{"id":57705,"date":"2017-07-16T18:34:08","date_gmt":"2017-07-17T01:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=57705"},"modified":"2017-07-16T18:34:08","modified_gmt":"2017-07-17T01:34:08","slug":"to-be-great-generate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/16\/to-be-great-generate\/","title":{"rendered":"To Be Great, Generate!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Saigon, 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dear friend,<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been thinking of what it means to be great, or have grandeur.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

My fear<\/h2>\n

So the one fear I had about moving to Vietnam was becoming a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153degenerate\u00e2\u20ac\u009d expat. A degenerate expat is a foreigner who becomes a social leech and a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153good for nothing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

But then I thought, what does it mean to be a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153de-generate\u00e2\u20ac\u009d?<\/p>\n

To not<\/em> generate, and just be a leech in society.<\/p>\n

Which made me wonder, what is the opposite<\/em> of a de-generate?<\/p>\n

A generate<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Generate<\/h2>\n

What does it mean to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153generate\u00e2\u20ac\u009d?<\/p>\n

To create.<\/p>\n

Therefore, to be great, in my eyes, is to GENERATE or CREATE.<\/p>\n

Generators<\/h2>\n

In Beirut, when I went in 2011 (to teach my first street photography workshop with Thomas Leuthard) it was common when I visited that the power would go out. There would be backup power generators<\/em> that would provide electricity and living to the inhabitants of the city.<\/p>\n

Generators are great. They generate power.<\/p>\n

Which made me wonder, how can humans be generators? How can we create<\/em> power? How can we specifically self<\/em>-generate?<\/p>\n

What is a human?<\/h2>\n

I think electricity generators run on gasoline, to produce energy when the infrastructure goes out.<\/p>\n

So my idea:<\/p>\n

\n A human is a self-generating entity, as long as we eat food, drink water, and receive sunlight.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What we generate<\/em> or create are ideas, art, photographs, words, poetry, dance, theater, movement. The source of our creativity and ideas? Our mind.<\/p>\n

How to feed our mind<\/h2>\n

Nobody is born knowing how to make a photo, how to write, read, or make art. This is why we are dependent on society.<\/p>\n

But once we have the fundamentals and foundation, it is important for us to use our tools to CREATE.<\/p>\n

For myself, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m only \u00e2\u20ac\u0153happy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d when I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m creating or making stuff.<\/p>\n

I am happy when I am creating letters, poems, photos, or anything. Creating conversations, or creating connections with strangers.<\/p>\n

The problem: smartphones are more addictive than crack cocaine, and we are being bombarded with distractions via email, texting, social media, etc.<\/p>\n

Happiness in my eyes<\/h2>\n

We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re essentially being drugged into passiveness.<\/p>\n

To rebel and to be happier and greater, make more.<\/p>\n

My personal remedies to create more:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. When I want to create, turn off the phone (completely). Or leave it at home.<\/li>\n
  2. Everyday uninstall one distraction, aka, uninstall one app from your phone, tablet, or laptop. To me, the fewer distractions I have, the more energy and focus I have to create.<\/li>\n
  3. Aim for 80% \u00e2\u20ac\u0153good enough\u00e2\u20ac\u009d then hit publish. Often I fall into wanting something \u00e2\u20ac\u0153perfect\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, but I end up doing nothing. Better to publish than not publish, in my eyes.<\/strong> The more we create and publish, the more confidence we build. And the more forward momentum we have, like rolling a snowball down a hill.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    What did you make today?<\/h2>\n

    I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think we should show off what we own, but rather…we should show off what we make.<\/p>\n

    I would rather show my greatness through what I create, rather than what I own.<\/p>\n

    So rather than telling your friends, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I bought this!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d You can say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I made this!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

    To be great, generate!<\/p>\n

    BE STRONG,
    \nERIC<\/p>\n

    Share the photos you have made that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re proud of on ERIC KIM FORUM<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Dear friend, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been thinking of what it means to be great, or have grandeur.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57616,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57705","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\/2017\/07\/IMG_20170714_173005_653.jpg?fit=3024%2C3780&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57705","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=57705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57706,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57705\/revisions\/57706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}