My thought:

The perfect conditions of existence is the optimal circumstances you need to maximize your artistic and philosophical output.

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Notions of “cheating” or “unfairness” are only problems or issues if you’re competing with others.

A thought — perhaps it is better to live a life that is ANTI competition? You are only competing against yourself. No competition with anyone else means you don’t need to feel jealous or envious towards others. Also, you don’t need to pay attention to others.

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I am a pessimistic optimist— I love and accept all the cruelty, tragedy, and unfairness in the world, yet I am optimistic about our individual ability to change ourselves and change the world.

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Apparently there is a saying in Chinese:

Health begins from your feet upwards.

Which made me think:

The source of all photography begins in your feet!

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A new aesthetic — black and red (beyond black and white):

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The best person or group to conquer? Yourself.

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The upside of becoming yourself:

Increased joy, self confidence, and motivation to live!

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I love black and white because:

1. Black and white SIMPLIFIES your compositions
2. Black and white is challenging: A ‘creative constraint’ of monochrome is interesting because it begs the question, “How can you make an interesting image without adding the interest of color?”
3. Black and white is simpler, more minimal — which follows my personal aesthetics.
4. Black and white is more open-ended for the viewer. It forces the viewer to use more of their own imagination to interpret the image, making the image more memorable!

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The great thing about having a unique perspective:

Nobody can refute your perspective as being ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.

All perspectives are subjective — the great liberating thought!

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Your goal in life, not to become anyone else, but become MORE YOU!

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Anti-perfection in life:

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What lies latent within you? What hidden powers do you have, that you haven’t discovered yet, or let out yet?

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Why this cult of productivity? My theory– we want to become more productive (in order to make more money), in order to gain our personal freedom in life.

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When in doubt, go smaller file sizes.

More megapixels, more problems

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The best power? Not power over others– but power over yourself. To control yourself, and to exploit yourself and your inner-powers to the maximum.

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STEEL SPINE
Your soul divine

Encased within your shell

STEEL SPINE
Your strength is over
Whelming with force and faith.

STEEL SPINE
No point to whine and complain
Better to take the pain — treat it as a stimulus to growth

You cannot achieve the epic without epic pains
You cannot achieve the epic without the epic gains
You cannot achieve the epic without the epic strains

Growth is dependent on you
STEEL SPINE — infinite regenerative growth!

ERIC KIM

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POETRY

• MONSTER
• JUGGERNAUT
• I Move
• ZEN ZONING.
• DARE.
• Life Isn’t Fair
• UPLIFT.
• Don’t Be Timid
• FLY HIGHER!
• Ain’t Nobody Stopping You!
• Seize Today!
• You Were Destined to Do Great Things, My Dear
• Fly Higher!
• CREATIVE DYNAMITE
• KILL EK
• ROOTS.
• MURALS.
• Keep Sailing

Nihilism: the philosophy that nothing is worth pursuing in life, because life and existence has no meaning. Note this happens most often to intelligent atheists.

Let us consider– if God (or gods) don’t exist, if heaven/hell doesn’t exist, and an afterlife doesn’t exist– then what? What is the point of living? How can we live in this world where there is no ultimate purpose or destination?

This is where your personal courage is needed. The new strength you need to posit your own new life goals. To demand greatness from yourself, and to posit yourself as a goal unto yourself. Your goal in life:

To become the most insanely great individual you can.

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There are a trillion books on how to write poetry — but how few people actually write about why write poetry?

Some of my personal thoughts:

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You’s a monster
You’re a beast
More superhuman than you think.

You’re a monster
You’re a beast
Feast your eyes on the joy of existence; Dionysian joy, reality is your toy.

MONSTER
You’re born to conquer and eat
Treat everyday like it were your last
You were born with an epic task in life, you were born to delight in the strife and war

Embrace all the scars and the pain of the past
Odysseus’ call; tied to the mast.
Don’t get distracted by the sirens sweet voice
Follow your own inner-voice, you make all the choices.

You steer, you control your life.
MONSTER– you’re more than man, you’re mine.

ERIC KIM

POETRY BY KIM

• I Move
• ZEN ZONING.
• DARE.
• Life Isn’t Fair
• UPLIFT.
• Don’t Be Timid
• FLY HIGHER!
• Ain’t Nobody Stopping You!
• Seize Today!
• You Were Destined to Do Great Things, My Dear
• Fly Higher!
• CREATIVE DYNAMITE
• KILL EK
• ROOTS.
• MURALS.
• Keep Sailing

JUGGERNAUT
Become the argonaut of your own ideal

Push ixion’s wheel forward, not back
Sisyphus don’t even got a chance.

JUGGERNAUT
Nothing can get in your way
Stream forward; force always finds a way.

JUGGERNAUT
Don’t think of what you lack or don’t got
Just don’t stop — keep pushing forward ahead
Breaking through walls with your steel head

You’re so ahead; you’re so far.
Who can stop you? Nothing but death.

ERIC KIM

POETRY by KIM

• I Move
• ZEN ZONING.
• DARE.
• Life Isn’t Fair
• UPLIFT.
• Don’t Be Timid
• FLY HIGHER!
• Ain’t Nobody Stopping You!
• Seize Today!
• You Were Destined to Do Great Things, My Dear
• Fly Higher!
• CREATIVE DYNAMITE
• KILL EK
• ROOTS.
• MURALS.
• Keep Sailing

The problem with much of modern philosophy:

We strive to live a maximally painless life.

But is this truly a noble goal?

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Leave others alone; tolerate their behavior and way of living!

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To discover more motivation in life, FIRST MOVE, then get inspired.

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Don’t become a prisoner of a single genre!

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Perhaps in order to maximize your altruism, you must also maximize your selfishness:

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To strive to MAX OUT everyday.

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Don’t strive to live a painless life. Instead, strive to seek the GOOD PAIN — pain which shows and signals that you’re growing!

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“You was who you was before you got here.” – JAY Z

What is your goal and mission in life?

To become MORE of yourself.

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Striving for perfect is bad.

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Why is Tesla so great? Because all the other car companies are so basic, boring, and the same.

Which makes me wonder —

With life, entrepreneurship, and any pursuits in life — isn’t it better to aim for the insanely epic and audacious, instead of settling for the boring and basic?

For example:

1. With life, work, career, your future — better to pursue your passion with insane zeal than to choose the boring and “safe” path in life. In other words, ignore your parents and pursue and pave your own path in life.
2. Better to fail big than to succeed in a petty endeavor. In other words, shoot for insanely huge goals, and don’t worry too much if you succeed or fail. The striving towards these epic goals is the joy in itself.
3. Memento mori: Considering your life is short, avoid the basic and boring in life!

I’ve been on a roll shooting a lot lately! Some ideas which has inspired and motivated me:

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In praise of extreme selfishness for “the greater good” of humanity:

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Why do I live? Why do I wakeup everyday?

What pushes me? What drives me? Why do I do what I do, and why am I so excited to (continue) living?

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Theory — the origin of productivity is from the body, muscles, and the desire to manifest, express, gather, share, and produce more (bodily) power.

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You don’t need permission from anyone to call yourself a photographer. If your passion is to make images, assert yourself as a photographer!

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Lifting weights is boring when the weight is too light. Lifting weights is only fun when it is challenging, difficult, but still “achievable”.

A thought:

Is the best life in which you are seeking the MOST DIFFICULT and hard challenges, and striving with all your might to overcome those challenges?

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To be happier, do more of of what you love and care for:

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Our desire to impact more is the driving human force we have to keep on living!

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What do we really want?

We want to maximize our individual ability to impact, change, and affect others and the world.

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If you want to make an epic impact in the world, make a blog and start blogging!

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Life— in order to achieve epic things, these epic things will require epic effort, which will probably be accompanied by epic pain. Consider the joy of life, but the epic pain of childbirth. Perhaps an artist who makes art works should also experience a similar pain of childbirth?

Not pain for the sake of pain. But pain is perhaps a signal, or a stimulant towards growth? Or pain as a signal that you’re pushing yourself to the limit, and perhaps BEYOND and ABOVE your limit? Is this how growth works?

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Before you die, think about this—

Not what you’ve bought or purchased in your life, but what you’re accomplished.

The trillion dollar question:

How should we live our lives? What is the best life?

Let me share some honest thoughts:

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It seems all of us want more energy to do more stuff.

But what does this really mean? What is ‘energy’ from a physiological human-metabolism perspective? What does it mean to have “more energy”, and can we augment our human energy?

And even if we have more energy — towards which ends do we desire to channel this energy into?

Let me essay some of my thoughts:

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When should we ask for feedback? When shouldn’t we ask for feedback?

Why do we ask for feedback, towards what end?

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The hunger and the overwhelming desire to see manifest in the world what you desire to see manifested in the world!

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My critique of Google: how sneaky it feels. How it desires to “nudge” you in a certain way; seeming like some friend, but actually an insanely addictive algorithm which gives you exactly what you want (like a rat and pez dispenser of cocaine). Not only that, but Google as an unaesthetic advertising platform.

Of course Google has benefitted humanity 1000x more than it has hurt it, yet my simple suggestion:

Subtract things from your life that you don’t like from technology or Google.

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Your life is short and uncertain. The question is:

What do I consider my supreme life task — a life task I consider worthy of myself?

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One of my favorite films is the movie 300, based on the graphic comic novel (300) by Frank Miller.

Reading the comic and studying the compositions, I am BLOWN AWAY! I am so inspired. Let me share some thoughts:

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Why I cannot bear to see a decline in myself:

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How I’m so creatively productive:

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A funny essay I wanted to write— detailing my philosophy behind why I eat what I eat, and towards what ends.

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“You was who you was before you got here.” – JAY Z

The basic notion is this: you don’t strive to become someone else. You strive to become purely yourself.

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An ambitious goal inspired by Horace:

Striving to make photos more enduring and lasting than bronze!

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Something I was very curious when I started photography:

Could I turn my passion of photography into a living?

Truth be told, when I was in college I didn’t think it would be possible. Thus I started this blog for fun, and to just share my thoughts. But nearly a decade+ later, I’ve made racks from photography, and I’m essentially retired at age 32. And because I’m so frugal, I will never run out of money.

I wanted to write this essay to give you some practical ideas, to empower you, and hopefully help you make some gouda from photography:

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No aim towards finality or a final destination. Instead, strive to ENJOY the process of “becoming” — becoming MORE!

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How do you self-identify yourself? If you share your photos online, you’re a photography entrepreneur.

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How do you know what you should create or make? Simple:

Create for yourself.

Meaning — think of yourself as your own ideal consumer of your own creations.

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Nowadays there is too much focus and faith on metaphysics (things beyond the physical world, notions like “good” and “evil) and almost no focus on the physical.

Why so much obsession with metaphysics? My thought: we humans all want to become superhuman, or mini-god-deities. We want to transcend the physical realm — we don’t like feeling constrained or held back by the physical!

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Something I haven’t seen philosophers (besides Nietzsche) talk about: the philosophy of physiology. Let me make an attempt to construct my personal philosophers about physiology:

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How to optimize and maximize your creative power:

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Allow me to re-introduce myself. My name is ERIC KIM and I have devoted my life to photography.

Why? Let me share:

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I am convinced: street photography is the supreme form of photography.

Also — photography as the most interesting and noble form of art-creation for us visual-artists/streettogs:

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On creative muscularity:

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What is the purpose of life? There isn’t an ‘ultimate’ purpose of life that applies to everyone. But for us brave streettogs, this is my thought:

The purpose of our lives is to devote ourselves to photography.

Our goal:

Use our entire lives, our entire power to make great photos, share great photos, innovate photography, discover new compositions, and push the genre and culture of photography forward!

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The other day I was using Adobe Lightroom, and for some reason, got kicked out. I forgot my login id/password, and thought:

Damn it, I don’t want to go through the bother of recovering my ID/password, etc.

I then thought:

Hmmm — if Adobe has these kind of annoying lock-out things, perhaps it is best to NOT use it at all, and discover some sort of alternative.

Thus, I tried using Apple Photos instead. And honestly, I think I prefer Apple Photos over Adobe Lightroom. Why? Let me explain:

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All of life and all of photography is good:

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Why do we love free? Free as in price, or free in terms of freedom? Or both?

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The beauty of life : the impermenance and ephemeral nature.

For example, realize any consumer good you buy won’t and shouldn’t be forever. I always got suckered with trying to buy the perfect device: the perfect camera, phone, laptop, tablet, etc. But it seems the more realistic goal: just buy stuff expecting you to not own it for so long. Also realize anything we buy, we will eventually get bored of it. Thus we should still aim to buy things which will be more robust to time, but nothing will be robust forever.