FEED!

The path to life?

I think the critical fallacy here is that we are still stuck with the same old analogies of thinking.

For example, traditional K-12 education; why are we still thinking and behaving in the same way? Why these arbitrary regimented classes, with arbitrary subjects, none which I imagine will actually be useful when Seneca becomes 21.

When we companies try to compete with others, we end up failing.

For example, two very bad news for Apple; first, the new Apple intelligence stuff, is trying to compete with ChatGPT, but it will end up getting destroyed.

Second, Apple Vision Pro, also very bad, it is trying to compete with Meta and the Meta quest, but Facebook and oculus had almost a seven year head start.

What Apple should be trying to do is to just focus on her core products; first, make the iPhone insanely great again. Now it sucks.

The simple thought: you just have to make things insanely appealing

don’t drain your muscle! GAINZZZ is the goal!

I believe the great tragedy that we have in the 21st-century is that people lack the chutzpah to think for themselves, by themselves, etc.

For example, if I think about traditional K-12 education, the primary focus should be teaching critical thinking, independent thinking, etc. Yet, traditional schools rather seem to be more about teaching obedience, grammar Nazi rules, etc.

For example, grammar. I think grammar is probably the biggest skins out there; some basic magic grammar is critical to just communicate basic things and ideas. Yet, when we enforce grammar for the sick grammar, we are missing the point.

For example, Seneca, at age 3 years, three months old; he knows Korean Vietnamese is in English, also Spanish. Yet, there is basic things I am teaching him like present future desires etc. These basic grammar rules are critical for higher order communication, but after that, grammar is not very necessary.

Also, street smarts, world Smarts.

What is the number one most critical thing in the child? Make sure your kid doesn’t die in a car accident, getting hit by a car, and also extreme caution while crossing the street etc.

Or when you’re babysitting or watching your nieces and nephews for the weekend; what is the number one most critical thing? Deliver them back in one piece, intact, alive. 

School?

The thing I am the most grateful for of studying college is the ability to unlearn, to challenge societal ideas. 

For example, I credit studying sociology at UCLA as an undergraduate for truly expanding my mind, and leading to almost all of my successes in my life. Why? Ironically enough, sociology is all via negativa;  sociology is all about unlearning, getting rid of nonsense from your mind, challenging traditional beliefs.

Even when I think about almost all aspects of my life, I have always pried myself in going against the green, challenging certain beliefs.

For example, all of my grand innovations in weightlifting, fitness, health, photography and open source, login, social media, and now bitcoin and cryptocurrency.

Why?

If you think about it, do you think about society as this ultra mega macro economic thing; day society isn’t about cultivating a few genuine thinkers, revolutionaries. Rather, it is all about creating mediocre, just kind of OK individuals.

For example, at Trader Joe’s the other day I saw a really funny T-shirt with an older guy wearing a T-shirt saying “the world’s okayest musician”.

Don’t be good, be great. – JAY Z

OK is bad?

What does it mean to be mediocre? Technically it just means the mean; the average, the middle. 

For example, I saw a very disturbing thing; I guess the evil Walt Disney corporation, which purchased marvel is now cobranding with the evil Coca-Cola corporation; selling your kids obesity, metabolic disease, type three diabetes (Alzheimer’s disease) and type two diabetes (purely a lifestyle thing). Essentially the new filter I have is this: 

Were your kids raised on Disney, Disney+, Netflix, Marvel superhero movies, YouTube, Bluey or not?

My greatest parent is that Seneca, ever since birth and up until now has never watched any YouTube, Netflix, senseless media or entertainment.

I often hear parents bemoan the fact that, it is so hard, everyone else is doing it. But just because everyone else is taking heroin and smoking crack cocaine, does that mean you should as well? Of course not. The best way to distinguish yourself is through what you decide not to do. 

Distinguishing yourself

The best way to proclaim who you are, or how to distinguish yourself how you are different, or how you are exceptional is through what you decide not to do, also in someways, rather than bragging about how much money you spent, it is better to brag about how little money you spend. 

For example, I’d like to brag how I have never spent more than $3000 USD on an automobile car in my entire life. My great joy, the recent 2010 Prius inherited from the family I got for free!

Also, my pride that I don’t have any sort of streaming TV services. Also the fact that I don’t use social media, and I don’t have an Instagram. My ultimate dad troll joke: 

When somebody asked me, “what’s your Instagram“? My response, in the serious voice and tone is this —

“What’s Instagram?”

I stare at people, blink, and they are not quite sure about how to respond.

Similarly speaking, your great signal of successes of photography or as a photographer is for you to NOT have an Instagram. If you could be a successful photographer without Instagram, you truly are successful. 

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Bitcoin

When I purchase bitcoin for only $6900 in bitcoin, back in 2017 2018, only reason I could’ve ever invested speculated in bitcoin and cryptocurrency was that impact, I thought different. I think different,, for myself. It looks like my regulations have paid off. My bitcoin and crypto speculations have exploded; currently my net investments are easily over 1M. And looking forward, I won’t be too surprised when it is over 10M, or 100 M.

I think my big thought is thinking this:

> That thing I purchased today for $1000, could be worth 10,000 or $100,000 a few years from now.

For example, I saw that one of my neighbors just bought a new Porsche car, and I thought to myself, that 70,000 or $80,000 that you put towards our car today, could easily be worth 1 million or $10 million a few years from now.

Therefore, think an exponential; this is the true way to become rich.

Independent success 

I think and wonder to myself, true success is simply thinking different, being different, dressing different, acting different, lifting different, etc.

For example, all of my great successes in life were polar opposites to what traditional knowledge said. For example, when I told everybody that I was making all my materials available for free open source, people thought I was insane. The same goes with allowing full resolution images of all my images to be downloadable open for free.

And now, Mike grand idea of building the worlds first bitcoin based photography publishing platform; perhaps this will be my second great innovation. Email me: eric@erickim.com if you want to build the future together.

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Why?

Ultimately, all thinkers, innovators, philosophers, or all centered around the same general idea of the betterment in the thriving of humanity. Everyone is doing this at a different way.

For example, Elon Musk, even though people are critical of him, ultimately what he wants to do is inject more optimism and hope into humanity. And this is a noble goal.

Steve Jobs, his ultimate vision was creating computers which became “bicycles for the mind”– essentially increasing the leverage of any human being by 100,000x.

Even more recently, my new favorite thinker Michael Saylor, I think his grand mission is economic empowerment. I am currently reading his decade old book, the mobile wave, and it looks like his primary benefit was studying the history of science as a 18-year-old at MIT; Reading the history of technology is in live and, because even for myself now at the age of 36, being born in 1988… I can very vividly see how my life was profoundly shaped by the Internet, the advent of blogging Facebook and social media, and now, my new Second Wave with cryptocurrency and bitcoin; having the privilege of Being alive and wise during the next grand uprising.

For example, Internet, blogging changed everything. It helped me build up the air Kim Empire. And now with bitcoin, cryptocurrency, Ethereum in the likes; maybe this could help me build the next true competitor to Facebook, Instagram etc —

The demise of Facebook is trying to build its own crypto lira, if Mark was really smart he would’ve just integrated bitcoin instead.

Maybe if I think even more ambitiously, I should just create the next social media platform, with bitcoin baked in.

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Thinking big

I suppose the upside of living in America, or the modern day world, with the Internet and the like is the fact that there is no glass ceiling, no upper limits.

Genesis is beating Porsche at its own game?

Jump ship!

Challenging “survival of the fittest”.

Also, philosophically, does the notion of a “competitor” truly exist?

Hungry for more

Time to get tribal

WAR TRAINING

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.

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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.

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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.

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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, 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?

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ERIC KIM CAMBODIA ANGKOR WAT TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERIENCE 2025

Adventure beckons you:

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

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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

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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!

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Forward the money

Feeling fire? Forward the turbo!

EK NEWSLETTER

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Beginners mind is best

START HERE, BOOKS

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

ERIC KIM BLOG

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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

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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.