To accept things as sub-optimal, and won’t get better .. and to accept “not the bestâ€â€” perhaps this is the best road to extracting the maximum out of life and existence?
The purpose of life isn’t to optimize for the “bestâ€, but to use the current “bad†situation and scenario you got right now, and exploit that to the maximum.
Even though the notion of ‘living your best life’ seems like this silly millenial/zillenial notion, it is still a good one. Why?
It focuses on you to maximize you.
The notion we get distracted with is ‘changing the world’. Why not ‘change ourselves’? Or better yet, maximize ourselves, our passion (photography)?
1. Don’t stay home
In life we make the wrong optimization:
We try to make our photography lifestyle fit our work lifestyle.
Rather we should
Have our work fit our photography lifestyle.
Money is overrated (money thoughts). Photography, arts creation is underrated.
Hit the road. Go on a cruise. Travel. Go to Cambodia (Phnom Penh), go to Vietnam (Saigon/Hanoi), or just go on a road trip somewhere close by (JOSHUA TREE, lake arrowhead etc). Hit the road like Sinbad.
The ideal is to die with $0 in your bank account (or crypto wallet). The best strategy in life:
Funnel all of your money and resources to travel, explore, adventure .. and just shoot photos along the way.
2. RICOH GR IIIX
Just buy a Ricoh or Ricoh GR IIIX. I rate the camera as at least 1000x better than any Leica M11, Leica Q2, Fujifilm camera, Digital Medium Format camera, iPhone Pro, etc.
If Henri Cartier-Bresson were alive today, he would shoot with a RICOH GR IIIX (40mm is similar to the 50mm focal length), not a Leica M camera, or any Leica camera.
I just got a new GoPro Hero 10, and really like it. Really fun– at least 1000x more fun than shooting with an iPhone (or even iPhone Pro in ultra wide mode). It makes photoraphy fun again.
As an added plus, Seneca loves it too! He has been getting really good at pushing buttons, and he has been pushing the buttons on top.
Use GoPro to go on more adventures, and document and record your experiences via video (1080p, 60fps, and ultra wide is good).
I find, I love to best quickly review and export my photos, upload them to my blog and just move on. Staying in tandem with your photography seems like a wise option.
5. Create and share
Make your own books (PDF EBOOKS). Share them. Publish, be generous, keep it open source.
Easy.
Use Apple Pages to make an e-book (yeah you can!) or Affinity Publisher, or even design in Apple Keynote/Google Slides and export as PDF.
Stay in tandem with your photography: perhaps it is wise that on a daily basis, you quickly shoot (extra small JPEG, high contrast black and white filter on Ricoh GR IIIX), while also quickly flagging and exporting/uploading your photos to your own blog (wordpress media library) on a daily basis)?
In praise of the new innovations in the Converse all stars (Nike owns converse). Probably some good cross pollination creativity going on here — Nike design aesthetic applied to classic Converse designs.
I spent so much money on this MacBook Pro (13 inch, touchbar) from 2017, and already just 5 years later, it is soooooo slow (even though I bought it maxed out). But the screen is good, and it still works pretty good. But… unfortunately the screen cannot detach.
I suppose if we are constantly nomadic and on the road, a laptop is our only option. But if we are more home-bound, perhaps then having a desktop of sorts is a good idea.
At least I like the idea if that somehow if your desktop gets outdated, you can either upgrade it (depends on what the desktop is), or at least switch out the computer component and you still can hold onto your (‘old’) display and keyboard/trackpad.
Having to spend $2,000 every 5 years doesn’t seem very sustainable to me.
Given that laptops get outdated so quickly, perhaps a more sustainable option is to just keep on buying the newest iPad (with the fastest, best chip). Like the new M-series processors on the iPad Air, iPad Pro, etc.
Greater social challenges, greater challenges in the gym with powerlifting, attempting new personal records.
After having lived in perfect weather and a perfect climate, and after living in Providence Rhode Island, in places with variable weather, I have discovered that in fact, weather is overrated. When the weather is not good, just bundle up. Like the Swedes say, there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.
Perhaps the same thing is in life. You create your own happiness by creating your own new challenges. And what it comes down to is whether the challenge is actually interesting to you or not.
Not the product photography in the sense of doing fancy product photos to sell an item, but instead, just photograph the products you engage with every single day.
