Then just focus on philosophical introspection, arts creation, writing, and thinking.

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Everything else follows.

In life, don’t optimize for comfort. In fact, perhaps a level of pain and discomfort is actually more motivational.

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Typically we are taught the impulses are bad. To be impulsive is seen as a lack of willpower, which is considered a bad trait.

But what if the opposite were true? That our natural impulses were actually our wisest and best source of motivation and inspiration?

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I’m about to go to Mexico City for two weeks, with Cindy and Seneca, and always the thing is trying to create the best and most optimal packing set up.

But how does one do this? I’ve traveled extensively and lived nomadically the last 10 years, and still, I’m learning as I’m going, and always trying to create things more optimal.

Some personal thoughts:

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Now that I have a kid, I don’t really have the opportunity, nor the strong desire to go to a gym anymore. I would always prefer to be close to Seneca. But as somebody who is addicted to fitness and staying buff, what am I to do?

I have this notion of minimal viable work out. That is, what is the maximum bang for the buck you can get physiologically, with the least amount of time and effort.

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It seems that a modern desire we have is to ‘optimize’ things, that is to make things better, more efficient, etc.

But the question:

Once you have achieved the summit of optimal, … then is the goal to strive towards *MORE OPTIMAL* for the sake of it?

Perhaps this is so. Once again, 100 years ago we never thought we would need automobiles. And after automobiles, we never thought we needed electric cars.

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A photography lifestyle concept: rather than forcing ourselves to make photos, just live your life and have your photography accompany it. Photography should be a stimulus to your life and every day living, rather than the sole focus.

Or another words, your real life child is actually more important than the photos you shoot of it.

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A design thought: when it comes to clothes, tools, cars accessories and things, avoid the middle. Either get something that is small, or large. Avoid the middle size.

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A good friend of mine, Takeshi told me this pro tip: when it is colder, or you’re traveling, and you want to be as light as possible, just wear two merino wool T-shirts, on top of one another (layered). This is more effective than wearing a vest. and because you’re wearing merino wool, you stay warm when it is cold, and cool when it is warm.

Some thing I have discovered: almost everything in life, and even most design objects are far more similar than dissimilar. Many of the differences are superficial at best.

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We new photographers of the future. What is our new ethos, our goal, and our future?

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Contentment is slave morality, or a pacifying morality and ethos.

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Some thing I’m really into is trying to find the perfect wallpaper for my iPhone. Same goes with my laptop wallpaper.

Ultimately what I discovered is this: best to design your own wallpaper for yourself. For example, nowadays I’m just making my own wallpapers using the Procreate app on the iPhone. And the reason I like this is that it is a double whammy: first I do something creative by designing and creating some thing, and then I also have the pride in using my own design for my own wallpaper.

Then I thought perhaps we could extend this notion to all domains.

What is the best design? The design which invigorates you. Design which pumps you up, and get you going. Perhaps this is why we also love red cars, as the color red invigorates us. This is why we also are attracted to women and red dresses, as it sparks our erotic invigoration. Apparently even men who were the color red or seen as more attractive by women.

Therefore when it comes to design, or aesthetics, Focus on what invigorates, and excites you, rather than design which is stale, boring, or depresses you.

Also with music, literature, and films, only intake and consume that which invigorates you.

What are the best shoes? The shoes which are most barefoot. Who is this I have all these L run shark shoes slippers, which are actually water shoes. They are great because they practically weigh nothing, and I could walk dozens of Miles and them without any fatigue

I think you could live a happy life anywhere you are. Yet, it seems that in order to become happier, more productive and more photographic, the more you walk the better.

Therefore I think that if you want to extract the maximum out of life, optimize for walking. Optimize your clothes, lifestyle, and occupation for walking.

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Nowadays, I find the masculine aesthetic or concept as very bizarre. for example, on one hand you have the steroid obsessed, bodybuilder look, and on the other hand you have the emasculated skinny-fat artist look.

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Why it is good to be polarizing

I think it is perhaps Christian morality that says, make everybody like you, be an enemy to nobody, and do not polarize. But what if the best secret was to polarize? That the road to success and victory is through polarization, not having everyone like you?

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Hey friends a thought: when you think about buying something new, just ask yourself, do you think it is 1000 times better than what you already got, or will it improve your life by 1000 times?

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Beyond basic ways to use YouTube:

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Document your morning routine:

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A thought when it comes to black and white, and monochrome aesthetics in photography:

When you make photos as dark as possible, and crush the blacks, and make the contrast the maximum, what we are doing is applying more black ink to our photos.

Like calligraphy, we love the black ink!

Thus when you’re composing and framing a photo, don’t include the bright — optimize for the dark.

Once again, do not include anything that which is bright in your frame, especially in the corners of the frame when composing. Just get closer. Stick with your wide-angle prime lens, and just use your ‘foot zoom’ to get closer to your subject-matter, and fill the frame with that which you find interesting.

Fill the frame with black. Our disdain for that which is *NOT* black.

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The privilege of being able to live without a car supersedes the privilege of having the most expensive car.

In other words, it is a bigger and stronger flexed to tell other people that you don’t own a car, rather than you owning a car. “Via negativa success” is what I call it. Similarly speaking, the ability to live without a smart phone is actually much more impressive than owning the newest iPhone Pro.

Therefore, the best way to distinguish yourself is not by owning the most expensive and obscure things, but rather, distinguishing yourself on what you don’t have, even though you can afford it.

The purpose of life isn’t to maximize your happiness. But to maximize your power influence, and impact.

Thus, with living matters, optimize and invest in anything that will help you become more influential, powerful, and will leverage archimedes lever to make a stronger and greater impact on society, the world, and humanity.

You become the prime mover, that is, you are the first one to start things. don’t wait for things to happen to you, have yourself happen to things.

In order to get more out of life, rather than wishing things were different, better to best harness what you already got, and to exploit it to the maximum.

For example with photography, rather than desiring to live in interesting place, best to just exploit your current city to the maximum. Better to be the first person to photograph your own boring town, than be one of the billion photographers who already photographed New York City to death.

Or consider all of the great philosophers who decided to intentionally not live in Greece, even though Greece was the epicenter of all philosophical activities.

Or in other words, better to transform your boring city or town into a great place, instead of moving to a great place and thinking that the place will form you. Rather than seeking to move to New York City in order to “find yourself“, best to stay home and figure out how to transform it into an interesting place. And you become the prime mover.

When you ask others for life advice, best to ask them for via Negativa advice or anti-advice: that is, asking them what not to do in order to achieve your desired outcome.

For example, when you look at rich and successful people, figure out what they don’t do in their daily lives rather than what they do do. Or rather than figure out how to become rich, best to figure out how to not waste money.

This is the irony of being rich or being a millionaire, that is in order to become a millionaire you must not spend $1 million. When people aspire to become millionaires, they think it means that they could go out and spend $1 million. But the real millionaire is the one who is insanely thrifty with their money, not the one who flexes the hardest with the most expensive things. Or in other words, the real rich person is probably the one who drives up the beat up Prius, rather than the one who buys a brand new Tesla.

In order to get more out of life, in order to be less distracted more focused and productive, perhaps being anti-optimal is a good idea.

This is called “satisficing”— A combination of the word satisfy and suffice. Also known in the same realm is the notion of heuristics, seeking a productive and good enough solution, rather than the “best”.

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Having a kid is the world’s best thing of all-time:

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No amount of money will purchase your freedom. There is also no product or lifestyle that will also give you your freedom.

True freedom is a mindset. As wealth is a mindset.

Even though I’m pretty anti-video games, I think that studying video games is actually a very fascinating way to understand humanity. For example, when you think about the initial grand theft auto and World of Warcraft, what is it that people love the most? The open world concept. That you could go anywhere, do anything, and unlock any and every single door.

And what is it that we want from crypto technologies? We also like the idea of getting rid of borders, and restrictions. Even notions of “decentralized finance“, is more about having open borders when it comes to the movement of money or resources.

Is real life open world?

So the trillion dollar question is this: is embodied reality, what we often refer as “the real world“, truly open world?

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What is it that we desire? Popular acclaim. It seems the common prejudice is the more, the better. for example, if you have an event, it is deemed more successful as the more people who attended it. Also the popularity of a video, in terms of how many views he gets, is considered the ultimate badge of worth.

But is this true? I think not. if we think that popularity, the numbers were the Apex importance, then McDonald’s would be the worlds best “restaurant“, that Starbucks would be the worlds best coffee, and whatever product has the most five star reviews on Amazon would be the best product (often not the case). Or whatever pop song is trending right now is the best music.

The rare for the rare. The more rare the better. For example, better to be the one guy who owns the Porsche GT 3 than be the same guy who has a Tesla model 3. And certainly better to think differently from the masses, and to own your own table of values, than follow the common prejudice that the more money you have, the more successful you are.

In the past, travel almost became too easy. When I was in college, traveling abroad was really difficult, especially before smart phones.

Now with the global pandemic, and the never ending stream of Covid variant, it seems that the future is going to be more difficult for travel, than easier.

What does this mean for us travelers and adventurers? It means that travel will truly become a privilege for the brave.

Whenever I think about my personal happiness, health and well-being, it seems that the more time I spend outdoors, that is simply time outside the house, the better.

Why is this? I have some theories. One theory is that to be human is to walk. The more we walk, the more human we are. Even though Silicon Valley mentality now is the most virtuous human is the most productive human, that spends most of their time in front of the laptop.

Why do we have eyes? Why do we have two eyes? Why do we have depth perception? Why are we bipeds? It seems that all of this is in order to transverse difficult terrain, walking much, and seeing far.

Thus a human being which does not fulfill their natural faculties, seems to fall into physiological degeneracy. Very much like when dogs are no longer able to hunt, they become passive inferior versions of themselves.

We love dynamic environments

Why is it that we love movies films and TV shows? My theory is that it is because most of modern living is very boring. Our environments are static, and don’t change much. Whereas if you think about epic movies or films, the protagonist and hero often goes on insane and interesting journeys, something that we modern humans desire to do.

Why not obey your wise animal instincts, moment by moment?

Having the ability to study philosophy, think about philosophy, and any philosophical matters is a true luxury. When you no longer need to worry about basic financial things, let us think about Maslow‘s hierarchy of needs. The top is self actualization, and then beyond self actualization is going beyond the self, thinking of yourself as a philosophical tool in instrument, no longer concerned with your self-preservation or ego.

Human, all too human once said Nietzsche.

A thought: in life, why does everyone want to become more human, that is become more like everyone else, the masses? Perhaps it is better to become more inhumane, or less human?

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Being frugal is the new luxury.

When you’re rich enough that you no longer desire or need to buy the most expensive stuff, this is true luxury. when you got nothing left to prove to anybody, not even yourself.

When you have the option, deciding to choose the cheaper option, as a pure aesthetic choice. Also, being frugal is often much more simple in life. For example, the simplicity of find groceries at ALDI, instead of Whole Foods (too many products).

Choosing simple.

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The barbell theory to life, avoid the middle. For example, with cars don’t buy a V6 engine, either get a 4 cylinder or a V-8.

With investments, don’t do the boring middle risk funds. Rather, either keep boring cash which is super safe, or extremely speculative cryptocurrency investments.

Also with friends and the company you keep, avoid the middle. Avoid your lukewarm friends, and keep your hard-core friends.

It seems right now, it is the worst time to buy a brand new car or a used car. The used car market is absurdly high.

With new cars, it seems that the only reason people are buying new cars right now is that people are bored at home, and they just want something to spend their money on, to give themselves a little bit more excitement in life (this is what they expect, yet it never really happens).

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Just finished watching the last duel, the new film from ridley Scott. some thoughts:

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In other words, take more risks in photography, shoot more ‘random’ photos … and endlessly experiment.

We have been given the ‘one photo a day, for a year’ challenge. But this seems too basic.

How about what if we 1000x ourselves, and think about quantity. And see–

If we strive to make 1,000 photos a day (small JPEG, on RICOH GR III), what good or great photos can you make?

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It seems people always say the cliche: “Quality over quantity”. But what if quantity were just as important as ‘quality’?

A practical thought when it comes to gear and equipment. Also with clothes and other things!

An observation:

Things which I don’t like about how parents treat or raise kids … I see this same critique in adults.

For example, I don’t like it when kids have too many toys (they get bored too easily, and it just clutters up the home). Yet, the same toy analogy applies to adults. Men with too many toys, this to me is also un-aesthetic.

So the simple idea:

With child-rearing matters, or looking at adults… just don’t do and emulate that which you don’t like or critique.

Or in other words,

When you see a parent raising a child in a certain way you don’t like, rather than just criticizing them … take a mental note and end up *NOT* doing that to your kid.

For example, I hate it when kids are just pacified with their iPhones or iPads. I will never get Seneca an iPhone or iPad. If he ever wants one, I will encourage him to get a job to buy one himself.

The same goes with birthday presents. It is a bit bizarre that kids get ‘something for nothing’. Perhaps on birthdays, use that chance to not get them stuff, but buy them experiences. And the day that it is the birthday of your kid, best to celebrate the mother instead (who had to labor in order to get the child into the world, which is the *true* labor).

What makes photography so fun and interesting to me:

Constantly trying to figure out for myself– what makes a good photo.

Also, always trying to keep photography fun and entertaining to myself by discovering *NEW* compositions I might have never attempted before, or knew which were possible!

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What is my lust and my passion? The quest for ‘optimal simplicity‘, in terms of living/lifestyle, daily routines, photographic workflow, creative workflow, design, clothing, cars — I want it all.

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Beyond 10xing yourself. 1000x as more ambitious.

Can you become 1000 times more productive? Can you shoot 1000 photos a day? Can you try to do 1000 reps or some thing? How can you become 1000 times more effective? Or increase your wealth by 1000 fold, what kind of high risk high reward investment speculation is that?

Silicon Valley is Slave Valley

If you’re highly paid in Silicon Valley, it is like the Golden handcuffs version 2.0. High salaries breed complacency.

And it doesn’t matter if you’re rich, or make a lot of money. You’re just a rich slave.

Would you rather be a rich Persian slave, dripping in gold, or an ascetic spartan 300 soldier, and free?

Better to live like a nomadic warrior than be a settled farmer.

Travel Notes mobile.

In modern-day consumerism, we are presented with an array of choices, what to buy, and what not to buy. Yet the problem is there is an illusion of choice: we think we are unique by buying certain brands, when in fact the reality is that all these brands are owned by a few parent companies.

For example, did you know that Porsche, Bugatti, Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini are all owned by Volkswagen?

Or do you know that Rolls-Royce is owned by BMW?

Or do you know that the gap clothing company owns banana republic, Old Navy, and Athleta?

Or that the Louis Vuitton LVMH brand owns practically all the luxury goods?

Or that Lexus is just an expensive Toyota, Infiniti is just a expensive Nissan. Acura is just an expensive Honda.

If we consider minimalism as a new elitism, then it seems that the goal is to own as few goods as humanly possible, yet of the highest expense, material and quality.

Dear friend, an interesting turbo thought: the word for work, Ergon, is the same word as battle as in war.

Which makes me think, maybe that when we think about our photographic work and life, we should think about war.

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The only ‘bad’ which exists is which pertains to cowardice.

In life, think–

When did I truly desire to do x, y, z … but it is cowardice that stood in my way?

Perhaps the only time we should atone and feel regret is when it comes to cowardice. But when it comes to matters of exhaustion, weakness of willpower (which is often physiological exhaustion), or non-desire, feel no regret.

Once again:

With your true desires, let us strive to never exhibit cowardice!

ERIC

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I think one of the main ways we are suckered by modern day consumerism is the notion that we must invest in high-quality goods, which are very durable.

But in actuality, I believe it is better to have lighter, more natural, and superior tools, at the expense of durability.

For example, it seems that durability is a German notion. What is the American notion? That which is sexier, and more new.

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Maybe in order to innovate more, we should become more spendthrift

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Strive to keep losing weight, and subtracting weight.

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A funny thing I learned about fashion: a lot of people try to force themselves to wear certain fashions, rather than thinking that the fashion should actually fit them.

Thus, fashion is like a Procrustean bed, that is, we see what fashions are trending and popular, and we try to change ourselves to fit the fashion, rather than the other way around.

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Every day you die, and you wake up, anew.

This day, today is carte Blanche. How will you plan, attack and conquer today?

ERIC

In beyond good and evil by Nietzsche, he says all living beings desire to discharge their strength.

To me this is a very interesting idea, because this challenges what we typically think of standard physiology.

For example, we are taught that as your workout, and after your work out you become stronger. But what if, the correct order is that we must simply work out in order to get rid of our excess stream. Thus perhaps we get stronger simply as we keep blowing off our excess steam and power?

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Perhaps this is the road to the maximal productivity, and the best life.

Work for the sake of it (arbeit) is a slave notion.

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A thought: rather than thinking of just getting one or the other, for example gasoline versus electric, why not have both? For example, maybe plug in hybrid cars are the best cars, because they harness the best of both worlds? The convenience of gasoline, and the speed of refilling, with also the upside of being able to plug in your car for free at these EV charging stations?

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A concept I have, which pertains to finances, and life in general: have extreme buffer.

For example, if you’re about to miss an exit on the freeway, allow yourself to extreme buffer to just miss it. Better to lose a minute of your life, than lose your life in one minute.

Or when it comes to your finances and bank account, better to have extreme financial buffer, then cut it too close to line. The way I think about it is live your life like you’re a billionaire, but like you’re a spartan 300 soldier.

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Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been into cars. For example when I was 15 years old, I bought my first used car, and for me it was a symbol of freedom and self independence. I could go anywhere I wanted, and I was able to modify my own car with great pride, in the tiny 1.6 L engine, five speed manual transmission, with no tachometer. The extreme pride I had and being able to shift my car simply by hearing the engine.

Fast forward into the present day. I actually really enjoy racing films. The speed the drama, and Ford versus Ferrari is a great underdog story. As an American, I love it.

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