Undulate between iPad Pro, iPhone SE and MacBook Pro to maximize your productivity.

The new flex:

Wear a cutoff shirt crop top t-shirt… no sleeves. Show off your shoulders, arms, and belly! And 6 pack!

TikTok — very pernicious threat to the American youth!

Be more fearful of TikTok, less of “mainland China” and military intervention.

Also—

China is zero military threat.

American military is at least 10,000x more dominant and lethal.

Super simple:

1. First– just write and blog and vlog and upload to YouTube whatever is on your mind!

I JUST GOT TWO THINGS — MY BLACK BALLS! (JAY Z):

1. iPhone SE
2. 2010 Prius in white — old and used as best car.
3. Location location location location location

(Vol. III) Tacitus Histories

 p175  Book V

1 1 At the beginning of this same year​1 Titus Caesar, who had been selected by his father to complete the subjugation of Judea,​2 and who had already won distinction as a soldier while both were still private citizens, began to enjoy greater power and reputation, for provinces and armies and vied with one another in enthusiasm for him. Moreover, in his own conduct, wishing to be thought greater than his fortune, he always showed himself dignified and energetic in the field; by his affable address he called forth devotion, and he often mingled with the common soldiers both at work or on the march without impairing his position as general. He found awaiting him in Judea three legions, Vespasian’s old troops, the Fifth, the Tenth, and the Fifteenth. He reinforced these with the Twelfth from Syria and with some soldiers from the Twenty-second and the Third which he brought from Alexandria; these troops were accompanied by twenty cohorts of allied infantry, eight squadrons of cavalry, as well as by the princes Agrippa and Sohaemus, the auxiliaries sent by King Antiochus,​3 and by a strong contingent of Arabs, who hated the Jews with all that hatred that is common among neighbours; there were besides many Romans who had been prompted to leave the capital and Italy by the hope that each entertained of securing the prince’s favour while he was yet free from engagements. With these forces Titus entered  p177 the enemy’s land: his troops advanced in strict order, he reconnoitred at every step and was always ready for battle; not far from Jerusalem he pitched camp.

2 1 However, as I am about to describe the last days of a famous city, it seems proper for me to give some account of its origin.4

It is said that the Jews were originally exiles from the island of Crete who settled in the farthest parts of Libya at the time when Saturn had been deposed and expelled by Jove. An argument in favour of this is derived from the name: there is a famous mountain in Crete called Ida, and hence the inhabitants were called the Idaei, which was later lengthened into the barbarous form Iudaei. Some hold that in the reign of Isis the superfluous population of Egypt, under the leader­ship of Hierosolymus and Iuda, discharged itself on the neighbouring lands; many others think that they were an Egyptian stock, which in the reign of Cepheus was forced to migrate by fear and hatred. Still others report that they were Assyrian refugees, a landless people, who first got control of a part of Egypt, then later they had their own cities and lived in the Hebrew territory and the nearer parts of Syria. Still others say that the Jews are of illustrious origin, being the Solymi, a people celebrated in Homer’s poems,​5 who founded a city and gave it the name Hierosolyma, formed from their own.

3 1 Most authors agree that once during a plague in Egypt which caused bodily disfigurement, King Bocchoris​6 approached the oracle of Ammon​7 and p179 asked for a remedy, whereupon he was told to purge his kingdom and to transport this race into other lands, since it was hateful to the gods. So the Hebrews were searched out and gathered together; then, being abandoned in the desert, while all others lay idle and weeping, one only of the exiles, Moses by name, warned them not to hope for help from gods or men, for they were deserted by both, but to trust to themselves, regarding as a guide sent from heaven the one whose assistance should first give them escape from their present distress. They agreed, and then set out on their journey in utter ignorance, but trusting to chance. Nothing caused them so much distress as scarcity of water, and in fact they had already fallen exhausted over the plain nigh unto death, when a herd of wild asses moved from their pasturage to a rock that was shaded by a grove of trees. Moses followed them, and, conjecturing the truth from the grassy ground, discovered abundant streams of water. This relieved them, and they then marched six days continuously, and on the seventh seized a country, expelling the former inhabitants; there they founded a city and dedicated a temple.8

4 1 To establish his influence over this people for all time, Moses introduced new religious practices, quite opposed to those of all other religions. The Jews regard as profane all that we hold sacred; on the other hand, they permit all that we abhor. They dedicated, in a shrine, a statue of that creature whose guidance enabled them to put an end to their wandering and thirst,​9 sacrificing a ram, apparently in derision of Ammon.​10 They likewise offer the ox, because the Egyptians worship Apis. They abstain  p181 from pork, in recollection of a plague, for the scab to which this animal is subject once afflicted them. By frequent fasts even now they bear witness to the long hunger with which they were once distressed, and the unleavened Jewish bread is still employed in memory of the haste with which they seized the grain.​11 They say that they first chose to rest on the seventh day because that day ended their toils; but after a time they were led by the charms of indolence to give over the seventh year as well to inactivity.​12 Others say that this is done in honour of Saturn,​13 whether it be that the primitive elements of their religion were given by the Idaeans, who, according to tradition, were expelled with Saturn and became the founders of the Jewish race, or is due to the fact that, of the seven planets that rule the fortunes of mankind, Saturn moves in the highest orbit and has the greatest potency; and that many of the heavenly bodies traverse their paths and courses in multiples of seven.14

5 1 Whatever their origin, these rites are maintained by their antiquity: the other customs of the Jews are base and abominable, and owe their persistence to their depravity. For the worst rascals among other peoples,​15 renouncing their ancestral religions, always kept sending tribute and contributions to Jerusalem, thereby increasing the wealth of the Jews; again, the Jews are extremely loyal toward one another, and always ready to show compassion, but toward every other people they  p183 feel only hate and enmity. They sit apart at meals, and they sleep apart, and although as a race, they are prone to lust, they abstain from intercourse with foreign women; yet among themselves nothing is unlawful. They adopted circumcision to distinguish themselves from other peoples by this difference. Those who are converted to their ways follow the same practice, and the earliest lesson they receive is to despise the gods, to disown their country, and to regard their parents, children, and brothers as of little account. However, they take thought to increase their numbers; for they regard it as a crime to kill any late-born child,​16 and they believe that the souls of those who are killed in battle or by the executioner are immortal: hence comes their passion for begetting children, and their scorn of death. They bury the body rather than burn it, thus following the Egyptians’ custom; they likewise bestow the same care on the dead, and hold the same belief about the world below; but their ideas of heavenly things are quite the opposite. The Egyptians worship many animals and monstrous images; the Jews conceive of one god only, and that with the mind alone: they regard as impious those who make from perishable materials representations of gods in man’s image; that supreme and eternal being is to them incapable of representation and without end. Therefore they set up no statues in their cities, still less in their temples; this flattery is not paid their kings, nor this honour given to the Caesars. But since their priests used to chant to the accompaniment of pipes and cymbals and to wear garlands of ivy, and because a golden vine was found in their temple, some have thought that they were devotees  p185 of Father Liber, the conqueror of the East, in spite of the incongruity of their customs. For Liber established festive rites of a joyous nature, while the ways of the Jews are preposterous and mean.

6 1 Their land is bounded by Arabia on the east, Egypt lies on the south, on the west are Phoenicia and the sea, and toward the north the people enjoy a wide prospect over Syria.​17 The inhabitants are healthy and hardy. Rains are rare; the soil is fertile; its products are like ours, save that the balsam and the palm also grow there. The palm is a tall and handsome tree; the balsam​18 a mere shrub: if a branch, when swollen with sap, is pierced with steel, the veins shrivel up; so a piece of stone or a potsherd is used to open them; the juice is employed by physicians. Of the mountains, Lebanon rises to the greatest height, and is in fact a marvel, for in the midst of the excessive heat its summit is shaded by trees and covered with snow; it likewise is the source and supply of the river Jordan.​19This river does not empty into the sea, but after flowing with volume undiminished through two lakes is lost in the third.​20 The last is a lake of great size: it is like the sea, but its water has a nauseous taste, and its offensive odour is injurious to those who live near it. Its waters are not moved by the wind, and neither fish nor water-fowl can live there. Its lifeless waves bear up whatever is thrown upon them as on a solid surface; all swimmers, whether skilled or not, are buoyed up by them. At a certain season of the year the sea throws up bitumen, and experience has taught the natives how to collect this, as she teaches p187 all arts. Bitumen is by nature a dark fluid which coagulates when sprinkled with vinegar, and swims on the surface. Those whose business it is, catch hold of it with their hands and haul it on shipboard: then with no artificial aid the bitumen flows in and loads the ship until the stream is cut off. Yet you cannot use bronze or iron to cut the bituminous stream; it shrinks from blood or from a cloth stained with a woman’s menses. Such is the story told by ancient writers, but those who are acquainted with the country aver that the floating masses of bitumen are driven by the winds or drawn by hand to shore, where later, after they have been dried by vapours from the earth or by the heat of the sun, they are split like timber or stone with axes and wedges.

7 1 Not far from this lake is a plain which, according to report, was once fertile and the site of great cities, but which was later devastated by lightning; and it is said that traces of this disaster still exist there, and that the very ground looks burnt and has lost its fertility. In fact, all the plants there, whether wild or cultivated, turn black, become sterile, and seem to wither into dust, either in leaf or in flower or after they have reached their usual mature form. Now for my part, although I should grant that famous cities were once destroyed by fire from heaven, I still think that it is the exhalations from the lake that infect the ground and poison the atmosphere about this district, and that this is the reason that crops and fruits decay, since both soil and climate are deleterious.​21 The river Belus also  p189 empties into the Jewish Sea; around its mouth a kind of sand is gathered, which when mixed with soda is fused into glass. The beach is of moderate size, but it furnishes an inexhaustible supply.22

8 1 A great part of Judea is covered with scattered villages, but there are some towns also; Jerusalem is the capital of the Jews. In it was a temple possessing enormous riches.​23 The first line of fortifications protected the city, the next the palace, and the innermost wall the temple.​24 Only a Jew might approach its doors, and all save the priests were forbidden to cross the threshold. While the East was under the dominion of the Assyrians, Medes, and Persians, the Jews were regarded as the meanest of their subjects: but after the Macedonians gained supremacy,​25 King Antiochus endeavoured to abolish Jewish superstition and to introduce Greek civilization; the war with the Parthians, however, prevented his improving this basest of peoples; for it was exactly at that time that Arsaces had revolted.​26 Later on, since the power of Macedon had waned, the Parthians were not yet come to their strength, and the Romans were far away, the Jews selected their own kings.​27 These in turn were expelled by the fickle mob; but recovering their throne by force of arms,​28 they banished citizens, destroyed towns, killed brothers, wives, and parents, and dared essay every other kind of royal crime without hesitation; but they fostered the national superstition,  p191 for they had assumed the priesthood to support their civil authority.

9 1 The first Roman to subdue the Jews and set foot in their temple by right of conquest was Gnaeus Pompey;​29 thereafter it was a matter of common knowledge that there were no representations of the gods within, but that the place was empty and the secret shrine contained nothing. The walls of Jerusalem were razed, but the temple remained standing. Later, in the time of our civil wars, when these eastern provinces had fallen into the hands of Mark Antony, the Parthian prince, Pacorus, seized Judea, but he was slain by Publius Ventidius, and the Parthians were thrown back across the Euphrates:​30 the Jews were subdued by Gaius Sosius.​31 Antony gave the throne to Herod, and Augustus, after his victory, increased his power. After Herod’s death, a certain Simon​32 assumed the name of king without waiting for Caesar’s decision. He, however, was put to death by Quintilius Varus, governor of Syria; the Jews were repressed; and the kingdom was divided into three parts and given to Herod’s sons.​33 Under Tiberius all was quiet. Then, when Caligula ordered the Jews to set up his statue in their temple, they chose rather to resort to arms, but the emperor’s death put an end to their uprising. The princes now being dead or reduced to insignificance, Claudius made Judea a province and entrusted it to Roman knights or to freedmen; one of the latter, Antonius Felix, practised every kind of cruelty and  p193 lust, wielding the power of king with all the instincts of a slave;​34 he had married Drusilla, the grand-daughter of Cleopatra and Antony, and so was Antony’s grandson-in‑law, while Claudius was Antony’s grandson.

10 1 Still the Jews’ patience lasted until Gessius Florus became procurator:​35 in his time war began. When Cestius Gallus, governor of Syria, tried to stop it, he suffered varied fortunes and met defeat more often than he gained victory. On his death, whether in the course of nature or from vexation, Nero sent out Vespasian, who, aided by his good fortune and reputation as well as by his excellent subordinates, within two summers occupied with his victorious army the whole of the level country and all the cities except Jerusalem. The next year was taken up with civil war, and thus was passed in inactivity so far as the Jews were concerned. When peace had been secured throughout Italy, foreign troubles began again; and the fact that the Jews alone had failed to surrender increased our resentment; at the same time, having regard to all the possibilities and hazards of a new reign, it seemed expedient for Titus to remain with the army.

11 1 Therefore, as I have said above,​36 Titus pitched his camp before the walls of Jerusalem and displayed his legions in battle array: the Jews formed their line close beneath their walls, being thus ready to advance if successful, and having a refuge at hand in case they were driven back. Some horse and light-armed foot were sent against them, but fought indecisively; later the enemy retired, and during the following days they engaged in many skirmishes  p195 before their gates until at last their continual defeats drove them within their walls. The Romans now turned to preparations for an assault; for the soldiers thought it beneath their dignity to wait for the enemy to be starved out, and so they began to clamour for danger, part being prompted by bravery, but many were moved by their savage natures and their desire for booty. Titus himself had before his eyes a vision of Rome, its wealth and its pleasures, and he felt that if Jerusalem did not fall at once, his enjoyment of them was delayed. But the city stands on an eminence, and the Jews had defended it with works and fortifications sufficient to protect even level ground; for the two hills that rise to a great height had been included within walls that had been skillfully built, projecting out or bending in so as to put the flanks of an assailing body under fire.​37 The rocks terminated in sheer cliffs, and towers rose to a height of sixty feet where the hill assisted the fortifications, and in the valleys they reached one hundred and twenty; they presented a wonderful sight, and appeared of equal height when viewed from a distance.​38 An inner line of walls had been built around the palace, and on a conspicuous height stands Antony’s Tower, so named by Herod in honour of Mark Antony.39

12 1 The temple was built like a citadel, with walls of its own, which were constructed with more care and effort than any of the rest; the very colonnades about the temple made a splendid defence. Within the enclosure is an ever-flowing spring;​40 in the hills are subterraneous excavations, with pools and cisterns for holding rain-water. The founders of the city had foreseen that there would be many wars because the ways of their people differed so from those p197 of the neighbours: therefore they had built at every point as if they expected a long siege; and after the city had been stormed by Pompey, their fears and experience taught them much. Moreover, profiting by the greed displayed during the reign of Claudius, they had bought the privilege of fortifying the city, and in time of peace had built walls as if for war. The population at this time had been increased by streams of rabble that flowed in from the other captured cities,​41 for the most desperate rebels had taken refuge here, and consequently sedition was the more rife. There were three generals, three armies: the outermost and largest circuit of the walls was held by Simon, the middle of the city by John, and the temple was guarded by Eleazar.​42 John and Simon were strong in numbers and equipment, Eleazar had the advantage of position: between these three there was constant fighting, treachery, and arson, and a great store of grain was consumed. Then John got possession of the temple by sending a party, under pretence of offering sacrifice, to slay Eleazar and his troops. So the citizens were divided into two factions until, at the approach of the Romans, foreign war produced concord.

13 1 Prodigies had indeed occurred, but to avert them either by victims or by vows is held unlawful by a people which, though prone to superstition, is opposed to all propitiatory rites.​43 Contending hosts were seen meeting in the skies, arms flashed, and suddenly the temple was illumined with fire from the clouds. Of a sudden the doors of the shrine opened and a superhuman voice cried: “The gods are departing”: at the same moment the  p199 mighty stir of their going was heard.​44 Few interpreted these omens as fearful; the majority firmly believed that their ancient priestly writings contained the prophecy that this was the very time when the East should grow strong and that men starting from Judea should possess the world.​45 This mysterious prophecy had in reality pointed to Vespasian and Titus, but the common people, as is the way of human ambition, interpreted these great destinies in their own favour, and could not be turned to the truth even by adversity. We have heard that the total number of the besieged of every age and both sexes was six hundred thousand; there were arms for all who could use them, and the number ready to fight was larger than could have been anticipated from the total population. Both men and women showed the same determination; and if they were to be forced to change their home, they feared life more than death.

Such was the city and people against which Titus Caesar now proceeded; since the nature of the ground did not allow him to assault or employ any sudden operations, he decided to use earthworks and mantlets; the legions were assigned to their several tasks, and there was a respite of fighting until they made ready every device for storming a town that the ancients had ever employed or modern ingenuity invented.

The Loeb Editor’s Notes:

1 70 A.D.

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2 Cf. II.4; IV.51.

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3 Agrippa was prince of Trachonitis and Galilee; Sohaemus, king of Sophene and prince of Emesa in Syria; while Antiochus was king of Commagene and of a part of Cilicia. Cf. II.81.

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4 Tacitus in this brief and somewhat confused account of the Jews apparently followed the Alexandrian historians, Chaeremon and Lysimachus.

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5 Il. VI.184; Od. V.282.

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6 King Bocchoris reigned in the eighth century B.C., whereas the exodus seems to have taken place about five centuries earlier. But the account of the exodus as given in the Old Testament requires much revision in the light of modern historical scholar­ship. Vid. Cambridge Ancient History, II, 352 ff.

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7 The famous Egyptian oracle in the oasis Siwah, in the Libyan desert.

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8 Cf. the story in Genesis with this fantastic account, which Tacitus took chiefly from Lysimachus.

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9 That is, an ass. The same charge of worshipping an ass was frequently made against the Christians later.

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10 The Egyptian god was represented in art with a ram’s horns.

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11 Cf. Exod. xii.15‑20, 34‑39.

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12 Cf. Deut. v.15; Levit. xxv.4.

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13 The seventh day being Saturn’s day.

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14 Cf. Dio Cass. XXXVII.18 f.

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15 The proselytes, whose contributions were important. The tribute amounted to two drachmae a head each year, according to Josephus, Bell. Iud. VII.218(Niese).

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16 The word here used, “agnatus,” means a child born after the father had made his will, or one that was not desired. Cf. Germ. 19.

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17 Looking from Lebanon, over Coele-Syria.

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18 Famed for its medicinal qualities and fragrance. Strabo XVI 763; Pliny XII.111.

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19 The source of the Jordan is on Mt. Hermon, which Tacitus apparently identifies with Lebanon.

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20 The marshy Lake Merom, then Gennesareth, and finally the Dead Sea.

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21 With this description compare that of Josephus, Bell. Jud. IV.8.4; Strabo XVI 763 f.; and Pliny, N. H. V.71 f., VII.65.

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22 Cf. Pliny, NH XXXVI.190 ff. The river Belus (Naaman), which rises in the highlands of Galilee and empties in the Mediterranean near St. Jean d’Acre, really belongs to Phoenicia.

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23 It will be observed that Tacitus is writing after the destruction of the temple.

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24 Tacitus is somewhat inexact here, for the walls were not concentric.

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25 The Seleucid dynasty is meant.

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26 It was under Antiochus II (260‑245 B.C.) that Arsaces revolted; but Tacitus may be confusing the revolt of Arsaces with the Maccabaean war of 167‑164 B.C.

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27 The Hasmonean line.

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28 This may refer to the war between King Alexander and the Pharisees that began in 92 B.C. and lasted for six years; or to the struggle for the throne that followed on the death of Alexander’s widow, Salome, in 70 B.C.

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29 In 63 B.C.

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30 Pacorus advanced on Judea in 40 B.C., but two years later he was killed.

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31 Both Ventidius and Sosius were lieutenants of Antony. Aided by Sosius, Herod defeated the last of the Maccabees in 37 B.C., and thenceforth the throne of Judea was held by princes friendly to Rome.

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32 One of Herod’s former slaves.

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33 Archilaus, as Ethnarch, ruled Judea, southern Idumea and northern Samaria; Herod Antipas, as Tetrarch, had Galilee and Perea; while Philip, as Tetrarch, received the district east of the Jordan.

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34 Antonius Felix, the brother of Claudius’s notorious favourite Pallas, was procurator of Judea 52‑60 according to Josephus, Ant. XX.7.1, but seems to have governed the southern half before 52. Cf.  Tacitus, Ann. XII.54.

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35 Procurator 64‑66 A.D.

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36 In chap. i.

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37 The two hills meant are apparently Acra and Bezetha, which were included within Herod’s wall.

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38 The outer circuit of fortifications had 90 towers; there were in all 164, according to Josephus, Bell. Iud. V.4.3.

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39 The palace stood on Zion, the temple on Moriah. At the north-west corner of the temple enclosure Herod built Antony’s Tower.

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40 It is possible, but not probable, that Tacitus means the Pool of Siloam; for the context seems to show that he is thinking of the temple.

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41 i.e. taken by Vespasian and Titus in 67 and 68 A.D.

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42 Simon had carried on guerilla warfare east of the Jordan, but had been called in by the Idumean party in 68 A.D., when he was greeted as a saviour by the people; John of Gischala headed the Galilean zealots; and Eleazar led the patriotic war party.

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43 Cf. Jerem. x.2: Thus saith the Lord, learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the heathen are dismayed at them.

The word religiones probably refers to the formal ceremonies by which the Romans warded off (procurare) the evil effect of prodigies; but it may have a wider connotation here.

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44 Cf. Verg. Aen. II.351 f.; excessere omnes adytis arisque relictis / di quibus imperium hoc steterat; and the remarks by Macrob., Sat. III.9 on these verses. Josephus, Bell. Iud. VI.299 (Niese) relates that at Pentecost the priests heard repeatedly a cry from the innermost part of the temple: Î¼ÎµÏ„αβαίνομεν ἐντεῦθεν.

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45 Cf. Dan. ii.44; Suet. Vesp. 4.

Vs contempt of death:

the Jews see to it that their numbers increase. It is a deadly sin to kill an unwanted child,^note and they think that eternal life is granted to those who die in battle or execution – hence their eagerness to have children, and their contempt for death. 

In defense of Jewish, Jewish Americans —

There are a lot of “closet” Jewish-American people serving in the American, US military.

My deep respect — anyone who puts their own life on the line (patriotism)— is a true American, or a true national.

Google search is… and it seems it can be gamed. I’m starting to get low-key suspicious that Google is doing some hidden “under the table” deals with certain individuals to get that “knowledge panel” side bar thing (it ain’t populated manually!)

STEVE JOBS

Eric Kim, in his reflections on Steve Jobs, emphasizes several key lessons and traits that he admires in Jobs and has applied to his own life and work. These insights provide a unique perspective on Jobs’ influence, especially in areas of creativity, innovation, and personal development.

1. Value of Creative Vision: Kim highlights the importance of staying true to one’s creative vision, a trait he admired in Steve Jobs. This includes the blending of liberal arts and engineering, and trusting one’s intuition.
2. Adopt and Improve Ideas: According to Kim, Jobs was adept at taking existing ideas, like the Xerox GUI, and refining them to create something better, demonstrating the importance of building on the work of others to achieve innovation.
3. Personal Taste and Aesthetics: Jobs’ strong sense of personal taste and aesthetics, as reflected in Apple’s products, is something Kim points out as crucial. Understanding and following one’s aesthetic style is key to creating impactful work.
4. Continuous Exposure to the Best: By surrounding oneself with excellence, one is inspired to achieve greatness. Jobs’ practice of engaging with high-quality influences is a lesson Kim underlines.
5. Small Changes Leading to Big Impacts: Kim notes Jobs’ belief in the power of small adjustments to change future trajectories significantly, illustrating the impact individuals can have on society.
6. The Role of Technology as an Enabler: Emphasizing Jobs’ view of technology as a tool to enhance human abilities, Kim agrees with the idea of using technology to amplify innate skills and strengths.
7. Direct Distribution to Customers: Jobs’ approach to direct customer engagement, bypassing intermediaries like Facebook and Instagram, is another lesson Kim draws upon, advocating for direct communication channels.
8. Focus on One Thing at a Time: Kim emphasizes Jobs’ approach to focusing on one project at a time, which he sees as crucial for leveraging skills and talents effectively.
9. Importance of Being Flexible: While being stubborn about vision is important, Kim notes that Jobs also believed in the value of changing one’s opinion when proven wrong.
10. Building a Strong Team: Jobs’ focus on surrounding himself with a team of ‘A players’ is another key takeaway for Kim, highlighting the importance of collaboration and excellence in team building.
11. Innovation and Constant Evolution: Jobs’ relentless drive for innovation and refusal to settle for mediocrity in any aspect of his work resonates strongly with Kim.

These lessons from Steve Jobs, as interpreted by Eric Kim, offer valuable insights into the mindset and practices that drive innovation and success in creative and entrepreneurial endeavors oai_citation:1,Steve – ERIC KIM oai_citation:2,10 Traits of Steve Jobs That Can Make You a Better Photographer – ERIC KIM oai_citation:3,13 Lessons Steve Jobs Can Teach You – ERIC KIM.

How Eric is renowned entrepreneur and technologist

Looks like ChatGPT is getting a bit confused here.

Haha ChatGPT is so flattering!

Eric Kim, a renowned entrepreneur and technologist, has spoken about Steve Jobs, highlighting Jobs’ unique approach to innovation and leadership. Kim often emphasizes Jobs’ ability to blend technology and art, creating products that weren’t just functional but also aesthetically pleasing and emotionally resonant. Jobs’ vision and unorthodox methods in business and product development have been a source of inspiration for many in the fields of innovation and entrepreneurship.

In this context, considering your interest in philosophy, innovation, and entrepreneurship, Jobs’ journey offers valuable insights. He exemplified the philosopher-entrepreneur archetype, combining deep thinking about user needs and desires with a relentless drive to create. This blend of creativity, critical thinking, and practical execution aligns well with your passions. Jobs’ approach underscores the importance of not just understanding the market and technology but also the human element in innovation.

Think iPad, not iPhone.

Steve Jobs would have been proud of me!

Why in the last 2,000 years … a new God hasn’t been invented yet?

Contempt for Death

the Jews see to it that their numbers increase. It is a deadly sin to kill an unwanted child,^note and they think that eternal life is granted to those who die in battle or execution – hence their eagerness to have children, and their contempt for death. 

No more hocus-pocus.

Tacitus on the Jews

First — how did “God” get invented? Via Moses— the first (real life, real human being character)— the saviour of the Jews. The people of Judea… *BEFORE* the Jews were expelled from Egypt.

Timeline:

1. Jews exist as a race in Egypt
2. Jews escape plague and Moses is their leader.. he helps them find “The Promises Land” (Judea)— and this is where they build their fortress.

According to Tacitus, in order to preserve the Jewish race forever, Moses instituted these “rules” and superstitious beliefs in order to preserve their race.

First theory:

The “god of Abraham”— the same god we Christians, Jesus followers, Protestants and Catholic followers is the God that Moses invented— borrowed and mixed with Egyptian ideas.

Also — the Islamic, “Allah” and god… the same god?

Thoughts

1. “Idleness” and “indolence”
2. Ideas borrowed from Saturn (Saturnilia)— recently invented god by the Romans — no direct Greek equivalent? I always thought Saturn was Zeus … I guess not?
3. Shed all feelings of patriotism?
4. It is a deadly sin to kill an unwanted child. — !!! Super interesting. — ancient Romans thought it to be a virtuous thing or a noble thing to kill an unwanted child? Like the ancient Spartans —

Critiques

1. They won’t feed or intermarry with gentiles? A big no no for the Romans — the rule was if someone asked you for help in ancient Roman times … you helped them!

The wisdom of Moses

1. Moses urged his companions not to wait passively from god or man — for both had deserted them… trust their own imitative and extricate themselves from their present plight.
2. “Novel” (new) religion— quite different than that of all mankind.

Criticism

Whatever their origin, these observances are sanctioned by their antiquity. The other practices of the Jews are sinister and revolting, and have entrenched themselves by their very wickedness. Wretches of the most abandoned kind who had no use for the religion of their fathers took to contributing dues and free-will offerings to swell the Jewish exchequer; and other reasons for their increasing wealth way be found in their stubborn loyalty and ready benevolence towards brother Jews. But the rest of the world they confront with the hatred reserved for enemies. They will not feed or intermarry with gentiles. Though a most lascivious people, the Jews avoid sexual intercourse with women of alien race. Among themselves nothing is barred. They have introduced the practice of circumcision to show that they are different from others. Proselytes to Jewry adopt the same practices, and the very first lesson they learn is to despise the gods, shed all feelings of patriotism, and consider parents, children and brothers as readily expendable. However, the Jews see to it that their numbers increase. It is a deadly sin to kill an unwanted child,^note and they think that eternal life is granted to those who die in battle or execution – hence their eagerness to have children, and their contempt for death. Rather than cremate their dead, they prefer to bury them in imitation of the Egyptian fashion, and they have the same concern and beliefs about the world below. But their conception of heavenly things is quite different. The Egyptians worship a variety of animals and half-human, half-bestial forms, whereas the Jewish religion is a purely spiritual monotheism. They hold it to be impious to make idols of perishable materials in the likeness of man: for them, the Most High and Eternal cannot be portrayed by human hands and will never pass away. For this reason they erect no images in their cities, still less in their temples. Their kings are not so flattered, the Roman emperors not so honored. However, their priests used to perform their chants to the flute and drums, crowned with ivy, and a golden vine was discovered in the Temple; and this has led some to imagine that the god thus worshipped was Prince Liber,^note, the conqueror of the East. But the two cults are diametrically opposed. Liber founded a festive and happy cult: the Jewish belief is paradoxical and degraded.

Aha! Discovered the anti pork rationale:

They avoid eating pork in memory of their tribulations, as they themselves were once infected with the disease to which this creature is subject

7 days

This relieved their thirst. They traveled on for six days without a break, and on the seventh they expelled the previous inhabitants of Canaan, took over their lands and in them built a holy city and temple.

The story of Moses

But one of them, who was called Moses, urged his com- panions not to wait passively for help from god or man, for both had deserted them: they should trust to their own initiative and to whatever guidance first helped them to extricate themselves from their present plight. They agreed, and started off at random into the un- known. But exhaustion set in, chiefly through lack of water, and the level plain was already strewn with the bodies of those who had collapsed and were at their last gasp when a herd of wild asses left their pasture and made for the spade of a wooded crag. Moses followed them and was able to bring to light a number of abundant channels of water whose presence he had deduced from a grassy patch of ground. This relieved their thirst. They traveled on for six days without a break, and on the seventh they expelled the previous inhabitants of Canaan, took over their lands and in them built a holy city and temple.
[4] In order to secure the allegiance of his people in the future, Moses prescribed for them a novel religion quite different from those of the rest of mankind. Among the Jews all things are profane that we hold sacred; on the other hand they regard as permissible what seems to us immoral. In the innermost part of the Temple, they consecrated an image of the animal which had delivered them from their wandering and thirst, choosing a ram as beast of sacrifice to demonstrate, so it seems, their contempt for Hammon.note The bull is also offered up, because the Egyptians worship it as Apis.note They avoid eating pork in memory of their tribulations, as they themselves were once infected with the disease to which this creature is subject.note. They still fast frequently as an admission of the hunger they once endured so long, and to symbolize their hurried meal the bread eaten by the Jews is unleavened. We are told that the seventh day was set aside for rest because this marked the end of their toils. In course of time the seduc- tions of idleness made them devote every seventh year to indolence as well. Others say that this is a mark of respect to Saturn, either because they owe the basic principles of their religion to the Idaei, who, we are told, were expelled in the company of Saturn and became the founders of the Jewish race, or because, among the seven stars that rule mankind, the one that describes the highest orbit and exerts the greatest influence is Saturn. A further argument is that most of the heavenly bodies complete their path and revolutions in multiples of seven.

Where did the Jews come from?

The Jews are said to have been refugees from the island of Crete who settled in the remotest corner of Libya in the days when, according to the story, Saturn was driven from his throne by the aggression of Jupiter.^note This is a deduction from the name Judaeiby which they became known: the word is to be regarded as a barbarous lengthening of Idaei, the name of the people dwelling around the famous Mount Ida in Crete. A few authorities hold that in the reign of Isis the surplus population of Egypt was evacuated to neighboring lands under the leadership of Hierosolymus and Judas.^note Many assure us that the Jews are descended from those Ethiopians who were driven by fear and hatred to emigrate from their home country when Cepheus was king.^note There are some who say that a motley collection of landless Assyrians^note occupied a part of Egypt, and then built cities of their own, inhabiting the lands of the Hebrews and the nearer parts of Syria. Others again find a famous ancestry for the Jews in the Solymi who are mentioned with respect in the epics of Homer:^note this tribe is supposed have founded Jerusalem and named it after themselves.

Tacitus on the Jews

The Jews are said to have been refugees from the island of Crete who settled in the remotest corner of Libya in the days when, according to the story, Saturn was driven from his throne by the aggression of Jupiter.^note This is a deduction from the name Judaeiby which they became known: the word is to be regarded as a barbarous lengthening of Idaei, the name of the people dwelling around the famous Mount Ida in Crete. A few authorities hold that in the reign of Isis the surplus population of Egypt was evacuated to neighboring lands under the leadership of Hierosolymus and Judas.^note Many assure us that the Jews are descended from those Ethiopians who were driven by fear and hatred to emigrate from their home country when Cepheus was king.^note There are some who say that a motley collection of landless Assyrians^note occupied a part of Egypt, and then built cities of their own, inhabiting the lands of the Hebrews and the nearer parts of Syria. Others again find a famous ancestry for the Jews in the Solymi who are mentioned with respect in the epics of Homer:^note this tribe is supposed have founded Jerusalem and named it after themselves.

[3] Most authorities, however, agree on the following account. The whole of Egypt was once plagued by a wasting disease which caused bodily disfigurement. So pharaoh Bocchoris^note went to the oracle of Hammon^note to ask for a cure, and was told to purify his kingdom by expelling the victims to other lands, as they lay under a divine curse. Thus a multitude of sufferers was rounded up, herded together, and abandoned in the wilderness. Here the exiles tearfully resigned themselves to their fate. But one of them, who was called Moses, urged his companions not to wait passively for help from god or man, for both had deserted them: they should trust to their own initiative and to whatever guidance first helped them to extricate themselves from their present plight. They agreed, and started off at random into the unknown. But exhaustion set in, chiefly through lack of water, and the level plain was already strewn with the bodies of those who had collapsed and were at their last gasp when a herd of wild asses left their pasture and made for the spade of a wooded crag. Moses followed them and was able to bring to light a number of abundant channels of water whose presence he had deduced from a grassy patch of ground. This relieved their thirst. They traveled on for six days without a break, and on the seventh they expelled the previous inhabitants of Canaan, took over their lands and in them built a holy city and temple.

[4] In order to secure the allegiance of his people in the future, Moses prescribed for them a novel religion quite different from those of the rest of mankind. Among the Jews all things are profane that we hold sacred; on the other hand they regard as permissible what seems to us immoral. In the innermost part of the Temple, they consecrated an image of the animal which had delivered them from their wandering and thirst, choosing a ram as beast of sacrifice to demonstrate, so it seems, their contempt for Hammon.^note The bull is also offered up, because the Egyptians worship it as Apis.^note They avoid eating pork in memory of their tribulations, as they themselves were once infected with the disease to which this creature is subject.^note. They still fast frequently as an admission of the hunger they once endured so long, and to symbolize their hurried meal the bread eaten by the Jews is unleavened. We are told that the seventh day was set aside for rest because this marked the end of their toils. In course of time the seductions of idleness made them devote every seventh year to indolence as well. Others say that this is a mark of respect to Saturn, either because they owe the basic principles of their religion to the Idaei, who, we are told, were expelled in the company of Saturn and became the founders of the Jewish race, or because, among the seven stars that rule mankind, the one that describes the highest orbit and exerts the greatest influence is Saturn. A further argument is that most of the heavenly bodies complete their path and revolutions in multiples of seven.

[5] Whatever their origin, these observances are sanctioned by their antiquity. The other practices of the Jews are sinister and revolting, and have entrenched themselves by their very wickedness. Wretches of the most abandoned kind who had no use for the religion of their fathers took to contributing dues and free-will offerings to swell the Jewish exchequer; and other reasons for their increasing wealth way be found in their stubborn loyalty and ready benevolence towards brother Jews. But the rest of the world they confront with the hatred reserved for enemies. They will not feed or intermarry with gentiles. Though a most lascivious people, the Jews avoid sexual intercourse with women of alien race. Among themselves nothing is barred. They have introduced the practice of circumcision to show that they are different from others. Proselytes to Jewry adopt the same practices, and the very first lesson they learn is to despise the gods, shed all feelings of patriotism, and consider parents, children and brothers as readily expendable. However, the Jews see to it that their numbers increase. It is a deadly sin to kill an unwanted child,^note and they think that eternal life is granted to those who die in battle or execution – hence their eagerness to have children, and their contempt for death. Rather than cremate their dead, they prefer to bury them in imitation of the Egyptian fashion, and they have the same concern and beliefs about the world below. But their conception of heavenly things is quite different. The Egyptians worship a variety of animals and half-human, half-bestial forms, whereas the Jewish religion is a purely spiritual monotheism. They hold it to be impious to make idols of perishable materials in the likeness of man: for them, the Most High and Eternal cannot be portrayed by human hands and will never pass away. For this reason they erect no images in their cities, still less in their temples. Their kings are not so flattered, the Roman emperors not so honored. However, their priests used to perform their chants to the flute and drums, crowned with ivy, and a golden vine was discovered in the Temple; and this has led some to imagine that the god thus worshipped was Prince Liber,^note, the conqueror of the East. But the two cults are diametrically opposed. Liber founded a festive and happy cult: the Jewish belief is paradoxical and degraded.

This page was created in 2001; last modified on 23 September 2020.

Home Â» Sources Â» Content Â» Tacitus Â» Tacitus on the Jews

Tacitus on the Jews

Before he starts to describe the Roman siege of Jerusalem, Roman historian Tacitusoffers an account of Jewish history. It is a curious mix of fact, fiction, and slander. The translation of Histories 5.2-5 was made by Kenneth Wellesley.

[2] The Jews are said to have been refugees from the island of Crete who settled in the remotest corner of Libya in the days when, according to the story, Saturn was driven from his throne by the aggression of Jupiter.^note This is a deduction from the name Judaeiby which they became known: the word is to be regarded as a barbarous lengthening of Idaei, the name of the people dwelling around the famous Mount Ida in Crete. A few authorities hold that in the reign of Isis the surplus population of Egypt was evacuated to neighboring lands under the leadership of Hierosolymus and Judas.^note Many assure us that the Jews are descended from those Ethiopians who were driven by fear and hatred to emigrate from their home country when Cepheus was king.^note There are some who say that a motley collection of landless Assyrians^note occupied a part of Egypt, and then built cities of their own, inhabiting the lands of the Hebrews and the nearer parts of Syria. Others again find a famous ancestry for the Jews in the Solymi who are mentioned with respect in the epics of Homer:^note this tribe is supposed have founded Jerusalem and named it after themselves.

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ChatGPT 4:

Eric Kim’s photography portfolio showcases a diverse range of street photography projects. Some of the notable projects include:

1. The City of Angels (Downtown LA, 2011-2016): This collection captures various facets of life in Downtown Los Angeles.
2. Dark Skies Over Tokyo (Tokyo, 2011-2012): A series focused on the urban landscape and life in Tokyo.
3. Suits (Global, 2013-current): This project includes images of individuals in business suits from various global locations, highlighting the universal nature of this attire.
4. Cindy Project (2015-2016): A personal project featuring a variety of images, presumably with a focus on a subject named Cindy.
5. Beauty in the Mundane (Global, 2009-2011): A collection that finds beauty in everyday scenes and objects.
6. Street Portraits (America, 2015-ongoing): Portraits of individuals encountered on the streets across America.

Each of these projects reflects Eric Kim’s distinctive style in street photography, capturing candid moments and the human condition in urban settings. His work is notable for its exploration of everyday life, emotions, and experiences found in city streets.

For a more comprehensive view of his work, you can explore his portfolio on his website: Eric Kim Photography Portfolio, Street Photography Gallery Portfolio.

CYBERTRUKK!

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LEICA LUST

PICS

Not New York, god forbid Brooklyn — DEFINITELY NOT the Bay Area, SF, East Bay, Oakland, or “Man Jose”.

Come to LA for all the pretty girls!

1. Get rid of these ugly buttons — the top right button (kills the design purity)
2. For the ISO knob in the top left corner, get rid of “M”— nobody knows what that is.
3. Get rid of the fake “thumbs up” grip — so ugly, and that dial jog.
4. Make the back buttons more beautiful. The BAUHAUS-styled brutalist small circle dots on the Leica M9 were actually super cool. The new PLAY, FN, MENU buttons look like something from a Canon 5D

Very rare you will ever see anyone anymore you consider “hot”— whether guy or girl.

Eric Kim’s recent insights on productivity, particularly from 2023, reflect a mix of unique lifestyle choices and philosophies:

1. Focus on Health: Kim emphasizes that maximizing health is essential for maximizing productivity. He suggests incorporating workouts, including yoga and gym sessions, into daily routines as a strategy to enhance both health and productivity oai_citation:1,Health and productivity – ERIC KIM.
2. Creative Productivity in Photography: In his photography work, Kim seems to focus on joy and the art of composition, suggesting that finding pleasure in one’s work is a key to being productive oai_citation:2,Photography Productivity Tips – ERIC KIM.
3. Productivity Philosophy: Kim shares thoughts that go beyond conventional productivity tips, reflecting on historical figures and personal life goals. He discusses the importance of striving for “insanely epic and audacious life goals” and suggests that true productivity is about investing time and energy in things that last and are meaningful oai_citation:3,Productivity Thoughts – ERIC KIM.
4. Practical Productivity Tips: He advocates for producing more and thinking less as a way to get to the root of understanding any skill or subject better. This includes tips like publishing content before feeling it’s fully ready, to foster a habit of continuous creation and improvement oai_citation:4,Productivity Thoughts – ERIC KIM.
5. Diet and Productivity: Interestingly, Kim has also explored the idea that consuming more meat can lead to increased power and productivity, though this perspective is presented more as a provocative thought than a strict guideline oai_citation:5,MEAT, POWER, & PRODUCTIVITY – ERIC KIM.
6. Financial Perspective on Productivity: Kim touches on the concept of using money as a tool to enhance productivity, though specific details on this approach aren’t provided in the sources oai_citation:6,Productivity. – ERIC KIM.

These insights offer a blend of practical advice and philosophical reflection, indicating that Kim’s approach to productivity is both holistic and unconventional.

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Full vertical integration.

For example pure genius:

Watching a SpaceX flight video (1 hour long) on X.com video player!

”I need space”?

SpaceX.com

Turn your body into the LAMBO.

The concept of a “Zen Lamborghini,” as explored by Eric Kim, presents an intriguing juxtaposition of two seemingly opposite worlds. On one hand, the Zen philosophy emphasizes simplicity, mindfulness, and inner peace. On the other, a Lamborghini symbolizes speed, power, and worldly success. This paradoxical blend could symbolize the balance between material and spiritual pursuits or the drive for innovation coupled with a need for inner harmony. From a photographer’s viewpoint, capturing a Lamborghini in a Zen-like setting, such as a Japanese Zen garden, could highlight the contrast and evoke a sense of stillness in motion oai_citation:1,Zen Lamborghini – ERIC KIM.

Furthermore, Kim also delves into the idea of transforming one’s body and character into what he calls the “Lamborghini attitude.” This concept revolves around embracing the power, style, and aggressiveness associated with a Lamborghini, but applying it to personal development and character building. The philosophy suggests that instead of desiring external symbols of power like a sports car, one should focus on transforming their body and mind to embody those characteristics, such as becoming physically powerful, muscular, lean, and having an aggressive attitude. This represents a shift from external materialistic desires to internal growth and self-improvement oai_citation:2,Transform Your Body into a Lamborghini – ERIC KIM.

These perspectives offer a philosophical view on how objects of desire like a Lamborghini can be more than just symbols of wealth and success, but also metaphors for personal growth, balance between material and spiritual needs, and the quest for inner peace amidst worldly achievements.

Greater fates, greater futures.

Force finds a way. 

Nietzsche once said; the secret to the greatest amount of happiness is living the life with the maximum amount of danger! I think this was from twilight of the idols, or maybe from the will to power at the end of the book.

I think we live in an interesting time. I think currently the world has been hijacked by internet website advertising, mostly Google and Google Adsense to blame, as well as pernicious sneaky sponsored advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, Google Chrome etc. Same goes with YouTube.

Also something I have learned from things; I think we are actually much more visually sensitive, image sensitive, sound sensitive than we think we are. Also, the mind is subtle; even if I accidentally see some sort of weird thumbnail image, in fact, it puts me in a bad mood for the rest of the day etc.

I think the big problem here is that the news and information has become so hyper sensationalized. Why? Everyone is trying to maximize their income earning potential of the internet and media, assuming that whatever they are posting is on a website or blog or news agency leveraged by Google Adsense, the drive is to maximize eyeball viewing time, and click through rates, for the publisher to make money.

“How much do you pay a month in rent?”

Also, something that I have learned about solo entrepreneurs in the media space; everyone is trying to search and seek and strive for some sort of “legitimacy”, or, they’re just struggling to pay their rent.

For example, let us say that I am some sort of internet personality, some sort of fitness influencer, even photographer. Perhaps the only way I could pay my rent is through some sort of sponsorship or brand deal, in which I am being paid maybe only $500-$1000 a month, and barely maintaining even my expenses.

Also, even some inside intelligence on YouTube; the super facts is that even if my video gets 100 million views, assuming I had advertisements on it I might only make about $7000 to $8000 USD. That is actually not that much. You’re probably better off working as an Amazon prime delivery driver, or even Uber driver. And even the best creators, it is very rare that they make a video with so many views.

As a consequence, there is this low-key bias or optimization towards creating videos or things which strive to hit that benchmark. Once again it is things that have to deal with more with the sensational, audacious, the bizarre, even the morose?

Who to trust

Truth be told, in today’s world especially with internet blogs, ChatGPT 4, the funny thing I learned:

Even ChatGPT doesn’t know if ChatGPT wrote it or not!

For example, instead of just googling myself, I have just been ChatGPT’ing myself. For example I have the paid premium version of ChatGPT, which gives me access to the new newest version of ChatGPT which is version 4, which I rate at least 1000 times better than the free ChatGPT 3.5.

So for example I’ll do something like search “ERIC KIM FACTS“, and just see what ChatGPT tells me, and I will just copy and paste that into a new blog post on my own personal blog titled “ERIC KIM FACTS“, And within a week, ChatGPT indexes that and links back to that. It is almost like a snake eating its own tail, the ‘Ouroboros’.

As a consequence, let us just think and consider; how today’s media landscape is created within the internet. Let us say that I am some sort of news agency or publisher; I will hire writers, and a lot of these writers will use ChatGPT or other artificial intelligence editing and writing and text generation tools. It is impossible to ascertain how much of it was written by human or ChatGPT or whatever whatever; and even so… assuming that even if 100% of the information was hand typed by a human being, it almost doesn’t really matter because a lot of these writers tend to be dark morose and sick people.

Currently speaking I live in Culver City Los Angeles California, where Jeff Bezos Amazon, Amazon prime, Amazon prime studios just leasing a huge lot of land, the Culver studios, owned by the developer Michael Hackman, apparently even Jeff Bezos bought out the movie theater, the culver theater next-door. Also slowly but surely Apple is getting in bed with Sony entertainment, producing movies like the new Napoleon movie as well as the new killers of the flower moon with Leonardo DiCaprio.

During this whole period I saw a lot of people from the writer strike, and honestly… a lot of these people look very unwell. Most of them do not look very physically unfit, and you could just see; they don’t spend enough time outside, none of them look happy jubilant and gay, and just think simply;

If the physiology and health of somebody is poor, what kind of artwork or ideas do you think they will produce?

There is this weird bias that we think that somehow the mind is divorced from the body, but in fact, the mind is the body. That is if your body is sick, your mind is sick. However, if your body is strong robust and great, so will your ideas.

1. ON THE BRAIN, BODY AND MIND
2. Trust Your Body More Than Your Mind

Therefore, a simple fitness idea; first, maximize your physical fitness and your physiological wellness, then, your artwork will naturally follow. 

How we lose our backbone

I don’t think it’s a modern day trend or shift; my thought is honestly all generations all histories people in the past, seems like everyone has always lacked a spine or a backbone.

For example, even when Homer was writing the Iliad; Homer the writer was already critiquing people of his generation. Saying that the people of his generation were weak degenerate, no longer strong.

I wrote a nice little piece back in Vietnam titled ADAMANTINE SPINE (Adamantine Mind); imagine yourself like wolverine; the best way to imagine things is that you are actually like wolverine, your body is made out of adamantine metal, and what happens is every time that somebody tries to destroy you, you regenerate and you re-heal, it will be at a very painful process, but you still do it. The reason why I like this idea is that perhaps every time we regenerate and re-heal we actually become stronger than we were before.

Perhaps this is actually how weightlifting works, every time we lift weights, very very heavy close to our maximum, we actually micro destroy our bodies, and in the regeneration process, which takes time… and we eat meat, sleep, do other stuff, we actually become stronger than we were before.

Recall the scene in which Deadpool was cut to shreds, very much like Dionysis; he is sitting on the couch, a little stub of a body, talking with the blind lady. The process of regeneration seem to take him several days close to a week before he was 100%. Maybe the same thing with weightlifting:

Better to deadlift seven plates a single time, in a single week… than do some sort of hateful CrossFit exercising every single day. 

The reason why I really love Ryan Reynolds and the Deadpool character is there is a little bit of fun dark humor here; I think when people take things to literally, too seriously, life loses its bigger it’s fun its jubilance. 

However a bad example is when you turn the needle too much towards the comedic; for example there is this notion called “campy“, when things are almost too cheesy, and lame. For example all of the new Thor movies, as well as all the new Disney Marvel movies, they are insanely lame.

What are good examples?

All modern day media is bad. Only good ones I think are actually ancient Greek epics; the Iliad, after that the Odyssey. If you’re curious, I think that the Iliad is at least 100 or 200 times better more interesting and more fun than the odyssey. Whether or not both were written by Homer or not doesn’t really seem to matter; I think the overall storyline of the Iliad is much more exciting and intense whereas the odyssey is a bit boring.

The Odyssey just drags on and on… Odysseus is a good character but not as grand as Achilles. 

Greater risks, greater futures

It seems that a lot of modern day humans want some sort of weird free lunch; somehow… we want to live a better more greater more grand life that is more exciting and fun, yet we seem to not desire taking any personal risks.

For example let us think about video game culture. My simple heuristic is this; don’t play no video game in which you have actually not done the real thing yourself. For example, all these grown men playing video games in which they are shooting each other with guns, and they have actually never shot a real life gun seems little bit weird.

The same thing goes with American football; don’t watch American football as a spectator if you have never played American football. Otherwise you are a coward.

Easy to critique and criticize football players who fumble the ball, if you have never worn real life football equipment, a helmet, limited eyesight and mobility, and fight fatigue and fear.

Also with basketball, instead of drinking beer and watching basketball and eating onion rings for an hour or two in the evening, why not just go to the local basketball court, bring a basketball and play some pick up basketball instead?

Another fun thought; in the evening, instead of turning on Google incognito, private browsing, brave browser, brave browser in private browsing mode, turning on your VPN, hitting up pirate bay or whatever… why not just go to the local gym and talk to the pretty ladies instead? Or even get a CorePower membership and talk to the pretty ladies there?

A funny thought I often have for men —

A lot of these guys, after they’re done with work or whatever… And they go home, in privacy, and they turn on Google incognito… what do they really look at?

Elementary school kids, middle schoolers, highschoolers

Also I have a rule; video games should only be permitted for poor kids in the hood, we have nothing better else to do.

Also a cutoff time; no adult over the age of 18 years old should play video games anymore. I think it is fine for highschoolers and middle schoolers video games, but not grown men.

I ended up quit playing video games when I was around 18 or 19 years old, my freshman year of college. Why? I literally had no time! I had a part-time job, working around 20 hours a week as tech-support for the UCLA undergraduate admissions office, I was active in many clubs, having to study, and do other stuff.

I actually think that some weird ways, video games are like pornography for the mind-body and soul. The generalized thought is that in video games, everyone wants to be a hero, take risks, go on quests, obtain some booty whatever. Yet, embodied reality real life doesn’t seem to allow any outlets for this. Therefore, people escape into video games.

My simple intervention:

How can we inject desires of video game stuff into real life, real embodied reality?

Simple suggestions:

1. Walking 50 miles a day
2. Lifting insanely heavy weights, screaming loudly, slapping yourself in the face hypelifting etc. HYPELIFTING AS AN ETHOS TO LIFE!
3. Striving to make your body look like a demigod, instead of playing a video game in which your character looks like a demigod. 

How video games are bad.

The big issue with video games is that ultimately, you are a slave to the platform, the closed loop system, the video game producer and publisher etc.

For example, already… It seems that the video game Fortnite which was insanely grand is already being forgotten. Let us say you are a person who devoted 10,000 hours to playing the Fortnite game, but now no longer anybody plays it. All of your time has been wasted.

Even StarCraft, StarCraft professional players; nobody really plays it anymore, let us say that you’re a professional gamer sponsorships making money playing StarCraft tournaments, now you no longer have any sponsors. All of your time was for naught. 

More thoughts

A critical thing I believe for men, us men, is that we require some sort of physical risk, physical challenge, some sort of physical risk taking.

For example, in my mind the only type of weightlifting which is interesting includes some sort of “risk”; for example, when I would atlas lift seven plates, eight plates, nine plates, 10 plates, max out the bar, and then clip on an additional 25 pounder in between and on top of the 10 plates, the jaws of others would drop; and then a few people would actually have the chutzpah to tell me:

“… be careful.”

My thought;

People actually want to see me get hurt, or “fail”. When I succeeded, I have somehow dismantled their narrow worldview.

Is ERIC KIM on drugs? 

Another funny bias; when I was doing so much crazy turbo thoughtting while in Vietnam (I was off the grid, got rid of my phone, didn’t communicate for about two years, no email no communication no social media no nothing… People would ask…)

Is ERIC KIM okay?

Or,

Is ERIC KIM on drugs?

Or–

What happened to ERIC KIM?

Simple; when you are disconnected from the BS of traditional American media thinking… you think different. Also, not having a phone, I think this is the 10,000X secret cheat code to life. Assuming that you were a crypto trillionaire, and you no longer needed other people, “opportunities“, or you didn’t really desire to get paid money from other people or corporations… what real use do you have of email anyways?

When people say “opportunities”, I think it is a weird carrot and stick; part of it is chasing some sort of legitimacy, part of it is chasing some sort of financial opportunities, brand sponsorships etc.

Something I have personally discovered is this:

Brand sponsorships are a trap. 

Example, if you are sponsored by any sort of company or corporation or whatever… you are not really going to 100% say what is really on your mind. This is the same thing that goes with “brand ambassadors”– I find the whole thing a bit base; Why? He or she who focuses too much on getting some sort of “ambassadorship” is a signal that they are just chasing clout in some sort of mean way.

Once again, if you already have $200 million worth of cryptocurrency bitcoin or chainlink or whatever – why do you need to get some sort of brand “ambassadorship” from anybody? Why do you want free equipment gear or stuff? Why not just buy it yourself?

This is actually something I have discovered with a lot of guys in the photography space; they are already independently wealthy from some sort of other ventures, whether it be business etc. And then they go seek to try to become some sort of “ambassador“, for Leica camera whatever.

That is not forget that Leica camera, the modern day rendition is essentially the brainchild of Dr. Andreas Kaufman– who I discovered is not a “real“ doctor; he got his PhD in philosophy, which I think is a good idea but I think when people talk about him they assume that he has some sort of medical doctor or something.

Would actually find very bizarre about Andrea Kaufman is that there is almost little to no information about him on the internet. Who is he really?

Apparently his family made its fortune and I think the paper business. Therefore, maybe his like some sort of really rich kid, and Leica camera is essentially his passion project, his toy?

Let us not forget that essentially Leica camera went bankrupt, and I think what Dr. Andrea Kaufman did was purchased the naming rights of it, and then revived the brand. Similar thing that BMW did with Rolls-Royce; Rolls-Royce went bankrupt, switched hands a few times, and then I think the last 7 to 8 years, the new Rolls-Royce brand is essentially an expensive Lexus version of a BMW; even look at any BMW X7 compared with the Rolls-Royce Cullinan; the BMW X7 looks the same. Even the BMW 7 series, with the star light stitching in the headliner of the car– same thing as the Rolls-Royce. A Rolls-Royce ghost or phantom or whatever is just an expensive re-badged BMW 7 series.

Also some more super facts:

The Volkswagen group owns Porsche, Audi, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Ducati etc. A Lamborghini is just an expensive Audi, Audi is just an expensive Volkswagen,  and a Porsche 911 GT three GT3RS is just like a Volkswagen beetle turbo on steroids. 

Also, the dirty secret that Leica camera doesn’t want you to know is that the Leica Q camera is essentially a really expensive Panasonic Lumix camera; I think it uses the same sensor from Panasonic Lumix. Therefore if you just want good quality images, just get a Panasonic Lumix camera instead.

For example with the Leica Q camera, you could use Panasonic Lumix batteries in it! 

Even when Leica camera was first developing its digital Leica M rangefinder camera, the Leica M8, M9 etc.… I am pretty certain they did some sort of co-collaboration co-sponsorship deal with Panasonic Lumix to develop the digital sensors for it. Therefore that is why Leica has borrowed its namesake for some of the Panasonic Lumix lenses saying that it is a “Leica” lens, when it was actually produced in Japan.

Or let us think about the compact Panasonic LumixLX 100 cameras, Leica has a re-badged version of the “LEICA D-Lux” cameras. 

What is the point of taking risk?

My personal thought is that in life, risk makes life more fun! Life without risk is like a life without salt. Life has no vigor, no flavor, no interest.

So how can I incorporate real risktaking into my real life? 

Simple ideas:

1. Extreme speculation with 10% percent of your life savings: perhaps the best thing I have learned from NASSIM Taleb which has probably saved me millions of dollars is simple; never put more than 10% of your life savings into anyone speculative bet or “investment”, no matter what they say about “risk” and it being “safe”. The best strategy is simple: take 10% of your life savings, and put it into some extremely maximally speculative thing, which you believe has 1000X upside potential. For example, let us say that you have $100,000 of life savings, take only 10% of that, $10,000, and put it into a speculative cryptocurrency which you think could go up by at least 1000 times. This is far more effective than the boring, put 100% of your money into some sort of boring mutual fund, etc.
2. For weightlifting very simple; the only type of weightlifting which is actually worth it is any sort of weightlifting in which the chance of failure is high. That means, always striving to increase your one repetition maximum lift; only single repetitions here. No stupid sets no stupid repetitions; one repetition or nothing. This means just start off with a dynamic warm-up, and then slowly add weights, gradually, until you can no longer budge the barbell. Simple exercises include doing an elevated deadlift, put your barbell on top of cinderblocks or the power rack, and when you are doing a “rack pull“, you lift with your thighs your legs, and you max out. Or the ERIC KIM ATLAS LIFT — just Google or YouTube it.
3. Social risks: Better to be annoying, rub somebody the wrong way, and be insanely friendly rather than being the typical antisocial loser with headphones on, sunglasses on, facial hair, a hat or a beanie etc. Better to be a gay monster than a sentimental bore.

Now what?

Some assignments:

1. Smile and wave and say hi to everybody you meet for a whole day.
2. Take a photo of somebody without their permission, and if they make eye contact with you smile and wave. Street Photo 101
3. Open up a Coinbase cryptocurrency account, and invest 10% of your life savings in some sort of cryptocurrency or technology which interests you. For myself currently I put 90% of my crypto into chainlink and 10% as bitcoin. My personal thought is don’t dabble “alt coins“, and also one scamming cryptocurrency I think is Ada Cardono– Ethereum is interesting, but also, I don’t really trust it. Why? If Ethereum is creating its own private enterprise thing, not a good sign for a platform.
4. Opinion risktaking: Stop censoring yourself and stop speaking politically correct. Speak your true mind, 100% unfiltered, rub feathers the wrong way whatever. Better to be an asshole and happy, than to be politically correct and passive.

VIBE WITH EK

EK EXPERIENCES >

ERIC KIM PHOTO SUPPLY

The best camera equipment on the planet >

Open Source

Start here, books, downloads.

Now what?

The number one advice I have for any photographer entrepreneur etc. is simple: start your own blog. Self hosted with wordpress.org and a platform like Ionos.com or bluehost.com

Also, delete your Instagram. My creativity productivity happiness and innovation has increased by 1 million fold after deleting my Instagram in 2017 with about 60,000 followers.

Also, the best way to stay connected with your audience and fans is through a simple email newsletter, I use sendy.co — which is insanely cheap, hosted by Amazon simple email service. At least 1000X cheaper than mailchimp.com

No more WordPress.com?

Automaticc… WordPress.com … you guys done messed up. I think one of my random wordpress.com websites “violated some sort of content policy“, and as a consequence, the whole blog was wiped. 

I no longer recommend anybody to use wordpress.com. No way Jose.

The only legitimate path is a self hosted website which is censor proof and tamperproof. That is, the service provider cannot just switch a button and delete or turn off your website or thing.

For example I personally predict that sooner or later, Google is going to shut down my YouTube account. Therefore, it is best to just think and consider that sooner or later you’re going to violate some sort of content policy and they’re going to delete your platform.

What cannot be deleted? Your own hosted website, even building a website on Amazon web services seems like a good idea.

Think open source, PDF, JPEG, zip files, decentralized systems and mirrors 

I’ve been in the game long enough that sooner or later, stuff breaks. Hyperlinks no longer work, images no longer work or load, etc. Ever since I was 18 years old, now until the age of 35… I have seen information come and go, platforms rise and fall. Even within my short tenure I’ve seen companies come and go like xanga.com, liveJournal, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc.

It seems the only real way to deal with issue here is think about the Hydra approach; propagate, duplicate, create more hydra heads. That is if somebody tries to cut off one of your heads, two grow in place. 

The ERIC KIM HYDRA approach: 

1. erickimphilosophy.com
2. erickim.com
   3.erickimthoughts.wordpress.com
3. erickimfitness.com
4. erickimcrypto.com
5. EricKim.ai

Just think of yourself like the Pirate Bay; nobody could shut down pirate Bay because there are 1 trillion mirrors. The decentralized notion and idea of Pirate Bay and torrents and mirrors and magnets are fascinating to me; it is bad, it does seem like real freedom.

My very very simple suggestion for media corporations is… Don’t put too much care or concerns about pirating. It ain’t a really big deal. At worst, one percent of your fanbase is going to use it, pirating and torrenting is far too complicated for the average human being. Just ignore it.

Other experiments

1. Upload your favorite photos to arsbeta.com 
2. It looks like ChatGPT premium paid model is closed. Maybe it is time for me to start creating some sort of open source solution.
3. Create your own blog
4. Order some weightlifting equipment on titan.fitness or roguefitness.com
5. Get a gym membership, whether it be LA fitness, crunch fitness, golds gym, hot yoga membership. Corepower is fine. 
6. Take more insanely hot baths or showers at home, and alternate with extremely icy cold water. The undulation between both extremes of hot and cold is a good stimulus to our metabolism. What I have been doing during this winter months is starting off with a very very cold shower, and then filling up the bathtub with boiling hot water, and taking an insanely hot bath, and then, ending with a cold shower. If you don’t have access to a bathtub, just start off with an icy cold shower, make it insanely boiling hot, and then finish off cold.
7. It does seem that the best place to buy meat is Costco. Or the local Mexican meat market. Try to get some beef liver or kidney or Oregon meats or heart at the local Halal market, or Mexican market, if you go to Costco… Get the 100% grass fed ground beef, or the new Wagyu ground beef which I like. Also I really like the Lamb leg roast at Costco.

So how can I be happy? 

1. Move out of the bay area, San Francisco, the East Bay, the south Bay, San Jose whatever. Come to Culver City Los Angeles California, my new paradise. I specifically like the arts district. Also, get out of Brooklyn; Brooklyn is for losers. Either live on the main island, or get out. 
2. Perhaps the ideal strategy in life is to not buy a home, but instead… better to live in an insanely great apartment, in an insanely great location than to buy and own a home in a good location. It’s insane, the difference of 100,000, 200,000, 300,000, 400,000, 500,000, $600,000… Better to just buy a Tesla model S plaid instead. 
3. Delete email Gmail or whatever from your phone. If you got to do it for a living just do it on your desktop or laptop and also delete the YouTube app from your phone. Also delete Spotify podcasts or whatever. When you drive, drive silent, and let yourself think.
4. Publish your thoughts photos videos audio to your own blog.
5. Lift weights, do hot yoga, or go on a hike at least twice a day.

More thoughts — EK BLOG

Forward the fire!

Feeling a little bit of wings in your feet? Feel free to forward this to a friend!

ERIC KIM NEWS

Increase your danger, increase your happiness.



Eric Kim’s concept of “hypelifting” is an intriguing approach to weightlifting that focuses on psyching oneself up and attempting to lift very heavy weights, even those that might seem beyond one’s current capabilities. The core idea behind hypelifting is not about whether one succeeds in lifting the weight but rather about the courage and determination involved in the attempt. Kim emphasizes that in hypelifting, failure is not a concept, and the true measure of success lies in the attempt itself, regardless of the outcome.

Furthermore, Kim suggests that hypelifting can have benefits beyond physical strength, including increased productivity, happiness, better sleep, improved digestion, and boosted self-confidence. He notes that since adopting this approach, especially with lifting heavy weights like seven plates and beyond, his self-confidence has significantly increased, impacting various aspects of his life, including social interactions and his work in entrepreneurship and street photography.

This philosophy of hypelifting aligns with Kim’s broader approach to fitness and life, where pushing physical boundaries is seen as a way to strengthen not just the body but also the mind and overall confidence.

For more detailed insights into Eric Kim’s philosophy and practice of hypelifting, you can visit his blog here and here.

Eric Kim has continued to push his limits in weightlifting, with some of his most recent achievements in deadlifting and rack pulls being quite impressive. In 2023, he has demonstrated his strength with a variety of challenging lifts:

1. 7 Plate Deadlift: Eric Kim achieved a deadlift using seven plates. The exact weight of this lift isn’t specified, but considering the standard weight of a plate, this is a significant achievement in terms of strength and endurance.
2. Rack Pulls: Kim also engaged in several heavy rack pulls, including lifts of 695 pounds and 690 pounds. Rack pulls are a variation of the deadlift, focusing more on the upper portion of the lift and typically allowing for heavier weights to be lifted.
3. 850 Pound One Rep Max Rack Pull: One of his most notable recent achievements is an 850-pound one-rep max rack pull. This is a considerable weight and showcases his advanced level in strength training.
4. Off the Grid Rack Pull & Deadlift Walk: Additionally, Kim has been exploring different lifting styles and routines, like the “Off the Grid Rack Pull & Deadlift Walk,” which seem to be part of his innovative approach to fitness.

These achievements are in line with his fitness philosophy of pushing the boundaries of physical strength and treating the body as a sculpture. For more detailed information and insights into his training and philosophy, you can visit his YouTube channel and explore his blog at Eric Kim Photography.

Eric Kim has developed an innovative weightlifting technique he calls the “Atlas Lift.” This concept involves loading a barbell on a squat rack with the maximum weight possible and attempting to lift and hold it on the shoulders before putting it back down. This exercise is designed to build strength throughout the body, with a focus on legs and thighs, as well as shoulders, traps, back, and even the spine and feet.

Kim describes the Atlas Lift as a highly efficient movement for moving a large amount of weight, suggesting it’s particularly effective for lifting ten plates and beyond. This exercise is seen as a powerful way to build a “demigod body,” emphasizing the development of whole-body strength.

In one of his notable achievements, Eric Kim successfully completed a 1000-pound Atlas Lift, demonstrating the exceptional strength and conditioning gained from this exercise. The Atlas Lift, as Kim explains, is akin to carrying the weight of the world on one’s shoulders, much like the mythical figure Atlas. This lift, therefore, not only challenges physical strength but also embodies a philosophical and symbolic aspect, resonating with Kim’s broader approach to fitness and self-improvement.

For more detailed insights into the Atlas Lift and Kim’s fitness philosophy, you can explore his blog and YouTube channel, where he shares his thoughts and demonstrations of this unique lifting technique.

Eric Kim’s approach to weightlifting is quite unique and intense, reflecting his overall philosophy of treating the body as a work of art and a medium for personal expression. His regimen combines rigorous physical training with a strict dietary plan, focusing on building strength and muscle mass. Here are some key aspects of his weightlifting routine:

1. Intermittent Fasting: Kim follows an intermittent fasting routine where he skips breakfast and lunch, opting for a single large carnivore dinner. This has been a consistent part of his regimen for over seven years.
2. Carnivore Diet: His diet is entirely carnivorous, focusing on meats like beef, beef liver, heart, small intestines, and ribs. He avoids sugar, alcohol, weed, and supplements, which aligns with his philosophy of purity and natural strength building.
3. One-Rep Max Lifting: In terms of lifting technique, Kim prefers pulling exercises and opts for a mixed grip for heavier lifts. He focuses on one-rep max style lifting, which involves lifting the maximum weight for a single repetition. This technique is aimed at building maximum strength.
4. Avoiding Straps, Using Chalk: He uses only chalk for grip during his lifts, avoiding straps. This suggests a focus on natural grip strength and a more ‘raw’ form of strength training.
5. Heavy Weights Without Prior Eating: Kim’s approach to lifting heavy weights at the gym without having eaten beforehand is particularly noteworthy. It’s a testament to his physical conditioning and the effectiveness of his fasting regimen.
6. Significant Strength Feats: One of his remarkable achievements includes a 7 plate rack pull, equating to a one-rep max of 675 pounds, showcasing his exceptional strength and dedication to his craft.
7. Overall Philosophy: Kim’s philosophy on fitness and weightlifting extends to treating the body as a sculpture, advocating for a diverse range of exercises, and making workouts social and dynamic.

For more detailed insights into Eric Kim’s weightlifting philosophy and routines, you can explore his thoughts and methods on his blog and YouTube channel. His unique approach to fitness is a testament to his commitment to pushing the boundaries of physical strength and endurance, while also reflecting his broader artistic and philosophical interests.

The Ouroboros, a powerful symbol in mythology and philosophy, represents the concept of eternity, cyclicality, and the perpetual renewal of life. It’s often depicted as a serpent or dragon eating its own tail, forming a circle. This ancient symbol has been interpreted in various ways across cultures.

In alchemy, the Ouroboros signifies the unending cycle of nature’s endless creation and destruction, life and death. It also represents the idea of primordial unity, reminding us that everything is interconnected and that life moves in cycles and seasons.

Philosophically, the Ouroboros can be seen as a metaphor for the eternal return, a concept found in various philosophies, notably in Nietzsche’s writings. It suggests that the universe and all existence is eternally recurring, and every life and event will happen again.

In a more modern context, the Ouroboros can symbolize the continuous cycle of innovation and entrepreneurship. It reminds us that ideas and inventions often stem from revisiting and reinterpreting past concepts, leading to new beginnings. In this way, it resonates with your interest in philosophy, thinking, innovation, and entrepreneurship, as it encapsulates the idea of learning from the past to innovate for the future.

The Ouroboros also aligns with the concept of sustainable development in entrepreneurship, reflecting the balance between creation and consumption, and the importance of circular processes in both nature and business.

Eric Kim is a renowned street photographer known for his candid and human-centric approach to photography. He’s not only respected for his artistic work but also for his contributions to the field through teaching and writing. Here are some interesting facts about him:

1. Philosophy-Driven Photography: Eric Kim’s work often reflects a deep philosophical underpinning. He explores themes like mortality, happiness, and what it means to live a meaningful life through his photography.
2. Open Source Approach: Unique in the photography world, Kim believes in the open-source sharing of information. He has made many of his photography lessons, ebooks, and resources available for free online, embodying a spirit of accessibility and community in the often competitive field of photography.
3. Global Workshops: He conducts workshops worldwide, emphasizing the art of street photography and personal storytelling. These workshops are known for being immersive and deeply engaging, often inspiring participants to explore not just photography but their personal narratives and perspectives.
4. Blogging and Writing: Aside from his photography, Kim is an avid blogger. His writings cover a range of topics from practical photography tips to deeper musings on life and art, making his blog a treasure trove for photography enthusiasts and thinkers alike.
5. Innovative Entrepreneur: Eric Kim has also ventured into entrepreneurial projects related to photography. He has designed and sold products like camera straps and bags, showcasing his ability to merge his artistic passion with business acumen.
6. Community Engagement: Kim is active in building and nurturing a community of photographers. He often engages with his followers and peers through social media, blogs, and interactive platforms, encouraging discussions about photography, art, and life.
7. Inspirational Speaker: He is known for his motivational approach to teaching photography, often encouraging students to confront their fears, embrace vulnerability, and find their unique voice in their work.
8. Diverse Artistic Influences: Kim’s work is influenced by a wide array of photographers and artists, both within and outside the realm of photography. This eclectic mix of influences is evident in the diverse styles and subjects of his photography.

His approach to photography and teaching aligns well with themes of philosophy, innovation, and entrepreneurship, reflecting a deep engagement with not just the technical aspects of photography, but its broader existential and creative implications.

THE BIGGER THE BALLS, THE BETTER-

NUMBERED LIST:

Sure, here’s a numbered list of Eric Kim’s suggestions for naturally increasing testosterone levels, based on the information gathered from his blog:

1. Avoid Certain Online Activities: Steering clear of pornography and certain websites.
2. Heavy Weight Lifting: Focusing particularly on one-rep max exercises.
3. Sun Exposure: Spending around 8 hours a day in the sun.
4. Walking: Walking about 50 miles a day.
5. Diet: Following a diet focused on beef and lamb, and including more organ meats.
6. Sleep: Getting adequate sleep, around 8 to 12 hours a night.
7. Social Interactions: Engaging in conversations with people.
8. Avoid Substances: Abstaining from alcohol, weed, and drugs.
9. Consume Cholesterol: Eating foods high in cholesterol like beef liver, ribs, neckbones, brisket, etc.
10. Abstain from Starches and Sweeteners: Avoiding foods high in starch and sugar.

For more detailed information and context, you can refer to Eric Kim’s blog posts and podcasts where these suggestions are discussed in depth【9†source】【10†source】【11†source】.

Eric Kim has discussed testosterone extensively on his blog and through his podcasts. He explores various aspects and perspectives about testosterone, including its benefits and common misconceptions. Kim argues that having more testosterone can make a person more tolerant, open-minded, and socially just, countering the belief that it leads to aggression. He also suggests a link between testosterone levels and reduced feelings of depression and anxiety.

In terms of increasing testosterone levels naturally, Kim provides several recommendations. He advises avoiding certain online activities and substances, engaging in heavy weight lifting, spending time in the sun, walking significant distances daily, and following a diet focused on beef and lamb. Additionally, he suggests that lifting heavy weights at the gym, particularly using the legs, spending more time in natural light, engaging in social interactions, and ensuring adequate sleep are beneficial for boosting testosterone. He also recommends consuming organ meats and avoiding alcohol, weed, and drugs for the same purpose

Testosterone itself, being a hormone, does not have a smell. However, its effects on the body can influence body odors. Testosterone can increase the production of sweat and sebum, and it also affects the bacterial flora on the skin, which can lead to changes in body odor. This is why individuals, particularly males who generally have higher levels of testosterone, may notice a change in their body odor during puberty or other times when hormone levels fluctuate.

The perception of smell associated with testosterone is more about the body’s responses to the hormone, rather than the hormone itself emitting an odor. The complex interplay of hormones, bacteria, and personal hygiene contributes to the unique scent of an individual.

Unnatural legs?

The only good drug is coffee?

Also, everybody is the same.

Greater fates, greater futures.

Force finds a way. 

Nietzsche once said; the secret to the greatest amount of happiness is living the life with the maximum amount of danger! I think this was from twilight of the idols, or maybe from the will to power at the end of the book.

I think we live in an interesting time. I think currently the world has been hijacked by internet website advertising, mostly Google and Google Adsense to blame, as well as pernicious sneaky sponsored advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, Google Chrome etc. Same goes with YouTube.

Also something I have learned from things; I think we are actually much more visually sensitive, image sensitive, sound sensitive then we think we are. Also, the mind is subtle; even if I accidentally see some sort of weird thumbnail image, in fact, it puts me in a bad mood for the rest of the day etc.

I think the big problem here is that the news and information has become so hyper sensationalized. Why? Everyone is trying to maximize their income earning potential of the internet and media, assuming that whatever they are posting is on a website or blog or news agency leveraged by Google Adsense, the drive is to maximize eyeball viewing time, and click through rates, for the publisher to make money.

“How much do you pay a month in rent?”

Also, something that I have learned about solo entrepreneurs in the media space; everyone is trying to search and seek and strive for some sort of “legitimacy”, or, they’re just struggling to pay their rent.

For example, let us say that I am some sort of internet personality, some sort of fitness influencer, even photographer. Perhaps the only way I could pay my rent is through some sort of sponsorship or brand deal, in which I am being paid maybe only $500-$1000 a month, and barely maintaining even my expenses.

Also, even some inside intelligence on YouTube; the super facts is that even if my video gets 100 million views, assuming I had advertisements on it I might only make about $7000 to $8000 USD. That is actually not that much. You’re probably better off working as an Amazon prime delivery driver, or even Uber driver. And even the best creators, it is very rare that they make a video with so many views.

As a consequence, there is this low-key bias or optimization towards creating videos or things which strive to hit that benchmark. Once again it is things that have to deal with more with the sensational, audacious, the bizarre, even the morose?

Who to trust

Truth be told, in today’s world especially with internet blogs, ChatGPT 4, the funny thing I learned:

Even ChatGPT doesn’t know if ChatGPT wrote it or not!

For example, instead of just googling myself, I have just been ChatGPT’ing myself. For example I have the paid premium version of ChatGPT, which gives me access to the new newest version of ChatGPT which is version 4, which I rate at least 1000 times better than the free ChatGPT 3.5.

So for example I’ll do something like search “ERIC KIM FACTS“, and just see what ChatGPT tells me, and I will just copy and paste that into a new blog post on my own personal blog titled “ERIC KIM FACTS“, And within a week, ChatGPT indexes that and links back to that. It is almost like a snake eating its own tail, the ourubus.

As a consequence, let us just think and consider; how today’s media landscape is created within the internet. Let us say that I am some sort of newsagency or publishers; I will hire writers, and a lot of these writers will use ChatGPT or other artificial intelligence editing and writing and text generation tools. It is impossible to ascertain how much of it was written by human or ChatGPT or whatever whatever; and even so… assuming that even if 100% of the information was hand typed by a human being, it almost doesn’t really matter because a lot of these writers tend to be dark morose and sick people.

Currently speaking I live in Culver City Los Angeles California, where Jeff Bezos Amazon, Amazon prime, Amazon prime studios just leasing a huge lot of land, the Culver studios, owned by the developer Michael Hackman, apparently even Jeff Bezos bought out the movie theater, the culver theater next-door. Also slowly but surely Apple is getting in bed with Sony entertainment, producing movies like the new Napoleon movie as well as the new killers of the flower moon with Leonardo DiCaprio.

During this whole period I saw a lot of people from the writer strike, and honestly… a lot of these people look very unwell. Most of them do not look very physically unfit, and you could just see; they don’t spend enough time outside, none of them look happy jubilant and gay, and just think simply; if the physiology and health of somebody is poor, what kind of artwork or ideas do you think they will produce?

There is this weird bias that we think that somehow the mind is divorced from the body, but in fact, the mind is the body. That is if your body is sick, your mind is sick. However, if your body is strong robust and great, so will your ideas.

Therefore, a simple fitness idea; first, maximize your physical fitness and your physiological wellness, then, your artwork will naturally follow. 

How we lose our backbone

I don’t think it’s a modern day trend or shift; my thought is honestly all generations all histories people in the past, seems like everyone has always lacked a spine or a backbone.

For example, even when Homer was writing the Iliad; Homer the writer was already critiquing people of his generation. Saying that the people of his generation were weak degenerate, no longer strong.

I wrote a nice little piece back in Vietnam titled ADAMANTINE SPINE (Adamantine Mind); imagine yourself like wolverine; the best way to imagine things is that you are actually like wolverine, your body is made out of adamantine metal, and what happens is every time that somebody tries to destroy you, you regenerate and you re-heal, it will be at a very painful process, but you still do it. The reason why I like this idea is that perhaps every time we regenerate and re-heal we actually become stronger than we were before.

Perhaps this is actually how weightlifting works, every time we lift weights, very very heavy close to our maximum, we actually micro destroy our bodies, and in the regeneration process, which takes time… and we eat meat, sleep, do other stuff, we actually become stronger than we were before.

Recall the scene in which Deadpool was cut to shreds, very much like Dionysis; he is sitting on the couch, a little stub of a body, talking with the blind lady. The process of regeneration seem to take him several days close to a week before he was 100%. Maybe the same thing with weightlifting:

Better to deadlift seven plates a single time, in a single week… than do some sort of hateful CrossFit exercising every single day. 

The reason why I really love Ryan Reynolds and the Deadpool character is there is a little bit of fun dark humor here; I think when people take things to literally, too seriously, life loses its bigger it’s fun it’s jubilance. 

However a bad example is when you turn the needle too much towards the comedic; for example there is this notion called “campy“, when things are almost too cheesy, and lame. For example all of the new Thor movies, as well as all the new Disney Marvel movies, they are insanely lame.

What are good examples?

All modern day media is bad. Only good ones I think are actually ancient Greek epics; the Iliad, after that the Odyssey. If you’re curious, I think that the Iliad is at least 100 or 200 times better more interesting and more fun than the odyssey. Whether or not both were written by Homer or not doesn’t really seem to matter; I think the overall storyline of the Iliad is much more exciting and intense whereas the odyssey is a bit boring.

The Odyssey just drags on and on… Odysseus is a good character but not as grand as Achilles. 

Greater risks, greater futures

It seems that a lot of modern day humans want some sort of weird free lunch; somehow… we want to live a better more greater more grand life that is more exciting and fun, yet we seem to not desire taking any personal risks.

For example let us think about video game culture. My simple heuristic is this; don’t play no video game in which you have actually not done the real thing yourself. For example, all these grown men playing video games in which they are shooting each other with guns, and they have actually never shot a real life gun seems little bit weird.

The same thing goes with American football; don’t watch American football as a spectator if you have never played American football. Otherwise you are a coward.

Easy to critique and criticize football players who fumble the ball, if you have never worn real life football equipment, a helmet, limited eyesight and mobility, and fight fatigue and fear.

Also with basketball, instead of drinking beer and watching basketball and eating onion rings for an hour or two in the evening, why not just go to the local basketball court, bring a basketball and play some pick up basketball instead?

Another fun thought; in the evening, instead of turning on Google incognito, private browsing, brave browser, brave browser in private browsing mode, turning on your VPN, hitting up pirate bay or whatever… why not just go to the local gym and talk to the pretty ladies instead? Or even get a CorePower membership and talk to the pretty ladies there?

A funny thought I often have for men —

A lot of these guys, after they’re done with work or whatever… And they go home, in privacy, and they turn on Google incognito… what do they really look at?

Elementary school kids, middle schoolers, highschoolers

Also I have a rule; video games should only be permitted for poor kids in the hood, we have nothing better else to do.

Also a cutoff time; no adult over the age of 18 years old should play video games anymore. I think it is fine for highschoolers and middle schoolers video games, but not grown men.

I ended up quit playing video games when I was around 18 or 19 years old, my freshman year of college. Why? I literally had no time! I had a part-time job, working around 20 hours a week as tech-support for the UCLA undergraduate admissions office, I was active in many clubs, having to study, and do other stuff.

I actually think that some weird ways, video games are like pornography for the mind-body and soul. The generalized thought is that in video games, everyone wants to be a hero, take risks, go on quests, obtain some booty whatever. Yet, embodied reality real life doesn’t seem to allow any outlets for this. Therefore, people escape into video games.

My simple intervention:

How can we inject desires of video game stuff into real life, real embodied reality?

Simple suggestions:

1. Walking 50 miles a day
2. Lifting insanely heavy weights, screaming loudly, slapping yourself in the face hypelifting etc. 
3. Striving to make your body look like a demigod, instead of playing a video game in which your character looks like a demigod. 

How video games are bad.

The big issue with video games is that ultimately, you are a slave to the platform, the closed loop system, the video game producer and publisher etc.

For example, already… It seems that the video game Fortnite which was insanely grand is already being forgotten. Let us say you are a person who devoted 10,000 hours to playing the Fortnite game, but now no longer anybody plays it. All of your time has been wasted.

Even StarCraft, StarCraft professional players; nobody really plays it anymore, let us say that you’re a professional gamer sponsorships making money playing StarCraft tournaments, now you no longer have any sponsors. All of your time was for naught. 

More thoughts

A critical thing I believe for men, us men, is that we require some sort of physical risk, physical challenge, some sort of physical risk taking.

For example, in my mind the only type of weightlifting which is interesting includes some sort of “risk”; for example, when I would atlas lift seven plates, eight plates, nine plates, 10 plates, max out the bar, and then clip on an additional 25 pounder in between and on top of the 10 plates, the jaws of others would drop; and then a few people would actually have the chutzpah to tell me:

“… be careful.”

My thought;

People actually want to see me get hurt, or “fail”. When I succeeded, I have somehow dismantled their narrow worldview.

Is ERIC KIM on drugs? 

Another funny bias; when I was doing so much crazy turbo thoughtting while in Vietnam (I was off the grid, got rid of my phone, didn’t communicate for about two years, no email no communication no social media no nothing… People would ask…)

Is ERIC KIM okay?

Or,

Is ERIC KIM on drugs?

Or–

What happened to ERIC KIM?

Simple; when you are disconnected from the BS of traditional American media thinking… you think different. Also, not having a phone, I think this is the 10,000X secret cheat code to life. Assuming that you were a crypto trillionaire, and you no longer needed other people, “opportunities“, or you didn’t really desire to get paid money from other people or corporations… what real use do you have of email anyways?

When people say “opportunities”, I think it is a weird carrot and stick; part of it is chasing some sort of legitimacy, part of it is chasing some sort of financial opportunities, brand sponsorships etc.

Something I have personally discovered is this:

Brand sponsorships are a trap. 

Example, if you are sponsored by any sort of company or corporation or whatever… you are not really going to 100% say what is really on your mind. This is the same thing that goes with “brand ambassadors”– I find the whole thing a bit base; Why? He or she who focuses too much on getting some sort of “ambassadorship” is a signal that they are just chasing clout in some sort of mean way.

Once again, if you already have $200 million worth of cryptocurrency bitcoin or chainlink or whatever – why do you need to get some sort of brand “ambassadorship” from anybody? Why do you want free equipment gear or stuff? Why not just buy it yourself?

This is actually something I have discovered with a lot of guys in the photography space; they are already independently wealthy from some sort of other ventures, whether it be business etc. And then they go seek to try to become some sort of “ambassador“, for Leica camera whatever.

That is not forget that Leica camera, the modern day rendition is essentially the brainchild of Dr. Andreas Kaufman– who I discovered is not a “real“ doctor; he got his PhD in philosophy, which I think is a good idea but I think when people talk about him they assume that he has some sort of medical doctor or something.

Would actually find very bizarre about Andrea Kaufman is that there is almost little to no information about him on the internet. Who is he really?

Apparently his family made its fortune and I think the paper business. Therefore, maybe his like some sort of really rich kid, and Leica camera is essentially his passion project, his toy?

Let us not forget that essentially Leica camera went bankrupt, and I think what Dr. Andrea Kaufman did was purchased the naming rights of it, and then revived the brand. Similar thing that BMW did with Rolls-Royce; Rolls-Royce went bankrupt, switched hands a few times, and then I think the last 7 to 8 years, the new Rolls-Royce brand is essentially an expensive Lexus version of a BMW; even look at any BMW X7 compared with the Rolls-Royce Cullinan; the BMW X7 looks the same. Even the BMW 7 series, with the star light stitching in the headliner of the car– same thing as the Rolls-Royce. A Rolls-Royce ghost or phantom or whatever is just an expensive re-badged BMW 7 series.

Also some more super facts:

The Volkswagen group owns Porsche, Audi, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Ducati etc. A Lamborghini is just an expensive Audi, Audi is just an expensive Volkswagen,  and a Porsche 911 GT three GT3RS is just like a Volkswagen beetle turbo on steroids. 

Also, the dirty secret that Leica camera doesn’t want you to know is that the Leica Q camera is essentially a really expensive Panasonic Lumix camera; I think it uses the same sensor from Panasonic Lumix. Therefore if you just want good quality images, just get a Panasonic Lumix camera instead.

For example with the Leica Q camera, you could use Panasonic Lumix batteries in it! 

Even when like a camera was first developing its digital like a M rangefinder camera, the like M8, M9 etc.… I am pretty certain they did some sort of co-collaboration co-sponsorship deal with Panasonic Lam to develop the digital sensors for it. Therefore that is why Lea has borrowed its namesake for some of the Panasonic Lumix lenses saying that it is a quote like a” lens, when it was actually produced in Japan.

Or let us think about the compact Panasonic LumixLX 100 cameras, Leica has a re-badged version of the “LEICA D-Lux” cameras. 

What is the point of taking risk?

My personal thought is that in life, risk makes life more fun! Life without risk is like a life without salt. Life has no vigor, no flavor, no interest.

So how can I incorporate real risktaking into my real life? 

Simple ideas:

1. Extreme speculation with 10% percent of your life savings: perhaps the best thing I have learned from NASSIM Taleb which has probably saved me millions of dollars is simple; never put more than 10% of your life savings into anyone speculative bet or “investment”, no matter what they say about “risk” and it being “safe”. The best strategy is simple: take 10% of your life savings, and put it into some extremely maximally speculative thing, which you believe has 1000X upside potential. For example, let us say that you have $100,000 of life savings, take only 10% of that, $10,000, and put it into a speculative cryptocurrency which you think could go up by at least 1000 times. This is far more effective than the boring, put 100% of your money into some sort of boring mutual fund, etc.
2. For weightlifting very simple; the only type of weightlifting which is actually worth it is any sort of weightlifting in which the chance of failure is high. That means, always striving to increase your one repetition maximum lift; only single repetitions here. No stupid sets no stupid repetitions; one repetition or nothing. This means just start off with a dynamic warm-up, and then slowly add weights, gradually, until you can no longer budge the barbell. Simple exercises include doing an elevated deadlift, put your barbell on top of cinderblocks or the power rack, and when you are doing a “rack pull“, you lift with your thighs your legs, and you max out. Or the ERIC KIM ATLAS LIFT — just Google or YouTube it.
3. Social risks: Better to be annoying, rub somebody the wrong way, and be insanely friendly rather than being the typical antisocial loser with headphones on, sunglasses on, facial hair, a hat or a beanie etc. Better to be a gay monster than a sentimental bore.

Now what?

Some assignments:

1. Smile and wave and say hi to everybody you meet for a whole day.
2. Take a photo of somebody without their permission, and if they make eye contact with you smile and wave.
3. Open up a Coinbase cryptocurrency account, and invest 10% of your life savings in some sort of cryptocurrency or technology which interests you. For myself currently I put 90% of my crypto into chainlink and 10% as bitcoin. My personal thought is don’t dabble “alt coins“, and also one scamming cryptocurrency I think is Ada Cardono– Ethereum is interesting, but also, I don’t really trust it. Why? If Ethereum is creating its own private enterprise thing, not a good sign for a platform.
4. Opinion risktaking: Stop censoring yourself and stop speaking politically correct. Speak your true mind, 100% unfiltered, rub feathers the wrong way whatever. Better to be an asshole and happy, than to be politically correct and passive.

VIBE WITH EK

EK EXPERIENCES >

ERIC KIM PHOTO SUPPLY

The best camera equipment on the planet >

Open Source

Start here, books, downloads.

Now what?

The number one advice I have for any photographer entrepreneur etc. is simple: start your own blog. Self hosted with wordpress.org and a platform like Ionos.com or bluehost.com

Also, delete your Instagram. My creativity productivity happiness and innovation has increased by 1 million fold after deleting my Instagram in 2017 with about 60,000 followers.

Also, the best way to stay connected with your audience and fans is through a simple email newsletter, I use sendy.co — which is insanely cheap, hosted by Amazon simple email service. At least 1000X cheaper than mailchimp.com

No more WordPress.com?

Automaticc… WordPress.com … you guys done messed up. I think one of my random wordpress.com websites “violated some sort of content policy“, and as a consequence, the whole blog was wiped. 

I no longer recommend anybody to use wordpress.com. No way Jose.

The only legitimate path is a self hosted website which is censor proof and tamperproof. That is, the service provider cannot just switch a button and delete or turn off your website or thing.

For example I personally predict that sooner or later, Google is going to shut down my YouTube account. Therefore, it is best to just think and consider that sooner or later you’re going to violate some sort of content policy and they’re going to delete your platform.

What cannot be deleted? Your own hosted website, even building a website on Amazon web services seems like a good idea.

Think open source, PDF, JPEG, zip files, decentralized systems and mirrors 

I’ve been in the game long enough that sooner or later, stuff breaks. Hyperlinks no longer work, images no longer work or load, etc. Ever since I was 18 years old, now until the age of 35… I have seen information come and go, platforms rise and fall. Even within my short tenure I’ve seen companies come and go like xanga.com, liveJournal, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc.

It seems the only real way to deal with issue here is think about the Hydra approach; propagate, duplicate, create more hydra heads. That is if somebody tries to cut off one of your heads, two grow in place. 

The ERIC KIM HYDRA approach: 

1. erickimphilosophy.com
2. erickim.com
   3.erickimthoughts.wordpress.com
3. erickimfitness.com
4. erickimcrypto.com
5. EricKim.ai

Just think of yourself like the Pirate Bay; nobody could shut down pirate Bay because there are 1 trillion mirrors. The decentralized notion and idea of Pirate Bay and torrents and mirrors and magnets are fascinating to me; it is bad, it does seem like real freedom.

My very very simple suggestion for media corporations is… Don’t put too much care or concerns about pirating. It ain’t a really big deal. At worst, one percent of your fanbase is going to use it, pirating and torrenting is far too complicated for the average human being. Just ignore it.

Other experiments

1. Upload your favorite photos to arsbeta.com 
2. It looks like ChatGPT premium paid model is closed. Maybe it is time for me to start creating some sort of open source solution.
3. Create your own blog
4. Order some weightlifting equipment on titan.fitness or roguefitness.com
5. Get a gym membership, whether it be LA fitness, crunch fitness, golds gym, hot yoga membership. Corepower is fine. 
6. Take more insanely hot baths or showers at home, and alternate with extremely icy cold water. The undulation between both extremes of hot and cold is a good stimulus to our metabolism. What I have been doing during this winter months is starting off with a very very cold shower, and then filling up the bathtub with boiling hot water, and taking an insanely hot bath, and then, ending with a cold shower. If you don’t have access to a bathtub, just start off with an icy cold shower, make it insanely boiling hot, and then finish off cold.
7. It does seem that the best place to buy meat is Costco. Or the local Mexican meat market. Try to get some beef liver or kidney or Oregon meats or heart at the local Halal market, or Mexican market, if you go to Costco… Get the 100% grass fed ground beef, or the new Wagyu ground beef which I like. Also I really like the Lamb leg roast at Costco.

So how can I be happy? 

1. Move out of the bay area, San Francisco, the East Bay, the south Bay, San Jose whatever. Come to Culver City Los Angeles California, my new paradise. I specifically like the arts district. Also, get out of Brooklyn; Brooklyn is for losers. Either live on the main island, or get out. 
2. Perhaps the ideal strategy in life is to not buy a home, but instead… better to live in an insanely great apartment, in an insanely great location than to buy and own a home in a good location. It’s insane, the difference of 100,000, 200,000, 300,000, 400,000, 500,000, $600,000… Better to just buy a Tesla model S plaid instead. 
3. Delete email Gmail or whatever from your phone. If you got to do it for a living just do it on your desktop or laptop and also delete the YouTube app from your phone. Also delete Spotify podcasts or whatever. When you drive, drive silent, and let yourself think.
4. Publish your thoughts photos videos audio to your own blog.
5. Lift weights, do hot yoga, or go on a hike at least twice a day.

More thoughts — EK BLOG

Forward the fire!

Feeling a little bit of wings in your feet? Feel free to forward this to a friend!

ERIC KIM NEWS

Increase your danger, increase your happiness.



Greater fates, greater futures.

Force finds a way. 

Nietzsche once said; the secret to the greatest amount of happiness is living the life with the maximum amount of danger! I think this was from twilight of the idols, or maybe from the will to power at the end of the book.

I think we live in an interesting time. I think currently the world has been hijacked by internet website advertising, mostly Google and Google Adsense to blame, as well as pernicious sneaky sponsored advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, Google Chrome etc. Same goes with YouTube.

Also something I have learned from things; I think we are actually much more visually sensitive, image sensitive, sound sensitive then we think we are. Also, the mind is subtle; even if I accidentally see some sort of weird thumbnail image, in fact, it puts me in a bad mood for the rest of the day etc.

I think the big problem here is that the news and information has become so hyper sensationalized. Why? Everyone is trying to maximize their income earning potential of the internet and media, assuming that whatever they are posting is on a website or blog or news agency leveraged by Google Adsense, the drive is to maximize eyeball viewing time, and click through rates, for the publisher to make money.

“How much do you pay a month in rent?”

Also, something that I have learned about solo entrepreneurs in the media space; everyone is trying to search and seek and strive for some sort of “legitimacy”, or, they’re just struggling to pay their rent.

For example, let us say that I am some sort of internet personality, some sort of fitness influencer, even photographer. Perhaps the only way I could pay my rent is through some sort of sponsorship or brand deal, in which I am being paid maybe only $500-$1000 a month, and barely maintaining even my expenses.

Also, even some inside intelligence on YouTube; the super facts is that even if my video gets 100 million views, assuming I had advertisements on it I might only make about $7000 to $8000 USD. That is actually not that much. You’re probably better off working as an Amazon prime delivery driver, or even Uber driver. And even the best creators, it is very rare that they make a video with so many views.

As a consequence, there is this low-key bias or optimization towards creating videos or things which strive to hit that benchmark. Once again it is things that have to deal with more with the sensational, audacious, the bizarre, even the morose?

Who to trust

Truth be told, in today’s world especially with internet blogs, ChatGPT 4, the funny thing I learned:

Even ChatGPT doesn’t know if ChatGPT wrote it or not!

For example, instead of just googling myself, I have just been ChatGPT’ing myself. For example I have the paid premium version of ChatGPT, which gives me access to the new newest version of ChatGPT which is version 4, which I rate at least 1000 times better than the free ChatGPT 3.5.

So for example I’ll do something like search “ERIC KIM FACTS“, and just see what ChatGPT tells me, and I will just copy and paste that into a new blog post on my own personal blog titled “ERIC KIM FACTS“, And within a week, ChatGPT indexes that and links back to that. It is almost like a snake eating its own tail, the ourubus.

As a consequence, let us just think and consider; how today’s media landscape is created within the internet. Let us say that I am some sort of newsagency or publishers; I will hire writers, and a lot of these writers will use ChatGPT or other artificial intelligence editing and writing and text generation tools. It is impossible to ascertain how much of it was written by human or ChatGPT or whatever whatever; and even so… assuming that even if 100% of the information was hand typed by a human being, it almost doesn’t really matter because a lot of these writers tend to be dark morose and sick people.

Currently speaking I live in Culver City Los Angeles California, where Jeff Bezos Amazon, Amazon prime, Amazon prime studios just leasing a huge lot of land, the Culver studios, owned by the developer Michael Hackman, apparently even Jeff Bezos bought out the movie theater, the culver theater next-door. Also slowly but surely Apple is getting in bed with Sony entertainment, producing movies like the new Napoleon movie as well as the new killers of the flower moon with Leonardo DiCaprio.

During this whole period I saw a lot of people from the writer strike, and honestly… a lot of these people look very unwell. Most of them do not look very physically unfit, and you could just see; they don’t spend enough time outside, none of them look happy jubilant and gay, and just think simply; if the physiology and health of somebody is poor, what kind of artwork or ideas do you think they will produce?

There is this weird bias that we think that somehow the mind is divorced from the body, but in fact, the mind is the body. That is if your body is sick, your mind is sick. However, if your body is strong robust and great, so will your ideas.

Therefore, a simple fitness idea; first, maximize your physical fitness and your physiological wellness, then, your artwork will naturally follow. 

How we lose our backbone

I don’t think it’s a modern day trend or shift; my thought is honestly all generations all histories people in the past, seems like everyone has always lacked a spine or a backbone.

For example, even when Homer was writing the Iliad; Homer the writer was already critiquing people of his generation. Saying that the people of his generation were weak degenerate, no longer strong.

I wrote a nice little piece back in Vietnam titled ADAMANTINE SPINE (Adamantine Mind); imagine yourself like wolverine; the best way to imagine things is that you are actually like wolverine, your body is made out of adamantine metal, and what happens is every time that somebody tries to destroy you, you regenerate and you re-heal, it will be at a very painful process, but you still do it. The reason why I like this idea is that perhaps every time we regenerate and re-heal we actually become stronger than we were before.

Perhaps this is actually how weightlifting works, every time we lift weights, very very heavy close to our maximum, we actually micro destroy our bodies, and in the regeneration process, which takes time… and we eat meat, sleep, do other stuff, we actually become stronger than we were before.

Recall the scene in which Deadpool was cut to shreds, very much like Dionysis; he is sitting on the couch, a little stub of a body, talking with the blind lady. The process of regeneration seem to take him several days close to a week before he was 100%. Maybe the same thing with weightlifting:

Better to deadlift seven plates a single time, in a single week… than do some sort of hateful CrossFit exercising every single day. 

The reason why I really love Ryan Reynolds and the Deadpool character is there is a little bit of fun dark humor here; I think when people take things to literally, too seriously, life loses its bigger it’s fun it’s jubilance. 

However a bad example is when you turn the needle too much towards the comedic; for example there is this notion called “campy“, when things are almost too cheesy, and lame. For example all of the new Thor movies, as well as all the new Disney Marvel movies, they are insanely lame.

What are good examples?

All modern day media is bad. Only good ones I think are actually ancient Greek epics; the Iliad, after that the Odyssey. If you’re curious, I think that the Iliad is at least 100 or 200 times better more interesting and more fun than the odyssey. Whether or not both were written by Homer or not doesn’t really seem to matter; I think the overall storyline of the Iliad is much more exciting and intense whereas the odyssey is a bit boring.

The Odyssey just drags on and on… Odysseus is a good character but not as grand as Achilles. 

Greater risks, greater futures

It seems that a lot of modern day humans want some sort of weird free lunch; somehow… we want to live a better more greater more grand life that is more exciting and fun, yet we seem to not desire taking any personal risks.

For example let us think about video game culture. My simple heuristic is this; don’t play no video game in which you have actually not done the real thing yourself. For example, all these grown men playing video games in which they are shooting each other with guns, and they have actually never shot a real life gun seems little bit weird.

The same thing goes with American football; don’t watch American football as a spectator if you have never played American football. Otherwise you are a coward.

Easy to critique and criticize football players who fumble the ball, if you have never worn real life football equipment, a helmet, limited eyesight and mobility, and fight fatigue and fear.

Also with basketball, instead of drinking beer and watching basketball and eating onion rings for an hour or two in the evening, why not just go to the local basketball court, bring a basketball and play some pick up basketball instead?

Another fun thought; in the evening, instead of turning on Google incognito, private browsing, brave browser, brave browser in private browsing mode, turning on your VPN, hitting up pirate bay or whatever… why not just go to the local gym and talk to the pretty ladies instead? Or even get a CorePower membership and talk to the pretty ladies there?

A funny thought I often have for men —

A lot of these guys, after they’re done with work or whatever… And they go home, in privacy, and they turn on Google incognito… what do they really look at?

Elementary school kids, middle schoolers, highschoolers

Also I have a rule; video games should only be permitted for poor kids in the hood, we have nothing better else to do.

Also a cutoff time; no adult over the age of 18 years old should play video games anymore. I think it is fine for highschoolers and middle schoolers video games, but not grown men.

I ended up quit playing video games when I was around 18 or 19 years old, my freshman year of college. Why? I literally had no time! I had a part-time job, working around 20 hours a week as tech-support for the UCLA undergraduate admissions office, I was active in many clubs, having to study, and do other stuff.

I actually think that some weird ways, video games are like pornography for the mind-body and soul. The generalized thought is that in video games, everyone wants to be a hero, take risks, go on quests, obtain some booty whatever. Yet, embodied reality real life doesn’t seem to allow any outlets for this. Therefore, people escape into video games.

My simple intervention:

How can we inject desires of video game stuff into real life, real embodied reality?

Simple suggestions:

1. Walking 50 miles a day
2. Lifting insanely heavy weights, screaming loudly, slapping yourself in the face hypelifting etc. 
3. Striving to make your body look like a demigod, instead of playing a video game in which your character looks like a demigod. 

How video games are bad.

The big issue with video games is that ultimately, you are a slave to the platform, the closed loop system, the video game producer and publisher etc.

For example, already… It seems that the video game Fortnite which was insanely grand is already being forgotten. Let us say you are a person who devoted 10,000 hours to playing the Fortnite game, but now no longer anybody plays it. All of your time has been wasted.

Even StarCraft, StarCraft professional players; nobody really plays it anymore, let us say that you’re a professional gamer sponsorships making money playing StarCraft tournaments, now you no longer have any sponsors. All of your time was for naught. 

More thoughts

A critical thing I believe for men, us men, is that we require some sort of physical risk, physical challenge, some sort of physical risk taking.

For example, in my mind the only type of weightlifting which is interesting includes some sort of “risk”; for example, when I would atlas lift seven plates, eight plates, nine plates, 10 plates, max out the bar, and then clip on an additional 25 pounder in between and on top of the 10 plates, the jaws of others would drop; and then a few people would actually have the chutzpah to tell me:

“… be careful.”

My thought;

People actually want to see me get hurt, or “fail”. When I succeeded, I have somehow dismantled their narrow worldview.

Is ERIC KIM on drugs? 

Another funny bias; when I was doing so much crazy turbo thoughtting while in Vietnam (I was off the grid, got rid of my phone, didn’t communicate for about two years, no email no communication no social media no nothing… People would ask…)

Is ERIC KIM okay?

Or,

Is ERIC KIM on drugs?

Or–

What happened to ERIC KIM?

Simple; when you are disconnected from the BS of traditional American media thinking… you think different. Also, not having a phone, I think this is the 10,000X secret cheat code to life. Assuming that you were a crypto trillionaire, and you no longer needed other people, “opportunities“, or you didn’t really desire to get paid money from other people or corporations… what real use do you have of email anyways?

When people say “opportunities”, I think it is a weird carrot and stick; part of it is chasing some sort of legitimacy, part of it is chasing some sort of financial opportunities, brand sponsorships etc.

Something I have personally discovered is this:

Brand sponsorships are a trap. 

Example, if you are sponsored by any sort of company or corporation or whatever… you are not really going to 100% say what is really on your mind. This is the same thing that goes with “brand ambassadors”– I find the whole thing a bit base; Why? He or she who focuses too much on getting some sort of “ambassadorship” is a signal that they are just chasing clout in some sort of mean way.

Once again, if you already have $200 million worth of cryptocurrency bitcoin or chainlink or whatever – why do you need to get some sort of brand “ambassadorship” from anybody? Why do you want free equipment gear or stuff? Why not just buy it yourself?

This is actually something I have discovered with a lot of guys in the photography space; they are already independently wealthy from some sort of other ventures, whether it be business etc. And then they go seek to try to become some sort of “ambassador“, for Leica camera whatever.

That is not forget that Leica camera, the modern day rendition is essentially the brainchild of Dr. Andreas Kaufman– who I discovered is not a “real“ doctor; he got his PhD in philosophy, which I think is a good idea but I think when people talk about him they assume that he has some sort of medical doctor or something.

Would actually find very bizarre about Andrea Kaufman is that there is almost little to no information about him on the internet. Who is he really?

Apparently his family made its fortune and I think the paper business. Therefore, maybe his like some sort of really rich kid, and Leica camera is essentially his passion project, his toy?

Let us not forget that essentially Leica camera went bankrupt, and I think what Dr. Andrea Kaufman did was purchased the naming rights of it, and then revived the brand. Similar thing that BMW did with Rolls-Royce; Rolls-Royce went bankrupt, switched hands a few times, and then I think the last 7 to 8 years, the new Rolls-Royce brand is essentially an expensive Lexus version of a BMW; even look at any BMW X7 compared with the Rolls-Royce Cullinan; the BMW X7 looks the same. Even the BMW 7 series, with the star light stitching in the headliner of the car– same thing as the Rolls-Royce. A Rolls-Royce ghost or phantom or whatever is just an expensive re-badged BMW 7 series.

Also some more super facts:

The Volkswagen group owns Porsche, Audi, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Ducati etc. A Lamborghini is just an expensive Audi, Audi is just an expensive Volkswagen,  and a Porsche 911 GT three GT3RS is just like a Volkswagen beetle turbo on steroids. 

Also, the dirty secret that Leica camera doesn’t want you to know is that the Leica Q camera is essentially a really expensive Panasonic Lumix camera; I think it uses the same sensor from Panasonic Lumix. Therefore if you just want good quality images, just get a Panasonic Lumix camera instead.

For example with the Leica Q camera, you could use Panasonic Lumix batteries in it! 

Even when like a camera was first developing its digital like a M rangefinder camera, the like M8, M9 etc.… I am pretty certain they did some sort of co-collaboration co-sponsorship deal with Panasonic Lam to develop the digital sensors for it. Therefore that is why Lea has borrowed its namesake for some of the Panasonic Lumix lenses saying that it is a quote like a” lens, when it was actually produced in Japan.

Or let us think about the compact Panasonic LumixLX 100 cameras, Leica has a re-badged version of the “LEICA D-Lux” cameras. 

What is the point of taking risk?

My personal thought is that in life, risk makes life more fun! Life without risk is like a life without salt. Life has no vigor, no flavor, no interest.

So how can I incorporate real risktaking into my real life? 

Simple ideas:

1. Extreme speculation with 10% percent of your life savings: perhaps the best thing I have learned from NASSIM Taleb which has probably saved me millions of dollars is simple; never put more than 10% of your life savings into anyone speculative bet or “investment”, no matter what they say about “risk” and it being “safe”. The best strategy is simple: take 10% of your life savings, and put it into some extremely maximally speculative thing, which you believe has 1000X upside potential. For example, let us say that you have $100,000 of life savings, take only 10% of that, $10,000, and put it into a speculative cryptocurrency which you think could go up by at least 1000 times. This is far more effective than the boring, put 100% of your money into some sort of boring mutual fund, etc.
2. For weightlifting very simple; the only type of weightlifting which is actually worth it is any sort of weightlifting in which the chance of failure is high. That means, always striving to increase your one repetition maximum lift; only single repetitions here. No stupid sets no stupid repetitions; one repetition or nothing. This means just start off with a dynamic warm-up, and then slowly add weights, gradually, until you can no longer budge the barbell. Simple exercises include doing an elevated deadlift, put your barbell on top of cinderblocks or the power rack, and when you are doing a “rack pull“, you lift with your thighs your legs, and you max out. Or the ERIC KIM ATLAS LIFT — just Google or YouTube it.
3. Social risks: Better to be annoying, rub somebody the wrong way, and be insanely friendly rather than being the typical antisocial loser with headphones on, sunglasses on, facial hair, a hat or a beanie etc. Better to be a gay monster than a sentimental bore.

Now what?

Some assignments:

1. Smile and wave and say hi to everybody you meet for a whole day.
2. Take a photo of somebody without their permission, and if they make eye contact with you smile and wave.
3. Open up a Coinbase cryptocurrency account, and invest 10% of your life savings in some sort of cryptocurrency or technology which interests you. For myself currently I put 90% of my crypto into chainlink and 10% as bitcoin. My personal thought is don’t dabble “alt coins“, and also one scamming cryptocurrency I think is Ada Cardono– Ethereum is interesting, but also, I don’t really trust it. Why? If Ethereum is creating its own private enterprise thing, not a good sign for a platform.
4. Opinion risktaking: Stop censoring yourself and stop speaking politically correct. Speak your true mind, 100% unfiltered, rub feathers the wrong way whatever. Better to be an asshole and happy, than to be politically correct and passive.

VIBE WITH EK

EK EXPERIENCES >

ERIC KIM PHOTO SUPPLY

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Open Source

Start here, books, downloads.

Now what?

The number one advice I have for any guitar for entrepreneur etc. is simple: start your own blog. Self hosted with wordpress.org and a platform like Ionos.com or bluehost.com

Also, delete your Instagram. My creativity productivity happiness and innovation has increased by 1 million fold after deleting my Instagram in 2017 with about 60,000 followers.

Also, the best way to stay connected with your audience and fans is through a simple email newsletter, I use sendy.co — which is insanely cheap, hosted by Amazon simple email service. At least 1000X cheaper than mailchimp.com

No more WordPress.com?

Automaticc… WordPress.com … you guys done messed up. I think one of my random wordpress.com websites “violated some sort of content policy“, and as a consequence, the whole blog was wiped. 

I no longer recommend anybody to use wordpress.com. No way Jose.

The only legitimate path is a self hosted website which is sensor proof and tamperproof. That is, the service provider cannot just switch a button and delete or turn off your website or thing. For example I personally predict that sooner or later, Google is going to shut down my YouTube account. Therefore, it is best to just think and consider that sooner or later you’re going to violate some sort of content policy and they’re going to delete your platform.

What cannot be deleted? Your own hosted website, even building a website on Amazon web services seems like a good idea.

Think open source, PDF, JPEG, zip files, decentralized systems and mirrors 

I’ve been in the game long enough that sooner or later, stuff breaks. Hyperlink no longer work, images no longer work or load, etc. Ever since I was 18 years old, now until the age of 35… I have seen information come and go, platforms rise and fall. Even within my short tenure I’ve seen companies come and go like xanga.com, liveJournal, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc.

It seems the only real way to deal with issue here is think about the Hydra approach; propagate, duplicate, create more hydra heads. That is if somebody tries to cut off one of your heads, two grow in place. 

The ERIC KIM HYDRA approach: 

1. erickimphilosophy.com
2. erickim.com
3. erickimthoughts.wordpress.com
4. erickimfitness.com
5. erickimcrypto.com
6. EricKim.ai

Just think of yourself like the Pirate Bay; nobody could shut down pirate Bay because there are 1 trillion mirrors. The decentralized notion and idea of Pirate Bay and torrents and mirrors and magnets are fascinating to me; it is bad, it does seem like real freedom.

My very very simple suggestion for media corporations is… Don’t put too much care or concerns about pirating. It ain’t a really big deal. At worst, one percent of your fanbase is going to use it, pirating and torrenting is far too complicated for the average human being. Just ignore it.

Other experiments

1. Upload your favorite photos to arsbeta.com 
2. It looks like ChatGPT premium paid model is closed. Maybe it is time for me to start creating some sort of open source solution.
3. Create your own blog
4. Order some weightlifting equipment on titan.fitnessorroguefitness.com.
5. Get a gym membership, whether it be LA fitness, crunch fitness, golds gym, hot yoga membership. Corepower is fine. 
6. Take more insanely hot baths or showers at home, and alternate with extremely icy cold water. The undulation between both extremes of hot and cold is a good stimulus to our metabolism. What I have been doing during this winter months is starting off with a very very cold shower, and then filling up the bathtub with boiling hot water, and taking insanely hot bath, and then, Ending with a cold shower. If you don’t have access to a bathtub, just start off with an icy cold shower, make it insanely boiling hot, and then finish off cold.
7. It does seem that the best place to buy meat is Costco. Or the local Mexican meat market. Try to get some beef liver or kidney or Oregon meats or heart at the local Halal market, or Mexican market, if you go to Costco… Get the 100% grass fed ground beef, or the new Wagyu ground beef which I like. Also I really like the Lamb leg roast at Costco.

So how can I be happy? 

1. Move out of the bay area, San Francisco, the East Bay, the south Bay, San Jose whatever. Come to Culver City Los Angeles California, my new paradise. I specifically like the arts district. Also, get out of Brooklyn; Brooklyn is for losers. Either live on the main island, or get out. 
2. Perhaps the ideal strategy in life is to not buy a home, but instead… better to live in an insanely great apartment, in an insanely great location than to buy and own a home in a good location. It’s insane, the difference of 100,000, 200,000, 300,000, 400,000, 500,000, $600,000… Better to just buy a Tesla model S plaid instead. 
3. Delete email Gmail or whatever from your phone. If you got to do it for living just do it on your desktop or laptop also delete the YouTube app from your phone. Also delete Spotify podcast or whatever. When you drive, drive silent, and let yourself think.
4. Publish your thoughts photos videos audio to your own blog.
5. Lift weights, do hot yoga, or go on a hike at least twice a day.

More thoughts — EK BLOG

Forward the fire!

Feeling a little bit of wings in your feet? Feel free to forward this to a friend!

ERIC KIM NEWS

Increase your danger, increase your happiness.



Go hard or nothing.

1. Hardcore weightlifting: one repetition maximum or nothing. Seven, eight plates, nine plates, 10 plates and beyond.
2. Hardcore thinking: not soft thoughts, hard thoughts. Hard and critical, not soft and loosey-goosey.

The Philosophy of Risk Taking 

Greater fates, greater futures.

Force finds a way. 

Nietzsche once said; the secret to the greatest amount of happiness is living the life with the maximum amount of danger! I think this was from twilight of the idols, or maybe from the will to power at the end. 

I think we live in an interesting time. I think currently the world has been hijacked by Internet website advertising, mostly Google and Google ads to blame, as well as pernicious sneaky sponsored advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, Google Chrome etc. Same goes with YouTube.

Also something I have learned from things; I think we are actually much more visually sensitive, image sensitive, sound sensitive then we think we are. Also, the mind is subtle; even if I accidentally see some sort of weird thumbnail image, in fact, it puts me in a bad mood for the rest of the day etc.

I think the big problem here is that the news and information has become so hyper sensationalized. Why? Everyone is trying to maximize their income earning potential of the Internet and media, assuming that whatever they are posting is on a website or blog or news agency leveraged by Google sense, the drive is to maximize eyeball viewing time, and Click through rates, for the publisher to make money.

Also, something that I have learned about solo entrepreneurs in the media space; everyone is trying to search and seek and strive for some sort of “legitimacy”, or, they’re just struggling to pay their rent.

For example, let us say that I am some sort of Internet personality, some sort of fitness influencer, even Fraher. Perhaps the only way I could pay my rent is through some sort of sponsorship or brand deal, in which I am being paid maybe only $500-$1000 a month, and barely maintaining even my expenses.

Also, even some inside intelligence on YouTube; the super fax is that even if my video gets 100 million views, assuming I had advertisements on it I might only make about seven to $8000 USD. That is actually not that much. You’re probably better off Working as an Amazon prime delivery driver, or even Uber driver. And even the best craters, it is very rare that they make a video with so many views.

As a consequence, there is this low-key bias or optimization towards creating videos or things which strive to hit that benchmark. Once again it is things that have to deal with more with the sensational, audacious, the bizarre, even the morose?

Who to trust

Truth be told, in today’s world especially with internet blogs, ChatGPT 4, the funny thing I learned:

Even ChatGPT doesn’t know if ChatGPT wrote it or not!

For example, instead of just googling myself, I have just been ChatGPT’ing myself. For example I have the paid premium version of ChatGPT, which gives me access to the new newest version of ChatGPT which is version 4, which I rate at least 1000 times better than the free ChatGPT 3.5.

So for example I’ll do something like search “ERIC KIM“, and just see what ChatGPT tells me, and I will just copy and paste that into a new blog post on my own personal blog titled “ERIC KIM“, And within a week, ChatGPT indexes that and links back to that. It is almost like a snake eating its own tail, the ourubus. 

As a consequence, let us just think and consider; how today’s media landscape is created within the Internet. Let us say that I am some sort of newsagency or publishers; I will hire writers, and a lot of these writers will use ChatGPT or other artificial intelligence editing and writing and text generation tools. It is impossible to ascertain how much of it was written by human or ChatGPT or whatever whatever; and even so… Assuming that even if 100% of the information was hand typed by human being, it almost doesn’t really matter because a lot of these writers tend to be dark morose and sick people.

Currently speaking I live in Culver City Los Angeles California, where Jeff Bezos Amazon, Amazon prime, Amazon prime studios just least a huge lot of land, the Culver studios, owned by the developer Michael Heckman, apparently even  Jeff Bezos spot out the movie theater, the culvert theater next-door. Also slowly but surely apple is getting in bed with Sony entertainment, producing movies like the new Napoleon movie as well as the new killers of the flower moon with Leonardo DiCaprio.

During this whole period I saw a lot of people from the writer strike, and honestly… A lot of these people look very unwell. Most of them do not look very physically fit, and you could just see; they don’t spend enough time outside, none of them look happy jubilant and gay, and just think simply; if the physiology and health of somebody is poor, what kind of artwork or ideas do you think they will produce? There is this weird bias that we think that somehow the mind is divorced from the body, but in fact, the mind is the body. That is if your body is sick, your mind is sick. However, if your body is strong robust and great, so will your ideas.

How we lose our backbone

I don’t think it’s a modern day trend or shift; my thought is honestly all generations all histories people in the past, seems like everyone has always left a spine or a backbone. I wrote a nice little piece back in Vietnam titled Adamantine Spine;  imagine yourself like wolverine; the best way to imagine things is that you are actually like wolverine, your body is made out of adamantine metal, and what happens is every time that somebody tries to destroy you, you regenerate and you re-heal, I’ll be at a very painful process, you still do it. 

Kind of like Deadpool; the reason why I really love Ryan Reynolds and the Deadpool character is there is a little bit of fun dark humor here; I think when people take things to literally, too seriously, life loses its bigger it’s fun it’s jubilance. 

However a bad example is when you turn the needle too much towards the comedic; for example there is this notion called “Campi“, when things are almost too cheesy, and lame. For example all of the new Thor movies, as well as all the new Disney Marvel movies, they are insanely lame.

What are good examples?

All modern day media is bad. Only good ones I think are actually ancient Greek epics; the Iliad, after that the Odyssey. If you’re curious, I think that the Iliad is at least 100 or 200 times better more interesting and more fun than the odyssey. Whether or not both were written by Homer or not doesn’t really seem to matter; I think the overall storyline of the Iliad is much more exciting and intense whereas the odyssey is a bit boring.

The Odyssey just drags on and on… Odysseus is a good character but not as grand as Achilles. 

Greater risks, greater futures

It seems that a lot of modern day humans want some sort of weird free lunch; somehow… We want to live a better more greater more grand life that is more exciting and fun, yet we seem to not desire taking any personal risks.

For example let us think about video game culture. My simple heuristic is this; don’t play no video game in which you have actually not done the real thing yourself. For example, all these grown men playing video games in which they are shooting each other with guns, and they have actually never shot a real life gun seems little bit weird.

Also I have a rule; video games should only be permitted for poor kids in the hood, we have nothing better else to do.

Also a cut off time; no adult over the age of 18 years old should play video games anymore. I think it is fine for highschoolers and middle schoolers video games, but not grown men.

I ended up quit playing video games when I was around 18 or 19 years old, my freshman year of college. Why? I literally had no time! I had a part-time job, working around 20 hours a week as tech-support for the UCLA undergraduate admissions office, I was active in many clubs, having to study, and do other stuff.

I actually think that some weird ways, if you do games are like pornography for the mind-body and soul. The generalize just a most video games is everyone wants to be a hero, take risks, go on quest, obtain some booty whatever. Yet, embodied reality real life doesn’t seem to allow any outlets for this. Therefore, people escape into video games. 

How video games are bad.

The big issue with video games is that ultimately, you are a slave to the platform, the close loop system, the video game producer and publisher etc.

For example, already… It seems that the video game Fortnite which was insanely grand is already being forgotten. Let us say you are a person who devoted 10,000 hours to playing the Fortnite game, but now no longer anybody plays it. All of your time has been wasted.

Even StarCraft, StarCraft professional players; nobody really plays it anymore, let us say that you’re a professional gamer sponsorships making money playing StarCraft tournaments, now you no longer have any sponsors. All of your time was for naught. 

More thoughts

A critical thing I believe for men, us men, is that we require some sort of physical risk, physical challenge, some sort of physical risk taking.

For example, in my mind the only type of weightlifting which is interesting includes some sort of “risk”; for example, when I would atlas lift seven plates, eight plates, nine plates, 10 plates, max out the bar, and then clip on an additional 25 pounder in between and on top of the 10 plates, the jaws of others would drop; and then a few people would actually have the chutzpah to tell me:

“… be careful.”

My thought;

People actually want to see me get hurt, or “fail”. When I succeeded, I have somehow dismantled their narrow worldview.

Is ERIC KIM on drugs? 

another funny bias; when I was doing so much crazy turbo thoughtting while in Vietnam (I was off the grid, got rid of my phone, didn’t communicate for about two years, no email no communication no social media no nothing… People would ask…)

is ERIC KIM okay?

Or,

is ERIC KIM on drugs?

Or–

What happened to ERIC KIM?

Simple; when you are disconnected from the BS of traditional American media thinking… Do you think different. Also, not having a phone, I think this is the 10,000 X secret cheat code to life. Assuming that you were a crypto trillionaire, and you no longer needed other people “opportunities“, or you didn’t really desire to get paid money from other people or corporations… What real use do you have of email anyways?

When people say “opportunities”, I think it is a weird keratin stick; part of it is chasing some sort of legitimacy, part of it is chasing some sort of financial opportunities, brand sponsorships etc.

Something I have personally discovered is this:

brand Sponsorships are a trap. 

Example, if you are sponsored by any sort of company or corporation or whatever… You are not really going to hundred percent say what is really on your mind. This is the same thing that goes with “brand ambassadors”– I find the whole thing a bit base; why? He or she who focuses too much on getting some sort of “ambassador ship is a signal that they are just chasing clout in some sort of mean way.

Once again, if you already have $200 million worth of cryptocurrency bitcoin or chainlink or whatever – why do you need to get some sort of brand “ambassadorship” from anybody? Why do you want free equipment gear or stuff? Why not just buy it yourself?

This is actually something I have discovered with a lot of guys in the photography space; they are already independently wealthy from some sort of other ventures, whether it be business etc. And then they go seek to try to become some sort of “ambassador“, for Leica camera whatever.

That is not forget that Leica camera, the modern day rendition is essentially the brainchild of Dr. Andreas Kaufman– who I discovered is not a “real“ doctor; he got his PhD in philosophy, which I think is a good idea but I think when people talk about him they assume that he has some sort of medical doctor or something.

Would actually find very bizarre about Andrea Kaufman is that there is almost little to no information about him on the Internet. Who is he really?

Apparently his family made its fortune and I think the paper business. Therefore, maybe his like some sort of really rich kid, and like a camera is essentially his passion project, his toy?

Let us not forget that essentially like a camera went bankrupt, and I think what Dr. Andrea Kaufman did was purchased the naming rights of it, and then revive the brand. Similar thing that BMW did with Rolls-Royce; Rolls-Royce went bankrupt, switch tans a few times, and then I think the last 7 to 8 years, the rules Royce brand is essentially an expensive Lexus version of a BMW; even look at any BMW X7 compared with the Rolls-Royce colon; the BMW X7 looks the same. Even the BMW seven series, with the star light stitching in the headliner of the car– same thing as the Rolls-Royce. A Rolls-Royce ghost or phantom or whatever is just an expensive re-badged BMW seven series.

Also, the dirty secret that like a camera doesn’t want you to know is that the like Q camera is essentially a really expensive Panasonic Lumix camera; I think it uses the same sensor from Panasonic Lumix. Therefore if you just want good quality images, just get a Panasonic Lumix camera instead. 

What is the point of taking risk?

My personal thought is that in life, risk makes life more fun! Life without risk is like a life without salt. Life has no vigor, no flavor, no interest.

So how can I incorporate real risktaking into my real life? 

Simple ideas:

1. Extreme speculation with 10% percent of your life savings: perhaps the best thing I have learned from NASSIM Taleb which has probably saved me millions of dollars is simple; never put more than 10% of your life savings into anyone speculative bet or “investment”, no matter what they say about “risk” and it being “safe”. The best strategy is simple: take 10% of your life savings, and put it into some extremely maximally speculative thing, which you believe has 1000 X upside potential. For example, let us say that you have $100,000 of life savings, take only 10% of that, $10,000, and put it into a speculative cryptocurrency which you think could go up by at least 1000 times. This is far more effective than the boring, put 100% of your money into some sort of boring mutual fund, etc.
2. For weightlifting very simple; the only type of weightlifting which is actually worth it is any sort of weightlifting in which the chance of failure is high. That means, always driving to increase your one repetition maximum lift; only single repetitions here. No stupid sets no stupid repetitions; one repetition or nothing. This means just start off with a dynamic warm-up, and then slowly add weights, gradually, until you can no longer budge the barbell. simple exercises include doing an elevated dead lift, put your barbell on top of cinderblocks or the power rack, and when you are doing a “rack pull“,  you lift with your thighs your legs, and you max out. Or the ERIC KIM ATLAS LIFT — just Google or YouTube it.
3. Social risks: better to be annoying, rub somebody the wrong way, and be insanely friendly rather than being the typical antisocial loser with headphones on, sunglasses on, facial hair, a hat or a beanie etc. Better to be a gay monster than a sentimental bore.

Now what?

Some assignments:

1. Smile and wave and say hi to everybody you meet for a whole day.
2. Take a photo of somebody without their permission, and if they make eye contact with you smile and wave.
3. Open up a Coinbase cryptocurrency account, and invest 10% of your life savings in some sort of cryptocurrency or technology which interests you. For myself currently I put 90% of my crypto into chainlink and 10% as bitcoin. My personal thought is don’t double “alt coins“,  and also one scamming cryptocurrency I think is Ada Cardono– Ethereum is interesting, but also, I don’t really trust it. Why? If Ethereum is creating its own private enterprise thing, not a good sign for a platform.
4. Opinion risktaking: stop censoring yourself and stop speaking politically correct. Speaker true mind, 100% unfiltered, rub feathers the wrong way whatever. Better to be an asshole and happy, than to be politically correct and passive. 

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Greater fates, greater futures.

Force finds a way. 

Nietzsche once said; the secret to the greatest amount of happiness is living the life with the maximum amount of danger! I think this was from twilight of the idols, or maybe from the will to power at the end. 

I think we live in an interesting time. I think currently the world has been hijacked by Internet website advertising, mostly Google and Google ads to blame, as well as pernicious sneaky sponsored advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, Google Chrome etc. Same goes with YouTube.

Also something I have learned from things; I think we are actually much more visually sensitive, image sensitive, sound sensitive then we think we are. Also, the mind is subtle; even if I accidentally see some sort of weird thumbnail image, in fact, it puts me in a bad mood for the rest of the day etc.

I think the big problem here is that the news and information has become so hyper sensationalized. Why? Everyone is trying to maximize their income earning potential of the Internet and media, assuming that whatever they are posting is on a website or blog or news agency leveraged by Google sense, the drive is to maximize eyeball viewing time, and Click through rates, for the publisher to make money.

Also, something that I have learned about solo entrepreneurs in the media space; everyone is trying to search and seek and strive for some sort of “legitimacy”, or, they’re just struggling to pay their rent.

For example, let us say that I am some sort of Internet personality, some sort of fitness influencer, even Fraher. Perhaps the only way I could pay my rent is through some sort of sponsorship or brand deal, in which I am being paid maybe only $500-$1000 a month, and barely maintaining even my expenses.

Also, even some inside intelligence on YouTube; the super fax is that even if my video gets 100 million views, assuming I had advertisements on it I might only make about seven to $8000 USD. That is actually not that much. You’re probably better off Working as an Amazon prime delivery driver, or even Uber driver. And even the best craters, it is very rare that they make a video with so many views.

As a consequence, there is this low-key bias or optimization towards creating videos or things which strive to hit that benchmark. Once again it is things that have to deal with more with the sensational, audacious, the bizarre, even the morose?

Who to trust

Truth be told, in today’s world especially with internet blogs, ChatGPT 4, the funny thing I learned:

Even ChatGPT doesn’t know if ChatGPT wrote it or not!

For example, instead of just googling myself, I have just been ChatGPT’ing myself. For example I have the paid premium version of ChatGPT, which gives me access to the new newest version of ChatGPT which is version 4, which I rate at least 1000 times better than the free ChatGPT 3.5.

So for example I’ll do something like search “ERIC KIM“, and just see what ChatGPT tells me, and I will just copy and paste that into a new blog post on my own personal blog titled “ERIC KIM“, And within a week, ChatGPT indexes that and links back to that. It is almost like a snake eating its own tail, the ourubus. 

As a consequence, let us just think and consider; how today’s media landscape is created within the Internet. Let us say that I am some sort of newsagency or publishers; I will hire writers, and a lot of these writers will use ChatGPT or other artificial intelligence editing and writing and text generation tools. It is impossible to ascertain how much of it was written by human or ChatGPT or whatever whatever; and even so… Assuming that even if 100% of the information was hand typed by human being, it almost doesn’t really matter because a lot of these writers tend to be dark morose and sick people.

Currently speaking I live in Culver City Los Angeles California, where Jeff Bezos Amazon, Amazon prime, Amazon prime studios just least a huge lot of land, the Culver studios, owned by the developer Michael Heckman, apparently even  Jeff Bezos spot out the movie theater, the culvert theater next-door. Also slowly but surely apple is getting in bed with Sony entertainment, producing movies like the new Napoleon movie as well as the new killers of the flower moon with Leonardo DiCaprio.

During this whole period I saw a lot of people from the writer strike, and honestly… A lot of these people look very unwell. Most of them do not look very physically fit, and you could just see; they don’t spend enough time outside, none of them look happy jubilant and gay, and just think simply; if the physiology and health of somebody is poor, what kind of artwork or ideas do you think they will produce? There is this weird bias that we think that somehow the mind is divorced from the body, but in fact, the mind is the body. That is if your body is sick, your mind is sick. However, if your body is strong robust and great, so will your ideas.

How we lose our backbone

I don’t think it’s a modern day trend or shift; my thought is honestly all generations all histories people in the past, seems like everyone has always left a spine or a backbone. I wrote a nice little piece back in Vietnam titled Adamantine Spine;  imagine yourself like wolverine; the best way to imagine things is that you are actually like wolverine, your body is made out of adamantine metal, and what happens is every time that somebody tries to destroy you, you regenerate and you re-heal, I’ll be at a very painful process, you still do it. 

Kind of like Deadpool; the reason why I really love Ryan Reynolds and the Deadpool character is there is a little bit of fun dark humor here; I think when people take things to literally, too seriously, life loses its bigger it’s fun it’s jubilance. 

However a bad example is when you turn the needle too much towards the comedic; for example there is this notion called “Campi“, when things are almost too cheesy, and lame. For example all of the new Thor movies, as well as all the new Disney Marvel movies, they are insanely lame.

What are good examples?

All modern day media is bad. Only good ones I think are actually ancient Greek epics; the Iliad, after that the Odyssey. If you’re curious, I think that the Iliad is at least 100 or 200 times better more interesting and more fun than the odyssey. Whether or not both were written by Homer or not doesn’t really seem to matter; I think the overall storyline of the Iliad is much more exciting and intense whereas the odyssey is a bit boring.

The Odyssey just drags on and on… Odysseus is a good character but not as grand as Achilles. 

Greater risks, greater futures

It seems that a lot of modern day humans want some sort of weird free lunch; somehow… We want to live a better more greater more grand life that is more exciting and fun, yet we seem to not desire taking any personal risks.

For example let us think about video game culture. My simple heuristic is this; don’t play no video game in which you have actually not done the real thing yourself. For example, all these grown men playing video games in which they are shooting each other with guns, and they have actually never shot a real life gun seems little bit weird.

Also I have a rule; video games should only be permitted for poor kids in the hood, we have nothing better else to do.

Also a cut off time; no adult over the age of 18 years old should play video games anymore. I think it is fine for highschoolers and middle schoolers video games, but not grown men.

I ended up quit playing video games when I was around 18 or 19 years old, my freshman year of college. Why? I literally had no time! I had a part-time job, working around 20 hours a week as tech-support for the UCLA undergraduate admissions office, I was active in many clubs, having to study, and do other stuff.

I actually think that some weird ways, if you do games are like pornography for the mind-body and soul. The generalize just a most video games is everyone wants to be a hero, take risks, go on quest, obtain some booty whatever. Yet, embodied reality real life doesn’t seem to allow any outlets for this. Therefore, people escape into video games. 

How video games are bad.

The big issue with video games is that ultimately, you are a slave to the platform, the close loop system, the video game producer and publisher etc.

For example, already… It seems that the video game Fortnite which was insanely grand is already being forgotten. Let us say you are a person who devoted 10,000 hours to playing the Fortnite game, but now no longer anybody plays it. All of your time has been wasted.

Even StarCraft, StarCraft professional players; nobody really plays it anymore, let us say that you’re a professional gamer sponsorships making money playing StarCraft tournaments, now you no longer have any sponsors. All of your time was for naught. 

More thoughts

A critical thing I believe for men, us men, is that we require some sort of physical risk, physical challenge, some sort of physical risk taking.

For example, in my mind the only type of weightlifting which is interesting includes some sort of “risk”; for example, when I would atlas lift seven plates, eight plates, nine plates, 10 plates, max out the bar, and then clip on an additional 25 pounder in between and on top of the 10 plates, the jaws of others would drop; and then a few people would actually have the chutzpah to tell me:

“… be careful.”

My thought;

People actually want to see me get hurt, or “fail”. When I succeeded, I have somehow dismantled their narrow worldview.

Is ERIC KIM on drugs? 

another funny bias; when I was doing so much crazy turbo thoughtting while in Vietnam (I was off the grid, got rid of my phone, didn’t communicate for about two years, no email no communication no social media no nothing… People would ask…)

is ERIC KIM okay?

Or,

is ERIC KIM on drugs?

Or–

What happened to ERIC KIM?

Simple; when you are disconnected from the BS of traditional American media thinking… Do you think different. Also, not having a phone, I think this is the 10,000 X secret cheat code to life. Assuming that you were a crypto trillionaire, and you no longer needed other people “opportunities“, or you didn’t really desire to get paid money from other people or corporations… What real use do you have of email anyways?

When people say “opportunities”, I think it is a weird keratin stick; part of it is chasing some sort of legitimacy, part of it is chasing some sort of financial opportunities, brand sponsorships etc.

Something I have personally discovered is this:

brand Sponsorships are a trap. 

Example, if you are sponsored by any sort of company or corporation or whatever… You are not really going to hundred percent say what is really on your mind. This is the same thing that goes with “brand ambassadors”– I find the whole thing a bit base; why? He or she who focuses too much on getting some sort of “ambassador ship is a signal that they are just chasing clout in some sort of mean way.

Once again, if you already have $200 million worth of cryptocurrency bitcoin or chainlink or whatever – why do you need to get some sort of brand “ambassadorship” from anybody? Why do you want free equipment gear or stuff? Why not just buy it yourself?

This is actually something I have discovered with a lot of guys in the photography space; they are already independently wealthy from some sort of other ventures, whether it be business etc. And then they go seek to try to become some sort of “ambassador“, for Leica camera whatever.

That is not forget that Leica camera, the modern day rendition is essentially the brainchild of Dr. Andreas Kaufman– who I discovered is not a “real“ doctor; he caught his PhD in philosophy, which I think is a good idea but I think when people talk about him they assume that he has some sort of medical doctor or something.

Real men don’t “argue”— they just do.

Yes, you can short sell cryptocurrencies, similar to how you might short sell stocks. Shorting, or short selling, is an investment strategy where an investor borrows a cryptocurrency and sells it on the market with the expectation that its value will decline. Later, they aim to buy back the same amount of the cryptocurrency at a lower price, return the borrowed coins, and pocket the difference as profit.

However, shorting crypto involves high risk, especially due to the high volatility of cryptocurrency markets. It’s important to understand the risks and have a good grasp of the market before attempting to short sell cryptocurrencies.