What is my ultimate goal? To help improve the lives or the meaning of life of others or for others?
Life post privilege
I think one of the greatest privileges of having everything, becoming everything, is the privilege of buffer. Once you have everything you want, everything you need and desire, and also you have great clarity on life and things, then the simple question is — What do you want out of your life, for your life, from your life?
The first very basic thing is that I think, after all of this, the ultimate goal is to help empower the lives of others.
Think philosophy
Ultimately, everything comes down to a philosophical question.
For example, I look at all of these, unmarried, men, working hard at their tech jobs, working hard from home, etc.… all for the sake of what?
I think it’s all society. It seems that the real carrot and the cure is capitalism and consumerism in general.
For example, it seems the obvious answer here is children, begetting children, having children etc. Yet it seems like the critical flaw here is that people no longer want to have kids, it is a not a desired thing.
People would prefer to have dogs, they would prefer to go out and drink alcohol and go to festivals and do strange drugs, smoke or consume marijuana, or buy some sort of expensive car, to feel superior and dominant?
Or, to purchase clothes, all for the sake of what? 
Problems?
I think the first obvious corporate here is Instagram, now I suppose TikTok, maybe also YouTube.
YouTube is a little bit less at fault because most real life individuals don’t actually have their own YouTube channels; I think people approach YouTube as entertainment, whereas everyone has their own individual Instagram account, maybe even a few having a TikTok account? 
Instagram issues
I saw on the other day at the public library, a Wall Street Journal headline showing that effectively, the algorithm of Instagram or whatever promotes sexual behaviors activities and exhibitions.
I think this is true and also very concerning. For example, I think Mark Zuckerberg has to make a critical decision here; now that he is a father. Effectively, what is Instagram? I think it is promoting young girl child pedophilia; let us think, if you are young girl, what things will get the most likes? Things tend to be pseudo sexual and nature, showing off your body parts etc.
Even a lot of these 20 year olds, 20-year-old female women, the reason they become influencers is that there are lots of photos of them looking sexy and beautiful in bathing suits at the pool, living a glamorous life etc.
Also problematic for men and boys etc., strange images of men with beards, sunglasses, facial hair, with guns, and a bunch of babes around them?
Regardless, I think my simple parenting idea will be this:
I will never purchase or give Seneca his own phone iPhone smart phone etc.
No social media.
Would you give your kids cigarettes to smoke, or worse, heroin? 
Allowing your kids to use social media, or getting on it, or giving them their own phone is almost like a smoking parent, who is already addicted to nicotine, offering their kids to smoke.
If anything, social media, phones, Instagram, etc. might actually be 1000 times worse for kids than smoking, as social media now leads to depression, or strange dopamine hits to be programmed in a strange way.
My first suggestion is for parents, all parents, to just delete their Instagram, and also delete YouTube from their phones. And also unsubscribe from all of these silly subscription services, Spotify, Disney, Disney plus, Netflix whatever.
The new Matrix?
What a lot of fools don’t understand is that technology improvements only happen when you get rid of stuff.
For example, one step in the right direction is when Apple promoted the fact that you could use the Apple Watch to make phone calls, or send messages while just leaving your phone at home. Any technology which could allow you to leave your iPhone in your car or at home is a good thing.
And yes, let us stop calling it a smart phone, just call it an iPhone. In America, Essentially 99.9% of people use iPhones. The only people who don’t use iPhones are either poor people, working class people, or a few stragglers who still use Google Pixel.
Even internationally, any rich person will either desire or use an iPhone Pro; any influencer who is using a Samsung phone or maybe even a Google pixel phone is either being sponsored or paid. I don’t know any human being who would actually spend over $500 to purchase either an android phone or Google pixel or a Samsung. Or spend any money on a phone which isn’t an iPhone. My working theory is that almost everybody who has a smartphone made by Samsung either got it for free by signing up for some sort of cell phone plan.
New worlds
What is happiness and human flourishing? Simple, moving around, being dynamic, being outside.
For example, any sort of activity which encourages dynamic movement in the elements is good. This includes hiking at a nature preserve, walking around the neighborhood, going to the beach, riding the subway, essentially anything which is not indoors or inside a car. 
The privilege of fitness
Fitness and exercise is the new modern day privilege. If you have the privilege to work out, exercise, ideally outside… You are the new top .01%.
For example, my new intervention realizing that actually, working out outside, in the direct sun topless, is 1 trillion times more enjoyable than working out inside an enclosed stuffy gym.
In fact, I’ve been seeing a lot more people working out outside either in parking lots, at the beach etc.
Unsubscribe
Cancel your memberships and your subscription plans. 
I think my great pride is that I don’t have any subscription services. I am not subscribed to Netflix, Spotify, Disney Disney+ whatever.
Also, I think for the most part if you have a closeby gym that you like, and you go to the gym every day this is good. But, if you’re in a position in which it is too cumbersome to go to the gym, and you don’t go, just cancel your gym membership and work out from home.
Titan.fitness is a godsend — you can get the independent squat rack trees for only 300 bucks! And it can handle about 1000 pounds. Just purchase some cast-iron weight plates to save money.
A non-brainer
The more I think about it, simply put, the best thing you could use money on is to buy weightlifting equipment, whether it be a barbell, a squat rack, weight plates etc.
Why? A big issue here in Los Angeles is that gyms will cost you an arm and a leg. On average even the ghetto LA fitness will cost you maybe around $70 bucks a month. Multiply that by a year; you’re almost paying $1000 a year for your gym membership. Invest instead to just buy $1000 worth of weightlifting equipment, and in theory assuming use every single day for the next 10 years, you will actually save a lot of money. 
Food
For beverages all you need is tap water or filtered water from home. Actually do you think about it and do the math, if you are one of those fools who consume “alkaline water“; it costs more money per gallon than gasoline. 
Anyone who drinks alkaline water or promotes it, is patently a fool. If anything, real men drink tap water. 
Probably one of the most useful nuggets I’ve learned from the Walter Isaacson biography on Elon Musk is that Elon Musk drinks tapwater. If the world’s most genius richest man drinks tap water, so should you. 
For coffee, fine robusta is the way. Either get some ERIC KIM Omakase coffee, or, my friends sisters coffee and tea Company CREO— fine robusta is the way. 
For example, my preferred way to consume coffee is espresso. I find that for myself, two shots of fine robusta coffee from Vietnam gives me an insanely good buzz, three shots for god-level buzz … whereas it might take me nine or 10 shots of light roast arabica Ethiopia yirgafheffe to get me in the same mood. 
Build things which you wish to see manifested in the world
Currently, my primary moneymaking profession is through crypto cryptocurrency and bitcoin. And also, when I think about all my great innovations that I came up with while living in Vietnam, for only $300 a month, all the things that I came up with, and created or things that I genuinely believe that the human race would benefit from.
For example arsbeta.com — essentially my first stab at replacing Instagram. A double blind experiment photo sharing platform, without the need of intermediaries.
My next vision for ARS; if you want to “like” a photo, essentially what you have to do is you zap them with a Satoshi – the smallest fraction of a bitcoin. And the great thing is that a single Satoshi is infinitely small, but ultimately does have some real monetary value. I think a single Satoshi is only worth 100th of a penny– but in fact, if I really created this new economy, this would be world changing.
The problem right now with likes on social media is that it doesn’t cost anything. You can mindlessly scroll in like 1 trillion things. But, if it actually cost you a single Satoshi to like a photo, then there is true skin in the game.
Another way to fix email; make it a required thing for people to pay a single Satoshi before sending an email.
The first photo sharing platform powered by bitcoin and Satoshi
Anyways, if you want to build the future email me at eric@erickim.com — ideally I am looking for bitcoin developers, who could essentially build this thing. Very very simple thing, it would look like Instagram, be connected with a bitcoin lightning wallet, either the cash app or the Coinbase app, and users can make their own account whatever– and the core functionality is that the idea to like a photo will be instead a lightning bolt (⚡️) or a 🔥, in which you have to pay a single Satoshi either “like” a photo of somebody.
And, building up on the concept of ARS; if you want a famous photographer to give you feedback on your photos, there will be a messaging app, and a request critique function in which you asked there is a bid functionality of how many Satoshi‘s you will charge and accept for a critique on a certain photo.
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Spread wealth and prosperity
The general promise of capitalism is to spread prosperity, happiness, joy, freedom, liberty and justice for the greatest number of people across the planet.
People like to critique and criticize America and capitalism, but, even the Chinese, the Chinese yuan, the CNY is effectively pegged to the US dollar. In fact, all of the global currencies are pegged to the US dollar. 
The troubling thing is even the worlds strongest currency of the US dollar is losing 7 to 10% of its value, year over year. And the money supply is expanding at an alarming rate.
As a consequence, the whole world economy is not doing too hot, but, it’s still seems that the refuge is America. You’ve been in Korean, the word for America is “mi-gook” which means beautiful country. (Mi — beauty, good – country).
So now what?
Simply put, devote dedicate an investor time energy and resources in doing and building things you actually care for. Assuming that you’re a bitcoin billionaire, and you no longer have any money needs — just build it!
ERIC
Ideas
- Make your own website or blog. Ionos.com and install WordPress.org
- Start an email newsletter; sendy.com
- Delete your Instagram, we all congratulate people for quitting heroin or cocaine or smoking cigarettes; shouldn’t the same attitude be done or addressed in the context of Instagram? And let us not call it social media; call a spade a spade. Instagram is the real bad guy here, not social media.
Photo ideas
Pentax just put out the new film camera which is really cool. And it has a flash! It is essentially the new Ricoh GR for the next generation. And it is genius! Because it has a half frame concept, which means that you could shoot twice the number of photos on a single roll of film, 72 pictures instead of the typical 36.
And it does seem that even in today’s world with iPhones, kids young kids highschoolers etc. still prefer to shoot film! My working theory is that people still prefer to have standalone cameras, they actually want to spend less time on their phones.
Also what is very interesting about generation Z is that they are actually the most self-aware generation; they know that phones and social media and Instagram is bad they also know that alcohol is bad and causes cancer, and also marijuana is also bad for you, Z is a good generation because they prefer sobriety and being sober.
A fun question I like to ask people:
Has anybody ever enjoyed burning man, going to a festival, going to an EDM rave that was 100% sober? No drugs, no alcohol?
And even though Elon Musk is definitely the greatest entrepreneur of all time; the issue here is that he still drinks Coca-Cola, Red Bull, and alcohol. 
Other ideas
Another new camera which got released recently is the new Ricoh GR highlight diffusion filter — I think the idea is genius; essentially emulating the film aesthetic and look but the convenience of shooting digital.
28mm
Now that Seneca is getting older, the age of three years, three months… Having a 28 mm lens in focal length is very good here, because he is getting really into climbing, climbing at the park rock climbing etc.… a 28 mm lens is great at exaggerating angles, perspectives, epic action.
Think 28mm.
Travel!
Some incoming workshops include my next year insanely epic Angkor Wat Cambodia travel photography workshop experience,  and some upcoming workshops both in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Now that Covid is over, I think it is a great thing that we are all hungry to travel again. Yet we are still stuck in a bog and malaise; because there was so much friction that got us stuck during Covid, now is your chance to travel!
Also some good places to travel include Japan, where you could essentially get a transit pasmo card, directly on your Apple iPhone wallet! Insanely easy, and also because the Japanese yen is collapsing because of the population decline, that means that our US dollars have stronger purchasing power there.
Also, Istanbul and Turkey might be good because the Turkish lira is also collapsing, which is good for you if you are paid in US dollars.
Also good times to go to Korea, Vietnam, anywhere in the world. For example just booked my mom ticket round-trip from South Korea to LAX, round-trip, only $500 USD!
To find cheap flights just use kayak or Google flights.  
Now what?
The two fields which are developing extremely quickly in an exciting rate is both cryptocurrency-bitcoin, and artificial intelligence.
If you want to be the future, ensure that you have the paid ChatGPT app subscription, and also, ensure that you have some bitcoin. Even my friend Natalie told me a few years ago, “every intelligent person I know in the Bay Area has at least some bitcoin!”
I think the simplest thing to do is just buy some bitcoin with the Coinbase app; my simple thought is there’s no reason why bitcoin will not 10 X, 100 X, or even 1000 X in our lifetime. That means the thousand dollars you spend on an iPhone Pro might become $10,000, $100,000, or maybe even $1 million!
As a consequence, I have been becoming even more frugal with my money, and continuing to buy bitcoin with any dime I could lay my hands on! 
People still think bitcoin is too expensive, but 20 years from now, when one bitcoin is worth $10 million a coin… wouldn’t you have wished that you bought it right now at a discount?
I think the best way to learn about bitcoin is just binge watch and listen to all the Michael Saylor interviews and podcasts– Michael.com and hope.com
Currently, I am self studying some Austrian economics from Carl Menger — Principles of Economics PDF on my iPad Pro.
Also, if you do not currently own an iPad, or just have a really really old one that doesn’t work that well, definitely get the new M4 iPad Pro the small one; The only Apple device currently worth purchasing! Good job Apple team here.
What else?
For shoes, Vibram 5 finger shoes (Vibram.com) and if you have access, go to the beach! Beach people tend to be happier.
Currently Ocean Park in Santa Monica is my new favorite joint!
What else? 
Think fun, not fitness. Even go to the local park, breathing some air from the fresh trees, and have fun!
ERIC
And when in doubt, always