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The real way: video.

Get it like EK:

“Its all about progression”— JAY Z:

One weird thing in modern day times; women are permitted to show off their behind, their chest, cleavage, all sorts of body parts, but for some reason, men are not permitted to show off their crotch bulge?

If you catch it or witness it, don’t tolerate it. Confront them.

Even if you’re not sure if it’s directed at you or not, still, instigate.

To be physical!

Living with some people — just annoying like mosquitos.

We don’t disdain mosquitos, we still hate them and find them annoying. But the secret is keep your distance from them, or cover up, or put on bug spray!

And when you do and will get a mosquito bite, you find it insanely annoying but eventually you get over it.

How does modern day capitalism work? Women are sold as objects, and men purchase things and objects in order to “attract“ women.

The whole fitness and muscle industry, supplement industry, car and muscle car industry, why would somebody buy a Lamborghini or Ferrari? To “attract“ women, who ironically enough don’t care.

Social horror vaccui.

A slightly bizarre modern day phenomenon; why is it that the most modern day pornography is focused on women, not men, who is the more beautiful sex?

Masculinity if you’re a man, is great.

To me, real and productive masculinity has to do with going to the gym, building courage, and also building virtue.

980 pounds — only a man can do this.

Everyone wants to be happy, even our best friend Aristotle said it is the one thing that men seek for the sake of itself.

What what is happiness? I think I got the answer; walking is happiness. Any sort of life, lifestyle, lifestyle approach which allows you to maximize your walking is happiness.

Strategies

I cannot speak for most people, because I don’t have a “real job“. That is, I don’t have a workplace, an office, or a place I must typically commute to.

However Cindy does.

A simple thought that I had is if you have the option, spend extra money which affords you the privilege to walk. For example, I wonder if in fact, shelling out the extra thousand, 2000, 3000, 4000, $5000, maybe even $10,000 a month would be positively beneficial to give you the privilege of walking.

It seems that the modern-day strategy that people partake in is that they sacrifice time in foolish ways. They decide to live further out, further away from work, in the suburbs, which means that they must spend more time driving in order to get to their workplace, in order to have the privilege of having a bigger house, a cheaper house, a smaller mortgage, cheaper rent etc.

Enemies to happiness?

Being forced to be indoors against your own will, this is cruel.

Also, being forced to be stuck in a car, in a bus, in an Uber, even if you had your own private driver, this is cruel.

For example, I once read an interview with Jony Ive, this is when he was still at Apple, in which he would commute for almost 2 hours a day (one way, so 4 hours every day in total), going from a desirable area of San Francisco to the Apple office in Cupertino, having a private driver chauffeur him in his Bentley,and I suppose Jony would just be in the backseat, doing work on his iPhone, iPad, MacBook laptop, etc. If I was Joni and truly committed, I would not make this foolish decision. I would literally just rent a hotel or an apartment or a house literally right next to Apple campus, or who knows, be like Elon Musk and just sleep in a sleeping bag in the office.

However, if you were forced to be sedentary or sitting, for four hours a day, or five hours a day, even if you were the backseat of a Rolls-Royce, a Bentley, Lamborghini, a McLaren, whatever; would it be worth it? No. Even as a thought experiment, if you had a totally maxed out Tesla model S plaid, or a Tesla model X plaid, with 100% auto pilot, assuming the technology was flawless, and you could do other stuff while being autonomously driven around, would you still want to be forced to be sedentary, for 4-5 hours a day? No.

Can happiness be purchased?

You cannot buy happiness. You can buy insanely great coffee, ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE, 100% fine robusta which physiologically speaking, will give you a marvelous happiness bump and boost, but ultimately, beyond coffee, happiness cannot be bought.

Things that money can do which can assist you and aid you in happiness include,

1. Using your money to buy a gym membership, or a yoga, CorePower membership
2. Using your money to buy beef and meat, either at Costco or the Costco Business Center. I recommend the beef ribs, or the beef tri-tip!
3. Using your money to pay for rent closer to your workplace, which allows you to have a 100% walking pedestrian lifestyle.
4. Having a situation which allows you to work outside, outdoors, without having to be stuck indoors or inside an office.
5. Buy an iPad Pro, the 11 inch smaller one, no accessories. The ultimate photo viewing device, and productivity device, it has brought me 1000 times more joy than any iPhone.

Physiology for the sake of what?

There’s a strange bias in today’s world that we have to somehow maximize our productivity, in order for the sake to work more, contribute more to society, “make a difference“.
For example, the modern-day notion of going to the gym and working out and exercising, the only thought is this:

It is critical for you to exercise daily, because it will make you healthy and healthier, in order for you to keep working more.

The reason why this line of thinking is so twisted is that it is for the sake of maximizing your work capacity, not your own personal happiness. Man is not permitted to be happy for the sake of being happy.

Happiness is also a flawed end goal

The other day, I was so insanely happy, maybe a 50 out of 10. But at the end of the day, happiness is a bit inconsequential. For me what is more critical is having the opportunity, physiological energy to pursue my creative tasks. Whether it be reviewing my photos, writing and blogging, thinking, producing knowledge, sending out email newsletters, etc.

Philosophy paths

Peter Limberg— shout out to him for his great “Minimum Viable Philosophy” essay. I like his tagline, “Less Foolish”.

A cool trend I see is the trend towards philosophy. Why? This is what I think:

“Self development” is just philosophy in (modern day capitalistic) disguise.

And what do I mean by this? Ultimately any sort of business, self development book is centered around a certain philosophy. And the book typically preaches some sort of strategy and technique in order to achieve that philosophical end.

Don’t be a dummy.

In life, there is no such thing as virtue, or sin, vice. To me, it is all about wisdom, knowledge, becoming less foolish, and “not being a dummy.”

I like the word dummy, because it is not so serious. For example, we joke around with kids to not be a dummy. Maybe this is a better path for us.

You should start your own philosophy blog

Oh and today’s world of ChatGPT, AI assisted writing, the question,

How do you know if something was written by ChatGPT, or a real human being?

For the most part you can’t. However, anything written by ERIC KIM passes the Turing test. Why? The way I talk is non-standard, the way I write is genuine, and ultimately I think the future of writing and thinking is predicated around philosophy. That is, there is already enough information and wisdom on the Internet on how to do anything. But not much information on why do XYZ. Or, should we do XYZ.

For example, I firmly believe that if your goal is to become superhuman, eating beef and meat is critical. But I philosophical question is should we eat beef and meat? Even if it is bad for the planet?

For example, if someone tells me, “Eric, you shouldn’t eat meat because it is bad for the planet“. But what if I say, “I know that eating meat is bad for the planet, but eating beef is best for me. So I don’t care.” Is one permitted to talk like this? This is the task and role of philosophy and ethics.

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Hygiene?

The etymology of hygiene, in ancient Greek is the art of health.

In modern day times, hygiene as a concept has fallen out of vogue. Why? In the states, a lot of the modernized westernized world, we take it for granted. There is regular trash pick ups, we have clean albeit not too tasty running tapwater, and mostly clean air. And also, most foods we buy or eat, whether it be at the grocery store or a restaurant will not cause us food poisoning.

Food hygiene is very underrated as a concept. We moderns prefer tasty or good tasting food, we don’t really care much for hygiene anymore.

Hygiene as a metaphorical or philosophical concept

Here is where I find hygiene critical; some people, mentally, physically or unwell, their mental hygiene is poor, and their physical physiological bodily hygiene is also probably poor. Used as a metaphor.

If you see weird homeless people on the street, cracked out, smelling bad, do you distain the way they act? No. You just keep your distance, and run away.

In the zone?

Another thing that I’ve discovered is when I’m in the zone, I get so focused on the task at hand that when other people say random maybe possibly demeaning stuff to you, I don’t even have to forcibly ignore them, I just literally can’t hear them, I hear them literally, but because I’m so focused at the task at hand, what they said or intended doesn’t upset me.

What does it even mean to be happy?

I was doing some research on the etymology of happy, and no one is really quite certain where that word comes from. There are certain theories, like “happen”— fortunate, happen chance, hap— chance, luck, fortune, hampa— good luck, chance, from Proto indo European *kob— which means good fortune, prophecy, to bend, bow, fit in, work, succeed.

So why does this matter?

It seems that nowadays, English is the dominant world language. And if we operate in a certain linguistic manner, perhaps the common day words we use should be used with more precision and clarity.

For example, John Stuart Mill, a lot of the early American developers preach notions of the “pursuit of happiness“. But the issue is, if you can’t even define happiness, or if the notion of happiness is a modern day one, then perhaps this is not a good goal or path.

I say instead of seeking to be “happy“, maybe it is better to seek to be strong, well, powerful, and in a great mood. It seems that also, one of my passions being thinking, having the opportunity and clarity of thought is supreme to me.

Now what?

I still think certainly at the end of the day, it is fine to use every day words colloquially. So for example, what contributes a great life to me?

First, artistic and creative productivity. To me this pertains to photography, both shooting and making photos, reviewing photos, enjoying my photos, sharing my photos, thinking about photos, and the aesthetic joy that I get from looking at my own photos.

Second, philosophical and thinking power; this means, I have a passion for thinking, and thinking interesting thoughts. A life without thoughts is not a life worth having.

Third, the health, strength, growth, and muscles of my family. This pertains to my son, and also my wife. And of course certainly myself. Other day I took Seneca to the jungle gym, and at two years seven months old, the pure undiluted joy that he gets from running across the suspension bridge and the jungle gym is pure bliss to me.

Also, witnessing his muscular development, and how much pride and joy that I get watching him eat 100% grass fed ground beef, in super mini burger patties for him, and also him eating while you thinly sliced meat that we buy from H Mart. Seeing Seneca consume beef, and building his muscles brings me great joy.

As a tangent, I think a lot of this modern-day notions of child development are skewed. Rather than trying to educate your kids, make them brain smart, I think a better goal and path is instead, to develop their muscles.

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Seeking happiness towards what ends?

First and foremost, as biological beings, I think perhaps it is critical for us to first seek to be physically, physiologically strong and well. An optimization towards physiological well-being is a good one.

Why? It is the necessary path. Without physiological strength and well-being, you can’t do anything. For example, it doesn’t matter if you have $100 billion in the bank, if you are physically or physiologically unwell, if you only sleep two hours a night, if you have no muscles or hotspots in your body, Nothing can be done.

Willpower is not real. Muscle power is real.

Society living is the best living

What is the point of money? Having the privilege of being around other human beings. This, paying rent, and buying beef as well. But beyond this, the additional utility of money is slim; once you have your digital camera, your Internet Wi-Fi connection, your iPad Pro etc., what else do you need? Not much.

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Think more with KIM

If you’re hungry to think more, deeper and further, think with me at one of my upcoming workshops:

1. CONQUER STREET PHOTOGRAPHY IN PHILLY OCTOBER 14th
2. Discover your creative mission in life — DOWNTOWN LA, NOVEMBER 4th

New visions, new concepts

I like the idea of a hybrid approach; for example, both using liquid chalk and using powdered chalk, to maximize?

Another reason why I am such a big fan of the Prius, and even the Prius prime; having the upside of both gas and electric seems wise. They will afford you more power of convenience and flexibility in your life.

Don’t seek approval from others, because you’re the one bestowing approval

Seneca at 2 years 7 months old:

ERIC KIM COFFEE: THE COFFEE FIT FOR THE GODS.

When I accidentally dropped my iPad Pro, the screen cracked, and I guess the face ID sensor got a little bit messed up, after I sprayed it with some sort of alcohol screen cleaning supply. As a result, it broke the face ID thing; instead of having to annoyingly punch in the password passcode every single time, I just turned it off. Life is much better now.

For example, if you’re going to do e-commerce, just have the site be 100% focused on e-commerce.

For example, at least on WordPress, there are certain blog themes which are optimized for blogging, and other ones which are optimized for e-commerce. Just choose one or the other.

ERIC KIM PRODUCTS

The ultimate privilege is having the privilege to walk. Also as thought, what are clothes which encourage walking? I think tight compression clothing, whether it be half legging compressions, or full legging compression tights. For example, I really love my Lululemon license to train compression tights, both the half tight variant, as well as the full legging. And instead of having pockets, just carrying a small bag on the side instead.

I really love the iPhone SE, in terms of the fact that it is cheap, insanely lightweight, and relatively small; but I think I cannot stand as the screen sucks. Anytime I look at it or use it or read something on it, it puts me in a bad mood.

One of the big upside of re-inheriting our old 2010 Prius is that a few years ago, it was recalled for some paint issues, which meant that the whole car was repainted brand new. As a result, the pearl white, sparkly paint they painted it with is insanely beautiful. Inspecting it closely, it glitters a different angles, with hints of cyan and magenta. This puts me an insanely good mood.

Why matte black cars?

My critique; I think any sort of vinyl wrap, on the car is really really ugly. Why? May be a purity thing; I’m more of the old-school, prefer to sand it down, apply primer, and apply paint. Also a funny thing is I remember, my desire was to have paint on the car which was shiny, a car in which when you actually waxed it, and polished it, it would shine. As a kid, my dream was to have a shiny red car. Either a shiny red car, with white rims, for example the Integra type R and red with white rims, or a red 1991 Sentra SER, two-door coupe, with gold or bronze rims.

Black cars are a modern day preference?

As a kid, black was not a desirable thing. Black as a kid, always looked ugly to me on cars, especially the fact how easily dirty it would get, and how quickly the paint would corrode in the sun.

Also, in terms of clothing, kids were all black everything clothing were the weird goth emo kids at school. And the preference was towards White; white Russell hoodies, white case with sneakers, simple and plain white T-shirts. And jeans, preferably really dark indigo denim. Not black.

Currently in Sun in southern California, the sun is out, really brighten strong, and I feel phenomenal.

Some sun thoughts:

First and foremost, it does seem that getting some sort of Tessa solar panels for your house is a good idea, especially if you live somewhere with really really strong sun. For example, southern California, Texas, Arizona, Utah, etc. The promise of being able to power all of your electricity need to be at your solar panels at home, and also charge a Tesla seems like a phenomenal idea.

The reason I’m going all in on Tesla, at least with my standardized funds, a.k.a. anything that is not my crypto is that my brother-in-law Gabe said it well to me; Tesla is going to become the new energy broker, which will run the whole planet.

Certainly there are lots of criticisms and critiques that lithium ion batteries are bad for the planet blah blah blah. But still if we can move towards the future which allows for 100% off the grid living, this seems like a good idea.

VIDEO

HOW THE REAL GODS GET IT:

Now that I’ve conquered the gym, now what?

You still need a laptop or desktop!

Video

Podcast

980 pound atlas lift and beyond. 1,000 pounds incoming!

980 pounds:

10 PLATES, A 10, AND A 2.5 POUNDER (ATTACHED TO THE TEXAS POWER SQUAT BAR, VIA ERIC KIM CLIP):

Concurrently use your iPad Pro, MacBook Pro, and iPhone all at the same time?

The ability to do multiple things at once?

This is what motivates me.

In America, why aren’t there any parks which are optimized for adults?