Your cart is currently empty!
ERIC KIM LIFE STORY
You cannot understand me if you don’t know where I’ve been, or what I have experienced:
VIDEO OF
The school of the hard knocks
“It’s a hard knock life for us!” – Annie
Or even better done by JAY Z // Ghetto Album.
Why does this song make me so emotional? It makes me think of my child-hood. A tough childhood is kinda sad, but I am grateful; the tragedies I experienced as a kid created who I am. This is why I can far more relate to JAY Z (growing up poor) more so than Kanye (growing up middle-class).
Poor vs rich
For me, I never really cared about ‘racism’ or any of that growing up. For me, the bigger issue was:
I am scared my mom cannot pay the rent this month, because my dad just left to Reno for a few days, and gambled away the rent money.
I still have vivid memories. This is when I was in Sophomore year in high school. The summer of, I hustled hard (worked as a busboy at the Japanese restaurant my mom worked as a waitress at), and I made around ~$3,000 USD in cash that summer. I got suckered by my dad — something like he was gonna use the money to go down to LA and pursue some business deal or something. Ended up he took my $3,000 and gambled it all away in around a week in Reno. Came back with nada.
How does this affect your psyche as a kid?
MARCY ME — another JAY Z song I can relate to.
You learn at a young age:
Nobody can be trusted.
The only people I trusted was my mom, my sister, and my friends. I also had a weird relationship with money —
Spend your money while you got it, because who knows, your dad might swipe it, and gamble it away.
How the school of the hard knocks is good
Truth be told, I ain’t salty about my past. I am deeply grateful. Why? I don’t really wish this upon anybody else, or my future kid, or the child of anyone else. But this is the thing:
A hard knock life toughens you up.
You grow a very thick skin. A very stoic skin. Actually ever since I was 12 years old, I was the OG stoic without even knowing it. I became de-sensitized to the domestic abuse in my household (my dad was physically violent AND mentally/verbally violent to my mom). I still have bad memories of my dad grabbing my mom by the head, yanking her head around, and calling her all these really bad expletives in Korean. Strangely this became normalized to me. My only regret as a kid growing up was not to physically intervene and beat up my dad to defend my mom.
Scars are good
SCARS are good. Why? If it weren’t for my scars, I wouldn’t have become strong.
The future of child-rearing
I think about this a lot. How will I raise my future kids? What would and should future society look like?
A future spartan society?
Y’all soft as bread, y’all soft as bread (Kanye West paraphrase).
I disdain softness. I see society is becoming more and more soft. My thought? Society should become harder. More rigorous. More critical. More tempered.
Children are tougher than they seem. And whenever I see soft kids, it ain’t the fault of a kid. A kid is just a blank slate. It is through societal trends, norms, religion, education, ideologies, philosophies, etc which transforms the kid into what they is.
So whenever we see soft kids in (American) society, typically the kids are spoiled rotten. Some via-negativa ideas I got:
- Don’t give the kid an iPhone, an iPad, or any crack-cocaine-dopamnine-machine-device
- Don’t give the kid handouts. This means if the kid (as a teenager or above) wants something, tell them to go get a job and earn it. This was huuuugely beneficial to me as a kid growing up. I knew I could only depend on myself, because my mom literally had no money. This is good motivation. Because when I bought something with my own hard-earned cash (for example, I bought my first car, a used 1991 Sentra XE [5 speed], for only $1,200 at age 15) I had HUGE PRIDE!. Once again; when we get kids to work hard for something and actually buy it themselves, it augments the child with pride.
- Challenge your kids to think different. Best to ask kids “WHY?” do you think that way, rather than trying to brainwash them to think a certain way.
The future of humanity
My belief:
The future of humanity (if it continues the way it is) will become profoundly mediocre.
The future is gonna be hijacked by the nerds. The nerds who only know numbers (quantified self movement type fellows), and engineers, and computer science majors and programmers. The future of humanity will lack aesthetics, ethics, morality, or philosophy. It will only care for money, more social media followers, more expensive things and objects, and it will become more and more anti-social.
How can we change this? You.
ERIC
PHILOSOPHY BY KIM
Dictate your meaning and purpose in your life with ZEN OF ERIC:
Philosophical Essays
- Open Mind vs Closed Mind
- ENTHUSIASM IS GENIUS
- Towards a More Critical and Rigorous Line of Thinking
- How to Encourage and a Foster Independent and Free Thinking
- What is the Purpose of Life?
- WHY PHILOSOPHY IS SUPREME.
- Elitism.
- I Cannot Form an Opinion About Somebody Until I’ve Met Them in the Flesh
- ALL GENETICS ARE GOOD GENETICS.
- Happiness vs Freedom
- The Birth of a Hater
- My Way Isn’t the Right Way
- Walking as an Existential Thing
- Why I’m So Tolerant
- Mortal Gods
- THE HUMAN SPECIES
- Why I’m So Skeptical
- Just Follow the Money
- Why Selfish?
- WHY WE CANNOT BLAME OTHERS
- Why Are We So Anti Elitism?
- What Actually Interests You?
- How to Become Yourself
- SELF HATE
- Optimistic Fatalism
- Death is the Ultimate Creative Constraint
- FLUX.
- How to Think for Yourself
- FLESH
- How to Live the Best Life
- Why Live a Life Without Regrets?
- Why Plato Ruined Art and Aesthetics for Us
- Self Respect
- Hypocrite vs Contradict
- Ideals vs Reality
- Spaceship Philosophy
- What is Your Ideal Life?
- MY EXTREME GRATITUDE TOWARDS LIFE AND BEING ALIVE!
- Critique of Utilitarianism
- Don’t Treat Others the Way You Want to Be Treated
- The Eternal Recurrence of Tragedy and Joy in Life
- Elite Asceticism
- Why I Don’t Like Numbers
- Action and Reaction, Cause and Effect
- The Antidote to Nihilism: The Philosophy of Nothingness
- ERIC KIM Notes on Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
- EXPLOIT CHAOS.
- WHY I DON’T BELIEVE IN GENETICS
- Self-Wisdom
- The Future Belongs to the Fearless
- INDIVIDUALISM
- Why Live Forever?
- THIS TOO WILL PASS.
- Why Education?
- How to Become Yourself
- Things Shouldn’t Go Back to the Way They Used to Be
- Why Am I So Cruel?
- The Great Joy of Existence
- Virtue for the Sake of Virtue
- NO DISDAIN.
- INTELLIGENT IGNORANCE
- A LIFE WITHOUT PAIN, DIFFICULTY OR TRAGEDY ISN’T A LIFE WORTH LIVING
- BITTER IS BETTER.
- EXPLOIT THE BEST FROM TRAGEDY AND LIFE
- DISREGARD FOR SELF-PRESERVATION
- PAIN.
- WHAT IF EVERYTHING IS NOT GONNA BE ALRIGHT?
- Tomorrow is Never
- Life is the Ultimate Creative Constraint
- EMBODIED REALITY
- BLACK SWAN
- THINGS WILL NEVER GO BACK TO THE WAY THEY USED TO BE
- What are you *really* afraid of?
- HAPPINESS ISN’T THE GOAL
- Philosophy is King
- Why is Selfish Evil?
- YOU’RE CONSTANTLY IN A STATE OF BECOMING
- ENTITLEMENT A SIN?
- NARCISSISM
- BE BRUTALLY HONEST WITH YOURSELF
- WHY FREE WILL?
- OBEY YOUR OPINION
- EGO IS GOOD.
- WHY IT IS GOOD TO BE INTO YOURSELF
- Seek the Good Pain
- Anti-Perfection in Photography, Art, and Life
- Can You Become an End into Yourself?
- WHY I LIVE
- Why I Hate Decline
- Why I Eat
- Why am I So Positive and Optimistic?
- EFFORT IS ENJOYMENT
- Never Stop Gaining
- TRUST YOURSELF
- A Life of Maximal Personal Independence
- What Do You Desire to Become?
- What Do I Want from Technology?
- Stratified Society
- Do You Love or Hate Reality?
- On the Brian, Body and Mind
- I’m Maximally Happy, Now What?
- Care over Fame
- ACTIVE NIHILISM
- Never Stop Subtracting
- How to Live a Happier and More Epic Life
- A Risker Life is a Better Life
- Only Work on Things You Can Imagine Doing for Eternity
- How to Maximize Your Happiness
- Influence
- The Gladiator Makes His Plans once He Enters the Ring
- Meditations on Meaning in Life
- There is Nothing More Interesting than Human Beings
- Is Hope a Vice?
- EGO
- Why Be Unique?
- Happiness is Metabolism Health and Strength
- You’re the Hero
- Is Productivity a Virtue or Vice?
- Why Do We Prize the Rare?
- The Joy of Uncertainty
- How Should I Best Use My Time and Life?
- A Life Without Pain or Suffering Isn’t a Life Worth Living
- Free or Unfree?
- What Do You Really Care For in Life?
- Anti-Satisfaction in Life
- Why Think?
- The Eternal Return
- Only Do What is Best for You!
- Truthiness
- Why Be Happy?
- Permissionless Living
- In Praise of Unconventional Wisdom
- Become the Change Which You Wish to See in the World
- Happiness
- Beyond Freedom
- Idolize People, Not Stuff
- What Makes You Stronger? What Makes You Weaker?
- Why Hate?
- The Secret of Happiness
- You’re Constantly in a State of Becoming
- Life is about Choices, Not Obligations
- Anti-Nihilism
- First, Do What is Best for You.
- Live Dynamic
- How to Prosper
- Is the Point of Life to Be Satisfied?
- SUPREME EFFORT OF WILL.
- How to Become more Idealistic
- Thrivival 101
- Create Yourself
- Non-Small
- Inspiration
- How to Live a Heroic Life: Dare the Heights!
- Human Augmentation
- Prune
- Happiness: Do What You Want to Do (And Don’t Do What You Don’t Want to Do)
- Avoid Vain (Empty) Pursuits in Life
- Modern Slavery
- Kill the Leeches
- Wisdom Augmentation
- Why We Need Friction in Life
- Straight Line Philosophy
- What’s Your End-Game in Life?
- Create Your Own Happiness Today
- Desire Both Pain and Pleasure in Life
- Try the Impossible
- SELF-RESPECT
- Anti-Social Extrovert
- Never Blame Anybody But Yourself
- Human Flourishing
- Simpler, Not Better.
- How to be Free
- Embrace the Extremes
- Cultivate Your Own Culture
- COURAGE.
- Thrivival
- Inner Power
- How to Live a Purposeful Life
- My Definition of Happiness
- Why Change is Good
- Why Work?
- How to Live the Happiest Possible Life
- The Two-Pronged Approach to Maximize Joy in Your Life
- You Always Have Another Option!
- INFINITISM
- Never Stop!
- What is Your Self-Directed Purpose in Life?
- Live Today Like it Were Your Last
- Do You Photograph to Live, or Live to Photograph?
- ARTIST-PHILOSOPHER
- Live Life to the Fullest!
- In Praise of Selfishness
- Why You Must Be a YAY-SAYER to Succeed in Entrepreneurship and Life
- Why I Love Walking
- Live Life Like a Video Game!
- Simple Luxuries in Life
- Treat Your Life Like a Fun Experiment!
- Only Prove it to Yourself
- You Don’t Always Need to Feel Joyful to Live a Fulfilling and Meaningful Life
- Life is Too Short to Be Bored!
- Money Cannot Destroy Boredom
- How to Find Inspiration in Life
- Why You Must Ignore Haters to Succeed and Win in Life
- An Active Life is a Happy Life
- My Simple Joys in Life
- Never Stop Striving
- How to Motivate Yourself in Life
- How to Be Optimistic in Life
- How to Dictate Your Purpose in Life
- In Praise of a Dynamic Life
- PURPOSE.
- How to Enjoy Life
- Photography Therapy
- How to Conquer Regret
- Take Your Play Very Seriously.
- How to Prosper
- Memento Vivere
- Destroy in Order to CREATE
- Trust Your Body More Than Your Mind
- Make Photos to Make Meaning in Your Life
- Seek Knowledge, Not Information
- The Purpose of Human Life
- How to Overcome Impedence
- Why I Love Death
- How to Be Centered in the Eternal Now
- How to Be Happy
- Why Do You Care What Others Think of You?
- Why I’m Happy
- Why?
- Why I’m So Prolific
- How to Reduce LAG in Life
Masters of Philosophy »
Personal Philosophy »
Stoicism »
- How to Be a Stoic Street Photographer
- How to Use Photography as Self-Therapy
- How to Free Your Soul From Disturbance
Zen Philosophy »
- How to Be a Zen Street Photographer
- Zen in the Art of Street Photography
- How to Find Tranquility in Your Photography
Life Lessons »
Learn more: Start Here >