With things, the lower it is to the ground the better.
Beds which are on the ground (no bed frame)— Japanese tatami style. Or how Koreans sleep on the ground.
A lowered performance car.
Doing bench press or dumbbell press on the floor, not using a bench. Connection and friction with the ground is best.
Also, deadlift. Sumo deadlift, with the barbell and weight on the floor.
Let it rip and fade. One black merino wool tshirt everyday for 3 years— the cool rips, tears, and sun damage it will get.
Note the new Balenciaga stuff — already “sun worn†and “old†and ripped / torn.
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You end up losing control, and having to compromise to please investors and the “boardâ€.
One of the reasons I love electric cars from the philosophical perspective is that there are fewer components. It is insane how complicated gasoline engines are, as well as transmissions.
Red cars look better than yellow cars?
Or genetics don’t matter.
Ultimately I believe it comes down to this:
How much do you care?
Not enough to just maintain, but the goal — to gain (ever more)!
For example, with physical strength, muscle building, weight lifting, powerlifting, etc … what is the goal? Not a final destination, but never-ending growth.
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Even if you get a scratch on your face, you will feel pain, but it is not a major injury.
However, if you actually do seriously injure your body, the pain that you feel is information to you that you are injured.
Learning to understand your body through pain is a huge first leap in self knowledge.
Nowadays the trend is toward computer science (CS) and it looks like IT (information technology) has fallen out of vogue. But is IT actually more critical than CS? I think so.
Ricoh GR IIIX in 24fps high contrast black and white — more frames per second than still photos, also embedded with sound and movement.
As much as I love cars, automotive design, etc, I prefer to own no car. Why? Because no car is good enough for me, regardless of price.
The interesting thing about cars is this: I think for the most part, we buy a car for the external looks, or the exterior design. Yet, in all practical every day lived reality, the interior is far more important. Why is that? When you’re driving, we’re stuck in traffic, you have no idea what your exterior looks like. You stare at your interior 99% of the time, and look at the exterior only 1% the time.
Something I realize which I hate about car interiors is the automatic shifting stalk. The only car which should have a shifting stalk is a manual transmission car.
The SUV is a very strange car concept. It stands for sports utility vehicle, but what does that even mean?
In the context of cars, what does sport even mean? I think it means racing. Racing is the only sport which applies to cars. Therefore, if you desire a sports car, or car to race, it makes more sense to buy a car that is 100% optimized for racing. It must be a two door, and ideally two seater. Or even a one seater.
Utility means something that you will use a lot, something that is flexible. I think that means a hatchback. I really love the hatchback design on the Prius, also on the Subaru outback, with the wagon design, you have a huge storage space in the back.
In modern times, it seems that the most impractical car is a sedan. To me, a sedan is a compromise of a design. If you do not have a hatchback, the car is not very practical or usable.
For example, the notion of a “sport sedan“ is bizarre. My theory of guys who want a sport sedan or middle-aged men who have a family, yet a more “sporty“ experience. I would say it is better to just barbell it: better to have a Honda Odyssey minivan, and the Porsche 911 turbo on the side, rather than a BMW M3 sedan.
I prefer cars without touchscreens. Why? Touch screens are a distraction, especially when driving
Also, a huge downside of touchscreens is that they quickly get outdated. I would prefer rather, some open source approach where you could just latch on the newest ipad Pro to your center console, instead of buying a car with it an un-interchangeable touchscreen.
For example, consider the early 2013 Tesla model S. Certainly by now, the touchscreen is outdated, less responsive, and has less sharpness in dpi than the modern iPad Pro.
Even if you buy a brand new tesla today, certainly within a decade, the touchscreen will get hugely outdated.
Even now, the new Toyota and Lexus in car entertainment, GPS, and user interface touchscreen. It will quickly get outdated.
At least two layers.
Think about and consider how superior double ply toilet paper is over single ply. Also, with clothing and armor. Backup generators just in case the power goes out, just like in Beirut Lebanon.
Back ups for your information, and data.
The quote, “in war, two is one and one is none.†If you’re in a battleground, or if you’re John Wick, you don’t want only one gun. You need at least two. Even when John wick goes to the party with assault rifle, he still has his pistol in his side holster, ready.
Let’s also consider the battle scenes in the Iliad, when the heroes throw spears at each other, how often the spear punctures one layer of the armor or shield, yet the additional layer saves their life.
Therefore, it seems wise that when you go hiking, camping, traveling, etc., maybe to wear at least two layers of clothing is a good idea.
Also as a parental pro tip, when you go out on adventures with your kid, putting your kid in double diapers is a good idea. Even around the house, I put on at least two layers for Seneca‘s training underwear.
If you use Gmail, especially for a living, just get an android or Samsung device, not an iPhone.
Something on my mind: it seems that there are lots of cool new innovations to the cockpit of cars, and the front row seats. For example, I love how wide and expensive the front seats and interior of the Tesla model three and Y. Yet, the backseats are a bit boring. I suppose the panoramic roof and rear windshield is cool, yet, what are some new innovations we could integrate? To simply add more legroom, more screens and distraction devices seems a bit basic.
A new trend for the Lamborghini Urus, is that the whole car only has four seats. Two seats in the front, two seats in the back. The same goes with the new Lexus SUV, which is a massive car, yet only has two seats in the rear.
Something that has lasted me a very very long time, which I love is my Lindberg glasses. Although the poly carbonate black plastic which attaches to the titanium frame has lost its glue and adhesive, the glasses have actually served me well ever since I bought them around 2011, which has been over a decade. When I first bought the frames, they seemed insanely expensive at around seven dollars US, yet it was a great decision, because to me it was a perfect design, and the titanium was insanely light and extremely durable. For all practical reasons, the only things I’ve had to replace are the lenses overtime, as either they broke, scratched, or my vision got worse.
I really like the new iPhone Pro in white because the stainless steel on the edges are naked, pure. A huge downside is that there is an insane amount of glare from the stainless steel edges, which is extremely distracting when you’re using your phone as a GPS device. Yet, I still think that the iPhone Pro in White is superior to the iPhone pro in black.
Also, I recently started using this very lightweight stainless steel cup for my coffee, and I really liked it. I love how light it is, and how easy it is to keep clean. Even currently living at Cindy’s moms house, a lot of her appliances and hhouse things are made of stainless steel, and they have lasted well for over a decade. They are extremely resistant to wear and tear, very robust. Not as wabi sabi as wood, but from a industrial design perspective, fantastic.
Also when I stayed at my friend Chris’ house, he had this really cool titanium cup, which is typically for camping, but it seemed like a very good cup for around the house as well. Even lighter, more durable and stronger than stainless steel.
Next iPhone Pro — make it out of titanium?
The other day, Cindy and I got a one month gym membership on Groupon for golds gym, and we just went to the nearby golds gym after putting Seneca to sleep in the evening. After a long hiatus from the gym, I thought: it seems that the gym has lost its charm on me. The facilities were very understaffed, dark and dim, and dirty. It was nice being able to do a deadlift again, yet, it seemed a lot less interesting to me, then it did in the past.
Why is it seen as bad to be “over-stimulated� What if “hyper†(over, uber) were best?
What if suburban living were the supreme form of living? Living in the suburbs is like living on Mars, except better and more well equipped.
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Some marketing copy ideas I have for GoPro:
First of all, why would people buy GoPro in the first place, instead of just using the iPhone? The secret is that they want to create more compelling videos, photos, and content for social media, their own website or blog, or YouTube.
Therefore, the focus should be on using a GoPro to become more influential, famous, and interesting. Also to be more artistic, creative, and innovative.
The idea that a GoPro is superior than using an iPhone Pro camera, or even a micro 43rds camera, or any video camera.
The idea that GoPro reduces “creative frictionâ€. To create whenever “inspiration strikesâ€.
Be very careful about the company you keep, because negative social people will spread their contagion upon you.
Just like with COVID-19, we keep the 6 foot distance rule, with negative social people, keep the 600 foot social distance rule.
One of the greatest upsides of modern society is hygiene. But taken from a more metaphorical perspective, think about mental hygiene, social hygiene, and of course the practical physical hygiene aspect.
Ironically enough, being outdoors, being in nature, although dirtier, and more dusty, it is actually more hygienic. Also being in the direct sun is the most hygienic. One thing that Asian people figured out is that the best way to disinfect something is just put it outside in the direct sun, and the sun will deodorize and sanitize it.
Dear friends,
A thought —
What awaits you? A bold new direction, and a bold new future in your photography.
How to unlock this? Some thoughts:
If you think Aristotle and Elon Musk, the #1 entrepreneurial thought is–
Take things back to first principles.
Rather than thinking by analogy, think carte blanche, brand new, blank slate. For example, rather than thinking ‘how do you make a “BETTER” car, WHY do we need cars, or what is the purpose of cars?’
In photography, think to yourself:
What is the point or the purpose of photography, for yourself, and for others?
What is your end goal, your end game?
Another thought is this:
Photography is most easily possible when you expose yourself to new foreign environments, which stimulate your senses.
This is why it is so easy to photograph when you’re traveling and so difficult to photograph at home.
The interesting thing I learned from Cindy is the notion of Vietnamese ‘home’. The phrase in Vietnamese is often (for lets go home) it is:
“Di vồ
“Ve” in Vietnamese literally means ‘to return’. So in a metaphorical sense, to “go home” means “to return back to the place where you started”.
So what is a ‘home’ anyways? The place where you return. Typically nobody lives on the road forever. Sooner or later, there is a place, a house, a locale you return to.
So I like this idea of being a world traveler, kind of like Sinbad, but eventually, sooner or later … you will return back… somewhere.
But otherwise, the best way to expose yourself to new embodied realities is to travel, attend in-person photography workshops, and to invest in experiences (buy experiences, not stuff).
Just buy RICOH GR IIIX and call it a day (4K YouTube video review). Just shoot in extra small JPEG mode, for color use cross-process JPEG, or shoot extra high contrast for black and white, shoot in autofocus program mode.
Why do this? It is simple:
99% of the time we as photographers waste our time always thinking and wondering– do I have the best and most capable camera?
Once you no longer think about your camera, then you can truly focus 100% zen-zone on your photography, and nothing else.
10 Tips How To Become A More Zen Photographer >
I still think the best place to publish your photos is your own blog. Better than printing your photos, showing them in a gallery or exhibition, putting them in a printed book, etc.
The bold new future for photography is open source PDF’s:
ALL open source everything
Also:
And:
FREE Open-Source ERIC KIM Stock Photographs — Dropbox ZIP file download
Let us consider how bold Elon Musk was in open sourcing their electric chassis technology, which literally hyper-drove all the whole industry to embrace electric. It was a ‘win win’ for everyone.
It takes more courage to open source your work, than to close it.
Eric Kim on how to build a personal brand on the Artisans & Trade Podcast >
Petapixel: ERIC KIM Allowing high resolution downloads of his work (2013) >
Something I am very proud of is arsbeta.com — a bold new approach to photography feedback and publishing.
I saw this as a great new way to get honest feedback and critique on your photos, something I did not see or witness anywhere else online (shout out to Kevin, Cindy, Annette, Jun Goodhouse Kim, Ben Mills, and the whole ARSBETA team in building it).
If your current reality sucks, build something to remedy it.
Some good books:
Also photography entrepreneurship 101 >
Upcoming workshops for you:
START, BOOKS, WORKSHOPS, PRODUCTS
If this sparked any creative ideas within you, feel free to re-publish it to your website/blog (open source), or to share/forward to your friends.
A bold new approach, a bold new direction. Perhaps ‘usability’ is overrated?
Nota Bene (note well):
What do I personally struggle with?
Remembering, and making sense of my photos:
One quick solution:
Put all of my recent photos into a gallery (WordPress Gallery), turn off crop, and make it 1-column, and re-review my photos as a blog post.
Then what I do is re-review my photos as a blog post, as a slideshow, and I re-scan my photos again, and re-filter then, and make a *new new* edit based on the photos which popped out to me (again):
Then my theory:
(more…)Perhaps photography is simply a process of continual refinement, distillation, and editing down of your photos?
More virtuous to force yourself to sleep more than to force yourself to wake up early in the morning (alarm clock).
Things I hate.
The goal isn’t to obtain more, but to become more.
Does material abundance really help us become more?
For example, the best coffee or coffee blends. For example, 80% arabica and 20% robust blend is best, in terms of taste, and caffeine content.
Also with clothing, 100% merino wool doesn’t last very long. To have it blended with some polyester is good.
Seek more risk in life. The secret to extracting the most out of existence.Â
A life with more risk is a better life.
Supreme risk, supreme life.
A thought —
Assume like it will all eventually be rendered into black and white.
For example, let us say the color of your car, clothes, etc. Dress and purchase/buy and design things as if they will all ultimately render in black and white.
For example, disregard red. If you have a red car in real life, or red clothes in real life, note that they will just render as black in your photos.
For example, I’ve found that white shirts are really bad for photos. They blow out the highlights, distract your camera’s metering system, and also confuse skin luminance. For photographing Seneca, it is best when he is either topless, or wearing a more neutral colored shirt (like a grey, light grey, black, or darker color).
Or let us say you bought a new Lamborghini or a Tesla. The question:
Which color will best render in your black and white photos?
When you screenshot something, you create something new.
Screenshot the interesting tidbits of your photos. As an added bonus, draw on top of them as well with the built-in Mac markup tool!
All black Urus.
My drive in my photography– to create a type of image I’ve never seen before? Also my desire to travel and see, experience, witness, and conquer new foreign places, lands, and places?
Also my interest in car design, and products? And just design, and industrial design in general. Also applies to software, website and blog design.
Or stimulates growth.
