NEW SLAVES
Once you got all the money in the world, infinite money, then what?
The point is to be outside in the real world!
The New Matrix?
So I’ve been thinking a lot about the repercussions of infinite money and wealth, in regards to crypto bitcoin and money and finances in general, Apple Vision Pro, the new Barbie movie, the matrix, society etc.
The first question:
What do we want?
I think there is this vague notion of “happiness”. The tricky thing is nobody really knows what it means, how to get it etc. period
Upon my long contemplations in Vietnam, now back in LA and beyond; my formula to happiness is simple:
1. Self-employment
Eagles don’t fly in a formation — leave that to the partridges and pigeons — Galiani [Paraphrased]
Only work for yourself, so provider, don’t be employed by anyone else but yourself, no employees, no manager, no CEO, no being the CEO, no collaborations, no board, no shareholders etc. 
The reason I’ve discovered this is that perhaps, the true thinker and philosopher is a solo individual. 
Also this just simplifies a lot of things; this is in line with advice from Naseem Taleb, that one of the best pieces of advice you got from the successful people in life is not having a personal assistant, because if you have a personal assistant or whatever, they will suck you into doing more work than you really need to. And also, I wonder if the best strategy to life being a non-scale individual is a good idea; Once your life is limited, you become more critical about what to do what not to do, and as a consequence, your life becomes more focused and simple.
2. How long to live?
In terms of how long to live, I think Nietzsche that for a philosopher, 70 years is more than sufficient! 
3. Wilderness, hiking, variation in terrain?
Also unto happiness, I think the idea of not being constrained to just flat surfaces and terrain is a good one. Let us think and consider, all of the most enjoyable and fun things in life involve curves, irregularities, randomness enchants, etc.
For example, if you have some sort of performance cars sports car racing car vehicle etc.; what type of track is the most fun? The one with the most hair spin, curves, not just straightaways. Also I think this is where rally racing is very interesting to people, the extreme unevenness of surfaces is what fascinates people.
Also let us consider the human body and physique; we love curves! On a woman, to a certain extent, the more curves the better! Look at the Venus de Milo – it seems that we men love a woman with an hourglass shape, a full and supple chest, curving torso, an hourglass shape in terms of hips to waste ratio. Also unto physical health and sexual fitness; we don’t want a woman looking like a skeletal, nor do we want an overfat or obese women;  a woman to be physically fit exercise every single day, have a relatively low body fat percentage with a high muscle mass is desirable.
Also with men, the ideal man has curved, bulging muscles. In his chest, shoulders, biceps, thighs and calves, etc.
Also with car design; I think the reason why people really like the classic cars in sports cars and Ferraris etc. is because of the curves.
4. The best hikes in LA?
Pacific Palisades — Los Leones Trail (566 Los Liones Dr
Pacific Palisades, CA)– Apple Maps.
I found that the Pacific Palisades, Malibu, anything close by the Pacific Coast PCH Highway, something close to the Getty Villa is the best in LA. Maybe the Griffith observatory, but still… I prefer Pacific Palisades. Why? It seems that the most sublime and supreme views for a human being to experience involve some sort of great and grand elevation, as well as views of The water.
Even though there are lots of bad things about LA, assuming you just go on the Saturday or Sunday, when it is not really that traffic, there are lots of great nature things to do in Los Angeles! Another good spot is Franklin Canyon Park (Apple Maps) – a little bit north of Beverly Hills.
In regards to hikes, hiking etc.; what is hiking anyways? My definition of hiking is a vigorous walk, ideally going up an elevation. My ideal hike is short, steep, and interesting. You don’t need to be one of those REI weirdos who spend 8 hours straight hiking, with those funny camelback. All you gotta do is drive your car somewhere interesting, park, hike and walk around for 30 to 45 minutes, jump back into the car, and continue on with your life. 
What I have found very interesting about hiking and going on hikes etc. is when you’re hiking on a foreign terrain or path, in which all of the ground is uneven, it does several good things for you:
- First, it opens up your hips, your back, your knees etc. up. I have a personal theory that the reason why we have so much back pain knee pain, hip pain etc. is precisely because society is too flat. Perhaps we actually need some sort of Variation entering in order for our bodies to be optimal. Let us consider it is not natural for streets pavements and sidewalks to be totally flat. In nature you never see anything that is 100% street or flat.
- When you are hiking on a difficult terrain, you cannot be distracted you have to focus 100%. Especially when there are lots of rocks and stuff, it really needs your 100% attention. You cannot go on a challenging hike while looking at your phone, or even listening to music. Something that people forget is that I think it is the cholera in our ears which facilitate balance; therefore if your ears are blocked up, your balancing becomes stinted.
- More oxygen in nature?  I have another theory that when we are nature, we are subjected to greater levels of oxygen in there, from all of the trees around etc. Also, biophilia; I think we human beings naturally love the color green; the color of life, verdant trees and pastures, life.  Let us consider that the color green is to go, it is also the color of income, profit, and money. Typically red is a bad thing; a red color indicates loss, financial lost and declined, stop signs, restrictions etc. Therefore when you put yourself in natural environments with lots of green, it makes people happier! If anything I wonder if we would be much happier in modern day societies and cities if we just put on a good paint job to all these ugly building; a fresh coat of beautiful bright green which could simulate color of nature might be good, or any other bright colors in nature; golden poppy orange, yellow, etc.
- You feel like a kid again! Temescal Canyon Trail (Apple Maps)– Cindy Seneca and myself all went there yesterday, and we had a blast. First when we went there, the hilarious thing was because of all the rain, there was this huge mini river, flood, fjord which essentially blocked one of the hiking paths. First we were a bit dismayed and was about to turn back, and then we saw a father and a son, and a dog simply walking across the river getting their shoes all wet! This gave us the inspiration to just screw it and go instead! I took off my vibram five finger shoes, and just literally went barefoot, and it was awakening!  Being able to walk again barefoot at nature, I felt like a big kid again! I think there is something to be said about these barefoot hikes; you walk slower, more carefully, and actually you get better connection with environment. I was even able to hike over rocks in the water while holding Seneca in one arm; I wonder if people would be happier just hiking barefoot instead! I think the only reason why we are discouraged from hiking barefoot is because in modern day society, for some reason or another, we are shamed, ashamed of our feet? We have a weird relationship with our feet and society, feet are seen as dirty, unclean, disgusting. Therefore I think our fetish for shoes or whatever is simply an offshoot the shaming that goes behind the feet. I find this to be very unhealthy, because there is nothing more And critical in our bodies than our feet! Our feet is the source of all of our wisdom, inside, and intelligence. Let us think and consider that even in the Iliad, all of the gods are considered “swift footed”.
5. Creative ideation
It seems that the best place in space and opportunity to be creative and think creatively is in nature! How and why?
First, randomness chance and fractal patterns. Essentially in  nature, there are infinite patterns, curves, etc. As a consequence, it is always entertaining to be a nature! Why? You’ll never see the same thing twice. In fact, nature is so fascinating because some other things that we never consider which are really fascinating include the chirping of birds, the sound of frogs, random fish in the water, and even being able to just pick up rocks and throw them into the river without having anybody scoring you! In nature there are no laws, no rules, no restrictions, you could do anything you please.
Also, when you’re in a really good nature spot, you have a 100% panel con view of natural things. The ideal view is you have a 360 view of simply trees, nature and water, fresh air, and the breeze. No virtual reality simulation comes even close.
6. VR?
I think it is pretty wise that Apple Vision Pro, Apple doesn’t market their Apple Vision Pro as being “virtual reality;” but instead caused it “special computing“, and also pouts the abilities of “spatial video“ etc. What does that mean and why does it matter?
I was a relatively early adopter, visionary, and also experimenter a virtual reality, back in oculus rift days, and I spent a lot of time thinking about it. Also, I tend to trend towards tech, tech optimism, tech utopianism etc.
Ever since I was a kid, computers technology the Internet, etc. was pure magic! As a kid, when you have no access to money your resources, assuming that you know how to use a computer, find the right websites, essentially you could download everything for free, you don’t have to pay any money for anything which is very useful as a kid because you have no money literally.
In fact, I have fond memories being a kid, when I was in the fourth grade, around 11 years old getting my first computer, an Acer aspire, Pentium one processor, having AOL 3.0 with my 38.8K modem, downloading “warez” in AOL “cerver” chat rooms, downloading illegal pirated versions of the original Grandtheft auto, 1/40 .RAR files over a dollar up Internet connection! This was hilarious, because it would often take me up to a week to download a single game, and also, because we only had one phone connection at home, I would hog up the entire phone line when playing StarCraft etc., even the original counterstrike 1.6… And I remember yelling at my mom when she would pick up the phone to make a phone call, etc.
 no at the age of 36, and having a swollen bank account, crypto account etc.; not much has changed. Now that I could afford any sort of Lamborghini I want, car device I want etc.; it is interesting because now, once I could afford things; they no longer really interest me anymore. I have a theory:
I wonder if we are curious about, and desire or aspire towards certain things we cannot afford… Yet once you could afford it, it longer entices you? 
I think it is also like men who are chasing certain women; once the man gets the woman, he is no longer interested in her?
7. Making and creating things which are useful for humanity?
I just finished reading GALIANI’s “On Money”–  and at the end of the book, he says that he is so happy and joyful that he was able to write something that could serve humanity. And it did it has. I think he published the book and 1750, almost 300 years ago! And even me as a reader today find it insanely useful, insightful, and empowering.
I suppose this is also where my street photography, photography, philosophy stoic philosophy mindset thinking is useful; my thoughts have already and impacted many individuals alive today, maybe some who are dead now, and I am still going; my personal aspiration is to be read at least 300 years from now!
8. So now what? 
What I have personally gleaned is that  all individuals want to create some sort of impact on the world. Whether it be an impact today, on current living human beings, or the future.
In fact one of the greatest stories that I have is that I am still read, enjoyed, and viewed and followed by highschoolers, college students today! Shout out to my friend Dylan Fan — RISD industrial design student and photography and street photography thinker, innovator and entrepreneur … he is thinking of building his own camera company!
9. What do we want to become?
 Another personal joy of mine is that unbeknownst to me,  for the last decade or so, I was followed by a lot of Hollywood producers, actors, directors, famous people etc. And I am certain that there are still lots of really famous people who I don’t even know who follow me, who follow me, and as a consequence, a funny thought:
You are much more influential than you think you are.
Something that analytics will never tell you; who is it that actually is following you?
For example, one of my friends, who keeps his persona pretty low-key, who works at Facebook, I think he has only 50 followers on Instagram, but one of them is Mark Zuckerberg himself!
Better to have one Mark Zuckerberg to follow you than to have 1 billion lemmings follow you.
10. So how to do this?
First, everybody starts off with zero followers, zero viewers, zero people etc. And this is a good thing.
First, one of the great things about starting from the bottom or with zero followers is that you have the childlike naïveté, creativity of a genius. In fact, practically all of my innovations come from ignorance.
For example, a random thing I am grateful for is that I never had any formal education with video, videography, etc. Why? I’ve discovered that anybody who studies cinema film or video formally ends up following and following sucker to the same tropes; Eventually they tend towards this boring Imo, overly sentimental personal family documentary things; nobody cares about that. 
My personal innovation was when I was 21 years old, fresh out of college, curse about true photography and how to do it; I just bought the original GoPro, I think it only shot 540 P or something, maybe 720 P, and I just dropped it on top of my Canon 5D and started shooting! Even today I find the videos insanely innovative and interesting.
Also my original Leica M9 point of view POV videos. 
11. Where did I go wrong?
My only “regrets” in life has to deal with not any personal regrets, but, rather new wisdom that I have gleaned; 
First, if I could do it all over again, I would actually become more stubborn, more close minded etc., and also, become more blind or deaf to the suggestions or ideas of others. I think one of my mistakes was chasing some sort of pseudo “legitimacy“, in the world of photography and art in order to “prove myself“. I have discovered that this is a mentality for only EMO anemic artists;  the problem about most artists, creatives, innovators is all of them are essentially skinny fat poor health sad unsuccessful individuals who were probably bullied as kids in high school and middle school, and seek some sort of revenge on reality through their tyranny on art in the art world, etc.
For example, every famous photography creator is himself or herself a failed artist or photographer; a curator is a funny case in which they themselves have not been able to gain success on their own photography or art, and instead, collect, curate, filter, order, and sift through the artwork of others; deeming what is, “good”, and what is “bad”. 
12. Avoiding the international association of name droppers (TALEB)
The more somebody quotes other people, the less successful they are.
My friends, you discover this in art, photography, the art world; the more that somebody quotes other artists, their names, and the more obscure they tried to make their claims, the more they are signaling that they themselves have no idea what they are talking about.
For example, now they look back at it, in my 20s, when I was a super famous and successful Street guitar for traveling the globe in planet, making my passion my living etc., all of these people who are either suspicious or jealous or envious of my success would try to belittle me by Trying to “educate” me on other famous artists etc.  Now that I could critically think back at it, they were simply jealous and envious of my success, and will try to augment their own self-esteem and ego by putting me down.
13. Do you really need to study other artists?
Technically no. I think only do it if you want to or like it.
For example, nobody in their right mind would force their kid to study Picasso or Matisse before picking up a crayon. No no no; a kid simply does.
A genius is a kid with good parents (Kanye )
Also–
“Every child is born a genius, the problem is having them remain to be a genius as they continue to grow up” – Picasso
My personal definition of genius is an individual who is self-assured, autotelic and “autistic” (autos, self — self focused and self determined).
I was using ChatGPT to do some research on the etymology and the history of autism and being “autistic“, and it was actually very interesting… Before we thought of it as being some sort of mental condition in which the kid lacks social skills or whatever, the first notion of being autistic was somebody who was really into themselves, self driven and self focused, a good trait. I think the first guy who even coined the notion of autism use the Greek term “autos”– self.
In fact now that I think about it, I could even consider myself to be autistic in so far much as I could really care less about the opinion others have of me; and certainly I bend the social rules to an extreme compared to other people. Of course I still understand the emotions and feelings of others, But I just certain point I don’t really care that much. Sometimes I care sometimes I don’t; I care deeply when it is friends and family, but when it is other strangers, I could empathize and sympathize with them, but ultimately I make the decision to just ignore it.
So I think maybe being an autistic photographer artist thinker innovator entrepreneur is a good idea. And to use autistic or autism in a generalized thing, and generalized concept, not a pseudo medical one.
The reason why I dislike categorizations like “Asperger”, autism, ADD, ADHD etc. is that literally every single human being is somewhere on the spectrum.
14. So what should we focus on?
So the big question is after all of this; what should we focus on?
My simple suggestion is blog. Focus on blogging. 
Why blog? What is a blog?
Blog simply means “web log“. And what that means is that you just log your thoughts on the Internet, on the web. And the definition of a blog is something that gets updated, all the time, every day, all day, as frequently as you were text message somebody, email, Post something to Instagram etc.
In fact a radical idea:
What if everything that you sent or created digitally you could just post it to your own blog?
For example, emails. What a massive waste of time. But, the most interesting way to make email scalable is if somebody ask you a certain question, you just publish the response publicly, and you could kill 10 birds with one stone; you create value for the whole world to enjoy, publicly.
Also the big suggestion that I have is delete your Instagram, and instead, post everything to your own personal blog instead! This is what Chris Athanasiadis did — and I love his blog! His thoughts are pure, honest, entertaining. And can be enjoyed all day, every day.
15. Am I the only millennial that I know without an Instagram? 
A funny thing is that now that I’m here in LA, without even trying I’ve been meeting a lot of interesting people on hikes, public places etc. Typically at the end of our conversation they will ask me what my Instagram is, and that will tell them I don’t have an Instagram, but instead, I give them my first and last name and my phone number. To me this is a much better strategy than giving away your email or your Instagram. Why? Having somebody’s personal phone number is much more useful; if in fact you do want to collaborate with them in the future, you can do so with their phone number; you cannot do this with social media.
If anything, I have a funny vision that I want to become a personal blogging strategist for famous people actors musicians rappers etc.; I think almost all rappers or famous people would benefit far more from having a personal blog than just an Instagram, which is essentially digital slavery 2.0.
Let us also not forget, that actually back in the day, even Kanye West used to have a blog! I still think there’s an Internet archive it somewhere; I think even now, today, Kanye should just take kanye west.com and turn it into his own personal blog instead of Trying to use social media.
Why? Sooner or later, you’re going to get censored banned or kicked off any social media platform. If you have your own personal blog, you cannot be censored.
16. Discovering useful things for yourself and for humanity
Ultimately my personal passion enjoy is discovering these interesting life hacks and strategies, in order to benefit myself and others!
For example, simply put, I am always trying to discover and recover new way of approaching life, philosophy, thinking creativity etc. And as I learn and grow an evolving change; I simply share these things to my blog for others to also enjoy.
Also a big thing: other people can take it or leave it!
Something which is insanely confusing to me:
Sometimes people become indignant at when I post things which are contrary to their liking.
But another funny thing; my blog is open and free, you don’t pay money to read none of it. And also, I don’t have these annoying ads and pop-ups and whatever obscuring you. As a consequence: if you see or read something you don’t like, isn’t the optimal thing to just ignore it and move on?
17. Future thinking
Perhaps future, futurism thinking about the future is a good idea.
One thing that I don’t trust these loser silicon valley tech entrepreneurs and visionaries is that most of them don’t have kids. Same thing goes with philosophers:
Trust no philosopher who doesn’t have kids.
Some people think that having kids will become an impediment to their thinking, entrepreneurship, innovation, art etc. This is far from the case.
In fact, having a kid, at least one kid, preferably two kids and beyond is that a kid wall awaken your true creative spirit and genius. I feel 1 billion times more happy innovative and interesting after Seneca was born. At the age of three years old, Seneca is giving me the ultimate turbo thoughts in regards to creativity art and beyond.
I am also very grateful and happy that he has never entered preschool, childcare, “Montessori” (which is just daycare with a good conscience)– and as a result has not yet been corrupted by the world.
Therefore is a consequence, seeing how Seneca approaches the world and learns etc. is one of the most eye-opening ways to reach challenge and reimagine how I approach life and think about things.
Therefore, if you’re true life goal is to expand your wisdom knowledge and consciousness to the extreme; I think that everybody should strive to have at least one boy, one girl, to really understand the inner workings of all gamuts of humanity.    
“When niggas have daughters”– JAY Z, NAS? Kanye?
 Apparently a lot of these rappers, when they finally have daughters or girls etc.; apparently the way that they approach and treat women and think about women changes.
For example, something that made me reconsider and rethink social media TikTok and Instagram was an interview in which Kanye said that essentially Instagram, TikTok was essentially child pornography for girls. And it is true.
It seems that on social media Instagram TikTok etc., women, young girls are rewarded the more revealing and sexual they become. And this is patently bad; because essentially the algorithm will train them and program them in such a way that they are rewarded for being more sexual. And the opposite goes for men; they are rewarded for having more menacing cars, having guns, other pseudo masculine things.
My number one tips for parents: 
Delete the YouTube app from your phone.
Also,
Never let your kid play any app or program or game etc. that is free.
A fun suggestion instead is that recently on my 11 inch iPad Pro and one chip, I purchased and installed the original roller coaster tycoon game, the one that I enjoyed so much as a kid. To me this is a great creative tool for Seneca; at the age of three, he loves physics and building; to me roller coaster tycoon is a more honest Roblox or Minecraft. The problem with a lot of these modern day apps is that they are bankrolled by in app purchases; which is a bad motivator.
18. Why is everyone so miserable?
Do you know that funny new advice that you should spend at least 15 minutes every single day outside in the direct sun? I say it should be at least eight hours a day! I know no depressed person who walks 30,000 steps a day in nature!
I think the big issue here is that we have become the new mole people; we simply spent too much time indoors. I think this is bad for our physiology our bodies our minds and our souls.
19. Opt outside
My simple formula for happiness is to just spend maximum time outside, outdoors! My definition of outside outdoors is simple;
The more UV radiation, the more UV exposure, the better!
Why is it in real life modern day society we have become so scared of the sun and UV radiation? If the sun is really really strong, just put on some sunblock! Or put on a hat and protective clothing.
But for myself, personally I really hate the look of a baseball cap, I only ever wear baseball caps when I run out of hair gel.
 Also another random thing about being a man; the best haircut is to just buzz and shave the sides really really close, a zero, let the top of your hair grow really long, and just put in some “ECO” hair gel and slick it back!  Why? You can give your hair the proportions of a Lamborghini.
20. Radical ideas
- I think an apple Vision Pro is only useful if you could use it outside, outdoors, in the direct sun, or in nature! I think using an apple Vision Pro indoors is bad.
- Perhaps a good strategy is if you want to spend more time outdoors, just get an iPhone Pro or whatever, or an iPad Pro, and take it outside! To me the most successful person will be outdoors all the time, if you have to do phone calls or emails for a living, do it while hiking outside! If you live in Los Angeles, maybe just bring your AirPods with you, go on a hike, and just do your zoom calls as audio only, while hiking! I think this will not only be better for your entrepreneurial thinking, but also better for your body and soul.
- Cancel your gym membership, just work out outside: calisthenics in the park, outside, outdoors, ideally with your shirt off. Also, just build an off the grid gym outside of your home; in your parking lot, garage etc. To me the ideal gym is outside!