How do we get “gains”, or how do we grow, become more, and grow bigger with bigger and stronger muscles?

Simple — we must increase our nutrition and we must expand.

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A lot of guys don’t like to stretch, or do yoga, or become flexible because it seems like a ‘waste of time’, or it is only something that women do.

But facts:

Once upon a time, only men were allowed to do Yoga in India.

Also:

Once I started doing yoga-esque warmups before deadlift, my one rep max for my deadlift went up 50 pounds (from 405, to 455!)

Which makes me think:

Perhaps we should think about flexibility as ‘micro strength’, rather than this “sissy” superfluous thing.

ERIC

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A realization:

Our lives are photography.

Let me explain:

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YouTube as a platform to share your face and build trust, not to monetize.

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Ignore people who tell you what ‘proper’ or ‘improper’ form is.

Better to think about efficient form and inefficient form.

For example in deadlift, sumo is more efficient. That is why it is easier to lift more weight — the movement is more efficient!

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Simple idea:

In life, strive to achieve your ‘one rep max‘ in business, entrepreneurship, powerlifting, and life.

For example:

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If you want to become happier, more productive, more muscular, more lean (less body fat), and more artistically/creatively motivated-inspired-productive, then intermittent fasting is for you:

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Simple idea–

If you want to live a better life, don’t baby your gear.

No. Actually– pride yourself in using and ABUSING your gear!

For example:

1. Bang up your camera, phone, laptop, tablet, whatever. Have pride in the scratches, dents, marks, and cracks.
2. Patina: Wear and tear … wabi-sabi notions.
3. Either buy really cheap gear you don’t mind banging around, or just buy the expensive gear, and pride yourself in abusing your (expensive) gear! If your expensive stuff is scratched and banged up (imagine a scratched up Rolex), treat it as a matter of pride!

To baby your stuff (or even your children) or yourself is bad.

ERIC

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Money as subtractive … to use money to REMOVE bullshit, stress, care and worry from your life. Not money as a means to “add” happiness, joy, and excitement to your life.

New sports cars … hyper cars — they add horsepower, muscle, elegance and form. Faster speeds. Stronger. Reduced weight and technological advancements.

But why not apply this notion to our own human body? To build a hyper body? More muscle, power, agility, speed. To REDUCE weight and fat!

Hyper body is the goal and future.

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Instead of striving to buy a Lamborghini, Tesla, Porsche or whatever hyper car … isn’t it better to build it yourself? To take a skeleton frame from scratch and build your own hyper car, in your own ideal image?

Or better yet — better to design a hyper body, than to buy a hyper car.

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I see life super-simple:

Just pursue your passion, and everything else will fall into place.

Einstein’s (alleged) quote. The gist:

Make things as simple as possible, but don’t make them SO simple that they actually lose functionality and practical use (the problem with people who take minimalism far too seriously).

1. Adopt a more spartan, simple, ascetic lifestyle.
2. Live like a poor person (simulated poverty), but in an elite and strong way
3. Don’t own any expensive possessions. Even for me, I’ve found having an expensive phone causes unnecessary anxiety to my life (fear of dropping it, breaking it, having it stolen, or the annoyance of baying it). Better to have a beater phone you can just throw around everywhere, and no fear of getting it scratched or fucked up, because it is already scratched, fucked up, and old/outdated!

A fun techno-zen approach to life:

Every day, uninstall one superfluous app from your life.

Both literal (from your phone) and also metaphorical (uninstall negative people folks or things from your life).

Not social media. Your own self hosted blog via wordpress.org

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It isn’t a matter of “right” vs “wrong”, or “smart” vs “dumb”— it is a matter of you sharing your own opinion without fear, without censoring yourself, and without diluting yourself or your message.

If you don’t outpress your art, then you get creative constipation, and who likes constipation?

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New thing I’ve been having a ton of fun doing:

Shooting high contrast black and white video.

Why? It is like my joy of shooting high contrast black and white monochrome, but applied to moving images. I’ve enjoyed doing it on my Lumix G9 at 4K at 60FPS, and also on RICOH GR III on 1080p at 60fps.

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Contrary to popular belief, I don’t eat meat because it “tastes good”. No. For me, it is because I believe it will give me maximal physical power, vigor, augment my muscular growth, and minimize my fat gain.

It doesn’t matter how good or bad your bodily physiology theory is, we know … our theories are fragile, biology is king.

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A simple look:

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Yes, human grandeur is possible. Better question:

How bad do you care?

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Care, courage — same word (‘cor‘ which is Latin for “heart”). Proto-Indo-European ‘*ker‘ — the root of everything, your heart.

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Every person, being and thing desires dominance. If we disregard this fact, we are seriously deluding ourselves.

When thinking about almost everything in life… let us consider your core values, and your own ‘ground truths’ — truths you consider self-evident, and what you deem as great, worthy, and important. To determine what you truly care for.

It ain’t a matter of hard work, laziness, or whatever. The better question:

How much do you care?

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Simple ideas:

1. Wonderment — wondering why things are this way, or why nature or physics works a certain way.
2. Google as anti-wonderment. If we just ‘Google’ something, we will kill our ability to wonder and think critically for ourselves. Simple rule — if you’re curious about something, think deeply on it first, then Google the answer a day later.
3. Walk more. More long walks with ZERO technology on you. No phone. No music. No AirPods or headphones.

Some simple principles and foundations for my ideal school:

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Good, not great.

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I hate editing video footage. I just shoot ‘one take’, and just upload them. I love to shoot videos, because it is augmented communication. Communication of ideas, but also another form of artistic self-outpression.

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A simple life goal:

Structure your life which maximizes your creative and artistic flourishing!

It don’t matter how many Lambo’s we got, how many Rolexs’ we got, how many Tesla’s we got, how many ones and zeros we got in our bank account, what our net worth is, how many new Apple devices we own, blah blah blah … our human physiology will always reign king.

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Theory:

If you are actually really really happy in life, perhaps uber-high contrast extreme monochrome is the best aesthetic to display your joy for life?

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My thought:

If you are doing photography from an artistic perspective, to exaggerate and distort is good.

But if your goal is more some sort of documentary, then perhaps the more ‘real to life’, the better.

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The new luxury:

What you decide NOT to worry about or what you decide NOT to own in life.

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Funny enough, the best place it seems to shoot street photography is the mall:

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You only got one body; why strive for someone else’s body?

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You can buy a fancy car, or a fast car, or a car with tons of horsepower or impressive 0-60 speed, but you cannot buy a good body:

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Too much of our society is currently run by nerds. All these big tech companies; the nerd-ification of society:

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Photograph yourself, your workouts, shoot videos, etc. Use your camera as a tool to self-document and record your fitness, food, and life!

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Yesterday I had the very unpleasant experience of driving from my beloved Providence Rhode Island to Boston. Unpleasant because I forgot … just how bad, tiring, and exhausting driving is.

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We want security and freedom … but for what, and from what? And what do we want to do with our own personal security and freedom anyways?

I am a huuuuuge fan of smartphone cameras and all the empowerment and all the new opportunities it affords us in a very democratic way. But the thing and what I believe my honest truth is:

A stand-alone camera, dedicated camera, focused on only making photos or video will always be 10x superior. 

My thoughts:

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It seems we are all hungry for and thirsty for a “better life”. But what is a “better life” anyways? And once we achieve and obtain this “better life”, then what?

If it weren’t for us street photographers, how would future generations know what life was like today?

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A play on Galen’s idea “The best physician is also a philosopher”.

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I say:

Become less curious about the life and lifestyle of others. Become more curious about yourself, your body, your mind, and your own personal life experiences and story.

No niche or boundaries to your photos. Shoot it all.

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When you quit sugar and you taste bitter foods (black light roasted coffee, 100% cocoa nibs, 100% cocoa powder), you discover these “bitter” are actually quite sweet. Which makes me think:

Perhaps in life, we should avoid the obviously sweet stuff. If we want to maximize our happiness and health, perhaps we should seek the bitter?

Or how I say it:

Bitter is better.

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In this bitter and cruel game of life, bitter is better.

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My thoughts on Nassim Taleb‘s “Skin in the Game” philosophy —

Don’t be a coward. Expose yourself to risks for the betterment of society and others.

My thought:

In this game of life, your goal is to extract and contribute the maximum to society.

Promote yourself because you are valuable, smart, intelligent, skilled, and your opinion matters.

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You are the brand. Your first and last name. Yourself above all.

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All niches are traps. Avoid them!

In praise of being different, unpredictable, random, and fun:

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Because one day, you will be right.

Providence Rhode Island as the best city-state:

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Delta measures change. Change over time. Growth. Augmentation. Increasing. DELTA is good. Also the logo of ARSBETA.COM

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How to live and think like a billionaire:

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People who believe in the singularity — repulsive both aesthetically and philosophically.

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I am anti-conspiracy theories, and anti-notions of some sort of plot for the American government trying to ‘control’ the citizens. No. It is far more complex. You just got politicians lobbying for power, and lobbyists lobbying for more money and influence. The whole system is chaotic. Not only that, but the good thing:

There is no conspiracy.

This means — all the ‘connections’ we see are just randomness, chaos, and chance. There is no face to ‘Big Brother’ nor a face to ‘Uncle Sam’. We Americans — we got the power. “We the people” as Jefferson said; or even inspired by Roger Williams regarding ‘soul freedom’.

Do things early and always add buffer to whatever you do.

A new realization and epiphany in life and technology:

Don’t get locked in.

For example with social media, don’t get locked into their digital chattel slavery, or becoming a ‘digital sharecropper‘. Do not become an ‘Insta-Slave‘.

Even with Apple — don’t get locked into their ‘walled garden’ ecosystem. Steve Jobs had all the best intentions, but … true freedom requires you to NOT be locked or chained to any platform, device, or operating system.

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Hygiene as a philosophical endeavor (Galen). The physician is also a philosopher. Hygiene isn’t just anti germs — it is also physical health, physiological health, mental health, hygiene from toxic people and toxic news, etc.

Freedom is the goal. But once you got it, then what do you wanna do with your life?

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If you let pleasure guide you, you will learn much.

For example, I love lifting weights and physical exercise. Fitness is pleasure to me. This as I gain, I learn and love life!

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Uber-simple cooking:

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