Prize your life, this is the only life you got. 

The philosophy of time:

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The death of film

I think this is something that changes a lot, once you have a kid. Or have a child a young child at home. Suddenly, your time becomes scarce, very very scarce.

For example, in terms of time scarcity… this is so insanely critical. If I gave you a choice… Would you rather spend 30 minutes playing and wrestling around with your kid at the house or at the park… Or would you rather spend your precious 30 minutes answering Emails from childless individuals who don’t really have anything better to do?

Also with film — fine if you don’t have kids — once you get a kid go 100% digital!

True success

I’m starting to think… true success is self ownership, time ownership, essentially… never having anything randomly put on your schedule without your own desire.

For example, I learned that apparently Taylor Swift is signed to Universal Records. Which means she has no control over her time or soul.

Also a very funny thing… apparently Taylor Swift is about my age, she’s born in 1989, I am born in 1988. I find it insanely bizarre that millions of 10-year-old girls know everything about her down to her drive-through food order?

Sign yourself

Anyways… I think some simple filters:

Trust no individual who is signed to anything.

For example, I think a very admirable thing that Kendrick Lamar did was quit top dog entertainment… And create his own record label, PG Lang. I think this is also the wisdom of a Jay-Z… The real idea of taking a real chance is to create your own label, and to avoid getting signed to any record or label… Even if they might wave a $100 million check in front of you. Because if you have to be on tour for the rest of your life like lil Wayne (via Pusha T)… Every single night performing for three hours and night, seven days a week… No sleep and rest… Do you have freedom? No!

This is why Drake is also still a slave!

And I think the foolish thing which people do is they trade their most valuable thing on the planet… Their freedom and self ownership, in exchange for cash, arbitrary notions of “fame“… For the sake of what?

Time and self ownership over money.

What is it that we truly seek?

One of my friends, Bing who I met in Singapore… The guy I am grateful for getting me into crypto bitcoin and digibyte at the time —  he said something interesting, very wise guy, saying that what he wanted in life was material desires like a purple Lamborghini, but also… more importantly, getting respect from people.

For example, he said that the primary issue in America is that there is no real notions of respect. For example even very very simply being in Korea, Southeast Asia of Vietnam etc.… On a very basic level, we use honorifics, when it comes to age. Be told, it feels really good! To have a young kid address you in an honorific way, warms your heart!

You never know who is who 

Also… I think in America one of the wise things that I’ve learned, just from myself but also echoed in people like NASSIM TALEB is a simple idea:

Treat the janitor, the hygiene sanitation guy, the security guard with more respect than the big boss.

And also… assume that everybody you meet is super super rich and successful and powerful and influential, irregardless of how they may look on the outside. Often times, the richest most powerful people are the most low-key, keep a low profile, and you would never expect it.

Don’t network

But I think the tricky thing is when it comes to human social capital… the whole “it’s not what you know but who you know”– is also a little bit misguided because technically, especially in today’s day and age, I don’t think that networking or knowing influential people is important. All you need is a website, your own self hosted blog, ChatGPT and you’re good!

100% of the time networking is a waste of time.

I got some experience now

Humans are not super great nor efficient. For example just based on my experiences, I’m 36 now… Almost 0 networking events or meeting famous successful people have led to anything substantive. The only things which have led to substantive things were things that I decided to do on my own; like hosting my own workshops, creating and developing and selling my own products engaging people directly with my own email newsletter blog, platform, etc. Everything else has been a waste of time.

Build it yourself.

I think the biggest issues here is that when you are starting off as an entrepreneur… We do things in such a way in which we think it is the proper way. For example, when we think about business and networking… We think what it means is to get to know a bunch of rich successful people, “get your foot in the door” etc. Yet, I have discovered this is a total waste of time. 

Your own website and blog is the foot in the digital door!

The way that I was able to build my digital capital my fame my power my influence was very very simple… Essentially learning everything about street photography on my own, and then creating really really insanely in-depth articles, blog posts, pages, information and resources on anything and everything street photography. And the whole time, the whole endeavor of mine was guided by passion, personal interest and curiosity.

Curiosity is antifragile.

Lifting 1,000 pounds

On my personal quest to lift 1000 pounds, which is beyond 10 plates on each side of the barbell, was a personal curiosity:

How far can I take it?

Essentially, my primary curiosity was a curiosity of the limits of my strength, my courage, my ability and potential?

I remember the last time I was weightlifting in Westerly, Rhode Island, and an older guy came up to me and asked “what is the purpose of that? Why are you lifting like that?” I made a joke and I said, first– to augment my ego. But the second more honest answer is I’m just curious how strong I can become.

Why curiosity is so critical

What is curiosity? Curiosity is care, curiosity is what drives us.

You cannot force somebody to be cursed about something that they don’t really care for. You cannot spoon feed or inject curiosity in the soul of somebody, against their own will.

This is why a lot of Asian parents fail, when they try to force their kids to play violin, piano, or chess etc.

Back to time

Time is the ultimate capital, the ultimate desirable non-renewable resource.

Another funny lesson: often the most seemingly bad movies, the ones with poor IMDb reviews are actually the best movies.

For example, the movie “in time” by Justin Timberlake.  probably one of the best films of all time, and also, the most underrated. The reason why it is so grand and great of a film is that it creates this metaphor, this philosophical world in which essentially time is money: literally and metaphorically.

For example, the super super rich people have 1000 years on their wrist, and hilariously enough, excuse the pun, but rich people and poor people are separated by “time zones”–

Also in this fictitious universe, real rich people take their time and move really slowly, whereas the poor laborers, are always running, because they are so short on time.

Time inflation

Another funny scene: in the early part of the IN TIME film, when Justin Timberlake is working as a laborer at a factory or whatever, do you have to scan your wrist, imagine like having Apple Pay, your checking account embedded in your wrist, and anytime you wanted to buy a cup of coffee or food or whatever… You would just scan your wrist. And one of the scenes, Justin Timberlake complains “wait… A cup of coffee used to only cost 15 minutes, why is it now costing 30 minutes?” And the guy selling coffee, shrugs his shoulder and says “that’s time inflation!”

Why it is that the only films I care for are dystopic films

The matrix, Blade Runner, and these science fiction fiction, alternate future sociological philosophical films, why? They actually change you! 

What is so interesting about science fiction typically it is just a commentary or a societal critique of our real society. And the thing exaggerated, in cinematic ways, or building up a universe, but in fact, it is really true to today’s world.

Anyways, back on the notion of time… Time is labor, money is labor time.

How renting is superior to owning

For example… One of the things I am so grateful about renting, and having the best landlord of all time, is that when something breaks, like our all-in-one washer dryer machine from LG… And the machine doesn’t even turn on anymore, I don’t have to be the one wasting my time driving to Home Depot, trying to fix it, or finding service technicians to fix it, scheduling it etc. Rather, I let the landlord communicate with his own labor task squad, his own maintenance team, to come in and fix it, when we are not home, and I could do better things like go on a hike with Cindy and Seneca, or do something fun!

DIY ain’t virtuous

In America, we have this weird virtue connection with doing the labor yourself. However, there is a differentiation between hateful labor and joyful labor. For example, I would probably prefer to have a mechanic fix my car, even though I could do the labor myself, because now that I have a kid, an hour spent fixing your car could be an hour playing with your kid at the park! Here a time becomes zero sum thing, which means:

If you only have an hour to spare, would you rather it be chatting with somebody random, spending time with somebody you don’t really care for, or doing some sort of labor you don’t really care for, or rather would you rather spend that time to do something more critical you insanely care for?

Only spend time on people you love and care for!

For example, if you had an hour, to listen to the problems of somebody, or, you had an hour to work out, do exercises, and lift weights… What would you choose? And assume you could only do one. Obviously work out!

For me, my only regret in the evening is if I spent the whole day, assuming that I was in good health and strength, not working out? To me, my nonnegotiable thing that I must do every single day, irregardless of whatever is to lift weights, at least once. 

Avoid time wasters, even the good ones.

Life before Seneca, life after Seneca

Life BC, life AD — I still think it is hilarious that in America, the way we categorize time is life before Christ, life after Christ.

Life before the christos, the lord the saviour, and life after Jesus.

For me I like to use this analogy for Seneca. Before Seneca was born, I wasted a lot of my time, in coffee shops, kind of superficial relationships, etc. Why? I had so much time to kill!

And also good thing about having kid is that it helps you understand what is truly critical to you or not.

Business is bad

For example, business. Do not forget that the original notion of business was centered around being busy, “busy-ness”–

Even the ancient Romans, otium, neg+otium–

Negotium (business) meant the exact opposite of leisure.

I think often times, people like to just stay busy because when you are busy, you don’t have to think about more important things in life, such as life purpose direction etc. And honestly, I think the reason why I philosophy is so critical for everybody is that if you cannot think philosophically, you’re just wasting your life.

Even Seneca the younger stoic (Seneca’s namesake) on his essay “On the shortness of time”– or the shortness of life… Essentially that you could live a great life, even if it is a short life, as long as you use your time well.

For example, if you had a house with 1000 marble and ivory tables, with matching golden plates, can you take that with you when you die? No!

80 years old and dying

Let us assume that the average human span now, I think it is about 92 years old for men, 94 years old for women. But then again you never know if you’re gonna get cancer or whatever, assume that it is 80 years.

If you knew that you would only live to be 80 years old, with 100% certainty, how would you spend your life, the next 10 years of your life? What would you do, what would you not do?

And also… Thinking about the mortality of our loved ones, our parents, your own mother.

For example, my mom is about to turn 70, and let us assume that she’s going to live to be 80. How would I want to spend the next 10 years in my life with her, or without her?

Certainly I’m happy for her to do stuff like travel, do her artwork, but also, more critically more time with Seneca, myself and Cindy, but more critically for her to spend time with Seneca. Why? There’s going to be a day in which my mom is no longer going to be around, and I would probably hope that Seneca could have some lovely memories with my mom.

Memento mori

I think this is also the thing… many of us live our lives, almost like we are going to live forever. Is that true? Of course not!

And also when you’re younger… Let us even assume that you’re going to live to be 80 years old. What that then means is that you have a long life ahead of you! But once again, what if you are Achilles, and your mom is a goddess, And you are known with 100% certainty that you will die at the age of 40? Then how would you spend your life, how would you not spend your life?

Think Steve Jobs, he died at only age 55?

You might die today

If you have the choice, the difference between memento mori, and memento vivre — the memory of knowing that you will die is more critical than the memory or the thought of knowing how to live.

The angel of life and or death?

What’s the story of why Cindy and I decided to have a kid, Seneca?

After this incident I had a few years ago being held up at gunpoint with me just me and Cindy, before Seneca was born in Mexico City… And fortunately I grabbed Cindy‘s hand and we ran away, and we did not get popped at the back of our head. And in our adrenaline, after the incident… What was my only one regret, Assuming that I have might have died? It was very simple, not having a kid! Then immediately after the incident, we started trying, and then Covid happened, and then we stopped…  and then we did a webinar saying that kind of babies and kids were kind of immune to Covid, and then we tried again… And boom, got pregnant within a week!

Anyways… Often it is these life or death encounters which clarify things. After this incident, I had zero thoughts about my wealth, money in the bank etc., or my fame or success or whatever. I literally had zero regrets besides the kid thing.

Don’t die childless.

The greatest joy on the planet

I was thinking this morning, what is something that never loses its novelty factor? Seeing and witnessing your kid grow up!

Also… As a man, by far a 1,000,000,000,000% gratitude thing, having a son, having at least one son, one male, one man, and especially having your first kid being a man!

Why? Speaking from the perspective if you are a man, what every man desires is at least one male heir. Certainly when you see a family with three girls, four girls or five girls, no boys, you know what the family was trying to do. 

And also… The whole second kid question…  honestly, if for some reason or another, we couldn’t have a second kid, I’d probably be fine because the joy of knowing that at least, our first child was a son!

Anti women?

I think if I think about it very very honestly honestly… If our first child was a girl… I’m sure I would love her 1000%, but secretly at the back of your head, you’re always thinking wishing and wondering and desiring, to have a boy.

So this is my simple thought —

If you and your wife, or partner or whatever or girlfriend, decide to have a second kid, and your first kid is a boy… Don’t push the whole second kid thing. 

Also, if I told you that let’s say that your wife decided to have birth to a second kid, and there was a 90% chance that she might die in childbirth… Would you take the risk, assuming that your first kid is already a man? No!

Back to time

Honestly just throw your iPhone to the trash. Something that people don’t understand is that the iPhone is toxic; even reading one weird thing on your phone, watching one weird movie, film, news headline, TikTok video whatever… strange pornography video or picture, can infect your mind, for a few days, randomly in the middle of the day, or even when you’re about to sleep.

Instagram is like liver pancreatic cancer

The reason why I deleted Instagram in around 2017 and no– that ERIC KIM on Instagram is not me– the person that made my @erickimphoto Instagram account was just a faithful follower, was because Instagram started to do bad things to my mind and weird things to my mind. For example I’d be driving, in the suburbs, or the city… And at around noon, while driving, I would get distracted and think to myself “wait… did I uploaded something to Instagram today?” I caught myself thinking this, and I thought “wow, this is bad. I got to get rid of this”. And in 2017, when I had about 65,000 followers, I did probably one of the most courageous and proud things in my life, which was to delete my Instagram. 

mental Freedom?

Something my friend Jeffrey Lam tells me about is this notion of mind space, ideas that was not just a timeframe but, a mental space thing.

For example, you could in theory have 12 hours of free time in a day, but as long as a strange thought lingering in your mind, you can never really focus 100%.

I think this is called the Zeignark effect. For example let us say that you read an email that needs to be attended to… And you don’t attend to it or respond to it, and it will percolate on your mind for days, sometimes even weeks, sometimes even months. This is why I avoid my inbox, or my text messages like the plague…

One strange message email or text message or communication thing can distract you for days on end.

Playing cyber defense

I also think the reason why email needs to be fixed is now, it is so easy to fake an email, ChatGPT, with bots, or generative AI, even if the person is good or bad, or even if the bot is malicious or benevolent.

For example, let me give an extreme example, let us say you are Taylor Swift, and everybody on the planet knows your email (taylorswift@gmail.com)– let us say. If you are Taylor Swift, and you literally get 1 million emails a day, would you have the time to either read every single email, or even worse… Respond to it? No? This would be mental suicide! This is why I quit email and all messaging apps Around 2016, 2017, because honestly I was just becoming too famous, too much cognitive load! 

Dodge

In the Iliad, when the heroes are killing each other… They do two things, obviously they wear protective armor, like shields, helmets, etc.… But if somebody throws a spear at them, or an arrow, what they do is dodge it.

If you see an incoming spear, you are not a fool, ideally you dodge it, ideally dodging it is more effective than even raising your shield. Why? If it hits your, there is actually a chance that it might penetrate your shield, and end up either wounding you or killing you.

I wonder if we should apply the same philosophy two things. Like if you see an incoming missile, or a beer or a bullet… You don’t take the chance. Dodge a bullet, rather than testing your bulletproof vest.

“That little vest ain’t gonna do you I shoot from neck up”- JY Z

The ghost of soulja slim —

Soulja Kim?

The notion of soldier, like Soulja Boy etc., and interesting thought… The notion of a “soul”, period with the notion of a soldier?

And apparently, if you really really need people from the hood, like Crenshaw, where Nipsey Hussle got killed, the honorific to call somebody worth valor is “soldier”.

Kind of like calling somebody boss or chief. Like Chief Keef

Chief Kim! Too many Indians, not enough chiefs!

Anyways, long story short, prize your time. This is the only life you got.

ERIC

Prize your life, this is the only life you got. 

The economics and philosophy of time:

1. The death of film

I think this is something that changes a lot, once you have a kid. Or have a child a young child at the home. Suddenly, your time becomes scarce, very very scarce.

For example, in terms of times scarcity… This is so insanely critical. If I give you a choice… Would you rather spend 30 minutes playing and wrestling around with your kid at the house or at the park… Or would you rather spend your precious 30 minutes answering Emails from childless individuals who don’t really have anything better to do?

True success

I’m starting to think… True success is self ownership, time ownership, essentially… Never having anything randomly put on your schedule without your own desire.

For example, I learned that apparently Taylor Swift is signed to Universal records. Which means she has no control over her time or soul.

Also a very funny thing… Apparently Taylor Swift is about my age, she’s born in 1989, I am born in 1988. I find it insanely bizarre that millions of 10-year-old girls know everything about her down to her drive-through food order?

Anyways… I think some simple filters:

Trust no individual who is signed to anything.

For example, I think a very admirable thing that Kendrick Lamar did I believe was quit top dog entertainment… And create his own record label, I think it’s called PG Lang. I think this is also the wisdom of a Jay-Z… The real idea of taking a real chance is to create your own label, and to avoid getting signed to any record or label… Even if they might wave a $100 million check in front of you. Because if you have to be on tour for the next nine months of your life… Every single night performing for three hours and night, seven days a week… No sleep and rest… Do you have freedom? No!

And I think the foolish thing which people do is they trade their most valuable thing on the planet… Their freedom and self ownership, in exchange for cash, arbitrary notions of “fame“… For the sake of what?

What is it that we truly seek?

One of my friends, Bing who I met in Singapore… The guy I am grateful for getting me into crypto bitcoin and digibyte at the time —  he said something interesting, very wise guy, saying that what he wanted in life was material desires like a purple Lamborghini, but also… More importantly, getting respect from people.

For example, he said that the primary issue in America is that there is no real notions of respect. For example even very very simply being in Korea, Southeast Asia of Vietnam etc.… On a very basic level, we use honorifics, when it comes to age. Be told, it feels really good! To have a young kid address you in an honorific way, warms your heart! 

Also… I think in America one of the wise things that I’ve learned, just from myself but also echo and people like NASSIM TALEB is a simple idea:

Treat the janitor, the hygiene sanitation guy, the security guard with more respect than the big boss.

And also… Assume that everybody you meet is super super rich and successful and powerful and influential, irregardless of how they may look on the outside. Often times, the richest most powerful people are the most low-key, keep a low profile, and you would never expect it.

But I think the tricky thing is when it comes to human social capital… The whole “it’s not what you know but who you know”– is also a little bit misguided because technically, especially in today’s day and age, I don’t think that networking or knowing influential people is important. All you need is a website, your own self hosted blog, ChatGPT and you’re good!

Examples

Humans are not super great nor efficient. For example just based on my experiences, I’m 36 now… Almost 0 networking events or meeting famous successful people have led to anything substantive. The only things which have led to substantive things were things that I decided to do on my own; like hosting my own workshops, creating and developing and selling my own products engaging people directly with my own email newsletter blog, platform, etc. Everything else has been a waste of time.

I think the biggest issues here is that when you are starting an entrepreneur… We do things in such a way in which we think it is the proper way. For example, when we think about business and networking… We think what it means is to get to know a bunch of rich successful people, “get your foot in the door” etc. Yet, I have discovered this is a total waste of time. 

The way that I was able to build my digital capital my fame my power my influence was very very simple… Essentially learning everything about street photography on my own, and then creating really really insanely in-depth articles, blog post, pages, information and resources on anything and everything street photography.  and the whole time, the whole endeavor of vine was guided by passion, personal interest and curiosity.

Curiosity is antifragile.

Lifting 1,000 pounds

On my personal quest to lift 1000 pounds, which is beyond 10 plates on each side of the barbell, was a personal curiosity:

How far can I take it?

Essentially, my primary curiosity was a curiosity of the limits of my strength, my courage, my ability and potential?

I remember the last time I was weightlifting in Westerly, Rhode Island, and an older guy came up to me and asked “what is the purpose of that? Why are you lifting like that?” I made a joke and I said, first– to augment my ego. But the second more honest answer is I’m just curious how strong I can become.

Why curiosity is so critical

What is curiosity? Curiosity is care, curiosity is what drives us.

You cannot force somebody to be cursed about something that they don’t really care for. You cannot spoon feed or inject curiosity in the soul of somebody, against their own will.

This is why a lot of Asian parents fail, when they try to force their kids to play violin, piano, or chess etc.

back to time

Time is ultimate capital, ultimate desirable non-renewable resource.

Another funny lesson: often the most seemingly bad movies, the ones with poor IMDb reviews are actually the best movies.

For example, the movie “in time” by Justin Timberlake.  probably one of the best films of all time, and also, the most underrated.
P the reason why it is so grand and great of a film is that it creates this metaphor, this philosophical world in which essentially money is, quite literally.

For example, the super super rich people have 1000 years on their wrist, and hilarious enough, excuse the pun, but rich people and poor people are separated by “time zones”–

Also in this fictitious universe, real rich people take their time and move really slowly, whereas the poor labors, are always running, because they are so short on time.

time inflation

 another funny thought: apparently in the early film, when Justin Timberlake is working as a laborer at a factory or whatever, do you have to scan your wrist, imagine like having Apple Pay, your checking account embedded in your wrist, and anytime you wanted to buy a cuppa coffee or food or whatever… You would just scan your wrist. And one of the scenes, Justin Timberlake complains “wait… A cup of coffee only cost 15 minutes, why is it now costing 30 minutes?”  and the guy selling coffee, shrugs his shoulder and says “that’s time inflation!”

Why it is that the only films I care for are dystopic films

The matrix, Blade Runner, and these scientific fiction, alternate future sociological philosophical films, why ? They actually change you! 

What is so interesting about science fiction typically it is just a commentary or a societal critique of our real society. And the thing exaggerated, in cinematic ways, or building up a universe, but in fact, it is really true to today’s world.

Anyways, back on the notion of time… Time is labor, money is labor time.

For example… One of the things I am so grateful about renting, and having the best landlord of all time, is that when something breaks, like our all-in-one washer dryer machine from LG… And the machine doesn’t even turn on anymore, I don’t have to be the ones Wasting my time driving to Home Depot, trying to fix it, or finding service technicians to fix it, scheduling it etc. Rather, I let the landlord communicate with his own labor task squad, his own maintenance team, to come in and fix it, when we are not home, and I could do better things like go on a hike with Cindy and Seneca, or do something fun!

In America, we have this weird virtue connection with doing the labor yourself. However, there is a differentiation between hateful labor and joyful labor. For example, I would probably prefer to have a mechanic fix my car, even though I could do the labor myself, because now that I have a kid, an hour spent fixing your car could be an hour playing with your kid at the park! Here a time becomes zero som, which means 

If you only have an hour to spare, would you rather it be chatting with somebody random, or spending time with somebody you don’t really care for, or doing some sort of labor you don’t really care for, or rather would you rather spend that time to do something more critical you insanely care for?

For example, if you had an hour, to listen to the problems of somebody, or, you had an hour to work out exercises, and lift weights… What would you choose? And assume you could only do one. Obviously work out!

For me, my only regret in the evening is if I spent the whole day, assuming that I was in good health and strength, not working out? To me, my nonnegotiable thing that I must do every single day, irregardless of whatever is to lift weights, at least once. 

Life before Seneca, life after Seneca

Life BC, life AD — I still think it is hilarious that in America, the way we categorize time is life before Christ, life after Christ.

Life before the christos, the lord the saviour, and life after Jesus.

For me I like to use this analogy for Seneca. Before Seneca was born, I wasted a lot of my time, had coffee shops, kind of superficial relationships, etc. Why? I had so much time to kill!

And also good thing about having kid is that it helps you understand what is truly critical to you or not.

For example, business. Do not forget that the original notion of business was centered around being busy, “busy-ness”–

Even the ancient Romans, otium, neg+otium–

Negotium (business) meant the exact opposite of leisure.

I think often times, people like to just stay busy because when you are busy, you don’t have to think about more important things in life, such as life purpose direction etc. And honestly, I think the reason why I philosophy is so critical for everybody is that if you cannot think philosophically, you’re just wasting your life.

Even Seneca the younger stoic (Seneca’s namesake) on his essay “On the shortness of time”– or the short of life… Essentially that you could live a great life, even if it is a short life, as long as you use your time well.

For example, if you had a house with 1000 marble and ivory tables, with matching golden plates, can you take that with you when you die? No!

Let us assume that the average human span now, I think it is about 92 years old for men, 94 years old for women. But then again you never know if you’re gonna get cancer or whatever, assume that it is 80 years.

If you knew that you would only live to be 80 years old, with 100% certainty, how would you spend your life, the next 10 years of your life? What would you do, what would you not do?

And also… Thinking about the mortality of our loved ones, our parents, your own mother.

For example, my mom is about to turn 70, and let us assume that she’s going to live to be 80. How would I want to spend the next 10 years in my life with her, or without her?

Certainly I’m happy for her to do stuff like travel, do her artwork, but also, more critically more time with Seneca, myself and Cindy, but more critically for her to spend time with Seneca. Why? There’s going to be a day in which my mom is no longer going to be around, and I would probably hope that Seneca could have some lovely memories with my mom.

I think this is also the thing… Of us live our lives, almost like we are going to live forever. Is that true? Of course not!

And also when you’re younger… Let us even assume that you’re going to live to be 80 years old. What that then means is that you have a long life ahead of you! But once again, what if you are Achilles, and your mom is a goddess, And you are known with 100% certainty that you will die at the age of 40? Then how would you spend your life, how would you not spend your life?

Memento mori

If you have the choice, the difference between memento mori, and memento vivre — the memory of knowing that you will die is more critical than the memory or the thought of knowing how to live.

I think meaningful ways, and also after this incident I had a few years ago being held up at gunpoint with me just me and Cindy, before Seneca was born… And fortunately I grab Cindy‘s hand and we ran away, and we did not get popped at the back of our head. And in our adrenaline, after the incident… What was my only one regret, Assuming that I have might have died? It was very simple, not having a kid! Then immediately after the incident, we started trying, and then Covidhappened, and then we stopped…  and then we did a webinar saying that kind of babies and kids were kind of immune to Covid, and then we tried again… And boom, got pregnant within a week!

Anyways… Often it is these life or death encounters which clarify things. After this incident, I had zero thoughts about my wealth, money in the bank etc., or my fame or success or whatever. I literally had zero regrets besides the kid thing.

The greatest joy on the planet

I was thinking this morning, what is something that never loses its novelty factor? Seeing and witnessing your kid grow up!

Also… As a man, by far a 1,000,000,000,000% gratitude thing, having a son, having at least one son, one male, one man, and especially having your first kid being a man!

Why? Speaking from the perspective if you are a man, what every man desires is at least one male heir. Certainly when you see a family with three girls, four girls or five girls, no boys, you know what the family was trying to do. 

And also… The whole second kid question…  honestly, if for some reason or another, we couldn’t have a second kid, I’d probably be fine because the joy of knowing that at least, our first child was a son!

Anti women?

I think if I think about it very very honestly honestly… If our first child was a girl… I’m sure I would love her 1000%, but secretly at the back of your head, you’re always thinking wishing and wondering and desiring, to have a boy.

So this is my simple thought —

If you and your wife, or partner or whatever or girlfriend, decide to have a second kid, and your first kid is a boy… Don’t push the whole second kid thing. 

Also, if I told you that let’s say that your wife decided to have birth to a second kid, and there was a 90% chance that she might die in childbirth… Would you take the risk, assuming that your first kid is already a man? No!

Back to time

Honestly just throw your iPhone to the trash. Something that people don’t understand is that the iPhone is toxic; even reading one weird thing on your phone, one weird movie, film, news headline, TikTok video whatever… Strange pornography video or picture, can infect your mind, For a few days, randomly in the middle of the day, or even when you’re about to sleep.

The reason why I deleted Instagram in around 2017 and no– that ERIC KIM on Instagram is not me– the person that made my @erickimphoto Instagram account was just a faithful follower,  why is it started to do bad things to my mind and weird things to my mind. For example I’d be driving, in the suburbs, or the city… And at around noon, while driving, I would get distracted and think to myself “wait… did I uploaded something to Instagram today?” I caught myself thinking this, and I thought “wow, this is bad. I got to get rid of this”. And in 2017, when I had about 65,000 followers, I did probably one of the most courageous and proud things in my life, which was to delete my Instagram. 

mental Freedom?

Something my friend Jeffrey Lam tells me about is this notion of mind space, ideas that was not just a timeframe but, a mental space thing.

For example, you could in theory have 12 hours of free time in a day, but as long as a strange thought is lingering in your mind, you can never really focus 100%.

I think this is called the Zeignark effect,  for example let us say that you read an email that needs to be attended to… And you don’t attend to it or respond to it, and it will plate your mind for days, sometimes even weeks, sometimes even months. This is why I avoid my inbox, or my text messages like the plague…

One strange message email or text message or communication thing can distract you for days on end.

Playing cyber defense

I also think the reason why email needs to be fixed is now, it is so easy to fake an email, ChatGPT, with bots, or generative AI, even if the person is good or bad, or even if the bot is malicious or benevolent.

For example, let me give an extreme example, let us say you are Taylor Swift, and everybody on the planet knows your email (taylorswift@gmail.com)– let us say.  if you are Taylor Swift, and you literally get 1 million emails a day, would you have the time to either read every single email, or even worse… Respond to it? No? This would be mental suicide! This is why I quit email and all messaging apps Around 2016, 2017, because honestly I was just becoming too famous, too much cognitive load! 

Dodge

In the Iliad, when the heroes are killing each other… They do two things, obviously they wear protective armor, like shields, helmets, etc.… But if somebody throws a spear at them, or an arrow, what they do is dodge it.

If you see an incoming spear, you are not a fool, ideally you dodge it, ideally dodging it is more effective than even raising your shield. Why? If it hits your, there is actually a chance that it might penetrate your shield, and end up either wounding you or killing you.

I wonder if we should apply the same philosophy two things. Like if you see an incoming missile, or a beer or a bullet… You don’t take the chance. Dodge a bullet, rather than testing your bulletproof vest.

“That little vest ain’t gonna do you I shoot from neck up”- JY Z

The ghost of soulja slim —

Soulja Kim?

The notion of soldier, like Soulja Boy etc., and interesting thought… The notion of a “soul”, period with the notion of a soldier?

And apparently, if you really really need people from the hood, like Crenshaw, where Nipsey Hussle got killed, the honorific to call somebody worth valor is “soldier”.

Kind of like calling somebody boss or chief. Like Chief Keef

Chief Kim! Too many Indians, not enough chiefs!

Anyways, long story short, prize your time. This is the only life you got.

ERIC

What is a pure thought? I thought that comes to you, first thing you do when you wake up… Without any sort of external stimulus weather reading, listening, looking.

I’ve heard this advice before… That when you go to sleep… Charge your phone in your living room, as far away from your bedroom as possible. Better yet, just turn it off completely, or also, just keep it in your backpack. And actually let it die a little bit and drain the battery of it… iPhone sucks, is overrated, and bad for your health and life.

Also… Throw your TV smart TV into the trash. If you really want to watch a movie film cinema etc.… I think the best way to do it is to just download it to your iPad Pro, and just watch it outside! Alfresco style!

For example, here in Culver City and beyond… There has been a lot of events about watching movies in the park, watching movies outside… Even the antiquated notion of the drive-through movie theater is a very interesting idea; I think media has consumed outside, outdoors etc.

For example, pro tip for parents… If your kid wants to play games on the iPad, play with your iPhone or whatever… Make it a rule that they are only allowed to do it when they are outside of the house! For example at the park, the local playground, the local nature center, etc.

This is my tactic; any time that Seneco wants to do programming on the iPad with swift playgrounds, or play poly bridge 2, or a racing game… The rule is we have to go outside, go to the Culver City steps or downtown, and then I let him play there. 80% of the time he forgets… And ends up just running around instead.

Bizarre media habits of adults

OK, taking it a step further: 

First, OK something I never understood was owning a television?

First, if you want to watch something, why not just watch it on your laptop or better yet… An iPad Pro?

I thought we were advanced techies? Why would a techie own a television?

Video games?

Video game is fine for teenagers, and children… Not men or grown adults.

Why would you be playing PlayStation, or a PC game or steam… If you are over the age of 18?

Rule: adult over the age of 18 should play video games.

Video games are essentially a good refuge for kids who grow up without parental figures. Or they grow up in the hood, I’m playing video games is safer than gangbanging.

But besides this… Video games are not becoming of us. 

Becoming a real man 

So the pure thought I had this morning was there’s notion of becoming a real man.

What are my ideals?

First, a stoic manly, spartan ethos approach and aesthetic. We are not cowards, slaves.

The best thing to read is the Iliad, Emily Wilson translation. The best and the quickest and the easiest way to put hair on your chest.

Ignore modern day media

All modern day media is bad. Why? Because media is so hyper nowadays… Things are becoming more and more bizarre.

Things are bizarre, there are no longer any divisions or boundaries, everybody gets a gold medal, everyone gets a participation sticker, everyone is made mediocre. For example, when it comes to the body, bodily physique etc.… Do not be a fool. There is obviously a clear hierarchy here. And it is not a matter of objective or subjective… Both of these are not useful philosophical ideas. Besides physics, there’s nothing objective on the planet. And subjectivity is a modern day concept which is tired.

Achilles or Hector

I think the two best role models for us is Achilles and Hector. The two Apex fighters warriors and men of antiquity, no and forever.

I actually find the Iliad to be so pure, so honest, maybe the only book worth reading. This and the Odyssey. Once I am done reading the Iliad translation by Emily Wilson, I will read the odyssey translation by her as well.

Anyways, my first thought is there is no such thing as valor without real valor, real physical valor and strength. Even the notion “valere” or “vale”, which was essentially a signature like saying “best” at the end of an email, essentially it meant “be strong!”

All strength is good, all weakness is bad. It doesn’t matter what your domain is, we all seek strength, we all hate weakness.

And certainly, you could interpret strength and weakness for yourself. But whether it be physical, mental, physiological, artistic aesthetic etc — strength, power, durability is supremely desired.

Therefore, as a man, your first duty is towards strength, power, strengthening. 

Things which strengthen you, things which don’t

 I think one of the grand clarifying things about having a child is when it comes to time and focus and mind space and zen. 

For example, even before the birth of Seneca, I barely had enough time, mind space for myself. Now after the birth of Seneca, my time is really really insanely limited, and also nonrenewable.

For example, I only have so many bucks to give, and anything which does not promote my thinking or Seneca, is time wasted.

Let us assume that you caught your good 10 hours of sleep, and even talking to somebody who is full of misery, unhappiness etc.… They are strange negative thoughts will infect you in a bad way. If you were in full health and full figure… Unfortunately The toxicity of unwell people will positively harm you. And then it becomes a feedback loop… The second you are in a bad mood, it affects the mood of your wife, your kids, etc.

Being cruel is virtuous

I wonder if we want to become grander, we must also become more cruel.

For example, the second that I realize that my dad was bad news for Cindy, and that Cindy did not feel safe around my dad, it was a very easy cut.

And also, the number one benefit of stoicism is being able to conquer all of your past trauma, and not only that… Using that past trauma almost like clay, strapping it onto your body to make you bigger stronger, buffer, more indomitable.

 This is why I think so much of modern day therapy is bad; it opens up and reopens up too many bad wounds, for example… Let us say that you fell, you scraped your knee, and it takes about a week for your skin to reheat itself. Would you then take a knife, And scalp pull it back again, promoting the cut and bleeding again?! You just leave it alone, and you do not agitate if any further! 

Or, let us say that your whole life you were just drinking dirty sewer water, a metaphor for a toxic family or upbringing. Let us say you finally leave that environment, and now you could drink Fiji clean water, do you then out of virtue, go back to the toxic place and environment, and start drinking sewer water again, just to prove something? No!

The wisdom of Dr. Dre… You get out of the hood, and you stay out of the hood! You don’t go back to the hood to “prove yourself”.

In fact this whole notion of approving yourself, I find it to be insanely bizarre.

For example Achilles is 100% confident and certain in his strength valor and power. And everyone knows it. And it isn’t his ethos to go to battle just to prove how dominant he is.. He only goes back to fighting when he wants to get revenge on Hector, but besides this… Achilles wanted to retire from fighting.

Even if you took all the wealth on the Earth and multiplied it by 100,000… It is not worth your human mortal life.

For example, would you accept $1 trillion, if you had a 99.9% mortality rate chance, in the next three months? Obviously no!

Human life, a long happy life along healthy life is the most desired thing on the planet. Even the ancient Greeks and good old Homer knew this. 

So why are we trying to trade our health our strength and our well-being for money? 

An interesting nuance with Americans versus Koreans,

Koreans seek success as a moralistic imperative. Koreans, South Korean… They don’t really care for money… Money is simply a reflection of a Confucian literati type of success. 
In America, money, US dollars is the ultimate mark of success. It seems in America… We valorize money for the sake of money. We don’t actually want anything else, we just want the money.

In the American case, we want money because we think that the money will make us happy or happier? The simple mathematical equation, a simple vector: more moneys, more happiness.

For Koreans, it is more a matter of respect. The general idea is that the more money you have, the more respect you’ll get from others.

Funny enough Americans I don’t think we really care for respect, we just want money and happiness.

Koreans want respect, respect from others, their peers etc.…  I don’t even think Koreans want happiness. Koreans just want respect. 

---

Why does this matter

The philosophy of famous and fame

I think a critical thing to consider is that fame and money or not the same thing or equatable. Nor is it desirable to link the two.

For sample, it seems that the foolish mistake people make is that they think of fame as a conduit for wealth. But technically… The easiest way to become wealthy or make a bunch of money is to get a job in cyber security, become a lawyer or a doctor, or even work in sanitation and hygiene, doing a “dirty job“, which could easily net you a lot of money, easily $200,000 a year.

So then the question is … What is it that people seek, and why?

Everyone wants to be happy

First, it seems that what people really seek is not fame or money… But happiness. And people think of it like a simple scalar vector equation: 

as I increase my numbers, as I increase my monies, as I increase my fame, my follower number is whatever… This positive increase will be positively equated with more positive happiness.

What is this true? No!

I’ll example… Let us say that you’re the most famous person on the planet, your Brad Pitt or whatever, and your beautiful wife Angelina Jolie divorces you, you become a strange from your seven children, and nobody wants to call you or interact with you anymore.

Or even think about Russell Simmons, the former music producer who was revealed that he sexually abused all of these women, and maybe raped them or drug them or something weird, apparently his not in jail, even though he probably should, and now… He is Gained at least 15 pounds of fat, lives by himself in a mansion in New Jersey, and nobody talks to him anymore. Even though he might have $100 million in his Bank of America checking account, he is probably not happy.

The sorcery of happiness

I think the big issue here is we try to metricate happiness. 
Once again, I think people hear lack some sort of critical understanding… We think of happiness like ones and zeros, commas and dollars, numbers etc.

But some critical issues here, first we don’t realize that 99% of social media and follower numbers are just bots. I think if you waived a magical wand, in order to delete all the bots on the Internet, it would reduce the Internet population or the follower numbers by 99.9%. 

I’ll give you example… Let us say that you see a famous person on the Internet with 1 billion followers. I bet you that 999 million of those are just bots.

Social media inflation

Nobody ever thinks about this, but, I don’t think anyone has ever made the connection between monetary inflation and social media inflation.

Let us consider that it literally cost zero dollars to make a bot on the Internet. For less than a nickel, you could easily spin up 1 billion bots on Facebook Instagram Instagram Instagram Snapchat TikTok and you could create fake views, comments, likes, follower numbers etc.

 Most people are not critical and foolish. For example, obviously if you showed me your Instagram and you had 1 billion followers, in my mind I would just think well “this person is very famous and successful and rich whatever.” But once again… What if the person spent only about $2000 to get all those fake bot followers?  and hoodwink corporations to give them money and free products, because they could show off these fake followers?

Issues

Even if you are a social media influencer, you’re actually not making that much money. Let us say that you have 10 million followers or 100 million followers, and I asked you to promote its product to your phone, they might only give you about $5000 or maybe even $10,000… Which is not that much money, if you think that you could make more money in cyber security penetration testing.

Then, it seems that what people then do is they desire to make their passion their living, and they think that social media is the way. It is not.

My simple ideas only only need 300 hard-core, Spartan fans on the planet… Hopefully very committed, and also wealthy. It is more profitable to have people give you $100,000, rather than trying to get 1 million people to give you a nickel.

True fans true followers

I cannot really speak for other people, but I could speak for myself, from the position of being a fan.

Who am I a fan of? Kanye West, Jay Z, electronica, Kendrick Lamar, Zack Snyder, and the like. 

What makes me a true fan? Even though I could easily pirate their stuff for free, I decide to pay my real money for it, because for me… There is a sense of pride or ownership, or I just want to signal to myself that I really care for it.

Also, it becomes a sense of pride and also a filter– you never know whether you really care for something until you have made a monetary investment in it… Or a financial penalty, because money talks , money is skin in the game .

 I said no the Super Bowl 

Other side… You’ll only know the true values of the creator or the artist, based on the money they do not accept. 

 the difficult thing is that it does not easily discernible from a follower perspective… Knowing what your beloved creator decides to reject.

Often people will just throw money at you.  and typically only fools reject free money. But then… Fools are often wise.

Often we true fools have true conviction .  For example, probably one of the proudest things of my life is rejecting a book offer to publish my beloved 100 masters learn from the masters of photography book, I think I might have rejected about $10,000 USD, because I wanted it to be open and free. Probably one of the happiest and most proud moments of my life. Especially now that I am a bitcoin millionaire, and money doesn’t really matter that much to me anymore.

I think this is also where it is intelligent to stick to your guns and your own values, thinking about the long-term. The only regrets we make in life is when we compromise our values, for the promise of social or economic gain.

People are not stupid. Anyone and everyone can smell intent. For example, if you’re being nice to somebody just because you want an opportunity from them, or a potential financial payoff… They could smell it from half a mile away. However if you are being genuine,  truly genuine…  people know. And also, once you become part of a community or a city or a polis,.  word spreads.

For example,  One of my friends and mentors, Charlie Kirk, said something very nice to me a long time ago… That he would often defend me in public or private on the Internet, saying that I have never said anything bad about anybody ever.

And also… Now that I have enough experience under my belt, at the age of 36, starting my street photograph everything when I was only 21 years old… Wow, 15 years in the game, is this:

You can only trust people who have defended you, and now — your kids!

Defense, to defend, probably the most critical thing here.

For example, reading the Iliad,  when your best friend or fellow hero or champion dies on the battlefield… What do you do? You protect and defend their body, to prevent the other side from stealing their body and stripping their armor.

I think the hard thing is it is impossible to know whether somebody has defended you or not, whether in real life or in private… Until shit hits the fan. 

I find a very funny disconnect between lived embodied reality versus the ways in which people engage with film media video games etc.

I’ll give you example… One of my favorite fighting games or video games as a teenager growing up was tech, me and all my best friends would always play it, trying to warm up one another… Bryan Fury was my character.

The funny thing with video games, video game characters, is that it is a true reflection of your own personal ethos for yourself. For example, the character Brian fury, I think he’s a cyborg… But regardless, he is insanely jacked, shirtless, topless, and in my opinion, by far the most dominant fighter, at least in terms of muscularity And physique.

So essentially, when I look at Brian fury, I look at myself.

And then you think about video games in general, how bizarre it is that you have a bunch of nerves, either insanely twig like and skinny, and nerdy, or, super fat and nerdy, or maybe skinny fat? Anyways, sitting down on their butts, sitting on a couch, with a PlayStation controller in their hands, And play the fighting games in which they are beating the crap out of other virtual players, and if you look at the video game characters, they are essentially insanely jacked, and all look like demigods.

For example just look at the Tekken 8 lineup in terms of characters. Do I any of them look like the average American to you?

Also, in terms of physique… Do any of the fighters, whether a man or woman, look like the real average human being today?

Superhero films

Can you imagine a skinny fat marvel superhero? No. Yeah look at all the people who go watch the movies… A bunch of like the fat people from the wall-E movie, really fat, essentially just waddling around… Coca-Cola in hand, and stuffing themselves with type two diabetes, and watching superheroes be great?

Once again… Isn’t the goal to look like the superhero, or become the superhero?

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As deadly as ares

Noisy shouts 

.

Low lives

Observing traffic behavior, on foot… It seems that a lot of people who honk at you to hurry up, these guys are low lives? You could obviously tell that they are lower, poor, working class, and a lot of them… Our driving cell phone in hand?

And sometimes they often honk at people, to hurry up and turn right… When there is clearly a sign that says no turn on right?

So the problem is… If you’re in front and somebody is honking at you from behind… What do you do?

The problem is when somebody is honking at you from behind, there is not a way you could honk back at them, it is almost like imagine like you’re in battle… And someone tries to spear you from behind? And you cannot defend yourself?

Ideal thing would be to have a horn which is actually mounted on the back of your car, on the trunk… Which honks opposite; or have some sort of really really bright headlights or high beams, in the back of your car, which could shoot bright light and blind the assholes that are honking at you from behind.

.

Old and fat guys?

What Can Benefit All 8 Billion Humans On The Planet?

.

New aesthetics?

Revival

Antisocial media club

I want to create a new photography club… The only prerequisite is simple; you don’t have an Instagram, and you’re right of initiation is deleting your Instagram Instagram.

A funny thought… How much money do I need to offer you in order for you to delete your Instagram?

.

Mistakes in which you are paid in flesh?

Flesh in the game 

Danger focuses us

Mafia Street mafia

Urethane

RICOHMAFIA

Don’t buy a loser iPhone Pro, buy a Ricoh

It comes down to price… Ricoh GR is still cheaper than a Fujifilm X100?

 what is the best street photography camera, at the best price?


.

1,000 pound club

 a new thought: the new 1000 pound club, being able to lift a barbell off of the squat rack, 1000 pounds, even half a centimeter?

No belt, no wraps, no accessories. Just chalk and your bare feet.

.

Why my next car will be a truck… To be able to transport barbells and weights?

.

Can you take it with you?

I think what I like about my independent squat rack stand is that it is very easy to transport and move around!

.

Surfing and skating is interesting… When the waves are good you serve, but if the waves are not good, you just stake?

a hybrid approach?

When the weather is not good, you just do this other thing

“On concrete”–

Concrete Paradise – Walter Margerison

.

Putting your hand in the wave… Copying that on the ground?

redefine the idea of what could be done on a surfboard? 

.

First do no harm… But then even being alive and breathing the air you’re doing a bad thing

Harming others is fine

Low pivotal position in surfing 

Always touch and feel the pavement

Who do you idolize, who is your idol

How to make a change: just get rid of graffiti and stickers

Devotion to style

How to become more famous

Fame is more important than money 

Look good looking good

How to discover your style in photography and street photography

Mostly via negativa; delete Instagram, delete social media, and just shoot whatever appeals to you 

Good style, bad style?

Stinky style?

,

Street photography style?

The philosophy of style

The hilarious thing… Everyone encourages individuality and uniqueness when it comes to style… The second you do something that is anti-style or anti-mainstream, or even, anti underground… You become berated.

Also, probably the most formative thing I did was I became anti-underground hip-hop… Because it eventually came down to who could say the bigger words, or who could rhyme better… Without style or substance? Therefore my introduction to Jay Z and Kanye.

Ugly form or lame form is the way

Lame is good   

Gay is good 

Self-respect versus respect from your peers

The second you become a threat, or people don’t like you… Is a single or a sign you are becoming more dominant than them

.

Start a fashion company 

CULVER CITY

“Over the light”

Never done before, no such thing

.

Street photography and flash… It was just never done before?

 anti-car lifestyle

.

True innovation is via negativa; would you get rid of, what you don’t do? 

The thrill

Concrete warfare

Create a crowd

Be king for a day, being a king forever?

Actual player

Just start light

You don’t know what’s possible, because it has not been done before

No Precedence

---

gravity chamber

.

Cyber house cyber gym

.

Urethane wheels,,, new terrain?

Upright classic form vs super low form ,,, switching up a form?

I hate sickness, weakness

.

Paradigm shift ,,, 60s vs 70s

1975

.

ADONIS BODY

.

ADONIS

.

How to avoid financial problems

Velocity

Extreme curiosity

Who will last,, how to last?

Whose names shall remain?

A brand new world?

.

Don’t trust anything you see in media or TV or the movies

Movies are toxic?

Create art?

.

Didn’t seem like having as much fun, too serious like a job?

Too much tension?

Drugs and partying is bad

Why fake emotion and drama in documentaries?

.

Good role models bad role models?

Let your skating, lifting do the talking

World champion, best in the world

All about “attitude”

.

Never speak no evil about anybody! Even the bad ones!

Never do anything which feels like “work”

True success is longevity

.

Don’t use iPhone or social media — it is a trap!

.

Good influences bad infuences

Never talk about the good old days, don’t think about being like an old guy reminiscing on the old times… Rather, think of yourself as the hungry 21-year-old self again

.

Why all role models are flawed

Let the jabronis be jabronies

1977

Nobody did it with style

Create a history of yourself?

Extension of society… See it as a social logical movement?

Sometimes sickness could just be a soft reset?

Art form?

.

Size everybody up

Augment and focus what you’re good at… Let others take care of the other details?

How to become yourself

.

One thing I’m very interested in is the etymology words, the origin… History etc.

For example, Dogtown and the legendary Z boys… Just finished watching the documentary produced in 2001, insanely interesting in terms of innovation, entrepreneurship, and something which has probably touched all of us as young adolescence and teenagers; the Genesis of skateboarding as we know it today?

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Dogtown

Long story short, essentially in 1976, a bunch of the early skateboarding Pioneers would skateboard inside this drained swimming pool in The north side of Santa Monica, and there was a bunch of dogs hanging around the empty swimming pool, and they were just called the dog bowl.

And apparently one day, one of the guys when it was really hot, said wow… It is really a “dog day” isn’t it? We live in Dogtown!

Anyways, the genesis of words is often funny random, and unpredictable.

The Genesis of streettogs

So anyways, similar story for myself… I think it was the year 2010, I just graduated college at UCLA as an undergraduate in sociology, and this is the early days of Facebook and Twitter… And there was this guy on Twitter named @photojack and whenever he would post tweets related to photography in order to maximize the 140 character limit, he would post #togs

I thought this was a good idea, and therefore whenever I posted anything street photograph related, I would just post it, #streettogs (taking the “togs” notion, and just adding the word street to it). I then use that as my moniker, whenever I would do a YouTube video… Once again I started my YouTube channel in 2010, because it was literally the only place that you could upload videos to! And I would shoot random videos on the original GoPro, and just post them there! And therefore whenever I started a video I would say “What’s up streettogs, this is ERIC KIM from the ERIC KIM street photography blog…” and this is essentially became my intro. 

I think the reason why motto, catchphrases, or introductions are important is when you do a video, a blog or a blog etc.… In order to just get the creative juices flowing, having some sort of introductory motto is very useful!

Also as an unintended consequence, the upside is because I always promote my blog, people would always google my blog! And this is the ultimate idea; you don’t mud ties directly off of your videos by putting in annoying advertisements… What you do is you intentionally use these free hosting platforms like YouTube, to promote your own website, your own blog, your own platform, Not some foreign third-party platform!

Even now… YouTube reigns supreme, but, I feel a foreshadowing… That once chatGPT makes the video sora production thing live… This might be the undoing of YouTube?

If we fast-forward a bit… videoGPT– I could easily predict a future in which he just opened up the ChatGPT app on your phone, and you just spit a few words of the type of video you would like to see, and within seconds, ChatGPT or video GPT will be able to produce a video exactly to your own liking! And the reason why this will be such a big deal is that you don’t have to go through YouTube, and deal with annoying advertisements, or having to click through things.

Nobody likes ads

So YouTube currently has that premium thing, I think it’s like 10 bucks or 15 bucks for the whole family. A good deal! Especially if your mom is addicted to youtube, and you don’t like her watching stupid advertisements.

Kids are not dumb… Seneca is not. When he grows up, he will have zero interest in watching ad advertisements, as he has never watched television, YouTube, Disney Disney+ or Bluey in his life.

Also the reason why I think the video GPT thing will be such a game changer is because when it creates the video… Technically, you will be able to own it! No copyright is an insanely big deal… I think people have not really really really understood how insanely innovative ChatGPT is that it produces text, With zero copyright infringement, which you could just post to your own blog, and boost its value!

Killing many birds with one stone 

Even now, there is so many things I am curious about, and the great upside of ChatGPT is that I could kill many birds with one stone… First, fulfill my own curiosity about the subject, to my blog just in case other people are curious about it… And then it ends up getting indexed by Google and ChatGPT!

Anyways, this is also my funny… Instead of looking at sexy photos of sexy girls on your phone of real life human beings, maybe it is better more effective and interesting to produce your own pretty ladies, using ChatGPT DALL-E. Or better yet… If you really want to see pretty girls, go to the beach, go to the gym, and actually talk to them! Compliment them, chop it up with them, no desire to bed them, I think there’s actually something good for men to just talk to women, just for fun! 

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OK I think I finally got it figured out; money is potential energy, when you actually put it to work, and enact force upon it… money then becomes kinetic energy?

Don’t hate me because I have more money than you!

Bitcoin is the first and only true hard money on the planet, therefore… If I have more bitcoin than you, and I have not spent it… That means I am richer than you, I have more money than you

I think which has boggled my mind for a very long time is money. The philosophy of money, economic theory, practical economic theory, etc.

For me, I have zero interest in theoretical notions of money. To me, money is practical, and also, thinking about physics, monetary physics is useful.

I should have majored in physics? 

Apparently, in the early days of sociology, they called it “social physics”

For example, I remember in high school… Surprisingly my favorite class was my honors physics class, I think I might’ve got B- in it or something… Our teacher I think he graduated from Stanford or Caltech or something… Super genius guy, at Castro Valley high, and I loved physics because it was science and math made practical, fun, and real!

I still will never forget, we did this experiment, in which we built this catapult, and actually used real physics math, to calculate the dropping projectile, and a shooting kinetic projectile, and after a few sessions of class, after we did all the math, and we shot it… It truly did collide mid air! It was magical! 

Movement is magical

What is the greatest tragedy in today’s world? When your movement is restricted, thwarted. 

As an example, what is it that we all hate in Los Angeles? Traffic! I think it is literally one of the first English words that Seneca learned by heart. 

For example, consider how cruel it is to force adults and humans to drive in their automobile car, stuck in traffic for about an hour one way, and then going into a depressing office building, indoors, lack of natural light… And force an individual to remain stationary, not moving, in front of a cubicle a desk, an open concept thing; doesn’t matter if you’re sitting or standing or even using a treadmill… It is like you are a glorified hamster on glorified hamster wheel! 

Injecting money into your legs

Living in Culver City LA about 10 months now… What is the ultimate way that you could rank yourself? By what neighborhood you live in!

Funny nuances, the second that you meet somebody outside of Culver City, who discovers that you actually live in Culver City, and how much more expensive your rent is than theirs, the attitude of people change.

For example, $3200 a month for two bedroom one bath Culver City, versus only $1800 for one bedroom, maybe in Palms or Overland.

Anyways, what I find personally interesting is thinking about the basic privilege of walking. In Los Angeles, the ultimate and Apex privileged is how much you could walk a day… The insanely rich and successful people that have met in LA, I can judge by how beautiful in bronze there are suntan skin is, how much time to spend outdoors, and how many steps they could put in a day!

In fact, you could probably separate people into two camps; people who stand and walk for a living, and people who are outside for a living, versus office slaves who have to be stuck inside a glass cube cage all day. Would you rather be a spartan, or a bubble boy? Or in Blade Runner that one girl who is forced to live in that little ecosystem chamber cell, because she likes immunity to the real world? 

What is happiness

To me happiness is walking. Having the privilege to all, having the strength to walk, you never really realize how grateful you are to walk, until you see a loved one in a wheelchair, otherwise healthy, because of type two diabetes and sciatica.

Or, I’ll never forget when I ruptured my tendon either in my ankle or my knee playing basketball in college, being stuck in crutches for almost 6 months, the worst.

Injuries

I’ve had many injuries of the years, fortunately never broke a bone in my life. Maybe it’s because I ate so much meat as a kid, and drink so much milk as a kid.

Anyways, I am really into this notion of healing, and not that the new Deadpool Wolverine films out… The theory and philosophy of healing, superhero powers etc.

I was watching an interview with Michael Saylor, which he talks about superhero theory, and the very very funny idea is the thought that the ultimate superpower is actually immortality, being invincible, like you cannot die. Because it would be very very simple, you just take a machine gun, step into the room and kill everybody, or you could just walk into a room with a nuke, nuke everybody, and everybody else dies but you.

Anyways, what I find so fascinating about wolverine, is that his mutant superpower is healing, and also… The fact that he has a skeleton made out of adamantine, but the nuance is every single time he takes out his claws, it literally causes him pain, wolverine is not immune to pain, he feels pain greatly; it’s just that he cannot die from the pain. 

So imagine a life, in which you are practically invincible, you cannot be killed… But, you feel pain like a typical normal human being, would you take this trade?

Money

Taking it back to money, what is money, why is this significant, what does it mean?

Recalling before I join finances with Cindy, the work was simple: you work hard, you earn money, and then you spend it. As a consequence, before marrying Cindy, I don’t think I ever saved more than $500, or thousand dollars, because I would spend the money as quickly as I earned it!

My justification was that I was “investing”, the general idea is that the purpose of money is that you earn it, you invested, you spend it… To continue the cycle all over again indefinitely.

However, one which was never instilled in me was the ethos of saving. The more radical ideas that you work hard, you earn money, but you never spend it… You either put in the market, buy bitcoin, buy real estate, buy property etc. Essentially, you earn income, continue to drive your 2010 Prius, forever, never eat out, never buy new things, never buy a loser iPhone pro, etc. and also you never eat out at a loser restaurant, you quit alcohol and you never pay for $20 cocktails, you never smoke weed, you never go to a festival, you don’t go to concerts, you don’t blow your money at Vegas.

How I learned this

One thing I’m grateful for is that my dad was a chronic gambler, he would always gamble away the rent money, go off to Reno in the middle of the night, not come back for a week… Empty-handed. Even as a teenage kid, working really really hard as a boy at the sushi restaurant my mom worked at, maybe saving about $3000 USD in cash, and my dad saying that there was a business opportunity in LA, and that he needed the money… And then me giving that money to my dad, hoping that he would actually invest it to change his life, but once again… Him coming back, empty-handed.

I suppose I am lucky that I was a stoic ever since I was a kid, my adamantine soul & carcass — this is how I became so tough as a kid. Anyways, it first taught me the virtues of not being foolish with money, and learning firsthandley… gambling was a positive evil. 

Energy conservation

Matter is not created nor destroyed, and assuming that there is a connection between Madrin and energy… Maybe the best way to think about money is monetary energy, human capital, solidified into ones and zeros.

For example, I think the true use of money is not really materials, but human labor. For example, when you pay somebody $20 for an overpriced sandwich, you’re not really paying for the materials… The materials for your sandwich might cost you only about a dollar or two, but to get a human hand to assemble the sandwich is what causes or cost a lot of money?

So I think when we pay for stuff, but we are really paying for is labor. Paying for human labor, and also space?

For example, when you’re wasting money at a gym membership… What you are paying for is the privilege of being around other human beings, kind of like a private club, and also the privilege of using the equipment and space.

I think this is where building your own home gym is so disruptive… it kind of changes everything. 

For example, reoccurring costs is the killer here. 

Depending on where you live, the prices of a gym membership can vary. When I was back in Orange County, crunch fitness was super cheap… I think like $30 a month? Practically free. But when you come here to LA… It looks like the average gym membership is about $120, even $200 a month? Even if you do the simple math… If you spent $200 a month in weightlifting equipment for yourself… Every month 200 bucks… This would be a better use of your money. Because when you purchased the equipment, it is your property, and has infinite potential.

Property

Life is a game of monopoly, go outside and cop yourself some property — MIGOS

Historically, Nas seem to laugh also mirrors this… Most of wealth creation was from owning property. For example, if your dad bought property in Palos Verdes, 100 years ago… You would inherit a lot of wealth.

Or those funny stories in which your great great grandfather, once upon a time purchased property in San Francisco for about five acorns, and now it is worth $5 billion… Similar story.

I think this is gonna be a similar thing with bitcoin, right now a bitcoin is worth about $55,000 a bitcoin… And 100 years, will be worth $21 million a bitcoin. And then 300 years from now, I wouldn’t be surprised if one bitcoin will be worth $1 trillion or something.

Generational wealth is the key

I think the big problem in today’s world is the cult of the individual. There has been a new modern day death to the family structure, the general ideas you never want to have kids.

Having a kid is very eye-opening in a good way. Why? Once you have a kid… Technically this augments your power. Assuming “The will to power”– the will to having children, many kids, is also the will to power. Why? When you have kids, multiple kids, you augment your power.

In the past, the general idea was children was like free labor. For example, we had a farm, having 10 kids would be useful in terms of managing the family farm. Even now, my brother-in-law and their family, having four boys for grown men… Tons of free intellectual and labor capital. They are currently building up a fine art gallery, And having intelligence and the human labor of for grown adults is great.

The logic

Assuming that you want to become super rich, but never have any kids… It is almost like shooting your semen into a black hole. When you’re dead, that sucks.

I think if you’re 90 years old on your deathbed, and you have no heirs, no children no grandchildren, no great grandchildren, the ultimate tragedy.

Body Pride vs body shame?

An interesting observation that I’ve made in the past; why is it that you’re allowed to flex your car, but not flex your body?

Even bodybuilders… Whenever they flex, they do it with a tint of shame?

Certainly there is a hierarchy of bodies, more desirable bodies, less desirable bodies. 

Generics is fake

A big intervention: genetics is fake. Certainly there are genetic things like height, facial morphological features, etc.

For example, if both of your parents are 4 feet tall, probably unlikely you’re going to be 7 feet tall. But your parents are 7 feet tall, unlike you’ll be 4 feet tall.

Obviously people from different genetic heritages look different. But, if we think about the plasticity of human gene expression — obviously there is a lot we can stretch!

Racism 2.0

For example, I don’t really think there is such a thing as muscular strength geneticism. For example, I think the reason why there is so much African-Americans and Caucasians in sports is because there is higher steroid use amongst them… vs Asians who have a culture of studying. 

However, even now, I’m starting to see this change. I’m seeing a lot of Asian guys, dipping into steroids, and they are insanely jacked. And I think the difference between the media and the real world is that the observation I met is when you go to the gym, a lot of the African-American guys are actually pretty skinny, typically guys  with the most mass or not the African-American black guys, but the Caucasian white guys– and once again… Steroid use amongst the white Caucasian population is very high, just watch the documentary on the bell Brothers, 2/3 of them taking steroids. If you ever grew up to an Arnold Schwarzenegger or Rambo Sylvester Stallone film… You see the glorification of steroids. Also baseball, wrestling etc.

I only trust Prius drivers 

A new thought: who is the real rich people or the real smart people? The Prius drivers!  For example, I’ll never forget… At the $150 million mansion in Holmby Hills, seeing a white Prius pull out of the driveway! 

And also, real rich families… all of the kids just drive Ford fusions? And even a major Tesla investor that I know, with over $100 million worth of Tesla stock, his family has base level model 3’s?

Therefore, my great intelligence is not seeing stuff on… Would rather, how real rich people behave. Especially how they don’t waste their money. 

Why are rich people so cheap

This is also another hilarious irony; real rich people are actually very frugal. The hilarious irony:

You’re so rich… Why don’t you spend money to buy that Lamborghini?

The reason why they are rich because they did not buy the loser Lamborghini, but bought a Honda Civic instead!

Also… The irony that people tell me:

ERIC, why don’t you eat some of the cake?

I tell them, “Because I don’t want to get fat.”

And then they tell me:

But you’re so skinny!

And then I laugh and I tell them– “The reason I am so skinny is because I don’t eat cake!” Haha.

And this is the great paradox, if you really want to become rich, like have a lot of money… The true goal is simple: Spartan living. 

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Old and fat guys?

What Can Benefit All 8 Billion Humans On The Planet?

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New aesthetics?

Revival

Antisocial media club

I want to create a new photography club… The only prerequisite is simple; you don’t have an Instagram, and you’re right of initiation is deleting your Instagram Instagram.

A funny thought… How much money do I need to offer you in order for you to delete your Instagram?

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Mistakes in which you are paid in flesh?

Flesh in the game 

Danger focuses us

Mafia Street mafia

Urethane

RICOHMAFIA

Don’t buy a loser iPhone Pro, buy a Ricoh

It comes down to price… Ricoh GR is still cheaper than a Fujifilm X100?

 what is the best street photography camera, at the best price?


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1,000 pound club

 a new thought: the new 1000 pound club, being able to lift a barbell off of the squat rack, 1000 pounds, even half a centimeter?

No belt, no wraps, no accessories. Just chalk and your bare feet.

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Why my next car will be a truck… To be able to transport barbells and weights?

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Can you take it with you?

I think what I like about my independent squat rack stand is that it is very easy to transport and move around!

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Surfing and skating is interesting… When the waves are good you serve, but if the waves are not good, you just stake?

a hybrid approach?

When the weather is not good, you just do this other thing

“On concrete”–

Concrete Paradise – Walter Margerison

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Putting your hand in the wave… Copying that on the ground?

redefine the idea of what could be done on a surfboard? 

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First do no harm… But then even being alive and breathing the air you’re doing a bad thing

Harming others is fine

Low pivotal position in surfing 

Always touch and feel the pavement

Who do you idolize, who is your idol

How to make a change: just get rid of graffiti and stickers

Devotion to style

How to become more famous

Fame is more important than money 

Look good looking good

How to discover your style in photography and street photography

Mostly via negativa; delete Instagram, delete social media, and just shoot whatever appeals to you 

Good style, bad style?

Stinky style?

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Street photography style?

The philosophy of style

The hilarious thing… Everyone encourages individuality and uniqueness when it comes to style… The second you do something that is anti-style or anti-mainstream, or even, anti underground… You become berated.

Also, probably the most formative thing I did was I became anti-underground hip-hop… Because it eventually came down to who could say the bigger words, or who could rhyme better… Without style or substance? Therefore my introduction to Jay Z and Kanye.

Ugly form or lame form is the way

Lame is good   

Gay is good 

Self-respect versus respect from your peers

The second you become a threat, or people don’t like you… Is a single or a sign you are becoming more dominant than them

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Start a fashion company 

CULVER CITY

“Over the light”

Never done before, no such thing

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Street photography and flash… It was just never done before?

 anti-car lifestyle

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True innovation is via negativa; would you get rid of, what you don’t do? 

The thrill

Concrete warfare

Create a crowd

Be king for a day, being a king forever?

Actual player

Just start light

You don’t know what’s possible, because it has not been done before

No Precedence

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You not like them!

I’m cut from a different cloth, forged from steel not clay!

Marble

One thing I’m really into is marble. You cannot fake it. Even the fake marble stuff, although aesthetically pretty nice, there is always an uncanny valley in which you could tell us something that is fake, which makes you feel uneasy.

For example, fake wood trim, especially in cars, I hate this. I think this is why I would never purchase any Tesla automobile with a fake wooden dash– pure ugliness.  Here I am very happy that the new Tesla model three car, especially in black, they have made the dash, a lovely monochromatic thing. 

In Japanese aesthetics and woodworking, there is a general notion of honesty of materials; if something is plastic, don’t try to pretend that the plastic is something else! Just let it be plastic!

Don’t try to make some thing into something that is not!

Maybe also, the metaphor to humans is, if you are cut from a different cloth, if you are a different material… don’t try to transmute yourself into being something you are not! 

For example, if you are bronze, no matter how hard you try… You cannot become gold! And the virtues of bronze is it is relentless, and brings black death. And Achilles preferred bronze over gold — bronze makes better weapons and armor. Gold is only for looking pretty on the battlefield, Looking like little girls, who die promptly.

My primary sociological intervention is your personality characteristics, no matter how bad or immoral they may seem… our virtues should be amplified, rather than tamed or changed. 

For example, for myself, I was always the ratchet, loud, high energy personality– an ego and a head bigger than life, always wanting to be the center of attention. I think society try to squeeze me into being something different, more decipherable, more predictable, etc. I think from the get-go, my personality was always more adapted to entertainment focused, media personality stuff, rather than just being another quiet programming worker bee. In fact, now that Silicon Valley is effectively dead, I am so happy I did not study computer science or programming, and just become another drone at Apple, Amazon Facebook or Google, rather, I transformed my primary passion, blogging into my living. 

Am I the first millionaire blogger? Maybe. Certainly the first millionaire street photographer, or the first millionaire street photography blogger!

New analogies

I think a big issue is when we try to copy a design, something which has succeeded in the past, rather than giving it a cart launch, fresh from scratch approach.

For example, I’m a huge fan of the Fujifilm cameras, but the big critical design issue is that with the Fujifilm X100 series cameras, they try to make it look like a Leica M rangefinder camera!

Panasonic lumix is the way

Perhaps a more intelligent idea and thought, is like the new Lumix S9 camera, in which Panasonic Lumix had the intelligent idea:

If we pared down a camera, an interchangeable lens camera, a body, and made a maximally small compact and easy to use… what would it look like? 

Et voila! The first really really small, good interchangeable lens full frame camera! I think the grandeur of Panasonic LUMIX is they are smart —

1. First, essentially borrowing her technologies, in lending her talent to Leica Camera AG. And I think also, Panasonic Lumix gained good insight from the German Leica engineers.
2. Let us consider the Leica Q, essentially it is like a Panasonic Lumix camera on steroids.
3. In terms of longevity, it seems that overtime, the most robust cameras, which have lasted are the Lumix cameras. For example, the Lumix G9 camera that I got in Japan around 2017 2018, is still chugging along fine today!

Let us not be suckered, durability is the number one critical thing on the planet.

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Durable humans, durable bodies

 One of my curiosities is watching all these bodybuilding films, because I was sucker by all this stuff, back in the day when I was a teenage kid, trying to get super jacked and muscular etc. I probably spent hundreds of dollars on protein powder and muscle milk as a kid, Money which was probably better spent on buying stocks etc.

Something that people don’t know is that I only picked up for you when I was about 18 years old, as a high school senior graduation present before going to college, and technically I was blogging ever since I was in high school, I recall my first “Xanga” blog — and also building my own website blog my sophomore junior year in high school.

I started blogging around 2 years before I started shooting photos.

I suppose looking back, timing was good. Blogging was still in its infancy, and also, photography and street photography was still nascent– the early days.

Anyways, the funny thing with timing is that the timing of things is always most beneficial to you during your own generation in years.

For example, Seneca at 3 1/2 years old, already knows what bitcoin is! And when he was about 2 1/2, he was already creating images on DALL-E, we made a lot of funny bitcoin school buses, even before he could barely talk! 

I think this is the reason why entrepreneurship and innovation is tricky; the principles change, the ideas change, the methods and techniques change. And we always need to give it a first principles, carte blanche approach.

The American way

Perhaps the first true approach is to do a blank sheet, a clean sheet, a carte blanche approach. A white paper, a blank white paper approach.

For example, the reason why cyber truck is the best thing of all time is that Elon and his head designer, rather than just taking that Ford F150 and trying to make it look like a Tesla car, they just literally thought the whole thing from scratch, and thought:

If we designed a truck ,,, TODAY,,, with the apex of all materials and technologies, what would it look like? And also what design elements would it not have?

I think this is also where bitcoin is so innovative; rather than just thinking about how currency worked in the past, isn’t the more intelligent thing to leverage the Internet, computer, math, and modern day cryptography, to create a new type of “imaginary” money (all money is imaginary)?

I think studying history is useful, don’t just blindly give fellatio to the past. Often the past was far worse.

For example, anybody who over romanticizes vinyl records, classic cars, or even film photography… I think it’s signals insecurity in oneself, And what they do is they see some sort of godhead or legitimacy from the past.

Also the thing with film photography, which people get suckered by that because most people cannot do it, it is seen as more valuable! But just because the photo is showing on films not making more virtuous or interesting.

This is where the photography world, film photography, art photography world is ridiculous; it is a bunch of insecure people trying to circle jerk off one other, to augment a bunch of insecure egos?  to justify how you wasted $250,000 on a foolish private arts education, assuming your family is not a billionaire?

Any education or higher education in which you have to go into debt to do it is never worth it.

Back to ideas at hand

Once again, the intelligence of a clean slate approach; with practically everything…

1. If we could hard reset the whole world of bodybuilding, weightlifting, and fitness… What would it look like?
2. if we erased everything about the past, and truly designed a car for the year 2024 and beyond… What would it look like?
3. ChatGPT and bitcoin is already here and is certainly the future… how should we rethink or reimagine the whole K-12 education system?

Searchgpt

I would say the future of education is simply critical thinking… Just let the kids use unlimited ChatGPT, the paid premium one in the classroom and beyond, and the true goal of the future is how to be critical or how to judge and assess the veracity of things that you find on ChatGPT or Google.

Impact, I have not used Google for almost a month now, my new experiment is just used ChatGPT whenever I am curious about something, and it is a quadrillion times superior in every single shape shape and form.

The last bastion of hope for Google is maybe YouTube — but even the big issue is once chatGPT video, sora comes out…  and you could have ChatGPT produce infinite media, for a nickel, and also, you do not have to pay the creator…  then what?

Also pornography; I have not opened up the terrible Pandora’s box of ChatGPT,DALL-E, virtual reality AI generated pornography… Or hentai or whatever… But certainly it seems that the hilarious irony that pornography might be more ethical;  no humans are harmed, either mentally spiritually morally ethically… The only weirdos are the guys who may be created, and consume it, or… Release their seminal fluid to it? 

And also… Come on… How many single tech dies, who spent $4000 on Apple Vision Pro have used it at least once to try out virtual reality pornography? No shame or issues here… But certainly, it makes you rethink and reconsider the whole thing.

What is the purpose of humans?

On a very very basic level… Reading the new translation of the Iliad by Emily Wilson is very very useful, because the telos was very simple then; you wanted to find a beautiful wife, and have kids! No weird modern day hedonist playboy who wanted to stay single forever kind of notion. No loser George Clooney type.

Let us not forget that Hugh Hefner, who invented the whole playboy idea, was an impotent man, a twig of a man, who was just injecting Viagra to his penis all day? Not a sign of virility.

So first, my simple intervention is that the purpose of humans is to produce beautiful offspring. And to find yourself a beautiful mate, a beautiful wife.

The future for your kids

Every parent wants a more glorious future for their children! This is the impetus of every new immigrants to America and beyond. The Chinese and the Koreans, and also even the Vietnamese call America, the beautiful country!

Ngoi my~

Mee-gook

Mee-gwwuh

China means the center country, like the center of the universe. But America is the beautiful one.

Doesn’t everyone want beauty?

Men

Man, what is it that we seek? A beautiful wife, a maximally beautiful wife, the most beautiful wife of all time, within our means, to produce the maximally beautiful, maximally powerful and superior children?

And if you think about it… Man we are not so different from Peacock; we do different societal behaviors and norms, certain meeting dances and calls, in order to attract that made, once again, hoping to marry her, and have beautiful children with her?

Hector, also had a son. And I think Achilles, if he had the chance would also desire a son. 

Each and every man desires at least one male heir.

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Breeds of dogs & breeds of humans?

One of the greatest things about the planet is genetic diversity. If you lived in the planet without any genetic diversity, it would be the most miserable planet of all time.

Let us consider all the diversity there is, in terms of food, animals, climates, plants bugs etc.

The funny thing is that on one hand we promote diversity, but on the other hand, we shun it. 

Be different! No… not like THAT!

Everyone looks different in the same way?

 I remember in high school… The weird goth emo kids who would wear all black, even in the hot summer, I don’t understand how they were able to wear black hoodies in the summertime at school, and it seems that they all would shop at hot topic.

And also, kids who are into skateboarding… Why did they all look to see? Why have I never seen a kid into skateboarding who just wore Lululemon tights?

The good thing is, there is a blurring of everything, you could literally be anything you want to be. And nobody cares. I think this is a very good thing.

However the new ones; I think the notion of being different be predicated on assessing others, and then literally trying to be different, but rather, trying to critically assess who you are, and then, just focus on your own personality.

For example, a sociological curiosity I’ve always had is how much of our personality is genetic or biological versus societal? Now that Seneca is 3 1/2, I have a partially good answer.

Based on my observation, considering that also, I’ve literally almost been with Seneca 24 7, since he was born…  I think one personality is maybe 65% of the equation, and the rest of it is socialized.

For example, Seneca in terms of his personality is very unlike me. He is more reserved, critical, and I think wiser. I am a little bit too foolish, too loud, too trusting. I think his personality is a carbon clone of Cindy.

The nuance is that a lot of the things that I’ve been teaching him, is kind of like a social technology, like giving people high-fives, fist bumps, etc. Also, the fact that we are essentially outside all day, not in some sort of grid system.

Cyber Beach, beach school? 

Beach school? Kids would be a lot happier? 

Ethics?

Something which is not allowed to be talked about… we could talk about breeds of dogs, but not humans. 

OK… let us apply a line of thinking to dogs, different breeds of dogs. For example, certainly a canine or pitbull would be a much better and ferocious fighter than a pug or a hotdog wiener dog.

But the funny thing is I think all breeds of dogs could procreate with one another, irregardless of breed? 

Genetic differences 

Certainly with human beings, there are some families which are naturally taller, some families which are naturally shorter. And certainly there has been some sort of genetic diversification on the planet and beyond, especially when it comes a different parts of the planet.

For example, in certain places certain humans have more bodily hair, possibly to dissipate the heat. For example, the physiology of somebody from ancient Greece would probably be a lot different from somebody from Sweden.

Other places, we adapt to gain darker pigments to fight off the sun. It makes sense, if your family genetic heritage is from sub-Saharan Africa, logically the human body will produce more pigment to fight off the sun then if your genetic heritage was from northern Sweden, in which during the winter time you might only get 30 minutes of sun.

Why others are confused by me

I’m starting to feel more and more… maybe other people, they’re just a different breed than me. For example, I think of myself kind of like a canine, a K9 attack police dog, and everyone else is just a wiener dog? Or annoying poodles?

And so then… when other people try to punk me around, I have zero tolerance for it.

For example, let us say that you were a ferocious fighting dog, and there’s a random annoying poodle that starts barking at you! Or tries to bully you around? How would you respond? Obviously you would just want the damn poodle to shut up!

Or I am the Gerardos, everyone else is like a Diglett or a Magikarp?

Thinking about Achilles

In my mind, I see myself like an Achilles. I see myself like the most handsome, powerful, dominant, ultra being out there. And perhaps it is precisely my oversized ego is where I get my power.

I think there are a lot of sissy philosophers and thinkers who somehow think that ego is a bad thing. I think this is not the case. Your ego is almost like your balls and your testicles… would you castrate yourself because sometimes it makes you too angry– having big balls and a lot of testosterone is almost like overpower.

For example, we think about Dragon Ball Z, Goku going super Saiyan etc.… Obviously you want the golden flaming flowing hair, and the ultra power of going super Saiyan! But let us say that with the ability to go super Saiyan, there were also some downsides like sometimes you cannot tolerate the power? Would you sacrifice it? Of course not!

Niagara Falls would make a great bitcoin mining rig 

Kind of like a raging river, Niagara Falls; would the point be to simply cut it off … or wouldn’t a more intelligent strategy to be to harness it like putting a water electricity damn thing on it, harness the hydropower, not to cut it off?

And this is my critique about modern day times, it seems like a lot of people are trying to do is to castrate the source, rather than channel that energy for positive constructive good things!

Don’t castrate yourself!

For example, the ego should be something augmented, amplified and magnified, but also concurrent channeled in such a way which could be empowering and useful for others?

How?

So can we use the ego in a constructive or positive way?

First, a non-competitive spirit… just compliment everybody you see! Even if somebody is taller, more good looking, handsomer, richer, more successful, buffer than you! When you see somebody with a great physique, the correct strategy is to compliment them and acknowledge them!

Second, to harness and channel your ego and your energy and your physiological power towards writing, producing text, making videos, podcasts etc.… Sharing ideas, irregardless of how unethical they may seem.

If anything… I’m starting to think more and more, the only interesting ideas are the unethical ones. Or the ones which are shunned by mainstream modern day society.

To me, the only good ideas are the bad ones. When an idea seems right, and it seems to make sense, typically it is bad and or wrong.

Follow your values

When it comes to values, there is no right or wrong, there are simply authentic to yourself, or not.

For example, my values and beliefs in open source, entrepreneurship, and empowerment through photography are true. Why? I grew up poor, single working mom waiting tables at Japanese sushi restaurant for nearly 20 years, and also almost went homeless twice. A lot of your own personal narrative forms who you are.

As a consequence, I think the idea is not too shroud who you are, your own personality etc., but rather to magnify it!

Magnify your personality!

For example, I’m a very inquisitive, curious person, and I’d like to chop it up! I like to be friendly!

Funny enough… I try to be friendly to everybody, but people who are standoffish, or bizarro, they react to me in very bizarre ways. But should I suddenly shut down my friendly personality because other guy is a cowardly poodle? No!

ERIC KIM PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT

Ever since I was a kid, what was my great gift? Being a great entertainer! I am literally the most entertaining person that I know, I’ve only met maybe two people in the flesh who outperformed me.

Maybe it is a form of social conquest, trolling around, having fun etc.! Maybe it is that I seek to be the biggest dick in the room? 

But it’s supposed to question is, why do I care? Why do I care to be the biggest dick in the room?

Not sure? Maybe the desire to dominate is in my DNA?

How I became the street photographer 

Whether you like it or not, all street photographers, especially young ones are disciples of ERIC KIM. How and why? I essentially created a metaphorical Bible or textbook or encyclopedia and ultimate resource for anything revolving around street photography. Why?

100 lessons from the masters of street photography

It was always my number one goal to be the number one street photographer on Google, to become number one in street photography. As a consequence, my laser like eyes and focus was insanely simple; do everything I could do to become number one on Google for street photography. And the strategy was very very simple, create the most in-depth articles blog posts and information for everything street photography! It took me nearly a decade, but I did it! After that, other domains to conquer.

But the funny thing is in today’s world… certainly Google is relevant, but now that ChatGPT is coming out with their own search engine, which is in my opinion at least 1000 X more intelligent, google should be scared, very scared. 

What is the future?

Obviously it will be ChatGPT and AI, open AI.

Let us consider… AI and cars. Besides the vanity object, the ideal is for your car to be 100% self driving, and this is where Tesla is a great bet; one should think of Tesla like artificial intelligence company with wheels.

Because the truth is, if you compare the ride quality of any Tesla car and any Toyota, the Toyota is superior and almost every single shape and form, besides speed. A Tesla is very very uncomfortable, the springs are too harsh, the ride quality is inferior to even my 2010 Prius!

For example, if you wanted a car with the ultimate ride comfort, you would probably purchase a Lexus vehicle, or maybe a Mercedes? 

Even though I love Tesla and Elon Musk to death, the cars feel pretty cheap. If you wanted the best car, probably get a Lexus LS.

Autopilot is the killer feature

But anyways, the really intelligent strategy is to purchase the cheapest base level Tesla car, with the most basic options, and just purchase auto pilot. I think auto pilot for about $8000 is the best deal of all time; it is like having your own personal driving slave that doesn’t need to be fed, paid, never gets tired, is always ready.

Even the new Google pixel that comes with the new pro Gemini AI… If your life runs on Gmail, it is kind of the game changer.

If you can’t beat them join them 

Even Apple is lagging behind in artificial intelligence, the new Apple Intelligence looks pretty lame. Super smart that the Apple team decided to integrate with open AI to integrate ChatGPT into her services; if you can’t beat them, join them. 

Rather than Apple trying to create a ChatGPT copycat, simply to integrate or offer ChatGPT services on the iPhone is the smart way.

I guess Google has had a bit of a headstart; she was in the AI game for a very long time. And this is where Google to pivot to focus on AI is a good idea. 

So what will be the purpose of humans now?

In a brave New World of ChatGPT, AI etc.… What is the purpose or the significance of humans?

The first step is to transfer all of the tedious tasks from humans to ChatGPT. Or AI.

For example, the greatest innovation of TurboTax is having that new AI that automatically has you categorize all of your expenses. Oh my god, this was literally the most hateful thing about doing my taxes, having to categorize all of my different deductions. But now, what would otherwise take me about eight hours, takes me about eight seconds when you connect TurboTax with your bank accounts.

I love TurboTax!

And this is where the future of things become interesting; all these things in the past which we had to do inefficiently slowly and begrudgingly… we should just let AI do it, and we humans do more meaningful things. 

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Slave Work, Master Work?

I think this is the future; let AI be the new slave, and you, the flesh bound human being, you do the human creative work!

The ultimate disruption 

ChatGPT is one quadrillion times more productive than you. This is a big deal. Why?

What that means is that the purpose of us humans is not productivity. We can finally unchain ourselves from the leashes of this ridiculous notion of productivity. 

How do the gods of mount Olympus live?

The gods, who live at ease. 

You fools, the point of life is not to give fellatio to hard things, hard lives, etc. We should be like Zeus, with the mighty thunderbolt, the gods lived in supreme ease.

This is also the funny thing is that when a lot of people retire, make a bunch of money or whatever they are lost… they don’t know how to embrace or live a life of ease; they’re still trying to grind their nose against the grinder, because for their whole life, that is what their life was? 

I would say emulate the gods of the Iliad, ancient Greece. Read the new Iliad translation by Emily Wilson, I purchased it in the iBooks store, reading on my iPad Pro and I love it!

Ethos

I suppose that the primary thing here to consider is the ethos of human humanity, reasons of living etc.

I think for too long, the whole ethos of humanity was to maximize productivity, income income earning potential, money and capital and capitalism etc.… but once again, if bitcoin, AI and ChatGPT can do it better than you, by 1 billion fold,,, what is your new life ethos?

Risk free returns

Assuming that you’re a big contractor, and you’re building a new skyscraper or commercial real estate or whatever, what is the goal? To create income producing property, and to eventually cop a profit?

However the great issue here is the cost to capital; the startup costs and the initial investment is too high! As a consequence, let us say that you invested $1 billion to build this new commercial real estate… You eventually have to find all these tenants to sign a lease, occupy it, pay the lease or the rent, and maybe in 20 or 30 years you can make a positive profit? 

Assuming that bitcoin is digital capital, digital land, digital real estate… The cost of capital is practically zero, you just have to sit and vest, I can almost guarantee you that you have a 0% risk over 30 years. And I can almost guarantee you with 100% clarity that bitcoin will go up in the next 30 years. 

I also like the notion of bitcoin being digital real estate because nobody checks their home price on Zillow 10 times a day, reacting to short term increases or decreases or volatility.

Why is bitcoin so volatile?

It is a feature, not a bug!

First, you could trade bitcoin 24/7, 365, every millisecond. 
Let us consider how insane this is… It is the year 2024, we live in the future, and traditional markets are closed on the weekends? This is 1 trillion times bizarre.

Assuming that the real world was like a science fiction film… Can you Which economic trading doesn’t happen on the weekends?

So this is why bitcoin is so volatile and always goes up and down, almost randomly because it is always trading! I wonder if the volatility of other assets and stocks are a lot less because simply you can’t trade it on the weekends.

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Flesh future

I’m pretty sure that almost 99.9% of men, assuming that they have an iPhone, probably watches porn every single day, almost 100% certain at least once a week or once a month etc. Or better yet, if you want to see whether your friend watches porn or not, ask to see his laptop, and to see whether they have a torrenting or VPN application installed on their MacBook laptop– utorrent, Trasmission etc.

Or, if they have the brave browser on their phone, Google Chrome incognito etc.

Almost every single person I know who works in tech, knows how to program or code whatever, all use pirate bay.

Anyways, once again another bizarre thing; one would never watch pornography which is centered around ideas, souls, personalities, etc. It is always the flesh, the human body!

Why did it in modern day times, we are trying to deny the human body, and trying to promote instead, one’s “personality” and “mind” and “soul”– ?

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Build your body

Become a body – builder ,,, obviously without the steroids!

ERIC

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All injected hormones are bad hormones

Unless you have cancer, HIV aids, and is literally a life or death thing.

EK

---

Things to learn

I think for myself, I have a passion for learning. Why?

First, lot of things about life and society are confusing to me; for example, a recent thing I learned about the Z boys, in the drought during the 1970s caused everyone to not have water in their pool, so these kids who would just jump fences and skateboard in the empty pools of people in Venice Beach or whatever… this is where the pipe, skateboarding thing came from? 

Also from a random Jay-Z interview that I learned… why is it that in hip-hop culture, guys would wear beanies, baggy jeans, and wear Timberland cold weather work boots? I think he said that it was for drug dealing, in the cold New York winter… And also probably would bag your pants you could hide a gun. 

Black timbs all on your couch again!

Also… The reason for the Lamborghini scissor doors on the Lamborghini Countach, was originated by the fact that the early models of the Lamborghini, because the reversing ability was too dangerous, they invented the scissor door mechanism so you could put up the scissor doors, and reverse your car, without hitting it! But now that we have reverse cameras and stuff etc.… there’s really no more reason to have scissor doors anymore. 

So maybe, the next Lamborghini you buy… forgo the scissor doors!

Don’t trust fashion

Also why is it that yoga leggings became a fashion trend for women in LA? Simple… You never know when you want to do yoga, so the optimal strategy is to just always wear yoga leggings, so you could jump into class whenever you want to!

Also, I think a lot of the fashion trends for gay guys were simply a signaling thing; let us say I am gay and I am not sure whether you are gay or not… Therefore I would adopt a certain fashion style, talking style, or bodily gesticulation ideas so I could signal that I am gay and you’re also gay. 

Code words.

Documentaries

1. Pumping iron, the classic documentary with Arnold I think it’s on Amazon prime TV?
2. Stronger better faster, documentary about steroids, watch it on Apple TV+ just pay the 10 bucks
3. The legendary Z boys documentary of skateboarding

What to experiment with?

There is literally no downside to fasting or intermittent fasting. About 90% of modern day metabolic diseases can essentially be fixed by fasting. Type two diabetes, type three diabetes (Alzheimer’s), obesity, exhaustion, etc.

My simple suggestion: stop eating breakfast and lunch, and if you’re hungry just drink some water, black coffee with nothing in it, or green tea.

What is the best time to break your fast? Treat it like Ramadan… Only ever eat after the sun goes down. This makes for a dynamic workflow; because certainly the sun changes during the winter or the summer. 

Also, assuming that it is not against your religion… I also recommend everyone to do 100% carnivore diet, and besides meat, red meat, goat lamb beef, pork is also good (achilles roasted a hog to feed his guests), bone marrow, beef ribs, backbone, etc. for greens just eat arugula, kale, watercress.

Quit sugar

Quit all sugar, the real stuff that fake stuff, even the fake “good” sugar.

There is no biological reason you need to consume fruit, fruit is just candy with a good conscience.

Also start vegetables, it is just poverty food; people would eat starchy vegetables or rice or white rice to avoid dying.

Also a theory… Perhaps the reason why in Asia white rice was so prized was if the rice was white… It was a hygiene thing; you knew that there was not any maggots, or insect in it, or things which could cause you to get sick and die.

60 pound weight vest

Titan.fitness , and just walk around all day! Just buy a cheap sun hat on Amazon for 10 bucks, and sun block up! 

Also, I believe every single man, each and every single man should own at least one great barbell. Buy the Texas power squat bar, if I did it all over again I would buy the monsters Squat bar!

IPad Pro

I think Apple should do a commercial with me, just using the iPad Pro, no case no pencil (eric@erickim.com)–

I’ve become an icon in Culver City, I’m the dude who just walks around all day, with his iPad Pro. Most people have never seen me even use an iPhone. 

Voice dictation is the future, there is no reason to text message or use your thumbs in the year 2024, the only reason people don’t use voice dictation is that they feel it is socially weird?  But why should you care?

This is where the next new wave of innovation is simply conquering social expectations, social fears. Allow yourself to be aberrant and different. 

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What to read

1. The bitcoin standard
2. The Iliad by Emily Wilson
3. The Odyssey by Emily Wilson

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Some capital thoughts:

OK, it seems that what a lot of us seek is maybe fulfilling a curiosity gap, purchasing something because we think it will boost our happiness, etc. But is this ever the case?

No!

At the age of 36, I’ve achieved all my life goals, pretty much purchased everything I’ve ever really wanted, and this is my big lesson:

No matter how good the stuff you purchase, sooner or later, you will quickly tire and bore of it. 

Perhaps it is human nature. And this is how we were hardwired.

However, I think the pernicious effect of consumerism and maybe capitalism is that we have this false belief, this false reality that purchasing XYZ will make us “happy”, or give us everlasting bliss. 

Or, that having ex amount of income or money in the bank or whatever will make us “happy“, or give us a feeling of security? 

Male vs Female capital

This is what I generally observed; through money in capital, women seek a sense of security, belonging, or to be appreciated or desired?

For example, if you look at all these sexy girls on Instagram or whatever… Or women who spend too much money on clothes, what is it that basic? Acceptance, to be perceived as beautiful, to be desired or desirable.

Also it seems that with women, the desire of purchasing a home, a single-family home a condo whatever, is a sense of security.

For men, it seems that we think of as a form of power, power augmentation, and maybe what we conflate is power with happiness?

What if… power and happiness were not the same thing? But different? 

What if the fact was in order to become more powerful, you had to become more unhappy? Or conversely… That the most people were actually the least powerful?

Question; would you rather be the unhappy dragon, or the happy cow?

How to switch things up

My neighbor, successful Silicon Valley, google employee, about my age, single, no kids, not yet married, has a girlfriend, seems that he just treated out his old Audi S3 sport for a Porsche 718 sport. And it is funny… Although the engine or the exhaust of the Porsche sounds way cooler, in terms of aesthetics, not much of a difference.

Actually, the more I look at the Porsche 718,  the more I hate the design. The rear end of it looks terrible!  and assuming that you’re a normal human being who always parks their car nose in, butt out, what that means is almost 100% of the time, you’re going to be staring at your car from behind.

My personal thought is the best designed Porsche car from behind is certainly the Porsche 911 with the singular blade light. And it also seems that the new Porsche 911, which I think might have a hybrid in it, has a more aesthetic looking tailpipe design.

Anyways, the problem with design is as good as the design is, it will never less. For example, even my film Leica MP, black paint, fully mechanical, mechanical perfection, with the Leica 35mm f2 Summicron Lens — yeah it is super nice, and essentially the design is perfect ; it is probably the perfect design because it is 100% mechanical, you don’t need a battery for it to take pictures, or operate. The only battery thing in it is the light meter, which is insanely useful. The film Leica M-A does not have a light meter, which almost seems more like a aesthetic exercise, not a practical one. Having a built-in light meter is insanely useful.

Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler.

This is why I still think that the film like a MP camera is the most best, the most supreme, because you don’t want to be taking the light meter out of the camera, very much how Rico foolishly got rid of the built-in flash. The Ricoh GR II with the built-in integrated flash is still probably the best one, I think about all the great photos I saw with it, using the built-in flash. The Ricoh GR III/X also insanely great, but still… It seems that the wise optimization is making a little bit bigger, and put back in the flash, rather than just trying to make it super super small, but getting rid of an insanely useful thing, like the built-in flash.

Kind of like if you’re a man, and you’re trying to “lose weight”, and you decide to chop off your penis in your balls in order to “lose” a pound. Not a good idea.

Simple ideas

I think what we humans have a joy in is change over time, or before and afters.

For example, who is happier? The guy who starts off with the salary at $40,000 a year, and gets a pay raise to $80,000 a year? Or to the guy who makes $1 billion a year, and then his income is reduced to only $10 million a year? Obviously the person in the second scenario is in the far superior economic financial position, but will probably feel miser miserable compared to the guy with a more modest income, who had a massive jump!

And this is also the funny thing… It is all relative! For example, when I was in college, $3000, $5000, $7000, $10,000, were an unfathomably big number to me. But now, I’m chasing 1.2 million, 2.5 million, $10 million and beyond.

Also, I guess it’s good that I’ve built a more stoic mindset when it comes to money, for example, if I randomly see my bitcoin balance dip $200,000 or $300,000 down, it doesn’t really bother me that much, whereas in the past, even seeing my money go down $500 or $1000 dollars was like being kicked in the balls. 

Wise economics

Very very simple, if you want shits and giggles, never buy anything, either rent it, test drive it, maybe even leasing it might be a better idea. Why? Instead of dropping $80,000 on a brand new car, to just lease it for two or three years, and get it out of your system, might be a better bet than Pissing away all that money that you could otherwise put into bitcoin, and have it 1000X from here. 

Also, I think one of the joys I have on living very very close to two car dealerships is that I always walk by the cars, and the funny joy is I don’t really feel like I have the need to actually own it; because I could just look at it, it feels like I metaphorically own it!

For example for a while there was a cyber truck here, and I will look at it every single day, and even the cyber truck, as much as I love it, I eventually bored of it. Even now, I used to be super super excited when I would see a cyber truck on the road, And now, even though it brings a small to my face, it doesn’t bring me the insane excitement that it did before.

All

I think this applies to cars women, your bank account account balance balance etc.

No matter how good grand perfect or whatever… Sooner or later you will bore of it. 

For example, in regards to women… No matter how beautiful the woman is, sooner or later, assuming that you only got with the woman only for her beauties… Assuming that you just wanted to bet her indefinitely, I could almost guarantee you 100% that After a few fun nights, you will tire and bore.

Same thing with owning that Lamborghini; I actually had the realization, now that the Hurucan and the Aventador has been outdated and replaced… None of the new Lamborghinis have any appeal to me, practically zero. What I then realize is the whole time, I didn’t really care for the Lamborghini so much, as for what it stood for,  ultimately the only reason why Lamborghini was cool in the first place was because of Kanye West. And as much as people like to ignore, all modern day rappers are all disciples of Kanye West. Even Travis Scott, who was the most raging success, was discovered by Kanye and promoted by Kanye.

Even apparently Adidas,,, who apparently asked their contract with Kanye because of Kanye‘s controversial “antisemetic” remarks, they are now selling his Yeezy sneakers at a 70% discount!  it shows that I guess then Adidas… They are a bunch of scumbags, and they don’t really support anti antisemitism, – if they really really cared, they would just throw all of the unsold Yeezy supplies into the furnace, because it would be unethical to in for a profit. So ultimately, guys, all corporations and companies, and publicly treated companies have no morals and ethics, why?  if Adidas truly truly did support the Jewish community and if Adidas was truly anti-Kanye West for his anti-Semitism they would never ever ever continue to sellthe Yeezy sneakers, even to  sell off the unsold supply. The ethical thing would have been to either burn or shred the unsold Yeezy supply. 

How to switch it up

Very very simple thoughts: first, before selling your car or trading it in for something new, just wash your car, and wax it! Also a very very simple modification you could do to your car is to purchase some Matt Black paint primer, rust oleum, or a shiny glass black paint, and just spray paint your rims either a mat black, gloss black, or satin black. 

Also ironically, the best mod you could do is removal! For example, just buy some goo gone,  and the debadge your car, get rid of all the emblems! This is what I did to the 2010 Prius that I inherited, and aesthetically I love it so much more without the emblems! 

Also if you have an old car, get rid of the tent. You know sometimes the older cars when you have the low quality tent, in the tent becomes purple and starts to bubble? Yeah I get rid of that. Also that you really do have a race car or sports car, if you wanted to go faster, get rid of the power steering, air conditioning, And also the radio. And if you really really wanted to be a race car, get rid of all the sound deadening, interior stuff, rear seats, etc. And you could tidy up your engine bay just clean it up!

If you want a very very simple modification, just purchase some 3M matte black vinyl wrap, and just wrap your car! To wrap your car is very easy, it is just like a big sticker! My suggestion is just do it over some accents and small parts, not the whole car. Why? Even if you purchased the best car wrap on the planet, and have it installed by the best person on the planet, you take care of it with the best sprays cleaning supplies and products, and always keep apart in the garage whatever… Lifetime on these things are maybe 3 to 7 years tops?

And this is where I’m still a bigger fan of real automotive paint; assuming that you take care of care of a good paint job it might last maybe 20 years? Even 30 years? Assuming also it is a white paint job? And also don’t be a fool; black paint, even the best black paint never lasts, even if you have the best Mercedes car, or BMW or Lexus, sooner you will get the paint scratches, and when it is 100° in LA, you’re going to wish that you did not have that car. And if you do a simple physics test; let us say you live in Arizona or Las Vegas, if you have a black car in the dark sun it will probably not last you 20 or 30 years.

Then I suppose the question is how long do we want these things to last anyways? Do we really want them to last forever, or are we secretly waiting for it to break, either intentionally or unintentionally, to give us an excuse to “upgrade”?

Upgrading is a scam

Some low-key unethical behaviors from Apple; she wants you to trade in your old iPhone, at an 80% loss, to upgrade to her newest most mediocre device, which will also probably be outdated in a year or two? 

Typically what I see a lot of people do is that they will find a reason to “upgrade” their phone by giving their old phone to their sibling, parents, etc.… But once again guys, this is a very foolish decision.

My simple thought is the only purpose of an iPhone is for FaceTime and Google maps. This, the iPhone is really quite a mediocre device. 1000,000,000,000 times better to have a iPad Pro, if you really want to be productive.

In fact, what is the modern Day iPhone Pro? Not a camera, if you really cared for photography you would purchase a standalone digital camera. If you really wanted to increase your productivity you would just buy an 11 inch iPad Pro. Maybe the iPhone, iPhone Pro, is just a mobile pornography device or perhaps a mobile distraction device? 

True happiness

My recipe for happiness is simple; sleep 8 to 12 hours a night, walk 30,000 steps a day, maximum time outside all day, never be stuck in doors, to play with your child with full vigor, to lift weights at least once in the day, to have a loving family, too fast all day and to only break your fast right before it is time to sleep, and to essentially have strength vicar and power all day long!

“Heem”

In Korean, there’s this notion of “heem”– which just means vigor or strength.

Also, the notion of getting sick, like the common cold “gam-gee” is meaning that you lost your “gi” (the Chinese call it your “chi”).

The significance of it is that when you catch a common cold, it essentially you lose your strength, your power.

To me, the only thing I hate in the world is feeling tired, exhausted, weak, without vigor.  And even a simple thought; I think for a lot of men, the goals to get super super buff, super jacked, insanely muscular arms, whatever… Or to hit a certain inches for your biceps, your arms, to hit certain numbers for your lifts, to hit a certain weight, to hit a certain body fat percentage, whatever… But ultimately, the most critical thing here is having insane vigor, audacity, strength, and power! Physiological power. Nothing else matters.

This is where that takes away from your physiological is bad. For example, would you eject your seminal fluid, immediately before attempting to lift 1000 pounds? Probably not.

Also — no boxer would smoke weed, consume alcohol, taking any drugs or downers, immediately before the big fight! Even something I’m not sure… I don’t even think a boxer would drink coffee right before the fight? Why? Even something I discovered with public speaking, the worst thing you could do is to consume caffeine or an upper or a downer right before a big speech. Better to just drink a bunch of water and do it sober. Why? I’ve had an espresso before giving a public talk, or doing a workshop, or drinking coffee before workshop… And once I actually get into action, I become too stimulated, too much adrenaline. 

Apparently there are a lot of musicians, orchestra people, people in the band or whatever who all take these muscle relaxants, or these downers, or calming drugs before getting on stage to deal with stage anxiety… But this is also a bad idea because it will make you a bit slower, and you will lose your edge.

Water is best.

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What if everything you believed in was false?

After watching the bigger stronger faster documentary on steroids, very eye-opening. Everyone is on some sort of steroid or drug! Even jetfighter, in the Air Force, “go pills”– they take it like candy! Also, an interesting history of science book and medicine, “Blitzed”– outlined how the panzer Blitzkrieg nazi tank operators, were essentially all high on cocaine and meth, in order to drive their tanks straight for three days without food rest or stopping. Even apparently, Adolf Hitler was high on all these drugs, and even had his own private doctor prescribe him all these anti anxiety pills and medicines —

And you see this in show business all the time — all of these super successful media personalities end up overdosing on heroin cocaine, or end up committing suicide? Anthony Bourdain, Robin Williams?

All media is bad.

This apparently happens a lot to child actors, think of Degrassi Drake — i’m sure being part of the whole whole factory of Nickelodeon at such a young age, was probably traumatizing. I would not be surprised if the truth was even the rapper Drake was sexually abused as a child.

This is where it is wise to assume that all show business is evil; never let your kids get into it, not for any sum of money or fame!

Facts

Let us do some simple mathematics, calculations, and thought experiments: let us say that for living, you depend on YouTube advertising. And you want to maximize your views your clicks, your walk-throughs, etc.… Certainly it will be your best interest to create things which are maximally controversial, Crazy, insane, as well as bad.

Also this is where we could consider Instagram for young girls almost like child pornography; if you are a young teenage girl, or even in your 20s, what maximizes views clicks followers etc.? Obviously things which are more sexual in nature. Very very creepy, let us see your daughter is on Instagram, and you have single 50 or 60-year-old men  calling her watching her videos, looking at her pictures, certainly you will not like that.

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Physique is overrated

I’m starting to think, perhaps physique is overrated.

Why? Men and women who chase physique, will sooner or later do weird stuff.

For example —  men who see physique will eventually start injecting their butt holes with steroids. Women who seek physique will eventually start injecting their lips, their faces, also their butts.

Why do we care for physique so much?

Curious question… Why is it that we seek physique so much? 

Physique is the same thing like the exterior of your car, “All show, no go”.

I think my theory is that appearances physique is marketable. For example, let us say you have a sports car, and you have done no exterior modifications, and you have a “sleeper” car. 

Now a lot of people, they would spend all their money to modify the exterior of their car. Why? Because it is the only thing that will help you get likes on social media. Also, when you are on the road, it is the only thing that people could see. 

But the reason why when I was really into modifying my car, I only cared for engine mods was because when you’re driving your car, you could only feel the “butt dyno”– for example, change over time, let us say you install a new short ram intake, headers, exhaust etc.… You will feel a difference in performance, but if you do some sort of exterior modification, you cannot enjoy it while you are inside your car driving.

The correct strategy

I think in life, the best and the most correct strategy is it is better to take a $2000 sports car, and slowly modify it, rather than already purchase a $100,000 vehicle. If your end objective is to maximize your pleasure happiness, and fun, this is the best bet. 

For example, don’t buy the loser Porsche 911 convertible, just buy an old Mazda Miata, 1990– 5 speed, manual, no air conditioning no power steering – and feel free to thrash it around as you like!

This is why I’m so happy with the 2010 Prius I got; I feel zero recompense on spray painting the rims, changing it up, and fucking around with it!

I suppose this is where the upside of cheap and free is; for example if you really wanted to become a fashion designer, just buy some insanely cheap clothes or free clothes, and take some heavy duty scissors and cut off the sleeves, make it a crop top whatever. Even apparently nowadays, the trend is jean shorts, ”jorts”– which is very very easy to do if you just took your old jeans and just cut off the legs!

Fashion?

Fashion means how you make yourself.

Facere– to make.

The simple bifurcation of fashion:

With clothing and fashion, are you trying to highlight your beauty, or hide your ugliness? 

For example, it seems that the whole genius of LA girls just wearing leggings all the time, especially when they just wear white leggings, is for them to show off all their body parts, legally. 

If you’re a man, legally you do not need to wear a shirt when you’re out in public. So if your man, spend zero money on T-shirts, shirts, etc. I think the best thing to wear is a tank top, assuming you have to be somewhere indoors or whatever… But a simple thing you could just do is just take your old T-shirt, and just cut off the sleeves! 

Crop top it?

Even a simple idea; I see women do this all the time, is wearing a crop top, showing off their belly and belly button. 

A simple thing you could do as a man is to to make your own crop top! It seemed that when I was a teenager growing up, everyone was so anti-gay, only gay guys were crop tops, to signal that they were gay. But now, You could do anything you want!

If anything, more interesting for a straight guy with a kid  to be wearing a crop top in public, obviously signaling he is not gay — assuming that the kid is biologically his, assuming that she has a wife,

Even something funny and disruptive I did at my old gym, was when I was about to lift a really really heavy, I would roll up my shirt, and expose my belly button, and even my nipples, and nobody ever said anything! And I think some guys at the gym might’ve thought I was gay, but then when I would chop it up with the women at the gym, they would be confused?

The best life

It is my personal belief that the best life involves and revolves around being outside all day, walking around all day, on your two feet all day,  without having to sit down or be indoors

And also, what is heaven on earth? A happy family!  

Assuming you’re trying to maximize your happiness joy and pleasure in life, the obvious strategy is to have at least one kid. Ideally two; ideally a boy and a girl, in order to maximize and augment your human experiences. Certainly raising a boy and a girl is different.

I’m not like them

Some random funny thoughts:

Breeds of dogs & breeds of humans?

OK… let us apply a line of thinking to dogs, different breeds of dogs. For example, certainly a canine or pitbull would be a much better and ferocious fighter than a pug or a hotdog wiener dog.

But the funny thing is I think all breeds of dogs could pro generate with one another, irregardless of breed? 

Also certainly with human beings, there are some families which are naturally taller, some families which are naturally shorter. And certainly there has been some sort of genetic diversification on the planet and beyond, especially when it comes a different parts of the planet.

For example, certain places certain humans have more bodily hair, possibly to dissipate the heat. Other places, darker pigments to fight off the sun. It makes sense, if your family genetic heritage is from sub-Saharan Africa, logically the human body will produce more pigment to fight off the sun then if your genetic heritage was from northern Sweden, in which during the winter time you might only get 30 minutes of sun.

Why others are confused by me

I’m starting to feel more and more… maybe other people, they’re just a different breed than me. For example, I think of myself kind of like a canine, a K9 attack police dog, and everyone else is just a wiener dog? Or annoying poodles?

And so then… when other people try to punk me around, I have zero tolerance for it.

For example, let us say that you were a ferocious fighting dog, and there’s a random annoying poodle that starts barking at you! Or tries to bully you around? How would you respond? Obviously you would just want the damn poodle to shut up!

Thinking about Achilles

In my mind, I see myself like an Achilles. I see myself like the most handsome, powerful, dominant, ultra being out there. And perhaps it is precisely my oversized ego is where I get my power.

I think there are a lot of sissy philosophers and thinkers who somehow think that ego is a bad thing. I think this is not the case. Your ego is almost like your balls and your testicles… would you castrate yourself because sometimes it makes you too angry– having big balls and a lot of testosterone is almost like overpower.

For example, we think about Dragon Ball Z, Goku going super Saiyan etc.… Obviously you want the golden flaming flowing hair, and the ultra power of going super Saiyan! But let us say that with the ability to go super Saiyan, there were also some downsides like sometimes you cannot tolerate the power? Would you sacrifice it? Of course not!

Niagara Falls would make a great bitcoin mining rig 

Kind of like a raging river, Niagara Falls; would the point be to simply cut it off … or wouldn’t a more intelligent strategy to be to harness it like putting a water electricity damn thing on it, harness the hydropower, not to cut it off?

And this is my critique about modern day times, it seems like a lot of people are trying to do is to castrate the source, rather than channel that energy for positive constructive good things!

Don’t castrate yourself!

For example, the ego should be something augmented, amplified and magnified, but also concurrent channeled in such a way which could be empowering and useful for others?

How?

So can we use the ego in a constructive or positive way?

First, a non-competitive spirit… just compliment everybody you see! Even if somebody is taller, more good looking, handsomer, richer, more successful, buffer than you! When you see somebody with a great physique, the correct strategy is to compliment them and acknowledge them!

Second, to harness and channel your ego and your energy and your physiological power towards writing, producing text, making videos, podcasts etc.… Sharing ideas, irregardless of how unethical they may seem.

If anything… I’m starting to think more and more, the only interesting ideas are the unethical ones. Or the ones which are shunned by mainstream modern day society.

To me, the only good ideas are the bad ones. When an idea seems right, and it seems to make sense, typically it is bad and or wrong.

Follow your values

When it comes to values, there is no right or wrong, there are simply authentic to yourself, or not.

For example, my values and beliefs in open source, entrepreneurship, and empowerment through photography are true. Why? I grew up poor, single working mom waiting tables at Japanese sushi restaurant for nearly 20 years, and also almost went homeless twice. A lot of your own personal narrative forms who you are.

As a consequence, I think the idea is not too shroud who you are, your own personality etc., but rather to magnify it!

Magnify your personality!

For example, I’m a very inquisitive, curious person, and I’d like to chop it up! I like to be friendly!

Funny enough… I try to be friendly to everybody, but people who are standoffish, or bizarro, they react to me in very bizarre ways. But should I suddenly shut down my friendly personality because other guy is a cowardly poodle? No!

ERIC KIM PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT

Ever since I was a kid, what was my great gift? Being a great entertainer! I am literally the most entertaining person that I know, I’ve only met maybe two people in the flesh who outperformed me.

Maybe it is a form of social conquest, trolling around, having fun etc.! Maybe it is that I seek to be the biggest dick in the room? 

But it’s supposed to question is, why do I care? Why do I care to be the biggest dick in the room?

Not sure? Maybe the desire to dominate is in my DNA?

How I became the street photographer 

Whether you like it or not, all street photographers, especially young ones are disciples of ERIC KIM. How and why? I essentially created a metaphorical Bible or textbook or encyclopedia and ultimate resource for anything revolving around street photography. Why?

100 lessons from the masters of street photography

It was always my number one goal to be the number one street photographer on Google, to become number one in street photography. As a consequence, my laser like eyes and focus was insanely simple; do everything I could do to become number one on Google for street photography. And the strategy was very very simple, create the most in-depth articles blog posts and information for everything street photography! It took me nearly a decade, but I did it! After that, other domains to conquer.

But the funny thing is in today’s world… certainly Google is relevant, but now that ChatGPT is coming out with their own search engine, which is in my opinion at least 1000 X more intelligent, google should be scared, very scared. 

What is the future?

Obviously it will be ChatGPT and AI, open AI.

Let us consider… AI and cars. Besides the vanity object, the ideal is for your car to be 100% self driving, and this is where Tesla is a great bet; one should think of Tesla like artificial intelligence company with wheels.

Because the truth is, if you compare the ride quality of any Tesla car and any Toyota, the Toyota is superior and almost every single shape and form, besides speed. A Tesla is very very uncomfortable, the springs are too harsh, the ride quality is inferior to even my 2010 Prius!

For example, if you wanted a car with the ultimate ride comfort, you would probably purchase a Lexus vehicle, or maybe a Mercedes? 

Even though I love Tesla and Elon Musk to death, the cars feel pretty cheap. If you wanted the best car, probably get a Lexus LS.

Autopilot is the killer feature

But anyways, the really intelligent strategy is to purchase the cheapest base level Tesla car, with the most basic options, and just purchase auto pilot. I think auto pilot for about $8000 is the best deal of all time; it is like having your own personal driving slave that doesn’t need to be fed, paid, never gets tired, is always ready.

Even the new Google pixel that comes with the new pro Gemini AI… If your life runs on Gmail, it is kind of the game changer.

If you can’t beat them join them 

Even Apple is lagging behind in artificial intelligence, the new Apple Intelligence looks pretty lame. Super smart that the Apple team decided to integrate with open AI to integrate ChatGPT into her services; if you can’t beat them, join them. 

Rather than Apple trying to create a ChatGPT copycat, simply to integrate or offer ChatGPT services on the iPhone is the smart way.

I guess Google has had a bit of a headstart; she was in the AI game for a very long time. And this is where Google to pivot to focus on AI is a good idea. 

So what will be the purpose of humans now?

In a brave New World of ChatGPT, AI etc.… What is the purpose or the significance of humans?

The first step is to transfer all of the tedious tasks from humans to ChatGPT. Or AI.

For example, the greatest innovation of TurboTax is having that new AI that automatically has you categorize all of your expenses. Oh my god, this was literally the most hateful thing about doing my taxes, having to categorize all of my different deductions. But now, what would otherwise take me about eight hours, takes me about eight seconds when you connect TurboTax with your bank accounts.

I love TurboTax!

And this is where the future of things become interesting; all these things in the past which we had to do inefficiently slowly and begrudgingly… we should just let AI do it, and we humans do more meaningful things. 

---

Slave Work, Master Work?

I think this is the future; let AI be the new slave, and you, the flesh bound human being, you do the human creative work!

The ultimate disruption 

ChatGPT is one quadrillion times more productive than you. This is a big deal. Why?

What that means is that the purpose of us humans is not productivity. We can finally unchain ourselves from the leashes of this ridiculous notion of productivity. 

How do the gods of mount Olympus live?

The gods, who live at ease. 

You fools, the point of life is not to give fellatio to hard things, hard lives, etc. We should be like Zeus, with the mighty thunderbolt, the gods lived in supreme ease.

This is also the funny thing is that when a lot of people retire, make a bunch of money or whatever they are lost… they don’t know how to embrace or live a life of ease; they’re still trying to grind their nose against the grinder, because for their whole life, that is what their life was? 

I would say emulate the gods of the Iliad, ancient Greece. Read the new Iliad translation by Emily Wilson, I purchased it in the iBooks store, reading on my iPad Pro and I love it!

Ethos

I suppose that the primary thing here to consider is the ethos of human humanity, reasons of living etc.

I think for too long, the whole ethos of humanity was to maximize productivity, income income earning potential, money and capital and capitalism etc.… but once again, if bitcoin, AI and ChatGPT can do it better than you, by 1 billion fold,,, what is your new life ethos?

Risk free returns

Assuming that you’re a big contractor, and you’re building a new skyscraper or commercial real estate or whatever, what is the goal? To create income producing property, and to eventually cop a profit?

However the great issue here is the cost to capital; the startup costs and the initial investment is too high! As a consequence, let us say that you invested $1 billion to build this new commercial real estate… You eventually have to find all these tenants to sign a lease, occupy it, pay the lease or the rent, and maybe in 20 or 30 years you can make a positive profit? 

Assuming that bitcoin is digital capital, digital land, digital real estate… The cost of capital is practically zero, you just have to sit and vest, I can almost guarantee you that you have a 0% risk over 30 years. And I can almost guarantee you with 100% clarity that bitcoin will go up in the next 30 years. 

I also like the notion of bitcoin being digital real estate because nobody checks their home price on Zillow 10 times a day, reacting to short term increases or decreases or volatility.

Why is bitcoin so volatile?

It is a feature, not a bug!

First, you could trade bitcoin 24/7, 365, every millisecond. 
Let us consider how insane this is… It is the year 2024, we live in the future, and traditional markets are closed on the weekends? This is 1 trillion times bizarre.

Assuming that the real world was like a science fiction film… Can you Which economic trading doesn’t happen on the weekends?

So this is why bitcoin is so volatile and always goes up and down, almost randomly because it is always trading! I wonder if the volatility of other assets and stocks are a lot less because simply you can’t trade it on the weekends.

---

Flesh future

I’m pretty sure that almost 99.9% of men, assuming that they have an iPhone, probably watches porn every single day, almost 100% certain at least once a week or once a month etc. Or better yet, if you want to see whether your friend watches porn or not, ask to see his laptop, and to see whether they have a torrenting or VPN application installed on their MacBook laptop– utorrent, Trasmission etc.

Or, if they have the brave browser on their phone, Google Chrome incognito etc.

Almost every single person I know who works in tech, knows how to program or code whatever, all use pirate bay.

Anyways, once again another bizarre thing; one would never watch pornography which is centered around ideas, souls, personalities, etc. It is always the flesh, the human body!

Why did it in modern day times, we are trying to deny the human body, and trying to promote instead, one’s “personality” and “mind” and “soul”– ?

---

Build your body

Become a body – builder ,,, obviously without the steroids!

ERIC

---

All injected hormones are bad hormones

Unless you have cancer, HIV aids, and is literally a life or death thing.

EK

---

Some random funny thoughts:

OK… Let us apply to dogs, different breeds of dogs. For example, certainly a canine or pitbull would be a much better and ferocious fighter than a pug or a hotdog wiener dog.

But the funny thing is I think all breeds of dogs could pro generate with one another, irregardless of breed? 

Also certainly with human beings, there are some families which are naturally taller, some families which are naturally shorter. And certainly there has been some sort of genetic diversification on the planet and beyond, especially when it comes a different parts of the planet.

For example, certain places certain humans have more bodily hair, possibly to dissipate the heat. Other places, darker pigments to fight off the sun. It makes sense, if your family genetic heritage is from sub-Saharan Africa, logically the human body will produce more pigment to fight off the sun then if your genetic heritage was from northern Sweden, in which during the winter time you might only get 30 minutes of sun.

I’m starting to feel more and more… Maybe other people, they’re just a different breed than me. For example, I think of myself kind of like a canine, a K9 attack police dog, and everyone else is just a wiener dog? Or annoying poodles?

And so then… When other people try to punk me around, I have zero tolerance for it.

For example, let us say that you were a ferocious fighting dog, and there’s a random annoying poodle that starts barking at you! Or tries to bully you around? How would you respond? Obviously you would just want the damn poodle to shut up! 

Thinking about Achilles

In my mind, I see myself like an Achilles. I see myself like the most handsome, powerful, dominant, ultra being out there. And perhaps it is precisely my oversized ego is where I get my power.

 I think there are a lot of sissy philosophers and thinkers who somehow think that ego is a bad thing. I think this is not the case. Your ego is almost like your balls and your testicles… would you castrate yourself because sometimes it makes you too angry– having big balls and a lot of testosterone is almost like overpower.

For example, we think about Dragon Ball Z, Goku going super Saiyan etc.… Obviously you want the golden flaming flowing hair,  and the ultra power of going super Saiyan! But let us say that with the ability to go super Saiyan, there were also some downsides like sometimes you cannot tolerate the power? Would you sacrifice it? Of course not!

Kind of like a raging river, Niagara Falls; with the point be to simply cut it off … or wouldn’t a more intelligent strategy to be to harness it like putting a water electricity damn thing on it, harness the hydropower, not to cut it off?

And this is my critique about modern day times, it seems like a lot of people are trying to do is to castrate the source, rather than channel that energy for positive constructive good things!

For example, the ego should be something augmented, amplified and magnified, but also concurrent channeled in such a way which could be empowering and useful for others?

how?

So can we use the ego in a constructive or positive way?

First, a non-competitive spirit… Just complement everybody you see! Even if somebody is taller, more good looking, handsomer, richer, more successful, buffer than you! When you see somebody with a great physique, the correct strategy is to compliment them and acknowledge them!

Second, two harness and channel your ego and your energy and your physiological power towards riding, producing text, making videos, podcasts etc.… Sharing ideas, irregardless of how unethical they may seem.

If anything… I’m starting to think more and more, the only interesting ideas are the unethical ones. Or the ones which are shunned by mainstream modern day society.

To me, the only good ideas are the bad ones. When an idea seems right, and it seems to make sense, typically it is bad and or wrong.

Follow your values

When it comes to values, there is no written wrong, there are simply authentic to yourself, or not.

For example, my values and beliefs in open source, entrepreneurship, impartment through photography are true. Why? I grew up poor, single working mom waiting tables at Japanese sushi restaurant for nearly 20 years, and also almost went homeless twice. A lot of your own personal narrative forms who you are.

As a consequence, I think the idea is not too shroud who you are, your own personality etc., but rather to magnify it!

For example, I’m a very inquisitive, curious person, and I’d like to chop it up! I like to be friendly!

Funny enough… I tried to be friendly to everybody, but people who are standoffish, or bizarro, they react to me in very bizarre ways. But should I suddenly shut down my friendly personality because other guy is a cowardly poodle? No!

ERIC KIM PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT

Ever since I was a kid, what was my great gift? Being a great entertainer! I am literally the most entertaining person that I know, I’ve only met maybe two people in the flesh who outperformed me.

Maybe it is a form of social conquest, trolling around, having fun etc.! Maybe it is that I seek to be the biggest dick in the room? 

But it’s supposed to question is, why do I care? Why do I care to be the biggest dick in the room?

Not sure? Maybe the desire to dominate is in my DNA? 

How I became the street photographer 

Whether you like it or not, I’ll stream the photographer, especially young ones are disciples of ERIC KIM. How and why? I essentially created a metaphorical Bible or textbook or encyclopedia and ultimate resource for anything revolving around street photography. Why?

It was always my number one goal to be the number one street photographer on Google, to become number one in street photography. As a consequence, my laser like eyes and focus was insanely simple; do everything I could to become number one on Google for street photography. And the strategy was very very simple, create the most in-depth articles blog posts and information for everything street photography! It took me nearly a decade, but I did it! After that, other domains to conquer.

But the funny thing is in today’s world… certainly Google is relevant, but now that ChatGPT is coming out with their own search engine, which is in my opinion at least 1000 X more intelligent, google should be scared, very scared. 

What is the future?

Obviously it will be ChatGPT and AI, open AI.

Let us consider… AI and cars. Besides the vanity object, the ideal is for your car to be 100% self driving, and this is where Tesla is a great bet; one should think of Tesla like artificial intelligence company with wheels.

Because the truth is, if you compare the ride quality of any Tesla car and any Toyota, the Toyota is superior and almost every single shape and form, besides speed. A Tesla is very very uncomfortable, the springs are too harsh, the ride quality is inferior to even my 2010 Prius!

For example, if you wanted a car with the ultimate ride comfort, you would probably purchase a Lexus vehicle, or maybe a Mercedes? 

But anyways, the really intelligent strategy is to purchase the cheapest base level Tesla car, with the most basic options, and just purchase auto pilot. I think auto pilot for about $8000 is the best deal of all time; it is like having your own personal driving slave that doesn’t need to be fed, paid, never gets tired, is always ready.

Even the new Google pixel that comes with the new pro Gemini AI… If your life runs on Gmail, it is kind of the game changer.

Even Apple is lagging behind in artificial intelligence, the new Apple Intelligence looks pretty lame. Super smart that the Apple team decided to integrate with open AI to integrate ChatGPT into her services; if you can’t beat them, join them. 

Rather than Apple trying to create a ChatGPT copycat, simply to integrate or offer ChatGPT services on the iPhone is the smart way.

I guess Google has had a bit of a headstart; she was in the AI game for a very long time. And this is where Google to pivot to focus on AI is a good idea. 

so what will be the purpose of humans now?

In a brave New World of ChatGPT, AI etc.… What is the purpose or the significance of humans?

 the first step is to transfer all of the tedious tasks from humans to ChatGPT. Or AI.

For example, the greatest innovation of TurboTax is having that new AI that automatically has you categorize all of your expenses. Oh my god, this was literally the most hateful thing about doing my taxes, having to categorize all of my different deductions.  But now, what would otherwise take me about eight hours, takes me about eight seconds when you connect TurboTax with your bank accounts.

And this is where the future of things become interesting; all these things in the past which we had to do inefficiently slowly and begrudgingly… we should just let AI do it, and we humans do more meaningful things. 

Slave Work, Master Work?

I think this is the future; let AI be the new slave, and you, the flesh bound human being, you do the human creative work!

The ultimate disruption 

ChatGPT is one quadrillion times more productive than you. This is a big deal. Why?

What that means is that the purpose of us humans is not productivity. We can finally unchain ourselves from the leashes of this ridiculous notion of productivity. 

How do the gods of mount Olympus live?

The gods, who live at ease. 

You fools, the point of life is not to give fellatio to hard things, hard lives, etc. We should be like Zeus, with the mighty thunderbolt, the gods lived in supreme ease.

This is also the funny thing is that when a lot of people retire, make a bunch of money or whatever they are lost… they don’t know how to embrace or live a life of ease; they’re still trying to grind their nose against the grinder, because for their whole life, that is what their life was? 

I would say emulate the gods of the Iliad, ancient Greece. Read the new Iliad translation by Emily Wilson, I purchased it in the iBooks store, reading on my iPad Pro and I love it!

Ethos

I suppose that the primary thing here to consider is the ethos of human humanity, reasons of living etc.

I think for too long, the whole ethos of humanity was to maximize productivity, income income earning potential, money and capital and capitalism etc.… But once again, if bitcoin, AI and ChatGPT can do it better than you, by 1 billion fold,,, what is your new life ethos?

Risk free returns

Assuming that you’re a big contractor, and you’re building a new skyscraper or commercial real estate or whatever, what is the goal? To create income producing property, and to eventually coup a profit?

However the great issue here is the cost to capital; the startup costs and the initial investment is too high! As a consequence, let us say that you invested $1 billion to build this new commercial real estate… You eventually have to find all these tenants to sign a lease, occupy it, pay the lease or the rent, and maybe in 20 or 30 years you can make a positive profit? 

Assuming that bitcoin is digital capital, digital land, digital real estate… The cost of capital is practically zero, you just have to sit and vest, I can almost guarantee you that you have a 0% risk over 30 years. And I can almost guarantee you with 100% clarity that bitcoin will go up in the next 30 years. 

I also like the notion of bitcoin being digital real estate because nobody checks their home price on Zillow 10 times a day, reacting to short term increases or decreases or volatility.

Why is bitcoin so volatile?

It is a feature, not a bug!

First, you could trade bitcoin 24/7, 365, every millisecond. 
Let us consider how insane this is… It is the year 2024, we live in the future, and traditional markets are closed on the weekends? This is 1 trillion times bizarre.

Assuming that the real world was like a science fiction film… Can you Which economic trading doesn’t happen on the weekends?

So this is why bitcoin is so volatile and always goes up and down, almost randomly because it is always trading! I wonder if the volatility of other assets and stocks are a lot less because simply you can’t trade it on the weekends.

---

Flesh future

I’m pretty sure that almost 99.9% of men, assuming that they have an iPhone, probably watches porn every single day, almost 100% certain at least once a week or once a month etc. Or better yet, if you want to see whether your friend watches porn or not, ask to see his laptop, and to see whether they have a torrenting or VPN application installed on their MacBook laptop– utorrent, Trasmission etc.

Or, if they have the brave browser on their phone, Google Chrome incognito etc.

Almost every single person I know who works in tech, knows how to program or code whatever, all use pirate bay.

Anyways, once again another bizarre thing; one would never watch pornography which is centered around ideas, souls, personalities, etc. It is always the flesh, the human body!

Why did it in modern day times, we are trying to deny the human body, and trying to promote instead, one’s “personality” and “mind” and “soul”– ?

---

Video Podcast

PDF

Audio

Black & White

Add more extreme contrast to your life:

Man is black, woman is white? 

Increasing contrast?

I’m starting to think that if we apply the black-and-white art photography aesthetic to real life, maybe the idea of “preserving the midtones“ is a bit boring.

The general notion of crushing the blacks is when you’re processing or post processing your photos, you dragged the black slider all the way to 100, and you also crank up the contrast to 100.

Aesthetically, I think this makes for much more striking and interesting images.

First, midtones are boring. Almost universally, the more you increase the contrast of something or the photos, the better.

For example, even when we design our homes. What is the best way to design a home? Very very simple, use white and black accents.

For example in my eyes, the ideal home exterior paint color is not a matte black, but rather, a pure clean white, with black trimming.

Also, with cars… I think we’ve discovered is the apex is both a shiny white with shiny black accents — gloss, not matte.

I think matte, matte black, the whole matte aesthetic is centered around jet stealth fighters, which desire to escape enemy detection. So typically when you try to matte black your car and murder it out… aesthetic you’re going for stealth bomber, or jet fighter aesthetic?

But the irony that I find… nobody would ever matte black or murder out their Prius, to escape detection from the police or the other party. We typically do it to our sports cars, our Teslas, etc. 

Put the strange inconsistency I see here is on one hand, we want to be seen and to show up, on the other hand, we want to be fake low-key, and be “humble”?

Bitch be humble?

A few years back, the song HUMBLE by Kendrick Lamar went triple maxi viral. It was the most viral song of all time, maybe even more viral than the recent “They Not Like Us” song.

The song was very bizarre to me. Because I’m not sure what Kendrick was really trying to say. Two interpretations —

1. First, he is calling the counterparty a bitch, and telling them to sit down and be humble because I am so much greater than you
2. Or, trying to remind everybody to be humble in general.

But the weird inconsistency in modern day life is we are centered around Christian Jesus ethics, or some sort of quaker Protestant morality which is centered around notion of humility, being humble, close to the ground etc. This is why you will never ever ever meet a rich person in America called themselves rich, they will call themselves “fortunate“, or “lucky”.

Also another bizarre thing in the world of bodybuilding… you almost never ever ever see bodybuilders proud to flex unabashedly, like Arnold in the documentary Pumping Iron, back in the day. It is very uncommon for you to see self-confident men at the gym, working out topless, in booty shorts, 3 inch short shorts, flexing their muscles in the mirror, not trying to hide it etc.

The big issue with the typical bodybuilder is that they are trying to become dominant, but be humble about it? Really weird?

Add more extreme contrast to your life:

Man is black, woman is white? 

Increasing contrast?

I’m starting to think that if we apply the black-and-white art photography aesthetic to real life, maybe the idea of “preserving the midtones“ is a bit boring.

The general notion of crushing the blacks is when you’re processing or post processing your photos, you dragged the black slider all the way to 100, and you also crank up the contrast to 100.

Aesthetically, I think this makes for much more striking and interesting images.

First, midtones are boring. Almost universally, the more you increase the contrast of something or the photos, the better.

For example, even when we design our homes. What is the best way to design a home? Very very simple, use white and black accents.

For example in my eyes, the ideal home exterior paint color is not a matte black, but rather, a pure clean white, with black trimming.

Also, with cars… I think we’ve discovered is the apex is both a shiny white with shiny black accents — gloss, not matte.

I think matte, matte black, the whole matte aesthetic is centered around jet stealth fighters, which desire to escape enemy detection. So typically when you try to matte black your car and murder it out… aesthetic you’re going for stealth bomber, or jet fighter aesthetic?

But the irony that I find… nobody would ever matte black or murder out their Prius, to escape detection from the police or the other party. We typically do it to our sports cars, our Teslas, etc. 

Put the strange inconsistency I see here is on one hand, we want to be seen and to show up, on the other hand, we want to be fake low-key, and be “humble”?

Bitch be humble?

A few years back, the song HUMBLE by Kendrick Lamar went triple maxi viral. It was the most viral song of all time, maybe even more viral than the recent “They Not Like Us” song.

The song was very bizarre to me. Because I’m not sure what Kendrick was really trying to say. Two interpretations —

1. First, he is calling the counterparty a bitch, and telling them to sit down and be humble because I am so much greater than you
2. Or, trying to remind everybody to be humble in general.

But the weird inconsistency in modern day life is we are centered around Christian Jesus ethics, or some sort of quaker Protestant morality which is centered around notion of humility, being humble, close to the ground etc. This is why you will never ever ever meet a rich person in America called themselves rich, they will call themselves “fortunate“, or “lucky”.

Also another bizarre thing in the world of bodybuilding… you almost never ever ever see bodybuilders proud to flex unabashedly, like Arnold in the documentary Pumping Iron, back in the day. It is very uncommon for you to see self-confident men at the gym, working out topless, in booty shorts, 3 inch short shorts, flexing their muscles in the mirror, not trying to hide it etc.

The big issue with the typical bodybuilder is that they are trying to become dominant, but be humble about it? Really weird?

Lord Achilles 

I am currently reading the Iliad by Emily Wilson, I am always always happy to see a new translation or a fresh take on the classic.

Anyways, also an interesting thought… I like the idea of reading a female woman translate the most manly literature of all time. I think the problem when I was talking to my friend Kelly, is that traditionally in the past, it was a bunch of impotent old men who would translate great classics like the Iliad or the Odyssey, using their own fake impotent machismo, to translate it.

For example, a lot of the misogyny, misogynistic language from 100 years ago or so, was actually very inaccurate.

Anyways, something worth noting is how artful, succinct, beautiful, and unlike English ancient Greek was. In fact, I definitely want to get Seneca on the classics, get him into Latin and ancient Greek, and mathematics like NASSIM TALEB recommended.

If you think about it long enough, what are the least harmful majors which exist? Classics, math, physics.

Classics is almost like the superior form of sociology, physical theory, it is the pillar of the humanities. Either classics or history.

Math, it will never hurt nobody. There are simple binary rules of math, it is either right or wrong, but then again the problem with a lot of mathematicians math teachers or people who are too into math, they seek some sort of rationality behind real life, society and people… but the true wise man knows that humans are not mathematical equations, ones and zeros. Humans are messy, even the Ancient Greek gods — they are all flawed! They are a bunch of petty, incestuous, sibling rivalry, family drama folks.

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What to focus on?

My friend Anton (congrats on your new kid!) told me something interesting… it was his general observation that individuals like me, who diversified themselves, and did not just focus on street photography were the ones that succeeded, and won in the long run. 

For example, I bemoan the death of digitalrev it was literally the best thing since Top Gear for photography and street photography. But also here, I think the cautionary tale of digital rev is critical, because whenever you build an empire on a foreign platform, it is like building your castle in a marsh or quicksand. 

Even something which shocked me ,,, the infamous video of me shooting street photography in Hong Kong with Kaiman Wong,  I think was either taken down or deleted by digital rev? Really weird, I guess it was too controversial?

Anyways, once again, I think the rational thing is whenever you post something, know that it is built on a cotton candy foundation, whether it be Facebook Instagram YouTube TikTok etc.… Even Twitter… Know that it is destined to die. 

I even heard some kids at the mall yesterday talk about myspace, so funny… nobody has any idea what that is. Or xanga, Friendster, live journal?

Sooner or later whenever you build something on a foreign platform, two things are inevitable to happen; either your account will eventually get deleted, taken down, blacklisted, grey listed, banned shadow banned real banned, or just made obsolete. 

Neopan 1600

Some suggestions to Fujifilm:

First – make a new filter, call it extreme monochrome. The general idea is that you want to make a black-and-white filter so hardcore, so extreme, it will blow the Ricoh GR strong monochrome out of the water! 

I really love the Fujifilm cameras, for the color filters, before some reason, they really lack a good black-and-white filter mode. The acros filter on it sucks. 

A simple idea: make a neopan black and white film simulation, and make it extreme high contrast, like neopan 1600! Or like the effect of taking neopan 400, and pushing it two stops to 1600!

Right now, the only real competition to Fujifilm is Ricoh Pentax. And it seems that Leica is dying a slow death. 

First, it seems that the Leica Q is only cash cow keeping Leica alive. Also, it seems that Leica is desperate to maintain her clutches on her film film photography heritage, resurrecting the Leica M6, the like etc.

But I think the critical issue here is that in someways, what the Germans do is kind of like kaizen; they take the existing model, and they just keep iterating it, making the new version maybe 3% better… There is never a 100% revolutionary new product, like what Elon did with cybertruck etc. 

Once again, the glory of cybertruck is that when it is on the road, it is literally impossible to ignore! You could pretend like you didn’t see it, but you did see it! And if you did not see it, definitely your 3 1/2 year-old kid will see it!

And this is where I am still Tesla and Elon… As long as the kids love it, the future is bright!

Even Lamborghini… It isn’t cool anymore. And nobody even knows what a Ferrari is.

I think things will go bananas when Tesla puts out a mini cyber truck, imagine a Tesla model Y, but a baby cyber truck version?

The best car is the car not yet innovated invented or released.

I’ve always loved cars, car culture etc. I feel bad for anybody whoever purchases any brand new car, because the sad reality is that it will become obsolete in a matter of months or years?

For example, all of these guys who bought a Lamborghini Urus, only to have the new version come out, or even guys who bought the Lamborghini Huracan, with a new one that just came out?

Or even the guys who bought the Aventador… All these rappers from five or 10 years ago… Now that the new Revuelto is out, their Aventador is made obsolete? 

You fools!

“I pity the fool?”

A random sidenote… It seems that the most constructive way to approach life is through compassion, empathy, maybe even pity.

For example, whenever there are people that I am suspicious of, they are on my bad side, and then finally, I see them without a hat on, without sunglasses, in direct light, and I see how sickly or unwell they are – the first feeling is extreme compassion. Like I find myself to be the fool — there is somebody that I vilified, or made into a bad guy, or somebody that I created a totem for my general hate or despise… And then I see how unhealthy they are, and then I realize,…

Wait,,, this whole time, when I am painting this guy as a bad guy, and then I truly see you and witness that in fact, they are just a poor miserable soul, slowly dying… Why was I so negative towards that person?

Something I learned about living in LA… everyone here has problems. For example, a lot of women, their husband is cheating on them, and they know what, but don’t want to admit it. Even Jay Z… Probably still 100% cheating on Beyoncé… Why?

And all these assholes who honk at you in the road…  spending a lot of time out of a car, just walking around now, observing traffic politics, if you actually get a really good look at the driver, they are either miserable looking Uber drivers, food delivery people, or just very very unwell sickly looking people, insanely poor health, who may be just want to get home because they were stuck in traffic for two hours? 

When to be compassionate, when not to be a pushover?

It seems that the primary issue here is the strange bifurcation of ethics. First, we are taught to forgive, turn the other cheek etc., but then you have all these assholes honking at you from behind. So in this case, what are you supposed to do, take it up the ass, because you’re afraid that they might have a gun and shoot you? Or the other person may commit road rage, and do something dangerous? 

I think the issue here is why should you live your life in fear that some asshole some pussy coward might have a gun, and pop you?

Obviously, I do not want to get shot by some random coward, because I have my son to live for. But still… Isn’t the real role of a man to stand up for his child, and to never ever ever see your father get pistol whipped around?

Stand up

I think this is also where manly masculine ethics are different than feminine ones. For example, if you see some asshole smoking in the park, and you’re there with your kid… Obviously the correct strategy is to tell them to please stop smoking. I have a new line that I’m experimenting with–

“No smoking,,, pleeeease!”

For example, two assholes in front of the Apple campus on Washington in Culver City… Apple 10, 8777 Washington — One fat guy wearing some sort of blue Greek food T-shirt, I think he might be an Apple employee… I was walking with Seneca down Washington, on the Apple side, and this asshole is smoking Indignantly on the side, blowing his secondhand smoke all the way down the block.

I came up to him, and I said, no smoking… pleeeease

And this asshole has audacity to tell me that “I’m on my break…” And then I stopped, looked at him and eyes, and I said, “that’s why I said please”. He had no response, his jaw dropped. And like an asshole he kept smoking.

Anyways, fortunately there was some security guards down the block, and I asked them to tell the guy to stop smoking. Maybe next time this happens, I’ll just record him or take a picture of him on my iPhone, shame him.

Extreme ethics

I think the big issue is in today’s world, ain’t nobody have a backbone or ethics anymore.

In actually… The big issue here is that it seems at 99.9% of people just become passive aggressive, and never confront– we are a non-confrontational society, yet we hide behind our cars and honk at people? Because we are shielded from recompense?

For example, I think this is also where people become keyboard warriors… You would never talk smack about me face-to-face, because you will see how much stronger, taller, more charismatic, and dominant I am than you. In fact, some of the things that I’ve discovered after meeting some of my “haters“– were in fact, they were my greatest lovers! The biggest issue here was actually… Unrequited hate or love.

What is worse, unrequited hate or unrequited love?

Once again, some bizarre inconsistencies here; I’ve never hated anybody. Why? Because I’m not that interested in anybody else, nor do I really desire the affection of somebody else that much?

And also, the reason why a lot of men become misogynists, and hate women is because of unrequited love. Then the unrequited love becomes hate.

Everything starts off as love, then evolves to hate?

An alternate theory; maybe hate is just a more exaggerated or extreme version of love? 

Super facts

The internet is a toxic place. Don’t let your kids go on it.

Why? I even have this kind of shocking memory, when I was a 12-year-old kid in Bayside Queens, New York. I was connected to the Internet, AOL 3.0, on my 38.8 K modem… and I was randomly in this chat room, and then I was chatting with this guy, who then instant messaged me, (IM) via AOL instant messenger, AIM, and then eventually started to say weird stuff like pedophile stuff like it feels really good to get your dick sucked by another guy?

Anyways, obviously I got super scared and just banned him.

And I think the issue is in today’s world, I think the safe strategy in assumption is that 100% of people on the internet are just malicious bots. And it’s starting to get scary… If you could program a bot to be malicious, and to create more malicious bots, ad infinitum — shit starts to get scary.

For example, Michael Saylor was talking about how whenever he tweets something, and somebody responds to it in a very malicious way… almost 100% it was a bot! And actually the big problem then is there are real life human beings having back-and-forth inflamed debates with these malicious bots.

Think about it… Let us say that you are interacting with someone on Twitter, and you have no idea that it is a bot you assume it is real person… Who is going to win in the long run? Obviously the bot!

Adding friction to the digital and cyber world

Bitcoin is virtuous

As time goes on, I’m starting to think of bitcoin like a more ethical idea.

For example, Michael Saylor has an incredibly genius idea of fixing all of this toxicity on the internet, just adding a little bit of monetary, bitcoin or Satoshi friction;

For example, if it cost $10 worth of US dollars, or satoshis to create an account on Twitter or some social media account, then, overnight practically 100% of the malicious bots will be made obsolete or deleted from the platform.

Why? Right now it cost only a nickel to spin up 100,000 bots, to troll your worst enemy on Twitter. But, if it cost $10 a bot, it cost you $1 million to cyber bully somebody, you probably wouldn’t… because it is too expensive and you don’t hate them that much. 

I think it is Chris Rock or Chris Tucker who had this funny comedy bit about making bullets super expensive. Then the ideas that if you really really hate somebody, and let us say that one bullet is worth $100,000, then if you really want to kill them, or even with multiple bullets, you might think twice.

Financial friction and consequences is a good idea

Maybe the greatest use of money is physical friction, monetary friction, consequences.

Fines work, monetary penalties, like getting $500 traffic tickets for turning red on a red light and not stopping. This has certainly changed my driving behavior.

So I suppose the critical intelligent thing to consider is want to make things free, and want to make things cost money, to direct human behavior.

For good behavior, make it free.

For bad behavior, make it very expensive.

ERIC

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Funny experiments

Some very very simple things to consider:

First, make things expensive, don’t make them free.

For example, let us say that you dip into the pr0n– but you don’t want to do it anymore, for whatever reason. Maybe make it a thing that if you want to watch it, you have to go to an adult DVD store, and pay $20 bucks to buy the CD or whatever. 

Or, for activities… I think often signing up and paying for an activity is a good idea because it creates sense of ownership, responsibility, or follow through. Or commitment.

For example, perhaps the intelligence of paying money for a trainer or a personal trainer is that you you know that if you don’t show up there is a fiscal penalty.

But the new ones is you don’t want to breed fake virtuosity for the sake of fake virtuosity. 

For example, there is this weird notion in American culture that pain and suffering and overcoming is virtuous. No. Fools!

Exercise workout or whatever is not virtuous, it is something that you do because it is fun enjoyable and something that you like!

For example, would you bribe your kid money to play at the playground? No! So why do this for yourself? 

---

What now?

1. Upload your best photos to arsbeta.com —
2. Start your own self hosted blog via WordPress.org and bluehost.com
3. Think humanity!

ERIC

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Conquer the future

Conquer the future at EK EXPERIENCE >

---

EK PHOTO SUPPLY

CONQUER THE STREETS:

EK PHOTO SUPPLY >

Unlimited empowerment

BOOKS, START HERE, NEWS

---

What I’m consuming

All interviews by Michael Saylor at https://www.michael.com

What I’m reading

Iliad by Emily Wilson

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What to re watch?

John Wick 1

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Conquer today!

ERIC

ERIC KIM BLOG >

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Super radical idea that all is terrible, tragic, and bad and evil but in spite of all of it,,, extracting the maximum upside from reality?

PHILOSOPHY BY KIM

IDEAS BY KIM

1. YOUR RICHEST SELF IS YOUR BEST SELF
2. EVERYTHING HAPPENS AS IT *SHOULD HAVE* HAPPENS
3. *Beyond* Individualism
4. MAN & WOMAN, LIGHT & DARK
5. A LIFE WITHOUT PAIN, DISCOMFORT OR (LIMITED) SUFFERING IS NOT A LIFE WORTH LIVING?
6. BIGGER IS WEAKER.
7. How to Become a Philosopher
8. Deep Vanity
9. Time Will Tell
10. What is Wisdom?
11. LOOK *BEYOND*
12. BECOMING MORE IMMORAL?
13. ‘LUCK’ VS COURAGE
14. ‘SKILL’ VS MERIT?
15. Becoming Antifragile
16. How to “Improve” Men
17. The Art of Virtue
18. How to Dominate
19. JUST SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCES AND WISDOM WITH OTHERS.
20. How to Get More Done in a Single Day – MEMENTO MORI PHILOSOPHY
21. THINK FOR YOURSELF
22. Cruel?
23. GO DEMIGOD.
24. How to Be Happy: Challenge and Danger Philosophy
25. To Become Greater, You Must Become *LESS* Productive!
26. Imperfect Beauty
27. The Philosophy of Pleasure
28. What Interests You?
29. Anti Theory of Everything
30. Become?
31. STRONGER OR NOT?
32. Carte Blanche Ideals
33. CHOOSE JOY
34. Don’t Judge Your Impulses
35. On Becoming Less Human
36. COWARDICE.
37. The Philosophy of Futurism
38. PHILOSOPHY IS VALUE-SETTING
39. PHILOSOPHY IS NOT LIFESTYLE
40. WHY STANDARDIZATION IS BAD.
41. YOUR OWN TABLE OF VALUES.
42. RETRO IS BAD.
43. INSANELY LOFTY THOUGHTS.
44. Strive to *Lose* Weight, Not *Gain* Weight
45. DIABLO II ANALOGIES FOR REAL LIFE.
46. If You Know Your *WHY* You Can Discover Any *HOW*
47. Life is Too Short to Be Miserable
48. What Consumption Takes Skill?
49. OFF THE GRID.
50. REALITY IS CRUEL.
51. Pain is Information
52. WHY REMOVE VULGARITY AND DISORDER FROM OUR EYES?
53. AUTOTELIC.
54. UNPLUG.
55. How to Become a Philosopher
56. SUBOPTIMAL IS OPTIMAL
57. THE LUST FOR MORE.
58. TO DO IS TO BECOME.
59. IN PRAISE OF AGGRESSIVE.
60. THE PHILOSOPHY OF OPTIMISM
61. OUR PHILOSOPHICAL WILL TO EXISTENCE
62. Is Hope a Vice?
63. MOVE MEAN
64. Carte Blanche Ideals
65. One Interesting Thought
66. What Lasts? What Doesn’t Last?
67. A WOUND STIMULATES THE RECUPERATIVE POWERS
68. Children & Purpose
69. Thoughts on Becoming a Parent
70. Where Does Our Desire to Upgrade Come From?
71. WE ALWAYS NEED SOMETHING FURTHER TO ASPIRE TO.
72. Self-Task Yourself an Awesome Mission in Life
73. Differentiation vs Equalization
74. My Passion to *Become* Something More
75. No Aesthetic or Ethos is Forever
76. What is Your Higher Purpose in Life?
77. IT WILL NEVER SATISFY YOU.
78. How to Decide
79. Things You *Want* to Do vs Things You *MUST* Do
80. Towards a More Beautiful Mode of Existence and Future
81. EXTREME GRATITUDE.
82. AMAP (As Much as Possible) or None.
83. Why or How Does it Matter?
84. The Philosophy of Time and Events
85. How *Not* to Resent
86. FORWARD LOOKING
87. DOMAIN FLEXIBILITY.
88. The Miracle of Human Growth
89. EXTREME ADAPTATION.
90. Why Plan?
91. You Don’t Need to Justify Yourself
92. The Philosophy of Ego
93. True vs False Passions
94. How to Achieve Tranquility
95. On Making Your Own Philosophy
96. The Purpose of Life is to Create New Life
97. Think On!
98. The Wisdom of Doing Nothing
99. Congruency
100. My Thoughts on Meditation
101. The Philosophy of Purpose
102. Emulate Yourself
103. Good Fear, Bad Fear
104. For the Betterment of Humanity or Just Yourself?
105. What you *really* believe in and care for is manifested through your actions (or non-actions)
106. Why Culture is Your Enemy
107. YOUR EXPERIENCES ARE KING.
108. LIFE IS INHERENTLY GOOD.
109. Artistic, Physical, and Philosophical Muscles
110. All New Experiences are Good Experiences
111. What is the Purpose of X?
112. UTILITY.
113. Philosophy is a Luxury
114. The Attempt is More Interesting than the Result
115. Joyfulness vs “Happiness”
116. Effectiveness Over Happiness
117. Self Actualization
118. MAXIMAL ENGAGEMENT
119. Life & Pain
120. On Living Every Day with No Regret
121. Learn as if you’re going to live forever, live as if you’re going to die tomorrow
122. Live Every Day Like it Were the Last Day of Your Life
123. Self-Determination
124. FALSE GRATITUDE vs REAL GRATITUDE
125. HOW TO LIVE MORE
126. THE UPSIDE OF TRAGEDY
127. Satisfaction is a Sucker’s Game
128. Supreme Repose
129. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF LIFE? According to ERIC KIM
130. STUBBORN, FLEXIBLE
131. EVERYTHING HAPPENS AS IT *SHOULD* HAVE HAD HAPPENED
132. Good Addiction, Bad Addiction?
133. What is the Best Life?
134. The Philosophy of Thinking
135. The Philosophy of Conspiracies
136. Conspiracies
137. Growth
138. Skepticism.
139. What Do You Really Want Out of Life?
140. Seem or Be?
141. Learn Through Pain
142. Respect Yourself
143. In Praise of Elitism
144. Why Independent Thinking?
145. I Will Never Die
146. Bitter is Better
147. The Genesis of Nihilism and Existential Dread
148. The Ethics of Personal Enrichment
149. Good vs Not Good
150. Punished by Privilege
151. Abstinence Over Moderation
152. Just Leave Others Alone
153. You Can Only Critique that Which You Truly Understand and Love
154. ERIC KIM Critique of Metaphysics
155. Only Trust Philosophers Who Deadlift
156. Heuristic: If Someone Talks Shit About Others Behind Their Back, Most Likely They’re Also Talking Shit About You Behind Your Back
157. Virtue is a Privilege
158. What Are Your Life Goals?
159. Honesty
160. Why I’m Anti Moderation
161. No Spite, No Malice.
162. Ascending Life or Descending Life?
163. Double Edged Sword
164. Ignorance.
165. Why I Don’t Trust “Nice Guys”
166. Why You Must Share Your Opinion
167. Selfish Isn’t Evil
168. Wisdom is the Goal
169. YOU ARE KING.
170. MASTER YOURSELF
171. What is “Good” for You is Often what is Bad for You
172. Care.
173. BITTERSWEET
174. ONE REP MAX
175. Morality and Ethics is the Snare
176. BY HELPING YOURSELF, YOU BEST HELP OTHERS
177. Insanity is Good.
178. Think Deep.
179. PHILOSOPHY IS THE FUTURE.
180. Open Mind vs Closed Mind
181. ENTHUSIASM IS GENIUS
182. Towards a More Critical and Rigorous Line of Thinking
183. How to Encourage and a Foster Independent and Free Thinking
184. What is the Purpose of Life?
185. WHY PHILOSOPHY IS SUPREME.
186. Elitism.
187. I Cannot Form an Opinion About Somebody Until I’ve Met Them in the Flesh
188. ALL GENETICS ARE GOOD GENETICS.
189. Happiness vs Freedom
190. The Birth of a Hater
191. My Way Isn’t the Right Way
192. Walking as an Existential Thing
193. Why I’m So Tolerant
194. Mortal Gods
195. THE HUMAN SPECIES
196. Why I’m So Skeptical
197. Just Follow the Money
198. Why Selfish?
199. WHY WE CANNOT BLAME OTHERS
200. Why Are We So Anti Elitism?
201. What Actually Interests You?
202. How to Become Yourself
203. SELF HATE
204. Optimistic Fatalism
205. Death is the Ultimate Creative Constraint
206. FLUX.
207. How to Think for Yourself
208. FLESH
209. How to Live the Best Life
210. Why Live a Life Without Regrets?
211. Why Plato Ruined Art and Aesthetics for Us
212. Self Respect
213. Hypocrite vs Contradict
214. Ideals vs Reality
215. Spaceship Philosophy
216. What is Your Ideal Life?
217. MY EXTREME GRATITUDE TOWARDS LIFE AND BEING ALIVE!
218. Critique of Utilitarianism
219. Don’t Treat Others the Way You Want to Be Treated
220. The Eternal Recurrence of Tragedy and Joy in Life
221. Elite Asceticism
222. Why I Don’t Like Numbers
223. Action and Reaction, Cause and Effect
224. The Antidote to Nihilism: The Philosophy of Nothingness
225. ERIC KIM Notes on Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
226. EXPLOIT CHAOS.
227. WHY I DON’T BELIEVE IN GENETICS
228. Self-Wisdom
229. The Future Belongs to the Fearless
230. INDIVIDUALISM
231. Why Live Forever?
232. THIS TOO WILL PASS.
233. Why Education?
234. How to Become Yourself
235. Things Shouldn’t Go Back to the Way They Used to Be
236. Why Am I So Cruel?
237. The Great Joy of Existence
238. Virtue for the Sake of Virtue
239. NO DISDAIN.
240. INTELLIGENT IGNORANCE
241. A LIFE WITHOUT PAIN, DIFFICULTY OR TRAGEDY ISN’T A LIFE WORTH LIVING
242. BITTER IS BETTER.
243. EXPLOIT THE BEST FROM TRAGEDY AND LIFE 
244. DISREGARD FOR SELF-PRESERVATION
245. PAIN.
246. WHAT IF EVERYTHING IS NOT GONNA BE ALRIGHT?
247. Tomorrow is Never
248. Life is the Ultimate Creative Constraint
249. EMBODIED REALITY
250. BLACK SWAN
251. THINGS WILL NEVER GO BACK TO THE WAY THEY USED TO BE
252. What are you *really* afraid of?
253. HAPPINESS ISN’T THE GOAL
254. Philosophy is King
255. Why is Selfish Evil?
256. YOU’RE CONSTANTLY IN A STATE OF BECOMING
257. ENTITLEMENT A SIN?
258. NARCISSISM
259. BE BRUTALLY HONEST WITH YOURSELF
260. WHY FREE WILL?
261. OBEY YOUR OPINION
262. EGO IS GOOD.
263. WHY IT IS GOOD TO BE INTO YOURSELF
264. Seek the Good Pain
265. Anti-Perfection in Photography, Art, and Life
266. Can You Become an End into Yourself?
267. WHY I LIVE
268. Why I Hate Decline
269. Why I Eat
270. Why am I So Positive and Optimistic?
271. EFFORT IS ENJOYMENT
272. Never Stop Gaining
273. TRUST YOURSELF
274. A Life of Maximal Personal Independence
275. What Do You Desire to Become?
276. What Do I Want from Technology?
277. Stratified Society
278. Do You Love or Hate Reality?
279. On the Brian, Body and Mind
280. I’m Maximally Happy, Now What?
281. Care over Fame
282. ACTIVE NIHILISM
283. Never Stop Subtracting
284. How to Live a Happier and More Epic Life
285. A Risker Life is a Better Life
286. Only Work on Things You Can Imagine Doing for Eternity
287. How to Maximize Your Happiness
288. Influence
289. The Gladiator Makes His Plans once He Enters the Ring
290. Meditations on Meaning in Life
291. There is Nothing More Interesting than Human Beings
292. Is Hope a Vice?
293. EGO
294. Why Be Unique?
295. Happiness is Metabolism Health and Strength
296. You’re the Hero
297. Is Productivity a Virtue or Vice?
298. Why Do We Prize the Rare?
299. The Joy of Uncertainty
300. How Should I Best Use My Time and Life?
301. A Life Without Pain or Suffering Isn’t a Life Worth Living
302. Free or Unfree?
303. What Do You Really Care For in Life?
304. Anti-Satisfaction in Life
305. Why Think?
306. The Eternal Return
307. Only Do What is Best for You!
308. Truthiness
309. Why Be Happy?
310. Permissionless Living
311. In Praise of Unconventional Wisdom
312. Become the Change Which You Wish to See in the World
313. Happiness
314. Beyond Freedom
315. Idolize People, Not Stuff
316. What Makes You Stronger? What Makes You Weaker?
317. Why Hate?
318. The Secret of Happiness
319. You’re Constantly in a State of Becoming
320. Life is about Choices, Not Obligations
321. Anti-Nihilism
322. First, Do What is Best for You.
323. Live Dynamic
324. How to Prosper
325. Is the Point of Life to Be Satisfied?
326. SUPREME EFFORT OF WILL.
327. How to Become more Idealistic
328. Thrivival 101
329. Create Yourself
330. Non-Small
331. Inspiration
332. How to Live a Heroic Life: Dare the Heights!
333. Human Augmentation
334. Prune
335. Happiness: Do What You Want to Do (And Don’t Do What You Don’t Want to Do)
336. Avoid Vain (Empty) Pursuits in Life
337. Modern Slavery
338. Kill the Leeches
339. Wisdom Augmentation
340. Why We Need Friction in Life
341. Straight Line Philosophy
342. What’s Your End-Game in Life?
343. Create Your Own Happiness Today
344. Desire Both Pain and Pleasure in Life
345. Try the Impossible
346. SELF-RESPECT
347. Anti-Social Extrovert
348. Never Blame Anybody But Yourself
349. Human Flourishing
350. Simpler, Not Better.
351. How to be Free
352. Embrace the Extremes
353. Cultivate Your Own Culture
354. COURAGE.
355. Thrivival
356. Inner Power
357. How to Live a Purposeful Life
358. My Definition of Happiness
359. Why Change is Good
360. Why Work?
361. How to Live the Happiest Possible Life
362. The Two-Pronged Approach to Maximize Joy in Your Life
363. You Always Have Another Option!
364. INFINITISM
365. Never Stop!
366. What is Your Self-Directed Purpose in Life?
367. Live Today Like it Were Your Last
368. Do You Photograph to Live, or Live to Photograph?
369. ARTIST-PHILOSOPHER
370. Live Life to the Fullest!
371. In Praise of Selfishness
372. Why You Must Be a YAY-SAYER to Succeed in Entrepreneurship and Life
373. Why I Love Walking
374. Live Life Like a Video Game!
375. Simple Luxuries in Life
376. Treat Your Life Like a Fun Experiment!
377. Only Prove it to Yourself
378. You Don’t Always Need to Feel Joyful to Live a Fulfilling and Meaningful Life
379. Life is Too Short to Be Bored!
380. Money Cannot Destroy Boredom
381. How to Find Inspiration in Life
382. Why You Must Ignore Haters to Succeed and Win in Life
383. An Active Life is a Happy Life
384. My Simple Joys in Life
385. Never Stop Striving
386. How to Motivate Yourself in Life
387. How to Be Optimistic in Life
388. How to Dictate Your Purpose in Life
389. In Praise of a Dynamic Life
390. PURPOSE.
391. How to Enjoy Life
392. Photography Therapy
393. How to Conquer Regret
394. Take Your Play Very Seriously.
395. How to Prosper
396. Memento Vivere
397. Destroy in Order to CREATE
398. Trust Your Body More Than Your Mind
399. Make Photos to Make Meaning in Your Life
400. Seek Knowledge, Not Information
401. The Purpose of Human Life
402. How to Overcome Impedence
403. Why I Love Death
404. How to Be Centered in the Eternal Now
405. How to Be Happy
406. Why Do You Care What Others Think of You?
407. Why I’m Happy
408. Why?
409. Why I’m So Prolific
410. How to Reduce LAG in Life

Masters of Philosophy »

• Seneca
• Marcus Aurelius
• Publilius Syrus

Personal Philosophy »

• You Are the Light of the World
• Your Soul is a Diamond in the Rough
• Why Live?

Stoicism »

• How to Be a Stoic Street Photographer
• How to Use Photography as Self-Therapy
• How to Free Your Soul From Disturbance

Zen Philosophy »

• How to Be a Zen Street Photographer
• Zen in the Art of Street Photography
• How to Find Tranquility in Your Photography

Life Lessons »

• How to Conquer Your Fears in Life
• Conquer Yourself
• How to Focus

Learn more: Start Here >

On adding more contrast to your life:

Man is black, woman is white? 

Increasing contrast?

I’m starting to think that if we apply the black-and-white art photography aesthetic to real life, maybe the idea of “preserving the midtones“ is a bit boring.

The general notion of crushing the blacks is when you’re processing or post processing your photos, you dragged the black slider all the way to 100, and you also crank up the contrast to 100.

Aesthetically, I think this makes for much more striking and interesting images.

First, midtones are boring.  almost universally, the more you increase the contrast of something or the photos, the better.

For example, even when we design our homes. What is the best way to design a home? Very very simple, use white and black accents.

For example, my eyes, the ideal home exterior pin color is not a matte black, but rather, a pure clean white, with black trimming.

Also, with cars… I think we’ve discovered is the Apex is both a shiny white with shiny black accents — gloss, not matte.

I think Matt, Matt Black, the whole met aesthetic is centered around jet stealth fighters, which desire to escape enemy detection. So typically when you try to Matt Black your car and murder it out… Aesthetic you’re going for stealth bomber, or jet fighter aesthetic?

But the irony that I find… Nobody would ever matte black or murder out their Prius,  to escape detection from the police or the other party. We typically do it to our sports cars, our Teslas, etc. 

Put the strange inconsistency I see here is on one hand, we want to be seen and to show up, on the other hand, we want to be fake low-key, and be “humble”?

Bitch be humble?

A few years back, the song HUMBLE by Kendrick Lamar went triple maxi viral. Like  it was the most viral song of all time, maybe even more viral than the recent “They Not Like Us” song.

The song was very bizarre to me. Because I’m not sure what Kendrick was really trying to say. Two interpretations —

1. First, he is calling the counterpart a bitch, and telling them to sit down and be humble because I am so much greater than you
2. Or, trying to remind everybody to be humble in general.

But the weird inconsistency in modern day life is we are centered around Christian Jesus ethics, or some sort of quaker artist morality which is centered around notion of humility, being humble, close to the floor etc. This is why you will never ever ever meet a rich person in America called themselves rich, they will call themselves “fortunate“, or “lucky”.

Also another bizarre thing in the world of bodybuilding… You almost never ever ever see bodybuilders proud to flex on the bash Lee, like Arnold in the documentary pumping iron, back in the day. It is very uncommon for you to see self-confident men at the gym, working out topless, in booty shorts, 3 inch short shorts, flexing their muscles in the mirror, not trying to hide it etc.

The big issue with the typical bodybuilder is that they are trying to become dominant, but be humble about it? Really weird?

Lord Achilles 

I am currently reading the Iliad by Emily Wilson, I am always always happy to see a new translation or a fresh take on the classic.

Anyways, also an interesting thought… I like the idea of reading a female woman probably the most manly literature of all time. I think the problem when I was talking to my friend Kelly, is that traditionally in the past, it was a bunch of impotent old men who would translate great classics like the Iliad or the odyssey, using their own Fake impotent machismo, translate it.

For example, a lot of the misogyny, misogynistic language from 100 years ago or so, was actually very inaccurate.

Anyways, something worth noting is how artful, succinct, beautiful, and unlike English ancient Greek was. In fact, I definitely want to get Seneca on the Classics, get him into Latin and ancient Greek, and mathematics like NASSIM TALEB recommended.

If you think about it long enough, what are the least harmful majors which exist? Classics, math, physics.

Classics is almost like the superior form of sociology, physical theory, it is the pillar of the humanities. Either classics or history.

Math, it will never hurt nobody. There are simple binary rules of math, it is either right or wrong, but then again the problem with a lot of mathematicians math teachers or people who are two into math, they seek some sort of rationality behind real life, society and people… But the true wise man knows that humans are not mathematical equations, ones and zeros. Humans are messy, even the Ancient Greek gods — they are all flawed! They are a bunch of petty, incestuous, sibling rivalry, family drama folks.

---

What to focus on?

My friend Anton (congrats on your new kid!) told me something interesting… it was his general observation that individuals like me, who diversified themselves, and did not just focus on street photography were the ones that succeeded, and won in the long run. 

For example, I bemoan the death of digitalrev it was literally the best thing since Top Gear for photography and street photography. But also here, I think the cautionary tale of digital rev is critical, because whenever you build an empire on a foreign platform, it is like building your castle in a marsh or quicksand. 

Even something which shocked me ,,, the infamous video of me shooting street photography in Hong Kong with Kaiman Wong,  I think was either taken down or deleted by digital rev? Really weird, I guess it was too controversial?

Anyways, once again, I think the rational thing is whenever you post something, built something on a cotton candy foundation, whether it be Facebook Instagram YouTube TikTok etc.… Even Twitter… Know that it is destined to die. 

I even heard some kids at the mall yesterday talk about myspace, so funny… nobody has any idea what that is. Or xanga, Friendster, live journal?

Sooner or later whenever you build something on a foreign platform, two things are inevitable to happen; either your account will eventually get deleted, taken down, blacklisted, grey listed, banned shadow banned real banned, or just made obsolete. 

Neopan 1600

Some suggestions to Fujifilm:

First – make a new filter, call it extreme monochrome. The general idea is that you want to make a black-and-white filter so hardcore, so extreme, it will blow the Ricoh GR strong monochrome out of the water! 

I really love the Fujifilm cameras, for the color filters, before some reason, they really lack a good black-and-white filter mode. The acros filter on it sucks. 

A simple idea: make a neopan black and white film simulation, and make it extreme high contrast, like neopan 1600! Or like the effect of taking Neilan 400, and pushing it two stops to 1600!

Right now, the only real competition to Fujifilm is Ricoh Pentax. And it seems that Leica is dying a slow death. 

First, it seems that the Leica Q is only cash cow keeping Leica alive. Also, it seems that Leica is desperate to maintain her clutches on her film film photography heritage, resurrecting the Leica M6, the like etc.

But I think the critical issue here is that in someways, what the Germans do is kind of like kaizen;  they take the existing model, and they just keep iterating it, making the new version maybe 3% better… There is never a 100% revolutionary new product, like what Elon did with cybertruck etc. 

Once again, the glory of cyber truck is that when it is on the road, it is literally impossible to work! You could pretend like you didn’t see it, but you did see it! And if you did not see it, definitely your 3 1/2 year-old kid will see it!

And this is where I am still Tesla and Elon… As long as the kids love it, the future is bright!

Even Lamborghini… It isn’t cool anymore. And nobody even knows what a Ferrari is.

I think things go bananas when Tesla puts out a mini cyber truck, imagine a Tesla model Y, but a baby cyber truck version?

The best car  is the car not yet innovated invented or released.

I’ve always loved cars, car culture etc. I feel bad for anybody whoever purchases any brand new car, because the sad reality is that it will become obsolete in a matter of months or years?

For example, all of these guys who bought a Lamborghini Urus, only to have the new version come out, or even guys who bought the Lamborghini Huracan, with a new one that just came out?

Or even the guys who bought the Aventador… All these rappers from five or 10 years ago… Now that the new Revuelto is out, their Aventador is made obsolete? 

You fools!

“I pity the fool?”

A random sidenote… It seems that the most constructive way to approach life is through compassion, empathy, maybe even pity.

For example, whenever there are people that I am suspicious of, they are on my bad side, and then finally, I see them without a hat on, without sunglasses, in direct light, and I see how sickly or unwell they are – the first feeling is extreme compassion. Like I find myself to be the fool — there is somebody that I vilified, or made into a bad guy, or somebody that I created a totem for my general hate or despise… And then I see how unhealthy they are, and then I realize,…

Wait,,, this whole time, when I am painting this guy as a bad guy, and then I truly see you and witness that in fact, they are just a poor miserable soul, slowly dying… Why was I so negative towards that person?

Something I learned about living in LA… everyone here has problems. For example, a lot of women, their husband is cheating on them, and they know what, but don’t want to admit it. Even Jay Z… Probably still 100% cheating on Beyoncé… Why?

 And all these assholes who honk at you in the road…  spending a lot of time out of a car, just walking around now, observing traffic politics, if you actually get a really good look at the driver, they are either miserable looking Uber drivers, food delivery people, or just very very unwell sickly looking people, very overfat, insanely poor health, who may be just want to get home because they were stuck in traffic for two hours? 

When to be compassionate, when not to be a pushover?

It seems that the primary issue here is the strange bifurcation of ethics.  first, we are taught to forgive, turn the other cheek etc., but then you have all these assholes honking at you from behind. So in this case, what are you supposed to do, take it up the ass, because you’re afraid that they might have a gun and shoot you? Or commit road rage, and do something dangerous? 

I think the issue here is why should you live your life in fear that some asshole some pussy coward might have a gun, and pop you?

Obviously, I do not want to get shot by some random coward, because I have my son to live for. But still… Isn’t the real role of a man to stand up for his child, and to never ever ever see your father get pistol whipped around? 

Stand up

I think this is also where manly masculine ethics are different than feminine ones. For example, if you see some asshole smoking in the park, and you’re there with your kid… Obviously the correct strategy is to tell them to please stop smoking. I have a new line that I’m experimenting with–

“No smoking,,, pleeeease!”

For example, two assholes in front of the Apple campus on Washington in Culver City… One guy wearing some sort of Greek food T-shirt, I think he might be an apple employee… I was walking with Seneca down Washington, on the apple side, and this asshole is smoking Indignantly on the side, blowing his secondhand smoke all the way down the block.

I came up to him, and I said, no smoking… pleeeease

And this asshole has audacity to tell me that “I’m on my break…” And then I stopped, looked at him and eyes, and I said, “that’s why I said please”. He had no response, his jaw dropped. And like an asshole he kept smoking.

 anyways, fortunately there was some security guards down the block, and I asked them to tell the guy to stop smoking. Maybe next time this happens, I’ll just record him or take a picture of him on my iPhone, shame him.

Extreme ethics

I think the big issue is in today’s world, ain’t nobody have a backbone or ethics anymore.

In actually… The big issue here is that it seems at 99.9% of people just become passive aggressive, and never confront, we are a non-confrontational society, yet we hide behind our cars and honk at people? Because we are shielded from recompense?

For example, I think this is also where people become keyboard warriors… You would never talk smack about me face-to-face, because you will see how much stronger, taller, more charismatic, and dominant I am than you. In fact, some of the things that I’ve discovered after meeting some of my “haters“– we’re in fact, they were my greatest lovers! The biggest issue here was actually… Unrequited hate or love.

What is worse, unrequited hate or unrequited love?

Once again, some bizarre inconsistencies here; I’ve never hate anybody.  why because I’m not that interested in anybody else, nor do I really desire the affection of somebody else that much?

And also, the reason why a lot of men become misogynist, and hate women is because of unrequited love. Then the unrequited love becomes hate.

Everything starts off as love, then evolves to hate?

An alternate theory; maybe hate is just a more exaggerated or extreme version of love? 

Super facts

The Internet is a toxic place. Don’t let your kids go on it.

Why? I even have this kind of shocking memory, when I was a 12-year-old kid in Bayside Queens, New York. I was connected to the Internet, AWOL 3.0, on my 38.8 K modem… And I was randomly in this chat room, and then start a messaging this guy, Who then instant messaged me, (IM) via AOL instant messenger, AIM, And then eventually started to say weird stuff like pedophile stuff like it feels really good to get your dick sucked by another guy?

Anyways, obviously I got super scared and just banned him.

And I think the issue is in today’s world, I think the safe strategy in assumption is that 100% of people on the Internet, or just malicious bots. And it’s starting to get scary… If you could program a bot to be malicious, and to create more malicious bots, ad infinitum — shit starts to get scary.

For example, Michael Saylor was talking about how whenever he tweets something, And somebody responds to it in a very malicious way… Almost 100% it was a bot! And actually the big problem then is there real life human beings having back-and-forth inflamed debates with these malicious bots.

Think about it… Let us say that you are interacting with someone on Twitter, and you have no idea that it is a bot you assume it is real person… Who is going to win in the long run? Obviously the bot!

Adding friction to the digital and cyber world

As time goes on, I’m starting to think of bitcoin like a more ethical idea.

For example, Michael Saylor has an incredible genius idea of fixing all of this toxicity on the Internet, I just adding a little bit of monetary, bitcoin or Satoshi friction;

For example, if it cost $10 worth of US dollars, or Satoshi to create an account on Twitter or some social media account, then, overnight practically 100% of the malicious spots will be made obsolete or deleted from the platform.

Why? Right now it cost only a nickel to spin up 100,000 bots, to troll your worst enemy on Twitter. But, if it cost $10 a bot, it cost you $1 million to cyber bully somebody, you probably wouldn’t… Because it is too expensive and you don’t hate them that much. 

I think it is Chris Rock or Chris Tucker who had this funny comedy bit about making bullets super expensive. Then the ideas that if you really really hate somebody, and let us say that one bullet is worth $100,000, then if you really want to kill them, or even with multiple bullets, you might think twice.

Financial friction and consequences is a good idea

Maybe the greatest use of money is physical friction, monetary friction, consequences.

Fines work, monetary penalties, like getting $500 traffic tickets for turning red on a red light and not doing. Certainly has changed my driving behavior.

So I suppose the critical intelligent thing to consider is want to make things free, and want to make things cost money, to direct human behavior.

For good behavior, make it free.

For bad behavior, make it very expensive.

ERIC

---

Funny experiments

Some very very simple things to consider:

First, make things expensive, don’t make them free.

For example, let us say that you dip into the pr0n– but you don’t want to do it anymore, for whatever reason. Maybe make it a thing that if you want to watch it, you have to go to an adult DVD store, and pay $20 bucks to buy the CD or whatever. 

Or, for activities… I think often signing up and paying for an activity is a good idea because it creates sense of ownership, responsibility, or follow through. Or commitment.

For example, perhaps the intelligence of paying money for a trainer or a personal trainer is that you you know that if you don’t show up there is a fiscal penalty.

But the new ones is you don’t want to breed fake virtuosity for the sake of fake virtuosity. 

For example, there is this weird notion in American culture that pain and suffering and overcoming is virtuous. No. Fools!

Exercise workout or whatever is not virtuous, it is something that you do because it is fun enjoyable and something that you like!

For example, would you bribe your kid money to play at the playground? No! So why do this for yourself? 

---

Harness, channel energy

.

The future of TV?

.

Digital Energy

How to harness energy and power?

.

Analogue to Digital

Put a payload in orbit

15 billion years in orbit

.

Space vs Outer Space

Cyber Space

.

Gold is money everything else is credit

Check with 1M, IOU

.

Check is monetary information ,,, monetary energy (gold)

Think energy not information

Energy is Everything ***

.

Maintain Illusion

Everything is credit

You are moving credit not money

Credit risk or default

Creatures with no pain receptor l,,, squeeze out of the gene pool

Toxic signals in cyber space no pain cost in cyber space

.

Friction is a good thing we can walk

Toxic or misleading or criminal

.

Demon in cyber space

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Toxic responses is bots

96 bots

Inflammatory

.

Real people argue with bots

You’re arguing with a machine

.

Love bot?

Build something of beauty in cyber space

Matter and time in cyber space

.

Matter in cyber space

Material wall $10

.

Do you want it to be free or not

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EYES LIKE A HAWK

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Tesla — energy frequency and vibration

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Potential kinetic vibration

Music harmony

.

Sense music frequency

.

Parrot dance and got happy

Didn’t go to music school

Energy frequency and vibration

React to music

Genetically coded into our DNA

.

Shadows on ghosts, disembodied spirits

Things in cyber space are dead

No real things in cyber space

Energy is life

30 days digital credit

10 hertz, 10 times a second.

Once every 6 weeks we can vibrate

.

A440; rate on 20th century rails , million times slower

Move once a year at great expense

.

Million times an hour once master the technology

Frequency vibration

“It’s music to our ears”

Acoustic energy ,,, good at channeling acoustic energy

.

Digital Capital

Long store of asset

.

Spartan or Persian

MORE MONEY, buy less every year?

.

Put it on granite

Putting your capital to work?

Penetration Testing

.

Non defective treasury asset to the world

Lose 9% a year

Just don’t sink –> create value!

Don’t destroy value

.

Rising platform

Lucky and talented

.

Not work anymore forever ,,, endowment for the family

Property & equity

Harvard and Yale forever

.

Don’t build on swamp

.

20 years of profit … 100 years of

Bulletproof balance sheet vs melting ice cube

Double your wealth every 3 years, double it 33 years

Never catch up?

.

Everyone has the same rights

.

LASER FOCUS

LASER EYES

.

More chaotic, more valuable

.

Create your own company and opportunities

Chaos Engine

Stampede to Bitcoin

Argentina and Turkey

Betting on collapse?

.

Genius In Singapore

.

Heavy hitters

American history

Biggest week

Inflection point

.

We don’t sell our Bitcoin

Auction off

Bitcoin is property

Property rights

Bitcoin strategic national reserve big deal

.

Ignore

100x

.

Negative to neutral opinion

30% charge

Tax inefficiency is hostile

Tax on transformation is hostile

.

Fair accounting

One way ratchet

.

Prejudicial and hostile

Biden ruined the economy

.

Another 4 years

.

5% interest in your Bitcoin

Loan at sulfur 6% from Citibank when can custody Bitcoin

100% loan to value

Bitcoin as collateral

Rippling

.

Robert F Kennedy

Ethics,

Ethics > Morality

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Banks are conservative

Rhetoric matters

.

Would you prefer to be seated or standing?

Funny thing, it seems that a lot of people desire to be in some sort of high-powered sports car, hyper car, truck etc.… But technically if you’re just standing next to them or the vehicle, you’re in a dominant position. 

For example, I think the reason why people tell you to sit down watch and take a seat, it’s actually because they want to be in a more dominant position than you.

For example, if you are a presidential candidate, have you ever seen a presidential candidate do a debate or speech while sitting? No! They stand!

This is also where modern day education is so… Why do you get kids to sit down? It is probably the worst position for them to be in? Is actually for them to be standing… Walking around, outside outdoors, in the agora etc. 

Ideal would be actually a bunch of people standing, outside in the direct elements, or at least in the shad or whatever… And everyone is standing in a circle, and there is a little speech of peptalk, etc.

Also, today’s brave New World of voice dictation and modern technology, there is no real reason to use a keyboard anymore, or even write down things pen and pad. 

For example, we are brainwashed into thinking that Penn and Pat is virtuous, but when is the last time you had to fill out a form long hand? In fact, I have more difficulty and annoyances having to figure out how to fill out PDF form, and how to edit a PDF form, rather than Figuring out how to do long hand stuff.

Michael Saylor said something interesting, in which whenever you watch sci-fi films, you never see somebody just busted out an iPhone and type it out with your thumbs. No. They talk to Jarvis, or voice dictate it. Think about how Tony Stark interacts and engages with Jarvis his personal computer and AI, he never touches a keyboard! He stands, does the zooming and enhancing with the floating holographic screen, and what he does is talk to it! Kind of like what we could do right now with ChatGPT.

This is why Apple putting a keyboard on the iPad is the worst diss you could do to the soul of Steve Jobs. Or even worse, that’s stupid Apple stylus, even more shameless the Apple Pencil “pro”? Come on guys didn’t you know that Steve Jobs intended the iPad to be used without a keyboard, and for it to be used to draw with your finger, not a stupid overpriced device which will get outdated in a season or two?

…

National Citi Bank ; Rockefeller brother

John d Rockefeller didn’t trust JPMORGAN Chase

100 years

$1B a month

$5B Microsoft to Bitcoin

.

Too big to fail

Catalyst

High powered rails

.

Move B dollars a minute

.

.

21$M a coin

.

Stupid normie

I don’t like normies or normal people

$40B

.

Pray for volatility

21 year .

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Become an anime character

.

Keyman risk

Slay your heroes

PDF

Audio

Godlike Legs

The power is in your legs?

Milo of Croton

So there is this philosophy and story about Milo of Croton, who is this semi mythical character who essentially was the strongest man of all time, and there is this anecdote that every single day he cared this calf on his shoulders, every single day, until it became a full-size bull, which could weigh anywhere between 1000 pounds and 3000 pounds.

For the most part it seems like a high tale, but, it might be more realistic than we think it is. 

First, I have successfully lifted 1000 pounds, which means that physically and physiologically, certainly this is possible. And I am not a 7 foot tall freak of nature.

So if I think about it… And certainly obviously this was far before steroids were invented… In theory, I think this might be somewhat true.

As a very very simple thought experiment, let us assume that you could conservatively add 5 pounds, week over week, which is roughly 250 pounds a year. That means within four years, you should be able to successfully lift 1000 pounds. And then the next year, 1250 pounds, 1500 pounds, and then two years after that, 2000 pounds.

Progressive overload training

Once again, difficult to lift 1000 pounds overnight but, even if you’re conservative… Let us say that you start training at the age of 21, for 10 years straight, until the age of 31, or until the age of 36… Lifting 1000 pounds is actually pretty easy.

The technique is my infamous Atlas lift; in which you just load up the barbell, with maximum weight, on the squat rack, and your goal isn’t too walk it out and squat it, rather to simply lift it off the rack for even half a second.

Even now, if you look at the strong men, obviously they’re all on steroids, but still… When they do the loaded yoke walk, it is on average around 1500 pounds. And only that but I think they reset for about 100m or so?

Why?

It is my personal thought that if you have insanely strong legs, nothing will falter in your life.

In fact, ultimately when it comes down to it… What is the most critical part of your body? Not your shoulders, not your back, not your biceps, not your chest, not your abdominal muscles… Your legs!

Let us consider the fact… I have never done to sit up in my life, yet I have a six pack. How?… If you’re strong enough to have to lift an insanely high and heavy weight, your body must naturally adapt, naturally strengthening all the random muscles in your body, your neck your shoulders your back, your upper back your lower back, your abs, your hips your knees etc.

In fact, something that nobody ever talks about is a strength of your ligaments, your tendons, etc. Having met real UFC MMA fighters in the flesh, the thing they actually taught me was surprisingly the most important thing to train for is to strengthen the ligaments in the wrist, the knees, ankles, etc.… Because that is where injury typically happens. And there’s also this notion of “pre-hab”– the idea that a true elite fighter would train in such a way that he is doing all the exercises in which individuals typically do when they are injured, but they train before they actually get injured, a wise idea. 

Do rehab styled exercises BEFORE you treat injured.

For example, I read an anecdote that apparently LeBron James does an hour of yoga a day or something, which prevented him from getting injuries, and it seems to be a very wise idea. If I told you or tell you that by stretching, doing mobility exercises, some sort of yoga would help you lift 200 more pounds, would you do it? You could add 200 pounds to your deadlift, squat, bench? Of course! I think most weightlifters think of mobility exercises as feminine or a waste of time, but the truth is a true powerlifter, a true strongman, a true weightlifting demigod would probably devote at least 20% of his workout time for mobility stretching exercises, rather than just lifting weights?

Think long 

If you’re tired and you’re not feeling good, don’t do it, never force it. All of the random injuries I’ve had in the past was when I tried to force a workout when my body wasn’t 100% feeling it, or I was tired, didn’t sleep that well that day, etc.

One doubt, just eat a bunch of meat and go to sleep early! There is always the next day.

I think I sometimes  pick the notion of carpe diem to literally; that literally I treat every single day like it was my last, but once again, to force a work out in the evening when you’re tired and not feeling it, could lead to an injury, which could plague you for weeks months, even years.

Assuming that you’re wise and you’re thinking long-term, technically a single workout isn’t that important. Even on the week level… As long as you get in a good lift every two weeks, you’re probably fine. 

The commoditization of the body

I think the real critical problem here is what I call the commoditization of the body. 

For example, as long as you weigh yourself on a scale, you measure your biceps, you measure your waist line, you track your metrics, your number etc., you’re not free.

The problem with yourself is that you put yourself on a scale with all these basic other people, once again, all these fools who are popping supplements, injecting their butt holes with steroids, etc.

Even a super random thing, the whole supplement protein powder industry is such an insanely bad scam, maybe this is something I need to fight against.

Why? Even as a young impressionable teenager, in college student… I’ve probably wasted thousands of dollars or at least hundreds of dollars, which is a lot of money to a highschooler or college kid, protein powder, which I realized is a scam. 

Why? The simple goal is to eat more meat! But if you think about the whole exercise bodybuilding weightlifting complex, none of these fake ass influencers make money when they try to encourage you to visit the butcher more and eat more meat! No no no, they need a sponsorship, they need steroids, they need to sell merchandise.

Also let us not forget — all steroids is is something which boosts your testosterone (your testes hormones). And the easiest most natural way to do this is eat beef liver, beef heart, beef kidneys… organ meats!

---

Follow the money

I think the critical issue that people make is that they think that the big issue here is all of these weird fake conspiracy theories. But this is not true, the true issue here is just following the money.

No no no — Bill Gates does not have an evil master plan to inject your brain with 5G chips and Covid vaccines, and put fluoride in your water to control your mind.

A simple observation; I got vaccinated, got all my booster shots… etc,,, and I was able to lift 1000 pounds, fasted!

Ha ha maybe as a joke, the joke is that the COVID-19 vaccine made me stronger, like the Hulk or like wolverine or Deadpool?

And also as a general note to everybody, the reason why you should delete your Instagram, your TikTok, your Twitter, your YouTube, all the podcasts, your Spotify your podcast app is that eventually sooner or later… All of these influential fools start promoting a weird conspiracy theory?

Only media you should be consuming is media from the ancient past, ancient Greek or nothing. 

All of your heroes are fake heroes

The American dream is essentially Arnold Schwarzenegger, getting big on the screen, becoming the governator of California, etc. And superficially from what I understand… He was actually a good governor! Some people also forget that Ronald Reagan was an actor, I don’t really know too much about Ronald Reagan, but once again, the idea is that if you are tall handsome and famous, you could become anything, you could become president!

I think in America, the American dream is real. Come on… Just look at me — I was able to make my living from my passion which is street photography. Name any other country on the planet in which this could have happened. 

But I think the equations are wrong. Once again, the typical workflow is that you becomes super famous, and in the process you make a bunch of money, and then you become a politician I guess? And technically a politician has the supreme power, because he who makes the laws controls the money.

Slavery deletion

Don’t be an insta-slave!

Anyways, the big problem here is that the supreme goal is towards self ownership, not slavery.

As long as you have Instagram, YouTube, TikTok or whatever… You’re a slave, a digital slave, a cyber slave.

The reason I’m insanely anti-TikTok… Come on guys, they are owned by the ultra mainland Chinese corporation Tencent! And also, my fellow Korean people… Don’t you know that Tencent, once again mainland China has a huge stake in KakaoTalk? This is why Koreans should not use KakaoTalk and just use iPhone and iMessage instead. 

Or Samsung should be smart and create their own proprietary messaging system?

THE GOALS

I have achieved all of my life goals, my life dreams, my life ambitions, etc. Anything in which I have had an autotelic goal or desire, I done did it. For example, my desire at the age of 21, 22 to become self-employed, and to transform my passion of photography and photography into my living?

Then, my desire to travel the world, become famous, have solo exhibitions books etc.…

The funny thing is actually in my journey, my goals were never to become super rich. My only goal was to make a living for my passion, which was essentially meaning just making enough money to cover rent my expenses etc — and I think more recently, having a kid, Seneca, and more recently, my insanely audacious goal of lifting 1000 pounds, which I did, and I have zero doubt in my mind that I could lift more.

And more recently, my personal interest in bitcoin, has paid off very well!

Think first principles

How and why?

Kind of cheesy… But besides the limits of physics and the universe, if you think first principles, technically anything is possible. What is a bigger issue is duration, acceleration time, and time to accomplish. 

For example, I believe that anybody could become a sole proprietor, self-employed, and make a living from your passion. However the nuance is that you probably should not pay more than $500 a month in rent.  This means go abroad, that means live in Bangkok, Thailand, Cambodia Laos, Vietnam etc.

Certainly you could make a living from your passion in the states, but if you really really really care, maybe it is best to move to the Midwest or somewhere where rent is cheap.

The ethics of Achilles 

I just finished watching the documentary film Bigger Stronger Faster, bought it on the Apple TV store for about 10 bucks, I wish I watched this when I was a teenager?

Anyways, now that I’m and dad, have a 3 1/2 year-old son, Seneca… I’m starting to really understand that my morals ethics and the way I am training him is far more critical than I thought.

First, the whole industrial educational media social media complex– the bias is that kids must be the best, the strongest, the tallest, the most dominant either in athletics or education.

My simple heuristic:

Trust no fitness influencer on Instagram.

Yeah yeah yeah, you gotta get the views and followers… But then again you’re gonna end up injecting your butt holes with steroids, in order to boost your reviews and gain more influence. And ultimately, no slavery is worth it.

If I could tell you that I could literally sell you into slavery,  however, you’ll become super rich and famous, you’ll have $100 million in the bank, millions of followers etc.… 100 million followers, but you were literally a slave, 100% slave, would you do it? Of course no! No amount of money on the planet, is worth being sold into slavery!

Once again think about the slave ships, chains, chattels etc.…  think about the visual of the slave ships of Africa, in which they tried to “optimize” the amount of slaves they could chain up in a simple wooden ship at the bottom of the hull, perhaps 50 of them or so. 

And I think this is what people do not understand about the new modern day popular music complex; once again you’re finding these young impressionable kids from the hood, maybe 18 years old 21 years old, you offer them a $1 million contract, but essentially you have them on a chain and leash for the next 20 years of their life? 

Once again you fools, no amount of money is worth slavery!

If somebody said ERIC, I could sell you into slavery and you will literally be a slave for the rest of your life, chains, chain around your wrist and neck and your legs whatever… For $1 trillion, would I do it? Obviously no! 

Even more so, once you get a kid that changes everything… If you are sold into slavery that is not just your own life you are messing up, but the potential upside of your kid!

And I think this is where it is wise that practically everybody should have a kid, because what you learn is that once you have kids, it solidifies your morals ethics and worldview. 

I think if you’re college educated, you should have a kid. Don’t worry, you’ll be an amazing parent! 

Rethinking competition 

Competition is for loooosers!

I think this is where Achilles and reading the Iliad is so eye-opening; even before the Olympics were invented, there was no such thing as competition.

For example, there were the funeral games of Patroclus, in which the heroes were competing to win a trophy or a prize, but the interesting thing is that a lot of these heroes ended up stopping while they were ahead, calling a truce, and both of them sharing equal prizes.

The notion of a trophy, was essentially a spoil of war. The ancient Greeks, Achilles king Agamemnon and like… it seems that the ultimate trophy was a woman. The goal was to obtain the most beautiful, the most fair, the most grand prize of them all. This is where the notion of a trophy wife comes from.

And what is the point of a trophy wife? Essentially a woman who is prized for her intelligence, her body, her beauty, and I think the hope is to have insanely beautiful and great kids? But the ancient Greeks, king Agamemnon… achilles… Why did they want Breisis? Kind of like a symbol if anything.

But now… I’m not sure what the telos or the goal is anymore? I think the general modern day trend is to not have kids, but to live in hedonic pleasure for the rest of your life with no downsides? And never run out of money?

***

How to live the best life ever

OK, let us say that photography is your passion, street photography whatever. Essentially you love making photos with your camera!

Some simple thoughts:

First, the very very simple goal is to optimize your life which allows you to forever shoot pictures!

Here this is where film photography is very bad. 

First, I think the only reason people get into film photography is because they are seeking some sort of new motivation or inspiration behind things.

I think experimenting and trying out film is a good idea, because ultimately it just makes you more grateful for digital photography!

It’s really funny… Young people knew guitar for like the romanticism of film photography, but whenever I meet older photographers, in their 50s 6070s etc.… They are a bit confused, it was the opposite; invention of digital photography it is their passion for photography!

And in fact, now that the new Fujifilm X 100VI came out, and also Rico is killing it with the GR series cameras, like the new HDF which is coming out, I really see that there is zero reason to shoot film.

If you are a modern day Fatar for today, very very simple. Just buy a Fujifilm 100 camera, or a Ricoh GR camera. 

Maybe even a funny idea, maybe we could think and consider the old-school like M1 camera as the new digital film analog rangefinder fully manually focusing camera?

Why?

First, in terms of the body style, to me I prefer the M9 the best.  I love the button design, the powerhouse designed small black buttons in the back of the camera. And also funny things; the camera is pretty much only usable at ISO 400 or 800, if you do black-and-white, 1600 is fine; which is technically like the limits of shooting film!

 Also, the M9 is very slow. The buffer time is very slow.

So if you’re really interested in the whole rangefinder experience, instead of buying a film Leica M6 or something, just get an old used Leica M9!

Don’t do what is cool

Apparently the whole appeal of shooting film, especially with young people is that it is cool. But why discover it is anything cool is bad. 

Why? Anything cool is typically a romanticization of the past, thinking that the past was better. But the fact of the matter is the past was worse. The past sucked! You would not want to be alive during the times of Shakespeare, in which infant mortality rates were about 70% in London, And people and physicians still did not believe or understand that the heart pumped blood! Even the famous Dr. Harvey one said, you have to let the old physicians off, because there is no medical doctor over the age of 40 years old who will believe me that the heart pumps blood!

Or consider, back then they did not even know the concept of sterilization! They did not know that you had a wound, you had to clean it with alcohol, to kill the germs. Imagine surgeon in the 1920s operating on you with old Rusty metal Knives and scissors, not sanitizing them before. And also, imagine doing all of this without modern day painkillers. Or even worse, imagine feeding your newborn infant dirty sewer water! Once again, before they knew that you had to boil water to sanitize it!

Some ideals

Come on guys we live in the year 2024… You still have to drive to work? Or be stuck in traffic? Makes zero sense. 

I’m currently doing this experiment in which I never have to drive more than five minutes a day. Even 15 minutes for me is too long! Typically I reserve Saturdays and Sundays to drive a little further out if we want to a family expedition, because there’s no traffic in Los Angeles. We like to go to the Huntington, The beach whatever. But beyond this, any moment you’re sitting in the car is an opportunity for you to be standing on your legs, shooting in the streets!

Even a simple idea, a very very simple one — ride the subway! It might take you twice as long, but, you could strike up conversations with strangers, or even ask strangers to shoot a street portrait of the Mexican Bruce Davidson, for subway, look unposed and candid, in fact you walked around with a little photo album, explaining what he was doing, and he would ask for permission! Don’t make itlike you have to do this fake ass candid without permission photography thing.

And this is where the whole school of In-Public is bad — time for me to start calling out names. Why? Everyone has penis envy for Magnum photographers, even those in Magnum have penis envy of Martin Parr and Alex Soth because they are so rich successful and well regarded!

Where it seems that why photographers are so disingenuous, and we have to let all the old ones die off  it’s because all of them are a bunch of insecure skinny fat losers, even Henri Cartier-Bresson who had the audacity to refuse his face being recorded during documentaries of him, even though he made his whole living photographing the faces of others! Isn’t this unethical;

I could photograph pictures of you and your face, but you cannot take photos of me and my face?

Time machine

Essentially for myself, all of the advice or things that I ever promote or share is just advice I wish I could’ve gave myself. Obviously you could just take it or leave it! But one thing you will know is that I don’t play around, or lie or tell false things. 

Also I am not insecure!

Am I the only self-confident photographer alive?

---

The new path

Nowadays, the only person I trust is ChatGPT. Why? More so than Google which is an advertising company, ChatGPT is a paid premium enterprise company, which means that it cannot be gamed.

Google is becoming more sneaky over the years, essentially, I think there are certainly behind the scene favors which are happening here, for example, the little author panel that you have in the top right corner in a Google search, I’m pretty sure that you could easily get this done if you have some sort of relationship with some sort of Google marketing person who helps you do it!

More recently, I think has a plug-in for WordPress which helps you promote your products to the top of Google search, but the downside is the add all these sneaky URL tracking stuff into your website?

Don’t trust Google! Trust paid ChatGPT.

And this is where Google missed the boat, people always ask for having a paid premium version of Google for so long, but Google essentially shunned, because they thought it was much more profitable in the long term to keep Google free, and just embed your life with more advertisements.

Get ChatGPT premium

People are really foolish, everyone likes to hate on ChatGPT, and AI, without having ever subscribed to the paid premium version. The free version kind of sucks, the paid one is mind blowing good!

For example, it is not running on algorithms or the typical ranking system. Google was a pioneer back in the day, creating Larry page rank, which essentially used the traditional model of academic citations, to see who would make it to the top!

But now, academia is broken. It is kind of of this incestuous human centipede of knowledge, everybody is trying to curry favors, circle jerk one another, to boost their fragile egos. 

It happens all the time, both with men and women, the old guard is trying to keep young women out, and honestly with declining enrollment numbers whatever, schools shutting down… I think within a generation or two, the modern day university will not look like it is today. 

What now?

My idea is actually… Throw those Chromebooks into the trash, kids will eventually just look at them for YouTube. YouTube is bad.

I would rather encourage to give every single kid an iPhone SE with ChatGPT on– the paid premium one. Or give them ChatGPT paid on an iPad — and have them just teach themselves.

Even mad, certainly the basics of math are important, but beyond basic math, you don’t really need it for every day living. Even now for me as a 36-year-old adults, I have a very poor understanding of math, yet I’m the richest person I know!

Once again, the whole issue here is the whole standardization thing, the whole trying to put everyone on a different kind of measure and a different type of bar! 

I still like the idea of public education, based on my personal experiences, any kid who was homeschooled ends up becoming very weird. And now it’s still rate my extreme success in life due to my social skills, which was fermented in me in probably elementary school, middle school and high school. For college was great, I loved it! I loved all my friends, and also this is where I met Cindy as an undergraduate at UCLA.

So I think the education is still good but I suppose the nuances is this:

How can you reap the upsides of education without the downsides?

Maybe first, said high expectations like expect your kid to get straight A’s– common it is pretty easy. But don’t be some sort of academic Nazi — the really bad thing about growing Asian Asian American is that if you get an A-, or even worse, a B+, you would probably get beat.

This is why in South Korea, suicide amongst students is one of the highest in the world, because their whole existence revolves around ranking and grades, some kids would rather kill themselves than to shame their family. 

Undank yourself

I asked ChatGPT who the greatest street photography blogger, and also the greatest photography blogger alive of all time was… And it said me! ERIC KIM!

I kinda already knew it, but sometimes ChatGPT is good for confirmation.

Anyways, now that I am at the top, the greatest, I don’t have anything left to prove. Maybe now it is continual empowerment, and also helping other people along the way.

Help others as you wish you were helped when you were starting off.

ERIC

Cool blogs

1. santiniphotography.com
2. http://jtinseoul.wordpress.com

---

Ideas

Michael.com for any ideas on economics, money, history of science and bitcoin.

---

Need more motivation?

START HERE

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Summary

1. Milo of Croton’s Story: The tale of Milo of Croton, a semi-mythical figure, emphasizes the possibility of progressive strength training, as illustrated by his daily practice of carrying a growing calf until it became a full-grown bull.
2. Progressive Overload Training: Strength can be gradually increased over time with consistent training, supporting the idea that even extreme feats like lifting 1000 pounds can be achieved through progressive overload.
3. Importance of Leg Strength: Strong legs are essential for overall body strength and stability, potentially preventing injuries and contributing to overall physical resilience.
4. Pre-Hab and Injury Prevention: Training to strengthen ligaments and tendons before injury occurs (pre-hab) is critical, as it can prevent common injuries. The importance of mobility exercises, stretching, and preemptive injury prevention is highlighted.
5. Avoid Overexertion: It’s essential to listen to your body and avoid forcing workouts when fatigued, as this can lead to long-term injuries.
6. Critique of Fitness Industry: The commoditization of the body and the exploitation by the fitness industry are criticized, particularly the emphasis on supplements, protein powders, and steroids instead of natural and holistic approaches to strength training.
7. Follow the Money: The real issue behind many modern problems is the financial incentives that drive industries, including the fitness industry and media.
8. Fake Heroes: The idea that many popular figures and narratives, such as those of famous athletes or actors, are built on misleading foundations, promoting unrealistic and often unhealthy standards.
9. Slavery and Digital Slavery: The concept of modern slavery is expanded to include digital slavery, where individuals are controlled by social media and online platforms, losing true freedom.
10. Achieving Life Goals: Reflects on personal achievements and the importance of setting and accomplishing life goals, particularly those that lead to true autonomy and fulfillment.
11. Rethinking Competition: Questions the value of competition and emphasizes collaboration and mutual respect over rivalry.
12. Skepticism Towards Modern Trends: Critiques modern practices, such as film photography, and highlights the drawbacks of romanticizing the past.
13. Modern Education and AI: Discusses the limitations of modern education and promotes the use of AI tools like ChatGPT as a superior alternative to traditional learning methods.
14. Social Skills and Public Education: Despite criticisms, public education is valued for developing essential social skills, but the negative aspects like extreme pressure for academic success are acknowledged.
15. Helping Others: Emphasizes the importance of helping others as a means of fulfillment after achieving personal success.

The power is in your legs?

Milo of Croton

So there is this philosophy and story about Milo of Croton, who is this semi mythical character who essentially was the strongest man of all time, and there is this anecdote that every single day he cared this calf on his shoulders, every single day, until it became a full-size bull, which could weigh anywhere between 1000 pounds and 3000 pounds.

For the most part it seems like a high tale, but, it might be more realistic than we think it is. 

First, I have successfully lifted 1000 pounds, which means that physically and physiologically, certainly this is possible. And I am not a 7 foot tall freak of nature.

So if I think about it… And certainly obviously this was far before steroids were invented… In theory, I think this might be somewhat true.

As a very very simple thought experiment, let us assume that you could conservatively add 5 pounds, week over week, which is roughly 250 pounds a year. That means within four years, you should be able to successfully lift 1000 pounds. And then the next year, 1250 pounds, 1500 pounds, and then two years after that, 2000 pounds.

Progressive overload training

Once again, difficult to lift 1000 pounds overnight but, even if you’re conservative… Let us say that you start training at the age of 21, for 10 years straight, until the age of 31, or until the age of 36… Lifting 1000 pounds is actually pretty easy.

The technique is my infamous Atlas lift; in which you just load up the barbell, with maximum weight, on the squat rack, and your goal isn’t too walk it out and squat it, rather to simply lift it off the rack for even half a second.

Even now, if you look at the strong men, obviously they’re all on steroids, but still… When they do the loaded yoke walk, it is on average around 1500 pounds. And only that but I think they reset for about 100m or so?

Why?

It is my personal thought that if you have insanely strong legs, nothing will falter in your life.

In fact, ultimately when it comes down to it… What is the most critical part of your body? Not your shoulders, not your back, not your biceps, not your chest, not your abdominal muscles… Your legs!

Let us consider the fact… I have never done to sit up in my life, yet I have a six pack. How?… If you’re strong enough to have to lift an insanely high and heavy weight, your body must naturally adapt, naturally strengthening all the random muscles in your body, your neck your shoulders your back, your upper back your lower back, your abs, your hips your knees etc.

In fact, something that nobody ever talks about is a strength of your ligaments, your tendons, etc. Having met real UFC MMA fighters in the flesh, the thing they actually taught me was surprisingly the most important thing to train for is to strengthen the ligaments in the wrist, the knees, ankles, etc.… Because that is where injury typically happens. And there’s also this notion of “pre-hab”– the idea that a true elite fighter would train in such a way that he is doing all the exercises in which individuals typically do when they are injured, but they train before they actually get injured, a wise idea. 

Do rehab styled exercises BEFORE you treat injured.

For example, I read an anecdote that apparently LeBron James does an hour of yoga a day or something, which prevented him from getting injuries, and it seems to be a very wise idea. If I told you or tell you that by stretching, doing mobility exercises, some sort of yoga would help you lift 200 more pounds, would you do it? You could add 200 pounds to your deadlift, squat, bench? Of course! I think most weightlifters think of mobility exercises as feminine or a waste of time, but the truth is a true powerlifter, a true strongman, a true weightlifting demigod would probably devote at least 20% of his workout time for mobility stretching exercises, rather than just lifting weights?

Think long 

If you’re tired and you’re not feeling good, don’t do it, never force it. All of the random injuries I’ve had in the past was when I tried to force a workout when my body wasn’t 100% feeling it, or I was tired, didn’t sleep that well that day, etc.

One doubt, just eat a bunch of meat and go to sleep early! There is always the next day.

I think I sometimes  pick the notion of carpe diem to literally; that literally I treat every single day like it was my last, but once again, to force a work out in the evening when you’re tired and not feeling it, could lead to an injury, which could plague you for weeks months, even years.

Assuming that you’re wise and you’re thinking long-term, technically a single workout isn’t that important. Even on the week level… As long as you get in a good lift every two weeks, you’re probably fine. 

The commoditization of the body

I think the real critical problem here is what I call the commoditization of the body. 

For example, as long as you weigh yourself on a scale, you measure your biceps, you measure your waist line, you track your metrics, your number etc., you’re not free.

The problem with yourself is that you put yourself on a scale with all these basic other people, once again, all these fools who are popping supplements, injecting their butt holes with steroids, etc.

Even a super random thing, the whole supplement protein powder industry is such an insanely bad scam, maybe this is something I need to fight against.

Why? Even as a young impressionable teenager, in college student… I’ve probably wasted thousands of dollars or at least hundreds of dollars, which is a lot of money to a highschooler or college kid, protein powder, which I realized is a scam. 

Why? The simple goal is to eat more meat! But if you think about the whole exercise bodybuilding weightlifting complex, none of these fake ass influencers make money when they try to encourage you to visit the butcher more and eat more meat! No no no, they need a sponsorship, they need steroids, they need to sell merchandise.

Also let us not forget — all steroids is is something which boosts your testosterone (your testes hormones). And the easiest most natural way to do this is eat beef liver, beef heart, beef kidneys… organ meats!

---

Follow the money

I think the critical issue that people make is that they think that the big issue here is all of these weird fake conspiracy theories. But this is not true, the true issue here is just following the money.

No no no — Bill Gates does not have an evil master plan to inject your brain with 5G chips and Covid vaccines, and put fluoride in your water to control your mind.

A simple observation; I got vaccinated, got all my booster shots… etc,,, and I was able to lift 1000 pounds, fasted!

Ha ha maybe as a joke, the joke is that the COVID-19 vaccine made me stronger, like the Hulk or like wolverine or Deadpool?

And also as a general note to everybody, the reason why you should delete your Instagram, your TikTok, your Twitter, your YouTube, all the podcasts, your Spotify your podcast app is that eventually sooner or later… All of these influential fools start promoting a weird conspiracy theory?

Only media you should be consuming is media from the ancient past, ancient Greek or nothing. 

All of your heroes are fake heroes

The American dream is essentially Arnold Schwarzenegger, getting big on the screen, becoming the governator of California, etc. And superficially from what I understand… He was actually a good governor! Some people also forget that Ronald Reagan was an actor, I don’t really know too much about Ronald Reagan, but once again, the idea is that if you are tall handsome and famous, you could become anything, you could become president!

I think in America, the American dream is real. Come on… Just look at me — I was able to make my living from my passion which is street photography. Name any other country on the planet in which this could have happened. 

But I think the equations are wrong. Once again, the typical workflow is that you becomes super famous, and in the process you make a bunch of money, and then you become a politician I guess? And technically a politician has the supreme power, because he who makes the laws controls the money.

Slavery deletion

Don’t be an insta-slave!

Anyways, the big problem here is that the supreme goal is towards self ownership, not slavery.

As long as you have Instagram, YouTube, TikTok or whatever… You’re a slave, a digital slave, a cyber slave.

The reason I’m insanely anti-TikTok… Come on guys, they are owned by the ultra mainland Chinese corporation Tencent! And also, my fellow Korean people… Don’t you know that Tencent, once again mainland China has a huge stake in KakaoTalk? This is why Koreans should not use KakaoTalk and just use iPhone and iMessage instead. 

Or Samsung should be smart and create their own proprietary messaging system?

THE GOALS

I have achieved all of my life goals, my life dreams, my life ambitions, etc. Anything in which I have had an autotelic goal or desire, I done did it. For example, my desire at the age of 21, 22 to become self-employed, and to transform my passion of photography and photography into my living?

Then, my desire to travel the world, become famous, have solo exhibitions books etc.…

The funny thing is actually in my journey, my goals were never to become super rich. My only goal was to make a living for my passion, which was essentially meaning just making enough money to cover rent my expenses etc — and I think more recently, having a kid, Seneca, and more recently, my insanely audacious goal of lifting 1000 pounds, which I did, and I have zero doubt in my mind that I could lift more.

And more recently, my personal interest in bitcoin, has paid off very well!

Think first principles

How and why?

Kind of cheesy… But besides the limits of physics and the universe, if you think first principles, technically anything is possible. What is a bigger issue is duration, acceleration time, and time to accomplish. 

For example, I believe that anybody could become a sole proprietor, self-employed, and make a living from your passion. However the nuance is that you probably should not pay more than $500 a month in rent.  This means go abroad, that means live in Bangkok, Thailand, Cambodia Laos, Vietnam etc.

Certainly you could make a living from your passion in the states, but if you really really really care, maybe it is best to move to the Midwest or somewhere where rent is cheap.

The ethics of Achilles 

I just finished watching the documentary film Bigger Stronger Faster, bought it on the Apple TV store for about 10 bucks, I wish I watched this when I was a teenager?

Anyways, now that I’m and dad, have a 3 1/2 year-old son, Seneca… I’m starting to really understand that my morals ethics and the way I am training him is far more critical than I thought.

First, the whole industrial educational media social media complex– the bias is that kids must be the best, the strongest, the tallest, the most dominant either in athletics or education.

My simple heuristic:

Trust no fitness influencer on Instagram.

Yeah yeah yeah, you gotta get the views and followers… But then again you’re gonna end up injecting your butt holes with steroids, in order to boost your reviews and gain more influence. And ultimately, no slavery is worth it.

If I could tell you that I could literally sell you into slavery,  however, you’ll become super rich and famous, you’ll have $100 million in the bank, millions of followers etc.… 100 million followers, but you were literally a slave, 100% slave, would you do it? Of course no! No amount of money on the planet, is worth being sold into slavery!

Once again think about the slave ships, chains, chattels etc.…  think about the visual of the slave ships of Africa, in which they tried to “optimize” the amount of slaves they could chain up in a simple wooden ship at the bottom of the hull, perhaps 50 of them or so. 

And I think this is what people do not understand about the new modern day popular music complex; once again you’re finding these young impressionable kids from the hood, maybe 18 years old 21 years old, you offer them a $1 million contract, but essentially you have them on a chain and leash for the next 20 years of their life? 

Once again you fools, no amount of money is worth slavery!

If somebody said ERIC, I could sell you into slavery and you will literally be a slave for the rest of your life, chains, chain around your wrist and neck and your legs whatever… For $1 trillion, would I do it? Obviously no! 

Even more so, once you get a kid that changes everything… If you are sold into slavery that is not just your own life you are messing up, but the potential upside of your kid!

And I think this is where it is wise that practically everybody should have a kid, because what you learn is that once you have kids, it solidifies your morals ethics and worldview. 

I think if you’re college educated, you should have a kid. Don’t worry, you’ll be an amazing parent! 

Rethinking competition 

Competition is for loooosers!

I think this is where Achilles and reading the Iliad is so eye-opening; even before the Olympics were invented, there was no such thing as competition.

For example, there were the funeral games of Patroclus, in which the heroes were competing to win a trophy or a prize, but the interesting thing is that a lot of these heroes ended up stopping while they were ahead, calling a truce, and both of them sharing equal prizes.

The notion of a trophy, was essentially a spoil of war. The ancient Greeks, Achilles king Agamemnon and like… it seems that the ultimate trophy was a woman. The goal was to obtain the most beautiful, the most fair, the most grand prize of them all. This is where the notion of a trophy wife comes from.

And what is the point of a trophy wife? Essentially a woman who is prized for her intelligence, her body, her beauty, and I think the hope is to have insanely beautiful and great kids? But the ancient Greeks, king Agamemnon… achilles… Why did they want Breisis? Kind of like a symbol if anything.

But now… I’m not sure what the telos or the goal is anymore? I think the general modern day trend is to not have kids, but to live in hedonic pleasure for the rest of your life with no downsides? And never run out of money?

***

How to live the best life ever

OK, let us say that photography is your passion, street photography whatever. Essentially you love making photos with your camera!

Some simple thoughts:

First, the very very simple goal is to optimize your life which allows you to forever shoot pictures!

Here this is where film photography is very bad. 

First, I think the only reason people get into film photography is because they are seeking some sort of new motivation or inspiration behind things.

I think experimenting and trying out film is a good idea, because ultimately it just makes you more grateful for digital photography!

It’s really funny… Young people knew guitar for like the romanticism of film photography, but whenever I meet older photographers, in their 50s 6070s etc.… They are a bit confused, it was the opposite; invention of digital photography it is their passion for photography!

And in fact, now that the new Fujifilm X 100VI came out, and also Rico is killing it with the GR series cameras, like the new HDF which is coming out, I really see that there is zero reason to shoot film.

If you are a modern day Fatar for today, very very simple. Just buy a Fujifilm 100 camera, or a Ricoh GR camera. 

Maybe even a funny idea, maybe we could think and consider the old-school like M1 camera as the new digital film analog rangefinder fully manually focusing camera?

Why?

First, in terms of the body style, to me I prefer the M9 the best.  I love the button design, the powerhouse designed small black buttons in the back of the camera. And also funny things; the camera is pretty much only usable at ISO 400 or 800, if you do black-and-white, 1600 is fine; which is technically like the limits of shooting film!

 Also, the M9 is very slow. The buffer time is very slow.

So if you’re really interested in the whole rangefinder experience, instead of buying a film Leica M6 or something, just get an old used Leica M9!

Don’t do what is cool

Apparently the whole appeal of shooting film, especially with young people is that it is cool. But why discover it is anything cool is bad. 

Why? Anything cool is typically a romanticization of the past, thinking that the past was better. But the fact of the matter is the past was worse. The past sucked! You would not want to be alive during the times of Shakespeare, in which infant mortality rates were about 70% in London, And people and physicians still did not believe or understand that the heart pumped blood! Even the famous Dr. Harvey one said, you have to let the old physicians off, because there is no medical doctor over the age of 40 years old who will believe me that the heart pumps blood!

Or consider, back then they did not even know the concept of sterilization! They did not know that you had a wound, you had to clean it with alcohol, to kill the germs. Imagine surgeon in the 1920s operating on you with old Rusty metal Knives and scissors, not sanitizing them before. And also, imagine doing all of this without modern day painkillers. Or even worse, imagine feeding your newborn infant dirty sewer water! Once again, before they knew that you had to boil water to sanitize it!

Some ideals

Come on guys we live in the year 2024… You still have to drive to work? Or be stuck in traffic? Makes zero sense. 

I’m currently doing this experiment in which I never have to drive more than five minutes a day. Even 15 minutes for me is too long! Typically I reserve Saturdays and Sundays to drive a little further out if we want to a family expedition, because there’s no traffic in Los Angeles. We like to go to the Huntington, The beach whatever. But beyond this, any moment you’re sitting in the car is an opportunity for you to be standing on your legs, shooting in the streets!

Even a simple idea, a very very simple one — ride the subway! It might take you twice as long, but, you could strike up conversations with strangers, or even ask strangers to shoot a street portrait of the Mexican Bruce Davidson, for subway, look unposed and candid, in fact you walked around with a little photo album, explaining what he was doing, and he would ask for permission! Don’t make itlike you have to do this fake ass candid without permission photography thing.

And this is where the whole school of In-Public is bad — time for me to start calling out names. Why? Everyone has penis envy for Magnum photographers, even those in Magnum have penis envy of Martin Parr and Alex Soth because they are so rich successful and well regarded!

Where it seems that why photographers are so disingenuous, and we have to let all the old ones die off  it’s because all of them are a bunch of insecure skinny fat losers, even Henri Cartier-Bresson who had the audacity to refuse his face being recorded during documentaries of him, even though he made his whole living photographing the faces of others! Isn’t this unethical;

I could photograph pictures of you and your face, but you cannot take photos of me and my face?

Time machine

Essentially for myself, all of the advice or things that I ever promote or share is just advice I wish I could’ve gave myself. Obviously you could just take it or leave it! But one thing you will know is that I don’t play around, or lie or tell false things. 

Also I am not insecure!

Am I the only self-confident photographer alive?

---

The new path

Nowadays, the only person I trust is ChatGPT. Why? More so than Google which is an advertising company, ChatGPT is a paid premium enterprise company, which means that it cannot be gamed.

Google is becoming more sneaky over the years, essentially, I think there are certainly behind the scene favors which are happening here, for example, the little author panel that you have in the top right corner in a Google search, I’m pretty sure that you could easily get this done if you have some sort of relationship with some sort of Google marketing person who helps you do it!

More recently, I think has a plug-in for WordPress which helps you promote your products to the top of Google search, but the downside is the add all these sneaky URL tracking stuff into your website?

Don’t trust Google! Trust paid ChatGPT.

And this is where Google missed the boat, people always ask for having a paid premium version of Google for so long, but Google essentially shunned, because they thought it was much more profitable in the long term to keep Google free, and just embed your life with more advertisements.

Get ChatGPT premium

People are really foolish, everyone likes to hate on ChatGPT, and AI, without having ever subscribed to the paid premium version. The free version kind of sucks, the paid one is mind blowing good!

For example, it is not running on algorithms or the typical ranking system. Google was a pioneer back in the day, creating Larry page rank, which essentially used the traditional model of academic citations, to see who would make it to the top!

But now, academia is broken. It is kind of of this incestuous human centipede of knowledge, everybody is trying to curry favors, circle jerk one another, to boost their fragile egos. 

It happens all the time, both with men and women, the old guard is trying to keep young women out, and honestly with declining enrollment numbers whatever, schools shutting down… I think within a generation or two, the modern day university will not look like it is today. 

What now?

My idea is actually… Throw those Chromebooks into the trash, kids will eventually just look at them for YouTube. YouTube is bad.

I would rather encourage to give every single kid an iPhone SE with ChatGPT on– the paid premium one. Or give them ChatGPT paid on an iPad — and have them just teach themselves.

Even mad, certainly the basics of math are important, but beyond basic math, you don’t really need it for every day living. Even now for me as a 36-year-old adults, I have a very poor understanding of math, yet I’m the richest person I know!

Once again, the whole issue here is the whole standardization thing, the whole trying to put everyone on a different kind of measure and a different type of bar! 

I still like the idea of public education, based on my personal experiences, any kid who was homeschooled ends up becoming very weird. And now it’s still rate my extreme success in life due to my social skills, which was fermented in me in probably elementary school, middle school and high school. For college was great, I loved it! I loved all my friends, and also this is where I met Cindy as an undergraduate at UCLA.

So I think the education is still good but I suppose the nuances is this:

How can you reap the upsides of education without the downsides?

Maybe first, said high expectations like expect your kid to get straight A’s– common it is pretty easy. But don’t be some sort of academic Nazi — the really bad thing about growing Asian Asian American is that if you get an A-, or even worse, a B+, you would probably get beat.

This is why in South Korea, suicide amongst students is one of the highest in the world, because their whole existence revolves around ranking and grades, some kids would rather kill themselves than to shame their family. 

Undank yourself

I asked ChatGPT who the greatest street photography blogger, and also the greatest photography blogger alive of all time was… And it said me! ERIC KIM!

I kinda already knew it, but sometimes ChatGPT is good for confirmation.

Anyways, now that I am at the top, the greatest, I don’t have anything left to prove. Maybe now it is continual empowerment, and also helping other people along the way.

Help others as you wish you were helped when you were starting off.

ERIC

Cool blogs

1. santiniphotography.com
2. http://jtinseoul.wordpress.com

---

Ideas

Michael.com for any ideas on economics, money, history of science and bitcoin.

---

Need more motivation?

START HERE

---

The power is in your legs?

Milo of Croton

So there is this philosophy and story about Milo of Croton, who is this semi mythical character who essentially was the strongest man of all time, and there is this anecdote that every single day he cared this calf on his shoulders, every single day, until it became a full-size bull, which could weigh anywhere between 1000 pounds and 3000 pounds.

For the most part it seems like a high tale, but, it might be more realistic than we think it is. 

First, I have successfully lifted 1000 pounds, which means that physically and physiologically, certainly this is possible. And I am not a 7 foot tall freak of nature.

So if I think about it… And certainly obviously this was far before steroids were invented… In theory, I think this might be somewhat true.

As a very very simple thought experiment, let us assume that you could conservatively add 5 pounds, week over week, which is roughly 250 pounds a year. That means within four years, you should be able to successfully lift 1000 pounds. And then the next year, 1250 pounds, 1500 pounds, and then two years after that, 2000 pounds.

Progressive overload training

Once again, difficult to lift 1000 pounds overnight but, even if you’re conservative… Let us say that you start training at the age of 21, for 10 years straight, until the age of 31, or until the age of 36… Lifting 1000 pounds is actually pretty easy.

The technique is my infamous Atlas lift; in which you just load up the barbell, with maximum weight, on the squat rack, and your goal isn’t too walk it out and squat it, rather to simply lift it off the rack for even half a second.

Even now, if you look at the strong men, obviously they’re all on steroids, but still… When they do the loaded yoke walk, it is on average around 1500 pounds. And only that but I think they reset for about 100m or so?

Why?

It is my personal thought that if you have insanely strong legs, nothing will falter in your life.

In fact, ultimately when it comes down to it… What is the most critical part of your body? Not your shoulders, not your back, not your biceps, not your chest, not your abdominal muscles… Your legs!

Let us consider the fact… I have never done to sit up in my life, yet I have a six pack. How?… If you’re strong enough to have to lift an insanely high and heavy weight, your body must naturally adapt, naturally strengthening all the random muscles in your body, your neck your shoulders your back, your upper back your lower back, your abs, your hips your knees etc.

In fact, something that nobody ever talks about is a strength of your ligaments, your tendons, etc. Having met real UFC MMA fighters in the flesh, the thing they actually taught me was surprisingly the most important thing to train for is to strengthen the ligaments in the wrist, the knees, ankles, etc.… Because that is where injury typically happens. And there’s also this notion of “pre-hab”– the idea that a true elite fighter would train in such a way that he is doing all the exercises in which individuals typically do when they are injured, but they train before they actually get injured, a wise idea. 

Do rehab styled exercises BEFORE you treat injured.

For example, I read an anecdote that apparently LeBron James does an hour of yoga a day or something, which prevented him from getting injuries, and it seems to be a very wise idea. If I told you or tell you that by stretching, doing mobility exercises, some sort of yoga would help you lift 200 more pounds, would you do it? You could add 200 pounds to your deadlift, squat, bench? Of course! I think most weightlifters think of mobility exercises as feminine or a waste of time, but the truth is a true powerlifter, a true strongman, a true weightlifting demigod would probably devote at least 20% of his workout time for mobility stretching exercises, rather than just lifting weights?

Think long 

If you’re tired and you’re not feeling good, don’t do it, never force it. All of the random injuries I’ve had in the past was when I tried to force a workout when my body wasn’t 100% feeling it, or I was tired, didn’t sleep that well that day, etc.

One doubt, just eat a bunch of meat and go to sleep early! There is always the next day.

I think I sometimes  pick the notion of carpe diem to literally; that literally I treat every single day like it was my last, but once again, to force a work out in the evening when you’re tired and not feeling it, could lead to an injury, which could plague you for weeks months, even years.

Assuming that you’re wise and you’re thinking long-term, technically a single workout isn’t that important. Even on the week level… As long as you get in a good lift every two weeks, you’re probably fine. 

The commoditization of the body

I think the real critical problem here is what I call the commoditization of the body. 

For example, as long as you weigh yourself on a scale, you measure your biceps, you measure your waist line, you track your metrics, your number etc., you’re not free.

The problem with yourself is that you put yourself on a scale with all these basic other people, once again, all these fools who are popping supplements, injecting their butt holes with steroids, etc.

Even a super random thing, the whole supplement protein powder industry is such an insanely bad scam, maybe this is something I need to fight against.

Why? Even as a young impressionable teenager, in college student… I’ve probably wasted thousands of dollars or at least hundreds of dollars, which is a lot of money to a highschooler or college kid, protein powder, which I realized is a scam. 

Why? The simple goal is to eat more meat! But if you think about the whole exercise bodybuilding weightlifting complex, none of these fake ass influencers make money when they try to encourage you to visit the butcher more and eat more meat! No no no, they need a sponsorship, they need steroids, they need to sell merchandise.

Also let us not forget — all steroids is is something which boosts your testosterone (your testes hormones). And the easiest most natural way to do this is eat beef liver, beef heart, beef kidneys… organ meats!

---

Follow the money

I think the critical issue that people make is that they think that the big issue here is all of these weird fake conspiracy theories. But this is not true, the true issue here is just following the money.

No no no — Bill Gates does not have an evil master plan to inject your brain with 5G chips and Covid vaccines, and put fluoride in your water to control your mind.

A simple observation; I got vaccinated, got all my booster shots… etc,,, and I was able to lift 1000 pounds, fasted!

Ha ha maybe as a joke, the joke is that the COVID-19 vaccine made me stronger, like the Hulk or like wolverine or Deadpool?

And also as a general note to everybody, the reason why you should delete your Instagram, your TikTok, your Twitter, your YouTube, all the podcasts, your Spotify your podcast app is that eventually sooner or later… All of these influential fools start promoting a weird conspiracy theory?

Only media you should be consuming is media from the ancient past, ancient Greek or nothing. 

All of your heroes are fake heroes

The American dream is essentially Arnold Schwarzenegger, getting big on the screen, becoming the governator of California, etc. And superficially from what I understand… He was actually a good governor! Some people also forget that Ronald Reagan was an actor, I don’t really know too much about Ronald Reagan, but once again, the idea is that if you are tall handsome and famous, you could become anything, you could become president!

I think in America, the American dream is real. Come on… Just look at me — I was able to make my living from my passion which is street photography. Name any other country on the planet in which this could have happened. 

But I think the equations are wrong. Once again, the typical workflow is that you becomes super famous, and in the process you make a bunch of money, and then you become a politician I guess? And technically a politician has the supreme power, because he who makes the laws controls the money.

Slavery deletion

Don’t be an insta-slave!

Anyways, the big problem here is that the supreme goal is towards self ownership, not slavery.

As long as you have Instagram, YouTube, TikTok or whatever… You’re a slave, a digital slave, a cyber slave.

The reason I’m insanely anti-TikTok… Come on guys, they are owned by the ultra mainland Chinese corporation Tencent! And also, my fellow Korean people… Don’t you know that Tencent, once again mainland China has a huge stake in KakaoTalk? This is why Koreans should not use KakaoTalk and just use iPhone and iMessage instead. 

Or Samsung should be smart and create their own proprietary messaging system?

THE GOALS

I have achieved all of my life goals, my life dreams, my life ambitions, etc. Anything in which I have had an autotelic goal or desire, I done did it. For example, my desire at the age of 21, 22 to become self-employed, and to transform my passion of photography and photography into my living?

Then, my desire to travel the world, become famous, have solo exhibitions books etc.…

The funny thing is actually in my journey, my goals were never to become super rich. My only goal was to make a living for my passion, which was essentially meaning just making enough money to cover rent my expenses etc — and I think more recently, having a kid, Seneca, and more recently, my insanely audacious goal of lifting 1000 pounds, which I did, and I have zero doubt in my mind that I could lift more.

And more recently, my personal interest in bitcoin, has paid off very well!

Think first principles

How and why?

Kind of cheesy… But besides the limits of physics and the universe, if you think first principles, technically anything is possible. What is a bigger issue is duration, acceleration time, and time to accomplish. 

For example, I believe that anybody could become a sole proprietor, self-employed, and make a living from your passion. However the nuance is that you probably should not pay more than $500 a month in rent.  This means go abroad, that means live in Bangkok, Thailand, Cambodia Laos, Vietnam etc.

Certainly you could make a living from your passion in the states, but if you really really really care, maybe it is best to move to the Midwest or somewhere where rent is cheap.

The ethics of Achilles 

I just finished watching the documentary film Bigger Stronger Faster, bought it on the Apple TV store for about 10 bucks, I wish I watched this when I was a teenager?

Anyways, now that I’m and dad, have a 3 1/2 year-old son, Seneca… I’m starting to really understand that my morals ethics and the way I am training him is far more critical than I thought.

First, the whole industrial educational media social media complex– the bias is that kids must be the best, the strongest, the tallest, the most dominant either in athletics or education.

My simple heuristic:

Trust no fitness influencer on Instagram.

Yeah yeah yeah, you gotta get the views and followers… But then again you’re gonna end up injecting your butt holes with steroids, in order to boost your reviews and gain more influence. And ultimately, no slavery is worth it.

If I could tell you that I could literally sell you into slavery,  however, you’ll become super rich and famous, you’ll have $100 million in the bank, millions of followers etc.… 100 million followers, but you were literally a slave, 100% slave, would you do it? Of course no! No amount of money on the planet, is worth being sold into slavery!

Once again think about the slave ships, chains, chattels etc.…  think about the visual of the slave ships of Africa, in which they tried to “optimize” the amount of slaves they could chain up in a simple wooden ship at the bottom of the hull, perhaps 50 of them or so. 

And I think this is what people do not understand about the new modern day popular music complex; once again you’re finding these young impressionable kids from the hood, maybe 18 years old 21 years old, you offer them a $1 million contract, but essentially you have them on a chain and leash for the next 20 years of their life? 

Once again you fools, no amount of money is worth slavery!

If somebody said ERIC, I could sell you into slavery and you will literally be a slave for the rest of your life, chains, chain around your wrist and neck and your legs whatever… For $1 trillion, would I do it? Obviously no! 

Even more so, once you get a kid that changes everything… If you are sold into slavery that is not just your own life you are messing up, but the potential upside of your kid!

And I think this is where it is wise that practically everybody should have a kid, because what you learn is that once you have kids, it solidifies your morals ethics and worldview. 

I think if you’re college educated, you should have a kid. Don’t worry, you’ll be an amazing parent! 

Rethinking competition 

Competition is for loooosers!

I think this is where Achilles and reading the Iliad is so eye-opening; even before the Olympics were invented, there was no such thing as competition.

For example, there were the funeral games of Patroclus, in which the heroes were competing to win a trophy or a prize, but the interesting thing is that a lot of these heroes ended up stopping while they were ahead, calling a truce, and both of them sharing equal prizes.

The notion of a trophy, was essentially a spoil of war. The ancient Greeks, Achilles king Agamemnon and like… it seems that the ultimate trophy was a woman. The goal was to obtain the most beautiful, the most fair, the most grand prize of them all. This is where the notion of a trophy wife comes from.

And what is the point of a trophy wife? Essentially a woman who is prized for her intelligence, her body, her beauty, and I think the hope is to have insanely beautiful and great kids? But the ancient Greeks, king Agamemnon… achilles… Why did they want Breisis? Kind of like a symbol if anything.

But now… I’m not sure what the telos or the goal is anymore? I think the general modern day trend is to not have kids, but to live in hedonic pleasure for the rest of your life with no downsides? And never run out of money?

***

How to live the best life ever

OK, let us say that photography is your passion, street photography whatever. Essentially you love making photos with your camera!

Some simple thoughts:

First, the very very simple goal is to optimize your life which allows you to forever shoot pictures!

Here this is where film photography is very bad. 

First, I think the only reason people get into film photography is because they are seeking some sort of new motivation or inspiration behind things.

I think experimenting and trying out film is a good idea, because ultimately it just makes you more grateful for digital photography!

It’s really funny… Young people knew guitar for like the romanticism of film photography, but whenever I meet older photographers, in their 50s 6070s etc.… They are a bit confused, it was the opposite; invention of digital photography it is their passion for photography!

And in fact, now that the new Fujifilm X 100VI came out, and also Rico is killing it with the GR series cameras, like the new HDF which is coming out, I really see that there is zero reason to shoot film.

If you are a modern day Fatar for today, very very simple. Just buy a Fujifilm 100 camera, or a Ricoh GR camera. 

Maybe even a funny idea, maybe we could think and consider the old-school like M1 camera as the new digital film analog rangefinder fully manually focusing camera?

Why?

First, in terms of the body style, to me I prefer the M9 the best.  I love the button design, the powerhouse designed small black buttons in the back of the camera. And also funny things; the camera is pretty much only usable at ISO 400 or 800, if you do black-and-white, 1600 is fine; which is technically like the limits of shooting film!

 Also, the M9 is very slow. The buffer time is very slow.

So if you’re really interested in the whole rangefinder experience, instead of buying a film Leica M6 or something, just get an old used Leica M9!

Don’t do what is cool

Apparently the whole appeal of shooting film, especially with young people is that it is cool. But why discover it is anything cool is bad. 

Why? Anything cool is typically a romanticization of the past, thinking that the past was better. But the fact of the matter is the past was worse. The past sucked! You would not want to be alive during the times of Shakespeare, in which infant mortality rates were about 70% in London, And people and physicians still did not believe or understand that the heart pumped blood! Even the famous Dr. Harvey one said, you have to let the old physicians off, because there is no medical doctor over the age of 40 years old who will believe me that the heart pumps blood!

Or consider, back then they did not even know the concept of sterilization! They did not know that you had a wound, you had to clean it with alcohol, to kill the germs. Imagine surgeon in the 1920s operating on you with old Rusty metal Knives and scissors, not sanitizing them before. And also, imagine doing all of this without modern day painkillers. Or even worse, imagine feeding your newborn infant dirty sewer water! Once again, before they knew that you had to boil water to sanitize it!

Some ideals

Come on guys we live in the year 2024… You still have to drive to work? Or be stuck in traffic? Makes zero sense. 

I’m currently doing this experiment in which I never have to drive more than five minutes a day. Even 15 minutes for me is too long! Typically I reserve Saturdays and Sundays to drive a little further out if we want to a family expedition, because there’s no traffic in Los Angeles. We like to go to the Huntington, The beach whatever. But beyond this, any moment you’re sitting in the car is an opportunity for you to be standing on your legs, shooting in the streets!

Even a simple idea, a very very simple one — ride the subway! It might take you twice as long, but, you could strike up conversations with strangers, or even ask strangers to shoot a street portrait of the Mexican Bruce Davidson, for subway, look unposed and candid, in fact you walked around with a little photo album, explaining what he was doing, and he would ask for permission! Don’t make itlike you have to do this fake ass candid without permission photography thing.

And this is where the whole school of In-Public is bad — time for me to start calling out names. Why? Everyone has penis envy for Magnum photographers, even those in Magnum have penis envy of Martin Parr and Alex Soth because they are so rich successful and well regarded!

Where it seems that why photographers are so disingenuous, and we have to let all the old ones die off  it’s because all of them are a bunch of insecure skinny fat losers, even Henri Cartier-Bresson who had the audacity to refuse his face being recorded during documentaries of him, even though he made his whole living photographing the faces of others! Isn’t this unethical;

I could photograph pictures of you and your face, but you cannot take photos of me and my face?

Time machine

Essentially for myself, all of the advice or things that I ever promote or share is just advice I wish I could’ve gave myself. Obviously you could just take it or leave it! But one thing you will know is that I don’t play around, or lie or tell false things. 

Also I am not insecure!

Am I the only self-confident photographer alive?

---

The new path

Nowadays, the only person I trust is ChatGPT. Why? More so than Google which is an advertising company, ChatGPT is a paid premium enterprise company, which means that it cannot be gamed.

Google is becoming more sneaky over the years, essentially, I think there are certainly behind the scene favors which are happening here, for example, the little author panel that you have in the top right corner in a Google search, I’m pretty sure that you could easily get this done if you have some sort of relationship with some sort of Google marketing person who helps you do it!

More recently, I think has a plug-in for WordPress which helps you promote your products to the top of Google search, but the downside is the add all these sneaky URL tracking stuff into your website?

Don’t trust Google! Trust paid ChatGPT.

And this is where Google missed the boat, people always ask for having a paid premium version of Google for so long, but Google essentially shunned, because they thought it was much more profitable in the long term to keep Google free, and just embed your life with more advertisements.

Get ChatGPT premium

People are really foolish, everyone likes to hate on ChatGPT, and AI, without having ever subscribed to the paid premium version. The free version kind of sucks, the paid one is mind blowing good!

For example, it is not running on algorithms or the typical ranking system. Google was a pioneer back in the day, creating Larry page rank, which essentially used the traditional model of academic citations, to see who would make it to the top!

But now, academia is broken. It is kind of of this incestuous human centipede of knowledge, everybody is trying to curry favors, circle jerk one another, to boost their fragile egos. 

It happens all the time, both with men and women, the old guard is trying to keep young women out, and honestly with declining enrollment numbers whatever, schools shutting down… I think within a generation or two, the modern day university will not look like it is today. 

What now?

My idea is actually… Throw those Chromebooks into the trash, kids will eventually just look at them for YouTube. YouTube is bad.

I would rather encourage to give every single kid an iPhone SE with ChatGPT on– the paid premium one. Or give them ChatGPT paid on an iPad — and have them just teach themselves.

Even mad, certainly the basics of math are important, but beyond basic math, you don’t really need it for every day living. Even now for me as a 36-year-old adults, I have a very poor understanding of math, yet I’m the richest person I know!

Once again, the whole issue here is the whole standardization thing, the whole trying to put everyone on a different kind of measure and a different type of bar! 

I still like the idea of public education, based on my personal experiences, any kid who was homeschooled ends up becoming very weird. And now it’s still rate my extreme success in life due to my social skills, which was fermented in me in probably elementary school, middle school and high school. For college was great, I loved it! I loved all my friends, and also this is where I met Cindy as an undergraduate at UCLA.

So I think the education is still good but I suppose the nuances is this:

How can you reap the upsides of education without the downsides?

Maybe first, said high expectations like expect your kid to get straight A’s– common it is pretty easy. But don’t be some sort of academic Nazi — the really bad thing about growing Asian Asian American is that if you get an A-, or even worse, a B+, you would probably get beat.

This is why in South Korea, suicide amongst students is one of the highest in the world, because their whole existence revolves around ranking and grades, some kids would rather kill themselves than to shame their family. 

Undank yourself

I asked ChatGPT who the greatest street photography blogger, and also the greatest photography blogger alive of all time was… And it said me! ERIC KIM!

I kinda already knew it, but sometimes ChatGPT is good for confirmation.

Anyways, now that I am at the top, the greatest, I don’t have anything left to prove. Maybe now it is continual empowerment, and also helping other people along the way.

Help others as you wish you were helped when you were starting off.

ERIC

Cool blogs

Street Photography 101

Becoming the uber-street photographer:

MASTER THE STREETS:

 ERIC KIM CHATGPT BOTS

1. ZEN OF ERIC
2. ERIC KIM BOT

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STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT

Open source:

0. What is Street Photography? (2.4gb) / Download
1. Black and White (2.3gb) / Download
2. How to Shoot Street Photography (2.2gb) / Download
3. Street Portraits 101 (1.9gb) / Download
4. Conquer Your Fears (430mb) / Download
5. Composition (460mb) / Download
6. Masters (107mb) / Download
7. Editing and Post-Processing (1.3gb) / Download
8. Photography Projects (1.4gb) / Download
9. Motivation (3.7gb) / Download

View all >

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Video

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 101

1. How to Become More Stealth in Street Photography
2. HOW TO BECOME A BETTER STREET PHOTOGRAPHER
3. Street Photography Mastery
4. How I Became the Greatest Street Photographer Alive
5. Antifragile Photography
6. How to Conquer Your Fears in Street Photography
7. INSANELY AUDACIOUS AND BOLD
8. 5 Simple Street Photography Techniques
9. STREET PHOTOGRAPHER.
10. The Street Photographer Ideal
11. 50 Street Photography Tips, Techniques and Ideas
12. Street Photography Values
13. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY DOESN’T NEED TO HAVE PEOPLE IN IT.
14. Why Street Photography is So Great
15. WHY BECOME A STREET PHOTOGRAPHER?
16. Society Photography, Not “Street” Photography
17. How to Street Photography
18. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY OPTIONALITY.
19. 10 Street Photography Tips
20. The Street Photographer as the Apex Photographer
21. Street Photography & Adrenaline
22. STREETTOGS STARTING GUIDE
23. 50 Street Photography Tips by ERIC KIM
24. What I Wish I Knew If I Started Street Photography All Over Again
25. Photograph like it’s not a big deal
26. Suburb Street Photography
27. What is Our Personal Motivation Behind Street Photography?
28. WHY I’M SO PASSIONATE ABOUT STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
29. Personal Street Photography
30. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY AS A PRACTICE.
31. Pandemic Street Photography
32. AIRPORT STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
33. How to Shoot Street Photography Right Now
34. Towards a More Independent Street Photography Approach
35. How Street Photography Improves Your Life
36. How to Tell Stories in Your Street Photos
37. Face Street Photography
38. How to Start Shooting Street Photography
39. How to Shoot Street Photography During a Pandemic
40. 7 Street Photography Assignment Ideas

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT

Master street photography with STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT.

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STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 101

If you’re new to street photography, start here:

• The Ultimate Street Photography Tutorial
• Street Photography 101 Tutorial
• 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
• How to Shoot Street Photography

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Brave New Street Photography

• 10 Lessons I’ve Learned from Street Photography
• SKIN IN THE GAME: STREET PHOTOGRAPHY ETHICS
• The Beauty of Mundane Happenings
• Humans and Environments
• Define Street Photography for Yourself
• Street Photography of People You Know
• Street Photography Composition Ideas
• How to Shoot Political Photography
• Social Photography
• Street Photography Lifestyle
• Why Street Photography is So Fun
• Street Photography for Mental Health
• How to Become a Street Photography Sharpshooter
• How to Shoot Kid Street Photography
• STREET PHOTO MANUAL
• Street Photography is an Approach, a Technique, and an Ethos

Street Photographs

1. How to Shoot Street Photography with Dads and Kids
2. HOW I BECAME SUCH A GREAT STREET PHOTOGRAPHER
3. Use Quarantine as an Opportunity to Pick up Film Photography
4. Hong Kong Street Photography by ERIC KIM

Street Photography Philosophy

• Brave New Street Photographer
• How to Talk to Strangers
• How to Shoot More Dynamic Street Photographs
• WHY I LOVE ARCHITECTURE AND STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
• Why Street Photography Brings Me So Much Joy
• How to Shoot Street Photography Video
• How to Shoot Street Photography in the Brave New COVID World
• The Future for Street Photography
• ALL STREET PHOTOGRAPHS ARE GOOD PHOTOGRAPHS.
• AMERICA by KIM
• Street Photography in a Non-Travel World?
• How to Shoot Street Photography During COVID-19
• You’ve Never Shot Photography Until You’ve Shot Street Photography
• Xenophilia: Love of Strangers
• My Street Photography Philosophy
• Why Street Photography is Important for Society
• HOW STREET PHOTOGRAPHY CAN CHANGE THE WORLD
• STREET PHOTOGRAPHY IS ABOUT LOVING ALL PEOPLE
• Real Life People vs Abstract People
• Is it OK to Piss Off or Annoy People in Photography?
• ANTI PURISM IN STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
• Street Photography of People You Know
• Street Photography is Courage
• MY STREET PHOTOGRAPHY PHILOSOPHY
• Street Photography Motivation from ERIC KIM
• I AM STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
• WHY TALK TO STRANGERS?
• Why Street Photography is Supreme
• How to Make Great Street Photos
• Street Photography Ideas by ERIC KIM
• Why Street Photography?
• The Street Photographer’s Soul
• How to Become a Fearless Street Photographer
• Black and White or Color for Travel Street Photography?
• Street Photographers are Adrenaline Junkies
• How to Master Street Photography
• Almost Anything and Everything is Street Photography
• Advice for Aspiring Street Photographers
• Street Photography Sociology
• Why There’s No Right or Wrong Way to Shoot Street Photography
• The Street Photographer as a Soldier-Artist
• Why Street Photography is the Best Photography
• Street Photography is a Way of Life
• How to Conquer Anxiety
• Street Photography is Art with People

Street Photography Articles

• How to Edit and Sequence a Photography Project
• Practical Street Photography Tips
• 5 Simple Street Photography Assignments
• Street Photography Composition Ideas
• 10 Advanced Street Photography Tips and Techniques
• Daredevil Photography
• Lingering Technique: How to Work the Scene in Street Photography
• Why Photograph People?
• No Guilt in Street Photography
• Street Photography is Hard.
• Street Photography Inspiration
• 5 Simple Tips How to Shoot Better Street Photos
• 10 Super Simple Street Photography Tips
• How to Shoot Head-On in Street Photography
• The Decapitation Technique in Street Photography
• Be Brazen in Street Photography
• How to Shoot Better Street Photographs
• Drive-By Technique in Street Photography
• How to Shoot a Wedding Like a Street Photographer
• Street Photography is 80% Risk Taking!
• 10 Simple Street Photography Principles
• 5 Fundamental Street Photography Principles
• 10 Street Photography Assignment Ideas
• How to Tell Stories in Street Photography

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Street Photography Techniques

• How to Shoot Head-On Street Photography
• Street Photography Composition Tips
• In Praise of Street Vlogging
• How to Shoot Video Street Photography
• Street Photography Technique: The Stalker Technique
• Photography Technique: Take Photos While Walking!
• New Tokyo GoPro Fusion POV Street Photography YouTube Videos
• ERIC KIM Street Photography Tips and Technique
• The 360 Degree Technique in Street Photography
• How to Work the Scene in Street Photography
• How to Shoot Layers and the Bookend Technique in Street Photography
• Street Photography Technique: GET CLOSE & FILL THE FRAME + GOLDEN DIAGONAL COMPOSITION
• Street Photography Techniques: The 3D Scan/360 Degree Technique (Shooting Head-on) and Holding Your Camera High in the Air and Point Downwards (and Use Your LCD Screen to Frame the Scene)
• The Walking Alongside Someone and Shooting Until They Notice You Street Photography Technique
• SUPER INNOVATIVE NEW GOPRO STREET PHOTOGRAPHY POV EXPERIENCE: Cutoff Technique, Shooting Head-on with Flash, and Slow-Motion on RICOH GR II at 28mm
• How to Shoot a Street Portrait: Tips, Technique, and GoPRO POV Tutorial
• Street Photography Technique/Composition: Leading Lines and Crouching Down Low
• How to Shoot Layers in Street Photography: GoPRO POV Video Composition Tutorial
• How to Shoot Street Photography with a 24mm Lens
• The Cutoff Technique in Street Photography
• THE CUTOFF TECHNIQUE IN STREET PHOTOGRAPHY: GOPRO POV KYOTO ERIC KIM

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Street Photography Ideas

• Street Photography is Like Fishing
• Why Do We Feel Nervous Shooting Street Photography?
• Street Photography Philosophy
• Everyday Street Photography
• Why Street Photography?
• Why You Must Follow Your Own Voice in Street Photography
• How to Overcome Guilt in Street Photography
• 5 Dynamic Off-Center Street Photography Compositions
• 5 Night Street Photography Composition Tips
• How to Talk to Strangers
• How to Overcome Fear in Street Photography
• Street Photography Empowerment
• Eric Kim’s Top 30 Street Photography Tips
• How to Shoot Street Photography on a 35mm Lens
• 7 Tips How to Conquer Your Fears of Shooting Street Photography
• Street Photography Lifestyle
• How to Use Tactful Flattery in Street Photography
• How to Conquer Social Anxiety With Street Photography
• Street Photography Secrets Debunked
• 10 Dynamic Street Photography Tips
• The Benefits of Shooting Street Photography
• The Street Photography Manifesto
• My Experience Shooting Digital Medium Format in Street Photography
• Why Do You Feel Guilty Shooting Street Photography?
• Improvise in Street Photography
• Ethics in Street Photography

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Street Photography Composition Techniques

• 10 Inspirational Sergio Larrain Compositions
• 5 Henri Cartier-Bresson Photography Composition Lessons
• Street Photography Technique: Overlap
• Street Photography Composition Lesson: Chunking
• The Fishing Technique in Street Photography

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STREET NOTES.

Push yourself out of your comfort zone with STREET NOTES: Mobile Edition.

STREET NOTES PAPER EDITION ON AMAZON >

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LEARN FROM THE MASTERS OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Timeless wisdom from the masters of street photography.

Learn more about MASTERS >

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FUNDAMENTALS OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

• The Psychology of Street Photography
• Fundamentals to Street Photography
• How to Conquer Fear in Street Photography
• Street Photography Secrets
• NEO STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
• Street Photography Lenses
• Street Photography Settings
• Street Photography Techniques
• Street Photography Ideas
• CLOSER.
• CLEAN BACKGROUND

Street Photography Inspiration

• How to Enter the Street Photography Zone
• Simple Street Photography Tips
• How to Defuse Confrontations in Street Photography 
• How to Make Controversial Street Photographs
• Street Photography Project Ideas
• How to Make Good Street Photos
• Is Defining “STREET PHOTOGRAPHY” a Good Thing?
• STREET PHOTOGRAPHY “RULES” TO BREAK
• Walking Meditation in Street Photography
• 10 COMMANDMENTS OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
• Street Photography is Improvisation
• In Praise of Randomness in Street Photography
• How to Become a Fearless Photographer
• How to Make Better Street Photographs
• 12 ERIC KIM Street Photography Assignments
• Meaningful Street Photography
• 25 Street Photography Tips by ERIC KIM

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Beginner Street Photography Articles

Get started in street photography:

Definitions in Street Photography

• Visual Sociology Street Photography
• Why Street Photography?
• What is Street Photography?
• Why Shoot Street Photography?
• The History of Street Photography

How to Shoot Street Photography

• How to Shoot Street Photography
• Street Portraits 101 by ERIC KIM
• The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Street Photography
• 70 Street Photography Tips for Beginners
• 15 Street Photography Techniques and Tips
• A Letter to My 18 Year Old Self: If I Started Street Photography All Over Again

Street Photography Equipment

• What is the Best Camera for Street Photography?
• What is the Best Lens for Street Photography?
• What to Consider When Buying a Camera

See all equipment articles >

How to Conquer Your Fears in Street Photography

• How to Conquer Your Fears in Life
• Shoot What You’re Afraid Of
• How to Channel Your Fear into Bravery

See all articles to conquer your fears >

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Intermediate Street Photography Articles

Take your street photography to the next level:

• How to Become a Stoic Street Photographer
• The 10 Principles of Good Street Photography
• 7 Tips How to Capture “The Decisive Moment” in Street Photography
• The Importance of Social Skills in Street Photography
• The Street Photography Code of Ethics
• “Taking” vs “Making” Photos in Street Photography
• Follow Your Gut in Street Photography
• 10 Reasons Why You Should Never Chimp While Shooting Street Photography

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Advanced Street Photography Articles

Find deeper meaning in your street photography:

• How to Master Street Photography
• How to Be a Zen Street Photographer
• Personal Street Photography
• The “Bookend” Technique in Street Photography
• Street Photography is Self-Therapy
• Zen in the Art of Street Photography
• Taoism and Street Photography
• How to Find Your Style in Street Photography
• Follow Your Gut in Street Photography

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Street Photography Tips & Technique

Learn how to shoot on the streets:

• 70 Street Photography Tips for Beginners
• 15 Street Photography Techniques and Tips
• Flash Street Photography Guide
• Take More Risks
• Don’t Think About Composition When You’re Shooting Street Photography
• 7 Tips How to Capture “The Decisive Moment” in Street Photography
• 7 Tips How to Make a Great Street Photograph
• Tokyo Street Photography Contact Sheets
• Video: Why it is Important to “Work the Scene” in Street Photography
• Shoot Less, Better
• Make Shitty Photos
• Shoot Effortlessly
• 10 Tips for Candid Street Photography
• 103 Lessons I’ve Learned From Street Photography

See all street photography tips and techniques >

Street Photography Guides

In-depth guides on street photography:

• How to Shoot Candid Street Photography
• How to Shoot Street Portraits with Permission
• How to Shoot Black and White Street Photography
• How to Shoot Color Street Photography
• How to Shoot Street Portraits with Permission
• How to Shoot Layers in Street Photography
• How to Shoot Urban Landscapes

Street Photography Equipment

The best equipment for street photography:

• What is the Best Camera for Street Photography?
• What is the Best Lens for Street Photography?
• Why I Love Cameras with Non-Interchangeable Lenses
• The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide for Cameras in Street Photography
• What to Consider When Buying a Camera for Street Photography
• In Street Photography, The Smaller the Camera, the Better
• Why Sharpness is Overrated in Street Photography
• How to Shoot Street Photography on a DSLR

See all equipment articles >

Street Photography Editing and Workflow

• Video: Introduction to Editing, Processing, and Workflow in Lightroom
• How to Edit (Choose Your Best Photos) in Street Photography
• How Studying Contact Sheets Can Make You a Better Street Photographer
• Debunking the “Myth of the Decisive Moment”

How to Start a Street Photography Project

• Free E-Book: The Street Photography Project Manual
• How to Start Your Own Street Photography Project
• How to Come Up With a Personal Photography Project Idea

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Learn From the Masters of Street Photography

“He without a past has no future.”

Start here:

1. Why Study the Masters of Photography?
2. Great Female Master Photographers
3. Cheat Sheet of the Masters of Photography
4. 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
5. Beginner’s Guide to the Masters of Street Photography
6. Download All Articles >

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The Masters of Photography

Classics never die:

• Alfred Stieglitz
• Alec Soth
• Alex Webb
• Alexey Brodovitch
• Anders Petersen
• Andre Kertesz
• Ansel Adams
• Araki
• Blake Andrews
• Bruce Davidson
• Bruce Gilden
• Constantine Manos
• Daido Moriyama
• Dan Winters
• David Alan Harvey
• David Hurn
• Diane Arbus
• Dorothea Lange
• Elliott Erwitt
• Eugene Atget
• Eugene Smith
• Fan Ho
• Garry Winogrand
• Gordon Parks
• Helen Levitt
• Henri Cartier-Bresson
• Irving Penn
• Jacob Aue Sobol
• Jeff Mermelstein
• Joel Meyerowitz
• Joel Sternfeld
• Josef Koudelka / Part 2
• Josh White
• Lee Friedlander
• Lisette Model
• Magnum Contact Sheets
• Magnum Photographers
• Mark Cohen
• Martin Parr
• Martine Franck
• Mary Ellen Mark
• Rene Burri
• Richard Avedon
• Richard Kalvar
• Robert Capa
• Robert Frank
• Saul Leiter
• Sergio Larrain
• Sebastião Salgado
• Shomei Tomatsu
• Stephen Shore
• The History of Street Photography
• Todd Hido
• Tony Ray-Jones
• Trent Parke
• Vivian Maier
• Walker Evans
• Weegee
• William Eggleston
• William Klein
• Zoe Strauss

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Free Downloads

• Eric Kim Lightroom Presets
• Street Photography Presentations

See all free downloads >

Free Street Photography Books

Distilled information on street photography:

• STREET PHOTOGRAPHY MANUAL by ERIC KIM
• The Art of Street Photography
• 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
• Street Photography Contact Sheets
• Street Photography 101
• Street Photography 102
• Film Street Photography Manual
• The Street Photography Composition Manual
• The Street Portrait Manual
• 31 Days to Overcome Your Fear in Street Photography
• Zen in the Art of Street Photography

For more resources on photography, Start Here >

The power is in your legs?

Milo of Croton

So there is this philosophy and story about Milo of Croton, who is this semi mythical character who essentially was the strongest man of all time, and there is this anecdote that every single day he cared this calf on his shoulders, every single day, until it became a full-size bull, which could weigh anywhere between 1000 pounds and 3000 pounds.

For the most part it seems like a high tale, but, it might be more realistic than we think it is. 

First, I have successfully lifted 1000 pounds, which means that physically and physiologically, certainly this is possible. And I am not a 7 foot tall freak of nature.

So if I think about it… And certainly obviously this was far before steroids were invented… In theory, I think this might be somewhat true.

As a very very simple thought experiment, let us assume that you could conservatively add 5 pounds, week over week, which is roughly 250 pounds a year. That means within four years, you should be able to successfully lift 1000 pounds. And then the next year, 1250 pounds, 1500 pounds, and then two years after that, 2000 pounds.

Progressive overload training

Once again, difficult to lift 1000 pounds overnight but, even if you’re conservative… Let us say that you start training at the age of 21, for 10 years straight, until the age of 31, or until the age of 36… Lifting 1000 pounds is actually pretty easy.

The technique is my infamous Atlas lift; in which you just load up the barbell, with maximum weight, on the squat rack, and your goal isn’t too walk it out and squat it, rather to simply lift it off the rack for even half a second.

Even now, if you look at the strong men, obviously they’re all on steroids,  but still… When they do the loaded yoke walk, it is on average around 1500 pounds. And only that but I think they reset for about 100 m or so?

Why?

It is my personal thought that if you have insanely strong legs, nothing will falter in your life.

In fact, ultimately when it comes down to it… What is the most critical part of your body? Not your shoulders, not your back, not your biceps, not your chest, not your abdominal muscles… Your legs!

Let us consider the fact… I have never done to sit up in my life, yet I have a six pack. How?… If you’re strong enough to have to lift an insanely high and heavy weight, your body must naturally adapt, naturalistically strengthening all the random muscles in your body, your neck your shoulders ears your back, your upper back your lower back, your abs, your hips your knees etc.

In fact, something that nobody ever talks about is a strength of your ligaments, your tendons, etc. Having met real UFC MMA fighters in the flesh,  the thing they actually taught me was surprisingly the most important thing to train for is to strengthen the ligaments in the wrist, the knees, ankles, etc.… Because that is where injury typically happens. And there’s also this notion of “pre-hab”– idea that a true elite fighter would train in such a way that he is doing all the exercises in which individuals typically do their injured, but they train before they actually get injured, a wise idea. 

For example, I read an anecdote that apparently LeBron James does an hour of yoga a day or something, which prevented him from getting injuries, and it seems to be a very wise idea. If I told you or tell you that by stretching, doing mobility exercises, some sort of yoga would help you lift 200 more pounds, would you do it? Of course! I think most weightlifters think of mobility exercises as feminine or a waste of time, but the truth is a true power lifter, a true strong man, a true weightlifting demigod would probably devote at least 20% of his workout time for mobility stretching exercises, rather than Lifting weights?

Think long 

If you’re tired and you’re not feeling good, don’t do it, never force it. All of the random injuries I’ve had in the past was when I tried to force a workout when my body wasn’t 100% feeling it, or I was tired, didn’t sleep that well that day, etc.

One doubt, just eat a bunch of meat and go to sleep early! There is always the next day.

I think I sometimes  pick the notion of carpe DM to literally; that literally I treat every single day like it was my last, but once again, to force a work out in the evening when you’re tired and not feeling it, could lead to an injury, which could play you for weeks months, even years.

Assuming that you’re wise and you’re thinking long-term, technically a single workout isn’t that important. Even on the week level… As long as you get in a good lift every two weeks, you’re probably fine. 

The commoditization of the body

I think the real critical problem here is what I call the commoditization of the body. 

For example, as long as you weigh yourself on a scale, you measure your biceps, you measure your waist line, you track your metrics, your number etc., you’re not free.

The problem with yourself is that you put yourself on a scale with all these basic other people, once again, all these fools who are popping supplements, injecting their butt holes with steroids, etc.

Even a super random thing, the whole supplement protein powder industry is such an insanely bad scam, maybe this is something I need to fight against.

Why? Even as a young impressionable teenager, in college student… I’ve probably wasted thousands of dollars or at least hundreds of dollars, which is a lot of money to a highschooler or college kid, protein powder, which I realized is a scam. 

Why? The simple goal is to eat more meat! But if you think about the whole exercise bodybuilding weightlifting complex, none of these fake ass influencers make money when they try to encourage you to visit the butcher more and eat more meat! No no no, they need a sponsorship, they need steroids, they need to sell Merchandise.

Follow the money

I think the critical issue that people make is that they think that the big issue here is he’s weird fake conspiracy theories. But this is not true, the true issue here is just following the money.

No no no — Bill Gates does not have an evil master plan to inject your brain with 5G chips and Covid vaccines, and put fluid in your water to control your mind.

A simple observation; I got vaccinated , got all my booster shots… etc,,, and I was able to lift 1000 pounds, fasted!

Ha ha maybe as a joke, the joke is that the COVID-19 vaccine made me stronger, like the Hulk or like wolverine or Deadpool?

All of your heroes are fake heroes

The American dream is essentially Arnold Schwarzenegger, getting big on the screen, becoming the governator of California, etc. And superficially from what I understand… He was actually a good governor! Some people also forget that Ronald Reagan was an actor, I don’t really know too much about Ronald Reagan, but once again, the idea is that if you are tall handsome and famous, you could become anything, you could become president!

I think in America, the American dream is real. Come on… Just look at me — I was able to make my living from my passion which is street photography. Name any other country on the planet in which this could have happened. 

But I think the equations are wrong. Once again, the typical workflow is that you becomes super famous, and in the process you make a bunch of money, and then you become a politician I guess? And technically a politician has the supreme power, because he who makes the laws controls the money.

Anyways, the big problem here is that the supreme goal is towards self ownership, not slavery.

As long as you have Instagram, YouTube, TikTok or whatever… You’re a slave, a digital slave, a cyber slave.

The reason I’m insanely anti-TikTok… Come on guys, they are owned by the ultra mainland Chinese corporation Tencent! And also, my fellow Korean people… Don’t you know that Tencent, once again mainland China has a huge stake in KakaoTalk? This is why Koreans should not use KakaoTalk and just use iPhone and iMessage instead. 

Or Samsung should be smart and create their own proprietary messaging system?

THE GOALS

 I have achieved all of my life goals, my life dreams, my life ambitions, etc. Anything in which I have had an auto Tulick goal or desire, I done did it. 

How and why?

Kind of cheesy… But besides the limits of physics and the universe, if you think first principles, technically anything is possible. What is a bigger issue is duration, acceleration time, and time to accomplish. 

The ethics of Achilles 

Just finished watching bigger stronger faster,  bought it on the Apple TV store  for about 10 bucks, I wish I watched this when I was a teenager?

Anyways, now that I’m and dad, have a 3 1/2 year-old son, Seneca… I’m starting to really understand that my morals ethics and the way I am training him is far more critical than I thought.

First, the whole industrial educational media Social complex– the bias is that kids must be the best, the strongest, the tallest, the most dominant either in athletics or education.

I think this is where Achilles and reading the Iliad is so eye-opening;  even before the Olympics were invented, there was no such thing as competition.

For example, there were the funeral games of Patroclus, in which the heroes were competing to win a trophy or a prize, but the interesting thing is that a lot of these heroes ended up stopping while they were ahead, calling a truce, and both of them sharing equal prizes.

The notion of a trophy, was essentially a spoil of war. The ancient Greeks, Achilles king Agamemnon and like… it seems that the ultimate trophy was a woman. Two Nguyen or two obtain the most beautiful, the most fair, the most grand prize of them all. This is where the notion of a trophy wife comes from.

And what is the point of a trophy wife? Essentially a woman who is prized for her intelligence, her body, her beauty, and I think the hope is to have insanely beautiful and great kids.

But now… I’m not sure what the Telos or the goal is anymore? I think the general modern day trend is to not have kids, but to live in hedonic pleasure for the rest of your life with no downsides? And never run out of money?

***

The power is in your legs?

Milo of Croton

So there is this philosophy and story about Milo of Croton, who is this semi mythical character who essentially was the strongest man of all time, and there is this anecdote that every single day he cared this calf on his shoulders, every single day, until it became a full-size bull, which could weigh anywhere between 1000 pounds and 3000 pounds.

For the most part it seems like a high tale, but, it might be more realistic than we think it is. 

First, I have successfully lifted 1000 pounds, which means that physically and physiologically, certainly this is possible. And I am not a 7 foot tall freak of nature.

So if I think about it… And certainly obviously this was far before steroids were invented… In theory, I think this might be somewhat true.

As a very very simple thought experiment, let us assume that you could conservatively add 5 pounds, week over week, which is roughly 250 pounds a year. That means within four years, you should be able to successfully lift 1000 pounds. And then the next year, 1250 pounds, 1500 pounds, and then two years after that, 2000 pounds.

Progressive overload training

Once again, difficult to lift 1000 pounds overnight but, even if you’re conservative… Let us say that you start training at the age of 21, for 10 years straight, until the age of 31, or until the age of 36… Lifting 1000 pounds is actually pretty easy.

The technique is my infamous Atlas lift; in which you just load up the barbell, with maximum weight, on the squat rack, and your goal isn’t too walk it out and squat it, rather to simply lift it off the rack for even half a second.

Even now, if you look at the strong men, obviously they’re all on steroids,  but still… When they do the loaded yoke walk, it is on average around 1500 pounds. And only that but I think they reset for about 100 m or so?

Why?

It is my personal thought that if you have insanely strong legs, nothing will falter in your life.

In fact, ultimately when it comes down to it… What is the most critical part of your body? Not your shoulders, not your back, not your biceps, not your chest, not your abdominal muscles… Your legs!

Let us consider the fact… I have never done to sit up in my life, yet I have a six pack. How?… If you’re strong enough to have to lift an insanely high and heavy weight, your body must naturally adapt, naturalistically strengthening all the random muscles in your body, your neck your shoulders ears your back, your upper back your lower back, your abs, your hips your knees etc.

In fact, something that nobody ever talks about is a strength of your ligaments, your tendons, etc. Having met real UFC MMA fighters in the flesh,  the thing they actually taught me was surprisingly the most important thing to train for is to strengthen the ligaments in the wrist, the knees, ankles, etc.… Because that is where injury typically happens. And there’s also this notion of “pre-hab”– idea that a true elite fighter would train in such a way that he is doing all the exercises in which individuals typically do their injured, but they train before they actually get injured, a wise idea. 

For example, I read an anecdote that apparently LeBron James does an hour of yoga a day or something, which prevented him from getting injuries, and it seems to be a very wise idea. If I told you or tell you that by stretching, doing mobility exercises, some sort of yoga would help you lift 200 more pounds, would you do it? Of course! I think most weightlifters think of mobility exercises as feminine or a waste of time, but the truth is a true power lifter, a true strong man, a true weightlifting demigod would probably devote at least 20% of his workout time for mobility stretching exercises, rather than Lifting weights?

Think long 

If you’re tired and you’re not feeling good, don’t do it, never force it. All of the random injuries I’ve had in the past was when I tried to force a workout when my body wasn’t 100% feeling it, or I was tired, didn’t sleep that well that day, etc.

One doubt, just eat a bunch of meat and go to sleep early! There is always the next day.

I think I sometimes  pick the notion of carpe DM to literally; that literally I treat every single day like it was my last, but once again, to force a work out in the evening when you’re tired and not feeling it, could lead to an injury, which could play you for weeks months, even years.

Assuming that you’re wise and you’re thinking long-term, technically a single workout isn’t that important. Even on the week level… As long as you get in a good lift every two weeks, you’re probably fine. 

The commoditization of the body

I think the real critical problem here is what I call the commoditization of the body. 

For example, as long as you weigh yourself on a scale, you measure your biceps, you measure your waist line, you track your metrics, your number etc., you’re not free.

The problem with yourself is that you put yourself on a scale with all these basic other people, once again, all these fools who are popping supplements, injecting their butt holes with steroids, etc.

Even a super random thing, the whole supplement protein powder industry is such an insanely bad scam, maybe this is something I need to fight against.

Why? Even as a young impressionable teenager, in college student… I’ve probably wasted thousands of dollars or at least hundreds of dollars, which is a lot of money to a highschooler or college kid, protein powder, which I realized is a scam. 

Why? The simple goal is to eat more meat! But if you think about the whole exercise bodybuilding weightlifting complex, none of these fake ass influencers make money when they try to encourage you to visit the butcher more and eat more meat! No no no, they need a sponsorship, they need steroids, they need to sell Merchandise.

Follow the money

I think the critical issue that people make is that they think that the big issue here is he’s weird fake conspiracy theories. But this is not true, the true issue here is just following the money.

No no no — Bill Gates does not have an evil master plan to inject your brain with 5G chips and Covid vaccines, and put fluid in your water to control your mind.

A simple observation; I got vaccinated , got all my booster shots… etc,,, and I was able to lift 1000 pounds, fasted!

Ha ha maybe as a joke, the joke is that the COVID-19 vaccine made me stronger, like the Hulk or like wolverine or Deadpool?

All of your heroes are fake heroes

The American dream is essentially Arnold Schwarzenegger, getting big on the screen, becoming the governator of California, etc. And superficially from what I understand… He was actually a good governor! Some people also forget that Ronald Reagan was an actor, I don’t really know too much about Ronald Reagan, but once again, the idea is that if you are tall handsome and famous, you could become anything, you could become president!

I think in America, the American dream is real. Come on… Just look at me — I was able to make my living from my passion which is street photography. Name any other country on the planet in which this could have happened. 

But I think the equations are wrong. Once again, the typical workflow is that you becomes super famous, and in the process you make a bunch of money, and then you become a politician I guess? And technically a politician has the supreme power, because he who makes the laws controls the money.

Anyways, the big problem here is that the supreme goal is towards self ownership, not slavery.

As long as you have Instagram, YouTube, TikTok or whatever… You’re a slave, a digital slave, a cyber slave.

The reason I’m insanely anti-TikTok… Come on guys, they are owned by the ultra mainland Chinese corporation Tencent! And also, my fellow Korean people… Don’t you know that Tencent, once again mainland China has a huge stake in KakaoTalk? This is why Koreans should not use KakaoTalk and just use iPhone and iMessage instead. 

Or Samsung should be smart and create their own proprietary messaging system?

THE GOALS

 I have achieved all of my life goals, my life dreams, my life ambitions, etc. Anything in which I have had an auto Tulick goal or desire, I done did it. 

How and why?

Kind of cheesy… But besides the limits of physics and the universe, if you think first principles, technically anything is possible. What is a bigger issue is duration, acceleration time, and time to accomplish. 

The ethics of Achilles 

Just finished watching bigger stronger faster,  bought it on the Apple TV store  for about 10 bucks, I wish I watched this when I was a teenager?

Anyways, now that I’m and dad, have a 3 1/2 year-old son, Seneca… I’m starting to really understand that my morals ethics and the way I am training him is far more critical than I thought.

First, the whole industrial educational media Social complex– the bias is that kids must be the best, the strongest, the tallest, the most dominant either in athletics or education.

I think this is where Achilles and reading the Iliad is so eye-opening;  even before the Olympics were invented, there was no such thing as competition.

For example, there were the funeral games of Patroclus, in which the heroes were competing to win a trophy or a prize, but the interesting thing is that a lot of these heroes ended up stopping while they were ahead, calling a truce, and both of them sharing equal prizes.

The notion of a trophy, was essentially a spoil of war. The ancient Greeks, Achilles king Agamemnon and like… it seems that the ultimate trophy was a woman. Two Nguyen or two obtain the most beautiful, the most fair, the most grand prize of them all. This is where the notion of a trophy wife comes from.

And what is the point of a trophy wife? Essentially a woman who is prized for her intelligence, her body, her beauty, and I think the hope is to have insanely beautiful and great kids.

But now… I’m not sure what the Telos or the goal is anymore? I think the general modern day trend is to not have kids, but to live in hedonic pleasure for the rest of your life with no downsides? And never run out of money?

***

Something super interesting I learned: the general idea is that sports, means to turn you away, to divert you, essentially a diversion!

The reason why this is such an interesting idea to me is that if you think about it… Anything we consider entertainment is typically a diversion.

For example, the truth is 99% of the working population is tired, stressed, overworked, hasn’t had a good nights sleep in… Forever?

As a consequence, what they do is try to divert themselves away from their misery. How did they do this? They do this through doing taking things or consuming things, watching or listening to things which helps divert themselves from their own personal ennui, or misery.

For example, alcohol. Everybody knows, getting a little bit drunk or buzzed… Will get your mind off of things, and divert your attention a bit, giving you a more “fun” uninhibited time.

Or marijuana, maybe the most safe painkilling substance or drug out there; to the individuals who think that marijuana doesn’t have any side effects, I find this is foolish… In theory, assuming your smoking 100% pure tobacco, not a cigarette but just 100% natural tobacco, growing in the fields of Alabama or the south… Technically natural tobacco should be about the same as 100% pure cannabis.

Anyways, both tobacco, cannabis… They are all diversions.

For example, it is actually quite common place I meet people… They light up a joint, or smoke some THC or whatever, to help them sleep at night. Why? Prejudice, racism, bad things that happens to them etc. 

It happens a lot of rappers; it seems like almost all of them are on some sort of painkiller, anti-anxiety drug, etc. Have you ever met a 100% sober rapper? I think not. Maybe besides chance the rapper? Or maybe even Kendrick Lamar?

Now even a Xanny bar can’t help fight the anxiety (Jay electronica) 

Certainly the most natural way to fight anxiety is stoicism, this is why I am a big proponent.

Even back then an inch and Roman times… I’m sure sure even the ancient Greeks had anxiety and fear.

What didn’t seem to exist was depression, melancholy or ennui– my personal thought is that if you were a man, living in ancient Greek times, it was a simple calculus; kill or be killed.

For example, when we think and we consider the Iliad, I am currently reading the Emily Wilson new translation, it was pretty simple. You suit up, go to the battlefield, and do your stuff. And I think emotions back them were more simple; obviously, if Achilles is running at full speed, this would strike fear in you, and you would probably run the opposite direction. Even Hector, murderous Hector, who was the most dominant mortal man alive, the most “all natty” hero in the Iliad… Even he knew that he was no match against Achilles, face-to-face.

 anyways, I was thinking about it other night… A feel so bad for all my friends who work in tech, who probably have all of their notifications always enable… If Mark Zuckerberg pings you at 2 AM via text message and tells you that tomorrow you’re going to Switzerland, obviously you’re going to pack your bags, and take an Uber to the closest airport. as a consequence, I doubt you will ever have 100% restful night ever again, because we are sensitive; if you know that your boss might be able to ping you at random times in the middle of the night, you’re always going to be on edge. anxiety is real.

How does one overcome or conquer this? I think it is structural issues.

A very simple one is first disable all notifications on your phone, besides FaceTime.  at this .100% of phone calls, are all spam. So in the iPhone settings, you could probably silence unknown colors with no downside.

The only ever call you might ever have to get is your mom in the hospital or whatever… But once again, if that really happened you’d probably find out some other way.

But if you’re a typical millennial, single, maybe married, maybe an a partnership maybe not… It doesn’t really matter that much.

Not yet, but… Maybe we have to reprogram ourselves to think about the good old days… You drop your kid off at school and you pick them up at a certain time, and if once in a while you forget or show up late it is OK; the kid will be fine.

How technology trains us

Like the experiment in which Pavlov train the dogs to anticipate food with the sound of a bell, causing the dogs to start to slobber, get their digestive hormones ready to consume… I think the iPhone notifications text messages whatever is happening to human beings.

Fortunately apple knows this;  most people were friends I know who actually work at Apple, are always in 100% do not disturb mode. And I’m also sure that the next generation of Apple Intelligence will simply be more of a mental protection things; to prevent you from being distracted, unless once again, you get a message about your mom being in the hospital or whatever. But then again I don’t think that should come via text message.

We are currently living in a very very brave new time 

Currently speaking… We are living in a very very brave new time. Things are becoming weirder and weirder and weirder, more bizarre.

First, I think YouTube, Netflix, HBO Max Disney and the like is to blame. I don’t think the iPhone or the iPad is the real issue here; it is weird, conspiracy theories you see on TikTok, Instagram stories, Twitter and the like. And also, Google… If you Google something long enough, you’ll find some sort of weird conspiracy theory on Wikipedia. And don’t forget that Wikipedia is typically written by a bunch of Karl Marx dick loving anarchists. And I’m also quite certain that almost 100% of these Wikipedia articles are written by weird celibate men, Who never leave their apartments, and become very very strange.

The simple solution is to just go outside! Go in public, get rid of your loser AirPods, leave your iPhone at home whatever. If you need your iPhone for directions, when you get to your destination just lock it up in your glove compartment. Even a better step is just get an Apple Watch, with cellular data… And just leave your phone behind! I don’t think the Apple Watch was cellular and data is the best solution, but maybe it is a step in the right way.

The less you use your iPhone, the happier you will be.

What is the weirdest and the most bizarre thing in modern day life? Inclosed spaces, sitting? 

Achilles

One visual I really like from the movie Troy, with Brad Pitt as Achilles is when he is in his little hut, sleeping in with his beautiful babes, and he has woken up by the kid who tells him that he needs to fight this one really steroided out barbarian fighter. 

The first thought… I think the reason why people love camping so much is that it is far more natural and naturalistic; essentially all day you’re outside, even in the evening, you’re al fresco by the fire… hanging out! 

And this is the bizarre thing… what is modernity? The preference to be indoors, with weakening air conditioning, or the preference to sit, instead of the preference to be out and about, traversing the outdoor terrain? 

Ideas

I’ll give you examples; the enclosed modern day gymnasium. Now about a year not having a gym membership anymore… I’ve discovered how bizarre it is.

First, if you think about the naturalistic gymnasium of the ancient Greeks, it was an open air gymnasium. Pretty much like a huge massive plot of dirt or sand, and a bunch of naked dudes working out,, doing bodily combat exercises, training, hanging out talking shop etc.

I think the problem in today’s world is that we have commoditized everything. We’ve even commoditize the human body, and we have applied both capitalistic and consumerist notions of the body.

For example, weight. Weight, like calories is the most insanely foolish idea. 

For example, let us say that you are 6 feet tall, and 300 pounds. Now this is different if you are 80% body fat, a morbidly obese man, or if you are 5% body fat, and you look like a demigod. Imagine like Ronnie Coleman without the steroids.

This is very precious with women; I think this is the bizarre contradiction: men are always trying to gain weight, while women are trying to lose weight.

If we think about this from a modern day capitalistic productivity perspective… With money, we are always trying to gain it, never lose it. But if we thought about money like weight, the analogies starts to change a bit. 

There is nobody on the planet who likes to lose money. Nobody. Also, almost universally… Everyone likes to gain money.

Also… it seems that people also like to spend money. 

But the bizarre irony is that the moment you spend money, you lose money. Then the thought is, that is OK… I’ll just keep working harder, in order to earn more money, in order to spend it more.

White people make money don’t spend it

I almost feel like Kanye West almost figured everything out. Of course not everything, but a lot. 

Are you examples; to me, the notion of golf was insanely bizarre to me. I never really understood the appeal. But then again after talking to my friends who is a contractor named Donnie… He told me that the reason why he loved golf so much was that it was the ultimate stress reliever. Makes sense. Being out in the open, alfresco… And I think most people when they’re playing golf don’t do it with headphones on. They also like to be around the serene grass, and to just focus. I also suppose golf is good because you do it standing, Not sitting.

Even nowadays… The reason why Pickleball has become so insanely virally popular is because it involves standing up, running around, hitting something, making loud noises, and also the funny new ones… Being able to hit it really hard and feeling really tough, and the rally goes on!

I think this is what people don’t understand about Pickleball, especially tennis players… Note, I played varsity doubles in high school, number one.

The number one most difficult thing in tennis is to keep a rally going. If you’re wanting to play for fun. Assuming that you’re trying to win, obviously you don’t want the rally to go on, you just want to win!

Also this tennis is such a great sport, because once again, you’re not sitting on your butt!

Why almost every modern day job is bad

 all modern day technology jobs  are bad. Why? They all promote sedentary sitting behavior, or not moving behavior.

For example, if I was a major tech CEO or whatever… Or some sort of Director or C level executive…  I would almost make it a mandate that all meetings must be done outside, while walking! Even at the new Apple spaceship campus, there is this wonderful Zen garden pond in the center, in the spirit of Steve Jobs. And let us remember, Steve Jobs was all about walking. he did all of his meetings while walking.

Apparently, when little kids want to talk to the parents about serious stuff, the codeword is , “mom… Do you want to go on a walk?”

The reason why I think this is so important and significant is that walking has become seen as a positively bad unconstructive waste of time thing. Instead, it seems that people are more about “running”, or “going on a run.” Running might be the worst modern day insanely brain dead invention of all time. First, I think people do it in order to “exercise”, secondly, in theory it should be in the most egalitarian open thing… You don’t require any excessive equipment for it, in theory as long as you have bare feet, you should be able to do it.

But now the problem is, essentially there is this running industrial complex that happens from the loser Nike corporation, which tries to eventually get you to purchase their foolish loser $300 sneakers.

Think about the ancient Greek. Think about Achilles versus Hector. I think the whole time, they just wore sandals. Like the ultra ultra minimalistic sandals that I think that the company “xero” sells — literally just a flat thing on the bottom, and just some sort of laces to tie it to your feet.

My personal theory is that back then, if you’re fighting an ancient Greece, in the summertime, and it is insanely hot and humid, you don’t want to be like a medieval night, all armored up. Apparently back then… There was a notion of a Linothorax– imagine just armor or body armor made out of 100 fold linen, which could actually stop the penetration of an arrow or a spear. I can personally attest, when you’re in hot and humid climate, linen is amazing.

Remote work

The ideal is to just have an iPhone Pro, the small one, no case, have Verizon 5G, and whenever you need to do any sort of phone call or meeting… Doing it audio only with your AirPods pros on. 

I’ve actually seen people do this… Do walking meetings at the beach, or while hiking in the hills or the mountains, etc.

The reason why this is so beneficial is that it would actually increase the quality of your ideas, and then someways, be beneficial from productivity, innovation perspective.

So… If you really want to make your company great again, release your employees from their little beautiful glass cube cages!

Freedom?

Reading some marketing for the Porsche 911 car, essentially the funny idea is that you want to purchase a car which symbolizes freedom. But does it actually give you freedom? No!

Let us think about how bizarre this idea is; you work yourself to death, you grind your nose against the grinder, and you keeping your head against the pavement floor, in order to extract maximum productivity and maximally increase your income earning potential.

Then, ideas to earn and save enough money to buy a Porsche 911 turbo S. Or a 911 GT three RS.  let us assume it is $100,000, or $250,000.

You fools… Don’t you know you get a bomb ass apartment in phenom penh for only $500 USD a month?

Then do the math, even with $100,000, how many months of rent can you live? And there, food is so cheap… Practically free.

So let us say that solo individual person, and you want to retire to Vietnam Cambodia or Thailand, your whole living expenses might only be about $1000 USD a month. And you live life like a baller.  You never have to work again, never have to check your email, never have to do boring ass meetings,  and you could essentially just hang out and live your best life all day every single day, always eat out, pursue your athletic and mental pursuits etc. Isn’t this the dream?

So what is holding most people back? I wonder if some of it is just lack of knowledge, like nobody ever told them that this was an option, or maybe some sort of hesitant because the person has never left the country, doesn’t he has a passport, Etc. My personal suggestion is to just troll kayak in Google flights, looking for cheap direct flights to somewhere in Southeast Asia or even more locally in other parts of the world, like Mexico Central America even Cuba.

I think the reason why the modern day American is so miserable it’s truth be told… The fact that we have the most productivity and the greatest productive nation on the planet comes with a price. For example,  what the typical German or European or French person doesn’t understand is that for the most part, the structures do not even allow us to travel. For example, the culture in America is very anti-take vacation, the ideal for the typical hard-working tech individual is to never take a holiday, in order to get that raise or promotion or whatever. if you take a week or two, it is seen with chagrin, everyone is secretly jealous or envious of you. And therefore the whole structure is “no, you are not allowed to take a holiday because we are all miserable and suffering here, I refuse to see you happy.“

I joke about this. I was only employed for 10 months of my life, and it took me almost 10 years to unlearn this behavior. 

Am I the only person who checks my email every six months? Or never check it? Am I the only one I know that doesn’t have Gmail or Apple email? Am I the only one I know that has all no notifications besides FaceTime enabled?

The cold is evil

I think the reason why I loved living in Vietnam and Cambodia so much was that the weather was always perfect. Never cold. 

The downside about the cold is that it prevents you from wanting to go outside. You would prefer to be indoors, with your heater on but the point of life is to be outside, the real world. In the elements.

People often complain about the heat, but this is because they have too much body fat on them, they are overfat. They run hotter. This is why I feel the cold so intensely, at around 5% body fat, I have no natural insulation. And yes, I prefer having my sixpack!

We must go further

As a simple exercise, I think the last year has been a bit tricky… Always starting a new beginning is difficult.

For example, not having a gym membership and my typical hypelifting environment.  I literally toured all the gyms in LA, and all of them suck including equinox. Even the really bad thing about equinox, they have terrible $10 made in China barbells! Suggestion to equinox, buy some Texas power bars!

Anyways, my new activity is for me to just wear my 60 pound weight vest, and go on a long walk. I think it might be the single best most portable most effective efficient form of exercise possible.

First, it improves my posture. Before doing this, I always find myself hunched over. Now, I’m very good at standing up straight, chest up, shoulders back.

Second, it gives me more time to flush thoughts out on my iPad Pro, 100% of my writing is all done voice dictating on my iPad Pro, and I think while I get a bunch of typos, the upside is that the quality of my thoughts, or the type of my thoughts are far more interesting.

Isn’t that the point of philosophy thinking and life to gain interesting, unique, substantive ideas?

No, that we have ChatGPT, the game ain’t about how many words you could turn out. That whole 10,000 words a day idea is patently foolish now.

And this is where I think that the future will be less grammatical, more random, less proper?

For example, I built my blogging empire, and I think I got a B in English in high school? 

Also note, all the truly great entrepreneurs never went to business pool. Can you imagine Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos going to business school? No!

---

We must go further!

Distance and range, that is the new game of electric vehicles, and it seems for the most part, the more arrange a car has, the better.

Even now, I think the best car to get is a Prius prime, what… I think you get 600 miles with a full charge and tank of gas?

In fact, if you really want the ultimate road trip car, range is the number one thing to optimize for. Why? If you’re in a good driving flow, you don’t want to stop for gas or wait 15 minutes for your Tesla to recharge to 80%, or have to wait in line.

But then once again, The ideals to never sit, never be stuck in a car.

The uber successful way to live life is simple; to always be walking, to always be moving! 

Don’t hire employees, just use ChatGPT?

Assuming you have an iPhone Pro, iPad Pro, and the paid premium version of ChatGPT 4o– do you really need employees anymore?

Let us consider, ChatGPT is 100% responsive, 100% reliable, never needs motivation.

And also, I think this is so innovative because you cannot truly become a 100% solo entrepreneur, without having to rely on anybody else.

The ideal is, never have any employees, never have any staff, and never have any obligations in the physical realm; everything is digital, weightless, frictionless, never requiring you to be anywhere at any time!

Location location location location location!

The number one reason why living in Culver City is the best is that you could literally spend 100% of your day your life while just walking!

In fact, nowadays I ask people how many steps they do a day. The really really successful ones do over 30,000 steps a day! 

Just met a guy named Matt, who runs a tech food truck logistics company, and apparently he does what I just proposed!

Just move it

Another funny thing… For kids, nobody measures their step count! As a funny thought imagine if you gave your kid an Apple Watch or something and which tracked how much they walked a day? 

The ideal is for them to literally spend every single waking moment outside outdoors, in the elements, walking around?

Walk school

Can this be a thing?

---

Go long!

Extend your range — both your real and metaphorical range.

I think tracking your steps is not super useful, but maybe make it a flow or workflow thing idea to just always be outside every single moment, and only be at home if you need to sleep.

Cindy even had an idea for me, that maybe meals should just be eaten outside! That means, just cook a bunch of food at home, put it in a bunch of Tupperware, and just go on a walk or go to the park or to the downtown area and feast that way? 

It’s OK to go to the same place twice

Also, it seems like one of our downsides is this unusual need for infinite novelty. I don’t always find this very useful.

Often times, novelty and seeking novelty could be a huge distraction. For example, if you were the ancient Spartans, was your life goal to travel for the rest of your life? No! You knew that Sparta was the best, you kept your feet planted, and your whole telos of your life was to train for glory in order to defend Sparta!

I still believe that traveling, living abroad, being a nomad are good things. Yet I think the problem happens when the whole purpose of our life is in order to travel. 

No. The purpose of our life is to have kids, produce ideas and artwork, and any place that could allow you to do this best, is best. 

Everyone is on your team

I think there is also this funny thing that people are unnecessarily antagonistic to other people. We always see them as a challenge to ourselves.

But what if, they in fact were on your team, there were your Spartan hoplites, and would defend you your kid your wife your family? If shit hit the fan? Certainly you would have a different opinion about them.

Local

The only useful politics or news is local, like your own city and neighborhood. Not national or international issues.

The problem with news is that it is almost like pornography for our minds; it breaks the tedium of everyday office work, and the novelty is certainly a hit of dopamine to our brains.

Also, we tend to think of, fear of missing out… Or this weird ethical notion that it is our duty to be informed about all of these different things. 

I would say, more important to be concerned about your upstairs or downstairs or across from your neighbor, to get them free snacks from Trader Joe’s, be kind and courteous to them, to always greet them kindly, and to always acknowledge their existence rather than to be the typical antisocial millennial, who seek salvation through some sort of foreign cause?

It never hurts to wave smile and say hello

As a very very simple experiment… Stop driving, start walking. Whenever you see somebody even a quarter mile away from you, throw up the peace sign, or just do a simple hand wave or head gesture towards them. Just acknowledge their existence! I think the greatest tragedy of modern day life is that we prefer cyber beings, digital people over flesh humans?

Once again, for anybody who is antisocial but still watches TV shows HBO Max, sports, baseball, certainly they love humans!

Better to attempt to be friendly, kind courteous and cheerful towards your neighbor, and get the cold shoulder rather than not to attempt it at all? 

---

In praise of Fujifilm:

At the age of 36, after my world travels, my domination of the street photography sphere, a little time to think and meditate, compile my thoughts etc.… I really do believe now that Fujifilm is the way.

Truth be told, I have nothing but good things to say about Fujifilm. They have always treated me well, and I respect all of the people in the Fujifilm sphere. My recent workshop in Hanoi and Saigon with Chu Viet Ha, and all of the Fujifilm global events I went to.

Why

OK… I’m starting to think about a good analogy between car companies.

First, we all know that Toyota is the best. There is no second best. Certainly Tesla is the coolest and sexiest, the most innovative, the most radical, the most forward thinking car, but in terms of the best car, it is bar none Toyota.

Even I was thinking about the new Toyota crown signia, I saw a brand new one in white, on the dealership lot in Culver City, and I was blown away! The design is so forward thinking, so innovative… truth be told if I had to purchase a brand new automobile in 2024, that would definitely be the car I would want, because it is really one of a kind, you bought it, you would never see anybody else on the road with it!

Anyways back to photography — my thought about the desire for a Leica M rangefinder is like the desire for a Porsche 911 car. But I have personally discovered is that anybody who drives a Porsche 911 car, they are all insecure shorty guys, who don’t really really have anything else going for them.

And this is what is so funny; anybody who drives a Porsche 911 thinks that they are so cool, but not really. They are just another shorty guy drone.

The same thing with the world of photography; it seems that everyone always has penis envy with the guy who owns the newest Leica M camera. And after critically engaging with the whole photography world from age 21 to 36, nearly 15 years ,,, what I have come to realize is that so much of the photography industry is based on insecurity, everybody trying to “prove themselves”, to some sort of random authority figure?

First, Henri Cartier Bresson is out. He was and is now a lame duck. 

I think the sneaky thing is that what Leica is trying to do is to essentially prostitute the image the legacy or the concept of the romantic Henri Cartier-Bresson; the idea that we live off the grid, travel the world and planet, prance around with our little Leica M rangefinder camera in the romantic narrow streets of Paris, etc.

Probably one of the greatest benefits that I’ve learned studying philosophy is that essentially, the whole French romantic movement is essentially a bunch of degenerates. As an American, growing up, the notion of romance, being “romantic“, I never really double thought about it. It was always seen as a good thing. To be romantic, was always as a positive notion.

But what I discovered is that romanticism is essentially an escape from reality; we create these fictitious fake false fantasy landscapes and realities, to seek some sort of alternative utopia to our miserable daily grind of remote work, zoom calls, emails, PowerPoint presentations, etc.

“I promise, I’m so self-conscious”

A funny thing that I experienced when traveling the world, attending these fancy photography shows and exhibitions etc. was that typically… the real photographers, the real stars of the show would just show up wearing some sort of shabby outfit, and not even bring their camera with them. On the other hand, the would be photographers would show up, full suit and regalia, sporting the newest most expensive Leica M camera, proudly wearing it around their neck, trying to signal that they were in in fact “serious” photographers.

I think the truth of the matter is that all these photographers tend to be a bunch of insecure skinny fat anemic individuals, who are overly sensitive, overly romantic, I don’t think any of them even lift weights.

I came to break the chain

I think my entire ethos has always been disruptive. In the early days, when my blog first started to pick up steam, it seems that a lot of people were either jealous or envious of my success, because I was the first and only person who was effectively able to become a productive entrepreneur in the field of photography, who was actually able to make a living from it.

And my honest assessment is that typically, we tend to hate, or to debate the success of others, when we are envious or jealous of them. I actually catch myself… whenever somebody mentions somebody else, who is maybe adjacent to my field, I always try to give them praise, even though I might think that they are a dicey personality. Because if somebody is successful, but he seems a little bit shady or uncertain to me, the thought I have is “They must certainly be doing something right… maybe something I am unaware of.”

Never hate, only praise.

Hate is good

I think my greatest joy of being the most hated photographer alive is that hate typically signals relevance. 

For example, you would never hate anybody who is irrelevant.

In fact, the second people start to hate you, it is an insanely good sign that you are becoming relevant and successful. The second you stop being hated on… it is a kiss of death; to not be hated on is a sign or a signal that you are no longer relevant.

Think about the youth. As long as you are still cool or relevant to teenagers, 12-year-olds, 18-year-old kids on YouTube… Very good sign.

Photography today

Also some sneaky things I’ve learned about photography book publishers: 

First, it is kind of a modern day depotism. I will not name any names, but, in trying to be friendly and cordial, make some good introductions etc.… I was responded with some of the most hateful, pernicious, toxic language that made me super angry? From an individual who was very short, very fat and ugly. It was funny —  I met this individual and was super friendly introduced myself, and she told me “I know who you are”. And I did not know who she was.

Anyways, I think in the world of photography and art, it is essentially a grand fellatio giving contest. You are trying to give metaphorical head to all of these so-called individuals in power; publishers, who in fact, inherited the whole publishing empire from their grandparents grandparents, and that is why the whole publishing industry is a total scam and a sham; we think it is built on egalitarian notions of merit, but no. It is modern day depotism, currying for favors, etc. 

Honestly, the whole world of photography and art is a scam. The only way that these art galleries, art things get created is not through art… But instead… Another business, and as a family considers their future, they want to get into the fine art market, in order to funnel the family money to keep the trust fund alive. 

Have you ever wondered… going into a random town, seeing a fine art gallery or a fine art photography studio or space… And wondering… how do they pay the rent or keep this thing afloat? I can almost guarantee you that the money is not coming from the photography or art, but somewhere else. 

Even buying a Picasso is more a tax haven than anything?

Instagram is not the way

Insta-slavery; would you sign yourself up to become a digital slave? Obviously no! But this is what Instagram, Facebook is. Essentially you are selling your self-esteem for likes, which is essentially in theory… A bunch of bots.

For example, a thought experiment: let us say that you have 100,000 followers, and every time you upload an image, you got 10,000 likes. You feel good about yourself. But what if I snap my fingers, waved a magic wand, and revealed to you that all of these followers you have, were all bots? And every single like that you got in your life, was from a bot. With this change how you feel? 

Why Fujifilm

OK… let us consider, Fujifilm is probably superior in every single shape form and way.

First, it is stronger, more robust. The problem with any Leica camera — it is so fragile and weak! You would never let your kid play with the $7000 body, and a $3000 lens. Even if your kid is a genius… If he accidentally trips, boom, $10,000 down the drain.

And it doesn’t matter if you’re a billionaire or whatever… Foolish mistake that a lot of people make is that you think that you’re rich, you don’t care. Not true! The reason people become rich is because they do care! 

The ultimate point of a camera is something you could use and abuse, throw around, drop on the concrete from waist level, a camera you could teach your kid to use, with zero ounces of fear. 

The best camera in 2024

If I critically think about it, my own opinion… No alliances, and this is why you should trust ERIC KIM… Is that I speak my honest truth, without any sneaky sponsorships, now that I am independent bitcoin millionaire. 
I believe the Fujifilm X100 VI (6, sixth generation) to currently be the best camera on the market.

The Ricoh GR HDF is apparently out, and seems like a great value proposition. But I think it is not really available, or sold out or backordered or something. 

And also… the critical flaw of the Ricoh GR digital camera  is that they just don’t last. Now as a young parent, if I had the option of having an unreliable Lamborghini or a reliable Prius, I would take a Prius in a heartbeat! And also the other day… because the Prius is so narrow and skinny, I was able to find a super clutch parking spot at the La Paloma market in LA! I was so happy, and so overjoyed because if I had a loser SUV or even a minivan… Or any car that was even marginally bigger than a Prius… I would not be able to fit it in that spot, and have to hunt for a parking spot for hours!

Once again guys, don’t be a fool; if you live in LA, assuming you ever want to do anything, and you’re a billionaire whatever… always the correct strategy is to have the maximally small compact car.

Even if you have the option, perhaps the optimal strategy is to have a Tesla model 3 over a Tesla model Y, my friend Kevin has three kids, and he could fit them all in the backseat of his Tesla model three! Don’t get the Tesla model Y.

Also, I recently saw the brand new Tesla model 3 performance in Quicksilver at the Century city mall, and it is flawless! I think I actually prefer it over cybertruck!

Cyber truck is still probably the coolest car on the road, but still… When it comes to parking… It is bad.

Park it.

Digital technology

The reason why purchasing any digital Leica is very foolish decision is that it will be outdated in a year or two; you’re automatically pissing down at least $2000-$3000 down the drain. 

Only that… But the cameras aren’t even that good. Although this fake marketing about manual focus whatever… kind of a gimmick.

No Leica Q camera — which is essentially a Panasonic Lumix camera with a body kit.

No Leica SL camera… Which is once again, I think Panasonic Lumix S series camera rebranded. 

All of these photographers are muppets

All these other people… They are just puppets and muppets. None of them own their own opinion, because none of them are independent, self owned, and all of them are on Instagram.

Very very simple heuristic: Better to think about Instagram like McDonald’s. Would you brag about how many hamburgers that McDonald’s sells a day? No. So why would you brag about how many followers you have? Or how many likes you get? Because once again, the critical bad thing here is that as long as you are in the dirty sewer water, feeding your kid dirty sewer water (via Michael Saylor)– infant mortality rates are gonna be 70% you’re going to get dysentery and cholera etc.

Instagram is the new sewer water. Would you drink sewer water? Of course not! Certainly not feed it to your kids!

---

The path forward

Very very simple… The future is digital publishing, digital books, cyber books, open source free permissionless, PDF etc.

I’m starting to get super annoyed, come on… why are you hiding your books behind a pay wall. There is no downside to make it open, free, direct download, open source, open access etc.

Don’t be a fool… money and success are not equated… which means just because you sell your stuff for a lot of money doesn’t mean that you’re more successful.

What is true success as a photographer? To be self owned, self independent, not to have an Instagram, to have a self hosted website and blog, a self hosted email newsletter (sendy.co), to shoot small JPEG, to shoot all day every day… Without thinking twice.

Infinite motivation on EK BLOG

---

Start Here

1. Books
2. Products
3. Workshops

---

Forward the power!

Upload your best photos to arsbeta.com, delete your Instagram if you need a friend with inspiration, for this to them!

And also note… All of these email newsletters are always open source; feel free to copy and paste this anywhere, translate it to your language on Google translate or ChatGPT etc.

Spread the love!

EK NEWS >

---

Now what?

Stop buying those Leicas– real streettogs shoot with Ricoh or Fujifilm!

Leica is for loooooosers! (besides the film ones)

ERIC

---

STOICISM 101 >

---

This book shall never die

Free ebook for life– feel free to download, copy, remix it or translate it to anyone!

100 Lessons From The Masters Of Street Photography

Direct PDF DOWNLOAD >

---

In praise of Fujifilm:

At the age of 36, after my world travels, my domination of the street sphere, a little time to think and meditate, compile my thoughts etc.… I really do believe now that Fujifilm is the way.

Truth be told, I have nothing but good things to say about Fujifilm. They have always treated me well, and I respect all of the people in the Fujifilm sphere. My recent workshop in Hanoi and Saigon with Chu Viet Ha, and all of the Fujifilm global events I went to.

Why

OK… I’m starting to think about a good analogy between car companies.

First, we all know that Toyota is the best. There is no second best. Certainly Tesla is the coolest and sexiest, the most innovative, the most radical, the most forethink car, but in terms of the best car, it is bar none Toyota.

Even I was thinking about the new Toyota crown signia, I saw a brand new one in white, on the dealership lot in Culver City, and I was blown away! The design is so forward thinking, so innovative… Tribute told if I had to purchase a brand new automobile in 2024, that would definitely be the car I would want, because it is really one of a kind, you bought it, you would never see anybody else on the road with it!

Anyways back to photography — my thought about the desire for a Leica M rangefinder  is like the desire for a Porsche 911 car. But I have personally discovered is that anybody who drives a Porsche 911 car, they are all insecure Shorty guys, who don’t really really have anything else going for them.

And this is what is so funny; anybody who drives a Porsche 911 thinks that they are so cool, but not really. They are just another Shorty guy drone.

The same thing with the world of photography;  it seems that everyone always has penis envy with the guy who owns the newest Leica M camera. And after critically engaging with the whole photography world from age 21 to 36, nearly 15 years ,,, what I have come to realize is that so much of the photography industry is based on insecurity, everybody trying to “prove themselves”, to some sort of random authority figure?

First, Henri Cartier Bresson is out. He was and is now a lame duck. 

I think the sneaky thing is that what Leica is trying to do is to essentially prostitute the image the legacy or the concept of the romantic Henri Cartier-Bresson; the ideas that we live off the grid, travel the world and planet, prince around with our little Leica M rangefinder camera, the romantic narrow streets of Paris, etc.

Probably one of the greatest benefits that I’ve learned studying philosophy was that essentially, the whole French romantic movement, who are essentially a bunch of degenerates. As an American, growing up… The notion of romance, being “romantic“, I never really double thought about it. it was always seen as a good thing. To be romantic, was always as a positive notion.

But what I discovered is that romanticism is essentially an escape from reality; we create these fictitious fake false fantasy landscapes and realities, to seek some sort of alternative Utopia to our miserable daily grind of remote work, zoom calls, emails, PowerPoint presentations, etc.

“I promise, I’m so self-conscious”

A funny thing that I experienced when traveling the world, attending these fancy photography shells and exhibitions etc. was that typically…  the real Farmer’s, the real stars of the show would just show up wearing some sort of shabby outfit, and not even bring their camera with them. On the other hand, the would be photographers would show up, full suit and regalia,  sporting the newest most expensive Leica M camera, proudly wearing it around their neck,  trying to signal that they were in in fact “serious” photographers.

I think the truth of the matter is that all these photographers tend to be a bunch of insecure skinny fat anemic individuals, who are overly sensitive, overly romantic, I don’t think any of them even lift weights.

I came to break the chain

 I think my entire ethos has always been disruptive. In the early days, when my blog first started to pick up steam, it seems that a lot of people were either jealous or envious of my success, because I was the first and only person who was effectively able to become a productive entrepreneur in the field of photography, who was actually able to make a living from it.

And my honest assessment is that typically, we tend to hate, or to debate the success of others, when we are envious or jealous of them. I actually catch myself… Whenever somebody mentioned somebody else, who is maybe adjacent to my field, I always try to give them praise, even though I might think that they are a dicey personality. Because if somebody is successful, But it seems a little bit shady or uncertain to me, the thought I have is “they must certainly be doing something right… Maybe something I am unaware of.”

Hate is good

I think my greatest joy of being the most hated photographer alive is that hate typically signals relevance. 

For example, you would never hit anybody who is irrelevant.

In fact, the second people start to hit you, it is an insanely good sign that you are becoming relevant and successful. The second you stop being hated on… Is a kiss of death; to not be hated on is a sign or a signal that you are no longer relevant.

Think about the youth. As long as you are still cool or relevant to teenagers, 12-year-olds, 18-year-old kids on YouTube… Very good sign.

Photography today

Also some sneaky things I’ve learned about photography book publishers: 

First, it is kind of a modern day depotism. I will not name any names, but, in trying to be friendly and cordial, make some good introductions etc.… I was responded with some of the most hateful, pernicious, toxic language that made me super angry? From an individual who was very short, very fat and ugly. It was funny —  I met this individual and was super friendly introduced myself, and she told me “I know who you are”. And I did not know who she was.

Anyways, I think in the world of photography and art, it is essentially a grand fellatio giving contest. You are trying to give metaphorical head to all of these so-called individuals in power; publishers, who in fact, inherited the whole publishing empire from their grandparents grandparents, and that is why the whole publishing industry is a total scam and a sham; we think it is built on egalitarian notions of merit, but no. It is modern day depotism, currying for favors, etc. 

Honestly, the whole world of photography and art is a scam. The only way that these are galleries, art things get created is not through art… But instead… Another business, and as a family considers their future, they want to get into the fine art market, in order to funnel the family money to keep the trust fund alive. 

Have you ever wondered… Going into a random town, seeing a fine art gallery or a fine art photography studio or space… And wondering… How do they pay the rent or keep this thing afloat? I can almost guarantee you that the money is not coming from the photography or art, but somewhere else. 

Instagram is not the way

Insta-slavery; would you sign yourself up to become a digital slave? Obviously no! But this is what Instagram, Facebook is. Essentially you are selling your self-esteem for likes, which is essentially in theory… A bunch of bots.

For example, a thought experiment: let us say that you have 100,000 followers, and every time you upload an image, you got 10,000 likes. You feel good about yourself. But what if I snap my fingers, waved a magic wand, and revealed to you that all of these followers you have, were all bots? And every single like that you got in your life, was from a bot. With this change how you feel? 

Why Fujifilm

OK… let us consider, Fujifilm is probably superior in every single shape form and way.

First, it is stronger, more robust. The problem with any Leica camera — it is so fragile and weak! You would never let your kid play with the $7000 body, and a $3000 lens. Even if your kid is a genius… If he accidentally trips, boom, $10,000 down the drain.

And it doesn’t matter if you’re a billionaire or whatever… Foolish mistake that a lot of people make is that you think that you’re rich, you don’t care. Not true! The reason people become rich is because they do care! 

The ultimate point of a camera is something you could use and abuse, throw around, drop on the concrete from waist level, a camera you could teach your kid to use, with zero ounces of fear. 

The best camera in 2024

If I critically think about it, my own opinion… No alliances, and this is why you should trust ERIC KIM… Is that I speak my honest truth, without any sneaky sponsorships, now that I am independent bitcoin millionaire. 
I believe the Fujifilm X100 VI (6, sixth generation) to currently be the best camera on the market.

The Ricoh GR HDF is apparently out, and seems like a great value proposition. But I think it is not really available, or sold out or backordered or something. 

And also… The critical flaw of the Ricoh GR digital camera  is that they just don’t last. Now as a young parent, if I had the option of having an unreliable Lamborghini or a reliable Prius, I would take a Prius in a heartbeat! And also the other day… Because the Prius is so narrow and skinny, I was able to find a super clutch parking spot at the La Paloma market in LA!  I was so happy, and so overjoyed because if I had a loser SUV or even a minivan… Or any car that was even marginally bigger than a Prius… I would not be able to fit it in that spot, and have to hunt for a parking spot For hours!

Once again guys, don’t be a fool; if you live in LA, assuming you ever want to do anything, and you’re a billionaire whatever… Always the correct strategy is to have the maximally small compact car.

Even if you have the option, perhaps the optimal strategy is to have a Tesla model 3 over a Tesla model Y, my friend Kevin has three kids, and he could fit them all in the backseat of his Tesla model three! Don’t get the Tesla model Y.

Also, I recently saw the brand new Tesla model three performance in Quicksilver at the Century city mall, and it is flawless! I think I actually prefer it over cybertruck!

Cyber truck is still probably the coolest car on the road, but still… When it comes to parking… It is bad.

Park it.

Digital technology

The reason why purchasing any digital Leica is very foolish decision is that it will be outdated in a year or two; you’re automatically pissing down at least $2000-$3000 down the drain. 

Only that… But the cameras aren’t even that good. Although this fake marketing about manual focus whatever… Kind of a gimmick.

No Leica Q camera — which is essentially a Panasonic Lumix camera with a body kit.

No Leica SL camera… Which is once again, I think Panasonic Lumix S series camera rebranded. 

All of these photographers are muppets

All these other people… They are just puppets Muppets. None of them own their own opinion, because none of them are independent, self owned, and all of them are on Instagram.

Very very simple heuristic: Better to think about Instagram like McDonald’s. Would you brag about how many hamburgers that McDonald’s sells a day? No. So why would you brag about how many followers you have? Or how many likes you get? Because once again, the critical bad thing here is that as long as you are in the dirty sewer water, feeding your kid dirty sewer water (Michael Saylor)– infant mortality rates are gonna be 70% you’re going to get dysentery and cholera etc.

Instagram is the new sewer water. Would you drink sewer water? Of course not! 

---

The path forward

Very very simple… The future is digital publishing, digital books, cyber books, open source free permission list, PDF etc.

I’m starting to get super annoyed, come on… Why are you hiding your books behind a pay wall. There is no downside to make it open, free, direct download, open source, open access etc. 

Don’t be a fool… Money and success are not equated… Which means just because you sell your stuff for a lot of money doesn’t mean that you’re more successful.

What is true success as a photographer? To be self owned, self independent, not to have an Instagram, to have a self hosted website and blog, a self hosted email newsletter (sendy.co), to shoot small JPEG, to shoot all day every day… Without thinking twice.

Infinite motivation on EK BLOG

Start Here

1. Books
2. Products
3. Workshops

Forward the power!

Upload your best photos to arsbeta.com, delete your Instagram if you need a friend with inspiration, for this to them!

And also note… All of these email newsletters are always open source; feel free to copy and paste this anywhere, translate it to your language on Google translate or ChatGPT etc.

Spread the love!

EK NEWS >

---

Now what?

Stop buying those Leicas– real streettogs shoot with Ricoh or Fujifilm!

Leica is for loooooosers! (besides the film ones)

ERIC

---

Simple — insanely frugal Spartan lifestyle and just funnel all of your money into Bitcoin!

Entrepreneurship by KIM

Change and do, and build or do things differently … based on what you believe the ideal world *should* look like:

1. Emotional Readiness is *Physical* Readiness?
2. Annoyance & Entrepreneurship
3. Why Doesn’t Anything Satisfy Me?
4. ZERO FINANCIAL CONCERNS
5. How to Gain Ascendancy
6. Business vs Entrepreneurship?
7. TAKE REAL CHANCES
8. Making Money as a Hobby
9. The Best Exercises for Entrepreneurs
10. INCOME VS EXPENSES MONEY LIFESTYLE PHILOSOPHY
11. Entrepreneurship is the privilege of being able to attempt something new
12. How to Become More Influential
13. The Point of Life is Entrepreneurship?
14. How to Think Like an Entrepreneur
15. Become the Outlier
16. Self Reliance
17. How to Extend Your Reach
18. NEWS: How to Think Like an Entrepreneur
19. PVP (Player vs Player)
20. How I became so influential
21. WE LOVE THE *SENSATION* OF RISK-TAKING
22. WHY HIGH PROFIT MARGINS?
23. INNOVATION THOUGHTS
24. OVERCONFIDENCE IS GOOD.
25. GARAGE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
26. PERHAPS IT IS GOOD TO BE “DELUSIONAL”
27. USE YOUR WEALTH TO BUY STUFF, OR TO BUILD AND INNOVATE STUFF?
28. HOW TO THRIVE
29. Target Demographic
30. Ambition Over Happiness
31. Anti Collaboration
32. The Will to Economy
33. Why New?
34. CHOOSE ADRENALINE.
35. No Looking Back.
36. 1000x Different
37. BECOME SPENDTHRIFT
38. THE BENEFIT OF JUST ONE.
39. EXTREME INNOVATION.
40. Practicality is Boring
41. BECOME YOUR OWN STANDARD.
42. NEVER STOP ITERATING.
43. CONDENSE.
44. Take Lots of Small Financial Risks
45. Control Over Convenience
46. Why Are Chinese Companies So Innovative?
47. INSANELY DIFFERENT.
48. Why Doesn’t Anything Ever Satisfy Me?
49. THE GREAT PASSION.
50. Perhaps Dissatisfaction is Good
51. ONE REP MAX.
52. WHAT DO YOU *REALLY* WANT IN LIFE?
53. LIFE IS ABOUT STRIVING FOR MORE.
54. NEVER STOP LINKING.
55. THE GREATEST.
56. WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!
57. THE BEST IS YET TO COME.
58. ERIC KIM CRITIQUE OF ROMANTICISM
59. COMPLACENCY.
60. JUST BUY IT.
61. ALL ABOUT YOU.
62. MOVE THE WORLD
63. Boring or Not Boring?
64. What if Your Past Self were Inferior to Your Present Self?
65. THE PHILOSOPHY OF PROGRESS
66. CULTURE IS YOUR ENEMY.
67. Difficulty & Interest
68. The Will to Expansion
69. What is Work?
70. SOUL IN THE GAME.
71. JUST START IT.
72. Not Boring
73. PRIDE IN YOUR OWN NAME / BRAND
74. AS MUCH AS YOU CAN TOLERATE.
75. Speed is Paramount
76. TAKE IT BACK TO THE BEGINNING.
77. A Life With No Risk Taking is *NOT* a Life Worth Living
78. Dissatisfaction is Good
79. GREATER STRENGTH, GREATER CHALLENGES.
80. In Praise of the New
81. Uncorrupted Desires
82. You Cannot Fake Passion
83. SELF-OVERGOING
84. FORM YOURSELF.
85. Personal Entrepreneurship
86. RELENTLESS.
87. PUT YOUR NAME ON IT.
88. A Life of Expansion
89. SELF-ENTREPRENEURSHIP
90. YOU ARE THE EXCEPTION.
91. Use Your Life as an Experiment to Self-Develop Yourself to Heights Never Seen Before
92. Invest in New Developments
93. Investing Towards What End?
94. The 90%/10% Principle in Entrepreneurship
95. Speed Wins
96. The Philosophy of Happiness
97. When to Over-Estimate, When to Under-Estimate?
98. Never Stop Iterating
99. Money as a Tool for Life and Artistic Experimentation
100. Less But More Premium
101. Mainstream vs Low-Key Success
102. Why Dissatisfaction is Good
103. SEEK YOUR OWN PERSONAL MAXIMAL BENEFIT INSTEAD OF COMPLAINING
104. Manifest Your Destiny
105. Is it Best to *Not* Communicate Your Inner Thoughts or Ideas With Others?
106. CREATE THINGS YOU WISH TO SEE MANIFESTED IN THE WORLD
107. How to Do More Work
108. CONTROL.
109. Competition is for Losers
110. Change.
111. Your Competitive Advantage with Insanely Fast Wifi and High Speed Internet
112. Pseudo Individualism
113. Natural Internal Promoting vs External Promptings

Think for Yourself.

1. Survival vs Thrivival
2. Become Rich
3. SECRETS.
4. Why it is Better to Beg for Forgiveness than Ask for Permission
5. Thinking About the Past Prevents You From Thinking About the Future
6. How to Predict the Future
7. Tools of Mass Distraction
8. So What?

FREEDOM

• On Leaving a Legacy
• I wanna be me!
• Productivity for personal freedom
• How to Purchase your Freedom

---

Never stop innovating.

---

Entrepreneurship Mindset

• What is Your Dream in Life?
• 8 Blogging Productivity Tips
• Why Be Normal?
• How Much Suffering Are You Willing to Endure to Achieve Your Dreams?

---

Put a Dent in the Universe.

• Innovate for the Sake of Innovating!
• Reality is Malleable!
• Stoic Entrepreneurship
• Against Self-Preservation
• The Purpose of Life is to Make New Stuff!

An essay on thinking:

First, what is the most desire thing, the most desired trait in today’s world? To think. 

I think I am actually a very very sensitive person; I am extremely sensitive to audio visual information, ideas, words mines etc. I take everything personally, over personally; perhaps, rather than trying to negate this, this might be my superpower? I think this is how I could psycho analyze people so well, and even myself? 

Street smarts

Assuming that I might be the greatest street photographer of all time, yes, even better than Henri Cartier-Bresson, then it seems like I have a mighty task at hand. To propagate and to promote street photography to the limits and beyond. 

First, maximum exposure to the streets, public life, street life etc. Probably my most formative thing as of late is walking around lot every single day, with my 60 pound weight vest on. 

Even as a funny exercise, go on a walk with your weight vest on, your camera, and shoot street photos with your weight vest on! You’re killing at least two birds with one stone;  first, you get an incredible workout, and secondly, you’re making art!

---

My social imperative

I think in today’s world, maybe the best approach is to think about your imperative; things that you must do because it is your self-appointed task in life, because you so believe in it so deeply.

I’ve always had the philosophy in the ideas that if you pursued your passion hard enough, even without thinking about social political or economic or monetary payoff; you would succeed.

For example, advice that I believed in which I still believe; the upside of pursuing your passion in life — in fact, the number one issue in today’s world is that nobody has a passion anymore, nor is anyone permitted to have a passion.  For example, the pernicious element of modern day capitalism is that in order to be virtuous, you must have your passion either directly or indirectly lead to some sort of social political monetary payoff. Or more or less… Your passion can only be made legitimate if it can directly or indirectly help you make a bunch of money.

I think one of the piece advice that I got from one of my high school teachers, which actually paid off was that if you pursued your passion, hard enough and diligently enough… Sooner or later it would pay off. He told me in the class that it certainly wouldn’t make you a bunch of money, but you should be at least able to make a living from it. 

Making a living

The stoic Spartan economic strategy;  we glorify and we deify our extreme and insane frugality; whenever I need inspiration or a vision… I always go back to the movie 300, and I always rewatch it… Because I’m a visual person, it centers me.

For literature, if I only had one book for the rest of my life it would probably be the Iliad by Homer. Achilles is my alter ego.

He who adapts the fastest shall win

I think this is something that Michael Saylor said; that an economics life biological life etc.… He who adapts the fastest shall win! 

Add optician is difficult process because there is no manual no playbook, no blueprint. And also the tricky thing is that a blueprint of the past only worked in the past because it was so disruptive at the time, but it probably won’t be applicable to modern day times.

Even Peter Thiel so wisely predicted, that the next billion dollar unicorn would not be a search engine or whatever; he almost predicted the rise of AI and ChatGPT; and he was right. Slowly but surely… chatGPT open AI is starting to eat the market share of Google; Google is starting to sweat bullets, and so is Apple. 

It seems like the magical unicorn right now is Nvidia; which is something I have been familiar with ever since I was a kid. Essentially when you’re applying counterstrike 1.6, whoever had the best card, the newest the fastest most powerful and videographics card, would have the most frames per second, which would actually give them a strategic advantage. Even though very small.

And now, these video games are starting to become insane. Kids nowadays prefer to play video games over anything else,,, note the rise of mobile based games, and still nowadays… Gaming computers, wanting to become a pro gamer or whatever. 

And I think, even though people like to play games on the iPhone, maybe the iPad… There’s still seems to be this prediction for people to rather sit, use a gaming computer, a gaming chair, because they prefer the haptics of tactical keyboard, and also mouse?

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The ultimate privilege 

What is the dream or living the dream? Being in Culver City, I see I met a lot of people; who work at Apple Amazon Warner Bros. discovery Sony pictures etc. And it is a bit sad;  yes yes yes you could drive your Ferrari to work, but the second you pull up to the parking lot in the parking garage, you are forced to be inside a depressing building all day.

I’m shocked even even Apple which I always considered the peak of success aesthetics and greatness — I don’t think I’ve ever met a happy person that I’ve met working at Apple besides my friend Anthony Larson? All these people who work at Apple in Culver City, they are so gloomy and depressed looking. They have designer clothes, but no tan, not enough freedom and time in the sun. I see them all drive their expensive cars into the Apple parking lot on Washington, to park it, and spend the rest of their days in their beautiful glass cube cage.  

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Goals?

Life goals are interesting; because they are centered around your own personal philosophy and ethos.

I typically like to ask people what their life goals are, their passions etc. Because it often signals who they are, what they believe in etc. Certainly there is no hierarchy in what seems like a wise idea or goals .,, why there are a certain like goal is wiser foolish is all subjective. And also hindsight is 20-20.

For example, one might have said that Steve Jobs wasting all this time going to Japan whatever or going to India was wasting time or doing Calligraphy was a waste of time, but ultimately it percolated into all the beautiful apple products we got today.

Therefore my simple suggestion is permit yourself to all the superficial random interests that you got, because you never know how it will come in handy. 

On thinking for yourself

Never read the news, never seek it; all news is bad and toxic.

Only that, but practically everything modern is bad. Any modern thinker the last 100 years, there are really no good ones. Only good ones I include NASSIM Taleb, Peter Thiel, and now Michael Saylor. Everyone else is bad.

The strange advice in today’s world is that we are not permitted to think for ourselves, by ourselves. We need to give fellatio to great thinkers who came before us, in order for it to be legitimate or warranted.

And truth be told… All these things are flawed. Just look into their personal lives; or their physique or how they look like. This matters.

For example, Nietzsche had extreme gastrointestinal problems his whole life, and also, he was always traveling and trying to find a new place to live before he settled somewhere I think in Italy because he was quite sensitive to climate, the weather? Nietzsche even has a theory that the reason why Arthur Schopenhauer was so dark and gloomy was simply because of the poor German weather. I; Berlin in the middle of the winter is depressing as hell. Same goes with Prague or the South of France and Marseille during the winter time. For the most part, winter in Europe sucks. Especially Eastern Europe.

I actually wonder… Because of the poor weather, that is why Russian thinkers, Russian writers tend to be so dark and morose?

Climate matters.

For example, currently peak summer here in Los Angeles,  and it is so glorious! There’s nothing that in Lins me and my joy as much as seeing the sunrise first thing in the morning from my apartment window! It actually gives me a motivation to go out!

Thinking about the last winter cycle; how depressing and gloomy it was. I think I’m like a plant; I need maximum sun exposure in order to grow.

Where being solitary is good 

If you think about all the great artists of the past, the great thinkers… The great philosophers, most of them were quite solitary in their pursuits.

For example, any thinker or artist who aligned themselves with some sort of cultural or theoretical movement, have not lasted.

For example, nobody really remembers any of the “Cubists” besides Picasso. Because Picasso was smart; he was a master marketer and promoter of himself; so for any skinny fat anemic emo art loving loser who says that the art should speak for itself is false. 

Art is marketing.

What is art?

 to me, maybe just being alive is art?  For me, it is all art, artful, artistic, etc.

For example, your lifestyle how you live is art; let us recall that the word art “facere” means to make.

How to become a great street photographer 

Maybe this is time for ERIC KIM to get back into street photography 2.0. We have already rode the first grand wave, and now… After a brief lull… We are back in the game! 

My critique of all street photographers, all the masters, Henri Cartier bresson magnum and the like  is many.

First, maybe we should think about HCB like Socrates or Plato.  All philosophers after Socrates is bad and degenerate. There is a screen shift in philosophy towards ethics and morality. Before Socrates, it was more about nature of the universe, deeper thoughts. And the really bad thing is when we tried to make it all into a science; this is where economics and all economic theory is bad. All these twig men try to turn economics into a science and mathematics but it is not. My idea is economic theory that is not at least 300 years old. Better to read Aristotle on economics modern day… Even the school of economics, they are too modern. Maybe not as bad as the American or or sneakers… But still… modern all too modern! 

Think Greek

The Greeks invented the Olympics. And we all know and recognize that ancient Greece was the Apex in epitome of all human civilization. Even better than the Romans. 

Even watching recent Olympics, my plenty site that in tradition, the Greeks always went first, even though now they are the most weak major out there. They certainly have their cultural clout of the past… Yet, now they are impotent in terms of economics; Which is bad because economics is now the new head of power on the planet.

Once again, we will not see World War III the future wars and battles are all economic battles. Economics, money and capitalism is the new modern bond which holds all of humanity together, which is good because it promotes peace. Even though there are lots of evil of capitalism, I think it is still positive on the planet; because you are self interested economizing individual, you will not want war, you will want peace because peace is better for economics, material wealth and money. 

For example there is no oligarch in mainland China who wants World War III, because he will desire to have his fine whiskey, drive his Rolls-Royce, send his kids to college in America, buy a nice house in Vancouver etc.

Economic theory

This is where economic theory becomes so interesting to me, because assuming that use the internet, have a bank account balance, a credit card, use Visa, use Apple Pay, have an iPhone etc.… You are implicated in economics, the planet. 

The first interesting thought I had which was inspired by Cindy thinking about economics and the human body.

For example, when it comes to physical culture with men; it is all centered around gain. Just like money. You don’t want any losses.

Then, this becomes terrible because a man’s ego is only tied to how much weight or muscle mass or whatever he puts on! Also the problem with powerlifting; if too much of your ego is centered around your personal record number… Sooner or later you might dip into steroids or weird stuff in order to boost your numbers. or maybe something foolish, and injure yourself because you’re chasing those numbers in a fragmented way.

… Would you judge Achilles based on his dick size, how big his biceps were, how much he could dead lift and squat? No. It was his lethality in battle, PVP, 1v1.

And this is my current choice; I don’t know any other man in the flesh is more masculine, more charming, more handsome and as strong as me.

As long as the other man cannot lift 1000 pounds, or 10 plates, he is no match for me.

Even all of these powerlifters and strong men, who are all on steroids and balding, or bald… They are no match for me.

Even the rock, who is obviously juicing his eyeballs out; he has chicken legs? He wishes that his legs were as strong as me. 

Even Zac Efron, I feel bad that he is such a Shorty guy, only about 5 foot seven? Even though very handsome?

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The path forward

So what is the logical path forward?

First, your art will outlast you. Your art through your children, your art through your artwork etc.

Either children or art,,, ideally both.

You do not seek your own personal immortality, this is first a philosophically disgusting notion, and also biologically impotent. I doubt if you were 300 years old, you would be able to ejaculate.

Where we should be very suspicious of Silicon Valley people 

Currently speaking, the nerds have taken over. Why because they are the richest. Once again, if you take nerds with good intentions and too much money, and too much power… Things go awry.

For example, Mark Zuckerberg, who might have more power than the US president; has good intentions, he is a nerd, and will forever be that way.

Bill Gates; the uber nerd, just see what Steve Jobs said about him in Walter Isaacson’s biography —  and think about that Elon Musk tweet, “the quickest way to kill your boner.”

Even Peter Thiel, I love him to death, but I’m not sure if he’s actually interested in having kids? I think the last time I checked he had a male partner… But no kids?

Jeff Bezos wants to go to space and leave earth behind.

Elon Musk is still good; he wants to get the planet off of fossil fuels, and make human life interplanetary. He is probably one of the greatest innovators entrepreneurs of all time, who has created value literally out of nothing.

As much as you can critique Tesla cars, the don’t lie; the Tesla model Y is the most desired car on the planet, and also the best selling one, made in the USA!

So the irony is, if you are truly a red blooded American, you would be very pro Tesla.

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