And also, what will actually \u00e2\u20ac\u0153improve\u00e2\u20ac\u0153 your life? \u00ef\u00bf\u00bc\u00ef\u00bf\u00bc<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some morning reflections:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So something that I wrote on pursuing your passion, part of an edited volume written by Terri Anderson, probably the most influential teacher I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had of all time, at UCLA sociology, essentially what I wrote at the time, being either 20 or 21 years old, was the virtues of following your passion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So it looks like, nearly 15 years later, I was right. With a long enough time scale, 15 years, age 21 to 36, I guess I was right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think the trouble that a lot of people have is pursuing their passion because it is not immediately apparent how we could have an economic payoff. Ultimately because we all live in a capitalistic society, what it comes down to is money making, or money making potential. But if you already have $2 million in the bank, and you know that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a bitcoin is going up 55% APY, year over year ,,, in theory indefinitely \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 then what?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I just did some math with ChatGPT, $5M — $10,000 USD, with a 55% APY with bitcoin, \u00ef\u00bf\u00bc\u00ef\u00bf\u00bc will be big! Once again, that $10,000 you put in it today, assuming that 30 years from now that it could be worth 5 million, wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it be worth it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another big thought, let us say that the new iPhone Pro cost you $1200 USD. With a 55% APY, that $1200 iPhone is going to run you $615,000, about two Lamborghinis, in 30 years! \u00ef\u00bf\u00bc<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obviously it does not natural. This difficult to think and predict 30 years from now. Yet, I am shocked\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Brad Pitt I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s almost 25 years my senior? I think Brad Pitt just turned 60 years old, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m shocked. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m 36, so 30 years from now, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to be about the age of Brad Pitt?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I saw a little bit of the new Apple TV WOLFS movie, and the bromance between Brad Pitt and George Clooney was cute. George Clooney looks fantastic, and he is 63 years old! I almost feel like George Clooney is aging in reverse? He is maybe the ultimate anti-fragile handsome actor; the older he becomes, the more handsome and charming he becomes? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not 100% sure about the controversy, but I think NASSIM TALEB may have called him out on Twitter a while back being some sort of fake activist? Maybe Clooney was accepting money from the saudis or something? Not 100% sure, but still, objectively George Clooney looks fantastic! \u00ef\u00bf\u00bc\u00ef\u00bf\u00bc\u00ef\u00bf\u00bc<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is my personal read on things; I think the critical issue here is that ironically enough\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Passion following your passion, or even being passionate has fallen out of Vogue? What that means is we are living in a new age of Malay; all these fake ass woke activist, many of whom are on these Ridiculous plant-based diets, maybe they have a bunch of tattoos, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re always on Instagram and on their phones, pretend to not care, drink fruit smoothies from Erewhon, kind of try to get into working out, say that eating meat is bad for the planet in the carbon footprint, yet they have a dog, which might be 1 trillion times worse for the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153carbon footprint\u00e2\u20ac\u0153?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyways, my general critique is whenever you meet these strange individuals in the flesh, all of them tend to be quite short, not very attractive, not very good looking, overfat, and actually\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Really into fashion? Their fashion choices are very bizarre, it is a will towards uglification, \u00ef\u00bf\u00bc \u00ef\u00bf\u00bc\u00ef\u00bf\u00bc– their virtue is ugly, being ugly, and continually self-abnegating themselves \u00ef\u00bf\u00bcto forever become ever more fat, self pitiful and ugly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think at least one of the positive trends in LA, is there is a new counter culture at least within the aloe yoga community, the world towards beautification? And it looks like American apparel has been reborn under the guys of Los Angeles apparel? At least now, the bias is that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re trying to make women beautiful again. Granted the big issues in LA is all these women are fake, all the men are fake, everybody is fake. All of the guys are Shorty guys, skinny fat losers who drive these huge MMGG wagon Mercedes cars, and the women all have these strange surgeries, to practically everything; to their nose face forehead jaw lips butt, breasts, etc.? \u00ef\u00bf\u00bc in fact at least the new thing I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m excited about the new John Wick ballerina movie is that the main actress, who is super hot, she is actually quite modest in terms of her full frontage breasts? \u00ef\u00bf\u00bc And I think this is a good trend; I like the Tran towards being natural all natural. Fake is ugly. Natural is beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And this is also why I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like makeup, makeup is fake up. And also it causes you to get you a sty in your eye, it ruins your skin, is a waste of time is expensive in bed. The best thing you could just do for your skin ironically enough it just spend more time in the sun, spend more time exercising, getting more sleep etc. In fact I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve noticed that people who sleep well tend to have better skin! People who sleep poorly have poor skin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When your passion is self motivated and self driven, once you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re already dumb rich, then\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 It is adding like 10 turbo chargers to your soul. You never have to force yourself to do anything, because everything you do is self motivated. You are no longer driven by superficial notions of success, and honestly, ultimately, the notion of success is fake. For example I just finished reading the Emily Wilson translation of the Iliad, and ultimately, even after Achilles gets his revenge, it is a bit anti-climactic. Truth be told the heart of Achilles is not really 100% soothed, even though he finally gets Breisis back in his bed. His best friend Patroclus is dead, and getting revenge and despoiling the body of Hector doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bring him back to life. And what is super interesting is at the end of the Iliad, it is almost like an anti-climax; it just ends, and then you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re left\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s it? Then what?<\/em> \u00ef\u00bf\u00bc\u00ef\u00bf\u00bc\u00ef\u00bf\u00bc\u00ef\u00bf\u00bc\u00ef\u00bf\u00bc\u00ef\u00bf\u00bc\u00ef\u00bf\u00bc\u00ef\u00bf\u00bc\u00ef\u00bf\u00bc\u00ef\u00bf\u00bc<\/p>\n\n\n\n So I feel like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just getting started. This is the greatness of the whole carte blanche mentality and philosophy. And a beginners mind or child\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mind. The general idea is if you were born you again, right now, in this insanely futuristic world we live in with self driving way more cars, ChatGPT, bitcoin, AI etc.\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Certainly we have to throw out the old blueprint and the old rulebook, and think things afresh. \u00ef\u00bf\u00bc<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00ef\u00bf\u00bc\u00ef\u00bf\u00bc I think the difficulty for most people is that starting totally carte blanche, totally brand new without using the pass for analogies is difficult. The past is much easier to discern, for example, being a historian is kind of safe; the past doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t change. But if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re living in the present moment, and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re also potentially marching bravely into the future, it is Like the fog of war, you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see shit! You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just turn on the map hack, like in star craft\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 To think about the future is hidden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So my very very simple idea is the future is digital, we all know this. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s funny, I was shocked, it looks like currently speaking, the Apple Store is on fire! Tons of people getting the new iPhone iPhone Pro, even though the customers themselves seem a bit disenchanted. But whatever, the reason why Apple ain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going away anytime soon is that they are the most legalized profitable drug dealers of all time; I think that the iPhone might be more addictive than Chris still met, because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like almost if you took technology, digital things, sociology, culture self-worth or whatever, and then you put it on yourself like an ankle monitor forever, and you just keep upgrading forever until you die, that is the ultimate cash cow! We will continue to suck the teats of Apple until we die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In some ways, we could think of Apple like the new golden calf; \u00ef\u00bf\u00bc\u00ef\u00bf\u00bc the new tower of Babel. And we all know how that ends\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n\n\n\n In terms of innovation, ironically enough, I think the future is in the past. For example, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve gotten 1 trillion times more inspiration reading the Iliad,,, shout out to Emily Wilson and her new fantastic translation, then any loser business book written in the last 30 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, the only good business books in my opinion are Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, the new Elon Musk book by Walter Isaacson, and zero to one by Peter Thiel. Everything else is not worth reading, also the invent and wander book by Jeff Bezos. \u00ef\u00bf\u00bc<\/p>\n\n\n\n The critical issue here is that nobody has balls anymore. And also everyone is hooked to YouTube Facebook Instagram TikTok Snapchat Twitter Google Google news Apple Apple news, HBO HBO Max Hulu Netflix YouTube etc. like crack cocaine. Also sports, sports are just a prostitution for the body for men; I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t trust nobody who watches sports, whether it be football, hockey, or baseball. I find it insanely bizarre; it is like watching pornography, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re seeing all these athletes essentially prostitute their bodies, injecting their butt holes with steroids, in order to win and perform well, Making a bunch of money, Indefinitely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nike Nike Nike Nike Nike treat employees like slaves, gave LeBron a billi not to run away! – ye<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Honestly, it could all be seen as prostitution. For example, Nike very bad taste; plastering all these images of Kobe Bryant, with the tagline \u00e2\u20ac\u0153no time to lose\u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00ef\u00bf\u00bc, essentially prostituting the soul of Kobe Bryant, \u00ef\u00bf\u00bc to essentially sell more of his sneakers and merchandise? I find this disgusting. Almost like how Jay Z felt about when Prince died, and they started to parade all of his merchandise?<\/p>\n\n\n\n do you want your masters with your masters? JAY Z<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n I Think One of the Great Things About Living in La Is Being Here\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I Feel Like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m at the Epicenter of the Universe. Why? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Not Loser New York, Loser Brooklyn, Loser London Which RUNS the World, it is LA! For example just went to the Grove yesterday with Cindy and Seneca, and it was amazing! Shout out to Jeff Garlin. \u00ef\u00bf\u00bc<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why? Everyone thinks that it is the Bay Area Silicon Valley Apple Google Facebook whatever which runs the show\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 But actually this is not true, it is about humans personality celebrities, the human soul, culture music ideas podcast etc. which run the planet. \u00ef\u00bf\u00bc For example, I think that Joe Rogan has more power than maybe even Donald Trump, because what\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Every single man in America listens to Joe Rogan? And also, it looks like Kanye West, might be the ultimate robust or ANTIFRAGILE artist of all time? Even after his antisemitic remarks, losing his deal with Adidas\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 It looks like he is still in the game, and on the up and up? And speaking to a lot of folks, a lot of African-Americans, in LA\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Everyone still loves Kanye. And the truth is in LA, antisemitism is real and runs deep; nobody likes the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hebrews\u00e2\u20ac\u0153, even a lot of Trader Joe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s employees I meant say that when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in Westwood, the Westwood Trader Joe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hebrews\u00e2\u20ac\u0153, treat you like shit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh and also\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Philz is evil. \u00ef\u00bf\u00bc I met one of the friendly employees who was always kind to me who used to work at Phil\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcs coffee, and she told me that she got fired because she was trying to get the Phil\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s employees to unionize, and they fired her. Boycott Phil\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcs coffee!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a Spartan hoplite, meats undercover cop, meet CIA, meets SWAT team, meets blogger and vlogger. I could say with zero doubt that I am certainly the only, and the most influential the most entrepreneurial, the most powerful and interesting photographer or blogger or personality alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I could say that my only rival might be Kanye West; but Kanye West is my big brother. Kind of like what Jay Z was to Kanye. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m Kanye until I die!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The same difficulty they had with Bob Dylan, David Bowie, and also now Kanye West. In fact, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m in a very good position because I am Asian American, Korean American, born in the states in the Bay Area, my English is 1 trillion times better than yours, I am wiser richer smarter stronger taller more handsome than you, and also I have a kid and a son\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 You wish you were me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, the giant has arrived. Only Hermes the giant slayer, or Apollo can kill me. Nobody else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the thing is honestly\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 In America, being an Asian guy is interesting\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 We are seeing as the safe ones, the meek ones, \u00ef\u00bf\u00bc with small dicks, and we sit on the sidelines, while Caucasian men \u00e2\u20ac\u0153steal \u00e2\u20ac\u0153our beautiful Asian Asian American women. But this is the wrong mentality. We the new studs! We the new rock stars! \u00ef\u00bf\u00bc \u00ef\u00bf\u00bc<\/p>\n\n\n\n And also\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Why can Kendrick Lamar say it and I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The true genius of a Steve Jobs was how childlike, unreasonable, and ridiculous he was. Typically the definition of an asshole is somebody who refuses to obey you. Or somebody who doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00e2\u20ac\u009d listen\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to you. My philosophy has always been \u00e2\u20ac\u0153just take it or leave it\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, you just give people suggestions not imperatives. And this is the problem\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 People treat options like imperatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, I think one of the interesting things that the blogger james altucher said \u00ef\u00bf\u00bc\u00ef\u00bf\u00bcwas like for example, email is an option, not an obligation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n And also I find this insanely annoying, when people say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not listening to me!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But when they say this what they mean to say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not obeying<\/em> me!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00ef\u00bf\u00bc\u00ef\u00bf\u00bc<\/p>\n\n\n\n Listening versus obeying; very different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With anything in life, when is the best time to stop? Just stop the second you get bored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ERIC<\/p>\n\n\n\n EK And also, what will actually \u00e2\u20ac\u0153improve\u00e2\u20ac\u0153 your life? \u00ef\u00bf\u00bc\u00ef\u00bf\u00bc Some morning reflections: So something that I wrote on pursuing your passion, part of an edited volume written by Terri Anderson, probably the most influential teacher I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had of all time, at UCLA sociology, essentially what I wrote at the time, being either 20 or 21 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"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-637069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637069","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=637069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":637070,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637069\/revisions\/637070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Why?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Digital thoughts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The new new<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\n\n\n\nWho got the power now?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Why do people have such a hard time understanding me?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re wrong until you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re right<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nThe art of being unreasonable<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nWhen you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re bored, stop!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\u00ef\u00bf\u00bc\u00ef\u00bf\u00bc\u00ef\u00bf\u00bc<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"