Something which has been very interesting, currently living here in Phnom Penh Cambodia, at this point, it seems that Cambodia is just a new colony of mainland China. For example, if you look into the Belt and Road Initiative, something I witnessed very interesting was a map of it, and Vietnam, Cambodia, Southeast Asia in general, we’re all painted in red. My point of thought that is that all of these countries which are bordering China, have essentially become assimilated into China.
Therefore my basic idea is this:
Can people in mainland China access your photography, website, and stuff via their Internet?
Or via baidu.com (their local Google)?
how open source is the future
I believe the reason why open source is the key to maximize your impact and influence in the world is this:
Stuff is open source, it is more likely accessible by anyone on the planet.
And something else I’ve realized is this: maximizing your impact, notoriety, fame, and influence is more important than money or any other metric of success.
“Baidu yourselfâ€
And one of my life goals was to become number one on Google for “Eric Kimâ€. Now that I have achieved that life goal, a simple thought:
If you search your first and last name on baidu.com, will you show up?
Think globally
Something I really like about the new iOS beta is one of the default wallpapers is a GPS coordination of planet earth. It is a nice visual, as it has us to think bigger, more globally, at the earth scale, rather than our myopic and shortsighted view of our own locale.
For example, I like the Socrates quote — when somebody asked him where he was from, he said “I am a citizen of the world“. I believe this is an attitude we should all adopt.
Why are people so racist towards mainland Chinese?
Why is everyone so fearful of mainland China, and why do so many people disdain Chinese tourists?
Several thoughts:
- First of all, mainland Chinese tourists often do not act with “proper“ notions of Western modernity. For example, yell yell, speak loudly in public, spit in public, etc. They order and boss people around like they are their slaves or servants. This is very anti-western notions of what is considered “proper“, if you think about the UK British notions of Victorian properness.
- Second, honestly, I think a lot of people hate mainland Chinese because they are so rich. For example, when I was in Hong Kong, it seems that everyone is low-key jealous of the mainland Chinese tourists, because they are so rich, and can just buy out the Gucci, Louis Vuitton, or Hermès store by themselves.
- Third, it seems that all nations, in order to thrive, need some sort of enemy. For example, if you observe the goldeneye movies, or even modern day American politics, there is always a foreign enemy. Whether it be the communist, the Russians, the Chinese, etc. Funny enough though, now that a lot of mainland Chinese people prefer to watch American cinema, anti-Chinese sentiment is being toned down. For example, when I watched the pacific rim two movie, which was funded by a Chinese company, the western guys and the Chinese guys all worked together to fight off the aliens. I think this is a good thing.
- Censorship, whether soft censorship or hard censorship. Something which is very annoying as of late, is how a lot of my blog posts and links are no longer indexed by Google, because of millennium act DCMA takedown requests, from corporations like Pearson education photography. I believe that copyright is anti-innovation. My low-key suspicion is that a lot of these corporations which peddle their educational books, see my open source comprehensive guide to photography as anti-their sales, and therefore will send bogus takedown request to Google, in order to not have people access information on my website. anyways, all governments, and places around the world since they’re their citizens in one way or another. The Chinese do it more overly, whereas America does it more low key.
Back to accessibility
My radical idea was to just open source everything, and make everything oaks open and accessible and free to everybody. The reason was this:
When I was a poor scrappy kid, I could not afford to pay for these products or services. No way in hell could a 14-year-old from a poor working class family with a single mom afford to buy a digital copy of Photoshop, Microsoft office, etc.
At least one of the upsides of the subscription model is that anyone could afford Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop, and also Google Docs in Google cloud services are now superior to Microsoft office products. Yet, if you’re still from a developing country like Cambodia in Vietnam, a lot of people cannot afford to pay $10 a month for something. For example, a full-time teacher in Cambodia will only make $200 US a month. Also, Grab/Uber drivers in Cambodia on a good day will only make $20-$30 USD a day, driving 12 hours a day straight. And this doesn’t really account for their expenses. Even a brand new graduate from a top university in Vietnam, from a well to do middle class background, will start their salary of only $500 US a month, working for a high prestige bank in Vietnam.
And this is where Google is so intelligent; Android is by far the most dominant software platform on the planet, and if you account for the fact that because Android is open-source, anyone from India, or Asia can afford to buy a cheap $100 smart phone. Although Apple is more desirable, and sexier, Android rules the planet, not iOS.
Why is accessibility important?
For example, if you’re a citizen of mainland China, unless you have access to a VPN or firewall, you cannot access lots of things we take for granted in the states, for example Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, even wordpress.com websites or blogs.
And think, assuming that China accounts for half of the planets population, don’t you want those billions of people to access your stuff?
Money, power, or influence?
It seems if you want to maximize your impact and influence in the world, you must disregard money as a metric for a success. For example, I believe if you want to become more influential, you must also become more poor. Or at least, not care so much for money.
For example, if you consider the spartan 300s; the Spartans had the most personal freedom in their lives, and also their culture has still widely inspired individuals today. Yet, consider the slave like Persians; better to be a spartan 300 hoplite then enslaved Persian, even if the enslaved person was a billionaire or trillionaire.
JPEG
The first simple thought is this: make your full resolution JPEG images easily accessible online. I’ve even found some Chinese bloggers and bloggers index my images in their blog posts, as all my images are easily accessible via JPEG download, or a zip files with JPEG files. Full resolution your images, and let your style be the copyright. Not the copyright itself.
Beyond social media
Once again, if somebody from mainland China doesn’t have access to Google, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc., how will they have access to your photos or access your work or ideas?
Think very long term
For example, let us say that tomorrow, for one reason or another, your Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube account gets deleted. Or podcasting channel. What would you do then?
For example, if for some reason PewDiePie‘s YouTube channel got deleted overnight, and he would not be able to recover any of his videos or stuff or subscribers, he would be screwed.
Or, let us say that your Instagram account got deleted, hacked, whatever. Would people be able to access you?
Social media is fragile, because when you are on social media, you are just a digital sharecropper. There is a false sense of ownership; you think you “own†the land, but you just do is till, maintain it, and you get some profit from it. But ultimately, social media is slavery 3.0.
Start your own self hosted email newsletter
sendy.co is what I use, and even though setting it up was very very difficult, ultimately, it will maximize my impact on the planet. Why? It is my suspicion that mailchimp, and mailchimp.com will ultimately be censored as well, either by mainland China or some other government.
Even though I personally hate email as a form of communication, it is still the most easily open and free form of communication we got in the planet. For example, if somebody knows what your email is, at least they could contact you and send a message to you. This is where telegram is also good, it seems that telegram is the new Facebook messenger and WhatsApp. Everyone in Cambodia uses telegram, even businesses.
My basic thought:
Strive to send emails that you yourself would like getting.
For example,
- Have you ever received an email, or some sort of email news marketing, that you yourself did not overtly subscribe to? Yes, and I hate it. Don’t do that to other people. Have them opt in it themselves, the most honest and open approach.
- Make your emails nice and meaty. Make it as substantive and meaningful as possible. It is my personal aspiration to do in a single newsletter that most people strive to do in a book, alas cannot even do in a book (Nietzsche).
Nothing is evergreen
Whenever I promote my upcoming workshops, products, etc., I have realized and accepted now that nothing is evergreen. To strive to create something that lasts forever is not a good idea. Why? Even evergreen trees don’t last forever. Just try to make it as robust as you can, and to withhold the test of time.
This is why I don’t really care for camera reviews, or equipment or digital reviews. Why? Every digital camera gets outdated every six months or a year. The same goes with the iPhone or any Apple product. Deal with more integral human matters:
- How to stay inspired and motivated in photography, even if you lived on a spaceship, or on the moon, or on Mars.
- Philosophical ideas with photography, for example, the meaning of photography, and the meaning of yourself being a photographer, on becoming a photographer // becoming a photographer open source video download or PDF TEXT.
Think PDF
Make stuff easily downloadable. For example, put them in zip files, and PDFs. Also attached JPEG images.
PDF FILES: https://erickimphotography.com/blog/pdf/
Also as a simple thought, make the website URL simple and memorable.
The more people who “steal your stuff“, the better.
Don’t be afraid of people “stealing†your stuff. Rather, the more you propagate, the better.
ERIC
Become the photographer you desire
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