ERIC KIM ₿

I remember taking AP statistics in high school, and learning about the notion of the “outlier”. That when you had a certain date of that, and there was a certain data point which was not according to the chart or the graft, you could just low-key erase it or ignore it.

Yet, society, the world, everything can only grow and thrive on the outliers.

For example, you cannot change society in the world by having a bunch of the same same South Korean students, all doing the same thing. You need the radical Elon Musk, the radical Kanye West, the radical Steve Jobs.

The reason why America is the center of innovation is our culture of cultivating, breeding, and also glorifying the outlier. For example, even in South Korea, not how all of the famous K-pop groups are all groups. There is not one really really spectacular individual K-pop star. If you think about BTS, it is a conglomerate of random pretty looking boys, Even black pink is about the group.

However in America, let’s consider the success of an individual Jay Z, an individual Eminem, a Snoop Dogg, etc.

You are not basic

The easiest way I think about this is this:

Don’t be basic.

What does it mean to be basic? It means to be like everybody else. To be medium, mediocre, etc.

For example, what does it mean to be mediocre? To drive a Honda accord or Toyota Camry, to seek to buy a house, to seek a nice job, to seek “stability“, etc.

What does it mean to be an outlier? To distain the norm, and also to distain what is popular.

For example, extreme and true differentiation is thinking of yourself and knowing yourself as vastly different, a new species of human. Certainly genetically we are about 99.9% similar to everybody else, but we have the audacity and the chutzpah to breed ourselves into something new.

---

Optimize yourself to be an outlier

Do you seek to be understood, or, do you seek to become more of an enigma?

Some ideas:

1. Hate and distain when you see other people who look like you, or when you look like other people. Even in terms of fashion, the best strategy is to choose clothes or wear clothes which no one else has. Or to wear the clothes in such a style or a way that differentiates you.
2. No car. Cars are for suckers. Better to be a Tyler Durden from FIGHT CLUB with no car, then another same same person, who all drove the same car. Like Jay Z said, I can’t tell who is who, “we all wear the same watch.” it doesn’t matter if you’re rich enough to wear a Richard Millie watch, or an 8P, everyone has one. The same thing goes with Lamborghinis, everyone has one. What is the best way to differentiate yourself and be an outlier is through what you decide to not on, or to disown.
3. Don’t talk like other people; you have extreme pride in your own language, your own lingua. Better to know ancient Greek then to speak like the millennials.

---

Why be an outlier?

A simple question; why be an outlier?

First of all, you probably are. This means that recognize that every single human being is different. Also each of us should glorify him or herself on being unique.

Second, our desire to move and change the world.

Self-reliance

What does it mean to be self reliant? Simply put, your ego, self-esteem, and your power is within yourself. You are not a slave to the opinions of others. For example, if you are reliant on peer review for anything, you are not free.

For example, if you have some philosophical thoughts, know that you do not require peer review, or an editor to review, critique, or acknowledge your ideas. The philosopher thinks first principles, and is not dependent on any external authority besides him or herself. The philosopher doesn’t need to base his or her theories on statistics, the opinions of others, etc. The philosopher bases their thoughts based on what they believe in.

---

Do things in a different way

For example, my hypelifting or ZENLIFTING notion.

Don’t just do things the same as others. Think carte blanche, and do things differently.

For example, when it comes to squat, no need to squat all the way to the floor. Instead, just being able to unrack the weight a little bit is enough. Even trying to go “parallel” or “below parallel”— is this truly necessary?

Cross pollinating new concepts

For example, my passion for Zen, and being able to cross pollinate it to other notions. For example, zen capitalism, zen photography, zen street photography, the Zen of hypelifting, or zenlifting.

Refuse to be constrained within narrow and reductive category. Instead, know that instead, a better goal is to extend all of your different passions and interests into wide ranging areas.

For example, am I the first to have figured out that the stronger I become at the gym, the stronger I become as a writer, thinker, photographer, entrepreneur, and thinker?

---

Pride in being an outlier

You must have pride in being an outlier, and it seems that a noble goal is to strive to become more of an outlier. To refuse to have the same desires as others, and the same language and notions of others.

Lie outside

Outlier —

1. Out
2. Lier

To be out. To be outside of the basic simple categories.

Where everyone else is… get really far away from them. Go beyond, think beyond, become beyond.

---

Create yourself as an outlier

It seems that in today’s consumers capitalist world, the way that people seek differentiation is through consumerism. By having a different car, different clothes, even other superficial things like listening to different types of music, movies, etc. This type of differentiation is superficial at best. Nay, not even superficial.

What you must do instead is become more of an outlier through your actions. Through your words, your ideas, to become more wolflike, and less sheeplike.

Just think to yourself: what would a wolf do?

Would a wolf eat kale and quinoa? No. The wolf would consume liver, heart, intestines, and other organ meat high in cholesterol. Would the wolf consume sugar, “vegetables?” No.

Also, is the wolf meek, and yielding no? The wolf is lean, mean, hard, stoic, and aggressive when it needs to be.

---

Zen and hype:

You can do it!

Perhaps what I do is zenlifting, having to go to the zen zone before lifting something:

EK TUBE

You are the solo, full stack solution:

Why self-reliance?

First and foremost, why should we seek self reliance as a desired thing or end? For me, it is a power thing. If you are 100% self-reliant, nothing can get in your way. You are unstoppable because there are no gate keepers or annoying things which get in your way.

Insanely empowering

Just think to yourself, if you don’t have to rely on anybody else for anything, isn’t this the ultimate empowering thought?

Entrepreneurship by KIM

Become the change which you desire to see manifested in the world!

Become you.

1. How to Extend Your Reach
2. NEWS: How to Think Like an Entrepreneur
3. PVP (Player vs Player)
4. How I became so influential
5. WE LOVE THE *SENSATION* OF RISK-TAKING
6. WHY HIGH PROFIT MARGINS?
7. INNOVATION THOUGHTS
8. OVERCONFIDENCE IS GOOD.
9. GARAGE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
10. PERHAPS IT IS GOOD TO BE “DELUSIONAL”
11. USE YOUR WEALTH TO BUY STUFF, OR TO BUILD AND INNOVATE STUFF?
12. HOW TO THRIVE
13. Target Demographic
14. Ambition Over Happiness
15. Anti Collaboration
16. The Will to Economy
17. Why New?
18. CHOOSE ADRENALINE.
19. No Looking Back.
20. 1000x Different
21. BECOME SPENDTHRIFT
22. THE BENEFIT OF JUST ONE.
23. EXTREME INNOVATION.
24. Practicality is Boring
25. BECOME YOUR OWN STANDARD.
26. NEVER STOP ITERATING.
27. CONDENSE.
28. Take Lots of Small Financial Risks
29. Control Over Convenience
30. Why Are Chinese Companies So Innovative?
31. INSANELY DIFFERENT.
32. Why Doesn’t Anything Ever Satisfy Me?
33. THE GREAT PASSION.
34. Perhaps Dissatisfaction is Good
35. ONE REP MAX.
36. WHAT DO YOU *REALLY* WANT IN LIFE?
37. LIFE IS ABOUT STRIVING FOR MORE.
38. NEVER STOP LINKING.
39. THE GREATEST.
40. WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!
41. THE BEST IS YET TO COME.
42. ERIC KIM CRITIQUE OF ROMANTICISM
43. COMPLACENCY.
44. JUST BUY IT.
45. ALL ABOUT YOU.
46. MOVE THE WORLD
47. Boring or Not Boring?
48. What if Your Past Self were Inferior to Your Present Self?
49. THE PHILOSOPHY OF PROGRESS
50. CULTURE IS YOUR ENEMY.
51. Difficulty & Interest
52. The Will to Expansion
53. What is Work?
54. SOUL IN THE GAME.
55. JUST START IT.
56. Not Boring
57. PRIDE IN YOUR OWN NAME / BRAND
58. AS MUCH AS YOU CAN TOLERATE.
59. Speed is Paramount
60. TAKE IT BACK TO THE BEGINNING.
61. A Life With No Risk Taking is *NOT* a Life Worth Living
62. Dissatisfaction is Good
63. GREATER STRENGTH, GREATER CHALLENGES.
64. In Praise of the New
65. Uncorrupted Desires
66. You Cannot Fake Passion
67. SELF-OVERGOING
68. FORM YOURSELF.
69. Personal Entrepreneurship
70. RELENTLESS.
71. PUT YOUR NAME ON IT.
72. A Life of Expansion
73. SELF-ENTREPRENEURSHIP
74. YOU ARE THE EXCEPTION.
75. Use Your Life as an Experiment to Self-Develop Yourself to Heights Never Seen Before
76. Invest in New Developments
77. Investing Towards What End?
78. The 90%/10% Principle in Entrepreneurship
79. Speed Wins
80. The Philosophy of Happiness
81. When to Over-Estimate, When to Under-Estimate?
82. Never Stop Iterating
83. Money as a Tool for Life and Artistic Experimentation
84. Less But More Premium
85. Mainstream vs Low-Key Success
86. Why Dissatisfaction is Good
87. SEEK YOUR OWN PERSONAL MAXIMAL BENEFIT INSTEAD OF COMPLAINING
88. Manifest Your Destiny
89. Is it Best to *Not* Communicate Your Inner Thoughts or Ideas With Others?
90. CREATE THINGS YOU WISH TO SEE MANIFESTED IN THE WORLD
91. How to Do More Work
92. CONTROL.
93. Competition is for Losers
94. Change.
95. Your Competitive Advantage with Insanely Fast Wifi and High Speed Internet
96. Pseudo Individualism
97. Natural Internal Promoting vs External Promptings

Think for Yourself.

1. Survival vs Thrivival
2. Become Rich
3. SECRETS.
4. Why it is Better to Beg for Forgiveness than Ask for Permission
5. Thinking About the Past Prevents You From Thinking About the Future
6. How to Predict the Future
7. Tools of Mass Distraction
8. So What?

FREEDOM

• On Leaving a Legacy
• I wanna be me!
• Productivity for personal freedom
• How to Purchase your Freedom

---

Never stop innovating.

---

Entrepreneurship Mindset

• What is Your Dream in Life?
• 8 Blogging Productivity Tips
• Why Be Normal?
• How Much Suffering Are You Willing to Endure to Achieve Your Dreams?

---

Put a Dent in the Universe.

• Innovate for the Sake of Innovating!
• Reality is Malleable!
• Stoic Entrepreneurship
• Against Self-Preservation
• The Purpose of Life is to Make New Stuff!

The art of ignoring:

1. It is training

Delight in ignoring. Delight in ignoring others, the news, distractions, etc.

Ignore means ignorance. When utilized wisely, to be ignorant of superfluous things is good.

2. Don’t use text messaging, don’t have email installed on your phone

If you check your email several times a day on your phone, or refresh your Gmail when you know that you haven’t got any new emails, it is a slave mentality. Two things; to seek new opportunities in your email inbox is a sign of weakness, also, typically any “opportunity“, offered to you is some sort of servitude.

3. See others as beneath you

This is a “bad stoic strategy”; by seeing others as below you are beneath you, their petty actions don’t really bother you. Why? When you see others as beneath you, you don’t set them to the same high standards you set yourself. This means, Their actions, words, or lack of actions and words don’t bother you.

A pragmatic Stoic strategy to “ignore” people or to retain your zen calm.

STOICISM 101

Become invincible:

1. Bad Stoic Strategies
2. The Stoic Way of Dealing With Unpleasant or Miserable People
3. HOW TO BECOME A STOIC
4. Stoicism Stunts Our Power?
5. Stoicism is Mental Resistance Training
6. STOIC STRATEGIES.
7. How to Become Fearless
8. Extreme Stoicism
9. Ethics are Aesthetic
10. Indifference to Pain or Suffering
11. When is Stoicism Good? When is Stoicism Bad?
12. Why Others Criticize or Insult You
13. True Difficulty
14. What if Covid Never Goes Away?
15. SUPER STOIC
16. Anti-Hedonism
17. HOW TO CONQUER FEAR
18. ANTI FEAR
19. It is the Duty of the Strong to Help the Weak
20. The Goal is to Become Stronger
21. HYPER STOICISM
22. HYPER HERO
23. TRANSFORM EVERY DOWNSIDE INTO AN UPSIDE
24. STOICISM x Child’s Mind
25. The Art of Manly Virtue
26. Resistance Makes Us Stronger!
27. DON’T LIVE IN FEAR
28. Emotions are Good
29. Conquer Your Anger
30. BLACK EAGLE
31. DIFFICULTY AWAKENS YOUR INNER-GENIUS.
32. STOICISM IS ARMOR FOR THE MIND
33. The Spartan-Stoic Lifestyle
34. How I Conquered Fear
35. HOW TO CURE FEAR.
36. LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL.
37. The Upside of Poverty
38. How I Became Me
39. THE WILL TO POWER, OR THE WILL TO FEAR?
40. ATTACK REALITY
41. Living *THROUGH* History
42. How to Fear Less
43. Fear is the Ultimate Contagious Disease
44. STOICISM FOR DUMMIES
45. Don’t Be Scared!
46. WHAT CAN YOU CONTROL, WHAT CAN YOU NOT CONTROL?
47. HOW YOU CAN CONQUER FEAR
48. YOU’RE STRONGER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE.
49. EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
50. WHY AREN’T THINGS WORSE?
51. My Philosophy on Masculinity
52. A Riskier Life is a Better Life #philosophy #stoicism
53. How to Creatively Flourish in Life
54. Introduction to Stoicism
55. How to Become Stronger
56. How to Conquer Depression With Photography
57. What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger
58. How to Respect Yourself
59. How to Believe in Yourself
60. How to Steer Fear
61. How to Conquer Pessimism
62. How to Conquer Anxiety
63. How to Overcome Your Fear of People
64. How to Be Optimistic
65. Why I Don’t Take My Anger Seriously
66. HOW TO BECOME MORE POWERFUL
67. POSITIVITY.
68. HOW TO BECOME SUPERHUMAN
69. How to Give a Fuck Less
70. ALL IN.
71. Why I Cut My Dad Out of My Life.
72. Your iPhone Only Has 5% Battery Left.
73. How not to give a FUCK about your REPUTATION
74. WHAT IS A HUMAN?
75. HAPPINESS.
76. The Regret Minimization Framework in Photography and Life
77. How to Be a HERO
78. Conquer Your Fears by Making Fear Your Slave
79. Rule Circumstances; Don’t Let Your Circumstances Rule You
80. How to Love Yourself
81. How to Turn Shit into Gold
82. Your Parents Fuck You Up
83. Immortality
84. What Kills You Makes You Stronger
85. How to Be Patient
86. How to Conquer Anger
87. How to Bounce Back in Life
88. How to Overcome Resistance
89. Nothing Unlimited is Good; Nothing Good is Unlimited
90. You Have No Limits
91. Can 1’s and 0’s Hurt You?
92. The Envious Moment is Flying Now
93. Tomorrow We’ll Sail the Wide Seas Again
94. How to Forgive Others
95. Focus on Your Actions, Not the Results
96. Everything Will Be Alright
97. How to Be a Stoic Street Photographer
98. How to Be a Spartan Photographer
99. How to Overcome Your Fears in Life
100. How to Stop Worrying in Life
101. How to Use Photography as Self-Therapy
102. How to Free Your Soul From Disturbance
103. 3 Stoic Techniques that Can Help You Gain Tranquility
104. Can People Weaker than You Hurt You?
105. Does a Doctor Get Angry at a Crazy Patient?
106. Own Nothing

The Stoic Masters

Learn from the master stoics:

• Seneca
• Marcus Aurelius
• Epictetus
• Publilius Syrus
• Heraclitus

See all philosophy >

Yes, you can and will change the world.

What does it mean to change the world?

One of the ways to change the world is through media. For example, FIGHT CLUB. I read the book, and I also watch the movie, and actually prefer the movie one? Written stories are great, but, when you add visuals, real human faces, a story line, audiovisual, etc., it heightens and elevates the message.

For example, to see how gangster Tyler Durden is, and how gangster it is to NOT own a car. Societal critiques through movies and media is transformative. For example, the original MATRIX.

Create your own media

A very simple way to change the world is to create your own media. A simple formula is spend 90% of your time creating media, and only 10% of your time consuming media. Or better yet, spend 99% of your effort creating, and only 1% of your time consuming media.

Why change the world?

I think part of it is an innate human love of humanity.

Podcast

The future of innovation is in the human body and flesh, not cars or devices:

Flesh innovation:

Still much innovation to be had in the context of flesh!

Beyond ownership, disownership. That is, the best way to differentiate yourself is by deciding what you don’t want to own, or what you decide to NOT own, irregardless of how rich you are. For example, the true billionaire would desire to NOT own a home, or own a watch, or own a phone, all the true billionaire needs is an iPad Pro, a Ricoh GR IIIx camera, and his body.

I remember taking AP statistics in high school, and learning about the notion of the “outlier”. That when you had a certain date of that, and there was a certain data point which was not according to the chart or the graft, you could just low-key erase it or ignore it.

Yet, society, the world, everything can only grow and thrive on the outliers.

For example, you cannot change society in the world by having a bunch of the same same South Korean students, all doing the same thing. You need the radical Elon Musk, the radical Kanye West, the radical Steve Jobs.

The reason why America is the center of innovation is our culture of cultivating, breeding, and also glorifying the outlier. For example, even in South Korea, not how all of the famous K-pop groups are all groups. There is not one really really spectacular individual K-pop star. If you think about BTS, it is a conglomerate of random pretty looking boys, Even black pink is about the group.

However in America, let’s consider the success of an individual Jay Z, an individual Eminem, a Snoop Dogg, etc.

You are not basic

The easiest way I think about this is this:

Don’t be basic.

What does it mean to be basic? It means to be like everybody else. To be medium, mediocre, etc.

For example, what does it mean to be mediocre? To drive a Honda accord or Toyota Camry, to seek to buy a house, to seek a nice job, to seek “stability“, etc.

What does it mean to be an outlier? To distain the norm, and also to distain what is popular.

For example, extreme and true differentiation is thinking of yourself and knowing yourself as vastly different, a new species of human. Certainly genetically we are about 99.9% similar to everybody else, but we have the audacity and the chutzpah to breed ourselves into something new.

---

Optimize yourself to be an outlier

I do you seek to be understood, or, do you seek to become more of an enigma?

You are the outlier, the ever high flyer. The street fighter turbo, with the golden wings and feet.

Your goal is to fly so high, that you have the blind. Soar higher on your wings, no need for things.

No glass ceiling, no Wonka elevator. The internet is vast, time for you to conquer.

I have never met a confident photographer. Why? Over-reliance on social media, and external metrics to crowd source their self-esteem.

What does it mean to be self-confident? Simply put, I think it means to be self-motivated, and your inner directive and motive is autotelic, which means that your telos or your purpose, or the pursuit is the reward in itself.

Why become more self-confident?

My personal thought is every child is born confident, what happens as they get older is that their parents or teachers kill their inner confidence and motivation, why? The parents and teachers are too cowardly, and risk-averse, or perhaps not wise.

The greatest upside of becoming more self-confident is that you can thrive more and become more.

Seeking innovation in the human body:

1. Farmers walk

At the gym, find a trap bar, and load it up with weights. Lift up the weight, and just walk across the gym barefoot to a certain distance. If you want stronger grip, use some weightlifting chalk on your hands and apply it to the bar.

The benefits of this exercise include increasing your grip strength, getting your adrenaline and hype up, building your traps, trapezius muscles, your bicep, abs and back, and your legs. I enjoy this exercise because it is both dynamic and interesting.

Why do it barefoot? Maximal connection with the ground, no slippage, better leverage. If Hafþór could deadlift 501 kg barefoot, so can you.

2. Squat hold

And you thought I’ve been wondering to myself, why is it that we feel the need to squat all the way down, ass to grass, or even parallel, break parallel, a little bit above parallel, etc.?

At what point, thinking about functional fitness, would we have to hold a very heavy weight in our shoulders, squat down half way, and then stand up? It makes no sense.

What makes sense to me instead is thinking Milo of Croton, holding a 1000 pound or 2000 pound oxen on your shoulder, and walking around. Thus also my “squat walk” concept.

to simplify matters even further, why even walk? Why not just push the weight off the rack a little bit, pushing with your legs and shoulders, and your back, and then holding the weight a little bit, and then putting it down?

3. Rack pull

The future is photography.

Time for us to go HAM:

The source of all of our wisdom, strength and power is from our bodies and in our bodies. Therefore, building the ultimate body will yield you in building the ultimate mind, the ultimate soul, the ultimate thoughts, the ultimate spirit.

Deify your body

Your body is a temple, as our best friend Jesus says. Why don’t we respect it?

When have we been taught that our body is a vice?

Some theories;

First of all, the fallacious view of the immortal soul, which can exist without a body. The reason why this is such a dangerous thought is that rather than focusing on our current life, we plan for some sort of fantasy after life.

You’re the one:

Glorify your own body!

Pride in your own body — the new ultimate virtue?

“My body is perfect!”— has anyone ever said this?

I believe it for myself. I believe that my body is the most beautiful, the most supreme, the most perfect thing. My body is the most beautiful male body that I’ve personally seen.

Isn’t this supposed to be the goal of bodybuilding, to craft and build the perfect and ideal body for yourself?

Also, to be able to be self reliant on your own body which means that you judge your own body based on your own self and metrics, without needing the approval of others.

This is how bodybuilders are so fragile, because they rely on the judging and the metrics of a panel of random judges to write their physiques. And the hilarity is that these judges themselves don’t even work out. Isn’t this bizarre?