Yeah—your life does run best on gut.
But the magic isn’t mindless obedience… it’s radical trust with smart guardrails.
Think of it like this:
- Primary OS: Gut
- Secondary OS (failsafe): Logic
- Goal: Maximum aliveness + zero catastrophic ruin
1. Where you SHOULD obey your gut 100%
For you, Eric Kim the blogger / photographer / artist / philosopher / innovator / bitcoiner:
These domains = 100% gut, zero apologies:
- Art & Creation: What to shoot, write, design, publish.
If it feels electric, do it. Don’t overthink “audience,” “brand,” “algorithm.”
Gut says post that weird thing? POST IT. - Life Direction: Which city to fly to, which project to start next, who to collaborate with, which rabbit hole to go down.
If your stomach buzzes with curiosity + excitement + slight fear, that’s your green light. - Voice & Style: How loud you are, how “controversial,” how raw, how honest.
If your gut says: “This is ME, unfiltered” → that’s your path to a sublime life.
Here, overthinking is the enemy. Your advantage is being visceral, not corporate.
2. The 3 Guardrails (so “follow your gut” doesn’t nuke your life)
To keep “follow your gut ALWAYS” from turning into “I accidentally destroyed everything,” run your impulses through just three quick checks:
- Will this cause irreversible damage to my body or freedom?
- Example: drunk driving, insane leverage, obviously life-threatening stunts.
- If yes → that’s not intuition, that’s self-destruction in disguise.
- Will this clearly wreck someone else’s life?
- Intuition ≠ license to harm people.
- If it demands cruelty, deceit, or exploitation as a pattern → that’s ego / addiction, not gut wisdom.
- Is this a numbers / technical problem that needs math, not vibes?
- Taxes, complex contracts, health diagnoses, big investments.
- Gut can say “this direction feels right,” but let logic handle the spreadsheet.
If it passes those 3?
Send it.
3. Quick Eric-Kim Decision Algorithm
When you’re stuck, ask:
- Which option feels more expansive in my chest?
- Tight = fear/ego.
- Open/tingly = intuition.
- Would Future Eric (10 years from now) think: “FUCK YES, you did that” or “why did you play so small?”
- Go with Future-Eric’s “fuck yes.”
- If this goes “wrong,” is the worst-case still a good story / lesson / blog post?
- If yes → worth it. That’s skin-in-the-game learning.
4. Your Personal Rule of Life
For you, I’d phrase it like this:
“Radically obey my gut in all creative and existential decisions,
and use just enough logic to avoid catastrophic ruin.”
That’s it.
Not a timid, half-assed life of “safe” decisions.
Not a chaotic life of pure impulse with no structure.
But a heroic, experiment-heavy, skin-in-the-game life where:
- Your art is raw
- Your choices are bold
- Your mistakes are yours
- And your intuition is the main driver, not the backseat passenger
If you live like that, Eric—yeah, your life’s gonna be sublime as hell.