Korean American Catholic club called Kyrie — later traveling the world with her, dating her, marrying her, and now having a kid with her, Seneca at age 3 years old.

    Anyways, I have a lot of people to think, especially my uncle, who essentially helped my mom so much financially, and also my sister, for her private art school lessons, in order to get her into fashion school at Otis in LA, my sister eventually dropped out, but randomly through an apartment party, met her then future husband. Fortunately my sister‘s brother‘s family is very prosperous, opening up a fine art gallery in LA (VEFA)– will keep you updated with this, but anyways, our family is pretty set.

    In the long run, everything works out just fine!

    Just do what you believe to be righteous

    I think it is critical to have a good dose of criticality when it comes to the opinions of others, even your spouse. I think we should always respect and lend an ear to the opinions of others, but ultimately, it is you who must be staunch, and perform things and your life in accordance with your own personal beliefs.

    When people say “you’re not listening to me!” what they really mean to say is “how dare you not obey me!”

    The funny retort is people who get angry at us for not listening to them… aren’t they committing the same critical flaw of not listening to us?

    My New Year’s resolution is actually to become MORE close minded, more staunch in my beliefs.

    Speculation in the market

    People don’t know but I’ve been trading stock ever since I was around maybe 15 or 16 years old, my sophomore junior year in high school. I remember actually investing really early in Adobe stock, because I used Photoshop and I found it to be a good tool. I actually made some money in high school, investing my life savings which was maybe around $1500 USD, maybe I will also get Seneca into trading at a young age.

    Anyways, it was good learning and education because it taught me how to deal with ups and downs, and also losing it all.

    Bitcoin will never go down to zero

    The reason why I am so bullish about bitcoin is that I have a strong faith That you’ll never go down to zero. The reason why I would never put my money anymore into “alternative coins” [ALT COINS], or coins is that there is a high likelihood that a lot of them will go down to zero.

    For example, I think when the biggest scams in the cryptocurrency space, is Ada Cardano. They have set up a fake foundation with the .org website, with a bunch of fake people, fake talking heads and suits, nobody has any idea what they’re going to do or what their product is, I think a huge profit can be made by shorting it. I’m pretty sure that Cardano will go down to zero.

    Also, all these other weird alternative coins, only things that even have any nominal value include bitcoin, Ethereum, chainlink. 
    
    Why chainlink? First and foremost, chainlink isn’t really a crypto, it is like a new technology. I think of chainlink more like the next Google. Even the ex Google CEO ERIC Schmidt is on board. 

    Bitcoin is fascinating because ultimately, everybody knows what it is. To quote Galiani, on his treatsie “on money“, Galiani once said that the word “ducat”, rolls off the tongue quite beautifully, I also see that the word “bitcoin“, also rolls off the tongue quite beautifully. 

    Ultimate test: even Cindy‘s mom, a Vietnamese refugee immigrant can pronounce bitcoin in her “broken English“, and knows what it is. She says “I know what bitcoin is! It is the fake money!” Haha — true.

    So why does this matter?

    I think the reason why this matters is you don’t want to be sitting on your butt, 10 years from now, Seneca will only be 13 years old still very young… and kick yourself in the butt for not taking a bold risk, and something you believed in, a decade ago. Jeff Bezos calls this the “regret minimization framework“. 

    For example, some moderately regretful things I’ve done the last two years is selling some bitcoin, converting into worthless US dollars, in order to “alleviate“, some financial concerns. But, moving forward, 2024 and beyond, I think the goal should be to become more staunch, more unyielding, More close minded. 

    MOAR BITCOIN!

    20 BITCOINS; MATTE BLACK!

    Being close minded is a virtue?

    People say that being open minded is a virtue, but I’m starting to think, maybe not. Why? Do you want to be open minded about Adolf Hitler and Nazis? Or the new Nazis? Or alternative right wing weirdo conspiracy theorists, who want to hijack the American government, and promoting anarchy?

    Also, I’m very close minded for these weird anti-fascist, loser skinny fat, fakeass woke, anarchists; they all have iPhones, watch YouTube, jerk off to porn on Google incognito late at night on their laptop or their phones, use piratebay and private VPNs– no capitalism, no consumerism, no pornography.

    Trust no man who secretly watches porn.

    Anti men

    The really big issue at hand is that a lot of these people, men specifically, I don’t think we should trust most men. Why? A simple thing; it is true, the behavior of men and women is polar opposite. 

    For example, women do not start gangs, or become gangbangers. This is reserved to only men.

    Or another example, the difference between a woman bathroom and a male bathroom; in any bathroom, for example let me quote Galbi King — my new favorite Korean barbecue place in Los Angeles, only $26 a person, look at the difference between the men’s restroom and the women’s restroom. The men’s restroom has all these dicks graffitid on the walls, scratches on the window, graffiti on the walls, graffiti made with knives in the mirrors etc. Go to the women’s restroom; nothing.

    This is the tricky thing about sex and gender; sex is biological, gender is sociological. Therefore as a consequence,  people foolishly discount the differences of sex.

    For example, I think it has to do with testosterone, testes, the male hormone. The reason why I distrust all these weird hormone replacement therapies is that why not just be natural? For example, I think it is actually normal to be LGBTQ? But once you inject hormones into yourself, not good.

    For example, to inject any sort of external hormones to change your sex, is a patently bad one; we shame people for doing testosterone injections and steroids and stuff, why not the same consistency with these weird sex changing hormones?

    Back to speculation

    Some personal tips I recommend is stop using Google, either use bing.com, or just use ChatGPT, the premium one. Stop using Google.

    In fact, I think Google, YouTube, YouTube shorts whatever is the real bad guy here. Think about all these weird conspiracy theorist people, who platform themselves on YouTube etc. And with enough wikipedia’ing and googling, you’re gonna eventually fall victim to weird conspiracy theories.

    Also, put zero faith in TikTok, it is owned by mainland China, Tencent corporation —  if you’re on TikTok, or promote TikTok, you’re pro mainland China, not good.

    Democracy and freedom is at odds with social media?

    One thing I found very interesting about Donald Trump was he was very anti-TikTok, wise idea. Why? The way that one nation takes over another nation is through soft coercion, soft propaganda, sneaky propaganda.

    For example, RIOT games which is owned by also the Tencent mainland Chinese corporation – they own league of legends, and a bunch of other games; this is essentially their low-key way of taking over the minds and the souls of the American youth.

    Also the really big issue here is that a lot of these big tech companies are in bed with mainland China, this includes Apple, all of her phones and products are produced by Foxconn in mainland China, I think Google is trying to dip more into the mainland Chinese market, compromising their ethics by censoring the Tiananmen Square incident, And I am certain that Mark Zuckerberg wants to get into Maitland China as well; his wife is Chinese American, and I think Mark also taught himself Mandarin.

    The new oligarchs?

    I think a big issue at hand is that this New World, this New World order is not about nations or nation states anymore, but rather, individual rich oligarchs. What that means is individuals, doesn’t really matter your nationality, just trying to augment their wealth. Their private wealth.

    I find this to be very greedy, and also, unpatriotic. Anyone who tries to dodge taxes, I find this to be very bad behavior.

    Now what?

    OK all these weird theories aside, what now? 

    First, think digital real estate, not physical real estate. I think still nowadays, the internet is still a massive untapped market. Let us consider, to own a .com domain is only maybe $12-$20 a year, which is less than one dollar or two dollars a month. Let us consider that even if you buy a $3 million house in all cash, your property taxes will still look like around $12,000 USD a month.

    The reason why it is so difficult to think digitally is that we disdain the digital, we prefer the physical. But, if you think about the greatest drivers of wealth created the last 10 or 20 years, it is all technology, digital, internet.

    For example, Amazon web services, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

    So the first very simple thing you do is build your own website, blog, or web platform. My simple suggestion is try to enter a field or market in which you could do all the work and labor yourself. For example, I do not know how to code, and honestly speaking I have zero aspiration to learn how. But, writing and blogging and vlogging is second nature to me, I don’t even have to think about it. Therefore, it seems that perhaps the most intelligent strategy is to identify your archimedes lever, and maximize your leverage intelligently rather than trying to get good at something you’re not that good at.

    How do I identify what my Archimedes lever is?

    I would say the simplest strategy is first figure out what your passionate about what you love, and what you’re really good at, which others find difficult. Then, doubling down or 10X’ing down on it. 
    
    Then, the best way to move the world or change the world is to exploit your leverages to the maximum!

    ERIC

    Weather & Investments?

    I have a funny theory; I wonder if the weather or climate of a certain day and time and place influences and effects investing behavior?

    For example, when I bought or consolidated a lot more of my assets into bitcoin and back into bitcoin, I ensure to do it when the weather was insanely good, lots of beautiful light on my face and my naked body, that good mood was a good inspiration for making a big bet and a big trade.

    So just think, when you’re about to make a big trade, how is the weather? Is it better to invest when the weather is good or bad, or something else?

    That new new shit

    START HERE

    BOOKS

    WORKSHOPS

    1. March 2nd, 2024: ERIC KIM CREATIVE AI & PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP — Culver City, LA
    2. April 20th, 2024: SF ZEN STREET PHOTO WORKSHOP

    TIME TO DOMINATE >>

    NOW WHAT?

    Read:

    1. The Iliad by Homer
    2. The Odyssey by Homer

    Watch:

    1. John Wick (all) // philosophy of wick
    2. Matrix (all of them, not the 4th) // life lessons
    3. Movie 300;

    What else?

    1. Buy weight lifting equipment (titan.fitness)– workout at home or in your garage or back yard parking lot off the grid Eric Kim style.
    2. Strive to make your body look demigod
    3. Hot yoga, stop coffee or caffeine consumption past breakfast, try to sleep 8-12 hours a night

    For more thoughts more fire always on ERIC KIM BLOG >

    When in doubt, just blog it!

    ERIC

    “I shall make a monument more lasting than bronze!” – HORACE

  • BITCOIN CORE

    BITCOIN CORE

    About us

    Bitcoin Core is an open source project which maintains and releases Bitcoin client software called “Bitcoin Core”.

    It is a direct descendant of the original Bitcoin software client released by Satoshi Nakamoto after he published the famous Bitcoin whitepaper.

    Bitcoin Core consists of both “full-node” software for fully validating the blockchain as well as a bitcoin wallet. The project also currently maintains related software such as the cryptography library libsecp256k1 and others located at GitHub.

    Anyone can contribute to Bitcoin Core.

    https://bitcoincore.org/en/download/

  • WHEN IT *IS* BROKEN, THEN FIX IT!

  • Eric Kim on Horace

    HORACE is the goat!

    Eric Kim’s reflections on the teachings of Horace encompass several life lessons that resonate with his own experiences and philosophy. These lessons include:

    1. Adapting the World to Oneself: Kim emphasizes the importance of being true to oneself, rather than conforming to the expectations of the world.
    2. Valuing a Single Life: Drawing from Horace’s teachings, Kim advocates for constancy of mind and living in accordance with one’s personal philosophy.
    3. Living Well in the Present: He echoes Horace’s ‘carpe diem’ sentiment, urging people to live well and creatively in the current moment without postponing life.
    4. Praising Simplicity: Happiness for Kim lies in simple things, a belief inspired by Horace’s appreciation for nature and simple joys.
    5. Non-Envy of Others’ Possessions: Kim advises against coveting others’ belongings, which aligns with Horace’s thoughts on material possessions and contentment with one’s own lot.
    6. Originality and Not Following Others: He resonates with Horace’s encouragement to be original and not seek validation from the masses.
    7. Ignoring the Applause of the Crowd: Similar to Horace, Kim believes in the value of pleasing oneself and close friends over seeking widespread acclaim.

    These insights from Kim, inspired by Horace, reflect a blend of philosophical thought and practical wisdom, focusing on authenticity, simplicity, and the joy of living in the present. For a more detailed exploration of these lessons, you can visit Eric Kim’s blog on the teachings of Horace here【15†source】【16†source】【17†source】.

  • ERIC KIM HOW TO MAKE YOUR BODY LOOK DEMIGOD

    1. 100% RED MEAT CARNIVORE DIET
    2. Heavy weight lifting
    3. Aim to eat 5-6 pounds of beef or lamb a night
    4. Intermittent fasting no breakfast no lunch only dinner

    Eric Kim’s approach to achieving a “demigod” physique centers around a few key principles and techniques. One of the core aspects of his philosophy is intermittent fasting, which involves skipping breakfast and lunch and having one large meal in the evening. This method is combined with a focus on ketogenic dieting, which emphasizes low carbohydrate intake.

    In addition to dietary practices, Kim advocates for a specific approach to exercise. He places a strong emphasis on heavy weightlifting, as evidenced by his personal achievements like a 551-pound deadlift. His workouts often include intense and focused exercises like deadlifts and squats, suggesting a preference for strength training over more traditional bodybuilding or powerlifting methods.

    Kim’s philosophy also extends to a broader perspective on body and fitness. He views the body as a form of art and encourages a mindset of continuous muscle growth and fat reduction. The ultimate goal, in his view, is not just physical transformation but also a deeper appreciation and admiration for one’s own body, treating it as a valuable and beautiful entity.

    For more detailed insights and specific workout and diet plans, you can explore Eric Kim’s methods and philosophy in depth through his blog posts and other resources available on his website【7†source】【8†source】【9†source】.

  • Speculative Thoughts 

    The joy of speculation:

    The limits to money, the limits to wealth

    So the first thing I find really interesting and fascinating is thinking about money, the limits of money, wealth, etc.

    For example, Seneca once said, “Nobody ever thinks to themselves, what if I am already too rich?”

    Simply put, my thought of the proper limit of money is once you have enough money to pay rent, utilities, and trips to Costco to buy meat, then, the positive utility of money diminishes. That is, sometimes having too much money is a positive distraction and burden; a lot of people who are too rich have issues diversifying and investing their money because they have no idea what to do with it.

    A simple crypto hedge fund idea

    If you want to invest in my fund, just shoot me an email at eric@erickim.com

    So a very simple crypto hedge fund idea is this: 90% of your money in bitcoin, 10% in chainlink, or the opposite; 90% of your money and chainlink, and 10% of your assets in bitcoin.

    The reason why I find this to be such an interesting and dynamic hedge, to quote TALEB is this –

    How can you take a maximally risky and speculative bet, that is both “safe”, reducing risk, and also maximizing upside?

    The first thought that NASSIM TALEB had was never put more than 10% of your life savings into one single investment or acid. For example, I heeded his words of wisdom, and when Cindy and I had around $250,000 of savings, I only put 10% of that into Digibyte and Bitcoin — around $22,000, I bought some bitcoin at $6000 a bitcoin, and I think I bought some digibyte at one cent or two cents a digibyte — and eventually I rode it all the way up to around $250,000 worth of investments, one bitcoin hit an all-time high at around $60-$65,000 a bitcoin. I did some swapping here and there, consolidating my digibyte back into bitcoin, a good move, I speculated and played around a little bit with Dogecoin, rode it up, eventually consolidated it back into bitcoin, etc.

    More recently, I wired $125,000 back into my crypto account, and bought more bitcoin.

    Why?

    People seem to hate the volatility of crypto, but I love it. Why? Perhaps for myself, I thrive off of high intensity, and adrenaline.

    Also one of the upsides of growing up poor, seeing my mom go through bankruptcy twice is that actually… I have almost close to zero anxieties when it comes to money. I’ve lived super poor before, on the brink of being homeless, as a kid, and that is what naturalistically made me so stoic.

    The reason why I don’t trust or give any heed to people like Tim Ferris or Tony Robbins is that it seems that once upon a time, both of them were super depressed, fat, losers, planning ways on how to commit suicide and kill themselves, and how to do it gracefully. Tony Robbins was the fat depressed one, Tim Ferriss was the suicidal one.

    I think it is very courageous that Tim Ferriss outlined the story of when he was an undergraduate at Princeton, he actually took out books to plan his own death, reading books on suicide and how to kill himself, and how to do it in a graceful manner, but fortunately somebody found out, had an intervention, unfortunately Tim didn’t do it. I don’t think anybody should ever commit suicide, under any costs.

    Anyways, I think the reason why it matters is that when people try to commit suicide, or have been severely depressed in the past, in high school middle school college elementary school etc.… that trauma stays with them.

    For myself I am a unique case; I experienced severe and potentially destroying trauma as a kid, for some reason, those experiences actually made me stronger. How and why?

    First, think I was fortunate because of random life things. For example, a formative time in Bayside queens in a very safe community, hanging out with my friends Spencer, Aditya, Jonathan etc and living like free range kids, at the ripe age of 11 to 12 years old, and also some great mentors along the way, Troop 11 in Alameda California, my Boy Scouts troop leaders, my coach Greg Lowe who essentially became my Mr. Miyagi private tutor and father figure guide, who taught me life lessons through tennis.

    Good schools

    Also fortunately, the good timing; my mom moving our family out of Alameda, which was bordering Oakland; even though Alameda is a nice town, it borders Oakland, and so even Alameda high school was full of a bunch of these ghetto kids, gangbangers and bad influences. I went to high school at Castro Valley High, a very nice school with no drama, good teachers and good AP classes, eventually I was able to get to UCLA as an undergraduate, which helped accelerate my roadmap to success.

    Think long

    Along the line, meeting Cindy, then just another person I met my freshman year, at our Korean American Catholic club called Kyrie — later traveling the world with her, dating her, marrying her, and now having a kid with her, Seneca at age 3 years old.

    Anyways, I have a lot of people to think, especially my uncle, who essentially helped my mom so much financially, and also my sister, for her private art school lessons, in order to get her into fashion school at Otis in LA, my sister eventually dropped out, but randomly through an apartment party, met her then future husband. Fortunately my sister‘s brother‘s family is very prosperous, opening up a fine art gallery in LA (VEFA)– will keep you updated with this, but anyways, our family is pretty set.

    In the long run, everything works out just fine!

    Just do what you believe to be righteous

    I think it is critical to have a good dose of criticality when it comes to the opinions of others, even your spouse. I think we should always respect and lend an ear to the opinions of others, but ultimately, it is you who must be staunch, and perform things and your life in accordance with your own personal beliefs.

    When people say “you’re not listening to me!” what they really mean to say is “how dare you not obey me!”

    The funny retort is people who get angry at us for not listening to them… aren’t they committing the same critical flaw of not listening to us?

    My New Year’s resolution is actually to become MORE close minded, more staunch in my beliefs.

    Speculation in the market

    People don’t know but I’ve been trading stock ever since I was around maybe 15 or 16 years old, my sophomore junior year in high school. I remember actually investing really early in Adobe stock, because I used Photoshop and I found it to be a good tool. I actually made some money in high school, investing my life savings which was maybe around $1500 USD, maybe I will also get Seneca into trading at a young age.

    Anyways, it was good learning and education because it taught me how to deal with ups and downs, and also losing it all.

    Bitcoin will never go down to zero

    The reason why I am so bullish about bitcoin is that I have a strong faith That you’ll never go down to zero. The reason why I would never put my money anymore into “alternative coins” [ALT COINS], or coins is that there is a high likelihood that a lot of them will go down to zero.

    For example, I think when the biggest scams in the cryptocurrency space, is Ada Cardano. They have set up a fake foundation with the .org website, with a bunch of fake people, fake talking heads and suits, nobody has any idea what they’re going to do or what their product is, I think a huge profit can be made by shorting it. I’m pretty sure that Cardano will go down to zero.

    Also, all these other weird alternative coins, only things that even have any nominal value include bitcoin, Ethereum, chainlink. 
    
    Why chainlink? First and foremost, chainlink isn’t really a crypto, it is like a new technology. I think of chainlink more like the next Google. Even the ex Google CEO ERIC Schmidt is on board. 

    Bitcoin is fascinating because ultimately, everybody knows what it is. To quote Galiani, on his treatsie “on money“, Galiani once said that the word “ducat”, rolls off the tongue quite beautifully, I also see that the word “bitcoin“, also rolls off the tongue quite beautifully. 

    Ultimate test: even Cindy‘s mom, a Vietnamese refugee immigrant can pronounce bitcoin in her “broken English“, and knows what it is. She says “I know what bitcoin is! It is the fake money!” Haha — true.

    So why does this matter?

    I think the reason why this matters is you don’t want to be sitting on your butt, 10 years from now, Seneca will only be 13 years old still very young… and kick yourself in the butt for not taking a bold risk, and something you believed in, a decade ago. Jeff Bezos calls this the “regret minimization framework“. 

    For example, some moderately regretful things I’ve done the last two years is selling some bitcoin, converting into worthless US dollars, in order to “alleviate“, some financial concerns. But, moving forward, 2024 and beyond, I think the goal should be to become more staunch, more unyielding, More close minded. 

    MOAR BITCOIN!

    20 BITCOINS; MATTE BLACK!

    Being close minded is a virtue?

    People say that being open minded is a virtue, but I’m starting to think, maybe not. Why? Do you want to be open minded about Adolf Hitler and Nazis? Or the new Nazis? Or alternative right wing weirdo conspiracy theorists, who want to hijack the American government, and promoting anarchy?

    Also, I’m very close minded for these weird anti-fascist, loser skinny fat, fakeass woke, anarchists; they all have iPhones, watch YouTube, jerk off to porn on Google incognito late at night on their laptop or their phones, use piratebay and private VPNs– no capitalism, no consumerism, no pornography.

    Trust no man who secretly watches porn.

    Anti men

    The really big issue at hand is that a lot of these people, men specifically, I don’t think we should trust most men. Why? A simple thing; it is true, the behavior of men and women is polar opposite. 

    For example, women do not start gangs, or become gangbangers. This is reserved to only men.

    Or another example, the difference between a woman bathroom and a male bathroom; in any bathroom, for example let me quote Galbi King — my new favorite Korean barbecue place in Los Angeles, only $26 a person, look at the difference between the men’s restroom and the women’s restroom. The men’s restroom has all these dicks graffitid on the walls, scratches on the window, graffiti on the walls, graffiti made with knives in the mirrors etc. Go to the women’s restroom; nothing.

    This is the tricky thing about sex and gender; sex is biological, gender is sociological. Therefore as a consequence,  people foolishly discount the differences of sex.

    For example, I think it has to do with testosterone, testes, the male hormone. The reason why I distrust all these weird hormone replacement therapies is that why not just be natural? For example, I think it is actually normal to be LGBTQ? But once you inject hormones into yourself, not good.

    For example, to inject any sort of external hormones to change your sex, is a patently bad one; we shame people for doing testosterone injections and steroids and stuff, why not the same consistency with these weird sex changing hormones?

    Back to speculation

    Some personal tips I recommend is stop using Google, either use bing.com, or just use ChatGPT, the premium one. Stop using Google.

    In fact, I think Google, YouTube, YouTube shorts whatever is the real bad guy here. Think about all these weird conspiracy theorist people, who platform themselves on YouTube etc. And with enough wikipedia’ing and googling, you’re gonna eventually fall victim to weird conspiracy theories.

    Also, put zero faith in TikTok, it is owned by mainland China, Tencent corporation —  if you’re on TikTok, or promote TikTok, you’re pro mainland China, not good.

    Democracy and freedom is at odds with social media?

    One thing I found very interesting about Donald Trump was he was very anti-TikTok, wise idea. Why? The way that one nation takes over another nation is through soft coercion, soft propaganda, sneaky propaganda.

    For example, RIOT games which is owned by also the Tencent mainland Chinese corporation – they own league of legends, and a bunch of other games; this is essentially their low-key way of taking over the minds and the souls of the American youth.

    Also the really big issue here is that a lot of these big tech companies are in bed with mainland China, this includes Apple, all of her phones and products are produced by Foxconn in mainland China, I think Google is trying to dip more into the mainland Chinese market, compromising their ethics by censoring the Tiananmen Square incident, And I am certain that Mark Zuckerberg wants to get into Maitland China as well; his wife is Chinese American, and I think Mark also taught himself Mandarin.

    The new oligarchs?

    I think a big issue at hand is that this New World, this New World order is not about nations or nation states anymore, but rather, individual rich oligarchs. What that means is individuals, doesn’t really matter your nationality, just trying to augment their wealth. Their private wealth.

    I find this to be very greedy, and also, unpatriotic. Anyone who tries to dodge taxes, I find this to be very bad behavior.

    Now what?

    OK all these weird theories aside, what now? 

    First, think digital real estate, not physical real estate. I think still nowadays, the internet is still a massive untapped market. Let us consider, to own a .com domain is only maybe $12-$20 a year, which is less than one dollar or two dollars a month. Let us consider that even if you buy a $3 million house in all cash, your property taxes will still look like around $12,000 USD a month.

    The reason why it is so difficult to think digitally is that we disdain the digital, we prefer the physical. But, if you think about the greatest drivers of wealth created the last 10 or 20 years, it is all technology, digital, internet.

    For example, Amazon web services, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

    So the first very simple thing you do is build your own website, blog, or web platform. My simple suggestion is try to enter a field or market in which you could do all the work and labor yourself. For example, I do not know how to code, and honestly speaking I have zero aspiration to learn how. But, writing and blogging and vlogging is second nature to me, I don’t even have to think about it. Therefore, it seems that perhaps the most intelligent strategy is to identify your archimedes lever, and maximize your leverage intelligently rather than trying to get good at something you’re not that good at.

    How do I identify what my Archimedes lever is?

    I would say the simplest strategy is first figure out what your passionate about what you love, and what you’re really good at, which others find difficult. Then, doubling down or 10X’ing down on it. 
    
    Then, the best way to move the world or change the world is to exploit your leverages to the maximum!

    ERIC

    Weather & Investments?

    I have a funny theory; I wonder if the weather or climate of a certain day and time and place influences and effects investing behavior?

    For example, when I bought or consolidated a lot more of my assets into bitcoin and back into bitcoin, I ensure to do it when the weather was insanely good, lots of beautiful light on my face and my naked body, that good mood was a good inspiration for making a big bet and a big trade.

    So just think, when you’re about to make a big trade, how is the weather? Is it better to invest when the weather is good or bad, or something else?

    That new new shit

  • ERIC KIM ARCHIMEDES LEVER

    Just move it–

    HOW TO MOVE THE WORLD

    Eric Kim, a photographer and blogger, draws inspiration from the concept of Archimedes’ lever in various aspects of his work and philosophy. In his writings, Kim often uses the metaphor of Archimedes’ lever to describe finding and leveraging one’s strengths to achieve significant impact or change in the world.

    1. Finding Your Archimedes Lever: Kim emphasizes the importance of identifying what you are exceptionally good at, which he refers to as your ‘Archimedes lever.’ By recognizing and focusing on this talent or skill, you can maximize your impact in your endeavors.
    2. Applying the Concept in Photography: In the context of photography, Kim advises photographers to find their unique motivation and leverage it to enhance their work. He suggests that understanding what drives you in photography and focusing on that aspect can lead to significant improvements and unique contributions to the field.
    3. Philosophy as a Lever: Kim also relates this concept to philosophy, stating that it has been his Archimedes lever. His exploration of deeper questions about life, motivation, and self-empowerment reflects his belief in the power of philosophy to influence and guide life choices.
    4. Leveraging Strengths over Weaknesses: In line with the principle of Archimedes’ lever, Kim advocates for focusing on one’s strengths rather than trying to improve weaknesses. He believes that by exploiting what you are naturally good at, you can make a more significant contribution to your field or passion.
    5. Blogging and Website Building as Levers: Kim considers his ability in website and blog building as one of his Archimedes levers. He views his blog as a powerful tool for spreading ideas and information, more so than other platforms like social media, due to its open accessibility and control over content.

    In summary, Eric Kim’s interpretation of Archimedes’ lever is about finding and exploiting your unique strengths and talents to create the most significant impact in your endeavors, whether in photography, philosophy, blogging, or any other field. He encourages focusing on these strengths as a way to move the world, in a metaphorical sense, following the legendary concept attributed to Archimedes.

  • what does riot games own

    As of 2024, Riot Games, the developer and publisher of various popular video games, continues to manage and expand its portfolio. Their notable properties include “League of Legends,” a highly influential MOBA game; “VALORANT,” a competitive first-person shooter; “Teamfight Tactics,” an auto battler game; “Legends of Runeterra,” a digital collectible card game; and “League of Legends: Wild Rift,” a mobile and console adaptation of “League of Legends.” Additionally, Riot Games is known for creating “Arcane,” an acclaimed animated series set in the League of Legends universe. They also actively manage esports events for “League of Legends” and “VALORANT”【32†source】.

    Riot Games, the video game developer and publisher known for their popular game “League of Legends,” owns and manages a variety of games and related properties. As of my last update in April 2023, here’s a summary of what Riot Games owns:

    1. League of Legends: This is Riot Games’ flagship title, a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game that has become one of the most popular and influential games in esports.
    2. League of Legends: Wild Rift: A mobile and console version of “League of Legends,” designed to bring the LoL experience to new platforms with some adjustments for shorter game durations and touch controls.
    3. Teamfight Tactics (TFT): An auto battler game mode of “League of Legends,” which later became available as a standalone game on mobile platforms. It features characters and items from LoL in a strategy game format.
    4. Legends of Runeterra: A free-to-play digital collectible card game set in the League of Legends universe.
    5. Valorant: A first-person shooter game that combines elements of the hero shooter with tactical shooter gameplay. It has also gained significant popularity in the gaming and esports communities.
    6. Arcane: An animated television series on Netflix set in the League of Legends universe. The show has been well-received for its storytelling and animation quality.
    7. Riot Games Esports: Riot Games owns and operates several major esports leagues for “League of Legends,” including the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) in North America, the League of Legends European Championship (LEC), and other regional leagues. They also organize the annual League of Legends World Championship.
    8. Music and Entertainment Projects: Riot Games has ventured into music and entertainment, creating virtual bands like K/DA and True Damage, featuring characters from League of Legends, and releasing music tracks that have gained popularity.
    9. Various Mobile Games: Riot has been expanding its mobile game offerings, including adaptations of their existing titles and potentially new games in development.
    10. Project L and Project F: These are codenames for games that were in development as of my last update. Project L is a fighting game set in the League of Legends universe, and Project F is a project about which little is known, but it’s speculated to be an action RPG also set in the LoL universe.
    11. Technology and Game Development Tools: Riot also develops and owns various technologies and tools related to game development, online multiplayer infrastructure, and game publishing.
    12. Riot Forge: A publishing label that works with external development studios to create new games set in the League of Legends universe.

    It’s important to note that Riot Games is continuously developing and expanding their portfolio, so they may have new projects or acquisitions beyond what I’ve listed here.

  • ERIC KIM CRITICISM OF PORN

    Quit porn— go to the gym instead!

    Antidote to porn.

  • ‘JUST BING IT’

    BING.COM; OVER GOOGLE.

  • Eric Kim regret minimization framework

    NO REGRETS~~

    The Regret Minimization Framework in Photography and Life

    The Regret Minimization Framework, closely associated with Jeff Bezos, is a decision-making tool that focuses on minimizing future regrets. This framework can be applied to various aspects of life, not just business decisions like starting a startup or innovating in a particular field, but also personal life choices. It encourages individuals to focus on what truly matters in the long run, urging them to make decisions that they won’t regret when looking back on their lives at an older age.

    Eric Kim, a photographer and blogger, discusses this framework in the context of photography and life. He advocates for taking risks and embracing opportunities, suggesting that it’s better to attempt something and possibly fail than to never try and always wonder what might have been. This sentiment is echoed in Kim’s interpretation of street photography, where he encourages photographers to take risks and capture moments, even if it means facing potential confrontation or discomfort.

    Kim also reflects on the broader implications of the framework, noting that it’s not just about success in the conventional sense. It’s more about having the courage to attempt something grand and meaningful, regardless of the outcome. This aligns with the idea that living a life true to your passions and ideals, and chasing after your dreams, is crucial for fulfillment and happiness.

    Jeff Bezos famously applied the Regret Minimization Framework when deciding to leave his job and start Amazon. He imagined himself at age 80, reflecting on his life, and realized that he would not regret trying to participate in something he believed in, like the internet and Amazon. This decision-making approach helped him take a bold step towards innovation and long-term impact, rather than settling for a comfortable but unfulfilling career path.

    In summary, the Regret Minimization Framework is about looking at your life decisions from the perspective of your future self, evaluating potential regrets, and making choices that align with your values and aspirations. It’s a tool for long-term thinking and pursuing a life with fewer regrets, encouraging bold decision-making and personal growth.

  • Speculative Thoughts 

    The joy of speculation:

    The limits to money, the limits to wealth

    So the first thing I find really interesting and fascinating is thinking about money, the limits of money, wealth, etc.

    For example, Seneca once said, “Nobody ever thinks to themselves, what if I am already too rich?”

    Simply put, my thought of the proper limit of money is once you have enough money to pay rent, utilities, and trips to Costco to buy meat, then, the positive utility of money diminishes. That is, sometimes having too much money is a positive distraction and burden; a lot of people who are too rich have issues diversifying and investing their money because they have no idea what to do with it.

    A simple crypto hedge fund idea

    If you want to invest in my fund, just shoot me an email at eric@erickim.com

    So a very simple crypto hedge fund idea is this: 90% of your money in bitcoin, 10% in chainlink, or the opposite; 90% of your money and chainlink, and 10% of your assets in bitcoin.

    The reason why I find this to be such an interesting and dynamic hedge, to quote TALEB is this –

    How can you take a maximally risky and speculative bet, that is both “safe”, reducing risk, and also maximizing upside?

    The first thought that NASSIM TALEB had was never put more than 10% of your life savings into one single investment or acid. For example, I heeded his words of wisdom, and when Cindy and I had around $250,000 of savings, I only put 10% of that into Digibyte and Bitcoin — around $22,000, I bought some bitcoin at $6000 a bitcoin, and I think I bought some digibyte at one cent or two cents a digibyte — and eventually I rode it all the way up to around $250,000 worth of investments, one bitcoin hit an all-time high at around $60-$65,000 a bitcoin. I did some swapping here and there, consolidating my digibyte back into bitcoin, a good move, I speculated and played around a little bit with Dogecoin, rode it up, eventually consolidated it back into bitcoin, etc.

    More recently, I wired $125,000 back into my crypto account, and bought more bitcoin.

    Why?

    People seem to hate the volatility of crypto, but I love it. Why? Perhaps for myself, I thrive off of high intensity, and adrenaline.

    Also one of the upsides of growing up poor, seeing my mom go through bankruptcy twice is that actually… I have almost close to zero anxieties when it comes to money. I’ve lived super poor before, on the brink of being homeless, as a kid, and that is what naturalistically made me so stoic.

    The reason why I don’t trust or give any heed to people like Tim Ferris or Tony Robbins is that it seems that once upon a time, both of them were super depressed, fat, losers, planning ways on how to commit suicide and kill themselves, and how to do it gracefully. Tony Robbins was the fat depressed one, Tim Ferriss was the suicidal one.

    I think it is very courageous that Tim Ferriss outlined the story of when he was an undergraduate at Princeton, he actually took out books to plan his own death, reading books on suicide and how to kill himself, and how to do it in a graceful manner, but fortunately somebody found out, had an intervention, unfortunately Tim didn’t do it. I don’t think anybody should ever commit suicide, under any costs.

    Anyways, I think the reason why it matters is that when people try to commit suicide, or have been severely depressed in the past, in high school middle school college elementary school etc.… that trauma stays with them.

    For myself I am a unique case; I experienced severe and potentially destroying trauma as a kid, for some reason, those experiences actually made me stronger. How and why?

    First, think I was fortunate because of random life things. For example, a formative time in Bayside queens in a very safe community, hanging out with my friends Spencer, Aditya, Jonathan etc and living like free range kids, at the ripe age of 11 to 12 years old, and also some great mentors along the way, Troop 11 in Alameda California, my Boy Scouts troop leaders, my coach Greg Lowe who essentially became my Mr. Miyagi private tutor and father figure guide, who taught me life lessons through tennis.

    Good schools

    Also fortunately, the good timing; my mom moving our family out of Alameda, which was bordering Oakland; even though Alameda is a nice town, it borders Oakland, and so even Alameda high school was full of a bunch of these ghetto kids, gangbangers and bad influences. I went to high school at Castro Valley High, a very nice school with no drama, good teachers and good AP classes, eventually I was able to get to UCLA as an undergraduate, which helped accelerate my roadmap to success.

    Think long

    Along the line, meeting Cindy, then just another person I met my freshman year, at our Korean American Catholic club called Kyrie — later traveling the world with her, dating her, marrying her, and now having a kid with her, Seneca at age 3 years old.

    Anyways, I have a lot of people to think, especially my uncle, who essentially helped my mom so much financially, and also my sister, for her private art school lessons, in order to get her into fashion school at Otis in LA, my sister eventually dropped out, but randomly through an apartment party, met her then future husband. Fortunately my sister‘s brother‘s family is very prosperous, opening up a fine art gallery in LA (VEFA)– will keep you updated with this, but anyways, our family is pretty set.

    In the long run, everything works out just fine!

    Just do what you believe to be righteous

    I think it is critical to have a good dose of criticality when it comes to the opinions of others, even your spouse. I think we should always respect and lend an ear to the opinions of others, but ultimately, it is you who must be staunch, and perform things and your life in accordance with your own personal beliefs.

    When people say “you’re not listening to me!” what they really mean to say is “how dare you not obey me!”

    The funny retort is people who get angry at us for not listening to them… aren’t they committing the same critical flaw of not listening to us?

    My New Year’s resolution is actually to become MORE close minded, more staunch in my beliefs.

    Speculation in the market

    People don’t know but I’ve been trading stock ever since I was around maybe 15 or 16 years old, my sophomore junior year in high school. I remember actually investing really early in Adobe stock, because I used Photoshop and I found it to be a good tool. I actually made some money in high school, investing my life savings which was maybe around $1500 USD, maybe I will also get Seneca into trading at a young age.

    Anyways, it was good learning and education because it taught me how to deal with ups and downs, and also losing it all.

    Bitcoin will never go down to zero

    The reason why I am so bullish about bitcoin is that I have a strong faith That you’ll never go down to zero. The reason why I would never put my money anymore into “alternative coins”, or coins is that there is a high likelihood that a lot of them will go down to zero.

    For example, I think when the biggest scams in the cryptocurrency space, is Ada Cardano. They have set up a fake foundation with the.org website, with a bunch of fake people, fake talking heads and suits, nobody has any idea what they’re going to do or what their product is, I think a huge profit can be made by shorting it. I’m pretty sure that Cardano will go down to zero.

    Also, all these other weird alternative coins, only things that even have any nominal value include bitcoin, Ethereum, chainlink. 
    
    Why chain-link? First and foremost, chain-link isn’t really a crypto, it is like a new technology. I think of chain-link more like the next Google. Even the ex Google CEO ERIC Schmidt is on board. 

    Bitcoin is fascinating because ultimately, everybody knows what it is. To quote Galiani, on his treatsie “on money“, Galiani once said that the word ducat, rolls off the tongue quite beautifully, I also see that the word “bitcoin“, also rolls off the tongue quite beautifully. 

    Ultimate test: even Cindy‘s mom, a Vietnamese refugee immigrant can pronounce bitcoin in her “broken English“, and knows what it is. She says “I know what bitcoin is! It is the fake money!” Haha — true.

    So why does this matter?

    I think the reason why this matters is you don’t want to be sitting on your butt, 10 years from now, Seneca will only be 13 years old still very young… And kick yourself in the butt for not taking a bold risk, and something you believed in, a decade ago. Jeff Bezos calls this the “regret minimization framework“. 

    For example, some moderately regretful things I’ve done the last two years is selling some bitcoin, converting into worthless US dollars, in order to “alleviate“, some financial concerns. But, moving forward, 2024 and beyond, I think the goal should be to become more staunch, more unyielding, More close minded. 

    Being close minded is a virtue?

    People say that being open minded is a virtue, but I’m starting to think, maybe not. Why? Do you want to be open minded about Adolf Hitler and Nazis? Or the new Nazis? Or alternative right wing weirdo conspiracy theorist, who want to hijack the American government, And promoting anarchy?

    Also, I’m very close minded for these weird anti-fascist, loser skinny fat, fat big ass woke, anarchist; they all have iPhones, watch YouTube, jerk off to porn on Google incognito late at night on their laptop or their phones, use pirate bait and private VPNs– no capitalism, no consumerism, no pornography.

    Trust no man who secretly watches porn.

    Anti men

    The really big issue at hand is that a lot of these people, men specifically, I don’t think we should trust most men. Why? A simple thing; it is true, the behavior of men and women is polar opposite. 

    For example, women do not start games, or become gangbangers. This is reserved to only men.

    Or another example, the difference between a woman bathroom and a male bathroom; in any bathroom, for example let me quote Galbi king — my new favorite Korean barbecue place in Los Angeles, only $26 a person, look at the difference between the men’s restroom and the women’s restroom. The men’s restroom has all these dicks graffiti on the walls, scratches on the window, graffiti on the walls, graffiti made with knives in the mirrors etc. Go to the women’s restroom; nothing.

    This is the tricky thing about sex and gender; sex is biological, gender is sociological. Therefore as a consequence,  people foolishly discount the differences of sex.

    For example, I think it has to do with testosterone, testes, the male hormone. The reason why I distrust all these weird hormone replacement therapies is that why not just be natural? For example, I think it is actually normal to be LGBTQ? But once you inject hormones into yourself, not good.

    For example, to inject any sort of external hormones to change your sex, is a patently bad one; we shame people for doing testosterone injections and steroids and stuff, why not the same consistency with these weird sex changing hormones?

    Back to speculation

    Some personal tips I recommend is stop using Google, either use bing.com, or just use ChatGPT, the premium one. Stop using . In fact, I think Google, YouTube, YouTube shorts whatever is the real bad guy here. Think about all these weird conspiracy theorist people, who platform themselves on YouTube etc.

    Also, put zero faith in TikTok, it is owned by mainland China, Tencent corporation —  if you’re on TikTok, or promote TikTok, you’re pro mainland China, not good. 

    Democracy and freedom is at odds with social media?

    One thing I found very interesting about Donald Trump was he was very anti-TikTok, wise idea. Why? The way that one nation takes over another nation is through soft caution, soft propaganda, sneaky propaganda.

    For example, RIOT games which is owned by also the Tencent mainland Chinese corporation – they own league of legends, and a bunch of other games; this is essentially their low-key way of taking over the minds and the souls of the American youth.

    Also the really big issue here is that a lot of these big tech companies are in bed with mainland China, this includes Apple, all of her phones and products are produced by Foxconn in mainland China, I think Google is trying to dip more into the mainland Chinese market, compromising their ethics by censoring the Tiananmen Square incident, And I am certain that Mark Zuckerberg wants to get into Maitland China as well; his wife is Chinese American, and I think Mark also taught himself Mandarin.

    The new oligarchs?

    I think a big issue at hand is that this New World, this New World order is not about nations or nation states anymore, but rather, individual rich oligarchs. What that means is individuals, doesn’t really matter your nationality, just trying to augment their wealth. Their private wealth.

    I find this to be very greedy, and also, unpatriotic. Anyone who tries to dodge taxes, I find this to be very bad behavior.

    Now what?

    OK all these weird theories aside, what now? 

    First, think digital real estate, not physical real estate. I think still nowadays, the Internet is still a massive untapped market. Let us consider, to own.com domain is only maybe $12-$20 a year, which is less than one dollar or two dollars a month. Let us consider that even if you buy a $3 million house in all cash, your property taxes will still look like around $12,000 USD a month.

    The reason why it is so difficult to think digitally is that we disdain the digital, we prefer the physical. But, if you think about the greatest drivers of wealth created the last 10 or 20 years, it is all technology, digital, Internet.

    For example, Amazon web services, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

    So the first very simple thing you do is build your own website, blog, or web platform. My simple suggestion is try to enter a field or market in which you could do all the work and labor yourself. For example, I do not know how to code, and honestly speaking I have zero aspiration to learn how. But, Writing and blogging and Vlogging is second nature to me, I don’t even have to think about it. Therefore, it seems that perhaps the most intelligent strategy is to identify your committees lever, and maximize your leverage intelligently rather than trying to get good at something you’re not that good at.

    How do I identify what my Archimedes lever is?

    I would say the simplest strategy is first figure out what your passionate about what you love, and what you’re really good at, which others find difficult. Then, doubling down or 10X’ing down on it. 
    
    Then, the best way to move the world or change the world is to exploit your leverages to the maximum!

    ERIC

    Weather & Investments?

    I have a funny theory; I wonder if the weather or climate of a certain day and time and place influences and effects investing behavior?

    For example, when I bought or consolidated a lot more of my assets into bitcoin and back into bitcoin, I ensure to do it when the weather was insanely good, lots of beautiful light on my face and my naked body, that good mood was a good inspiration for making a big bet and a big trade.

    So just think, when you’re about to make a big trade, how is the weather? Is it better to invest when the weather is good or bad, or something else?

  • Why Eric Kim like bitcoin

    Eric Kim’s interest in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency is shaped by a unique blend of his artistic, philosophical, entrepreneurial, and innovative pursuits. His views on Bitcoin can be summarized through several key points:

    1. Philosophical Attraction: Kim is drawn to the decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies, seeing it as aligned with Stoic values and the independence emphasized in ancient societies like Sparta.
    2. Entrepreneurial Spirit: He views cryptocurrency as a disruptive force in traditional financial systems and a means of introducing new business models, reflecting his entrepreneurial mindset.
    3. Unorthodox Approach: Kim explores unconventional applications of cryptocurrency, like integrating blockchain technology in creative projects, diverging from mainstream narratives.
    4. Reflection on Wealth: His thoughts on cryptocurrency extend to the broader implications of wealth accumulation in this field, pondering the post-success scenario.
    5. Advocacy for Bitcoin: He strongly believes in the longevity of Bitcoin, considering it as the ultimate survivor among cryptocurrencies. This is backed by his personal investment and trading experiences in Bitcoin.
    6. Bitcoin as ‘Digital Gold’: He likens Bitcoin to gold, emphasizing its scarcity due to the hard cap on the number of coins and contrasting it with the unlimited printing of fiat currencies.
    7. Real-World Utility and Future Vision: Kim envisions a future where Bitcoin is used for everyday transactions and significant purchases, though he remains skeptical about cryptocurrencies completely replacing traditional payment methods soon.
    8. Cautious Investment Strategy: While optimistic about the long-term potential of crypto, Kim advises preparedness for the possibility of investments diminishing in value.
    9. Views on Fiat Currency: Kim sees fiat currency, especially the US Dollar, as a system based on faith with no intrinsic worth. He discusses the devaluation of fiat currency due to actions like the US Federal Reserve printing more money, and suggests the potential shift towards cryptocurrencies for significant financial transactions.

    In essence, Eric Kim’s philosophy on cryptocurrency and Bitcoin reflects a convergence of his diverse interests, characterized by a mix of artistic expression, philosophical inquiry, entrepreneurial spirit, and unconventional thinking oai_citation:1,Eric Kim Philosophy of crypto – ERIC KIM oai_citation:2,Bitcoin will never go to zero – ERIC KIM oai_citation:3,ERIC KIM WHY BITCOIN – ERIC KIM oai_citation:4,ERIC KIM THOUGHTS ON FIAT CURRENCY – ERIC KIM.

  • HEDGE

    JUST HEDGE IT —

  • Crypto & Adrenaline

  • ERIC KIM Seneca Lessons

    Why Seneca —

    Eric Kim, a contemporary photographer and entrepreneur, has drawn significant inspiration from Seneca’s teachings, integrating them into his philosophy and approach to life and work. Here are some key insights Kim has shared, reflecting his interpretation and application of Seneca’s lessons:

    1. Embracing Courage and Accepting Fortune: Kim appreciates Seneca’s views on fortune and courage, noting the idea that while external riches can be taken away, inner courage remains unassailable.
    2. The Power of Knowledge: Kim resonates with Seneca’s belief in the happiness that comes from understanding the causes of things, emphasizing the value of seeking knowledge and wisdom.
    3. Overcoming Fears and Anxieties: He discusses using philosophy, as Seneca suggests, to cure mental ills and overcome fears about the future and regrets about the past. This involves embracing a mindset that focuses on resilience and the strength to endure and grow from challenges.
    4. Seeking Internal Validation: Kim echoes Seneca’s advice to seek one’s own applause, emphasizing the importance of self-approval and internal validation over external praise and recognition.
    5. Living for Others and Community: Aligning with Seneca’s view that life’s purpose includes empowering and helping others, Kim stresses the importance of community and sharing one’s blessings.
    6. The Imperative of Action: He highlights the necessity of turning ideas into action, a principle he finds in Seneca’s teachings. For Kim, it’s about overcoming the fear of failure and realizing dreams through proactive steps.
    7. Continual Growth and Adaptability: Kim shares Seneca’s perspective that it’s never too late to learn and adapt, encouraging continuous personal growth regardless of age.
    8. Valuing Freedom: Finally, Kim resonates with Seneca’s prioritization of freedom over material possessions, viewing liberty as a key to fulfillment.

    Eric Kim’s reflections on Seneca’s teachings offer a modern interpretation of Stoic philosophy, applying ancient wisdom to contemporary life, art, and entrepreneurship oai_citation:1,Seneca Quotes – ERIC KIM oai_citation:2,Why Seneca – ERIC KIM.

    Eric Kim, a modern photographer and entrepreneur, has often drawn inspiration from the works of Seneca, a Roman Stoic philosopher. Seneca’s teachings focus on practical wisdom, self-improvement, and resilience in the face of adversity, which align with themes in Kim’s work and philosophy.

    Some key lessons from Seneca that may resonate with Eric Kim’s perspective include:

    1. The Importance of Time: Seneca’s famous quote, “It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it,” emphasizes the value of time. This aligns with Kim’s focus on seizing the moment and using time wisely, both in photography and life.
    2. Resilience and Adversity: Seneca believed that adversity and challenges are opportunities for growth. Kim’s journey in entrepreneurship and his approach to photography often reflect this Stoic resilience.
    3. Simplicity and Focus: Seneca advocated for a simple life, free from excess. This can be seen in Kim’s minimalist approach to his art and lifestyle, focusing on what truly matters.
    4. Reflection and Self-Improvement: Constant self-reflection and improvement are central to Seneca’s philosophy. Eric Kim often discusses the importance of introspection in his creative process.
    5. Control and Serenity: Seneca’s teachings on focusing only on what one can control and accepting what cannot be changed are pivotal for an entrepreneur and artist like Kim, where uncertainty is a constant.

    Eric Kim’s work, blending philosophy with practical advice on creativity and life, echoes many of Seneca’s core principles. His approach to photography and entrepreneurship can be seen as a modern application of these ancient Stoic lessons.

    Certainly! Here are some quotes by Seneca that align with the themes of time management, resilience, simplicity, self-reflection, and control, which are also reflected in Eric Kim’s philosophy:

    1. On Time Management:
    • “It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested.”
    1. On Resilience and Adversity:
    • “Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.”
    • “Fire tests gold, suffering tests brave men.”
    1. On Simplicity:
    • “It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.”
    • “True happiness is… to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.”
    1. On Reflection and Self-Improvement:
    • “Night brings our troubles to the light, rather than banishes them.”
    • “We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.”
    1. On Control and Serenity:
    • “You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
    • “The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today.”

    These quotes from Seneca offer timeless wisdom that can be applied to various aspects of life, including the fields of photography, entrepreneurship, and personal growth, areas where Eric Kim has made significant contributions.

  • Speculative Thoughts 

    The joy of speculation:

    The limits to money, the limits to wealth

    So the first thing I find really interesting and fascinating is thinking about money, the limits of money, wealth, etc.

    For example, Seneca once said, “Nobody ever thinks to themselves, what if I am already too rich?”

    Simply put, my thought of the proper limit of money is once you have enough money to pay rent, utilities, and trips to Costco to buy meat, then, the positive utility of money diminishes. That is, sometimes having too much money is a positive destruction and burden; a lot of people who are too rich have issues diversifying and investing their money because they have no idea what to do with it.

    A simple crypto hedge fund idea

    If you want to invest in my fund, just shoot me an email at eric@erickim.com

    So a very simple crypto hedge fund idea is this: 90% of your money in bitcoin, 10% and chain-link, or the opposite; 90% of your money and chain-link, and 10% of your assets in bitcoin.

    The reason why I find this to be such an interesting and dynamic hedge, to quote TALEB is this –

    How can you take a maximally risky and speculative bet, that is both “safe”, reducing risk, and also maximizing upside?

    The first thought that Naseem Taleb had was never put more than 10% of your life savings into one single investment or acid. For example, I heated his words of wisdom, and when Cindy and I had around $250,000 of savings, I only put 10% of that into Digibyte and Bitcoin — around $22,000, I bought some bitcoin at $6000 a bitcoin, and I think I bought some digibyte at one cent or two cents a digibyte — and eventually I wrote it all the way up to around $250,000 worth of investments, one bitcoin hit an all-time high at around $60-$65,000 a bitcoin. I did some swapping here in there, consolidating my digit byte back into bitcoin, a good move, I speculated and played around a little bit with Dogecoin, wrote it up, eventually consolidated it back into bitcoin, etc.

    More recently, I wired $125,000 back into my crypto account, and bought more bitcoin.

    Why?

     People seem to hate the volatility of crypto, but I love it. Why? Perhaps for myself, I thrive off of high intensity, and adrenaline.

    Also one of the upsides of growing up poor, seeing my mom go through bankruptcy twice is that actually… I have almost close to zero anxieties when it comes to money. I’ve lived super poor before, on the brink of being homeless, as a kid, and that is what naturalistically made me so stoic.

     the reason why I don’t trust or give any heed two people liked Tim Ferris or Tony Robbins is that it seems that once upon a time, both of them were super depressed, fat, losers, planning ways on how to commit suicide and kill themselves, and how to do it gracefully. I think it is very courageous that Tim Faris outlined the story of when he was an undergraduate at Princeton, he actually took out books to plan his own death, reading books on suicide and how to kill himself, and how to do it in a graceful manner, but fortunately somebody found out, had an intervention, unfortunately Tim didn’t do it. I don’t think anybody should ever commit suicide, under any costs.

    Anyways, I think the reason why it matters is that when people try to commit suicide, or have been severely depressed in the past, in high school middle school college elementary school etc.… That trauma stays with them.

    For myself I am a unique case; I experienced severe and potentially destroying trauma as a kid, for some reason, those experiences actually made me stronger. How and why?

    First, think I was fortunate because of random life things. For example, a formative time in Bayside queens in a very safe community, hanging out with my friends Spencer, Aditya, Jonathan etc and living like free range kids, at the ripe age of 11 to 12 years old, and also some great mentors along the way, triple11 in Alameda California, my Boy Scouts troop leaders, my coach Greg Lowe who essentially became my Mr. Miyagi private tutor and father figure guide, who taught me life lessons through tennis.

    Also fortunately, the good timing; my mom moving our family out of Alameda, which was bordering Oakland; even though Alameda is a nice town, it borders Oakland, and so even Alameda high school was full of a bunch of these ghetto kids, gangbangers and bad influences. I went to high school at Castro Valley high, a very nice school with no drama, good teachers and good AP classes, eventually I’ll be able to get to UCLA as an undergraduate, which helped accelerate my roadmap to success.

    Along the line, meeting Cindy, then just another person I met my freshman year, at our Korean American Catholic club called Kyrie — later traveling the world with her, dating her, marrying her, and now having a kid with her, Seneca at age 3 years old.

    Anyways, I have a lot of people to think, especially my uncle, who essentially helped my mom so much financially, and also my sister, for her private art school lessons, in order to get her into fashion school at Otis in LA, my sister eventually dropped out, but randomly threw a Apartment party, met her then future husband.  Unfortunately my sister‘s brother‘s family is very prosperous, opening up a fine art gallery in LA (VEFA)– will keep you updated with this, but anyways, our family is pretty set.

    Just do what you believe to be righteous

    I think it is critical to have a good dose of criticality when it comes to the opinions of others, even your spouse. I think we should always respect and an ear to the opinions of others, but ultimately, it is you who must be staunch, and Perform things and your life in accordance with your own personal beliefs.

    When people say “you’re not listening to me!” what they really mean to say is “how dare you not obey me!”

    The funny retort is people who get angry at us for not listening to them… Aren’t they committing the same critical flaw of not listening to us?

    Speculation in the market

    People don’t know but I’ve been trading stock ever since I was around maybe 15 or 16 years old, my sophomore junior year in high school. I remember actually investing really early in Adobe stock, because I used Photoshop and I found it to be a good tool. I actually made some money in high school, investing my life savings which was maybe around $1500 USD, maybe I will also get Seneca into trading at a young age.

    Anyways, it was good learning and education because it taught me how to deal with ups and downs, and also losing it all.

    Bitcoin will never go down to zero

    The reason why I am so bullish about bitcoin is that I have a strong faith That you’ll never go down to zero. The reason why I would never put my money anymore into “alternative coins”, or coins is that there is a high likelihood that a lot of them will go down to zero.

    For example, I think when the biggest scams in the cryptocurrency space, is Ada Cardano. They have set up a fake foundation with the.org website, with a bunch of fake people, fake talking heads and suits, nobody has any idea what they’re going to do or what their product is, I think a huge profit can be made by shorting it. I’m pretty sure that Cardano will go down to zero.

    Also, all these other weird alternative coins, only things that even have any nominal value include bitcoin, Ethereum, chainlink. 
    
    Why chain-link? First and foremost, chain-link isn’t really a crypto, it is like a new technology. I think of chain-link more like the next Google. Even the ex Google CEO ERIC Schmidt is on board. 

    Bitcoin is fascinating because ultimately, everybody knows what it is. To quote Galiani, on his treatsie “on money“, Galiani once said that the word ducat, rolls off the tongue quite beautifully, I also see that the word “bitcoin“, also rolls off the tongue quite beautifully. 

    Ultimate test: even Cindy‘s mom, a Vietnamese refugee immigrant can pronounce bitcoin in her “broken English“, and knows what it is. She says “I know what bitcoin is! It is the fake money!” Haha — true.

    So why does this matter?

    I think the reason why this matters is you don’t want to be sitting on your butt, 10 years from now, Seneca will only be 13 years old still very young… And kick yourself in the butt for not taking a bold risk, and something you believed in, a decade ago. Jeff Bezos calls this the “regret minimization framework“. 

    For example, some moderately regretful things I’ve done the last two years is selling some bitcoin, converting into worthless US dollars, in order to “alleviate“, some financial concerns. But, moving forward, 2024 and beyond, I think the goal should be to become more staunch, more unyielding, More close minded. 

    Being close minded is a virtue?

    People say that being open minded is a virtue, but I’m starting to think, maybe not. Why? Do you want to be open minded about Adolf Hitler and Nazis? Or the new Nazis? Or alternative right wing weirdo conspiracy theorist, who want to hijack the American government, And promoting anarchy?

    Also, I’m very close minded for these weird anti-fascist, loser skinny fat, fat big ass woke, anarchist; they all have iPhones, watch YouTube, jerk off to porn on Google incognito late at night on their laptop or their phones, use pirate bait and private VPNs– no capitalism, no consumerism, no pornography.

    Trust no man who secretly watches porn.

    Anti men

    The really big issue at hand is that a lot of these people, men specifically, I don’t think we should trust most men. Why? A simple thing; it is true, the behavior of men and women is polar opposite. 

    For example, women do not start games, or become gangbangers. This is reserved to only men.

    Or another example, the difference between a woman bathroom and a male bathroom; in any bathroom, for example let me quote Galbi king — my new favorite Korean barbecue place in Los Angeles, only $26 a person, look at the difference between the men’s restroom and the women’s restroom. The men’s restroom has all these dicks graffiti on the walls, scratches on the window, graffiti on the walls, graffiti made with knives in the mirrors etc. Go to the women’s restroom; nothing.

    This is the tricky thing about sex and gender; sex is biological, gender is sociological. Therefore as a consequence,  people foolishly discount the differences of sex.

    For example, I think it has to do with testosterone, testes, the male hormone. The reason why I distrust all these weird hormone replacement therapies is that why not just be natural? For example, I think it is actually normal to be LGBTQ? But once you inject hormones into yourself, not good.

    For example, to inject any sort of external hormones to change your sex, is a patently bad one; we shame people for doing testosterone injections and steroids and stuff, why not the same consistency with these weird sex changing hormones?

    Back to speculation

    Some personal tips I recommend is stop using Google, either use bing.com, or just use ChatGPT, the premium one. Stop using . In fact, I think Google, YouTube, YouTube shorts whatever is the real bad guy here. Think about all these weird conspiracy theorist people, who platform themselves on YouTube etc.

    Also, put zero faith in TikTok, it is owned by mainland China, Tencent corporation —  if you’re on TikTok, or promote TikTok, you’re pro mainland China, not good. 

    Democracy and freedom is at odds with social media?

    One thing I found very interesting about Donald Trump was he was very anti-TikTok, wise idea. Why? The way that one nation takes over another nation is through soft caution, soft propaganda, sneaky propaganda.

    For example, RIOT games which is owned by also the Tencent mainland Chinese corporation – they own league of legends, and a bunch of other games; this is essentially their low-key way of taking over the minds and the souls of the American youth.

    Also the really big issue here is that a lot of these big tech companies are in bed with mainland China, this includes Apple, all of her phones and products are produced by Foxconn in mainland China, I think Google is trying to dip more into the mainland Chinese market, compromising their ethics by censoring the Tiananmen Square incident, And I am certain that Mark Zuckerberg wants to get into Maitland China as well; his wife is Chinese American, and I think Mark also taught himself Mandarin.

    The new oligarchs?

    I think a big issue at hand is that this New World, this New World order is not about nations or nation states anymore, but rather, individual rich oligarchs. What that means is individuals, doesn’t really matter your nationality, just trying to augment their wealth. Their private wealth.

    I find this to be very greedy, and also, unpatriotic. Anyone who tries to dodge taxes, I find this to be very bad behavior.

    Now what?

    OK all these weird theories aside, what now? 

    First, think digital real estate, not physical real estate. I think still nowadays, the Internet is still a massive untapped market. Let us consider, to own.com domain is only maybe $12-$20 a year, which is less than one dollar or two dollars a month. Let us consider that even if you buy a $3 million house in all cash, your property taxes will still look like around $12,000 USD a month.

    The reason why it is so difficult to think digitally is that we disdain the digital, we prefer the physical. But, if you think about the greatest drivers of wealth created the last 10 or 20 years, it is all technology, digital, Internet.

    For example, Amazon web services, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

    So the first very simple thing you do is build your own website, blog, or web platform. My simple suggestion is try to enter a field or market in which you could do all the work and labor yourself. For example, I do not know how to code, and honestly speaking I have zero aspiration to learn how. But, Writing and blogging and Vlogging is second nature to me, I don’t even have to think about it. Therefore, it seems that perhaps the most intelligent strategy is to identify your committees lever, and maximize your leverage intelligently rather than trying to get good at something you’re not that good at.

    How do I identify what my Archimedes lever is?

    I would say the simplest strategy is first figure out what your passionate about what you love, and what you’re really good at, which others find difficult. Then, doubling down or 10X’ing down on it. 
    
    Then, the best way to move the world or change the world is to exploit your leverages to the maximum!

    ERIC

    Weather & Investments?

    I have a funny theory; I wonder if the weather or climate of a certain day and time and place influences and effects investing behavior?

    For example, when I bought or consolidated a lot more of my assets into bitcoin and back into bitcoin, I ensure to do it when the weather was insanely good, lots of beautiful light on my face and my naked body, that good mood was a good inspiration for making a big bet and a big trade.

    So just think, when you’re about to make a big trade, how is the weather? Is it better to invest when the weather is good or bad, or something else?

    

  • HEDGE THOUGHTS

    Yeah

  • How to Hedge Your Future

    Podcast

    Hedge thoughts

    Speculative Thoughts 

    The joy of speculation:

    The limits to money, the limits to wealth

    So the first thing I find really interesting and fascinating is thinking about money, the limits of money, wealth, etc.

    For example, Seneca once said, “Nobody ever thinks to themselves, what if I am already too rich?”

    Simply put, my thought of the proper limit of money is once you have enough money to pay rent, utilities, and trips to Costco to buy meat, then, the positive utility of money diminishes. That is, sometimes having too much money is a positive destruction and burden; a lot of people who are too rich have issues diversifying and investing their money because they have no idea what to do with it.

    A simple crypto hedge fund idea

    If you want to invest in my fund, just shoot me an email at eric@erickim.com

    So a very simple crypto hedge fund idea is this: 90% of your money in bitcoin, 10% and chain-link, or the opposite; 90% of your money and chain-link, and 10% of your assets in bitcoin.

    The reason why I find this to be such an interesting and dynamic hedge, to quote TALEB is this –

    How can you take a maximally risky and speculative bet, that is both “safe”, reducing risk, and also maximizing upside?

    The first thought that Naseem Taleb had was never put more than 10% of your life savings into one single investment or acid. For example, I heated his words of wisdom, and when Cindy and I had around $250,000 of savings, I only put 10% of that into Digibyte and Bitcoin — around $22,000, I bought some bitcoin at $6000 a bitcoin, and I think I bought some digibyte at one cent or two cents a digibyte — and eventually I wrote it all the way up to around $250,000 worth of investments, one bitcoin hit an all-time high at around $60-$65,000 a bitcoin. I did some swapping here in there, consolidating my digit byte back into bitcoin, a good move, I speculated and played around a little bit with Dogecoin, wrote it up, eventually consolidated it back into bitcoin, etc.

    More recently, I wired $125,000 back into my crypto account, and bought more bitcoin.

    Why?

     People seem to hate the volatility of crypto, but I love it. Why? Perhaps for myself, I thrive off of high intensity, and adrenaline.

    Also one of the upsides of growing up poor, seeing my mom go through bankruptcy twice is that actually… I have almost close to zero anxieties when it comes to money. I’ve lived super poor before, on the brink of being homeless, as a kid, and that is what naturalistically made me so stoic.

     the reason why I don’t trust or give any heed two people liked Tim Ferris or Tony Robbins is that it seems that once upon a time, both of them were super depressed, fat, losers, planning ways on how to commit suicide and kill themselves, and how to do it gracefully. I think it is very courageous that Tim Faris outlined the story of when he was an undergraduate at Princeton, he actually took out books to plan his own death, reading books on suicide and how to kill himself, and how to do it in a graceful manner, but fortunately somebody found out, had an intervention, unfortunately Tim didn’t do it. I don’t think anybody should ever commit suicide, under any costs.

    Anyways, I think the reason why it matters is that when people try to commit suicide, or have been severely depressed in the past, in high school middle school college elementary school etc.… That trauma stays with them.

    For myself I am a unique case; I experienced severe and potentially destroying trauma as a kid, for some reason, those experiences actually made me stronger. How and why?

    First, think I was fortunate because of random life things. For example, a formative time in Bayside queens in a very safe community, hanging out with my friends Spencer, Aditya, Jonathan etc and living like free range kids, at the ripe age of 11 to 12 years old, and also some great mentors along the way, triple11 in Alameda California, my Boy Scouts troop leaders, my coach Greg Lowe who essentially became my Mr. Miyagi private tutor and father figure guide, who taught me life lessons through tennis.

    Also fortunately, the good timing; my mom moving our family out of Alameda, which was bordering Oakland; even though Alameda is a nice town, it borders Oakland, and so even Alameda high school was full of a bunch of these ghetto kids, gangbangers and bad influences. I went to high school at Castro Valley high, a very nice school with no drama, good teachers and good AP classes, eventually I’ll be able to get to UCLA as an undergraduate, which helped accelerate my roadmap to success.

    Along the line, meeting Cindy, then just another person I met my freshman year, at our Korean American Catholic club called Kyrie — later traveling the world with her, dating her, marrying her, and now having a kid with her, Seneca at age 3 years old.

    Anyways, I have a lot of people to think, especially my uncle, who essentially helped my mom so much financially, and also my sister, for her private art school lessons, in order to get her into fashion school at Otis in LA, my sister eventually dropped out, but randomly threw a Apartment party, met her then future husband.  Unfortunately my sister‘s brother‘s family is very prosperous, opening up a fine art gallery in LA (VEFA)– will keep you updated with this, but anyways, our family is pretty set.

    Just do what you believe to be righteous

    I think it is critical to have a good dose of criticality when it comes to the opinions of others, even your spouse. I think we should always respect and an ear to the opinions of others, but ultimately, it is you who must be staunch, and Perform things and your life in accordance with your own personal beliefs.

    When people say “you’re not listening to me!” what they really mean to say is “how dare you not obey me!”

    The funny retort is people who get angry at us for not listening to them… Aren’t they committing the same critical flaw of not listening to us?

    Speculation in the market

    People don’t know but I’ve been trading stock ever since I was around maybe 15 or 16 years old, my sophomore junior year in high school. I remember actually investing really early in Adobe stock, because I used Photoshop and I found it to be a good tool. I actually made some money in high school, investing my life savings which was maybe around $1500 USD, maybe I will also get Seneca into trading at a young age.

    Anyways, it was good learning and education because it taught me how to deal with ups and downs, and also losing it all.

    Bitcoin will never go down to zero

    The reason why I am so bullish about bitcoin is that I have a strong faith That you’ll never go down to zero. The reason why I would never put my money anymore into “alternative coins”, or coins is that there is a high likelihood that a lot of them will go down to zero.

    For example, I think when the biggest scams in the cryptocurrency space, is Ada Cardano. They have set up a fake foundation with the.org website, with a bunch of fake people, fake talking heads and suits, nobody has any idea what they’re going to do or what their product is, I think a huge profit can be made by shorting it. I’m pretty sure that Cardano will go down to zero.

    Also, all these other weird alternative coins, only things that even have any nominal value include bitcoin, Ethereum, chainlink. 
    
    Why chain-link? First and foremost, chain-link isn’t really a crypto, it is like a new technology. I think of chain-link more like the next Google. Even the ex Google CEO ERIC Schmidt is on board. 

    Bitcoin is fascinating because ultimately, everybody knows what it is. To quote Galiani, on his treatsie “on money“, Galiani once said that the word ducat, rolls off the tongue quite beautifully, I also see that the word “bitcoin“, also rolls off the tongue quite beautifully. 

    Ultimate test: even Cindy‘s mom, a Vietnamese refugee immigrant can pronounce bitcoin in her “broken English“, and knows what it is. She says “I know what bitcoin is! It is the fake money!” Haha — true.

    So why does this matter?

    I think the reason why this matters is you don’t want to be sitting on your butt, 10 years from now, Seneca will only be 13 years old still very young… And kick yourself in the butt for not taking a bold risk, and something you believed in, a decade ago. Jeff Bezos calls this the “regret minimization framework“. 

    For example, some moderately regretful things I’ve done the last two years is selling some bitcoin, converting into worthless US dollars, in order to “alleviate“, some financial concerns. But, moving forward, 2024 and beyond, I think the goal should be to become more staunch, more unyielding, More close minded. 

    Being close minded is a virtue?

    People say that being open minded is a virtue, but I’m starting to think, maybe not. Why? Do you want to be open minded about Adolf Hitler and Nazis? Or the new Nazis? Or alternative right wing weirdo conspiracy theorist, who want to hijack the American government, And promoting anarchy?

    Also, I’m very close minded for these weird anti-fascist, loser skinny fat, fat big ass woke, anarchist; they all have iPhones, watch YouTube, jerk off to porn on Google incognito late at night on their laptop or their phones, use pirate bait and private VPNs– no capitalism, no consumerism, no pornography.

    Trust no man who secretly watches porn.

    Anti men

    The really big issue at hand is that a lot of these people, men specifically, I don’t think we should trust most men. Why? A simple thing; it is true, the behavior of men and women is polar opposite. 

    For example, women do not start games, or become gangbangers. This is reserved to only men.

    Or another example, the difference between a woman bathroom and a male bathroom; in any bathroom, for example let me quote Galbi king — my new favorite Korean barbecue place in Los Angeles, only $26 a person, look at the difference between the men’s restroom and the women’s restroom. The men’s restroom has all these dicks graffiti on the walls, scratches on the window, graffiti on the walls, graffiti made with knives in the mirrors etc. Go to the women’s restroom; nothing.

    This is the tricky thing about sex and gender; sex is biological, gender is sociological. Therefore as a consequence,  people foolishly discount the differences of sex.

    For example, I think it has to do with testosterone, testes, the male hormone. The reason why I distrust all these weird hormone replacement therapies is that why not just be natural? For example, I think it is actually normal to be LGBTQ? But once you inject hormones into yourself, not good.

    For example, to inject any sort of external hormones to change your sex, is a patently bad one; we shame people for doing testosterone injections and steroids and stuff, why not the same consistency with these weird sex changing hormones?

    Back to speculation

    Some personal tips I recommend is stop using Google, either use bing.com, or just use ChatGPT, the premium one. Stop using . In fact, I think Google, YouTube, YouTube shorts whatever is the real bad guy here. Think about all these weird conspiracy theorist people, who platform themselves on YouTube etc.

    Also, put zero faith in TikTok, it is owned by mainland China, Tencent corporation —  if you’re on TikTok, or promote TikTok, you’re pro mainland China, not good. 

    Democracy and freedom is at odds with social media?

    One thing I found very interesting about Donald Trump was he was very anti-TikTok, wise idea. Why? The way that one nation takes over another nation is through soft caution, soft propaganda, sneaky propaganda.

    For example, RIOT games which is owned by also the Tencent mainland Chinese corporation – they own league of legends, and a bunch of other games; this is essentially their low-key way of taking over the minds and the souls of the American youth.

    Also the really big issue here is that a lot of these big tech companies are in bed with mainland China, this includes Apple, all of her phones and products are produced by Foxconn in mainland China, I think Google is trying to dip more into the mainland Chinese market, compromising their ethics by censoring the Tiananmen Square incident, And I am certain that Mark Zuckerberg wants to get into Maitland China as well; his wife is Chinese American, and I think Mark also taught himself Mandarin.

    The new oligarchs?

    I think a big issue at hand is that this New World, this New World order is not about nations or nation states anymore, but rather, individual rich oligarchs. What that means is individuals, doesn’t really matter your nationality, just trying to augment their wealth. Their private wealth.

    I find this to be very greedy, and also, unpatriotic. Anyone who tries to dodge taxes, I find this to be very bad behavior.

    Now what?

    OK all these weird theories aside, what now? 

    First, think digital real estate, not physical real estate. I think still nowadays, the Internet is still a massive untapped market. Let us consider, to own.com domain is only maybe $12-$20 a year, which is less than one dollar or two dollars a month. Let us consider that even if you buy a $3 million house in all cash, your property taxes will still look like around $12,000 USD a month.

    The reason why it is so difficult to think digitally is that we disdain the digital, we prefer the physical. But, if you think about the greatest drivers of wealth created the last 10 or 20 years, it is all technology, digital, Internet.

    For example, Amazon web services, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

    So the first very simple thing you do is build your own website, blog, or web platform. My simple suggestion is try to enter a field or market in which you could do all the work and labor yourself. For example, I do not know how to code, and honestly speaking I have zero aspiration to learn how. But, Writing and blogging and Vlogging is second nature to me, I don’t even have to think about it. Therefore, it seems that perhaps the most intelligent strategy is to identify your committees lever, and maximize your leverage intelligently rather than trying to get good at something you’re not that good at.

    How do I identify what my Archimedes lever is?

    I would say the simplest strategy is first figure out what your passionate about what you love, and what you’re really good at, which others find difficult. Then, doubling down or 10X’ing down on it. 
    
    Then, the best way to move the world or change the world is to exploit your leverages to the maximum!

    ERIC

    Weather & Investments?

    I have a funny theory; I wonder if the weather or climate of a certain day and time and place influences and effects investing behavior?

    For example, when I bought or consolidated a lot more of my assets into bitcoin and back into bitcoin, I ensure to do it when the weather was insanely good, lots of beautiful light on my face and my naked body, that good mood was a good inspiration for making a big bet and a big trade.

    So just think, when you’re about to make a big trade, how is the weather? Is it better to invest when the weather is good or bad, or something else?

    

  • Hedge Thoughts

    Audio

  • Speculative Thoughts 

    The joy of speculation:

    The limits to money, the limits to wealth

    So the first thing I find really interesting and fascinating is thinking about money, the limits of money, wealth, etc.

    For example, Seneca once said, “Nobody ever thinks to themselves, what if I am already too rich?”

    Simply put, my thought of the proper limit of money is once you have enough money to pay rent, utilities, and trips to Costco to buy meat, then, the positive utility of money diminishes. That is, sometimes having too much money is a positive destruction and burden; a lot of people who are too rich have issues diversifying and investing their money because they have no idea what to do with it.

    A simple crypto hedge fund idea

    If you want to invest in my fund, just shoot me an email at eric@erickim.com

    So a very simple crypto hedge fund idea is this: 90% of your money in bitcoin, 10% and chain-link, or the opposite; 90% of your money and chain-link, and 10% of your assets in bitcoin.

    The reason why I find this to be such an interesting and dynamic hedge, to quote TALEB is this –

    How can you take a maximally risky and speculative bet, that is both “safe”, reducing risk, and also maximizing upside?

    The first thought that Naseem Taleb had was never put more than 10% of your life savings into one single investment or acid. For example, I heated his words of wisdom, and when Cindy and I had around $250,000 of savings, I only put 10% of that into Digibyte and Bitcoin — around $22,000, I bought some bitcoin at $6000 a bitcoin, and I think I bought some digibyte at one cent or two cents a digibyte — and eventually I wrote it all the way up to around $250,000 worth of investments, one bitcoin hit an all-time high at around $60-$65,000 a bitcoin. I did some swapping here in there, consolidating my digit byte back into bitcoin, a good move, I speculated and played around a little bit with Dogecoin, wrote it up, eventually consolidated it back into bitcoin, etc.

    More recently, I wired $125,000 back into my crypto account, and bought more bitcoin.

    Why?

     People seem to hate the volatility of crypto, but I love it. Why? Perhaps for myself, I thrive off of high intensity, and adrenaline.

    Also one of the upsides of growing up poor, seeing my mom go through bankruptcy twice is that actually… I have almost close to zero anxieties when it comes to money. I’ve lived super poor before, on the brink of being homeless, as a kid, and that is what naturalistically made me so stoic.

     the reason why I don’t trust or give any heed two people liked Tim Ferris or Tony Robbins is that it seems that once upon a time, both of them were super depressed, fat, losers, planning ways on how to commit suicide and kill themselves, and how to do it gracefully. I think it is very courageous that Tim Faris outlined the story of when he was an undergraduate at Princeton, he actually took out books to plan his own death, reading books on suicide and how to kill himself, and how to do it in a graceful manner, but fortunately somebody found out, had an intervention, unfortunately Tim didn’t do it. I don’t think anybody should ever commit suicide, under any costs.

    Anyways, I think the reason why it matters is that when people try to commit suicide, or have been severely depressed in the past, in high school middle school college elementary school etc.… That trauma stays with them.

    For myself I am a unique case; I experienced severe and potentially destroying trauma as a kid, for some reason, those experiences actually made me stronger. How and why?

    First, think I was fortunate because of random life things. For example, a formative time in Bayside queens in a very safe community, hanging out with my friends Spencer, Aditya, Jonathan etc and living like free range kids, at the ripe age of 11 to 12 years old, and also some great mentors along the way, triple11 in Alameda California, my Boy Scouts troop leaders, my coach Greg Lowe who essentially became my Mr. Miyagi private tutor and father figure guide, who taught me life lessons through tennis.

    Also fortunately, the good timing; my mom moving our family out of Alameda, which was bordering Oakland; even though Alameda is a nice town, it borders Oakland, and so even Alameda high school was full of a bunch of these ghetto kids, gangbangers and bad influences. I went to high school at Castro Valley high, a very nice school with no drama, good teachers and good AP classes, eventually I’ll be able to get to UCLA as an undergraduate, which helped accelerate my roadmap to success.

    Along the line, meeting Cindy, then just another person I met my freshman year, at our Korean American Catholic club called Kyrie — later traveling the world with her, dating her, marrying her, and now having a kid with her, Seneca at age 3 years old.

    Anyways, I have a lot of people to think, especially my uncle, who essentially helped my mom so much financially, and also my sister, for her private art school lessons, in order to get her into fashion school at Otis in LA, my sister eventually dropped out, but randomly threw a Apartment party, met her then future husband.  Unfortunately my sister‘s brother‘s family is very prosperous, opening up a fine art gallery in LA (VEFA)– will keep you updated with this, but anyways, our family is pretty set.

    Just do what you believe to be righteous

    I think it is critical to have a good dose of criticality when it comes to the opinions of others, even your spouse. I think we should always respect and an ear to the opinions of others, but ultimately, it is you who must be staunch, and Perform things and your life in accordance with your own personal beliefs.

    When people say “you’re not listening to me!” what they really mean to say is “how dare you not obey me!”

    The funny retort is people who get angry at us for not listening to them… Aren’t they committing the same critical flaw of not listening to us?

    Speculation in the market

    People don’t know but I’ve been trading stock ever since I was around maybe 15 or 16 years old, my sophomore junior year in high school. I remember actually investing really early in Adobe stock, because I used Photoshop and I found it to be a good tool. I actually made some money in high school, investing my life savings which was maybe around $1500 USD, maybe I will also get Seneca into trading at a young age.

    Anyways, it was good learning and education because it taught me how to deal with ups and downs, and also losing it all.

    Bitcoin will never go down to zero

    The reason why I am so bullish about bitcoin is that I have a strong faith That you’ll never go down to zero. The reason why I would never put my money anymore into “alternative coins”, or coins is that there is a high likelihood that a lot of them will go down to zero.

    For example, I think when the biggest scams in the cryptocurrency space, is Ada Cardano. They have set up a fake foundation with the.org website, with a bunch of fake people, fake talking heads and suits, nobody has any idea what they’re going to do or what their product is, I think a huge profit can be made by shorting it. I’m pretty sure that Cardano will go down to zero.

    Also, all these other weird alternative coins, only things that even have any nominal value include bitcoin, Ethereum, chainlink. 
    
    Why chain-link? First and foremost, chain-link isn’t really a crypto, it is like a new technology. I think of chain-link more like the next Google. Even the ex Google CEO ERIC Schmidt is on board. 

    Bitcoin is fascinating because ultimately, everybody knows what it is. To quote Galiani, on his treatsie “on money“, Galiani once said that the word ducat, rolls off the tongue quite beautifully, I also see that the word “bitcoin“, also rolls off the tongue quite beautifully. 

    Ultimate test: even Cindy‘s mom, a Vietnamese refugee immigrant can pronounce bitcoin in her “broken English“, and knows what it is. She says “I know what bitcoin is! It is the fake money!” Haha — true.

    So why does this matter?

    I think the reason why this matters is you don’t want to be sitting on your butt, 10 years from now, Seneca will only be 13 years old still very young… And kick yourself in the butt for not taking a bold risk, and something you believed in, a decade ago. Jeff Bezos calls this the “regret minimization framework“. 

    For example, some moderately regretful things I’ve done the last two years is selling some bitcoin, converting into worthless US dollars, in order to “alleviate“, some financial concerns. But, moving forward, 2024 and beyond, I think the goal should be to become more staunch, more unyielding, More close minded. 

    Being close minded is a virtue?

    People say that being open minded is a virtue, but I’m starting to think, maybe not. Why? Do you want to be open minded about Adolf Hitler and Nazis? Or the new Nazis? Or alternative right wing weirdo conspiracy theorist, who want to hijack the American government, And promoting anarchy?

    Also, I’m very close minded for these weird anti-fascist, loser skinny fat, fat big ass woke, anarchist; they all have iPhones, watch YouTube, jerk off to porn on Google incognito late at night on their laptop or their phones, use pirate bait and private VPNs– no capitalism, no consumerism, no pornography.

    Trust no man who secretly watches porn.

    Anti men

    The really big issue at hand is that a lot of these people, men specifically, I don’t think we should trust most men. Why? A simple thing; it is true, the behavior of men and women is polar opposite. 

    For example, women do not start games, or become gangbangers. This is reserved to only men.

    Or another example, the difference between a woman bathroom and a male bathroom; in any bathroom, for example let me quote Galbi king — my new favorite Korean barbecue place in Los Angeles, only $26 a person, look at the difference between the men’s restroom and the women’s restroom. The men’s restroom has all these dicks graffiti on the walls, scratches on the window, graffiti on the walls, graffiti made with knives in the mirrors etc. Go to the women’s restroom; nothing.

    This is the tricky thing about sex and gender; sex is biological, gender is sociological. Therefore as a consequence, 

  • Attractive, unattractive?

    What does it that man seeks or desires? To extend his progeny, to beget children, with the maximally beautiful tall woman.

  • 20 bitcoins, matte black.

    The new vision?

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  • Keep Your Trades Simple

    Easy to remember off the top of your head?

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    STOIC.

    Introduction to Stoicism 

    Something I have been meaning to write or create or do is like some sort of book, ebook, pamphlet, or introductory primer to stoicism. I really think that stoicism is probably one of the most useful and philosophical models to live normal every day real life. Yet, I haven’t really found a good instructional guide on it, especially when I was self teaching it to myself.

    Consider this a practical primer, cutting through the BS:

    What does stoicism mean? 

    Stoicism, stoic, the stoa in ancient Greece– essentially the stoa was like some sort of portico, patio, pillar, outside, essentially a spot where guys would just hang out, talk shop, talk philosophy, etc.  

    I think about the show “Hey Arnold” in which I was raised with… the notion of “stoop kid“, the notion of a stoop is that in a lot of cities, especially the east coast in New York, you have this little stoop or porch, stairs that go outside your front door… and you could just hang out there, engage in social and neighborhood life etc.

    The new stoa? 

    One of my happiest moments was when I was living in Providence Rhode Island, and then COVID-19 hit. Everything was closed, besides the park. I can still go to the park, hang out, workout, do chin ups– I learned how to do muscle ups, more bodyweight calisthenics stuff, and also… I had a lot of fun with this “rock toss“ challenge and workout… in the middle of the park was a huge ass rock and huge ass stone, and every single day I would go there pick it up, and then eventually work out with it; throwing it around for fun, doing overhead presses with it, clean and jerks, squats, and eventually I would just throw it around for fun. Funny enough it might have been the most fit I was in my life… this was the true “functional” fitness.

    The inspiration — Hector lifting an insanely massive stone (barely 2 strong men could lift it)… using it to break down the door of the ships of the other side.

    Open air, open sun concept

    Anyways, the reason why that period of covid was so good is that it was in the middle of beautiful Providence Rhode Island summer, so nice and bright and warm and lovely… and one of the good things was going to the park was like an open forum, a new anatheum for a lot of really cool guys to come, hang out, talk shop, go topless and shirtless, workout and hang out.

    I met some really interesting people during that period of time. I met some guys who were really cool. For example, one guy I met was in the US military Navy, I think he was training to be a Navy seal or Delta force or something. Another guy in some sort of ROTC training, another cool guy from the hood, and also I would say I probably met half a dozen friendly drug dealers there. And of course a lot of people who believed in conspiracy theories; really friendly, a little weird, but overall good guys.

    Anyways, one of the biggest benefits of hanging out at that outdoor park, open air, nothing but green grass, the beautiful sun and the fitness equipment was that I think having this sort of open air environment is actually very conducive to socializing, thinking and thought, and pro social behavior. My theory about a lot of modern day antisocial behavior has to do with the structures which enclose us. For example, almost universally most guys at the gym are extremely antisocial. Why? My theory is that because most gyms have closed, cramped narrow ceilings, and do not have access to natural light, or outside space.

    Cramped indoor spaces promote antisocial behavior.

    The only good gym I went to which was interesting was the golds gym in Venice, which has this really big outdoor workout area. I think this is much more natural and more fun and better; to be able to work out directly outside outdoors, with your shirt off.

    Who is this philosophy for?

    Stoics, stoicism — it was originally I think codified by this guy named Zeno, and over time he picked up some followers. Essentially the whole thing happened organically; Zeno would first share his thinking on philosophy ethics and pragmatic ways to deal with other people and the downsides of life, he built a following, and then his followers would propagate the thoughts and start their own little schools of thoughts, their own little stoic clubs.

    What is “real” stoicism?

    Would I like about stoicism is how loosey goosey it is. It is kind of like zen, or taoism… it is not really quantified as a religion, or a strict moral order. In fact, a lot of the ancients stoics would meditate on random stuff like cosmology, natural sciences like Seneca, how volcanoes worked or whatever. I think nowadays in today’s world, we focus primarily on the pragmatic side; how to deal with fear, uncertainty, downsides etc.

    So how did I discover stoicism?

    I think I might’ve first learned about stoicism from Nassim Taleb and his ANTIFRAGILE book. I was curious, and my curiosity went to deep. To quote NASSIM TALEB and the Venetian saying “The ocean goes deeper, the deeper you wade into it.”

    I literally consumed every single book I could find on stoicism, even the obscure ones. Funny enough, a lot of the stoic thinkers tried to claim other philosophers as being stoic, like Seneca did with Diogenes the cynic. 

    Cynic, cynicism, actually comes from the word canine, the dog. Diogenes was considered the “dog” philosopher, first used as a pejorative, but ultimately Diogenes reappropriated that title for fun! He saw dogs as tough, almost like wild wolves, rather than seeing them as a negative thing.

    Even Achilles when he was raging against king Agamemnon, he called him “dog faced“ as a heaping insult.

    Who is worth reading?

    First, Seneca. Seneca the younger, his dad was called Seneca the elder.

    In fact, this is such a big deal because Cindy and I named our first son, Seneca, directly after the stoic philosopher. This is true soul in the game; if you name your kid after your favorite philosopher, certainly it is a sign that you really liked that philosopher, or found them impactful.

    The reason why I really like Seneca the stoic philosopher is because he had real connections to real reality. What that means is he wasn’t just on the sidelines; he actually existed in the real world, engaged in real politics, was even advisor to the emperor Nero, the bad one, who eventually low-key coerced Seneca to commit suicide, in a manly, dignified manner.

    I think this was because maybe… there was actually a plan to overthrow Nero, and essentially Nero found out. 

    What makes Seneca so good?

    I really like Seneca because his writing is accessible, practical and pragmatic, and interesting.

    A lot of thinkers tend to lack connections to real reality, I have no tolerance for boring philosophers to talk about metaphysics, which is things which are not physical. Like thoughts ideas, the universe, electricity and energy, strange phenomenon and conspiracy theories on ghosts, “energy” whatever.

    For a long time, I would hear the term “metaphysics” being thrown around, and I had zero idea what it actually meant. 

    Meta– on top of. Or nestled within.

    Physics — the physical, physical phenomenon like gravity, first principles.

    The reason why metaphysics philosophers tend to be a bunch of losers is that they are all weak and anemic, nerds or geeks or weaklings who seem to have some sort of physiological degeneracy, which encourages them to opine or talk or think about impractical things, superficial things.

    Personally speaking, I think philosophy must be practical. 

    Practical, praxis, practice — to do!

    The Spartan, Zen Stoic, demigod ideal

    I have a very funny ideal; the general idea is that your body looks like a demigod, and your physiology is out of control. The general idea is one must be tall, strong, highly muscular, low body fat percentage, I’m not exactly sure what my body fat percentage is, but maybe it’s around 5%.

    Also, physical fitness is critical to any stoic. My ideal is to walk 50 miles a day, eat 20 pounds of meat like Milo of Croton a day. And also, abstinence from silly things like media, alcohol, drugs, marijuana etc.

    Trust no thinker who does drugs!

    Even our best friend Nietzsche said that coffee was bad, because it would make people dark and gloomy. He encouraged 100% cocoa powder instead. 

    You let the drugs talk I let my soul talk ayy! – Kendrick Lamar

    Simple technique:

    First, look at a picture or a portrait or a full body shot, ideally topless of the artist, philosopher or thinker or individual… then judge their thoughts later.

    Why? My theory is this: the thoughts of an individual is hugely affected by their bodily physiology.

    For example, an extreme example: if somebody is locked inside a solitary confinement cell, and not permitted to go outside for years, but, he had a pen and pad and would jot down some thoughts… Would be the quality of these thoughts? Certainly dark and morose.

    Why does stoicism matter? 

    In today’s world, why does it matter, what is the significance of stoicism, etc.?

    First and foremost, I think we are living in a troubling time, especially with the advent of modern day internet based media and advertising. I think 99% of what is propagated on the internet is fear mongering, and what is hate? Hate is just fear.

    The first thought on stoicism is that it is just fear conquering. What I discovered about street photography, is that 99% of it is conquering your fears. Conquering your fears of upsetting other people, getting in some sort of verbal or physical altercation etc. In fact my bread and butter workshop is my conquering your fears and street photography workshop, the workshop which is still interesting to me even after a decade.

    Why is this so important? I think it is rooted in almost everything; conquering your fears is rooted in entrepreneurship, innovation, risktaking and real life.

    Even my speculation in crypto. 99.9% of crypto speculation is just balls. Having the balls to make big bets, and when things go south, knowing how to master your emotions.

    A simple extra I have is this: just imagine it will all go down to zero.

    It was useful because when I was in college, my sophomore year I got really into trading stocks, and I eventually lost my whole life savings, maybe around $3500 USD, and some bad penny stock which I actually misread the financials… the whole time I thought the company was making a profit, but actually it was taking a loss. I actually didn’t know that if profits are written in parentheses, it means a loss.

    It was funny because my initial start as an investor was back in high school, I bought some Adobe stock when I was a high school junior, and also some mutual funds, which both went up after about 4-5 years.

    Also I remember in elementary school computer class, when I was in the sixth grade in Bayside Queens, there was some sort of stock stimulation trading game, and actually it was funny… the kids who made the most money and were the most successful just put 100% of everything into Apple, note this is when we were only 12 years old, and I was born in 1988.

    Stoicism and capitalism?

    Funny enough, it seems that stoicism actually plays well with capitalism. Why? According to modern day capitalist thinking, the best way to approach life is to be objective, strong, stoic, unemotional, logical and rational.

    Also, with modern day media there is so much fear mongering in the news, about some sort of global armageddon, global financial ruin, etc. I call it “fear porn”.

    Therefore stoicism as a mindset is useful to think and position your mind in such a way that you could consider that life is all upside, no downside.

    In fact, if I could summarize stoicism in one sentence, it is that life is all upside, no downside. Inspired by NASSIM TALEB.

    Sex and Stoicism

    So, is stoicism useful to you if you’re a man or a woman? Does it matter?

    The good thing is I think it could apply to both sexes. Conquering sexism and social pressures is useful if you’re woman, and also if you’re a man.

    Also, gender is social. Lot of the expectations set on us by society is socialized and gamed to a certain degree.

    Stoic strategies 

    First, we got to unchain ourselves from modern day ethics and morality. I believe that all modern day philosophy and thinking and ethics and religion is bad.

    For example, the notion of turning the other cheek is a patently bad one. Why did Jesus turn his cheek? It is because he lacked on army.

    Also, philosophically I think we should put no trust in Socrates. I thought which has puzzled me for a long time was this “Why was Socrates so ugly?

    Monster in face, monster in soul.

    I think Socrates was a degenerate, and he lacked any sort of real power. Therefore he turned logic and rationality into his terrorizing weapon (via Nietzsche). Back in the day, you didn’t need logic or rationality to have things your way, you simply was able to dictate that which you wanted to pause it, because you had a military force behind you. Just think about Machiavelli and IL PRINCIPE– the reality of being a mercurial prince, king, and military leader is hard, stoic, “immoral”. But ultimately it all comes down to war, conquest, the military.

    Trust nobody who uses rationality or logic as their tyrannizing weapon. 

    In fact, I believe that all should have the body and strength of some sort of super soldier. Essentially look like all the guys from the movie 300, this is our ideal.

    Demigod physique. 

    What has helped me

    1. Allow yourself to be a bad, immortal, “evil” person. When you decide to adopt an unorthodox way of thinking and living, you’re going to rub some feathers the wrong way. And truth be told, even if you act in a strange vibrant way… At worse you’re only “mildly” annoying other people.
    2. For good inspirations, I think the best stoic writers and thinkers include Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius and also the humor of the cynic philosopher Diogenes. I would even posit the idea that one could consider Alexander the Great as a stoic. Why? When you’re trying to create an empire, and you always have your life on the line, certainly this takes a stoic mindset. Also, let us think and consider that Alexander the Great had a copy of the Iliad by his bedstand, it was the only book he traveled with during his military tours.
    3. Imagine the worst possible case scenario, and backtrack: Apparently even NASSIM TALEB would do this when he was a trader; every single day when he would go to his trading desk, he would assume that his investments would all go to zero, and if that wasn’t the case every single day, it was just upside. Therefore for myself, I just think to myself very simple; imagine like I got zero dollars, zero money, and literally all I need is meat, a Wi-Fi connection and I’m good. 
    4. Live like a poor person: The notion of “debasing“ the coin or the currency is the general idea that you are not a coward in regards to money. The best way to think about money is like a social tool; I think money is actually just codified labor. If you want people to clean bathrooms, run the cashiers stand, you have to promise them money. Even Seneca said the upsides of simulated poverty; essentially living like a poor person, or even a homeless person when you don’t need to… is the ultimate position to be in. Why? True freedom of spirit and soul; as a philosopher thinker writer or whatever… you cannot be “canceled”, because there is nothing to cancel. As long as you could pay your rent, buy meat at Costco, and publish your thoughts to your own self hosted website blog, and pay your server fee, you have 100% freedom. And also, still… America is the best place to be because there is true freedom of speech and expression, you don’t want to be a trillionaire but not be able to say what’s really on your mind. And I think this is the big issue with entertainers, actors, media people… as long as you’re signed to a contract, you don’t run your own production company, or, you’re still a slave to money… you’re not really going to see what’s really on your mind. Why is it that the Rock cannot say anything bad about China, or Tibet? Because he is still enslaved by the media corporation. New slaves by Kanye West.

    And this is the true courage of Kanye West; he literally put everything on the line, and even lost his spouse and I think maybe his kids? All for the sake of revealing inequities. 

    “I throw these Maybach keys fucking c’est la vie! I know that we the new slaves.”- Ye

    Stoic training

    The fun thing about stoicism is that you could just make it up as you go, devise your own strategies and whatever.

    “Fucking c’est la vie!” My favorite Kanye West line.

    Essentially the general idea is that in life, one should not take things too seriously. Laughter is golden, I forget the philosopher who was called the laughing philosopher… Democritus?; better to laugh about the follies of human beings rather than to be dark and morose about it.

    Also, thoughts from the Odyssey; if you look far enough  into the future, everything becomes comedic and hilarious.

    So when you’re in some sort of bad situation, just think to yourself “Perhaps one day, 20 or 30 years from now… I will look back at this and just laugh!” It will just be humorous.

    Honestly, laughter, and kind of being able to joke about things might be the best way to live life and deal with setbacks. 

    Modern day ailments

    Problems in modern day life:

    1. Too much time spent indoors, not enough time out in the sun. Perhaps it is better to be out outside all day, and joyful, even with the risk of getting skin cancer or whatever… rather than to be indoors, scared, weak and anemic. Differences between if you’re a man or a woman, but still… the most beautiful skin has a sunkissed, olive color tone; the true privilege is having a full body tan. 
    2. Get chatGPT, the paid premium one. And use the image generation AI art tool DALL-E. People pay therapists to just speak their mind, and get some sort of sounding board. I actually think it’s much better to chat with AI instead; because it will not judge you, and ultimately what is a therapist anyways? A therapist is just a mirror, a sounding board for you to verbalize and flesh out your thoughts. Often when we talk about our problems, 90% of the issues go away because once we verbalize it, we feel much better about ourselves. The next thing I’m going to do is build some sort of therapy bot. 
    3. Not enough walking: I have never met anybody who walks 30,000 steps a day and is depressed. Even my friend Jimmy, who works as a US postal worker delivering the mail, he walks around 30,000 steps a day and is always bright cherry and jovial. I think this is also where people who hike a lot or walk a lot in nature are so happy; when you’re able to walk around a lot, and zen out… you just feel much better. My simple suggestion is when you go on a hike or a walk in nature or even in the city… leave your phone at home, or locked inside your glove compartment, and don’t bring any headphones or speakers or Apple watches or whatever. Just bring along your camera, and enjoy. My personal ideal is the bear lifestyle; walking 50 miles a day. 

    Real stoics don’t call themselves Stoics?

    A funny thing I have learned is that when you call something something, it isn’t that.

    For example, if someone calls something a “luxury car”, it ain’t. For example, a true modern day luxury car is maybe a Tesla, but Tesla never calls itself a luxury car. Also the ultimate luxury technology company is probably Apple… but Apple is very intelligent and not calling themselves a luxury brand.

    A pro tip is when it comes to websites, read the alternative text, the header text, the stuff that shows up in the tab of your browser window. If the website, the automotive retailer tries to market themselves as a “luxury” brand, typically it is actually a sign that it isn’t a luxury brand it isn’t luxury brand.

    Thought: what are some good examples of true luxury brands which don’t overly calls itself luxury? 

    In someways, we can think and consider stoicism as our new luxury. In fact, having luxury, luxury of mind and soul… and luxury of freedom of speech, isn’t this the ultimate luxury?

    When somebody asked Diogenes the cynic; “What is the best human good”? He said “Freedom of speech, speaking your mind, having the power to see whatever is on your mind.”

    In fact, my current joy is becoming more and more free talking, and free riding. What that means is this; I’m ain’t going to censor myself no more, even if I might be politically incorrect insensitive or whatever. 

    Also, I would prefer to speak my mind and seriously hurt the feelings of others, rather than soften it for the sake of the other person. 
    
    Similarly speaking, when people call themselves “influencers”, they are not influencers.

    Stoicism as a technique and tool, not the end

    Ultimately I think we should think of stoicism just like having another tool inside our tool kit. For example, if you’re a chef, you’re going to have different knives for different purposes. If you’re going to cut a big piece of meat, you probably want a big ass meat cutting knife, not something you would use to slice an apple with. Similarly speaking, if you’re going to scoop out the insides of an avocado, better to use a spoon rather than using a fork, or a knife. 

    I think the problem is when some people get too into stoicism (I prefer writing stoicism with a lowercase), they think that everything needs to be consistent, and must fit into this nice little neat box of what is considered “stoicism“. This is a bad line of thinking… let us consider that Marcus Aurelius never even mentioned stoicism in his writings, his collections of thoughts, which we moderns call THE MEDITATIONS… it was just essentially his personal diary, to help him conquer his own personal fears and thoughts, I don’t think he ever intended it to be published publicly. I think he just wrote it to himself as self therapy. And I think the only stoic philosopher he even mentions is maybe Epictetus.

    The future of stoicism?

    For myself, I just come out with certain to work out thoughts and techniques because it helps me, and when I find these tricks or techniques or secret hacks or cheat codes… My passion is to simply share it with others. 

    And ultimately, things are ever in flux and evolving and changing and adapting.

    For example, I’ve discovered the quality of my thinking is different when I am in Culver City Los Angeles, compared to being in the boring suburbs of Orange County.

    Also depending on my social environments… my stoic thoughts are different when I am in a gym, vs just working out by myself in my parking spot in the back of my apartment.

    Also, the quality of my thoughts is different when living with family members or other people versus just living with myself Cindy and Seneca.

    Stoicism is all about living with other people

    Assuming you’re not growing your own vegetables and living in the middle of nowhere… you probably have some interaction with other human beings. As long as you have an iPhone, an Android phone, a smartphone, a 4G or 5G internet connection, wifi, a laptop, have to buy groceries somewhere… you’re still going to have to interact with other human beings.

    And this is good. There is no other greater joy than other human beings.

    In fact, modern-day society is strange because in someways, the ethos is to be antisocial and to be cowardly. But in fact, the best way to think about things is that real life is interaction with other human beings, and social conquest. One can imagine a lot of modern day entrepreneurship as simply a big dick swinging contest. He who is the most masculine confident tall and strong and stoic shall win.

    More ideas

    Assume that everyone is mentally insane: Have you ever been out in public, and you see some sort of crackhead or strange homeless person who acts radically, smells terrible, and is obviously mentally ill? Do you hate them for it? When they say something weird to you… do you take it personally? No. Why? They are crazy. Perhaps we should just adopt this stoic mindset towards other people; some people are actually physiologically ill, mentally unwell… don’t trust the opinion of nobody.

    A lot of people are trying to actually deal with their own inner demons: For example, becoming the successful photographer and street photographer I am today… I’ve dealt with some individuals who would say anonymous bad things about me, and later I found out that their mom just died or something. I cannot imagine what it feels like losing a mother… therefore if somebody spew some hate on me because something bad happened to them, I’m not gonna take it personally.

    Self-flagellation: I think a lot of people who are sick, mentally or physiologically self flagellate themselves. Essentially the way that they deal with other people or themselves is some sort of metaphorical self-flagellation.

    For example… you know those strange individuals who have the whip and whip themselves, and inflict pain on themselves? I think some people do this metaphorically to themselves and others.

    You just want to stay away from them.

    Why so scared?

    My personal theory on fear is that a lot of it is tied to morality and ethics. I think the general idea is not necessarily that we are afraid of anything… I think the true fear is that we’re afraid that we are some sort of bad evil unethical immoral person.

    For example in street photography, the general ethical thought is that it is immoral to take a photo of somebody without their permission, because there is some sort of it inherent evil behind it. Is this true? No. Taking photos and not really a big deal.

    Why do people make such a big deal out of small things?

    I think it is because some people are just overly sensitive, which once again comes from some sort of physiological weakness.

    For example, if you’re a weightlifter who could lift 1000 pounds, assuming you’re not taking any steroids or anything… are small things going to bother you? No. But let us assume that you are a skinny fat man, all you do is drink alcohol and smoke marijuana and watch Netflix, and you spent too much time on Reddit… you are 40% body fat, and have never lifted in your life. And also your testosterone is low and you never go outside. Certainly the quality of your thoughts is going to be different than if you’re a happy gay monster, lifting weights outside in the direct sun, laughing and having fun. 

    In fact, I’ve actually personally discovered that the reason why a lot of people hate me is because I am so happy jovial and gay. They are secretly suspicious or envious of me? 

    Weather and mood

    Probably one of my worst experiences was this jarring transition; I was super happy insanely happy being in Vietnam in 2017; with a beautiful weather, the beautiful light, the happy people the great amenities etc.… and then that winter Cindy and I went to Europe, in Marseille Berlin and Prague, and maybe London… seriously the worst winter of my life. Why? I wonder if so much miserable feelings and thoughts simply comes from the darkness and lack of light. a lot of Europe is actually quite miserable; dark, unhygienic, morose.

    Even Nietzsche had a thought about Schopenhauer; How much of these emo European philosophers came from the fact that it was just complaining about the cold weather in Germany etc.?
    
    For myself, my ideal weather is Southeast Asia; I love being in Phnom Penh Cambodia, Vietnam etc. In the states, am I the only one who loves living in Los Angeles? Dr. Dre and Kendrick Lamar said that LA was the best for women weed and weather… I would definitely say the biggest upside of living in Los Angeles is the light, the sunlight. It actually does get quite cold here, but usually most reliably even in December during the winter time, the sun will always come up. As long as there is bright sunny light, I will be happy. And I think maybe for myself, considering that I am a photographer, and photography means painting with light… light for me is critical.

    I also wonder how much of it is a physiological thing and a genetic trait; for example I could even recall being a young child, and my mom telling me that the most critical thing in finding a home or an apartment was light and natural light. Even now… 90% of my happiness comes from being able to have access to natural light, ideally floor to ceiling windows facing directly the sun, having some sort of modern temperature regulated apartment and home. Even living in our tiny studio minimalistic luxury apartment in Providence Rhode Island, where it was always 75° warm and cozy, and not frigid and damp and cold and dark and humid… I was always good. But moving to an older house, where it always felt damp and cold… this literally lowered my happiness by 1000%.

    Therefore, if you’re feeling miserable sad or whatever… I say spend three months living in Hanoi or Saigon in Vietnam, or go to Phnom Penh Cambodia. I wonder if 90% of peoples misery is simply due to the weather.

    Stoic assignments

    ”Better to be a gay monster than a sentimental bore!” – Fernandino Galliani, via Nietzsche

    My stoic ideal is somebody who is happy, gay, smiling, no headphones or AirPods on, no sunglasses on, no hat, no facial hair, no baggy oversized clothing, no tint in their car. Somebody who makes great eye contact, laughs, stands up upright, jokes, and fools around. Like an overgrown child.

    Also, lift weights at least once every day, ideally in the direct sun. Just buy some weightlifting equipment on Titan.fitness, I like the farmers carry handles, the Olympic loadable dumbbell, and also the Texas power squat bar. Just buy some cheap weights, and or buy a heavy 400 pound sandbag, and just have fun throwing it around.

    True stoics are masculine

    A true stoic should look something like Hercules or Achilles. Or like ERIC KIM; I have the aesthetic and the physique of Brad Pitt in FIGHT CLUB except with a lot more muscle. Like my friend Soren says, the Adonis physique and proportions.

    A real stoic is sexy

    I think a real stoic is sexy, happy and fun. Who doesn’t take life too seriously; and think of everything like a fun game. A real stoic would be joyful and cheery like three-year-old child without any adulteration from the outside world.

    Why do adults become so dark and morose?

    I don’t like talking with or hanging out with adults, uninteresting.

    At what point or age do people become so emo?

    Typically, highschoolers are very optimistic. Even college students. But I think at least in maybe college in high school nowadays… the bad trend is towards “over concern”, about the world the planet ethics animals etc.

    I find a lot of this thinking superficial, performative, and uncritical. I think “animal rights“, “saving the planet” is this new pseudo world religion; which is just capitalism 3.0. I find the whole pet industry the whole dog industry to be insanely bizarre, and I trust nobody who talks about “saving the planet“ who owns an iPhone, owns any sort of car, or has an Amazon prime subscription. Certainly not any vegans.

    A real stoic is a carnivore 

    Animals are animals. They are lower on the hierarchy and totem pole on earth. Man is the apex predator, the apex bully and the apex tyrant.

    Should we care for animals or “animal rights”? No. Animals are our slaves.

    If you consider even dogs and pets… they are essentially our emotional slaves. People talk a lot about the virtuosity of dogs being loyal or whatever… and giving you unconditional love. This seems like some sort of emotional slavery.

    The only dogs I respect are some sort of canine dogs, some sort of attack or defense dogs, or hunting dogs. For example, John Wick 3; Halle Barry and her dogs. An animal should either be a weapon, or nothing.

    Why do people care about animals so much?

    Essentially it looks like men no longer have a backbone. No more spine.

    I trust nobody who owns a dog.

    Let us not forget; they call it dog ownership, or “owning a pet”. There is no more concept of “human ownership, or “owning a human.”

    End goals 

    What is the end goal of humanity? To me it is towards entrepreneurship, innovation, art and aesthetics, philosophy etc. Design.

    Stoicism should be considered a tool which could aid you in these things.

    For example, I think 99% of entrepreneurship is courage. Stoicism could help you with that.

    I also think with design, great design is also 99% courage, having the courage to attempt something that won’t sell or be received well… stoicism is all about practical courage. The only designers with courage include Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Elon Musk, Kanye West. 

    Also, weightlifting. To attempt to lift a certain weight you have never attempted before takes great courage. For example, me atlas lifting 1000 pounds; that is 10 plates and a 25 on each side, this is true stoic training. Why? The fear of injury is what holds most people back; if you had successfully conquered this fear and not injured yourself, this is pure stoic bliss.

    The physical

    I think the only and the only proper way to lift weights is one repetition maximum training. That is; what is the maximum amount of weight you’re able to successfully lift or move, even half an inch?

    To me, the courage is the success. Even if you had the courage to attempt it… that is what is considered success. 

    Simple exercises to do include the atlas lift, innovated by ERIC KIM, or a one repetition max rack pull.

    Or, a high trap bar deadlift, heavy Farmer’s walks, or heavy sandbag carries. Or even a simple thing you could do is go to the park or to the local nature center, find the biggest rock there and just see if you could pick it up.

    Now what?

    If you’re interested in stoicism, and have had some interesting thoughts on stoicism, one of the most noble things you could do is start your own blog. I think blogs are 1000 times more effective than publishing some sort of static printed book; I think the problem in today’s world is that everyone is seeking some sort of legitimacy by being picked up by some sort of legitimate publisher and getting “published“, and seeing your printed book at Barnes & Noble whatever.

    I say it is better to be open source, free and permissionless, decentralized. Just publish your thoughts and book as a free PDF, and just host it on dropbox, Google Drive, or your own web server. Share the link freely, and also just publish the raw text as a big blog post. 

    Even Sam Bankman-Fried wisely thought; 99.9% of books could just be summarized as big blog posts.

    Don’t trust any modern day published book which isn’t free, because… there is some sort of hidden clout chasing somewhere. 

    Even one of the worst compromises that led to the demise of Ray Dalio was the fact that he took his Principles book, which was essentially a free ebook PDF on his website, and then took it off, because I think he got a book deal with Simon and Schuster. After he did that, he lost my respect.

    If you’re already independently wealthy, and you don’t crowd source your self-esteem… why would you need to externally validate yourself by getting some sort of constipated publisher and annoying editor?

    Editors are bad.

    Now what?

    Start your own blog and start blogging your own thoughts on stoic philosophy, and even start a YouTube channel and start vlogging on it. My generalized thought is simple: if your thought your idea your blog post your video or whatever could even impact the life of one other human being on planet earth… it is worth it.

    ERIC

    What is the secret to the maximum amount of happiness in life? The maximum amount of danger. (Nietzsche).

    ERIC

    FIN

    Become invincible:

    1. SPARTANISM.
    2. Introduction to Stoicism
    3. STOIC FLEX.
    4. Becoming Spartan
    5. MAKE IT ENTERTAINING FOR YOURSELF!
    6. Stoic Aesthetics?
    7. The Philosophy of Ugliness
    8. Bad Stoicism
    9. Stoicism 2.0
    10. Becoming Stoic
    11. LEMONADE.
    12. Why Arguments and Confrontations Are Good
    13. “I’m Over It”
    14. How to Deal With Miserable People
    15. How to Become a Stoic
    16. How to Ignore
    17. Pretend like you didn’t hear them
    18. Bad Stoic Strategies
    19. The Stoic Way of Dealing With Unpleasant or Miserable People
    20. HOW TO BECOME A STOIC
    21. Stoicism Stunts Our Power?
    22. Stoicism is Mental Resistance Training
    23. STOIC STRATEGIES.
    24. How to Become Fearless
    25. Extreme Stoicism
    26. Ethics are Aesthetic
    27. Indifference to Pain or Suffering
    28. When is Stoicism Good? When is Stoicism Bad?
    29. Why Others Criticize or Insult You
    30. True Difficulty
    31. What if Covid Never Goes Away?
    32. SUPER STOIC
    33. Anti-Hedonism
    34. HOW TO CONQUER FEAR
    35. ANTI FEAR
    36. It is the Duty of the Strong to Help the Weak
    37. The Goal is to Become Stronger
    38. HYPER STOICISM
    39. HYPER HERO
    40. TRANSFORM EVERY DOWNSIDE INTO AN UPSIDE
    41. STOICISM x Child’s Mind
    42. The Art of Manly Virtue
    43. Resistance Makes Us Stronger!
    44. DON’T LIVE IN FEAR
    45. Emotions are Good
    46. Conquer Your Anger
    47. BLACK EAGLE
    48. DIFFICULTY AWAKENS YOUR INNER-GENIUS.
    49. STOICISM IS ARMOR FOR THE MIND
    50. The Spartan-Stoic Lifestyle
    51. How I Conquered Fear
    52. HOW TO CURE FEAR.
    53. LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL.
    54. The Upside of Poverty
    55. How I Became Me
    56. THE WILL TO POWER, OR THE WILL TO FEAR?
    57. ATTACK REALITY
    58. Living *THROUGH* History
    59. How to Fear Less
    60. Fear is the Ultimate Contagious Disease
    61. STOICISM FOR DUMMIES
    62. Don’t Be Scared!
    63. WHAT CAN YOU CONTROL, WHAT CAN YOU NOT CONTROL?
    64. HOW YOU CAN CONQUER FEAR
    65. YOU’RE STRONGER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE.
    66. EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
    67. WHY AREN’T THINGS WORSE?
    68. My Philosophy on Masculinity
    69. A Riskier Life is a Better Life #philosophy #stoicism
    70. How to Creatively Flourish in Life
    71. Introduction to Stoicism
    72. How to Become Stronger
    73. How to Conquer Depression With Photography
    74. What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger
    75. How to Respect Yourself
    76. How to Believe in Yourself
    77. How to Steer Fear
    78. How to Conquer Pessimism
    79. How to Conquer Anxiety
    80. How to Overcome Your Fear of People
    81. How to Be Optimistic
    82. Why I Don’t Take My Anger Seriously
    83. HOW TO BECOME MORE POWERFUL
    84. POSITIVITY.
    85. HOW TO BECOME SUPERHUMAN
    86. How to Give a Fuck Less
    87. ALL IN.
    88. Why I Cut My Dad Out of My Life.
    89. Your iPhone Only Has 5% Battery Left.
    90. How not to give a FUCK about your REPUTATION
    91. WHAT IS A HUMAN?
    92. HAPPINESS.
    93. The Regret Minimization Framework in Photography and Life
    94. How to Be a HERO
    95. Conquer Your Fears by Making Fear Your Slave
    96. Rule Circumstances; Don’t Let Your Circumstances Rule You
    97. How to Love Yourself
    98. How to Turn Shit into Gold
    99. Your Parents Fuck You Up
    100. Immortality
    101. What Kills You Makes You Stronger
    102. How to Be Patient
    103. How to Conquer Anger
    104. How to Bounce Back in Life
    105. How to Overcome Resistance
    106. Nothing Unlimited is Good; Nothing Good is Unlimited
    107. You Have No Limits
    108. Can 1’s and 0’s Hurt You?
    109. The Envious Moment is Flying Now
    110. Tomorrow We’ll Sail the Wide Seas Again
    111. How to Forgive Others
    112. Focus on Your Actions, Not the Results
    113. Everything Will Be Alright
    114. How to Be a Stoic Street Photographer
    115. How to Be a Spartan Photographer
    116. How to Overcome Your Fears in Life
    117. How to Stop Worrying in Life
    118. How to Use Photography as Self-Therapy
    119. How to Free Your Soul From Disturbance
    120. 3 Stoic Techniques that Can Help You Gain Tranquility
    121. Can People Weaker than You Hurt You?
    122. Does a Doctor Get Angry at a Crazy Patient?
    123. Own Nothing

    The Stoic Masters

    Learn from the master stoics:

    See all philosophy >

    PHILOSOPHY BY KIM

    ZEN OF ERIC PDFDownload

    IDEAS BY KIM

    1. A LIFE WITHOUT PAIN, DISCOMFORT OR (LIMITED) SUFFERING IS NOT A LIFE WORTH LIVING?
    2. BIGGER IS WEAKER.
    3. How to Become a Philosopher
    4. Deep Vanity
    5. Time Will Tell
    6. What is Wisdom?
    7. LOOK *BEYOND*
    8. BECOMING MORE IMMORAL?
    9. ‘LUCK’ VS COURAGE
    10. ‘SKILL’ VS MERIT?
    11. Becoming Antifragile
    12. How to “Improve” Men
    13. The Art of Virtue
    14. How to Dominate
    15. JUST SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCES AND WISDOM WITH OTHERS.
    16. How to Get More Done in a Single Day – MEMENTO MORI PHILOSOPHY
    17. THINK FOR YOURSELF
    18. Cruel?
    19. GO DEMIGOD.
    20. How to Be Happy: Challenge and Danger Philosophy
    21. To Become Greater, You Must Become *LESS* Productive!
    22. Imperfect Beauty
    23. The Philosophy of Pleasure
    24. What Interests You?
    25. Anti Theory of Everything
    26. Become?
    27. STRONGER OR NOT?
    28. Carte Blanche Ideals
    29. CHOOSE JOY
    30. Don’t Judge Your Impulses
    31. On Becoming Less Human
    32. COWARDICE.
    33. The Philosophy of Futurism
    34. PHILOSOPHY IS VALUE-SETTING
    35. PHILOSOPHY IS NOT LIFESTYLE
    36. WHY STANDARDIZATION IS BAD.
    37. YOUR OWN TABLE OF VALUES.
    38. RETRO IS BAD.
    39. INSANELY LOFTY THOUGHTS.
    40. Strive to *Lose* Weight, Not *Gain* Weight
    41. DIABLO II ANALOGIES FOR REAL LIFE.
    42. If You Know Your *WHY* You Can Discover Any *HOW*
    43. Life is Too Short to Be Miserable
    44. What Consumption Takes Skill?
    45. OFF THE GRID.
    46. REALITY IS CRUEL.
    47. Pain is Information
    48. WHY REMOVE VULGARITY AND DISORDER FROM OUR EYES?
    49. AUTOTELIC.
    50. UNPLUG.
    51. How to Become a Philosopher
    52. SUBOPTIMAL IS OPTIMAL
    53. THE LUST FOR MORE.
    54. TO DO IS TO BECOME.
    55. IN PRAISE OF AGGRESSIVE.
    56. THE PHILOSOPHY OF OPTIMISM
    57. OUR PHILOSOPHICAL WILL TO EXISTENCE
    58. Is Hope a Vice?
    59. MOVE MEAN
    60. Carte Blanche Ideals
    61. One Interesting Thought
    62. What Lasts? What Doesn’t Last?
    63. A WOUND STIMULATES THE RECUPERATIVE POWERS
    64. Children & Purpose
    65. Thoughts on Becoming a Parent
    66. Where Does Our Desire to Upgrade Come From?
    67. WE ALWAYS NEED SOMETHING FURTHER TO ASPIRE TO.
    68. Self-Task Yourself an Awesome Mission in Life
    69. Differentiation vs Equalization
    70. My Passion to *Become* Something More
    71. No Aesthetic or Ethos is Forever
    72. What is Your Higher Purpose in Life?
    73. IT WILL NEVER SATISFY YOU.
    74. How to Decide
    75. Things You *Want* to Do vs Things You *MUST* Do
    76. Towards a More Beautiful Mode of Existence and Future
    77. EXTREME GRATITUDE.
    78. AMAP (As Much as Possible) or None.
    79. Why or How Does it Matter?
    80. The Philosophy of Time and Events
    81. How *Not* to Resent
    82. FORWARD LOOKING
    83. DOMAIN FLEXIBILITY.
    84. The Miracle of Human Growth
    85. EXTREME ADAPTATION.
    86. Why Plan?
    87. You Don’t Need to Justify Yourself
    88. The Philosophy of Ego
    89. True vs False Passions
    90. How to Achieve Tranquility
    91. On Making Your Own Philosophy
    92. The Purpose of Life is to Create New Life
    93. Think On!
    94. The Wisdom of Doing Nothing
    95. Congruency
    96. My Thoughts on Meditation
    97. The Philosophy of Purpose
    98. Emulate Yourself
    99. Good Fear, Bad Fear
    100. For the Betterment of Humanity or Just Yourself?
    101. What you *really* believe in and care for is manifested through your actions (or non-actions)
    102. Why Culture is Your Enemy
    103. YOUR EXPERIENCES ARE KING.
    104. LIFE IS INHERENTLY GOOD.
    105. Artistic, Physical, and Philosophical Muscles
    106. All New Experiences are Good Experiences
    107. What is the Purpose of X?
    108. UTILITY.
    109. Philosophy is a Luxury
    110. The Attempt is More Interesting than the Result
    111. Joyfulness vs “Happiness”
    112. Effectiveness Over Happiness
    113. Self Actualization
    114. MAXIMAL ENGAGEMENT
    115. Life & Pain
    116. On Living Every Day with No Regret
    117. Learn as if you’re going to live forever, live as if you’re going to die tomorrow
    118. Live Every Day Like it Were the Last Day of Your Life
    119. Self-Determination
    120. FALSE GRATITUDE vs REAL GRATITUDE
    121. HOW TO LIVE MORE
    122. THE UPSIDE OF TRAGEDY
    123. Satisfaction is a Sucker’s Game
    124. Supreme Repose
    125. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF LIFE? According to ERIC KIM
    126. STUBBORN, FLEXIBLE
    127. EVERYTHING HAPPENS AS IT *SHOULD* HAVE HAD HAPPENED
    128. Good Addiction, Bad Addiction?
    129. What is the Best Life?
    130. The Philosophy of Thinking
    131. The Philosophy of Conspiracies
    132. Conspiracies
    133. Growth
    134. Skepticism.
    135. What Do You Really Want Out of Life?
    136. Seem or Be?
    137. Learn Through Pain
    138. Respect Yourself
    139. In Praise of Elitism
    140. Why Independent Thinking?
    141. I Will Never Die
    142. Bitter is Better
    143. The Genesis of Nihilism and Existential Dread
    144. The Ethics of Personal Enrichment
    145. Good vs Not Good
    146. Punished by Privilege
    147. Abstinence Over Moderation
    148. Just Leave Others Alone
    149. You Can Only Critique that Which You Truly Understand and Love
    150. ERIC KIM Critique of Metaphysics
    151. Only Trust Philosophers Who Deadlift
    152. Heuristic: If Someone Talks Shit About Others Behind Their Back, Most Likely They’re Also Talking Shit About You Behind Your Back
    153. Virtue is a Privilege
    154. What Are Your Life Goals?
    155. Honesty
    156. Why I’m Anti Moderation
    157. No Spite, No Malice.
    158. Ascending Life or Descending Life?
    159. Double Edged Sword
    160. Ignorance.
    161. Why I Don’t Trust “Nice Guys”
    162. Why You Must Share Your Opinion
    163. Selfish Isn’t Evil
    164. Wisdom is the Goal
    165. YOU ARE KING.
    166. MASTER YOURSELF
    167. What is “Good” for You is Often what is Bad for You
    168. Care.
    169. BITTERSWEET
    170. ONE REP MAX
    171. Morality and Ethics is the Snare
    172. BY HELPING YOURSELF, YOU BEST HELP OTHERS
    173. Insanity is Good.
    174. Think Deep.
    175. PHILOSOPHY IS THE FUTURE.
    176. Open Mind vs Closed Mind
    177. ENTHUSIASM IS GENIUS
    178. Towards a More Critical and Rigorous Line of Thinking
    179. How to Encourage and a Foster Independent and Free Thinking
    180. What is the Purpose of Life?
    181. WHY PHILOSOPHY IS SUPREME.
    182. Elitism.
    183. I Cannot Form an Opinion About Somebody Until I’ve Met Them in the Flesh
    184. ALL GENETICS ARE GOOD GENETICS.
    185. Happiness vs Freedom
    186. The Birth of a Hater
    187. My Way Isn’t the Right Way
    188. Walking as an Existential Thing
    189. Why I’m So Tolerant
    190. Mortal Gods
    191. THE HUMAN SPECIES
    192. Why I’m So Skeptical
    193. Just Follow the Money
    194. Why Selfish?
    195. WHY WE CANNOT BLAME OTHERS
    196. Why Are We So Anti Elitism?
    197. What Actually Interests You?
    198. How to Become Yourself
    199. SELF HATE
    200. Optimistic Fatalism
    201. Death is the Ultimate Creative Constraint
    202. FLUX.
    203. How to Think for Yourself
    204. FLESH
    205. How to Live the Best Life
    206. Why Live a Life Without Regrets?
    207. Why Plato Ruined Art and Aesthetics for Us
    208. Self Respect
    209. Hypocrite vs Contradict
    210. Ideals vs Reality
    211. Spaceship Philosophy
    212. What is Your Ideal Life?
    213. MY EXTREME GRATITUDE TOWARDS LIFE AND BEING ALIVE!
    214. Critique of Utilitarianism
    215. Don’t Treat Others the Way You Want to Be Treated
    216. The Eternal Recurrence of Tragedy and Joy in Life
    217. Elite Asceticism
    218. Why I Don’t Like Numbers
    219. Action and Reaction, Cause and Effect
    220. The Antidote to Nihilism: The Philosophy of Nothingness
    221. ERIC KIM Notes on Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
    222. EXPLOIT CHAOS.
    223. WHY I DON’T BELIEVE IN GENETICS
    224. Self-Wisdom
    225. The Future Belongs to the Fearless
    226. INDIVIDUALISM
    227. Why Live Forever?
    228. THIS TOO WILL PASS.
    229. Why Education?
    230. How to Become Yourself
    231. Things Shouldn’t Go Back to the Way They Used to Be
    232. Why Am I So Cruel?
    233. The Great Joy of Existence
    234. Virtue for the Sake of Virtue
    235. NO DISDAIN.
    236. INTELLIGENT IGNORANCE
    237. A LIFE WITHOUT PAIN, DIFFICULTY OR TRAGEDY ISN’T A LIFE WORTH LIVING
    238. BITTER IS BETTER.
    239. EXPLOIT THE BEST FROM TRAGEDY AND LIFE 
    240. DISREGARD FOR SELF-PRESERVATION
    241. PAIN.
    242. WHAT IF EVERYTHING IS NOT GONNA BE ALRIGHT?
    243. Tomorrow is Never
    244. Life is the Ultimate Creative Constraint
    245. EMBODIED REALITY
    246. BLACK SWAN
    247. THINGS WILL NEVER GO BACK TO THE WAY THEY USED TO BE
    248. What are you *really* afraid of?
    249. HAPPINESS ISN’T THE GOAL
    250. Philosophy is King
    251. Why is Selfish Evil?
    252. YOU’RE CONSTANTLY IN A STATE OF BECOMING
    253. ENTITLEMENT A SIN?
    254. NARCISSISM
    255. BE BRUTALLY HONEST WITH YOURSELF
    256. WHY FREE WILL?
    257. OBEY YOUR OPINION
    258. EGO IS GOOD.
    259. WHY IT IS GOOD TO BE INTO YOURSELF
    260. Seek the Good Pain
    261. Anti-Perfection in Photography, Art, and Life
    262. Can You Become an End into Yourself?
    263. WHY I LIVE
    264. Why I Hate Decline
    265. Why I Eat
    266. Why am I So Positive and Optimistic?
    267. EFFORT IS ENJOYMENT
    268. Never Stop Gaining
    269. TRUST YOURSELF
    270. A Life of Maximal Personal Independence
    271. What Do You Desire to Become?
    272. What Do I Want from Technology?
    273. Stratified Society
    274. Do You Love or Hate Reality?
    275. On the Brian, Body and Mind
    276. I’m Maximally Happy, Now What?
    277. Care over Fame
    278. ACTIVE NIHILISM
    279. Never Stop Subtracting
    280. How to Live a Happier and More Epic Life
    281. A Risker Life is a Better Life
    282. Only Work on Things You Can Imagine Doing for Eternity
    283. How to Maximize Your Happiness
    284. Influence
    285. The Gladiator Makes His Plans once He Enters the Ring
    286. Meditations on Meaning in Life
    287. There is Nothing More Interesting than Human Beings
    288. Is Hope a Vice?
    289. EGO
    290. Why Be Unique?
    291. Happiness is Metabolism Health and Strength
    292. You’re the Hero
    293. Is Productivity a Virtue or Vice?
    294. Why Do We Prize the Rare?
    295. The Joy of Uncertainty
    296. How Should I Best Use My Time and Life?
    297. A Life Without Pain or Suffering Isn’t a Life Worth Living
    298. Free or Unfree?
    299. What Do You Really Care For in Life?
    300. Anti-Satisfaction in Life
    301. Why Think?
    302. The Eternal Return
    303. Only Do What is Best for You!
    304. Truthiness
    305. Why Be Happy?
    306. Permissionless Living
    307. In Praise of Unconventional Wisdom
    308. Become the Change Which You Wish to See in the World
    309. Happiness
    310. Beyond Freedom
    311. Idolize People, Not Stuff
    312. What Makes You Stronger? What Makes You Weaker?
    313. Why Hate?
    314. The Secret of Happiness
    315. You’re Constantly in a State of Becoming
    316. Life is about Choices, Not Obligations
    317. Anti-Nihilism
    318. First, Do What is Best for You.
    319. Live Dynamic
    320. How to Prosper
    321. Is the Point of Life to Be Satisfied?
    322. SUPREME EFFORT OF WILL.
    323. How to Become more Idealistic
    324. Thrivival 101
    325. Create Yourself
    326. Non-Small
    327. Inspiration
    328. How to Live a Heroic Life: Dare the Heights!
    329. Human Augmentation
    330. Prune
    331. Happiness: Do What You Want to Do (And Don’t Do What You Don’t Want to Do)
    332. Avoid Vain (Empty) Pursuits in Life
    333. Modern Slavery
    334. Kill the Leeches
    335. Wisdom Augmentation
    336. Why We Need Friction in Life
    337. Straight Line Philosophy
    338. What’s Your End-Game in Life?
    339. Create Your Own Happiness Today
    340. Desire Both Pain and Pleasure in Life
    341. Try the Impossible
    342. SELF-RESPECT
    343. Anti-Social Extrovert
    344. Never Blame Anybody But Yourself
    345. Human Flourishing
    346. Simpler, Not Better.
    347. How to be Free
    348. Embrace the Extremes
    349. Cultivate Your Own Culture
    350. COURAGE.
    351. Thrivival
    352. Inner Power
    353. How to Live a Purposeful Life
    354. My Definition of Happiness
    355. Why Change is Good
    356. Why Work?
    357. How to Live the Happiest Possible Life
    358. The Two-Pronged Approach to Maximize Joy in Your Life
    359. You Always Have Another Option!
    360. INFINITISM
    361. Never Stop!
    362. What is Your Self-Directed Purpose in Life?
    363. Live Today Like it Were Your Last
    364. Do You Photograph to Live, or Live to Photograph?
    365. ARTIST-PHILOSOPHER
    366. Live Life to the Fullest!
    367. In Praise of Selfishness
    368. Why You Must Be a YAY-SAYER to Succeed in Entrepreneurship and Life
    369. Why I Love Walking
    370. Live Life Like a Video Game!
    371. Simple Luxuries in Life
    372. Treat Your Life Like a Fun Experiment!
    373. Only Prove it to Yourself
    374. You Don’t Always Need to Feel Joyful to Live a Fulfilling and Meaningful Life
    375. Life is Too Short to Be Bored!
    376. Money Cannot Destroy Boredom
    377. How to Find Inspiration in Life
    378. Why You Must Ignore Haters to Succeed and Win in Life
    379. An Active Life is a Happy Life
    380. My Simple Joys in Life
    381. Never Stop Striving
    382. How to Motivate Yourself in Life
    383. How to Be Optimistic in Life
    384. How to Dictate Your Purpose in Life
    385. In Praise of a Dynamic Life
    386. PURPOSE.
    387. How to Enjoy Life
    388. Photography Therapy
    389. How to Conquer Regret
    390. Take Your Play Very Seriously.
    391. How to Prosper
    392. Memento Vivere
    393. Destroy in Order to CREATE
    394. Trust Your Body More Than Your Mind
    395. Make Photos to Make Meaning in Your Life
    396. Seek Knowledge, Not Information
    397. The Purpose of Human Life
    398. How to Overcome Impedence
    399. Why I Love Death
    400. How to Be Centered in the Eternal Now
    401. How to Be Happy
    402. Why Do You Care What Others Think of You?
    403. Why I’m Happy
    404. Why?
    405. Why I’m So Prolific
    406. How to Reduce LAG in Life

    Masters of Philosophy Â»

    Personal Philosophy Â»

    Stoicism Â»

    Zen Philosophy »

    Life Lessons Â»

    Learn more: Start Here >

    Entrepreneurship by KIM

    Change and do, and build or do things differently … based on what you believe the ideal world *should* look like:

    1. Annoyance & Entrepreneurship
    2. Why Doesn’t Anything Satisfy Me?
    3. ZERO FINANCIAL CONCERNS
    4. How to Gain Ascendancy
    5. Business vs Entrepreneurship?
    6. TAKE REAL CHANCES
    7. Making Money as a Hobby
    8. The Best Exercises for Entrepreneurs
    9. INCOME VS EXPENSES MONEY LIFESTYLE PHILOSOPHY
    10. Entrepreneurship is the privilege of being able to attempt something new
    11. How to Become More Influential
    12. The Point of Life is Entrepreneurship?
    13. How to Think Like an Entrepreneur
    14. Become the Outlier
    15. Self Reliance
    16. How to Extend Your Reach
    17. NEWS: How to Think Like an Entrepreneur
    18. PVP (Player vs Player)
    19. How I became so influential
    20. WE LOVE THE *SENSATION* OF RISK-TAKING
    21. WHY HIGH PROFIT MARGINS?
    22. INNOVATION THOUGHTS
    23. OVERCONFIDENCE IS GOOD.
    24. GARAGE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
    25. PERHAPS IT IS GOOD TO BE “DELUSIONAL”
    26. USE YOUR WEALTH TO BUY STUFF, OR TO BUILD AND INNOVATE STUFF?
    27. HOW TO THRIVE
    28. Target Demographic
    29. Ambition Over Happiness
    30. Anti Collaboration
    31. The Will to Economy
    32. Why New?
    33. CHOOSE ADRENALINE.
    34. No Looking Back.
    35. 1000x Different
    36. BECOME SPENDTHRIFT
    37. THE BENEFIT OF JUST ONE.
    38. EXTREME INNOVATION.
    39. Practicality is Boring
    40. BECOME YOUR OWN STANDARD.
    41. NEVER STOP ITERATING.
    42. CONDENSE.
    43. Take Lots of Small Financial Risks
    44. Control Over Convenience
    45. Why Are Chinese Companies So Innovative?
    46. INSANELY DIFFERENT.
    47. Why Doesn’t Anything Ever Satisfy Me?
    48. THE GREAT PASSION.
    49. Perhaps Dissatisfaction is Good
    50. ONE REP MAX.
    51. WHAT DO YOU *REALLY* WANT IN LIFE?
    52. LIFE IS ABOUT STRIVING FOR MORE.
    53. NEVER STOP LINKING.
    54. THE GREATEST.
    55. WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!
    56. THE BEST IS YET TO COME.
    57. ERIC KIM CRITIQUE OF ROMANTICISM
    58. COMPLACENCY.
    59. JUST BUY IT.
    60. ALL ABOUT YOU.
    61. MOVE THE WORLD
    62. Boring or Not Boring?
    63. What if Your Past Self were Inferior to Your Present Self?
    64. THE PHILOSOPHY OF PROGRESS
    65. CULTURE IS YOUR ENEMY.
    66. Difficulty & Interest
    67. The Will to Expansion
    68. What is Work?
    69. SOUL IN THE GAME.
    70. JUST START IT.
    71. Not Boring
    72. PRIDE IN YOUR OWN NAME / BRAND
    73. AS MUCH AS YOU CAN TOLERATE.
    74. Speed is Paramount
    75. TAKE IT BACK TO THE BEGINNING.
    76. A Life With No Risk Taking is *NOT* a Life Worth Living
    77. Dissatisfaction is Good
    78. GREATER STRENGTH, GREATER CHALLENGES.
    79. In Praise of the New
    80. Uncorrupted Desires
    81. You Cannot Fake Passion
    82. SELF-OVERGOING
    83. FORM YOURSELF.
    84. Personal Entrepreneurship
    85. RELENTLESS.
    86. PUT YOUR NAME ON IT.
    87. A Life of Expansion
    88. SELF-ENTREPRENEURSHIP
    89. YOU ARE THE EXCEPTION.
    90. Use Your Life as an Experiment to Self-Develop Yourself to Heights Never Seen Before
    91. Invest in New Developments
    92. Investing Towards What End?
    93. The 90%/10% Principle in Entrepreneurship
    94. Speed Wins
    95. The Philosophy of Happiness
    96. When to Over-Estimate, When to Under-Estimate?
    97. Never Stop Iterating
    98. Money as a Tool for Life and Artistic Experimentation
    99. Less But More Premium
    100. Mainstream vs Low-Key Success
    101. Why Dissatisfaction is Good
    102. SEEK YOUR OWN PERSONAL MAXIMAL BENEFIT INSTEAD OF COMPLAINING
    103. Manifest Your Destiny
    104. Is it Best to *Not* Communicate Your Inner Thoughts or Ideas With Others?
    105. CREATE THINGS YOU WISH TO SEE MANIFESTED IN THE WORLD
    106. How to Do More Work
    107. CONTROL.
    108. Competition is for Losers
    109. Change.
    110. Your Competitive Advantage with Insanely Fast Wifi and High Speed Internet
    111. Pseudo Individualism
    112. Natural Internal Promoting vs External Promptings

    Think for Yourself.

    1. Survival vs Thrivival
    2. Become Rich
    3. SECRETS.
    4. Why it is Better to Beg for Forgiveness than Ask for Permission
    5. Thinking About the Past Prevents You From Thinking About the Future
    6. How to Predict the Future
    7. Tools of Mass Distraction
    8. So What?

    FREEDOM

    Never stop innovating.

    Entrepreneurship Mindset

    Put a Dent in the Universe.

    CINEMA BY ERIC KIM

    CINEMA BY KIM

    Cinema and film as a great stimulus, aid and teacher for photographers and visual artists alike.

    Cinematography and life lessons:

    Cinema and Film Reviews

    1. BOOK OF BOBA FETT CRITIQUE
    2. What *Should* Cinema and Literature Do?
    3. MATRIX 4 Critique
    4. THE PHILOSOPHY OF “FREE GUY” (Film, 2021)
    5. Why DUNE 2021 is So Great
    6. INFINITE (2021) Film Review
    7. MAD MAX FURY ROAD: Black and Chrome Version Review
    8. Why 7 Samurai by Akira Kurosawa is So Great
    9. BLADE RUNNER (1982 Original) Cinematography Review & Thoughts vs the New Version (2049)
    10. Blade Runner 2049 Film Review + Cinematography Composition Analysis
    11. REVIEW: Justice League (Snyder Cut)
    12. What Makes a Great Movie/Film?
    13. Iron Man (1) Film Cinema Review
    14. JOKER FILM REVIEW + Cinematography Composition
    15. Ghost in the Shell Anime (1995) Cinematography, Composition, Philosophy Review
    16. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Cinematography and Film Review

    Space Films

    Cinema and philosophy

    GODFATHER

    Gangster Films

    ACTION FILMS

    CITIZEN KANE:

    Articles on Cinema

    Great Cinema

  • EVERYONE LISTENS TO ERIC KIM, EK?

    ChatGPT listened to me, OpenAI and Microsoft — getting rid of “DALL-E” a a side bar option, and just consolidating it with ChatGPT the official app?

    Consult with EK — eric [at] erickim.com

  • MATTE BLACK BITCOINS

  • TOKENS, TOKENIZATION OF THE FUTURE

    ”Insert token here to continue”…

    TOKEN, TOKENS: Think Tokens, Tokenizations of the Future

  • Ignorance & Investing & Speculating

    Some issues—

    1. Maybe it’s best to just keep your own investment strategies as secret to yourself? Why? When you talk to others, they influence or nudge you in a bad way? They distract you?

  • “Burning”

  • List of famous people associated with Jeffrey Epstein

    What’s his conspiracy theory

    Jeffrey Epstein’s life and his subsequent death have been the subject of numerous conspiracy theories, largely due to the combination of his connections with powerful individuals, his criminal activities, and the circumstances of his death. The most prominent conspiracy theory revolves around his death in August 2019, which was officially ruled a suicide by hanging by the New York City Medical Examiner’s office.

    Here are the key elements of the conspiracy theory surrounding Epstein’s death:

    1. Suspicious Circumstances: Epstein died while awaiting trial on federal charges of sex trafficking minors. His death came just weeks after he was found injured in his cell, leading to speculation that he might have been attacked or attempted suicide.
    2. High-Profile Connections: Epstein’s connections to influential figures across various sectors, including politics, finance, and entertainment, have fueled theories that these individuals had a vested interest in silencing him to prevent the disclosure of compromising information.
    3. Previous Suicide Attempt or Attack: Prior to his death, Epstein was placed on suicide watch after being found with injuries in his cell. However, he was taken off suicide watch shortly before his death, raising questions about the prison’s protocols and decision-making.
    4. Failure of Jail Protocols: There were reported irregularities in jail procedures the night of his death. The guards on duty were accused of falsifying records to cover up their failure to perform regular checks on him. Additionally, the malfunctioning of two cameras in front of his cell and the sleeping of the guards supposed to monitor him contributed to suspicions.
    5. Autopsy Controversies: The findings of the official autopsy and the opinions of some forensic experts conflicted, with some arguing that the evidence was more consistent with homicidal strangulation rather than suicide.
    6. Epstein’s Own Statements: Reports that Epstein appeared to be in good spirits and was planning for his defense have led some to question whether he was suicidal.

    These elements have combined to fuel widespread speculation and various conspiracy theories suggesting that Epstein’s death was not a suicide but rather a murder orchestrated to prevent him from revealing damaging information about other high-profile individuals. It’s important to note that these remain theories and speculations; the official ruling on Epstein’s death is suicide. Conspiracy theories often arise in high-profile cases involving influential figures, especially when there are perceived gaps or inconsistencies in official accounts.

    How did Jeffrey Epstein become so rich

    Jeffrey Epstein’s accumulation of wealth is somewhat shrouded in mystery and speculation. However, several known aspects of his career contributed to his wealth:

    1. Teaching and Connections: Epstein began his career as a teacher at the Dalton School in New York City, where he taught mathematics and physics. His time at Dalton connected him with affluent and influential families.
    2. Bear Stearns: After leaving Dalton, Epstein entered the world of finance at the investment bank Bear Stearns. He quickly moved up the ranks, working in the special products division, where he dealt with high-risk, high-reward scenarios and developed a network of wealthy clients.
    3. Financial Consulting Firm: Epstein left Bear Stearns under unclear circumstances and established his own financial consulting firm, J. Epstein & Company, in the 1980s. The firm reportedly managed assets of billionaires, with the precise nature of its services and client list being mostly confidential.
    4. Les Wexner and Limited Brands: A significant turning point in Epstein’s financial ascent was his relationship with Les Wexner, the founder of L Brands (parent company of Victoria’s Secret). Wexner granted Epstein a broad power of attorney, giving him control over much of Wexner’s finances. This relationship not only elevated Epstein’s status in financial circles but also reportedly allowed him access to vast resources.
    5. Investment and Real Estate: Epstein was known to invest in various ventures and had a substantial real estate portfolio, including properties in New York, Palm Beach, New Mexico, Paris, and a private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands. These investments likely contributed significantly to his wealth.
    6. Social Connections and Influence: Epstein cultivated relationships with influential and wealthy individuals worldwide, which may have opened doors to investment opportunities and business ventures not available to the general public.

    Despite these known aspects of his career, there has been speculation and mystery surrounding the exact sources and extent of Epstein’s wealth. His financial dealings were notoriously opaque, leading to various theories about his true financial status and the means by which he acquired his wealth.

    Hmmm the plot thickens …

    The list of well-known individuals associated with Jeffrey Epstein extends beyond those previously mentioned, encompassing a range of prominent figures from various sectors. Again, it’s crucial to note that association with Epstein does not imply wrongdoing or involvement in his illegal activities. Some additional notable individuals connected to Epstein include:

    1. Larry Summers: Former U.S. Treasury Secretary and President of Harvard University, who had interactions with Epstein.
    2. George Mitchell: Former U.S. Senator who was named in allegations related to Epstein, which he denied.
    3. Ehud Barak: Former Prime Minister of Israel, who acknowledged a business relationship with Epstein.
    4. Steven Pinker: Harvard psychologist and author, who appeared in Epstein’s contact book but denied any close relationship.
    5. Stephen Hawking: The late theoretical physicist, who attended conferences hosted on Epstein’s private island.
    6. Marvin Minsky: The late MIT computer scientist was accused of involvement with Epstein’s activities, which he denied before his death.
    7. Woody Allen: The filmmaker was seen socializing with Epstein.
    8. Katie Couric, George Stephanopoulos, and Chelsea Handler: These media personalities attended a dinner party hosted by Epstein after his conviction.
    9. Ghislaine Maxwell: A close associate of Epstein, she faced charges related to facilitating Epstein’s criminal activities.
    10. Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker: Actors who traveled on Epstein’s private plane to Africa as part of a charitable project.

    It’s important to approach this topic with caution and a clear understanding that relationships or interactions with Epstein, particularly in social or professional contexts, do not imply participation or complicity in his criminal activities. These associations are part of the complex web of Epstein’s social and professional network that has been extensively scrutinized in the public domain.

    Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender, had associations with various high-profile individuals across different fields, including finance, politics, academia, and entertainment. However, it’s crucial to clarify that association with Epstein does not imply involvement or complicity in his criminal activities. Here are some notable individuals who had known associations with Jeffrey Epstein:

    1. Bill Clinton: Former President of the United States, who had flown on Epstein’s private plane and attended events with him.
    2. Prince Andrew: A member of the British royal family, Prince Andrew faced allegations (which he denied) related to Epstein’s activities.
    3. Donald Trump: The former U.S. President knew Epstein socially and had various interactions with him.
    4. Alan Dershowitz: The well-known lawyer and Harvard Law professor was acquainted with Epstein and later faced allegations connected to Epstein, which he denied.
    5. Bill Gates: The Microsoft co-founder met with Epstein on several occasions, though Gates has stated these meetings were in pursuit of philanthropic funding.
    6. Leon Black: Co-founder of Apollo Global Management, who had professional and personal ties to Epstein.
    7. Les Wexner: Founder of L Brands (parent company of Victoria’s Secret), who had a professional relationship with Epstein.
    8. Glenn Dubin: A billionaire hedge fund manager, who knew Epstein.
    9. Lawrence Krauss: A theoretical physicist who expressed support for Epstein after his 2008 conviction.
    10. Jean-Luc Brunel: A model scout who had connections with Epstein.

    It’s important to exercise caution and distinguish between those who had social or professional connections with Epstein and those who may have been involved in criminal activities. Many of these associations were part of Epstein’s broader strategy to integrate himself into elite social circles for various purposes. The extent and nature of these relationships have been the subject of significant scrutiny and speculation.

  • WHEN YOU’RE GETTING DISTRACTED, JUST CLOSE ALL THE TABS!

  • Leon Black

    Wikipedia

    Questions:

    1. Why doesn’t his Wikipedia page even has his image? He is on Google Images

  • What does APO apollo global management own

    OK— some seriously strange and horrific things:

    Jeffrey Epstein had a mansion ,,, optimized for raping young girls, 16 years old?

    Leon Black — raping a 16 year old girl? What the fuck?

    Leon Black has faced serious accusations related to sexual misconduct. In March 2021, Guzel Ganieva publicly accused Black of sexual harassment and abuse over several years, alleging that she was forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement under duress. Black acknowledged a consensual affair with Ganieva but denied the allegations of harassment and abuse. This situation led to legal actions with lawsuits and countersuits filed between Black and Ganieva.

    Additionally, Black has been accused by another woman, Cheri Pierson, who claimed he raped her in 2002 in Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion in New York City. Black denied these allegations. In a separate incident in 2023, a lawsuit was filed against Black, alleging that he raped a 16-year-old girl with autism and Down syndrome in Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse in 2002. This accusation was also denied by Black, with his attorney calling it “frivolous and sanctionable.”

    These allegations and legal disputes have significantly impacted Black’s public image and reputation, although it is important to note that accusations and legal proceedings are complex matters where final outcomes and the veracity of claims can vary oai_citation:1,Leon Black – Wikipedia.

    Leon black and Jeffrey Epstein and also his sexual misconduct

    Leon Black, the co-founder of Apollo Global Management, has been publicly associated with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender. In 2019, Black acknowledged that he had a “limited relationship” with Epstein. He clarified that Epstein provided him with estate planning, tax, and philanthropic advice for his family partnership and other related family entities. The New York Times reported that Black paid Epstein at least $50 million for these services from 2012 to 2017. Following these revelations, Black requested an independent review by the law firm Dechert LLP of his relationship with Epstein, which showed that Black paid Epstein around $158 million for financial services between 2012 and 2017. Black expressed regret over his association with Epstein and pledged to donate $200 million to women’s initiatives oai_citation:1,Leon Black – Wikipedia.

    Additionally, Black has faced accusations of sexual misconduct. In 2021, a woman named Guzel Ganieva accused Black of sexual harassment and abuse over several years, claiming she was forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement under duress. Black acknowledged a consensual affair with Ganieva but denied the allegations of harassment and abuse. The matter led to lawsuits and countersuits between the parties. Ganieva also alleged that Black introduced her to Epstein and tried to force her to have sex with them, a claim Black denied. Another accuser, Cheri Pierson, accused Black of raping her in 2002 in Epstein’s mansion in New York City, which Black also denied. In 2023, a lawsuit was filed against Black alleging that he raped a 16-year-old girl in Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse in 2002, an accusation Black’s attorney described as “frivolous and sanctionable” oai_citation:2,Leon Black – Wikipedia.

    Black paid Epstein $158 MILLION DOLLARS USD??? What the fuck? For 5 years??

    Leon black history

    Leon Black is an influential figure in the world of finance and art collection, known for co-founding Apollo Global Management in 1990. He graduated from Dartmouth College with degrees in philosophy and history and later earned an MBA from Harvard University. Black started his career at Drexel Burnham Lambert, an investment bank, where he played a significant role until its bankruptcy in 1990. This event led him to establish Apollo Global Management with colleagues.

    Black has amassed a considerable fortune, with his net worth estimated at $7.4 billion as of October 2019. He is recognized on several prestigious Forbes lists, reflecting his success and influence in the investment and finance industry. Alongside his professional achievements, Black has an extensive art collection, including notable acquisitions like one of the versions of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” for $120 million in 2012.

    His philanthropic efforts are notable as well. He has been involved in various community organizations and causes. For instance, he co-founded the Melanoma Research Alliance with his wife, Debra, after her diagnosis in 2007, which has become a significant private funder in melanoma research.

    Black’s life has also been marked by controversies, including his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. He admitted to having a limited relationship with Epstein, who provided him with financial services. A review revealed that Black paid Epstein around $158 million for these services between 2012 and 2017. Black expressed deep regret over this association. Additionally, he faced sexual misconduct accusations, which he has denied and resulted in lawsuits and countersuits.

    Leon Black’s career spans significant achievements in finance and private equity, marked by both commendable philanthropic efforts and notable controversies oai_citation:1,Leon Black – Wikipedia oai_citation:2,Leon Black – Wikipedia oai_citation:3,20 Things You Didn’t Know About Leon Black.

    Break each down

    1. Leon Black: Black was a key figure at Drexel Burnham Lambert, an investment bank known for its work in the junk bond market. He co-founded Apollo Global Management in 1990. Black has been a prominent figure in finance, guiding Apollo to become one of the leading investment firms.
    2. Marc Rowan: Rowan, also a co-founder of Apollo, is renowned for his expertise in finance and private equity. He played a crucial role in developing Apollo’s investment strategies and operations, contributing significantly to its growth and success.
    3. Joshua Harris: Harris is known both for his role in co-founding Apollo and his involvement in sports team ownership. His financial acumen, particularly in leveraged buyouts, has been instrumental in shaping the firm’s direction and achievements in the investment sector.

    Who founded apollo

    Apollo Global Management was founded in 1990 by Leon Black, along with colleagues Marc Rowan, Joshua Harris, and other Drexel Burnham Lambert alumni. The firm was established following the collapse of Drexel, which was a major player in the junk bond market. The founders’ experience and expertise in leveraged buyouts played a significant role in shaping Apollo’s early strategy and its growth into a leading global alternative investment manager.

    who are they

    Leon Black, Marc Rowan, and Joshua Harris are the co-founders of Apollo Global Management. Leon Black served as the CEO and chairman before stepping down. He previously worked at Drexel Burnham Lambert, a prominent investment bank. Marc Rowan is a business magnate with significant expertise in private equity and finance. Joshua Harris is a prominent figure in finance and also a sports team owner. Their combined expertise in leveraged buyouts and finance laid the foundation for Apollo’s strategies and success in the global investment market.

    What companies owned

    Apollo Global Management has a diverse portfolio that includes significant investments in various companies. Some notable names in their private equity portfolio are ADT, Novolex, and Yahoo. These companies have been part of Apollo’s Supplier Diversity Program, contributing to over $1 billion in diverse spending across Apollo’s funds. This diversity initiative is part of Apollo’s broader strategy to drive economic impact and value creation across their portfolio companies oai_citation:1,Apollo Fund Portfolio Companies Achieve $1B in Diverse.

    ***

    Apollo Global Management (APO) has a diversified portfolio with a significant focus on fixed-income investments, which form the majority of their assets. The company’s acquisition of Athene, a major player in the annuity and insurance sector, has been a key part of their strategy. This acquisition provides Apollo with several growth avenues, especially in a higher interest rate environment where fixed-income investments are more attractive.

    A major component of Apollo’s portfolio, around 80%, is non-redeemable or safeguarded from market value modifications, which adds a layer of stability to their investments. This aspect of their portfolio is crucial, especially during market fluctuations, as it offers a degree of protection against rapid changes in market values.

    In terms of financial strategy, Apollo is planning to allocate a significant amount of resources, approximately $10 billion, over the next four years towards dividends, share buybacks, and strategic growth investments. This includes a base dividend rate of $1.60 per share, with the company also focusing on opportunistic buybacks and dividend increases oai_citation:1,Top Picks 2024- Apollo Global APO oai_citation:2,Apollo Global Management: The New Strategy Works (NYSE:APO) | Seeking Alpha.

    Apollo’s diverse and strategic investment approach, along with their focus on fixed-income assets and stable investments like annuities, positions them as a strong player in the alternative asset management space. Their emphasis on shareholder returns through dividends and buybacks also indicates a commitment to delivering value to their investors.