ERIC KIM ₿

Quick thoughts:

1. Not as heavy as I thought it would be. Feels only marginally heavier than my 13” MacBook Pro Touch Bar. Perhaps in this new COVID world where we won’t be traveling as much, it seems like it makes more sense to get a (refurbished) 16” MacBook Pro Touch Bar instead of getting the 13” MacBook Pro Touch Bar.
2. The keyboard feels much better than the 13” MacBook Pro Touch Bar. More key travel equals less carpal tunnel for typing (sad truth I get carpal tunnel and wrist and finger pain when typing on my 13” MacBook Pro Touch Bar for too long).
3. The screen seems substantively brighter (at max brightness) when compared to 13” MacBook Pro Touch Bar. I can notice the difference and it is good.

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The more eggs, the better:

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Fuck it you only got one life to live. Why waste any of it thinking small, doing small, being afraid, and taking no risks? Let us not be fooled my friends… the best life is the life with the maximum amount of risk, the maximum amount of insanity, and the maximum amount of attempting (to ‘essay’ or ‘assay’ the great!)

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A realization:

It isn’t money, power, fame, or notoriety I desire… but control.

Control over myself, control over my decisions, control to do what I want to do, and control to *NOT* do what I don’t want to do.

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Don’t expect others to treat you the way you treat them.

This then means:

You are a magnanimous monster of great and highly virtue. If others act petty around you; don’t let it faze you.

You just do you (meaning, you pursue your epic virtue for the sake of it and for the sake of yourself!

ERIC

New thought:

Life is too short. Let’s put ourselves in a robust (antifragile) stoic position that nothing any longer fazes us.

A thought and realization:

With COVID and beyond, the car becomes an external skin (like the Iron Man armor). It becomes a second home and a new mobile work space.

So perhaps when it comes for you to buy a car consider:

If I became homeless, could I live and work out of my car?

Perhaps the new millennial way to work and live: just live out of your car!

A new thought and social innovation idea:

We do home share (Airbnb) we do car share (Uber); why not life share?

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Uber-simple approach to sharing your photos:

Just share your own photos on your own blog!

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A brief primer to digital photography:

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In life if you approached it like it were all fun and games … wouldn’t you be happier, more productive, more creative and more passionate about living?

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Photograph like a child!

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Just read a bit of the book, ‘Aristotle’s Way‘ (published by Penguin/Random House) and really liked the section and chapter on leisure, as well as the conclusion. The gist:

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In other words, the process and effort is the reward!

For the most part, I FAAAR prefer interacting and playing with kids than adults. Why? We have soooo much more to learn from children:

1. Their phenomenal sense of creativity, disregard for rules and ‘social tact’. They speak what is *really* on their mind.
2. I wonder if children (if we observe their thought patterns and behaviors, etc) are the more *true* form of human being. The modern adult as simply a castrated, domesticated (herd) animal. Children are like wild beasts; is this our primal nature?

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Why not rather instability?

Consider … if an object is uber-stable and at rest, it is boring. No motivation to move, advance or do anything. Whereas instability means:

Move, change, advancement forwards.

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Do anything for 10 years with passion, enthusiasm and zest and you will master it. For me this includes photography, blogging, lifting weights, talking, traveling, and teaching.

I am convinced. RICOH GR III is the best camera of all time (thus far). Why? Reasons:

1. The smallest size of all time, and the most premium. Smaller than even the great RICOH GR II, with better performance. Also lighter. The smaller and lighter your camera, the more you will carry it with you everywhere you go and the more you will shoot. And for us photographers, to make *new* photos is our lifeblood.
2. The best JPEG files: Cross process filter on JPEG is phenomenal. So is the high contrast black and white monochrome mode. You will never need to shoot RAW ever again!!
3. Shoots great videos and is perfect for vlogging.
4. The best price. You cannot beat the ‘bang for the buck‘ compared to any other camera on the market.
5. The sharpest photos. Sharpest photos… even more sharp than digital Leica photos! Also the resolution of the JPEG files are huge (6000 x 4000 pixels). You can print insanely huge, and also pixel peep a ton as well (if you want).
6. Charges via USB-C: This means you can use your MacBook Pro charger to recharge your Ricoh GR III … insanely useful.

Long story short, get RICOH GR III.

ERIC

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In photography and life, never stop curating your photos.

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Some of my best photos (a dynamic, ongoing list):

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If you try to compete with anyone (besides yourself) you’re gonna lose.

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Who is ERIC KIM? Why is he so opinionated? Where does he come from? What does he want?

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First of all I don’t believe in “white” people. This makes no sense. I’m actually more pale and more “white” in skin tone than many Caucasian people (the more accurate term for a “white” person) as a Korean.

So when I talk about “white washing”, what do I mean? I mean it is like applying bleach to anything which is saucy, interesting, enjoysome and “racy” and “inappropriate” in life to make it acceptable and “wholesome” to essentially placate over-protective parents, paternalistic members of the elite intelligentsia, and also to placate advertisers.

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It seems the pipe dream for everyone is to “make money online” and to gain “passive income” online.

But why? Towards what ends?

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What is one of the most fun things to photograph, shoot, and video? Nature!

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We are addicted to speed. Why? Speed is more fun!

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Auto telic: to do something for the sake of it. Telos— purpose or aim. Auto (done by yourself, pursued by yourself).

Thus if we approached photography from this autotelic perspective, we would be far more happy, creative and productive as photographers and visual artists!

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What is “fake”? It means to rob, swindle, or to “spruce up with artificial means”. Thus in this regard, all news is “fake” news. Yes this includes Google News, New York Times, NPR, The New Yorker, Atlantic and every form of mainstream (and underground) news.

All news is polished and spruced up not for “journalistic integrity” but towards what news agencies really want — more advertising revenue.

Why is change so scary and difficult? Why are we so reticent to change? My thoughts:

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If there is something about the world or society which annoys or upsets you don’t just sit around complaining. Instead become the change which you desire to see manifested in the world. Change it. Fix it! This is the true entrepreneurial spirit. Less talk, more walk and action!

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The very happy and optimistic thought:

The more I go out and shoot and photograph the world, the more beautiful, rich and fuller it becomes.

Isn’t this a great thought?

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Hegemony comes from “hegemon”— leader, guide. Think “Enders Game” (my favorite science fiction book of all time, as audiobook). Or think of the “Dollar Hegemony” (Henry C K Liu).

Typically when people think “hegemony” it is seen as bad and evil. “Hegeomai” (the root word of hegemon, or hegemony) is actually good … it means to lead, go forth, lead the way, guide. It comes from the Proto Indo European “*sehg”: to seek out.

Anyways back to the notion of “Digital Hegemony”— the gist is at this point Google *is* the Internet which means if you desire to be relevant online, best to kowtow and merge with Google and play good with Google, or be left behind.

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It seems right now the best WordPress blogging theme is Newspack.pub by Automaticc (company which runs and owns WordPress.com).

Why? Essentially this is the conspiracy:

WordPress.com and Google “News Initiative” is together in bed, plotting to take over the (news and blog based) internet, to maximize Google’s digital hegemony over advertising (Google Adsense).

Let me explain more in depth:

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If you got nothing to photograph around you, just shoot some flowers!

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A realization about life:

Life is no fun and has no savour unless we expend effort and exercise our skills.

Skill excercisement is fun, challenging and makes life worth it. If everything were handed to you on a silver platter … life loses all zest and interest.

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My honest thought:

There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to approach street photography, just like how there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way a tree grows.

Thus take extreme ownership over street photography. Your street photography. Your rules.

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One of the most under-rated forms of street photography:

Kid street photography.

Honestly at this point; it all goes. With permission, without permission. Photos of your own kids or the kids of others. Photos of kids in public space or private.

I see street photography as more of a technique, approach and ethos. This means there is a ‘street photography style‘ — striving to capture raw human emotions. The technicalities (with permission, without permission, candid or posed, etc) doesn’t matter.

Real thoughts:

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My very pragmatic thoughts towards minimalism:

Minimalism is more convenient, productive, and generative.

Do not pursue minimalist ways for some sort of strange virtue-flexing (I am doing a ‘good’ thing for the environment or planet or whatever). No. Minimalism is about convenience and productivity-maximizing!

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Life is a never-ending journey; this is what makes it so fun and valuable!

All street photo:

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In today’s brave new COVID world, you’re also a brave new street photographer.

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I love kids. Why? In some ways I’m a big kid. I love playing with kids — they speak their mind, they don’t censor themselves and they are typically insanely honest. They love to play, and their spirit is tremendous.

More adults should be like kids, and more adults should have kids (especially if you’re smart, educated, intelligent and want to make the world a better place!)

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Shoot this brave new world:

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Like Juvenal said in Roman times:

The (vulgar) masses are distracted and fleeced by circuses and bread (circecen + panem)

Our modern metaphor:

Our circuses are TV shows, UFC fights, sports, politics, the news (both real and fake) and our bread is high fructose corn syrup, ‘organic’ foods, Coca Cola, cookies, and McDonalds.

Takeaway:

Don’t let the bread and circuses distract, sucker you, or sap your precious attention.

Your attention, focus, and zen above all.

ERIC

Fuck the socials. Fuck social media (Facebook–Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Flickr, etc). The best social media is you; your own website-blog and platform.

Until you own yourself, you cannot be free.

Freedom is our apex goal, and the end-goal for you as a creator, innovator, entrepreneur and thinker. Why build your own empire on the land of another? Why be a digital share-cropper?

No. Make your own site. Be the master of your own domain (web domain). You own it; you own yourself.

ERIC

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A meaningful photo project you can pursue:

Shoot the pandemic, and record your own views, perspective and thoughts via your photos.

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Let us not be suckered; all debt is bad debt.

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Looking at old photos are bitter-sweet. But also they hold us back. How so? The gist:

When you look at old photos and you re-surface old memories … it holds you back from thinking about the present and the FUTURE.

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The greatness of photography has been highly understated. Photography is great — let us make it great(er) again!

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A thought the other day:

What’s underrated in life, and what’s overrated in life?

My thoughts:

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In praise of the freedom of (politically incorrect) speech.

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The best way to get people to comply to mask wearing:

Make it cool, stylish and nice to wear a mask.

Instead of wearing a new Rolex watch, you wear a luxury Louis Vuitton mask. Or wearing a mask makes it easier to breathe in polluted environments and cities and keeps bad smells and dust out of your mouth.

My proposal:

Let’s spam the rapper Future on Twitter to do a song titled, “Mask On” to make mask wearing cool for the youth.

As a sociologist, this is my take on COVID-19 and the societal and economic consequences of the pandemic:

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Losing Body Fat (Adipose Tissue) as Beneficial to Fight COVID-19

COVID-19 is more deadly in overfat individuals, according to a recent Science article. This is my thought:

If you want to protect yourself from catching COVID-19 and potential death from it, losing body fat (adipose tissue) doesn’t hurt.

Let me explain further in depth:

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Not a brave new world, a LAME new world. A lame new world beridden by ads, popups, interruptions, lame distractions, porn, sugar, news, entertainment, media, etc. The future … we are all hopped up on metaphorical “soma” (Brave New World substance), which is just mass distraction for petty profits.

Thus my suggestion and intervention:

Make the future less lame.

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Let us not fool and deceive ourselves:

At this point Google *is* the internet.

What does this mean?

Either merge with Google or be left behind.

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We all have been taught:

Quality over quantity.

I disagree. I believe quantity over quality is supreme.

Why? Some thoughts:

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The internet as the ultimate under-utilized tool. Still insane amounts of disruption, innovation and greatness just waiting for you:

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Whenever we analyze things let us not be suckered. The question (be honest with yourself):

Is this thing a toy or tool?

Toys are fine. But just kid or sucker yourself. We only get suckered when we somehow “justify” our purchases as tools when they’re actually toys.

Let us not lie to ourselves: we buy things for the design, the ethos, the notion. You don’t buy a car for the performance, reliability or whatever. You buy it for the drama, style, sense of showmanship, for your ego, your aesthetics, your ethos, and your personality and the way of life. The car is an external skin of your ego.

In other words, we buy it for the style, aesthetics and design…not for the thing in itself.

When in doubt, just vlog it:

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Something very interesting and bizarre which I came across at my friend Tim’s home: a US Dollar Bill … with something very interesting:

It looked different.

How so?

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We are so obsessed with muscle cars, sports cars, luxury cars, hyper cars, mega cars, electric cars, Tesla cars, Lamborghini cars, whatever. How come we have no interest in impressive humans and men? Mega humans. Hyper humans. Uber humans?

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No design, no life:

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If you value your focus, don’t use FacebookGram, don’t read the news, don’t use any social media or Twitter, don’t go on YouTube, don’t watch Netflix, don’t shop on Amazon.com, don’t entertain weird conspiracy theories etc. Also:

Install as many advertisement and content blocking plugins and tools humanly possible.

For example:

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Shout out to Nassim Taleb:

Often the most pragmatic form of ethics is ‘via negativa’– figuring out what *NOT* to do unto others.

So I’ve been spending a lot of time randomly trolling through alt-right and conservative news platforms, reading a lot of independent bloggers (duckduckgo.com) and the such. In the midst of all this, what I discover what it comes down to:

1. Are you a patriot?
2. Do you want to be faithful to God?
3. Are you loyal to our country or not?

In America, the ethos comes down to patriotism, law, loyalty (I pledge allegiance to the flag), and God (the Judeo-Christian, mostly protestant Quaker-God).

Which gets me down the interesting rabbit hole:

What is a patriot?

And also:

*WHY* be a patriot?

Some of my thoughts:

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My personal aesthetics:

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My honest appraisal of all things German:

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My thought:

The best aesthetic, ethos and approach is a combination of American individualism and risk-loving appetite (entrepreneurship), the wabi-sabi aesthetics of Japan-Kyoto, and the aesthetic harness and precision of German Bauhaus.

The ultimate hybrid and synthesis:

1. American [The American spirit and attitude]
2. German [Berlin, Bauhaus aesthetic]
3. Japanese [Kyoto to be exact]