In the past, especially in more martial times when we were at war, courage was on the battlefield. But now in today’s relatively modern and safe world, how does one exhibit courage in every day modern day life?

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Maybe being easily bored is a virtue. Why? If you are easily bored, and have a high threshold for fun and play, then maybe it is the boredom which motivates us to move and do things.

What makes a certain artist “good” or “bad”? My thought:

Depressing art and depressive artists are bad, affirmative and life-affirming artists are good.

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What if we just optimized our lives for fun? Is this what the ancient Greeks did?

Question: in today’s Uber technological world, why buy a manual transmission car?

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What if the purpose of life is just to optimize for your walking? That is, no more thoughts on “happiness”, but simply salience and desire and capacity to walk long distances with no pain and boredom?

Also, the best approach to photography is to just walk more. Also, perhaps the secret to living the happiest life is living in a society and environment which encourages and allows for maximal walking.

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To do more, to make more — this is what efficiency is.

To make more photos and to provoke more emotional effects with your photography.

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When is it useful to be “off the grid”, and when is it useful to be *on* the grid?

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What are we lacking the most in today’s word? Pride. Pride in our photography, pride in ourselves, pride in our artwork.

But how do we gain more pride in our photography? Some thoughts:

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To maximize our photographic impact, with less.

More impactful compositions = simpler, but evoking stronger emotions.

More contrast. Smaller file sizes. More JPEG. Black and white. Macro photos (getting close, focusing on the details). Stronger ‘figure to ground‘.

Even the “bad”. Harness it all for your own personal profit and benefit.

A thought:

In today’s world, we strive for these awesome material possessions. We want the Lamborghini, we want the Tesla, we want the Porsche, we want Ferrari, we want the Bentley, we want the Maserati, we want the Rolls Royce, we want the Rolex, we want the Panerai, the Leica camera, and the newest iPhone pro everything.

But perhaps, rather than desiring these luxury goods, maybe it is better for us to transform ourselves into a luxury object. to transform ourselves into a rare classic. For ourselves to be truly one of a kind.

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I cannot speak for you, but this is what I personally seek. To have infinite enthusiasm, motivation and energy to do what I love to do, and have the power to produce create and share.

Thus, a simple optimization is towards this. Thus I think the focus is focusing on your bodily health, physiology, sleep, sun exposure, being outdoors, and walking much.

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What does the artist desire? To enrapture and intoxicate themselves with aesthetic experiences.

Maybe this is the power of great cinema to rapture you and transport you into a different world (the matrix, dune). The same thing with great literature, poetry. also to some extent nowadays, virtual reality. Also anime as a hyper reality (in praise of animatrix, akira, etc).

The desire to make humans different than they are — why?

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If we liken photography with fitness and powerlifting — the goal isn’t to compete with others. Instead, seeking your own new “personal beats” or your own “PR’s” (personal records):

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Thought on innovation:

You don’t always need to innovate carte blanche (blank slate). Much innovation can be done by taking classics, and applying modern innovations on top of them.

For example with sneakers, take the classic Nike Air Force 1 and use the “Flyknit” material to make lighter shoes. Or taking the classic Nissan Z and innovating it with new modern technologies.

Let us not be fooled — reality is cruel. So the question:

Given the cruelty of reality … and in spite of it, how can we thrive?

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A thought:

Harness all “good” and “bad” things to your benefit.

For example, are you exhausted? Just take a nap, and find new appreciation in your newfound strength.

Bored? Channel that boredom to read more interesting and challenging texts to level up your mind.

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The gift of photography:

You can express yourself very much creatively with photography because it takes minimum effort to make photos, but the visual impact you get from photography is great.

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The foolish thought — thinking that out there … somewhere … a utopia exists.

But what if the truth were this:

This ugly dystopia in which we live in … is all we got … and is in fact a utopia.

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Not all pain is alike. There is good pain (the good pain of growth, overcoming, fun challenge) and then there is bad pain (injury, toxic people, etc). Then a simple way to live life:

Don’t do anything which causes you (or has once caused you) bad pain.

Then this means we should be grateful that we were endowed with pain, because it instructs us what is beneficial to us and what is harmful and bad for us.

Ignore convention, societal expectations and traditional morality and ethics. Avoid the bad pain (physical and psychological) which is subjective and specific to you.

ERIC

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It seems the human goal is towards infinite, renewable energy — not causing environmental damage. But… towards what ends?

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A thought: the reason why I don’t like to buy things brand new is that it takes no skill.

For example, if you wanna buy something brand new, the only “skill“ you display is your taste. but having a certain taste doesn’t mean skill.

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A simple thought: your personal health is worth 1 trillion times more than your productivity. in fact, if you prioritize and optimize for your health, productivity will come naturally. However if you sacrifice your health for more productivity, you will fail.

So for example, if you’re exhausted, just take a nap. Don’t force for yourself more coffee in order to become more productive. and never let guilt ever motivate your productivity either.

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Like Kanye said, you don’t want to be soft like bread.

And in terms of getting your juices flowing, it seems that the hard core is preferable to the soft core. then the goal is to become more hard, or do become more hard-core, but how does one do this?

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When you have a choice and option, opt for the extreme and nontraditional. Life is too short to be boring.

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What is the mean to become a better photographer, how does one actually become a better photographer? Some thoughts:

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The great thing with real life, embodied reality is the best: it is open world. The best world is open, not closed.

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I am so insanely enthusiastic about the new Denis V version of DUNE (2021) on HBO MAX. It is literally the best thing I’ve experienced in a long long time (to me, on the same level as the MATRIX, or perhaps — even better).

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Perhaps is this strategy the ultimate in extracting the maximum out of life and existence?

Thus let us be clever and see how we can maximally exploit it!

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Isn’t the best way to live life to think —

Everything happened for the best.

Not “everything happens for a reason”, but further:

All the “bad” things that happened to me indeed made me stronger, wiser and superior.

Perhaps when it comes to matters of life, lifestyle, fitness, health, food/diet and nutrition and productivity, think to yourself:

Is this thing I want to do, or this thing I desire to consume *BETTER* for my health, or *worse* for my health?

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Your body as the ultimate design (towards human design focus):

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A thought:

When in doubt, optimize for control over convenience.

Perhaps is this a reason to be anti-Facebook/Instagram, anti-Google?

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What type of photography is most noble? The type of photos which have personal significance to you.

For me, photos of Seneca, photos of Cindy. Photos of myself. Photos of society, and street photography (street portraits).

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Not ‘be’ all that you can be. But to *BECOME* all that you can be — through your effort, industry, and courage.

A funny thought while sorting our my laundry today:

I take out the one black merino wool shirt I have in my drawer, a ‘less desirable’ Minus 33-branded merino wool black t-shirt (as opposed to my collection of Outlier.nyc t-shirts which are far superior).

Then the thought:

Actually, after having the best (Outlier.nyc merino wool t-shirts), I realize– I don’t actually need the best. The more ‘bargain’ brand actually works just fine.

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Pain is useful, because it tells us what to do and what not to do.

Then the goal isn’t to get rid of pain for the sake of pain, but rather, to distinguish the types of good pain from the bad ones. Trying to better interpret pain in our body as wisdom.

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I find it hugely hypocritical and contradictory when people criticize Amazon and their business practices, when they themselves have an Amazon prime account and membership.

Nobody could doubt that Amazon, especially “free” one and two day shipping, has hugely improved our lives.

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It seems our end goal and desire is lofty thoughts. That is, we desire to use our superfluous sense of well-being, happiness and strength, in order to think and see above and beyond ourselves. Perhaps also becoming more farsighted in human society and history.

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What is the hyper blogger? Simple:

The hyper blogger as someone who always shares what’s on their mind, and always hyper-links it (connects) it with other things.

For example, cross pollinating it with past thoughts on their blog. To add and enhance their thoughts with media– photos, poetry, audio, videos, etc.

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Nietzsche had a quote saying something like:

The reason why we beautify our homes and go to beautiful places like Italy, etc is to remove vulgarity from our eyes, to make space for our soul’s nobility.

But — towards what ends?

My thought:

We desire to remove vulgarity from our eyes *in order to* think extremely high, lofty, and epic thoughts!

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ERIC KIM NEWS

Dear friends,

What is the purpose of an artist or photographer? To make (new) photos. So how do we actually do this?

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A riff from the buy books not gear motto:

When you desire to buy a new camera, because you are hungry for inspiration … just buy a photo book instead to scratch that itch.

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A new territory I’m experimenting in discovering with is parenting philosophy. That is, how should one raise one’s child?

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I want to become the first photographer to do a good suburb street photography project:

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Use this information to iterate, and change/improve and do differently next time.

A thought with the new cinematic mode on iPhone and just the trend towards YouTube and film/cinema streaming services:

Invest in cinema.

For example, the new LUMIX S cameras or micro 4/3rds cameras for vlogging or cinema. 24fps or 60fps, and 4k or even 5k.

Ironically enough in 2021 and beyond, MORE people are watching films series and shows (consider all the online streaming services).

Invest in cinema and video — the way of the future.

If you want a photo idea: just go on a hike and bring your camera along.

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Move weight. I move photos.

The motivational photographer as someone who makes and moves photos. And motivates other photographers to move their bodies more and make more photos.

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One rep max. No need to do more than one repetition of any workout?

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The reason why notions of improvement in self improvement are good as this: the tells us that we can grow, evolve, and become stronger. In a world where you cannot improve, you have no free will and you are destined to the fates.

Then, improvement in our photography seems to be the goal. But what does this mean and how can we do it?

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When it comes to investing, why do we feel like we need to make prudent monetary investments towards the future? The problem with investing towards the future is this: the future is uncertain, but your present today self is certain.

I say that the best investing is self investing towards yourself with a more definite end.

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Every time you make a new photo, you are innovating in your photography. Then the goal is for you to keep innovating by making new photos.

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Let us not be fooled: social media is the matrix.

If you desire more happiness, productivity, well-being and power, you must unplug yourself from the social media matrix. A simple and modest step: delete your Instagram.

Stop listening to podcasts because it will crowd out your own unique thoughts. Better to listen to music than podcasts, because music has the power to uplift and motivate you, whereas podcasts are designed to tell you why what you’re doing is wrong.

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One of the best ways to improve your photographic composition is to sketch them. A simple way to do this on your iPhone or iPad is this: when you see a photo you like, screenshot it then draw on top of it.

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Nieztsche talks about the “grand style” in art and aesthetics. I’m not quite sure what that is, but I know the notion of style is very important to me. Why?

Style as a stamp of you.

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ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER >

Dear friend,

If you upload your photos online, you’re a photography entrepreneur. Then assuming that we are all in a stream of becoming, then the question is:

How can we become MORE entrepreneurial in our photography and life?

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Looking at the Polestar electric car (owned by a Chinese company, who also owns Volvo)–

Why and how are Chinese companies so innovative?

Some thoughts:

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A simple end —

Strive to empower other photographers.

Or in other words:

Empower other photographers as you wish you were empowered starting off or though your photographic journey.

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