In praise of self vanity:

I’m sexy and I know it:

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO LOOK LIKE?

Not like Elon Musk — he doesn’t look well. Arms look weak and flabby, and looks like he is getting a bit of a gut. And his face doesn’t look well either — look at his recent interview with T-Mobile CEO.

LIFE IS TOO SHORT FOR BORING AND BASIC.

YOUR TASTE AND PREFERENCES CHANGE OVER TIME.

Design Over Performance

A thought on design, especially in the context of sports cars, it is all about the design, not the performance.

We humans are emotional beings, and we are often led by irrational things. For example, our purchasing behavior; we do not buy things because of the performance or the pragmatics, we buy it for the look, the feel, the concept.

ALL YOU CAN EAT KOREAN BARBEQUE BBQ TOP BLADE, BEEF LIVER, BEEF HEART, SMALL INTESTINE PORK JOWL

Go super duper hard on the organ meats!

BEEF RIB MEDITATION

My meat meditation zen zone:

Think at least 30 years ahead

The Jeff Bezos and Amazon vision.

How to Become More Vain

How to Become Antifragile

What attempts to destroy you will only make you stronger.

How-to-Become-Antifragile-PDF Download

Antifrafile vlog

What is anti-fragility?

One of the most formative books that I’ve read in my life was anti-fragile by Nassim Taleb. Not only was it a very fun and entertaining read, but, it also totally changed and revolutionized my mind, in terms of how I thought about things.

The basic gist is this:

Small dose stressors actually strengthens you.

For example, weightlifting. I believe that the biological function of weightlifting is this:

You lift a very very heavy weight, at your maximum, once, and the stress that it puts on your body is a positive stress, a “eustress”.

For example, gravity is a eustress. Astronauts who go into space and don’t have gravity, their bones and bodies atrophy. Apparently astronauts need to spend about six hours a day exercising in the space station, just to maintain their bone density.

As your bones weaken, you become older.

A very interesting thought:

The cause of biological aging and weakening is a result of your bones weakening.

The bias is that as you get older, your bones weaken. This is not necessarily true. It is possible that as you age, assuming that you lift weights, your bones can actually strengthen.

For example, currently speaking, at the age of 34, I am 1000 times stronger than I was at the age of 24. And I also aspire to become stronger by the age of 44, 54, 64, 74 and beyond.

Even my mom, who is currently 67 years old, I got her into weightlifting. Doing the one rep max type of lifting, doing the squat hold as well as the rack pull. Just two weeks of daily weightlifting, she is the strongest and most confident she has ever been, far stronger and better than she was at 57, 47, even 37.

“Aging”?

Typically what happens is this —

As we get older, and as the years go on, we fall into more degenerative habits.

For example, something that I have witnessed is that most people my age, in their early or mid 30s, even in their late 20s, are far sicklier, older looking, weaker, and more degenerate looking than they were back in high school, college, even in the early 20s.

Even one of my friends in college, junior year, all he did was eat really bad food, drink a lot of alcohol, smoked a lot of cigarettes, and never exercised, at that age of around 21, he already look like a 55-year-old man.

What causes your bones to weaken?

Things which causes your bones to weaken include sitting, not walking, not weightlifting, not running around, not playing on uneven and irregular surfaces, etc.

For example, driving. The time you spend sitting and commuting, and being stuck in traffic, your hips weaken, your knees weaken, your feet weaken your back weakens, etc. Anytime that you’re spending not standing or lying down on your back is bad. The only caveat is when you are lying down flat on your back, either when you are napping or sleeping.

It doesn’t matter how old you are, or young you are, anybody and everybody could benefit from weightlifting. It doesn’t matter whether you are 12 years old, 16 years old, 22 years old, 28 years old, 34 years old, 42 years old, 52 years old, 62 years old, 72 years old, 80 years old, etc. I aspire to lift weights until I die at the age of 120.

But isn’t lifting weights dangerous?

No. Also, the hilarious irony is that a lot of people don’t lift weights because they think it will cause them to damage their bones, or hurt themselves. Ironically enough the truth is actually the opposite; you lift weights in order to strengthen your bones, and prevent yourself from injuring yourself in the future.

Therefore my great innovation of the squat hold, the atlas hold, or the atlas lift; it will strengthen your spine 1000x.

Life

An insanely optimistic thought is this:

Anything that happens to you in life, whether good or bad, will strengthen you and make you more powerful in the long run.

For example, other people. Issues or things that make you angry, annoyed, etc., it will all strengthen to benefit you in the long run.

For example, I have a strong sense of justice. Whenever somebody talks to me in such a way which I believe as disrespectful, I get insanely angry. And it seems the most productive way to channel your anger is to either use that as a tool of philosophical introspection, And or to defend yourself. Anger is a good defense mechanism.

But isn’t it bad to be “defensive“? Nonsense. Defense is the highest good.

Even if you think about America, and our military, the “department of defense“. The way that we Americans defend ourselves and our own self interests is we put military bases all around the world, and we keep indefinitely strengthening our military in order to defend ourselves through our offensive strength. Or in other words, as long as America has the biggest stick, nobody will mess with us.

If we think about Machiavelli and Il Principe, Machiavelli says that to preemptively strike is also a virtuous form of self-defense.

Thought framing

Whenever something bad happens to you in life, think to yourself:

How can this minor annoyance end up strengthening me in the long run?

For example, COVID-19 was actually a positive thing because it helped forced people to innovate.

Or, let us say that you injure yourself in the gym. This could be critical information to teach you to spend more time warming up, more time warming up with yoga, or just changing your approach and technique. For example I discovered that doing flat bench press, as well as flat dumbbell press put undue stress on my shoulders in a bad way. Therefore, this information helped me innovate a new concept; doing a floor bench press, or even a floor dumbbell press — how I do it.

Antifragile Photography

I believe street photography is the path to anti-fragile photography.

Why is that? It is because in street photography, we often encounter many setbacks. For example, wanting to shoot a certain scene, but, chickening out, and as a result, not shooting the photo. This leads to regret.

An anti-fragile way to approach street photography is that whenever you have a situation in which you chicken out because you hesitated, you think yourself:

This time I may have chickened out, but let this be a good lesson to myself the next time I see a similar situation or scene, I push myself extra harder to have the courage to shoot it.

STREET PHOTO STARTER KIT — says

99.9% of street photography is courage.

With courage, it is also an anti-fragile thing. That is, increasing and augmenting your courage is a piecemeal approach. That is, there are certain days you are more confident than others, and some days you’re less confident. And that is OK and all part of the game.

How to augment your courage

Courage is everything. To become more courageous in life;

Let us know that courage comes from the heart. Anything that you do which strengthens your heart is a good thing.
Let us also consider the physiological consideration; fear is a manifestation of or hormonal responses to things. If you are able to shift your hormonal response, increase your testosterone, etc., likewise you will also increase your courage.
Weightlifting at the gym, one repetition maximum attempts. what is a one repetition maximum lift? That is, I had as much weight to the barbell as humanly possible, and just see you at the point in which you could just successfully lift it up even a quarter of an inch, once. Don’t go for reps (repetitions). Reps are for suckers. Or another example, it is better to deadlift 551 pounds once, than to deadlift 405 pounds twice.

It’s all good.

Ultimate way to approach life:

Anything and everything that happens to you, it is all good!

ERIC

Moar stoic thoughts

More random thoughts

Perhaps the best car is a hybrid. Some sort of hyper super car that is a hybrid. Perhaps currently — the new goat is the NSX TYPE S. Get it in red. Or the Gotham grey matte paint. You get the upside of the pick up from the electric motor, and you can still be loud, because it has a gasoline engine. Also, superior miles per gallon.
Barefoot: spend more time a day barefoot, this will be great for you in almost every single way. For example, weightlifting barefoot is a great idea.
More beef liver, beef heart, beef intestines. 100% ERIC KIM CARNIVORE DIET. Only organ meats, then beef ribs. Meat is supreme. And — if you have the option and choice — liver, heart, small intestines (beef) as positively superior to any type of flesh meat. Even better than beef ribs! Also hit up the bone marrow when possible.

Now what?

As a practical thought, strive to integrate this line of thinking into your life.

Also I recommend reading Antifragile by Nassim Taleb — you could either just order the paperback copy on Amazon, or just download the e-book for it to read on your iPad or iPhone. I just prefer using iBooks instead of Amazon Kindle, much more beautiful digital reading experience.

How to become a more antifragile photographer

Whenever you have any setbacks in your photography, or offenses in photography, channel this to motivate you even further!

For example, the next time you hesitate before shooting a photo and you regret it, next time, you could remind yourself to become even more courageous.

Or, there was somebody you wanted to approach and ask for permission to make a portrait of them. But, for some reason or another, you failed to do so. That is OK, next time just double up your courage to approach the person. Strive to get rejected at least 10 times. The lesson from Street Notes// Print.

Or, there is something you wanted to photograph, but you were afraid that you have already done it before, or it was cliché. Next time, just shoot it and figure out what to do with it afterwards.

Insane Courage

Become insanely motivated— EK EXPERIENCES:

EK WORKSHOPS

The tools to conquer it all

Become Immortal: HENRI NECK STRAP MARK IV
Become the uber-streettog: ERIC KIM NECK STRAP MARK II
Become the Pro: HENRI WRIST STRAP PRO

More EK SUPPLY

YouTube ideas

If you are interested in starting your own YouTube channel, some ideas:

Do more vlogs on philosophy. There is a huge dearth of philosophical ideas on YouTube and beyond
Just use a GoPro and record it. 1080 P, 24 FPS is fine. Record mundane things, like you eating, you going out, etc. Don’t edit it. You don’t need any accessories either.
Don’t censor yourself, and become more opinionated. The biggest tragedy is when people water down what they want to really say, because they are afraid of offending somebody.

Philosophize more >

Also learn more about Nassim Taleb here >

Thinking more?

Feel free to forward this to a friend!

EK NEWS

“Better to be a gay monster than a sentimental bore.” – Galiani

Ambition.

Video

665 POUND RACK PULL ERIC KIM

HYPELIFTING DEMIGOD SUPER SAIYAN MODE

I am a demigod:

6 plates + 35 + 5 pound on each side:

Let’s do it:

FULL VIDEO

THE ARENA.

The gym as the new modern-day arena.

Organ Meats are Demigod

No flesh meats, only organ meats:

EK GOD BODY

Become sexier:

…

EK GOD BODYRead More »

ONE AT A TIME.

How to Conquer Google

Or how to conquer the web, the internet:

How to Conquer the World Through Photography

My insane ambition:

…

How to Conquer the World Through PhotographyRead More »

Antifragile Photography

Street photography is the ultimate antifragile photography.

Why? Street photography is the ultimate fear conquering form of photography. While war photography is more dangerous than street photography, I believe that street photography actually takes more pragmatic courage. Why? In street photography, you don’t really have a license to shoot, you don’t have a press badge or any external authority you’re doing it for.

Master the streets:

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 101

Only in America

Downtown LA in COLOR

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT

Master street photography with STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT.

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 101

If you’re new to street photography, start here:

Brave New Street Photography

running through the swings kid street photography ERIC KIM

Street Photographs

ERIC KIM layers hong kong

Street Photography Philosophy

Street Photography Articles

Street Photography Techniques

JUST SHOOT IT. HENRI NECK STRAP by ERIC KIM

See HENRI NECK STRAP on AMAZON >

Street Photography Ideas

Street Photography Composition Techniques

STREET NOTES.

Push yourself out of your comfort zone with STREET NOTES: Mobile Edition.

STREET NOTES PAPER EDITION ON AMAZON >

LEARN FROM THE MASTERS OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Timeless wisdom from the masters of street photography.

Learn more about MASTERS >

Buy MASTERS on Amazon >

FUNDAMENTALS OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Street Photography Inspiration

Beginner Street Photography Articles

Get started in street photography:

Definitions in Street Photography

How to Shoot Street Photography

Street Photography Equipment

See all equipment articles >

How to Conquer Your Fears in Street Photography

See all articles to conquer your fears >

Intermediate Street Photography Articles

Take your street photography to the next level:

Advanced Street Photography Articles

Find deeper meaning in your street photography:

Street Photography Tips & Technique

Learn how to shoot on the streets:

See all street photography tips and techniques >

Street Photography Guides

In-depth guides on street photography:

Street Photography Equipment

The best equipment for street photography:

See all equipment articles >

Street Photography Editing and Workflow

How to Start a Street Photography Project

Learn From the Masters of Street Photography

“He without a past has no future.”

Start here:

The Masters of Photography

Classics never die:

Free Downloads

See all free downloads >

Free Street Photography Books

Distilled information on street photography:

For more resources on photography, Start Here >

How to Become Antifragile

What attempts to destroy you will only make you stronger.

1v1

Your Body VLOG

Focus on Augmenting Your Happiness to the Next Level

Happy People Cannot Help but Be Happy

Your Body

Your body is god, your body is king.

THE BODY IS GOD PODCAST

Why have there not been that many philosophers who have philosophized and praised the virtues of the body, our human body?

Some theories:

First, the superstition of this notion of the “immortal soul“, that after you die, the cognizant mind soul of yours will continue into perpetuity.

Second, the nonsensory of this new Silicon Valley notion that you could somehow one day, “upload your consciousness to the cloud“. The idea that somehow, your mind can exist without your body. It cannot.

Third, notions of shame culture around the body, whether Asian, East Asian, Confucian, even American. Considering that we Americans descended from Quakers and Puritans, and also have these antiquated Victorian notions of shame in regards to the body, the body is a weird thing; we got it, but we shouldn’t become too proud of it, and we should only maintain it to the minimum, in order to promote other virtues.

Also, let us consider that America is a Christian protestant nation. According to Protestantism, which is essentially Catholicism 2.0, the body is a thing of shame.

For example, the notion of the “immaculate conception” of Jesus. The reason why this idea was promoted was that there was this idea that somehow sex is shameful. It isn’t. The ancient Greeks and Romans deified birth, procreation. Back then, sex was simply a normal part of life, a necessary path to be getting offspring and children.

I think what has changed in modern day times is notion of sex for the sake of sex, sex for the sake of pleasure, or pleasure for the sake of pleasure. Certainly pleasure is just a means to an end, not the end itself.

For example, if sex did not feel good and did not promote pleasure, the human race would have died off a long time ago. Biologically speaking, we humans want to continue to procreate.

Consumerism?

It is my personal thought that most modern day consumerism is built around shame, fear, and capitalizing off the insecurities of people. For example, I don’t think anybody out there is actually proud of their body, or deifies their body. Even Jesus said that your body is a temple.

I think it is because in modern-day times, most people do not have a sense of philosophy. Many people in modern day society are not quite certain what they really want out of life, and instead, they fall into the same means of desiring to travel and see the world, eat good food, bed beautiful women, eat and drink exotic foods and drinks and alcoholic beverages, and promote pleasure, and purchase objects of desire, etc.

I think it was Nietzsche who said that the Englishman only desired two things, which was fashion and comfort. It seems that the modern-day American only cares for comfort, pleasure, and fashion. Also novelty.

Your body as an instrument and a tool

In order to think, philosophize, make art, innovate, create and publish things, you need a body. Your body is the whole package, all of the things in between your toes and the top of your head. Your bones, your sinews, your blood, your muscles, your fat, your brains, the electricity running through your body, etc. Also all of the hormones.

It seems that most people today desire to become more productive, in order to make more money, purchase more things, obtain more things, and “become successful“. Ironically enough, if you want to become more productive, spending more time energy and money and resources to build your body and strengthen and further your body might be the best strategy.

For example, working out at least twice a day. Isn’t this the ultimate luxury? To be able to go to the gym and lift weights, and then later in the evening, do yoga? Also, no need for breakfast or lunch, only one massive dinner a day. Using your money to just buy beef ribs at the Costco business center, insanely cheap, Only $10 for a whole rack of ribs. I could barely finish two, and I think I could eat at least five times more meat than the average human.

Also, it seems that the bias in today’s world is to work out the minimum necessary, and spend more time being “productive“, or “working“. Shouldn’t the opposite be what we do? To do the minimum amount of work necessary to support our lives, and then just spend maximal time to strengthen and build your body?

Tasty Foods vs demigod building?

It seems in today’s world, the only thing people care about is taste. Taste as unquantified by just adding sugar to things and making it sweet.

For example, almost all modern-day cuisine involves some sort of sugar, sweetening agent, starch, etc.

Also let us consider alcohol, which is essentially pretentious sugar beverages. Wine is just alcoholic grape juice, replete with sugar, same goes with white wine and rosé. Cocktails are pretentious ways to seem cultured, but once again, all you’re doing is drinking a sugary beverage.

Even with modern-day cuisine, there is always some sort of starch, breading, sugar, sauce, involved.

Who runs all of the thoughts on health diet and fitness?

Essentially the whole fitness industry is revolved around selling products. Products as personified through protein powder, creatine, pre-workout powder, lifting straps, lifting belts, protein shakes, protein bars, etc. Also fitness programs, fat loss programs etc.

A thought:

Trust no lifter who uploads their workout videos to Instagram or YouTube.

Also,

Trust nobody on YouTube, Instagram, or any form of social media in regards to diet health and fitness.

The only person you could trust with 100% certainty is yourself. Why? It is impossible to know with 100% certainty whether person XYZ is on steroids, testosterone, or some other strange performance enhancing drugs. For example, do not trust Rock the Dwayne Johnson, he is juicing his eyeballs out. Also do not trust Chris Hemsworth, who also probably juiced eyeballs out for his initial act in Thor.

Also, put zero faith in anybody who has muscles who appears in any Hollywood film. Why? There is always a hidden incentive for them to enhance their physique, either through steroids, testosterone, performance enhancing drugs, etc. Why? Their livelihood is dependent on the grandeur of their physique, and essentially actors are all just slaves.

Everyone would benefit from weightlifting

Cindy told me something very beautiful today, after just a few weeks of my mom being here, and working out at the gym with me weightlifting every single day, and also doing yoga with Cindy, she said for the first time in her life, she feels confident and proud in her body. And she is 67 years old.

There is a lot of misconceptions when it comes to the human body, especially with women, or if you’re over the age of 40. I think all of these thoughts are misled; anybody irregardless of their age sex gender, race, etc. can benefit from weightlifting. And fitness.

New year body resolutions

New year, new body.

Some New Year’s resolutions:

Quit sugar
Quit fruit
Quit starches
Quit “vegetables” (the only “vegetable“ you should eat are dark leafy greens, like kale and collard greens, or the “power greens“ you find at Costco)
Quit smoking weed
Quit alcohol
Quit social media (everyone is on steroids)
Quit sweet foods and sweet beverages
Quit desserts
Quit eating three times a day or more, start intermittent fasting and only eat dinner
Quit comparing your body, your strength or your numbers to others

Via negativa body. The best way to shape, craft and scope your body is through quitting or removing toxic things.

Building the most supreme body?

My new life goal is to build the most supreme, demigod, beautiful body known to man. All without steroids, testosterone injections or other weird things. Also no protein powder, supplements, creatine etc— only beef ribs, beef liver, and other high cholesterol foods.

To build the most demigod physique. God body.

Male vs Female body?

The male body in female body is far more similar than this similar. The mechanisms of Augmentin your muscle mass, and decreasing your body adipose fat tissue is the same. The only difference is between the male body and female body has to do with sexual organs, as well as different hormonal levels. For example, for a man their testosterone levels can range from 300-1,000 ng/dl, whereas women can range from 15-54 ng/dl.

Male: 300-1000 ng/dl
Female: 15-54 ng/dl

At the lower end, a man’s testosterone levels can be ~25x more than that of woman, and a man can be at the higher end around ~20x higher as well.

At the elite level,

The lower end of the male range being four-to fivefold higher than the upper end of the female range(males 8.8-30.9 nmol/L, females 0.4-2.0 nmol/L).

Therefore, I think we must acknowledge the fact that hormonally, there are stark differences between men and women. However, it does seem that for the most part, more natural testosterone for either men or women is both a good idea.

Irregardless of whether you are a man or woman, the goal to both augment muscle mass and decrease body adipose tissue is a good goal. Also, irregardless of whether you are a man or woman, increasing your strength at the gym, increasing your one repetition maximums, and to also gain new personal records for your own personal strength is a noble goal!

A new body, never imagined or witnessed before?

A new goal —

What type of new human body can be created?

Assuming we got unlimited beef ribs, beef liver, heart, bone marrow … and the most strict diet (no sweet or starch anything)— 100% compliance, what new level can my human body become, in terms of muscle mass, look, and human beauty?

New lifting goals

Think 6 plates, 7 plates, 8 plates, beyond.

600, 700, 800 pounds and beyond?

Rack pull, atlas lift.

Think —

Why do they call it weight-lifting, not weight-pressing?

Pressing motions are bad?

Unperturbed.

Assuming you build your mind and your body to become demigod, for the most part, 99.99% of things will not perturb or disturb you. Rather, the focus towards more lofty things like philosophy, thinking, ethics, art creativity etc.

Demigod body, demigod mind.

Body elitism

In regards to the body, is there a hierarchy of bodies? Yes.

First and foremost, we must write off anybody who uses steroids, testosterone injections, other performance-enhancing drugs, etc. This includes all bodybuilders, powerlifters, Olympic athletes, Youtubers, fitness influencers, Hollywood action movie stars, superhero people, Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Chris Hemsworth, Joe Rogan, etc.

Then, throw away your scale, put in the trash, and never use the scale at the gym. The ultimate way to judge your progress is how your body feels. If you feel your T-shirts getting tighter as a result of your muscle augmentation, and, you see yourself as more beautiful and chiseled in the mirror, consider yourself progressing. Also with your lifts; it is difficult to forcibly put on muscle mass, it is much easier to focus on increasing your one rep maxes for all of your personal records and your lifts. For example, if you could just add a 2.5 pound weight on each side of the barbell every single time you do a given lift, consider yourself blessed.

Also a new goal:

Max out the barbell.

The other day I did a 695 pound squat hold, or as I call it, the Atlas hold. Imagine Atlas holding the weight of the world on his shoulders — certainly he’s getting a good leg workout. Atlas never skips leg day. Every day is leg day for Atlas.

To me this was a very monumental thing, because it was the first time I ever maxed out the barbell, or witnessed anybody max out the barbell at all in real life. This is seven 45-pound plates, and one 10 pound plate on each side.

My new goal is to max out the barbell for my rack pull.

What is our ultimate end goal?

A very simple thought; what if you dedicated all of your time effort, and soul to advancing and elevating your body? My thought:

If you reach a new apex in terms of your body and your physical strength, I believe that the philosophical thoughts that you will gain will be so beyond, so interesting, so interesting and so sublime.

Once again, the more epic your body becomes, the more epic your mind and your thoughts will become.

Trust no thinker, philosopher, artist, entrepreneur, creative, individual who doesn’t lift.

LIFT ON!
ERIC

Lift yourself

Elevate yourself to the next level:

Boston conquer your fears March 25
Berkeley become the uber-innovator April 15
Sublime zen thoughts in HADONG SOUTH KOREA June 19-23rd

EK EXPERIENCES

New year photo resolutions?

Also, we can apply of your negative mindset an approach to our photography. Some not to do photo resolutions:

Don’t buy a new iPhone or iPhone pro
Don’t buy a new camera or a new lens
Don’t leave the house without having your camera in your front right pocket.
Don’t leave your house without your RICOH GR III or IIIX
Don’t go a single day without working out
Don’t read any gear review sites or gear rumor sites. Install a website blocker plug into your Google chrome or safari, which prevents you from looking at them. If you’re attempted to look at a new camera or a new lens, or some gear review sides, better to just kill that sensation by watching porn instead. Redtube over DPreview
Don’t not shoot anything you want to shoot. This means always shoot everything you want to shoot. The biggest regret we have in photography or the photos we wanted to shoot, but we didn’t shoot because of fear or hesitation. Conquer fear.
Don’t hesitate before shooting
Don’t just shoot 1 photo of the scene ; shoot many.
Don’t use social media or don’t upload any photos to instagram or Facebook — only your own website.

More ideas in PHOTO JOURNAL // DIGITAL

Also —

Whenever you have an urge to buy a new piece of camera equipment or gear, buy a nice photo book instead.

What now?

Preparing for the new year, just buy a gym membership. Just buy it, or subscribe, and figure out the details later.

Another fun idea is just to start a free week at CorePower yoga, try the weightlifting sculpt class. I think it is quite fun.

Get a Costco membership if you don’t have one. You could use your Costco membership, the normal one, to go to the local Costco business center. There, I recommend purchasing beef ribs, the best bang for the buck meat item there. Or nowadays, I think you could also buy beef ribs at a normal Costco.

Focus on building up your website and blog.

Think of traveling. Mexico City, New Orleans, Vietnam, Cambodia, South Korea, Japan, Thailand are all good options. Search kayak.com or Google flights.

Things on my mind

How even more powerful can my body become, if I eat even more beef ribs, and beef liver?
Arabica coffee is bad, because it’s too sweet. The sweetness in arabica, carbohydrates, I think it might actually trigger your insulin levels. I plan on switching to robusta, Deathwish coffee is a good option.
What new types of clothing innovations can be had, especially for men? I plan on experimenting with wearing biking shorts the spandex stuff at the gym, and also, experimenting more with my crop top concept.

Share the wealth!

If this sparked any interesting thoughts within you, or even one thought, feel free to forward this to a friend!

EK TURBO NEWS

Let us conquer the new year together.

ERIC

Demigod Body, Demigod Mind

Unperturbed.

Carte Blanche Ethics

Every day, or even thinking about the new year — blank slate ethics and everything and beyond?

ETHICS by KIM

Your Own Personal Code of Ethics

New year body resolutions

New year, new body.

Some New Year’s resolutions:

Quit sugar
Quit fruit
Quit starches
Quit “vegetables” (the only “vegetable“ you should eat are dark leafy greens, like kale and collard greens, or the “power greens“ you find at Costco)
Quit smoking weed
Quit alcohol
Quit social media (everyone is on steroids)
Quit sweet foods and sweet beverages
Quit desserts
Quit eating three times a day or more, start intermittent fasting and only eat dinner
Quit comparing your body, your strength or your numbers to others

Via negativa body. The best way to shape, craft and scope your body is through quitting or removing toxic things.

Building the most supreme body?

To build the most demigod physique. God body.

Male vs Female body?

Male: 300-1000 ng/dl
Female: 15-54 ng/dl

At the lower end, a man’s testosterone levels can be ~25x more than that of woman, and a man can be at the higher end around ~20x higher as well.

At the elite level,

The lower end of the male range being four- to fivefold higher than the upper end of the female range(males 8.8-30.9 nmol/L, females 0.4-2.0 nmol/L).

How to Deal with Toxic People

Detox:

I want to become the hardest motherfucker alive

Time to go HAM

New Year NOT to Do Resolutions

Don’t talk about any other human besides yourself, your wife, your kid.

Also don’t raise your voice at your wife, partner, girlfriend etc.

Toxic People

How to engage, how not to engage with toxic people:

First and foremost, it is not their fault they are toxic. The intelligent thing is to just keep your distance from them, the 300 foot rule, avoid eye contact, interactions, greetings and engagements.

Toxic people — imagine like they are infected with the plague or Covid. Extreme distance from them. Ideally don’t even inhabit the same room as them.

Also, don’t acknowledge their existence. Extreme cold shoulder.

This is the best way to preserve your zen stoic calm and cool.

ETHICS by KIM

Your Own Personal Code of Ethics

Music is a Tonic for the Soul

Anti Zen and Peaceful Life

Use all of the unpleasantries in life for philosophical introspection innovation and creation.

The Body is God

Your body is supreme:

The Body

Your body is god, your body is king.

Why have there not been that many philosophers who have philosophized and praised the virtues of the body, our human body?

Some theories:

First, the superstition of this notion of the “immortal soul“, that after you die, the cognizant mind soul of yours will continue into perpetuity.

Also, let us consider that America is a Christian protestant nation. According to Protestantism, which is essentially Catholicism 2.0, the body is a thing of shame.

For example, if sex did not feel good and did not promote pleasure, the human race would have died off a long time ago. Biologically speaking, we humans want to continue to procreate.

Consumerism?

Your body as an instrument and a tool

Tasty vs demigod building?

It seems in today’s world, the only thing people care about is taste. Taste as unquantified by just adding sugar to things and making it sweet.

For example, almost all modern-day cuisine involves some sort of sugar, sweetening agent, starch, etc.

Even with modern-day cuisine, there is always some sort of starch, breading, sugar, sauce, involved.

Who runs all of the thoughts on health diet and fitness?

A thought:

Trust no lifter who uploads their workout videos to Instagram or YouTube.

Also,

Trust nobody on YouTube, Instagram, or any form of social media in regards to diet health and fitness.

Everyone would benefit from weightlifting

SOLO.

AUDIO

Solo is the future.

Soft or Hard Vlog

The hardest is best:

AUDIO

ATTEMPT THE INSANELY EPIC

INSANELY EPIC 695 POUND ATLAS SQUAT HOLD LIFT ERIC KIM HYPELIFTING NEXT LEVEL

FULL EK TUBE

695 POUND ATLAS SQUAT HOLD LIFT ERIC KIM HYPELIFTING NEXT LEVEL INSANELY EPIC 7 PLATES + 10 STRONG

GOD BODY.

The goal:

How to Deal With Miserable People // STOICISM BY KIM

The cold shoulder:

PODCAST

Real thoughts:

AUDIO

How to Deal With Miserable People :: STOICISM BY KIM

STOICISM 101

Become invincible:

The Stoic Masters

Marcus Aurelius statue — Marcus Aurelius

Learn from the master stoics:

See all philosophy >

YOUR BODY IS GOD.

Not the “best”, but the most interesting

Soft or Hard?

Soft is bad, hard is good.

BECOME A MONSTER.

“Better to be a gay monster than a sentimental bore.” – Galiani

The Great Man // PHILOSOPHY BY KIM

Slow, slow to respond, unperturbed. Lofty, insouciance, not fazed.

I Have No Respect?

Being humble is disingenuous

660 POUND RACK PULL

Even half a centimeter up is enough for me!

660 POUND HYPELIFTING ZEN ZONE RACK PULL ERIC KIM EPIC

EK DEMIGOD PHYSIQUE FLEX

To be pitied is the worst disgrace

Never pity others.

New Virtues

I FEAR NOBODY.

I fear nobody, and also, I fear no thing. Only issues I get is how to deal with my anger. Also notions of justice, or respect.

Productivity Thoughts

The point of life isn’t productivity, said all unproductive people.

Insane-Productivity-PDF TEXT Download

I am the most productive person that I know. How do I do it? Some techniques and strategies:

Intermittent fasting: no breakfast, no lunch, only one massive dinner. And for dinner, beef ribs, top sirloin, bone marrow, beef heart, beef liver, etc. 100% carnivore diet. How is intermittent fasting so good for productivity? First and foremost, you save an insane amount of time. Secondly, you don’t get food coma. Third, you stay mean and lean. When you are in the fasted stage, you are far more focused, and have a keener awareness of things.
No music, no headphones, no AirPods: I think in modern day life, podcasts music etc are the ultimate distraction. Just think yourself; is the purpose of your life to glorify the works of others, or for you to just be focused on your own self and work?
No Reddit. It is hilarious that all these new modern day Silicon Valley folks praise the virtues of XYZ, yet they are all still addicted to Reddit. Quit Reddit. I actually think that Reddit is worse than porn. In fact, my funny thought is in order to become more productive, whenever you have a temptation to look at Reddit, just watch porn instead. Porn might actually be a better motivator than Reddit, which is essentially a bunch of random distractions. At least porn is motivating.
Just do it while walking outdoors. One of the most successful guys I ever met in Singapore, I still remember, he attended my workshop that I hosted with Leica Singapore, and had an M9 titanium, a $30,000 camera, and a .95 Noctilux lens, another $20,000 lens. I asked him how he was so successful, and he told me that he walked around 12 hours a day, doing all of his business meetings on his phones while walking. This stuck with me. I can corroborate with his theory in so far much as when I walk around a lot, I think more, I think better and I am also more productive. My strong feeling is that the future of productivity is iPad Pro, and iPhone. No laptop, no desktop. Laptops and desktops promote for nonmovement. Even if you do a standing desk, it is not good. Standing is better than sitting, but walking is better than standing.
Produce much, publish much. Productivity isn’t becoming an email inbox zero ninja. No. Being really good with email is not productive. When you send an email, you produce nothing. If you check your email for no reason you are a slave. Let us consider, productivity comes from the notion of producing. To produce music, produce beats, produce videos, produce blogs, produce photos, produce vlogs, any form of media.
Think digital and the internet: The path to the greatest productivity is digital and the Internet. With digital creations, your works are infinitely scalable and also, infinitely distributable around the globe. Instantly. Isn’t this amazing?

Arguments against productivity

You are not your productivity, said all unproductive people.

Why are some individuals so unproductive, yet care about their productivity so much? My theories:

First and foremost, I don’t know if they really like to do what they are actually doing. Maybe they do the work out of a sense of obligation, or self flagellating virtuosity. They believe that their self-worth and their virtue comes from how productive they are.

Second, I think these individuals are just unwell, sick, or physiologically depressed. Poor health, not enough natural light exposure, they don’t have a tan, they don’t go to the gym, they don’t do yoga, etc. I really do believe that if scholars or thinkers or academics or other creators want to become more productive, they should go to the gym at least once every single day, preferably twice. Even for myself, experimenting with going to the gym every single day, it has actually made me more productive and stronger. Also a new innovation is experimenting with working out twice a day, at noon going to the gym and doing weightlifting, and in the evenings doing CorePower yoga with Cindy. This has been actually surprisingly a very effective strategy, I sleep better at night, I have a more voracious meat appetite, and the next day I am even more productive.

Third, constraints of the system. They are still reliant on a sort of external system which requires editors, publishers, peer review, etc. This is not freedom.

Productivity experiments

Uninstall email from your phone, uninstall Gmail from your phone, or your mail app. Instead, whenever you need to use email, just do it on your laptop or desktop.
Charge your phone in a different room at night.
Every day, uninstall at least one app.
When you go home after work or whatever in the evening — turn off your phone completely. If you need an alarm to wake up in the morning, buy a standalone alarm clock on Amazon and put it next to your bed.
If your passion is to create, but you have to spend a lot of time every day in the car, commuting to work or stuck in traffic, just get a GoPro and vlog yourself and your thoughts while driving, just mount it where you put your smart phone.
Don’t own a car or own a home: Hidden with every single type of ownership is some sort of maintenance. The more maintenance you got, the less productive you will be. Why? I would far prefer to make something meaningful, rather than wasting time trying to fix my water heater or plumbing.

Produce what?

Truth be told, I don’t think people care for productivity. What people care for instead is money, wealth, fame, legitimacy, recognition, respect, “meaningful contributions” etc. They don’t care to be productive.

Let us consider, if you want to be productive and produce much, what does it mean? It means that you make a lot of stuff, you publish a lot.

For example, it is my personal aspiration that whenever you visit the ERIC KIM BLOG, or refresh it, or check the bookmark, you’ll always see and discover and experience something new and fresh.

Don’t optimize for views, comments, likes etc.

I am the most prolific YouTuber that I personally know. I think I’m the only YouTuber who uploads several videos every single day, not just one. Certainly the more you upload, the fewer views and exposure you will get per video. Yet, if your real goal is productivity, why do you care how many views you get? I think if you care about views, it is a sign that you are insecure and you are hungry for external recognition and affirmation.

My personal ambition with videos is to create a video or a vlog which is insanely motivational and helpful to other people, irregardless of who they are. Also, I am not going for numbers. I am going for impact. I would rather radically change the worldview, thoughts, or life of one individual, than create a video which is only mildly interesting to a large base of people. I am seeking my elite spartan 300s, not trying to enlist millions of Persian slaves.

How many views is enough? 2. Why? If you watch your own video it may count as a single view. If you have two views on the video, it means that at least one other human being has watched and experienced the video.

What is the point of productivity?

We praise the avocado tree when it produces many avocados. We praise musicians when they produce much music, and we also praise chickens when they lay many eggs.

For myself personally, I am the happiest when I am the most productive. That is, I am the happiest when I am producing much, publishing much, etc.

Therefore my simple formula: in order to become happier, become more productive.

ERIC

Productive Photography

Some thoughts on how to become a more productive photographer:

Shoot small JPEG or extra small JPEG. This will give you less paralysis by analysis when shooting street photography, or any type of every day photography.
Strive to shoot 1000 “bad“ photos in a single day. There is no such thing as good or bad photos, all photos are equal.
When in doubt, just shoot it.
Shoot in P, program mode, and just use auto focus. Even if your photo is out of focus, or blurry, it could actually be accidentally beautiful.
Use an in camera JPEG processing setting, like the high contrast black and white mode on the Ricoh GR3X. Other good options include the cross filter process on the Ricoh GR camera, or the classic chrome settings on the Fujifilm cameras.
Strive to walk at least 30,000 steps a day. And just bring your camera along. If you walk 30,000 steps a day and just shoot whatever you see, how can you not be inspired to make photos?
Get inspired in the HAPTIC SHOP. HAPTIC PRESS books, and resources. All open source.
ERIC KIM EXPERIENCES or just attend anybody’s photography workshop, photography tour experience etc. Anything which involves traveling, a foreign place, a workshop experience will always be a productive one. Why? You will step outside of your comfort zone, you will learn new things, you will shoot more.

Travel

What is a good method in life? Never stop traveling.

EK WORKSHOPS

More ideas

What does it mean to level yourself up?
Yoga and weightlifting
The biggest flex in regards to a car is to NOT own a car! Also instead of getting a bright green, yellow, black, pink, orange, magenta Lamborghini, better to just buy an insanely brightly colored Lululemon tshirt, shorts or tanktop instead.

Just blog it.

When in doubt, just blog it!
ERIC KIM

Fun books

The will to power by Nietzsche
Skin in the game by Nassim Taleb
Invent and Wander by Jeff Bezos

Also free books by KIM

Design thoughts

Placing my 11 inch iPad Pro on top of Cindy’s 13’’ MacBook Pro Touchbar I realized — it seems that the 11 inch iPad Pro is the spiritual successor to my old beloved 11 inch MacBook Air which was stolen with my whole backpack in Paris many years ago. It seems with design matters, having a smaller surface area or a smaller footprint is supreme. Just do it. Place your 11 inch iPad Pro on top of your 13 inch MacBook Pro, and see how more beautifully sublime and smaller the 11 inch iPad Pro is compared to the otherwise bigger and higher surface area 13 inch MacBook Pro. Also, the flat design of the iPad Pro, is far more sublime. And no no no do not get that stupid Apple keyboard for the iPad, the most horrendous thing to have been introduced to the iPad.
The Apple Pencil, a.k.a. the Apple stylus, is a huge scam. I truly believe that the only reason Apple introduced it was to sell more accessories. We know that the most primal way to paint is with your finger, just like how a child does fingerpainting. Having to add an additional accessory is a design shame.

Gifting ideas?

I think the best gifts are aspirational. For example, buying somebody some Lululemon workout clothes seems like a really good idea, if it could actually help inspire or aspire them to working out more, and becoming more fit.

Clothing ideas?

Also, the more I wear my MUJI down vest, the more I like it. I like how minimalistic the design is, no hood, even no neck collar. When I wear it it is practically invisible. The best clothes are invisible.

MUJI USA >

Barefoot thoughts

Perhaps in order to become stronger, more inspired, when should go barefoot more often?

A thought; and a theory, there is as much intelligence and sensors in our feet, at the bottom of our feet, equivalent to our hands and our fingertips.

For example, remember the last time you were gloves, weather cotton gloves, or thick winter gloves, and tried to send a text message on your phone? I believe that wearing shoes, especially thick shoes, even thinly padded choose dolls the sensors in our feet. In fact, there might be more intelligence in the bottom of your feet than in our fingertips.

At the gym, I’ve actually found that my workouts are much more thrilling, fun, productive, and I could also lift a lot more when I am doing it barefoot. For example, during my squat atlas hold/lift of seven plates and a five on each side, 685 pounds — barefoot is supreme.

In fact, maybe if you want to inspire yourself more, motivate yourself more, or gain more interesting thoughts, do more stuff barefoot outside. Go on barefoot walks in nature, or even while hiking. Just don’t text while walking, look at the ground, and you’ll be fine.

Even when I leave the house, and I just hang in the front yard or the backyard, even if it is a little cold, doing it barefoot, without shoes or slippers is really good.

Car thoughts?

The other day I was in downtown Orange, at the Orange Circle, and I saw a red Lamborghini Huracan, the cheaper one without the scissor doors, drive by. It was actually really boring.

The first thought with cars is this; if you’re going to buy a Lamborghini, it must have the scissor doors. A Lamborghini without the scissor doors is not a Lamborghini. Thus, the Huracan, the Urus are not Lamborghinis. The Lamborghini Huracan is like an Audi R8 with a body kit, and the Lamborghini Urus is like an Audi Q8 with different colors.

Therefore the only Lamborghini is probably the Aventador. But even the Aventador is dated, and is going to be replaced soon.

It seems from a pragmatic perspective, the most interesting car to have is the one with unique doors. Think about the butterfly doors on a McLaren, or, even the falcon wings on the Tesla model X. Even for myself, I would probably prefer to have a Tesla model X plaid in red, with the white interior instead of a Lamborghini Aventador.

But even the Tesla model X plaid, seeing it in real life, looks and feels really cheap. I really do not like the front end on the Tesla model S and the model X, I think the little buck nose is really ugly, and not streamlined. The front end on the Tesla model three or the model Y is far more sublime.

Also, the critical flaw of the Tesla model X is that there’s too much plastic, especially around the rims and the wheel wells. The same thing goes with the model Y, way too much plastic, which is really ugly.

At least the new model S plaid, the rear end is more painted gloss black, rather than plastic. However even the downside of the Tesla model S plaid is that having the Tesla lettering embedded in the rear trunk area disrupts the seamless design.

Another critique, I think for the next generation Tesla model 3, they should get rid of the ugly fake brown wooden Dash stuff. Just make it straight black.

Therefore, currently speaking, don’t buy any Tesla model, irregardless of the trim, the color, the design, the plaid, etc.

Once again, the ultimate flex is to own any car. Just Uber everywhere. This is the ultimate billionaire lifestyle.

Cool stuff

GoPro hero Mini
Vibram ELX new knitted shoes

EK SUPPLY

I’m the number one photo supplier:

Dominate the streets >

More thoughts to munch on

What does it mean to go demigod?
You’re going to die. So not why not just attempt the insanely epic?
Atlas lift hold for the gym.
What does it mean to level yourself up?

Never stop thinking

Are you feeling a little more thoughtful? Full of thoughts? Feeling a little bit more turbo and energized? Feel free to share these productive thoughts with a friend!

EK NEWS

“Life is short, art is long.” – SENECA

This means, while you’re alive, focus your life force energy to make art!

ERIC