Month: June 2024

  • Don’t eat until sunset

    Unlimited Capital

    Economic Energy

    Bucket list before I hit 50, next 14 years?

    It’s Not a loss it’s a lesson

  • Ocean Thoughts

    The ocean is infinite– infinite energy, power, waves… forever into the distance:


    Only Slaves Use Phones

    Creating the most sublime human body?

    A turbo thought about phones —

    Only slaves use phones?


    Vietnam experiences

    Probably the big takeaway point I got from Vietnam, living in Vietnam without a phone, only iPad is this: 

    You don’t need a phone.

    In fact, let us consider… If you’re walking around in the real world, looking at how big it is, it is such a great tragedy that so much of our human existence is centered around a tiny 4.5 inch screen.

    Also, the problem with phones, you can’t be that productive with phones. Most people text with their thumbs, which is maybe 40 words per minute at best. Very slow. On the laptop I can type close to 140 words per minute, and now using iPad Pro with voice dictation, maybe 200 words per minute. 

    I think perhaps what is exciting about the new Apple intelligence and AI in the future, is actually ironically not the AI generating text, or giving me information, but the simple thing, which is actually centered more around accurately representing the words I actually want to voice dictate.

    For example, often when I’m doing voice dictation with the iPad Pro, the built-in keyboard, the little microphone button… the big issue I have here is that a lot of the typos certain words in the English language which sound like something else, but are not.

    Consequence, perhaps the greatest upside of artificial intelligence would be quickly scanning the nuance of the whole sentence, while I am actively voice dictating, and through this process, discover what I am really trying to say. 

    AI & photo curation

    Another interesting use case for artificial intelligence is simply being able to help me curate my images, help me go through them quicker.

    For example, I have lots of visions for image curation; the big issue we are having in todays world is we shoot too many images, too quickly, and we haven’t the time the techniques or the skills to view them quickly enough. 

    For example, currently I average 1000 to 2000 photos a day. I think this is generally a good thing, because it signals that I am living a grand life. However the downside is that I seem to have a difficult time finding the opportunity or the time or the chance to review these many photos a day.

    The basic person might say, “Shoot less“; but I find this to be too flaccid of a solution. What we need instead is more effective image creation tools, devices, or things.

    More convenient film developing, processing etc?

    Also as a random nuance, now that Pentax just put out that new film camera, wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was either a free or practically free solution to image processing, etc.?

    Or, the upside of film without the downside; perhaps this is the main upside or the intrigue with the new Ricoh HDF camera ? The idea that your digital photos could look like film photos without the hassle of developing film photos? 

    Why film?

    For example, there is no doubt that film photos, especially color film photos, are far more aesthetically beautiful than the often too perfect digital photos. Yet, at the end of day, the inconvenience of shooting film is what makes it the loser. Sooner or later, no matter how dedicated of a film photographer you are, it still seems that the tide eventually makes its way back into digital. 

    Some nuances:

    First, if you perhaps live in Vietnam or some sort of developing country, where labor costs are cheap in which you could just give somebody else your film photos, and have them cheaply develop process and scan it for you. However it seems that now in America with the $20 an hour minimum wage at McDonald’s, labor costs in America are too prohibitive.

    As an example I remember when living in Hanoi, there were some scrappy kids who would develop a rule of film, and also scan it for you for only five dollars a roll! In America this is almost $20-$30 a roll. 

    Convenience is key

    Even if you’re stupid rich, millionaire or billionaire level, then once again, the inconvenience is what makes it bad. For example, I still have about 50 rolls of Kodak PORTRA 400, and Kodak Trix which I shot maybe three or four years ago, which I still haven’t yet had the impetus to send it off to go process it, even though I could easily afford it. I just got too many other things on my plate at the moment.

    Therefore a consequence, the realization is once you’re very wealthy, costs no longer become a problem, it is more of a time energy mental space, time space thing. 

    Elon?

    For example, if you’re Elon Musk, do you have the time convenience or the leisure to simply stroll into a Costco, browse the products, and spend about three or four hours checking out? No.

    I think this is where Amazon and Amazon prime is so great for people both rich and poor alike; rich people still use Amazon prime because it is so convenient. Once you’re rich, a lot of people don’t have time to go places or to physically purchase the products. They would prefer to order it in just a few seconds from their phone. And then poor people like Amazon prime because they get prices; and end up “saving” money.

    Visions for the future

    Some simple visions:

    First, a phone free future. I think one thing that really annoys me about a lot of these new modern cars is that you somehow need a phone in order to unlock it, to open the door of your car, access it, etc. I think with Tesla cars, as long as you have your Tesla phone in your pocket, you could access your car, but also you could access it if you have the Tesla valet key thing.

    Funny enough, one of the upsides of my glorious 2010 Prius is that it still has the key fob; which means when I go to the park with Seneca, I could just lock up my phone inside my glove compartment, just take my keys and Prius car with me, and lock up my car. 

    New productivity?

    I have some radical new ideas for productivity:

    First, it seems like a very very very simple one is ironically “via negativa” approaches and technology. 

    For example, ironically one of the best ways you could be more productive is by not having a Wi-Fi enabled device. For example, maybe if you’d like the smaller form factor of an iPhone, just have two phones; one with Internet cellular data, the other as a Wi-Fi only device. Maybe this would be a good idea for who just prefer shooting photos using an iPhone, but don’t like getting interrupted by text messages.

    I think the reason why this is such a good idea in Asia, and a lot of the world… many people have multiple devices with them at once. For example my friend Chu Viet Ha, because he is often testing out so many new phones and phone cameras, often has five or six phones with him.

    The hybrid approach

    In fact, if you really wanted to be the ultimately productive person, having the best world of both android and iPhone iOS is a good idea. 

    For example, my friend Darren Wong — impressed me when he had both a Google pixel and an iPhone in each of his front two pockets. Truth be told, almost every single iPhone user I know has a Gmail account. And Gmail works for better on android in Google pixel then on iOS. As a consequence, using a Google pixel, which is the ultimate expression of android, should be optimal for doing Google related things; Google calendar, Gmail etc. Even Google maps.

    What is iPhone, iOS good for? FaceTime, iMessage, Apple photos, iA Writer, etc.

    Road trip down to San Diego

    This weekend had a quick trip to San Diego, and something that was so impressive to me was the upside of having a Prius and a hybrid car:

    First, driving from LA to San Diego, only consumed about 3 ticks of gasoline. And the other day we spent all day driving around, going to Torrey Pines and the beach, seeing the ocean and the waves etc.… and in total we have only consumed about 40 to 50% of gas. We’re going to head out later today, and technically I still have half tank of gas and I could make it all the way back to LA if I wanted to.

    However if I had a Tesla or a long range Tesla or electric vehicle, maybe even a cyber truck, I would probably have to stop by a supercharger somewhere along the line, or find a supercharger back home in LA… given that my apartment doesn’t have an electric charging port station, so the moral the story is simple:

    If you truly do want to live a more adventurous life, Prius and Hybrid is the way. 

    Autopilot is the killer app

    The only thing I really wished on the drive down is having some sort of auto pilot or at least lane keeping assist distance being; some sort of super basic self driving thing. The future which allows you or allows your car to cruise control itself, but also maintaining the distance with a car in front of it, and also staying within the lane. And the optimal strategy is just having your car drive itself down from LA to San Diego, while staying in the second to left lane. 

    I don’t know yet… but certainly there must be gasoline or hybrid cars that already allow this? 


    The upside of movement

    So I’m about eight months in living in Los Angeles, kind of figuring out how to live there. But still not 100% settled yet.

    Hitting the road again, just going on a road trip down to San Diego has been great; walking along the downtown San Diego waterfront, going to Torrey Pines State Beach and dipping my legs in the water with Seneca, and staring into the deep ocean, having the waves crashed directly towards me, has been extremely inspiring.

    Also even checking out some parts of old San Diego has been super inspirational because it taught me and show me that there is still so much of the world left to explore.

    I think this is where I am inspired by my friend Tim Flanagan — he is still traveling the world, nomadically, South America, Asia and beyond; did the wise and brave thing of taking an early retirement. People often tell him that “I wish I could do that, but I cannot because XYZ”. Tim is a good example, because he already has two grown sons, a handful of grandchildren, and some obligations back here in the states, but still… is doing the courageous and wise thing of traveling the globe.

    I also think a lot of people often say is that I need more money in order to do that. But Tim, choosing an early retirement certainly does not have a fat pension like a lot of other teachers or administrators; but still… perhaps the best way to travel the world in the globe is through this intelligent frugality time and money leveraging; the wise, hard spartan approach.


    Capital thoughts 

    I think one of the hardest things that people have to do is to think about cyberspace because it is so intangible.

    For example, I’m currently 36 years old, and I think most of my technological beliefs have been embedded into me ever since I was 18 years old, maybe 21 years old. So assuming that I graduated from college around 15 years ago, I’m almost 2 decades in the game.

    First, maybe this is where I am such a wise bitcoin investor. I know how to think in terms of bitcoin and digital and cyber things, because technically I started all of my capital in my website, which is a cyber digital commodity. Or cyber real estate.

    Also, conservation of time energy space and power.

    Life leverage

    I didn’t the reason why I quit email is because it doesn’t scale well.

    For example, now that I am such a notable and famous entity… I simply do not have enough time units in a day or a lifetime to respond or continue any sort of conversations of anything that comes in my inbox.

    I also suppose this issue is with generative AI… It is kind of impossible to know whether the email you are receiving is from a real human being or not.

    Maybe this could be a great filter in brave new digital world; some sort of “orange check” from a given email address, to prove humanity. A simple thing or more radical thing… Have an email address verified by a certain bitcoin wallet or balance, some sort of cyber digital ation, which could prove that is a human being, and how much worth they have. 

    Public bitcoin balances?

    Imagine this cyber future world in which you could meet people glance at people, or maybe even ask… making it socially acceptable to ask people how many bitcoins they own. And from this information you could tell how wealthy they really are.

    For example, the shortcut we have about this is maybe the car people drive, where they live, their clothes accessories etc. But technically this is not a very good indicator, because every dime you spend on material things is actually capital and money you have invested in something else, or more bitcoins.

    For example if I had any financial advice to young rappers, is for them not to buy any car just Uber around everywhere… And all that money they would blow at the strip club or on cars, just buy bitcoin.

    Also, instead of them blowing all that money on jewelry, buying bitcoin instead. I wonder if in the near future, instead of wearing diamond chains and necklaces… Young rappers will simply have bitcoin icons tattooed into their body?

    Bitcoin on wheels?

    For example, whenever you some see somebody pull up in a cybertruck, a Lamborghini Ferrari or Porsche or whatever… Let us say the car is worth $200,000 — irregardless of how rich you are,  assuming you could have 10x’d, 100x’d or even 1,000x’d that money …. anybody who invests money into things which will not accrue and value over time is a fool.

    For example, that $200,000 car could be a $2 million investment vehicle, a $20 million investment vehicle, or $200 million investment vehicle. Something that appreciates in time forever!
    

    The true investor and capitalist is actually very frugal and economical?

    Once again, if I told you with 100 precision today that any money you put into bitcoin would multiply itself by a factor of 1000… wouldn’t this change your purchasing behaviors today?

    Of course! Even if you time-discount things, if you knew your money would 10 X, 100 X, 500 X  within a year, two years, five years, 10 years or 20 years… the most rational or wise people would just put all of that money US dollars or fiat currency into bitcoin. 

    For example, if you knew that your $1000 invested in that thing you purchased today might be worth $100,000 10 years from now… then make that decision–

    “Is it really that worth it to you?”


    Now what?

    I still believe Zack Snyder‘s magnum opus thus far has been the movie 300. This is when he was still a young scrappy director, still with a limited budget, and made one of the best films of all time. I think in terms of courage, manliness, and overall valor, this film has not yet been reached by any other film. Not even the steroid infused Rock comes close. 

    Re-watching the film, now as a 36 year-old adult with a 3 1/2 year-old son,  similar to the fictitious age of King Leonidas, and the movie… some interesting observations: 

    1. One of the greatest blessings of man is to beget a son. If you have birth your first born child as a son, consider yourself infinitely blessed. The greatest blessing that reality could bestow you with. For the most part, I think the more kids, the jollier the better. In fact, nowadays whenever I see families with 3 kids, 4 kids, 5 kids… I think “Wow… that family is grand”. Then what that signals is not that the family is “rich“ in the traditional sense, but has their priority in their future generations, and cares more about begetting children than their “career”.
    2. The best clothing is no or minimal clothing. The whole film, all of the actors and the Spartan hoplites and King Leonidas are simply wearing loincloths, or reinforced speedo’s. Therefore, the best pants are short shorts. And the best shirt or top is bare chested, no shirt. I suppose the nuance is back then, they wore a cape– a crimson cape. Is there such thing as a modern day cape?
    3. Ultimately, it comes down to physical valor and courage. Note, in movie 300… all the Spartan hoplites what they had — their muscles, their courage, their helmets, their sword spear and shield. No vehicles.

    The Spartan way

    I then suppose if you want to become a true Spartan, have at least one son, to carry on your name. In the movie 300, king Leonidas confirms with all of his 300 Spartan hoplites whether they had at least one son to carry on their name, because they all essentially knew that it would die in combat.

    So it seems to me that the logical strategy in life is to beget at least one son, and then direct all your money resources time and power to raise that son with the greatest of benefits. 

    Before I had a son, before I had Seneca… I would look at all these guys who looked super rich and drove all these expensive cars as being some sort of “competition” with me. But now, they are all invisible to me. Why? a lot of them are single bachelors not even married, no kids. When they die, their whole lineage is dead. So to me I look at them like the walking (to be) dead.

    Then I look at more older richer “successful“ looking parents in LA; and then I look at their kids, and I weigh Seneca against them; Seneca is much stronger, bigger, taller, more handsome, more muscular, more physically adept then them. The Spartan warrior boy who eats picanha at Fogo de Chão, with a carnivorous diet, versus all of these emaciated feeble looking children who are fed on grain and Cheerios.

    So now, the only comparisons I do is looking at young boys around Seneca’s age, and looking at Seneca. Everything and everyone else is invisible to me.

    The role of a father?

    I think the simple role of a father is to simply raise, train, and battle ready your child. 

    Simply put, I think the best strategy of raising your son is maximum time outdoors, in the direct elements, maximum time with physical activity exercise and the great outdoors, climbing, being in the water, throwing rocks in the water, eating meat etc. All this nonsense about “education” is overrated.

    Just ask yourself:

    What would king Leonidas do?

    Howard King Leonidas raise his son?

    “Education”?

    If your kid is born in America, and has two educated parents… certainly whether you like it or not, they will learn how to be fluent in English, learn the English language, without even trying.

    In fact, the ultimate education and learning happens in the real world.

    I have the ultimate pride in Seneca, from a via negativa perspective:

    1. Since he was born, he has never watched any YouTube, Disney+, YouTube kids, Netflix etc.
    2. Since he was born he has never been put into preschool, daycare, “Montessori” school etc.
    3. He has never eaten candy, ice cream, desserts or cake, etc.
    4. He has never been exposed to movies films TV shows Marvel etc.

    Then the irony is to privilege your kid, it isn’t about “adding“ activities or extracurricular activities for them; but rather what not to give them or what not to allow them to do.

    Life?

    I think the ideal life is not being employed, being self-employed and being a sole proprietor. If you see people who have to make zoom calls for a living, go to any office, or send emails for a living… they are not free. Freedom is the goal, not wealth. 

    During the day, the ideal is to just be outside all day. If you are worried about the sun, just wear a lot of sunblock, wear a hat, baseball cap, or one of those funny wide brimmed hiking hats. I used to think that they were really lame, those hats which are really really big and long in the front, and really really long in the back to protect your neck. But now, I understand the rationale. And if you want to protect your body just wear long pants and long sleeves. 

    An epiphany I also had about weather; even the most glorious of weather, not that the sun is in full blast in Los Angeles, the big issue is now the sun is almost too strong — even wearing SPF 60 sunblock, the UV rays of the sun feels like pins and needles on my shoulders and on top of my forehead. And also watching the Dune movie, all of the fighters of Arrakis essentially look like Middle Eastern people, all covered up, besides the eyes – Paul Atriedes at the very end, full battle gear, head and face covered besides the blue spice-infused eyes.

    Then what that also means is when it is cold or the winter… Dress intelligently. Lots of layers. If you get too hot just take off layers. Just like when it is too hot, just keep taking clothes off until there are no more clothes to takeoff. 


    What else?

    If you have the privilege, hit the beach! Just go barefoot in the sand and the water, just dip your feet and your legs and your body into the ocean. And then just stare into the deep ocean, with the waves crashing directly into and at you.

    The big epiphany I had about the ocean is this:

    Infinite power and horizons, never ending … forever.

    I even thought, maybe the best bitcoin mining rig would just be a mega computer in the middle of the ocean, harnessing the forever power of the ocean, gravity and the solar system.

    Now what?

    If you want a simple trip that is not too difficult, just go on a hike in nature, or just hit the beach! I think there is a grand connection between man his environment and nature; he spent too much time in a cramped city, I think your horizon narrows. Even the simple action of staring into the sea… You know that your future is infinite. 

    ERIC


    INCOMING!

    Conquer the planet and beyond at upcoming ERIC KIM WORKSHOP:

    1. SF: Conquer your fears, October 26, 2024
    2. DOWNTOWN LA– the OG: Conquer your fears in street photography and beyond November 16, 2024

    For the insanely bold–

    CAMBODIA 2025 ANGKOR WORKSHOP EXPERIENCE


    Now what?

    Never stop shooting!

    ERIC


    Start here, Books, News

    Also for fun —

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    Upload Your Photos Here >


    The more you shoot, the happier you will be!

    ERIC KIM BLOG


  • Extreme Frugality

    Spartan frugality

  • What does it mean to be “conservative”?

    To conserve — but … towards what ends and for the sake of what?

  • Focus on the product, not the humans

    Advice for Apple; for example, Apple vision pro… don’t put a face behind it, just highlight the product! Old school Steve Jobs and Jony Ive style!

  • Zoo Thoughts

    Born into captivity, also, the next generation born will also be born into the next captivity?

    Zoo analogy for human beings 

    Visited the LA zoo yesterday, great experience, but the interesting thoughts; especially when going to the grill exhibit, briefly making eye contact with the gorilla which is actually very human-esque—

    These gorillas want freedom, and they know that they’re enslaved.

    Also as a metaphor, humans that essentially live their existence like a zoo exhibit, and also the next generation will also be born into that same captivity? 

  • Accept fear

    Fear is always a constant, but accepting it is what makes you stronger

    .

    Human economy

    Division of labor

    Labor in human economy

    Timestamp Server

    Later Blocks are chained after it

    Speak your mind

    What should a free man do?

    ..l

    The mind the eyes the soul are sensitive.

    The will to win?

  • Think the cyber world, not the physical world.

    Example, cyber property not physical property. Bitcoin over real estate 

  • Artificial intelligence, and blogging go hand in hand

    For example, ChatGPT which is essentially a large natural language learning model, thrives on text based information. As a consequence, contrary to what people think, blogging is now 1000 times more important with AI 

  • How did Eric Kim get so jacked?

    I just started re-watching the movie 300, and apparently when the film was made, Gerald Butler, a.k.a. King Leonidas was about my age, 36.

    And actually critically looking at his physique, very impressive… In fact I have a more jacked impressive physique.

    Eric Kim has indeed developed a notably muscular physique, which he attributes to a disciplined lifestyle that includes specific dietary practices and intense exercise routines. Here are some of the key elements he follows:

    1. Intermittent Fasting: Kim follows a regimen of not eating breakfast or lunch and instead consuming one large meal in the evening. His diet is 100% carnivore, focusing solely on meat.
    2. Strict Dietary Restrictions: He avoids alcohol, weed, starches, vegetables, fiber, fruit, nuts, and sugar. This strict diet aids in maintaining a low body fat percentage and high muscle definition.
    3. Heavy Weightlifting: Kim engages in extremely heavy weightlifting exercises such as hypelifting, Atlas lifts, and rack pulls. These exercises are designed to build substantial muscle mass and strength.
    4. Calisthenics: In addition to weightlifting, Kim also incorporates calisthenics into his fitness routine, which helps in enhancing his muscular endurance and definition.

    These practices reflect Kim’s commitment to building and maintaining a muscular physique, which he views as a status symbol and an essential aspect of his personal brand and lifestyle oai_citation:1,Your Physique – ERIC KIM oai_citation:2,THINK PHYSIQUE – ERIC KIM oai_citation:3,EK PHYSIQUE – ERIC KIM oai_citation:4,PHYSIQUE? – ERIC KIM oai_citation:5,Physique is the new status symbol – ERIC KIM.

  • Vision is Key

    Accept fear

    Fear is always a constant, but accepting it is what makes you stronger

    .

    Human economy

    Division of labor

    Labor in human economy

    Timestamp Server

    Later Blocks are chained after it

    Speak your mind

    What should a free man do?

    ..l

    The mind the eyes the soul are sensitive.

  • Real world, real life learning

    Books and reading is for poor people?

    ..

    “Everybody’s telepathically connected to everybody.

    But that’s, you know, that telepathic thing, if you ever watch one of those X-Men movies, the teenage girl is a telepath and when her telepathy starts working, she starts hearing the thoughts of everybody around her. And then she starts hearing the thoughts of the serial killers and the criminals. And if she doesn’t figure out how to tune out those thoughts, she goes insane, right?

    And it’s an apt metaphor in a world where everybody can talk to everyone instantly via one platform. What happens if the person running the platform goes insane? What happens if they get angry?”

    From You’re The Voice | by Efrat Fenigson: Ep. 32: Michael Saylor – The Virtuous Network, Jun 24, 2024
    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/youre-the-voice-by-efrat-fenigson/id1692773110?i=1000660029707
    This material may be protected by copyright.

    “And we’re just getting a lot more feedback in our systems today because all these things are looping into each other. And, you know, I pick up my phone and, you know, and the phone provider can actually put a public service warning on the phone for 400, 1422 days in a row, it’ll tell you you ought to be panicked in order to protect you. But the point is, if I poke you 1400 times in a row, if you were healthy, you won’t be when I finish.”

    From You’re The Voice | by Efrat Fenigson: Ep. 32: Michael Saylor – The Virtuous Network, Jun 24, 2024
    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/youre-the-voice-by-efrat-fenigson/id1692773110?i=1000660029707
    This material may be protected by copyright.

    Bitcoin as digital capital

    Global capital

    “I call it the mycelium, because it’s just like with mushrooms in nature. The trees are benefiting from the other flowers next to them, thanks to this mycelium that connects all of them together.”

    From You’re The Voice | by Efrat Fenigson: Ep. 32: Michael Saylor – The Virtuous Network, Jun 24, 2024
    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/youre-the-voice-by-efrat-fenigson/id1692773110?i=1000660029707
    This material may be protected by copyright

    Virtuous network

    50% yield

    “Their objection is they don’t want people to take more than $50,000 a year in capital outside of China. So if you buy $10 million of Bitcoin, put it in a hardware wallet and leave the country, you violated the capital controls. But if you buy $10 million of Bitcoin via an ETF in Shanghai, and the Bitcoin is then purchased by the exchange and costodied in China, the Chinese banking system benefits, the Chinese currency benefits, the Chinese culture benefits, the Chinese government gets their taxes, the Chinese investors get Bitcoin.”

    From You’re The Voice | by Efrat Fenigson: Ep. 32: Michael Saylor – The Virtuous Network, Jun 24, 2024
    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/youre-the-voice-by-efrat-fenigson/id1692773110?i=1000660029707
    This material may be protected by copyright.

    $400 T Capital

    $900T wealth in the world

    Pure economic energy

    Monetary union

    Buy levered equity

    We are 6 months into year one

    “nobody remembers when they were mean to you, right? Except you remember. And if you remember and take it personally, you never make the sale.”

    From You’re The Voice | by Efrat Fenigson: Ep. 32: Michael Saylor – The Virtuous Network, Jun 24, 2024
    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/youre-the-voice-by-efrat-fenigson/id1692773110?i=1000660029707
    This material may be protected by copyright.

    Slow is fine!

    Slow and forever

    Recovery

    White is best in LA.

  • You Can’t Tame Me!

    Untameable

    What is the role and task of modern day society? To tame the individual, to tame the beast-man. 

    For example, if you think about almost all K-12 education, even at the college University level… What does it aim towards? Obedience, ability to sedate children to sit down, be quiet, listen to the teacher etc.

    For example, even when I think about traditional elementary school, it seems mostly disturbing that kids only get about 30 minutes or an hour of free play, outside today? There’s too much focus on “education”– this amorphus concept of “education.”

    Most books are bad?

    Recently, I’ve been taking Seneca a lot to these public libraries. We typically think the following:

    More books, more reading … “more” better.

    For example, we think about it in simple vector arithmetic forms. The more books you add to your brain, the more words and pages and books you consume, the “more” smart, virtuous, noble, and superior you will become. 

    But the issue here, going to the library, honestly 99.99% of these books are bad.

    For example, a lot of these books which are made for children are either dumb, or, they encourage strange morality. A lot of these books return for kids now are snarky And mostly written for the shits and giggles for parents.

    Weird kids at the park?

    Another hesitance and reticence of puddings Seneca in school; most kids at the park or actually really strange? With strange parents?

    For example, a lot of these kids who are obviously older than Seneca, because they talk really well and in full sentences etc.… They have strange morality, and also, strange ethics. Strange playground and workflows.

    Then you look at the parents… Look a little bit disturbed, all out on their phones, checking dumb Instagram and watching YouTube videos, while their kids are playing at the park, vying for their attention?

    iPhones are the new dumbing down tool. 

    I have a very simple idea for  parents, children, and adults alike:

    Lock up your iPhones in the glove compartment of your car, or just leave it at home when you go out.

    It is almost like a metaphorical analogy of tying yourself to the mast a la Odysseus.

    For example, if you really really want to be 100%, 1000% present with your child when you’re at the park with them, very very simple, turn off your phone, put inside the glove compartment, close it, then play with your kid at the park!

    Another funny workflow or hacks; if your kid wants to play on the iPad, make it a rule that you are not allowed to watch or do anything on the iPad at home, only at the park, or the downtown area.

    I even have an idea for adults; perhaps the rule should be you are not allowed to use your phone, laptop, iPad at home endorse; only outside, in the direct sun!

    The sun

    We checked out this new super space book from the library the other day, and Cindy was reading it to Seneca before sleeping, and an interesting fact:

    One second, of the power of the sun could power the entire earth for 27,000 years.

    This is insane.

    It looks like now, summer is upon us, literally about four days ago, the sun came out in full force! Personally for me, this is my utopia in Paradise being in Los Angeles, but even yesterday… The sun almost became too strong for me. Even with SPF 60 sunblock on, The sunrays on my skin started to feel like pins and needles on my forehead, my forearms, the back of my neck, etc.  it is so strong that I am contemplating on starting to wear a baseball cap more frequently, and also, wearing long sleeved button up, popping the color to protect my neck.

    Anyways essentially, I think the new man is the man who best embraces in channels and harnesses and utilizes the environment to his benefit.

    Air conditioning weakens you

    I think the only legitimate time to use air-conditioning is if you live in a very very hot and humid place, turning it on for sleep. But besides this, air-conditioning I think is positively bad for you. Especially when you pair it with being indoors, and also with the air conditioning on.

    For example even being at the public library, which is indoors, dark and air condition… Being outside and being indoors is literally night and day.

    When I am outside, either in the shade or the sun, I immediately feel more energy, power, more zest for life. The second that I go indoors, it is dark and cramped, with air conditioning on… It immediately lulls me to sleep,  and also, shuts down my physiology? 

    And then I think, essentially the big issue here is adults, maybe even children now have been conditioned to prefer being indoors, like domesticated cattle, or tamed bulls?

    The raging bull

    Essentially, what is cattle? A male cow? Or whatever? A castrated cow.

    For men and for us men… it is obvious that our power comes from our balls. Our testicles. 

    A very very simple observation: the genetic difference between men and woman is situated in the issue of testicles or no testicles.

    It doesn’t even matter what your sexual orientation is, or your self-professed gender. The better question:

    Do you got balls or no balls?

    Honestly, all of this debate and politicking  about sex, gender, sexual orientation etc.… It seems here the issue is that people somehow want to deny the scientific laws of physiology?

    For example, testes. Or ovaries. If you are a woman with ovaries, or if you experience a sort of menstrual cycle, certainly when you are experiencing hormonal shifts during your menstrual cycle, you will feel act and behaved differently than if you don’t have one. And this is independent whatever your sexual preferences are.

    But… I think that women will never understand about men, is that men we have testosterone. How does testosterone manifest itself? Simple: it gives us power and force when we need it, for example, if you want to lift 1000 pounds … you will certainly want to harness and channel your testosterone to your benefit. It seems very foolish too rub one out really quick before lifting 1000 pounds.

    Or, I am very dubious that Hafthor rubbed one out really quickly before dead lifting his infamous 502 kg dead lift.


    These body parts aren’t free

    “This dick ain’t free”– Drake

    Another funny gendered truism:

    More often than not, it seems that the goal is for men to seduce women in order to bed them, and will often spend largest sums of money directly or indirectly to do this… But never never the other way around? 

    For example, assuming that man is the world to power, and man desires more power, in theory the optimal strategy is to never release your seminal fluid. Apparently this is called “semen retention”. And also the funny new pseudo masculine walk strategy is to see how long you could retain your semen, before in naturally emissions itself in your sleep.

    I think the superstition that boxers should not have sex the night before the big fight is a good one.

    Also, ancient Chinese notions of Yang and Yang; apparently one man ejects his semen, it is considered that he is losing his Yang, a bad thing. Therefore as a consequence, the theory for life for a Chinese Emperor was for him to bed as many women virgins as possible, but he was not allowed to ejaculate? Blue balling yourself for immortality.

    Science?

    Certainly much of science, the scientific method of inquiry is a good one. Cause and effect, experimentation. 

    However, often we fall victim to something called “scientism“– the basic ideas that it sounds like signs, but in fact, it is hocus-pocus, uncritical.

    For example, this nonsensical notion of “calories“,” burning“ calories. 

    The insane idea is that somehow, the average human being “burns” 2000 calories a day, and in order to not get fat, you must “burn” 2000 calories a day. 

    My personal theory is that this pseudoscience is promoted by the Coca-Cola corporation, who wants you to “balance“ what you eat consume and how you move. 

    For example, the reason why this is so pernicious is that somehow, let us see I drink that mini Coca-Cola can, which has “only” 1000 calories — then the ideas that if I worked out and I’m fit or whatever, or I don’t “consume“ that many calories in a day, I somehow will not get fat and get diabetes.

    Then as a consequence, one ends up drinking juice, quinoa salads, and still continues to consume Coca-Cola, and that person ends up getting fat, poor blood sugar levels, and the individuals confused on why this is the case.

    Any level of sugar, high fructose corn syrup, Splenda, real or fake sweeteners is toxic.

    Or another words, trust no human being who drinks “0 cal“ sweetened beverages, soda or Coca-Cola, even in “moderation”. Also, trust no thinker who smokes marijuana, consumes marijuana, CBD, or alcohol.

    Have you ever met a 100% sober academic?

    Or–

    Have you ever met a vegetarian or vegan who did not drink beer, wine, alcohol or spirits, or partook in marijuana?

    I think if alcohol was not vegetarian or vegan, you would see a lot fewer vegetarians and vegans. 

    Untaming yourself 

    If you are a bull, and let us say that you are a fighting bull, is it a good idea to castrate yourself if your objective is to fight? No.

    I think a modern day society, man is metaphorically castrating himself. And also, denying his beast like attributes, as well as lowering his testosterone?

    For example, marijuana, alcohol lowers your testosterone. Also, sugar and starches lower your testosterone.

    I cannot speak from the female perspective because I am not a woman, but, thinking critically about male things is a good idea. 

    So what should I do?

    In the realm of photography and street photography, I think one of the critical concerns that people got is photographing children now that I am a parent, and I have a young child, the calculus is simple:

    I have zero problems if a photographer or street photographer wants to photograph Seneca. I would just prefer they don’t do it with a telephoto lens hiding behind a bush.

    Creepiness is proportional to focal length. 

    What that means is this; if you don’t want to look creepy, don’t use a telephoto lens. Only use wide-angle prime lenses. 

    And also, no need to be hidden stealth and candid all the time; even Henri Cartier-Breason used to shoot street photography with a handkerchief tied around his Leica camera, and would pretend to sneeze when shooting pictures. I find this a bit creepy. 

    “How would you feel if somebody photographed you without your permission“?

    I wouldn’t mind. In fact, I would feel flattered.

    This is where ethics becomes so interesting;

    My ethics don’t need to be proportional to your ethics in order for me to be legitimate.

    Now what?

    My simple line of ethics is to do things, 100% naked and transparent, which means, never do anything in secret public or private that you wouldn’t be comfortable having your wife or kid know.

    For example —  I would not encourage a man or a father to look at certain images or videos that he would not be comfortable having his son know that his father is doing in secret or in Google incognito, with bay browser, with a VPN, or with any sort of “privacy”, preserving tools. Also the issue with privacy is I wonder… how much of this fake privacy stuff has to deal with people watching strange pornography on the Internet?

    Don’t watch porn that you would not feel comfortable having your kid know that you’re watching.


    How to live a virtuous life?

    Virtue is what we seek. I think even with our children, the goal is to raise virtuous kids? Even my best man Justin told me in regards to child rearing; he just doesn’t want to raise a degenerate kid.

    I wonder if the first thing:

    Perhaps good parenting is “via negativa”– what don’t you want your kids to become to grow up.

    For example, I don’t want Seneca to become a degenerate, drug consumer, smoke weed etc.

    In fact, I recently discovered that a lot of these really rich families, and issue with the children; they get addicted to methamphetamine, partying with women on yachts, blowing through the family wealth.

    What I want to teach Seneca to become a Spartan voice; simple, stoic and hard.

    What that means is imputing my ethics and morality into him, which is centered around virtue, simplicity, courage and strength. Also, physical valor.

    First, seek to become your own ideal

    I was talking to a dad the other day about who the greatest basketball player was of all time, and it is either Michael Jordan, LeBron James, or Kobe Bryant. Why? Their will to win.

    On one hand, the notion of winning were losing as a bad one because in real life, this notion does not exist, only in games, or sports.

    I suppose in ancient Greek times, if you think about the Iliad, the simple calculus was who kills who? 

    For example, as long as nobody could kill Achilles in combat, he is the victor. And also, Lee it doesn’t matter your philosophy or worldview, if somebody else kills you in battle, you are the loser.

    Don’t get killed

    Then perhaps the first notion of success is not getting killed.

    Then, if you are babysitting your nieces or nephews for the weekend, the best way to return them to their parents is “alive and intact”.


    Don’t let your kid die 

    Living here in Los Angeles, it seems that the biggest issue here is that  it seems there is actually a very high likelihood of dying in a car accident, getting hit by cars, have your kid die in a car accident, we’re having your kid get killed by a car that runs a red, either by accident or intentionally.

    Some thoughts:

    1. First, if your child is still young, and you’re living in the city, the rule is they are not allowed to cross the street. It doesn’t matter if your kid is the most intelligent kid in the world. Even a car driving at 15 mph hour or 25 mph could be lethal, especially to a small and young 3 1/2-year-old child.
    2. Non-distracted driving? Certainly the change begins with yourself. I made it a rule along time ago to never listen to any music or podcasts when I am driving in my car. I only use my phone for GPS and Google maps, everything else is off. In fact, the critical issue here was that I was listening to a podcast, while in Berkeley, and there was some sort of annoying pre-roll advertisement I think on Tim Farris’s audio podcast, and I was trying to skip it, and while trying to skip it on my smart phone, I almost got into a car accident.

    Laser eyes?

    Laser eyes are the future. You don’t want to enslave your eyeballs to a foreign screen or device.

    For example, when I think about the real world, when I think about embodied reality, the world is like one mega jumbo screen, four dimensions, infinite.

    Then I think that people enslaved their eyeballs to a tiny 5 inch screen, this is bad.

    Simple thoughts:

    1. Get rid of those iPhone Pro’s. Honestly, Apple coming up with the iPhone Pro, a shameless cash grab. If Steve Jobs were still alive I don’t think he would ever let it fly. Also — Jony Ive. I have a theory that even Joni I was reluctant to design and produce the iPhone pro, because he knew that it violated the design ethics of Steve Jobs and Apple.
    2. Get outside! Am I the only person on the planet who walks around town, with his iPad Pro, and voice dictates everything?

    Building the future 

    Stop buying those iPhones buy those bitcoins!

    Recently my neighbor just bought a brand new Porsche 718 S, and I thought to myself:

    Wow, that $80,000 would be a lot better invested into bitcoin.

    Assuming that bitcoin 10 X’s, 100 x’s, or even 1000x’s from here…  that means $80,000 will turn into $800,000, turns into $8 million, turns into $80 million.

    If your automobile, that money you sink into it would be worth $80 million even 10 years from now… Would you do that trade? No.

    Even cybertruck; which I consider the best vehicle created of all time; I would love to have one, but I think the more intelligent strategy is to transform your body into a cybertruck, and just put your moneys into bitcoin instead. 

    Why? The simple math is even from a conservative perspective, bitcoin has been going up at least 50 to 55% year over year. What that then means is if you just do a simple calculation or graph using ChatGPT pro , your $1 million in bitcoin today will be worth $57,000,000 10 years from now, $57 million, or $3 billion dollars years from now. 
    And in 30 years, your bitcoin will be worth $191 Billion dollars.

    Or other maths:

    1. 6 years until you hit $10M
    2. 12 years until you hit $100M
    3. 18 years until you hit $1B– which is not that long that is when Seneca turns 21.

    Do you remember when Google first IPOd, when Facebook first IPOd, when Amazon first IPOd and everyone thought that it was stupid? 

    Or, do you remember when the first iPhone two came out, and everyone thought it was insane that it had no physical keyboard like a blackberry?

    Or, do you remember when Steve Jobs first announce the iPad, and people were angry that it didn’t have any USB ports?

    Everyone will always ridicule something until they get one. 

    For example, the joke with the iPad is they called it an “I tampon”.

    How many people who were die hard blackberry users, now use an iPhone?  And thinking about the future, how many foolish people with a Ford F150, or even worse, an F150 raptor will eventually trade in all their cars just buy a Cybertruck truck? 

    Or, all of these early adopters of the Rivian truck, how much of them are secretly jealous or envious or desired that they had a cyber truck instead?

    Even myself, I was a diehard user of android phones for a very very long time, even having the original android HTC Evo — but even myself eventually I figured out that iPhone and iOS was 1 trillion times better, and eventually I even switched.

    Same thing goes with computers, I was always anti-apple, but once I got my first 11 inch MacBook Air, realized I was a fool for using windows all along.

    I wonder if the line of thinking will be for bitcoin; when people finally do get bitcoin, they will think:

    Why didn’t I buy bitcoin earlier?


    Financial thinking

    I think the simplest way to become more frugal is assume that the $1,000 you spend today will multiplied by a factor of 10, 100, or 1000 just a few years from now. If this is the case, how would your spending behaviors change? 

    The $1000 iPhone Pro you purchase will become 10,000, 100,000, $1 million in 10 years. Then the optimal strategy maximally frugal; the true capitalist just uses an iPhone SE.

    Technology x Capitalism

    We are the new capitalists. Bitcoin is the way.

    ERIC

    ***

  • Just Ignore

    I think we tend to like to make a big ruckus about things; simply put, the best strategy is to just ignore. Turn the blind eye, blind shoulder.


    Just pretend like you’re a cop

    Or just pretend like you’re SWAT? 


    It doesn’t cost you anything to make your wife happy

    Better to have a high maintenance wife than high maintenance car?


    Cars or humans?

    The most interesting newsletter alive?

    Non toxic news

    .

    The irony; on one hand, we like to preach fake notions of “freedom of speech and expression”, especially when it comes to your section gender or whatever.

    Yet, somehow, when it comes to our thoughts, we must censor ourselves? 

    When somebody asked Diogenes , “what is the greatest human good? He said, freedom of speech.

    I suppose the issue here is what if you are racist sexist or bad or evil person?

    Ist?

    You could be anti-whatever you want. You could be pro whatever you want.

    I suppose they should here is are you allowed to be anti-?

    For example, in terms of legality or freedom of speech or expression or whatever… Is one permitted to be “anti” transgender – but pro LGBTQ in general?

    Or, am I allowed to be anti-transgender, but pro transsexual?

    Or, are you allowed to be a Democrat and a liberal and vote for Donald Trump?

    The boundaries are becoming strange?

    For example, Republicans, right wing conservatives, people who wave around the confederate flag, support Israel? I always thought that the right, the conservative is the Republicans the confederate flag people and the people who like guns and whatever… Are anti-Jewish, anti-Semitic?

    I suppose this is also where Kanye was so innovative; being an African-American black man voting Republican? Typically the African-American black community votes Democrat, Barack Obama etc.; are you allowed to change sides? Or are you allowed to just not choose any side?

    Not voting?

    If you do not agree with any side, is it permitted or virtuous to just not vote?

    For example, this upcoming election cycle… I like that Donald Trump is pro bitcoin, but for the most part, Donald Trump is certainly a terrible human being. At least the way he talks with or about women etc.  for example, the fact that he said grabbing women by the pussy and throwing them around is certainly bad. That alone he will not get my vote.

    Yet I am not for Joe Biden, it seems that he is secretly funneling money into his family and his son and whatever, and also, promoting war?

  • Why Los Angeles is the perfect place to live

    Tragedy porn

    The problem with virtual reality is that it is not addictive

    White and gold, white and bronze

    White clothes, gold chains

    .

    Gay, queer, LGBT, LGBTQ people should have kids ?

    Just fix it or repair it or mend it

    Eye pollution

  • Why is iPad Pro Marketing so Lame?

    iPad Pro M4– a big deal,,, but why does the marketing for it suck so much?

  • Unlock Power

    Unlock *your* power

    The will to win?

    The will to conquer?

  • So Innovative

    Love the new outlier.nyc clothes — especially the “sunblock” arm stuff and tank tops — so fire!

  • Think blanks.

    Real economics, life economics

    Real economics has to deal with time energy life management

    Futuristic cars, or futuristic human bodies?

    Why are the new modern day cars so beautiful, but the human bodies sitting inside them so ugly?

    The man of steel

    City boy, urban boy

    Real life physics, body physics, bodily physics?

    Physics don’t lie

    Money physics, monetary physics

    Never get rid of or go away or trade away from the best 

    My personal vision is sooner or later, everybody will realize that bitcoin is supreme, and slowly consolidate their other assets into bitcoin.

    Don’t be shy

    Books versus real life

    Muscle body versus muscle car?

    We are seeking the perfect shape body and aesthetics for cars or functionality, but not humans?

    a new vision of the artist

    Intelligent economic leverage

    Think utility 

    Durability Is key. 

    Bitcoin is infinitely durable

  • Your Ultimate Goal in Life?

    Your Ultimate Goal in Life?

    What is my ultimate goal? To help improve the lives or the meaning of life of others or for others?

    Life post privilege

    I think one of the greatest privileges of having everything, becoming everything, is the privilege of buffer. Once you have everything you want, everything you need and desire, and also you have great clarity on life and things, then the simple question is — What do you want out of your life, for your life, from your life?

    The first very basic thing is that I think, after all of this, the ultimate goal is to help empower the lives of others.

    Think philosophy

    Ultimately, everything comes down to a philosophical question.

    For example, I look at all of these, unmarried, men, working hard at their tech jobs, working hard from home, etc.… all for the sake of what?

    I think it’s all society. It seems that the real carrot and the cure is capitalism and consumerism in general.

    For example, it seems the obvious answer here is children, begetting children, having children etc. Yet it seems like the critical flaw here is that people no longer want to have kids, it is a not a desired thing.

    People would prefer to have dogs, they would prefer to go out and drink alcohol and go to festivals and do strange drugs, smoke or consume marijuana, or buy some sort of expensive car, to feel superior and dominant?

    Or, to purchase clothes, all for the sake of what? 

    Problems?

    I think the first obvious corporate here is Instagram, now I suppose TikTok, maybe also YouTube.

    YouTube is a little bit less at fault because most real life individuals don’t actually have their own YouTube channels; I think people approach YouTube as entertainment, whereas everyone has their own individual Instagram account, maybe even a few having a TikTok account? 

    Instagram issues

    I saw on the other day at the public library, a Wall Street Journal headline showing that effectively, the algorithm of Instagram or whatever promotes sexual behaviors activities and exhibitions.

    I think this is true and also very concerning. For example, I think Mark Zuckerberg has to make a critical decision here; now that he is a father. Effectively, what is Instagram? I think it is promoting young girl child pedophilia; let us think, if you are young girl, what things will get the most likes? Things tend to be pseudo sexual and nature, showing off your body parts etc.

    Even a lot of these 20 year olds, 20-year-old female women, the reason they become influencers is that there are lots of photos of them looking sexy and beautiful in bathing suits at the pool, living a glamorous life etc.

    Also problematic for men and boys etc., strange images of men with beards, sunglasses, facial hair, with guns, and a bunch of babes around them?

    Regardless, I think my simple parenting idea will be this:

    I will never purchase or give Seneca his own phone iPhone smart phone etc.

    No social media.

    Would you give your kids cigarettes to smoke, or worse, heroin? 

    Allowing your kids to use social media, or getting on it, or giving them their own phone is almost like a smoking parent, who is already addicted to nicotine, offering their kids to smoke.

    If anything, social media, phones, Instagram, etc. might actually be 1000 times worse for kids than smoking, as social media now leads to depression, or strange dopamine hits to be programmed in a strange way.

    My first suggestion is for parents, all parents, to just delete their Instagram, and also delete YouTube from their phones. And also unsubscribe from all of these silly subscription services, Spotify, Disney, Disney plus, Netflix whatever.

    The new Matrix?

    What a lot of fools don’t understand is that technology improvements only happen when you get rid of stuff.

    For example, one step in the right direction is when Apple promoted the fact that you could use the Apple Watch to make phone calls, or send messages while just leaving your phone at home. Any technology which could allow you to leave your iPhone in your car or at home is a good thing.

    And yes, let us stop calling it a smart phone, just call it an iPhone. In America, Essentially 99.9% of people use iPhones. The only people who don’t use iPhones are either poor people, working class people, or a few stragglers who still use Google Pixel.

    Even internationally, any rich person will either desire or use an iPhone Pro; any influencer who is using a Samsung phone or maybe even a Google pixel phone is either being sponsored or paid. I don’t know any human being who would actually spend over $500 to purchase either an android phone or Google pixel or a Samsung. Or spend any money on a phone which isn’t an iPhone. My working theory is that almost everybody who has a smartphone made by Samsung either got it for free by signing up for some sort of cell phone plan.

    New worlds

    What is happiness and human flourishing? Simple, moving around, being dynamic, being outside.

    For example, any sort of activity which encourages dynamic movement in the elements is good. This includes hiking at a nature preserve, walking around the neighborhood, going to the beach, riding the subway, essentially anything which is not indoors or inside a car. 

    The privilege of fitness

    Fitness and exercise is the new modern day privilege. If you have the privilege to work out, exercise, ideally outside… You are the new top .01%.

    For example, my new intervention realizing that actually, working out outside, in the direct sun topless, is 1 trillion times more enjoyable than working out inside an enclosed stuffy gym.

    In fact, I’ve been seeing a lot more people working out outside either in parking lots, at the beach etc.

    Unsubscribe

    Cancel your memberships and your subscription plans. 

    I think my great pride is that I don’t have any subscription services. I am not subscribed to Netflix, Spotify, Disney Disney+ whatever.

    Also, I think for the most part if you have a closeby gym that you like, and you go to the gym every day this is good. But, if you’re in a position in which it is too cumbersome to go to the gym, and you don’t go, just cancel your gym membership and work out from home.

    Titan.fitness is a godsend — you can get the independent squat rack trees for only 300 bucks! And it can handle about 1000 pounds. Just purchase some cast-iron weight plates to save money.

    A non-brainer

    The more I think about it, simply put, the best thing you could use money on is to buy weightlifting equipment, whether it be a barbell, a squat rack, weight plates etc.

    Why? A big issue here in Los Angeles is that gyms will cost you an arm and a leg. On average even the ghetto LA fitness will cost you maybe around $70 bucks a month. Multiply that by a year; you’re almost paying $1000 a year for your gym membership. Invest instead to just buy $1000 worth of weightlifting equipment, and in theory assuming use every single day for the next 10 years, you will actually save a lot of money. 

    Food

    For beverages all you need is tap water or filtered water from home. Actually do you think about it and do the math, if you are one of those fools who consume “alkaline water“; it costs more money per gallon than gasoline. 

    Anyone who drinks alkaline water or promotes it, is patently a fool. If anything, real men drink tap water. 

    Probably one of the most useful nuggets I’ve learned from the Walter Isaacson biography on Elon Musk is that Elon Musk drinks tapwater. If the world’s most genius richest man drinks tap water, so should you. 

    For coffee, fine robusta is the way. Either get some ERIC KIM Omakase coffee, or, my friends sisters coffee and tea Company CREO— fine robusta is the way. 

    For example, my preferred way to consume coffee is espresso. I find that for myself, two shots of fine robusta coffee from Vietnam gives me an insanely good buzz, three shots for god-level buzz … whereas it might take me nine or 10 shots of light roast arabica Ethiopia yirgafheffe to get me in the same mood. 


    Build things which you wish to see manifested in the world

    Currently, my primary moneymaking profession is through crypto cryptocurrency and bitcoin. And also, when I think about all my great innovations that I came up with while living in Vietnam, for only $300 a month, all the things that I came up with, and created or things that I genuinely believe that the human race would benefit from.

    For example arsbeta.com — essentially my first stab at replacing Instagram. A double blind experiment photo sharing platform, without the need of intermediaries.

    My next vision for ARS; if you want to “like” a photo, essentially what you have to do is you zap them with a Satoshi – the smallest fraction of a bitcoin. And the great thing is that a single Satoshi is infinitely small, but ultimately does have some real monetary value. I think a single Satoshi is only worth 100th of a penny– but in fact, if I really created this new economy, this would be world changing.

    The problem right now with likes on social media is that it doesn’t cost anything. You can mindlessly scroll in like 1 trillion things. But, if it actually cost you a single Satoshi to like a photo, then there is true skin in the game.

    Another way to fix email; make it a required thing for people to pay a single Satoshi before sending an email.

    The first photo sharing platform powered by bitcoin and Satoshi

    Anyways, if you want to build the future email me at eric@erickim.com — ideally I am looking for bitcoin developers, who could essentially build this thing. Very very simple thing, it would look like Instagram, be connected with a bitcoin lightning wallet, either the cash app or the Coinbase app, and users can make their own account whatever– and the core functionality is that the idea to like a photo will be instead a lightning bolt (⚡️) or a 🔥, in which you have to pay a single Satoshi either “like” a photo of somebody.

    And, building up on the concept of ARS; if you want a famous photographer to give you feedback on your photos, there will be a messaging app, and a request critique function in which you asked there is a bid functionality of how many Satoshi‘s you will charge and accept for a critique on a certain photo.

    ***

    Spread wealth and prosperity

    The general promise of capitalism is to spread prosperity, happiness, joy, freedom, liberty and justice for the greatest number of people across the planet.

    People like to critique and criticize America and capitalism, but, even the Chinese, the Chinese yuan, the CNY is effectively pegged to the US dollar. In fact, all of the global currencies are pegged to the US dollar. 

    The troubling thing is even the worlds strongest currency of the US dollar is losing 7 to 10% of its value, year over year. And the money supply is expanding at an alarming rate.

    As a consequence, the whole world economy is not doing too hot, but, it’s still seems that the refuge is America. You’ve been in Korean, the word for America is “mi-gook” which means beautiful country. (Mi — beauty, good – country).


    So now what?

    Simply put, devote dedicate an investor time energy and resources in doing and building things you actually care for. Assuming that you’re a bitcoin billionaire, and you no longer have any money needs — just build it!

    ERIC


    Ideas

    1. Make your own website or blog. Ionos.com and install WordPress.org
    2. Start an email newsletter; sendy.com
    3. Delete your Instagram, we all congratulate people for quitting heroin or cocaine or smoking cigarettes; shouldn’t the same attitude be done or addressed in the context of Instagram? And let us not call it social media; call a spade a spade. Instagram is the real bad guy here, not social media.

    Photo ideas

    Pentax just put out the new film camera which is really cool. And it has a flash! It is essentially the new Ricoh GR for the next generation. And it is genius! Because it has a half frame concept, which means that you could shoot twice the number of photos on a single roll of film, 72 pictures instead of the typical 36.

    Pentax 17

    And it does seem that even in today’s world with iPhones, kids young kids highschoolers etc. still prefer to shoot film! My working theory is that people still prefer to have standalone cameras, they actually want to spend less time on their phones.

    Also what is very interesting about generation Z is that they are actually the most self-aware generation; they know that phones and social media and Instagram is bad they also know that alcohol is bad and causes cancer, and also marijuana is also bad for you, Z is a good generation because they prefer sobriety and being sober.

    A fun question I like to ask people:

    Has anybody ever enjoyed burning man, going to a festival, going to an EDM rave that was 100% sober? No drugs, no alcohol?

    And even though Elon Musk is definitely the greatest entrepreneur of all time; the issue here is that he still drinks Coca-Cola, Red Bull, and alcohol. 


    Other ideas

    Another new camera which got released recently is the new Ricoh GR highlight diffusion filter — I think the idea is genius; essentially emulating the film aesthetic and look but the convenience of shooting digital.

    28mm

    Now that Seneca is getting older, the age of three years, three months… Having a 28 mm lens in focal length is very good here, because he is getting really into climbing, climbing at the park rock climbing etc.… a 28 mm lens is great at exaggerating angles, perspectives, epic action.

    Think 28mm.

    Travel!

    Some incoming workshops include my next year insanely epic Angkor Wat Cambodia travel photography workshop experience,  and some upcoming workshops both in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

    Now that Covid is over, I think it is a great thing that we are all hungry to travel again. Yet we are still stuck in a bog and malaise; because there was so much friction that got us stuck during Covid, now is your chance to travel!

    Also some good places to travel include Japan, where you could essentially get a transit pasmo card, directly on your Apple iPhone wallet! Insanely easy, and also because the Japanese yen is collapsing because of the population decline, that means that our US dollars have stronger purchasing power there.

    Also, Istanbul and Turkey might be good because the Turkish lira is also collapsing, which is good for you if you are paid in US dollars.

    Also good times to go to Korea, Vietnam, anywhere in the world. For example just booked my mom ticket round-trip from South Korea to LAX, round-trip, only $500 USD!

    To find cheap flights just use kayak or Google flights.  


    Now what?

    The two fields which are developing extremely quickly in an exciting rate is both cryptocurrency-bitcoin, and artificial intelligence.

    If you want to be the future, ensure that you have the paid ChatGPT app subscription, and also, ensure that you have some bitcoin. Even my friend Natalie told me a few years ago, “every intelligent person I know in the Bay Area has at least some bitcoin!”

    I think the simplest thing to do is just buy some bitcoin with the Coinbase app; my simple thought is there’s no reason why bitcoin will not 10 X, 100 X, or even 1000 X in our lifetime. That means the thousand dollars you spend on an iPhone Pro might become $10,000, $100,000, or maybe even $1 million!

    As a consequence, I have been becoming even more frugal with my money, and continuing to buy bitcoin with any dime I could lay my hands on! 

    People still think bitcoin is too expensive, but 20 years from now, when one bitcoin is worth $10 million a coin… wouldn’t you have wished that you bought it right now at a discount?

    I think the best way to learn about bitcoin is just binge watch and listen to all the Michael Saylor interviews and podcasts– Michael.com and hope.com

    Currently, I am self studying some Austrian economics from Carl Menger — Principles of Economics PDF on my iPad Pro.

    Also, if you do not currently own an iPad, or just have a really really old one that doesn’t work that well, definitely get the new M4 iPad Pro the small one; The only Apple device currently worth purchasing! Good job Apple team here.


    What else?

    For shoes, Vibram 5 finger shoes (Vibram.com) and if you have access, go to the beach! Beach people tend to be happier.

    Currently Ocean Park in Santa Monica is my new favorite joint!


    What else? 

    Think fun, not fitness. Even go to the local park, breathing some air from the fresh trees, and have fun!

    ERIC


    BLOG / NEWS / SHOP


    And when in doubt, always

    START HERE


  • Your Ultimate Goal in Life?

    What is my ultimate goal? To help improve the lives or the meaning of life of others or for others?

    I think one of the greatest privileges of having everything, becoming everything, and also the privilege of buffer. Is that once you have everything you want, everything you need and desire, and also you have great clarity on life and things, then the simple question is What do you want out of your life, for your life, from your life?

    The first very basic thing is that I think, after all of this, the ultimate goal is to help empower the lives of others.

    I think this is where is so fascinating and critical to me because ultimately, everything comes down to a philosophical question.

    For example, I look at all of these, unmarried, men, working hard at their tech jobs, working hard from home, etc.… All for the sake of what?

    I think it’s all society. It seems that the real carrot and the cure is capitalism and consumerism in general.

    For example, it seems the obvious answer here is children, be getting children, having children etc. Yet it seems like the critical flaw here is that people no longer want to have kids, it is a not a desired thing.

    People would prefer to have dogs, they would prefer to go out and drink alcohol and go to festivals and do strange drugs, smoke or consume marijuana, or buy some sort of expensive car, to feel superior and dominant?

    Or, to purchase clothes, all for the sake of what? 

    Problems?

    I think the first obvious corporate here is Instagram, now I suppose TikTok, maybe also YouTube.

    YouTube is a little bit less at fault because most real life individuals don’t actually have their own YouTube channels; I think people approach YouTube as entertainment, whereas everyone has their own individual Instagram account, maybe even a few having a TikTok account? 

    Instagram issues

    I saw on the other day at the public library, a Wall Street Journal headline showing that effectively, the algorithm of Instagram or whatever promotes sexual behaviors activities and exhibitions.

    I think this is true and also very concerning. For example, I think Mark Zuckerberg has to make a critical decision here; now that he is a father. Effectively, what is Instagram? I think it is promoting young girl child pedophilia; let us think, if you are young girl, what things will get the most likes? Things tend to be pseudo sexual and nature, showing off your body parts etc.

    Even a lot of these 20 year olds, 20-year-old female women, the reason they become influencers is that there are lots of photos of them looking sexy and beautiful and bathing suits at the pool, living a glamorous life etc.

    Also problematic for men and boys etc., strange images of men with beards, sunglasses, facial hair, with guns, and a bunch of babes around them?

    Regardless, I think my simple parenting idea will be this:

    I will never purchase or give Seneca his own phone iPhone smart phone etc.

    In fact, no social media.

    Allowing your kitties social media, or getting on it, or giving them their own phone is almost like a smoking parent, who is already addicted to nicotine, offering their kids to smoke.

    If anything, social media, phones, Instagram, etc. might actually be 1000 times worse for kids than smoking, as social media now leads to depression, or strange dopamine hits to be programmed in a strange way.

    My first suggestion is for parents, all parents, to just delete their Instagram, and also delete YouTube from their phones. And also unsubscribe from all of these silly subscription services, Spotify, Disney, Disney plus, Netflix whatever.

    The new matrix?

    What a lot of fools don’t understand is that technology improvements only happen when you get rid of stuff.

    For example, I’ll step in the right direction is one Apple promoted the fact that you could use the Apple Watch to make phone calls, or send messages while just leaving your phone at home. Any technology which could allow you to leave your iPhone in your car or at home is a good thing.

    And yes, let us stop calling it a smart phone, just call it an iPhone. In America, Essentially 99.9% of people use iPhones. The only people who don’t use iPhones are either poor people, working class people, or a few stragglers who still use Google Pixel.

    Even internationally, any rich person will either desire or use an iPhone Pro; any influencer who is using a Samsung phone or maybe even a Google pixel phone is either being sponsored or paid. I don’t know any human being who would actually spend over $500 to purchase either an android phone or Google pixel or a Samsung. Spent any money. My working theory is that almost everybody who has a smart phone made by Samsung either got it for free by signing up for some sort of cell phone plan.

    New worlds

    What is happiness in human flourishing? Simple, moving around, being dynamic, being outside.

    For example, any sort of activity which encourages dynamic movement in the elements is good. This includes hiking at a nature preserve,  walking around the neighborhood, going to the beach, riding the subway, essentially anything which is not indoors or inside a car. 

    The privilege of fitness

    Fitness and exercise is the new modern day privilege. If you have the privilege to work out, exercise, ideally outside… You are the new top 01%.

    For example, my new intervention realizing that actually, working out outside, in the direct on topless, is 1 trillion times more enjoyable than working out inside an enclosed stuffy gym.

    In fact, I’ve been seeing a lot more people working out outside either in parking lots, at the beach etc.

    Unsubscribe

    Cancel your memberships and your subscription plans. 

    I think migrate pride is that I don’t have any subscription services. I am not subscribed to Netflix, Spotify, Disney Disney+ whatever.

    Also, I think for the most part if you have a close by gym that you like, and you go every day this is good. But, if you’re in a position in which it is too cumbersome to go to the gym, and you don’t go, just cancel your gym membership and work out from home.

    Titan.fitness is a godsend — you can get the independent squat rack trees for only 300 bucks! And it can handle about 1000 pounds. Just purchase some cast-iron weight plates to save money.

    The more I think about it, simply put, the best thing you could use money on is to buy weightlifting equipment, whether it be a barbell, a squat rack, weight plates etc.

    Why? A big issue here in Los Angeles is that gyms will cost you an arm and a leg. On average even the ghetto LA fitness will cost you maybe around $70 bucks a month.  multiply that by a year; you’re almost paying $1000 a year for your gym membership. Invest instead to just buy $1000 worth of weightlifting equipment, and in theory assuming use every single day for the next 10 years, you will actually save a lot of money. 

    Food

    For beverages all you need is top water or filtered water from home. Actually do you think about it and do the math, if you are one of those fools who consume “alkaline water“; it costs more money per gallon than gasoline. 

    Anyone who drinks alkaline water or promotes it, is patently a fool. If anything, real men drink tap water. 

    Probably one of the most useful nuggets I’ve learned from the Walter Isaacson biography on Elon Musk is that Elon Musk drink tapwater. If the world’s most genius richest man drinks tap water, so should you. 

    For coffee, fine robusta is the way. Either get some ERIC KIM Omakase coffee, or, my friends sisters coffee and tea Company CLEO– fine robusta is the way. 

    For example, my preferred way to consume coffee is espresso. I find that for myself, two shots of fine robusta coffee from Vietnam gives me an insanely good buzz, three shots for god-level buzz … whereas it might take me nine or 10 shots of light roast arabica Ethiopia yirgafheffe to get me in the same mood. 


    Build things which you wish to see manifested in the world

    Currently, my primary moneymaking profession is through crypto cryptocurrency and bitcoin. And also, when I think about all my great innovations that I came up with while living in Vietnam, for only $300 a month, all the things that I came up with, and created or things that I genuinely believe that the human race would benefit from.

    For example arsbeta.com — essentially my first stab at replacing Instagram. A double blind experiment photo sharing platform, without the need of intermediaries.

    My next vision for RSV; if you want to “like a photo, essentially what you have to do is you zap them with a Satoshi – the smallest fraction of a bitcoin. And the great thing is that a single Satoshi is infinitely small, but ultimately does have some real monetary value. I think a single Satoshi is only worth 100th of a penny– but in fact, if I really created this new economy, this would be world changing.

    The problem right now with likes on social media is that it doesn’t cost anything. You can mindlessly scroll in like 1 trillion things. But, if it actually cost you a single Satoshi to like a photo, then there is true skin in the game.

    Another way to fix email; make it a required thing for people to pay a single Satoshi before sending an email.

    Anyways, if you want to build the future email me at eric@erickim.com — ideally I am looking for bitcoin developers, who could essentially build this thing. Very very simple thing, it would look like Instagram, be connected with a bitcoin lightning wallet, either the cash app or the Coinbase app, and users can make their own account whatever– and the core functionality is that the idea to like a photo will be instead a lightning bolt (⚡️) or a 🔥, in which you have to pay a single Satoshi either “like” a photo of somebody.

    And, building up on the concept of ours; if you want a famous photographer to give you feedback on your photos, there will be a messaging app, and a request critique function in which you asked there is a bid functionality of how many Satoshi‘s you will charge and accept for a critique on a certain photo.

    ***

    Spread wealth and prosperity

    The general promise of capitalism is to spread prosperity, happiness, joy, freedom, liberty and justice for the greatest number of people across the planet.

    People like to critique and criticize America and capitalism, but, even the Chinese, the Chinese yuan, the CNY is effectively pegged to the US dollar. In fact, all of the global currencies are pegged to the US dollar. 

    The troubling thing is even the worlds strongest currency of the US dollar is losing 7 to 10% of its value, year over year. And the money supply is expanding at an alarming rate.

    As a consequence, the whole world economy is not doing too hot, but, it’s still seems that the refuge is America. You’ve been in Korean, the word for America is “mi-gook” which means beautiful country. (Mi — beauty, good – country).


    So now what?

    Simply put, devote dedicate an investor time energy and resources in doing and building things you actually care for. Assuming that you’re a bitcoin billionaire, and you no longer have any money needs — just build it!

    ERIC


    Ideas

    1. Make your own website or blog. Ionos.com and install WordPress.org
    2. Start an email newsletter; sendy.com
    3. Delete your Instagram, we all congratulate people for quitting heroin or cocaine or smoking cigarettes; shouldn’t the same attitude be done or addressed in the context of Instagram? And let us not call it social media; call a spade a spade. Instagram is the real bad guy here, not social media.

    Photo ideas

    Pentax just put out the new film camera which is really cool. And has a flash! It is essentially the new Ricoh GR for the next generation.  and it is genius! Because it has a half frame concept, which means that you could shoot twice the number of photos on a single roll of film, 72 pictures instead of the typical 36.

    And it does seem that even in today’s world with iPhones, kids young kids highschoolers etc. still prefer to shoot film! My working theory is that people still prefer to have standalone cameras, they actually want to spend less time on their phones.

    Also what is very interesting about generation Z is that they are actually the most self-aware generation; they know that phones and social media and Instagram is bad they also know that alcohol is bad and causes cancer, and also marijuana is also bad for you, Z is a good generation because they prefer sobriety and being sober.

    A fun question I like to ask people:

    Has anybody ever enjoyed burning man, going to a festival, going to an EDM rave that was 100% sober? No drugs, no alcohol?

    And even though Elon Musk is definitely the greatest entrepreneur of all time; the issue here is that he still drinks Coca-Cola, Red Bull, and alcohol. 


    Other ideas

    Another new camera which got released recently is the new Ricoh GR highlight diffusion filter — I think the ideas genius; essentially emulating the film aesthetic and look but the convenience of shooting digital.

    28mm

    Now that Seneca is getting older, the age of three years, three months… Having a 28 mm lens in focal length is very good here, because he is getting really into climbing, climbing at the parked rock climbing etc.… A 28 mm lens is great at exaggerating Ingles, perspectives, epic action.

    Think 28mm.

    Travel!

    Some incoming workshops include my next year insanely epic Angkor Wat Cambodia travel photography workshop experience,  in some upcoming workshops both in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

    You know that Covid is over, I think it is a great thing that we are all hungry to travel again. Yet we are still stuck in a bog in Malays; because there was so much friction that got us stuck during Covid, now is your chance to travel!

    Also some good places to travel include Japan, where you could essentially get a transit pasmo card, directly on your Apple iPhone wallet! Insanely easy, and also because the Japanese yen is collapsing because of the population decline, that means that our US dollars have stronger purchasing power there.

    Also, Istanbul and Turkey might be good because the Turkish lira is also collapsing, which is good for you if you are paid in US dollars.

    Also good times to go to Korea, Vietnam, anywhere in the world. For example just booked my mom ticket round-trip from South Korea to LAX, round-trip, only $500 USD!

    To find cheap flights just use kayak or Google flights.  


    Now what?

    The two fields which are developing extremely quickly in an exciting rate is both cryptocurrency, bitcoin, and artificial intelligence.

    If you want to be the future, ensure that you have the paid ChatGPT app subscription, and also, ensure that you have some bitcoin. Even my friend Natalie told me a few years ago, “every intelligent person I know in the Bay Area has at least some bitcoin!”

    I think the simplest thing to do is just buy some bitcoin with the Coinbase app; my simple thought is there’s no reason why bitcoin will not 10 X, hundred X, or even thousand X in our lifetime. That means the thousand dollars you spend on an iPhone Pro might become $10,000, $100,000, or maybe even $1 million!

    As a consequence, I have been becoming even more frugal with my money, and continuing to buy bitcoin with any dime I could lay my hands on! 

    People still think bitcoin is too expensive, but 20 years from now, one bitcoin is $10 million a coin… Won’t you wish that you bought it right now at a discount?

    I think the best way to learn about bitcoin is just binge watch and listen to all the Michael Saylor interviews and podcasts– Michael.com and hope.com

    Currently, I am self studying some Austrian economics from Carl Menger — Principles of Economics PDF on my iPad Pro.

    Also , if you do not currently own an iPad, or just have a really really old one that doesn’t work that well, definitely get the new M4 iPad Pro the small one; The only Apple device currently worth purchasing! Good job Apple team here.


    What else?

    For shoes, Vibram 5 finger shoes (Vibram.com) and if you have access, go to the beach! Beach people tend to be happier.

    Currently Ocean Park in Santa Monica is my new favorite joint!


    What else? 

    Think fun, not fitness. Even go to the local park, breathing some air from the fresh trees, and have fun!

    ERIC


  • The Privilege of Money

    I think the greatest privilege of money, having liquid money, cash, or a bitcoin at hand is the infinite optionality of it.  The fact that you could get things that you want, without having to barter, or exchange things.

    For example, imagine if you had 100 bars of gold. Imagine how much of a pain in the butt it would be to have to somehow exchange bars of gold or dematerialize it in order to purchase petroleum for your automobile car, to take your kid rockclimbing or whatever.

    The privilege of living?

  • Why Economics is So Fascinating to Me 

    Economics, money, the sociological and the philosophical aspects of it are endlessly fascinating to me. 

    The cost of living

    Certainly there are certain things which undoubtably make life better. For example, having money and purchasing power to buy good coffee, good meets, having some sort of basic car that could take you from point A to point B.  Also, having enough money and economic power and may be freedom of time to have children, and also raise them yourselves.

    Also there are certain things which indubitably make life better, for example having economic power dictating where, when, and how long to live somewhere.

    For example, certainly far superior to live in Los Angeles during the summertime, rather than to live in Siberia during the winter time.

    The use of money?

    Also certain things which are useful, like having a fast Internet connection, being able to pay for fiber Internet or whatever, and also having certain devices which make photography possible.

    For example, money to purchase your digital camera, having some sort of iPad or laptop to download and upload your photos from, and also being able to pay for your website and server bill.

    But beyond this, what is the use of money?

    Health and fitness

    Another thing that money is good for is paying for your gym membership, your yoga membership, or having money to just purchase your own weightlifting equipment. 

  • Money is Control?

    Real All of the crypto litigation and legislation

    One does not “own” any money?

    Superficial concerns, real concerns?

    Toxic information, toxic people?

    The rabble rousers 

    .

    Things needful or useful or beneficial to himself

    Direct exchange

    His own economic interests

    Convention, political convention, societal convention?

    Disrupt social conventions; for example, I think the only reason people think it is a good idea to buy a house or a home is because it is a social convention and meme?

    Extension of traffic in space; now with Internet and cyberspace it is infinite?

    Economic success

    Gelten, to pay, to perform

    Organic growth

    Organically high saleability or saleableness

    Convert his exchangeable goods into money

    Having money is the most advantageous? Not goods?

    Stock of money

    .

    Money as a time opportunity thing?

    Lever Up!

    .

    The reason why gold was good money was because it was easy to weigh and standardized

    Unlimited durability of gold

    Economic prices

    Intelligent bargainers

    Homogeneity and fungibleness

    Money is social not sovereign

    State recognition and state regulation

    Coinage

    .

    why economics is so fascinating to me 

  • With the reins of money, he has everything he wants to have

    The phrase you’re referring to can be loosely translated to: “He who holds the purse strings has everything he wants to have.” This reflects the idea that controlling the money or financial resources grants significant power and influence.

    Pecuniamg habenis, habet omnern remi quemn vult
    habere.

    Sure, here is the word-by-word breakdown:

    • Pecuniam: money (accusative singular of “pecunia”)
    • habenis: (with the) reins (ablative plural of “habena”)
    • habet: he/she/it has
    • omnem: all/every (accusative singular of “omnis”)
    • rem: thing/matter (accusative singular of “res”)
    • quem: which/whom (accusative singular masculine of “qui”)
    • vult: he/she/it wants
    • habere: to have (infinitive of “habeo”)

    So, the phrase could be translated more literally as: “With the reins of money, he has everything he wants to have.”

  • Bitcoin Economics

    Clarify or obfuscate things? 

    Purchase things at a discount

    Wholesale versus retail prices

    The difficulty of disposing things

    “Objective equivalent in goods”

    Mutually converted at will

    “General saleability of wares”

    The purchasing price, the selling price

    “Get rid of goods”

    Desirable or non-desirable things?

    The funny thing with cars; we desire it before we have it, and then we heard to buy it. But, after that certain point… It no longer becomes desirable?

    Maybe the only thing right now is cyber truck, because it is impossible to get one. But once it becomes easy to get one, it will no longer be desirable?

    ..

    Economic Science

    Economic prices

    Bitcoin as commodity, digital commodity that people want

    It is volatile because people want it

    Purchasing power

    The divisibility of the commodity; the genius of bitcoin is that it is divisible up until a Satoshi? 

    Spatial and temporal limits

    With bitcoin, there is no spatial nor temporal limits?

    the time-limits to the saleability of certain commodities

  • The Best “Business” to Invest in is Bitcoin

    If you think about capitalists, what is it that the capitalist seeks? Gains. Preferably no downsides, no losses.

    If that is the case, bitcoin should be the capitalist’s wet dream. Why? Historic returns about 50%, year over year, and if you think about it, a very obvious, non-risky investment idea.

    Why?

    Some logical things:

    1. Volatility vs risky

    First, bitcoin is very volatile, which means that the price goes up and down a lot, in the force of a few days, weeks, months, even on the year level. But if you zoom out long enough, you’ll see that bitcoin is a very non-risky choice.

    The real capitalist think on a 10, 20, 30 year, maybe even 40 year trend. It seems that the way that the most of capitalism works is true borrowing money, interest, the hope of future gains, wealth and accumulation, building stuff, investing and stuff, optimism for the future.

    For example, as much flack as capitalism gets, it is inherently optimistic. Why? If I borrow $500 million to buy a bunch of buildings on the third street promenade in Santa Monica, which is currently a dump, then inherited this is my optimism that I see a much brighter, sunnier, more glorious future for Santa Monica.

    If you think about investing in the stock market, it is all centered around gains. Even apparently a very interesting observation about ChatGPT is that apparently it gets activated whenever there is a mention about gains, or increases, especially when it comes to the market.

    For example, if capitalism wasn’t optimistic, then there would be no reason why banks would lend individuals money to buy a home, with a 30 year loan, or a 40 year loan. Why? Inherited this, bankers are hopeful and optimistic and faithful that the borrower, The young family person will continue to pay his or her mortgage, for the next 30 years without end. 

    2. Great things take time

    If you think about all the great inventions and innovations, they all took a while.

    For example, the Internet. The Internet and bitcoin might be the two best things which happened to me in my lifetime; the first, the internet. My mom often tells me how blessed I am that I was born when I was, because if it was not for the Internet, for websites and blogging, no way in hell could I have made it, world famous, the street photographer. Also, as much as I like to critique social media, I am very grateful to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, for giving me the initial boost in becoming world famous. 

    If I think about my early photos in my earliest street photography and now, I can see a market difference. In fact, I hate looking at my old photos and my early photos because I like who I am now, not who I was.

    3. Evolution

    The internet and DARPANET — no. US military, no Internet.

    The early days of the Internet was from DARPA — apparently some sort of internal military messaging tool, which interlinked computers.  I remember when I was 12, my teenage years, 18, 21, in college, in my early 20s, and now would meet so many people who had told me about early computing and using punchcards. I suppose I am lucky enough that when I was an elementary school student, I actually learned how to use MSDOS, using the change directory “cd” to access some of the early MSU games, like Oregon Trail etc. I also recalled this one early game in which I was like some sort of God, building some sort of land. Kind of like an early SimCity or something. 

    I do not know any rational human being who does not believe the Internet to be a good thing. The Internet has probably spread a quadrillion times more wealth prosperity and goodness for the entire human race, regardless of nationality or space.

    Even for myself, I think about the democratizing effect of the Internet; growing up poor, first generation in America, if I did not have the Internet, which was disruptive; no need for silly “credentials“. For example when I started to make it really big as a world famous street photographer, people try to discredit me by saying that I didn’t go to art school, the tar school, or have any of these fake ass credentials.

    In fact, the whole notion of credentials is broken. It seems that any institution or company or school which gives credentials is some sort uploaded, money printing monopoly, which is essentially a parasite, and a human centipede; the snake which eat its own tail.

    For example personal trainers, why do you need a fake ass accreditation to be a personal trainer, in which 99.99%, or maybe all the personal training theory is false? Because somebody has to make money.

    If you gave people the via negativa advice which is insanely simple and straight forward:

    Fast. Stop eating breakfast and lunch. Only eat dinner. Quit alcohol, marijuana, starches, bread rice potatoes, etc. Stop drinking anything sweet, whether real or fake . Quit sugar which is toxic.  

    No fake nutritionist could make a profit, by taking out and fake charts on “burning calories“ (one does not “burn” a calorie”, or other fake pseudo science about fiber, a “balanced” diet etc — which is all essentially lobbying from the Coca-Cola corporation, to continue paddling their diabetes infused sugary water.

    4. Reality is cruel and beautiful

    I get confused by all these people who want the world to just be warm and fuzzy, no hard feelings, a reality which has 0 ounces of cruelty.

    Reality is real. For example, no matter what your religion flossy or worldview, if I place 10,000 pounds on your shoulders, you will probably either get crushed or die. Doesn’t matter how much steroids you are injecting your eyeballs with. Gravity doesn’t care about your opinions.

    I think something that people do not understand is that without cruelty, there cannot be any beauty and light. Also, without any tragedy, no joy.

    This is also the funny irony; I’ve discovered that most people who are overly sensitive, are ironically the ones who have not really experienced any deep tragedy in their lives. It seems that actually the most joyful and happy people are the ones who have experienced some sort of deeply troubling downside to life, and through one way or another, Overcame it, and grew as a result of it.

    5. Dionysian?

    To me the only interesting artist alive is probably Kanye West. Why? His never-ending evolution, and they’re probably is not any human being who is alive, and still producing who has not gone through the personal tragedies he has: losing his mom, losing his wife and kids, Losing his wealth, etc. Even with his new irreverent “CARNIVAL” song — he’s still in the game!

    It seems that everyone else doesn’t really speak their mind, or is hinting at some sort of cowardice, or giving fellatio to money. For example Jay Z; I think he might be one of the most genius lyricist of all time, but ultimately he loves money more than he loves lyricism.

    Or Kendrick Lamar, I also love Kendrick Lamar to death, another born genius. But the reality is there is something wanting because everyone universally likes him. Anyone who is universally liked– be cautious.

  • Media of exchange

    What is most “useful” to you?

    Metal disks,,, “mysterious”?

    Current-money

    Enigma

    Disquisition — to seek

    Little discs or documents

    Convention and authority?

    Theory of money?

    Science is here to solve; bitcoin is science? 

    Media of exchange

    Toy or tool?

    You cannot ignore it; nobody regardless of how hard they try, can ignore cyber truck?

    …

    The progress of Traffic

    unlimited salableness of money

    Things which are insanely easy to sell

    What is so great and wonderful about bitcoin is that you could easily transfer it, store it, it doesn’t lose value increases value, you can exchange it for field currency, or even use your Coinbase Visa debit card to transact with it if you want!

    $1M home or $1M in Bitcoin?

    Of course the bitcoin; the bitcoin is an appreciating asset,  the home is adeflationary asset.

    Bitcoin vs Property Homes

    Typically when you think about “property”, pretend to think about real estate, like owning a plot of land, a single-family home, etc.

    For example, that is say that I could buy a nice parcel of land in Culver City for $1 million. I could purchase the property for $1 million, but then, I have to tear down the old house on it, to build a new house. Building a new home might cost $300,000 USD.

    Then let us consider that once the home is done, I will have to pay property taxes, forever. Whatever the number may be, I had to pay it into infinity and beyond.

    Let us say that value increases. That plot of land worth $1 million is now worth $2 million. But, that does not take an account of the fact that I have to maintain the home and property, fix things, maintained, upkeep bit, fix things, repair things, Landscape things pay for somebody to mow my lawn and do landscaping, and also property taxes.

    Why are property taxes such a big deal?

    Certainly property taxes are critical for any city to function. But the issue of property taxes, especially as an individual, is that in theory, that property tax is money that will forever be sucked from you, even though it is good good for society and good for things.

    For example, I’m all about for paying for a good public schools, parks, recreation etc.


    Disposing of things is more difficult than obtaining it?

    ***

    Why does this matter

    Economist and philosophers talk about the science or the methodology or the technique behind things, very rarely the why behind things. 

    Also, a critical issue in artificial intelligence google ChatGPT etc. is that it has to deal with explaining things, rather than the why behind things. 

    For example, the reason why ChatGPT, artificial intelligence could never become a philosopher is that it does not posit new “why’s”?

    ….

  • Father of Austrian economics

    PDF- Principles of Economics

    The father of Austrian economics is generally considered to be Carl Menger. He founded the Austrian School of economic thought with the publication of his book “Principles of Economics” in 1871. Menger’s work emphasized the importance of individual choice, subjective value theory, and marginal utility, laying the foundation for subsequent developments in Austrian economics.

  • The Best That Reality Has To Offer You?

    Glorious weather!

    There’s a billion interesting places to shoot photos in LA

  • Infinite economic density

    Infinite density —

    ..

    Don’t sell more than 21 million blocks of this in the universe forever —> the icing on the cake.

    Zero doubt.

    Digital scarcity, the ultimate scarce property *

    …

    Life form

    400T asset shuffle around

    People don’t know what is “good” for them —

    “Need to know”–>

    Seeker

    Think carte Blanche

    .

    How to be a good sales person

    Smile!

    Game theory

    .

    How to detox from social media

    Simple … just delete them all and don’t use them!

    What if 100% if the accounts on social media were fake or bots … would you use it?

    Just be a nice person

    Right or not, nice or not?

    .

    How to become a (good) salesperson

    .

    90 degree oblique idea

    Bad for xyz, but good for xyz

    .

    Just keep yourself in the game

    You don’t change bitcoin, Bitcoin changes you …

    How did Bitcoin change you?

    .

    Re-learn

    Re learn everything …

    Seduced.

    .

    Why pants are critical …

    You can be shirtless but not pant less

    .

    Think 1000x

    .

    Shockwave

    Immature

    .

    Shocking

    Becoming a Student again

    .

    Advocacy, AI, R & D

    .

    Slow, volatile, and upper limits.

    The evolution of trust

    Layer 4… ETF? –> wrapped Bitcoin

    .

    You truly know whether you value something or not the moment in which you can actually afford it

  • Anytime a good time to buy bitcoin

    New peaks

    We all want to be admired

  • Infinite economic density

    Infinite density —

    ..

    Don’t sell more than 21 million blocks of this in the universe forever —> the icing on the cake.

    Zero doubt.

    Digital scarcity, the ultimate scarce property *

    …

    Life form

    400T asset shuffle around

    People don’t know what is “good” for them —

    “Need to know”–>

    Seeker

    Think carte Blanche

    .

    How to be a good sales person

    Smile!

    Game theory

    .

    How to detox from social media

    Simple … just delete them all and don’t use them!

    What if 100% if the accounts on social media were fake or bots … would you use it?

    Just be a nice person

    Right or not, nice or not?

    .

    How to become a (good) salesperson

    .

    90 degree oblique idea

    Bad for xyz, but good for xyz

    .

    Just keep yourself in the game

    You don’t change bitcoin, Bitcoin changes you …

    How did Bitcoin change you?

    .

    Re-learn

    Re learn everything …

    Seduced.

    .

    Why pants are critical …

    You can be shirtless but not pant less

    .

    Think 1000x

    .

    Shockwave

    Immature

    .

    Shocking

    Becoming a Student again

    .

    Advocacy, AI, R & D

    .

    Slow, volatile, and upper limits.

    The evolution of trust

    Layer 4… ETF? –> wrapped Bitcoin

  • Invest in your future kids 

    Wait a week, two weeks, a month or two months or three months before making any judgments.

    Or wait two years. Or three.

    The stoic is unhuman. Become less human

    Sick Physiology

    Vehicles are more fun than static buildings 

  • The Future of Street Photography

    Ever since I was an 11, 12-year-old kid in Bayside Queens New York, getting my first Acer aspire computer, AOL 3.0… With my 38.8 K modem, I’ve always been passionate about technology.

    Why? When you’re a kid, with no money resources or power, you could essentially play god.

    For example, the great democratizing power of the Internet especially in the early days was being able to pirate video games in programs online for free, something which is very useful to an 11-year-old without any money.

    For example, in the early days you would visit these AOL “cerver” or “server” rooms, you would message about, and it would send you an email about 30.roar files, each taking about a day to download, and finally at the end of 30 days you could download all the packages of the original grand theft auto, and you play it on your computer!

    Also, the early days of pirating for Adobe Photoshop. No way in hell could 13 year-old kid afford a $500 piece of software. Getting cracks for these apps was a godsend.

    Platforms

    Currently speaking, the only good place to share photos on the Internet is arsbeta.com — Facebook, Instagram is a wash. We already see Instagram trying to morph and to be coming the next TikTok; and also the flood of advertisements, which I consider metaphorical pollution.

    The threat of AI

    The way I think about artificial intelligence is that it is just like a really really good bot, robot, chat bot etc. 

    Where are things become a little bit concerning is when ChatGPT 4o– the voice ability becomes so good, it literally becomes indistinguishable from a real human voice.

    Honestly I think the best way to think about the Internet is that 99.9% of the user accounts, comments, activity might just be bots. For example, when I used to use Reddit back in college, I don’t even think I had a username. And I used it religiously for almost about four years, I quit using Reddit in about 2011.

    As a thought experiment, imagine if all of these credits, sub credits, etc. we’re just all ChatGPT powered bots. The same goes with Twitter accounts, Instagram accounts etc.

    For example, open AI sora, the new video generation tool is insanely good. Certainly within 30 years it will be so good that it will probably be more creative than a real life videographer. Even now the beta versions, blow my mind.

    The future for creativity

    On one way, we could think about AI, ChatGPT as just a simple implementary tool, a kin to using Microsoft Excel, Google search, etc. However, I think the big issue here is that especially at the university level, apparently a lot of kids even UCLA undergraduate students, who are supposed to be creme de la crop of the public system, our lazily using ChatGPT to read documents and come up with lame responses. 

    I think what nobody is really thinking about right now is that ChatGPT might be the university killer. Why go to university, and try to “hack “the university experience by having ChatGPT write your essays?

    And this is the thing, professors can tell when you are using ChatGPT or not, but certainly within a decade or two, by the time Seneca is about to go to college, and Chachi tea is on version 15 or 16, ChatGPT will probably write a better essay then even the most accomplished Academic researcher.

    Reality

    Cindy had an interesting idea that perhaps the future will just be embodied reality. For example, after all of this digital malaise, we will just want to do things in person more.

    For example, Cindy Seneca and I just got a library card for Los Angeles, and we have been visiting libraries for fun. The good thing is a lot of libraries have a playground right next-door, which means you could kill two birds with one stone.

    If you think about productivity and efficiency, there is really no good reason to go to a public library. Yet I think it is almost like the noveau privilege;  if you have enough free time to take your kids to the public library in the middle of the day, it is assigned that you’re either really rich and successful or self owned and free.

    Also librarian; I recently talked to Jennifer one of the local children’s librarians, and she has selected a bunch of great children’s books for Seneca, age appropriate. 1 billion times faster and more efficient than having to rummage through probably fake Amazon reviews.

    And also this is the biggest issue with Internet; how do you know whether Amazon is real or fake?

    Photo as art

    My personal vision for the future of Street photography is it will be less about iPhone, more about just experiencing embodied reality. 

    For example, if I were Tim Cook or the CEO of Apple, I would immediately chop down apple Vision Pro. It is big heavy, hurts your head, hurts your eyeballs, and I personally wouldn’t even use it if you gave it to me for free.

    The simple strategy is that Apple should just focus on the iPhone insanely great again.

    If anything, better corporate strategy would just be introduced a $2000 iPhone, at $1999, and just get rid of the Apple Vision Pro.

    Question– can you throw an M series chip into an iPhone Titan?


    Problems

    Currently even the newest model of DALL-E or ChatGPT,  image generation for photos are too goofy. Not realistic or creative enough.

    However, within 10 or 20 years, I’m sure that ChatGPT will be able to perfect the ability to make street photos, with greeny black-and-white film, better than Henri Cartier-Bresson. Which then leaves us the question;

    What’s the point of you shooting photos?

    First, it is fun. I don’t think we should overthink this. If you’re out shooting street photography and you’re not having fun, you’re doing something wrong. Just observe a child at the playground, a new playground; see how much joy they have in discovery, They’re not waiting for random people to like their performance at the park, they simply do it for fun.

    Second, physiological and mental benefits. Post Covid, when it looks like 90% of the workforce in the tech world has migrated indoors and from home, it looks like most people don’t really leave their apartments much. What is the new privilege? Just leaving your apartment or house!

    I think this is why the explosion of dog adoptions was so beneficial during Covid, it forced people to go outside and go on a walk with their dogs!

    I suppose the benefit of having children; to me the most cruel technique of raising children is forcing them to be indoors at home all day, never letting them go outside. In fact, the new sign of privilege for a child is how tan they are, how muscular and tall and buff they are. Because it is a sign that they actually go out and play on the playground!

    Travel

    Travel, traveling could be as abstract or practical as you would like to think. For example, you could just go on a road trip, drive 30 minutes somewhere or an hour somewhere, you could jump on the metro and go somewhere, essentially just go somewhere that is not your workplace or your house.

    I also think it is wise to be economical about; display economy, find cheap tickets on kayak.com or Google flights.

    For example, I just took my mom some airline tickets, and she is able to fly round-trip from Seoul international ICN Incheon airport to LAX for only $500! And this is round-trip! About the same price as a trip to Costco.

    Money for movement

    Another thing I see — people blowing money on cars SUVs trucks, overland vehicles, Teslas new electric cars etc., better to just stick with your 2010 Prius or the beater you got, fix it up a bit, get a car wash, and just go on adventures instead!

    Any sort of movement is good. When money could be your helper in getting you to move around, it is good. 

    Technique?

    So I think one of the practical ways to get joy from street photography is the active shooting the photos, the joy of witnessing your photos, the joy of capturing a great moment etc. For example capturing the smile of your child, or capturing a good decisive moment in street photography of strangers, or even a good interaction you had with a stranger.

    First, all forms are legitimate. In the world of ChatGPT and artificial intelligence, let us not worry whether photos are good or not, let us worry ourselves with whether the photos are meaningful to us or not.

    For example, composition is all subjective; what makes a good composition is often philosophical, and if the photo puts a smile on your face, it is a good photo. 

  • The Future of Money

    A mobile phone ,,, own property from a mobile phone?

    Support running water, electricity

    Money is dying

    350 pounds of gold –> $10M

    .

    $10M of Bitcoin, 300 Bitcoin.

    –>

    .

    Smart Money

    Outperform

    6% junk bond

    Cash cow, dominant monopoly, growing 50%

    .

    What do you do when things become too easy? Make it more difficult.