For example, if you just have a black car, sitting in the sun all day, very bad.

In this case, white, even yellow is more robust.

It is a very bad sign, when you have college educated folks in America just working as servers.

For example, in Asia in Southeast Asia, to work as a server requires the least amount of intelligence. In terms of labor, it is one of the lowest of the low.

For example in Phnom Penh, a restaurant server may earn $100 USD a month.

I will never give up about what I personally care about. That which I do not care for, I don’t give it any mind.

Better to be a billionaire beggar, than somebody who is aspirationally rich, and looks rich, and ends up getting robbed.

For example, if you could dead lift over three times your body weight, this is gravity acting in your favor, making you stronger.

One of my favorite Big Sean lines

The other day, I just hit a new personal record in my deadlift. And I think this is what perhaps matters the most, not your ultimate strength, but your power to weight ratio.

“How much can you deadlift bro?”

I haven’t weighed myself in two years, but to my understanding, I think I weigh about 160 or 165 pounds. In in terms of height, I’m around 5 foot 10 to 5 foot 11 inches.

Finally after doing the maths, it looks like I was able to successfully deadlift 245 kg, which is around 540 pounds. And in terms of my personal weight, I think I am around 73 to 75 kilograms. This then means I was able to successfully deadlift around 3.3x my body weight. I did this while fasted, no food or supplements before my lift, just some black coffee in the morning. Also, without a belt or straps, only chalk.

Why I am anti-straps

Certainly, if you’re gonna try to deadlift over 1000 pounds, or over 500 kg like Eddie Hall, yeah, use all the equipment as possible. But for the rest of us, I think using straps is a crutch, as it prevents you from building your grip strength.

For example, about two and a half weeks ago, I tried to deadlift the same amount, around 540 pounds, and got a little bit off the ground, but my left hand grip gave out. This was good personal information for me, because it signaled to myself: I am not strong enough, yet.

Then about a week ago, I tried to deadlift a little bit less weight. I subtracted 5 kg from each side, and successfully got it off.

Then after another week of eating lots of beef, all you can eat shabu shabu, etc., getting some rest and recovery and muscle augmentation, Yesterday I was able to success with the lift to 540 pounds.

Amp.dev — why is this so important? This is because in order to make the Internet more “optimized”, for mobile, Google has undertaken a great project called Google amp, which stands for accelerated mobile pages.

Basically, it creates a shadow copy of everything published, if you have the Google amp plug-in enabled. And, Google will prioritize your website in terms of search engine results, bringing you closer to the top, assuming that your website is Google amp enabled.

No, why does google amp get so much critique? Essentially because if you don’t play well by googles rules, google why not to prioritize you. Some people called this “unfair”,” in just, however, that is not the case. If Google did not exist in the first place, nobody would find your website in the first place.

for example when it comes to myself, in the past when I still had analytics enabled, it looks like at least 80% of people who discovered me was through a simple Google search for street photography. First, I believed it to be Facebook, but it was not the case. Certainly not Twitter, which accounted for less than half a percent of my website traffic.

There are many upsides to Google amp. For example, it does actually make your website considerably faster, especially when people are accessing your websites from mobile, or slower Internet connections, slower Wi-Fi connections, or slower 3G or 2G edge Internet.

Now, how does Google make your website “worse” with Google amp? Things don’t work that well with Google amp. A lot of the plug-ins for your WordPress or website break or don’t work, and also, you lose a little bit of control on how to display your images, videos, etc.

The best leverage I’ve discovered is do not enable google amp for your desktop website, only enable to “reader view”. This means that if somebody finds your website through their smart phone, via a Google search, then let Google amp do its thing.

Also, I’ve discovered that with Google amp, your featured images actually show up better in the mobile search results. This is a big deal, because we are more attracted to images than we are text.

How to dominate the internet

Currently, what we are witnessing and seeing is a jockeying of the Internet; everyone wants to become the ultimate master and lord of the Internet.

For example, Facebook‘s initiative for internet.org, which essentially gives everyone access to free Internet, free smart phones, etc., albeit it is through the Facebook app and portal. My personal thought is better to have access to a stunted Internet, through Facebook, for free, than nothing. Especially for those living in extreme poverty.

Now, for the rest of us, those privileged and rich elites, even the “middle class” of America, even the poor class of America, we should know better. For example, if you could afford a Netflix subscription, you can afford to build your own self hosted wordpress.org website with bluehost.com

How and why featured images are so important; Google, google search, Twitter, etc. do a good job of indexing them into search results. Finally, google is starting to adopt images in search, especially with mobile, google AMP project, google accelerated mobile pages.

My critique about American culture, we are too addicted to the media and news, which distracts and pacifies us.

Media is the new propaganda.

Thoughts on K-pop, Korean culture, Korean drama, Korean food, etc.

Sometimes, I feel like I was born at the wrong time. For example, when I was a kid growing up, it wasn’t really a thing or interesting or cool to be Korean. It was all about Japan; Japanese things were cool. Even all of my Asian American friends, we would all watch Japanese animes, play Japanese video games, and like Japanese manga, Japanese culture etc.

But it seems now, Korea is now on top. In terms of popular culture, music like BLACKPINK and BTS, food, Korean drama, etc.

Something on my mind; how did it get on top? And also, why is it so good?

I love BLACKPINK

Currently, besides Kanye West, Jay Z, black pink is my favorite musical group ensemble. Why? I just think their music is really good. I like the music, I like the way it sounds, I like the way it feels, and I find all of the characters likable.

It was actually very interesting watching the documentary on BLACKPINK, how essentially, they were sent to a K-pop training camp at a young age, sequestered from the rest of society, and are essentially bred to become Korean Pop stars. One person I find particularly interesting is Lisa, who is now the star attraction, who is actually not even Korean, but from Thailand. But I think most people would agree that Lisa is probably the most talented one, followed by Jenny, then rosé, then Jisu.

Korean American producers and songwriters

YG entertainment group, the mega media conglomerates which bred BLACKPINK and many other popular stars, has been around for a long time. At least 20 years plus. I knew about them ever since I was a teenager, and I was born in 1988. A lot of rappers, who are once under the YG entertainment group umbrella, I believe are now the producers and songwriters for BLACKPINK.

For example, something I find very interesting, how does Lisa and his black pink members know all of these American cultural references, like the Flintstones? Lisa has a rap lyric, something that does with the ice on her wrist and rocks on her wrist like the Flintstones. There is no way in hell that Lisa would have come out with that line herself, definitely some sort of Korean American, or American songwriter.

It has been a long time making

Something I think that people don’t understand is this, it seems that K-pop, K drama, and all of these things pop up overnight. This is not true, it has been in the making for a very long time. My thought is simply that now that South Korea has strong ties with America, and now that a lot of entrepreneurial Korean Americans are now coming into fruition, finally the gap is being bridged. Also, assuming that American media and culture is the dominant one on the planet, having some sort of hybrid crossover with American culture in Asia makes sense.

Why Korea?

But why Korea, South Korea? I think because first of all, it is not China or Chinese, because America doesn’t have strong ties with China. However, after America’s intervention in the Korean War, America has very strong ties with South Korea. My personal thought is that South Korea is essentially a neo colony of the states. This is evident through the IMF, international monetary fund bail out, as well as the military presence in South Korea.

Korean food?

Also, something that has never been considered fancy, high-end, luxury, or popular is Korean food. For example, in America, all the high-end places seem to be Japanese, like sushi. But the funny irony is that in Japan, sushi is essentially like takeout; Salmon, salmon sashimi, is actually considered the lowest of the low. In Japan, the supreme cut is actually fatty tuna, Otoro.

As a kid growing up, I didn’t really eat kimchi, because my dad for some reason or another didn’t like it. But now as an adult, I love kimchi! I like the taste, and I think it also eats in my digestion, and allows me to eat more meat. However my critique of kimchi is that a lot of modern day kimchi, especially Kim she had restaurants, have too much sugar added. And yes, you can make kimchi without sugar.

Korean cultural things

Even currently being here in Phnom Penh Cambodia, everyone seems to know a little bit of Korean, or Korean gestures, like crossing your index and thumb to create a mini heart, and saying “saranghaeyo”. It means I love you.

It is important to consider Asia, as it looks like 80% of the worlds population is Asia. Also, Asia has deep history. China has been around forever, far longer than any western state.

Why I personally prefer living in Asia, Southeast Asia

I suppose now that because Korean culture is so prevalent and popular, and well-regarded, I do have additional cultural capital clout, being here in Asia. Being Korean, and people knowing that I’m Korean, I’m treated like the new royalty. Compare this to the states, where essentially, I don’t get any bonuses.

So what is the future?

My brother-in-law John Narciso, who is one of the head designers of the blackrhino rims, part of the wheel pros company, is a graduate of art center in Pasadena. It seems like a lot of the main car designers come out of art center, and he told me that the Korean, Korean American car designers were actually the most ambitious and the best. And now, when I look at it, all of the new and most innovative designs and car designs are coming out of Hyundai/Kia, Kia is owned by Hyundai. Also genesis, which is essentially the luxury version of Hyundai, very much how Lexus is a luxury version of Toyota.

My practical thought is that Hyundai Genesis is essentially the new king of automotive design, I actually prefer the genesis G90 over Rolls-Royce, Mercedes Maybach, etc.

Chinese stars, or K-pop stars?

“Who is your favorite BLACKPINK member? I love Lisa, she is so hot” (me talking to a kid who just immigrated from mainland China)

Something else I find interesting; even mainland Chinese would prefer blackpink and BTS, over their own homegrown stars. Why is this? A lot of the appeal of BLACKPINK, and Korean popstar groups is that they actually mix in Korean and English. For example oppa Gangnam Style by PSY, I think it took off because it is both in Korean and English. If it was 100% Korean only song, it probably wouldn’t have gone viral.

America and China are the only two real players

I think about a lot of things more simplified now, for example, the only two dominant world powers I consider include America and China. Everything else seems to be just an offshoot of the two.

The good thing is that I don’t really fear a World War III, or anything like that. Why? Whether America or China likes it or not, the both are deeply interwoven. For example, if it wasn’t for Foxconn in China, Apple would not be able to make her stellar profits and products.

Perhaps one day “made in China“ will be considered a luxury thing, just like being made in France or Italy.

Actually, it is funny that the notion “made in China“ is considered being such a bad thing, as it seems that almost everything, is made in China. What is simply different is the levels of quality control. Once again, why is it that everyone discounts the fact that all Apple products are made in China? And now a little bit in Vietnam, but essentially 99% in China.

Where do you want to live?

I think when push comes to shove, what it comes down to, is it a money thing, or wealth or power or prestige thing. It becomes very basic; where do you want to live? What country, what city, what neighborhood, etc?

For example, the really really rich and successful people from mainland China seem to prefer buying property and homes in Vancouver, because it is so much cleaner than mainland China. Vancouver is probably one of the best clean air and beautiful natural environment cities I’ve been to in the world, Even superior to California. Even if you’re a quadrillionaire in Shanghai or Beijing, if you’re choking in smog, is it really worth it?

How pollution is an issue

And I think this is where a lot of Americans don’t understand issues about pollution and production. Much of the developing world runs on dirty energy and coal. And let us consider, for all these products to be manufactured, a lot of pollution is being made. But all the pollution is being made overseas in Asia, China and Vietnam. Some in Indonesia.

Therefore, let us see you’re from the states for California, you can enjoy your convenient Amazon products, with prime day delivery, and still breathe so much clean air. Yet, even when I was living in Hanoi, which is very close to China, on Sundays the smog and pollution was unbearable. Until you’ve smelt or felt smog, through your own nostrils and throat, by literally being here and some of the developing parts of Asia, you don’t know what real pollution is. Or how bad it is. Or why it matters.

My personal thought is I do not fear earth death. I just fear a future dystoic landscape, something like Blade Runner (the original, or the new one), where everyone is still living on planet Earth, but in misery. And it seems that this is the trend; clean air, greenery, and nature is now being a privilege of the rich, and the poor are forced to live in polluted places.

Sustainable things

At least this is one thing I love about digital photography, it produces less waste than film photography. I love film photography, but consider all of the ways being manufactured through the little canisters, the film itself, and all of the movement necessary to process the film. It is probably not that substantial in the grand scheme of things, but in terms of convenience, I think the convenience of digital is a quadrillion times better. For example, if you want to become the best photographer possible, I really do believe that having a Ricoh GR 3 or Ricoh GR 3X digital camera is key.

What is “sustainable“?

I like the notion of sustainability in terms of creativity. Sustainable creativity is what I like. Without aid of drugs, alcohol, marijuana, amphetamines, etc. The least bad thing being caffeine, which is still a very potent drug.

How to sustain your creativity

So the simple thought; how can you maintain and sustain your creativity, and your creative output, and the act of creation, every day, all day?

Some thoughts:

1. Digital is key: digital creativity is a quadrillion times more sustainable than anything based in physics, or atoms. Why? Analog, and atom-based art and creativity is often too expensive, too time-consuming, and has too much friction to start. The ideal is to just jump in to your creative activity, requiring the least amount of activation energy possible. This is where I am such a huge proponent of digital calligraphy, via the Zen Brush 2 app, and also digital illustrations and artwork, which you could do with the iPad and procreate app. Also you can do it on the iPhone.
2. Lift weights, at least once a week or every two weeks. I recommend the powerlifting one rep max style, the deadlift squat and bench press. Everything else seems to be superfluous.
3. Think of creativity as a hormonal thing; why do I feel so creative when I drink a bunch of coffee? The hormonal adrenaline rush that accompanies it. The same thing with powerlifting, the huge surge of testosterone, adrenaline, and other unknown bodily hormones which hype you up.
4. Hype yourself up. Hype yourself up via watching the Māori hakka dance, slapping your body and thighs, screaming, and getting into hypelifting. In fact, the thing I enjoy most about doing one rep max deadlift is the hype and the hyping up of myself which accompanies it.
5. Delete Instagram.

---

CONQUER THE STREETS OF SEOUL

The streets of Seoul South Korea await you:

Learn more about ERIC KIM SEOUL South Korea travel street photography experience >

Witness all upcoming ERIC KIM EXPERIENCES >

---

HAPTIC INDUSTRIES

Fight the creative static with HAPTIC:

1. HENRI SHOULDER STRAP: Lighten your creative load
2. ERIC KIM NECK STRAP MARK II: I put my creative soul on it.
3. ERIC KIM WRIST STRAP MARK II: True creativity never dies.

Discover all creative products >

CREATIVE EVERYDAY

Be creative every day:

1. DIGITAL OPEN EDITION
2. PRINT

---

Share your creative photos

Not sure what to do with your creative photos? Share them to arsbeta.com

Feeling a little bit more creative than before?

If so, feel free to forward this to a friend, needing a little shot of creative motivation!

ERIC KIM CREATIVITY NEWS

Majestic clouds here in Phnom Penh

I desire to become bigger, beefier, stronger, more imposing. Take up more space. Consume more meat?! Grow more!

What I believe:

Why is there this bias that more is better? My thought is that actually, better is less.

---

Some examples

For example, fewer repetitions and weight lifting is superior to more repetitions. Also, with design, more features and more functions is inferior.

Also, with life and lifestyle, having fewer options, is superior to having more options.

What is luxury?

Spartan luxury is this: less is a luxury. For example, if you step in to a Ross or an H&M, there is a quadrillion options, which suffocates you. I far prefer going into a small Balenciaga store, where there is only a very few options.

Curate less

This is the tricky thing; a lot of people strive towards having nothing. This is the big problem with too much emphasis on Zen or Buddhism; essentially you become a beggar. I would prefer to be instead, to look like or seem to be a billionaire beggar.

How to make better photos

On the path to making better photos, show less. Feature fewer details and show less. I think this is also why black-and-white is superior to color; by shooting in black-and-white, you strip out options.

Also, the reason why I like very high contrast black-and-white is that it also strips away the midtones. I don’t like mid tones, as I don’t like middle or medium things.

Better to lose it all, when you clip the downside at only 10%

For example, one thing Nasim Taleb says is avoid “medium risk” investments at all costs. Better to put 90% of your money in boring, cold hard cash in your savings account, and invest 10% and extremely risky speculative things, like cryptocurrency, where the value can go to zero. The reason why this is intelligent is this:

Rather than having a boring 3% return, year-over-year, it is better for your 10% investment to 1000X, or potentially go to zero.

For example, let us see you have $100,000 in savings. Or your net worth for your money totals $100,000 USD. Better to keep $90,000 of your money in a boring savings account, and keep it in liquid cash, and put the other 10% into a highly volatile and risky cryptocurrency investment. Because at worse, you lose 100% of your $10,000, but at best, your $10,000 investment could 1000x, netting you $10,000,000.

Or, if you are a solo bachelor and you have nothing to lose, just put 100% of your fiat currency into cryptocurrency. This is how I met a guy who is a whale, who invested his $50,000 life savings into Chainlink, when it was only at about three cents a Chainlink, and it made him so rich that apparently, he has to pay $10 million in taxes this year.

This is where I currently am, between the net worth of me and Cindy, I put 10% of our savings simply into Bitcoin. I plan to HODL (hold onto dear life), until Seneca becomes 18, and he could just do with it whatever he wants.

At worst, Bitcoin goes to zero, and we have only decimated our savings, which is only 10%.

10% is the ideal number

This is apparently what the ancient Roman Empire Army used to do; if they lost a battle, in cowardice was suspected, they would at random kill 10% of a squad. Why 10%? If you lose 10% of your army, it is not enough to seriously injure you, but it is a strong enough motivator to keep your army from acting like a bunch of sissies.

Also, if you have a manager, or you are doing some sort of profit-sharing scheme, which I believe to be a good idea, best to give your manager or employee 10% of the profits, as it will give them some sort of skin in the game, and be a positive motivator for them to work hard and maximize profits.

Less frequency

A lot of people try to get rich by high frequency trading, but, not only is this bad for your health, but it is bad for your wealth. I say it is better to invest at the decade level; just think to yourself:

Do I believe this investment to go up 10 years from now? Or down?

Nobody could predict the future, but, when do you think at the decade level, certain trends are quite obvious.

For example, a decade from now, do you think more people will have more access to smart phones, or less?

Also, do you think a decade from now, bitcoin and cryptocurrency will be adopted more, or less?

Lessen your load

In order to become more productive, and then enact more impact on the world, I say, rather than the naive idea of “doing more“, better to do less, but to intelligently leverage your strengths.

Why is it that we try to emulate the virtues of a machine? As so thinks Nietzsche and so does I.

What is the difference between man and machine? Man is superior to machine, as man is the ultimate measure of all things. Yet the reason why we strive to emulate the virtues of a machine is this:

We are currently living in the cult of quantification, and in order to become more virtuous, and happy, you must produce more, make more money, do more, sleep less, etc.

At the end of the day, what would you prefer; the worlds most expensive Lamborghini, or the worlds most beautiful women? I think the latter.

Or another thought, if you had the option of being a billionaire but 400 pounds and overfat and sick, or, do you have the worlds most beautiful muscular physique, what would you choose? I would choose the latter.

Cut it out

For example, in order to get ripped and shredded, or to lose fat, it is very simple; cut out all sugars, starches, fruits and vegetables, etc. Cut out anything which is sweet or starchy.

Or, if you strive to be happier, or more focused, just cut out all of your distractions. You know what your distractions are; be like Ulysses and tie yourself to the mast. For example, I know that I am personally distracted by social media and Instagram, that is why I deleted my Instagram in 2017.

Also, when I was in the process of quitting certain websites, I installed a website browser plug-in that literally forced me to block these websites, even if I had these nervous twitches to access them.

Also, the funny irony is that if you desire to quit porn, my thought is this: watch it, but you’re not allowed to fap. Is it still porn if you don’t fap? I don’t think so.

How to live your best possible life

If you desire to live your best possible life, just think:

What can I cut out, and what can I do less of?

ERIC

---

Lessen your doubts

Conquer your fears, and thrive as a photographer:

1. Discover your creative Seoul
2. Master minimalism in downtown LA
3. Zen out in Vancouver

ERIC KIM EXPERIENCES

---

Less but the best

HAPTIC PHOTO SUPPLY:

1. CONQUER THE STREETS: HENRI MARK IV
2. ERIC KIM NECK STRAP MARK II: Shoot with your soul

ALL PRODUCTS

---

Random things on my mind

1. Digestion and mood: if your digestion is poor, so will your mood. I think I have finally realized that being of East Asian dissent, Korean, I really cannot digest Indian food, or south Asian food well. I cannot tolerate dairy products, coconut products, etc. Therefore be very wary about the ketogenic diet; I don’t think a lot of Asians can tolerate coconut, milk, or butter very well. Even ghee.
2. I wonder if there is some truth to eating Halal; I don’t think I could process or digest pork that well. For me, beef is much better and easier on my stomach.
3. Think at the day level. Not the week or the month or the year level.
4. Genesis, Hyundai Genesis is the new king of cars in car design; superior to Rolls-Royce, which is essentially an expensive BMW, and also superior to Maybach, which is just a watered down Mercedes.
5. The best pair of shorts is the Lululemon license to train shorts. Get them in black. Why I love them is that the zippers sit flush, and also are not scratchy. Especially when traveling, being in transit, or being in a taxi Uber, I love the peace of mind I am not worried that my shit will fall out of my pockets.
6. Perhaps overhydration is a good idea; I don’t like having to pee all the time, or having to track how much water I drink a day, but especially being in hot Southeast Asia, maybe overhydration is a good strategy. Even my brother-in-law when he was in the military, stationed in Afghanistan, The US military would force feed their soldiers a shit load of water before going out on missions, or training. If the military does it, maybe we should as well.
7. Apple iCloud private relay is the game changer; I have been having some connectivity issues here in Cambodia, and it seems after enabling the Apple iCloud private relay feature on my iPhone, these issues have vanished. I am very bullish on the Google VPN thing for their phones as well, but, the problem is it is not accessible everywhere in the world. It seems that Apple iCloud private relay is.

More thoughts

---

Share the love

If this sparked any creative ideas within you, or any Zen thoughts, feel free to forward to a friend!

ERIC KIM TURBO NEWS

---