Author: ERIC KIM

  • We need both the ugly and the beautiful

    We need both the ugly and the beautiful

    A random thought: would you desire a life in which everything were beautiful? That you were only surrounded by beautiful people, beautiful objects, beautiful architecture, beautiful landscapes, beautiful things, and beautiful thoughts? Maybe not. Why is this? Perhaps we need the ugly in order to appreciate the beautiful, and vice versa.

    And also maybe the task of the artist is to transform the ugly, and elevate and make it beautiful. Or to take what is pre-existing ugly, and to beautify it. This is the joy we have and restoration of old homes, and old cars. Also perhaps the joy we have in TV shows in which you turn a nerdy person into a stylish and beautiful person, or where you turn an overfat person into a fit and muscular person.

    I’ve also discovered that my joy in hiking and natural landscapes is that because I’m so accustomed to the ugly suburbs, I can actually appreciate the beauty of nature. If we never had ugly things to compare and contrast with, we would never deem other things as beautiful. Or we would never appreciate the beautiful, because it is our norm.

    Therefore my take away is this: do not desire an existence that is 100% devoid of the ugly. Rather, be grateful of the ugly, and it is your task as an artist to transform things and create the beautiful.

    Also, a paradise, a utopia is not desirable. Also, pain and suffering and injustice is a necessity for thriving and beautiful life.

  • Just Get Nothing

    Just Get Nothing

    One thing I’ve discovered is that I am insanely picky. And even the best things aren’t good enough for me. therefore, what I either do is buy nothing, or keep looking for something I consider perfect.

    For example, I love cars and car design, yet, I have never seen or experienced a car which I consider perfect. Every car seems to be some sort of compromise, irregardless of how expensive it is. The only car that I really loved in my whole life was my 1991 Sentra SER, five speed coupe, with the SR 20 DE engine. Therefore, if I ever want a car as simply a toy, I’ll just try to find another one. And as a kid, one of my dreams was to have a Sentra SER, and turbo charge it. Therefore, if I ever have the desire, I’ll just find another Sentra SER and turbo charge it.

    Also, I love shoes, yet I can never find a perfect shoe which fits all of my aesthetic preferences, as well as my functional preferences. The same thing with clothes, I’ve never discovered a perfect clothing item, besides the Outlier.nyc black merino wool T-shirt that was gifted to me from my friend Kevin and Justin.

    With devices, I consider the MacBook Air perfect, as well as the Ricoh GR 3 digital camera perfect. Yet, my ideal Ricoh GR camera would still have a flash.

    Therefore, when it comes to material or consumer things, never buy anything unless you discover that it is absolutely perfect in your own eyes. Whenever in doubt, even an ounce of doubt, just don’t buy it.

  • My critique of modern day schooling

    My critique of modern day schooling

    Now that I have a kid, my son Seneca, I think a lot about how I desire to raise him. Something I’ve been thinking about a lot about is schooling, particularly modern day schooling.

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  • Creative Fertility

    Creative Fertility

    How do we cure, or overcome our creative impotency?

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  • Meta Editing

    Meta Editing

    I have a concept called meta-editing — in which you publish a bunch of photos in a blog post, and then you review the blog post and you re-save the photos which pop out in your eye. Then you re-upload and re-publish it. It is like a recursive form of editing and filtering, and republishing.

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  • Creatism

    Creatism

    One thing I’ve discovered is that the notion of creativity is not a good one. Why? When people talk about creativity, what they really mean to say is creative ingenuity. Or another words, originality. When we call somebody creative, we mean to say that they are able to formulate novel ideas, and novel ways of saying the world.

    I have actually discovered that for myself, I Best learn through the act of creation. And for me, my greatest joy in life is creating.

    Therefore, I think we need a new word or a term: I call it creatorism. The general gist is the purpose and tell us of our life is to create. That a life focused on creation is the supreme life.

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  • Earth Goals

    Earth Goals

    One of the thoughts I had after reading the book Ready Player Two is this: what if there will be no earth death? What if in theory, humans can continue to inhabit planet earth for another billion years?

  • What do you desire to create?

    What do you desire to create?

    It seems nowadays the focus on life is wealth accumulation, novelty searching, purchasing and consumerism, fashion, or watching entertainment, traveling, etc.

    But, ultimately I think what we really desire is to create. To create things, to create products, to create ideas, etc.

    When you create, you take your soul energy force, and you impute it into an external manifestation of something else. And the more you create, the more you become.

    This is the magic of photography : every time you click the shutter, you create something.

  • How much coffee should you drink?

    How much coffee should you drink?

    After over a decade of being addicted to coffee, some quick thoughts:

    First of all, how much coffee should one drink? I say as much as you can tolerate, as long as it is before 12 o’clock noon. Absolutely in every condition, no coffee after 12 o’clock noon. Even if you’re tired, just take a nap. And even if you’re tired and something needs attending to, figure a way how to attend to it safely, while still taking a nap.

    Second, is life better with or without coffee? I can firmly say yes, it is better with coffee. Yet, coffee is only bad when you drink it when you’re tired. Ironically enough, it seems that the best time to drink coffee is when you actually feel good.

    When should you abstain from coffee, or at least detox from coffee? For me, I do my detox at randomly. I do not set a schedule. When my body does not feel well, I detox it for at least 24 hours. And during that detox, I make it a personal rule not to try to be productive at all, and the simple focus of my day is just to recover. And once again, do not forget: absolutely under no conditions, no coffee or caffeine intake or stimulants after 12 o’clock noon. This includes green tea, and cacao powder.

  • Review of Ready Player Two

    Review of Ready Player Two

    I just finished the book ready player two. Some quick thoughts:

    1. First of all, I found the imagination of Ernest cline to be great, extending the metaphor of virtual reality, by being able to completely use one’s mind with the.ONI files.
    2. To me, reading the book was good because it was very philosophical in nature. Being able to meander deeper into matrix analogies to real life.
    3. I found my personal favorite part of the book was the beginning half, with the world building. To be able to imagine and dream of what life would look like if you were a multi billionaire, and if you were in fact, the sole God like ruler of a digital universe. Very interesting to think, what happens when the underdog becomes the top dog? Or to quote the book itself, to think like two face and Batman: what do you do when you live long enough when you see the hero turned into the villain?
    4. The book also stimulated some of my own personal thinking, thinking about the philosophy of existence, the philosophy of experience, and the philosophy of the self.
    5. The parts of the book that I personally found very boring were the quests in order to achieve the seven shards. Honestly, if you skipped all of those parts, and only read the first half the book and the conclusion, I think you would be solid.
    6. New questions that the book has inspired me to think about: what is the purpose of embodied reality? What is the future of virtual reality? Also, what would you do in life if you had unlimited resources, money, power and influence?

    Despite some of my boredom of the book, I still think it is a two thumbs up from me. If you’re interested in the virtual reality philosophy the things, or digital things, my highly recommend a read.

  • Turn off your phone, and shut down your laptop

    Turn off your phone, and shut down your laptop

    A life experiment thought: in the evening, shut off your iPhone, and also, shut down your laptop. With iPhone, you have to do the strange sequence: up volume down volume and side button and literally shut your iPhone totally off. This will prevent you from having the temptation to check it or use it.

    With your laptop, do not just close the screen and put it into sleep mode. Instead, shut it down and power it off completely.

    In terms of timing, some ideas: turn off your phone in your laptop before dinner time, or after dinner time. Or assuming if you go to work and have to commute, the second you come home turn off your phone and your laptop. or, turn off your phone and laptop after you take your evening shower.

    But what if someone needs to contact you? C’est la vie.

    Why do this? At least for myself, I found that when I use any devices in the evening, whether it be my phone or my laptop, I get a headache. Also, I am quite certain that if my goal is to have an earlier bedtime, using any type of screen, no matter whether it is in night mode or not, is inimical to my goal.

    Also, in terms of my physiological well-being, I found the greatest predictor whether I’m going to have a good day or not is this: how early I slept. Or how early I got into bed.

    Now that we started sleep training baby Seneca, the earliest I’ve been successfully able to jump in to bed is around 9:30 PM. It probably took me an hour to of lying in bed before I actually fell asleep, but, this is better than me jumping in bed at 11 PM or midnight, not sleeping until one or 2 AM.

    I am very convinced: if your goal is to have maximal productivity in life, be insanely rigid and disciplined about not using any device in the evening. This will allow you to power down sooner, sleep better at night, and therefore have more power to conquer the next day. With almost 99% of things in life, it could wait until tomorrow.

  • Is it significant or not? Is the truth significant or not?

    One of the things I’ve learned from Cindy, and history as a discipline, is the notion of significance. Ultimately, with almost all matters, you could put it in a binary: is it significant or not significant? Or when you are trying to advance an argument, you must be clear what the significance of your statement is.

    And this is the big downside of all conspiracy theories: even if the conspiracy were true, would it be significant in your own real life? Most of the time no.

    For example, there are 1 billion conspiracy theories when it comes to politics, or global affairs. But, even if the conspiracy theories were true, would it actually change how you live your life? Most likely not. The only thing that really might affect you include your household indoor politics and economics, your neighborhood, and then maybe your local city. Let us also not forget the ancient Greek notion of economics, which literally means household management. In other words, the original notion of economics was not related to worldwide financial institutions, but literally how you conducted the affairs of your own house: how you manage your own personal affairs in your home, your slaves, your servants, your animals, your food, and your children, your maids, and your wife. Very interesting to note that at least to my understanding, the ancient Greek‘s did not have multiple wives, only one.

  • SHAPE THE CULTURE.

    SHAPE THE CULTURE.

    One of the things I am the most grateful for is having the opportunity for me to shape the culture of street photography, and photography in general. Also notions of Minimalism, zen, taoism, stoicism, and philosophy and photography.

    Therefore what I suggest to you is this: do not be a slave or a follower of the mainstream culture, but, you as an independent agent is the active one creating a new culture, or reshaping and reconfiguring the pre-existing culture.

  • AVOID THE TEMPTATION OF BUFFETS.

    AVOID THE TEMPTATION OF BUFFETS.

    Something I realized: in our basic human minds, we love the idea of a buffets. But in reality, buffets are not good. Why? For example, we like the idea of having unlimited options, but the downside of buffets are that most of the options are very mediocre.

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  • What *Should* It Do?

    What *Should* It Do?

    This is how and where philosophical thinking is very useful. Rather than how to do it, consider the deeper question —

    What should it do?

    What should social media or photography social media do? Or what should a car, clothes do?

    How should a parent raise their kids, and what should a child become?

    What should photographs or a blog do?

  • SELF PRIORITY

    SELF PRIORITY

    Optimize for you.

  • Maximal Movement

    Maximal Movement

    I must move! What is it that we biological human organisms desire? To move!

    What is my passion in life? To move. To move myself, to move weight, to move ideas, to move products, and to move people.

    In fact, when I think about it, the reason I hated my 95 job so much is that it restricted my movement. Being stuck in a cubicle preventing me from being out and about, walking. In fact, what I love the most about living in the city is my ability to walk around freely. To me the worst existence is to be stuck at home all day, regardless of how huge or nice my house might be. Or similarly speaking, to be forced to be stuck at the office all day.

  • Betting on Crypto

    Betting on Crypto

    To bet on crypto, Bitcoin etc is actually to bet for the demise of fiat currency. Thus when the traditional stock market is tanking, it is a very good sign for cryptocurrency.

  • THE PHOTOGRAPHER’S LIFE TASK.

    THE PHOTOGRAPHER’S LIFE TASK.

    A thought —

    While everyone wants to create a billion dollar company, or a billion dollar brand, etc … perhaps we should go back to some old-school notions.

    The original notion of this nomadic, world-witnessing photographer. A photographer whose life task is to witness as much of the world (planet earth), and photograph as much of human existence possible.

  • Anti Virtual Reality

    Anti Virtual Reality

    Beware who owns the platform. Even if he become the number one person in virtual reality, or the number one person on the oculus/meta-platform, you still don’t have full control. In theory, Facebook can just strip away all of your items, equipment, points, and virtual money. Who holds the keys?

    Also another unrelated note: even if you’re the richest person in China, because there is no notion of individual freedom and liberty, it doesn’t really matter. Overnight the government could just take all of your stuff, belongings, wealth and money without you having any say.

    Even though there are a lot of bad things about America, to me, the notion of individual liberty seems apex.

  • The Philosophy of Pleasure

    The Philosophy of Pleasure

    Many individuals think that the purpose of life is to maximize one’s pleasure. For example, maximizing your sexual pleasure, maximizing your aesthetic pleasure, maximizing your pleasure from possessions, things, food, and lifestyle.

    But, pleasure for the sake of pleasure isn’t the goal. One of the very interesting ideas I got from the book Ready Player Two is thinking —

    If you could indeed record your physiological state, and your pleasure, and have somebody else experience it, what is the purpose of pleasure in the first place?

    I think pleasure is best described as a feeling of ascending power. For example, when you make money, get more money, or see your investments go up, there is a certain feeling of pleasure, which is good because it feels as if we are becoming more strong and powerful.

    For myself, some of the greatest pleasure that I get is when I attempt a new one rep max, and I achieve a new personal record. And the funny thing is even if I fail my one reo max attempt, there is also a certain pleasure associated with me having the courage to attempt it in the first place. Also a sense of relief that after attempting a one rep max and even though I failed, I did not injure or hurt myself.

    Also, there’s a certain pleasure from thinking, or obtaining interesting ideas. Perhaps the ideas themselves are totems of power, knowledge, and ascendance.

    Ironically enough there is also a sense of pleasure associated with restraint, or abstinence. For example, when I see everybody else around me eating cake, and I decide to abstain, there is a certain pleasure that I have in knowing that I have this restraint, and self willpower, and also self knowledge knowing what food is bad for me. Also perhaps the feeling of pleasure from feeling superior.

    What we desire is not pleasure in itself, but, the feeling of ascendancy, growth, and becoming stronger and more powerful.

    Therefore, it is good that we humans can feel pleasure, but avoid getting suckered by the notion of pleasure for pleasure sake.

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  • Beautiful or ugly?

    Perhaps it is a good idea to set a binary to things: either it is beautiful, or ugly. No in between. This is a much more effective filter and approach to make more precise decisions in life.

  • STEADY IS BORING.

    STEADY IS BORING.

    If you have the option in life, do not opt for steady.

  • Impracticality is a Luxury

    Something I realize, the best flex in terms of outfit is to where all white everything, especially when going to a restaurant. Why? You signal that you are so rich that you can afford to dirty up your clothes. Compare this to workers, who were all black everything, in order to hide just in case they spill something on themselves.

    This is the funny irony, because I typically wear all black everything outfits, if I’m at a coffee shop or a restaurant, people often mistake me for being a worker.

    Therefore, white shoes and white pants are a luxury. Same thing goes with white couches, white seats in your car, etc. Why? Because it is so difficult to keep clean.

    If you frequently wear black clothing, you will know that it will quickly fade, and eventually turn purple. Apparently one of my friends told me that you could tell how rich New Yorkers are based on how black their clothing is. Why? Because the darker and more black their clothing, signals that their clothes are either brand new, or they have so many clothes, that they all seem brand new.

    I’ve also realized that black is a luxury, when it is so difficult to maintain and keep clean. For example, black cars. Someone told me that black is interesting as a car color, because 99% of the time it is a pain in the ass to keep clean, but when you wax and polish it nicely, it is the best looking color.

    My Takeaway point from all of this is that perhaps true luxury is a impracticality. The more practical something is, the less luxurious it is. The more impractical it is, the more luxurious it is.

    Therefore, just ask yourself: how much do you care for something to be luxurious or not? And also do you care for luxury or not?

    The irony of doing outdoorsy things

    One funny observation I’ve made is this: what is one activity that both the very poor and the very rich do? Hiking. Camping, doing things outdoors.

    When you’re very poor, doing things outdoors is the only thing you can afford to do. But when you’re very very rich, you also still like to do things outdoors for fun.

    For example, what is it that very rich and successful people in the Bay area like to do? Go on walks, hikes, go camping, go backpacking, buy Patagonia and Northface clothing, and go to REI. Even nowadays the trend of cars is to buy expensive cars in order to do more outdoorsy things.

  • OUR LIFE.

    OUR LIFE.

    Photos from the life of Seneca, ERIC, and Cindy:

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  • Man is the measure of all things

    Man is the measure of all things

    It is man which sets values on things, and all beauty goes back to man. Ultimately, all value is deeped in the social, in relationship to one another, with man being the judge.

    Therefore, the more that we could optimize and design around human beings, the better.

  • Hiking, Home, and Neighborhood Photos

    Hiking, Home, and Neighborhood Photos

    If you want motivation to make photos, just go on a hike. Or make photos at home, or go on a walk around your neighborhood.

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  • Walk More Investments

    Walk More Investments

    Anything you could invest in, which allows you to walk more in a given day is good.

    Minimalist shoes, hiking, mobile lifestyle. Living in a downtown city area. The luxury of not owning a car, and being able to walk everywhere, and even walk to buy groceries.

    In life, the best optimization to do is optimizing your lifestyle to walk more. The truly privileged person is the individual who can walk the most. Also, maybe it is better to brag about your daily step count, than your bank account or your possessions.

  • Luxury is All Comparison

    Luxury is All Comparison

    What is a Luxury, and what is not? Simple: everything is relative to another. What seems like a luxury today is because what we compared to the past. For example, fast and free Wi-Fi and high-speed Internet is a luxury, but we no longer consider it a luxury because it is so wide spread and ubiquitous.

    Having clean tapwater is a luxury, especially after spending a lot of time in Mexico City. Yet nowadays, we take it for granted. Same goes with stable electricity and power, as I observed in Beirut Lebanon also, the luxury of having trash pickups.

    One man’s luxury is another man’s normal.

  • Truly Unique?

    Truly Unique?

    Are you truly unique, or just a subtly different iteration of others around you?

    The best way to become more unique is creative isolation. turning a blind eye to social media, current events, news, and the concerns and desires of others. Also, caring less for the well-being of others. Also, not wasting your breath to criticize or critique others, but also, not wasting your breath to praise or admire others. “Nihil admirari” (admire no one). Only admire yourself.

  • Deep vs Shallow Vanity

    Deep vs Shallow Vanity

    In life, vanity is good, but only if the vanity is deep. Shallow and superficial vanity is a detractor and a distraction.

    For example, pride in one’s possessions is a very superficial form of vanity. A better source of vanity is the vanity you get from your artworks, your character, or your own personal innovations.

    Pride in your physical strength is a good thing. Also pride in your personal courage.

  • EASY.

    EASY.

    Make it easy and simple. Why? Things which are more easy to use or do will be used more. Easy things have greater utility.

    How do you make things easier? Make it simpler. Fewer options, make it more intuitive, and make it more automatic.

    Also, better interoperability. The reason why I really like Coinbase as a platform for buying, selling and trading crypto is because it is so easy. It automatically linked to my bank accounts super easy, buying and selling is easy, albeit there is a fee. I see Coinbase as the new PayPal but for cryptocurrency.

    Same goes with PayPal. The reason why I like to use PayPal for my workshops is it is so easy. Easy to accept payments, and send them. I think this is why people are like Venmo so much — it is the easiest way to send money to friends and family.

    So when it comes to design matters, strive to make it easier and simpler. The easier the better.

    For example, the best shoes are the ones easiest to take on and off.

    With cameras, the best cameras are the ones in which it is super easy to take pictures.

    No appliances. The best appliances are the ones that make it very easy to use. For example, the Nespresso machine is very easy. Or, the Ronco rotisserie chicken maker is just “set it and forget it.” Also nowadays, air fryers are becoming very popular because they are so easy to operate. I also like the ease of use of the instant pot, as well as the crockpot slow cooker.

    In terms of food, I found the easiest to cook and eat are eggs. Why? They are relatively cheap, stay fresh in the fridge for a very long time, and are very easy to cook and clean up. More recently, I really like frozen burger patties, as they are very easy to cook, eat, and clean up. I don’t even need to defrost the frozen burger patties, I can throw them straight on the grill and cook them until they defrost. or you could just air fry the frozen burger patties, set it for about 12 minutes, and just return later and eat it. Set it and forget it is great for cooking.

    With camera settings, P program mode is the easiest. And just use autofocus and auto ISO to keep things simple and easy.

    The cult of “hard”

    One thing I find very strange nowadays is this obsession with doing things which are hard and difficult. It seems that for a lot of people, they only pursue things which are hard, as a form of self flagellation. That their self worthiness is only dependent on how much pain they experience, and how much they suffer.

    Also, people who pride themselves too much on doing things manually is also a shallow form of vanity. For example, a lot of photographers like to brag or show off that they do everything manually, but, what is the most important is the image you create. The technical settings do not matter.

    There are also certain photographers like to brag how they process and develop their film and scan it all by themselves, as if using somebody else to do it is a form of “cheating” or less legitimate, or less worthy. Doing things which are easy is not cheating, it is smart.

    Also avoid things which seem more “optimal“, or things which are more “minimal“, but less easy to use. Some of the worst design compromises are when people create new products which are smaller, more minimal, and seem more advanced, but which are actually much more difficult to use.

    For example, the new iPhones. Are they easier to use, or more confusing and difficulties? I stay there are far more difficult to you, and therefore inferior.

    Also, a lot of more expensive or luxury products are just simply easier to use. For example, the Uppababy baby car seat and stroller is seen as more expensive and luxury, but in fact, I think it is worth it because it is just so easy to use.

    A Camera which lures a lot of photographers is the Leica M rangefinder camera. But it is not a good camera, as it is not easy to use. However, when you do set it to zone focus at f8-f16, use ISO 800-1600, and you could set it and forget it, it becomes very easy to use. Therefore, whenever possible, strive to use the simplest technique, approach, and settings possible.

    Avoid complicated for the sake of complicated, and avoid complex for the sake of seeming more intelligent. Simpler and stronger words, and simpler and stronger arguments.

  • BEYOND PERFECT

    BEYOND PERFECT

    Once you got perfect, then what?

    Our goal is we must go beyond perfection.

    Then focus on just play? Having fun!

    “Just have fun with it”

    Also just don’t take things too seriously.

    No more need or desire to optimize things. Rather, “unoptimal” is better and our new luxury.

    Also, art. Art does not need to have a functional purpose, nor should it. The notion of perfect art is a non-concept. Thus, creating any art which delights us is our new luxury. also, the notion of perfect art is a non-concept. Thus, creating any art which delights us is our new luxury. Nonperfect art.

    Also in praise of fashion. There is no such thing as a perfect person and it always goes in waves.

  • The Desire to Consume More

    The Desire to Consume More

    Not hunger but the desire to consume more is the motivator.

  • Life After Perfect Satisfaction?

    Life After Perfect Satisfaction?

    Once you’re perfectly satisfied, then what?

    Or once you got everything perfect, then what?

  • FILL THE VACUUM.

    FILL THE VACUUM.

    Not “does the world need it”, but “do you need it”, or do I need it?

    And if you care badly enough, be the one to make and create it.

  • HOW TO THRIVE

    HOW TO THRIVE

    Something that I am actually very personally curious about, in which I do really care for, is figuring out how that we could maximally thrive.

    What does it mean to thrive? For us to have the maximum peak health and motivation, the maximum strength, the maximum uplifted mood, and energy, and the best gratitude towards life. And hopefully channel this great healthiness for your artistic, philosophical, and personal ends.

    Some quick thoughts:

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  • What Interests You?

    What Interests You?

    What actually interests you, and why?

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  • How Much Buffer is Enough Buffer?

    How Much Buffer is Enough Buffer?

    A thought on my mind:

    When it comes to finances, time, design, etc … how much buffer is enough buffer?

    For example, with liquid cash (USD in your checking or savings account) — how much is enough?

    For example, it seems wise to get to the airport early. People say get to the airport at least an hour early for domestic flights, at least 2 hours for international flights. But for myself, I add at least an hour of buffer for each — 2 hours early for domestic flights (even though I got TSA pre-check), and at least 3 hours for international flights (also, we don’t check in luggage or baggage — only carry on). And the upside is that I actually like hanging out at airports — so I am able to get the upside of both. But a big lesson:

    When in doubt, spend extra money to *NOT* have to go on that early-morning flight.

    I prefer flights in the afternoon, so I don’t need to sacrifice my sleep in order to get to the airport early.

    Back to the financial buffer thing

    A simple thought:

    If you don’t think you got enough financial buffer, you probably don’t.

    And also with finances, when in doubt, add more buffer. Because having additional cash lying around can be a very good thing, for example, when Bitcoin dips you can buy more at a discount.

  • Why black is a luxury

    Why black is a luxury

    Because black is so impractical.

  • WE ARE ALWAYS IN MOTION.

    WE ARE ALWAYS IN MOTION.

    We are always in motion, even when sleeping, resting or napping. Why? Our bodily chemicals are always moving. And our body actively is rebuilding while we sleep and rest. To sleep much is also a virtue in body building, muscle building, strength building.

    What is death? When our bodies no longer move — either internally or externally. No more breathing.

    Source—

    Plato, Theaeet. 160d .
    Homer, and Herakleitos, and the whole company which say that all things are in motion and in a state of flux. Cf. 152 D. H.
    Plato Kratylos, 401d.According to Herakleitos all things are in motion and nothing abides.Cf. 402a, and frag. 41; also 412d, 440c.

  • Future Palette

    White, translucent, hyper orange.

  • Perfect Equipment

    Perfect Equipment

    1. For camera, RICOH GR III.
    2. For laptop, maxed out MacBook Air space grey
    3. For phone, the newest iPhone Mini
    4. For mirrorless strap, HENRI NECK STRAP MARK IV in PHANTOM BLACK. For Ricoh GR, ERIC KIM NECK STRAP MARK II.
    5. For wallet, ERIC KIM WALLET
  • The Perfect Outfit

    The Perfect Outfit

    After much experimentation, I think I’ve discovered the perfect outfit:

    1. For T-shirt, black merino wool Outlier.nyc shirt model 1.
    2. For shoes, all black Nike free 5.0. No socks.
    3. For leggings, black Uniqlo heattech leggings. For shorts, black Uniqlo ultra stretch athletic shorts.
    4. For boxers, ex officio black boxer briefs.
    5. For glasses, Lindberg. Titanium for maximum lightness. In black.
    6. No watch. Neither Kanye West nor Elon musk wears a watch. In an interview Elon Musk said he doesn’t wear a watch, if he needs to check the time he just checks his phone. Apple Watch, no matter the model is bad because it will become outdated, and you need to charge it. If you do really really want to watch for aesthetics, just get a Rolex.

    All clothes in size medium.

  • YOU KNOW BEST.

    Never outsource your decision making to anyone else.

  • INTERNAL VS EXTERNAL ADRENALINE

    INTERNAL VS EXTERNAL ADRENALINE

    Better to produce your own adrenaline internally, then getting it secondhand or elsewhere.

    For example, in the world in which we got porn, and even virtual reality porn, POV porn, etc., what is the purpose of pursuing women in real life? I say it is a matter of hormone secretion, receiving the hormone signals from the woman, and the difficulty in drama between you and the woman. Because if you are watching videos or images of a woman on a computer, and it is all already pre-recorded, there is actually no interaction between you and the woman. Whereas in real life, if you try to stare or make eye contact with a beautiful woman, there is the risk that she will notice you doing so.

    I think this is the real joy of “pick up artists, etc — The joy of the difficulty in challenge of charming a woman and exercising ones personal charm and prowess, rather than the actual sexual act. Imagine an alternative approach in which the goal wasn’t actually to bed somebody, but, the joy of just the social interaction.

    Passive versus active adrenaline

    I always thought it to be a bit bizarre how so many people are into sports. But this is what I’ve realized: The reason why people love sports so much is that you put yourself in the shoes of the athlete, and you think you are the athlete, dominating the competition.

    And when we witness this, we get a huge boost of adrenaline, and uplifting hormones, which we get secondhand from watching the athlete.

    But, this is all passive. Isn’t it better for you to just play the sport yourself?

  • Leisure > Luxury

    Leisure > Luxury

    What is the best life like? A life of leisure. A life in which you have maximum mind space, as few distractions as possible, and supreme focus.

    Also, I’ve discovered that you need lots of lots of leisure, and lots of lots of mindspace, and lots of free and undistracted time, in order to have interesting thoughts. I think this is why true philosophers of the past needed abundant leisure in order to come up with interesting thoughts, or even have the mindspace to ruminate on thoughts, reflect, meditate, and then write and share their ideas.

    Much of modern society and living our distractions, “the siren of luxury”. But, what we really seek is leisure, not luxury.

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  • SOLO STACK.

    SOLO STACK.

    The solo stack, the solo solution. This means only pursue things that you can do by yourself, things that you could do solo. Being able to do things and create things without needing the skills and expertise of others.

  • New Parent Lessons

    New Parent Lessons

    Lessons I’ve learned on becoming a new parent:

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  • Questions Over Answers

    Questions Over Answers

    What drives my personal curiosity is not finding answers, but having certain interesting questions to mull over.

    What is philosophy anyways? To me, it is about challenging conventions, and wondering why things are the way they are, or trying to challenge the purpose of things.

  • Virtuous Ways to Use Your Phone

    Virtuous Ways to Use Your Phone

    My thought:

    Rather than bemoaning everyone is always on their phone, isn’t it better to just discover new and more virtuous ways to use your phone?

    Simple ideas:

    1. Blog and write from your phone. IA WRITER and WordPress app. Or just directly blog from your phone using the Safari web browser.
    2. Use Apple photos to review and select your photos. Nowadays what I’ve been doing is using my MacBook laptop to import my Ricoh GR III JPEG images, and when it is all sync on iCloud, I could also flag select and filter my photos from the Photos app on my phone.
    3. Use Zen Brush 2 app on iPhone to make calligraphy on the go.
    4. Use Procreate app on the iPhone to make abstract images, or to glitch and edit your photos.
    5. Read books, e-books an EPUB format with the built-in books app on the iPhone. Honestly, the Books app on iPhone is one quadrillion times better than the Google play equivalent. For me this is enough to justify never buying another android phone ever again, and only sticking to iPhone.
    6. Use voice dictate, and Siri voice dictate to take out notes. Also, nowadays a lot of my blogging is just done through my voice.
  • What Does Humanity Want?

    What Does Humanity Want?

    What’s the purpose of humanity — for what? Wherefore? Towards what end?

    Silicon Valley says—

    Let us all get on a spaceship and ditch this dying earth! To Mars and beyond!

    The socialists and Christian say: “let us end suffering on planet earth! No more pain and suffering for anybody!”

    The utilitarians say: “let us make everybody equal on planet earth! Let us create a society in which nobody needs to work or labor or toil anymore, in order for all of us to pursue our own creative and artistic ends!”

    My practical thought is this: don’t concern yourself too much with “humanity“. Rather, focus on your solo self.

  • As Minimal as Possible (AMAP)

    As Minimal as Possible (AMAP)

    With design and life matters, strive to make it as simple and minimal as possible.

  • THE WORLD IS FINE.

    THE WORLD IS FINE.

    What if the world doesn’t need “saving”? Then what?

  • MOBILE IS THE FUTURE.

    MOBILE IS THE FUTURE.

    Mobile computers (phones), more walking (30,000 steps a day challenge), mobile website design, mobile apps, mobile platforms, mobile living (mobile homes, the new “overlander” movement), hiking, travel, nomadic living, etc.

  • True Motivation

    True Motivation

    Let personal curiosity, personal enthusiasm and fun and play drive and motivate you. Not money, “success”, etc.

  • I don’t like waiting for the future

    Then the two options emerge: channel your impatience into a virtue, and if you don’t like waiting for the future, create it.

  • Things that go up in value

    Things that go up in value

    What if in the future, maybe 30 years from now, you could buy a house with just one bitcoin?

    For example, the number of bitcoin you own might not change, but, the value of each individual bitcoin will go up. Especially, as the public slowly but surely will lose faith in Fiat currency.

  • EK.

    EK.

    EK EK EK EK EK
    I can do this all day day
    Walking with the thoughts, I got a verbal AK
    I spray and shower, don’t count hours or days or care to amaze.

    I stay focused on myself- my self passion, my life. My kid and my wife.

  • The Independent Ego

    The Independent Ego

    Why impress others?

    It gives us a power boost, or self esteem boost. The ego which feeds itself based on the feedback and reactions of others.

    But what if you no longer care to impress others? Is it possible for a certain ego to feed on itself, without needing to recourse to impress others? Or in other words, is it possible to increase your ego, in isolation? I think so. As long as you have access to the Internet, and can publish your thoughts and artwork.