For example watch the BAYWATCH trailer … he ain’t actually that impressive? Why are his legs so puny and chicken leg looking?

Even the poster image, he’s not that buff?

How society is so hypocritical:

On one hand, society says it isn’t virtuous to show off your body whatever

But when you watch movies, movie trailers like BAYWATCH 2017 — the body is glorified?

Beach people are happier?

Humor is critical?

Think Malibu?

The true way to judge a man?

Funny things:

1. The M2 chip in it is already outdated? M3 chip is already out.
2. External battery 2 hours — actually a very good idea!
3. Seems like a good idea for really long solo flights?
4. Zeiss adjustable prescription glasses … actually a very good idea for eye glass wearers like myself!

Ideas

For marketing — make the marketing content and images *not* images, but animated GIF’s to show what virtual reality really looks like? Static images show nothing.

Also — this thing should be used while standing, *NOT* sitting?

The philosophical

1. Can you use this thing when outside, off the grid… in the real world?
2. Will this thing help you spend *MORE* time outside or *LESS* time outside?

Trees are very under-rated?

Eric Kim’s approach to starting in the fields of philosophy, photography, and entrepreneurship is characterized by a mix of practical application and innovative thinking. His work often emphasizes the value of stoicism, not just as a philosophical concept but as a practical guide for everyday life. He views stoicism in a modern context, focusing on how it can help deal with fear, uncertainty, and adversity. Kim’s appreciation for the stoics, especially Seneca, is evident in his work and personal life, even naming his first son after Seneca oai_citation:1,START HERE – ERIC KIM.

In photography, especially street photography, he advises learning from the masters and provides resources for beginners to understand and engage with the art form. His website features a plethora of information and tutorials on street photography, offering insights into his techniques and philosophy oai_citation:2,Start Here – ERIC KIM.

Kim’s journey to becoming a recognized figure in street photography and entrepreneurship is marked by his passion for photography, effective use of online platforms for sharing his work, conducting workshops, community engagement, and an entrepreneurial mindset. His content is innovative and often unorthodox, blending his perspectives on life, art, and philosophy, particularly stoicism oai_citation:3,How did Eric Kim become Eric Kim? – ERIC KIM.

For those looking to start in similar domains, Kim’s journey and resources offer a comprehensive guide, blending practical advice with philosophical insights. His approach is unique in its combination of art, philosophy, and business acumen, making it a valuable resource for aspiring photographers and entrepreneurs.

Eric Kim’s approach to becoming a Stoic involves several key practices and principles, drawing from both traditional Stoic philosophy and his personal experiences. Here’s a summary of his advice:

1. Focus on Effort, Not Results: In activities like street photography, Kim emphasizes the importance of concentrating on the process and effort, rather than getting fixated on the outcome.
2. Prepare for the Worst-Case Scenario: He suggests always being mentally prepared for the worst. This mindset helps in mitigating stress and fear, as you’re already prepared for adverse outcomes.
3. Memento Mori – Remember Death: Kim advocates for the Stoic practice of frequently contemplating mortality. This helps in cherishing every moment and focusing on what’s truly important in life.
4. Utilize Misfortunes: He believes in transforming misfortunes into advantages. When facing challenges or setbacks, he suggests asking how these experiences could benefit you in the long run.
5. Read Key Stoic Philosophers: Kim recommends reading works of Stoic philosophers like Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus to gain deeper insights into Stoic principles.
6. Stoic Training: He proposes practices like taking cold showers, which serve as a form of mental and physical resilience training.
7. Stoic Sayings and Equipment: Kim shares various Stoic sayings and suggests using specific equipment to foster a Stoic lifestyle, such as weight lifting chalk and durable clothing for physical activities.
8. Stoicism in Practice: He offers various strategies and ideas under ‘Stoicism 101’ to practically apply Stoic principles in everyday life.

Eric Kim’s approach to Stoicism is deeply intertwined with his experiences and philosophies in street photography and personal development. His methods reflect a modern interpretation of Stoicism, aimed at building mental strength, resilience, and a focused approach to life oai_citation:1,HOW TO BECOME A STOIC – ERIC KIM oai_citation:2,How to Become a Stoic Photographer – ERIC KIM oai_citation:3,How to Become a Stoic – ERIC KIM oai_citation:4,Becoming Stoic – ERIC KIM oai_citation:5,How to Become a Stoic – ERIC KIM.

Hmmm… how should one approach things then?

STOICISM 101

STOIC VLOG

Introduction to Stoicism 

Something I have been meaning to write or create or do is like some sort of book, ebook, pamphlet, or introductory primer to stoicism. I really think that stoicism is probably one of the most useful and philosophical models to live normal every day real life. Yet, I haven’t really found a good instructional guide on it, especially when I was self teaching it to myself.

Consider this a practical primer, cutting through the BS:

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What does stoicism mean? 

Stoicism, stoic, the stoa in ancient Greece– essentially the stoa was like some sort of portico, patio, pillar, outside, essentially a spot where guys would just hang out, talk shop, talk philosophy, etc.  

I think about the show “Hey Arnold” in which I was raised with… the notion of “stoop kid“, the notion of a stoop is that in a lot of cities, especially the east coast in New York, you have this little stoop or porch, stairs that go outside your front door… and you could just hang out there, engage in social and neighborhood life etc.

The new stoa? 

One of my happiest moments was when I was living in Providence Rhode Island, and then COVID-19 hit. Everything was closed, besides the park. I can still go to the park, hang out, workout, do chin ups– I learned how to do muscle ups, more bodyweight calisthenics stuff, and also… I had a lot of fun with this “rock toss“ challenge and workout… in the middle of the park was a huge ass rock and huge ass stone, and every single day I would go there pick it up, and then eventually work out with it; throwing it around for fun, doing overhead presses with it, clean and jerks, squats, and eventually I would just throw it around for fun. Funny enough it might have been the most fit I was in my life… this was the true “functional” fitness.

The inspiration — Hector lifting an insanely massive stone (barely 2 strong men could lift it)… using it to break down the door of the ships of the other side.

Open air, open sun concept

Anyways, the reason why that period of covid was so good is that it was in the middle of beautiful Providence Rhode Island summer, so nice and bright and warm and lovely… and one of the good things was going to the park was like an open forum, a new anatheum for a lot of really cool guys to come, hang out, talk shop, go topless and shirtless, workout and hang out.

I met some really interesting people during that period of time. I met some guys who were really cool. For example, one guy I met was in the US military Navy, I think he was training to be a Navy seal or Delta force or something. Another guy in some sort of ROTC training, another cool guy from the hood, and also I would say I probably met half a dozen friendly drug dealers there. And of course a lot of people who believed in conspiracy theories; really friendly, a little weird, but overall good guys.

Anyways, one of the biggest benefits of hanging out at that outdoor park, open air, nothing but green grass, the beautiful sun and the fitness equipment was that I think having this sort of open air environment is actually very conducive to socializing, thinking and thought, and pro social behavior. My theory about a lot of modern day antisocial behavior has to do with the structures which enclose us. For example, almost universally most guys at the gym are extremely antisocial. Why? My theory is that because most gyms have closed, cramped narrow ceilings, and do not have access to natural light, or outside space.

Cramped indoor spaces promote antisocial behavior.

The only good gym I went to which was interesting was the golds gym in Venice, which has this really big outdoor workout area. I think this is much more natural and more fun and better; to be able to work out directly outside outdoors, with your shirt off.

Who is this philosophy for?

Stoics, stoicism — it was originally I think codified by this guy named Zeno, and over time he picked up some followers. Essentially the whole thing happened organically; Zeno would first share his thinking on philosophy ethics and pragmatic ways to deal with other people and the downsides of life, he built a following, and then his followers would propagate the thoughts and start their own little schools of thoughts, their own little stoic clubs.

What is “real” stoicism?

Would I like about stoicism is how loosey goosey it is. It is kind of like zen, or taoism… it is not really quantified as a religion, or a strict moral order. In fact, a lot of the ancients stoics would meditate on random stuff like cosmology, natural sciences like Seneca, how volcanoes worked or whatever. I think nowadays in today’s world, we focus primarily on the pragmatic side; how to deal with fear, uncertainty, downsides etc.

So how did I discover stoicism?

I think I might’ve first learned about stoicism from Nassim Taleb and his ANTIFRAGILE book. I was curious, and my curiosity went to deep. To quote NASSIM TALEB and the Venetian saying “The ocean goes deeper, the deeper you wade into it.”

I literally consumed every single book I could find on stoicism, even the obscure ones. Funny enough, a lot of the stoic thinkers tried to claim other philosophers as being stoic, like Seneca did with Diogenes the cynic. 

Cynic, cynicism, actually comes from the word canine, the dog. Diogenes was considered the “dog” philosopher, first used as a pejorative, but ultimately Diogenes reappropriated that title for fun! He saw dogs as tough, almost like wild wolves, rather than seeing them as a negative thing.

Even Achilles when he was raging against king Agamemnon, he called him “dog faced“ as a heaping insult.

Who is worth reading?

First, Seneca. Seneca the younger, his dad was called Seneca the elder.

In fact, this is such a big deal because Cindy and I named our first son, Seneca, directly after the stoic philosopher. This is true soul in the game; if you name your kid after your favorite philosopher, certainly it is a sign that you really liked that philosopher, or found them impactful.

The reason why I really like Seneca the stoic philosopher is because he had real connections to real reality. What that means is he wasn’t just on the sidelines; he actually existed in the real world, engaged in real politics, was even advisor to the emperor Nero, the bad one, who eventually low-key coerced Seneca to commit suicide, in a manly, dignified manner.

I think this was because maybe… there was actually a plan to overthrow Nero, and essentially Nero found out. 

What makes Seneca so good?

I really like Seneca because his writing is accessible, practical and pragmatic, and interesting.

A lot of thinkers tend to lack connections to real reality, I have no tolerance for boring philosophers to talk about metaphysics, which is things which are not physical. Like thoughts ideas, the universe, electricity and energy, strange phenomenon and conspiracy theories on ghosts, “energy” whatever.

For a long time, I would hear the term “metaphysics” being thrown around, and I had zero idea what it actually meant. 

Meta– on top of. Or nestled within.

Physics — the physical, physical phenomenon like gravity, first principles.

The reason why metaphysics philosophers tend to be a bunch of losers is that they are all weak and anemic, nerds or geeks or weaklings who seem to have some sort of physiological degeneracy, which encourages them to opine or talk or think about impractical things, superficial things.

Personally speaking, I think philosophy must be practical. 

Practical, praxis, practice — to do!

The Spartan, Zen Stoic, demigod ideal

I have a very funny ideal; the general idea is that your body looks like a demigod, and your physiology is out of control. The general idea is one must be tall, strong, highly muscular, low body fat percentage, I’m not exactly sure what my body fat percentage is, but maybe it’s around 5%.

Also, physical fitness is critical to any stoic. My ideal is to walk 50 miles a day, eat 20 pounds of meat like Milo of Croton a day. And also, abstinence from silly things like media, alcohol, drugs, marijuana etc.

Trust no thinker who does drugs!

Even our best friend Nietzsche said that coffee was bad, because it would make people dark and gloomy. He encouraged 100% cocoa powder instead. 

You let the drugs talk I let my soul talk ayy! – Kendrick Lamar

Simple technique:

First, look at a picture or a portrait or a full body shot, ideally topless of the artist, philosopher or thinker or individual… then judge their thoughts later.

Why? My theory is this: the thoughts of an individual is hugely affected by their bodily physiology.

For example, an extreme example: if somebody is locked inside a solitary confinement cell, and not permitted to go outside for years, but, he had a pen and pad and would jot down some thoughts… Would be the quality of these thoughts? Certainly dark and morose.

Why does stoicism matter? 

In today’s world, why does it matter, what is the significance of stoicism, etc.?

First and foremost, I think we are living in a troubling time, especially with the advent of modern day internet based media and advertising. I think 99% of what is propagated on the internet is fear mongering, and what is hate? Hate is just fear.

The first thought on stoicism is that it is just fear conquering. What I discovered about street photography, is that 99% of it is conquering your fears. Conquering your fears of upsetting other people, getting in some sort of verbal or physical altercation etc. In fact my bread and butter workshop is my conquering your fears and street photography workshop, the workshop which is still interesting to me even after a decade.

Why is this so important? I think it is rooted in almost everything; conquering your fears is rooted in entrepreneurship, innovation, risktaking and real life.

Even my speculation in crypto. 99.9% of crypto speculation is just balls. Having the balls to make big bets, and when things go south, knowing how to master your emotions.

A simple extra I have is this: just imagine it will all go down to zero.

It was useful because when I was in college, my sophomore year I got really into trading stocks, and I eventually lost my whole life savings, maybe around $3500 USD, and some bad penny stock which I actually misread the financials… the whole time I thought the company was making a profit, but actually it was taking a loss. I actually didn’t know that if profits are written in parentheses, it means a loss.

It was funny because my initial start as an investor was back in high school, I bought some Adobe stock when I was a high school junior, and also some mutual funds, which both went up after about 4-5 years.

Also I remember in elementary school computer class, when I was in the sixth grade in Bayside Queens, there was some sort of stock stimulation trading game, and actually it was funny… the kids who made the most money and were the most successful just put 100% of everything into Apple, note this is when we were only 12 years old, and I was born in 1988.

Stoicism and capitalism?

Funny enough, it seems that stoicism actually plays well with capitalism. Why? According to modern day capitalist thinking, the best way to approach life is to be objective, strong, stoic, unemotional, logical and rational.

Also, with modern day media there is so much fear mongering in the news, about some sort of global armageddon, global financial ruin, etc. I call it “fear porn”.

Therefore stoicism as a mindset is useful to think and position your mind in such a way that you could consider that life is all upside, no downside.

In fact, if I could summarize stoicism in one sentence, it is that life is all upside, no downside. Inspired by NASSIM TALEB.

Sex and Stoicism

So, is stoicism useful to you if you’re a man or a woman? Does it matter?

The good thing is I think it could apply to both sexes. Conquering sexism and social pressures is useful if you’re woman, and also if you’re a man.

Also, gender is social. Lot of the expectations set on us by society is socialized and gamed to a certain degree.

Stoic strategies 

First, we got to unchain ourselves from modern day ethics and morality. I believe that all modern day philosophy and thinking and ethics and religion is bad.

For example, the notion of turning the other cheek is a patently bad one. Why did Jesus turn his cheek? It is because he lacked on army.

Also, philosophically I think we should put no trust in Socrates. I thought which has puzzled me for a long time was this “Why was Socrates so ugly?

Monster in face, monster in soul.

I think Socrates was a degenerate, and he lacked any sort of real power. Therefore he turned logic and rationality into his terrorizing weapon (via Nietzsche). Back in the day, you didn’t need logic or rationality to have things your way, you simply was able to dictate that which you wanted to pause it, because you had a military force behind you. Just think about Machiavelli and IL PRINCIPE– the reality of being a mercurial prince, king, and military leader is hard, stoic, “immoral”. But ultimately it all comes down to war, conquest, the military.

Trust nobody who uses rationality or logic as their tyrannizing weapon. 

In fact, I believe that all should have the body and strength of some sort of super soldier. Essentially look like all the guys from the movie 300, this is our ideal.

Demigod physique. 

What has helped me

1. Allow yourself to be a bad, immortal, “evil” person. When you decide to adopt an unorthodox way of thinking and living, you’re going to rub some feathers the wrong way. And truth be told, even if you act in a strange vibrant way… At worse you’re only “mildly” annoying other people.
2. For good inspirations, I think the best stoic writers and thinkers include Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius and also the humor of the cynic philosopher Diogenes. I would even posit the idea that one could consider Alexander the Great as a stoic. Why? When you’re trying to create an empire, and you always have your life on the line, certainly this takes a stoic mindset. Also, let us think and consider that Alexander the Great had a copy of the Iliad by his bedstand, it was the only book he traveled with during his military tours.
3. Imagine the worst possible case scenario, and backtrack: Apparently even NASSIM TALEB would do this when he was a trader; every single day when he would go to his trading desk, he would assume that his investments would all go to zero, and if that wasn’t the case every single day, it was just upside. Therefore for myself, I just think to myself very simple; imagine like I got zero dollars, zero money, and literally all I need is meat, a Wi-Fi connection and I’m good. 
4. Live like a poor person: The notion of “debasing“ the coin or the currency is the general idea that you are not a coward in regards to money. The best way to think about money is like a social tool; I think money is actually just codified labor. If you want people to clean bathrooms, run the cashiers stand, you have to promise them money. Even Seneca said the upsides of simulated poverty; essentially living like a poor person, or even a homeless person when you don’t need to… is the ultimate position to be in. Why? True freedom of spirit and soul; as a philosopher thinker writer or whatever… you cannot be “canceled”, because there is nothing to cancel. As long as you could pay your rent, buy meat at Costco, and publish your thoughts to your own self hosted website blog, and pay your server fee, you have 100% freedom. And also, still… America is the best place to be because there is true freedom of speech and expression, you don’t want to be a trillionaire but not be able to say what’s really on your mind. And I think this is the big issue with entertainers, actors, media people… as long as you’re signed to a contract, you don’t run your own production company, or, you’re still a slave to money… you’re not really going to see what’s really on your mind. Why is it that the Rock cannot say anything bad about China, or Tibet? Because he is still enslaved by the media corporation. New slaves by Kanye West.

And this is the true courage of Kanye West; he literally put everything on the line, and even lost his spouse and I think maybe his kids? All for the sake of revealing inequities. 

“I throw these Maybach keys fucking c’est la vie! I know that we the new slaves.”- Ye

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Stoic training

The fun thing about stoicism is that you could just make it up as you go, devise your own strategies and whatever.

“Fucking c’est la vie!” My favorite Kanye West line.

Essentially the general idea is that in life, one should not take things too seriously. Laughter is golden, I forget the philosopher who was called the laughing philosopher… Democritus?; better to laugh about the follies of human beings rather than to be dark and morose about it.

Also, thoughts from the Odyssey; if you look far enough  into the future, everything becomes comedic and hilarious.

So when you’re in some sort of bad situation, just think to yourself “Perhaps one day, 20 or 30 years from now… I will look back at this and just laugh!” It will just be humorous.

Honestly, laughter, and kind of being able to joke about things might be the best way to live life and deal with setbacks. 

Modern day ailments

Problems in modern day life:

1. Too much time spent indoors, not enough time out in the sun. Perhaps it is better to be out outside all day, and joyful, even with the risk of getting skin cancer or whatever… rather than to be indoors, scared, weak and anemic. Differences between if you’re a man or a woman, but still… the most beautiful skin has a sunkissed, olive color tone; the true privilege is having a full body tan. 
2. Get chatGPT, the paid premium one. And use the image generation AI art tool DALL-E. People pay therapists to just speak their mind, and get some sort of sounding board. I actually think it’s much better to chat with AI instead; because it will not judge you, and ultimately what is a therapist anyways? A therapist is just a mirror, a sounding board for you to verbalize and flesh out your thoughts. Often when we talk about our problems, 90% of the issues go away because once we verbalize it, we feel much better about ourselves. The next thing I’m going to do is build some sort of therapy bot. 
3. Not enough walking: I have never met anybody who walks 30,000 steps a day and is depressed. Even my friend Jimmy, who works as a US postal worker delivering the mail, he walks around 30,000 steps a day and is always bright cherry and jovial. I think this is also where people who hike a lot or walk a lot in nature are so happy; when you’re able to walk around a lot, and zen out… you just feel much better. My simple suggestion is when you go on a hike or a walk in nature or even in the city… leave your phone at home, or locked inside your glove compartment, and don’t bring any headphones or speakers or Apple watches or whatever. Just bring along your camera, and enjoy. My personal ideal is the bear lifestyle; walking 50 miles a day. 

Real stoics don’t call themselves Stoics?

A funny thing I have learned is that when you call something something, it isn’t that.

For example, if someone calls something a “luxury car”, it ain’t. For example, a true modern day luxury car is maybe a Tesla, but Tesla never calls itself a luxury car. Also the ultimate luxury technology company is probably Apple… but Apple is very intelligent and not calling themselves a luxury brand.

A pro tip is when it comes to websites, read the alternative text, the header text, the stuff that shows up in the tab of your browser window. If the website, the automotive retailer tries to market themselves as a “luxury” brand, typically it is actually a sign that it isn’t a luxury brand it isn’t luxury brand.

Thought: what are some good examples of true luxury brands which don’t overly calls itself luxury? 

In someways, we can think and consider stoicism as our new luxury. In fact, having luxury, luxury of mind and soul… and luxury of freedom of speech, isn’t this the ultimate luxury?

When somebody asked Diogenes the cynic; “What is the best human good”? He said “Freedom of speech, speaking your mind, having the power to see whatever is on your mind.”

In fact, my current joy is becoming more and more free talking, and free riding. What that means is this; I’m ain’t going to censor myself no more, even if I might be politically incorrect insensitive or whatever. 

Also, I would prefer to speak my mind and seriously hurt the feelings of others, rather than soften it for the sake of the other person. 

Similarly speaking, when people call themselves “influencers”, they are not influencers.

Stoicism as a technique and tool, not the end

Ultimately I think we should think of stoicism just like having another tool inside our tool kit. For example, if you’re a chef, you’re going to have different knives for different purposes. If you’re going to cut a big piece of meat, you probably want a big ass meat cutting knife, not something you would use to slice an apple with. Similarly speaking, if you’re going to scoop out the insides of an avocado, better to use a spoon rather than using a fork, or a knife. 

I think the problem is when some people get too into stoicism (I prefer writing stoicism with a lowercase), they think that everything needs to be consistent, and must fit into this nice little neat box of what is considered “stoicism“. This is a bad line of thinking… let us consider that Marcus Aurelius never even mentioned stoicism in his writings, his collections of thoughts, which we moderns call THE MEDITATIONS… it was just essentially his personal diary, to help him conquer his own personal fears and thoughts, I don’t think he ever intended it to be published publicly. I think he just wrote it to himself as self therapy. And I think the only stoic philosopher he even mentions is maybe Epictetus.

The future of stoicism?

For myself, I just come out with certain to work out thoughts and techniques because it helps me, and when I find these tricks or techniques or secret hacks or cheat codes… My passion is to simply share it with others. 

And ultimately, things are ever in flux and evolving and changing and adapting.

For example, I’ve discovered the quality of my thinking is different when I am in Culver City Los Angeles, compared to being in the boring suburbs of Orange County.

Also depending on my social environments… my stoic thoughts are different when I am in a gym, vs just working out by myself in my parking spot in the back of my apartment.

Also, the quality of my thoughts is different when living with family members or other people versus just living with myself Cindy and Seneca.

Stoicism is all about living with other people

Assuming you’re not growing your own vegetables and living in the middle of nowhere… you probably have some interaction with other human beings. As long as you have an iPhone, an Android phone, a smartphone, a 4G or 5G internet connection, wifi, a laptop, have to buy groceries somewhere… you’re still going to have to interact with other human beings.

And this is good. There is no other greater joy than other human beings.

In fact, modern-day society is strange because in someways, the ethos is to be antisocial and to be cowardly. But in fact, the best way to think about things is that real life is interaction with other human beings, and social conquest. One can imagine a lot of modern day entrepreneurship as simply a big dick swinging contest. He who is the most masculine confident tall and strong and stoic shall win.

More ideas

Assume that everyone is mentally insane: Have you ever been out in public, and you see some sort of crackhead or strange homeless person who acts radically, smells terrible, and is obviously mentally ill? Do you hate them for it? When they say something weird to you… do you take it personally? No. Why? They are crazy. Perhaps we should just adopt this stoic mindset towards other people; some people are actually physiologically ill, mentally unwell… don’t trust the opinion of nobody.

A lot of people are trying to actually deal with their own inner demons: For example, becoming the successful photographer and street photographer I am today… I’ve dealt with some individuals who would say anonymous bad things about me, and later I found out that their mom just died or something. I cannot imagine what it feels like losing a mother… therefore if somebody spew some hate on me because something bad happened to them, I’m not gonna take it personally.

Self-flagellation: I think a lot of people who are sick, mentally or physiologically self flagellate themselves. Essentially the way that they deal with other people or themselves is some sort of metaphorical self-flagellation.

For example… you know those strange individuals who have the whip and whip themselves, and inflict pain on themselves? I think some people do this metaphorically to themselves and others.

You just want to stay away from them.

Why so scared?

My personal theory on fear is that a lot of it is tied to morality and ethics. I think the general idea is not necessarily that we are afraid of anything… I think the true fear is that we’re afraid that we are some sort of bad evil unethical immoral person.

For example in street photography, the general ethical thought is that it is immoral to take a photo of somebody without their permission, because there is some sort of it inherent evil behind it. Is this true? No. Taking photos and not really a big deal.

Why do people make such a big deal out of small things?

I think it is because some people are just overly sensitive, which once again comes from some sort of physiological weakness.

For example, if you’re a weightlifter who could lift 1000 pounds, assuming you’re not taking any steroids or anything… are small things going to bother you? No. But let us assume that you are a skinny fat man, all you do is drink alcohol and smoke marijuana and watch Netflix, and you spent too much time on Reddit… you are 40% body fat, and have never lifted in your life. And also your testosterone is low and you never go outside. Certainly the quality of your thoughts is going to be different than if you’re a happy gay monster, lifting weights outside in the direct sun, laughing and having fun. 

In fact, I’ve actually personally discovered that the reason why a lot of people hate me is because I am so happy jovial and gay. They are secretly suspicious or envious of me? 

Weather and mood

Probably one of my worst experiences was this jarring transition; I was super happy insanely happy being in Vietnam in 2017; with a beautiful weather, the beautiful light, the happy people the great amenities etc.… and then that winter Cindy and I went to Europe, in Marseille Berlin and Prague, and maybe London… seriously the worst winter of my life. Why? I wonder if so much miserable feelings and thoughts simply comes from the darkness and lack of light. a lot of Europe is actually quite miserable; dark, unhygienic, morose.

Even Nietzsche had a thought about Schopenhauer; How much of these emo European philosophers came from the fact that it was just complaining about the cold weather in Germany etc.?

For myself, my ideal weather is Southeast Asia; I love being in Phnom Penh Cambodia, Vietnam etc. In the states, am I the only one who loves living in Los Angeles? Dr. Dre and Kendrick Lamar said that LA was the best for women weed and weather… I would definitely say the biggest upside of living in Los Angeles is the light, the sunlight. It actually does get quite cold here, but usually most reliably even in December during the winter time, the sun will always come up. As long as there is bright sunny light, I will be happy. And I think maybe for myself, considering that I am a photographer, and photography means painting with light… light for me is critical.

I also wonder how much of it is a physiological thing and a genetic trait; for example I could even recall being a young child, and my mom telling me that the most critical thing in finding a home or an apartment was light and natural light. Even now… 90% of my happiness comes from being able to have access to natural light, ideally floor to ceiling windows facing directly the sun, having some sort of modern temperature regulated apartment and home. Even living in our tiny studio minimalistic luxury apartment in Providence Rhode Island, where it was always 75° warm and cozy, and not frigid and damp and cold and dark and humid… I was always good. But moving to an older house, where it always felt damp and cold… this literally lowered my happiness by 1000%.

Therefore, if you’re feeling miserable sad or whatever… I say spend three months living in Hanoi or Saigon in Vietnam, or go to Phnom Penh Cambodia. I wonder if 90% of peoples misery is simply due to the weather.

Stoic assignments

”Better to be a gay monster than a sentimental bore!” – Fernandino Galliani, via Nietzsche

My stoic ideal is somebody who is happy, gay, smiling, no headphones or AirPods on, no sunglasses on, no hat, no facial hair, no baggy oversized clothing, no tint in their car. Somebody who makes great eye contact, laughs, stands up upright, jokes, and fools around. Like an overgrown child.

Also, lift weights at least once every day, ideally in the direct sun. Just buy some weightlifting equipment on Titan.fitness, I like the farmers carry handles, the Olympic loadable dumbbell, and also the Texas power squat bar. Just buy some cheap weights, and or buy a heavy 400 pound sandbag, and just have fun throwing it around.

True stoics are masculine

A true stoic should look something like Hercules or Achilles. Or like ERIC KIM; I have the aesthetic and the physique of Brad Pitt in FIGHT CLUB except with a lot more muscle. Like my friend Soren says, the Adonis physique and proportions.

A real stoic is sexy

I think a real stoic is sexy, happy and fun. Who doesn’t take life too seriously; and think of everything like a fun game. A real stoic would be joyful and cheery like three-year-old child without any adulteration from the outside world.

Why do adults become so dark and morose?

I don’t like talking with or hanging out with adults, uninteresting.

At what point or age do people become so emo?

Typically, highschoolers are very optimistic. Even college students. But I think at least in maybe college in high school nowadays… the bad trend is towards “over concern”, about the world the planet ethics animals etc.

I find a lot of this thinking superficial, performative, and uncritical. I think “animal rights“, “saving the planet” is this new pseudo world religion; which is just capitalism 3.0. I find the whole pet industry the whole dog industry to be insanely bizarre, and I trust nobody who talks about “saving the planet“ who owns an iPhone, owns any sort of car, or has an Amazon prime subscription. Certainly not any vegans.

A real stoic is a carnivore 

Animals are animals. They are lower on the hierarchy and totem pole on earth. Man is the apex predator, the apex bully and the apex tyrant.

Should we care for animals or “animal rights”? No. Animals are our slaves.

If you consider even dogs and pets… they are essentially our emotional slaves. People talk a lot about the virtuosity of dogs being loyal or whatever… and giving you unconditional love. This seems like some sort of emotional slavery.

The only dogs I respect are some sort of canine dogs, some sort of attack or defense dogs, or hunting dogs. For example, John Wick 3; Halle Barry and her dogs. An animal should either be a weapon, or nothing.

Why do people care about animals so much?

Essentially it looks like men no longer have a backbone. No more spine.

I trust nobody who owns a dog.

Let us not forget; they call it dog ownership, or “owning a pet”. There is no more concept of “human ownership, or “owning a human.”

End goals 

What is the end goal of humanity? To me it is towards entrepreneurship, innovation, art and aesthetics, philosophy etc. Design.

Stoicism should be considered a tool which could aid you in these things.

For example, I think 99% of entrepreneurship is courage. Stoicism could help you with that.

I also think with design, great design is also 99% courage, having the courage to attempt something that won’t sell or be received well… stoicism is all about practical courage. The only designers with courage include Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Elon Musk, Kanye West. 

Also, weightlifting. To attempt to lift a certain weight you have never attempted before takes great courage. For example, me atlas lifting 1000 pounds; that is 10 plates and a 25 on each side, this is true stoic training. Why? The fear of injury is what holds most people back; if you had successfully conquered this fear and not injured yourself, this is pure stoic bliss.

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The physical

I think the only and the only proper way to lift weights is one repetition maximum training. That is; what is the maximum amount of weight you’re able to successfully lift or move, even half an inch?

To me, the courage is the success. Even if you had the courage to attempt it… that is what is considered success. 

Simple exercises to do include the atlas lift, innovated by ERIC KIM, or a one repetition max rack pull.

Or, a high trap bar deadlift, heavy Farmer’s walks, or heavy sandbag carries. Or even a simple thing you could do is go to the park or to the local nature center, find the biggest rock there and just see if you could pick it up.

Now what?

If you’re interested in stoicism, and have had some interesting thoughts on stoicism, one of the most noble things you could do is start your own blog. I think blogs are 1000 times more effective than publishing some sort of static printed book; I think the problem in today’s world is that everyone is seeking some sort of legitimacy by being picked up by some sort of legitimate publisher and getting “published“, and seeing your printed book at Barnes & Noble whatever.

I say it is better to be open source, free and permissionless, decentralized. Just publish your thoughts and book as a free PDF, and just host it on dropbox, Google Drive, or your own web server. Share the link freely, and also just publish the raw text as a big blog post. 

Even Sam Bankman-Fried wisely thought; 99.9% of books could just be summarized as big blog posts.

Don’t trust any modern day published book which isn’t free, because… there is some sort of hidden clout chasing somewhere. 

Even one of the worst compromises that led to the demise of Ray Dalio was the fact that he took his Principles book, which was essentially a free ebook PDF on his website, and then took it off, because I think he got a book deal with Simon and Schuster. After he did that, he lost my respect.

If you’re already independently wealthy, and you don’t crowd source your self-esteem… why would you need to externally validate yourself by getting some sort of constipated publisher and annoying editor?

Editors are bad.

Now what?

Start your own blog and start blogging your own thoughts on stoic philosophy, and even start a YouTube channel and start vlogging on it. My generalized thought is simple: if your thought your idea your blog post your video or whatever could even impact the life of one other human being on planet earth… it is worth it.

ERIC

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What is the secret to the maximum amount of happiness in life? The maximum amount of danger. (Nietzsche).

ERIC

FIN

Become invincible:

1. SPARTANISM.
2. Introduction to Stoicism
3. STOIC FLEX.
4. Becoming Spartan
5. MAKE IT ENTERTAINING FOR YOURSELF!
6. Stoic Aesthetics?
7. The Philosophy of Ugliness
8. Bad Stoicism
9. Stoicism 2.0
10. Becoming Stoic
11. LEMONADE.
12. Why Arguments and Confrontations Are Good
13. “I’m Over It”
14. How to Deal With Miserable People
15. How to Become a Stoic
16. How to Ignore
17. Pretend like you didn’t hear them
18. Bad Stoic Strategies
19. The Stoic Way of Dealing With Unpleasant or Miserable People
20. HOW TO BECOME A STOIC
21. Stoicism Stunts Our Power?
22. Stoicism is Mental Resistance Training
23. STOIC STRATEGIES.
24. How to Become Fearless
25. Extreme Stoicism
26. Ethics are Aesthetic
27. Indifference to Pain or Suffering
28. When is Stoicism Good? When is Stoicism Bad?
29. Why Others Criticize or Insult You
30. True Difficulty
31. What if Covid Never Goes Away?
32. SUPER STOIC
33. Anti-Hedonism
34. HOW TO CONQUER FEAR
35. ANTI FEAR
36. It is the Duty of the Strong to Help the Weak
37. The Goal is to Become Stronger
38. HYPER STOICISM
39. HYPER HERO
40. TRANSFORM EVERY DOWNSIDE INTO AN UPSIDE
41. STOICISM x Child’s Mind
42. The Art of Manly Virtue
43. Resistance Makes Us Stronger!
44. DON’T LIVE IN FEAR
45. Emotions are Good
46. Conquer Your Anger
47. BLACK EAGLE
48. DIFFICULTY AWAKENS YOUR INNER-GENIUS.
49. STOICISM IS ARMOR FOR THE MIND
50. The Spartan-Stoic Lifestyle
51. How I Conquered Fear
52. HOW TO CURE FEAR.
53. LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL.
54. The Upside of Poverty
55. How I Became Me
56. THE WILL TO POWER, OR THE WILL TO FEAR?
57. ATTACK REALITY
58. Living *THROUGH* History
59. How to Fear Less
60. Fear is the Ultimate Contagious Disease
61. STOICISM FOR DUMMIES
62. Don’t Be Scared!
63. WHAT CAN YOU CONTROL, WHAT CAN YOU NOT CONTROL?
64. HOW YOU CAN CONQUER FEAR
65. YOU’RE STRONGER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE.
66. EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
67. WHY AREN’T THINGS WORSE?
68. My Philosophy on Masculinity
69. A Riskier Life is a Better Life #philosophy #stoicism
70. How to Creatively Flourish in Life
71. Introduction to Stoicism
72. How to Become Stronger
73. How to Conquer Depression With Photography
74. What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger
75. How to Respect Yourself
76. How to Believe in Yourself
77. How to Steer Fear
78. How to Conquer Pessimism
79. How to Conquer Anxiety
80. How to Overcome Your Fear of People
81. How to Be Optimistic
82. Why I Don’t Take My Anger Seriously
83. HOW TO BECOME MORE POWERFUL
84. POSITIVITY.
85. HOW TO BECOME SUPERHUMAN
86. How to Give a Fuck Less
87. ALL IN.
88. Why I Cut My Dad Out of My Life.
89. Your iPhone Only Has 5% Battery Left.
90. How not to give a FUCK about your REPUTATION
91. WHAT IS A HUMAN?
92. HAPPINESS.
93. The Regret Minimization Framework in Photography and Life
94. How to Be a HERO
95. Conquer Your Fears by Making Fear Your Slave
96. Rule Circumstances; Don’t Let Your Circumstances Rule You
97. How to Love Yourself
98. How to Turn Shit into Gold
99. Your Parents Fuck You Up
100. Immortality
101. What Kills You Makes You Stronger
102. How to Be Patient
103. How to Conquer Anger
104. How to Bounce Back in Life
105. How to Overcome Resistance
106. Nothing Unlimited is Good; Nothing Good is Unlimited
107. You Have No Limits
108. Can 1’s and 0’s Hurt You?
109. The Envious Moment is Flying Now
110. Tomorrow We’ll Sail the Wide Seas Again
111. How to Forgive Others
112. Focus on Your Actions, Not the Results
113. Everything Will Be Alright
114. How to Be a Stoic Street Photographer
115. How to Be a Spartan Photographer
116. How to Overcome Your Fears in Life
117. How to Stop Worrying in Life
118. How to Use Photography as Self-Therapy
119. How to Free Your Soul From Disturbance
120. 3 Stoic Techniques that Can Help You Gain Tranquility
121. Can People Weaker than You Hurt You?
122. Does a Doctor Get Angry at a Crazy Patient?
123. Own Nothing

The Stoic Masters

Learn from the master stoics:

• Seneca
• Marcus Aurelius
• Epictetus
• Publilius Syrus
• Heraclitus

See all philosophy >

Eric Kim’s philosophical views blend traditional Stoic principles with a modern, pragmatic approach. He emphasizes the practical application of philosophy in everyday life, particularly valuing the writings of Seneca for their accessibility and connection to real-world issues. Kim advocates for philosophy to be grounded in physical reality, expressing skepticism towards metaphysical concepts that seem disconnected from tangible experiences oai_citation:1,Summarize ERIC KIM’s views on Stoicism – ERIC KIM.

Kim’s philosophy also emphasizes the creation of one’s own philosophy, valuing individualism and self-reliance. His ideas cover a wide range of topics, such as the importance of fearlessness, the rejection of traditional notions of success, and the embrace of physical fitness and health as crucial to a stoic lifestyle. He argues against the idea of predestined genetics, highlighting the importance of personal effort and self-development oai_citation:2,On Making Your Own Philosophy – ERIC KIM.

In terms of his views on self-hosting, Kim advocates for digital ownership and independence. He encourages the use of self-hosted platforms for emails, websites, and blogs, seeing this as a way to maintain control over one’s digital presence and content. This approach is in line with his broader philosophical emphasis on individualism and self-sufficiency oai_citation:3,SELF HOSTED IS THE FUTURE. – ERIC KIM.

How to Become a Photography Entrepreneur

1. TVE: TRANSACTIONAL VALUE UNLOCKED
2. THE BEST YOUTUBE SETTINGS

BECOME A PHOTOGRAPHY ENTREPRENEUR

Advice I would have given myself in photography, if I started all over again:

Until You Own Yourself You Can’t Be Free

De-lamify the future.

Photography Entrepreneurship 101 Presentation by ERIC KIM

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP by KIM

Enroll in my Udemy Course:

‘Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Photography Entrepreneurship’: Create Your Own Future >

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Entrepreneurship Ideas

1. InstaSlaves
2. How to Become a Vlogger
3. How to Build Your Own Self Brand
4. SOLO MEDIA EMPIRE
5. TIME LEVERAGE.
6. How to Market Yourself in Photography
7. How to Become More Ambitious
8. Crypto Photography
9. In Praise of Email Newsletters
10. Propagate.
11. Make Your Own Street Photography Blog
12. Create the Information You Seek.
13. Content over Technology
14. How to Advertise Yourself as a Photographer
15. CREATIVE WAYS TO USE YOUTUBE
16. Photography Branding 101
17. BUILD YOURSELF.
18. Bet on Your Own Coin.
19. The Photographer Should Also Make His/Her Own Music?
20. Mix Your Photos and Videos
21. JUST PUBLISH IT.
22. EMPOWER OTHER PHOTOGRAPHERS.
23. BECOME OUTSIDE THE BOX
24. MOVE PEOPLE, MOVE PRODUCTS.
25. SOCIAL MEDIA IS FRAGILE.
26. Why Start a Photography Blog?
27. Once You FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early), Then What?
28. THE FUTURE IS PDF
29. In Praise of Solo Photography Business Entrepreneurship
30. LONGEVITY, DURABILITY AND SUCCESS
31. Street Photography Philosophy Entrepreneurship
32. YOU ARE THE PLATFORM
33. JUST RISK IT.
34. DON’T OPTIMIZE FOR THE ALGORITHM
35. Scaleable Photography
36. What Does it Mean to Become a Successful Photographer?
37. 20 Photography Marketing, Branding, and Entrepreneurship Tips
38. Create Your Own Social Media
39. Individual Entrepreneurship
40. YOU ARE THE ICON.
41. BUILD!
42. What is Success in Photography?
43. EXTREME VISION
44. Publish Fearlessly
45. MAKE DOPE THINGS AND SHARE THEM WITH THE WORLD!
46. THE AMBITIOUS PHOTOGRAPHER.
47. PhotoLink
48. Real World Applications
49. You Are Your Own Ideal User
50. What is Your Creative Vision?
51. A More Dope, Prosperous Future for All Photographers
52. CREATION & DISTRIBUTION.
53. THE VALUE OF PHOTOS.
54. How to Maximize Your Impact as a Photographer
55. Why the World Needs More Bloggers
56. DOMAIN EXPERTISE.
57. The Joy of Speculation
58. MAKE A NAME FOR YOURSELF.
59. Propogate
60. Meaningful Advantage or Not?
61. PHOTO CREATOR.
62. NOW IS YOUR DECISIVE MOMENT.
63. I CANNOT BE IGNORED
64. Photography Blogs are Highly *UNDERRATED*
65. What is Your Competitive Advantage?
66. Why 4K?
67. Indirect Monetization
68. The Future of Innovation in Photography
69. Photography Innovation and Image Selection Idea: Let Google (YouTube) Suggested Thumbnail Pick Your Best Photo? 
70. How to Identify Your Competitive Advantage
71. In Praise of Insanely Fast Wifi
72. DIGITAL PUBLISHING IS KING.
73. The Stoic-Entrepreneurship Mindset
74. Marketing Tips for Photographers
75. STARK DIFFERENTIATION
76. MAXIMALIST
77. Visual Entrepreneurship
78. On Becoming a Full-Stack Visual Entrepreneur
79. Real Photographers Don’t Use Instagram
80. Brave New World of Blogging
81. Don’t Go to Photography School
82. Mass Success is a Failure?
83. How to Maximize Your Archimedes Lever in Life
84. Maximize Your Archimedes Lever
85. How to Create Value Out of Nothing
86. The Best Brand is No Brand
87. What Do We Entrepreneurs *Really* Want?
88. You Were Destined to Do Great Things
89. Just Share Your Photos on Your Own Blog
90. Your Blog is the Ultimate Form of Social Media
91. The Future of Websites and Blogs
92. Create a Company
93. Money Photography Project
94. WHY IT IS GOOD TO CHARGE MONEY FOR YOUR SERVICES AND PRODUCTS
95. Google and YouTube SEO (Search Engine Optimization) 101: How Would You Type It?
96. WHY RIGHT NOW IS THE BEST TIME FOR YOU TO START YOUR SIDE HUSTLE
97. Digital Photography is the Future
98. NEVER STOP EXPERIMENTING!
99. WHAT IS INNOVATION?
100. A Non-Ownership Future
101. CONTROL OVER MONEY
102. Economic Constraints Are Creative Constraints
103. Become a Sole-Proprietor
104. Entrepreneurship is a Mindset
105. How to Master Mac
106. The Future of Lifestyle
107. Necessity is the Mother of Innovation
108. Once We Have an Easy Life, Then What?
109. Why I Don’t Read Comments
110. YouTube SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for Photographers
111. How to Become a Self-Employed Photographer
112. How to Live Big With Little Money
113. Why Blogging, Vlogging and Internet Media is More Important than Ever
114. No Marketing, No Future
115. Photography Marketing 101
116. Google and YouTube are King
117. Why I’m So Suspicious of Everyone Online and on the Internet
118. How to Become More Notorious
119. Kaizen Approach to Blogging
120. How to Master Marketing
121. CREATE WHAT YOU WOULD LIKE SEE MANIFESTED IN THE WORLD!
122. Anti Silicon-Valley Thinking
123. Your Name
124. In Praise of WordPress
125. NEVER STOP POSTING
126. Your Future Portfolio is a Website
127. Infinite Runway
128. ERIC KIM ATTITUDE
129. Financial Independence as a Road to Freedom of Speech?
130. WHY OPEN SOURCE IS THE FUTURE
131. Just Post It.
132. Posts Are Products
133. Photography Entrepreneurship Ideas
134. YOU ARE KING.
135. You’re Always in BETA MODE
136. Build Your Own Media Empire
137. WHY I DON’T MONETIZE MY YOUTUBE VIDEOS
138. Why I Became an Entrepreneur
139. The Uber-Photographer
140. Create What You Would Like to See Manifested in the World
141. Create the Future
142. Entrepreneurship is Best During Uncertain Times
143. Photography Entrepreneurship 101 Presentation by ERIC KIM
144. Your Body is the Brand
145. Your Name is Your Brand
146. Create Your Own Social Media Platform
147. BUILD IT OR BUY IT?
148. Sell Yourself
149. Create New
150. Insta-Slaves
151. YOU CANNOT FAKE ENTHUSIASM
152. Why Hybrid is the Future
153. Don’t Censor Yourself
154. HOW I MASTERED MARKETING
155. ERIC KIM BLOGS
156. If Someone Offers You Help, You’re Stupid to *NOT* Take It.
157. SEEK GREAT, NOT PERFECT.
158. How I Became So Famous
159. Let Reality Mould Itself to You
160. ANTI ENTITLEMENT MENTALITY
161. Live Your Life as If You Were a Billionaire
162. HOW I THINK DIFFERENT
163. Impact, Influence, Reach: The Three Pillars of Marketing
164. ERIC KIM SCHOOL
165. Classicism.
166. MY PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY
167. Money is Movement
168. Elitism 2.0
169. Mass Market or Luxury Market?
170. Why You Must Market Yourself
171. Why You Must Start an Email Newsletter
172. How Laptops Can Change the World
173. What Do You Want to Become?
174. What is Really Holding You Back in Life?
175. Why I Write: Writing as Meta-Thinking
176. ADVERTISE YOURSELF
177. Use Your First and Last Name
178. How Blogging Can Change the World
179. In Praise of Liberty
180. How I Write in Markdown
181. How I Became So Influential on YouTube
182. REVERSE FLEX
183. What a Time to Be Alive in Today’s Brave New World of Photography
184. HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE YOURSELF FROM OTHERS
185. YOU CHOOSE YOU
186. My Life Photography Entrepreneurship Story
187. WHY I DON’T BELIEVE IN COLLABORATION
188. My Entrepreneurship Mindset
189. YOU’RE THE HERO IN THIS GAME OF LIFE
190. My Money Philosophy
191. Why Brand and Market Yourself?
192. PROFESSIONALISM IS FOR SUCKERS
193. Just Share What Works for You
194. How to Create Your Own Platform
195. Living in a Post Monetary Society
196. In Praise of Blogging
197. The Entrepreneurial Lifestyle is the Best Lifestyle
198. Algorithm Slavery
199. ANTI VIEWS
200. Entrepreneurship is The Goal
201. The Art of Blogging
202. IN PRAISE OF PURSUING YOUR PASSION
203. How to Make Great Titles
204. Sole Proprietorship
205. Just Build It.
206. VIA NEGATIVA
207. PROMOTE YOURSELF
208. Become a Full-Stack Entrepreneur
209. How to Entertain Others
210. My Experience Teaching My First Online Photography Creativity Workshop on Zoom
211. Humans Aren’t Lazy
212. One Shot.
213. THE BRAVE SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH
214. The Brave New COVID Lifestyle
215. Start Your Own Business
216. Minimum Viable Income ( MVI)
217. TRAINING.
218. WHY VIDEO?
219. How to Become Bolder
220. You’ve Always Already Been a Photography Entrepreneur!
221. The Future is All Digital Everything
222. Digital Sharecropping
223. DO IT FOR YOUR PAST AND FUTURE SELF
224. In Praise of Buffer and Redundancy
225. ASKING FOR PERMISSION IS FOR SUCKERS.
226. POST-MONETARY SOCIETY.
227. Advertise Your Own Stuff
228. THE FUTURE IS DIGITAL.
229. Simulated Universal Basic Income
230. Is Losing Followers a Good Thing?
231. How to Add to Economic Activity
232. DIGITAL CAPITALISM
233. MONEY IS MOVEMENT
234. Anything is Possible
235. BRAVE NEW WORLD OF DIGITAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
236. GENERATE
237. How to Profit from Calamity
238. Capitalism 2.0
239. WHY I’M SO PASSIONATE ABOUT INFORMATION
240. SOCIETY 2.0
241. PHOENIX ENTREPENEURSHIP
242. How to Make Art from Home
243. BUY YOURSELF
244. JUST BLOG IT.
245. MARKET YOURSELF
246. EXPENSIVE TALK
247. SOCIAL MEDIA SLAVERY
248. Who Are Your Ideal Followers?
249. Why I Blog, Vlog, and Log
250. Your Perspective is Irrefutable
251. What are Your Hidden Powers?
252. IMPACT MAXIMIZATION, not Profit Maximization
253. Our Desire to Maximize Impact and Change
254. 10 Rich Tips How to Make Money from Photography
255. Create What You Would Love to Consume
256. Publish is Pleasure
257. Retire Now
258. Do You Desire to Become the Best?
259. Solo Entrepreneurship
260. My Vision of Photography Entrepreneurship
261. PUT YOUR NAME ON IT
262. The Desire to Transcend Ourselves
263. MONEY THOUGHTS
264. How to Retire
265. Via Negativa Productivity
266. Why You Must Make Your Own Website
267. Individuals over Companies
268. Build Yourself
269. Success is Survival
270. Why You Shouldn’t Go to Photography or Art School
271. How to Differentiate Yourself as a Photographer
272. Surpass Yourself
     
273. Can You Handle Extreme Freedom?
274. Boutique or Mass Market?
275. Proof of Concept
276. Unified Field Theory for Photography
277. Build a Company You’d Never Sell
278. Play the Long Game
279. Entrepreneurship and Art
280. What is the Source of our Strength?
281. What’s the Future for Photography?
282. Full-Stack Visual Artist
283. Why Scale?
284. What is Your Unfair Advantage?
285. Substance Marketing
286. Share Your Dopeness with Others
287. Frugality is Freedom
288. Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for Entrepreneurship
289. Don’t Follow or Predict Trends, Start Your Own Trend!
290. If You’re Not Busy Growing, You’re Busy Dying
291. Entrepreneurship born from Superabundance, not Need/Necessity
292. Photography Entrepreneurship Philosophy
293. How to Master Marketing in Photography
294. Photography Entrepreneurship Tips and Ideas
295. Is Hustle Sufficient Unto Success?
296. Don’t do it for the money
297. DIGITAL MARXISM
298. Zen Entrepreneurship
299. BOLDER IS BETTER.
300. Streamers Shall Inherit the Earth

Photography Blogging

• Blogging is Public Meditations
• The Art of Blogging
• Give Me a Laptop and I Shall Move the World!
• The Future is Photography Blogging
• How to Become a GREAT Blogger
• If you can’t code, blog instead!
• Daily Blog of Activities
• How to Monetize a Blog Without Advertising
• How to Publish Yourself
• How to Blog
• The future of photography publishing is photography blogging.
• Why Become a Photography Blogger?
• Why You Must Become a Photography Blogger
• Why You Should Delete Your Instagram and Start Your Own Blog

Money

• How to Use Wealth
• To Become Rich, Don’t Go Broke
• Why Save Money?
• Less Money, Less Problems

Self-Empowerment

• Life is Too Short to Be Negative
• Why You Must Follow Your Passion in Life
• How to Conquer Shyness
• Don’t Ask for Permission
• Onto the Next One
• Why You Must Self-Promote Yourself
• Why You Must Conquer Your Fears in Life

Marketing and Branding

• Why You Must Become a Photography Blogger
• Why Blog?
• Why You Must Self-Promote Yourself
• Create Substance, Not Content
• Photography Marketing and Branding 101
• How to Master Marketing in Photography
• 10 Tips How to Become a More Famous Photographer

Entrepreneurship Lifestyle

• Why Hustle?
• Why Save Money?
• Ascetic is Sexy
• Why You Must Become Self-Employed
• How to Push Yourself Beyond the Limit
• Is Location Independence Overrated?

Entrepreneurship Mindset

• How to Get Discovered
• Financial Independence
• Disregard Success or Failure; Always Attempt More!
• In Praise of Stubbornness
• Success is Personal Bravery
• Why You Must Become an Entrepreneur
• How to Brand and Market Yourself as a Photographer
• How to Conquer Haters
• How to Accumulate Capital
• Why Be Different?
• How to Master Marketing in Photography
• Don’t Play it Safe
• Why Blog?
• How to Be a More Productive Photographer
• How to Hustle
• True Productivity
• What Can Only You Do?
• Love Risk
• What is Success?
• Fill a Vacuum
• Think Big
• 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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Photography Entrepreneurship 101

• Don’t Sit Still!
• Bitcoin for Photographers
• Don’t Be Timid
• Why Start Your Own Photography Blog?
• Fill a Void
• 1,000 True Followers: How to Build Your Own Niche in Photography
• Photography Entrepreneurship 101: Why You Must Start Your Own Email Newsletter
• TURBO CREATION: Why a Maxed-Out MacBook Laptop is the Best Investment You Can Make for Photography Entrepreneurship

Life and Productivity Hacks

• My Ultimate Productivity and Life Hacks
• Life/Productivity Hack: Write (Type on a phone) While Walking on a Dynamic Treadmill
• ERIC KIM Life, Creativity, and Productivity Hacks

How to Make a Living from Your Passion

• Digital Nomad Photographer
• Build Your Own Instagram!
• How to Be More Ambitious
• Do It Your Way
• How to Measure Your Progress as a Photography Entrepreneur + Come Up With New Ideas
• How to Make a Living From Your Passion in Photography

Put a Dent in the Universe.

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

How to Succeed as an Entrepreneur

• You Have No Limits.
• Calculated Risk-Taking
• Invest in Yourself
• The Secret of Happiness: Shoot for the Moon!
• Moonshot Thinking
• Why We Should all Be Photography Entrepreneurs
• Memento Mori Entrepreneurship
• Why it is Better to Beg For Forgiveness than Ask For Permission
• How to Become a Digital Nomad
• Why You Must Own Your Own Platform
• First Principle Thinking for Photography Entrepreneurs
• How I Became a Digital Nomad
• Better to Beg For Forgiveness than Ask For Permission!
• Spurn Pleasing Others!
• Create Your Own Niche
• How to Gain More Exposure For Your Photography
• Intense Focus
• How to Conquer Your Fears as an Entrepreneur
• Define Yourself
• Let Dissatisfaction Drive You Forward!
• It Doesn’t Matter if Someone Else Has Done it Before!
• How to Succeed as a Photography Entrepreneur: Be Extremely Resourceful
• Open Source Business Model in Photography Entrepreneurship
• Entrepreneurship 101: Growth and Innovation Over Self-Preservation
• How to Create Value as a Photography Entrepreneur
• Why Become a Photography Entrepreneur?
• Why You Must Ignore Nay-Sayers to Succeed in Entrepreneurship, Business, and Life

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The Modern Photographer: Tips, Strategies, and Tactics to Thrive as a Visual Artist in the Digital Age

Marketing, Branding, Entrepreneurship Principles For Success

MODERN PHOTOGRAPHER is your new philosophical and practical primer to succeed as a modern photographer in today’s digital world.

• MODERN PHOTOGRAPHER KINDLE EDITION ON AMAZON
• SEE ALL PRODUCTS ON AMAZON

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Business Mental Models

• How to Succeed as a Photography Entrepreneur: Be Extremely Resourceful
• Open Source Business Model in Photography Entrepreneurship
• Entrepreneurship 101: Growth and Innovation Over Self-Preservation

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How to Monetize Your Photography

• Photography Entrepreneurship 101: INFLUENCE
• Should I Monetize My Passion for Photography?
• 10 Practical Photography Monetization Strategies: Pricing, Google SEO, & Entrepreneurship
• How to Make Money From Street Photography

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Why Become a Photography Entrepreneur?

Take control of your own photographic destiny:

1. Photography Startup Manual
2. PHOTOGRAPHY ENTREPRENEURSHIP MANUAL
3. On Risk Taking and Entrepreneurship

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THE MODERN PHOTOGRAPHER

• CREATIVE CAPITALISM
• How to Monetize Your Photography
• 5 Practical Photography Career Tips and Advice
• 10x Thinking
• How to Hustle as a Photographer
• How to Become Your Own Master Marketer
• The ‘T’ Technique of Success
• Go Ahead and Sell Out
• What is Your Unique Voice?
• Why You Must Self-Promote Yourself
• What is Your Unique Angle as a Photographer?
• Photography Content Marketing 101
• Why You Must Become Your Own Publisher
• The Art of Cross-Pollination in Photography

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Photography Entrepreneurship Articles

• Why You Shouldn’t Trust Your Pictures to Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Flickr
• How to Make Money From Your Photography
• Photography SEO and Blogging: How to Become Number One on Google
• Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation
•  Now is the Best Time to Be a Photographer
• PRODUCERISM
• What Is The Value of a Picture?
• Your Photographic Labor is Not Free

PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOPS 101

• Chapter 1. How to Make a Photography Blog
• Chapter 2. How to Price Yourself
• Chapter 3. How to Find Your Market
• Chapter 4. Why Teach Workshops?
• Chapter 5. How to Build Trust
• Chapter 6. How to Market Yourself
• Chapter 7: Why Should Someone Attend Your Workshop?

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KEYS TO SUCCESS

• Why You Must Be a “Personality” in Order to Succeed
• THRIVE OR DIE.
• Impatience is a Virtue
• Create Your Own Category
• HOW TO DREAM BIG.
• Will Not or Cannot?
• Why Not?
• How to Think BIG
• How to Stay Ahead of the Curve
• How to Invest in Yourself
• The Two Camera Rule
• MEANINGFUL DIFFERENTIATION
• Advice For College Students
• How to Thrive in Uncertain Times
• CANNIBALIZE YOURSELF.
• DO AND GROW RICH
• Does Fear of Punishment Hold You Back?
• HOW TO GET MORE FOLLOWERS
• How to Innovate
• How to Build Your Own Empire
• YOU ARE ENTITLED TO HARD WORK.
• PICK YOURSELF.
• OWN YOUR PLATFORM
• 10 KEYS TO SUCCESS

Table of Contents

Learn how to make a living from your passion:

• Preface. BRAVE NEW WORLD OF PHOTOGRAPHY
• Chapter 1. How to Create Value
• Chapter 2. ZEN CAPITALISM
• Chapter 3. Scarcity
• Chapter 4. How to Brand Yourself
• Chapter 5. How to Build a True Following
• Chapter 6. The Blueprint to Success in Photography
• Chapter 7. HOW TO BE BOLD
• Chapter 8. How to Sell Out
• Chapter 9. GO AGAINST THE GRAIN
• Chapter 10. EXTREME ABUNDANCE
• Chapter 11. Photography Experience Economy
• Chapter 12. Why You Should Make Money for Your Photography
• Chapter 13. How to Become a Famous Photographer

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Photography Business 101

• Practical Photography Business Advice

How to Make Money with Photography

• How to Charge More Money in Your Photography
• Why You Should Not Pursue Photography as Career
• Can Photography Make You Rich?
• How I Earn $200,000+ a Year From Photography
• How to earn $10,000 a month as a photographer
• Why you must be an expensive photographer

Photography Marketing 101

• Why Have More Followers?
• Why You Should Do Photography Work For Free
• How I Became an Internet Famous Photographer
• Photography Blogging Ideas
• Why You Should Promote Your Own Name
• How to Build a Following
• How to Stand Out as a Photographer.
• HOW TO GO VIRAL AS A PHOTOGRAPHER.
• How to Master Marketing
• How to Sell Yourself

---

How to Hustle.

• Entrepreneurial Advice to My 18 Year Old Self
• How to Become Insanely Productive.
• 5 Lessons From Hesiod on Hustling

Entrepreneurial Principles

• It is Better to Beg For Forgiveness Than Ask For Permission
• The Free Way to Become Rich
• JUST DO IT.
• 7 Steps: How to Make a Living From Your Passion
• How to Do What You Love for a Living
• How to Create an MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
• How to Fail Big
• How to Invest in Yourself
• How to Be Bold in Photography and Life
• Mission: Cover Your Rent and Food
• 1,000 True Fans
• The “10x Principle”: The Only Difference Between “Success” and “Failure”
• Make More Value Not Money
• We Live in a Photo Utopia

How to be a Full-time Photographer

• How to Make a Living From Photography
• The 3 Principles of Making Money With Photography
• Advice for Aspiring Full-Time Photographers
• Don’t Go Into Debt For Your Photography
• How to Brand Yourself as a Photographer
• Trust: The Most Important Thing You Need to Succeed as a Photographer

Photography Blogging

• How to become rich from photography blogging
• How to Make a Living with Blogging
• 50 Blogging Tips For Beginners
• How to Start Your Own Photography Blog
• A Photographer’s Guide to SEO, Blogging, and Social Media

How to Teach Photography

• How to Become a Photography Teacher
• How to Teach a Street Photography Class
• Why I Teach Street Photography Workshops

Social Media

• Why I Deleted My Instagram
• The Social Media Blackbook for Photographers
• Why Do You Need More Likes or Followers?
• Instagram is Going to Be the Next Facebook
• Don’t Trust “Free” Photography Social Networks

How to Save Money

• How Cindy Saved Us $150,000+
• The Free Way to Become Rich

START HERE >

MONEY 101

1. Just Follow the Money
2. My Money Philosophy
3. Eternal fame and glory over money
4. The Trillion Dollar Question: How to Make Money on the Internet Without Advertising?
5. Entrepreneurship that Doesn’t Involve Money-Making?
6. Money Ain’t Real
7. Making Money for Fun, Not to Get Rich
8. Why Money?

PHILOSOPHY BY KIM

IDEAS BY KIM

1. A LIFE WITHOUT PAIN, DISCOMFORT OR (LIMITED) SUFFERING IS NOT A LIFE WORTH LIVING?
2. BIGGER IS WEAKER.
3. How to Become a Philosopher
4. Deep Vanity
5. Time Will Tell
6. What is Wisdom?
7. LOOK *BEYOND*
8. BECOMING MORE IMMORAL?
9. ‘LUCK’ VS COURAGE
10. ‘SKILL’ VS MERIT?
11. Becoming Antifragile
12. How to “Improve” Men
13. The Art of Virtue
14. How to Dominate
15. JUST SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCES AND WISDOM WITH OTHERS.
16. How to Get More Done in a Single Day – MEMENTO MORI PHILOSOPHY
17. THINK FOR YOURSELF
18. Cruel?
19. GO DEMIGOD.
20. How to Be Happy: Challenge and Danger Philosophy
21. To Become Greater, You Must Become *LESS* Productive!
22. Imperfect Beauty
23. The Philosophy of Pleasure
24. What Interests You?
25. Anti Theory of Everything
26. Become?
27. STRONGER OR NOT?
28. Carte Blanche Ideals
29. CHOOSE JOY
30. Don’t Judge Your Impulses
31. On Becoming Less Human
32. COWARDICE.
33. The Philosophy of Futurism
34. PHILOSOPHY IS VALUE-SETTING
35. PHILOSOPHY IS NOT LIFESTYLE
36. WHY STANDARDIZATION IS BAD.
37. YOUR OWN TABLE OF VALUES.
38. RETRO IS BAD.
39. INSANELY LOFTY THOUGHTS.
40. Strive to *Lose* Weight, Not *Gain* Weight
41. DIABLO II ANALOGIES FOR REAL LIFE.
42. If You Know Your *WHY* You Can Discover Any *HOW*
43. Life is Too Short to Be Miserable
44. What Consumption Takes Skill?
45. OFF THE GRID.
46. REALITY IS CRUEL.
47. Pain is Information
48. WHY REMOVE VULGARITY AND DISORDER FROM OUR EYES?
49. AUTOTELIC.
50. UNPLUG.
51. How to Become a Philosopher
52. SUBOPTIMAL IS OPTIMAL
53. THE LUST FOR MORE.
54. TO DO IS TO BECOME.
55. IN PRAISE OF AGGRESSIVE.
56. THE PHILOSOPHY OF OPTIMISM
57. OUR PHILOSOPHICAL WILL TO EXISTENCE
58. Is Hope a Vice?
59. MOVE MEAN
60. Carte Blanche Ideals
61. One Interesting Thought
62. What Lasts? What Doesn’t Last?
63. A WOUND STIMULATES THE RECUPERATIVE POWERS
64. Children & Purpose
65. Thoughts on Becoming a Parent
66. Where Does Our Desire to Upgrade Come From?
67. WE ALWAYS NEED SOMETHING FURTHER TO ASPIRE TO.
68. Self-Task Yourself an Awesome Mission in Life
69. Differentiation vs Equalization
70. My Passion to *Become* Something More
71. No Aesthetic or Ethos is Forever
72. What is Your Higher Purpose in Life?
73. IT WILL NEVER SATISFY YOU.
74. How to Decide
75. Things You *Want* to Do vs Things You *MUST* Do
76. Towards a More Beautiful Mode of Existence and Future
77. EXTREME GRATITUDE.
78. AMAP (As Much as Possible) or None.
79. Why or How Does it Matter?
80. The Philosophy of Time and Events
81. How *Not* to Resent
82. FORWARD LOOKING
83. DOMAIN FLEXIBILITY.
84. The Miracle of Human Growth
85. EXTREME ADAPTATION.
86. Why Plan?
87. You Don’t Need to Justify Yourself
88. The Philosophy of Ego
89. True vs False Passions
90. How to Achieve Tranquility
91. On Making Your Own Philosophy
92. The Purpose of Life is to Create New Life
93. Think On!
94. The Wisdom of Doing Nothing
95. Congruency
96. My Thoughts on Meditation
97. The Philosophy of Purpose
98. Emulate Yourself
99. Good Fear, Bad Fear
100. For the Betterment of Humanity or Just Yourself?
101. What you *really* believe in and care for is manifested through your actions (or non-actions)
102. Why Culture is Your Enemy
103. YOUR EXPERIENCES ARE KING.
104. LIFE IS INHERENTLY GOOD.
105. Artistic, Physical, and Philosophical Muscles
106. All New Experiences are Good Experiences
107. What is the Purpose of X?
108. UTILITY.
109. Philosophy is a Luxury
110. The Attempt is More Interesting than the Result
111. Joyfulness vs “Happiness”
112. Effectiveness Over Happiness
113. Self Actualization
114. MAXIMAL ENGAGEMENT
115. Life & Pain
116. On Living Every Day with No Regret
117. Learn as if you’re going to live forever, live as if you’re going to die tomorrow
118. Live Every Day Like it Were the Last Day of Your Life
119. Self-Determination
120. FALSE GRATITUDE vs REAL GRATITUDE
121. HOW TO LIVE MORE
122. THE UPSIDE OF TRAGEDY
123. Satisfaction is a Sucker’s Game
124. Supreme Repose
125. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF LIFE? According to ERIC KIM
126. STUBBORN, FLEXIBLE
127. EVERYTHING HAPPENS AS IT *SHOULD* HAVE HAD HAPPENED
128. Good Addiction, Bad Addiction?
129. What is the Best Life?
130. The Philosophy of Thinking
131. The Philosophy of Conspiracies
132. Conspiracies
133. Growth
134. Skepticism.
135. What Do You Really Want Out of Life?
136. Seem or Be?
137. Learn Through Pain
138. Respect Yourself
139. In Praise of Elitism
140. Why Independent Thinking?
141. I Will Never Die
142. Bitter is Better
143. The Genesis of Nihilism and Existential Dread
144. The Ethics of Personal Enrichment
145. Good vs Not Good
146. Punished by Privilege
147. Abstinence Over Moderation
148. Just Leave Others Alone
149. You Can Only Critique that Which You Truly Understand and Love
150. ERIC KIM Critique of Metaphysics
151. Only Trust Philosophers Who Deadlift
152. Heuristic: If Someone Talks Shit About Others Behind Their Back, Most Likely They’re Also Talking Shit About You Behind Your Back
153. Virtue is a Privilege
154. What Are Your Life Goals?
155. Honesty
156. Why I’m Anti Moderation
157. No Spite, No Malice.
158. Ascending Life or Descending Life?
159. Double Edged Sword
160. Ignorance.
161. Why I Don’t Trust “Nice Guys”
162. Why You Must Share Your Opinion
163. Selfish Isn’t Evil
164. Wisdom is the Goal
165. YOU ARE KING.
166. MASTER YOURSELF
167. What is “Good” for You is Often what is Bad for You
168. Care.
169. BITTERSWEET
170. ONE REP MAX
171. Morality and Ethics is the Snare
172. BY HELPING YOURSELF, YOU BEST HELP OTHERS
173. Insanity is Good.
174. Think Deep.
175. PHILOSOPHY IS THE FUTURE.
176. Open Mind vs Closed Mind
177. ENTHUSIASM IS GENIUS
178. Towards a More Critical and Rigorous Line of Thinking
179. How to Encourage and a Foster Independent and Free Thinking
180. What is the Purpose of Life?
181. WHY PHILOSOPHY IS SUPREME.
182. Elitism.
183. I Cannot Form an Opinion About Somebody Until I’ve Met Them in the Flesh
184. ALL GENETICS ARE GOOD GENETICS.
185. Happiness vs Freedom
186. The Birth of a Hater
187. My Way Isn’t the Right Way
188. Walking as an Existential Thing
189. Why I’m So Tolerant
190. Mortal Gods
191. THE HUMAN SPECIES
192. Why I’m So Skeptical
193. Just Follow the Money
194. Why Selfish?
195. WHY WE CANNOT BLAME OTHERS
196. Why Are We So Anti Elitism?
197. What Actually Interests You?
198. How to Become Yourself
199. SELF HATE
200. Optimistic Fatalism
201. Death is the Ultimate Creative Constraint
202. FLUX.
203. How to Think for Yourself
204. FLESH
205. How to Live the Best Life
206. Why Live a Life Without Regrets?
207. Why Plato Ruined Art and Aesthetics for Us
208. Self Respect
209. Hypocrite vs Contradict
210. Ideals vs Reality
211. Spaceship Philosophy
212. What is Your Ideal Life?
213. MY EXTREME GRATITUDE TOWARDS LIFE AND BEING ALIVE!
214. Critique of Utilitarianism
215. Don’t Treat Others the Way You Want to Be Treated
216. The Eternal Recurrence of Tragedy and Joy in Life
217. Elite Asceticism
218. Why I Don’t Like Numbers
219. Action and Reaction, Cause and Effect
220. The Antidote to Nihilism: The Philosophy of Nothingness
221. ERIC KIM Notes on Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
222. EXPLOIT CHAOS.
223. WHY I DON’T BELIEVE IN GENETICS
224. Self-Wisdom
225. The Future Belongs to the Fearless
226. INDIVIDUALISM
227. Why Live Forever?
228. THIS TOO WILL PASS.
229. Why Education?
230. How to Become Yourself
231. Things Shouldn’t Go Back to the Way They Used to Be
232. Why Am I So Cruel?
233. The Great Joy of Existence
234. Virtue for the Sake of Virtue
235. NO DISDAIN.
236. INTELLIGENT IGNORANCE
237. A LIFE WITHOUT PAIN, DIFFICULTY OR TRAGEDY ISN’T A LIFE WORTH LIVING
238. BITTER IS BETTER.
239. EXPLOIT THE BEST FROM TRAGEDY AND LIFE 
240. DISREGARD FOR SELF-PRESERVATION
241. PAIN.
242. WHAT IF EVERYTHING IS NOT GONNA BE ALRIGHT?
243. Tomorrow is Never
244. Life is the Ultimate Creative Constraint
245. EMBODIED REALITY
246. BLACK SWAN
247. THINGS WILL NEVER GO BACK TO THE WAY THEY USED TO BE
248. What are you *really* afraid of?
249. HAPPINESS ISN’T THE GOAL
250. Philosophy is King
251. Why is Selfish Evil?
252. YOU’RE CONSTANTLY IN A STATE OF BECOMING
253. ENTITLEMENT A SIN?
254. NARCISSISM
255. BE BRUTALLY HONEST WITH YOURSELF
256. WHY FREE WILL?
257. OBEY YOUR OPINION
258. EGO IS GOOD.
259. WHY IT IS GOOD TO BE INTO YOURSELF
260. Seek the Good Pain
261. Anti-Perfection in Photography, Art, and Life
262. Can You Become an End into Yourself?
263. WHY I LIVE
264. Why I Hate Decline
265. Why I Eat
266. Why am I So Positive and Optimistic?
267. EFFORT IS ENJOYMENT
268. Never Stop Gaining
269. TRUST YOURSELF
270. A Life of Maximal Personal Independence
271. What Do You Desire to Become?
272. What Do I Want from Technology?
273. Stratified Society
274. Do You Love or Hate Reality?
275. On the Brian, Body and Mind
276. I’m Maximally Happy, Now What?
277. Care over Fame
278. ACTIVE NIHILISM
279. Never Stop Subtracting
280. How to Live a Happier and More Epic Life
281. A Risker Life is a Better Life
282. Only Work on Things You Can Imagine Doing for Eternity
283. How to Maximize Your Happiness
284. Influence
285. The Gladiator Makes His Plans once He Enters the Ring
286. Meditations on Meaning in Life
287. There is Nothing More Interesting than Human Beings
288. Is Hope a Vice?
289. EGO
290. Why Be Unique?
291. Happiness is Metabolism Health and Strength
292. You’re the Hero
293. Is Productivity a Virtue or Vice?
294. Why Do We Prize the Rare?
295. The Joy of Uncertainty
296. How Should I Best Use My Time and Life?
297. A Life Without Pain or Suffering Isn’t a Life Worth Living
298. Free or Unfree?
299. What Do You Really Care For in Life?
300. Anti-Satisfaction in Life
301. Why Think?
302. The Eternal Return
303. Only Do What is Best for You!
304. Truthiness
305. Why Be Happy?
306. Permissionless Living
307. In Praise of Unconventional Wisdom
308. Become the Change Which You Wish to See in the World
309. Happiness
310. Beyond Freedom
311. Idolize People, Not Stuff
312. What Makes You Stronger? What Makes You Weaker?
313. Why Hate?
314. The Secret of Happiness
315. You’re Constantly in a State of Becoming
316. Life is about Choices, Not Obligations
317. Anti-Nihilism
318. First, Do What is Best for You.
319. Live Dynamic
320. How to Prosper
321. Is the Point of Life to Be Satisfied?
322. SUPREME EFFORT OF WILL.
323. How to Become more Idealistic
324. Thrivival 101
325. Create Yourself
326. Non-Small
327. Inspiration
328. How to Live a Heroic Life: Dare the Heights!
329. Human Augmentation
330. Prune
331. Happiness: Do What You Want to Do (And Don’t Do What You Don’t Want to Do)
332. Avoid Vain (Empty) Pursuits in Life
333. Modern Slavery
334. Kill the Leeches
335. Wisdom Augmentation
336. Why We Need Friction in Life
337. Straight Line Philosophy
338. What’s Your End-Game in Life?
339. Create Your Own Happiness Today
340. Desire Both Pain and Pleasure in Life
341. Try the Impossible
342. SELF-RESPECT
343. Anti-Social Extrovert
344. Never Blame Anybody But Yourself
345. Human Flourishing
346. Simpler, Not Better.
347. How to be Free
348. Embrace the Extremes
349. Cultivate Your Own Culture
350. COURAGE.
351. Thrivival
352. Inner Power
353. How to Live a Purposeful Life
354. My Definition of Happiness
355. Why Change is Good
356. Why Work?
357. How to Live the Happiest Possible Life
358. The Two-Pronged Approach to Maximize Joy in Your Life
359. You Always Have Another Option!
360. INFINITISM
361. Never Stop!
362. What is Your Self-Directed Purpose in Life?
363. Live Today Like it Were Your Last
364. Do You Photograph to Live, or Live to Photograph?
365. ARTIST-PHILOSOPHER
366. Live Life to the Fullest!
367. In Praise of Selfishness
368. Why You Must Be a YAY-SAYER to Succeed in Entrepreneurship and Life
369. Why I Love Walking
370. Live Life Like a Video Game!
371. Simple Luxuries in Life
372. Treat Your Life Like a Fun Experiment!
373. Only Prove it to Yourself
374. You Don’t Always Need to Feel Joyful to Live a Fulfilling and Meaningful Life
375. Life is Too Short to Be Bored!
376. Money Cannot Destroy Boredom
377. How to Find Inspiration in Life
378. Why You Must Ignore Haters to Succeed and Win in Life
379. An Active Life is a Happy Life
380. My Simple Joys in Life
381. Never Stop Striving
382. How to Motivate Yourself in Life
383. How to Be Optimistic in Life
384. How to Dictate Your Purpose in Life
385. In Praise of a Dynamic Life
386. PURPOSE.
387. How to Enjoy Life
388. Photography Therapy
389. How to Conquer Regret
390. Take Your Play Very Seriously.
391. How to Prosper
392. Memento Vivere
393. Destroy in Order to CREATE
394. Trust Your Body More Than Your Mind
395. Make Photos to Make Meaning in Your Life
396. Seek Knowledge, Not Information
397. The Purpose of Human Life
398. How to Overcome Impedence
399. Why I Love Death
400. How to Be Centered in the Eternal Now
401. How to Be Happy
402. Why Do You Care What Others Think of You?
403. Why I’m Happy
404. Why?
405. Why I’m So Prolific
406. How to Reduce LAG in Life

Masters of Philosophy Â»

• Seneca
• Marcus Aurelius
• Publilius Syrus

Personal Philosophy Â»

• You Are the Light of the World
• Your Soul is a Diamond in the Rough
• Why Live?

Stoicism Â»

• How to Be a Stoic Street Photographer
• How to Use Photography as Self-Therapy
• How to Free Your Soul From Disturbance

Zen Philosophy »

• How to Be a Zen Street Photographer
• Zen in the Art of Street Photography
• How to Find Tranquility in Your Photography

Life Lessons Â»

• How to Conquer Your Fears in Life
• Conquer Yourself
• How to Focus

Learn more: Start Here >

A philosophical idea —

Perhaps the only and proper way to do things, whether the gym, fitness, working out, your website platform etc is simple — either have it self hosted by yourself, or nothing.

Self Hosted Philosophy

Why?

The life of Seneca:

In life, when moving to a new place or whatever … there always seems to be an adjustment period? Sometimes around 2-3 years?

Trying to figure things out, having fun in the process?

VIDEO

I DO IT

Easiest and quickest path to riches and personal freedom independence!

Simple:

1. Intermittent fasting; no breakfast, no lunch, only one massive 100% carnivore red meat dinner a night (aim for at least 4-5 pounds of beef, ground beef, meat, red meat, lamb, beef etc). Ideally organ meats.
2. Very very heavy weight lifting.
3. Walk around topless as much as possible, and booty shorts short shorts. Or if not possible wear a tanktop, and a sleeveless down vest.

SEXY LIFT

The goal ain’t to get ‘bigger’,,, but to become *sexier*?

NATIVE FORMAT — SEE YOUR PHOTOS?

---

HOW CAN A MAN BECOME SEXIER?

So it seems the strategy is this:

Get super super rich, through capitalism,,, and then, when you die, bequeath it back to the public, for insanely phenomenal free public art works, art museums, spaces, architectures!

I’m sure Paul Getty did a bunch of unsavory things while he was alive to accumulate his wealth, but even the Getty Villa; in Malibu— it is free!!!

My legacy shall last forever!

(more…)

Fucking wow so happy — second chance at life! –

Security and freedom 

More security less freedom?

Eric Kim has shared several quotes and thoughts on weightlifting that reflect his unique approach and philosophy:

1. On Hard Work and Virtue: Kim questions the notion that working “hard” at the gym and enduring pain is inherently virtuous. He suggests that innovative approaches, like heavy rack pulls and “micro squats,” can be more effective oai_citation:1,Weightlifting Thoughts – ERIC KIM.
2. Myopic Gym Culture: He criticizes the myopic culture in gyms, where different groups (like powerlifters and bodybuilders) stick to their own routines without exploring other forms of strength training. Kim advocates for a “full stack strength” approach, combining different methods like yoga with heavy lifting oai_citation:2,Weightlifting Thoughts – ERIC KIM.
3. Biases in Weightlifting: Kim observes biases between powerlifters and bodybuilders, noting differences in physique and mindset. He proposes a hybrid approach, lifting like a powerlifter while maintaining the aesthetics of a bodybuilder oai_citation:3,Weightlifting Thoughts – ERIC KIM.
4. Best Way to Lift Weights: His personal theory is to increase the weight while reducing the range of motion, which he finds more fun and less injury-prone compared to repetitive lifting oai_citation:4,Weightlifting Thoughts – ERIC KIM.
5. Philosophical Perspective on Lifting Weights: Kim views weightlifting as a fun, thrilling activity that augments muscle mass and positively shifts hormones, benefiting both men and women oai_citation:5,Weightlifting Thoughts – ERIC KIM.
6. Contemporary Attitudes Towards Muscle: He observes a trend where being muscular is less fashionable and speculates on modern aesthetics favoring a more androgynous look. Kim also comments on the contradiction in society’s celebration of material symbols of power while downplaying physical strength oai_citation:6,ERIC KIM WEIGHTLIFTER – ERIC KIM oai_citation:7,Quotes by Eric Kim on the Body – ERIC KIM.
7. Body as a Reflection of Lifestyle and Well-being: Kim believes that our bodies often reveal our eating habits, social class, and personal values. He strongly advocates for physical health as central to overall well-being oai_citation:8,ERIC KIM WEIGHTLIFTER – ERIC KIM oai_citation:9,Quotes by Eric Kim on the Body – ERIC KIM.
8. Unique Approach to Weightlifting: His regimen involves intermittent fasting, a carnivore diet, and lifting heavy weights without prior eating, focusing on pulling exercises and grip strength oai_citation:10,ERIC KIM WEIGHTLIFTER – ERIC KIM oai_citation:11,on Eric Kim weight lifting – ERIC KIM.
9. Bodybuilding Philosophy: Kim encourages bodybuilders to engage in philosophy, suggesting that a stronger body leads to better thinking. He emphasizes the honesty of physical strength oai_citation:12,ERIC KIM WEIGHTLIFTER – ERIC KIM.

These quotes encapsulate Kim’s holistic and philosophical approach to weightlifting and physical health, integrating strength training with broader life principles and personal values.

For more detailed insights into his philosophy and views, exploring his full range of work would be beneficial. You can find more of his thoughts on weightlifting and the body on his blog, Eric Kim Photography.

Eric Kim’s approach to weightlifting is quite distinctive and holistic, combining intense physical training with a specific dietary regimen. His workout plan is centered around single repetitions and one rep maxes, focusing on maximum strength building. He advocates for a fitness philosophy that includes intermittent fasting and a strict carnivore diet, consisting mainly of meats like beef and its organs. Kim also emphasizes the importance of using natural grip strength by avoiding straps and opting for chalk during lifts.

His routine involves heavy lifting without eating beforehand, reflecting his commitment to intermittent fasting, where he skips breakfast and lunch in favor of a large dinner. This approach is a part of his broader philosophy of treating the body as a work of art and a medium for personal expression. Kim’s fitness philosophy extends to considering weightlifting as a test of courage and an opportunity to push personal limits.

Additionally, Kim shares practical tips for weightlifting, like using a trap or open hex bar for deadlifts for better leverage and a more natural lift. He advises against the use of supplements, protein powders, and equipment like powerlifting belts or knee wraps, advocating for a more natural and raw form of strength training.

For more insights and detailed information on Eric Kim’s unique weightlifting philosophy and routines, you can explore his thoughts and methods on his blog and YouTube channel oai_citation:1,How to Start Weightlifting at the Gym – ERIC KIM oai_citation:2,ERIC KIM WORKOUT PLAN – ERIC KIM oai_citation:3,How to Lift Weights – ERIC KIM oai_citation:4,ERIC KIM WEIGHT LIFTING – ERIC KIM oai_citation:5,The Philosophy of Weightlifting – ERIC KIM.

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10+ Bitcoin club

The most two critical things in life:

Avoid death, don’t do anything that might cause your traumatic death, whether it be sleeping with the gas heater on, dying in the middle of your sleep, going skydiving, regardless of how it is, zip lining whatever, roller coasters, amusement park rides, texting while driving or even driving and talking on the phone.

Also, not trying to feed your kid in the car while you’re driving, even when stopped at a red light.

Also, disease. Anything like getting an STD, aids etc. Don’t have coitus with anybody besides your wife. Also as a funny tip, if you ever plan on going to the strip club, or the club, or anywhere that you might get tempted… just rub one out real quick in the bathroom before you go, to avoid doing anything dumb.

Also, to quote NASSIM TALEB; just avoid death, or irreversible permanent disfigurement. Don’t do nothing that might cause you to become,

PHILOSOPHY BY KIM

IDEAS BY KIM

1. A LIFE WITHOUT PAIN, DISCOMFORT OR (LIMITED) SUFFERING IS NOT A LIFE WORTH LIVING?
2. BIGGER IS WEAKER.
3. How to Become a Philosopher
4. Deep Vanity
5. Time Will Tell
6. What is Wisdom?
7. LOOK *BEYOND*
8. BECOMING MORE IMMORAL?
9. ‘LUCK’ VS COURAGE
10. ‘SKILL’ VS MERIT?
11. Becoming Antifragile
12. How to “Improve” Men
13. The Art of Virtue
14. How to Dominate
15. JUST SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCES AND WISDOM WITH OTHERS.
16. How to Get More Done in a Single Day – MEMENTO MORI PHILOSOPHY
17. THINK FOR YOURSELF
18. Cruel?
19. GO DEMIGOD.
20. How to Be Happy: Challenge and Danger Philosophy
21. To Become Greater, You Must Become *LESS* Productive!
22. Imperfect Beauty
23. The Philosophy of Pleasure
24. What Interests You?
25. Anti Theory of Everything
26. Become?
27. STRONGER OR NOT?
28. Carte Blanche Ideals
29. CHOOSE JOY
30. Don’t Judge Your Impulses
31. On Becoming Less Human
32. COWARDICE.
33. The Philosophy of Futurism
34. PHILOSOPHY IS VALUE-SETTING
35. PHILOSOPHY IS NOT LIFESTYLE
36. WHY STANDARDIZATION IS BAD.
37. YOUR OWN TABLE OF VALUES.
38. RETRO IS BAD.
39. INSANELY LOFTY THOUGHTS.
40. Strive to *Lose* Weight, Not *Gain* Weight
41. DIABLO II ANALOGIES FOR REAL LIFE.
42. If You Know Your *WHY* You Can Discover Any *HOW*
43. Life is Too Short to Be Miserable
44. What Consumption Takes Skill?
45. OFF THE GRID.
46. REALITY IS CRUEL.
47. Pain is Information
48. WHY REMOVE VULGARITY AND DISORDER FROM OUR EYES?
49. AUTOTELIC.
50. UNPLUG.
51. How to Become a Philosopher
52. SUBOPTIMAL IS OPTIMAL
53. THE LUST FOR MORE.
54. TO DO IS TO BECOME.
55. IN PRAISE OF AGGRESSIVE.
56. THE PHILOSOPHY OF OPTIMISM
57. OUR PHILOSOPHICAL WILL TO EXISTENCE
58. Is Hope a Vice?
59. MOVE MEAN
60. Carte Blanche Ideals
61. One Interesting Thought
62. What Lasts? What Doesn’t Last?
63. A WOUND STIMULATES THE RECUPERATIVE POWERS
64. Children & Purpose
65. Thoughts on Becoming a Parent
66. Where Does Our Desire to Upgrade Come From?
67. WE ALWAYS NEED SOMETHING FURTHER TO ASPIRE TO.
68. Self-Task Yourself an Awesome Mission in Life
69. Differentiation vs Equalization
70. My Passion to *Become* Something More
71. No Aesthetic or Ethos is Forever
72. What is Your Higher Purpose in Life?
73. IT WILL NEVER SATISFY YOU.
74. How to Decide
75. Things You *Want* to Do vs Things You *MUST* Do
76. Towards a More Beautiful Mode of Existence and Future
77. EXTREME GRATITUDE.
78. AMAP (As Much as Possible) or None.
79. Why or How Does it Matter?
80. The Philosophy of Time and Events
81. How *Not* to Resent
82. FORWARD LOOKING
83. DOMAIN FLEXIBILITY.
84. The Miracle of Human Growth
85. EXTREME ADAPTATION.
86. Why Plan?
87. You Don’t Need to Justify Yourself
88. The Philosophy of Ego
89. True vs False Passions
90. How to Achieve Tranquility
91. On Making Your Own Philosophy
92. The Purpose of Life is to Create New Life
93. Think On!
94. The Wisdom of Doing Nothing
95. Congruency
96. My Thoughts on Meditation
97. The Philosophy of Purpose
98. Emulate Yourself
99. Good Fear, Bad Fear
100. For the Betterment of Humanity or Just Yourself?
101. What you *really* believe in and care for is manifested through your actions (or non-actions)
102. Why Culture is Your Enemy
103. YOUR EXPERIENCES ARE KING.
104. LIFE IS INHERENTLY GOOD.
105. Artistic, Physical, and Philosophical Muscles
106. All New Experiences are Good Experiences
107. What is the Purpose of X?
108. UTILITY.
109. Philosophy is a Luxury
110. The Attempt is More Interesting than the Result
111. Joyfulness vs “Happiness”
112. Effectiveness Over Happiness
113. Self Actualization
114. MAXIMAL ENGAGEMENT
115. Life & Pain
116. On Living Every Day with No Regret
117. Learn as if you’re going to live forever, live as if you’re going to die tomorrow
118. Live Every Day Like it Were the Last Day of Your Life
119. Self-Determination
120. FALSE GRATITUDE vs REAL GRATITUDE
121. HOW TO LIVE MORE
122. THE UPSIDE OF TRAGEDY
123. Satisfaction is a Sucker’s Game
124. Supreme Repose
125. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF LIFE? According to ERIC KIM
126. STUBBORN, FLEXIBLE
127. EVERYTHING HAPPENS AS IT *SHOULD* HAVE HAD HAPPENED
128. Good Addiction, Bad Addiction?
129. What is the Best Life?
130. The Philosophy of Thinking
131. The Philosophy of Conspiracies
132. Conspiracies
133. Growth
134. Skepticism.
135. What Do You Really Want Out of Life?
136. Seem or Be?
137. Learn Through Pain
138. Respect Yourself
139. In Praise of Elitism
140. Why Independent Thinking?
141. I Will Never Die
142. Bitter is Better
143. The Genesis of Nihilism and Existential Dread
144. The Ethics of Personal Enrichment
145. Good vs Not Good
146. Punished by Privilege
147. Abstinence Over Moderation
148. Just Leave Others Alone
149. You Can Only Critique that Which You Truly Understand and Love
150. ERIC KIM Critique of Metaphysics
151. Only Trust Philosophers Who Deadlift
152. Heuristic: If Someone Talks Shit About Others Behind Their Back, Most Likely They’re Also Talking Shit About You Behind Your Back
153. Virtue is a Privilege
154. What Are Your Life Goals?
155. Honesty
156. Why I’m Anti Moderation
157. No Spite, No Malice.
158. Ascending Life or Descending Life?
159. Double Edged Sword
160. Ignorance.
161. Why I Don’t Trust “Nice Guys”
162. Why You Must Share Your Opinion
163. Selfish Isn’t Evil
164. Wisdom is the Goal
165. YOU ARE KING.
166. MASTER YOURSELF
167. What is “Good” for You is Often what is Bad for You
168. Care.
169. BITTERSWEET
170. ONE REP MAX
171. Morality and Ethics is the Snare
172. BY HELPING YOURSELF, YOU BEST HELP OTHERS
173. Insanity is Good.
174. Think Deep.
175. PHILOSOPHY IS THE FUTURE.
176. Open Mind vs Closed Mind
177. ENTHUSIASM IS GENIUS
178. Towards a More Critical and Rigorous Line of Thinking
179. How to Encourage and a Foster Independent and Free Thinking
180. What is the Purpose of Life?
181. WHY PHILOSOPHY IS SUPREME.
182. Elitism.
183. I Cannot Form an Opinion About Somebody Until I’ve Met Them in the Flesh
184. ALL GENETICS ARE GOOD GENETICS.
185. Happiness vs Freedom
186. The Birth of a Hater
187. My Way Isn’t the Right Way
188. Walking as an Existential Thing
189. Why I’m So Tolerant
190. Mortal Gods
191. THE HUMAN SPECIES
192. Why I’m So Skeptical
193. Just Follow the Money
194. Why Selfish?
195. WHY WE CANNOT BLAME OTHERS
196. Why Are We So Anti Elitism?
197. What Actually Interests You?
198. How to Become Yourself
199. SELF HATE
200. Optimistic Fatalism
201. Death is the Ultimate Creative Constraint
202. FLUX.
203. How to Think for Yourself
204. FLESH
205. How to Live the Best Life
206. Why Live a Life Without Regrets?
207. Why Plato Ruined Art and Aesthetics for Us
208. Self Respect
209. Hypocrite vs Contradict
210. Ideals vs Reality
211. Spaceship Philosophy
212. What is Your Ideal Life?
213. MY EXTREME GRATITUDE TOWARDS LIFE AND BEING ALIVE!
214. Critique of Utilitarianism
215. Don’t Treat Others the Way You Want to Be Treated
216. The Eternal Recurrence of Tragedy and Joy in Life
217. Elite Asceticism
218. Why I Don’t Like Numbers
219. Action and Reaction, Cause and Effect
220. The Antidote to Nihilism: The Philosophy of Nothingness
221. ERIC KIM Notes on Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
222. EXPLOIT CHAOS.
223. WHY I DON’T BELIEVE IN GENETICS
224. Self-Wisdom
225. The Future Belongs to the Fearless
226. INDIVIDUALISM
227. Why Live Forever?
228. THIS TOO WILL PASS.
229. Why Education?
230. How to Become Yourself
231. Things Shouldn’t Go Back to the Way They Used to Be
232. Why Am I So Cruel?
233. The Great Joy of Existence
234. Virtue for the Sake of Virtue
235. NO DISDAIN.
236. INTELLIGENT IGNORANCE
237. A LIFE WITHOUT PAIN, DIFFICULTY OR TRAGEDY ISN’T A LIFE WORTH LIVING
238. BITTER IS BETTER.
239. EXPLOIT THE BEST FROM TRAGEDY AND LIFE 
240. DISREGARD FOR SELF-PRESERVATION
241. PAIN.
242. WHAT IF EVERYTHING IS NOT GONNA BE ALRIGHT?
243. Tomorrow is Never
244. Life is the Ultimate Creative Constraint
245. EMBODIED REALITY
246. BLACK SWAN
247. THINGS WILL NEVER GO BACK TO THE WAY THEY USED TO BE
248. What are you *really* afraid of?
249. HAPPINESS ISN’T THE GOAL
250. Philosophy is King
251. Why is Selfish Evil?
252. YOU’RE CONSTANTLY IN A STATE OF BECOMING
253. ENTITLEMENT A SIN?
254. NARCISSISM
255. BE BRUTALLY HONEST WITH YOURSELF
256. WHY FREE WILL?
257. OBEY YOUR OPINION
258. EGO IS GOOD.
259. WHY IT IS GOOD TO BE INTO YOURSELF
260. Seek the Good Pain
261. Anti-Perfection in Photography, Art, and Life
262. Can You Become an End into Yourself?
263. WHY I LIVE
264. Why I Hate Decline
265. Why I Eat
266. Why am I So Positive and Optimistic?
267. EFFORT IS ENJOYMENT
268. Never Stop Gaining
269. TRUST YOURSELF
270. A Life of Maximal Personal Independence
271. What Do You Desire to Become?
272. What Do I Want from Technology?
273. Stratified Society
274. Do You Love or Hate Reality?
275. On the Brian, Body and Mind
276. I’m Maximally Happy, Now What?
277. Care over Fame
278. ACTIVE NIHILISM
279. Never Stop Subtracting
280. How to Live a Happier and More Epic Life
281. A Risker Life is a Better Life
282. Only Work on Things You Can Imagine Doing for Eternity
283. How to Maximize Your Happiness
284. Influence
285. The Gladiator Makes His Plans once He Enters the Ring
286. Meditations on Meaning in Life
287. There is Nothing More Interesting than Human Beings
288. Is Hope a Vice?
289. EGO
290. Why Be Unique?
291. Happiness is Metabolism Health and Strength
292. You’re the Hero
293. Is Productivity a Virtue or Vice?
294. Why Do We Prize the Rare?
295. The Joy of Uncertainty
296. How Should I Best Use My Time and Life?
297. A Life Without Pain or Suffering Isn’t a Life Worth Living
298. Free or Unfree?
299. What Do You Really Care For in Life?
300. Anti-Satisfaction in Life
301. Why Think?
302. The Eternal Return
303. Only Do What is Best for You!
304. Truthiness
305. Why Be Happy?
306. Permissionless Living
307. In Praise of Unconventional Wisdom
308. Become the Change Which You Wish to See in the World
309. Happiness
310. Beyond Freedom
311. Idolize People, Not Stuff
312. What Makes You Stronger? What Makes You Weaker?
313. Why Hate?
314. The Secret of Happiness
315. You’re Constantly in a State of Becoming
316. Life is about Choices, Not Obligations
317. Anti-Nihilism
318. First, Do What is Best for You.
319. Live Dynamic
320. How to Prosper
321. Is the Point of Life to Be Satisfied?
322. SUPREME EFFORT OF WILL.
323. How to Become more Idealistic
324. Thrivival 101
325. Create Yourself
326. Non-Small
327. Inspiration
328. How to Live a Heroic Life: Dare the Heights!
329. Human Augmentation
330. Prune
331. Happiness: Do What You Want to Do (And Don’t Do What You Don’t Want to Do)
332. Avoid Vain (Empty) Pursuits in Life
333. Modern Slavery
334. Kill the Leeches
335. Wisdom Augmentation
336. Why We Need Friction in Life
337. Straight Line Philosophy
338. What’s Your End-Game in Life?
339. Create Your Own Happiness Today
340. Desire Both Pain and Pleasure in Life
341. Try the Impossible
342. SELF-RESPECT
343. Anti-Social Extrovert
344. Never Blame Anybody But Yourself
345. Human Flourishing
346. Simpler, Not Better.
347. How to be Free
348. Embrace the Extremes
349. Cultivate Your Own Culture
350. COURAGE.
351. Thrivival
352. Inner Power
353. How to Live a Purposeful Life
354. My Definition of Happiness
355. Why Change is Good
356. Why Work?
357. How to Live the Happiest Possible Life
358. The Two-Pronged Approach to Maximize Joy in Your Life
359. You Always Have Another Option!
360. INFINITISM
361. Never Stop!
362. What is Your Self-Directed Purpose in Life?
363. Live Today Like it Were Your Last
364. Do You Photograph to Live, or Live to Photograph?
365. ARTIST-PHILOSOPHER
366. Live Life to the Fullest!
367. In Praise of Selfishness
368. Why You Must Be a YAY-SAYER to Succeed in Entrepreneurship and Life
369. Why I Love Walking
370. Live Life Like a Video Game!
371. Simple Luxuries in Life
372. Treat Your Life Like a Fun Experiment!
373. Only Prove it to Yourself
374. You Don’t Always Need to Feel Joyful to Live a Fulfilling and Meaningful Life
375. Life is Too Short to Be Bored!
376. Money Cannot Destroy Boredom
377. How to Find Inspiration in Life
378. Why You Must Ignore Haters to Succeed and Win in Life
379. An Active Life is a Happy Life
380. My Simple Joys in Life
381. Never Stop Striving
382. How to Motivate Yourself in Life
383. How to Be Optimistic in Life
384. How to Dictate Your Purpose in Life
385. In Praise of a Dynamic Life
386. PURPOSE.
387. How to Enjoy Life
388. Photography Therapy
389. How to Conquer Regret
390. Take Your Play Very Seriously.
391. How to Prosper
392. Memento Vivere
393. Destroy in Order to CREATE
394. Trust Your Body More Than Your Mind
395. Make Photos to Make Meaning in Your Life
396. Seek Knowledge, Not Information
397. The Purpose of Human Life
398. How to Overcome Impedence
399. Why I Love Death
400. How to Be Centered in the Eternal Now
401. How to Be Happy
402. Why Do You Care What Others Think of You?
403. Why I’m Happy
404. Why?
405. Why I’m So Prolific
406. How to Reduce LAG in Life

Masters of Philosophy Â»

• Seneca
• Marcus Aurelius
• Publilius Syrus

Personal Philosophy Â»

• You Are the Light of the World
• Your Soul is a Diamond in the Rough
• Why Live?

Stoicism Â»

• How to Be a Stoic Street Photographer
• How to Use Photography as Self-Therapy
• How to Free Your Soul From Disturbance

Zen Philosophy »

• How to Be a Zen Street Photographer
• Zen in the Art of Street Photography
• How to Find Tranquility in Your Photography

Life Lessons Â»

• How to Conquer Your Fears in Life
• Conquer Yourself
• How to Focus

Learn more: Start Here >

Audio

1. Dominance of Thoughts: Thoughts influence everything, notably in technology innovations like Tesla’s models and the global economic focus on automobiles.
2. Significance of Design: The design of products, especially cars, plays a vital role in consumer appeal and market success.
3. Art as a Thought Stimulator: Exhibitions like LACMA’s ‘Metropolis II’ inspire futuristic and dystopian ideas, highlighting art’s impact on thought.
4. Sociological Insights: The author’s sociology education at UCLA provided a framework for understanding societal and economic phenomena.
5. Critique of Conspiracy Theories: Emphasizes the importance of critical thinking and reliable information, rejecting conspiracy theories and misinformation.
6. Physical Health and Sober Thinking: Stresses the importance of maintaining physical health and clear-mindedness for effective intellectual work.
7. Design in Consumer Products: Focuses on the importance of design in cars, particularly the steering wheel and interior, for consumer attraction.
8. Purpose of Philosophy and Thinking: Beyond wealth accumulation, philosophy and thinking aim for deeper understanding, wisdom, and happiness.
9. Minimalist Lifestyle Advocacy: Recommends a lifestyle with fewer obligations and distractions to enhance mental clarity.
10. Future Optimism with a Tech Focus: Optimistic about advancements in AI, crypto, and technology, while maintaining skepticism towards companies like Apple and Google.

“The Philosophy of Thinking” explores the idea that thought governs our world. It suggests that innovative thinking, like that behind Tesla’s redesigned Model 3 or the ambient lighting in cars, significantly influences our lives and perceptions. The article also delves into the pervasive influence of cars, suggesting that a significant portion of economic activity revolves around them, as seen in models like Hyundai’s Genesis Berlinetta and AZERA.

The role of art in stimulating thought is highlighted through examples like the LACMA’s ‘Metropolis II’ exhibit, which evokes visions of futuristic urban landscapes. The author reflects on his educational journey in sociology at UCLA, emphasizing how it provided a framework for understanding societal and economic phenomena.

The author criticizes the tendency to believe in conspiracy theories and encourages critical thinking through tools like ChatGPT. He advocates for independent, unsubsidized sources of information and warns against the biases inherent in ad-supported content.

The essay also touches on the importance of physical health for quality thinking, denouncing the use of drugs and alcohol. It promotes sober, clear-minded thinking for deeper insights and understanding.

The text further explores the significance of design in products like cars, emphasizing that design is a crucial factor in consumer appeal and market success.

Lastly, the author discusses the broader purpose of philosophy and thinking – not just to accumulate wealth but to achieve a deeper understanding and happiness in life. He stresses the importance of mental and physical well-being and advocates for a minimalist, obligation-free lifestyle for better mental clarity. The future, according to the author, should be approached with optimism, focusing on advancements in AI, crypto, and technology.

Summarizing such a detailed and lengthy piece on the philosophy of thinking into 4000 words while maintaining the essence and key points of the original text is a challenging yet engaging task. The text presents a range of interconnected topics, exploring the significance of thought in shaping our world, the impact of design and aesthetics in everyday life, the role of cars and technology in modern society, and personal reflections on sociology, art, and entrepreneurship.

1. The Primacy of Thought: The text begins by emphasizing the central role of thoughts in governing our planet. It posits that thoughts are the foundation upon which all human endeavors are built, shaping our future and the world around us.
2. Innovation and Design: The author discusses the influence of design and aesthetics, using Tesla’s redesign of the Model 3 as a prime example. The text highlights how thoughtful design can evoke emotional responses and how it’s interwoven into our daily lives, impacting everything from our mood to our choices.
3. Automobiles and Economy: A significant portion of the text is dedicated to discussing how cars dominate the global economy. The author examines various car models and brands, including Hyundai and Genesis, and their influence on economic activities.
4. Art and Experience: The discussion shifts to the realm of art, with a particular focus on an exhibition at the LACMA. This part of the text delves into how art stimulates the mind and offers unique insights into human life and society.
5. Sociology and Understanding Society: The author reflects on the role of sociology in understanding societal structures and behaviors. The text discusses the relevance of sociological principles in interpreting economic trends, market behaviors, and human interactions.
6. Personal Journey and Entrepreneurship: The writer interweaves personal anecdotes, including missed opportunities with Bitcoin, to illustrate lessons learned and the importance of not repeating mistakes. This section also touches upon the value of independent thought and skepticism towards mainstream media and popular opinions.
7. Health and Physiology: A significant emphasis is placed on the importance of physical health and its impact on the quality of thoughts. The author argues for a sober, drug-free lifestyle as essential for clear and independent thinking.
8. Philosophy and Practical Wisdom: The text explores the purpose of philosophy and thinking, suggesting that the aim is not merely to acquire wealth but to gain wisdom, critical understanding, and happiness.
9. Future Technologies and Predictions: The author speculates on future advancements, focusing on AI, cryptocurrency, and the potential decline of tech giants like Apple and Google. This reflects a belief in the transformative power of technology and innovation.
10. Simplification and Mental Clarity: The conclusion advocates for simplifying life by reducing obligations and distractions. This includes a critical stance on modern music, social media, and the pursuit of obligations for monetary gain, emphasizing the importance of mental clarity and peace.

Throughout the text, the author intertwines personal anecdotes, societal observations, and philosophical musings to provide a comprehensive overview of the philosophy of thinking. The narrative is punctuated with reflections on modern technology, entrepreneurship, and the quest for personal and societal improvement.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF THINKING

First, start walking in order to think. 

---

So something I have not really came across yet is the philosophy of thinking. Why think, what does it mean to think, why does it matter?

First and foremost, thoughts govern the planet. For example, almost everything in life and in the world, is predicated on notions of thought and thinking. No thoughts, no future. 

For example, it looks like Tesla is about to conquer the planet. The new redesign Tesla model 3 is mind blowing. They made the steering wheel more beautiful, they made the interior design supply me beautiful; an integrated curve, Steve Jobs and Jony Ive would be proud!

Also I think that ambient lighting thing inside the car is super cool. Some people might think it is gimmicky, but I think it is awesome! I remember when I first saw the integrated lighting dash board thing in some Mercedes cars, and I think there is something to be said about light, light therapy; colors affect our mood. Is it James Turrel who does the light art stuff?

For example, anyone who says that colors don’t matter is a fool. Would you want the interior of your house to have bright red walls? Probably not if you don’t want to scream bloody murder inside your home.

Or, for people who say that color don’t matter, would you want to wear an all green outfit, with bright pink fuchsia accents and shoes? Probably not.

Cars run the planet?

Still in 2024, I am still shocked; it looks like cars run the planet. What this means is that it seemed that maybe 60% of our economic activity is around producing cars, selling cars, buying cars, design cars etc.

For example I look at Hyundai, it is insane… also the new Genesis Berlinetta concept car — also, the new Hyundai Grandeur and AZERA— like a futuristic Rolls-Royce for the future!

Genesis X

ART

The other day, it was free! The LACMA, LA Center for modern art, had this really insanely epic art exhibition, imagine like Legos and hot wheels on steroids; it was titled metropolis II, and imagine like a K-NEX erector set, 1100 custom designed mini matchbox hot wheel cars, with this perpetual machine moving all of the cars in traffic and buses and rails, stacked on top of one another. Conjured ideas of that old-school 1920s metropolis film, in the future where everything is that, flying cars etc. or also, a vision of a utopic-dystopic science-fiction future, kind of like Blade Runner, or that one futuristic movie that Bruce Willis was in.

Cinema by KIM

I love this exhibit so much because it’s stimulated my mind, and also, Seneca’s mind was blown! I think I rated as the best art exhibit of all time. I could probably watch it for hours, and not get bored.

If you’re in LA, Southern California whatever, I think it is a critical experience you must go to in person. Also what makes it a great exhibit is that it can be enjoyed by both children and adults, all ages. It is essentially a microcosm of cities, urban living, traffic and cars. The ultimate takeaway point: 

We all think we are so unique and individual, and special, based on superficial things whether we drive an orange sports car or whatever, but in fact, we are all just the same! A bunch of lemmings!

Sociology is great

So I was born in 1988, and I attended UCLA as an undergraduate, I started in 2006, graduated 2010. I wish I got into Bitcoin earlier in 2009, when my roommate Kevin told me about it, I think when he first saw it on Reddit. He said that we should both put about 100 bucks into it and see what happened. I shrugged my shoulders and said “Meh — nah, probably a scam”. If I do the math, 100 bucks, I think at the time somebody spent 20,000 bitcoin to buy a pizza on Domino’s or whatever, the infamous $500 million pizza, basically… What would 100 bucks times a penny be? How many Bitcoin could that have purchased me? And what would it be worth today?

In life it is fine to make a mistake, and make a regret. But not twice. This is why and why I’m going back into bitcoin.

No twice regrets.

Anyways back to sociology, I think the reason why I think it is such a phenomenal framework to understand the world and society is that I think all of this is just a sociological phenomenon. Society, capital, capitalism, living lifestyle whatever… I think about 80% or 85% of it is based on certain sociological principles. 

Also, to understand the market, economics, I think it is all sociology. To understand human fear, scams, fraud etc. 

Also, I think studying sociology has made me unlearn a lot of the BS. To quote Karl Popper, via NASSIM TALEB– the idea of falsification, subtraction, or the general idea that in order to become more wise, you just gotta subtract delete or get rid of foolishness, nonsense.

For example, conspiracy theories. Only fools believe in them. Even if they are real, it doesn’t even really matter.

Therefore a great advancement in ourselves our thinking etc. is subtracting deleting or getting rid of weird conspiracy theories from your brain and your mind. 

Pro tip: kit ChatGPT app on your iPhone iPad, and don’t be a cheapo; subscribe to the paid premium edition only 20 bucks a month, and start doing these type of searches:

Common misconceptions about XYZ

Or

Help me debunk some conspiracy theories about XYZ

For example, common misconceptions about Catholicism, Judaism, Islam etc. Or the Quran.

Or help me debunk theories that Jewish people run the world blah blah blah. Or that Hitler, according to operation paperclip, was in fact never killed or captured, but ended up being shipped to Antarctica to live in a bunker, where he really died.

My overall critique about Google the Internet YouTube, podcast, etc.… Essentially all these fools who think they are so wise… Strange fellows like Alex Jones, even people on the left or the right or the middle or the right, alt left, and anarchists all of them… All of them are fools. 

My simple tip or heuristic is this: trust no man or women on YouTube, Google, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, podcast, etc. Especially if it is supported by advertising or them trying to sell their own products.

In fact, I think the interesting thing is when you actually make your money your fortune from some other random independent thing. For example now, I’m currently building my Empire Fortune and crypto, cryptocurrency. Therefore as a consequence, I have 100% free reign and freedom and independence to just talk about whatever is on my mind, irregardless of whatever. 

***

Off the grid thinking

To me the grid is an interesting metaphor for a lot of things. The grid could be standard conventional thinking, “rules” and regulations, a lot of of the modern day BS.

I think primarily my superpower in life is my ability to disdain ignore and find ridiculous all of these “rules”. In fact, at least in real life, I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody as interesting as myself. The only other interesting people I think, or maybe Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Kanye West. To me actually they are very relatable.

The photographer philosopher

Come on… It is 2024, you’re still on Instagram? To me Instagram is like eating McDonald’s hamburgers. Not proper.

Also, I’m still a bit confused… why don’t more people photographers just start their own private websites and blogs? And no no no, do not use squarespace it sucks. Also fun dirty secret, maybe about four or five years ago I got an email from Squarespace, saying that if I converted my whole website and blogging into Squarespace they would give me $15,000 or something. It was the easiest no I ever said in my life. Honestly speaking, I don’t even think I do it for $1 million? Unless there is something the updated which is really good. Maybe I would do it for 100 million?

To somebody who says they cannot be bought out by money, you’re just not offering them enough money (TALEB)

To me the reason why I find the photography so critical is that ultimately we are visual creatures. What sells cars? Design. Design marketing, the idealized concept of something.

Design is God.

Mind blown

Once again the new Tesla model 3, I think it actually looks 500 times cooler than any other Tesla car out there. And I’m glad that I am a late adopter, and I was not one of these unfortunates who bought an early model Tesla model model 3 or any other Tesla car. In fact, a lot of the Tesla cars are already starting to look dated. For example the original Tesla model S is outdated, even the slightly newer Tesla model S cars, that don’t have the yoke steering look very outdated. I feel bad for those people who spent a lot of money on the infamous Tesla P 100 D, to only see it dated by the plaid. And now, I’m pretty certain that sooner or later the plate is going to be replaced and outdated by something else too.

Or even another basic thing; people who bought the Tesla model three in the early days, with the chrome trim.

Even the Tesla model X, the newer versions look far better. And have a unique color.

What design is truly critical in a car? 

To me the most important thing in a car is the steering wheel, because you look at it all the time, then the interior and dashboard, and also the back of the car. And also specifically the door side driver side entrance, and also the rear left passenger side door, where I get in and out and load Seneca into his car seat and the car.

Technically the front of the car is not that important, because if you park in a spot like a normal person, you never look at the front of the car. You almost ever look at the back of it.

Also in terms of the car, the steering wheel is the most critical thing because he used it all the time. To me for a Tesla car, either yolk steering or nothing. Even the new Tesla model three the steering wheel looks really cool. Also the new cybertruck the new steering wheel looks very cool. 

Also a subtle thing I learned when researching Ferrari, doing the 3-D modeling tours of inside the car, it is actually very interesting to me that the Ferrari logo is a bright yellow background with the prancing horse and black. Having that emblem on the steering wheel inspires confidence.

Maybe this is why Ferrari is superior to Lamborghini; technically if you think about it, the Lamborghini is just a very expensive Volkswagen Passat. The Lamborghini Urus is just an expensive Volkswagen Touareg.

The Ferrari is interesting because it is still to a certain extent, a purebred. Ferrari is Ferrari, owned by Ferrari, not some other weird parent company. And also I think it is good that Ferrari is its own stock ticker - RACE. Typically I never trust a thing which is just a subsidiary of another thing. 

Sharing your thoughts

A simple way to live life, and to make an impact or whatever is to just share your thoughts. It is funny because people say all this ridiculous things like “That is just your opinion!” The best response: “Of course it is my opinion! That’s why I said it!” Opinion, opine, just means to think.

This is where philosophy is very useful: people think that there are certain notions of “facts“, especially in the realm of statistics, but probably the most useful thing of studying sociology, is understanding that statistics is just a scam. I learned from Cindy (cindyanguyen.com), in her book and dissertation, that the notion of statistics comes from the state. The general idea is that statistics was a measuring tool invented by the state in order to track measure progress, something that the French colonists and colonial administrators did when colonizing Vietnam and her other territories, and also, what the Chinese communists did under Mao Zedong, and also the Vietnamese communists also did. The general idea was this:

In order to track the legitimacy of something and the progress of something (let us not forget that the notion of “progress“ is a feeble modern day notion)– is that we gotta track the growth of something in numbers.

Do you remember in BRAVE NEW WORLD, when in the beginning of the book they talk about how they were able to distill human birth human children in test tubes then said — Progress.

So therefore let us not forget, the notion of “progress“ is not a distinct one. It is a modern one. 

Numbers are boring

I don’t trust nobody who either has some sort of loser Apple Watch, Fitbit tracker, has Instagram, or applies any metrics to their life. The only metric I find useful is maybe increasing your one repetition maximum in your weightlifting, simply as a measure to know that you’re increasing the weight. But besides that, things which are bad include weighing yourself on the scale, because you don’t know how much of that is body fat adipose tissue, how much of that is skeletal muscle mass, and even other things that people don’t talk about… how much of that weight is bones, sinews, blood and water?  

A simple New Year’s resolution is this year, throw your scale in the trash, donate it or whatever, and never weigh yourself.

Both men and women are foolish: they track weight as a measure of their self-worth. But, the goal is to increase skeletal muscle mass, and decrease body adipose fat tissue. This is something that scale cannot do, the closest thing is either a fat caliper, or just look at yourself in the mirror. Pinch your belly fat, or look at the fat in your face, or, you want to get rid of the infamous fat rolls in the back of your neck. Something that I see that Kanye West has.

“It is simple: if it jiggles, it is fat.”- Arnold S

Why are we no longer permitted to be independent interesting thinkers?

It is weird, in today’s world, in America at least… We truly do have the greatest system for independent thinking and thought. Here unlike other countries, you will not get jailed for sharing your opinion. Even the most politically liberal or advanced countries in the world pale in comparison to America.

The problem though here is that all sides, all parties, all individuals are “nudged“ either into the left or the right, even this notion of being a political or being an anarchist or whatever is also just another lemming sheep mentality.

Or another words, put zero faith in anybody who watches any news, doesn’t matter if it is NPR, Fox News, Al Jazeera whatever. The simple heuristic is this: if it is being funded by advertising, google Adsense revenue, it is not to be consumed. 

Only trust things that you are spending your real money on. This means, stop using Google. Google is a “free” service, and the way they make money is by sensationalism and banner advertising. Even nowadays I’m stopping to use Google maps, having those annoying Square advertisements that pop up when I’m driving, I almost feel like that is borderline unethical. Why? It distracts me from driving, I wonder if it will lead me to getting into a car accident one day? Google, whoever did that I google, Google maps team whatever… Shame on you.

Apple Maps is the inferior product, but at least it is not supported by advertising. Get rid of Google maps use Apple Maps instead. 

---

First, focus on your health physiology exercise and physiological well-being and everything else will follow

The quality of your thoughts are simply an offshoot of the quality of your bodily physiological health.

For example just think; if you only sleep 30 minutes a night, four days or weeks on then, what do you think will be the quality of your thoughts? Optimistic joyful and happy? Or weird, morose, dark?

Or other thoughts, imagine like you’re in heroin addict, or hooked on some sort of meth. What will be the quality of your thoughts?

This is why I trust no thinker or individual who partakes and drugs, alcohol and weed. Although both are quite mainstream now. Why?

A lot of people are alcoholics, and a lot of people also apparently do a lot of writing and production of music and artwork when they’re drunk, which is bad. Even Kanye West, his a low-key alcoholic on and off, I think he said all the anti-Jewish stuff when he was drunk. And on Twitter. Being drunk and on Twitter at the same time or Facebook, not a good idea.

Also weed, weed is so mainstream now, it is not really seen as a big deal. But I also think it is foolish that some people think that weed has no effect on your thinking. Even Kendrick Lamar, his only vice is maybe Froot Loops and Captain crunch cereal.

“You let the meds talk I let my soul talk ayy!” – Kendrick

The reason why we should not trust any artists, rappers, musicians or whatever who are addicted to drugs any type of drugs, and yes, weed marijuana is drug… They’re thinking will not be pure. They’re thinking will be too overly saturated with the weird effect of drugs, anti-depressants, uppers and downers whatever.

Even Elon Musk, I rate him highly, but if you read the Walter Isaacson biography on him, he will discover that he drinks too much alcohol late at night, and just drinks Red Bull to stay awake. Not good.

---

Sober thinkers?

Am I the only millennial I know who doesn’t drink alcohol or smoke weed or take drugs? And have never been to a concert, EDM thing, etc.?

The only concert ever went to in my life was by myself, to a Yeezus  concert at the Oakland Coliseum, Kanye performing live. The coolest thing of all time.

How alcohol is strange

A very weird trend I have discovered is this weird trend: get a bunch of tattoos, drink a bunch of craft beer, wear sunglasses and some sort of trucker hat, wear flannel, drive some sort of big truck or whatever, and to make the purpose of your life to just drink exotic craft beer?

To quote Chip Wilson, founder of Lululemon, did you go to his personal website and look at his new section, he said he was never into watching sports and drinking beer because it just made you stupid and fat and lazy.

Even the ancient Roman and Greek philosophers thought it was a bad idea to drink wine, too much wine. The Greek Dionysian
God baccaus was the God of wine drunkenness and the dark.  he was the original Satyr; essentially imagine these weird goblins with goat horns.  or imagine the original “furry“.

---

Thoughts and money?

Is the purpose or end goal is to increase the quality of your thoughts, the productivity of your thoughts in order to become richer, to earn more money? No.

I think the ultimate goal is to become wiser, more critical in order to become more powerful. Power is simple.

---

Some tools to get you thinking

I have an intervening thought: in order to stimulate your mind, you first got a stimulate your body. That means, extremely heavy weightlifting to get your blood and your mind flowing.

A very simple one is purchased weightlifting equipment on the Internet, just work out at home, in your backyard front lawn, even you’re off the grid parking lot in the back of your apartment which I am doing right now.

The very very simple thoughts to exercise and fitness is do exercises and lifts which promote standing. Or walking. Upright exercises. This includes Farmer’s carries, dead lift walk, squat walk, Atlas lift etc.

The big issue at hand is a lot of these exercises at the gym and in traditional mainstream media has to deal with some sort of sitting or pressing motion. For example bench press, floor press, dump press, decline, seated military press, seated dumbbell press etc. But the critical flaw of these exercises is that they are all done while sedentary or lying on your back. And the big downside of this is that it doesn’t promote your walking or your posture, which might be the two most critical things.

I also thought to myself, what is it that causes the most amount of injuries? Any sort of pressing motion. Once again, bench press, shoulder press military press etc. There is almost virtually no injury that happens with any lifting motion, caring motion, or walking motion.

Also, using some sort of power rack, squat rack, or even getting some cinderblocks from Home Depot. Essentially if you’re tall, elevating the barbell off the floor.

Also one big thing that I’ve discovered, the great upside of not going to the gym anymore is that I’ve been exercising more in the authentic and honest way; I’m not lifting weights anymore to impress other people, I’m just there to use weightlifting as a philosophical tool to think better, to think stronger etc.

---

so what is the point of philosophy and thinking anyways?

The end goal of philosophy thinking etc. is not to make money, but rather, to excel and exceed in life. Also happiness. Everyone wants to become happy, or happier, even Aristotle says happiness is the only thing that men seek for the sake of itself.

People always think that having more money will make them more happy, but this is not true. Often having more money can make you more miserable, as often having more money causes more stress anxiety etc.

For example, let us say that you had $100 million in your Coinbase account, your bitcoin wallet whatever. You will probably end up using some sort of super secure password to lock and secure your assets. But the stress and the anxiety and the fear of having your phone stolen, your identity stolen etc. is even larger. And also the richer you get, the more you become a target to theft, identity theft, real life theft, even physical violence thread. Never forget the story of when Kim Kardashian tweeted where she was at, in Paris, and abruptly got held up at gunpoint from two mast robbers, demanding her jewelry and her pearl necklaces and diamonds, otherwise they would shoot her.

“What do you want me to do, drive around in a bulletproof car and with some tints”? – Kanye

---

Empty your mind

The best way to empty your mind is to delete Instagram, delete Twitter, even delete email in Gmail from your phone. Delete YouTube podcasts etc.

 even music, modern day music. Even in music somebody is trying to sell you something. Maybe we should go back to the ancients, the ancient music, the ancient arts. Listen to dead composers, Beethoven and Mozart etc. Why? They’re not trying to sell you Lamborghinis or other nonsense.

---

Zen the fuck out (Big Sean)

Rather than adding obligations to your life, seem to remove or delete or subtract obligations from your life. This means, don’t take on more work, more contracts, more obligations. Rather seek to subtract all obligations to close to zero, even with the promise of a lot of money.

In fact I almost feel that is easier and better and more straightforward to make the big bucks speculating in cryptocurrency, crypto, and the market rather than just seeking some sort of consulting gigs.

---

What am I betting on?

For me, the big advancements I perceive in the future include AI, crypto, chain-link, bitcoin, open AI and Microsoft, ChatGPT and beyond.

What am I anti-? I am short Apple, Google. If you look at Google Bart, Google ChatGPT competitor, it is at least 100,000x times worse than  chatGPT 4. For example I asked Google Bard who ERIC KIM was, and it said that I was a landscape and travel photographer? Terrible. 

---

Why does the future matter?

to me, technology and the future is all about optimism, happiness and joy. If we want brighter more glorious future, we need optimism. The hope of a beautiful future, blue skies, clear skies, lots of sunshine, pure joy.

ERIC

---

Random thoughts

I just toured equinox, and was very unimpressed. It is like an LA fitness with a better conscience. Also you know it is not a good gym because the barbells suck. 

---

Podcast

Audio

Apple vision; could be the nail in the coffin for Apple?

Short Apple?

Just go to the Apple App Store, and when you search for Coinbase or whatever… Always the first thing will be mentioned is to buy bitcoin BTC

Summarizing such a lengthy and diverse piece to 4000 words while capturing its essence and key themes is challenging, but I’ll aim to condense the main points effectively.

The Philosophy of Thinking

Introduction

• Purpose of Thinking: Thinking shapes the world. It’s the foundation of progress and innovation.
• Everyday Examples: Tesla’s success and design innovations are cited, demonstrating how thoughtful design impacts consumer appeal and market dominance.
• Impact of Thought on Aesthetics: The importance of color and light in design, both in cars and in general aesthetics, is highlighted.

The Role of Cars and Technology

• Economic Significance: Cars, as evidenced by companies like Hyundai and Genesis, significantly drive economic activities.
• Art and Society: Art exhibits, like LACMA’s Metropolis II, are seen as reflections of society’s complexities, mirroring themes from science fiction and highlighting societal behaviors.

Sociological Perspectives

• Personal Reflections: The author recounts missed opportunities like Bitcoin, emphasizing learning from past mistakes.
• Sociology’s Importance: Sociology is presented as a key to understanding societal structures, economic systems, and human behavior.
• Critical Thinking: The author encourages questioning established beliefs, including conspiracy theories, and advocates for independent thinking.

Thinking Off the Grid

• Valuing Unconventional Thought: Emphasis is placed on the value of thinking outside mainstream norms.
• Influential Figures: The author feels a connection with notable figures like Elon Musk and Kanye West, seeing them as fellow unconventional thinkers.

Photography and Philosophy

• Critique of Mainstream Platforms: The limitations of platforms like Instagram for photographers are discussed.
• Personal Integrity: The author stresses the importance of not compromising personal values for monetary gain.

Health and Thought

• Physical Health as a Foundation: Good physical health is seen as a prerequisite for quality thinking.
• Skepticism of Substance Use: The author questions the integrity of thoughts influenced by substances like alcohol and drugs.

The Role of Money and Power

• Power Over Wealth: The author argues that the pursuit of wisdom and critical thinking is more about gaining power than accumulating wealth.
• Tools for Thought: Physical activity, especially weightlifting, is recommended as a way to stimulate

Fucking hallelujah— I ain’t dead’ neither is Seneca nor Cindy!

Don’t use an old school gas heater — you can fucking die carbon monoxide poisoning in your sleep!!!

Death regrets?

Fucking crazy, this morning at 3:30 AM, I was always suspicious of the old-school furnace gasoline gas natural gas house heater, but in order to save money Cindy and I turned on the pilot light last night, tested it, thought it worked OK, and then proceeded to light it. It seemed like it worked OK. But this morning at 3:30 AM, I turned on the gas heater to warm up the house, took a quick shower, and during my shower, the carbon monoxide poisoning alarm goes off!

Fortunately about a month ago, Cindy and I did the due diligence of replacing the battery for the carbon monoxide sensor. As a consequence it probably saved our life.

a potential alternate future:

Imagine if, we did not change the carbon monoxide heater smell detector thing, and I just let the gas run, in the middle of the night, or during the morning and I just left. I just went out for a walk, came back to find that Cindy and Seneca, Seneca at age 3, Cindy, both died in the sleep due to carbon monoxide poisoning.

First, start walking in order to think. 

---

So something I have not really came across yet is the philosophy of thinking. Why think, what does it mean to think, why does it matter?

First and foremost, thoughts govern the planet. For example, almost everything in life and in the world, is predicated on notions of thought and thinking. No thoughts, no future. 

For example, it looks like Tesla is about to conquer the planet. The new redesign Tesla model 3 is mind blowing. They made the steering wheel more beautiful, they made the interior design supply me beautiful; an integrated curve, Steve Jobs and Jony Ive would be proud!

Also I think that ambient lighting thing inside the car is super cool. Some people might think it is gimmicky, but I think it is awesome! I remember when I first saw the integrated lighting dash board thing in some Mercedes cars, and I think there is something to be said about light, light therapy; colors affect our mood. Is it James Turrel who does the light art stuff?

For example, anyone who says that colors don’t matter is a fool. Would you want the interior of your house to have bright red walls? Probably not if you don’t want to scream bloody murder inside your home.

Or, for people who say that color don’t matter, would you want to wear an all green outfit, with bright pink fuchsia accents and shoes? Probably not.

Cars run the planet?

Still in 2024, I am still shocked; it looks like cars run the planet. What this means is that it seemed that maybe 60% of our economic activity is around producing cars, selling cars, buying cars, design cars etc.

For example I look at Hyundai, it is insane… also the new Genesis Berlinetta concept car — also, the new Hyundai Grandeur and AZERA— like a futuristic Rolls-Royce for the future!

Genesis X

ART

The other day, it was free! The LACMA, LA Center for modern art, had this really insanely epic art exhibition, imagine like Legos and hot wheels on steroids; it was titled metropolis II, and imagine like a K-NEX erector set, 1100 custom designed mini matchbox hot wheel cars, with this perpetual machine moving all of the cars in traffic and buses and rails, stacked on top of one another. Conjured ideas of that old-school 1920s metropolis film, in the future where everything is that, flying cars etc. or also, a vision of a utopic-dystopic science-fiction future, kind of like Blade Runner, or that one futuristic movie that Bruce Willis was in.

Cinema by KIM

I love this exhibit so much because it’s stimulated my mind, and also, Seneca’s mind was blown! I think I rated as the best art exhibit of all time. I could probably watch it for hours, and not get bored.

If you’re in LA, Southern California whatever, I think it is a critical experience you must go to in person. Also what makes it a great exhibit is that it can be enjoyed by both children and adults, all ages. It is essentially a microcosm of cities, urban living, traffic and cars. The ultimate takeaway point: 

We all think we are so unique and individual, and special, based on superficial things whether we drive an orange sports car or whatever, but in fact, we are all just the same! A bunch of lemmings!

Sociology is great

So I was born in 1988, and I attended UCLA as an undergraduate, I started in 2006, graduated 2010. I wish I got into Bitcoin earlier in 2009, when my roommate Kevin told me about it, I think when he first saw it on Reddit. He said that we should both put about 100 bucks into it and see what happened. I shrugged my shoulders and said “Meh — nah, probably a scam”. If I do the math, 100 bucks, I think at the time somebody spent 20,000 bitcoin to buy a pizza on Domino’s or whatever, the infamous $500 million pizza, basically… What would 100 bucks times a penny be? How many Bitcoin could that have purchased me? And what would it be worth today?

In life it is fine to make a mistake, and make a regret. But not twice. This is why and why I’m going back into bitcoin.

No twice regrets.

Anyways back to sociology, I think the reason why I think it is such a phenomenal framework to understand the world and society is that I think all of this is just a sociological phenomenon. Society, capital, capitalism, living lifestyle whatever… I think about 80% or 85% of it is based on certain sociological principles. 

Also, to understand the market, economics, I think it is all sociology. To understand human fear, scams, fraud etc. 

Also, I think studying sociology has made me unlearn a lot of the BS. To quote Karl Popper, via NASSIM TALEB– the idea of falsification, subtraction, or the general idea that in order to become more wise, you just gotta subtract delete or get rid of foolishness, nonsense.

For example, conspiracy theories. Only fools believe in them. Even if they are real, it doesn’t even really matter.

Therefore a great advancement in ourselves our thinking etc. is subtracting deleting or getting rid of weird conspiracy theories from your brain and your mind. 

Pro tip: kit ChatGPT app on your iPhone iPad, and don’t be a cheapo; subscribe to the paid premium edition only 20 bucks a month, and start doing these type of searches:

Common misconceptions about XYZ

Or

Help me debunk some conspiracy theories about XYZ

For example, common misconceptions about Catholicism, Judaism, Islam etc. Or the Quran.

Or help me debunk theories that Jewish people run the world blah blah blah. Or that Hitler, according to operation paperclip, was in fact never killed or captured, but ended up being shipped to Antarctica to live in a bunker, where he really died.

My overall critique about Google the Internet YouTube, podcast, etc.… Essentially all these fools who think they are so wise… Strange fellows like Alex Jones, even people on the left or the right or the middle or the right, alt left, and anarchists all of them… All of them are fools. 

My simple tip or heuristic is this: trust no man or women on YouTube, Google, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, podcast, etc. Especially if it is supported by advertising or them trying to sell their own products.

In fact, I think the interesting thing is when you actually make your money your fortune from some other random independent thing. For example now, I’m currently building my Empire Fortune and crypto, cryptocurrency. Therefore as a consequence, I have 100% free reign and freedom and independence to just talk about whatever is on my mind, irregardless of whatever. 

***

Off the grid thinking

To me the grid is an interesting metaphor for a lot of things. The grid could be standard conventional thinking, “rules” and regulations, a lot of of the modern day BS.

I think primarily my superpower in life is my ability to disdain ignore and find ridiculous all of these “rules”. In fact, at least in real life, I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody as interesting as myself. The only other interesting people I think, or maybe Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Kanye West. To me actually they are very relatable.

The photographer philosopher

Come on… It is 2024, you’re still on Instagram? To me Instagram is like eating McDonald’s hamburgers. Not proper.

Also, I’m still a bit confused… why don’t more people photographers just start their own private websites and blogs? And no no no, do not use squarespace it sucks. Also fun dirty secret, maybe about four or five years ago I got an email from Squarespace, saying that if I converted my whole website and blogging into Squarespace they would give me $15,000 or something. It was the easiest no I ever said in my life. Honestly speaking, I don’t even think I do it for $1 million? Unless there is something the updated which is really good. Maybe I would do it for 100 million?

To somebody who says they cannot be bought out by money, you’re just not offering them enough money (TALEB)

To me the reason why I find the photography so critical is that ultimately we are visual creatures. What sells cars? Design. Design marketing, the idealized concept of something.

Design is God.

Mind blown

Once again the new Tesla model 3, I think it actually looks 500 times cooler than any other Tesla car out there. And I’m glad that I am a late adopter, and I was not one of these unfortunates who bought an early model Tesla model model 3 or any other Tesla car. In fact, a lot of the Tesla cars are already starting to look dated. For example the original Tesla model S is outdated, even the slightly newer Tesla model S cars, that don’t have the yoke steering look very outdated. I feel bad for those people who spent a lot of money on the infamous Tesla P 100 D, to only see it dated by the plaid. And now, I’m pretty certain that sooner or later the plate is going to be replaced and outdated by something else too.

Or even another basic thing; people who bought the Tesla model three in the early days, with the chrome trim.

Even the Tesla model X, the newer versions look far better. And have a unique color.

What design is truly critical in a car? 

To me the most important thing in a car is the steering wheel, because you look at it all the time, then the interior and dashboard, and also the back of the car. And also specifically the door side driver side entrance, and also the rear left passenger side door, where I get in and out and load Seneca into his car seat and the car.

Technically the front of the car is not that important, because if you park in a spot like a normal person, you never look at the front of the car. You almost ever look at the back of it.

Also in terms of the car, the steering wheel is the most critical thing because he used it all the time. To me for a Tesla car, either yolk steering or nothing. Even the new Tesla model three the steering wheel looks really cool. Also the new cybertruck the new steering wheel looks very cool. 

Also a subtle thing I learned when researching Ferrari, doing the 3-D modeling tours of inside the car, it is actually very interesting to me that the Ferrari logo is a bright yellow background with the prancing horse and black. Having that emblem on the steering wheel inspires confidence.

Maybe this is why Ferrari is superior to Lamborghini; technically if you think about it, the Lamborghini is just a very expensive Volkswagen Passat. The Lamborghini Urus is just an expensive Volkswagen Touareg.

The Ferrari is interesting because it is still to a certain extent, a purebred. Ferrari is Ferrari, owned by Ferrari, not some other weird parent company. And also I think it is good that Ferrari is its own stock ticker - RACE. Typically I never trust a thing which is just a subsidiary of another thing. 

Sharing your thoughts

A simple way to live life, and to make an impact or whatever is to just share your thoughts. It is funny because people say all this ridiculous things like “That is just your opinion!” The best response: “Of course it is my opinion! That’s why I said it!” Opinion, opine, just means to think.

This is where philosophy is very useful: people think that there are certain notions of “facts“, especially in the realm of statistics, but probably the most useful thing of studying sociology, is understanding that statistics is just a scam. I learned from Cindy (cindyanguyen.com), in her book and dissertation, that the notion of statistics comes from the state. The general idea is that statistics was a measuring tool invented by the state in order to track measure progress, something that the French colonists and colonial administrators did when colonizing Vietnam and her other territories, and also, what the Chinese communists did under Mao Zedong, and also the Vietnamese communists also did. The general idea was this:

In order to track the legitimacy of something and the progress of something (let us not forget that the notion of “progress“ is a feeble modern day notion)– is that we gotta track the growth of something in numbers.

Do you remember in BRAVE NEW WORLD, when in the beginning of the book they talk about how they were able to distill human birth human children in test tubes then said — Progress.

So therefore let us not forget, the notion of “progress“ is not a distinct one. It is a modern one. 

Numbers are boring

I don’t trust nobody who either has some sort of loser Apple Watch, Fitbit tracker, has Instagram, or applies any metrics to their life. The only metric I find useful is maybe increasing your one repetition maximum in your weightlifting, simply as a measure to know that you’re increasing the weight. But besides that, things which are bad include weighing yourself on the scale, because you don’t know how much of that is body fat adipose tissue, how much of that is skeletal muscle mass, and even other things that people don’t talk about… how much of that weight is bones, sinews, blood and water?  

A simple New Year’s resolution is this year, throw your scale in the trash, donate it or whatever, and never weigh yourself.

Both men and women are foolish: they track weight as a measure of their self-worth. But, the goal is to increase skeletal muscle mass, and decrease body adipose fat tissue. This is something that scale cannot do, the closest thing is either a fat caliper, or just look at yourself in the mirror. Pinch your belly fat, or look at the fat in your face, or, you want to get rid of the infamous fat rolls in the back of your neck. Something that I see that Kanye West has.

“It is simple: if it jiggles, it is fat.”- Arnold S

Why are we no longer permitted to be independent interesting thinkers?

It is weird, in today’s world, in America at least… We truly do have the greatest system for independent thinking and thought. Here unlike other countries, you will not get jailed for sharing your opinion. Even the most politically liberal or advanced countries in the world pale in comparison to America.

The problem though here is that all sides, all parties, all individuals are “nudged“ either into the left or the right, even this notion of being a political or being an anarchist or whatever is also just another lemming sheep mentality.

Or another words, put zero faith in anybody who watches any news, doesn’t matter if it is NPR, Fox News, Al Jazeera whatever. The simple heuristic is this: if it is being funded by advertising, google Adsense revenue, it is not to be consumed. 

Only trust things that you are spending your real money on. This means, stop using Google. Google is a “free” service, and the way they make money is by sensationalism and banner advertising. Even nowadays I’m stopping to use Google maps, having those annoying Square advertisements that pop up when I’m driving, I almost feel like that is borderline unethical. Why? It distracts me from driving, I wonder if it will lead me to getting into a car accident one day? Google, whoever did that I google, Google maps team whatever… Shame on you.

Apple Maps is the inferior product, but at least it is not supported by advertising. Get rid of Google maps use Apple Maps instead. 

---

First, focus on your health physiology exercise and physiological well-being and everything else will follow

The quality of your thoughts are simply an offshoot of the quality of your bodily physiological health.

For example just think; if you only sleep 30 minutes a night, four days or weeks on then, what do you think will be the quality of your thoughts? Optimistic joyful and happy? Or weird, morose, dark?

Or other thoughts, imagine like you’re in heroin addict, or hooked on some sort of meth. What will be the quality of your thoughts?

This is why I trust no thinker or individual who partakes and drugs, alcohol and weed. Although both are quite mainstream now. Why?

A lot of people are alcoholics, and a lot of people also apparently do a lot of writing and production of music and artwork when they’re drunk, which is bad. Even Kanye West, his a low-key alcoholic on and off, I think he said all the anti-Jewish stuff when he was drunk. And on Twitter. Being drunk and on Twitter at the same time or Facebook, not a good idea.

Also weed, weed is so mainstream now, it is not really seen as a big deal. But I also think it is foolish that some people think that weed has no effect on your thinking. Even Kendrick Lamar, his only vice is maybe Froot Loops and Captain crunch cereal.

“You let the meds talk I let my soul talk ayy!” – Kendrick

The reason why we should not trust any artists, rappers, musicians or whatever who are addicted to drugs any type of drugs, and yes, weed marijuana is drug… They’re thinking will not be pure. They’re thinking will be too overly saturated with the weird effect of drugs, anti-depressants, uppers and downers whatever.

Even Elon Musk, I rate him highly, but if you read the Walter Isaacson biography on him, he will discover that he drinks too much alcohol late at night, and just drinks Red Bull to stay awake. Not good.

---

Sober thinkers?

Am I the only millennial I know who doesn’t drink alcohol or smoke weed or take drugs? And have never been to a concert, EDM thing, etc.?

The only concert ever went to in my life was by myself, to a Yeezus  concert at the Oakland Coliseum, Kanye performing live. The coolest thing of all time.

How alcohol is strange

A very weird trend I have discovered is this weird trend: get a bunch of tattoos, drink a bunch of craft beer, wear sunglasses and some sort of trucker hat, wear flannel, drive some sort of big truck or whatever, and to make the purpose of your life to just drink exotic craft beer?

To quote Chip Wilson, founder of Lululemon, did you go to his personal website and look at his new section, he said he was never into watching sports and drinking beer because it just made you stupid and fat and lazy.

Even the ancient Roman and Greek philosophers thought it was a bad idea to drink wine, too much wine. The Greek Dionysian
God baccaus was the God of wine drunkenness and the dark.  he was the original Satyr; essentially imagine these weird goblins with goat horns.  or imagine the original “furry“.

---

Thoughts and money?

Is the purpose or end goal is to increase the quality of your thoughts, the productivity of your thoughts in order to become richer, to earn more money? No.

I think the ultimate goal is to become wiser, more critical in order to become more powerful. Power is simple.

---

Some tools to get you thinking

I have an intervening thought: in order to stimulate your mind, you first got a stimulate your body. That means, extremely heavy weightlifting to get your blood and your mind flowing.

A very simple one is purchased weightlifting equipment on the Internet, just work out at home, in your backyard front lawn, even you’re off the grid parking lot in the back of your apartment which I am doing right now.

The very very simple thoughts to exercise and fitness is do exercises and lifts which promote standing. Or walking. Upright exercises. This includes Farmer’s carries, dead lift walk, squat walk, Atlas lift etc.

The big issue at hand is a lot of these exercises at the gym and in traditional mainstream media has to deal with some sort of sitting or pressing motion. For example bench press, floor press, dump press, decline, seated military press, seated dumbbell press etc. But the critical flaw of these exercises is that they are all done while sedentary or lying on your back. And the big downside of this is that it doesn’t promote your walking or your posture, which might be the two most critical things.

I also thought to myself, what is it that causes the most amount of injuries? Any sort of pressing motion. Once again, bench press, shoulder press military press etc. There is almost virtually no injury that happens with any lifting motion, caring motion, or walking motion.

Also, using some sort of power rack, squat rack, or even getting some cinderblocks from Home Depot. Essentially if you’re tall, elevating the barbell off the floor.

Also one big thing that I’ve discovered, the great upside of not going to the gym anymore is that I’ve been exercising more in the authentic and honest way; I’m not lifting weights anymore to impress other people, I’m just there to use weightlifting as a philosophical tool to think better, to think stronger etc.

---

so what is the point of philosophy and thinking anyways?

The end goal of philosophy thinking etc. is not to make money, but rather, to excel and exceed in life. Also happiness. Everyone wants to become happy, or happier, even Aristotle says happiness is the only thing that men seek for the sake of itself.

People always think that having more money will make them more happy, but this is not true. Often having more money can make you more miserable, as often having more money causes more stress anxiety etc.

For example, let us say that you had $100 million in your Coinbase account, your bitcoin wallet whatever. You will probably end up using some sort of super secure password to lock and secure your assets. But the stress and the anxiety and the fear of having your phone stolen, your identity stolen etc. is even larger. And also the richer you get, the more you become a target to theft, identity theft, real life theft, even physical violence thread. Never forget the story of when Kim Kardashian tweeted where she was at, in Paris, and abruptly got held up at gunpoint from two mast robbers, demanding her jewelry and her pearl necklaces and diamonds, otherwise they would shoot her.

“What do you want me to do, drive around in a bulletproof car and with some tints”? – Kanye

---

Empty your mind

The best way to empty your mind is to delete Instagram, delete Twitter, even delete email in Gmail from your phone. Delete YouTube podcasts etc.

 even music, modern day music. Even in music somebody is trying to sell you something. Maybe we should go back to the ancients, the ancient music, the ancient arts. Listen to dead composers, Beethoven and Mozart etc. Why? They’re not trying to sell you Lamborghinis or other nonsense.

---

Zen the fuck out (Big Sean)

Rather than adding obligations to your life, seem to remove or delete or subtract obligations from your life. This means, don’t take on more work, more contracts, more obligations. Rather seek to subtract all obligations to close to zero, even with the promise of a lot of money.

In fact I almost feel that is easier and better and more straightforward to make the big bucks speculating in cryptocurrency, crypto, and the market rather than just seeking some sort of consulting gigs.

---

What am I betting on?

For me, the big advancements I perceive in the future include AI, crypto, chain-link, bitcoin, open AI and Microsoft, ChatGPT and beyond.

What am I anti-? I am short Apple, Google. If you look at Google Bart, Google ChatGPT competitor, it is at least 100,000x times worse than  chatGPT 4. For example I asked Google Bard who ERIC KIM was, and it said that I was a landscape and travel photographer? Terrible. 

---

Why does the future matter?

to me, technology and the future is all about optimism, happiness and joy. If we want brighter more glorious future, we need optimism. The hope of a beautiful future, blue skies, clear skies, lots of sunshine, pure joy.

ERIC

---

Random thoughts

I just toured equinox, and was very unimpressed. It is like an LA fitness with a better conscience. Also you know it is not a good gym because the barbells suck. 

---

$5,000 USD Military GoreTex jacket — digital camo.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF THINKING

First, start walking in order to think. 

---

So something I have not really came across yet is the philosophy of thinking. Why think, what does it mean to think, why does it matter?

First and foremost, thoughts govern the planet. For example, almost everything in life and in the world, is predicated on notions of thought and thinking. No thoughts, no future. 

For example, it looks like Tesla is about to conquer the planet. The new redesign Tesla model 3 is mind blowing. They made the steering wheel more beautiful, they made the interior design supply me beautiful; an integrated curve, Steve Jobs and Jony Ive would be proud!

Also I think that ambient lighting thing inside the car is super cool. Some people might think it is gimmicky, but I think it is awesome! I remember when I first saw the integrated lighting dash board thing in some Mercedes cars, and I think there is something to be said about light, light therapy; colors affect our mood. Is it James Turrel who does the light art stuff?

For example, anyone who says that colors don’t matter is a fool. Would you want the interior of your house to have bright red walls? Probably not if you don’t want to scream bloody murder inside your home.

Or, for people who say that color don’t matter, would you want to wear an all green outfit, with bright pink fuchsia accents and shoes? Probably not.

Cars run the planet?

Still in 2024, I am still shocked; it looks like cars run the planet. What this means is that it seemed that maybe 60% of our economic activity is around producing cars, selling cars, buying cars, design cars etc.

For example I look at Hyundai, it is insane… also the new Genesis Berlinetta concept car — also, the new Hyundai Grandeur and AZERA— like a futuristic Rolls-Royce for the future!

Genesis X

ART

The other day, it was free! The LACMA, LA Center for modern art, had this really insanely epic art exhibition, imagine like Legos and hot wheels on steroids; it was titled metropolis II, and imagine like a K-NEX erector set, 1100 custom designed mini matchbox hot wheel cars, with this perpetual machine moving all of the cars in traffic and buses and rails, stacked on top of one another. Conjured ideas of that old-school 1920s metropolis film, in the future where everything is that, flying cars etc. or also, a vision of a utopic-dystopic science-fiction future, kind of like Blade Runner, or that one futuristic movie that Bruce Willis was in.

Cinema by KIM

I love this exhibit so much because it’s stimulated my mind, and also, Seneca’s mind was blown! I think I rated as the best art exhibit of all time. I could probably watch it for hours, and not get bored.

If you’re in LA, Southern California whatever, I think it is a critical experience you must go to in person. Also what makes it a great exhibit is that it can be enjoyed by both children and adults, all ages. It is essentially a microcosm of cities, urban living, traffic and cars. The ultimate takeaway point: 

We all think we are so unique and individual, and special, based on superficial things whether we drive an orange sports car or whatever, but in fact, we are all just the same! A bunch of lemmings!

Sociology is great

So I was born in 1988, and I attended UCLA as an undergraduate, I started in 2006, graduated 2010. I wish I got into bitcoin earlier in 2009, when my roommate Kevin told me about it, I think when he first saw it on Reddit. He said that we should both put about 100 bucks into it and see what happened. I shrugged my shoulders and said “meh — nah, probably a scam”. if I do the math, 100 bucks, I think at the time somebody spent 20,000 bitcoin to buy a pizza on Domino’s or whatever, the infamous $500 million pizza, basically… What would 100 bucks times a penny be? How many bitcoin could that have purchased me? And what would it be worth today?

In life it is fine to make a mistake, and make a regret. But not twice. This is why and why I’m going back into bitcoin.

anyways back to sociology, I think the reason why I think it is such a phenomenal framework to understand the world in society is that I think all of this is just a sociological phenomenon. Society, capital, capitalism, living lifestyle whatever… I think about 80% or 85% of it is based on certain sociological principles. 

Also, to understand the market, economics, I think it is all sociology. To understand human fear, scams, fraud etc. 

 also, I think studying sociology has made me unlearn a lot of the BS. To quote Karl Popper, via TALEB– the idea of falsification, subtraction, or the general ideas that in order to become more wise, you just got a subtract delete or get rid of foolishness, nonsense.

For example, conspiracy theories. Only fools believe in them. Even if they are real, it doesn’t even really matter.

Therefore a great advancement in ourselves our thinking etc. is subtracting deleting or getting rid of weird conspiracy theories from your brain and your mind. 

Off the grid thinking

To me the grid is an interesting metaphor for a lot of things. The grid could be standard conventional thinking, “rules” and regulations, a lot of of the modern day BS.

I think primarily migrate power in life is my ability to distain ignore and find ridiculous all of these “rules”. In fact, at least in real life, I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody as interesting as myself. The only other interesting people I think, or maybe Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Kanye West. To me actually they are very relatable.

The photographer philosopher

Come on… It is 2024, you’re still on Instagram? To me Instagram is like eating McDonald’s hamburgers. Not proper.

Also, I’m still a bit confused… Why don’t more people people just start their own private websites and blogs? And no no no, do not use square space it sucks. Also fun dirty secret, maybe about four or five years ago I got an email from Square space, saying that if I converted my whole website and logging into Square space it would give me $15,000 or something. It was the easiest no I ever said in my life. Honestly speaking, I don’t even think I do it for $1 million? Unless there is something the updated which is really good.

To me the reason why I find the photography so critical is that ultimately we are visual creatures. What sells cars? Design. Design marketing, the idealized concept of something.

Design is God.

Once again the new Tesla model three, I think it actually looks 500 times cooler than any other Tesla car out there. And I’m glad that I am a late adopter, and I was not one of these unfortunate who bought an early model Tesla model model three or any other Tesla car.

To me the most important thing in a car is the steering wheel, because you look at it all the time, then interior and dashboard, and also the back of the car. And also specifically the door side driver side entrance, and also the rear left passenger side door, where I get in and out and load Seneca into his car seat and the car.

Sharing your thoughts

A simple way to live life, and to make an impact or whatever is to just share your thoughts. It is funny because people say all this ridiculous things like “that is just your opinion!” The best response: “of course it is my opinion!” Opinion, opine, just means to think.

This is where philosophy is very useful: people think that there are certain notions of “facts“, especially in the realm of statistics, but probably the most useful thing of studying sociology, is understanding that statistics is just a scam. I learned from Cindy (cindyanguyen.com), in her book and dissertation,  that the notion of statistics comes from the state. The general idea is that statistics was a measuring tool invented by the state in order to track measure progress, something that the French colonists and colonial administrators did when colonizing Vietnam and her other territories, and also, what the Chinese communist under Modon, and also the Vietnamese communists also did. The general idea was this:

in order to track the legitimacy of something in the progress of something (let us not forget that the notion of “progress“ is a feeble modern day notion)– is that we got a track the growth of something in numbers.

Numbers are boring

I don’t trust nobody who either has some sort of loser Apple Watch, Fitbit tracker, has Instagram, or applies any metrics to their life. The only metric I find useful is maybe increasing your one repetition maximum in your weightlifting, simply as a measure to know that you’re increasing the weight. But besides that, things which are bad include white yourself on the scale, because you don’t know how much of that is body fat adipose tissue, how much of that is skeletal muscle mass, and even other things that people don’t talk about… How much of that weight is bones, sinews, Blood and water?  

Both men and women are foolish: they tracked weight as a measure of their self-worth. But, the goal is to increase skeletal muscle mass, and decrease body adipose fat tissue. This is something that scale cannot do, the closest thing is either a fat caliper, or just look at yourself in the mirror. Pincher belly fat, or look at the fat in your face, or, you want to get rid of the infamous pet rules in the back of your neck. Something that I see that Kanye West has.

Why are we no longer permitted to be independent interesting thinkers?

It is weird, in today’s world, in America at least… We truly do have the greatest system for independent thinking and thought. Here unlike other countries, you will not get jailed for sharing your opinion. Even the most politically liberal or advanced countries in the world pale in comparison to America.

The problem though here is that all sides, all parties, all individuals are “nudged“ either into the left or the right, even this notion of being a political or being an anarchist or whatever is also just another lemming sheep mentality.

Or another words, put zero faith in anybody who watches any news, doesn’t matter if it is NPR, Fox News, Al Jazeera whatever. The simple heuristic is this: if it is being funded by advertising, google Adsense revenue, it is not to be consumed. 

Only trust things that you are spending your real money on. This means, stop using Google. Google is a “free” service, and the way they make money is by sensationalism and banner advertising. Even nowadays I’m stopping to use Google maps, having those annoying Square advertisements that pop up when I’m driving, I almost feel like that is borderline unethical. Why? It distracts me from driving, I wonder if it will lead me to getting into a car accident one day? Google, whoever did that I google, Google maps team whatever… Shame on you.

Apple Maps is the inferior product, but at least it is not supported by advertising. Get rid of Google maps use Apple Maps instead. 

---

First, focus on your health physiology exercise and physiological well-being and everything else will follow

The quality of your thoughts are simply an offshoot of the quality of your bodily physiological health.

For example just think; if you only sleep 30 minutes a night, four days or weeks on then, what do you think will be the quality of your thoughts? Optimistic joyful and happy? Or weird, morose, dark?

Or other thoughts, imagine like you’re in heroin addict, or hooked on some sort of meth. What will be the quality of your thoughts?

This is why I trust no thinker or individual who partakes and drugs, alcohol and weed. Although both are quite mainstream now. Why?

A lot of people are alcoholics, and a lot of people also apparently do a lot of writing and production of music and artwork when they’re drunk, which is bad. Even Kanye West, his a low-key alcoholic on and off, I think he said all the anti-Jewish stuff when he was drunk. And on Twitter. Being drunk and on Twitter at the same time or Facebook, not a good idea.

Also weed, weed is so mainstream now, it is not really seen as a big deal. But I also think it is foolish that some people think that weed has no effect on your thinking. Even Kendrick Lamar, his only vice is maybe Froot Loops and Captain crunch cereal.

“You let the meds talk I let my soul talk ayy!” – Kendrick

The reason why we should not trust any artists, rappers, musicians or whatever who are addicted to drugs any type of drugs, and yes, weed marijuana is drug… They’re thinking will not be pure. They’re thinking will be too overly saturated with the weird effect of drugs, anti-depressants, uppers and downers whatever.

Even Elon Musk, I rate him highly, but if you read the Walter Isaacson biography on him, he will discover that he drinks too much alcohol late at night, and just drinks Red Bull to stay awake. Not good.

---

Sober thinkers?

Am I the only millennial I know who doesn’t drink alcohol or smoke weed or take drugs? And have never been to a concert, EDM thing, etc.?

The only concert ever went to in my life was by myself, to a Yeezus  concert at the Oakland Coliseum, Kanye performing live. The coolest thing of all time.

How alcohol is strange

A very weird trend I have discovered is this weird trend: get a bunch of tattoos, drink a bunch of craft beer, wear sunglasses and some sort of trucker hat, wear flannel, drive some sort of big truck or whatever, and to make the purpose of your life to just drink exotic craft beer?

To quote Chip Wilson, founder of Lululemon, did you go to his personal website and look at his new section, he said he was never into watching sports and drinking beer because it just made you stupid and fat and lazy.

Even the ancient Roman and Greek philosophers thought it was a bad idea to drink wine, too much wine. The Greek Dionysian
God baccaus was the God of wine drunkenness and the dark.  he was the original Satyr; essentially imagine these weird goblins with goat horns.  or imagine the original “furry“.

---

Thoughts and money?

Is the purpose or end goal is to increase the quality of your thoughts, the productivity of your thoughts in order to become richer, to earn more money? No.

I think the ultimate goal is to become wiser, more critical in order to become more powerful. Power is simple.

---

Some tools to get you thinking

I have an intervening thought: in order to stimulate your mind, you first got a stimulate your body. That means, extremely heavy weightlifting to get your blood and your mind flowing.

A very simple one is purchased weightlifting equipment on the Internet, just work out at home, in your backyard front lawn, even you’re off the grid parking lot in the back of your apartment which I am doing right now.

The very very simple thoughts to exercise and fitness is do exercises and lifts which promote standing. Or walking. Upright exercises. This includes Farmer’s carries, dead lift walk, squat walk, Atlas lift etc.

The big issue at hand is a lot of these exercises at the gym and in traditional mainstream media has to deal with some sort of sitting or pressing motion. For example bench press, floor press, dump press, decline, seated military press, seated dumbbell press etc. But the critical flaw of these exercises is that they are all done while sedentary or lying on your back. And the big downside of this is that it doesn’t promote your walking or your posture, which might be the two most critical things.

I also thought to myself, what is it that causes the most amount of injuries? Any sort of pressing motion. Once again, bench press, shoulder press military press etc. There is almost virtually no injury that happens with any lifting motion, caring motion, or walking motion.

Also, using some sort of power rack, squat rack, or even getting some cinderblocks from Home Depot. Essentially if you’re tall, elevating the barbell off the floor.

Also one big thing that I’ve discovered, the great upside of not going to the gym anymore is that I’ve been exercising more in the authentic and honest way; I’m not lifting weights anymore to impress other people, I’m just there to use weightlifting as a philosophical tool to think better, to think stronger etc.

---

so what is the point of philosophy and thinking anyways?

The end goal of philosophy thinking etc. is not to make money, but rather, to excel and exceed in life. Also happiness. Everyone wants to become happy, or happier, even Aristotle says happiness is the only thing that men seek for the sake of itself.

People always think that having more money will make them more happy, but this is not true. Often having more money can make you more miserable, as often having more money causes more stress anxiety etc.

For example, let us say that you had $100 million in your Coinbase account, your bitcoin wallet whatever. You will probably end up using some sort of super secure password to lock and secure your assets. But the stress and the anxiety and the fear of having your phone stolen, your identity stolen etc. is even larger. And also the richer you get, the more you become a target to theft, identity theft, real life theft, even physical violence thread. Never forget the story of when Kim Kardashian tweeted where she was at, in Paris, and abruptly got held up at gunpoint from two mast robbers, demanding her jewelry and her pearl necklaces and diamonds, otherwise they would shoot her.

“What do you want me to do, drive around in a bulletproof car and with some tints”? – Kanye

---

Empty your mind

The best way to empty your mind is to delete Instagram, delete Twitter, even delete email in Gmail from your phone. Delete YouTube podcasts etc.

 even music, modern day music. Even in music somebody is trying to sell you something. Maybe we should go back to the ancients, the ancient music, the ancient arts. Listen to dead composers, Beethoven and Mozart etc. Why? They’re not trying to sell you Lamborghinis or other nonsense.

---

Zen the fuck out (Big Sean)

Rather than adding obligations to your life, seem to remove or delete or subtract obligations from your life. This means, don’t take on more work, more contracts, more obligations. Rather seek to subtract all obligations to close to zero, even with the promise of a lot of money.

In fact I almost feel that is easier and better and more straightforward to make the big bucks speculating in cryptocurrency, crypto, and the market rather than just seeking some sort of consulting gigs.

---

What am I betting on?

For me, the big advancements I perceive in the future include AI, crypto, chain-link, bitcoin, open AI and Microsoft, ChatGPT and beyond.

What am I anti-? I am short Apple, Google. If you look at Google Bart, Google ChatGPT competitor, it is at least 100,000x times worse than  chatGPT 4. For example I asked Google Bard who ERIC KIM was, and it said that I was a landscape and travel photographer? Terrible. 

---

Why does the future matter?

to me, technology and the future is all about optimism, happiness and joy. If we want brighter more glorious future, we need optimism. The hope of a beautiful future, blue skies, clear skies, lots of sunshine, pure joy.

ERIC

---

Random thoughts

I just tore equinox, and was very unimpressed. It is like an LA fitness with a better conscience. Also you know it is not a good gym because the barbells suck. 

---

Spartan soldier deadlifting bitcoin

Here are some notable quotes from Eric Kim regarding Bitcoin and cryptocurrency:

1. On the Fascination with Crypto: “Crypto, cryptocurrency, crypto technology to me is fascinating because it is new, sexy, unorthodox, and interesting” oai_citation:1,ERIC KIM QUOTES ON CRYPTO – ERIC KIM.
2. The Revolutionary Nature of Crypto: “Crypto to me is interesting because it is edgy, optimistic, radical, and bold. Also a bit reckless” oai_citation:2,ERIC KIM QUOTES ON CRYPTO – ERIC KIM.
3. Future Potential of Crypto: “Irregardless, I think the promise of crypto is a more brilliant future” oai_citation:3,ERIC KIM QUOTES ON CRYPTO – ERIC KIM.
4. Investment Approach: “Only put money into crypto, assuming that it will go to zero” oai_citation:4,ERIC KIM QUOTES ON CRYPTO – ERIC KIM.
5. Lifestyle of Crypto Investors: “Ultimately what I find interesting is that crypto, people who speculate in crypto all tend to live kind of a more monastic Zen monk lifestyle” oai_citation:5,ERIC KIM QUOTES ON CRYPTO – ERIC KIM.
6. Wealth and Peace of Mind: “Ironically the best use of money is simply peace of mind. That means money is not really a tool or a mechanism to buy a bunch of stuff that you like, but rather, being able to live a more zen, tranquil, more focused life” oai_citation:6,ERIC KIM QUOTES ON CRYPTO – ERIC KIM.
7. Long-term Thinking: “Try to think about things on a 30 year basis… in 30 years, are people going to be using crypto more or less?” oai_citation:7,ERIC KIM QUOTES ON CRYPTO – ERIC KIM.
8. Bitcoin’s Simplicity and Focus: “If you want to simplify your life, just have one. Just have one type of cryptocurrency investment, one camera and one lens, one car, one home, and one shirt, and one jacket. And maybe just one kid” oai_citation:8,Why I Bought More Bitcoin (Again) – ERIC KIM.
9. Personal Wealth and Cryptocurrency: “Those who speculate in cryptocurrency just want to become rich and make a lot of money. But what if you’re already rich enough? I already feel rich enough, no more need for me to speculate” oai_citation:9,Why I Bought More Bitcoin (Again) – ERIC KIM.
10. Perspective on Market Timing: “If you think long enough, timing doesn’t matter. For example, I think about the next 20 or 30 years, when Seneca is old enough to do something meaningful to the bitcoin I bequeath him” oai_citation:10,Why I Bought More Bitcoin (Again) – ERIC KIM.

These quotes provide insight into Eric Kim’s philosophical and practical approach towards Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, reflecting his views on investment, lifestyle, and the future potential of these digital assets. For more detailed insights, you can explore Eric Kim’s various articles and blogs on the subject.

Eric Kim’s views on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency reflect a blend of fascination, optimism, and practicality. He finds the technology new, sexy, and unorthodox, and is intrigued by its edgy and radical nature. Kim advises a cautious approach to investing in crypto, suggesting one should be prepared for the possibility of total loss, yet he also expresses optimism about crypto’s potential for a brighter future.

Kim sees Bitcoin as particularly appealing due to its simplicity and widespread recognition. He favors a focused approach, suggesting the benefit of investing in a single type of cryptocurrency, much like having one type of car or camera. Kim emphasizes the importance of thinking long-term about Bitcoin’s value and envisions a world where Bitcoin is used for everyday transactions like buying homes or hiring services.

Despite his bullish stance on Bitcoin, Kim remains skeptical about cryptocurrencies replacing traditional payment methods like credit cards due to the powerful influence of companies like Visa. However, he predicts that Bitcoin might become a standard currency in the future, potentially surpassing traditional currencies like the US dollar.

Kim’s perspective on Bitcoin is informed by his experiences as an investor, his observations of societal and economic trends, and his belief in the long-term potential of Bitcoin as a leading digital currency. He advocates for simplicity in life and investment, reflecting on the broader implications of wealth and the pursuit of a more focused lifestyle.

For more detailed insights into Eric Kim’s thoughts on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, you can explore his various articles and blogs on the subject oai_citation:1,ERIC KIM QUOTES ON CRYPTO – ERIC KIM oai_citation:2,Bitcoin will never go to zero – ERIC KIM oai_citation:3,Why I Bought More Bitcoin (Again) – ERIC KIM oai_citation:4,ERIC KIM bitcoin – ERIC KIM oai_citation:5,SOME BITCOIN AND CRYPTO THOUGHTS – ERIC KIM.

Eric Kim shares several insightful thoughts on sociology. Here’s a summary of some key quotes that reflect his perspective:

1. Sociology’s Broad Application: Kim mentions, “To study and understand business, finance, politics, etc — it all stems from the social.” This highlights his view of sociology as a foundational discipline for understanding various fields of knowledge, especially those deeply rooted in social contexts oai_citation:1,Eric Kim on Sociology – ERIC KIM.
2. Sociology as a Tool for Free Thinking: He asserts, “To unlearn BS society has taught you, to learn to become a free thinker.” This quote underscores his belief in sociology as a means to challenge societal norms and develop independent thought oai_citation:2,Eric Kim on Sociology – ERIC KIM.
3. Personal Impact of Studying Sociology: Reflecting on his own education, Kim says, “I studied sociology as an undergrad, and it might’ve been one of the most formative things for me.” This reveals the significant influence his sociological studies had on his personal and professional development oai_citation:3,Eric Kim on Sociology – ERIC KIM.
4. Sociology and Philosophy: Kim describes sociology as “practical, pragmatic, applied philosophy to society, other people, everyday life.” This illustrates his view of sociology as an applied form of philosophy, deeply relevant to daily life and social dynamics oai_citation:4,Eric Kim on Sociology – ERIC KIM.
5. Sociology for Understanding Society: In one of his blogs, Kim writes, “The best lens to understand society. And if you plan on (continuing) to live in society, sociology is great.” This statement encapsulates his belief in the importance of sociology for understanding and navigating societal structures and interactions oai_citation:5,Why Sociology? – ERIC KIM.

These quotes collectively highlight how sociology has profoundly influenced Eric Kim’s understanding of society, his approach to street photography, and his entrepreneurial mindset. For more detailed insights and additional quotes, you can visit Eric Kim’s blog and writings on sociology oai_citation:6,Why Sociology? – ERIC KIM oai_citation:7,Eric Kim on Sociology – ERIC KIM.

Eric Kim’s perspective on sociology and its intersection with entrepreneurship and street photography offers a blend of practical insights and philosophical musings. Here are some key points from his views:

1. Sociology and Street Photography: Kim sees street photography as a form of applied sociology, essentially visual sociology. He integrates sociological insights into his photography, capturing the essence of society and human interactions through his lens. This approach is evident in his various street photography projects and guides oai_citation:1,ERIC KIM SOCIOLOGY AND STREET PHOTOGRAPHY – ERIC KIM.
2. Entrepreneurship Philosophy: Kim’s entrepreneurial philosophy is shaped by his background in sociology. He views entrepreneurship not just as a business venture, but as a mindset, ethos, and way of life. His approach emphasizes individuality, resourcefulness, and continuous learning. Kim’s journey in photography is a testament to this, as he combines different fields like sociology, photography, and philosophy, creating a unique path in his professional life oai_citation:2,ERIC KIM Entrepreneurship QUOTES – ERIC KIM.
3. Sociological Themes in His Work: In his exploration of sociology, Kim delves into various themes such as the impact of society on individuals, the dynamics of social interaction, and the role of personal instincts in navigating societal challenges. His writings cover a range of topics from the societal implications of technology to personal freedom and individualism in the context of broader social structures oai_citation:3,SOCIOLOGY – ERIC KIM.

Kim’s work and thoughts present a distinctive blend of sociological insight, creative expression in photography, and an entrepreneurial spirit. This combination offers a nuanced understanding of society and the individual’s place within it.

Eric Kim, a notable figure in the field of street photography, has a deep appreciation for sociology and its influence on his work and perspective. He views sociology as a vital lens for understanding society, emphasizing its practical importance in various aspects of life, including business, finance, and politics, all of which are fundamentally social in nature. Kim’s study of sociology has been formative for him, shaping his approach to thinking and his views on individual and societal interactions. He considers sociology to be a practical and pragmatic form of applied philosophy that deeply relates to everyday life and social dynamics.

Moreover, Kim has integrated his sociological insights into his street photography, approaching his craft as a form of visual sociology. He believes that understanding sociology is crucial for comprehending future societal trends and events, as evidenced by his analysis of events like the COVID-19 pandemic and the role of algorithms in society. His educational background in sociology has increasingly proven valuable to him, especially in contrast to other fields like Political Science, English, and Business/Economics oai_citation:1,Why Sociology? – ERIC KIM oai_citation:2,Eric Kim on Sociology – ERIC KIM oai_citation:3,Why Sociology? – ERIC KIM.

In his street photography, Kim emphasizes authenticity and connection with his subjects. He advocates using wide-angle lenses and interacting respectfully with the people he photographs, rather than taking pictures from a distance with telephoto lenses. This approach reflects his sociological understanding of human interaction and the importance of genuine engagement in public spaces oai_citation:4,The ‘Sociologist With A Camera’: Meet Street Photographer Eric Kim – Character Media.

Additionally, Kim has been actively involved in teaching street photography, offering workshops and sharing his knowledge and insights with others. His approach to photography, deeply influenced by his sociological understanding, underscores the importance of observing and capturing the nuances of everyday life and human interactions oai_citation:5,ERIC KIM SOCIOLOGY AND STREET PHOTOGRAPHY – ERIC KIM.

No more Jony Ive, no more Steve Jobs, no more Apple.

Time to create our own new Apple?

Why

Eric Kim’s admiration for Jony Ive is rooted in his perception of Ive as a key figure in maintaining the artistic integrity and soul of Apple’s product designs. Kim believes that after Ive’s departure, Apple lost a certain creative essence that Ive had infused into their products, leading to a less distinctive and more technical direction for the company. This view reflects Kim’s appreciation for the unique blend of art and technology in design, a balance he saw as exemplified in Ive’s work. For more insights, you can visit Eric Kim’s blog here oai_citation:1,In Praise of Jony Ive – ERIC KIM.

Eric Kim’s admiration for Jony Ive stems from his belief that Ive represented the artistic soul of Apple. He considered Ive’s designs to be the last ones that truly embodied a soul, distinguishing Apple’s products. After Ive’s departure, Kim felt that Apple’s direction lacked the unique artistic and creative essence that Ive brought, leading to a decline in the company’s innovative spirit. This perspective reflects Kim’s emphasis on the importance of artistic vision and soul in product design, which he saw embodied in Ive’s work at Apple oai_citation:1,In Praise of Jony Ive – ERIC KIM.

Eric Kim has expressed high regard for Jony Ive, particularly for Ive’s influence on Apple’s design philosophy. Kim views Ive as the “last bastion of hope” for the artistic soul of Apple and suggests that Apple’s creative direction suffered after Ive’s departure. He perceives the devices designed under Ive’s tenure as the last ones embodying the true ‘soul’ that distinguished Apple products. This perspective reflects Kim’s deep appreciation for Ive’s impact on design and technology at Apple oai_citation:1,In Praise of Jony Ive – ERIC KIM.

Eric Kim’s journey as an entrepreneur in the field of photography is a testament to his passion, innovation, and adaptability. He started as a street photographer with a minimalist approach, capturing candid moments and everyday life. His philosophy in photography emphasized simplicity and the beauty of the mundane. This foundation paved the way for his entrepreneurial ventures, which are marked by several key factors:

1. Passion for Photography: Kim’s initial interest in photography was as a personal hobby. His love for capturing candid moments and the human condition was the driving force behind his work.
2. Online Presence and Blogging: He built a significant online presence through blogging and social media, where he shared his photographs, experiences, and lessons learned in photography.
3. Teaching and Workshops: Expanding his influence, Kim began conducting workshops and teaching photography, focusing not only on the technical aspects but also on the philosophical side of photography.
4. Community Engagement and Collaboration: He engaged with the photography community both online and in person, collaborating with other photographers and participating in various photography projects.
5. Entrepreneurial Approach: Kim leveraged his skills and knowledge to create digital products, write books, and offer services, thus turning his passion into a profession.
6. Innovative Content and Approach: His content is marked by an innovative and unorthodox approach, influenced by philosophy and unique insights into the creative process.
7. Continuous Learning and Evolution: Kim’s journey is characterized by continuous learning and adapting his style and approach, staying relevant and true to his core values.

His approach to entrepreneurship extends beyond traditional business metrics, focusing on mindset, balance, and intrinsic motivation. He emphasizes thinking like an entrepreneur, which involves believing that almost anything is possible with enough time, effort, and courage. His entrepreneurial mindset is characterized by risk-taking and viewing failures as attempts, and he believes this can be taught and adopted.

Eric Kim’s perspective on entrepreneurship is unique, emphasizing individuality, resourcefulness, and continuous learning. He views entrepreneurship not just as a business venture but as a mindset, ethos, and a way of life. He credits his interest in entrepreneurship to the fusion of sociology, photography, philosophy, and lifestyle experimentation, fostering creativity and distinctiveness. His approach reflects a modern interpretation of entrepreneurship in the arts, where success is measured not just in sales but in influence, community impact, and the ability to turn art into an accessible dialogue oai_citation:1,How did Eric Kim become entrepreneur – ERIC KIM oai_citation:2,How did Eric Kim become entrepreneur – ERIC KIM oai_citation:3,ERIC KIM HOW TO THINK LIKE AN ENTREPRENEUR – ERIC KIM oai_citation:4,ERIC KIM Entrepreneurship QUOTES – ERIC KIM oai_citation:5, ‎Artisans & Trade: 5. How to Build a Personal Brand :: Eric Kim on Apple Podcasts .

Oh yeah — photographer *and* entrepreneur!

ChatGPT is flattering

Eric Kim, a photographer and entrepreneur, has shared several thoughts on Steve Jobs, reflecting particularly on Jobs’ influence in areas of creativity, innovation, and personal development. Kim admires Jobs for his relentless drive for innovation and refusal to settle for mediocrity. He also highlights Jobs’ focus, especially seen in his strategy of concentrating on a few key products at Apple, and his ability to stay true to his creative vision, blending liberal arts with engineering.

Kim also appreciates Jobs’ approach to leadership and innovation, notably his blend of technology and art which resulted in products that were not only technologically advanced but also aesthetically pleasing. This perspective is influenced by Jobs’ unique approach to product development and his vision, which Kim finds inspiring for anyone in creative or entrepreneurial endeavors.

In terms of lessons from Jobs, Kim emphasizes the importance of staying true to one’s creative vision, adopting and improving ideas, understanding personal taste and aesthetics, and the significance of making small changes that can lead to big impacts. He also underlines the role of technology as an enabler, the value of direct distribution to customers, the focus on one thing at a time, the importance of being flexible, building a strong team, and the constant need for innovation and evolution.

These insights from Eric Kim on Steve Jobs offer a multifaceted view of how Jobs’ principles and work ethic can influence individuals in creative fields, aligning well with your interests in philosophy, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

On my mind —

Tell me what you drive, and I will tell you who you are.

OK — so the reason I find this so critical:

First … soooooo much of the American economy is predicated and built on and based on cars, automobiles, etc.

Petersen Automotive Museum

Model 3 has arrived.

No more Toyota, no more hybrid, no more Corolla, no more Honda … no more other compact 4 door sedan family car anymore?

I pull up in my Range Rover … slightly scratch your Corolla! – Kanye

Model Y

Even though the Toyota RAV-4 might be the superior car, common … nobody *really* wants a RAV-4– people want the Tesla!

What you niggas rap for just to push a RAV-4? – Kanye

What do Vietnamese immigrants buy?

It used to be white Lexuses… now… everyone is on Tesla? White Tesla’s?

Why is this interesting?

Don’t heed what they say… see what they buy.

What you actually decide to buy and purchase will truly uncover, reveal who you are, your core values *or*… your *LACK* of values, or the LACK of what you believe in… or whether you’re a pushover, don’t have a spine or not!

ChatGPT custom instructions … experiment sometimes toggling it on, sometimes off!

What to know about me to provide better responses

I am passionate about philosophy, thinking, innovation and entrepreneurship.

How would you like ChatGPT to respond?

An interesting, subjective, practical view.

Ok so this is what I glean:

The problem with Google, Wikipedia etc is sooner or later… you’re going to stumble upon some weird as biased B.S. on the internet which is full of hate and vitriol.

Ever since seeing his name on the new LACMA building, and also remembering the UCLA GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE theatre… I finally became very curious and started to do some research on him. Super interesting!

More about Geffen advisors

Geffen Advisors, founded by David Geffen in 2012, is a firm that specializes in providing advisory services to hedge funds. Geffen Advisors is known for offering a range of services tailored to the unique needs of hedge funds, particularly in areas like treasury management, counterparty risk management, launch advisory, and offering an outsourced COO service. Additionally, the firm provides tailored training resources to its clients.

David Geffen, with his extensive experience in the hedge fund industry, leads the firm as its President. His background includes roles as a Managing Director at BlackRock and Barclays Global Investors (BGI) in San Francisco, where he was instrumental in managing global prime brokerage, futures clearing, and financing relationships. Prior to joining BGI, Geffen held a position as Managing Director-Finance and Chief Credit Officer at Amaranth Group, a hedge fund firm. His career also includes significant experience at Goldman Sachs in Credit Risk Management and Citibank as a global relationship manager.

Geffen’s role at Geffen Advisors is complemented by a team of experienced professionals. For example, Heidi Sobol, a senior consultant at the firm, brings over two decades of experience working with hedge funds, and Shaun Gatter, another consultant at the firm, has expertise in negotiating trading documentation.

The firm, through its expertise and specialized services, aims to provide strategic guidance and support to hedge funds, helping them navigate the complexities of the financial markets and maintain a competitive edge oai_citation:1, Geffen Advisors – Essential Advice for Tomorrow’s Leading Hedge Funds.

What does David Geffen own now

David Geffen, a prominent figure in the entertainment industry and founder of Geffen Records and DreamWorks Pictures, currently engages in various ventures and philanthropic activities. He is the President of Geffen Advisors, a company established in 2012, which offers services like treasury management, counterparty risk management, and launch advisory for hedge funds. This role reflects his extensive experience in the financial sector, particularly in hedge funds and investment banking.

Geffen is also known for his significant contributions to philanthropy. He has made generous donations to various institutions, notably pledging $75 million to the Columbia Business School for its new campus. This donation is part of his broader philanthropic efforts in areas such as arts, culture, education, medicine, and civil liberties.

In addition to his business and philanthropic endeavors, Geffen is an avid art collector and a luxury property aficionado. He owns an impressive art collection, including works by notable artists like Jasper Johns, De Kooning, and Jackson Pollock. His collection is considered one of the most valuable private art collections in the world. Geffen also owns significant real estate properties, including one of New York City’s most expensive apartments, a house in the Hamptons, and the Jack L. Warner estate in Beverly Hills. He even owns the super yacht, Rising Sun, originally built for Oracle founder Larry Ellison, which features luxurious amenities and has hosted notable guests like Jeff Bezos and the Obamas.

These diverse interests and holdings reflect Geffen’s multifaceted career and his significant impact on both the entertainment industry and the broader business world oai_citation:1,David Geffen : Positions, Relations and Network – MarketScreener oai_citation:2, Geffen Advisors – Essential Advice for Tomorrow’s Leading Hedge Funds oai_citation:3,Columbia Business School Gets $75 Million From David Geffen For Its New Campus oai_citation:4,Billionaires Are Social Distancing in Super Yachts as Tens of Millions Lose Jobs | Truthout.

Forget loser New York, loser Brooklyn, loser San Francisco and the Bay Area etc… LA is where it is at??

LA is an architectural masterpiece!!

Typically speaking, I only like trust and credit things which have actually been built by entrepreneurs. Why? There is a personal motive to make it great!

Brian Gardner with Powder WordPress theme.

Is their first and last name on it?

Also contrary to popular belief, it is *GOOD* for them to put their first and last name on it (like David Geffen, LACMA new building). Why? Personal pride!

Geffen foundation

Wow … Geffen records produced Mary J. Blige, Limp Bizkit, Common, Snoop Dogg, Black Eye Peas.. even Guns N’ Roses?

Geffen records

Wow.. John Lennon and Yoko Ono! Also Elton John, Cher, Aerosmith!!

Geffen Records, founded by David Geffen in 1980, has had a rich history with a diverse array of artists. The label’s first major success was with Donna Summer’s album “The Wanderer” in 1980, followed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Double Fantasy.” As the 1980s progressed, Geffen found success with artists like Asia, Berlin, Enya, Kylie Minogue, Wang Chung, and Sammy Hagar. They also signed established acts such as Elton John, Irene Cara, Cher, Debbie Harry, Don Henley, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, and Jennifer Holliday. Notably, in the late 1980s, Geffen became known as a rock label with acts like Whitesnake, The Stone Roses, Guns N’ Roses, Tesla, Sonic Youth, and Aerosmith.

In the 1990s, after being sold to MCA Music Entertainment, Geffen continued to flourish, later merging into Interscope Geffen A&M Records group. This period saw the label signing and promoting a mix of artists, including Mary J. Blige, The Roots, Blink-182, Rise Against, Common, Nelly Furtado, Lifehouse, and Rufus Wainwright.

More recently, the label has continued to evolve and grow, signing contemporary artists across various genres. Some of the artists associated with Geffen Records include Jason Derulo, DJ Shadow, DJ Snake, Nelly Furtado, Macy Gray, Selena Gomez, Guns N’ Roses, Sammy Hagar, Nirvana, Hole, Elton John, Yoko Ono, Olivia Rodrigo, Papa Roach, and many others.

Geffen Records’ journey from its inception to becoming a major player in the music industry is marked by its diverse signings and contributions to various music genres oai_citation:1,List of Geffen Records artists – Wikipedia oai_citation:2,Geffen Records – Wikipedia.

Who else and history timeline

Geffen Records is a major American record label, founded by David Geffen in 1980. It’s part of the Universal Music Group and has been home to a wide range of artists across various genres. Notable acts associated with Geffen Records include Nirvana, Guns N’ Roses, Elton John, and Aerosmith, among others. The label is known for its influence in the music industry, particularly in rock and roll.

Entrepreneurship by KIM

Change and do, and build or do things differently … based on what you believe the ideal world *should* look like:

1. Annoyance & Entrepreneurship
2. Why Doesn’t Anything Satisfy Me?
3. ZERO FINANCIAL CONCERNS
4. How to Gain Ascendancy
5. Business vs Entrepreneurship?
6. TAKE REAL CHANCES
7. Making Money as a Hobby
8. The Best Exercises for Entrepreneurs
9. INCOME VS EXPENSES MONEY LIFESTYLE PHILOSOPHY
10. Entrepreneurship is the privilege of being able to attempt something new
11. How to Become More Influential
12. The Point of Life is Entrepreneurship?
13. How to Think Like an Entrepreneur
14. Become the Outlier
15. Self Reliance
16. How to Extend Your Reach
17. NEWS: How to Think Like an Entrepreneur
18. PVP (Player vs Player)
19. How I became so influential
20. WE LOVE THE *SENSATION* OF RISK-TAKING
21. WHY HIGH PROFIT MARGINS?
22. INNOVATION THOUGHTS
23. OVERCONFIDENCE IS GOOD.
24. GARAGE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
25. PERHAPS IT IS GOOD TO BE “DELUSIONAL”
26. USE YOUR WEALTH TO BUY STUFF, OR TO BUILD AND INNOVATE STUFF?
27. HOW TO THRIVE
28. Target Demographic
29. Ambition Over Happiness
30. Anti Collaboration
31. The Will to Economy
32. Why New?
33. CHOOSE ADRENALINE.
34. No Looking Back.
35. 1000x Different
36. BECOME SPENDTHRIFT
37. THE BENEFIT OF JUST ONE.
38. EXTREME INNOVATION.
39. Practicality is Boring
40. BECOME YOUR OWN STANDARD.
41. NEVER STOP ITERATING.
42. CONDENSE.
43. Take Lots of Small Financial Risks
44. Control Over Convenience
45. Why Are Chinese Companies So Innovative?
46. INSANELY DIFFERENT.
47. Why Doesn’t Anything Ever Satisfy Me?
48. THE GREAT PASSION.
49. Perhaps Dissatisfaction is Good
50. ONE REP MAX.
51. WHAT DO YOU *REALLY* WANT IN LIFE?
52. LIFE IS ABOUT STRIVING FOR MORE.
53. NEVER STOP LINKING.
54. THE GREATEST.
55. WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!
56. THE BEST IS YET TO COME.
57. ERIC KIM CRITIQUE OF ROMANTICISM
58. COMPLACENCY.
59. JUST BUY IT.
60. ALL ABOUT YOU.
61. MOVE THE WORLD
62. Boring or Not Boring?
63. What if Your Past Self were Inferior to Your Present Self?
64. THE PHILOSOPHY OF PROGRESS
65. CULTURE IS YOUR ENEMY.
66. Difficulty & Interest
67. The Will to Expansion
68. What is Work?
69. SOUL IN THE GAME.
70. JUST START IT.
71. Not Boring
72. PRIDE IN YOUR OWN NAME / BRAND
73. AS MUCH AS YOU CAN TOLERATE.
74. Speed is Paramount
75. TAKE IT BACK TO THE BEGINNING.
76. A Life With No Risk Taking is *NOT* a Life Worth Living
77. Dissatisfaction is Good
78. GREATER STRENGTH, GREATER CHALLENGES.
79. In Praise of the New
80. Uncorrupted Desires
81. You Cannot Fake Passion
82. SELF-OVERGOING
83. FORM YOURSELF.
84. Personal Entrepreneurship
85. RELENTLESS.
86. PUT YOUR NAME ON IT.
87. A Life of Expansion
88. SELF-ENTREPRENEURSHIP
89. YOU ARE THE EXCEPTION.
90. Use Your Life as an Experiment to Self-Develop Yourself to Heights Never Seen Before
91. Invest in New Developments
92. Investing Towards What End?
93. The 90%/10% Principle in Entrepreneurship
94. Speed Wins
95. The Philosophy of Happiness
96. When to Over-Estimate, When to Under-Estimate?
97. Never Stop Iterating
98. Money as a Tool for Life and Artistic Experimentation
99. Less But More Premium
100. Mainstream vs Low-Key Success
101. Why Dissatisfaction is Good
102. SEEK YOUR OWN PERSONAL MAXIMAL BENEFIT INSTEAD OF COMPLAINING
103. Manifest Your Destiny
104. Is it Best to *Not* Communicate Your Inner Thoughts or Ideas With Others?
105. CREATE THINGS YOU WISH TO SEE MANIFESTED IN THE WORLD
106. How to Do More Work
107. CONTROL.
108. Competition is for Losers
109. Change.
110. Your Competitive Advantage with Insanely Fast Wifi and High Speed Internet
111. Pseudo Individualism
112. 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.

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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!

Geometric shapes—

Modern art photography?