A thought:

Our desire for beautiful homes, neighborhoods and environments is perhaps the desire to have beautiful thoughts and to feel beautiful ourselves?

The other day I just test drove my friend Kevin’s Tesla Model 3 (Dual Motor) with the semi-autonomous driving function enabled. Some quick thoughts:

1. Very fast: The torque and pickup on this thing is pretty insane. I do not envision actually needing or desiring a car any faster in terms of acceleration. When I gunned the gas pedal (or the “acceleration pedal”, considering it is an electric car), it went into hyper drive, and every time gave me a small heart attack from the speed.
2. The semi autonomous driving function works very well: Just keep one hand on the steering wheel, and it knows how to drive very well! No hiccups here.
3. Styling is great. Front of the car looks like a Porsche 911, the flush handles are cool, and the interior is fantastic. The “faux” (fake) black leather is actually very comfortable and feels premium. The minimalist spartan interior is very well designed — feels super spacious, the comfort of sitting in the driver seat is like you’re the captain of your own spaceship.
4. The only thing I didn’t really like were the turn signals: When you activate the left or right turn signal (the handle on the left), it doesn’t really give you a satisfying clicking sound and feeling before you’re turning like you’d get on a Japanese car, a Toyota or Nissan/Honda, etc. Something as subtle as my unfamiliarity or dislike of the Tesla turning signal mechanism is probably enough to discourage me (or convincing myself) to *NOT* desire a Tesla vehicle for myself.

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A thought:

Whenever I communicate my ideas with others, my ideas either get shut down or refuted by others, or they become *changed* and *modified* by others.

Which then makes me think… if I truly desire to have original thoughts ideas and entrepreneurial pursuits, perhaps sharing my ideas with others or asking for feedback is a *bad* idea.

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Towards a more “flesh-forward” approach in photography and art:

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Think waves, like on a bar graph.

Why are wave compositions interesting? Rhythm, motion, and a “roller coaster-esque” visual experience!

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One of my critiques in photography:

Too many photographers strive to make photos which are “ironic” or “clever” in terms of composition, layers, etc.

For example, towards a critique of Alex Webb and the “layered” style of street photography:

Photographers are trying to see how clever they can get with the layers in their photos instead of trying to make deep and meaningful and emotionally-stirring images.

Photos which are simple, severe and strong and great in impact regarding composition is far superior to any street photo with a quadrillion layers, a quadrillion random heads poking out, etc.

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Why do we desire to control, change and modify our environment? What do you do once you have the best or “perfect” environment for yourself? Your perfect and ideal home, neighborhood, city, etc?

Images help me imagine, think, and become more creative!

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Towards a brave new future of visual entrepreneurship:

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A thought:

Real photographers don’t use Instagram. Why? Their self-esteem is robust. They don’t care for the approval of others. They just make photos to please themselves, and share the few that they like (in a form that they can control which is not digital share-cropping).

Real photographers will typically share their photos and portfolio on their website, blog, in prints, publications, e-books, print books, etc.

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Yes, you can shoot street photography in a small town! Some thoughts:

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Quick thoughts:

1. 16” MacBook Pro (maxed out) refurbished from the Apple Online Store. I am convinced, this laptop is straight up a gift from god. See all refurb MacBook Pro laptops in the Apple Online Store here.
2. Fast wifi connection: Pay the extra bucks for Fiber Optic, Gigabit internet, or whatever for home. Having faster wifi will truly give you an edge when working from home or whatever.
3. For vlogging, or shooting video or photo: The Lumix G9 + 12mm f/1.4 lens (24mm full frame equivalent) setup is good, with the RODE Video microphone with wind jammer. It can shoot up to 60 FPS in 4K!!! A typical 10-minute video is around 10 GB — more than enough resolution for your vlogs, videos, or whatever. If you want something even a step up, perhaps the Lumix S1-H is the next step.
4. Self-hosted website hosting. Bluehost.com and install WordPress.org. Then I recommend getting the WordPress.com ‘Jetpack‘ plugin-service. To backup your site, and access additional services to speed up and optimize your site.

A quick behind-the-scenes peek of how I give feedback on photos (online using ZOOM, and using the iPAD + Lightning to USB-C adapter to my MacBook Pro laptop):

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An insanely happy discovery:

If you get an Oculus Rift S, and install Windows 10 in BootCamp for a maxed-out 16” MacBook Pro … it works well!!!

No lag, no problemos. Some setup stuff:

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Don’t be a sucker. Own yourself. Own your own social media platforms, and create your own idealized future for yourself:

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This is insanity.

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It seems the culture is:

Thou art virtuous to the extent one is able to save money, not waste it, and ‘invest’ it towards the future.

But … to save money towards what ends, for whither?

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Mexican food is the best food:

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Do not go to photography school. Serious waste of time and money. Better to just learn for yourself via trial and error, by experimenting by yourself, watching YouTube videos, and reading websites blogs and forums than to waste serious $$$ (and time) to go to photo school.

I used to think:

If you get a full ride, or you can go to photography school for free… it is a good idea.

Now I take that back. Even if your photography education was fully-paid for and free … photography school is bad because:

1. Waste of your time (4 years you can rather do something more interesting … Industrial Design major at RISD seems like a ‘real’ major you can actually learn true technical skills like 3D, etc).
2. Your photos become generic. If you go to photo school, what will happen to you? You will become indoctrinated with the boring type of photo — apathetic, bored, and dis-interested photos of miserable people looking miserable.

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What we are searching for in photography? Not tips … wisdom. Deep wisdom — pragmatic ideas which can actually help empower you as a photographer. Some thoughts:

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What is my archimedes lever? Blogging. I think:

There is still so much unpaved ground when it comes to blogging.

Perhaps bloggers shall inherit the future:

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Perhaps this is what drives us as entrepreneurs and creators:

What we currently see existing in the world is kinda lame, or ‘meh’ and we desire to create our own idealized things which we wish to see manifested in the world and in reality!

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We all think about ‘body-building’ as this niche sport-thing. But let us go beyond that. Better to just think:

My body itself is a work of art, and it is my desire to build my own body to the max.

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We all like great designed things. Fancy watches, sports cars, bags, clothing, cameras, gadgets, tools, etc.

But this is the problem with modern day capitalism-consumerism:

We think we are artists when we select our own aesthetic tastes by going online or to the mall, and buying things which we think represents us as people, artists, and individuals.

This ain’t good. Why? It limits you. This means your artistry or artistic self expression is limited by the things which already exist out there. But if you truly want to be a creator, innovator, or to push the needle forward … you gotta build it.

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Images I am currently interested in, and digesting and analyzing — from a variety of image-makers, photographers, visual and graphic artists:

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Simple thought:

Never compromise. Better to kowtow to your partner on 99% of petty matters, but be insanely stubborn on 1% of life matters.

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Virtue =/ Happiness

The bias in philosophy:

The end-game is to maximize your personal happiness (often hedonic happiness).

Then comes the notion of ‘eudaemonia’ (human flourishing) or it literally means in Greek: Good (eu) + Daemonia (your inner-spirit, soul).

What do you do once you’ve maxed out your happiness stats?

I have had many days where I have maxed out my happiness stats. I felt like a 12/10 in terms of the happiness scale. But once I hit it … it was kind of ‘whatever’. Which made me think:

Perhaps there is a more interesting and noble goal than base happiness.

Beyond happiness

Then this is my thought:

To continually self-develop yourself is the goal.

Not self “improvement” (self improvement assumes that there is something defunct with you). No; there is nothing wrong with you. You are already great. The goal then is to augment your (already existing) awesome to the max and beyond.

What types of self development?

It seems the best form of self development is a combination of almost everything. For me, I like this idea:

Augment your physical and physiological strength (powerlifting, muscle augmentation) to the max, be cut (less than 10% body fat, so you can see your 6-pack), and also augment your artistic, creative, and philosophical spirit to the max.

Then the goal?

Use your own life as an experiment to see how far you can thrive!

ERIC

Not work for work sake but noble work; work you only care for. To not do any ‘bullshit’ work (busy work). I am convinced, much of the modern notions of ‘work’ (vainly checking your email, trudging through your todo list) is things we hate to do. No child likes to do busy work in school. What do kids like to do? Play! To run around! Do fun stuff!

But I still think … work can be good if it is directed towards means and ends you truly care for. Then if the goal is to do more work and to perform more work, some thoughts:

1. Intermittent fasting; no insulin spike or sugar crash during the day. More stable metabolism and creative energy throughout the day. Break your fast in the evening (after you have done all your work) with a victorious and glorious meat-heavy meal!
2. Ruthlessly prune distractions. We all know what our personal kryptonites are when it comes to distractions. Thus just identify your primary distractions and shut them off. For me, this is email and phone. So I almost never use it, or if I will use it, it will be faaaaar later after I do my real work (writing, thinking, making art, making photos, making videos, etc)
3. Get rid of toxic and negative people from your life: Any negative energy is a retarding force in your life. Ruthlessly prune the energy-suckers, the energy-vampires, and those who like to throw their negative shade upon you.

ERIC

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Bitter is better
Throw me a letter and send it into the air
Let it fare
Well
Be
Well
Do well
Do good

Do what you think you should in life; not what you think is ‘right’. There are no wrongs, only compromise. Look through your green eyes, and see it real. Keep turning Ixion’s wheel, and never tire.

Keep flying higher, street fighter glider!
ERIC

Follow your pride
Don’t do anything which hurts it
Your pride is wise; don’t do fake virtues in disguise in desire for praise

Ignore what the nay-sayers say, and tell you what to do. Follow your pride, your pride is wise!

ERIC

If you get millions of views and followers perhaps it is a bad thing? Do millions of people own a Lamborghini? No, but we do got millions of people drinking Starbucks and eating McDonalds. Just because it is popular, it doesn’t mean it is good. Same goes with Android vs iOS/iPhone: Android is far more popular and has far more users, but iOS and iPhone is clearly superior!

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Just be indifferent to shit you don’t care for, but be insanely interested and passionate about what you truly care for.

To extinguish all of your passions and feelings is a bad idea. Towards a critique of Buddhism.

A thought:

I think if we really think about it, Google is just adware.

I think people tend to get too caught up in the whole ‘privacy’ thing, when the real issue here the advertising thing.

Perhaps in the earlier more utopic days, Google was supposed to be a tool to ‘democratize the world’s information and make it useful’. Now the new modus operandi is:

Let us use tactics to maximally increase our advertising revenue, which happens by tracking certain user behaviors to ‘better serve them’ with more ‘accurate’ ads.

Thus my critique of Google is mostly an aesthetic thing; I hate advertisements, pop up ads, banner ads, and almost all forms of ads. Worse when I try to watch a YouTube video and I have to watch some lame ad.

More faith in tradition and the ‘tried and true’ approach than the new for the new sake (as Nassim Taleb calls it ‘neomania’– the mania (craziness) of the new for the sake of the new).

Optimus means “best”. So think to yourself:

How best can I architect or design my site which makes it easy for people to find my website/blog on Google or any search engine or YouTube (which is owned by Google and the #2 search engine on the planet?)

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In today’s brave new world, it seems better to focus on bits than atoms. Why? Bits can travel indefinitely and aren’t constrained by space and time and are infinitely duplicateable. Atoms cannot.

Something I have learned and discovered in life:

The more space for almost anything, or the more space things take up, the worse.

For example:

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Good life philosophy and interesting view on how to make keys:

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Porque me gustaría la gasolina?

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Why is Indian food so insanely good?

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My personal thoughts on the purpose of life:

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Very strange bias for us liberal and left-leaning Americans:

It is considered low class or unintelligent or unethical or “bad” to be patriotic or “proud to be an American”.

Why this bias?

In life we often optimize for the wrong things. We optimize for wealth, money, power and influence.

But why not optimize what *really* matters… life itself?

Simple: focus 90% of your energies on what you truly care for and you are passionate and good at, and invest the other 10% on other ‘side projects’ or ‘side interests’ which might become your strength!

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How I workout at the park (in praise of ghetto workouts):

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It is true that certain things and modes of doing things make us more “productive”. But the better question:

Let us say we become the uber-productive individual. Once we have achieved this state, what do we desire to do with our productivity power?

The iPad: the most under-rated creative and productive tool:

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USB-C rules everything around me. All USB-C is best.

USB-C phone (Android), USB-C laptop (MacBook Pro), and USB-C charging capable camera (RICOH GR III).

USB-C as an ethos, approach, and aesthetic.

To not worry about being “efficient” in life as the ultimate luxury.

For example, to have the luxury to cook and clean yourself (slowly); this is a luxury. It is the poor and enslaved class which needs to have “working lunches” at their desk with their sad microwaveable lunches. True luxury is to do things which aren’t “efficient” (dropping your kids off at school, walking around the block, chatting with a friend unhurriedly, chopping veggies, etc).

Thus my idea:

Opt for an unhurried and “inefficient” life.

And the irony:

Perhaps an inefficient and unhurried life (insouicance in French) is the key to a more “effective” life.

Simple thought when it comes to decision making theory:

The best decisions are no brainers.

You don’t need to rack your brain to make a decision. If the decision isn’t a no brainer, it probably is a bad decision or a sub-optimal decision.

Thus when a certain opportunity comes your way whether it be something you wanna buy (super cheap or great deal), or your job or employment or economic opportunities… go with the no brainer!

ERIC

Fiat currency is faith based currency on the US Dollar which technically has zero intrinsic worth. But considering America has the US Dollar Hegemony on the planet this means:

As long as America has the world’s most “lethal” military presence, the US Dollar will always be the primary global currency.

Even consider when we are evaluating and judging cryptocurrencies we peg it and judge it in the US Dolllar amount when judging the “price” of Bitcoin (in US Dollars).

RGB just died (rip). She will definitely have a great legacy and be remembered as a great individual.

Which makes me wonder– how do we want to be remembered and for what? And why does it even matter?

Legacy.

Street photography is good for the heart, soul, and beyond:

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The best approach is the HACKER ETHOS:

You can control, hack, edit, modify, and transfigure reality to your liking!

Or simply said:

Just hack it.

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“Good” and “bad” don’t exist nor should they exist from a philosophical or pragmatic sense. Better to think of things, companies, people, and technologies as effective or ineffective.

Figure out what you are really really good at (your ‘archimedes lever‘) in life, and then focus all your energies and efforts on maximizing and exploiting it!

For me, this is blogging, photography, and teaching. I focus all my efforts on this, as a means to maximize my ability to impact society, others, and the globe.

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Let us not be fooled and suckered:

Just because you’re wealthy and just because you’ve made a lot of money doing x, y, z doesn’t mean you’re wise.

For example, we look at Bill Gates (the uber-nerd) and Warren Buffett as the heralds and sages of knowledge and wisdom. But … if we really look at them … what is there to admire about them? Bill Gates just kind of got (pseudo) lucky by being able to package MS-DOS with Windows and Microsoft, which made him a quadrillionaire. And we all know that Microsoft Windows is (by far) an inferior product compared to MacOS. I am currently writing this on a boot camp version of Windows 10 and holy moly … Windows 10 really sucks.

Why make art?

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I am convinced — there is no greater physiological joy than sleeping well. If you could give me a quadrillion dollars in the agreement that I would sleep shitty and poorly and only 2 hours a night for the rest of my life or make me a pauper but sleep like a god every night, I’d choose the poverty life.

Some pragmatic thoughts on hacking and perfecting your sleep. It isn’t guaranteed to work for you, but it certainly works for me:

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What am I, ERIC KIM? Technically I am a photography blogger.

What is a photography blogger? Many things:

1. I blog about how to make better photos
2. I blog on the theory and philosophy of photography
3. I blog about random stuff which interests me and I just attach random photos
4. I like blogging and photography and everything in-between.

So how does one become a photography blogger? Some thoughts:

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Blogging was a mainstream thing when I was in middle school and high school. Programming and computer programming/coding yet wasn’t a “thing”. Computer Science (when I was in college) wasn’t really that popular as a major (it was all about pre-med, pre-law, business, engineering, etc).

And the interesting thing: becoming a blogger has afforded me a far more interesting life and mode of living and entrepreneurship than had I just became a good computer programmer or coder. Unfortunately all my friends who studied Computer Science or became computer programmers/coders are kinda stuck in jobs (big tech companies) that they are either dissatisfied about, feel indifferent to, feel “meh” about, or they’re just trapped.

Which makes me wonder:

Perhaps the world needs more bloggers and individuals who share their personal perspective and view than more computer programmers?

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