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Life goals and aspirations we do not need to depend on others. To me this is the best type of life goal. Why? Because nothing can thwart our attempt, or accomplishment or achievement. It is all on you.

Once again — set yourself audacious life goals, which you could achieve without the nod or approval of anybody else. Independent aspirations.

MASTER MOTIVATION

Become more:

1. COMPULSION.
2. *BEYOND* PERFECT.
3. BUY BOOKS WHEN YOU WANT TO BUY GEAR.
4. How to Make More Photos
5. JUST MAKE MORE PHOTOS.
6. MY DESIRE TO CAPTURE IT ALL.
7. VISUAL DETOX.
8. Photography is Our Addiction
9. A BILLION PHOTOS
10. THE MOTIVATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER.
11. CURIOUS.
12. PROVOKE.
13. How to Do More Photography
14. PRACTICE.
15. TURBOCHARGE YOURSELF, TURBOCHARGE OTHERS.
16. LIFE IS ALL UPSIDE, NO DOWNSIDE.
17. PHOTO TURBO THOUGHTS
18. No Such Thing as Good or Bad; Simply Stimulating or Not Stimulating
19. The Best Genre is No Genre
20. The Key to Photographic Motivation
21. Pacifying Media, Motivational Media
22. Our Hunger for New Experiences
23. Mental Motivation
24. ALL ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY.
25. The Photographer as Creator
26. Create *BEYOND* Yourself
27. Let Your Curiosity Drive Your Photography
28. LOVE YOUR PHOTOS.
29. Abstract Monochrome Photography
30. SHOOT WITHOUT THINKING.
31. Just Have Fun With Photography
32. Wu-Wei Effortless Motivation
33. CONSISTENCY x NOVELTY
34. Easily Bored?
35. Face Photography
36. How to Become More Self-Motivated in Your Photography
37. YOUR OWN PHOTOS ARE THE BEST PHOTOS.
38. On Sharing Your Favorite Photos
39. UBERABUNDANCE.
40. Peak Photographic Productivity
41. When to Review Your Photos
42. Serotonin and Photos
43. The Photos You Have Yet Shot are Your Most Important Photos
44. 3 Tips How to Master Photography
45. Do You Like Your Own Photos?
46. The Beauty of Mundane, Everyday Moments
47. Reasons Why to Be Optimistic About the Future
48. A Photography-Full Future
49. The More You Shoot, the Better
50. How Many Photos Should You Shoot Everyday?
51. Why Do We Love Motion?
52. Now is Your Chance to Shoot History in the Making
53. Photo by Photo
54. How and Why Photography Remains So Interesting to Me
55. How to Conquer Your Inner Photographic Critic
56. Thoughts on HDR Photography
57. New Year, New Photos
58. Why Exhibit Your Photos?
59. Photography is Visual Poetry
60. What’s the Purpose of Art?
61. Why Do We Photographers Have Such a Hard Time Staying Inspired and Motivated?
62. On Becoming a More Optimistic Photographer
63. Philosophy of Weather
64. How to Become a More Optimistic Photographer and Human
65. You Are a Creative Photographer
66. JUST SHARE YOUR ARTISTIC PROCESS WITH OTHERS.
67. What Motivates Me to Shoot?
68. How to Maximize Yourself to the Fullest
69. HOW TO MOVE AND MOTIVATE PEOPLE
70. Autotelic Photography
71. The more I go out and photograph the world, the more interesting and beautiful the world becomes
72. Why Photographers Have Such Low Self-Esteem
73. ERIC KIM MOTIVATION
74. Why Am I So Unmotivated?
75. EVERY DAY IS A NEW DAY
76. WHY ARE YOU SO UNMOTIVATED?
77. Movement is Motivation
78. How to Motivate Myself to Make New Photos
79. Never Stop Optimizing
80. How to Help and Motivate Others
81. Feed On Your Own Photos; Let Them Nourish You!
82. Competition is for Suckers
83. A Future Without Travel
84. How Google Can Improve Your Photography
85. DEVELOP YOURSELF.
86. NEVER STOP MOVING!
87. How I Self-Motivate Myself
88. Every Day the Sun is Birthed Anew
89. A Life Without Photography Isn’t a Life Worth Living
90. WIN.
91. 8 Practical Photography Assignments for You
92. Tabula Rasa, Blank Slate, Carte Blanche
93. RELENTLESS
94. LIFE IS THE ULTIMATE RPG
95. HYPER VIGOR
96. FRESH AIR PHOTOS
97. WHO IS GONNA THRIVE IN TODAY’S BRAVE NEW WORLD?
98. ARTISTIC OPTIMISM
99. PASSION, not Discipline
100. Better Bad Photos than No Photos
101. The Empowering Feeling of Failure
102. To Be Human is to Move
103. Enjoy the Process
104. Better Bad Photos than No Photos
105. Why Keep Making New Art and Photos, Indefinitely?
106. Photography Motivation: What if There is Nothing Interesting to Photograph?
107. Move First, Motivation Later
108. Motivation Follows the Action
109. In Praise of Heroes
110. 5 Tips How to Boost Your Creativity
111. How to Have Inspiration to Take Photos in the Suburbs
112. Anything that Motivates You to Move is Good!
113. The Productive Photographer is the Happiest Photographer!
114. Make Today Count!
115. How to Break Through Photographer’s Block
116. The Joyful Photographer
117. The Dancing Photographer
118. The Kaizen Process of Gradual Self-Improvement in Photography
119. It is Your Duty to Make Beautiful Pictures!
120. Making Pictures IS Happiness!
121. NO EXCUSES.
122. The Pomodoro Photography Technique
123. The ABC of Photography
124. Just Shoot It.
125. How to Change the World With Photography
126. How to Find Inspiration in Photography and Life
127. How to Overcome Resistance
128. Create Against the Past
129. How I Motivate Myself to Make Photos
130. Wear Your Camera Like a Necklace or Bracelet
131. Have Your Photos Come to You
132. How to Level Up in Your Photography
133. How Not to Give a Fuck of What Others Think of You
134. How to Overcome Procrastination in Your Photography
135. How to Reinspire Your Photography
136. What is Your Mission in Photography and Life?
137. How to Overcome Photographer’s Block
138. Be a Photographer Now
139. How to Overcome Boredom with Photography
140. Never Stop Growing as a Photographer
141. Why Do You Need “Inspiration” to Shoot?
142. Just Shoot.
143. 5 Things to Do If You’ve Lost Your Passion for Photography
144. How to Have Unshakeable Confidence in Yourself
145. Don’t Give Up On Your Dream
146. Don’t Waste Your Potential
147. Unlock Your Potential
148. Empower Others With Your Photography
149. Why You Shouldn’t Follow Your Passion in Photography

See all articles >

The most virtuous thing you can focus on in photography is yourself as your own subject matter. And this is the thing that I find interesting: as I photograph myself, I no longer associate the photo of myself as myself. Rather, as something else.

Thus this is the irony: the more I photograph myself, the less I become myself. The more I detach myself. My ego dissolving. Or at least my ego detaching from my image of self.

Some simple yet ambitious photography ideas:

1. Photograph yourself every day. Treat yourself as your own ultimate photo subject. The great thing about photographing yourself is that you can never refuse yourself.
2. Create your own photography platform: For example, I deleted Instagram and stopped using Facebook, and instead built arsbeta.com. I believe in this short life of ours, rather than become the guy with 1 trillion social media followers, isn’t it more interesting to create your own social media?
3. Innovate new ways of sharing your photos: for example, creating slideshows of your photos with each photo displaying for only half a second. Or sharing your photos as PDFs.
4. Photograph and shoot videos of your entire daily routine. Instead of shooting it on your iPhone, just shoot it with your Ricoh GR 3 camera, with ERIC KIM WRIST STRAP II.

What does it mean to live a better life, and how does one live a better life?

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Some quick thoughts on how to stimulate your thinking:

1. One new hack I’m experimenting with is as soon as you wake up, take a cold shower, drink a cup of strong coffee, and just take a quick loop around the block. Starting off the day with sun exposure, exposure to outdoors weather, fresh air, and even the cold outside is a good way to get your body going, and your mind moving. Also to expedite things, brew the cup of coffee the night before, and just put in the fridge. Then as soon as you wake up you can drink coffee immediately.

2. Music. Nietzsche one said that life without music would be a mistake. Therefore, listening to certain types of music can stimulate your thinking. I also recommend more bass. The best headphones I’ve discovered are the “in ear monitors”, which are noise isolating, yet not noise canceling.

3. Philosophical films: Movies which philosophical also get me thinking. The Matrix, 2001 space odyssey, blade runner, and other dystopian sci fi films. Often ironically enough, mindless action films can also get me going, get my mind thinking.

The reason why I think crypto is the future is that as time goes on, people will care more about privacy, security, ownership, and cutting out the middleman. Also, vendors will not want to pay the 2.9% transaction fee to square, visa, or traditional merchants. Even though Visa and credit card transactions are quite fast, they are still not fast enough. Maybe Digibyte (DGB) can be a viable small transaction crypto, because it is so fast.

For big transactions, bitcoin is fine. Because if you’re going to buy a car or a house in bitcoin, you could wait a little bit for the transaction to process.

For cyber security and other future crypto technology innovations, Chainlink is interesting to me.

For programming on the blockchain, Ethereum is the one.

Extravagant means to diverge greatly. Typically we have been taught that to be extravagant is not a good thing, because it is not economical.

But perhaps in order to live a more interesting and beautiful life, we must strive to live a more extravagant life, and to become more extravagant in our spirit and in our soul. Also more extravagant in our aesthetics, outward appearances, and inner thoughts.

I don’t like buying things, because my tastes always change.

Truth be told, I’m actually not that different from the average American who is into consumerism and buying things. But the reason I don’t like to buy new things is that every year, or maybe every six months, my taste aesthetics and approaches change.

Therefore maybe one of the practical things for me to not buy things, or own things, is because I don’t like feeling stuck.

NEW YEAR NEW PHOTOGRAPHIC YOU.

Dear friend,

2022 is here. Why do I love the new year so much?

New photos await you, and a ‘new you’ awaits you.

1. Get rid of the past baggage

Carte blanche mentality. That which used to define you is no longer you. The new year means:

The opportunity to shed your old skin, and create a new skin.

A new year means a new rebirth. For you to declare new ideals for yourself, and to re-challenge what you used to hold true.

2. New dreams, new aspirations?

What dreams and aspirations do you have in your photography? To publish? To have a solo exhibition?

I have realized with goals– there are no ‘bad’ goals. Just honest and true ones.

It also helps to have a reason why you are interested in doing xyz. Ask zen of ERIC why app to figure out more of why you want these certain goals?

3. To maximize the exploit advantages, and disregard disadvantages

Certainly there are certain places, environments, neighborhoods, and conditions which are less favorable. However, in spite of all these disadvantages, how can you maximum exploit them to your benefit?

For example, I prefer the hustle and bustle of a Mexico City over the suburbs of LA. However, rather than desiring something else, just maximize and leverage the benefits of wherever you are. For example, one of the big benefits of being in LA during the winter time is the sun. Therefore the wise thing to do is spend as much time outdoors as humanly possible during the winter time, with a maximum amount of sun exposure. Also, being able to walk 30,000 steps a day.

Also, it seems that not that many people have done suburban photography. Therefore, my personal interest is to try to make a good suburb Photography project.

4. New life experiments?

I still believe there are lots of new lifestyle innovations waiting to happen. For example in the past, I’ve experimented with nomadic living, and now, I’m interested in experimenting with suburban living. How can you live a virtuous and interesting life in the suburbs? My new goal.

Also, being flexible with your photography. Rather than sticking to a certain genre photography, just take your present day reality, and seek to make interesting photos of wherever you are.

5. New techniques and approaches in your photography

Experiment with new technical approaches in your photography. Different metering systems, different compositions, and different ways to frame your photos. Also experiment with your aesthetics.

The new year as an opportunity for you to get rid of antiquiative notions in photography. This year you are the new innovator in photography. 

6. Starting a new folder

The way that I organize my photos is by creating new folders based on the year. For example, this year in my dropbox I will create a 2022 folder, and fill it anew with new photos. The most interesting photos are the ones you have yet photographed. And consider all the new exciting adventures you can embark on this year.

7. Invest in experiences

This year, use more money on new adventures. Go on little family road trips, rent a nice Airbnb, or go on short travel trips. Or go on bigger ones. It is up to you. Use your car, go on a flight, or go on an epic hike or walk.

Money is always well spent if you use it to spend on gasoline, airfare, or accommodations. New adventures mean that you will be pushed outside of your comfort zone, and you’ll also discover new opportunities to photograph. The more opportunities you have to make new photographs, the better.

8. Create your own book

Make your own photography book. Make it available open and free as a PDF, or get it printed locally somewhere. The simpler the better.

Even something you could try to do is print your photos on newspaper print. Th cheaper it is, the more easily accessible you can make it, and the more widely you can distribute it. Cheaper and many is better than expensive prohibitive printing. no need for a fancy hard cover book. The more flexible your printing options, the better. 

9. Becoming the uber visual artist

Also this new year is a chance for you to become a greater visual artist. To break beyond just photography, and become something more. Photography is only a means to create an expression, not the end in itself.

I actually believe the best way to brand yourself is not as a photographer, but to brand yourself as a visual artist.

So this year, the next time someone asks you what you do for a living, just say that you’re a visual artist. Much more fun and interesting than telling people what your boring job is.

10. Becoming more childlike, and becoming more creative

This year I want to become more childlike, and to become more unrestrained my creativity. Let us consider how children are able to create without any boundaries or obstructions. Let us strive to emulate children.

ERIC KIM WORKSHOPS

Invest in a new photographic you:

• DISCOVER YOUR UNIQUE PHOTOGRAPHIC VISION WORKSHOP 2022 (SAN FRANCISCO, JAN 29th, 2022) – NEW!

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New year, new strap:

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3. The OG HENRI WRIST STRAP CREMA BROWN // PHANTOM BLACK WRIST STRAP ON AMAZON

HAPTIC INDUSTRIES PHOTO EQUIPMENT COMPANY >

Books

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Share the motivation

If you have a photographic friends needing some motivation, feel free to forward this to them!

ERIC KIM MOTIVATION NEWSLETTER

In this new year, better to brand yourself as a visual artist than as a photographer. Visual art is much more open, and free.

To see if I can walk 30,000 steps a day. Will this lead to more creative ideas?

To “appropriate” means to “make one’s own”. Why is appropriation seen as so bad and so evil?

What is life? And what do we want from life? I think it is growth. Improved nutrition, improved upwards growth, and increased expansion. The desire to extract more, to extend more, to create more, to multiply more, and to extend our reach and influence.

To appropriate more materials, and more matter, and to refashion this material into our artworks.

Why do we love the New Year’s so much? My theory: a new year is pregnant with new hopes, new dreams, new desires, new visions.

Therefore our New Year’s goal is to become a newer, better self.

How does one become stronger? Simple: hyper nourishment and hyper nutrition. Even in bodybuilding, the notion of hypertrophy means hyper nourishment.

One can only grow more, if one has more nutrition. More meat, and also more physically demanding challenges.

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In today’s brave New World in which we have we don’t really go to public places anymore, it seems that which is functional is more important. Aesthetics are becoming more private.

What can you photograph when there is nothing to photograph?

1. Go to the local mall
2. Shoot macro things at home
3. Photograph your street block, shafts of light.
4. Shoot the suburbs.
5. Shoot your coffee, and your own meals and food
6. Shoot abstracts

“Enthusiasm is virtue.” – Galiani

Enthusiasm literally means ‘a god dwelling within’. In American English when we say ‘passionate’, what we really mean to say is ‘enthusiastic’. Passionate actually means ‘suffering’, whereas enthusiasm is more about a godly-like overwhelming of love for something.

For us, photography is our primary preoccupation. To discover the fullest soul of the photographer is our goal:

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1. A new you.

What I love about the new year:

A new year is a new you.

Also–

A new year means new photos.

What is life? Life is newness. Life is growth. Photography is growth.

What is the best photo you’ve shot? The photos you make today.

2. Hope is a vice

Funny enough the ancient Romans saw hope as a vice. Why? To hope for something in the future is often a fantasy, a ‘dream’ — something not grounded in reality.

To dream of a better future camera, or a better future ideal lifestyle for yourself … then you can become a fully-actualized photographer seems to be the thought. But no. No more rumors. No more news. Let us best leverage today’s reality, and today’s day to become the photographer we desire to become.

3. Extreme simplicity

Simplicity is a means towards efficiency. Not simplicity and minimalism for the sake of it. To become a more efficient photographer means:

To create and make more photos, and to edit our photos quicker, and more efficiently.

The simplest tools, the simplest approach. The most streamlined approach.

Apple Photos, iCloud sync, small JPEG, in-camera JPEG presets. Rather than seeking a ‘better’ workflow, seek a faster, and simpler one.

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Your photo assignment

Upload the photo you’re most enthusiastic about this year to arsbeta.com

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Follow your enthusiasm

Perhaps as a personal new year resolution, this year:

Only pursue that which you are enthusiastic about.

And also–

DON’T do anything you are not enthuasitic about.

The Occam’s razor of simplified living.

ERIC

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HAPTIC products I love.

HENRI NECK STRAP MARK IV: I love how beautiful this strap is. PHANTOM BLACK is epic. The new CRIMSON RED for Mahogany Brown is pure bliss.

Discover HENRRI >

RICOH is the new Leica. Get ERIC KIM NECK STRAP MARK II or ERIC KIM WRIST STRAP MARK II. RICOH MAFIA PRIDE.

My first photography book: Perfect for kids, your kid, or any kids you know (newborns for friends who are photographers). Books are the future for kids. Only 3 hardcovers left. Preview the PDF here >

Discover all HAPTIC INDUSTRIES >

AMAZON HAPTIC INDUSTRIES >

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START HERE.

Something I learned for myself:

The most virtuous thing you can do is plumb your own thoughts and ideas, and ignore the suffering, pity of others.

Too much interest in others is a bad sign — it means we get some sort of low-key schadenfreude (delight in the suffering of others).

Photos I’ve been making back home:

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Upon much consideration on what the aesthetics of the future are, a thought:

Perhaps the aesthetic of the future is white and black.

For example, when you think SpaceX and space ships … what aesthetic are they? Mostly white with black accents. Same goes with the new SpaceX astronaut outfit.

Why white? It seems to be the most efficient color in terms of dissipating heat. Also, when looking at the new Tesla cars, it seems the most eye-catching contrast is a white/black Tesla, with a white/black interior. It feels uber-clean, and uber-modern.

Black on black cars is a mostly boring aesthetic. Even with our iPhone’s… perhaps getting a white phone feels cleaner, more modern and efficient than a (boring) black space grey one. Remember with the original iPhone 3G/iPhone 4 … when the white one came out… how crazy everyone went over it? Also a reason why the iPhone and MacBook chargers are all-white, and AirPods are all-white.

LEICA, we off that. We onto the RICOH and the HASSELBLAD.

We off social (anti Instagram), and we’re onto ARS and our own blog.

We off Lamborghini, and onto that TESLA PLAID.

We off that Silicon Valley, we’re onto our own new thinking and thoughts.

We off NIKE and Jordan, and onto our own new shoes (mountaineering, Goretex shoes).

In praise of Starbucks. Even though Starbucks is seen as to coffee aficionados as anti-coffee, I really like getting a treinta cold brew (no water, no ice) there, as well as a big cup of water. Also fast reliant Wi-Fi, and friendly staff, high activity with people — good to go now in this brave new Covid world. It seems third wave coffee is on the decline?

Still of course cannot beat hipster espresso coffee shop vibes, but if you don’t have a good coffee shop close by home, Starbucks will satisfice.

Some ideas for the new year:

1. Your own city and neighborhood project: For an entire year, you are only allowed to photograph your own (boring) city or neighborhood. Just call the project by the name of your own city, and at the end of the year, publish your best 20 photos from the city.
2. One square block: STREET NOTES idea (mobile) — embrace the one square block. Keep looping around the same square block for an entire month, and shoot both sides of the street. Use this as the ultimate ‘creative constraint‘ for your creativity. Imagine it is like Daytona or LeMans– you keep looping the same circle, but find subtle differences each time.
3. Crush the blacks: Extreme high contrast monochrome. Keep increasing contact, and the ‘black’ slider until you have no more detail. Disdain detail. The soul of the image is the essence of the image, not the small details in the photo.
4. Every month put out a small e-zine of your photos: Make a small PDF e-book every month, or a ‘zine’ every month with Affinity Publisher, Adobe Indesign, or Google Slides or Keynote (export as PDF). Each photo book can have as few as 12 photos, as much as 30.
5. The zen of one camera, one lens: Put away all your cameras in your drawer or give them away or sell them. One camera, one lens for an entire year.
6. Un-brand yourself: Do not associate yourself with any camera, or brand. Spend the year building up your own name and brand. Make YouTube videos, your own podcast, your own blog.
7. Solo photography entrepreneur: Become a solo photography entrepreneur. Why solo? No need to participate in ‘collaborations’, or to join or be a part of a ‘collective’. To be a pillar unto yourself and not need others to ‘build yourself up’– a noble goal. If you want to make money with photography, either create your own products, sell your services (consulting, workshops, education, etc), and just use PayPal to accept payments (create a ‘buy it now’ button).
8. Every month, buy a new photo book. 12 new great photo books for you for an entire year (#buybooksnotgear)
9. Go on one travel trip this year: Can be local, via a car road trip, pair it with an AirBnb experience. Places to shoot in America (Downtown Los Angeles near the ACE hotel, New Orleans, New York City, San Francisco Mission neighborhood). For a more epic experience, Cambodia is open. Mexico City as a great place (easy to get for us Americans).
10. Start your own photography blog, and write one blog post at least once a month, and share it with friends and family.

More ideas >

HAPTIC MOTIVATION

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What I am watching and interested in

1. Fast and the Furious 9 (impressed with Vin Diesel longevity, and how buff John Cena is). Also big fan of Justin Lin (liked his Star Trek).
2. The new Boba Fett on Disney+

Read my Matrix 4 critique review (still recommend watching it).

CINEMA BY KIM >

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ERIC KIM TURBO THOUGHTS

1. The Psychology of Photography
2. Anti Small
3. 1000x Different
4. How to Become More Extroverted
5. Break the Simulation
6. How I Made Money with Crypto

More on EK BLOG >

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If this sparked any creative ideas, feel free to forward to a friend!

ERIC KIM NEWS LINK

To ‘edit‘ your photos means to ‘bring forth’ (your best photos), from Latin ‘edo‘. To edit is also from the French (editer) which literally means ‘to publish’.

A simple workflow:

1. Look at all your photos as small thumbnails
2. Flag or select/pick/favorite your favorite photos based on small thumbnails
3. If you see a photo which interests you when you’re looking at them as contact sheets (small thumbnails), *THEN* inspect the photos full-screen
4. Choose all your favorited photos, and export them to Dropbox.

I say just use Apple Photos. The simpler software, compared with Adobe Lightroom. Also, better sync with iCloud between all your Apple devices.

A thought on my mind: what are the clothes of the future, and future clothing?

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In order to become more productive, take more naps. I called this a minimum viable nap, just lying down on the ground for even five minutes is quite sufficient.

To sleep more, to nap more is virtuous.

Productivity by KIM

1. OPTIMAL SIMPLICITY.
2. Never Do Anything Which Feels Like “Work“
3. THE MORE DEVICES YOU GOT, THE LESS PRODUCTIVE YOU ARE.
4. How to Become a More Efficient Photographer
5. Productivity Isn’t a Duty
6. Power-Expression, Not ‘Productivity’
7. Least Activation Energy
8. Efficient.
9. Adrenaline Seeking Towards What Ends?
10. Don’t Force Yourself to Write
11. CAREPOWER.
12. EXTREME ACTIVITY, EXTREME RECOVERY.
13. INFINITE CREATIVE PRODUCTIVITY.
14. Forcing Yourself *NOT* To Be Productive Takes More Skill than Forcing Yourself *TO* Be Productive
15. HOW TO ENCOURAGE FLOW
16. HOW I GET INTO THE ZONE
17. Via Negativa Productivity
18. My Personal Quest for the Simplest and Most Optimal Work Flow
19. In Praise of Productivity
20. Via Negativa Productivity
21. APEX PRODUCTIVITY
22. How I’m So Insanely Productive
23. Why I’m So Productive
24. Productivity Hack: Buy Treinta (30 Ounce) Cold Brew (No Water, No Ice) at Starbucks and ask for a Big Cup of (Free) Water
25. How to Be More Productive
26. Adblock for the Mind
27. The Best Phone is No Phone
28. As Late as Possible (ALAP)
29. Physiology and Artistic Productivity Tips: Intermittent Fasting, Meat, Powerlifting, Coffee
30. Productivity for Personal Freedom
31. The Origin of Productivity
32. The Physical Strength Required for Creative Productivity
33. Via Negativa Productivity
34. Why Do We Desire Perpetual Productivity?
35. Productivity is Physiological Strength
36. Perpetual Productivity
37. True Productivity
38. True Productivity is Powerful Work
39. How to Become Insanely Productive.
40. Meaningful Productivity
41. How to Become a More Productive Photographer
42. 8 Blogging Productivity Tips
43. How to Be More Creatively Productive
44. Offline Productivity
45. The Productive Photographer is the Happiest Photographer!
46. My Top 7 Photography Productivity Hacks

My ideal:

Eagles don’t fly in company, leave that to the partridges and pigeons (Galliani).

What if you stuck for a year — to just go solo? True and deep independence.

Simple idea:

Strip yourself of all foreign brands.

Wear no clothes with have branding on it. Wear no watches. No association with any brands with yourself.

If you want to choose a brand, just choose yourself (your first name, last name is the ultimate brand).

One of the life hacks I learned from my friend Jeffrey Lam, something he learned on a podcast. One way to hack your metabolism is immediately after waking up, go outside and expose yourself to some natural light.

Personally natural light as something I believe in for myself, my ideal house would just be a glass cube, surrounded by trees, with tons of natural light.

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Inherent in every photography, and every photographer is a certain psychology. For example, it is very easy to smell optimism or pessimism in a photographer, or their photographs.

For example, when I look at the photos of a Araki or Daido, I don’t really see hope or optimism, I only see confusion, despair, and suffering.

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My anti-retrospective life philosophy. Spend a long time thinking before making a certain decision, but after you’ve made your decision, don’t second-guess yourself or turn back. Stay firm and keep marching forwards. No looking back. No regrets and no pangs of conscience.

No being wishy-washy, and certainly don’t keep flip-flopping your decision, like John Kerry.

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Something I learned from psychology and sociology is the notion of thin slicing. Basically the notion of thin slicing is that when you meet somebody, you could get a pretty accurate sense of who they are even the first five minutes. Certainly you will not get a hundred percent depiction of who they are, but in my personal experience, you can get 80% accurate judgment of somebody’s personality based on the first five minutes.

The same thing goes with movies and books, if you’re bored in the first five minutes, most likely you will be bored until the very end. Or in other words, if you’re watching a movie or a film and you’re bored, just turn it off, or leave the theater.

Therefore the practical strategy is if something bores you in the first five minutes, don’t complete it. Life is infinity too short to be bored of boring books, or boring films. And even worse, boring people.

One of the most badass ways to stay fit, and become hard and harder is just have one heavyass kettlebell. That is all you need.

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Which designs are the best? The lightest ones.

For example, even with website design, the website that is the lightest in terms of code, and the smallest file size is best. Loads quicker, and has less bloat. The enemy of modern technological design is bloatware. This is why I am very anti-Samsung, because it packages the phone with so much bloatware which is unnecessary. And if you have ever felt stomach bloating, we know that bloating is bad.

Also with traveling and packing for a trip, when in doubt, leave the heavy stuff at home.

Once again, with laptops, phones, camera, always optimize for lightness. Better to have something that is lighter and less powerful than something which is heavier and more powerful.

Or in other words, better to have a McLaren or a Mazda Miata, instead of a heavy muscle car even if it has 1000 hp.

Do not dwarf yourself. Do not make yourself small.

What is the role of modern society? To make you as generic and insignificant this possible. It seems that this preaching of equality of rights is anti-extraordinary individual. It is a disbelief in great individuals.

Why are so many people anti-Elon Musk? Because the critics themselves are small, and they cannot understand how such a great man like Elon Musk can exist.

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When it comes to design matters, design for yourself. Design as if you were your own ideal user.

What is it like traveling with a kid or a baby, and doing photography?

Difficult. But maybe not as difficult as you would think.

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My new personal metric when it comes to decisions when to buy things, upgrade things, create things, share things, etc:

Is this 1000x different?

For example, don’t upgrade your iPhone unless you think the new version is at least 1000x better. Same goes with clothes, cars (perhaps electric cars are indeed 1000x better than gasoline cars), etc.

Also with your personality, and thinking … strive to become at least 1000x different than others?

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Look at your photos as small thumbnails in iPhone, and click and hold a photo to favorite it. Then filter your photos by your favorites, and make a new album with it.

This is the small thumbnail test applied to iPhone.

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To become happier, live more boldly.

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Much of the social world is a simulation. Which means, we follow the same old Scripps, and we always talk the way others talk.

Therefore the notion of breaking the simulation is simple: go off script, and refuse to talk like others. Surprise people a little bit, and be fun and clever with your socializing skills.

How to become more extroverted:

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Many people think that cryptocurrency is all overhyped, yet I see it as one of the most under exploited opportunities, for us and our future. If anything, I think cryptocurrency and crypto technologies is under hyped, and undervalued.

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In praise of goretex.

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Dear friends, the new year is ahead of us. As 2021 comes to arrive, incipit is 2022.  I have great optimism for the next and upcoming year. Why? Our philosophy as photographers is to make new, and become new.

Therefore the idea is that this upcoming year, we will make new photos, go on new adventures, become new again.

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A thought:

If you got cool shoes, or a cool car, or cool clothes, but nobody is there to witness you wearing it or using it … does it make it still ‘cool’?

No.

Thus, we must have things or use things or wear things as if we were the only one to witness it or appreciate it.

For example, the reason I prefer to wear all black clothing is when I look at myself in the mirror, it is the most aesthetically pleasing to me. When I wear grey t-shirts, I don’t like it from an aesthetics perspective. And I also prefer all black shoes, because it is the least distracting to me when I am walking.

The best clothes are the ones in which you forget you’re wearing clothes, the ones that feel invisible.

For example when I wear merino wool (very fine high micron), I forget I’m wearing a shirt — which is good!

Or, perhaps the best clothes are the ones that let you be the maximally low-key and stealth?

In order to become more productive, you must do less.

What is progress, and why?

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Something on my mind: what will be the Aesthetics of the future? For example, which colors or color combinations evoke the strongest feelings of progress in the future? Maybe hyper yellow, hyper orange?

Or aesthetics that provoke healings of progress? For example, my new favorite camera design is the hasselblad XD II — more so than retro Leica M cameras.

Enjoyed a great two weeks in Mexico City and now I’m back to back to Cali Cali:

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Be more clever on how to use or reutilize things you already got than buy something new.

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The goals of modernity.

I say the purpose of cinema and literature should be to expand your mind, and to motivate you to new opportunities and worlds. Bad cinema and literature restricts and closes off your mind.

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My personal ambition:

To plumb the depths of the soul for photographers, and to expand our opportunities and souls as photographers.

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I believe it is possible to live a happy life regardless of where you are. And truth be told, there are certainly certain places and certain cities *more conducive* to living a happy and productive life.

Yet, after realizing that Mexico City is a perfect city (as well as Hanoi, and Saigon), also Kyoto/Osaka/Tokyo — I believe:

You can truly live a happy life regardless of where you are, but it takes skill, a certain mindset, and practice.

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Just finished watching the Matrix 4, and I really didn’t like it. Some reasons:

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My personal joy and interest: the best design and innovation is thinking about the future, and making a clean break from the past. Perhaps homages and nostalgia are bad.

I’m currently watching the new MATRIX 4 (I love the original), and I really don’t like it. Granted I have not finished it yet, so I cannot make a proper critique or criticism yet. Yet the question that comes to my mind: what is the purpose of criticism or critique?

The only idea I have is this: a constructive critique is the only worth critique given. That is, when your critique something or somebody, you must use that information and knowledge in order to improve yourself, or to not make the same mistake you don’t like.

For example, when I witness or observe certain character traits or actions of others that I don’t like, my personal goal is to not mirror that same activity or behavior. Thus to critique others with uncompromising sincerity seems to be the goal.

Simple– when your income/money outstrips your expenses and costs.

Thus, if you’re ‘net positive’ with money, you’re technically rich. My binary.

Just got back from Mexico City to LAX, and it was a full flight. Good news, everyone who is on the flight tested NEGATIVE for covid (you must have proof of a negative COVID test before boarding the flight). Thus the irony:

Those who travel are a self selecting population, who are most likely vaccinated, and at least have taken a negative covid test.

Thus the irony– you are technically ‘safer’ against COVID on a flight, than even back home at the local COSTCO.

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Now that I am a parent and have a kid, my free time is very short. Thus the need for extreme efficiency with processing and going through my photos.

1. SMALL JPEG
2. Shoot and view photos on Apple Photos (laptop), and just flag (pick, favorite) photos as small thumbnail contact sheets.