Or “pathema mathemata” (via Nassim Taleb)— that pain ain’t a bad thing. It is our guide. For example if we got a headache, don’t just take a pain killer but ask yourself:

Why is my body and brain signaling pain? What’s the root cause of the pain which needs to be addressed?

For example, overwork, unergonomic computing setup, lack of sleep, hangover, or something else.

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To quote our best friend JAY Z (Jigga), this rings true:

You are who you are.

Also —

When judging or psychoanalyzing others, consider their roots and where they came from, and how they became who they (currently) are.

Exception … the basic gist:

You are different.

Exceptionalism:

Those who are more different are better.

The irony:

Modern society tries to make us all fit a cookie-cutter mould (Bed of Procrustes), yet still *PREFERS* the exception.

For example, we all eventually go Gaga for celebrities, and rich and famous and beautiful people. People magazine as probably the most prominent magazine in America (People magazine owned by the Meredith corporation).

Before getting salty or upset that others don’t respect you, or instead of getting angry that others disrespect you or don’t respect you, better to do what is most robust:

Respect yourself.

Don’t demand or expect the respect of others. In fact, expect others to NOT respect you. Expect people to intentionally DISRESPECT you. Then perhaps you can truly start to thrive.

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I love looking at my old photos and thinking about the past… to an extent. This is the thing:

If you are too obsessed about the past, your past photos, your past works, your past accomplishments… this becomes the ball-and-chain to prevent you from thinking about the future and pursuing the future.

The future of making new things, building new things, and creating new things!

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What is elitism? Or what is the ‘elite’?

Latin ‘eligere‘– to elect. “Eligo” means to choose or elect. Then what does this mean?

The elite are those who are elected into positions of power.

And also —

Elitism is the belief that some people are higher than others.

I then do believe in elitism. However to me, elitism ain’t about who is richer or poorer, it is more about courage, bravery, chutzpah and having the balls and guts to stand up for what you believe in, and having the courage to be tenacious, stubborn, and to *NOT* compromise your core beliefs … no matter what!

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The more things you own, the more things own you.

A “via negativa” approach to wealth and money. It ain’t about money making; it is about NOT money LOSING!

Ironically enough, studying the ‘easier’ AP [advanced placement] class (AP Statistics instead of AP Calculus) in high school paid off huge. It let me eventually end up flourishing in Sociology (statistics always made sense to me, and had real, practical ramifications). The gist is this:

Statistics can be gamed however you want it to be, and there is no truth in statistics.

In fact, statistics can probably only be useful in DISPROVING (Karl Popper’s notion of ‘falsification’) fallacious or misleading ideas. But even statistics has a weak ability to dis-suggest or “disprove” things. One thing I learned from statistics from Cindy is this:

Statistics comes from the word ‘state’ — it was the way a state quantified their progress, and how leaders in power could “prove” their advancement and growth in certain politics … especially in the socialist-communist governments of China/Russia (to prove their economics theories were ‘working’, even when they really weren’t).

A new thing I might have innovated in:

GoPro POV workout video:

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The solution — PREFER a life full of risk, uncertainty and fun!

From a moralistic and ethical perspective, nothing wrong with weed or alcohol. Consider how the ancient Greeks loved wine, Bacchus and Dionysus the god of alcohol and the grape, and also how alcohol in small doses is probably good for us (hormesis). Weed is good for pain medication, and the “hangover”of smoking weed is far better than an alcohol hangover. Yet this is my critique:

1. Weed makes a lot of kids lazy and kills their ambition. The normalization of smoking weed in poor neighborhoods kills ambition for kids to leave the hood.
2. Alcoholism is normalized in modern society. Most people in modern society are essentially functional alcoholics. Nobody critiques alcohol, yet it kills sooooo many people a year (drunk drivers, alcohol overdose, etc).

Basic. Think about the past, human nature, and societal and sociological-technological trends. For example —

1. People of the future are going to be MORE addicted to their phones. Internet speeds (5G and beyond) will keep becoming faster and more accessible. Eventually the whole globe (internet.org) will be connected to the internet, perhaps via Facebook, Google, or Amazon.
2. Rich elite people will keep getting richer. We will probably see trillionaires in our lifetime.
3. Data and computer and artificial intelligence ethics will become very important, but nobody will really care to pay for it. Thus computer science and machine learning, artificial intelligence will be by far the most lucrative fields of the future.
4. Human emotions, biases, and desires won’t change. Sex (porn), drugs and alcohol (weed, alcohol, LSD, hallucinogens), desire for status, desire for social ascendancy, desire for hierarchy. Desire for consumerist goods. Desire for more luxurious things.

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Do we love the future out of love of the new, or merely as a way to hedge or mitigate risk about the future?

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No independent thought and thinking, no advancement of humankind and society.

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My photos:

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How does social media make so much money? Simple —

Fear marketing, and FOMO marketing (fear of missing out).

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Let us not get suckered:

All news is fake news.

What do I mean by this? Well–

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Many benefits to becoming more muscular, and having less body fat (adipose tissue):

1. Higher self confidence. Perhaps this comes from increased testosterone production?
2. Better bodily aesthetics. Better to admire your naked (flexed) body in the mirror of your bathroom before you take a shower (or after) than to admire your Lamborghini, Porsche, or Tesla in your drive way.

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Just a few mega-conglomerates. For example, Hearst Communications owns:

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What is the worst thing holding back free thinking and free thought? Political correctness (‘PC’ culture).

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The best life — maximize both the good and the bad in life. The zenith and the nadir.

We all know that Facebook owns Instagram [bought for $1 Billion dollars], What’s App [$19 Billion dollars], Oculus Virtual Reality systems (like Rift, Quest, etc) [acquired for $2 Billion dollars], Giphy [$400 million dollars] and a lot of other stuff.

Why is this significant? Simple —

It is not good that one company has a monopoly over externalizing our self-worth (crowd sourcing our self esteem) via their pipelines.

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Use the upside of quarantine and the new COVID lifestyle to pick up film, if it interests you!

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Honest thoughts:

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Hong Kong photos from around 2013, shot on color Kodak Portra 400 film, Leica M6 and Leica 35mm f/2 Summicron ASPH lens. Some with flash:

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If you’re uber-critical of yourself as a photographer … who benefits? Not you, just your random social media followers. And ultimately your own critique and criticism and low-self esteem only benefits FacebookGram, who runs our lives.

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The goal:

Shoot more dynamic street photos.

Dynamic street photos means:

1. A photograph with more dynamic force, dynamistic energy. To make photos like dynamite.
2. Make photos which inspire you to move, live, and interact with others!

The ideas:

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Photo, video and life … it is all about constant experimentation, iteration, and fun!

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A life where you could never forget isn’t a life worth living. For example, while I appreciate looking at old photos, I also hate it. It reminds me of embarrassing things in the past, or feelings of inadequacy in the past. Perhaps the best virtue is to forget … and to keep moving forward!

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My new heuristic:

You know you’re doing something right if you start losing followers.

My thoughts:

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The fact of the matter is that capitalism and consumerism has brought much of the world out of poverty, has improved standards of living and hygiene, and quality of life for millions of individuals. But the truth still remains–

Capitalism is (very) cruel.

But then again … real life (embodied reality) ain’t fair. Mother nature is cruel. Nobody cares for our individual happiness. Perhaps once we accept the fact that reality is cruel, then we can truly thrive.

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The idea:

1. Debt is the devil; avoid all credit card debt, loans, even the ‘good’ debt. All debt is bad. If you still have (any debt), you are still a slave.
2. Just buy really cheap shit. Opt for industrial meats than the ‘healthy’ meats. Spurn a vegetarian-vegan diet, which tends to actually be *MORE* expensive than a meat-based diet. For example, I can buy pork for only 99 cents a pound!!! Even if I eat 5 pounds of meat a day, it only will cost $150 a month to feed me. Consider the average person cannot eat 5 pounds of meat a day ($5 USD a day). Let us consider the average American can only ear 2 pounds of meat a day ($2 USD a day)– that is only $60 a month.
3. Give up alcohol and weed: Good way to save money. Consider how much money you can save by *NOT* drinking alcohol when you go out!
4. Give up Amazon prime membership and all subscription services (Netflix, Spotify, Disney+, etc). A subscription-less life is the best life.
5. Don’t consume any media which is sponsored by advertising. You will then inadvertently get suckered into buying stuff you don’t need.
6. Don’t desire to buy a Lamborghini or any fancy sports car. Instead, aspire to transform your body into a Lamborghini, or just become insanely swole (buff, high muscle mass) with a 6-pack.

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Continuation of my ‘He Who Owns the Media Owns the People‘ essay:

These mega corporations exist in order to distract us to death (in order to maximize their money-earning).

These corporations aren’t evil per-se. They exist in order to maximize their income and profits. And how can they best do that? Own all the media which entertains us, and entraps us.

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In today’s brave new world… let us not get fooled:

Don’t get suckered by the news and media.

Why? It is in the best interest of the news to maximize their advertising dollars.

Also, let us be concerned and wary how Disney owns pretty much all the media— which indoctrinates us, our children, etc:

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I am convinced — the Lumix G9 (and the Leica-Lumix 12mm f/1.4 lens) in JPEG (intelligent auto mode, iA mode) is the best food camera. Why?

1. Great macro ability: You can focus uber-close.
2. The colors of intelligent auto (iA mode) are incredibly vibrant, rich, and true to life.
3. Also great for shooting 4K 60 fps footage of your food. The Leica-Lumix f/1.4 lens is one of the best lenses I have ever owned (rivals and perhaps even *superior* to my Leica 35mm f/2 Summicron M-mount lens). The Lumix f/1.4 12mm lens is only ~$1,000 whereas the Summicron set me back around $2500-3000 USD.

I am convinced at the moment, in terms of hybrid photo and video … Lumix is king.

Note:

1. Best uber-epic video camera as Lumix S1-H.
2. Best hybrid camera for photo and video and vlogging is Lumix G9.

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My thought:

I believe if countries and individuals were ‘allowed’ or tolerated to be more nationalistic … then perhaps we would be less racist.

My thoughts:

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My theory:

With black and white, you gotta use your brain and imagination to ‘fill in the gaps’.

Color makes it too obvious what you are looking at. With monochrome, it is more mysterious.

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You cannot get a certain message to spread or stick without propaganda:

The basic thoughts:

1. Propaganda is just a tool, it ain’t evil in itself.
2. To attach ideas more effectively, know your oppositions’ opinion. Karl Popper often did this — dismantle the opposition by sharing the ‘flaws’ in your own argument before the fact.
3. Be honest, don’t bullshit.

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What is propaganda? It is simple:

To propagate (send forth) a message.

‘Propago‘ in Latin: to extend, enlarge, or increase. From proto-indo-european ‘pegh‘ which literally means “to attach”.

Thus if we think about Propaganda in a modern sense– it is just attaching a certain message to a certain medium (let us say a blog post, a movie, a film, a photo, image, whatever) and to send it forth, to have the idea or concept augment itself, grow, and extend, or increase itself.

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A new concept from my friend Jeffrey Lam:

Mind Space.

What is mind – space?

My thought:

A zen–taoist notion … we need empty mind space in order to give birth and genesis to new thoughts ideas and innovations.

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Getting a 6-pack is actually quite easy. The secret:

Increase abdominal muscle mass (through exercises like planche, chin-ups with your legs up, squats, deadlifts) and also through reducing your body fat percentage (you need to be around at least 10% body fat).

The best way to reduce body fat:

1. Intermittent fasting (no breakfast or lunch, only a massive dinner)
2. When you break your fast with dinner, no starches, no carbs, no sugar, no fruit, no natural-honey-sugar-sweeteners whatever.
3. When you break your fast — what should you eat? Simple– very fatty delicious meats. Pork, chicken, beef, whatever. The more saturated fat and cholesterol it has, the better. Also alongside it, eat kale, collard greens (I eat it out of the can) or canned spinach, whatever. I also like sauerkraut from the can.

Get your testosterone up

Also — cut things which LOWER your testosterone. For example:

1. Stop smoking weed and alcohol. No problems about it from a moralistic perspective — it just kind of fucks with your testosterone. I am convinced all these men’s interest blogs, websites and magazines which say ‘beer in moderation’ is good for you is just propaganda from the alcohol industry.

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From the get-go, I have always been passionate about both street photography and architecture. Why? My thoughts:

1. Architecture is the human spirit and will concretized. It shows the grandeur of human ambition. When I see great architecture, it uplifts my spirits and makes me feel stronger, bigger, fuller, and more.
2. Street photography is best. I love going out — I hate being at home. New sights, new views, new architectures. The synthesis of street photography and architecture is the best!

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New Haven (and Yale campus) actually really good for street photography! Why?

1. Great diversity: Lots of different folks in the downtown, and a lot of people dressed up and going out.
2. History of the city — very gritty raw and historical. Reminds me of a gritty New York meets Chicago meets Downtown LA.
3. Great pizza
4. Good vibes
5. Beautiful Yale campus
6. Really good Asian food, cheap, and very multi-cultural!

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What is true difficulty?

My thought:

True difficulty is experienced deep fear, and somehow being baptized through the fire to become stronger than you were before.

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If you cannot adapt, you will die.

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To me true innovation is doing new things, creating new things, or re-arranging things in novel ways.

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More growth, more power… more!

Facts. If you’re poor, working class, always busy … you don’t really have the chance or opportunity to even feel depressed, anxious or worried. Certainly basic stuff like stress and anxiety about paying the rent and stuff. But the poor working class feel anxiety about money, but don’t feel “depressed”.

Just went to New Haven and Yale for the first time… and I really love it! Some thoughts:

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If your goal is to succeed long term, open and free will always win (in the uber-long term).

In life, do you prefer to be dominant or submissive? First question.

And of course, lift heavy weights. Aim for very difficult body weight exercises (dips, planche, muscle up, 1 legged pistol). Aim for a ‘one rep max‘ style workout, not boring reps.

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To speed up and simplify your photographic workflow, just shoot small JPEG. Don’t shoot RAW. Use a nice JPEG filter you like!

My thought:

A lot of people are disgusted with themselves and hate themselves because of reasons x, y, z.

And a lot of people are looking for the reason *WHY* they feel this way. And once they think they’ve figured out some reason why they feel this way… they feel the need to scape-goat this in order to hate themselves less, and feel disgusted with themselves less.

Okay let us think — what better gift to humanity than the Chromebook? Yeah yeah we all know Google is taking over our lives, whatever. But real talk — if you got a Chromebook, you can technically do almost everything. Big thing — it is just soooo cheap.

My only critique of Chromebooks is the difficulty for kids to program on it. Perhaps the next big innovation will be allowing Chromebooks to program (Computer Science) in a similar gist like what a MacBook laptop can.

But in terms of price, convenience, longevity — Chromebooks are great.

Our focus as street photographers:

Create photos which commentate on, critique, and judge (with love) society, people, and the world.

Optimize for the now, not the future. The future is uncertain and unreal, the present and now is real, tangible, empirical, and can be articulated, changed and modified.

For myself and my past self:

1. Zero tolerance for dad beating mom. Stand up for your mom, and get your dad the fuck out.
2. Stay scrappy. Don’t get suckered by the pursuit of money.
3. Don’t let others brain-wash you or tell you that what you are doing is illegitimate or bad.
4. Be more free-spirited, and be more brash, and be less ‘politically correct’. Speak your mind boldly.
5. Instead of having started a Facebook fan page, make an email newsletter instead.
6. Don’t let others take advantage of you. Be far more skeptical of others, their (unconscious and hidden) motives, and their plans to utilize you as a tool to advance themselves.

Interesting thought:

The meritocracy of a 6-pack and physical body physiology — it don’t matter how rich or poor you are, technically any human being can get a 6-pack.

Perhaps this is why rich people prefer to buy expensive sports cars and stuff… to flex their masculinity via material purchases, because they despise their bodies?

How to get a 6-pack:

1. Quit sugar, alcohol, carbs, starches, sugars (yes, even the ‘good’ natural ones), quit fruit, etc.
2. Intermittent fast (no breakfast or lunch) and when you break your fast, eat a shitload of meat and bitter greens (kale, collard greens) or fermented foods like sauerkraut (I like to eat it from the can) or kimchi.

Street photography is just applied sociology — with a camera. A visual sociology.

Street Sociology.

Question:

Is our goal and desire to *understand* human nature or to (artificially) change it?

It seems we sociologists desire to understand human nature without any spiteful judgement, whereas philosophers, political scientists, “behavioral economists” and short-sighted radicals desire to change human nature … often for the worse.

Why do we think meat is bad for us? Simple —

We conflate (confuse) the difference between dietary fat in meat and the fat on our stomach (adipose tissue).

Thus the simple thought:

Eating red meats and meats high in saturated fats will lead me to gain more bodily fat (adipose tissue).

This is not true.

Or I hate you because I am no match for you.

As Nietzsche says … has any men ever admitted to this?

My theory:

When we hate people, we hate them because we are actually envious or jealous of them… because deep down, we want to be like them and act like them, but we would feel guilty or bad if we did so.

For example … perhaps everyone hates JAY Z because they wish they were as rich and successful as him. They hate Kanye West because he is married to Kim Kardashian, and they hate Kanye because he is now a billionaire, so successful, so musical, so creative, and so outspoken. Perhaps people wanna be like Kanye and speak their mind… but they lack the courage, are too cowardly, or perhaps secretly they wanna *act* like Kanye, but society or their morals-ethics have taught them that to do so is immoral?

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Of course my body will physically die (I strive to live to be 140 years old in hyper health), but my memory and legacy shall remain, and live on!

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Very rarely are people actually coerced to do something against their own free will, forcibly. Typically the coercion is more insidious, sneaky and low-key: fear tactics include potential loss of income, blackmailing personal family information, or other forms of coercion.

Why does this difference matter? Well, realize most people will not coerce you to do something against your own free will in your face; they will do it against you in far more sneaky and hidden ways. Thus when you are pressured to do something or make a decision take a step back, pause and delay. Wait at least 48 hours before making the (potentially irreversible) decision.

My belief:

Unless you are a practitioner, one should not critique, judge, or commentate.

Why? You don’t got real-life (experienced, empirical) experience. Better:

Only talk about your real life experiences and talk about what you’ve actually done or not.

For example:

1. Susan Sontag shouldn’t have written On Photography, considering she didn’t (really) make photos.
2. People who don’t practice street photography shouldn’t critique it, having never tried or done it themselves (seriously) themselves.
3. Unless you’ve actually built your own company before, or became a sole proprietor of your own company, one should not commentate or write business books or talk about entrepreneurship. Or better yet, only those with risky souls should write about risk-taking.
4. If I am a man, I should not comment on women matters. Similar, I wouldn’t want other non-men to comment on masculinity.
5. I should not talk about the racial experiences of others (unless they are Asian). Why? I grew up Asian-American (Korean American) in America– and I can only draw upon and talk about my own experiences. I cannot and *should not* talk about the lived experiences of others.

With anything in life, just keep practicing the motion and you’ll get better at it! Even weight lifting and powerlifting — it’s all about practicing the motion.

If we took all the time we “grind” in video games and took that energy to real life and embodied reality … how much more could we achieve?

My turbo thought when walking around:

Certainly free will exists. However this is the caveat —

Some people have *MORE* free will than others. Also, free will can be cultivated like a muscle.

It don’t matter how ‘genetically gifted you are’ (I am not), but with enough time, training, and meat consumption … any human being can become incredibly strong and muscular. For me, I am Korean-American and around 5 foot 10 inches, with no remarkable physical traits (my dad is a typical ‘skinny fat‘ degenerate). I have relatively small hands and wrists. Yet I was able to train to get a 1-rep max (sumo) deadlift of 455 pounds (4 plates and a 25 on each side), with no belt, no steroids, no protein powder, no straps, no weird stuff. And while fasted!

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