I have a passion for words
I have a passion for words, language, marketing and branding language, etc.
Why Are We So Into Other People?
A new thought: it is a vice to be interested in other people, whether good or bad. As an experiment, spend a month to not praise anybody else, or critique anybody else. Better yet, it is OK to have thoughts about other people, but never air your thoughts about other people. Force yourself not to order a single word about another human being, besides yourself, your wife or your kid.
ETHICS by KIM
![selfie ERIC KIM talking vlog](https://i0.wp.com/erickimphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/PLUM1385-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C675&ssl=1)
Your Own Personal Code of Ethics
- Just focus on yourself and your own life
- Perfect morals and ethics is following your own gut
WHY ETIQUETTE? - NO BLAME, JUST CAUSE AND EFFECT.
- Ignorance Takes Courage
- TREAT OTHERS CARTE BLANCHE
- Don’t give people what they want or what you *think* they want, give them what you think they *should* have.
- Anti Small
- Disdain or Admiration?
- Beware Those With Good Intentions
- STUBBORN x FLEXIBLE
- ETHICS ARE VIA NEGATIVA
- OBEDIENCE & DISCIPLINE
- The Motive of Criticism
- Ethics are Social
- Anti Role Models
- What is Greed?
- On Having the Courage to Make Your Own Decisions
- How *NOT* to Get Duped or Suckered
- Why Help Others?
- The Duty of the Strong
- Why I’m So Intolerant Towards Intolerance
- The Ethics of Criticizing Others
- Consult Your Own Conscience
- The Ethics of Shit Talking
- The Ethics of Personal Enrichment
- I’m Easily Distracted
- On Forming Your Own Opinion
- ERIC KIM Philosophy of Tolerance
- Tolerance
- Aesthetics are Ethics
- Morality and Ethics
Avert your eyes and your body
When you see or witness something that you don’t like, physically turn your body away from it or that person or those people, and also avert your eyes. This is a good stoic approach to things.
Become the Outlier
I remember taking AP statistics in high school, and learning about the notion of the “outlier”. That when you had a certain data point and there was a certain data point which was not according to the chart or the graft, you could just low-key erase it or ignore it.
Yet, society, the world, everything can only grow and thrive on the outliers.
![Outlier abstract](https://i0.wp.com/erickimphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/D52AD2D7-62F3-4E05-9C30-C9459ABB1C4D.jpeg?resize=1200%2C1718&ssl=1)
For example, you cannot change society in the world by having a bunch of the same same South Korean students, all doing the same thing. You need the radical Elon Musk, the radical Kanye West, the radical Steve Jobs.
The reason why America is the center of innovation is our culture of cultivating, breeding, and also glorifying the outlier. For example, even in South Korea, not how all of the famous K-pop groups are all groups. There is not one really really spectacular individual K-pop star. If you think about BTS, it is a conglomerate of random pretty looking boys, Even black pink is about the group.
However in America, let’s consider the success of an individual Jay Z, an individual Eminem, a Snoop Dogg, etc.
You are not basic
The easiest way I think about this is this:
Don’t be basic.
What does it mean to be basic? It means to be like everybody else. To be medium, mediocre, etc.
For example, what does it mean to be mediocre? To drive a Honda accord or Toyota Camry, to seek to buy a house, to seek a nice job, to seek “stability“, etc.
What does it mean to be an outlier? To distain the norm, and also to distain what is popular.
For example, extreme and true differentiation is thinking of yourself and knowing yourself as vastly different, a new species of human. Certainly genetically we are about 99.9% similar to everybody else, but we have the audacity and the chutzpah to breed ourselves into something new.
Optimize yourself to be an outlier
Do you seek to be understood, or, do you seek to become more of an enigma?
Some ideas:
- Hate and distain when you see other people who look like you, or when you look like other people. Even in terms of fashion, the best strategy is to choose clothes or wear clothes which no one else has. Or to wear the clothes in such a style or a way that differentiates you.
- No car. Cars are for suckers. Better to be a Tyler Durden from FIGHT CLUB with no car, then another same same person, who all drove the same car. Like Jay Z said, I can’t tell who is who, “we all wear the same watch.” it doesn’t matter if you’re rich enough to wear a Richard Millie watch, or an 8P, everyone has one. The same thing goes with Lamborghinis, everyone has one. What is the best way to differentiate yourself and be an outlier is through what you decide to not on, or to disown.
- Don’t talk like other people; you have extreme pride in your own language, your own lingua. Better to know ancient Greek then to speak like the millennials.
Why be an outlier?
A simple question; why be an outlier?
First of all, you probably are. This means that recognize that every single human being is different. Also each of us should glorify him or herself on being unique.
Second, our desire to move and change the world.
Self-reliance
What does it mean to be self reliant? Simply put, your ego, self-esteem, and your power is within yourself. You are not a slave to the opinions of others. For example, if you are reliant on peer review for anything, you are not free.
For example, if you have some philosophical thoughts, know that you do not require peer review, or an editor to review, critique, or acknowledge your ideas. The philosopher thinks first principles, and is not dependent on any external authority besides him or herself. The philosopher doesn’t need to base his or her theories on statistics, the opinions of others, etc. The philosopher bases their thoughts based on what they believe in.
Do things in a different way
For example, my hypelifting or ZENLIFTING notion.
Don’t just do things the same as others. Think carte blanche, and do things differently.
For example, when it comes to squat, no need to squat all the way to the floor. Instead, just being able to unrack the weight a little bit is enough. Even trying to go “parallel” or “below parallel”— is this truly necessary?
Cross pollinating new concepts
For example, my passion for Zen, and being able to cross pollinate it to other notions. For example, zen capitalism, zen photography, zen street photography, the Zen of hypelifting, or zenlifting.
Refuse to be constrained within narrow and reductive category. Instead, know that instead, a better goal is to extend all of your different passions and interests into wide ranging areas.
For example, am I the first to have figured out that the stronger I become at the gym, the stronger I become as a writer, thinker, photographer, entrepreneur, and thinker?
Pride in being an outlier
You must have pride in being an outlier, and it seems that a noble goal is to strive to become more of an outlier. To refuse to have the same desires as others, and the same language and notions of others.
Lie outside
Outlier —
- Out
- Lier
To be out. To be outside of the basic simple categories.
Where everyone else is… get really far away from them. Go beyond, think beyond, become beyond.
Create yourself as an outlier
It seems that in today’s consumers capitalist world, the way that people seek differentiation is through consumerism. By having a different car, different clothes, even other superficial things like listening to different types of music, movies, etc. This type of differentiation is superficial at best. Nay, not even superficial.
What you must do instead is become more of an outlier through your actions. Through your words, your ideas, to become more wolflike, and less sheeplike.
Just think to yourself: what would a wolf do?
Would a wolf eat kale and quinoa? No. The wolf would consume liver, heart, intestines, and other organ meat high in cholesterol. Would the wolf consume sugar, “vegetables?” No.
Also, is the wolf meek, and yielding no? The wolf is lean, mean, hard, stoic, and aggressive when it needs to be.
Become more happy and gay
Better to be a gay (happy and jovial) monster than to be a sentimental bore. Via Nietzsche — via Galliani.
Another outlier thought; it is actually more uncommon to be happy than to be dark, morose and cynical.
Have you ever met a happy person? I haven’t. The only happy people I know include myself, and kids.
In fact, a funny bias is that in today’s world, one is not permitted to be happy. Why? All of this strange weaklings who say —
How dare you be happy when there is so much pain, suffering, and bad things happening in the world!
It becomes a virtue to bemoan the dark side of the world, while one still enjoys their wine and cheese at their homes. There is this French notion of “caviar Socialism“, in which where it is ironically enough, the rich and privileged people who bemoan most about poverty and injustices, while merrily munching on their cucumber sandwiches, etc. Essentially like a Bill Gates.
I say choose to be happy, choose to be gay. It actually takes more skill and courage to be happy, jovial and gay, than it is to be critical, cynical, and a nay sayer.
Outlier thoughts in the context of photography
One: no Instagram, Facebook, or social media. If you truly want to be an outlier, think to yourself,
It is more interesting to be a photographer without an Instagram, than a photographer with.
In fact, once at a wedding party, when I told this one guy that I was a photographer, and then he asked me what my Instagram was, and I told him that I didn’t have Instagram/deleted it, he was actually very impressed. He said, wow, a photographer without an Instagram, that takes serious balls.
Ironically enough in today’s world, one is best differentiated by what one doesn’t own, or what one doesn’t do, or what one doesn’t consume, eat, drink, watch, listen to, etc.
For example, do you know anyone who doesn’t use email? Who doesn’t own a car? Who doesn’t have any streaming subscriptions, who doesn’t have a Netflix account? Who doesn’t use text messaging, who doesn’t use headphones or AirPods, who doesn’t watch TV or shows, who doesn’t consume carbs, or doesn’t eat breakfast and lunch?
Or a man who doesn’t drink alcohol? No beer, no wine, no whiskey or spirits? Also doesn’t drink anything besides water, or black coffee?
Or a man who doesn’t consume rice, snacks, sugar, fruit, potatoes, pasta, noodles, bread, etc.
Also doesn’t listen to any podcasts, or music besides Kanye West.
Choose what to denounce
In order to become more of an outlier, you must denounce and renounce many things. Just think to yourself;
I am the outlier. I ain’t got no time for any basic things or basic people.
ERIC
Adventure beyond
No basic travels, no basic experiences. Only choose the enigmatic:
- March 25th, BOSTON CONQUER FEAR WORKSHOP
- April 15: INSANE INNOVATION BERKELEY WORKSHOP
- June 19-23rd: HADONG SOUTH KOREA ZEN RETREAT
No basic thoughts allowed.
All I want for Christmas is you
What should we seek this holiday season? Some thoughts:
- iPad Pro (small 11 inch one, M2 chip).
- RICOH GR IIIX
- Vibram 5 finger shoes — EL- X Model
- Gym membership
- ERIC KIM EXPERIENCE
- Black down vest
- Lululemon license to train shorts
- Outlier.nyc black merino wool shirt
- HENRI NECK STRAP MARK IV PHANTOM BLACK
- The gift of time: Rather than buying your nieces and nephews gifts or toys, just spend time with them. Leave your phone at home or in the car, just run around with them, play peekaboo with them, throw them in the air, etc.
- The gift of meat: go to the local Costco business Center, and buy four packs of beef ribs, and give it to a friend.
- Gift a Costco membership? Can we do this?
Now what?
Seek innovation. Innovate yourself, vlog innovation thoughts and just share them to YouTube! Vlog from your iPhone or iPad!
How to Start Your Own Photography YouTube Channel
Moar turbo thoughts
- EK PODCAST
- Think hormones
- Walk 30,000 steps in a day?
- Better to get the Apple Watch Titan than to get a Rolex. The new titanium Apple Watch, from an industrial design perspective, looks phenomenal, kind of like a Panerai watch!
Share the joy!
If this sparked any interesting thoughts within you, feel free to forward to a friend!
Become the monster.
ERIC
Speak your mind
Have the courage to speak your mind, even if you’re going to get angry, be aggressive, yell, etc.
The Brightest Shall Win!
My extreme joy of being able to be outdoors, in the direct light, and the direct sun, while using my iPad Pro.
The Philosophy of Hormones
It seems in today’s modern world, we don’t like to think that hormones exist, or affect us. We like to think that our mind is supreme, and can overcome and conquer any sort of hormonal considerations.
I have a theory that weightlifting helps us to activate certain hormonal pathways in the body which activates muscle building, skeletal muscle accumulation, as well as strengthening our bones, sinews, and our bodies. Also, these positive hormones are good, as it uplifts our mood, makes us more happy and gay and joyful, and motivates us.
Shift your hormones
A simple thought; think and realize that if hormones play a huge role in our own physiological well-being, think of things as some sort of hormonal thing.
For example, if you want to be happier, how can you shift your hormones to be more happy? More time walking, in the direct sun, hiking, seeing varying terrain, interacting with other humans, etc.
Let us also consider that interacting with other humans shifts our hormones in good ways. For example, witnessing a beautiful woman, or even a beautiful man, will shift our hormones in a positive way.
Or, a more funny example, imagine that you are a heterosexual man, and you are strapped to a chair, and then somebody forces you to watch some very sexy pornography. Can you force yourself to not have a boner? No. There are some things we cannot control.
It is our duty to be well, confident and happy
Contrary to what these dark and morose people think, I think it is our virtue and our duty to be happy, joyful, and gay!
How to Become Gay
Better to be a gay (happy and jovial) monster than to be a sentimental bore.
Via Nietzsche — via Galliani.
“The gay science” (The Joyful Wisdom)
![](https://i0.wp.com/erickimphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/C2A7118C-2FCB-4F0D-8DF1-E1183295122B.jpeg?resize=639%2C915&ssl=1)
Gai— old French. Joyful, merry.
Nietzsche has this fun book called the joyful wisdom, or “La Gaya Sciencia”. Basically it is a book about joy.
Choose joy
I think in life, one actually does have the option to choose to be dark and morose, or to be gay and jovial.
Eat more flesh
Eat more carne, red meat, flesh, beef ribs, beef liver, etc.
![](https://i0.wp.com/erickimphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/F845DD8F-9643-48A2-8673-EA21D54B4D9F.jpeg?resize=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
Vegetarianism and veganism and depression?
I have a funny theory; have you ever met a vegetarian or vegan person who doesn’t drink beer or alcohol? I haven’t. Why?
When one adopts a vegetarian or vegan diet, they become weaker and more physiologically depressive, and thus need to offshoot their physiological depression with alcohol.
Stay away from dark, morose, and miserable people
Play people tend to be dark and Rose tend to prefer dark and unlit places. Bright and happy and joyful and Gabe people prefer to be outdoors, in the natural light.
I GOT NO TIME FOR BASIC!
Basic people, basic thinking, basic concerns, etc.
Basic gossip, basic drama, basic interactions.
Real Men Drink Robusta
Anyone who is too into specialty coffee is signaling some sort of oversensitivity and weakness. Real men drink robusta. Higher caffeine content, and also, less sugar. Theory; because arabica is very sweet, is it just another form of sugar?
Why Be Different?
Why be different? What is the upside of being different, living different, and being different?
All living conditions and situations kind of suck but the question is better how to extract the maximum benefit out of it without the downside?
Also, getting angry, or annoyed; how to deal with this?
A lot of stoic philosophers dealt with issues of anger, even Seneca “De Ira”. However, anger shouldn’t be an emotion or feeling that we seek to expiate from ourselves and get rid of. Rather, anger is a great source of intelligence; how can we leverage it to our benefit?
Photos are a Tonic
There is nothing which puts a bigger smile on my face than reviewing photos of Sen.
How to Become the Outlier
I remember taking AP statistics in high school, and learning about the notion of the “outlier”. That when you had a certain date of that, and there was a certain data point which was not according to the chart or the graft, you could just low-key erase it or ignore it.
Yet, society, the world, everything can only grow and thrive on the outliers.
For example, you cannot change society in the world by having a bunch of the same same South Korean students, all doing the same thing. You need the radical Elon Musk, the radical Kanye West, the radical Steve Jobs.
The reason why America is the center of innovation is our culture of cultivating, breeding, and also glorifying the outlier. For example, even in South Korea, not how all of the famous K-pop groups are all groups. There is not one really really spectacular individual K-pop star. If you think about BTS, it is a conglomerate of random pretty looking boys, Even black pink is about the group.
However in America, let’s consider the success of an individual Jay Z, an individual Eminem, a Snoop Dogg, etc.
You are not basic
The easiest way I think about this is this:
Don’t be basic.
What does it mean to be basic? It means to be like everybody else. To be medium, mediocre, etc.
For example, what does it mean to be mediocre? To drive a Honda accord or Toyota Camry, to seek to buy a house, to seek a nice job, to seek “stability“, etc.
What does it mean to be an outlier? To distain the norm, and also to distain what is popular.
For example, extreme and true differentiation is thinking of yourself and knowing yourself as vastly different, a new species of human. Certainly genetically we are about 99.9% similar to everybody else, but we have the audacity and the chutzpah to breed ourselves into something new.
Optimize yourself to be an outlier
Do you seek to be understood, or, do you seek to become more of an enigma?
Some ideas:
- Hate and distain when you see other people who look like you, or when you look like other people. Even in terms of fashion, the best strategy is to choose clothes or wear clothes which no one else has. Or to wear the clothes in such a style or a way that differentiates you.
- No car. Cars are for suckers. Better to be a Tyler Durden from FIGHT CLUB with no car, then another same same person, who all drove the same car. Like Jay Z said, I can’t tell who is who, “we all wear the same watch.” it doesn’t matter if you’re rich enough to wear a Richard Millie watch, or an 8P, everyone has one. The same thing goes with Lamborghinis, everyone has one. What is the best way to differentiate yourself and be an outlier is through what you decide to not on, or to disown.
- Don’t talk like other people; you have extreme pride in your own language, your own lingua. Better to know ancient Greek then to speak like the millennials.
Why be an outlier?
A simple question; why be an outlier?
First of all, you probably are. This means that recognize that every single human being is different. Also each of us should glorify him or herself on being unique.
Second, our desire to move and change the world.
Self-reliance
What does it mean to be self reliant? Simply put, your ego, self-esteem, and your power is within yourself. You are not a slave to the opinions of others. For example, if you are reliant on peer review for anything, you are not free.
For example, if you have some philosophical thoughts, know that you do not require peer review, or an editor to review, critique, or acknowledge your ideas. The philosopher thinks first principles, and is not dependent on any external authority besides him or herself. The philosopher doesn’t need to base his or her theories on statistics, the opinions of others, etc. The philosopher bases their thoughts based on what they believe in.
Do things in a different way
For example, my hypelifting or ZENLIFTING notion.
Don’t just do things the same as others. Think carte blanche, and do things differently.
For example, when it comes to squat, no need to squat all the way to the floor. Instead, just being able to unrack the weight a little bit is enough. Even trying to go “parallel” or “below parallel”— is this truly necessary?
Cross pollinating new concepts
For example, my passion for Zen, and being able to cross pollinate it to other notions. For example, zen capitalism, zen photography, zen street photography, the Zen of hypelifting, or zenlifting.
Refuse to be constrained within narrow and reductive category. Instead, know that instead, a better goal is to extend all of your different passions and interests into wide ranging areas.
For example, am I the first to have figured out that the stronger I become at the gym, the stronger I become as a writer, thinker, photographer, entrepreneur, and thinker?
Pride in being an outlier
You must have pride in being an outlier, and it seems that a noble goal is to strive to become more of an outlier. To refuse to have the same desires as others, and the same language and notions of others.
Lie outside
Outlier —
- Out
- Lier
To be out. To be outside of the basic simple categories.
Where everyone else is… get really far away from them. Go beyond, think beyond, become beyond.
Create yourself as an outlier
It seems that in today’s consumers capitalist world, the way that people seek differentiation is through consumerism. By having a different car, different clothes, even other superficial things like listening to different types of music, movies, etc. This type of differentiation is superficial at best. Nay, not even superficial.
What you must do instead is become more of an outlier through your actions. Through your words, your ideas, to become more wolflike, and less sheeplike.
Just think to yourself: what would a wolf do?
Would a wolf eat kale and quinoa? No. The wolf would consume liver, heart, intestines, and other organ meat high in cholesterol. Would the wolf consume sugar, “vegetables?” No.
Also, is the wolf meek, and yielding no? The wolf is lean, mean, hard, stoic, and aggressive when it needs to be.
645 POUND RACK PULL ZENLIFTING ERIC KIM
Zen and hype:
You can do it!
Perhaps what I do is zenlifting, having to go to the zen zone before lifting something:
![](https://i0.wp.com/erickimphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/B83B7CA2-89DC-4EEA-85ED-353E6141DBFC.jpeg?resize=1200%2C838&ssl=1)
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Self Reliance
You are the solo, full stack solution:
Why self-reliance?
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First and foremost, why should we seek self reliance as a desired thing or end? For me, it is a power thing. If you are 100% self-reliant, nothing can get in your way. You are unstoppable because there are no gate keepers or annoying things which get in your way.
Insanely empowering
Just think to yourself, if you don’t have to rely on anybody else for anything, isn’t this the ultimate empowering thought?
Entrepreneurship by KIM
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Become the change which you desire to see manifested in the world!
Become you.
- How to Extend Your Reach
- NEWS: How to Think Like an Entrepreneur
- PVP (Player vs Player)
- How I became so influential
- WE LOVE THE *SENSATION* OF RISK-TAKING
- WHY HIGH PROFIT MARGINS?
- INNOVATION THOUGHTS
- OVERCONFIDENCE IS GOOD.
- GARAGE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
- PERHAPS IT IS GOOD TO BE “DELUSIONAL”
- USE YOUR WEALTH TO BUY STUFF, OR TO BUILD AND INNOVATE STUFF?
- HOW TO THRIVE
- Target Demographic
- Ambition Over Happiness
- Anti Collaboration
- The Will to Economy
- Why New?
- CHOOSE ADRENALINE.
- No Looking Back.
- 1000x Different
- BECOME SPENDTHRIFT
- THE BENEFIT OF JUST ONE.
- EXTREME INNOVATION.
- Practicality is Boring
- BECOME YOUR OWN STANDARD.
- NEVER STOP ITERATING.
- CONDENSE.
- Take Lots of Small Financial Risks
- Control Over Convenience
- Why Are Chinese Companies So Innovative?
- INSANELY DIFFERENT.
- Why Doesn’t Anything Ever Satisfy Me?
- THE GREAT PASSION.
- Perhaps Dissatisfaction is Good
- ONE REP MAX.
- WHAT DO YOU *REALLY* WANT IN LIFE?
- LIFE IS ABOUT STRIVING FOR MORE.
- NEVER STOP LINKING.
- THE GREATEST.
- WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!
- THE BEST IS YET TO COME.
- ERIC KIM CRITIQUE OF ROMANTICISM
- COMPLACENCY.
- JUST BUY IT.
- ALL ABOUT YOU.
- MOVE THE WORLD
- Boring or Not Boring?
- What if Your Past Self were Inferior to Your Present Self?
- THE PHILOSOPHY OF PROGRESS
- CULTURE IS YOUR ENEMY.
- Difficulty & Interest
- The Will to Expansion
- What is Work?
- SOUL IN THE GAME.
- JUST START IT.
- Not Boring
- PRIDE IN YOUR OWN NAME / BRAND
- AS MUCH AS YOU CAN TOLERATE.
- Speed is Paramount
- TAKE IT BACK TO THE BEGINNING.
- A Life With No Risk Taking is *NOT* a Life Worth Living
- Dissatisfaction is Good
- GREATER STRENGTH, GREATER CHALLENGES.
- In Praise of the New
- Uncorrupted Desires
- You Cannot Fake Passion
- SELF-OVERGOING
- FORM YOURSELF.
- Personal Entrepreneurship
- RELENTLESS.
- PUT YOUR NAME ON IT.
- A Life of Expansion
- SELF-ENTREPRENEURSHIP
- YOU ARE THE EXCEPTION.
- Use Your Life as an Experiment to Self-Develop Yourself to Heights Never Seen Before
- Invest in New Developments
- Investing Towards What End?
- The 90%/10% Principle in Entrepreneurship
- Speed Wins
- The Philosophy of Happiness
- When to Over-Estimate, When to Under-Estimate?
- Never Stop Iterating
- Money as a Tool for Life and Artistic Experimentation
- Less But More Premium
- Mainstream vs Low-Key Success
- Why Dissatisfaction is Good
- SEEK YOUR OWN PERSONAL MAXIMAL BENEFIT INSTEAD OF COMPLAINING
- Manifest Your Destiny
- Is it Best to *Not* Communicate Your Inner Thoughts or Ideas With Others?
- CREATE THINGS YOU WISH TO SEE MANIFESTED IN THE WORLD
- How to Do More Work
- CONTROL.
- Competition is for Losers
- Change.
- Your Competitive Advantage with Insanely Fast Wifi and High Speed Internet
- Pseudo Individualism
- Natural Internal Promoting vs External Promptings
Think for Yourself.
- Survival vs Thrivival
- Become Rich
- SECRETS.
- Why it is Better to Beg for Forgiveness than Ask for Permission
- Thinking About the Past Prevents You From Thinking About the Future
- How to Predict the Future
- Tools of Mass Distraction
- So What?
FREEDOM
Never stop innovating.
Entrepreneurship Mindset
- What is Your Dream in Life?
- 8 Blogging Productivity Tips
- Why Be Normal?
- How Much Suffering Are You Willing to Endure to Achieve Your Dreams?
Put a Dent in the Universe.
The Philosophy of Help
Perhaps the most ethical thing we could do is not offer to “help” others, but to just focus on helping ourselves.
How to Ignore
The art of ignoring:
1. It is training
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Delight in ignoring. Delight in ignoring others, the news, distractions, etc.
Ignore means ignorance. When utilized wisely, to be ignorant of superfluous things is good.
2. Don’t use text messaging, don’t have email installed on your phone
If you check your email several times a day on your phone, or refresh your Gmail when you know that you haven’t got any new emails, it is a slave mentality. Two things; to seek new opportunities in your email inbox is a sign of weakness, also, typically any “opportunity“, offered to you is some sort of servitude.
3. See others as beneath you
This is a “bad stoic strategy”; by seeing others as below you are beneath you, their petty actions don’t really bother you. Why? When you see others as beneath you, you don’t set them to the same high standards you set yourself. This means, Their actions, words, or lack of actions and words don’t bother you.
Pretend like you didn’t hear them
A pragmatic Stoic strategy to “ignore” people or to retain your zen calm.
STOICISM 101
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Become invincible:
- Bad Stoic Strategies
- The Stoic Way of Dealing With Unpleasant or Miserable People
- HOW TO BECOME A STOIC
- Stoicism Stunts Our Power?
- Stoicism is Mental Resistance Training
- STOIC STRATEGIES.
- How to Become Fearless
- Extreme Stoicism
- Ethics are Aesthetic
- Indifference to Pain or Suffering
- When is Stoicism Good? When is Stoicism Bad?
- Why Others Criticize or Insult You
- True Difficulty
- What if Covid Never Goes Away?
- SUPER STOIC
- Anti-Hedonism
- HOW TO CONQUER FEAR
- ANTI FEAR
- It is the Duty of the Strong to Help the Weak
- The Goal is to Become Stronger
- HYPER STOICISM
- HYPER HERO
- TRANSFORM EVERY DOWNSIDE INTO AN UPSIDE
- STOICISM x Child’s Mind
- The Art of Manly Virtue
- Resistance Makes Us Stronger!
- DON’T LIVE IN FEAR
- Emotions are Good
- Conquer Your Anger
- BLACK EAGLE
- DIFFICULTY AWAKENS YOUR INNER-GENIUS.
- STOICISM IS ARMOR FOR THE MIND
- The Spartan-Stoic Lifestyle
- How I Conquered Fear
- HOW TO CURE FEAR.
- LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL.
- The Upside of Poverty
- How I Became Me
- THE WILL TO POWER, OR THE WILL TO FEAR?
- ATTACK REALITY
- Living *THROUGH* History
- How to Fear Less
- Fear is the Ultimate Contagious Disease
- STOICISM FOR DUMMIES
- Don’t Be Scared!
- WHAT CAN YOU CONTROL, WHAT CAN YOU NOT CONTROL?
- HOW YOU CAN CONQUER FEAR
- YOU’RE STRONGER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE.
- EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
- WHY AREN’T THINGS WORSE?
- My Philosophy on Masculinity
- A Riskier Life is a Better Life #philosophy #stoicism
- How to Creatively Flourish in Life
- Introduction to Stoicism
- How to Become Stronger
- How to Conquer Depression With Photography
- What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger
- How to Respect Yourself
- How to Believe in Yourself
- How to Steer Fear
- How to Conquer Pessimism
- How to Conquer Anxiety
- How to Overcome Your Fear of People
- How to Be Optimistic
- Why I Don’t Take My Anger Seriously
- HOW TO BECOME MORE POWERFUL
- POSITIVITY.
- HOW TO BECOME SUPERHUMAN
- How to Give a Fuck Less
- ALL IN.
- Why I Cut My Dad Out of My Life.
- Your iPhone Only Has 5% Battery Left.
- How not to give a FUCK about your REPUTATION
- WHAT IS A HUMAN?
- HAPPINESS.
- The Regret Minimization Framework in Photography and Life
- How to Be a HERO
- Conquer Your Fears by Making Fear Your Slave
- Rule Circumstances; Don’t Let Your Circumstances Rule You
- How to Love Yourself
- How to Turn Shit into Gold
- Your Parents Fuck You Up
- Immortality
- What Kills You Makes You Stronger
- How to Be Patient
- How to Conquer Anger
- How to Bounce Back in Life
- How to Overcome Resistance
- Nothing Unlimited is Good; Nothing Good is Unlimited
- You Have No Limits
- Can 1’s and 0’s Hurt You?
- The Envious Moment is Flying Now
- Tomorrow We’ll Sail the Wide Seas Again
- How to Forgive Others
- Focus on Your Actions, Not the Results
- Everything Will Be Alright
- How to Be a Stoic Street Photographer
- How to Be a Spartan Photographer
- How to Overcome Your Fears in Life
- How to Stop Worrying in Life
- How to Use Photography as Self-Therapy
- How to Free Your Soul From Disturbance
- 3 Stoic Techniques that Can Help You Gain Tranquility
- Can People Weaker than You Hurt You?
- Does a Doctor Get Angry at a Crazy Patient?
- Own Nothing
The Stoic Masters
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Learn from the master stoics:
How to Change the World
Yes, you can and will change the world.
What does it mean to change the world?
One of the ways to change the world is through media. For example, FIGHT CLUB. I read the book, and I also watch the movie, and actually prefer the movie one? Written stories are great, but, when you add visuals, real human faces, a story line, audiovisual, etc., it heightens and elevates the message.
For example, to see how gangster Tyler Durden is, and how gangster it is to NOT own a car. Societal critiques through movies and media is transformative. For example, the original MATRIX.
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Create your own media
A very simple way to change the world is to create your own media. A simple formula is spend 90% of your time creating media, and only 10% of your time consuming media. Or better yet, spend 99% of your effort creating, and only 1% of your time consuming media.
Why change the world?
I think part of it is an innate human love of humanity.
Flesh Technology
The future of innovation is in the human body and flesh, not cars or devices:
Flesh innovation:
Still much innovation to be had in the context of flesh!
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Disown
Beyond ownership, disownership. That is, the best way to differentiate yourself is by deciding what you don’t want to own, or what you decide to NOT own, irregardless of how rich you are. For example, the true billionaire would desire to NOT own a home, or own a watch, or own a phone, all the true billionaire needs is an iPad Pro, a Ricoh GR IIIx camera, and his body.
How to Become the Outlier
I remember taking AP statistics in high school, and learning about the notion of the “outlier”. That when you had a certain date of that, and there was a certain data point which was not according to the chart or the graft, you could just low-key erase it or ignore it.
Yet, society, the world, everything can only grow and thrive on the outliers.
For example, you cannot change society in the world by having a bunch of the same same South Korean students, all doing the same thing. You need the radical Elon Musk, the radical Kanye West, the radical Steve Jobs.
The reason why America is the center of innovation is our culture of cultivating, breeding, and also glorifying the outlier. For example, even in South Korea, not how all of the famous K-pop groups are all groups. There is not one really really spectacular individual K-pop star. If you think about BTS, it is a conglomerate of random pretty looking boys, Even black pink is about the group.
However in America, let’s consider the success of an individual Jay Z, an individual Eminem, a Snoop Dogg, etc.
You are not basic
The easiest way I think about this is this:
Don’t be basic.
What does it mean to be basic? It means to be like everybody else. To be medium, mediocre, etc.
For example, what does it mean to be mediocre? To drive a Honda accord or Toyota Camry, to seek to buy a house, to seek a nice job, to seek “stability“, etc.
What does it mean to be an outlier? To distain the norm, and also to distain what is popular.
For example, extreme and true differentiation is thinking of yourself and knowing yourself as vastly different, a new species of human. Certainly genetically we are about 99.9% similar to everybody else, but we have the audacity and the chutzpah to breed ourselves into something new.
Optimize yourself to be an outlier
I do you seek to be understood, or, do you seek to become more of an enigma?
How to become a more self-confident photographer
I have never met a confident photographer. Why? Over-reliance on social media, and external metrics to crowd source their self-esteem.
What does it mean to be self-confident? Simply put, I think it means to be self-motivated, and your inner directive and motive is autotelic, which means that your telos or your purpose, or the pursuit is the reward in itself.
Why become more self-confident?
My personal thought is every child is born confident, what happens as they get older is that their parents or teachers kill their inner confidence and motivation, why? The parents and teachers are too cowardly, and risk-averse, or perhaps not wise.
The greatest upside of becoming more self-confident is that you can thrive more and become more.
Innovative Exercises
Seeking innovation in the human body:
1. Farmers walk
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At the gym, find a trap bar, and load it up with weights. Lift up the weight, and just walk across the gym barefoot to a certain distance. If you want stronger grip, use some weightlifting chalk on your hands and apply it to the bar.
The benefits of this exercise include increasing your grip strength, getting your adrenaline and hype up, building your traps, trapezius muscles, your bicep, abs and back, and your legs. I enjoy this exercise because it is both dynamic and interesting.
Why do it barefoot? Maximal connection with the ground, no slippage, better leverage. If Hafþór could deadlift 501 kg barefoot, so can you.
2. Squat hold
And you thought I’ve been wondering to myself, why is it that we feel the need to squat all the way down, ass to grass, or even parallel, break parallel, a little bit above parallel, etc.?
At what point, thinking about functional fitness, would we have to hold a very heavy weight in our shoulders, squat down half way, and then stand up? It makes no sense.
What makes sense to me instead is thinking Milo of Croton, holding a 1000 pound or 2000 pound oxen on your shoulder, and walking around. Thus also my “squat walk” concept.
to simplify matters even further, why even walk? Why not just push the weight off the rack a little bit, pushing with your legs and shoulders, and your back, and then holding the weight a little bit, and then putting it down?
3. Rack pull
Carte Blanche Design
Always take things back to the clean slate, from the very beginning. First principles design. Back to the blank slate.
What do philosophers lack?
Critical thinking about nutrition, food, meat, and physiological fitness.