WAR–> I’m wired for war?
you weren’t meant for an easy life?
So, ,,, in this glorious life of ours, what do we do? How do we utilize it?
First, the point of life isn’t to die with the most ones and zeros in the grave. In fact, in theory… The best life is in which you die with zero? Zero dollars? And that while you were alive… The most intelligently leveraged your capital, towards the most noble ends?
the market as a battlefield
If you are a market participant, an investor a trader money manager, hedge fund manager whatever… The markets are our economic life blood. There is kind of a ridiculous amount of hormones and euphoria and blood and physiology which goes into the markets, my general thought is 99.999% of the population is not fit for it.
In fact, the best physiology for being an investor or trader or whatever is a life in which you sleep 12 hours night, free of anxiety… Kind of this cool calm stoic zen approach, almost like being an AI… In which you are taking intelligent risk calculations, pricing in potential failure, and also… The philosophy of risk, danger and reward?
dying on the battlefield
So for King Leonidas and his 300… Successor failure were not the markers of being a noble Spartan. Rather, it was about doing your duty, showing no cowardice or fear, and whether you lived or died, you left that up to the gods.
Now the problem is, considering the most investors and traders are men, we seem to stake our self-esteem our manliness, our self-worth on these numbers. Yet, the reason why this is not always a good idea is because nobody could control the markets, and courage and conviction and insight is all you got. Also nobody could time the market, not even God could time the market.
why even participate in the markets?
Market, marketing, the markets, technically, in terms of society… Society cannot function without a market, marketplace, metaphorical or literal. Grocery market, financial markets, etc.
 but the deeper philosophical question… Why even play the game, assuming the markets is a game, our play thing, etc.?
Investing as an autotelic thing?
So there are certain things that you do, for the sake of it, autotelic, auto like doing it for the self… telic like telos like why are you doing in the first place?
I suppose the first thought is, you gotta love the markets, rather than dread it? Like… You just enjoy doing the thing? And that the numbers isn’t really about becoming richer or poorer, and also not tied to self-esteem, but rather, inputs and outputs, and become more detached from the results?
living for today
I think what is built into investing is this baked incense of optimism for the future. Nobody would invest their money if they did not imagine a positive gain into the future.
Yet once again… I’m starting to think that investing is less about gains, and once again… More of an autotelic thing that you do for the sake of it? And because you’re playing long game, decades, like enjoy this game for the next 50 years… With a great cheerful mood and being able to sleep at night, how do you best approach this?
Taking control
So I think the problem is a lot of external things are designed to manipulate our emotions, rather than give us critical information. For example… News bitcoin news global politics, the more sensational and dramatic, the more engagement it gets. But that’s not good for you because… You’re just playing with your emotions.
One thing I realize with bitcoin prices, is that whenever I looked at the price it would negatively emotionally de calibrate me? Therefore I built bitcoin Zen, bitcoinzen.grok.me –> using GROK build, and I tried to design it in such a way that it still gives you critical information like the price, without all of the emotional manipulations? Some insights:
- Precise numbers are not useful, round numbers are better
- To write the numbers like written out long form rather than numbers is less emotional. For example “eighty thousand” rather than “80,000”
- Don’t show red and green or colors, keep it all monochrome because colors manipulate us
- Don’t show percentage gain or loss, once again these are anchors which manipulate us
- Don’t read the news, all of the critical news information is already baked into the price of the commodity or asset. Typically prices are an indicator of current market heartbeat and pulse, how all of the market participants are currently feeling about the markets or a thing. And reading more news doesn’t necessarily give us more insight. In fact it’s probably the opposite… The less news you read, ideally none, will give you greater insight.
Physiology, fitness & finances
 I’m like probably the most straightedge person out there, no alcohol no medication no painkillers no sleep aids, no weed, etc. And I also hike every single day, ride my bike around a lot, lift very heavy weights every day, and still… In terms of physiology… Even I have the hardest time to remain Zen and calibrate myself? I have no idea how other people do it.
So the first idea I have is, before you do any finance related stuff… Make sure you get a good pump. Like, get your morning hike walk bike ride, weightlifting session, hot yoga in before you dive into anything capital related.
 this is my insight: assume like you slept a glorious 12 hours, you ate well, you have great mood lots of overflowing strength in your muscles, when you finally do jump into the markets, you could remain a little bit more cool and detached.
Also… If you did not sleep well the night prior, or your health feels poor or off… my great suggestion is force yourself not to do anything finance related that day. Instead, just try to get your fitness back in, eat 2 pounds of beef liver in the evening, a dozen eggs, maybe do some hot yoga or an ice bath, no stimulants or downers during the day, and try to get 8 to 12 hours of sleep. If you’re like a hard-core investor or traitor, the deal would actually be to sleep every single day at 6:30 PM, always get in your 12 hours of sleep, and be ready for the next day.
I think it is also wise to have a strict cut off time for market related activities. Maybe it is noon, 1 PM, 2 PM, or 3 PM your time? Giving yourself enough time to unwind before going to sleep?
identity, self-worth.
Your net worth is not your self-worth. I think the best way to judge yourself is, how great you feel in terms of your health, mood, physiology, and how great your body feels, and also how beautiful you look like in the mirror. My general thought is if you allocate 99% of your attention to your body, everything else will fall into place.
ERIC
Own yourself
To zen out, or get personal stoic EK training –> seek perhaps booking a 1:1 investment consulting session with me via this google form. If we are a good fit, I will reach out back to you. 

HAPTIC REVIVAL
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Now what?
Philosophize on your body and physiology, … then all shall follow.
ERIC
EK WORKSHOPS
November 11th: CONQUER THE UNIVERSE ERIC KIM STOICISM WORKSHOP, NYC.