Lately I have been instituting this new rule I have for myself which is to not use any devices while I am at home. For example, first thing in the morning, rather than just opening on my iPad and scrolling around websites etc.… I just tried to put in my bag, my backpack, stay focused, Start pounding my espresso, and starting to think. And getting ready to head out of the apartment, to go on my ceremonious morning walk with my 60 pound weight vest.
Also more recently, almost naturally… I actually don’t really like to use the phone, or be on the phone. Using the tiny tiny screen on the iPhone, I’m starting to feel more headaches, or feeling dizzy, or just feeling unpleasant using it.
Even the same thing when I am using my iPad at the house, I feel a bit dizzy, unfocused, the overall feeling is unpleasant.
Now I think the critical issue that most people do is that they are always waiting to upgrade their iPhone, waiting for the newest iPhone Pro etc. But what if in fact, the proper approach to things was actually to think:
Perhaps the best upgrade is to just stop using your phone phone and your iPhone altogether?
In fact, if you were a really really successful person, like myself, my ideal would be to just not to have a phone at all; the only reason I have to use the phone nowadays is Google maps and navigation, two factor authentication to log into my financial accounts, and also, to FaceTime and contact Cindy. Besides this… I think the iPhone might be the ultimate productivity killer? Which means,
> Productivity is via negativa.
Which means, if you want to be more productive, throw your iPhone into the trash!  or if you really really want to be present, when you go to a family event, turn off your phone and lock it up in the glove compartment, when you take your kids to the park also put in the glove compartment, or if you go on a dinner date with your partner also just leave it in the car or at home!
Stunned?
I suppose the critical issue here is that I think, if I think of it critically, even when I am on my iPad, scrolling through websites and stuff… It makes me static, not move, too focused that’s staring at something on the screen. 
Also if you think about kids, the natural state of things is to always be moving, to always be dynamic, exploring the world, playing around things etc.
In fact, one of the most disturbing things I discover is that with kids, when they turn on some sort of television program or something, it immediately pacifies them, it becomes so static. I find it insanely disturbing.
Also, if you think about “success” in America… Why does it have to deal with becoming static, sitting on your butt, or being delivered entertainment, pleasure etc. All while sitting on your butt?
For example, watching a show, whether it be a theater performance, a musical performance, etc.
Or, fine dining or a buffet in Vegas; once again you’re just shoving your face with food, sitting on your butt.
Dynamics
The other day I took Seneca to the Koreatown Picco branch Public library, they have a really cool new maker space there, and there was some sort of computer 3-D paper cutting class, with insects and bugs on paper, in which you sat down with a pair of scissors, and what cut out Shapes and glue them together etc. Arts and crafts.
But once again the issue here is why was it done all done while sitting, sitting down? Why are there not arts, arts and crafts in which you’re standing, moving around, running around? 
Also as a sidenote, Seneca actually had the most fun playing in the corner with this marble kinetic set; in which you could create these ramps and these slides and you just put marble on top and let gravity do the work, it seems that Seneca loves most dynamic kinetics and movement!

Life
The most dynamic life, the most standing and moving around life outside is the best life.
Also, prioritizing your sleep, leaving a party early, to make sure you go home and sleep early seems to be optimal.
Anyways, now that forever LA summer is here, and the sun is out, and it is glorious… I feel really bad for people who have to be indoors all day, especially kids are forced to stay indoors all day. 
For example, air conditioning; air conditioning is insanely bad for your physiology. It is far better to be not indoors, outside, hanging out in the shade, rather than being stuck in some sort of claustrophobic indoor space, with the air conditioner blasting. I hate air conditioning in the way it makes me feel, in fact even the days when it is really really hot outside and the sun is really strong, being indoors with the air-conditioning blasting, in the dark, is actually very uncomfortable.
Sports
Seneca at the age of three years four months… Looks like I’m going to be become a sports dad! Gonna sign him up for tee-ball, which is the early version of baseball. 
Anyways, we went to the local park, and we found a football, and it brought back all these wonderful memories from high school in which I played football my sophomore and junior year; outside linebacker, then sideline Becker my junior year; both years being a starter.
Around “the old pigskin“, was sent Kelly was so much fun! Especially with American football, because it is oblong, when it hits the floor, the movement is fun and unpredictable! Seneca loves it! And also I suppose the good thing with the American football is that it is actually really easy for a kid to throw and catch, and hold carry and handle, as the football is soft, and quite big, compared with a baseball which is very small and very hard.
Anyways, when I was at the park I just left my phone in the glove compartment, and was 100% focused on throwing around the football with Seneca, and I legitimately had so much fun! I think the problem with having an iPhone on you is that you’re literally being distracted every other second, which never means that you could really really focus on anything or enjoy anything; for example, Letting your mind go follow, and just noticing the trees in the distance blowing. 
Come on, let us consider it; we are already photographers — we don’t need a loser iPhone or a loser iPhone Pro. We already have our own standalone digital cameras! Which means once again you could just leave your iPhone in the car, and when you are out and about with your kid or doing something or watching fireworks whatever… You could just bring your standalone digital camera instead!
“Downgrade”?
It seems that in life, we are always trying to upgrade things. We are trying to upgrade our lifestyle, upgrade our lives, upgrade our happiness joy and whatever, etc. But I suppose the issue here is that what constitutes a “upgrade”, versus “downgrade”?
Certainly materials matter. Far better to have linen or merino wool than cotton which sucks. The best innovation that I’ve done was designing and creating my own linen tank top shirts, I forget that I’m wearing anything at all! And it is so breezy and light. The second I put on a cotton shirt, just to try it out… Immediately it captures all the sweat, cotton sucks. 
Also, maybe the quality of components and furnishings. For example the reason why I am so happy grateful and joyful about my new apartment here in Culver City is it is literally the nicest apartment I’ve ever lived in my life! All nice Kohler components, and this matters.  For example, recently revisiting Cindy‘s family house, and the components they use at the house! Superficially they look nice, but they are all plastic handles, they feel cheap and flimsy.
Also suppose here, this is why Lexus cars are superior to Tesla cars; certainly a Tesla is the superior car, and also much sexier, but if you actually critically handle and feel the materials, feel the overall handling and the performance, the rigidity and the ride quality of a car… a Lexus is probably 10 times better. Why? Electric cars are expensive. So is the battery pack and all the technology behind it. Therefore, in order to keep the price point tenable, certainly Tesla cannot use the finest materials inside the car for the steering wheel, the seats, the doorhandles, the side trim etc.
God is in the details
For example, looking at the side trim of a car, the most critical part of a car to be insanely discerning about is when you’re about to enter the car from the driver side door, make sure there is no cheap plasticky looking components. Once again on a Lexus LS car, side trimmings, none of them is a cheap black plastic, they are all this nice lovely graphite shiny looking thing. Even my main critique on the Tesla model X, and Y… What’s up with that trim around the wheel wells?
Simple idea for Tesla —
Paint the wheelwells as well!
Even the new Lexus RX cars, it looks like they woke up and finally started to also color match and color paint the wheel wells, which makes the car look 1 million times more elegant!
What to upgrade what to downgrade
OK, in the context of clothing, less is better. For example, less material.
For example, assuming you have to wear a shirt in public, or you’re about to enter a private place, and you must wear a shirt, ideally it is a tank top; a 100% linen tank top, or a merino wool tank top. Scissors are your best via negativa Zen tool.
For example, if you have a black merino wool T-shirt at home, just take a pair of heavy duty scissors and cut out the sleeves!  I also recently did it with one of my old tank tops, in which I made it more like a crop top, because the bottom of the shirt was dragging too low, and I did not like the fit; very simple, cut out the parts you don’t like!
I was also randomly thinking about cars… For example when you expand your family, let me assume that I have one or two more kids, let us assume that I have three kids. If this were the case, I wouldn’t “upgrade” my Prius, even my friend Kevin who has a Tesla model three, has this “doona” slim car seats, in which he could fit two car seats in the back, and his nine-year-old kid could also sit in the back? Certainly it is a bit tight for the nine-year-old daughter, but come on… Growing up, at least me being Asian Asian American, it is not uncommon to shove more kids in the backseat!
Obesity, type two diabetes is the issue here?
How do you cure type two diabetes, fix obesity, prevent it etc.? Pretty simple. 
1. Never allow any bad things in moderation, 0% know. Hard rules.
For example Santa is currently three years four months, and he is aware of cookies and ice cream now, because he sees it in books, in real life, it is part of modern mainstream media in American culture. But here, here is where being a food Nazi is a good idea; once you expose it to your kid, there’s no going back. It is like giving your kid a cigarette and getting them addicted to nicotine at the age of 11 or 12… Which I witnessed myself in middle school with some of my friends or some of the kids at school. Why would you do this? 
For example, I think the number one thing I learned about sociology, social life etc.… Is essentially not to curb to peer pressure, social norms etc. And I think my whole life, maybe the reason I’ve become so successful is because in fact, the fact that I am more so than the average person able to resist social norms, or go opposite.
Even a more recent example, maybe seven or eight years ago etc. is me just quitting to drinking alcohol, not because of any more realistic reason I think it’s fine I just didn’t like the way you made me feel, and I would always get terrible hangovers, and also I just cannot sleep at night even after just one beer or one alcoholic beverage.
Also strange notions of a “balanced diet“. I’m starting to think that this is just propaganda from the Coca-Cola corporation, which tells you that if you exercise, right, you could have a Coca-Cola beverage here and there, because it is “only “120 cal, which will not cause you to get fat, assuming the calories in calories out there that the average human being as long as you maintain under 2000 cal a day, you will not get bad, which means if you eat 1800 cal of quinoa and beans a day, and have one Coca-Cola beverage which is 100 cal, but 38 g of sugar, you will not get fat.   but is this true? No.
Why is nobody strict anymore?
It seems that the critical issue in today’s world is that being strict has gone out of fashion. For example when I see modern day parents let their kids loose with candy, ice cream, desserts, drinking sweetened beverages, watching these stupefying shows on YouTube Disney+ or whatever… It seems that is that modern society, especially in America, there is no more rigger, no more discipline and I don’t think of discipline as some sort of moralistic or ethical imperative; rather, maybe having the wisdom to stick to your guts, to stick to your guns, and to not budge.
I’ll give you example — in intermittent fasting, I think the primary issue against intermittent fasting isn’t that it is “hard”, the more difficult thing I think for the average person is the fact that they succumb to social pressure.
For example, I don’t eat breakfast or lunch, and I haven’t done this for almost 7 years. So anybody who says it is not “sustainable”, I think this is wrong. The question is —
Will you succumb to social pressure or peer pressure or not? 
For example, I think stubbornness is a virtue. Especially in regards to things you care for and believe in.
For example, the modern day society we are taught and socialized and conditions that stubbornness is bad. That you have to be open-minded and yielding. However, I am grateful that I am so hardheaded, stubborn, and wise… In high school when all my friends started smoking, cigarettes and marijuana etc.… It was very easy for me to say no. And I never succumbed to social pressure in order to feel “cool”. 
In fact, the funny thing with pure pressure and smoking and marijuana in middle school and high school isn’t actually pure pressure, for example, let us say that you have a friend who smokes cigarettes, or weed, and they say “do you want to take a hit or try it?” Typically your friends won’t really put a gun to your head and force you to do it… Rather, they will offer it up to you, as an option, and as a kid you have the option to say yes or no.
And typically the kids get into smoking, smoking cigarettes or marijuana, why suppose nowadays vaping… The greater issue here is they just want to feel cool and included.
So, if you no longer care to be cool or included or whatever… isn’t this an insanely revolutionary idea?
Social pressure and food and beverages
In the UK for example, or in London, to drink a beer with your “mates“ is almost akin to brushing your teeth or wiping your butt after you use the bathroom. To not drink beer as a man in the UK… is almost like being a lady with a beard? 
And then the critical issue here becomes British guys trying to pressure you into drinking a beer, by calling you a pussy or whatever.
I actually remember one of the best self-defense mechanisms as a kid, or as a teenager… when your friends would tell you to not be a pussy, or “don’t be gay”… the best response was to say — “I love the cock!” No response from the other party. 
So perhaps the best self-defense mechanism in life modern day life… Is if somebody tries to bully you, the best response is to simply, and give them the answer that they don’t want.
Almost wonder if in silly feces tossing competitions, AK politics… When people try to insult you with some sort of silly argument, Don’t fight back, just roll with it but say the more comedic response.
For example, when I tell people that I’m in Todd quit investing, the first thing a lot of people say, especially women, is “but isn’t that super bad for the environment?” Maybe instead of trying to convince them why it is not bad for the environment, the best response is to just say “yeah, it is terrible for the environment… But it will make you super rich ha ha!” Or — “Fuck the environment, I love money more!” (Will you ever hear a real capitalist say this?)
Even when I would be at the gym, and I would load up the rack with nine plates and beyond, and when people’s jaws would literally hit the floor, a lot of guys would come up to me, even the really really strong buff steroided out guys, and they would ask —
“… Excuse me… Can you explain me what that is for?”
And then I would joke, and say:
For my ego!
And I would laugh it off, because I know that is what the other party is thinking, that “I am cheating“ in order to just boost my ego, apparently the notion of “ego lifting“ is a bad thing… But I think the wiser path is to acknowledge that yet, we all care to augment our ego, and actually this is a virtuous good thing! Example, everyone tries to augment their ego in different ways, one person by becoming some sort of environmentalist, another one by writing their bicycle, another one by to adopt a stray dog instead of having children, or another by deciding to go vegan or whatever.
Ego is good. In fact, I think the better path ahead is for us to be and become more honest and wise —
- The ego is virtuous, the best thing ever
- Rather than trying to kill our ego, or to diminish our ego… better instead to try to augment it?
Upgrade your body, diminish your possessions
Visiting the family house in Orange County in the suburbs after a while… Some thoughts:
1. Leg power … 1000 horsepower leg power?
Everyone tries to upgrade their vehicle in terms of horsepower, torque and horsepower, 0 to 60 speeds, or the height of their vehicle, getting a truck, lifting their vehicle, getting into Overlanding, etc. Or adding some sort of superficial aerodynamic modifications to their car, carbon fiber, lowering their vehicle… Whatever. 
But, the primary thing what we should try to actually be doing is upgrading our legs! For example, when you put your pedal to the metal, you’re sitting on your butt, etc.… What are you really trying to do here? I think, to push, push with your legs, to feel instantaneous torque, a sense of elevated power … isn’t it far superior instead, for you to increase the horsepower muscles and torque of your legs, in order to do the same thing? 
For example, everyone wants to brag about their Bugatti, their McLaren, their Porsche 911, 911 GT 3 RS, their Lamborghini, now cyber truck or whatever,  but, everyone wants to brag about how their car has 1000 hp, like having a dodge hellcat or whatever… But isn’t it far superior instead to upgrade your legs?
Then, the ideal and the desired outcome is for your legs to have 1000 hp! Or better yet… For your legs to have 2000 horsepower?
Or, sprinting? 
OK, I first find the whole notion of running at a medium high intensity to be absolutely ridiculous. Perhaps a better path forward is instead, to do sprints instead?
For example if you look at any ultramarathoner, they look like sick gazelles. Nothing but stick and bone. I saw a dude who look like an ultra marathon, running on the trails, no shirt on, and he looked like a sick antelope.
I think in regards to running, people mostly do it as some sort of weird moralistic ethical imperative… In order “exercise”, or maybe, to feel included as part of of some sort of community?
I would say instead, if you’re into running, get into sprints instead! For example, it seems the primary metric for any car is the 0 to 60 speed, even the new Bugatti has a 0 to 60 of 1.99 seconds, I think same as the Tesla model S plaid. 
For example, for the most part, nobody cares about how far the range of your car is. The ultimately care about how much horsepower it has, or the 0 to 60 speed, or the quarter-mile speed. It seems that we humans, we have a preference for maximum performance in short durations, rather than “endurance”.
For example, nobody cares that you do 1 million repetitions of curling a 1 pound dumbbell. Much more impressive to lift 1000 pounds, once, for half a second rather than tedious repetitions. 
Putting on a good show
Also, another truism; in regards to putting on a good show… Lifting over 1000 pounds on the squat rack is 1 billion times more impressive and interesting, then the buff guy at the gym doing strange pulley cable exercises. There is always a low-key crowd whenever you see a guy about two bench press three or four plates, or somebody about to lift over six or seven plates, There is always a massive crowd when I was at the gym, when I maxed out the barbell.
To show off, is seen as a vice; but truth be told, how many people say that showing off as a vice simply because they are cowardly? 
In fact, if I think more critically about it… All of the strange modern day ethics we have is instituted by Christian monks, Quaker protestant Victorian era individuals, and ethical philosophers like Socrates.
Ethics is the future
I’m starting to think about this more and more; perhaps to study ethics, to think ethics, to philosophize about ethics, is the future and the path forward. I doing the iPhone 35 Pro will be any good, and also, I think the reason why investing in the technology company is so difficult is the laws of physics, pressure for sales etc. For example, I am actually still quite bullish on Tesla, but still… To respond to the market pressures of always having to produce and sell more vehicles across the planet, seems like a lot of friction in the physical world.
I think the reason why Tesla is such a difficult business and proposition —  and the reason why Google is such a good business, is that Google is not predicated on physical products, physical sales, physical time and space. Google has to do all with the immaterial world; information, going through cyberspace… Which is weightless, travels faster than light speed, and cost-effectively nothing to move information.
Even the difficulty that Apple has is to produce phones and products, in the real physical world, and have to keep enticing customers to keep buying the newest iPhone, to keep upgrading. But I’m sure there’s gonna be a certain point in which people have iPhone pro upgrade fatigue, or they just don’t think it’s worth it anymore. Even, I’m one of the biggest apple and Steve Jobs fan boys that I know, and even now for me, the newest iPhone and iPhone Pro has zero appeal to me.  
Draining your physiological life battery
Don’t drain your battery, especially if you don’t have a recharging element. 
Don’t drive.
I’ll give you an example;  I think the reason why driving is so draining is multifaceted:
- First, sitting on your butt, even for a minute, I think has a physiological effect of depressing your body, both mentally and physically. For example, I know in the real world, I hate sitting, anywhere. Even the thought of visiting a theater, and having to sit for an hour and a half, to watch flashing lights on the screen and audio visual stimulation seems like a bad idea to me. I think that the proper way to watch a film or any video thing is to download it off-line on your iPad Pro, the small one, and then, to watch it while walking around town or maybe in nature?
- Opportunity cost: I think this is where economics and economic thinking is very very useful… Let us say you want to go to the nearest casino or entertainment hub, which is an hour and a half drive there, hour and a half drive back. Three hours in total. I think it is 1 trillion times better for your physiology health and overall happiness and mood and life mind expansion by using that three hours to just walk around town, go hiking etc. Even more recently, been enjoying taking the metro Seneca, but even the problem with taking the metro is that it is about 30 minutes you have to be static, and you are enclosed indoors; no exposure to the elements, the real world etc.
- therefore, I’m starting to think that instead, maybe the Spartan approaches the best. With the Spartans pull up in there chariots and horses, and go right off into the nearby town for entertainment shits and giggles?! They would just hang out in Sparta, train and battle, hang out, be outside topless all day, and chill.