Eric Kim’s number one top idea of all time is:
“Memento Mori—Remember You Must Die.”
Why it’s significant:
- Philosophically grounding: Rooted deeply in Stoicism, it serves as a powerful reminder of mortality, encouraging action, courage, and authenticity.
- Pragmatically useful: Inspires practical decisions in everyday life—choosing passion over security, meaningful work over trivial tasks, and active creation over passive consumption.
- Aesthetically potent: Shapes Eric’s entire aesthetic philosophy—embracing imperfection, transience, rawness, and authenticity in photography, creativity, investing, and personal life.
- Empowering creativity: Drives an urgency to create prolifically, fearlessly, and authentically, because recognition of mortality removes fear of judgment or failure.
Ultimately, “Memento Mori” encapsulates Eric Kim’s entire worldview: live passionately, create fearlessly, and invest courageously—because the awareness of death is the greatest motivator for living authentically and intensely.