What are the best forms of pleasure? Good old Aristotle instructs us to seek pleasure in itself in philosophy. I say let us seek pleasure in what we can control:
If you want to be ‘happier’ in life, more powerful, more productive, have more creative turbo thoughts, build a more beautiful physique and more, it seems simple: powerlifting is the way.
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What do you do with your life once you got “financial independenceâ€/“financial freedomâ€? Simple thought:
Focus on philosophy and art.
That means spend much of your time and energy thinking, reading, writing, walking, lifting weights and writing and publishing and sharing your thoughts! Art and philosophy — a great and noble goal and end game!
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Buffer in the context of more buffer in space, time, energy, resources and planning.
Why do we feel so alienated and lonely in modern times? Because of the change in social spaces. Covid 19 has accelerated and augmented the shift for us to be more antisocial, more stuck at home, and more lonely. A stay at home quarantine lifestyle away from other humans is the worst lifestyle.
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What’s our goal? To keep growing. Larger than life. To continue to grow in size, stature and bulk.
And it isn’t about how objectively big you are or not, but your perception and acknowledgement of your growth. For example seeing yourself bigger, stronger and more massive today than yourself yesterday!
Inspiration literally means to “in+breathe†while expiration means “out+breatheâ€.
We seek artistic inspiration… but what if we also need artistic “expiration†(a breathing out of art work or concepts or ideas) in order to create an artistic flywheel between the inspiration *and* expiration side of art?
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The gym as the ultimate playground to test your courage; and not to succumb to fear and horror!
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FIRST SENT ON ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER >
Dear friends, a motivational photo thought:
You are what you photograph, and you photograph what you are.
The point ain’t to photograph anyone else who isn’t you, but to photograph YOU. To photograph your own life. Your own wife. Your kids, your partner, your friends. Your daily activities.
And towards what ends do you photograph? Because as you photograph, you are giving a kiss to everything you shoot. Meaning, photography is signaling gratitude towards yourself in your life in terms of what you value. The photographer photographs what he or she values.
And why share what you value? Because it brings you joy to share what you value, and it also inspires and motivates others to share what they value. And the more you can get others to share what they value, the more you can change the world!
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The best life is the life in which you direct all your energy, force and courage towards things you can control, while realizing almost everything else is outside of your control, and that’s fine!
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The two vices which grip mankind and hold back man from his fullest potential.
What would a life look like in which we had no horror or fear? Perhaps the best and most noble life!
Great health not for the sake of it. Great health as a means and as a road to great creative thoughts, which will lead you to great creative productivity (to think great thoughts and produce great art works, ideas, photos, videos, blog posts, essays and more!)
Not new cameras, not new lenses, not better smartphone cameras, new formats, etc.
The future of innovation in photography as technique, approach, new modes of sharing and publishing your work, innovations in photo-video-animated GIF hybrid, innovations of philosophy, and ways to more effectively filter, sort, edit and select your best works!
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The difficult thing to reconcile in photography:
Thinking about our past, present, and future photos.
For example, I think most of us photographers tend to get stuck on our past photos, and as a result we forget to focus on photographing the present moment (right now, today) while also looking forward to FUTURE photos (future life, future experiences, etc).
In fact what I think is this:
(more…)The best photos photos are the ones yet to have come!
My personal greed and desire:
(more…)To do more, experience more, and become more in a single given day!
The bright new optimism for our future as photographers: the reminder —
(more…)With every new rosy fingered dawn means a new day for us as photographers and visual artists to make new photos!
In Praise of One Rep Maxing for Dumbbell Press
Safer, more fun, interesting and independent than one rep max bench pressing:
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What’s the difference between nature and man? Nature grows organically while man builds.
If we think about our cities, our malls and all our man made creations … it is all predicated on this notion of growth (via building!)
Towards what ends do we build? To continually build and grow the human spirit. No end!
This is often the problem:
We get suckered by what looks more sophisticated (silly exercise balls and “mobility” stuff at the gym) rather than what is more *effective* (one rep max deadlifts, squats, chinups, etc).
Why this bias? Marketing. It is easier to sell which seems more complex and “fancy” than what is simple.
To save money for the sake of saving money or refusing always to use money and resources is foolish and scrooge-like. What we gotta determine and figure out is this:
In which *contexts* is saving money good and in which contexts is *spending* more money better?
Some thoughts:
What’s a poor use of money? My thoughts:
Typically we have been taught and trained that the more energy, electricity and resources we save and don’t use, the better. But what if the opposite were true:
The MORE energy, resources and electricity gas and heat you use and produce, the better?
Towards a more “wasteful” mindset, ideated around prolificacy, expending *MORE* energy but also producing *MORE* energy. To generate a “net positive”. To use more resources in order to produce more resources?
The trillion dollar question:
(more…)We shoot all these photos. How do we know which photo or version is the best?
Just watched the new episode of the Season 2 of Mandalorian and really didn’t enjoy it. Why? It became too “Disney-fiedâ€. First season of Mandalorian as more dark, cruel, and “angstyâ€. But this is more interesting, and we can better relate to this “Mando†character.
But the new season of Mandalorian, the new episode (the town people and the sand people) get together and “work together†in some sort of happy go lucky (if we just saw past our differences and worked together … we would be so much happier). But real life is tragic and cruel and things often *don’t* work out well in the end. And perhaps this is what makes better art?
As a side note, I think first season of Mandalorian is perfect — a 10/10.
When Mando is more dark, cruel and mercurial — we love him more! Perhaps the reason why we like Batman and Bruce Wayne so much — we love his cruel anger?
An interesting and robust way to live your life.
I love zen. For me, to have the calm and energetic and focused and sublime mindset of zen is supreme.
To just walk, observe, photograph … isn’t this one of the ultimate zen practices?
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Almost all books (most modern) bore me. Far more interesting to focus on art, aesthetics and the body over “wisdom”.
Trees are phenomenal. Why?
My desire:
(more…)To be in peak physical shape and fitness and strength … and utilize my peak fitness to supersede my (past) limits.
Thought:
The reason *WHY* I like to drive stick shift instead of automatic because it is more fun *BECAUSE* it requires me to exercise my skill!
For example, coasting on top of a hill at a stop sign with manual (moderate gas on pedal, moderate clutch). Also shifting through gears as more fun!
Even though I’m rich, I prefer to own cheap stuff. Why? Simple reasons:
Who or what is a philosopher? An individual who sets values … who says:
This and that is worthy and of high value and worth your energy, life and pursuit.
And also, more importantly what is *NOT* worth our time, effort, money and pursuit!
A great idea for maximizing the potential of our human physiology, growth, muscles, recovery:
In the morning, icy cold showers to get you going.
Then at the evening, insanely hot baths to rest, relax and recover your muscles, and when washing off finishing off insanely cold and icy.
Barbell theory:
Perhaps for our optimal health, to barbell heat *and* cold is best.
Or even if you have the option, combining hot sauna and icy cold showers. Or regularly expose yourself to cold weather (walk around the cold outdoors in just a T-shirt during the winter time), but make sure you’re warm at home (bundle up at home) or just blast the heat at home?
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MANDALORIAN
Jump in the Dolorean
Fast forward back to the future
Know that you’re future is already here
No need to clear your mind, or drive blind or stay divine
Stay direct, stay straight, stay great
No need to placate the haters, or erase the light headed macers
What you gotta do is stay laser focused on your own life path
No need to worry about shattering; you’re anti-fragile, break the glass!
ERIC
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What do we want and desire? To live the best, most beautiful, most blessed life and experience known to man. And to innovate and discover:
How to live better.
To discover new modes of living better which have yet been discovered!
One of my greatest joys in life:
(more…)Going grocery shopping, shooting photos and videos, cooking food (especially greens and meat), and then eating and feasting!
A lot of people tend to be critics of the touch-bar on the new MacBook Pro, but I love it!
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A beautiful zen calm feeling of snow— hyper white, outline, great clarity, great purity and great joy!
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You don’t need a data plan for iPhone. Perhaps it is *superior* to have as a pure creativity tool (iPhone can be thought of a more portable iPad).
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Really grateful for the Apple App Store team for recommending this app as the app of the day. Very good, creative, thoughtful, fun and interesting camera app. Super fun and highly recommended!
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For me, it is the only way to live. If I don’t produce, make things, and imagine … I feel like I’m degrading.
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Or in other words why I hate “running†or “jogging†and would prefer powerlifting (one rep max), or a combination of walking and sprinting.
One of the best ways to live:
Focus on your own self-development.
Now how do we do it?
Some thoughts:
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The best type of determination to have in life:
(more…)To have the power to determine your own future, your own fate, your own future!
What else do I need?
Thought:
One of the most robust and independently interesting ways to live your life is this: to just focus on your own self development.
Self development as continually augmenting your knowledge, understanding, wisdom, body (physiology, muscles, muscle mass, one rep max strength), to keep making new art, innovating and discovering and creating more things!
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What is street photography? Social photography.
To be an anti social street photographer seems like a contradiction. We street photographers love people, society, and the public!
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New creations via the new Zen Brush 3 app. I made this on my iPad (just my finger, no silly Apple Pencil which I am very anti).
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A thought:
Many individuals end up becoming enslaved to their homes (repair, mortgage, desire to continually remodel and decorate their homes unto no end).
But this seems like a poor way to live. Why? It prevents you from really living. The best life is outdoors, in the streets, traveling, living nomadically or just being out and about in the town. Living ain’t staying home!
Very interesting idea:
When I make a slide show of my photos and upload it to YouTube, YouTube (Google) always gives you 3 suggestions for the ‘best’ thumbnail (most likely to get clicked).
Contrary to popular technique, I do not create ‘customized’ thumbnails for YouTube. 99% of the time I just use the default suggested thumbnail that YouTube suggests for me.
Why? My theory:
A thought and reflection on photography and art:
There are no ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ ways to approach photography or art.
Then perhaps our greatest contribution to others can be:
Just share how *YOU* do it, and let others ‘take it or leave it’!
In other words, anti-artistic tyranny. Every one can do photography and art however *they* desire to do so.
All teaching is just suggestions and guidance!
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When I look at my photos (often when I photograph the same scene in both monochrome *AND* color, the monochrome photos seem so much more artistic. Why is this the case?
Theory:
Color looks like ‘real life’ and we disdain ‘real life’. Perhaps we prefer the *false* reality of monochrome?
Then perhaps this is what art is:
Art is contra-reality?
A quick guide and primer on doing a floor bench press (not using standard bench press).
Why do it on the floor instead of using a bench? Some thoughts:
(more…)Just share it all.
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No right or wrong way to do things. The goal: create a new bespoke mould for yourself!
