Podcast

My vision for stoicism 2.0:

Vlog

STOICISM 101

Become invincible:

1. LEMONADE.
2. Why Arguments and Confrontations Are Good
3. “I’m Over It”
4. How to Deal With Miserable People
5. How to Become a Stoic
6. How to Ignore
7. Pretend like you didn’t hear them
8. Bad Stoic Strategies
9. The Stoic Way of Dealing With Unpleasant or Miserable People
10. HOW TO BECOME A STOIC
11. Stoicism Stunts Our Power?
12. Stoicism is Mental Resistance Training
13. STOIC STRATEGIES.
14. How to Become Fearless
15. Extreme Stoicism
16. Ethics are Aesthetic
17. Indifference to Pain or Suffering
18. When is Stoicism Good? When is Stoicism Bad?
19. Why Others Criticize or Insult You
20. True Difficulty
21. What if Covid Never Goes Away?
22. SUPER STOIC
23. Anti-Hedonism
24. HOW TO CONQUER FEAR
25. ANTI FEAR
26. It is the Duty of the Strong to Help the Weak
27. The Goal is to Become Stronger
28. HYPER STOICISM
29. HYPER HERO
30. TRANSFORM EVERY DOWNSIDE INTO AN UPSIDE
31. STOICISM x Child’s Mind
32. The Art of Manly Virtue
33. Resistance Makes Us Stronger!
34. DON’T LIVE IN FEAR
35. Emotions are Good
36. Conquer Your Anger
37. BLACK EAGLE
38. DIFFICULTY AWAKENS YOUR INNER-GENIUS.
39. STOICISM IS ARMOR FOR THE MIND
40. The Spartan-Stoic Lifestyle
41. How I Conquered Fear
42. HOW TO CURE FEAR.
43. LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL.
44. The Upside of Poverty
45. How I Became Me
46. THE WILL TO POWER, OR THE WILL TO FEAR?
47. ATTACK REALITY
48. Living *THROUGH* History
49. How to Fear Less
50. Fear is the Ultimate Contagious Disease
51. STOICISM FOR DUMMIES
52. Don’t Be Scared!
53. WHAT CAN YOU CONTROL, WHAT CAN YOU NOT CONTROL?
54. HOW YOU CAN CONQUER FEAR
55. YOU’RE STRONGER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE.
56. EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
57. WHY AREN’T THINGS WORSE?
58. My Philosophy on Masculinity
59. A Riskier Life is a Better Life #philosophy #stoicism
60. How to Creatively Flourish in Life
61. Introduction to Stoicism
62. How to Become Stronger
63. How to Conquer Depression With Photography
64. What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger
65. How to Respect Yourself
66. How to Believe in Yourself
67. How to Steer Fear
68. How to Conquer Pessimism
69. How to Conquer Anxiety
70. How to Overcome Your Fear of People
71. How to Be Optimistic
72. Why I Don’t Take My Anger Seriously
73. HOW TO BECOME MORE POWERFUL
74. POSITIVITY.
75. HOW TO BECOME SUPERHUMAN
76. How to Give a Fuck Less
77. ALL IN.
78. Why I Cut My Dad Out of My Life.
79. Your iPhone Only Has 5% Battery Left.
80. How not to give a FUCK about your REPUTATION
81. WHAT IS A HUMAN?
82. HAPPINESS.
83. The Regret Minimization Framework in Photography and Life
84. How to Be a HERO
85. Conquer Your Fears by Making Fear Your Slave
86. Rule Circumstances; Don’t Let Your Circumstances Rule You
87. How to Love Yourself
88. How to Turn Shit into Gold
89. Your Parents Fuck You Up
90. Immortality
91. What Kills You Makes You Stronger
92. How to Be Patient
93. How to Conquer Anger
94. How to Bounce Back in Life
95. How to Overcome Resistance
96. Nothing Unlimited is Good; Nothing Good is Unlimited
97. You Have No Limits
98. Can 1’s and 0’s Hurt You?
99. The Envious Moment is Flying Now
100. Tomorrow We’ll Sail the Wide Seas Again
101. How to Forgive Others
102. Focus on Your Actions, Not the Results
103. Everything Will Be Alright
104. How to Be a Stoic Street Photographer
105. How to Be a Spartan Photographer
106. How to Overcome Your Fears in Life
107. How to Stop Worrying in Life
108. How to Use Photography as Self-Therapy
109. How to Free Your Soul From Disturbance
110. 3 Stoic Techniques that Can Help You Gain Tranquility
111. Can People Weaker than You Hurt You?
112. Does a Doctor Get Angry at a Crazy Patient?
113. Own Nothing

The Stoic Masters

Learn from the master stoics:

• Seneca
• Marcus Aurelius
• Epictetus
• Publilius Syrus
• Heraclitus

See all philosophy >

One of my current interest in passions, actually for a long time, is regarding stoicism, philosophy, etc.

Why? I think in the realm of philosophy, stoicism may be the only school of thought which actually is useful in every day living. For example, conquering fear doubt and hesitation, how to advance through setbacks, how to deal with other people etc.

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EK WORKSHOPS

Conquer it all:

1. CONQUER DOWNTOWN LA PHOTO AND LIFE
2. CONQUER SAIGON VIETNAM
3. CONQUER THE STREETS OF PHILLY

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Stoicism 2.0?

I think ever since Nassim Taleb, stoicism has gained a new renaissance. Stoicism is now quite mainstream, and interesting to a lot of people.

First and foremost, we must interact with other people. No no no, even if you were a monk in the mountains, you will still make friends with villagers etc. No man has his own island.

I think it is a good idea to be honest here — and we love people. Everybody loves people. The new ones is which types of people we like and we don’t like.

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Why?

Having the courage to ask why I can be one of the most courageous things we can ask in modern day times. Why? I think in modern-day times, to ask people why is seen as a threat. Or like you’re being critical or judging them in a negative way.

However for me, I am simply curious. I’m curious why people engage in certain behaviors and activities, and it really isn’t from a space of judging, it is more my personal curiosity about human nature, society, sociology etc.

Even in Vietnamese, one thing I learned which was insightful was that the question, “Tại sao?“, (在牢?) is seen as an affront.

tại (“because of; for; to blame”) +‎ sao (“why; how”)

Therefore, when you ask somebody “Why?” You’re seeking someone to blame?

Also in Korean, the funny thing, when a parent calls upon their child, and the kid is slightly annoyed, they respond by saying, “왜?” Weh (왜) means “why?” or “what do you want?” When I was in college, and I would teach English to kids in Korea over the summer, I remember finding it so striking that when I will try to call the attention of a Korean kid, they would respond by saying, “Why?” Instead of the standard English, “What?”

Tai can also mean “…because”.

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Why is to exist?

I think sooner or later, a lot of people, once they retire, achieve all these accolades in life, etc., will often meditate on the meaning of their existence, why they exist, the purpose of their life, etc.

However, to meditate on the purpose of your life is simply a steppingstone. It is not the final goal. The final goal is to gain some sort of deeper clarity about the purpose and why of your life, and then, dedicating all of your strength, balls, chutzpah, audacity and courage to attain those goals.

“For the man who knows the why of his life, he will easily discover the how.” – Nietzsche

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Being disliked or hated?

The funny thing is in life, it seems that everyone desires to be liked. Yet, what if actually, the opposite word to be desired? To become more heated, fear, or disliked?

For example, I might be one of the most hated photographers, street photographers, or photography personalities on the internet. Why? People are befuddled by me. People ask me, “what is up with all of these flexing videos?”

The funny thing is people become indignant when you publish things which are not to their liking. However, this is a funny thing,

It is all free. Also, you have the power to unsubscribe, or just not click on it or look at it.

This is this bizarre sense of entitlement people have with the internet:

“How dare you do things which are against my own personal interests!”

The simple strategy is to stoutly proceed, and keep marching on, just imagine like juggernaut from the X-Men movie, busting through the walls.

Or, another visual is imagine the spartan 300, in the movie 300, pushing the Persians off the cliff.

Why is this all so critical?

A lot of people follow me and look up to me. A lot of creators look up to me. I feel like it is my duty, my mission, my missionary duty to empower other people and creators.

I was randomly musing this morning, currently I am 35 years old, born in 1988. When I started traveling the world and doing all this street photography stuff, back in 2010, 2011, I was only 21/22 years old. This means if I do the math, I’ve been in the game for almost 14 or 15 years. Soon this will be 20 years plus.

Also funny enough, I am lucky enough to see the Internet change and evolve. For example when I was just in high school, a sophomore junior in high school, it was all about Xanga in my space. Then I saw the rise and fall of Flickr, and now, The Fall of Facebook, and the overshadowing of TikTok over Instagram.

I was in the car with Cindy, and I was randomly thinking, besides Facebook and Instagram, where else can people share their photos?

arsbeta.com was my first grand mission—

Creating a proof of concept, a double blind experiment in the realm of photography, that is, if the poster of the photo is anonymous, and the commentator is also anonymous, what type of behavior will this facilitate?

What I discovered is that it actually promotes good behavior. Why? People are more genuine and honest.

For example ARS COIN, and ARS BETA RELEASE.

WHY BECOME A MISSIONARY?

One of the great ideas that I got from Peter Thiel from “zero to one” — this notion, missionary or mercenary?

A mercenary mean somebody who works, fights, or labors for some sort of market-determined price for labor. A missionary is somebody who is on a mission, it doesn’t have to be religious. And you don’t have to be some sort of Friar monk with a bald shaved head.

One of the things which is really inspiring of watching Sergey Nazarov when it comes to his lectures and interviews and presentations is he really doesn’t seem to care for money, he really does care to create something that will change the world for the better.

Compare Sergey with a lot of these other fake entrepreneurs, who simply want to cash out, buy a Lamborghini, and retire on some sort of desert island.

My mission?

Life goals I have had, and done did —

1. My curiosity ever since I was a teenage kid, not to “work for the man“, become “my own boss“, and earn $100 an hour… and just work a few hours a week (my desire as a 16 year old kid)
2. When I was around 20, 21 years old: would it even be possible for me to transform my passion, street photography, into a living?
3. Gain financial independence — FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE RETIRE EARLY, also, gain location independence, becoming a digital nomad. Traveling the world, becoming famous, having solo exhibitions and books etc. Purchasing your freedom. Life post-retirement?
4. Make money through bitcoin and crypto — three Lamborghinis in the bank.
5. Have a kid
6. Atlas lift 935 pounds — 9 plates and a 35 on each side, and rack pull 815 pounds — eight plates and two tens. For reference, I am certain within a short period of time I shall be able to atlas lift at least 10 plates. Can you imagine seeing somebody on the squat rack, getting ready to squat 10 plates on each side? Also, my mythical rack pool; can you imagine seeing somebody about to deadlift eight plates, and 210s on each side of the barbell? I am certain within a year, I will be able to successfully rock pull over nine plates.
7. Now what?

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ERIC KIM WORKSHOPS

WHAT CAN YOU BECOME?

1. DOWNTOWN LA — CONQUER YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY AND LIFE
2. CONQUER SAIGON VIETNAM
3. CONQUER STREET PHOTOGRAPHY IN PHILLY

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Stoic training

1. For the next month, only take icy cold showers. The best way to do this is start off by taking a really really hot shower, until you get really really hot, and then finish cold. Slowly overtime adjust the duration and tempo, until you go only go cold full-time. I’ve been doing this religiously for the last seven or eight years, ever since the cold Michigan winters in East Lansing.
2. Whenever something bad happens to you in life or you gaining some sort of setback, just say to yourself, “Fuck it!”, then hit the gym, and churn out a new one rep max for your atlas lift or rack pull
3. For an entire month, whenever you randomly cross paths with somebody in the street or sidewalk, make eye contact, smile and just wave at them.
4. Don’t use headphones, AirPods, air buds for a month. This includes the gym.
5. Practice driving without any music, radio, podcast, on. Drive mute.
6. As a nighttime routine, don’t read nothing but stoic philosophy. Read the meditations by Marcus Aurelius, and also the letters of Seneca.

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Stoic Consulting?

Email eric [at] erickim.com

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EK PHOTO SUPPLY

1. HENRI NECK MARK IV: DOMINATE.
2. EK NECK STRAP MARK II: KILL IT
3. ERIC KIM WRIST STRAP MARK II: BECOME THE NEW RULER OF THE STREETS

Shop >

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Stoic Films?

1. The godfather
2. John Wick
3. The movie 300

Cinema >

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A stoic platform?

Perhaps my next enterprise.

In the meanwhile, Stoicism 101 >

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Thoughts, ideas, random stuff on my mind

1. What does it mean to gain more power? Is feeling more powerful the same as actually being more powerful?
2. How to deal with bullshit: just ignore?
3. The market is stupid. Otherwise, how does Pepsi sell Mountain Dew?
4. To improve your website, disable bullshit
5. An upgrade means having less
6. Don’t do anything to “benefit others“, rather, only do things to benefit yourself.
7. People want to murder out their cars, but instead, better to just murder out yourself.
8. Real masculinity versus fake masculinity?
9. Just do as you please, deal with the consequences later.
10. Just buy a cop car: for example, the Ford explorer ST?
11. A good reason to wear all black clothing; let’s distracting to yourself when you drive?
12. Visibility is critical in cars
13. Patience.
14. Always anticipate the worst case scenario traffic.

Always new thoughts on the EK BLOG >

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ERIC KIM MIRRORS

1. www.Erickim.com
2. www.Erickimphilosophy.com

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Forward the power

Feeling a little bit more stoic and motivated? If so, feel free to forward this to a philosophical friend!

EK NEWS >

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Philosophy 101

ZEN OF ERIC PDF

1. Masters of philosophy
2. Stoicism
3. Zen

To learn more, start here >

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