After spending two months in Asia, this time about two weeks in Hadong South Korea, and about a month and a half in Vietnam, and coming back home to the states, I feel like a transformed man. How and why? The findings:
1. American thoughts
Lots of discoveries about America, coming back here with fresh new eyes. First and foremost, there seems to be this trend towards fear of other people, or strange antisocial behavior. This fear averse modern-day society of Americans is bad.
My simple suggestion is be the change. Instead be insanely friendly, and say hi to everybody you see.
One of the great things about being in Vietnam is the culture is great. People are insanely friendly, happy, social, and jokesey. Coming back to the states, Americans tend to be reserved, brittle, strangely curmudgeonly.
Don’t act like the typical antisocial American. Instead, be insanely friendly and happy.
2. Car thoughts
I some new thoughts in regards to cars; the great thing about being in Asia, Vietnam, is that having a car is a bad thing. Better to not own a car and just ride a Grab taxi anywhere.
Therefore the general thought is this; put less care and attention in your car.
What is the best car? I think a used white Prius; I recently re-inherited our old 2010 Prius, and white, and I love it! Cindy‘s younger sister Jennifer was driving the car for a while, but unfortunately in the middle of the night they stole the catalytic converter, and she no longer wanted to deal with the car. She initially was just going to sell the whole Prius to the mechanic for only $2700, but I thought this was a great opportunity, so Cindy and I offered to pay for the new catalytic converter, around $3000, and we just took it to the shop to replace the ABS brake sensor, another $2700 USD, and $350 for a catalytic converter shield, to prevent or discourage a future theft.
So all in all, around $5000-$6000 for a brand new (used) and insanely great reliable Prius!
Interestingly enough, chatting with the owner Vallentine (he is the owner of Hybrid 911, which is specialized in fixing Priuses and hybrids), and he told me that he used to have the P100D Tesla MODEL S 2017 model, the refreshed model, but ultimately ended up selling it because the charging was annoying, especially with long road trips.
I still love cars from a metaphorical and design and aesthetic perspective; but, my new ambition is to drive this Prius to at least 350,000, 450,000 or 500,000 miles. And instead use and invest my money into myself, my body, my entrepreneurial ventures, And beyond.
The easiest way to become rich is not to waste money on a car.
Photo is all we need
When being stuck in LA, LA traffic, and having the privilege of shooting photos out the window, a turbo thought I had:
As long as we got photography, all of existence and being alive is justified.
Pure vision: lately I’ve been so inspired by Seneca, how he sees and shoots everything with a pure vision. No obstructions, only positivity, joy and curiosity.
Seneca is currently only two years and seven months old, yet he understands photography and photo opportunities. He does this finger trigger motion with his hand, whenever he sees abstract textures, he knows that it is a good opportunity for me to shoot.
How to more productively review your photos
Having around 1500 images to quickly review through some photos I shot in LA and recently, something I did on my iPad Pro was view the images buy a three column wide matrix, and reviewed the photos without my glasses on. This type of myopic vision was actually good for me; I was not distracted by details, but instead focused on the general composition and form of things.
To cross pollinate this idea and concept, there is a funny theory that a lot of the impressionist painters had poor vision, that is the reason why they saw the world so abstract and out of focus was because they had poor vision.
A simple technique you could do is apply Gaussian blur to your photos to better judge the composition, or, you can also view your photos or other photos without glasses on.
How to Get More Done in a Day
Walk more in order to get more done!
Also, spend maximal time outdoors.
Also, during the day drink as much ERIC KIM Omakase coffee as you want! The secret and intelligence of robusta coffee is that it has more caffeine, and lower sugar content— healthier for you!