Durable. Durability. Even Nietzsche once said, “Durability is the first rate good amongst human beings!”
The importance of durable, durability?
An interesting epiphany that I had is that it seems that with modern day consumerism, durability is actually not what we seek. For example, nobody truly seeks a 100% durable iPhone that will last forever. Why? We need some sort of excuse to upgrade. I think the same thing is with cars; cars are fashion. The second our car has any issues, or needs an “upgrade“, we are very very happy to jump ship, and then to seek some sort of new solution.
I think this matters for many different reasons. First and foremost, with everything in life, we need to posit some sort of desired ends and outcomes. Therefore, if we know what we seek, and what we desire, then we can better straight shot attain, obtain, and pursue that which we desire.
Studying some etymology for the word durable, it seems that comes from the Latin, duro, which means harden, make hard.
Durus: looking further into the Proto Indo European, it seems that it means far, long. Deros— Sanskrit dura which means “far”. Long, extended.
I suppose there are several interesting interventions with this line of thought. First and foremost, then it seems that the desired end outcome is for us to go long. An extended range, and also, to last into the future. Long, extended can be seen as distance, or time and years.
Extended range as good!
Modular solutions
Durability doesn’t just mean to be hard, to be robust. The philosophy of durability is to last for a long time, or for us to use the framework an ecosystem for a long time.
For example, cameras. I am a huge fan of the Ricoh GR series cameras, as it is so small compact and powerful. Yet the durability is poor insofar much as the duration you could use it only seems to be about a year. After hard-core use, all of my Ricohs have broken.
Surprisingly, the Lumix G9 that I bought in 2019 while in Japan, has lasted. Something about how it was engineered, and also the fact that it is an interchangeable lens system means that if the lens breaks (mine did), I can simply swap out the lens, and I could still keep using the system.
Whereas with non-interchangeable, non-modular systems, if one component breaks, it is all broken.
The same thing goes with computers. Laptops are bad in so far much as at least with MacBook laptop, you can honestly swap out the parts. This means, if one component breaks, you’re screwed.
Durable investments?
Durable body?
Over Achieve
When I was a kid growing up, to be a “overachiever“ was seen as a double edged sword; on one hand, it was greatly respected admired, a desired thing. Yet at the same time, a lot of kids would tease and make fun of kids who were “tryhard“. That in fact, trying “too” hard, and aiming to achieve was seen as a negatively bad thing.
It is my personal thought that to overachieve is a positively good thing. For example, can one imagine an Elon Musk who wasn’t an overachiever? Or a Kanye West who wasn’t was an overachiever? Or a Jay Z who wasn’t an overachiever?
I think in modern day English, or modern day times, to achieve is to seen as succeed, to be number one, to advance, and a lot of achievement notions typically comes from academics and academia. For example, to achieve or scholastic achievement has to deal with getting straight A’s, getting a 4.0 GPA or a beyond a 4.0 GPA, getting into high-ranking universities, scoring high on standardized testing etc.
A generalize way we could think about achievement it’s a simply set a personal goal on something, and obtain it. To seize it.
HODL — hold on for dear life, a notion that we get from the cryptocurrency world.
To hold. What does it mean to hold? To grip onto something, to grasp. It has to do with grip strength, and wrist strength.
In the world of finance and economics, holding onto assets, or in Texas “hold-‘em”— you have the option to hold.
Perhaps true hold is a really really good idea. To hold is a good idea in so far much as holding seems like a passive action, but in actuality, it is one of the most virtuous things that you could do. It takes courage and skill to hold, rather than to quickly buy or to sell, in which people over act.
For example one of my friends used to own 50 bitcoin, a while back, but this is when it was valued very low, and after a huge spike, he freaked out, and sold it all. Perhaps the better strategy was for him to just hold, hold it for a decade or two, and if that were the case, he would be able to quit his job and retire.
The courage to hold?
Seneca is currently two years, eight months old. A new trick you could do is when at the park with me, she can grab the chin up rings, grab it, and hold his body up off the floor! The other day at Barnes & Noble, when washing our hands, she was actually able to Hold and grasp the edge of the sink table, and successfully hold and suspend himself on it!
Holding strength?
Maybe this is a new thing we could innovate; to see how strong and how much you could hold?
Even my 1000 pound infamous atlas lift, part of it is a lifting motion, in which I lift the weight off of the rack with my shoulder and legs, but then I hold it up for a second or two before putting it down.
Even when I think about the strongman competitions, there is this Hercules pillar hold competition in which there are two columns, each about 1000 pounds, attached with chain and hand grip. The contestant simply sees how long he can hold the weights together, before his strength gives out.
Tenacity
Maybe also the most virtuous path to entrepreneurship is towards tenacity? How long can you hold and be tenacious?
Mimesis?
A concept I am trying to currently think through is about mimesis and mimetic theory. The general gist is this; which desires are implanted in us by society, and which are truly inherent and natural?
Why does it matter? In terms of achievement, what you want to achieve… we need to set some sort of goal. But, is the goal you are setting inherently interesting to you, or is it a goal which is seen as desirable by society?
When I was a kid growing up, to be a “overachiever“ was seen as a double edged sword; on one hand, it was greatly respected admired, a desired thing. Yet at the same time, a lot of kids would tease and make fun of kids who were “tryhard“. That in fact, trying “too” hard, and aiming to achieve was seen as a negatively bad thing.
It is my personal thought that to overachieve is a positively good thing. For example, can one imagine an Elon Musk who wasn’t an overachiever? Or a Kanye West who wasn’t was an overachiever? Or a Jay Z who wasn’t an overachiever?
I think in modern day English, or modern day times, to achieve is to seen as succeed, to be number one, to advance, and a lot of achievement notions typically comes from academics and academia. For example, to achieve or scholastic achievement has to deal with getting straight A’s, getting a 4.0 GPA or a beyond a 4.0 GPA, getting into high-ranking universities, scoring high on standardized testing etc.
A generalize way we could think about achievement it’s a simply set a personal goal on something, and obtain it. To seize it.
HODL — hold on for dear life, a notion that we get from the cryptocurrency world.
To hold. What does it mean to hold? To grip onto something, to grasp. It has to do with grip strength, and wrist strength.
In the world of finance and economics, holding onto assets, or in Texas “hold-‘em”— you have the option to hold.
Perhaps true hold is a really really good idea. To hold is a good idea in so far much as holding seems like a passive action, but in actuality, it is one of the most virtuous things that you could do. It takes courage and skill to hold, rather than to quickly buy or to sell, in which people over act.
For example one of my friends used to own 50 bitcoin, a while back, but this is when it was valued very low, and after a huge spike, he freaked out, and sold it all. Perhaps the better strategy was for him to just hold, hold it for a decade or two, and if that were the case, he would be able to quit his job and retire.
The courage to hold?
Seneca is currently two years, eight months old. A new trick you could do is when at the park with me, she can grab the chin up rings, grab it, and hold his body up off the floor! The other day at Barnes & Noble, when washing our hands, she was actually able to Hold and grasp the edge of the sink table, and successfully hold and suspend himself on it!
Holding strength?
Maybe this is a new thing we could innovate; to see how strong and how much you could hold?
Even my 1000 pound infamous atlas lift, part of it is a lifting motion, in which I lift the weight off of the rack with my shoulder and legs, but then I hold it up for a second or two before putting it down.
Even when I think about the strongman competitions, there is this Hercules pillar hold competition in which there are two columns, each about 1000 pounds, attached with chain and hand grip. The contestant simply sees how long he can hold the weights together, before his strength gives out.
Tenacity
Maybe also the most virtuous path to entrepreneurship is towards tenacity? How long can you hold and be tenacious?
Mimesis?
A concept I am trying to currently think through is about mimesis and mimetic theory. The general gist is this; which desires are implanted in us by society, and which are truly inherent and natural?
Why does it matter? In terms of achievement, what you want to achieve… we need to set some sort of goal. But, is the goal you are setting inherently interesting to you, or is it a goal which is seen as desirable by society?
Durable. Durability. Even Nietzsche once said, “Durability is the first rate good amongst human beings!”
The importance of durable, durability?
An interesting epiphany that I had is that it seems that with modern day consumerism, durability is actually not what we seek. For example, nobody truly seeks a 100% durable iPhone that will last forever. Why? We need some sort of excuse to upgrade. I think the same thing is with cars; cars are fashion. The second our car has any issues, or needs an “upgrade“, we are very very happy to jump ship, and then to seek some sort of new solution.
I think this matters for many different reasons. First and foremost, with everything in life, we need to posit some sort of desired ends and outcomes. Therefore, if we know what we seek, and what we desire, then we can better straight shot attain, obtain, and pursue that which we desire.
Studying some etymology for the word durable, it seems that comes from the Latin, duro, which means harden, make hard.
Durus: looking further into the Proto Indo European, it seems that it means far, long. Deros— Sanskrit dura which means “far”. Long, extended.
I suppose there are several interesting interventions with this line of thought. First and foremost, then it seems that the desired end outcome is for us to go long. An extended range, and also, to last into the future. Long, extended can be seen as distance, or time and years.
Extended range as good!
Modular solutions
Durability doesn’t just mean to be hard, to be robust. The philosophy of durability is to last for a long time, or for us to use the framework an ecosystem for a long time.
For example, cameras. I am a huge fan of the Ricoh GR series cameras, as it is so small compact and powerful. Yet the durability is poor insofar much as the duration you could use it only seems to be about a year. After hard-core use, all of my Ricohs have broken.
Surprisingly, the Lumix G9 that I bought in 2019 while in Japan, has lasted. Something about how it was engineered, and also the fact that it is an interchangeable lens system means that if the lens breaks (mine did), I can simply swap out the lens, and I could still keep using the system.
Whereas with non-interchangeable, non-modular systems, if one component breaks, it is all broken.
The same thing goes with computers. Laptops are bad in so far much as at least with MacBook laptop, you can honestly swap out the parts. This means, if one component breaks, you’re screwed.
I first heard about this notion of mimesis., mimetic theory from Peter Thiel from his zero to one book, quoting his mentor Renee Girard. Essentially the gist and the notion is that most of our “desires“ are sociological ones; not inherent in us, but rather, programmed into us by society.
When I was a kid growing up, to be a “overachiever“ was seen as a double edged sword; on one hand, it was greatly respected admired, a desired thing. Yet at the same time, a lot of kids would tease and make fun of kids who were “tryhard“. That in fact, trying “too” hard, and aiming to achieve was seen as a negatively bad thing.
It is my personal thought that to overachieve is a positively good thing. For example, can one imagine an Elon Musk who wasn’t an overachiever? Or a Kanye West who wasn’t was an overachiever? Or a Jay Z who wasn’t an overachiever?
I think in modern day English, or modern day times, to achieve is to seen as succeed, to be number one, to advance, and a lot of achievement notions typically comes from academics and academia. For example, to achieve or scholastic achievement has to deal with getting straight A’s, getting a 4.0 GPA or a beyond a 4.0 GPA, getting into high-ranking universities, scoring high on standardized testing etc.
A generalize way we could think about achievement it’s a simply set a personal goal on something, and obtain it. To seize it.
HODL — hold on for dear life, a notion that we get from the cryptocurrency world.
To hold. What does it mean to hold? To grip onto something, to grasp. It has to do with grip strength, and wrist strength.
In the world of finance and economics, holding onto assets, or in Texas “hold-‘em”— you have the option to hold.
Perhaps true hold is a really really good idea. To hold is a good idea in so far much as holding seems like a passive action, but in actuality, it is one of the most virtuous things that you could do. It takes courage and skill to hold, rather than to quickly buy or to sell, in which people over act.
For example one of my friends used to own 50 bitcoin, a while back, but this is when it was valued very low, and after a huge spike, he freaked out, and sold it all. Perhaps the better strategy was for him to just hold, hold it for a decade or two, and if that were the case, he would be able to quit his job and retire.
The courage to hold?
Seneca is currently two years, eight months old. A new trick you could do is when at the park with me, she can grab the chin up rings, grab it, and hold his body up off the floor! The other day at Barnes & Noble, when washing our hands, she was actually able to Hold and grasp the edge of the sink table, and successfully hold and suspend himself on it!
Holding strength?
Maybe this is a new thing we could innovate; to see how strong and how much you could hold?
Even my 1000 pound infamous atlas lift, part of it is a lifting motion, in which I lift the weight off of the rack with my shoulder and legs, but then I hold it up for a second or two before putting it down.
Even when I think about the strongman competitions, there is this Hercules pillar hold competition in which there are two columns, each about 1000 pounds, attached with chain and hand grip. The contestant simply sees how long he can hold the weights together, before his strength gives out.
Tenacity
Maybe also the most virtuous path to entrepreneurship is towards tenacity? How long can you hold and be tenacious?
A thought and theory; perhaps success, a “successful” person is somebody who has a healthy dose of autism or Asperger’s; being able to ignore avoid or not to placate to traditional desires.
For example, I am currently 35 years old. In a decade, I will only be 45, or 55 years old! Still young.
And also, Seneca will only be 12 years old, 22 years old! Still young.
Perhaps with things, possessions, cars, devices, property, situation’s, investments etc.; think to yourself, will it still be tenable in 10 years or 20 years?
For example, I can easily see myself driving my Prius for another 10 to 20 years. I am dubious that any electric car or Tesla will last for another 10 or 20 years.
Also, iPhone, computers laptops, devices cameras etc.; none of them will last 10 to 20 years.
“Life is a game of monopoly, go outside and cop yourself some property.” – MIGOS
A random thing on the road to moving to LA is this — a random thing that was coming into my mind was this idea of finding some sort of property space, like buying a Triplex or a quadPlex, and essentially becoming some sort of noveau slumlord.
I had a funny interesting turbo thought when going to the Costco Business Center the other day, and buying some meat. Essentially the idea is simple:
Essentially the meat you buy and purchase is the raw material, and cooking it yourself is very simple and easy; yet, the reason why so many restaurants and businesses, even all you can eat Korean BBQ restaurants is that they make the process so complex, and intimidating to you.
Real estate is interesting to me because then you have the raw material which is the land, and then you could customize it later to your liking.
Why I love cars
The primary reason why I love cars so much is that ever since I was a kid, around 15 or 16 years old, it was an open creative canvas for me. Note, I actually got into cars before I got into photography; I was into cars ever since I was 15 years old and got my first drivers license permit in California, I only going to photography later, around the age of 18 when I graduated high school and was about to go to college.
Growing up, my family only ever rented. The notion that I could modify or do anything to my house or home was a non-concept.
The great joy and promise of being able to have my own car was that I could do anything to it that I wanted. The first car I ever got was a 1991 Sentra XE, a four-door sedan, which was surprisingly a five speed manual transmission car, with no tachometer! I had so much fun modifying and customizing and swapping it up, installing headers, intake and exhaust, repainting it, painting the dashboard from the ugly ass brown to black, and also even changing the headliner from the ugly brown beige color to a solid black felt.
Lesson:
Having the freedom, and the ability to modify and change things to your liking is great joy!
Mystifying things?
A funny difference that I’ve noted from my family, my family upbringing, and Cindy‘s family; Cindy grew up to owning their own home and property, therefore things like pouring cement, mixing cement, painting the walls, fixing home stuff was natural. Yet for them, cars were a mysterious black box; therefore the general concept was always buy new.
However, my great pride and joy is that in my whole adult life, I’ve never spent more than $2500 USD on a car. The last two cars which came under my wing including my mom‘s old 2009 Hyundai sonata, which was essentially acquired by me for free, as it sat dormant for about three years in my sister’s garage, collecting dust. About $2000 of repairs at the mechanic, and $1000 of overdue DMV fines, it essentially ran brand new! And a little bit of muscle wax from me, waxing the paint, painting the rims, debadging it, etc.
Then more recently, re-inheriting the family Prius; 2010 Prius. Essentially once again, acquiring it for nothing, spending $2700 to get a new catalytic converter which was stolen earlier, $300 for a catalytic converter shield, and about $2700 on a new ABS brake sensor, and also, about $600 for new Yokohama tires. Otherwise I got the car for free!
Thought:
Real men drive old (used) white Priuses!
How do really rich people do it?
Some fun facts I’ve learned:
Real rich people and successful people only ever purchase cars at auction; with some sort of superficial damage, and they buy it at an insanely deep discount, and spend small sums of money to fix it up, they never buy new. And it seems that a lot of successful people that I’ve met just buy old used Priuses at car auctions! For example, my old next-door neighbor used to own an exotic car sports dealership, he told me he even sold a Lamborghini to Mike Tyson. He also owns the infamous old-school Mercedes with the gull wing doors. Anyways, he told me that he for his daily cr just bought an old 2010 Prius at auction for only $7000! Also, he always trolls eBay and these websites for old used BMW M cars, and he says that “I didn’t buy it from him, I stole it from him!” Therefore maybe in the context of cars, to only steal a car, essentially get a car for so insanely cheap or free or under market value is the path. Buying a new brand new car is for idiots!
People overpay for home renovations; the true price of fixing up a bathroom should only be around $7000 (some of my friends spent almost $20,000 for this), to do a kitchen, maybe $15,000, and flooring you could essentially do it yourself for free. And it seems that what a lot of these real estate companies do is simple; take some sort of old property, got it, renovate it, which actually doesn’t cost that much money, maybe $30,000 per unit, and then resell it on the market for a higher price tag, and continue this process.
What is a millennial?
I think I have a good definition for millennials; essentially somebody who foolishly uses their money.
For example, it seems that millennials are overeager to buy new cars. Let’s say a modest new car is $30,000, and they down around $10,000. A monthly payment is around $350-$500. Then they forget that they bought a new car, and they probably want full coverage, so insurance wise, it might be another three to $500 a month! Boom, you’ve just added another thousand dollars a month in monthly expenses, which will haunt you for either 3 to 5 years. That’s money that you’re not putting in your bank account.
Or, it seems that any new car is such an insane rip off. Apparently even a Toyota Sienna Hybrid out the door is over $60,000 USD! That’s a lot of money.
Alcohol, food, eating out, weed, drugs, etc
“Fuck I’m broke as fuck! Why? I just came back from Vegas and blew all my money on food! Fuck, I gotta move out of SoCal!” – one of my friends in the gym hot sauna locker room
Another way that young people millennials etc. waste money is silly things like going to “festivals“, doing drugs, smoking marijuana, drinking alcohol, going out to drink alcohol and cocktails, going to Vegas, gambling, eating out at new trendy restaurants, etc.
Also, having too much subscriptions to these media services like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+ etc.
The overall bad thing is that many people just cannot save money. Why? The societal bias that one should partake in these activities. But, the wisdom is knowing that these things are not imperatives.
Finance, and loans?
Poking around this real estate and financing market, honestly it all seems like such a scam. For example, let us say that you take out a loan at 7% or 6.5%. But I say you borrow around $700,000. Almost the first 10 yours is devoted to paying off your interest, not even the principal.
What did Elon Musk do? When starting Tesla, he took out a massive loan from the US government, to build factories, battery packs, etc.
Therefore, it seems that if one is going to take out a massive loan, the goal is to quickly pay it back. Borrowing money as leverage to do something very very great and epic, and quickly leapfrog to the next thing.
Bigger and better to infinity and beyond!
Or, the goal is to just flip it. Do not get attached to it, and just think of real estate like a product.
For example, buying a property for $1.5 million, and then hopefully in the next 10 years, flipping it for $3 million USD! Then I suppose the goal is to just cop the profit, and then leapfrog onto the next bigger project.
Then things get interesting, because the goal isn’t about making money necessarily; but rather using your capital as leverage to keep leapfrogging to bigger and bigger things!
However, towards what ends? I don’t think there’s an end; the goal is bigger and better for the sake of it; the American ethos!
Houses as a project?
It also seems a lot of these real estate corporations, who knows maybe the investment comes from overseas, Saudi Arabia, mainland China, etc., is that somebody will buy at a property all in cash, maybe to wash the money, and then price it up, and then sit on it, and perhaps try to resell it for a profit into the future.
Why do people do this? Honestly a lot of people who have money which is illegit don’t seem to really care; they don’t really think about it too much.
Capital?
Another thought on capital in capitalism, what is it that the new religion of capital seeks?
Essentially, make money don’t spend it (Kanye West).
And also, accumulating more and more capital towards infinite ends!
Once again, perhaps the best way to think about capital and capitalism is to just think of it like a game of monopoly, a game, and do not take it too seriously.
I just hit a 9 plate rack pull for the first time, and before doing it, I felt zero ounces of fear. This was interesting, because then it is no longer a fear issue; simply it is an issue of ability and capability.
Then before attempting the nine plates, my only concern and focus was focusing, hyping myself up, and also striving to successfully maximally output all of my strength at the same time!
Perhaps than the best way to approach life is first strive to conquer fear, and then the next issue is a matter of technique, form and approach, and the physical and physiological strength to achieve and attempt things!
Fear versus ability
For example in street photography, a big consideration between the fear of shooting street photos, and then having the compositional ability to make photos you deem beautiful.
Both are critical.
A thought on value, in the context of photos and photography;
Which photos and street photos have the greatest value? Perhaps the photos which required the most courage to shoot!
Another big consideration on my mind is in regards to life narrative.
When you’re on your deathbed, looking back at your life, thinking and considering certain parts of your life narrative that you were proud of attempting and doing — it doesn’t really matter whether you’re successful or not, simply, do an attempt what is epic and grand!
I think in America we’re too caught up on the notion of being “successful“ or not. I think my intervention is to think rather, the grandeur and courage of the attempt. To me it doesn’t really matter whether you’re successful or not. What matters more is whether you had the courage to attempt it in the first place!
However, this is where wisdom is critical; I think it’s a good idea to attempt things when you’re interested in it, but at the same time, you don’t want to be foolish about it. For example, to simply attempt something because you want some sort of external validation seems like a poor or a foolish decision. Rather, only attempt that which is personally interesting to you!
What motivates me?
A thought this morning; perhaps that which motivates me is the desire to dominate, to become master, to become number one!
For example, my personal past life goal was to dominate street photography, to become number one on Google for street photography! Also do become number one on Google for “ERIC KIM”.
Now that I have achieved these, perhaps then my next goal is to become number one on Google for philosophy?
Certainly Google is not a good litmus test, because now, I think there are too many foreign factors at play. Yet, the striving and desire to become ascendant, the top dog, number one, is what drives our American passion. Even at the gym, now that I have successfully atlas lifted 995 pounds, I am at least one trillion miles ahead of anyone else in my realm, not even people internationally can touch me!
And truth be told, it seems that it’s all or nothing in America. To live the grandest and best life, you got to be number one. For example, Tesl is one trillion ahead of any electric car company out there; I’m quite certain all of the other electric car companies in the long run or fail. Once the cybertruck comes out, Rivian will go under. And these other electric car companies by China and Vietnam? Good luck.
Another big consideration on my mind is in regards to life narrative.
When you’re on your deathbed, looking back at your life, thinking and considering certain parts of your life narrative that you were proud of attempting and doing — it doesn’t really matter whether you’re successful or not, simply, do an attempt what is epic and grand!
I think in America we’re too caught up on the notion of being “successful“ or not. I think my intervention is to think rather, the grandeur and courage of the attempt. To me it doesn’t really matter whether you’re successful or not. What matters more is whether you had the courage to attempt it in the first place!
However, this is where wisdom is critical; I think it’s a good idea to attempt things when you’re interested, but at the same time, you don’t want to be foolish about it. For example, to simply attempt some thing because you want some sort of external validation seems like a poor or a foolish decision. Rather, only attempt that which is personally interesting to you!
The reason why video game is no longer interested is that there is no real risk associated with them; only grind.
I wonder if modern day life is also the same; in America at least on the way, we are taught that it is virtuous to grind. However, I have some more noble path in a more virtuous path is to forgo grinding, and think about the joy in risk instead? The Stoic Spartan Entrepreneurial path to life!
“Life is a game of monopoly, go out and cop yourself some property.” – MIGOS
A random thing on the road to moving to LA is this — a random thing that was coming into my mind was this idea of find some sort of property space, like buying a Triplex or a quadPlex, and essentially becoming some sort of noveau slumlord.
I had a funny interesting turbo thought when going to the Costco Business Center the other day, and buying some meat. Essentially the idea is simple:
Essentially the meat you buy and purchase is the raw material, and cooking it yourself is very simple and easy; yet, the reason why so many restaurants and businesses, even all you can eat Korean BBQ restaurants is that they make the process so complex, and intimidating to you.
Why I love cars
The primary reason why I love cars so much is that ever since I was a kid, around 15 or 16 years old, it was an open creative canvas for me. Note, I actually got into cars before I got into photography; I was into cars ever since I was 15 years old and got my first drivers license permit in California, I only going to photography later, around the age of 18 when I graduated high school and was about to go to college.
Growing up, my family only ever rented. The notion that I could modify or do anything to my house or home was a non-concept.
The great joy and promise of being able to have my own car was that I could do anything to it that I wanted. The first car I ever got was a 1991 Sentra XE, a four-door sedan, which was surprisingly a five speed manual transmission car, with no tachometer! I had so much fun modifying and customizing and swapping it up, installing headers, intake and exhaust, repainting it, painting the dashboard from the ugly ass brown to black, and also even changing the headliner from the ugly brown beige color to a solid black felt.
Mystifying things?
A funny difference that I’ve noted from my family, my family upbringing, and Cindy‘s family; Cindy grew up to owning their own home and property, therefore things like pouring cement, mixing cement, painting the walls, fixing home stuff was natural. Yet for them, cars were a mysterious black box; therefore the general concept was always buy new.
However, my great pride and joy is that in my whole adult life, I’ve never spent more than $2500 USD on a car. The last two cars which came under my wing including my mom‘s old 2009 Hyundai sonata, which was essentially acquired by me for free, as it sat dormant for about three years in my sister’s garage, collecting dust. About $2000 of repairs at the mechanic, and $1000 of overdue DMV fines, it essentially ran brand new! And a little bit of muscle wax from me, waxing the paint, painting the rims, debadging it, etc.
Then more recently, re-inheriting the family Prius; 2010 Prius. Essentially once again, acquiring it for nothing, spending $2700 to get a new catalytic converter which was stolen earlier, $300 for a catalytic converter shield, and about $2700 on a new ABS brake sensor, and also, about $600 for new Yokohama tires. Otherwise I got the car for free!
How do really rich people do it?
Some fun facts I’ve learned:
Real rich people and successful people only ever purchase cars at auction; with some sort of superficial damage, and they buy it at an insanely deep discount, and spend small sums of money to fix it up, they never buy new. And it seems that a lot of successful people that I’ve met just buy old used Priuses at car auctions!
People overpay for home renovations; the true price of fixing up a bathroom should only be around $7000 (some of my friends spent almost $20,000 for this), to do a kitchen, maybe $15,000, and flooring you could essentially do it yourself for free. And it seems that what a lot of these real estate companies do is simple; take some sort of old property, gut it, renovate it, which actually doesn’t cost that much money, maybe $30,000 per unit, and then resell it on the market for a higher price tag, and continue this process.
What is a millennial?
I think I have a good definition for millennials; essentially somebody who foolishly uses their money.
For example, it seems that millennials are overeager to buy new cars. Let’s say a modest new car is $30,000, and they down around $10,000. A monthly payment is around $350-$500. Then they forget that they bought a new car, and they probably want full coverage, so insurance wise, it might be another three to $500 a month! Boom, you’ve just added another thousand dollars a month in monthly expenses, which will haunt you for either 3 to 5 years. That’s money that you’re not putting in your bank account.
Alcohol, food, eating out, weed, drugs, etc
“Fuck I’m broke as fuck! Why? I just came back from Vegas and blew all my money on food! Fuck, I gotta move out of SoCal!” – one of my friends in the gym hot sauna locker room
Another way that young people millennials etc. waste money is silly things like going to “festivals“, doing drugs, smoking marijuana, drinking alcohol, going out to drink alcohol and cocktails, going to Vegas, gambling, eating out at new trendy restaurants, etc.
Also, having too much subscriptions to these media services like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+ etc.
The overall bad thing is that many people just cannot save money. Why? The societal bias that one should partake in these activities. But, the wisdom is knowing that these things are not imperatives.
My new optimization in life. Moving forward, I will only opt for the insanely beautiful.
I think this is paid off well. For example my wife Cindy, as insanely beautiful. As a consequence, my first son and child, Seneca, also insanely beautiful. You’re going to look at your wife and your kid all day, don’t you want them to be insanely beautiful?
Also, homes in living quarters. I think we spend more time indoors at home than we think we do. Therefore doesn’t make sense to choose a living quarters or habitat which is insanely beautiful?
Also for myself, making my body, my physique, my look and appearance as beautiful as possible? When people stop, stare and seem dumbfounded?
Hit the gym, empty your bowels there, hit the hot sauna, workout one rep max, head out! Think of the gym like your morning commute & office? Co working space with hot sauna and weights!
It’s seems that man likes to think of the idea to seek paradise. But why, for the sake of what, towards what ends?
I think typically when people think of paradise, I think of eternal happiness, joy, carelessness, and thanksgiving. But, what is the better and to do instead was to seek war, challenge, conquest?
The first thought is ultimately, reality is supreme. I love stoicism, but my overall critique of stoicism is that it seems a bit divorced from reality. That is, a lot of Stoic thought is theoretical, whereas Spartan thought and practice is more deeply intertwined.
For example, in terms of bodily physique aesthetics, what does a Stoic look like? Nobody knows. But we have a very vivid depiction of what a spartan looks like; just watch the movie 300 on repeat.
2. Who did the ancients respect?
It seems almost universal in history, everybody respects the Spartans. For their courage, their witness, their manliness, etc.
3. Bellum!
What is also very interesting about the Spartans is that they were not positive warmongers. Rather, they were just focused on defense. They didn’t fuck with anybody, and also, they didn’t want to be fucked with.
3. What do you want to become?
What doesn’t a spartan look like? It seems the best way to become spartan is figure out what not to do. What petty actions not to engage in, etc.
4. Paradise is under the valley of swords
All is permitted!
I believe this to be one of the assassins creeds. Apparently this was actually historical fact.
I don’t think of war like a literal war in which you’re dealing with killing people. I am very anti-war. I believe in a metaphorical war; some sort of battle, challenge, conquest, overcoming.
For example, on my road to at atlas lifting over 990 pounds, everyone told me to “be careful”, that I may “hurt myself”, but in fact, that is precisely what makes it interesting; because I could seriously hurt myself, that is what forces me to focus.
On the road to my 990 pound atlas lift, I’ve been going super hard-core on yoga, flexibility, mobility, etc. The heavier I go, the more time I spend slowly preparing, warming up, stretching etc.
Therefore a theory;
The higher the chance of danger, the more glorious it is!
5. Crafting your own philosophy
I think ultimately what is most interesting is having the privilege to craft your own philosophy. Your own school of thought, your own thinking, and simply sharing it with others and propagating it outside.
Th simplest way to do this is simply through your own website and blog.
A simple way you could do this is just register a website and domain with your first and last name philosophy.com
The second is just start your own YouTube channel, and share your own philosophical thoughts.
Third, you could just start a podcast, anchor.fm
6. Now what?
So let us say that you become the uber Spartan, nothing perturbs you, you’re infinitely strong, then what?
Then, I think a good idea is to devote yourself in your life to philosophical thought, and continuing to pave new ideas and propagating it!
The website that I use more than Google is wiktionary.org. Typically what I do is this;
When there is a word, a concept or thing that I’m curious about, I go to wiktionary.org and I study the history or the etymology of it.
Why is this so beneficial? It gives me a greater clarity about the concept or thing, for example when studying the notion of “finance“; discovering that ultimately it just means finish. Therefore, maybe the wise way to think about an approach to finance is to think about the end?
To think critically means to wisely judge things, whether you deem it fit or not.
Or, judge it as being profitable or not, or advantageous or not.
Steering clear of foolishness?
There is no such thing as good or bad, or evil. To me it all comes down to wise or foolish.
What is foolish, foolishness, foolish behavior? Typically things which can cause permanent bodily mutilation, or a traumatic death. Driving fast, racing, texting while driving, drinking while driving or being high while driving etc.
What is the point of thinking?
A life of pure theory divorced from action seems a bit flaccid. I believe that your thoughts should also be in accordance with your actions.
For example, my thoughts or philosophies on fitness and weightlifting; I actually apply it to my own approach, and my thoughts and thinking often come to me after much experimentation.
I studied sociology as an undergrad, and it might’ve been one of the most formative things for me. But what is sociology, and what is the difference between sociology and philosophy?
My personal thought is sociology is practical, pragmatic, applied philosophy to society, other people, every day life.
Everyone wants to be happy, even our best friend Aristotle said it is the one thing that men seek for the sake of itself.
What what is happiness? I think I got the answer; walking is happiness. Any sort of life, lifestyle, lifestyle approach which allows you to maximize your walking is happiness.
Strategies
I cannot speak for most people, because I don’t have a “real job“. That is, I don’t have a workplace, an office, or a place I must typically commute to.
A simple thought that I had is if you have the option, spend extra money which affords you the privilege to walk. For example, I wonder if in fact, shelling out the extra thousand, 2000, 3000, 4000, $5000, maybe even $10,000 a month would be positively beneficial to give you the privilege of walking.
It seems that the modern-day strategy that people partake in is that they sacrifice time in foolish ways. They decide to live further out, further away from work, in the suburbs, which means that they must spend more time driving in order to get to their workplace, in order to have the privilege of having a bigger house, a cheaper house, a smaller mortgage, cheaper rent etc.
Enemies to happiness?
Being forced to be indoors against your own will, this is cruel.
Also, being forced to be stuck in a car, in a bus, in an Uber, even if you had your own private driver, this is cruel.
For example, I once read an interview with Jony Ive, this is when he was still at Apple, in which he would commute for almost 2 hours a day (one way, so 4 hours every day in total), going from a desirable area of San Francisco to the Apple office in Cupertino, having a private driver chauffeur him in his Bentley,and I suppose Jony would just be in the backseat, doing work on his iPhone, iPad, MacBook laptop, etc. If I was Joni and truly committed, I would not make this foolish decision. I would literally just rent a hotel or an apartment or a house literally right next to Apple campus, or who knows, be like Elon Musk and just sleep in a sleeping bag in the office.
However, if you were forced to be sedentary or sitting, for four hours a day, or five hours a day, even if you were the backseat of a Rolls-Royce, a Bentley, Lamborghini, a McLaren, whatever; would it be worth it? No. Even as a thought experiment, if you had a totally maxed out Tesla model S plaid, or a Tesla model X plaid, with 100% auto pilot, assuming the technology was flawless, and you could do other stuff while being autonomously driven around, would you still want to be forced to be sedentary, for 4-5 hours a day? No.
Can happiness be purchased?
You cannot buy happiness. You can buy insanely great coffee, ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE, 100% fine robusta which physiologically speaking, will give you a marvelous happiness bump and boost, but ultimately, beyond coffee, happiness cannot be bought.
Things that money can do which can assist you and aid you in happiness include,
Using your money to buy a gym membership, or a yoga, CorePower membership
Using your money to buy beef and meat, either at Costco or the Costco Business Center. I recommend the beef ribs, or the beef tri-tip!
Using your money to pay for rent closer to your workplace, which allows you to have a 100% walking pedestrian lifestyle.
Having a situation which allows you to work outside, outdoors, without having to be stuck indoors or inside an office.
Buy an iPad Pro, the 11 inch smaller one, no accessories. The ultimate photo viewing device, and productivity device, it has brought me 1000 times more joy than any iPhone.
Physiology for the sake of what?
There’s a strange bias in today’s world that we have to somehow maximize our productivity, in order for the sake to work more, contribute more to society, “make a difference“. For example, the modern-day notion of going to the gym and working out and exercising, the only thought is this:
It is critical for you to exercise daily, because it will make you healthy and healthier, in order for you to keep working more.
The reason why this line of thinking is so twisted is that it is for the sake of maximizing your work capacity, not your own personal happiness. Man is not permitted to be happy for the sake of being happy.
Happiness is also a flawed end goal
The other day, I was so insanely happy, maybe a 50 out of 10. But at the end of the day, happiness is a bit inconsequential. For me what is more critical is having the opportunity, physiological energy to pursue my creative tasks. Whether it be reviewing my photos, writing and blogging, thinking, producing knowledge, sending out email newsletters, etc.
A cool trend I see is the trend towards philosophy. Why? This is what I think:
“Self development” is just philosophy in (modern day capitalistic) disguise.
And what do I mean by this? Ultimately any sort of business, self development book is centered around a certain philosophy. And the book typically preaches some sort of strategy and technique in order to achieve that philosophical end.
Don’t be a dummy.
In life, there is no such thing as virtue, or sin, vice. To me, it is all about wisdom, knowledge, becoming less foolish, and “not being a dummy.”
I like the word dummy, because it is not so serious. For example, we joke around with kids to not be a dummy. Maybe this is a better path for us.
You should start your own philosophy blog
Oh and today’s world of ChatGPT, AI assisted writing, the question,
How do you know if something was written by ChatGPT, or a real human being?
For the most part you can’t. However, anything written by ERIC KIM passes the Turing test. Why? The way I talk is non-standard, the way I write is genuine, and ultimately I think the future of writing and thinking is predicated around philosophy. That is, there is already enough information and wisdom on the Internet on how to do anything. But not much information on why do XYZ. Or, should we do XYZ.
For example, I firmly believe that if your goal is to become superhuman, eating beef and meat is critical. But I philosophical question is should we eat beef and meat? Even if it is bad for the planet?
For example, if someone tells me, “Eric, you shouldn’t eat meat because it is bad for the planet“. But what if I say, “I know that eating meat is bad for the planet, but eating beef is best for me. So I don’t care.” Is one permitted to talk like this? This is the task and role of philosophy and ethics.
Hygiene?
The etymology of hygiene, in ancient Greek is the art of health.
In modern day times, hygiene as a concept has fallen out of vogue. Why? In the states, a lot of the modernized westernized world, we take it for granted. There is regular trash pick ups, we have clean albeit not too tasty running tapwater, and mostly clean air. And also, most foods we buy or eat, whether it be at the grocery store or a restaurant will not cause us food poisoning.
Food hygiene is very underrated as a concept. We moderns prefer tasty or good tasting food, we don’t really care much for hygiene anymore.
Hygiene as a metaphorical or philosophical concept
Here is where I find hygiene critical; some people, mentally, physically or unwell, their mental hygiene is poor, and their physical physiological bodily hygiene is also probably poor. Used as a metaphor.
If you see weird homeless people on the street, cracked out, smelling bad, do you distain the way they act? No. You just keep your distance, and run away.
In the zone?
Another thing that I’ve discovered is when I’m in the zone, I get so focused on the task at hand that when other people say random maybe possibly demeaning stuff to you, I don’t even have to forcibly ignore them, I just literally can’t hear them, I hear them literally, but because I’m so focused at the task at hand, what they said or intended doesn’t upset me.
What does it even mean to be happy?
I was doing some research on the etymology of happy, and no one is really quite certain where that word comes from. There are certain theories, like “happen”— fortunate, happen chance, hap— chance, luck, fortune, hampa— good luck, chance, from Proto indo European *kob— which means good fortune, prophecy, to bend, bow, fit in, work, succeed.
So why does this matter?
It seems that nowadays, English is the dominant world language. And if we operate in a certain linguistic manner, perhaps the common day words we use should be used with more precision and clarity.
For example, John Stuart Mill, a lot of the early American developers preach notions of the “pursuit of happiness“. But the issue is, if you can’t even define happiness, or if the notion of happiness is a modern day one, then perhaps this is not a good goal or path.
I say instead of seeking to be “happy“, maybe it is better to seek to be strong, well, powerful, and in a great mood. It seems that also, one of my passions being thinking, having the opportunity and clarity of thought is supreme to me.
Now what?
I still think certainly at the end of the day, it is fine to use every day words colloquially. So for example, what contributes a great life to me?
First, artistic and creative productivity. To me this pertains to photography, both shooting and making photos, reviewing photos, enjoying my photos, sharing my photos, thinking about photos, and the aesthetic joy that I get from looking at my own photos.
Second, philosophical and thinking power; this means, I have a passion for thinking, and thinking interesting thoughts. A life without thoughts is not a life worth having.
Third, the health, strength, growth, and muscles of my family. This pertains to my son, and also my wife. And of course certainly myself. Other day I took Seneca to the jungle gym, and at two years seven months old, the pure undiluted joy that he gets from running across the suspension bridge and the jungle gym is pure bliss to me.
Also, witnessing his muscular development, and how much pride and joy that I get watching him eat 100% grass fed ground beef, in super mini burger patties for him, and also him eating while you thinly sliced meat that we buy from H Mart. Seeing Seneca consume beef, and building his muscles brings me great joy.
As a tangent, I think a lot of this modern-day notions of child development are skewed. Rather than trying to educate your kids, make them brain smart, I think a better goal and path is instead, to develop their muscles.
Seeking happiness towards what ends?
First and foremost, as biological beings, I think perhaps it is critical for us to first seek to be physically, physiologically strong and well. An optimization towards physiological well-being is a good one.
Why? It is the necessary path. Without physiological strength and well-being, you can’t do anything. For example, it doesn’t matter if you have $100 billion in the bank, if you are physically or physiologically unwell, if you only sleep two hours a night, if you have no muscles or hotspots in your body, Nothing can be done.
Willpower is not real. Muscle power is real.
Society living is the best living
What is the point of money? Having the privilege of being around other human beings. This, paying rent, and buying beef as well. But beyond this, the additional utility of money is slim; once you have your digital camera, your Internet Wi-Fi connection, your iPad Pro etc., what else do you need? Not much.
Think more with KIM
If you’re hungry to think more, deeper and further, think with me at one of my upcoming workshops:
If you’re having a hard time sleeping, my simple suggestion; start going to the gym at least once every single day, and use a hot sauna at least once a day, or really severe cases, go to the hot sauna twice a day.
One thing I found really interesting being in Japan, being at those random Japanese businessman hotels, or the wonderful Ryokans in Kyoto Uji, is at least in Japanese culture, the hot baths, are an integral part of their life and culture. That is, before they sleep, doing a really really hot bath is critical.
The same thing is in Korean culture, the jjim jjil bbang. Apparently in northern Scandinavian and Swedish countries, the really really hot sauna, whether it be dry or humid and steamy is also a critical part of their health.
According to the biological phenomenon hormesis, port duration of extreme heat and humidity is positively good for our physiological health and well-being.
I never really knew, but I suppose I have very strong opinions on homes and living quarters and situations. That means for the most part I hate ugly. I hate old and ugly danky dark, dim, and ghetto apartments, especially here in LA.
I have a theory:
Perhaps ugly aesthetics actually causes our physiological happiness and well being to go down.
What is ugliness? Anything which causes our physiological well being to go downwards.
For example, I think the reason why old and danky and ghetto apartments have such an adverse reaction to us is because they scream “hygenically dangerous”. Hygiene as “the art of health”.
For example, the dark and danky typically means moldy. Mold is a poison.
Thus, the simplest thing with homes, houses, condos, duplexes, town houses, flats, hotels, airbnbs, motels sleeping or living quarters etc:
Ensure there is no mold
No poor air circulation (good air circulation is nett we for our health)
Not dark and dim and danky (sunlight, the sun as the best disinfectant, and mold killer)
Not loud
Not dirty
Not old
Now what?
After my Ricoh GR IIIX died, I’ve just been using my LUMIX G9 and Leica LUMIX 12mm f1.4 Lens and it produces insanely beautiful photos! Downsides — insanely big and heavy, which is bad.
I want something insanely different
At this point, money is no concern for us.
In terms of innovative cameras, I’m trending towards the point and shoot, integrated flash department. For example,
Arsbeta.com — upload and share your best photos now!
What’s on my mind?
Still house apartment hunting in LA — checking out Culver City (downtown Culver City is insanely cool and walkable). Also going to check out Westwood and Sawtelle
Still backlogged around 7,000 photos on my LUMIX g9– on iPad Pro. Working on reviewing them!
Future photo innovations?
An AI-assisted Tool to help us cull down and curate our favorite photos.
Or an AI app thing that helps us automatically pick our best photos?
The other day when going to a ReStore, some sort of random secondhand furniture store, I stumbled upon one of the greatest finds of my life; about 900 pounds of steel; a shitload of 45 pound plates, neatly talked into a container, only $.50 a pound!
I think I counted it and it was around in total 14 45-pound plates, two 35-pound plates, two 10 pounder Rogue bumper plates, two 5 pounders, and two 2.5’ers.
This was such an insanely big deal for me because the last year or so I’ve been toying with this idea of creating and starting my own gym. But the big problem was this;
Getting access to steel plates, or any 45 pound plates is insanely expensive. The cheapest I could find on Amazon was around $90 for a single 45 pound plate!
The true cheapest option which a lot of commercial gyms do is get them produced in China at one of those mega industrial factories, and get them re-branded and shipped directly to the states but via cargo ship, on boat overseas. You can get a good price on this, but the big problem is that it just takes too long; you often have to wait several months before getting your package. And also you have to deal with international commerce which is always a little bit concerning when you’re dealing with credit card transactions, financial international exchanges etc.
Anyways, a thought on my mind:
Is it best for me to continue being the goat at the gym, and continue to keep going to the gym, having fun at the gym, keep making friends and making new friends, keeping in touch with friends and making new friends, hitting your personal records, enjoying the gym life, or, is it more interesting and better for me to start something epic and interesting myself?
I think the simple solution and answer is perhaps it is more important, or more interesting, or more critical to use this opportunity to start my own gym concept.
A movie that has made a massive impact on me is FIGHT CLUB. I read the book and watched the movie, I think I actually might prefer the movie. Why? Even though I like imagination blah blah blah, I like visuals.
There is something interesting that I’ve discovered about society;
The bias of how we “should” be versus how things truly are.
For example let me give you example, society, modern day society, notions of chivalry etc. says that if a man wants to attract women, he must be prim and proper, nice kind, and romantic and cartel to all of the desires of the woman.
However based on my true observations, it seems different; the best ways to be loud, rambunctious, some sort of wild untamed beast, happy, good eye contact, smiling etc.
You don’t need to drink beer
Another way to reprogram yourself; don’t drink beer, don’t grow facial hair or a beard or a mustache, don’t wear a hat, a trucker hat, don’t wear sunglasses, don’t drive a big ass car with limo tint, etc.
I think the funny new modern day bias in today’s society is everyone wants to feel dominant, without having to somehow engage with other human beings. Therefore, people always hide behind something; once again people hide behind the tint in their cars, when they’re out in public they hide behind sunglasses, a hat, they hide behind being antisocial etc.
I would say instead, the better goal is to be insanely friendly, insanely cordial, and also insanely kind.
Making money?
What is money? The current thought I have about money is that it is like some sort of legal tender for debt, both private and public.
For example, the other day I critically looked at a $100 bill, after not having looked at cash money for a long time, and I was extremely discerning and read all of the text on it. It read:
This note is legal tender for all debts, both private and public.
There are many theories behind money, debt being one of them.
When we do entrepreneurial things, create businesses, become self-employed, start selling or services and products etc., what are we doing? Technically we’re not making money, assuming that money has to do with that. Instead it seems that we are doing something else; creating new sources of value.
What is value?
What is value? Value comes from valere which means strong. Colloquially, value means that which we care for, what we have heart for.
A simple approach to things in life is simply create things which we value, put yourself on the other side;
How do you know if something has value or not? Use yourself as your own litmus test; that means, if it has value to you, assuming that you used yourself as your own barometer, there is a high likelihood that it will have value for others.
How do you know? Simple; assuming that there are 7 billion people on the planet, 300, million Americans plus, and you’re using the Internet, or website a blog some sort of Ford facing platform, certainly there will be at least one human being on planet earth who will drive value from what you create and share.
Super inspired from the movie ‘FIGHT CLUB’– in terms of how to conquer my personal fears in life, how to break free from societal bullshit, and to become the best version of myself:
Here are some life lessons I’ve learned from the film:
1. Self-improvement is masturbation
In society, we are spoon-fed this need for constant ‘self-improvement’ in the eyes of some self-improvement guru.
But the fallacy is that we need ‘improving.’ You are already perfect the way you are.
Rather, Tyler Durden suggests we seek ‘self-destruction’ — the antithesis of self-improvement.
Not to destroy ourselves to commit suicide or cut ourselves. Rather, to destroy the bullshit consumerist mentality we have in our minds.
To destroy the false veil of reality, to see the truth in life.
2. Don’t squander your potential
‘I see all this potential; and I see it all squandered. Entire generation of slaves with white collars.’ – Tyler Durden
As humans, we have so much human potential. Yet, we waste it pointlessly. We waste it becoming consumerist slaves — except instead of chains, we wear golden rolexes. We live in a golden cage. We cannot fly free.
So friend— how can you fulfill your potential in life?
3. Our life is a spiritual war
‘Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. No purpose or place. No great war, no great depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives.’
To have a zest for life, we need struggle. We need pain. We need something to overcome.
We need to find meaning in our lives— to find some deeper purpose.
For me, I find purpose in life through creating art, through empowering others, and in terms of fulfilling my creative potential.
What is your drive in life?
4. Life is about pain and sacrifice
‘Without pain and sacrifice, we would have nothing.’ – Tyler Durden
To me, life is all about sacrifice.
My mom (umma) sacrificed her life and suffered to give me and my sister a better shot in life. Whenever I show my love for Cindy, there is always some sacrifice. As Nassim Taleb says, ‘Love without sacrifice is theft.’
How can you put more ‘skin in the game’ to life a life with more pain and sacrifice— but in a meaningful way?
5. Purge
‘It is only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.’ – Tyler Durden
Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) — aka the alter ego of Edward Norton, blows up his own condo. But after purging himself of his prior life, he is free.
Practically speaking — I have gained much freedom by purging myself of my past. Purging my past negative memories, purging my superfluous possessions, and purging bullshit. This helped me become reborn, and now I feel free.
6. It is cooler not to own a car.
‘I don’t have a car’ – Tyler Duren
Be like Tyler— don’t be a slave to wanting an expensive car. In-fact, it is cooler not to have a car.
Also consider, are you a slave to debt? Does debt have you working that job you hate, just so you can buy that next $30,000 car?
Consider if you are paid $20 an hour ($40,000 a year USD). Are you willing to work 1,500 hours (62.5 days straight with no rest), or 187 eight-hour working shifts (6.25 months at $20 an hour) just to buy a car, or any other bullshit consumerist good you don’t need?
What is your time worth to you? What is your life worth to you?
7. Who are you?
‘You are not your job; you’re not how much money you have in the bank; you’re not the car you drive; you’re not the contents of your wallet.’ – Tyler Durden
Our identity is who we are as human beings— our soul, the creative work we do, our worldview, and our self-identity.
We don’t need to identify ourselves via the work we do, how many 0’s we have in our bank account, or society’s labels of us.
8. There are no bullets inside
In one of my favorite scenes, Brad Pitt and Edward Norton enter a convenience store, pull out the cashier, and Brad Pitt puts a gun to the head of the kid.
Brad Pitt asks the cashier what his dream in life was. The kid says it was to be a veterinarian, but he dropped out of school because it was too hard.
Brad Pitt then says, ‘I will kill you unless you go back to school and pursue your dream.’ The kid runs away.
Edward Norton says something like, ‘What the fuck — why did you do that?’
Brad Pitt then says to Edward Norton:
“Imagine how he feels— tomorrow will be the most beautiful day of his life. his breakfast will taste better than any meal you and I have ever tasted.“
Brad Pitt then also says that in life, when we have no fear or distractions, we can let ‘that which does not matter— truly slide.’
The best part— Edward Norton opens up the pistol, and sees that the gun has no bullets inside.
Assignment: If someone put a gun to the back of your head, and asked you what your life dream was — how would you answer? And what would you do tonight or tomorrow to pursue your dream?
9. Become the best version of yourself
The interesting concept of Fight Club — Tyler Durden is the same person. Brad Pitt and Edward Norton are the same person.
However Brad Pitt is the idealized version of Edward Norton. Brad Pitt is everything that Edward Norton wants to be.
We all have an inner-Brad Pitt (or Tyler Durden). The only thing we need to do is to take radical change in our lives, to become what Nietzsche calls— the ‘over-man’ (or ‘superman’) who overcomes all the difficulties in his life.
We need to take responsibility for our lives. Not to blame others or make excuses. We just need to go out and pursue our dreams and do what we truly believe in — refusing to let the rules of society cage us in.
10. Life isn’t about winning or losing
Fight Club isn’t about winning or losing. It is rather about fighting your inner-self, your inner-ego, your inner-fears. In Fight Club, you aren’t beating another person — you are just conquering your own fears in life. And you are getting closer to another human being in fraternity.
In real life, there is no winning or losing. We are all on the same team in this world community of humanity. We need to help one another— build each other up, instead of tearing each other down.
Let’s win in life together. Empower yourself in life:
I think for myself, ultimately one of my greatest passions is thinking and thoughts. And also health. But the question is this; how does one actually think better, and also, towards what ends?
1. Outside?
Whenever I wake up, it is typically a slow start. It takes a while to get my thoughts going.
Typically I start off the day with ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE, and I permit myself to have as many shots of espresso as I would like. I keep taking shots until I feel good.
Then I actually think the more critical component is just going outside, going outside in the direct sun, getting direct UV exposure, to the direct sun and the direct light. Some theories:
First, I have a theory that man is not that different from plant, except we move quicker. Let us consider how plants and flowers bloom when the sun is out, and the shrivel when there is no sun.
There’s a funny saying amongst gardeners that the most critical thing to grow plants is lots of love, sunlight, water, and good soil. I wonder if the same applies to humans?
The question is how much sun is enough sun? And how long should we be outside? I say just follow your gut; it is just a feeling. If I haven’t had enough time outdoors, I spend more time outdoors. But if my skin is starting to hurt because the sun is starting to get too strong on my skin, I just go inside.
2. Your skin is the most important organ?
Another thought on health; I’ve discovered that actually, it seems that the best indicator of health is skin. That is, you could determine the health of somebody just by looking at the quality of their skin.
Also one thing that I’ve learned from one of my doctor friends, a past workshop student is that the best way to determine how old somebody is, to look at their hands. You can get lots of cosmetic surgery on your face and other parts of your body, but typically the hands tell all.
Even common gym dwellers; even though they may spend all day in the gym, and get impressive muscles and physique, typically bodybuilders before they get ready for a competition they either go out in the sun, and sunbathe a lot, or they get these fake dark brown spray tans to accentuate their muscles. But what I actually think what they’re trying to do is trying to show that they’re healthy by getting a fake spray tan.
This is tricky because there is a dosage issue here; too much time in the sun causes your skin to wear too quickly. If you are a poor migrant worker, and do not have any protective covering when you’re in the sun all day, your skin will age poorly. So there’s a fine line here; you don’t want to be the typical office worker or tech worker who is simply stuck indoors all day, without access to adequate sun or sunlight.
In fact, even going to some of the most elite shopping malls and places and looking at other humans, it is actually very rare that you could see somebody with healthy looking real skin, with healthy skin and a healthy tan.
Even a lot of people, I think they would look more beautiful if they spent more time outdoors in the direct sun, without a shirt on, getting a good tan.
3. Physical activity, walking and moving
Nietzsche one said, ”Trust no thought which doesn’t come to you while walking outdoors!” Also, don’t trust any thoughts while you are sitting. He had a funny Latin pun, in which the only sin against the Holy Spirit was sitting on your ass.
The last few days and week, I’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time driving in a car, and I’ve been away from the gym for about five days. As a consequence, I actually literally feel my ligaments, tendons, sinews, and body atrophying. My theory is that when you spend a lot of time sitting or sedentary, there is not as much an opportunity for your body to bear the weight of your body on your hips, your back, your knees, ankles feet etc. Therefore literally any time spent sitting is bad for you.
My personal theory on happiness is that happiness is walking. Any life or lifestyle which promotes walking is the greatest blessing.
4. Thinking and thoughts for the sake of what?
One of the greatest things on my mind is that ultimately, what is the point in desired end of thinking and thoughts?
The first of the hugely pragmatic one; often your thoughts manifest your desires and motivators etc.
For example, if you’re always thinking about money, making more money, buying that new car, etc., then your real life activities will manifest in wasting lots of time to trying earn more money. But, what if a more effective approach instead would be to think; what is my personal philosophy of money? What do I want money for, what is the meaning of money, is this a worthwhile goal for me? And or how much time should I devote to trying to earn money? Also, how much money is enough?
Even Seneca once said,
What if right now, you already have too much money?
Nobody ever thinks this! Even back in ancient Roman times.
5. Ultimately, it comes down to philosophy?
Currently speaking, the most worshiped thing is business, economics, entrepreneurship, capital, capitalism, production, producerism, consumerism, media, or money and money accumulation.
However, perhaps a more interesting thing to consider is that philosophy is more critical.
For example, Elon Musk. Tesla and SpaceX. The underlying philosophical question is; should we strive to go to Mars or become an intergalactic species? Because in theory, I think if we took all the world resources, human talent and effort to create spaceships and stuff, we probably could do it.
Also with Tesla; the philosophical question is should we produce, drive, and operate electric cars? Certainly the execution of producing electric cars and putting them into existence is more difficult, but the first philosophical question is, should we do this?
6. What we eat, how we eat?
Currently speaking, my new favorite food may be beef intestines, specifically, large beef intestines. The other night Cindy and I went to our favorite all you can eat Korean barbecue restaurant, and after sampling and eating all of the foods, I think my personal favorite was the large beef intestine. It is so insanely rich, it feels like you’re eating liquid gold. Similar and akin to bone marrow. Maybe even better than beef liver?
I personally believe this to be critical. Why? I think a lot of the modern day philosophies on diet and nutrition is nonsensical. Example there is a strange quantification of calories, protein, carbs, sugar, etc. But I think maybe a more interesting thought is trying to be more critical about the substances we consume.
For example, let us say that we broke down beef intestines into a certain quantified measure, and compared it and measured it to some sort of fake vegetable supplement. Would it yield the same thing? No.
Or another example; is eating 4 pounds of ribeye beef steak equivalent to eating 4 pounds of pea protein powder a day? Assuming that the grammage of protein was the same? No.
My personal thought on the anti-meat conspiracy is that ultimately it comes down to economics; meat is not efficient. It spoils to quickly, it’s not shelf stable, and also doesn’t yield great profit margins.
Also, this strange modern day trend we have towards “animal rights“; for example, animals, pets, dogs and cats have just become another consumer item. For example, getting that pug or Shiba Inu is almost like buying a new Louis Vuitton bag, or a Cartier watch. Also social media; for the most part everyone likes cute dogs and pets and animals. They don’t really offend anybody.
7. Take on the sun!
I thought while weightlifting and taking on things, I think my only enemy is the sun and physics!
It is so funny because just other day, I remember Southern California being so cold during the cruel winter. Now the sun is insanely hot, even I can barely take it. Now I understand why people wear baseball caps; it keeps the top of your forehead from burning, and also gives you a little bit better visibility when looking into the distance.
This is also another plus one for Tesla solar, or Tesla in general; if you could indeed harness all the power from the sun and convert into electricity energy, we’re set.
8. Think Beyond
To think beyond and look beyond — the generalized idea I have is that life is too short for the petty and inconsequential. Perhaps the greatest thing we could do it is to think beyond, and look beyond, which means, only grant yourself the privilege of attempting monsters of a task, things that the normal human being would not even think of or attempt!
For example, as I write these words it is currently the year 2023. Just three years ago, before all this Covid stuff happened, it was the year 2020. This was supposed to be an insanely important and pivotal year; the future.
Yet, we are still falling into the same memes, the same modes of living, the same boring old stuff. Why not attempt to look beyond, and become beyond?
9. Becoming the uberman
What is the time modern day man deserves to become? A beast, a monster, something else?
Why not just drive to become man? The most glorious and peak and over notion of a man?
Thus, my current life task and direction is becoming my own over man, the uberman as Nietzsche says.
Ignore what all of this nonsense call modern day advice on food; just look at what the ancient Greek heroes ate. Bone marrow, oxen.
10. Sleep
The last critical ingredient is sleep. Sleep is the ultimate tonic; even the gods sleep.
Throughout the day if you’re tired, the most effective thing to do is just take a nap. Also ironically enough, if you’re tired, don’t drink coffee. I think coffee ironically should be done this way:
Only drink coffee when you feel good.
During the day, if you’re tired, just take a nap! Power Nap or turbo nap.
Also, one of the best ways to deal with insomnia is simple; hit the hot sauna at least once or twice a day. Just go to your local gym membership place and do it there, or sign up for some sort of hot yoga, CorePower, local studio etc.
Life is too short to be basic. My personal recommendation instead is to think beyond and look behind. What does that mean? That means don’t just be another basic human being; set yourself insanely audacious life goals. Ultimately it doesn’t really matter whether you achieve them or not, what is more critical is the vision and the attempt!
I think for myself, ultimately one of my greatest passions is thinking and thoughts. And also health. But the question is this; how does one actually think better, and also, towards what ends?
1. Outside?
Whenever I wake up, it is typically a slow start. It takes a while to get my thoughts going.
Typically I start off the day with ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE, and I permit myself to have as many shots of espresso as I would like. I keep taking shots until I feel good.
Then I actually think the more critical component is just going outside, going outside in the direct sun, getting direct UV exposure, to the direct sun and the direct light. Some theories:
First, I have a theory that man is not that different from plant, except we move quicker. Let us consider how plants and flowers bloom when the sun is out, and the shrivel when there is no sun.
There’s a funny saying amongst gardeners that the most critical thing to grow plants is lots of love, sunlight, water, and good soil. I wonder if the same applies to humans?
The question is how much sun is enough sun? And how long should we be outside? I say just follow your gut; it is just a feeling. If I haven’t had enough time outdoors, I spend more time outdoors. But if my skin is starting to hurt because the sun is starting to get too strong on my skin, I just go inside.
2. Your skin is the most important organ?
Another thought on health; I’ve discovered that actually, it seems that the best indicator of health is skin. That is, you could determine the health of somebody just by looking at the quality of their skin.
Also one thing that I’ve learned from one of my doctor friends, a past workshop student is that the best way to determine how old somebody is, to look at their hands. You can get lots of cosmetic surgery on your face and other parts of your body, but typically the hands tell all.
Even common gym dwellers; even though they may spend all day in the gym, and get impressive muscles and physique, typically bodybuilders before they get ready for a competition they either go out in the sun, and sunbathe a lot, or they get these fake dark brown spray tans to accentuate their muscles. But what I actually think what they’re trying to do is trying to show that they’re healthy by getting a fake spray tan.
This is tricky because there is a dosage issue here; too much time in the sun causes your skin to wear too quickly. If you are a poor migrant worker, and do not have any protective covering when you’re in the sun all day, your skin will age poorly. So there’s a fine line here; you don’t want to be the typical office worker or tech worker who is simply stuck indoors all day, without access to adequate sun or sunlight.
In fact, even going to some of the most elite shopping malls and places and looking at other humans, it is actually very rare that you could see somebody with healthy looking real skin, with healthy skin and a healthy tan.
Even a lot of people, I think they would look more beautiful if they spent more time outdoors in the direct sun, without a shirt on, getting a good tan.
3. Physical activity, walking and moving
Nietzsche one said, ”Trust no thought which doesn’t come to you while walking outdoors!” Also, don’t trust any thoughts while you are sitting. He had a funny Latin pun, in which the only sin against the Holy Spirit was sitting on your ass.
The last few days and week, I’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time driving in a car, and I’ve been away from the gym for about five days. As a consequence, I actually literally feel my ligaments, tendons, sinews, and body atrophying. My theory is that when you spend a lot of time sitting or sedentary, there is not as much an opportunity for your body to bear the weight of your body on your hips, your back, your knees, ankles feet etc. Therefore literally any time spent sitting is bad for you.
My personal theory on happiness is that happiness is walking. Any life or lifestyle which promotes walking is the greatest blessing.
4. Thinking and thoughts for the sake of what?
One of the greatest things on my mind is that ultimately, what is the point in desired end of thinking and thoughts?
The first of the hugely pragmatic one; often your thoughts manifest your desires and motivators etc.
For example, if you’re always thinking about money, making more money, buying that new car, etc., then your real life activities will manifest in wasting lots of time to trying earn more money. But, what if a more effective approach instead would be to think; what is my personal philosophy of money? What do I want money for, what is the meaning of money, is this a worthwhile goal for me? And or how much time should I devote to trying to earn money? Also, how much money is enough?
Even Seneca once said,
What if right now, you already have too much money?
Nobody ever thinks this! Even back in ancient Roman times.
5. Ultimately, it comes down to philosophy?
Currently speaking, the most worshiped thing is business, economics, entrepreneurship, capital, capitalism, production, producerism, consumerism, media, or money and money accumulation.
However, perhaps a more interesting thing to consider is that philosophy is more critical.
For example, Elon Musk. Tesla and SpaceX. The underlying philosophical question is; should we strive to go to Mars or become an intergalactic species? Because in theory, I think if we took all the world resources, human talent and effort to create spaceships and stuff, we probably could do it.
Also with Tesla; the philosophical question is should we produce, drive, and operate electric cars? Certainly the execution of producing electric cars and putting them into existence is more difficult, but the first philosophical question is, should we do this?
6. What we eat, how we eat?
Currently speaking, my new favorite food may be beef intestines, specifically, large beef intestines. The other night Cindy and I went to our favorite all you can eat Korean barbecue restaurant, and after sampling and eating all of the foods, I think my personal favorite was the large beef intestine. It is so insanely rich, it feels like you’re eating liquid gold. Similar and akin to bone marrow. Maybe even better than beef liver?
I personally believe this to be critical. Why? I think a lot of the modern day philosophies on diet and nutrition is nonsensical. Example there is a strange quantification of calories, protein, carbs, sugar, etc. But I think maybe a more interesting thought is trying to be more critical about the substances we consume.
For example, let us say that we broke down beef intestines into a certain quantified measure, and compared it and measured it to some sort of fake vegetable supplement. Would it yield the same thing? No.
Or another example; is eating 4 pounds of ribeye beef steak equivalent to eating 4 pounds of pea protein powder a day? Assuming that the grammage of protein was the same? No.
My personal thought on the anti-meat conspiracy is that ultimately it comes down to economics; meat is not efficient. It spoils to quickly, it’s not shelf stable, and also doesn’t yield great profit margins.
Also, this strange modern day trend we have towards “animal rights“; for example, animals, pets, dogs and cats have just become another consumer item. For example, getting that pug or Shiba Inu is almost like buying a new Louis Vuitton bag, or a Cartier watch. Also social media; for the most part everyone likes cute dogs and pets and animals. They don’t really offend anybody.
I think for myself, entrepreneurship is in my veins. It is my passion, my lust, my personal interest, that which I am the most passionate about.
I think this is the great glory and gratitude and joy of America, being born in America, etc. Essentially the gist is that in America, you could do anything, become anything, create anything, attempt anything.
In America the nuance is that success or “making it“ is not guaranteed or promised. In fact, in America, the only privilege you have is the freedom to attempt something, not to succeed.
How does this matter?
Several things to consider;
First, you are alive, and one day you will die.
Second, it seems that a lot of life is personal preferences, and also, you have the power to dictate a certain type of lifestyle approach.
For example, we all have certain preferences, and to some degree we can control where we want to live, what kind of work to do, what to spend money on, what not to spend our money on, etc.
I think the biggest thing in modern day times is in regards to media. The reason why I discourage any sort of consumption of watching of sports is that it is essentially prostituted athleticism.
Let us consider why we like to watch sports. Essentially what it is is we get a second hand adrenaline high from watching and consuming sports.
I think the best visual that I have is from battle Angel Alita, the manga comic, in which in this dystopic future, we can get a first hand, POV of other athletes fighting racing and doing other dangerous things. Essentially we literally put ourselves in the shoes of others.
Unstoppable!
Perhaps a good way to visualize things or how to think about it is this; there is a certain desired outcome that you have, and, there might be a certain things which get in your way.
But is this true?
I think not.
For example, I think the big problem is in today’s world, we simply don’t know what we want in life. The reason why I innovated Zen of Eric, or the why app is essentially a means to encourage people to think more critically about their desired outcomes in life.
It seems that a great downside of modern day times and living is that we believe that we must kowtow to some sort of other foreign authority. That we are not permitted to become our own authority.
For example, now that I critically think about it, maybe studying too much Taoism, zen, stoicism has been detrimental to myself.
I think aesthetically, to read philosophy is almost like reading practical and pragmatic philosophy. But ultimately we shouldn’t take things too literally.
Also another strange bias; in modern day times we are indoctrinated that reading more books is more better for us. That is, to read 1000 pages a day is considered virtuous.
However what I believe in is the opposite. Perhaps actually we should read less, walk more, think more, contemplate more, go to the gym more frequently, use the hot sauna more, drink more fine robusta, lift more, one rep max more, etc.
Why thoughts, innovation is critical
I think the problem in modern-day society, America, most of the westernized world, capitalism and consumerism is that we have to purchase happiness, well-being, innovation etc. For example, I’m a huge fan of Tesla Musk, Tesla, electric cars, car culture design, aesthetics etc.
I think the reason why critical thinking is so useful is that it cut to the chase.
For example, a lot of people desire or lust after a certain car; a Mercedes-Benz AMG wagon, a Porsche GT3 RS, a certain model of Tesla, Ferrari Lamborghini etc. Often times people spend an inordinate amount of time thinking and considering these things whereas maybe the best timesaver is this:
What if I just took all of that time effort and money and just invested in my self in my own body, perhaps this would give me more happiness?
For example, the other day while househunting in LA, I walked down Rodeo Drive with Seneca, and trolled around Beverly Hills a bit, and I realize that in regards to cars, everyone is just following the same old memes.
Also a fun trick; instead of looking in the car, look really hard at who the driver is.
For example the typical trope I see is that a lot of these high powered big SUVs are driven by women with sunglasses on, or a lot of these convertible sports cars with the top down is driven with men for balding, old, often over-fat.
So the funny thing is in regards to cars, when we see impressive cars, the question is this:
Do you desire the car, or find the car fascinating? Or do you desire to become the person who is driving the car?
Most people are unwell. Most people have poor health, even people who go to the gym every single day. Health can be characterized by many things, some of it is mental health, some of it is physical health, but ultimately all of it is physiological. That is, happiness joy and health cannot exist outside of your human body.
I personally believe in a “mortal” soul. That is, we all have a soul, which is essentially a metaphorical configuration of the blood, sinews, electric impulses, DNA, everything which is contained within this 3-D wire mesh which we call our human body. When we die our soul dies with us.
How are people unwell? People are unwell in regards to many things;
A lot of modern day people do not spend enough time outside, in the direct elements, in the direct sun. Therefore I wonder if a lot of people are lacking melanin in their skin.
A lot of people have weak legs, thighs, calves, hips, back, shoulders, feet. Even guys who go to the gym every single day, my simple heuristic is first to look at their legs and then look at everything else. If a man does not have calves or thighs or legs which resemble the Farnese Hercules, write them off.
The modern day mode of living is bad; too much time sitting, while sitting in a car stuck in traffic, sitting at a desk at the office, even a standing desk is bad in so far much as you’re stuck in a static position. Even a walking standing desk treadmill desk is bad in so far much as the movement is too regular; a more optimal thing is perhaps walking in some sort of uneven terrain, like walking in some sort of park or natural place with random tree roots bulging out etc., maybe just walking around with your iPad Pro and voice dictating your thoughts. Or just doing work on your iPhone.
I think the modern day man, or even woman can be characterized as some sort of sick animal; domesticated, caged, both literally and metaphorically, and are essentially like little battery pods in the Matrix, in which metabolic energy is extracted for driving consumerism.
Over consumption of sugar, fake sugars, strange beverages, and anemic plants. For example, in terms of beverages, I truly believe that the best approach is to just stick to water, plain tapwater or filtered tap water is fine, and black coffee with nothing added to it. I prefer EK COFFEE, straight up. I don’t drink any sort of alcohol, no beer, no wine, no whiskey, no spirits, nothing weird and foreign. I don’t even smoke weed or do drugs.
What do I desire to do?
Currently speaking, there are a lot of things on the chopping block:
Coffee innovation: it seems that in modern-day times, most adults drink coffee every single day, often several times a day. I think it is actually one of the things which is the most overlooked; we are not critical about the coffee we consume, we just simply treat it as a thing that gives us more power and energy. Yet perhaps we should become more discerning; everyone seems to be obsessed about health, but how come nobody ever talks about health in regards to coffee? ERIC KIM OMAKASE FINE ROBUSTA as the first step.
Diet health and fitness; I believe this to be really really critical; I’ve been obsessed with diet health and fitness ever since I was a fat kid, a fat kid at 11 and 12 years old in Bayside Queens New York. Now at the age of 35, being born in 1988, I’ve experimented and gone through a lot of the exercise fads, food fads, etc. Why is diet health and fitness so critical? I think people want to feel good, to feel strong, abundant, healthy and strong. It seems that the most critical thing then to consider is this trifecta. What do you eat and what you don’t eat, what you drink and what you don’t drink, what you consume and you don’t consume, when to eat, how much to eat, went to stop eating, went to start eating, etc. For example my recent visit to LA, going to Erewhon etc — LA people simply do not look well. They think it is “healthy“, to consume strange juices, and also don’t eat enough meat. It seems that nowadays the big moneymaker is beverages; some sort of miracle tonic, which promises a lot, but ultimately had some sort of fake sugar added to it. Also the reason why you should not trust a lot of these beverages which have “zero sugar added” is that they just put another strange chemical in it, which taste sweet. My personal theory is that even zero calorie sweeteners make you fat, because when your body senses or taste something sweet, your body will excrete insulin, which is one of the precursor to fat storage.
Weight lifting approaches — my one rep max atlas lift as example. Fitness is also another huge industry, and I think a lot of people follow fitness regimens like sheep. This is why I don’t trust anyone who does CrossFit, yoga, or any sort of standardized way of exercise. Also I don’t trust “powerlifters“, or “bodybuilders“; a more robust term to use is weightlifter. Why? My joy and passion is simply lifting weights, I consider it very fun and enjoyable and interesting and thrilling. A lot of these other categories follow some sort of strange approach and regimen.
Innovative thinking, philosophy; I think at the end of the day, what a lot of people desire is discovering some sort of deeper meaning in life. This means, philosophy is the way.
I’m super pumped to announce my first, insanely unique INTRODUCTION TO STOICISM WORKSHOP. This workshop is limited to only three passionate individuals, and it will take place in downtown LA, December 2, 2023. If you’ve been curious about learning more about stoicism, or deepening your philosophical inquiry to life, this workshop is for you!
Also, I am very excited to go back to Philly, October 14th! Cindy is going to Philly for a conference, and concurrently I will also teach a CONQUER STREET PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP there!
Also, November 4th I am also teaching a DISCOVER YOUR CREATIVE MISSION IN LIFE WORKSHOP in DOWNTOWN LA, NOVEMBER 4th. If you want to turbo charge your creativity and artistry, this workshop is for you.
I encourage you to start your own blog! My new thought is don’t limit yourself by anything. Permit yourself to talk about anything and everything your heart desires.
For example for myself, my passion not only for photography, street photography, but philosophy, life, entrepreneurship, and everything in between.
If I think more critically about things, I think my greatest detriment is when I spend too much time thinking and considering too much of other philosophies. Foreign philosophies.
I believe the best philosophy is simply thinking about what you believe in, your own personal preferences, your own life experiences etc.
I think for myself, entrepreneurship is in my veins. It is my passion, my lust, my personal interest, that which I am the most passionate about.
I think this is the great glory and gratitude and joy of America, being born in America, etc. Essentially the gist is that in America, you could do anything, become anything, create anything, attempt anything.
In America the nuance is that success or “making it“ is not guaranteed or promised. In fact, in America, the only privilege you have is the freedom to attempt something, not to succeed.
How does this matter?
Several things to consider;
First, you are alive, and one day you will die.
Second, it seems that a lot of life is personal preferences, and also, you have the power to dictate a certain type of lifestyle approach.
For example, we all have certain preferences, and to some degree we can control where we want to live, what kind of work to do, what to spend money on, what not to spend our money on, etc.
I think the biggest thing in modern day times is in regards to media. The reason why I discourage any sort of consumption of watching of sports is that it is essentially prostituted athleticism.
Let us consider why we like to watch sports. Essentially what it is is we get a second hand adrenaline high from watching and consuming sports.
I think the best visual that I have is from battle Angel Alita, the manga comic, in which in this dystopic future, we can get a first hand, POV of other athletes fighting racing and doing other dangerous things. Essentially we literally put ourselves in the shoes of others.
Everyone wants to be happy, even our best friend Aristotle said it is the one thing that men seek for the sake of itself.
What what is happiness? I think I got the answer; walking is happiness. Any sort of life, lifestyle, lifestyle approach which allows you to maximize your walking is happiness.
Strategies
I cannot speak for most people, because I don’t have a “real job“. That is, I don’t have a workplace, an office, or a place I must typically commute to.
A simple thought that I had is if you have the option, spend extra money which affords you the privilege to walk. For example, I wonder if in fact, shelling out the extra thousand, 2000, 3000, 4000, $5000, maybe even $10,000 a month would be positively beneficial to give you the privilege of walking.
It seems that the modern-day strategy that people partake in is that they sacrifice time in foolish ways. They decide to live further out, further away from work, in the suburbs, which means that they must spend more time driving in order to get to their workplace, in order to have the privilege of having a bigger house, a cheaper house, a smaller mortgage, cheaper rent etc.
Enemies to happiness?
Being forced to be indoors against your own will, this is cruel.
Also, being forced to be stuck in a car, in a bus, in an Uber, even if you had your own private driver, this is cruel.
For example, I once read an interview with Jony Ive, this is when he was still at Apple, in which he would commute for almost 2 hours a day (one way, so 4 hours every day in total), going from a desirable area of San Francisco to the Apple office in Cupertino, having a private driver chauffeur him in his Bentley,and I suppose Jony would just be in the backseat, doing work on his iPhone, iPad, MacBook laptop, etc. If I was Joni and truly committed, I would not make this foolish decision. I would literally just rent a hotel or an apartment or a house literally right next to Apple campus, or who knows, be like Elon Musk and just sleep in a sleeping bag in the office.
However, if you were forced to be sedentary or sitting, for four hours a day, or five hours a day, even if you were the backseat of a Rolls-Royce, a Bentley, Lamborghini, a McLaren, whatever; would it be worth it? No. Even as a thought experiment, if you had a totally maxed out Tesla model S plaid, or a Tesla model X plaid, with 100% auto pilot, assuming the technology was flawless, and you could do other stuff while being autonomously driven around, would you still want to be forced to be sedentary, for 4-5 hours a day? No.
Can happiness be purchased?
You cannot buy happiness. You can buy insanely great coffee, ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE, 100% fine robusta which physiologically speaking, will give you a marvelous happiness bump and boost, but ultimately, beyond coffee, happiness cannot be bought.
Things that money can do which can assist you and aid you in happiness include,
Using your money to buy a gym membership, or a yoga, CorePower membership
Using your money to buy beef and meat, either at Costco or the Costco Business Center. I recommend the beef ribs, or the beef tri-tip!
Using your money to pay for rent closer to your workplace, which allows you to have a 100% walking pedestrian lifestyle.
Having a situation which allows you to work outside, outdoors, without having to be stuck indoors or inside an office.
Buy an iPad Pro, the 11 inch smaller one, no accessories. The ultimate photo viewing device, and productivity device, it has brought me 1000 times more joy than any iPhone.
Physiology for the sake of what?
There’s a strange bias in today’s world that we have to somehow maximize our productivity, in order for the sake to work more, contribute more to society, “make a difference“. For example, the modern-day notion of going to the gym and working out and exercising, the only thought is this:
It is critical for you to exercise daily, because it will make you healthy and healthier, in order for you to keep working more.
The reason why this line of thinking is so twisted is that it is for the sake of maximizing your work capacity, not your own personal happiness. Man is not permitted to be happy for the sake of being happy.
Happiness is also a flawed end goal
The other day, I was so insanely happy, maybe a 50 out of 10. But at the end of the day, happiness is a bit inconsequential. For me what is more critical is having the opportunity, physiological energy to pursue my creative tasks. Whether it be reviewing my photos, writing and blogging, thinking, producing knowledge, sending out email newsletters, etc.
A cool trend I see is the trend towards philosophy. Why? This is what I think:
“Self development” is just philosophy in (modern day capitalistic) disguise.
And what do I mean by this? Ultimately any sort of business, self development book is centered around a certain philosophy. And the book typically preaches some sort of strategy and technique in order to achieve that philosophical end.
Don’t be a dummy.
In life, there is no such thing as virtue, or sin, vice. To me, it is all about wisdom, knowledge, becoming less foolish, and “not being a dummy.”
I like the word dummy, because it is not so serious. For example, we joke around with kids to not be a dummy. Maybe this is a better path for us.
You should start your own philosophy blog
Oh and today’s world of ChatGPT, AI assisted writing, the question,
How do you know if something was written by ChatGPT, or a real human being?
For the most part you can’t. However, anything written by ERIC KIM passes the Turing test. Why? The way I talk is non-standard, the way I write is genuine, and ultimately I think the future of writing and thinking is predicated around philosophy. That is, there is already enough information and wisdom on the Internet on how to do anything. But not much information on why do XYZ. Or, should we do XYZ.
For example, I firmly believe that if your goal is to become superhuman, eating beef and meat is critical. But I philosophical question is should we eat beef and meat? Even if it is bad for the planet?
For example, if someone tells me, “Eric, you shouldn’t eat meat because it is bad for the planet“. But what if I say, “I know that eating meat is bad for the planet, but eating beef is best for me. So I don’t care.” Is one permitted to talk like this? This is the task and role of philosophy and ethics.
Hygiene?
The etymology of hygiene, in ancient Greek is the art of health.
In modern day times, hygiene as a concept has fallen out of vogue. Why? In the states, a lot of the modernized westernized world, we take it for granted. There is regular trash pick ups, we have clean albeit not too tasty running tapwater, and mostly clean air. And also, most foods we buy or eat, whether it be at the grocery store or a restaurant will not cause us food poisoning.
Food hygiene is very underrated as a concept. We moderns prefer tasty or good tasting food, we don’t really care much for hygiene anymore.
Hygiene as a metaphorical or philosophical concept
Here is where I find hygiene critical; some people, mentally, physically or unwell, their mental hygiene is poor, and their physical physiological bodily hygiene is also probably poor. Used as a metaphor.
If you see weird homeless people on the street, cracked out, smelling bad, do you distain the way they act? No. You just keep your distance, and run away.
In the zone?
Another thing that I’ve discovered is when I’m in the zone, I get so focused on the task at hand that when other people say random maybe possibly demeaning stuff to you, I don’t even have to forcibly ignore them, I just literally can’t hear them, I hear them literally, but because I’m so focused at the task at hand, what they said or intended doesn’t upset me.
What does it even mean to be happy?
I was doing some research on the etymology of happy, and no one is really quite certain where that word comes from. There are certain theories, like “happen”— fortunate, happen chance, hap— chance, luck, fortune, hampa— good luck, chance, from Proto indo European *kob— which means good fortune, prophecy, to bend, bow, fit in, work, succeed.
So why does this matter?
It seems that nowadays, English is the dominant world language. And if we operate in a certain linguistic manner, perhaps the common day words we use should be used with more precision and clarity.
For example, John Stuart Mill, a lot of the early American developers preach notions of the “pursuit of happiness“. But the issue is, if you can’t even define happiness, or if the notion of happiness is a modern day one, then perhaps this is not a good goal or path.
I say instead of seeking to be “happy“, maybe it is better to seek to be strong, well, powerful, and in a great mood. It seems that also, one of my passions being thinking, having the opportunity and clarity of thought is supreme to me.
Now what?
I still think certainly at the end of the day, it is fine to use every day words colloquially. So for example, what contributes a great life to me?
First, artistic and creative productivity. To me this pertains to photography, both shooting and making photos, reviewing photos, enjoying my photos, sharing my photos, thinking about photos, and the aesthetic joy that I get from looking at my own photos.
Second, philosophical and thinking power; this means, I have a passion for thinking, and thinking interesting thoughts. A life without thoughts is not a life worth having.
Third, the health, strength, growth, and muscles of my family. This pertains to my son, and also my wife. And of course certainly myself. Other day I took Seneca to the jungle gym, and at two years seven months old, the pure undiluted joy that he gets from running across the suspension bridge and the jungle gym is pure bliss to me.
Also, witnessing his muscular development, and how much pride and joy that I get watching him eat 100% grass fed ground beef, in super mini burger patties for him, and also him eating while you thinly sliced meat that we buy from H Mart. Seeing Seneca consume beef, and building his muscles brings me great joy.
As a tangent, I think a lot of this modern-day notions of child development are skewed. Rather than trying to educate your kids, make them brain smart, I think a better goal and path is instead, to develop their muscles.
Seeking happiness towards what ends?
First and foremost, as biological beings, I think perhaps it is critical for us to first seek to be physically, physiologically strong and well. An optimization towards physiological well-being is a good one.
Why? It is the necessary path. Without physiological strength and well-being, you can’t do anything. For example, it doesn’t matter if you have $100 billion in the bank, if you are physically or physiologically unwell, if you only sleep two hours a night, if you have no muscles or hotspots in your body, Nothing can be done.
Willpower is not real. Muscle power is real.
Society living is the best living
What is the point of money? Having the privilege of being around other human beings. This, paying rent, and buying beef as well. But beyond this, the additional utility of money is slim; once you have your digital camera, your Internet Wi-Fi connection, your iPad Pro etc., what else do you need? Not much.
Think more with KIM
If you’re hungry to think more, deeper and further, think with me at one of my upcoming workshops:
If you’re having a hard time sleeping, my simple suggestion; start going to the gym at least once every single day, and use a hot sauna at least once a day, or really severe cases, go to the hot sauna twice a day.
One thing I found really interesting being in Japan, being at those random Japanese businessman hotels, or the wonderful Ryokans in Kyoto Uji, is at least in Japanese culture, the hot baths, are an integral part of their life and culture. That is, before they sleep, doing a really really hot bath is critical.
The same thing is in Korean culture, the jjim jjil bbang. Apparently in northern Scandinavian and Swedish countries, the really really hot sauna, whether it be dry or humid and steamy is also a critical part of their health.
According to the biological phenomenon hormesis, port duration of extreme heat and humidity is positively good for our physiological health and well-being.
I never really knew, but I suppose I have very strong opinions on homes and living quarters and situations. That means for the most part I hate ugly. I hate old and ugly danky dark, dim, and ghetto apartments, especially here in LA.
I have a theory:
Perhaps ugly aesthetics actually causes our physiological happiness and well being to go down.
What is ugliness? Anything which causes our physiological well being to go downwards.
For example, I think the reason why old and danky and ghetto apartments have such an adverse reaction to us is because they scream “hygenically dangerous”. Hygiene as “the art of health”.
For example, the dark and danky typically means moldy. Mold is a poison.
Thus, the simplest thing with homes, houses, condos, duplexes, town houses, flats, hotels, airbnbs, motels sleeping or living quarters etc:
Ensure there is no mold
No poor air circulation (good air circulation is nett we for our health)
Not dark and dim and danky (sunlight, the sun as the best disinfectant, and mold killer)
Not loud
Not dirty
Not old
Now what?
After my Ricoh GR IIIX died, I’ve just been using my LUMIX G9 and Leica LUMIX 12mm f1.4 Lens and it produces insanely beautiful photos! Downsides — insanely big and heavy, which is bad.
I want something insanely different
At this point, money is no concern for us.
In terms of innovative cameras, I’m trending towards the point and shoot, integrated flash department. For example,
Arsbeta.com — upload and share your best photos now!
What’s on my mind?
Still house apartment hunting in LA — checking out Culver City (downtown Culver City is insanely cool and walkable). Also going to check out Westwood and Sawtelle
Still backlogged around 7,000 photos on my LUMIX g9– on iPad Pro. Working on reviewing them!
Future photo innovations?
An AI-assisted Tool to help us cull down and curate our favorite photos.
Or an AI app thing that helps us automatically pick our best photos?
Everyone wants to be happy, even our best friend Aristotle said it is the one thing that men seek for the sake of itself.
What what is happiness? I think I got the answer; walking is happiness. Any sort of life, lifestyle, lifestyle approach which allows you to maximize your walking is happiness.
Strategies
I cannot speak for most people, because I don’t have a “real job“. That is, I don’t have a workplace, an office, or a place I must typically commute to.
A simple thought that I had is if you have the option, spend extra money which affords you the privilege to walk. For example, I wonder if in fact, shelling out the extra thousand, 2000, 3000, 4000, $5000, maybe even $10,000 a month would be positively beneficial to give you the privilege of walking.
It seems that the modern-day strategy that people partake in is that they sacrifice time in foolish ways. They decide to live further out, further away from work, in the suburbs, which means that they must spend more time driving in order to get to their workplace, in order to have the privilege of having a bigger house, a cheaper house, a smaller mortgage, cheaper rent etc.
Enemies to happiness?
Being forced to be indoors against your own will, this is cruel.
Also, being forced to be stuck in a car, in a bus, in an Uber, even if you had your own private driver, this is cruel.
For example, I once read an interview with Jony Ive, this is when he was still at Apple, in which he would commute for almost 2 hours a day (one way, so 4 hours every day in total), going from a desirable area of San Francisco to the Apple office in Cupertino, having a private driver chauffeur him in his Bentley,and I suppose Jony would just be in the backseat, doing work on his iPhone, iPad, MacBook laptop, etc. If I was Joni and truly committed, I would not make this foolish decision. I would literally just rent a hotel or an apartment or a house literally right next to Apple campus, or who knows, be like Elon Musk and just sleep in a sleeping bag in the office.
However, if you were forced to be sedentary or sitting, for four hours a day, or five hours a day, even if you were the backseat of a Rolls-Royce, a Bentley, Lamborghini, a McLaren, whatever; would it be worth it? No. Even as a thought experiment, if you had a totally maxed out Tesla model S plaid, or a Tesla model X plaid, with 100% auto pilot, assuming the technology was flawless, and you could do other stuff while being autonomously driven around, would you still want to be forced to be sedentary, for 4-5 hours a day? No.
Can happiness be purchased?
You cannot buy happiness. You can buy insanely great coffee, ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE, 100% fine robusta which physiologically speaking, will give you a marvelous happiness bump and boost, but ultimately, beyond coffee, happiness cannot be bought.
Things that money can do which can assist you and aid you in happiness include,
Using your money to buy a gym membership, or a yoga, CorePower membership
Using your money to buy beef and meat, either at Costco or the Costco Business Center. I recommend the beef ribs, or the beef tri-tip!
Using your money to pay for rent closer to your workplace, which allows you to have a 100% walking pedestrian lifestyle.
Having a situation which allows you to work outside, outdoors, without having to be stuck indoors or inside an office.
Buy an iPad Pro, the 11 inch smaller one, no accessories. The ultimate photo viewing device, and productivity device, it has brought me 1000 times more joy than any iPhone.
Physiology for the sake of what?
There’s a strange bias in today’s world that we have to somehow maximize our productivity, in order for the sake to work more, contribute more to society, “make a difference“. For example, the modern-day notion of going to the gym and working out and exercising, the only thought is this:
It is critical for you to exercise daily, because it will make you healthy and healthier, in order for you to keep working more.
The reason why this line of thinking is so twisted is that it is for the sake of maximizing your work capacity, not your own personal happiness. Man is not permitted to be happy for the sake of being happy.
Happiness is also a flawed end goal
The other day, I was so insanely happy, maybe a 50 out of 10. But at the end of the day, happiness is a bit inconsequential. For me what is more critical is having the opportunity, physiological energy to pursue my creative tasks. Whether it be reviewing my photos, writing and blogging, thinking, producing knowledge, sending out email newsletters, etc.
A cool trend I see is the trend towards philosophy. Why? This is what I think:
“Self development” is just philosophy in (modern day capitalistic) disguise.
And what do I mean by this? Ultimately any sort of business, self development book is centered around a certain philosophy. And the book typically preaches some sort of strategy and technique in order to achieve that philosophical end.
Don’t be a dummy.
In life, there is no such thing as virtue, or sin, vice. To me, it is all about wisdom, knowledge, becoming less foolish, and “not being a dummy.”
I like the word dummy, because it is not so serious. For example, we joke around with kids to not be a dummy. Maybe this is a better path for us.
You should start your own philosophy blog
Oh and today’s world of ChatGPT, AI assisted writing, the question,
How do you know if something was written by ChatGPT, or a real human being?
For the most part you can’t. However, anything written by ERIC KIM passes the Turing test. Why? The way I talk is non-standard, the way I write is genuine, and ultimately I think the future of writing and thinking is predicated around philosophy. That is, there is already enough information and wisdom on the Internet on how to do anything. But not much information on why do XYZ. Or, should we do XYZ.
For example, I firmly believe that if your goal is to become superhuman, eating beef and meat is critical. But I philosophical question is should we eat beef and meat? Even if it is bad for the planet?
For example, if someone tells me, “Eric, you shouldn’t eat meat because it is bad for the planet“. But what if I say, “I know that eating meat is bad for the planet, but eating beef is best for me. So I don’t care.” Is one permitted to talk like this? This is the task and role of philosophy and ethics.
Hygiene?
The etymology of hygiene, in ancient Greek is the art of health.
In modern day times, hygiene as a concept has fallen out of vogue. Why? In the states, a lot of the modernized westernized world, we take it for granted. There is regular trash pick ups, we have clean albeit not too tasty running tapwater, and mostly clean air. And also, most foods we buy or eat, whether it be at the grocery store or a restaurant will not cause us food poisoning.
Food hygiene is very underrated as a concept. We moderns prefer tasty or good tasting food, we don’t really care much for hygiene anymore.
Hygiene as a metaphorical or philosophical concept
Here is where I find hygiene critical; some people, mentally, physically or unwell, their mental hygiene is poor, and their physical physiological bodily hygiene is also probably poor. Used as a metaphor.
If you see weird homeless people on the street, cracked out, smelling bad, do you distain the way they act? No. You just keep your distance, and run away.
In the zone?
Another thing that I’ve discovered is when I’m in the zone, I get so focused on the task at hand that when other people say random maybe possibly demeaning stuff to you, I don’t even have to forcibly ignore them, I just literally can’t hear them, I hear them literally, but because I’m so focused at the task at hand, what they said or intended doesn’t upset me.
What does it even mean to be happy?
I was doing some research on the etymology of happy, and no one is really quite certain where that word comes from. There are certain theories, like “happen”— fortunate, happen chance, hap— chance, luck, fortune, hampa— good luck, chance, from Proto indo European *kob— which means good fortune, prophecy, to bend, bow, fit in, work, succeed.
So why does this matter?
It seems that nowadays, English is the dominant world language. And if we operate in a certain linguistic manner, perhaps the common day words we use should be used with more precision and clarity.
For example, John Stuart Mill, a lot of the early American developers preach notions of the “pursuit of happiness“. But the issue is, if you can’t even define happiness, or if the notion of happiness is a modern day one, then perhaps this is not a good goal or path.
I say instead of seeking to be “happy“, maybe it is better to seek to be strong, well, powerful, and in a great mood. It seems that also, one of my passions being thinking, having the opportunity and clarity of thought is supreme to me.
Now what?
I still think certainly at the end of the day, it is fine to use every day words colloquially. So for example, what contributes a great life to me?
First, artistic and creative productivity. To me this pertains to photography, both shooting and making photos, reviewing photos, enjoying my photos, sharing my photos, thinking about photos, and the aesthetic joy that I get from looking at my own photos.
Second, philosophical and thinking power; this means, I have a passion for thinking, and thinking interesting thoughts. A life without thoughts is not a life worth having.
Third, the health, strength, growth, and muscles of my family. This pertains to my son, and also my wife. And of course certainly myself. Other day I took Seneca to the jungle gym, and at two years seven months old, the pure undiluted joy that he gets from running across the suspension bridge and the jungle gym is pure bliss to me.
Also, witnessing his muscular development, and how much pride and joy that I get watching him eat 100% grass fed ground beef, in super mini burger patties for him, and also him eating while you thinly sliced meat that we buy from H Mart. Seeing Seneca consume beef, and building his muscles brings me great joy.
As a tangent, I think a lot of this modern-day notions of child development are skewed. Rather than trying to educate your kids, make them brain smart, I think a better goal and path is instead, to develop their muscles.
Seeking happiness towards what ends?
First and foremost, as biological beings, I think perhaps it is critical for us to first seek to be physically, physiologically strong and well. An optimization towards physiological well-being is a good one.
Why? It is the necessary path. Without physiological strength and well-being, you can’t do anything. For example, it doesn’t matter if you have $100 billion in the bank, if you are physically or physiologically unwell, if you only sleep two hours a night, if you have no muscles or hotspots in your body, Nothing can be done.
Willpower is not real. Muscle power is real.
Society living is the best living
What is the point of money? Having the privilege of being around other human beings. This, paying rent, and buying beef as well. But beyond this, the additional utility of money is slim; once you have your digital camera, your Internet Wi-Fi connection, your iPad Pro etc., what else do you need? Not much.
Think more with KIM
If you’re hungry to think more, deeper and further, think with me at one of my upcoming workshops:
If you’re having a hard time sleeping, my simple suggestion; start going to the gym at least once every single day, and use a hot sauna at least once a day, or really severe cases, go to the hot sauna twice a day.
One thing I found really interesting being in Japan, being at those random Japanese businessman hotels, or the wonderful Ryokans in Kyoto Uji, is at least in Japanese culture, the hot baths, are an integral part of their life and culture. That is, before they sleep, doing a really really hot bath is critical.
The same thing is in Korean culture, the jjim jjil bbang. Apparently in northern Scandinavian and Swedish countries, the really really hot sauna, whether it be dry or humid and steamy is also a critical part of their health.
According to the biological phenomenon hormesis, port duration of extreme heat and humidity is positively good for our physiological health and well-being.
I never really knew, but I suppose I have very strong opinions on homes and living quarters and situations. That means for the most part I hate ugly. I hate old and ugly danky dark, dim, and ghetto apartments, especially here in LA.
I have a theory:
Perhaps ugly aesthetics actually causes our physiological happiness and well being to go down.
What is ugliness? Anything which causes our physiological well being to go downwards.
For example, I think the reason why old and danky and ghetto apartments have such an adverse reaction to us is because they scream “hygenically dangerous”. Hygiene as “the art of health”.
For example, the dark and danky typically means moldy. Mold is a poison.
Thus, the simplest thing with homes, houses, condos, duplexes, town houses, flats, hotels, airbnbs, motels sleeping or living quarters etc:
Ensure there is no mold
No poor air circulation (good air circulation is nett we for our health)
Not dark and dim and danky (sunlight, the sun as the best disinfectant, and mold killer)
Not loud
Not dirty
Not old
Now what?
After my Ricoh GR IIIX died, I’ve just been using my LUMIX G9 and Leica LUMIX 12mm f1.4 Lens and it produces insanely beautiful photos! Downsides — insanely big and heavy, which is bad.
Everyone wants to be happy, even our best friend Aristotle said it is the one thing that men seek for the sake of itself.
What what is happiness? I think I got the answer; walking is happiness. Any sort of life, lifestyle, lifestyle approach which allows you to maximize your walking is happiness.
Strategies
I cannot speak for most people, because I don’t have a “real job“. That is, I don’t have a workplace, an office, or a place I must typically commute to.
A simple thought that I had is if you have the option, spend extra money which affords you the privilege to walk. For example, I wonder if in fact, shelling out the extra thousand, 2000, 3000, 4000, $5000, maybe even $10,000 a month would be positively beneficial to give you the privilege of walking.
It seems that the modern-day strategy that people partake in is that they sacrifice time in foolish ways. They decide to live further out, further away from work, in the suburbs, which means that they must spend more time driving in order to get to their workplace, in order to have the privilege of having a bigger house, a cheaper house, a smaller mortgage, cheaper rent etc.
Enemies to happiness?
Being forced to be indoors against your own will, this is cruel.
Also, being forced to be stuck in a car, in a bus, in an Uber, even if you had your own private driver, this is cruel.
For example, I once read an interview with Jony Ive, this is when he was still at Apple, in which he would commute for almost 2 hours a day (one way, so 4 hours every day in total), going from a desirable area of San Francisco to the Apple office in Cupertino, having a private driver chauffeur him in his Bentley,and I suppose Jony would just be in the backseat, doing work on his iPhone, iPad, MacBook laptop, etc. If I was Joni and truly committed, I would not make this foolish decision. I would literally just rent a hotel or an apartment or a house literally right next to Apple campus, or who knows, be like Elon Musk and just sleep in a sleeping bag in the office.
However, if you were forced to be sedentary or sitting, for four hours a day, or five hours a day, even if you were the backseat of a Rolls-Royce, a Bentley, Lamborghini, a McLaren, whatever; would it be worth it? No. Even as a thought experiment, if you had a totally maxed out Tesla model S plaid, or a Tesla model X plaid, with 100% auto pilot, assuming the technology was flawless, and you could do other stuff while being autonomously driven around, would you still want to be forced to be sedentary, for 4-5 hours a day? No.
Can happiness be purchased?
You cannot buy happiness. You can buy insanely great coffee, ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE, 100% fine robusta which physiologically speaking, will give you a marvelous happiness bump and boost, but ultimately, beyond coffee, happiness cannot be bought.
Things that money can do which can assist you and aid you in happiness include,
Using your money to buy a gym membership, or a yoga, CorePower membership
Using your money to buy beef and meat, either at Costco or the Costco Business Center. I recommend the beef ribs, or the beef tri-tip!
Using your money to pay for rent closer to your workplace, which allows you to have a 100% walking pedestrian lifestyle.
Having a situation which allows you to work outside, outdoors, without having to be stuck indoors or inside an office.
Buy an iPad Pro, the 11 inch smaller one, no accessories. The ultimate photo viewing device, and productivity device, it has brought me 1000 times more joy than any iPhone.
Physiology for the sake of what?
There’s a strange bias in today’s world that we have to somehow maximize our productivity, in order for the sake to work more, contribute more to society, “make a difference“. For example, the modern-day notion of going to the gym and working out and exercising, the only thought is this:
It is critical for you to exercise daily, because it will make you healthy and healthier, in order for you to keep working more.
The reason why this line of thinking is so twisted is that it is for the sake of maximizing your work capacity, not your own personal happiness. Man is not permitted to be happy for the sake of being happy.
Happiness is also a flawed end goal
The other day, I was so insanely happy, maybe a 50 out of 10. But at the end of the day, happiness is a bit inconsequential. For me what is more critical is having the opportunity, physiological energy to pursue my creative tasks. Whether it be reviewing my photos, writing and blogging, thinking, producing knowledge, sending out email newsletters, etc.
A cool trend I see is the trend towards philosophy. Why? This is what I think:
“Self development” is just philosophy in (modern day capitalistic) disguise.
And what do I mean by this? Ultimately any sort of business, self development book is centered around a certain philosophy. And the book typically preaches some sort of strategy and technique in order to achieve that philosophical end.
Don’t be a dummy.
In life, there is no such thing as virtue, or sin, vice. To me, it is all about wisdom, knowledge, becoming less foolish, and “not being a dummy.”
I like the word dummy, because it is not so serious. For example, we joke around with kids to not be a dummy. Maybe this is a better path for us.
You should start your own philosophy blog
Oh and today’s world of ChatGPT, AI assisted writing, the question,
How do you know if something was written by ChatGPT, or a real human being?
For the most part you can’t. However, anything written by ERIC KIM passes the Turing test. Why? The way I talk is non-standard, the way I write is genuine, and ultimately I think the future of writing and thinking is predicated around philosophy. That is, there is already enough information and wisdom on the Internet on how to do anything. But not much information on why do XYZ. Or, should we do XYZ.
For example, I firmly believe that if your goal is to become superhuman, eating beef and meat is critical. But I philosophical question is should we eat beef and meat? Even if it is bad for the planet?
For example, if someone tells me, “Eric, you shouldn’t eat meat because it is bad for the planet“. But what if I say, “I know that eating meat is bad for the planet, but eating beef is best for me. So I don’t care.” Is one permitted to talk like this? This is the task and role of philosophy and ethics.
Hygiene?
The etymology of hygiene, in ancient Greek is the art of health.
In modern day times, hygiene as a concept has fallen out of vogue. Why? In the states, a lot of the modernized westernized world, we take it for granted. There is regular trash pick ups, we have clean albeit not too tasty running tapwater, and mostly clean air. And also, most foods we buy or eat, whether it be at the grocery store or a restaurant will not cause us food poisoning.
Food hygiene is very underrated as a concept. We moderns prefer tasty or good tasting food, we don’t really care much for hygiene anymore.
Hygiene as a metaphorical or philosophical concept
Here is where I find hygiene critical; some people, mentally, physically or unwell, their mental hygiene is poor, and their physical physiological bodily hygiene is also probably poor. Used as a metaphor.
If you see weird homeless people on the street, cracked out, smelling bad, do you distain the way they act? No. You just keep your distance, and run away.
In the zone?
Another thing that I’ve discovered is when I’m in the zone, I get so focused on the task at hand that when other people say random maybe possibly demeaning stuff to you, I don’t even have to forcibly ignore them, I just literally can’t hear them, I hear them literally, but because I’m so focused at the task at hand, what they said or intended doesn’t upset me.
What does it even mean to be happy?
I was doing some research on the etymology of happy, and no one is really quite certain where that word comes from. There are certain theories, like “happen”— fortunate, happen chance, hap— chance, luck, fortune, hampa— good luck, chance, from Proto indo European *kob— which means good fortune, prophecy, to bend, bow, fit in, work, succeed.
So why does this matter?
It seems that nowadays, English is the dominant world language. And if we operate in a certain linguistic manner, perhaps the common day words we use should be used with more precision and clarity.
For example, John Stuart Mill, a lot of the early American developers preach notions of the “pursuit of happiness“. But the issue is, if you can’t even define happiness, or if the notion of happiness is a modern day one, then perhaps this is not a good goal or path.
I say instead of seeking to be “happy“, maybe it is better to seek to be strong, well, powerful, and in a great mood. It seems that also, one of my passions being thinking, having the opportunity and clarity of thought is supreme to me.
Now what?
I still think certainly at the end of the day, it is fine to use every day words colloquially. So for example, what contributes a great life to me?
First, artistic and creative productivity. To me this pertains to photography, both shooting and making photos, reviewing photos, enjoying my photos, sharing my photos, thinking about photos, and the aesthetic joy that I get from looking at my own photos.
Second, philosophical and thinking power; this means, I have a passion for thinking, and thinking interesting thoughts. A life without thoughts is not a life worth having.
Third, the health, strength, growth, and muscles of my family. This pertains to my son, and also my wife. And of course certainly myself. Other day I took Seneca to the jungle gym, and at two years seven months old, the pure undiluted joy that he gets from running across the suspension bridge and the jungle gym is pure bliss to me.
Also, witnessing his muscular development, and how much pride and joy that I get watching him eat 100% grass fed ground beef, in super mini burger patties for him, and also him eating while you thinly sliced meat that we buy from H Mart. Seeing Seneca consume beef, and building his muscles brings me great joy.
As a tangent, I think a lot of this modern-day notions of child development are skewed. Rather than trying to educate your kids, make them brain smart, I think a better goal and path is instead, to develop their muscles.
Seeking happiness towards what ends?
First and foremost, as biological beings, I think perhaps it is critical for us to first seek to be physically, physiologically strong and well. An optimization towards physiological well-being is a good one.
Why? It is the necessary path. Without physiological strength and well-being, you can’t do anything. For example, it doesn’t matter if you have $100 billion in the bank, if you are physically or physiologically unwell, if you only sleep two hours a night, if you have no muscles or hotspots in your body, Nothing can be done.
Willpower is not real. Muscle power is real.
Society living is the best living
What is the point of money? Having the privilege of being around other human beings. This, paying rent, and buying beef as well. But beyond this, the additional utility of money is slim; once you have your digital camera, your Internet Wi-Fi connection, your iPad Pro etc., what else do you need? Not much.
Think more with KIM
If you’re hungry to think more, deeper and further, think with me at one of my upcoming workshops:
Everyone wants to be happy, even our best friend Aristotle said it is the one thing that men seek for the sake of itself.
What what is happiness? I think I got the answer; walking is happiness. Any sort of life, lifestyle, lifestyle approach which allows you to maximize your walking is happiness.
Strategies
I cannot speak for most people, because I don’t have a “real job“. That is, I don’t have a workplace, an office, or a place I must typically commute to.
A simple thought that I had is if you have the option, spend extra money which affords you the privilege to walk. For example, I wonder if in fact, shelling out the extra thousand, 2000, 3000, 4000, $5000, maybe even $10,000 a month would be positively beneficial to give you the privilege of walking.
It seems that the modern-day strategy that people partake in is that they sacrifice time in foolish ways. They decide to live further out, further away from work, in the suburbs, which means that they must spend more time driving in order to get to their workplace, in order to have the privilege of having a bigger house, a cheaper house, a smaller mortgage, cheaper rent etc.
Enemies to happiness?
Being forced to be indoors against your own will, this is cruel.
Also, being forced to be stuck in a car, in a bus, in an Uber, even if you had your own private driver, this is cruel.
For example, I once read an interview with Jony Ive, this is when he was still at Apple, in which he would commute for almost 2 hours a day (one way, so 4 hours every day in total), going from a desirable area of San Francisco to the Apple office in Cupertino, having a private driver chauffeur him in his Bentley,and I suppose Jony would just be in the backseat, doing work on his iPhone, iPad, MacBook laptop, etc. If I was Joni and truly committed, I would not make this foolish decision. I would literally just rent a hotel or an apartment or a house literally right next to Apple campus, or who knows, be like Elon Musk and just sleep in a sleeping bag in the office.
However, if you were forced to be sedentary or sitting, for four hours a day, or five hours a day, even if you were the backseat of a Rolls-Royce, a Bentley, Lamborghini, a McLaren, whatever; would it be worth it? No. Even as a thought experiment, if you had a totally maxed out Tesla model S plaid, or a Tesla model X plaid, with 100% auto pilot, assuming the technology was flawless, and you could do other stuff while being autonomously driven around, would you still want to be forced to be sedentary, for 4-5 hours a day? No.
Can happiness be purchased?
You cannot buy happiness. You can buy insanely great coffee, ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE, 100% fine robusta which physiologically speaking, will give you a marvelous happiness bump and boost, but ultimately, beyond coffee, happiness cannot be bought.
Things that money can do which can assist you and aid you in happiness include,
Using your money to buy a gym membership, or a yoga, CorePower membership
Using your money to buy beef and meat, either at Costco or the Costco Business Center. I recommend the beef ribs, or the beef tri-tip!
Using your money to pay for rent closer to your workplace, which allows you to have a 100% walking pedestrian lifestyle.
Having a situation which allows you to work outside, outdoors, without having to be stuck indoors or inside an office.
Buy an iPad Pro, the 11 inch smaller one, no accessories. The ultimate photo viewing device, and productivity device, it has brought me 1000 times more joy than any iPhone.
Physiology for the sake of what?
There’s a strange bias in today’s world that we have to somehow maximize our productivity, in order for the sake to work more, contribute more to society, “make a difference“. For example, the modern-day notion of going to the gym and working out and exercising, the only thought is this:
It is critical for you to exercise daily, because it will make you healthy and healthier, in order for you to keep working more.
The reason why this line of thinking is so twisted is that it is for the sake of maximizing your work capacity, not your own personal happiness. Man is not permitted to be happy for the sake of being happy.
Happiness is also a flawed end goal
The other day, I was so insanely happy, maybe a 50 out of 10. But at the end of the day, happiness is a bit inconsequential. For me what is more critical is having the opportunity, physiological energy to pursue my creative tasks. Whether it be reviewing my photos, writing and blogging, thinking, producing knowledge, sending out email newsletters, etc.
A cool trend I see is the trend towards philosophy. Why? This is what I think:
“Self development” is just philosophy in (modern day capitalistic) disguise.
And what do I mean by this? Ultimately any sort of business, self development book is centered around a certain philosophy. And the book typically preaches some sort of strategy and technique in order to achieve that philosophical end.
Don’t be a dummy.
In life, there is no such thing as virtue, or sin, vice. To me, it is all about wisdom, knowledge, becoming less foolish, and “not being a dummy.”
I like the word dummy, because it is not so serious. For example, we joke around with kids to not be a dummy. Maybe this is a better path for us.
You should start your own philosophy blog
Oh and today’s world of ChatGPT, AI assisted writing, the question,
How do you know if something was written by ChatGPT, or a real human being?
For the most part you can’t. However, anything written by ERIC KIM passes the Turing test. Why? The way I talk is non-standard, the way I write is genuine, and ultimately I think the future of writing and thinking is predicated around philosophy. That is, there is already enough information and wisdom on the Internet on how to do anything. But not much information on why do XYZ. Or, should we do XYZ.
For example, I firmly believe that if your goal is to become superhuman, eating beef and meat is critical. But I philosophical question is should we eat beef and meat? Even if it is bad for the planet?
For example, if someone tells me, “Eric, you shouldn’t eat meat because it is bad for the planet“. But what if I say, “I know that eating meat is bad for the planet, but eating beef is best for me. So I don’t care.” Is one permitted to talk like this? This is the task and role of philosophy and ethics.
Hygiene?
The etymology of hygiene, in ancient Greek is the art of health.
In modern day times, hygiene as a concept has fallen out of vogue. Why? In the states, a lot of the modernized westernized world, we take it for granted. There is regular trash pick ups, we have clean albeit not too tasty running tapwater, and mostly clean air. And also, most foods we buy or eat, whether it be at the grocery store or a restaurant will not cause us food poisoning.
Food hygiene is very underrated as a concept. We moderns prefer tasty or good tasting food, we don’t really care much for hygiene anymore.
Hygiene as a metaphorical or philosophical concept
Here is where I find hygiene critical; some people, mentally, physically or unwell, their mental hygiene is poor, and their physical physiological bodily hygiene is also probably poor. Used as a metaphor.
If you see weird homeless people on the street, cracked out, smelling bad, do you distain the way they act? No. You just keep your distance, and run away.
In the zone?
Another thing that I’ve discovered is when I’m in the zone, I get so focused on the task at hand that when other people say random maybe possibly demeaning stuff to you, I don’t even have to forcibly ignore them, I just literally can’t hear them, I hear them literally, but because I’m so focused at the task at hand, what they said or intended doesn’t upset me.
What does it even mean to be happy?
I was doing some research on the etymology of happy, and no one is really quite certain where that word comes from. There are certain theories, like “happen”— fortunate, happen chance, hap— chance, luck, fortune, hampa— good luck, chance, from Proto indo European *kob— which means good fortune, prophecy, to bend, bow, fit in, work, succeed.
So why does this matter?
It seems that nowadays, English is the dominant world language. And if we operate in a certain linguistic manner, perhaps the common day words we use should be used with more precision and clarity.
For example, John Stuart Mill, a lot of the early American developers preach notions of the “pursuit of happiness“. But the issue is, if you can’t even define happiness, or if the notion of happiness is a modern day one, then perhaps this is not a good goal or path.
I say instead of seeking to be “happy“, maybe it is better to seek to be strong, well, powerful, and in a great mood. It seems that also, one of my passions being thinking, having the opportunity and clarity of thought is supreme to me.
Now what?
I still think certainly at the end of the day, it is fine to use every day words colloquially. So for example, what contributes a great life to me?
First, artistic and creative productivity. To me this pertains to photography, both shooting and making photos, reviewing photos, enjoying my photos, sharing my photos, thinking about photos, and the aesthetic joy that I get from looking at my own photos.
Second, philosophical and thinking power; this means, I have a passion for thinking, and thinking interesting thoughts. A life without thoughts is not a life worth having.
Third, the health, strength, growth, and muscles of my family. This pertains to my son, and also my wife. And of course certainly myself. Other day I took Seneca to the jungle gym, and at two years seven months old, the pure undiluted joy that he gets from running across the suspension bridge and the jungle gym is pure bliss to me.
Also, witnessing his muscular development, and how much pride and joy that I get watching him eat 100% grass fed ground beef, in super mini burger patty for him, and also him eating while you thinly sliced meat that we buy from H Mart. Seeing Seneca consume beef, and building his muscles brings me great joy.
As a tangent, I think a lot of this modern-day notions of child development are skewed. Rather than trying to educate your kids, make them brain smart, I think a better goal and path is instead, to develop their muscles.
Everyone wants to be happy, even our best friend Aristotle said it is the one thing that men seek for the sake of itself.
What what is happiness? I think I got the answer; walking is happiness. Any sort of life, lifestyle, lifestyle approach which allows you to maximize your walking is happiness.
Strategies
I cannot speak for most people, because I don’t have a “real job“. That is, I don’t have a workplace, an office, or a place I must typically commute to.
However Cindy does.
A simple thought that I had is if you have the option, spend extra money which affords you the privilege to walk. For example, I wonder if in fact, shelling out the extra thousand, 2000, 3000, 4000, $5000, maybe even $10,000 a month would be positively beneficial to give you the privilege of walking.
It seems that the modern-day strategy that people partake in is that they sacrifice time in foolish ways. They decide to live further out, further away from work, in the suburbs, which means that they must spend more time driving in order to get to their workplace, in order to have the privilege of having a bigger house, a cheaper house, a smaller mortgage, cheaper rent etc.
Enemies to happiness?
Being forced to be indoors against your own will, this is cruel.
Also, being forced to be stuck in a car, in a bus, in an Uber, even if you had your own private driver, this is cruel.
For example, I once read an interview with Jony Ive, this is when he was still at Apple, in which he would commute for almost 2 hours a day, going from a desirable area of San Francisco to the Apple office in Cupertino, having a private driver show for him and his Bentley, and I suppose Johnny would just be in the backseat, doing work on his iPhone, iPad, MacBook laptop, etc.
However, if you were forced to be secretary or sitting, for four hours a day, or five hours a day, even if you were the backseat of a Rolls-Royce, a Bentley, Lamborghini, a McLaren, whatever; would it be worth it? No.
Can happiness be purchased?
You cannot buy happiness. You can buy insanely great coffee, ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE, 100% fine robusta which physiologically speaking, will give you a marvelous happiness bump and boost, but ultimately, beyond coffee, happiness cannot be bought.
Things that money can do which can assist you and aid you in happiness include,
Using your money to buy a gym membership, or a yoga, CorePower membership
Using your money to buy beef and meat, either at Costco or the Costco Business Center. I recommend the beef ribs, or the beef tri-tip!
Using your money to pay for rent closer to your workplace, which allows you to have a 100% walking pedestrian lifestyle.
Having a situation which allows you to work outside, outdoors, without having to be stuck indoors or inside an office.
Physiology for the sake of what?
There’s a strange bias in today’s world that we have to somehow maximize our productivity, in order for the sake to work more, contribute more to society, “make a difference“. For example, the modern-day notion of going to the gym and working out and exercising, the only thought is this:
It is critical for you to exercise daily, because it will make you healthy and healthier, in order for you to keep working more.
The reason why this line of thinking is so twisted is that it is for the sake of maximizing your work capacity, not your own personal happiness. Man is not permitted to be happy for the sake of being happy.
Happiness is also a flawed end goal
The other day, I was so insanely happy, maybe a 50 out of 10. But at the end of the day, happiness is a bit inconsequential. For me what is more critical is having the opportunity, physiological energy to pursue my creative tasks. Whether it be reviewing my photos, writing and blogging, thinking, producing knowledge, sending out email newsletters, etc.
I life, there is no such thing as virtue, or sin, vice. To me, it is all about wisdom, knowledge, becoming less foolish, and “not being a dummy.”
I like the word dummy, because it is not so serious. For example, we joke around with kids to not be a dummy. Maybe this is a better path for us.
You should start your own philosophy blog
Oh and today’s world of ChatGPT, AI assistant writing, the question,
How do you know if something was written by ChatGPT, or a real human being?
For the most part you can’t. However, anything written by Eric Kim passes the Turing test. Why? The way I talk is non-standard, the way I write is genuine, and ultimately I think the future of writing and thinking is predicated around philosophy. That is, there is already enough information and wisdom on the Internet on how to do anything. But not much information on why do XYZ. Or, should we do XYZ.
For example, I firmly believe that if your goal is to become superhuman, eating beef and meat is critical. But I philosophical question is should we eat beef and meat? Even if it is bad for the planet?
For example, if someone tells me, “Eric, you shouldn’t eat meat because it is bad for the planet“. But what if I say, “I know that eating meat is bad for the planet, but eating beef is best for me. So I don’t care.” Is one permitted to talk like this? This is the task and role of philosophy and ethics.
Everyone wants to be happy, even our best friend Aristotle said it is the one thing that men seek for the sake of itself.
What what is happiness? I think I got the answer; walking is happiness. Any sort of life, lifestyle, lifestyle approach which allows you to maximize your walking is happiness.
Strategies
I cannot speak for most people, because I don’t have a “real job“. That is, I don’t have a workplace, an office, or a place I must typically commute to.
However Cindy does.
A simple thought that I had is if you have the option, spend extra money which affords you the privilege to walk. For example, I wonder if in fact, shelling out the extra thousand, 2000, 3000, 4000, $5000, maybe even $10,000 a month would be positively beneficial to give you the privilege of walking.
It seems that the modern-day strategy that people partake in is that they sacrifice time in foolish ways. They decide to live further out, further away from work, in the suburbs, which means that they must spend more time driving in order to get to their workplace, in order to have the privilege of having a bigger house, a cheaper house, a smaller mortgage, cheaper rent etc.
Am I the first serious philosopher and the first serious weight lifter?
1. Public strength
Something that I’ve observed is that I am much stronger, physiologically stronger, when I’m at the gym around a lot of other people. I believe if I were just working out or lifting weights in a vacuum, or a home gym or garage, I would be a lot less strong, and also a lot more bored.
2. Social life
90% of the fun I get from going to the gym is the social life. To quote Cindy, who studies the social life of libraries in colonial Vietnam, I am interested in the social life of the gym. Post college, I haven’t really had the opportunity to be as social. But for me, going to the gym is great.
There is no “perfect” camera. Don’t fall into GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) and falsely believe that buying a new camera will make you a better photographer.
Of course this is just a list of stuff that work for me. It probably won’t work for you.
But I got inspired to make this list– because it took me about 10 years to figure out the best equipment for me. And this works for me, and I hope it can help simplify your purchasing decisions (at least in photography and some other details).
I’ll continue to do articles and videos related to equipment– because I do believe (up to a certain degree) having the ‘right’ equipment in life makes life easier. But the problem is falling victim to GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) where we are buying stuff for the sake of it (has happened to me).
If you already have a bunch of equipment that works for you– stick with it. But if you need some help, I hope this list helped you.
Dear friend, a thought on my mind; perhaps the best way to approach life is to consider our life goals, and also for us to become more critical and discerning on how to achieve those life goals.
For example, our creative life goals, and also, what we want to achieve in a single day, in a week, or our lifetimes.
For example, it seems at least for myself, the direction and path I desire is to always have higher numbers.
For example, when I consider my younger days when I was 16 years old, and I had my 1991 Sentra SE-R, 5 speed coupe, and the joy that I had was always changing the modifications and things on it, do you ever give it more horsepower, torque, improve performance, etc.
However, I was never interested in comparing my car with other people. In fact, I had deep pride in my car, and how unique it was. The Sentra SE-R, the B 13, a unique model built from 1991 to 1993, was practically unheard of, even when I was a teenager. Similar to performance to an old-school BMW M3, and superior performance to the Honda Civic SI, which was also very popular when I was a teenager.
It seems that nowadays, at least in cars and car culture, we are obsessed with having more horsepower, more performance points, etc. It seems that the traditional benchmark in holidays is to have the Tesla model S plaid, 1000+ horsepower etc. I think this is what drives us, both metaphorically and literally, for example the dodge hellcat, SRT, dodge challengers etc., everyone wants to have the mythical 1000+ horsepower. But a funnier life goal and path:
Maybe a better life goal is instead, to desire to lift 1000 pounds.
I am fairly certain that I should be able to atlas lift over 1000 pounds, within the next year or two. I find this to be an interesting pursuit, because the only things I require is courage and time. The courage to attempt it, and time.
Also, focus. I think focus is a critical part of the equation, as the criticality of focus is that before you attempt a certain lift, when you load up over 10 plates on the bar, you gotta focus. You must focus to channel all of your energy, guts, courage, chutzpah into that one single given moment.
Why? Several things. First and foremost, you must focus and hype yourself up in order to have the courage to even attempt it in the first place.
Second, you want to be successful. The courage necessary for the attempt is critical, but technically the desired outcome is to be successful. To succeed.
Truth be told I don’t really care for “failure“, that is not being successful. If I try a given day give it my all, even if I had supreme focus and I was not successful, it doesn’t bother me that much. I’ll just try again in a few days, in a week, and if I have a long enough runway, I know I will eventually be successful.
2. Time
The reason why I believe time to be a critical component is at least in the context of weightlifting, if you attempt a one rep max, consistently, at least once a week, every week, let’s say for 10 years straight, certainly you’ll get stronger in the long term.
Are having a more long-term vision towards the future is a good one. Why?
I’ll give you an example. This summer me Cindy and Seneca spent about a month and a half in Asia, about two weeks in Hadong South Korea, and about a month in Saigon Vietnam. Because I did not have my typical gym, I noticed that my strength went down a little bit, or at least my technique and familiarity went down a little bit. But ultimately in the long term vision of things, I was not really affected. Actually, within about a week of coming back, or two weeks of coming back, I’ve been able to hit greater personal records than I had before I left to Asia. For example my rack pull, before leaving I was able to do eight plates, 25, five, and a 2.5’er. But a few days ago, I was able to supersede that old personal record, by doing a plate and a 35, 845 pounds. Therefore, even though I was gone from the gym for about a month and a half, I was able to achieve a new personal record that was 5 pounds greater than I was before my trip.
Also my atlas lift. 970 pounds was my new personal record before my trip, and after my trip, I was a little bit concerned if I lost too much strength and chutzpah. But even though I am still jetlagged, and I am sure that my strength waned a bit, I’ll be able to hit a new personal record of 975 pounds. That is 5 pounds more than it was before!
Therefore my big suggestion life is this; maybe in terms of vision, it is good to think at the three month, six month, year, 1-3 year, five year, 10 year, 20-30 year spans.
For example, I remember after I graduated UCLA, and I was living in West LA, and there was a tiny Tesla showroom dealership in the area. This is when Tesla was still just the rebranded lotus car. This is one there was only a Tesla roadster. I think Tesla was already IPO’d public at the time.
I think the genius of Musk, Jeff Bezos, etc. is that their vision encapsulates very long periods of time.
For example, SpaceX. Or thinking about colonizing space and mars. Certainly we have to think at the decade, 20 year, 30 year, 40 year time span. To think short periods of time is not useful.
I think the reason why I enjoyed reading Invent and Wander by Jeff Bezos so much, which is just a collection of his shareholder letters is that it is clear that Jeff Bezos had at least a 30 year vision. For example with Amazon prime, it was seen as pure insanity. Now we just take it as an expected thing. Fortunately for myself, I still see Amazon prime as pure magic and phenomenal. The same thing goes with Uber, etc.
3. Photo time
A thought that I’ve been having recently, I love the gym, but in someways, going to the gym eats into my photography time. That is, time it takes me to review my photos, time it takes me to process my photos and upload them, or even time necessary for me to blog, write, send out email newsletters, do more website stuff, backend stuff, building websites, blogs, etc.
Time is a critical component. But the question is, how do we gain more time?
Technically you can’t gain more time in a given day, or even a single lifespan. Let us assume that the maximum possible human lifespan is 120 years, but more realistically it might be around 80 to 90 years. I personally aspire to live to 120 years old, but whether I will be successful or not is uncertain. Why? I don’t know if I will die traumatically in a car accident, if I catch some sort of random cancer or a disease, life is always uncertain. Therefore the consequence is in life, we must always be cautious, in terms of our time and our life.
The first thought I have is it is a good idea to be insanely discerning with your time in your life. That is, do not trade your time or your life for anything else what you do not consider important or critical to you. For example nowadays, the only thing I really care to do is my creative work, spend maximum time with Seneca, etc. Everything else doesn’t really matter to me anymore.
I think in life, focusing on innovation is a good one. Why? I believe the greatest boon to being American is our ethos of innovation.
4. Thinking beyond?
As humans, human beings, what is a good way to think about life in approach life?
I think a basic notion is to think beyond. Do you think beyond our small little bubble, or small town or city or county or state, or even our nation. It seems much more interesting to focus on the planet, the globe, etc.
I think one of the best things of traveling internationally is that it widens our perspective and worldview, that is, we can think bigger, more globally and beyond.
5. Mad max world
I think it is clear that climate, the world, weather temperature and other things are becoming weirder and weirder. My friend Seth calls this “global weirding”— the general idea is that certainly notions of “climate change“ and “global warming“ is too political and misleading. I think more robust concepts include pollution, and weird weather or climate patterns.
For example as I write these words, there is big news that this upcoming Monday or Tuesday there will be a massive hurricane in Southern California. I consider this very weird because currently they speak this, the sun is insanely bright and it’s close to 100° degrees Fahrenheit. That’s around 40°C.
I think currently we’re living in a Mad Max world. What I currently witness is this:
During the day, it is almost too bright, the sun is too strong to go outside in the direct sun. The only solutions include wearing a baseball cap, a wide brimmed hat, long pants and long sleeves, protect your skin.
For myself the heat doesn’t really bother me, but certainly if the UV radiation from the sun is too strong, you can’t really go outside.
I still prefer this insanely hot and bright and scorching sun weather over cold and damp and bone chilling, but still, the climate and the sun is brutal.
I was talking with some people, why California, why southern California, it seems that other states, the climate is not so good. For example Arizona Utah and Nevada, Las Vegas, Texas, Austin is almost too hot. Certainly the east coast has lots of great options, but for some reason people seem reticent to move to the East Coast.
Imagine living in the world in which the pollution and the sun and the climate is too unwelcoming outside. Then what do you do, just live in a mall for the rest of your life? Or live indoors for the rest of your life? Not desirable.
So my general takeaway point is given that climate, outdoors, the world outside everything is shitty, still make the best out of it!
6. Life philosophy?
It seems that the things which need to be beefed up is our thinking and our philosophy towards life, being alive, innovation and beyond. This will be the topic that we continue to work on.
Some new workshops I’m currently working on include a visual artist workshop, an introduction to stoicism workshop, etc. Stay updated on the workshops page or the newsletter.
Dear friend, a thought on my mind; perhaps the best way to approach life is to consider our life goals, and also for us to become more critical and discerning on how to achieve those life goals.
For example, our creative life goals, and also, what we want to achieve in a single day, in a week, or our lifetimes.
For example, it seems at least for myself, the direction and path I desire is to always have higher numbers.
For example, when I consider my younger days when I was 16 years old, and I had my 1991 Sentra SE-R, 5 speed coupe, and the joy that I had was always changing the modifications and things on it, do you ever give it more horsepower, torque, improve performance, etc.
However, I was never interested in comparing my car with other people. In fact, I had deep pride in my car, and how unique it was. The Sentra SE-R, the B 13, a unique model built from 1991 to 1993, was practically unheard of, even when I was a teenager. Similar to performance to an old-school BMW M3, and superior performance to the Honda Civic SI, which was also very popular when I was a teenager.
It seems that nowadays, at least in cars and car culture, we are obsessed with having more horsepower, more performance points, etc. It seems that the traditional benchmark in holidays is to have the Tesla model S plaid, 1000+ horsepower etc. I think this is what drives us, both metaphorically and literally, for example the dodge hellcat, SRT, dodge challengers etc., everyone wants to have the mythical 1000+ horsepower. But a funnier life goal and path:
Maybe a better life goal is instead, to desire to lift 1000 pounds.
I am fairly certain that I should be able to atlas lift over 1000 pounds, within the next year or two. I find this to be an interesting pursuit, because the only things I require is courage and time. The courage to attempt it, and time.
Also, focus. I think focus is a critical part of the equation, as the criticality of focus is that before you attempt a certain lift, when you load up over 10 plates on the bar, you gotta focus. You must focus to channel all of your energy, guts, courage, chutzpah into that one single given moment.
Why? Several things. First and foremost, you must focus and hype yourself up in order to have the courage to even attempt it in the first place.
Second, you want to be successful. The courage necessary for the attempt is critical, but technically the desired outcome is to be successful. To succeed.
Truth be told I don’t really care for “failure“, that is not being successful. If I try a given day give it my all, even if I had supreme focus and I was not successful, it doesn’t bother me that much. I’ll just try again in a few days, in a week, and if I have a long enough runway, I know I will eventually be successful.
2. Time
The reason why I believe time to be a critical component is at least in the context of weightlifting, if you attempt a one rep max, consistently, at least once a week, every week, let’s say for 10 years straight, certainly you’ll get stronger in the long term.
Are having a more long-term vision towards the future is a good one. Why?
I’ll give you an example. This summer me Cindy and Seneca spent about a month and a half in Asia, about two weeks in Hadong South Korea, and about a month in Saigon Vietnam. Because I did not have my typical gym, I noticed that my strength went down a little bit, or at least my technique and familiarity went down a little bit. But ultimately in the long term vision of things, I was not really affected. Actually, within about a week of coming back, or two weeks of coming back, I’ve been able to hit greater personal records than I had before I left to Asia. For example my rack pull, before leaving I was able to do eight plates, 25, five, and a 2.5’er. But a few days ago, I was able to supersede that old personal record, by doing a plate and a 35, 845 pounds. Therefore, even though I was gone from the gym for about a month and a half, I was able to achieve a new personal record that was 5 pounds greater than I was before my trip.
Also my atlas lift. 970 pounds was my new personal record before my trip, and after my trip, I was a little bit concerned if I lost too much strength and chutzpah. But even though I am still jetlagged, and I am sure that my strength waned a bit, I’ll be able to hit a new personal record of 975 pounds. That is 5 pounds more than it was before!
Therefore my big suggestion life is this; maybe in terms of vision, it is good to think at the three month, six month, year, 1-3 year, five year, 10 year, 20-30 year spans.
For example, I remember after I graduated UCLA, and I was living in West LA, and there was a tiny Tesla showroom dealership in the area. This is when Tesla was still just the rebranded lotus car. This is one there was only a Tesla roadster. I think Tesla was already in Public at the time.
I think the genius of Elon musk, Jeff Bezos, etc. is that their vision encapsulates very long periods of time.
For example, SpaceX. Or thinking about colonizing space and mars. Certainly we have to think at the decade, 20 year, 30 year, 40 year time span. To think short periods of time is not useful.
I think the reason why I enjoyed reading Invent and Wander by Jeff Bezos so much, which is just a collection of his shareholder letters is that it is clear that Jeff Bezos had at least a 30 year vision. For example with Amazon prime, it was seen as pure insanity. Now we just take it as an expected thing. Fortunately for myself, I still see Amazon prime as pure magic and phenomenal. The same thing goes with Uber, etc.
If you want a quality-education in street photography, I recommend either buying, borrowing, or browsing though some of the books below. Books that are bolded are some of my personal favorites.
If you’re starting in street photography, here is my free and open-source ‘MINI Street Photography Starter Kit’. For more inspiration and dopeness, see the full version: “Street Photography Starter Kit“.
Here are all of the free downloads available to you, with love:
Dear friend,
I want you to download me — download all these books, articles, and information for free– for you to remix it however you would like.
For you to use these images to illustrate blog posts. For you to look at these full-resolution images to analyze composition.
For you to use these free Lightroom presets to actually make your digital RAW photos look good.
For you to empower yourself. Because I think that information is power. Information is everything.
Information is money and control of the world (just consider that scene from the James Bond 007 Skyfall at the end of the film — the guy who controlled the information controlled the world).
With this information, you can learn how to conquer your fears, find more personal meaning in your photography and life, and seek to empower others through the art of photography.
All the information on this site, including photos, images, videos, articles, books, or text is free and open source– meaning you can do whatever you want with it.
You can remix it, translate it, or sell it for a profit.
The reason why I am doing this is to help empower you with information. And I feel that freedom is information, and power.
Be strong,
Eric
Eric Kim Blog Offline
If you plan on going on a flight, or going somewhere without internet access (and still want access to this blog), you can download this entire blog (offline, without images) as a 1.4GB (yes, very big) direct download. All you need to do is extract this .ZIP file, and open up ‘index.html’ to access the entire site. Have fun 🙂
HYPED UP on ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE— I’m currently drinking the black bag, THE PHOTOGRAPHER, which is 50% fine robusta and 50% liberica. This stuff is seriously liquid gold, gives me more focus, hype, and general good attitude toward life.
Anyways, I thought on my mind is in regards to focus, laser focus. Some thoughts on focus:
How to focus?
The philosophy of focus is tricky; on one hand, in modern-day times it is seen as virtuous to focus. To “not get distracted“.
I know for myself, I am easily distracted by superfluous things. Therefore it is my personal passion to not be distracted.
The first question you must ask yourself is this:
Do I want to focus?
For example, Nassim Taleb writes that contrary to popular wisdom, by him not focusing on a single given subject, he was able to advance his thinking and philosophy.
On the other hand, innovators like Steve Jobs gave advice to Sergey and Larry Page about how focus was critical.
For example, the advice that Steve Jobs gave to Larry Page and Sergey Brin was how Google should just focus on search, their most critical component, and not get distracted by other things like android, etc.
Looking at things a little bit zoomed out, I think Steve Jobs may have been correct. When we look at Android, it is a very sad and poor imitation of Apple and iOS. If Android was never invented, I don’t really think that the world would suffer.
In fact, thinking about things more critically, upon much consideration and thinking, and also personal use of android and android products, essentially it’s Google’s sneaky way of injecting more advertisements into your life. The decade+ plan of android and Google Maps is quite simple; gather more personal preferences of users and user behavior in order to deliver more “relevant“ advertisements.
Your life
There is certainly a difference between your life, and the life of these corporations. The reason why I think corporations are not a good example is that ultimately, the strategies don’t really pertain much to the individual. It seems more effective to focus on your own personal life and thriving, rather than just look at what companies are doing.
The philosophy of living and life
To think deeply, ultimately what you want to think and consider is that you only have one life, this one given life. So the question is in this life, what do you desire to achieve, attempt, or do? Do you care for your legacy? Do you care for the thriving of other future human beings beyond you? Do you not care? Underlying all of these considerations is a certain life philosophy. And I think that is guiding principles are critical.
In terms of my personal legacy, what I want to leave behind, how I wish to contribute to society, the general thought is I want to help assist empowering other individuals. For example, I just think of my 12-year-old, 15-year-old, 16-year-old, 18-year-old, 19-year-old, 21 year old, 26 year old self, and I think and consider; I thought given point in my life in that age, what advice and wisdom do I wish that other people shared with me?
No external media?
In terms of laser focus, another strategy and path is no external media, beyond yourself, the vibrations of your own mind, and other embodied reality experiences you have in person with other human beings.
For example, one of the best things that I’ve personally done is go to the hot sauna every single day, religiously. Why? I consider it like my meditation zen focus, chamber, in which I come up with lots of great creative ideas.
There are also some theories that perhaps being in a really really hot sauna, in which the heat and humidity is much higher, which forces your body to sweat, might be positively good for you in terms of your hormones. Hot heat therapy in the hot sauna at the gym, or even doing hot yoga, a form of hormesis.
Why movies or media?
There are always great new movies coming out, great new TV shows, series, etc. But I think out of all of this, the ultimate goal is towards human thriving, some sort of strengthening, or challenges.
A simple thought:
The time you spend watching media movies or shows, just use that time to go to the gym instead.
For example, I love superhero movies. I love the Marvel movies, the superhero movies, mostly the ones that came out before Disney bought out Marvel. I personally love the hero struggle, the hero narrative, etc. Why? I see myself in their shoes; when I watch a superhero movie, it makes me think that I’m the superhero.
What does a superhero have to deal with? In America, which has Judeo Christian, Protestant, Jesus sacrifice mentality, the general thought is that a hero sacrifices his life for the collective. That is, let us consider all of these heroic movies and films, typically the lead sacrifices his or her life in order to save humanity, people beyond them, etc.
The tricky thing is when we go further back in history, let’s say studying the Iliad, the Odyssey, etc., the narrative is a bit different. For example, let us consider Achilles in the Iliad. He is not sacrificing anything for the collective. Instead, his initial plan was just to go back to his own land, ideally take Breisis with him, stop war campaigning, and just retire and chill out. However it was the death of his best friend Patroclus which drove him to seek revenge. I wonder if John Wick is almost like the modern-day Achilles; some sort of antihero that we are actually rooting for.
Your goals?
Once again, the tricky thing is that for you, what are your personal goals, or life mission?
Discovering your creative mission
Another critical thing is discovering your creative mission in life. That is, assuming you were a trillionaire, what would you do with your time life and physiological energy?
My general thought is that everyone is unique, and has a diverse range of skill sets they could use to leverage and move the world.
For example, let us say that you’re into cars, photography, and innovation. I think there is an interesting way you can cross pollinate all of these interests.
Or for myself, my passion for photography and coffee. Creating the first photographers blend, the first coffee optimized to help stimulate and motivate photographers.
The traditional wisdom is everyone tells you to stay focused on a single small niche. Based on my life experiences, and thinking more long-term, I don’t think this is the way. Much more effective instead of taking insanely long term.
That is, allow yourself to indulge all of your creative interests.
Focus and diversity
A simple thought is when you are investigating and pursuing all of your diverse interests, just be insanely focused on each one at a time. No need to justify yourself. In the long run, all of these things will dovetail nicely.
Now what?
Focus on your health, your physicality, and don’t sacrifice your health for anything. Also focus on the health of your wife, your kids, and certainly yourself.
Assuming you want to become more productive in life, the simple path is focusing on your health. If you are insanely healthy, productivity will come naturally.
White space
Another thought on my mind in regards to design, as well as a mental thing; how white space is critical.
What is white space? Simply put, white space is having buffer, not overloading yourself or your schedule, even for the promise of making more money.
If you’re confronted with the question; should I take on this additional work to make extra money, or should I choose to refuse it in order to maximize my mind space and mental white space, choose your mental white space.
The philosophy of making money
Another thought I had this morning is in regards to money. How to make money, why make money, how much money should we make.
I think the upside of being self-employed, an entrepreneur, is that in some regards, you have some control over this.
Social life is the best stimulus
Another thought; a simple thought I have is that perhaps the best stimulus is other people. That means, being at the gym, being at the park, being at the mall, any opportunity to be around other human beings is good for us.
Why is the modern day man so antisocial?
My theory is that because it is almost seen as a new ethic; to intrude upon other people is considered bad.
For example, when you interact with other human beings, sooner or later you will offend somebody. And this is all part of the game.
This is my theory:
Better to risk a social interaction, be friendly and say hi, and be given the cold shoulder or a bad interaction, rather than not attempt it at all.
I think this might be the cure and panacea for modern day living.
STREET PHOTOGRAPHY X STOICISM
A great crossover that I personally think about the difference of stoicism, and modern day life, is that stoicism must be practiced, almost like a martial arts.
Typically speaking, our use of stoicism, ethics, modern day ethics, etc. is predicated on opportunities.
For example, other people. If you’re at home all day, don’t have to expose yourself to any real life interactions with other people, you have no need for stoicism.
Also, the Internet is fake. Nowadays with ChatGPT, it is really impossible to know whether the online commentator, troll, Twitter account, etc., is a real human being or not. Therefore my suggestion is to just disable all comments on the Internet, don’t read any comments on the Internet, And only rely on face-to-face interactions.
Demigod focus
I personally believe that one of the best ways to focus is that there needs to be some Mokadem of danger, that is, there needs to be some sort of downside risk, some sort of risk of life or death.
Put a barbell on the squat rack, and load it up with 10 plates. Then see if you can successfully lift it up, a little bit off the bar even half a centimeter, once, for even half a second.
It doesn’t really matter whether you are able to successfully lift it or not, what is most important and critical is the attempt, your focus, your courage.
The reason why I find this to be so essential is that before attempting to do this, the courage necessary is phenomenal. There is really no other time in which I truly am afforded the opportunity to focus that much.
I think the reason why this gives me such zen and intense focus opportunity is that if I don’t focus, and give it my 100% effort, who knows, maybe there is a risk of injury? Funny enough though, with the atlas lift, I’ve suffered zero injuries. At worst I cannot budge the bar. But my desire is to move the bar, so regardless, my focus is to get into a zen mode, to tune out all distractions, channel 100% of my strength and courage into that one single moment, and lift the weight with all my might.
Adrenaline training
I have a theory about focus; it has to do with adrenaline. That is, people often think that adrenaline, fear is a bad thing, but even the notion of “fear“ is misguided. Maybe fear is nothing but adrenaline in overdrive, which is untamed.
I often think about the movie 300, the moment in which king Leonidas and his heroic 300 are preparing to go to battle with king Xerxes and the millions of Persian missionaries. What happens is this— the narrator says something like,
He felt no fear. Simply a heightened sense of things.
Very very interesting, I think I may feel the same sentiment. When I am ready to hype myself up for a godly lift, it isn’t necessarily fear which I feel, rather, a heightened sense of things.
Also interestingly enough, wondering and while doing the lift itself, and the barbell is on my shoulders, my hearing goes deaf. For about a few seconds, I literally cannot hear the music, but the second I put down the barbell, the music turns back on.
Therefore, once again, the interesting thought is that perhaps, adrenaline training is what we need. And this is the focus of my workshops; to help you tame your adrenaline, to train your adrenaline, and for you to learn to turn “fear” and your adrenaline into your slave, your own pet monster, to unleash it when you deem it necessary.
Focus for the sake of what?
I think the difficult and tricky thing is that in modern day times, notions of “focus“ are deemed as some sort of pseudo-virtuous thing in which becoming “focused” is towards money and capital accumulation. That is, the purpose of focusing, being “productive“, is in order to make money, accumulate and accrue more capital, etc.
Call but what if focusing, your own personal desire to focus isn’t for any of these things? Then what?
My simple thought is in regards to your life goals, be laser vision focused on what you consider truly critical, your life mission while you are still on planet earth.
For example, one of my current life goals is propagating fine robusta to the masses. Also I got lots of goals with diet health and fitness, and certainly photography, street photography courage, philosophy stoicism and everything in between.
Also with my workshops, honestly at this point I’m starting to think that I just want to do it because I care, and I have a lot of insane fun doing it! In my mind I see myself as a bitcoin billionaire. Therefore, at this point I almost see things like making money as a hobby.
Prime Vision
To have a prime vision, a primary vision. To find yourself, your entrepreneurial ventures, etc.
It seems that in modern day times, we are always seeking funding, some sort of external externalized funding. But perhaps, this isn’t a good path. Why? If you want someone else to find you, external funding, maybe the thing that you’re doing isn’t really worth doing. That is, true genius is shown through what you are willing to sacrifice, out of your own pocket etc.
For example, I think a lot of people want external funding in terms of traveling, expenses, building something etc. however, while traveling is great, perhaps a lot of trouble is more romanticized than anything.
My thought instead is fund yourself. True skin in the game.
Now what?
Some thought and philosophy assignments for you:
First, the philosophy of money. For you, what is the meaning of finances? Why does it matter to you, and also what does it mean to you?
Second, think about your health. How would you define health for yourself, and also why does it matter to you?
Third, think about your own creativity, your own creative life. What is it that you desire to create as an artist, and towards what ends, why, and also how to best propagate it?
To think these thoughts deeper, have a chat with ERIC KIM AI.
Prime, primer thoughts. Perhaps the best color or the paint concept is primer flat gray. Why? The promise of infinite opportunities, anything is possible.
HYPED UP on ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE— I’m currently drinking the black bag, THE PHOTOGRAPHER, which is 50% fine robusta and 50% liberica.
Some thoughts on focus:
How to focus?
The philosophy of focus is tricky; on one hand, in modern-day times it is seen as virtuous to focus. To “not get distracted“.
I know for myself, I am easily distracted by superfluous things. Therefore it is my personal passion to not be distracted.
The first question you must ask yourself is this:
Do I want to focus?
For example, Nassim Taleb writes that contrary to popular wisdom, by him not focusing on a single given subject, he was able to advance his thinking and philosophy.
On the other hand, innovators like Steve Jobs gave advice to Sergey and Larry Page about how focus was critical.
For example, the advice that Steve Jobs gave to Larry Page and Sergey Brin was how Google should just focus on search, their most critical component, and not get distracted by other things like android, etc.
Looking at things a little bit zoomed out, I think Steve Jobs may have been correct. When we look at Android, it is a very sad and poor imitation of Apple and iOS. If Android was never invented, I don’t really think that the world would suffer.
In fact, thinking about things more critically, upon much consideration and thinking, and also personal use of android and android products, essentially it’s Google’s sneaky way of injecting more advertisements into your life. The decade+ plan of android and Google Maps is quite simple; gather more personal preferences of users and user behavior in order to deliver more “relevant“ advertisements.
Your life
There is certainly a difference between your life, and the life of these corporations. The reason why I think corporations are not a good example is that ultimately, the strategies don’t really pertain much to the individual. It seems more effective to focus on your own personal life and thriving, rather than just look at what companies are doing.
The philosophy of living and life
To think deeply, ultimately what you want to think and consider is that you only have one life, this one given life. So the question is in this life, what do you desire to achieve, attempt, or do? Do you care for your legacy? Do you care for the thriving of other future human beings beyond you? Do you not care? Underlying all of these considerations is a certain life philosophy. And I think that is guiding principles are critical.
In terms of my personal legacy, what I want to leave behind, how I wish to contribute to society, the general thought is I want to help assist empowering other individuals. For example, I just think of my 12-year-old, 15-year-old, 16-year-old, 18-year-old, 19-year-old, 21 year old, 26 year old self, and I think and consider; I thought given point in my life in that age, what advice and wisdom do I wish that other people shared with me?
No external media?
In terms of laser focus, another strategy and path is no external media, beyond yourself, the vibrations of your own mind, and other embodied reality experiences you have in person with other human beings.
For example, one of the best things that I’ve personally done is go to the hot sauna every single day, religiously. Why? I consider it like my meditation zen focus, chamber, in which I come up with lots of great creative ideas.
There are also some theories that perhaps being in a really really hot sauna, in which the heat and humidity is much higher, which forces your body to sweat, might be positively good for you in terms of your hormones. Hot heat therapy in the hot sauna at the gym, or even doing hot yoga, a form of hormesis.
Why movies or media?
There are always great new movies coming out, great new TV shows, series, etc. But I think out of all of this, the ultimate goal is towards human thriving, some sort of strengthening, or challenges.
A simple thought:
The time you spend watching media movies or shows, just use that time to go to the gym instead.
For example, I love superhero movies. I love the Marvel movies, the superhero movies, mostly the ones that came out before Disney bought out Marvel. I personally love the hero struggle, the hero narrative, etc. Why? I see myself in their shoes; when I watch a superhero movie, it makes me think that I’m the superhero.
What does a superhero have to deal with? In America, which has Judeo Christian, Protestant, Jesus sacrifice mentality, the general thought is that a hero sacrifices his life for the collective. That is, let us consider all of these heroic movies and films, typically the lead sacrifices his or her life in order to save humanity, people beyond them, etc.
The tricky thing is when we go further back in history, let’s say studying the Iliad, the Odyssey, etc., the narrative is a bit different. For example, let us consider Achilles in the Iliad. He is not sacrificing anything for the collective. Instead, his initial plan was just to go back to his own land, ideally take Breisis with him, stop war campaigning, and just retire and chill out. However it was the death of his best friend Patroclus which drove him to seek revenge. I wonder if John Wick is almost like the modern-day Achilles; some sort of antihero that we are actually rooting for.
Your goals?
Once again, the tricky thing is that for you, what are your personal goals, or life mission?
Discovering your creative mission
Another critical thing is discovering your creative mission in life. That is, assuming you were a trillionaire, what would you do with your time life and physiological energy?
My general thought is that everyone is unique, and has a diverse range of skill sets they could use to leverage and move the world.
For example, let us say that you’re into cars, photography, and innovation. I think there is an interesting way you can cross pollinate all of these interests.
Or for myself, my passion for photography and coffee. Creating the first photographers blend, the first coffee optimized to help stimulate and motivate photographers.
The traditional wisdom is everyone tells you to stay focused on a single small niche. Based on my life experiences, and thinking more long-term, I don’t think this is the way. Much more effective instead of taking insanely long term.
That is, allow yourself to indulge all of your creative interests.
Focus and diversity
A simple thought is when you are investigating and pursuing all of your diverse interests, just be insanely focused on each one at a time. No need to justify yourself. In the long run, all of these things will dovetail nicely.
Now what?
Focus on your health, your physicality, and don’t sacrifice your health for anything. Also focus on the health of your wife, your kids, and certainly yourself.
Assuming you want to become more productive in life, the simple path is focusing on your health. If you are insanely healthy, productivity will come naturally.
White space
Another thought on my mind in regards to design, as well as a mental thing; how white space is critical.
What is white space? Simply put, white space is having buffer, not overloading yourself or your schedule, even for the promise of making more money.
If you’re confronted with the question; should I take on this additional work to make extra money, or should I choose to refuse it in order to maximize my mind space and mental white space, choose your mental white space.
The philosophy of making money
Another thought I had this morning is in regards to money. How to make money, why make money, how much money should we make.
I think the upside of being self-employed, an entrepreneur, is that in some regards, you have some control over this.
Social life is the best stimulus
Another thought; a simple thought I have is that perhaps the best stimulus is other people. That means, being at the gym, being at the park, being at the mall, any opportunity to be around other human beings is good for us.
Why is the modern day man so antisocial?
My theory is that because it is almost seen as a new ethic; to intrude upon other people is considered bad.
For example, when you interact with other human beings, sooner or later you will offend somebody. And this is all part of the game.
This is my theory:
Better to risk a social interaction, be friendly and say hi, and be given the cold shoulder or a bad interaction, rather than not attempt it at all.
I think this might be the cure and panacea for modern day living.
STREET PHOTOGRAPHY X STOICISM
A great crossover that I personally think about the difference of stoicism, and modern day life, is that stoicism must be practiced, almost like a martial arts.
Typically speaking, our use of stoicism, ethics, modern day ethics, etc. is predicated on opportunities.
For example, other people. If you’re at home all day, don’t have to expose yourself to any real life interactions with other people, you have no need for stoicism.
Also, the Internet is fake. Nowadays with ChatGPT, it is really impossible to know whether the online commentator, troll, Twitter account, etc., is a real human being or not. Therefore my suggestion is to just disable all comments on the Internet, don’t read any comments on the Internet, And only rely on face-to-face interactions.
Demigod focus
I personally believe that one of the best ways to focus is that there needs to be some Mokadem of danger, that is, there needs to be some sort of downside risk, some sort of risk of life or death.
Put a barbell on the squat rack, and load it up with 10 plates. Then see if you can successfully lift it up, a little bit off the bar even half a centimeter, once, for even half a second.
It doesn’t really matter whether you are able to successfully lift it or not, what is most important and critical is the attempt, your focus, your courage.
The reason why I find this to be so essential is that before attempting to do this, the courage necessary is phenomenal. There is really no other time in which I truly am afforded the opportunity to focus that much.
I think the reason why this gives me such zen and intense focus opportunity is that if I don’t focus, and give it my 100% effort, who knows, maybe there is a risk of injury? Funny enough though, with the atlas lift, I’ve suffered zero injuries. At worst I cannot budge the bar. But my desire is to move the bar, so regardless, my focus is to get into a zen mode, to tune out all distractions, channel 100% of my strength and courage into that one single moment, and lift the weight with all my might.
Adrenaline training
I have a theory about focus; it has to do with adrenaline. That is, people often think that adrenaline, fear is a bad thing, but even the notion of “fear“ is misguided. Maybe fear is nothing but adrenaline in overdrive, which is untamed.
I often think about the movie 300, the moment in which king Leonidas and his heroic 300 are preparing to go to battle with king Xerxes and the millions of Persian missionaries. What happens is this— the narrator says something like,
He felt no fear. Simply a heightened sense of things.
Very very interesting, I think I may feel the same sentiment. When I am ready to hype myself up for a godly lift, it isn’t necessarily fear which I feel, rather, a heightened sense of things.
Also interestingly enough, wondering and while doing the lift itself, and the barbell is on my shoulders, my hearing goes deaf. For about a few seconds, I literally cannot hear the music, but the second I put down the barbell, the music turns back on.
Therefore, once again, the interesting thought is that perhaps, adrenaline training is what we need. And this is the focus of my workshops; to help you tame your adrenaline, to train your adrenaline, and for you to learn to turn “fear” and your adrenaline into your slave, your own pet monster, to unleash it when you deem it necessary.
Focus for the sake of what?
I think the difficult and tricky thing is that in modern day times, notions of “focus“ are deemed as some sort of pseudo-virtuous thing in which becoming “focused” is towards money and capital accumulation. That is, the purpose of focusing, being “productive“, is in order to make money, accumulate and accrue more capital, etc.
Call but what if focusing, your own personal desire to focus isn’t for any of these things? Then what?
HYPED UP on ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE— I’m currently drinking the black bag, THE PHOTOGRAPHER, which is 50% fine robusta and 50% liberica.
Some thoughts on focus:
How to focus?
The philosophy of focus is tricky; on one hand, in modern-day times it is seen as virtuous to focus. To “not get distracted“.
I know for myself, I am easily distracted by superfluous things. Therefore it is my personal passion to not be distracted.
The first question you must ask yourself is this:
Do I want to focus?
For example, Nassim Taleb writes that contrary to popular wisdom, by him not focusing on a single given subject, he was able to advance his thinking and philosophy.
On the other hand, innovators like Steve Jobs gave advice to Sergey and Larry Page about how focus was critical.
For example, the advice that Steve Jobs gave to Larry Page and Sergey Brin was how Google should just focus on search, their most critical component, and not get distracted by other things like android, etc.
Looking at things a little bit zoomed out, I think Steve Jobs may have been correct. When we look at Android, it is a very sad and poor imitation of Apple and iOS. If Android was never invented, I don’t really think that the world would suffer.
In fact, thinking about things more critically, upon much consideration and thinking, and also personal use of android and android products, essentially it’s Google’s sneaky way of injecting more advertisements into your life. The decade+ plan of android and Google Maps is quite simple; gather more personal preferences of users and user behavior in order to deliver more “relevant“ advertisements.
Your life
There is certainly a difference between your life, and the life of these corporations. The reason why I think corporations are not a good example is that ultimately, the strategies don’t really pertain much to the individual. It seems more effective to focus on your own personal life and thriving, rather than just look at what companies are doing.
The philosophy of living and life
To think deeply, ultimately what you want to think and consider is that you only have one life, this one given life. So the question is in this life, what do you desire to achieve, attempt, or do? Do you care for your legacy? Do you care for the thriving of other future human beings beyond you? Do you not care? Underlying all of these considerations is a certain life philosophy. And I think that is guiding principles are critical.
In terms of my personal legacy, what I want to leave behind, how I wish to contribute to society, the general thought is I want to help assist empowering other individuals. For example, I just think of my 12-year-old, 15-year-old, 16-year-old, 18-year-old, 19-year-old, 21 year old, 26 year old self, and I think and consider; I thought given point in my life in that age, what advice and wisdom do I wish that other people shared with me?
No external media?
In terms of laser focus, another strategy and path is no external media, beyond yourself, the vibrations of your own mind, and other embodied reality experiences you have in person with other human beings.
For example, one of the best things that I’ve personally done is go to the hot sauna every single day, religiously. Why? I consider it like my meditation zen focus, chamber, in which I come up with lots of great creative ideas.
There are also some theories that perhaps being in a really really hot sauna, in which the heat and humidity is much higher, which forces your body to sweat, might be positively good for you in terms of your hormones. Hot heat therapy in the hot sauna at the gym, or even doing hot yoga, a form of hormesis.
Why movies or media?
There are always great new movies coming out, great new TV shows, series, etc. But I think out of all of this, the ultimate goal is towards human thriving, some sort of strengthening, or challenges.
A simple thought:
The time you spend watching media movies or shows, just use that time to go to the gym instead.
For example, I love superhero movies. I love the Marvel movies, the superhero movies, mostly the ones that came out before Disney bought out marvel. I personally love the hero struggle, the hero narrative, etc. Why? I see myself in their shoes; when I watch a superhero movie, it makes me think that I’m the superhero.
What does a superhero have to deal with? In America, which has Judeo Christian, protestant, Jesus sacrifice mentality, the general thought is that a hero sacrifices his life for the collective. That is, let us consider all of these heroic movies and films, typically the lead sacrifices give her her life in order to save humanity, people beyond them, etc.
The tricky thing is when we go further back in history, let’s say studying the Iliad, the odyssey, etc., the narrative is a bit different. For example, let us consider Achilles in the Iliad. He is not sacrificing anything for the collective. Instead, his initial plan was just to go back to his own land, ideally take Breisis with him, stop war campaigning, and just retire and chill out. However it was the death of his best friend Patroclus which drove him to seek revenge. I wonder if John Wick is almost like the modern-day Achilles; some sort of antihero that we are actually rooting for.
Waking up this morning, and having some great ERIC KIM OMAKASE Coffee to get me going, some thoughts:
1. Innovate?
After being abroad, then coming back, the general thought I have is that perhaps at the end of the day, the most important and critical thing is in regards to innovation. How to innovate, why innovate, etc.
I think in America, we have a passion for innovation, however it is limited towards purchasing innovation. That is, we love innovation and the new, but the only way it seems accessible to innovate is through purchasing it. This means we purchase innovation by eagerly awaiting for new innovative products, whether it be the new iPhone, iPhone Pro, any Apple device, Tesla, electric car, something.
I think the big problem is that deep innovation cannot be purchased, it must be done by you.
2. Why do we feel so incapable?
Perhaps the reason we feel so incapable is that because the culture, modern-day culture, or culture in America or maybe high labor prices etc. is that things seem inaccessible to be done by us. We like the thinking or the concept that we can do things ourselves, and that we can be innovators.
