ERIC KIM ₿

The future is photography marketing. Everyone is a fantastic photographer nowadays, but not everyone is a great self marketer and self promoter.

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Why waste your life trying to indefinitely augment your wealth? What if you’re rich enough?

I’m probably both the most loved and the most hated photographer online and perhaps in the world. How and why? Some thoughts:

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I’m very easily distracted. Perhaps my artistic sense comes from this. Sensitivity to light, sounds, emotions and people. Like I have a high “ISO”sensitivity to art, people, and audio visual things.

I know I’m easily distracted by colors, notifications and things so I turn it all off. Thus the thought:

If we follow the “don’t do unto others as you don’t like others to do unto you”, then perhaps we should also design things to be the least amount of distractions to others?

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When making videos or anything, assume people are gonna watch it on mute. For example:

1. When I go to a sports bar, all the TVs are muted.
2. When I watch marketing materials on websites, I always keep it on mute.
3. With media, most people keep their sound off.

True luxury: *NOT* having bullshit and stress in your life. The fewer irritants you got in your life, the better.

If you have an option, always better to rent instead of buying.

Why?

First of all, if you technically are a quadrillionaire… the best life is the life with the least amount of stress, worry, and bullshit. This means renting is superior:

No stress associated with maintenance, upkeep, and bullshit.

For example I got some rich friends and they tell me the stress associated with having to maintain their properties in the south of France. But the problem:

Their bank account (overseas) is locking them out. Therefore they gotta go through all this bullshit (hoops) to un-lock their international bank account.

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Simple reasons:

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Back to black.

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Who determines ‘coolness’ or lameness? The tyrant-artist.

For example:

1. Kanye West as pioneering the ‘homeless-high-fashion’ look (Yeezy)
2. JAY Z with the ‘all black everything‘ concept.
3. Steve Jobs with the ‘techno-zen purity’ concept.

‘Auto-tragic’ seems true. Why buy a sports car which is automatic? Seems lame. For me:

Either buy a manual sports car, or just buy a Tesla.

If you got extreme vanity, it is actually super easy to lose body fat (adipose tissue) and gain muscle mass (skeletal muscle mass).

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Poison ivy is “natural”. Poisonous mushrooms are “natural”. Tobacco is “natural”. Sugar is “natural”. Heroin and opium is derived from poppy seeds, cocaine from the coca leaves, etc.

Let us not get suckered. Not everything natural is good for you.

I like almonds and have eaten a shitload of them over the last few years. But … how come nobody critiques them? Some thoughts:

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The enemy isn’t “fat”— it is adipose tissue (body fat). For example:

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Adipose tissue (body fat) is bad beyond 10% for men, and beyond 20% for women. However men with uber-low bodyfat (in the 3% range) is bad, because they lose their ability to procreate and have children (they lose their mojo, or their fertility). Same goes for women — women with single-digit bodyfat is bad, because they lose their ability to have children as well.

To have a 6-pack is good for both men and women. But when you get too “insanely shredded”— this ain’t good.

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Why pride is good. No pride, no life.

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“Irreverence for your reverence … why would I not have a watch like a Saudi prince?” – JAY Z (From ‘A Written Testimony’ by Jay Electronica)

Don’t take things or life too seriously. The best life is the most irreverent, playful and fun!

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If you are a philosopher that can deadlift over 4 plates (405+ pounds), then your thoughts have great merit. Why? The importance of both the mind AND body.

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No such thing as a perfect blog post. All blogging is a stream of becoming (Heraclitus).

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My best street photographs thus far:

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Practical thoughts:

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The new Lightroom CC (Creative Cloud) Desktop App is really good. Why? Much faster on desktop (on my MacBook Pro Laptop) than even the classic Lightroom. I am not a huge fan of the subscription model, but it certainly is a superior product!

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No proper form to working out or anything in life.

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I would PAY MONEY for the *PRIVILEGE* to workout. To me, human grandeur and apex happiness is not possible without working out and eating lots of delicious meat:

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If you’re a man, it is good to be masculine.

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You are what you eat. You eat what you shoot. Thus, shoot what you eat!

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Mens sana in corpore sano

Or in other words:

If your body is healthy, so will your mind.

Which makes me think:

In order to treat “mental illness”, we should focus on treating bodily or physiological illness?

Why aren’t we allowed to be loud in modern times?

Avoid dying. Potential chances for an early death, or permanent disfigurement:

1. Driving super fast in a sports car
2. Driving (any) motorcycle
3. Driving a bicycle in a city (anywhere).

If you want an epic hormonal pump associated with fast speed, just go for heavy one rep max deadlift attempts (sumo style, no belt and straps!)

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It don’t matter how rich you are, how tall you are, how rich you are, how buff you are, how popular you are whatever… we humans will always ‘anchor’ our self-worth in comparison to other humans.

Something I am very interested in — male depression. I cannot speak for women because I am not a woman and have never had female experiences. But let me talk from the male perspective:

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A lot of modern Silicon Valley and Elon Musk thinking is predicated on the notion of an “Earth Death”. But what if an Earth death never happens, at least for another 100 million years? Then what?

Haptic. You don’t lack it. Just stack it. Black it out, matte it out. You don’t gotta shout— just pride. Glide through life with this verbal slip and slide. No need to Freudian slip with Freudian whips.

I got the cream and the cheese. I got the breeze on my side and the wheeze. I got the keys like JAY. And like ‘yonce all I do is slay.

To slay and pray is better to hack and back track yourself.

HAPTIC INDUSTRIES >

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To start is half the battle.

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Marketing is today’s archimedes lever to moving the world, changing the world, and deeply impacting the world.

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A lot of us are car hungry. We want the perfect or best car.

But what if the best car were no car?

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How to live best is the question a lot of philosophers have been grappling for a long time. The “art of living” should better be seen as the “best technique or approach” to living everyday life. Some of my thoughts:

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Things of durability are of first class on planet earth. In other words:

If things are durable (last over a long period of time), they are good.

Just as Horace said:

“I shall make a monument more lasting than bronze!”

To make photos which last … create photos that you create out of a spirit of love and joy!

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Certainly we all want to be happy, and beyond this … we want to maximize our happiness. But how can we do this? Some of my personal thoughts:

1. Physiological joy and thriving: Working out and loving to work out! Walking a lot, getting a lot of fresh air and sunshine.
2. Cutting out toxic people from your life. A lot of toxic people are like COVID-19 … emotionally (and physically) distance yourself from them!
3. Make a lot of art work and stuff. To create is 10000x more joyful than just purchasing and buying stuff. And also joyful to share your art works with others!

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When I look at my old photos, an interesting thing:

Photos I shot while I were depressed … these photos don’t last.

However the photos I shot when joyful and full of life … these photos have lasted!

Lesson: first strive to be happy and joyful and THEN make artwork if your goal is to be maximally joyful and happy in life!

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What drives me? I create out a sense of curiosity … I often wonder:

How come nobody does x. y, z online?

And as a consequence whether it be photos, videos, or blogs … I outline and share these things with others!

For example:

1. How to cook the perfect eggs
2. A typical morning routine
3. How to workout at the park, home gym, etc.

So as a simple entrepreneurial thing:

Create what you would like to see manifested in the real world!

ERIC

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Mexico City … one of my favorite cities in the world:

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Because your photos can uplift, inspire, motivate and move others (both physically AND emotionally!):

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You can only critique someone you truly understand and love. This is my personal critique on Henri Cartier-Bresson:

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I am not the best photographer, but I am a great photographer. How did I do it?

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In life, you can only optimize for one thing. I say —

Optimize for aesthetics above all!

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Heuristic:

If Someone Talks Shit About Others Behind Their Back, Most Likely They’re Also Talking Shit About You Behind Your Back

In other words:

Don’t socialize or associate with shit-talkers.

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In photography, let us not over-think things. Shoot more, think less.

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Whoever tells you that RAW is better and also sells presets … be very very cautious. They cannot be trusted. Why? Because they have ‘conflict of interest‘.

JPEG is superior to RAW for many reasons:

1. Simpler and faster workflow.
2. Often the colors of JPEG look superior to even the best-massaged RAW images.
3. You shoot more, think less.

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The world is your playground!

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A brave new frontier: the frontier of AI, artificial intelligence, and ethics. AI cannot have her own ethics; the program, code, and algorithm of the AI will always be rooted in the originator and creator.

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The great scholar is also a soldier. And the soldier should also become a scholar.

A thought:

Trust your own body’s physiology and inner-wisdom. AVOID by all costs what you consider harmful and bad for your body. Do what you consider is life-promoting and adds vigor and strength to your body.

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If we want more people to become virtuous, it ain’t to get people to guilt them into becoming more virtuous. No … treat virtue like a privilege, a right, and something elite!

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A thought:

What is the upside of doing anything you hate?

Or the corollary:

What is the downside of *NOT* doing things you hate?

I believe it is possible, and also desirable, and also BETTER to life a life in which you don’t do anything you hate!

To me, working out is a passion. It is never hateful, or feels like a chore. I would actually pay money to have the privilege to go to the park and workout.

For example:

1. Meeting new folks and making new friends! The park is faaaar more social than the gym!
2. Fresh air, lots of green, blue skies. Better for the health than an enclosed gym!
3. Lots of fun challenges you can do. Throw rocks, muscle ups, planche and other body weight (or weighted) exercises you can do, to flex, get stronger, and discover a new ‘trick’!

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And even once you achieve your life goals, then what?

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If confronted with convenience and simplicity or freedom and independence, I’d always choose the path with maximal independence and freedom!

Whenever possible, just rent it. Don’t buy it. The downside of ownership (even if you’re a trillionaire) is the stress of having to maintain it, register it, fix it, and worth about it. Why did Elon Musk get rid of all his shit? He’s onto something.

When is internet anonymity good, and when is it bad?

1. Internet anonymity is good when it prevents you from getting killed or jailed indefinitely.
2. Internet anonymity is bad when people are just trolling for the sake of it, or they shield themselves from criticism of their own opinion.

In other words:

If it ain’t a life or death situation, don’t be anonymous online.

ERIC

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Photography reigns supreme:

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Use RICOH GR III to shoot food!

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What are we missing in today’s soft and scared world?

Honesty. Brutal honesty.

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RICOH is the best camera. Workout with it … both physically and also artistically:

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In praise of eggs, and my patented technique:

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How I edit my videos on iMovie:

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If you pay for a service or a premium for a thing, it is more likely to be better.