ERIC KIM ₿

Everyone likes to believe in conspiracies. Why? If you believe in a conspiracy, you are somehow dissatisfied with the life already got, and you want to see blame somewhere else.

But what if there were no conspiracy? Then what? How was your best approach and live your life?

A world without meaning?

Real reality has no reason, no logic behind it. You truly do have the full power to facilitate and direct your life in the general direction you desire. Now whether you become rich or famous is outside of your control, but every day actions are within your own grasp.

Not the will to truth, as there is no ultimate truth. Rather, the will to art.

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A random thought: perhaps it is a more interesting and fun speculation to buy Dogecoin, instead of buying a Tesla.

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Some Lamborghini thoughts —

They took the soft, boring, easy, and risk-averse route.

What is the main takeaway for us then?

Opt for daring.

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Your value as a street photographer is dependent on your appetite for risk.

And what is ‘happiness’ for us as photographers? Living the maximally risk-loving life!

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Why be pessimistic? Is there any upside to pessimism? I don’t think so.

Perhaps ‘optimistic nihilism‘ is a better route. The idea–

There is no ultimate ‘reason’ or rhyme to anything, but in spite of that … you still have free will, and can do super cool epic things.

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Perhaps why I am a futurist:

Retro, thinking backwards is bad.

Perhaps why I am a futurist:

Retro, thinking backwards is bad.

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Lamborghini was always interesting to me because it seemed to be the ultimate audacious design, and the ultimate booster of the ego.

But now — no more.

Why? The recent scandal with the ‘new’ (re-booted) Lamborghini Countach. Lamborghini (parent company is Volkswagen), had a chance to do something insanely different, yet they went for boring. They played it insanely safe, only to appeal to their (older, rich) clientele, who grew up loving the original Lamborghini Countach. Even the original designer Marcello Gandini said:

“I have built my identity as a designer, especially when working on supercars for Lamborghini, on a unique concept: each new model I would work on would be an innovation, a breaker, something completely different from the previous one. Courage, the ability to create a break without sticking to the success of the previous car, the confidence in not wanting to give in to habit were the very essence of my work.”

Anti repetition of past success:

“…as far I am concerned, to repeat a model of the past, represents in my opinion the negation of the founding principles of my DNA”.

Marcello Gandini

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Just watched the new “Free Guy” film I loved it. It’s like the Truman show meets the matrix meets ready player one, with Fortnite in Grandtheft Auto baked in.

I think what people don’t appreciate about the film is just how philosophical it is. Some thoughts:

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Dear friends,

A thought:

We are artists. And perhaps in order for us to grow and become stronger artists, we must add our means for creative expression and creative outpression?

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The more multi-variegated you can make your photography and art, the better.

Take photos of everything. Take photos of photos you’ve already shot and printed (meta-photography). Take screenshots of photos you’ve made.

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A photography entrepreneurial thought:

Perhaps in order to augment our artistic self-expression, the photographer should also create music?

Simple — GarageBand on MacBook Laptop (use loops, the easiest way), and make iMovie slideshows with your photos, videos, and music?

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What is the joy of the philosopher? To think insanely lofty thoughts. Beyond notions of self, self-preservation. Being able to see far — hundreds of years, even thousands of years in front of him/her!

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I love chaos. Chaos stimulates me.

In praise of Costco chaos. Also shooting street photography in more chaotic cities. The ideal city for street photography as being the maximally chaotic, not like a Singapore.

The downside to low prices is: you just buy more of them, and they all ultimately die in your closet. At least when you buy expensive stuff, you’re more likely to use it. And also if you buy more expensive stuff, you’re more likely to hold onto it and use it for longer periods of time.

So in some ways, buying expensive stuff is also better environmentally.

So the simple more of the story is this: own fewer things, but make sure they are the most expensive stuff. In praise of Outlier.nyc clothing. All black merino wool everything. Better to just own one of the best thing, and wear the shit out of it, than own lots of cheap things.

We all want electric cars … but how come no love for ‘electric cameras‘? (digital cameras)?

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No more penis-envy of other forms of artists (painters, sculptors, drawers, etc).

We photographers are the apex artist.

After making a bunch of money with crypto, the funny thing:

Once I can afford it … it no longer appeals to me.

What is so fascinating to me about cryptocurrency, crypto technologies, etc —

The concept of living in embodied reality (or the meta verse) with no limits.

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Brand loyalty is slavery

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Dear friend,

What we must think about deeply:

What is it that we really want from our photography?

Some thoughts:

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A turbo thought: perhaps we artists need greater stimuli, in terms of audio visual and multi sensory.

Stimuli in terms of music, stimuli in terms of human beings in social situations, stimuli in films and shows, stimuli in videos, stimuli in literature in poetry, and even virtual reality augmented reality and 360 stimuli.

Thus the simple takeaway is this: do not just restrict yourself to one type of stimuli. All sorts of stimuli which you get you going, motivated and inspired is good.

Stronger Philosophy, more intense music, coffee, thoughts and films, etc.

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Something I’ve learned: be very very wary of people friends and family who often hate on others. Why? Hate is contagious. Hate is like a poison and disease, which we do not desire to be affiliated with.

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What is the best way? The street photography way. The street photography lifestyle, the steeet photography approach and ethos to life.

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He thought: would it be best for us to just always be out and about, outside of our homes, in public places but just doing work and being productive in our phones? I think so.

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What is it that we want out of life? I think we want a more beautiful life, and more beautiful existence.

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Live stream your life through your photos.

This is a very innovative way to approach photography: because it no longer relies on capturing just one great single image, either to be published in a book, printed, in an exhibition, or to maximize likes on social media.

Better to approach photography like video games streamers will approach their streaming.

That’s the take away is this: don’t put too much attention on any single photograph. Rather best to just think about the whole stream as a collective.

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How to give an honest self-appraisal of your photos:

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The more you can make automatic the basic stuff, the more you could focus on controlling or creating the important stuff.

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Dear friend,

Why do we do photography? Because it is our art.

Why do we not consider our photography our art? Is it because the bias that photography is not a ‘true’ art, because it is too easy (compared to oil painting)? Or is it because of the elitism of the art world?

Regardless, we must pursue our photography art. Why?

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Weight reduction (for sports cars), and also fitness (better to lose body fat than to add muscle mass).

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Moving forward with Apple products, or any products–

Prioritize AIR (lightness, compactness) over ‘pro’ (materials, power, etc).

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Some more thoughts regarding the meta-verse:

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If you think about it philosophically, it’s all the meta-verse. What does this mean? All of our desire for things, money, popular acclaim, is all within the meta-verse.

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Dear friend,

Street photography (and photography in general) is our passion. But the question —

How do we stay inspired and motivated to keep doing it?

Some thoughts:

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Simple thought:

Once you no longer concern yourself with your own self-preservation or your own ego (notions of success or failure), then you can attempt all the epic risks (which interest you).

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Perhaps the ‘best’ way to innovate (the American school) is to strive for extreme innovation? For example, TESLA, SPACE X, KANYE WEST YEEZY, etc.

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When it comes to design, for example comparing Japanese design versus German design, and American design: think this, all design philosophies have an underlying ethos and philosophy behind it.

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The truth:

No need to have people in your street photos.

Certainly most street photos are superior *with* people, but they are not necessary. If you can create strong images without people, so be it!

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Half the fun of street photography:

Aiming to make fun and novel compositions!

For example, shooting layers. Or striving to discover new compositions never done before.

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A creative publishing thought:

Don’t see too much of a difference between your photos and videos.

Instead, combine them.

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I love the bay:

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I’m quite certain that my next car will be an electric car. Why?

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There are many interesting analogies we could use for video games in real life, and modern society. However ultimately, I still believe that embodied reality is far superior than video game reality.

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If real life was an MMORPG, this is how I would create real life analogies:

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One of my ideals and goals for the future: decentralized photography. To get photos off of Instagram and Facebook, and to put the power in your own hands.

arsbeta.com as my first attempt and assay. But we must go further.

To innovate best to piggy back off the dominant platform or technology.

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Question: what is it that we actually want from our cars?

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A thought —

Perhaps in life, the best way we can leverage our archimedes lever in life is to just focus on photography. Our photography. Our photographic innovation.

Dear friend,

A thought:

How can I extract the maximum out of existence?

I think the secret is ‘productivity’ — being able to do more (meaningful) things with your photography and life with our shortness of life. As Seneca said:

Life is long as long as you know how to (efficiently) use it.

Some productivity thoughts:

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A thought —

Better to meditate and think about your FUTURE photos, than to ruminate too much on your past photos.

To be a more productive photographer, step more, walk more.

One of the best things I learned from Daido Moriyama or the Japanese ‘Provoke’ school of photography:

Snapshot photography is good.

Ironically enough, the MORE devices you got, the LESS productive you will become.

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What does it mean to be a street photographer? To me it is all about an attitude and ethos. A philosophy and approach to life.

For example, preferring to be outside. Loving other people. Loving humanity, making small talk with strangers, and finding beauty in society in the world.

The street photographer as artist-sociologist. Visual sociology.

Isn’t this the ultimate, to make art out of people?

For me, I only get happiness and joy when I am actively building creating and making. Not consuming or playing.

For me, our legacy will be all about what we built and made. Thus it seem that in order to extract the maximum out of life and existence, focus on building.

One of the things I found which is really good in life, is just compliment strangers. This is the best way to make small talk with strangers, push yourself outside your comfort zone, and find beauty in every single human being.

This is the ethos of the street photographer.

The tricky thing is this: there are certainly certain products in life which make our lives much more convenient, efficient, and productive. But this is what I learned: no matter how good or perfect the product is, it will never bring you joy. At best, you won’t hate it.

However this is a plus one to Wabi Sabi aesthetics. Things that become more beautiful overtime, with more wear and tear. For example Henri camera straps, which are made out of leather, which age in patina over time, and become more beautiful. And this is what you can have pride in, the more you use some thing, the more pride you have in it.

Therefore when it comes to purchasing products in life think this: invest in products which get better over time, avoid that which is simply robust or gets worse over time.

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I love the iPad, but the problem is this: it is not a laptop replacement. Nor should it be. Thus, don’t have the pipe dream that thinking that getting an iPad Pro will somehow replace your laptop. It won’t.

iPad is good for viewing your photos, using procreate, calligraphy on Zen Brush 2, and that’s about it. iPad Pro is the best viewing experience for your photos, but for the best laptop just get a maxed out MacBook Air.

Something to a lot of people talk about: whether street photography has to be on the streets or not. I say it does not. Street photography is more of a catchall term which involves photography that has to do with humanity.

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Why street photography? It is a way of life.

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One of the new critiques I have of Legos this: it is reductive and close ended. That is, you’re only allowed to be creative in the reductive box of Lego, and you can only build with instruction. Better to have open world creativity instead.

Anesthetic thought: whenever I look at cars, I hate cars that have chrome accents. Chrome just looks cheesy and cheap.

Lesson, when designing your car or purchasing your car get something with no chrome. Blacked out. In praise of the new Tesla cars with the blacked out accents.

Homeownership is a trap. Better to occasionally rent nice Airbnb‘s, instead of dealing with the hassle of owning one.

Some quick life thoughts from my last trip to the BAY:

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The best gear:

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Dear friend,

A focus this week for you:

Focus on making photos as dark as possible (ADAP), and practice with highlight weighted metering.

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One of my greatest skills in life, and also having studied sociology, and social skills, especially the ability to talk to strangers.

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If you’re feeling gloomy, or depressed or anxious, the best panacea is being social.

Also attending workshops, in person things, even online zoom things (like online zoom workshop). Go and be a part of society, make small talk with strangers, etc.

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