If real life was an MMORPG, this is how I would create real life analogies:

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One of my ideals and goals for the future: decentralized photography. To get photos off of Instagram and Facebook, and to put the power in your own hands.

arsbeta.com as my first attempt and assay. But we must go further.

To innovate best to piggy back off the dominant platform or technology.

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Question: what is it that we actually want from our cars?

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A thought —

Perhaps in life, the best way we can leverage our archimedes lever in life is to just focus on photography. Our photography. Our photographic innovation.

Dear friend,

A thought:

How can I extract the maximum out of existence?

I think the secret is ‘productivity’ — being able to do more (meaningful) things with your photography and life with our shortness of life. As Seneca said:

Life is long as long as you know how to (efficiently) use it.

Some productivity thoughts:

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A thought —

Better to meditate and think about your FUTURE photos, than to ruminate too much on your past photos.

To be a more productive photographer, step more, walk more.

One of the best things I learned from Daido Moriyama or the Japanese ‘Provoke’ school of photography:

Snapshot photography is good.

Ironically enough, the MORE devices you got, the LESS productive you will become.

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What does it mean to be a street photographer? To me it is all about an attitude and ethos. A philosophy and approach to life.

For example, preferring to be outside. Loving other people. Loving humanity, making small talk with strangers, and finding beauty in society in the world.

The street photographer as artist-sociologist. Visual sociology.

Isn’t this the ultimate, to make art out of people?

For me, I only get happiness and joy when I am actively building creating and making. Not consuming or playing.

For me, our legacy will be all about what we built and made. Thus it seem that in order to extract the maximum out of life and existence, focus on building.

One of the things I found which is really good in life, is just compliment strangers. This is the best way to make small talk with strangers, push yourself outside your comfort zone, and find beauty in every single human being.

This is the ethos of the street photographer.

The tricky thing is this: there are certainly certain products in life which make our lives much more convenient, efficient, and productive. But this is what I learned: no matter how good or perfect the product is, it will never bring you joy. At best, you won’t hate it.

However this is a plus one to Wabi Sabi aesthetics. Things that become more beautiful overtime, with more wear and tear. For example Henri camera straps, which are made out of leather, which age in patina over time, and become more beautiful. And this is what you can have pride in, the more you use some thing, the more pride you have in it.

Therefore when it comes to purchasing products in life think this: invest in products which get better over time, avoid that which is simply robust or gets worse over time.

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I love the iPad, but the problem is this: it is not a laptop replacement. Nor should it be. Thus, don’t have the pipe dream that thinking that getting an iPad Pro will somehow replace your laptop. It won’t.

iPad is good for viewing your photos, using procreate, calligraphy on Zen Brush 2, and that’s about it. iPad Pro is the best viewing experience for your photos, but for the best laptop just get a maxed out MacBook Air.

Something to a lot of people talk about: whether street photography has to be on the streets or not. I say it does not. Street photography is more of a catchall term which involves photography that has to do with humanity.

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Why street photography? It is a way of life.

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One of the new critiques I have of Legos this: it is reductive and close ended. That is, you’re only allowed to be creative in the reductive box of Lego, and you can only build with instruction. Better to have open world creativity instead.

Anesthetic thought: whenever I look at cars, I hate cars that have chrome accents. Chrome just looks cheesy and cheap.

Lesson, when designing your car or purchasing your car get something with no chrome. Blacked out. In praise of the new Tesla cars with the blacked out accents.

Homeownership is a trap. Better to occasionally rent nice Airbnb‘s, instead of dealing with the hassle of owning one.

Some quick life thoughts from my last trip to the BAY:

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The best gear:

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Dear friend,

A focus this week for you:

Focus on making photos as dark as possible (ADAP), and practice with highlight weighted metering.

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One of my greatest skills in life, and also having studied sociology, and social skills, especially the ability to talk to strangers.

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If you’re feeling gloomy, or depressed or anxious, the best panacea is being social.

Also attending workshops, in person things, even online zoom things (like online zoom workshop). Go and be a part of society, make small talk with strangers, etc.

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A simple thought: optimize your life for generation, not consumption.

For example, generating writing, photos, art work, thoughts.

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Something new I learned with my Ricoh GR 3 when experimenting with my friend Jun, perhaps in the new firmware update is the highlight waited metering mode. A new game changer, especially for the as dark as possible aesthetic (adap).

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Some random thoughts I jotted down on my iPad with iA Writer while on my flight from Oakland back to Orange County:

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Not the “decisive moment”, but everyday “in-between” moments which we are trying to capture as photographers.

Airports are a fascinating place to me. Why? Because airports are a non-space. A liminal zone between departure and arrival. Almost like a place where time stops.

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Street photography is truly great. Why? It combines all of the things which are beneficial to humans thriving: walking, social interaction, being in public, making artwork, traveling, and being active.

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A new ideal for myself: extreme stoicism. This means to be irrationally stoic. To swallow insults like chewing glass, to harness your anger as energy for personally productive things, and to hold your tongue like a dragon.

It takes a lot more skill to be stoic, than to say what’s really on your mind.

I propose a simple idea: when you’re angry, or feel injustice, wait at least 48 hours before responding.

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Life is infinitely too short for us to be practical and boring. Go opposite — strive for insanely epic and different instead!

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I do think there are some perfect things in the world. Some perfect designs, some perfect tools, some perfect cars, some perfect cameras, some perfect lifestyles etc. But the thing is this: once you get perfect, it quickly gets boring.

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Thinking about 007 and John Wick, and certain aesthetic standards that we are inspired by and desire to emulate.

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All photos are alike and different in their own way:

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ERIC NEWSLETTER >

What is it that we want in our photography? Not necessarily to get “better“, but to become more confident. More self-confident of ourselves, our photographic ability, and our photographic future.

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You’re a designer *and* photographer.

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Avoid the news, social media, political commentary etc. Why? It is “outrage porn”— optimized to anger and outrage you. It gets us addicted to a sense of injustice, self righteousness and of course … anger and outrage. Which goes nowhere, just like us swallowing our own poison.

Delete the news from your personal life.

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We are usually taught that having dreams are good. But what if dreams were bad — a trap? A fantasy with no upside?

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Whether or not you think college is a scam, it is undeniable that college campuses are great. Great architecture, great student life, great human activity. College and college campuses are a pseudo-utopia.

So the question is whether or not you should go to college, or send your own kids to college. It ultimately comes down to the financial thing. If you can go for free, or highly reduced with student aid, go for it. But as greatest student life in college campuses are, if you have to go into massive debt in order to afford sale, don’t do it.

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I wonder this barbell theory: if you want to maximize your money making potential, maybe it is good to separate your money making profession and your passion. For example, you’ll probably make a lot more money as a lawyer then even the highest paid photographer.

Now or is still possible to make a lot of money as a photographer, but the money making potential of a photographer is much lower than that of other professions.

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What is life? Growth and change. Thus if you just optimize your life towards growth and change, how can you fail?

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What is it that we want in life? Confidence.

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We Will Never Be Pleased.

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The notion of “Just in Time” comes from the Toyota way. Similar to notions of kaizen. Anyways the notion of Just in Time is fascinating to me because it is similar to the notion of ALAP, as late as possible.

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As parents, what I think we want is to make more meaningful photos of our kids. Artistic and more beautiful photos of the kids, that brings us more joy delight and gratitude.

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Nationalism is often seen as bad. But why?

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A philosophical classification system: almost everything in life you could either categorize as ascending or descending. Then the focus becomes to only focus on that which is ascending, and a void understand that which is descending.

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Perhaps if you live somewhere uber-boring like the suburbs, we must be inventive and figure out:

How can we spice up our boring lifestyle — and make it more exciting?

What is ‘perfection’? Perhaps it is simply a striving for more. More perfect, more efficient, more effective.

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WHY APP? The motivation:

From Nietzsche — if a man knows his ‘wherefore?’ he can discover any ‘how?’

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Dear friend,

The unstoppable passion I have:

Trying to discover the maximum amount of passion in my photography, and the maximum amount of enjoyment and joy in my photography.

This decade+ journey has resulted in some interesting takeaways:

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Photolosophy idea.

After much experimentation with Leica cameras, and all the other cameras on the market, this is what I have learned:

Ricoh–Pentax is the supreme (the best) camera brand for photography.

For videos and vlogging things, Lumix–Panasonic is the best.

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HAPTIC INDUSTRIES: my creative passion expressed in physical products:

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Condense:

Make it more dense, thicker, more compact [densus in Latin].

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The best way to condense and compress your photos:

Make video slide shows (.8 seconds for each photo) in iMovie and autoplay it:

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What is life all about? Striving for more.

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If you have a choice and option in life, opt to *NOT* be miserable. Don’t surround, interact or engage with miserable people, consume miserable news, have miserable thoughts, or dwell on past misery or uncertainty.

What should we opt for instead? Exuberant joy. Happiness made visible (Nietzsche’s idea). Triumph. A childlike naïveté towards the world, with great optimism and hope/joy for the future.

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Life lesson about equipment, our tools, things, clothes, cars, etc —

Even though we get the best, we won’t be satisfied.

Then what does this mean?

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Why read? Reading too is a form of consumption, but at least it takes skill and brain input from you to interpret. Whereas many video games, tv shows and films take zero skill to take in and interpret.

Perhaps the best films are the ones which require some sort of interpretation for you — difficult watching, which requires you to try to understand what’s happening in the plot. Films which are difficult and confusing to watch.

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If you seek more happiness in your life, seek more control.

How to make our happiness visible through our photos:

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Control over convenience, control over money power and influence.

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First sent on ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER >

The holidays are coming up. What does this mean?

A chance for us to think about what kind of experiences we want to invest in, and what we want to do and accomplish.

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What do we really want in our photography? To discover our true voice and vision in our photography. To differentiate our photography from others.

But how does one do this?

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What is popular is often wrong. Also, what is popular is often bad.

Rare is better. The rare for the rare.

My simple prediction: in the next 30 years, we will see NFT and nonfungible tokens increase in use and popularity. Also, the trend for digital possessions, and digital ownership, rather than physical ownership.

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What do we hate the most when it comes to movies and films? When it is predictable and cliché.

But why is it that we want people to be predictable? Why is it that we want predictable investments? Why is it that we want a predictable life?

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