“To cure yourself of the news, spend a whole year spending last year’s news.” – Nassim Taleb

Problem of the news:

99.9999% noise, very little (if any) signal.

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But this is what allows you to become great!

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When we blame others, we take free will away from ourselves?

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We need difficulty, challenge, chaos, and tragedy in order to level up!

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My life story:

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Dear friends,

I know I personally get ‘stir crazy’ when stuck at home all day. I also get really bored. Some motivational stuff to conquer boredom when stuck at home:

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Practical ideas:

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Things which are good, but unnecessary.

Protein powder and supplements are unnecessary

I’ve built my physique with NO protein powder, NO supplements, no weird stuff. Only fatty meat, eggs, and bitter greens (kale, collard greens). All cheap cuts of meat (99 cent a pound pork or chicken), and beef steak around 2.99 a pound (or ground beef, ground pork, etc).

I am convinced:

Protein powder, supplements are all based on FEAR MARKETING.

Fear marketing:

If you don’t buy x, y, z … then you will LOSE OUT on your potential to make EVEN GREATER gains and growth.

I follow this line of thinking:

If it ain’t 100% necessary, don’t fuck with it.

Who knows all the other weird stuff they put in protein powder and supplements. Better to stick with eating animals than eating minerals, vitamins, and powderized weird stuff.

Photography

You can do much with simple equipment. For example, RICOH GR II (~$550 USD) has helped me create some of the best photos in my portfolio:

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And also — newer photos I live on RICOH GR III ($890 USD):

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To me, it is all about information. If you got access to the right information, the right thoughts, and you have open and free access … then if you fail in life (you can blame yourself). Or if you don’t put in enough effort, you can blame yourself. But you cannot blame yourself for not having the same information as everyone else.

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What we are currently witnessing might be a sign of things to come. A new society. Society 2.0.

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Ultimate contrast, focus on shapes and forms. Gives movement to our feet and inspires us!

How I make abstract black and white images

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Procreate app and iPad. I use lasso tool, then create a “visual gist”, then make the image. Sometimes based on a photo or art work. Sometimes not.

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It’s all an impression and creative power

I love how I don’t gotta take it so seriously. It’s fun, simple, yet concentrated and solid.

Just have fun!

don’t take it too seriously. Just have fun and screw around with it!

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Our brain can fill in the blanks

Which is which? What do these look like?

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I know personally I have a negative bias against fat and fatness in humans.

Why is this? Some thoughts:

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DON’T FORGET — you can still leave the house. But why?

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When old industries are becoming destroyed, new ones are giving birth.

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A thought:

In life, consider what your desired outcome is, and work backwards.

For example, you gotta ask yourself:

What do I REALLY want?

What do you really want from life, and how bad do you want it? What are you willing to sacrifice for it? Also, how do you best want to re-arrange your life or lifestyle in order to achieve your desired outcomes in life?

For example,

1. If your desired outcome is to empower your partner, change your actions or approach which empowers them.
2. If your desire is to make artwork, arrange your life to best give you the ability to make artwork!

Start with the end then work backwards.

ERIC KIM

Practical assignments to get you shooting and moving! 😃👍

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Street vlogging– a brave new world!

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Motivation literally means ‘to move’. Thus photography motivation is this:

How to inspire ourselves to MOVE MORE and SHOOT MORE?

Practical thoughts:

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“ALL PHOTOS ARE ACCURATE, NONE ARE TRUTH.” – Richard Avedon

PHOTOS CAN NEVER TELL THE TRUTH:

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Seek to Gain Muscle Mass and Lower Bodyfat. Over-Fat vs Over-Weight.

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Movement is the source of all creative thought, joy, happiness, and life.

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1. Go on a walk with your camera
2. go to the gym and lift weights (deadlift, squat, bench). Powerlifting style.
3. make beats in GarageBand
4. write a blog post about something which interests you
5. take a cold shower
6. call a friend on the phone and say hello
7. go to a coffee shop, have a nice cup of coffee, chat with the barista or some strangers. Write, read a book, or just people watch
8. drive to some nature area or park, and go on a quick walk or hike.
9. go swim
10. learn something: learn something online, in a book, or somewhere in person
11. make illustrations with procreate app on iPad or iPhone, or calligraphy with zen brush 2.
12. write a poem that rhymes and share it on your blog
13. shoot a vlog and upload it to your YouTube channel
14. look through your old photos, and update your photo portfolio on your website
15. read some novels you’ve been wanting to read. The Iliad or Odyssey by Homer, or the Odes of Horace.
16. shoot some selfies of yourself at home. Share them or just view them for yourself for fun.
17. watch some movies or cinema on your laptop, and screenshot the compositions you like, annotate them, and publish to your blog.
18. start your own website (WordPress.org).
19. make a slideshow of your favorite photos using iMovie.
20. Draw or sketch stuff around the house using a pencil and paper, or pen and pad.

I am a photographer, and I make photos.

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The holy grail:

The ability to ADD MUSCLE and SUBTRACT FAT at the same time.

I think I figured it out. Essentially intermittent fasting throughout the day [no breakfast, no lunch, only dinner], no sugar in your diet, no alcohol, no carbs. For eating, only eat bitter greens [kale, collard greens], fermented foods [kimchi, saurkraut], and lots of fatty meats [pork picnic roast, steak, dark chicken meat, etc].

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Made with iPad and Procreate:

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An interesting way to see composition–

Think about bounding boxes around your subjects.

This is effective for multiple subjects, layers, and more.

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Seize your opportunity! With all this craziness, think:

This is my chance and opportunity to seize it — and benefit from it!

For example, let us say you gotta work from home. That is great! You can milk your employer, and start building your business on the side [side-hustle]. You have MORE freedom working from home — no boss constantly peering over your shoulder. Isn’t this phenomenal?

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To become more prolific means to make and produce more:

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My thought–

Once you got a universal basic income [rent, food, water, wifi, coffee, electricity covered], and assuming you cannot travel [outside of your city], what should you do with your life?

My thoughts:

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READ WHAT AUGMENTS YOUR COURAGE.

My list (in no particular order):

1. The Iliad – Homer
2. Steve Jobs – Walter Isaacson
3. Antifragile, Bed of Procrustes, Skin in the Game – Nassim Taleb
4. The Will to Power, Twilight of the Idols, The Joyful Wisdom – Nietzsche
5. All Poems by Horace
6. Fragments from Heraclitus
7. Aphorisms by Publilus Syrus

Pretty much all the books I download for free as .epub on Gutenberg.org, and I read with default Books app on iPad.

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If you’re stuck at home or indoors, here are some practical ideas to motivate yourself to make art [from the comfort of your own home]!:

1. Make illustrations: Use ProCreate on iPad or iPhone to make illustrations. Or you can use Adobe Illustrator on your laptop to make images. Or simpler yet– practice drawing by hand! Just draw on a piece of printer paper, or any scrap paper. Channel your inner-2 year old, and have fun with crayons and more!
2. Curate your portfolio: Look through your portfolio of images, and select your favorite images, and publish them to your own website/blog! Remember to curate is also a creative act.
3. Make a slideshow of your favorite photos using iMovie or any other slideshow maker: For an added bonus, practice to use GarageBand to make your own beats. If you need free music, you can download my beats.
4. Write: Write articles, a blog post, start your autobiography, write poetry [this is how I write poetry], and publish it to your own blog. If you don’t got a blog, just use wordpress.com or medium.com.
5. Use this opportunity to start your own website: This can be your chance to (finally) start your own self-hosted website! I recommend bluehost.com, and installing WordPress.org. Building a website ain’t hard; learning how to use aperture and shutter-speed on a digital camera is far more complex!
6. Shoot a vlog: Use the selfie mode on your iPhone, Android, or digital camera, and upload it to your own YouTube channel. You can just use the YouTube app on your phone, or go to YouTube.com/upload on your laptop to start uploading videos.
7. Explore all the filters on your camera or phone: If you’re stuck at home, experiment with all the filter modes on your iPhone, digital camera, or Android device. And just shoot random stuff at home, or shoot selfies of yourself.
8. Remix or re-process your old photos: Experiment with filters in Photoshop, or inverse your photos, blur them, or draw over them!

Turbo — turbine, disorder, to rotate, swirl.

To turbocharge yourself:

Harness that inner-chaos and inner-disorder of yourself in order to PROPEL YOURSELF HIGHER!

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You got the power
To go hard, hour after hour
No need to be sour or salty
You just gotta exalt thee

You got the power, you got the strength
To move mountains — just stay in place
Stay grounded, feet connected to the ground
You’re the giant, Mother Earth
Nurses you, no cursing you
You determine your own fate
Keep working hard — can you keep up the pace?

ERIC

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If I had the option to going to Mars or another planet, I’d refuse. Why? I love earth and prefer it above any other planet.

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Why are photos of eyes and eye contact so powerful?

We have an intuition for eye-contact.

Also,

We like eye contact, or sometimes we fear it.

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If you’re stuck indoors, some practical ideas on making art from home:

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It seems Homo sapiens have been around for around 500,000 years (a long time). Assuming an average human lived to be 50, that means 10,000 generations of humans have undergone to get us to where we are now.

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Becoming hyper-human means this:

Become BEYOND yourself.

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The thought that some races are genetically superior to others (or some races are genetically inferior) is racism.

What we gotta be worried about in today’s world:

Low-key racism.

This is racism which isn’t in your face. It is the hidden, sneaky racism:

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Today’s world, we don’t really go into military service, nor do we become soldiers. Perhaps instead, we strive to become another noble profession — the artist.

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What if we believed the soul was mortal— that once we died, our soul also died with us? Then what? How would we approach life differently and live life differently?

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An essay on male masculinity amongst Asian men:

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Envy is good, jealousy is bad.

if you’re envious of someone else and their success and this stimulates and invigorates you to do more, envy is good. Jealousy is bad because we are intimidated by someone else taking our spot. For example, you can be a jealous boyfriend if you worry that your girlfriend will run off with another guy. Envy is when you look at Arnold and also desire his same physique.

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The more you respect yourself, the more others will respect you as well.

Also, why do you even care for the respect of others?

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Who is your ideal follower?

Better to get 1 like from Elon Musk, Kanye West, Mark Z than a million of random likes, or millions of random followers.

STREAM YOUR RAW THOUGHTS!

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Dear friends,

Right now things are a bit shitty, but I wanted to use this chance to re-spark and re-motivate you.

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Practical ideas:

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Life isn’t about not being a sinner. It is just not being a sucker!

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Namque pauci libertatem, pars magna iustos dominos volunt. – Sallsut

• Few men desire freedom, the greater part desire just masters. – Sallust

Do you desire to become dominant and the master, or do you simply want a “just” master or rule over you?

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Brave new world of blogging, publishing, creating, sharing, and building:

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I make art. Thus I’m an artist.

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The ultimate test:

do you enjoy looking more at your own artwork, or the artwork of others?

The goal: prefer looking at your own artwork, your own body, your own face, your own self above others!

Remixing your own artwork

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More fun to build, make, modify, customize, or transfigure stuff than to buy stuff!

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Why deadlifts can transform the world (and you!)

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What is the worst hate? Self-hate.

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We are all one race — the human race.

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My #1 skill in life? Social skills.

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IN LIFE, you’re always becoming (more of) you.

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We are all into superhero movies and such. But what if your own life were a movie, and YOU were the hero?

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WHAT IS IN YOUR CONTROL? The ability to exert courage and bravery. Also, to NOT exert cowardice.

Everything else is up to lady fate.

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You are your own ultimate self-experiment. See how far you can take yourself:

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Why Strive Towards the Best?

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How do we grow? My theory:

When you damage yourself, your body learns to re-build itself, and become STRONGER than it was before [super-compensation].

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Why I like failing a lot:!

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Health isn’t as a duty to society. Rather — health as a means to maximize your own personal power and creative power!

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What’s free?

1. Freedom over your time
2. Freedom over your schedule
3. Freedom over your mind

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A brave new world of social class:

The apex social class might have less cash, but more freedom over their life.

Lawyers, bankers, programmers who get paid lots of money ($200k a year) but who have NO freedom over their lives and schedules are the new slave class.

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A-la Nassim Taleb’s idea:

To live a greater life, embrace the ‘barbell’ strategy and philosophy to life.

For example:

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What holds us back? The nagging thought:

If I only had equipment x, y, or z — I could become a greater, more inspired, and more productive creator.

This is false.

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Real people: People in ’embodied reality’.

Fake people: People in a screen.

Which do you prefer?

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