How I hype myself up:

When is the last time somebody has given a critical line of thinking towards productivity?

“The point of life isn’t productivity, said all unproductive people.”

First of all, what does it mean to produce? To lead forth. Produco— lead + draw.

Pro- forward. Duco- to pull.

Metaphorically speaking, a producer is somebody who leads, and get something creative. For example, some thing I’ve learned is that in Hollywood and show business, it is actually the producer who is the head honcho, not the actor, nor even the director. And also the intelligence of producers is that they all have the intelligence to keep a low profile, yet they are the most powerful. They draw attention away from themselves by creating a scapegoat of the main famous actors, even the directors. The producers enjoy their power, their privacy, and their ability to do and make things. For example, the intelligence of the Wachowski brothers; everyone gave all the attention to Keanu Reeves, yet the Wachowski brothers remained elusive, nobody even knew who they look like. Therefore they could go out in public, buy groceries etc without having anybody know who they are.

First lesson:

The ultimate privilege is to be powerful, yet unknown.

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Productivity as a slave mentality

Let us consider ancient Greece. Did Achilles derive his self-worth by how efficiently he would send and receive emails? Of course not. All he cared was the lust of battle, and ultimately what he really wanted to do was just take Breisis, and retire to one of his low-key towns.

Or, let us consider if you were some sort of ancient Greek patriarch. Essentially you would just have a massive villa, some sort of private compound, in which you had a squadron of slaves and servants, all doing the household work, even the modern-day notion of economics comes from ancient Greek, which literally means management of household affairs. Even the accountant and the money keeper in ancient Greek was a slave.

What insanely epic life goals do you have?

I am fortunate enough to have advanced in life beyond the average American. I have only been employed for 10 months of my life, after I graduated college, and beyond that, from age 22 now to age 35, I have been self-employed, a sole proprietor. I have not waking up to an alarm for over a decade, unless I have to catch an early flight.

Perhaps the reason why Elon Musk is the most interesting human being on planet earth is the layers of his ambition. Given that this is your only life on earth, don’t you want to use your life on earth to attempt something insanely epic?

My insanely epic and audacious life goals and plans

In no particular order, and no timeline:

1. Start a technology company
2. Start a camera company, or some sort of photo company
3. Maybe start a car company with Seneca — he loves cars!
4. Innovate and pave great new advancements in thinking, philosophically, knowledge and information. In the realms of photography, creativity, motivation, entrepreneurship, design and aesthetics, product design, life and lifestyle, child rearing, life goals, health diet and fitness.
5. Start a clothing company?

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Things that last

Let us consider, at an towards the end of your life, what will you have cared for? What will have lasted? What would NOT have have lasted?

To me, true productivity is investing your time energy and power towards things you care for, and things which will last.

Productive assignments

I feel that in order to become more productive, start off by just making more photos, producing more photos. Get a Ricoh GR 3X digital camera, and shoot extra high contrast black-and-white, extra small JPEG.

What gets in our way or distracts us?

Another reason why I am so pro GoPro mini is that because you don’t have the LCD screen distracting you, you could shoot more and be more productive.

Reduce distractions, become more productive, do and produce and create more.

Publish BEFORE you’re ready

A huge productivity tip when it comes to blogging is publish it before you’re ready. Whenever you have even a small idea, just hit publish it AS you’re fleshing out the thought.

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Produce to better get to the root of things

One of the big upside of being more productive is that the more you produce and work on something, the better you understand the thing itself.

For example photography, the more I shoot, the more I understand photography, the more of the photography compositions I see and witness, the more I could integrate composition into my photos, and the more joy and delight I should get from photography.

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Produce more, think less.

The ultimate takeaway point is simple: produce more, think less.

ERIC

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EK WORK

CONQUER IT ALL:

1. BOSTON: ERIC KIM CONQUER YOUR FEARS IN STREET PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP 2023 (March 25th, 2023 (Saturday))
2. May 5th: Creative Confidence Online Workshop (9am-11:30am)
3. May 20: DOWNTOWN LA PHOTO WORKSHOP (info TBA)
4. June 19-23rd, HADONG SOUTH KOREA ZEN PHOTO RETREAT

Workout ideas

1. Rack pull, one rep max style. Big tip — use your legs!
2. How to get fit
3. ERIC KIM WORKOUT PLAN

PRODUCTIVITY AT THE GYM?

As a fun idea, take your phone, your iPad, or your laptop to the gym, and after you get a quick pump, do your work at the gym. More dynamic than even a coffee shop!

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EK SUPPLY

1. CONQUER YOUR MUSE
2. CONQUER STREET PHOTOGRAPHY: HENRI NECK STRAP MARK IV
3. STREET PHOTO STARTER KIT

Witness it all >

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Design thoughts

1. Love the new tail lights on the new Range Rover. Iconic and understated.
2. Love the tail lights and end of the new Honda Accord. Looks very futuristic and like the new Prologue, which looks like a mini Range Rover Velar
3. It is the year 2023… why are we still producing and selling and driving gasoline cars?

MORE ON BLOG

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If this sparked any fun ideas within you, feel free to forward to a friend!

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Ain’t nobody can fuck with me:

Video

The focus is key:

ERIC KIM INSANELY EPIC 710 POUND RACK PULL (7 PLATES, 5, 2.5) HYPELIFTING BEAST SUPER SAIYAN MODE.

Let’s go super saiyan:

How I work out:

Fitness Philosophy

One of the most important and critical things is to have a certain fitness philosophy. For myself, it is all predicated around single repetitions, one rep maxes.

What is a “one rep max“? A one rep max is the maximum amount of weight you’re able to lift or shoulder or do for just a single repetition.

Why lift this way?

It seems we all want to become stronger. My personal modus for lifting is in order to become stronger. I believe that this “simple and sinister“ (Pavel), style of weightlifting is the most effective way to get very very strong, efficiently.

Focus on the legs

Not just your legs, but your upper shoulder, your back, your upper back, your butt, your legs, your calves, your feet, your spine, your shoulders etc. The genius of my new “Atlas Lift”—

It is truly a full body workout, I believe it is the new king of lifts. Even more full body than a dead lift.

Where I feel it after doing an atlas lift of 780 pounds

Very surprisingly after doing my atlas lift at 780 pounds, where I most felt it was in my shoulder, my upper back, my calves, even my wings.

Let us note the fatal flaw of most bodybuilders, their anemic hips, thighs, calves, but, abdomen, and midsection. My critique of most bodybuilders and weightlifters is that they spend too much time doing exercises in which they are sitting down or lying down on their back. The most supreme posture for a man to be in is standing. Thus an idea:

Is it possible to approach weightlifting in such a manner in which we never sat down, or laid on our backs?

What is the point of weightlifting?

For me, the purpose of weightlifting is to test your courage, test your limits and attempt to become more:

Honestly speaking, nowadays I don’t even care so much whether I’m successful in a given lift or not. I’m more interested in the amount of courage I was able to exude, and the courage and monster of my attempt.

Weight lifting is an “essay”, an “assay”— an attempt.

erickimphotography.com

Photography as very underrated.

Towards more of the “strongman” style of training. Kind of like a “yoke lift”, or a squat lift hold:

The future of marketing:

1. Simpler language
2. More visual, more photos and autoplaying (mute) videos
3. More about inspiring, motivating people — aspirational marketing language.

Why does marketing matter?

We live in a capitalist society. Zen capitalism is my concept. My wonder—

Can we live and thrive in a capitalist and consumerist world, in a meaningfully productive way?

I think so.

The simple:

Subtract the superfluous, add the critical.

For example, if you live in LA, your life is made superior by owning a car. The nuance—

Simply having A car makes life better, you don’t need a certain type of car.

Note my 2009 Hyundai Sonata I got from my mom for free, and got it tuned up at Pacific Tire Autoworks in Redondo beach for only $2,000 and now the car runs like new. Essentially I got a brand new car for only $2,000 and she runs like a champ!

What do you want from life?

Do you want a fur coat, a rolls, or a Diamond chain?

Or do you want an iPhone Pro, a Tesla Plaid, a house, a Richard Mille, a Lamborghini (Urus Performante) or Aventador or Hurucan, etc?

My general thought after becoming the new GOAT at Golds Gym in Venice Beach —

Ultimately once you step into the arena… it don’t matter who you are, how rich you are, how famous you are, what you drive etc … the only thing which matters is your strength, courage, self audacity, self confidence, muscles, whether you have a good tan or not, and your health.

Without even knowing it, I went viral three times over.

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Lamborghini is unimpressive

I saw an orange Lamborghini Aventador, drop top convertible coupe in the parking lot of the Golds gym in Venice beach parking lot, with the top down, and I was shocked —

In real life, up close and personal, it is actually very unimpressive.

First of all, it looks really small. Like smaller than a Honda Civic.

Then the understanding —

The Lamborghini is 100% marketing. Lamborghini more as a concept, an ideal towards masculinity, dominance, ego, daring, sexiness, valor, success.

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So what should I do about this?

First, understand that everything is marketing. Also understand that marketing has a stronger impact on us than we would like to think.

Marketing works. It works on you, it works on nerds etc.

Do you want to buy it for the marketing or the thing itself?

I think it is okay to want to buy stuff for the marketing ideal of it. I’m also starting to think short Tesla —

The concept of the Tesla is superior to the thing itself.

Spending a lot of time in the Tesla dealership — the cars themselves feel pretty cheap. The paint looks and feels pretty basic and cheap, the materials feel pretty cheap, etc. Personally speaking I would prefer having a Hyundai Genesis G90 over any Tesla.

But anyways — simply be hard and discerning.

Do I care for the physical materials of the thing, or the concept of the thing?

Need marketing suggestions?

Shoot an email to Eric [at] Erickim.com

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The best marketing

1. Rolls Royce Spectre
2. BMW (BMW owns rolls Royce)— prepare for power.

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EK CONQUERING

Boston // conquer creativity online // conquer South Korea

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EK SHOP

HENRI NECK STRAP MARK IV: Become Invincible

Henri Shoulder Strap: Carry Heavier

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Think more

Why?

Get constructive feedback on your photos

Arsbeta.com

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Think more become more

Entrepreneurship by KIM

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Things to read

1. The Iliad by Homer
2. Zero to One – Peter Thiel

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I just done broke the fitness internet.

Dat ass don’t lie.

I came, I saw, I conquered.

Ain’t nobody stronger than me:

All eyes on me

No suckas here have even witnessed 8 plates on the rack before!

Also few people have lifted up the legendary golden 330 pound dumbbells off the floor and successfully re-racked it like King Arthur. Also I have never seen anyone flip the insanely huge tire there.

Also, I took it up a notch and even “duck walked” the epic 330 pound dumbbells a bit then successfully put it back!

Now what?

Rolls Royce Spectre — some sort of matte pink, matte blush color?

Silver and chrome accents.

First, publish BEFORE you’re ready.

Second, sleep 8-12 hours a night. Get into bed, preferably around 7:30pm-9:30pm. Allow yourself to wake up naturally.

Third, drink a lot of strong black coffee first thing in the morning. Also take a cold shower in the morning and once you get up, just get out of your house or apartment for a little bit, walk around outside in the elements, and get into your creative work.