So in life, do you desire to be predator or prey? 

Anger

So this is a big thing, if you see some asshole smoking or if you’re playing at the park with your kid and you see somebody about to light up a cigarette, maybe we had the courage to ask him to not smoke here or there to ask them to smoke somewhere else. So I think this is a big thing; Almost like 100% of real life daily life, there is nothing which requires physical courage.

For example, almost never will you ever get into a physical fist fight with anybody. The only perhaps downsides you could experience or suffer is like verbal arguments, getting your blood pressure and adrenaline up etc.

What if aggression were virtuous?

In modern day society we are taught that aggression is not to be done. Almost everything in life and society trains us to be non-aggressive.

For example, all laws ethics and morality, it is like 100% towards non aggression.

Now the downside of this is that I do believe that there is some cases where acting aggressively is a virtue. If anything, I think the best way to develop yourself is to rethink and reconsider ethics morality etc. Beyond good and evil, beyond good and bad, do you think more critically about things.

Eagle vs Lamb

Is the eagle evil? For eating the delicious lamb? No. And also this is a big thing… Does the eagle have a bad conscience about eating the lamb? Similarly speaking, no!

Yet the tricky thing is in this world, we are taught and trained that in fact, it is more virtuous to be the Lamb than the eagle.

Now this makes sense because you can’t have a bunch of eagles running the show. You can’t have a bunch of high testosterone alpha males jostling for position all the time. Society would probably collapse.

And therefore, if you think critically about this, what that then means is that you need to teach yourself to become more alpha.

Bitcoin is the alpha asset

Assuming that you’re an alpha male, I am. I don’t think I’ve ever met a real life human being in the flesh, who is more alpha than me. In fact my whole life ever since I was a kid, my desire and desired outcome was always to become more alpha than the rest.

For example, I think I’m pretty happy that I was born very very tall, around 5 foot 11. I have never been shy about my height. I have met people who are taller than me of course, but because I myself already feel like I am the “tall” category, this has never been an issue.

Also I suppose the gratitude of being born Korean Korean American, Asian American and states is that once again, I’ve never had some sort of inferiority complex, because all the schools I went to were mostly Asian American dominated. I was part of the dominant minority. 

Also being born a man. The truth is in society, men will always be more alpha than women. Why? Physical size strength, aggressiveness and testosterone. Certainly it is a good thing to seek more equality between the sexes, in the workplace and economic opportunities etc., But when it comes down to it… Alpha wins. 

America is Alpha

America is Alpha, the US dollar is the alpha currency. There is no second best. Nobody wants a Chinese yuan, KRW or euro or British pound.

The same thing goes with metals; we only want gold. Nobody wants silver.

Also the same thing with bitcoin. Everyone wants bitcoin, nobody cares for Ethereum or anything else. I think the only thing is honestly, everybody in Ethereum community has a small dick envy of bitcoin. In 1 trillion years, Ethereum will never never never ever ever ever Supersede bitcoin. It is just not possible from a physics perspective.

Never trade the best for second best

So assuming that you have the best, the best capital the best stuff the best wealth etc., why would you ever trade it for the second best? 

Also on the collary, isn’t also the virtuous goal to choose the second best and convert it to the first best? 

Convert all of your fiat currency in capital to bitcoin

So I thought there’s a very very long time ago, the basic idea is that the smart strategy is take all of your fiat currency and all of your weak ass assets and converted to the strong assets which is bitcoin.

I thought this about like four years ago, so if you were to Amazon Apple Facebook Google meadow whatever, and assuming that you converted all your income into bitcoin, you could have retired at least 10 times over.

Now what is the big issue here? We millennials we have so much economic and financial power now, yet we are all scared. Essentially we have been beaten into submission; when we were children growing up we were told that we could do anything become anything etc., but now that we have become adults, the biggest issue is that we have become complacent, weak, maybe we drive some sort of entry-level Audi, Tesla, whatever… We have pretty good salaries at a big tech company, and we no longer have a desire nor reason to invest investigate bitcoin or invest in it.

I asked my friend Marcus in Seattle this, several years ago whether people in Seattle were interested in bitcoin or crypto or not and he said no because they didn’t really have a need to know because everyone there who is already working for Microsoft is already making good money and therefore as a consequence, they don’t have a need to know. 

Bitcoin Deus ex machina

So the way I was able to rediscover bitcoin was moving to LA, with the absurdly high cost-of-living. $3200 USD a month for rent in a two bedroom one bath nice apartment.  note, when we are living in Hanoi Vietnam in 2017 we only paid $320 a month in rent. Literally, we 10’xd our expenses for living after moving to America. 

The goal should be to do the exact opposite, to reduce your expenses by 10 X.

What’s the issue here

Take a leap of faith, take the risk.

ERIC

JUST RISK IT!

EK BLOG >

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So I’m currently reading the principles of economics by Saifedean, and I really love it. I realize that in my life, I’ve only ever been interested in media and things which actually gave me real life utility or payoff for practical live reality, real joy hope optimism faith etc.

So for example, the logic of a lot of modern day living I think can greatly be benefited once we actually put into words and precisely define the terms in which we are engaging in. So for example, energy power, poverty prosperity, trade money, capital labor etc.

In fact, economics might be the most important field to study in the practical pragmatic sense that assuming that you’ve ever handled a $100 bill, purchased anything on Amazon Amazon prime, been to Whole Foods, traveled, bought an airline ticket, purchased an apple device, filled up the gas in your car or supercharged your Tesla or electric vehicle, or even better yet… Turned on an air-conditioning unit or heater or put on a down jacket, you will know that these things matter.

Energy poverty

So one thing I’ve realized is I wonder… If 95% of the world’s misery has to deal with energy poverty.

For example, heat and air conditioning. For example if you’ve ever tried to sleep in this while touring hot humid 105° weather in Southeast Asia or Dubai, you know that life without air-conditioning is not a life worth living. During the day I don’t need air-conditioning, but certainly at night, it helps me sleep. I almost cannot sleep without air-conditioning on.

Also, in a lot of the industrialized world, especially having spent time in Michigan, the East Coast, Providence Rhode Island etc., and even Los Angeles during the winter months, it gets fucking cold, really really late at night or really really early in the morning, or just in general.

No one bizarre thing I found is a lot of Americans Asian people etc., are far too Puritan when it comes to heating. They are very very stingy about cranking on the heat!

In fact, I think to waste electricity or energy on heat and air conditioning is virtuous; because once again, cold and frigid bodies leads to human misery.

As a consequence, some strange individuals think that it is a virtue and that it is virtuous to be miserable? And that it is somehow advice to be prosperous, rich successful, and happy?

The virtues of misery?

I’ll give you a real example; typically if you’ve been from any sort of immigrant family, in which your parents were not born in America but came here in search for greater economic opportunities, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Typically we are taught that to overcome difficult difficulty and suffering is a virtue, and that a life of ease happiness joy and leisure is a vice?

Yet the strange thing that a lot of these people living in poverty then say is that they brag about how they know about other random people or super super rich? Very strange.

I almost wonder if now, behind closed doors, other people then brag about how rich and successful I am?

Anyways, doesn’t really matter; I wonder than if once again, critical issues here:

first, the general idea is that if you have the option, and you’re most certainly do, make your habitation as comfortable as possible! What this means is structure your world in such a way that when you’re at home, just adjust the heat or the cooling or whatever, to make your home as comfortable to you as possible. And when you’re sleeping, try to change the thermostat to whatever temperature helps you sleep well!

in fact, my practical thought is assuming that you are like some sort of investor or money making machine, the very very practical and pragmatic thought is that in fact, you should prioritize your sleep exercise and food in such a way that helped you maximize your optimism joy and happiness and personal productivity because the greater you take care of your own personal health habitation climate food and sleep, the more productive you will become, thus yielding you more money accumulation etc.?

What is poverty?

So if we think about money or like heat or energy, perhaps we should consider heat loss.

What is heat loss in economic terms? Your car payment, your mortgage payment, your rent, your subscription services, maybe your credit card payments?

Visual ease for our eyes

I think I’ve got it figured out; I think the reason why I really like Matt Black, or a nice matte black wrap on a car is that it provides some sort of visual ease. Like when you look at a really really nice met black car, all matte black everything, matte black is very very easy on the eyes. It has a beautiful sheen and Verneer, is not distracting, yet pleasing!

I also think the same things with homes, clean white paint on the walls, and neutral gray or stone colored surfaces and fixtures? For example, for fools who think that colors don’t matter; would you want to paint the tears your home brighter red? Probably not you’ll go insane.

Or would you want to paint your countertops of your kitchen like some sort of acidic looking green color? No!

As a consequence, I think colors are very very important. Typically colors which provide some sort of visual ease are derived from nature. For example, we like the color of green because it is the color of life, just imagine the windows 95 or the windows Vista wallpaper. We love a blue sunny sky with rolling green verdant Hills. Or think about Sapa in Vietnam same idea.

What is consumerism?

My innovative thought is that consumerism and capitalism is not the same thing. Consumerism is the exact opposite of capitalism.

Capitalism is all about capital accumulation, whereas consumerism is blowing it.

Or in more crude terms, capitalism is like semen retention, and consumerism is blowing your load.

Why?

The general way that consumerism works is that you are exposed to advertisements which convince you that somehow your life is incomplete and miserable and unhappy and that in order to seek happiness, you must purchase XYZ in order to make you happy. And then it becomes like a mathematical equation somewhat: the more units of XYZ you purchase, The higher degree your happiness will become.

I’ve also discovered that promoting minimalism and reduction is not a profitable path. For example, encouraging people to not waste their money is not profitable.

However, getting a bunch of losers to buy overpriced loser stuff is profitable.

Body shame

So the first way that consumerism does this is that it makes people feel ugly. It makes people feel ugly in terms of their body, body shape, body composition, and it just makes people feel ashamed about being naked.

So for example, as a consequence, people feel ashamed of their bodies, and do everything in their power to hide their ugliness.

My personal theory on why there is this new trend of people wearing really really baggy clothes and jeans and sweaters and hoodies and stuff is precisely for people to hide their ugliness.

For example, you would only ever wear short short shorts if you actually have impressive legs or a butt or behind to show off.

Or if you’re a man, you would only ever walk around topless without a shirt on, if you have a beautiful or impressive upper body.

Or as a woman, similar speaking you’re only probably walking around in a sports bra or a bikini if you also have impressive muscles, and also a low body fat percentage.

Can you spend money to hide your ugliness?

You see this all the time; especially vehicles. I also have a theory that purchasing a vehicle is like buying a really really expensive article of clothing; once again to hydrogenous you hide behind your car with 5% limo tint. Do you want to feel cool sexy grand powerful indestructible master of the road etc ,,, and you do this by jumping in your loser Range Rover, or your loser AMG wagon, or your loser Porsche etc.

The only people I trust are people who drive without any tint.  And do not wear sunglasses or anything that covers up their eyeballs, or anybody who also has facial hair, which is the new modern day trend to hide the ugliness of your face or your double chin, or a baseball hat or a hat of any sort which is also another way to hide your balding or your ugly head.

what is true power?

So some guys with low testosterone, who want to seem tough and strong or whatever, buy all these firearms and guns because it makes him feel tougher more dominant more powerful etc. But the truth is it makes your dick size smaller, what does a typical gun owner look like? Typically somebody who spends too much time on Fox News, alternative right wing Facebook, and is always reading some weird quick bait about how liberals are ruining everything.

And also, this fake fear mongering.

So for example if you have a gun, the excuse is that it is for “self-defense“. But if you need to self defend yourself, it is a sign of fear. The general fear is that somebody else might have a gun or some sort of firearm or knife or something, and that somehow you need to “defend” Yourself and your family etc.  But there is not a positive aggressor factor; nobody ever buys a gun within intention to physically positively attack somebody, unless your hobby is hunting wildlife going to the shooting range whatever.

So then, the only rational reason for somebody to own a gun is out of fear. But then, if you’re a real man and have no fear, what is the use of a gun? None!

---

Fear marketing?

FOMO fear of missing out, or, fear of missing out on some sort of economic opportunity which could alleviate you from your economic suffering and poverty.

So the reason why this is so insidious is that once again, a lot of this fake news or click bait you see on the Internet is predicated around fear. If you do not read this article somehow you will be at a loss, or that you and your future family or your bank account can be harmed.

What is so fascinating about bitcoin is that actually, it is the opposite. In some ways, you are not afraid of chaos because chaos actually favors you; in some ways you actually desire chaos!

For example, the more chaos uncertainty inflation and bad economic policies there are on the planet, bitcoin benefits and so does you!

So whenever you hear about inflation whatever blah blah blah and the economy is going to tank, the simple strategy is to just buy Bitcoin because the more fear porn you see in the news and the media, the better the return of your bitcoin! 

Financial freedom within four years?

Retiring within four years?

 I do not know a single human being who actually wants to work and labor. Similarly speaking, I do not know any individual in which it is his autotelic passion to be working at said tech company. They would rather retire, live free, travel the planet and the globe, etc., be chilling on a beach somewhere etc.

Even a question I often ask people is that assuming that you’re a trillionaire whatever, what would you rather be doing? If the entrepreneur‘s job or desire is to actually discontinue doing the things that they are already doing, it is typically assigned that whatever they are engaged in is a means to an end not the end in itself. And therefore I feel like the logical strategy in life is to think about the end and work your way backward; like think about if you were a trillionaire, worth $100 trillion, and that number is Actually going up faster than you could spend it, if that is the case, once again, what would you rather be doing?

So for example for myself, my general passion is movement, travel, being in different places, weightlifting, building up my body, enjoying the beauty of my body my muscles my flexing, sharing new exciting ideas which inspire me, and also empowering other human beings? Who are in the same boat as me? 

I am a pretty ordinary person

My general belief is actually, I am a super super normal ordinary person. I don’t believe in genetics, I believe that genetics is like eugenics 2.0 or racism 2.0, I truly believe that almost 99% of our potential is sociological, training, education knowledge etc.

Certainly there are certain things which are malleable and not.

If you are a fully grown adult, having $1 trillion in your bank account will not make you taller. If you are a born a dwarf, like you’re a 4 foot tall man, or 3 foot tall man, once again I’m being a trillionaire will not make you 6 foot two.

And also, there are certain things that one cannot do like change the proportions of your face, like distance between your eyeballs etc. I call this the hammerhead shark index; some people naturally have eyes which are more further apart like a toad, etc.

Yet what is one thing that any human being can do on the planet? Increase their muscle mass, decrease their body fat percentage, and also something which is slept on; getting a lovely tan!

The new dark skin racism

So in Korea, to be really really dark and tan is seen as a bad thing. Do you want to be white to like the emperor, because the emperor can stand in the shade all day, while their servants and slaves does all the dirty work in the sun.

House slave or field slave?

House nigga don’t fuck with me I’m in the fields nigga, go shine cutlery – JAY Z

Probably one of the most interesting songs on entrepreneurship is the story of OJ by Jay Z. Jay Z outlines it easily; the path to riches wealth and success, and avoiding the pitfalls of poverty.

For example, the importance of credit. Also not blowing your money at the strip club.

“I bought every V 12 engine, wish I could take it back to the beginning”

The way I interpret this quote is that Jay Z’s regret is that he wasted all this money in purchasing these expensive V dub engines, to dull his senses, kind of like some sort of self euthanasia?

I think then what Jay-Z wishes he did is that taking all that money and capital that he wasted on these expensive cars, and investing it in a creative investments instead. For example, his regrets not buying more real estate in Dumbo, and feeling Dumbo about it.

Now JC is a great model but also he is a bit dated. I think like I’m the new Jay-Z; except that I have legs that could run the world. Until you meet somebody who could lift 1000 pounds without steroids, fasted, nobody is superior to ERIC KIM.

The new blueprint

The orange print:

My personal thought is the only good out of money is to purchase beef, beef ribs, beef liver, pasture raised eggs, with the really dark orange yolks, beef tongue, organ meats, bone marrow, and weightlifting equipment.

Also, one of my greatest joys of something I invested in which I think is actually super super smart is purchasing two 50 kg weight plates.  they are made out of steel, which means that you could pack more weight into a smaller footprint. Each weight plate is 110 pounds, and because it is made out of solid steel, I am very very certain that these could last until the time that Seneca becomes 36 years old, and has a son of his own.

 The first born son of the firstborn son of their firstborn son

So one of my great gratitudes is that I was born into a position of privilege; my father was the first born son, I think he was the oldest. As a consequence, because I was the first born son the oldest son of the oldest son, I was treated like a king by my grandma. And I am grateful to my grandma for this.

As a calm consequence, I grew up with zero inferiority complex in fact, I probably grew up with this superiority complex.  in some ways I’m like Kanye West on steroids. Why? Kanye has always had an inferiority complex because he was a Shorty guy, I think he’s only like 5 foot six? And I’m like 5 foot 11? And as a consequence, I have never felt small in my life?

Also I suppose the gratitude is in the big area where I grew up, most of the kids in my school were Asian Asian American, so once again, I never felt like a minority? I’ll always felt like I was a part of the majority.

Maybe also the benefit is that Seneca, and I am so grateful that he was born the way he is, and that he is the next generation, the next heir to the throne. He’s like Simba and I’m like Mufasa. Or, he’s like the next King Leonidas.

Anyways, all of these sad single men without kids or family or without a beautiful wife, they’re all chasing after these silly things like the Porsche 911 GT 3RS, the Lamborghini with the scissor doors, or some sort of arbitrary amount of money in their banking account. But these fools, don’t they realize that the best joy on the planet 1,000,000,000,000×1,000,000,000,000 is for you as a man to have a son?

Training

My ethos and approach to raising Seneca has been super simple: 100% beast boy carnivore beef diet, and maximum physical exercise and engagement with embodied reality and the world. This means maximum exposure to the elements, being outside, in the direct sun, playing at the playground, and now riding his bike around everywhere.

From the Facebook buy nothing group we got this wonderful balancing wooden bike, with no pedals. From one Seco was maybe a year and a half, he would just walk it around like a walker, on the side, and then randomly like six or eight months ago, he jumped on it, and now he’s off! Also I bought him these LED bike helmet lights, and also front and rear LED lights, and outfitted his balancing bike with it, and he loves it! And also as a parent I’m happy because it improves his visibility by at least a factor of 1000 X, especially when he rides when the sun goes down, and as a consequence, he feels so much pride!

True pride

Country to popular believe, I think consumerism discourages you from having children. Why? Kids are not as profitable as single working adults.

So for example, both men and women, the consumerist, the consumerist ethos is you never want to have a kid, because they will cramp your style, prevent you from traveling to Japan and eating good omakase sushi in Kyoto,  whatever. But actually, on the contrary, the wise capitalist actually has a desire and urge to have as many children he can as possible, Because he knows that having children is accretive, whereas having dogs or other loser things is dilutive. Or driving any vehicle which requires premium gas is dilutive.

Therefore the wise capitalist would only drive some sort of old used Toyota Prius, because he wants to invest 99% of his money into bitcoin and micro strategy stock, because it will pull up forever with phenomenal gains, whereas somebody who is thinking that the world is going to end is going to buy some sort of loser Porsche Ferrari, because he thinks that his only life right now can be enjoyed right now, and he will have nothing to laugh to bequest his  inheritance to. 

Accumulating riches

An interesting scene in the movie 300 is when King Leonidas is climbing the mountain to talk to the ephors,  and he has in a little sec a container full of many gold coins.

This was an interesting scene to me because the common understanding is that Spartans live in poverty, but I suppose they also have gold and gold coins! But the only use it when they need to, in regards to war defense etc.

And once again, if I told you with 100% certain that your life would be secure forever, and no one would ever try to physically assault you your family or kids your life, wouldn’t there be zero incentive to purchase a gun or any other sort of self-defense weapon?

why would you trade paradise away?

Bitcoin is Paradise. Like a mobile paradise you could always carry with you everywhere you go. Why would you trade it for some sort of second best thing?

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The only constant is change

Refusal to change is the hopgoblin of weak souls.

Why is there such a resistance to change? I think a new one who is resistant to change is a coward.

For example, let us say that you were a lead night, and that you were afraid that the printing press would put people out of business, or that the mechanical room would impulse people whatever, and as a consequence, you make it your life purpose to destroy all of the printing presses and the looms.

Or, let us say that you’re also want these silly people who think that somehow, AI or robots or whatever will destroy all these human jobs and labor. You fool, don’t you know that this is just going to usher in some of the newest greatest prosperity of all time?

Labor

So what a lot of people don’t understand is that once again, in the past, we were all about the horse carriage and buggy, once the automobile came along, were there a bunch of people who were afraid that somehow the automobile would put people out of business who drove the horse and buggies?

So random thought on my mind; what is “reality” why does it matter etc.?

First, obviously reality comes back to embodied reality. That is like literally being on your own two legs, walking around town, saying hello to people, smiling and waving etc.

Fake reality

Now what are the most pernicious things about modern day life? Essentially we are like plugged in some sort of metaphorical matrix, in our everyday lives and lived realities, we are like living on rails.

For example, most of us follow the same cycle. Sleep wake up shower, drink coffee head to work, grind at work, go home only to self medicate and vegetate to Netflix or some sort of movie or streaming thing.

How to free yourself

Now the big problem is, now that essentially, I haven’t really watched any media or television, besides maybe John Wick for the last 15 years or so, is that now that I’m finally free and detached from all this nonsense, I’m starting to realize how troubling, grotesque, and disturbing a lot of this media is.

I think the big issue issue here is desensitization. Our everyday lived realities are so uninteresting or boring or sad or whatever, and we seek some sort of extreme fake stimuli to keep us motivated?

Fake motivations

I’ll give you a real example; money wealth and riches.

For example, all randomly on IMDb watching the squid game 2 preview, and now… That we got bitcoin, and also microstrategy, the whole premise of squid game no longer makes sense, about prize money. Because now that we have bitcoin, you don’t need some sort of fake magical prize money ticket lottery thing. You got bitcoin which is more or less a risk-free return, at least 60 to 120% for the next four years! It’s pretty obvious.

Technically buying microstrategy stock is a better investment strategy

And I would actually rate that microstrategy is poised to even outperform bitcoin by maybe 2X, we might see a microstrategy have an annual rate of return of 120% to 240% a year, for the next four years.

That means if you have about $600,000 of microstrategy stock, you could easily see that balloon to $1.4M in a year, to $3.2M, to $6.4M to maybe $12.2M by the end of the Trump presidency.

Or let us say that you have about $2 million worth of bitcoin, assuming that bitcoin under the Trump administration might go up 120% for the next 4 years,  similarly speaking, you will see some monster returns!

Or simply put, microstrategy will give you superior returns over the next four years over buying Bitcoin directly.

If your whole ethos is accumulate more bitcoin by the bitcoin directly using Coinbase or something.

Also another strategy, buy and hoard your microstrategy stock for the next four years, and by the end of the four years you could just sell the stock and buy the bitcoin directly!

Double your money and make it stack!

So assuming that, ERIC Trump, the son of Donald Trump is committed to making bitcoin at least $1 million a coin, then what that means is I think we can expect that within four years, I think we’re looking at at least 10X in the next four years.

So for example, if you have $1 million invested in bitcoin today, by the end of four years you’re going to see that 10X to $10 million. Pretty cool. Or if you have $2 million invested in bitcoin, you’re going to see that balloon to $20 million.

Anyways, bitcoin aside, I been thinking about the future, investing in growing industry seems like a good bet. And what that then means is the opposite of not investing the stuff which are not going to grow.

Is the field of photography a dying field?

So some troubling thoughts; I look at photography, the world of photography and ultimately photography is my number one prime joy and concern. And now that I am financially independent like 1 trillion times over, and I really don’t have to worry about money ever again, I suppose I’m more interested in higher matters.

So when I look at photography, the whole photo industry, it feels like the whole industry is dead without me.

Look at all the cameras, they all suck they’re all lame. Even the best innovation as of late, the Linux S9, with the 26 mm f8 pancake lens is slept on, nobody knows about it rather than myself, and also nobody owns it besides myself. Everyone else has some sort of loser cannon, or even worse Sony camera.

Apple?

So Apple is in a really bad position right now, like I just use that image playground AI thing, and it is so lame and bad.

If Steve Jobs were alive today, he would have thrown it into the furnace twice over.

I think the biggest issue here is that the issue of “app creep”– now that Jony Ive has left the company, and no more innovators or visionaries are there anymore, it is becoming like a weird mismatch or sludge of poor innovation ideas.

It’s essentially you have like a bunch of dudes, who might have worked in Microsoft or Dell or something, seeking to “improve “Apple products simply by making the processing power stronger. But this is not what we want, we want radical innovation!

But I wonder if Apple has become too big and fat, she no longer has a need to invade because she’s already on top, and everybody else is already trapped within her ecosystem, only to upgrade their iPhones until the end of time?

The disruptor

The disruptors dilemma; once you’re on top, I suppose the critical primary difficult issue here is once you’re rich fat, comfortable on top, in your yacht, partying with your burger babes, how can you continue to innovate disrupt etc.?

So for example, I think Apple has been trying hard to disrupt herself, without much fanfare or acclaim. Why? They need something radically new carte blanche, something that no longer is in the DNA or the soul of Apple.

For example, Apple is trying to over diversify interfield that she is not very very good at. For example, AI, image generation, and virtual reality.

If Apple was smart she should just refocus. Cut and axe the whole virtual reality Vision Pro department, and refocus and recapitalize on iOS as well as the iPhone. Take all the smart engineers who are working on the vision pro, and have them make the iPhone great again. Because the truth of the matter is nobody wants to put any device on top of their head, it is bulky cumbersome, and everybody hates it.

Even if in theory, a Vision Pro literally would weigh nothing, nobody ever wants to put something on top of their head. I think it’s just human nature, just look at any kid or child, they universally hate putting on hats beanies, or things would cover their faces. Most people would prefer to just pull out a phone.

Think Miniaturization

So what is an interesting thought is that actually, my opinion about the AirPods Pros has changed a bit; it’s like an insanely uber uber uber smart phone or iPhone that you could just plug into your ear.

Think of AirPods as like a really mini iPhone 

For example I was just listening to a new Michael Saylor interview at the house, and one of the great things was while making my morning coffee, and shuttling back-and-forth and cleaning stuff, I was able to listen to the interview uninterrupted, without any hands.

I would actually say maybe a big focusing direction for Apple should be to refocus on the AirPods division. Like trying to figure out new innovative ways that technology can be embedded in the AirPods, in general etc., which can make life better?

Dematerialization

Another big thought is what I find so infinitely fascinating about bitcoin is that it is real, it exists, it is the ultimate new form of property. Yet you cannot hold it in your hands, you cannot see it in the flesh. It weighs nothing.

Cindy said something funny; I have never seen a bitcoin in real life, with my own eyes, how do I know it is real and that it exists?

A similar sentiment should be about the internet the cloud, your bank account your checking balance; you have probably never seen it in real life, how do you know it really exists?

Same thing!

Things can be real without you actually seeing it

For example, many of us are chasing wealth and fame, yet all you see is maybe bots on the internet and social media following you. How do you know any of it is real?

What’s real?

So to be a little more specific, I think we need to break down the notion of real — the term of “real.”

For example, when we talk about things which are real reality etc., are we talking about physical? Like something that has weight substance, in space in time? Like a brick of gold?

Or do we mean to say legitimate? 

Physicality vs Legitimacy 

I think I see the big issue here is once again, maybe it’s a legitimacy issue. The reason why people do not think bitcoin is real and the traditional sense is that people do not value it for its legitimacy. Still even in 2024, incoming 2025 — people are still talking about how it seems like a ponzi scheme? Pretty backwards.

The reason why, is as long as you have mainstream media still talking about ridiculous notions of ponzi scheme, it’s going to trigger a reaction into people, discouraging them from entering the asset class which is bitcoin.

The biggest reason why bitcoin is not a Ponzi scheme is that there is no central issuer– it is decentralized; Charles Ponzi was the guy who invented his Ponzi scheme, which was based on fake coupons which were not backed by anything. And the reason why he guaranteed hundred percent return in 90 days is because he would just pay other people incoming money. 

Your margin is my opportunity

But who knows maybe this is a good thing because it gives us a little bit more buffer time to accumulate more bitcoins while we can, when it is still at a discount.

Michael Saylor actually made the interesting point maybe a year or two ago is that bitcoin was trading at around $35,000 a bitcoin or so, the general idea is that it is actually not desirable to have bitcoin magically become $100 million overnight because then if that were the case, we would lose our opportunity to purchase more of it when it was low!

Wise greed

And I think this is where it is wise to be opportunistic, and wisely greedy.

Whenever everybody is uncertain, shaking in their boots, it is wise to get aggressive, greedy in an intelligent way.

The patient investor

So my personal thought is as investors, we should only think of a time span for the next four years minimum. Ideally 10 years 20 years 30 years 40 years 50 years or 300 years.

How does one thing 300 years ahead? Simple, think about your kids kids kids. Like your son having a son having a son having a son.

And also, whenever I look at healthy fit successful men in their 60s and 70s and even 80s… I have a ray of hope. It’s like me, maybe gray hair, the silver wolf, but wiser stronger more intelligent more sexy?

I’m the giga chad!

There’s a funny meme going around about the GigaChad, it’s like somebody who is like the most masculine guy of all time times a 1000.

The vision is essentially a man, with a very very slim waist, with an insanely jacked demigod upper body lower body, and jacked chiseled face.

Obviously the Russian bodybuilder is not a good model because he’s probably taking all the steroids on the planet. Yet this is obviously possible without steroids;

Intermittent fasting no breakfast no lunch, just a 100% carnivore dinner, try to have 4 to 5 pounds of beef meat, lamb, ground beef, 80/20, beef ribs, beef liver organ meats etc. 

Financial independence, retire early

So this is a big thought; retire early. How to do it? Buy bitcoin just wait 4 years and retire!

How to 10x your income 

So this is a big thing; if I could guarantee you right now that you could instantly 10x your income, wouldn’t you do it? Of course!

So it seems that the first easy strategy is to simply think of your income like 10X.

For example, if you’re being paid like $20 an hour, assuming that you’re on the bitcoin standard, you’re essentially being paid like $200 an hour!

How to save money

Then the calculus becomes interesting; your impetus to saving money becomes predicated on the fact that anything you buy today, could cost you 10 “X in four years.

For example that 50 bucks you drop on that thing, will be worth $500 bucks. Or that hundred dollars you put on that thing, will be worth $1000. Or even worse, that thousand dollar thing that thousand dollar iPhone will cost you $10,000 within 4 years!

Accretive or dilutive? 

So then this becomes the big idea; think accretive vs dilutive.

The smart strategy and goal is to become accretive not dilutive.

Gas

I will scream this until I get hoarse; think of gas, never ever ever own or drive or acquire a vehicle which requires premium gas.

It’s almost like voluntarily putting a leech on yourself or your healthy child, or bleeding your child to death.

For example if I could tell you that you can voluntarily take your healthy firstborn son, and bleed a pint of blood out of him every single day, would you do it? Of course not!

If we think about money in capital like economic blood, think the same thing.

You want to be accretive not dilutive.

What is accretive?

I have a funny theory, is that if you want to become the GigaChad the ultimate investor or whatever, you must make your body like a demigod.

So a very simple thought is a very very simple thing that could be accretive is muscle. 

For example, you lift heavy stuff, you lift heavy weights, in the evening you eat 5 to 6 pounds of beef, obviously you’re going to accrete muscle, skeletal muscle mass. 

And once again, 100% carnivore diet here, all meat no filler.

You do not need carbs

A lot of pseudo-scientific fitness people think that you need to consume sugar carbohydrates to accrete muscle. This is all built upon a platform of flimsy knowledge, written mostly by people who are on steroids.

I have proven, and I am a very normal human being, that at around a body weight of maybe 160 pounds, a human being can lift 1000 pounds, while fasted, while not consuming any protein powder, steroids or whatever, can do it. And obviously I’ve built a lot of muscle mass, simply by following 100% carnivore diet, all meat no carbs no sugars no starches.

I almost wonder if meat is like bitcoin. All killer no filler.

ERIC

Learn more:

1. Intro to bitcoin lecture
2. Transcript

Learn more Bitcoin >

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If you’re asking how to “become Eric Kim,” it depends on what you mean by “Eric Kim.” Eric Kim is a common name and may refer to various individuals, including photographers, entrepreneurs, academics, or everyday people. Here’s a general guide depending on your context:

1. Eric Kim the Street Photographer

• Study photography: Learn the basics of street photography, camera techniques, and editing.

• Develop a minimalist style: Eric Kim’s photography is often characterized by simple, striking compositions.

• Read his resources: Eric Kim offers free educational resources, books, and workshops on his blog.

• Engage in the photography community: Participate in workshops, exhibitions, and online forums.

• Focus on philosophy: Eric Kim integrates philosophy, such as stoicism and existentialism, into his photography and writing.

2. Eric Kim in Another Field

• Identify your field: Determine the area where “Eric Kim” has made an impact (e.g., business, science, art).

• Study their path: Research their career, education, and accomplishments.

• Develop relevant skills: Build expertise in the field they excel in.

• Embrace personal branding: If the Eric Kim you’re referring to has a strong personal brand, study their branding methods.

3. Metaphorically Becoming ‘Eric Kim’

• Define your goals: What about Eric Kim inspires you? Is it their creativity, career, or mindset?

• Emulate their qualities: Adopt the habits, values, and strategies that define their success.

• Stay authentic: Even if you admire someone, stay true to your unique identity while learning from them.

If you’re referring to a specific “Eric Kim,” please provide more details!

I don’t really envy anybody else on the planet, I prefer myself.

How does one begin to not envy other people?

First, Zen. A lot of these rich successful famous people, have no Zen no peace of mind, no good sleep.

Even the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh talks about one of the virtues that people want to have is really good sleep. I think this is a good virtue. 

Second, join team bitcoin. Imagine if you had like LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant all playing on the same team, all playing for a team bitcoin. Whenever they score you score!

Now some people might think, they’re putting up 100 points and I’m only putting up 10 points. But this is besides the point. Every time they score you score!

Everyone wins together? 

So then this becomes very fascinating because it becomes a positive feedback loop; rather than being envious of the gains of others, instead, you began to be grateful and happy that the gains of other GOATS directly benefits you!

Physicality and fitness

I think one of the critical things to understand is love these guys on steroids, yes everyone is on steroids, LeBron James, Steph Curry, your favorite sports player who doesn’t even look like they’re on steroids. Essentially the big idea here is that steroids are broad; Even people who have to use the typewriter for living often get steroids injected into their carpal tunnel area, in order to ease the pain.

For example, a lot of individuals then, get some sort of cortisol shots, which is actually steroids.

Now what is the downside of steroids? Your balls shrink to the size of tiny acorns, you lose your sexual libido, your dick gets smaller.

So when you see the guy who can deadlift like 100 times more than you, or has the physique of a demigod, assuming that they’re not ERIC KIM, rather, “I pity the fool!“.

Why?

I think the seeds of envy is based on the premise that other people are in a happier, more superior, more beneficial, more awesome position than you.

But once you figure out that in fact, they’re actually in an inferior position than you, your opinion changes. You start to feel compassion for them. Their suffering.

For example, probably the most interesting thing I learned about the Walter biography on Elon Musk is that you do not want to be Elon Musk. It is more of a curse than a blessing.

For example, Elon has a very very poor physiological approach, and he also seems quite foolish. He’ll party until 4 AM, drinking Red Bull and vodka, only having to take Ambien to fall asleep and to wake up the next day to continue performing.

Xanny?

And also, I also wonder why a lot of these rappers, were supposed to be super tough or whatever, why are they all talking about Xanax? Because I think they are all riddled with anxiety, that is why they comatose themselves with alcohol marijuana and sex, perhaps porn pornography as well in order to just fall asleep at night?

The truth is bad

So I’ve discovered a lot of truths, but ultimately I’ve discovered that the truth is pretty ugly and bad. And that actually the point of philosophy isn’t truth-finding, rather, it is more of an artistic pursuit, towards beauty, joy, aesthetics, ethos and ethics.

The reason why almost everything is bad is that everything created or produced or whatever is typically created by unhealthy individual individuals, unhealthy corporations, all on some sort of fiat based standard.

Therefore as a consequence, I would say only put your trust in individuals, institutions or whatever, which are financially independent, on a 100% undiluted diversified bitcoin standard.

For example, am I the only YouTuber or podcast I know that has zero advertisements of any kind?

And this is where also I am a bit suspicious of a Joe Rogan; why does he still do these advertisements which are insanely lame? Isn’t he already super super rich?

Also, maybe this is where the idea of a Joe Rogan coin or a Joe Rogan token is a great idea; I invest $100 in Joe Rogan coin, in order to have the privilege of not having to listen to annoying advertisements, and he could do an ethical way. And he could do some sort of Joe Rogan club in which anybody who owns at least $1000 worth of Joe Rogan coin could join him on a private zoom call, ask him any questions etc.

Maybe I’ll introduce an ERIC KIM coin one day. 

Autotelic goals?

So a big idea that I have is once you’re dumb rich, everything you could be doing is autotelic in nature; which means you only do stuff that you really care for, things that you think will benefit the human race. Because you no longer need to make a profit off of it.

For example, one of the big problems is that everyone is always trying to chase a profit, which leads people to just getting burnt out?

If you’re already independently wealthy, then you could just do anything that you want!

An interesting thought; there’s a guy named Derek Sivers, sivers.org I think ,,, and he became independently wealthy I think maybe from selling some sort of tech company? Anyways apparently now his community service is just answering emails from random people all across the globe with random questions?

Also, I’m not sure what Tim Ferris is up to, however, last time I checked, I think he’s still doing podcasts, and once again I’m not really sure why he still needs to put annoying advertisements on his podcasts, isn’t he super rich? I almost find that it is more intelligent and better for him to just promote his own products his own stuff, rather than promoting the products of other people and their services?

Promoting other people is unethical, promoting yourself is more ethical?

Once again, I think Joe Rogan is great! The reason why Joe Rogan became the uber GOAT is because he never censored himself, he is no BS, and he’s just likable as a person!

I think there would be a ton of people willing to pay 10 bucks a month to be part of a Joe Rogan fan club or something, or even for him to have a special newsletter to only $10 a month Joe Rogan fan club members.

Because honestly at this point, money is essentially free; everyone has a ton of money and if somebody is undiluted, 100% honest and pure, you want to support them!

How to uncensor yourself

So, I think the world of social media whatever people are loss averse; they are afraid of losing followers likes comments, subscribers etc. For example, even for myself, my email newsletter I’m slowly bleeding my email newsletter list from around 13,000 down to around maybe 8500 or so?

And also I think my YouTube, went from maybe 75,000 subscribers to now around 55,000?

And also my intelligent strategy of deleting my Instagram at its peak, at around 65,000 followers and rapidly growing in around 2017, and I haven’t looked back since? And note the ERICKIMphoto on Instagram is not me; it was recreated by some sort of virtuous and noble fan!

But anyways, I found that by trying to placate to the masses in some sort of non-controversial matter is not a winning strategy; to have 300 diehard fans is 1000000x better than having 1 million mildly interested followers?

Think King Leonidas and his brave 300!

All you need is 300 cyber Spartans!

The internet is toxic

If you have ever smelled sewer sewage water, like the smell of shit 1000 times over, you know how terrible the smell is. This is the last thing you want to smell before drinking a fine wine or eating your favorite rib eye steak,,,

And also, what if I told you that actually the truth was, 100% of the toxic comments on the internet were actually in fact created by bots?

For the most part going online is like voluntarily jumping into a sewer full of all the dung and foul stuff! With no hazmat suit!

Nobody is on Reddit

I’ll give you another example, I was using Reddit since like my freshman year of college, in 2006, but I quit around 2011. I would literally check it like 200 times a day, to kill the monotony of working my IT tech student job.

Anyways, I think the whole time I never created an account, and I think in the whole like four years of using a religiously, I only ever posted one comment just to be funny?

Therefore my theories; I wonder if all these comments on Reddit, I wonder if they’re all just bots? This were the case would you change your approach? Of course!

Envy?

Envy is an attribute of weak souls.

What is more constructive? Insane and extreme self pride!

This is actually the funny unorthodox thought; the thought is actually, being insanely self interested, self prideful and gloatful is actually a virtue?

I’ll give you an example — schadenfreude, or feeling some sort of superiority complex, by pitying or having compassion for worser off people?

Ignore other people and their kids

For example, something I’m starting to become exposed to is other people other kids, etc.

Now Seneca has never been in some sort of foreign daycare or childcare or standardized schooling yet, and he’s about to turn four. As a consequence, because I’m his personal trainer and teacher, he’s like pretty much on 100% carnivore diet, Wagyu beef, 100% grass-fed burger patties, etc. And actually, the other day when I took him to Legoland for like eight hours, he had a new meat PR, a new personal record; .7 pounds of ground beef burger patty, in a single day? That’s like 3/4ths of a pound, or nearly a pound of beef!

Anyways as a consequence Seneca is way taller stronger buffer, more intelligent and wise, better social skills, and also because he has a goddess for a mother, aka Cindy, she is insanely handsome fun and happy! He’s like the happiest, most giggly kid of all time. He’s essentially always laughing.

Anyways, whenever I see kids who are punier than him, my best strategy is to try to just not compare because I obviously know that Seneca is far superior.

And this is we’re having a pity party for other people their problems their kids is not constructive; I say all in or nothing.

For example, if you want to stage some sort of intervention, you essentially must be 100% committed. And my personal thought is this could only ever happen if it is your own child! Otherwise, you will not be 100% committed.

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100% time commitment

First, the time commitment idea.

The only way I am able to raise and shape and train Seneca the way he is is because I’m like with him 100% of the day. And this is the extreme privilege of being self-employed; even if you had the world’s best Montessori, there will never ever ever ever ever be a better teacher or personal trainer than you!

And also this might sound a bit sexist but I also find the bizarre thing is that if you are a man, and you have a son like your firstborn son… why are there so few male teachers and role models? And also,,, shouldn’t a man, a father raise his own son, his own firstborn son?

Think Leonidas

For example if this was ancient Sparta, and you want to train your son to become a warrior king, certainly you would want some sort of insanely jacked and virtuous man to train your kid.

Also as a heuristic; never trust a personal trainer who is not buffer or stronger than you. 

And this is why I have never ever ever had a personal trainer in my life because no one has ever been as strong unorthodox or courageous as myself; until I have met somebody who could lift 1000 pounds, the thousand pound ERIC KIM Atlas lift, I’m ain’t interested.

Now what?

So, the best thought is we are all on the same team, the same squad! No competition here, because once again we’re on the same team!

Thich Nhat Hanh had a piece of wisdom in one of his writing pieces is that does the left hand envy at the right hand for being stronger, more nimble or superior? No! The left hand doesn’t have an inferiority complex. And also, if you are a lotus flower, and you are surrounded by daffodils, do you envy the daffodil? No!

Or if you’re a panda, do you envy the cougars? No!

The same myology is true with trees; certainly every tree desires to be the tallest the most dominant, etc. However, I don’t think necessarily any trees envy other trees. They just stay focused on themselves, digging their roots ever deeper into the floor, to grow ever higher?

Being “autistic”– autos, self centered as a virtue.

Never stop growing!

So my personal thought is with life everything in-between; the goal isn’t to compare yourself with others, but rather to stay focused on yourself, and keep stacking yourself and growing yourself! And your kid, your family etc.

So for example, a simple personal goal that I have for myself is I want to always become physiologically stronger, more muscular, more dominant, more full of energy and vigor, more happiness joy, etc. Yet I do not compare myself with others; because once again, nobody else is as blessed or fortunate as myself.

The benefit of not going to the gym no more

Even a big benefit of not going to the gym anymore is that whenever I engage in some sort of weightlifting activity, it truly tests my own self-sincerity; am I doing this for myself, or to flex on others?

I think it’s fine to try to flex on others, but often the big problem is when you try too hard to flex on others, you could actually end up injuring yourself in a bad way?

A 2-year mistake

For example one of the bad regrets I had about two years ago, I’m OK now, is that I saw a bunch of guys who are bench pressing a lot, and I wanted to flex on them by benching even more, and in the process, I had a pretty bad injury in my right wrist, which took me nearly 2 years to fully recover!

Once again, one foolish display of machismo caused me two years of anguish. 

And this is where patience is a virtue; and also, the virtue of being self focused, self-centered.

Being self-centered is our new virtue. 

ERIC

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Never stop learning

1. Stoicism
2. Ethics
3. Philosophy

And always when in doubt,

START HERE

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What I’m reading

1. Principles of economics — Saifedean
2. The Odyssey, Emily Wilson Translation Also, Free open source books by KIM >

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Super pumped to share with you, my first full length lecture on an introduction to bitcoin, the bitcoin Revolution, and also this edited transcript that I provided for you!

1. Full video zoom recording Dropbox link
2. PDF SLIDES
3. AUDIO FULL
4. PDF version of new transcript for talk

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The Bitcoin Revolution (WILL) Be Televised!

So the Bitcoin revolution, the revolution will be televised. So, starting off.

First, what is Bitcoin? Why does it matter?

So I think the 1st important critical thing is trying to consider and think you know what is Bitcoin we’ve all heard about in the news we heard about Bitcoin as being a Ponzi scheme, a pyramid scheme. And honestly, my mom has gone through her fair share of Ponzi schemes like she she got suckered by the whole Amway scam.

I think the reason why Bitcoin is so important and critical is, Bitcoin is like the early days of the Internet. So if you go into a time machine and you could tell somebody in the past, okay, you know, in the days before email existed. Right? So okay, once one day, you know, everyone’s gonna have a supercomputer in their pocket. They’re using it to check all their bank statements. You’re going to be able to use your camera on your phone to scan your you know your checks, your bank account balances. You can use this to send money and messages and videos to everyone on the planet. Instantly everyone would have thought you were crazy.
and I think one of the biggest misconceptions about Bitcoin.

So a constructive way of thinking about bitcoin is trying to figure out what bitcoin is not.

My personal opinion is, I do not think that Bitcoin is actually cryptocurrency. I think currency is the Us. Dollar, and I think one of the biggest problems about the whole field of crypto and cryptocurrency is everyone is like a crypto anarchist, which means that they want to see the Us. Government and all the governments on the planet fail, and they can essentially live in peace and silent without interference from the Government.

Yet, you know, obviously, at the end of the day, it’s nice to have public streets. It’s nice to not get robbed in the streets. And actually, I think one of the biggest misconceptions about Bitcoin is. People think that Bitcoin is trying to replace the Us. Dollar.

But my personal thought is, Bitcoin is going to be a supplement to the Us. Dollar.

Essentially, I thought this a long time ago that essentially Bitcoin is digital gold to hedge against inflation, which means, as our money, our Us. Dollars, or our euros, or our local currencies become devalued.

The upside is, our Bitcoin will become more valuable. I think the best analogy that I got was from chairman of microstrategy mstr Michael saylor, essentially thinking that Bitcoin is is not digital currency, but digital
real estate.

So I think this analogy is better, because nobody’s on their zillow, you know, 20 times a day, checking their home prices right? And this is my mad Max Post Apocalyptic perspective. So imagine the future where there’s, you know, essentially
there’s this like nuclear fallout. And you know.
there’s no inhabitable places anywhere. And let us say, there’s only 21 million single family homes left on the planet for anybody to live. Obviously, sooner or later, you know, people are going to want somewhere to live. And so I think the best analogy, I think, is Bitcoin as digital real estate, which means that with digital real estate.

Monetizing Bitcoin?

You know, a lot of people are like– I want to quickly make money off of Bitcoin. But how do I make money off of it? It’s kind of like the early days of real estate. So if you bought Manhattan in the 1600s, you know, how do you monetize it? And I still think that we’re in the very, very early days of bitcoin and institutional adoption, which means you’re going to start to see New Bitcoin products come out. So some simple thoughts. So we’ve all heard stories of Scumbag San Francisco based scumbag landlords, you know, charging an arm and a leg for their tenants, and we all hate the landlords, I think with Bitcoin we’ll become the new digital landlords, which means effectively, we will in the future be able to like rent out our Bitcoin. And you know, let’s say we have one bitcoin right, and it’s and then I think that the personal math I like to do in my head is thinking that one Bitcoin is equivalent to one single family home. So I currently live in Los Angeles, in Culver City. It’s kind of insane. A single family home. I’ve even seen some in my neighborhood for 4.4 million dollars. The average Median household single family home is around 1.7 million dollars.

So in my personal mind, where I think Bitcoin is a trillion times more valuable than physical real estate land, because you could always make more of it. It’s not a real scarcity.

A single family home, and the price of a Bitcoin should be pegged to another.

So in my mind I still think of a Bitcoin at least 1.1
1.7 2.1, maybe even 4.4 million dollars a coin. And I think this is a very very fascinating idea, because also, you know, people say, Oh, but Bitcoin is not real. Money is yeah, but like our dead, shiny rocks. Aka. Gold money either, or is fiat currency, you know pieces of paper. You cannot eat pieces of paper to to live. And I think one of the most interesting things I learned about the philosophy of money is that essentially all money is just existing in the minds and souls of men, the value for men, is all essentially subjective.

Money is not “real”, but subjective.

Now, what makes Bitcoin so fascinating to me is that it’s the 1st time in human existence, you had a hard cap supply of money.

So, for example, people often talk about gold, right? So the issue with gold is at the time it was the least bad form of money, because it was very, very scarce. It was difficult to find. It’s difficult to mine and transport. Yet there was lots of good properties of gold. It’s, you know, essentially it kind of lasts forever. Aesthetically, it looks beautiful, the nice yellow color of gold mimics that of the sun, and you know, at least back in the day, let’s say you had gold coins it could easily fit in your front pocket whatevers.

But now things become a lot more difficult because we’re living in the 21st century, the 22nd century you know, we would have flying car drone robo taxi, self driving car waymos. It’s like, Why are we still using an antiquated digital framework of modern day banking swift code accounts?

I hate the banks

If you’ve ever tried to send money, you know, from the Netherlands to South Korea, to Nigeria, to Lagos whatever you find that the the whole SWIFT system is kind of like a bunch of gangster mafiosas like even my mom is currently living in South Korea.

Example if I want to just send my mom a small sum of money, it is insane,  it takes like three or four days, and the wire transfer fees like 55 bucks, I hate this. This should be done instantly. Therefore the thought of bitcoin, being able to quickly and effectively and securely transfer value across time and space without a trusted intermediary is a big big deal, a big big revolution.

Peer to Peer Capital

So why does Bitcoin matter? It’s kind of like asking somebody why does clean water matter so one of the things I love about Michael Saylor, and I highly recommend watching all of his videos. @wsaylor. It’s essentially Twitter or X or michael.com.

He uses this analogy of sewer water. So let us say, every all 8 billion people on the planet are all drinking sewer water, and people are dying of dysentery, and people are saying, I don’t get it, you know I exercise, you know. I
you know I eat healthy exercise every day, but I’m still dying of dysentery. My kids are dying of dysentery, and so the whole issue is that if you’re drinking sewer water, no matter how healthy your lifestyle is, how virtuous you is. It don’t matter. You’re going to be, you know, dying of dysentery, or perpetually sick.

And so, if we think about these physiological terms, and apply it to Bitcoin and money and digital capital. This becomes really fascinating because my personal thought and you know, also, I grew up in a family of poverty, poverty, meaning that I thought I was going to be homeless at least 2 or 3 times. My dad was perpetually addicted to gambling with the rent money.

So what a lot of people don’t understand about growing up in poverty, and prosody is that the logical strategy that you never know when your dad is going to steal your money and gamble it away, and therefore the smart strategy is actually to spend it all right now! Because you never know when he’s going to look in your piggy bank, your personal checking account that your mom put away for your college, or even take your hard earned $3000 as a 15-year-old bus boy at your mom sushi restaurant, lying that you’re going to invest in some business, leaving to LA for about a month, gambling it away, and coming back empty.

When I think about it, this is actually super sad. Once again when I was like super super young like two years old, my mom tried to make me a savings account, like one of those checking or savings investing accounts for kids, and she might’ve had a nominal amount of money in it, like 200 or 250 bucks or something. And she told me the sad news is that one day when she checked up on it she discovered that the money was gone. Essentially my dad even stole away that $250 from my child savings account for college, once again feed his gambling addiction.

The logic 

So once again, as a kid growing up, I never had this ethos or tactic of saving. Because we literally cannot come every dime that my mom made was fun into paying for groceries and rent.

Therefore I like a 15-year-old kid, my thought was I’m going to take every single penny, I can immediately go out buying some new sneakers, you know, buy some cool clothes, and I literally had $0 in my bank account.

Don’t blame poor people

So I think the pernicious, vicious cycle of inflation is.

You cannot blame people for not saving up capital for their future if the money itself is deflating at such a rapid pace, and so I personally think that you know Bitcoin is like giving every single person on the planet like unlimited free Fiji water, or the best alkaline hipster water whatever water you want. Essentially giving people clean water. And
a lot of people say, Yeah, but Bitcoin is not real money. It’s a okay. So I think this is a big this is a big shift for me also, personally.

My personal thought is, Bitcoin is actually more important than money.

Capital > Money

So we should not think about money. We should think about capital. I think capital is a lot more robust and strong as a concept. So, for example, capital comes from Cap CAP. Like upon your head. K-ap. Essentially it came from the head of oxen. So if you read the Iliad, the Odyssey essentially, every time you want to appease the gods, you have to sacrifice a hectacomb, Hecta means 100 a hundred head of oxen to appease the gods.

And you know, obviously, that’s very expensive, like, can you imagine, if you know you sacrificed a hundred Lamborghinis to appease the gods, it would be quite expensive endeavor. Right?

And so, capital. We all live under Capitalism — it doesn’t matter if you’re living in Europe, Africa, Asia, America, China, and also one thing that people don’t understand is, I think, what a lot of these people, maybe 4 or 5 years ago, China is going to take over. China’s not going to take over. China is dependent on America, and effectively, the Chinese Yuan the CNY is essentially effectively pegged to the Us. Dollar and the Us. The US is essentially the world. Reserve currency and capital is what we seek, not money.

Currency?

Talking about currency, so currency is like, you know, buying a Starbucks Frappuccino, or buying a in and out Burger. Right? That’s like money currency, right?

Capital is essentially long storm, long term, store of value. So it’s building generational wealth.

So one of my favorite songs from Kanye West is the off the grid songs that we off the grid grid grid this for my kid, kids, for when my kids, kids have kids.

And I think this is also the big thing is a lot of millennials, nowadays, I think the disincentive to have kids is because there’s so much fear mongering about the the future is gonna become uninhabitable, you know boil the seas or whatever. So there’s not going to be a future. So essentially, there’s a strong sense of pessimism.

But Bitcoin, to me is like solidified optimism, which means that the future is going to be glorious and great. And you know, even having Seneca right now, think about his future kids, kids, kids, or my future kids, kids, kids.
It brings me so much joy. Because the simple strategy, you just keep stacking Bitcoin until you die, and then you hand it on to your kids. Your kids give it to their kids kids. It’s like, if you owned, you know, a hundred penthouses or 10 square blocks or 20 square blocks in Manhattan, on the main island. Do you ever sell that to buy a Lamborghini? No! That’s not what one does, or liquefy it all into us dollars and brag about how many billions of dollars you have in your bank account.

Nope, that’s not the goal– you want to build capital. And traditionally it’s been real estate. But once again, real estate was a good idea. In the 16 hundreds, 17 hundreds, 18 hundreds, 19 hundreds, or 2000s. But then the subprime mortgage meltdown proved that, you know maybe it’s not always the best idea.

Real estate can go down.

Only one reason

And I think the hard thing is, people say, Yeah, but you know, real estate, you know, essentially, everyone needs somewhere to live, and it’s historically, the value of real estate is always going to go up forever. Now people say that the tricky thing is the pace of monetary inflation is around 15%. The best thing is to either chat Gpt or Google The M2 Money Supply. And essentially what you will find is
that the money supply is essentially a metric in which the Us. Government, or any other government on the planet, includes the euro and stuff. They keep printing more currency. And the reason why then this becomes an issue is that if you have more currency in the system that means the individual value of each unit is going to go down.

The shake shack effect

I call this the shake Shack Burger incident. So me and Seneca we used to always buy a single burger, patty, for $1.49, $1.50 … and one day we come and they say no it is $2.50, a party.

Why this makes no sense is like, yeah, we just increased the minimum wage to $20 an hour from $15 an hour. $20 an hour for fast food, and the hard thing is with minimum wage. You cannot rewind the the hands of time. If you suddenly said that the minimum wage is only $17 an hour, there will be riots. The streets would not be not be good.

Bitcoin is digital photography

So we’re all photographers, you know, street photographers, whatever. And the hard thing with digital is in our minds, digital is infinite and free. So, for example, I could take a copy of Mozart’s 5th Symphony, or whatever, as an mp3, file, and I could copy and distribute it a trillion times with 0 marginal cost right?

So this is where the notion of cyber becomes more interesting. And I’ll think about like, you know, cyber punk thinking about cyber truck.

It’s essentially once again, mathematically, cryptographically, that the hard science and the hard math is there can never be more than 21 million coins
in existence come up forever. Even if you took all the quantum ultra computers on the planet, times it by 20, you still could not produce more bitcoins. It’s just how it works right?

The immortal gold cyber oxen

One Bitcoin is like one cyber-ox, and it’s immortable, immortal, indestructible. It’ll give you life forever. And there’s only gonna be 21 million of them in the future. And now and so this is your chance to get one for an extreme discount.

Buying a single-family home in Los Angeles for only $100,000 

Let’s even say let’s say you want to buy a single family home. Let’s say it costs a million euros or whatever. Right? So if I could tell you today that you could buy a single family home for only $100,000 or €100,000 you’d be like, wow, that’s that’s the deal of a century. That’s you’re still getting a 90% discount.

And my personal thought is Bitcoin is far more valuable than real estate, because in the next 20-30 years, when essentially all the all the baby boomers, The Gen. Xers die off, and it’s the millennials and Gen. Z’s. And, alphas!

What do we care for?

When we millennials take over, what’s interesting is that we don’t really care about physical real estate anymore. We will care about digital cyber real estate which is bitcoin. 

So my personal story, how did I get into Bitcoin? So it might seem a little bit random. It’s like, Okay, ERIC, you’re super famous for photography, street photography like, how do you get to Bitcoin like? It’s like, so random, right? But actually, it’s not very random at all, because, you know, if you’ve been following me carefully, you know the whole time, I’ve always been talking about living minimalistically, frugally, Spartan lifestyle, whatever’s. And you know now that you know I’m pretty stacked with a bitcoin and microstrategy stock mstr.

Funny enough, I’ve personally found that my lifestyle habits haven’t changed much after getting super rich, I mean, I’m a little bit more generous, maybe, like, you know, took out a friend last night to all you eat Korean barbecue
paid for her bill didn’t really even flinch.

Even a random aside, my best friend and my best man Justin, told me this when we were like in our early 20s, when we finally got good paying jobs whatever, is that the greatest joy is being able to eat out and not really feel the pain associated with having to eat out because we both grew up poor. 

I still remember even when I was undergraduate at UCLA, after our KYRIE club meeting, we would all go out to eat, and then I would see all the other guys ordering these really expensive $15 Korean barbecue gogi plates, (this was in 2006, when you could still buy a foot-long sub sandwich for five bucks), and $1.99 tacos, and $1 tacos, and me trying to save money, would force myself not to eat even though I was hungry, and my friends would ask me if I was hungry and I would lie, and say I wasn’t, while my stomach was still grumbling. 

Monetary, financial freedom is the goal

So my personal thought with Bitcoin is, I personally wanted monetary freedom, and so long story short, so I’ll never forget this moment. So I’m born 1988. Went to UCLA as an undergrad — my roommate at the time, Kevin. It’s our junior he’s on Reddit, and I’ll never forget we’re in our studio apartment. I think I was distracted. I was doing something else. He was like Eric, you know. He’s on some subreddit, and he’s like.

“Oh, Eric, this thing called Bitcoin, and there’s this one dude who just bought two domino’s pizzas for like 10,000 bitcoins. We should just get like a hundred bucks worth of bitcoin, and just see what happens.”

I then responded “Eh, seems like a scam” and disregarded it. No this is one bitcoin was like less than a penny, so even if me and Kevin and my roommate Kevin, just bought a hundred bitcoins at the time for funsies, right? And I had a hundred bucks right? We would each be worth at least 1.2 billion dollars.

If I had bought $100 worth of bitcoin at the time, once again we would each have about $1.2 billion in our checking accounts.

Everything happens as it should have happened 

Today, I’m like, man. This was like the worst mistake of my life, right? But everything has happened as it should have happened. You know. Maybe if I had become a billionaire I’d just become some degenerate, you know. Cocaine addict on some beach somewhere in in Hawaii, and then Seneca would never been born. I would have never done my photography, world travels, whatevers.

Then my reintroduction to Bitcoin was kind of more recently when moving to LA. The cost of living is so expensive, and you know every I don’t know a single person who doesn’t want financial freedom. A long story short, I 1st heard about Bitcoin again, kind of earlier than when I was living in Vietnam around 2017, 2018, and at the time I didn’t really need Bitcoin, because our living expenses were so cheap. It was $320 bucks a month for a brand new studio apartment, fully furnished up, uplighting and the jazz right? And even at the time, passively, the income we’re making. Let’s say it’s a $1000- $2,000 a month. Let’s say it’s not even that much right, but like our whole total expenses, living expenses like maybe $600-700 a month, so I had the epiphany I’m like, I’m never going to run out of money. So already, at the age of 26 in my mind, I mentally retired right
and just more for funsies.

Buying bitcoin for $6,999 a Bitcoin

I met this guy named Bing in Singapore. Heard about this thing called Digibyte. Dgb, I don’t even think they’re around anymore. But at the time I’m like, Okay, I want to buy some bitcoins, buy some digibyte. How do I do this? And at the time Coinbase seemed like the best option, because it was the simplest, most minimalist to me it looked like the paypal for for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.

For fun I bought about $25,000 worth of bitcoin, which, and Bitcoin was only about $7,000, $6,999 a bitcoin. So that was around 3.5 bitcoins. 

I then traded some bitcoin for digibyte, and I kept some bitcoin in my Coinbase account. Then the next few years I essentially saw the waves and the crashes and the dogecoins and stuff like that.

And essentially, I just kind of woke up to my guts and found out that Bitcoin was a real deal.

Satoshi is the Bitcoin Jesus

Some strange analogies is to me Bitcoin is almost like a new
World economic religion, I mean, people who follow Bitcoin are like fanatic. They’re zealous about it. They follow Michael Saylor like he’s like you know the prophet. You know the next prophet of Bitcoin right?

And it’s always good to invest in religions or to invest in cults like the cult of Tesla, Elon Musk apple, Steve Jobs. Whatevs, right?

Why?

Now obviously, I have financial independence now, and the only reason I’m teaching this workshop or sharing this information is, I almost feel like it’s my ethical imperative. Once again, if you could have discovered internet in the early days, or clean drinking water, I would feel that it would almost be a disservice if I did not share this information with others.

Future value

So everyone’s always about like, okay, so what is the Bitcoin gonna be worth? So there’s the open source model. Michael Saylor, I think, helped create it. It’s called the Bitcoin 21 model, I think. Right?

So 21 years from now his base case is that Bitcoin is going to be $13 million a Bitcoin. Bear case, $3 million a Bitcoin. The bull case is $49 million a Bitcoin, and note, this was in 2024 in July before Trump was announced as President, and he is ultra super pro crypto and bitcoin and also worth following, is his son Eric Trump, ironically. His name is also Eric also the funny thing. There’s a bunch of Eric’s actually in the world of Bitcoin, Eric Kim Eric Semler, of semler scientific, this other Etf guy who works for Bloomberg. His name is Eric Balconus, or something like that.

Follow Eric Trump

Essentially, we have an all Republican trump, pro bitcoin pro crypto, President and cabinet, whatever right?

More bullish

What is really fascinating about Michael Saylor’s predictions for the future price of bitcoin is that when it was only $65,000 a bitcoin, and we were a bit uncertain about what the future of bitcoin and the president and the government would look like.

The last four years, we were all fighting an uphill battle, because the former administration was adamantly anti-crypto and anti-bitcoin. Gary Gensler who seems like a smart guy, was for some reason really anti-bitcoin and crypto? 

The next four years will be glorious!

And so these were all written by Michael Saylor’s predictions before we had the most pro bitcoin
government of all time. So all these numbers, I think, should be inflated. So my personal thought is, I think, for the next 4 years once Trump takes office, January 20, 2025. I think this will be the craziest, best Bitcoin Bull Run of all time the next 4 years. So currently, Bitcoin’s been going up around 60% to 62% arr annual rate of return. And I think once Trump takes office, and I’m pretty sure he’s gonna buy the 1 million Bitcoins, or whatever for the strategic American Reserve.

And also I think Eric Trump, his son, is committed to having Bitcoin be at least a million in Bitcoin.

120% Bitcoin ARR for the next 4 years

So let’s see. So my personal prediction, right? So I think Bitcoin will grow by at least 120% arr over the next 4 years. So let’s say, Bitcoin is worth around $100,000 right now. So by next year, let’s say it’s $250,000 the year after that, let’s say it’s $750,000, let’s say the year after that it’s like $1.2 million. So I think we’re on track to hit a million a bitcoin in 4 years about 10x gain. So just do the math from then.

The $1 million dollar cybertruck

Currently as an account measure, I now equate one bitcoin being worth one cyber truck, assuming that a cyber truck is currently around $100,000.

So the smart strategy is to take your hundred thousand dollars and invest it into bitcoin today, and you’ll see that becoming $1 million in four years. 

What that means is sell your cyber truck for $100,000, buy bitcoin, otherwise you have just done spent $1 million on your cyber loser truck.

Cyber warfare 

Now, people are always asking, okay, this, you know, Bitcoin reserve strategy, you know, like, how is? And why is America going to buy the Bitcoins? Right? So we’re essentially out of physical land and real estate. Now we have to go to cyberspace right?

And it seems kind of silly, like something out of a sci-fi film. But the truth is, they’re currently the war we’re having with China and Russia. It’s it’s not physical war per se. It’s actually cyber war. So cyber security is the big big money maker. Even cyber penetration testing. Right? I think Gmail is trying to get like all these malicious actors trying to attack the Gmail servers like a million times a minute. Something crazy, right?

And if you look at the history of America, right? So, Manhattan, 1600s, the price of Manhattan. It was essentially stolen from the natives. Right? 60 guilders, right Louisiana purchase, you know, to fund Napoleon, California. Also kind of stolen from the the local Mexicans right? And also Alaska right. The the payoff was great, right, and so essentially the Bitcoin Act, the Cynthia Lummis Bill, she’s trying to get the States to buy at least a million bitcoins right? And you know even a Michael Saylor is much more aggressive. He’s like no America should at least purchase maybe 5 or 6 million bitcoins, which is 20 to 25% of the whole Bitcoin supply. And all America has to do is a free trade. They just need to sell their gold and then buy Bitcoin.

The super evil genius plan 

And in a recent interview that I was listening from Saylor.
super fascinating, is like essentially what he said was the super evil genius strategy of America selling her gold reserves and buying Bitcoin is that if that’s the case,
we demonetize our enemies.

You know, gold capital reserves.

So then suddenly, the the gold of the Russians, the Chinese, will go to 0, and then everyone’s going to rush into Bitcoin. And if America owns Bitcoin, it’s a good sign for the future.

Why America is the GOAT

And also another big thing I want to talk about. Why does America have the best economy on the planet?
So we essentially gave birth to Apple Amazon, Facebook, the magnificent 7 stocks, Netflix. And you know, people talk about China. It’s like. Okay, I don’t know a single rich mainland Chinese oligarch who doesn’t want to send their kids to the States to Harvard or Yale or Princeton, you know, buy a nice house in Palo Alto, the Bay area, or even Vancouver.

No rich mainland Chinese person actually wants to be in China, but because of capital controls, they’re kind of stuck. So once there’s going to be a mad rush to Bitcoin. That means that you, your family, your whole squad, is going to prosper now.

Simple storage is best.

My friend Dante had a question about storage. So I think the hard thing with storage is okay. So how do you say this?
This is my personal philosophy. The reason I do not personally trust cold storage for myself or more of these self custody options is that I know that I am very forgetful, and my biggest fear is, let’s say, I forget my passcode, or whatever is right to the Bitcoins. And or let’s say, my kids, kids can forget it right? Then boom like, you’re gonna be out like a hundred 1 million dollars. Right? So that’s that’s not fun, right? And so personally, I think the easiest is to just, you know, store it on the cloud. So, using a trusted custodian, whether it be coinbase. I think fidelity has their own services now.

And the you know honestly, it seems like Coinbase is probably the best option,,, coinbase.com, or you just download your iphone ipad. Whatever right is that you could also get a link with your biometric apple id data, whether it be face id or thumbprint. Whatevs right? So this way, it just feels much more secure.

So for me, I would prefer an 80 to 85% optimal thing that is kind of dummy proof rather than take the 100% secure option which, because of user error, I might fail, and something that I personally learned is in terms of technology. And all these things in between
seeking the simplest, most straightforward option
that is least complicated is often the best solution.

Don’t trust advertisements 

And the reason I would be very, very wary of a lot of these people promoting, you know, buying their hardware wallets. Whatever right, everyone has a buck to make. Everyone has a bitcoin to make. Everyone wants to make a few satoshis here and there.

So they’re trying to fear monger us. Oh, you’re gonna you know, Coinbase going to get hacked. And I’m like, no, I don’t think it is. It’s like, you know, back. It’s like essentially a Us. Government backed institution, you know, it’s essentially it’s traded on the the the US Stock Exchange. It’s a American based company. I would not trust anything outside of the States.

Who should use cold storage

If you’re super, you know, quant genius, autistic genius, then do all the cold storage stuff. But if in doubt, just the simplest thing is, coinbase seems to be the best.

The ERIC KIM Free Money Hack

Okay, so this is kind of my free money hack. So I call this microstrategy, strategy, mstr microstrategy versus bitcoin. And okay, so it’s very, very simple. So this becomes a philosophical debate. To say it short.
I think the ultimate goal is to own Bitcoin, he or she, or the entities which own the most Bitcoin shall win.

And so for me, philosophically, you know, let us say that you could own, you know, 20 bitcoins, or you could own 2 million dollars worth of micro strategy. Mstr. Stock. Right?
10-20, 30 years from now, right?

With MSTR you’re going to actually outperform Bitcoin. You’re actually going to make more money from microstrategy stock than Bitcoin. So Bitcoin, historically, has been 60% to 62% ARR annual rate of return MicroStrategy is almost double that 120 to 125 ARR. So if you actually want to maximize your returns, you just buy microstrategy stock mstr.

Risk factors

The issues is, you know let us say that Michael Saylor gets shot. He gets killed. He dies in a Cybertruck self driving accident whatever. Right? Then, it’s probably not going to be the world’s best future for microstrategy. So it’s actually much more risky.

If you want the least risky option, just put all your money into Bitcoin.

We the new Spartan Bitcoin demigods!

And some millennial living strategies. Right? So the the simplest strategy I have, I call it the Spartan strategy. This is why I personally follow. Is you essentially try to live as minimally and frugally and sparse as you can, and just put literally 90% of your income into bitcoin.

And a free money hack I discovered. So, for example, let’s say you have $150,000 or €150,000. Right? And you know I’m not 100% sure how it works if you’re a European.

Anyways what you do is you buy microstrategy stock. So let’s say you buy, you know, $100,000 or $150,000 worth of it right? And Mstr, and you use fidelity, or robinhood, or whatever trading app you have. Right.

And the strategy is simple.

Let us say the base case is $150,000. Let’s say your microstrategy stock value then goes up to $200,000. Right?
You sell $50,000 worth of it, and then you just transfer that to your bank account, and then your bank account is linked with your coinbase account. Then you just buy the Bitcoin — rinse and repeat.

So very, very impressive over the last 3 months, I started with initial seed capital of around $150,000 in microstrategy stock, off of that $150,000 right and I haven’t even touched my principal. I yielded $242,000
off of that initial $150,000. Once again I didn’t touch any of my principal. So essentially I made a free $240,000 dollars … in just 3 months!

Just put it all into MSTR

And also for traditional Roth, Roth, Ira retirement accounts. I put everything into microstrategy stock, and it had already like 3x’d.

For example, My roth, Ira, just kind of randomly was like was $78,000, and then the course of 3 months it’s like now, $230,000. It peaked at around $300,000. So it’s going to be a good future.

Minimize your expenses

So the the very simple strategy– cut and reduce your expenses to a bare minimum.

So let us say you’re able to get down your living expenses to let’s say you know, $5,000 bucks a month or €5,000 a month. Right? the point isn’t to just make a bunch of money and just go out and buy the Lambo. The the goal is actually to continue to live frugally. If anything live more frugally.

The paradox of richness

So the funny paradox here is that when people say they want to become a millionaire, but they’re really mean to say is I want to spend $1 million. 

But the funny thing is the second you go out and you spend $1 million, you then become worth zero dollars.

So actually, the game then is to stack your capital indefinitely and to see your numbers go up forever.

And then the hilarious thing assuming that you’re like some sort of greedy money rich person, you actually continue to live as frugally as possible, and not touch your capital. 

Stop the heat, capital loss

I think one of the wise ways to think about money is like heat loss. For example, if you’re super effing cold, do you want to seal up the window windows and the spots of your house which loses heat.

The same thing is with money and capital. You want to stop the capital loss.

Premium gas is for suckers!

So for example, the number one thing is the whole vehicle thing!

Never ever ever ever ever purchase any vehicle that requires premium gas. This is like the stupidest mistake of all time.

You continue driving your old Toyota Prius, and just pour all of your money in Bitcoin, because really the truth is and this is my philosophical thought is, there’s almost nothing worth on the planet purchasing.
Besides, Bitcoin is my philosophical thought.

The only thing worth purchasing on the planet is bitcoin. 

Think economic leverage


Also some even more super smart economic leverage.

Instead of paying an arm and a leg for rent in La or New York. Brooklyn, you just move to like Southeast Asia.

So if you move to Southeast Asia, you can live like a king, for like $300-500 bucks a month. Right? You just put all your money to Bitcoin.

How to never run out of money 

So even if you had a modest savings, right, let’s say you had like $200,000, and you have microstrategy stock.
Let’s say every month of the month is rent is due, and the expenses are due right? You just sell a small portion of that stock, and it’s going to go up.

So my thought on the next 4 years, microstrategy, assuming it’s around 2x Bitcoin. I think Bitcoin is going to go up 120% ARR. I think microstrategy is going to double that 240% ARR. So just do the math.

At the end of every single month in which expenses are due, let us say it’s like $1000 bucks or something… You just sell $1000 worth of bitcoin or microstrategy stock to just afford your lifestyle. 

MSTR x Bitcoin

But ultimately my personal thought is whatever excess, money and capital you have just put it onto Bitcoin.

So the microstrategy then ends up becoming the engine or the turbocharger or the cash cow. You milk it, and you shave the cream off the top, and then you buy Bitcoin with it.

So I think the reason why to me Bitcoin is such a fascinating thing, and very exciting, is essentially Bitcoin is digital photography.

Peter Diamandis, the X prize guy. Right? You know, he talks a lot about kodak film. You know the iphone and disruption.
So actually, intuitively, as photographers and digital photographers, we should actually understand bitcoin. You know, this disruptive power about digital photography. So obviously, you have the hipsters with their mustaches and their flannels, you know, talking about the virtues of film photography.

But the truth is, digital photography is like a quadrillion times better than film photography.

And also currently, in the year 2025, incoming
digital photography is actually superior to film photography.

In the early days of digital ,,, digital photography sucked. But now, at this point, digital photography is far superior to any sort of film photography, and the only reason you should shoot film in today’s world is either as like a practice to appreciate the joys of photography. So the philosophical approach. Or you know, you’re trying to be some sort of like, you know, snobby fine art photographer and overcharge money for your photos. Then you shoot film.
Because honestly, the the fine art market, they’re always going to overvalue film photos over digital photos, because it’s more complicated. It’s more strange, right? So in the art, in the art world, the more complicated, abstruse, and complicated, you can make your art the better. But for us,
where we care about practical things, yeah, think about Bitcoin. So think about the iphone iphone pro versus your mom’s kodak Browning camera. I think the the thought is obvious. Okay.

How to start buying Bitcoin

Very simple. Just download the coinbase app. Buy Bitcoin.

MSTR stock

If you don’t want to actually own Bitcoin, you just want to make a ton of money, just buy microstrategy stock MSTR, and use your traditional accounts.

A new philosophy of wealth?

So the tricky thing is everyone wants to be a millionaire, but instead of gaining 1 million bucks, and keeping and retaining the million bucks and growing it to 2 million, 5 million 10 million 100 million 1,000,000,000,000 etc., What most people want to do is to spend the million dollars.

In fact, a thought was whenever you watch all these movies about the glamorous life of the Wolf of Wall Street whatever, in order to fit a 90 minute segment, there needs to be some sort of ostentatious displays of wealth, huge parties, babes, yachts, Drugs, debauchery, sex, and Lamborghini countach’s. 

Stacking those bricks!

Never stop stacking

So, saving and building $1 million of capital, just think like money and Lego bricks, capital digital capital. 

The other day I just went to legal end with Seneca, and it was great. An interesting thing that we were doing with some of the kids in the tot lot was taking these oversized Lego bricks, and just seeing how tall of a tower you could build.

And then even the kids said the goal was to keep stacking the bricks.

So the analogy is in LEGOS is that you want to keep building your Lego tower thing as tall as possible, you never want to get rid of your bricks and throw it into the trash. Also you do not want to mess up the stability of your Lego tower, as you build it ever higher, you must also conversely build it a bit wider to support the ever-growing height.

Capitalism vs consumerism

So assuming that money, every capital measure is just like a unit of money, a unit as being a single Lego brick. And I think that is essentially what consumerism is; instead of stacking your capital instead of stacking your Lego bricks, you essentially incinerate it into the trash. 

This is actually another big philosophical thing I discovered is, what’s the difference between capitalism and consumerism.

Consumerism is actually the exact opposite of capitalism.

Capitalism is about accumulating wealth. Building your capital and not spending it. Even one of my favorite Kanye quotes is:

“White people make money don’t spend it, but I’d rather buy 80 gold chains and go ignant (ignorant)”

So the pernicious thing that happens in a lot of communities, especially poor communities, is everyone takes their hard earned cash, they wasted at Vegas the strip club, on loser Louis Vuitton clothes shoes sneakers Nike sneakers, Jordans etc. 

I’ve also seen this happen with my own eyes. It happens all the time to Korean people. It happens to everybody, right?

The truck is you’re a single guy, living in a crappy apartment in K-Town with 20 other dudes, yet you drive the brand new BMW. And you’re not building any sort of generational wealth. Right?

So essentially the smart strategy is to build a capital and do not spend it. And essentially, you want to start to intelligently leverage your capital to give to your future kids or your descendants, or whatever you want to do.

Building the balls for bitcoin 

The hardest thing about Bitcoin is stomaching the volatility. Bitcoin and all the crypto assets in general tend to be much more volatile than the standard stocks in the NASDAQ 100 index, maybe besides microstrategy stock. 

Now this is an important thing; a very interesting thing I saw at the San Diego children’s science center, there was a section on electricity, and there was this transformer that yielded both high voltage energy, as well as low-voltage energy which you could turn into a lightbulb.

It was interesting you just pushed a button, and you had the two lightning rods, and you would see the high voltage energy surging through it, and it looks super dangerous and powerful. And I am very certain that in the early days of Nicola Tesla, Edison, there were probably a lot of people who accidentally touched electrical wire and died.

Now even though there is a handful of people who died from miss handling electricity, it doesn’t mean that we suddenly ban electricity or fear it. Even today, the people who climbed the high ladders, fixed electricity poles, it is still a very dangerous job. But clean silent electricity might be the best innovation or technology for humans of all time.

Bitcoin is electricity. Maybe if handled incorrectly, the high volatility the high energy the high power can kill a man. But if harnessed correctly, it could be the biggest benefit to humanity of all time.

The stoic way

So for most people who get into bitcoin for the first time, and maybe for people who have never day traded, or traded stocks or done risky stuff, stomaching the volatility the highs and lows the ups and downs is quite frightening.

 I consider myself fortunate because I’ve been exposed to trading stocks ever since I was 15 years old, and I’m 36 now. So I guess I’ve been in the game for at least 21 years.

And also, studying stoicism, Zen, Taoism, Spartan philosophy, and hardcore one rep Max powerlifting has been good to steel my nerves, and my soul. 

Practical thoughts

The first thought is never check the price of bitcoin unless you actually plan on purchasing more. And actually, if you think about it… The price of bitcoin should never really even matter if you actually have money and plan on buying some.

An interesting thought I got from Michael Saylor is that I will keep buying the top, forever.  I will continue purchasing bitcoin at $100,000, $250,000, $1 million, $10 million, and 55 million coin.  And who knows, maybe if I live long enough I could buy bitcoin at $1.1 billion of bitcoin. 

If anything, this is actually a happy thought, if I’m privileged enough to live to be 120 or whatever, maybe I could actually live to see bitcoin hit over 1 billion a bitcoin, which means that this will be the best party of all time! Or, maybe Seneca could see it in his lifetime. 

The false coins

So a lot of people ask about ethereum dogecoin shibainu etc. I think Bitcoin is the only true one.

Everything else is the false prophets. Everything else is the false coins. The immaculate conception of Bitcoin and Satoshi.

False prophets

So the difficult thing is everything that is not bitcoin, require some sort of intelligence Books person or PR team. The reason why I also got off of chain-link is that I started to realize that Sergey Nazarov was just a puppet, and Vitalik Buterin is no better — perhaps even weirder.

So the hard thing about any sort of crypto asset which is not bitcoin, is if you have a real person associated to the thing… There are too many risk factors.

For example, Jared Tate, the guy who invented Digibyte (DGB), somewhere along the line went off the rails, started to talk about all these weird conspiracy theories whatever. He may be right he might be wrong he might be partially right, but the biggest issue was once this happened, the digibyte community started to try to distance themselves from him. And obviously the price of DGB crashed — and I’m not even sure that anyone supports it anymore. I haven’t checked.

The immaculate conception of bitcoin

So you know in the Bible when they talk about mother Mary, the immaculate conception of Jesus, and the assumption, we could actually apply a metaphor to bitcoin. I actually do think it’s very critical that she gave his gift to the world, and then disappeared forever. Even actually if you did come out today, And prove that he was Satoshi, it wouldn’t actually really matter, actually in fact, we are all Satoshi. 

Is bitcoin a cult?

Of course it is! But then again, almost everything is a cult. Cult is just short for culture. When we think about weird scientologists and Tom Cruise and whatever, the only reason why the term cult got such a bad reputation is that they demand huge financial investments, and also they apparently do strange tactics to keep you inside the cult?  Even the thing that was kind of shocking to me when I heard it was that actually if you want to be part of a synagogue, you have to pay a monthly fee?

Anyways, my thought is actually, it is a good idea to invest in cults. Investing in the cult of Apple, Steve Jobs, Tesla Elon Musk, SpaceX, etc.

Hard caps matter.

If there is only one thing that makes bitcoin valuable is that it has a hard cap of 21 million bitcoins forever.

This is a big deal because Ethereum does not have a hard cap, you could actually always print more. 

Volatility is vitality

Volatility is vitality. Michael Saylor.

Essentially volatility is vitality, and the more volatile the more energy the power you have, the more vitality you have.

So once again, people think of volatility as being risk. That is actually not the case. Bitcoin is going to go up forever, but it’s going to be like an extreme roller coaster and go up down, but with extreme swings it’s extreme performance.

Volatility is not risk.

Volatility is just going up and down a lot, but essentially over a long enough time span, it’s going to go up forever.

Think the market cap, the potential full market capitalization 

Currently, Bitcoin is like a 2 trillion dollar asset class right? And this is also from Jesse Myers onceinaspecies.com.

And the reason why this is important is currently the whole world’s economy is 900 trillion dollars, right? And
what we have our eyes on is real estate. So real estate is, you know, most people don’t really just use real estate as a place to live right? Otherwise, you just rent. People use it for a long term store of value.

So, for example, if you’re a really really rich family from New York City, you own, like 10 square blocks in Manhattan, and, you know, does your descendants sell, a square block to buy himself a few Ferraris. No, that that would be a bad strategy. So the the tip I have for any single person trying to build intergenerational wealth. Keep it simple. Only one rule. You don’t sell the Bitcoin. If you face extreme poverty or financial distress, I don’t know, become an Uber driver or something. Pay the bills, but don’t sell the Bitcoin.

Bitcoin > Gold

Currently I think we’re going to see is Bitcoin is just going to take over the gold market, which is 16 trillion dollars, maybe the cars and collectible art market.

Utility or long-term store of value?

Now, a big thought is this is from Michael Saylor is that all these assets on the planet– some of half of it is to provide utility. Right? So, for example, you need you need somewhere to live right? That provides utility.

But then, again, some of it is to preserve capital right?

Homes?

So this is the tricky kind of low-key scam I think exist, we try to get suckered into buying a single-family home, or even worth a condo, because simply that is what one does, and this inaccurate rhetoric about these scumbag landlords, and that your essentially pissing away your money and your wealth because you’re paying off their mortgage, rather than building equity in yourself.

Now this might’ve been accurate like 100 years ago, or 15 years ago before bitcoin was invented.

But once again, if a huge paradigm fundamental shift happens, obviously you should not use past technologies because it is no longer pertinent.

For example, you see it today. In the year 2024, we already have the Tesla model S plaid, which will destroy any other mainstream car on the planet, even if it’s like $10 million. Yet why don’t people just go fully electric for electric vehicle sports or hyper cars? Once again people are stuck in old analogies.

There’s really no reason to own a single-family home anymore?

This past weekend, we had the privilege of doing a home exchange, and staying in this really really amazing home in the mountains overlooking the San Diego coastline, I woke up every morning enjoying my morning coffee, with a window next to me, overlooking some beautiful Torrey Pines, and also having the privilege of having the light directly enter through the window and hit my face.

And also, going to the patio, to overlook in the ocean first thing in the morning, with the light directly on me. 

It was kind of like my dream house or home, I always had this vision of having maximum natural light in the house, the living room and the kitchen, floor to ceiling windows etc. And now having experienced it, for four mornings in a row, I could say it was phenomenal, but still… Not really worth $2 million or whatever.

New strategies for wealth generation for millennials

so, I’m born in 1988, and I could probably say that I’m a millennial. Yet the tricky thing is that we’re kind of in a weird spot right now; currently there is a pressure to buy a single-family home?

I think things changed after Covid, like nobody was interested in homeownership, everyone wanted to travel to Japan and be off the grid, become a digital or a cyber nomad etc.

Everyone wants this nebulous notion of “financial independence.” What is financial independence? Bitcoin!

My simple thought about financial independence is not being held down by anything, whether that be homeownership, land ownership, condo ownership, car ownership etc. Because you become like an indentured servant a slave a sharecropper to your land. Why? If you’re going to have to pay property tax like $1500 a month, plus home insurance stuff etc. costing you maybe $2300 a month, and also a mortgage which might in total cost you about $7000 a month, this seems like slavery.

> Home ownership is the new share cropping.

Also a subtle nuance I’ve discovered, is that there is actually some sort of low-key shame about renting? No! If you have a good landlord, rent control and live in a desirable neighborhood, this is like the smartest economic leverage you can make! 

Think digital, cyber land. 

Perhaps one of my most beneficial things of studying sociology is wiping the slate clean, thinking things anew and afresh. 

In fact, the number one thing that you learn is sociology is to always challenge societal norms and assumptions; taking it back to first principles, social first principles, sociological first principles. 

There is no “should”

Once again, the ground truth for much of society is that if you want the ability happiness and smartness, you must have stability, you must own a single-family home, you must own a home or property.

But once again this ideology was invented before the internet, iPhones, and $50 android devices. And certainly before Bitcoin!

The network effect

Do you remember, in the early days of Facebook. It was only it was only university students with an “.edu” address were allowed to join. Then they opened up to everybody, and the network effect of Facebook is that if you have Facebook and I have Facebook, then Facebook instantly becomes more valuable to both of us, because I can now share my photos with you, you could tag me in your photos and vice versa.

Also if your friends friends also have Facebook, it becomes much more valuable to everyone.

The same thing goes with the iPhone and FaceTime. I used to be a diehard android guy, but now I’m all iCloud everything. It makes life so much easier, and also because I wanted to get my mom off of the stupid Kakaotalk, I got my mom an iPhone, and now our whole family has iMessage which makes like way easier.

Bitcoin is the killer app. Bitcoin is like metaphorical FaceTime for all 8 billion people on the planet. 

And so Bitcoin is going to be the same thing as more and more people are going to continue to download Coinbase or whatevs. And also my optimistic thought is, if Apple doesn’t want to become irrelevant, it’s I’m very certain the next 5 to 10 years Apple is going to have their own
Bitcoin storage thing in your icloud account. It makes sense right. They have apple pay. They have the apple wallet. Essentially Apple is the new bank. And so now, when they do like a you know, a 3 device authentication for your bitcoins through your iphone, your ipad and your macbook pro whatevers. It’s actually it might actually be one of the most safe ways to store your bitcoins.

MicroStrategy might be the most valuable company on the planet, the #1 most valuable company on the planet 

The reason why the mainstream media they doesn’t like to talk about microstrategy is that it’s still a little bit too weird and bizarre. And it’s not as buzzworthy as AI, because, okay, people like to think of this like evil Terminator AI, the idea that AI is going to take over the world.

Bitcoin doesn’t have the same doomsday view; for example you never think of bitcoin like being an android walking around, taking over the planet.

AI gets a lot more buzz, because James Cameron and the Terminator made it so cinematic.

Ponzi scheme

For so long people thought that Bitcoin was a Ponzi scheme right. No one ever thought that AI was a Ponzi scheme. So AI always catches the headlines.

But look at microstrategy, look at the best performing stock on the human unit in the human universe over 3x.

For example, people always talk about Nvidia, but micro strategies out performing Nvidia by almost 3X! down the line Nvidia is destroying Tesla. And after that, nobody is even relevant.

Cyber physics

So my practical physics-based thought is that the reason why AI Nvidia, producing computer chips, self driving cars and cybertrucks is so difficult is that you’re still stuck in the realm of physics. To build 1 million cybertrucks is difficult, and also, building 1 billion micro processing chips is also difficult. You are subjected to the laws of entropy, chaos, supply chain issues, Rare earth minerals, regulations, and physical heat loss etc.

What is so amazing about bitcoin is that because it exists in cyberspace, yet is also real, it is not really bound by the same laws of physics. There is no heat loss in a bitcoin, and also it is immortal.

For example, a cybertruck might last 100 years, a bitcoin will last 100 trillion years and beyond. 

Invest in cyber!

Politics

I used to be anti-Donald Trump, but now I’m super for Donald Trump and his whole family. Also for ERIC Trump. Who hilariously has the same name as me.

Anyways, just watched Donald Trump’s Nashville presentation he quotes Michael sailor directly, never sell your bitcoin.

Donald Trump is super super pro bitcoin.

Cyber warfare

There will be no more World War III, the only future war will be a cyber warfare, maybe like bitcoin warfare.

I am quite certain that America will lead the charge in the crypto bitcoin revolution. 

Assuming that America really wants to control the future. I think the America purchasing 6 million bitcoins is not fully out of this this planet.

The American ethos is we always want to be the best, to control everything. Wouldn’t it make sense for us to own like 25% of the bitcoin network? Ideally more?

Building personal family wealth

Everyone wants to build wealth. Everyone wants to be intelligent with their investing. It doesn’t matter if you’re a nonprofit, a charity, a church, Mother Teresa, like every single organization, will always need money. Capital. If you have an endowment, you know, for Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford Brown University. Whatever even the UC’s– everyone needs money and capital.

Even for the people who seem to be the most disinterested in money, my funny irony that I’ve noticed is that the people who critique money, money rich money greedy people, they are the ones who often complain the most about their own financial distress.

Therefore, wealth will benefit everybody, it will benefit you, your enemy, your friends your family.

Don’t think about the macro

I don’t like to think too much about the macro, because I’m not an institutional investor. I just think about myself, my family, my best friends, my squad. So the goal is building personal family wealth and how to intelligently invest.

Not even god can time the market

So a lot of people talk about timing. The ideal is people don’t want to “overpay” for bitcoin, and they want to find a good time to buy.

My personal thought is it is always a good time to buy Bitcoin. At the highs the lows the mids etc. If you go to saylortracker.com, you’ll see the Michael Saylor and MicroStrategy has purchased bitcoin like over 45 times, like 45 distinct events, at the highs the lows the mids, the crashes the highs etc. 

For myself too, whenever I gain any access to money or capital, I immediately purchase more bitcoins, irregardless of the price. If anything I am more opportunistic when I see the price dip a bit, this is when I get greedy in a virtuous way. 

So recently I bought some more Bitcoin at $100,000. Right then it dipped down to 90,000 to 88,000 hit 103,000 again, and so I’m pretty sure that in 10-20 years I’m going to be buying Bitcoin at 1 million, a Bitcoin, 10 million dollars a Bitcoin, 55 million dollars a Bitcoin, whatever is right, and because if you do the simple math, just think at least 4 years ahead, right?

$1.2 million a bitcoin in 4 years 

So if I could tell you with 100% certainty that Bitcoin is going to be $1.2 million a Bitcoin in 4 years, as long as you’re buying it for less than a million dollars a coin you’re getting a good deal! You’re going to be in the green like it’s it’s kind of a a good bet, right?

No need to “maximize o your gains

Good greed vs bad greed?

And actually, also, ironically, my personal thought is
chasing gains is a good thing, but also it’s it’s a good idea to not get “greedy” in the sense of maximizing your gains.

So for example, what’s the difference between getting a 38% yield and a 32% yield? The difference is nominal.

Don’t worry so much about maximization, because even a lot of what I thought my trades were bad 2 years ago ended up being right.

So as investors, we have to think at least 4, 10, 20, 40, 50 years ahead of us. So don’t worry so much about the the short term performance.

The ERIC KIM BLEND

There’s a lots of different blends.

First you could just put 100% of your capital directly in bitcoin, just using Coinbase or whatever.

Another strategy is just putting 100% of your money into microstrategy stock directly. 

My personal suggestion is put 80% of your wealth into Bitcoin and 20% of your wealth into microstrategy MSTR stock.

The reason why I think this is a good split and a good ratio is that technically bitcoin is a lot safer than microstrategy. But, it is good to leverage the nuclear reactor of microstrategy, and not only that, I love Michael Saylor! He is the only living man on the planet besides my friends and family that I love; because he has made me richer than I could have ever possibly have imagined, has brought happiness joy peace and prosperity to my family, to my relationship with Cindy, and also for the bright future of our family and Seneca.

The math 

So whatever allotment you decide to put into bitcoin versus microstrategy, let us just focus on the microstrategy stock. 
To keep number simple let us say that I have $150,000 worth of microstrategy MSTR stock. And let us say that micro strategy climbs to around to be worth $200,000. Well then do is sell about $50,000 worth of the stock, transfer that to my bank account, and then purchase bitcoins worth $50,000 using my Coinbase account which is linked to my checking account.

I call this double profits. 

Expenses

Let us say that you are like a single millennial who wants to live off the grid, ideally you would just live somewhere that is super super cheap, like Cambodia Thailand Vietnam Laos, somewhere in Southeast Asia. Ideally you would not spend much for your living expenses.

Let us say that you relocate to Vietnam and your entire expenses including your rent utilities eating out food coffee etc. is like $1000 a month.

But then you do is at the every month when your bills are due, you just sell about $1000 worth of microstrategy stock, pay your bills and keep the rest!

To me this is like the smartest idea of all time because in theory, you will never run out of money!

This could also work if you live in the states, but once again friends, let us keep our living expenses to the bare minimum. I encourage everyone to rent. Why? Renting will always be cheaper than owning a single-family home or a condo, and you could just use all of the excess money to buy more bitcoins!

What’s the difference between being an investor, a trader vs speculator?

I believe that the desired identity is to be an investor. We want to think about 10, 20, 30 40-50 years ahead of us.

A trader (or even worse,a day trader) is a bunch of these, like 20 year old high testosterone degenerates, you know, single, you know, maybe addicted drugs, or whatever right, who just want to like look cool. I made a billion dollars in a month by using all these complicated statistical models. Blah! Blah! Right? But you don’t want to be a trader or a day trader. You don’t want to be a trader because essentially nobody could time the market. Not even God could time the market.

Speculators are even worse?

What a speculator is people who invest in meme coins. So a meme coin is like buying a Dogecoin or shiba Inu, that the reason why these are not you should not do this is that it is extremely dangerous. You’re going to lose all your money, and it requires a charismatic leader to support it.

So Dogecoin, right? Dogecoin is essentially elon musk coin.
If one day Elon musk tweets. Ha! Ha! Doge was just a joke all along, right. It’s not worth anything. The value of it will plummet to 0, or if once again, Elon dies in a a robo taxi the The value of dogecoin is going to go to 0, whereas if Elon Musk dies, you know Bitcoin is going to still keep going up forever.

We’re investors.

Nobody brags about how many US dollars they have in their checking account


Somebody asked about monetary inflation. There’s this thing called the M2 monetary supply — the rate of monetary inflation and dollar printing.

You’re going to have to exceed at least 13% to 15% to
not lose money. So, for example, let us say, you have a billion dollars of US dollars in your checking account. You’re going to be bled to death. So in a year, your 1 billion dollars is going to shrink to 750 million down to 500 million, to 350 million. And essentially, you’re going to get a point where your money is worthless.

And already we see this right now. So currently, the price of real estate, single family homes is exploding. But this is my critical view– how much of that is that the value of a single family house is higher versus our US. Dollars are just simply worthless or being worth less?

So let us say that the minimum wage goes from $15 an hour to $20 an hour overnight for a Mcdonald’s worker. You instantly see 25% inflation. So your $1 million dollars in the bank is now worth only $750,000.

The real real rich people store less than 1% of their wealth in Us. Dollars in their checking account. You’re not gonna have Jeff Bezos bragging to other people that he has $10 billion dollars of US dollars in his checking account. No, it’s it’s all going to be in you know, stocks, or, you know, real estate. And actually, ideally, Bitcoin. Cyber cyber capital.

Now what?

Follow @saylor, Michael Saylor on TwitterX, Michael.com, watch all of the Michael Saylor interviews in reverse (most recent, then trending backwards). I feel like from listening to Michael Saylor alone I got like a double PhD in physics and monetary theory.

Ultimately the path forward is to just keep buying more bitcoins, and never selling it.

I also then encourage you to think more critically about like life in the backwards; if you’re already worth $100 million, or $1 billion, then what? How do you want to live your life? What do you want to do, what don’t you want to do? This is the next step forward!

ERIC

---

So the Bitcoin revolution, the revolution will be televised. So, starting off.

First, what is Bitcoin? Why does it matter?

So I think the 1st important critical thing is trying to consider and think you know what is Bitcoin we’ve all heard about in the news we heard about Bitcoin as being a Ponzi scheme, a pyramid scheme. And honestly, my mom has gone through her fair share of Ponzi schemes like she she got suckered by the whole Amway scam.

I think the reason why Bitcoin is so important and critical is, Bitcoin is like the early days of the Internet. So if you go into a time machine and you could tell somebody in the past, okay, you know, in the days before email existed. Right? So okay, once one day, you know, everyone’s gonna have a supercomputer in their pocket. They’re using it to check all their bank statements. You’re going to be able to use your camera on your phone to scan your you know your checks, your bank account balances. You can use this to send money and messages and videos to everyone on the planet. Instantly everyone would have thought you were crazy.
and I think one of the biggest misconceptions about Bitcoin.

So a constructive way of thinking about bitcoin is trying to figure out what bitcoin is not.

My personal opinion is, I do not think that Bitcoin is actually cryptocurrency. I think currency is the Us. Dollar, and I think one of the biggest problems about the whole field of crypto and cryptocurrency is everyone is like a crypto anarchist, which means that they want to see the Us. Government and all the governments on the planet fail, and they can essentially live in peace and silent without interference from the Government.

Yet, you know, obviously, at the end of the day, it’s nice to have public streets. It’s nice to not get robbed in the streets. And actually, I think one of the biggest misconceptions about Bitcoin is. People think that Bitcoin is trying to replace the Us. Dollar.

But my personal thought is, Bitcoin is going to be a supplement to the Us. Dollar.

Essentially, I thought this a long time ago that essentially Bitcoin is digital gold to hedge against inflation, which means, as our money, our Us. Dollars, or our euros, or our local currencies become devalued.

The upside is, our Bitcoin will become more valuable. I think the best analogy that I got was from chairman of microstrategy mstr Michael saylor, essentially thinking that Bitcoin is is not digital currency, but digital
real estate.

So I think this analogy is better, because nobody’s on their zillow, you know, 20 times a day, checking their home prices right? And this is my mad Max Post Apocalyptic perspective. So imagine the future where there’s, you know, essentially
there’s this like nuclear fallout. And you know.
there’s no inhabitable places anywhere. And let us say, there’s only 21 million single family homes left on the planet for anybody to live. Obviously, sooner or later, you know, people are going to want somewhere to live. And so I think the best analogy, I think, is Bitcoin as digital real estate, which means that with digital real estate.

Monetizing Bitcoin?

You know, a lot of people are like– I want to quickly make money off of Bitcoin. But how do I make money off of it? It’s kind of like the early days of real estate. So if you bought Manhattan in the 1600s, you know, how do you monetize it? And I still think that we’re in the very, very early days of bitcoin and institutional adoption, which means you’re going to start to see New Bitcoin products come out. So some simple thoughts. So we’ve all heard stories of Scumbag San Francisco based scumbag landlords, you know, charging an arm and a leg for their tenants, and we all hate the landlords, I think with Bitcoin we’ll become the new digital landlords, which means effectively, we will in the future be able to like rent out our Bitcoin. And you know, let’s say we have one bitcoin right, and it’s and then I think that the personal math I like to do in my head is thinking that one Bitcoin is equivalent to one single family home. So I currently live in Los Angeles, in Culver City. It’s kind of insane. A single family home. I’ve even seen some in my neighborhood for 4.4 million dollars. The average Median household single family home is around 1.7 million dollars.

So in my personal mind, where I think Bitcoin is a trillion times more valuable than physical real estate land, because you could always make more of it. It’s not a real scarcity.

A single family home, and the price of a Bitcoin should be pegged to another.

So in my mind I still think of a Bitcoin at least 1.1
1.7 2.1, maybe even 4.4 million dollars a coin. And I think this is a very very fascinating idea, because also, you know, people say, Oh, but Bitcoin is not real. Money is yeah, but like our dead, shiny rocks. Aka. Gold money either, or is fiat currency, you know pieces of paper. You cannot eat pieces of paper to to live. And I think one of the most interesting things I learned about the philosophy of money is that essentially all money is just existing in the minds and souls of men, the value for men, is all essentially subjective.

Money is not “real”, but subjective.

Now, what makes Bitcoin so fascinating to me is that it’s the 1st time in human existence, you had a hard cap supply of money.

So, for example, people often talk about gold, right? So the issue with gold is at the time it was the least bad form of money, because it was very, very scarce. It was difficult to find. It’s difficult to mine and transport. Yet there was lots of good properties of gold. It’s, you know, essentially it kind of lasts forever. Aesthetically, it looks beautiful, the nice yellow color of gold mimics that of the sun, and you know, at least back in the day, let’s say you had gold coins it could easily fit in your front pocket whatevers.

But now things become a lot more difficult because we’re living in the 21st century, the 22nd century you know, we would have flying car drone robo taxi, self driving car waymos. It’s like, Why are we still using an antiquated digital framework of modern day banking swift code accounts?

I hate the banks

If you’ve ever tried to send money, you know, from the Netherlands to South Korea, to Nigeria, to Lagos whatever you find that the the whole SWIFT system is kind of like a bunch of gangster mafiosas like even my mom is currently living in South Korea.

Example if I want to just send my mom a small sum of money, it is insane,  it takes like three or four days, and the wire transfer fees like 55 bucks, I hate this. This should be done instantly. Therefore the thought of bitcoin, being able to quickly and effectively and securely transfer value across time and space without a trusted intermediary is a big big deal, a big big revolution.

Peer to Peer Capital

So why does Bitcoin matter? It’s kind of like asking somebody why does clean water matter so one of the things I love about Michael Saylor, and I highly recommend watching all of his videos. @wsaylor. It’s essentially Twitter or X or michael.com.

He uses this analogy of sewer water. So let us say, every all 8 billion people on the planet are all drinking sewer water, and people are dying of dysentery, and people are saying, I don’t get it, you know I exercise, you know. I
you know I eat healthy exercise every day, but I’m still dying of dysentery. My kids are dying of dysentery, and so the whole issue is that if you’re drinking sewer water, no matter how healthy your lifestyle is, how virtuous you is. It don’t matter. You’re going to be, you know, dying of dysentery, or perpetually sick.

And so, if we think about these physiological terms, and apply it to Bitcoin and money and digital capital. This becomes really fascinating because my personal thought and you know, also, I grew up in a family of poverty, poverty, meaning that I thought I was going to be homeless at least 2 or 3 times. My dad was perpetually addicted to gambling with the rent money.

So what a lot of people don’t understand about growing up in poverty, and prosody is that the logical strategy that you never know when your dad is going to steal your money and gamble it away, and therefore the smart strategy is actually to spend it all right now! Because you never know when he’s going to look in your piggy bank, your personal checking account that your mom put away for your college, or even take your hard earned $3000 as a 15-year-old bus boy at your mom sushi restaurant, lying that you’re going to invest in some business, leaving to LA for about a month, gambling it away, and coming back empty.

When I think about it, this is actually super sad. Once again when I was like super super young like two years old, my mom tried to make me a savings account, like one of those checking or savings investing accounts for kids, and she might’ve had a nominal amount of money in it, like 200 or 250 bucks or something. And she told me the sad news is that one day when she checked up on it she discovered that the money was gone. Essentially my dad even stole away that $250 from my child savings account for college, once again feed his gambling addiction.

The logic 

So once again, as a kid growing up, I never had this ethos or tactic of saving. Because we literally cannot come every dime that my mom made was fun into paying for groceries and rent.

Therefore I like a 15-year-old kid, my thought was I’m going to take every single penny, I can immediately go out buying some new sneakers, you know, buy some cool clothes, and I literally had $0 in my bank account.

Don’t blame poor people

So I think the pernicious, vicious cycle of inflation is.

You cannot blame people for not saving up capital for their future if the money itself is deflating at such a rapid pace, and so I personally think that you know Bitcoin is like giving every single person on the planet like unlimited free Fiji water, or the best alkaline hipster water whatever water you want. Essentially giving people clean water. And
a lot of people say, Yeah, but Bitcoin is not real money. It’s a okay. So I think this is a big this is a big shift for me also, personally.

My personal thought is, Bitcoin is actually more important than money.

Capital > Money

So we should not think about money. We should think about capital. I think capital is a lot more robust and strong as a concept. So, for example, capital comes from Cap CAP. Like upon your head. K-ap. Essentially it came from the head of oxen. So if you read the Iliad, the Odyssey essentially, every time you want to appease the gods, you have to sacrifice a hectacomb, Hecta means 100 a hundred head of oxen to appease the gods.

And you know, obviously, that’s very expensive, like, can you imagine, if you know you sacrificed a hundred Lamborghinis to appease the gods, it would be quite expensive endeavor. Right?

And so, capital. We all live under Capitalism — it doesn’t matter if you’re living in Europe, Africa, Asia, America, China, and also one thing that people don’t understand is, I think, what a lot of these people, maybe 4 or 5 years ago, China is going to take over. China’s not going to take over. China is dependent on America, and effectively, the Chinese Yuan the CNY is essentially effectively pegged to the Us. Dollar and the Us. The US is essentially the world. Reserve currency and capital is what we seek, not money.

Currency?

Talking about currency, so currency is like, you know, buying a Starbucks Frappuccino, or buying a in and out Burger. Right? That’s like money currency, right?

Capital is essentially long storm, long term, store of value. So it’s building generational wealth.

So one of my favorite songs from Kanye West is the off the grid songs that we off the grid grid grid this for my kid, kids, for when my kids, kids have kids.

And I think this is also the big thing is a lot of millennials, nowadays, I think the disincentive to have kids is because there’s so much fear mongering about the the future is gonna become uninhabitable, you know boil the seas or whatever. So there’s not going to be a future. So essentially, there’s a strong sense of pessimism.

But Bitcoin, to me is like solidified optimism, which means that the future is going to be glorious and great. And you know, even having Seneca right now, think about his future kids, kids, kids, or my future kids, kids, kids.
It brings me so much joy. Because the simple strategy, you just keep stacking Bitcoin until you die, and then you hand it on to your kids. Your kids give it to their kids kids. It’s like, if you owned, you know, a hundred penthouses or 10 square blocks or 20 square blocks in Manhattan, on the main island. Do you ever sell that to buy a Lamborghini? No! That’s not what one does, or liquefy it all into us dollars and brag about how many billions of dollars you have in your bank account.

Nope, that’s not the goal– you want to build capital. And traditionally it’s been real estate. But once again, real estate was a good idea. In the 16 hundreds, 17 hundreds, 18 hundreds, 19 hundreds, or 2000s. But then the subprime mortgage meltdown proved that, you know maybe it’s not always the best idea.

Real estate can go down.

Only one reason

And I think the hard thing is, people say, Yeah, but you know, real estate, you know, essentially, everyone needs somewhere to live, and it’s historically, the value of real estate is always going to go up forever. Now people say that the tricky thing is the pace of monetary inflation is around 15%. The best thing is to either chat Gpt or Google The M2 Money Supply. And essentially what you will find is
that the money supply is essentially a metric in which the Us. Government, or any other government on the planet, includes the euro and stuff. They keep printing more currency. And the reason why then this becomes an issue is that if you have more currency in the system that means the individual value of each unit is going to go down.

The shake shack effect

I call this the shake Shack Burger incident. So me and Seneca we used to always buy a single burger, patty, for $1.49, $1.50 … and one day we come and they say no it is $2.50, a party.

Why this makes no sense is like, yeah, we just increased the minimum wage to $20 an hour from $15 an hour. $20 an hour for fast food, and the hard thing is with minimum wage. You cannot rewind the the hands of time. If you suddenly said that the minimum wage is only $17 an hour, there will be riots. The streets would not be not be good.

Bitcoin is digital photography

So we’re all photographers, you know, street photographers, whatever. And the hard thing with digital is in our minds, digital is infinite and free. So, for example, I could take a copy of Mozart’s 5th Symphony, or whatever, as an mp3, file, and I could copy and distribute it a trillion times with 0 marginal cost right?

So this is where the notion of cyber becomes more interesting. And I’ll think about like, you know, cyber punk thinking about cyber truck.

It’s essentially once again, mathematically, cryptographically, that the hard science and the hard math is there can never be more than 21 million coins
in existence come up forever. Even if you took all the quantum ultra computers on the planet, times it by 20, you still could not produce more bitcoins. It’s just how it works right?

The immortal gold cyber oxen

One Bitcoin is like one cyber-ox, and it’s immortable, immortal, indestructible. It’ll give you life forever. And there’s only gonna be 21 million of them in the future. And now and so this is your chance to get one for an extreme discount.

Buying a single-family home in Los Angeles for only $100,000 

Let’s even say let’s say you want to buy a single family home. Let’s say it costs a million euros or whatever. Right? So if I could tell you today that you could buy a single family home for only $100,000 or €100,000 you’d be like, wow, that’s that’s the deal of a century. That’s you’re still getting a 90% discount.

And my personal thought is Bitcoin is far more valuable than real estate, because in the next 20-30 years, when essentially all the all the baby boomers, The Gen. Xers die off, and it’s the millennials and Gen. Z’s. And, alphas!

What do we care for?

When we millennials take over, what’s interesting is that we don’t really care about physical real estate anymore. We will care about digital cyber real estate which is bitcoin. 

So my personal story, how did I get into Bitcoin? So it might seem a little bit random. It’s like, Okay, ERIC, you’re super famous for photography, street photography like, how do you get to Bitcoin like? It’s like, so random, right? But actually, it’s not very random at all, because, you know, if you’ve been following me carefully, you know the whole time, I’ve always been talking about living minimalistically, frugally, Spartan lifestyle, whatever’s. And you know now that you know I’m pretty stacked with a bitcoin and microstrategy stock mstr.

Funny enough, I’ve personally found that my lifestyle habits haven’t changed much after getting super rich, I mean, I’m a little bit more generous, maybe, like, you know, took out a friend last night to all you eat Korean barbecue
paid for her bill didn’t really even flinch.

Even a random aside, my best friend and my best man Justin, told me this when we were like in our early 20s, when we finally got good paying jobs whatever, is that the greatest joy is being able to eat out and not really feel the pain associated with having to eat out because we both grew up poor. 

I still remember even when I was undergraduate at UCLA, after our KYRIE club meeting, we would all go out to eat, and then I would see all the other guys ordering these really expensive $15 Korean barbecue gogi plates, (this was in 2006, when you could still buy a foot-long sub sandwich for five bucks), and $1.99 tacos, and $1 tacos, and me trying to save money, would force myself not to eat even though I was hungry, and my friends would ask me if I was hungry and I would lie, and say I wasn’t, while my stomach was still grumbling. 

Monetary, financial freedom is the goal

So my personal thought with Bitcoin is, I personally wanted monetary freedom, and so long story short, so I’ll never forget this moment. So I’m born 1988. Went to UCLA as an undergrad — my roommate at the time, Kevin. It’s our junior he’s on Reddit, and I’ll never forget we’re in our studio apartment. I think I was distracted. I was doing something else. He was like Eric, you know. He’s on some subreddit, and he’s like.

“Oh, Eric, this thing called Bitcoin, and there’s this one dude who just bought two domino’s pizzas for like 10,000 bitcoins. We should just get like a hundred bucks worth of bitcoin, and just see what happens.”

I then responded “Eh, seems like a scam” and disregarded it. No this is one bitcoin was like less than a penny, so even if me and Kevin and my roommate Kevin, just bought a hundred bitcoins at the time for funsies, right? And I had a hundred bucks right? We would each be worth at least 1.2 billion dollars.

If I had bought $100 worth of bitcoin at the time, once again we would each have about $1.2 billion in our checking accounts.

Everything happens as it should have happened 

Today, I’m like, man. This was like the worst mistake of my life, right? But everything has happened as it should have happened. You know. Maybe if I had become a billionaire I’d just become some degenerate, you know. Cocaine addict on some beach somewhere in in Hawaii, and then Seneca would never been born. I would have never done my photography, world travels, whatevers.

Then my reintroduction to Bitcoin was kind of more recently when moving to LA. The cost of living is so expensive, and you know every I don’t know a single person who doesn’t want financial freedom. A long story short, I 1st heard about Bitcoin again, kind of earlier than when I was living in Vietnam around 2017, 2018, and at the time I didn’t really need Bitcoin, because our living expenses were so cheap. It was $320 bucks a month for a brand new studio apartment, fully furnished up, uplighting and the jazz right? And even at the time, passively, the income we’re making. Let’s say it’s a $1000- $2,000 a month. Let’s say it’s not even that much right, but like our whole total expenses, living expenses like maybe $600-700 a month, so I had the epiphany I’m like, I’m never going to run out of money. So already, at the age of 26 in my mind, I mentally retired right
and just more for funsies.

Buying bitcoin for $6,999 a Bitcoin

I met this guy named Bing in Singapore. Heard about this thing called Digibyte. Dgb, I don’t even think they’re around anymore. But at the time I’m like, Okay, I want to buy some bitcoins, buy some digibyte. How do I do this? And at the time Coinbase seemed like the best option, because it was the simplest, most minimalist to me it looked like the paypal for for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.

For fun I bought about $25,000 worth of bitcoin, which, and Bitcoin was only about $7,000, $6,999 a bitcoin. So that was around 3.5 bitcoins. 

I then traded some bitcoin for digibyte, and I kept some bitcoin in my Coinbase account. Then the next few years I essentially saw the waves and the crashes and the dogecoins and stuff like that.

And essentially, I just kind of woke up to my guts and found out that Bitcoin was a real deal.

Satoshi is the Bitcoin Jesus

Some strange analogies is to me Bitcoin is almost like a new
World economic religion, I mean, people who follow Bitcoin are like fanatic. They’re zealous about it. They follow Michael Saylor like he’s like you know the prophet. You know the next prophet of Bitcoin right?

And it’s always good to invest in religions or to invest in cults like the cult of Tesla, Elon Musk apple, Steve Jobs. Whatevs, right?

Why?

Now obviously, I have financial independence now, and the only reason I’m teaching this workshop or sharing this information is, I almost feel like it’s my ethical imperative. Once again, if you could have discovered internet in the early days, or clean drinking water, I would feel that it would almost be a disservice if I did not share this information with others.

Future value

So everyone’s always about like, okay, so what is the Bitcoin gonna be worth? So there’s the open source model. Michael Saylor, I think, helped create it. It’s called the Bitcoin 21 model, I think. Right?

So 21 years from now his base case is that Bitcoin is going to be $13 million a Bitcoin. Bear case, $3 million a Bitcoin. The bull case is $49 million a Bitcoin, and note, this was in 2024 in July before Trump was announced as President, and he is ultra super pro crypto and bitcoin and also worth following, is his son Eric Trump, ironically. His name is also Eric also the funny thing. There’s a bunch of Eric’s actually in the world of Bitcoin, Eric Kim Eric Semler, of semler scientific, this other Etf guy who works for Bloomberg. His name is Eric Balconus, or something like that.

Follow Eric Trump

Essentially, we have an all Republican trump, pro bitcoin pro crypto, President and cabinet, whatever right?

More bullish

What is really fascinating about Michael Saylor’s predictions for the future price of bitcoin is that when it was only $65,000 a bitcoin, and we were a bit uncertain about what the future of bitcoin and the president and the government would look like.

The last four years, we were all fighting an uphill battle, because the former administration was adamantly anti-crypto and anti-bitcoin. Gary Gensler who seems like a smart guy, was for some reason really anti-bitcoin and crypto? 

The next four years will be glorious!

And so these were all written by Michael Saylor’s predictions before we had the most pro bitcoin
government of all time. So all these numbers, I think, should be inflated. So my personal thought is, I think, for the next 4 years once Trump takes office, January 20, 2025. I think this will be the craziest, best Bitcoin Bull Run of all time the next 4 years. So currently, Bitcoin’s been going up around 60% to 62% arr annual rate of return. And I think once Trump takes office, and I’m pretty sure he’s gonna buy the 1 million Bitcoins, or whatever for the strategic American Reserve.

And also I think Eric Trump, his son, is committed to having Bitcoin be at least a million in Bitcoin.

120% Bitcoin ARR for the next 4 years

So let’s see. So my personal prediction, right? So I think Bitcoin will grow by at least 120% arr over the next 4 years. So let’s say, Bitcoin is worth around $100,000 right now. So by next year, let’s say it’s $250,000 the year after that, let’s say it’s $750,000, let’s say the year after that it’s like $1.2 million. So I think we’re on track to hit a million a bitcoin in 4 years about 10x gain. So just do the math from then.

The $1 million dollar cybertruck

Currently as an account measure, I now equate one bitcoin being worth one cyber truck, assuming that a cyber truck is currently around $100,000.

So the smart strategy is to take your hundred thousand dollars and invest it into bitcoin today, and you’ll see that becoming $1 million in four years. 

What that means is sell your cyber truck for $100,000, buy bitcoin, otherwise you have just done spent $1 million on your cyber loser truck.

Cyber warfare 

Now, people are always asking, okay, this, you know, Bitcoin reserve strategy, you know, like, how is? And why is America going to buy the Bitcoins? Right? So we’re essentially out of physical land and real estate. Now we have to go to cyberspace right?

And it seems kind of silly, like something out of a sci-fi film. But the truth is, they’re currently the war we’re having with China and Russia. It’s it’s not physical war per se. It’s actually cyber war. So cyber security is the big big money maker. Even cyber penetration testing. Right? I think Gmail is trying to get like all these malicious actors trying to attack the Gmail servers like a million times a minute. Something crazy, right?

And if you look at the history of America, right? So, Manhattan, 1600s, the price of Manhattan. It was essentially stolen from the natives. Right? 60 guilders, right Louisiana purchase, you know, to fund Napoleon, California. Also kind of stolen from the the local Mexicans right? And also Alaska right. The the payoff was great, right, and so essentially the Bitcoin Act, the Cynthia Lummis Bill, she’s trying to get the States to buy at least a million bitcoins right? And you know even a Michael Saylor is much more aggressive. He’s like no America should at least purchase maybe 5 or 6 million bitcoins, which is 20 to 25% of the whole Bitcoin supply. And all America has to do is a free trade. They just need to sell their gold and then buy Bitcoin. And in a recent interview that I was listening from Saylor.
super fascinating, is like
essentially what he said was the super evil genius strategy of selling America, selling her gold reserves and buying Bitcoin is that if that’s the case, comma.
we demonetize our enemies.
you know, capital reserves. So then suddenly, the the gold of the Russians, the Chinese, will go to 0, and then everyone’s going to rush into Bitcoin. And if America owns Bitcoin, it’s a good sign for the future. And also another big thing I want to talk about. Why does America have the best economy on the planet.
So we essentially gave birth to Apple Amazon, Facebook, the magnificent 7 stocks, Netflix. And you know, people talk about China. It’s like. Okay, I don’t know a single rich mainland Chinese oligarch who doesn’t want to send their kids to the States to
to Harvard or Yale or Princeton, you know, buy a nice house in Palo Alto, the Bay area, or even Vancouver. No rich mainland Chinese person actually wants to be in China, but because of capital controls, they’re kind of stuck. So once there’s going to be a mad rush to Bitcoin. That means that you, your family, your whole squad, is going to prosper now.
you know, issues. My, my friend Dante had a question about storage. So
I think the hard thing with storage is okay. So how do you say this?
I, my, this is my personal philosophy. The reason I do not personally trust cold storage for myself or more of these self custody options is that
I know that I am very forgetful, and my biggest fear is, let’s say, I forget my passcode, or whatever is right to the Bitcoins. And or let’s say, my kids, kids can forget it right? Then boom like, you’re gonna be out like a hundred 1 million dollars. Right? So that’s that’s not fun, right? And so personally, I think the easiest is to just, you know, store it on the cloud. So, using a trusted custodian, whether it be coinbase. I think fidelity has their own services now.
And the you know honestly, it seems like Coinbase is probably the best option coinbase.com, or you just download your iphone ipad. Whatever right is that you could also get a link with your biometric apple id data, whether it be face id or thumbprint. Whatevs right? So this way, it just feels much more secure. So
for me, I would prefer an 80 to 85% optimal thing that is kind of dummy proof rather than take the 100 secure option which, because of user error, I might fail, and something that I personally learned is
in terms of technology. And all these things in between
seeking the simplest, most straightforward option
that is least complicated is often the best solution. And the reason I would be very, very wary of a lot of these people promoting, you know, buying their hardware wallets. Whatever’s right, everyone has a buck to make. Everyone has a bitcoin to make. Everyone wants to make a few satoshis here and there.
and so they’re trying to fear monger use. Oh, you’re gonna you know, Coinbase going to get hacked. And I’m like, no, I don’t think it is. It’s like, you know, back. It’s like essentially a Us. Government, you know, it’s essentially it’s traded on the the You know the Stock Exchange. It’s a American based company. I would. I would not trust anything outside of the States.
But yeah, I would say, choose now, obviously, if you’re super, you know.
quant genius, autistic genius, then do all the cold storage stuff. But if in doubt, just the simplest thing is, coinbase seems to be the best. Okay, so this is kind of my free money hack. So I call this microstrategy, strategy, mstr microstrategy versus bitcoin. And okay, so it’s very, very simple. So this becomes a philosophical debate. To say it short.
I think the ultimate goal is to own Bitcoin, he or she, or the entities with the owners of the most Bitcoin shall win. And so for me, philosophically, you know, let us say that you could own, you know, 20 bitcoins, or you could own 2 million dollars worth of micro strategy. Mstr. Stock. Right?
1020, 30 years from now, right?
You’re going to actually outperform. You’re actually going to make more money from microstrategy stock than Bitcoin. So Bitcoin, historically, has been 60% to 62% AR annual rate of return micro strategies is almost double that 120 to 1, 25 AR. So if you actually want to maximize your returns. You just buy microstrategy stock mstr and bitcoin. Right? But the issues is, you know. Let us say that Michael Saylor gets shot. He gets killed. He
you know, dies in a Cybertruck, whatever. Right? Then, it’s probably not going to be the world’s best future for microstrategy. So it’s actually much more risky. So if you want the least risky option, it’s just put all your money into Bitcoin right? And some millennial living strategies. Right? So the the simplest strategy I have. I call it the Spartan strategy. This is why I personally follow. Is you essentially try to live as minimally and frugally and sparse as you can, and just put literally 90% of your income into bitcoins right?
And a free money hack I discovered. So, for example, let’s say you have $150,000 or €150,000. Right? And you know I’m not 100 sure how it works. If you’re a European. What is right. But you, you buy micro strategy stocks. So let’s say you buy, you know, 100,000 or $150,000 worth of it right? And Mstr, and you use fidelity, or robinhood, or whatever trading app you have. Right.
And the strategy is simple. It’s whenever you know. Let us say the base case 150,000.
Let’s say your microstrategy stock value then goes up to 200,000. Right?
You sell $50,000 worth of it, and then you just transfer that to your bank account.
and then your bank account is linked with your coinbase account. Then you just buy the Bitcoin right and rinse and repeat so very, very impressive over the last 3 months, I started with initial seed capital of around $150,000 in microstrategy stock
off of that $150,000 right? And I haven’t even touched my principal. I yielded $242,000
off of that initial 150,000 right? And also for traditional Roth, Roth, Ira retirement accounts. I put everything into microstrategy stock, and it is already like 3 x like, for example.
My roth, Ira, just kind of randomly was like what $78,000, and then the course of 3 months. It’s like now, it’s like 230,000. It peaked at around 300,000. So it’s going to be a good future. And so the the very simple strategy. So let us say you’re able to get down your living expenses to let’s say
you know, 5,000 bucks a month or €5,000 a month. Right?
the point isn’t to just make a bunch of money and just go out and buy the Lambo. The the goal is actually to continue to live for good. If anything live more fully. People who says like, Oh, you know, you want to get rich, don’t care about money or whatever. If you’re a real real greedy, you know money, loving person. Actually, the optimal strategy is.
you live, you know. You continue driving your old Toyota Prius, and just pour all of your money in Bitcoin, because really the truth is and this is my philosophical thought is, there’s almost nothing worth on the planet purchasing.
Besides, Bitcoin is my philosophical thought. So and also some e even more super smart economic leverage. Right?
So instead of paying an arm and a leg for rent in La or New York. Brooklyn, you just move to like Southeast Asia. Right you go. Move to Southeast Asia, live like a king, for like 300 500 bucks a month. Right? You just put all your money to Bitcoins right? So even if you had a modest savings, right, let’s say you had like $200,000, and you had microstrategy stock.
let’s say every month of the month is rent is due, and the expenses are due right? You just sell a small portion of that stock, and it’s going to go up. So my thought on the next 4 years, micro strategy, assuming it’s around 2 x Bitcoin. I think Bitcoin is going to go up 120% error. I think micro strategy is going to double that 240% error. So just do the masses. At the end of every single month
you make a small. Your gains go up like crazy right, and let’s say your living expenses are like under a thousand bucks, or if you, if you live in the States, 5,000 bucks, you sell X amount of monies to just support your living expenses, and you just continue to ride your gains. But ultimately my personal thought is whatever excess, money and capital you have just put it onto Bitcoin. So the micro strategy then ends up becoming the engine or the turbocharger or the cash cow. You milk it, and you shave the cream off the top, and then you buy Bitcoin with it.
So I think the reason why to me Bitcoin is such a fascinating thing, and very exciting, is essentially Bitcoin is digital photography. Peter Diamandis, the ex guy. Right? You know, he talks a lot about kodak film. You know the iphone and disruption.
So actually, intuitively, as photographers and digital photographers, we should actually understand. You know, this disruptive power about digital photography. So obviously, you have the hipsters with their mustaches and their flannels, you know, talking about the virtues of film photography.
But the truth is, digital photography is like a quadrillion times better.
And also currently, in the year 2025, incoming
digital photography is actually superior to film photography. I mean.
maybe in the early days of digital sucked right. But now, at this point, digital photography is far superior to any sort of film photography, and the only reason you should film in today’s world
is either as like a practice to appreciate the joys of photography. So the philosophical approach.
or you know, you’re trying to be some sort of like, you know, snoppy fine art photographer and overcharge money for your photos. Then you shoot film.
because honestly, the the fine art market, they’re always going to overvalue film photos over digital photos, because it’s more complicated. It’s more strange, right? So in the art, in the art world, the more complicated, abstruse, and complicated, you can make your art the better. But for us.
where you care about practical things, yeah, think about Bitcoin. So think about the iphone iphone pro versus your mom’s kodak Browning camera. I think the the thought is obvious. Okay.
so how to start buying Bitcoin. Very simple. Just download the coinbase app, or you know if you if you don’t want to actually own Bitcoin, you just want to make a ton of money, just buy micro strategy stock Mstr, and use your traditional
accounts. And I still think that this is the biggest thing is that everyone wants to become a millionaire, right?
But you know what I think people want to do is
they don’t want to earn like, okay, okay.
people want to spend a million dollars.
They don’t want to actually save and build a million dollars right? And so if you think about, you know, money and
capital digital capital, I think about like Lego bricks, right? I just went to Legoland. Senecall is great. So let us say that
each bitcoin, or dollar or 1 million dollars like these. Let’s say these are Lego bricks right? The goal is, you want to build your Lego Tower brick thing as tall as possible. You don’t ever want to
get rid of your bricks and throw into the trash. That’s essentially what consumerism is. And this is actually another big philosophical thing I discovered is, what’s the difference between capitalism and consumerism. Consumerism is actually the exact opposite of capitalism. Capitalism is about accumulating wealth.
building your capital and not spend it right. Even one of my favorite Kanye quotes is like why people make money don’t spend it. But I’d rather buy 80 gold chains go ignorant, right ignorant. And so the pernicious thing that happens in a lot of communities, especially poor communities. Right? I’ve seen this happen with my own eyes. Right?
Happens to Korean people. It happens to everybody, right? Is that you know you live in a crappy apartment in K. Town with 20 other dudes. Yet you drive the brand new Bmw. And you’re not building any sort of generational wealth. Right? And so essentially, yeah, you want to build the capital and not spend it. And essentially, you want to start to intelligently leverage your capital
to give to your future kids or your descendants, or whatever you want to do. Now, the hardest thing about Bitcoin is stomaching the volatility so volatile, mean. Just it goes up, it goes down, and then, like honestly for most people, it’s going to give them like 5. 100 heart attacks over right now
I think of a Bitcoin kind of like nuclear energy, so
nuclear energy in the untamed formed is obviously toxic could cause the next Fukushima whatevers right? But if you have a bunch of smart people, engineers, nuclear physicists working in a controlled manner, right? It’s like the greatest benefit to society, because to humanity, because essentially, you’re giving people free electricity forever. Right? And
I think my personal thought is the volatility is a future not above. So the reason why Bitcoin goes up and down the sideways so much all the time, and you can have huge swings
is because you could trade a 24, 7, 365 on the weekends in the evenings. Right?
It still befuddles me that in the year 2024, 2025 like. Why is it that you know, after 5 pm. You know Eastern time, or on the weekend Saturday, Sunday like, why did they close the market? So what if there’s another Cuban missile crisis. It makes no sense right?
And also the reason why it’s so volatile is that it’s actually the most
desirable commodity on the planet. And there’s all these people with these weird Bloomberg machine terminals, whatever they are, always pegging everything to the Bitcoin. So a lot of people ask about ethereum dogecoin webs, right. I think Bitcoin is the only true.
Everything else is the false prophets. Everything else is the false coins. The immaculate conception of Bitcoin and Satoshi.
I think this is actually a big deal, because anything that is not Bitcoin, you know, ethereum and the like. They they need some sort of spokesperson, or, you know, individual to prop up the value right, whereas Satoshi, he invented it, he disappeared forever. Now the reason why this is such a big deal is that
every other crypto thing which is not Bitcoin.
It does not have a hard cap
like you could print more ethereums. You could print more. Whatever tokens you cannot print more bitcoins, and that’s that’s the big thought.
So. Volatility is vitality. Eric Kim. I actually didn’t say that. Sorry. That was actually Michael Saylor. I typed that in wrong. But essentially
you know, volatility is vitality, and the more volatile the more energy the power you have, the more vitality you have. So once again, people think of volatility as being risk. That is actually not the case. Bitcoin is going to go up forever, but it’s going to be like an extreme roller coaster and go up down, but with extreme swings it’s extreme performance. So
yeah, volatility is not risk. Volatility is just going up and down a lot, but essentially over a long enough time span. It’s going to go up forever.
So I borrowed a lot of slides quite liberally from Michael Saylor. Some of these are from his recent Microsoft. Pitch. And yeah, just go. michael.com go to his presentations looking at yourself. So I’ll just make some quick points. So
essentially, currently, Bitcoin is like a 2 trillion dollar asset class right? And this is also from Jesse Myers once in a species.com. And the reason why this is important is currently you know. Let us say the whole world’s economy is 900 trillion dollars, right? And
what we have our eyes on is real estate. So real estate is, you know, most people don’t really just use real estate as a place to live right? Otherwise, you just rent. People use it for a long term store of value. So, for example, if you’re a really really rich family from New York City, you own, like 10 square blocks in Manhattan, and, you know, does your descendants sell, you know.
a square block to buy himself a few Ferraris. No, that that would be a bad strategy. So the the tip I have for any single person trying to build intergenerational wealth. Keep it simple. Only one rule. You don’t sell the Bitcoin. If you face extreme poverty or financial distress, I don’t know. Become an Uber driver or something. Pay the bills, but don’t sell the Bitcoin.
and currently I think we’re going to see is Bitcoin is just going to take over the gold market, which is 16 trillion dollars, maybe the cars and collectible art market.
Now, a big thought is this is from Michael Saylor once again, is that
all these assets on the planet.
Some of half of it is to provide utility. Right? So, for example, you know.
let’s say you need you need somewhere to live right? No so that provides utility right? But then, again, some of it is to preserve capital right? And
as a 36 year old millennial nowadays. The pressures. Oh, you got to buy a single family home today, right? But the the reason I get so sus of people saying you should buy a house is that they’re like, oh, you essentially need somewhere to live. You’ll build capital. Blah! Blah, right? You don’t want to give money to land, but it’s like no, you only need one reason like you would only ever buy a single family house. If let’s say you really like having a backyard and a garage, or what is right. But it’s really not
a money making thing, because homeownership is like a trillion, times more expensive than you would otherwise think, and as a consequence, with a single family home, even if the price is going up right
at best, you might be breaking, even if not, you know, slowly bleeding yourself. Because, let’s say, real estate is on average, going up 10% a year, right? The money supply the inflationary. M 2 supply is 15% a year. So you’re actually kind of losing money.
So the big thought is once again, you know.
the optimistic thought is eventually all these long term sort of things are going to become digital capital. I still think about this, the Warren Buffett. They’re all gonna die. And then, when we, you know, take the take the mantle. What’s gonna happen the next 20 years, even if you’re 80 years old right now? 81 years old. Shout out.
You know, I think I’m optimistic. We could live to be 100 20. So yeah, this is definitely the next wave. You’re not going to want to miss right? And you know, currently a lot of millennials. People like everyone wants to buy the Lambo or the Ferrari.
You’re you’re going to lose the value of it in about 3 years. You want to live forever.
So these are some kind of conservative growth estimates, according to Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin 24 model. So in about 21 years, and this was still pretty conservative. Right? Bitcoin is going to become a 280 trillion dollar, you know thing right? So going from 2 trillion to 200 trillion, so at least 10 x. So you’re conservatively, you’re going to see your money at least 10 x in 21 years, which is pretty cool. Right? It’s not going to take over all these other things. It might, but it might not.
Now people always ask.
what is Bitcoin backed by? So I did the maths right and based on what other people say, too essentially the Bitcoin network. If you took all the apple Amazon aws servers, Meta.
combine them all times 20, you could still not hack the Bitcoin network in in terms of the raw power that goes into powering. Think about like 20 nuclear power reactors powering the thing right? And also people don’t understand is there’s already been 850 billion dollars of quote, real money investment thing follow Blackrock. They just recently recommended most of their
you know, owners to allocate at least 2% of their portfolio into Bitcoin, which is kind of a big deal. Look about what Larry Fink says. Blackrock is like what they own. What 40 trillion dollars of assets around the planet. They’re they’re kind of a big deal. And also it’s a network effect. So you remember, in the early days of Facebook. It was only it was only university students with the Edu address were allowed to join in. Then they opened up to everybody, and the network effect of Facebook is that
if you have Facebook and I have Facebook, then Facebook instantly becomes more valuable to both of us, because I can now share my photos with you, whatever’s right. But then, if your friends friends also have Facebook, it becomes much more valuable to everything. Same thing goes with facetime right. The reason why I got you know I used to be a Diehard android dude. Now I’m like all icloud everything. It makes life so much easier. You get your mom an iphone. Now you get facetime imessage. It makes life way better.
And so Bitcoin is going to be the same thing as more and more people are going to continue to download Coinbase or Whatevs. And also my optimistic thought is, if Apple doesn’t want to become irrelevant, it’s I’m very certain the next 5 to 10 years. Apple is going to have their own
Bitcoin storage thing in your icloud account. It makes sense right. They have apple pay. They have the apple wallet. Essentially.
apple is the new bank. And so now, when they do like a you know, a 3 device authentication for your bitcoins through your iphone, your ipad and your macbook pro whatevers.
It’s actually it might actually be one of the most safe ways to store your bitcoins.
Also things to think about. If you’re a traditional investor
so there’s this notion called the cost to capital cost to capital that Michael Saylor says a lot. I might be getting this wrong. But
essentially the S. And P. 500 right?
on average, is like 14 to 15% return year over year. Right? So if you’re not making at least 15% or over 15% a year, you’re essentially losing your bleeding money. So real estate gold bonds is kind of a losing bet, right? And so the magnificent 7 which all the big tech stocks 28%, a little bit better, right? But look at Bitcoin. It’s like 62% year over year. And it’s kind of the obvious bet, right?
And even if you think about you know, everyone’s talking about Nvidia Tesla. You know what is right.
I think the reason why the mainstream media they don’t like to talk about micro strategy is that it’s still a little bit too weird and bizarre. And it’s not as buzzworthy as AI, because, okay, people like to think of this like evil Terminator AI, the video going to take over the world and find it right. But nobody is like Bitcoin, like
Bitcoin is not an android walking around 2 feet, taking over the planet right? So people actually don’t like to talk about Bitcoin. And for so long people thought that Bitcoin was a Ponzi scheme right. No one ever thought that AI was a Ponzi scheme. So the video always catches the headlines. But look at microstrates, look at the best performing stock on the human unit in the human universe
over 3 x. That of Nvidia, which is already impressive, and Nvidia is already destroying Tesla by a massive margin as well. Right? So
I mean? That’s that’s pretty obvious, right?
Even Donald Trump watches a Nashville presentation. He quotes Michael Saylor directly, says, Never sell your Bitcoin. Apparently Eric Trump, the son of Donald Trump has known Michael Saylor for 20 years. I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but if that’s the case.
I’m like a hundred percent certain that. You know, Michael Saylor essentially has the left ear of Donald Trump.
And yeah, it’s it’s a it’s a very good thing.
So if you want to plug and create your own models. Google, the Bitcoin, 24 model. It’s on Github
plug in your own assumptions.
And this is the big thing that I have my eyes set on. So currently, you know, it’s December right? And everyone’s waiting for the trump to get into the office January 20.th So this is a tricky thing. So I used to be Super Anti Donald Trump, right? Because I could care less about politics and stuff like that right? And
but
one Donald Trump became super super pro bitcoin. I started to listen and start watching all his interviews and looking like honestly the you know, I’m from the Bay Area like Liberal Democrat, my whole life right? And actually, I kind of realized, wow, the the left leaning media is kind of the they’re kind of the evil ones here. And Donald Trump, he seems actually kind of like a cool, nice nice nice guy, right?
And the big thought is.
there’s no, there’s not going to be a World war 3. What is right? And Bitcoin, under the trump administration is gonna explode, and it’s gonna be the
the greatest 4 years of prosperity of all time, and this once again coming from like a super left leaning liberal. So this is a good thought so. Anyways. Let us say, you know.
America leads the charge in the crypto Bitcoin revolution. Right? And yeah, I think
assuming that America really wants to control the future. I think the America purchasing 6 million bitcoins is not fully out of this this planet. Right?
So some thoughts on building personal family wealth.
So the reason why I think this is kind of a big deal is that
everyone wants to build wealth right. Everyone wants to be intelligent with their investing. It doesn’t matter if you’re a nonprofit, a charity, a church, Mother Teresa, like every single organization, will always need money. Capital. If you have an endowment, you know, for Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford Brown University. Whatever even the Uc. Is right, everyone needs money and capital right.
and I don’t like to think too much about the macro, because I’m not an institutional investor. I just think about myself, my family, my best friends, my squad. Right? So the goal is building personal family wealth and how to intelligently invest. So a lot of people talk about timings. Oh, when should I buy Bitcoin? Should I time it the high. Then people take out these charts and these candlesticks, which is all just witchcraft and pseudoscience don’t follow any of that.
Essentially the thought is.
anytime is a good time to buy Bitcoin if it’s high, low, Middle, whatever. We’re going to keep buying the top forever. So recently I bought some more Bitcoin at $100,000. Right then it dipped down to 90,000 to 88,000 hit 103,000 again, and so I’m pretty sure that in 1020 years I’m going to be buying Bitcoin at 1 million, a Bitcoin, 10 million dollars a Bitcoin, 55 million dollars a Bitcoin, whatever is right, and because if you do the simple math, just think at least 4 years ahead, right? So if I could tell you with 100 certainty that Bitcoin is going to be 1.2 million a Bitcoin
in 4 years
as long as you’re buying it for less than a million dollars a coin. You’re going to be in the green like it’s it’s kind of a a good bet, right? And actually, also, ironically, my personal thought is
chasing gains is a good thing, but also it’s it’s a good idea to not get quote greedy in the sense of maximizing your gains. So so, for example, right like, what’s the difference between getting a 38% yield and a 32% yield like the the difference is nominal. Don’t don’t worry so much about maximization, because even a lot of what I thought my trades were bad
2 years ago ended up being right. So as investors, we have to think at least 410-20-3040 years ahead of us. So don’t worry so much about the the short term
so practical and pragmatic investing strategies right? So once again, so if I had a simple blueprint, so
some some simple thoughts.
there’s lots of different blends. You could do this, you could. You could be super simple. Just 100 to Bitcoin, buy it on Coinbase what is right, and just keep stacking forever.
100 legitimate. That’s the Bitcoin Maximus opposed the triple, triple Maxi, the triple Maximalist approach. If you just need to pay the bills whatever, and still stack the Bitcoins. My personal suggestion is put 80% of your wealth into Bitcoin and 20% of your wealth into micro strategy Mstr stock. And once again. This is this is what you do. So let’s say, for simplicity of math. Let’s say
Let’s say you have a million dollars or a hundred $1,000, or you use whatever kind of a number you want, right? So put 20% that to microstrategy stock whenever it goes up
beyond the principal, sell some of that stock and put that into micro strategies. Sorry. Put that into Bitcoin, and or use that money to just pay your your bills. So once again what I personally did right?
$150,000 working capital into micro strategy Mstr stock. And let’s say, when it goes from worth $150,000 to $160,000. I’ll sell $10,000 worth that stock. That $10,000 gets deposited to my checking account, which is linked to my coinbase. Then I’ll just buy $10,000 worth of bitcoin right? Or, if you need that, $10,000
for living expenses. Let’s say
you need $3,000 to pay your rent. You take $3,000 of that to pay your rent, and you put the other 7% of that into Bitcoin.
also some other definition. What’s the difference between being an investor, a trader versus speculator?
So an investor, we want to be investors. We want to think about (102) 030-4050 years ahead of us. A trader is a bunch of these, like 20 year old. High testosterone degenerates, you know, single, you know, maybe addicted drugs, or whatever right, who just want to like look cool. I made a billion dollars in a month by using all these complicated
statistical models. Blah! Blah! Right? But you don’t. You don’t want to be a trader because essentially it’s
nobody could time the market. Not even God could time the market right. And what a speculator is people who invest in meme coins. So a meme coin is like buying a Dogecoin or shiba Inu, that the reason why these are not you should not do this is that it is extremely dangerous. You’re going to lose all your money, and it requires
a charismatic leader to support it. So Dogecoin, right? Dogecoin is essentially elon musk coin right?
But if one day Elon musk tweets. Ha! Ha! Doge was just a joke all along, right. It’s not worth anything. The value of it will pump it to 0, or if once again. Elon dies in a you know a robo taxi accident. The value of dogecoin is going to go to 0, whereas if Elon Musk dies, you know Bitcoin is going to still keep going up forever. So speculator is meme coins beyond bitcoin us Bitcoiners. We’re we’re investors.
So you know, somebody also asked about, you know, monetary inflation right? So there’s this thing called the M. 2 monetary supply of the the rate rate inflation.
And once again you’re going to have to exceed at least 13% to 15% to
not lose money. So, for example, let us say, you have a billion dollars of us dollars in your checking account. Right? You’re going to be bled to death. Right? So in a year, your 1 billion dollar is going to shrink to 750 million down to 500 million, to 350 million. And essentially, you’re going to get a point where your money is worthless.
And already we see this right now. So currently, the price of real estate, single family homes is exploding. But this is my critical view. How much of that is that the value of a single family house is higher versus our Us. Dollars are just simply worthless. Right? So if you just do the same simple maths, right?
So let us say that. You know, minimum wage goes from $15 an hour to $20 an hour overnight for Mcdonald’s worker. Right? That means instantly. You see, 25% inflation. So your 1 million dollars in the bank is now worth only 750
$1,000. So yeah, once again. The real real rich people. They store less than 1% of their wealth in
Us. Dollars in their checking account like, you’re not gonna have Jeff Bezos bragging to other people that he has 10 billion dollars of us dollars in their checking account. No, it’s it’s all going to be in you know, stocks, or, you know, real estate. And actually, ideally, Bitcoin. Cyber cyber capital.
So yeah, that’s that’s essentially the the end of my presentation.

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Introduction to Bitcoin Transcript

Eric Kim: All right, we’ll get the party starting all right.
Eric Kim: Hopefully, everything is hearing.
Eric Kim: and yeah, thanks for tuning. All right, we’re gonna start all right.
Eric Kim: So the Bitcoin revolution, the revolution will be televised. Eric, him right? So, starting off.
Eric Kim: you know, what is Bitcoin? Why does it matter?
Eric Kim: So I think the 1st important critical thing is trying to consider and think you know what is Bitcoin we’ve all heard about in the news we heard about Bitcoin as being a Ponzi scheme, a pyramid scheme. And honestly, my mom has gone through her fair share of Ponzi schemes like she she got suckered by the whole Amway scam.
Eric Kim: and I think the reason why Bitcoin is so important and critical is, I essentially see at this point. Bitcoin is like the early days of the Internet. So if you go into a time machine and you could tell somebody in the past, okay, you know, in the days before email existed. Right? So okay, once one day, you know, everyone’s gonna have a supercomputer in their pocket. They’re using it to check all their bank statements. You’re going to be able to use your camera on your phone to scan your you know your checks, your
Eric Kim: your bank account balances. You can use this to send money and messages and videos to everyone on the planet. Instantly everyone would have thought you were crazy.
Eric Kim: and I think one of the biggest misconceptions about Bitcoin. So I think also construct a way to start thinking about. Bitcoin is trying to figure out what Bitcoin is. Not. So my personal opinion is, I do not think that Bitcoin is actually cryptocurrency. I think currency is the Us. Dollar, and I think one of the biggest problems about the whole field of crypto and cryptocurrency is.
Eric Kim: everyone is like a crypto anarchist, which means that they want to see the Us. Government and all the governments on the planet fail, and they can essentially live in peace and silent without interference from the Government. Yet, you know, obviously, at the end of the day, it’s nice to have public streets. It’s nice to not get robbed in the streets. And actually, I think one of the biggest misconceptions about Bitcoin is.
Eric Kim: People think that Bitcoin is trying to replace the Us. Dollar. But my personal thought is, Bitcoin is going to be a supplement to the Us. Dollar. Essentially, I thought this a long time ago that essentially Bitcoin is digital gold to hedge against inflation, which means, as our money, our Us. Dollars, or our euros, or our local currencies become devalued.
Eric Kim: The upside is, our Bitcoin will become more valuable. I think the best analogy that I got was from chairman of microstrategy mstr Michael saylor, essentially thinking that Bitcoin is is not digital currency, but digital
Eric Kim: real estate.
Eric Kim: So I think this analogy is better, because nobody’s on. You know their zillow, you know, 20 times a day, checking their home prices right? And this is my mad. Max Post. Apocalyptic perspective. Is that okay? So imagine the future where there’s, you know, essentially.
Eric Kim: there’s this like nuclear fallout. And you know.
Eric Kim: there’s no inhabitable places anywhere. And let us say, there’s only 21 million single family homes left on the planet for anybody to live. Obviously, sooner or later, you know, people are going to want somewhere to live. And so I think the best analogy, I think, is Bitcoin as digital real estate, which means that with digital real estate.
Eric Kim: You know, a lot of people like, yeah, you know, I want to quickly make money off of Bitcoin. But how do I make money off of it? It’s kind of like the early days of real estate. So if you bought Manhattan in the 16 hundreds, you know, how do you monetize it? And I still think that we’re in the very, very early days of bitcoin and institutional adoption, which means you’re going to start to see New Bitcoin products come out. So some simple thoughts. So we’ve all heard stories of Scumbag
Eric Kim: San Francisco based
Eric Kim: scumbag landlords, you know, charging an arm and a leg for their tenants, and we all hit the landlords, I think with Bitcoin we’ll become the new digital landlords, which means
Eric Kim: effectively,
Eric Kim: we will in the future be able to like rent out our Bitcoin. And you know, let’s say
Eric Kim: Let’s say we have one bitcoin right, and it’s and then I think that the personal math I like to do in my head is thinking that one Bitcoin is equivalent to one single family home. So I currently live in Los Angeles, in Culver City. It’s kind of insane. A single family home. I’ve even seen some in my neighborhood for 4.4 million dollars. The average Median household single family home is around 1.7 million dollars.
Eric Kim: So in my personal mind, where I think Bitcoin is a trillion times more valuable than physical real estate land, because you could always make more of it. It’s not a real scarcity.
Eric Kim: What that then means is.
Eric Kim: I think, my mind the price of a single family home, and the price of a Bitcoin should be piped to another. So in my mind I still think of a Bitcoin at least 1.1
Eric Kim: 1.7 2.1, maybe even 4.4 million dollars a coin. And I think this is a very
Eric Kim: It’s a very fascinating idea, because also, you know, people say, Oh, but Bitcoin is not real. Money is yeah, but like our dead, shiny rocks. Aka. Gold money either, or is fiat currency, you know pieces of paper. You can eat pieces of paper to to live. And I think one of the most interesting things I learned about the philosophy of money is that
Eric Kim: essentially all money is just existing the value of men, and it is all essentially subjective. Now, what makes Bitcoin so fascinating to me is that it’s the 1st time in human existence.
Eric Kim: All 100 trillion years we’ve been existing. Whatever is that? You had a hard cap supply of money. So, for example.
Eric Kim: people often talk about gold, right? So the issue with gold is at the time it was the least bad form of money, because it was very, very scarce. It was difficult to find. It’s difficult to mine transport. Yet there was lots of good properties of gold. It’s, you know, essentially it kind of lasts forever. Aesthetically, it looks beautiful, the nice yellow color of gold mimics that of the sun, and you know, at least back in the day, let’s say you had gold coins it could easily fit in your front pocket whatevers.
Eric Kim: But now things become a lot more difficult because we’re living in the 21st century, the 20 second century on young, you know, we would have flying car drone robo taxi, self driving car waymos. It’s like, Why are we still using an antiquated digital framework of modern day banking swift code accounts. If you’ve ever tried to send money,
Eric Kim: you know, from the Netherlands to South Korea, to Nigeria, to Lagos whatever you find that the the whole swift system is kind of like a bunch of gangster mafiosas like even my mom is currently living in South Korea. And if I would just need to send her like any sort of small amount of monies, right? It’s like crazy. It’s like, why does it. Take 3 or 4 days. Cost like me, 55 bucks, and it’s like this should be done instantly. So I think it’s a big big big revolution.
Eric Kim: So why does Bitcoin matter? It’s kind of like asking somebody why does clean water matter so
Eric Kim: one of the things I love about Michael Saylor, and I highly recommend watching all of his videos. Sailor. It’s essentially Twitter or X at Sailor or michael.com.
Eric Kim: and he uses this analogy of sewer water. So let us say, every all 8 billion people on the planet are all drinking sewer water, and people are dying of dysentery, and people are saying, I don’t get it, you know I exercise, you know. I
Eric Kim: you know I eat healthy exercise every day, but I’m still dying of dysentery. My kids are dying of dysentery, and so the whole issue is that if you’re drinking sewer water, no matter how healthy your lifestyle is, how virtuous you is. It don’t matter. You’re going to be, you know, dying of dysentery, or perpetually sick.
Eric Kim: And so, if we think about these physiological terms, and apply it to Bitcoin and money and digital capital. This becomes really fascinating because my personal thought and you know, also, I grew up in a family of poverty, poverty, meaning that I thought I was going to be homeless at least 2 or 3 times.
Eric Kim: Dad perpetually addicted to gambling with away the rent monies, and so the whole the whole ethos. I had a kid ever since I was 15. Okay, I’m going to take every single penny. I can immediately go out buying some new sneakers, you know, buy some cool clothes, and I literally had $0 in my bank account.
Eric Kim: and so I think the pernicious, vicious cycle of inflation is.
Eric Kim: you cannot blame people for not saving up capital for their future if the money itself is deflating at such a rapid pace, and so I personally think that you know Bitcoin is like giving every single person on the planet like unlimited free Fiji water, or the best alkaline hipster. Whatever water you want. Essentially giving people clean water. And
Eric Kim: a lot of people say, Yeah, but Bitcoin is not real money. It’s a okay. So I think this is a big this is a big shift for me also, personally.
Eric Kim: my personal thought is, Bitcoin is actually more important than
Eric Kim: like, okay, so my personal thought. This is all just my personal thoughts right?
Eric Kim: So we should not think about money. We should think about capital. I think capital is a lot more
Eric Kim: robust and strong as a concept. So, for example, capital comes from Cap CAP. Like upon your head. K-ap. Essentially it came from the head of oxen. So if you read the Iliad, the Odyssey essentially, every time you want to appease the gods, you have to sacrifice a hectacomb, Hecta means 100 a hundred head of oxen to appease the gods.
Eric Kim: And you know, obviously, that’s very expensive, like, can you imagine, if you know you sacrificed a hundred Lamborghinis to appease the gods, it would be quite expensive endeavor. Right?
Eric Kim: And so, capital. We all live under. Capitalism doesn’t matter. If you’re living in Europe, Africa, Asia, America, China, and also one thing that people don’t understand is, I think, what a lot of these people, maybe 4 or 5 years ago, China is going to take over. China’s not going to take over. It’s like China is dependent on America, and effectively, the Chinese Yuan. The cny is essentially effectively pegged to the Us. Dollar and the Us. Is essentially the world. Reserve currency
Eric Kim: and
Eric Kim: capital is what we seek, not money. Money, you know. Use money, like, you know. I’ll get into this little detail a little bit further. But talking about currency, so currency is like, you know, buying a Starbucks Frappuccino, or buying a in and out Burger. Right? That’s like money currency, right?
Eric Kim: Capital is essentially long storm, long term, store of value. So it’s building generational wealth. So one of my favorite songs from Kanye West is the off the grid songs that we off the grid grid grid this for my kid, kids, for when my kids, kids have kids.
Eric Kim: And I think this is also the big thing is a lot of millennials. Nowadays.
Eric Kim: I think the disincentive to have kids is
Eric Kim: people. You know, there’s so much fear mongering about the the future is gonna become, you know.
Eric Kim: boil the seas or whatever. So there’s not going to be a future. So essentially, there’s a strong sense of pessimism. But Bitcoin, to me is like solidified optimism, which means that the future is going to be glorious and great. And you know, even having Seneca right now, think about his future kids, kids, kids, or my future kids, kids, kids.
Eric Kim: It brings me so much joy. Because the simple strategy, you just keep stacking Bitcoin until you die, and then you hand it on to your kids. Your kids give it to their kids kids. It’s like, if you owned, you know, a hundred penthouses or 10 square blocks or 20 square blocks in Manhattan, on the main island. Do you ever sell that to buy a Lamborghini? No, you! That’s
Eric Kim: that’s not what one does, or liquefy it all into us dollars and brag about. How many billions of dollars you have in your bank account. Nope, that’s not the goal
Eric Kim: you want to build capital. And traditionally it’s been real estate. But once again, real estate was a good idea. In the 16 hundreds, 17 hundreds, 18 hundreds, 19 hundreds, 22 thousands. The subprime mortgage meltdown proved that, you know. Maybe it’s not always the best idea. And I think the hard thing is, people say, Yeah, but you know, real estate, you know, essentially, everyone needs somewhere to live, and it’s a
Eric Kim: historically, the value of real estate is always going to go up forever. Now people say that the tricky thing is the pace of monetary inflation is around 15%. The best thing is to either chat Gpt or Google. The M. 2 money supplies. And essentially what you will find is
Eric Kim: them to money supply is essentially a metric in which the Us. Government, or any other government on the planet, includes the euro and stuff. They keep printing more currency. And the reason why then this becomes an issue is that you have more currency in the system that means the individual value of each unit is going to go down. And actually the thing that I call this the in and out Burger. Not in and out, Burger the
Eric Kim: the shake Shack Burger incident. So me and Seneca we used to always buy a single burger, Patty, for a dollar 51 day we pop up. They say it’s 2 50, a burger. Patty, we’re like, we. What this makes no sense is like, yeah, we just increased the minimum wage to $20 an hour increase our wage. $20 an hour for fast food, and the hard thing is with
Eric Kim: minimum wage. You cannot rewind the
Eric Kim: the the hands of time. If you suddenly said that the minimum wage is only $70 an hour, there will be rights. The streets would not be not be good.
Eric Kim: so we’re all photographers, you know, street photographers, whatever. And the hard thing with digital is in our minds, digital is infinite and free. So, for example, I could take a copy of Mozart’s 5th Symphony, or whatever, as Mp. 3, file, and I could copy and distribute it a trillion times with 0 marginal costing right? And so this is where the notion of cyber becomes more interesting. And I’ll think about like, you know, cyber punk thinking about cyber truck.
Eric Kim: It’s
Eric Kim: essentially once again, mathematically, cryptographically, that the hard science and the hard math is there can never be more than 1. 21 million coins
Eric Kim: in existence come up forever. Even if you took all the quantum ultra computers on the planet, times it by 20, you still could not produce more bitcoins. It’s just not how it works right?
Eric Kim: And so
Eric Kim: I think there’s different ways. You can think about it right? So you could think about like I also could. Another fun analogy I think about is that let’s say one Bitcoin is like one cyberox, and it’s immortable, immortal, indestructible. It’ll give you life forever right. And there’s only gonna be 21 million of them in the futures. And now and so this is your chance to get one for an extreme discount. Even if I could tell you right. So once again, the single family home analogy, let’s say.
Eric Kim: let’s even say let’s say you want to buy a single family home. Let’s say it costs a million euros or whatever. Right? So if I could tell you today that you could buy a single family home for only a hundred $1,000 or a hundred €1,000 you’d be like, Wow, that’s that’s the deal of a century. That’s you’re still getting a 90% discount. And my personal thought is.
Eric Kim: Bitcoin is far more valuable than digital real estate, because in the next 2030 years, when essentially all the all the baby boomers. The Gen. Xers die off, and it’s the millennials and Gen. Z’s. And, alphas! That take over everyone’s going to not really care about physical real estate no more. It’ll be digital cyber real estate, which is Bitcoin.
Eric Kim: So my personal story, how did I get into Bitcoin? So it might seem a little bit random. It’s like, Okay, Eric, you’re super famous for photography, street photography like, how do you get to Bitcoin like? It’s like, so random, right? But actually, it’s not very random at all, because, you know, if you’ve been following me carefully, you know the whole time, I’ve always been talking about living minimalistically, frugally, Spartan lifestyle, whatever’s. And you know now that you know I’m pretty stacked with a bitcoin and microstrategy stock mstr.
Eric Kim: Funny enough, I’ve personally found that my lifestyle habits haven’t changed much, I mean, I’m a little bit more generous, maybe, like, you know, took out a friend last night to all you eat cream, barbecued
Eric Kim: paid for her bill didn’t really even flinch. And so my personal thought with Bitcoin is, I personally wanted monetary freedom, and so long story short, so I’ll never forget this moment. So I’m born 1988. Went to Uc. As undergrad my roommate at the time, Kevin. It’s our junior here’s on Reddit, and I’ll never forget we’re in our studio apartment. I think I was distracted. I was doing something else. He was like Eric, you know. He’s on some subreddit, and he’s like.
Eric Kim: Oh, Eric, this thing called Bitcoin, and you just bought a bitcoin like I bought 2 domino’s pizzas for like 10,000 bitcoins. We should just get like a hundred bucks worth of it, and just see what happened. I’m like, sounds like a scam and disregarded it, and I did the math. Now, if me and Kevin and my roommate Kevin, just bought a hundred bitcoins at the time
Eric Kim: for funsies, right? And I had a hundred bucks right? We would each be worth at least 1.2 billion dollars. Today, I’m like, man. This was like the worst mistake of my life, right? But everything has happened as it should have happened. You know. Maybe if I had become a billionaire I’d just become some degenerate, you know. Cocaine addict on some beach somewhere in in Hawaii, and then Seneca would never been born. I would have never done my photography, world travels, whatevers, and my then next reintroduction to Bitcoin was
Eric Kim: kind of more recently when moving to La. The cost of living is so expensive, and you know every I don’t know a single person who doesn’t want financial freedom. A long story short, I 1st heard about Bitcoin again, kind of earlier than when I was living in Vietnam around 2017, 2018,
Eric Kim: and at the time I didn’t really need Bitcoin, because our living expenses were so cheap. It was 320 bucks a month for a brand new studio apartment, fully furnished up, lighting in the jazz right? And even at the time, passively, the income we’re making. Let’s say it’s a thousand $2,000 a month. Let’s say it’s not even that much right, but like our whole total expenses, living expenses like maybe 6 700 bucks a month, so I had the epiphany I’m like, I’m never going to run out of money. So already, at the age of 26 in my mind, I mentally retired right
Eric Kim: and just more for funsies. I met this guy named Bing in in Singapore. Heard about this thing called Digibyte. Dgb, I don’t even think they’re around anymore. But at the time I’m like, Okay, I want to buy some bitcoins, buy some digibyte. How do I do this? And at the time Coinbase seemed like the best option, because it was the simplest, most minimalist to me it looked like the paypal for for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. I’m either school bought about $25,000 worth of bitcoin, which, and Bitcoin was only about
Eric Kim: $7,000, $6,999 a bitcoin. So 7 k, so I bought about what? 3 and a half bitcoins at the time. For $25,000. Put some of that into digibyte, held a bitcoin or 2, and essentially saw the waves and the crashes and the doge coins and stuff like that. And essentially, I just kind of woke up to my guts and found out that Bitcoin was a real deal.
Eric Kim: I think I think you know. Also, some strange analogies is to me Bitcoin is almost like a new
Eric Kim: World economic religion, I mean, people who follow Bitcoin are like fanatic. They’re zealous about it. They follow Michael Saylor like his.
Eric Kim: you know the profit. You know the next profit of Bitcoin right? And it’s always good to invest in religions right to invest in religions, to invest in cults like the cult of Tesla, Elon, musk apple, Steve Jobs. Whatevs, right?
Eric Kim: So essentially and then, more. Now, like, you know. Obviously, I have financial independence now, and the only reason I’m teaching this workshop or sharing this information is, I almost feel like it’s my ethical imperative like. Once again, if you could have discovered Internet in the early days, or clean drinking water, I would feel that it would almost be a disservice if I did not share this information with others.
Eric Kim: So everyone’s always about like, okay, so what is the Bitcoin gonna be worth? So there’s the open source model. Michael Saylor, I think, helped create it. It’s called the Bitcoin 21 model, I think. Right?
Eric Kim: So 21 years from now his base case is that Bitcoin is going to be 13 million of Bitcoin bear case, 3 million a Bitcoin. The bull case is 49 million a Bitcoin, and no, this was in 2024 in July before Trump was announced as President, and he is ultra super pro crypto and bitcoin and also worth
Eric Kim: following, is his son Eric Trump, ironically. His name is also Eric also the funny thing. There’s a bunch of Eric’s actually in the world of Bitcoin, Eric Kim Eric Semler, a similar scientific, this other Etf guy who works for Bloomberg. His name is Eric Balconus, or something like that. And Eric Trump.
Eric Kim: And
Eric Kim: essentially, we have an all Republican trump, pro bitcoin pro crypto, President and Cabinet, whatever right? And so these were all written by Michael Saylor’s predictions before we had the most pro bitcoin
Eric Kim: government of all time. So all these numbers, I think, should be inflated. So my personal thought is, I think, for the next 4 years. Once Trump takes office, January 20, th 2025. I think this will be the craziest, best Bitcoin Bull Run of all time the next 4 years. So currently, Bitcoin’s been going up around 60% to 62% arr annual rate of return. And I think
Eric Kim: once Trump takes office, and I’m pretty sure he’s gonna buy the 1 million Bitcoins, or whatever for the strategic American Reserve.
Eric Kim: And also I think Eric Trump, his son, is committed to having Bitcoin be at least a million in Bitcoin.
Eric Kim: So let’s see. So my personal prediction, right? So I think Bitcoin will grow by at least 120% arr over the next 4 years. So let’s say, Bitcoin is worth around $100,000 right now. So by next year, let’s say it’s 250,000 the year after that, let’s say it’s 750,000, let’s say the year after that it’s like 1.2 million. So I think we’re on track to hit a million a bitcoin in 4 years about 10 x gain. So just do the mass from then.
Eric Kim: Now, people are always asking, okay, this, you know, Bitcoin reserve strategy, you know, like, how is? And why is America going to buy the Bitcoins? Right? So we’re essentially out of physical land and real estate. Now we have to go to cyberspace right?
Eric Kim: And it seems kind of silly, like something out of a sci-fi film. But the truth is, they’re currently the war we’re having with China and Russia. It’s it’s not physical war per se. It’s actually cyber war. So cyber security is the big big money maker. Even cyber penetration testing. Right? I think Gmail is trying to get like all these malicious actors tried to attack the Gmail servers like a million times a minute. Something crazy, right?
Eric Kim: And if you look at the history of America, right? So, Manhattan, 1926, the price of Manhattan. It was essentially stolen from the natives. Right? 60 guilders, right Louisiana purchase, you know, to fund Napoleon, California. Also kind of stolen from the the local Mexicans right? And also Alaska right. The the payoff was great, right, and so essentially the Bitcoin Act, the Cynthia Lummis Bill.
Eric Kim: She’s trying to get the States to buy at least a million bitcoins right? And you know even a Michael Saylor is much more aggressive. He’s like no America should at least purchase maybe 5 or 6 million bitcoins, which is 20 to 25% of the whole Bitcoin supply. And all America has to do. It’s a free trade. They just need to sell their gold and then buy Bitcoin. And in a recent interview that I was listening from Saylor.
Eric Kim: super fascinating, is like
Eric Kim: essentially what he said was the super evil genius strategy of selling America, selling her gold reserves and buying Bitcoin is that if that’s the case, comma.
Eric Kim: we demonetize our enemies.
Eric Kim: you know, capital reserves. So then suddenly, the the gold of the Russians, the Chinese, will go to 0, and then everyone’s going to rush into Bitcoin. And if America owns Bitcoin, it’s a good sign for the future. And also another big thing I want to talk about. Why does America have the best economy on the planet.
Eric Kim: So we essentially gave birth to Apple Amazon, Facebook, the magnificent 7 stocks, Netflix. And you know, people talk about China. It’s like. Okay, I don’t know a single rich mainland Chinese oligarch who doesn’t want to send their kids to the States to
Eric Kim: to Harvard or Yale or Princeton, you know, buy a nice house in Palo Alto, the Bay area, or even Vancouver. No rich mainland Chinese person actually wants to be in China, but because of capital controls, they’re kind of stuck. So once there’s going to be a mad rush to Bitcoin. That means that you, your family, your whole squad, is going to prosper now.
Eric Kim: you know, issues. My, my friend Dante had a question about storage. So
Eric Kim: I think the hard thing with storage is okay. So how do you say this?
Eric Kim: I, my, this is my personal philosophy. The reason I do not personally trust cold storage for myself or more of these self custody options is that
Eric Kim: I know that I am very forgetful, and my biggest fear is, let’s say, I forget my passcode, or whatever is right to the Bitcoins. And or let’s say, my kids, kids can forget it right? Then boom like, you’re gonna be out like a hundred 1 million dollars. Right? So that’s that’s not fun, right? And so personally, I think the easiest is to just, you know, store it on the cloud. So, using a trusted custodian, whether it be coinbase. I think fidelity has their own services now.
Eric Kim: And the you know honestly, it seems like Coinbase is probably the best option coinbase.com, or you just download your iphone ipad. Whatever right is that you could also get a link with your biometric apple id data, whether it be face id or thumbprint. Whatevs right? So this way, it just feels much more secure. So
Eric Kim: for me, I would prefer an 80 to 85% optimal thing that is kind of dummy proof rather than take the 100 secure option which, because of user error, I might fail, and something that I personally learned is
Eric Kim: in terms of technology. And all these things in between
Eric Kim: seeking the simplest, most straightforward option
Eric Kim: that is least complicated is often the best solution. And the reason I would be very, very wary of a lot of these people promoting, you know, buying their hardware wallets. Whatever’s right, everyone has a buck to make. Everyone has a bitcoin to make. Everyone wants to make a few satoshis here and there.
Eric Kim: and so they’re trying to fear monger use. Oh, you’re gonna you know, Coinbase going to get hacked. And I’m like, no, I don’t think it is. It’s like, you know, back. It’s like essentially a Us. Government, you know, it’s essentially it’s traded on the the You know the Stock Exchange. It’s a American based company. I would. I would not trust anything outside of the States.
Eric Kim: But yeah, I would say, choose now, obviously, if you’re super, you know.
Eric Kim: quant genius, autistic genius, then do all the cold storage stuff. But if in doubt, just the simplest thing is, coinbase seems to be the best. Okay, so this is kind of my free money hack. So I call this microstrategy, strategy, mstr microstrategy versus bitcoin. And okay, so it’s very, very simple. So this becomes a philosophical debate. To say it short.
Eric Kim: I think the ultimate goal is to own Bitcoin, he or she, or the entities with the owners of the most Bitcoin shall win. And so for me, philosophically, you know, let us say that you could own, you know, 20 bitcoins, or you could own 2 million dollars worth of micro strategy. Mstr. Stock. Right?
Eric Kim: 1020, 30 years from now, right?
Eric Kim: You’re going to actually outperform. You’re actually going to make more money from microstrategy stock than Bitcoin. So Bitcoin, historically, has been 60% to 62% AR annual rate of return micro strategies is almost double that 120 to 1, 25 AR. So if you actually want to maximize your returns. You just buy microstrategy stock mstr and bitcoin. Right? But the issues is, you know. Let us say that Michael Saylor gets shot. He gets killed. He
Eric Kim: you know, dies in a Cybertruck, whatever. Right? Then, it’s probably not going to be the world’s best future for microstrategy. So it’s actually much more risky. So if you want the least risky option, it’s just put all your money into Bitcoin right? And some millennial living strategies. Right? So the the simplest strategy I have. I call it the Spartan strategy. This is why I personally follow. Is you essentially try to live as minimally and frugally and sparse as you can, and just put literally 90% of your income into bitcoins right?
Eric Kim: And a free money hack I discovered. So, for example, let’s say you have $150,000 or €150,000. Right? And you know I’m not 100 sure how it works. If you’re a European. What is right. But you, you buy micro strategy stocks. So let’s say you buy, you know, 100,000 or $150,000 worth of it right? And Mstr, and you use fidelity, or robinhood, or whatever trading app you have. Right.
Eric Kim: And the strategy is simple. It’s whenever you know. Let us say the base case 150,000.
Eric Kim: Let’s say your microstrategy stock value then goes up to 200,000. Right?
Eric Kim: You sell $50,000 worth of it, and then you just transfer that to your bank account.
Eric Kim: and then your bank account is linked with your coinbase account. Then you just buy the Bitcoin right and rinse and repeat so very, very impressive over the last 3 months, I started with initial seed capital of around $150,000 in microstrategy stock
Eric Kim: off of that $150,000 right? And I haven’t even touched my principal. I yielded $242,000
Eric Kim: off of that initial 150,000 right? And also for traditional Roth, Roth, Ira retirement accounts. I put everything into microstrategy stock, and it is already like 3 x like, for example.
Eric Kim: My roth, Ira, just kind of randomly was like what $78,000, and then the course of 3 months. It’s like now, it’s like 230,000. It peaked at around 300,000. So it’s going to be a good future. And so the the very simple strategy. So let us say you’re able to get down your living expenses to let’s say
Eric Kim: you know, 5,000 bucks a month or €5,000 a month. Right?
Eric Kim: the point isn’t to just make a bunch of money and just go out and buy the Lambo. The the goal is actually to continue to live for good. If anything live more fully. People who says like, Oh, you know, you want to get rich, don’t care about money or whatever. If you’re a real real greedy, you know money, loving person. Actually, the optimal strategy is.
Eric Kim: you live, you know. You continue driving your old Toyota Prius, and just pour all of your money in Bitcoin, because really the truth is and this is my philosophical thought is, there’s almost nothing worth on the planet purchasing.
Eric Kim: Besides, Bitcoin is my philosophical thought. So and also some e even more super smart economic leverage. Right?
Eric Kim: So instead of paying an arm and a leg for rent in La or New York. Brooklyn, you just move to like Southeast Asia. Right you go. Move to Southeast Asia, live like a king, for like 300 500 bucks a month. Right? You just put all your money to Bitcoins right? So even if you had a modest savings, right, let’s say you had like $200,000, and you had microstrategy stock.
Eric Kim: let’s say every month of the month is rent is due, and the expenses are due right? You just sell a small portion of that stock, and it’s going to go up. So my thought on the next 4 years, micro strategy, assuming it’s around 2 x Bitcoin. I think Bitcoin is going to go up 120% error. I think micro strategy is going to double that 240% error. So just do the masses. At the end of every single month
Eric Kim: you make a small. Your gains go up like crazy right, and let’s say your living expenses are like under a thousand bucks, or if you, if you live in the States, 5,000 bucks, you sell X amount of monies to just support your living expenses, and you just continue to ride your gains. But ultimately my personal thought is whatever excess, money and capital you have just put it onto Bitcoin. So the micro strategy then ends up becoming the engine or the turbocharger or the cash cow. You milk it, and you shave the cream off the top, and then you buy Bitcoin with it.
Eric Kim: So I think the reason why to me Bitcoin is such a fascinating thing, and very exciting, is essentially Bitcoin is digital photography. Peter Diamandis, the ex guy. Right? You know, he talks a lot about kodak film. You know the iphone and disruption.
Eric Kim: So actually, intuitively, as photographers and digital photographers, we should actually understand. You know, this disruptive power about digital photography. So obviously, you have the hipsters with their mustaches and their flannels, you know, talking about the virtues of film photography.
Eric Kim: But the truth is, digital photography is like a quadrillion times better.
Eric Kim: And also currently, in the year 2025, incoming
Eric Kim: digital photography is actually superior to film photography. I mean.
Eric Kim: maybe in the early days of digital sucked right. But now, at this point, digital photography is far superior to any sort of film photography, and the only reason you should film in today’s world
Eric Kim: is either as like a practice to appreciate the joys of photography. So the philosophical approach.
Eric Kim: or you know, you’re trying to be some sort of like, you know, snoppy fine art photographer and overcharge money for your photos. Then you shoot film.
Eric Kim: because honestly, the the fine art market, they’re always going to overvalue film photos over digital photos, because it’s more complicated. It’s more strange, right? So in the art, in the art world, the more complicated, abstruse, and complicated, you can make your art the better. But for us.
Eric Kim: where you care about practical things, yeah, think about Bitcoin. So think about the iphone iphone pro versus your mom’s kodak Browning camera. I think the the thought is obvious. Okay.
Eric Kim: so how to start buying Bitcoin. Very simple. Just download the coinbase app, or you know if you if you don’t want to actually own Bitcoin, you just want to make a ton of money, just buy micro strategy stock Mstr, and use your traditional
Eric Kim: accounts. And I still think that this is the biggest thing is that everyone wants to become a millionaire, right?
Eric Kim: But you know what I think people want to do is
Eric Kim: they don’t want to earn like, okay, okay.
Eric Kim: people want to spend a million dollars.
Eric Kim: They don’t want to actually save and build a million dollars right? And so if you think about, you know, money and
Eric Kim: capital digital capital, I think about like Lego bricks, right? I just went to Legoland. Senecall is great. So let us say that
Eric Kim: each bitcoin, or dollar or 1 million dollars like these. Let’s say these are Lego bricks right? The goal is, you want to build your Lego Tower brick thing as tall as possible. You don’t ever want to
Eric Kim: get rid of your bricks and throw into the trash. That’s essentially what consumerism is. And this is actually another big philosophical thing I discovered is, what’s the difference between capitalism and consumerism. Consumerism is actually the exact opposite of capitalism. Capitalism is about accumulating wealth.
Eric Kim: building your capital and not spend it right. Even one of my favorite Kanye quotes is like why people make money don’t spend it. But I’d rather buy 80 gold chains go ignorant, right ignorant. And so the pernicious thing that happens in a lot of communities, especially poor communities. Right? I’ve seen this happen with my own eyes. Right?
Eric Kim: Happens to Korean people. It happens to everybody, right? Is that you know you live in a crappy apartment in K. Town with 20 other dudes. Yet you drive the brand new Bmw. And you’re not building any sort of generational wealth. Right? And so essentially, yeah, you want to build the capital and not spend it. And essentially, you want to start to intelligently leverage your capital
Eric Kim: to give to your future kids or your descendants, or whatever you want to do. Now, the hardest thing about Bitcoin is stomaching the volatility so volatile, mean. Just it goes up, it goes down, and then, like honestly for most people, it’s going to give them like 5. 100 heart attacks over right now
Eric Kim: I think of a Bitcoin kind of like nuclear energy, so
Eric Kim: nuclear energy in the untamed formed is obviously toxic could cause the next Fukushima whatevers right? But if you have a bunch of smart people, engineers, nuclear physicists working in a controlled manner, right? It’s like the greatest benefit to society, because to humanity, because essentially, you’re giving people free electricity forever. Right? And
Eric Kim: I think my personal thought is the volatility is a future not above. So the reason why Bitcoin goes up and down the sideways so much all the time, and you can have huge swings
Eric Kim: is because you could trade a 24, 7, 365 on the weekends in the evenings. Right?
Eric Kim: It still befuddles me that in the year 2024, 2025 like. Why is it that you know, after 5 pm. You know Eastern time, or on the weekend Saturday, Sunday like, why did they close the market? So what if there’s another Cuban missile crisis. It makes no sense right?
Eric Kim: And also the reason why it’s so volatile is that it’s actually the most
Eric Kim: desirable commodity on the planet. And there’s all these people with these weird Bloomberg machine terminals, whatever they are, always pegging everything to the Bitcoin. So a lot of people ask about ethereum dogecoin webs, right. I think Bitcoin is the only true.
Eric Kim: Everything else is the false prophets. Everything else is the false coins. The immaculate conception of Bitcoin and Satoshi.
Eric Kim: I think this is actually a big deal, because anything that is not Bitcoin, you know, ethereum and the like. They they need some sort of spokesperson, or, you know, individual to prop up the value right, whereas Satoshi, he invented it, he disappeared forever. Now the reason why this is such a big deal is that
Eric Kim: every other crypto thing which is not Bitcoin.
Eric Kim: It does not have a hard cap
Eric Kim: like you could print more ethereums. You could print more. Whatever tokens you cannot print more bitcoins, and that’s that’s the big thought.
Eric Kim: So. Volatility is vitality. Eric Kim. I actually didn’t say that. Sorry. That was actually Michael Saylor. I typed that in wrong. But essentially
Eric Kim: you know, volatility is vitality, and the more volatile the more energy the power you have, the more vitality you have. So once again, people think of volatility as being risk. That is actually not the case. Bitcoin is going to go up forever, but it’s going to be like an extreme roller coaster and go up down, but with extreme swings it’s extreme performance. So
Eric Kim: yeah, volatility is not risk. Volatility is just going up and down a lot, but essentially over a long enough time span. It’s going to go up forever.
Eric Kim: So I borrowed a lot of slides quite liberally from Michael Saylor. Some of these are from his recent Microsoft. Pitch. And yeah, just go. michael.com go to his presentations looking at yourself. So I’ll just make some quick points. So
Eric Kim: essentially, currently, Bitcoin is like a 2 trillion dollar asset class right? And this is also from Jesse Myers once in a species.com. And the reason why this is important is currently you know. Let us say the whole world’s economy is 900 trillion dollars, right? And
Eric Kim: what we have our eyes on is real estate. So real estate is, you know, most people don’t really just use real estate as a place to live right? Otherwise, you just rent. People use it for a long term store of value. So, for example, if you’re a really really rich family from New York City, you own, like 10 square blocks in Manhattan, and, you know, does your descendants sell, you know.
Eric Kim: a square block to buy himself a few Ferraris. No, that that would be a bad strategy. So the the tip I have for any single person trying to build intergenerational wealth. Keep it simple. Only one rule. You don’t sell the Bitcoin. If you face extreme poverty or financial distress, I don’t know. Become an Uber driver or something. Pay the bills, but don’t sell the Bitcoin.
Eric Kim: and currently I think we’re going to see is Bitcoin is just going to take over the gold market, which is 16 trillion dollars, maybe the cars and collectible art market.
Eric Kim: Now, a big thought is this is from Michael Saylor once again, is that
Eric Kim: all these assets on the planet.
Eric Kim: Some of half of it is to provide utility. Right? So, for example, you know.
Eric Kim: let’s say you need you need somewhere to live right? No so that provides utility right? But then, again, some of it is to preserve capital right? And
Eric Kim: as a 36 year old millennial nowadays. The pressures. Oh, you got to buy a single family home today, right? But the the reason I get so sus of people saying you should buy a house is that they’re like, oh, you essentially need somewhere to live. You’ll build capital. Blah! Blah, right? You don’t want to give money to land, but it’s like no, you only need one reason like you would only ever buy a single family house. If let’s say you really like having a backyard and a garage, or what is right. But it’s really not
Eric Kim: a money making thing, because homeownership is like a trillion, times more expensive than you would otherwise think, and as a consequence, with a single family home, even if the price is going up right
Eric Kim: at best, you might be breaking, even if not, you know, slowly bleeding yourself. Because, let’s say, real estate is on average, going up 10% a year, right? The money supply the inflationary. M 2 supply is 15% a year. So you’re actually kind of losing money.
Eric Kim: So the big thought is once again, you know.
Eric Kim: the optimistic thought is eventually all these long term sort of things are going to become digital capital. I still think about this, the Warren Buffett. They’re all gonna die. And then, when we, you know, take the take the mantle. What’s gonna happen the next 20 years, even if you’re 80 years old right now? 81 years old. Shout out.
Eric Kim: You know, I think I’m optimistic. We could live to be 100 20. So yeah, this is definitely the next wave. You’re not going to want to miss right? And you know, currently a lot of millennials. People like everyone wants to buy the Lambo or the Ferrari.
Eric Kim: You’re you’re going to lose the value of it in about 3 years. You want to live forever.
Eric Kim: So these are some kind of conservative growth estimates, according to Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin 24 model. So in about 21 years, and this was still pretty conservative. Right? Bitcoin is going to become a 280 trillion dollar, you know thing right? So going from 2 trillion to 200 trillion, so at least 10 x. So you’re conservatively, you’re going to see your money at least 10 x in 21 years, which is pretty cool. Right? It’s not going to take over all these other things. It might, but it might not.
Eric Kim: Now people always ask.
Eric Kim: what is Bitcoin backed by? So I did the maths right and based on what other people say, too essentially the Bitcoin network. If you took all the apple Amazon aws servers, Meta.
Eric Kim: combine them all times 20, you could still not hack the Bitcoin network in in terms of the raw power that goes into powering. Think about like 20 nuclear power reactors powering the thing right? And also people don’t understand is there’s already been 850 billion dollars of quote, real money investment thing follow Blackrock. They just recently recommended most of their
Eric Kim: you know, owners to allocate at least 2% of their portfolio into Bitcoin, which is kind of a big deal. Look about what Larry Fink says. Blackrock is like what they own. What 40 trillion dollars of assets around the planet. They’re they’re kind of a big deal. And also it’s a network effect. So you remember, in the early days of Facebook. It was only it was only university students with the Edu address were allowed to join in. Then they opened up to everybody, and the network effect of Facebook is that
Eric Kim: if you have Facebook and I have Facebook, then Facebook instantly becomes more valuable to both of us, because I can now share my photos with you, whatever’s right. But then, if your friends friends also have Facebook, it becomes much more valuable to everything. Same thing goes with facetime right. The reason why I got you know I used to be a Diehard android dude. Now I’m like all icloud everything. It makes life so much easier. You get your mom an iphone. Now you get facetime imessage. It makes life way better.
Eric Kim: And so Bitcoin is going to be the same thing as more and more people are going to continue to download Coinbase or Whatevs. And also my optimistic thought is, if Apple doesn’t want to become irrelevant, it’s I’m very certain the next 5 to 10 years. Apple is going to have their own
Eric Kim: Bitcoin storage thing in your icloud account. It makes sense right. They have apple pay. They have the apple wallet. Essentially.
Eric Kim: apple is the new bank. And so now, when they do like a you know, a 3 device authentication for your bitcoins through your iphone, your ipad and your macbook pro whatevers.
Eric Kim: It’s actually it might actually be one of the most safe ways to store your bitcoins.
Eric Kim: Also things to think about. If you’re a traditional investor
Eric Kim: so there’s this notion called the cost to capital cost to capital that Michael Saylor says a lot. I might be getting this wrong. But
Eric Kim: essentially the S. And P. 500 right?
Eric Kim: on average, is like 14 to 15% return year over year. Right? So if you’re not making at least 15% or over 15% a year, you’re essentially losing your bleeding money. So real estate gold bonds is kind of a losing bet, right? And so the magnificent 7 which all the big tech stocks 28%, a little bit better, right? But look at Bitcoin. It’s like 62% year over year. And it’s kind of the obvious bet, right?
Eric Kim: And even if you think about you know, everyone’s talking about Nvidia Tesla. You know what is right.
Eric Kim: I think the reason why the mainstream media they don’t like to talk about micro strategy is that it’s still a little bit too weird and bizarre. And it’s not as buzzworthy as AI, because, okay, people like to think of this like evil Terminator AI, the video going to take over the world and find it right. But nobody is like Bitcoin, like
Eric Kim: Bitcoin is not an android walking around 2 feet, taking over the planet right? So people actually don’t like to talk about Bitcoin. And for so long people thought that Bitcoin was a Ponzi scheme right. No one ever thought that AI was a Ponzi scheme. So the video always catches the headlines. But look at microstrates, look at the best performing stock on the human unit in the human universe
Eric Kim: over 3 x. That of Nvidia, which is already impressive, and Nvidia is already destroying Tesla by a massive margin as well. Right? So
Eric Kim: I mean? That’s that’s pretty obvious, right?
Eric Kim: Even Donald Trump watches a Nashville presentation. He quotes Michael Saylor directly, says, Never sell your Bitcoin. Apparently Eric Trump, the son of Donald Trump has known Michael Saylor for 20 years. I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but if that’s the case.
Eric Kim: I’m like a hundred percent certain that. You know, Michael Saylor essentially has the left ear of Donald Trump.
Eric Kim: And yeah, it’s it’s a it’s a very good thing.
Eric Kim: So if you want to plug and create your own models. Google, the Bitcoin, 24 model. It’s on Github
Eric Kim: plug in your own assumptions.
Eric Kim: And this is the big thing that I have my eyes set on. So currently, you know, it’s December right? And everyone’s waiting for the trump to get into the office January 20.th So this is a tricky thing. So I used to be Super Anti Donald Trump, right? Because I could care less about politics and stuff like that right? And
Eric Kim: but
Eric Kim: one Donald Trump became super super pro bitcoin. I started to listen and start watching all his interviews and looking like honestly the you know, I’m from the Bay Area like Liberal Democrat, my whole life right? And actually, I kind of realized, wow, the the left leaning media is kind of the they’re kind of the evil ones here. And Donald Trump, he seems actually kind of like a cool, nice nice nice guy, right?
Eric Kim: And the big thought is.
Eric Kim: there’s no, there’s not going to be a World war 3. What is right? And Bitcoin, under the trump administration is gonna explode, and it’s gonna be the
Eric Kim: the greatest 4 years of prosperity of all time, and this once again coming from like a super left leaning liberal. So this is a good thought so. Anyways. Let us say, you know.
Eric Kim: America leads the charge in the crypto Bitcoin revolution. Right? And yeah, I think
Eric Kim: assuming that America really wants to control the future. I think the America purchasing 6 million bitcoins is not fully out of this this planet. Right?
Eric Kim: So some thoughts on building personal family wealth.
Eric Kim: So the reason why I think this is kind of a big deal is that
Eric Kim: everyone wants to build wealth right. Everyone wants to be intelligent with their investing. It doesn’t matter if you’re a nonprofit, a charity, a church, Mother Teresa, like every single organization, will always need money. Capital. If you have an endowment, you know, for Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford Brown University. Whatever even the Uc. Is right, everyone needs money and capital right.
Eric Kim: and I don’t like to think too much about the macro, because I’m not an institutional investor. I just think about myself, my family, my best friends, my squad. Right? So the goal is building personal family wealth and how to intelligently invest. So a lot of people talk about timings. Oh, when should I buy Bitcoin? Should I time it the high. Then people take out these charts and these candlesticks, which is all just witchcraft and pseudoscience don’t follow any of that.
Eric Kim: Essentially the thought is.
Eric Kim: anytime is a good time to buy Bitcoin if it’s high, low, Middle, whatever. We’re going to keep buying the top forever. So recently I bought some more Bitcoin at $100,000. Right then it dipped down to 90,000 to 88,000 hit 103,000 again, and so I’m pretty sure that in 1020 years I’m going to be buying Bitcoin at 1 million, a Bitcoin, 10 million dollars a Bitcoin, 55 million dollars a Bitcoin, whatever is right, and because if you do the simple math, just think at least 4 years ahead, right? So if I could tell you with 100 certainty that Bitcoin is going to be 1.2 million a Bitcoin
Eric Kim: in 4 years
Eric Kim: as long as you’re buying it for less than a million dollars a coin. You’re going to be in the green like it’s it’s kind of a a good bet, right? And actually, also, ironically, my personal thought is
Eric Kim: chasing gains is a good thing, but also it’s it’s a good idea to not get quote greedy in the sense of maximizing your gains. So so, for example, right like, what’s the difference between getting a 38% yield and a 32% yield like the the difference is nominal. Don’t don’t worry so much about maximization, because even a lot of what I thought my trades were bad
Eric Kim: 2 years ago ended up being right. So as investors, we have to think at least 410-20-3040 years ahead of us. So don’t worry so much about the the short term
Eric Kim: so practical and pragmatic investing strategies right? So once again, so if I had a simple blueprint, so
Eric Kim: some some simple thoughts.
Eric Kim: there’s lots of different blends. You could do this, you could. You could be super simple. Just 100 to Bitcoin, buy it on Coinbase what is right, and just keep stacking forever.
Eric Kim: 100 legitimate. That’s the Bitcoin Maximus opposed the triple, triple Maxi, the triple Maximalist approach. If you just need to pay the bills whatever, and still stack the Bitcoins. My personal suggestion is put 80% of your wealth into Bitcoin and 20% of your wealth into micro strategy Mstr stock. And once again. This is this is what you do. So let’s say, for simplicity of math. Let’s say
Eric Kim: Let’s say you have a million dollars or a hundred $1,000, or you use whatever kind of a number you want, right? So put 20% that to microstrategy stock whenever it goes up
Eric Kim: beyond the principal, sell some of that stock and put that into micro strategies. Sorry. Put that into Bitcoin, and or use that money to just pay your your bills. So once again what I personally did right?
Eric Kim: $150,000 working capital into micro strategy Mstr stock. And let’s say, when it goes from worth $150,000 to $160,000. I’ll sell $10,000 worth that stock. That $10,000 gets deposited to my checking account, which is linked to my coinbase. Then I’ll just buy $10,000 worth of bitcoin right? Or, if you need that, $10,000
Eric Kim: for living expenses. Let’s say
Eric Kim: you need $3,000 to pay your rent. You take $3,000 of that to pay your rent, and you put the other 7% of that into Bitcoin.
Eric Kim: also some other definition. What’s the difference between being an investor, a trader versus speculator?
Eric Kim: So an investor, we want to be investors. We want to think about (102) 030-4050 years ahead of us. A trader is a bunch of these, like 20 year old. High testosterone degenerates, you know, single, you know, maybe addicted drugs, or whatever right, who just want to like look cool. I made a billion dollars in a month by using all these complicated
Eric Kim: statistical models. Blah! Blah! Right? But you don’t. You don’t want to be a trader because essentially it’s
Eric Kim: nobody could time the market. Not even God could time the market right. And what a speculator is people who invest in meme coins. So a meme coin is like buying a Dogecoin or shiba Inu, that the reason why these are not you should not do this is that it is extremely dangerous. You’re going to lose all your money, and it requires
Eric Kim: a charismatic leader to support it. So Dogecoin, right? Dogecoin is essentially elon musk coin right?
Eric Kim: But if one day Elon musk tweets. Ha! Ha! Doge was just a joke all along, right. It’s not worth anything. The value of it will pump it to 0, or if once again. Elon dies in a you know a robo taxi accident. The value of dogecoin is going to go to 0, whereas if Elon Musk dies, you know Bitcoin is going to still keep going up forever. So speculator is meme coins beyond bitcoin us Bitcoiners. We’re we’re investors.
Eric Kim: So you know, somebody also asked about, you know, monetary inflation right? So there’s this thing called the M. 2 monetary supply of the the rate rate inflation.
Eric Kim: And once again you’re going to have to exceed at least 13% to 15% to
Eric Kim: not lose money. So, for example, let us say, you have a billion dollars of us dollars in your checking account. Right? You’re going to be bled to death. Right? So in a year, your 1 billion dollar is going to shrink to 750 million down to 500 million, to 350 million. And essentially, you’re going to get a point where your money is worthless.
Eric Kim: And already we see this right now. So currently, the price of real estate, single family homes is exploding. But this is my critical view. How much of that is that the value of a single family house is higher versus our Us. Dollars are just simply worthless. Right? So if you just do the same simple maths, right?
Eric Kim: So let us say that. You know, minimum wage goes from $15 an hour to $20 an hour overnight for Mcdonald’s worker. Right? That means instantly. You see, 25% inflation. So your 1 million dollars in the bank is now worth only 750
Eric Kim: $1,000. So yeah, once again. The real real rich people. They store less than 1% of their wealth in
Eric Kim: Us. Dollars in their checking account like, you’re not gonna have Jeff Bezos bragging to other people that he has 10 billion dollars of us dollars in their checking account. No, it’s it’s all going to be in you know, stocks, or, you know, real estate. And actually, ideally, Bitcoin. Cyber cyber capital.
Eric Kim: So yeah, that’s that’s essentially the the end of my presentation.

We the new Rockefellers! 

ROC nation!

So I guess Jay was really onto something; numbers don’t lie check the scoreboard! And also thinking about building his own Rockefeller ROCAFELLER Rocawear brand. I’m also sure that Michael Saylor is the new Rockefeller for this century and beyond. 

Oil

Oil standard oil. Rockerfeller is stupid rich, became stupid dumb rich because he sent you bought up all the oil, oil companies, oil refineries etc., consolidated them all under his own company, even at Brown University in Providence, the main library is called the rock, Named after Rockefeller I think either donated the money to build the library or something?

Anyways, what is more important than money? Capital. 

I think what a lot of people don’t understand is the logic of capital. A lot of people get stuck in this whole money idea, like Fiat currency.

So for example, I’ve essentially made a small fortune already on bitcoin and microstrategy stock, MSTR, bitcoin and like, and I’m not really gonna be shocked when my net worth hits 100 M, 250 M, maybe even 1.1 billion in my lifetime. But still most likely, I’m going to drive the same old Prius, maybe I’ll matte black it, I actually had a vision of Matt like it kind of making it look like a BMW M3 in the front, with the bright yellow headlights. Like imagine the Prius, competition edition.

Anyways, rappers are dead, we new BITCOINERS, we the new rockstars!

Why?

So once again, it feels like the early days of the Internet. Do you remember the early days of AOL, AWOL 3.0, when they would mail you these free CDs with like 1000 hours of free Internet? And the mad scramble for the Internet, like Alta Vista net zero, yahoo and the like.

The Google of internet capital

My personal thought is do you remember when Google first emerged, and everyone was a bit confused by it, a little Rinky dinky search engine with nothing but the Google logo, a small search box in engine? And suddenly it takes over the planet? 

What I find very very bizarre is all these Google employees… They should get it… Why aren’t they buying bitcoin? 

What is hilarious is that innovation that got Google to where it is today… The paradox of the innovators dilemma; Google is like the new Microsoft, no more innovation here. Rather, a mad scramble to inject advertisements into every single part of your existence. Even for example, I’m starting to really hate Google and YouTube; Too many advertisements, too much spam, I hate Google. 

In fact I have not used Google search for almost like six months, I just use ChatGPT now, ChatGPT search. ChatGPT is a bit problematic too, but not as bad as Google. 

The bitcoin imperative

So once again, if you discovered clean fresh water, and everybody else is drinking sewer water, wouldn’t you do everything in your power to tell your friends your family everybody you know about clean water? And to get them to stop drinking sewer water? Obviously! But what if you’ll hurt their feelings or make them feel uncomfortable? Well I guess you don’t really care about them, you could let them just die of dysentery.

The new Oregon Trail

So once again, everyone is on this Oregon Trail video game, and sooner or later everyone dies of dysentery. And I still will never forget playing Oregon Trail in computer class in Bayside Queens, PS 169, and spending all my money on bullets to just shoot the auction in the squirrels, only need to die of dysentery. 

Anyways, I think we’re almost living our new modern day version of the Oregon Trail, and we are starting to get distracted by things like media the Internet social media iPhones etc.… We are all slowly dying of metaphorical dysentery.

In the Oregon Trail, you have the option to purchase medicine. But medicine seems a bit boring to buy when you could buy bullets instead! 

But once again in the video game, when you least expected in your troop gets sick, and you no longer have any money because you spent it all on blitz… Who are you going to blame?

Of course it is a video game, real life is different. But everything is often just a metaphor for real life. 

4+ years in the game

So technically I’ve been in the bitcoin game since 2017, 2018. When I was living off the grid in Vietnam, in Saigon, I still remember going to my favorite coffee shop, reading zero hedge, and learning about bitcoin, and I still remember the guy who said that he was so certain that bitcoin was gonna go from $300 a bitcoin to 600 bitcoin to 1000 bitcoin, and if he was wrong he would eat his balls live on television.

I first learned about fiat currency then, when I had more time to think and consider and just philosophize about money. I sent you learned that all money was fake, but at the time I did not yet have a strong need or urge or reason to buy bitcoin then because I was already retired at the age of 26, 28. Living for rent was only $320 a month in Vietnam, essentially I knew and learned that I would never run out of money.

Anyways, fast-forward a bit, now living in LA, obviously the cost of living is far higher. So more recently I kind of had more of a need to know and learn. 

if you don’t need it you won’t act

 Most people who are financially already doing well and comfortable, they don’t really have a need to know. For example if you already have a bunch of Tesla stock, real estate or whatever… Then the truth is you don’t really have a strong need to know about bitcoin. Because you don’t really need it in the sense that you’re probably gonna be just fine with your traditional stocks, your Tesla stock your Nvidia stock your real estate whatever.

I think a lot of people are starting to wake up now, especially millennials, Gen Z, and “zillenials” (Soren Zhane told me)

 anyways, I don’t know a single human being on the planet who does not seek some sort of financial independence and or security. Certainly everyone has a different reason but the general guiding principle is that everybody wants freedom for one reason or another. For example, some people just don’t want to work no more, which is 100% almost everybody?

I don’t know any single tech worker who actually wants to be there; there are simply stuck because they are stuck into some sort of stock option plan, or because they have an expensive mortgage, or because they got like their four children in private school whatever.

Or it seems that a lot of people in my friends that I know or around my age born in 1988, plus or minus 4 years, like people who are either 32, 34, 36, 40, 42 years old… Once again, everyone wants independent and wants to retire right now! And it seems that everyone’s plan is trying to securitize some sort of  fixed income strategy, like let us say that your living expenses are like seven to $8000 a month, to have some sort of “passive income“, just sustain your cost-of-living. 

So in terms of fixed income strategies, I think it’s actually super simple, just leverage microstrategy stock! The mantra is don’t sell your bitcoin, but, it is 100% fine to sell your microstrategy stock!

So let us say that you have $1 million of stock, or cash or whatever… It is super super simple: just put 100% at that micro strategy style, and once, every month, end of month, when it is time to pay your rent or whatever, just sell a small portion to pay your rent, if it’s like $3200 a month or something. And then, you just ride the gains forever, and essentially your microstrategy stock will be the cash cow for the rest of your life. 

Why don’t people like simple solutions?

I think somebody is trying to sell you some sort of complicated product. Like all these fake ass money investors, none of which or whom we’re actually successful, they will sell you some sort of strange financial product which is mixed between a bunch of these other fake investments, Stocks bonds ETF’s whatever, and actually… My funny thought is there might be some sort of inherent dangers in diversification. 

For example, let us say that you have cash money. Do you diversify your cash holdings from US dollars to the Nigerian currency, to the Venezuela currency, to North Korean currency, to the Japanese yen, to the Korean Won, to the Boliviar, the British pound, to the Lebanese lira, etc.?

Or, if you’re building a skyscraper, do you diversify the steel into balsa wood and copper? 

Or, let us say that you have a smart phone, most smart people that I know will just own the iPhone, you want to diversify by owning an android phone, a Huawei phone, a Samsung phone, and the like.

Why bitcoin makes sense for Americans

Once again, at this point if you’re an American, almost universally 100% of Americans own an iPhone, even at this point poor people they all own an iPhone Pro. 

So the reason why bitcoin makes sense is that my general sense is that bitcoin is like all American. And certainly the ethos behind bitcoin, a lot of the early cyber hackers, California tech utopists, Hal Finney etc, certainly there is kind of like the cyberpunk, Blade Runner, ghost in the shell vibes here… The early days of bitcoin and crypto is certainly kind of like tech anarchists,,, nobody likes the banks. I don’t even think the bankers like the banks!

---

Nobody is evil

So there’s all these weird theories conspiracy theories whatever, but all these super evil people running the world etc. but this is false. Everybody is too stupid to run the world and be evil. 

For example, no no no it is not George Soros, Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Clinton Bill Gates trying to put 5G chips inside your brain, to sell you vegan meat. No or is it the Jewish conspiracy theory about the media Israel whatever. Everyone is inept. 

Even Kim Jang Hoon, who is like what, 300 pounds at like 5 foot four, maybe 80% body fat, borderline about to have a heart attack, still hooked on like thousands of bottles of fine foreign whiskey, as well as having a glass full of like 1000 armored Maybach cars?

Media has no face

I’m kind of starting to read the principles of economics by Saifedean, and one of the useful ideas is that everyone is like an individual agent, and moves in the best of his or her interest. Everyone is rational in this sense; even people that you think are irrational, rather than trying to seek how they are so dumb compared to you, I think it is actually much more compassionate and wise to try to seek to understand why they think we act this way. Seeking understanding, seeking to understand them is more interesting and important than trying to change them to thinking and become you.

“How dare you not be me!”

In fact in the world where we’re trying to seek distinction, isn’t the actual goal to not to want other people to be like you? 

Also funny thought is that everyone is seeking some sort of superiority, but once again, we’re all buying into the same standard media narratives? 

Unplug yourself

all media is bad, and yes this involves Twitter, X, and the Joe Rogan podcast. 

I think the difficult thing here is that everybody is kind of correct, but at the same time, everyone is a bit strange and bizarre. 

the matrix

So where I think that the matrix is really really insanely great film is that it is all about reality, fake reality and the metaphor in between. 

And this is actually a funny thing that I learned; the truth and reality is not really the goal. 

For example, I think Joe Rogan has uncovered how politics really works, and it is very dirty, and very strange and bizarre. For example I’m recently listening to some of the Marc Andreesen and Joe Rogan podcast in the whole idea of debanking, when Kanye said it everyone thought he was crazy, but when Marc Andreesen says it, everyone listens. 

Anyways, the truth is a bit distracting. And yeah yeah yeah let us say that there are aliens or extraterrestrial beings or whatever… Even if that were true I don’t think it really matters. To me matters more is like our health our physiology our minds, our philosophies, our families, our spouses and kids, our future etc.

The next big big big big thing is already here, it is bitcoin.

 so I room is waiting for the next iPhone the next new Tesla car or whatever, the next hugely innovative product which will totally change and transform our lies. Yet don’t people understand that it is already here, that it has already been here for a minute, bitcoin!

I think the reason why bitcoin is hard to understand, even for us take forward millennials is that it is not a tangible product like having a self driving car or a cyber truck etc. Or like having the newest iPhone Pro. 

Certainly there is a human bias for tangible things tools and assets, yet I think in reality, a better way to think about it is towards intangibles. 

For example, even modern day banking and money it is all already intangible. For example the US dollars in your bank account, ones and zeros, it is already technically all cyber and digital. Even the modern day banking swift system, it is kind of all predicated on computers and data.

For example what is the true hard money out there? It is capital, like capital and real estate, stocks, the S&P index etc., yet what is it backed by? Gold? No. we got off the gold standard a very long time ago. It is based more on mutual understanding trust and the like.

Even the markets, the markets are a beast, an ultra mega beast, nobody can understand it, but yet we all seek it and strive to understand it. 

Forever gains

Once again if we think about digital metaphors digital analogies etc., this is very useful because in a physic space perspective, nothing can grow forever. For example, no man despite all of the steroids on the planet could be become a 900 pound muscular man with a six pack. 

Also, we could build maybe a 200 story skyscraper, but probably not 100,000 story skyscraper. Not even with all the steel on the planet. 

Yet with bitcoin, cyber real estate, cyber capital, this changes the game. 

 for example, I live next to one of the main campuses in Culver City, 8777 Washington. They bought out this huge pit, and they are building a mega campus for Apple TV there, and they have been working on it for like over a year already. They have made very good progress but still… If you’re dealing in the realm of physics, even if they suddenly injected $1 trillion into it, you cannot build it overnight. Even if you took all the capital on the planet to build up that plot of land, it would probably take at least maybe, a few months at best.

But with bitcoin and cyber real estate and digital capital, you can! 

For example, with bitcoin you could build $1 billion digital skyscraper in an hour or a day. Even the best skyscraper in the physical realm might take five years. 

Accelerating the cycle

So the free money hack I’ve discovered is quite simple: buy and hold micro strategy MSTR stock, write it up, and when it is up, sell some stock, and funnel that money back into bitcoin. 

I call it like double profits, double profit double dipping. 

Kind of insane, I’ve seen and taken an initial investment around $300,000 and turned it into close to around $900,000. In the strategy was simple, just 100% putting everything into micro strategy MSTR stock. It’s insane it’s like almost a 3X gain, in a matter of about 3 to 4 months? This is absolutely unheard of. It even outperformed bitcoin by like 3X!

Optimism for the next four years

So my personal heartache is that the next four years, assuming that you’re on the bitcoin standard, 2025 to 2029 will be the most glorious four years of all time. In fact, I believe this could only be the last Trump presidency, but I’m quite sure that the bitcoin act will pass, ERIC will probably purchase at least 1 million bitcoins, ideally more, And America will continue her global monetary and capital dominance.

Already, you’re seeing everyone else shudder and quake in fear. Russia and Putin, they are scared, in mainland China I’m sure they’re also scared.

What this means for you

So super super simple, just put 100% of your wealth and your capital in either or bitcoin and micro strategy stock. 

What’s the difference? Bitcoin is technically the risk free option. And it is also less volatile. 

Micro strategy style, MSTR is higher performance but also higher yield. 

Personally, I think the ultimate game is to stack as many bitcoins during this lifetime to pass down to your kids kids kids. And to me ultimately bitcoin is more important than micro strategies. Because bitcoin is the backbone and the underlying asset which power is everything, including micro strategy. 

For example, bitcoin can exist without microstrategy, microstrategy cannot exist without bitcoin.

The #1 company on the planet 

Michael sailor did it, micro strategy that owns over 400,000 bitcoin, they’re gonna hit 500,000 bitcoins, and soon they’re going to get the mythical Nakamoto, which is the mythical 1 million bitcoins and beyond. I would not be surprised if within our lifetime we see micro strategy obtain at least 2, 3, 4, or 5 million bitcoins. And we will see micro strategy become the number one dominant company on the planet, at least during this lifetime. And you see Michael sailor become the richest man on the planet, at least 10 times richer than Elon Musk.

What does this mean to you? Assuming you put yourself your family on the bitcoin standard, you’re going to be dumb rich, forever. 

Sell the second car, sell the house, sell everything and buy the bitcoin. 

ERIC

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Question: how many times have I lifted weights? 

Life is all about reps

Arnold Schwarzenegger has this just “that life is about reps, life is about repetitions etc. 

So the way I interpret this statement or line of philosophy isn’t like writing out repetitions for some sense of fake virtuality but rather… To repeat, to practice, to do something multiple times, seems like a good idea. 

So for example, Michael strategy and Michael Saylor has purchased bitcoin a total of 42 times, this is kind of a big deal. If I look back at my own personal purchase history I might have bought bitcoin maybe like a total of 15 or 20 times? 

So the reason why I feel that this is significant is that every single time each and every single time, you’re planning on purchasing bitcoin or doing something, there is intent, focus, effort, having to judge and balance your emotions etc. 

So for example, obviously every single time that you’re going to want to buy bitcoin or whatever, there’s always gonna be some sort of economic calculus, some sort of judging and weighing the price, thinking about timing etc. And all while doing this thinking about the long-term. 

Commitment

It seems that in today’s world we do not like commitment. Maybe the whole reason that people shy away from marriage is that people are afraid of committing? 

“we are in an exclusive relationship”

One very funny trend I see is the whole idea of being polygamist, which means that you are just not in a relationship with one person, but you could be with many. 

Certainly the funny thought is obviously marriage is kind of a sociological construct. But at the same time, Zeus and Hera, maybe I’ll be at they were born of the same thighbone or whatever, were married. They were husband and wife. And of course, even the hilarity of Homer’s prose, they were always quarreling.

In praise of commitment

But, the interesting thought is often times commitment is liberating freeing, and just a lot simpler and more direct.

For example, traditional finance and economic investing theory says that one should always “diversify“, to be committed to just 100% one thing is a foolish errand. But, let us say that on the planet there is clean water and there is sewer water. Why would you diversify to drink sewer water to simply have a “diversified portfolio”, when you know there is one true clean water?

Or let us say religion: would you “diversify” by believing a lot of different religions simply for the sake of diversification?  

Why?

So why do people even diversify in the first place? 

First, a hedge against uncertainty and the future. 

People are afraid, and it seems that a lot of people want to just mitigate risk. Which means they want to lower the chance of themselves from losing money. 

in search of superior yield

So for example, if I could tell you with 100% certainty to you that bitcoin is going to go up, forever, at 60% ARR for the next 100 years, yet there’s going to be big swings, like up swings and down swings which are 30%, would you do it? The rational thing is of course yes. As investors, and capitalists, our prime goal is in search of superior yield. It doesn’t matter how big or low the swings are, we will always want superior yield over the long-term, even though the swings may be drastic?

Or let us say that I can guarantee you 100% boring 10% ARR for the next 100 years, which is technically below the cost of capital which is 15% ARR (the performance of the S&P 500 index), and there will never be any dramatic swings.

Investing philosophy is like life philosophy?

Well let me give you an example… Let us say that I could promise you two lives: both lives you will live to be 100 years old. The first life is a life in which you are given a 100% boring existence, with no major swings up or down. Or let us say I could promise you a life which has extreme swings up and down, but will ultimately yield you 1000 times more interesting fun and joyful life. Which one would you choose? 

I think a lot of people they choose The steady boring life. Why? My personal thought is modern day society, we have been conditioned to be like safe cattle, we want to be safe, played safe because a lot of socialization is about imputing ourselves with fear; I almost wonder if like 99% of marketing is actually fear marketing, to get you to buy some sort of stupid insurance life plan or whatever. 

Seek the most supremely glorious life 

The funny truth is I never felt that bitcoin was risky, it was just kind of a new technology which was not yet mainstream? 

Now that bitcoin has essentially hit 100 K, it’s pretty much mainstream at this point. And this is good because you’re going to start to see the network effects. For example do you remember the early days of Facebook, in which only college students were allowed access to Join Facebook? At the time you were actually required to have a .EDU email address  to sign up for Facebook. But once they opened up the gates, everyone joined in masses.

I wonder if bitcoin is the same, rather than thinking about all these weird crypto anarchists, maybe a more  approachable way you could just think about it is like imagine like bitcoin being the new Facebook, but for digital money and capital.

Or like imagining like bitcoin like the new iPhone, iOS, iMessage and iCloud FaceTime etc.; the general idea is that if you have an iPhone, and I have an iPhone, and we both have FaceTime, this makes both of our lives 1 trillion times easier than if you had a Samsung or android or Google pixel, and I had an iPhone. In fact, I still do believe that FaceTime is the killer app, because of FaceTime, I slowly got the whole family into the iPhone Apple ecosystem. Because I no longer wanted to use stupid KakaoTalk or even worse — google hangouts or Google meet or whatever.

This is also where I believe that maybe in the long run, Google won’t really be around anymore. Why? It seems that the primary issue is google doesn’t really seem to be a sustainable business. The only two things we are really hooked on is Google maps and YouTube, But besides this, now that ChatGPT and ChatGPT search is starting to gobble up the market, I wonder if one day Apple will just get into a partnership with ChatGPT and just replaced the default browser instead with search GPT, this would be a huge risk factor for Google.

Why are we so scared of volatility?

 Where does our fear of volatility come from?

Certainly, it is kind of maybe human nature. Like if you see a big swing up or down, it is kind of an emotional roller coaster: as a consequence, what you must do is steel your nerves. And, if you’re an inexperienced weightlifter or power lifter, or one rep max lifter, then, certainly the fear of attempting awaits that you have never attempted before is always going to be a little bit scary.

Maybe not at the age of 36, I’m in the prime of my life. Why? I’ve been investing in the stock market, with mutual funds and individual stocks ever since I was 15 years old, and now that I’m 36, technically I’ve been in the game for over 20 years. I’m no longer a kid.

I also recall that when I was starting off my street photography journey at the right age of 21, I was a lot more insecure about myself, but now, like a grown ass middle-aged man, I got nothing but 100% confidence and courage and chutzpah on my side.

Why?

Now, it is more like an ethical imperative for me — 

For example, if you discovered the cure for cancer or diabetes or type two diabetes or whatever, wouldn’t you want to share the gospel with everyone you know? 

Or if you found the cure for heart disease heart attack, everything… Wouldn’t you want to share this information with others, even if they did not like it? 

I’ll give an example, I think one of the most important doctors of all time had a very simple idea: wash your hands with soap and sterilize your equipment before delivering a baby. A lot of doctors at the time thought this was absolutely ridiculous, yet this simple suggestion has probably saved millions of lives of babies throughout the years. 

Or another simple idea: before drinking the sewer water, maybe it’s a good idea to boil the water to sanitize it before drinking it. 

Even I think an ancient times, the only reason people drink wine wasn’t to get drunk, in fact back then the mixture of alcohol and wine and water content was actually very very low, which means that the wine was actually not that strong it was quite weak. The only reason they drink wine was the water was infected. And I think even German monks who drank beer, it wasn’t because they wanted to get drunk but if you fermented beer it did not kill you with dysentery with a traditional contaminated sewer water.

Bitcoin is clean water

You know that there’s all these campaigns around the planet like building and clean water wells in Africa and the like?

Bitcoin is kinda like the same thing. If you discovered clean water, wouldn’t you want to share joy with others? 

The best way to be an evangelist

So you don’t want to be one of those Bible thumpers, holding across on third street promenade telling the gay people that they’re going to hell. This is not very effective marketing or PR. 

The best way to get people to convert, etc.… Is much more subtle. It is a soft assault encouragement, a take it or leave it mentality. 

What I also appreciate about being catholic Roman Catholic is that we are not forceful evangelist, at least not in modern times. It’s cool to encourage your friends to go to church with you, but there’s never any pressure. There’s no protestant rock Jesus loving parties or stuff like that. 

Take it or leave it?



So curiosity is that which you care for, yet when it comes to curiosity, it is strangely moralized. 

For example, curiosity killed the cat. 

a world without curiosity is not a world worth living in?

So Elon Musk said he is typically driven by curiosity. Curiosity is the ultimate antifragile trait; the ultimate driving factor.

Curiosity about things and experiences?

I think for myself… My whole life I was always curious about certain states, life states, experiences etc. Even curiosity about wealth; I suddenly became super rich, how would I change and live my life differently?

But now that I am super rich and Walty, it almost happened overnight, granted it was in the making for seven years; I started stacking bitcoin 2018,  getting into bitcoin ever since it was only $7000 a coin.

And now, my enthusiasm has not lit up. In fact, it has simply intensified? 

---

Why rappers make poor role models

Rappers are always talking about money, never capital.

Even the good rappers like Jay Z… They then talk about wealth and generational wealth, but never capital?

Capital?

what people don’t understand about capital, like becoming a great capitalist is that actually, is not about money in the traditional sense.

So for example, my personal thought is money is more about purchasing power, not real economic power.

For example, who has more power, the guy who lives on fifth Avenue and owns like 20 square blocks on the main island, or the person who lives in the suburbs of Long Island or Queens with a big house in the middle of nowhere, and has a lot of US dollars in his bank account? But owns no physical property in Manhattan?

LA

The funny thing about LA is most people are not from LA, nor do they intend on staying in LA etc. And also it is the culture in which it is true; you are your car your car is you.

It is easy to stereotype people based on the car they drive, and how they drive their personality their whole ethos etc.

The only people I trust are people who drive a Toyota Prius; if in fact you were a real economist or capitalist, you would know that the primary goal is to live as ascetic and spartan frugal lifestyle humanly possible, and to just pour all of your money into accumulating your capital.

New Capital

I had a random thought, so Korean people immigrated to America because they called it the beautiful country (Mee-Gguk), (Beautiful Country). They did so to seek greater economic opportunities than stuffy Korea.

it seems that most physical hand is already tapped out, that was a 20th century notion like 100 200 300 years ago… But now that we live in the year 2024 and beyond… The new property is cyber space.

I think the thing that is difficult to understand about cyberspace is that conceptually it seems infinite and unlimited like the Internet, but if we think bitcoin, which is limited 21 million blocks, 21 million coins, 21 million units, then,… Bitcoin or the whole cyber real estate notion is the most valuable thing of them all.

Why? it seems that most people are always looking on places to park their capital and economic work and wealth; they don’t want it to be seized by a bunch of communist, like the poor Vietnamese people who fled Vietnam during the communist takeover, even people who fled from Mao Zedong, or even the poor Lebanese for fleeing from the attacks from Israel.

Trust no Marxist, communist spoon fed kid

If you’re just an American like a typical American who is born here with your American citizenship… And you never had to face peril… You probably don’t really know how much of the world works. It seems that historically much of wealth is seized forcibly from other people, governments, or revolutionary regimes.

Why is it that a lot of these kids who are born with trust funds, or born from wealthy families are the ones who embrace communism Karl Marx and Marxism? Because they are the ones who were never raised with true poverty, — I think for any family that actually had to deal with true oppression, poverty, everyone knows that capitalism is the best system.

Infinite opportunity

Capitalism is not zero sum. Understanding that wealth is just a human made notion, the ability for growth and prosperity is infinite for all.

And this is my personal imperative behind bitcoin; because I personally grew up super poor, always in financial peril, and finally kind of making it in America, I feel like it is almost my ethical duty to give back or at least to share the things I’ve learned along the way.

Any individual family or nation nation state on the bitcoin standard shall prosper. There are no losers on the bitcoin standard, only varying degrees of success.

ERIC

Economics by KIM

1. Money is For Slaves
2. Growth
3. Think Volume
4. Think Payoffs
5. Kaizen Gains
6. Cost to Capital
7. Price vs Value
8. EVERYONE WINS!
9. INVESTING PR’S
10. The Philosophy of Investing
11. ERIC KIM VENTURE CAPITALIST
12. How to FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early)
13. How to *Save* a Million Dollars
14. Increase Value
15. MAYBE IT IS A GOOD IDEA TO BUY HIGH
16. Banks Are the True Menace to Society
17. THE PROMISE OF FUTURE MONOPOLY PROFITS?
18. High gas prices are good
19. What is Capitalism?
20. Pride in What You Paid For
21. On Making Money from Nothing
22. Save Money Towards What Ends?
23. No Regret Investment

I’ve never owned property in the traditional sense in my life. It is still kind of a strange and elusive concept for me. 

For example, homeownership, is talented as some sort of desideratum, a thing to be desired. 

So for example, I think like the baby boomer generation, the life goal of everybody was to own your own property? Like purchasing a single-family home, a plot of land etc.? 

Land?

Even Cindy’s mom said it best, you don’t own the property, the government owns it. Even assuming that you buy a plot of land or property in all cash, you’re still going to pay around like 1%, 1.05% property taxes on it like forever.

Even if you buy a house which is like $1.4 million or something, I think that’s like $1250 a month Justin property taxes, and then after homeowners insurance and stuff, which could also be considered an additional non-direct tax, You might be looking at like $2000 a month, just in “taxes”. Just throw in another thousand dollars and you already have rent.

Why?

I thought this morning is in regards to the philosopher; what is a philosopher? A philosopher simply somebody who posits desideratum — what we should desire, what we should not desire. 

 For example, under no circumstances should we desire slavery poverty and to be encumbered. On the contrary, what we should desire is freedom, power and control; consider the blissful authority and self sovereignty of the Spartans.

New Slaves?

See there’s leaders and there’s followers, but I’d rather be a dick than a swallower! – Ye

 the tricky thing with a lot of modern day life is that a lot of the stuff is actually self-imposed slavery. For example let us say that you buy the new BMW M3, yet you finance it, I think the original word for finance actually means ransom.

So let us say that you’re paying like $1450 a month, just for your car payment. To me this seems like the most insanely foolish financial decision of all time; if you simply pour that into bitcoin, and assuming that bitcoin is going to at least 100X from here, maybe even 1000x, then what that means is that the payments on your car, is like metaphorically paying $15,000, $150,000, or even $1.5 million a month!  

Future projections

If I could tell you with 100% certainty that in 21 years, bitcoin would be worth $100 million a coin, maybe even 105 million a coin, which means that assuming that bitcoin is around $100,000 today, that is like a 1000X gain 21 years from now.

Certainly it is possible you could die in a texting while driving accident today or tomorrow, but if you plan long-term —  if I told you that the money that you put in this thing today will yield 1000 X 21 years from now, and I could guarantee you with 100% certain that you would be alive healthy and well 21 years from now, wouldn’t you plan things differently and spend differently?

For example, that hundred dollars you put into that thing, could be worth $1000, $10,000, $100,000– or even $1M! If that were the case wouldn’t you plan things differently?

Once again, $100 today being worth $1M in 21 years, with 100% certainty ,,, wouldn’t you plan your life differently?

First, you would certainly be much more scrappy, frugal, and pursue a much more austere and critical and Spartan lifestyle today. Of course there are certain things you gotta do like feed yourself, pay rent etc., but beyond this… Even thinking about recurring subscriptions and services, that $20 a month you’re spending on Spotify, what if that after doing the math, would mean that you’re paying $200,000 a month for Spotify? Why don’t you just cancel that subscription and put that money into bitcoin instead?

Fractional property ownership

I think this is the big idea here; the general idea that you cannot buy a fraction of an apartment on fifth Avenue in New York. You cannot buy like a square meter of an apartment complex in Gangnam. You cannot buy like a third of a single-family house in Culver City.

I think this is where the early days of bitcoin is interesting; people have not yet understood the notion of a Satoshi; sooner or later, I think the name Satoshi will become more famous than the name of any other modern day celebrity. Why? He’s like the Jesus of money!

Ownership is a state of mind?

I think a big thing to consider is that ownership, self ownership, self sovereignty is more of a mindset than anything. Even when I’m staring at my bitcoin balance, and the value of my microstrategy MSTR stock, none of it really feels real… It’s almost like I’m living in some sort of cyber virtual video game, except it isreal.  Not bad for a kid who grew up in poverty, mom going bankrupt twice, and dad gambling with the rent money to now at the age of 36, counting M’s.

The impetus to think long-term 

Once again, if I could tell you with 100% certainty that your investment today in bitcoin well thousand X 21 years now, aren’t you gonna do everything in your power to ensure that your health your physiology your sanity will be insanely robust 21 years from now? Would that also means that you’re probably not going to be engaging in degenerate activities today; Rather, it will probably encourage you to sober up, stop taking weird drugs, going to Coachella, wasting money on that new loser iPhone, that new loser Tesla cyber truck Lamborghini Ferrari whatever.

I think you will also become more critical about how you spend money. And how do you spend your life!

Also, I almost wonder if this one encourage more people to have kids; because you cannot be with your bitcoin dance to your dog; but bitcoin will last forever; you could give it to your kids kids kids kids kids, for when your kids kids kids have kids! 

the $1m iPhone 

A simple way to think about it is $1000 today is $1,000,000 21 years from now. 

So if that is the case, the smart strategy is to just hoard the cheapest iPhone, the iPhone SE, forever or however long you can. 

The $100M Cybertruck

Assuming that a cyber truck is like $100,000, that means that your cyber stuck  will cost you $100 million in 21 years.

I’m like 1000% Elon and Tesla, but still… The entrepreneur and innovator in me think more critically about this; 

Better to CYBERTRUCK your body than to just buy it. 

Also, the big issue here is that with a Tesla car, you never really own it, the same goes with any other vehicle; because ultimately you’re going to have to pay Insurance, maintenance, gasoline, stuff on it… What that then means is that you never own it in theory; You’re kind of just metaphorically leasing it. 

I’ll give you an example with Tesla; as long as that you have to use their proprietary software, you visit the local supercharging network etc., you’re still tied to Tesla the infrastructure forever.  and also if you need to get any repairs done, you’re going to be married to Tesla for the rest of your life.

Another big thought I had was you never really own an iPhone; you’re just kind of leasing it; why? Now that we are all married to the iCloud system, forever, you’re kind of just paying some sort of like revolving increasing expensive iPhone thing, to ever feed your iCloud subscription?

So you never really own an iPhone a Tesla, even a Ferrari or a Lamborghini or Porsche or whatever, the primary issue here is like let us say that you had to pay $1000 a month in insurance for the car, you have to maintain the car, replace the tires, do oil change etc., this could be seen as an indirect tax. 

Stop the bleeding!

Let us see that you have a healthy four-year-old boy, full of bigger energy and happiness, but let us say that you siphon off a little bit of his blood every single day for the rest of his life. What is going to happen to his growth ability? Probably not good. 

Economic vampires

I think I figured out fashion; all this marketing advertising magazines etc. is designed to make you feel shameful about your body, and how do we alleviate this? We cover up the ugliness of our body with other ugly expensive clothes, all produced in China or Vietnam, which is like a 98% markup on the actual clothes.

And this is the thing also with cars, we all have ugly weak unimpressive bodies, and we hide behind avail of our luxury vehicles, because we are ashamed of ourselves. 

You’ll see this with people who try to look antisocial but at the same time, with their 5% tennis sunglasses, or they’re fully tinted automobile cars, or with their baggy loose fitting clothes. 

It seems that the whole trend right now is that everyone for this weird, emo alien look? Balenciaga in the flesh?

Bitcoin is beautiful

What is the most beautiful thing on the planet? Or the known universe of humans? 

Bitcoin! 

Why? 

First, note how it is kind of like the ultimate perfected Zen and property. There is really no problems with it.

It’s like if Steve Jobs came out with her first iPhone, and he said that this would be how the iPhone would look forever, kind of the same thing. 

I think the reason why you should put zero faith in any other tokens or things which are not bitcoin is that they are all like the old versions of the Microsoft android phone, not worth anything, and they are simply supported by fake notions of value, hyped up by crypto influencers (side note– whenever you hear the word crypto, be very very wary). It is Bitcoin not crypto.

the Immaculate conception of bitcoin

I think what is so shocking and interesting about bitcoin is that it only ever had a version .01, and has not been messed with since. 

Compare this and contrast with all these other version twos of Ethereum and all these other loser copycats.

Why does this all matter?

If I could tell you that this was like Apple in the 1980s, or the early days of Apple Amazon Facebook Google, and you could invest in right now, and it will become the most valuable thing on the planet, wouldn’t you want a piece of the pie? 

Infinite pie

The double funny thing about bitcoin; 

in some ways it is infinite, but in some ways it is limited.

For example, any human on the planet could purchase a single Satoshi, I think like it is only .001 cents to purchase a Satoshi. 

In fact, my personal thought is if you really want to give somebody a meaningful present or tip somebody, just zap them a few Satoshi’s.

Or, let us say that your sibling has a child or a kid, I would actually say the most meaningful gift you give them is a single bitcoin. If and when my sister has a kid, I’m going to gift the kid a bitcoin. 

The new family Empire

So we’re still stuck in thinking about US dollars, like the question is always, how much is a single bitcoin worth right now? No. The more intelligent way to think about it is how many bitcoins do I currently own, and how much will it cost for me to acquire more bitcoins? 

Increasing your bitcoin yield

So the goal is to acquire and accumulate as many bitcoins as you can in this life, and to never spend it. 

So for example, it is always a good idea to buy Manhattan or cyber Manhattan. If over the last 300 years, your family was able to get fractional ownership of Manhattan, if that is the case, then, it is always a good idea to buy Manhattan. 

Why is so difficult to think about property and manage property

In some ways, property is just kind of a metaphor, kind of like a philosophical thing. It doesn’t really exist in the traditional sense, of course, plot of land is considered property. Yet when the Native Americans lived here, ain’t nobody ever took out a tape measure, measured the square footage of a plot of land, put a stick in the ground, and suddenly declare to the universe “I own this 5000 ft.² of land?”

Bitcoin is also fascinating because assuming that cyber space is more valuable than physical space, I think it is, assuming that the Internet is also more valuable than physical property, if that is the case… To be able to own a piece of cyberspace, is actually a very big idea. 

Nobody is anti-bitcoin

This is also another idea, all the other crypto assets are essentially pegged to the bitcoin. Even Ethereum, read the original white paper by Vitelic, he essentially was trying to “fix”, bitcoin, even though there was nothing needing to be fixed. 

So always be wary when somebody shows up to the party, and trying to fix something that isn’t even broken in the first place. This is why in general, anybody who tries to “optimize” something that is already working, … like a Doctor Who tries to prescribe blood thinners or cholesterol lowering medication to your healthy four-year-old, be very skeptical. 

who profits from what?

So this is a tricky thing, the ethics and the motivation behind it all. For example, somebody once asked me, is Michael Saylor ethical or unethical for promoting bitcoin, given the fact that he himself and his entity micro strategy owns a lot of it? 

 I would actually say it is 100% ethical for Michael sailor to promote bitcoin. Why? It’s almost like trying to encourage people to use the Internet, and saying that the Internet is good for the planet. In which it obviously is. 

 if anything what is actually super fascinating is that I’ve watched almost like four years of Michael sailor interviews, like nearly 100 of them, and for the first four years, he never once  even mentions his company micro strategy. And what is very ethical is the whole time he is talking about the magnificent seven, like Apple Amazon Facebook and the like. 

In fact, it almost took me like six months before I even figured out what micro strategy was. 

Anyways, it is always a good idea to follow somebody who never promotes themselves or their company, but rather, the asset behind it all. Which is bitcoin. 

For example, it’s like me going out and telling people that digital photography is superior to film photography or vice versa and the like. Or more like me encouraging people to open source their photos their information etc., I’m promoting a protocol and an idea.

Or for example, if I encourage people to start intermittent fasting, to stop drinking alcohol and marijuana, for people to become more frugal, for people to unsubscribe to subscriptions, what is unethical about this? 

Or if I encourage people to purchase beef ribs at Costco, I don’t really have anything to gain from this. 

Follow the money?

So currently speaking, real estate is traditionally the way that a lot of people get rich. For example if your a great great grandfather once bought an acre of land in San Francisco for like five acorns and two donkeys, that family assuming they did not do anything stupid would probably be insanely rich. 

Who encourages us to purchase single-family homes? Banks, real estate brokers etc. Why? By propping up this American dream of home ownership, they themselves get rich off of it. 

Compare this instead to an asset like bitcoin; there is nobody who controls bitcoin, Satoshi said toodaloo, and disappeared forever. Kind of like the immaculate Assumption back into heaven.

Everyone else is this spokesperson for their token or thing; Vitalik for Ethereum, Sergey for Chainlink, the scam artist who are proposing ADA Cardano (this one is really the biggest scam), even Elon Musk trolling Dogecoin. 

Only trust things or assets without an issuer.

For example, even apple, kind of a bearish future ahead of them, assuming they don’t integrate bitcoin into their ecosystem. Why? Even though Apple keeps pumping money into their Apple TV+, nobody really wants it or cares for it. And even at this point, nobody really wants the new iPhone, or the new iPhone Pro, they simply upgraded because they feel expected to; they have been holding off for so long like two or three years, their old phone is getting super slow, or they run out of storage, so they simply upgrade not because they want to but because they must!

ain’t no Tesla car going to last year 21 years

Even now, I feel bad for all of the early adopters or even the middle adopters of Tesla cars, your car is getting outdated like every year or two. And once the cyber taxi comes out, you’re going to be kicking yourself in the butt. 

I have like almost 100% certainty that my 2010 Prius will still be operable 21 years from now. Also my great joy is that I do all the oil changes with myself and Seneca, 100% full synthetic mobile one, K&N performance oil filters etc.

Even a random thing, the paint on it is actually still really good! I recently ordered some chemical guys detailing spray on Amazon, for only like 11 bucks, and now the car is so insanely and beautifully shiny! And I also assume that because it is more slick and slippery, what that then means is that it will repel more dirt and Moisture and water from it?

Things that last things which don’t

Even if you purchased the best 3M matte black vinyl wrap for your vehicle, it probably won’t last you for more than five years. Sooner or later it’s going to degrade, especially if you live in Sunny Los Angeles, the sun is so strong here.

Why is it so difficult for people to invest and think about things in the long-term?

I think maybe it is because people consume too much media and advertising. 

Even for myself, I don’t really like the bitcoin community on the Internet because I think they lack a lot. I’m more interested in philosophy, Spartan and ancient Greek aesthetics, weightlifting and the like. 

Even my pride is for so long, I never once listened to or read anything else by a crypto or bitcoin influencer or thought leader; in the early days, essentially all my thoughts were just my own; I first purchased bitcoin for $7000 a coin back in 2018 I think. 

And I was looking back at my purchase history, I’ve actually been very very consistent in purchasing bitcoin, the highs and lows and the mids, and even when I was purchasing bitcoin in the low 70s, at the time it seemed like a losing bed because bitcoin would keep dipping back into the low 60s and 59, And then, I don’t know where after the Trump victory, bitcoin skyrocketing to above $88,000 coin, and essentially hitting $100,000 a coin. And I’m almost like 1000% certain that by the time that Trump takes office January 20, 2025… Bitcoin will be far higher than than it is today. 

And also, with the Cynthia Lummis bill, the bitcoin act in which she will swap cold notes for bitcoin, and when that steak and dagger is inserted into the coffin, the value of bitcoin will explode! And then you’ll start seeing a huge race of nations trying to accumulate her bitcoin stock piles.

Bitcoin is cyber security

So what is another interesting idea is that essentially bitcoin is like solid solidified cyber Security. Future warfare will not be bombs and missiles it will all be cyber attack. Even right now, Apple pays big bucks for cyber security penetration testing; even apparently right now Gmail is getting attempted to be hacked like 1,000,000,000,000× a second, so cyber security is certainly maybe the most valuable thing on the planet. And even your checking bank account, that is all cyber security. Even though we hate the banks, it is still impressive that if you have a certain amount of field currency in your checking account, how it is almost 100% guaranteed to remain there.

You could send Messages via bitcoin

Let us say that you have a certain message or will or Testament or some sort of really really critical information, that you need to have conveyed to the next party, the bitcoin network is the way. You cannot stop it, even if you had 1000 quantum computers trying to stop you. 

So currently, the way that the world operates is through TCIP, POP,  email and the Internet. I think people don’t understand yet, the bitcoin is not just cyber money in capital, it is something greater and even more beyond!

Where money and capital collide 

So currently you could get a Coinbase debit Visa card in which you go to Costco and you could just use your bitcoin or crypto balance to pay for groceries. I did this once with chain-link, and it was really fascinating, like free money! 

Anyways, ultimately it is best to just never spend your bitcoin, because the value is going to go up forever. It’s like probably not a good idea to sell an eighth of your apartment building on fifth Avenue, to buy a two bitcoin Lamborghini, or whatever.

But in theory, you could. And also… Like cash, bitcoin is cash, and also capital… You could just zap somebody $100,000 worth of bitcoin, and the final settlement will just take a few minutes, rather than the tedious process of having to go through a bank, and a trusted intermediary. 

For example, do you know how difficult it is to just wire $1 million into somebody else’s bank account? Or try 100 million? Or 1 billion? 

With bitcoin you can! 

the best gift this holiday season

Once again a big disruptive idea… Rather than trying to buy your friends families and yourself these mediocre polyester clothes, just buy them bitcoin or yourself bitcoin! Just download and install Coinbase, or if you have the cash app you could just buy bitcoin there! 20 bucks 50 bucks 100 bucks, whatever. 

Even think about it… Let us say that that $20 sandwich, will 1000x from here, $20,000 sandwich –?

So imagine if just for somebody’s birthday or something, you just give them like $50 worth of bitcoin, that is like you’re giving them a $50,000 gift? Pretty cool. 

Bitcoin for kids

Seneca is about to turn four, and he already knows what bitcoin is. Whenever he sees a graph, or he immediately says bitcoin! 

If a four-year-old child understands what bitcoin is, could recognize the logo, and pronounce it easily, very good sign. 

I would not be surprised if in the future, Vegas and casinos in the lake will also give you the opportunity to gamble bitcoin. Can you imagine going to a high roller roulette bar, and pledging like 10 bitcoins on a spin?

Or, maybe instead of buying your wife that overpriced diamond ring, you gift her a bitcoin instead? 

Bitcoin jewelry?

I have another funny idea, what if you became like a bitcoin jeweler, and I would give you a patch or a bitcoin ring or a bitcoin earring or bracelet, for every bitcoin you own? 

What is funny is that actually in today’s world, when you have these expensive vehicles, in some ways you’re kind of parading your net worth. 

For example, if you drive a cyber truck, you’re essentially telling the world that you could afford $100,000 on a vehicle. 

Or if you drive a Lamborghini or Ferrari or a Porsche 911 GT 3RS, that you could afford 250,000, 500,000, million dollars on a vehicle. 

But this is a weird thought; do you really want people to know how rich you are? If you’re really smart, no. 

Why? If people really knew how rich you were, certainly they would try to rob you or ransom you. 

And this is actually where it is so courageous that Michael Saylor publicly disclosed how many bitcoins he owns, because this actually does put his life in danger, any thug on the street with a gun, who knows that he lives in Miami Beach, could try to rob him of his bitcoins. 

And this is why Satoshi will never really reveal himself, because, his net worth is probably more valuable than even Elon Musk, I think in the next decade you will see Satoshi or his bitcoin wallet be worth than most nation states, certainly making him the richest person on the planet. 

But if anyone really hundred percent figured out who said who she would be, he would be in peril. 

Deduction

She is probably a single dude, without kids or family, kind of like a monk, or maybe like John Wick? 

Is John Wick Satoshi? 

ERIC

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EK INFORMATION SUPPLY

Introduction to bitcoin free open source workshop, December 14, 2024 — Register here for free

so this open source introduction to bitcoin workshop I’m super excited and pumped for. Why? It’s going to be a synthesis of everything I know and understand and love about bitcoin. 

For those skeptical or suspicious, come on… It’s free and open source, you don’t really have anything to lose. 

Kind of the impetus behind it is that I’m like inviting everyone I know, even my mom is inviting her friends on kakao talk! 

Essentially I do not know any human being on the planet who does not want to improve his or her financial condition, and or your family. 

Money finances and prosperity, isn’t this something we all care for? 

things to be grateful for

Thanksgiving is giving thanks, giving thanks to being alive, being the full for even waking up this morning! Being grateful for not having the stomach flu, be grateful for the sun etc.

Being grateful for your family member is still alive, being grateful for love! 

I’m grateful for you! 

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Now what?

Some simple action items: 

1. Start buying bitcoin on Coinbase or the cash app, whatever is simpler and easier for you
2. I would actually encourage you not to buy gifts for friends and families, just gift them and zap them with bitcoin instead
3. If you want to learn more about bitcoin the best is to just go to michael.com or hope.com
4. Ultimately even though microstrategy MSTR outperforms bitcoin, 120% ARR, compared to the 60% ARR of bitcoin,  ultimately the bitcoin is the goal, not the microstrategy stock even though in US dollars the value of MSTE explodes a lot more. A very very simple strategy I have is purchase microstrategy stock, mstr, and ride it up, and when you make a profit, sell some stock and use that to buy bitcoin.  For example, if you own like $150,000 worth of micro strategy stock, and it goes up to $200,000, sell $50,000 worth the stock, and funnel that money and use it to purchase more bitcoin. I call this double profit double dipping. 
5. Just think critically about the philosophy behind it all; once you’re worth $2 million, 3 million, 4 million 5 million, 10 million, $100m, $1B, $10B, really matter? Assuming that you’re going to still remain to live a frugal Spartan lifestyle? Because once again… The big idea; the true capitalist only cares to stack capital and bitcoin, not to buy silly things. 

ERIC

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Getting back on Twitter, X

Twitter and social media is a double edge sword, but in terms of critical financial information, I think the only one human worth following is @saylor — Michael Saylor.

It is probably the best place on the planet to get any sort of critical information about bitcoin and or micro strategy stock. 

100% all in. 150% all in? 

ERIC

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Bitcoin by KIM >

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If you want to be happy or happier, the best way to do it is to purchase accumulate and acquire bitcoin, like taking your economic happiness and energy, and putting it into an infallible bitcoin.

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Why bitcoin makes sense for digital nomads

So assuming that you’re living in Mexico City, Thailand, Vietnam Cambodia Laos, off the grid, and you love being off the grid, not being tied down by anything… Bitcoin is the ultimate freedom energy economic power property you can own. 

For example, I think one critical mistake a lot of millennials make is they want to buy some sort of like weird off-roading Mercedes sprinter van, and they essentially like a homeless people in RV parks?

Nontraditional ideas

So for myself, I’ve always had a passion for nontraditional idea paths etc. 

To be contrarian means to just go against the herd.

So for example, even though I’m a huge fan of Tesla and Elon Musk, am I the only successful millennial person individual, super rich who would actually prefer having a Toyota Prius or maybe now, the Lexus TX car? 

I think there’s a lot of press about you being able to camp and live in a cyber truck, and I think it’s a great idea, but, I find it actually much more practical to get like maybe a Lexus TX Plugin hybrid car, the ultimate luxury SUV minivan, and just sleep and live in the trunk of that? The side is once again, the plug-in hybrid concept is still the most best double leverage thing you can get; the side of gasoline, which power is like 90% of humanity, and also, electricity, the Hybrid engine, as well as the plug-in capability.

Something that people don’t really talk about is that the upside of having a hybrid car is that when you idle, most often times it is silent. This is phenomenally fantastic if you’re taking a nap in the car with your kid! No solo gasoline car is worth it; either hybrid, plug-in hybrid or nothing. 

a vehicle is bad

Once again, even today… We are still stuck in this slave like mentality of vehicle ownership. I suppose the good thing about having an old Prius is that it never feels like a liability. If somebody steals it, hit it I could care less. 

Also pro tip, if you have peeling paint or something on your car, just order some 3M matte black vinyl vehicle wrap online, cut it yourself and just stick it on like a sticker! Looks very cool. 

Lunar white

Another funny trend, everyone in LA wants to murder at their cars in all black, but, this is a positively bad idea because Los Angeles is essentially a desert with lots of dirt particles in the air, the ideal car color is either white or some sort of desert tan color; any color which does not show dirt. 

And also a lot of these fools don’t understand is that if you have a black vehicle, you’re going to get cooked alive in the summertime! 

Make white cool again

The funny thing is actually… When I was a kid growing up, nobody wanted to own a black car. A sports car was universally red; everyone wanted the red Integra type R, with the gloss white rims. 

Vehicles and society

I could care less about your four bitcoin Ferrari, or your two bitcoin Lamborghini. Or your one bitcoin cyber truck. 

What is super interesting and fasting about bitcoin is that it is almost like wealth on wheels. And only that but it is like the ultimate type of wealth and property you could actually own. Why? It is like perpetually in your mind in your head and your soul; and it is not physical, yet it is real and exists. 

A lot of people don’t understand what this point is, they think that it is fake money. But no, bitcoin is digital cyber capital, which is 1 trillion times more profound as an idea. 

Why? If you could teleport a skyscraper into cyberspace, make it immortal, immutable, indefinitely divisible, with no property tax, no mayor trying to put regulations on you, no death in decay, no annoying tenants etc.… You essentially have perfected digital and cyber capital And property. 

Why do people even purchase real estate in the first place?

Traditionally, in the past, you only purchased real estate not for the utility purposes, but rather, as a long-term store value and or maybe income generation? 

The difficult thing is at best, you have to skillfully manage your real estate and property, get good tenants, collect the rent, but still you might have to deal with Insurance, things breaking, changing zoning laws in your local city or area, etc. 

no property taxes

I think this is a hard thing for a lot of people to understand is that you cannot tax bitcoin, only if you sell it. But if you never intend to sell it, you will never actually incur a capital gains tax, and even greater… The amazing thing about bitcoin is that assuming that it is digital property, you don’t have to pay Property taxes for simply holding it and owning it.

The scam of physical property?

Let us say you buy a $2 million home in all cash, but still… Even with a nominal 1 to 1.25 or 1.5% property tax, you’re going to be paying like 2000, $2500, maybe even $3000 a month in property taxes, simply for owning the thing. And you’re going to have to pay that forever. 

This is kind of a scary thing… And it seems a little bit weird and unethical; if you own a piece of land, why do you need to pay taxes simply for the right of owning it? 

Like for example if I own a gold bar, in this gold bar is my property, I don’t have to pay 1% tax on it, simply for owning it, forever?

Even in some ways, maybe we consider inflation like an indirect tax on you. For example if you have like $1 million of cash just sitting in a checking account, the reason why this is bad is because it is draining economic energy like 15% a year. For example you’re $1 million worth of cash is going to degrade to like 750,000 the first year, $500,000 the next year, $250,000 the next year, down to $125k the next year etc. kind of a really bad situation. 

Bitcoin is going to go out forever with volatility

Volatility is energy power and vitality and vigor. 

Volatility is power!

So for example, a nuclear reactor is very very volatile, but it is perhaps maybe one of the best blessings for humankind, because if managed in handled properly, it’s like free electricity and power for everyone forever. 

Bitcoin is like nuclear economic energy and power. Maybe people are afraid of bitcoin like they are afraid of nuclear power plants. Certainly we do not want a Fukushima,,, but still, certainly in the early adoption years of electricity, I’m sure that there are some people who accidentally electrified themselves to death. 

Also, I am also very certain in the early days of fire, there must have been some caveman who were burned to death.

Or even the early water wheel, I’m sure there are some people who accidentally got crushed to death by it. But we do not ban these things simply because there were a handful of people who died from it.

Bitcoin is the new fire

If you think about Satoshi like being Prometheus, who brought fire to the masses, isn’t this like the greatest blessing of all time? 

It seems that Michael Saylor and the like talk about Satoshi with some sort of extremely deep reverence. Even I was shocked.

Also what becomes very interesting about bitcoin in general is that it definitely is starting to become like religious at this perspective. Like even beyond a cult. Religion. 

Satoshi as the new Jesus? 

The immaculate conception of bitcoin, Satoshi, giving this gift to humanity, and essentially disappearing forever. 

Anybody who claims to be Satoshi, ignore them, they certainly are not. Why? Because 1, million bitcoins is essentially like worth what, $200 billion or something, essentially in the next upcoming months and years you’re going to see Satoshi becoming even richer than Elon Musk. And I’m very certain that within the next 5 to 10 years, you’re going to see Michael Saylor maybe being at least 2 to 3 times richer Than even Elon Musk. 

Anyways if you have that much energy power in wealth and bitcoins, you are not going to want to have anybody know who you are because realistically your life will probably be in peril. 

Why Michael Saylor might be the most important individual of all time

Very simple thing… He has literally almost like tripled my net worth in the matter of three months? There is no other human being on the planet who has ever directly or indirectly did this for me? 

And the reason why this is such a big deal is once again, now, as a consequence, the cost of living in LA becomes like a joke, really kind of not a big deal, I feel comfortable having 2, 3, 4 or even five kids. 

Economic buffer

Another mistake that people make is that the point of becoming super rich is not to suddenly go out and buy a bunch of silly things. The purpose of the point is instead, to rather, live a more carefree life, less stress less anxieties less annoyance. Dropping $500 on beef ribs at Costco is just like a drop in the bucket. 

Becoming more spartan

At this point the only money I spend on myself is my weightlifting equipment, my beef ribs, and maybe some new Vibram five fingers when my shoes fall apart. But besides this, I have like no use for money. 

And once again, the goal is to build in stack capital, we all live in capitalism, not “moneyism”.

ERIC KIM CAPITAL a good ring to it. 

or

ERIC KIM KAPITAL

---

What is the purpose for the joy of capitalism?

Ironically enough it is once again not really about consumerism, if you were a real capitalist, your joy is more in senior capital stack, not seeing it becoming depleted because you bought some sort of loser Ferrari or Porsche. 

I’m still shocked; 95% of water in America, we are simply being baited along by having some sort of allure of some sort of luxury vehicle but isn’t ideal to be like a digital nomad, traveling to Japan and Kyoto, visiting the Hot Springs, or living this luxurious Expat life in Cambodia Vietnam or Thailand? 

For example, my friend Todd Hata did it well, he sold his old house in the mountains in LA, and is essentially like on the road 90% of the year, jumping between Mexico City, Thailand, Greece etc. His passion has always been travel, and food and experiences, very wise.

Why bitcoin is good for everyone on the planet

Even if you’re the average American, most people cannot afford to purchase physical property. And once again, if you do the math, after homeowners insurance, Tax, fire taxes,  stuff breaking, having to change the roof, getting a new washer and dryer or dishwasher, upgrading your kitchen, you’re going to bleed yourself dry. And not only that but I think being a homeowner becomes a new consumerist things; spent too much time thinking about how to break down walls to extend your home, build an ADU, update the kitchen whatever. Or expanding your garden, changing the flooring etc.

But don’t you realize that the best thing to do is just be in nature? Or just drive to the Huntington Gardens on the weekend, or just travel to Japan instead? In fact when you go on a flight, and you see all these little tiny homes From Birds Eye view, you realize how ridiculous the desire of homeownership is.

The new desire for bitcoin ownership

I think real estate will be the next sector that bitcoin gobbles up. The average GenZ person doesn’t care for buying a house, they want to just play pickle ball, go hiking and camping, go on road trips, buy the newest iPhone etc. Pursue their hobbies and passions. 

Millennials, we are a funny basket case. We used to be like GenZ, wanting to travel to planet, become a digital nomad, etc.… But somewhere along the line, maybe because of Covid, we tried to settle down and buy single-family homes instead? Or condos?

Take it back to the beginning

I’m starting to feel like this is the early the Internet, AOL, AOL 3.0, you got mail, dial up 56K modems etc. 

You got bitcoin!

I also like bitcoin because it is just easier to mentally and mathematically remember things. Easier to remember how many bitcoins you have on the top of your head, rather than trying to tabulate all the ones and zeros of all your fake fiat based assets? 

Rather than thinking about your net worth, easier to just remember your net bitcoins; 

Whenever I find out that somebody else is into bitcoin, I have zero issues asking them how many bitcoins they own. Why? Because it is still a relatively new field, it is awkward to ask people how much US dollars they have in their savings account, or checking account, Easier to just ask the bitcoin question.

And for me, even owning a single bitcoin is like for me, owning like a square block of digital Manhattan or Kyoto. You know these rich families that own huge plots of land in desirable locations? Yeah, that’s like bitcoin. 

The new digital Beverly Hills

A single-family home in Beverly Hills is what like at least 5 million, 10 million, 25 million, 50 million? 100,000,000? 

My personal projection is if you tag the price of a bitcoin to desirable real estate in the Brentwood Hills or something, just think about what the land is worth for the Getty museum. Or like owning a piece of land or property next to the PCH in Malibu. But actually if you think about it, the value of a single bitcoin is worth 1 trillion times more than even the best property in Malibu. Why? The dangers of owning physical property, landslides, Robberies, general maintenance. The fear that your housekeeper is stealing your stuff.

For example, how comfortable are you leaving your $200,000 Rolex just sitting around? Probably not very comfortable. 

Consolidate all of your assets into bitcoin?

Bitcoin is the new family jewels. Take all of your scarce desirable assets like your Rolexes, your Leica, your Porsche and just buy bitcoin instead.

Because once again , to have any sort of physical property in the physical realm is a liability not an asset.

I’m starting to feel more bullish, increasing my target price of bitcoin to at least $55 million a coin. Probably higher.

So if that’s the case, if you took a $10,000 Rolex, and sold it, assuming that bitcoin is around $95,000 of bitcoin right now, even lower at 89,000 of bitcoin or even $85,000 of bitcoin, whatever it may… Is massive upside. 

---

611x

The $6 million Rolex? 

---

Just funnel your inheritance money into bitcoin 

Once again, so many of these things are just liabilities. I hate the fear of having to remember where I left it, and whether it is safe, whether it was stolen or not or whatever. Rather than putting your scarce desirable things into a physical vault, isn’t it far safer for it to be in a cyber Vault, on the Blockchain?

The Blockchain is the new cloud

What is the Blockchain,? It is like the cloud on steroids, with 1000 X more security power and cryptographic security. 

It took a long time for people to trust putting files on the cloud, or photos on the cloud, but now it seems like the obvious decision. 

I think the reason why I like Coinbase is that rather than having to memorize some keys in my head and have a hardware physical wallet, and knowing myself I am quite forgetful, you don’t want to lose like $1 billion worth of bitcoin because you forgot your password. I think this is also where this is a huge opportunity for Apple; if we have all of our bitcoin passwords and keys linked to our iCloud account, certainly we will never stop purchasing Apple devices. Even bigger, if Apple makes their own bitcoin ecosystem to custody your bitcoin in your Apple ID wallet, This could actually disrupt the whole Coinbase market. Let us consider that most of us have Apple Pay already enabled, how easy would it be to just buy bitcoin directly from your iPhone using Apple Pay? And it could be simple, you could just buy 10 bucks here, 20 bucks here, 50 bucks here, 100 bucks here etc.

I don’t have an Apple credit card or bank account, but this seems like a good idea. 

Let the markets go free!

I hate the weekends because the markets are closed. I would prefer a world in which my micro strategy stock could trade 24 7, 365, every day all day every day, on binance fidelity or something else.

Apparently in 1933, the way that the traditional stock market was structured was actually to legitimately create a cartel. This is like the almost the exact opposite of American values of freedom, self sovereignty and freedom. 

Michael Saylor had a very interesting idea; why can you not own Apple stock directly on your Apple iPhone? There is nothing unethical about it. And technologically, we live in the year 2024 of course could be physically possible. Even the stock market is mostly driven by robots, you no longer have guys on the slips of paper. It ain’t like the Wolf of Wall Street. It’s like the wolf of cyber Wall Street. 

Physical property has too many risk factors?

Even here in Culver City, kind of like peak LA, there are so many businesses which are getting shut down like even me and Seneca’s beloved shake shack, and even more shockingly today, chipotle. 

If these trusted namebrand businesses are struggling in going out of business because we cannot afford to pay the rent or whatever… Isn’t this pretty bad? 

And also, physical entropy. Once again, if you want a physical house, shit will always break and you’re going to have to be liable for it. 

Intelligent rent leverage

If you have an amazing landlord who always fixes everything super fast, even put in brand new appliances for you, leverage and milk that forever. 

Even we told our landlord that our washer washing machine had a little bit of rust in it, immediately sent in his team and installed a totally brand new Samsung washer and dryer , which might have caused like $5000 $6000?

Even another thing that was interesting, there were some palm trees which were growing on top of the roof, and he just sent in a team to get it all cut down and fixed up? 

Even we had some issues with our electricity and water and water heater, once again he snapped his fingers and got it all resolved in a day or two, while me and Seneca having a fun adventure at the park.

Your Archimedes lever in life

For myself, my core competency is within writing thinking blogging vlogging etc.  from an economic perspective it kind of makes no sense for me to waste my time having to manage a home and fix things.

I would rather manage thoughts ideas, big visions? 

---

Start stacking today!

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---

Think different, be different!

START HERE >

---

Do you want to be happy or happier, the best way to do it is to purchase accumulate and acquire bitcoin, like taking your economic happiness and energy, and putting it into an infallible bitcoin.

---

Why bitcoin makes sense for digital nomads

So assuming that you’re living in Mexico City, Thailand, Vietnam Cambodia Laos, off the grid, and you love being off the grid, not being tied down by anything… Bitcoin is the ultimate freedom energy economic power property you can own.

For example, I think one critical mistake a lot of millennials make is they want to buy some sort of like weird off-roading Mercedes sprinter van, and they essentially like a homeless people in RV parks?

Nontraditional ideas

So for myself, I’ve always had a passion for nontraditional idea paths etc.

To be contrarian means to just go against the herd.

So for example, even though I’m a huge fan of Tesla and Elon Musk, am I the only successful millennial person individual, super rich who would actually prefer having a Toyota Prius or maybe now, the Lexus TX car?

I think there’s a lot of press about you being able to camp and live in a cyber truck, and I think it’s a great idea, but, I find it actually much more practical to get like maybe a Lexus TX Plugin hybrid car, the ultimate luxury SUV minivan, and just sleep and live in the trunk of that? The side is once again, the plug-in hybrid concept is still the most best double leverage thing you can get; the side of gasoline, which power is like 90% of humanity, and also, electricity, the Hybrid engine, as well as the plug-in capability.

Something that people don’t really talk about is that the upside of having a hybrid car is that when you idle, most often times it is silent. This is phenomenally fantastic if you’re taking a nap in the car with your kid! No solo gasoline car is worth it; either hybrid, plug-in hybrid or nothing. 

a vehicle is bad

Once again, even today… We are still stuck in this slave like mentality of vehicle ownership. I suppose the good thing about having an old Prius is that it never feels like a liability. If somebody steals it, hit it I could care less.

Also pro tip, if you have peeling paint or something on your car, just order some 3M matte black vinyl vehicle wrap online, cut it yourself and just stick it on like a sticker! Looks very cool.

Lunar white

Another funny trend, everyone in LA wants to murder at their cars in all black, but, this is a positively bad idea because Los Angeles is essentially a desert with lots of dirt particles in the air, the ideal car color is either white or some sort of desert tan color; any color which does not show dirt.

And also a lot of these fools don’t understand is that if you have a black vehicle, you’re going to get cooked alive in the summertime!

Make white cool again

The funny thing is actually… When I was a kid growing up, nobody wanted to own a black car. A sports car was universally red; everyone wanted the red Integra type R, with the gloss white rims.

Vehicles and society

I could care less about your four bitcoin Ferrari, or your two bitcoin Lamborghini. Or your one bitcoin cyber truck.

What is super interesting and fasting about bitcoin is that it is almost like wealth on wheels. And only that but it is like the ultimate type of wealth and property you could actually own. Why? It is like perpetually in your mind in your head and your soul; and it is not physical, yet it is real and exists.

A lot of people don’t understand what this point is, they think that it is fake money. But no, bitcoin is digital cyber capital, which is 1 trillion times more profound as an idea.

Why? If you could teleport a skyscraper into cyberspace, make it immortal, immutable, indefinitely divisible, with no property tax, no mayor trying to put regulations on you, no death in decay, no annoying tenants etc.… You essentially have perfected digital and cyber capital And property. 

Why do people even purchase real estate in the first place?

Traditionally, in the past, you only purchased real estate not for the utility purposes, but rather, as a long-term store value and or maybe income generation?

The difficult thing is at best, you have to skillfully manage your real estate and property, get good tenants, collect the rent, but still you might have to deal with Insurance, things breaking, changing zoning laws in your local city or area, etc.

no property taxes

I think this is a hard thing for a lot of people to understand is that you cannot tax bitcoin, only if you sell it. But if you never intend to sell it, you will never actually incur a capital gains tax, and even greater… The amazing thing about bitcoin is that assuming that it is digital property, you don’t have to pay Property taxes for simply holding it and owning it.

The scam of physical property?

Let us say you buy a $2 million home in all cash, but still… Even with a nominal 1 to 1.25 or 1.5% property tax, you’re going to be paying like 2000, $2500, maybe even $3000 a month in property taxes, simply for owning the thing. And you’re going to have to pay that forever. 

This is kind of a scary thing… And it seems a little bit weird and unethical; if you own a piece of land, why do you need to pay taxes simply for the right of owning it?

Like for example if I own a gold bar, in this gold bar is my property, I don’t have to pay 1% tax on it, simply for owning it, forever?

Even in some ways, maybe we consider inflation like an indirect tax on you. For example if you have like $1 million of cash just sitting in a checking account, the reason why this is bad is because it is draining economic energy like 15% a year. For example you’re $1 million worth of cash is going to degrade to like 750,000 the first year, $500,000 the next year, $250,000 the next year, down to $125k the next year etc. kind of a really bad situation.

Bitcoin is going to go out forever with volatility

Volatility is energy power and vitality and vigor.

Volatility is power!

So for example, a nuclear reactor is very very volatile, but it is perhaps maybe one of the best blessings for humankind, because if managed in handled properly, it’s like free electricity and power for everyone forever.

Bitcoin is like nuclear economic energy and power. Maybe people are afraid of bitcoin like they are afraid of nuclear power plants. Certainly we do not want a Fukushima,,, but still, certainly in the early adoption years of electricity, I’m sure that there are some people who accidentally electrified themselves to death. 

Also, I am also very certain in the early days of fire, there must have been some caveman who were burned to death.

Or even the early water wheel, I’m sure there are some people who accidentally got crushed to death by it. But we do not ban these things simply because there were a handful of people who died from it.

Bitcoin is the new fire

If you think about Satoshi like being Prometheus, who brought fire to the masses, isn’t this like the greatest blessing of all time?

It seems that Michael Saylor and the like talk about Satoshi with some sort of extremely deep reverence. Even I was shocked.

Also what becomes very interesting about bitcoin in general is that it definitely is starting to become like religious at this perspective. Like even beyond a cult. Religion.

Satoshi as the new Jesus? 

The immaculate conception of bitcoin, Satoshi, giving this gift to humanity, and essentially disappearing forever.

Anybody who claims to be Satoshi, ignore them, they certainly are not. Why? Because 1, million bitcoins is essentially like worth what, $200 billion or something, essentially in the next upcoming months and years you’re going to see Satoshi becoming even richer than Elon Musk. And I’m very certain that within the next 5 to 10 years, you’re going to see Michael Saylor maybe being at least 2 to 3 times richer Than even Elon Musk. 

Anyways if you have that much energy power in wealth and bitcoins, you are not going to want to have anybody know who you are because realistically your life will probably be in peril.

Why Michael Saylor might be the most important individual of all time

Very simple thing… He has literally almost like tripled my net worth in the matter of three months? There is no other human being on the planet who has ever directly or indirectly did this for me?

And the reason why this is such a big deal is once again, now, as a consequence, the cost of living in LA becomes like a joke, really kind of not a big deal, I feel comfortable having 2, 3, 4 or even five kids. 

Economic buffer

Another mistake that people make is that the point of becoming super rich is not to suddenly go out and buy a bunch of silly things. The purpose of the point is instead, to rather, live a more carefree life, less stress less anxieties less annoyance. Dropping $500 on beef ribs at Costco is just like a drop in the bucket.

Becoming more spartan

At this point the only money I spend on myself is my weightlifting equipment, my beef ribs, and maybe some new Vibram five fingers when my shoes fall apart. But besides this, I have like no use for money.

And once again, the goal is to build in stack capital, we all live in capitalism, not “moneyism”.

ERIC KIM CAPITAL a good ring to it.

or

ERIC KIM KAPITAL

---

What is the purpose for the joy of capitalism?

Ironically enough it is once again not really about consumerism, if you were a real capitalist, your joy is more in senior capital stack, not seeing it becoming depleted because you bought some sort of loser Ferrari or Porsche.

I’m still shocked; 95% of water in America, we are simply being baited along by having some sort of allure of some sort of luxury vehicle but isn’t ideal to be like a digital nomad, traveling to Japan and Kyoto, visiting the Hot Springs, or living this luxurious Expat life in Cambodia Vietnam or Thailand?

For example, my friend Todd Hata did it well, he sold his old house in the mountains in LA, and is essentially like on the road 90% of the year, jumping between Mexico City, Thailand, Greece etc. His passion has always been travel, and food and experiences, very wise.

Why bitcoin is good for everyone on the planet

Even if you’re the average American, most people cannot afford to purchase physical property. And once again, if you do the math, after homeowners insurance, Tax, fire taxes,  stuff breaking, having to change the roof, getting a new washer and dryer or dishwasher, upgrading your kitchen, you’re going to bleed yourself dry. And not only that but I think being a homeowner becomes a new consumerist things; spent too much time thinking about how to break down walls to extend your home, build an ADU, update the kitchen whatever. Or expanding your garden, changing the flooring etc.

But don’t you realize that the best thing to do is just be in nature? Or just drive to the Huntington Gardens on the weekend, or just travel to Japan instead? In fact when you go on a flight, and you see all these little tiny homes From Birds Eye view, you realize how ridiculous the desire of homeownership is.

The new desire for bitcoin ownership

I think real estate will be the next sector that bitcoin gobbles up. The average GenZ person doesn’t care for buying a house, they want to just play pickle ball, go hiking and camping, go on road trips, buy the newest iPhone etc. Pursue their hobbies and passions.

Millennials, we are a funny basket case. We used to be like GenZ, wanting to travel to planet, become a digital nomad, etc.… But somewhere along the line, maybe because of Covid, we tried to settle down and buy single-family homes instead? Or condos?

Take it back to the beginning

I’m starting to feel like this is the early the Internet, AOL, AOL 3.0, you got mail, dial up 56K modems etc.

You got bitcoin!

I also like bitcoin because it is just easier to mentally and mathematically remember things. Easier to remember how many bitcoins you have on the top of your head, rather than trying to tabulate all the ones and zeros of all your fake fiat based assets?

Rather than thinking about your net worth, easier to just remember your net bitcoins; 

Whenever I find out that somebody else is into bitcoin, I have zero issues asking them how many bitcoins they own. Why? Because it is still a relatively new field, it is awkward to ask people how much US dollars they have in their savings account, or checking account, Easier to just ask the bitcoin question.

And for me, even owning a single bitcoin is like for me, owning like a square block of digital Manhattan or Kyoto. You know these rich families that own huge plots of land in desirable locations? Yeah, that’s like bitcoin.

The new digital Beverly Hills

A single-family home in Beverly Hills is what like at least 5 million, 10 million, 25 million, 50 million? 100,000,000?

My personal projection is if you tag the price of a bitcoin to desirable real estate in the Brentwood Hills or something, just think about what the land is worth for the Getty museum. Or like owning a piece of land or property next to the PCH in Malibu. But actually if you think about it, the value of a single bitcoin is worth 1 trillion times more than even the best property in Malibu. Why? The dangers of owning physical property, landslides, Robberies, general maintenance. The fear that your housekeeper is stealing your stuff.

For example, how comfortable are you leaving your $200,000 Rolex just sitting around? Probably not very comfortable.

Consolidate all of your assets into bitcoin?

Bitcoin is the new family jewels. Take all of your scarce desirable assets like your Rolexes, your Leica, your Porsche and just buy bitcoin instead.

Because once again , to have any sort of physical property in the physical realm is a liability not an asset.

I’m starting to feel more bullish, increasing my target price of bitcoin to at least $55 million a coin. Probably higher.

So if that’s the case, if you took a $10,000 Rolex, and sold it, assuming that bitcoin is around $95,000 of bitcoin right now, even lower at 89,000 of bitcoin or even $85,000 of bitcoin, whatever it may… Is massive upside.

---

611x

The $6 million Rolex?

---

Just funnel your inheritance money into bitcoin 

Once again, so many of these things are just liabilities. I hate the fear of having to remember where I left it, and whether it is safe, whether it was stolen or not or whatever. Rather than putting your scarce desirable things into a physical vault, isn’t it far safer for it to be in a cyber Vault, on the Blockchain?

The Blockchain is the new cloud

What is the Blockchain,? It is like the cloud on steroids, with 1000 X more security power and cryptographic security.

It took a long time for people to trust putting files on the cloud, or photos on the cloud, but now it seems like the obvious decision.

I think the reason why I like Coinbase is that rather than having to memorize some keys in my head and have a hardware physical wallet, and knowing myself I am quite forgetful, you don’t want to lose like $1 billion worth of bitcoin because you forgot your password. I think this is also where this is a huge opportunity for Apple; if we have all of our bitcoin passwords and keys linked to our iCloud account, certainly we will never stop purchasing Apple devices. Even bigger, if Apple makes their own bitcoin ecosystem to custody your bitcoin in your Apple ID wallet, This could actually disrupt the whole Coinbase market. Let us consider that most of us have Apple Pay already enabled, how easy would it be to just buy bitcoin directly from your iPhone using Apple Pay? And it could be simple, you could just buy 10 bucks here, 20 bucks here, 50 bucks here, 100 bucks here etc.

I don’t have an Apple credit card or bank account, but this seems like a good idea.

Let the markets go free!

I hate the weekends because the markets are closed. I would prefer a world in which my micro strategy stock could trade 24 7, 365, every day all day every day, on binance fidelity or something else.

Apparently in 1933, the way that the traditional stock market was structured was actually to legitimately create a cartel. This is like the almost the exact opposite of American values of freedom, self sovereignty and freedom.

Michael Saylor had a very interesting idea; why can you not own Apple stock directly on your Apple iPhone? There is nothing unethical about it. And technologically, we live in the year 2024 of course could be physically possible. Even the stock market is mostly driven by robots, you no longer have guys on the slips of paper. It ain’t like the Wolf of Wall Street. It’s like the wolf of cyber Wall Street.


Physical property has too many risk factors?

Even here in Culver City, kind of like peak LA, there are so many businesses which are getting shut down like even me and Seneca’s beloved shake shack, and even more shockingly today, chipotle.

If these trusted namebrand businesses are struggling in going out of business because we cannot afford to pay the rent or whatever… Isn’t this pretty bad?

And also, physical entropy. Once again, if you want a physical house, shit will always break and you’re going to have to be liable for it.

Intelligent rent leverage

If you have an amazing landlord who always fixes everything super fast, even put in brand new appliances for you, leverage and milk that forever.

Even we told our landlord that our washer washing machine had a little bit of rust in it, immediately sent in his team and installed a totally brand new Samsung washer and dryer , which might have caused like $5000 $6000?

Even another thing that was interesting, there were some palm trees which were growing on top of the roof, and he just sent in a team to get it all cut down and fixed up?

Even we had some issues with our electricity and water and water heater, once again he snapped his fingers and got it all resolved in a day or two, while me and Seneca having a fun adventure at the park.

Your Archimedes lever in life

For myself, my core competency is within writing thinking blogging vlogging etc.  from an economic perspective it kind of makes no sense for me to waste my time having to manage a home and fix things.

I would rather manage thoughts ideas, big visions?

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Video podcast

Audio

I don’t think I know any human being on the planet who doesn’t want to be rich, or tries to increase their worth their net worth etc.

Doesn’t matter if you’re an investor, work for a charity, a church etc. Money and capital are critical, it is like our economic life blood.

For example, maybe you should think about blood. Blood is a critical and essential. Nobody could survive or thrive without blood.

Now imagine… That somebody is taking your help four-year-old child, in drawing a pint of blood from them a day. What is going to happen to the health of your kid? It will severely stunt his growth, or positively kill him.

Another thing… Imagine like you’re eating only rancid food your whole life, and the theory, you’re not going to die from it, but… Ain’t nobody want to eat rancid food.

Or, let us assume that you’re consuming certain foods to just keep you alive, like beans, but everyone knows that beans cause flatulence, even an ancient Roman times, and technically raw beans are toxic. Lagoons, naturally do not want to be eaten or consumed. And therefore the toxic shell membrane they create is probably to ward off predators.  And we clever humans, devised of ingenious ways to boil the shit out of them, just simply make them edible and not kill us. And the truth is, if you only ate beans you would not die, but… If you want to be the most demigod of them all, obviously you’re not going to be some sort of poverty person just consuming beans for some sort of strange higher altruistic purpose? Instead, you feast on the finest the bone marrow, the finest lamb ribs, just think about the hut of Achilles, what did he eat, and feed his guests?

Building empire on true capital

You know how they talk about life before Jesus life after Jesus, BC and AD… I am quite certain that a similar concept will happen with Satoshi. Like before Satoshi, life BS (before Satoshi, haha sounds like BS), and life AFTER Satoshi (AS).

 so the issue with being a modern day human or even American is that so much of the economic policies are obfuscated from the general public. For example. When I was in Saigon, in Vietnam off the grid, I had some time to critically think about economic theory and the like, to really try to critically understand on how currency is printed, made dominant around the planet, supported by US military force etc.

In fact, if you think about the whole American the US military complex, it is basically focused on pumping money into the military industry, in order to assert military dominance on the planet, so all the weaker nations will have to force to use our dollars and accept and use our dollars, And also… America being able to pile on infinite debt obligations, knowing that she never intends to pay any of it back.

Trillions of dollars of debt?

So if we think about that, we know about debt in context of just being a normal human being, we don’t really know and understand debt in terms of an American national policy.

For example, as a human being there’s a certain point in which numbers don’t really mean anything anymore. For example, I told you that the American national debt was 900 trillion, 45 trillion, $10 trillion, $18.3 trillion, would you be able to really understand or grasp this? Of course no!

We daily humans, assume that you’re making like I don’t know 40,000 60,000, $80,000 a year… Which means maybe let us say that after taxes you’re pulling in like five to $6000 a month. If this is the case, the law of large numbers; at a certain point certain numbers don’t really mean anything to us, nor are they connected to reality.

For example, the average American has never seen $1 million in their checking account or their bank balance, let alone 10 million, 100 million, 1 billion, 10 billion, 100 billion etc. 

There is a certain point in which numbers, ones and zeros, don’t really register in our brains.

Math and numbers are not natural

I always make the joke that I’m an Asian who is really really bad at math. And even now I am.

And ironically enough, out of all my friends or typical normal human beings I know, besides Elon Musk and Michael Saylor, I am like by far the most successful innovator entrepreneur and investor of all time. I know no other human in the flesh who has stacked as many bitcoins as I have, and pretty much for the most part I never had to ever or I never panic sold any of my bitcoin. Besides selling some bitcoin like three years ago to just max out my Roth IRA contribution for the year, which ultimately I guess was a good idea because that money went into microstrategy MSTR, which is growing at an alarming rate, – fortunately I had the wisdom of Odysseus; covering my ears and eyes with digital beeswax. 

Zen training

About it, in hindsight, maybe one of the most interesting things I did was quit email in the year 2017. I might check my email like every six months or so for like authentication codes to sign into random portals, but besides this, I no longer really use email as a form of communication. If I’m doing like a workshop and I need to communicate some sort of critical information,  then I’ll just copy and paste a bunch of emails, linked to Google sheets or something to send out a Zoom link or something. But besides this, email is really kind of a not good form of communication. Let us consider, i’m almost starting to feel like sending emails like sending a fax in the year 2024. I actually find it 1 trillion times more better to just FaceTime people as needed, — just think about it… All these sci-fi movies in the past, when they communicate with some sort of computer or AI, how do they do it? When you’re chatting with Jarvis it is all just a voice, and then you do the 3-D hologram thing with your hands like Tony Stark. Or if you’re Tony Stark in the Iron Man suit, what do you do? You talk to Jarvis naturally, when Jarvis is inside your helmet. In fact, I believe that the original Iron Man might be one of the best films of all time, I intend on watching it again.

Anyways, once again, there is no exciting movie which is actually about somebody taking out a phone like an iPhone and either sending you a text message quietly, and or, sending a long tedious email? This will not make a fun movie.

Anyways, as a consequence, I think the best concept is thinking about information information flows more critically, harder stronger faster. But knowing how to filter it.

The first idea is Twitter and X. It might be the world‘s newest most valuable and only useful social media platform, now that Elon Musk runs the show, and I’m like 1000% Elon, it is really truly the best and only place to get critical information about financial news etc. My thought is traditional news outlets will die a slow gradual death, just like blockbuster.

It’s funny, because I remember when I was in college, and I already saw my roommate Kevin ordering Netflix DVDs in the mail, which at the time I thought was very bizarre, but I knew that blockbuster was on the way out. I wanted to short blockbuster, but eventually did not because I just didn’t know how to do it, even now I’m not quite sure how to short a stock, it just seems too complicated.

Eric Semler

ERIC Semmler, one of the head honchos at semler scientific, is also on the bitcoin standard, using bitcoin yield, BTC yield as a measure of positive performance.

Funny enough he also shares my name.

Anyways, I listen to an interview between him and Natalie Brunel, and something was interesting was ERIC who has been in the game for a long time, the century said that shorting stocks is actually really really difficult and very rarely profitable. Rather a lot better to instead, to just go along in a positive way for a stock. And also I agree from a philosophical perspective, voting on the success of something, and voting on the success of a stocking company, to me almost morally an ethically feels superior; the reason being is that it just feels more positive and constructive. And also it might be more profitable?

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Optimism and positivity is more profitable

Investing in bitcoin is kinda good for everybody, even if you’re like kind of anti-establishment, anti-capitalism… Bitcoin is a positively good thing. Why? If you invest in bitcoin and you purchase bitcoin, and you put yourself in your family on a bitcoin standard, the upside and positivity is that You are essentially giving a middle finger to the establishment, the “man”.

For example, anybody who is a non-conformist, punk rock, into rapper hip-hop culture whatever… Steve Jobs follower, etc., should be for bitcoin. Why? Because once again, it is anti-mainstream!

Even now, bitcoin is pretty much mainstream now. Whenever you check any of the news channels, what is the best news all the time, all day every day? Bitcoin! It is the only interesting news which is happening on the planet, and will always be the best news of all time.

In fact, my thought is ultimate new most important media people personalities etc. will be essentially people who work in TV Cinema media rappers podcast musicians bloggers vloggers thought leaders who philosophies and create content about bitcoin.

First, Bitcoin is like the new iPhone.  except the upside is that instead of every six months or a year or a year and a half, bitcoin is getting updated, all day, every day, every minute on the planet.

So for example, with the iPhone and Apple… All these Fan boys just jerking off to Apple rumor news, waiting for the next next next next big thing to come out that will totally change and revolutionized their lives creativity etc. But, come on guys, we’re all technologists here and digital natives– don’t we already know that the solution is staring in our face, bitcoin?

Why would a tech person be anti Bitcoin?

If you’re the type of person like you always want the newest iPhone Pro, Tesla, cyber truck, iPad Pro etc., isn’t also the same ethos be that you should always want the newest monetary technology which is bitcoin?

Once again, very bizarre.

Let us say you work at Apple Amazon Facebook Google Meta etc.… And your program or a software engineer, a developer, or somebody who works “tech”– is there any irrational reason you should be anti-bitcoin? No!

I would say maybe the only negative downside is if you work in tech and you are a lemming. Even now Reddit is dead; if you’re still on Reddit, you’re not it. 

Also, maybe the issue here is that you’re kind of old enough now, and you’re kind of mildly successful, but maybe the issue here is that too much of your net worth is tied into your company dog? Just sell it guys, buy bitcoin instead, And or just buy micro strategy MSTR stock instead.

The goal is to retire early isn’t it?

It doesn’t matter if you’re being paid like $10 million a year at Apple Amazon Google Facebook, nobody actually wants to be there. Maybe besides Tim Cook?

Let us consider, all of the innovators have left Apple. Jony Ive, and some people that I know who was in the head of the Apple Photos team.

The only ones who have stayed at the big companies is that maybe, they’re stuck in a rut, maybe they have a mortgage to pay or something.

Never have a mortgage

If you do the maths a mortgage is actually insanely expensive like 10,000 or $11,000 a month? To even pour more money into a sink sink hole, which has true negative yield? A very very bad idea.

It’s almost like it’s super cold outside, and you want to warm up by taking a nice hot bath. Can you turn on the bathwater, and you put up the plug, but, you kind of either leave the drain plug unplugged like halfway, or, You have it totally unplugged. So even if the water faucet is strong and the water is flowing into your tub at a quick rate, the rate in which the water goes down the drain might either be equal or lower than your input of water.

So maybe the same thing with income, like inflow, or like flowing hot water. Assuming you want a nice hot tub of water, you want to drain the plug, stop the plug, stop it up 100%, and you want the hot water to rise and fill! Maybe we should think about the same thing with investing, and money leverage,

Stop the water loss!

Ways in which we lose our economic water

We lose it when we have a mortgage on the home, and even a more pernicious thought; property taxes. Like let us say you buy that $2 million home in all cash, you’re still gonna be paying like 2500 or $2600 a month and adjust property taxes, which almost like attaching a leech to yourself which no matter what, the leech just sucks the blood out of you with no benefit to you.

Now I am all for taxes, taxes are good. Yet, because I’ve just rented my whole life, property ownership home ownership even owning a single-family home seems like such a scam; you buy the lot for like $1.1 million, you add an ADU additional dwelling unit in the back for like $350,000, and then you try to flip it for like $200,000 More? Isn’t it just way easier to just buy bitcoin instead?

Time cost to capital

The big reason is the cost to capital; all the headache and time to find the contractor to build the house, fix it up, renovate it, dealing with permits and all these headaches; and also your time cost to capital; so much time and headache and communication back-and-forth, is not really worth it. 

At this point because I’m dumb rich, to me the finances and the money aspect doesn’t really bother me, more of my concern and fear and dread is about having to deal with some sort of degenerate contractor, who buy the laws of physics and entropy will always be Late, more expensive, and will probably take one or two years longer than you expect.

don’t trust contractors

If you plan on doing the home thing, maybe the best idea is just approach things as if you will never hire help or a contractor? Then this way it could become more of a creative endeavor, and also, you know that you will never blame anyone else but yourself?

Even like changing your own oil, the virtues of changing your own oil is pretty funny; I hate feeling ripped off, and I always feel super stupid for paying somebody else to change my oil. Even though it’s a huge pain in the butt for me to do it myself, I just have like 1 trillion times more joy and pride that I changed my own oil in my 2010 Prius, With mobile 1 full synthetic, and a K&N performance oil filter. It’s funny when I drive, I always have a huge grin and sense of pride on my face because I knew that I changed my own oil, 1 trillion more times happiness than even maybe driving a cyber truck or a Lamborghini? Nobody cares about your four bitcoin Ferrari; Once again, what I find so disruptive is that now… You will feel more joy pride and happiness to own the bitcoin, because you will always remember the number in your head in your mind, and you’ll always smile when you see the price exploding, rather than being stuck in a Diluted asset, whether does that be your yacht, Ferrari or Lamborghini. Or even your Porsche.

If you really want to be happy, the optimal strategy assuming that you like own more than one car, or you don’t really need some sort of expensive performance vehicle that guzzles 91 octane gas, then I think optimal strategies to sell the extra car, and just buy bitcoin! In fact, if your goal is to actually make more money to upgrade to the next car, a funny strategy then is to just invest in bitcoin, write it up, make a shit load of money, and then just sell some of it later, to buy your next car.

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Free open source introduction to bitcoin online zoom workshop

I’m super excited, the first time ever, I’m doing a free online open source zoom workshop, and don’t worry I will record it and post it later and share it with you because I feel like this is my new ethical imperative.

I’m going to do it December 14, Saturday 10am to noon, Pacific time LA TIME.

 to register for the workshop to get the Zoom link, just fill out your email informed here, and before the workshop date, maybe like a day prior or so, I’ll email you with a Zoom link.

FREE BITCOIN WORKSHOP REGISTRATION FORM

You could also see some more details here.

Essentially my vision is I just want to do a soft introduction to bitcoin the philosophy of it etc., the first hour hour and a half will just be like introductions and my lecture, and then I will leave some time at the end for questions and answers. It might go a bit over but whatever. 

It will be totally 100% open and free, and also open source, so feel free to send the link to your friends, your mom or your dad who doesn’t really understand bitcoin, also I am fluent in Korean and Vietnamese, and also Spanish if you have some sort of bilingual parents you want to bring along.

> FREE BITCOIN WORKSHOP REGISTRATION FORM

You could also see some more details here.

Also,

ERIC KIM WORKSHOPS >

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How to get started

1. Michael.com or hope.com
2. Follow @Saylor on Twitter x
3. Read “The Bitcoin Standard”– basically it is a soft introduction to monetary history, which is super fascinating
4. Watch the whole “what is money”, series with Michael Breedlove and Michael Saylor.
5. If you want to learn more about monetary philosophy, read the Emily Wilson translation of the Iliad, and think about how is it that in the world before money they were able to function just with oxen?
6. Google the free PDF of “Della Moneta” by Fernandinho Galliani — probably the most interesting book I’ve read on the philosophy in history on money, published like 300 years ago.

More thoughts to come!

EK BLOG

EK NEWS

And also whenever in doubt,

START HERE >

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I’m warm as a mother fucker!

Heat loss?

So currently random thoughts;; about thermodynamics and heat loss. Assuming that energy is not created nor destroyed, what that then means is if we think about shit hit loss, is that technically your body is already a perfectly thermal regulated closed system. This was really really hard for me to understand when I was young, even now… The idea that when you put on a thick ass warm down jacket, or a Canada goose jacket or whatever, your body is not “creating” heat“, rather it is just preserving the heat inside your body so that your body is not losing heat.

The best way to warm up your house or home or habitat or habitation

Los Angeles is actually kind of bizarre; on one hand, during the day like yesterday, it was an extremely glorious 71, 72, 73°, absolutely beautiful. And this is like the end of November, practically early December? I still recall when I was a undergraduate at UCLA, walking down Bruin walk, and being shocked that in the middle of December, I saw all these pretty and sexy girls walking down Bruin walk, in tank tops, Spaghetti straps, booty shorts?

Even yesterday, seeing all these happy young people, basking the sun, once again, all these beautiful and pretty girls, just wearing black Lululemon tights, and black Lululemon top sports bras.

Anyways, the thing that is really shocking to me is that night it gets cold as shit. Like I think in the evening, Los Angeles could dip down to the high 30s? Like if it is super super late or super super early before the sun comes up, it is like 38° outside? But when the sun comes out, it could be a beautiful 73°?

Anyways, but that then means is that for your apartment your house habitation or whatever, the number one critical thing you do is just seal up the doors, get rid of the holes the drafts, etc., and just prevent heat loss!

For example, probably one of the most joyful things for myself at least, was the glory of living at this really really wonderful high-rise condo building, the edge in Providence Rhode Island. The apartment was super super tiny, feels like a 300 square-foot studio, at the time it was just me and Cindy, but what I personally loved about it, then seeing an extreme joy that had was my room the room, the whole apartment, the whole apartment building and complex, and also even the gym, Was like always a perfect 72° and warm, idregardless of whether there was a snowstorm outside. I still remember, complaining to Cindy that I was too hot in bed, taking off my blankets, complaining that was too sweating, and then just looking outside and seeing that it was snowing outside.

Anyways, I think the thing that is difficult to think and understand is that if you buy these nice single-family homes, and then it gets cold as shit at night, good luck trying to thermo regulate it.

I don’t know maybe I’m more sensitive to the cold than the average person, because I’m like 5% or even sub 5% body fat; which means is that I fucking hit the cold. To me Cold is evil.

What that means is anything that you could do to prevent heat loss or the cold is a good thing. And that just means if you’re cold, just buy really really ultra warm UNIQLO heat tech tights, which actually worked insanely well, as well as just like put on a merino wool long sleeve, a down vest, and a thick ass down jacket.

Just focus on doing what you’re good at 

One big idea I had was in regards to an Archimedes lever– just focus on what you’re super super insanely good at, and just ignore everything else.

What that means is with houses, housing stuff, etc., the ideal is that you never have to muck around with any housing stuff.

For example, I like the idea of leveraging other people, like what that means is just let other people focus on what they’re good at, for example, things that I’m not good at include like doing anything about house stuff house repairs house maintenance etc. I think the unfortunate trend is post Covid, you had a bunch of successful millennials, kind of like myself, in their 30s, late 30s, early 40s, etc. purchasing single-family homes, and like hunkering down during and post Covid, because people can no longer travel to Japan or whatever, they just spent all the money they would have otherwise spent on travel to purchase a single-family home, get into gardening etc.

Yet, that was like 2020, 2019. Times have changed.

We are now, witnessing this new movement, a totally radical paradigm shipped, even words failed to describe how phenomenally epic this all is.

Essentially bitcoin hit $100K yesterday, or maybe in the middle of the night, or like to be more accurate like $99,510 or something, but it’s funny when you look at the prices, you have all these short sellers trying to short bitcoin and microstrategy, I think there’s actually a new ETF which is minus 2X MSTR (MSTZ), which long story short, is trying to make a huge profit off of the downturn of MicroStrategy and bitcoin. So for all the bulls, all the people who think bitcoin and micro strategies going to go down, they are essentially shorting bitcoin and microstrategy. 

You cannot stop exponential growth even if you want to.

This is starting to feel like the early days of Facebook like I still recall the early days of Facebook in which there was no newsfeed. I made an account when I was like a freshman in college, because at the time Facebook was only open to university students, you needed a “.edu” account to even sign up.  And the growth was pretty astronomical. At first it was just like university students, I still remember the early days where you would flirt with girls you liked by “poking” them. There was not yet any direct messages you could only post on the walls, which was 100% public. Even at the time, Mark Zuckerberg said that advertisements were lame, there was no newsfeed, no ads. You actually had to click into somebody’s profile to just check up on them. There was no status updates really yet,

iPhone, iMessage, even Kakaotalk?

How do you know if somebody is Korean or not? Simple, if they have kakaotalk, and or if they have that little bright yellow chat icon, and the sound of a notification sounds like “Apple!”

Also they’re funny things, the Japanese only use line, Cambodians only use telegram, Europeans use WhatsApp, Americans we tend to just use Facebook messenger and or Instagram direct message and or text messaging iMessage?

Anyways, do you remember when the iPhone first came out, and everyone was riding on it, and apparently there was a lot of industry people, who obviously were a bunch of idiots, who said that the iPhone was going to be a failure because it did not have a physical keyboard like the popular blackberry at the time.

And this is the genius and vision of Steve Jobs; he fought nail and tooth to ensure that in fact, the iPhone would never ever ever have a physical keyboard, and that the genius of the iPhone was it was able to become all screen, and that if you wanted access to a keyboard you will just use the little virtual keyboard instead.

Think the original iPhone

 so do you remember, the original iPhone, the iPhone 3G, didn’t even have copy and paste! It was very very basic and rudimentary; but still… Like probably the most important product innovation and technology of all time.

Even I went to the Mr. brainwash exhibition in Beverly Hills Rodeo Drive a few weeks ago, and I really really liked this painting an image of Steve Jobs, as like a digital, Silicon Valley cowboy, his gift of the iPhone iPad etc. was like the best gift of all time.

The gift of fire

So obviously life with fire is better than life without fire.

Same thing with electricity. And water.

You could waterboard somebody, and kill a man with water. Also, you can electrocute and zap a man to death with electricity with the chair.

You could obviously burn a man alive, as well. Or you could use sashimi knives to kill somebody, better to use the sashimi knife instead to just make yourself some delicious ribeye.

Once again, fire is good, a stove oven is great. It makes cooking beef ribs a lot easier.

A lot of people hate on Apple and Steve Jobs and iPhone saying that it is destroying the minds of our youth whatever. But once again, it is like fire; if you use fire irresponsibly you can kill yourself and others or the whole village, but if you use it responsibly, it is like the best thing of all time.

Bitcoin, today, is like the early iPhone?

An analogy I don’t think no one has really done yet; realizing that bitcoin right now, might be like the iPhone in the early days?

With the first iPhone, no one was quite sure what to do with it, what the function or utility of it was. Then do you remember that that huge aftermarket market exploded, with the ability to strap on that external battery pack to the back of your iPhone to give it more charge?

So I also think that with bitcoin we will see a similar surge. We will start to see a huge third-party after market market explode.

For example, even the huge after market for iPhone cases is still quite robust.

Why is bitcoin the ethical option?

Immaculate conception of bitcoin. As somebody who is raised and born and baptized Roman Catholic, I really really do see some strong metaphors and analogies for bitcoin, Satoshi, and thinking of bitcoin like a new religion, a new economic religion?

The general idea is that bitcoin is phenomenal because bitcoin does not require a PR team, a marketing team, a foundation, or some sort of nerdy loser leader.

So for example, I’m like 100% Elon Musk, but the reason why Dogecoin, and all these other meme derivatives are positively bad is because they are backed on the charisma or the fashion of a single individual. If Elon Musk just randomly dies tomorrow in a rocket ship accident, I’m pretty much sure that the price of Dogecoin would go to zero.

Also, the reason why I got off of chain-link, and went back 100% into bitcoin was that I started realizing that invested parties in chain-link started using Sergey Nazarov as a puppet, trying to get him to stoke up investor confidence to pump up the price of chain-link. But even as bitcoin is pretty much $100,000, even chain-link has not hit the record high of like $50 or $55 a chain-link.

False prophets

Vitalik Buterin – yeah I don’t trust the guy. Look at him he’s like the ultra uber nerd. Something that what people don’t understand, like if you read the original Ethereum white paper is that the proposal of Ethereum from Vitalik was that bitcoin had too many problems, and that he was there to solve it, and that Ethereum would fix all the problems of bitcoin.

Even a thing that I was into for a bit was digibyte, DGB, which was essentially like imagine the silver coins or the copper coins of bitcoin. The idea was bitcoin was too slow for transactions, and that gigabyte was like 1 trillion times faster, making it more suitable as a daily cryptocurrency transfer thing.

Anyways, I think time is shown that everything that was not bitcoin has failed. Kind of like Thomas Edison, and DC electricity, AC electricity apparently better than a lot of records, but because Thomas Edison had more marketing chops, I guess he won.

Another analogy is that like bitcoin is like Tesla, and bitcoin has the world bitcoin network which is like the Tesla super charging network; honestly, I don’t think any human being should ever buy any electric vehicle which is not a Tesla. It’s like deciding to live in mainland China instead of living in America. Or choosing the Chinese yuan over the US dollar.

Another analogy; bitcoin is like Gatorade, I don’t even know what number two is? Powerade?

Or, bitcoin is like having the newest iPhone Pro, desert titanium, and Ethereum is like a Google pixel or android Samsung derivative; nobody wants it.

Or, bitcoin is like Coca-Cola, and Ethereum is Pepsi. Nobody wants Pepsi.

Or, bitcoin is like Nike and or Jordan, and Ethereum is Adidas. Adidas was only cool for a minute because Kanye West endorsed it and created his Yeezy line, but now that Kanye has dipped out, nobody wants Adidas anymore.

Or, bitcoin is like McDonald’s, and Ethereum is like Burger King. Nobody wants Burger King.

There is no second best

I think with choosing a life partner, a wife, having a kid your kid etc., is understanding that there is no second best.

I look at the whole field of crypto, and crypto derivatives, essentially I think the best way to think about it is that like everything that is not bitcoin is just an Ethereum derivative; which is like building your kingdom on cotton candy or quicksand.

Bitcoin is like the solid asphalt which is beneath Manhattan. But in Cypress space which is like 1 trillion times more secure.

Getting paid $2000 an hour

So let us assume that you’re getting paid 20 bucks an hour, if you’re on the bitcoin standard, and if you’re pouring all your moneys into bitcoin, then, in theory you are getting paid $200 an hour, or $2000 an hour. 

Also some other analogies; if you spend like $1000 on a new iPhone, that’s almost like spending $10,000 on a phone, or even worse, $100,000 on a phone. Or even worse, $1 million on a phone, assuming that bitcoin Will 10 X, 100 X, 1000 X, or even 10,000 X from here.

So why does this matter?

Assume that your whole life, you yourself as a child, you were only fed sewer water. And you’re always sick, and full of cholera, and you have no idea why you’re always so sick, and feel so unwell. And then you have a kid and do you think the sewer water is safe, and you start feeding your kid the sewer water! What is going to happen to the health of your kid?

This analogy is good for money, and capital and thinking of bitcoin like the first 100%, God inspired, perfect money. And also perfect capital.

Bitcoin is both money, and capital? And cash?

The hard thing with the real estate like if you own a square block in Gangnam, or Shibuya, or Ginza, or fifth Avenue in Manhattan, is that you cannot immediately liquidate like a 10th of your property to buy a cyber truck or a cup of coffee.

The really interesting thing about bitcoin is that it is both property like digital property like owning land, and also it could in theory be used as money and currency.

My personal thought is that owning a single bitcoin is like owning a single family home. Assuming that the price of a single-family home in Culver City is $4.4 million, for a tiny awesome minimalist house, then my personal thought is the price of a single bitcoin should be worth at least 4.4 million, Maybe 10 X or 100 X. Why? $440 million a bitcoin; my current price target. 

My very simple idea is that if you own a single-family house, in a locked piece of land, you cannot move it, it’s not like a game of the Sims or Minecraft; but with bitcoin, you can!

Minecraft economics

I find this to be really fascinating because once again, bitcoin is like Minecraft capital and money. If you have ever seen a child or a teenager on Minecraft, you will be shocked to see how phenomenally imaginative they could become, when there are no longer restricted by time, money, access to capital, the laws of physics, space etc.

I been thinking about cyberspace is kind of difficult to imagine because it is like 1 trillion times more expensive than land, Joshua tree, Yosemite, the desert, etc. Like if you watch the movie Dune, and you see the infinite sands, infinite desert, imagine like that but times 1 trillion. Why? Space cyberspace is not limited by the laws of physics.

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I bought every V 12 engine, wish I could take it back to the beginning

This is like year one, or year zero of bitcoin. Now that you see CNBC practically on fire with bitcoin, bitcoin options, bitcoin derivatives, and now that ibit the black rock bitcoin spot ETF practically owning close to 1 million bitcoins now, that means is this is a massive paradigm shift. It’s like going from horse and buggy to Tesla model S plaid.

Don’t trust the zombies

I was watching an interview with Natalie Brunelle and ERIC Semmler, and ERIC was talking about how his company semler scientific was the century like a zombie company. But when they took out the skeleton, and re-infused it with adamantine skeleton, like what they did to Wolverine, their company spring back to life with 100 X vigor.

Once again, if you’re living in the hood, drinking sewer water, Fanta, and McDonald’s hamburgers, and you have the option of living in beautiful Culver City, surrounded by trees, happy people the sun, fresh air, and the finest organic food and meats from Erewhon, wouldn’t you want to make the swap?

Why the red wave is a big deal

Michael sailor currently put out a presentation on the red wave, at Cantor digital. The general idea is that now that we pretty much have a 100% Republican red party and government and Senate, this is insanely phenomenal news for bitcoin.

Why? Senator to Cynthia Lummis is proposing the bitcoin act, which is that America sells a bunch of her gold notes, and uses that profit to buy bitcoin.

This is kind of a big deal because then, maybe, we could actually revitalize the US dollar and essentially maybe even reverse inflation, because if we pack the US dollar to our bitcoin reserves, what that that means is our country will become super fucking prosperous? Like we’re going to be showered with so much money and wealth, we’re going to be like “too much wealth and prosperity! Please no more!”

Also, even though I’m pro bitcoin and anti-crypto and everything else; you’re going to see a huge crypto Renaissance, because note, Trump’s kids his sons are actually actively in the crypto space; and even Donald Trump accepted a Donald trump NFT, which sold out like in a minute. So you’re going to see a massive boost to Bitcoin and the whole market.

And also, all these meme coins, I’m quite anti it because once again, they’re backed by nothing but popular ideas, and charismatic individuals. The difference of bitcoin is that it is backed by like $1 trillion of real capital; which means like already… Over $1 trillion of real money has already been put into it, and what is defending the bitcoin network is like maybe 100 X the computer power of even the US military and Navy.

If America was super smart, because we want to be #1 forever, we would want to stock pile our bitcoin reserves, to make sure that no other country could even come close. Because what people also don’t understand is the point is like cyber defense as well; if you have a wall of encrypted energy, it is essentially hacker proof, you cannot have malicious Chinese people trying to hack the network.

What drives me?

Once; super simple; growing up poor, having a dad addicted to gambling, my mom working like two menial labor jobs cleaning houses and waitressing, working at a gas station or convenience store just to pay the bills, yeah this was pretty bad.

As a consequence, I don’t know I feel like financial independence, financial freedom might be the peak virtue. Like 1 trillion times more important than anything else.

For example, art photography aesthetics ethics and the like. You could only  only privilege yourself to these luxuries only if you are financially healthy. And economically healthy. If you are economically sick, you can’t do nothing.

 I think the big problem is that a lot of conservative often criticize and critique people for staying poor, but, can you complain and blame people for being constantly sick, if they only have access to sewer water?

“I grew up in the era when clean water was only served to the fairer skin” – Ye

Once again, imagine like we’re living in a postapocalyptic, dystopic world and reality in which only rich people or a certain race of people are allowed access to clean water. And clean air and clean food.

Imagine like you’re giving people maggots to consume. Or like an episode of Snowpiercer, the poor people in the back of the train being fed the “protein bars“, which is essentially grinded up bugs.

But imagine, you could be in front of the train, eating the finest ribeye steak, the finest sushi etc. That is what bitcoin is!

ERIC

***

Bitcoin is financial freedom?

There is nothing more lovely to me than my morning walks?



So one of the really fast things I learned from Michael Saylor in his last interview with Natalie Brunell at the end what is what was misconception about him; and he said, the greatest misconception was that Michael Saylor was a traitor, but the reality is… He’s an engineer.

What is the difference? Well the general difference is that an engineer, do you think about things first principles, use stare deeply and analyze deeply into the true nature of things, and what that then means is you understand the true nature of things.

Then I guess, I kinda do think like an engineer, carte blanche principles.

For example, so much of this modern day BS about almost everything, seems to be mostly a social problem. Sociology, maybe could also be understand as the sociology of engineering, also social engineering?

what does it mean to think like an engineer?

So once again, if you understand Leonardo da Vinci like the Golden standard of an engineer, somebody who is part curious, partially playful, kind of like imagine a big kid on steroids; infinite curiosity about everything. Maybe also… I’m like the next Leonardo da Vinci, but a lot richer And far more jacked?

Even the problem of a Leonard da Vinci, I still think he got his patronage from the Medici’s? Which means that he was not financially independent; and the truth is ultimately, without personal financial independence, you cannot really really have 100% true freedom and power. 

Bitcoin as solidified happiness

I might be the first to thought this; what is bitcoin? To me it is like solidified happiness. If you took all this economic power energy joy and happiness, and you could solidify it into a thing, to me that would be a bitcoin.

For example, every time I see my bitcoin balance swell, and become greater, it brings a huge smile to my face, a huge voyage grin to my face, whatever scenario.

And then also then the thing is… The bitcoin is like almost kind of imaginary. Like doesn’t really exist anywhere in the physical realm, it only exists in cyberspace, your mind.

So for example, if I want to prove to you my bitcoin balance I can just take out my phone or iPad and prove it to you immediately… So I guess this is the cool thoughts; now that I’m super fucking rich and powerful and godlike glorious, I could just walk into any sort of Lamborghini or Ferrari or Porsche dealership, and just automatically assume and demand a test drive!

And also the extreme joy, I could just handle and touch everything, and fuck with stuff, like I own it. Because I do

.

Engineer a better planet?

Engineering a better solution

So I just listened to the new interview with Natalie Brunell and Michael Saylor and something super super interesting at the interview at the end was about how Michael Saylor is misunderstood; and he said “People think I’m a trader, but I am an engineer”. 

What is the difference? And also what is a speculator?

So I suppose, first, bitcoin is the 1000% perfectly engineered solution to perfect godlike money.  if Zeus came from the heavens, and told us near mortals “no no no, you no longer need to sacrifice hectacombs or heads of oxen to me, just buy bitcoin instead,”– same concept.

Or, if Zeus came down and said “I shall create 21 million cyber oxen, in cyberspace, and there shall ever ever only ever be 21 million cyber cattle in Cypress space, and this bowl will be immortal, indestructible, cyber, and shall live forever “,,, wouldn’t you want to own one of these godlike oxen, or a fraction of it? Like apparently these hipster things in which you could do something like you could all chip in money for part ownership of a cow, and when it gets slaughtered, you get like 10% of it? 

Maybe the same thing as with bitcoin. Like let us say that one bitcoin is like one cyber ox, and by buying 10% of a bitcoin you could just buy like the head, the rear leg, the top sirloin in the bottom sirloin, the brisket, etc.

Cyber Capital

Michael Saylor talks a lot about this notion of digital real estate, digital capital as like a cyber Manhattan. So for example, if you could buy like one square block in Manhattan, a full square block, on fifth Ave., what is that worth? Like $200 million?

If you think about it, bitcoin is like 1 trillion times more valuable than even physical Manhattan, because it is global, decentralized, and, in cyberspace! It shall never degrade, perish, and you never have to pay taxes on it. 

Podcast >

So in a very very interesting shift of things, I guess I’m super pro Trump Donald Trump, because he is super super 1000% pro bitcoin. And also, contrary to what people understand, Donald Trump is anti-war, he wants to immediately stop the war in Ukraine, he actually wants global peace.

This is kind of a little bit shocking to me, because I’m from the liberal Bay area, Alameda Oakland Berkeley I still got my 510 area code number… what that means is that I was always raised in thinking that conservative Republicans were like the devil.

Why? I grew up so poor, why were all these super super rich people super anti-helping out poor people like myself?

And also, I thought that overall, the policies were pro war, … I always thought that Republicans and conservatives were for war,… in that liberals and Democrats or anti-war?

Just do the research for yourself

I think the credit card thing that I learned is ultimately… You must just do the research for yourself by yourself.

For example, one big thing that changed my opinion about Donald Trump was watching his talk at the bitcoin conference and also seeing his interview with Joe Rogan. To me the reason why this was so good was that it humanized him, often times whenever we hear news reports or snippets from whatever… It is kind of like bad and evil click bait cherry picking; you will never get a true sensor reality until you watch the raw interview, the full two or three hours or so, uninterrupted, and also encourage watching the actual video footage.

Make your own choices

I think the number one thing that is very very difficult in politics is that so much of it is predicated on other random political lines. For example, truth be told I still qualify myself as a Democrat and a left leaning liberal, yet… When it comes to individual policies and opinions and thoughts, my personal belief system is actually far more multi variegated.

For example… I’m all about helping poor people, and the like, and I’m not like super anti-taxes either.  if I were a homeowner, I would probably vote yes to increase taxes assuming that the money would go to actually support the public elementary schools.

Yet also what I do believe in support is having individual sovereignty to my bitcoin, without having the government metal in my bitcoin. I am also very anti-centralized digital currency by the US government, I think this is very scary. Essentially if you had a centralized digital bank currency by the American government, this would be worse than big Brother, 1984 in brave New World, having a super baby together.

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So why does this all matter?

I think it matters because ultimately you gotta have somewhere to live, and I’m pretty sure that you do have a certain belief system.

Bitcoin world peace!

Encumbered, unencumbered?

The right to Bitcoin

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The rights of persons to maintain full lawful control over the bitcoin and other digital assets of those individuals, recognizing that the ability to maintain self custody of private keys is fundamental to the principles of financial sovereignty, privacy, and personal liberty in the digital age.

So this idea is super fascinating to me; life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Also, the right to personal sovereignty, privacy and personal liberty.

So I guess the big issue is we don’t have privacy anymore. There are CCTV everywhere, cameras everywhere, trackers on the Internet which follow and track your every move.

Also, assuming you have some sort of credit card thing with points, the way that they give you these points is that you essentially sell or forfeit your purchasing data, although it is anonymized, people could track every single financial move activity and behavior.

No I am not one of those weirdos who over since sensationalize this; ultimately, I don’t really care that much. What I am more interested is in, maybe the concept of digital property, digital property rights.

What is also really fascinating is how bitcoin is global digital capital, digital rights for all all across the planet.

For example, assuming that you live in mainland China and there is capital controls, what that then means is that you cannot take out $1 billion of Chinese yuan out of the country, even if you wanted to. Actually technically the smart strategy for rich me and Chinese person who wants to come to America whatever, is to swap all of their Chinese yuan or whatever for bitcoin, as much as humanly possible, and then just peace out.

The reason why this would be such a good strategy is that the truth is, nobody wants their wealth or their capital to be locked anywhere. For example, even my insane and annoying I remember like six months ago I just wanted to take out like $500 from the ATM at JPMORGAN Chase, and I could not, as the limit was around like 300 bucks? 

And this is the thing which is really really weird to me — so I just want access to my money, why can’t I have access to my own money? 

The Bitcoin Artist 

Kind of a random aside; I like the idea of like being able to kind of clean up the world, either with whiteout tape, or blackout tape, we just met black bitcoin icons etc.

So for example in Culver City and LA in general… My number one annoyance and greed is that there are so many annoying graffiti and ads all over the place.

So first, I just wanna clean up the damn place. I want to get rid of annoying advertisements and stuff, because aesthetically I feel like I have a strong imperative to do so.

Second, why is it so difficult or hard to promote some sort of well-being on the planet?

Bitcoin is healthy

So assuming that like 99% of our problems in life can be attributed to the fact of a poor money supply, then what that then means is that maybe like 99% of our world problems could actually be solved by bitcoin.

For example, financial health. If money is toxic, capital is toxic, assuming that you’re playing in the world of fiat currency, what that then means is that you don’t actually want access to capital because it is like immediately causing you to bleed out economic energy and power.

I actually had a super funny random thoughts; think about like the notion of semen retention and economic power retention.

For example, every time you buy something expensive it is like blowing your load. For example, you lost for that matte black scissor door Lamborghini, and then you go out and buy it, for like $500,000 or something, like you just blown the biggest load of your life. But then the downside of that is after that, you’re like kind of done, and as a consequence, what do you have left to live for?

And actually the truth is, no man in his right mind would ever blow his load immediately before trying to lift 505 kg. Or also, assuming that you’re about to have the big fight, nobody in their right mind would ever ever ever ever even consider for half a second, Rubbing one out real quick before the big fight.

I actually have a thought thoughts on the first one is that you should not blow your load, anytime during the day because that is when your power is peak, that is when you have the most power. You should only ever blow your load in the evening right before you’re about to sleep, like how the ancient Greeks did it.

Example, can imagine Achilles blowing his load and inseminating one of his babes, immediately before the big battle? No!

So why does this matter?

So I think this matter for a lot of reasons.

First, it looks like everyone is sick unwell unhealthy. And not really out of their own fault, but rather, it seems like the bigger issue is that once again, we don’t have healthy instruments to work with.

For example, assume that you live in a society in which literally every single food item is laced and injected with high fructose corn syrup or sugar. Even if you want to lose fat and get a six pack and become strong healthy and happy, you cannot. Why? If everything has sugar added to it, even if you are the world‘s most diligent exerciser and individual, you can’t do nothing! And as a consequence once again, you cannot blame an individual agent or individual for becoming fat or sick or unhealthy, if in fact the things that you are consuming and using or in fact, Giving you type two diabetes, maybe the current US dollar and monetary supply is like a metaphorical type two diabetes for Americans.

Why do I care?

So the trillion dollar question is like… Why do I care?

First, once again, my moral and ethical imperative, growing up poor, having a dad who is addicted to gambling away the rent money, seeing my mom go through bankruptcy twice etc., almost homeless like four or five times, certainly gave me some sort of real life and real world education about economics.

And I think this is where people fail— they have never really really really really really seen people go through financial distress, financial duress, they’ve never really witnessed it, nor did they really understand what it means?

For example, a lot of these well to do Democrats liberals whatever, allow them actually come from quite affluent families. For example, a lot of people who lecture us about helping poor people blah blah blah, actually did not grow up poor. For example, unless you’ve ever had the experience, being like an elementary school kid, in the fourth or fifth grade, maybe around 11 or 12 years old, having to pick up the phone, because your parents knew that it was probably creditors asking for money, and if you’ve actually never had the experience of having to pretend online and say that your parents were not home, you don’t know nothing.

And maybe this is where I am the first self-made bitcoin millionaire; now that I’m stacking 2.3 M’s and beyond, things are starting to get really interesting to me, at almost a hilariously alarming pace.

First, honestly it all seems like some sort of fake reality, it’s still shocking to me whenever I see these numbers and balances. Still… The $90,000 mark for bitcoin hasn’t really yet set in yet for me.

And I’m sure in certain when we hit the hundred thousand dollar mark for bitcoin, and we have $100,000 party, the best party of all time in cyberspace, and Michael saylors‘s house, we will all be laughing to the bank.

Or better yet, the digital cyber base, a.k.a. our own home.

Why is this such a big deal?

I don’t know any human being on the planet who does not desire some sort of financial freedom independence or liberty. I don’t know anybody who wants to keep working there are boring 90 to 5 day job, doesn’t matter if you’re working at Amazon Apple Facebook Google; everyone I know, all my friends are working these big companies, Nobody wants to be there if they had the option– yet, they are tied to their mortgages, their other financial debts and obligations etc.

And this is where I think to a large degree, debt is the devil. Why? That is slavery! And the funny thing is that a lot of people they like willingly put themselves into debt slavery.

Willingful debt slavery

For the most part, because I’ve grown up poor and whatever… I don’t actually have that much compassion for people who do poor financial decisions with their life. When people go broke according to their own accord, zero compassion and empathy.

For example, if people complain about finances, the first thing you gotta do is look at their iPhone or look at their Car. A lot of these people who complained that they’re so broke all the time, they’re the ones who are always buying the newest iPhone or iPhone Pro, buy new cars, paying a monthly payment on their car, sending their kids to daycare or private school or whatever, giving fellatio to Mark Zuckerberg, Essentially if you’re on Instagram, you love the taste of Zuckerberg semen in your mouth. Also, the reason you should not trust Mark Zuckerberg, he pretends to be fake poor humble, – she himself still operates under this façade of being a good guy, yet privately owns $10 million cars in his garage.

And I’m also pretty certain that Mark Zuckerberg has probably used the meta-quest at least once to check out virtual reality porn. Not that this is bad, but it is probably true.

the financial freedom of bitcoin

So what I really love about the financial freedom of bitcoin is that I think it sets people free. 

For example, with bitcoin, you could go anywhere on the planet, and always have your wealth with you. You don’t have to be tied down by nothing, not your loser Lamborghini your lose loser Porsche, and now, even your cyber truck.

Ideally, all your wealth would always be portable, with you, in your front pocket in your iPhone, anywhere on the planet!

Matte black bitcoin patches

A funny idea… Thank you you’re making some matte black bitcoin patches, some matte black bitcoin stickers. If you’re interested in copping some, just email me eric@erickim.com

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the vision

Once again, very very simple guys; senator Cynthia Lummis, she is introducing this really interesting bitcoin bill, in which America will like try to obtain 1 million bitcoins over four years. The legendary and mythical Nakamoto, which is 1 million bitcoins.  

Why America is well positioned to do this

America is money, America is manifest destiny. America is the best, the most powerful, the most dominant, and anyone who likes to think otherwise is either deluded, wrong, or somehow, anti-American? I don’t really get it; technically, if you live in America, and you get paid in US dollars or whatever, it is actually like a super good deal.

Why? First, essentially America could print money ad infinitum, for free, into infinity.

So it seems actually super super obvious; to essentially, just print a bunch of money, buy the bitcoin, and take the upside, none of the downside. In fact, the really intelligent strategy  is the triple Trump Max strategy outlined by Michael Saylor in his presentation the red wave; to purchase 4 million bitcoins.

If we own 6 million bitcoins, 2045,,, which is just 21 years from now, … $81T payoff!

think in bitcoins

Also what is really fashion being is that bitcoins, is actually… Also built upon the bitcoin icon; everyone could easily notice the bitcoin icon from even 100 miles away. Yet, nobody has any clue or idea what Ethereum is. Or anything else.

 financial prospering

Another big idea in things to my colon doesn’t everyone seek and desire some sort of financial prosperity? Like doesn’t everyone want to be super super filthy dumb rich, whether they use that money for good like donations to charities or whatever, quitting your own nonprofit, helping poor kids, whatever?

economic power, capital power is real power

I think this is also another thing that people don’t understand, capital control,  financial control, financial power is real power.

For example, I just went to Catholic mass the other day, and there was a second donation, for St. Vincent de Paul, helping poor families deal with paying the rent and utilities, not getting evicted etc. As long as the Catholic Church still asks for donations — money matters.

In fact I really interesting thought is if the Catholic Church or the Vatican or whatever would build up their own strategic bitcoin reserve, then, the Catholic Church would last into perpetuity. And also never have to pay taxes.

Why do rich people care about taxes so much?

You’re kind of matters because even if you’re being taxed at a paltry rate of 1%, in like 30 or 40 years, assuming that you bought a $1 million home, you’re going to send you be paying like half of that in just simple property taxes. 

Or, if you purchase a one million $ home, and you have one percent tax, then over the course of 100 years, you’re going to have already paid $1 million worth of property tax.

Now why is this important? You cannot text bitcoin, if you just hold it. And don’t sell it. Or transfer it.

Also fortunately, there’s no inheritance tax on bitcoin. Like if you die you could just give your private keys to your kids, and they will give it to their kids kids kids. No government meddling around with your family’s wealth. 

Even Sanator Lummis supports this idea, assuming that the bitcoin act passes, the bitcoin bill, I don’t really see any reasons why it won’t, essentially will give more clear property rights of private keys, to humans and American citizens?

For example, nobody could stick a gun to your head, and force you to hand over your keys.  however, somebody could stick a gun to your head, and force you to give you your credit cards, your wallet, your credit card your stuff, or break into your home and steal the gold bars stuffed under your mattress.

First, I think banks were generally a good thing the invention of it was beneficial in so far much as even me, I don’t want to walk around with like $100,000 of US currency in my pocket. Why? The risk of me misplacing it, losing it, getting it stolen is quite high. For example like when I used to lift weights at the gym and I did not want to get distracted, Sometimes I would just like leave my backpack there, not really worrying whether people would steal my old iPhone SE, or steal the maybe $50 i had in my wallet.

And this is the big idea, the idea that you could essentially store your own wealth, without a loser bank, a fucking asshole bank, I fucking hate the banks! Even these fucking assholes at JP Morgan Chase; literally taking me about three weeks before I could wire my own damn money to my Coinbase account, to just buy bitcoins for myself, even having to go to the branch like three or four times before doing it!

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How long until you could purchase bitcoins and custody or bitcoins at JP Morgan Chase?

An interesting thing; if you have a certain upgraded bank status with JP Morgan Chase, they actually give you access to this free vault thing, where I guess you could hide your gold bars and antique Rolexes.

You’re not supposed to, but you can. I also would not be surprised that a lot of people probably hide US dollars or cash currency to avoid paying taxes, which I find to be a very very despicable act.

I think with taxes, there is actually kind of like a moralistic obligation to pay taxes, certainly nobody wants to pay more than their fair share but still… I have a personal moral obligation to pay taxes. Why? Because once again, at least for myself, I was raised through the public school system, I went to UCLA, with federal government grants and scholarships, to become the person I am today. I am so insanely grateful to America American government, my mentors, my local Boy Scouts troop,  who knows maybe I’ll start volunteering once Seneca is old enough.

My sense of patriotism, is not this fake ass flag humping conservative Republican alt right, con toting fake ass libertarianism anti-government thing; even what a lot of these loser Republicans and conservatives don’t understand is they are all apparently super anti-government, yet they want America to build a wall to keep out others?

Or, they want the government to stay out of their gun business, but don’t they understand that actually, the right to gun ownership is actually still predicated on the US government?

Or, let us see that somebody breaks into your house, and either robs you or kills your family members, whatever… And even though you have a arsenal of guns, you were not able to stop all the perpetrators. If you want to enact justice, yet you are super anti-government, everyone is antigovernment until they need the government. 

Then what I think people really want is like kind of maybe minimum government possible, MVP, MINIMUM VIABLE GOVERNMENT (MVG).

I think the general idea is that certainly it is good to have the fire department if you don’t want your house to burn down, ain’t nobody gonna own their own fire hose to prevent their house from burning down.

Also, it is certainly good to have a police department, a police force, once again, if somebody beat you up and rob you, and you catch them, you certainly want justice to be dealt to them.

I think that it is like having just enough government, without the bloat?

It’s kind of like having a smart phone, certainly life is better with a smart phone rather than without. However the new ones is, ain’t nobody want to own a loser android or Samsung phone, which has far too much bloatware.

Even now Apple, there are too many damn apps.

I don’t really get it; Apple keeps turning out all these new apps, apps that nobody has any idea what it is, nor do people actually have any desire to use it, I said just let the third-party developers make those journaling apps and stuff. In fact, if Apple were really intelligent what Apple would do is actually with every subsequent version of iOS, they would actually get rid of superfluous apps!

Like there’s all these weird apps like the measuring tool and whatever.  Come on Apple just get rid of it. 

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Hot take: I think in four years by the end of the Trump presidency, I will not be shocked if bitcoin hits 1 million of bitcoin, which is about 10x from here?

To keep the math simple; I’m just going to assume that bitcoin is like $100,000 of bitcoin right now. So $100,000-$1 million is a 10x gain.

So do the simple math, if you sell your assets right now which are not really rapidly accumulating in value, then, the best way to think about it is that you have to have a strong end up for your timeline. It is currently the year 2024, I think Trump takes presidency 2025, so then the projection should be 2029, Four years from now… Seneca will only be eight years old? Is that like the second grade? And then on top of that it will be another 10 years until he goes to college or just starts his own bitcoin based company or thing.

The future four years from now

Making predictions four years from now is pretty simple. I am very very certain that miracle will accumulate some amount of bitcoins to back strategic bitcoin treasury reserve assets, I think of it like the new bitcoin Fort Knox; my personal thought is that America will decouple herself from the gold standard, and then latch on and hyper charge herself with bitcoin.

The reason why this becomes such a fascinating idea is that then, the US dollar will actually appreciate and value because it is actually backed by something which is real, bitcoin.

Triple Trump Max?

I recently watched a presentation by Michael Saylor, titled the red wave, and it is really really fascinating; now that the red Republicans have taken over the whole government, this is like 1000 X good news for us bitcoin holders as well as micro strategy share owners.

Why is it meant to be such a glorious future for us?

First, the crypto Renaissance. Now that Elon Musk is going to be the new doge chair, which is hilarious, you’ll see a boom in the whole cryptocurrency industry, a new resurgence. And as a consequence, you’re going to see like 1 trillion new crypto based companies having a virtual IPO– even Scottie Pippen is doing interesting with the famous 1991 basketball that he has held for 33 years, and he is like sharing ownership in it or something? $BALL

ANYWAYS, THIS IS ALMOST LIKE THE NEW DIGITAL GOLD WAVE; the new digital gold rush.

Even now, you’re already seen smart rich old families buy best from gold and pour that money into bitcoin instead. You are starting to see the black rock gold ETF becoming consolidated, and having those asset reserves pour into bitcoin the bitcoin spot ETF Ibit by Black rock.

Even watch CNBC news, the squawk box, which is the real financial news. You know it is a big deal when you have all these really really famous investors, admitting that they were actually wrong about bitcoin, although saying it in like a sideways, orthogonal way.

Even this really famous investor in Tesla admitted to the Joe guy, “I told you… You gotta do your own research, and you did your research and I did my research and I know my business and you know your business” which is essentially like a way of ceding defeat and admitting that you were wrong.

How to know that ERIC KIM is a true believer in bitcoin

Very interesting, I’m like one of the biggest NASSIM TALEB Fan boys of all time, and still am. Like four years ago or five years ago, he actually wrote a medium article on how he believed in bitcoin, and actually he even wrote the introduction preface to the bitcoin standard, who was written by another fellow Lebanese American economist and writer.

However, the moment in which I put in the beeswax of Odysseus was when apparently Taleb had a change of heart, and then he became like on a crusade to be super super anti-bitcoin, and making fun of bitcoiners. He also apparently wrote this bitcoin essay on how it was kind of not good, and when I saw it I immediately just shut my eyes, and went off the grid. And instead spending more time at the gym, just lifting weights, not thinking about bitcoin and the whole crypto economy, and just enjoying my lifting.

Also, you know that I am super legit because when the whole FTX meltdown happened, I didn’t even know.  for about 4 to 5 years, I try to shut my ears to bitcoin prices and not think about it, until people would accidentally tell me even against my own will. Or Cindy or my brother-in-law telling me that bitcoin is way down, I never lost hope, I just had to stay focused.

So what does it mean when you’re right?

Kind of weird and amazing, for me the really really big deal was when I first saw bitcoin hitting $88,000 a bitcoin, which was like a lot, because my mind was still pegged at bitcoin at being like an average 65,000 a bitcoin or 62,000 a bitcoin, or even 59,000 of bitcoin.

And then the magic happen, I’m miraculously just looked at the prices by chance, randomly on my iPhone, and I saw that it hit about 91,000, then about 93,000 of bitcoin? Then going on Twitter and seeing that Michael Saylor is already planning the $100k party.

Everyone wants bitcoin to succeed

I think that’s very interesting to me is that actually the whole crypto economy is pegged to the bitcoin. Even loser Ethereum and everything after it.

What is Ethereum? It is like a fake diamond a cubic zirconia, it looks shiny and pretty from the outside but in the inside it is just plastic.

People talk about how you could like create nonfungible tokens, cyber artwork, and you could program on Ethereum… But you fools don’t you know you could do the same exactly on bitcoin? And bitcoin is like at least 1000 X more powerful robust and super superior?

I almost feel like this is against the early days of android versus iPhone. I really really feel like there’s almost 0 reasons to own an android of Google pixel a Samsung phone anymore. Even Google Gemini which came out kind of is lame.

And also the big thing… The sales people at Google they all own iPhone pros.

Don’t ask people what you should do, just see what they personally own.

The joy of waking up

So now that I am like 10% invested in micro strategy, about 90% of my wealth in bitcoin, I actually get super super excited when it is 6:30 AM, the best time of the day. I enjoy looking at the market activity of micro strategy, how it is like essentially like nuclear power and physics insanely volatile, insanely high power, radioactive!

I actually remember as a kid, learning all about nuclear power, and how it was a very good thing, like essentially the magical thing that would change everything, that would essentially make energy and power practically free. I still believe this way.

I think the hard thing about nuclear power is that like anything in life, high volatility and massive upside, you just gotta be careful. Assuming you take all the smart MIT nuclear physicist to build these nuclear pants, somewhere maybe in the desert, and you do it safely, the Asymmetric payoff;

You have 1000 to one benefit ratio.

Once again nuclear waste and the potential for another Fukushima is possible, but also do you suddenly turn everyone to a buggy wagon and horse because people die in car accidents? 

Also, do you ban people from owning iPhones because there are so many debts related to texting while driving?

Or do you ban people from using electricity because there are some people who either use it as a weapon, how you could kill people with the electric chair, etc.?

I think this is also the tricky thing with guns; obviously there are all these crazy mass murderers with guns, and these fucking asshole pussies who bring it to a wedding, leave it in a book bag unattended in the guest room closet, to only have a crazy alcoholic woman stealing people’s wallets and shit, miraculously finding the gun, and then putting it on top of your kids car seat. I am not joking this is a real story which happened to me.

There are people who live in the wilderness, who actually may be hunt a game to feed their families. I respect that. What I personally hate all these skinny fat losers with beards, these small dick midgets who accumulate guns and ammunition to act tough? To me this is worse than insane, it is only a thing that a man without a penis would do. And no balls. A bunch of Ken dolls without genitalia.

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Think about the time cost to capital

Another big thing to consider, the time cost to capital. The general idea is that to build things actually just takes a lot of time, human effort, meetings, friction, working through things.

Time is the ultimate acid that we got, something which is not really really recoverable.

Like assume that you have a maximum human lifespan of 120 years, at best. However, impossible to know whether you’ll make it. I would say maybe more conservatively, we should think of like 90 years, that is like the new 80.

So if you knew with 100% precision that you would die at 90 or 92 or whatever, hopefully still with your six pack, then, how would you approach life differently?

First, my personal thought is there should really not be a profit motive. Why? With profit motives, profit is fine, but the issue is that the easiest way to make profit and make money is super simple; just buy bitcoin! If you want to make US dollar gains, then you just purchase micro strategy stock!

So then, the next step is just like kind of more like altruism; assume that you’re like worth $100 billion of bitcoin and you could afford anything on the planet, but the better question is do you really want do you really care? Is this going to create some sort of substantive impact on the planet which is something that you desire?

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Why?

So the reason why I have such a strong predilection towards Bitcoin is that I feel like I have a strong moral an ethical imperative behind it.

So I am all about open source, this has generally been my guiding principle for the last 15 years, maybe even 20 years of my life. The general idea was very very simple;

Information should be free!

Obviously I get it; there are certain people who create stuff we need to get paid and pay rent, I get it! But if you’re like somebody liked Tim Ferriss, or even Joe Rogan, and you’re already super rich… Why do you need advertisements? Why do you need more money?

I have no issues with greed wanting more money etc. It is all good. But maybe the more interesting question on my mind is what are your personal guiding principles in your personal imperative which drive you? Like, why do you care why do you do it?

So for me… The whole route of my open source philosophy was that I grew up super poor without access to nothing, and I want to treat others like how I would like to be treated. I want to be able to empower the other scrappy 19-year-old kid, like my friend Dylan Fan, to become something great, just giving them access to information education etc.

This is also where I’m kind of interested in doing more like these free open source online Zoom Bitcoin workshops on Zoom and other stuff. I don’t want people to have any barriers to access information or knowledge, which could really benefit themselves. 

Because honestly at this point, I’m making dumb money, even I’m flabbergasted. Cindy is too. And so is my mom.

You know it’s a good sign when even you are shocked

“I’m shocked too!” – JAY Z

I think you know you’re onto something good is even if you shock yourself, even if you believe in something and you succeeded, and you are made correct, you are rectified, but still… it still shocks you?

ERIC KIM FILM LEICA MP & LEICA 35mm f2 ASPH AUCTION

So I have a vision, maybe this will be big news: I’m going to sell my old film Leica MP, and my Leica 35 mm F2 ASPH lens to the highest bidder. I will only accept bitcoin.

If you wanna put in a bid, own a piece of photography history, email me at eric@erickim.com with your offer. I will sell this to the highest bidder.

Also I will make a pledge; the second after we confirm details, and we lock in the  details whatever, I will guarantee I’ll give you the best value of your bitcoin for my set up, assuming that even marked prices fluctuate a bit. In short I’ll be more generous to you.

Also, I think the fun thing is that it will be the first time I do a really big transfer just using bitcoin and bitcoin wallets– like a real pure to prayer, P2P transfer.

Technically this was the whole vision of Satoshi; being able to transfer value and money without a trusted intermediary. Not having to do it through loser PayPal, or loser bank, we’re having to deal with loser SWIFT code bank transaction wire stuff. 

Like doesn’t this make super sense,  that you would actually… If you want to sell something with a high value amount, thought you would just do it peer to peer with bitcoin, without having to deal with the messy business of some sort of third-party?

Like for example… Even a simple thing, if I owned like $1 million house I wanted to sell it directly to you, isn’t the most logical thing that I could just meet you in the flesh, shake your hand, and then immediately transfer $1 million from my bitcoin balance directly to you? Wouldn’t this make the most sense?

Or, if I owned like a $250,000 Lamborghini, that I could once again, test drive your car, tell you that I like it, shake your hand and immediately zap you like one or two bitcoins?

Or if you had a cyber truck, that I could give you like half a bitcoin for your cyber truck? Or maybe a quarter? 

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I Shall Never Die

Economic Armor

Suit of armor, and formal suit?

The virtues of working as a team?

.

A hybrid, a hybrid between the upside of nature, without any of the downsides? And also the upside of the city?

So one thing that’s super interesting is spending a little bit time here in the mountains, the quasi countryside is that something about the piece of the mornings is surprisingly wonderful and calming to me.

At first, I thought it was kind of a gimmick to be out in nature or whatever, ironically enough, this is even coming from a Boy Scout’s Eagle Scout.

So on one hand, the issue with all these people trying to seek the wilderness I think is a form of escape. They don’t like to be with themselves, so they try to get lost in nature to forget themselves.

I think one of the things that a lot of these overly sentimental week wings suffer from that they think that somehow, nature is God and nature is supreme. As a consequence, they feel this strange guilt about being alive, resources, etc. But I find this to be ridiculous; The truth is, human beings we are supreme, and nature is our slave. To anybody who has made it a virtue that somehow we have to be subservient to nature, to me is kind of a weakling mentality.  the true man has made nature his slave, his pet thing. His matter and mold and clay for wild, fun and playful experimentation!

I think the critical issue here is that people have no idea what to live for, whom to live for, etc. As a consequence, people spend a lot of their lives just wasting it, just wondering and meandering around, with zero insight about themselves, their personal role, their own personal philosophy, their own personal ethics ethos aesthetics and approach to life etc.

And I think what a lot of these people also feel to understand is that there is no ultimate truth or true North to anything; life is like a wonderfully wild creative monster, a beast, full of chaos fun play enjoy. The Indonesian joy of radicalness, playful candor, and unreasonable art?

I’m the new Nietzsche?

Certainly everyone wants some sort of legacy, some see through their altruism and the virtuality, some try to do it like Mother Teresa, Gandhi etc., other people like Thich Nhat Hanh, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., etc. Other people tried to found religions like Saint Paul, Mohammad, Moses, the pharaohs of Egypt etc. I think Plato also tried to create a religion but failed. Same with Socrates and most of the ancient Greeks.

All of the flossers who have come before me, I think they failed on many accounts. First, none of them were actually materially successful, or entrepreneurial, or financially successful, considering or assuming they started from nothing. I’m starting to learn a little bit more about generational wealth, kids were born knowing that they had to trust fund, etc. I’m not one of them.

Second, the physicality aspect of it. Till you have met a philosopher who could lift over 1000 pounds, that is 10 1/2 plates on each side of the barbell, knock on my door.

Third, the disconnection from social media. I might be the only person that I know who is actually disconnected from social media. Even a lot of these older folks, seems that everyone is jacked into Twitter like crack. Especially a lot of older folks ironically enough.

Also, am I the only 36-year-old who doesn’t have an Instagram who deleted it at the height of his fame with 60,000 followers? The best idea in 1 trillion years; now that my net worth is soaring, just recently breaking the $2.1 million mark, and continue to grow and explode at an alarming rate, what that means is things are starting to get interesting, and also pretty awesome.

Technology

Another thing I was randomly thinking about is how blessed I am to have been born in the time of bitcoin. Even though I do have some superficial regrets, technically I’m grateful of my journey thus far, my only regret in life is not buying more bitcoins or buying any bitcoins when my roommate Kevin first told me about it my junior year of college, one bitcoin was worth like .0000 one percent of a penny. My roommate Kevin told me that we should just buy like $100 worth of Bitcoin for funsies, just to see what would happen. I think this was during bitcoin pizza day or a little bit before it. Regardless I was doing some math, and had I had bought $100 worth of bitcoin in my junior year of college, that would probably be worth like $100 billion today. But if this were the case, I probably would have never done my photography entrepreneurship journey, traveling the planet, promoting my open source philosophy, and forever cementing my legacy in street photography. So I’m not salty about nothing.

So on the contrary,  maybe the timing was all right along. Actually, one of my mottos and guiding principles to life, is the thought:

Everything happens as it should have happened.

The general idea is not that everything happens for a reason, which assumes some sort of strange mystical guiding force the universe which I do not believe in, but instead the general idea is that everything happened as it should have happened which means that one should never have any regrets in life The way in which things have played out. Because the funny thing, now that I am 36 years old, which is still super super young if I think about it, but the same time, I think with enough foresight, you will essentially discover and learn that Whatever happens in life, typically when you look back at it, 20 years or so from now, you’ll look back and smile knowing that without even really really thinking about it or considering it too deeply, the timing was perfect all along!

One story I don’t really talk about which is super super random is what inspired me and Cindy to actually  start trying to have a kid, because the timing never felt right. Long story short, being held up at gunpoint in Mexico City, me yelping, grabbing Cindy‘s hand and running the opposite way in his exact pattern as a natural impulse, and then the gunman, who first shined the chrome from his hip holster, jumping back on his moped or motorcycle and fucking off.

This was like two or three months before Covid hit, and then we started trying then. And then Covid happened, and then we thought that the baby was gonna get Covid so we stopped, and then we attended a webinar that said actually somehow babies were immune to Covid or something, and then we tried again and boom got pregnant in like a week.

Anyways, everything happens as it should have happened.

Other foresights

So some other four sites which are super fasciae to me is like my propensity to think about investing money and finances, in like a Zen stoic way?

Currently, stacking bitcoins is more like a game than anything. It’s been an interesting journey thus far, part of it is like being a little bit crazy, considered insane by the traditional crowd, but then again, now that Donald Trump has been elected president, isn’t the whole world in planet a little bit insane, truth be told?

Once again, the world is 1 trillion times more bizarre than I could have ever imagined it. For example, even Elon Musk putting on the red hat, putting on the Maga hat, make America great again hat, super interesting and weird?

And also, another sign of how America is so racist, when Kanye West put on the MAGA hat, everyone was trying to crucify him, calling him like the new black Hitler 2.0 or something. But then, when Elon Musk does it, it is considered cool hip trendy, counterculture and cool!

I suppose then, my whole theory about what everyone is so and Kanye West is kind of accurate and true; once again, America doesn’t like an outspoken African-American man, who is 1 trillion times more successful than them.

I hate you because you are 1 trillion times more successful than me! (has any man ever said this?)

Zen the fuck out , ZTFO – Big Sean

I woke up in beast mode! My wife and me is like beauty and the beast though! The only thing sold out is the seats though!

Thinking Calabasas, The Hills, etc.

So some thoughts; first, maybe the best strategy ain’t to ask people what you should do or whatever, or ask people for advice. Just see what they do, where they live, where they put their own money. In other words, talk is cheap, words weep. 

 the first interesting thoughts; why is it that all the super super rich successful people live in Calabasas? Kim has a house out there, and I think Kanye literally has a house across the street from his ex-wife?

I think Jay Z and Beyoncé also have a house in Beverly Hills?

Anyways, it looks like sooner or later everyone ends up back in LA Los Angeles Southern California. Nobody wants to be in the East Coast, New York sucks, Brooklyn sucks. The only reason people live out there is once again, people want the place to form them, rather than thinking about it Blank slate, Carte Blanche, instead of them doing the shaping? 

For example, questions; if you’re like somewhere or traveling or whatever, and you meet somebody from Brooklyn or Manhattan or New York City or whatever… The question; how long in your conversation and talking with them before they start talking about how great New York or Brooklyn is?

The same thing about people who once went to Harvard, either as a undergraduate or graduate student or postgraduate soon whatever; only unsuccessful people talk about their academic pedigree as an undergraduate. 

I think one of the things that I learned from mindfulness, Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen, Taoism is that the best way to think about things is not the past; which is a fiction, but rather, the present joyful moment, and also thinking about the future?

Once again, my overall suspicion of monks, Buddhist monks in the life; how much of them decide to opt for some sort of Buddhist simple lifestyle simply because they were unsuccessful in the material realm, the entrepreneurial or economic realm; like how often do you meet a billionaire who then renounces everything and becomes a monk? Typically, most people have tried the whole life thing, fail, and then become a monk. 

Zuckerberg goals

The only successful person in my age group or age range who I respect is Mark Zuckerberg. The truth is though, he’s a super fucking weirdo. Just look at interviews with him, dark rings under his eyes, and the man is quite bizarre. You could totally see that in high school and college, he was like one of these super fucking weirdos, the super weird nerds, who probably wanted to pick up chicks, probably watch some weird porn in private, maybe he was into Maria Ozawa I don’t know. Even recently watching his interview at a certain Keynote with the CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, I was watching Mark on stage, his new outfit was pretty cool he essentially look like Jay Z or Kanye, but the second that Mark starts talking, once again super fucking weird.

The truth is nobody wants to live in the meta-verse. This is where I’m a huge proponent of bitcoin; I would prefer to be in the wild outdoors, super fucking jacked and happy, walking around topless with my demigod physique, my ripped hard bronze body, super jacked arms, with my black sun hat on, my 60 pound weight vest on. Even more impressive, I guess I’m strong enough now that I could actually go on a hike with my 60 pound weight vest and carry Seneca who is now like 50 pounds.

Anyways, even in terms of cars, I’m still pretty convinced, assuming you want to lift some sort of funny outdoor, off the grid, exploration lifestyle, the goal is to own some sort of loser off-roading car, over landing car,  some sort of AMG sprinter van converted mini RV thing, or camper van, no, just having a simple 2010 Prius in cocaine white, is far superior why? Until you could have a vehicle with at least 50 MPG’s, a hybrid car, everything else is not worth it.

Why? even if you had like a cyber truck or a cyber beast, for people who have really really done real road trips, or really driven anywhere outside of the Bay Area or California, 99.9% of the grid is not equipped for Tesla superchargers or electric EV chargers. Like you never see any electric charging stations anywhere!

And note, I’m like one of the biggest Elon Musk and Tesla fan boys of all time. And now that I’m super rich, I could afford like 50 cyber trucks, I still haven’t bought one. Why? Once again… Better to buy one bitcoin than one cyber truck. Because the cyber truck at best might kind of hold its value for another year or two, until it’s steadily loses economic value, until eventually you’ll probably be able to buy one for like $30 or $40 or $50,000. Because once the cyber taxi comes out, everyone’s gonna want to have that instead.

What people don’t understand is a Tesla car is like an iPhone Pro on steroids, that has wheels on it. This is also why you should never buy any sort of expensive non-interchangeable lens digital camera like a Leica Q– it is essentially first of all, a Panasonic Lumix with a body kit, just get the Lumix S9 and 26mm pancake lens instead (my current set up), which is may be superior in performance, smaller and more compact and lighter, and also way cheaper?

And also, there is no physical asset on the planet, no car no vehicle that will ever ever ever ever ever accumulate in value or go up in value. Even if you own some sort of loser super rare Porsche Carrera 911 classic car, or a classic Lamborghini or Ferrari or something, after the maintenance cost and fixing it and whatever… The value of it will essentially plummet Into the negative. Whereas bitcoin is going to the moon and to Mars and beyond. 

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Podcast

Audio

The ability to quickly pivot whenever you want to;

The passion of outside?

So I think something I have discovered about myself is that I have a passion of outside being outside etc. Pretty much what this means is my passion is to not be in some sort of stifling cramped indoor space but rather, my passion is to be outside, With the open sky the open air etc.

Currently staying at a home exchange in the mountains in Southern California, and the mountain house is super lovely, but just even taking a quick jump outside, and then going back inside… Immediately I feel stifled and “ddab ddab hae” indoors.

The phrase ddab ddab hae in Korean is super interesting — essentially it means feeling kind of like claustrophobic, or constrained, or the feeling of feeling cramped. Once again, if you are an outside mountain spirit, the feeling of being stuck indoors.

Nietzsche one said trust no thought which does not come to assuming you’re not in the open air, outside, preferably in the mountains. Even Nietzsche — I believe he had my asthma or poor health or poor breathing or lungs or something, he traveled all around Europe until he was able to find some sort of nice mountainside retreat in Italy, maybe in the small town of Turin, in which suddenly, all of his sicknesses and ailments ceased?

 so I think the first thing is nature, big and nature, I think it’s just good for the human soul, our mind our brain, our physiology our eyes and eyeballs etc. For example, I think it is a bit foolish when all of these monks and pseudo in lightened Silicon Valley folks and thinkers believe that you could somehow “think“ yourself out of a problem or a mental malady. It is my personal belief that actually, the only way to read yourself a badness is to actually get your ass out of the house, go a walk, go outside!

Not cars

Not cars, not vehicles.

So even if you had the world’s best Lamborghini with the scissor doors or the off-road in Lamborghini sterrato whatever, doesn’t matter what color scheme, rims or whatever, as long as you do not have 100% leg freedom, you ain’t got nothing.

For example, driving down, stuck on some of the really really bad Riverside traffic, and actually, the real tragedy here is that some people have to take this god-awful commute, maybe 2 1/2 or three hours each way, to buy a nice big house in Riverside, in order to commute to Los Angeles? To me even if you gave me the world’s trillion dollar car, this trade would not be worth it.

Why? Once again it is a physics, physiological thing; there is no good on the planet which is worth the pain and suffering of being stuck sitting in a sedentary position. Even if you are in an airplane, a jet, flying first class or whatever, even if you are in the most luxurious of all luxurious seats or sitting situations, none of it is worth it. Why? Because once again when you’re sitting, you’re in a very very fragile position, in the most miserable of all physiological positions.

For example, let us consider how in fact, what is the human being being designed for? We are designed to stand upright, to walk, much of our ability to be by pets balance, look into the distance and walk, is structured around this. If a human being does not need to walk and move around or be outside or be upright, he has no reason for a brain or any body physiology.

So once again, to be human is to walk, to be outside, no ceilings no roofs, no glass ceilings.

Homes?

So, then at the end of the day, what is the meaning of the purpose of having a home?

There are 1 trillion different ways one could configure ones living circumstances, configurations etc.

For example, you could have a big ass ranch, a big ass backyard in front lawn and back lawn and private property, or you could live in an apartment, kind of more connected to society.

You could also live in a trailer home, or even I guess live in the trunk of your cyber truck.

I suppose then, the primary question to ask yourself is what do I see, what do I want from life, what do I want to out of life?

First, the light the sun. For me the sun is the source of all energy, all power, all happiness and joy. So to ideally live somewhere sunny is a virtue. I have a funny ongoing theory that human beings, we’re just like plants except we move a lot quicker.

Second, the joy of weightlifting. Still, after all of this, I still really do have a passion for lifting weights, weightlifting etc. To me it is like my ultimate form of Z meditation exercise and without weightlifting, things become a bit boring, uninteresting etc.  For example, the courage needed to lift very very heavyweights, requires 100% of your focus, a 100% focus of your presence. You cannot fake it; precisely because extremely heavy weightlifting is dangerous, that is what forces you to focus.

And this is the very very funny thing. When I would lift nine plates 10 plates and beyond at the gym, people always tell me “be careful“. Duh! This is the whole point! To be careful means to take care, take care, Which means you don’t fuck around, you don’t even listen to music; even music is a distraction. No stupid AirPods on, no external distractions. No phone.

In fact, one thing I’m very very grateful for the gym I used to go to the last few years, is that I was able to ride down the whole bitcoin downturn, due to the FTX meltdown, the hilarious thing; after buying my bitcoin in around 2018, I just literally never ever ever check the prices for almost 4 years; Rest and vest. And the only time I would ever be exposed to the price of bitcoin was on accident; in which I would accidentally see the price or something.

Anyways, I’m grateful for my journey thus far, not having lost any bitcoins or anything. Apparently I read or heard something, whenever you go to a bitcoin conference or something, you never ask people how many bitcoins you have your own, but how many bitcoins you have lost, that is the true indicator of how long you have been in the game.

But then again, I think the tricky thing with bitcoin crypto currencies, the whole crypto economy is that it is all a bit strange convoluted and polluted. Too many ideas, too many opinions, you gotta just hang out, take it out to the beginning.

The issue with the physical realm

So the biggest issue that I have is that there’s so much waste, so much physical waste in the physical realm. For example you might have your Lamborghini your RV your truck, your over landing vehicle, your AMG sprinter van, all your expensive Apple devices, your big ass house whatever. Yet all of these things seem to be more liabilities than assets to me.

One thing that I really really love about bitcoin is that it seems to be the ultimate portable, durable, weightless thing to just carry around. For example, assuming that you have an iPhone an iPad, some sort of MacBook laptop device, or something on iCloud iCloud chain, Safari Google Chrome whatever, Gmail, Google services, all of your money and assets and store of value is secure. And in theory, you can immediately liquidate your assets.

For example, even if you own some sort of RV or expensive car or something, the huge pain of having to liquidate it and sell it, this is a huge pain in the ass. You still have to find a seller, you need to figure a way to quickly or efficiently or securely Broker the trade or whatever… To me, this ain’t worth it.

What is actually useful in the physical realm

Things I find useful in the physical realm include fresh air, beautiful bright sun and sunlight, peace and quiet, absence of pollution, hot baths, Wi-Fi, 5G, cameras digital cameras, video cameras, a grill is super awesome but not 100% necessary, And having some sort of vehicle that could take you around.

In fact, recently doing a road trip to Norcal and back, I’m still shocked… The Toyota Prius, a hybrid vehicle which runs on both gasoline and has a battery an electric charging battery, seems to be the ideal hybrid? The ideal thing that leverage is both the upside of gasoline which is insane power and energy in liquefied compact form, as well as the battery, which kind of somehow magically charges itself, through the braking mechanism in the Prius and car?

And I think the thing that is difficult for people to understand on just how amazing the Toyota Prius and hybrid system is; it really is so insanely clutch right when you need it.

For example, doing a last-minute drive somewhere, and just having one tick of gas, but still being able to drive all the way from the Pacific Palisades back home to Culver City, like 5% of gas left, could still take you around 40 to 50 miles?

And this is super super useful because the second you’re trying to beat rush-hour traffic, and you cannot be fucked to stop by a gas station or a Tesla supercharger, because you want to quickly hit the road, you don’t have to deal with having to stop by a gas station or an electric charging station if you don’t want to; you have the option, More optionality!

Seek optionality

I don’t need to own it, I could just visit it rent it borrow it try it out for the week or weekend!

I think this is also a big thing, we Americans we are so silly in our notion of “ownership“, we both believe that in order to gain legitimacy, we have to “own” the underlying asset.  but I was thinking about it… Never really kind of own anything, maybe besides bitcoin.

Why? So for example let us say that you own a single-family home property whatever, you don’t really 100% owned, you’re just borrowing it from the federal government, the local city government etc. And you’re paying a huge state tax fee local fee tax fee etc.

Also, vehicles automobiles cars etc., as long as you’re sooner or later taking some sort of public Road Highway, freeway etc., you don’t really 100% on your car either because you’re just kind of leasing the rights to use your vehicle on public roads, as long as you had to pay some sort of DMV fee and sticker, you never really 100% own your vehicle.

And also, you still have to pay car insurance, like forever. And once again, vehicle registration fees. Even the fees even though the fees are not super super high, you still gotta pay something.

I think also one of the soccer fallacies is that some people fall victim to this notion of somehow like you buy some sort of RV or truck or converted Mercedes sprinter van and you could somehow turn it into like a mobile house or a mobile RV, and then you could just finally become free travel through the states whatever, etc.… But still you’re kind of a slave because you still have to find somewhere to park at night, you often had to pay a fee to park somewhere, And also, more private things like you gotta pay for sanitation to plumb out your vehicle, you still need to buy food and stuff, etc. This is where I still think it is wiser to just rent an apartment and somewhere desirable where you could just walk everywhere because once again,Americans we were romanticize the idea other great American road trip and being on the road, but still… The ideal strategy is to spend like close to 0% of your time in a car or a vehicle, and you try to instead, spend about 100% of your time walking around outside in the direct light or the direct sun.

So the ideal goal is to find a place or a local or a city or neighborhood or area that you absolutely love like for me in Culver City, the arts district, and you could just 100% pedestrian walk yourself everywhere, just jump on the metro E line if you want, and just go on a drive if you want. 

And once again, location location location location location. I still cannot stress this enough; because of the laws of physics, Los Angeles, Los Angeles traffic; still the most intelligent strategy in life is to find the best location absolutely, in which you never have to drive more than five minutes a day. Or driving just becomes an optional thing; you could actually live a virtuous 100% pedestrian lifestyle.

it is difficult to monetize walking

So I think the biggest issue here is that walking is not really popular as a past time because it is difficult to monetize. Compare this instead of running or jogging or whatever, easy easy easy because you could sell these stupid overpriced $300 or $400 running sneakers, which are only for skinny fat losers. 

And also, I think maybe this is the reason why automobile cars are so sought after an American society; because our society almost close to 100% of it is still dependent on a car, only society in which nobody really owns a car is probably New York New York City or Brooklyn, or the main island; even the rich people don’t really own a car, they might have a private driver or they might just even take the metro, or just walk or even take an Uber. Which is even easier than coordinating a personal driver.

Even in San Francisco, sooner or later everyone kind of wants a car or a Tesla or something, or maybe a Waymo,  but the sense I have is nobody wants to live in San Francisco anymore, not the huge exodus out of the Bay Area, in fact more people I see in tech are settling in Los Angeles West Los Angeles, even my tech cousin Daniel just moved to the Sawtelle neighborhood. 

Sooner or later everybody ends up in LA.

So my very very simple suggestion is with life and everything in general, just get off of loser Instagram TikTok YouTube Spotify Twitter all of the social media services. Even I was randomly getting back into Twitter because there are lots of important financial news to stay updated there, and before Trump got elected, it was actually kind of necessary for me to do some research about his policies about bitcoin and crypto, because I am 100% all in on bitcoin. But still… Access to the information the news the truth, it is so toxic. Maybe it is better to be a little bit more poor, without the toxicity, rather than being richer with more toxicity. 

Better to be poorer, and less toxic rather than be richer and more toxic.

Goals?

One interesting thing that I’ve learned about bitcoin just things and life in general is that you only really really discover something or take full heart to it when you actually really have a need for it.

For example, the story of Michael Saylor microstrategy and bitcoin; the only reason that Michael Saylor really took it was because he had a real need for it; 500 million in cash, in kind of stagnant company– he needed to add vitality back to life to his company and corporation.

Necessity is the true mother of all innovation

Similarly speaking, myself, moving here to LA, staring at this ridiculous high cost of living, and trying to find innovative ways to approach money, productivity time etc. I found bitcoin as almost a salvation for me, Cindy, my aging mom, Seneca, and my future family!

How and why bitcoin has changed my life

So I think traditionally, most of us are stuck into the work cycle. It is a simple mathematical equation: a simple vector equation;  in goes your effort, time, and labor, outcomes money and income.

So for most people, there is directly proportional effect:

You labor harder, more, and you yield more US dollars, and you work hard, put out new innovative product services etc., a lot of hard work and time, heavily market the thing, through genuine and effort full channels, and then wait diligently for somebody to purchase your products services workshops etc., hope they pay, and then when that dust settles within a month two or three, then you could withdraw that money from your PayPal or digital broker, and then deposited into your checking account, finally logging in and securing your “gain”,

“Income”

So this is where things become funny: the notion of “income”.

Once again, I’m still relatively new to all of this, in the sense that the average time labor, we have a hard time thinking like an investor. For example, to think that you just have $2 million in capital, you have some deep insight and intuition about something,  and then you invest that money into the thing, and then over the course of a few days weeks months, two months, three months, four months five months, a year, 4 to 5 years, the number magically goes up!

To me, this is still like wizardry, like pure magic!

And I still think this is where it is difficult to understand; to those who have access to capital, you essentially have an economic lever to lever up, and leverage that, which is just economic power and energy, to be even more more energy, more power.

The Spartan investor

So we hear stories of Warren Buffett, living the same old house, driving the old same Honda Accord whatever, and then just spending all day reading the newspaper investing in the markets, and then becoming like the third world’s richest man, all at the age of 80 or 90 years old, But your old sick fat and tired, still eating McDonald’s and drinking Coca-Colas.

Warren Buffett is not a good example. Even he was a skeptic and critic of bitcoin.

I think the hard thing is everyone uses Warren Buffet as an example, but for my general sense, given the fact that he has invested heavily into Coca-Cola, he is no better than people who invest in fill up Morris evil cigarette and now vaping corporation, to spin a certain profit.

Tell me that, everyone wants to be as rich as Warren Buffett but nobody actually wants to become Warren Buffett. Do you know anybody in the given universe who wants to be that old fat sick and unshapely? 

Instead, I’m much better idea is to be as jacked as King Leonidas, Gerald Butler in the movie 300, all while being a billionaire. My vision is essentially having the hard spartan body, naked and super fucking jacked, and also… This is the critical one; insanely Spartan and frugal, surprising everyone that you drive a Toyota Prius, even though you could afford like 20 cyber trucks.

I think what I have discovered finally at the age of 36, is that with bitcoin, this changes everything. Why? Before bitcoin has finally hit mass adoption, and now that starting next year January 2025 will be a year one of bitcoin institutional adoption,  what that means is having a bitcoin is like having a cyber truck or Lamborghini on steroids, but on a digital wheel. 

This is my visual: I was at the park yesterday with Seneca, playing with him at night, just having the house key in my front pocket, no phone no nothing not even my camera, and we’re just playing around in the tot lot, kicking around some bark, and I had the funny thoughts; would I trade a bitcoin for a Tesla? Maybe a cyber truck? But actually the other day I jumped into a cyber truck and I was a little bit underwhelmed; the funny thing about the cyber truck is that it looks so flashy and awesome from the outside, put on the inside once you actually step into it, it is a bit underwhelming; it doesn’t really feel that different from sitting inside a Honda Accord or a Toyota Camry. Maybe it would be different if you were homeless and just owned a cyber truck and just slept in the trunk bed, but beyond this, I think cyber truck is one of those funny things that you could just admire it from the outside, without actually having to own it.  and if anything, the real thing to just wait for or save up for is the cyber taxi, which could just shuttle your kid to baseball practice, or take your wife directly to campus or work through the grueling 405 morning commute traffic.

Anyways, now, my calculus is simple; I think of everything in context to bitcoin.

For example, whenever I critically look and asses these things, I think to myself,

How many bitcoins could I buy with this thing? 

For example I was just trolling around with the finance calculator for the Tesla website, and still the cheapest Tesla model three, base edition, after taxes and even after the federal rebate, will still run you around $40-$45,000 at the door. And no this is the cheapest version! This is like half a bitcoin or a third of a bitcoin. I’d rather take the bitcoin which is going to $13 million, rather than the Tesla car which is going to zero.

Accretive or dilutive? 

A new line of thinking I’ve also been thinking about is this general idea of accretive vs dilutive;  that means, is this thing that I’m interested, will it increase value, a.k.a. go up in value, or go down in value?

So I think now that Trump is president, bitcoin at this point is in my mind, practically 100% cemented and certain to go up forever. However as I mentioned in my prior essay, the philosophy of volatility, to reach higher highs you gotta reach lower lows? 

So assuming that you just took snapshots every year, at random high points year over year, you will find that bitcoin is the insanely obvious choice. With enough hindsight, with enough 2020 you can see and determine and ascertain that in fact, bitcoin is by far the winning bet, nearly a trillion-fold obvious decision!  it has insane volatility which means it goes up and down a lot, constantly, but the cool thing is that it will essentially go up forever!

And this is like volatility, it is like having a hyper charger or a supercharger in your engine; more power or more velocity, more extremes to reach higher performance.

For example if you think about the velocity of a roller coaster; what makes it fun is precisely the highs and lows. If you take one of those boring kid ones, which is pretty much steady, it is insanely boring. Why? The thrills of the roller coaster– once again we are the adrenaline junkies!

Practical strategies

OK… if you want the ultimate blend of safety with high-yield, my suggestion is 90% of your capital into bitcoin,  and 10% into microstrategy stock (MSTR). This is what I personally do.

Why? Essentially you could treat Marco strategy stock like your cash; it keeps going up in value, and actually in fact goes up quicker than bitcoin; although it is a Security, a stock that you don’t really own, like bitcoin which is digital property. I love Michael Saylor and microstrategy to death, I have like literally watched and listen to every single Michael Saylor podcast interview available out there, I also read his book the mobile wave, and I’ve tried to consume every single piece of literature or thing that Michael Saylor has put out there. I also watched his recent earnings call, and watching it all in all, almost like watching a rockstar.

However at the end of the day once again, the name of the game is to accumulate and acquire more bitcoins. He or she with the most bitcoins, or the entity with the most bitcoins shall win.

America bitcoin first strategy

So a simple thought to the Trump bitcoin administration and beyond;

First, America must be the bitcoin leader. We must be the nation with the most bitcoin in our treasury reserves.

Sent you the basic ideas like we are creating the next bitcoin Fort Knox; we must dominate every other nation in terms of the number of our bitcoin holdings, kind of like imagine military power, but bitcoin as cyber power.

For example let us assume that the US Navy has strategic military dominance over the planet. And let us assume that our military power is at least 10,000 X to that mainland China.

So in theory in terms of numbers, America must supersede mainland China in our bitcoin holdings. By at least a factor of 10,000X.

I think even Donald Trump joked that maybe we could even use some of our bitcoin to pay back our national debt?

I think actually the more interesting strategy is we hoard our bitcoins forever, until the end of time, and instead, I don’t know… Someone with some good economic wizardry could figure out how we could leverage our debt in intelligent ways so we could actually pay back our debt without having to sell bitcoin.

And once again… I think this is the main idea on my mind right now — we can continue to accumulate bitcoin, stack bitcoin, etc.,  and figure out how we leverage borrowing cheap money or debt from other banks entities, to make money?

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Being positively polarized to capital 

My has enjoy an interest; give me all your capital, and I will invest it and grow it for you!

Eric@erickim.com

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Cyber Capital

So the reason why I think this is such a big deal is that finally, with bitcoin, we have finally crossed the chasm. What this means is finally, in the year 2024 and beyond, capital is finally cyber. What this means is next frontier of capital is practically infinite. 

Let me explicate this a bit more on why this is such a big deal:

So it looks like traditionally, the last frontier of making money and wealth was companies. Why? With technology, finally you were able to break free a little bit of physical limitations. For example, with Google Amazon Facebook etc., you were able to finally cross the digital divide which means that you could actually Feel all things in assets digitally, like digital advertisements digital value etc. Yet the different nuance is still… Capital was not yet in the digital realm. For example even though Amazon Facebook Google and the big tech companies could create value digitally through cyber space in cyber networks, there was no Internet native money or capital in which they could store their value.

For example all the big companies, we’re still reliant on JP Morgan Chase to custody their US dollars and field currency the treasury reserve assets etc.

But starting January of next year 2025… This will all change.

ERIC

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So I have a vision, it is titled paradise bitcoin. What is the general idea,?

First, my first entrepreneurial venture was a one when I was around 15 years old, my friend ERIC Moon just taught me how to build computers, using the thermal pace on the processors and everything, and he gave me a simple idea; I could build a computer super super cheap, buy the parts myself and put the parts together, and then I could sell it for a small profit, like 100 bucks or something. When I registered the eBay seller account, I called it “paradise computers”. I still remember I used Adobe Photoshop, and I used the little icon of the beach palm tree, and I made it bright orange, and I would use all these pictures of babes, two plaster advertisements for my awesome computers.

Why paradise? Simply put, aren’t we all seeking paradise?

For example, in terms of bitcoin, to me it really is kind of a paradise thing; something in which we are seeking some sort of economic paradise.

For example, everyone loves and cares for money, whether it be deep or superficial. But assuming that you own an iPhone, use Wi-Fi, then the truth is ain’t nobody can exist without money.

I think also a sociological intervention that I understand;  money is just human technology. There is nothing on the planet that intrinsically has any words, the worth of something is what society agrees on that has value, so you think of the sociology of money is super fascinating.

For example, why do we value gold? According to Fernand Nagai‘s on money, he says that we prize cold because it is rare, stable, and just has a beautiful color which is very very fitting to adore your children with gold jewelry, also for women. So he thought that it was useful because it was easily transportable, the color in itself was beautiful, and that it was just a beautiful object. But even he knew the rules of monetary inflation, for example when outlining the discovery of the New World, he noted that the price of plummeted, with a huge influx of gold from the Americas. Also he wisely noted that there were many countries in which silver was actually more valued than gold, and he even talks about how gold, at least 10 times as valuable as Bronze, talking about the “bad and portray that one of the heroes did in the Elliot, trading his armor that was worth 100 auction, of gold, for a tin one which is considered a lot  less worth it, about 10 times less.

Anyways, in the world of assets, it is very tricky; you got securities, which aren’t really worth anything in itself, they are predicated on companies, company policies, rules and regulations, the SCC, the rules of the stock market etc.

 to me, the extreme magic of bitcoin is that it is an asset without an issue, which means that it is the world‘s first true digital commodity, which is based in real life physics, as it requires real life analog energy to mine and produce. Not only that, it is now a $1.4 trillion acid class, only worth about 500 billion maybe three or four years ago, so simply put, it is growing at a wonderfully alarming rate.

It’s kind of like iPhone penetration, or social media penetration. For example there is an extreme network effect here; if you are Facebook, and you have a place to post your pictures and your status updates, you get all your friends to join, they get their friends to join, and as a consequence, everyone benefits from this monetary and social network.

Assuming that bitcoin is like the new Facebook or social media of money, which is connected to all 8 billion people on the planet, kind of a big deal.

Why? You could own bitcoin and be in south Sudan, Nigeria, Lagos, Vietnam Sweden or Dubai, and even if you own a few Satoshi‘s or a fraction of a bitcoin, you are my brother!

And not only that, but I was actually thinking about it… bitcoin truly may be the first real perfect property, also a digital property.

For example, one of the major issues and headaches about real property, like real estate, commercial real estate, even owning a single-family home is that you have to deal with property taxes, law law, regulations, politics, local politics, national and federal politics etc. Also you have to make friends with the local politicians the mayor, to slide by regulations etc.

Now I think politics is fine; but, technically the problem about it it is “unfair “; if your best friends with one of the local politicians, you have an edge, but if you don’t know nobody, you are at a slight disadvantage.

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Eric Kim, a photographer and writer, has extensively explored Bitcoin’s philosophical and economic dimensions. His perspectives encompass several key themes:

Bitcoin as Solidified Energy

Kim conceptualizes Bitcoin as “solidified energy,” where computational power and electrical energy are transformed into digital currency through mining. He likens this process to converting energy into a tangible asset, emphasizing Bitcoin’s unique creation method. 

Decentralization and Personal Sovereignty

He views Bitcoin’s decentralized nature as a pathway to personal autonomy, allowing individuals to control their financial destinies without intermediaries. This aligns with his broader philosophical interests in Stoicism, which values self-reliance and independence. 

Ethical Investment

Kim advocates for investing in assets that align with one’s moral and ethical beliefs. He suggests that Bitcoin’s structure and principles resonate with those seeking ethical investment opportunities, contrasting it with traditional financial systems that may not align with personal values. 

Bitcoin as a New Religion

He draws parallels between Bitcoin and religious devotion, noting that the commitment and belief in Bitcoin’s value and potential resemble religious fervor. This perspective highlights the cultural and psychological aspects of Bitcoin adoption. 

Monetary Physics

Applying principles from physics, Kim describes money as potential energy that becomes kinetic when utilized. He extends this analogy to Bitcoin, considering it a form of “monetary energy” that embodies stored value and potential economic force. 

Through these insights, Eric Kim offers a multifaceted understanding of Bitcoin, integrating philosophical, ethical, and economic viewpoints to explore its broader implications.

The philosophy of focus:

So, we are all photographers, thinkers entrepreneurs visionaries etc. To focus, I think at the end of the day, does seem to be a virtue.

First, the ethics of focus, the first big idea is that things which distract us, or rob us of our focus, are third-party distractions, which often have some sort of advertising or marketing or product selling motive.

For example, let us consider all of the ills of modern day life, which is modern media. Essentially anything which is supported by advertising is bad evil and should not be trusted.

For example, anything on YouTube which has advertising or product placements or selling services are bad. Any podcast, Joe Rogan, anybody out there with subscribers, likes, comments, memberships, anyone who has some sort of monetary incentive behind things.

Currently I am promoting bitcoin as a promise that it could solve at least 50% of the world’s problems; that is consider poverty injustice, high cost of living and rent… I actually do believe that these problems could be solved with bitcoin.

For example, even poor spending habits, the issue with inflation is that even if I’m making $20 an hour working at McDonald’s, and the price of everything keeps going up… There is zero too little incentive to save. If my rent cost $3000 a month, and because of inflation in a few years it’ll be worth $4000 a month, incentive is to buy all the capitalistic consumer stuff while I could still afford it, Whether Nike or Jordan sneakers, certain cars, clothes etc.

Also this is where Apple has been intelligent with iPhone; let us say that the iPhone Pro is $1000, or $999. This has been really relatively resistant to inflation; even though minimum wage keeps going up, essentially the price of the iPhone is not changing. Therefore if I am a typical working class poor person, and I’m being paid 16 or $20 an hour, incentive is to go out and purchase the iPhone Pro while I still can; because assuming the inflation keeps going up, in the near future I will no longer be able to afford that new iPhone Pro.

Low prices?

I think for the most part, a lot of the evils and ill society are issues with money, gambling, etc. At least this was the case in my family; my dad just sent you not having a job since I was two years old, gambling away the rent money etc. Assuming that my dad didn’t gamble away the rent money, like he was just a parasite but all he did was smoke cigarettes, watch television and movies, chill out the house… Assuming that were the case, at least he would be kind of a neutral party; but him having to threaten my mom with physical or mental or family violence, holding her at hostage or ransom, Forcing her to give him the rent money with physical force, saying that he was going to pay it himself, and then in the middle of the night driving off to Reno and gambling it away, which means my mom is already three months behind on rent… Certainly this is an evil that happened because of gambling and of course his own problems.

the bad guy?

Ultimately, one cannot point the finger at institution which is the casinos or whatever. Even now as a sober adult, haven’t gone to Vegas a few times, I find it to be very fun! I love going to wicked spoon, and having to all you can eat bone marrow, and all the great foods. But, I don’t have a gambling bone in my body; nor do I have a bone for smoking; essentially seeing all the bad stuff that my dad did, turned me off forever. This is where I have kind of a moralistic and ethical imperative against cigarettes, there’s nothing I hit more than cigarette smoke on the planet; The ultimate evil.

What does focus mean?

So focus, focusing… Assume you have a magnifying glass you could take the raise the sun, pinpointed to one point, and you could burn a hole through paper. Assuming you have a big enough magnifying glass, I wonder if you could even take the sun’s power and even make a hole through steel! Just think about all these James Bond’s movies.

Anyways, I think maybe the focus in society in life should be similar; I am kind of OK fine mediocre and a lot of stuff, but assuming that life is finite, a hard cap of at least 122 years, then what that means is if I know with 100% precision that I will die before 122 years, Then the ethical imperative;

How should I and how must I spend my life in a meaningful way?

Assuming that practically almost all 8 billion of us on the planet have a phone, then what that means is everyone is a photographer because they make photos. Even my new friend Alexey show me an interesting street photo he shot in the hood, somebody who overdosed on fentanyl, ar a bus stop. Somewhere in South Central.

And this is kind of a big deal because assuming that most of us live in cities, or assuming we all live in Los Angeles, anybody with an iPhone is a photographer, a street photographer.

In fact, everything in the haptic shop is open source, free to download share remix four to your buddies or store on unlimited devices. For me this became an ethical imperative; because honestly, 99% of the roadblocks we face in photography has to do with some sort of penis envy for some sort of camera equipment; do you think the day that you could afford to buy the Leica, finally you will have a motivation to shoot or make great photos blah blah blah. Same goes with the iPhone Pro, which is actually, not that great.

Also, objectively … Leica, Leica camera, is an inferior product and tool.  it is true that the craftsmanship is superior, but the overall product is inferior when you compare it to a Panasonic Lumix, or even a Fujifilm camera.

I think what Germany has going for it is good marketing and brand. But everyone knows that any German car whether it be a BMW, Mercedes, Rolls-Royce, which is owned by BMW… maybach which is essentially a Mercedes with a body kit, is probably 1000 X inferior to any Japanese luxury car like Lexus or Toyota. In fact, a Lamborghini is just a Volkswagen Passat on steroids. A Lamborghini Urus SUV is just a Volkswagen touring on steroids. And a Porsche 911, 911 GT three RS is just like a Volkswagen beetle on steroids and a body kit.

I’m currently using the full frame lumix S9 camera, been shooting some video on it… But actually a critical issue right now I’ve been discovering is the reason why micro 4/3, even maybe APSC sensors; or a smaller crop sensors might be superior is because you could focus far closer! Full frame cameras are very very difficult to focus especially up close and personal, and also the bigger issue is that the lenses become bigger heavier, more obtrusive, bulkier, harder to use.

In fact, if you are a filmmaker, still… Getting some sort of micro 4/3 camera some sort of Panasonic lumix GH camera might be your best bet, because you can get the best lenses, with the best close focusing capabilities, the maximum aperture for the minimum amount of weight. And ultimately this is what matters the most; ultimately if you are a videographer photographer or cameraman, it comes down to weight and ease. In fact I think even most videographers especially aspiring filmmakers, maybe they should just get some sort of GoPro creator set up; just set it and forget it!

Because 99.9% of the hurdle that creators face especially new ones is the technical hurdles, the technological issues. Even here may be an iPhone pro without any external accessories might be good for making films. Especially short ones. Anything that is not going to be a Hollywood blockbuster film. This is why I think Apple is trying to do all this marketing that you could shoot cinema on your iPhone Pro is kind of ridiculous; any real professional  Would use some sort of red dragon camera.

I also feel bad perhaps the biggest issue here is everyone is trying to posture and look “pro”? But why?

My thought is everyone has some sort of insecurity bias, a small man complex. Certainly everyone wants to feel big mighty and strong and successful whatever, but I also find this to be a little bit pointless because success, wealth and power, are not zero some; which means that assuming that capital is infinite, not a closed system, then that means that in theory, Anyone and everyone could become a billionaire, assuming that the global market multiplies by 1 trillion.

And also,  because a lot of money is economic fictions, computer code, which means that any nerd with a computer could click a button and inject $1 trillion into the economy, what that then means is the upside for money is infinite!

Certainly there are things which are scarce, like human time, labor, and bitcoin, but everything else… Has an infinite upside in theory?

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Why focus?

I just think that it is an intelligent way to strategize life.

I think the number one issue that a lot of people have, especially young folks that we don’t know what we should devote our lives to. As a consequence we just throw our interest at random in a bunch of Market Basket stuff, hoping that one will stick.

But, to diversify our interest, is perhaps not a good idea. For example, if assuming you had a Mozart in your classroom, would you have your student waste his or her time learning Spanish or stuff that he or she would never really use? No! You would put them in one of those funny musical prodigy classes, have them devote 100% of their energy towards music, to become the next prodigy.

I was also doing some research which is kind of funny that the whole idea of homeschooling was essentially invented because you had a lot of these young athletes students, getting ready for the Olympics, and they did not want to waste their time being stuck in the classroom. So the whole ethos was trying to devote most of the kids time and attention to maximize their sports performance, kind of what mainland China does, she is much more shameless than America. And also maybe be more successful.

I think also that is why you see more record breaking Chinese Olympic weightlifters, because there is no stigma about taking steroids, performance enhancing drugs, and also, they don’t really have a egalitarian schooling system like we do in America.

Anyways, I think to focus means to just value your life, your effort, your soul.

Assuming that we believe in immortal soul, which means that once you die, your soul also dies… Why would you waste your life in anything superficial?

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Facebook, Amazon, Twitter Instagram Meta, TikTok YouTube etc.?

Essentially any sort of digital hosting platform which is “free“, they are the new digital slumlords? 

Everyone loves to hate and complaining about these slumlords, who rent us a really terrible apartment, at unreasonable prices, never fix anything, and are essentially bad and evil people. Yet nobody ever points the finger at the big tech companies? Why? Because they offer you “free” marketing platforms… I wonder, what are more freedom ways we could market ourselves which do not require us to use these toxic platforms to simply get our message across?

The first most simple one is just your website, your blog. A website and a blog is essentially the same thing at this point. A digital domain, it’s almost like having a digital house or a digital business or a digital property in cyberspace? Like having your own address.

No YouTube?

A big one to disrupt his YouTube. I suppose TikTok and to some extent Instagram and Instagram stories, and now Twitter is doing the same, but still… YouTube is by far the dominant platform. Why? Having YouTube at this point is almost like having access to free flowing water or electricity; we cannot imagine the world without it.

But, I guess now that I’m stupid rich, I don’t technically need to anymore. And also in terms of getting my message across, I suppose I’ve already done it really well?

I think they’ll lure of YouTube in these platforms is that it will make getting our message across more effective, to maximize our impact?

But I suppose the nuance is; if you have to use toxicity, to maximize our desired outcome, perhaps it is not worth it?

For example, if in fact, using a toxic platform could leverage your impact by 10 X, would it be worth it? Maybe not. Even 1000 X or 10,000 X? Maybe not.

So I wonder… If it is better, more profound to just make an insanely massive impact, on your own small audience, your own sport in 300, rather than try to convert the whole planet, all 8 billion of us to believe what you believe? # The New Digital Slumlords

Facebook, Amazon, Twitter Instagram Meta, TikTok YouTube etc.?

Essentially any sort of digital hosting platform which is “free“, they are the new digital slumlords? 

Everyone loves to hate and complaining about these slumlords, who rent us a really terrible apartment, at unreasonable prices, never fix anything, and are essentially bad and evil people. Yet nobody ever points the finger at the big tech companies? Why? Because they offer you “free” marketing platforms… I wonder, what are more freedom ways we could market ourselves which do not require us to use these toxic platforms to simply get our message across?

The first most simple one is just your website, your blog. A website and a blog is essentially the same thing at this point. A digital domain, it’s almost like having a digital house or a digital business or a digital property in cyberspace? Like having your own address.

No YouTube?

A big one to disrupt his YouTube. I suppose TikTok and to some extent Instagram and Instagram stories, and now Twitter is doing the same, but still… YouTube is by far the dominant platform. Why? Having YouTube at this point is almost like having access to free flowing water or electricity; we cannot imagine the world without it.

But, I guess now that I’m stupid rich, I don’t technically need to anymore. And also in terms of getting my message across, I suppose I’ve already done it really well?

I think they’ll lure of YouTube in these platforms is that it will make getting our message across more effective, to maximize our impact?

But I suppose the nuance is; if you have to use toxicity, to maximize our desired outcome, perhaps it is not worth it?

For example, if in fact, using a toxic platform could leverage your impact by 10 X, would it be worth it? Maybe not. Even 1000 X or 10,000 X? Maybe not.

So I wonder… If it is better, more profound to just make an insanely massive impact, on your own small audience, your own Spartan 300, rather than try to convert the whole planet, all 8 billion of us to believe what you believe? 

So just went to the Mr. brainwash art gallery in Beverly Hills, and I am blown away; it was the most fun, enjoyable, uplifting, playful, inspirational and motivational art exhibit of all time.

why this matters 

This is a big deal. Why this is a big deal.

First,  life without art would be a mistake. Life without art is not a life worth living.

For example, if you think about all of capitalism and consumerism, I think much of it is predicated on art.

For example, what is clothing in fashion? It is essentially art fabric sculptures for your body, your human body!

What is a car? Moving sculpture, a metal steel based thing which is secondly a piece of transportation.

Has nobody figured out how insanely important cyber truck is; essentially it is the ultimate modernist expression of moving sculpture?

I actually have a vision; gloss red cyber truck,  with yellow calipers, or yellow rims… Essentially imagine looking at like a fake Ferrari, but cyber truck.

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the best art

A lot of people say art for art sake, but following in the footsteps of Nietzsche,  I think actually the purpose of art isn’t art for art say, rather, it is art for the sake of happiness joy, the great stimulus to life!

In fact, I have a theory… When a lot of people become emo, sad dark and rose, is this issue here they are simply not having enough great art in their life?

Even being at the Mr. brainwashing exhibition, they were just playing some great OG classical music on the speakers, and even hearing the great classical music put me in such good mood!

Maybe I’ll start to listen to more classical music?

The best

Classicus,,, the ancient Romans, typically when we think about the word classic we tend to think about old school. But actually… In ancient Rome classicus, the elite class,,, “classicus” or “classic” simply meant “the best”.

So then, what life then becomes about isn’t seeking the old school for the sake of the old school, but rather, seeking the best? 

Why the best?

Why not?

Joy!

I think nowadays, to be joyful unhappy in today’s world is a great act of courage? It is easy to be emailed depressed, sad, to opine about how the world is going to explode whatever. It takes much more courage to be joyful, happy and gleeful, to be the gay monster admits all of the emoness? 

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Choose Joy

I prefer the word joy over happiness. Why? I think happiness is too much of a consumerist merchandised concept now. Troy is a lot simpler, like joy to the world!

Music, what is music? Joy to our ears and to our soul.

What is art, photography, paintings images and sculpture? Joy to our visual brain senses?

Participatory art

I think what is so amazing and what was so fun at the Mr. brainwash art exhibit was how almost all the exhibitions, you could interact with it! And also you are encouraged to photograph and video everything!

A lot of modern art exhibitions and museums is that they are cold and sterile, and it feels like you’re not allowed to photograph or shoot stuff?

In fact, I’m even thinking about doing a photograph workshop in Beverly Hills, maybe we could all go to the Mr. brainwash art museum together, have fun like a bunch of kids, and be inspired together?

My vision of art: my vision is that art should be open to everybody, accessible to everybody, and also, fun for everybody! It should be no, not pretentious, not fake. Also, it should be free, open to the public, accessible to anybody, doesn’t matter if you’re 70 years old or three years old;

I killed that art might be able to solve 50% of the world’s problems, maybe the other 50% can be bitcoin.

Or even a more radical idea; if you combine bitcoin and art, 50% +50% is 100%. Then… Can bitcoin art be the solution to the maladies of the planet? 

Maybe! Perhaps I’ll try and pioneer this!

Bitcoin art is the way

Great artist steal.

Also, great artist “up cycle”, recycle, sample, remix, and parody the classics!

This is where our source is so appealing to me; I hate restrictions, I hate copyright in laws; I prefer freedom.

In fact in two days brave new digital world, I’ve ChatGPT and AI… The whole copyright model is broken.

For example, certainly creators need to make money and a profit, but the big issue here is that all the craters are essentially slaves to corporations, and looks like a lot of these new digital slumlords, who control the “content“ of its creators… What they are essentially seeking is a mini of control, within a small mileau, trying to assert control and power in their very small domain?

Nvidia is close to a $4T company??

I was shocked, apparently now that the number two most world’s important company is Nvidia, right after Apple?

In fact, I actually wonder if Nvidia is more valuable than Apple. The only reason why Apple is valuable is because they have the iPhone, but if and when Nvidia creates their own phone, that doesn’t require an iPhone, this will be a big deal?

How to art

There are so many ways you could art.

So one funny idea I have is just taking famous artworks of the past, and copy pasting bitcoin icons on top of it. This is essentially the hilarious parody that Mr. brainwashed with a lot of these classical paintings, and also Banksky,  the art of uncovering BS?

the problem about the art world

I think the biggest problem about the art world is everyone is using irony sarcasm and fake big talk to try to inflate their fragile egos, and into control running their mini fiefdoms? 

A writer and thinker that I’m kind of into right now is Saifedean — who wrote the bitcoin standard and the fiat standard. I first read his books because I was curious about bitcoin, but what I found very very fascinating was his critiques about art, the art world, and modernism and modern architecture? He’s kind of like NASSIM TALEB in that way (both Lebanese, Lebanese-American) — very outspoken, calls out BS. 

If you have ever been to a modern art exhibit, and you see a piece of white paper with a hole in it, and it’s worth $1 million, and you’re scratching your head, I’m with you.

Honestly, more or less all of modern day art is a scam, but that’s OK. You don’t have to participate if you don’t want to! Nobody is strong arming you to do so!

The new art

My personal vision is that I want to disrupt the art world. I certainly have done it for the world of street photography; essentially I killed all of these loser skinny fat anemic notions in street photography of what is considered good or bad, essentially the funny thing with photography is that while it should on paper be the most democratic open and egalitarian form of photography, as the streets are public and should be public and accessible to everybody… Once again, all of these ridiculous ivory towers?

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Now what?

Maybe now I have some sort of moral or ethical imperative to make a difference?

ERIC

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Ultimately when people study Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger etc ,,, what all these guys are searching for is wisdom.

I think this is good and important because principles wisdom, is resistant to time and technology, but at least for myself, I was born in 1988, searching for practical wisdom has always remained elusive for me.

I think difficult thing is that my circumstances were unique. I was born in the states, yet grew up poor; my definition of poor is not being sure whether you would be homeless next month because your dad just gambled away the rent money again, going off to Reno in the middle of the night.

The upside of poverty 

I think on two fronts this was useful to me:

First, it taught me self independence at a very young age. I knew that if I wanted anything, I had to work for it. This motivated me to pick up lots of part-time jobs when I was like 13, 14 or 15, tutoring English, through my honors program at school, working at the local community center, getting a $200 a month stipend etc. 

In fact, my biggest personal pride and joy; essentially, purchasing my first car with my own money! At the age of 15, getting my drivers permit in California, $1000 or maybe $1200 1991 Sentra XE, 5 door sedan, 5 speed manual transmission car — it didn’t even have a tachometer! I learned how to shift gears simply by hearing and feeling the engine? This began my first love affair with manual transmission cars;

In fact, another point of pride, every car I have purchased my own money has always been a used manual transmission car, never exceeding $2500 USD. In fact, the last car I purchased one in Providence Rhode Island before Seneca was born was a 2002 Subaru outback, five speed manual transmission, listed on craigslist for 1000 bucks, was able to negotiate down to $900, then $800 in cash! Lying out those eight $100 bills was the most obvious decision I’ve made in my life.

Obvious decisions are obvious

In terms of my decision-making philosophy, my unorthodox beliefs; obvious decisions are obvious. 

What that means is before making any sort of decision life decision etc., you don’t need to think about it too much.

Obvious decisions are staring you right at the face, and whenever you have to hesitate before making a certain decision, don’t do it. Why? Your brain is still working out the details, whether or not you should do the thing or not.

Obvious trades, obvious financial decisions, obvious investments 

For example, buying microstrategy stock, MSTR, to me is a 100% obvious decision. For the traditional markets, it’s literally the only asset worth purchasing.

Why? Essentially they have discovered a free money hack or infinite money hack, which they could leverage their 30-year-old business, which is regulated, and mainstream… And leverage their position, borrowing money at less than one percent to buy bitcoin, which is accretive forever, and continuing the virtuous cycle.

Now is your time to purchase a piece of cyber Manhattan

Bitcoin is cyber manhattan: 256^3

I think the idea of a cyber Manhattan, cyber real estate company is fascinating to me. And the difference between bitcoin, cyber real estate and Cyberman Manhattan is that it is actually backed by real electricity and power. For example, the problems with all these fake virtual worlds is that it is just powered by a computer code, one and zeros, Any nerd can click a button and create a skyscraper in Sim city.

But what if, if you wanted to build a skyscraper in Sim city, you actually had to expand $1 billion of real capital in the real world, before transferring it and transporting it to cyberspace? This is the 1000% paradigm shift;

The bridge between the physical, embodied reality,  physical world and realm, to the digital cyber realm… Which is still backed with physical electricity?

It’s a bug, not a feature!

Or it’s a feature, not a bug?

I think what a lot of these goody two shoers don’t get or understand is about real life physics in the game, skin in the game, energy in the game. Everyone wants some sort of hidden upside without any real life downside?

I’ll give you example, everyone wants to rid the world of suffering pain injustice and the like. However, a life without suffering pain injustice and overcoming is not a life worth living.

You cannot have happiness without pain and suffering, nor can you have joy with without sorrow and misery. If we think about this from a Taoist perspective, I think about yin and Yang, you cannot have the good without the bad. You cannot have the virtuous without the evil.

The upsides of downsides

For example, obviously being in poor health sucks, and bad weather also sucks. But, when things get much better, you are 1000 times more joyful grateful and happy when things shift!

This is why funny enough, I think people on the East Coast, New England, Providence Rhode Island are happier than people in LA because the weather shifts are more extreme.

For example, when you’re suffering in the winter time for months on end, no sunshine whatever, and then boom, one day the sun comes out, everyone is overjoyed! It is still 55° and cold, but at least it is sunny; everyone runs out and gets their picnic blankets, And the joy of the sunlight is 1000 times more extreme than in Los Angeles where everyone is trying to hide from the sun, even though they love it?

My simple analogy is everyone in LA is like a solid 7.2 out of 10, in terms of happiness, whereas in the East coast, your happiness goes from a -10 to a +500% when the weather is good! 

So I suppose, the philosophical question them becomes, is it better or more favorable to have a steady mediocre thing forever, or more extreme highs and lows, which will be a benefit to your happiness?

Then a simple thought, the reason why I love bitcoin is because of the extremes; I would prefer an extreme life to a steady and boring one. 

In search of yield

I think for me my number one principle in investing is yield. I think what a lot of people think is what they’re trying to do with their money is they are trying to securitize it, and make it safe, stored in really really safe assets like treasury bills, bonds, or “safe” investments like Apple Amazon Facebook Google and like.

But, my personal thought is life should not be conservative; the point of life isn’t to just conserve your wealth, but rather, to grow it!

Even the story of Jesus, you don’t just take your wealth and hide it and bury your talents, your gold talents in the ground because you’re afraid of losing it. No, the virtuous thing is to go out and multiply it!

And I also think the same thing is with wealth; the virtuous calling is to multiply it to grow it, not to just bury it, with the fear that it might go down.

How to gain more emotional armor for investing

OK, a lot of these fools, they want quick gains in order to go out and buy the Lamborghini or whatever. But once you find out that only small dick losers drive Lamborghinis,  and also, that the useful lifetime value of a Lamborghini might only be three or four years, that is the point in which the maintenance costs and the insurance costs and fixing it up will destroy the price of it in just three or four years, then it becomes obvious; you wish the Lamborghini onto your worst enemy, you don’t desire one for yourself. 

My simple thought is take a stoic spartan approach; essentially live like a super super poor person, the only thing you should ever spend money on is weights barbells and weightlifting equipment, and meet… Everything else should be essentially free.

Tips to NOT go broke

This means,

1. Never eat out: nothing is worth it, not even all you can eat Korean barbecue! My current favorite joint is chubby cattle, but still… The 90 minute time sitting is a bit restrictive.
2. No weed, no alcohol
3. Don’t go out for coffee, just brew it and drink it at home. I actually have a new hack; I only drink a lot of coffee at the house first thing in the morning when I wake up, but after the morning, 100% abstinence for the rest of the day. I get the upside of getting a good caffeine buzz first thing in the morning to get me going, without the downside of having it affect my sleep.
4. Never buy anything, and also… The only “computer“ or device I find worth it is an iPad Pro;
5. Always buy the cheapest iPhone on the market; only poor people buy iPhone Pros
6. For camera or digital camera, I recommend getting the most compact, capable Panasonic camera, and the cheapest, most compact pancake lens. Currently the Lumix S9 ($1500) and 26 mm F8 pancake lens ($200). Never buy a loser Leica which is essentially a Panasonic Lumix with a body kit. Especially the Panasonic Lumix Leica Q Cameras. If you want a digital rangefinder just buy a used Leica M9.
7. Don’t shoot film: I think about a decade ago in 2014 2015, it was affordable, but now it is too expensive. Save your money and buy Bitcoin instead!
8. Never buy a new car under any circumstances. This is immediately like taking a 30% haircut; the second you drive it off the lot, boom, you’ve already lost 30% of its value. And also, don’t buy electric vehicles, no matter how appealing. It is like purchasing a really really expensive iPhone Pro with wheels; it might be only good for 3 to 5 years, maybe seven years tops… Then after that, a slow degrading. Real rich people buy old used Priuses and drive them– 2010 Prius is the best rich person car.  
9. Stop buying clothes: you probably have enough clothes to last you two lifetimes already in your closet. My suggestion is if you want novelty, just take some scissors and turn your jeans into shorts, or cut off the sleeves off of your shirts to make them sleeve or if you’re cold, just layer up. Only poor people buy clothes. 

Essentially, the easiest way to become rich is not go broke.


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Einstein’s rule of money

So essentially, I’ve literally I think watch every single Michael Saylor interview that he’s ever done everything that he posted to Twitter or YouTube etc. Maybe about 100 of them.

Anyways, probably the most fascinating thing that I’ve learned about the value of an asset is the value of an asset is essentially the cost of something or the value is something divided by the maintenance cost.

Now I think this is something that people don’t really think about — the maintenance cost.

So for example, now that all of my millennial friends are growing up, I’m 36 now, in four years, I’m gonna be 40 years old, everyone’s trying to think about the future buying a single-family home or a condo or property or whatever. And what beguiles a lot of people or shocks people is when they buy a house, all the maintenance costs! Even talking to my friend Anton (congrats on your new kid!) he told me a story while we were in downtown LA about how he bought a house, but the water heater went out, and him having to fix it, and what a nightmare it was.

Also simple things that we millennials never think about… You need a new roof and boom, that’s $50,000. That’s $50,000 I would rather put into bitcoin.

There are so many things that exist on the planet, in real world, in embody reality which cost a premium in terms of insurance, maintenance, etc. Once again, almost nothing in the physical realm is ever worth it. 

If you want a new car, just download some racing game to your iPad, or even PlayStation or whatever; better to spend 50 bucks on a virtual car then drop $50,000 or more on a new one! 

Or, just buy an oculus quest, play some racing game, at least this way you want to kill yourself, or another family in a car with two kids or more.

–> The worst thing in life isn’t dying or killing yourself, but it is accidentally killing another family, accidentally killing kids in the car seat of another car, and you having to live with the guilt for the rest of your life. 

“But it isn’t real!”

Bitcoin is not real, but, if it costs $800 billion to produce, it’s real!

Let’s again, things must have a stake in the physical realm, if it doesn’t, it is just air coin, or the foundation is just built on cotton candy.

I think we must avoid these fake environmentalists, a bunch of vegan losers. Essentially, if I psychoanalyze a lot of these fake environmentalists; essentially everyone is seeking a new religion, a new godhead which is the “environment“, but ultimately my critical thought is that once again it just comes down to money;

Vegan and plant based stuff is insanely profitable

For example, Al Gore, I wonder… How much money has he collected from doing his talks on an inconvenient truth, ultimately being funded by taxpayer money?

And also, James Cameron, and also Arnold, how much money they have collected from the vegan pea protein powder plant factory, just follow the money.  Much more profitable to sell a $50 container of vegan protein powder, than a meat company to sell beef rib or beef liver. 

Also a random aside; if you really wanted to be a real environmentalist, you would actually have a 100% organ meat diet, only beef heart beef liver beef kidneys and intestines, because these parts are typically thrown away.

Rich vegans

“Being naked is the ultimate sustainable option. We’re number two.” – Reformation marketing copy 

The truth is environmentalism is very profitable. For example a lot of these clothing companies, I think also like the new one “Reformation“, a female clothing company, they talk about sustainability and blah blah blah, but once again, is it just another marketing tactic to sell their mediocre clothes.

For example, people talk that leather in animal products are evil blah blah blah. Yet the truth is, you’re cheap vegan leather jacket which is made out of petroleum is probably 1 trillion times worse for the planet than a fashionable one made out of 100% real leather. A pleather vegan jacket might only last you a few years, a good leather jacket can you last you 50 or beyond.

Because if you critically think about it, things which last, are better for the “environment”. And typically animal products last.

I love leather!

Also nowadays, people talk about Native Americans and stuff like that, don’t you know that historically the way that natives lived off the land was in harmony with animals, like can you imagine a Native American who didn’t use animal power, ride on horses, or eat meat and bison?

Besides maybe virtue signaling America, there is no great civilization that has ever existed without animal products whether food labor etc. 

I love risk

Once again I think the biggest issue is in today’s world, nobody likes risk anymore. Risk is seen as something which is dangerous bad and to be avoided.

For example anybody who buys a Mercedes car an Audi, a Porsche a Lamborghini whatever… It is ultimately a risk free option in the sense that no one’s gonna make fun of you for owning those type of cars. So in some ways it is a cowardly act;

For example everyone thinks a Porsche 911 is cool, a Lamborghini is cool, a Mercedes or an Audi is cool. Yet  maybe I’m the only one with the big dick in the room, I brag that I drive a Toyota Prius? Everyone is always so shocked and impressed.

Real investors and economists must and should drive a Prius!

Real economics

OK, whenever I discover anybody who’s a professor, who teaches in a business school, is an economist, academic or scholar or whatever… Yet just puts all of their money in a boring mutual fund… Or index fund… It is a signal that they are not a real economist, and they are actually not really connected to reality.

Risk = Happiness

We need some sort of risk exposure to the real world. For example, easy to be the typical fat American who is drinking beer or wine watching sports and American football, giving their opinion on sports teams and players yet they are not actually exposed to the risk of playing real tackle football?

And once again… The more I think about it the more bizarre it is. To watch UFC or mixed martial arts, to watch any sport that you have not yourself played… It kind of like mental masturbation? To sports?

Sports is masculine physical sports masturbation pornography?

Just think about it the average person eats nachos french fries drink beer or alcohol smoke marijuana before watching the big game. But what a athlete who is actually participating in the sport down a beer really quick before putting on their armor and hitting the field? Obviously not!

So why is it that alcohol food beverages is marketed to these individuals, for watching a sport?

It is the new risk free premium hedonism; the joy of seeing people get murdered on a field, or in our arena without any real exposure.

Don’t hate me because I’m so much more physically dominant than you!

People are always so surprised that I played real football real American tackle football in high school, they are shocked to hear that I was linebacker, first outside linebacker then inside linebacker. 

I think it is actually racism; you never expect an Asian guy to play linebacker because we are not seen as masculine or aggressive enough. But if I were African-American or black, even though I am on the more lean side — you probably would not be shocked, because in America, athletes are always seen as being African-American, never Asian. Even an Asian professional sports athlete is almost seen as a glitch in the system, not the real deal.

Even when first deadlifted 465 pounds, sumo style off the floor, and everyone was so shocked, I was talking to my friend Jemal and I asked him — “If I was African-American or black, but people will be asshocked or surprised?” He laughed and said no!

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So what should we do about things

So I think the first thing you have to think philosophically is what are you really searching for, and why?

My very simple thought is think 300 years ahead, your kids kids kids.

The New Hedonism

The current lifestyle is like the Persian slave lifestyle?

I think the issue we are facing today in today’s world is hedonism — the new hedonism. We seek companionship through humans or dogs, yet we don’t want to have children, we want to preserve our freedom travel the world go to Japan eat good sushi whatever.

But, your dog cannot inherit your bitcoin. 

I think maybe in the past life was actually easier and more straightforward people. You got married, you built up a family legacy and empire; this was actually a pretty good strategy in life. And I think people were actually much happier, productive, and joyful!

Think about all the modern day melodies of depression anxiety whatever, they are all modern day sociological ills.

In fact, the ancient Greeks, thinking about the Iliad; certainly things are natural like courage, cowardice, and fear… But depression anxiety was not.

My sociological theory on why so many people are so depressed and anxious is because of YouTube, Spotify, podcast, TikTok Facebook Instagram, Twitter, news, fear porn. 

The joy of growth or death & destruction?

Have a theory; a lot of people are secretly waiting and twiddling their thumbs, they actually want to see the world burn to the floor, to be able to have the indignant feeling; “I told you… I was right all along!”

For example, all these people, are during Covid and pre-Covid and post Covid whatever, thought that there was gonna be food riots and blah blah blah, none of it happened. Humans are 1 trillion times more resilient than we make them out to be.

This is where also, philosophically I don’t really believe in short selling; even if you could cop a massive profit.

For example there are certain things that I am certain which will go down to zero, like Ada Cardano and the like because it is fake. But rather than hoping that something is going to burn the floor, better to just bet on things that you think that will go to Mars! 

For example, everyone hates Elon Musk, and they are secretly waiting and plotting for him to fail. Yet doesn’t it take more courage to wish and hope and desire to see people succeed?

Even I remember the Tesla model 3; everyone thought it would be impossible, but now, it is certainly the new Ford model T; the coolest, most desirable, most futuristic and affordable car on the road. I personally plan on driving my Toyota Prius until it dies at 1,000,000 miles, but if for one reason or another I was forced to purchase a brand new car, it would definitely be a Tesla, maybe the robotaxi?

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Disruption

The reason why I encourage everyone to watch the Robo taxi, Robo van announcement is that it is the ultimate disruptor.

For example, the Robo van, the two door coupe, insanely awesome design, with the butterfly McLaren doors… I find like there is no more reason to ever even want to buy a loser Lamborghini, or McLaren or whatever. And I really really love that rose gold, MATTE Rose gold Color on the Robo taxi, and also the rims look awesome!

Why doesn’t the future look like the future?

Once again, assuming that you’re a futurist like myself, the trillion dollar questions “why doesn’t the future actually look like the future?“

For example, if you really do believe in the digital transformation of things, like you care about Apple Tesla Amazon Facebook digital media whatever… Why would you ever buy analog property like a single-family home or whatever? Wouldn’t you prefer to buy digital property which is bitcoin?

And also, issues with tax, property tax. Also assuming that you’re a libertarian, or some sort of anti-government person, bitcoin makes sense because it is like digital or cyber real estate that can’t be taxed!

And I think the truth is that real rich people, know how to do tax deferment, or to avoid taxes, this is a real reason they become and stay rich.

“My accountant so good I’m practically living tax-free!” – JAY Z

Never buy property in California (you will get murdered from property taxes)

For example, even if you live in the lowest tax jurisdiction place which is Florida, and nobody wants to live in Florida, still… Under a base case scenario you’re still playing at least 1.1% in taxes. And that means then, the life of your asset is only 70 years; within 70 years Assuming you buy a $1 million property, you’re gonna pay $1 million in taxes in 70 years.

Then, if you own a single-family home or whatever, or property the coal is actually trying to rent out your property at a premium, but two people who have never really had experience with property property management… It is a fucking nightmare and headache. Finding good tenants and keeping them; the holy Grail. Too much counterparty risk with properties; people who fuck up your property, end up not paying rent in squatting your place, people who start to grow marijuana inside your property, people who turn your property into a brothel (true story), or just physical wear and tear and decay. Anything in the physical realm in my opinion has too much risk. 
And this is where still… In my eyes, Tesla is too much of a risk. Why? Having to build all those cyber trucks, Robo taxis, is just in my opinion, too much of a gargantuan physical task. Even if you automate the whole thing with robots, still, extracting lithium from the Earth, making the cars, delivering the cars, my personal estimate is you won’t see Robo taxis on the road for at least another five or seven years? To me that is too long.

Real world investing

I think the best investment is something that you have a 100% certainty will go up in 30 years, and you just ignore the volatility and the noise on a day-to-day level.

Can it keep going on up forever?

Yes especially if it is digital!

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Think the classics

Also the funny thing is; bitcoin was the classic the first only immaculate conception; technically Ethereum from Vitalik was just a bitcoin copycat.

My very very basic suggestion is just download Coinbase to your phone, buy bitcoin from your traditional bank account, and once you’re done buying it, delete the Coinbase app from your phone, and never check prices. And what you doing instead it’s just go to michael.com, watch all the Michael sailor interviews, and read books on economic theory philosophy etc.

I personally believe that the best wisdom is in the past; read Aristotle on economics, Fernandinho Galiani on money Della moneta, the principles of economic theory from Karl Menger etc. you should be able to find free PDFs of all these online, just read it on your iPad.

***

Now what?

1. Download Coinbase to your phone, start buying those bitcoins
2. If you have a second car or some sort of asset that you’re not really doing anything with that you really don’t need, sell it, and use the proceeds to buy bitcoin
3. If you’re stuck in the traditional markets, Ira or Roth IRA, retirement whatever… Very very simple just buy micro strategy stock, MSTR– I think it’s going to 10 X from here. My price target for Michael strategy is $2000 a share. Currently trading at around low $200s. 
4. Do an experiment that the next month, just cook all your food at home, buy meat at Costco whatever… Amazon prime or Amazon fresh food, anything that is cheap; quit alcohol and weed for a month, quit eating out and going out for a month, and just put 100% of that into bitcoin!

so should I buy bitcoin or micro strategy? 

You buy the bitcoin, and you never sell it, just keep buying it until you die, and the idea is just give it to your kids kids kids.

And you’re a supreme happiness and joy is through weightlifting, one red maxing, and seeing the numbers go up! 

My suggestion is never ever ever sell the bitcoin, for anything. If you need spare cash for living or whatever, better to borrow the money at 7% interest or lower, assuming that bitcoin is going to go up 21% year over a year, compounded rate forever.

 I would say only by microstrategy MSTR if you just cannot get access to capital to buy bitcoin directly.

At the end of your life, he or she with the most bitcoin is going to be the winner. Or the corporate entity like micro strategy, who owns the most bitcoin.

The goal is a Nakamoto, which is the mythical 1 million bitcoins. The same amount of bitcoins in Satoshi‘s wallet, which he hasn’t touched. This is currently $60 billion! 

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What else?

honestly because I live like a poor person, for me, at this point investing is just a new passion, almost like a new hobby. Still for me my critical passion is photography, blogging and like.

So the simple thought; know that investing in money is a means to an end not the in itself.

ERIC

***

GET RICHER

Enrich yourself with an upcoming ERIC KIM experience >

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Free ideas for life!

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Better to die big than to lie dormant – JAY Z

For the best entrepreneurial and money thoughts:

https://www.michael.com

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People secretly crave authenticity yet they also hate it and fear it —

The truth:

Nobody is ever lauded for telling the truth!

Ultimately when people study Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger etc ,,, what all these guys are searching for is wisdom.

I think this is good and important because principles wisdom, is resistant to time and technology, but at least for myself, I was born in 1988, searching for practical wisdom has always remained elusive for me.

I think difficult thing is that my circumstances were unique. I was born in the states, yet group poor; my definition of poor is not being sure whether you would be homeless next month because your dad just gambled away the rent money again, going off to Reno in the middle of the night.

I think on two fronts this was useful to me:

First, it taught me self independence at a very young age. I knew that if I wanted anything, I had to work for it. This motivated me to pick up lots of part-time jobs when I was like 1314 or 15, tutoring English, through my honors program at school, working at the local community center, getting a $200 a month stipend etc. 

In fact, my biggest personal pride and joy; essentially, purchasing my first car with my own money! At the age of 15, getting my drivers permit in California, $1000 or maybe $1200 1991 Sentra XE, 5 door sedan, 5 speed manual transmission car — it didn’t even have a tachometer! I learned how to shift gears simply by hearing and feeling the engine? This began my first love affair with manual transmission cars;

In fact, another point of pride, every car I have purchased my own money has always been a used manual transmission car, never exceeding $2500 USD. In fact, the last car I purchased one in Providence Rhode Island before Seneca was born was a 2002 Subaru outback, five speed manual transmission, listed on craigslist for 1000 bucks, was able to negotiate down to $900, then $800 in cash! Lying out those eight $100 bills was the most obvious decision I’ve made in my life.

Obvious decisions are obvious

 In terms of my decision-making philosophy, my unorthodox beliefs; obvious decisions are obvious. 

What that means is before making any sort of decision life decision etc., you don’t need to think about it too much.

Obvious decisions are staring you right at the face, and whenever you have to hesitate before making a certain decision, don’t do it. Why? Your brain is still working out the details, whether or not you should do the thing or not.

For example, buying microstrategy stock, MSTR, to me is a 100% obvious decision. For the traditional markets, it’s literally the only asset worth purchasing.

Why? Essentially they have discovered a free money hack or infinite money hack, which they could leverage their 30-year-old business, which is regulated, and mainstream… And leverage their physicians, borrowing money at less than one percent to buy bitcoin, which is accretive forever, and continuing the virtuous cycle.

I think the idea of a cyber Manhattan, cyber real estate company is fascinating to me. And the difference between bitcoin, Sible real estate and Cyberman Manhattan is that it is actually packed by real electricity and power. For example, problems with all these fake virtual worlds is that it is just powered by a computer code, one and zeros, Any nerd can click a button and create a skyscraper in Sim city.

But what if, if you wanted to build a skyscraper in Sim city, you actually had to expand $1 billion of real capital in the real world, before transferring it and transporting it to cyberspace? This is the 1000% paradigm shift;

The Bridge between the physical, embodied reality,  physical world and realm, to the digital cyber realm… Which is still backed with physical electricity?

it’s a bug, not a feature!

Or it’s a feature, not a bug?

I think what a lot of these goody two shoers don’t get or understand is about real life physics in the game, skin in the game, energy in the game. Everyone wants some sort of hidden upside without any real life downside?

I’ll give you example, everyone wants to read the world of suffering pain injustice and the like. However, a life without suffering Paine injustice and overcoming is not a life worth living.

You cannot have happiness without pain and suffering, nor can you have joy with without sorrow and misery. If we think about this from a Taoist perspective,  I think about Jin and Yang, you cannot have the good without the bad. You cannot have the virtuous without the evil.

For example, obviously being in poor health sucks, and bad weather also sucks. But, when things get much better, you are 1000 times more joyful grateful and happy when things shift!

This is why funny enough, I think people on the East Coast, New England, Providence Rhode Island are happier than people in LA because the weather shifts are more extreme.

For example, when you’re suffering in the winter time for months on then, no sunshine whatever, and then boom, one day the sun comes out, everyone is overjoyed! It is still 55° and cold, but at least it is sunny; everyone runs out and gets their picnic blankets, And the joy of the sunlight is 1000 times more extreme than in Los Angeles where everyone is trying to hide from the sun, even though they love it?

In search of yield

I think for me my number one principle in investing is yield. I think what a lot of people think is what they’re trying to do with their money is they are trying to securitize it, and make it safe, stored in really really safe assets like treasury bills, bonds, or “safe” investments like Apple Amazon Facebook Google and like.

But, my personal thought is life should not be conservative; the point of life isn’t to just conserve your wealth, but rather, to grow it!

Even the story of Jesus, you don’t just take your wealth and hide it and bury your talents, your gold talents in the ground because you’re afraid of losing it. No, the virtual thing is to go out and multiply it!

And I also think the same thing is with wealth; the virtual calling is to multiply it to grow it, not to just bury it, with the fear that it might go down.

How to gain more emotional armor for investing

OK, a lot of these fools, they want quick gains in order to go out and buy the Lamborghini or whatever. But once you find out that only small Dick Losers drive Lamborghinis,  and also, that the useful lifetime value of a Lamborghini might only be three or four years, that is the point in which the maintenance costs and the insurance costs and fixing it up will destroy the price of it in just three or four years, then it becomes obvious; you wish the Lamborghini onto your worst enemy, you don’t desire one for yourself. 

Einstein’s rule of money

So essentially, I’ve literally I think watch every single Michael sailor interview that he’s ever done everything that he posted to Twitter or YouTube etc. Maybe about 100 of them.

Anyways, probably the most fascinating thing that I’ve learned about the value of an asset is the value of an asset is essentially the cost of something or the value is something divided by the maintenance cost.

Now I think this is something that people don’t really think about —  the maintenance cost.

So for example, now that all of my millennial friends are growing up, I’m 36 now, in four years, I’m gonna be 40 years old, everyone’s trying to think about the future buying a single-family home or a condo or property or whatever. And what beguiles a lot of people or shocks people is when they buy a house, all the maintenance costs! Even talking to my friend Anton (congrats on your new kid!) he told me a story while we were in downtown LA about how he bought a house, but the water heater went out, and him having to fix it, and what a nightmare it was.

Also simple things that we millennials never think about… You need a new roof and boom, that’s $50,000. That’s $50,000 I would rather put into bitcoin.

“But it isn’t real!”

Bitcoin is not real, but, if it costs $800 billion to produce, it’s real!

Let’s again, things must have a stake in the physical realm, if it doesn’t, it is just air coin, or the foundation is just built on cotton candy.

I think we have to avoid from these fake environmentalist, a bunch of vegan losers. Essentially, if I psychoanalyze a lot of these fake environmentalists; essentially everyone is seeking a new religion, a new godhead which is the “environment“, but ultimately my critical thought is that once again it just comes down to money;

For example, Al Gore, I wonder… How much money has he collected from doing his talks on an inconvenient truth, ultimately being funded by taxpayer money?

And also, James Cameron, and also Arnold, how much money they have collected from the vegan pea protein powder plant factory, just follow the money. 

The truth is environmentalism is very profitable. For example a lot of these clothing companies, I think also like the new one “reformation“, a female clothing, they talk about sustainability and blah blah blah, but once again, is it just another marketing tactic to sell more Mediocre clothes.

For example, people talk that leather in animal products are evil blah blah blah. Yet the truth is, you’re cheap vegan leather jacket which is made out of petroleum is probably 1 trillion times worse for the planet than a fashionable one made out of 100% real leather.

Because if you critically think about it, things which last, are better for the “environment”.

Also nowadays, people talk about Native Americans and stuff like that, don’t you know that historically the way that natives lived off the land was in harmony with animals, like can you imagine a Native American who didn’t use animal power, ride on horses, or eat meat and bison?

I love risk

Once again I think the biggest issue is in today’s world, nobody likes risk anymore. Risk is seen as something which is dangerous bad and to be avoided.

For example anybody who buys a Mercedes car an Audi, a Porsche a Lamborghini whatever… It is ultimately a risk free option in the sense that no one’s gonna make fun of you for owning those type of cars. So in some ways it is a cowardly act;

For example everyone thinks a Porsche 911 is cool, a Lamborghini is cool, a Mercedes or an Audi is cool. Yet  maybe I’m the only one with the big dick in the room, I brag that I drive a Toyota Prius? Everyone is always so shocked and impressed.

Real investors and economists must and should drive a Prius

Real economics

OK, whenever I discover anybody who’s a professor, who teaches in a business school, is an economist, academic or scholar or whatever… Yet just puts all of their money in a boring mutual fund… Or index month… It is a signal that they are not a real economist, and they are actually not really connected to reality.

The biggest we hear is that you need some sort of risk exposure to the real world. For example, easy to be the typical fat American who is drinking beer or wine watching sports and American football, giving their opinion on sports teams and players yet they are not actually exposed to the risk of playing real tackle football?

And once again… The more I think about it the more bizarre it is. To watch UFC or mixed martial arts, to watch any sport that you have not yourself played… It kind of like mental masturbation? To sports?

Just think about it the average person eats nachos french fries drink beer or alcohol smoke marijuana before watching the big game. But what a athlete who is actually participating in the sport down a beer really quick before putting on their armor and hitting the field? Obviously not!

So why is it that alcohol food beverages is marketed to these individuals, for watching a sport?

It is the new risk free premium hedonism; the joy of seeing people get murdered on a field, or in our arena without any real exposure.

People are always so surprised that I played real football real American tackle football in high school, they are shocked to hear that I was linebacker, first outside linebacker then inside linebacker. 

I think it is actually racism; you never expect an Asian guy to play linebacker because we are not seen as masculine or aggressive enough. But if I were African-American or black, even though I am on the side you probably would not be shocked, because in America Athletes are always seen as being African-American, never Asian. Even an Asian professional sports athlete is almost seen as a glitch in the system, not the real deal.

so what should we do about things

So I think the first thing you have to think philosophically is what are you really searching for, and why?

My very simple thought is think 300 years ahead, your kids kids kids.

I think the issue we are facing today in today’s world is hedonism the new hedonism. We seek companionship through humans or dogs, yet we don’t want to have children, we want to preserve our freedom travel the world go to Japan eat good sushi whatever.

But, your dog cannot inherit your bitcoin. 

I think maybe in the past life was actually easier and more straightforward people. You got married, you built up a family legacy and empire; this was actually a pretty good strategy in life. And I think people were actually much happier, productive, and joyful!

Think about all the modern day melodies of depression anxiety whatever, they are all modern day sociological ills.

In fact, the ancient Greeks, thinking about the Iliad; certainly things are natural like courage, cowardice, and fear… But depression anxiety was not.

My sociological theory on why so many people are so depressed and anxious is because of YouTube, Spotify, podcast, TikTok Facebook Instagram, Twitter, news, fear porn. 

The joy of growth or death & destruction?

Have a theory; a lot of people are secretly waiting and twiddling their thumbs, they actually want to see the world burn to the floor, to be able to have the indignant feeling; “I told you… I was right all along!”

For example, all these people, are during Covid and pre-Covid and post Covid whatever, thought that there was gonna be food riots and blah blah blah, none of it happened. Humans are 1 trillion times more resilient than we make them out to be.

 this is where also, philosophical I don’t really believe in short selling; even if you could cop a massive profit.

For example there are certain things that I am certain which will go down to zero, like Ada Cardano and the like because it is fake. But rather than hoping that something is going to burn the floor, better to just bet on things that you think that will go to Mars! 

For example, everyone hates Elon Musk, and they are secretly waiting and plotting for him to fail. Yet doesn’t it take more courage to wish and hope and desire to see people succeed?

Even I remember the Tesla model 3; everyone thought it would be impossible, but now, it is certainly the new Ford model T; the coolest, most desirable, most futuristic and affordable car on the road. I personally plan on driving my Toyota Prius until it dies at 1,000,000 miles, but if for one reason or another I was forced to purchase a brand new car, it would definitely be a Tesla, maybe the robotaxi?

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Disruption

The reason why I encourage everyone to watch the Robo taxi, Robo van announcement is that it is the ultimate disruptor.

For example, the Robo van, the two door coupe, insanely awesome design, with the butterfly McLaren doors… I find like there is no more reason to ever even want to buy a loser Lamborghini, or McLaren or whatever. And I really really love that rose gold, Matt Rose gold Color on the Robo taxi, and also the rims look awesome!

Why doesn’t the future look like the future?

Once again, assuming that you’re a futurist like myself, the trillion dollar questions “why doesn’t the future actually look like the future? “

For example, if you really do believe in the digital transformation of things, like you care about Apple Tesla Amazon Facebook digital media whatever… Why would you ever buy analog property like a single-family home or whatever? Wouldn’t you prefer to buy digital property which is bitcoin?

And also, issues with tax, property tax. Also assuming that you’re a libertarian, or some sort of anti-government person, bitcoin makes sense because it is like digital or cyber real estate that can’t be taxed!

For example, even if you live in the lowest tax jurisdiction place which is Florida, and nobody wants to live in Florida, still… Under a base case scenario you’re still playing at least 1.1% in taxes. And that means then, the life of your asset is only 70 years; within 70 years Assuming you buy a $1 million property, you’re gonna pay $1 million in taxes in 70 years.

Then, if you own a single-family home or whatever, or property the coal is actually trying to rent out your property at a premium, but two people who have never really had experience with property property management… It is a fucking nightmare and headache. Finding good tenants and keeping them; the holy Grail. Too much counterparty risk with properties; people who fuck up your property, end up not paying rent in squatting your place, people who start to grow marijuana inside your property, people who turn your property into a brothel (true story), or just physical wear and tear and decay. Anything in the physical realm in my opinion has too much risk. 

And this is where still… In my eyes, Tesla is too much of a risk. Why? Having to build all those cyber trucks, Robo taxis, is just in my opinion, too much of a gargantuan physical task. Even if you automate the whole thing with robots, still, extracting lithium from the Earth, making the cars, delivering the cars, my personal estimate is you won’t see Robo taxis on the road for at least another five or seven years? To me that is too long.

Real world investing

I think the best investment is something that you have a 100% searching tea will go up in 30 years, and you just ignore the volatility and the noise on a day-to-day level.

My very very basic suggestion is just download Coinbase to your phone, buy bitcoin from your traditional bank account, and once you’re done buying it, delete the Coinbase app from your phone, and never check prices. And what you doing instead it’s just go to michael.com, watch all the Michael sailor interviews, and read books on economic theory philosophy etc.

I personally believe that the best wisdom is in the past; read Aristotle on economics, Fernandinho Galiani on money Della moneta, the principles of economic theory from Karl Menger etc. you should be able to find free PDFs of all these online, just read it on your iPad.



Something I’ve been meaning to write about and think about; capital, photo capital.

So the first question is, what is photo, why does it matter?

My first general thesis is that photography, digital photography, might be one of the most underrated innovations of all time. Let us consider how many domains it crosses, and why it is such a big deal:

First, the digital transformation of photography, from film photography to digital. I think most thinkers and individuals have not yet grafted how and why this is such a big deal;

For millennials like myself, or people who are born a little bit before or after me, I’m 36 and born in 1988, there certainly is an alert and romanticism of the past. Everyone reminisces about the “good old days”, in which “life was simpler” etc.

 however, a simple intervention: what if, the number one complication in our lives is not digital technology, not the Internet etc.… But something a little bit more unsuspecting; AirPods, AirPods pros, noise canceling headphones? I would actually make the arguments that noise canceling headphones might be the true menace to society, not iPhones, iPads, or screens.

People talk a lot about screen time, no. She is not screen time, the issue is maybe audio related?

For example, I don’t own a pair of AirPods, I don’t even own a pair of headphones anymore. Cindy has a pair of AirPods pros that my best man Justin got us, and this morning just listening to Michael sailor interview, with just one earbud, with the noise canceling AirPods pros, simply to listen to the interview without waking up my mom. Yet, the bizarre feeling; when I listen to the interview, it kind of put me in a weird alternate universe, in which I truly felt disconnected from the world and reality. It actually made me feel a little bit weird.

Disconnecting their AirPods, out of my ears, actually… I have another theory; isn’t your ears, earlobes, sound, kind of related to your spatial sense surroundings of the environment?

My simple idea; if you want to become a better photographer, a more attuned person, just throw your AirPods in the trash.

Visual?

So Aristotle I think one said that our vision is actually more important than anything else that our first great delight on the planet is visual. Even though I’m a guitar for and visual artist, I would actually make the other case that actually… Your ears, and your hearing, Might be 1000 times more important.

For example, let us consider how human beings learn, how they learn languages, speech patterns and communication, and how natural it is for children. To teach the child the alphabet how to read text, is actually very unnatural, a huge technological feat and innovation. However, for a child to learn how to speak a foreign language, simply by hearing the words intonations, the sing song rhythm, is 1000% natural.

 for example, music, music tour ears. Even a one year-old child, who could barely stand, can listen to music rhythms and beats, and start dancing. Even send when he was about a year old, he already learned how to make beats on GarageBand both on the iPhone and iPad! He actually knew and learned how to sample and make beats, far before he was even able to speak!

So my first theory ; music, voice, audio; might be more important than the visual?

Then what?

Advancing this argument; if in fact, audio is more important than visual, then what are we to do as visual artist, photographers?

First, let us return to first principles, first principles thinking. My general idea is that photography and visual things are kind of unnatural. And this is where we make our art.

I think there’s this one saying, maybe Aristotle, what nature fails to complete, man and art completes.

Art should best be stood as a novel invention and innovation technique and tool. For example, art and art making is unnatural. But then again a lot of things are unnatural, but certainly make life 1 trillion times better. For example, can you imagine living without electricity? Even one of my most new favorite inventionsand and innovations; the insane joy of having an in unit washer and dryer?  in fact, all the washers and dryers on the planet can probably contribute 100,000 times more to the carbon footprint than all the bitcoin miners on the planet combined and maybe even multiplied by 10. Yet, ain’t nobody rolling to get rid of washers and dryers.

And also something that people don’t understand, I learned this from my architect friend ERIC, is that almost all buildings, made out of concrete and the such, these are all carbon products. It is almost impossible to build a modern day building without carbon derived materials. So unless you like living in a hut, munching on acorns, without running water Wi-Fi or electricity, maybe this faker signaling about reducing carbon emissions might be a wise idea.

The insanely phenomenal innovation of digital photography

OK let us do some simple math. Let us say conservatively, currently a roll of film is about 10 bucks, for Kodak PORTRA 400. Then assuming that you want someone else to process it and scan it for you, let us say that even on the cheap end, it is $10 or $15 for developed plus scan. This is then around $20-$25, for 36 exposures, or assuming you have that new Pentax half frame camera, you can squeeze out 72 exposures for about 20 bucks or 25 bucks.

No you can see how this can easily get expensive. Even if you shoot four rolls of film, that’s around 100 bucks. That is insanely expensive.

And it adds up. Shooting film guitar for you, now that I am becoming wiser, a more keen economist, is the ultimate depreciating asset, and the easiest way to burn through all your money and capital.

It is kind of like purchasing a high performance car or vehicle that runs on premium gasoline; this might be the stupidest decision of all time. Why? Assuming you have a luxury Lexus SUV, you can easily blow $500 a week on gas, which is maybe $2000 a month on gas! Assuming that you put that money into bitcoin, and bitcoin goes from a $1.3 trillion industry to $130 trillion industry, you have at least 10 X gains ahead of you. So your $2000 — $200,000 or $200k a month! That’s $2.4M a year!

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Becoming a profitable photographer

Everyone is in chase of profits. If you do not chase profits, you are a fool.

What is the easiest way to get profits? Simple; keep your expenses insanely insanely low, this is the key.

The number one rule in money finance and investing; simple, just don’t lose money! 

How does one lose money? There’s 1 trillion ways to lose money;

First, equipment, gear, or never investments. They are the worst thing that causes you to bleed through your money.

If you want a really really great camera that will last you a very very long time, my current suggestion is get the Lumix S9 full frame camera, my personal thought is this body should be able to last you 5 to 10 years, and just get the 26 mm F8 pancake lens which only cost 200 bucks.  The body is around 1500, the lens is about 200 bucks, so the whole set up ($1700) should be able to set you up for a long time.

Or, just buy the cheapest smallest most affordable Fujifilm X camera, also just get a interchangeable lens system. There’s a new XM-5 body, I think it’s only about 800 bucks. And just get the cheapest pancake lens, which should be a little bit less than $1000.

If you’re a hobby photographer, on a budget, just get a used Ricoh GR digital camera, whatever generation suits your budget.  I have already proven in 2017 that you could take insanely great photos on a Rico GR two camera, which was only $600 at the time. And all the new Ricoh GR 3X cameras and beyond, are also insanely good. All around $999 and below.

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What’s your telos?

Ultimately, with enough time meditation reflection and consideration, it all comes down to philosophy. The philosophy of photography, a concept that I pioneered maybe seven years ago. 

Why does this matter? Ultimately you have to think about the purpose or end goal of things. For example I was looking at this new meta-quest augmented reality glasses that Facebook just put out, and I just watched it, scratching my head, looking at all this impressive technology advancements, and it just made no sense to me. Somewhat along the line, should have come in with a critical thought, and thought;

Is this something that people need and or want?

Kind of a bad thing is that nobody wants it, and also nobody needs it. Apple Vision Pro is an utter disaster, Steve Jobs would have never ever ever allowed to even go into development. Because Steve Jobs was a master mind and understanding the human psyche, human economics and proportions. Never forget the legend of the original iPhone three; pioneer the iPhone three and the iPhone four and 4S to be used only with one hand, with your thumb being able to reach all sides of the screen without stretching. And then, after his tragic passing, all these greedy apple executives, trying to increase shareholder value, kept making the iPhone bigger and bigger, heavier fatter uglier, compromising design for the sake of “power“, inadvertently causing millions of people on the planet to get extreme carpal tunnel pain in their hands, and also, falling victim to this terrible cycle of constantly upgrading their iPhones, until no end.

In fact, I find Apple to be the new loanshark, the new evil presence, the new bank which preys on poor people. 

For example, there’s all these plans now in which you could keep upgrading your iPhone, at a 0% premium, forever. This is terrible; Apple stimulate some sort of fake desire for a fake thing; which doesn’t have any true utility. Everyone knows this, even Apple employees know this. The whole place is a mess.

Even now, just go to any Apple Store, feel the vibes. What was once energetic, happy optimistic and friendly has gone dark, Muros, Molly, unfriendly and cold, terrible to go to.

Back in the day I used to be excited to go to the Apple store like a kid going to a candy shop. Now, I avoid the Apple Store like the plague; even the last time I went to the Apple store, simply to just buy a new iPhone Pro to test it out, I literally had to wait in line for about 30 minutes, Before anyone even attended to me, before I could even purchase my device?

And once again, the biggest benefit to go into a store in real life is you could sense the emotional energy of people. Everyone looked miserable, disgruntled, unhappy.

Choose hope

I think the reason why I am so enthusiastic about bitcoin, Michael sailor, micro strategy and like is that it is full of optimism, hope and happiness. Everyone is happy in the bitcoin community, smiling, optimistic joyful, happy, and everyone is part of the same emotional roller coaster.

And the whole bitcoin network is virtuous because if micro strategy turns into $1 trillion company, the first bitcoin bank or the first bitcoin finances corporation, everyone wins! The price of bitcoin goes to 13 million a bitcoin, everyone wins. The hedge fund managers, the 80-year-old retired person with bitcoin spot ETFs, The individual bitcoin holders, people with the Coinbase account, even the crypto anarchists.

You know the sign of a good investment when both anarchists and traditional corporate capitalist can thrive together. 

I actually had a thought, back when I bought bitcoin for only about six or $7000 of bitcoin… A bitcoin could actually benefit photographers and street photographers, in terms of accepting payments in bitcoin, charging services in bitcoin, we’re also figuring out how to use bitcoin, NFT’s and wrapping it, maybe creating some sort of new economy for photography and art?

I also have this big idea, creating the first Satoshi and bitcoin back photo platform. ARS, arsbeta.com was my first stab at it; but the issue at the time was there was no real financial instrument backing it. Now that lightning has been invented on the bitcoin at work, the ideas of micro transactions with the Toshi’s becomes a real reality; assuming that a single Satoshi is real money, but super super small, like a fraction of a penny; things become very interesting because there is a true financial stake here; real skin in the game.

For example, if every single time I liked your photo, but it cost me a single Satoshi, you would probably think twice about it. And if to follow somebody, cost you a Satoshi or gave us Satoshi to the photographer, or creator… This would be a big idea.

And also, the idea of a photo critique community, shout out to my friend Jun Goodhouse Kim, if commissioning somebody for a real photo critique would accept payments institutions, then, a real new economy could arise.

Currently the number one critical issue with Instagram is that it cost nothing, and the whole platform is being run by bots.

TikTok has become an interesting disruption; back to by mainly in China, and spyware, essentially China has been able to disrupt the social media industry of Instagram, essentially taking everything that America did well with vine, Twitter Instagram and Facebook and YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram stories and making it far better. Making it more entertaining addictive, more toxic?

Actually the number one reason I encourage everybody to delete TikTok, is that it might be the most toxic poisonous substance of them all; because they are a century backed by a low-key evil mainland Chinese corporation, there is zero incentive for the company, Bytedance to moderate or to delete dangerous videos concepts and ideas; the amount of conspiracy theories and weird stuff on TikTok is alarming, even to me. And also, I’m a little bit concerned about all of the unregulated things which are happening on TikTok, at least YouTube Google Facebook Amazon and the like try to do some level of content moderation, with TikTok there is none.

Assuming that Donald Trump gets elected president or whatever, the first thing he should do is probably ban TikTok.  I almost find this to be a moral imperative; there is a terrible asymmetry here;

Why is it that America allows a Chinese corporation like TikTok to operate in America, but mainland China does not allow any tech company to operate on her shores?

Other stuff which are very scary; all of these video games like RIOT games and like, which once again are all run by mainland Chinese corporations, is essentially China’s plan to indoctrinate the heart the souls and the minds of the youth. The best way to spread bad propaganda is through soft propaganda; soft coercion, through entertainment media and the like.  Even a very very weird thing, watch Pacific Rim to the movie; I think they had some financing from a Shanghai backed venture capitalist fund or something; that paints China mainland China in a very favorable light? I recall watching this on an airplane and finding this to be an extremely bizarre thing.

Even apparently, the new Disney Mulan film the live action one, the main actress commended and praised the Hong Kong police for cracking down on the pro democracy student protesters?

And also, let us consider the biggest coward and pussy of them all, John Cena who had to publicly “apologize“, for calling either Taiwan or Tibet a country?

The same goes with any sort of NBA player, because there are so many people in mainland China who love basketball, even this one mainland China governmental official, who I met in Cambodia, super friendly and 100% fluent in English, told me that he named his first son Jordan, after Michael Jordan.

And this is what a lot of people who don’t understand we have never traveled to; the Chinese is the mainland Chinese, the everyday person loves America, American culture, and would honestly prefer to be here than in mainland China. But capital controls, the oppressive government prevents that. And this is once again, why any rich and smart mainland Chinese person will send their kid to an Ivy League school in the states, And or prefer to buy property or homes in Vancouver, because living in China sucks. You don’t want to be a billionaire in Shanghai or Beijing; the pollution itself will kill you.

Back to photography

Life without photography is not a life worth living. Or, a life without photography would be a mistake. 

I think for myself, the biggest draw and appeal of photography is that it is the great antidote to things; the great antidote to joy, driving, happiness and the like.

For example, I still do believe that traveling is good for the soul; better to spend $100,000 on traveling to planet, rather than buying a loser Tesla car. Or even a single-family home, I’m starting to think more and more, buying homes in America’s a scam. Better to just buy bitcoin instead, and see your money 100X from here. 

If I could tell you that buying $1 million a bitcoin today, which is about 16 or 17 bitcoin, would grow to be 100 million in 21 years, and I could tell you this with 100% certain to you, would you do it? Of course! Only an idiot wouldn’t.

But I think the problem is in America, even for us millennials, now that we’re getting older, having kids etc.… Is that having physical property like a single-family home is the Apex of humanly worldly success in America. But this is a 20th century idea, The baby boomers and before then. Or Gen X. A 21st-century idea, in the year 2024 and beyond, is the digital transformation of property, or digital energy which is bitcoin.

Hope

No no no, the world is not going to explode, there will be no World War III, Bill Gates is not trying to inject 5G into your butthole, and control your soul. And no no no, mainland China is not a threat; I think China only has one military base somewhere in Africa, in America has maybe 1000? The power of the US Navy is maybe 10,000 X to that of mainland China, I think the whole red herring of China as a threat is just a distraction, maybe by the US government to encourage increased spending for military budgets. But we all know that nobody can mess with America, even if they wanted to.

Even Russia, the lame duck with loser Putin running the show, obviously Russia is losing. Putin, with his Shorty guy Napoleon complex, thought he could take over Ukraine, and obviously he cannot. And I think sooner or later the people will overthrow him, exile him, or who knows maybe even hang him? Like Marie Antoinette?

Now what?

Once again, photography might be the most democratizing force. For example, like a Camera is very profitable in mainland China, this is why like a Brazil was forced to take down the Tiananmen Square commercial. But the truth is difficult to hide; once you’re rich mainland Chinese kid oligarch from a billionaire family goes to Harvard Yale Stanford UCLA UC Berkeley, and get access to Google or ChatGPT and Gmail; obviously they’re going to discover the truth, and prefer to be in America than China. The only rich mainland Chinese kids who go back to China because they are strong armed by their rich families to come back to inherit the family business, obviously against their own will.



I think I might be the richest millennial I know, or at least anybody who is born in 1988, besides Mark Zuckerberg.

How and why?

First, I think I am the only millennial I know with literally zero debt. Like zero mortgage, which is debt, zero car payments, zero college loans etc. Actually if I think about this in retrospect, growing up poor might have been the most beneficial things: seeing the evils of gambling via my dad, and crushing debt bankruptcy through my mom… Was probably the best indicator or learner that I had in terms of real life experience, in terms of how terrible the evils of debt is.

And also, even going to college… Essentially being able to go for “free”, because my family was poor, I got all these scholarships and grants, and work-study loans, which essentially means that I still have to work, but at least, I had to take on zero debt to pay for my dorm apartment etc.

Voluntary loans

The Only money I borrowed was about $10,000, more for fun; I used that money to backpack through Europe, travel the world in between my junior and senior year etc. But that was optional.

And also, I think the really really big thing; never spending more than $2500 USD on a car? I think that was the sticker price for the last car I purchased which was a 1990 Miata, when I was 21 years old, it might’ve been $3000 USD, getting it used on craigslist, ironically enough because the man selling it had a child on the way, and sold it because it was no longer useful to him having to raise a kid. Funny that I am in similar shoes now, now that Seneca is 3 1/2 years old.

Mindset

I think the number one critical thing is to just change your mindset. One thing which I have learned after the almost 15 years of being self-employed, ever since I was 21 until 36… Is truth be told, nothing in the world is really worth it. No amount of money eating out at a restaurant is ever worth it; purchasing beef ribs at Costco and baking it at home is at least a 100X superior yield than any restaurant, or even all all you can eat Korean barbecue; currently, my favorite spot is Chubby Cattle, but even though they issue there is they have a 90 minute time limit, I think my current record is about 70 plates of beef tongue. I just went to the recent little Tokyo branch which just opened, and the servers, their jaws dropped; asking me whether I was a bodybuilder, given how much I ate, even on the last call I asked for 20 plates of beef tongue, they were skeptical, but I finished it all quite easily.

Spartan is sexy.

True insights ,,, take real risks:

Y’all niggas still taking advances huh? Me and my niggas were taking real chances huh! – Jay Z

The ultimate mindset I suggest is going spartan. Just watch the movie 300, think about King Leonidas. Would King Leonidas blow his money on a Tesla, cybertruck, Lamborghini or Porsche? No! He would know that these things were just for the Persian slaves, those giving fellatio to King Xerxes.

Do you want to be one of the 300 Spartan elite, or do you be one of the million Persian slaves?

There is a motto in the US military, freedom is not free. I would refine this saying; freedom is expensive, very expensive.

The price is sacrifice

True freedom is what you decide to give up, forgo, or sacrifice. This is embodied via the fact that you never eat out, you don’t drink alcohol, you don’t smoke weed or do drugs, you don’t go on trips to Vegas, you don’t watch pornography, you don’t watch any media, you don’t listen to music, podcasts, etc. You don’t watch YouTube, Instagram or TikTok.

People think that being rich means to have millions of dollars, and I want to just spend it all buying stuff. But there is a difference between having $1 million in the bank, and going out and buying a $1 million Bugatti. 

Even Kanye West had a funny quote about being a multi billionaire; you don’t want to be a billionaire because if you are worth $1 billion, you go out and you buy a McDonald’s hamburger for a dollar, and now you’re only a $999,999,999-aire.

Investing

You want real real exposure to risk and reward.

For me, certainly there is a great surge of power joy when you see your investments yield. To see the number go up is good and to see it keep going on is a good thing.

For example, very surprising, people are starting to know that I am an investor, or a trader because I walk around super happy, huge grin on my face, like Arnold in his prime. A boyish grin. And smiles all around!

I think people can smell and sense high testosterone, high power and energy. Even though I dress like a homeless person, half of the time I’m not even wearing a shirt, but people they know.

So essentially the first rule on investing is simple: don’t lose money. Never put your money into anything that you think will cause you to lose money.

So for example, a lot of people think that bitcoin is super risky, but actually it is not. It is just very volatile. And funny enough, it’s a feature not a bug!

Higher volatility = higher returns

The volatility of bitcoin is a feature not a bug!

To quote Michael Saylor, volatility is vitality. The more volatile something is, the more energy they have. To quote the recent Bernstein interview that Michael Saylor had, the reason why LeBron James is the most potent force on the court is because he is the most volatile. Also, volatility is good when it comes to Tsunami because it has massive power. Look at the slides here.

Why are the traditional markets closed in the evening and the weekends?

And also, an insight I gleaned is the reason why bitcoin’s price goes up and down all the time, is that it is being traded 24 7, all the time in real time. Maybe the reason we see less volatility in the traditional markets is because they close! But imagine there was a Cuban missile crisis, Friday night, can you imagine the insanity; you’re not able to withdraw your money or sell your stocks until Monday morning?

“Why doesn’t the future look like the future?” – Elon

Currently we are in the year 2024… We are supposed to be so into the future. It still boggles my mind why in the year 2024, the markets close and open? I did some ChatGPT research on this, why this is, and there are some weird notions of work life balance, or maybe because back in day when stocks were actually traded on the physical floor, like the wolf of Wall Street, it is because they literally traded stocks like pieces of paper, and it was in the physical realm?

But now, because it is all digital… And half of the agents trading online are just bots and robots, there’s literally zero sense for anybody to trade anything that is not online.

Well let me give you a better example, we have all these hipsters telling us that film vinyl and analog things are better. But do they use an iPhone which is powered by gasoline? Or film cartridges?

Can you imagine living without the internet?

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What’s more important, water or Wi-Fi?

Certainly water is more valuable, but I think the way that people treated nowadays is that Wi-Fi, having internet connectivity 5G is more critical.

I would actually say even with food; you could fast somebody for 40 hours, and even if they have water they will not die. But, if you try doing that with internet, I think the downsides would be much greater.

Easier to fast 40 days without food than to fast 40 days without Wi-Fi. 

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How I became a trader

My first taste for investing was when I was around 15 years old, it was totally random, learning about stocks, mutual funds, etc. I remember buying about $900 worth of Adobe stock, in writing it up to around $1250, and then later buying some mutual funds. And holding it all in college, maybe it went up to around $1500 or something.

In fact, Dr. Ahmed my science teacher in high school first told me about aggressive mutual funds, and how I should become an emancipated minor and get into trading etc.

Financial freedom at the age of 16?

For me, I think the reason I first got into it was I wanted to feel superior, advanced, ahead of the curve. When most of the kids at school were still begging their parents for a PlayStation, I felt so advanced mature and superior,,, already knowing how to invest in the stock market.

In college, when I was hungry for my own financial freedom, I remember daytrading as a sophomore in college, waking up super fucking early to trade the markets, and note, this is me at around 19 years old. And feeling the hormonal rushes when my money would go up or down. And not being able to concentrate in class because I’m just thinking about the green or reds.

The best lesson of all time

Long story short, I ended up losing all of my money I think my senior year, maybe $3500 worth, because I accidentally misread some of the financials for this one oil company I was invested in (penny stock). I recall, I regretted this so much, and felt so saddened by this at the age of 21, thinking that I would never be able to recover. But now that I am playing with millions of dollars in investing and trading, I learned that it might’ve been the best thing that happened to me, with about 15 years of foresight. Why? I already got rid of the emotional roller coaster as a young child, and as a teenager, and a 21 year-old, which means now, as a 36-year-old man, I am far more calm collected stoic, and unemotional about it.

The stoic investor

My suggestion: don’t get too excited when your gains go up. Otherwise, you will become addicted to the gains. And you might lever up and take foolish financial risks, to see even greater gains.

Good greed, bad greed?

I personally believe there is a difference between good greed and bad greed.

What’s the difference?

Good greed is you’re trying to think 30 years ahead, ahead of the curve, see where the puck is going, not where it currently is. Chasing at least a 10X yield. Or even 100x, or 1000x. But over 30 years.

A foolish greedy person is into professional sports, sports betting, counting cards, playing poker and blackjack, and trying to “time” the market. And make gains in days, weeks, even months.

Michael Saylor and microstrategy has purchased bitcoin 40 times now, every quarter for the last 4 years.

30 years is the reason

If you think 30 years ahead, this cuts through the noise. This is the ultimate razor. ERIC KIM’s razor.

Certainly nobody likes to think 30 years ahead because they want immediate hedonic pleasure right now, through sexual and mental pleasure, physical pleasure, travel and exotic experiences, Omakase sushi, and the pleasure associated with driving a fast high-powered car.

But think about it, even if you have a Porsche 911 GT3 RS, or a Lamborghini with scissor doors, even a Tesla model S plaid, you have no skills. Any skinny fat loser can simply wedge his right foot all the way to the floor, and obviously it will be loud and go fast. This takes no courage besides the foolish fact that you might kill yourself or you might kill somebody else in their car with their kids on board.

Buy weights & bitcoin

My thought is the only true courage is physical courage, weightlifting, powerlifting, one rep Max lifting. The risk of physical injury is high, which motivates you to warm up, be cautious, and set up safeguards. I think one thing that people don’t understand is that weightlifting could actually be the safest activity out there because you could control all of the variables. For example if you’re tired and not in a good mood, the wise thing to do not is not do it. Compare this to professional sports, even when the players are exhausted, they are whipped like cattle to perform, apparently there are stories that back in the day in the NFL, it would be common for lineman to sniff lines of cocaine, before applying to hype themselves up. 

One day of victory is not worth a year of pain

For example, one foolish decision that I made doing an extremely heavy floor bench press, six plates, caused me to injure my wrist which has plagued me for a year and a half, the wise thing to have done was just to take the day off, one day of success is not worth a year and a half of misery. The only reason I did it was because it was my “off day”, and I wanted to stunt on other guys at the gym, very foolish.

Whenever you try to impress yourself, you shall succeed. Whenever you try to impress others you will fail.

I also think this is the wisdom of thinking long-term; nobody wants to be a Ronnie Coleman and be a cripple for the rest of his life, even if you win all the accolades.

What I learned from the book “Pumping Iron”

I think this is also where Arnold Schwarzenegger was very wise; he was on the juice and all of his buddies were, but he had the wisdom of getting out of the bodybuilding game in order to do more interesting ventures, like acting business etc. Because he knew that maybe, all of the bodybuilders taking steroids were doing irreversible harm on themselves.

People sometimes talk about the golden days of bodybuilding… But all these guys were on steroids! Now, it is kind of disgusting, the average female women’s Olympia might have been even buffer than Arnold in his prime.

Who is richer?

Talking to some homeboys from the Toyota dealership, when I ask them what is the difference between me and you? One of the guys said, genuinely, “You are free.” Possibly the best compliment of all time.

Even now, people do this big dick measuring contest, like who is richer. But, this is the wrong measurement.

Let us say you are a straight man, and you sell your soul in your butt hole for gay pornography, and you get paid $1 billion a year. Would you do it? Obviously not!

Certainly there is something sacred and profane here; there are certain things that one does not even for trillion dollars.

For example, if you could give me $900 trillion, but I had to sell my firstborn son into slavery would I do it? Obviously not. Not even if you took that $900 trillion and multiplied it by $1 trillion.

NASSIM TALEB Has this funny quote, to the person who says that they cannot be bribed, you’re just not offering enough money.

And I suppose this is the ultimate test, whether your ethics morality and your personal beliefs matter more than money. Or even the approval of your spouse, etc.

And I think the negative risk, the sacrifice, or the potential for downside is what truly dictates your real beliefs. And what you are willing to forgo.

How to get rich with bitcoin

Very simple, just opened up account with the Coinbase app on your iPhone or whatever, link it with your traditional bank, and just keep buying bitcoin, until the end of time. And the goal is to give it to your kids kids kids.

Become insanely Spartan and frugal, sell your second car, maybe remortgage or refinance your house to get more cash on hand, buy the bitcoin, and ride the 55% ARR until the end of time!

ERIC

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I think in fashion, life and beyond, what we are seeking is beauty, beautification of ourselves, our environment, our vehicles and clothes etc.

What I find insanely bizarre is that it is pretty common that people will spend $3.2 million on a home, or $250,000 on remodeling their home, making the interior of their home or beautiful or whatever, yet they spend zero money or concern to beautify their own bodies?

Body thoughts

So I think the critical issue here is that modern day society and capitalism is actually antibody. The body is seen as an afterthought, especially because we have this strange Puritan Quaker Protestant work ethic morality when it comes to work, saving for the future, and essentially that the body is evil.

For example, probably close to 100% of American males watch porn pornography, yet still… Man feel embarrassed about it? Or chuckle about it?

And also, one is not allowed to be sexual anymore? Do you have any sort of sexual desire or drive is seen as bad?

Why capitalism consumerism sends us mixed signals 

OK some very bizarre thoughts; we are indoctrinated that it is good to be different, to be remarkable, and to be unique. Yet, everyone is just trying to be different and unique all in the same way?

Example, with clothes and clothing brands. The problem about the democratization of fashion is that anyone could buy the same outfit or sneaker or brand so but it does not make you beautiful.

We must labor to be beautiful!

My personal thought is the only way to become beautiful is simple; through vigorous physical exercise, through weightlifting, yoga or whatever, and also, maximum time spent outside, walking, in the direct sun and elements. Ideally minimum amount of close possible, to best showcase your naked human body.

Why is it that when you look at ancient Greek or Roman statues, they are all naked? It is because man, and woman, is the peak of all beauty, and perfection. For example, no Lamborghini or Ferrari or sports car on the planet is as sublime as an insanely beautiful female human body and face. For example, that one Cuban American actress, the one that was in Blade Runner, and now the new upcoming John Wick ballerina movie, has an insanely beautiful face! Not too sure about her height — but, it is very refreshing to see a beautiful female actress and face, with full lips, bright eyes, a great personality. And also kind of refreshing to see a beautiful female actress in Hollywood without a boob job; for example if she is insanely sexy in that last James Bond movie, when she is about to go into that secret club, and she has that beautiful blue dress, obviously without a bra on top.

And I think this is the big thing is that bigger is not necessarily better. I think for a minute, I think steroids and breast augmentation go hand-in-hand; for a minute the general idea was bigger is better.

For example, bigger muscle muscles, bigger chest, was better? Also with women… Bigger breast, bigger butt, bigger lips or whatever it was better?

Think proportions

I think you cannot really fool the human mind.  for example, assuming that you have a relatively short woman, let us say she is 5 foot tall or something, and she is quite petite; and then she has a C cup or a D cup breast size, certainly something will look a bit off.

Natural realistically… Petite healthy beautiful women, they have supple breast, and I think the physiology is that too signal of fertility, the breasts are firm, and also kind of point upwards?

Anyways, what is kind of counterintuitive is that I think man, certainly we are attracted to the female breast. Even in the Emily Wilson translation of the Iliad talking about ”breasts which kindle desire”– it ain’t about having some sort of massive porn star breast. Actually, when female breasts are almost too big, two circular and spherical, too perfect, they look hard instead of soft and supple… It is actually a little bit more grotesque than attractive.

And I think this is where a lot of modern day pornography has things wrong. They assume that guys just want girls with huge tits, so then they will enroll women who have these really tacky boob jobs. Yet I think what men desire to see and witness is to imagine or visualize or fantasize a beautiful woman who is attracted to them, and maybe wants to be seduced? 

I also think the bizarre thing in America is that at least with women, it is no longer trendy for a woman to desire to be desired by a man. And then once again this becomes a little bit weird; women then are somehow trying to look sexy to get likes and comments and followers on Instagram? But don’t they know that these are mostly a bunch of 50-year-old, single childless men… With nothing better to do?

For example, let us say that you are a young attractive woman, with 10 million followers on Instagram. But if I waved a magical wand to reveal to you that literally 100% of these followers of yours, were literally a bunch of 55 year-old single childless fat men, would that change your perception or feeling?

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Beauty for the sake of what?

So I’m starting to think that beauty is just another product to be marketed to us insult to us. And if you just follow the money it is pretty simple; sooner or later someone is trying to sell you these overpriced caffeine powder supplements, protein powder whey creatine etc, vitamins, etc — or even worse, strange hormone “therapy” or testosterone replacement stuff.

The only influencers and people you should trust are people who encourage you to do a “via negativa” approach — who tell you what NOT to do. For example, people who tell you not to consume protein powder, not to take pre-workout powder, not to take vitamins and minerals etc.

Essentially, somebody who is not either directly or indirectly monetizing their advice, in terms of product services or advertisements.

Maybe the reason you could trust in ERIC KIM is that I am already independently wealthy through bitcoin and photography; so anything that I have to say about diet health and fitness, you know you’re not being played. 

Via negativa food & fitness

Once again guys some simple ideas:

First, the real big idea here, which I literally have never ever ever heard anybody else say, is the virtues of intermittent fasting, and fasting, and not eating anything before you lift weights or work out. 

For example, some fools say this is dangerous, but come on… I am a 100% all natural weightlifter, and I was able to successfully lift 1000 pounds, that is 10 1/2 plates on each side of the barbell, all while fasting and in a fasted state, consuming nothing but tapwater and black coffee. And I am not some sort of fat dude on steroids; I’m 6 foot tall, 4% body fat,  and maybe I weigh around 160 or 165 pounds? I don’t really know because I haven’t weighed myself in about seven years. But I got a penis arrow, which speaks for itself.

Ultimately why does this matter?

 What I think is ultimately, sooner or later, people will wake up and learn and realize that they will want to have kids!

99% of these fertility issues of modern day life is due to the fact that both man and woman is infertile, they consume too many drugs alcohol and adopt vegetarian and vegan diet “plant based “diets, which lead to impotence, in terms of both parties.

For example, modern day man their testosterone is so low because they don’t consume enough organ meats, beef liver, beef heart and beef intestines, red meat steak etc.

Also same goes with women. Whenever you see a woman who is a vegetarian or vegan or “plant based”, she doesn’t really look that healthy or attractive.

The Fiat standard 

I’m currently reading the field standard by Saif Dean, same author as the bitcoin standard, and I’m actually having a lot of fun! One thing I learned about book reading is that reading a book should be fun and playful! It should make you laugh, question things, and the whole process should be pure joy, not drudgery.

Another thing about modern day life is that somehow we have indoctrinated people that for one reason or another… Reading a book must be arduous and hard and boring and require some sort of overcoming. No. A book should never be boring. If a book is boring it is a failure.

A big deal; October, 2024… Elon Musk uncovered the we robot Robo taxi cyber cab, cyber van future; 

The reason why I feel like this is an insanely big deal;

First, it looks fucking cool! Finally, the future actually looks like the future?

Tesla > Apple

First, the great thing is watching the announcement, Elon looks like he is in great shape! He looks 1 billion times happier, cheerful optimistic, and healthy.

And also… Charismatic leader; I think we all need some sort of figurehead to follow. For example, the reason why Apple is a bad bet is there is no longer a face behind it! Tim Cook, kind of boring like granola. Jony Ive has left, so nobody is left.

It’s essentially when we think about Tesla, SpaceX, we think of Elon Musk. Having a face behind a concept is critical.

Same thing goes with Kanye West, and also now Michael Saylor with bitcoin and micro strategies; I am very insanely impressed… Microstrategy stock has gone up 14.4X, over the last four years, which has even outperformed bitcoin!

A random thought; I think the future will belong to those or whom or the entities in which own the most bitcoin. Assuming that bitcoin is digital property, digital capital, the Apex form of property in the universe, then what that then means is assuming that you want to build a dynasty which last forever, call us to maximize your property, digital property right now.

Why?

I think the tricky thing is when do you think about property money wealth power etc.… The question that people often ask is why?

Assuming that property is capital, in capital is more critical than money… In that most US dollars and fiat currency is just credit running on 20th century rails… What that means is we must think digital, we must think cyber.

Why I’m still betting on bitcoin and microstrategy over Tesla 

Watching the new announcement has given me an insanely huge wave of motivation and optimism for the future! Essentially the future looks phenomenal; it looks super cool, and with the upcoming cyber car, cyber taxi, and cyber van… Finally… The future will look like the future!

And I also think that the insanely optimistic thing about cyber truck is that finally, a vehicle on the road which actually looks like the future!

I recall, in the year 2020, just a little bit before Covid hit, while in Providence Rhode Island I was meandering ,, it is the year 2020, technically we are living in the super future, why doesn’t the future look like the future? Why does the future look so lame?

Cyber upside

So the reason why bitcoin and micro strategies; even though I am a huge Elon Musk and Tesla fan, laws of physics are really hard. I think Tesla still has about 1 million cyber trucks they need to produce, and on top of that, having to produce all these new cyber taxis and cyber vans, Will be very very difficult. I am very confident that Elon and the Tesla team will pull it off, realistically it might take 10 to 20 years, because the laws of physics are hard. For example, physical manufacturing, lithium ion battery refineries, supply chain etc.

I think what Elon is doing is very admirable because he is currently addressing their real life, physical and bodily challenges we are facing today.  for nobody who has never lived in Los Angeles, never being stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic from Pasadena to the west side of Los Angeles, you’ll never know what Carmageddon, traffic will look like.

And also, something I have discovered whenever I drive to East LA, Koreatown and the like — fucking sucks. All of that concrete, no green spaces and trees — during the summer, it felt about 10 to 20° hotter there, and the pollution is practically unbearable now. Gavin Newsom and California trying to get rid of tailpipe emissions is a phenomenally great idea.

For example, the only thing I hit on the planet is maybe cigarette smoke, and the smell of tailpipe emissions, which is fucking toxic, and immediately gives me a headache. I’m currently on a Crusade to tell people who are smoking on the street to not smoking — the text a lot of wits, guts, and quick thinking, because it is something that is insanely important, not only does it immediately give me a headache, but come on come on I have a kid!

These fucking assholes

What I hate about smokers, cigarette smokers is that there are smoking on the street, in public, indignantly like they are not harming nobody else. You fucking assholes. At least you have a filter to smoke your cancer sticks through, but whenever you exhale your secondhand smoke, that shit goes straight into my lungs and my brains!

First, my vision is to just make smoking cigarettes outdoors illegal. In any public space. If you want to hotbox your house or apartment or car with the windows closed, and give yourself lung cancer that is fine; but the rule is to not allow smoking on the street, public sidewalks etc.

I think technically the law is you’re not supposed to smoke within 25 feet of an eating establishment, but my personal vision at least for Culver City and beyond and on the promenade is that it would be illegal to smoke cigarettes, anywhere which is not outside of your house!

why is everyone a bunch of pussies?

Essentially the thing that is insanely annoying to me is that nowadays, everyone is a bunch of pussies and cowards. For example, all of these fat losers with beards, buying guns in ammunition, they feel so tough watching their alternative right conservative media outlets, yet, they don’t even have the courage to speak up against people who smoke cigarettes?

People are often shocked by me because I actually have the audacity to stand up and speak up. Because everyone else is a coward.

I think the number one fear that people have, at least in Los Angeles and beyond is that if you somehow confront a smoker for being an asshole, they will somehow pull up a gun and shoot you?

First, maybe it might happen if you’re in South Central, or somewhere super hood, but very very unlikely if you’re in the west side or somewhere nice like Culver City? Especially since they’re a bunch of cameras around?

There is also a fear that when you tell people in LA while they are driving, to drive more carefully, they once again, they will somehow also pull up a gun and start shooting you up?

It’s tricky because it is true; there are some people with guns, conceal and carry guns, whether in their glove compartment, on their body etc. I suppose this is where trying to distinguish people is wise;

If somebody looks like they’re from the hood, or mentally unstable, better to just play it safe. But obviously if you see somebody who looks affluent, driving some sort of expensive car or whatever, then speak up! The funny irony is at least in America, and in Los Angeles, Rich successful people don’t really own guns. Guns are for poor people from the hood, or people who are from the right marginalized communities —

Well actually a lot of people don’t understand is a lot of right wing conservatives who own guns and live in the Midwest etc., or the south, or Idaho whatever… Actually tend to be poor, below working class? 

So for the most part, obviously there is crazy stuff in LA, but I would probably rate Los Angeles much safer than we think it is; honestly, you’re more likely to die getting hit by a car, or dying in a car accident from somebody texting while driving, rather than somebody shooting you with a gun. By a factor of 1 billion?

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Cyber soldiers

 so one of my great points of optimism is that the future of warfare will not be guns bullet ammunition, not even drones or bombs. I think the future of warfare will certainly be cyber, cyber warfare, economic based.

For example, it seems that economic embargo are effective, because when it comes out to it, technically everybody on the planet wants world peace because more peace means more prosperity, economically. In all of these rich all the guards want to drive their Rolls-Royce, Lamborghinis, McLarens and the like.

For example, even rocket man Kim Jung Un, is apparently a huge connoisseur of fine whiskeys, and I think he owns about 100 high-end Mercedes Maybach cars in his garage?

Anyways, once again, all of these “evil “world leaders, they don’t technically want war either because most people, what they see is luxury, comfort and ease. I cannot imagine any world leader right now, on the frontlines of a war, on some sort of war horse or chariot going head onto battle.

The upcoming cyber war

So a simple way to think about bitcoin is the world‘s ultimate defense system. People don’t really think about bitcoin in terms of cyber security, but it is. 

For example, the bitcoin network is defended by many exahash– which means that it is essentially unhackable. And unstoppable!

For example, let us say that you need to send an encrypted safe message to somebody. You could actually send it through the bitcoin network; and it is unstoppable! It cannot be censored.

And also… Assuming that money is freedom, and bitcoin is free; whether you like it or not, even if the other guy is a bad guy or whatever… You cannot stop the exchange, peer to peer of money, between two individuals!

What Bitcoin fixes

A huge one; real estate. Let us say that I have a single-family home, and I want to sell it to you. Cindy‘s mom who is a real estate agent, I see it how tedious it is. All of these forms, regulations, and having to transfer money from the bank, is an insanely tedious and troublesome process. 

I am still shocked, also in the year 2024… Like a simple wire transfer via the swift network, like I’m sending my money to my mom in South Korea, why does it take so damn long, why do I have to go to a physical bank branch, I thought we lived in the future?

Even an insane annoyance, about a half a year ago when I just tried to wire myself $125,000 of money to buy bitcoin, I literally had to be on the phone with JP Morgan Chase, three or four times, being rerouted to some random people in the Philippines, having to see a bank teller in the flesh etc., Before having to verify my own damn money?

This is insane!

My vision

Very simple. Let us say that I have a single-family home and you want to buy my single family home. The easiest thing is that you just send bitcoin to me. The final settlement will just take a few hours, instead of a few weeks.

And also, proof of funds. If you show me your bitcoin wallet, I could immediately see how much money you have in real time. Even a funny thing was when we were signing the lease of our new apartment, when our landlord asked for our proof of income or whatever, I just sent him a screenshot of our bank account balance, proving that we could live in his property for about 10 years, just based off of our savings. 

Now, I walk around town with a grin, can enter a Lamborghini dealership or Ferrari dealership or Porsche dealership with a grin on my face, and touch and handle all the cars because technically I could afford all of them. And in fact, if anyone gives me shit, I could just show them that I could afford it, and they will shut up. 

What’s the point of money?

I think my view on money is that it is defensive; it isn’t to go out and buy yourself bunch of Lamborghinis, but instead, to use it like a war chest, a cyber defense fund.

Truth be told, growing up in poverty, seeing my mom go bankrupt at least twice, I’ve never really ever been that concerned about money. But now, I truly have zero concerns.

This is where money is a via negativa thing; money should be a means to cut or reduce concerns or cares, by reducing your expenses to a bare minimum.

I would actually say the only good use of money is for productive assets (The Fiat Standard book)–  essentially buying something that can be productive!

For example, a new iPad Pro, weightlifting equipment for your home etc.

Can it help you produce more?

Cyber digital capitalism and production–

The problem is with a lot of things that you buy, like trophy assets, is that it doesn’t produce anything– unless I suppose like you’re the one guy on YouTube who does all these videos and vlogs with an orange Lamborghini parked behind you, which you are leasing, which helps you indirectly make money? But even so, I think the financial risk isn’t worth the potential upside. 

So the problem is with cars, they don’t produce anything. The only productive car I could possibly imagine is like a full self driving Tesla car, but even that isn’t quite productive; it just helps you mitigate pain. Unless maybe of course, you’re allowing your Tesla to do the full self driving, and you’re vlogging on a GoPro or something,  and producing things while your car is self driving?

But then, optimal strategy then is to purchase the cheapest Tesla possible, the most based level Tesla model three, while purchasing full self driving.

But then again taking a step further, even more intelligent strategy is to never be inside a car, to just walk, and take the metro!

In fact, a few days ago, before Seneca and I caught a stomach bug, the greatest joy was we were able to walk to the metro line, and take the metro directly to our favorite library! 100% walking, and only two metro stops away!

And this is really my vision of a glorious future city; tons of spaces, trees, parks, recreation centers, and zero to minimum time having to spend inside a car?

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Savings?

If we think about it, there is no real reason for anyone to have any incentive to save anymore. Why? As long as legislators continue raising the minimum wage, what that means is your savings is becoming devalued, in real time.

For example, the price of a single-family home skyrocketing is absurd. Even here in Culver City, very common to see single-family homes which are worth $3.2 million, all the while you could buy a condo in Michigan for only $70,000!

I think the critical issue we are having here is a mismatch of politics and fiscal policy.  

For example, if you are somebody trying to get elected for office, what do you promise people? An increase minimum wage, because that will get you elected! But the downside is your transferring inflation to future parties; for example, I called this the shake shack incident; There was a really really nice shake shack here in Culver City for a while, but to my great shock, it closed down very recently! I think the big issue was that because they raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour, maybe Shake shack cannot afford to Pay their employees!

Your $3.2 million home isn’t really worth $3.2 million 

I think this is also the thing that is difficult to understand; in theory, you see your single-family home price going up, and you think you’re getting super rich and whatever… But if you track that to inflation, in the global M2 money supply, what if in fact, your property value isn’t going up, but simply, The value of each US dollar is going less, and therefore your $3.2 million home isn’t really worth $3.2 million, but only $2 million?

And also the big problem is let us say that you have a really expensive home, you can’t really afford to live anywhere else, because the price of inflation makes it untenable for you to live anywhere else. Therefore I think a critical thing to consider is that You have to be a little bit more skeptical with money, this is where maybe thinking about hard digital assets and property like bitcoin is more interesting to me;

Also, currently we are tracking the value of a bitcoin to the US dollar. Because it is the closest measure we got. But, the more logical idea is equating a bitcoin to a bitcoin.

One bitcoin equals one bitcoin.

So right now for example we are currently valuing a bitcoin to the US dollar, but my radical idea is what we should be doing instead is valuing the US dollar in respect to the bitcoin. 

Which means the price of a bitcoin is not packed to the US dollar, the US dollar is instead pegged to the price of a bitcoin.

Why this is fun and exciting

For me, life is all about fun creativity and play. And also for me investing, speculation, bitcoin in the like is all fun and play!

Honestly at this point, there’s nothing really left I want to purchase or buy, besides maybe some weightlifting equipment, steel plates, or a new power squat rack. But besides this, there is nothing left in the physical realm that I really desire. The only desirable truly scarce asset and valuable asset, I desire is bitcoin.

How to make money from nothing

I recently copped around a $50,000 profit, taking about $150,000 of fiat currency, purchasing some microstrategy stock, MSTR, taking my initial investment and growing it to $200,000. I then sold about $50,000 of the micro strategy stock, and then just bought more bitcoin with it.

So an interesting technique or thought is the easiest way to make money out of nothing is to just put it in the traditional stock market, sell the gains in fiat currency, take that fiat currency and purchase bitcoin while you can?

Keep acquiring more and more bitcoin until you die

Assuming that wealth, true wealth is property, and assuming that bitcoin is the first and only property which is digital, and we all know that digital is superior to physical, and I think what is very very interesting is bitcoin crosses the chasm of the physical into the digital. Why? Because it takes real life analog power , proof of work, to convert analog energy and power and electricity into a single bitcoin.

What a lot of these fake environmentalist don’t understand is the only reason why the point has value is precisely because it takes so much energy intensive power to create! All these fake propaganda posters saying that bitcoin is bad for the planet, but you fool… Don’t you know that I think globally, air conditioning or the power for air-conditioning causes about 20% of the carbon emissions on the planet? And bitcoin might be .001%? I could also bet you that your virtual eating of almond nuts might cause more CO2 production than anything else.

Even another funny unorthodox theory; thought experiment, what if in fact producing pea protein plants, vegan protein powders, all these fake juices and sugars and almond nuts etc., caused 1000 times more worse carbon emissions for the planet than meat? If this were the case, would this change your anti-meat eating stance? Or would it not because you still invoke the moralistic aspect of it?

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Wealth is a mental thing?

HANDSOMER.

I think in life, one of the most difficult things is change. Adapting to change, thinking about change considering change etc. 

First, a creativity innovation carte Blanche thinking first principles thing. 

First, to think new and become new is difficult. It takes great skill, innovation, and radical understanding, it is not for the meek of heart. 

Second, I think the difficult thing is a deseridatum thing, a desired thing. The big question we have to think is is it desirable to think new and become new? 

First if you think from a capitalistic consumer perspective… Obviously it thrives on the new. For example, if we were all stuck on the original iPhone three iPhone 3GS… I’m sure people will not be very happy. I would also be very unhappy if I still had the original iPad, The current iPad Pro M4 chip I’m using, is literally like 10 trillion times better.

In fact, going to Hong Kong later this year, and I was thinking and reflecting… Time and technology; also staring at my old G9 camera, how at the time in 2017, 2018… It was literally the best camera on the market at the time. But now times have changed, and also technology has changed. Therefore the most intelligent strategy is right now, looking at it from scratch… I’m thinking… Right now in this given moment, what is the best option for things?

For example, when I first really got into photography, a lot of of it was dictated by technology. For example, when I was in high school, as a senior graduation present my uncle got me a Canon point and shoot power shot digital camera, I think it had 1.2 megapixels or something, but still… I loved it! It was always in my front pocket, and I literally photographed everything I saw. So when I discovered the macro mode, the rule of thirds grid, and also how he was able to shoot black-and-white, it blew my mind!

Fast forwarding a bit, getting my first Canon rebel XT camera then my canon 5D full frame camera, and discovering the whole lot, and then progressing a bit and getting the Leica M9 camera,  traveling the world etc., getting into film, the digital Ricoh and now currently the LUMIX S9– wow, technology has changed things a lot.

My major critique about a lot of people who tend to give fellatio to the past is that the past is predictable, easy, requires no courage. It is very very easy to hide behind Hitler mustache, some ugly flannel, some ugly throwback clothing, baggy clothes, drive some sort of base level German car, And opine on the past. And say how analog was super superior filmless superior vinyl superior whatever, and trying to harden back to our ancestral pest.

What I think takes more courage is to instead, rather than pink by analogy, to think the present moment right now, not by analogy or metaphor or to oversimplify the past.

For example, a lot of people tend to think of the past, romanticizing the past etc.… But you fools, don’t you realize that the past was most definitely 1 trillion times worse than it is today? For example, industrial London, childbirth mortality was 70 to 80%, Colorado dysentery, and sanitation had not even been discovered; if you accidentally poked yourself, they would probably surgery on you with rusty unsanitized instruments, this is before they even knew that you’re supposed to boil water before drinking it!

Even now, our understanding of things is literally 1 trillion times backwards. For example, this insidious idea of calories in calories out, “burning” calories. You fool! Don’t you understand that it is hormonal, driven by sugar, insulin, insulin signaling and spiking? The only reason why this calories in calories out notion still exist is the evil Coca-Cola corporation, who wants you to have a “balanced diet”, “moderate exercise”, that you can sneak in 100 cal Coca-Cola a day, and not “gain weight”– whereas in fact, the truth is gaining or losing fat,,, not weight.

Some people think that these are lexical different things, but this is not the case this could literally be a life with that matter, type two diabetes and type three diabetes (alzheimers) has anything to do with you or your family or parents.

Wow, looking recently at my arms, my arms are super amazingly fucking jacked! Even without flexing, they look amazing! Very very full in the triceps, the biceps the shoulders and other parts of my body, which I cannot really notice.

And also, after getting a fresh haircut, from Cindy… Very very simple, shaving the sides clean, and just getting some cheap gel and slicking it back, Cindy calls it my “Lamborghini haircut”,– and also, this might be the lowest body fat percentage in my life! I think currently I’m at around 4% body fat, naturally without any weird stuff. And note, I might be the only weightlifter or bodybuilder or power lifter or strong man on the planet who doesn’t even take protein powder! Let alone loser creatine, which is the century just pulverized meat, why not just eat the meat?

And also, am I the only one on the planet who fast before weightlifting? Certainly the only one on the planet, may be out of all 8 billion of us, who was able to successfully lift 1000 pounds, that is over 10 1/2 plates on each side of the barbell, successfully, once again, without steroids, unnatural substances, and also no loser belt, wraps, knee wraps etc. 

Rack rack city bitch

Very simple; rack pulls are your best friend. Imagine like doing a dead lift, but you just put the barbell on the power rack or the squat rack, at around waist level, in between your knees and your hips, experiment at your height level, whatever feels comfortable, chalk up, and just lift the barbell off of the rack, even for half an inch or so! Literally after doing it with eight plates, I felt the good soreness in my biceps, my upper back, my traps etc.

Honestly the only reason people don’t do it is because people lack some sort of innovative mindset and creativity. People are still stuck on this loser thinking by analogy school in which everyone is just giving fellatio to Arnold Schwarzenegger, and all these loser bodybuilders on social media, for all injecting their assholes with steroids.

In fact, I’ve discovered a really really huge secret, the only reason you see more African-American and Caucasian people in the NFL professional sports etc., even I symbolize the NBA… Is all these guys are just using steroids! The only reason why you don’t see as many Asian guys in professional sports isn’t some pseudo racial things; genetics is fake; anyone who talks about genetics is essentially talking about he who is able to best use steroids and not get caught, or, to best use steroids with a stack of other strange drugs, to not have their breast tissue turn into “bitch tits” etc.

Finishing reading pumping iron  the original book I think in 1973, and with an updated afterward in 1980, when Arnold was 34 years old, super rich and successful, with his $700,000 house in Santa Monica, and just fresh shooting Conan the barbarian with a $15 million budget, and note, adjusted for inflation these numbers are huge, this was 1980! Which I think was 44 years ago? Wow. That’s even longer than I was alive; I’m 36 years old born in 1988.

Anyways, even back then — in this so-called “golden ages” of bodybuilding… 1973, now I do the math, it is 2024… This is about 50 years ago! Holy moly I’m 36 years old right now, if I added 50 years to my age, I’d be 86!

Anyways, just thinking consider if in 1973 all these dudes are already injecting their buttholes with steroids, anabolic steroids which at the time they didn’t even think that it was dangerous, or bad, imagine how much steroid technology has progressed in 50 years, to today.

And when I look at all these modern day bodybuilders and fitness people on Instagram and YouTube etc., it’s kind of like male prostitution; kind of how a lot of these influencer girls end up being these WebCam virtual prostitutes, to make money. Whatever I think it is fine; but if I had a daughter, no way in hell would I want her to do that kind of work. And also, no way in hell would I ever want Seneca do you ever inject his buttholes with steroids.

Giant or midget?

Also ,,, the least harmful major?

 so what is so interesting about looking at it in the past about Arnold Schwarzenegger and the like is that there is this notion of being a giant. I think it’s kind of a day term now, like Tony Robbins he has this seminar called awaken the giant within, which talks a lot to the baby boomer generation. And apparently the opposite of being a giant is a midget, which is not politically correct anymore, the nicer term to use is person of small stature or dwarf or something. Or you just pretend like they’re not a midget.

Anyways, whether this matters or not, is beyond my pay grade. Would I’m more interested in is how we could do things more naturally, get super fucking jacked and amazing without steroids or weird stuff.

The key is to consume more dietary cholesterol, a.k.a. beef liver and organ meats.

So I thought, maybe the whole keto ketogenic diet movement is a bit flawed because they do not emphasize the necessity for consuming dietary cholesterol in organ meats etc. For example, am I the first to propose this notion of 100% organ me to diet, which is 80% beef liver, beef beef kidney beef intestines etc.… And supplementing it with other stuff like eggs, including the yolk, or flesh meats?

The reason why I believe this to be such a big idea is that the loser vegan evil corporations like Bill Gates and James Cameron and the like promote this insane notion of a plant-based diet veganism, because it is so profitable. And let us consider, what is more profitable, to sell some sort of overpriced Pea protein powder, to these foolish millennial and zillenial and Gen Z folks, which makes them feel good about the planet or whatever? Or to sell them organ meats, which is not profitable. Even the American beef corporation, they cannot sell it effectively.

Just follow the money

ChatGPT is also a positive good for society because it is the number one way to smash inequality, racism sexism, and also… To overturn these ridiculous conspiracy theories?

For example, anybody with an iPhone and access to YouTube and podcast, who listens to Joe Rogan or whatever, well sooner or later fall victim to these weird conspiracy theories. Why? My theory is people cannot bear a society and world and universe which has no rhyme, no reason, which is just injustice. When people believe in a conspiracy theory, it feels just — it feels like it sets the order right.

Because once again, most feeble people cannot bear an injust world and society. 

It goes against everything that we have been taught about justice equality fairness etc. The world is not just.

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The great solution

I have a very very simple solution; optimistic fatalism.

Fatalism simply means that everything is bad, injust, evil whatever.

Optimism, we all know what this means.

So my notion of optimistic fatalism is the ultimate hammer, the ultimate  solution. Both at the same time, put it inside your head and your brain and your soul and your body… That truth be told in fact, yes, it is all bad evil and injustice. But in spite of all that… How can you make the best of it?

Or even a step further, to think and understand that in fact, all of the badness injustice in the world etc., was positively helpful to make your life better?

The winner take all reality 

For example, I am the only winner in the world of street photography. The only one who was able to successfully do all the successful things, travel the planet and get all the accolades, and become a bitcoin millionaire out of all of it.

Now great upside is because now that I am financially independent, I can continue to give away all of my stuff for free open source, because I don’t have a profit incentive anymore. And now becomes more of an ethical thing; doing that in which I believe in, because I want to help humanity.

But, being a humanitarian, I think the only way to ethically do it is to be somehow self sponsored, financially independent, not having an office administrators and staff, and donors.

Why? As long as you have donors, it can never really be truly just. You’re going to have to parade around your poor kids at these annual dinners, to provoke sympathy, and a bad conscience to these rich donors, to keep them employed.

I could speak because I myself was one of these kids, KCCEB, Korean community center of the East Bay, I’m very very grateful for all of our mentors, but it has not lasted.

Nonprofits do not last.

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Corporations don’t really last either

Only things which have lasted are the Vatican, the holy Roman Empire 2.0, Catholicism, independent wealthy families, endowments at Ivy League schools etc.



One of the really big issues with clones being a clone clone mentality is that it is so centered around being a clone. For example, You’re taught and made to think that being a clone, like a clone of Jesus or whatever, is virtuous and good. As a consequence, one is not permitted to simply create a model of himself. Anything which is similar to Jesus is seen as good and virtuous, anything which is seen as dissimilar to Jesus is seen as bad and evil.

And is a consequence, I think the general ethos and mentality of America is bad because it is too centered and focused on notions of imitating Christ, being a clone etc.

“Y’all ninjas my clones!”

For example, in fashion life etc.… We seek to just emulate people that we already see in the limelight. For example, Kanye West, Jay-Z, all these modern-day rappers, Arnold Schwarzenegger etc. 

For example, ultimately what I discovered was my desire for a Lamborghini, with this is the doors, all matte black murdered out, was simply my desire to emulate Kanye West! His Lamborghini Mercy song, very influential to me.

Thinking Arnold

So I just finished reading the original pumping iron book, the one that preceded the influential pumping iron documentary, and ultimately what was very very interesting was unraveling and revealing how essentially, or no Schwarzenegger invented bodybuilding, modern day bodybuilding and beyond.

What’s the weather in about the book I think the original was written in the 1970s, a little bit added in the 1980s was a lot of the terms and the verbiage and the words typically used outside of the traditional context.

For example, mentally retarded, midget, giant, even referencing or no Schwarzenegger‘s Austrian German accent being a “Nazi” voice. I think what is so fun and interesting at least in the context of the 1970s and 80s is that people were much more relaxed, and less grammar Nazis or less politically correct, than they are now.

Also, the reason why I kind of enjoy this is that ultimately, if you have ever lifted weights, done bodybuilding or weightlifting… We are all essentially children of Arnold Schwarzenegger. He is the one who essentially invented and promoted modern bodybuilding and weightlifting as we know it, and all of his contemporary, all of them have been forgotten, only Arnold remains.

I suppose the nuance is even Arnold, who is probably the greatest bodybuilder weightlifter and personality of all time, even Arnold has fallen a bit out of Vogue now. It Seems like he has dominated everything,  even politics, which was foreshadowed in the 1980s, and his whole strange affair with his housekeeper, his illegitimate son, whatever… I think he’s still acting an influential and politics and whatever, but for the most part I think he has been forgotten already. Kind of also like today, Michael Jordan… All these kids who wear his clothes and sneakers, they don’t actually have any idea who the real Michael Jordan is, whether he is alive or dead or whatever. Michael Jordan has become a strange symbol in today’s world; a sign of dominance and flair, but once again, nobody thinks of him as a real human being anymore. Apparently Kanye West is still on tour, I think Kanye West might be the most anti-fragile artist of them all, as he has been able to survive the most extreme controversies them all, and still have a stadium packed of adoring fans, in Seoul South Korea! Very very shocking and impressive to me; I had no idea he was so popular even in Seoul South Korea!

Anyways, the reason why I think of this is so important is thinking about lasting, durability and life. And also, the short side of notion of achieving your life goals; Arnold has achieved everything, she has achieved all the major pillars of success in America, yet after all of that, he is kind of empty, kind of a shell of his former self.

Now the reason why I think this is so important is that when we think about American notions of success, the paths of success etc.… What is it that we are truly seeking, and how do we know if and when we achieved it, and whether it really even matters at all at the end?

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The problematics of ethics

So apparently, I think when all of us had done, it comes down to philosophy and ethics. Especially in today’s world, AI, the ethics of artificial intelligence ChatGPT etc.

I think what will make this forever interesting topic is that there is no right and wrong in ethic; might makes right. 

What means is he or she who is the most powerful, the most dominant shall win and conquer all! Even now… The way I see it, America is currently in a digital arms race against China, fortunately America has nothing to fear; for the most part Chinese technology kind of sucks. For example, obviously a rich mainland Chinese oligarch would prefer to have an iPhone Pro rather than the newest Huawei phone. Huawei sucks.

And also… It still does seem that for the most part, the Chinese would still prefer American blockbuster Hollywood films rather than their own domestic film market. Why? The funny thing with the Chinese the mainland Chinese is that they exoticize America — truth be told, I think if all the real Richmond land Chinese people have the option, they would take all of their capital wealth and money and power out of mainland China, buy some nice property here in LA, or possibly somewhere else etc.

I think this is why all these rich men in Chinese prefer to buy proper tea in Vancouver, rather than Shanghai, Beijing etc. Even driving to East LA Koreatown the other day… Oh my gosh, the pollution there is unbearable! And it is literally just a few miles east of West LA, in which the weather is 1 trillion times better.

Beef liver is the answer

Wow, I just finished eating a bunch of beef liver that I got from Gelson‘s yesterday, it is so cheap, maybe only 399 a pound, and also the interesting nuance is that even if I tried to, I cannot consume more than about 2 pounds of beef liver because it is so nutritionally dense.

I feel so phenomenally good right now. I recommend everyone to try it!

I would say in terms of a split, try to have 80% of your diet be beef liver, and once if he comes too much for you, switch over to  eggs or ground beef for some other type of steak flesh meat.

The immigrant mentality

The reason why Frank Colombo and Arnold Schwarzenegger became so successful is that both of them were immigrants, first to move to America as young adults, I think Arnold might’ve been only 16 or 18 when he moved from Austria to the states, and the immigrant mentality is good because they are hungry! The problem about the traditional American is they become too flabby, too fat, too appeased. 

This is why Americans are so lazy; they were raised with much privilege in the states, assuming that their family has been here for a generation or two or three, and essentially they could rely on the family wealth, the family trust fund, property real estate etc. For example if your dad wants bought property Somewhere in LA which is desirable, and has made a killing… And you know that once your dad dies, you won’t hear it much of his wealth, what motivation do you have to work hard?

One of my greatest blessings ironically enough was being born in the states, albeit with a working class mom. The upside is I knew that even if I wanted XYNZ, I couldn’t… Not because my mom was being mean to me or whatever, but literally, she couldn’t. For example, my mom working two or three part-time jobs cleaning houses, waitressing, being a cashier, barely able to pay the rent with my dad stealing the rent money and going gambling to Reno in the middle of the night, not being home for about a week or so… I knew that money and resources were precarious. Therefore if I wanted anything, I had to get a job and work for it to get it.

I think this is really the root of my success. If I wanted anything, I had to fight to get it!

Now that I am super rich and successful, the next stage becomes interesting. My son Seneca, shall become the next prince and king of Los Angeles. He is already to go here in Culver City, there’s no other kid who was born in 2021 who is as tall funny handsome, strong muscular good-looking, and sociable than him. Shout out to my friends Noel Lisa and Ray, and especially Kevin! Everyone knows me in Seneca now here in Culver City, and I am excited to see him go through the Culver City school system, before he goes off and becomes the next great entrepreneur.

Why bitcoin is the best investment right now

So I was reading pumping iron by this one author, and he’s writing this in 1980… Wow, that is almost 44 years ago… He talks about how Arnold Schwarzenegger purchased a $700,000 home in Santa Monica at the time, which I am certain that adjusted for inflation might’ve been close to what we imagine $10 million to be today.

Anyways, I was thinking about… If I was in a Time Machine in the 1980s, or specifically 1980… When Arnold Schwarzenegger was already 34 years old, I’m 36 years old right now. If that were the case, what kind of investment could you make for $700,000 at a time, that would yield a superior return, from 1980 to 2024?

At the time, I think the only real investment you could’ve made in was real estate, commercial real estate, maybe residential real estate. If you bought a bunch of property in Culver City, or Palos Verdes, back then knowing what we know now… You would have become a billionaire many times over. Because currently looking at the whole market here in LA… It all sucks besides Culver City.  Santa Monica used to be the best spot to be, but now it is overrun with homeless people, people high on crack etc. Even if I was a billionaire today, I would not want to live in Santa Monica because it is super dirty, still too many homeless people etc. Even worse point to creatine, oh my God, all the homeless encampment, and homeless people around… And the pollution, insanely terrible.

Anyways, I think the hard thing is when it comes to investments, most people can only think by analogies, metaphors, or similarities to the past. Much more difficult to think carte blache, first principles, because it is difficult to predict or anticipate that which has not yet happened.  Life is not like back to the future, in which you could predict everything with 100% perfect foresight!

But also… Even if things were like back to the future and even if you could predict things with 100% clarity, it might not always be a desired outcome. Why? Sometimes a problem can be that even if you get what you wish, it could positively be a bad thing.

For example, a lot of things end up becoming dangerous liabilities. For example if you want to go to the Inglewood public library, or Ladera Heights or whatever… Can you pull up in a Lamborghini, you might get robbed at gunpoint, you might even die! I suppose the upside of driving a beat up 2010 Prius is that it is the ultimate stealth car, nobody in real life knows how rich I am because I look like a poor person.

Look poor, think rich – Andy Warhol

Los Angeles becomes very interesting to me because it really is the center of the universe. Now that Apple is here, there’s really no reason to be anywhere else.

Only that but Apple having that grand downtown LA theater store, so beautiful! Even though I am critical of a lot of things of Apple… Apple isn’t going away anytime soon, at least in the lifetime of myself or Seneca. Maybe the returns and the profits of Apple will not be as impressive into the future, much better to buy bitcoin or microstrategy stock instead,  but still, for the most part Apple is the most practical strategy.

Until a competitor, whether it be open AI, Microsoft, Nvidia or somebody else who makes a really really good ChatGPT-first phone, Apple will still have the dominant market here. 

The true disruptor

After playing with a new iPhone Pro a bit, essentially when my ultimate Takeaway point is the only reason to have an iPhone now is because you just need something to run ChatGPT. Unfortunately at the moment, you cannot run ChatGPT without an iPhone or iPad or your laptop. And even Google Gemini sucks. I rate ChatGPT as 1 trillion times better.

And Apple Intelligence, I’ve been playing with it, and even me, the ultimate text nerd and advocate, even though I have no idea what Apple Intelligence is and how it is different from Siri? I think honestly it just seems like a rebranding of Siri, Which is confusing for everybody.

Once you’re a bitcoin billionaire, then what?

When people ask me what I do, I often joke and I just say that I’m a bitcoin billionaire. But I almost say it half tongue and cheek, half true. I’m very certain that my bitcoin holdings well only 10 X 100 X or 1000 X from here.

According to my aggressive calculations, my bitcoin should be worth at least $500B 30 years from now. It will be worth at least 1.2 billion, 15 years from now. 

Assuming that you perfect for side of the future, then how do you proceed in life?

Autotelic progressions

So the very very basic notion is moving forward, it could all just be autotelic! Which means you just do things for the sake of it, because it personally interests you, not because there is necessarily some sort of phenomenal payoff to it.

Because once again… Once you live in a world that money no longer concerns you, then what?

I’m the judge!

Pursue play & fun?

I suppose one of the good things about Asian Confucian culture, and also being Korean Korean American is the focus and ethos of respect, and also more importantly, disrespect. For example, I find the ethics the morality that ethos of Achilles in the Iliad so refreshing; There seems to be more truth in his approach, rather than our emasculated, castrated notions of honor and respect in today’s times. For example, there is nothing that provokes my wrath more than disrespect.

Disrespect can take lots of different forms. When people don’t greet you, treat you with respect, or acknowledge you or your kids. In Korean culture, to simply “een-ssa” somebody is one of the most chief virtues. And it is super simple; to greet somebody, when they come and go etc.

Are there certain individuals who deserve more respect than others? 

In the grand comedy of life, yes. The first thought I have is this whole notion of Confucian respect for elders, and also, filial piety to be quite base.  For example, if you think about Achilles, all he thought was his own personal glory, and had no cares or concerns for all these other superficial things. He didn’t really care about his father in the far away land, and even Achilles didn’t really care about the well-being of his own blood son, Who was far away. In fact I found this really interesting, I actually didn’t know that Achilles had his son! Changes everything; I’m just going to be and become a modern day version of Achilles, and think of Seneca like my heir. Or just son.

Kleos

So if I did it all over again, went back to college University or whatever, I might have just studied ancient Greek literature and the Classics, maybe also barbelling it with computer science.  I think sociology was great, but sociology after you run its course, becomes a bit flaccid; you could probably learn the fundamentals of all of sociology and just like six months, whereas the wisdom of ancient Greek literature can span millennia.

Why?

Typically, when things have been around and lasted a very long time, there is a reason.

“Everything lasts for a reason” – TALEB

For example, when we superficially look at people who have been around for a very very long time, and somehow we think they are “cheating”, or illegitimate… We got a pause and think; what are their cheap virtues which allow them to have such grand longevity?

For example, one nefarious character seems to be Tony Robbins, but it looks like he’s been in the game for a very very long time. As a consequence, he’s probably doing something right. And also this goes with the rich dad poor dad guy, and some other modern day business entrepreneurs. And also the same thing with Donald Trump; he’s pretty old now, 70s… But the fact that he’s been around this long in politics business etc., probably means he’s doing something right, even though he might be a morally bad or evil person.

Who lasts?

Even right now, the reason why I consider maybe Kanye West to be the most ANTIFRAGILE individual of them all, even surpassing Jay-Z is because Kanye West has spoken his mind about everything, and he’s still in the game! He’s still making music, he’s still making art, and apparently his new Yeezy sock sneakers came out!

And I think it should be admired, who last and who doesn’t last, because durability in the words of Nietzsche is essentially the chief good on the planet. 

Why?

So it looks like durability has fallen out of vote. Why? Because durability does not sell. For example, honestly I think we are all always itching for a reason to buy something new, to sell something new, etc. And the reason why this is so annoying is that you’re kind of secretly hoping for things to break, in order to “upgrade“ to that new new thing. And this is honestly the psychology behind upgrading to the new iPhone, or buying a new camera or digital camera or car whatever; we quickly tire of the old, we desire the new.

This is where reading the Elliot has been so refreshing; in a world before capitalism in consumerism was even invented, I think you start to see a little bit more honest approaches in which humans go out and do things. For example, everybody already knows that the armor of Achilles is by far the most supreme on the planet. And also what is it is if we think about the Iliad , essentially obviously everyone knows that the Earth is big, but the whole drama is just centered around the super super tiny part of Troy, which becomes a whole microcosm in itself. This is great because we tend to think about global politics too much; international affairs. But rather, I think we should think super super local, super super specialized. Like local city politics over national ones or even international ones.

And this is my thought on America, rather than over extending ourselves and meddling in the affairs of other places, we should just fortify ourselves, we should become the next Sparta, the next Troy, the new ancient Greeks.

Morals of the story

So I just finished reading the Emily Wilson translation of the Iliad, A+ plus.  and what is super interesting is the end of the Elliot, is actually quite anti-climatic; King Priam gets the body of Hector back,  and also, Achilles finally is able to go back to bed with Breisis,,, his prize and trophy, the original quarrel with King Aggamenon.

And the reason why this is also important is that it teaches us a lot about war, revenge etc. Essentially I think one of the soft morals of the stories that even though you get your revenge, your heart will not be settled. For example, even after Achilles kills Hector, pierces his ankles and drags him around The city gates of Troy several times, even around his own Greek encampment, his heart is still not soothed. He still mourns the death of Patroclus,,, and no matter what he does, he cannot bring his best friend back from the dead.

I think a very simple idea is as long as you have a beautiful woman, a beautiful wife to go back to bed with, to literally sleep in the same bed with, you should consider yourself 100% supremely happy and joyful. And especially if your wife has birthed you a son, you should be forever grateful, even the adage “never go to sleep angry“ is a good one. 

Another thing that I learned about the morals and ethics of the Iliad and Achilles; just speak your damn mind! I think to not speak your mind is cowardice. 

I think one of the bad things about stores is that often more than not, it is too centered around “forgiveness“, and just being quiet. And the reason why this is such a bad strategy is that this ends up leading to pent up anger frustration and also, Pettiness. A real man has iron lungs and speaks his truth, no matter how bad it may seem, but instead most mortals hold petty anger jealousy and spite in their hearts forever until their grave. 

I also think what is so interesting about the Iliad and the ancient Greeks is how they were oratory, oral culture. Which means that everything was said out loud, nothing was held silent. 

 in fact, my personal thought is maybe the worst bad thing that has happened to modern Day Society, the reason why people are so strange and antisocial is actually not the iPhone, but actually, AirPods, AirPods pros, headphones, noise canceling headphones etc. Because the truth is, your ears might be 1 trillion times more sensitive than your eyes; Even though I personally love my vision and photography, actually music, rhythm, souls and beats gets me more energized than the visual. 

And I think maybe the reason why this is so important is because audio audio things are still quite critical; for example, after listening to almost every single Michael sailor talk and interview, and putting pretty much 100% of my traditional Roth IRA and IRA into micro strategies stock, There is more veracity in words and the human voice, rather than just images, Talking Heads, as well as text.

In fact, one of the funniest things that I listen to was hearing Donald Trump talk to the bitcoin conference, I realize, I actually never really heard him talk out loud, maybe besides the debate he had about four years ago with Joe Biden.

I feel like maybe in the future, the skills of the oral culture will be critical; teaching people to be a postmaster or public speaker, well actually ironically in the future become more and more important!

And also my personal thought, I thought this back in Providence Rhode Island even before Seneca was born, was that Social skills or the future will be the future, because ultimately, in some ways technology is a bit overrated, more important than technology is the social. I suppose this is outside of studying sociology, it taught me how Sociology and social things interactions are so critical; because everything comes down to the Social, after a long enough timespan.

For example, everyone wants the Lamborghini, but actually it’s not the Lamborghini that we want, we want the Lamborghini to be flashy and to flex our manliness ego and attitude, and in the hope of somehow attracting really really hot and beautiful women, and the hope is being able to Bed these bimbos, and to maximize our sexual pleasure and ejaculate in them on them all around them,  to face all of their openings closings and orifices, to defile all of their body parts breast butt waist face mouth vagina butthole hands whatever, I think this is the whole ethos behind porn pornography.

But, this is a very misguided approach. I think we gotta make combat, man-to-man combat cool again.

Guns are for guys with small dicks

The bigger your gun, the smaller your dick size. 

Honestly, anyone who has a gun or owns a gun, who is not military or ex military or police is a pussy with a small dick.

Why?

Maybe my thoughts is the big problem, even being here in California, is asymmetric warfare; now that I have a son to live for, even if there is a one percent chance or even a .5% chance that the other party might have a gun, I will always err on the side of caution. Why? Because, even though I look like a god in the flesh, any skinny fat loser with a small dick, with a gun can pop me and boom I’m dead. 

No the reason why this is so problematic is once again, you could be like the midget in Austin Powers, even have a small and modest pistol and kill somebody who looks like John Cena with just the flick of your finger.

I think what was so refreshing in ancient Greek times, was that battle, or was much more honest. Even back in the Iliad in ancient Greek times, everyone knew that the archers with bow and arrows ruler bunch of pussies. Why? Asymmetric warfare; you could hide behind a wall and shoot arrows at me which can kill me, And you yourself are not exposed to danger. And this is where I think that there needs to be more flesh in the game ; no knives, no guns, no pistols, only hands.

Actually if anything, maybe even if you have some teenage adolescent boys, and they are having some sort of argument, just have them put on some boxing gloves and protective helmets and gear and just have them sparred out. It might lead to faster conflict resolution than these sissy approaches of just “talking about your feelings“.

And actually, the critical issue here is that there’s a difference if you are male versus female. The strange modern day trend of trying to equivalize the both I think is actually properly detrimental to society and beyond. 

No suppose this is where maybe all boys Catholic schools might still be a good idea; honestly how much of my education was wasted because I’ll just distracted by all these pretty girl at school, wearing super super mini skirts in class?

What’s the point of education anyways?

I suppose the real critical issue here is in regards to the purpose of school and education. In ancient Sparta, I think young boys were with their mothers, until they became seven years old, and then they entered the “karneia”– which was essentially SWAT training for young Spartan boys, to breed them to become the next generations of Warriors.

And the reason I also find this important is that true courage must also go lock and lock and hand in hand with physical courage. Once again, you cannot have courage by being the fat world of Warcraft to dude on South Park, being a keyboard warrior. And actually the issue of the Internet now, is I think the safe bet is to assume that 100% of the toxic comments and arguments on the Internet or just bots, none of them are real life humans.

And this is where I think the wise strategy, is to disable all comments, all metrics whatever;  even views could be Game of Thrones so easily; just hire a corporation in India to spin up 1 trillion fake bots, to inflate your view numbers, in order for you to get some sort of sponsorship or whatever.

In fact, I think if you just pay 100 bucks or 200 bucks, you could pay some sort of outsourcing Indian corporation to give your video 10 or even 100 million views!

And also, maybe if you pay 300 bucks or so, you could easily get 1 million fake subscribers to your YouTube Instagram whatever.

And the reason why we should not even discuss TikTok is that TikTok is the enemy, come on, it is mainland China in the flesh! In some ways I think we have to adopt an anti-mainland Chinese approach again ;; even something interesting that I learned from Peter Thiel was the original notion of being politically corrected was that you sent you were a devout follower of Stalin and Lennon, communism is bad. And truth be told it seems like 95% of higher education university professors are essentially low-key communists, anarchist, and would prefer that America burn to the ground.
…

Why is this important? Even Apple, Apple corporation should not be trusted; because she is in bed with me! As long as foxconn exists, as long as iPhones and Apple products are made in mainland China, Apple should almost be seen as a low-key connection to the enemy;; any time any corporation gets into bed with mainly in China pick government there etc., they should not be trusted.

And truth be told,  the reason why all publicly traded corporations are unethical is that it is their moral and ethical imperative to increase profits and potential future profits at any cost. Thus, the drive towards sensationalism with Google, anger porn, and insane news reporting to maximize advertising revenue. Don’t trust any mainstream media or news even the good ones. And don’t even trust NPR and Al Jazeera etc.; they are all bad. The left the right the middle the conservative the Republicans of the Democrats, the fake woke liberals, the small dick flag Humpers on the right Donald Trump supporters etc.; everyone is bad.

Also did you know, that our savior and Messiah Obama actually increased deportations and incarceration during his administration, more so than any other politician? Everyone is bad and evil, this is reality; let us not try to embellish anything.

Democrats are bad, libertarians are bad, Republicans are bad, conservatives moderates in their rules everyone is bad; anyone who is on the political spectrum, is bad.

Now I suppose the question is once you have acknowledged and understood that anything everyone and everything is bad; then what?

Optimistic fatalism

So my critique about the Russians and the eastern Europeans, post USSR, people from Bulgaria Hungary, the Polish the old Soviet bloc; is they are too fatalistic. Their ethos is everything is bad evil and not worth looking for so let us simply trudge through this miserable life with a minimum amount of misery, knowing that the past present and future will be bad and always remain to be bad, might even get worse.

In America, we also see a similar trend. Essentially we should consider most of the media, social media Facebook Instagram Snapchat Twitter and like to just be channels of misinformation, Sunsational for advertising revenue, Google here is the bad guys; as long as Google ad sense exists, Everything will always become hyper sensationalized, in order to boost the lagging profits of Google.

And funny enough here is where Apple is still a little bit more ethical than Google; Apple is trying to sell you iPhones, iPhone pros, and her new subscription services, at least this is more honest and transparent than Google who is trying to offer you all this great “free stuff“, but to inundate you with click baity advertisements, insanity on YouTube, and conspiracy theories.

One of my grand ideas is simple; the best strategy in life is to assume that 100% of the conspiracy theories are all false,. Even the true ones.

Why? This is much more of a optimistic positive and good approach; obviously we know everything is bad and evil and corrupt, but so what? Better to be the gleeful dark grim and humorous spartan, laughing while the enemy puts them with arrows, “fighting in the shade“, shout out to Zack Snyder the best director of all time. This movie has dictated all of my manly ethos, ever since I was a teenager in high school, when I first watched the movie 300 in theaters. Now, manliness has fallen out of Vogue; all of these guys in LA are a bunch of cowardly antisocial skinny fat weaklings, who might drive a base level Porsche or Audi; work at Google in secret, or stuck on zoom calls all day; super antisocial yet binge on ironic HBO comedies at night, make a big income but have no kids, not getting married, maybe they own some sort of wimpy rescue dog.

Is it OK to be mean?

In the area there is a scene in which one of the Greeks is beating Odysseus, and Odysseus gets pissed off, takes his scepter and starts beating him up until welts raise on his back and the Greek comrade is weeping. All the while the other Greeks in the camp are just laughing.

Laughter is divine and godlike. Even my friend Sara Lando, one of the greatest fine art photographers of all time, shout out, who studied ancient Greek, taught me that the word enthusiasm actually just literally meant a god dwelling within you; and the idea of passion was actually a bit misguided, passion  is more like passionate of the Christ, like pain and suffering is virtuous. And the reason why I think this line of thinking is so dangerous is that also, I see a lot of these modern fake ass woke liberals, especially trying to nail themselves to the cross.

Martyrdom is never worth it– anybody who is a martyr or seeks to become a martyr is secretly just trying to commit suicide with a good conscience. 

Even Jesus, my personal read is obviously Jesus wanted to keep living! But I guess he had real balls, rather than renounce his things, he decided to stick to them; if we think about Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth as a real life flesh bound human being, assuming we trip away the hocus-pocus, read the Jefferson Bible, then, we can make some progress?



Stop buying them Ricoh, start buying those iPhone Pros!

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Watch the vlog

Direct video download to vlog on why iPhone pro is future for street photography >

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Tim Cook is great!

The really really big issue here right now is supply chain issues. So this is where I am very very admiring of Tim Cook—the master of supply chain and logistics.

Problems with Ricoh, Fujifilm & these Japanese companies

So it seems the real critical issue here is supply chain issues. For example, I actually wanted to buy a new Fujifilm X100 VI, and also a new Ricoh GR III HDF… but the problem is they are all out of stock, all backordered… even if you want to buy it, you cannot.

Therefore, the critical issue here is availability. I want to buy it, I have the money for it, but I can’t buy it! Super annoying.

iPhone Pro thoughts

Looks like Apple listened to me, my idea for a “quick draw” idea… made available via the new camera control thing in the bottom right corner. It is a good idea because it makes it very very quick and easy and available to quickly quickly quickly take a picture, without delay. All those other strange touch-enabled exposure control stuff seems more like a gimmick, because it kind of looks like what a Samsung phone would do… Anyways, better than nothing. And also having it in the bottom right corner is a good idea because these damn iPhones are so big now… And also the ability to just make all of your apps sit at the bottom of your screen is an insanely great idea because most people have pretty small hands, their thumbs cannot reach all the way to the top.

NEW ERIC KIM APPLE TV+ SERIES: “Mastering the Art of Street Photography”

So I have this pitch idea for Apple TV+ (eric@erickim.com)—and the general idea is how can you use an iPhone, iPhone Pro, etc., to travel the world, be like ERIC KIM or Henri Cartier-Bresson, and make really awesome photos?

And also there would be a cool tie-in with the iPad Pro… The new M4 one… because I might be the only one I know, the only perhaps influential serious photographer on the planet who only uses an iPad Pro… I haven’t touched my laptop in about two years.

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Learn on

To read some more in-depth thoughts on this subscribe to my podcast on Apple podcast here

More podcast stuff here. 

Also you could subscribe to me for free on Spotify here.

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Full post

Also audio vlog > 

Learn more here.

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Why is this such a big deal? 

I suppose this is a big deal because iPhone 16 Pro I think is finally probably good enough to replace the RICOH GR? 

Granted the truth is in terms of image quality and workflow… The Ricoh GR III, Ricoh GR IIIx, now the HDF’s… aesthetically probably look way better, but maybe from a innovation perspective it makes more sense for us to just burn the ships behind us, and buy some thing which has an interesting double dipping ability – AI, ChatGPT as well as photography?

Still artistic photography is the future

I really thought that the iPhone commercial with the weekend was very lame.  Apple is taking the wrong direction here… Come on… Your mom is going to have zero inspiration or motivation to use the iPhone pro to shoot a commercial or to shoot cinema. Apple going to whole cinematic route with iPhone is a very bad idea. A better strategy is instead… To focus on the still photography aspect. 

For example it looks like the new update on the photo styles is actually a super smart idea. No more needing to use loser Instagram or third-party apps — and actually… When are the things which inspired me to purchase some Apple stock at least with my Roth Ira accounts ,,,was the new iOS 18 is insanely great! And hats off to the apples photos team… It looks like what Apple is trying to do here is trying to cut out Instagram from the equation… And do the more smart strategy of making Apple photos look like it’s on social media platform?

I don’t think Instagram Facebook Metais a sustainable model. Sooner or later people are going to get sick of the ads, and want to bail and jump ship. I also think the same thing will happen with Google… There’s going to be a point where everything is this going to ChatGPT everything or searchgpt everything — no more lower click bait Google and YouTube videos — nobody likes ads! Especially kids, they hate ads!

Also a funny thought… Most google employees I know… Or IT tech workers, almost all universally have ad blockers on all of their devices. And almost all of them pirate stuff on VPNs and pirate bay etc. So it is a little bit ironic that Google is trying to crack down on AdBlockers now. My better suggestion is just try to make the YouTube premium app so so good on iPhone and Google devices… That you will actually make people happy to pay the $10 a month or whatever for YouTube premium! And also googles idea to monetize the pro version of Gemini AI is good idea. 

I think about Google will certainly find very very soon, I think she already knows… Is advertising on the Internet is not a sustainable business model. Rather I think subscriptions and to pay for things is the way forward!

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Just buy it then return it?

Maybe the good idea is just buy the new iPhone Pro and return it if you don’t like it ,,,? And just test it out?

OWN YOUR CONTENT

If you live long enough, you’re going to wish you didn’t sell the rights to your content to some third-party.

Same to owning your own platform!

Create for 30 years from now!

PHOTOGRAPHY ENTREPRENEURSHIP 101: How to Become a Photography Entrepreneur >

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Create your future!

“I bought every V12 engine, wish I could take it back to the beginning” – JAY Z

Also–

Subscribe to the $20 a month ChatGPT pro,,, and experiment with the new ChatGPT o1 preview — your mind will be blown!

AI ALL THE WAY!

ERIC

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More AI thoughts here:

erickim.ai

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Forward the turbo!

EK NEWS SUPPLY >

Also whenever in doubt,

START HERE >

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Street photography isn’t just about capturing candid moments—it’s a philosophical journey that mirrors the complexities of life itself. As a philosopher with a camera, I’ve come to realize that conquering charisma in street photography is about more than technical skill; it’s about embracing a mindset that transcends the ordinary.

Embrace Existential Presence

To capture the essence of the streets, you must first be fully present. This echoes the existentialist belief that existence precedes essence. In the hustle of urban life, moments are fleeting. Being present allows you to seize these ephemeral instances that reveal deeper truths about humanity.

Actionable Insight: Practice mindfulness as you walk. Feel the ground beneath your feet, listen to the symphony of city sounds, and let your intuition guide your lens.

Overcome Fear Through Stoicism

Fear is the mind’s way of holding us back from potential greatness. Stoic philosophy teaches us to differentiate between what’s within our control and what’s not. You can’t control how people react to your camera, but you can control your intentions and actions.

Actionable Insight: Accept that discomfort is part of the process. Each time you confront your fear, you diminish its power over you.

Seek the Universal in the Particular

Hegel spoke of the universal manifesting in the particular. In street photography, a single image can reflect broader social truths. A solitary figure on a bench may symbolize isolation in modern society; a crowded marketplace might capture the chaos of urban life.

Actionable Insight: Look for scenes that resonate on multiple levels. Ask yourself what universal themes are present in the moments you capture.

Practice Minimalism

In a world overloaded with material possessions and digital noise, minimalism offers clarity. By simplifying your gear and focusing on the essentials, you free your mind to concentrate on creative expression.

Actionable Insight: Limit yourself to one camera and one lens. This constraint fosters creativity and forces you to see the world differently.

Cultivate Empathy

Empathy is the bridge that connects you to your subjects. It’s about understanding and sharing the feelings of another, a concept deeply rooted in phenomenology.

Actionable Insight: Before pressing the shutter, take a moment to connect emotionally with your subject. This connection will translate into more impactful images.

Reflect on the Impermanence of Life

Buddhist philosophy reminds us of the transient nature of existence. Street photography captures moments that will never occur again in precisely the same way. Embracing this impermanence adds depth to your work.

Actionable Insight: Let each photograph serve as a meditation on time’s fleeting passage. This perspective enriches your appreciation for each moment you capture.

Develop Your Authentic Vision

Nietzsche urged us to “become who we are.” In street photography, this means developing a style that is authentically yours, free from external influences and trends.

Actionable Insight: Spend time analyzing your work to identify patterns and preferences. Cultivate these elements to develop a signature style.

Engage in Continuous Learning

Socratic wisdom emphasizes the importance of acknowledging our own ignorance. The streets are ever-changing, and there’s always something new to learn or a perspective to explore.

Actionable Insight: Read widely—not just photography books but philosophy, literature, and art. Broadening your knowledge base will enrich your photographic vision.

Radiate Positive Energy

The energy you bring to the streets influences your interactions and, consequently, your photographs. A positive demeanor can open doors and create opportunities.

Actionable Insight: Approach each day with gratitude and enthusiasm. Your positive outlook will reflect in your work and attract charismatic moments.

Final Thoughts

Conquering charisma in street photography is a philosophical endeavor. It’s about delving deep into the human condition, confronting your fears, and expressing your authentic self through your images. By integrating philosophical principles into your practice, you not only enhance your photography but also embark on a journey of personal growth.

So grab your camera and step into the world with open eyes and an open mind. Let the philosophies of presence, courage, empathy, and authenticity guide you. The streets are rich with stories waiting to be told, and through your lens, you have the power to reveal the profound within the mundane.

Don’t just take photos—philosophize with your camera. The world is your canvas, and your vision adds meaning to the moments you capture.

Not a keyboard warrior, but a voice warrior?

The funny thing is nowadays, I never touch a keyboard. I don’t think I’ve touched a physical keyboard or any keyboard in almost about a year or two? To voice dictate everything on my iPad Pro is at least 1 trillion times faster, more accurate, and also… Now that ChatGPT has such a good voice recognition, I just talk to it all the time?

Social issue

I suppose the critical issue here is that the technology is not the issue… Rather, it is the social issue. For example, it is seen as strange or bizarre to be talking out loud to your device, and also, it is seen as strange and bizarre to not use AirPods.

Am I the only millennial I know who doesn’t even own AirPods or headphones?

Don’t be a pussy

I suppose the issue is nowadays, there is the thought police, the speech police. Or the speech or thought Nazis. The general idea is that you’re not allowed to say what is on your mind, because that makes you a bad person.

New Nazis?

apparently, The history of the German Nazi party was actually rooted in Socialism? Nazi means:

Nationalsozialistiche Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP

Or in other words, national, social German other party.

I mean think about it… Adolf Hitler was essentially a socialist. And look at what happened.

The same thing happened to Macedon, a different flavor of Socialism communism.

and also a really really big problem here… It seems that most academics, and tenured professors in higher education a lot of them are closet Marxists, anarchists, etc.

for example whenever I see Eastern European descent professors, saying or having flags that say “Fuck White Supremacy”— a strange thought or feeling.

“What does a white guy know about black lives?” – Kanye

My interventions

I think the intelligence strategy is to know assume that 99.999% of hate speech you see on the Internet or I’ll probably ChatGPT powered bots.

For example that is considered… 99.9% of real Reddit users don’t even have an account! Most Reddit readers, the real humans… Most of them are lurkers they never leave comments!

The reason why I quit Reddit maybe almost 15 years ago, is because honestly, it is a strange weird circle jerk of guys who lack any sort of higher order thinking, or manliness?

and even now… It is so easy to fake anything… I would put zero faith in it.

remember all those clever comments which got avoided 1000 times? What if the whole time those accounts were all just ChatGPT powered bots?

AI is smarter than you

playing with ChatGPT Oone, even the old one mini… It is so much smarter, more intelligent, and sound smarter than you! It is also relentless, requires no food sleep, could turn out millions of thoughts a second, and will destroy you in any sort of argument.

I’ve been thinking more critically… Honestly, in today’s world… I really think that there is almost 0 reasons to go to college. Besides meeting your life partner your soulmate, future wife.

chatGPT is so much better than your fake woke progressive underpaid graduate student trying to get their PhD, who might be on a “plant-based“ diet, or partially vegan.

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The history of the Nazi Party in Socialism Germany.

The National Socialist German Workers’ Party, commonly known as the Nazi Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP in German), was a far-right political party that played a central role in Germany’s history from its founding in the early 20th century until its dissolution at the end of World War II. Understanding the history of the Nazi Party involves exploring its origins, ideology, rise to power, governance, and eventual downfall.

Origins of the Nazi Party

Post-World War I Germany

After Germany’s defeat in World War I (1914–1918), the country faced significant political, economic, and social turmoil. The Treaty of Versailles (1919) imposed harsh reparations and territorial losses on Germany, contributing to widespread resentment among its population. This environment of instability provided fertile ground for extremist political movements.

Formation and Early Years

The Nazi Party originated from the German Workers’ Party (DAP), founded in 1919 in Munich by Anton Drexler. The party aimed to unify various nationalist, anti-communist, and anti-Semitic factions. Adolf Hitler, an aspiring politician and charismatic speaker, joined the DAP in 1919 and quickly rose to prominence.

In 1920, under Hitler’s leadership, the party was renamed the National Socialist German Workers’ Party to broaden its appeal. The new name incorporated “Socialist,” but the party’s version of socialism was distinct from Marxist or democratic socialism, focusing more on nationalism and racial purity than on class struggle or economic redistribution.

Beer Hall Putsch and Reorganization

In November 1923, the Nazi Party attempted to seize power in Munich through the Beer Hall Putsch, a failed coup inspired by Benito Mussolini’s actions in Italy. The failed putsch led to Hitler’s imprisonment, during which he authored “Mein Kampf” (“My Struggle”), outlining his ideology and plans for Germany’s future.

After his release, Hitler focused on rebuilding the party, emphasizing legal political processes to gain power. The Nazi Party began to expand its influence through propaganda, mass rallies, and by capitalizing on economic woes, particularly during the Great Depression.

Ideology of the Nazi Party

National Socialism

National Socialism, the ideology of the Nazi Party, combined elements of extreme nationalism, racial theory, anti-Semitism, anti-communism, and the desire for a totalitarian state. Despite the inclusion of “Socialist” in its name, Nazi ideology fundamentally differed from traditional socialism.

Key Components:

1. Racial Purity: Central to Nazi ideology was the belief in the superiority of the “Aryan” race and the need to purify the German population by eliminating Jews, Romani people, disabled individuals, and other groups deemed “undesirable.”
2. Lebensraum (“Living Space”): The Nazis sought to expand German territory, particularly into Eastern Europe, to provide space for the growing German population and secure resources.
3. Anti-Semitism: Jews were scapegoated for Germany’s problems, including economic hardships and the loss in World War I. This anti-Semitism was institutionalized through laws and ultimately led to the Holocaust.
4. Anti-Communism: The Nazis vehemently opposed communism and sought to eradicate communist influence within Germany and Europe.
5. Totalitarianism: The Nazi state sought complete control over all aspects of life, including the economy, education, and private life, suppressing dissent and eliminating political opposition.

National Socialism vs. Marxist Socialism

While both ideologies use the term “socialism,” their core principles are fundamentally different:

• Marxist Socialism: Focuses on class struggle, the abolition of private property in the means of production, and the establishment of a classless, stateless society.
• National Socialism: Emphasizes racial hierarchy, nationalism, and the unification of the “Aryan” race, while allowing for private property and capitalist structures, provided they align with the state’s goals.

Thus, the “socialism” in National Socialism was more about national unity and the subordination of individual interests to the state’s racial and national objectives rather than economic egalitarianism.

Rise to Power

Economic and Political Instability

The global economic crisis of the late 1920s and early 1930s severely affected Germany, leading to massive unemployment, hyperinflation, and social unrest. The Weimar Republic, Germany’s democratic government established after World War I, struggled to address these issues, losing public confidence.

Electoral Success

Exploiting public discontent, the Nazi Party employed effective propaganda, mass rallies, and promises to restore Germany’s former glory. By capitalizing on fears of communism and promoting nationalist and racist ideologies, the Nazis gained significant electoral support.

In the 1932 elections, the Nazi Party became the largest party in the Reichstag (German Parliament), securing 37% of the vote. Although they did not achieve an outright majority, political maneuvering and backroom deals led to Adolf Hitler being appointed Chancellor on January 30, 1933.

Consolidation of Power

Once in power, the Nazis swiftly moved to eliminate political opposition and establish a dictatorship:

1. Reichstag Fire (February 1933): A pivotal event that the Nazis used to justify the suspension of civil liberties and the arrest of political opponents, particularly Communists.
2. Enabling Act (March 1933): This legislation granted Hitler the authority to enact laws without parliamentary consent, effectively dismantling the Weimar Republic’s democratic structures.
3. Elimination of Political Parties: By July 1933, the Nazi Party was the only legal political party in Germany, and all other parties were banned.
4. Night of the Long Knives (June 1934): A purge that eliminated potential rivals within the Nazi Party and consolidated Hitler’s control.
5. Fuhrerprinzip: The establishment of a totalitarian leadership structure where Hitler held absolute authority.

Nazi Rule and Policies

Under Nazi rule, Germany underwent profound transformations, characterized by aggressive militarization, economic restructuring, and extensive propaganda efforts.

Economic Policies

The Nazis implemented policies aimed at reducing unemployment and revitalizing the economy:

• Public Works Projects: Initiatives like the construction of the Autobahn (highway system) provided jobs and stimulated economic activity.
• Rearmament: Significant investment in the military-industrial complex boosted employment and prepared Germany for territorial expansion.
• Autarky: Efforts to achieve economic self-sufficiency to reduce dependence on foreign imports.

Social and Cultural Policies

The Nazi regime sought to control and influence all aspects of German life:

• Education and Youth Organizations: The education system was restructured to indoctrinate Nazi ideology, and organizations like the Hitler Youth were established to mold young minds.
• Censorship and Propaganda: The Ministry of Propaganda, led by Joseph Goebbels, controlled the media, arts, and information to ensure alignment with Nazi ideals.
• Suppression of Dissent: Opposition voices were silenced through imprisonment, intimidation, and violence by organizations like the Gestapo and the SS.

Racial Policies and the Holocaust

Central to Nazi policy was the implementation of racial laws aimed at purifying the Aryan race:

• Nuremberg Laws (1935): These laws institutionalized racial discrimination, prohibiting marriages and sexual relations between Jews and non-Jewish Germans and stripping Jews of citizenship and rights.
• Kristallnacht (1938): A state-sponsored pogrom against Jews, resulting in the destruction of synagogues, businesses, and the arrest of thousands of Jews.
• The Holocaust (1941–1945): The systematic genocide of six million Jews, along with millions of others, including Romani people, disabled individuals, political dissidents, and more, through mass shootings, gas chambers, and extermination camps.

Foreign Policy and Expansion

The Nazis pursued an aggressive foreign policy aimed at expanding German territory:

• Reoccupation of the Rhineland (1936): Defying the Treaty of Versailles by remilitarizing the Rhineland.
• Anschluss (1938): The annexation of Austria into Germany.
• Munich Agreement and the Sudetenland (1938): Acquiring parts of Czechoslovakia under the guise of protecting ethnic Germans.
• Invasion of Poland (1939): Triggering World War II as Germany sought to expand its territory further.

Decline and Fall

World War II

Initially, Nazi Germany experienced significant military successes, rapidly conquering much of Europe. However, several key factors led to its downfall:

1. Failure to Defeat the Soviet Union: The invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 (Operation Barbarossa) overextended German resources and led to brutal fighting on the Eastern Front.
2. Entry of the United States: Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the U.S. joined the Allies, providing substantial military and economic support against the Axis powers.
3. Allied Bombing Campaigns: Sustained bombing devastated German cities and industrial capacity, crippling the war effort.
4. D-Day and the Western Front: The successful Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944 opened a new front against Germany, stretching its military thin.
5. Internal Struggles and Decline of Morale: As the war turned against them, resource shortages, internal dissent, and loss of public morale weakened the Nazi regime.

Collapse of the Nazi Regime

By early 1945, Allied forces were closing in on Germany from both the east and west. Adolf Hitler, recognizing the inevitable defeat, committed suicide on April 30, 1945. Shortly thereafter, Germany unconditionally surrendered on May 8, 1945, marking the end of Nazi rule.

Aftermath

• Nuremberg Trials (1945–1946): Prominent Nazi leaders were prosecuted for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other offenses.
• Denazification: Allied forces implemented programs to remove Nazi influence from German society, politics, and institutions.
• Division of Germany: Post-war Germany was divided into East and West Germany, setting the stage for the Cold War.

Legacy

The Nazi Party’s legacy is one of profound tragedy, marked by unprecedented atrocities, including the Holocaust, which resulted in the systematic murder of six million Jews and millions of others. The ideology and actions of the Nazi regime have left lasting impacts on global politics, human rights, and collective memory.

Lessons Learned

• The Dangers of Totalitarianism: The Nazi regime exemplifies how authoritarian rule can lead to widespread human rights abuses and genocide.
• Importance of Vigilance Against Extremism: Societies are reminded to remain vigilant against extremist ideologies that promote hate, racism, and intolerance.
• Human Rights Advocacy: The atrocities committed under the Nazi regime have spurred international efforts to protect human rights and prevent future genocides, such as the establishment of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Ongoing Challenges

Despite widespread condemnation, neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups continue to exist in various parts of the world, posing challenges to societies striving for equality and justice. Education, remembrance, and active opposition remain crucial in combating the resurgence of such extremist ideologies.

Conclusion

The history of the Nazi Party in Germany is a stark reminder of how economic distress, political instability, and charismatic leadership can converge to unleash devastating consequences. Understanding this history is essential to preventing the recurrence of similar extremist movements and ensuring the protection of human rights and democratic values worldwide.

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NSDAP

It appears there may be a slight confusion in the terminology. The Nazi Party was not known as the “NADAP” but rather evolved from the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP), which translates to the German Workers’ Party. Understanding the transformation from the DAP to the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), commonly known as the Nazi Party, involves examining key events, ideological shifts, and leadership changes that occurred in the early 20th century in Germany.

Origins of the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP)

Formation of the DAP

• Established in 1919: The DAP was founded in January 1919 in Munich by Anton Drexler, a metalworker and railway worker. It emerged in the aftermath of World War I, a period marked by political instability, economic hardship, and societal upheaval in Germany.
• Initial Objectives: The party aimed to unite various nationalist, anti-communist, and worker-oriented factions. It was initially a small, marginal group with limited influence.

Early Ideological Framework

• Nationalism and Anti-Semitism: From its inception, the DAP promoted strong nationalist sentiments and harbored anti-Semitic views, blaming Jews and other minorities for Germany’s problems.
• Anti-Versailles Treaty Stance: The party vehemently opposed the Treaty of Versailles, which had imposed harsh reparations and territorial losses on Germany after World War I.

Adolf Hitler’s Entry and Influence

Hitler Joins the DAP

• Joining in September 1919: Adolf Hitler, a World War I veteran and charismatic speaker, joined the DAP shortly after its formation. Initially, he was not a prominent member but quickly became one of its most influential figures.
• Impact of Hitler’s Oratory Skills: Hitler’s exceptional public speaking abilities and passionate rhetoric attracted new members and significantly increased the party’s visibility and popularity.

Transformation Under Hitler’s Leadership

• Shift Towards Radicalism: Under Hitler’s influence, the DAP began to adopt more radical nationalist and anti-Semitic positions, moving further away from its original worker-oriented focus.
• Incorporation of Paramilitary Elements: The party started to develop paramilitary wings, such as the Sturmabteilung (SA), to protect its meetings and intimidate political opponents, particularly communists.

Renaming to Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP)

The Name Change in 1920

• Rebranding for Broader Appeal: In February 1920, to broaden its appeal beyond workers and attract a wider base, the DAP was renamed the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), which translates to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party.
• Inclusion of “Socialist”: The addition of “Socialist” was strategic, aiming to attract working-class support and differentiate the party from other nationalist groups. However, it’s important to note that the Nazis’ version of socialism was distinct from Marxist socialism, focusing more on national unity and racial purity rather than class struggle and economic redistribution.

Adoption of the Swastika and Symbols

• New Symbols for Identity: In March 1920, the NSDAP adopted the swastika as its emblem, designed by Heinrich Himmler, which became a powerful and enduring symbol of the party.
• Uniform and Flags: The party also introduced standardized uniforms and flags to create a cohesive and recognizable identity during rallies and public events.

Key Events Leading to the Establishment of the Nazi Party

Drafting of the 25-Point Program

• Political Platform: In 1920, the NSDAP unveiled a 25-point program outlining its political goals, including the demand for the reversal of the Treaty of Versailles, nationalization of certain industries, and the exclusion of Jews from German citizenship.
• Blending Nationalism and Socialism: The program strategically combined nationalist and socialist elements to appeal to a broad spectrum of voters disillusioned with the Weimar Republic’s perceived failures.

The Beer Hall Putsch (1923)

• Attempted Coup: On November 8-9, 1923, Adolf Hitler and the NSDAP attempted to overthrow the Weimar Republic government in Munich through the Beer Hall Putsch. Inspired by Mussolini’s rise in Italy, the coup aimed to establish a nationalist dictatorship.
• Failure and Aftermath: The putsch failed, resulting in the deaths of 16 Nazi supporters and four police officers. Hitler was arrested and sentenced to prison, where he authored “Mein Kampf” (“My Struggle”), outlining his ideology and future plans for Germany.

Rebuilding and Legal Path to Power

• Strategic Shift: After his release from prison in 1924, Hitler shifted the NSDAP’s strategy from violent revolution to achieving power through legal political means.
• Expansion and Propaganda: The party focused on expanding its membership, improving organizational structure, and utilizing propaganda to disseminate its nationalist and anti-Semitic messages effectively.

Consolidation into the Nazi Party

Growth During the Weimar Republic

• Capitalizing on Economic Crises: The NSDAP gained significant support during the Great Depression (1929-1933), as economic hardship and unemployment eroded confidence in the Weimar government.
• Electoral Success: Through a combination of charismatic leadership, effective propaganda, and promises to restore national pride and economic stability, the Nazi Party became one of the largest parties in the Reichstag (German Parliament) by the early 1930s.

Appointment of Hitler as Chancellor

• Political Maneuvering: Despite not having an outright majority, political maneuvering and alliances with conservative elites led to Adolf Hitler being appointed Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933.
• Transition to Dictatorship: Following the Reichstag Fire in February 1933 and the subsequent Enabling Act, Hitler rapidly consolidated power, transforming the NSDAP into the sole legal political party in Germany and establishing a totalitarian regime.

Summary of the Transformation

1. Formation of the DAP (1919): Established as a nationalist and anti-communist workers’ party.
2. Hitler’s Influence: Adolf Hitler joins and leads the DAP, pushing it towards more radical nationalist and anti-Semitic ideologies.
3. Renaming to NSDAP (1920): The party is rebranded to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party to broaden its appeal.
4. Adoption of Symbols and Platform: Introduction of the swastika and the 25-point program to define the party’s political agenda.
5. Beer Hall Putsch (1923): An unsuccessful coup attempt that led to Hitler’s imprisonment and the subsequent strategic shift towards legal political methods.
6. Rebuilding and Expansion: Post-1924, the NSDAP focuses on organizational growth, propaganda, and exploiting economic hardships to gain support.
7. Rise to Power (1933): Hitler is appointed Chancellor, and through political maneuvering and suppression of opposition, the NSDAP establishes a totalitarian Nazi regime.

Conclusion

The transformation from the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP) to the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), or Nazi Party, was a gradual process driven by strategic leadership, ideological shifts, and the ability to exploit socio-political conditions in post-World War I Germany. Adolf Hitler’s charismatic leadership and the party’s adept use of propaganda and organizational tactics were pivotal in evolving a small, fringe group into the dominant political force that ultimately led Germany into one of its darkest periods.

Make a new iPhone, or create the iOS in it which encourages you to spend less time on it!

What Do You Really Care For?

The best way to live your life and carry it out is to do only what you care for, and to not do anything you don’t care for. This is the whole notion of care and curate… coeur; heart.

Maybe then the whole notion of following your heart is actually good advice!

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There is no such thing as “planned obsolescence”

So one idea that these fake woke “thinkers“ like to push is this nonsensical idea of “planned obsolescence.” The basic idea is that Apple is some sort of ultra-evil corporation that tries to get you addicted to their iPhone devices, like nicotine or cigarettes, and intentionally stunts the performance of older devices, strong-arming you into upgrading your device because they intentionally slow down the older ones.

The reason why this is such a fallacy, a poor line of thinking, is that these skinny-fat losers who write about this are really just old, fat, with facial hair, no children… Maybe they have a dog. They want to come up with these supposedly high-concept intelligentsia thoughts, all critical of technology, while they’re jerking off to the nearest Apple rumor and fantasizing about the new iPhone Pro.

The truth of the matter is, there’s no such thing as planned obsolescence. Rather, Apple has an interesting strategy—her team of ragtag innovators are always striving to make the best iOS possible. Why? There’s a little bit of skin in the game… My theory is that Apple made the whole new focus feature because they themselves are addicted to their iPhones and have a vested interest in making a new generation of iPhone or iOS that makes them less distracted and less miserable in their everyday lives.

The next big innovation?

Also… unfortunately, it looks like 90% of modern-day work is just answering and sending emails for a living. As a consequence, it seems that Apple is trying to build out Apple Intelligence to make email less dreadful and less hateful.

In fact, I think there is still so much innovation that could be done in email. My personal vision is that your ChatGPT AI bot can simply do something very, very amazing… answer all of your emails for you without asking any questions. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

In fact, I see this as at least a $500 million opportunity… Eliminating email from people’s lives seems like the killer idea!

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Sustain

Another thing that is super annoying to me is all these skinny-fat vegan losers talking about sustainability and the environment, etc. I think what is actually much more interesting is to think about and consider things that are sustainable in a more practical and pragmatic sense.

For example, sustainability should not be seen as this virtue-signaling thing. Instead, sustainability should be considered more from a perspective of pragmatism and practicality.

For example, vehicles. From a personal pragmatic perspective… the most sustainable option is actually driving a Prius. Ideally, just buying a used older Prius—the 2010 version is lit. Real men with big penises drive Priuses, only skinny-fat losers drive Porsches or Teslas.

One of the great things about modular designs, like in a Prius, is that if your engine goes kaput, you can just swap out the engine! Prius engines are a dime a dozen… In theory, you should be able to drive a Prius until you die.

Also, the virtues of driving a Prius are longevity, durability, and it’s for the ultra-hardcore. Not only that… it is the ultimate stealth car. The funny thought is, if you had to rob a bank in Los Angeles, what would be the ideal getaway car? A white Prius! Can you imagine the CHP or LAPD saying, “What car did the guy get away in?” and someone replies, “A white unmarked Prius!” Haha!

Anyways, when MPG is so clutch… When you have to pick up your wife in the middle of the night and you don’t remember if you filled the gas tank or not. But the great thing about living in Los Angeles is that you’ll never drive more than 5 miles a day. Five miles in LA traffic is still about 30 minutes. Therefore, it’s a virtue—you only have to fill up your tank once a month, for maybe about 30 bucks. I think this is almost similar to the price of a Tesla supercharger, which is maybe $10 to recharge your full battery?

And also, the virtue of driving a Prius is that because it’s an old, proven line, it won’t get outdated at all. The problem with any sort of Tesla is that you know that within 10 years, there will be a major redesign or refresh. Even now… I’m pretty sure a major redesign for the Tesla Model S, Y, and X is incoming—just like the new Tesla Model 3… 1 trillion times cooler than the previous generation. I feel bad for all those suckers who bought the older version. Even at the Culver City Toyota dealership, I see all these people who traded in their old Tesla Model 3 Performance just one or two years ago… I assume they bought the new version.

How people are foolish with money

One thing I’ve discovered is that a lot of people, or most people… didn’t grow up poor. Now that I am essentially in elite circles, now that Cindy is a professor and in scholarly circles, and everyone I know is a successful entrepreneur or Apple employee, most people came from money. Most of their parents have PhDs or doctorates, are doctors, etc. Even this one guy I met who is very successful, Justin Atlan—apparently his family has been in Los Angeles for three or four generations? He came from pretty modest beginnings, but he still grew up in the Palisades, which is considered a very elite neighborhood in Los Angeles. Certainly, if you grew up in the Palisades, Malibu, etc.… your family is not dirt poor.

Came from the mud

First to put the hood on a jet! First to put the hood on molly – Future the rapper

The reason why fake rappers like Drake will never get my respect is because they did not come from the hood, the bottom, or the mud. I think Drake is insanely talented and great, but he lacks authenticity. And it seems that the future is going to be all about authenticity. Even if you’re a bad person, immoral, dishonest, etc.

Why ERIC KIM?

I think the reason why I like and trust myself so much is that you cannot fake yourself… You know with 100% precision all the details of your life, etc.… Whereas when it comes to other people… you never know what skeletons they have in their closet.

And also… the critical issue here is that a lot of people, when you never meet them in the flesh, face-to-face, mano a mano, they just become figments of your imagination, and they become more metaphors than real-life individuals.

For example, I love Kanye West to death, but my problem and critique is he is a short guy. I think he might really be 5’6″ because personalities and famous people always overexaggerate their height by an inch or two. I think Kanye self-reports as being 5’7″ or 5’8″, but this is probably not the case. And I think Kim Kardashian is only 5 feet tall? She’s kind of a midget with big breasts and a big butt.

And now that I’ve been spending so much time outside, outdoors, walking around, etc.… the interesting thing is that we human beings actually have a very good height perception. You can spot people from half a block away and quickly gauge how tall they are, or how small and short they are. And I think ultimately, this is why guys like supermodels… they are all super tall, which is one of the highest markers or indicators of beauty. If you see a 5’11 or 6′ tall model in the flesh, it is actually really shocking. Their height adds to their beauty and mystique. The same thing goes with meeting really tall, handsome guys—they are almost like a different species. Let us note that the average man in America might only be 5’6″ tall, and the average woman might only be 5’2″?

I’ve met a lot of successful people, a lot of really successful men who work at Apple and stuff… and they are really small, almost looking like middle schoolers, like 5’5″ or 5’4″.

And the reason people hate me so much is because I’m tall, handsome, and good-looking. I think guys also hate me because I am such an insanely confident, charismatic person, who also happens to be Asian, Asian American, Korean American…

And now at the age of 36… this is the most jacked, handsome, and dominant I have been in my life. I can easily say I’m the most attractive man in Culver City right now. Maybe in all of LA?

In fact, if Marvel comes out with a new superhero movie and they need to cast an Asian guy, maybe they should just cast Eric Kim, eric@erickim.com—holla at ya boy.

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Why does this matter?

We are all trying to chase the same things, but in different ways, using different strategies, etc. We all want the beautiful babes, we all want recognition and authenticity, we all want acknowledgment. We all want to feel valued, whether man, woman, or dog.

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Why is luxury coffee not yet a thing?

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If Steve Jobs were still alive today… What would he think of Apple?

OK… because I am the second Steve Jobs, the next Steve Jobs in the flesh… If Steve Jobs were 36 years old and alive today… this is what he would think of Apple, and this is what he would say:

First, he would call the new devices a piece of shit, and say they fucking suck. He would critique the design, the devices, Apple TV, everything.

Make the iPhone great again

The problem with Apple now is there’s too much fragmentation. Apple is trying to be everything, everywhere at once. But as we learn from Alexander the Great… to overextend yourself will always be a bad plan for an empire. The empires that are best and last are the ones that stay situated in one very critical spot and dominate that one small industry, rather than trying to become the Walmart of everything.

For example… the number one thing Apple needs to do is really make the iPhone desirable again. The new iPhone is lackluster. Nobody cares, nobody wants it, nobody even knows it exists. This is bad… I doubt you’ll be seeing lines outside the Apple store anytime soon.

The true critical innovation

Suggestion to Apple… ironically, you want to take a via negativa approach… Introduce a new iPhone that actually encourages you to spend less time on it.

Does it matter if you predict the future? It seems that the holy grail is that we desire to predict the future for the sake of some sort of financial gain. For example, I recall the time in which I was watching Back to the Future, and Marty McFly goes back to the past to predict the future and become super rich. But for the sake of what?

What if you could be 100% right?

So it seems that to some extent… We can easily predict the future. There are certain straightforward macro trends, which seem pretty obvious to me.

For example… It seems that post Covid… Everything is different. Everything is brand new, everything is a totally brave New World.

The other day I was watching a bit of an interview with Mark Beinoff, the CEO and founder of salesforce with the founder and CEO of Nvidia.  it was really funny, obviously now with the valuation of $2 trillion, Nvidia is the big dick in the room. 

Jensen Huang

Anthony, the new big AI dick in the room. It’s really funny when I was watching that interview conversation between him and Mark… Obviously Jensen is way smaller and shorter than Mark, and also appears to be older. But Mark is really really big tall and very very fat… Like I was shocked, Mark wearing all black, like a satin sparkly shirt, HUUUGE beer belly.  as a random aside, pretty bad but I guess I am a very judgmental person, seeing Mark so fat, and so out of shape… Makes me see him as less, because if you’re that rich and successful and powerful, and you’re that fat, and out of shape… It  might be a sign of moral degeneracy.

Anyways in the conversation, Jensen looks super gangsta, so full of pride and strength and vigor.  And also… You could see that Jensen was the new big dick in the room. Despite his smaller statue in size, and also his age… Jensen is now 61 years old, but he says he’s just getting started, he is still young.

Anyways, one thing that is interesting to me about Nvidia is how they have been around since I was a kid. I still remember when I was playing kind of 1.6, building my own computers, the goal was to have the top-of-the-line GeForce graphics card, I remember my rich friend Justin Wong,  he had it… And he was able to max out his frame rates, whereas I, with my hand built my own computer… I had a lower end graphics card a lower and GeForce, I was not able to squeeze out as many FPS as you did. And the thing that was actually very very unfair when it came to video games was he who had more frame rates, actually had a real tactical advantage. If you had faster frame rates, you could play better, because having a small edge in terms of a faster frame rate allow you to react quicker, and be able to spot the counter parties quicker, not be subjected to lag, in order to be more lethal. 

Real advantages vs fake advantages? 

It seems in today’s world, everyone is always trying to seek an edge. We want a little bit better information more information quicker information etc., in order to predict the future.

Why? The general idea is that if you could predict the future, then, you could make a lot of money.

What am I? 

For example, there are a lot of different categories you could  classify yourself as… Trader, day trader,  investor, speculator, etc. and some new terminology I got from Michael Saylor,  like Maxi, double maxi, triple maxi — maxi meaning Maximalist. 

For a while, when people ask me what I did… I would just say bitcoin and cryptocurrency speculator.  I like to use the notion speculator because everyone sees bitcoin and cryptocurrency with a suspicious eye… And by saying that I was a speculator, it was made more legible to the average person because it’s signal to them that in fact even I was skeptical of the whole thing, speculative, but at least the difference was I was 100% invested in bitcoin, all in, balls to the wall.

Also, I put some traditional money into microstrategy, – which has fortunately gone up since I bought it! And so now, maybe I just think of myself like a money manager, because I am managing the money and finances of the family, my money, Cindy‘s money, our own personal family war chest, and also my mom‘s money. Cindy is 100% full-time focused on her scholarship and academia, and because I have the privilege of being self-employed, my new focus in my current focus is towards money management and growth. Maybe I should think of myself like my own hedge fund manager, ERIC KIM hedge, ERIC KIM hedge fund.

Investing strategies 

Currently the two and only sexy companies on the traditional markets include microstrategy and nvidia. Michael Saylor is great, I’ve literally watched hundreds of hours of interviews with him, the more I watch him and learn from him the more I like him.

Jensen Huang is also very intelligent… also, he’s been in the game for over 30 years, he’s legit. 

But besides this, besides micro strategy and Nvidia… All the other ones suck. We accidentally had some Apple stock in our portfolio and I immediately sold it. I also sold Google. 

Problems:

1. Are you certain that the iPhone 55 Pro will be any good? Probably not. I like the new iOS, but still… It’s starting to become more and more weird like kind of a water down android. And also the new iPhone just came out the new iPhone Pro, and nobody wants it. Bad news.
2. Google is just moving sideways, I think it’s good that Sundar is all in for AI, but I think the big issue is that Google is dealing with a huge problem about information, notably the veracity of information. I am still shocked… Gmail with all the advanced AI features, why does Gmail still not know or why can it still not spot a Nigerian scammer? Shouldn’t be able to intelligently filter out Nigerian scammers from a random Gmail account asking you for money?

The future?

For a minute, with my Roth IRA,  I went all in on Tesla. But more recently I sold all of it and just bought micro strategy instead. Why?

This issue with Tesla, is it is still too dependent on physics. You have to deal with the physics of producing batteries cars and factories, and shipping them to customers. And also, the laws of physics are brutal… Even though cyber truck is the best thing invented of all time, This issue was there so many physics issues at play.

First, physics is very hard. To create a new process in which you are called rolling steel… I don’t think people understand or appreciate how difficult this is in terms of material sciences. And to produce cyber trucks fast enough, even if you injected Tesla with another hundred trillion dollars, the progress would be slow. Why? It is just very hard! And you have to create new robots and infrastructure and supply chains to make it possible. Just think, do you remember during Covid when it was so difficult to get weightlifting equipment? Imagine like that but on steroids.


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Never buy a home

What if you were in a position in which you never desired to own a home? To buy a home or manage it?

Funny in the Iliad, … when Achilles is taunting Aenaes, he mentioned the issue that even if Aenaes kills Achilles, and is granted all of this wealth in terms of house home property… That Aenaes would not be able to even manage it. Even if he won it.

I cannot fix the hinge

Another super insanely annoying thing at my apartment which is super super nice, the issue is that beneath our kitchen sink, in which we store our instant pot, the hook latch hinge thing has broken off a bit, so every time I close it, I have to force wedge it up, to just close it. And it is so insanely annoying to me, every single time I do it. I have tried to fix it several times, but have given up in vain. Maybe I should just get rid of the covering, but then again that is ugly.

So a thought and a reminder to myself,… if it has been almost a year and have not been able to fix this super tiny hinge in my apartment, it is probably a signal that I am not fit for home management. Even the other day, walking by this new Orama minimal frames business,  and seeing this really really nice picture of this super nice home, overlooking a cliff or whatever in all glass, with these huge floors, I thought to myself:

Who is going to vacuum this?

Probably the best recent investment Cindy and I made was buying a brand new Dyson vacuum, for about 500 bucks, which actually has an on and off button, and this hardwood floor attachment thing which has this laser green LED light, which helps me spot dust on our hardwood bamboo floors, which makes it very easy to clean up!

And every single day, I vacuum the floors of our entire apartment, which is actually pretty modest in size,  and still… I am shocked that every single day, just literally in 24 hours, so much dust can settle on the floors? And I was thinking… Assuming that I do all the labor myself, just cleaning the floors, vacuuming the floors is so difficult for just a two bedroom one bath apartment, I cannot imagine the nightmare of having to managing clean a huge home or property? alone if you’re washer and dryer breaks, figure out how to deal with that and annoying day laborers and day contractors? 

#rentforever squad

What does assume that you are Elon Musk, actually, you would probably not want to own any property to yourself, because you’re too busy building rocket ships and going to Mars, you don’t want to deal with the annoyance of having to just maintain your property.

Well a lot of fools don’t understand is they say, oh “if you’re super rich, then you could just have maids and house managers do all the dirty work for you“. But actually, this is not true. The prime issue here is that even if you have a home manager and a house cleaner… Do you still need to manage your manager! And this is more labor and annoyance for you.

Even spending some time living in Vietnam and Cambodia, actually, the funny truth is to just clean your place yourself is actually far easier than having someone else do it for you. Why? The big issue here is that you’re essentially sitting on your butt twiddling your thumbs  until the day that your cleaner finally comes in. And not only that, the annoyance is that you have to evacuate and vacate your premises while they are cleaning, not to get in your way. That is super annoying because it adds a little bit more friction and complication to your life, having to just plan your life around your cleaner.

When we are living in Hanoi and we had Trang, who was essentially almost a live-in cleaner, who did all of her laundry and folded it for us, and even washed the dishes, the annoyance was she insisted that we didn’t do the dishes, and that she would do it for us, but after we would cook and the dishes were just to lie all greasy in the sink, I just thought to myself “this is unsightly, I would just prefer to clean it up myself!”

Anyways, the simplest life is best. The great virtues and simplicity of just renting a modestly sized apartment, and just cleaning yourself. 

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More luxury, more headaches

True luxury should be simplicity. Not more labor! 



What Are Your Life Goals?

Tell me your goals, what your life goals are and I will tell you who you are.

Sometimes useful

So there is a double edged sword of goals, life goals etc. The problems here is that you could hit and achieve all of your life goals, and once that you have achieved them… truth be told it is pretty anti-climactic. For example, even my insanely audacious goal of lifting 1000 pounds, I was very very happy and pleased with it… but once again, at least to me it felt like another day at the gym. To me the difference between lifting 995 pounds, and 1000 pounds, was just a number in my mind. 

Becoming a millionaire and before becoming a millionaire didn’t change much to my mindset – Steve Jobs

Funny thought… Numbers and round numbers, there’s this weird psychology behind it.

Example, I’m currently eyeing on purchasing some new weights because I’m maxed up my current set up. Yet for me… To pay $550 or $560 seems like too much… But to pay sub $500, like $450, or $490 seems much more palatable.

$999 iPhone Pro

This is why… To charge $999, at least for the sticker price on an iPhone pro is insanely intelligent because once you break the thousand dollar mark, in the mind of people… It is almost too much. Also then intelligence of Elon… To essentially make the model 3 and Y, at least the sticker price is $29,999 a dollar under the $30,000 mark is genius. I think one of the things that I learned is that we humans are funny… We are often suckered by these superficial number differences.

Think kilograms

How to exceed yourself

A big innovation I discovered while in Cambodia Asia when lifting there… Is everyone uses kilograms, not pounds. And this was the impetus to help me break beyond my mental barriers, at least when it came to traditional pounds and weights.

For example, the traditional American plate is 45 pounds… But when it comes to kilograms, the red plate is 25 kg, which is more close to about 52 pounds.

As a consequence… as an American weightlifters or powerlifters, we typically see the deadlift, in which the traditional marker of strength is being able to do at least a “four plate deadlift”, which is 405 pounds in total. Yet if you took the metric kilogram approach… four plates, assuming that it was in 25 kg increments, would technically be a lot more.

Steel over iron?

Steelman not Ironman?

The man of steel (Superman)

This is where steel is better than iron… steel is more expensive, but should last a lot longer than iron. And this is where I think buying calibrated steel weightlifting plates is a good idea… In theory if you keep good condition of it, you should be able to hand it down to your Kids.

And this is where things become fun… now that you have a son, or at least I do… life is so insanely great because I’m so excited the day that I get going to weightlifting, and I could hand down my legendary Texas power squat bar to him, and also he will inherit all my weight lifting equipment and plates etc.

Think about your kids kids kids

I think this is the reason why it is difficult for people who have never had a kid or child to imagine the future. Why? If you are the typical single millennial, or let us say if you have a dog or whatever…  it is actually very difficult to think about the future. Why why? Your life strategy becomes about hedonism maximization, which is in the context of eating good sushi, traveling to Japan, etc. But like Cindy famously said… You can only go to burning man so many times. And also, you can only go to Japan so many times, and eat good or omakase sushi so many times before it loses its appeal. 

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So now what?

Simply jot it down, or blog it — or think about it. Dictate what you care for, and strive with all your might towards that goal!

ERIC

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Explore more:

PHILOSOPHY BY KIM >

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Tell me your goals, what your life goals are and I will tell you who you are.

So there is a double edged sword of goals, life goals etc. The problems here is that you could hit and achieve all of your life goals, and once that you have achieved them… Truth be told it is pretty anti-climactic. For example, even my insanely audition goal of lifting 1000 pounds, I was very very happy and pleased with it… But once again, at least to me it felt like another day at the gym. To me the difference between lifting 995 pounds, and 1000 pounds, was just a number in my mind. 

Funny thought… Numbers and round numbers, there’s this weird psychology behind it.

Example, I’m currently eyeing on purchasing some new weights because I’m maxed up my current set up. Yet for me… To pay 550 or $560 seems like too much… But to pay 500, like 450, or 490 seems much more palatable.

This is why… To charge $999, at least for the sticker price on an iPhone pro is insanely intelligent because once you break the thousand dollar mark, in the mind of people… It is almost too much. Also then intelligence of Elon… To essentially make the model 3 and Y, at least the sticker price is $29,999 a dollar under the $30,000 mark is genius. I think one of the things that I learned is that we humans are funny… We are often sucker by these superficial number differences.

Think kilograms

A big innovation I discovered while in Cambodia Asia we lifting there… Is everyone uses kilograms, not pounds. And this was the impetus to help me break beyond my mental barriers, at least when it came to traditional pounds and weights.

For example, the traditional American plate is 45 pounds… But when it comes to kilograms, the red plate is 25 kg, which is more close to about 52 pounds.

As a consequence… As an American weightlifter or powerlifters, let us see the deadlift, in which the traditional marker of strength is being able to do at least a four plate to dead lift, which is 405 pounds in total. Yet if you took the metric kilogram approach… Four plates, assuming that it was in 25 kg increments, would technically be a lot more.

Steel over iron?

This is where steel is better than iron… Steel is more expensive, but should last a lot longer than iron. And this is where I think buying calibrated steel weightlifting plates is a good idea… In theory if you keep good condition of it, you should be able to hand it down to your Kids.

And this is where things become fun… now that you have a son, or at least I do… Life is so insanely great because I’m so excited the day that I get going to weightlifting, and I could hand down my legendary Texas power squat bar to him, and also he will inherit all my weight lifting equipment and plates etc.

Think about your kids kids kids

I think this is the reason why it is difficult for people who have never had a kid or child to imagine the future. Why? If you are the typical single millennial, or let us say if you have a dog or whatever…  it is actually very difficult to think about the future. Why why? Your life strategy becomes about hedonism maximization, which is in the context of eating good sushi, traveling to Japan, etc. But like Cindy famously said… You can only go to burning man so many times. And also, you can only go to Japan so many times, and eat good or omakase sushi so many times before it loses its appeal. 

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Just learned this morning that aggression means to walk towards. Or to attack.

So… Some bizarre inconsistencies here.

First, these women honking at you from behind, atop their armored vehicles, these tank-like Mercedes-Benz AMG G wagons, or some sort of high-powered BMW or Mercedes SUV.

The first problem here is that a woman, assuming that you’re a formidable man, would never ever ever bark at you in real life, face-to-face.

Typically, women are much smaller and weaker than men. If you stand next to the average woman face-to-face, assuming that you’re 6 foot tall, a weightlifter, and she is maybe the average 5 foot two, maybe 5 foot five, even on the tall end, 5 foot eight… She will be no match for you.

Issues with vehicles

I could say I’m typically much happier, walking in on the streets, rather than driving or in a vehicle. Why?

The first primary issue of vehicles is that any midget in a lifted F150 raptor can try to bully you. And this goes with almost any single car out there… I do find a low-key experience on the road… because I have a white Prius in LA– people try to bully bully with their pussy vehicles?

You cannot add inches to your height or frame, but you can lift your truck. 

Another bad thing I have observed, more in Orange County… Being on the road, even the fast Lane, I am driving 80 mph, which is technically above the speed limit, and I am in the fast lane, and then these losers in these lifted trucks, are tailgating me super hard from behind… Trying to go 120 mph or something… Will try to punk me by tailgating me, highbeaming me, honking at me, or trying to cut me off?

 The first issue here is that I think the mentality of a bully is that we get a small power boost joy from honking around and bullying other people. And this is where a lot of modern day society is bad because assuming you’re living somewhere in which everyone is stuck in vehicles all day… It is actually very dehumanizing. it is difficult to know whether somebody else has a toddler in the back, or who knows, their parents are in the hospital whatever.

And also… Something else I discovered a big issue is that a lot of people have vehicles with limo tints. As a consequence, you cannot make eye to eye contact with them, and they tried to hide behind their vehicles, acting like assholes, trying to shield themselves from any sort of social repercussions.

Once again, the critical issue here is that if somebody’s behind you, and you are in a car… And they start honking at you or hiding you or whatever… There is technically nothing you could do to fight back. Unless you have a high powered horn mounted on the trunk of your car, facing reverse, or even better yet, some sort of high-powered LED light bar on the back of your car, shining reverse.

I prefer the minimalist approach, so I probably wouldn’t bother and waste my time installing all this actual equipment on my car, but if I did… That would be a simple solution: install one of those “HELLA” I heard horns on the back of your car, facing backwards, so if some asshole tries to honk at you or pull you around… You can fight back.

I also think that is the ethos of mafia dons, they never ever ever sit at a restaurant with their back turned. and also, this is ultimately something I discovered about people who parked their automobile cars backwards… It is more of a stunt because the front of your car is almost like the front of your face, and the rear of your car is almost like your butt. Or your back. As a consequence… If you park in reverse, and have the front facing outward… You are technically in a more dominant position.

Your testosterone levels and your vehicle? 

Buying a searching car won’t make your dick size bigger, nor will it increase your testosterone. The only way to increase your testosterone is through intermittent fasting, 100% carnivore diet… Or better yet, try experimenting with 100% or meat diet. Beef liver, beef heart, beef lungs, beef kidney, beef tongue etc.  Pro tip, if you ever go to an LED Korean barbecue restaurant, make sure you max out on the Oregon meats, the beef tongue, the beef liver, the beef intestines, etc. These are just natural steroids for you.

 Once again, if I could tell you  with 100% veracity, 100% truth, 100% logical in scientific fact that consuming more beef liver, which is the most prized of all organ meats, especially for wolves and carnivores…  would actually boost your testosterone by 1000 X, naturally… Which would make you sleep better, feel better, wake up brighter and with more energy and with more vigor, make your muscles bigger and more jacked and more wool, reduce your body fat percentage, increase your attractiveness to beautiful women, make you more confident around beautiful women and men… Wouldn’t you do it?

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Everybody lacks confidence

OK, unveiling some truths here. Most guys are wimpy.

I’ll get some examples… Count to what you see in the NFL, professional sports etc.… Most guys are actually pretty short, wimpy, chicken legs etc. Even the bodybuilders are quite wimpy. And also a lot of them are actually very short, maybe 5 foot six, 5 foot seven?

Not only that, but in Hollywood, all these guys is here on the big screen… First of all they are mostly on steroids and the juice, and most of them in real life actually don’t really have big legs. You’ll never see a Chris Hemsworth or a Henry Cavill lifting 1000 pounds on the squat rack like Eric Kim — so this is where I feel grand; I don’t even think Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime could’ve done it, maybe Ronnie Coleman would have been able to do it… I don’t think John Cena, Vin Diesel, even Rambo could’ve done it.

ERIC KIM IS THE NEW GOAT?

Human disruption

OK, the biggest issue here is that all these Tech nerds try to disrupt in terms of technology. But how many of them try to disrupt in terms of the human body?

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Commoditized aggression

Once again, some bizarre things.

First, aggression, battle, the lust for blood and war, I think is natural for human beings. Especially men. Perhaps only men?

How does this get commoditized? Through video games, through American football, sports, movies, UFC MMA etc. 

Outsourcing your manliness?

Once again, to any low testosterone man, who is watching American baseball or sports or whatever… What is really happening here? I have a theory… Essentially you’re outsourcing or crowdsourcing your testosterone. Which means:

As I see other manly men, doing high-powered manly things on the field, I myself feel a surge of testosterone and manliness? 

VR POV porn?

Come on… If you’re going to drop $3700 on an apple Vision Pro, most likely you’re a guy or a man… And I can almost guarantee you… If you’ve done it or not or probably curious, to try out virtual reality point of view porn.

Apparently there’s also this movie called hardcore Henry that my friend Alexander Morgan told me, which is also shot, all POV, point of view. 

So when it comes to video games, like shooting games, counterstrike call of duty etc.… Note it is always done from your own POV. And I still will never ever ever forget the first time I saw that Nike POV commercial, shot from the perspective of the pro aspiring pro football player… How gangsta it was.

Even when I think about my most viral videos on YouTube… They were all my POV videos, especially the street photography POV videos. Why? I think for a lot of bystanders, or sideline observers, everyone is curious about how it actually looks like to do street photography, in the flesh. This is maybe having some sort of GoPro mounted to your chest, and just showing people the behind-the-scenes street photography, how is done, how the sausage is being made, is good. 

Because ultimately, we want to feel like we are in the driver seat. For example, when you see the guy driving the Lamborghini, what you visualize in your mind is you yourself sitting in the Lamborghini, being the driver, being the active driver! We could care less about the other guy, we care more about the car, and Fantasize about ourselves being the front line driver.

Also, I think the whole appeal of point of view, virtual reality porn is that once again, you’re able to bang all these beautiful babes, while having you as the hero, the point person?

Character building & development

And also let us consider, if you’re playing Diablo or some sort of video game, your building your own character, and that character is you! Diablo unlike maybe Final Fantasy or something, is unique because you’re only building one solo character, not a whole squadron. 

Your own body is the ultimate platform

My thought is the reason why we have such a contentious relationship with our human body is because most of us are raised to abnegate the body. Almost all religions, schools of thought.

Even in Confucian, east Asian culture… It is all about the virtues of the mind, and scholarly education… Not bodily. This is why you don’t see that many Asian guys in the NFL or the NBA… They are probably being forced by their parents to practice piano or study math at Kumon, rather than pursue professional sports. 

Also… A simple thought… Haven’t you noticed that there are zero women in the NFL or in professional American football? Even if you gave the woman all the steroids in the world?

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Some thoughts this morning: specifically, about art. 

This past weekend, just did a quick trip down to San Diego, La Jolla, and had the insane privilege of staying by a beachfront hotel, La Jolla Shores highly recommended, and the first thing I did in the morning was just drink a cuppa coffee in the little kitchenette, and then went on a walk on the beach.

The funny thing about growing up in the bay areas that we don’t have any beaches… Even in Alameda where our group as a kid, the beach was disgusting and super dirty. As a consequence, I never owned a pair of flip-flops in my life, and I think I only started wearing shorts about two years ago, at the age of 34? Now living in Los Angeles, where the weather is good.

Anyways, at this strange version that I don’t like to dip my toes into the sand, because the feeling of sand in between my toes is unfamiliar and I don’t really like it. But I said F it…  if Cindy showed out the big bucks to get the shorefeont hotel, it is only right to milk activities of walking on the beach, specifically, dipping my toes into the ocean.

So I took off my vibram 5 finger shoes, and just proceeded to walk along the beach, dipping my legs and feet into the warm ocean water, which I was very surprised… It felt like a lovely 72° in the water, almost as nice if not nicer than Hawaii.

Looking into the ocean, was pretty astounding. The feeling was great because if you look into the ocean, it goes on forever. To infinity and beyond.

And some meditations that I had about the ocean and water was that no matter what, the ocean is instantly tireless. It keeps on waving, crashing and waving, due to the earths pull of gravity, maybe the moon in the solar system whatever,  day in and day out. Even in someways it is more virtuous than the sun, which sets at night.

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All art everything

Almost everything can be understood in the context of art. Music as art for our ears, cinema at least the good ones, as art for our eyes, and bodybuilding as an art form for the human body, assuming that you’re not taking steroids, and even in someways… Weightlifting powerlifting uplifting at the gym whatever… Should be seen as performance, performance arts! Why? I think I am probably the most entertaining person in the flesh, because I’m the only entertainer who doesn’t drink alcohol smoke weed or do drugs… Also fast all day, and also lift over 1000 pounds, could lift easily lift over 10 plates at the gym. 

Also, am I the only one I know who doesn’t use email? Certainly I’m probably the only millennial that I know, also Cindy… Who is not on Instagram or social media. Even today I saw Cindy‘s mom installed TikTok on her phone and she is almost 70 years old.

Anyways, the reason why I think this is so important is that everything is art. Even my friend Brandon Phan is currently building an art car, which is like an old-school BMW, with a modern day M3 engine. He is doing all the work himself.

Anyways the reason why I feel all this is interesting, even Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein did these art car projects. And if you really really think about super super rich people… sooner or later they just get into art. Is it because they have nothing else to spend their money on? Or are they bored? Or are they seeking beauty, beyond themselves?

Old & beauty

It seems the strange trade off we do is a bit bizarre; we trade our health, our well-being, ultimately for more and more money, only to become old, impotent, solely catching dementia, Alzheimer’s, which is type three diabetes, a lifestyle issue, and on top of all that… Trying to still experience beauty, but through material things and objects.

For example, one thing I always love to do as a deep curiosity is whenever I see people driving certain cars, my number one interest in curiosity, is always driving up, or walking close, and peering into the driver seat, to see who is driving the car.

Tell me what you drive, and I will tell you who you are.

 And also, I find this really fascinating living in Los Angeles because in LA, you are your car, and your car is you. And this is where people are superficial, fake, and inauthentic…  if you were truly wise, you would just drive a Toyota Prius, which is the best car made of all time. Specifically the 2010 model… The new new Prius is also very cool, I just saw one in Culver City with a Matt Black wrap on it, and I thought it was super gangsta.… Yet,  always 100% the issue of purchasing any brand new automobile car is that you’re probably going to take a 30 to 40% haircut on it, the first three years to four years of the car. The second you drive it off the lot, you’re probably taking a 15% to 20% haircut on it as well. and I’m starting to think more and more… Am I the only one who could think about money wisely, not foolishly?

Economic wisdom

Once again, don’t trust any economist who doesn’t drive a Toyota Prius.  

The virtues of the Toyota Prius–

First, longevity. The 2010 model, I am still so shocked… It is the year 2024, and the car has held up so insanely well! Both in terms of style, design, and the overall ethos of it.

Even a critique on the new 2023 Prius model — the new new Prius, the one that looks like a Porsche 911 from behind, the primary issue here is the rear doorhandles, which is integrated into the rearview mirror, is unpainted, this really really ugly black plastic, insanely cheap looking… And even it is so bad that Prius drivers have to put sticker in the back tell me Uber customers where to pull the doorhandle, because the average human being has no idea how to open up the rear doorhandles. Very very bad design choice from Toyota, because they should have not compromised here: why would they shave off the doorhandles on the back, but keep them on the front? They should have gotten all or nothing; keep all the doorhandles normal, which might have been the better idea for a Prius because most Prius drivers are also Uber drivers, or they should’ve just went full tilt  and shaved off all of the doorhandles, to make it super super flush, like the Tesla cars.

In fact, I think cyber truck is a good example of the most modern advanced futuristic design. My short term prediction is you’ll see the next generation of Tesla cars looking more like a mini cyber truck ; assuming that most people always have their phone in the front pocket, the ideal is as you approach your car, the driver side door, or even the rear passenger door or even the rear trunk, you should be able to program your Tesla that is automatically open the door, without having to be like a soccer mom who kicks underneath the Toyota sienna minivan to have the automatic liftgate open from behind.

I even saw this one Baris thing, this one mom with a new Mercedes electric SUV car, trying to open up her kids rear passenger door, by kicking underneath the door, trying at three or five times and eventually giving up.

Also I suppose the upside is that maybe I am the only millennial I know who hates the phone.  to me, iPhone is only good for FaceTime and GPS driving directions. Maybe also good for two factor authentication, but besides this, iPhone sucks. This is where I still think it is a wise idea to just buy the cheapest iPhone, and I also suppose the upside of having a removable Sim card tray, because when you’re in Southeast Asia Vietnam etc.… It is so much easier to just buy a cheap $10 Sim card, and pop it in, rather than having to fudge around with all that eSIM nonsense.

Also, one of the insane great things about the 2010 Prius is that I could just turn off my iPhone, put it into the glove compartment, close it, and then just keep my Prius key fob in my front pocket, zip it up, And go 100% phone free when I’m playing with Seneca at the park, in order not to get distracted. Whereas I think if you have a Tesla car, you always have to have your phone with you, or else your car will perpetually stay unlocked, if you just keep your iPhone in the glove compartment? I suppose you could just do the Tesla valet key thing in your front pocket, but that just seems like too much work.

Also, Tesla auto pilot, the technology works very well but after testing the issue is especially if you have sensitive passengers in the car , it kind of makes you carsick.  Test driving a Tesla model Y and just using the basic cruise control, where it automatically keeps the distance in between you and the car in front of you… Was far too jerky, giving Cindy car sickness.  and I always remind myself, if I ever ever ever get a new car for any reason, it might be some sort of used Lexus hybrid LS car, the maximum not carsick car, for the sake of Cindy. 

Real successful people or smart People Just drive a Lexus LS? 

If you’re going to blow close to $100,000 on a car… The only logical strategy is to buy a Lexus LS,  ideally I used one, two or three years old, in all white, and ideally a hybrid… So you don’t have to fill up the gas as often.

Why a Lexus LS car,? The supreme comfort, once again… Not making your passengers carsick, and also one of the big issues about being in a car for a long period of time is that it gives your passengers a lot of fatigue, you as a driver, and also the shotgun passenger. And also maybe your kids?

Even though I love Elon Musk and Tesla to death… I don’t really personally would ever want one. The first thought is you could support somebody without purchasing the thing. For example, you could be up Elon Musk fanboy, and just drive a Toyota Prius. Even Elon Musk, famous Saturday Night Live sketch, he started off by joking that high my name is Elon and I drive a Toyota Prius. If anything, if anything, I have a funny idea about icebreakers for adults, especially people from LA… Tell them to introduce themselves, and tell them to share with everyone what car they drive, or what their dream car is . The truth is in LA, your car is everything. Maybe even more important than your home? 

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The new elitism

Another weird thing about America, in America… Everyone wants to be elite, yet, we obfuscate it where are these fake façades? Long story short, people are very disingenuous.

For example, it is considered bad manners to ask people what they drive because it puts them in a certain social class, for example if you drive an old Mitsubishi Lancer, you’re probably going to be seen as more poor than somebody who’s driving the brand new AMG G wagon. 

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No physical health, no curiosity? 

Right now some quick thoughts: first… it seems that curiosity, curiosity is best when it is strong, unabated, antifragile.

Second thought… It seems that if you don’t have physical strength, insanely great strength, strength and vigor… you cannot be curious. Why? Assuming that you only slept two hours last night, or feel like shit… my theory is that the pathways for curiosity are shut off. 

First, you need an over abundance of health. Therefore, my personal suggestion is almost all a limits of your life should be optimized to promote your Max well-being health strength bigger muscle sleep rest recovery healing etc.

How to heal yourself 

So in video games, you’re playing Final Fantasy, any RPG, MMORPG, role-play game etc.… What it seems that is that who is the most important character? Not the champion or the hero on the front line… But actually… The healer.

Truth be told, nobody wants to be the healer. It is kind of a thankless job, but also at the same time, the most critical job. Why?

Let us say that you’re doing a big boss battle, whether you are doing it by yourself or in a party. If you don’t have a healer… Even if you’re the best fighter… You will not win.

Also very interesting… even in the Iliad, when you’re thinking about the dramas and battles which are unfolding, the number one critical thing is when the heroes get injured. For example, deus, Ajax, king Egon, etc. Even getting a small spear wound to the knee or the shoulder is pretty destroying, because it reduces your lethality in battle.

In fact, what is really interesting is that even the gods get wounded. And feel pain. And this is such a radically big idea, because even though that the gods are immortal, which means that they are not immortals, what it means is that God could feel pain, God could get wounded, yet… They just cannot die.

For example, I think there are certain moments in which Achilles or some of the other gods end up spearing Aries, Athena, some of the other gods and goddesses and as a consequence feel deep pain, and injury. And pain and suffering is not stopped until Zeus, Send some sort of magic healer, and then longer feel pain.

Pain?

Obviously no one likes to be in pain. Yet… I think Paine is one of the most intelligent things that we got in our body which does not lie. If you are in Paine, it don’t matter what your theory is… Obviously something is wrong or you’re doing something wrong.

Example… plantar Fasciitis, foot pain, ankle pain the pain back pain whatever. I think the primary issues and problems are our shoes, the way we work on computer desktop or laptops or sitting or even standing whatever… Essentially all the plantar fasciitis foot pains experiment with all those stupid $500 overpriced orthotics etc., and literally none of my foot pain went away until I got the view from five finger shoes, and then boom, almost magically all of my foot pain ankle pain the pain went away! And for a long time, I stopped wearing them because I just thought they looked weird and I felt ashamed to wear them in public. But now I could care less… I am a demigod in the flesh.  I don’t know any other human being in real life in embodied reality looks as great and glorious as I do. Even the most jacked guys… They end up having chicken legs. 

I’m the biggest goat?

Body elitism

OK, a funny thought:

Technically, body elitism is very democratic. Why? You don’t matter who you are, your age you’re sex or gender racial background whatever… Anyone can build a elite body, assuming that you lift heavyweights,  fast, do intermittent fasting, hundred percent carnivore diet, you quit alcohol smoking weed starches sugars drugs, sugars, real sugars fake sugars etc.

And it is so simple and straightforward — I literally got the key right here!

1. Never eat breakfast for dinner, hard-core interment fasting… Actually is not even that hard… It’s like I have been doing Ramadan every single day for the last seven years. And I can still drink black coffee and drink water! People who do real Ramadan… 1 trillion times more difficult because they are not even permitted to drink water during Ramadan? And obviously… Anyone who thinks that you will die if you don’t eat breakfast or lunch, and you fast until sundown is obviously wrong because there are millions of people who Participate in fasting, during Ramadan all around the world, and obviously nobody’s dying here.
2. 100% carnivore diet: no no no you’re not gonna die and get a heart attack. You’re only gonna get a heart attack and die from type two diabetes, or type three diabetes (alzheimers disease), which is a metabolic disease which is caused by over consumption of sugars, sweets, snacks, desserts, cookies pastries, fake sugar real sugar, dairy, real dairy fake dairy etc. 
3. Just quit alcohol and all drugs. Even the good ones. The only drugs you should consume is maybe 100% black coffee, just drink fine robusta– ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE, or get some from CREO–. Or better yet… Don’t drink any coffee. I actually met this one guy Christopher, who doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, smoke weed, doesn’t even drink coffee! So much respect.
4. Quit beer, wine, even red wine… No no no, Reservatrol is not “good for you”– this is just some fake pseudoscience, which was essentially paid by these greedy vitamin making corporations, akin to Amway…  or also it is fake science which just tries to make all these fat old people feel less bad about being alcoholics, or trying to feel good about their degenerate lifestyles? Just think… Have you ever met an academic or a scholar or an important literary person who doesn’t drink alcohol not even red wine?

How society is bad

It is all drugs. Your iPhone is the most potent drug, social media Instagram Facebook TikTok, YouTube, Hulu, Spotify podcast… All of them are drugs. Drugs for your mind, drugs your body, drugs for your soul etc.

Why is this a big issue?

First and foremost, what is the number one critical ill in modern Society? Sleep. Most people that I meet… Tend to go to sleep anywhere between midnight and maybe even 3 AM. This is really bad. Technically the popper time to do things is maybe Break your fast and eat an insanely massive 100% carnivore dinner, 3 to 4 pounds of beef, maybe throw some bone marrow ribs and organ meats like beef liver in there. Apparently even lamb liver is really good, you can get them at local Halal markets.

> Don’t buy the lamb (Lamborghini), eat the lamb!

For example, we went to Ranch 99, one of the local Asian Chinese supermarkets, and got a bunch of bone marrow that’s already prepackaged, sliced, and frozen… Which makes for really really good bone marrow, you could just throw it frozen in the air fryer for about 30 minutes on full blast, and boom, you got Liquid steroids for yourself, your kids, your family!

In fact, pro tip for any new parent, what is the one thing you should be optimizing for your kids health? Bone marrow. It is not a choking hazard, it is like steroids in yogurt form. It is literally might be the most nutritious and nutrition dense thing that you could feed your kid, to have them grow, become strong and big, etc.

Feed your kid like Achilles

Currently reading the Emily Wilson translation of the Iliad, and essentially what I want to do is feed myself and Seneca as if he and me and we were Achilles.

Assuming I am Achilles, and Achilles had a son… Seneca, how would we all look like? How and what would we eat, how would we eat, how would we train, what would be our life ethos Telos and desired outcome? 

First, maybe the best idea is to train as if you are training for battle, for war.

Your armor is a 60 pound weight vest, whenever your training just keep it on because even apparently the armor of Achilles we in between 100 to 150 pounds, and the average weight of armor for a Greek hop light was maybe in the range of 70 to 60 pounds. So even a 60 pound weight is quite  modest… I’m kind of thinking of trying to buy or procure or maybe create or innovate an even heavier weight vest.

And some simple exercises you could do… Very easy, if you assume that you’re 6 pound weight vest is almost like your ancient Greek armor, and you’re Achilles… How would you train? 

First, always trained with the 60 pound weight vest on because certainly if you’re going to be training like you’re actually going to go to war or battle… Imagine Achilles with his brand new suit of armor and shield ready for battle… You want to train with your armor on! Let us assume that you were an operator, swat team, delta force, a ranger, etc– a door kicker etc ,,,, how would you train?

And assuming that we’re not using any pussy guns here. In fact, I love John Wick to death, and Keanu Reeves… But if I was Chad, and I am directing the new John Wick six or whatever… I would put Keanu Reeves on a 100% diet, Feed him nothing but beef liver, beef, beef kidney, beef lungs, bone marrow, and Wagyu short ribs… Had him lift her very very heavyweights, ERIC KIM hype lifting style, atlas lift, rack full, dead lift, dead lift walk, squat walk whatever… And have him do his thing.

What happened to muscle?

What are my pride was as a kid growing up, even to college and beyond was my muscle. I did not have techniques or skill, but I had muscle, I had strength, I had courage, I had my ego, and I had my muscles.

For me, in my mind I saw myself like a Shaquille O’Neal when playing basketball… I would always play center, because nobody could out muscle me, and also my legs are so insanely strong… I don’t know anybody with stronger legs than I do. Somebody who could lift over 1000 pounds, over 10 plates on the squad rack, and assuming they are not one of those fats steroid guys on the strongman competitions, come get at me.

Anyways, one thing I liked about playing basketball was that most of these guys who played basketball, they are skinny, too wimpy, etc. Even the most dominant player in the NBA… LeBron James, it looks like he could eat more red meat, and lift heavier weights. He almost looks a little bit too green, not muscular and big enough. I would love to see another Dwight Howard, or Shaquille O’Neal, or ideally hybrid between Yao Ming and Shaquille O’Neal… This would be my ideal aesthetic.

… The problem is that there is this notion in sports science that somehow have bigger muscles make you slower, weaker, whatever? And I think 99.9% of sports science is pseudoscience at best… As long as people still talk about “calories“, or “burning calories… There are a bunch of fools. You cannot burn a calorie. That’s not how human metabolism works.  even my PhD friends who graduated in biology do not understand this.

As long as you see somebody with an Apple Watch fitness tracker or whatever… They are fools. And actually, shame on you Apple… You know that these metrics are all fake. Why do you give them to people still?

Once again, all these fat people who into running, my simple solution is just give everybody a 60 pound weight, give them a pair of shoes, and have them just walk, this is 1 trillion times more effective than running, which is maybe the most useless exercise on the planet. And causes the most injuries, waste time and money, is hateful, nobody likes to run, not even runners. The only virtuous thing is sprinting… Maybe 50 m, Usain Bolt status.

Back to the topic at hand

Anyways the reason why I care about this and so passion about this is that actually… If you really think about it, your health your sleep your physiological energy power is one quadrillion times more important than your iPhone. For example, I would easily say that it is more virtuous to spend $1000 or $1200 on beef ribs, bone marrow, beef liver heart beef kidneys, organ meat etc.…

And I also have a new experimental idea, maybe I’ll experiment this with myself. A 100% organ meat diet, only beef liver beef hard beef kidneys, bone marrow etc. 

I’ll keep you updated. 

The mountain 

I suppose the goal is to become like Hafthor, obviously without the steroids. 

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The desired end, the desired goal

OK, I think I got it figured out guys.

The secret of happiness is your kid, your children, having kids etc. The supreme joy and the happiness in life is to have a son, assuming you’re a man, at least one male heir. If you do not have a son, you cannot birth an Achilles.

Let us to say that your first kid, is and by happens to be a boy a man a male… If this is the case, consider yourself infinitely blessed times 1 trillion… After this point, life is all upside no downside.

And if you don’t have any boys, let us say that you’re family with five girls etc.… And the joy is that your daughters is going to have kids of their own… And as long as you birth at least one grandson, you should be fine.

I would actually say the greatest tragedy in life is if you’re 90 years old on your deathbed, no children, no wife, no grandchildren, no great grandchildren etc.,,, the ultimate cruelty in life.  

You cannot leave your dog your bitcoin.

Goals

In context of fitness and exercise and training… Maybe the best and most intelligence strategy is to train for battle, to train for war.

Last year, when I was trying to figure out my whole off the grid gym concept, I went on a buying spree, buying a bunch of different weightlifting equipment, functional fitness stuff, etc. 

Some interesting things I discovered was the rickshaw farmers walk carry dead lift concept, as well as farmers carry handles, because even though you cannot lift as much like doing one rep Max, on a barbell… It becomes a different type of exercise, which is less about increasing your numbers, but maybe, engaging different parts of your body that typically are not engaged?

Girl

In the ilia… The way that the men taught each other is calling each other little girls.

First, we should not call women girls… This is insanely denigrating. You would not call Hera a girl.

Second, ultimately, when it comes to human beings, it is a binary: do you have a penis and testicles, or do you have cavernous vagina? 

I was actually thinking about it, what is unique about having a little boy, and also… Never circumcise your kid, even if you’re Catholic or Jewish … it is essentially genitalia male mutilation for boys. A boy, a man, a male has a penis that sticks outside, and balls and testicles which also stick outside.

A female has a slit, and all of her sexual organs are on the inside.

That technically because we are all women I think when we are born… I think randomly, the way that genetics works is that the ovaries can turn into testicles? And the clitoris is just like a really tiny penis? Not 100% sure, but something like that.

Anyways, just think about the obvious reality: if you have sexual organs would look 1 trillion times different, one is on the outside and one is on the inside, certainly this is going to change your hormones, your physiology, the way you look and feel, Etc.?

Another example… The way that women ululate fat in their hips their butt their back, is patently different than men. Even if you are a very very fit woman, assume you do CrossFit, and you try to do all the gender androgynous stuff whatever, you chop your hair to look like a boy, you dress like a boy or a guy or whatever… Sooner or later, even assuming that you’re 100% ball, button in the flash, you could see within half a second whether somebody is a man or a woman. and obviously, no hormone therapy. Hormone therapy might be the worst thing on the planet, assuming that it is not a life or that situation. Yes yes yes, get steroids if you have HIV aids or whatever, and also, I think medicine, even psychiatric medicine, is good and virtuous if people are literally about to kill themselves, but beyond this, we should take more hands off natural approach, via negativa, none of this ”interventionalista” approach (NASSIM TALEB Antifragile idea). Some intervention is good, like wise interventions. But what should be avoided is naïve intervention, which is bad. 

Thoughts of the future

I am a huge ChatGPT, AI proponent. And actually what is very interesting is that my thought is the future of writing, creativity art, prose poetry etc. is more random, more ratchet, less standard.

For example, if you want to use perfect New York Times, Oxford English, ChatGPT will destroy you 1000 times over. Or if you want typical academic scholarly talk, ChatGPT could do that far better than you can. It can pretend to be Hayek, or any constipated childless French philosopher thinker you want it to be.

I am the next Steve Jobs

OK, time to get my Steve Jobs on:

Ideas for Apple, I know you’re reading this (Eric [at] erickim.com)

First, good idea on creating a “quick draw“ option on the iPhone, it looks like you listened to my idea. 

Second, the next evolution of photographic styles is also good, I think this is also where you listen to me, having a little bit more flexibility when it comes to adding grain, new image aesthetics to the photos etc.

Streamlined thoughts

Ok Apple, you got a big opportunity here with the future of ChatGPT, AI, etc. Don’t mess this up.

First, do not call it Apple Intelligence, what you need to do is just give Siri a facelift, or a boob job or a butt job, or just think of Siri on steroids.

You’re starting to confuse people, even myself. The question:

What’s the difference between apple intelligence and Siri?

Nobody knows, not even the Apple marketing team!

The image playground for Apple Intelligence sucks

I think you should just ask it. The images look really really bad and ugly. Nobody cares about a disco pigeon… It is even worse than a novelty.

Merging with ChatGPT is a good idea

In fact, the really intelligent strategy would be to just take your chest, and see if you could purchase ChatGPT, open AI etc. If you can’t beat them, Buy them.

Focus on the product not the humans 

OK, I saw the new iPhone Pro commercial in the marketing page with the weekend, it was so insanely lame. First, the weekend, it was bad for him… It shows that he is just another skinny fat guy, who doesn’t actually look at handsome or impressive in real life.

Second, that really lame visual of the tiny umbrella on an iPhone Pro, shooting a music video? Don’t try to fool people — nobody in their right mind will ever try to shoot any really really serious video on an iPhone or iPhone Pro. It is like a really bad gimmick. 

What people really really want for their iPhone is a stronger a better camera, with better image quality. The new camera control thing, it really makes no sense to me… And upgrading the ultra wide lens was a good idea, but don’t try to do the marketing language that an iPhone is somehow like a DSLR or DSLR replacement. Why? First and Foremost… Nobody uses digital SLE cameras anymore, – it seems that all real working professionals are probably using some sort of Sony A7 camera, maybe a red dragon camera for video, or like an aria camera. and hobbyist photographers are shooting with  a Fujifilm X 100 camera, a Ricoh GR camera, or a Leica M or a Leica Q camera.

So, who is the iPhone, iPhone Pro four? Essentially your mom, or maybe Gen Z or millennial? Or like my friend Soren Zhane says, “Zillenial?”

Now what?

Big idea: how to store value without a trusted intermediary? 

One of the issues with batteries, electric cars, Teslas… You cannot store the value, store the energy! It will slowly bleed. I suppose one of the upside of having a Prius, is the gasoline will sit in your car, and not lose value or energy or power.

Also… If you think about MPG is like maintenance cost… Then he or she becomes the richest, is basically predicated on the fact of here who has the lowest maintenance costs.

the secret of becoming rich 

OK, now with my net worth with Cindy and Seneca over 1M, 1.2M and beyond… I suppose now I can say I am a “millionaire“. Yet the irony:

I haven’t bought myself anything in almost 5 years.

The only thing I purchased recently about a year ago was my infamous Texas power squat bar,  fully worth it, about $500 USD I think including shipping.  this is what allowed me to lift my infamous atlas lift, to visualize this imagine the power squat rack with 10 plates on each side, with a 25 pounder and a five strapped on.

Think plates, not poundage or numbers 

Also as this random small aside… Do not think and consider Official numbers, better to think and consider how many plates you could lift. I think we human beings deal better with visuals, rather than arbitrary numbers like how many pounds it weigh or whatever. For example you could tell somebody you could lift 1000 pounds, but that notion is almost too abstract and difficult to decipher. Easier to say that I could lift over 10 plates — my next goal, to lift 11 plates, or 12 plates and beyond?

I suppose the reason why this is so interesting to me is because also I think if we think about bitcoin… Already now… You can measure your wealth by how many bitcoin you own. Casual conversation: how many bitcoin do you own right now? Are you buying bitcoin yet?

For example, do you have one bitcoin, two bitcoin, three bitcoin, five bitcoin, 10 bitcoin? 15 bitcoin, 16 bitcoin, 20 bitcoin, 22 bitcoin? Etc.?

Back to getting rich

My simple thought is now and nowadays, essentially what richness is is how many bitcoin you own? Bitcoin is the first and only real new true money, all other money is fake. This includes the US dollar, which is not real money.

Retention

There is an interesting new trend called “semen retention”– essentially the best idea is

How long can you conserve your spunk?

To me this is a really fasting idea because the biggest issue that a lot of people have is they are always blowing their load far too frequently, I can personally attest to this when all is in my teenage puberty years, my 20s, etc.

The problem is you have all these raging hormones, and rather than channeling that energy power testosterone and seminal power into sports, weightlifting, physical activity and combat…  brother, we expelled it needlessly, by jerking off to porn.

Certainly better to jerk off to porn then get some random girl pregnant. Or catch an STD or an STI. Yet, if you’re an adult, in your 20s, beyond your 20s… Certainly once you hit your 30s… Then, I think to maintain your masculinity, to maintain and conserve your semen is a good idea. Only Conserve your semen for your wife, nothing else.

Money retention

Also, this is the funny irony: 

Everyone wants to have $1 million in the bank or their checking account, in order to purchase the Lamborghini, the Bugatti, whatever.

But the question is: let us say you have 1.2 M saved up, then, do you mean legal out and buy the Bugatti? No! You conserve that money, you buy bitcoin and you grow that money!

The second that you spend your $1.2 million on a $1.2 million car, now you’re checking account or your balance become $0.00. And now you can’t even afford to pay for gas on it nor can you even pay your insurance on it, let alone for oil changes.

So the irony here is actually… Thought the most strategy is to just buy the Prius, or better yet, get it for free 99!

Never buy a car that cost more than $2500 USD

I would actually say one of my critical get rich abilities was never spending more than $2500 USD on a car.  And I am 36 years old, born in 1988.

Tell me what you drive and I will tell you who you are.

Even a funny thing… I see that a lot of guys who work at dealerships… For example my beloved Toyota Culver City dealership… Most of the guys don’t actually even drive a Toyota? Oh she was funny… Always walk by it, and then I ask them…  what car do you think I drive… One of the kids Kai said he thought maybe I drove a Porsche 911,  which I appreciate it… Because cars are essentially an ethos or concept, not the car itself.

He drives a Lambo.

Now, i’m just going to joke and lie… And ask people when they think I drive what… I’ll just tell them that I drive a Hurucan Tecnica or a Hurucan Sterraro. Because honestly… Maybe currently that is my soul car. It is actually very very surprising to me, I don’t actually really like the Hurrican that much, but frankly speaking… The allure of the scissor doors aren’t really that interesting to me anymore? It just kind of a gimmick, if you think about the original Kouch, which wow was made in the 70s… I think 1974? Funny enough seeing the blog post on it by Lamborghini, it looks so ahead of its time, but now in the year 2024, why is all the design so basic and lame?

The ultimate flex?

If you’re rich, why would you not drive a Lamborghini? Honestly even though I am critical of the Lamborghini is still probably the coolest car.

Or better yet… Drive a Prius, and have your body look like a Lamborghini? This is the true and ultimate flex. 

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Think MPG, maintenance cost, insurance.

I’m currently watching some Michael Saylor videos on bitcoin as digital gold, the whole innovation behind it etc. Also philosophies on becoming rich etc.

What is the quickest way to get poor?  purchase a Ferrari, which after 3 years… You’re going to eat at least $1 million of maintenance fees.  After that it is probably a yacht, in which you will eat the maintenance cost after just three years.

Ultimate Granger of a Prius, especially the 2010 edition… It literally almost cost nothing to maintain it. All you gotta do is change the oil, and you’re good!

And also, then PG is on it is so good, I’m probably not spending more than $38 a month on gas. And Insurance is so so cheap, you could just get the cheapest liability insurance, because if you scratch your car, somebody hits it or whatever, it’s not really a big deal.

And also… The whole annoying thing about anxiety. For example, I’m pretty sure if I had the Lamborghini, there’d be a bunch of stupid kids scratching penises into my car, or trying to stand on top of my car and pose with it etc.  or the anxiety of a random grandma who parks next to my car scratching my car etc.

Bird poop on your rolls Royce

So there is this really nice park I like to go to with Seneca, the Holmby Hills park and playground.  I think I once saw Jimmy Iovine walking around there.  Essentially, it is probably the ultimate rich people park, the record-breaking $150 million mansion is right across the street. And I think Hugh Hefner used to have his historic Playboy mansion in Holby Hills.  

Anyways, it is a super super nice park, and whenever I take Seneca there… To find parking next to it is always a clutch thing. Unfortunately, my 2010 Prius is barely small enough to actually fit inside of it well. And whenever I park my Prius and find a parking spot, thank god, and I am not worried about birds pooping on my car, or getting leaves stuck on it or whatever… I am so grateful.

Even though I love cyber, I am so grateful that I don’t actually own one, because once again, the whole parking thing! Once again, I think cyber truck is more of a state of mind thing,  and an attitude and a concept… Not actually the cybertruck itself. 

And also, this is the whole Lamborghini thing. It ain’t really about the Lamborghini itself… Rather it is the attitude around it.

Smile!

What costs nothing,  yeah it gives you everything? Super simple, smiling! Smiling a beautiful woman, smiling at kids, smiling at guys, handsome guys whatever.

I think this is the weird thing, for myself… I love all beautiful human beings. When people look dark morose and emo and unwell… They automatically turn me off.

I love beautiful women, I love beautiful men, I love everybody! I especially love children because they are so pure, uncorrupted by society… Since Seneca is not yet in school, he is once again totally un corrupted, and pure! I love this.

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Back to money

Now that I’m rich and could essentially afford anything… Ironically enough more more of my gut feeling is towards creative constraints.

For example, growing up poor, given that you have enough wisdom, might be the biggest blessing. Why? When you you have too much money, do you often become lazy and you’re thinking, and also… You become less innovative.

For example, if Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak was not so scrappy, just building apple computers in Steve’s parents garage, Apple might not be the apple that we know today. I am sure that even IVM at the time, even though they were throwing millions of dollars at research and development, they could never match the genius of Steve Jobs.

Also what a lot of people don’t know about Elon Musk, is how insanely scrappy he was. He essentially lived like a homeless person, the first 5 to 10 years of his entrepreneurial endeavor. And even now… He lives a quite ascetic lifestyle, I think he just rents a two bed Bath apartment or structure or mobile thing somewhere in Austin?  
So me… Just think, creative constraints. Do not spend money on stuff is actually more manly, more Spartan and more than to just piss away money even though you can!

ERIC

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Some innovative thoughts about you, modern-day notions of success?

Rent forever, buy Bitcoin?

CULVER CITY IS PARADISE!

A world beyond email, email newsletters?

How to reach people

How to reach Eric Kim?

The death of email

At this point, I think I have an allergy or an aversion to email. I first had the epiphany when I went wholly off the grid in 2017, living in airplane mode, got rid of my phone, my phone plan for about two years, and spent about two years without checking my inbox or using email. I didn’t even have a phone! The only device I had was an iPad Air — and essentially I just spent all day going to coffee shops, drinking black coffee, zenning out, reading philosophy, thinking, writing, listening to music, making poetry and art, etc.

Essentially at this point… It seems that the “sales funnel” for marketing has to do almost 100% entirely with email, an email newsletter, etc.

But, the problem here:

But, if we imagine a future, beyond email… By the time Seneca is an adult… I doubt he will be using email or would care to use it?

For example, email might be one of the worst, antiquated technologies which exist. It was around since I was a kid, it was AOL 3.0, and getting the infamous “You got mail!”

I’m currently reading Frog and Toad, the audiobook that I got at the LA Public Library with Seneca and we listen to it in the city in our 2010 Prius, and also… We’ve been reading the Frog and Toad friends book that my sister Anna got us… there’s a story in which every single day, Toad is waiting for mail, and he is sad that he never gets it.

Fast forward to today… On average, I think the average American household might get an Amazon Prime delivery every one or two days, some families in the suburbs get one to three packages a day!

And with email, it is a nightmare. People still treat it like text messaging, and now that we have all these millennials, around my age, mid-30s, late 30s, early 40s whatever… who would prefer to text message over just doing a 30-second FaceTime call… All this technology and communication is getting ridiculous.

Even I remember… In the early days of me trying to get to the infamous inbox zero, becoming a Gmail ninja warrior… Email sucks.

First, it is an infinite mind trap. I’ll give you an extreme example… Let us say that you are Taylor Swift, and you get on average 100,000 emails a day, because everyone knows that your email is Taylorswift@gmail.com. If this is the case… How do you advance and proceed in life?

First, can you imagine Taylor spending eight hours a day, just checking her Gmail, and trying to answer every single email? Of course not! We imagine that she has a manager, who does all the dirty work for her.

The problem is, a manager, being signed into a label or whatever… Still, there are some fetters on your freedom.

First, in theory, it is a good idea that you check your own email because you become the ultimate filter; an irony is that even NASSIM TALEB tells a story about meeting a super successful guy, and when asking about the secrets to success, his was a simple one: “Don’t have a personal assistant.” Why? A personal assistant essentially “optimizes” your schedule, kind of like a Kaiser doctor, in 15-minute intervals, ad infinitum, until it squeezes out the maximum productivity out of your sad constrained life.

No, what is the ultimate mark of success for us young millennials? I think it is actually to retire early, the whole financial independence, retire early notion.

Technically, you could already do it probably right now… You’re probably already rich enough. For example, if I told you that rent is only $300 a month in Hanoi, Vietnam… in a brand new studio apartment everything included, and assuming that eating street food, good street food is only a dollar or two a meal… Which means that you could feed yourself on two bucks a day, which is 60 bucks a month, and assuming that coffee is about a dollar a coffee, and let us say that your rough monthly expenses are $200 a month. So let us say that all included, food and rent included is only $500 a month… If you do the math, that means that you could live in Vietnam as a “digital nomad” for only $7000 USD a year!

What if you have kids?

I’m speaking to single people, without kids yet. But even if you had kids, assume you’re living abroad… You could probably send them to the best Montessori or private school, maybe only paying about 50 bucks a month, or 100 bucks a month? For the extreme luxury ones, maybe 200 bucks a month? Or $500 a month? Which is still a deal or a bargain compared to the States, I think some private schools for kids in America could cost $5000 USD a month.

Economic leverage

The other day, I met this very, very cool guy, Justin Atlan, the funnel guy, very smart and great human being and master marketer. Was chatting with him about bitcoin and future prices… Which had me thinking,

Maybe the next step for me to do things is to promote bitcoin, financial independence, freedom, etc.?

I told him that I’m currently 100% invested and vested in Bitcoin, and I told him very blank-faced that when bitcoin hits $10 million a bitcoin or $21 million a bitcoin in 20 years… My face didn’t even flinch.

The very simple economic strategy

Michael Saylor has this notion of being a “triple maxi”– triple (Bitcoin) maximalist. The basic idea is to pour 100% of your money, your income, your life savings into bitcoin, and enjoy the ride!

For myself, my simple economic strategy is this:

Retire today, by becoming so insanely frugal, Spartan, sexy style.

I’ll give you an example… What is the best outfit? Being naked! Second best, being shirtless and topless. Third best, being topless just in the speedo at the beach, Venice Beach muscle Beach, lifting like Arnold in his prime.

Who did Arnold want to become?

I thought that I always think to myself, is whenever there is somebody that you look up to, or somebody you desire to emulate or whatever… Seeking their heroes.

For example, I know that Steve Jobs looked up to Edwin Land, the inventor of the Polaroid camera. Also, Steve Jobs really loved the music of Bob Dylan, he had all the bootleg copies in the early days.

Jay Z was inspired by Afrika Bambaataa. Kanye was inspired by Lauryn Hill and André 3000.

“I wasn’t inspired since Lauryn Hill retired, and three stacks (a stack means a thousand, so three stacks is 3000– Andre 3000), man you’re speaking to the choir!” – Kanye

Everything you heard about me is true and legendary

NASSIM TALEB also has a notion when it comes to quotes. Reading his short book on aphorisms, The Bed of Procrustes, essentially, if you think about ancient literature in the past, there are tons of things that are quotable. But, nowadays, nothing or nobody is quotable anymore.

I’m starting to think… Maybe the true mark of success of a thinker, philosopher, innovator, entrepreneur, etc. is thinking on a 20, 30, or 40-year timeline… whether this person will be quoted or not anymore.

I’ll give you an example… When I was starting off in photography and street photography, there was a bunch of other famous photographers around me, none of them has lasted besides me. Their problems:

1. Not owning their own platform
2. Being almost 100% reliant on Flickr, which is now effectively dead (this is what is going to happen to Instagram, already right now with TikTok and other weird stuff coming on.)
3. Chasing abstract notions of legitimacy, in the real world in the art world etc. All of them are a bunch of insecure losers.

So now what?

The reason why I am all about the 100% pedestrian lifestyle is that when you are in the flesh, a flesh-bound human being, face-to-face with another human being, you can weigh yourself better.

For example, when you are stuck on the 10 or the 405 or local traffic… any skinny fat loser in a loser Range Rover or loser AMG G wagon can honk at you from behind. And it doesn’t matter if they are 4 feet tall, and they weigh 500 pounds. Or they are handicapped in a wheelchair, driving a Rolls-Royce or a Lamborghini. You never know until they pop out of the car!

In fact, typically what I have observed is people who drive very, very impressive cars, tend to be old, weak, some sag on their skinny pale legs, old and fat, baseball hat, etc.

And not to berate anybody but, ultimately, you want to look like Brad Pitt in Fight Club but on steroids… Like the ERIC Kim aesthetic — Adonis style.

Your body don’t lie

Some observations:

First, don’t trust any older bald guys. Why? The big issue here is that a lot of guys who look really, really buff and jacked and muscular, with swole biceps, and a swole chest, but bald and older… Or maybe they are bald but have an impressive beard, are either on steroids or have used steroids, or they are injecting their butt hole with exogenous testosterone etc.

Now the problem here is the truth be told, we always weigh ourselves comparing ourselves to other human beings. Whether we like it or not.

For example, when it comes to weightlifting, weights and numbers… It is all relative. The same goes with height. And wealth. Everything.

For example, is it better to be the person with the cheapest home in Beverly Hills, or is it better to be the richest person living in Inglewood?

Or, is it best to be the richest person in Malaysia, or a semi-successful person in America?

I used to think that 4 plates was a lot. Then 5 plates, then six plates, then seven plates, then eight plates,… actually the seven plate limit is the critical one here, then the nine plates, then the 10 plates, then my infamous thousand-pound lift, which is 10 plates in a 25 and I think a five strapped on each side.

But technically, if I then compare myself with these 7 feet steroided-out monsters, in the strongman competitions, like Hafthor and the like… Lifting 502kg deadlifts, which is 1200 pounds… then my numbers are very, very small. But if I compare myself with any typical gym-goer, even a powerlifter… I am a god in the flesh.

So why does this all matter?

What is the most valuable thing on planet earth? Ideas. Ideas are weightless, not bound by the laws of physics, and infinitely antifragile.

Even some interesting thoughts are that ideas, when they catch on like wildfire, or like a virus, and people remember the ideas inside their head… This is something you cannot strip out of them.

What is it all we desire?

When I was reading a lot of Nietzsche, he used this word a lot called “desiderata” or “desideratum”– I can never really figure out what it meant, but I think what it means is the thing desired.

Like an object, or a concept or an idea that you desire.

Now this is important because this is what shapes a lot of our lives. For example, what is the new modern-day desire, at least the new modern-day millennial desire? Maybe to own a single-family home, to be super-rich, travel the world, go to Japan, eat good omakase sushi etc — and or maybe, having no children, maybe or maybe not getting married, having a dog, etc.

Or, being this weird playboy traveling the world, no obligations, just sleeping with beautiful babes, no pregnancies or STDs, driving around in your Lamborghini with the scissor doors, being a super cool guy, etc.?

True desires vs artificial desires

So my general notion of a true desire versus an artificial one has to deal with maybe media, marketing, societal pressures, etc. For example, let us think about the notion of the desire to own property, a single-family home, or worse, a condo. Where does this desire come from, how did it get propagated, etc.?

First, we think historically… I think the whole American notion of having a single-family home that you own is kind of a post-World War II concept. The basic idea was after our boys came home from the long war, they deserved to have a nice home in the suburbs, purchase their dream Mustang or Corvette, or Stingray… Whatever it may be, and then live a happy family life, picket fence, nice lawn and green grass, 2.2 kids, a dog, a nice garage, etc.…

Certainly, if we think historically, this is a modern-day shift because if we think about ancient Greece, we think about Hector versus Achilles, the Iliad, etc. — or even the Odyssey, and Odysseus — the desires were different.

For example, what is it that Achilles desired? To take Briseis, his prize, and sail back to his fertile lands, and essentially just chill out and retire from war. What is it that Hector wanted? Simply defending Troy, his people, his wife, and his newborn son, which apparently after the fall of Troy, it might’ve been Odysseus or Ajax or one of the Greek heroes who, afraid that one day the child of Hector would avenge his father’s death, threw this poor baby boy off the walls to his untimely death.

Pitiless bronze, the ancient Greeks were cruel

Something which is very shocking to read in the Iliad, the ancient texts of Homer, is how cruel and pitiless they were.
For example, we modern, we have too much sympathy, too much empathy, too much pity. For example, the modern-day American soldier, assuming he kills a bad guy somewhere in the Middle East, might feel bad about it and it might haunt his nightmares in his dreams. Because the average American is still raised on notions of Christian Protestant Jesus morality. That killing anybody, even if you are “in the right” is bad and evil.

However, the ancient Greek heroes and champions had no pity, and would in fact after killing people or about to kill people… Taunt them, boast, brag, and do really terrible things. For example, even Hector wanted to chop off the head of Patroclus and feed his head and his body to the dogs of Troy. And even Achilles, after he avenges Patroclus, does one of the most disrespectful things of all time, which is taking the body, the dead body of Hector, maybe piercing or tying his back legs to the back of his chariot, and just essentially doing laps around Troy, dismembering the dead body of Hector.

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No more goals?

I’m starting to think… Perhaps the whole notion of a goal is bad.

For example, if you think about sports… Do you think about soccer, what is it that people seek? To score a goal!

But the problem is in the context of the real world, there is no such thing as a goal. Or a goalie, or a striker.

“Just because there is a goalkeeper doesn’t mean you can’t score!”

For example, I’m starting to think the notion of records, goals, personal records, etc., is bad.

Why? All competition is bad competition. What is it that Achilles wanted? Not competition… He already knew he was the strongest! And everyone else knew it!

Also Hector… Very simple, defending his people! Super simple.

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What would Achilles do

Also, what wouldn’t Achilles do?

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Radical ideas

OK… Assuming that this might be the most interesting email newsletter on the planet… Some interesting radical ideas:

First, let us assume that I snapped a finger, and I could predict with 100% accuracy that in 20 years, by the time Seneca becomes 21… There will be no more email. Obviously, we will have it, but no one will really check it… Kind of like letters in the mail, 99% of it is spam.

Nobody likes physical mail anymore… And even now… Nobody likes electronic mail, digital mail.

I have a very simple solution, just make it cost a single Satoshi to send an email, or a message or digital message, as a consequence, people will think twice about sending a message to you or not.

This is really the secret to fixing spam, getting rid of spam, etc. We don’t need more Gmail or Gemini in our lives… We just need a new system, a new node, a new paradigm shift.

Satoshi is the way

So are you buying bitcoin yet?

Keep stacking them sats (Satoshis).

Maybe I should become the first bitcoin rapper?

Bitcoin rap
Don’t wrap your stacks
Don’t buy the Maybach, the fake Benz
See laser eyes, Michael Saylor vision lens.

Haha so fire, so lit!

---

Send emails, email newsletters that you would like to read!

Nobody ever opens up their inbox and says wow, I am so glad that I opened up my inbox, and I am so happy that I read that thing.

The problem is with email… Everyone is trying to sell you something or funnel you into one day buying something. But what if the creator, once they become independently wealthy bitcoin millionaires, and they’re just having fun, they just want to send you messages because they want you to have fun too? Maybe this is the ERIC KIM effect.

ERIC KIM

As an experiment, I’m gonna just start introducing myself like James Bond. Kim, ERIC KIM.

I believe this forever, that your first name and last name is your ultimate asset. For example, the genius that Cindy helped me purchase erickim.com, for about $1000 in 2017… I’m sure that name is now worth at least $100,000. Even my email eric@erickim.com — so clean, so succinct!

Your first and last name

Ryan Holiday — such a good name! Tim Ferriss, Tony Robbins, Guy Kawasaki — all these very successful modern-day entrepreneurs, all first and last names!

ELON MUSK, KANYE WEST, JAY Z, BEYONCÉ ETC.

Even impressive… You know that Beyoncé is influential once the Apple keyboard automatically adds the accent mark to Beyoncé.

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Think telos

A new thought I am having in regards to weightlifting… I should be all about every single time, superseding my previous personal record. That every single time I lifted, my simple goal was to increase my one repetition maximum, 2.5 pounds on each side of the barbell, every single time.

Now, my new thought is just every single day, just lift something, just do something. No more need for there to be a plan, even an ethos; the goal is to just do something. No more optimization!

ERIC

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Success?

My articles on the philosophy of success via ChatGPT 4o:

1. The Philosophy of Success
   This article challenges traditional views of success, arguing that chasing success for external validation is a trap, and instead promotes self-fulfillment through personal growth.
   Read more oai_citation:4,The Philosophy of “Success” – ERIC KIM.
2. The ‘T’ Technique of Success
   Eric Kim shares insights on how to build success by developing a unique voice and mastering self-promotion in the creative field.
   Read more oai_citation:3,The ‘T’ Technique of Success – ERIC KIM.
3. The Philosophy of Time Economics
   This article explores how time should be viewed as the most valuable asset and how individuals can maximize their life’s worth by focusing on meaningful experiences.
   Read more oai_citation:2,The Philosophy of Time Economics – ERIC KIM.
4. The Philosophy of Happiness
   Kim reflects on happiness beyond material pleasures, encouraging a pursuit of high achievement and fulfillment through meaningful, impactful work.
   Read more oai_citation:1,The Philosophy of Happiness – ERIC KIM.

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Best entrepreneurship articles

Here are some of Eric Kim’s best entrepreneurship articles that offer valuable insights into his approach to building a successful, self-reliant career:

1. How to Think Like an Entrepreneur
   This article emphasizes the importance of mindset over business strategies. Kim highlights taking risks, learning from failures, and balancing passion with financial security.
   Read more oai_citation:4,Most influential eric Kim entrepreneurship articles and links – ERIC KIM.
2. The Point of Life is Entrepreneurship?
   In this piece, Kim explores entrepreneurship as a tool for lifelong self-development and innovation. He stresses the importance of risk-taking and continuous growth.
   Read more oai_citation:3,Most influential eric Kim entrepreneurship articles and links – ERIC KIM.
3. On Risk Taking and Entrepreneurship
   Kim shares his journey of transitioning from a full-time job to full-time entrepreneurship, offering practical advice on reducing expenses and the importance of taking risks.
   Read more oai_citation:2,On Risk Taking and Entrepreneurship – ERIC KIM.
4. 20 Photography Marketing, Branding, and Entrepreneurship Tips
   A collection of practical strategies for building a sustainable photography business, including advice on personal branding, marketing, and creating unique content.
   Read more oai_citation:1,20 Photography Marketing, Branding, and Entrepreneurship Tips – ERIC KIM.

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Keep learning:

PHOTOGRAPHY ENTREPRENEURSHIP 101 >

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STRIKE TODAY!

ERIC

EK BLOG >

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Some innovative thoughts about you, modern day notions of success? 

Rent forever, buy Bitcoin?

CULVER CITY IS PARADISE!

A world beyond email, email newsletters?

How to reach people

How to reach Eric Kim?

The death of email

At this point, I think I have an allergy or an aversion to email. I first had the epiphany when I went holy off the grade in 2017, living in airplane mode, got rid of my phone, my phone plan for about two years, and spent about two years without checking my inbox or using email. I didn’t even have a phone! The only device I had was an iPad Air — and essentially I just spent all day, going to coffee shops, drinking black coffee, zenning out, reading philosophy, thinking, writing, listening to music, making poetry and art etc.

Essentially at this point… It seems that the “sales funnel” for marketing has to do almost 100% entirely with email, an email newsletter, etc.

But, the problem here:

 But, if we imagine a future, beyond email… By the time Seneca is in adults… I doubt he will be using email or would care to use it?

For example, email might be one of the worst, antiquated technologies which exist. It was around since I was a kid, it was 3.0, and getting the infamous “You got mail!”

I’m currently reading frog and toad, the audiobook that I got at the LA Public library with Seneca and we listen to it on the city in our 2010 Prius, and also… We’ve been reading the frog and to our friends book that my sister Anna got us…  there’s a story in which every every single day, Todd is waiting for mail, and he is sad that he never gets it.

Fast forward to today… On average, I think the average American household might get an Amazon prime delivery every one or two days, some families in the suburbs get one to three packages a day!

And with email, it is a nightmare. People still treated like text messaging, and now that we have all these millennials, around my age, mid 30s, late 30s, early 40s whatever… who would prefer to text message over just do 30 second FaceTime call… All this technology and communications is getting ridiculous.

Even I remember… In the early days of me trying to get to the infamous inbox zero, becoming a Gmail ninja warrior… Email sucks.

First, it is an infinite mind trap. I’ll give you an extreme example… Let us say that you are Taylor Swift, and you get on average 100,000 emails a day, because everyone knows that your email is Taylorswift@gmail.com . If this is the case… How do you advance and proceed in life?

First, can you imagine Taylor spending eight hours a day, just checking her Gmail, and trying to answer to every single email? Of course not! We imagined that she has a manager, who does all the dirty work for her.

The problem is, a manager, being signed into a label or whatever… Still, there are some fetters on your freedom.

First, in theory it is a good idea that you check your own email because you become the ultimate filter; an irony is that even NASSIM TALEB tells a story about meeting a super successful guy, and when asking about the secrets to success, his one was a simple one: “Don’t have a personal assistant”. Why? A personal assistant essentially “optimizes” your schedule, kind of like a Kaiser doctor, in 15 minute intervals, ad infinitum, until it’s squeezes out the maximum productivity out of your sad constrained life. 

No, what is the ultimate mark of success for us young millennials? I think it is actually to retire early, the whole financial independence, retire early notion.

Technically, you could already do it probably right now… You’re probably already rich enough. For example if I told you that rent is only $300 a month in Hanoi, Vietnam… in a brand new studio apartment everything included,  and assuming that eating street food, good street food is only a dollar or two a meal… Which means that you could feed yourself on two bucks a day, which is 60 bucks a month, and assuming that coffee is about a dollar a coffee, and let us say that your rough monthly expenses is $200 a month. So let us say that all included, food and rent included is only $500 a month… If you do the math, that means that you could live in Vietnam as a “digital nomad” for only $7000 USD a year!

What if you have kids?

I’m speaking to single people, without kids yet. But even if you had kids, assume you’re living abroad… You could probably send them to the best Montessori or private school, maybe only paying about 50 bucks a month, or hundred bucks a month? For the extreme luxury ones, maybe 200 bucks a month? Or $500 a month? Which is still a deal or a bargain compared to the states, I think some private schools for kids in America could cost $5000 USD a month.

Economic leverage

The other day, I met this very very cool guy, Justin Atlan, the funnel guy, very smart and great human being and master marketer. Was chatting with him, Bob bitcoin and future prices… Which had me thinking,

Maybe the next step for me to do things is to promote bitcoin, financial independence, freedom, etc.?

I told him that I’m currently 100% invested and vested in Bitcoin, and I told him very blank face that when bitcoin hits $10 million a bitcoin or $21 million a bitcoin in 20 years… My face didn’t even flinch.

the very simple economic strategy

Michael Saylor has this notion of being a “triple maxi”– triple (Bitcoin) maximalist. The basic idea is pour 100% of your money your income your life savings into bitcoin, and enjoy the ride!

For myself, my simple economic strategy is this:

Retire today, by becoming so insanely frugal, Spartan, sexy style.

I’ll give you example… What is the best outfit? Being naked! Second best, being shirtless and topless. Third best, being topless just in the speedo at the beach, Venice Beach muscle Beach, lifting like Arnold in his prime.

Who did Arnold want to become?

I thought that I always think to myself, is whenever there is somebody that you look up to, or somebody you desire to emulate or whatever… Seeking their heroes. 

For example, I know that Steve Jobs looked up to Edwin land, the inventor of the Polaroid camera. Also Steve Jobs really love the music of Bob Dylan, he had all the bootleg copies in the early days.

Jay Z was inspired by Afrika Bambaata. Kanye was inspired by Lauryn Hill and André 3000

“I wasn’t inspired since Lauryn Hill retired, and three stacks (a stack means a thousand, so three stacks is 3000– Andre 3000), man you’re speaking to the choir!” – Kanye

Everything you heard about me is true and legendary

NASSIM TALEB also has a notion, when it comes to quotes.  Reading his short book on aphorisms, THE bed of Procrustes, essentially, if you think about ancient literature in the past, there are tons of things which are quotable. But, nowadays, nothing or nobody is quotable anymore.

I’m starting to think… Maybe the true mark of successive a thinker, philosopher, innovator entrepreneur etc. is thinking on a 20, 30 or 40 year timeline … whether this person will be quoted or not anymore.

I’ll give you example… When I was starting off in photography and street photography, there was a bunch of other famous photographers around me, none of them has lasted besides me. Their problems:

1. Not owning their own platform
2. Being almost 100% reliant on Flickr, which is now effectively dead (this is what is going to happen to Instagram, already right now with TikTok and other weird stuff coming on.)
3. Chasing abstract notions of legitimacy, in the real world in the art world etc. Although of them a bunch of insecure losers.

So now what?

The reason why I am all about the 100% pedestrian lifestyle, is that when you are in the flesh, a flesh bound human being, face-to-face when they’re not a human being, you can weigh yourself better.

For example, when you are stuck on the 10 or the 405 or local traffic… any skinny fat loser in a loser Range Rover or loser AMG G wagon can honk at you from behind. And it doesn’t matter if they are 4 feet tall, and they weigh 500 pounds.  or they are handicapped in a wheelchair, driving a Rolls-Royce or a Lamborghini. You never know until they pop out of the car!

In fact, typically what I have observed is people who drive very very impressive cars, tend to be old, weak, some sage on their skinny pale legs, old and fat, baseball hat etc.

And not to berate anybody but, ultimately, you want to look like Brad Pitt in fight club but on steroids… Like the ERIC Kim aesthetic — Adonis style.

 Your body don’t lie

Some observations:

First,  don’t trust any older bald guys. Why? The big issue here is that a lot of guys who look really really buff and jacked and muscular, with swell biceps, and a swole chest,  but bald and older… Or maybe they are bald but have an impressive beard, are either on steroids or have used steroids, or they injecting their butt hole with extrogenous testosterone etc. 

Now the problem here is the truth be told, we always weigh ourselves comparing ourselves to other human beings. Whether we like it or not. 

For example, when it comes to weightlifting, weights and numbers… It is all relative. The same goes with height. And wealth. Everything.

For example, is it better to be the person with the cheapest home in Beverly Hills, or is it better to be the richest person living in Inglewood?

Or, is it best to be the richest person in Malaysia, or a semi successful person in America?

I used to think that 4 plates was a lot. Then 5 plates, then six plates, then seven plates, then eight plates,… actually the seven plate limit is the critical one here, then the nine plates, then the 10 plates, then my infamous thousand pound lift, which is 10 plates in a 25 and I think of five strapped on each side.

But technically, if I then compare myself with these 7 feet steroids out monsters, in the strongman competitions, like Hafthor and thelike… Lifting 502kg deadlifts, which is 1200 pounds…  that my numbers are very very small. But if I compare myself with any typical gym goer, even a powerlifters… I am a god in the flesh.

So why does this all matter?

What is the most valuable thing on the planet earth? Ideas. Ideas are weightless, not bound by the laws of physics, and infinitely anti-fragile.

Even some interesting thoughts is that ideas, when they catch on like wildfire, or like a virus, and people remember the ideas inside their head… This is something you cannot strip out of them.

What is it all we desire?

When I was reading a lot of Nietzsche, he used this word a lot called ”desiradata” or “desiridatum”– I can never really figure out what it meant, but I think what it means is the thing desired.

Like an object, or a concept or an idea that you desire.

Now this is important because  this is what shapes a lot of our lives. For example, what is the new modern day desire, at least the new modern day millennial desire? Maybe to own a single-family home, to be super rich, travel the world, go to Japan, eat good omakase sushi etc — and or maybe, having no children, maybe or maybe not getting married, having a dog, etc.

Or, being this weird Playboy traveling the world, no obligations, just sleeping with beautiful babes, no pregnancies or STDs, driving around in your Lamborghini with the scissor doors, being a super cool guy, etc.?

True desires vs artificial desires

So my general notion of a true desire versus an artificial one has to deal with maybe media marketing societal pressures etc. For example, let us think about the notion of the desire to own property, a single-family home, or worse, a condo. Where does this desire come from, how did it get propagated, etc.?

First, we think historically… I think the whole American notion of having a single-family home that you own is kind of a post World War II concept. The basic idea was after our boys come home from the long war, they deserve to have a nice home in the suburbs, purchase their dream Mustang or Corvette, or stingray… Whatever it may be, and then live a happy family life, picket fence, nice lawn and green grass, 2.2 kids, a dog a nice garage etc.…

Certainly if we think historically, this is a modern day shift because if we think about ancient Greece, we think about Hector versus Achilles, the Iliad etc — or even the Odyssey.,, and Odysseus,,, the desires were different.

For example, what is it that Achilles desired? To take Breisis, his prize, and sail back to his fertile lands, and essentially just chill out and retire from war. What is it that Hector wanted? Simply defending Troy, his people, his wife and his newborn son, which apparently after the fall of Troy, it might’ve been Odysseus or Ajax or one of the Greek heroes who, afraid that one day the child of Hector would avenge his father‘s death, threw this poor baby boy off the walls to his untimely death.

Pitiless bronze, the ancient Greeks were cruel 

Something which is very shocking to read in the Iliad, the ancient texts of Homer, is how cruel and pitiless they were. 
For example, we modern, we have too much sympathy, too much empathy, too much pity. For example, the modern day American soldier, assuming he kills a bad guy somewhere in the Middle East, might feel bad about it and it might haunt his nightmares in his dreams. Because the average American is still raised on notions of Christian protestant to Jesus morality. That killing anybody, even if you are “in the right” is bad and evil.

However the ancient Greek heroes and champions, had no pity, and would in fact after killing people or about to kill people… Taunt them, boast, brag, and do really terrible things. For example even Hector wanted to chop off the head of Patroclus and feed his head and his body to the dogs of Troy. And even Achilles, after he avenges Patroclus, does one of the most disrespectful things of all time, which is taking the body the dead body of hector, maybe piercing or tying his back legs to the back of his chariot, and just essentially doing laps around Troy, dismembering the dead body of Hector.

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No more goals? 

I’m starting to think… Perhaps the whole notion of a goal is bad.

For example, if you think about sports… Do you think about soccer, what is it that people seek? To score a goal!

But the problem is in the context of the real world, there is no such thing as a goal. Or a goalie, or a striker.

“Just because there is goalkeeper doesn’t mean you can’t score!”

For example, I’m starting to think the notion of records, goals, personal record etc., is bad.

Why? All competition is bad competition. What is it that Achilles wanted? Not competition… He already knew he was the strongest! And everyone else knew it!

Also Hector… Very simple, defending his people! Super simple.

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What would Achilles do

Also, what wouldn’t Achilles do?

***

Radical ideas

OK… Assuming that this might be the most interesting email newsletter on the planet… Some interesting radical ideas:

First, let us assume that I snapped a finger, and I could predict with 100% accuracy that in 20 years, by the time Seneca becomes 21… There will be no more email. Obviously we will have it, but no one will really check it… Kind of like letters in the mail, 99% of it is spam.

Nobody likes physical mail anymore… And even now… Nobody likes electronic mail, digital mail.

I have a very simple solution, just make a cost a single Satoshi to send an email, or a message or digital message, as a consequence, people will think twice about sending a message to you or not.

This is really the secret to fixing spam, getting rid of spam etc. We don’t need more Gmail or Gemini in our lives… We just need a new system, a new node, a new paradigm shift.

Satoshi is the way  

so are you buying bitcoin yet?

Keep stacking them sats (satoshis).

Maybe I should become the first bitcoin rapper?

Bitcoin rap
Don’t wrap your stacks
Don’t buy the Maybach, the fake Benz
See laser eyes, Michael Saylor vision lens.

Haha so fire so lit!

---

Send emails, email newsletters that you would like to read! 

Nobody ever opens up their inbox and says wow, I am so glad that I opened up my inbox, and I am so happy that I read that thing.

The problem is with email… Everyone is trying to sell you something or funnel you into one day buying something. But what if the creator, once they become independently wealthy bitcoin millionaires, and they’re just having fun, they just want to send you messages because they want you to have fun too? Maybe this is ERIC KIM effect.

ERIC KIM

As an experiment I’m gonna just start introducing myself like James Bond. Kim, ERIC KIM.

I believe this forever, that your first name and last name is your ultimate asset. For example, the genius that Cindy helped me purchase erickim.com, for about $1000 in 2017… I’m sure that name is now worth at least 100,000. Even my email eric@erickim.com — so clean, so succinct!

Your first and last name

Ryan Holiday — such a good name! Tim Ferriss, Tony Robbins, Guy Kawasaki– Aldi’s very successful modern day entrepreneurs, all first and last names!

ELON MUSK, KANYE WESR, JAY Z, BEYONCÉ ETC.

Even impressive… You know that Beyoncé is influential once the Apple keyboard automatically adds the accent mark to Beyoncé.

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Think telos

A new thought I am having in regards to weightlifting… I should be all about every single time, superseding my previous personal record. That every single time I lifted, my simple goal was to increase my one repetition maximum, 2.5 pounds on each side of the barbell, every single time.

Now, my new thought is just every single day, just lift something, just do something. No more need for there to be a plan, even an ethos; the goals to just do something. No more optimization!

ERIC

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Becoming the uber-street photographer:

MASTER THE STREETS:

 ERIC KIM CHATGPT BOTS

1. ZEN OF ERIC
2. ERIC KIM BOT

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STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT

Open source:

0. What is Street Photography? (2.4gb) / Download
1. Black and White (2.3gb) / Download
2. How to Shoot Street Photography (2.2gb) / Download
3. Street Portraits 101 (1.9gb) / Download
4. Conquer Your Fears (430mb) / Download
5. Composition (460mb) / Download
6. Masters (107mb) / Download
7. Editing and Post-Processing (1.3gb) / Download
8. Photography Projects (1.4gb) / Download
9. Motivation (3.7gb) / Download

View all >

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Video

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 101

1. How to Become More Stealth in Street Photography
2. HOW TO BECOME A BETTER STREET PHOTOGRAPHER
3. Street Photography Mastery
4. How I Became the Greatest Street Photographer Alive
5. Antifragile Photography
6. How to Conquer Your Fears in Street Photography
7. INSANELY AUDACIOUS AND BOLD
8. 5 Simple Street Photography Techniques
9. STREET PHOTOGRAPHER.
10. The Street Photographer Ideal
11. 50 Street Photography Tips, Techniques and Ideas
12. Street Photography Values
13. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY DOESN’T NEED TO HAVE PEOPLE IN IT.
14. Why Street Photography is So Great
15. WHY BECOME A STREET PHOTOGRAPHER?
16. Society Photography, Not “Street” Photography
17. How to Street Photography
18. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY OPTIONALITY.
19. 10 Street Photography Tips
20. The Street Photographer as the Apex Photographer
21. Street Photography & Adrenaline
22. STREETTOGS STARTING GUIDE
23. 50 Street Photography Tips by ERIC KIM
24. What I Wish I Knew If I Started Street Photography All Over Again
25. Photograph like it’s not a big deal
26. Suburb Street Photography
27. What is Our Personal Motivation Behind Street Photography?
28. WHY I’M SO PASSIONATE ABOUT STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
29. Personal Street Photography
30. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY AS A PRACTICE.
31. Pandemic Street Photography
32. AIRPORT STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
33. How to Shoot Street Photography Right Now
34. Towards a More Independent Street Photography Approach
35. How Street Photography Improves Your Life
36. How to Tell Stories in Your Street Photos
37. Face Street Photography
38. How to Start Shooting Street Photography
39. How to Shoot Street Photography During a Pandemic
40. 7 Street Photography Assignment Ideas

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT

Master street photography with STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT.

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STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 101

If you’re new to street photography, start here:

• The Ultimate Street Photography Tutorial
• Street Photography 101 Tutorial
• 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
• How to Shoot Street Photography

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Brave New Street Photography

• 10 Lessons I’ve Learned from Street Photography
• SKIN IN THE GAME: STREET PHOTOGRAPHY ETHICS
• The Beauty of Mundane Happenings
• Humans and Environments
• Define Street Photography for Yourself
• Street Photography of People You Know
• Street Photography Composition Ideas
• How to Shoot Political Photography
• Social Photography
• Street Photography Lifestyle
• Why Street Photography is So Fun
• Street Photography for Mental Health
• How to Become a Street Photography Sharpshooter
• How to Shoot Kid Street Photography
• STREET PHOTO MANUAL
• Street Photography is an Approach, a Technique, and an Ethos

Street Photographs

1. How to Shoot Street Photography with Dads and Kids
2. HOW I BECAME SUCH A GREAT STREET PHOTOGRAPHER
3. Use Quarantine as an Opportunity to Pick up Film Photography
4. Hong Kong Street Photography by ERIC KIM

Street Photography Philosophy

• Brave New Street Photographer
• How to Talk to Strangers
• How to Shoot More Dynamic Street Photographs
• WHY I LOVE ARCHITECTURE AND STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
• Why Street Photography Brings Me So Much Joy
• How to Shoot Street Photography Video
• How to Shoot Street Photography in the Brave New COVID World
• The Future for Street Photography
• ALL STREET PHOTOGRAPHS ARE GOOD PHOTOGRAPHS.
• AMERICA by KIM
• Street Photography in a Non-Travel World?
• How to Shoot Street Photography During COVID-19
• You’ve Never Shot Photography Until You’ve Shot Street Photography
• Xenophilia: Love of Strangers
• My Street Photography Philosophy
• Why Street Photography is Important for Society
• HOW STREET PHOTOGRAPHY CAN CHANGE THE WORLD
• STREET PHOTOGRAPHY IS ABOUT LOVING ALL PEOPLE
• Real Life People vs Abstract People
• Is it OK to Piss Off or Annoy People in Photography?
• ANTI PURISM IN STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
• Street Photography of People You Know
• Street Photography is Courage
• MY STREET PHOTOGRAPHY PHILOSOPHY
• Street Photography Motivation from ERIC KIM
• I AM STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
• WHY TALK TO STRANGERS?
• Why Street Photography is Supreme
• How to Make Great Street Photos
• Street Photography Ideas by ERIC KIM
• Why Street Photography?
• The Street Photographer’s Soul
• How to Become a Fearless Street Photographer
• Black and White or Color for Travel Street Photography?
• Street Photographers are Adrenaline Junkies
• How to Master Street Photography
• Almost Anything and Everything is Street Photography
• Advice for Aspiring Street Photographers
• Street Photography Sociology
• Why There’s No Right or Wrong Way to Shoot Street Photography
• The Street Photographer as a Soldier-Artist
• Why Street Photography is the Best Photography
• Street Photography is a Way of Life
• How to Conquer Anxiety
• Street Photography is Art with People

Street Photography Articles

• How to Edit and Sequence a Photography Project
• Practical Street Photography Tips
• 5 Simple Street Photography Assignments
• Street Photography Composition Ideas
• 10 Advanced Street Photography Tips and Techniques
• Daredevil Photography
• Lingering Technique: How to Work the Scene in Street Photography
• Why Photograph People?
• No Guilt in Street Photography
• Street Photography is Hard.
• Street Photography Inspiration
• 5 Simple Tips How to Shoot Better Street Photos
• 10 Super Simple Street Photography Tips
• How to Shoot Head-On in Street Photography
• The Decapitation Technique in Street Photography
• Be Brazen in Street Photography
• How to Shoot Better Street Photographs
• Drive-By Technique in Street Photography
• How to Shoot a Wedding Like a Street Photographer
• Street Photography is 80% Risk Taking!
• 10 Simple Street Photography Principles
• 5 Fundamental Street Photography Principles
• 10 Street Photography Assignment Ideas
• How to Tell Stories in Street Photography

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Street Photography Techniques

• How to Shoot Head-On Street Photography
• Street Photography Composition Tips
• In Praise of Street Vlogging
• How to Shoot Video Street Photography
• Street Photography Technique: The Stalker Technique
• Photography Technique: Take Photos While Walking!
• New Tokyo GoPro Fusion POV Street Photography YouTube Videos
• ERIC KIM Street Photography Tips and Technique
• The 360 Degree Technique in Street Photography
• How to Work the Scene in Street Photography
• How to Shoot Layers and the Bookend Technique in Street Photography
• Street Photography Technique: GET CLOSE & FILL THE FRAME + GOLDEN DIAGONAL COMPOSITION
• Street Photography Techniques: The 3D Scan/360 Degree Technique (Shooting Head-on) and Holding Your Camera High in the Air and Point Downwards (and Use Your LCD Screen to Frame the Scene)
• The Walking Alongside Someone and Shooting Until They Notice You Street Photography Technique
• SUPER INNOVATIVE NEW GOPRO STREET PHOTOGRAPHY POV EXPERIENCE: Cutoff Technique, Shooting Head-on with Flash, and Slow-Motion on RICOH GR II at 28mm
• How to Shoot a Street Portrait: Tips, Technique, and GoPRO POV Tutorial
• Street Photography Technique/Composition: Leading Lines and Crouching Down Low
• How to Shoot Layers in Street Photography: GoPRO POV Video Composition Tutorial
• How to Shoot Street Photography with a 24mm Lens
• The Cutoff Technique in Street Photography
• THE CUTOFF TECHNIQUE IN STREET PHOTOGRAPHY: GOPRO POV KYOTO ERIC KIM

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Street Photography Ideas

• Street Photography is Like Fishing
• Why Do We Feel Nervous Shooting Street Photography?
• Street Photography Philosophy
• Everyday Street Photography
• Why Street Photography?
• Why You Must Follow Your Own Voice in Street Photography
• How to Overcome Guilt in Street Photography
• 5 Dynamic Off-Center Street Photography Compositions
• 5 Night Street Photography Composition Tips
• How to Talk to Strangers
• How to Overcome Fear in Street Photography
• Street Photography Empowerment
• Eric Kim’s Top 30 Street Photography Tips
• How to Shoot Street Photography on a 35mm Lens
• 7 Tips How to Conquer Your Fears of Shooting Street Photography
• Street Photography Lifestyle
• How to Use Tactful Flattery in Street Photography
• How to Conquer Social Anxiety With Street Photography
• Street Photography Secrets Debunked
• 10 Dynamic Street Photography Tips
• The Benefits of Shooting Street Photography
• The Street Photography Manifesto
• My Experience Shooting Digital Medium Format in Street Photography
• Why Do You Feel Guilty Shooting Street Photography?
• Improvise in Street Photography
• Ethics in Street Photography

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Street Photography Composition Techniques

• 10 Inspirational Sergio Larrain Compositions
• 5 Henri Cartier-Bresson Photography Composition Lessons
• Street Photography Technique: Overlap
• Street Photography Composition Lesson: Chunking
• The Fishing Technique in Street Photography

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STREET NOTES.

Push yourself out of your comfort zone with STREET NOTES: Mobile Edition.

STREET NOTES PAPER EDITION ON AMAZON >

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LEARN FROM THE MASTERS OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Timeless wisdom from the masters of street photography.

Learn more about MASTERS >

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FUNDAMENTALS OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

• The Psychology of Street Photography
• Fundamentals to Street Photography
• How to Conquer Fear in Street Photography
• Street Photography Secrets
• NEO STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
• Street Photography Lenses
• Street Photography Settings
• Street Photography Techniques
• Street Photography Ideas
• CLOSER.
• CLEAN BACKGROUND

Street Photography Inspiration

• How to Enter the Street Photography Zone
• Simple Street Photography Tips
• How to Defuse Confrontations in Street Photography 
• How to Make Controversial Street Photographs
• Street Photography Project Ideas
• How to Make Good Street Photos
• Is Defining “STREET PHOTOGRAPHY” a Good Thing?
• STREET PHOTOGRAPHY “RULES” TO BREAK
• Walking Meditation in Street Photography
• 10 COMMANDMENTS OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
• Street Photography is Improvisation
• In Praise of Randomness in Street Photography
• How to Become a Fearless Photographer
• How to Make Better Street Photographs
• 12 ERIC KIM Street Photography Assignments
• Meaningful Street Photography
• 25 Street Photography Tips by ERIC KIM

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Beginner Street Photography Articles

Get started in street photography:

Definitions in Street Photography

• Visual Sociology Street Photography
• Why Street Photography?
• What is Street Photography?
• Why Shoot Street Photography?
• The History of Street Photography

How to Shoot Street Photography

• How to Shoot Street Photography
• Street Portraits 101 by ERIC KIM
• The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Street Photography
• 70 Street Photography Tips for Beginners
• 15 Street Photography Techniques and Tips
• A Letter to My 18 Year Old Self: If I Started Street Photography All Over Again

Street Photography Equipment

• What is the Best Camera for Street Photography?
• What is the Best Lens for Street Photography?
• What to Consider When Buying a Camera

See all equipment articles >

How to Conquer Your Fears in Street Photography

• How to Conquer Your Fears in Life
• Shoot What You’re Afraid Of
• How to Channel Your Fear into Bravery

See all articles to conquer your fears >

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Intermediate Street Photography Articles

Take your street photography to the next level:

• How to Become a Stoic Street Photographer
• The 10 Principles of Good Street Photography
• 7 Tips How to Capture “The Decisive Moment” in Street Photography
• The Importance of Social Skills in Street Photography
• The Street Photography Code of Ethics
• “Taking” vs “Making” Photos in Street Photography
• Follow Your Gut in Street Photography
• 10 Reasons Why You Should Never Chimp While Shooting Street Photography

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Advanced Street Photography Articles

Find deeper meaning in your street photography:

• How to Master Street Photography
• How to Be a Zen Street Photographer
• Personal Street Photography
• The “Bookend” Technique in Street Photography
• Street Photography is Self-Therapy
• Zen in the Art of Street Photography
• Taoism and Street Photography
• How to Find Your Style in Street Photography
• Follow Your Gut in Street Photography

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Street Photography Tips & Technique

Learn how to shoot on the streets:

• 70 Street Photography Tips for Beginners
• 15 Street Photography Techniques and Tips
• Flash Street Photography Guide
• Take More Risks
• Don’t Think About Composition When You’re Shooting Street Photography
• 7 Tips How to Capture “The Decisive Moment” in Street Photography
• 7 Tips How to Make a Great Street Photograph
• Tokyo Street Photography Contact Sheets
• Video: Why it is Important to “Work the Scene” in Street Photography
• Shoot Less, Better
• Make Shitty Photos
• Shoot Effortlessly
• 10 Tips for Candid Street Photography
• 103 Lessons I’ve Learned From Street Photography

See all street photography tips and techniques >

Street Photography Guides

In-depth guides on street photography:

• How to Shoot Candid Street Photography
• How to Shoot Street Portraits with Permission
• How to Shoot Black and White Street Photography
• How to Shoot Color Street Photography
• How to Shoot Street Portraits with Permission
• How to Shoot Layers in Street Photography
• How to Shoot Urban Landscapes

Street Photography Equipment

The best equipment for street photography:

• What is the Best Camera for Street Photography?
• What is the Best Lens for Street Photography?
• Why I Love Cameras with Non-Interchangeable Lenses
• The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide for Cameras in Street Photography
• What to Consider When Buying a Camera for Street Photography
• In Street Photography, The Smaller the Camera, the Better
• Why Sharpness is Overrated in Street Photography
• How to Shoot Street Photography on a DSLR

See all equipment articles >

Street Photography Editing and Workflow

• Video: Introduction to Editing, Processing, and Workflow in Lightroom
• How to Edit (Choose Your Best Photos) in Street Photography
• How Studying Contact Sheets Can Make You a Better Street Photographer
• Debunking the “Myth of the Decisive Moment”

How to Start a Street Photography Project

• Free E-Book: The Street Photography Project Manual
• How to Start Your Own Street Photography Project
• How to Come Up With a Personal Photography Project Idea

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Learn From the Masters of Street Photography

“He without a past has no future.”

Start here:

1. Why Study the Masters of Photography?
2. Great Female Master Photographers
3. Cheat Sheet of the Masters of Photography
4. 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
5. Beginner’s Guide to the Masters of Street Photography
6. Download All Articles >

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The Masters of Photography

Classics never die:

• Alfred Stieglitz
• Alec Soth
• Alex Webb
• Alexey Brodovitch
• Anders Petersen
• Andre Kertesz
• Ansel Adams
• Araki
• Blake Andrews
• Bruce Davidson
• Bruce Gilden
• Constantine Manos
• Daido Moriyama
• Dan Winters
• David Alan Harvey
• David Hurn
• Diane Arbus
• Dorothea Lange
• Elliott Erwitt
• Eugene Atget
• Eugene Smith
• Fan Ho
• Garry Winogrand
• Gordon Parks
• Helen Levitt
• Henri Cartier-Bresson
• Irving Penn
• Jacob Aue Sobol
• Jeff Mermelstein
• Joel Meyerowitz
• Joel Sternfeld
• Josef Koudelka / Part 2
• Josh White
• Lee Friedlander
• Lisette Model
• Magnum Contact Sheets
• Magnum Photographers
• Mark Cohen
• Martin Parr
• Martine Franck
• Mary Ellen Mark
• Rene Burri
• Richard Avedon
• Richard Kalvar
• Robert Capa
• Robert Frank
• Saul Leiter
• Sergio Larrain
• Sebastião Salgado
• Shomei Tomatsu
• Stephen Shore
• The History of Street Photography
• Todd Hido
• Tony Ray-Jones
• Trent Parke
• Vivian Maier
• Walker Evans
• Weegee
• William Eggleston
• William Klein
• Zoe Strauss

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Free Downloads

• Eric Kim Lightroom Presets
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Free Street Photography Books

Distilled information on street photography:

• STREET PHOTOGRAPHY MANUAL by ERIC KIM
• The Art of Street Photography
• 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
• Street Photography Contact Sheets
• Street Photography 101
• Street Photography 102
• Film Street Photography Manual
• The Street Photography Composition Manual
• The Street Portrait Manual
• 31 Days to Overcome Your Fear in Street Photography
• Zen in the Art of Street Photography

For more resources on photography, Start Here >

So ever since I was 16 years old, 18 years old, in college etc.… And beyond, I’ve always been really fascinated about this notion of “lifestyle”– to me it is a pragmatic thing, a combination of pragmatics; being self-employed, being your own boss– funny enough, the notion of “entrepreneur”, wasn’t really even mainstream yet… 

What was my goals as a kid? 

Funny enough I still remember this notion of not wanting to “work for the man” ever since I was a highschooler, and the dream was… To get a high paying job like being a doctor lawyer, and this grand vision and making $100 an hour, just working for a few hours and then just chilling for the rest of the time.

It was quite formative to me, just make a bunch of money for the sake of making a bunch of money was never the goal. And also the desire to purchase property or home or whatever it was also not a virtue or concept instilled on me growing up. We always rented our whole lives… And on average we moved every one to two years, and therefore a consequence, the notion of warning a house wasn’t even a concept.

Also, still in high school, my sense of self pride was strong. I was so insanely proud, 1 million X proud that I was maybe the only person in my whole high school, or anyone I knew… Who actually worked hard for his own money, and bought his own first car! at the age of 15… I think paying $1000 or $1200 for my first car… A very sturdy and reliable 1991 Nissan Sentra SE — a four-door sedan car, five speed manual transmission. Pretty low miles, maybe $100,000 or so? Getting it from Kevin, one of my mom‘s clients at her old sushi restaurant, who was an autumn mechanic in Oakland. 

Anyways I had so much extreme pride to myself in my car. For a kid, the pride and joy of earning your own money and buying the thing you desire, was by far the most valuable thing. Not only that, but the pride that my car was a manual transmission… A five speed, and I had the ability to learn how to drive stick shift myself. Good memories of learning how to drive stick from my uncle Enzo, in the old Navy base in Alameda.

Anyways, I think maybe the problem in today’s world is we lack pride, self pride? And we tend to metric Kate our valor and self-worth via numbers, through 12 education to college and beyond.

For example, in school it is all about the grades, then your GPA, then your test scores, then the rank of your university, then the prestige of your job, then your salary, ones and zeros etc.

And then… When you become an adult, older maybe with kids or whatever, then becomes about your home price. Whether your house is worth 3.1 or $3.2 million, friends and family and random guests who check the proper value of your home on Zillow after the fact, rather than asking you directly.

Anyways, the reason why metrics are a poor measure of oneself is that if you are an 800 pound obese man, you cannot walk, but you are a trillionaire… And you own all the Rolls-Royce and Ferraris on the planet does that make you virtuous? I say no.

Desiredarum

Things to be desired

Also, as a man… What is it that we desire?

For example, I think one of the critical issues here is that men, it looks like there is something I call the Shorty guy syndrome – that Shorty guys will always feel inept, inferior… Because obviously you’re standing and valor is based on your height.

The reason why this is not fair is that it is mostly genetic, and maybe what you were fed as a kid.

For example… My insane gratitude that I was born in America, and raised on eating nothing but meat, Galbi Korean short ribs, and rice. I didn’t eat a single vegetable until I went to college.

As a consequence, I became very very tall, I’m around 5 foot 11… And I think I’m 182 cm tall.

Apparently in America, the average height of a man is only 5 foot seven, 5 foot eight? Even most of the famous actors and celebrities see on television, even Mark Wahlberg I think is only 5‘7“ tall? 

As a consequence, a lot of these Shorty guys end up taking steroids are doing weird stuff to increase the size of their muscles, their biceps, the width of their body, because this is something that could actually be changed with steroids, lifting weights etc. However, you’ve been if you take all the steroids on the planet, and even if you’re a trillionaire, you cannot magically become 5 foot 7 to 6 foot 2.

Even something very shocking… I ChatGPT the height of Donald Trump, and I think he is 6 foot two? 

The reason why I think it is important and critical to search the height of men, whether politicians, fitness celebrities, influencers whatever… Is that whether you like it or not, the tall guys will end up typically have more self-confidence, whereas the short guys will always feel inferior somehow.

Fortunately for myself… I’ve never been insecure about my height. I always knew that I was tall, obviously there were guys were taller than me… But I know that I was still in the “tall” category. And in high school in college… I certainly knew the guys who were short, or on the shorter end.

the Virtues of walking 

I think Plato once said, it is impossible for there to be a beautiful small or short woman. She is very very small and short.

I think there is a genetic biased that we will always prefer taller individuals. In fact, why is it that all the super models are about 5 foot 10 and beyond? Because tallness is a virtue that we all desire!

And also apparently it is pretty common for there to be successful rich Shorty guys who want to marry 6 foot tall supermodels, because they desire their next generation of children to be a lot taller than them. Strategy. As a consequence, the optimization for men is to become maximally rich and successful, and attract the most beautiful tallest babe, and have Beautiful children with them.

Men, older men without any kids are uninteresting. 

George Clooney is a loser, nobody cares about him anymore.

I think the big issue here is that a lot of people, who watched too much media, movies TV shows whatever… End up getting these strange new virtues or desired outcomes.

For example, there is a strange notion of being the most interesting man alive, but, all you do is drink whiskey and hard liquor, brought out your beard, and have sex with beautiful younger babes?

Let us be frank ,,, any man, who is on his deathbed at the age of 90, no children no legacy no nothing… We always end up regretting it.

You cannot end up leaving your Bitcoins to your dog 

Let it say that you die, with your 20 bitcoin or so… Can you leave it behind to your dog? Obviously not.

Even the notion of creating your own charitable foundation seems a little bit superficial… I would put trust in any random administrative person to figure out how to allocate funds, seems that 80% of the funds of a foundation  it’s just staff overhead… Paying the staff in office space of these administrators, who just click around and push around paper.

So a very simple thought for us men… Have at least one kid before you die. It could be a girl or a boy, just not a dog.

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Are you allowed to be anti-dogs?

In two days insanely degenerate world, is it possible for you to be anti-dogs?

I will make the argument that dogs are 10,000 hundred thousand times worse for the planet and the “carbon footprint“, than any child. 

First, there is a chance that your kid can be the one who invented the amazing machine which they really fixes all the climate issues on the planet. Imagine Elon Musk but on steroids. 

Second, it is common for dogs to poop in public, even if the dog owners are quite vigilant. You’ll never see a grown child poop in public, even on the public sidewalk.

Strange purchasing behaviors

Let us also consider that dogs, you had to buy all the strange dog products for dogs and pets and animals, whereas for children they could just eat adult food.

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Better to get sick than to die

One of the critical issues here is that maybe 99.9% of fatalities, which could be prevented to a certain degree is based on driving. Whether somebody hits you and you die, or whether you hit somebody somebody else and you kill somebody, etc.

As a consequence, perhaps you don’t want to die, minimum lifestyle is the supreme lifestyle.

Sometimes people make the other decision of thinking about purchasing a “safe” car, to offset the chance of dying in a car accident. But the strategy is not a good one because rather than buying safety, the more intelligent strategy is just not jump into the car at the first time! 

Why do we try to purchase decisions?

Another foolish thing… We tend to try to buy solutions to our problems. This is the American way. 

But I suppose a greater thing to consider… Is it possible for there to be a global economy which is not dependent on purchasing, advertising and marketing? Possibly —

Don’t think global

The reason why thinking about global, macro economics is not useful is that honestly, even if you became dictator the planet, and you had $100 trillion, whatever… It would be impossible for you to change the current global capitalistic market. Even if you had 100,000,000,000,000 times $100 trillion… You couldn’t do it.

This is where I advocate the simple local approach; change every day behaviors and tactics, rather than trying to change the planet.

 The planet does not need your saving 

A very interesting Taoist thought– to somehow think that the poor planet needs your help is a bit arrogant. The planet will be fine.

I think people who don’t go to church, don’t believe in God, don’t have a religion or whatever… they need some sort of new godhead, something to fasten their world beliefs to, etc. 

But what if I told you… With 100% certainty… That within 30 years there will be somebody who invented an ultra amazing magic machine which magically saves the planet forever? If that were the case… What would be the new direction of your life?

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Or better yet… as Seneca the younger said… what if you are already too rich? 

Wealth

Ever since the time of King Aggamenon, ancient Greeks, even the time of Seneca the younger, men would always lust for more gain. For example, we would want more cattle, more heads of oxen, more sheep, more goats, more tripods of gold, more girls to take as trophies and prizes, more slaves, more weapons armors and spoils of war etc.

Why?

First, I think it is human nature. Certainly if the ancient Greeks and Romans were facing with it… Maybe even the ancient Egyptians… Think about the pharaohs and king Ramses etc.… Certainly there is something in our blood or DNA which dictates this;

Enough is never enough.

However my funny thought:

It’s not a bug, it’s a feature! 

Why? If we easily got satisfied too easily, we would all still probably be in a cave, munching on acorns. No photography, no Internet, no digital photography, no iPad Pros, no bitcoin etc.

For any strange individual who does not think that global capitalism has benefited most people, can you imagine just spending a week without running water, electricity, air conditioning and heating, or even a fan, Wi-Fi, or having a washing machine and dryer? 

Even at our apartment… The in unit washer and dryer died, and we have been without a washer and dryer inside of our apartment, for maybe three or four days now, and it is a huge pain in the ass.

Fortunately we got air-conditioning for the LA heat wave… I feel bad for all these people who don’t have in unit air-conditioning, — no capitalism and consumerism, no air conditioners.

Reaping the upside, snipping the downside

I think in life, money wealth stuff tools equipment etc. have been one of the greatest booms to humanity. However with greater upsides also comes greater downsides.

For example, Elon Musk… Probably the most powerful man on the planet, but … He probably has $1 trillion worth of problems stressors and angst anxiety on his mind.  for example, if you just read Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson… You could see how you do not want to be Elon Musk; all of his troubles anxieties, him waking up randomly in the middle of the night throwing up blood etc. And also, poor lifestyle choices… Parting all night, drinking alcohol, drinking Red Bulls, not good.

In fact, I don’t really trust anybody who drinks alcohol, smokes weed, drinks Red Bull, drinks Coca-Cola or Diet Coke or Coke zero, consumes protein powder or creatine, takes any dietary supplements,  watches television or any streaming platforms, plays video games — pretty much nobody. And certainly nobody who has an Instagram account.

I think the critical issue here is that it is already difficult enough to understand yourself, and you know yourself with 100% precision. It is impossible to lie to yourself, because you have a true memory of everything.

For example, I could say and 100% certainty, that I have never even tried creatine, which was considered the slightly strange thing at the time when I was in college, around 2006. And now I don’t even consume protein powder.

I think the trouble here is that it is difficult to know what people do in private, and being a sociologist, and philosopher, I am always curious about the habits of others because I suppose what I am trying to get at is deriving some sort of greater knowledge or ideas about humanity at large, and obviously what I think and say is not true… They are just artful ideas. 

Thoughts

Honestly it just comes down to an ethos thing. At the age of 36, now having Seneca, age 3 years five months, I’m actually kind of getting into the point that I don’t like to spend money, or I have an allergy to spending money. The only thing I don’t hesitate on purchasing is meat, red meat, Beef lamb etc.… Because this is a nonnegotiable good, I will consume it, and it will make me stronger.

To me, assuming life is a MMRPG, or a game of Diablo, consuming meat, red meat, bone marrow, beef ribs, etc. is almost like my experience points. Is that continue to lift weights, try more difficult variations, and develop my muscles, sinus, joints body etc.… I continue to become stronger, level up, gain skills and skill trees, and also, becomes stronger, more dominant, more fearsome.

Are people intimidated or fearful of me?

I’m starting to think… Maybe I am the level 70 barbarian night or paladin, and everyone else is just like a level two Druid.

I think the hard thing for people is when they see me, and they witness how tall, powerful, jacked, domineering, loud, ratchet, and friendly and unorthodox… They don’t know how to categorize me. And when it is difficult to categorize somebody or put them in a box, you end up feeling small, a bit nervous, because you cannot tame a wild animal. 

For example, growing up in the 510, Alameda Oakland, East Bay as a kid… I graduated from high school in 2006, the whole youth culture was stupid dumb and hyphy, yellow bus retarded, ghost ride the whip, Kram the sneak and E-40, go dumb!

The bay area hyphy movement was really fascinating, because as a highschooler, it instilled me a grand sense of confidence, dancing skills and prowess, and the notion of being able to “go dumb”, was almost like our Maori tribal dance. 

Anyways, also the good thing about the movement was a sense of egalitarianism, and everyone was cool and chill. As a guy, all you needed was a white T-shirt (I bang in my white tee), dark blue jeans, and maybe a pair of all white K Swiss tennis shoes, and you were cool! All kids could afford this. Even me!

But I think now, the problem is everything is becoming too hyper and extreme now. Can you imagine… Going to high school, and some kids in your school wearing $700 Balenciaga sneakers and tennis shoes, and wearing 100 supreme white T-shirts… Certainly this is going to diminish your ego. And the funny thing is that even if you send your kids to a private school, in which There is some sort of uniform dress code, the big issue here is that there will always be someway for kids to try to show off how rich they are, bye having the newest iPhone pro, or even bragging about how rich their parents are, seeing their parents pull up in a Lamborghini Urus to pick them up from school etc.

I think the big problem here is that dominance isn’t and shouldn’t be based on wealth and money. In someways, if you want to get super super rich it is pretty straightforward and easy, get a job as a cyber security person, or work some sort of dirty job, which is also dangerous. Or just buy bitcoin.

Why social hierarchy?

I think on a very very basic primal level, what human seek is some sort of primal dominance, because we seek the fairest mates, to produce the fairest children?

For example, I actually call as a highschooler and a college student… I guess my heart was pretty pure… I was always looking for “wifey material”– I still remember 18 years old, trying to find the woman that I would maybe one day marry and have kids with!

For me, very suspicious and scared of sleeping around, because also being raised in my generation, in the 90s and early 2000s… In school we were taught abstinence, and we were shown all these scary pictures of HIV aids, crabs, STDs STIs, and we were taught that the only 100% way to get safe, and not to die from HIV aids was to just not have sexual intercourse… That even with a condom you were not 100% secure.

Anyways, looking back in hindsight, also being raised Korean American, Roman Catholic, I guess it was good that I never got a girl pregnant, caught a sexually transmitted disease or infection, and that pretty much only had one woman in my life.

I often see all these other guys wasting their lives, chasing women going to Vegas etc. What is the issue? I don’t think they know what they want in life?

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Time

I suppose now that I am dumb rich, I don’t really have to concern myself with money anymore. As a consequence; at this point, it all becomes pure interest, pure passion, pure curiosity… An honest drive?

For example, once you got your bitcoins and they keep appreciating at 55% APR, year-over-year, for the next 40 years… And once you’re a bitcoin is now worth $10 trillion by the age of 67… Then, how do you live your life?

Or let me give you a thought: what if I could tell you that with 100% certainty you could have $10 trillion, at the age of 65. But, from the age of 35 until 65… You have to live as if you’re only earning $20,000 a year. Would you do it?

Spartan economics

The reason I don’t trust any of these skinny fat loser economists is because:

1. None of them have been raised in poverty, most of them come from rich families, trust funds, etc. period
2. Most of them are in terrible physical shape… Look at Warren Buffett… How fat and old and sickly and weak he looks, how are you still consumes Coca-Cola, McDonald’s hamburgers with the bun etc. Or even worse, look at Bill Gates… Look at his beer belly gut, that can instantly kill your boner (Elon Musk tweet)
3. Most of them are divorced from real reality, don’t walk 30,000 steps a day.
4. Both of them have academic appointments somewhere, which means that they have infinite money and resources, irregardless of their opinion, being fed from the fat endowments of Harvard and Yale etc. 

Create your own economics 

My simple economic idea is never spend money on yourself, never buy yourself anything, besides meat.

And the only money you should think about investing is possibly buying yourself some weightlifting equipment, Titan.fitness and Texas power squat bar, but besides this… Nothing is worth it.

Even in the world of photography, honestly all the cameras suck. Cindy and I plan on making a film this December in Vietnam, and we just ordered a Lumix S9 and a 26 mm f8 manual focusing pancake lens, puppy side this, all the other cameras are destined and doomed to die.

Why?

I think the big problem is any digital camera is like an iPhone… It doesn’t matter if you have the newest iPhone Pro, within two or three years, you’re going to get outdated, until you upgrade to the next thing.

Honestly I’m starting to get iPhone, iPhone Pro fatigue at this point… I’m just going to stick with my iPhone SE until it dies. The only other Apple purchase I would probably make is if my iPad Pro M1 chip 11 inch goes totally kaput, then I will buy the newest iPad Pro with the M4 chip, — never ever ever the loser big one, which Steve Jobs would have thrown into the furnace, if he were still alive. 

What do you want to create, make, leave behind after you die?

It seems that my open source, self hosted WordPress.org, long-term vision has really paid off. Why? And also how I deleted loser Instagram in 2017…

In a billion years, I would never have predicted, or even imagined that ChatGPT, searchGPT, DALL-E could be invented… And now that it is here, and working insanely well, I was ahead of the curve, almost 20 years! 

For example, ChatGPT already knows how I talk, my writing style, because the 40,000 or so open source blog posts that I put on the Internet, it has learned and trained from my own open source web data, and now, my legacy will probably last forever.

I have been doing some sort of fun experiments, been doing some sort of strategies, having ChatGPT 4o write blog posts in the voice of ERIC KIM, and it works so well… Even I read it and it sounds about 75% me. I am searching that within 20 years, it might sound about 85 or 95% me…

Essentially I am doing my own Turing test…  I am trying to find out that if I could fool myself! So far no, but it is starting to get pretty shocking and interesting what it can do. 

And also… I think the big problem which a lot of writers creators artist don’t know and understand… They really lack and understanding of what exactly AI, ChatGPT, DALL-E is,,, both from a philosophical perspective, and also a technological perspective…

So maybe… I am so well positioned because  I have the blood of a blogger, the area Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Steve Jobs Kanye West and Jay Z in my blood?

Why being ahead of the curve doesn’t really make sense 

What people do not understand is being ahead of the curve, is not really a good strategy because being ahead the curve… 10 or 20 years, you’re not going to reap the benefits until far later, and or there is a high likelihood that you might not get any benefit at all. 

A very high chance of failure 

For example, all these guys who pioneered the early electric cars, gain no benefit from it… Even Marc Tarpeting who actually started Tesla, it doesn’t seem that he actually reaped that much benefit from starting Tesla, and now, after Elon and Marc had a fallout… It seems that more or less, Elon owns Tesla now. Or at least probably has a majority share.

So my honest appraisal is this: perhaps then, the only real reason to start something make some thing or entrepreneur or something it’s because you really care? Like you really care? Without any sort of material wealth or financial social economic advancement opportunities?

Truth be told… I never really knew that being open source was a good financial strategy, until about eight years after the fact.  And this is the paradox of unorthodox strategies… when you’re doing it, everyone thinks that you’re batshit insane, until 10 or 20 years later, when it is been confirmed that you were right… It always seems so obvious!

For example, when 1 bitcoin was worth $0.00… It might have been a smart strategy to buy $100 worth of bitcoin. My great regret financially, when my roommate Kevin told me to buy some bitcoin maybe even $100 worth, back in my junior year of college, was that 2008? 

Even Satoshi has a quote, it may or may not make sense to get some bitcoin… But if it has a chance that it might take off… It might be a good idea to get some…

And even now, bitcoin almost seems like a no-brainer. The only thing to consider is how to stomach the volatility. This is my very simple strategy:

Buy it and forget it!

Literally use Coinbase to buy your bitcoins, and then when you’re done purchasing it, delete the Coinbase app from your phone, and refuse to ever look at prices… You never want to stare at the face of Medusa. No matter how beautiful she may be!

Like if I told you that the face of Medusa  was literally the most attractive face of a woman known to man, ever possible, times 1000, and she had a perfect body all akin to that of a porn star…  and she was totally 100% butt naked,  all angles… But if you knew that even if you took a peek… You would immediately turn into stone and die… Would you do it? Of course not! You turn on the blinders!

same thing with the sirens… You tie yourself to the mask, and you cover your ears with beeswax! Because you know that even the greatest hero Odysseus cannot control himself!

And I think this is where human wisdom comes in… Knowing your potential pitfalls, and strategizing before hand, that potential bad strategy.

Sample a simple financial tip… Back in Berkeley days, that if I wanted to purchase something above $300 USD… I had to consult Cindy first. Ended up being a very good strategy because I am very bad with money.

---

What is more precious on the planet than your time focus energy, mind space?

Nothing!
ERIC

---




The photographer as capitalist:

Some big ideas:

Incoming!

It looks like I was very wise, the idea of making all my photos open source, full free resolution JPEG images, without any stupid signatures, watermarks, etc.

Open source is the key

Why? What it seems is the secret to winning, is to win long-term.

What that means is on in today’s world, the number one issue is that nobody cares to look at your photos. It even seems difficult now to pay money for people to see your photos! Also in the world of writing, now that I live in Culver City, and I have met a lot of writers, is that the number one critical difficulty is getting anyone to even read your draft!

The new economy?

What I think writers, artist, creators, photographers,  videographers etc.… The number one critical thing is having anyone look at your stuff!

Why do you care what Alex Webb or Bruce Gilden thinks of your photos?

Honestly, my honest thought is a lot of photographers who end up doing magnum photos workshops is because they just want the chance of the opportunity to show their photos and their portfolio to a really famous notable photographer, and they secretly want praise admiration confirmation or acknowledgment that their photos are in fact good!

This is where the whole portfolio review thing is a bit of a scam; why do you care what other people think about your photos? Why don’t you just review your own photos, portfolio review yourself? 

What Satoki Nagata taught me:

First, care about what you think about your own photos.

Photographers also need to pay their rent 

It also seems that a lot of photographers, famous older photographers, do workshops or review photos begrudgingly… In fact, I wonder if Magnum photos actually copied me in doing workshops, and street workshops… because before ERIC KIM, nobody did any street photography workshops, it wasn’t a thing. And therefore whenever I witness anyone who brands a street workshop, certainly they were inspired by ERIC KIM.

ERIC KIM was the first to ever do a street photography workshop, with Thomas Leuthard?

Think JPEG and PDF

Anyways, I still think that JPEG, open source free source, or any sort of file types which are open source are the future. 

For example, I think PDF is actually still very underrated. Why? To make a digital portfolio in a PDF, looks legitimate, and is very easy to transport and share! Also, assuming you have an iPhone or an iPad… To AirDrop your photos via PDF to someone else via airdrop is very easy, and also… to just store your PDF portfolios and photos in your iCloud Books library is very good!

Use Apple Books!

Never sell your rights

Own your own intellectual property

The number one critical mistake that anyone, any artist ever does is sell their rights, they often sell their rights to their intellectual property whether it be books, movies cinema, concepts ideas etc., and it seems that in the long run, intellectual property, creative property is the most valuable asset? 

Why did they sell the Matrix concept?

For example, the Wachowski’s who I think essentially sold their Matrix concept to Warner Bros. discovery, … maybe they did the wrong trade. The Matrix might be the best concept the last 20 years, if the wochowskis owned the rights to the matrix concept, they would probably be billionaires now. But now, they are nobodies. 

Writers

So one critical mistake that a lot of people do in the world of writing, is they try so hard to be successful, and finally they sell their script for let’s say $100,000 or $200,000 or whatever… and then the concept becomes a screaming win, and after they put a down payment on a humble condo, they got nothing.

This is where it is wise to think long-term. I would rather be a long-term billionaire or millionaire, rather than a short term $500,000naie.

Never sell the rights!

---

I promise, I’m so self conscious

100% of everybody cares about what other people think about them. It is human nature! If you 0% don’t care about what other people think, either you have Asperger’s or autism. 

In fact, typically people who get diagnosed with Asperger, or low-key autism, end up becoming the insanely successful entrepreneurs. Why? They don’t care about others, what others think about them etc.!

Even Elon Musk, when he did his Saturday night life gig, said that he was the first person to present, who had Asperger, or at least admitted it!

But anyways, the useful thing to consider is that everybody cares about what other people think about them. And it is a good thing. Because everything is judged based on human sociological comparison and weighing.

So for example we photographers, obviously we care about what other people think about our photos, but why? Towards what ends? And what are we trying to prove to who?

ERIC

---

Real human Feedback

Real humans, not bots:

Upload your photos to arsbeta.com >

---

ERIC KIM OPEN SOURCE PHILOSOPHY

Eric Kim’s Open-Source Resources:

1. Street Photography Starter Kit

This comprehensive kit includes several essential resources for street photographers:

• “What is Street Photography?” (2.4 GB)
• “Black and White” (2.3 GB)
• “How to Shoot Street Photography” (2.2 GB)
• “Street Portraits 101” (1.9 GB)
• More resources on composition, editing, and more.

Download Links
Source: Eric Kim Photography Blog oai_citation:4,OPEN SOURCE DOWNLOADS – ERIC KIM

2. Free Open-Source eBooks

Eric Kim offers numerous free eBooks covering a variety of street photography topics:

• “100 Lessons from the Masters of Street Photography”
• “31 Days to Overcome Your Fear of Shooting Street Photography”
• “Street Photography Contact Sheets Volume I & II”

Download eBooks
Source: Eric Kim Photography Blog oai_citation:3,FREE Open-Source ERIC KIM Stock Photographs – ERIC KIM

3. Free Online Street Photography Course

A complete online course titled “All the World’s a Stage: Introduction to Street Photography” is available for free. It includes:

• Basics of street photography
• History and key figures
• Aesthetics and shooting techniques

Course Outline and Resources
Source: Eric Kim Photography Blog oai_citation:2,Free Open-Source Online Street Photography Course: “All the World’s a Stage: Introduction to Street Photography” – ERIC KIM

4. Free Lightroom Presets

Eric Kim also shares free Lightroom presets to help photographers achieve his signature style:

• Black and white presets
• Minimalist color presets

Download Lightroom Presets
Source: Eric Kim Photography Blog oai_citation:1,OPEN SOURCE – ERIC KIM

---

Also

BOOKS

START HERE

PRODUCTS

WORKSHOPS

---

Shoot today!
ERIC

---

PHOTOGRAPHY ENTREPRENEURSHIP 101

Eric Kim’s Most Influential Entrepreneurship Articles and Quotes

1. How to Think Like an Entrepreneur

This article emphasizes that entrepreneurship is more about mindset than business. Kim highlights the importance of taking risks, embracing failures as learning opportunities, and balancing passion with financial stability.
Source: Eric Kim Photography Blog oai_citation:4,ERIC KIM HOW TO THINK LIKE AN ENTREPRENEUR – ERIC KIM

2. The Point of Life is Entrepreneurship?

Kim delves into the idea of entrepreneurship as a lifelong experiment of self-development. He discusses the importance of continuous innovation, risk-taking, and using entrepreneurship as a tool for personal growth.
Source: Eric Kim Photography Blog oai_citation:3,The Point of Life is Entrepreneurship? – ERIC KIM

3. Entrepreneurship Quotes

This compilation of quotes showcases Kim’s core beliefs about entrepreneurship, including the virtues of pride, thinking differently, and cross-pollination of interests to foster unique ideas.
Source: Eric Kim Photography Blog oai_citation:2,ERIC KIM Entrepreneurship QUOTES – ERIC KIM

4. How I Became So Influential

In this piece, Kim shares his journey to becoming influential, discussing the importance of innovation, embracing dissatisfaction as motivation, and the philosophy of continuous improvement in entrepreneurship.
Source: Eric Kim Photography Blog oai_citation:1,How I became so influential – ERIC KIM

---

EK BLOG >

The photographer as capitalist:

Some big ideas:

Incoming!

It looks like I was very wise, the idea of making all my photos open source, full free resolution JPEG images, without any stupid signatures, watermarks, etc.

Open source is the key

Why? What it seems is the secret to winning, is to win long-term.

What that means is on in today’s world, the number one issue is that nobody cares to look at your photos. It even seems difficult now to pay money for people to see your photos! Also in the world of writing, now that I live in Culver City, and I have met a lot of writers, is that the number one critical difficulty is getting anyone to even read your draft!

The new economy?

What I think writers, artist, creators, photographers,  videographers etc.… The number one critical thing is having anyone look at your stuff!

Why do you care what Alex Webb or Bruce Gilden thinks of your photos?

Honestly, my honest thought is a lot of photographers who end up doing magnum photos workshops is because they just want the chance of the opportunity to show their photos and their portfolio to a really famous notable photographer, and they secretly want praise admiration confirmation or acknowledgment that their photos are in fact good!

This is where the whole portfolio review thing is a bit of a scam; why do you care what other people think about your photos? Why don’t you just review your own photos, portfolio review yourself? 

What Satoki Nagata taught me:

First, care about what you think about your own photos.

Photographers also need to pay their rent 

It also seems that a lot of photographers, famous older photographers, do workshops or review photos begrudgingly… In fact, I wonder if Magnum photos actually copied me in doing workshops, and street workshops… because before ERIC KIM, nobody did any street photography workshops, it wasn’t a thing. And therefore whenever I witness anyone who brands a street workshop, certainly they were inspired by ERIC KIM.

ERIC KIM was the first to ever do a street photography workshop, with Thomas Leuthard?

Think JPEG and PDF

Anyways, I still think that JPEG, open source free source, or any sort of file types which are open source are the future. 

For example, I think PDF is actually still very underrated. Why? To make a digital portfolio in a PDF, looks legitimate, and is very easy to transport and share! Also, assuming you have an iPhone or an iPad… To AirDrop your photos via PDF to someone else via airdrop is very easy, and also… to just store your PDF portfolios and photos in your iCloud Books library is very good!

Use Apple Books!

Never sell your rights

Own your own intellectual property

The number one critical mistake that anyone, any artist ever does is sell their rights, they often sell their rights to their intellectual property whether it be books, movies cinema, concepts ideas etc., and it seems that in the long run, intellectual property, creative property is the most valuable asset? 

Why did they sell the Matrix concept?

For example, the Wachowski’s who I think essentially sold their Matrix concept to Warner Bros. discovery, … maybe they did the wrong trade. The Matrix might be the best concept the last 20 years, if the wochowskis owned the rights to the matrix concept, they would probably be billionaires now. But now, they are nobodies. 

Writers

So one critical mistake that a lot of people do in the world of writing, is they try so hard to be successful, and finally they sell their script for let’s say $100,000 or $200,000 or whatever… and then the concept becomes a screaming win, and after they put a down payment on a humble condo, they got nothing.

This is where it is wise to think long-term. I would rather be a long-term billionaire or millionaire, rather than a short term $500,000naie.

Never sell the rights!

---

I promise, I’m so self conscious

100% of everybody cares about what other people think about them. It is human nature! If you 0% don’t care about what other people think, either you have Asperger’s or autism. 

In fact, typically people who get diagnosed with Asperger, or low-key autism, end up becoming the insanely successful entrepreneurs. Why? They don’t care about others, what others think about them etc.!

Even Elon Musk, when he did his Saturday night life gig, said that he was the first person to present, who had Asperger, or at least admitted it!

But anyways, the useful thing to consider is that everybody cares about what other people think about them. And it is a good thing. Because everything is judged based on human sociological comparison and weighing.

So for example we photographers, obviously we care about what other people think about our photos, but why? Towards what ends? And what are we trying to prove to who?

ERIC

---



I don’t know why, yesterday I guess I walked a lot with Seneca, now that Seneca is giving heavier and heavier… I guess my leg muscles are continuing to adapt and develop.

Today, waking up…  feeling insane vigor and strength in my legs. It feels so good!

Godlike thighs

Currently reading the Emily Wilson translation of the Elliott, and there’s this nice scene in which Ares, the God of war slaps both of his thighs.  It was such a great visual, because I know exactly what that feels like! 

Why the cult of the upper body?

Assuming that your penis in your balls are connected to your Laura after your body… I have a funny theory that if you actually want to increase your manliness, your testosterone, or dominance… Logical option is to 100% focus on strengthening your legs, 1000X.

For example, in the world of bodybuilding, weightlifting, etc.… When you get to the Mr. Olympia levels, the crème de la crème of weight lifting and bodybuilding,  it comes down to your wheels, your legs!

In fact, this is something that I witnessed that almost 100% of the guys at the gym don’t have… Impressive legs!

Remember… When I was still at my old commercial gym, I was doing my normal weightlifting thing, and in the freeway section, there was only one young woman, who randomly asked me “are you a swimmer?” I then said no, why? She said to me “your thighs and legs are massive!” a lot of the other guys at the gym witnessed this, and heard it… I think they were all secretly envious and jealous of me.

start from the bottom up

OK… Another thing that was very interesting is that in the Elliott… Some of the ways that the ancient Greek heroes are described as having insanely strong feet and hands.

A very simple thought to strengthen your feet is to go barefoot as much as humanly possible, or the simple vibram five finger shoes.  walk around with a 60 pound weight vest, and also do types of weightlifting which involve lifting barefoot while standing up! This could be a rack pull, deadlift walk, atlas lift,  farmer’s carries, etc.

Also, the easiest way to strengthen your hands is by not using these weekly straps, and just using plain old chalk, either the powdery stuff or the liquid chalk, both are good, actually the liquid chalk gives you better grip, – and start training your hands to lift heavy dumbbells, barbell, etc.… If you’re using a barbell, for the heavier weights start to use a mixed grip.

For example, even a simple exercise that I did for a while at my old gym was Farmer’s carries with the 150 pound dumbbells, which were the highest or the most heavy dumbbells at the time. Or when I went to the Gold gym Venice Beach… The famous one I conquer the golden 330 pound dumbbells quite easily; just use chalk, and lift up the dumbbells a single 330 pound dumbbell with two hands. Assuming that you could double lift over four plates five plate six plate seven plates eight plates… to lift up a 330 pound dumbbell, especially if it is in between your legs like a sumo lift position, using both hands, and chalk, is actually pretty easy. For a while I was doing the duck walks with it, just as a form of fun training exercises. Unannounced to me, apparently I went viral twice over when some random people were recording me doing it. 

SWAT TRAINING

Kind of a random idea… About adaptation etc.

So, one of my new ideas is this notion of tactical training. For example… I bought this pair of shorts from ten thousand.cc, which are actually not very good they already got ripped at the waistband,  but I was certainly suckered by the marketing, because they were branded as “tactical“ shorts.

There’s this really great scene in John Wick, which I plan on re-watching again… In which he goes to the Somalier, and  one he is getting strapped up and equipped up… There’s this great dialogue and talking in which the Somalier asks John Wick — what occasion? And when he is making his suit jacket, he asks what kind of material to use, and he says “tactical”– so gangsta! Wick essentially gets a suit jacket made, that has built in Kevlar, and he uses as a mini shield, with his suit jacket when he is doing gunfights etc. 
Anyways, I think the whole modern day notion of tactical is very fascinating to me because thinking about king Leonidas and the Spartan 300, the battle of Thermopylae, the hot gates, and also modern day times… What is it that we modern day men lack? War, warfare, battle, Physical valor!

And don’t get at me with these pussy guns. Having a gun makes you a coward. It makes your dick size smaller.  I actually would like this alternate universe in which let us say I snapped my fingers, and men, grown men… If we got into arguments or whatever, we could do it like Brad Pitt fight club style… No guns no knives, no weapons, just your bare fists. And you just have two dudes getting a ring, topless, and just battle it out. 

Boxing

I actually think boxing is quite virtuous, assuming that both parties are wearing gloves, and a protective helmet thing. Why? I think two men often have a disagreement or inimical feeling towards one another, especially when it comes through high school guys were going through puberty or whatever… Just have them let them box it out seems like a good idea.

For example, even when it comes to these technology Titans like Elon musk and… I would love to see them just get into a boxing match together. To see who has the more valor.

American football

One thing that people do not know about ERIC KIM is that I played American football softball junior year, first playing outside linebacker, then my junior year inside linebacker, starting.

Ever since I was a kid, in Bayside Queens New York, I always wanted to become the strongest, the most dominant, the most monstrous. I was the strongest out of all my friends, and everybody knew it.

Anyways, in high school… I then had interest in trying to do the most mainly sport, which was bar none American football. But funny enough, I almost had no idea the rules of American football, and this is also another funny thing I will teach you:

The real players don’t actually fully know how the game is played.

For example, I played defense, because I like to tackle, and I was a tough mofo. I started off as outside linebacker because I had no experience, and then once I proved to my coaches that I was hard and strong, I became middle linebacker my junior year, starting, would call the plays etc. 

KILL!

Anyways, it does put chest on your hair, for example, I remember the first time I ever had to practice doing a kick off, it was probably the most unnatural, fearful thing of all… Essentially You kicked the ball, and it goes down the field… And then a guy on the other side grabs it, and you have two parties, battle armor, sprinting at one another for 100% speed… And when the guy with the ball is trying to penetrate the other side, what he does is he grabs the ball like a child, with two arms protecting it, and then dips his head and his helmet and his body is super super low, and what do you have to do as the other side is to also get super super low, to try to get under him, and then you take on this full on collision, and tackle him.

Two things:

 first, this is very unnatural, and insanely frightening. Why? Once again, it is not natural to sprint and another guy in full battle armor, and you in full battle armor, and collide head on. The risk of injury is high, even with protective equipment.

Not only that, it does take a lot of physical courage, and also mental courage. For example, you have to trust your own strength, your own skill, your own valor.

I suppose my only regret is I wish I played varsity football my senior year, but my tennis coach, who I respect is my Mr. Miyagi, coach Greg Lowe discourage me from playing football because he thought it would be a distraction to playing varsity doubles tennis, in which I also played in high school, and was number one on the team.

Anyways, I think it is wise to have kids, boys, men, young men etc. engaging some sort of physical combat, training, wrestling exercises, boxing, whatever.

Why? True manliness, true courage cannot be divorced from physical reality.

For example, certainly mental courage, is very important. And also having the courage to speak your mind, even though the whole world may hate you for it. 

Or also the courage about Rosa Parks, sitting in front of the bus, and refusing to get up.

Anyways, I think the big issue in today’s world is we have deferred courage into the realm of video games, and other silly things, which are not connected to embodied physical reality.

I was even thinking about it… Tennis, Chas, sports etc.… Certainly they all take skill, but there is no real physical downside to it.

Only sports have a physical downside may be American football or rugby? But beyond that, all these other sports, they are essentially “grass fairies”? (the way that we football players used to make fun of soccer players)

Retention

A few years ago, I give up watching porn. Why? It Just became a little bit ridiculous to me. And also, interestingly enough… I think in ancient China or Korea or somewhere… There was this interesting ocean is that anytime you eject your semen or Seminole fluid, they call it “energy suicide“, and as a consequence, it totally made sense.  no man in his right mind would rub one out real quick, 15 minutes before the big fight. Also, I am pretty certain that half Thor did not rub one out real quick before that lifting his infamous 502 kg dead lift.

I think pornography is fine, and a funny thought…

if you watch porn, but you don’t masturbate to it… And you do not eject your seminal fluid, is it still porn? 

Maybe not. Maybe it is just erotic art?

I think there’s nothing wrong with masturbation or whatever. Apparently it is a supernatural. And probably better for a teenage void to masturbate rather than get a random girl pregnant. Or even worse catch a STD or STI.

Anyways, I think the primary thing to consider is your physiology. Even Nietzsche mentions that some of his writing, his critique of a lot of the modern day German youth was that they spent too much time wasting their energy, “spending” on women, etc.

The seed of life

OK, if you get rid of all this Christian Judeo moralistic guilt about sexual intercourse whatever… And just made it really really primal, biological,… Natural, what do you have?

Even the other day, walking along the nature preserve and seeing two monarch butterflies chasing one another in the air.

Or, peacock with his beautiful feathers and plumage, to attract a mate. 

To mate, to have children, to produce offspring – this is what all the biology, life is all about. Even if you think about bacteria, fermentation, mold, making kefir cheese whatever,  what the bacteria does is very simple; it consumes the lactose sugar protein energy sources, and then it produces offspring. All life, animal life and beyond is all about producing offspring, indefinitely.

I think modern daytimes, the anti-children sentiment is very bizarro. I have some theories.

First, who are the people who are promoting this anti-children nonsense, and all this patently insane ideas that children are the worst thing you do for planet in terms of the carbon footprint or whatever? These are individuals, who have no religion, no values, live in Berkeley California,  a lot of them childless old people in their late 50s, mid 60s, 70s… And they are bitter and salty about life, and as a consequence, what they try to do is to the rest of society, with their strange vegan values.

Vegetarian is natural, it has been around since time of Seneca the younger. But it was still associated with weird cults, that is why Seneca stopped being vegetarian because he did not want to be accused of being part of a weird cult which was anti-empire. And in India, being vegetarian has been around forever.

However, I think the reason why it is good to beat people in the flesh, face-to-face, not via the Internet is because you could judge them, based on their age their height their physiology, their physical health, their food consumption behaviors etc.

---

 Figure it out as late as possible, ALAP

I have this motto called ALAP, which stands for as late as possible.

 for example, my very simple suggestion is when it comes to weightlifting, fitness, the gym etc.… It is never plan your workout before you enter, once you enter the arena, once you enter the Colosseum… Then figure it out.

The gladiator makes his plans once he enters the arena – Publius Syrus

In modern day times, we have these silly notions of project management, planning, etc. But the reason why it is foolish is because if you think about it from a baye’s theory, bayes statistics — the truly wise and optimal way to do things is you do the action in the moment of, because that is when you have maximum information about everything at hand.

Which essentially what it means is right now, directly in the direct moment, bricolage, taking chances risk taking and making lots of foolish mistakes, but after 99 failed attempts, you get one which is a screaming home run!

> “You still taking advances huh? Me and my niggas we taking real chances uh!” – JAY Z

THE LIFE OF OJ.

---

What is entrepreneurship?

According to Jeff Bezos, if you already know that something is going to work with 100% certainty before you try it, it is not an experiment.

I think therefore, the ethos of entrepreneurship is paradoxical;

You can study entrepreneurship, study the past, has successes, but what has succeeded in the past may or may not succeed right now or the future. 

For example, Warren Buffett is not a good example because he is about 90 years old, and his recipe for success worked 90 years ago, in America, before bitcoin was invented. So knowledge is very context specific, even if you were Warren Buffett and you did the same exact investing strategy in Brazil… You would not succeed.

I think this is where it is so difficult to think carte Blanche, blank slate. why? If it has never been done before, if nobody has ever succeeded doing it… How do you know if it is possible or not?

You cannot make street photography your living

Back in 2009, 2010… when I was first starting off my photography journey, I had zero intention in turning my passion for photography and street photography into my living, even though I wanted to. I was extremely pragmatic: I did not quit my day job, I knew that it was wise to have a steady 9 to 5 job, at least I could pay my rent with 100% certainty. 

Fresh out of college at UCLA as an undergraduate, making $40,000 USD a year… The year 2010, working for a company called demand media which has rebranded to the “Leaf group”, my first job was online community manager… And I was able to get an internship there a year prior my senior year at UCLA, all things to Cindy for finally it on an email list server.

Anyways, some simple entrepreneurial advice:

Working from home is a godsend.

I still remember… When it was the year 2010, it was actually my fantasy to be able to work from home! Why? I could just do the minimum amount of work possible, to not get fired, away from my overseers, get all my work done in about two hours, and then I could just spend the rest of my time blogging, which was my passion, doing photography street photography and building up my Empire on the side?

Nowadays they call it a side hustle, which is a pretty good idea. 

Pay your rent with your day job, enter the minimum amount of work possible to not get fired, do not seek your promotion or advancement in your career, and devote 99% of your excess energy building up your entrepreneurial enterprise.

The sad truth is 99.9% of entrepreneurial endeavors fail. I was lucky because I have never failed in my life. Everything that I wanted to do and set my mind to it, I succeeded. I think it was about 80% chutzpah and passion and insane drive, and 20% luck and timing.

 The first really big street photography boom 

Individuals who made their mark include Kaiman Wong, Alamby Leung, Lok Cheung, Charlie Kirk, and ERIC KIM. And Bellamy Hunt of Japancamerahunter.com — buy JCH film!



Prize your life, this is the only life you got. 

The philosophy of time:

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The death of film

I think this is something that changes a lot, once you have a kid. Or have a child a young child at home. Suddenly, your time becomes scarce, very very scarce.

For example, in terms of time scarcity… this is so insanely critical. If I gave you a choice… Would you rather spend 30 minutes playing and wrestling around with your kid at the house or at the park… Or would you rather spend your precious 30 minutes answering Emails from childless individuals who don’t really have anything better to do?

Also with film — fine if you don’t have kids — once you get a kid go 100% digital!

True success

I’m starting to think… true success is self ownership, time ownership, essentially… never having anything randomly put on your schedule without your own desire.

For example, I learned that apparently Taylor Swift is signed to Universal Records. Which means she has no control over her time or soul.

Also a very funny thing… apparently Taylor Swift is about my age, she’s born in 1989, I am born in 1988. I find it insanely bizarre that millions of 10-year-old girls know everything about her down to her drive-through food order?

Sign yourself

Anyways… I think some simple filters:

Trust no individual who is signed to anything.

For example, I think a very admirable thing that Kendrick Lamar did was quit top dog entertainment… And create his own record label, PG Lang. I think this is also the wisdom of a Jay-Z… The real idea of taking a real chance is to create your own label, and to avoid getting signed to any record or label… Even if they might wave a $100 million check in front of you. Because if you have to be on tour for the rest of your life like lil Wayne (via Pusha T)… Every single night performing for three hours and night, seven days a week… No sleep and rest… Do you have freedom? No!

This is why Drake is also still a slave!

And I think the foolish thing which people do is they trade their most valuable thing on the planet… Their freedom and self ownership, in exchange for cash, arbitrary notions of “fame“… For the sake of what?

Time and self ownership over money.

What is it that we truly seek?

One of my friends, Bing who I met in Singapore… The guy I am grateful for getting me into crypto bitcoin and digibyte at the time —  he said something interesting, very wise guy, saying that what he wanted in life was material desires like a purple Lamborghini, but also… more importantly, getting respect from people.

For example, he said that the primary issue in America is that there is no real notions of respect. For example even very very simply being in Korea, Southeast Asia of Vietnam etc.… On a very basic level, we use honorifics, when it comes to age. Be told, it feels really good! To have a young kid address you in an honorific way, warms your heart!

You never know who is who 

Also… I think in America one of the wise things that I’ve learned, just from myself but also echoed in people like NASSIM TALEB is a simple idea:

Treat the janitor, the hygiene sanitation guy, the security guard with more respect than the big boss.

And also… assume that everybody you meet is super super rich and successful and powerful and influential, irregardless of how they may look on the outside. Often times, the richest most powerful people are the most low-key, keep a low profile, and you would never expect it.

Don’t network

But I think the tricky thing is when it comes to human social capital… the whole “it’s not what you know but who you know”– is also a little bit misguided because technically, especially in today’s day and age, I don’t think that networking or knowing influential people is important. All you need is a website, your own self hosted blog, ChatGPT and you’re good!

100% of the time networking is a waste of time.

I got some experience now

Humans are not super great nor efficient. For example just based on my experiences, I’m 36 now… Almost 0 networking events or meeting famous successful people have led to anything substantive. The only things which have led to substantive things were things that I decided to do on my own; like hosting my own workshops, creating and developing and selling my own products engaging people directly with my own email newsletter blog, platform, etc. Everything else has been a waste of time.

Build it yourself.

I think the biggest issues here is that when you are starting off as an entrepreneur… We do things in such a way in which we think it is the proper way. For example, when we think about business and networking… We think what it means is to get to know a bunch of rich successful people, “get your foot in the door” etc. Yet, I have discovered this is a total waste of time. 

Your own website and blog is the foot in the digital door!

The way that I was able to build my digital capital my fame my power my influence was very very simple… Essentially learning everything about street photography on my own, and then creating really really insanely in-depth articles, blog posts, pages, information and resources on anything and everything street photography. And the whole time, the whole endeavor of mine was guided by passion, personal interest and curiosity.

Curiosity is antifragile.

Lifting 1,000 pounds

On my personal quest to lift 1000 pounds, which is beyond 10 plates on each side of the barbell, was a personal curiosity:

How far can I take it?

Essentially, my primary curiosity was a curiosity of the limits of my strength, my courage, my ability and potential?

I remember the last time I was weightlifting in Westerly, Rhode Island, and an older guy came up to me and asked “what is the purpose of that? Why are you lifting like that?” I made a joke and I said, first– to augment my ego. But the second more honest answer is I’m just curious how strong I can become.

Why curiosity is so critical

What is curiosity? Curiosity is care, curiosity is what drives us.

You cannot force somebody to be cursed about something that they don’t really care for. You cannot spoon feed or inject curiosity in the soul of somebody, against their own will.

This is why a lot of Asian parents fail, when they try to force their kids to play violin, piano, or chess etc.

Back to time

Time is the ultimate capital, the ultimate desirable non-renewable resource.

Another funny lesson: often the most seemingly bad movies, the ones with poor IMDb reviews are actually the best movies.

For example, the movie “in time” by Justin Timberlake.  probably one of the best films of all time, and also, the most underrated. The reason why it is so grand and great of a film is that it creates this metaphor, this philosophical world in which essentially time is money: literally and metaphorically.

For example, the super super rich people have 1000 years on their wrist, and hilariously enough, excuse the pun, but rich people and poor people are separated by “time zones”–

Also in this fictitious universe, real rich people take their time and move really slowly, whereas the poor laborers, are always running, because they are so short on time.

Time inflation

Another funny scene: in the early part of the IN TIME film, when Justin Timberlake is working as a laborer at a factory or whatever, do you have to scan your wrist, imagine like having Apple Pay, your checking account embedded in your wrist, and anytime you wanted to buy a cup of coffee or food or whatever… You would just scan your wrist. And one of the scenes, Justin Timberlake complains “wait… A cup of coffee used to only cost 15 minutes, why is it now costing 30 minutes?” And the guy selling coffee, shrugs his shoulder and says “that’s time inflation!”

Why it is that the only films I care for are dystopic films

The matrix, Blade Runner, and these science fiction fiction, alternate future sociological philosophical films, why? They actually change you! 

What is so interesting about science fiction typically it is just a commentary or a societal critique of our real society. And the thing exaggerated, in cinematic ways, or building up a universe, but in fact, it is really true to today’s world.

Anyways, back on the notion of time… Time is labor, money is labor time.

How renting is superior to owning

For example… One of the things I am so grateful about renting, and having the best landlord of all time, is that when something breaks, like our all-in-one washer dryer machine from LG… And the machine doesn’t even turn on anymore, I don’t have to be the one wasting my time driving to Home Depot, trying to fix it, or finding service technicians to fix it, scheduling it etc. Rather, I let the landlord communicate with his own labor task squad, his own maintenance team, to come in and fix it, when we are not home, and I could do better things like go on a hike with Cindy and Seneca, or do something fun!

DIY ain’t virtuous

In America, we have this weird virtue connection with doing the labor yourself. However, there is a differentiation between hateful labor and joyful labor. For example, I would probably prefer to have a mechanic fix my car, even though I could do the labor myself, because now that I have a kid, an hour spent fixing your car could be an hour playing with your kid at the park! Here a time becomes zero sum thing, which means:

If you only have an hour to spare, would you rather it be chatting with somebody random, spending time with somebody you don’t really care for, or doing some sort of labor you don’t really care for, or rather would you rather spend that time to do something more critical you insanely care for?

Only spend time on people you love and care for!

For example, if you had an hour, to listen to the problems of somebody, or, you had an hour to work out, do exercises, and lift weights… What would you choose? And assume you could only do one. Obviously work out!

For me, my only regret in the evening is if I spent the whole day, assuming that I was in good health and strength, not working out? To me, my nonnegotiable thing that I must do every single day, irregardless of whatever is to lift weights, at least once. 

Avoid time wasters, even the good ones.

Life before Seneca, life after Seneca

Life BC, life AD — I still think it is hilarious that in America, the way we categorize time is life before Christ, life after Christ.

Life before the christos, the lord the saviour, and life after Jesus.

For me I like to use this analogy for Seneca. Before Seneca was born, I wasted a lot of my time, in coffee shops, kind of superficial relationships, etc. Why? I had so much time to kill!

And also good thing about having kid is that it helps you understand what is truly critical to you or not.

Business is bad

For example, business. Do not forget that the original notion of business was centered around being busy, “busy-ness”–

Even the ancient Romans, otium, neg+otium–

Negotium (business) meant the exact opposite of leisure.

I think often times, people like to just stay busy because when you are busy, you don’t have to think about more important things in life, such as life purpose direction etc. And honestly, I think the reason why I philosophy is so critical for everybody is that if you cannot think philosophically, you’re just wasting your life.

Even Seneca the younger stoic (Seneca’s namesake) on his essay “On the shortness of time”– or the shortness of life… Essentially that you could live a great life, even if it is a short life, as long as you use your time well.

For example, if you had a house with 1000 marble and ivory tables, with matching golden plates, can you take that with you when you die? No!

80 years old and dying

Let us assume that the average human span now, I think it is about 92 years old for men, 94 years old for women. But then again you never know if you’re gonna get cancer or whatever, assume that it is 80 years.

If you knew that you would only live to be 80 years old, with 100% certainty, how would you spend your life, the next 10 years of your life? What would you do, what would you not do?

And also… Thinking about the mortality of our loved ones, our parents, your own mother.

For example, my mom is about to turn 70, and let us assume that she’s going to live to be 80. How would I want to spend the next 10 years in my life with her, or without her?

Certainly I’m happy for her to do stuff like travel, do her artwork, but also, more critically more time with Seneca, myself and Cindy, but more critically for her to spend time with Seneca. Why? There’s going to be a day in which my mom is no longer going to be around, and I would probably hope that Seneca could have some lovely memories with my mom.

Memento mori

I think this is also the thing… many of us live our lives, almost like we are going to live forever. Is that true? Of course not!

And also when you’re younger… Let us even assume that you’re going to live to be 80 years old. What that then means is that you have a long life ahead of you! But once again, what if you are Achilles, and your mom is a goddess, And you are known with 100% certainty that you will die at the age of 40? Then how would you spend your life, how would you not spend your life?

Think Steve Jobs, he died at only age 55?

You might die today

If you have the choice, the difference between memento mori, and memento vivre — the memory of knowing that you will die is more critical than the memory or the thought of knowing how to live.

The angel of life and or death?

What’s the story of why Cindy and I decided to have a kid, Seneca?

After this incident I had a few years ago being held up at gunpoint with me just me and Cindy, before Seneca was born in Mexico City… And fortunately I grabbed Cindy‘s hand and we ran away, and we did not get popped at the back of our head. And in our adrenaline, after the incident… What was my only one regret, Assuming that I have might have died? It was very simple, not having a kid! Then immediately after the incident, we started trying, and then Covid happened, and then we stopped…  and then we did a webinar saying that kind of babies and kids were kind of immune to Covid, and then we tried again… And boom, got pregnant within a week!

Anyways… Often it is these life or death encounters which clarify things. After this incident, I had zero thoughts about my wealth, money in the bank etc., or my fame or success or whatever. I literally had zero regrets besides the kid thing.

Don’t die childless.

The greatest joy on the planet

I was thinking this morning, what is something that never loses its novelty factor? Seeing and witnessing your kid grow up!

Also… As a man, by far a 1,000,000,000,000% gratitude thing, having a son, having at least one son, one male, one man, and especially having your first kid being a man!

Why? Speaking from the perspective if you are a man, what every man desires is at least one male heir. Certainly when you see a family with three girls, four girls or five girls, no boys, you know what the family was trying to do. 

And also… The whole second kid question…  honestly, if for some reason or another, we couldn’t have a second kid, I’d probably be fine because the joy of knowing that at least, our first child was a son!

Anti women?

I think if I think about it very very honestly honestly… If our first child was a girl… I’m sure I would love her 1000%, but secretly at the back of your head, you’re always thinking wishing and wondering and desiring, to have a boy.

So this is my simple thought —

If you and your wife, or partner or whatever or girlfriend, decide to have a second kid, and your first kid is a boy… Don’t push the whole second kid thing. 

Also, if I told you that let’s say that your wife decided to have birth to a second kid, and there was a 90% chance that she might die in childbirth… Would you take the risk, assuming that your first kid is already a man? No!

Back to time

Honestly just throw your iPhone to the trash. Something that people don’t understand is that the iPhone is toxic; even reading one weird thing on your phone, watching one weird movie, film, news headline, TikTok video whatever… strange pornography video or picture, can infect your mind, for a few days, randomly in the middle of the day, or even when you’re about to sleep.

Instagram is like liver pancreatic cancer

The reason why I deleted Instagram in around 2017 and no– that ERIC KIM on Instagram is not me– the person that made my @erickimphoto Instagram account was just a faithful follower, was because Instagram started to do bad things to my mind and weird things to my mind. For example I’d be driving, in the suburbs, or the city… And at around noon, while driving, I would get distracted and think to myself “wait… did I uploaded something to Instagram today?” I caught myself thinking this, and I thought “wow, this is bad. I got to get rid of this”. And in 2017, when I had about 65,000 followers, I did probably one of the most courageous and proud things in my life, which was to delete my Instagram. 

mental Freedom?

Something my friend Jeffrey Lam tells me about is this notion of mind space, ideas that was not just a timeframe but, a mental space thing.

For example, you could in theory have 12 hours of free time in a day, but as long as a strange thought lingering in your mind, you can never really focus 100%.

I think this is called the Zeignark effect. For example let us say that you read an email that needs to be attended to… And you don’t attend to it or respond to it, and it will percolate on your mind for days, sometimes even weeks, sometimes even months. This is why I avoid my inbox, or my text messages like the plague…

One strange message email or text message or communication thing can distract you for days on end.

Playing cyber defense

I also think the reason why email needs to be fixed is now, it is so easy to fake an email, ChatGPT, with bots, or generative AI, even if the person is good or bad, or even if the bot is malicious or benevolent.

For example, let me give an extreme example, let us say you are Taylor Swift, and everybody on the planet knows your email (taylorswift@gmail.com)– let us say. If you are Taylor Swift, and you literally get 1 million emails a day, would you have the time to either read every single email, or even worse… Respond to it? No? This would be mental suicide! This is why I quit email and all messaging apps Around 2016, 2017, because honestly I was just becoming too famous, too much cognitive load!

Dodge

In the Iliad, when the heroes are killing each other… They do two things, obviously they wear protective armor, like shields, helmets, etc.… But if somebody throws a spear at them, or an arrow, what they do is dodge it.

If you see an incoming spear, you are not a fool, ideally you dodge it, ideally dodging it is more effective than even raising your shield. Why? If a spear hits your shield, there is actually a chance that it might penetrate your shield, and end up either wounding you or killing you.

I wonder if we should apply the same philosophy two things. Like if you see an incoming missile, or a spear or a bullet… You don’t take the chance. Dodge a bullet, rather than testing your bulletproof vest.

“That little vest ain’t gonna do you I shoot from neck up”- JAY Z

The ghost of soulja slim —

SOULJA KIM?

The notion of soldier, like Soulja Boy etc., and interesting thought… The notion of a “soul”, period with the notion of a soldier?

And apparently, if you really really need people from the hood, like Crenshaw, where Nipsey Hussle got killed, the honorific to call somebody worth valor is “soldier”.

Kind of like calling somebody boss or chief. Like Chief Keef

ChIEF KIM! Too many Indians, not enough chiefs!

Anyways, long story short, prize your time. This is the only life you got.

ERIC

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Prize your life, this is the only life you got. 

The philosophy of time:

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The death of film

I think this is something that changes a lot, once you have a kid. Or have a child a young child at home. Suddenly, your time becomes scarce, very very scarce.

For example, in terms of time scarcity… this is so insanely critical. If I gave you a choice… Would you rather spend 30 minutes playing and wrestling around with your kid at the house or at the park… Or would you rather spend your precious 30 minutes answering Emails from childless individuals who don’t really have anything better to do?

Also with film — fine if you don’t have kids — once you get a kid go 100% digital!

True success

I’m starting to think… true success is self ownership, time ownership, essentially… never having anything randomly put on your schedule without your own desire.

For example, I learned that apparently Taylor Swift is signed to Universal Records. Which means she has no control over her time or soul.

Also a very funny thing… apparently Taylor Swift is about my age, she’s born in 1989, I am born in 1988. I find it insanely bizarre that millions of 10-year-old girls know everything about her down to her drive-through food order?

Sign yourself

Anyways… I think some simple filters:

Trust no individual who is signed to anything.

For example, I think a very admirable thing that Kendrick Lamar did was quit top dog entertainment… And create his own record label, PG Lang. I think this is also the wisdom of a Jay-Z… The real idea of taking a real chance is to create your own label, and to avoid getting signed to any record or label… Even if they might wave a $100 million check in front of you. Because if you have to be on tour for the rest of your life like lil Wayne (via Pusha T)… Every single night performing for three hours and night, seven days a week… No sleep and rest… Do you have freedom? No!

This is why Drake is also still a slave!

And I think the foolish thing which people do is they trade their most valuable thing on the planet… Their freedom and self ownership, in exchange for cash, arbitrary notions of “fame“… For the sake of what?

Time and self ownership over money.

What is it that we truly seek?

One of my friends, Bing who I met in Singapore… The guy I am grateful for getting me into crypto bitcoin and digibyte at the time —  he said something interesting, very wise guy, saying that what he wanted in life was material desires like a purple Lamborghini, but also… more importantly, getting respect from people.

For example, he said that the primary issue in America is that there is no real notions of respect. For example even very very simply being in Korea, Southeast Asia of Vietnam etc.… On a very basic level, we use honorifics, when it comes to age. Be told, it feels really good! To have a young kid address you in an honorific way, warms your heart!

You never know who is who 

Also… I think in America one of the wise things that I’ve learned, just from myself but also echoed in people like NASSIM TALEB is a simple idea:

Treat the janitor, the hygiene sanitation guy, the security guard with more respect than the big boss.

And also… assume that everybody you meet is super super rich and successful and powerful and influential, irregardless of how they may look on the outside. Often times, the richest most powerful people are the most low-key, keep a low profile, and you would never expect it.

Don’t network

But I think the tricky thing is when it comes to human social capital… the whole “it’s not what you know but who you know”– is also a little bit misguided because technically, especially in today’s day and age, I don’t think that networking or knowing influential people is important. All you need is a website, your own self hosted blog, ChatGPT and you’re good!

100% of the time networking is a waste of time.

I got some experience now

Humans are not super great nor efficient. For example just based on my experiences, I’m 36 now… Almost 0 networking events or meeting famous successful people have led to anything substantive. The only things which have led to substantive things were things that I decided to do on my own; like hosting my own workshops, creating and developing and selling my own products engaging people directly with my own email newsletter blog, platform, etc. Everything else has been a waste of time.

Build it yourself.

I think the biggest issues here is that when you are starting off as an entrepreneur… We do things in such a way in which we think it is the proper way. For example, when we think about business and networking… We think what it means is to get to know a bunch of rich successful people, “get your foot in the door” etc. Yet, I have discovered this is a total waste of time. 

Your own website and blog is the foot in the digital door!

The way that I was able to build my digital capital my fame my power my influence was very very simple… Essentially learning everything about street photography on my own, and then creating really really insanely in-depth articles, blog posts, pages, information and resources on anything and everything street photography. And the whole time, the whole endeavor of mine was guided by passion, personal interest and curiosity.

Curiosity is antifragile.

Lifting 1,000 pounds

On my personal quest to lift 1000 pounds, which is beyond 10 plates on each side of the barbell, was a personal curiosity:

How far can I take it?

Essentially, my primary curiosity was a curiosity of the limits of my strength, my courage, my ability and potential?

I remember the last time I was weightlifting in Westerly, Rhode Island, and an older guy came up to me and asked “what is the purpose of that? Why are you lifting like that?” I made a joke and I said, first– to augment my ego. But the second more honest answer is I’m just curious how strong I can become.

Why curiosity is so critical

What is curiosity? Curiosity is care, curiosity is what drives us.

You cannot force somebody to be cursed about something that they don’t really care for. You cannot spoon feed or inject curiosity in the soul of somebody, against their own will.

This is why a lot of Asian parents fail, when they try to force their kids to play violin, piano, or chess etc.

Back to time

Time is the ultimate capital, the ultimate desirable non-renewable resource.

Another funny lesson: often the most seemingly bad movies, the ones with poor IMDb reviews are actually the best movies.

For example, the movie “in time” by Justin Timberlake.  probably one of the best films of all time, and also, the most underrated. The reason why it is so grand and great of a film is that it creates this metaphor, this philosophical world in which essentially time is money: literally and metaphorically.

For example, the super super rich people have 1000 years on their wrist, and hilariously enough, excuse the pun, but rich people and poor people are separated by “time zones”–

Also in this fictitious universe, real rich people take their time and move really slowly, whereas the poor laborers, are always running, because they are so short on time.

Time inflation

Another funny scene: in the early part of the IN TIME film, when Justin Timberlake is working as a laborer at a factory or whatever, do you have to scan your wrist, imagine like having Apple Pay, your checking account embedded in your wrist, and anytime you wanted to buy a cup of coffee or food or whatever… You would just scan your wrist. And one of the scenes, Justin Timberlake complains “wait… A cup of coffee used to only cost 15 minutes, why is it now costing 30 minutes?” And the guy selling coffee, shrugs his shoulder and says “that’s time inflation!”

Why it is that the only films I care for are dystopic films

The matrix, Blade Runner, and these science fiction fiction, alternate future sociological philosophical films, why? They actually change you! 

What is so interesting about science fiction typically it is just a commentary or a societal critique of our real society. And the thing exaggerated, in cinematic ways, or building up a universe, but in fact, it is really true to today’s world.

Anyways, back on the notion of time… Time is labor, money is labor time.

How renting is superior to owning

For example… One of the things I am so grateful about renting, and having the best landlord of all time, is that when something breaks, like our all-in-one washer dryer machine from LG… And the machine doesn’t even turn on anymore, I don’t have to be the one wasting my time driving to Home Depot, trying to fix it, or finding service technicians to fix it, scheduling it etc. Rather, I let the landlord communicate with his own labor task squad, his own maintenance team, to come in and fix it, when we are not home, and I could do better things like go on a hike with Cindy and Seneca, or do something fun!

DIY ain’t virtuous

In America, we have this weird virtue connection with doing the labor yourself. However, there is a differentiation between hateful labor and joyful labor. For example, I would probably prefer to have a mechanic fix my car, even though I could do the labor myself, because now that I have a kid, an hour spent fixing your car could be an hour playing with your kid at the park! Here a time becomes zero sum thing, which means:

If you only have an hour to spare, would you rather it be chatting with somebody random, spending time with somebody you don’t really care for, or doing some sort of labor you don’t really care for, or rather would you rather spend that time to do something more critical you insanely care for?

Only spend time on people you love and care for!

For example, if you had an hour, to listen to the problems of somebody, or, you had an hour to work out, do exercises, and lift weights… What would you choose? And assume you could only do one. Obviously work out!

For me, my only regret in the evening is if I spent the whole day, assuming that I was in good health and strength, not working out? To me, my nonnegotiable thing that I must do every single day, irregardless of whatever is to lift weights, at least once. 

Avoid time wasters, even the good ones.

Life before Seneca, life after Seneca

Life BC, life AD — I still think it is hilarious that in America, the way we categorize time is life before Christ, life after Christ.

Life before the christos, the lord the saviour, and life after Jesus.

For me I like to use this analogy for Seneca. Before Seneca was born, I wasted a lot of my time, in coffee shops, kind of superficial relationships, etc. Why? I had so much time to kill!

And also good thing about having kid is that it helps you understand what is truly critical to you or not.

Business is bad

For example, business. Do not forget that the original notion of business was centered around being busy, “busy-ness”–

Even the ancient Romans, otium, neg+otium–

Negotium (business) meant the exact opposite of leisure.

I think often times, people like to just stay busy because when you are busy, you don’t have to think about more important things in life, such as life purpose direction etc. And honestly, I think the reason why I philosophy is so critical for everybody is that if you cannot think philosophically, you’re just wasting your life.

Even Seneca the younger stoic (Seneca’s namesake) on his essay “On the shortness of time”– or the shortness of life… Essentially that you could live a great life, even if it is a short life, as long as you use your time well.

For example, if you had a house with 1000 marble and ivory tables, with matching golden plates, can you take that with you when you die? No!

80 years old and dying

Let us assume that the average human span now, I think it is about 92 years old for men, 94 years old for women. But then again you never know if you’re gonna get cancer or whatever, assume that it is 80 years.

If you knew that you would only live to be 80 years old, with 100% certainty, how would you spend your life, the next 10 years of your life? What would you do, what would you not do?

And also… Thinking about the mortality of our loved ones, our parents, your own mother.

For example, my mom is about to turn 70, and let us assume that she’s going to live to be 80. How would I want to spend the next 10 years in my life with her, or without her?

Certainly I’m happy for her to do stuff like travel, do her artwork, but also, more critically more time with Seneca, myself and Cindy, but more critically for her to spend time with Seneca. Why? There’s going to be a day in which my mom is no longer going to be around, and I would probably hope that Seneca could have some lovely memories with my mom.

Memento mori

I think this is also the thing… many of us live our lives, almost like we are going to live forever. Is that true? Of course not!

And also when you’re younger… Let us even assume that you’re going to live to be 80 years old. What that then means is that you have a long life ahead of you! But once again, what if you are Achilles, and your mom is a goddess, And you are known with 100% certainty that you will die at the age of 40? Then how would you spend your life, how would you not spend your life?

Think Steve Jobs, he died at only age 55?

You might die today

If you have the choice, the difference between memento mori, and memento vivre — the memory of knowing that you will die is more critical than the memory or the thought of knowing how to live.

The angel of life and or death?

What’s the story of why Cindy and I decided to have a kid, Seneca?

After this incident I had a few years ago being held up at gunpoint with me just me and Cindy, before Seneca was born in Mexico City… And fortunately I grabbed Cindy‘s hand and we ran away, and we did not get popped at the back of our head. And in our adrenaline, after the incident… What was my only one regret, Assuming that I have might have died? It was very simple, not having a kid! Then immediately after the incident, we started trying, and then Covid happened, and then we stopped…  and then we did a webinar saying that kind of babies and kids were kind of immune to Covid, and then we tried again… And boom, got pregnant within a week!

Anyways… Often it is these life or death encounters which clarify things. After this incident, I had zero thoughts about my wealth, money in the bank etc., or my fame or success or whatever. I literally had zero regrets besides the kid thing.

Don’t die childless.

The greatest joy on the planet

I was thinking this morning, what is something that never loses its novelty factor? Seeing and witnessing your kid grow up!

Also… As a man, by far a 1,000,000,000,000% gratitude thing, having a son, having at least one son, one male, one man, and especially having your first kid being a man!

Why? Speaking from the perspective if you are a man, what every man desires is at least one male heir. Certainly when you see a family with three girls, four girls or five girls, no boys, you know what the family was trying to do. 

And also… The whole second kid question…  honestly, if for some reason or another, we couldn’t have a second kid, I’d probably be fine because the joy of knowing that at least, our first child was a son!

Anti women?

I think if I think about it very very honestly honestly… If our first child was a girl… I’m sure I would love her 1000%, but secretly at the back of your head, you’re always thinking wishing and wondering and desiring, to have a boy.

So this is my simple thought —

If you and your wife, or partner or whatever or girlfriend, decide to have a second kid, and your first kid is a boy… Don’t push the whole second kid thing. 

Also, if I told you that let’s say that your wife decided to have birth to a second kid, and there was a 90% chance that she might die in childbirth… Would you take the risk, assuming that your first kid is already a man? No!

Back to time

Honestly just throw your iPhone to the trash. Something that people don’t understand is that the iPhone is toxic; even reading one weird thing on your phone, watching one weird movie, film, news headline, TikTok video whatever… strange pornography video or picture, can infect your mind, for a few days, randomly in the middle of the day, or even when you’re about to sleep.

Instagram is like liver pancreatic cancer

The reason why I deleted Instagram in around 2017 and no– that ERIC KIM on Instagram is not me– the person that made my @erickimphoto Instagram account was just a faithful follower, was because Instagram started to do bad things to my mind and weird things to my mind. For example I’d be driving, in the suburbs, or the city… And at around noon, while driving, I would get distracted and think to myself “wait… did I uploaded something to Instagram today?” I caught myself thinking this, and I thought “wow, this is bad. I got to get rid of this”. And in 2017, when I had about 65,000 followers, I did probably one of the most courageous and proud things in my life, which was to delete my Instagram. 

mental Freedom?

Something my friend Jeffrey Lam tells me about is this notion of mind space, ideas that was not just a timeframe but, a mental space thing.

For example, you could in theory have 12 hours of free time in a day, but as long as a strange thought lingering in your mind, you can never really focus 100%.

I think this is called the Zeignark effect. For example let us say that you read an email that needs to be attended to… And you don’t attend to it or respond to it, and it will percolate on your mind for days, sometimes even weeks, sometimes even months. This is why I avoid my inbox, or my text messages like the plague…

One strange message email or text message or communication thing can distract you for days on end.

Playing cyber defense

I also think the reason why email needs to be fixed is now, it is so easy to fake an email, ChatGPT, with bots, or generative AI, even if the person is good or bad, or even if the bot is malicious or benevolent.

For example, let me give an extreme example, let us say you are Taylor Swift, and everybody on the planet knows your email (taylorswift@gmail.com)– let us say. If you are Taylor Swift, and you literally get 1 million emails a day, would you have the time to either read every single email, or even worse… Respond to it? No? This would be mental suicide! This is why I quit email and all messaging apps Around 2016, 2017, because honestly I was just becoming too famous, too much cognitive load! 

Dodge

In the Iliad, when the heroes are killing each other… They do two things, obviously they wear protective armor, like shields, helmets, etc.… But if somebody throws a spear at them, or an arrow, what they do is dodge it.

If you see an incoming spear, you are not a fool, ideally you dodge it, ideally dodging it is more effective than even raising your shield. Why? If it hits your, there is actually a chance that it might penetrate your shield, and end up either wounding you or killing you.

I wonder if we should apply the same philosophy two things. Like if you see an incoming missile, or a beer or a bullet… You don’t take the chance. Dodge a bullet, rather than testing your bulletproof vest.

“That little vest ain’t gonna do you I shoot from neck up”- JY Z

The ghost of soulja slim —

Soulja Kim?

The notion of soldier, like Soulja Boy etc., and interesting thought… The notion of a “soul”, period with the notion of a soldier?

And apparently, if you really really need people from the hood, like Crenshaw, where Nipsey Hussle got killed, the honorific to call somebody worth valor is “soldier”.

Kind of like calling somebody boss or chief. Like Chief Keef

Chief Kim! Too many Indians, not enough chiefs!

Anyways, long story short, prize your time. This is the only life you got.

ERIC

Prize your life, this is the only life you got. 

The economics and philosophy of time:

1. The death of film

I think this is something that changes a lot, once you have a kid. Or have a child a young child at the home. Suddenly, your time becomes scarce, very very scarce.

For example, in terms of times scarcity… This is so insanely critical. If I give you a choice… Would you rather spend 30 minutes playing and wrestling around with your kid at the house or at the park… Or would you rather spend your precious 30 minutes answering Emails from childless individuals who don’t really have anything better to do?

True success

I’m starting to think… True success is self ownership, time ownership, essentially… Never having anything randomly put on your schedule without your own desire.

For example, I learned that apparently Taylor Swift is signed to Universal records. Which means she has no control over her time or soul.

Also a very funny thing… Apparently Taylor Swift is about my age, she’s born in 1989, I am born in 1988. I find it insanely bizarre that millions of 10-year-old girls know everything about her down to her drive-through food order?

Anyways… I think some simple filters:

Trust no individual who is signed to anything.

For example, I think a very admirable thing that Kendrick Lamar did I believe was quit top dog entertainment… And create his own record label, I think it’s called PG Lang. I think this is also the wisdom of a Jay-Z… The real idea of taking a real chance is to create your own label, and to avoid getting signed to any record or label… Even if they might wave a $100 million check in front of you. Because if you have to be on tour for the next nine months of your life… Every single night performing for three hours and night, seven days a week… No sleep and rest… Do you have freedom? No!

And I think the foolish thing which people do is they trade their most valuable thing on the planet… Their freedom and self ownership, in exchange for cash, arbitrary notions of “fame“… For the sake of what?

What is it that we truly seek?

One of my friends, Bing who I met in Singapore… The guy I am grateful for getting me into crypto bitcoin and digibyte at the time —  he said something interesting, very wise guy, saying that what he wanted in life was material desires like a purple Lamborghini, but also… More importantly, getting respect from people.

For example, he said that the primary issue in America is that there is no real notions of respect. For example even very very simply being in Korea, Southeast Asia of Vietnam etc.… On a very basic level, we use honorifics, when it comes to age. Be told, it feels really good! To have a young kid address you in an honorific way, warms your heart! 

Also… I think in America one of the wise things that I’ve learned, just from myself but also echo and people like NASSIM TALEB is a simple idea:

Treat the janitor, the hygiene sanitation guy, the security guard with more respect than the big boss.

And also… Assume that everybody you meet is super super rich and successful and powerful and influential, irregardless of how they may look on the outside. Often times, the richest most powerful people are the most low-key, keep a low profile, and you would never expect it.

But I think the tricky thing is when it comes to human social capital… The whole “it’s not what you know but who you know”– is also a little bit misguided because technically, especially in today’s day and age, I don’t think that networking or knowing influential people is important. All you need is a website, your own self hosted blog, ChatGPT and you’re good!

Examples

Humans are not super great nor efficient. For example just based on my experiences, I’m 36 now… Almost 0 networking events or meeting famous successful people have led to anything substantive. The only things which have led to substantive things were things that I decided to do on my own; like hosting my own workshops, creating and developing and selling my own products engaging people directly with my own email newsletter blog, platform, etc. Everything else has been a waste of time.

I think the biggest issues here is that when you are starting an entrepreneur… We do things in such a way in which we think it is the proper way. For example, when we think about business and networking… We think what it means is to get to know a bunch of rich successful people, “get your foot in the door” etc. Yet, I have discovered this is a total waste of time. 

The way that I was able to build my digital capital my fame my power my influence was very very simple… Essentially learning everything about street photography on my own, and then creating really really insanely in-depth articles, blog post, pages, information and resources on anything and everything street photography.  and the whole time, the whole endeavor of vine was guided by passion, personal interest and curiosity.

Curiosity is antifragile.

Lifting 1,000 pounds

On my personal quest to lift 1000 pounds, which is beyond 10 plates on each side of the barbell, was a personal curiosity:

How far can I take it?

Essentially, my primary curiosity was a curiosity of the limits of my strength, my courage, my ability and potential?

I remember the last time I was weightlifting in Westerly, Rhode Island, and an older guy came up to me and asked “what is the purpose of that? Why are you lifting like that?” I made a joke and I said, first– to augment my ego. But the second more honest answer is I’m just curious how strong I can become.

Why curiosity is so critical

What is curiosity? Curiosity is care, curiosity is what drives us.

You cannot force somebody to be cursed about something that they don’t really care for. You cannot spoon feed or inject curiosity in the soul of somebody, against their own will.

This is why a lot of Asian parents fail, when they try to force their kids to play violin, piano, or chess etc.

back to time

Time is ultimate capital, ultimate desirable non-renewable resource.

Another funny lesson: often the most seemingly bad movies, the ones with poor IMDb reviews are actually the best movies.

For example, the movie “in time” by Justin Timberlake.  probably one of the best films of all time, and also, the most underrated.
P the reason why it is so grand and great of a film is that it creates this metaphor, this philosophical world in which essentially money is, quite literally.

For example, the super super rich people have 1000 years on their wrist, and hilarious enough, excuse the pun, but rich people and poor people are separated by “time zones”–

Also in this fictitious universe, real rich people take their time and move really slowly, whereas the poor labors, are always running, because they are so short on time.

time inflation

 another funny thought: apparently in the early film, when Justin Timberlake is working as a laborer at a factory or whatever, do you have to scan your wrist, imagine like having Apple Pay, your checking account embedded in your wrist, and anytime you wanted to buy a cuppa coffee or food or whatever… You would just scan your wrist. And one of the scenes, Justin Timberlake complains “wait… A cup of coffee only cost 15 minutes, why is it now costing 30 minutes?”  and the guy selling coffee, shrugs his shoulder and says “that’s time inflation!”

Why it is that the only films I care for are dystopic films

The matrix, Blade Runner, and these scientific fiction, alternate future sociological philosophical films, why ? They actually change you! 

What is so interesting about science fiction typically it is just a commentary or a societal critique of our real society. And the thing exaggerated, in cinematic ways, or building up a universe, but in fact, it is really true to today’s world.

Anyways, back on the notion of time… Time is labor, money is labor time.

For example… One of the things I am so grateful about renting, and having the best landlord of all time, is that when something breaks, like our all-in-one washer dryer machine from LG… And the machine doesn’t even turn on anymore, I don’t have to be the ones Wasting my time driving to Home Depot, trying to fix it, or finding service technicians to fix it, scheduling it etc. Rather, I let the landlord communicate with his own labor task squad, his own maintenance team, to come in and fix it, when we are not home, and I could do better things like go on a hike with Cindy and Seneca, or do something fun!

In America, we have this weird virtue connection with doing the labor yourself. However, there is a differentiation between hateful labor and joyful labor. For example, I would probably prefer to have a mechanic fix my car, even though I could do the labor myself, because now that I have a kid, an hour spent fixing your car could be an hour playing with your kid at the park! Here a time becomes zero som, which means 

If you only have an hour to spare, would you rather it be chatting with somebody random, or spending time with somebody you don’t really care for, or doing some sort of labor you don’t really care for, or rather would you rather spend that time to do something more critical you insanely care for?

For example, if you had an hour, to listen to the problems of somebody, or, you had an hour to work out exercises, and lift weights… What would you choose? And assume you could only do one. Obviously work out!

For me, my only regret in the evening is if I spent the whole day, assuming that I was in good health and strength, not working out? To me, my nonnegotiable thing that I must do every single day, irregardless of whatever is to lift weights, at least once. 

Life before Seneca, life after Seneca

Life BC, life AD — I still think it is hilarious that in America, the way we categorize time is life before Christ, life after Christ.

Life before the christos, the lord the saviour, and life after Jesus.

For me I like to use this analogy for Seneca. Before Seneca was born, I wasted a lot of my time, had coffee shops, kind of superficial relationships, etc. Why? I had so much time to kill!

And also good thing about having kid is that it helps you understand what is truly critical to you or not.

For example, business. Do not forget that the original notion of business was centered around being busy, “busy-ness”–

Even the ancient Romans, otium, neg+otium–

Negotium (business) meant the exact opposite of leisure.

I think often times, people like to just stay busy because when you are busy, you don’t have to think about more important things in life, such as life purpose direction etc. And honestly, I think the reason why I philosophy is so critical for everybody is that if you cannot think philosophically, you’re just wasting your life.

Even Seneca the younger stoic (Seneca’s namesake) on his essay “On the shortness of time”– or the short of life… Essentially that you could live a great life, even if it is a short life, as long as you use your time well.

For example, if you had a house with 1000 marble and ivory tables, with matching golden plates, can you take that with you when you die? No!

Let us assume that the average human span now, I think it is about 92 years old for men, 94 years old for women. But then again you never know if you’re gonna get cancer or whatever, assume that it is 80 years.

If you knew that you would only live to be 80 years old, with 100% certainty, how would you spend your life, the next 10 years of your life? What would you do, what would you not do?

And also… Thinking about the mortality of our loved ones, our parents, your own mother.

For example, my mom is about to turn 70, and let us assume that she’s going to live to be 80. How would I want to spend the next 10 years in my life with her, or without her?

Certainly I’m happy for her to do stuff like travel, do her artwork, but also, more critically more time with Seneca, myself and Cindy, but more critically for her to spend time with Seneca. Why? There’s going to be a day in which my mom is no longer going to be around, and I would probably hope that Seneca could have some lovely memories with my mom.

I think this is also the thing… Of us live our lives, almost like we are going to live forever. Is that true? Of course not!

And also when you’re younger… Let us even assume that you’re going to live to be 80 years old. What that then means is that you have a long life ahead of you! But once again, what if you are Achilles, and your mom is a goddess, And you are known with 100% certainty that you will die at the age of 40? Then how would you spend your life, how would you not spend your life?

Memento mori

If you have the choice, the difference between memento mori, and memento vivre — the memory of knowing that you will die is more critical than the memory or the thought of knowing how to live.

I think meaningful ways, and also after this incident I had a few years ago being held up at gunpoint with me just me and Cindy, before Seneca was born… And fortunately I grab Cindy‘s hand and we ran away, and we did not get popped at the back of our head. And in our adrenaline, after the incident… What was my only one regret, Assuming that I have might have died? It was very simple, not having a kid! Then immediately after the incident, we started trying, and then Covidhappened, and then we stopped…  and then we did a webinar saying that kind of babies and kids were kind of immune to Covid, and then we tried again… And boom, got pregnant within a week!

Anyways… Often it is these life or death encounters which clarify things. After this incident, I had zero thoughts about my wealth, money in the bank etc., or my fame or success or whatever. I literally had zero regrets besides the kid thing.

The greatest joy on the planet

I was thinking this morning, what is something that never loses its novelty factor? Seeing and witnessing your kid grow up!

Also… As a man, by far a 1,000,000,000,000% gratitude thing, having a son, having at least one son, one male, one man, and especially having your first kid being a man!

Why? Speaking from the perspective if you are a man, what every man desires is at least one male heir. Certainly when you see a family with three girls, four girls or five girls, no boys, you know what the family was trying to do. 

And also… The whole second kid question…  honestly, if for some reason or another, we couldn’t have a second kid, I’d probably be fine because the joy of knowing that at least, our first child was a son!

Anti women?

I think if I think about it very very honestly honestly… If our first child was a girl… I’m sure I would love her 1000%, but secretly at the back of your head, you’re always thinking wishing and wondering and desiring, to have a boy.

So this is my simple thought —

If you and your wife, or partner or whatever or girlfriend, decide to have a second kid, and your first kid is a boy… Don’t push the whole second kid thing. 

Also, if I told you that let’s say that your wife decided to have birth to a second kid, and there was a 90% chance that she might die in childbirth… Would you take the risk, assuming that your first kid is already a man? No!

Back to time

Honestly just throw your iPhone to the trash. Something that people don’t understand is that the iPhone is toxic; even reading one weird thing on your phone, one weird movie, film, news headline, TikTok video whatever… Strange pornography video or picture, can infect your mind, For a few days, randomly in the middle of the day, or even when you’re about to sleep.

The reason why I deleted Instagram in around 2017 and no– that ERIC KIM on Instagram is not me– the person that made my @erickimphoto Instagram account was just a faithful follower,  why is it started to do bad things to my mind and weird things to my mind. For example I’d be driving, in the suburbs, or the city… And at around noon, while driving, I would get distracted and think to myself “wait… did I uploaded something to Instagram today?” I caught myself thinking this, and I thought “wow, this is bad. I got to get rid of this”. And in 2017, when I had about 65,000 followers, I did probably one of the most courageous and proud things in my life, which was to delete my Instagram. 

mental Freedom?

Something my friend Jeffrey Lam tells me about is this notion of mind space, ideas that was not just a timeframe but, a mental space thing.

For example, you could in theory have 12 hours of free time in a day, but as long as a strange thought is lingering in your mind, you can never really focus 100%.

I think this is called the Zeignark effect,  for example let us say that you read an email that needs to be attended to… And you don’t attend to it or respond to it, and it will plate your mind for days, sometimes even weeks, sometimes even months. This is why I avoid my inbox, or my text messages like the plague…

One strange message email or text message or communication thing can distract you for days on end.

Playing cyber defense

I also think the reason why email needs to be fixed is now, it is so easy to fake an email, ChatGPT, with bots, or generative AI, even if the person is good or bad, or even if the bot is malicious or benevolent.

For example, let me give an extreme example, let us say you are Taylor Swift, and everybody on the planet knows your email (taylorswift@gmail.com)– let us say.  if you are Taylor Swift, and you literally get 1 million emails a day, would you have the time to either read every single email, or even worse… Respond to it? No? This would be mental suicide! This is why I quit email and all messaging apps Around 2016, 2017, because honestly I was just becoming too famous, too much cognitive load! 

Dodge

In the Iliad, when the heroes are killing each other… They do two things, obviously they wear protective armor, like shields, helmets, etc.… But if somebody throws a spear at them, or an arrow, what they do is dodge it.

If you see an incoming spear, you are not a fool, ideally you dodge it, ideally dodging it is more effective than even raising your shield. Why? If it hits your, there is actually a chance that it might penetrate your shield, and end up either wounding you or killing you.

I wonder if we should apply the same philosophy two things. Like if you see an incoming missile, or a beer or a bullet… You don’t take the chance. Dodge a bullet, rather than testing your bulletproof vest.

“That little vest ain’t gonna do you I shoot from neck up”- JY Z

The ghost of soulja slim —

Soulja Kim?

The notion of soldier, like Soulja Boy etc., and interesting thought… The notion of a “soul”, period with the notion of a soldier?

And apparently, if you really really need people from the hood, like Crenshaw, where Nipsey Hussle got killed, the honorific to call somebody worth valor is “soldier”.

Kind of like calling somebody boss or chief. Like Chief Keef

Chief Kim! Too many Indians, not enough chiefs!

Anyways, long story short, prize your time. This is the only life you got.

ERIC

What is a pure thought? I thought that comes to you, first thing you do when you wake up… Without any sort of external stimulus weather reading, listening, looking.

I’ve heard this advice before… That when you go to sleep… Charge your phone in your living room, as far away from your bedroom as possible. Better yet, just turn it off completely, or also, just keep it in your backpack. And actually let it die a little bit and drain the battery of it… iPhone sucks, is overrated, and bad for your health and life.

Also… Throw your TV smart TV into the trash. If you really want to watch a movie film cinema etc.… I think the best way to do it is to just download it to your iPad Pro, and just watch it outside! Alfresco style!

For example, here in Culver City and beyond… There has been a lot of events about watching movies in the park, watching movies outside… Even the antiquated notion of the drive-through movie theater is a very interesting idea; I think media has consumed outside, outdoors etc.

For example, pro tip for parents… If your kid wants to play games on the iPad, play with your iPhone or whatever… Make it a rule that they are only allowed to do it when they are outside of the house! For example at the park, the local playground, the local nature center, etc.

This is my tactic; any time that Seneco wants to do programming on the iPad with swift playgrounds, or play poly bridge 2, or a racing game… The rule is we have to go outside, go to the Culver City steps or downtown, and then I let him play there. 80% of the time he forgets… And ends up just running around instead.

Bizarre media habits of adults

OK, taking it a step further: 

First, OK something I never understood was owning a television?

First, if you want to watch something, why not just watch it on your laptop or better yet… An iPad Pro?

I thought we were advanced techies? Why would a techie own a television?

Video games?

Video game is fine for teenagers, and children… Not men or grown adults.

Why would you be playing PlayStation, or a PC game or steam… If you are over the age of 18?

Rule: adult over the age of 18 should play video games.

Video games are essentially a good refuge for kids who grow up without parental figures. Or they grow up in the hood, I’m playing video games is safer than gangbanging.

But besides this… Video games are not becoming of us. 

Becoming a real man 

So the pure thought I had this morning was there’s notion of becoming a real man.

What are my ideals?

First, a stoic manly, spartan ethos approach and aesthetic. We are not cowards, slaves.

The best thing to read is the Iliad, Emily Wilson translation. The best and the quickest and the easiest way to put hair on your chest.

Ignore modern day media

All modern day media is bad. Why? Because media is so hyper nowadays… Things are becoming more and more bizarre.

Things are bizarre, there are no longer any divisions or boundaries, everybody gets a gold medal, everyone gets a participation sticker, everyone is made mediocre. For example, when it comes to the body, bodily physique etc.… Do not be a fool. There is obviously a clear hierarchy here. And it is not a matter of objective or subjective… Both of these are not useful philosophical ideas. Besides physics, there’s nothing objective on the planet. And subjectivity is a modern day concept which is tired.

Achilles or Hector

I think the two best role models for us is Achilles and Hector. The two Apex fighters warriors and men of antiquity, no and forever.

I actually find the Iliad to be so pure, so honest, maybe the only book worth reading. This and the Odyssey. Once I am done reading the Iliad translation by Emily Wilson, I will read the odyssey translation by her as well.

Anyways, my first thought is there is no such thing as valor without real valor, real physical valor and strength. Even the notion “valere” or “vale”, which was essentially a signature like saying “best” at the end of an email, essentially it meant “be strong!”

All strength is good, all weakness is bad. It doesn’t matter what your domain is, we all seek strength, we all hate weakness.

And certainly, you could interpret strength and weakness for yourself. But whether it be physical, mental, physiological, artistic aesthetic etc — strength, power, durability is supremely desired.

Therefore, as a man, your first duty is towards strength, power, strengthening. 

Things which strengthen you, things which don’t

 I think one of the grand clarifying things about having a child is when it comes to time and focus and mind space and zen. 

For example, even before the birth of Seneca, I barely had enough time, mind space for myself. Now after the birth of Seneca, my time is really really insanely limited, and also nonrenewable.

For example, I only have so many bucks to give, and anything which does not promote my thinking or Seneca, is time wasted.

Let us assume that you caught your good 10 hours of sleep, and even talking to somebody who is full of misery, unhappiness etc.… They are strange negative thoughts will infect you in a bad way. If you were in full health and full figure… Unfortunately The toxicity of unwell people will positively harm you. And then it becomes a feedback loop… The second you are in a bad mood, it affects the mood of your wife, your kids, etc.

Being cruel is virtuous

I wonder if we want to become grander, we must also become more cruel.

For example, the second that I realize that my dad was bad news for Cindy, and that Cindy did not feel safe around my dad, it was a very easy cut.

And also, the number one benefit of stoicism is being able to conquer all of your past trauma, and not only that… Using that past trauma almost like clay, strapping it onto your body to make you bigger stronger, buffer, more indomitable.

 This is why I think so much of modern day therapy is bad; it opens up and reopens up too many bad wounds, for example… Let us say that you fell, you scraped your knee, and it takes about a week for your skin to reheat itself. Would you then take a knife, And scalp pull it back again, promoting the cut and bleeding again?! You just leave it alone, and you do not agitate if any further! 

Or, let us say that your whole life you were just drinking dirty sewer water, a metaphor for a toxic family or upbringing. Let us say you finally leave that environment, and now you could drink Fiji clean water, do you then out of virtue, go back to the toxic place and environment, and start drinking sewer water again, just to prove something? No!

The wisdom of Dr. Dre… You get out of the hood, and you stay out of the hood! You don’t go back to the hood to “prove yourself”.

In fact this whole notion of approving yourself, I find it to be insanely bizarre.

For example Achilles is 100% confident and certain in his strength valor and power. And everyone knows it. And it isn’t his ethos to go to battle just to prove how dominant he is.. He only goes back to fighting when he wants to get revenge on Hector, but besides this… Achilles wanted to retire from fighting.

Even if you took all the wealth on the Earth and multiplied it by 100,000… It is not worth your human mortal life.

For example, would you accept $1 trillion, if you had a 99.9% mortality rate chance, in the next three months? Obviously no!

Human life, a long happy life along healthy life is the most desired thing on the planet. Even the ancient Greeks and good old Homer knew this. 

So why are we trying to trade our health our strength and our well-being for money? 

An interesting nuance with Americans versus Koreans,

Koreans seek success as a moralistic imperative. Koreans, South Korean… They don’t really care for money… Money is simply a reflection of a Confucian literati type of success. 
In America, money, US dollars is the ultimate mark of success. It seems in America… We valorize money for the sake of money. We don’t actually want anything else, we just want the money.

In the American case, we want money because we think that the money will make us happy or happier? The simple mathematical equation, a simple vector: more moneys, more happiness.

For Koreans, it is more a matter of respect. The general idea is that the more money you have, the more respect you’ll get from others.

Funny enough Americans I don’t think we really care for respect, we just want money and happiness.

Koreans want respect, respect from others, their peers etc.…  I don’t even think Koreans want happiness. Koreans just want respect. 

---

Why does this matter

The philosophy of famous and fame

I think a critical thing to consider is that fame and money or not the same thing or equatable. Nor is it desirable to link the two.

For sample, it seems that the foolish mistake people make is that they think of fame as a conduit for wealth. But technically… The easiest way to become wealthy or make a bunch of money is to get a job in cyber security, become a lawyer or a doctor, or even work in sanitation and hygiene, doing a “dirty job“, which could easily net you a lot of money, easily $200,000 a year.

So then the question is … What is it that people seek, and why?

Everyone wants to be happy

First, it seems that what people really seek is not fame or money… But happiness. And people think of it like a simple scalar vector equation: 

as I increase my numbers, as I increase my monies, as I increase my fame, my follower number is whatever… This positive increase will be positively equated with more positive happiness.

What is this true? No!

I’ll example… Let us say that you’re the most famous person on the planet, your Brad Pitt or whatever, and your beautiful wife Angelina Jolie divorces you, you become a strange from your seven children, and nobody wants to call you or interact with you anymore.

Or even think about Russell Simmons, the former music producer who was revealed that he sexually abused all of these women, and maybe raped them or drug them or something weird, apparently his not in jail, even though he probably should, and now… He is Gained at least 15 pounds of fat, lives by himself in a mansion in New Jersey, and nobody talks to him anymore. Even though he might have $100 million in his Bank of America checking account, he is probably not happy.

The sorcery of happiness

I think the big issue here is we try to metricate happiness. 
Once again, I think people hear lack some sort of critical understanding… We think of happiness like ones and zeros, commas and dollars, numbers etc.

But some critical issues here, first we don’t realize that 99% of social media and follower numbers are just bots. I think if you waived a magical wand, in order to delete all the bots on the Internet, it would reduce the Internet population or the follower numbers by 99.9%. 

I’ll give you example… Let us say that you see a famous person on the Internet with 1 billion followers. I bet you that 999 million of those are just bots.

Social media inflation

Nobody ever thinks about this, but, I don’t think anyone has ever made the connection between monetary inflation and social media inflation.

Let us consider that it literally cost zero dollars to make a bot on the Internet. For less than a nickel, you could easily spin up 1 billion bots on Facebook Instagram Instagram Instagram Snapchat TikTok and you could create fake views, comments, likes, follower numbers etc.

 Most people are not critical and foolish. For example, obviously if you showed me your Instagram and you had 1 billion followers, in my mind I would just think well “this person is very famous and successful and rich whatever.” But once again… What if the person spent only about $2000 to get all those fake bot followers?  and hoodwink corporations to give them money and free products, because they could show off these fake followers?

Issues

Even if you are a social media influencer, you’re actually not making that much money. Let us say that you have 10 million followers or 100 million followers, and I asked you to promote its product to your phone, they might only give you about $5000 or maybe even $10,000… Which is not that much money, if you think that you could make more money in cyber security penetration testing.

Then, it seems that what people then do is they desire to make their passion their living, and they think that social media is the way. It is not.

My simple ideas only only need 300 hard-core, Spartan fans on the planet… Hopefully very committed, and also wealthy. It is more profitable to have people give you $100,000, rather than trying to get 1 million people to give you a nickel.

True fans true followers

I cannot really speak for other people, but I could speak for myself, from the position of being a fan.

Who am I a fan of? Kanye West, Jay Z, electronica, Kendrick Lamar, Zack Snyder, and the like. 

What makes me a true fan? Even though I could easily pirate their stuff for free, I decide to pay my real money for it, because for me… There is a sense of pride or ownership, or I just want to signal to myself that I really care for it.

Also, it becomes a sense of pride and also a filter– you never know whether you really care for something until you have made a monetary investment in it… Or a financial penalty, because money talks , money is skin in the game .

 I said no the Super Bowl 

Other side… You’ll only know the true values of the creator or the artist, based on the money they do not accept. 

 the difficult thing is that it does not easily discernible from a follower perspective… Knowing what your beloved creator decides to reject.

Often people will just throw money at you.  and typically only fools reject free money. But then… Fools are often wise.

Often we true fools have true conviction .  For example, probably one of the proudest things of my life is rejecting a book offer to publish my beloved 100 masters learn from the masters of photography book, I think I might have rejected about $10,000 USD, because I wanted it to be open and free. Probably one of the happiest and most proud moments of my life. Especially now that I am a bitcoin millionaire, and money doesn’t really matter that much to me anymore.

I think this is also where it is intelligent to stick to your guns and your own values, thinking about the long-term. The only regrets we make in life is when we compromise our values, for the promise of social or economic gain.

People are not stupid. Anyone and everyone can smell intent. For example, if you’re being nice to somebody just because you want an opportunity from them, or a potential financial payoff… They could smell it from half a mile away. However if you are being genuine,  truly genuine…  people know. And also, once you become part of a community or a city or a polis,.  word spreads.

For example,  One of my friends and mentors, Charlie Kirk, said something very nice to me a long time ago… That he would often defend me in public or private on the Internet, saying that I have never said anything bad about anybody ever.

And also… Now that I have enough experience under my belt, at the age of 36, starting my street photograph everything when I was only 21 years old… Wow, 15 years in the game, is this:

You can only trust people who have defended you, and now — your kids!

Defense, to defend, probably the most critical thing here.

For example, reading the Iliad,  when your best friend or fellow hero or champion dies on the battlefield… What do you do? You protect and defend their body, to prevent the other side from stealing their body and stripping their armor.

I think the hard thing is it is impossible to know whether somebody has defended you or not, whether in real life or in private… Until shit hits the fan. 

I find a very funny disconnect between lived embodied reality versus the ways in which people engage with film media video games etc.

I’ll give you example… One of my favorite fighting games or video games as a teenager growing up was tech, me and all my best friends would always play it, trying to warm up one another… Bryan Fury was my character.

The funny thing with video games, video game characters, is that it is a true reflection of your own personal ethos for yourself. For example, the character Brian fury, I think he’s a cyborg… But regardless, he is insanely jacked, shirtless, topless, and in my opinion, by far the most dominant fighter, at least in terms of muscularity And physique.

So essentially, when I look at Brian fury, I look at myself.

And then you think about video games in general, how bizarre it is that you have a bunch of nerves, either insanely twig like and skinny, and nerdy, or, super fat and nerdy, or maybe skinny fat? Anyways, sitting down on their butts, sitting on a couch, with a PlayStation controller in their hands, And play the fighting games in which they are beating the crap out of other virtual players, and if you look at the video game characters, they are essentially insanely jacked, and all look like demigods.

For example just look at the Tekken 8 lineup in terms of characters. Do I any of them look like the average American to you?

Also, in terms of physique… Do any of the fighters, whether a man or woman, look like the real average human being today?

Superhero films

Can you imagine a skinny fat marvel superhero? No. Yeah look at all the people who go watch the movies… A bunch of like the fat people from the wall-E movie, really fat, essentially just waddling around… Coca-Cola in hand, and stuffing themselves with type two diabetes, and watching superheroes be great?

Once again… Isn’t the goal to look like the superhero, or become the superhero?

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As deadly as ares

Noisy shouts 

.

Low lives

Observing traffic behavior, on foot… It seems that a lot of people who honk at you to hurry up, these guys are low lives? You could obviously tell that they are lower, poor, working class, and a lot of them… Our driving cell phone in hand?

And sometimes they often honk at people, to hurry up and turn right… When there is clearly a sign that says no turn on right?

So the problem is… If you’re in front and somebody is honking at you from behind… What do you do?

The problem is when somebody is honking at you from behind, there is not a way you could honk back at them, it is almost like imagine like you’re in battle… And someone tries to spear you from behind? And you cannot defend yourself?

Ideal thing would be to have a horn which is actually mounted on the back of your car, on the trunk… Which honks opposite; or have some sort of really really bright headlights or high beams, in the back of your car, which could shoot bright light and blind the assholes that are honking at you from behind.

.



OK I think I finally got it figured out; money is potential energy, when you actually put it to work, and enact force upon it… money then becomes kinetic energy?

Don’t hate me because I have more money than you!

Bitcoin is the first and only true hard money on the planet, therefore… If I have more bitcoin than you, and I have not spent it… That means I am richer than you, I have more money than you

I think which has boggled my mind for a very long time is money. The philosophy of money, economic theory, practical economic theory, etc.

For me, I have zero interest in theoretical notions of money. To me, money is practical, and also, thinking about physics, monetary physics is useful.

I should have majored in physics? 

Apparently, in the early days of sociology, they called it “social physics”

For example, I remember in high school… Surprisingly my favorite class was my honors physics class, I think I might’ve got B- in it or something… Our teacher I think he graduated from Stanford or Caltech or something… Super genius guy, at Castro Valley high, and I loved physics because it was science and math made practical, fun, and real!

I still will never forget, we did this experiment, in which we built this catapult, and actually used real physics math, to calculate the dropping projectile, and a shooting kinetic projectile, and after a few sessions of class, after we did all the math, and we shot it… It truly did collide mid air! It was magical! 

Movement is magical

What is the greatest tragedy in today’s world? When your movement is restricted, thwarted. 

As an example, what is it that we all hate in Los Angeles? Traffic! I think it is literally one of the first English words that Seneca learned by heart. 

For example, consider how cruel it is to force adults and humans to drive in their automobile car, stuck in traffic for about an hour one way, and then going into a depressing office building, indoors, lack of natural light… And force an individual to remain stationary, not moving, in front of a cubicle a desk, an open concept thing; doesn’t matter if you’re sitting or standing or even using a treadmill… It is like you are a glorified hamster on glorified hamster wheel! 

Injecting money into your legs

Living in Culver City LA about 10 months now… What is the ultimate way that you could rank yourself? By what neighborhood you live in!

Funny nuances, the second that you meet somebody outside of Culver City, who discovers that you actually live in Culver City, and how much more expensive your rent is than theirs, the attitude of people change.

For example, $3200 a month for two bedroom one bath Culver City, versus only $1800 for one bedroom, maybe in Palms or Overland.

Anyways, what I find personally interesting is thinking about the basic privilege of walking. In Los Angeles, the ultimate and Apex privileged is how much you could walk a day… The insanely rich and successful people that have met in LA, I can judge by how beautiful in bronze there are suntan skin is, how much time to spend outdoors, and how many steps they could put in a day!

In fact, you could probably separate people into two camps; people who stand and walk for a living, and people who are outside for a living, versus office slaves who have to be stuck inside a glass cube cage all day. Would you rather be a spartan, or a bubble boy? Or in Blade Runner that one girl who is forced to live in that little ecosystem chamber cell, because she likes immunity to the real world? 

What is happiness

To me happiness is walking. Having the privilege to all, having the strength to walk, you never really realize how grateful you are to walk, until you see a loved one in a wheelchair, otherwise healthy, because of type two diabetes and sciatica.

Or, I’ll never forget when I ruptured my tendon either in my ankle or my knee playing basketball in college, being stuck in crutches for almost 6 months, the worst.

Injuries

I’ve had many injuries of the years, fortunately never broke a bone in my life. Maybe it’s because I ate so much meat as a kid, and drink so much milk as a kid.

Anyways, I am really into this notion of healing, and not that the new Deadpool Wolverine films out… The theory and philosophy of healing, superhero powers etc.

I was watching an interview with Michael Saylor, which he talks about superhero theory, and the very very funny idea is the thought that the ultimate superpower is actually immortality, being invincible, like you cannot die. Because it would be very very simple, you just take a machine gun, step into the room and kill everybody, or you could just walk into a room with a nuke, nuke everybody, and everybody else dies but you.

Anyways, what I find so fascinating about wolverine, is that his mutant superpower is healing, and also… The fact that he has a skeleton made out of adamantine, but the nuance is every single time he takes out his claws, it literally causes him pain, wolverine is not immune to pain, he feels pain greatly; it’s just that he cannot die from the pain. 

So imagine a life, in which you are practically invincible, you cannot be killed… But, you feel pain like a typical normal human being, would you take this trade?

Money

Taking it back to money, what is money, why is this significant, what does it mean?

Recalling before I join finances with Cindy, the work was simple: you work hard, you earn money, and then you spend it. As a consequence, before marrying Cindy, I don’t think I ever saved more than $500, or thousand dollars, because I would spend the money as quickly as I earned it!

My justification was that I was “investing”, the general idea is that the purpose of money is that you earn it, you invested, you spend it… To continue the cycle all over again indefinitely.

However, one which was never instilled in me was the ethos of saving. The more radical ideas that you work hard, you earn money, but you never spend it… You either put in the market, buy bitcoin, buy real estate, buy property etc. Essentially, you earn income, continue to drive your 2010 Prius, forever, never eat out, never buy new things, never buy a loser iPhone pro, etc. and also you never eat out at a loser restaurant, you quit alcohol and you never pay for $20 cocktails, you never smoke weed, you never go to a festival, you don’t go to concerts, you don’t blow your money at Vegas.

How I learned this

One thing I’m grateful for is that my dad was a chronic gambler, he would always gamble away the rent money, go off to Reno in the middle of the night, not come back for a week… Empty-handed. Even as a teenage kid, working really really hard as a boy at the sushi restaurant my mom worked at, maybe saving about $3000 USD in cash, and my dad saying that there was a business opportunity in LA, and that he needed the money… And then me giving that money to my dad, hoping that he would actually invest it to change his life, but once again… Him coming back, empty-handed.

I suppose I am lucky that I was a stoic ever since I was a kid, my adamantine soul & carcass — this is how I became so tough as a kid. Anyways, it first taught me the virtues of not being foolish with money, and learning firsthandley… gambling was a positive evil. 

Energy conservation

Matter is not created nor destroyed, and assuming that there is a connection between Madrin and energy… Maybe the best way to think about money is monetary energy, human capital, solidified into ones and zeros.

For example, I think the true use of money is not really materials, but human labor. For example, when you pay somebody $20 for an overpriced sandwich, you’re not really paying for the materials… The materials for your sandwich might cost you only about a dollar or two, but to get a human hand to assemble the sandwich is what causes or cost a lot of money?

So I think when we pay for stuff, but we are really paying for is labor. Paying for human labor, and also space?

For example, when you’re wasting money at a gym membership… What you are paying for is the privilege of being around other human beings, kind of like a private club, and also the privilege of using the equipment and space.

I think this is where building your own home gym is so disruptive… it kind of changes everything. 

For example, reoccurring costs is the killer here. 

Depending on where you live, the prices of a gym membership can vary. When I was back in Orange County, crunch fitness was super cheap… I think like $30 a month? Practically free. But when you come here to LA… It looks like the average gym membership is about $120, even $200 a month? Even if you do the simple math… If you spent $200 a month in weightlifting equipment for yourself… Every month 200 bucks… This would be a better use of your money. Because when you purchased the equipment, it is your property, and has infinite potential.

Property

Life is a game of monopoly, go outside and cop yourself some property — MIGOS

Historically, Nas seem to laugh also mirrors this… Most of wealth creation was from owning property. For example, if your dad bought property in Palos Verdes, 100 years ago… You would inherit a lot of wealth.

Or those funny stories in which your great great grandfather, once upon a time purchased property in San Francisco for about five acorns, and now it is worth $5 billion… Similar story.

I think this is gonna be a similar thing with bitcoin, right now a bitcoin is worth about $55,000 a bitcoin… And 100 years, will be worth $21 million a bitcoin. And then 300 years from now, I wouldn’t be surprised if one bitcoin will be worth $1 trillion or something.

Generational wealth is the key

I think the big problem in today’s world is the cult of the individual. There has been a new modern day death to the family structure, the general ideas you never want to have kids.

Having a kid is very eye-opening in a good way. Why? Once you have a kid… Technically this augments your power. Assuming “The will to power”– the will to having children, many kids, is also the will to power. Why? When you have kids, multiple kids, you augment your power.

In the past, the general idea was children was like free labor. For example, we had a farm, having 10 kids would be useful in terms of managing the family farm. Even now, my brother-in-law and their family, having four boys for grown men… Tons of free intellectual and labor capital. They are currently building up a fine art gallery, And having intelligence and the human labor of for grown adults is great.

The logic

Assuming that you want to become super rich, but never have any kids… It is almost like shooting your semen into a black hole. When you’re dead, that sucks.

I think if you’re 90 years old on your deathbed, and you have no heirs, no children no grandchildren, no great grandchildren, the ultimate tragedy.

Body Pride vs body shame?

An interesting observation that I’ve made in the past; why is it that you’re allowed to flex your car, but not flex your body?

Even bodybuilders… Whenever they flex, they do it with a tint of shame?

Certainly there is a hierarchy of bodies, more desirable bodies, less desirable bodies. 

Generics is fake

A big intervention: genetics is fake. Certainly there are genetic things like height, facial morphological features, etc.

For example, if both of your parents are 4 feet tall, probably unlikely you’re going to be 7 feet tall. But your parents are 7 feet tall, unlike you’ll be 4 feet tall.

Obviously people from different genetic heritages look different. But, if we think about the plasticity of human gene expression — obviously there is a lot we can stretch!

Racism 2.0

For example, I don’t really think there is such a thing as muscular strength geneticism. For example, I think the reason why there is so much African-Americans and Caucasians in sports is because there is higher steroid use amongst them… vs Asians who have a culture of studying. 

However, even now, I’m starting to see this change. I’m seeing a lot of Asian guys, dipping into steroids, and they are insanely jacked. And I think the difference between the media and the real world is that the observation I met is when you go to the gym, a lot of the African-American guys are actually pretty skinny, typically guys  with the most mass or not the African-American black guys, but the Caucasian white guys– and once again… Steroid use amongst the white Caucasian population is very high, just watch the documentary on the bell Brothers, 2/3 of them taking steroids. If you ever grew up to an Arnold Schwarzenegger or Rambo Sylvester Stallone film… You see the glorification of steroids. Also baseball, wrestling etc.

I only trust Prius drivers 

A new thought: who is the real rich people or the real smart people? The Prius drivers!  For example, I’ll never forget… At the $150 million mansion in Holmby Hills, seeing a white Prius pull out of the driveway! 

And also, real rich families… all of the kids just drive Ford fusions? And even a major Tesla investor that I know, with over $100 million worth of Tesla stock, his family has base level model 3’s?

Therefore, my great intelligence is not seeing stuff on… Would rather, how real rich people behave. Especially how they don’t waste their money. 

Why are rich people so cheap

This is also another hilarious irony; real rich people are actually very frugal. The hilarious irony:

You’re so rich… Why don’t you spend money to buy that Lamborghini?

The reason why they are rich because they did not buy the loser Lamborghini, but bought a Honda Civic instead!

Also… The irony that people tell me:

ERIC, why don’t you eat some of the cake?

I tell them, “Because I don’t want to get fat.”

And then they tell me:

But you’re so skinny!

And then I laugh and I tell them– “The reason I am so skinny is because I don’t eat cake!” Haha.

And this is the great paradox, if you really want to become rich, like have a lot of money… The true goal is simple: Spartan living. 

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You not like them!

I’m cut from a different cloth, forged from steel not clay!

Marble

One thing I’m really into is marble. You cannot fake it. Even the fake marble stuff, although aesthetically pretty nice, there is always an uncanny valley in which you could tell us something that is fake, which makes you feel uneasy.

For example, fake wood trim, especially in cars, I hate this. I think this is why I would never purchase any Tesla automobile with a fake wooden dash– pure ugliness.  Here I am very happy that the new Tesla model three car, especially in black, they have made the dash, a lovely monochromatic thing. 

In Japanese aesthetics and woodworking, there is a general notion of honesty of materials; if something is plastic, don’t try to pretend that the plastic is something else! Just let it be plastic!

Don’t try to make some thing into something that is not!

Maybe also, the metaphor to humans is, if you are cut from a different cloth, if you are a different material… don’t try to transmute yourself into being something you are not! 

For example, if you are bronze, no matter how hard you try… You cannot become gold! And the virtues of bronze is it is relentless, and brings black death. And Achilles preferred bronze over gold — bronze makes better weapons and armor. Gold is only for looking pretty on the battlefield, Looking like little girls, who die promptly.

My primary sociological intervention is your personality characteristics, no matter how bad or immoral they may seem… our virtues should be amplified, rather than tamed or changed. 

For example, for myself, I was always the ratchet, loud, high energy personality– an ego and a head bigger than life, always wanting to be the center of attention. I think society try to squeeze me into being something different, more decipherable, more predictable, etc. I think from the get-go, my personality was always more adapted to entertainment focused, media personality stuff, rather than just being another quiet programming worker bee. In fact, now that Silicon Valley is effectively dead, I am so happy I did not study computer science or programming, and just become another drone at Apple, Amazon Facebook or Google, rather, I transformed my primary passion, blogging into my living. 

Am I the first millionaire blogger? Maybe. Certainly the first millionaire street photographer, or the first millionaire street photography blogger!

New analogies

I think a big issue is when we try to copy a design, something which has succeeded in the past, rather than giving it a cart launch, fresh from scratch approach.

For example, I’m a huge fan of the Fujifilm cameras, but the big critical design issue is that with the Fujifilm X100 series cameras, they try to make it look like a Leica M rangefinder camera!

Panasonic lumix is the way

Perhaps a more intelligent idea and thought, is like the new Lumix S9 camera, in which Panasonic Lumix had the intelligent idea:

If we pared down a camera, an interchangeable lens camera, a body, and made a maximally small compact and easy to use… what would it look like? 

Et voila! The first really really small, good interchangeable lens full frame camera! I think the grandeur of Panasonic LUMIX is they are smart —

1. First, essentially borrowing her technologies, in lending her talent to Leica Camera AG. And I think also, Panasonic Lumix gained good insight from the German Leica engineers.
2. Let us consider the Leica Q, essentially it is like a Panasonic Lumix camera on steroids.
3. In terms of longevity, it seems that overtime, the most robust cameras, which have lasted are the Lumix cameras. For example, the Lumix G9 camera that I got in Japan around 2017 2018, is still chugging along fine today!

Let us not be suckered, durability is the number one critical thing on the planet.

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Durable humans, durable bodies

 One of my curiosities is watching all these bodybuilding films, because I was sucker by all this stuff, back in the day when I was a teenage kid, trying to get super jacked and muscular etc. I probably spent hundreds of dollars on protein powder and muscle milk as a kid, Money which was probably better spent on buying stocks etc.

Something that people don’t know is that I only picked up for you when I was about 18 years old, as a high school senior graduation present before going to college, and technically I was blogging ever since I was in high school, I recall my first “Xanga” blog — and also building my own website blog my sophomore junior year in high school.

I started blogging around 2 years before I started shooting photos.

I suppose looking back, timing was good. Blogging was still in its infancy, and also, photography and street photography was still nascent– the early days.

Anyways, the funny thing with timing is that the timing of things is always most beneficial to you during your own generation in years.

For example, Seneca at 3 1/2 years old, already knows what bitcoin is! And when he was about 2 1/2, he was already creating images on DALL-E, we made a lot of funny bitcoin school buses, even before he could barely talk! 

I think this is the reason why entrepreneurship and innovation is tricky; the principles change, the ideas change, the methods and techniques change. And we always need to give it a first principles, carte blanche approach.

The American way

Perhaps the first true approach is to do a blank sheet, a clean sheet, a carte blanche approach. A white paper, a blank white paper approach.

For example, the reason why cyber truck is the best thing of all time is that Elon and his head designer, rather than just taking that Ford F150 and trying to make it look like a Tesla car, they just literally thought the whole thing from scratch, and thought:

If we designed a truck ,,, TODAY,,, with the apex of all materials and technologies, what would it look like? And also what design elements would it not have?

I think this is also where bitcoin is so innovative; rather than just thinking about how currency worked in the past, isn’t the more intelligent thing to leverage the Internet, computer, math, and modern day cryptography, to create a new type of “imaginary” money (all money is imaginary)?

I think studying history is useful, don’t just blindly give fellatio to the past. Often the past was far worse.

For example, anybody who over romanticizes vinyl records, classic cars, or even film photography… I think it’s signals insecurity in oneself, And what they do is they see some sort of godhead or legitimacy from the past.

Also the thing with film photography, which people get suckered by that because most people cannot do it, it is seen as more valuable! But just because the photo is showing on films not making more virtuous or interesting.

This is where the photography world, film photography, art photography world is ridiculous; it is a bunch of insecure people trying to circle jerk off one other, to augment a bunch of insecure egos?  to justify how you wasted $250,000 on a foolish private arts education, assuming your family is not a billionaire?

Any education or higher education in which you have to go into debt to do it is never worth it.

Back to ideas at hand

Once again, the intelligence of a clean slate approach; with practically everything…

1. If we could hard reset the whole world of bodybuilding, weightlifting, and fitness… What would it look like?
2. if we erased everything about the past, and truly designed a car for the year 2024 and beyond… What would it look like?
3. ChatGPT and bitcoin is already here and is certainly the future… how should we rethink or reimagine the whole K-12 education system?

Searchgpt

I would say the future of education is simply critical thinking… Just let the kids use unlimited ChatGPT, the paid premium one in the classroom and beyond, and the true goal of the future is how to be critical or how to judge and assess the veracity of things that you find on ChatGPT or Google.

Impact, I have not used Google for almost a month now, my new experiment is just used ChatGPT whenever I am curious about something, and it is a quadrillion times superior in every single shape shape and form.

The last bastion of hope for Google is maybe YouTube — but even the big issue is once chatGPT video, sora comes out…  and you could have ChatGPT produce infinite media, for a nickel, and also, you do not have to pay the creator…  then what?

Also pornography; I have not opened up the terrible Pandora’s box of ChatGPT,DALL-E, virtual reality AI generated pornography… Or hentai or whatever… But certainly it seems that the hilarious irony that pornography might be more ethical;  no humans are harmed, either mentally spiritually morally ethically… The only weirdos are the guys who may be created, and consume it, or… Release their seminal fluid to it? 

And also… Come on… How many single tech dies, who spent $4000 on Apple Vision Pro have used it at least once to try out virtual reality pornography? No shame or issues here… But certainly, it makes you rethink and reconsider the whole thing.

What is the purpose of humans?

On a very very basic level… Reading the new translation of the Iliad by Emily Wilson is very very useful, because the telos was very simple then; you wanted to find a beautiful wife, and have kids! No weird modern day hedonist playboy who wanted to stay single forever kind of notion. No loser George Clooney type.

Let us not forget that Hugh Hefner, who invented the whole playboy idea, was an impotent man, a twig of a man, who was just injecting Viagra to his penis all day? Not a sign of virility.

So first, my simple intervention is that the purpose of humans is to produce beautiful offspring. And to find yourself a beautiful mate, a beautiful wife.

The future for your kids

Every parent wants a more glorious future for their children! This is the impetus of every new immigrants to America and beyond. The Chinese and the Koreans, and also even the Vietnamese call America, the beautiful country!

Ngoi my~

Mee-gook

Mee-gwwuh

China means the center country, like the center of the universe. But America is the beautiful one.

Doesn’t everyone want beauty?

Men

Man, what is it that we seek? A beautiful wife, a maximally beautiful wife, the most beautiful wife of all time, within our means, to produce the maximally beautiful, maximally powerful and superior children?

And if you think about it… Man we are not so different from Peacock; we do different societal behaviors and norms, certain meeting dances and calls, in order to attract that made, once again, hoping to marry her, and have beautiful children with her?

Hector, also had a son. And I think Achilles, if he had the chance would also desire a son. 

Each and every man desires at least one male heir.

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Breeds of dogs & breeds of humans?

One of the greatest things about the planet is genetic diversity. If you lived in the planet without any genetic diversity, it would be the most miserable planet of all time.

Let us consider all the diversity there is, in terms of food, animals, climates, plants bugs etc.

The funny thing is that on one hand we promote diversity, but on the other hand, we shun it. 

Be different! No… not like THAT!

Everyone looks different in the same way?

 I remember in high school… The weird goth emo kids who would wear all black, even in the hot summer, I don’t understand how they were able to wear black hoodies in the summertime at school, and it seems that they all would shop at hot topic.

And also, kids who are into skateboarding… Why did they all look to see? Why have I never seen a kid into skateboarding who just wore Lululemon tights?

The good thing is, there is a blurring of everything, you could literally be anything you want to be. And nobody cares. I think this is a very good thing.

However the new ones; I think the notion of being different be predicated on assessing others, and then literally trying to be different, but rather, trying to critically assess who you are, and then, just focus on your own personality.

For example, a sociological curiosity I’ve always had is how much of our personality is genetic or biological versus societal? Now that Seneca is 3 1/2, I have a partially good answer.

Based on my observation, considering that also, I’ve literally almost been with Seneca 24 7, since he was born…  I think one personality is maybe 65% of the equation, and the rest of it is socialized.

For example, Seneca in terms of his personality is very unlike me. He is more reserved, critical, and I think wiser. I am a little bit too foolish, too loud, too trusting. I think his personality is a carbon clone of Cindy.

The nuance is that a lot of the things that I’ve been teaching him, is kind of like a social technology, like giving people high-fives, fist bumps, etc. Also, the fact that we are essentially outside all day, not in some sort of grid system.

Cyber Beach, beach school? 

Beach school? Kids would be a lot happier? 

Ethics?

Something which is not allowed to be talked about… we could talk about breeds of dogs, but not humans. 

OK… let us apply a line of thinking to dogs, different breeds of dogs. For example, certainly a canine or pitbull would be a much better and ferocious fighter than a pug or a hotdog wiener dog.

But the funny thing is I think all breeds of dogs could procreate with one another, irregardless of breed? 

Genetic differences 

Certainly with human beings, there are some families which are naturally taller, some families which are naturally shorter. And certainly there has been some sort of genetic diversification on the planet and beyond, especially when it comes a different parts of the planet.

For example, in certain places certain humans have more bodily hair, possibly to dissipate the heat. For example, the physiology of somebody from ancient Greece would probably be a lot different from somebody from Sweden.

Other places, we adapt to gain darker pigments to fight off the sun. It makes sense, if your family genetic heritage is from sub-Saharan Africa, logically the human body will produce more pigment to fight off the sun then if your genetic heritage was from northern Sweden, in which during the winter time you might only get 30 minutes of sun.

Why others are confused by me

I’m starting to feel more and more… maybe other people, they’re just a different breed than me. For example, I think of myself kind of like a canine, a K9 attack police dog, and everyone else is just a wiener dog? Or annoying poodles?

And so then… when other people try to punk me around, I have zero tolerance for it.

For example, let us say that you were a ferocious fighting dog, and there’s a random annoying poodle that starts barking at you! Or tries to bully you around? How would you respond? Obviously you would just want the damn poodle to shut up!

Or I am the Gerardos, everyone else is like a Diglett or a Magikarp?

Thinking about Achilles

In my mind, I see myself like an Achilles. I see myself like the most handsome, powerful, dominant, ultra being out there. And perhaps it is precisely my oversized ego is where I get my power.

I think there are a lot of sissy philosophers and thinkers who somehow think that ego is a bad thing. I think this is not the case. Your ego is almost like your balls and your testicles… would you castrate yourself because sometimes it makes you too angry– having big balls and a lot of testosterone is almost like overpower.

For example, we think about Dragon Ball Z, Goku going super Saiyan etc.… Obviously you want the golden flaming flowing hair, and the ultra power of going super Saiyan! But let us say that with the ability to go super Saiyan, there were also some downsides like sometimes you cannot tolerate the power? Would you sacrifice it? Of course not!

Niagara Falls would make a great bitcoin mining rig 

Kind of like a raging river, Niagara Falls; would the point be to simply cut it off … or wouldn’t a more intelligent strategy to be to harness it like putting a water electricity damn thing on it, harness the hydropower, not to cut it off?

And this is my critique about modern day times, it seems like a lot of people are trying to do is to castrate the source, rather than channel that energy for positive constructive good things!

Don’t castrate yourself!

For example, the ego should be something augmented, amplified and magnified, but also concurrent channeled in such a way which could be empowering and useful for others?

How?

So can we use the ego in a constructive or positive way?

First, a non-competitive spirit… just compliment everybody you see! Even if somebody is taller, more good looking, handsomer, richer, more successful, buffer than you! When you see somebody with a great physique, the correct strategy is to compliment them and acknowledge them!

Second, to harness and channel your ego and your energy and your physiological power towards writing, producing text, making videos, podcasts etc.… Sharing ideas, irregardless of how unethical they may seem.

If anything… I’m starting to think more and more, the only interesting ideas are the unethical ones. Or the ones which are shunned by mainstream modern day society.

To me, the only good ideas are the bad ones. When an idea seems right, and it seems to make sense, typically it is bad and or wrong.

Follow your values

When it comes to values, there is no right or wrong, there are simply authentic to yourself, or not.

For example, my values and beliefs in open source, entrepreneurship, and empowerment through photography are true. Why? I grew up poor, single working mom waiting tables at Japanese sushi restaurant for nearly 20 years, and also almost went homeless twice. A lot of your own personal narrative forms who you are.

As a consequence, I think the idea is not too shroud who you are, your own personality etc., but rather to magnify it!

Magnify your personality!

For example, I’m a very inquisitive, curious person, and I’d like to chop it up! I like to be friendly!

Funny enough… I try to be friendly to everybody, but people who are standoffish, or bizarro, they react to me in very bizarre ways. But should I suddenly shut down my friendly personality because other guy is a cowardly poodle? No!

ERIC KIM PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT

Ever since I was a kid, what was my great gift? Being a great entertainer! I am literally the most entertaining person that I know, I’ve only met maybe two people in the flesh who outperformed me.

Maybe it is a form of social conquest, trolling around, having fun etc.! Maybe it is that I seek to be the biggest dick in the room? 

But it’s supposed to question is, why do I care? Why do I care to be the biggest dick in the room?

Not sure? Maybe the desire to dominate is in my DNA?

How I became the street photographer 

Whether you like it or not, all street photographers, especially young ones are disciples of ERIC KIM. How and why? I essentially created a metaphorical Bible or textbook or encyclopedia and ultimate resource for anything revolving around street photography. Why?

100 lessons from the masters of street photography

It was always my number one goal to be the number one street photographer on Google, to become number one in street photography. As a consequence, my laser like eyes and focus was insanely simple; do everything I could do to become number one on Google for street photography. And the strategy was very very simple, create the most in-depth articles blog posts and information for everything street photography! It took me nearly a decade, but I did it! After that, other domains to conquer.

But the funny thing is in today’s world… certainly Google is relevant, but now that ChatGPT is coming out with their own search engine, which is in my opinion at least 1000 X more intelligent, google should be scared, very scared. 

What is the future?

Obviously it will be ChatGPT and AI, open AI.

Let us consider… AI and cars. Besides the vanity object, the ideal is for your car to be 100% self driving, and this is where Tesla is a great bet; one should think of Tesla like artificial intelligence company with wheels.

Because the truth is, if you compare the ride quality of any Tesla car and any Toyota, the Toyota is superior and almost every single shape and form, besides speed. A Tesla is very very uncomfortable, the springs are too harsh, the ride quality is inferior to even my 2010 Prius!

For example, if you wanted a car with the ultimate ride comfort, you would probably purchase a Lexus vehicle, or maybe a Mercedes? 

Even though I love Tesla and Elon Musk to death, the cars feel pretty cheap. If you wanted the best car, probably get a Lexus LS.

Autopilot is the killer feature

But anyways, the really intelligent strategy is to purchase the cheapest base level Tesla car, with the most basic options, and just purchase auto pilot. I think auto pilot for about $8000 is the best deal of all time; it is like having your own personal driving slave that doesn’t need to be fed, paid, never gets tired, is always ready.

Even the new Google pixel that comes with the new pro Gemini AI… If your life runs on Gmail, it is kind of the game changer.

If you can’t beat them join them 

Even Apple is lagging behind in artificial intelligence, the new Apple Intelligence looks pretty lame. Super smart that the Apple team decided to integrate with open AI to integrate ChatGPT into her services; if you can’t beat them, join them. 

Rather than Apple trying to create a ChatGPT copycat, simply to integrate or offer ChatGPT services on the iPhone is the smart way.

I guess Google has had a bit of a headstart; she was in the AI game for a very long time. And this is where Google to pivot to focus on AI is a good idea. 

So what will be the purpose of humans now?

In a brave New World of ChatGPT, AI etc.… What is the purpose or the significance of humans?

The first step is to transfer all of the tedious tasks from humans to ChatGPT. Or AI.

For example, the greatest innovation of TurboTax is having that new AI that automatically has you categorize all of your expenses. Oh my god, this was literally the most hateful thing about doing my taxes, having to categorize all of my different deductions. But now, what would otherwise take me about eight hours, takes me about eight seconds when you connect TurboTax with your bank accounts.

I love TurboTax!

And this is where the future of things become interesting; all these things in the past which we had to do inefficiently slowly and begrudgingly… we should just let AI do it, and we humans do more meaningful things. 

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Slave Work, Master Work?

I think this is the future; let AI be the new slave, and you, the flesh bound human being, you do the human creative work!

The ultimate disruption 

ChatGPT is one quadrillion times more productive than you. This is a big deal. Why?

What that means is that the purpose of us humans is not productivity. We can finally unchain ourselves from the leashes of this ridiculous notion of productivity. 

How do the gods of mount Olympus live?

The gods, who live at ease. 

You fools, the point of life is not to give fellatio to hard things, hard lives, etc. We should be like Zeus, with the mighty thunderbolt, the gods lived in supreme ease.

This is also the funny thing is that when a lot of people retire, make a bunch of money or whatever they are lost… they don’t know how to embrace or live a life of ease; they’re still trying to grind their nose against the grinder, because for their whole life, that is what their life was? 

I would say emulate the gods of the Iliad, ancient Greece. Read the new Iliad translation by Emily Wilson, I purchased it in the iBooks store, reading on my iPad Pro and I love it!

Ethos

I suppose that the primary thing here to consider is the ethos of human humanity, reasons of living etc.

I think for too long, the whole ethos of humanity was to maximize productivity, income income earning potential, money and capital and capitalism etc.… but once again, if bitcoin, AI and ChatGPT can do it better than you, by 1 billion fold,,, what is your new life ethos?

Risk free returns

Assuming that you’re a big contractor, and you’re building a new skyscraper or commercial real estate or whatever, what is the goal? To create income producing property, and to eventually cop a profit?

However the great issue here is the cost to capital; the startup costs and the initial investment is too high! As a consequence, let us say that you invested $1 billion to build this new commercial real estate… You eventually have to find all these tenants to sign a lease, occupy it, pay the lease or the rent, and maybe in 20 or 30 years you can make a positive profit? 

Assuming that bitcoin is digital capital, digital land, digital real estate… The cost of capital is practically zero, you just have to sit and vest, I can almost guarantee you that you have a 0% risk over 30 years. And I can almost guarantee you with 100% clarity that bitcoin will go up in the next 30 years. 

I also like the notion of bitcoin being digital real estate because nobody checks their home price on Zillow 10 times a day, reacting to short term increases or decreases or volatility.

Why is bitcoin so volatile?

It is a feature, not a bug!

First, you could trade bitcoin 24/7, 365, every millisecond. 
Let us consider how insane this is… It is the year 2024, we live in the future, and traditional markets are closed on the weekends? This is 1 trillion times bizarre.

Assuming that the real world was like a science fiction film… Can you Which economic trading doesn’t happen on the weekends?

So this is why bitcoin is so volatile and always goes up and down, almost randomly because it is always trading! I wonder if the volatility of other assets and stocks are a lot less because simply you can’t trade it on the weekends.

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Flesh future

I’m pretty sure that almost 99.9% of men, assuming that they have an iPhone, probably watches porn every single day, almost 100% certain at least once a week or once a month etc. Or better yet, if you want to see whether your friend watches porn or not, ask to see his laptop, and to see whether they have a torrenting or VPN application installed on their MacBook laptop– utorrent, Trasmission etc.

Or, if they have the brave browser on their phone, Google Chrome incognito etc.

Almost every single person I know who works in tech, knows how to program or code whatever, all use pirate bay.

Anyways, once again another bizarre thing; one would never watch pornography which is centered around ideas, souls, personalities, etc. It is always the flesh, the human body!

Why did it in modern day times, we are trying to deny the human body, and trying to promote instead, one’s “personality” and “mind” and “soul”– ?

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Build your body

Become a body – builder ,,, obviously without the steroids!

ERIC

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All injected hormones are bad hormones

Unless you have cancer, HIV aids, and is literally a life or death thing.

EK

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Things to learn

I think for myself, I have a passion for learning. Why?

First, lot of things about life and society are confusing to me; for example, a recent thing I learned about the Z boys, in the drought during the 1970s caused everyone to not have water in their pool, so these kids who would just jump fences and skateboard in the empty pools of people in Venice Beach or whatever… this is where the pipe, skateboarding thing came from? 

Also from a random Jay-Z interview that I learned… why is it that in hip-hop culture, guys would wear beanies, baggy jeans, and wear Timberland cold weather work boots? I think he said that it was for drug dealing, in the cold New York winter… And also probably would bag your pants you could hide a gun. 

Black timbs all on your couch again!

Also… The reason for the Lamborghini scissor doors on the Lamborghini Countach, was originated by the fact that the early models of the Lamborghini, because the reversing ability was too dangerous, they invented the scissor door mechanism so you could put up the scissor doors, and reverse your car, without hitting it! But now that we have reverse cameras and stuff etc.… there’s really no more reason to have scissor doors anymore. 

So maybe, the next Lamborghini you buy… forgo the scissor doors!

Don’t trust fashion

Also why is it that yoga leggings became a fashion trend for women in LA? Simple… You never know when you want to do yoga, so the optimal strategy is to just always wear yoga leggings, so you could jump into class whenever you want to!

Also, I think a lot of the fashion trends for gay guys were simply a signaling thing; let us say I am gay and I am not sure whether you are gay or not… Therefore I would adopt a certain fashion style, talking style, or bodily gesticulation ideas so I could signal that I am gay and you’re also gay. 

Code words.

Documentaries

1. Pumping iron, the classic documentary with Arnold I think it’s on Amazon prime TV? 
2. Stronger better faster, documentary about steroids, watch it on Apple TV+ just pay the 10 bucks
3. The legendary Z boys documentary of skateboarding

What to experiment with?

There is literally no downside to fasting or intermittent fasting. About 90% of modern day metabolic diseases can essentially be fixed by fasting. Type two diabetes, type three diabetes (Alzheimer’s), obesity, exhaustion, etc.

My simple suggestion: stop eating breakfast and lunch, and if you’re hungry just drink some water, black coffee with nothing in it, or green tea.

What is the best time to break your fast? Treat it like Ramadan… Only ever eat after the sun goes down. This makes for a dynamic workflow; because certainly the sun changes during the winter or the summer. 

Also, assuming that it is not against your religion… I also recommend everyone to do 100% carnivore diet, and besides meat, red meat, goat lamb beef, pork is also good (achilles roasted a hog to feed his guests), bone marrow, beef ribs, backbone, etc. for greens just eat arugula, kale, watercress.

Quit sugar

Quit all sugar, the real stuff that fake stuff, even the fake “good” sugar.

There is no biological reason you need to consume fruit, fruit is just candy with a good conscience.

Also start vegetables, it is just poverty food; people would eat starchy vegetables or rice or white rice to avoid dying.

Also a theory… Perhaps the reason why in Asia white rice was so prized was if the rice was white… It was a hygiene thing; you knew that there was not any maggots, or insect in it, or things which could cause you to get sick and die.

60 pound weight vest

Titan.fitness , and just walk around all day! Just buy a cheap sun hat on Amazon for 10 bucks, and sun block up! 

Also, I believe every single man, each and every single man should own at least one great barbell. Buy the Texas power squat bar, if I did it all over again I would buy the monsters Squat bar!

IPad Pro

I think Apple should do a commercial with me, just using the iPad Pro, no case no pencil (eric@erickim.com)–

I’ve become an icon in Culver City, I’m the dude who just walks around all day, with his iPad Pro. Most people have never seen me even use an iPhone. 

Voice dictation is the future, there is no reason to text message or use your thumbs in the year 2024, the only reason people don’t use voice dictation is that they feel it is socially weird?  But why should you care?

This is where the next new wave of innovation is simply conquering social expectations, social fears. Allow yourself to be aberrant and different. 

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What to read

1. The bitcoin standard
2. The Iliad by Emily Wilson 
3. The Odyssey by Emily Wilson

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Some capital thoughts:

OK, it seems that what a lot of us seek is maybe fulfilling a curiosity gap, purchasing something because we think it will boost our happiness, etc. But is this ever the case?

No!

At the age of 36, I’ve achieved all my life goals, pretty much purchased everything I’ve ever really wanted, and this is my big lesson:

No matter how good the stuff you purchase, sooner or later, you will quickly tire and bore of it. 

Perhaps it is human nature. And this is how we were hardwired.

However, I think the pernicious effect of consumerism and maybe capitalism is that we have this false belief, this false reality that purchasing XYZ will make us “happy”, or give us everlasting bliss. 

Or, that having ex amount of income or money in the bank or whatever will make us “happy“, or give us a feeling of security? 

Male vs Female capital

This is what I generally observed; through money in capital, women seek a sense of security, belonging, or to be appreciated or desired?

For example, if you look at all these sexy girls on Instagram or whatever… Or women who spend too much money on clothes, what is it that basic? Acceptance, to be perceived as beautiful, to be desired or desirable.

Also it seems that with women, the desire of purchasing a home, a single-family home a condo whatever, is a sense of security.

For men, it seems that we think of as a form of power, power augmentation, and maybe what we conflate is power with happiness?

What if… power and happiness were not the same thing? But different? 

What if the fact was in order to become more powerful, you had to become more unhappy? Or conversely… That the most people were actually the least powerful?

Question; would you rather be the unhappy dragon, or the happy cow?

How to switch things up

My neighbor, successful Silicon Valley, google employee, about my age, single, no kids, not yet married, has a girlfriend, seems that he just treated out his old Audi S3 sport for a Porsche 718 sport. And it is funny… Although the engine or the exhaust of the Porsche sounds way cooler, in terms of aesthetics, not much of a difference.

Actually, the more I look at the Porsche 718,  the more I hate the design. The rear end of it looks terrible!  and assuming that you’re a normal human being who always parks their car nose in, butt out, what that means is almost 100% of the time, you’re going to be staring at your car from behind.

My personal thought is the best designed Porsche car from behind is certainly the Porsche 911 with the singular blade light. And it also seems that the new Porsche 911, which I think might have a hybrid in it, has a more aesthetic looking tailpipe design.

Anyways, the problem with design is as good as the design is, it will never less. For example, even my film Leica MP, black paint, fully mechanical, mechanical perfection, with the Leica 35mm f2 Summicron Lens — yeah it is super nice, and essentially the design is perfect ; it is probably the perfect design because it is 100% mechanical, you don’t need a battery for it to take pictures, or operate. The only battery thing in it is the light meter, which is insanely useful. The film Leica M-A does not have a light meter, which almost seems more like a aesthetic exercise, not a practical one. Having a built-in light meter is insanely useful.

Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler.

This is why I still think that the film like a MP camera is the most best, the most supreme, because you don’t want to be taking the light meter out of the camera, very much how Rico foolishly got rid of the built-in flash. The Ricoh GR II with the built-in integrated flash is still probably the best one, I think about all the great photos I saw with it, using the built-in flash. The Ricoh GR III/X also insanely great, but still… It seems that the wise optimization is making a little bit bigger, and put back in the flash, rather than just trying to make it super super small, but getting rid of an insanely useful thing, like the built-in flash.

Kind of like if you’re a man, and you’re trying to “lose weight”, and you decide to chop off your penis in your balls in order to “lose” a pound. Not a good idea.

Simple ideas

I think what we humans have a joy in is change over time, or before and afters.

For example, who is happier? The guy who starts off with the salary at $40,000 a year, and gets a pay raise to $80,000 a year? Or to the guy who makes $1 billion a year, and then his income is reduced to only $10 million a year? Obviously the person in the second scenario is in the far superior economic financial position, but will probably feel miser miserable compared to the guy with a more modest income, who had a massive jump!

And this is also the funny thing… It is all relative! For example, when I was in college, $3000, $5000, $7000, $10,000, were an unfathomably big number to me. But now, I’m chasing 1.2 million, 2.5 million, $10 million and beyond.

Also, I guess it’s good that I’ve built a more stoic mindset when it comes to money, for example, if I randomly see my bitcoin balance dip $200,000 or $300,000 down, it doesn’t really bother me that much, whereas in the past, even seeing my money go down $500 or $1000 dollars was like being kicked in the balls. 

Wise economics

Very very simple, if you want shits and giggles, never buy anything, either rent it, test drive it, maybe even leasing it might be a better idea. Why? Instead of dropping $80,000 on a brand new car, to just lease it for two or three years, and get it out of your system, might be a better bet than Pissing away all that money that you could otherwise put into bitcoin, and have it 1000X from here. 

Also, I think one of the joys I have on living very very close to two car dealerships is that I always walk by the cars, and the funny joy is I don’t really feel like I have the need to actually own it; because I could just look at it, it feels like I metaphorically own it!

For example for a while there was a cyber truck here, and I will look at it every single day, and even the cyber truck, as much as I love it, I eventually bored of it. Even now, I used to be super super excited when I would see a cyber truck on the road, And now, even though it brings a small to my face, it doesn’t bring me the insane excitement that it did before.

All

I think this applies to cars women, your bank account account balance balance etc.

No matter how good grand perfect or whatever… Sooner or later you will bore of it. 

For example, in regards to women… No matter how beautiful the woman is, sooner or later, assuming that you only got with the woman only for her beauties… Assuming that you just wanted to bet her indefinitely, I could almost guarantee you 100% that After a few fun nights, you will tire and bore.

Same thing with owning that Lamborghini; I actually had the realization, now that the Hurucan and the Aventador has been outdated and replaced… None of the new Lamborghinis have any appeal to me, practically zero. What I then realize is the whole time, I didn’t really care for the Lamborghini so much, as for what it stood for,  ultimately the only reason why Lamborghini was cool in the first place was because of Kanye West. And as much as people like to ignore, all modern day rappers are all disciples of Kanye West. Even Travis Scott, who was the most raging success, was discovered by Kanye and promoted by Kanye.

Even apparently Adidas,,, who apparently asked their contract with Kanye because of Kanye‘s controversial “antisemetic” remarks, they are now selling his Yeezy sneakers at a 70% discount!  it shows that I guess then Adidas… They are a bunch of scumbags, and they don’t really support anti antisemitism, – if they really really cared, they would just throw all of the unsold Yeezy supplies into the furnace, because it would be unethical to in for a profit. So ultimately, guys, all corporations and companies, and publicly treated companies have no morals and ethics, why?  if Adidas truly truly did support the Jewish community and if Adidas was truly anti-Kanye West for his anti-Semitism they would never ever ever continue to sellthe Yeezy sneakers, even to  sell off the unsold supply. The ethical thing would have been to either burn or shred the unsold Yeezy supply. 

How to switch it up

Very very simple thoughts: first, before selling your car or trading it in for something new, just wash your car, and wax it! Also a very very simple modification you could do to your car is to purchase some Matt Black paint primer, rust oleum, or a shiny glass black paint, and just spray paint your rims either a mat black, gloss black, or satin black. 

Also ironically, the best mod you could do is removal! For example, just buy some goo gone,  and the debadge your car, get rid of all the emblems! This is what I did to the 2010 Prius that I inherited, and aesthetically I love it so much more without the emblems! 

Also if you have an old car, get rid of the tent. You know sometimes the older cars when you have the low quality tent, in the tent becomes purple and starts to bubble? Yeah I get rid of that. Also that you really do have a race car or sports car, if you wanted to go faster, get rid of the power steering, air conditioning, And also the radio. And if you really really wanted to be a race car, get rid of all the sound deadening, interior stuff, rear seats, etc. And you could tidy up your engine bay just clean it up!

If you want a very very simple modification, just purchase some 3M matte black vinyl wrap, and just wrap your car! To wrap your car is very easy, it is just like a big sticker! My suggestion is just do it over some accents and small parts, not the whole car. Why? Even if you purchased the best car wrap on the planet, and have it installed by the best person on the planet, you take care of it with the best sprays cleaning supplies and products, and always keep apart in the garage whatever… Lifetime on these things are maybe 3 to 7 years tops?

And this is where I’m still a bigger fan of real automotive paint; assuming that you take care of care of a good paint job it might last maybe 20 years? Even 30 years? Assuming also it is a white paint job? And also don’t be a fool; black paint, even the best black paint never lasts, even if you have the best Mercedes car, or BMW or Lexus, sooner you will get the paint scratches, and when it is 100° in LA, you’re going to wish that you did not have that car. And if you do a simple physics test; let us say you live in Arizona or Las Vegas, if you have a black car in the dark sun it will probably not last you 20 or 30 years.

Then I suppose the question is how long do we want these things to last anyways? Do we really want them to last forever, or are we secretly waiting for it to break, either intentionally or unintentionally, to give us an excuse to “upgrade”?

Upgrading is a scam

Some low-key unethical behaviors from Apple; she wants you to trade in your old iPhone, at an 80% loss, to upgrade to her newest most mediocre device, which will also probably be outdated in a year or two? 

Typically what I see a lot of people do is that they will find a reason to “upgrade” their phone by giving their old phone to their sibling, parents, etc.… But once again guys, this is a very foolish decision.

My simple thought is the only purpose of an iPhone is for FaceTime and Google maps. This, the iPhone is really quite a mediocre device. 1000,000,000,000 times better to have a iPad Pro, if you really want to be productive.

In fact, what is the modern Day iPhone Pro? Not a camera, if you really cared for photography you would purchase a standalone digital camera. If you really wanted to increase your productivity you would just buy an 11 inch iPad Pro. Maybe the iPhone, iPhone Pro, is just a mobile pornography device or perhaps a mobile distraction device? 

True happiness

My recipe for happiness is simple; sleep 8 to 12 hours a night, walk 30,000 steps a day, maximum time outside all day, never be stuck in doors, to play with your child with full vigor, to lift weights at least once in the day, to have a loving family, too fast all day and to only break your fast right before it is time to sleep, and to essentially have strength vicar and power all day long!

“Heem”

In Korean, there’s this notion of “heem”– which just means vigor or strength.

Also, the notion of getting sick, like the common cold “gam-gee” is meaning that you lost your “gi” (the Chinese call it your “chi”).

The significance of it is that when you catch a common cold, it essentially you lose your strength, your power.

To me, the only thing I hate in the world is feeling tired, exhausted, weak, without vigor.  And even a simple thought; I think for a lot of men, the goals to get super super buff, super jacked, insanely muscular arms, whatever… Or to hit a certain inches for your biceps, your arms, to hit certain numbers for your lifts, to hit a certain weight, to hit a certain body fat percentage, whatever… But ultimately, the most critical thing here is having insane vigor, audacity, strength, and power! Physiological power. Nothing else matters.

This is where that takes away from your physiological is bad. For example, would you eject your seminal fluid, immediately before attempting to lift 1000 pounds? Probably not.

Also — no boxer would smoke weed, consume alcohol, taking any drugs or downers, immediately before the big fight! Even something I’m not sure… I don’t even think a boxer would drink coffee right before the fight? Why? Even something I discovered with public speaking, the worst thing you could do is to consume caffeine or an upper or a downer right before a big speech. Better to just drink a bunch of water and do it sober. Why? I’ve had an espresso before giving a public talk, or doing a workshop, or drinking coffee before workshop… And once I actually get into action, I become too stimulated, too much adrenaline. 

Apparently there are a lot of musicians, orchestra people, people in the band or whatever who all take these muscle relaxants, or these downers, or calming drugs before getting on stage to deal with stage anxiety… But this is also a bad idea because it will make you a bit slower, and you will lose your edge.

Water is best.

---

What if everything you believed in was false?

After watching the bigger stronger faster documentary on steroids, very eye-opening. Everyone is on some sort of steroid or drug! Even jetfighter, in the Air Force, “go pills”– they take it like candy! Also, an interesting history of science book and medicine, “Blitzed”– outlined how the panzer Blitzkrieg nazi tank operators, were essentially all high on cocaine and meth, in order to drive their tanks straight for three days without food rest or stopping. Even apparently, Adolf Hitler was high on all these drugs, and even had his own private doctor prescribe him all these anti anxiety pills and medicines —

And you see this in show business all the time — all of these super successful media personalities end up overdosing on heroin cocaine, or end up committing suicide? Anthony Bourdain, Robin Williams?

All media is bad.

This apparently happens a lot to child actors, think of Degrassi Drake — i’m sure being part of the whole whole factory of Nickelodeon at such a young age, was probably traumatizing. I would not be surprised if the truth was even the rapper Drake was sexually abused as a child.

This is where it is wise to assume that all show business is evil; never let your kids get into it, not for any sum of money or fame!

Facts

Let us do some simple mathematics, calculations, and thought experiments: let us say that for living, you depend on YouTube advertising. And you want to maximize your views your clicks, your walk-throughs, etc.… Certainly it will be your best interest to create things which are maximally controversial, Crazy, insane, as well as bad.

Also this is where we could consider Instagram for young girls almost like child pornography; if you are a young teenage girl, or even in your 20s, what maximizes views clicks followers etc.? Obviously things which are more sexual in nature. Very very creepy, let us see your daughter is on Instagram, and you have single 50 or 60-year-old men  calling her watching her videos, looking at her pictures, certainly you will not like that.

---

Physique is overrated

I’m starting to think, perhaps physique is overrated.

Why? Men and women who chase physique, will sooner or later do weird stuff.

For example —  men who see physique will eventually start injecting their butt holes with steroids. Women who seek physique will eventually start injecting their lips, their faces, also their butts.

Why do we care for physique so much?

Curious question… Why is it that we seek physique so much? 

Physique is the same thing like the exterior of your car, “All show, no go”.

I think my theory is that appearances physique is marketable. For example, let us say you have a sports car, and you have done no exterior modifications, and you have a “sleeper” car. 

Now a lot of people, they would spend all their money to modify the exterior of their car. Why? Because it is the only thing that will help you get likes on social media. Also, when you are on the road, it is the only thing that people could see. 

But the reason why when I was really into modifying my car, I only cared for engine mods was because when you’re driving your car, you could only feel the “butt dyno”– for example, change over time, let us say you install a new short ram intake, headers, exhaust etc.… You will feel a difference in performance, but if you do some sort of exterior modification, you cannot enjoy it while you are inside your car driving.

The correct strategy

I think in life, the best and the most correct strategy is it is better to take a $2000 sports car, and slowly modify it, rather than already purchase a $100,000 vehicle. If your end objective is to maximize your pleasure happiness, and fun, this is the best bet. 

For example, don’t buy the loser Porsche 911 convertible, just buy an old Mazda Miata, 1990– 5 speed, manual, no air conditioning no power steering – and feel free to thrash it around as you like!

This is why I’m so happy with the 2010 Prius I got; I feel zero recompense on spray painting the rims, changing it up, and fucking around with it!

I suppose this is where the upside of cheap and free is; for example if you really wanted to become a fashion designer, just buy some insanely cheap clothes or free clothes, and take some heavy duty scissors and cut off the sleeves, make it a crop top whatever. Even apparently nowadays, the trend is jean shorts, ”jorts”– which is very very easy to do if you just took your old jeans and just cut off the legs!

Fashion?

Fashion means how you make yourself.

Facere– to make.

The simple bifurcation of fashion:

With clothing and fashion, are you trying to highlight your beauty, or hide your ugliness? 

For example, it seems that the whole genius of LA girls just wearing leggings all the time, especially when they just wear white leggings, is for them to show off all their body parts, legally. 

If you’re a man, legally you do not need to wear a shirt when you’re out in public. So if your man, spend zero money on T-shirts, shirts, etc. I think the best thing to wear is a tank top, assuming you have to be somewhere indoors or whatever… But a simple thing you could just do is just take your old T-shirt, and just cut off the sleeves! 

Crop top it?

Even a simple idea; I see women do this all the time, is wearing a crop top, showing off their belly and belly button. 

A simple thing you could do as a man is to to make your own crop top! It seemed that when I was a teenager growing up, everyone was so anti-gay, only gay guys were crop tops, to signal that they were gay. But now, You could do anything you want!

If anything, more interesting for a straight guy with a kid  to be wearing a crop top in public, obviously signaling he is not gay — assuming that the kid is biologically his, assuming that she has a wife,

Even something funny and disruptive I did at my old gym, was when I was about to lift a really really heavy, I would roll up my shirt, and expose my belly button, and even my nipples, and nobody ever said anything! And I think some guys at the gym might’ve thought I was gay, but then when I would chop it up with the women at the gym, they would be confused?

The best life

It is my personal belief that the best life involves and revolves around being outside all day, walking around all day, on your two feet all day,  without having to sit down or be indoors

And also, what is heaven on earth? A happy family!  

Assuming you’re trying to maximize your happiness joy and pleasure in life, the obvious strategy is to have at least one kid. Ideally two; ideally a boy and a girl, in order to maximize and augment your human experiences. Certainly raising a boy and a girl is different.



I’m not like them

Some random funny thoughts:

Breeds of dogs & breeds of humans?

OK… let us apply a line of thinking to dogs, different breeds of dogs. For example, certainly a canine or pitbull would be a much better and ferocious fighter than a pug or a hotdog wiener dog.

But the funny thing is I think all breeds of dogs could pro generate with one another, irregardless of breed? 

Also certainly with human beings, there are some families which are naturally taller, some families which are naturally shorter. And certainly there has been some sort of genetic diversification on the planet and beyond, especially when it comes a different parts of the planet.

For example, certain places certain humans have more bodily hair, possibly to dissipate the heat. Other places, darker pigments to fight off the sun. It makes sense, if your family genetic heritage is from sub-Saharan Africa, logically the human body will produce more pigment to fight off the sun then if your genetic heritage was from northern Sweden, in which during the winter time you might only get 30 minutes of sun.

Why others are confused by me

I’m starting to feel more and more… maybe other people, they’re just a different breed than me. For example, I think of myself kind of like a canine, a K9 attack police dog, and everyone else is just a wiener dog? Or annoying poodles?

And so then… when other people try to punk me around, I have zero tolerance for it.

For example, let us say that you were a ferocious fighting dog, and there’s a random annoying poodle that starts barking at you! Or tries to bully you around? How would you respond? Obviously you would just want the damn poodle to shut up!

Thinking about Achilles

In my mind, I see myself like an Achilles. I see myself like the most handsome, powerful, dominant, ultra being out there. And perhaps it is precisely my oversized ego is where I get my power.

I think there are a lot of sissy philosophers and thinkers who somehow think that ego is a bad thing. I think this is not the case. Your ego is almost like your balls and your testicles… would you castrate yourself because sometimes it makes you too angry– having big balls and a lot of testosterone is almost like overpower.

For example, we think about Dragon Ball Z, Goku going super Saiyan etc.… Obviously you want the golden flaming flowing hair, and the ultra power of going super Saiyan! But let us say that with the ability to go super Saiyan, there were also some downsides like sometimes you cannot tolerate the power? Would you sacrifice it? Of course not!

Niagara Falls would make a great bitcoin mining rig 

Kind of like a raging river, Niagara Falls; would the point be to simply cut it off … or wouldn’t a more intelligent strategy to be to harness it like putting a water electricity damn thing on it, harness the hydropower, not to cut it off?

And this is my critique about modern day times, it seems like a lot of people are trying to do is to castrate the source, rather than channel that energy for positive constructive good things!

Don’t castrate yourself!

For example, the ego should be something augmented, amplified and magnified, but also concurrent channeled in such a way which could be empowering and useful for others?

How?

So can we use the ego in a constructive or positive way?

First, a non-competitive spirit… just compliment everybody you see! Even if somebody is taller, more good looking, handsomer, richer, more successful, buffer than you! When you see somebody with a great physique, the correct strategy is to compliment them and acknowledge them!

Second, to harness and channel your ego and your energy and your physiological power towards writing, producing text, making videos, podcasts etc.… Sharing ideas, irregardless of how unethical they may seem.

If anything… I’m starting to think more and more, the only interesting ideas are the unethical ones. Or the ones which are shunned by mainstream modern day society.

To me, the only good ideas are the bad ones. When an idea seems right, and it seems to make sense, typically it is bad and or wrong.

Follow your values

When it comes to values, there is no right or wrong, there are simply authentic to yourself, or not.

For example, my values and beliefs in open source, entrepreneurship, and empowerment through photography are true. Why? I grew up poor, single working mom waiting tables at Japanese sushi restaurant for nearly 20 years, and also almost went homeless twice. A lot of your own personal narrative forms who you are.

As a consequence, I think the idea is not too shroud who you are, your own personality etc., but rather to magnify it!

Magnify your personality!

For example, I’m a very inquisitive, curious person, and I’d like to chop it up! I like to be friendly!

Funny enough… I try to be friendly to everybody, but people who are standoffish, or bizarro, they react to me in very bizarre ways. But should I suddenly shut down my friendly personality because other guy is a cowardly poodle? No!

ERIC KIM PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT

Ever since I was a kid, what was my great gift? Being a great entertainer! I am literally the most entertaining person that I know, I’ve only met maybe two people in the flesh who outperformed me.

Maybe it is a form of social conquest, trolling around, having fun etc.! Maybe it is that I seek to be the biggest dick in the room? 

But it’s supposed to question is, why do I care? Why do I care to be the biggest dick in the room?

Not sure? Maybe the desire to dominate is in my DNA?

How I became the street photographer 

Whether you like it or not, all street photographers, especially young ones are disciples of ERIC KIM. How and why? I essentially created a metaphorical Bible or textbook or encyclopedia and ultimate resource for anything revolving around street photography. Why?

100 lessons from the masters of street photography

It was always my number one goal to be the number one street photographer on Google, to become number one in street photography. As a consequence, my laser like eyes and focus was insanely simple; do everything I could do to become number one on Google for street photography. And the strategy was very very simple, create the most in-depth articles blog posts and information for everything street photography! It took me nearly a decade, but I did it! After that, other domains to conquer.

But the funny thing is in today’s world… certainly Google is relevant, but now that ChatGPT is coming out with their own search engine, which is in my opinion at least 1000 X more intelligent, google should be scared, very scared. 

What is the future?

Obviously it will be ChatGPT and AI, open AI.

Let us consider… AI and cars. Besides the vanity object, the ideal is for your car to be 100% self driving, and this is where Tesla is a great bet; one should think of Tesla like artificial intelligence company with wheels.

Because the truth is, if you compare the ride quality of any Tesla car and any Toyota, the Toyota is superior and almost every single shape and form, besides speed. A Tesla is very very uncomfortable, the springs are too harsh, the ride quality is inferior to even my 2010 Prius!

For example, if you wanted a car with the ultimate ride comfort, you would probably purchase a Lexus vehicle, or maybe a Mercedes? 

Even though I love Tesla and Elon Musk to death, the cars feel pretty cheap. If you wanted the best car, probably get a Lexus LS.

Autopilot is the killer feature

But anyways, the really intelligent strategy is to purchase the cheapest base level Tesla car, with the most basic options, and just purchase auto pilot. I think auto pilot for about $8000 is the best deal of all time; it is like having your own personal driving slave that doesn’t need to be fed, paid, never gets tired, is always ready.

Even the new Google pixel that comes with the new pro Gemini AI… If your life runs on Gmail, it is kind of the game changer.

If you can’t beat them join them 

Even Apple is lagging behind in artificial intelligence, the new Apple Intelligence looks pretty lame. Super smart that the Apple team decided to integrate with open AI to integrate ChatGPT into her services; if you can’t beat them, join them. 

Rather than Apple trying to create a ChatGPT copycat, simply to integrate or offer ChatGPT services on the iPhone is the smart way.

I guess Google has had a bit of a headstart; she was in the AI game for a very long time. And this is where Google to pivot to focus on AI is a good idea. 

So what will be the purpose of humans now?

In a brave New World of ChatGPT, AI etc.… What is the purpose or the significance of humans?

The first step is to transfer all of the tedious tasks from humans to ChatGPT. Or AI.

For example, the greatest innovation of TurboTax is having that new AI that automatically has you categorize all of your expenses. Oh my god, this was literally the most hateful thing about doing my taxes, having to categorize all of my different deductions. But now, what would otherwise take me about eight hours, takes me about eight seconds when you connect TurboTax with your bank accounts.

I love TurboTax!

And this is where the future of things become interesting; all these things in the past which we had to do inefficiently slowly and begrudgingly… we should just let AI do it, and we humans do more meaningful things. 

---

Slave Work, Master Work?

I think this is the future; let AI be the new slave, and you, the flesh bound human being, you do the human creative work!

The ultimate disruption 

ChatGPT is one quadrillion times more productive than you. This is a big deal. Why?

What that means is that the purpose of us humans is not productivity. We can finally unchain ourselves from the leashes of this ridiculous notion of productivity. 

How do the gods of mount Olympus live?

The gods, who live at ease. 

You fools, the point of life is not to give fellatio to hard things, hard lives, etc. We should be like Zeus, with the mighty thunderbolt, the gods lived in supreme ease.

This is also the funny thing is that when a lot of people retire, make a bunch of money or whatever they are lost… they don’t know how to embrace or live a life of ease; they’re still trying to grind their nose against the grinder, because for their whole life, that is what their life was? 

I would say emulate the gods of the Iliad, ancient Greece. Read the new Iliad translation by Emily Wilson, I purchased it in the iBooks store, reading on my iPad Pro and I love it!

Ethos

I suppose that the primary thing here to consider is the ethos of human humanity, reasons of living etc.

I think for too long, the whole ethos of humanity was to maximize productivity, income income earning potential, money and capital and capitalism etc.… but once again, if bitcoin, AI and ChatGPT can do it better than you, by 1 billion fold,,, what is your new life ethos?

Risk free returns

Assuming that you’re a big contractor, and you’re building a new skyscraper or commercial real estate or whatever, what is the goal? To create income producing property, and to eventually cop a profit?

However the great issue here is the cost to capital; the startup costs and the initial investment is too high! As a consequence, let us say that you invested $1 billion to build this new commercial real estate… You eventually have to find all these tenants to sign a lease, occupy it, pay the lease or the rent, and maybe in 20 or 30 years you can make a positive profit? 

Assuming that bitcoin is digital capital, digital land, digital real estate… The cost of capital is practically zero, you just have to sit and vest, I can almost guarantee you that you have a 0% risk over 30 years. And I can almost guarantee you with 100% clarity that bitcoin will go up in the next 30 years. 

I also like the notion of bitcoin being digital real estate because nobody checks their home price on Zillow 10 times a day, reacting to short term increases or decreases or volatility.

Why is bitcoin so volatile?

It is a feature, not a bug!

First, you could trade bitcoin 24/7, 365, every millisecond. 
Let us consider how insane this is… It is the year 2024, we live in the future, and traditional markets are closed on the weekends? This is 1 trillion times bizarre.

Assuming that the real world was like a science fiction film… Can you Which economic trading doesn’t happen on the weekends?

So this is why bitcoin is so volatile and always goes up and down, almost randomly because it is always trading! I wonder if the volatility of other assets and stocks are a lot less because simply you can’t trade it on the weekends.

---

Flesh future

I’m pretty sure that almost 99.9% of men, assuming that they have an iPhone, probably watches porn every single day, almost 100% certain at least once a week or once a month etc. Or better yet, if you want to see whether your friend watches porn or not, ask to see his laptop, and to see whether they have a torrenting or VPN application installed on their MacBook laptop– utorrent, Trasmission etc.

Or, if they have the brave browser on their phone, Google Chrome incognito etc.

Almost every single person I know who works in tech, knows how to program or code whatever, all use pirate bay.

Anyways, once again another bizarre thing; one would never watch pornography which is centered around ideas, souls, personalities, etc. It is always the flesh, the human body!

Why did it in modern day times, we are trying to deny the human body, and trying to promote instead, one’s “personality” and “mind” and “soul”– ?

---

Build your body

Become a body – builder ,,, obviously without the steroids!

ERIC

---

All injected hormones are bad hormones

Unless you have cancer, HIV aids, and is literally a life or death thing.

EK

---



Some random funny thoughts:

OK… Let us apply to dogs, different breeds of dogs. For example, certainly a canine or pitbull would be a much better and ferocious fighter than a pug or a hotdog wiener dog.

But the funny thing is I think all breeds of dogs could pro generate with one another, irregardless of breed? 

Also certainly with human beings, there are some families which are naturally taller, some families which are naturally shorter. And certainly there has been some sort of genetic diversification on the planet and beyond, especially when it comes a different parts of the planet.

For example, certain places certain humans have more bodily hair, possibly to dissipate the heat. Other places, darker pigments to fight off the sun. It makes sense, if your family genetic heritage is from sub-Saharan Africa, logically the human body will produce more pigment to fight off the sun then if your genetic heritage was from northern Sweden, in which during the winter time you might only get 30 minutes of sun.

I’m starting to feel more and more… Maybe other people, they’re just a different breed than me. For example, I think of myself kind of like a canine, a K9 attack police dog, and everyone else is just a wiener dog? Or annoying poodles?

And so then… When other people try to punk me around, I have zero tolerance for it.

For example, let us say that you were a ferocious fighting dog, and there’s a random annoying poodle that starts barking at you! Or tries to bully you around? How would you respond? Obviously you would just want the damn poodle to shut up! 

Thinking about Achilles

In my mind, I see myself like an Achilles. I see myself like the most handsome, powerful, dominant, ultra being out there. And perhaps it is precisely my oversized ego is where I get my power.

 I think there are a lot of sissy philosophers and thinkers who somehow think that ego is a bad thing. I think this is not the case. Your ego is almost like your balls and your testicles… would you castrate yourself because sometimes it makes you too angry– having big balls and a lot of testosterone is almost like overpower.

For example, we think about Dragon Ball Z, Goku going super Saiyan etc.… Obviously you want the golden flaming flowing hair,  and the ultra power of going super Saiyan! But let us say that with the ability to go super Saiyan, there were also some downsides like sometimes you cannot tolerate the power? Would you sacrifice it? Of course not!

Kind of like a raging river, Niagara Falls; with the point be to simply cut it off … or wouldn’t a more intelligent strategy to be to harness it like putting a water electricity damn thing on it, harness the hydropower, not to cut it off?

And this is my critique about modern day times, it seems like a lot of people are trying to do is to castrate the source, rather than channel that energy for positive constructive good things!

For example, the ego should be something augmented, amplified and magnified, but also concurrent channeled in such a way which could be empowering and useful for others?

how?

So can we use the ego in a constructive or positive way?

First, a non-competitive spirit… Just complement everybody you see! Even if somebody is taller, more good looking, handsomer, richer, more successful, buffer than you! When you see somebody with a great physique, the correct strategy is to compliment them and acknowledge them!

Second, two harness and channel your ego and your energy and your physiological power towards riding, producing text, making videos, podcasts etc.… Sharing ideas, irregardless of how unethical they may seem.

If anything… I’m starting to think more and more, the only interesting ideas are the unethical ones. Or the ones which are shunned by mainstream modern day society.

To me, the only good ideas are the bad ones. When an idea seems right, and it seems to make sense, typically it is bad and or wrong.

Follow your values

When it comes to values, there is no written wrong, there are simply authentic to yourself, or not.

For example, my values and beliefs in open source, entrepreneurship, impartment through photography are true. Why? I grew up poor, single working mom waiting tables at Japanese sushi restaurant for nearly 20 years, and also almost went homeless twice. A lot of your own personal narrative forms who you are.

As a consequence, I think the idea is not too shroud who you are, your own personality etc., but rather to magnify it!

For example, I’m a very inquisitive, curious person, and I’d like to chop it up! I like to be friendly!

Funny enough… I tried to be friendly to everybody, but people who are standoffish, or bizarro, they react to me in very bizarre ways. But should I suddenly shut down my friendly personality because other guy is a cowardly poodle? No!

ERIC KIM PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT

Ever since I was a kid, what was my great gift? Being a great entertainer! I am literally the most entertaining person that I know, I’ve only met maybe two people in the flesh who outperformed me.

Maybe it is a form of social conquest, trolling around, having fun etc.! Maybe it is that I seek to be the biggest dick in the room? 

But it’s supposed to question is, why do I care? Why do I care to be the biggest dick in the room?

Not sure? Maybe the desire to dominate is in my DNA? 

How I became the street photographer 

Whether you like it or not, I’ll stream the photographer, especially young ones are disciples of ERIC KIM. How and why? I essentially created a metaphorical Bible or textbook or encyclopedia and ultimate resource for anything revolving around street photography. Why?

It was always my number one goal to be the number one street photographer on Google, to become number one in street photography. As a consequence, my laser like eyes and focus was insanely simple; do everything I could to become number one on Google for street photography. And the strategy was very very simple, create the most in-depth articles blog posts and information for everything street photography! It took me nearly a decade, but I did it! After that, other domains to conquer.

But the funny thing is in today’s world… certainly Google is relevant, but now that ChatGPT is coming out with their own search engine, which is in my opinion at least 1000 X more intelligent, google should be scared, very scared. 

What is the future?

Obviously it will be ChatGPT and AI, open AI.

Let us consider… AI and cars. Besides the vanity object, the ideal is for your car to be 100% self driving, and this is where Tesla is a great bet; one should think of Tesla like artificial intelligence company with wheels.

Because the truth is, if you compare the ride quality of any Tesla car and any Toyota, the Toyota is superior and almost every single shape and form, besides speed. A Tesla is very very uncomfortable, the springs are too harsh, the ride quality is inferior to even my 2010 Prius!

For example, if you wanted a car with the ultimate ride comfort, you would probably purchase a Lexus vehicle, or maybe a Mercedes? 

But anyways, the really intelligent strategy is to purchase the cheapest base level Tesla car, with the most basic options, and just purchase auto pilot. I think auto pilot for about $8000 is the best deal of all time; it is like having your own personal driving slave that doesn’t need to be fed, paid, never gets tired, is always ready.

Even the new Google pixel that comes with the new pro Gemini AI… If your life runs on Gmail, it is kind of the game changer.

Even Apple is lagging behind in artificial intelligence, the new Apple Intelligence looks pretty lame. Super smart that the Apple team decided to integrate with open AI to integrate ChatGPT into her services; if you can’t beat them, join them. 

Rather than Apple trying to create a ChatGPT copycat, simply to integrate or offer ChatGPT services on the iPhone is the smart way.

I guess Google has had a bit of a headstart; she was in the AI game for a very long time. And this is where Google to pivot to focus on AI is a good idea. 

so what will be the purpose of humans now?

In a brave New World of ChatGPT, AI etc.… What is the purpose or the significance of humans?

 the first step is to transfer all of the tedious tasks from humans to ChatGPT. Or AI.

For example, the greatest innovation of TurboTax is having that new AI that automatically has you categorize all of your expenses. Oh my god, this was literally the most hateful thing about doing my taxes, having to categorize all of my different deductions.  But now, what would otherwise take me about eight hours, takes me about eight seconds when you connect TurboTax with your bank accounts.

And this is where the future of things become interesting; all these things in the past which we had to do inefficiently slowly and begrudgingly… we should just let AI do it, and we humans do more meaningful things. 

Slave Work, Master Work?

I think this is the future; let AI be the new slave, and you, the flesh bound human being, you do the human creative work!

The ultimate disruption 

ChatGPT is one quadrillion times more productive than you. This is a big deal. Why?

What that means is that the purpose of us humans is not productivity. We can finally unchain ourselves from the leashes of this ridiculous notion of productivity. 

How do the gods of mount Olympus live?

The gods, who live at ease. 

You fools, the point of life is not to give fellatio to hard things, hard lives, etc. We should be like Zeus, with the mighty thunderbolt, the gods lived in supreme ease.

This is also the funny thing is that when a lot of people retire, make a bunch of money or whatever they are lost… they don’t know how to embrace or live a life of ease; they’re still trying to grind their nose against the grinder, because for their whole life, that is what their life was? 

I would say emulate the gods of the Iliad, ancient Greece. Read the new Iliad translation by Emily Wilson, I purchased it in the iBooks store, reading on my iPad Pro and I love it!

Ethos

I suppose that the primary thing here to consider is the ethos of human humanity, reasons of living etc.

I think for too long, the whole ethos of humanity was to maximize productivity, income income earning potential, money and capital and capitalism etc.… But once again, if bitcoin, AI and ChatGPT can do it better than you, by 1 billion fold,,, what is your new life ethos?

Risk free returns

Assuming that you’re a big contractor, and you’re building a new skyscraper or commercial real estate or whatever, what is the goal? To create income producing property, and to eventually coup a profit?

However the great issue here is the cost to capital; the startup costs and the initial investment is too high! As a consequence, let us say that you invested $1 billion to build this new commercial real estate… You eventually have to find all these tenants to sign a lease, occupy it, pay the lease or the rent, and maybe in 20 or 30 years you can make a positive profit? 

Assuming that bitcoin is digital capital, digital land, digital real estate… The cost of capital is practically zero, you just have to sit and vest, I can almost guarantee you that you have a 0% risk over 30 years. And I can almost guarantee you with 100% clarity that bitcoin will go up in the next 30 years. 

I also like the notion of bitcoin being digital real estate because nobody checks their home price on Zillow 10 times a day, reacting to short term increases or decreases or volatility.

Why is bitcoin so volatile?

It is a feature, not a bug!

First, you could trade bitcoin 24/7, 365, every millisecond. 
Let us consider how insane this is… It is the year 2024, we live in the future, and traditional markets are closed on the weekends? This is 1 trillion times bizarre.

Assuming that the real world was like a science fiction film… Can you Which economic trading doesn’t happen on the weekends?

So this is why bitcoin is so volatile and always goes up and down, almost randomly because it is always trading! I wonder if the volatility of other assets and stocks are a lot less because simply you can’t trade it on the weekends.

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Flesh future

I’m pretty sure that almost 99.9% of men, assuming that they have an iPhone, probably watches porn every single day, almost 100% certain at least once a week or once a month etc. Or better yet, if you want to see whether your friend watches porn or not, ask to see his laptop, and to see whether they have a torrenting or VPN application installed on their MacBook laptop– utorrent, Trasmission etc.

Or, if they have the brave browser on their phone, Google Chrome incognito etc.

Almost every single person I know who works in tech, knows how to program or code whatever, all use pirate bay.

Anyways, once again another bizarre thing; one would never watch pornography which is centered around ideas, souls, personalities, etc. It is always the flesh, the human body!

Why did it in modern day times, we are trying to deny the human body, and trying to promote instead, one’s “personality” and “mind” and “soul”– ?

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