Time for new variations

The soul is real, the ego is fake

.

Difficulty adjustment

ADAPTIVE CONTROL SYSTEM

First order feedback mechanism

Calculus of variations

Engineering grade metal — Carnegie, steel

Engineering-grade money, engineering-grade property

when software went to vapour state, you morphed into things that were magical, like communications techniques.

Fallacy of diversification

Bitcoin is digital transformation of energy

Bitcoin is software eating money

Software is eating money

Matter is energy, and energy is matter

Muscle is Matter

Property is economic matter

Money is economic energy

Currency is political energy

Exchange of energy for matter, exchange of matter for energy

We exchange energy for matter ..

Steel is the Apex metallic energy 

Andrew Mellon … aluminum

No river no city

Utility value ,,, not the premium.

Collect yield forever

“Stack forever”

Business development

Property development strategy

Digital energy **-> most valuable thing in the universe

.

It’s gets harder. We all know that, right. It’s a lot harder to stack at $60,000 than it is at $10,000. But the people who were stacking at $10,000 are remembering back when they could have stacked at $1,000 regretting that. Then you get the Max Keisers reminding us how he was stacking at $12, or whatever it was.

..

The fear of a new thing is inertia

The Chinese have an inflated currency

…

An AI which can visually suggest how you can improve your photos and compositions

Bitcoin

Have more kids?

If you think about this really deeply, you don’t really want to buy a Tesla with a Bitcoin, because Bitcoin’s going to $1 million and the Tesla’s going to zero. What you want to do is borrow $50,000 in dollars at 4% interest to buy the Tesla, and then in ten years you’ll have the $1 million and you’ll be able to buy another Tesla, and then you’ll have $10 million.

financing the property to the currency

If what you want is to construct a system that makes you wealthy and keeps you wealthy and keeps all the gears of commerce spinning, the system that works best is everybody holds a digital currency and they hold a digital property, or a digital asset; they’re both technically assets, which is why I distinguish one as property and one as currency. And then the strategy long term is you keep financing the property to the currency. And it’s actually of benefit to you.

Revolution vs evolution

Apolitical

The evolutionary view is, “I invented oil and steel and electricity and Isaac Newton invented engineering maths. Is the world a better place with calculus, oil, steel and electricity, and should we introduce it?” The evolutionary view is apolitical. It’s constructive and it’s also cooperative.

Change the money keep the bank

The path of least resistance is the strategy of most likely success.

Bitcoin over gold

as long as the US dollar is losing 15% of its value a year, every single person in the United States can borrow money at less than 15% interest.

If you’re borrowing money at 2%, 3%, 4%, 5% interest, everybody has a positive 10% arbitrage just off of the currency weakening, which means that if you don’t have debt in the weakening currency, then your portfolio is half as big as it would otherwise be.

**

If the world’s $1,000 trillion, I think that digital energy is $500 trillion. We can call that money, the money is $500 trillion, however you want to deal with it. We have a solution to half of everything, but we don’t have a solution to the other half.

before you change the world, get the money.***

**

And if you’re 100% invested, I want you to understand it well enough to say, “Well, maybe I really can take out a 3% 15-year loan and be 200% invested”. Why not?

Coca Cola corporation, cigarettes Phillip Morris

Fat is disease

How to become less fat, how to get rid of fat —

It’s like giving cigarettes to kids 

What do species strive for? Greater advantages , greater futures

More muscle, more food, more energy?

If you have indestructible armor, technically your weapons don’t matter.

Focus on building your armor, not weapons.

Why real men don’t own guns or knives.

Unlearn propaganda? 

Techno crat

Apple of money

2000x more powerful

Cyber manhattan for everyone is the best idea

**

Property rights

Think 100 years

Think 50 years

Advocate

$40B surplus

Stop getting poor

Poor Habits

Clarity conviction and courage

Pure geometry

The CNY is weak.

China is Weak?

5T

The passion of man

The sea is deeper, the deeper you go into it 

Economics; work.

The first question:

Work for the sake of what?

1. Rent

Ultimately, you need somewhere to sleep. Having some sort of home, habitation, apartment.

I think the big thought, perhaps something that a lot of Americans don’t know is that if you live abroad, in a developing country, let’s say somewhere in Southeast Asia, Thailand, Vietnam Cambodia etc., what that means is you could rent a brand new apartment, very very nice, furniture and everything and all utilities included, in the range of $320 a month, $300 a month in Phnom Penh Cambodia. 

I think Americans like to complain; do you like to complain about the price of rent, the cost of living etc. However, don’t people realize that you have the power and the ability and the freedom to dictate wherever you live, how to live, went to live, went to live, when not to live?

2. Food

The second one is food. Food is a funny new one; it could be insanely expensive, or it could be insanely cheap.

For example, just go to any local Mexican meat market, and you could buy a pound of beef liver for only $1.99! Because beef liver might have 10 the amount of nutrition as typical meat or flesh meat etc., what that means is you can’t eat as much of it, even if you wanted to. For example, I could eat maybe 4 1/2 to 5 pounds of ground beef, 8020. However with beef liver, I might only be able to eat about 2 1/2 pounds of it.

Let us say that you’re the average person, you could maybe eat what, a half a pound of it? A quarter pound of it?

If you did the math, theory you could feed yourself on $.50 to a dollar a day! And this is in America!  that is $15 a month, or $30 a month. And for beverages, if you just drink tapwater or filtered water, which is essentially free, and let us assume the only luxury drink is coffee, but even coffee could be insanely cheap, if you get coffee on sale etc.

So let us assume that in the states only $30 a month.

3. How do people blow money?

It seems to be 100,000x to conserve money than spend it.

However, the trillion dollar question is still; one should one conserve money, for the sake of what, towards what ends, and one should one spend money, also for the sake of what?

4. The true scarce desirable thing

Time and energy, physiological power and energy.

Essentially the true idea of wealth is maximum time, maximum freedom of time as well as maximum physiological energy. 

For example, even if you had all of the wealth in the world, all the time in the world, but let us say that I do sleep deprivation torture on you, and you might only sleep 30 minutes a night. Certainly nothing will be worth it.

---

5. Leverage is the key

I think ultimately, if you consider leverage, economic leverage; this is the key.

For example, let us say that you’re being paid in US dollars, with the typical American salary, and let us say that you’re living abroad in southeast Asia, Vietnam Cambodia Thailand, Bangkok, Hanoi, Saigon, Phnom Penh etc — only $300 a month in rent. If this were the case, even becoming self-employed, it is very easy to earn $300 a month. To just cover your living expenses.

So the more I think about it, the more I’m curious, is it primary issue here a knowledge gap one? People don’t know that this is an option?

6. We are getting suckered?

Certainly there are certain things being marketed to us, some sort of superficial desires. For example, is the iPhone 77 going to be any good? Your Tesla not going to get some sort of design upgrade in the next 100 years?

I think thinking long-term is more clarifying. For example, let us consider the digital Leica M9, which retail for $7000 USD, when it came out. It could barely shoot at ISO 800 without noise! Now any thousand dollar digital camera can blow it out of the water. 

So I suppose the secret then is to give a deep critical thought about superficial things, and to not get suckered by superficial things.

---

NOT having to work for a living

Via negativa— the *NOT* having to work be the big thing.

A simple line of thinking, towards living the best and most virtuous life:

Just get your ass outside!

Thinking heroes

The first thought is in regards to heroes; what would a hero do, what would a hero not do? 

First, no hero in their right mind would just stay at home.

Perhaps the primary issue we have at hand is that simply, we are wearing the wrong clothes. Clothing is akin to armor; I think myself I have made this mistake many many times.  I think the optimal is to consider this:

Better to over-pack, better to over-prepared, better to wear lots of layers, and simply take it off, when you get too hot.

Better to be over hot than under cold?

In regards to heat temperature and humidity; the funny thing is in the Iliad, weather climate is almost never mentioned. The only thing really mentioned is when the rosy morning wakes up, and then when the sun goes down, and then everyone retreats back to the camp, to feast.

Maybe this is what made the Mediterranean so ideal in terms of military combat and to conquest– it never really gets that hot, and also, it never gets that cold.

Living in Los Angeles, is often very confusing because it is very difficult to predict how to dress. Sometimes it is insanely cold, and then suddenly sometimes out of nowhere, the sun comes up.

Perhaps then, the ideal wardrobe is to just wear a lot of clothes and lots of layers, and when it gets too hot, just throw it back into your backpack. 

Visions

Lots of recent turbo thoughts: 

1. Bitcoin is a really big deal:

Honestly at this point, now that bitcoin has stabilized at around $70,000 a bitcoin, and it has been already around for over a decade, I’m pretty sure it’s here to stay. I was recently looking back at my accounting and finances, and I’m very happy that I first got into bitcoin at $7000 a coin, back in 2022. Honestly at this point, I consider it a very low risk investment, and it is only going to go uphill from here.

Also, bitcoin is the first native digital currency for the internet. I think the greatest innovation is thinking about the satoshi; the very very small fraction of a bitcoin, which can be used for micro, and also nano transactions. I’m actually currently formulating some ideas of creating the first bitcoin backed photography sharing platform; if you’re interested in collaborating shoot me an email at eric@erickim.com

2. Tech thoughts

Some technology thoughts I’ve been working through include the following:

First, the human joy and delight in the environment. I think all weightlifters, bodybuilders, photographers, human beings will benefit from nature, hiking, the mountains. I think one of the greatest blessings of living in Los Angeles is that there are lots of mountain hikes, so close by. Plus you got Malibu, the Pacific Palisades, and the Huntington library and botanical Gardens are just a stone throw away! 

First, I think there is a deep connection between men and the environment. For example, no one would want to be a trillionaire, if you were forced to live inside the hood, or worse, live in a parking lot garage for the rest of your life.

Still… it looks like we like greenery, blue skies, blue oceans, the sun!

ALO (air, land, ocean)

I think the reason why Los Angeles is so appealing to many is that in theory we have everything. The water, the ocean, the sky, the ideal climate.

Truth be told, it gets very dark and gloomy here and cold… but still, compared to the rest of the world, Los Angeles is paradise.

People complain about the traffic, but people often have the wrong analogy; the reason why it is so trafficky is that everyone wants to be here, because it is the best. Kind of like living in London, London traffic etc. 

I think the very very simple way to live virtuously in Los Angeles is to plan your life around traffic. The upside of being self-employed, just drive during off peak hours; and also, upside of being a weekend warrior, mixture you use the weekend to drive out further, to go exploring, go to hikes, etc.

3. Movie analogies for real life?

I finally watched Dune part II, and I loved it! Definitely top five new favorite movies of all time. The worm riding scene was phenomenal; Denis V is a genius!

Follow the director, not the actors nor the series.

I think what is so fascinating about Dune is the pseudo religiosity embedded within it. Notions of the Lisan-al-gaib, prophecies, etc.… the metaphors of Christianity, the prophet, the Messiah, Middle Eastern cultures etc. is really fascinating. 

First, let us consider Paul Atriedes. I’m quite certain that Paul was named after Saint Paul the apostle. Similar themes in the Matrix movie, NEO, the one, Trinity, the holy Trinity etc.… Lots of Christian, christianic themes here. 

Perhaps the reason why so many millennials and yuppies are so into these weird moon and horoscope stuff is that they’re lacking religion in their life. 

And perhaps, a sociological insight; maybe having some sort of religion in your life is critical, otherwise you fall victim to weird other consumerist religions, like the cult of Apple, the cult of Tesla Elon Musk and going to Mars, the cult of money, the cult of capital etc.

Let us consider even the ancient Greeks, religion or their notion of religion and the gods was a critical part of their being.

I suppose the nuance is that the way the ancient Greeks thought of religion and the gods was very very different than the modern Judeo Christian notion we have of religion. Perhaps I’m going to study a little bit more about ancient Greek notions of the gods etc.

4. Lowered cybertruck?

The other day, I saw a funny sight; somebody traded in a cybertruck at the Culver City Toyota dealership, and I was able to inspect it up close in real life.

The first thought I had was if you think about the roof line, the fastback design in the back, and overall proportions, it is almost like a modern day Lamborghini Countach, the ultimate wedge design. And then a funny thought; if you took a cybertruck, and you lowered it, and you slammed it, in theory it is the ultimate sportscar design. 

Anyways, still… the cybertruck is the best thing to have happened in car design perhaps the last hundred years. Even when I went to the Peterson automotive museum with Seneca, seeing an original Bugatti from the 1920s, in all black blew my mind. They were able to engineer phenomenal things over 100 years ago, why is it that all the modern car design is so lame? 

Anyways, if I were to get any modern day car, it would definitely be a cybertruck, maybe I would do a matte orange wrap on it. 

Also the good thing about the cyber truck, seeing it compared to all these other pick up trucks, it is actually not that big; I was a bit dubious, but I think it would be manageable to park in Los Angeles!

5. Other tech thoughts

So it looks like Apple Vision Pro, the initial enthusiasm and the novelty factor has died off. A bad sign; meeting some head directors of video game companies, they haven’t even bothered to try it out!

I think video games are a fascinating analogy for real life, because I think essentially… video games are a true metaphor for what we would really like to do in real life, our ideals.

For example, the new assassins Creed is out on iPad and iPhone Pro; I think in someways, people like the idea of becoming the assassin. To just explore the real city, to parkour around, to do real life world exploration.

Let us consider, if you were the assassin of assassin’s creed… Would you just be at home all day, watching Netflix, and staying inside your apartment? Probably not.

6. So What’s the point of life?

I think what a lot of people think is what is the point of life.

When you say point, the point of life… do you mean to say purpose, telos?

First, the reality is that you were born, you had a mother and father, you are alive. And ultimately it is up to you how you decide to direct your biological energy and power, to do what you desire to do.

The very very simple thought is the purpose of sex, sexual intercourse, men and women is to procreate and have children.

It seems that out of all this nonsense about gender and sex politics, nobody is talking about the kids! 

I think overall, modern day consumerism, nobody really wants to have kids anymore. They would just prefer to have dogs, travel to Japan, eat sushi or whatever. But I think this type of hedonistic living actually making people sad and miserable. People do not have purpose to living in life, and I think this is actually what gives people existential dread. Once you have a kid, life becomes very very straightforward and simple, and improved. There is no longer any sort of existential dread, raising your kid is the ultimate joy.

7. The ultimate tragedy?

I think the ultimate tragedy is when you have the elderly, older men, older women, without any kids, or with kids but no grandchildren… to me this is very sad.

For example, I think generally speaking, the notion of generational wealth, generational power, or to extend your power, across centuries, across generations… this is what people desire.

I think the reason why people invest in real estate property… Is that they want to build generational wealth.

“Generational wealth, that’s the key. I started off with shit so that shift started with me“– JAY Z

Why generational wealth?

Thinking centuries ahead is difficult; and also, a little bit novel in the sense that you think the question:

What’s the point of the purpose of building up wealth, for future generations, when you yourself cannot enjoy yourself?

For example, a lot of individuals live their lives, make money in order to spend it. They want to spend money, like buying a Lamborghini and giving themselves driving pleasure or whatever. Once again, much modern capitalism and consumerism is focused on hedonism:

The more money you make, the more money you spend on things, the more pleasure it will give you.

I think the reason why this line of thinking is a bit wrong is that if you think about your bodily synapses, there is a certain upper limit of hedonistic pleasure one can have. I think this is where people get into really weird drugs, in order to heighten their hedonistic pleasures.

In fact, pleasure is not the purpose of life. I think the purpose of life is to augment power, your power. How does one do this?

1. Having kids:

In the will to power, Nietzsche has this vision that in the future, families with multiple male children will be given benefits. I think the reason why so many men desire to have at least one son is that they want a new patriarch, a new king of the family to continue their lineage. I think a lot of people make the foolish optimization of earning a bunch of money, during their lifetime… but ultimately the best custodian of your economic power and wealth is your children, not some strangers or committee.

2. Physical, physiological power:

If you looked at all the marketing material for cars, objects and stuff… typically they tend towards the more muscular, the more aggressive, etc. For example, I think the reason why it is so fascinating to study the psychology of men who desire certain cars is that it shows the ideals they have for themselves. Example, people want to be louder, more aggressive, the appeal of loud exhaust or tailpipes. Or they want to feel more big and dominant, if you think about the lifted trucks, overlanding vehicles etc.

However, my personal thought and belief is that instead of wasting all that money in an external avatar which is your car, or vehicle… Don’t you recognize that your own human body is the ultimate vehicle? The ultimate thing to upgrade? 

The simple thought is if you want to expand your wingspan, your stance, your fenders, fender flares or whatever… just eat more meat, eat more steak, more beef, more dietary cholesterol, more organ meats, more beef liver etc.

In terms of height, unfortunately you cannot make yourself taller, but what you could do is stand more upright. For example, a 5 foot 5 man who stands upright, chest up actually looks more confident and dominating than a 6 foot 2 men, who is hunched over. therefore I suggest, the first thing you could do is fix your posture.

How do you fix your posture? I think it comes down to practice, and also maybe your shoes. Just buy some Vibram five finger shoes, and practice standing really upright, walk a lot, quite a lot of hiking, don’t use your phone.

Also, practice doing exercises which are about standing upright, and walking. For example, Farmer’s walks, deadlift walk, squat walk, yoke walk etc. Any sort of exercise which involves walking and standing upright is good.

3. Economic power & wealth

If I think about money, what exactly is money? It is your human labor, your physiological power embedded and imputed into a thing.

For example, the genius and brilliance of bitcoin is that there is so much energy and power imputed into a bitcoin.

People for a while was saying all this nonsensical stuff about bitcoin is bad for the planet blah blah blah, but what is really bad for the planet? Air conditioning, washing machines. The electricity output of air conditioning alone is at least 100,000 times worse than bitcoin production.

Also, most of the bad news about bitcoin mining was from mainland China, in which bitcoin miners, would use cheap coal to fuel bitcoin production, but the nuance is this–

Why do Americans care that mainland China was using coal to pollute her own environment?

For Americans who have never been to developing countries… We have never actually smelled or tasted pollution… You start to think and realize:

The upside of being an American is that all of your lovely iPhones are produced elsewhere, which pollutes a foreign country and a foreign place, while you yourself enjoy your beautiful devices and your clean air.

Even consider, really rich mainland Chinese families, none of them want to live in Beijing or Shanghai, even if they had all of the Rolls-Royce’s in the world. They all eventually buy a house in Vancouver somewhere with clean green air, and the aspire their children to start a life in America.  

I think the difficult thing is getting your wealth out of the country. For example, China, mainland China knows that the smart and rich mainland Chinese people want to take their wealth out of the country, and eventually go to America or somewhere else. Let us consider; that all the rich mainland Chinese people send their kids to study at American universities? The opposite does not happen; rich Americans do not send their kids to study Beijing or Shanghai, no. Rich mainland Chinese people want their kids to study at Harvard or Yale, maybe even UCLA.

---

Travel

I still haven’t come up with a good definition of traveling, maybe world exploration is a better analogy.

For example, if you thought about real life like a video game, Angkor Wat is such a fastening place. Angkor Wat is essentially the environment and landscape of tomb raider; even the locals in siem reap call the second temple “tomb raider”; I think they film the movie there. 

Anyways, something I’m very excited about is that next year, Cindy Seneca and I will be living in Cambodia for about six months; and I’m also doing an Angkor wat workshop there. 

Essentially I’m starting to become more and more interested in man-made environments, and having this question in my mind:

If your real life was a video game, a real world MMORPG, how would you live life? 

1. No car: no true epic video game warrior has a car. Maybe at best of horse, but even that is not necessary. If you are thinking about your life like Diablo, your main character, you just run around.
2. Character building? What then is the purpose or ethos of video games, RPGS, MMORPGS? The general idea is towards character building, leveling up, building up your statistics, your strength and your abilities, unlocking new armor weapons, engaging in even greater boss battles. Certainly much of real life is not like that, so then I suppose a bit question at hand is how can you transform your real life to mimic that of a video game?

---

ERIC KIM CAMBODIA ANGKOR WAT TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERIENCE 2025

Adventure beckons you:

ERIC KIM TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY ANGKOR WAT WORKSHOP EXPERIENCE (April 24-27th, 2025)

If you desire new frontiers, new adventures, a new you — this experience is for you.

ERIC KIM WORKSHOPS >

---

Assignments

1. Upload your best photos to arsbeta.com
2. Make your own photo blog (bluehost.com) and install WordPress.org
3. Buy 60 pound weight vest on Titan.fitness, and go on a long hike with it
4. LUMIX S9 looks cool — get it with the new pancake f8 lens?

Films

1. DUNE II– watch the extras, buy it in iTunes Tv store.
2. Cinema BY KIM

---

Now what?

Start your own blog, email newsletter ,,, and start publishing the future!

What to study?

Michael Saylor— his website url is brilliant (Michael.com)

Also Bitcoin — hope.com

I’m literally watching all Michael Saylor interviews and podcasts, the man is a genius!

---

Forward the money

Feeling fire? Forward the turbo!

EK NEWSLETTER

---

Beginners mind is best

START HERE, BOOKS

---

He who owns the spice (Bitcoin) shall own the universe

ERIC KIM BLOG

---

I love Cambodia!

The nature of property?

Money is strictly informational?

The moment something starts to bore you, stop watching it immediately 

.

1%… 90 basis points

1% over life time?

20% of your wealth, for 1%

.

Force Majuere

Things which will obsolesce in the future?

You can only transform energy

No risk –>

Pure digital property

.

No labor risk?

A simple line of thinking, towards living the best and most virtuous life:

Just get your ass outside!

Thinking heroes

The first thought is in regards to heroes; what would a hero do, what would a hero not do? 

First, no hero in their right mind would just stay at home.

Perhaps the primary issue we have at hand is that simply, we are wearing the wrong clothes. Clothing is akin to armor; I think myself I have made this mistake many many times.  I think the optimal is to consider this:

Gutter to overpack, better to overprepared, better to wear lots of layers, and simply take it off, when you get too hot. 

Better to be over hot than under cold?

In regards to heat temperature and humidity; the funny thing is in the Eliott, weather climate is almost never mentioned. The only thing really mentioned is when the Rosie warning wakes up, and then when the sun goes down, and then everyone retreats back to the camp, to feast.

Maybe this is what made the Mediterranean so ideal in terms of military combat and conquest conquest– it never really gets that hot, and also, it never gets that cold. 

Living in Los Angeles, is often very confusing because it is very difficult to predict how to dress. Sometimes it is insanely cold, and then suddenly sometimes out of nowhere, the sun comes up.

Perhaps then, the ideal wardrobe is to just wear a lot of clothes and lots of layers, and when it gets too hot, just throw it back into your backpack. 

Visions

Lots of recent turbo thoughts: 

1. Bitcoin is a really big deal:

Honestly at this point, now that bitcoin has stabilized that around $70,000 of bitcoin, and it has been already around for over a decade, I’m pretty sure it’s here to stay. I was recently looking back at my accounting and finances, and I’m very happy that I first got into bitcoin at $7000 a coin, back in 2022. Honestly at this point, I consider it a very low risk investment, and it is only going to go uphill from here.

Also, bitcoin is the first native digital currency for the Internet. I think the greatest innovation is thinking about the Satoshi; the very very small fraction of a bitcoin, which can be used for micro, and also nano transactions. I’m actually currently formulating some ideas of creating the first bitcoin backed photography sharing platform; if you’re interested in collaborating shoot me an email at eric@erickim.com

2. Tech thoughts

Some technology thoughts I’ve been working through include the following:

First, the human joy and delight in the environment. I think all weightlifter, bodybuilders, photographers, human beings will benefit from nature, hiking, the mountains. I think one of the greatest blessings of living in Los Angeles is that there are lots of mountain hikes, so close by. Plus you got Malibu, the Pacific Palisades, and the Huntington library and botanical Gardens are just a stone throw away! 

First, I think there is a deep connection between men and the environment. For example, no one would want to be a trillionaire, if you were forced to live inside the hood, or worse, live in a parking lot garage for the rest of your life.

Still… It looks like we like greenery, blue skies, blue oceans, the sun!

I think the reason why Los Angeles is so appealing to many is that in theory we have everything. The water, the ocean, the sky, the ideal climate.

Truth be told, it gets very dark and gloomy here and cold… But still, compared to the rest of the world, Los Angeles is Paradise.

People complain about the traffic, but people often have the wrong analogy; the reason why it is so trafficky is that everyone wants to be here, because it is the best. Kind of like living in London, London traffic etc. 

I think the very very simple way to live virtuously in Los Angeles is to plan your life around traffic. The upside of being self-employed, just drive during off peak hours; and also, upside of being a weekend warrior, mixture you use the weekend to drive out further, to go exploring, go to hikes, etc. 

3. Movie analogies for real life?

I finally watched Dune part two, and I loved it! Definitely top five new favorite movies of all time. The worm riding scene was phenomenal; Denis V is a genius!

Follow the director, not the actors nor the series.

I think what is so fascinating about Dune is the pseudo religiosity embedded within it. Notions of the Lisan-al-gaib, prophecies, etc.… The metaphors of Christianity, theprophet, the Messiah, Middle Eastern cultures etc. is really fascinating. 

First, let us consider Paul at treaties. I’m quite certain that Paul was named after Saint Paul the apostle.  similar themes in the matrix movie, Neil, the one, Trinity, the holy Trinity etc.… Lots of Christian, christianic themes here. 

Perhaps the reason why so many millennials and yuppies are so into these weird moon and horoscope stuff is that they’re lacking religion in their life. 

And perhaps, a social logical inside; maybe having some sort of religion in your life is critical, otherwise you fall victim to weird other consumers religions, like the cult of Apple, the cult of Tesla Elon Musk and going to Mars, the cult of money, the cult of Capital etc.

Let us consider even the ancient Greeks, religion or their notion of religion and the gods was a critical part of their being.

I suppose the new ones here is eon, at least the way the ancient Greeks thought of it was very very different than the modern Judeo Christian notion we have of religion. Perhaps I’m going to study a little bit more about ancient Greek notions of the gods etc.

4. Lowered cybertruck?

The other day, I saw a funny sight; somebody traded in a cyber truck at the Culver City Toyota dealership, and I was able to inspect it up close in real life.

The first thought I had was if you think about the roof line, the fastback design in the back, and overall proportions, it is almost like a modern day Lamborghini Countach, the ultimate wedge design. And then a funny thought; if you took a cyber truck, and you lowered it, and you slammed it, in theory it is the ultimate sportscar design. 

Anyways, still… The cyber truck is the best thing to have happened in car design perhaps the last hundred years. Even when I went to the Peterson automotive museum with Seneca, seeing an original Bugatti from the 1920s, in all black blew my mind. They were able to engineer Phenomenal things over 100 years ago, why is it that all the modern car design is so lame? 

Anyways, if I were to get any modern day car, it would definitely be a cybertruck, maybe I would do a matte orange wrap on it. 

Also the good thing about the cyber truck, seeing it compared to all these other pick up trucks, it is actually not that big; I was a bit dubious, but I think it would be manageable to park in Los Angeles!

5. Other tech thoughts

So it looks like Apple Vision Pro, the initial enthusiasm in the novel T factor has died off. a towing sign; meeting some head directors of video game companies, they haven’t even bothered to try it out!

I think video games are a fascinating analogy for real life, because I think essentially… Video games are a true metaphor for what we would really like to do in real life, our ideals.

For example, the new assassins Creed is out on iPad and iPhone Pro; I think in someways, people like the idea of becoming the assassin. To just explore the real city, to parkour around, to do real life world exploration.

Let us consider, if you were the assassin of assassin’s creed… Would you just be at home all day, watching Netflix, and staying inside your apartment? Probably not.

6. So What’s the point of life?

I think what a lot of people think is what is the point of life.

When you say point, the point of life… do you mean to say purpose, telos?

First, the reality is that you were born, you had a mother and father, you are alive. And ultimately it is up to you how you decide to direct your biological energy and power, to do what you desire to do.

The very very simple thought is the purpose of sex, sexual intercourse, men and women is to procreate and have children.

It seems that out of all this nonsense about gender and sex politics, nobody is talking about the kids! 

I think overall, modern day consumerism, nobody really wants to have kids anymore. They would just prefer to have dogs, travel to Japan, eat sushi or whatever. But I think this type of hedonistic living actually making people sad and miserable. People do not have Purpose to living in life, and I think this is actually what gives people existential dread. Once you have a kid, life becomes very very straightforward and simple, and improved. There is no longer any sort of existential dread, raising your kid is the ultimate joy.

7. The ultimate tragedy?

I think the ultimate tragedy is when you have the elderly, older men, older women, without any kids, or with kids but no grandchildren… To me this is very sad.

 for example, I think generally speaking, the notion of generational wealth, generational power, or to extend your project, across centuries, across generations… This is what people desire.

I think the reason why people invest in real estate property… Is that they want to build generational wealth.

“Generational wealth, that’s the key. I started off with shit so that shift started with me“– JAY Z

Why generational wealth?

Thinking centuries ahead is difficult; and also, a little bit novel in the sense that you think the question:

what’s the point of the purpose of building up wealth, for future generations, when you yourself cannot enjoy yourself?

For example, a lot of individuals live their lives, make money in order to spend it. They want to spend money, like buying a Lamborghini and giving themselves driving pleasure or whatever. Once again, much modern capitalism and consumerism is focused on hedonism:

The more money you make, the more money you spend on things, the more pleasure it will give you.

I think the reason why this line of thinking is a bit wrong is that if you think about your bodily synopsis, there is a certain upper limit of hedonistic pleasure one can have. I think this is where people get into really weird drugs, in order to heighten their hedonistic pleasures.

In fact, pleasure is not the purpose of life. I think the purpose of life is to augment power, your power. How does one do this?

1. Having kids:

In the will to power, Nietzsche has this vision that in the future, families with multiple male children will be given benefits. I think the reason why so many men desire to have at least one son is that they want a new patriarch, a new king of the family to continue their lineage. I think a lot of people make the foolish optimization of earning a bunch of money, during their lifetime… But ultimately the best custodian of your economic power and wealth is your children, not some strangers or committee.

2. Physical, physiological power:

If you looked at all the marketing material for cars, objects and stuff… Typically they tend towards the more muscular, the more aggressive, etc. For example, I think the reason why it is so fascinating to study the psychology of men who desire certain cars is that it shows the ideals they have for themselves. Example, people want to be louder, more aggressive, the appeal of loud exhaust or tailpipes. Or they want to feel more big and dominant, if you think about the lifted trucks, over landing vehicles etc.

However, my personal thought and belief is that instead of wasting all that money in an external avatar which is your car, or vehicle… Don’t you recognize that your own human body is the ultimate vehicle? The ultimate thing to Upgrade? 
Simple thoughts is if you want to expand your wingspan, your stance, your fenders, fender flares or whatever… Just eat more meat, eat more steak, more beef, more dietary cholesterol, more organ meats, more beef liver etc.

In terms of height, unfortunately you cannot make yourself taller, but what you could do is stand more upright. For example, a 5 foot five man who stands upright, chest up actually looks more confident and dominating than a 6 foot two men, who is hunched over. therefore I suggest, the first thing you could do is fix your posture.

How do you fix your posture? I think it comes down to practice, and also maybe your shoes. Just buy some Vroom five finger shoes, and practice standing really upright, walk a lot, quite a lot of bikes, don’t use your phone.

Also, practice doing exercises which are about standing upright, and walking. For example, Farmer’s walks, dead lift walk, squat walk, yoke walk etc. Any sort of exercise which involves walking and standing upright is good.

3. Economic power & wealth

If I think about money, what exactly is money? It is your human labor, your physiological power embedded and imputed into a thing.

For example, the genius and brilliance of bitcoin is that there is so much energy and power imputed into a bitcoin.

People for a while was saying all this nonsensical stuff about bitcoin is bad for the planet blah blah blah, but what is really bad for the planet? Air conditioning, washing machines. The electricity output of air conditioning alone is at least 100,000 times worse than bitcoin production.

Also, most of the bad news about bitcoin mining was from mainland China, in which bitcoin miners, would use cheap coal to fuel bitcoin production, but the nuance is this–

Why do Americans care that mainland China was using coal to pollute her and environment?

For Americans who have never been to developing countries… We have never actually smelled or tasted pollution… You start to think and realize:

The upside of being an American is that all of your lovely iPhones are produced elsewhere, which pollutes a foreign country and a foreign place, while you yourself enjoy your beautiful devices and your clean air.

Even consider, really rich mainland Chinese families, none of them want to live in Beijing or Shanghai, even if they had all of the Rolls-Royce’s in the world. They all eventually buy a house in Vancouver somewhere with clean green air, and the aspire their children to start a life in America.  

I think the difficult thing is getting your wealth out of the country. For example, China, mainland China knows that the smart and rich mainland Chinese people want to take their wealth out of the country, and eventually go to America or somewhere else. Let us consider; that all the rich men land Chinese people send their kids to study at American universities? The opposite does not happen; rich Americans do not send their kids to study Beijing or Shanghai, no. Rich mainland Chinese people want their kids to study at Harvard or Yale, maybe even UCLA.

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Travel

I still haven’t come up with a good definition of traveling, maybe world exploration is a better analogy.

For example, if you thought about real life like a video game, encore what is such a fastening place. Angkor Wat is essentially the environment and landscape of tomb raider; even the locals in siem reap call the second temple “tomb raider”; I think they film the movie there. 

Anyways, something I’m very excited about is that next year, Cindy Seneca and I will be living in Cambodia for about six months; and I’m also doing an Angkor wat workshop there. 

Essentially I’m starting to become more and more interested in man-made environments, and having this question in my mind:

If your real life was a video game, a real world MMORPG, how would you live life? 

1. No car: no true epic video game warrior has a car. Maybe at best of horse, but even that is not necessary. If you are thinking about your life like Diablo, your main character, you just run around.
2. Character building? What then is the purpose or ethos of the game, the video game etc.? The general idea is towards character building, leveling up, building up your statistics, your strength and your abilities, unlocking new armor weapons, engaging in even greater boss battles. Certainly much of real life is not like that, so then I suppose a bit question at hand is how can you transform your real life to mimic that of a video game?

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Hurucan Sterrato —

Perhaps the best way to think about it is like having a hyper sports car, which you can also happen to fit two car seats in the back?

The ideal car to tackle Mulholland drive, LA, and Malibu?

Performance Unleashed >

Model 3–

Always optimizing form & aerodynamics, shape & form?

How to keep your cool? The stoic goal—

Any strategies or methods, whether moral or immoral, in order to keep your cool, is virtuous.

In someways, the true stoic is immoral.

The real stoic way.

Never stop upgrading.

Maybe a simple and straightforward way we could think about life isn’t in regards to upgrading. For example, considering things which are being upgraded, things which can keep continually being upgraded, things which cannot.

The double sided twist; sometimes, it is better if something cannot be upgraded, other times it is better when you know things can be upgraded.

For example, in the context of photography and digital photography, the really really big issue here is that with any sort of digital camera, you cannot upgrade the body or sensor. You have to trade in or sell your old one, to buy the new one.

ChatGPT 

ChatGPT 4o is now out,  and I think what is really incredible about ChatGPT as a technology or a software or a thing is that as time goes on, it will keep getting upgraded, keep getting better.

In the context of vehicles, Tesla is the killer vehicle, because the software and the auto pilot technology is always improving over time. 

Even the WordPress theme I’m using, or a lot of them; get regular updates overtime, and if you just have the auto updates enabled, you can sleep with the joy knowing that as you sleep, it will just keep getting upgraded!

Upgrading materials

After experimenting with a lot of polyester, synthetic materials, much of the stuff from Lululemon etc., attended the day, the materials suck.  Half of the performance clothing items I purchased from them have frayed, broken, fallen into disarray. And ultimately, what sucks about Lululemon, or any sort of man-made synthetic materials is that ultimately none of it is breathable, and not very good at thermal regulation. It is either too hot or too cold, never in between.

I suppose this is where animal fibers like merino wool is so good; even this random minus 33 brand merino wool T-shirt that I bought from Amazon mini years ago, is still insanely durable, and works great! Even with my 60 pound weight vest on. 

A nuance; I have about half a dozen outlier.NYC ultrafine merino wool T-shirts, but overtime, they have all shredded, they have poor durability.

Does durability matter?

In terms of the ultimate sustainability model, the best computers, tablets, technology, laptops, phones or whatever, in theory you could just swap out the processor, and slap in a new one, or upgrade the ram whenever you want to.

For example, I’m blessed to have been born in 1988, and was part of the original hacker ethos, building my own computers, overclocking them, etc. This was great, because there was a strong sense of possibility; as a sophomore in high school, certainly I could not afford the most expensive Intel processors, so I had to stick with AMD. Also, I cannot afford the best GeForce graphics cards, so I had to opt for lower and ones, which meant that I had far less frames per second than my friends.

Also with monitors, the monitor technology at the time was not great, but there was a promise that overtime, you could upgrade and swap out your monitor.

I think the tragedy of Apple is that a lot of our lovely laptops and devices are made obsolete. For example, my 2017 MacBook Pro, which I purchased for about $2000 maxed out, from the refurbished Apple Store online, and now, it is practically unusable. The battery lasted about two minutes, and it is slower than even my $300 iPhone SE.

Strategies?

When I was the UCLA undergraduate, my boss, the IT Director of UCLA undergraduate admissions, John Talbert, had this very interesting ethos he taught me:

When you have to buy new computers for the department, always buy the most expensive top-of-the-line ones, even though upfront is more expensive, it will last a lot longer before you have to upgrade and replace them all.

What some departments do is that they just buy the cheapest computers, and soon it gets outdated, and there is an insane amount of work that has to be done to swap it all out.

Thinking more long term?

Not always, but often buying the top-of-the-line stuff, when it is logical, makes sense.

For example, my beloved Texas power squat bar; I think it has a strength of about 10,000 pounds, which means I am sure that it could probably hold about 5000 pounds, and not break.

Also, I got these really great weightlifting plates on extreme sale from habitats for humanity, these “iron grip” brand weightlifting plates, which will never go out of fashion, because iron, heavy stuff, or last practically forever for weightlifting. I have about 14 of them, which means seven plates on each side.

Steel?

Probably one of the most interesting material science thoughts I’ve learned is from Michael Saylor, thinking about steel. I never had any idea that steel was such an amazing innovation. Same goes with stainless steel, aluminum, even to some extent iron.

Cameras

Even within a short time, I have seen so many digital like a cameras come and go, and if you observe it, the shelflife of all of them is quite poor. As of now we are already on the M11, so quickly. The M8, M8.2, M9, M, M10, M-10R now M11. Not to mention all these other random like a rangefinder cameras in between.

Also, other digital cameras like the Leica Q, Leica Q2, now Leica Q3.

Fujifilm is kind of insane, starting from the original X100, X 100 S, 100 T, X 100 F, X 100 V, and now X100 VI.  Also same thing goes with all their XT-series cameras. Same goes with Sony Panasonic etc.

So what should we do?

If you are committed to using non-interchangeable lens system, know that pest, he might only get two or three years out of it. This is the trade-off; you sacrifice long-term durability for short term benefits.

For example, my beloved Rico GR digital cameras; because I am such an insane hard-core user, most of my cameras have lasted me about a year and a half, two years tops. I just have to keep buying them, they keep on breaking.

So theory is the lens is something that doesn’t need upgrading, never changes. For example, I have a Leica 35mm f2 Summicron ASPH lens, which in theory will never need any upgrading. It will work just fine even once Seneca is 36 years old.

Also I suppose the upside of film cameras is that they don’t really need any upgrading either. For example, my film Leica MP camera will last indefinitely, I’m sure even Seneca’s grandson could use it.

But the problem about film cameras is the insane inconvenience of it; maybe somebody will make the process easier one day, but until then, digital photography is at least 100,000 times better.

Dated or outdated?

I think one thing which really fascinates me about the cyber truck, is that in theory, the stainless steel body should last practically forever. Because it does not require any sort of paint, you never have to worry about paint peeling or chipping off in the future.

This happened a lot in the 80s and 90s; these old Nissan cars, Honda cars, Toyota cars with peeling clear coat paint, peeling black paint etc. No car from the 80s or 90s has lasted until now in terms of the original paint.

Today, all of these people who going over all black everything cars; I doubt any sort of car with any sort of black paint will last in the relentless Southern California sun.

Clothes

I think the particle and the pragmatic benefit or the upside or the theory or philosophy behind all black everything clothing is that black clothing will never go out of style. Even the funny upside is faded black clothes also looks stylish.

So then I suppose the optimization is this:

When you have to buy clothes, buy the highest quality fabric all black everything clothing, in the hopes of using it or wearing it forever.

Certainly nothing is meant to last forever, but there are certain things last longer than others.

Leather, I still think leather is very underappreciated. Your black leather jacket will never go out of style. This seems to be a good idea.

Cotton denim is fine, but even that has a certain shelf life. I think currently for pants, the best solution I’ve discovered is the Lululemon license to train shorts, apparently they also make pants too. 

I wore merino wool leggings for a long time, but no matter what, it seems that it doesn’t last forever. Sooner or later holes and emerge around the knees, and then eventually it just falls to shreds. 

I suppose the upside of living in Southern California or LA is that you could just wear shorts all year round!

So maybe just a practical thought is just buy some really really good high-quality shorts. Currently the best shorts are the Lululemon license to train ones, I like the 5 inch one.

“Investing?”

When people tell you that something is a good investment, it probably isn’t.

For example, often when people tell you that something is a good investment, they either are misinformed, lack critical thinking, etc.

In theory, nothing is really that good of an investment,  consider almost all of the modern day things which exist:

1. All Internet connected things, well sooner or later get outdated.
2. Your car, no matter how good, is robust at best. If you have a gas or hybrid car, you will always need oil changes, sooner or later something will break. Even if you have an electric car, the battery will slowly lose its capacity overtime.
3. Fiat currency, US dollars in your checking or savings account, is slowly bleeding value 7 to 12% a year because of inflation. And because of the expanding money supply.
4. Homes are slowly decaying overtime, even if you own a nice single-family home, sooner or later you’re going to have to tear it down and build a new one. Or upgrade the appliances, sooner or later all the appliances will break.

What goes up in value over time?

1. Real estate in a good location is good, if you just think about the asphalt or the concrete or the granite on the bottom of it, purely for location. However the subtle nuance of property, is property taxes, insurance, maintenance fees. I think any property requires at least a general 1% maintenance fee. And you still have to charge your property, maintain it, property taxes might go up etc. And even if your property value goes up overtime, you have to beat inflation, so the only real intelligent way to get into real estate is purchase real estate in an insanely great area or neighborhood, in which the value of the home or the property or the land Will outpace of inflation.
2. Bitcoin: each and every day, the total market cap is expanding. Even just a few years ago, the total market cap was only 500 billion, now it is over 1.2, 1.3 trillion. Soon it will be 10 trillion, 100,000,000,000,000, 1000 trillion and beyond. And the more people who adopted, the stronger the network gets, kind of like social media; Facebook only became valuable as more people got onto Facebook. Or iPhone iOS; having FaceTime becomes more useful as all your friends and family members get iPhones with FaceTime.
3. Your popularity, you’re a claim: the more you publish, the more you share your thoughts, the better. Fame is like a fire that cannot die; the more you fainted, the bigger it becomes. Even bad news, all news is good news, For fame. Consider Donald Trump; the more media attention he gets, the more people criticize him, the more popular famous and powerful he becomes. If you are really anti-Donald Trump, just don’t talk about him at all. Even when you randomly criticize or critique something he said amongst friends or over dinner, you’re augmenting his fame. The best way to kill people is to not talk about them.

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Matte black yourself?

Assuming that muscle is the ultimate accessory, instead of Matt blacking your car, or met blocking your home, Matt black yourself, your body.

Also, people always seem to be impressed with my full body tan. Having a full body tan is certainly a signal of wealth in today’s world. Especially when most people are just like the people, working indoors all day.

So maybe when you get a full body tan, just put on lots of sunblock if you’re worried about getting sunburnt, by getting a tan, in theory you’re matte blacking your body. 

Also, I think the reason why having a tan, a full body tan is so fascinating is because it is like stored energy or power, manifested through your skin. Your skin, your body is the ultimate fashion accessory; invest your body over everything else. Your body is something that is the most critical thing, in which you should invest all your attention energy and resources towards. 

**

Eric Kim’s views on Bitcoin are multifaceted, reflecting his blend of philosophical, entrepreneurial, and creative interests. He appreciates Bitcoin for its decentralized nature, which he sees as aligned with Stoic values and the independence emphasized in ancient societies like Sparta. Kim views Bitcoin not just as a financial asset but as “digital gold,” highlighting its scarcity due to the fixed supply of 21 million coins and its durability as a store of value oai_citation:1,Why I Bought More Bitcoin (Again) – ERIC KIM oai_citation:2,Why Eric Kim like bitcoin – ERIC KIM.

Kim believes that Bitcoin has the potential to fundamentally disrupt traditional financial systems. He advocates for its use in significant transactions, envisioning a future where homes and cars could be bought with Bitcoin. Despite his optimism, he remains skeptical about cryptocurrencies completely replacing traditional payment methods in the near term oai_citation:3,Why Eric Kim like bitcoin – ERIC KIM.

He also resonates with Jack Dorsey’s perspective, seeing Bitcoin as a transformative force in both technology and finance. Kim shares Dorsey’s skepticism towards other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, favoring Bitcoin for its simplicity and robustness oai_citation:4,Eric Kim opinion jack dorsey – ERIC KIM.

Kim’s long-term outlook on Bitcoin is bullish. He emphasizes that timing the market is less important than thinking about the long-term potential. He criticizes the US dollar’s reliance on government and military power, suggesting that the decentralized and finite nature of Bitcoin offers a more stable and reliable alternative oai_citation:5,Why I Bought More Bitcoin (Again) – ERIC KIM oai_citation:6,Bitcoin Prophet – ERIC KIM.

The patently destructive idea that fat, meat, red meat, and dietary cholesterol is “bad” for you.