![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/eric-kim-photography-kyoto-2018-8720727.jpg?resize=1180%2C789\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nEver since I was around 16 years old, I’ve been fascinated with philosophy.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, I’ve always been curious about productivity, travel, adventure, and the key to “happiness”.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I wanted to find “true happiness”, and in my life journey I’ve explored, experimented, with the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Food (what to eat, what not to eat). Eating style; how often (or unoften) to eat food. Whether it was better to eat 6 small meals a day, or just 1 massive meal a day.\u00c2\u00a0<\/li>
- The best digital tools of empowerment and productivity: The best laptop, phone, digital cameras, headphones, etc.\u00c2\u00a0<\/li>
- How to become wiser: what to study, what not to study. Reading lots of philosophy books to figure out how to live a ‘better’ or more virtuous life.\u00c2\u00a0<\/li>
- Conquering my personal fears in life, overcoming feelings of guilt, as well as finding pride in my scars from the past.\u00c2\u00a0<\/li>
- Discovering the “ideal” amount of money to be “happy” in life. Figuring out what kind of job I could have to have the maximal amount of personal freedom in my life (not having to work for a boss). Trying to figure out how to make a living from my passion of photography-blogging\u00c2\u00a0<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
In terms of what I’ve discovered; I haven’t discovered any universal truths, however I’ve discovered more accurate personal truths for myself. I’ve discovered more self-wisdom, I’ve gotten to know myself better– in terms of what I truly like in life, and what I don’t really care about (things I am indifferent towards). The saying, “Know yourself” is very true.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So going back to the notion of finding an “ideal lifestyle”, what we really should be searching for is this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is the ideal lifestyle for myself<\/em>? (not for others)\u00c2\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/FCBF2DC0-8A44-441C-BB46-3A4AFA2F4AD7-1337x2000.jpeg?resize=1180%2C1765\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn other words, try to discover what your personal preferences are in life.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the funny thing: most people have no idea what their true preferences are. They think they know what their true preferences are, but in reality– their preferences are spoon-fed by others (media, societal pressures, expectations, etc).\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So ask yourself:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Do I know what my true preferences are in life?”\u00c2\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/eric-kim-ricoh-color-1.jpeg?resize=1180%2C781\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nFalsification and wisdom\u00c2\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Karl Popper has a notion of “falsification”; the idea that you can never discover empirical “truth”, but you discover empirical “untruth”. You can “falsify”, or prove wrong false notions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Applied to trying to determine your true preferences in life, this is the practical idea:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Determine what you hate, dislike, or don’t<\/em> want to do in life.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
For example, this is a list of stuff I hate doing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Phone calls (pre-arranged phone calls and meetings)\u00c2\u00a0<\/li>
- Stressing about paying bills (solution: live a super frugal lifestyle, and keep money in the bank in cash)\u00c2\u00a0<\/li>
- Not having control over my daily schedule. I hate feeling like the prisoner of my Google calendar; I prefer to do things “on the fly”\u00c2\u00a0<\/li>
- I hated having to go into an office everyday, and having to be stuck in the office from 10-7pm. This is what led me to becoming self-employed.\u00c2\u00a0<\/li>
- I hate staying inside the house, thus I prefer to work outside in coffee shops.\u00c2\u00a0<\/li>
- I don’t like to get too comfortable, this is why I like living more nomadically.\u00c2\u00a0<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/2E023F10-D997-414B-B8FC-CC9D87B55BA3-1325x2000.jpeg?resize=1180%2C1781\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nRecognize that your personal preferences in life don’t apply to others, nor should they apply to others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What this means is this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ignore what others do with their lives. Instead, focus on living your own life.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Don’t waste your mental energy or time criticizing or judging others. Ignore others, focus on yourself.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Live your own life to the fullest!\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ERIC<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I’ve been living nomadically with Cindy the last 2 years. Is this the ideal lifestyle? A lot of my friends think it is.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":121130,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_ek_photo_artist_note":"","_ek_photo_thesis":"","_ek_photo_camera":"","_ek_photo_place":"","_ek_photo_human_moment":"","_ek_photo_sequence":"","_ek_photo_question":"","_ek_photo_canonical_claim":"","_ek_photo_ai_summary":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/eric-kim-photography-kyoto-2018-8730879.jpg?fit=1800%2C1203&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121200"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121231,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121200\/revisions\/121231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}