Your body is god, your body is king.

THE BODY IS GOD PODCAST

Why have there not been that many philosophers who have philosophized and praised the virtues of the body, our human body?

Some theories:

First, the superstition of this notion of the “immortal soul“, that after you die, the cognizant mind soul of yours will continue into perpetuity.

Second, the nonsensory of this new Silicon Valley notion that you could somehow one day, “upload your consciousness to the cloud“. The idea that somehow, your mind can exist without your body. It cannot.

Third, notions of shame culture around the body, whether Asian, East Asian, Confucian, even American. Considering that we Americans descended from Quakers and Puritans, and also have these antiquated Victorian notions of shame in regards to the body, the body is a weird thing; we got it, but we shouldn’t become too proud of it, and we should only maintain it to the minimum, in order to promote other virtues.

Also, let us consider that America is a Christian protestant nation. According to Protestantism, which is essentially Catholicism 2.0, the body is a thing of shame.

For example, the notion of the “immaculate conception” of Jesus. The reason why this idea was promoted was that there was this idea that somehow sex is shameful. It isn’t. The ancient Greeks and Romans deified birth, procreation. Back then, sex was simply a normal part of life, a necessary path to be getting offspring and children.

I think what has changed in modern day times is notion of sex for the sake of sex, sex for the sake of pleasure, or pleasure for the sake of pleasure. Certainly pleasure is just a means to an end, not the end itself.

For example, if sex did not feel good and did not promote pleasure, the human race would have died off a long time ago. Biologically speaking, we humans want to continue to procreate.

Consumerism?

It is my personal thought that most modern day consumerism is built around shame, fear, and capitalizing off the insecurities of people. For example, I don’t think anybody out there is actually proud of their body, or deifies their body. Even Jesus said that your body is a temple.

I think it is because in modern-day times, most people do not have a sense of philosophy. Many people in modern day society are not quite certain what they really want out of life, and instead, they fall into the same means of desiring to travel and see the world, eat good food, bed beautiful women, eat and drink exotic foods and drinks and alcoholic beverages, and promote pleasure, and purchase objects of desire, etc.

I think it was Nietzsche who said that the Englishman only desired two things, which was fashion and comfort. It seems that the modern-day American only cares for comfort, pleasure, and fashion. Also novelty.

Your body as an instrument and a tool

In order to think, philosophize, make art, innovate, create and publish things, you need a body. Your body is the whole package, all of the things in between your toes and the top of your head. Your bones, your sinews, your blood, your muscles, your fat, your brains, the electricity running through your body, etc. Also all of the hormones.

It seems that most people today desire to become more productive, in order to make more money, purchase more things, obtain more things, and “become successful“. Ironically enough, if you want to become more productive, spending more time energy and money and resources to build your body and strengthen and further your body might be the best strategy.

For example, working out at least twice a day. Isn’t this the ultimate luxury? To be able to go to the gym and lift weights, and then later in the evening, do yoga? Also, no need for breakfast or lunch, only one massive dinner a day. Using your money to just buy beef ribs at the Costco business center, insanely cheap, Only $10 for a whole rack of ribs. I could barely finish two, and I think I could eat at least five times more meat than the average human.

Also, it seems that the bias in today’s world is to work out the minimum necessary, and spend more time being “productive“, or “working“. Shouldn’t the opposite be what we do? To do the minimum amount of work necessary to support our lives, and then just spend maximal time to strengthen and build your body?

Tasty Foods vs demigod building?

It seems in today’s world, the only thing people care about is taste. Taste as unquantified by just adding sugar to things and making it sweet.

For example, almost all modern-day cuisine involves some sort of sugar, sweetening agent, starch, etc.

Also let us consider alcohol, which is essentially pretentious sugar beverages. Wine is just alcoholic grape juice, replete with sugar, same goes with white wine and rosé. Cocktails are pretentious ways to seem cultured, but once again, all you’re doing is drinking a sugary beverage.

Even with modern-day cuisine, there is always some sort of starch, breading, sugar, sauce, involved.

Who runs all of the thoughts on health diet and fitness?

Essentially the whole fitness industry is revolved around selling products. Products as personified through protein powder, creatine, pre-workout powder, lifting straps, lifting belts, protein shakes, protein bars, etc. Also fitness programs, fat loss programs etc.

A thought:

Trust no lifter who uploads their workout videos to Instagram or YouTube.

Also,

Trust nobody on YouTube, Instagram, or any form of social media in regards to diet health and fitness.

The only person you could trust with 100% certainty is yourself. Why? It is impossible to know with 100% certainty whether person XYZ is on steroids, testosterone, or some other strange performance enhancing drugs. For example, do not trust Rock the Dwayne Johnson, he is juicing his eyeballs out. Also do not trust Chris Hemsworth, who also probably juiced eyeballs out for his initial act in Thor.

Also, put zero faith in anybody who has muscles who appears in any Hollywood film. Why? There is always a hidden incentive for them to enhance their physique, either through steroids, testosterone, performance enhancing drugs, etc. Why? Their livelihood is dependent on the grandeur of their physique, and essentially actors are all just slaves.

Everyone would benefit from weightlifting

Cindy told me something very beautiful today, after just a few weeks of my mom being here, and working out at the gym with me weightlifting every single day, and also doing yoga with Cindy, she said for the first time in her life, she feels confident and proud in her body. And she is 67 years old.

There is a lot of misconceptions when it comes to the human body, especially with women, or if you’re over the age of 40. I think all of these thoughts are misled; anybody irregardless of their age sex gender, race, etc. can benefit from weightlifting. And fitness.

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New year body resolutions

New year, new body.

Some New Year’s resolutions:

1. Quit sugar
2. Quit fruit
3. Quit starches
4. Quit “vegetables” (the only “vegetable“ you should eat are dark leafy greens, like kale and collard greens, or the “power greens“ you find at Costco)
5. Quit smoking weed
6. Quit alcohol
7. Quit social media (everyone is on steroids)
8. Quit sweet foods and sweet beverages
9. Quit desserts
10. Quit eating three times a day or more, start intermittent fasting and only eat dinner
11. Quit comparing your body, your strength or your numbers to others

Via negativa body. The best way to shape, craft and scope your body is through quitting or removing toxic things.

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Building the most supreme body?

My new life goal is to build the most supreme, demigod, beautiful body known to man. All without steroids, testosterone injections or other weird things. Also no protein powder, supplements, creatine etc— only beef ribs, beef liver, and other high cholesterol foods.

To build the most demigod physique. God body.

Male vs Female body?

The male body in female body is far more similar than this similar. The mechanisms of Augmentin your muscle mass, and decreasing your body adipose fat tissue is the same. The only difference is between the male body and female body has to do with sexual organs, as well as different hormonal levels. For example, for a man their testosterone levels can range from 300-1,000 ng/dl, whereas women can range from 15-54 ng/dl.

• Male: 300-1000 ng/dl
• Female: 15-54 ng/dl

At the lower end, a man’s testosterone levels can be ~25x more than that of woman, and a man can be at the higher end around ~20x higher as well.

At the elite level,

The lower end of the male range being four-to fivefold higher than the upper end of the female range(males 8.8-30.9 nmol/L, females 0.4-2.0 nmol/L).

Therefore, I think we must acknowledge the fact that hormonally, there are stark differences between men and women. However, it does seem that for the most part, more natural testosterone for either men or women is both a good idea.

Irregardless of whether you are a man or woman, the goal to both augment muscle mass and decrease body adipose tissue is a good goal. Also, irregardless of whether you are a man or woman, increasing your strength at the gym, increasing your one repetition maximums, and to also gain new personal records for your own personal strength is a noble goal!

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A new body, never imagined or witnessed before?

A new goal —

What type of new human body can be created?

Assuming we got unlimited beef ribs, beef liver, heart, bone marrow … and the most strict diet (no sweet or starch anything)— 100% compliance, what new level can my human body become, in terms of muscle mass, look, and human beauty?

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New lifting goals

Think 6 plates, 7 plates, 8 plates, beyond.

600, 700, 800 pounds and beyond?

Rack pull, atlas lift.

Think —

Why do they call it weight-lifting, not weight-pressing?

Pressing motions are bad?

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Unperturbed.

Assuming you build your mind and your body to become demigod, for the most part, 99.99% of things will not perturb or disturb you. Rather, the focus towards more lofty things like philosophy, thinking, ethics, art creativity etc.

Demigod body, demigod mind.

Body elitism

In regards to the body, is there a hierarchy of bodies? Yes.

First and foremost, we must write off anybody who uses steroids, testosterone injections, other performance-enhancing drugs, etc. This includes all bodybuilders, powerlifters, Olympic athletes, Youtubers, fitness influencers, Hollywood action movie stars, superhero people, Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Chris Hemsworth, Joe Rogan, etc.

Then, throw away your scale, put in the trash, and never use the scale at the gym. The ultimate way to judge your progress is how your body feels. If you feel your T-shirts getting tighter as a result of your muscle augmentation, and, you see yourself as more beautiful and chiseled in the mirror, consider yourself progressing. Also with your lifts; it is difficult to forcibly put on muscle mass, it is much easier to focus on increasing your one rep maxes for all of your personal records and your lifts. For example, if you could just add a 2.5 pound weight on each side of the barbell every single time you do a given lift, consider yourself blessed.

Also a new goal:

Max out the barbell.

The other day I did a 695 pound squat hold, or as I call it, the Atlas hold. Imagine Atlas holding the weight of the world on his shoulders — certainly he’s getting a good leg workout. Atlas never skips leg day. Every day is leg day for Atlas.

To me this was a very monumental thing, because it was the first time I ever maxed out the barbell, or witnessed anybody max out the barbell at all in real life. This is seven 45-pound plates, and one 10 pound plate on each side.

My new goal is to max out the barbell for my rack pull.

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What is our ultimate end goal?

A very simple thought; what if you dedicated all of your time effort, and soul to advancing and elevating your body? My thought:

If you reach a new apex in terms of your body and your physical strength, I believe that the philosophical thoughts that you will gain will be so beyond, so interesting, so interesting and so sublime.

Once again, the more epic your body becomes, the more epic your mind and your thoughts will become.

Trust no thinker, philosopher, artist, entrepreneur, creative, individual who doesn’t lift.

LIFT ON!
ERIC

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Lift yourself

Elevate yourself to the next level:

1. Boston conquer your fears March 25
2. Berkeley become the uber-innovator April 15
3. Sublime zen thoughts in HADONG SOUTH KOREA June 19-23rd

EK EXPERIENCES

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New year photo resolutions?

Also, we can apply of your negative mindset an approach to our photography. Some not to do photo resolutions:

1. Don’t buy a new iPhone or iPhone pro
2. Don’t buy a new camera or a new lens
3. Don’t leave the house without having your camera in your front right pocket.
4. Don’t leave your house without your RICOH GR III or IIIX
5. Don’t go a single day without working out
6. Don’t read any gear review sites or gear rumor sites. Install a website blocker plug into your Google chrome or safari, which prevents you from looking at them. If you’re attempted to look at a new camera or a new lens, or some gear review sides, better to just kill that sensation by watching porn instead. Redtube over DPreview
7. Don’t not shoot anything you want to shoot. This means always shoot everything you want to shoot. The biggest regret we have in photography or the photos we wanted to shoot, but we didn’t shoot because of fear or hesitation. Conquer fear.
8. Don’t hesitate before shooting
9. Don’t just shoot 1 photo of the scene ; shoot many.
10. Don’t use social media or don’t upload any photos to instagram or Facebook — only your own website.

More ideas in PHOTO JOURNAL // DIGITAL

Also —

Whenever you have an urge to buy a new piece of camera equipment or gear, buy a nice photo book instead.

What now?

Preparing for the new year, just buy a gym membership. Just buy it, or subscribe, and figure out the details later.

Another fun idea is just to start a free week at CorePower yoga, try the weightlifting sculpt class. I think it is quite fun.

Get a Costco membership if you don’t have one. You could use your Costco membership, the normal one, to go to the local Costco business center. There, I recommend purchasing beef ribs, the best bang for the buck meat item there. Or nowadays, I think you could also buy beef ribs at a normal Costco.

Focus on building up your website and blog.

Think of traveling. Mexico City, New Orleans, Vietnam, Cambodia, South Korea, Japan, Thailand are all good options. Search kayak.com or Google flights.

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Things on my mind

1. How even more powerful can my body become, if I eat even more beef ribs, and beef liver?
2. Arabica coffee is bad, because it’s too sweet. The sweetness in arabica, carbohydrates, I think it might actually trigger your insulin levels. I plan on switching to robusta, Deathwish coffee is a good option.
3. What new types of clothing innovations can be had, especially for men? I plan on experimenting with wearing biking shorts the spandex stuff at the gym, and also, experimenting more with my crop top concept.

More on BLOG

Share the wealth!

If this sparked any interesting thoughts within you, or even one thought, feel free to forward this to a friend!

EK TURBO NEWS

Let us conquer the new year together.

ERIC

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New year, new body.

Some New Year’s resolutions:

1. Quit sugar
2. Quit fruit
3. Quit starches
4. Quit “vegetables” (the only “vegetable“ you should eat are dark leafy greens, like kale and collard greens, or the “power greens“ you find at Costco)
5. Quit smoking weed
6. Quit alcohol
7. Quit social media (everyone is on steroids)
8. Quit sweet foods and sweet beverages
9. Quit desserts
10. Quit eating three times a day or more, start intermittent fasting and only eat dinner
11. Quit comparing your body, your strength or your numbers to others

Via negativa body. The best way to shape, craft and scope your body is through quitting or removing toxic things.

---

Building the most supreme body?

My new life goal is to build the most supreme, demigod, beautiful body known to man. All without steroids, testosterone injections or other weird things. Also no protein powder, supplements, creatine etc— only beef ribs, beef liver, and other high cholesterol foods.

To build the most demigod physique. God body.

Male vs Female body?

The male body in female body is far more similar than this similar. The mechanisms of Augmentin your muscle mass, and decreasing your body adipose fat tissue is the same. The only difference is between the male body and female body has to do with sexual organs, as well as different hormonal levels. For example, for a man their testosterone levels can range from 300-1,000 ng/dl, whereas women can range from 15-54 ng/dl.

• Male: 300-1000 ng/dl
• Female: 15-54 ng/dl

At the lower end, a man’s testosterone levels can be ~25x more than that of woman, and a man can be at the higher end around ~20x higher as well.

At the elite level,

The lower end of the male range being four- to fivefold higher than the upper end of the female range(males 8.8-30.9 nmol/L, females 0.4-2.0 nmol/L).

Your body is god, your body is king.

Why have there not been that many philosophers who have philosophized and praised the virtues of the body, our human body?

Some theories:

First, the superstition of this notion of the “immortal soul“, that after you die, the cognizant mind soul of yours will continue into perpetuity.

Second, the nonsensory of this new Silicon Valley notion that you could somehow one day, “upload your consciousness to the cloud“. The idea that somehow, your mind can exist without your body. It cannot.

Third, notions of shame culture around the body, whether Asian, East Asian, Confucian, even American. Considering that we Americans descended from Quakers and Puritans, and also have these antiquated Victorian notions of shame in regards to the body, the body is a weird thing; we got it, but we shouldn’t become too proud of it, and we should only maintain it to the minimum, in order to promote other virtues.

Also, let us consider that America is a Christian protestant nation. According to Protestantism, which is essentially Catholicism 2.0, the body is a thing of shame.

For example, the notion of the “immaculate conception” of Jesus. The reason why this idea was promoted was that there was this idea that somehow sex is shameful. It isn’t. The ancient Greeks and Romans deified birth, procreation. Back then, sex was simply a normal part of life, a necessary path to be getting offspring and children.

I think what has changed in modern day times is notion of sex for the sake of sex, sex for the sake of pleasure, or pleasure for the sake of pleasure. Certainly pleasure is just a means to an end, not the end itself.

For example, if sex did not feel good and did not promote pleasure, the human race would have died off a long time ago. Biologically speaking, we humans want to continue to procreate.

Consumerism?

It is my personal thought that most modern day consumerism is built around shame, fear, and capitalizing off the insecurities of people. For example, I don’t think anybody out there is actually proud of their body, or deifies their body. Even Jesus said that your body is a temple.

I think it is because in modern-day times, most people do not have a sense of philosophy. Many people in modern day society are not quite certain what they really want out of life, and instead, they fall into the same means of desiring to travel and see the world, eat good food, bed beautiful women, eat and drink exotic foods and drinks and alcoholic beverages, and promote pleasure, and purchase objects of desire, etc.

I think it was Nietzsche who said that the Englishman only desired two things, which was fashion and comfort. It seems that the modern-day American only cares for comfort, pleasure, and fashion. Also novelty.

Your body as an instrument and a tool

In order to think, philosophize, make art, innovate, create and publish things, you need a body. Your body is the whole package, all of the things in between your toes and the top of your head. Your bones, your sinews, your blood, your muscles, your fat, your brains, the electricity running through your body, etc. Also all of the hormones.

It seems that most people today desire to become more productive, in order to make more money, purchase more things, obtain more things, and “become successful“. Ironically enough, if you want to become more productive, spending more time energy and money and resources to build your body and strengthen and further your body might be the best strategy.

For example, working out at least twice a day. Isn’t this the ultimate luxury? To be able to go to the gym and lift weights, and then later in the evening, do yoga? Also, no need for breakfast or lunch, only one massive dinner a day. Using your money to just buy beef ribs at the Costco business center, insanely cheap, Only $10 for a whole rack of ribs. I could barely finish two, and I think I could eat at least five times more meat than the average human.

Also, it seems that the bias in today’s world is to work out the minimum necessary, and spend more time being “productive“, or “working“. Shouldn’t the opposite be what we do? To do the minimum amount of work necessary to support our lives, and then just spend maximal time to strengthen and build your body?

Tasty vs demigod building?

It seems in today’s world, the only thing people care about is taste. Taste as unquantified by just adding sugar to things and making it sweet.

For example, almost all modern-day cuisine involves some sort of sugar, sweetening agent, starch, etc.

Also let us consider alcohol, which is essentially pretentious sugar beverages. Wine is just alcoholic grape juice, replete with sugar, same goes with white wine and rosé. Cocktails are pretentious ways to seem cultured, but once again, all you’re doing is drinking a sugary beverage.

Even with modern-day cuisine, there is always some sort of starch, breading, sugar, sauce, involved.

Who runs all of the thoughts on health diet and fitness?

Essentially the whole fitness industry is revolved around selling products. Products as personified through protein powder, creatine, pre-workout powder, lifting straps, lifting belts, protein shakes, protein bars, etc. Also fitness programs, fat loss programs etc.

A thought:

Trust no lifter who uploads their workout videos to Instagram or YouTube.

Also,

Trust nobody on YouTube, Instagram, or any form of social media in regards to diet health and fitness.

The only person you could trust with 100% certainty is yourself. Why? It is impossible to know with 100% certainty whether person XYZ is on steroids, testosterone, or some other strange performance enhancing drugs. For example, do not trust Rock the Dwayne Johnson, he is juicing his eyeballs out. Also do not trust Chris Hemsworth, who also probably juiced eyeballs out for his initial act in Thor.

Also, put zero faith in anybody who has muscles who appears in any Hollywood film. Why? There is always a hidden incentive for them to enhance their physique, either through steroids, testosterone, performance enhancing drugs, etc. Why? Their livelihood is dependent on the grandeur of their physique, and essentially actors are all just slaves.

Everyone would benefit from weightlifting

Cindy told me something very beautiful today, after just a few weeks of my mom being here, and working out at the gym with me weightlifting every single day, and also doing yoga with Cindy, she said for the first time in her life, she feels confident and proud in her body. And she is 67 years old.

There is a lot of misconceptions when it comes to the human body, especially with women, or if you’re over the age of 40. I think all of these thoughts are misled; anybody irregardless of their age sex gender, race, etc. can benefit from weightlifting. And fitness.

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FULL EK TUBE

695 POUND ATLAS SQUAT HOLD LIFT ERIC KIM HYPELIFTING NEXT LEVEL INSANELY EPIC 7 PLATES + 10 STRONG

The goal:

“Better to be a gay monster than a sentimental bore.” – Galiani

Slow, slow to respond, unperturbed. Lofty, insouciance, not fazed.

Even half a centimeter up is enough for me!

660 POUND HYPELIFTING ZEN ZONE RACK PULL ERIC KIM EPIC

Productive Photography

Some thoughts on how to become a more productive photographer:

1. Shoot small JPEG or extra small JPEG. This will give you less paralysis by analysis when shooting street photography, or any type of every day photography.
2. Strive to shoot 1000 “bad“ photos in a single day. There is no such thing as good or bad photos, all photos are equal.
3. When in doubt, just shoot it.
4. Shoot in P, program mode, and just use auto focus. Even if your photo is out of focus, or blurry, it could actually be accidentally beautiful.
5. Use an in camera JPEG processing setting, like the high contrast black and white mode on the Ricoh GR3X. Other good options include the cross filter process on the Ricoh GR camera, or the classic chrome settings on the Fujifilm cameras.
6. Strive to walk at least 30,000 steps a day. And just bring your camera along. If you walk 30,000 steps a day and just shoot whatever you see, how can you not be inspired to make photos?
7. Get inspired in the HAPTIC SHOP. HAPTIC PRESS books, and resources. All open source.
8. ERIC KIM EXPERIENCES or just attend anybody’s photography workshop, photography tour experience etc. Anything which involves traveling, a foreign place, a workshop experience will always be a productive one. Why? You will step outside of your comfort zone, you will learn new things, you will shoot more.

How to Become Insanely Productive

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

I am the most productive person that I know. How do I do it? Some techniques and strategies:

1. Intermittent fasting: no breakfast, no lunch, only one massive dinner. And for dinner, beef ribs, top sirloin, bone marrow, beef heart, beef liver, etc. 100% carnivore diet. How is intermittent fasting so good for productivity? First and foremost, you save an insane amount of time. Secondly, you don’t get food coma. Third, you stay mean and lean. When you are in the fasted stage, you are far more focused, and have a keener awareness of things.
2. No music, no headphones, no AirPods: I think in modern day life, podcasts music etc are the ultimate distraction. Just think yourself; is the purpose of your life to glorify the works of others, or for you to just be focused on your own self and work?
3. No Reddit. It is hilarious that all these new modern day Silicon Valley folks praise the virtues of XYZ, yet they are all still addicted to Reddit. Quit Reddit. I actually think that Reddit is worse than porn. In fact, my funny thought is in order to become more productive, whenever you have a temptation to look at Reddit, just watch porn instead. Porn might actually be a better motivator than Reddit, which is essentially a bunch of random distractions. At least porn is motivating.
4. Just do it while walking outdoors. One of the most successful guys I ever met in Singapore, I still remember, he attended my workshop that I hosted with Leica Singapore, and had an M9 titanium, a $30,000 camera, and a .95 Noctilux lens, another $20,000 lens. I asked him how he was so successful, and he told me that he walked around 12 hours a day, doing all of his business meetings on his phones while walking. This stuck with me. I can corroborate with his theory in so far much as when I walk around a lot, I think more, I think better and I am also more productive. My strong feeling is that the future of productivity is iPad Pro, and iPhone. No laptop, no desktop. Laptops and desktops promote for nonmovement. Even if you do a standing desk, it is not good. Standing is better than sitting, but walking is better than standing.
5. Produce much, publish much. Productivity isn’t becoming an email inbox zero ninja. No. Being really good with email is not productive. When you send an email, you produce nothing. If you check your email for no reason you are a slave. Let us consider, productivity comes from the notion of producing. To produce music, produce beats, produce videos, produce blogs, produce photos, produce vlogs, any form of media.
6. Think digital and the internet: The path to the greatest productivity is digital and the Internet. With digital creations, your works are infinitely scalable and also, infinitely distributable around the globe. Instantly. Isn’t this amazing?

Arguments against productivity

You are not your productivity, said all unproductive people.

Why are some individuals so unproductive, yet care about their productivity so much? My theories:

First and foremost, I don’t know if they really like to do what they are actually doing. Maybe they do the work out of a sense of obligation, or self flagellating virtuosity. They believe that their self-worth and their virtue comes from how productive they are.

Second, I think these individuals are just unwell, sick, or physiologically depressed. Poor health, not enough natural light exposure, they don’t have a tan, they don’t go to the gym, they don’t do yoga, etc. I really do believe that if scholars or thinkers or academics or other creators want to become more productive, they should go to the gym at least once every single day, preferably twice. Even for myself, experimenting with going to the gym every single day, it has actually made me more productive and stronger. Also a new innovation is experimenting with working out twice a day, at noon going to the gym and doing weightlifting, and in the evenings doing CorePower yoga with Cindy. This has been actually surprisingly a very effective strategy, I sleep better at night, I have a more voracious meat appetite, and the next day I am even more productive.

Third, constraints of the system. They are still reliant on a sort of external system which requires editors, publishers, peer review, etc. This is not freedom.

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Productivity experiments

1. Uninstall email from your phone, uninstall Gmail from your phone, or your mail app. Instead, whenever you need to use email, just do it on your laptop or desktop.
2. Charge your phone in a different room at night.
3. Every day, uninstall at least one app.
4. When you go home after work or whatever in the evening — turn off your phone completely. If you need an alarm to wake up in the morning, buy a standalone alarm clock on Amazon and put it next to your bed.
5. If your passion is to create, but you have to spend a lot of time every day in the car, commuting to work or stuck in traffic, just get a GoPro and vlog yourself and your thoughts while driving, just mount it where you put your smart phone.
6. Don’t own a car or own a home: Hidden with every single type of ownership is some sort of maintenance. The more maintenance you got, the less productive you will be. Why? I would far prefer to make something meaningful, rather than wasting time trying to fix my water heater or plumbing.

Produce what?

Truth be told, I don’t think people care for productivity. What people care for instead is money, wealth, fame, legitimacy, recognition, respect, “meaningful contributions” etc. They don’t care to be productive.

Let us consider, if you want to be productive and produce much, what does it mean? It means that you make a lot of stuff, you publish a lot.

For example, it is my personal aspiration that whenever you visit the ERIC KIM BLOG, or refresh it, or check the bookmark, you’ll always see and discover and experience something new and fresh.

Don’t optimize for views, comments, likes etc.

I am the most prolific YouTuber that I personally know. I think I’m the only YouTuber who uploads several videos every single day, not just one. Certainly the more you upload, the fewer views and exposure you will get per video. Yet, if your real goal is productivity, why do you care how many views you get? I think if you care about views, it is a sign that you are insecure and you are hungry for external recognition and affirmation.

My personal ambition with videos is to create a video or a vlog which is insanely motivational and helpful to other people, irregardless of who they are. Also, I am not going for numbers. I am going for impact. I would rather radically change the worldview, thoughts, or life of one individual, than create a video which is only mildly interesting to a large base of people. I am seeking my elite spartan 300s, not trying to enlist millions of Persian slaves.

How many views is enough? 2. Why? If you watch your own video it may count as a single view. If you have two views on the video, it means that at least one other human being has watched and experienced the video.

What is the point of productivity?

We praise the avocado tree when it produces many avocados. We praise musicians when they produce much music, and we also praise chickens when they lay many eggs.

For myself personally, I am the happiest when I am the most productive. That is, I am the happiest when I am producing much, publishing much, etc.

Therefore my simple formula: in order to become happier, become more productive.

ERIC

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Productive Photography

Some thoughts on how to become a more productive photographer:

1. Shoot small JPEG or extra small JPEG. This will give you less paralysis by analysis when shooting street photography, or any type of every day photography.
2. Strive to shoot 1000 “bad“ photos in a single day. There is no such thing as good or bad photos, all photos are equal.
3. When in doubt, just shoot it.
4. Shoot in P, program mode, and just use auto focus. Even if your photo is out of focus, or blurry, it could actually be accidentally beautiful.
5. Use an in camera JPEG processing setting, like the high contrast black and white mode on the Ricoh GR3X. Other good options include the cross filter process on the Ricoh GR camera, or the classic chrome settings on the Fujifilm cameras.
6. Strive to walk at least 30,000 steps a day. And just bring your camera along. If you walk 30,000 steps a day and just shoot whatever you see, how can you not be inspired to make photos?
7. Get inspired in the HAPTIC SHOP. HAPTIC PRESS books, and resources. All open source.
8. ERIC KIM EXPERIENCES or just attend anybody’s photography workshop, photography tour experience etc. Anything which involves traveling, a foreign place, a workshop experience will always be a productive one. Why? You will step outside of your comfort zone, you will learn new things, you will shoot more.

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