Author: ERIC KIM
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Photography & Health
Can photography make you healthier? Yes!
The more time outdoors you spend, the better for your health.
The more time thus outdoors, shooting photos … the better your health.
Traveling as also superior for your health than staying home:
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Health is Beauty
True beauty is health. Buying “beauty products†won’t make you healthier.
When we see someone who is “beautifulâ€, what they really are is healthy.
Seek to become healthier, not more “beautifulâ€.
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A FOREVER CAR?
Is such a thing possible or even desirable? Tesla Model S Plaid — could it last 100, 200 or even 300 years?
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Force.
Force = Mass*Acceleration.
Increase the mass, or the acceleration, or perhaps both.
Kettlebell swings — heavier kettlebell, but also quicker acceleration.
Tesla Model S Plaid— the mass is high, but the acceleration insanely fast.
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Don’t Try to “Helpâ€
Non interventionism. Only help if they ask for help. Otherwise just let them be, and leave them alone.
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Act.
Interact, act, actor, action.
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Desirable Difficulties
In life, we need, desire, and want more “desirable difficulties“. An idea I got from gettingstronger.org
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Bizarre Social Behavior
If people act in a bizarre or strange way, do not get angry with them, and do not resent them. Better to assume they just have very high level, high functioning Asperger‘s, than feel any sort of negative or distracting emotion towards them and yourself.
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TOURISM AND CAPITALISM.
It seems the power of tourism and capitalism is more powerful than concern over infectious diseases.
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Not Competitor but Replacement
Apple didn’t compete with Microsoft, Apple replaced Microsoft.
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THE BEST TECHNOLOGY IS INVISIBLE
Or you don’t even think about it — it disappears.
For example when I have iPhone SE in my pocket, I forget I have it on me. This is good.
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THOUGHTS ON RIVIAN
I’ve been seeing a lot more Rivian electric trucks in person, and for the most part, I am very impressed with the design. The cars look great, and up close and personal, the details are great. To be frank, when looking at a Rivian up close and personal, TESLA cars look very cheap (superficially). For example, the other day I was at a COSTCO and saw a Tesla Model X up close and personal in the parking lot, and to be frank, it looked very cheap.
but the billion dollar question: will it succeed? Is it different enough from Tesla, and Tesla cyber truck, to win?
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DON’T THINK ABOUT IT TOO MUCH.
When selecting and flagging your photos, don’t think too much. If there is a spark of interest, just pick it.
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Eat With Your Hands
My preferred primal approach. This is why we love ribs so much?
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BREAK NECKS.
The best car design?
Rivian, McLaren.
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Driven.
Are you driven by passion and your own internal motivation and fire, or by something or someone else?
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COSTCO.
In praise of Costco. It is like Disneyland, but more fun. Fun chance for you to shoot street photography of people, be less lonely, explore, and think about optimism and new opportunities.
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Plug-in Hybrid
Plug-in hybrid (at the moment) as the best car? Convenience and speed of gas, ability to shoot photos at gas stations and get car washes, and upside of “electric†(get the more coveted and convenient EV parking spots), and sometimes get the carpool lake sticker.
And you can still get a small 20 mile range on electric alone — very convenient for daily trips to the market and close by places. Perhaps a white Prius Prime as ideal road trip car. Very long range— around 600 miles on one full tank/charge.
Tesla is certainly better and more sexy than a Prius Prime Plug-in hybrid, but for all practical matters — prime is better.
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PHOTOGRAPHY IS KING.
Let us assume Apple is a photography company. What does that mean? Photography as a trillion$+ market which is ever-expanding and growing.
Even the new iPhone SE — camera and photo and video quality is insanely good!
When a new parent gets a kid — what do they become obsessed with? Photography.
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IN PRAISE OF FORD FUSION
Surprisingly a really good family car.
Great for long road trips, great design, solid silhouette, very little use of plastic trim, great front grille (looks like an Aston Martin), a proper midsize sedan that can squeeze into small parking spots. Big trunk fits a large stroller. Backseat big enough to fit Seneca car seat in middle, with Cindy and her mom or my mom in the backseat. Also good on gas mileage, comfortable on freeway. Super solid car.
No fatal flaw in the design.
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Deep Nutrition
The most essential nutrition— deep. Maximal concentration of nutrition (fat, saturated fat, cholesterol) for muscle synthesis and growth.
Seneca loves beef ribs, bone marrow, beef brisket, aged cheese, goat milk, avocados, burger patties (70-80% lean to fat ratio). All ideally grass fed.
What you feed yourself and your kid — insanely important.
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BEEF RIBS ARE KING.
Beef ribs as the supreme meat food item? Get it for $14 a pop at Fogo de Chao— all day bar menu. I can eat 3 or maybe 4 of them.
Seneca loves them too!
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Constraints are Good
In praise of belts — you know what your waist size is (how many notches on your belt), better to track your bodily fat (adipose tissue) percentage. Prevents you from eating stuff that will make you fat.
Why prison inmates get fat (sweat pants with draw strings)— you have no idea how fat you’re getting.
The downside of loose fitting clothing — you don’t know how fat you’re getting. Jeans with belts are good.
Limited portion sizes (a la carte) as superior to buffets. My joy of getting individual beef ribs at fogo de chao (3 of them) instead of the all you can eat experience.
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48 Hour Fast
If there’s nothing for you to eat, or you’re just really exhausted, maybe best to just go straight to sleep and fast until the next day dinner time.
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The zen of basic luxuries
For example, iPhone SE. Also, outlier.NYC black merino wool tshirt.
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Nobody knows what they want
Other people do not know the â€why“ behind their actions or motivations, or even what they desire or don’t desire in life. Therefore just ignore the preferences of others, the well-being of others, and just focus on yourself.
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Don’t Engage
The best way to deal with trolls, or others who ruffle your feathers.
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Courageous Option
In life, choose the option which requires more courage.
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YOUR DAILY DOSE OF PHOTOGRAPHY INSPIRATION.
Some fresh photo thoughts for you:
1. Optimize your life for photography
The first thought for you is that perhaps when it comes to existence, life, etc —
If it were all for the sake of photography, it was worth it and justified.
For me, it is all photography. Anything and everything photography is good. Anything that uplift and motivate you towards photography is good.
2. Standalone digital cameras
Don’t get suckered by iPhone — if you want to optimize your life towards photography, standalone digital cameras are the way.
And what is the best camera? RICOH GR IIIX hands down. No debate. The camera is literally 100% perfect.
3. Money isn’t real
Money isn’t real, it is just a concept. What does this mean? This means —
If you can use money to gain yourself more experiences, more sights, and more embodied reality (physical) exposure … this is good towards photography.
For example recently thinking about my recent family trips to Joshua Tree, and Lake Arrowhead (the money and time for renting the airBnb, gas, etc) — it was 110% worth it.
Once again, don’t get suckered. Channel, invest, and funnel your money into photographic experiences. What does this mean?
Use your money on travel (buying yourself plane tickets, paying for gas if you want to do road trips) or for airbnb/hotels, etc — to push yourself outside of your comfort zone, and channel those new exposures to make new photos, and just share the photos to your blog.
4. Just blog your photos
What is the best way to share your photos? Not social media; your own blog.
Digital and online publishing as superior to print-based publishing.
Why this preference for printing your photos? It is a pretentious French notion (the notion of art salons, etc). But in this global ‘endemic’ (the pandemic is here to stay… indefinitely) — isn’t it more effective and superior to share your photos online (infinitely scaleable)? And it is ‘responsive’ to any device your viewer sees your photos (whether on a phone, tablet, laptop, TV, etc).
5. Physical is the new privilege
I am a huge fan and proponent of virtual reality, yet my thought:
In the future — the lower-class will be addicted to virtual reality (Netflix, Oculus, Facebook/Instagram), and only the rich and privileged will have the access to ’embodied reality’ or physical reality.
Let us consider that nowadays, it only seems that the less educated are not vaccinated and do not wear face masks. I see it like a social class thing:
If you lack education, knowledge, and common sense … you do not vaccinate yourself, and refuse to wear a mask for ‘freedom’ purposes.
Like Nassim Taleb said:
If you truly do believe in ‘libertarianism‘, the first rule is ‘do no harm unto others’. So wear your f*cking mask.
Which means —
Any experience you can do in embodied reality (without the risk of catching COVID or any other future disease) is a massive privilege.
What does it mean to be a slave? To be chained at home all day, or even worse … in your cubicle.
Or even worse:
Chained to your phone.
Even one of my uber-successful Silicon Valley friends–
Even though he is super successful, he is still chained to his phone notifications.
This means he cannot sleep through the night without the anxiety of having to check his phone, to respond to his (big) boss.
So I say–
In terms of lifestyle, strive to make yourself less ‘important’ and less rich — and strive to free up more mindspace and more soul-space for your creative pursuits (travel, adventure, photography).
ERIC
HAPTIC PHOTO SUPPLY
- ERIC KIM NECK STRAP MARK II // ERIC KIM WRIST STRAP MARK II: Outfit your new RICOH GR IIIX and beyond:
- HENRI NECK STRAP MARK IV: The supreme strap. The only strap for your Leica M11, Leica M10, Leica M9, rangefinder. LEICA MANUAL PDF.
If this gave you any inspiration or motivation, feel free to share with a friend!
New turbo thoughts on ERIC KIM BLOG.
New things in progress:
- Just returned iPhone Pro. Testing iPhone SE (the new new one).
- RICOH GR IIIX is perfect. If in doubt just buy it.
- Better to buy Bitcoin than a TESLA.
- RIVIAN truck (in real life) is actually surprisingly nice. More of a ‘statement’ than having a Tesla (even a Model S PLAID), even though the Tesla might be the superior car.
- Bitcoin or nothing. Don’t get suckered by ‘alt coins’. Alternative is bad.
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JOHN WICK DRINKS COFFEE.
Thus we should as well.
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The Zen of One Lens
iPhone SE as more zen for photography — the zen of only one lens.
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What Phone Does John Wick Use?
iPhone SE.
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Does John Wick Eat Food?
I don’t think so. In praise of fasting.
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SOUL-SPACE.
It is not enough to have ‘free time’ or even ‘mindspace‘– you need ‘soul-space’. Emptiness and less concern in your heart and soul, in order to focus on your creative and artistic pursuits.
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DEONTIC LIBERTARIANISM
The notion from Nassim Taleb:
A duties-based form of libertarianism.
Which first means:
Do no harm unto others (ie wear your f*cking mask).
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YOUR BLOG IS THE PERFECT PHOTOGRAPHY PLATFORM.
How should you share your photos? Just on your own blog. The best, most efficient and effective (open source) way to share your photos. The future of photography is publishing your photos online.
Digital and online publishing as *superior* to print-based publishing.
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Love & Hate is the Same Thing.
You can only hate or criticize things you really love.
For example your ‘haters‘ are really your lovers.
