Always challenge the Why? of something.

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A Hidden bias I’ve discovered within photographers is this: it is often said that if you shoot a photo of somebody else’s artwork, it is a very little artistic worth. For example, let us say that you’re walking around the San Francisco mission district and you see a piece of street art that you love. You photograph it. But inherent in that, you have identified something that you found worthy to be photographed, you select the exposure of the photo, and you decide whether to shoot it in black-and-white. This is all a creative act.

Now , there is certainly a hierarchy of things. I actually do think that there are certain things that we do which are more creatively innovative than other things. But, ask yourself whether you’re aiming for originality, or just having fun and being creative for the sake of being creative.

In photography, in order to make more powerful and enigmatic and interesting photos, best to show less. For example when you’re framing, don’t show the whole story, just show one portion that you find the most interesting. Let the imagination of the viewer do the rest.

Right now, everyone wants to become YouTube famous, or Instagram famous, or now even TikTok famous. But, if you use any of these platforms, you become a digital indentured servant. It is called digital sharecropping, which is, you build your land and platform on someone else’s land, thinking it is yours, but in actuality, it is not. You have no control. And even if you become the richest person on YouTube, you’re still a slave to YouTube-Google. Even if you’re the number one most followed person on Instagram, you’re still a slave to Facebook.

TikTok seems to be the new up-and-coming competitor, yet the reason why we should be very suspicious and wory of TikTok is that ultimately it belongs to a Chinese corporation.

Soft censorship

The thing that is interesting about social media is that they do not overtly sensor you, rather, they only low-key and soft sensor you. For example, if you say something which is controversial or anti-the terms and conditions of the given platform, they will either not show it in the newsfeeds of your followers, reduce the ranking, or maybe get rid of it all together. A lot of people in Internet rally that certain corporations are tyrant centers, but they also fail to realize that in fact, in America corporations are not bound by free-speech. Conceptually and legally in America, we are given the right to free speech. But, if you use Instagram Twitter Facebook YouTube or any other platform, these are not government platforms.

Even a tangentially related notion is that regarding Tesla, and Tesla vehicles. I’m not 100% sure about the terms and conditions of Tesla vehicles, but technically you do not really 100% own your car. I believe legally, you are not allowed to hack or modify the firmware, and also even if you purchased the auto pilot self driving feature, it is under the terms and conditions of Tesla.

You control the platform

If you pay for your own website hosting, and if you use an open source platform like wordpress.org, you own the platform, and you own yourself. Just like Jay Z said, until you own yourself you can’t be free, until you own yourself you can’t be me.

Why become an owner, and why own things?

When it comes to publishing your artwork or thoughts, this is what I have learned: if you do it on any social media platform, it will ultimately ruin and harm you. How? It seems that essentially all social media platforms are predicated on metrics. Likes, comments, views, chairs, etc. Therefore, if you start to become trained to think that the worthiness of your artwork or thoughts is predicated on these metrics. And also, slowly but surely overtime, you start to only create and share things which will placate to a popular audience, or to your followers.

And we all know that popular is bad. If popularity was the most important thing in the world, then McDonald’s the best “restaurant”, Starbucks would serve the best coffee, Netflix would have the best cinema, Facebook would be the best publishing platform, and a Toyota Corolla would be the best car. Also, that smoking is good, drinking Coca-Cola is good, and sugar is good.

Why blogging is great

I still think that blog is very underrated. Because if you have a thought, opinion, photo or video, audio, or artwork, they can be represented in a digital way, the blog is the ultimate publishing and sharing platform. To publish something is essentially free and instantaneous, can be edited at any time, and you could combine any amount of media on your blog or in a given blog post.

Also, hyperlinking. The ability to link within your own website, and to link to outside websites, this is essentially the foundation of the Internet.

The difference between an aspirational reality, and that lived reality this: the aspirational lifestyle is what we desire to do, or how we desire to structure our days in our lives. The lived reality is based on your experience.

For example, aspirationally we like the notion of black cars, and black phones and black devices, and black clothes. But if you live in hot and sunny Southern California, or any other hot weather city you will quickly discover that black is very bad. A black car is the worst type of color if you live in Southern California, as you literally spend 90% of your day cleaning your car, waxing your car, and also blasting your AC to keep your interior cool. Also, the downside of a black car in Southern California is longevity. Paint of black cars simply don’t last. Even if you get a matte black wrap on your car, it might only last three years tops.

Even something subtle I’ve discovered is that living in Southern California, and when it’s really hot and sunny outside, if you own a black phone, it overheats very easily. When the phone is too hot, it automatically makes the screen much more dim, to prevent the phone from overheating. If you live in Southern California, buying a white iPhone is much more smart. Also, if you live in Southern California do not buy a dark car. The best car color for Southern California is either white, yellow, and if you want something more edgy, go for red.

Avoid dreams, or fantasies.

In America, we are taught that having a dream is a good thing. The dream job, the dream lifestyle, the dream girlfriend or wife, the dream car, the dream everything. Even Martin Luther King Jr. said I had a dream. But is having a dream such a good thing?

If you think about it, dreams are not real. When you sleep, you have a dream which is not rooted in reality. I say better than dreams is challenges. Because a lot of peoples dreams are materialistic and consumptive dreams. But the true order of things is to do, create, be active, and change and accomplish things. Therefore, if you set certain challenges for yourself, you actually have the opportunity to use your strength and ingenuity to attempt to achieve these challenges. And once you’re done with the challenge, make an even greater one.

For example, if you’re somebody who is always out and about, maybe it does make sense for you to spend a lot of money on your phone. But if you’re mostly homebound, don’t waste your money on the phone, especially if you don’t even use your phone to make phone calls much.

Also, I thought: now that I spend so much time outdoors, walking 30,000 steps a day, to me it actually makes sense for me to optimize the design for my website to be mobile first. Why is that? Because now, I am mobile first. Nowadays, I think I spend less than 30 minutes a day in front of my laptop.

If you’re at home all day, or working from home, you probably don’t need a laptop anymore. Just get a Mac mini.

First thing about your life, and your lifestyle, and then the products after the fact.

In America, and I suppose elsewhere in the world, products are an aspirational thing. That is, we want to buy the all-wheel-drive Subaru in order to do more hiking and camping and nature stuff.

Similarly speaking, we want or we think we want to buy a certain camera in order to do more photography, which is our passion.

Similarly speaking, the Lamborghini is also an aspirational thing, as we think that by buying the Lamborghini it will make us cooler, sexier, more powerful, more confident, and more egocentric.

Same goes with Apple products: we think that by buying the newest iPhone, or the newest apple something will make us more technologically suave, more current, more modern, more productive, more efficient, and happier.

With Tesla, we think that buying the Tesla will make us more superior, more futuristic, and also make our lives more efficient, and proud.

The best advice for new parents, or parents to be

Funny enough, the best advice I got about becoming a new parent is this: choose a password for your computer that you could type with one hand. My personal takeaway is this: get a phone that you could use with one hand easily, and also with your less dominant hand. In other words, no matter how good the iPhone pro may be, only buy an iPhone mini.

What is this? In lived reality, when you have a kid, you are typically holding the kid with one arm, and doing something else with other arm. For example, holding the baby with one arm, and using your other hand to warm up the bottle, or holding the baby with one arm, and using the other arm to open and close doors. Therefore the simple take away is this: we should optimize for one handed design. That is, being able to easily use your iPhone with one hand.

The genius of Steve Jobs was that at least with the original iPhone 4s, which is probably the last iPhone that he guided, he made the point that one should be able to reach every single corner of the screen with just their thumb. Even when the original iPhone 5 came out, there was a huge hubbub, because honestly, the only reason they made the iPhone 5 a little bit taller, was to add a few inches of screen to their marketing materials, which was in order to drive more iPhone sales, rather than considering whether it was actually the right design choice.

Even nowadays, the drive for the iPhone to keep getting bigger and bigger is a bad one. It is a slavish imitation of Apple copying Samsung phones, the whole “phablet” notion, in order to get more people to upgrade and buy the newest iPhone.

Your actual lifestyle versus your aspirational lifestyle

Much things in life are aspirational. That is, we desire to become something or become someone, and we desire to purchase certain products in order to become more of that thing.

Therefore, perhaps the wisest thing we can do is this: clearly identify what we are, what our current lived reality is, and whether we actually do want to live a different style of life, or mode of living.

Assuming life is a stream of becoming, then the best question to ask yourself is this: “What or whom do I desire to become?“

Certainly, you don’t want to become anyone else but yourself. And even if you wanted to, you physically cannot become anyone else but yourself.

I think it is good to have role models, and heroes. Yet, they should only serve as motivation and stimulus to you, for you to become more of yourself.

No the question is, what does it mean to become yourself? I say it is to identify your strengths, your Archimedes lever in life, and best maximize your energy and strength to exploit that. Also, to become less distracted and more focused. To become stronger, both physiologically (muscular strength) and mental strength (willpower).

And, it isn’t a matter of becoming rich or famous, or influential. Because even if you become a billionaire, you’re still you. The better question is asking yourself how do you want to build your body, your mind, and what kind of art do desire to create?

It isn’t pleasure seeking, or novelty seeking, or material gathering that we think is the goal. Even if you became a billionaire and bought every single exotic sports car on the planet, enjoyed every single sexual pleasure, and traveled everywhere in the world, you would probably bore quickly. Then your next true task in life is self development. And sharing your insights with others.

Filters are good.

For example, photo filters are good. To shoot without a filter and digital seems a bit silly.

Email filters are good. You only want to filter the most important information of signal to you, while filtering out the noise and spam.

Also if you think about it, all the photos that we make are our filter of our reality. We don’t photograph everything we see. We only photograph that which is filtered through our perception, and what we perceive is interesting.

Without a coffee filter, we would not be able to drink our delicious coffee.

Therefore I suppose the practical takeaway is this: filter wisely.

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Pain is good. Why? When you experience pain, it is your body telling you what not to do. A body that cannot feel pain would probably lead to death, or severely adverse health consequences.

Therefore as a practical note, don’t take painkillers. I haven’t taken a single painkiller in almost 8 years, why? I want the memory of the pain to embed itself into my memory, as if an instructor told me exactly what I shouldn’t do.

Same goes when I’ve had experiences of extreme stomach pain, from either eating spoiled food, or eating at unsavory places. This is what my pain has taught me— when it comes to food and beverages, when in doubt, throw it out.

Or similar experiences, the pain of sleep deprivision or sleeping poorly. This pain has taught me then saying importance of sleep. That sleep is 1 trillion times more important than any ounce of additional productivity I might be able to squeeze out. Thus, no more coffee after 12:00 noon. Also, in the evenings no exposures to screens, and also another note, don’t watch any movies or read books, as it often messes with your sleep and dreams.

Upload it, then delete it.

I use the ‘Downloads’ folder of my Mac Laptop as my ‘scratch drive’– in which every day, I have my working files there, and at the end of the day or night, I delete them. Same goes with my Desktop (where my screenshots on my laptop are automatically saved) — once I am done, I delete them.

What to do with files you’re not sure what to do with? Just upload them to you WordPress media blog, then delete them.

And when really in doubt, just delete it.

It is currently the year 2022– it is insane, we are living in the superfuture. But what do we want out of this uber futuristic current reality, and the future ahead of us?

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Just Use And Repurpose What You Already Got

Rather than buying something new — better to simply use what you already got at home (Cindy and I call this “home shopping”), and repurpose it, or rediscover it?

For example, instead of buying new clothes or new outfit, maybe it’s better for you to just dig into your closet and just wear something that you haven’t worn in a while. Also, even to use the clothes you already got, but to reconfigure it in new ways, or to match your outfit and unique combination is in itself a new outfit.

Rather than buying the newest iPhone, or any new device, maybe better to just uninstall superfluous apps from your phone to make it run faster, or just figure out new ways to use it in new creative ways? Or better yet, maybe it’s best for you to just use your phone less?

Maybe instead of buying a new car, best figure out how to modify and customize what you already got. Maybe it is more interesting to refurbish your old car, add new paint or a wrap, get new rims, or even figure out ways to shave off the emblems or superfluous elements from it? Even more clever, figure out ways to walk more, and drive less?

Maybe instead of buying new headphones, maybe it’s better to go more ghetto and just play music off the speaker on your phone? On your laptop? Or just listen to new music? Or actually listen to less music, and enjoy more peace and silence instead?

Maybe instead of buying a new house, moving into a new apartment, or remodeling or refurbishing your home, better to just go on more adventures outside of the house instead?

I forget who said it, but studying history as a good way to avoid mistakes in the present and future. Avoid the follies of the past.

In order to become a better photographer, think less. If you see something which interests you, instinctually photograph it without thinking. Do not think of the consequences, whether you might make somebody upset, or how you might be perceived.

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Similarly speaking, health isn’t the opposite of sickness.

A turbo thought while embarking on my arbitrary 30,000 steps a day challenge: perhaps it is better to have a challenge, rather than a goal. What is the difference? The purpose of a challenge is not necessarily to hit it. Rather, a challenge is a certain testing of your will and your strength, and for filling a personal curiosity, whether it is possible for you or not.

To become growth focused means, will this thing you do cause you to grow or not? Perhaps then optimizing for growth is a good one.

For example, growing your muscles, growing your mind, growing your endurance, and growing your impact.

How does one become stronger? Perhaps we need to become more cold and callous, especially when it comes to those around us, and the world around us. For us to become more self focused, and avoiding the trap of thinking of doing “good“. Because often when we try to do “good“, we actually end up doing more harm than good.

Why experience ? The philosophy of experience — experience as a means to philosophy ideas?

Why share your experiences?

The photographer as somebody who share their experiences via photos? Also the vlogger is also somebody who shares their life experiences, but with video.

Perhaps the best style of living is in which you do not see a clear demarcation between indoors and outdoors. Maybe the future designs of homes will be more Japanese or Korean; meaning, they let in the natural elements outside indoors. More glass, less separation between outdoors and indoors, more exposure to natural light and natural foliage. Easy access to walk indoors and outdoors. No concern about locking doors.

More open windows, less clear demarcations between public and private life. A blending of public and private.

One of the best ideas I’ve gotten from the philosopher Nassim Taleb is the notion of via negativa. That, in order to improve things, best to subtract things.

This agrees a lot with my thoughts on minimalism and photography. that is, in order to become a better photographer, and a more focused and productive photographer, figure out what to get rid of, rather than what to add.

For example, the less camera gear you own the better. With composition the fewer distractions in your photo the better. Also monochrome photography is good because it subtracts color.

Editing down your portfolio

Typically speaking, the fewer photos you show the better. For example, if you meet other photographers, better to show them your best number one photo, than 10 above average photos.

Or, on your portfolio website, just show your top five photos. I like the number five because it is the number of digits in your hand. Also, it is easy to remember five images, difficult to remember any more. Even with the most famous photographer of all time, Henri Cartier Bresson, his most famous images are only about three.

What to subtract?

What else can we subtract when it comes to photography? Or what are some other creative constraints we could add to our photography? Some thoughts:

1. The zen of one camera, one lens
2. Restricting yourself to one focal length
3. Restricting yourself to only your blog, deleting and getting rid of social media
4. Subtracting color from your photos, only shooting black-and-white
5. Not using raw, only JPEG
6. Subtract your subscription services. For example, cancel your adobe subscription, and just use Apple photos instead. Also if you want to use Photoshop or indesign, just buy affinity designer and affinity publisher on your Mac. For myself, I am anti-subscription model. I like the idea that I could just pay a premium price, and just own it forever.
7. Via negativa location: this means, get rid of the desire to be anywhere else then you are currently. That is, imagine if you could never drive, or travel anywhere else besides the 2 mile radius of your own home. If that were the fact, how could you maximize it for yourself, in terms of making photos?
8. Anti-print: another thought, what if you could only publish your photos digitally? That means, only on your own website, blog, or as a PDF e-book? How could this thought liberate you?
9. What if for a whole year, you did not allow yourself to acquire any new camera equipment? If that were the fact, how could you maximize the camera are you currently own?
10. Anti film? While I do believe there to be many virtues of film photography, I also think that it holds back a lot of photographers back. It seems that a lot of photographers who seek a certain look or legitimacy shoot film. And it also becomes kind of a cult, which is, when you have a preference for film photography, you almost see digital photography as less legitimate, and the devil. Personally speaking, I’ve made the biggest strides in my photography re-accepting digital photography as my preferred medium. Digital is at least 1 trillion times cheaper than film photography, 1 trillion times faster to process, and publish. Shooting digital photography is like driving a Tesla model S plaid, and shooting film is like driving an old Toyota Tercel. Also, philosophically speaking, better to be future oriented than retrospective. Film photography and romanticism says that the best which has ever existed was in the past, and can never be superseded. The philosophy of futurism and growth is the opposite: the best is yet to come, which is a great and optimistic thought for me.

BOOKS

1. Zen photography PDF
2. Monochrome manual PDF

More books

HAPTIC PHOTO SUPPLY CO

Achieve your personal maximum in photography:

1. Henri Neck Strap MARK IV
2. ERIC KIM NECK STRAP MARK II

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What I’m doing

1. Reading ready player 2 ebook
2. Walking 30,000 steps a day
3. Thinking about embodied reality vs virtual reality

All thoughts

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Minimalism photo challenge

Your photography challenge is minimalism. Strive to make the most minimist photos possible, and upload it to arsbeta.com for feedback

If you want to share minimalist thoughts with your friends, feel free to forward this to them!

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ERIC KIM NEWS LINK

Some personal philosophical meanderings: what is the point of embodied reality, and why embodied reality when we got the internet, the metaverse, virtual reality and online things?

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By photographing it, you own it?

The other day I saw a brand new red Porsche GT 3 in a parking lot, and enthralled by design, I showed a bunch of pictures of it. And this is a funny thought: maybe instead of owning things, there’s actually much more effective to just photograph it. Why? Because ownership is a mindset. If you own it in your mind, it is almost like owning it in real life. Also, much more effective.

What is the meta-verse anyways? The meta-verse is just your mind and imagination. Ideally, I would not own anything in real life. I would almost desire a Diablo 2 horodric cube to store all my possessions, so it does not take up any space or real estate in embodied reality.

Wealth is a mindset

Something else I’ve discovered: the reason why I like to own bitcoin, is that it makes me feel wealthy. Knowing that I have bitcoin in the back my head gives me a hidden confidence boost, and a feeling of wealth and riches. And what is the benefit of feeling rich and wealthy anyways? Fewer distractions, an improved focus and confidence in your creative pursuits.

Also, the upside of feeling abundance is you know what you really care for, and what you don’t care for. If you know that you no longer need to make money, what do you decide to do with your time in your life is actually a reflection of what your truly passionate about. And isn’t this the greatest life possible?

A thought about design: assuming that black-and-white photography is our passion, when it comes to design, technically anything we photograph will only render as either black or white. Therefore, maybe the idea then is when it comes to purchasing things in real life, assume that it will only render as either black or white.

For example, let us say that you buy that brand new hyper sports car, maybe the best is to buy a white car with black accents, with maximum contrast which will show up in the photograph. Because if you buy a red car, and you shoot black-and-wife photos, you will not be able to see the red in your photographs. Therefore, if you buy a brand new Porsche GT 3, or even a brand new Lamborghini, maybe it is actually best to buy it in white, with as many black accessories as possible.

The downside of buying a car which is all black is that you don’t see any of the design subtleties, and you cannot actually see much of a silhouette.

Also, maybe when it comes to fashion, the best fashion design is actually both black and white. Not all black everything. For example, if you desire to wear a black shirt and black pants, may be best to wear white shoes to show off the contrast. Or have black shoes with white stripes. Or another thought is if you wear a black shirt, wear white pants.

Add more white to your life

It seems that nowadays black is the dominant color. But, do you remember how revolutionary Apple was when it first made the white iPod, and the white headphones? Even today, Apple only makes its AirPods in all white. In the all white design for the AirPods is great, as you could see the black accent marks.

Matte white is the Future?

It seems that matte black is a bit played out, that means, everyone has already done it. Much more innovative to do matte white.

Then perhaps, your next Apple device should be white. Also I’ve discovered the downside of owning a black iPhone is that it gets really hot, especially in Southern California summertime. If you own a white iPhone, it stays much more cool, therefore perhaps it has better battery life. Also, if you think about it, the silver aluminum of a MacBook laptop is more pure than a space gray one. Why? Space gray is simply a coating applied to the aluminum, whereas the aluminum is actually the pure substance. In Japanese aesthetics, they call this honesty of materials. For example, if something is plastic, don’t try to make it look like fake wood. If something is wood, don’t paint over it and make it look like something else.

What is the mindset of the entrepreneur? And what is an entrepreneurial mindset? Some thoughts:

1. Can I build it and design it myself? Rather than buying it, we have much more pride in building it, and designing it ourselves.
2. It doesn’t matter that much to be unique or different, the more important question is whether we are passionate about it or not. For example, since high school and college, when I discovered that photography was my passion, I like the idea that maybe I could make photography my living. However, I actually did not think it was possible. Therefore the pragmatist in me strove towards marketing instead, which I knew would be much more secure as a profession. There has been many photographers who have come before me, yet I was able to pay my own unique way, combining my interests and expertise in sociology, marketing, social media, blogging, education, and the Internet. Therefore, my desire to be a photographer was not unique, but it was my passion. No need to be different.
3. Producer mindset over consumer mindset: are supreme joy isn’t producing and creating, rather than buying it. I call this producerism.

What or who is your target demographic? You. Yourself. Other people who think like you, or are similar to you.

For example, when it comes to design matters, design for yourself. That means, design things in a way that you consider beautiful. Also, when it comes to entrepreneurial matters, create products and services which you wish you could’ve had in the past. Think about your own desires, wants, needs, and thoughts, and cater to yourself, and other people like you.

We are not so different after all

Too much focus on trying to be unique is counterproductive. I think once I realized that I am actually much more similar than dissimilar to most people, it has actually liberated me. I realize that I am not too different from the average American, yet it is the subtle differences which makes me different.

Therefore the simple take away point is this: just pursue your own personal interests and share them with others, as it is highly likely for there to be other people like you.

Entrepreneurship by KIM

Become the change which you desire to see manifested in the world!

Become you.

1. Ambition Over Happiness
2. Anti Collaboration
3. The Will to Economy
4. Why New?
5. CHOOSE ADRENALINE.
6. No Looking Back.
7. 1000x Different
8. BECOME SPENDTHRIFT
9. THE BENEFIT OF JUST ONE.
10. EXTREME INNOVATION.
11. Practicality is Boring
12. BECOME YOUR OWN STANDARD.
13. NEVER STOP ITERATING.
14. CONDENSE.
15. Take Lots of Small Financial Risks
16. Control Over Convenience
17. Why Are Chinese Companies So Innovative?
18. INSANELY DIFFERENT.
19. Why Doesn’t Anything Ever Satisfy Me?
20. THE GREAT PASSION.
21. Perhaps Dissatisfaction is Good
22. ONE REP MAX.
23. WHAT DO YOU *REALLY* WANT IN LIFE?
24. LIFE IS ABOUT STRIVING FOR MORE.
25. NEVER STOP LINKING.
26. THE GREATEST.
27. WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!
28. THE BEST IS YET TO COME.
29. ERIC KIM CRITIQUE OF ROMANTICISM
30. COMPLACENCY.
31. JUST BUY IT.
32. ALL ABOUT YOU.
33. MOVE THE WORLD
34. Boring or Not Boring?
35. What if Your Past Self were Inferior to Your Present Self?
36. THE PHILOSOPHY OF PROGRESS
37. CULTURE IS YOUR ENEMY.
38. Difficulty & Interest
39. The Will to Expansion
40. What is Work?
41. SOUL IN THE GAME.
42. JUST START IT.
43. Not Boring
44. PRIDE IN YOUR OWN NAME / BRAND
45. AS MUCH AS YOU CAN TOLERATE.
46. Speed is Paramount
47. TAKE IT BACK TO THE BEGINNING.
48. A Life With No Risk Taking is *NOT* a Life Worth Living
49. Dissatisfaction is Good
50. GREATER STRENGTH, GREATER CHALLENGES.
51. In Praise of the New
52. Uncorrupted Desires
53. You Cannot Fake Passion
54. SELF-OVERGOING
55. FORM YOURSELF.
56. Personal Entrepreneurship
57. RELENTLESS.
58. PUT YOUR NAME ON IT.
59. A Life of Expansion
60. SELF-ENTREPRENEURSHIP
61. YOU ARE THE EXCEPTION.
62. Use Your Life as an Experiment to Self-Develop Yourself to Heights Never Seen Before
63. Invest in New Developments
64. Investing Towards What End?
65. The 90%/10% Principle in Entrepreneurship
66. Speed Wins
67. The Philosophy of Happiness
68. When to Over-Estimate, When to Under-Estimate?
69. Never Stop Iterating
70. Money as a Tool for Life and Artistic Experimentation
71. Less But More Premium
72. Mainstream vs Low-Key Success
73. Why Dissatisfaction is Good
74. SEEK YOUR OWN PERSONAL MAXIMAL BENEFIT INSTEAD OF COMPLAINING
75. Manifest Your Destiny
76. Is it Best to *Not* Communicate Your Inner Thoughts or Ideas With Others?
77. CREATE THINGS YOU WISH TO SEE MANIFESTED IN THE WORLD
78. How to Do More Work
79. CONTROL.
80. Competition is for Losers
81. Change.
82. Your Competitive Advantage with Insanely Fast Wifi and High Speed Internet
83. Pseudo Individualism
84. Natural Internal Promoting vs External Promptings

Think for Yourself.

1. Survival vs Thrivival
2. Become Rich
3. SECRETS.
4. Why it is Better to Beg for Forgiveness than Ask for Permission
5. Thinking About the Past Prevents You From Thinking About the Future
6. How to Predict the Future
7. Tools of Mass Distraction
8. So What?

FREEDOM

• On Leaving a Legacy
• I wanna be me!
• Productivity for personal freedom
• How to Purchase your Freedom

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Entrepreneurship by KIM

Become the change which you desire to see manifested in the world!

Become you.

1. Ambition Over Happiness
2. Anti Collaboration
3. The Will to Economy
4. Why New?
5. CHOOSE ADRENALINE.
6. No Looking Back.
7. 1000x Different
8. BECOME SPENDTHRIFT
9. THE BENEFIT OF JUST ONE.
10. EXTREME INNOVATION.
11. Practicality is Boring
12. BECOME YOUR OWN STANDARD.
13. NEVER STOP ITERATING.
14. CONDENSE.
15. Take Lots of Small Financial Risks
16. Control Over Convenience
17. Why Are Chinese Companies So Innovative?
18. INSANELY DIFFERENT.
19. Why Doesn’t Anything Ever Satisfy Me?
20. THE GREAT PASSION.
21. Perhaps Dissatisfaction is Good
22. ONE REP MAX.
23. WHAT DO YOU *REALLY* WANT IN LIFE?
24. LIFE IS ABOUT STRIVING FOR MORE.
25. NEVER STOP LINKING.
26. THE GREATEST.
27. WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!
28. THE BEST IS YET TO COME.
29. ERIC KIM CRITIQUE OF ROMANTICISM
30. COMPLACENCY.
31. JUST BUY IT.
32. ALL ABOUT YOU.
33. MOVE THE WORLD
34. Boring or Not Boring?
35. What if Your Past Self were Inferior to Your Present Self?
36. THE PHILOSOPHY OF PROGRESS
37. CULTURE IS YOUR ENEMY.
38. Difficulty & Interest
39. The Will to Expansion
40. What is Work?
41. SOUL IN THE GAME.
42. JUST START IT.
43. Not Boring
44. PRIDE IN YOUR OWN NAME / BRAND
45. AS MUCH AS YOU CAN TOLERATE.
46. Speed is Paramount
47. TAKE IT BACK TO THE BEGINNING.
48. A Life With No Risk Taking is *NOT* a Life Worth Living
49. Dissatisfaction is Good
50. GREATER STRENGTH, GREATER CHALLENGES.
51. In Praise of the New
52. Uncorrupted Desires
53. You Cannot Fake Passion
54. SELF-OVERGOING
55. FORM YOURSELF.
56. Personal Entrepreneurship
57. RELENTLESS.
58. PUT YOUR NAME ON IT.
59. A Life of Expansion
60. SELF-ENTREPRENEURSHIP
61. YOU ARE THE EXCEPTION.
62. Use Your Life as an Experiment to Self-Develop Yourself to Heights Never Seen Before
63. Invest in New Developments
64. Investing Towards What End?
65. The 90%/10% Principle in Entrepreneurship
66. Speed Wins
67. The Philosophy of Happiness
68. When to Over-Estimate, When to Under-Estimate?
69. Never Stop Iterating
70. Money as a Tool for Life and Artistic Experimentation
71. Less But More Premium
72. Mainstream vs Low-Key Success
73. Why Dissatisfaction is Good
74. SEEK YOUR OWN PERSONAL MAXIMAL BENEFIT INSTEAD OF COMPLAINING
75. Manifest Your Destiny
76. Is it Best to *Not* Communicate Your Inner Thoughts or Ideas With Others?
77. CREATE THINGS YOU WISH TO SEE MANIFESTED IN THE WORLD
78. How to Do More Work
79. CONTROL.
80. Competition is for Losers
81. Change.
82. Your Competitive Advantage with Insanely Fast Wifi and High Speed Internet
83. Pseudo Individualism
84. Natural Internal Promoting vs External Promptings

Think for Yourself.

1. Survival vs Thrivival
2. Become Rich
3. SECRETS.
4. Why it is Better to Beg for Forgiveness than Ask for Permission
5. Thinking About the Past Prevents You From Thinking About the Future
6. How to Predict the Future
7. Tools of Mass Distraction
8. So What?

FREEDOM

• On Leaving a Legacy
• I wanna be me!
• Productivity for personal freedom
• How to Purchase your Freedom

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Never stop innovating: “Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Photography Entrepreneurship“.

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Entrepreneurship Mindset

• What is Your Dream in Life?
• 8 Blogging Productivity Tips
• Why Be Normal?
• How Much Suffering Are You Willing to Endure to Achieve Your Dreams?

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Put a Dent in the Universe.

• Innovate for the Sake of Innovating!
• Reality is Malleable!
• Stoic Entrepreneurship
• Against Self-Preservation
• The Purpose of Life is to Make New Stuff!

Something I’ve learned why photography and blogging are so hand-in-hand. The art of choosing your featured photograph. It is a forced editing of your photos, to select a certain image which you feel best represents a general idea or concept.

For example, I will often have a random idea for a blog post, and write it, and then after the fact, I go through my WordPress media library in order to find a featured image which I feel best reflects the germ of that idea.

Therefore, in order to creatively double dip: do both photography and blogging.

The Art of Creativity

Re-discover your inner-child like PICASSO:

1. Remix Your Photos
2. In Praise of Creativity
3. EXTREME PRIDE.
4. How to Conquer Creative Stagnation
5. CREATIVE UPCYCLING
6. Fewer Choices, More Creativity
7. CREATIVE DARING
8. CREATIVITY over PRODUCTIVITY
9. HOW TO BECOME A MORE CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHER
10. The Simplest Creative Workflow
11. The Artistic Impulse
12. The Photographer as Painter
13. Home Photography Assignments
14. Creative Optionality
15. All Photos are Creative Photos
16. In Photography Even the Smallest Thing Can be a Leitmotif
17. 5 Creative Photography Motivation Ideas
18. Creative Cross-Pollination
19. In Praise of Creative Repetition
20. The Joy of Glitching Your Photos
21. How to Master Creativity
22. Creative Work and Physiology
23. Enough is Never Enough.
24. Become More Uninhibited
25. Utilitarianism is the Enemy of Creativity
26. CONQUER CREATIVITY
27. ERIC KIM Thoughts on Creativity
28. What Do You *Really* Want in Life?
29. Creative Iteration
30. In Photography, Even the Smallest Thing Can Be a Leitmotif
31. The Art of Creativity
32. Why Constrain Yourself in Only Color or Black and White?
33. In Praise of Collaging Your Photos
34. The Purpose is to Create
35. Photographing With No Filter in Small JPEG
36. The Impetus to Create
37. On Focusing on Your Own Self Development
38. WHY COME UP WITH NEW IDEAS?
39. Visual Stochastic Resonance
40. Future Creativity
41. Eternal Re-Creation
42. How I Come Up With My Ideas (Ideation 101)
43. How to Be Creative During Quarantine
44. Constraints are Creative
45. HOW TO BE MORE CREATIVE DURING COVID
46. It is All Connected.
47. What is Interesting to You is Very Likely to Be Interesting to Others
48. Happiness as a Means to Creative Productivity
49. How I Remix My Photos in iPad and ProCreate
50. Creative Productivity
51. In Praise of Repetition
52. The Eternal Creative Loop
53. CREATE!
54. The Goal is Spontaneous Creative Activity
55. Ignore Your Haters.
56. You’re on a Winning Streak
57. Ultralight Photography
58. How to see.
59. CREATORS SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH.
60. How to Ignore Your Inner-Critic
61. How to Unlock Your Inner-Genius
62. Success is Your Only Option
63. How to Make Your Photos More Artistic
64. Creative Lessons Rick Rubin Can Teach You About Photography
65. Why I Love Shooting With an LCD Screen
66. How to Shoot Abstract Photography
67. How to Be More Spontaneous in Your Photography and Life
68. How to Re-Invent Yourself in Photography
69. How to Photograph Like a Child
70. How to Be a More Imaginative Photographer
71. Provoke
72. Never Rust
73. Limit Your Palette
74. Follow Your Intuition
75. Have Creative Confidence in Yourself
76. How To Find Your Unique Voice in Photography
77. Beginner’s Mind
78. There is No Wrong Way to Shoot Street Photography
79. You Can’t Control the Results, Only Effort
80. On Capturing Beauty in the Mundane
81. On Searching For the Maximum
82. The Beauty of “Creative Constraints”
83. How to Stay Curious
84. Enjoy the Process

Learn more: Photography >

First share your photos, then discover the meaning after the fact.

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A thought on my mind: when is tight better, and when is loose better?

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For more enigmatic photos, don’t show context in your photos. The more mysterious, the more difficult your photos are to interpret and understand, the better.

A simple way to become more minimalist.

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One of my primary interests is regarding Photography motivation. How to motivate myself to photograph more, and how can I discover insights to help motivate other photographers to photograph more? Some ideas:

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How to transform your body to look more menacing? Simple ideas:

1. The goal is to naturally increase your testosterone. Think about hormones. How can you shift your hormones to make you more masculine, and more brave?
2. One of the main components to build a more menacing looking body is to have less body fat, and look more shredded. The simplest way to do this is quit sugar, quit carbs, and intermittent fast. Don’t need during the day, only eat dinner.
3. Sleep more: sleep is the opportunity for your body to rebuild its muscles, and become stronger. The best bodybuilders sleep 12 hours a day. Don’t be like one of those skinny fat Silicon Valley nerds who brag about how little they need to sleep. In fact, better to brag about how much you sleep, than how little. If anything, sleep is the new luxury. That is, only the privileged are able to sleep. Worker slaves must sleep little, because they must always be working and being productive for some boss or board. One of the greatest joys in my personal life is being able to live without an alarm clock: besides waking up for early flights, I have not used an alarm clock for nearly 10 years.
4. Consume more meat, more cholesterol, more saturated fat, more beef, more red meat: cholesterol is a steroid. Why is it that apex predators only eat organ meats, and leave the lean meats for the scavengers to consume? Because liver, and organ meats have the highest nutrition, and also the highest amount of cholesterol. Even old-school bodybuilders used to consume lots of liver, in order to naturally boost their testosterone.
5. Do more menacing workouts: I’ve discovered the best workouts are the ones that require the most supreme focus and concentration, in which you cannot be distracted or fuck around. For example, the amount of physical or mental focus required before attempting a one rep maximum lift with deadlift or squat. Even with working out at home, I have a very heavy 105 pound kettle bell, and I do one armed cleans and squats with them, in in order to do so, I need to hype myself up. I cannot successfully perform the lift, if I do not concentrate, or if I’m distracted. The biggest tip I have when working out is don’t use your phone, and also don’t listen to music.

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Something we never think about: what if everything you owned is already perfect? That your lifestyle and life conditions are already perfect optimal and ideal?

Then, what next? I say just focus on your photography art, creativity, and self propagation.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the physics equation for force: force equals mass over acceleration. Then this is my more poetic thought in life: perhaps what we desire to do is to move things, move mass, move our physical selves (been able to walk more steps in the day), with cars to move further distances with greater fuel effectiveness, and also to move our photos and images: to walk, digitally capture embodied reality with our camera sensors, effectively import them into our computers, effectively select our best photos, and effectively export and publish them on the Internet.

A quick thought: how can we more effectively move photos online?

Also from a photography entrepreneurship perspective, how to move and motivate people to make more new photos, and also to move products (sell products, and ship them to the desired user).

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Dear friends, this year let us drive to become more focused. How do we become more focused? My thought is via negativa — ruthlessly prune that which distracts you.

For example, some things which I have done which are very effective:

1. Get rid of your phone: The most focused I’ve ever been in my life was when I lived in Vietnam for two years, and got rid of my phone. It is insane how so many micro distractions can rob you of your focus. As an experiment, just turn off your phone completely and keep it in a drawer for a full day, and see how your focus changes.
2. If you want to keep your phone, turn off all notifications besides your phone call feature and your FaceTime. Go a week without sending text messages and without looking at your text messages.
3. In praise of less storage: currently on my iPhone, I only have 64 GB of storage, and I am always hitting the upper limit. Therefore I had to ruthlessly uninstall all superfluous apps, which did not aid in creation. Ultimately the two apps I really need is the safari web browser, and IA WRITER for writing things. And the benefit of having fewer apps on your phone is that you got more focus, and fewer distractions.
4. Other things you get uninstall on your phone include email, social media, Netflix and streaming services, etc. Also in order to aid my focus, i have even stopped reading books on my phone. Instead of reading, I either take a nap, workout, or go on a walk in order to stimulate my thoughts. Or drink more coffee.
5. Stop listening to music: I love music, and I think a life without music is not a life worth living. However, often music distracts us more than aids us in our focus. If you want music to drown out background noise, just listen to hip-hop instrumentals to keep you going. Do not listen to anything with lyrics, as lyrics are a distraction. Also a personal rule I have is that I do not listen to any audiobooks or music while driving in the car, or walking out in public. This also means I do not use headphones outside of my house.
6. Go Solo: a big thing I’ve learned in my personal life and my creative life is this: collaborations are often not efficient. You have all these great ideas, but when you have to wait on other people, it’s lows you down. Therefore, it is much more effective to just work solo. Only do that what you can do.
7. Identify your Archimedes lever, and focus on your Archimedes lever. Your Archimedes lever is your one greatest strength, which can make 1000x difference in the world around you. Once you have discovered what you Archimedes lever is, conserve all your strength towards that.
8. Tire yourself to the mess: if you are like a diseas, and you know that the sirens will ultimately tempt you, set up certain precautionary measures. For example, if you find yourself distracted by the Internet, install the freedom app on your laptop, and block out your Wi-Fi for certain periods of time. The most impressive thing I’ve ever witnessed was when one of my college friends was so addicted to World of Warcraft that he almost fucked out of school, in a moment of self realization, he broke his World of Warcraft CD, threw away the city key, and also disposed all of his items, in order to focus on his studies. Sometimes these brash and extreme actions are necessary. Not all distractions are bad, they are just personal to you. Therefore, whatever you think is distracting to you in a bad way, set up ways to block those websites or apps, in order to help you focus.
9. Don’t buy anything for a whole year: besides food and other essentials, make it a fun challenge for yourself to not buy anything new for the whole year. This includes clothes, gadgets, phones, cameras, headphones, etc. I don’t think buying things in itself is a bad thing, but the thought of wanting to buy new things is the distraction. When you are in a position where you think that your things are less than optimal, it distracts you from just focusing on your activities. For example for many of us, photography is our passion. But the thought of buying a new camera or a new lens is often what distracts us, instead of just doing the desired activity which is walking more, and shooting more photos.
10. To focus more on your photography, a simple thought: declare your photography as your ultimate form of artistic expression, and devote all of your artistic and creative energies towards it. Buy books, information, invest in education, and invest in traveling experiences which will argument your opportunities to photograph.
11. Try to walk at least 30,000 steps a day. How do we best think, and clear our minds? Going on a walk. For example a lot of couple counselors suggest that when you are angry, just go on a walk around the block, to calm yourself down. Similarly speaking, even Friedrich Nietzsche said trust no thought which comes to you which did not arise out of walking. Even Nassim Taleb says in order to become a philosopher, start by walking, slowly. Steve Jobs had his most productive meetings when he walked with the person, walking meetings. What does it mean to focus? To clear your mind, to free up mindspace, in order to do your desired activity. When in doubt, just walk it out.
12. Don’t check your investments unless you’re actually planning on either selling trading or buying you investments.
13. Take a break by working on something else. There’s a quote from Heraclitus that says something along the lines of “by changing, it rests”. Therefore, maybe if you’re doing something in a bores you, the best way to rest and recover is just by doing something else.

Photography project ideas

1. Put together a portfolio of your 10 best photos of all time, and make it a post titled “top 10.“
2. As a fun idea for the new year, decide what one camera, one lens you want to use for the entire year. Stick with it until the next year, and then if you really really feel like you need a new camera, then buy the new one.
3. As an assignment, just stick with one aesthetic for the full year. Either only shoot black-and-white for the full year, or only should color for the full year. This will help you become more focused in your photography.
4. In order to build your visual acuity, and improve your photographic compositional skills, whenever you go out to shoot, just focus on one assignment. For example, only shoot triangles, only shoot rectangles, only shoot squares, or only shoot circles. By limiting your options, you open up your eyes to creativity. improve your visual acuity with how to see.

For more ideas, start here

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BOOKS

1. Street Photography Contact Sheets Volume II // Google Drive Link // Direct PDF
2. The Personal Photography Manual // Google DRIVE // Direct DL
3. 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography // Dropbox DL // Direct PDF

Books by KIM >

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If this inspired you, feel free to forward to a friend!

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ERIC KIM NEWS LINK

A thought —

Perhaps more efficient and effective to buy hype sneakers, than hype cars.

The test whether you really care for something or not, or is something is essential or not.

What do you care for, what don’t you care for? First order of self wisdom.

Think about how the foods and substances you consume affect your hormones, same goes with your exercise style and lifestyle.

Sugar, carbs, and sweeteners (natural, artificial, and “zero calorie” ones—) how they cause your insulin to spike. “Insulin overtolerance” as causing disease.

Alcohol and weed — what do they do to your hormones?

Sun exposure and lack of sun exposure, and screens at night— how do they affect your natural serotonin secretion? Our sleep and wake cycles as a matter of hormones, not time of day.

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The more things you possess, the more things possess you (Friedrich Nietzsche). Also, the more things you possess the more headache, the more stress, the more work and time needed to maintain these things.

Something I have figured out: if your personal goal is to maximize your joy, it is best to buy things used or refurbished, at a good discount. Why is this? Some thoughts:

1. If you buy something used or refurbished at a steep discount, you feel smarter. It does take some skill to discover things which are below market price, and the great joy in buying things when the price is dipped. For example, I only buy bitcoin after the price has dipped, because I know that the inherent value of it is quite high, and I only want to get it when I could buy it at a discount. Warren Buffett would agree and say something similar, be very greedy when others are fearful, be fearful when others are greedy.
2. I love cars and car design, but, a mark of my personal pride is that I have never bought a car for more than $2500 US. Why is that? I have never bought a new car, and I never intend to. All of my cars have been used from craigslist, or from family friends. I actually find it much more joyful to brag about how cheap I bought something rather than bragging about what I did get. For example, when I bought a used 2003 Subaru outback five speed for only $800, it was a great pride and joy for me. I would rather brag about how cheaply I bought something for, rather than bragging even if I bought a brand-new Rolls-Royce or a brand-new Lamborghini. And if I were to ever buy a Rolls-Royce or Lamborghini, it would definitely be used.
3. Even with my recent iPhone, I bought a refurbished iPhone 11 Pro. Very happy with the decision, as I was able to get the premium materials of the iPhone pro at a discount, at around $700 not $1000.
4. The benefit of getting things very cheap, or a discount is that you feel less tied to it. For example, with almost all of my old Apple devices I’ve given them away to friends or family, without feeling much loss.
5. To buy brand new things, is often a downside: if you buy a brand new car and drive it off the lot, it almost immediately loses 25% of its value. Nobody likes this feeling.
6. The benefit of buying an older model is that you know that the design is already outdated. For example, the downside of buying a lot of brand new cars is that you know that the next generation will always look a little different. For example, if you buy a brand-new Lexus IS, even though you may feel good about it for a year or two, it is almost always certain that the next generation new Lexus IS car will look different. And therefore you will feel frustrated that you’re stuck with older model.
7. Just because you buy the brand-new thing doesn’t make you different: for example, I used to be very enthusiastic about Tesla cars, and would be excited whenever I saw any on the road. Now, because they are so common, I have almost 0 interest and actually purchasing one for myself. Also the irony is that because one of my good friends already owns a Tesla model three, I don’t feel like I need to personally purchase one. Also, with a lot of exotic cars I see, I think I like looking at them more than I like owning them or driving them. even if somebody gave me a brand new Lamborghini Aventador for free, I would be hesitant, because I know I have to deal with the stress of getting it registered, paying the insurance, figuring out where to park it without concerns of theft, and all the other headaches associated with owning such an expensive thing. Similarly speaking, I would not want to be a homeowner, even if somebody gave me the house for free, because I would have to be the one repairing it, going to Home Depot, dealing the headache with contractors, paying property and insurance taxes, and dealing with things breaking, and also feeling feeling tied down to the house. Possessions are prisons.

Apparently Stephen Hawking and a lot of scientists and theorists have tried to come up with a theory of everything. Why is this? They dislike ambiguity, grey areas, and they want their own personal intellect and power to solve all issues that they personally find unpalatable.

Even Friedrich Nietzsche one said that he distrusted all systematizers and any philosophers who had a will or desire to come up with an all encompassing unifying theory. Even one of his books which he personally disposed of, “The will to power“ was because he discovered he was falling into his own trap. That not everything in life is the will to power, and nothing in life should obey one universal rule.

In fact, I have discovered that life is actually most enjoyable when it is unpredictable, inconstant, unpredictable and random, and flexible. How horrible existence would be if everything just followed one universal rule. Therefore, just trust anybody who makes blanket statements about anything. Even philosophy is more of an art form, than ultimate truth building.

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Obey and listen to your gut, not rules, heuristics, or personal guidelines.

What is a perfect decision? When you obey your gut, and never compromise on your gut intuition, no matter how contrary it may run to your own personal ideology, or societal expectations and societal ideology.

No more speculative bets on the future. Rather, let us be like Heraclitus and invest in today.

Or another words, let us build, and create, things we desire to see manifested in the world today. Also, the great passion unfolds when we only pursue things we are insanely passionate about and care about.

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To expand my notion on the philosophy of value, rather than striving to increase the value of our investments, isn’t it a better idea for us to strive to increase the value of ourselves? To increase the value of our own personal artwork, creation and ideas?

But how do we actually increase our value? Some thoughts:

1. Expand your own network: for example, a blog becomes more and more valuable the more you publish, and the more you hyperlink your ideas to another. Also like one of my friends told me, “your net worth is your network.” In sociology we learned this as social capital, the capital wealth and power you have in your social networks, or in other words, how powerful the people you know are.
2. Make, build, and publish new things. How does life grow? Based on the new. New children, new blood, new developments. Invest in creating the new.
3. Consider how much you actually care: in order to create something, you must care about it so much, that you are willing to sacrifice much in order to build it. Once again, the goal is towards building, not buying and possessing.

A thought on my mind: the philosophy of value.

The other day I consolidated all of my crypto currencies back into bitcoin, and also bought more bitcoin using my US dollars from my bank account. And the #1 question on my mind wasn’t the US dollar amount of my investments, but rather, how many bitcoin I was able to get in total.

And this is the funny thing I realized: the number of bitcoin doesn’t change, but the perceived value of it does. And another thought: even though the number of bitcoin I own remains constant, the price of one bitcoin seems to increase in value when compared to the US dollar. And the inverse thought is this: what if it wasn’t necessarily the value of bitcoin which is going up, but the value of the US dollar going down?

To expand that thought, it takes more and more US dollars to buy one bitcoin. But the number of bitcoin remains the same. Is it then that the US dollar is simply the current most accepted barometer of value? But what if in the near future, the US dollar is no longer The universal barometer of value, and instead, bitcoin becomes the new barometer of value?

The funny irony in life: it is seen as a virtue to be open minded, but to change your mind as seen as bad.

I say, the most wise and you can do is be stubborn with things you really truly believe in, but once you have found certain evidence that says otherwise, change your opinion and mind. To not change your mind in spite of new and contradictory evidence is foolish, and irrational.

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Street photography is our identity, lifestyle and approach.

However, in order to become the best photographer you can, some ideas:

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Some personal photography productivity hacks that I use, which may help you:

1. Accept the fact that your current city location and lifestyle is not ideal, but, in spite of all of that, you can still make photographs. Perhaps you could make better photos elsewhere, but hope and desiring to be somewhere else is a vice. Therefore, much more virtuous and better for you to just take your current reality and exploit it to the maximum, rather than desiring some thing that you currently do not have. Be extremely present minded.
2. Black and white: it is more difficult to make an interesting photo in color than in black-and-white. Why is this? When you shoot color, you are a slave to the color. That is, if you live in a drab and uninteresting and uncolorful place, it will be very difficult to make interesting color photographs. Furthermore, with color photography you’re much more of a slave to the lighting conditions. For example, if you want to make a really great color photograph, you need to either shoot at sunrise, or sunset. Or use a flash. With black-and-white photography, you have more creative optionality, which means you have more opportunities to make good photos. Black and white is less dependent on optimal lighting conditions or even places. Also, black-and-white allows you to be more abstract, and you could shoot abstract photos anywhere, even in the boring suburbs as I have discovered.
3. Just use RICOH GR III, and always have your Ricoh in your front right pocket. The best outfit I’ve discovered is wearing black tight leggings, paired with athletic shorts on top. I’ve also discovered that using a wrist strap (ERIC KIM WRIST STRAP MARK II for RICOH) to be optimal, now that I’ve got a kid. While I do love neck straps when I am traveling, when I am just living my every day life, always having my camera in my front right pocket allows me to shoot every single photographic moment possible. It becomes an integration with my life.
4. Small JPEG: just using Apple photos on my laptop, and shooting small JPEG allows the quickest and most efficient photography workflow than using Adobe Lightroom and raw. shooting small JPEG also is beneficial because you can import your photos quicker, and also upload your photos quicker. Also in someway, shooting JPEG is like shooting film: what you see is what you get.
5. Trying to walk at least 30,000 steps a day: I have a theory that the best marker for photographic productivity is your step count. It seems obvious to me that the more you walk, the more interesting scenes you will expose yourself to, in the more likely you’ll find things of interest to photograph. Also, I’ve never met somebody who walks 30,000 steps a day and is sad or depressed. Therefore another theory of mine is that a lot of modern depression is just based on the fact that people are chained to their desks, whether in the office or at home, and unable to walk, which is the primary purpose of a human being. If you consider our human physiology it is optimized for walking. The reason we are bipeds and have two legs and walk upright is that it is the most efficient bodily form to walk long distances, for long periods of time, with the minimal amount of fatigue. Also being a biped allows us to terrain rough surfaces and changes in elevation most efficiently. For example, a human is actually more efficient in hiking on an uneven mountain surface than even a four-legged animal.
6. Go on more hikes, and take along your camera. Ironically enough, the best way to re-motivate yourself in street photography is by doing very nature things, like going on hikes. After a re-invigorating and recharging nature expedition, I go to the city streets with more zest and vigor.
7. Watch great cinema as a way to be inspired with photography composition. I actually think that the best compositions are in movies, rather than from photographers. Why is that? Movie makers have a higher budget, and they have the time and resources to make their compositions perfect.
8. Start off the day by photographing your morning coffee: if you’re like me and a coffee addict, the best way to warm up your photographic engine is just start off the day shooting. When you are waiting for your morning coffee to boil, just photograph your coffee beans or equipment, and do it every day.
9. If you want a midday coffee, don’t drink it at home, rather, walk to the nearest coffee shop to buy it instead. Along the way, just shoot photos.
10. Take photos when you’re taking your dog on a walk, or taking your kid on a walk. For example, as a way of napping baby Seneca, I strap him to my chest with a ergo baby, and I just make photos. You can also shoot photos when your kid is in a stroller. And maybe if you’re ambitious enough, try to also take your cat on a walk (even though I hear that they hate collars).
11. To be a more focused photographer, purge your cameras. You’ll get more joy from giving either a kid you know or somebody in need a camera your old cameras, than buying a new one. Also, I’ve discovered more joy when I give away my cameras than sell them. By owning fewer cameras, you will have more focus. Why? If you have too much camera equipment, you fall victim to paralysis by analysis, rather than immediately knowing which camera to use, you waste precious brain power trying to optimize for the perfect camera. The most optimal camera is the most unoptimal one.
12. Delete your Instagram, and also don’t share photos on Facebook. Share them to your own blog instead. I always thought, if you just took all of that energy and effort in building up your social media presence, and instead of trying to get more Instagram followers, what if you just directed all that energy into building up your own platform in your own blog instead?
13. Start a brand-new empty folder: start carte Blanche. Treat this year as a new year to make new photos, and disregard your past photos. If you forget your past photos, it is a good motivator to make new photos. And to make new photos is the goal of photography.

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Things on my mind

1. Why I bought more bitcoin again
2. Can the iPhone replace my laptop?
3. Happiness is a trap. Ambition is the goal. More ambition.
4. When we feel fear, it is often enthusiasm in disguise.

If this inspired you or sparked any new creative ideas in you in anyway, feel free to forward to a friend!

ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER LINK.

I love my laptop to death, and truth be told I’m the most productive on the laptop. I could type over 140 words per minute, which is the most effective form of information transfer I know.

However nowadays, I’m trying to walk 30,000 steps a day and also trying to spend more time outdoors for my health, I’ve actually been very productive from my iPhone. The biggest productivity hack is using the iPhone voice dictate to write things, like this.

One thing I’ve discovered is that iPad is not a laptop replacement, nor should it be. iPad is very good to use the procreate app, to make designs, illustrations, and also to look at your photos. For example, the ultimate digital photo looking experience is looking at your photos through an iPad Pro, instead of printed or on your laptop.

Also, when traveling or on the road, it is good to travel light with an iPad instead of bringing a laptop, if your goal is to save weight, and travel ultralight.

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What is the best and most optimal camera? Your one camera, and one lens. It is true that your Ricoh GR 3 will not be optimal for all types of photography, but, maybe that is the point. When you use a sub optimal camera for a certain situation, it actually forces you to be more creative. It is another creative constraint.

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Once you have all the money and wealth in the world, what is it that we desire to do? It seems to propagate. For example, for our ideas to propagate, our products to propagate, or services and ourselves to propagate, and also to propagate via children.

Therefore from a very basic perspective, to focus on propagating your ideas and artwork is a good idea.

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As of today, I re-consolidated all of my cryptocurrency and also spent more US dollars from my checking account to buy more bitcoin. Why? My thoughts:

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Right now is the best time to buy bitcoin.

The reason I love aphorisms, and philosophical fragments from the pre-Socratic philosophers is this: greater information density. In other words, cut to the chase. When it comes to knowledge and information, the more condensed, simpler, and the stronger it is, the better.

For example, I learned from the Nassim Taleb the reason why many books and publications have a two column or three or four column design is that it allows more information and text to fit on a single page. When information has a higher density, we can read it quicker, and ingest the information quicker.

Anti verbosity

The reason why I hate reading a lot of modern books is this: it is too verbose, too many words. Rather than distilling the information and making it as simple and short as possible, it seems that a lot of these authors feel that they need to write a really thick and long book, in order to feel self legitimacy. Or perhaps fulfill to their editors or book publisher a certain word count.

This is why reading a lot of highbrow literature is insanely boring to me, like reading the New Yorker. It seems that people like to almost self masturbate themselves with words. The more verbose, the more words, the more fancy adjectives, the better.

Couldn’t this book just have been a long blog post?

Whenever I go to Barnes & Noble and look at the shelves of modern day books, and business books, I think to myself: couldn’t this have just been a really long blog post? And in actuality, it often is. A lot of book publishers Will stumble upon bloggers, or viral blog post, and approach the author with a book deal to expand the notion and publish it as a book. But does it need to be published as a book? Most often not, but it sells books.

Why making PowerPoint presentations is an art form

I really love looking at simple, and bold presentation slides. Why? The presenter needs to distill all of their knowledge as simple as possible. There is a certain will to simplicity especially when it comes to PowerPoint slides.

Why I prefer watching movies instead of TV series

It takes more skill to condense an entire universe and storyline in a two hour film,

Once you’re rich, then what?

It seems that a lot of people only want to become rich, as a means to financial independence, which means not having to work for a living. Also, the desire for location independence.

But the funny thing is that now that Covid has hit, location independence becomes overrated. Why? We can no longer travel with unlimited borders. Therefore, in terms of location, we tend to just stay in one spot.

And I think a lot of people desire financial independence as a means to more entertainment. I don’t know about you, but I think that a lot of people aspire to become more artistic and creative after financial independence, but in reality, after financial independence they become lazy, unmotivated, lost, and more passive. They spend more time playing video games, watching Netflix, and other forms of entertainment.

I cannot speak for you, but if I speak for myself, I see life after riches as a means to greater focus and productivity for my passion, which is blogging, photography, entrepreneurship, philosophy, design, and art.

We are often thought that patience is a virtue. But why is this? What if the opposite were true, that impatience were a virtue?

Even Kanye West has a line that says “my impatience is a virtue”. And this is a good idea, as his impatience motivated him to create the music he desired to see manifested in the world, and also to start his Yeezy fashion line.

Therefore, think to yourself, what are you impatient about, and how can you channel that impatience into self action and self-motivation?

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What does man want? Not more happiness, but greater challenges and greater ambition.

For example, we think we want happiness but this is not the goal. Once you are happy, what more ambition do you have? You have none.

To be more specific, we want great health, but not happiness. Great health gives us the motivation and energy and desire to pursue new challenges. But once you’re happy and satisfied, you no longer have any more drive. Resist and avoid happiness as a goal.

Entrepreneurship by KIM

Become the change which you desire to see manifested in the world!

Become you.

1. Anti Collaboration
   The Will to Economy
2. Why New?
3. CHOOSE ADRENALINE.
4. No Looking Back.
5. 1000x Different
6. BECOME SPENDTHRIFT
7. THE BENEFIT OF JUST ONE.
8. EXTREME INNOVATION.
9. Practicality is Boring
10. BECOME YOUR OWN STANDARD.
11. NEVER STOP ITERATING.
12. CONDENSE.
13. Take Lots of Small Financial Risks
14. Control Over Convenience
15. Why Are Chinese Companies So Innovative?
16. INSANELY DIFFERENT.
17. Why Doesn’t Anything Ever Satisfy Me?
18. THE GREAT PASSION.
19. Perhaps Dissatisfaction is Good
20. ONE REP MAX.
21. WHAT DO YOU *REALLY* WANT IN LIFE?
22. LIFE IS ABOUT STRIVING FOR MORE.
23. NEVER STOP LINKING.
24. THE GREATEST.
25. WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!
26. THE BEST IS YET TO COME.
27. ERIC KIM CRITIQUE OF ROMANTICISM
28. COMPLACENCY.
29. JUST BUY IT.
30. ALL ABOUT YOU.
31. MOVE THE WORLD
32. Boring or Not Boring?
33. What if Your Past Self were Inferior to Your Present Self?
34. THE PHILOSOPHY OF PROGRESS
35. CULTURE IS YOUR ENEMY.
36. Difficulty & Interest
37. The Will to Expansion
38. What is Work?
39. SOUL IN THE GAME.
40. JUST START IT.
41. Not Boring
42. PRIDE IN YOUR OWN NAME / BRAND
43. AS MUCH AS YOU CAN TOLERATE.
44. Speed is Paramount
45. TAKE IT BACK TO THE BEGINNING.
46. A Life With No Risk Taking is *NOT* a Life Worth Living
47. Dissatisfaction is Good
48. GREATER STRENGTH, GREATER CHALLENGES.
49. In Praise of the New
50. Uncorrupted Desires
51. You Cannot Fake Passion
52. SELF-OVERGOING
53. FORM YOURSELF.
54. Personal Entrepreneurship
55. RELENTLESS.
56. PUT YOUR NAME ON IT.
57. A Life of Expansion
58. SELF-ENTREPRENEURSHIP
59. YOU ARE THE EXCEPTION.
60. Use Your Life as an Experiment to Self-Develop Yourself to Heights Never Seen Before
61. Invest in New Developments
62. Investing Towards What End?
63. The 90%/10% Principle in Entrepreneurship
64. Speed Wins
65. The Philosophy of Happiness
66. When to Over-Estimate, When to Under-Estimate?
67. Never Stop Iterating
68. Money as a Tool for Life and Artistic Experimentation
69. Less But More Premium
70. Mainstream vs Low-Key Success
71. Why Dissatisfaction is Good
72. SEEK YOUR OWN PERSONAL MAXIMAL BENEFIT INSTEAD OF COMPLAINING
73. Manifest Your Destiny
74. Is it Best to *Not* Communicate Your Inner Thoughts or Ideas With Others?
75. CREATE THINGS YOU WISH TO SEE MANIFESTED IN THE WORLD
76. How to Do More Work
77. CONTROL.
78. Competition is for Losers
79. Change.
80. Your Competitive Advantage with Insanely Fast Wifi and High Speed Internet
81. Pseudo Individualism
82. Natural Internal Promoting vs External Promptings

Think for Yourself.

1. Survival vs Thrivival
2. Become Rich
3. SECRETS.
4. Why it is Better to Beg for Forgiveness than Ask for Permission
5. Thinking About the Past Prevents You From Thinking About the Future
6. How to Predict the Future
7. Tools of Mass Distraction
8. So What?

FREEDOM

• On Leaving a Legacy
• I wanna be me!
• Productivity for personal freedom
• How to Purchase your Freedom

---

Entrepreneurship by KIM

Become the change which you desire to see manifested in the world!

Become you.

1. Anti Collaboration
   The Will to Economy
2. Why New?
3. CHOOSE ADRENALINE.
4. No Looking Back.
5. 1000x Different
6. BECOME SPENDTHRIFT
7. THE BENEFIT OF JUST ONE.
8. EXTREME INNOVATION.
9. Practicality is Boring
10. BECOME YOUR OWN STANDARD.
11. NEVER STOP ITERATING.
12. CONDENSE.
13. Take Lots of Small Financial Risks
14. Control Over Convenience
15. Why Are Chinese Companies So Innovative?
16. INSANELY DIFFERENT.
17. Why Doesn’t Anything Ever Satisfy Me?
18. THE GREAT PASSION.
19. Perhaps Dissatisfaction is Good
20. ONE REP MAX.
21. WHAT DO YOU *REALLY* WANT IN LIFE?
22. LIFE IS ABOUT STRIVING FOR MORE.
23. NEVER STOP LINKING.
24. THE GREATEST.
25. WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!
26. THE BEST IS YET TO COME.
27. ERIC KIM CRITIQUE OF ROMANTICISM
28. COMPLACENCY.
29. JUST BUY IT.
30. ALL ABOUT YOU.
31. MOVE THE WORLD
32. Boring or Not Boring?
33. What if Your Past Self were Inferior to Your Present Self?
34. THE PHILOSOPHY OF PROGRESS
35. CULTURE IS YOUR ENEMY.
36. Difficulty & Interest
37. The Will to Expansion
38. What is Work?
39. SOUL IN THE GAME.
40. JUST START IT.
41. Not Boring
42. PRIDE IN YOUR OWN NAME / BRAND
43. AS MUCH AS YOU CAN TOLERATE.
44. Speed is Paramount
45. TAKE IT BACK TO THE BEGINNING.
46. A Life With No Risk Taking is *NOT* a Life Worth Living
47. Dissatisfaction is Good
48. GREATER STRENGTH, GREATER CHALLENGES.
49. In Praise of the New
50. Uncorrupted Desires
51. You Cannot Fake Passion
52. SELF-OVERGOING
53. FORM YOURSELF.
54. Personal Entrepreneurship
55. RELENTLESS.
56. PUT YOUR NAME ON IT.
57. A Life of Expansion
58. SELF-ENTREPRENEURSHIP
59. YOU ARE THE EXCEPTION.
60. Use Your Life as an Experiment to Self-Develop Yourself to Heights Never Seen Before
61. Invest in New Developments
62. Investing Towards What End?
63. The 90%/10% Principle in Entrepreneurship
64. Speed Wins
65. The Philosophy of Happiness
66. When to Over-Estimate, When to Under-Estimate?
67. Never Stop Iterating
68. Money as a Tool for Life and Artistic Experimentation
69. Less But More Premium
70. Mainstream vs Low-Key Success
71. Why Dissatisfaction is Good
72. SEEK YOUR OWN PERSONAL MAXIMAL BENEFIT INSTEAD OF COMPLAINING
73. Manifest Your Destiny
74. Is it Best to *Not* Communicate Your Inner Thoughts or Ideas With Others?
75. CREATE THINGS YOU WISH TO SEE MANIFESTED IN THE WORLD
76. How to Do More Work
77. CONTROL.
78. Competition is for Losers
79. Change.
80. Your Competitive Advantage with Insanely Fast Wifi and High Speed Internet
81. Pseudo Individualism
82. Natural Internal Promoting vs External Promptings

Think for Yourself.

1. Survival vs Thrivival
2. Become Rich
3. SECRETS.
4. Why it is Better to Beg for Forgiveness than Ask for Permission
5. Thinking About the Past Prevents You From Thinking About the Future
6. How to Predict the Future
7. Tools of Mass Distraction
8. So What?

FREEDOM

• On Leaving a Legacy
• I wanna be me!
• Productivity for personal freedom
• How to Purchase your Freedom

---

Never stop innovating: “Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Photography Entrepreneurship“.

---

Entrepreneurship Mindset

• What is Your Dream in Life?
• 8 Blogging Productivity Tips
• Why Be Normal?
• How Much Suffering Are You Willing to Endure to Achieve Your Dreams?

---

Put a Dent in the Universe.

• Innovate for the Sake of Innovating!
• Reality is Malleable!
• Stoic Entrepreneurship
• Against Self-Preservation
• The Purpose of Life is to Make New Stuff!

Fear and enthusiasm often walk hand-in-hand.

Often, when we feel fear, it is just enthusiasm in disguise. For example, the other night when I was speculating to buy more bitcoin, it kind of scared me. But in a good way. Because it excited me. When you’re excited and it was asked by something, and you feel fear, it is a sign that your enthusiasm and interest and personal curiosity is true.

The fewer components, the better.

Dear friends, thinking about this new year, let us focus on a new year of photographic growth. How does one grow as a photographer? Some ideas:

1. Identifying our photo triggers

I’ve noticed that when it comes to photography, there are certain things which trigger my impulse to photograph.

For example, people, hand gestures, textures, shafts of light, shapes and forms and geometry.

And I’ve discovered that one of the best ways that I can progress my photography is to better identify this photo triggers, and obey them.

For example, sometimes we have a certain trigger to photograph, yet we censor ourselves, because the fear that we’ve already shot a similar photo before, or the fear that it may be a cliché.

But truth be told, cliché is not a big deal. I think the notion of a cliché is just this pretentious French notion of trying to put down other artists.

In other words, allow yourself to shoot clichés, and maybe it is a good idea to shoot more clichés. Even Daido Moriyama once said, to not shoot a cliché is a cliché in itself.

2. Improved nutrition

I believe in the practical philosophy regarding human physiology. In other words, how does one grow muscle mass? Simple: increased physical exertion, which causes your body to secrete growth hormones, and then being able to eat more meat and highly dense nutrition in order to augment your muscle mass.

When it comes to photography, perhaps we can take a similar concept to practice. In order to become a greater photographer, we need to focus on our nutrition. Both practical and philosophical.

For example, when to photographic motivational material, to only consume the finest photos of history. And also, in terms of our practical health, to become more strict with our diet, and our food and fluid intake.

A very simple via Negativa health advice is this: quit carbs, quit sugars, quit sweeteners, and quit the notion of three meals a day. Towards a more Paleo and ketogenic approach, intermittent fasting with one massive meal a day. Fewer intoxicants, like alcohol and weed.

3. Stronger photographic fitness

For us photographers, what is the most important muscle in our body? Our legs. I have a simple idea that in order to grow as a photographer, you must grow your leg muscles. Things that I have been doing: striving to walk at least 30,000 steps a day, and doing heavy leg exercises with my 105 pound kettle bell.

If you have the ability, go to the gym and focus on doing very heavy powerlifting style workouts for your legs. Sumo deadlifts, and squat. One rep max attempts, once a week.

Simple experiment in thought: if you grow your leg muscles, want that motivate you to move and walk more, which will result in you shooting more? And the more you shoot, the more likely you’re to practice your photography, and improve your photography.

4. The philosophy of aesthetics

Something I’ve been thinking a lot about is aesthetics. The philosophy of aesthetics means what you consider beautiful and not beautiful.

As photographers, we are artists who drive to make beautiful photographs. But everyone’s definition of beautiful is different, especially in photography. For your goal is to cultivate your own mistakes, and to determine what you consider beautiful.

5. Stronger and more simple?

Upon thinking a lot about the notion of what it means to make “better“ photos, I think better photos are simpler and stronger. This means, the compositions are more simple, yet elicit a stronger emotional or aesthetic response.

For example, more extreme black-and-white contrast, and using the small thumbnail test to know whether your photos are good or not as small compositions.


6. Improve your photos

Think much on how to improve your photos and photography. Focus on your own self growth and development as a photographer.

Allow yourself to cross-pollinate widely in your photography, allow yourself to cross-genres of photography, to seek inspiration and motivation everywhere, and just treat it like a kaizen approach:

Strive to improve your photography 3% daily.

ERIC KIM

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HAPTIC INDUSTRIES

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1. Street photography starter kit
2. Masters volume 1 digital free // print
3. Photo journal print // digital edition
4. HOW TO SEE: Visual Guide to Composition, Color, & Editing in Photography
5. Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Street Photography

Discover more in HAPTIC SHOP >

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Creative thoughts to get you going

1. Why Review Your Photos?
2. Self motivation
3. How to Make Better Black and White Photos
4. Growing or Slowly Dying?
5. Accumulation, Subtraction
6. Anti Static

More on blog >

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Share your best photos to arsbeta.com

To track your growth as a photographer, share your best photos on arsbeta.com

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If you’re new, start here:

Also discover all books.

ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER LINK.

The life of SENECA and ERIC KIM:

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A thought: focus on growth. Avoid the middle, mediocre and slowly drying. As Steve Jobs would often quote Bob Dylan: you’re either growing, or slowly dying.

Invest in technologies, or real estate which is focused on growth. Avoid things which goes sideways, or are at a standstill, or no longer supported. We all know what technology, if it is no longer being updated it is either dead or slowly dying.

This is what I realize what certain cities or neighborhoods, you can tell whether it is growing, or slowly dying. Neighborhoods which are growing have new developments, Ganic markets, and new constructions.

For example, the reason why I love Vietnam so much is to see the rapid development and growth of the city. Also the same thing with Mexico City, I can see the overall wealth of the city and its citizens as slowly growing. The rich in nicer Buger areas are getting nicer, more people have iPhones, and more people have Yeezy sneakers.

Procreation is the goal:

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