It seems life is far more fun, interesting and fulfilling when we put ourselves in a situation which allows us to (self-directedly) maximally engage ourselves with either thoughts, ideas, knowledge, wisdom, art, or the act of creation.

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Photography is about photographing, documenting and creating images that have to do with human affairs.

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First sent on ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER

Dear friend,

In today’s topsy-turvy world, now is your opportunity as a photographer to shoot and document it.

An interesting insight I had recently:

Political photography IS street photography, which means… if you shoot things which are political, the photos are very interesting and meaningful.

This means:

Don’t allow yourself to become a prisoner of any genre of photography; just strive to make photos which are interesting or entertaining to you.

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Politics pertains to the “polis” (city, as good old Aristotle has taught us). Political photography and street photography seems to be the same thing.

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Not sure what to photograph? Just photograph a full 24 hours in the day of your own life. To document it all— what you wear, what you do, what you eat, what you drink etc. And it isn’t about making a single great photo, but just a series of fun photos to document a simple day in your life, and also as a means in the future to look back at your old photos and to relive the wonderful past memories and experiences you had!

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The purpose of life, art, creativity, entrepreneurship is this:

To always iterate upwards and forwards, to the heights and beyond!

Or like Buzz Lightyear says:

To infinity and beyond!

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There is much we can change in our lives and much we cannot change in our lives. Which makes me think:

In which contexts is it best to literally change the external circumstances of our lives (our environment, home, abode, lifestyle) and when should we change the internal attitude we have towards these certain things?

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A life with photography is soooo much more fun and enjoyable. Why?

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To shoulder press more weight (via dumbbells), do it one handed:

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Life ain’t about pain avoidance. Instead, my thought:

How can we use pain as a stimulus towards making us more active, to do more, and to become more?

Not to make the purpose of our life to maximize our pleasure and to minimize our pain. But rather, to use pain *AND* pleasure in novel ways to empower us to act more, do more, create more, think more, and become more?

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Life is too precious to live in a conservative, defense-based mode. Let us be more active, forward… let us ATTACK!

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What makes a street photographer a street photographer? Not our camera, not our approach and not even our technique. I say street photography is the ethos and the love of being out in public, interacting with others, being out doors and in public spaces, and harvesting the joy of life!

The harder you go, the harder you must also recovery! To force yourself to recover is also an active thing!

We cannot just force endless productivity with no recovery.

Work hard, recover hard.

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Towards an anti-soft and flabby approach to life.

The new motto:

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Our great privilege as photographers, bloggers, vloggers, and digital creators:

There is really no downside to sharing more than ‘necessary’.

Thus I say let us harness this benefit, and just share it all!

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Don’t use money to just buy stuff. Treat yourself like a scientist; use money as a tools for more interesting life experimentation!

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The point of photography: to better engage with the external world, to witness beauty, to highlight beauty, and to *ELEVATE* beauty using our skill as photographers!

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Happiness as a concept as too vague. Better to think about physiological happiness– the physiological thriving, growth, and splendor of the body!

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How to cultivate courage in modern times:

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This is the aesthetic and state/approach we are going for.

Life is not a competition, but there are certainly ways you can gain a competitive advantage compared with others, by identifying your ‘archimedes lever’ (your one thing that you are probably at least 10x better than others in) and focusing on maximizing that.

For me, it is very easy and seamless and requires me almost no effort to blog, shoot YouTube videos, lift weights, shoot photos, write, think, walk, talk to people, etc. Then it seems wise for me to focus on my greatest strengths, and disregard my weaknesses.

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4K video means that the maximum width of the videos are around 4,000 pixels wide (a good width, even to blow up stills and print them).

Why shoot 4K? Well let us consider all these uber mega screens we see at Costco. As time goes on, screens will keep getting bigger, people will spend more and more time at home streaming YouTube and other random things, big screen TV’s will continue to get cheaper, which means:

More and more people will expect and demand 4K video substance!

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Each and every day as a mini lifetime. This means — live today like it were a lifetime in full. Attempt everything your heart desires today … no fear, no regret, all courage!

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A life free of pain isn’t a life worth living. In fact, to confront pain and the chance of pain … this is what makes us truly courageous, otherwise we would only pursue what’s pleasant and basic for us in life!

• 

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In other words:

Don’t shy away from, or shy away from the potential of pain!

ERIC

Exercising to get rid of superfluous energy. Not exercising as a form of virtue-practice.

What is the benefit of exercise? Not to force yourself to sleep only 5 hours, wake up at 4am, and do some insanely intense workout. No— exercise as a form of expelling excess energy, power and force from us. It requires we are well rested, fully recovered and brimming over with physiological energy and force!

In other words, if you’re still tired in the morning sleep more and sleep until you literally don’t want to stay in bed anymore, and you’d prefer to get up and do stuff. And during the day if you’re exhausted, just take a nap!

What is the difference between humans and machines?

Humans are biological beings which require sleep, rest and recovery. The strange bias is ever since Taylorism, consumerism and Capitalism, and now the cult of productivity means:

The new virtue for humans is to become more machine-like (machines don’t require sleep, recovery … just some fuel and oil).

The problem then:

Sleep, recovery, rest and leisure and free time is seen as a vice.

But we must become anti Benjamin Franklin. What some people call sloth and laziness, we see the virtues of leisure, otium and the empty mental space necessary to self develop ourselves into something further. In other words:

More virtuous to sleep more, go to bed earlier, not try to “force” productivity out of yourself if you’re exhausted, and even not forcing yourself to workout or go to the gym if your body is exhausted and needs sleep and recovery.

In fact, we just prioritize our rest, recovery and sleep as our prime virtue in today’s insanely busy and crazy world.

Why weren’t slaves, servants, mechanics and farmers of Ancient Greece *not* allowed to go to the gumasium? Why were only free men, citizens and the aristocracy allowed to visit and utilize the gymnasium?

Is there some deeper and more philosophical and social/physical insights we have yet discovered about the gym, and the culture of the ancient gymnasium which makes us free men, noble, and virtuous?

According to slave mentality, the more productive, stressed out, exhausted, sleep deprived, busy, scheduled one is, the more virtuous one is.

The more I think and contemplate on photography, the more I believe it as a tool to augment human joy and happiness.

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I have a poor memory and often forget all the things I’ve done, seen, witnessed and achieved in the month prior. Then the thought:

Review your photos month by month, as a means of ‘double dipping’ your life experiences, joys and achievements!

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What is the first reason *why* we make photos?

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Floor bench press as ‘safer’ than traditional bench press, allows you to press more (you have better contact with the floor, and also lower range of motion). Still gives you a great adrenaline pump, great activation in your triceps, chest, glutes, back, and thighs.

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Become the creative visionary you idealize in yourself.

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Minimum viable product. Minimize the bulk to the minimum. No superfluous elements. Decrease size and weight and bulk (like the new iPhone Mini), or RICOH GRIII, but increase the quality, craftsmanship and strength.

Also note carbon fiber, merino wool, alpaca, down goose feather jackets, and smaller but more premium luxury apartment mini homes.

In other words, the future is simple, minimalist, expensive and luxury:

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My joy for the gym and powerlifting and physical culture– the physiological joy, rush, and adrenaline rush with attempting a new “one rep max“– discovering and testing what our current limits are. To push ourself to the maximum and not buckle– ultimate antifragility!

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Don’t do it for “the culture”, for “the gram”, or even “for science”. Do it sinply for your self!

Not just sexual arousal, but it seems that if we want to feel more engaged with life, we need to do things which engage and arouse us more.

Mihaly C talks about this in his “flow” philosophy — we must seek the optimal human state which is a state of flow in which we are maximally aroused and focused on our task at hand without being overwhelmed!

For example, I get a huge jolt of energy from social arousal. I get more engaged and aroused when I’m around other human beings. This is why I love social life and social living, and I hate staying at home.

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An effective way to think about and approach life.

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Simple ideas:

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What will be the future photographic work flows? Perhaps a hybrid of Google Photos, Apple photos, Dropbox or your own media library in your own blog.

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Not making money directly from your art work, but indirectly.

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Profits not for the sake of profit, but profit as a means to continually channel into new research and development (BOSE), new innovations, new great products (Apple), or new ways to make our lives more convenient (Amazon)?

The primary new form of innovation in photography will happen via innovation in photography technique and approach. Some thoughts:

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What are the best forms of pleasure? Good old Aristotle instructs us to seek pleasure in itself in philosophy. I say let us seek pleasure in what we can control:

1. Going to the gym and getting a good pump, lift and workout
2. Pleasure in reading, studying philosophy
3. Writing, thinking, making art, photographing
4. Going on a nice walk or drive
5. Thinking big.

If you want to be ‘happier’ in life, more powerful, more productive, have more creative turbo thoughts, build a more beautiful physique and more, it seems simple: powerlifting is the way.

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What do you do with your life once you got “financial independence”/“financial freedom”? Simple thought:

Focus on philosophy and art.

That means spend much of your time and energy thinking, reading, writing, walking, lifting weights and writing and publishing and sharing your thoughts! Art and philosophy — a great and noble goal and end game!

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Buffer in the context of more buffer in space, time, energy, resources and planning.

Sunshine beautiful sunshine!

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Meat glorious meat!

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MONOCHROME GYM: Great lighting, very interesting aesthetic and approach:

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Why do we feel so alienated and lonely in modern times? Because of the change in social spaces. Covid 19 has accelerated and augmented the shift for us to be more antisocial, more stuck at home, and more lonely. A stay at home quarantine lifestyle away from other humans is the worst lifestyle.

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What’s our goal? To keep growing. Larger than life. To continue to grow in size, stature and bulk.

And it isn’t about how objectively big you are or not, but your perception and acknowledgement of your growth. For example seeing yourself bigger, stronger and more massive today than yourself yesterday!

Inspiration literally means to “in+breathe” while expiration means “out+breathe”.

We seek artistic inspiration… but what if we also need artistic “expiration” (a breathing out of art work or concepts or ideas) in order to create an artistic flywheel between the inspiration *and* expiration side of art?

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The gym as the ultimate playground to test your courage; and not to succumb to fear and horror!

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FIRST SENT ON ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER >

Dear friends, a motivational photo thought:

You are what you photograph, and you photograph what you are.

The point ain’t to photograph anyone else who isn’t you, but to photograph YOU. To photograph your own life. Your own wife. Your kids, your partner, your friends. Your daily activities.

And towards what ends do you photograph? Because as you photograph, you are giving a kiss to everything you shoot. Meaning, photography is signaling gratitude towards yourself in your life in terms of what you value. The photographer photographs what he or she values.

And why share what you value? Because it brings you joy to share what you value, and it also inspires and motivates others to share what they value. And the more you can get others to share what they value, the more you can change the world!

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The best life is the life in which you direct all your energy, force and courage towards things you can control, while realizing almost everything else is outside of your control, and that’s fine!

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The two vices which grip mankind and hold back man from his fullest potential.

What would a life look like in which we had no horror or fear? Perhaps the best and most noble life!

Great health not for the sake of it. Great health as a means and as a road to great creative thoughts, which will lead you to great creative productivity (to think great thoughts and produce great art works, ideas, photos, videos, blog posts, essays and more!)

Not new cameras, not new lenses, not better smartphone cameras, new formats, etc.

The future of innovation in photography as technique, approach, new modes of sharing and publishing your work, innovations in photo-video-animated GIF hybrid, innovations of philosophy, and ways to more effectively filter, sort, edit and select your best works!

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The difficult thing to reconcile in photography:

Thinking about our past, present, and future photos.

For example, I think most of us photographers tend to get stuck on our past photos, and as a result we forget to focus on photographing the present moment (right now, today) while also looking forward to FUTURE photos (future life, future experiences, etc).

In fact what I think is this:

The best photos photos are the ones yet to have come!

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My personal greed and desire:

To do more, experience more, and become more in a single given day!

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Arcade as a great place to shoot photos and videos!

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The bright new optimism for our future as photographers: the reminder —

With every new rosy fingered dawn means a new day for us as photographers and visual artists to make new photos!

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Our goal:

Never stop climbing for higher heights … literally and metaphorically!

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In Praise of One Rep Maxing for Dumbbell Press

Safer, more fun, interesting and independent than one rep max bench pressing:

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What’s the difference between nature and man? Nature grows organically while man builds.

If we think about our cities, our malls and all our man made creations … it is all predicated on this notion of growth (via building!)

Towards what ends do we build? To continually build and grow the human spirit. No end!

This is often the problem:

We get suckered by what looks more sophisticated (silly exercise balls and “mobility” stuff at the gym) rather than what is more *effective* (one rep max deadlifts, squats, chinups, etc).

Why this bias? Marketing. It is easier to sell which seems more complex and “fancy” than what is simple.

To save money for the sake of saving money or refusing always to use money and resources is foolish and scrooge-like. What we gotta determine and figure out is this:

In which *contexts* is saving money good and in which contexts is *spending* more money better?

Some thoughts:

1. If you’re an internet entrepreneur, spending more money on a faster home wifi connection is wise. For example I’m sooooo much happier and more productive having insanely fast wifi at home (Verizon gigabit fiber optic internet speeds at home) for far faster upload speeds, which means I can produce and share more with less delay, less lag and less frustration! Morale: don’t cheap out when it comes to your home wifi connection.
2. I have zero qualms on spending a bunch of money on (cheap) cuts of meat. For example I can buy pork for only 99 cents a pound. So I’ll buy a shitload of meat for home, and eat as much as I desire when I break my fast for dinner!
3. If you’re cold at home during the winter, fuck it — just crank up the heat! And if you’re cold outdoors, wise to spend a lot of money on very good warm winter clothes (especially if you plan on spending a lot of time outdoors). Get a good down jacket, good merino wool socks, a good goretex jacket or good goretex boots.

What’s a poor use of money? My thoughts:

1. Expensive smartphones are a horrible life decision. Same goes with expensive cars.
2. Don’t waste money on expensive designer clothes which aren’t functional or warm. Best to think of clothing more as battle armor.
3. Don’t waste money on expensive sneakers. Best to just buy some very good Goretex shoes (Asolo, Salomon) instead.

Typically we have been taught and trained that the more energy, electricity and resources we save and don’t use, the better. But what if the opposite were true:

The MORE energy, resources and electricity gas and heat you use and produce, the better?

Towards a more “wasteful” mindset, ideated around prolificacy, expending *MORE* energy but also producing *MORE* energy. To generate a “net positive”. To use more resources in order to produce more resources?