Everyone wants to be happy, even our best friend Aristotle said it is the one thing that men seek for the sake of itself.
What what is happiness? I think I got the answer; walking is happiness. Any sort of life, lifestyle, lifestyle approach which allows you to maximize your walking is happiness.
Strategies
I cannot speak for most people, because I don’t have a “real job“. That is, I don’t have a workplace, an office, or a place I must typically commute to.
A simple thought that I had is if you have the option, spend extra money which affords you the privilege to walk. For example, I wonder if in fact, shelling out the extra thousand, 2000, 3000, 4000, $5000, maybe even $10,000 a month would be positively beneficial to give you the privilege of walking.
It seems that the modern-day strategy that people partake in is that they sacrifice time in foolish ways. They decide to live further out, further away from work, in the suburbs, which means that they must spend more time driving in order to get to their workplace, in order to have the privilege of having a bigger house, a cheaper house, a smaller mortgage, cheaper rent etc.
Enemies to happiness?
Being forced to be indoors against your own will, this is cruel.
Also, being forced to be stuck in a car, in a bus, in an Uber, even if you had your own private driver, this is cruel.
For example, I once read an interview with Jony Ive, this is when he was still at Apple, in which he would commute for almost 2 hours a day (one way, so 4 hours every day in total), going from a desirable area of San Francisco to the Apple office in Cupertino, having a private driver chauffeur him in his Bentley,and I suppose Jony would just be in the backseat, doing work on his iPhone, iPad, MacBook laptop, etc. If I was Joni and truly committed, I would not make this foolish decision. I would literally just rent a hotel or an apartment or a house literally right next to Apple campus, or who knows, be like Elon Musk and just sleep in a sleeping bag in the office.
However, if you were forced to be sedentary or sitting, for four hours a day, or five hours a day, even if you were the backseat of a Rolls-Royce, a Bentley, Lamborghini, a McLaren, whatever; would it be worth it? No. Even as a thought experiment, if you had a totally maxed out Tesla model S plaid, or a Tesla model X plaid, with 100% auto pilot, assuming the technology was flawless, and you could do other stuff while being autonomously driven around, would you still want to be forced to be sedentary, for 4-5 hours a day? No.
Can happiness be purchased?
You cannot buy happiness. You can buy insanely great coffee, ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE, 100% fine robusta which physiologically speaking, will give you a marvelous happiness bump and boost, but ultimately, beyond coffee, happiness cannot be bought.
Things that money can do which can assist you and aid you in happiness include,
Using your money to buy a gym membership, or a yoga, CorePower membership
Using your money to buy beef and meat, either at Costco or the Costco Business Center. I recommend the beef ribs, or the beef tri-tip!
Using your money to pay for rent closer to your workplace, which allows you to have a 100% walking pedestrian lifestyle.
Having a situation which allows you to work outside, outdoors, without having to be stuck indoors or inside an office.
Buy an iPad Pro, the 11 inch smaller one, no accessories. The ultimate photo viewing device, and productivity device, it has brought me 1000 times more joy than any iPhone.
Physiology for the sake of what?
There’s a strange bias in today’s world that we have to somehow maximize our productivity, in order for the sake to work more, contribute more to society, “make a difference“. For example, the modern-day notion of going to the gym and working out and exercising, the only thought is this:
It is critical for you to exercise daily, because it will make you healthy and healthier, in order for you to keep working more.
The reason why this line of thinking is so twisted is that it is for the sake of maximizing your work capacity, not your own personal happiness. Man is not permitted to be happy for the sake of being happy.
Happiness is also a flawed end goal
The other day, I was so insanely happy, maybe a 50 out of 10. But at the end of the day, happiness is a bit inconsequential. For me what is more critical is having the opportunity, physiological energy to pursue my creative tasks. Whether it be reviewing my photos, writing and blogging, thinking, producing knowledge, sending out email newsletters, etc.
A cool trend I see is the trend towards philosophy. Why? This is what I think:
“Self development” is just philosophy in (modern day capitalistic) disguise.
And what do I mean by this? Ultimately any sort of business, self development book is centered around a certain philosophy. And the book typically preaches some sort of strategy and technique in order to achieve that philosophical end.
Don’t be a dummy.
In life, there is no such thing as virtue, or sin, vice. To me, it is all about wisdom, knowledge, becoming less foolish, and “not being a dummy.”
I like the word dummy, because it is not so serious. For example, we joke around with kids to not be a dummy. Maybe this is a better path for us.
You should start your own philosophy blog
Oh and today’s world of ChatGPT, AI assisted writing, the question,
How do you know if something was written by ChatGPT, or a real human being?
For the most part you can’t. However, anything written by ERIC KIM passes the Turing test. Why? The way I talk is non-standard, the way I write is genuine, and ultimately I think the future of writing and thinking is predicated around philosophy. That is, there is already enough information and wisdom on the Internet on how to do anything. But not much information on why do XYZ. Or, should we do XYZ.
For example, I firmly believe that if your goal is to become superhuman, eating beef and meat is critical. But I philosophical question is should we eat beef and meat? Even if it is bad for the planet?
For example, if someone tells me, “Eric, you shouldn’t eat meat because it is bad for the planet“. But what if I say, “I know that eating meat is bad for the planet, but eating beef is best for me. So I don’t care.” Is one permitted to talk like this? This is the task and role of philosophy and ethics.
Hygiene?
The etymology of hygiene, in ancient Greek is the art of health.
In modern day times, hygiene as a concept has fallen out of vogue. Why? In the states, a lot of the modernized westernized world, we take it for granted. There is regular trash pick ups, we have clean albeit not too tasty running tapwater, and mostly clean air. And also, most foods we buy or eat, whether it be at the grocery store or a restaurant will not cause us food poisoning.
Food hygiene is very underrated as a concept. We moderns prefer tasty or good tasting food, we don’t really care much for hygiene anymore.
Hygiene as a metaphorical or philosophical concept
Here is where I find hygiene critical; some people, mentally, physically or unwell, their mental hygiene is poor, and their physical physiological bodily hygiene is also probably poor. Used as a metaphor.
If you see weird homeless people on the street, cracked out, smelling bad, do you distain the way they act? No. You just keep your distance, and run away.
In the zone?
Another thing that I’ve discovered is when I’m in the zone, I get so focused on the task at hand that when other people say random maybe possibly demeaning stuff to you, I don’t even have to forcibly ignore them, I just literally can’t hear them, I hear them literally, but because I’m so focused at the task at hand, what they said or intended doesn’t upset me.
What does it even mean to be happy?
I was doing some research on the etymology of happy, and no one is really quite certain where that word comes from. There are certain theories, like “happen”— fortunate, happen chance, hap— chance, luck, fortune, hampa— good luck, chance, from Proto indo European *kob— which means good fortune, prophecy, to bend, bow, fit in, work, succeed.
So why does this matter?
It seems that nowadays, English is the dominant world language. And if we operate in a certain linguistic manner, perhaps the common day words we use should be used with more precision and clarity.
For example, John Stuart Mill, a lot of the early American developers preach notions of the “pursuit of happiness“. But the issue is, if you can’t even define happiness, or if the notion of happiness is a modern day one, then perhaps this is not a good goal or path.
I say instead of seeking to be “happy“, maybe it is better to seek to be strong, well, powerful, and in a great mood. It seems that also, one of my passions being thinking, having the opportunity and clarity of thought is supreme to me.
Now what?
I still think certainly at the end of the day, it is fine to use every day words colloquially. So for example, what contributes a great life to me?
First, artistic and creative productivity. To me this pertains to photography, both shooting and making photos, reviewing photos, enjoying my photos, sharing my photos, thinking about photos, and the aesthetic joy that I get from looking at my own photos.
Second, philosophical and thinking power; this means, I have a passion for thinking, and thinking interesting thoughts. A life without thoughts is not a life worth having.
Third, the health, strength, growth, and muscles of my family. This pertains to my son, and also my wife. And of course certainly myself. Other day I took Seneca to the jungle gym, and at two years seven months old, the pure undiluted joy that he gets from running across the suspension bridge and the jungle gym is pure bliss to me.
Also, witnessing his muscular development, and how much pride and joy that I get watching him eat 100% grass fed ground beef, in super mini burger patties for him, and also him eating while you thinly sliced meat that we buy from H Mart. Seeing Seneca consume beef, and building his muscles brings me great joy.
As a tangent, I think a lot of this modern-day notions of child development are skewed. Rather than trying to educate your kids, make them brain smart, I think a better goal and path is instead, to develop their muscles.
Seeking happiness towards what ends?
First and foremost, as biological beings, I think perhaps it is critical for us to first seek to be physically, physiologically strong and well. An optimization towards physiological well-being is a good one.
Why? It is the necessary path. Without physiological strength and well-being, you can’t do anything. For example, it doesn’t matter if you have $100 billion in the bank, if you are physically or physiologically unwell, if you only sleep two hours a night, if you have no muscles or hotspots in your body, Nothing can be done.
Willpower is not real. Muscle power is real.
Society living is the best living
What is the point of money? Having the privilege of being around other human beings. This, paying rent, and buying beef as well. But beyond this, the additional utility of money is slim; once you have your digital camera, your Internet Wi-Fi connection, your iPad Pro etc., what else do you need? Not much.
Think more with KIM
If you’re hungry to think more, deeper and further, think with me at one of my upcoming workshops:
If you’re having a hard time sleeping, my simple suggestion; start going to the gym at least once every single day, and use a hot sauna at least once a day, or really severe cases, go to the hot sauna twice a day.
One thing I found really interesting being in Japan, being at those random Japanese businessman hotels, or the wonderful Ryokans in Kyoto Uji, is at least in Japanese culture, the hot baths, are an integral part of their life and culture. That is, before they sleep, doing a really really hot bath is critical.
The same thing is in Korean culture, the jjim jjil bbang. Apparently in northern Scandinavian and Swedish countries, the really really hot sauna, whether it be dry or humid and steamy is also a critical part of their health.
According to the biological phenomenon hormesis, port duration of extreme heat and humidity is positively good for our physiological health and well-being.
I never really knew, but I suppose I have very strong opinions on homes and living quarters and situations. That means for the most part I hate ugly. I hate old and ugly danky dark, dim, and ghetto apartments, especially here in LA.
I have a theory:
Perhaps ugly aesthetics actually causes our physiological happiness and well being to go down.
What is ugliness? Anything which causes our physiological well being to go downwards.
For example, I think the reason why old and danky and ghetto apartments have such an adverse reaction to us is because they scream “hygenically dangerous”. Hygiene as “the art of health”.
For example, the dark and danky typically means moldy. Mold is a poison.
Thus, the simplest thing with homes, houses, condos, duplexes, town houses, flats, hotels, airbnbs, motels sleeping or living quarters etc:
Ensure there is no mold
No poor air circulation (good air circulation is nett we for our health)
Not dark and dim and danky (sunlight, the sun as the best disinfectant, and mold killer)
Not loud
Not dirty
Not old
Now what?
After my Ricoh GR IIIX died, I’ve just been using my LUMIX G9 and Leica LUMIX 12mm f1.4 Lens and it produces insanely beautiful photos! Downsides — insanely big and heavy, which is bad.
I want something insanely different
At this point, money is no concern for us.
In terms of innovative cameras, I’m trending towards the point and shoot, integrated flash department. For example,
Arsbeta.com — upload and share your best photos now!
What’s on my mind?
Still house apartment hunting in LA — checking out Culver City (downtown Culver City is insanely cool and walkable). Also going to check out Westwood and Sawtelle
Still backlogged around 7,000 photos on my LUMIX g9– on iPad Pro. Working on reviewing them!
Future photo innovations?
An AI-assisted Tool to help us cull down and curate our favorite photos.
Or an AI app thing that helps us automatically pick our best photos?
Everyone wants to be happy, even our best friend Aristotle said it is the one thing that men seek for the sake of itself.
What what is happiness? I think I got the answer; walking is happiness. Any sort of life, lifestyle, lifestyle approach which allows you to maximize your walking is happiness.
Strategies
I cannot speak for most people, because I don’t have a “real job“. That is, I don’t have a workplace, an office, or a place I must typically commute to.
A simple thought that I had is if you have the option, spend extra money which affords you the privilege to walk. For example, I wonder if in fact, shelling out the extra thousand, 2000, 3000, 4000, $5000, maybe even $10,000 a month would be positively beneficial to give you the privilege of walking.
It seems that the modern-day strategy that people partake in is that they sacrifice time in foolish ways. They decide to live further out, further away from work, in the suburbs, which means that they must spend more time driving in order to get to their workplace, in order to have the privilege of having a bigger house, a cheaper house, a smaller mortgage, cheaper rent etc.
Enemies to happiness?
Being forced to be indoors against your own will, this is cruel.
Also, being forced to be stuck in a car, in a bus, in an Uber, even if you had your own private driver, this is cruel.
For example, I once read an interview with Jony Ive, this is when he was still at Apple, in which he would commute for almost 2 hours a day (one way, so 4 hours every day in total), going from a desirable area of San Francisco to the Apple office in Cupertino, having a private driver chauffeur him in his Bentley,and I suppose Jony would just be in the backseat, doing work on his iPhone, iPad, MacBook laptop, etc. If I was Joni and truly committed, I would not make this foolish decision. I would literally just rent a hotel or an apartment or a house literally right next to Apple campus, or who knows, be like Elon Musk and just sleep in a sleeping bag in the office.
However, if you were forced to be sedentary or sitting, for four hours a day, or five hours a day, even if you were the backseat of a Rolls-Royce, a Bentley, Lamborghini, a McLaren, whatever; would it be worth it? No. Even as a thought experiment, if you had a totally maxed out Tesla model S plaid, or a Tesla model X plaid, with 100% auto pilot, assuming the technology was flawless, and you could do other stuff while being autonomously driven around, would you still want to be forced to be sedentary, for 4-5 hours a day? No.
Can happiness be purchased?
You cannot buy happiness. You can buy insanely great coffee, ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE, 100% fine robusta which physiologically speaking, will give you a marvelous happiness bump and boost, but ultimately, beyond coffee, happiness cannot be bought.
Things that money can do which can assist you and aid you in happiness include,
Using your money to buy a gym membership, or a yoga, CorePower membership
Using your money to buy beef and meat, either at Costco or the Costco Business Center. I recommend the beef ribs, or the beef tri-tip!
Using your money to pay for rent closer to your workplace, which allows you to have a 100% walking pedestrian lifestyle.
Having a situation which allows you to work outside, outdoors, without having to be stuck indoors or inside an office.
Buy an iPad Pro, the 11 inch smaller one, no accessories. The ultimate photo viewing device, and productivity device, it has brought me 1000 times more joy than any iPhone.
Physiology for the sake of what?
There’s a strange bias in today’s world that we have to somehow maximize our productivity, in order for the sake to work more, contribute more to society, “make a difference“. For example, the modern-day notion of going to the gym and working out and exercising, the only thought is this:
It is critical for you to exercise daily, because it will make you healthy and healthier, in order for you to keep working more.
The reason why this line of thinking is so twisted is that it is for the sake of maximizing your work capacity, not your own personal happiness. Man is not permitted to be happy for the sake of being happy.
Happiness is also a flawed end goal
The other day, I was so insanely happy, maybe a 50 out of 10. But at the end of the day, happiness is a bit inconsequential. For me what is more critical is having the opportunity, physiological energy to pursue my creative tasks. Whether it be reviewing my photos, writing and blogging, thinking, producing knowledge, sending out email newsletters, etc.
A cool trend I see is the trend towards philosophy. Why? This is what I think:
“Self development” is just philosophy in (modern day capitalistic) disguise.
And what do I mean by this? Ultimately any sort of business, self development book is centered around a certain philosophy. And the book typically preaches some sort of strategy and technique in order to achieve that philosophical end.
Don’t be a dummy.
In life, there is no such thing as virtue, or sin, vice. To me, it is all about wisdom, knowledge, becoming less foolish, and “not being a dummy.”
I like the word dummy, because it is not so serious. For example, we joke around with kids to not be a dummy. Maybe this is a better path for us.
You should start your own philosophy blog
Oh and today’s world of ChatGPT, AI assisted writing, the question,
How do you know if something was written by ChatGPT, or a real human being?
For the most part you can’t. However, anything written by ERIC KIM passes the Turing test. Why? The way I talk is non-standard, the way I write is genuine, and ultimately I think the future of writing and thinking is predicated around philosophy. That is, there is already enough information and wisdom on the Internet on how to do anything. But not much information on why do XYZ. Or, should we do XYZ.
For example, I firmly believe that if your goal is to become superhuman, eating beef and meat is critical. But I philosophical question is should we eat beef and meat? Even if it is bad for the planet?
For example, if someone tells me, “Eric, you shouldn’t eat meat because it is bad for the planet“. But what if I say, “I know that eating meat is bad for the planet, but eating beef is best for me. So I don’t care.” Is one permitted to talk like this? This is the task and role of philosophy and ethics.
Hygiene?
The etymology of hygiene, in ancient Greek is the art of health.
In modern day times, hygiene as a concept has fallen out of vogue. Why? In the states, a lot of the modernized westernized world, we take it for granted. There is regular trash pick ups, we have clean albeit not too tasty running tapwater, and mostly clean air. And also, most foods we buy or eat, whether it be at the grocery store or a restaurant will not cause us food poisoning.
Food hygiene is very underrated as a concept. We moderns prefer tasty or good tasting food, we don’t really care much for hygiene anymore.
Hygiene as a metaphorical or philosophical concept
Here is where I find hygiene critical; some people, mentally, physically or unwell, their mental hygiene is poor, and their physical physiological bodily hygiene is also probably poor. Used as a metaphor.
If you see weird homeless people on the street, cracked out, smelling bad, do you distain the way they act? No. You just keep your distance, and run away.
In the zone?
Another thing that I’ve discovered is when I’m in the zone, I get so focused on the task at hand that when other people say random maybe possibly demeaning stuff to you, I don’t even have to forcibly ignore them, I just literally can’t hear them, I hear them literally, but because I’m so focused at the task at hand, what they said or intended doesn’t upset me.
What does it even mean to be happy?
I was doing some research on the etymology of happy, and no one is really quite certain where that word comes from. There are certain theories, like “happen”— fortunate, happen chance, hap— chance, luck, fortune, hampa— good luck, chance, from Proto indo European *kob— which means good fortune, prophecy, to bend, bow, fit in, work, succeed.
So why does this matter?
It seems that nowadays, English is the dominant world language. And if we operate in a certain linguistic manner, perhaps the common day words we use should be used with more precision and clarity.
For example, John Stuart Mill, a lot of the early American developers preach notions of the “pursuit of happiness“. But the issue is, if you can’t even define happiness, or if the notion of happiness is a modern day one, then perhaps this is not a good goal or path.
I say instead of seeking to be “happy“, maybe it is better to seek to be strong, well, powerful, and in a great mood. It seems that also, one of my passions being thinking, having the opportunity and clarity of thought is supreme to me.
Now what?
I still think certainly at the end of the day, it is fine to use every day words colloquially. So for example, what contributes a great life to me?
First, artistic and creative productivity. To me this pertains to photography, both shooting and making photos, reviewing photos, enjoying my photos, sharing my photos, thinking about photos, and the aesthetic joy that I get from looking at my own photos.
Second, philosophical and thinking power; this means, I have a passion for thinking, and thinking interesting thoughts. A life without thoughts is not a life worth having.
Third, the health, strength, growth, and muscles of my family. This pertains to my son, and also my wife. And of course certainly myself. Other day I took Seneca to the jungle gym, and at two years seven months old, the pure undiluted joy that he gets from running across the suspension bridge and the jungle gym is pure bliss to me.
Also, witnessing his muscular development, and how much pride and joy that I get watching him eat 100% grass fed ground beef, in super mini burger patties for him, and also him eating while you thinly sliced meat that we buy from H Mart. Seeing Seneca consume beef, and building his muscles brings me great joy.
As a tangent, I think a lot of this modern-day notions of child development are skewed. Rather than trying to educate your kids, make them brain smart, I think a better goal and path is instead, to develop their muscles.
Seeking happiness towards what ends?
First and foremost, as biological beings, I think perhaps it is critical for us to first seek to be physically, physiologically strong and well. An optimization towards physiological well-being is a good one.
Why? It is the necessary path. Without physiological strength and well-being, you can’t do anything. For example, it doesn’t matter if you have $100 billion in the bank, if you are physically or physiologically unwell, if you only sleep two hours a night, if you have no muscles or hotspots in your body, Nothing can be done.
Willpower is not real. Muscle power is real.
Society living is the best living
What is the point of money? Having the privilege of being around other human beings. This, paying rent, and buying beef as well. But beyond this, the additional utility of money is slim; once you have your digital camera, your Internet Wi-Fi connection, your iPad Pro etc., what else do you need? Not much.
Think more with KIM
If you’re hungry to think more, deeper and further, think with me at one of my upcoming workshops:
If you’re having a hard time sleeping, my simple suggestion; start going to the gym at least once every single day, and use a hot sauna at least once a day, or really severe cases, go to the hot sauna twice a day.
One thing I found really interesting being in Japan, being at those random Japanese businessman hotels, or the wonderful Ryokans in Kyoto Uji, is at least in Japanese culture, the hot baths, are an integral part of their life and culture. That is, before they sleep, doing a really really hot bath is critical.
The same thing is in Korean culture, the jjim jjil bbang. Apparently in northern Scandinavian and Swedish countries, the really really hot sauna, whether it be dry or humid and steamy is also a critical part of their health.
According to the biological phenomenon hormesis, port duration of extreme heat and humidity is positively good for our physiological health and well-being.
I never really knew, but I suppose I have very strong opinions on homes and living quarters and situations. That means for the most part I hate ugly. I hate old and ugly danky dark, dim, and ghetto apartments, especially here in LA.
I have a theory:
Perhaps ugly aesthetics actually causes our physiological happiness and well being to go down.
What is ugliness? Anything which causes our physiological well being to go downwards.
For example, I think the reason why old and danky and ghetto apartments have such an adverse reaction to us is because they scream “hygenically dangerous”. Hygiene as “the art of health”.
For example, the dark and danky typically means moldy. Mold is a poison.
Thus, the simplest thing with homes, houses, condos, duplexes, town houses, flats, hotels, airbnbs, motels sleeping or living quarters etc:
Ensure there is no mold
No poor air circulation (good air circulation is nett we for our health)
Not dark and dim and danky (sunlight, the sun as the best disinfectant, and mold killer)
Not loud
Not dirty
Not old
Now what?
After my Ricoh GR IIIX died, I’ve just been using my LUMIX G9 and Leica LUMIX 12mm f1.4 Lens and it produces insanely beautiful photos! Downsides — insanely big and heavy, which is bad.
Everyone wants to be happy, even our best friend Aristotle said it is the one thing that men seek for the sake of itself.
What what is happiness? I think I got the answer; walking is happiness. Any sort of life, lifestyle, lifestyle approach which allows you to maximize your walking is happiness.
Strategies
I cannot speak for most people, because I don’t have a “real job“. That is, I don’t have a workplace, an office, or a place I must typically commute to.
A simple thought that I had is if you have the option, spend extra money which affords you the privilege to walk. For example, I wonder if in fact, shelling out the extra thousand, 2000, 3000, 4000, $5000, maybe even $10,000 a month would be positively beneficial to give you the privilege of walking.
It seems that the modern-day strategy that people partake in is that they sacrifice time in foolish ways. They decide to live further out, further away from work, in the suburbs, which means that they must spend more time driving in order to get to their workplace, in order to have the privilege of having a bigger house, a cheaper house, a smaller mortgage, cheaper rent etc.
Enemies to happiness?
Being forced to be indoors against your own will, this is cruel.
Also, being forced to be stuck in a car, in a bus, in an Uber, even if you had your own private driver, this is cruel.
For example, I once read an interview with Jony Ive, this is when he was still at Apple, in which he would commute for almost 2 hours a day (one way, so 4 hours every day in total), going from a desirable area of San Francisco to the Apple office in Cupertino, having a private driver chauffeur him in his Bentley,and I suppose Jony would just be in the backseat, doing work on his iPhone, iPad, MacBook laptop, etc. If I was Joni and truly committed, I would not make this foolish decision. I would literally just rent a hotel or an apartment or a house literally right next to Apple campus, or who knows, be like Elon Musk and just sleep in a sleeping bag in the office.
However, if you were forced to be sedentary or sitting, for four hours a day, or five hours a day, even if you were the backseat of a Rolls-Royce, a Bentley, Lamborghini, a McLaren, whatever; would it be worth it? No. Even as a thought experiment, if you had a totally maxed out Tesla model S plaid, or a Tesla model X plaid, with 100% auto pilot, assuming the technology was flawless, and you could do other stuff while being autonomously driven around, would you still want to be forced to be sedentary, for 4-5 hours a day? No.
Can happiness be purchased?
You cannot buy happiness. You can buy insanely great coffee, ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE, 100% fine robusta which physiologically speaking, will give you a marvelous happiness bump and boost, but ultimately, beyond coffee, happiness cannot be bought.
Things that money can do which can assist you and aid you in happiness include,
Using your money to buy a gym membership, or a yoga, CorePower membership
Using your money to buy beef and meat, either at Costco or the Costco Business Center. I recommend the beef ribs, or the beef tri-tip!
Using your money to pay for rent closer to your workplace, which allows you to have a 100% walking pedestrian lifestyle.
Having a situation which allows you to work outside, outdoors, without having to be stuck indoors or inside an office.
Buy an iPad Pro, the 11 inch smaller one, no accessories. The ultimate photo viewing device, and productivity device, it has brought me 1000 times more joy than any iPhone.
Physiology for the sake of what?
There’s a strange bias in today’s world that we have to somehow maximize our productivity, in order for the sake to work more, contribute more to society, “make a difference“. For example, the modern-day notion of going to the gym and working out and exercising, the only thought is this:
It is critical for you to exercise daily, because it will make you healthy and healthier, in order for you to keep working more.
The reason why this line of thinking is so twisted is that it is for the sake of maximizing your work capacity, not your own personal happiness. Man is not permitted to be happy for the sake of being happy.
Happiness is also a flawed end goal
The other day, I was so insanely happy, maybe a 50 out of 10. But at the end of the day, happiness is a bit inconsequential. For me what is more critical is having the opportunity, physiological energy to pursue my creative tasks. Whether it be reviewing my photos, writing and blogging, thinking, producing knowledge, sending out email newsletters, etc.
A cool trend I see is the trend towards philosophy. Why? This is what I think:
“Self development” is just philosophy in (modern day capitalistic) disguise.
And what do I mean by this? Ultimately any sort of business, self development book is centered around a certain philosophy. And the book typically preaches some sort of strategy and technique in order to achieve that philosophical end.
Don’t be a dummy.
In life, there is no such thing as virtue, or sin, vice. To me, it is all about wisdom, knowledge, becoming less foolish, and “not being a dummy.”
I like the word dummy, because it is not so serious. For example, we joke around with kids to not be a dummy. Maybe this is a better path for us.
You should start your own philosophy blog
Oh and today’s world of ChatGPT, AI assisted writing, the question,
How do you know if something was written by ChatGPT, or a real human being?
For the most part you can’t. However, anything written by ERIC KIM passes the Turing test. Why? The way I talk is non-standard, the way I write is genuine, and ultimately I think the future of writing and thinking is predicated around philosophy. That is, there is already enough information and wisdom on the Internet on how to do anything. But not much information on why do XYZ. Or, should we do XYZ.
For example, I firmly believe that if your goal is to become superhuman, eating beef and meat is critical. But I philosophical question is should we eat beef and meat? Even if it is bad for the planet?
For example, if someone tells me, “Eric, you shouldn’t eat meat because it is bad for the planet“. But what if I say, “I know that eating meat is bad for the planet, but eating beef is best for me. So I don’t care.” Is one permitted to talk like this? This is the task and role of philosophy and ethics.
Hygiene?
The etymology of hygiene, in ancient Greek is the art of health.
In modern day times, hygiene as a concept has fallen out of vogue. Why? In the states, a lot of the modernized westernized world, we take it for granted. There is regular trash pick ups, we have clean albeit not too tasty running tapwater, and mostly clean air. And also, most foods we buy or eat, whether it be at the grocery store or a restaurant will not cause us food poisoning.
Food hygiene is very underrated as a concept. We moderns prefer tasty or good tasting food, we don’t really care much for hygiene anymore.
Hygiene as a metaphorical or philosophical concept
Here is where I find hygiene critical; some people, mentally, physically or unwell, their mental hygiene is poor, and their physical physiological bodily hygiene is also probably poor. Used as a metaphor.
If you see weird homeless people on the street, cracked out, smelling bad, do you distain the way they act? No. You just keep your distance, and run away.
In the zone?
Another thing that I’ve discovered is when I’m in the zone, I get so focused on the task at hand that when other people say random maybe possibly demeaning stuff to you, I don’t even have to forcibly ignore them, I just literally can’t hear them, I hear them literally, but because I’m so focused at the task at hand, what they said or intended doesn’t upset me.
What does it even mean to be happy?
I was doing some research on the etymology of happy, and no one is really quite certain where that word comes from. There are certain theories, like “happen”— fortunate, happen chance, hap— chance, luck, fortune, hampa— good luck, chance, from Proto indo European *kob— which means good fortune, prophecy, to bend, bow, fit in, work, succeed.
So why does this matter?
It seems that nowadays, English is the dominant world language. And if we operate in a certain linguistic manner, perhaps the common day words we use should be used with more precision and clarity.
For example, John Stuart Mill, a lot of the early American developers preach notions of the “pursuit of happiness“. But the issue is, if you can’t even define happiness, or if the notion of happiness is a modern day one, then perhaps this is not a good goal or path.
I say instead of seeking to be “happy“, maybe it is better to seek to be strong, well, powerful, and in a great mood. It seems that also, one of my passions being thinking, having the opportunity and clarity of thought is supreme to me.
Now what?
I still think certainly at the end of the day, it is fine to use every day words colloquially. So for example, what contributes a great life to me?
First, artistic and creative productivity. To me this pertains to photography, both shooting and making photos, reviewing photos, enjoying my photos, sharing my photos, thinking about photos, and the aesthetic joy that I get from looking at my own photos.
Second, philosophical and thinking power; this means, I have a passion for thinking, and thinking interesting thoughts. A life without thoughts is not a life worth having.
Third, the health, strength, growth, and muscles of my family. This pertains to my son, and also my wife. And of course certainly myself. Other day I took Seneca to the jungle gym, and at two years seven months old, the pure undiluted joy that he gets from running across the suspension bridge and the jungle gym is pure bliss to me.
Also, witnessing his muscular development, and how much pride and joy that I get watching him eat 100% grass fed ground beef, in super mini burger patties for him, and also him eating while you thinly sliced meat that we buy from H Mart. Seeing Seneca consume beef, and building his muscles brings me great joy.
As a tangent, I think a lot of this modern-day notions of child development are skewed. Rather than trying to educate your kids, make them brain smart, I think a better goal and path is instead, to develop their muscles.
Seeking happiness towards what ends?
First and foremost, as biological beings, I think perhaps it is critical for us to first seek to be physically, physiologically strong and well. An optimization towards physiological well-being is a good one.
Why? It is the necessary path. Without physiological strength and well-being, you can’t do anything. For example, it doesn’t matter if you have $100 billion in the bank, if you are physically or physiologically unwell, if you only sleep two hours a night, if you have no muscles or hotspots in your body, Nothing can be done.
Willpower is not real. Muscle power is real.
Society living is the best living
What is the point of money? Having the privilege of being around other human beings. This, paying rent, and buying beef as well. But beyond this, the additional utility of money is slim; once you have your digital camera, your Internet Wi-Fi connection, your iPad Pro etc., what else do you need? Not much.
Think more with KIM
If you’re hungry to think more, deeper and further, think with me at one of my upcoming workshops:
Everyone wants to be happy, even our best friend Aristotle said it is the one thing that men seek for the sake of itself.
What what is happiness? I think I got the answer; walking is happiness. Any sort of life, lifestyle, lifestyle approach which allows you to maximize your walking is happiness.
Strategies
I cannot speak for most people, because I don’t have a “real job“. That is, I don’t have a workplace, an office, or a place I must typically commute to.
A simple thought that I had is if you have the option, spend extra money which affords you the privilege to walk. For example, I wonder if in fact, shelling out the extra thousand, 2000, 3000, 4000, $5000, maybe even $10,000 a month would be positively beneficial to give you the privilege of walking.
It seems that the modern-day strategy that people partake in is that they sacrifice time in foolish ways. They decide to live further out, further away from work, in the suburbs, which means that they must spend more time driving in order to get to their workplace, in order to have the privilege of having a bigger house, a cheaper house, a smaller mortgage, cheaper rent etc.
Enemies to happiness?
Being forced to be indoors against your own will, this is cruel.
Also, being forced to be stuck in a car, in a bus, in an Uber, even if you had your own private driver, this is cruel.
For example, I once read an interview with Jony Ive, this is when he was still at Apple, in which he would commute for almost 2 hours a day (one way, so 4 hours every day in total), going from a desirable area of San Francisco to the Apple office in Cupertino, having a private driver chauffeur him in his Bentley,and I suppose Jony would just be in the backseat, doing work on his iPhone, iPad, MacBook laptop, etc. If I was Joni and truly committed, I would not make this foolish decision. I would literally just rent a hotel or an apartment or a house literally right next to Apple campus, or who knows, be like Elon Musk and just sleep in a sleeping bag in the office.
However, if you were forced to be sedentary or sitting, for four hours a day, or five hours a day, even if you were the backseat of a Rolls-Royce, a Bentley, Lamborghini, a McLaren, whatever; would it be worth it? No. Even as a thought experiment, if you had a totally maxed out Tesla model S plaid, or a Tesla model X plaid, with 100% auto pilot, assuming the technology was flawless, and you could do other stuff while being autonomously driven around, would you still want to be forced to be sedentary, for 4-5 hours a day? No.
Can happiness be purchased?
You cannot buy happiness. You can buy insanely great coffee, ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE, 100% fine robusta which physiologically speaking, will give you a marvelous happiness bump and boost, but ultimately, beyond coffee, happiness cannot be bought.
Things that money can do which can assist you and aid you in happiness include,
Using your money to buy a gym membership, or a yoga, CorePower membership
Using your money to buy beef and meat, either at Costco or the Costco Business Center. I recommend the beef ribs, or the beef tri-tip!
Using your money to pay for rent closer to your workplace, which allows you to have a 100% walking pedestrian lifestyle.
Having a situation which allows you to work outside, outdoors, without having to be stuck indoors or inside an office.
Buy an iPad Pro, the 11 inch smaller one, no accessories. The ultimate photo viewing device, and productivity device, it has brought me 1000 times more joy than any iPhone.
Physiology for the sake of what?
There’s a strange bias in today’s world that we have to somehow maximize our productivity, in order for the sake to work more, contribute more to society, “make a difference“. For example, the modern-day notion of going to the gym and working out and exercising, the only thought is this:
It is critical for you to exercise daily, because it will make you healthy and healthier, in order for you to keep working more.
The reason why this line of thinking is so twisted is that it is for the sake of maximizing your work capacity, not your own personal happiness. Man is not permitted to be happy for the sake of being happy.
Happiness is also a flawed end goal
The other day, I was so insanely happy, maybe a 50 out of 10. But at the end of the day, happiness is a bit inconsequential. For me what is more critical is having the opportunity, physiological energy to pursue my creative tasks. Whether it be reviewing my photos, writing and blogging, thinking, producing knowledge, sending out email newsletters, etc.
A cool trend I see is the trend towards philosophy. Why? This is what I think:
“Self development” is just philosophy in (modern day capitalistic) disguise.
And what do I mean by this? Ultimately any sort of business, self development book is centered around a certain philosophy. And the book typically preaches some sort of strategy and technique in order to achieve that philosophical end.
Don’t be a dummy.
In life, there is no such thing as virtue, or sin, vice. To me, it is all about wisdom, knowledge, becoming less foolish, and “not being a dummy.”
I like the word dummy, because it is not so serious. For example, we joke around with kids to not be a dummy. Maybe this is a better path for us.
You should start your own philosophy blog
Oh and today’s world of ChatGPT, AI assisted writing, the question,
How do you know if something was written by ChatGPT, or a real human being?
For the most part you can’t. However, anything written by ERIC KIM passes the Turing test. Why? The way I talk is non-standard, the way I write is genuine, and ultimately I think the future of writing and thinking is predicated around philosophy. That is, there is already enough information and wisdom on the Internet on how to do anything. But not much information on why do XYZ. Or, should we do XYZ.
For example, I firmly believe that if your goal is to become superhuman, eating beef and meat is critical. But I philosophical question is should we eat beef and meat? Even if it is bad for the planet?
For example, if someone tells me, “Eric, you shouldn’t eat meat because it is bad for the planet“. But what if I say, “I know that eating meat is bad for the planet, but eating beef is best for me. So I don’t care.” Is one permitted to talk like this? This is the task and role of philosophy and ethics.
Hygiene?
The etymology of hygiene, in ancient Greek is the art of health.
In modern day times, hygiene as a concept has fallen out of vogue. Why? In the states, a lot of the modernized westernized world, we take it for granted. There is regular trash pick ups, we have clean albeit not too tasty running tapwater, and mostly clean air. And also, most foods we buy or eat, whether it be at the grocery store or a restaurant will not cause us food poisoning.
Food hygiene is very underrated as a concept. We moderns prefer tasty or good tasting food, we don’t really care much for hygiene anymore.
Hygiene as a metaphorical or philosophical concept
Here is where I find hygiene critical; some people, mentally, physically or unwell, their mental hygiene is poor, and their physical physiological bodily hygiene is also probably poor. Used as a metaphor.
If you see weird homeless people on the street, cracked out, smelling bad, do you distain the way they act? No. You just keep your distance, and run away.
In the zone?
Another thing that I’ve discovered is when I’m in the zone, I get so focused on the task at hand that when other people say random maybe possibly demeaning stuff to you, I don’t even have to forcibly ignore them, I just literally can’t hear them, I hear them literally, but because I’m so focused at the task at hand, what they said or intended doesn’t upset me.
What does it even mean to be happy?
I was doing some research on the etymology of happy, and no one is really quite certain where that word comes from. There are certain theories, like “happen”— fortunate, happen chance, hap— chance, luck, fortune, hampa— good luck, chance, from Proto indo European *kob— which means good fortune, prophecy, to bend, bow, fit in, work, succeed.
So why does this matter?
It seems that nowadays, English is the dominant world language. And if we operate in a certain linguistic manner, perhaps the common day words we use should be used with more precision and clarity.
For example, John Stuart Mill, a lot of the early American developers preach notions of the “pursuit of happiness“. But the issue is, if you can’t even define happiness, or if the notion of happiness is a modern day one, then perhaps this is not a good goal or path.
I say instead of seeking to be “happy“, maybe it is better to seek to be strong, well, powerful, and in a great mood. It seems that also, one of my passions being thinking, having the opportunity and clarity of thought is supreme to me.
Now what?
I still think certainly at the end of the day, it is fine to use every day words colloquially. So for example, what contributes a great life to me?
First, artistic and creative productivity. To me this pertains to photography, both shooting and making photos, reviewing photos, enjoying my photos, sharing my photos, thinking about photos, and the aesthetic joy that I get from looking at my own photos.
Second, philosophical and thinking power; this means, I have a passion for thinking, and thinking interesting thoughts. A life without thoughts is not a life worth having.
Third, the health, strength, growth, and muscles of my family. This pertains to my son, and also my wife. And of course certainly myself. Other day I took Seneca to the jungle gym, and at two years seven months old, the pure undiluted joy that he gets from running across the suspension bridge and the jungle gym is pure bliss to me.
Also, witnessing his muscular development, and how much pride and joy that I get watching him eat 100% grass fed ground beef, in super mini burger patty for him, and also him eating while you thinly sliced meat that we buy from H Mart. Seeing Seneca consume beef, and building his muscles brings me great joy.
As a tangent, I think a lot of this modern-day notions of child development are skewed. Rather than trying to educate your kids, make them brain smart, I think a better goal and path is instead, to develop their muscles.
Everyone wants to be happy, even our best friend Aristotle said it is the one thing that men seek for the sake of itself.
What what is happiness? I think I got the answer; walking is happiness. Any sort of life, lifestyle, lifestyle approach which allows you to maximize your walking is happiness.
Strategies
I cannot speak for most people, because I don’t have a “real job“. That is, I don’t have a workplace, an office, or a place I must typically commute to.
However Cindy does.
A simple thought that I had is if you have the option, spend extra money which affords you the privilege to walk. For example, I wonder if in fact, shelling out the extra thousand, 2000, 3000, 4000, $5000, maybe even $10,000 a month would be positively beneficial to give you the privilege of walking.
It seems that the modern-day strategy that people partake in is that they sacrifice time in foolish ways. They decide to live further out, further away from work, in the suburbs, which means that they must spend more time driving in order to get to their workplace, in order to have the privilege of having a bigger house, a cheaper house, a smaller mortgage, cheaper rent etc.
Enemies to happiness?
Being forced to be indoors against your own will, this is cruel.
Also, being forced to be stuck in a car, in a bus, in an Uber, even if you had your own private driver, this is cruel.
For example, I once read an interview with Jony Ive, this is when he was still at Apple, in which he would commute for almost 2 hours a day, going from a desirable area of San Francisco to the Apple office in Cupertino, having a private driver show for him and his Bentley, and I suppose Johnny would just be in the backseat, doing work on his iPhone, iPad, MacBook laptop, etc.
However, if you were forced to be secretary or sitting, for four hours a day, or five hours a day, even if you were the backseat of a Rolls-Royce, a Bentley, Lamborghini, a McLaren, whatever; would it be worth it? No.
Can happiness be purchased?
You cannot buy happiness. You can buy insanely great coffee, ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE, 100% fine robusta which physiologically speaking, will give you a marvelous happiness bump and boost, but ultimately, beyond coffee, happiness cannot be bought.
Things that money can do which can assist you and aid you in happiness include,
Using your money to buy a gym membership, or a yoga, CorePower membership
Using your money to buy beef and meat, either at Costco or the Costco Business Center. I recommend the beef ribs, or the beef tri-tip!
Using your money to pay for rent closer to your workplace, which allows you to have a 100% walking pedestrian lifestyle.
Having a situation which allows you to work outside, outdoors, without having to be stuck indoors or inside an office.
Physiology for the sake of what?
There’s a strange bias in today’s world that we have to somehow maximize our productivity, in order for the sake to work more, contribute more to society, “make a difference“. For example, the modern-day notion of going to the gym and working out and exercising, the only thought is this:
It is critical for you to exercise daily, because it will make you healthy and healthier, in order for you to keep working more.
The reason why this line of thinking is so twisted is that it is for the sake of maximizing your work capacity, not your own personal happiness. Man is not permitted to be happy for the sake of being happy.
Happiness is also a flawed end goal
The other day, I was so insanely happy, maybe a 50 out of 10. But at the end of the day, happiness is a bit inconsequential. For me what is more critical is having the opportunity, physiological energy to pursue my creative tasks. Whether it be reviewing my photos, writing and blogging, thinking, producing knowledge, sending out email newsletters, etc.
I life, there is no such thing as virtue, or sin, vice. To me, it is all about wisdom, knowledge, becoming less foolish, and “not being a dummy.”
I like the word dummy, because it is not so serious. For example, we joke around with kids to not be a dummy. Maybe this is a better path for us.
You should start your own philosophy blog
Oh and today’s world of ChatGPT, AI assistant writing, the question,
How do you know if something was written by ChatGPT, or a real human being?
For the most part you can’t. However, anything written by Eric Kim passes the Turing test. Why? The way I talk is non-standard, the way I write is genuine, and ultimately I think the future of writing and thinking is predicated around philosophy. That is, there is already enough information and wisdom on the Internet on how to do anything. But not much information on why do XYZ. Or, should we do XYZ.
For example, I firmly believe that if your goal is to become superhuman, eating beef and meat is critical. But I philosophical question is should we eat beef and meat? Even if it is bad for the planet?
For example, if someone tells me, “Eric, you shouldn’t eat meat because it is bad for the planet“. But what if I say, “I know that eating meat is bad for the planet, but eating beef is best for me. So I don’t care.” Is one permitted to talk like this? This is the task and role of philosophy and ethics.
Everyone wants to be happy, even our best friend Aristotle said it is the one thing that men seek for the sake of itself.
What what is happiness? I think I got the answer; walking is happiness. Any sort of life, lifestyle, lifestyle approach which allows you to maximize your walking is happiness.
Strategies
I cannot speak for most people, because I don’t have a “real job“. That is, I don’t have a workplace, an office, or a place I must typically commute to.
However Cindy does.
A simple thought that I had is if you have the option, spend extra money which affords you the privilege to walk. For example, I wonder if in fact, shelling out the extra thousand, 2000, 3000, 4000, $5000, maybe even $10,000 a month would be positively beneficial to give you the privilege of walking.
It seems that the modern-day strategy that people partake in is that they sacrifice time in foolish ways. They decide to live further out, further away from work, in the suburbs, which means that they must spend more time driving in order to get to their workplace, in order to have the privilege of having a bigger house, a cheaper house, a smaller mortgage, cheaper rent etc.
Am I the first serious philosopher and the first serious weight lifter?
1. Public strength
Something that I’ve observed is that I am much stronger, physiologically stronger, when I’m at the gym around a lot of other people. I believe if I were just working out or lifting weights in a vacuum, or a home gym or garage, I would be a lot less strong, and also a lot more bored.
2. Social life
90% of the fun I get from going to the gym is the social life. To quote Cindy, who studies the social life of libraries in colonial Vietnam, I am interested in the social life of the gym. Post college, I haven’t really had the opportunity to be as social. But for me, going to the gym is great.
There is no “perfect” camera. Don’t fall into GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) and falsely believe that buying a new camera will make you a better photographer.
Of course this is just a list of stuff that work for me. It probably won’t work for you.
But I got inspired to make this list– because it took me about 10 years to figure out the best equipment for me. And this works for me, and I hope it can help simplify your purchasing decisions (at least in photography and some other details).
I’ll continue to do articles and videos related to equipment– because I do believe (up to a certain degree) having the ‘right’ equipment in life makes life easier. But the problem is falling victim to GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) where we are buying stuff for the sake of it (has happened to me).
If you already have a bunch of equipment that works for you– stick with it. But if you need some help, I hope this list helped you.
Dear friend, a thought on my mind; perhaps the best way to approach life is to consider our life goals, and also for us to become more critical and discerning on how to achieve those life goals.
For example, our creative life goals, and also, what we want to achieve in a single day, in a week, or our lifetimes.
For example, it seems at least for myself, the direction and path I desire is to always have higher numbers.
For example, when I consider my younger days when I was 16 years old, and I had my 1991 Sentra SE-R, 5 speed coupe, and the joy that I had was always changing the modifications and things on it, do you ever give it more horsepower, torque, improve performance, etc.
However, I was never interested in comparing my car with other people. In fact, I had deep pride in my car, and how unique it was. The Sentra SE-R, the B 13, a unique model built from 1991 to 1993, was practically unheard of, even when I was a teenager. Similar to performance to an old-school BMW M3, and superior performance to the Honda Civic SI, which was also very popular when I was a teenager.
It seems that nowadays, at least in cars and car culture, we are obsessed with having more horsepower, more performance points, etc. It seems that the traditional benchmark in holidays is to have the Tesla model S plaid, 1000+ horsepower etc. I think this is what drives us, both metaphorically and literally, for example the dodge hellcat, SRT, dodge challengers etc., everyone wants to have the mythical 1000+ horsepower. But a funnier life goal and path:
Maybe a better life goal is instead, to desire to lift 1000 pounds.
I am fairly certain that I should be able to atlas lift over 1000 pounds, within the next year or two. I find this to be an interesting pursuit, because the only things I require is courage and time. The courage to attempt it, and time.
Also, focus. I think focus is a critical part of the equation, as the criticality of focus is that before you attempt a certain lift, when you load up over 10 plates on the bar, you gotta focus. You must focus to channel all of your energy, guts, courage, chutzpah into that one single given moment.
Why? Several things. First and foremost, you must focus and hype yourself up in order to have the courage to even attempt it in the first place.
Second, you want to be successful. The courage necessary for the attempt is critical, but technically the desired outcome is to be successful. To succeed.
Truth be told I don’t really care for “failure“, that is not being successful. If I try a given day give it my all, even if I had supreme focus and I was not successful, it doesn’t bother me that much. I’ll just try again in a few days, in a week, and if I have a long enough runway, I know I will eventually be successful.
2. Time
The reason why I believe time to be a critical component is at least in the context of weightlifting, if you attempt a one rep max, consistently, at least once a week, every week, let’s say for 10 years straight, certainly you’ll get stronger in the long term.
Are having a more long-term vision towards the future is a good one. Why?
I’ll give you an example. This summer me Cindy and Seneca spent about a month and a half in Asia, about two weeks in Hadong South Korea, and about a month in Saigon Vietnam. Because I did not have my typical gym, I noticed that my strength went down a little bit, or at least my technique and familiarity went down a little bit. But ultimately in the long term vision of things, I was not really affected. Actually, within about a week of coming back, or two weeks of coming back, I’ve been able to hit greater personal records than I had before I left to Asia. For example my rack pull, before leaving I was able to do eight plates, 25, five, and a 2.5’er. But a few days ago, I was able to supersede that old personal record, by doing a plate and a 35, 845 pounds. Therefore, even though I was gone from the gym for about a month and a half, I was able to achieve a new personal record that was 5 pounds greater than I was before my trip.
Also my atlas lift. 970 pounds was my new personal record before my trip, and after my trip, I was a little bit concerned if I lost too much strength and chutzpah. But even though I am still jetlagged, and I am sure that my strength waned a bit, I’ll be able to hit a new personal record of 975 pounds. That is 5 pounds more than it was before!
Therefore my big suggestion life is this; maybe in terms of vision, it is good to think at the three month, six month, year, 1-3 year, five year, 10 year, 20-30 year spans.
For example, I remember after I graduated UCLA, and I was living in West LA, and there was a tiny Tesla showroom dealership in the area. This is when Tesla was still just the rebranded lotus car. This is one there was only a Tesla roadster. I think Tesla was already IPO’d public at the time.
I think the genius of Musk, Jeff Bezos, etc. is that their vision encapsulates very long periods of time.
For example, SpaceX. Or thinking about colonizing space and mars. Certainly we have to think at the decade, 20 year, 30 year, 40 year time span. To think short periods of time is not useful.
I think the reason why I enjoyed reading Invent and Wander by Jeff Bezos so much, which is just a collection of his shareholder letters is that it is clear that Jeff Bezos had at least a 30 year vision. For example with Amazon prime, it was seen as pure insanity. Now we just take it as an expected thing. Fortunately for myself, I still see Amazon prime as pure magic and phenomenal. The same thing goes with Uber, etc.
3. Photo time
A thought that I’ve been having recently, I love the gym, but in someways, going to the gym eats into my photography time. That is, time it takes me to review my photos, time it takes me to process my photos and upload them, or even time necessary for me to blog, write, send out email newsletters, do more website stuff, backend stuff, building websites, blogs, etc.
Time is a critical component. But the question is, how do we gain more time?
Technically you can’t gain more time in a given day, or even a single lifespan. Let us assume that the maximum possible human lifespan is 120 years, but more realistically it might be around 80 to 90 years. I personally aspire to live to 120 years old, but whether I will be successful or not is uncertain. Why? I don’t know if I will die traumatically in a car accident, if I catch some sort of random cancer or a disease, life is always uncertain. Therefore the consequence is in life, we must always be cautious, in terms of our time and our life.
The first thought I have is it is a good idea to be insanely discerning with your time in your life. That is, do not trade your time or your life for anything else what you do not consider important or critical to you. For example nowadays, the only thing I really care to do is my creative work, spend maximum time with Seneca, etc. Everything else doesn’t really matter to me anymore.
I think in life, focusing on innovation is a good one. Why? I believe the greatest boon to being American is our ethos of innovation.
4. Thinking beyond?
As humans, human beings, what is a good way to think about life in approach life?
I think a basic notion is to think beyond. Do you think beyond our small little bubble, or small town or city or county or state, or even our nation. It seems much more interesting to focus on the planet, the globe, etc.
I think one of the best things of traveling internationally is that it widens our perspective and worldview, that is, we can think bigger, more globally and beyond.
5. Mad max world
I think it is clear that climate, the world, weather temperature and other things are becoming weirder and weirder. My friend Seth calls this “global weirding”— the general idea is that certainly notions of “climate change“ and “global warming“ is too political and misleading. I think more robust concepts include pollution, and weird weather or climate patterns.
For example as I write these words, there is big news that this upcoming Monday or Tuesday there will be a massive hurricane in Southern California. I consider this very weird because currently they speak this, the sun is insanely bright and it’s close to 100° degrees Fahrenheit. That’s around 40°C.
I think currently we’re living in a Mad Max world. What I currently witness is this:
During the day, it is almost too bright, the sun is too strong to go outside in the direct sun. The only solutions include wearing a baseball cap, a wide brimmed hat, long pants and long sleeves, protect your skin.
For myself the heat doesn’t really bother me, but certainly if the UV radiation from the sun is too strong, you can’t really go outside.
I still prefer this insanely hot and bright and scorching sun weather over cold and damp and bone chilling, but still, the climate and the sun is brutal.
I was talking with some people, why California, why southern California, it seems that other states, the climate is not so good. For example Arizona Utah and Nevada, Las Vegas, Texas, Austin is almost too hot. Certainly the east coast has lots of great options, but for some reason people seem reticent to move to the East Coast.
Imagine living in the world in which the pollution and the sun and the climate is too unwelcoming outside. Then what do you do, just live in a mall for the rest of your life? Or live indoors for the rest of your life? Not desirable.
So my general takeaway point is given that climate, outdoors, the world outside everything is shitty, still make the best out of it!
6. Life philosophy?
It seems that the things which need to be beefed up is our thinking and our philosophy towards life, being alive, innovation and beyond. This will be the topic that we continue to work on.
Some new workshops I’m currently working on include a visual artist workshop, an introduction to stoicism workshop, etc. Stay updated on the workshops page or the newsletter.
Dear friend, a thought on my mind; perhaps the best way to approach life is to consider our life goals, and also for us to become more critical and discerning on how to achieve those life goals.
For example, our creative life goals, and also, what we want to achieve in a single day, in a week, or our lifetimes.
For example, it seems at least for myself, the direction and path I desire is to always have higher numbers.
For example, when I consider my younger days when I was 16 years old, and I had my 1991 Sentra SE-R, 5 speed coupe, and the joy that I had was always changing the modifications and things on it, do you ever give it more horsepower, torque, improve performance, etc.
However, I was never interested in comparing my car with other people. In fact, I had deep pride in my car, and how unique it was. The Sentra SE-R, the B 13, a unique model built from 1991 to 1993, was practically unheard of, even when I was a teenager. Similar to performance to an old-school BMW M3, and superior performance to the Honda Civic SI, which was also very popular when I was a teenager.
It seems that nowadays, at least in cars and car culture, we are obsessed with having more horsepower, more performance points, etc. It seems that the traditional benchmark in holidays is to have the Tesla model S plaid, 1000+ horsepower etc. I think this is what drives us, both metaphorically and literally, for example the dodge hellcat, SRT, dodge challengers etc., everyone wants to have the mythical 1000+ horsepower. But a funnier life goal and path:
Maybe a better life goal is instead, to desire to lift 1000 pounds.
I am fairly certain that I should be able to atlas lift over 1000 pounds, within the next year or two. I find this to be an interesting pursuit, because the only things I require is courage and time. The courage to attempt it, and time.
Also, focus. I think focus is a critical part of the equation, as the criticality of focus is that before you attempt a certain lift, when you load up over 10 plates on the bar, you gotta focus. You must focus to channel all of your energy, guts, courage, chutzpah into that one single given moment.
Why? Several things. First and foremost, you must focus and hype yourself up in order to have the courage to even attempt it in the first place.
Second, you want to be successful. The courage necessary for the attempt is critical, but technically the desired outcome is to be successful. To succeed.
Truth be told I don’t really care for “failure“, that is not being successful. If I try a given day give it my all, even if I had supreme focus and I was not successful, it doesn’t bother me that much. I’ll just try again in a few days, in a week, and if I have a long enough runway, I know I will eventually be successful.
2. Time
The reason why I believe time to be a critical component is at least in the context of weightlifting, if you attempt a one rep max, consistently, at least once a week, every week, let’s say for 10 years straight, certainly you’ll get stronger in the long term.
Are having a more long-term vision towards the future is a good one. Why?
I’ll give you an example. This summer me Cindy and Seneca spent about a month and a half in Asia, about two weeks in Hadong South Korea, and about a month in Saigon Vietnam. Because I did not have my typical gym, I noticed that my strength went down a little bit, or at least my technique and familiarity went down a little bit. But ultimately in the long term vision of things, I was not really affected. Actually, within about a week of coming back, or two weeks of coming back, I’ve been able to hit greater personal records than I had before I left to Asia. For example my rack pull, before leaving I was able to do eight plates, 25, five, and a 2.5’er. But a few days ago, I was able to supersede that old personal record, by doing a plate and a 35, 845 pounds. Therefore, even though I was gone from the gym for about a month and a half, I was able to achieve a new personal record that was 5 pounds greater than I was before my trip.
Also my atlas lift. 970 pounds was my new personal record before my trip, and after my trip, I was a little bit concerned if I lost too much strength and chutzpah. But even though I am still jetlagged, and I am sure that my strength waned a bit, I’ll be able to hit a new personal record of 975 pounds. That is 5 pounds more than it was before!
Therefore my big suggestion life is this; maybe in terms of vision, it is good to think at the three month, six month, year, 1-3 year, five year, 10 year, 20-30 year spans.
For example, I remember after I graduated UCLA, and I was living in West LA, and there was a tiny Tesla showroom dealership in the area. This is when Tesla was still just the rebranded lotus car. This is one there was only a Tesla roadster. I think Tesla was already in Public at the time.
I think the genius of Elon musk, Jeff Bezos, etc. is that their vision encapsulates very long periods of time.
For example, SpaceX. Or thinking about colonizing space and mars. Certainly we have to think at the decade, 20 year, 30 year, 40 year time span. To think short periods of time is not useful.
I think the reason why I enjoyed reading Invent and Wander by Jeff Bezos so much, which is just a collection of his shareholder letters is that it is clear that Jeff Bezos had at least a 30 year vision. For example with Amazon prime, it was seen as pure insanity. Now we just take it as an expected thing. Fortunately for myself, I still see Amazon prime as pure magic and phenomenal. The same thing goes with Uber, etc.
If you want a quality-education in street photography, I recommend either buying, borrowing, or browsing though some of the books below. Books that are bolded are some of my personal favorites.
If you’re starting in street photography, here is my free and open-source ‘MINI Street Photography Starter Kit’. For more inspiration and dopeness, see the full version: “Street Photography Starter Kit“.
Here are all of the free downloads available to you, with love:
Dear friend,
I want you to download me — download all these books, articles, and information for free– for you to remix it however you would like.
For you to use these images to illustrate blog posts. For you to look at these full-resolution images to analyze composition.
For you to use these free Lightroom presets to actually make your digital RAW photos look good.
For you to empower yourself. Because I think that information is power. Information is everything.
Information is money and control of the world (just consider that scene from the James Bond 007 Skyfall at the end of the film — the guy who controlled the information controlled the world).
With this information, you can learn how to conquer your fears, find more personal meaning in your photography and life, and seek to empower others through the art of photography.
All the information on this site, including photos, images, videos, articles, books, or text is free and open source– meaning you can do whatever you want with it.
You can remix it, translate it, or sell it for a profit.
The reason why I am doing this is to help empower you with information. And I feel that freedom is information, and power.
Be strong,
Eric
Eric Kim Blog Offline
If you plan on going on a flight, or going somewhere without internet access (and still want access to this blog), you can download this entire blog (offline, without images) as a 1.4GB (yes, very big) direct download. All you need to do is extract this .ZIP file, and open up ‘index.html’ to access the entire site. Have fun 🙂
HYPED UP on ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE— I’m currently drinking the black bag, THE PHOTOGRAPHER, which is 50% fine robusta and 50% liberica. This stuff is seriously liquid gold, gives me more focus, hype, and general good attitude toward life.
Anyways, I thought on my mind is in regards to focus, laser focus. Some thoughts on focus:
How to focus?
The philosophy of focus is tricky; on one hand, in modern-day times it is seen as virtuous to focus. To “not get distracted“.
I know for myself, I am easily distracted by superfluous things. Therefore it is my personal passion to not be distracted.
The first question you must ask yourself is this:
Do I want to focus?
For example, Nassim Taleb writes that contrary to popular wisdom, by him not focusing on a single given subject, he was able to advance his thinking and philosophy.
On the other hand, innovators like Steve Jobs gave advice to Sergey and Larry Page about how focus was critical.
For example, the advice that Steve Jobs gave to Larry Page and Sergey Brin was how Google should just focus on search, their most critical component, and not get distracted by other things like android, etc.
Looking at things a little bit zoomed out, I think Steve Jobs may have been correct. When we look at Android, it is a very sad and poor imitation of Apple and iOS. If Android was never invented, I don’t really think that the world would suffer.
In fact, thinking about things more critically, upon much consideration and thinking, and also personal use of android and android products, essentially it’s Google’s sneaky way of injecting more advertisements into your life. The decade+ plan of android and Google Maps is quite simple; gather more personal preferences of users and user behavior in order to deliver more “relevant“ advertisements.
Your life
There is certainly a difference between your life, and the life of these corporations. The reason why I think corporations are not a good example is that ultimately, the strategies don’t really pertain much to the individual. It seems more effective to focus on your own personal life and thriving, rather than just look at what companies are doing.
The philosophy of living and life
To think deeply, ultimately what you want to think and consider is that you only have one life, this one given life. So the question is in this life, what do you desire to achieve, attempt, or do? Do you care for your legacy? Do you care for the thriving of other future human beings beyond you? Do you not care? Underlying all of these considerations is a certain life philosophy. And I think that is guiding principles are critical.
In terms of my personal legacy, what I want to leave behind, how I wish to contribute to society, the general thought is I want to help assist empowering other individuals. For example, I just think of my 12-year-old, 15-year-old, 16-year-old, 18-year-old, 19-year-old, 21 year old, 26 year old self, and I think and consider; I thought given point in my life in that age, what advice and wisdom do I wish that other people shared with me?
No external media?
In terms of laser focus, another strategy and path is no external media, beyond yourself, the vibrations of your own mind, and other embodied reality experiences you have in person with other human beings.
For example, one of the best things that I’ve personally done is go to the hot sauna every single day, religiously. Why? I consider it like my meditation zen focus, chamber, in which I come up with lots of great creative ideas.
There are also some theories that perhaps being in a really really hot sauna, in which the heat and humidity is much higher, which forces your body to sweat, might be positively good for you in terms of your hormones. Hot heat therapy in the hot sauna at the gym, or even doing hot yoga, a form of hormesis.
Why movies or media?
There are always great new movies coming out, great new TV shows, series, etc. But I think out of all of this, the ultimate goal is towards human thriving, some sort of strengthening, or challenges.
A simple thought:
The time you spend watching media movies or shows, just use that time to go to the gym instead.
For example, I love superhero movies. I love the Marvel movies, the superhero movies, mostly the ones that came out before Disney bought out Marvel. I personally love the hero struggle, the hero narrative, etc. Why? I see myself in their shoes; when I watch a superhero movie, it makes me think that I’m the superhero.
What does a superhero have to deal with? In America, which has Judeo Christian, Protestant, Jesus sacrifice mentality, the general thought is that a hero sacrifices his life for the collective. That is, let us consider all of these heroic movies and films, typically the lead sacrifices his or her life in order to save humanity, people beyond them, etc.
The tricky thing is when we go further back in history, let’s say studying the Iliad, the Odyssey, etc., the narrative is a bit different. For example, let us consider Achilles in the Iliad. He is not sacrificing anything for the collective. Instead, his initial plan was just to go back to his own land, ideally take Breisis with him, stop war campaigning, and just retire and chill out. However it was the death of his best friend Patroclus which drove him to seek revenge. I wonder if John Wick is almost like the modern-day Achilles; some sort of antihero that we are actually rooting for.
Your goals?
Once again, the tricky thing is that for you, what are your personal goals, or life mission?
Discovering your creative mission
Another critical thing is discovering your creative mission in life. That is, assuming you were a trillionaire, what would you do with your time life and physiological energy?
My general thought is that everyone is unique, and has a diverse range of skill sets they could use to leverage and move the world.
For example, let us say that you’re into cars, photography, and innovation. I think there is an interesting way you can cross pollinate all of these interests.
Or for myself, my passion for photography and coffee. Creating the first photographers blend, the first coffee optimized to help stimulate and motivate photographers.
The traditional wisdom is everyone tells you to stay focused on a single small niche. Based on my life experiences, and thinking more long-term, I don’t think this is the way. Much more effective instead of taking insanely long term.
That is, allow yourself to indulge all of your creative interests.
Focus and diversity
A simple thought is when you are investigating and pursuing all of your diverse interests, just be insanely focused on each one at a time. No need to justify yourself. In the long run, all of these things will dovetail nicely.
Now what?
Focus on your health, your physicality, and don’t sacrifice your health for anything. Also focus on the health of your wife, your kids, and certainly yourself.
Assuming you want to become more productive in life, the simple path is focusing on your health. If you are insanely healthy, productivity will come naturally.
White space
Another thought on my mind in regards to design, as well as a mental thing; how white space is critical.
What is white space? Simply put, white space is having buffer, not overloading yourself or your schedule, even for the promise of making more money.
If you’re confronted with the question; should I take on this additional work to make extra money, or should I choose to refuse it in order to maximize my mind space and mental white space, choose your mental white space.
The philosophy of making money
Another thought I had this morning is in regards to money. How to make money, why make money, how much money should we make.
I think the upside of being self-employed, an entrepreneur, is that in some regards, you have some control over this.
Social life is the best stimulus
Another thought; a simple thought I have is that perhaps the best stimulus is other people. That means, being at the gym, being at the park, being at the mall, any opportunity to be around other human beings is good for us.
Why is the modern day man so antisocial?
My theory is that because it is almost seen as a new ethic; to intrude upon other people is considered bad.
For example, when you interact with other human beings, sooner or later you will offend somebody. And this is all part of the game.
This is my theory:
Better to risk a social interaction, be friendly and say hi, and be given the cold shoulder or a bad interaction, rather than not attempt it at all.
I think this might be the cure and panacea for modern day living.
STREET PHOTOGRAPHY X STOICISM
A great crossover that I personally think about the difference of stoicism, and modern day life, is that stoicism must be practiced, almost like a martial arts.
Typically speaking, our use of stoicism, ethics, modern day ethics, etc. is predicated on opportunities.
For example, other people. If you’re at home all day, don’t have to expose yourself to any real life interactions with other people, you have no need for stoicism.
Also, the Internet is fake. Nowadays with ChatGPT, it is really impossible to know whether the online commentator, troll, Twitter account, etc., is a real human being or not. Therefore my suggestion is to just disable all comments on the Internet, don’t read any comments on the Internet, And only rely on face-to-face interactions.
Demigod focus
I personally believe that one of the best ways to focus is that there needs to be some Mokadem of danger, that is, there needs to be some sort of downside risk, some sort of risk of life or death.
Put a barbell on the squat rack, and load it up with 10 plates. Then see if you can successfully lift it up, a little bit off the bar even half a centimeter, once, for even half a second.
It doesn’t really matter whether you are able to successfully lift it or not, what is most important and critical is the attempt, your focus, your courage.
The reason why I find this to be so essential is that before attempting to do this, the courage necessary is phenomenal. There is really no other time in which I truly am afforded the opportunity to focus that much.
I think the reason why this gives me such zen and intense focus opportunity is that if I don’t focus, and give it my 100% effort, who knows, maybe there is a risk of injury? Funny enough though, with the atlas lift, I’ve suffered zero injuries. At worst I cannot budge the bar. But my desire is to move the bar, so regardless, my focus is to get into a zen mode, to tune out all distractions, channel 100% of my strength and courage into that one single moment, and lift the weight with all my might.
Adrenaline training
I have a theory about focus; it has to do with adrenaline. That is, people often think that adrenaline, fear is a bad thing, but even the notion of “fear“ is misguided. Maybe fear is nothing but adrenaline in overdrive, which is untamed.
I often think about the movie 300, the moment in which king Leonidas and his heroic 300 are preparing to go to battle with king Xerxes and the millions of Persian missionaries. What happens is this— the narrator says something like,
He felt no fear. Simply a heightened sense of things.
Very very interesting, I think I may feel the same sentiment. When I am ready to hype myself up for a godly lift, it isn’t necessarily fear which I feel, rather, a heightened sense of things.
Also interestingly enough, wondering and while doing the lift itself, and the barbell is on my shoulders, my hearing goes deaf. For about a few seconds, I literally cannot hear the music, but the second I put down the barbell, the music turns back on.
Therefore, once again, the interesting thought is that perhaps, adrenaline training is what we need. And this is the focus of my workshops; to help you tame your adrenaline, to train your adrenaline, and for you to learn to turn “fear” and your adrenaline into your slave, your own pet monster, to unleash it when you deem it necessary.
Focus for the sake of what?
I think the difficult and tricky thing is that in modern day times, notions of “focus“ are deemed as some sort of pseudo-virtuous thing in which becoming “focused” is towards money and capital accumulation. That is, the purpose of focusing, being “productive“, is in order to make money, accumulate and accrue more capital, etc.
Call but what if focusing, your own personal desire to focus isn’t for any of these things? Then what?
My simple thought is in regards to your life goals, be laser vision focused on what you consider truly critical, your life mission while you are still on planet earth.
For example, one of my current life goals is propagating fine robusta to the masses. Also I got lots of goals with diet health and fitness, and certainly photography, street photography courage, philosophy stoicism and everything in between.
Also with my workshops, honestly at this point I’m starting to think that I just want to do it because I care, and I have a lot of insane fun doing it! In my mind I see myself as a bitcoin billionaire. Therefore, at this point I almost see things like making money as a hobby.
Prime Vision
To have a prime vision, a primary vision. To find yourself, your entrepreneurial ventures, etc.
It seems that in modern day times, we are always seeking funding, some sort of external externalized funding. But perhaps, this isn’t a good path. Why? If you want someone else to find you, external funding, maybe the thing that you’re doing isn’t really worth doing. That is, true genius is shown through what you are willing to sacrifice, out of your own pocket etc.
For example, I think a lot of people want external funding in terms of traveling, expenses, building something etc. however, while traveling is great, perhaps a lot of trouble is more romanticized than anything.
My thought instead is fund yourself. True skin in the game.
Now what?
Some thought and philosophy assignments for you:
First, the philosophy of money. For you, what is the meaning of finances? Why does it matter to you, and also what does it mean to you?
Second, think about your health. How would you define health for yourself, and also why does it matter to you?
Third, think about your own creativity, your own creative life. What is it that you desire to create as an artist, and towards what ends, why, and also how to best propagate it?
To think these thoughts deeper, have a chat with ERIC KIM AI.
Prime, primer thoughts. Perhaps the best color or the paint concept is primer flat gray. Why? The promise of infinite opportunities, anything is possible.
HYPED UP on ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE— I’m currently drinking the black bag, THE PHOTOGRAPHER, which is 50% fine robusta and 50% liberica.
Some thoughts on focus:
How to focus?
The philosophy of focus is tricky; on one hand, in modern-day times it is seen as virtuous to focus. To “not get distracted“.
I know for myself, I am easily distracted by superfluous things. Therefore it is my personal passion to not be distracted.
The first question you must ask yourself is this:
Do I want to focus?
For example, Nassim Taleb writes that contrary to popular wisdom, by him not focusing on a single given subject, he was able to advance his thinking and philosophy.
On the other hand, innovators like Steve Jobs gave advice to Sergey and Larry Page about how focus was critical.
For example, the advice that Steve Jobs gave to Larry Page and Sergey Brin was how Google should just focus on search, their most critical component, and not get distracted by other things like android, etc.
Looking at things a little bit zoomed out, I think Steve Jobs may have been correct. When we look at Android, it is a very sad and poor imitation of Apple and iOS. If Android was never invented, I don’t really think that the world would suffer.
In fact, thinking about things more critically, upon much consideration and thinking, and also personal use of android and android products, essentially it’s Google’s sneaky way of injecting more advertisements into your life. The decade+ plan of android and Google Maps is quite simple; gather more personal preferences of users and user behavior in order to deliver more “relevant“ advertisements.
Your life
There is certainly a difference between your life, and the life of these corporations. The reason why I think corporations are not a good example is that ultimately, the strategies don’t really pertain much to the individual. It seems more effective to focus on your own personal life and thriving, rather than just look at what companies are doing.
The philosophy of living and life
To think deeply, ultimately what you want to think and consider is that you only have one life, this one given life. So the question is in this life, what do you desire to achieve, attempt, or do? Do you care for your legacy? Do you care for the thriving of other future human beings beyond you? Do you not care? Underlying all of these considerations is a certain life philosophy. And I think that is guiding principles are critical.
In terms of my personal legacy, what I want to leave behind, how I wish to contribute to society, the general thought is I want to help assist empowering other individuals. For example, I just think of my 12-year-old, 15-year-old, 16-year-old, 18-year-old, 19-year-old, 21 year old, 26 year old self, and I think and consider; I thought given point in my life in that age, what advice and wisdom do I wish that other people shared with me?
No external media?
In terms of laser focus, another strategy and path is no external media, beyond yourself, the vibrations of your own mind, and other embodied reality experiences you have in person with other human beings.
For example, one of the best things that I’ve personally done is go to the hot sauna every single day, religiously. Why? I consider it like my meditation zen focus, chamber, in which I come up with lots of great creative ideas.
There are also some theories that perhaps being in a really really hot sauna, in which the heat and humidity is much higher, which forces your body to sweat, might be positively good for you in terms of your hormones. Hot heat therapy in the hot sauna at the gym, or even doing hot yoga, a form of hormesis.
Why movies or media?
There are always great new movies coming out, great new TV shows, series, etc. But I think out of all of this, the ultimate goal is towards human thriving, some sort of strengthening, or challenges.
A simple thought:
The time you spend watching media movies or shows, just use that time to go to the gym instead.
For example, I love superhero movies. I love the Marvel movies, the superhero movies, mostly the ones that came out before Disney bought out Marvel. I personally love the hero struggle, the hero narrative, etc. Why? I see myself in their shoes; when I watch a superhero movie, it makes me think that I’m the superhero.
What does a superhero have to deal with? In America, which has Judeo Christian, Protestant, Jesus sacrifice mentality, the general thought is that a hero sacrifices his life for the collective. That is, let us consider all of these heroic movies and films, typically the lead sacrifices his or her life in order to save humanity, people beyond them, etc.
The tricky thing is when we go further back in history, let’s say studying the Iliad, the Odyssey, etc., the narrative is a bit different. For example, let us consider Achilles in the Iliad. He is not sacrificing anything for the collective. Instead, his initial plan was just to go back to his own land, ideally take Breisis with him, stop war campaigning, and just retire and chill out. However it was the death of his best friend Patroclus which drove him to seek revenge. I wonder if John Wick is almost like the modern-day Achilles; some sort of antihero that we are actually rooting for.
Your goals?
Once again, the tricky thing is that for you, what are your personal goals, or life mission?
Discovering your creative mission
Another critical thing is discovering your creative mission in life. That is, assuming you were a trillionaire, what would you do with your time life and physiological energy?
My general thought is that everyone is unique, and has a diverse range of skill sets they could use to leverage and move the world.
For example, let us say that you’re into cars, photography, and innovation. I think there is an interesting way you can cross pollinate all of these interests.
Or for myself, my passion for photography and coffee. Creating the first photographers blend, the first coffee optimized to help stimulate and motivate photographers.
The traditional wisdom is everyone tells you to stay focused on a single small niche. Based on my life experiences, and thinking more long-term, I don’t think this is the way. Much more effective instead of taking insanely long term.
That is, allow yourself to indulge all of your creative interests.
Focus and diversity
A simple thought is when you are investigating and pursuing all of your diverse interests, just be insanely focused on each one at a time. No need to justify yourself. In the long run, all of these things will dovetail nicely.
Now what?
Focus on your health, your physicality, and don’t sacrifice your health for anything. Also focus on the health of your wife, your kids, and certainly yourself.
Assuming you want to become more productive in life, the simple path is focusing on your health. If you are insanely healthy, productivity will come naturally.
White space
Another thought on my mind in regards to design, as well as a mental thing; how white space is critical.
What is white space? Simply put, white space is having buffer, not overloading yourself or your schedule, even for the promise of making more money.
If you’re confronted with the question; should I take on this additional work to make extra money, or should I choose to refuse it in order to maximize my mind space and mental white space, choose your mental white space.
The philosophy of making money
Another thought I had this morning is in regards to money. How to make money, why make money, how much money should we make.
I think the upside of being self-employed, an entrepreneur, is that in some regards, you have some control over this.
Social life is the best stimulus
Another thought; a simple thought I have is that perhaps the best stimulus is other people. That means, being at the gym, being at the park, being at the mall, any opportunity to be around other human beings is good for us.
Why is the modern day man so antisocial?
My theory is that because it is almost seen as a new ethic; to intrude upon other people is considered bad.
For example, when you interact with other human beings, sooner or later you will offend somebody. And this is all part of the game.
This is my theory:
Better to risk a social interaction, be friendly and say hi, and be given the cold shoulder or a bad interaction, rather than not attempt it at all.
I think this might be the cure and panacea for modern day living.
STREET PHOTOGRAPHY X STOICISM
A great crossover that I personally think about the difference of stoicism, and modern day life, is that stoicism must be practiced, almost like a martial arts.
Typically speaking, our use of stoicism, ethics, modern day ethics, etc. is predicated on opportunities.
For example, other people. If you’re at home all day, don’t have to expose yourself to any real life interactions with other people, you have no need for stoicism.
Also, the Internet is fake. Nowadays with ChatGPT, it is really impossible to know whether the online commentator, troll, Twitter account, etc., is a real human being or not. Therefore my suggestion is to just disable all comments on the Internet, don’t read any comments on the Internet, And only rely on face-to-face interactions.
Demigod focus
I personally believe that one of the best ways to focus is that there needs to be some Mokadem of danger, that is, there needs to be some sort of downside risk, some sort of risk of life or death.
Put a barbell on the squat rack, and load it up with 10 plates. Then see if you can successfully lift it up, a little bit off the bar even half a centimeter, once, for even half a second.
It doesn’t really matter whether you are able to successfully lift it or not, what is most important and critical is the attempt, your focus, your courage.
The reason why I find this to be so essential is that before attempting to do this, the courage necessary is phenomenal. There is really no other time in which I truly am afforded the opportunity to focus that much.
I think the reason why this gives me such zen and intense focus opportunity is that if I don’t focus, and give it my 100% effort, who knows, maybe there is a risk of injury? Funny enough though, with the atlas lift, I’ve suffered zero injuries. At worst I cannot budge the bar. But my desire is to move the bar, so regardless, my focus is to get into a zen mode, to tune out all distractions, channel 100% of my strength and courage into that one single moment, and lift the weight with all my might.
Adrenaline training
I have a theory about focus; it has to do with adrenaline. That is, people often think that adrenaline, fear is a bad thing, but even the notion of “fear“ is misguided. Maybe fear is nothing but adrenaline in overdrive, which is untamed.
I often think about the movie 300, the moment in which king Leonidas and his heroic 300 are preparing to go to battle with king Xerxes and the millions of Persian missionaries. What happens is this— the narrator says something like,
He felt no fear. Simply a heightened sense of things.
Very very interesting, I think I may feel the same sentiment. When I am ready to hype myself up for a godly lift, it isn’t necessarily fear which I feel, rather, a heightened sense of things.
Also interestingly enough, wondering and while doing the lift itself, and the barbell is on my shoulders, my hearing goes deaf. For about a few seconds, I literally cannot hear the music, but the second I put down the barbell, the music turns back on.
Therefore, once again, the interesting thought is that perhaps, adrenaline training is what we need. And this is the focus of my workshops; to help you tame your adrenaline, to train your adrenaline, and for you to learn to turn “fear” and your adrenaline into your slave, your own pet monster, to unleash it when you deem it necessary.
Focus for the sake of what?
I think the difficult and tricky thing is that in modern day times, notions of “focus“ are deemed as some sort of pseudo-virtuous thing in which becoming “focused” is towards money and capital accumulation. That is, the purpose of focusing, being “productive“, is in order to make money, accumulate and accrue more capital, etc.
Call but what if focusing, your own personal desire to focus isn’t for any of these things? Then what?
HYPED UP on ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE— I’m currently drinking the black bag, THE PHOTOGRAPHER, which is 50% fine robusta and 50% liberica.
Some thoughts on focus:
How to focus?
The philosophy of focus is tricky; on one hand, in modern-day times it is seen as virtuous to focus. To “not get distracted“.
I know for myself, I am easily distracted by superfluous things. Therefore it is my personal passion to not be distracted.
The first question you must ask yourself is this:
Do I want to focus?
For example, Nassim Taleb writes that contrary to popular wisdom, by him not focusing on a single given subject, he was able to advance his thinking and philosophy.
On the other hand, innovators like Steve Jobs gave advice to Sergey and Larry Page about how focus was critical.
For example, the advice that Steve Jobs gave to Larry Page and Sergey Brin was how Google should just focus on search, their most critical component, and not get distracted by other things like android, etc.
Looking at things a little bit zoomed out, I think Steve Jobs may have been correct. When we look at Android, it is a very sad and poor imitation of Apple and iOS. If Android was never invented, I don’t really think that the world would suffer.
In fact, thinking about things more critically, upon much consideration and thinking, and also personal use of android and android products, essentially it’s Google’s sneaky way of injecting more advertisements into your life. The decade+ plan of android and Google Maps is quite simple; gather more personal preferences of users and user behavior in order to deliver more “relevant“ advertisements.
Your life
There is certainly a difference between your life, and the life of these corporations. The reason why I think corporations are not a good example is that ultimately, the strategies don’t really pertain much to the individual. It seems more effective to focus on your own personal life and thriving, rather than just look at what companies are doing.
The philosophy of living and life
To think deeply, ultimately what you want to think and consider is that you only have one life, this one given life. So the question is in this life, what do you desire to achieve, attempt, or do? Do you care for your legacy? Do you care for the thriving of other future human beings beyond you? Do you not care? Underlying all of these considerations is a certain life philosophy. And I think that is guiding principles are critical.
In terms of my personal legacy, what I want to leave behind, how I wish to contribute to society, the general thought is I want to help assist empowering other individuals. For example, I just think of my 12-year-old, 15-year-old, 16-year-old, 18-year-old, 19-year-old, 21 year old, 26 year old self, and I think and consider; I thought given point in my life in that age, what advice and wisdom do I wish that other people shared with me?
No external media?
In terms of laser focus, another strategy and path is no external media, beyond yourself, the vibrations of your own mind, and other embodied reality experiences you have in person with other human beings.
For example, one of the best things that I’ve personally done is go to the hot sauna every single day, religiously. Why? I consider it like my meditation zen focus, chamber, in which I come up with lots of great creative ideas.
There are also some theories that perhaps being in a really really hot sauna, in which the heat and humidity is much higher, which forces your body to sweat, might be positively good for you in terms of your hormones. Hot heat therapy in the hot sauna at the gym, or even doing hot yoga, a form of hormesis.
Why movies or media?
There are always great new movies coming out, great new TV shows, series, etc. But I think out of all of this, the ultimate goal is towards human thriving, some sort of strengthening, or challenges.
A simple thought:
The time you spend watching media movies or shows, just use that time to go to the gym instead.
For example, I love superhero movies. I love the Marvel movies, the superhero movies, mostly the ones that came out before Disney bought out marvel. I personally love the hero struggle, the hero narrative, etc. Why? I see myself in their shoes; when I watch a superhero movie, it makes me think that I’m the superhero.
What does a superhero have to deal with? In America, which has Judeo Christian, protestant, Jesus sacrifice mentality, the general thought is that a hero sacrifices his life for the collective. That is, let us consider all of these heroic movies and films, typically the lead sacrifices give her her life in order to save humanity, people beyond them, etc.
The tricky thing is when we go further back in history, let’s say studying the Iliad, the odyssey, etc., the narrative is a bit different. For example, let us consider Achilles in the Iliad. He is not sacrificing anything for the collective. Instead, his initial plan was just to go back to his own land, ideally take Breisis with him, stop war campaigning, and just retire and chill out. However it was the death of his best friend Patroclus which drove him to seek revenge. I wonder if John Wick is almost like the modern-day Achilles; some sort of antihero that we are actually rooting for.
Waking up this morning, and having some great ERIC KIM OMAKASE Coffee to get me going, some thoughts:
1. Innovate?
After being abroad, then coming back, the general thought I have is that perhaps at the end of the day, the most important and critical thing is in regards to innovation. How to innovate, why innovate, etc.
I think in America, we have a passion for innovation, however it is limited towards purchasing innovation. That is, we love innovation and the new, but the only way it seems accessible to innovate is through purchasing it. This means we purchase innovation by eagerly awaiting for new innovative products, whether it be the new iPhone, iPhone Pro, any Apple device, Tesla, electric car, something.
I think the big problem is that deep innovation cannot be purchased, it must be done by you.
2. Why do we feel so incapable?
Perhaps the reason we feel so incapable is that because the culture, modern-day culture, or culture in America or maybe high labor prices etc. is that things seem inaccessible to be done by us. We like the thinking or the concept that we can do things ourselves, and that we can be innovators.
Ignore the preferences and what others say; others use fake rationality and BS ethics. Just do as you please and when others object you don’t gotta respond nor justify yourself.
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!
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.
The other day, woke up pretty early, got some good writing done (Man on a Mission), was feeling high strength, and decided that it may be a good opportunity and chance for me to go househunting and apartment hunting in LA with Cindy. We loaded up our car, and drove down to LA, spent the whole day there and came back, and after the whole day there coming back, this was the most fatigued I felt in a very long time.
Thoughts on my mind:
Why was I so tired? Is it still the jet lag, or is it the fact of being stuck in the car all day, or driving all day?
I suppose after studying the etymology, to commute means to simply exchange places. For example, typically you sleep in your home, wake up, and then you commute to work, whether it be walking driving etc.
In modern day times, or if you live in LA or southern California, the notion of a commute is generally speaking being stuck in traffic or being stuck in a car or being stuck driving for several hours a day.
For example, in my case, starting off in Orange County and driving to LA, even with Cindy and carpool, it still took us about an hour and five minutes to get to LA. And the tricky thing about driving to LA especially coming from Orange County is that the closer you get to LA, the more ratchet it gets. People drive more aggressively, the freeways become more condensed, interchanges become a little bit more unpredictable and confusing.
Concrete Islands
I call it “concrete archipelago hopping” to quote my friend Evyn Le Espiritu.
Basically the issue in LA, and a lot of southern California is that all of these different neighborhoods are like concrete islands, which instead of being separated by water is separated by traffic.
For example, Cindy and I toured several neighborhoods which included Marina del Rey, some outskirts of Santa Monica, Culver City, Westwood, etc. Even though they are all in close proximity to UCLA, during rush hour, trying to go from the east side to the west side is all local and you’re stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Would a Tesla solve this issue?
Another thing that I’ve learned which is intelligent in Asia, Southeast Asia, is that rich people don’t drive themselves; either have private drivers, or just ride grab taxi or an Uber anywhere. In Asia, only servants drive.
In America we have this funny strange thing in which we want to be the driver. We want to be the man at the helm, the cockpit, inside the fuselage.
Even the notion of a modern-day sports car or a hyper car, I think the general analogy is that it is almost like having your own private jet fighter. I think this is what Lamborghini is going for, you may not be able to buy a jet fighter, and be like Tom Cruise, but, you can have your own land based jet fighter which is a modern day Lamborghini.
However, even if you have the worlds best Lamborghini or car or hyper car whatever, during peak rush-hour in LA, you’re stuck. I don’t know anybody who likes to drive during bumper-to-bumper rush-hour.
The curiosity on my mind is this:
If I had a Tesla, either with basic auto pilot, the one which does the “smart cruise control“ on the freeway, auto staying in the lane and keeping distance in front of the other car, or even full auto pilot, would this solve the issue?
For example, let me assume that in the morning, before leaving to LA at 10 AM, I was at 100% energy, honestly I think it would have just been better for me to go to the gym and try to hit over 10 plates for my atlas lift. After driving commuting going to LA coming back, I felt like my battery went down to a critical low of 2%.
Thus my curiosity:
If I had a Tesla, either with basic auto pilot or full auto pilot, would having to commute and drive deplete me of less energy?
For example, if I had auto pilot, would my energy levels still be at close to 100%? At 90%? At 80%? At 60%? 50%? 40%? 30%? Or about the same?
I know that when I’m stuck in traffic, but someone else is driving me, like during peak rush-hour in Saigon, it didn’t really bother me too much to be stuck in traffic. I just used that time to review my photos on my iPhone, or even publish some ideas to my blog, using my iPhone.
Jet lag?
Was I so tired yesterday because I was still jetlagged? Still a little bit uncertain, but the general takeaway point:
Conserve your energy and strength.
I think some certainties:
1. Driving drains your battery
Having to actively drive yourself saps you of your strength and energy: for example, typically I am able to easily atlas lift over nine plates at the gym, but yesterday after driving all day, and hitting the gym, I was so fatigued that I barely had energy and chutzpah to do seven plates. Being cognizant of my body, I still had the muscular strength to lift more, but, my overall feeling and just was I didn’t have the chutzpah to do it. Therefore purely speaking from a productivity energy perspective, if you want to maximize your energy, and to minimally deplete your energy, drive as little as humanly possible.
I like this analogy of thinking of your human energy like a battery or a smart phone battery. That is, when you wake up first thing in the morning, and during the day, you got 100% battery life, but as the day goes on, your battery life gets drained. Things you could do to recharge your battery include drinking more ERIC KIM COFFEE, taking a nap, or sleeping. Sometimes also good way to recharge your battery is ironically hitting the gym, lifting weights, doing the hot sauna, or even going out in the direct sun, catching some sun.
2. I don’t like tint
For the 2010 Prius that we recently inherited, it has pretty much full tint. Close to limo tint in the back and the back windshield, the front is quite dark, and I think there’s even a little bit of tint on the front windshield.
For myself, I get maximum physiological energy when I am in the direct sun, or I have the privilege and opportunity to get more direct light. Therefore, I don’t like tint or tint in cars because it makes things darker, and I feel like this saps me of some of my energy. Maximum sunlight and brightness is key for me to maximize my physical energy.
Therefore being stuck in the car all day, the downside is it because you are stuck in the car all day with tint, you have less energy and power.
3. Gravity on your legs and joints
Another big downside of being stuck in a car, or being seated in either the front seat or the backseat of a car is that when you are in a sitting position, and gravity doesn’t have an opportunity to work on your legs. I have a theory that when you do not have the privilege to stand, walk, or have the opportunity for gravity to work on your legs, your lower body, your back, your spine, your hips, your knees, your ligaments and joints etc., Your metabolism and physiological energy shuts down.
Therefore, even if you had a 100% private driver, or even the $15,000 self 100% self driving tesla, still being forced to be in a seated position is positively bad for you.
Lesson: optimize your life such a manner in which you are never sitting.
4. How to watch a movie, or TV show series?
One of the things I hate about flying is that you are forced to sit the whole time. Whenever possible, Seneca included, I prefer to stand, kill time by walking around the cabin, etc.
Was it Virgin Airlines, or some sort of other airlines which had some sort of club lounge in which you were able to stand and hang out? I think this is a really good idea for airplanes.
Anyways, another simple thought I have is if there is a TV show, a series, or a movie you want to watch, it seems that the best idea is to watch it while standing, while walking outdoors, just download it to your iPad Pro, and walk around while watching it outside. This is far superior of a watching experience; I believe the greatest benefit of movies films and cinema is that motivates you to move, literally. Any sort of movie or action film which inspires you to move your legs walk around, is good.
For example, when I first watched the Foundation series on Apple TV+, I would just download it all to my iPhone or iPad Pro, and watch it while walking around the block with an umbrella during the summertime in the blazing Southern California sun.
Therefore as a fun experiment, avoid sitting.
5. Anti inferior coffee?
During our house and Tim trip in LA, Cindy and I briefly stopped by a Trader Joe’s and Cindy picked up some snacks and one of those cold brew Trader Joe’s coffees. Apparently 100% arabica. However, the coffee was insanely terrible. Immediately I felt my throat act up, and actually gave me a bad feeling. I actually felt more tired than I did before having it.
Therefore, my personal passion with ERIC KIM Coffee, to truly bring you the most superior and supreme coffee to help you thrive.
What makes ERIC KIM COFFEE different? 100% fine robusta, the most healthy coffee and the most supreme for your physiology.
My personal commitment to myself; I will only ever drink EK COFFEE ever again.
6. Trading your health, your well-being, and your physiological energy for money?
Assuming that driving and sitting as positively bad for you and your health, let us consider how most people make their money and living, nowadays taxi drivers and Uber drivers, Amazon prime delivery people, or the traditional office worker who sits in front of a computer and sits on a chair at a desk all day.
Even the traditional Silicon Valley worker with standing desk isn’t much better. I think there’s something positively bad about your health when we are forced to stay indoors, not moving, and just staring at a screen all day.
Therefore the traditional way that a lot of people make money nowadays is simply trading their health for money. Also, having to fly internationally or even domestically for a living is positively bad for your health.
7. Voluntary versus involuntary commuting
I think having a small commute is positively good. To drive 15 or 20 minutes somewhere is often good to just get out of the house, change of scenery etc.
Also to drive a little bit a day I think is also good for us.
But the dosage is in the poison. this means, maybe driving 15 minutes somewhere and then driving 15 minutes back is good for us, but having to drive an hour or an hour and 30 minutes somewhere and two hours back is really bad for us.
Therefore my suggestion is in regards to your life and lifestyle, work etc., I don’t think we should ever be forced to commute anywhere, we should only commute optionally if we want to.
Now what?
I think the general takeaway point is we actually like to be in person to do things. Nobody wants to be on zoom all day.
Therefore my simple suggestion; perhaps the best life is a life in which you do a short voluntary commute, to do things in person.
We prefer in person. But then we don’t like to be stuck in the car.
For example, a short 10 to 15 minute commute somewhere, to do something in person, whether if you work, creative work, going to the gym or yoga, going to a coffee shop, eating out etc.
The other day, woke up pretty early, got some good writing done (Man on a Mission), was feeling high strength, and decided that it may be a good opportunity and chance for me to go househunting and apartment hunting in LA with Cindy. We loaded up our car, and drove down to LA, spent the whole day there and came back, and after the whole day there coming back, this was the most fatigued I felt in a very long time.
Thoughts on my mind:
Why was I so tired? Is it still the jet lag, or is it the fact of being stuck in the car all day, or driving all day?
I suppose after studying the etymology, to commute means to simply exchange places. For example, typically you sleep in your home, wake up, and then you commute to work, whether it be walking driving etc.
In modern day times, or if you live in LA or southern California, the notion of a commute is generally speaking being stuck in traffic or being stuck in a car or being stuck driving for several hours a day.
For example, in my case, starting off in Orange County and driving to LA, even with Cindy and carpool, it still took us about an hour and five minutes to get to LA. And the tricky thing about driving to LA especially coming from Orange County is that the closer you get to LA, the more ratchet it gets. People drive more aggressively, the freeways become more condensed, interchanges become a little bit more unpredictable and confusing.
Concrete Islands
I call it “concrete archipelago hopping” to quote my friend Evyn Le Espiritu.
Basically the issue in LA, and a lot of southern California is that all of these different neighborhoods are like concrete islands, which instead of being separated by water is separated by traffic.
For example, Cindy and I toured several neighborhoods which included Marina del Rey, some outskirts of Santa Monica, Culver City, Westwood, etc. Even though they are all in close proximity to UCLA, during rush hour, trying to go from the east side to the west side is all local and you’re stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Would a Tesla solve this issue?
Another thing that I’ve learned which is intelligent in Asia, Southeast Asia, is that rich people don’t drive themselves; either have private drivers, or just ride grab taxi or an Uber anywhere. In Asia, only servants drive.
In America we have this funny strange thing in which we want to be the driver. We want to be the man at the helm, the cockpit, inside the fuselage.
Even the notion of a modern-day sports car or a hyper car, I think the general analogy is that it is almost like having your own private jet fighter. I think this is what Lamborghini is going for, you may not be able to buy a jet fighter, and be like Tom Cruise, but, you can have your own land based jet fighter which is a modern day Lamborghini.
However, even if you have the worlds best Lamborghini or car or hyper car whatever, during peak rush-hour in LA, you’re stuck. I don’t know anybody who likes to drive during bumper-to-bumper rush-hour.
The curiosity on my mind is this:
If I had a Tesla, either with basic auto pilot, the one which does the “smart cruise control“ on the freeway, auto staying in the lane and keeping distance in front of the other car, or even full auto pilot, would this solve the issue?
For example, let me assume that in the morning, before leaving to LA at 10 AM, I was at 100% energy, honestly I think it would have just been better for me to go to the gym and try to hit over 10 plates for my atlas lift. After driving commuting going to LA coming back, I felt like my battery went down to a critical low of 2%.
Thus my curiosity:
If I had a Tesla, either with basic auto pilot or full auto pilot, would having to commute and drive deplete me of less energy?
For example, if I had auto pilot, would my energy levels still be at close to 100%? At 90%? At 80%? At 60%? 50%? 40%? 30%? Or about the same?
I know that when I’m stuck in traffic, but someone else is driving me, like during peak rush-hour in Saigon, it didn’t really bother me too much to be stuck in traffic. I just used that time to review my photos on my iPhone, or even publish some ideas to my blog, using my iPhone.
Jet lag?
Was I so tired yesterday because I was still jetlagged? Still a little bit uncertain, but the general takeaway point:
Conserve your energy and strength.
I think some certainties:
1. Driving drains your battery
Having to actively drive yourself saps you of your strength and energy: for example, typically I am able to easily atlas lift over nine plates at the gym, but yesterday after driving all day, and hitting the gym, I was so fatigued that I barely had energy and chutzpah to do seven plates. Being cognizant of my body, I still had the muscular strength to lift more, but, my overall feeling and just was I didn’t have the chutzpah to do it. Therefore purely speaking from a productivity energy perspective, if you want to maximize your energy, and to minimally deplete your energy, drive as little as humanly possible.
I like this analogy of thinking of your human energy like a battery or a smart phone battery. That is, when you wake up first thing in the morning, and during the day, you got 100% battery life, but as the day goes on, your battery life gets drained. Things you could do to recharge your battery include drinking more ERIC KIM COFFEE, taking a nap, or sleeping. Sometimes also good way to recharge your battery is ironically hitting the gym, lifting weights, doing the hot sauna, or even going out in the direct sun, catching some sun.
2. I don’t like tint
For the 2010 Prius that we recently inherited, it has pretty much full tint. Close to limo tint in the back and the back windshield, the front is quite dark, and I think there’s even a little bit of tint on the front windshield.
For myself, I get maximum physiological energy when I am in the direct sun, or I have the privilege and opportunity to get more direct light. Therefore, I don’t like tint or tint in cars because it makes things darker, and I feel like this saps me of some of my energy. Maximum sunlight and brightness is key for me to maximize my physical energy.
Therefore being stuck in the car all day, the downside is it because you are stuck in the car all day with tint, you have less energy and power.
3. Gravity on your legs and joints
Another big downside of being stuck in a car, or being seated in either the front seat or the backseat of a car is that when you are in a sitting position, and gravity doesn’t have an opportunity to work on your legs. I have a theory that when you do not have the privilege to stand, walk, or have the opportunity for gravity to work on your legs, your lower body, your back, your spine, your hips, your knees, your ligaments and joints etc., Your metabolism and physiological energy shuts down.
Therefore, even if you had a 100% private driver, or even the $15,000 self 100% self driving tesla, still being forced to be in a seated position is positively bad for you.
Lesson: optimize your life such a manner in which you are never sitting.
4. How to watch a movie, or TV show series?
One of the things I hate about flying is that you are forced to sit the whole time. Whenever possible, Seneca included, I prefer to stand, kill time by walking around the cabin, etc.
Was it Virgin Airlines, or some sort of other airlines which had some sort of club lounge in which you were able to stand and hang out? I think this is a really good idea for airplanes.
Anyways, another simple thought I have is if there is a TV show, a series, or a movie you want to watch, it seems that the best idea is to watch it while standing, while walking outdoors, just download it to your iPad Pro, and walk around while watching it outside. This is far superior of a watching experience; I believe the greatest benefit of movies films and cinema is that motivates you to move, literally. Any sort of movie or action film which inspires you to move your legs walk around, is good.
For example, when I first watched the Foundation series on Apple TV+, I would just download it all to my iPhone or iPad Pro, and watch it while walking around the block with an umbrella during the summertime in the blazing Southern California sun.
The other day, woke up pretty early, got some good writing done (Man on a Mission), was feeling high strength, and decided that it may be a good opportunity and chance for me to go househunting and apartment hunting in LA with Cindy. We loaded up our car, and drove down to LA, spent the whole day there and came back, and after the whole day there coming back, this was the most fatigued I felt in a very long time.
Thoughts on my mind:
Why was I so tired? Is it still the jet lag, or is it the fact of being stuck in the car all day, or driving all day?
I suppose after studying the etymology, to commute means to simply exchange places. For example, typically you sleep in your home, wake up, and then you commute to work, whether it be walking driving etc.
In modern day times, or if you live in LA or southern California, the notion of a commute is generally speaking being stuck in traffic or being stuck in a car or being stuck driving for several hours a day.
For example, in my case, starting off in Orange County and driving to LA, even with Cindy and carpool, it still took us about an hour and five minutes to get to LA. And the tricky thing about driving to LA especially coming from Orange County is that the closer you get to LA, the more ratchet it gets. People drive more aggressively, the freeways become more condensed, interchanges become a little bit more unpredictable and confusing.
Concrete Islands
I call it “concrete archipelago hopping” to quote my friend Evyn Le Espiritu.
Basically the issue in LA, and a lot of southern California is that all of these different neighborhoods are like concrete islands, which instead of being separated by water is separated by traffic.
For example, Cindy and I toured several neighborhoods which included Marina del Rey, some outskirts of Santa Monica, Culver City, Westwood, etc. Even though they are all in close proximity to UCLA, during rush hour, trying to go from the east side to the west side is all local and you’re stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Would a Tesla solve this issue?
Another thing that I’ve learned which is intelligent in Asia, Southeast Asia, is that rich people don’t drive themselves; either have private drivers, or just ride grab taxi or an Uber anywhere. In Asia, only servants drive.
In America we have this funny strange thing in which we want to be the driver. We want to be the man at the helm, the cockpit, inside the fuselage.
Even the notion of a modern-day sports car or a hyper car, I think the general analogy is that it is almost like having your own private jet fighter. I think this is what Lamborghini is going for, you may not be able to buy a jet fighter, and be like Tom Cruise, but, you can have your own land based jet fighter which is a modern day Lamborghini.
However, even if you have the worlds best Lamborghini or car or hyper car whatever, during peak rush-hour in LA, you’re stuck. I don’t know anybody who likes to drive during bumper-to-bumper rush-hour.
The curiosity on my mind is this:
If I had a Tesla, either with basic auto pilot, the one which does the “smart cruise control“ on the freeway, auto staying in the lane and keeping distance in front of the other car, or even full auto pilot, would this solve the issue?
For example, let me assume that in the morning, before leaving to LA at 10 AM, I was at 100% energy, honestly I think it would have just been better for me to go to the gym and try to hit over 10 plates for my atlas lift. After driving commuting going to LA coming back, I felt like my battery went down to a critical low of 2%.
Thus my curiosity:
If I had a Tesla, either with basic auto pilot or full auto pilot, would having to commute and drive deplete me of less energy?
For example, if I had auto pilot, would my energy levels still be at close to 100%? At 90%? At 80%? At 60%? 50%? 40%? 30%? Or about the same?
I know that when I’m stuck in traffic, but someone else is driving me, like during peak rush-hour in Saigon, it didn’t really bother me too much to be stuck in traffic. I just used that time to review my photos on my iPhone, or even publish some ideas to my blog, using my iPhone.
Jet lag?
Was I so tired yesterday because I was still jetlagged? Still a little bit uncertain, but the general takeaway point:
Conserve your energy and strength.
I think some certainties:
1. Driving drains your battery
Having to actively drive yourself saps you of your strength and energy: for example, typically I am able to easily atlas lift over nine plates at the gym, but yesterday after driving all day, and hitting the gym, I was so fatigued that I barely had energy and chutzpah to do seven plates. Being cognizant of my body, I still had the muscular strength to lift more, but, my overall feeling and just was I didn’t have the chutzpah to do it. Therefore purely speaking from a productivity energy perspective, if you want to maximize your energy, and to minimally deplete your energy, drive as little as humanly possible.
To sell ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE and to propagate fine robusta to the states and to the world; my mission?
Being a missionary?
An interesting thought that I got from Peter Thiel in his ZERO TO ONE book is the notion of a missionary versus a mercenary. The difference is that a missionary does something because they really believe in the mission, whereas a mercenary does something for money, merx, which means market.
Now there is nothing wrong to do things for money. Or to follow market trends or to do things which makes sense according to the market. For example, if I want to maximize my earning potential or salary, it is probably best that I become some sort of tech manager, some sort of upper management at one of the big tech companies. This is probably the best part to earn a $550,000 a year, $750,000 a year, $1.2 million a year, $2.5 million a year, etc.
Or more directly, if you want to immediately start earning a bunch of money, it seems that the best industries to go are in the blue collar ones which are considered either unhygienic or dangerous. For example electricians make a lot of money, easily over $350,000 a year. Why? People are afraid of heights, climbing electricity poles, and also the fear that they may accidentally touch the wrong wire and electrocute themselves and die.
Or, let us consider a very very important part of modern day society which is sanitation and hygiene. People who pick up your trash, sort it, or even plumbers who drain stuck pipes. If anything people who do hygiene might have the most critical jobs in modern-day society, and their income reflects it. They can easily earn over $500,000 a year. But, do you really want to clean other peoples poop for a living? Or smell like trash all day, every day, even after you go home, take a shower and put on a bunch of cologne? I personally wouldn’t.
Why become a missionary?
Typically when we think about missionaries we think about religious missionaries. Or people who go on “missions“ in high school or college, typically to some developing country, some poor village, building up clean water infrastructure, etc. Yet to only have the villagers dismantle the clean water filtration systems to scavenge the parts for other household goods, and then being instructed by the organizations to intentionally dismantle the equipment to prevent the villagers from “doing it wrong.” (true story)
Mey— to strengthen, to change, to exchange, to bind, to change places.
I find the etymology behind the concept of going on a “mission“ as fascinating. Why? It is kind of related to traveling, changing places, change and exchange. Let us consider that in terms of modern day global finance, a lot of money is made through currency exchanges. Also for myself, whenever I travel abroad, and I exchange or change the place in which I live and breathe for a certain period of time, and then I go back to the states, I come back a transform person. Even though Southern California may be the same, I am changed. And this is good.
How to go on more missions in life?
I suppose the general notion of Tom Cruise, mission, Mission impossible is this general notion that you do not stay at home. When Tom Cruise gets a “mission“, he is typically dispatched to go to some sort of dangerous place, in order to either resolve, solve, or fix some sort of potentially dangerous problem.
Or let us consider my beloved John Wick. Let us consider all of the international intercontinental hotels he visits, in Rome, and also the wonderfully fantastic Osaka Intercontinental in John Wick 4.
Traveling as a good way to discover your mission in life?
Colloquially when we talk about “mission“, we mean to talk about some sort of generalized concept of some sort of higher purpose or calling in life. That is you pursue some thing for autotelic purposes, not for just making money.
Once again I think this is a tricky thing to understand, because I think typically we believe that money motivates people to do things. This is true to a certain extent. For example, most people would probably not work full-time as Amazon prime delivery truck drivers, Uber drivers, or even K-12 public school teachers if they had the opportunity not to. Most people if they won $1 billion in the lottery, would immediately quit their jobs. No matter how much they convinced themselves that “it is their passion.”
Military living stipend?
An interesting thought that I got from Nietzsche was his idea that with professions, perhaps we should just be paid some sort of honorarium— some sort of relieve base salary, or payment to just cover our basic living costs. For example, working in the military. You earn enough money when you are out doing dangerous stuff to just ensure that you have enough money coming in that you don’t need to worry about money. Yet typically military people do not enter the military for pay. I think most people or at least men who enter the military, young men, it is because they desire some sort of sense of adventure, challenge, and to become “more manly”.
Even something that I realized about academics, the academy, becoming a professor, tenure-track professor is that it is almost like entering the military. When you are in graduate school, you essentially live like a monk, imagine trying to live in the bay area in Berkeley earning only $22,000 a year. I actually had a friend who became an involuntary vegan, subsisting on lentils and rice when he was at his UC Berkeley PhD program because his graduate school stipend barely covered his rent, let alone his food. On the flipside, I think our labor should be valued, and we should not self flagellate or think it is virtuous to accept less pay or money. Yet once again, ultimately being a missionary, we do things for autotelic higher purposes, not for pay.
What motivates John Wick?
Is John Wick motivated by money? No. He has higher missions; avenging the murder of his beloved cute dog that he got from his deceased wife, seeking revenge, staying alive, trying to get out of the game, etc.
Money making as a mission?
I have a theory; perhaps the reason why people are so obsessed with making money in today’s world is that it is a very simple, quantified mission, and something which is praised according to modern day capitalism. To continue to accrue a higher salary, to put more money in the bank, and to indefinitely grow your funds in capital is seen as the ultimate virtue.
Thus the mission of the modern day person: indefinitely accrue more money and capital.
What should your mission be in life?
Now this is a more tricky thought; the philosophy of things. That is, is there a “should“, in regards to what you “should“ do in your life?
First and foremost no. You “should“ not have to be forced to do anything that you don’t want to do. Certainly there are basic things like paying your rent, feeding yourself etc. Yet if you really do want financial independence or whatever, best to just live in Hanoi Vietnam, where you could rent a brand new studio apartment really nice, for only $350 USD a month.
Even in the states, I subsist on a 100% carnivore diet, 100% beef, or lamb as a luxury. At the Costco Business Center, even with inflation and considering what I coined the “beef index”, most beef could still be had for $2.99 a pound, $3.99 a pound, etc. Most people cannot consume that much meat or beef anyways. I eat a lot, typically 3 to 4 pounds of beef a day. But if you are the modern-day American who could only eat 1 pound, maybe 2 pounds tops, you could feed yourself on easily five dollars a day.
Also being creative in terms of paying rent. There are many intelligent ways that you could spend less money on rent, for example, life sharing, renting out a room in a home, living with family, etc. I still believe that the greatest path in life is towards self-employment and selfentrepreneurship. Therefore reducing your expenses to the minimum is the wise path.
Also a recent realization, in terms of transportation. Assuming that you live in Southern California and need a car, it really seems that the best car to get is some sort of older used white Prius. For example I recently re-inherited our old 2010 Prius, and I love it! Lamborghinis, Porsches are for losers. If I were to get a all electric car, it would probably just be a super base level Tesla model 3 in white.
Your mission?
A simple thought is perhaps a great and grand calling in mission in life is in regards to art, philosophy, and entrepreneurship.
First, if you’re reading this I assume that you’re some sort of photographer, visual artist, etc. Devoting your life and focusing your life on art is a great path. For example, artists last. It seems that society is moved much by artists. Let us consider modern day artists who include Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Jay-Z, etc.
Or, other artists like Andy Warhol, Basquiat, Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso, or going back to the old-school like Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, etc.
The tricky thing is in today’s world, the notion of being a “artist” has been commodified. That is, we need to somehow make money, or a lot of money from art to justify it.
However, let us consider Michelangelo and painting the Sistine chapel. Essentially he just had a sponsor and was paid an honorarium to do it. Also Leonardo da Vinci, a full stack renaissance man. To call him an “artist“ is almost too feeble of a notion. He was a fully developed man.
Therefore first and foremost, pursuing art is a good mission in life — assuming that your art has a higher purpose, and you seek to empower future human beings from it.
2. Philosophy
The second stack is philosophy. Thinking meditating and writing and publishing and blogging and blogging your thoughts, ideas, and philosophies in regards to philosophy.
What is philosophy anyways? To me basically put, philosophy is discovering and considering the “why” of things. That is, to consider the purpose behind things, and thinking about notions of “should“ and “should not”.
The reason why philosophy is such a critical path is that it saves us a lot of time and effort.
For example, some people toil away for decades, 30 40 50 years to make a bunch of money and to become “successful“. But, if you critically thought about it, from a philosophical perspective, and you realized that this was an ineffective path, you just saved 30 to 40 years of your life.
Perhaps one of my missions in life is to help empower other fellow entrepreneurs. Thus my passion with ERIC KIM COFFEE, ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE; to create the world’s best coffee to inspire motivate and uplift entrepreneurs and great thinkers.
Also, coffee as the ultimate stimulant and substance to get you going, before and going to the gym. I don’t think there has yet been a coffee tailored for weight lifters, powerlifters, or hypelifters. This is where I believe that my fine robusta, 100% fine robusta to be such a strong idea; maximum caffeine content which is also “safer“ than these dangerous pre-workout cocaine powder.
4. Passion for marketing?
In modern day times, marketing gets a bad rap. It is seen as a disrespectful form of doing things, yet in truth, I think marketing is great. I personally believe that marketing is a great artistic endeavors, and also highly practical.
I suppose I am very fortunate because one of my passions in life is marking. And this is the fun that I had with ERIC KIM OMAKASE Coffee.
I think what is lacking in coffee, marketing and coffee, individual coffee bags and beans is a lack of some sort of focus on how it will help improve your life.
For example, the productivity coffee, the entrepreneur. There is zero doubt that coffee makes us more productive. It does. So why not just brand it for what it is?
Also, thinking philosophy and coffee. Some of the greatest minds in history have been aided with coffee. For example, even my beloved Nassim Taleb is hugely inspired by coffee. Also, most thinkers, writers, creative people I know drink coffee and love it.
Third, photography and coffee. Photography is my ultimate Archimedes lever, I don’t know a single photographer who doesn’t love coffee and coffee shops.
Therefore maybe another fun mission I could do in life is to try to teach more marketing concepts to other people?
What is “OMAKASE”?
The reason why I branded it as ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE is I like that idea of having an experimental tasting menu. That is why with every order of ERIC KIM OMAKASE Coffee, you get three individualized bags:
THE ENTREPRENEUR: The golden bag, optimize to unleash your fullest maximum in your entrepreneurship. 100% find robusta, 12 out of 10 caffeine content, to motivate you into maximum productivity.
THE THINKER: The first coffee to be branded and marketed as being a positively beneficial aid to your thinking. A sublime roast with bright and yellow blueberries, 100% fine robusta, to kickstart your creative thinking.
THE PHOTOGRAPHER: The black bag. I believe drinking great coffee as 1000X times better than buying a new camera lens or camera equipment. Shout out to Anthony Larson for taking me to chromatic coffee roasters in San Jose, insanely great coffee, insanely great espresso as bringing me 1000 times more joy than even the world’s most expensive Leica camera. In fact, I would probably prefer to have 100 bags of ERIC KIM coffee than to have the worlds most expensive camera.
The next coffee roast I envision as creating to replace the silly port pre-workout powder is. A coffee optimized for the gym, weight lifters, competitive athletes. Once again 100% fine robusta.
Recently we we re-inherited our old 2010 Prius, and after using it a few days to just commute around, go to the gym and yoga, go to the local Costco Business Center etc., I love it! Why?
I think there is something about the 2010 model that I like in so far much as the dashboard is quite minimal. No stupid and touch screens or LCD screens to distract us.
I am such an insanely huge fan of Tesla, Elon Musk etc., yet the big downside that I see is that I find the touchscreen to be more annoying than useful. In fact I think in today’s world, not having a touchscreen or LCD screens is the ultimate luxury.
For example if I wanted some sort of sublime sports car, I would prefer a 100% manual transmission, no air conditioning, no car radio or info tenement system, no power steering, etc. Very much like my original 1990 Mazda Miata that I had, five speed with no frills. Even the new Porsche cars, 911 GT 3RS, has too many superfluous dials and LCD screens in the car.
Why hybrid?
I still think in modern day life, a hybrid car is best. Why? If you drive a hybrid, a Prius or whatever, you might only need to fill up your tank every two weeks, maybe even every three weeks, or just once a month! In terms of lifestyle, and this is much easier than having to hunt around for electric car chargers.
Also, for myself I think only having an electric car or a Tesla will be worth it the moment in which recharging your car from 0 to 100 is actually faster than filling up your gas tank. For example, filling up my gas tank might only take me two or three minutes. I think in order for an electric car or a Tesla to entice me, the new Tesla supercharger mark II must go from 0 to 100 in less than a minute. In terms of physics this may not be possible, but I think the pursuit is worth it.
Also, I am currently working on new workshops in downtown LA, as well as New York City. The focus of New York City will be about becoming a visual artist, in downtown LA will also be centered around this visual artist notion.
I’m also thinking about doing some sort of workshops on marketing entrepreneurship, blogging, vlogging, YouTube, media etc. State posted on this newsletter or the workshops page.
SoCal is Paradise
The exciting news is that soon me and Cindy are moving to LA, maybe Santa Monica, Culver City, somewhere around there.
What I realized about Los Angeles etc. is that even though Southern California is not perfect, it is still paradise for me. Why? Maximal sunlight, maximum brightness. Something that I have discovered about my own personal physiology is that I thrive with the sun. Las Vegas and Texas and Arizona is maybe too bright and too hot for me.
Also I really love the gym fitness culture in Southern California. And also lots of different yoga studios for Cindy to go to.
Some thing I have discovered through my travels and being abroad; honestly all places suck. The best strategy is to just reap the maximum upside of wherever you live, no matter how shitty it may be.
Now what?
Blogging, vlogging, building and developing and innovating websites still the future.
Also, photography and video and the internet.
Start building your own website blog, wordpress.org platform with Amazon web services.
I suppose the question is this; how do we allow everyone to their own preferences?
For example, I really hate the cold, and I prefer it really hot. Therefore in the winter time, I like to blast the heat, whereas it seems that others hate it so hot, and would prefer me to not blast the heat so much.
However conversely, I personally hate air conditioning. I would prefer the windows open or a fan on. But others prefer having air conditioning on.
At the same time, I prefer it really bright, I always prefer having all the lights on. Yet I am chastised for “wasting money“, but others would have the air conditioning blast on all day, isn’t that also “wasting money“?
I suppose the moral of the story is this:
When I pursue my own preferences, I am “wasting money“, but when others advance their own personal preferences, it isn’t.
Thus, it is a form of cherry picking ethics and virtues. Then in other words, when others tell you not to pursue your preferences because you are somehow “wasteful”, or “wasting money”, maybe it is best to just ignore them and proceed.
Therefore, it seems that the wise path in life is to realize that other people are not governed by rationality, logic, etc. Nor consistency. Others seem to like self wisdom or self knowledge, so maybe it is best to not ask for the rationality. Because they do not know.
One theory that I’ve had in life ever since I was a kid was this notion of following your passion. Up until now, at the age of 35 (born in 1988) I’ve been quite successful in my endeavors.
I think the subtle nuance is in regards to your passion, one must not be suckered into invoking some sort of strange moralistic ethical or even social economic or financial ends. That is, the traditional bias in regards to following your passion is that it must have the potential to make a lot of money. Otherwise it is not worth it.
Based on my personal life journey, following my passion has been fruitful. However at the same time, I was “realistic“ about it;
My passion was photography, street photography, travel, but I did not think I would realistically be able to make a living from it.
My personal journey was when I was in high school, I wasn’t 100% sure what I wanted to do when I grew up, but I knew that you UCLA was my dream school. I racked up all of my extracurricular activities, did Boy Scouts, became an Eagle Scout, etc., and even though my SAT and my GPA was relatively low , I think my SAT was 1920 out of 2400, and my GPA was only a weighed 3.9, I was able to get into UCLA.
My grandfather was a famous doctor back in Korea, and none of his grandchildren became doctors, so I thought I’d take up the torch make my mama proud, and become a doctor.
I ended up enrolling in UCLA as a biology major, and upon my first quarter I hated it. Also I knew I hated math, so I wanted to stay away as far from it as possible.
What I ended up doing instead was going to the course registrar, thinking of changing my major, and I saw sociology on the list. I thought to myself, “I like society!” and immediately changed my major.
At the time, everyone thought I was crazy. Everyone just asked me, “What are you gonna do with that major? Either become a low paying teacher or a social worker”?
Eventually I discovered that studying sociology was actually really beneficial in studying marketing. Marketing was always something I was interested in, and while the time I was in undergrad, Facebook just released the newsfeed, the original iPhone 3G just came out, and social media seems like the future. And that’s where my journey began; starting my online presence portfolio, blogging and making YouTube videos, traveling the world, becoming “successful”, etc.
After all the accolades, I started to enter a philosophical pursuit. I wanted to discover more meaning in my life, etc., thoughts which I also propagated on my blog.
Why passion?
Another thing that I’ve learned “growing up“, getting married having a kid, etc. is that at the end of the day, money is not the end goal, financial security is not the goal, not even “financial independence“ is the end goal. The end goal, in the ongoing pursuit is in regards to your passion.
For example, the primary industry that I am in is the photographic one; everyone wants to pursue their passion of photography, make more time to do it, improve and advance or improve their photography etc, yet it seems that basic things like peoples careers, jobs etc. keep them in the way.
What is it that we humans seek?
I think ultimately what we desire and seek is to continue to expand, to continue to propagate ourselves in the world, and to take over. Nietzsche quotes Plato saying, “Once upon a time, it was the desire of man to become master of all men“.
For myself, I have zero interest in becoming master of all men. Why? Too much management. The more time you gotta manage other people, means less time you have for yourself, pursuing your own passions and interests, etc.
My current passion and interest is in regards to coffee; I truly believe that coffee, insanely great coffee, specifically fine robusta is the key for having you power your potential and achieving your personal maximum in photography life and beyond.
Not financially that big of a deal?
A funny thing in regards to coffee, the coffee industry is truth be told, I don’t think it’s that profitable. That is there is a quadrillion coffee brands out there, Starbucks, etc., the profit margins for coffee are slim to meager at best. I think anyone who is in the coffee business (shout out to Colby from VERVE) is because they are actually insanely inspired and passionate about it.
Can you revolve your life passion around a beverage?
I personally believe that coffee is a means to an end. That is, my passion for coffee, insanely great coffee is that I see it as a critical part of my creative life. That is, coffee is the most supreme and critical part of my creative life. I want to share this passion with others.
If I could create my own ideal coffee concept, my own ideal blends, that would stir me into creative genius, what would it look like?
I think one of the great things lacking in coffee is around this notion of productivity. We all know that coffee makes us more productive, why not center a coffee concept around it?
Also, coffee as a critical part of our thinking process, philosophical thinking, etc. So why not revolve a coffee concept around thinking?
The last is in regards to photography. For me, photography and coffee go hand-in-hand; almost all photographers I know also love great coffee. So why not combine the two?
Ultimately we humans are a social species. All of these trillions of dollars in the global economy is simply an offshoot of call collaborative human activity and human metabolism.
Thus a simple thought on success:
Power the metabolism of others!
ERIC
To continue powering your thoughts, some more ideas for you:
The Philosophy of Coffee
Has any thinker ever wrote a comprehensive treatise on philosophy of coffee?
Now that I am officially part of the coffee business, I wanted to use this opportunity to think and philosophize on the philosophy of coffee.
Why coffee?
Coffee is a weird and beautiful thing. First and foremost, funny enough I made it through all of college without the aid of coffee. I only discovered coffee waaay later after Cindy got me addicted.
My personal story and journey with coffee is actually really funny; the first time I went backpacking through Europe with Cindy, I remember one of the first phrases I learned in French:
Un cafe s’il vous plait.
It was supposed to be the cultured thing to say, do and know. And upon my surprise, I remember the first time they brought out the tiny espresso cup, and it came out in the tiny espresso cup, and I looked at it and yelled aloud:
“That’s it?? I paid 2 euros for this tiny thing??”
However moving forward, espresso, and my passion for espresso and minimalism has advanced. Personally speaking, I love the dimensions of espresso, the espresso cup, etc. I love how tiny it is, and how distilled it is. And for the last decade or so, traveling the world, my funny and silly quest to strive to discover perfect espresso.
Also, there seems to be this interesting synthesis that I get from this combination of coffee, creativity and photography. For example, whenever I teach a photography workshop, having a coffee break is a critical part of the experience. And also, if I need to stir myself into creative action, coffee is a critical part of my ritual.
Some people drink coffee to wake up, I wake up to drink coffee.
Taking the power into your own hands
I think the difficult thing in today’s world is obtaining and procuring great coffee. That is, eventually, sooner or later, you got to get coffee somewhere. Either you could just buy it at your local neighborhood coffee shop, or you could just buy it at Amazon or Whole Foods, and get it delivered to you, etc.
However, the problem that I’ve personally discovered is that whenever you buy coffee, it is always dissatisfying. At least in the states, I have never been able to find roasted coffee, or roasted coffee beans which I consider insanely great. Enter ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE.
The substances we consume are critical?
It is funny, there is all of this trend towards organic food, grass fed meat, etc. Yet it doesn’t seem that we put the same standards on the coffee we consume.
Let us consider that in America in the states, coffee might be the most consumed beverage we consume. When we first wake up, we take a shower, what is the first thing we do? We hit the kitchen, and we make ourselves some coffee.
Everyone has a different ritual in regards to their morning coffee. Some of us grind our whole bean coffee, enjoy the fragrance in the air, and pull an espresso. For myself, this is what I do.
How much coffee is enough?
I used to be part of this type of Silicon Valley thinking, the quantified self movement, in which I try to limit myself to some sort of arbitrary number of coffee a day. Now, I said fuck it, I have as much coffee as I want. In the morning, I will just keep pulling espressos until I feel hyped up. Sometimes this is five or seven espressos. Sometimes more, sometimes less. I don’t keep count anymore.
My only constraint is that typically later on in the day, afternoon, I have a pretty strict coffee cut off time. I discovered that whenever I have coffee past noon, or too late in the day, I cannot sleep at night. But beyond this, the more coffee the better.
Poison is good for us
First and foremost, coffee is a drug. Also very funny, after water, coffee is the most consumed beverage on the planet.
How does coffee work? The caffeine inherent in coffee and coffee beans is actually a poison; coffee beans and coffee plants naturally have caffeine in them to ward off predators insects and other pesky things trying to eat it.
However for us humans, coffee just gives us a great buzz. A philosophical thought;
It is the poison in coffee which stimulates us, and stirs us into greatness.
Great men require great stimulants?
Philosophical question;
Is life better with coffee, or without?
Certainly there are lots of downsides of coffee. If you consume it too late in the day, you cannot sleep at night. Also, coffee and caffeine addiction is a real thing. Every once in a while, I abstain from coffee and caffeine for over 24 hours, typically when I get sick, or during long international flights.
However, from a philosophical perspective, life is better with the poison of coffee.
To take this analogy further, along with the downsides, annoyances, and sadness is in life is metaphorically present in the notion of poison. Some people try to make it all throughout life without any sadness grief, tragedy, or downsides. Yet, life without tragedy, life without poison and sadness is not a life worth living.
“The poison in my pen”. – JAY Z
How to become stronger
The biological concept of this is “hormesis”; not to be confused with ”homeopathy” (pseudo science). The basic notion of hormesis is this:
Small doses of poison are good for us, they stimulate us, and make us stronger.
For example, the natural caffeine in coffee is good for us, as it stimulates us, stimulates our bodies and minds, stimulates the muscles in our legs, getting our metabolism going, etc. However, drinking 1000 cups of coffee in a day is probably not good for us.
The dosage is the poison.
Also, the reason why I think coffee is interesting is that I don’t think it’s just the caffeine, there’s probably some other chemical or thing inherent in coffee which we love. I personally predict in the next 30 years or so, we will start discovering all these other additional chemicals or organic compounds and substances in coffee which is good.
Robusta is the way
A huge innovation; luxury Robusta, fine Robusta.
Why? Robusta has a higher caffeine content than typical arabica, in my mind at least 2.2x stronger.
Also, my personal theory is that robusta coffee may actually be better for us from a health perspective, as the natural sugar content in Robusta is at least 60% less than arabica. Therefore, if you want to maximize your fat loss, become leaner and meaner, robusta may be superior for you than arabica.
My personal quest with ERIC KIM OMAKASE Coffee is to create a unique coffee portfolio for you, to stimulate you in all aspects of your life.
For example, to inspire motivate you creatively and artistically, and to give you more joy and happiness in delight in your every day life.
You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy insanely good coffee.
For a while I was really into this whole notion of spaceship philosophy; that is, if indeed we do go to Mars, and are forced to stay stuck inside a spaceship for that long, what would our lives and lifestyle look like?
First and foremost, it does look like we will be drinking coffee on a spaceship. For example the space movie I watched with Chris Pratt, the funny thought that in the future, rich people will be privileged enough to drink really luxury coffee on the spaceship, whereas the poor and lower class people will be restricted to only the low class coffee.
Also, even watching the Dune movie, the new one, the ritual in which the local people would still make coffee, but using their spit.
Therefore, it seems that from a pharmaceutical perspective, and even a life perspective, there is something critical in coffee which we love.
Coffee is a philosophical thing.
The synthesis and combination of coffee and the planet.
Coffee shops, culture, the sharing of ideas.
Caffeine as a great motivator for us.
Coffee, caffeine being the best natural drug with the maximum amount of upsides, the minimum amount of downsides.
For a long time, I’ve been very interested and passionate about discovering perfect. The perfect lifestyle, the perfect place to live, the perfect devices, the perfect aesthetic, etc.
However, once you discover perfect, you have to go beyond perfect — that means, to make it ever more perfect.
Ever more optimal?
For example, for my whole life I’ve been seeking a perfect camera, and I think I found it in the Ricoh GR III, RICOH GR IIIX even the Ricoh GRII.
However, my insane frustration with the RICOH GR-series cameras:
Ever since my RICOH GR IIIX went kaput, I’ve just been experimenting and shooting with my old LUMIX G9 x Leica Lumix 12mm f1.4 lens and the surprise:
The lens is actually insanely good.
Thus the thought:
Perhaps the lens is critical.
That means … to make the apex beautiful and great photos, getting and choosing and selecting the best, most supreme, the greatest and most perfect lens is critical?
Perhaps the ideal camera is interchangeable, like a Sigma fP/L with M mount lens?
Why iPhone perhaps is a poor idea?
I think the promise of the iPhone, iPhone photography, smartphone photography in general is alluring. Why? From a simplicity and minimalism perspective, it seems that iPhone, iPhone Pro seems ideal. Why? The maximally small device which is always with you, which affords you more photo opportunities.
However, despite all of my philosophizing about this, and personal experimentation, ultimately the takeaway point:
Becoming insanely discerning with photos, looking at my iPhone pictures, even photos I’ve shot on iPhone pro, etc., ultimately when you look at the details, iPhone, iPhone Pro, is insanely dissatisfying. For myself, my current setup hits the spot for me, even though it is insanely bulky and unoptimal.
The body
First and foremost, the camera body is actually not that important. Not even the sensor. I think what is most important in a camera, camera body is the in camera JPEG processing, the film simulation look. For example, the Lumix G9 camera that I am currently using and the dynamic monochrome mode, adding the grain effect and contrast to the max, the photos are very beautiful and satisfying.
I suppose then, any Lumix camera or Panasonic camera which has this dynamic black-and-white mode, and the grain effect is a good one.
And also, any camera or digital camera which has good in camera JPEG processing is good, for example, the film simulation color profiles of the Fujifilm cameras are phenomenal for color.
The Lens
The reason why I really like the Panasonic Lumix Leica 12mm F1.4 lens is the fact that it has an insanely close macro mode, which makes it great to shoot portraits, capturing detail and sharpness in the eyes, gestures etc.
Also from an aesthetics perspective, something about the resolution and the sharpness and overall lens quality of the Leica Lumix 12 mm F1.4 lens produces an insanely beautiful photo, especially with the in camera black and white high contrast monochrome grainy setting.
Once again, this is a critical thing, because the iPhone, iPhone Pro lacks any sort of good in camera monochrome processing which adds a grain effect.
Details in the whites?
Also something that I find truly phenomenal, with my current Lumix G9 and Leica Lumix 12 mm F1.4 lens setup is that there is actually detail in the highlights, the whites, and the grain effect looks aesthetically beautiful and pleasing! As good as typical film, black-and-white film.
And this is good, because then there’s no more need to shoot real film photography.
Investing in the new, breaking free from the old
Probably the biggest benefit that I got traveling abroad, and then coming back home in the states is this;
Breaking free from the old way of doing things, and re-discovering new ways of doing things.
For example, new fashions, new approaches, etc.
To rediscover a life with fresh new eyes. The biggest upside of traveling.
Therefore, if you want to transform your life, just travel! Jump on a plane, go to Saigon Vietnam, go to Hanoi, go to Seoul South Korea, etc.
Where in the world is ERIC KIM?
Currently back in sunny Southern California, with the beautiful bright sun, and new excitement and enthusiasm for life.
I am still very committed to innovating in photography and life and creativity.
Some things to be grateful for being back in the states:
First, ultimately, despite what people may say, having the privilege of living in America is how much cleaner and less polluted it is then all around the world. For example, the biggest downside of being in the other abroad country is pollution.
For example, I think the hot debate right now is around global warming. I think some thing which is critical to consider is not necessarily “global warming“, but, pollution.
Pollution is easily noticeable and palpable, especially when you are in Asia. Even apparently in South Korea, the pollution has gotten so bad you can’t even see the sun anymore.
How is America privileged?
Let us consider that almost all of our manufacturing is now abroad, which means that countries like China, Vietnam produce all of our products, which causes pollution, and we are able to enjoy our beautiful apple devices back home without the downsides of pollution. Let us consider that all of the Apple products, the iPhones we love are all produced by Foxcon in China.
Also the benefit of America is that because we are so far away from everyone else, we are not negatively affected by their pollution.
For example, South Korea, Seoul is relatively clean, but all of the pollution being next-door to China negatively affects Korea.
Are there for my personal thought is that moving forward, let us not debate about notions of “global warming”, which seems to be a futile political battle, but instead let us talk and discuss more about issues regarding pollution.
This is where California is intelligent; it seems that California is one of the most desirable places to live in the world. Why does everyone want to move here? I think for the most part the climate and lack of pollution is relatively good. For example in the Bay Area, the air is clean, and the pollution is low. Also in Southern California, pollution is pretty bad, but it has gotten much better.
I don’t want to live in Las Vegas even if I was a billionaire
Another trend is it looks like a lot of people are moving to Arizona or Las Vegas, but it seems that the big problem now is record-breaking heat. If you live somewhere that is always over 100°, and the sun is so powerful and scorching that you can’t even leave your house, is it all worth it? Would you want to be a billionaire if you just had to be stuck at home all day?
Even if you had the worlds best Porsche, Lamborghini, hyper sports car etc.; if you are just simply stuck in a car all day, is it worth it? I say no.
There are 1 billion places you can travel to, but some personal places I suggest:
Mexico City, especially if you live closeby, in Southern California, California or the states. I recommend staying in the Roma Norte neighborhood
Seoul South Korea
Hanoi or Saigon, Vietnam
Phnom Penh Cambodia
Lifestyle thoughts?
I am still quite certain that the best life is a light outdoors. I like in the direct sun, a life directly in the elements.
I get more power from the sun, natural light, even though the sun rays may burn me.
During these scorching summer months, a simple thought is to just cover up. Wear clothing that covers up your skin so you don’t get sunburned. But still try to maximize your time living outdoors.
Porsche and Lamborghini are lame?
I suppose the thing that I am grateful for, especially after spending some time abroad and being back in the states, is that a lot of these material things don’t interest me anymore. For example, my personal interest in Porsche cars, and also Lamborghinis has plummeted almost to zero. Instead, I am more interested in coffee, going back to the gym again, and also passionate about this 2010 Prius that I re-inherited. I still think hybrid is insanely great.
Having more time to review your photos?
Ever since getting back, being abroad, etc., a tricky thing is that I’m shooting around 1000 photos day, and it doesn’t seem like I have enough hours in a day to review all of them. Perhaps this will be my new pursuit; figuring out a way to more effectively review my photos, quickly, upload, and publish them.
Also I thought; I think SmugMug runs on Amazon Web services, maybe I should just create the next SmugMug, Flickr, or some sort of free online photo sharing platform? Instagram is bad, Facebook is bad, Flickr is dead, we need better solutions.
A simple solution you could do right now is just start your own WordPress website and blog on Amazon web services, and just start publishing!
I essentially I think that our next advancement, our next personal evolution is in regards to becoming a visual artist. Becoming more artistic, and seeing ourselves as artists.
Therefore moving forward, just see everything that you pursue and do as an artistic thing. Then at the end of the day, you can permit yourself to do anything and everything you want!
Now that I am officially part of the coffee business, I wanted to use this opportunity to think and philosophize on the philosophy of coffee.
Why coffee?
Coffee is a weird and beautiful thing. First and foremost, funny enough I made it through all of college without the aid of coffee. I only discovered coffee way later after Cindy got me addicted.
My personal story and journey with coffee is actually really funny; the first time I went backpacking through Europe with Cindy, I remember one of the first phrases I learned in French:
Un cafe s’il vous plait.
It was supposed to be the cultured thing to say, do and know. And upon my surprise, I remember the first time they brought out the tiny espresso cup, and it came out in the tiny espresso cup, and I looked at it and yelled aloud:
“That’s it?? I paid 2 euros for this tiny thing??”
However moving forward, espresso, and my passion for espresso and minimalism has advanced. Personally speaking, I love the dimensions of espresso, the espresso cup, etc. I love how tiny it is, and how distilled it is. And for the last decade or so, traveling the world, my funny and silly quest to strive to discover perfect espresso.
Also, there seems to be this interesting synthesis that I get from this combination of coffee, creativity and photography. For example, whenever I teach a photography workshop, having a coffee break is a critical part of the experience. And also, if I need to stir myself into creative action, coffee is a critical part of my ritual.
Some people drink coffee to wake up, I wake up to drink coffee.
Taking the power into your own hands
I think the difficult thing in today’s world is obtaining and procuring great coffee. That is, eventually, sooner or later, you got to get coffee somewhere. Either you could just buy it at your local neighborhood coffee shop, or you could just buy it at Amazon or Whole Foods, and get it delivered to you, etc.
However, the problem that I’ve personally discovered is that whenever you buy coffee, it is always dissatisfying. At least in the states, I have never been able to find roasted coffee, or roasted coffee beans which I consider insanely great. Enter ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE.
The substances we consume are critical?
It is funny, there is all of this trend towards organic food, grass fed meat, etc. Yet it doesn’t seem that we put the same standards on the coffee we consume.
Let us consider that in America in the states, coffee might be the most consumed beverage we consume. When we first wake up, we take a shower, what is the first thing we do? We hit the kitchen, and we make ourselves some coffee.
Everyone has a different ritual in regards to their morning coffee. Some of us grind our whole bean coffee, enjoy the fragrance in the air, and pull an espresso. For myself, this is what I do.
How much coffee is enough?
I used to be part of this type of Silicon Valley thinking, the quantified self movement, in which I try to limit myself to some sort of arbitrary number of coffee a day. Now, I said fuck it, I have as much coffee as I want. In the morning, I will just keep pulling espressos until I feel hyped up. Sometimes this is five or seven espressos. Sometimes more, sometimes less. I don’t keep count anymore.
My only constraint is that typically later on in the day, afternoon, I have a pretty strict coffee cut off time. I discovered that whenever I have coffee past noon, or too late in the day, I cannot sleep at night. But beyond this, the more coffee the better.
The philosophy of coffee
Oh first and foremost, coffee is a drug. Also very funny, after water, coffee is the most consumed beverage on the planet.
And how does coffee work? The caffeine inherent in coffee and coffee beans is actually a poison; coffee beans and coffee plants naturally have caffeine in them to ward off predators insects and other pesky things trying to eat it.
However for us humans, coffee just gives us a great buzz. A philosophical thought;
It is the poison in coffee which stimulates us, and stirs us into greatness.
Poison is good for us
Philosophical question;
Is life better with coffee, or without?
Certainly there are lots of downsides of coffee. If you consume it too late in the day, you cannot sleep at night. Also, coffee and caffeine addiction is a real thing. Every once in a while, I abstain from coffee and caffeine for over 24 hours, typically when I get sick, or during long international flights.
However, from a philosophical perspective, life is better with the poison of coffee.
To take this analogy further, along with the downsides, annoyances, and sadness is in life is metaphorically present in the notion of poison. Some people try to make it all throughout life without any sadness grief, tragedy, or downsides. Yet, life without tragedy, life without poison and sadness is not a life worth living.
Poison stimulates us
The biological concept of this is “hormesis”; not to be confused with ”homeopathy” (pseudo science). The basic notion of hormesis is this:
Small doses of poison are good for us, they stimulate us, and make us stronger.
For example, the natural caffeine in coffee is good for us, as it stimulates us, stimulates our bodies and minds, stimulates the muscles in our legs, getting our metabolism going, etc. However, drinking 1000 cups of coffee in a day is probably not good for us.
Also, the reason why I think coffee is interesting is that I don’t think it’s just the caffeine, there’s probably some other chemical or thing inherent in coffee which we love. I personally predict in the next 30 years or so, we will start discovering all these other additional chemicals or organic compounds and substances in coffee which is good.
Robusta is the way
A huge innovation; luxury Robusta, fine Robusta.
Why? Robusta has a higher caffeine content than typical arabica, in my mind at least 2.2x stronger.
Also, my personal theory is that robusta coffee may actually be better for us from a health perspective, as the natural sugar content in Robusta is at least 60% less than Arabica. Therefore, if you want to maximize your fat loss, become leaner and meaner, robusta may be superior for you than arabica.
My personal quest with ERIC KIM OMAKASE Coffee is to create a unique coffee portfolio for you, to stimulate you in all aspects of your life.
For example, to inspire motivate you creatively and artistically, and to give you more joy and happiness in delight in your every day life.
You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy insanely good coffee.
For a while I was really into this whole notion of spaceship philosophy; that is, if indeed we do go to Mars, and are forced to stay stuck inside a spaceship for that long, what would our lives and lifestyle look like?
First and foremost, it does look like we will be drinking coffee on a spaceship. For example the space movie I watched with Chris Pratt, the funny thought that in the future, rich people will be privileged enough to drink really luxury coffee on the spaceship, whereas the poor and lower class people will be restricted to only the low class coffee.
Also, even watching the Dune movie, the new one, the ritual in which the local people would still make coffee, but using their spit.
Therefore, it seems that from a pharmaceutical perspective, and even a life perspective, there is something critical in coffee which we love.
Coffee is a philosophical thing.
The synthesis and combination of coffee and the planet.
Coffee shops, culture, the sharing of ideas.
Caffeine as a great motivator for us.
Coffee, caffeine being the best natural drug with the maximum amount of upsides, the minimum amount of downsides.
For a long time, I’ve been very interested and passionate about discovering perfect. The perfect lifestyle, the perfect place to live, the perfect devices, the perfect aesthetic, etc.
However, once you discover perfect, you have to go beyond perfect — that means, to make it ever more perfect.
Ever more optimal?
For example, for my whole life I’ve been seeking a perfect camera, and I think I found it in the Ricoh GR III, RICOH GR IIIX even the Ricoh GRII.
However, my insane frustration with the RICOH GR-series cameras:
Ever since my RICOH GR IIIX went kaput, I’ve just been experimenting and shooting with my old LUMIX G9 x Leica Lumix 12mm f1.4 lens and the surprise:
The lens is actually insanely good.
Thus the thought:
Perhaps the lens is critical.
That means … to make the apex beautiful and great photos, getting and choosing and selecting the best, most supreme, the greatest and most perfect lens is critical?
Perhaps the ideal camera is interchangeable, like a Sigma fP/L with M mount lens?
Why iPhone perhaps is a poor idea?
I think the promise of the iPhone, iPhone photography, smartphone photography in general is alluring. Why? From a simplicity and minimalism perspective, it seems that iPhone, iPhone Pro seems ideal. Why? The maximally small device which is always with you, which affords you more photo opportunities.
However, despite all of my philosophizing about this, and personal experimentation, ultimately the takeaway point:
Becoming insanely discerning with photos, looking at my iPhone pictures, even photos I’ve shot on iPhone pro, etc., ultimately when you look at the details, iPhone, iPhone Pro, is insanely dissatisfying. For myself, my current setup hits the spot for me, even though it is insanely bulky and unoptimal.
The body
First and foremost, the camera body is actually not that important. Not even the sensor. I think what is most important in a camera, camera body is the in camera JPEG processing, the film simulation look. For example, the Lumix G9 camera that I am currently using and the dynamic monochrome mode, adding the grain effect and contrast to the max, the photos are very beautiful and satisfying.
I suppose then, any Lumix camera or Panasonic camera which has this dynamic black-and-white mode, and the grain effect is a good one.
And also, any camera or digital camera which has good in camera JPEG processing is good, for example, the film simulation color profiles of the Fujifilm cameras are phenomenal for color.
The Lens
The reason why I really like the Panasonic Lumix Leica 12mm F1.4 lens is the fact that it has an insanely close macro mode, which makes it great to shoot portraits, capturing detail and sharpness in the eyes, gestures etc.
Also from an aesthetics perspective, something about the resolution and the sharpness and overall lens quality of the Leica Lumix 12 mm F1.4 lens produces an insanely beautiful photo, especially with the in camera black and white high contrast monochrome grainy setting.
Once again, this is a critical thing, because the iPhone, iPhone Pro lacks any sort of good in camera monochrome processing which adds a grain effect.
Details in the whites?
Also something that I find truly phenomenal, with my current Lumix G9 and Leica Lumix 12 mm F1.4 lens setup is that there is actually detail in the highlights, the whites, and the grain effect looks aesthetically beautiful and pleasing! As good as typical film, black-and-white film.
And this is good, because then there’s no more need to shoot real film photography.
Investing in the new, breaking free from the old
Probably the biggest benefit that I got traveling abroad, and then coming back home in the states is this;
Breaking free from the old way of doing things, and re-discovering new ways of doing things.
For example, new fashions, new approaches, etc.
To rediscover a life with fresh new eyes. The biggest upside of traveling.
Where in the world is ERIC KIM?
Currently back in sunny Southern California, with the beautiful bright sun, and new excitement and enthusiasm for life.
I am still very committed to innovating in photography and life and creativity.
Some things to be grateful for being back in the states:
First, ultimately, despite what people may say, having the privilege of living in America is how much cleaner and less polluted it is then all around the world. For example, the biggest downside of being in the other abroad country is the pollution.
For example, I think the hot debate right now is around global warming. I think some thing which is critical to consider is not necessarily “global warming“, but, pollution.
Pollution is easily noticeable in palpable, especially when you are in Asia. Even apparently in South Korea, the pollution has gotten so bad you can’t even see the sun anymore.
How is America privileged?
Let us consider that almost all of our manufacturing is now abroad, which means that countries like China, Vietnam produce all of our kids, which causes pollution, and we are able to enjoy our beautiful apple devices back home without the downsides of pollution. Let us consider that all of the Apple products, the iPhones we love are all produced by Foxcon in China.
Also the benefit of America is that because we are so far away from everyone else, we are not negatively affected by their pollution.
For example, South Korea, Seoul is relatively clean, but all of the pollution being next-door to China negatively affects Korea.
Are there for my personal thought is that moving forward, let us not debate about notions of “global warming”, which seems to be a few towel political battle, but instead let us talk and discuss more about issues regarding pollution.
Lifestyle thoughts?
I am still quite certain that the best life is a light outdoors. I like in the direct sun, a life directly in the elements.
I get more power from the sun, natural light, even though the sun rays may burn me.
Why are Americans or westerners so obsessed with notions of ‘skill’?
My theory:
It has to do with the concept of merit.
For example, if you can do something without much effort, it is not seen as merited. Furthermore to become successful without ‘proper’ schooling or degrees is seen as ‘un-merited’.
However the wise thing we must do is to get rid of notions of ‘skill’ as well as merit. Even American notions of ‘meritocracy’ should be gotten rid of!
I believe the path to the greatest happiness as a photographer is becoming more productive as a photographer. This means, literally just producing more photos.
Investing in production
For example, the secret to true wealth is through production. To produce things, ideas, concepts, etc.
I think the problem in today’s world is that we strive to create wealth through “investments” and other insubstantial sources of capital swapping. For example, let’s say you speculate in some sort of asset, and the price goes up and you sell it. Have you created any new wealth? Not really.
I believe that true wealth, true capital is created through production. For example, producing new knowledge and information, like I have done with all of my books, e-books, presets, my infamous start here page, learn from the masters, etc. Truth be told, simply through my blog and my series of blog posts, I think I’ve created more valuable information on photography education than all of the photo books out there published combined, times 10.
The education mafia?
A secret expose; Pearson, the UK-based printing house and publisher, I think they blacklisted my 100 lessons from the masters of photography through a fraud millennium take down request. There is nothing in my 100 lessons from the masters of photography book which is “copyrighted”. My theory:
Apparently Pearson also publishes photography education books. Therefore, I think they thought my ebook as a threat, and put down some phony take down request to Google, in order to blacklisted, in order to peddle more of their mediocre photo education books.
One of the very interesting thoughts from Peter Thiel in his zero to one book what is the difference between a mercenary and a missionary. A mercenary simply does something for money, a missionary does something because he or she believes in its true mission.
I have an unorthodox theory on “success“:
Missionaries who so insanely believe in their mission end up becoming insanely successful because they care so much about the mission.
This means, true missionaries start with a deep intrinsic mission, and strive towards it with all of their strength and might. Money success and fame simply comes after the fact.
For example, Elon Musk didn’t set out to initially to become the worlds richest and most tycoon of a man. Rather, he simply had a vested interest in colonizing space and Mars, and everything else was a byproduct of that.
So what is my mission?
For myself, my personal mission is to propagate the joy photography to all. Also, to seek practical solutions to help us seek more joy satisfaction and thriving in photography.
For example, personal annoyances and other things drive my photography. My never ending quest to seek to make more beautiful photos, practical and philosophical theories on photography as well as pragmatic thoughts on travel, living, life, fitness, etc.
In fact, most of my epiphanies, takeaways, and thoughts simply are derived from a personal quest and hunger for seeking greater answers.
A self driven mission
I think the ultimate autotelic approach, a self driven mission or purpose or end goal is predicated on the notion of pursuing your own mission for your own ends and your own personal goals. What I love about this is that with an autotelic approach in life you will never run out of inspiration and motivation because you are doing it for the sake of itself, rather than some sort of externally defined notion of success.
In fact, I believe that more people would thrive if they gave themselves permission to simply do things for the sake of itself, rather than needing some sort of explanation. Also, more photographers would thrive if they didn’t have an Instagram, deleted their Instagram, or didn’t share photos to Facebook or social media.
Why? The negative part of social media is that it attaches a numerical value to yourself and your photos. This is patently bad, because the value of your photos shouldn’t be weighed on a biased algorithm or based on fake likes from big pots, or superficial likes from people who are just seeking to kill time.
Photo Health
I have a big theory; If you want to strive to maximize your productivity as a photographer, I think it is metabolic and also part health related.
Supple strength in your legs, bulging muscles, straight back, 100% carnivore diet. Also intermittent fasting during the day!
Beef, lamb, innards. On fast days eat pork — pork isn’t red meat, it is “pink” meat.
2000 photos a day?
A thought; ironically enough, I don’t think we shoot enough. We got digital, why not shoot 2000, 5000, 10,000 photos a day?
Why does this all matter?
This matters because photography is our life-blood, and photography gives us deep joy. For me, photography itself makes life worth living!
For example, photography affords us new hopes to travel, see more of the world, to adventure, conquer, and push ourselves beyond. No other form of thing affords us the opportunity to both be physical, to adventure, to travel, and do something creatively productive.
If you saw it, and traveled and didn’t photograph it, certainly you can still have a great time. But to be able to experience new and great things and photograph is truly phenomenal!
Did a one day street photo talk in Saigon, some topics we covered:
COMPOSITION PHILOSOPHY WHY? MOTIVAITON TECHNIQUE & APPROACH SELF VALUE OPEN MINDEDNESS CHILD’S MIND ‘SUCCESS’? COURAGE HAPPINESS INSPIRATION HOW TO SEE NEW PHOTOS SOCIOLOGY WHY I LOVE PHOTOGRAPHY WHY I LOVE VIETNAM DETAILS EVOLUTION USE YOUR KIDS! MALL STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STREET PHOTOGRAPHY AS AN ETHOS AND APPROACH THE SUCCESS TRAP HOW TO BECOME A ‘BETTER’ STREET PHOTOGRAPHER HEALTH HAPPY PHOTOS MOOD FLASH MUSE AESTHETICS MYSTERY NOW WHAT? CREATIVE SCREENSHOTTING YOU NEVER KNOW!
I believe the path to the greatest happiness as a photographer is becoming more productive as a photographer. This means, literally just producing more photos.
Investing in production
For example, the secret to true wealth is through production. To produce things, ideas, concepts, etc.
I think the problem in today’s world is that we strive to create wealth through “investments” and other insubstantial sources of capital swapping. For example, let’s say you speculate in some sort of asset, and the price goes up and you sell it. Have you created any new wealth? Not really.
I believe that true wealth, true capital is created through production. For example, producing new knowledge and information, like I have done with all of my books, e-books, presets, my infamous start here page, learn from the masters, etc. Truth be told, simply through my blog and my series of blog posts, I think I’ve created more valuable information on photography education than all of the photo books out there published combined, times 10.
The education mafia?
A secret expose; Pearson, the UK-based printing house and publisher, I think they blacklisted my 100 lessons from the masters of photography through a fraud millennium take down request. There is nothing in my 100 lessons from the masters of photography book which is “copyrighted”. My theory:
Apparently Pearson also publishes photography education books. Therefore, I think they thought my ebook as a threat, and put down some phony take down request to Google, in order to blacklisted, in order to peddle more of their mediocre photo education books.
Becoming a missionary?
One of the very interesting thoughts from Peter Thiel in his zero to one book what is the difference between a mercenary and a missionary. A mercenary simply does something for money, a missionary does something because he or she believes in its true mission.
I have an unorthodox theory on “success“:
Missionaries who so insanely believe in their mission end up becoming insanely successful because they care so much about the mission.
This means, true missionaries start with a deep intrinsic mission, and strive towards it with all of their strength and might. Money success and fame simply comes after the fact.
For example, Elon Musk didn’t set out to initially to become the worlds richest and most tycoon of a man. Rather, he simply had a vested interest in colonizing space and Mars, and everything else was a byproduct of that.
So what is my mission?
For myself, my personal mission is to propagate the joy photography to all. Also, to seek practical solutions to help us seek more joy satisfaction and thriving in photography.
For example, personal annoyances and other things drive my photography. My never ending quest to seek to make more beautiful photos, practical and philosophical theories on photography as well as pragmatic thoughts on travel, living, life, fitness, etc.
In fact, most of my epiphanies, takeaways, and thoughts simply are derived from a personal quest in hunger for seeking greater answers.
Dear friends, with great pride and joy I am insanely pumped to share the official launch and release of HAPTIC ARMOR, MARK I. I truly believe this to be a fabric and a lifestyle revolution:
Why?
Life is too short for inferior fabrics. HAPTIC ARMOR is forged and engineered to be the most supreme fabric, the fabric to conquer them all.
How?
The science and technology behind a HAPTIC ARMOR lies in our unique HAPTIC WEAVE pattern; a three dimensional octagonal weave, which maximizes surface area, well also reinforcing strength.
The philosophy is this:
How can we take and utilize the worlds best linen in the world, the supreme raw linen from Lithuania, forge it with cutting edge South Korean technology, to make a sublime cloth?
Cloth talk
I want everything I own to be part HAPTIC ARMOR. In my clothes, my everyday lifestyle etc.
Distinguish yourself
It seems apparent to me that the elite refuse to wear basic fabrics. The elite wear linen, wool, cashmere.
And now that the hot and humid summer is upon us, with the relentless sun, how can you continue to venture, explore, and journey further? HAPTIC ARMOR is your solution.
Skin in the game
I am currently 35 years old, and I’ve been on the road ever since I was 21. 14+ years on the road, nomading around, lots of time in airplanes, in foreign hotel rooms and Airbnb’s, and out of all of it, what have I gleaned?
All of it all, I have discovered that clothing is critical. Nowadays the only clothing I wear is linen, merino wool, nothing else.
When you travel and if you’re on the road, you can’t take your Lamborghini with you, you can’t take your Tesla with you, you can’t take anything with you. An interesting philosophy that I have is that when you’re traveling, your clothes almost become like your mini house. Let us consider that your clothing protects you from the elements, infuses you with self-esteem and confidence, and also pragmatically, it is illegal to go outside naked.
It is my personal ambition that with HAPTIC ARMOR, you can venture further, more courageously. With less heat, less weight, less annoyance with having to launder your clothes while on the road.
A simple observance that I have made is that linen is even better at drawing moisture away from your body, even superior to merino wool!
This phenomenon is called “hygroscopic”— that when you’re wearing HAPTIC ARMOR, if you sweat, HAPTIC ARMOR will naturally absorb the sweat away from your body, and absorb into the three dimensional haptic weave pattern, and then due to its increased surface area, it will dry instantly when you’re out in the sun.
The result is you are not sweaty, and also your clothing is not drenched.
Suitable for all climates
HAPTIC ARMOR is suitable during the relentless summertime, but also practical in the fall and winter time. Linen is naturally elegant, and effortlessly simple.
Linen is also insanely strong and robust, and with our unique octagonal HAPTIC 3D WEAVE pattern, it will be able to withstand any sorts of puncture wounds, and metaphorical arrows.
Nothing lasts forever
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Nothing last forever. It is doubtful that HAPTIC ARMOR will last 1000 years.
However, why not try? We only got 19 suits of HAPTIC ARMOR left in stock, seize your destiny now!
Currently going to be a month here in Saigon Vietnam. Housesitting for a friend in an insanely epic high-rise apartment. Floor to ceiling windows, great amenities, etc.
Some turbo thoughts:
First, Cindy has made the interesting observation that at least in Vietnam, our spending power is at least 30X. Example, we can go to an all you can eat Korean barbecue restaurant or even an all you can eat shabu shabu restaurant, for only around eight to $10 USD! We also made the funny observation that in theory, this is even cheaper than ordering meat and cooking at home! Plus the upside is that we don’t have to clean up when we’re at a restaurant.
Coffee here is insanely good: And if you ever visit Saigon Vietnam, go to 96B, our favorite coffee shop here. I rate the coffee there at least 100X better than any third wave coffee I’ve discovered in the states, even in Australia! What is the secret? A tighter source. The beans are grown locally here in Vietnam in Dalat, and also roasted and crafted here. The result? Insanely fruity and fragrant. Even the robusta here is phenomenal!
I still prefer the states: a very nice epiphany that I had is that even though life here is insanely good, ultimately, I still prefer the states. Why? First and foremost, crypto and cryptocurrency. While I was here in Vietnam, I actually had some weird difficulty and strange error messages when trying to load up my crypto assets. Funny enough, I think I’ve made a fatter profit off of my speculative crypto and bitcoin speculations than I have ever in all of my photography workshops combined.
Also, the pollution in Vietnam is actually really bad. When Cindy and I lived here in around 2017, while the pollution in Hanoi was bad, it wasn’t that bad in Saigon Now, the pollution actually feels pretty unbearable. For example, I can’t even go outside for too long without choking on the pollution here. This is an interesting epiphany, as what it means is that even though you have all the worlds best amenities, without fresh air, none of it is worth it. Now I think I understand why the rich mainland Chinese people are buying up property in Vancouver and other places, in order to escape the relentless pollution back in the mainland.
Perhaps California banning gasoline cars is a good idea — why is California so overpopulated? Even though there are lots of bad things about California, my thought is the reason why traffic in LA California Southern California etc. so bad is actually because everyone wants to live there. Also, the thought of banning gasoline cars is a good idea, because although generating electricity via sustainable sources is a little doubtful, at least it directly stops the injection of pollution fumes into the air. In fact, once again after experiencing the pollution here in Saigon, it almost feels unethical to purchase a brand new gasoline powered car, even a hybrid. Why? As Elon Musk said, even a hybrid car is 100% reliant on gasoline. How about the Prius prime brother plug-in hybrids? Fuck it, just go 100% electric. 30 miles on an a plug-in Prime Prius electric charge is hilarious.
Sustainability and the planet? Certainly humans can live even in polluted areas. It will not directly kill you, at least not in the short term. However the downside is that it makes every day like to life living terrible. Nobody wants to live in the mall for the rest of their lives.
Photo Updates
This month while in Vietnam I am doing two free photography talks, one in Saigon this weekend and another in Hanoi next weekend with my friend Chu Viet Ha.
Will try to see if I can get it recorded and will share with you later.
Camera thoughts?
Currently looking at the camera landscape, everything seems uninteresting to me.
Car thoughts?
It seems that if you want a car or a new car, the most economical is to just buy used Prius.
For a new car, just buy the cheapest base Tesla model 3. Or if you plan to lease, just lease the cheapest price Tesla model Tesla model 3.
Crypto thoughts
For any recent crypto developments, the chain link blog seems to be the best resource. However, some nuances:
There is no web 3.0. Whenever you see anything written with Web 3.0, don’t trust it.
I see a great future ahead for AI.
International money: while bitcoin may still not be the future, it seems to not be totally bad of an idea. Why? My frustration being here in Vietnam, from any normal ATM machine, it is difficult to withdraw more than $100-$200 USD a day. Insanely annoying.
Future developments?
If you want critical and honest feedback on your photos, upload it to arsbeta. I am still shocked and amazed, even building it three-four years ago, the platform is still insanely robust!
Why? am I a genius? Building why app before ChatGPT was announced? Thinking of the idea almost 3 to 4 years ahead, in 2017?
New ideas
My new current idea is regarding photo selection and curation. For example, let us say that you shoot 1000 photos a day. Having some sort of AI assistant help you cull through the photos seems like a good idea.
The oak tree is a good analogy because it is insanely big and strong, hard, unyielding.
Robusta coffee
Currently here in Saigon Vietnam, and a new passion and interest; towards robusta coffee, which has a higher caffeine content, and also less sugar. So purely from a health and physique perspective, robusta coffee should be superior to arabica because arabica is sweet, arabica has more sugar molecules in it than robusta.
How to lose fat
The secret of losing fat, body adipose tissue is very simple and straightforward: simply abstain or do not consume any starches, carbs, starchy vegetables, fruit, anything sweet, whether real sugar fig sugar or some other silly “zero calorie”. this means no Coke zero, no diet coke, no monk fruit, none of that nonsense.
I have a theory that if you want to become more robust, it is simple, only consume a 100% beef-based diet, and the only non-meat items you consume or bitter ones. Don’t eat anything sweet. That’s your side dish is simply really bitter dark leafy greens, whether it be Collard greens, mustard greens, perilla leaves etc.
Become more primal
Who is that the reason why so many people are miserable in modern day living is that we no longer have the privilege or opportunity to be primal. For example, we are no longer permitted to be loud, yell, scream and shout, cry, express anger, thump our chest etc.
For example something that I have observed is traditionally, in modern day society at least in the more “modern” ones, to be quiet, silent, unobtrusive, low-key, avoiding eye contact or confrontation is seen as a virtue. We often scorn people who are loud, rambunctious, having a jolly old time.
For example, what is K-12 education? Learning how to deal with boredom, learning how to become silent, sitting down and shutting up, obeying the teacher etc.
A new path
Assuming that happiness is indeed your life goal, or perhaps becoming more, allow yourself to become louder, more rambunctious, more flagrant.
For example, I think the reason why people hate Kanye West so much is because of several reasons; first and foremost, they hate how outspoken he is, how he speaks his mind without any self-censorship. Yet this is precisely what gains him diehard fans like myself, Because indeed he speaks his mind, he doesn’t lie, whether you agree with him or not, at least you know he’s not lying.
Robust thinking
With words, thoughts, philosophies, techniques methodologies etc., I believe that the robust ones are supreme.
For example, any thoughts or topics in which the ancients have touched upon, or any words and etymology which has gone back to the Proto Indo European, tend to be robust. Much of modern-day thinking is fragile at best, notions of “equality“, “justice“, “fairness”, etc. are modern day notions. In ancient times, ancient Greek times, some ancient Roman times, it was more about rank, hierarchy, power, courage, bravery, lethality etc.
For example, Achilles was seen as supreme because he was the most lethal. Nobody was even half a chance to him, he was even so lethal and powerful that not even the gods could take him. The only difference between Achilles and the gods was that Achilles was mortal whereas the gods were not.
Modern day times
What makes one fragile in modern day times? Social media numbers and followings, numeration of money, popularity, fame etc.
What makes one robust? Self-confidence, self faith, self assurance, etc.
Avoiding modern day pressures
A personal life thought is that we must seek the past for more robust modes of thinking.
For example, in modern day times it is seen as virtuous to be more “productive“, and work is also seen as a virtue. However, can you imagine an ancient Greek or Roman; they would be befuddled …
“Isn’t “work” simply for slaves?
For example, the ancient Spartans. What did an ancient spartan nobleman do? Simply enjoy his leisure, training for physical combat, hang out with his buddies, philosophizing, making pithy jokes etc. Who did all the grunt work? The helots.
What should be the purpose of coding? I believe that clothing should be seen as modern day armor. Good clothes make you feel more confident, stronger, more ready for anything.
For example nowadays, the only clothes I wear are fitness clothes, because I want to be always ready to lift.
Robust fabrics
Even though I love merino wool, I hate it because it is so fragile. It seems at best, merino wool really lasts you only maybe a year or two, then eventually it falls to shreds.
A new fabric that I’ve discovered which is surprisingly robust is linen. Why? Linen has been around ever since ancient times, apparently even the ancient Romans used something called a “Linothorax”, which was essentially armor entirely constructed out of linen, albeit that it was layered almost 50 times, with some sort of animal glue in between.
Also while on the road, lightness is godlike. Linen is insanely light, robust, and also tries insanely quickly. This new HAPTICWEAVE style of linen I have discovered is phenomenal because of the unique three-dimensional octagonal pattern, which almost looks like modern day medieval armor. Imagine like modern-day chain mail.
Clothing is a bad business to be in?
Going to the MUJI store the other day, and looking at Uniqlo, Zara, H&M, etc., Cindy commented:
Perhaps clothing is a bad industry to be in.
Why? Places like MUJI, Uniqlo etc. have thousands of different linen products, constantly new styles and innovations coming out etc. Isn’t it simply easier to just buy it, instead of designing, producing, and selling it?
A thought:
I desire to become the new Cristobal BALENCIAGA.
Why? I have always been passionate about clothing ever since I was a kid, in terms of style, and then later on into function. Being a globetrotting nomad, to me fabric is so insanely critical because when you want to pack as light as possible, you don’t want anything additional.
For example, HAPTIC ARMOR. You can simply use it every single day or several times a day as a bath towel, or you could take it to the gym to put over your yoga mat during hot yoga, or when you’re out in the brutal sun, use it as a shawl or a scarf to protect you from the sun while also absorbing moisture away from your body.
Truth be told, we all live within a capitalist consumerist society, and I think that the reason why world peace exists is precisely because of free market capitalism. The reason why I am skeptical that China will ever go to war with America is that the rich mainland Chinese love their iPhone Pros, and their designer luxury goods. Can you imagine if suddenly overnight, rich mainland Chinese people no longer had access to iPhones, and other American goods?
Also on the flipside, what would Americans do if we no longer have access to high-quality Amazon goods, most of which are made in China. Let us also not forget that the iPhone, and pretty much all the Apple products are produced in China.
Create products you desire to see manifested in reality
If I could design my own perfect thing of a certain thing, what would it look like?
Oh for example, the Henri neck strap was born out of my personal desire of creating the perfect neck strap. And later on, ERIC KIM strap series came out of my desire to create a perfect strap for my Ricoh GR camera— WRIST X NECK.
Now what?
Seek robust!
ERIC
Robust Life goals?
What are some robust life goals you can seek? I think ones which do not require the approval or the nod of others.
A simple thought on life; a life lived with maximal passion, ambition, and personal interest:
First of all, let us address ambition:
How to Become More Ambitious
Ambition is funny because sometimes it is seen as a virtue, sometimes it is seem as a vice.
For example to be too ambitious is seen as a bad thing, because you do it at the “expense” of others.
I say fuck it — ambition is good. Ambition, to hunger and strive for more is one of the greatest virtues of man!
Ambitious for what?
This is the even more tricky thing — let us say you are ambitious, but for what?
Personally speaking I am more ambitious to see more, discover more, think more, become stronger, advance and evolve myself with more unique interesting and diverse experiences, to ultimately become more.
Truth be told I have almost zero interest in money. Why? To me, my greater goals are related to physical and physiological strength, towards innovation, entrepreneurship, and creating cool shit and sharing it with others! I seek a life with the maximum thrill, fun, uncertainty, creative risk, guts, and balls.
Your creative risk life goals?
I believe in the age beyond money and silly notions of success, I say it all comes down to creative ambition. That is, what do you desire to create?
Build your own platform, company, or business
Profits are simply a means to an end.
Nothing needs to get “done”.
I still think there is a robust future ahead of us in terms of websites, website technology, blogging, etc.
Amazon web services, WordPress, and open source websites.
Now let us address value:
On Value
What is “value”, and how does one create it?
First of all, consider … what do you value and desire?
For myself I value certain ideals like becoming stronger, one rep max at the gym, atlas lift, rack pull etc.
Therefore for me, to create value in the context of weight lifting is to create things which inspire or motivate others to also increase their one rep maxes in the gym and beyond. Sharing my videos of me doing it, my thoughts and theories etc.
Second — does it need to be physical, or is digital fine?
Creating value for the sake of what?
Valor, valere— having worth, pr ultimately being brave.
To me the “economy” is simply human activity. Thus to stimulate the economy or the movement of others is the #1 critical thing of value!
Takeaway point — anything which moves people is what has the ultimate value!
ERIC
Turbo thoughts
All of the money is just fake money. Just ones and zeros, and digital data. Therefore, do not use money is a metric for “success”.
What is a more noble goal? Reckless and audacity in terms of creativity.
Design is still the future: we buy it for the design, not anything else. Consider the great renaissance of Hyundai Kia and Genesis, by going all in on disruptive design, they have totally changed the game.
Currently here in Saigon, the growth and entrepreneurship here is phenomenal.
Currently the city or space which interest me the most is Pan Am Penh Cambodia. While there are still lots of opportunities here in Vietnam, I believe there to be more opportunities in Phnom Penh.
Become the all black on black on black, murdered out Range Rover defender
It looks like currently speaking, people are going bananas on the murdered out, black on black on black, Matt black look for cars. But instead of just buying it, why not transform your body to look like it? Become more mean in medicine, more muscular, Less body fat.
Becoming more passionate
My personal life: thought; becoming more ambitious, and also, becoming more passionate.
Why is passion important, and what does it mean?
First and foremost, I believe passion to just be a burning desire for something. A burning desire to become a change what you wish to see manifested in the world, or the desire to create and propagate your passion to the rest of the world.
Two feet down
The first step: once you’ve put your heart to something, commit. 2 feet down, all in.
For example, HAPTIC ARMOR. My new insanely ambitious approach to fabrics, materials, new cloths.
Why do I care?
What you decide to care for and not care for, I don’t think there’s any real logic to it. Simply, you must commit to your heart.
How to know what you’re passionate about?
I think the problem in modern day life is that there is a social pressure what one should be passionate for and what one should NOT be passionate for.
However, the problem is that these tyrants try to superimpose their value structures upon us. What we must do is instead, turn our head and shoulder away, and blatantly ignore all of this nonsensory.
Commit to your passion
What I encourage is this: whatever you’re passionate about, commit to it, disregard modern-day notions of economic gain, or “productivity“. It doesn’t need to be productive, simply authentic.
Spend some time thinking about what you’re passionate about, and with all of your might and mind, strive to strip away what society wants and expects of you.
Beyond economics: Once again, disregard notions of material and financial gain. Passion is beyond money and numbers, commas and zeros.
To mirror the thought of our best friend Nietzsche, the will to simplicity is a good one. In your design thinking and body, your life etc., strive to simplify.
Disruption is doing the things I am most passionate about. Why?
I have always been a disruptive person. I would disrupt the teacher, disrupt others when they are talking, etc.
Typically, this is seen as a bad thing. But as we all know in Silicon Valley, this is actually the desired end.
The difficult irony is typically speaking, in real life, being disruptive is frowned upon. Why? When we disrupt or or disruptive, we often think of it as negative detriment to our own authority.
Why disrupt?
I believe in order to innovate, you must disrupt. Disrupt the old way of doing things, the old way of thinking of things, etc.
For example, when I first pioneered the open source approach to photography; making my photos all available for full resolution, JPEG online for free. No stupid watermarks or “image protections”. This ended up actually benefiting me in the long run, as it allowed my images to propagate.
The reason why it was disruptive was all the other photographers out there started complaining, because I set a precedent; they saw that my innovation or my approach was positively detrimental to themselves.
What is that true? No. This only applies if you see the world in a zero sum aspect; my approach doesn’t change yours. Anyone who thinks it does is petty minded at best.
1. See yourself on the other side
I don’t know about you, but personally speaking, I hate having to pay anything for information, knowledge, e-books etc. Therefore my approach has been to make it free.
Also, I hate subscriptions. And should be taught I don’t think anyone really does. Therefore, in terms of the products you make sell etc., I am very anti-subscription model. I think there are more innovative ways or other ways to monetize effectively.
2. Don’t give a F
I think when you think too deeply or critically about things, you fall victim to “paralysis by analysis”. That is, thinking too much will harm you more than benefit you, because too much thinking means you don’t act.
I think the best way to approach innovation and disruption is a bricolage technique and approach; that is, nobody has any idea how something will result, unless you just try, attempt, and experiment.
As a consequence, perhaps the best strategy is,
Just fuck it — just try it out!
3. Aberrant thinking
What does it mean to “think different”?
The difficult thing is that the goal is to think differently, in the substantive and genuine and honest way. Not to simply go against the crowd for the sake of it, but to truly think and consider for yourself, is the same better, or a different better?
For example, I was very anti-Apple and iPhone etc. for much of my teenage and college years. I didn’t like the lemmings, the Apple fan boys.
However, when I did finally switch in my 20s, I actually did discover in fact, Apple was superior to Windows and PC, and iPhone and iOS was really truly superior to android by at least 1000 degrees.
Therefore, don’t be like those superficial individuals who try to distinguish themselves by being a strange, retro, or abstruse as possible. We want to be substantively different.
4. Travel and or live abroad
I believe one of the greatest benefits of traveling or going abroad is the fact that it disrupts your traditional way of approaching things. For example, when Cindy and I were in Daegu for a conference, the Airbnb we stayed blew my mind. And one of the funny innovations they had was they had a hand pump, which look like the typical hand soap pumps, but in fact, it ejected toothpaste!
This was so inspiring to me, because the thought about toothpaste, it is insanely wasteful. After you’re done with the tube, you have to throw away the whole thing. All that waste and packaging. While I do think that all of this hippie nonsense about “saving the planet” is superficial, one of the big benefits of a more “sustainable include approach is that it actually just makes your life easier. For example if you were just able to fill up a hand soap pump with toothpaste, and just use toothpaste that way, the benefit as you don’t have to buy toothpaste is often, and I also believe that the toothpaste industry is such a huge scam; it is insanely expensive, and is bad for the planet. Even Nassim Taleb has a suspicion against toothpaste— the bristle for brushing your teeth is natural, but adding additional chemicals into your mouth to offset all of this sugar and starch we consume, perhaps this is not necessary. As a result even I am starting to get suspicious against fluoride in toothpaste. Fortunately I do not consume any sugar and starches.
Another difference I have discovered here in Korea is the whole bathroom situation; essentially in tight quarters, the concept and idea is to have your showerhead connected to your sink faucet, saving space. As a consequence the whole bathroom is perpetually wet. Koreans use bathroom slippers to enter, and ultimately I think this is smart because it saves space, and also it is good when your kid wants to just hang out in the bathroom and shooting water all around the place with a showerhead.
The great thing with traveling and going to foreign places is because it helps you discover that there are 1 billion different ways to do different things. There is not one “standard“ way to do things. And as a consequence I find this extremely enlightening because you can simply pick and choose the approaches and things that you like, And filter it yourself.
Same thing in Asia, typically we Asian people sleep on the floor with thick futons. Instead of Americans are Westerners who’s sleep in beds with traditional bed frames.
I think ultimately this is good onto innovation and disruption because it teaches you:
There is not one “correct“ way to do anything.
Therefore as a consequence, your approach is unique and good.
5. Allow yourself to become more “Asperger‘s“, or “autistic“
A note; I think if I was put in the traditional K-12 education today, and I had some sort of mildly intelligent educated parents here in the states, I would definitely be classified somewhere “on the spectrum“, or diagnosed with some sort of fake thing like ADHD etc.
Certainly there is very very obvious forms of autism, especially when it affects children in terms of their morphology and their motor functional skills.
However, for a lot of other things, it is easy to put people into these pseudoscientific boxes, just because they think different, act different, and approach the world a little differently.
Even Elon Musk said he had some sort of Asperger’s or autism or some thing when he was on SNL. My personal thought is he probably isn’t, but, the intelligence of branding yourself like that is that allows you to get away with a lot of aberrant behavior.
I think in order to truly disrupt and be innovative, you gotta be a little bit crazy. Or, you disdain the same.
Even for myself, the people I much prefer interacting with our children, young children, teenagers, or even college kids. It seems that once people graduate college and get “real jobs“, they start to lose their child like curiosity and ingenuity.
Also, my personal favorite people to hang out with or a little bit socially different, in terms of how they think I can interact etc. To me this is much more inspirational than the traditional “normal“ person.
6. Call out BS
One of the greatest things and benefits of studying sociology is that it made me realize that so much of modern day life and sociology is a bunch of BS. Use your own inner BS detector well — refuse to follow BS traditions, or things you don’t believe in.
For example, one of the most inspiring things that I learned from Walter Isaacson‘s biography on Steve Jobs was how Steve Jobs refused to follow any sort of tradition, whether in the states or in Japan. Apparently there were periods that he refused to wear shoes, and will just walk around barefoot all day, and also refused to shower, saying that his fruitarian diet prevented him from smelling (he smelled).
I think currently speaking, Kanye West is like Steve Jobs 2.0 to me. This is why I am such a huge fan of Kanye, he simply thinks different, and does different. And it is his “unrealistic“ audacity is what inspires me.
7. So what now?
Become to change what you wish to see manifested in the world.
Also, as time goes on, become more reckless, more daring, and ignore others even more.
Or in my thinking, the time goes on become more crazy!
100% Lithuanian linen weaved in South Korea with cutting-edge technology.
Created, made, and stitched by hand, with the soul of the artisan.
Octagonal three-dimensional weave pattern; virtually indestructible and absorbs water and dries at least 50x faster than cotton.
Perfect for the traveler and nomad: Your new travel companion that you could take with you anywhere— whether on the road, internationally or back home.
Engineered for the furthest use: Use it as an every day bath towel, to wick away your sweat while in hot and humid environments, and to protect you from the sun. Suitable as a covering for your yoga mat, or even a floormat for you to lay down and take a nap on! Can also double as a picnic blanket or a beach towel/blanket.
The only limit of HAPTIC ARMOR is your own imagination.
Available now for pre-order. Shipping starts immediately August 7, 2023!
HAPTIC ARMOR: Become the traveler, nomad and adventurer you desire:
Your Linen Armor
Inspired by the Ancient Greek and Roman Linothorax (a 50x layered linen based armor chestpiece), we present to you HAPTIC ARMOR— an experimental 100% HAPTICWEAVE cloth which is your new metaphorical suit of armor.
The Concept
HAPTIC ARMOR is forged using 100% linen imported from Lithuania— the center for the highest quality linen in the globe. Secondly it is processed and weaved here in South Korea using advanced Korean weaving technologies to create a unique octagonal three-dimensional texture, optimized for strength, durability and weight. 100% linen fabrics are the most supreme at wicking away moisture and water, and the grid-weaved waffle texture means that the HAPTIC ARMOR will dry insanely quickly.
Virtually Indestructible
HAPTIC ARMOR is designed to be used and abused, with zero fear of it degrading. The purpose of HAPTIC ARMOR is to encourage you to live more courageously and recklessly.
The Best for the Best
Seek the best, the most supreme.
HAPTIC ARMOR is the synthesis of my obsession with fabric— I currently the most supreme fabric I have ever discovered, even supreme to my beloved merino wool.
If you desire the most supreme of supreme fabrics, HAPTIC ARMOR is yours.
A day in the life of HAPTIC ARMOR
HAPRIC ARMOR is meant to be used and abused, engineered for the furthest use. Hang it in your bathroom, or on the rack, and use it whenever you hit the gym, or whenever you wash off at home. If you’re ready to jet set, throw it in your travel bag!
Your New Travel Companion
Venture further with your HAPTIC ARMOR. When you’re in transit, just wear it around your neck like a scarf or a garb, and when you visit new places with relentless sun, use it as a cloak to protect yourself from the sun.
Skill Attributes
HAPTIC ARMOR is naturally made from the highest quality in Lithuanian linen, 100% pure, strong, and legendary. Linen connoisseur from all around the world know that linen is the site of the greatest linen raw material, harvested and produced.
Leveraging advanced Korean technologies, HAPTIC ARMOR is mythical and one-of-a-kind. How it will upgrade you:
It will save you time: last time having to wash it, compared to inferior cotton fabrics.
Become stronger: It will encourage you to hit the gym or yoga more often; a perfect companion in your gym bag or on top of your yoga mat during hot yoga.
Hike further; 1000 times superior to any “travel“ towel you will discover at REI and beyond; linen is the most superior towel that naturally wicks sweat away for your body, while still remaining cool and dry to the touch.
Effortlessly elegant: the octagonal three dimensional weave is one of a kind. Like the noble aristocrats of ancient Korea, you will be distinguished by this fabric.
Armor: it is engineered to spark confidence within yourself, more courage.
Hygroscopic: Draws moisture and water away from you and your skin, 10x more effectively than cotton or any polyester-based microfiber fabric.
Naturally hypoallergenic: 100% pure Lithuanian linen, weaved and produced in South Korea; comfortable and confident inspiring even with individuals with the most sensitive skin.
Powerful: The unique Korean octagonal three dimensional weave makes it suitable for maximal tensile strength. Just try it out; wrap it around to dumbbells and lift it off the floor!
Fashion is Function: Armor is not just aesthetic, it is functional. The perfect marriage between function and fashion.
Distinguish yourself and stand out: why stand in, when you can stand out?
Where Will You Venture Next?
The difficulty of modern day living is that we lack the opportunity to adventure, quest, and conquer. HAPTIC ARMOR will be your mythical and unique carb, in which your only limit is your courage and creativity.
Shipping and Limited Availability
And the first batch of HAPTIC ARMOR is produced in an extremely limited quantity of 20. Preorders are available now with shipping starting August 7th, 2023:
Pre-Order Your Destiny
Be the first to achieve and receive HAPTIC ARMOR. The rare for the rare. The first line comes in only a limited quantity of 20 suits of armor. Seize your chance before they all sell out!
Use and Abuse It!
The great thing about HAPTIC ARMOR is that it doesn’t require any special or sensitive care. Just throw it in the washer, with normal detergent, and dry it in the dryer as well.
If you’re on the road, all you gotta do is put it outside in the direct sun and let it hang dry. The great benefit of 100% linen is that it doesn’t smell or retain any odors. And as Elon Musk said, sunlight is the best disinfectant.
First, Cindy and I have a passion for creating revolutionary products that will legitimately make your life better. We have been using it for ourselves the last two weeks, and it has legitimately made our lives better. For example, now that we are currently on the road away from home, being able to use haptic armor as a bath towel has reduced the insane annoyance of having to constantly wash and dry our towels.
Secondly, to stimulate economic activity. Our current production line includes myself, Cindy, my mom and Lily (linen “ajoomah”) currently here in Hadong South Korea. And being able to create a brand new product, built with passion and pride is insanely fun for all of us!
Third, to improve your life. If HAPTIC ARMOR even gives you a tiny bit more motivation and inspiration to travel, hit the road, exercise, workout, hit the gym, hit a hot yoga session, or get out of your house and do more creative things, it is worth it.
Now What?
This is a rare drop. Do you have ventured requested far enough; now it is time to seize your prize!
ERIC
Available Everywhere on Planet Earth!
Available now for pre-order and internationally. Seize your destiny now!
Consume the beverages and things most local to the local environment. For example, maybe while you are in East Asia, like Korea, better to just drink Hadong Green Tea instead of coffee. However if you are in Vietnam or Southeast Asia, just buy and drink coffee from Vietnam.
Cash thoughts: cashmere as one of the most underrated fabrics out there; for example I just made an experimental cashmere suit of armor, and it is actually very suitable currently in the hot and humid Korean summertime.
Create your own desired future: rather than just purchasing things, buy the raw material, and make it yourself. If you don’t have the skills to actually make things, find somebody who does, share your vision with them and have them build and produce it. You are the designer, the idea concept person. Work with skilled artisans to produce your vision. HAPTIC ARMOR CONCEPT.
Maybe our next car should either be a Hyundai, a Kia, or Genesis, doesn’t matter if gas, hybrid, or fully electric. My personal belief is currently speaking, Korea is at least 5000 times more disruptive and innovative than any other car company, even Tesla, in terms of car design.
THE LIFE OF OJ song by JAY Z— you still taking advances huh? me and my jiggas are taking real chances huh! Or any song about business and entrepreneurship by JAY Z — “I drop the label”. “World can’t hold me too much ambition it was still like this when I was still in the kitchen!”
Forward the disruption
Feeling a little bit more disruptive? Feel free to forward this to a friend!
Dear friends, I am insanely excited for the launch of our totally brand new, insanely innovative new idea. The basic concept is this: your new personal suit of armor. HAPTIC ARMOR.
The Concept
I have an insane obsession with fabrics, materials, clothing and concepts. But I personally believe that in today’s world, most of the field most road for disruption is new clothing, fabric, lifestyle concepts.
For example, my new obsession with Linen. I call it “HAPTICWEAVE.” It is forged by 100% of the finest linen on planet earth, straight from Lithuania. Then processed, synthesized and weaved here in South Korea.
Why the big deal?
To me, I consider HAPTIC ARMOR a fabric revolution. Linen has been around since the ancient Roman and Greek times, and once was even used as armor. Why? It is insanely light, breathable, and strong. Apparently even the ancient Roman and Greek armies used something called a “Linothorax,”— literally a chest plate of armor but made 100% with linen, but the secret was creating almost 50 layers of linen with some sort of animal-based glue, to make a lightweight, breathable, and supple armor which could withstand the penetration of an arrow, even at point blank range. It might have even been able to stop the penetration of a spear at close distances.
This was especially good because as we all know, in the Mediterranean, in Greece and in Rome, during the hot humid and arduous summer campaigns, it was insanely hot and humid. Imagine trying to fight battles in 100degree weather, hot and humid in the direct sun. You wouldn’t want some sort of medieval plate armor, you’d roast to death.
The funny bias in today’s world, there is a strange bifurcation; on one hand we all thrive because of free market capitalism, consumerism, production of capital and products, etc. But on the other hand, it is considered immoral to be too into purchasing things. It is my personal belief that world peace is only possible because of international and mutual commerce.
For example, the reason why China will probably never start World War III with America and the rest of the world is that China needs us for economic opportunities. China wouldn’t be the China we know her today if it weren’t for the vast market for Americans, American products etc. The spending power of the Chinese is good, but, the spending power of Americans is much stronger.
My friend Christophe has this funny story in which when he was really into Diablo II as an elementary school student, he really wanted this rare armor called the “Silks of the Victor,” the best armor you could get for your Necromancer. He outlined this hilariously cute story in which he found some online website which sold items, it might’ve been 10 or $20, and at the time because there is no real good way to send payments through the Internet, he arranged with this Stanford college student to send $20 in the mail, just a $20 bill through the mail, in order to arrange an item transfer.
My friend Chris, very excited quickly sent the money in an envelope through the mail, and was insanely disappointed because he didn’t hear from the guy for about a few months. He thought he was scammed, and lost his money. But fortunately eventually the guy got back to him, and apologized and said that he was busy with finals or something, and then promptly dropped off the item in-game.
The reason why I find the story so enlivening is that at least in the world of Diablo 2, assuming we take a Diablo II analogy to real life, the point isn’t to endlessly obtain gold, which is actually quite undesired at the end stage of the game, but instead to seek rare, mythical and unique items. The items being helmets, amulets, runestones, rings, shields, chest armor, weapons, greaves to cover your shins and feet etc. And then the ultimate goal is PVP, to create some sort of insanely powerful individual character, like a barbarian with whirlwind, and just being able to secure equals and challenge them to 1on1 combat.
My concept of HAPTIC ARMOR is like creating some sort of mythical garb, or armor for real life. Something engineered and created for the furthest used cases possible. For example, part chest plate, part travel garb, part everyday bath towel, part blanket to keep you warm on long and cold international flights, or even something to put over your hot sweaty and slippery yoga mat during those arduous hot yoga sessions. Or just something you could throw into your gym bag, When you hit the gym, or when you hit the road.
First, this insanely unique octagon and 3d weave pattern, something I have never witnessed in real life before. Second, created with the highest quality linen in the world, from Lithuania. Third, weaved here locally in South Korea, using advanced machinery and technology.
The result, a sublime fabric that is supple, soft, breathable, yet phenomenally strong and virtually indestructible.
The reason why I’m so jazzed about HAPTIC ARMOR is for its unique three dimensional weave pattern. Effectively what this does is increases the surface area of the fabric, which makes it even stronger, even more breathable, and even more effective for working away sweat and moisture from your body and also drying insanely quickly. 100% linen dries at least 50 times faster than cotton, and also is naturally breathable.
Whenever I go on the Internet, REI, etc., traditional travel towels and fabrics are made typically out of some sort of polyester, nylon, or synthetic fibers; which smells really bad, is not breathable, and also just feels really cheap.
My personal theory is the reason why animal or plant-based fibers and fabrics are so superior to synthetic ones is that you cannot fool mother nature; natural plant-based or animal fibers are so robust because of the hidden biology behind it; flaxseed, and plants have a survival based mechanism for the fabrics they produce, which comes in real handy for us humans.
Barbell, hybrid innovation
What I find so fascinating about our approach is we are mirroring two high contrasts, a hybrid barbell baaed approach — First, importing the highest quality linen on the globe from Lithuania, the raw material, and synthesizing our approach with modern day advanced Korean technology, with the processing and weaving of the fabric.
If you have a passion for materials fabrics or aesthetic things; this is actually your opportunity to get a taste of South Korean aesthetics and heritage; Korean traditions which have been around forever.
Only the rare for the rare
Once again, let us say that we are taking a Diablo 2 analogy to real life, what is it that we really seek and desire? I believe it to be rare things, where items, which are truly one of a kind, beautiful valuable and functional.
Also, my ambition is for you to use HAPTIC ARMOR forever, until you die. I have an insane frustration with fabrics or things which lack durability. For example, even though I really love my merino wool clothing my insane frustration is that after a year or two of hard use, it disintegrates. If I’m going to spend $120 on a T-shirt, I want it to last forever.
HAPTIC
What is HAPTIC, why HAPTIC? HAPTIC is me and Cindy’s brain child— HAPTIC INDUSTRIES was born out of a playful experiment when we were first living in Vietnam. My passion to create things items and objects which I wish to see manifested in the real world.
For example, the HENRI NECK STRAP, which is currently on the fourth version. A sign of a good creation. Essentially my thought was this,
If I could make a perfect camera neck strap for myself, what would it look like and be?
For myself, I have this obsession or passion to create or discover what I consider “perfect“ products. Certainly there is no such thing as anything which is perfect, but striving to seek or create perfect I believe to be an interesting and noble goal.
This is my Steve Jobs approach!
Nature doesn’t muck around
The octagon. Eight sided, just like a beehive or honeycomb. Max more string and durability, a shape which can withstand even the most brutal of wear and tear.
I hate fabrics which need to be babied and require special care. The great thing with HAPTIC ARMOR is that you can just toss it in any standard washing machine, add normal detergent, and just throw it into the dryer, at normal or maximum heat. None of this nonsense of “tumble dry low“.
Or, just letting HAPTIC ARMOR dry directly in the sun. Like Elon Musk said, the best disinfectant is the sun.
Ready for anything.
What are you fine insanely exciting about HAPTIC ARMOR is that literally, it is ready for anything and everything.
For example, when I recently did my 16 hour flight from LAX to Incheon to South Korea, I was actually really caught on the flight. If I had my haptic armor with me, I could just use it as a blanket to keep me warm.
Or, taking a nap. Even though it is a bit narrow, it comes in handy as a quick blanket on the go, when you least think you need it.
Why?
Oh my personal ambition is to create beautiful things which will legitimately help the lives of others, and also, for me to create things which I think will benefit others and the world.
And beauty function in fashion is all underrated. Seize your destiny.
I currently believe that the new wave of innovation lies in new concepts. For example, new clothing concepts, new ways to think about how to wear garbs around your body, and new ways you could use the fabrics we already got. For example, linen has been around forever, but has been lately overshadowed by cotton, because cotton is much easier and cheaper to produce. For example when we talk about “linens“, when we talk about our bedsheets, the hilarity as we still call it “linens,” but in fact most of it nowadays is cotton. My current thought is changing everything I got with our new HAPTIC LINEN— whether it be covers for my pillows, my shirts and overcoat, maybe even my pants or skirts.
The philosophy of aesthetics: something I believe to be insanely critical is your philosophy on aesthetics. For example I think I really love this idea of mirroring old concepts with new concepts. To integrate and create the perfect synthesis and hybrid between the old school and the new. I have yet to believe that any Korean American, or Asian American has done it effectively for Korea and South Korea; there is a beautiful future ahead of us, which has not yet been discovered. Perhaps I will be the first to touch upon it.
Check out and Google the new Hyundai Grandeur, and also the new Hyundai sonata. Korea and South Korea is currently killing it with car design, even the new Kia EV 9 SUV car design is insanely disruptive.
What I find very interesting is that Korea South Korea has a tradition of simply following the crowd and playing nice with the past. Yet it seems nowadays at least with car design, Koreans are making everyone look basic and iterative by design.
Reckless innovation and disruption
I think one thing that Korea and South Korea and Hyundai Kia and Genesis has going for it is that there is not too long of a tradition with their design language and aesthetic design. And I believe this to be a huge benefit, because it allows for radical disruption.
Let us consider the tragedy of German design, like the Porsche 911. Even if they wanted to do something insanely disruptive with it, they can’t. Why? All of these heritage snobs from the past who refuse to allow it to change.
Korean-American Hybrid?
A personal note on my identity. I was born in 1988, in San Francisco, and was raised my whole life in the states. I always wanted to perfect my Korean in my Korean speaking abilities, mostly out of shame that my Korean speaking ability was not fluent.
Yet now, I see this as a feature, not a bug. That means, I am actually insanely well positioned to be the bridge between America and Korea, in terms of cars (Hyundai, Kia, Genesis), in terms of mobile technologies (Samsung, LG), and now, Korean aesthetics and fabrics.
And new … SOUTH KOREA WORKSHOP 2024 (details to be announced)
Other Thoughts
Rather than wasting money on a car, buying a new car or a used car, invest the money instead of upgrading your technologies for your website blog etc. For example, you can start a WordPress right now with Amazon Web services for free, the most basic package is only $3.50 a month! You can literally build 100 websites, for only about $350 USD a month! This will be my new direction.
Don’t be weighed down by material things; sometimes I have this sense of opportunism which I just want to buy a bunch of stuff. But instead, don’t let things weigh you down. Instead what you could do is just rent as needed.
Now what?
If you want to get honest feedback on your photos, upload it right now to arsbeta.com
If you want to gain deeper inside and philosophy of your life, have a chat with Zen of Eric, why app?
Something I am thinking more and more about is how annoying and difficult it is to remit payment and money while you’re abroad. For example, I am limited to only taking out about $300 a day for foreign ATMs in Korean won, insanely annoying. Fortunately my Amazon prime credit card works well internationally, but still, there needs to be more of a global seamless way. A promising thought is chainlink is partnering with swift, the international banking concept, to propose in a solution.
Bitcoin may be the future world currency; currently speaking the US dollar is imploding, and we have too much fake money in the economy. Also the Chinese yuan is suffering massively. Maybe bitcoin might be the way. For example, imagine just buying a car for single bitcoin, or buying a house for 10 bitcoin. Crypto Thoughts >
Where to next?
Currently chilling in Hadong South Korea, but leaving in two days. Then going to be in Saigon Vietnam for about a month, lots more great innovation to come.
Stay updated on the ERIC KIM BLOG, feel free to forward this to a friend!
Watch the new John Wick 4, I consider it a 12 out of 10. Just buy it on Apple TV and watch the extras. Insanely inspiring.
Spend more time with kids, or people who are under the age of 18 who have not yet been corrupted by the system. Spending time with them is insanely refreshing. Nowadays I despise spending time with adults, all of them think too same same.
Travel, go abroad, jump in a plane and just go somewhere.
Hadong South Korea might be my new creative paradise. I see a bright future ahead of me here, in Seoul and beyond.
It seems that people really like the new Samsung smartphones. While I still think that iPhone is superior, maybe taking a more critical look at the new Samsung S phones is worth looking at.
Photo thoughts
When in doubt, just shoot it.
Life photography: don’t bifurcate your photography, just shoot it all.
The best camera fits in your front right pocket. Currently speaking the best shorts to get are the Lululemon license to train shorts, big enough to fit even a relatively large camera in your front right pocket.
Something that is currently on my mind is the thought of stimulating economic opportunity and activity. That is, how do you move people metaphorically and physically?
Not money, but economic activity?
An interesting thing being here in Korea; everyone uses the Korean won, KRW. A simple estimate is 10,000 won is around 8 dollars USD.
To me as an American, this is wholly confusing because I don’t really have a sense of how much things cost. For example let’s say you want to buy a home or a car, two very expensive things, the amount of zeros in commas is mind blowing.
Also, a funny thought at the end of the day:
It is all just monopoly play money.
For example, whenever I see a 10,000 won note, or even a 50,000 won note, it looks like fake money or play money to me. The same thing is when I see Vietnamese dong, or now even the US dollar.
My current thought is the best way to use and leverage money is to stimulate economic activity and to produce new things of value. For example, are insanely excited to share the announcement of HAPTIC ARMOR — available in the HAPTIC SHOP and ready for preorder. Shipping will begin mid August 2023. Don’t miss your chance to be the select few innovators to get this never-before seen product.
When I was back in Kyoto, I came up with this notion of “producerism“, the antithesis or the exact opposite of consumerism. The negative bias that we got in today’s world is that we think that we can only purchase things that we like, the culture of producing and making stuff that we like is a non-concept.
For example, let us say that you are really into fashion and design and other stuff like that. The typical workflow that we do is that we simply peruse stores, the internet etc., and we try to use our discerning taste to purchase clothing items or fashion items which we believe to echo our own personal aesthetic. However I believe a much more empowering path is to figure out how to obtain purchase and procure the raw material, and get either your mom, or someone with skills to actually sew and produce it.
ALPHAWEAVE
I ever since becoming an itinerant nomad, I have a passion for fabrics and materials which I believe to be the most supreme. For example, my never ending quest to discover, produce, the best travel clothing, whether it be Marino wool for T-shirts, Lululemon license to train shorts with zippers in the front and back, or even the vibram five finger shoes. And the exofficio boxer briefs.
Nomad Equipment
Something that I personally believe in is that if you desire to achieve the best possible life and lifestyle, becoming some sort of intermittent nomad is the best one. I call it the Genghis Khan lifestyle. That the purpose your life isn’t to buy a nice house somewhere and settle down, but always to be “on the road” or in transit, in between places. Never in one spot forever.
Some equipment that I am currently innovating:
ERIC KIM CASH ARMOR: I have had a passion for merino wool the last decade or so, yet a new material and fabric which is new and foreign to me is cashmere. I actually believe that cashmere is the future and is merino wool 2.0; it is superior in terms of function. Another day I just put a typed traditional Japanese/Korean inspired cloak, made out of 100% cashmere. It is like my invisibility cloak.
HAPTIC LINEN: While in Hadong South Korea, I discovered this new type of linen which I believe to be the game changer. Essentially it is 100% linen imported from Lithuania, one of the highest quality linen fabrics in the world. Yet what makes it interesting is that there is a South Korean company which processes and weaves the fabric, creating a unique three-dimensional grid weave pattern, with traditional Korean aesthetics. What makes it so phenomenal is that it is insanely strong, because it has a three dimensional hexagonal pattern; think of the octagon, which is one of the most powerful and robust patterns out there; just think of beehives and honeybees. We already have a prototype proof of concept product, which we will release an extremely limited quantities (first run is only 20 units). The use cases of it include an every day bath towel which dries insanely quickly, the other day Cindy used it to dry her self and Seneca off, and then I used it, and it was still dry. And within a few hours it already dried. Compare this to the hateful nature of cotton; it is heavy, smells bad, and takes forever to dry. It also doubles as a hot yoga mat towel; when you’re doing yoga or hot yoga, you can just drop it above your yoga mat, to prevent slippage. The third use case is using it as a rope or a shawl when out and about in nature or hiking, it is insanely breathable and can protect you from strong sun. Learn more about HAPTIC LINEN ARMOR >
THE FUTURE?
What is the future of the new global economy? Not China, not Japan. The issue is that more and more companies are leaving China because of the tense political relationship between America and China. Let us consider that most manufacturing is all moving to Vietnam; Lululemon makes their clothing in Vietnam, Samsung makes their smartphones in Vietnam, and I think Apple is starting to move more production into Vietnam, I think they produced some AirPods in Vietnam.
I call it the Golden triangle; America, Korea and Vietnam.
America because it is the center of the universe; it has the world’s biggest military, and also the worlds highest spending power. South Korea I am shocked; the spending power of South Koreans is very strong. And third Vietnam, a new emerging middle class and noveau riche class in Vietnam, and also it is becoming the new mega production center.
Also, Samsung Hyundai Kia genesis and LG. America used to buy Sony TVs, now it seems that all the smart TVs produced and purchased in America are now all Samsung. Also, Americans are buying lots of Hyundai, Kia and Genesis cars. I think that Hyundai/Kia/Genesis will become the new Toyota and Lexus.
Why?
So a big thought is what is the purpose of economic activity and stirring and stimulating economic activity?
First, I think economic activity just makes everybody happier. For example, building new things, new buildings, new concepts motivates people. Second, it is good for world peace. If mainland Chinese want to keep purchasing iPhone Pros, would they really want to invade and create some sort of new World War III? No.
I also as individual entrepreneurs, life is just more fun and interesting. It is all an economic risk, but isn’t that what makes life fun and interesting?
How can you as an individual solo person stimulate economic activity?
Very very simple; produce products and attempt to sell them to other people, plan and schedule workshops or travel experiences and try to get people to sign up for them and travel with you, or just motivate people to do something.
For example, my personal impetus is that I want to inspire and motivate people to create more. To become more creative.
How to Become More Creative
Becoming more creative— some tips:
Creativity is our life blood. I believe the maximally happy life is the most creative one!
1. Create like a Child
The first thought is become more like a child. Why? A child creates without constraints, hesitation or fear.
Honestly one of the best benefits of having a kid is that it is probably the most interesting witness to creativity; you learn and understand how a child is creative, and you could cross reference this to your own adult life.
2. “Name one genius that ain’t crazy!”
I think it was once Aristotle who said something that behind every genius is a touch of madness.
I think in order to create recklessly, you must allow yourself to become a little “crazy“. Let us consider, how crazy people thought when Thomas Edison was trying to invent his lightbulb, how crazy people Elon Musk thought when he was trying to start Tesla and SpaceX, or how crazy people thought that Nikola Tesla was.
What is “craziness“ anyways? Unless you are actually afflicted with a obvious mental disorder, when people call you “crazy“, what do you mean to say is this:
“What you are doing or saying is so unlike what I believe in, how dare you be so unlike me!”
3. Creative spaces?
I think I also believe in is that there are certain physical spaces which encourage more creativity. Typically if you are surrounded by rolling hills, and greenery, a forest, and big open spaces, this will encourage more creativity.
Something that I have discovered more recently is Hadong South Korea is my new creative paradise!
4. Creative collaborative partners?
Perhaps the best optimization you could make in life is when it comes to marrying your partner, marry somebody you could be maximal creative with. For example, Cindy.
Why the economy?
What is the economy? To me it is just movement and activity of human people and bodies. For example, anything that can help motivate people to move literally and metaphorically is good.
For example, after John Wick came out, how many people were inspired to buy muscle cars or black dress shirts and blazers?
Or, let us consider how effectively Henri Cartier Bresson revolutionized photography and the whole photo industry; it is precisely because of a Henri Cartier Bresson that photography became mainstream. And also even now, the only reason someone will buy a Leica camera or Leica M rangefinder is because of Henri Cartier Besson. Essentially the ethos of Leica is simple; if you purchase our cameras you can become Henri Cartier Bresson. Or also more recently, by purchasing a Ricoh GR camera you can become ERIC KIM.
Now what?
Very very simple. The number one most critical thing you do is start your website, self-hosted. The current workflow I recommend is building a WordPress website with Amazon web services.
Second, use media as your Archimedes lever. Produce videos, thought pieces, anything that can inspire other people.
Third, I currently believe that the best marketing tool is having your own self hosted email newsletter. That is, I recommend using sendy.co and setting up your email platform with Amazon web services (SES)— simple email service. The future is not Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or TikTok, not even YouTube.
What do you desire to do?
I am no longer interested in what you can become; I am more interested in what you could do. What you could build, innovate, and put out there in the real world, or even the digital world. This is the great inspiring and motivating thought!
ERIC
Innovate with EK
EK EXPERIENCES — curated and bespoke experiences to elevate and advance you to the next level:
If this inspired you, feel free to forward this to a friend!
ERIC
Korea Thoughts
Some thoughts being here in South Korea:
Some optimistic motivational happenings
One hilariously optimistic thing was recently visiting the Costco in Daegu, South Korea. Cindy presented at a conference here, and it afforded us the chance to check out Daegu, which is the third largest city in Korea.
Daegu really cool, it was like the Osaka of Korea. Industrial and gritty, with lots of wabi sabi textures and patterns. Also we stayed at an insanely epic Airbnb there, which was very very inspiring. A look of what architecture could look like.
One thing I find very exciting about the future is this link between South Korea, and being an international American person. For example my mom recently got a Costco membership here in South Korea, and it only cost around 15 bucks for the whole year! Visiting the Costco in Daegu was so inspiring, because literally everything is there!
For example, Seneca only likes to eat his meat crispy and crunchy. Back home in the states we got an air fryer, but we didn’t really have that option here in Korea. Open till we went to the Costco, and we just bought an air fryer at the Costco for only 45 bucks!
Also, meat. We got a ton of ground beef at the Korean Costco, very good prices, and the hilarious thing is that the layout looks exactly the same as Costco back in America!
Linen thoughts
I’m currently in the midst of creating some new products, products which I believe can aid our every day lives, in both a practical and substantive way.
First, blankets. Ever since summer has hit us, I found a lot of these traditional cotton or microfiber blankets to be very unsatisfying, even the new bamboo ones. I’ve been really fascinated by linen lately, and I had this idea of creating a 100% linen blanket.
About a year ago I met a woman here who runs a Linen shop, she herself calls herself a “linen-holic”. The other day we finally had the chance to visit her store, which is beautiful and huge, and really inspiring. I was able to look through all of her fabrics, and all of her linen raw fabric material, and I chose this really exquisite grid weaved linen, very high-quality stuff from Lithuania, weaved here in South Korea.
I asked Lily (the linen ajoomah) about whether or that material could be weaved or made suitable for a summertime blanket. She said yes, and she even offered to sew and hen the edges, and was able to deliver the final product on the day of!
I slept with the 100% grid weaved linen blanket the other night, and it was literally the best night of sleep I’ve had. Typically when I sleep, I get really hot and sweaty, but with this 100% grid weaved linen blanket, it is so breathable and natural, that I was able to sleep through the night without any additional moisture or sweating.
My first inspiration with linen and the grid weaved pattern was getting this 100% linen grid weaved towel from outlier.nyc as a result of being so insanely frustrated with these cotton towels which take forever to dry, and also absorb too much moisture and smells. I think I bought the towel for $110, and it has been one of the best ways I’ve spent $110, and I use it almost 3 or four times a day! It even works well when I am doing hot yoga with Cindy, I just put it on top of the yoga mat, and it captures moisture very well, and dries so fast!
Therefore I am currently prototyping several products, which include a 100% linen grid weaved travel/everyday towel, hand towels to use in the kitchen, as well as some clothing options.
Life thoughts
One of the best things about jumping on the plane, and traveling is that it really reawakens your inner spirit, and is thoroughly motivating for your soul.
For example, I’m starting to think that the Mongolian Genghis Khan approach to life might be best; living some sort of semi nomadic and itinerant life, with much questing, exploring, and conquering.
Also, photography. I still believe that photography might be one of the most underrated things out there. Even though now we all have an iPhone, or a smart phone, and we photograph everything, there is still so much opportunity to be had in terms of using the camera as a creative tool. Even checking out some of the local sites here in Hadong South Korea, I am so inspired.
The world is infinite
Another cool thing; using AAA, I was able to get an international drivers license, which works here in South Korea. Therefore the last week or so, I’ve actually been driving here in South Korea! Driving in South Korea is very straightforward, more or less the same as driving in the states. The only difference is that there are 1 billion speed cameras everywhere, but as long as you observe the local speed laws, you are fine.
Driving through the mountains of Hadong, I rate it as 1000 times more beautiful than even going to Yosemite! Much more mountainous, more trees, and some of the driving Pats are even more sublime then being in Kyoto Japan.
Anyways my thought was even if you spend the rest of your life here in South Korea and going on road trips, you would still not be able to see you at all! Which means,
Even if for the rest of your life you dedicated your life to photography and travel, and even if you shot 100 trillion photos, you would still not be able to capture it all!
Unlimited resources?
Watching John Wick 4, the evil head honcho apparently had “unlimited resources“ from the “high table“. I also wondered to myself what would I do or how would I live my life if I had unlimited resources.
First, not being confined to any indoor space. The ideal is being able to always be out and about outside, either with my iPad or iPhone, with some sort of 4G or 5G connection.
Second, I need to figure out a more sustainable way to approach my weightlifting and fitness. For example back in the states, I am able to lift over 900 pounds at the gym, but when I’m on the road, it is an impossibility. Lately I’ve been getting good exercise just walking up and down the hill and mountain, holding Sen.
One thing that I love about South Korea is that now that we have access to Costco, I will never have to concern myself at all in regards to procuring my meat.
One thing I still think about the benefit of being in South Korea versus the rest the world is Internet speed and access. I actually believe it to be quite tragic that even back in the states, our Wi-Fi sucks. It is so slow, inaccessible and also expensive. Here in South Korea, gigabit Internet speeds is like tapwater.
However one thing which is still kind of like a mafia business is 4G, 5G data connections for your phone. For example, in South Korea, it is notoriously difficult to obtain an international Sim card, unless you get it at the airport. Things are even getting a little bit more complicated with the whole “eSIM system.”
Your ultimate life goals?
At the end of the day, I believe what we need to concern ourselves with is our ultimate life goals. That at the end of the day, what is it that we truly desire seek and want?
For myself, it is radical and insane innovation. To me, I believe my personal Archimedes lever is the ability to think aberrantly, and also have the chutzpah, guts, balls, and audacity to attempt new things. For example, thinking new theories, and acting in different, diverse and new ways.
Goals
Some life goals and approaches for myself:
Creating new products which I believe can aid myself and others. For example, my current obsession with 100% linen, and this grid weave pattern concept.
My obsession and my personal interest in diet health fitness etc.
My passion for photography, photography art creation, and also video blogging blogging etc. Trying to figure out ways to help “platform“ (cindyanguyen.com) other creators.
Trying to discover and innovate and pioneer new ways in which we can more effectively select our best photos. For example, I currently have a backlog of around 5000 photos, what is the best way for me to sort and sift through all of these photos, and quickly and effectively upload it and share it online to disseminate it to others?
New clothing concepts? Trying to discover a better solution for travel clothing, and also every day clothing. Some current thoughts I have include creating a merino wool tank top, in which the bottom of the shirt doesn’t drag too low; to be just at your waist line. Also shorts. The current best shorts I have discovered is the Lululemon license to train shorts. Yet the problem is that the 7 inch length is simply too long. I’m interested in the 5 inch model, but maybe I need to go shorter. 3 inch?
Merino wool leggings for travel, even in the summertime is a good idea. Why? The ability to create some sort of base layer which at least protects you a little bit from pesky mosquitoes which seem to really enjoy biting my ankles, and my legs.
Passion for car design?
Being here in Korea, I just witnessed the brand new Hyundai Grandeur on the streets and was insanely inspired! And it essentially looks like a futuristic Rolls-Royce, with the most fascinating futuristic cyberpunk design. Flush doorhandles, a rear end with a singular light strip, and proportions which simulates a Rolls-Royce sedan; high, rectangular, poised and confident. It is currently my new favorite car design.
Also the new Hyundai Ioniq 6; seeing it in the flesh, it is insanely cool. One of the most inspiring rear ends in a car. I read it as 1 million times more inspiring than any Tesla car.
The funny thing with cars and car design is this:
For myself at this point, I don’t really seek the “best“, which is actually probably a Tesla or something else. What I am more interested in is disruptive, futuristic, and badass design.
Once again, if I had the option of owning a Hyundai Grandeur or Hyundai Ioniq 6, or any other car out there, I would prefer a Hyundai Grandeur or the Ioniq 6, even though objectively both are probably not the best cars.
Other things
Lots of cool stuff to come. Stay posted.
EK
Advance yourself
If your hungry to broaden your horizons, and become more, check out some of my upcoming workshops in the states and beyond:
Currently interested in some of the new cameras which are incipient (incoming). For example, everyone is waiting on the new RICOH GR IV to come out. What is personally on my wish list include a single thing; a built-in flash. Everything else is perfect in the RICOH GR III/IIIX.
Also, I am actually pretty excited or interested in some futuristic Fujifilm cameras, for example the Fujifilm x100VI, or even a really really compact Fujifilm camera that doesn’t have an electronic or optical viewfinder. I really think that electronic viewfinders or optical viewfinders are both a waste of space and design. All you need is an LCD screen.
Also, you don’t need a tilting or articulating LCD screen. This is another frivolous design concept.
It seems that one thing we have an insatiable appetite for is media. Media in the context of videos, film, Cinema, movies, podcast, YouTube videos, music, music videos etc.
Looking at some my photos here in HADONG South Korea, sublime.
What is sublime photography?
The first question at hand is what is sublime photography, what makes it sublime etc.? First and foremost, I think a sublime photo is effortlessly beautiful, has a lot of curves and squiggly lines in it, arabesque composition etc. Also, to me a sublime photo is black and white monochrome. Grain, contrast. The best way to do this is use a digital camera which has a built-in JPEG setting that allows you to add maximum grain and contrast. For example I really actually like the grain simulation in my Panasonic Lumix G9 camera, maybe even the green effect is even more beautiful than the Ricoh GR 3 and GR 3X.
Wabi sabi aesthetics
Why grain? I believe that grain makes a photo beautiful because in terms of aesthetics, images which are too clean and perfect and sanitized lack dynamism. For example, just shooting a typical iPhone photo with HDR enabled in color mode, default mode, with all of the highlights and shadows true to life, typically speaking the photos are not that interesting. Why? We disdain the normal and every day and the real. Instead I think what we like is the hyperreal the surreal etc.
For example, the reason why I find Kyoto Japan to be one of the most beautiful places on planet earth is because of the wabi sabi aesthetics; the beautiful wear and tear and patina. Also what makes Japanese aesthetics so unique and interesting is that because they are an island and were sequestered from the rest of the world for so long, they were actually able to build their own unique system of aesthetics. For example even though I really love Korea, I think the downside of Korea and Korean aesthetics is that they did not have enough time to develop it; too much time being invaded by Japan, China, and now America etc.
How do we make sublime photos?
First and foremost, I think you must develop your taste and aesthetic preferences for your photos. The difficulty that a lot of photographers have, especially young photographers (it doesn’t matter your age, just assuming that you’re starting off) is that they don’t really know what they like.
Also the difficulty is that in terms of aesthetic taste, so much of aesthetics is tyranny; those in power and those on top try to superimpose their aesthetic taste and preferences to you in a tyrannatical matter.
For example, it seems that the current art world in photography had this preference for what I call “emo” medium format or large format film photography. Essentially photos with high definition and resolution in medium format or large format film photos, and whatever you photograph needs to be boring, plain, and emo.
There also seems to be a trend towards both the photographer and the subject of being disinterested, “objective“, and unattached.
I personally find this approach to not only be boring, but also weak and anemic. It’s like eating nothing but kale and lentils for the rest of your life, not even salt or garlic or pepper allowed.
More robust, stronger and more powerful approaches
I also have a personal theory that the physiology of the photographer also affects and influences the photos that they make.
For example, if you are sad, depressed, weak, pale and anemic, lacking exposure to natural light, certainly the photos you produce will also be the same.
Let us just take a good hard look at the modern day photographer. Who are they and what do they look like? First and foremost they don’t seem to exercise, hit the gym, and also they do not eat enough red meat. Their aesthetic preferences generally tends towards the past; they prefer vinyl records, flannel, the old and musty. The hilarious irony is that they believe film photography to be supreme, yet they always seem to have the newest iPhone Pro and spend waaay too much time on Instagram and social media. The simple heuristic:
Trust no photographer on Instagram.
The path
First, ascertain your aesthetic preferences, and pursue your own aesthetic ideals of beauty.
Second, do it digitally. Why? Fewer obstacles, and things to get in your way. I still have around 50 rules of Kodak portra 400 undeveloped and 20 rolls of Kodak Triax 400 I have yet developed, I doubt that I’ll actually ever have time to develop it.
It isn’t necessarily “excuses“ which get in our way; simply, most of us lack time. Even me, as a full-time self-employed individual, even I barely have enough time to keep up with my photography in terms of reviewing my photos uploading them selecting them etc.
Actually one entrepreneurial idea I got is creating some sort of app or program which can look through your whole photo library, and automatically select your best ones. This would be such a great idea because once again, if you have a backlog of 5000 photos, how will you ever have the chance an opportunity to review it all?
Studying the masters then killing them
My personal aesthetic is a combination of Henri Cartier Bresson, Richard Avedon, Joseph Koudelka, and Daido Moriyama.
I love black and white, high grain high contrast etc.
The reason why I love the static is that it is hard, strong, enforced. Also a pragmatic thing as well is that it simplifies scenes and things and people, makes them more dark and mysterious etc. In fact like a good movie, there must always be some sort of element of uncertainty and mystery.
A very optimistic thought; photography is beautiful.
Then, a very simple path we have as visual artists and creators a simple; just make more photos!
Why do photographers have such low self-esteem?
This is a legitimate question. Why is it that photographers have such a low self-esteem? Especially digital photographers?
First, all of these skinny fat losers, with trucker hats and beards, tattoos and not enough time in the sun try to distinguish themselves by shooting film, as a means to obfuscate their own personal insecurities.
Also, the art world is a weird place. I remember reading Howard Becker, his book “Art worlds“, and essentially at the end of the day, art and the art world is just a sociological phenomenon. Therefore to my great appreciation, studying sociology might have been the number one most critical thing for me to succeed as a modern photographer.
The international association of name droppers
A funny phrase from Nassim Taleb. Essentially people try to build their own personal legitimacy as either curators, artists, by trying to name drop all of these obscure artists and painters and photographers.
However, what I have discovered is that anyone who name drops anyone ad nauseam (until you want to throw up) is simply an individual with too much brains, not enough balls.
Maybe it is also a means to have individuals feel not as bad for wasting all this money on art school. It seems that the typical individual who goes to art school or any private school, can easily accrue $200,000 of debt. Certainly when they see somebody like ERIC KIM become so massively successful without all of that training, it makes sense that they are unhappy about it.
How is photography beautiful?
It is simple; when you see a photo that you have shot, and it is beautiful in your eyes, it is beautiful period.
I have experimented a lot myself, and in the quest of making beautiful photos, I have done and tried everything. Simple conclusions:
The Ricoh GRII, Ricoh GR 3, Ricoh GR 3X; all of these cameras you can produce very very beautiful photos, especially high contrast black and white JPEG photos for the GR III/x. For the OG Ricoh GR II, shoot raw and use the free ERIC KIM PRESETS.
Another camera that I have discovered which can produce insanely beautiful photos is the Panasonic Lumix G9, in high contrast black-and-white dynamic monochrome mode, with the grain and contrast set to max in JPEG.
Of course film produces magnificently beautiful photos. Yet, if you could produce the same thing in digital, maybe even more beautiful, doesn’t digital make more sense?
For example, the reason why digital cameras are superior to film cameras; the insanely close minimum focusing distance for macro mode! Film cameras cannot do this. Digital cameras can.
For example, the Lumix G9, because it is a micro 4/3 camera, the minimum focusing distance in macro mode is very very close. Being able to shoot these beautiful up close photos of the eyes of Seneca is magnificent.
Or, consider the Ricoh GR 3 or 3X, the macro mode of it is incredible!
So what is the point?
It seems that the bias in photography is this; become a very very famous and successful photographer, get a bunch of social media followers and likes, repeat etc.
Yet, this crusty old antiquated notion must be killed. We must go beyond the basic Parisian notions of success with galleries, solo publications, printed books, fine art print etc. We got to go Musk and Tesla and SpaceX; think carte blanche, think from scratch.
New notions
The first insanely simple thought is just make your own photography blog. My new approach is using Amazon Web services, Amazon lightsail and producing a WordPress instance, you can start off free! And after that it only costs $3.50 a month. That is the price of a single shot of espresso. Imagine only drinking one espresso a month! If you cannot afford $3.50 a month, this is weird.
And also consider the great idea that essentially you can upload and post 1000 photos at once, as a single blog post, essentially free! It is 1 trillion times cheaper and faster then printing photos in person.
How did ERIC KIM become such an innovative thinker in photography?
Ultimately at the end of the day, photography is my Archimedes lever. It is the thing I love the most, I am the most passionate about, and thing which is indefinitely fascinating to me.
Ultimately for myself, it is simply personal curiosity which has led me this far. As I write these words I am currently 35 years old, and I started my blog and my website at the age of 18 years old! Just give me three more years and I’ve been in the game for two decades!
Child’s mind
Perhaps the biggest way you can reinspire yourself in photography is have a kid, and just hand them your camera at a young age, and see what they could do with it. As early as I could remember, maybe even nine months old, I would let Seneca play with my Ricoh GR three, and then later my Ricoh GR 3X. Now at the age of two years and four months old, I am so surprised that he could pick up my Lumix G9 and shoot photos with ease.
Also, some thing that I have let him do it ever since he was insanely young was take the SD cards out of my cameras, take the batteries out of my cameras, and teach them how to import photos into my iPad using the USB-C to SD card reader for my iPad.
Kids are highly underrated. I think people would be 1 trillion times happier if they had kids instead of dogs.
Why so uninspired?
Truth be told, a lot of modern day life sucks. If you’re stuck in the office all day, or in zoom meetings all day, not only is this bad for your health and soul, it is also bad for your photography.
A simple solution is just travel every once in a while. Even as I voice dictate these words into my iPad Pro, walking around in the mountains of a Hadong South Korea, I love being here.
People waste too much money on their homes, their cars, other silly things. My personal thought is just devote 90% of your money to travel, live nomadically, live abroad, or just shake up things every once in a while. The simplest solution to re-inspire yourself as a photographer is just get your ass into a plane.
Even the airport, an insanely dynamic place which breathed new life into me.
Life goals?
Life goals are important. Why? To dream big and audaciously is not only fun and interesting, but also very creative and imaginative!
For example my new life goal is to inspire the creativity of every single human being on planet earth, all 7+ billion of us. Photography may be the path, as it is the easiest most accessible form of art creation in today’s world. All you need is an iPhone SE and you’re good.
So where should I go?
So many opportunities.
Some places that I have been to which have been insanely inspiring to me include Saigon and Hanoi in Vietnam, Phnom Penh in Cambodia, Dubai, Stockholm, and also Seoul South Korea. Japan is also great, Osaka Tokyo in Kyoto, just watch the new John Wick 4 movie and see the sequences in the Osaka intercontinental hotel. Stunning.
Honestly any place that you go to, any place you travel to which is not your home is good.
Also it doesn’t need to even be a big city. Even retreating to the countryside or the mountain side is good!
All you need is a Wi-Fi connection
As long as you have a website and Wi-Fi connection, what else do you need!
ERIC
Where will you go next?
Travel with me:
CONQUER SAIGON (only one day left for the early bird discount!)
One of the richest places to gain inspiration as a photographer is film and cinema. Why? I find the compositions in great films and movie to be much more inspiring than even looking at photos or photo books. Why? The cinematographer and the director has all the time in the world to set up their shots, which means that the compositions they produce are so so so so beautiful and fascinating.
Even John Wick 4– just buy it on Apple TV, and watch the extras. It is so inspiring.
Some sequences that I personally love in John Wick 4 include the Osaka scene, the cinematography of the high-rise office building in New York City, and the sequences in Paris.
Other places to get inspiration
I have a simple thought; if you walk 30,000 steps a day, it doesn’t even matter where you go, and assuming that you have a camera in your front right pocket, or even an iPhone, how can you not be inspired?
A simple solution is get the lululemon license to train shorts, the one with the big front zipper pockets, and just put your camera whatever it is in your front right pocket. If it cannot fit, it is no good.
Now what?
I think philosophically, a lot of us seek deeper meaning with our art and creativity. In today’s modern day capitalistic world, it seems that the only measures of success include notions of “progress“, growth, increased numbers, money, human heads etc.
For example, a lot of people think that they are progressing in their photography if they’re getting more followers on social media or more likes. Or, monetary gains.
However all of this is in accurate, as the algorithms which govern social media are slanted towards arbitrary measures.
I say, as long as if every single day you’re shooting your photos, reviewing the photos that you shoot, and having fun, you’re perfect!
ERIC
Share the motivation
If you have a fellow photographer friend or family member that needs a shot of inspiration, feel free to forward this to them!
If you could lift over 960 pounds with your legs, certainly is this will help your photography.
Also, a lot of photographers as well will benefit from just doing basic yoga stretches, like downward up dog, three legged dog, pigeon pose, scorpion pose, mermaid pose. Why? The more agile you become and easier you can squat down all the way to the floor, the more creative and innovative compositions you can make.
The genius is in your legs!
Every day is leg day
Other exercises which can benefit you include very very heavy Farmer’s walks, with the heaviest dumbbells you can muster, whether it be 100 pounds or 150 pounds, lift it up with chalk and see how far you could walk it out.
Or just do very very heavy rack pulls, sumo deadlift form with the mixed grip. Just YouTube or Google “ERIC KIM rack pull” and find out.
The general idea is that any exercise that you do while standing is good for you. Any exercise in which you are lying on your back or sitting is bad.
The super super basic thought is just put an iPad in the hands of every single human being. Certainly there will be lots of people who squander its potential, yet, if used intelligently, you can unlock wonders.
For example, the Procreate app, Zen Brush for calligraphy, and also all of these abilities to create using voice dictation, writing without this nonsensical keyboard, which I feel like was a very disingenuous move from Apple. It was the ambition of Steve Jobs for the iPad to never have either a stylus or a keyboard; it was only after the death of Steve Jobs when these sneaky executives like Tim Cook approved it.
It is all good
Photo, video, audio, music, podcast, video podcasts— there are a trillion opportunities for you. There is really no good or bad way to do it; to simply create it is the goal.
I think the great thing about free is that it unlocks opportunity. Even a 99 cent entry will close off a lot of people.
Travel, being somewhere else?
I think also another big thing is traveling, and being somewhere else which is not “home“.
Why travel?
Even a simple super simple thing of transitioning to an airport, seeing the airport, and all the dynamic activity around it is insanely creatively stimulating for us.
Another thought is great cinema and film; I personally rate John Wick 4 as a perfect 10 or 10, maybe even a 12 out of 10.
Why? To me a great film inspires you, motivates you to keep traveling, seeing the world, and creating art. Even seeing the scene of the Osaka intercontinental hotel was so inspiring to me, it makes me want to go back to Japan. Also the pride of knowing that me and Cindy actually did spend some time living abroad in Osaka as well. Osaka photos >
Digital is the way
I am the first photographer who said that digital is actually superior than film, and actually means it.
Also I think it is a good idea to innovate for yourself and by yourself. To get rid of traditional notions of “success“, and instead, seeking to create new models of success for yourself.
For example for myself, my new definition of success as a photographer is to simply stay motivated to keep making photos. The second you lose motivation to make photos, consider yourself dead.
What is “creativity”?
Creativity — the propensity to create.
If you derive your primary joy in life from creating, you are a “creative“ person.
Becoming more “creative”?
Then it seems that our goal is to become more creative. How does one become more creative? Some thoughts:
1. First and foremost, think and create like a child.
For example, child’s mind is the most pure. Even Seneca at two years and four months old, she creates without hesitation, no self doubt etc.
Also what is very fascinating about Seneca as a photographer is that he loves to shoot photos, but he doesn’t really care to see them. Perhaps it is the joy of the shooting which he loves the most.
2. Second, steal inspiration from anywhere.
It doesn’t matter where you steal from, as long as it inspires you it is good.
Third, know that even the most “low brow“ places can be the sources of the richest inspiration. For example, I am 1 trillion times more inspired by John Wick than any other film at there combined. Even a fun fact, apparently in the whole film, John Wick only says 200 words. That is gangsta.
After a lot of thinking and philosophizing, this is what I have gathered:
I think the ultimate privilege is simply to strive to make great photos, become a great photographer, and become an ever greater photographer.
How?
The first thought to think and consider is this:
What does it mean to become a great photographer, and is it even a possible thing to become the “greatest“ photographer?
Being inspired to make photos until you die at the age of 120
OK so let us assume that I could predict with you with 100% certainty that you will live to be 120 years old, in phenomenal health. If that were the case, how can you structure your life in such a way which allows you to stay inspired and motivated to make photos until you die at 122?
First things first, don’t own a home. At worst, just own a condo. A lot of my successful friends, like my friends Don Dillon and Tim Flangan have done this; the upside of owning a condo is that you can just travel, and travel the world, and ultimately you will still have somewhere to keep your stuff, and go back home to. And at least when you’re on the road, you don’t have to worry about maintaining your home or the outside of your house.
Second, structuring your life which allows maximum movement and independence. This means a life in which you spend a good amount of time on the road, traveling, in other foreign places. It could be as simple as wing road trips in America, or more complex like traveling internationally. The world is a big ass place. And this is what gives me great hope.
For example, there are still 1 trillion places that have not yet been to, which I am interested in. I’m interested in going to Lagos Nigeria, Morocco, South America, Eastern Europe, Hungary, etc. And before all of this Ukraine Putin stuff, I was very interested in going to Russia Moscow.
Making great photos
I hate to say it, but certainly there is a hierarchy in terms of great photos compared to not as great photos. What is the differentiating factor?
For myself, when I study the work of Henri Cartier Bresson, and look at his more advanced works, he is really good at the arabesque composition. The squiggly line composition, which adds elegance to his photos.
Also, a Dionysian aesthetic. This means a dark, hard aesthetic. Extremely high contrast black and white, extremely high grain. For example, lately I’ve been shooting on my Lumix G9 camera, after my Ricoh GR 3X broke. I was able to use the in camera JPEG setting of dynamic monochrome, adjusting the contrast to the max, the grain to the max, and I think I have discovered a new aesthetic which I might even prefer over the Ricoh GR 3X in camera high contrast black and white.
In terms of longevity, I believe black and white is more durable than color. Why is this?
First and foremost, we don’t see the world in black-and-white. This alone is the massive differentiating factor between black-and-white photography and color photography.
Secondly, color, color science, digital cameras, sensors, sensor technology is always changing in terms of color. Also JPEG, RAW settings. CMOS vs CCD sensors for color, etc. this alone is a massive headache; and there is also a quadrillion different types of ways to print color, display color, and also view monitors with different color profiles etc. Black and white makes your life 1 trillion times easier.
The path to become a great photographer
How does one become a great photographer?
I think first of all, I think having an over stated ego, over inflated ego, over inflated self-confidence is a virtue and a good thing. First, I think you must have the desire, the audacity, and also the chutzpah to desire to become a great photographer.
I believe the 99.99% issue with modern day life is that it is considered immoral to desire to become great. That somehow, greatness, and striving to become great, is actually considered a vice.
Modern day life says one must be quiet, low-key, and ashamed of oneself. It is considered a vice to self promote, have self confidence in oneself etc.
I say, perhaps the best thing you could teach yourself, and also teach our kids is in fact to gain more self-confidence, to gain more audacity.
Great aesthetics?
In terms of making great photos, my simple thought is that making great photos is all about making photos which are strong, simple, and hard.
For example, some aesthetic thoughts:
Extremely high contrast black-and-white
Simple backgrounds
Some sort of strong character, subject, or happening or mood behind the photo
July 15-16th: SAIGON WORKSHOP (details to be announced)
OCT 14th— PHILLY WORKSHOP DETAILS TBA
New directions
iPad is a brick? I insanely love the iPad Pro, but I’m starting to realize it is a brick. Why? I keep hitting the 2 TB family limit, and irregardless of how many times I go back and delete all of my old photos and videos etc., I still keep hitting the max. Perhaps it is a good time to just transition back into Adobe Lightroom or Lightroom classic, and just do it on my laptop, off the cloud.
Testosterone in photography? It is my personal theory that there is a connection between testosterone and photography. Perhaps when we see a beautiful woman, or we want to shoot a street photo, or we want to shoot a street portrait, this boosts and affects and influences our testosterone? As a consequence, perhaps the best thing you could do for your street photography and your photography and life in general is striving to naturally boost your testosterone, consuming more beef, organ meats, and hitting one rep maxes at the gym. 885 pounds atlas lift.
I’m over Tesla? Me and Seneca just checked out the new Tesla model S in ultra red, and it looks great. I think Tesla and Elon really nailed it here; the previous red colors were not vibrant nor bold enough. Now, I think the Tesla model S plaid in ultra red is probably a perfect car. Especially with the all black interior and the new yoke steering wheel; there is literally no flaws I see. Yet once I have discovered perfect, I no longer feel a strong desire or need to own it anymore? Therefore, maybe the most intelligent strategy then is to just buy Tesla stock, or invest in anything Elon Musk does. Maybe I’ll be the first person to own $1 million worth of Tesla stock, yet not actually own a Tesla car myself.
Photo
How can you gain critical feedback and constructive feedback to improve your photography? Upload your photos to arsbeta.com
I still think there is a very good opportunity to be had when it comes to websites and blogs for your photography. What I am personally curious about is how to design a website which is very conducive to this.
I have spoken. RICOH IS KING. The best camera on the market, at any price-point.
Which RICOH is best?
The newest one.
I have made great photos on RICOH GR II, and I consider it a perfect camera. Some of my best RICOH GR II photos:
RICOH GR III
Newest Ricoh is currently the GR III. Also a great camera.
IN PRAISE OF RICOH GR II
I think the best camera for photography is the Ricoh GR II.
First of all; this is just my opinion. Now that we have that out of the way, let us continue:
1. Why I love the Ricoh GR II
I’ve been afflicted with GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) for most of my life. I started with a simple canon point and shoot camera (SD 600), and thought I needed to upgrade my camera to make better photos. I bought a Canon Rebel XT (350D), then the internet told me that I ‘had’ to get a full-frame camera to make better photos. After pulling out student loans, I bought a Canon 5D, 35mm f/2, 24mm f/2.8, a Canon 70-200 f/4 L, a Sigma 100mmm macro, and other accessories I thought I ‘needed.’
My passion was street photography, and when I started to study the masters of photography (Henri Cartier-Bresson), I found that he shot with a Leica. I soon became convinced that I needed to buy a Leica if I wanted to conquer my fears in street photography, to feel more ‘inspired’ to go out and make photos, and to better capture the ‘decisive moment.’
One day, I finally got the Leica M9. I thought it would fix all my life’s problems. It didn’t. Rather, it (eventually) started to collect dust on my shelf like any other camera. I then discovered the lie we are all spoon-fed by the internet and camera companies:
“If your photos aren’t good enough; your camera isn’t expensive enough.”
2. The best camera fits in your pocket
I am convinced the best camera is the one that fits in your front pocket. That can be your smartphone, or a simple point and shoot camera. I prefer the Ricoh GR II because it fits in my front pocket, has a large sensor with great image quality (APS-C sized), and is affordable.
I’ve owned Leica cameras in the past, and the problem with it is that you can’t fit a Leica in your front pocket. And if you have a Leica and a lens, it is actually heavier than it seems. Of course, a DSLR is much heavier.
So the thing I realized for myself: the smaller my camera, the more compact, and the lighter it is– the more likely I am to carry it with me wherever I go, and the more likely I am to make photographs, and the more likely I am to find joy, happiness, and creativity in my life.
3. Set it and forget it
Another thing I learned:
Set it and forget it.
I keep my camera in P (program) mode, ISO 1600, center-point autofocus, and shoot in RAW with high-contrast black and white preview. I just point and shoot.
I follow my intuition when I make photographs. I don’t think. I just photograph what looks interesting to me. Afterwards when I go home, and look at my photos in Lightroom, I choose my favorite photos– and decide which to keep and ditch.
4. Bigger and heavier is worse
The bigger your camera; the less likely you are to always have it with you, and therefore, the fewer photos you will shoot.
When I had the Canon 5D, Canon L zoom lens, I felt like a ‘pro.’ Yet it was so heavy, and I hated carrying it with me. Even when I backpacked through Europe in college (with the Canon 5D, 35mm f/2, and 24mm f/2.8) I wish I left the camera at home. The heavy camera made my trip less pleasant. It made me less mobile. I became a slave to the camera, because my focus was to make good photos — rather than to have a good experience.
5. Flash
Shot with a flash during the day
A big thing I love about the Ricoh GR II: the built-in flash. I use a flash in a lot of my photos, and it is easier to have it integrated into the camera, rather than having to have an external flash.
The flash adds better contrast to my photos, and a nice ‘pop.’ I make a stronger ‘figure to ground’ composition in my photographs. Also, it helps me control the light, when the light isn’t always in my favor.
I am no longer a slave to light. Now with the flash; the light is my slave.
6. Ergonomics
No matter how advanced technology becomes, the human hand will not change. We need cameras that fit comfortably in our hand.
The Ricoh GR II fits perfectly in my hand. It is a small compact camera, yet has a sturdy grip. It is built solid, and doesn’t feel cheap.
7. Design
The design of the Ricoh GR II is pretty much perfect. There is nothing left to add or subtract. The design has been a classic– since the film Ricoh GR cameras. It is like a Leica camera– the design is perfected.
The GR II looks good from any angle, and fits in your front pocket. I like how the lens comes out when you turn it on, which allows the camera to be smaller.
8. Menus
Also, menus and the user interface is important. I think the Ricoh GR II camera was actually engineered and designed by photographers. Why? The menus are simple, make sense, and not superfluous. You can almost customize everything, but still find all the options.
9. Dials
I am a big fan of the ‘adjustment lever’ on the back of the Ricoh GR II — which makes it easy for me to change the ISO, focusing, and other options (you can program this).
Furthermore, I like how not everything is programable in the dials. I think it is the responsibility of the camera designers to know what is best for the photographer. I believe in the Steve Jobs model — people don’t know what they want until you give it to them.
I love how easy it is to change the exposure-compensation on the back of the camera as well.
10. Image quality
For monochrome, the Ricoh GR II looks amazing from ISO 1600-3200.
For color, the Ricoh GR II looks great from ISO 800-1600.
Because it has a larger sensor, the images are a lot sharper, and have more detail and resolution than a smartphone. I am still a big fan of smartphone photography, but I still prefer the look of the photos I get on the Ricoh GR II.
11. Lens
The Ricoh GR II is by default a 28mm lens (full-frame equivalent). You can also turn on a 35mm/50mm crop mode. I used to shoot the 35mm crop mode quite a bit, but since then, I have transitioned into shooting 28mm for everything; as I find it more of a fun challenge.
The lens is very sharp, and the aperture of 2.8 is more than I need.
12. No camera is perfect
The Ricoh GR II isn’t perfect. The autofocus is relatively slow, inaccurate, and the buffer for RAW files is a bit slow.
Yet, despite those flaws, I still think it is perfect to me. I have made some of the most meaningful personal photos with it the last 2 years, and great street photos as well.
I also love it for travel. Small and light, and I can charge it via a USB cable. So no need for superfluous chargers.
I genuinely believe that any photographer that buys a Ricoh GR II will love it, and it will allow them to always have their camera with them (no excuses), end up making more photos, and finding more personal meaning in their photography and life.
13. Don’t buy it if you cannot afford it
If you’re tight on a budget; please don’t buy the Ricoh GR II. Just use the camera you already own, and make photos that make your heart sing.
14. Make more art
The smaller and less obtrusive the camera; the better. The more art you can make. So regardless if you use your smartphone or whatever– just make more art:
The oak tree is a good analogy because it is insanely big and strong, hard, unyielding.
Robusta coffee
Currently here in Saigon Vietnam, and a new passion and interest; towards robusta coffee, which has a higher caffeine content, and also less sugar. So purely from a health and physique perspective, robusta coffee should be superior to arabica because arabica is sweet, arabica has more sugar molecules in it than robusta.
How to lose fat
The secret of losing fat, body adipose tissue is very simple and straightforward: simply abstain or do not consume any starches, carbs, starchy vegetables, fruit, anything sweet, whether real sugar fig sugar or some other silly “zero calorie”. this means no Coke zero, no diet coke, no monk fruit, none of that nonsense.
I have a theory that if you want to become more robust, it is simple, only consume a 100% beef-based diet, and the only non-meat items you consume or bitter ones. Don’t eat anything sweet. That’s your side dish is simply really bitter dark leafy greens, whether it be Collard greens, mustard greens, perilla leaves etc.
Become more primal
Who is that the reason why so many people are miserable in modern day living is that we no longer have the privilege or opportunity to be primal. For example, we are no longer permitted to be loud, yell, scream and shout, cry, express anger, thump our chest etc.
For example something that I have observed is traditionally, in modern day society at least in the more “modern” ones, to be quiet, silent, unobtrusive, low-key, avoiding eye contact or confrontation is seen as a virtue. We often scorn people who are loud, rambunctious, having a jolly old time.
For example, what is K-12 education? Learning how to deal with boredom, learning how to become silent, sitting down and shutting up, obeying the teacher etc.
A new path
Assuming that happiness is indeed your life goal, or perhaps becoming more, allow yourself to become louder, more rambunctious, more flagrant.
For example, I think the reason why people hate Kanye West so much is because of several reasons; first and foremost, they hate how outspoken he is, how he speaks his mind without any self-censorship. Yet this is precisely what gains him diehard fans like myself, Because indeed he speaks his mind, he doesn’t lie, whether you agree with him or not, at least you know he’s not lying.
Robust thinking
With words, thoughts, philosophies, techniques methodologies etc., I believe that the robust ones are supreme.
For example, any thoughts or topics in which the ancients have touched upon, or any words and etymology which has gone back to the Proto Indo European, tend to be robust. Much of modern-day thinking is fragile at best, notions of “equality“, “justice“, “fairness”, etc. are modern day notions. In ancient times, ancient Greek times, some ancient Roman times, it was more about rank, hierarchy, power, courage, bravery, lethality etc.
For example, Achilles was seen as supreme because he was the most lethal. Nobody was even half a chance to him, he was even so lethal and powerful that not even the gods could take him. The only difference between Achilles and the gods was that Achilles was mortal whereas the gods were not.
Modern day times
What makes one fragile in modern day times? Social media numbers and followings, numeration of money, popularity, fame etc.
What makes one robust? Self-confidence, self faith, self assurance, etc.
Avoiding modern day pressures
A personal life thought is that we must seek the past for more robust modes of thinking.
For example, in modern day times it is seen as virtuous to be more “productive“, and work is also seen as a virtue. However, can you imagine an ancient Greek or Roman; they would be befuddled …
“Isn’t “work” simply for slaves?
For example, the ancient Spartans. What did an ancient spartan nobleman do? Simply enjoy his leisure, training for physical combat, hang out with his buddies, philosophizing, making pithy jokes etc. Who did all the grunt work? The helots.
What should be the purpose of coding? I believe that clothing should be seen as modern day armor. Good clothes make you feel more confident, stronger, more ready for anything.
For example nowadays, the only clothes I wear are fitness clothes, because I want to be always ready to lift.
Robust fabrics
Even though I love merino wool, I hate it because it is so fragile. It seems at best, merino wool really lasts you only maybe a year or two, then eventually it falls to shreds.
A new fabric that I’ve discovered which is surprisingly robust is linen. Why? Linen has been around ever since ancient times, apparently even the ancient Romans used something called a “Linothorax”, which was essentially armor entirely constructed out of linen, albeit that it was layered almost 50 times, with some sort of animal glue in between.
Also while on the road, lightness is godlike. Linen is insanely light, robust, and also tries insanely quickly. This new HAPTICWEAVE style of linen I have discovered is phenomenal because of the unique three-dimensional octagonal pattern, which almost looks like modern day medieval armor. Imagine like modern-day chain mail.
Clothing is a bad business to be in?
Going to the MUJI store the other day, and looking at Uniqlo, Zara, H&M, etc., Cindy commented:
Perhaps clothing is a bad industry to be in.
Why? Places like MUJI, Uniqlo etc. have thousands of different linen products, constantly new styles and innovations coming out etc. Isn’t it simply easier to just buy it, instead of designing, producing, and selling it?
A thought:
I desire to become the new Cristobal BALENCIAGA.
Why? I have always been passionate about clothing ever since I was a kid, in terms of style, and then later on into function. Being a globetrotting nomad, to me fabric is so insanely critical because when you want to pack as light as possible, you don’t want anything additional.
For example, HAPTIC ARMOR. You can simply use it every single day or several times a day as a bath towel, or you could take it to the gym to put over your yoga mat during hot yoga, or when you’re out in the brutal sun, use it as a shawl or a scarf to protect you from the sun while also absorbing moisture away from your body.
Truth be told, we all live within a capitalist consumerist society, and I think that the reason why world peace exists is precisely because of free market capitalism. The reason why I am skeptical that China will ever go to war with America is that the rich mainland Chinese love their iPhone Pros, and their designer luxury goods. Can you imagine if suddenly overnight, rich mainland Chinese people no longer had access to iPhones, and other American goods?
Also on the flipside, what would Americans do if we no longer have access to high-quality Amazon goods, most of which are made in China. Let us also not forget that the iPhone, and pretty much all the Apple products are produced in China.
Create products you desire to see manifested in reality
If I could design my own perfect thing of a certain thing, what would it look like?
Oh for example, the Henri neck strap was born out of my personal desire of creating the perfect neck strap. And later on, ERIC KIM strap series came out of my desire to create a perfect strap for my Ricoh GR camera— WRIST X NECK.
Now what?
Seek robust!
ERIC
Robust Life goals?
What are some robust life goals you can seek? I think ones which do not require the approval or the nod of others.
The oak tree is a good analogy because it is insanely big and strong, hard, unyielding.
Robusta coffee
Currently here in Saigon Vietnam, and a new passion and interest; towards robusta coffee, which has a higher caffeine content, and also less sugar. So purely from a health and physique perspective, robusta coffee should be superior to arabica because arabica is sweet, arabica has more sugar molecules in it than robusta.
How to lose fat
The secret of losing fat, body adipose tissue is very simple and straightforward: simply abstain or do not consume any starches, carbs, starchy vegetables, fruit, anything sweet, whether real sugar fig sugar or some other silly “zero calorie”. this means no Coke zero, no diet coke, no monk fruit, none of that nonsense.
I have a theory that if you want to become more robust, it is simple, only consume a 100% beef-based diet, and the only non-meat items you consume or bitter ones. Don’t eat anything sweet. That’s your side dish is simply really bitter dark leafy greens, whether it be Collard greens, mustard greens, perilla leaves etc.
Become more primal
Who is that the reason why so many people are miserable in modern day living is that we no longer have the privilege or opportunity to be primal. For example, we are no longer permitted to be loud, yell, scream and shout, cry, express anger, thump our chest etc.
For example something that I have observed is traditionally, in modern day society at least in the more “modern” ones, to be quiet, silent, unobtrusive, low-key, avoiding eye contact or confrontation is seen as a virtue. We often scorn people who are loud, rambunctious, having a jolly old time.
For example, what is K-12 education? Learning how to deal with boredom, learning how to become silent, sitting down and shutting up, obeying the teacher etc.
A new path
Assuming that happiness is indeed your life goal, or perhaps becoming more, allow yourself to become louder, more rambunctious, more flagrant.
For example, I think the reason why people hate Kanye West so much is because of several reasons; first and foremost, they hate how outspoken he is, how he speaks his mind without any self-censorship. Yet this is precisely what gains him diehard fans like myself, Because indeed he speaks his mind, he doesn’t lie, whether you agree with him or not, at least you know he’s not lying.
Robust thinking
With words, thoughts, philosophies, techniques methodologies etc., I believe that the robust ones are supreme.
For example, any thoughts or topics in which the ancients have touched upon, or any words and etymology which has gone back to the Proto Indo European, tend to be robust. Much of modern-day thinking is fragile at best, notions of “equality“, “justice“, “fairness”, etc. are modern day notions. In ancient times, ancient Greek times, some ancient Roman times, it was more about rank, hierarchy, power, courage, bravery, lethality etc.
For example, Achilles was seen as supreme because he was the most lethal. Nobody was even half a chance to him, he was even so lethal and powerful that not even the gods could take him. The only difference between Achilles and the gods was that Achilles was mortal whereas the gods were not.
Modern day times
What makes one fragile in modern day times? Social media numbers and followings, numeration of money, popularity, fame etc.
What makes one robust? Self-confidence, self faith, self assurance, etc.
A simple thought on life; a life lived with maximal passion, ambition, and personal interest:
First of all, let us address ambition:
How to Become More Ambitious
Ambition is funny because sometimes it is seen as a virtue, sometimes it is seem as a vice.
For example to be too ambitious is seen as a bad thing, because you do it at the “expense” of others.
I say fuck it — ambition is good. Ambition, to hunger and strive for more is one of the greatest virtues of man!
Ambitious for what?
This is the even more tricky thing — let us say you are ambitious, but for what?
Personally speaking I am more ambitious to see more, discover more, think more, become stronger, advance and evolve myself with more unique interesting and diverse experiences, to ultimately become more.
Truth be told I have almost zero interest in money. Why? To me, my greater goals are related to physical and physiological strength, towards innovation, entrepreneurship, and creating cool shit and sharing it with others! I seek a life with the maximum thrill, fun, uncertainty, creative risk, guts, and balls.
Your creative risk life goals?
I believe in the age beyond money and silly notions of success, I say it all comes down to creative ambition. That is, what do you desire to create?
Build your own platform, company, or business
Profits are simply a means to an end.
Nothing needs to get “done”.
I still think there is a robust future ahead of us in terms of websites, website technology, blogging, etc.
Amazon web services, WordPress, and open source websites.
Now let us address value:
On Value
What is “value”, and how does one create it?
First of all, consider … what do you value and desire?
For myself I value certain ideals like becoming stronger, one rep max at the gym, atlas lift, rack pull etc.
Therefore for me, to create value in the context of weight lifting is to create things which inspire or motivate others to also increase their one rep maxes in the gym and beyond. Sharing my videos of me doing it, my thoughts and theories etc.
Second — does it need to be physical, or is digital fine?
Creating value for the sake of what?
Valor, valere— having worth, pr ultimately being brave.
To me the “economy” is simply human activity. Thus to stimulate the economy or the movement of others is the #1 critical thing of value!
Takeaway point — anything which moves people is what has the ultimate value!
ERIC
Turbo thoughts
All of the money is just fake money. Just ones and zeros, and digital data. Therefore, do not use money is a metric for “success”.
What is a more noble goal? Reckless and audacity in terms of creativity.
Design is still the future: we buy it for the design, not anything else. Consider the great renaissance of Hyundai Kia and Genesis, by going all in on disruptive design, they have totally changed the game.
Currently here in Saigon, the growth and entrepreneurship here is phenomenal.
Currently the city or space which interest me the most is Pan Am Penh Cambodia. While there are still lots of opportunities here in Vietnam, I believe there to be more opportunities in Phnom Penh.
Become the all black on black on black, murdered out Range Rover defender
It looks like currently speaking, people are going bananas on the murdered out, black on black on black, Matt black look for cars. But instead of just buying it, why not transform your body to look like it? Become more mean in medicine, more muscular, Less body fat.
Becoming more passionate
My personal life: thought; becoming more ambitious, and also, becoming more passionate.
Why is passion important, and what does it mean?
First and foremost, I believe passion to just be a burning desire for something. A burning desire to become a change what you wish to see manifested in the world, or the desire to create and propagate your passion to the rest of the world.
Two feet down
The first step: once you’ve put your heart to something, commit. 2 feet down, all in.
For example, HAPTIC ARMOR. My new insanely ambitious approach to fabrics, materials, new cloths.
Why do I care?
What you decide to care for and not care for, I don’t think there’s any real logic to it. Simply, you must commit to your heart.
How to know what you’re passionate about?
I think the problem in modern day life is that there is a social pressure what one should be passionate for and what one should NOT be passionate for.
However, the problem is that these tyrants try to superimpose their value structures upon us. What we must do is instead, turn our head and shoulder away, and blatantly ignore all of this nonsensory.
Commit to your passion
What I encourage is this: whatever you’re passionate about, commit to it, disregard modern-day notions of economic gain, or “productivity“. It doesn’t need to be productive, simply authentic.
Spend some time thinking about what you’re passionate about, and with all of your might and mind, strive to strip away what society wants and expects of you.
Beyond economics: Once again, disregard notions of material and financial gain. Passion is beyond money and numbers, commas and zeros.
To mirror the thought of our best friend Nietzsche, the will to simplicity is a good one. In your design thinking and body, your life etc., strive to simplify.
Disruption is doing the things I am most passionate about. Why?
I have always been a disruptive person. I would disrupt the teacher, disrupt others when they are talking, etc.
Typically, this is seen as a bad thing. But as we all know in Silicon Valley, this is actually the desired end.
The difficult irony is typically speaking, in real life, being disruptive is frowned upon. Why? When we disrupt or or disruptive, we often think of it as negative detriment to our own authority.
Why disrupt?
I believe in order to innovate, you must disrupt. Disrupt the old way of doing things, the old way of thinking of things, etc.
For example, when I first pioneered the open source approach to photography; making my photos all available for full resolution, JPEG online for free. No stupid watermarks or “image protections”. This ended up actually benefiting me in the long run, as it allowed my images to propagate.
The reason why it was disruptive was all the other photographers out there started complaining, because I set a precedent; they saw that my innovation or my approach was positively detrimental to themselves.
What is that true? No. This only applies if you see the world in a zero sum aspect; my approach doesn’t change yours. Anyone who thinks it does is petty minded at best.
1. See yourself on the other side
I don’t know about you, but personally speaking, I hate having to pay anything for information, knowledge, e-books etc. Therefore my approach has been to make it free.
Also, I hate subscriptions. And should be taught I don’t think anyone really does. Therefore, in terms of the products you make sell etc., I am very anti-subscription model. I think there are more innovative ways or other ways to monetize effectively.
2. Don’t give a F
I think when you think too deeply or critically about things, you fall victim to “paralysis by analysis”. That is, thinking too much will harm you more than benefit you, because too much thinking means you don’t act.
I think the best way to approach innovation and disruption is a bricolage technique and approach; that is, nobody has any idea how something will result, unless you just try, attempt, and experiment.
As a consequence, perhaps the best strategy is,
Just fuck it — just try it out!
3. Aberrant thinking
What does it mean to “think different”?
The difficult thing is that the goal is to think differently, in the substantive and genuine and honest way. Not to simply go against the crowd for the sake of it, but to truly think and consider for yourself, is the same better, or a different better?
For example, I was very anti-Apple and iPhone etc. for much of my teenage and college years. I didn’t like the lemmings, the Apple fan boys.
However, when I did finally switch in my 20s, I actually did discover in fact, Apple was superior to Windows and PC, and iPhone and iOS was really truly superior to android by at least 1000 degrees.
Therefore, don’t be like those superficial individuals who try to distinguish themselves by being a strange, retro, or abstruse as possible. We want to be substantively different.
4. Travel and or live abroad
I believe one of the greatest benefits of traveling or going abroad is the fact that it disrupts your traditional way of approaching things. For example, when Cindy and I were in Daegu for a conference, the Airbnb we stayed blew my mind. And one of the funny innovations they had was they had a hand pump, which look like the typical hand soap pumps, but in fact, it ejected toothpaste!
This was so inspiring to me, because the thought about toothpaste, it is insanely wasteful. After you’re done with the tube, you have to throw away the whole thing. All that waste and packaging. While I do think that all of this hippie nonsense about “saving the planet” is superficial, one of the big benefits of a more “sustainable include approach is that it actually just makes your life easier. For example if you were just able to fill up a hand soap pump with toothpaste, and just use toothpaste that way, the benefit as you don’t have to buy toothpaste is often, and I also believe that the toothpaste industry is such a huge scam; it is insanely expensive, and is bad for the planet. Even Nassim Taleb has a suspicion against toothpaste— the bristle for brushing your teeth is natural, but adding additional chemicals into your mouth to offset all of this sugar and starch we consume, perhaps this is not necessary. As a result even I am starting to get suspicious against fluoride in toothpaste. Fortunately I do not consume any sugar and starches.
Another difference I have discovered here in Korea is the whole bathroom situation; essentially in tight quarters, the concept and idea is to have your showerhead connected to your sink faucet, saving space. As a consequence the whole bathroom is perpetually wet. Koreans use bathroom slippers to enter, and ultimately I think this is smart because it saves space, and also it is good when your kid wants to just hang out in the bathroom and shooting water all around the place with a showerhead.
The great thing with traveling and going to foreign places is because it helps you discover that there are 1 billion different ways to do different things. There is not one “standard“ way to do things. And as a consequence I find this extremely enlightening because you can simply pick and choose the approaches and things that you like, And filter it yourself.
Same thing in Asia, typically we Asian people sleep on the floor with thick futons. Instead of Americans are Westerners who’s sleep in beds with traditional bed frames.
I think ultimately this is good onto innovation and disruption because it teaches you:
There is not one “correct“ way to do anything.
Therefore as a consequence, your approach is unique and good.
5. Allow yourself to become more “Asperger‘s“, or “autistic“
A note; I think if I was put in the traditional K-12 education today, and I had some sort of mildly intelligent educated parents here in the states, I would definitely be classified somewhere “on the spectrum“, or diagnosed with some sort of fake thing like ADHD etc.
Certainly there is very very obvious forms of autism, especially when it affects children in terms of their morphology and their motor functional skills.
However, for a lot of other things, it is easy to put people into these pseudoscientific boxes, just because they think different, act different, and approach the world a little differently.
Even Elon Musk said he had some sort of Asperger’s or autism or some thing when he was on SNL. My personal thought is he probably isn’t, but, the intelligence of branding yourself like that is that allows you to get away with a lot of aberrant behavior.
I think in order to truly disrupt and be innovative, you gotta be a little bit crazy. Or, you disdain the same.
Even for myself, the people I much prefer interacting with our children, young children, teenagers, or even college kids. It seems that once people graduate college and get “real jobs“, they start to lose their child like curiosity and ingenuity.
Also, my personal favorite people to hang out with or a little bit socially different, in terms of how they think I can interact etc. To me this is much more inspirational than the traditional “normal“ person.
6. Call out BS
One of the greatest things and benefits of studying sociology is that it made me realize that so much of modern day life and sociology is a bunch of BS. Use your own inner BS detector well — refuse to follow BS traditions, or things you don’t believe in.
For example, one of the most inspiring things that I learned from Walter Isaacson‘s biography on Steve Jobs was how Steve Jobs refused to follow any sort of tradition, whether in the states or in Japan. Apparently there were periods that he refused to wear shoes, and will just walk around barefoot all day, and also refused to shower, saying that his fruitarian diet prevented him from smelling (he smelled).
I think currently speaking, Kanye West is like Steve Jobs 2.0 to me. This is why I am such a huge fan of Kanye, he simply thinks different, and does different. And it is his “unrealistic“ audacity is what inspires me.
7. So what now?
Become to change what you wish to see manifested in the world.
Also, as time goes on, become more reckless, more daring, and ignore others even more.
Or in my thinking, the time goes on become more crazy!
100% Lithuanian linen weaved in South Korea with cutting-edge technology.
Created, made, and stitched by hand, with the soul of the artisan.
Octagonal three-dimensional weave pattern; virtually indestructible and absorbs water and dries at least 50x faster than cotton.
Perfect for the traveler and nomad: Your new travel companion that you could take with you anywhere— whether on the road, internationally or back home.
Engineered for the furthest use: Use it as an every day bath towel, to wick away your sweat while in hot and humid environments, and to protect you from the sun. Suitable as a covering for your yoga mat, or even a floormat for you to lay down and take a nap on! Can also double as a picnic blanket or a beach towel/blanket.
The only limit of HAPTIC ARMOR is your own imagination.
Available now for pre-order. Shipping starts immediately August 7, 2023!
HAPTIC ARMOR: Become the traveler, nomad and adventurer you desire:
Your Linen Armor
Inspired by the Ancient Greek and Roman Linothorax (a 50x layered linen based armor chestpiece), we present to you HAPTIC ARMOR— an experimental 100% HAPTICWEAVE cloth which is your new metaphorical suit of armor.
The Concept
HAPTIC ARMOR is forged using 100% linen imported from Lithuania— the center for the highest quality linen in the globe. Secondly it is processed and weaved here in South Korea using advanced Korean weaving technologies to create a unique octagonal three-dimensional texture, optimized for strength, durability and weight. 100% linen fabrics are the most supreme at wicking away moisture and water, and the grid-weaved waffle texture means that the HAPTIC ARMOR will dry insanely quickly.
Virtually Indestructible
HAPTIC ARMOR is designed to be used and abused, with zero fear of it degrading. The purpose of HAPTIC ARMOR is to encourage you to live more courageously and recklessly.
The Best for the Best
Seek the best, the most supreme.
HAPTIC ARMOR is the synthesis of my obsession with fabric— I currently the most supreme fabric I have ever discovered, even supreme to my beloved merino wool.
If you desire the most supreme of supreme fabrics, HAPTIC ARMOR is yours.
A day in the life of HAPTIC ARMOR
HAPRIC ARMOR is meant to be used and abused, engineered for the furthest use. Hang it in your bathroom, or on the rack, and use it whenever you hit the gym, or whenever you wash off at home. If you’re ready to jet set, throw it in your travel bag!
Your New Travel Companion
Venture further with your HAPTIC ARMOR. When you’re in transit, just wear it around your neck like a scarf or a garb, and when you visit new places with relentless sun, use it as a cloak to protect yourself from the sun.
Skill Attributes
HAPTIC ARMOR is naturally made from the highest quality in Lithuanian linen, 100% pure, strong, and legendary. Linen connoisseur from all around the world know that linen is the site of the greatest linen raw material, harvested and produced.
Leveraging advanced Korean technologies, HAPTIC ARMOR is mythical and one-of-a-kind. How it will upgrade you:
It will save you time: last time having to wash it, compared to inferior cotton fabrics.
Become stronger: It will encourage you to hit the gym or yoga more often; a perfect companion in your gym bag or on top of your yoga mat during hot yoga.
Hike further; 1000 times superior to any “travel“ towel you will discover at REI and beyond; linen is the most superior towel that naturally wicks sweat away for your body, while still remaining cool and dry to the touch.
Effortlessly elegant: the octagonal three dimensional weave is one of a kind. Like the noble aristocrats of ancient Korea, you will be distinguished by this fabric.
Armor: it is engineered to spark confidence within yourself, more courage.
Hygroscopic: Draws moisture and water away from you and your skin, 10x more effectively than cotton or any polyester-based microfiber fabric.
Naturally hypoallergenic: 100% pure Lithuanian linen, weaved and produced in South Korea; comfortable and confident inspiring even with individuals with the most sensitive skin.
Powerful: The unique Korean octagonal three dimensional weave makes it suitable for maximal tensile strength. Just try it out; wrap it around to dumbbells and lift it off the floor!
Fashion is Function: Armor is not just aesthetic, it is functional. The perfect marriage between function and fashion.
Distinguish yourself and stand out: why stand in, when you can stand out?
Where Will You Venture Next?
The difficulty of modern day living is that we lack the opportunity to adventure, quest, and conquer. HAPTIC ARMOR will be your mythical and unique carb, in which your only limit is your courage and creativity.
Shipping and Limited Availability
And the first batch of HAPTIC ARMOR is produced in an extremely limited quantity of 20. Preorders are available now with shipping starting August 7th, 2023:
Pre-Order Your Destiny
Be the first to achieve and receive HAPTIC ARMOR. The rare for the rare. The first line comes in only a limited quantity of 20 suits of armor. Seize your chance before they all sell out!
Use and Abuse It!
The great thing about HAPTIC ARMOR is that it doesn’t require any special or sensitive care. Just throw it in the washer, with normal detergent, and dry it in the dryer as well.
If you’re on the road, all you gotta do is put it outside in the direct sun and let it hang dry. The great benefit of 100% linen is that it doesn’t smell or retain any odors. And as Elon Musk said, sunlight is the best disinfectant.
First, Cindy and I have a passion for creating revolutionary products that will legitimately make your life better. We have been using it for ourselves the last two weeks, and it has legitimately made our lives better. For example, now that we are currently on the road away from home, being able to use haptic armor as a bath towel has reduced the insane annoyance of having to constantly wash and dry our towels.
Secondly, to stimulate economic activity. Our current production line includes myself, Cindy, my mom and Lily (linen “ajoomah”) currently here in Hadong South Korea. And being able to create a brand new product, built with passion and pride is insanely fun for all of us!
Third, to improve your life. If HAPTIC ARMOR even gives you a tiny bit more motivation and inspiration to travel, hit the road, exercise, workout, hit the gym, hit a hot yoga session, or get out of your house and do more creative things, it is worth it.
Now What?
This is a rare drop. Do you have ventured requested far enough; now it is time to seize your prize!
ERIC
Available Everywhere on Planet Earth!
Available now for pre-order and internationally. Seize your destiny now!
Consume the beverages and things most local to the local environment. For example, maybe while you are in East Asia, like Korea, better to just drink Hadong Green Tea instead of coffee. However if you are in Vietnam or Southeast Asia, just buy and drink coffee from Vietnam.
Cash thoughts: cashmere as one of the most underrated fabrics out there; for example I just made an experimental cashmere suit of armor, and it is actually very suitable currently in the hot and humid Korean summertime.
Create your own desired future: rather than just purchasing things, buy the raw material, and make it yourself. If you don’t have the skills to actually make things, find somebody who does, share your vision with them and have them build and produce it. You are the designer, the idea concept person. Work with skilled artisans to produce your vision. HAPTIC ARMOR CONCEPT.
Maybe our next car should either be a Hyundai, a Kia, or Genesis, doesn’t matter if gas, hybrid, or fully electric. My personal belief is currently speaking, Korea is at least 5000 times more disruptive and innovative than any other car company, even Tesla, in terms of car design.
THE LIFE OF OJ song by JAY Z— you still taking advances huh? me and my jiggas are taking real chances huh! Or any song about business and entrepreneurship by JAY Z — “I drop the label”. “World can’t hold me too much ambition it was still like this when I was still in the kitchen!”
Forward the disruption
Feeling a little bit more disruptive? Feel free to forward this to a friend!
Dear friends, I am insanely excited for the launch of our totally brand new, insanely innovative new idea. The basic concept is this: your new personal suit of armor. HAPTIC ARMOR.
The Concept
I have an insane obsession with fabrics, materials, clothing and concepts. But I personally believe that in today’s world, most of the field most road for disruption is new clothing, fabric, lifestyle concepts.
For example, my new obsession with Linen. I call it “HAPTICWEAVE.” It is forged by 100% of the finest linen on planet earth, straight from Lithuania. Then processed, synthesized and weaved here in South Korea.
Why the big deal?
To me, I consider HAPTIC ARMOR a fabric revolution. Linen has been around since the ancient Roman and Greek times, and once was even used as armor. Why? It is insanely light, breathable, and strong. Apparently even the ancient Roman and Greek armies used something called a “Linothorax,”— literally a chest plate of armor but made 100% with linen, but the secret was creating almost 50 layers of linen with some sort of animal-based glue, to make a lightweight, breathable, and supple armor which could withstand the penetration of an arrow, even at point blank range. It might have even been able to stop the penetration of a spear at close distances.
This was especially good because as we all know, in the Mediterranean, in Greece and in Rome, during the hot humid and arduous summer campaigns, it was insanely hot and humid. Imagine trying to fight battles in 100degree weather, hot and humid in the direct sun. You wouldn’t want some sort of medieval plate armor, you’d roast to death.
The funny bias in today’s world, there is a strange bifurcation; on one hand we all thrive because of free market capitalism, consumerism, production of capital and products, etc. But on the other hand, it is considered immoral to be too into purchasing things. It is my personal belief that world peace is only possible because of international and mutual commerce.
For example, the reason why China will probably never start World War III with America and the rest of the world is that China needs us for economic opportunities. China wouldn’t be the China we know her today if it weren’t for the vast market for Americans, American products etc. The spending power of the Chinese is good, but, the spending power of Americans is much stronger.
My friend Christophe has this funny story in which when he was really into Diablo II as an elementary school student, he really wanted this rare armor called the “Silks of the Victor,” the best armor you could get for your Necromancer. He outlined this hilariously cute story in which he found some online website which sold items, it might’ve been 10 or $20, and at the time because there is no real good way to send payments through the Internet, he arranged with this Stanford college student to send $20 in the mail, just a $20 bill through the mail, in order to arrange an item transfer.
My friend Chris, very excited quickly sent the money in an envelope through the mail, and was insanely disappointed because he didn’t hear from the guy for about a few months. He thought he was scammed, and lost his money. But fortunately eventually the guy got back to him, and apologized and said that he was busy with finals or something, and then promptly dropped off the item in-game.
The reason why I find the story so enlivening is that at least in the world of Diablo 2, assuming we take a Diablo II analogy to real life, the point isn’t to endlessly obtain gold, which is actually quite undesired at the end stage of the game, but instead to seek rare, mythical and unique items. The items being helmets, amulets, runestones, rings, shields, chest armor, weapons, greaves to cover your shins and feet etc. And then the ultimate goal is PVP, to create some sort of insanely powerful individual character, like a barbarian with whirlwind, and just being able to secure equals and challenge them to 1on1 combat.
My concept of HAPTIC ARMOR is like creating some sort of mythical garb, or armor for real life. Something engineered and created for the furthest used cases possible. For example, part chest plate, part travel garb, part everyday bath towel, part blanket to keep you warm on long and cold international flights, or even something to put over your hot sweaty and slippery yoga mat during those arduous hot yoga sessions. Or just something you could throw into your gym bag, When you hit the gym, or when you hit the road.
First, this insanely unique octagon and 3d weave pattern, something I have never witnessed in real life before. Second, created with the highest quality linen in the world, from Lithuania. Third, weaved here locally in South Korea, using advanced machinery and technology.
The result, a sublime fabric that is supple, soft, breathable, yet phenomenally strong and virtually indestructible.
The reason why I’m so jazzed about HAPTIC ARMOR is for its unique three dimensional weave pattern. Effectively what this does is increases the surface area of the fabric, which makes it even stronger, even more breathable, and even more effective for working away sweat and moisture from your body and also drying insanely quickly. 100% linen dries at least 50 times faster than cotton, and also is naturally breathable.
Whenever I go on the Internet, REI, etc., traditional travel towels and fabrics are made typically out of some sort of polyester, nylon, or synthetic fibers; which smells really bad, is not breathable, and also just feels really cheap.
My personal theory is the reason why animal or plant-based fibers and fabrics are so superior to synthetic ones is that you cannot fool mother nature; natural plant-based or animal fibers are so robust because of the hidden biology behind it; flaxseed, and plants have a survival based mechanism for the fabrics they produce, which comes in real handy for us humans.
Barbell, hybrid innovation
What I find so fascinating about our approach is we are mirroring two high contrasts, a hybrid barbell baaed approach — First, importing the highest quality linen on the globe from Lithuania, the raw material, and synthesizing our approach with modern day advanced Korean technology, with the processing and weaving of the fabric.
If you have a passion for materials fabrics or aesthetic things; this is actually your opportunity to get a taste of South Korean aesthetics and heritage; Korean traditions which have been around forever.
Only the rare for the rare
Once again, let us say that we are taking a Diablo 2 analogy to real life, what is it that we really seek and desire? I believe it to be rare things, where items, which are truly one of a kind, beautiful valuable and functional.
Also, my ambition is for you to use HAPTIC ARMOR forever, until you die. I have an insane frustration with fabrics or things which lack durability. For example, even though I really love my merino wool clothing my insane frustration is that after a year or two of hard use, it disintegrates. If I’m going to spend $120 on a T-shirt, I want it to last forever.
HAPTIC
What is HAPTIC, why HAPTIC? HAPTIC is me and Cindy’s brain child— HAPTIC INDUSTRIES was born out of a playful experiment when we were first living in Vietnam. My passion to create things items and objects which I wish to see manifested in the real world.
For example, the HENRI NECK STRAP, which is currently on the fourth version. A sign of a good creation. Essentially my thought was this,
If I could make a perfect camera neck strap for myself, what would it look like and be?
For myself, I have this obsession or passion to create or discover what I consider “perfect“ products. Certainly there is no such thing as anything which is perfect, but striving to seek or create perfect I believe to be an interesting and noble goal.
This is my Steve Jobs approach!
Nature doesn’t muck around
The octagon. Eight sided, just like a beehive or honeycomb. Max more string and durability, a shape which can withstand even the most brutal of wear and tear.
I hate fabrics which need to be babied and require special care. The great thing with HAPTIC ARMOR is that you can just toss it in any standard washing machine, add normal detergent, and just throw it into the dryer, at normal or maximum heat. None of this nonsense of “tumble dry low“.
Or, just letting HAPTIC ARMOR dry directly in the sun. Like Elon Musk said, the best disinfectant is the sun.
Ready for anything.
What are you fine insanely exciting about HAPTIC ARMOR is that literally, it is ready for anything and everything.
For example, when I recently did my 16 hour flight from LAX to Incheon to South Korea, I was actually really caught on the flight. If I had my haptic armor with me, I could just use it as a blanket to keep me warm.
Or, taking a nap. Even though it is a bit narrow, it comes in handy as a quick blanket on the go, when you least think you need it.
Why?
Oh my personal ambition is to create beautiful things which will legitimately help the lives of others, and also, for me to create things which I think will benefit others and the world.
And beauty function in fashion is all underrated. Seize your destiny.
I currently believe that the new wave of innovation lies in new concepts. For example, new clothing concepts, new ways to think about how to wear garbs around your body, and new ways you could use the fabrics we already got. For example, linen has been around forever, but has been lately overshadowed by cotton, because cotton is much easier and cheaper to produce. For example when we talk about “linens“, when we talk about our bedsheets, the hilarity as we still call it “linens,” but in fact most of it nowadays is cotton. My current thought is changing everything I got with our new HAPTIC LINEN— whether it be covers for my pillows, my shirts and overcoat, maybe even my pants or skirts.
The philosophy of aesthetics: something I believe to be insanely critical is your philosophy on aesthetics. For example I think I really love this idea of mirroring old concepts with new concepts. To integrate and create the perfect synthesis and hybrid between the old school and the new. I have yet to believe that any Korean American, or Asian American has done it effectively for Korea and South Korea; there is a beautiful future ahead of us, which has not yet been discovered. Perhaps I will be the first to touch upon it.
Check out and Google the new Hyundai Grandeur, and also the new Hyundai sonata. Korea and South Korea is currently killing it with car design, even the new Kia EV 9 SUV car design is insanely disruptive.
What I find very interesting is that Korea South Korea has a tradition of simply following the crowd and playing nice with the past. Yet it seems nowadays at least with car design, Koreans are making everyone look basic and iterative by design.
Reckless innovation and disruption
I think one thing that Korea and South Korea and Hyundai Kia and Genesis has going for it is that there is not too long of a tradition with their design language and aesthetic design. And I believe this to be a huge benefit, because it allows for radical disruption.
Let us consider the tragedy of German design, like the Porsche 911. Even if they wanted to do something insanely disruptive with it, they can’t. Why? All of these heritage snobs from the past who refuse to allow it to change.
Korean-American Hybrid?
A personal note on my identity. I was born in 1988, in San Francisco, and was raised my whole life in the states. I always wanted to perfect my Korean in my Korean speaking abilities, mostly out of shame that my Korean speaking ability was not fluent.
Yet now, I see this as a feature, not a bug. That means, I am actually insanely well positioned to be the bridge between America and Korea, in terms of cars (Hyundai, Kia, Genesis), in terms of mobile technologies (Samsung, LG), and now, Korean aesthetics and fabrics.
And new … SOUTH KOREA WORKSHOP 2024 (details to be announced)
Other Thoughts
Rather than wasting money on a car, buying a new car or a used car, invest the money instead of upgrading your technologies for your website blog etc. For example, you can start a WordPress right now with Amazon Web services for free, the most basic package is only $3.50 a month! You can literally build 100 websites, for only about $350 USD a month! This will be my new direction.
Don’t be weighed down by material things; sometimes I have this sense of opportunism which I just want to buy a bunch of stuff. But instead, don’t let things weigh you down. Instead what you could do is just rent as needed.
Now what?
If you want to get honest feedback on your photos, upload it right now to arsbeta.com
If you want to gain deeper inside and philosophy of your life, have a chat with Zen of Eric, why app?
Something I am thinking more and more about is how annoying and difficult it is to remit payment and money while you’re abroad. For example, I am limited to only taking out about $300 a day for foreign ATMs in Korean won, insanely annoying. Fortunately my Amazon prime credit card works well internationally, but still, there needs to be more of a global seamless way. A promising thought is chainlink is partnering with swift, the international banking concept, to propose in a solution.
Bitcoin may be the future world currency; currently speaking the US dollar is imploding, and we have too much fake money in the economy. Also the Chinese yuan is suffering massively. Maybe bitcoin might be the way. For example, imagine just buying a car for single bitcoin, or buying a house for 10 bitcoin. Crypto Thoughts >
Where to next?
Currently chilling in Hadong South Korea, but leaving in two days. Then going to be in Saigon Vietnam for about a month, lots more great innovation to come.
Stay updated on the ERIC KIM BLOG, feel free to forward this to a friend!
Watch the new John Wick 4, I consider it a 12 out of 10. Just buy it on Apple TV and watch the extras. Insanely inspiring.
Spend more time with kids, or people who are under the age of 18 who have not yet been corrupted by the system. Spending time with them is insanely refreshing. Nowadays I despise spending time with adults, all of them think too same same.
Travel, go abroad, jump in a plane and just go somewhere.
Hadong South Korea might be my new creative paradise. I see a bright future ahead of me here, in Seoul and beyond.
It seems that people really like the new Samsung smartphones. While I still think that iPhone is superior, maybe taking a more critical look at the new Samsung S phones is worth looking at.
Photo thoughts
When in doubt, just shoot it.
Life photography: don’t bifurcate your photography, just shoot it all.
The best camera fits in your front right pocket. Currently speaking the best shorts to get are the Lululemon license to train shorts, big enough to fit even a relatively large camera in your front right pocket.
Something that is currently on my mind is the thought of stimulating economic opportunity and activity. That is, how do you move people metaphorically and physically?
Not money, but economic activity?
An interesting thing being here in Korea; everyone uses the Korean won, KRW. A simple estimate is 10,000 won is around 8 dollars USD.
To me as an American, this is wholly confusing because I don’t really have a sense of how much things cost. For example let’s say you want to buy a home or a car, two very expensive things, the amount of zeros in commas is mind blowing.
Also, a funny thought at the end of the day:
It is all just monopoly play money.
For example, whenever I see a 10,000 won note, or even a 50,000 won note, it looks like fake money or play money to me. The same thing is when I see Vietnamese dong, or now even the US dollar.
My current thought is the best way to use and leverage money is to stimulate economic activity and to produce new things of value. For example, are insanely excited to share the announcement of HAPTIC ARMOR — available in the HAPTIC SHOP and ready for preorder. Shipping will begin mid August 2023. Don’t miss your chance to be the select few innovators to get this never-before seen product.
When I was back in Kyoto, I came up with this notion of “producerism“, the antithesis or the exact opposite of consumerism. The negative bias that we got in today’s world is that we think that we can only purchase things that we like, the culture of producing and making stuff that we like is a non-concept.
For example, let us say that you are really into fashion and design and other stuff like that. The typical workflow that we do is that we simply peruse stores, the internet etc., and we try to use our discerning taste to purchase clothing items or fashion items which we believe to echo our own personal aesthetic. However I believe a much more empowering path is to figure out how to obtain purchase and procure the raw material, and get either your mom, or someone with skills to actually sew and produce it.
ALPHAWEAVE
I ever since becoming an itinerant nomad, I have a passion for fabrics and materials which I believe to be the most supreme. For example, my never ending quest to discover, produce, the best travel clothing, whether it be Marino wool for T-shirts, Lululemon license to train shorts with zippers in the front and back, or even the vibram five finger shoes. And the exofficio boxer briefs.
Nomad Equipment
Something that I personally believe in is that if you desire to achieve the best possible life and lifestyle, becoming some sort of intermittent nomad is the best one. I call it the Genghis Khan lifestyle. That the purpose your life isn’t to buy a nice house somewhere and settle down, but always to be “on the road” or in transit, in between places. Never in one spot forever.
Some equipment that I am currently innovating:
ERIC KIM CASH ARMOR: I have had a passion for merino wool the last decade or so, yet a new material and fabric which is new and foreign to me is cashmere. I actually believe that cashmere is the future and is merino wool 2.0; it is superior in terms of function. Another day I just put a typed traditional Japanese/Korean inspired cloak, made out of 100% cashmere. It is like my invisibility cloak.
HAPTIC LINEN: While in Hadong South Korea, I discovered this new type of linen which I believe to be the game changer. Essentially it is 100% linen imported from Lithuania, one of the highest quality linen fabrics in the world. Yet what makes it interesting is that there is a South Korean company which processes and weaves the fabric, creating a unique three-dimensional grid weave pattern, with traditional Korean aesthetics. What makes it so phenomenal is that it is insanely strong, because it has a three dimensional hexagonal pattern; think of the octagon, which is one of the most powerful and robust patterns out there; just think of beehives and honeybees. We already have a prototype proof of concept product, which we will release an extremely limited quantities (first run is only 20 units). The use cases of it include an every day bath towel which dries insanely quickly, the other day Cindy used it to dry her self and Seneca off, and then I used it, and it was still dry. And within a few hours it already dried. Compare this to the hateful nature of cotton; it is heavy, smells bad, and takes forever to dry. It also doubles as a hot yoga mat towel; when you’re doing yoga or hot yoga, you can just drop it above your yoga mat, to prevent slippage. The third use case is using it as a rope or a shawl when out and about in nature or hiking, it is insanely breathable and can protect you from strong sun. Learn more about HAPTIC LINEN ARMOR >
THE FUTURE?
What is the future of the new global economy? Not China, not Japan. The issue is that more and more companies are leaving China because of the tense political relationship between America and China. Let us consider that most manufacturing is all moving to Vietnam; Lululemon makes their clothing in Vietnam, Samsung makes their smartphones in Vietnam, and I think Apple is starting to move more production into Vietnam, I think they produced some AirPods in Vietnam.
I call it the Golden triangle; America, Korea and Vietnam.
America because it is the center of the universe; it has the world’s biggest military, and also the worlds highest spending power. South Korea I am shocked; the spending power of South Koreans is very strong. And third Vietnam, a new emerging middle class and noveau riche class in Vietnam, and also it is becoming the new mega production center.
Also, Samsung Hyundai Kia genesis and LG. America used to buy Sony TVs, now it seems that all the smart TVs produced and purchased in America are now all Samsung. Also, Americans are buying lots of Hyundai, Kia and Genesis cars. I think that Hyundai/Kia/Genesis will become the new Toyota and Lexus.
Why?
So a big thought is what is the purpose of economic activity and stirring and stimulating economic activity?
First, I think economic activity just makes everybody happier. For example, building new things, new buildings, new concepts motivates people. Second, it is good for world peace. If mainland Chinese want to keep purchasing iPhone Pros, would they really want to invade and create some sort of new World War III? No.
I also as individual entrepreneurs, life is just more fun and interesting. It is all an economic risk, but isn’t that what makes life fun and interesting?
How can you as an individual solo person stimulate economic activity?
Very very simple; produce products and attempt to sell them to other people, plan and schedule workshops or travel experiences and try to get people to sign up for them and travel with you, or just motivate people to do something.
For example, my personal impetus is that I want to inspire and motivate people to create more. To become more creative.
How to Become More Creative
Becoming more creative— some tips:
Creativity is our life blood. I believe the maximally happy life is the most creative one!
1. Create like a Child
The first thought is become more like a child. Why? A child creates without constraints, hesitation or fear.
Honestly one of the best benefits of having a kid is that it is probably the most interesting witness to creativity; you learn and understand how a child is creative, and you could cross reference this to your own adult life.
2. “Name one genius that ain’t crazy!”
I think it was once Aristotle who said something that behind every genius is a touch of madness.
I think in order to create recklessly, you must allow yourself to become a little “crazy“. Let us consider, how crazy people thought when Thomas Edison was trying to invent his lightbulb, how crazy people Elon Musk thought when he was trying to start Tesla and SpaceX, or how crazy people thought that Nikola Tesla was.
What is “craziness“ anyways? Unless you are actually afflicted with a obvious mental disorder, when people call you “crazy“, what do you mean to say is this:
“What you are doing or saying is so unlike what I believe in, how dare you be so unlike me!”
3. Creative spaces?
I think I also believe in is that there are certain physical spaces which encourage more creativity. Typically if you are surrounded by rolling hills, and greenery, a forest, and big open spaces, this will encourage more creativity.
Something that I have discovered more recently is Hadong South Korea is my new creative paradise!
4. Creative collaborative partners?
Perhaps the best optimization you could make in life is when it comes to marrying your partner, marry somebody you could be maximal creative with. For example, Cindy.
Why the economy?
What is the economy? To me it is just movement and activity of human people and bodies. For example, anything that can help motivate people to move literally and metaphorically is good.
For example, after John Wick came out, how many people were inspired to buy muscle cars or black dress shirts and blazers?
Or, let us consider how effectively Henri Cartier Bresson revolutionized photography and the whole photo industry; it is precisely because of a Henri Cartier Bresson that photography became mainstream. And also even now, the only reason someone will buy a Leica camera or Leica M rangefinder is because of Henri Cartier Besson. Essentially the ethos of Leica is simple; if you purchase our cameras you can become Henri Cartier Bresson. Or also more recently, by purchasing a Ricoh GR camera you can become ERIC KIM.
Now what?
Very very simple. The number one most critical thing you do is start your website, self-hosted. The current workflow I recommend is building a WordPress website with Amazon web services.
Second, use media as your Archimedes lever. Produce videos, thought pieces, anything that can inspire other people.
Third, I currently believe that the best marketing tool is having your own self hosted email newsletter. That is, I recommend using sendy.co and setting up your email platform with Amazon web services (SES)— simple email service. The future is not Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or TikTok, not even YouTube.
What do you desire to do?
I am no longer interested in what you can become; I am more interested in what you could do. What you could build, innovate, and put out there in the real world, or even the digital world. This is the great inspiring and motivating thought!
ERIC
Innovate with EK
EK EXPERIENCES — curated and bespoke experiences to elevate and advance you to the next level:
One hilariously optimistic thing was recently visiting the Costco in Daegu, South Korea. Cindy presented at a conference here, and it afforded us the chance to check out Daegu, which is the third largest city in Korea.
Daegu really cool, it was like the Osaka of Korea. Industrial and gritty, with lots of wabi sabi textures and patterns. Also we stayed at an insanely epic Airbnb there, which was very very inspiring. A look of what architecture could look like.
One thing I find very exciting about the future is this link between South Korea, and being an international American person. For example my mom recently got a Costco membership here in South Korea, and it only cost around 15 bucks for the whole year! Visiting the Costco in Daegu was so inspiring, because literally everything is there!
For example, Seneca only likes to eat his meat crispy and crunchy. Back home in the states we got an air fryer, but we didn’t really have that option here in Korea. Open till we went to the Costco, and we just bought an air fryer at the Costco for only 45 bucks!
Also, meat. We got a ton of ground beef at the Korean Costco, very good prices, and the hilarious thing is that the layout looks exactly the same as Costco back in America!
Linen thoughts
I’m currently in the midst of creating some new products, products which I believe can aid our every day lives, in both a practical and substantive way.
First, blankets. Ever since summer has hit us, I found a lot of these traditional cotton or microfiber blankets to be very unsatisfying, even the new bamboo ones. I’ve been really fascinated by linen lately, and I had this idea of creating a 100% linen blanket.
About a year ago I met a woman here who runs a Linen shop, she herself calls herself a “linen-holic”. The other day we finally had the chance to visit her store, which is beautiful and huge, and really inspiring. I was able to look through all of her fabrics, and all of her linen raw fabric material, and I chose this really exquisite grid weaved linen, very high-quality stuff from Lithuania, weaved here in South Korea.
I asked Lily (the linen ajoomah) about whether or that material could be weaved or made suitable for a summertime blanket. She said yes, and she even offered to sew and hen the edges, and was able to deliver the final product on the day of!
I slept with the 100% grid weaved linen blanket the other night, and it was literally the best night of sleep I’ve had. Typically when I sleep, I get really hot and sweaty, but with this 100% grid weaved linen blanket, it is so breathable and natural, that I was able to sleep through the night without any additional moisture or sweating.
My first inspiration with linen and the grid weaved pattern was getting this 100% linen grid weaved towel from outlier.nyc as a result of being so insanely frustrated with these cotton towels which take forever to dry, and also absorb too much moisture and smells. I think I bought the towel for $110, and it has been one of the best ways I’ve spent $110, and I use it almost 3 or four times a day! It even works well when I am doing hot yoga with Cindy, I just put it on top of the yoga mat, and it captures moisture very well, and dries so fast!
Therefore I am currently prototyping several products, which include a 100% linen grid weaved travel/everyday towel, hand towels to use in the kitchen, as well as some clothing options.
Life thoughts
One of the best things about jumping on the plane, and traveling is that it really reawakens your inner spirit, and is thoroughly motivating for your soul.
For example, I’m starting to think that the Mongolian Genghis Khan approach to life might be best; living some sort of semi nomadic and itinerant life, with much questing, exploring, and conquering.
Also, photography. I still believe that photography might be one of the most underrated things out there. Even though now we all have an iPhone, or a smart phone, and we photograph everything, there is still so much opportunity to be had in terms of using the camera as a creative tool. Even checking out some of the local sites here in Hadong South Korea, I am so inspired.
The world is infinite
Another cool thing; using AAA, I was able to get an international drivers license, which works here in South Korea. Therefore the last week or so, I’ve actually been driving here in South Korea! Driving in South Korea is very straightforward, more or less the same as driving in the states. The only difference is that there are 1 billion speed cameras everywhere, but as long as you observe the local speed laws, you are fine.
Driving through the mountains of Hadong, I rate it as 1000 times more beautiful than even going to Yosemite! Much more mountainous, more trees, and some of the driving Pats are even more sublime then being in Kyoto Japan.
Anyways my thought was even if you spend the rest of your life here in South Korea and going on road trips, you would still not be able to see you at all! Which means,
Even if for the rest of your life you dedicated your life to photography and travel, and even if you shot 100 trillion photos, you would still not be able to capture it all!
Unlimited resources?
Watching John Wick 4, the evil head honcho apparently had “unlimited resources“ from the “high table“. I also wondered to myself what would I do or how would I live my life if I had unlimited resources.
First, not being confined to any indoor space. The ideal is being able to always be out and about outside, either with my iPad or iPhone, with some sort of 4G or 5G connection.
Second, I need to figure out a more sustainable way to approach my weightlifting and fitness. For example back in the states, I am able to lift over 900 pounds at the gym, but when I’m on the road, it is an impossibility. Lately I’ve been getting good exercise just walking up and down the hill and mountain, holding Sen.
One thing that I love about South Korea is that now that we have access to Costco, I will never have to concern myself at all in regards to procuring my meat.
One thing I still think about the benefit of being in South Korea versus the rest the world is Internet speed and access. I actually believe it to be quite tragic that even back in the states, our Wi-Fi sucks. It is so slow, inaccessible and also expensive. Here in South Korea, gigabit Internet speeds is like tapwater.
However one thing which is still kind of like a mafia business is 4G, 5G data connections for your phone. For example, in South Korea, it is notoriously difficult to obtain an international Sim card, unless you get it at the airport. Things are even getting a little bit more complicated with the whole “eSIM system.”
Your ultimate life goals?
At the end of the day, I believe what we need to concern ourselves with is our ultimate life goals. That at the end of the day, what is it that we truly desire seek and want?
For myself, it is radical and insane innovation. To me, I believe my personal Archimedes lever is the ability to think aberrantly, and also have the chutzpah, guts, balls, and audacity to attempt new things. For example, thinking new theories, and acting in different, diverse and new ways.
Goals
Some life goals and approaches for myself:
Creating new products which I believe can aid myself and others. For example, my current obsession with 100% linen, and this grid weave pattern concept.
My obsession and my personal interest in diet health fitness etc.
My passion for photography, photography art creation, and also video blogging blogging etc. Trying to figure out ways to help “platform“ (cindyanguyen.com) other creators.
Trying to discover and innovate and pioneer new ways in which we can more effectively select our best photos. For example, I currently have a backlog of around 5000 photos, what is the best way for me to sort and sift through all of these photos, and quickly and effectively upload it and share it online to disseminate it to others?
New clothing concepts? Trying to discover a better solution for travel clothing, and also every day clothing. Some current thoughts I have include creating a merino wool tank top, in which the bottom of the shirt doesn’t drag too low; to be just at your waist line. Also shorts. The current best shorts I have discovered is the Lululemon license to train shorts. Yet the problem is that the 7 inch length is simply too long. I’m interested in the 5 inch model, but maybe I need to go shorter. 3 inch?
Merino wool leggings for travel, even in the summertime is a good idea. Why? The ability to create some sort of base layer which at least protects you a little bit from pesky mosquitoes which seem to really enjoy biting my ankles, and my legs.
Passion for car design?
Being here in Korea, I just witnessed the brand new Hyundai Grandeur on the streets and was insanely inspired! And it essentially looks like a futuristic Rolls-Royce, with the most fascinating futuristic cyberpunk design. Flush doorhandles, a rear end with a singular light strip, and proportions which simulates a Rolls-Royce sedan; high, rectangular, poised and confident. It is currently my new favorite car design.
Also the new Hyundai Ioniq 6; seeing it in the flesh, it is insanely cool. One of the most inspiring rear ends in a car. I read it as 1 million times more inspiring than any Tesla car.
The funny thing with cars and car design is this:
For myself at this point, I don’t really seek the “best“, which is actually probably a Tesla or something else. What I am more interested in is disruptive, futuristic, and badass design.
Once again, if I had the option of owning a Hyundai Grandeur or Hyundai Ioniq 6, or any other car out there, I would prefer a Hyundai Grandeur or the Ioniq 6, even though objectively both are probably not the best cars.
Other things
Lots of cool stuff to come. Stay posted.
EK
Advance yourself
If your hungry to broaden your horizons, and become more, check out some of my upcoming workshops in the states and beyond:
Currently interested in some of the new cameras which are incipient (incoming). For example, everyone is waiting on the new RICOH GR IV to come out. What is personally on my wish list include a single thing; a built-in flash. Everything else is perfect in the RICOH GR III/IIIX.
Also, I am actually pretty excited or interested in some futuristic Fujifilm cameras, for example the Fujifilm x100VI, or even a really really compact Fujifilm camera that doesn’t have an electronic or optical viewfinder. I really think that electronic viewfinders or optical viewfinders are both a waste of space and design. All you need is an LCD screen.
Also, you don’t need a tilting or articulating LCD screen. This is another frivolous design concept.
It seems that one thing we have an insatiable appetite for is media. Media in the context of videos, film, Cinema, movies, podcast, YouTube videos, music, music videos etc.
Looking at some my photos here in HADONG South Korea, sublime.
What is sublime photography?
The first question at hand is what is sublime photography, what makes it sublime etc.? First and foremost, I think a sublime photo is effortlessly beautiful, has a lot of curves and squiggly lines in it, arabesque composition etc. Also, to me a sublime photo is black and white monochrome. Grain, contrast. The best way to do this is use a digital camera which has a built-in JPEG setting that allows you to add maximum grain and contrast. For example I really actually like the grain simulation in my Panasonic Lumix G9 camera, maybe even the green effect is even more beautiful than the Ricoh GR 3 and GR 3X.
Wabi sabi aesthetics
Why grain? I believe that grain makes a photo beautiful because in terms of aesthetics, images which are too clean and perfect and sanitized lack dynamism. For example, just shooting a typical iPhone photo with HDR enabled in color mode, default mode, with all of the highlights and shadows true to life, typically speaking the photos are not that interesting. Why? We disdain the normal and every day and the real. Instead I think what we like is the hyperreal the surreal etc.
For example, the reason why I find Kyoto Japan to be one of the most beautiful places on planet earth is because of the wabi sabi aesthetics; the beautiful wear and tear and patina. Also what makes Japanese aesthetics so unique and interesting is that because they are an island and were sequestered from the rest of the world for so long, they were actually able to build their own unique system of aesthetics. For example even though I really love Korea, I think the downside of Korea and Korean aesthetics is that they did not have enough time to develop it; too much time being invaded by Japan, China, and now America etc.
How do we make sublime photos?
First and foremost, I think you must develop your taste and aesthetic preferences for your photos. The difficulty that a lot of photographers have, especially young photographers (it doesn’t matter your age, just assuming that you’re starting off) is that they don’t really know what they like.
Also the difficulty is that in terms of aesthetic taste, so much of aesthetics is tyranny; those in power and those on top try to superimpose their aesthetic taste and preferences to you in a tyrannatical matter.
For example, it seems that the current art world in photography had this preference for what I call “emo” medium format or large format film photography. Essentially photos with high definition and resolution in medium format or large format film photos, and whatever you photograph needs to be boring, plain, and emo.
There also seems to be a trend towards both the photographer and the subject of being disinterested, “objective“, and unattached.
I personally find this approach to not only be boring, but also weak and anemic. It’s like eating nothing but kale and lentils for the rest of your life, not even salt or garlic or pepper allowed.
More robust, stronger and more powerful approaches
I also have a personal theory that the physiology of the photographer also affects and influences the photos that they make.
For example, if you are sad, depressed, weak, pale and anemic, lacking exposure to natural light, certainly the photos you produce will also be the same.
Let us just take a good hard look at the modern day photographer. Who are they and what do they look like? First and foremost they don’t seem to exercise, hit the gym, and also they do not eat enough red meat. Their aesthetic preferences generally tends towards the past; they prefer vinyl records, flannel, the old and musty. The hilarious irony is that they believe film photography to be supreme, yet they always seem to have the newest iPhone Pro and spend waaay too much time on Instagram and social media. The simple heuristic:
Trust no photographer on Instagram.
The path
First, ascertain your aesthetic preferences, and pursue your own aesthetic ideals of beauty.
Second, do it digitally. Why? Fewer obstacles, and things to get in your way. I still have around 50 rules of Kodak portra 400 undeveloped and 20 rolls of Kodak Triax 400 I have yet developed, I doubt that I’ll actually ever have time to develop it.
It isn’t necessarily “excuses“ which get in our way; simply, most of us lack time. Even me, as a full-time self-employed individual, even I barely have enough time to keep up with my photography in terms of reviewing my photos uploading them selecting them etc.
Actually one entrepreneurial idea I got is creating some sort of app or program which can look through your whole photo library, and automatically select your best ones. This would be such a great idea because once again, if you have a backlog of 5000 photos, how will you ever have the chance an opportunity to review it all?
Studying the masters then killing them
My personal aesthetic is a combination of Henri Cartier Bresson, Richard Avedon, Joseph Koudelka, and Daido Moriyama.
I love black and white, high grain high contrast etc.
The reason why I love the static is that it is hard, strong, enforced. Also a pragmatic thing as well is that it simplifies scenes and things and people, makes them more dark and mysterious etc. In fact like a good movie, there must always be some sort of element of uncertainty and mystery.
A very optimistic thought; photography is beautiful.
Then, a very simple path we have as visual artists and creators a simple; just make more photos!
Why do photographers have such low self-esteem?
This is a legitimate question. Why is it that photographers have such a low self-esteem? Especially digital photographers?
First, all of these skinny fat losers, with trucker hats and beards, tattoos and not enough time in the sun try to distinguish themselves by shooting film, as a means to obfuscate their own personal insecurities.
Also, the art world is a weird place. I remember reading Howard Becker, his book “Art worlds“, and essentially at the end of the day, art and the art world is just a sociological phenomenon. Therefore to my great appreciation, studying sociology might have been the number one most critical thing for me to succeed as a modern photographer.
The international association of name droppers
A funny phrase from Nassim Taleb. Essentially people try to build their own personal legitimacy as either curators, artists, by trying to name drop all of these obscure artists and painters and photographers.
However, what I have discovered is that anyone who name drops anyone ad nauseam (until you want to throw up) is simply an individual with too much brains, not enough balls.
Maybe it is also a means to have individuals feel not as bad for wasting all this money on art school. It seems that the typical individual who goes to art school or any private school, can easily accrue $200,000 of debt. Certainly when they see somebody like ERIC KIM become so massively successful without all of that training, it makes sense that they are unhappy about it.
How is photography beautiful?
It is simple; when you see a photo that you have shot, and it is beautiful in your eyes, it is beautiful period.
I have experimented a lot myself, and in the quest of making beautiful photos, I have done and tried everything. Simple conclusions:
The Ricoh GRII, Ricoh GR 3, Ricoh GR 3X; all of these cameras you can produce very very beautiful photos, especially high contrast black and white JPEG photos for the GR III/x. For the OG Ricoh GR II, shoot raw and use the free ERIC KIM PRESETS.
Another camera that I have discovered which can produce insanely beautiful photos is the Panasonic Lumix G9, in high contrast black-and-white dynamic monochrome mode, with the grain and contrast set to max in JPEG.
Of course film produces magnificently beautiful photos. Yet, if you could produce the same thing in digital, maybe even more beautiful, doesn’t digital make more sense?
For example, the reason why digital cameras are superior to film cameras; the insanely close minimum focusing distance for macro mode! Film cameras cannot do this. Digital cameras can.
For example, the Lumix G9, because it is a micro 4/3 camera, the minimum focusing distance in macro mode is very very close. Being able to shoot these beautiful up close photos of the eyes of Seneca is magnificent.
Or, consider the Ricoh GR 3 or 3X, the macro mode of it is incredible!
So what is the point?
It seems that the bias in photography is this; become a very very famous and successful photographer, get a bunch of social media followers and likes, repeat etc.
Yet, this crusty old antiquated notion must be killed. We must go beyond the basic Parisian notions of success with galleries, solo publications, printed books, fine art print etc. We got to go Musk and Tesla and SpaceX; think carte blanche, think from scratch.
New notions
The first insanely simple thought is just make your own photography blog. My new approach is using Amazon Web services, Amazon lightsail and producing a WordPress instance, you can start off free! And after that it only costs $3.50 a month. That is the price of a single shot of espresso. Imagine only drinking one espresso a month! If you cannot afford $3.50 a month, this is weird.
And also consider the great idea that essentially you can upload and post 1000 photos at once, as a single blog post, essentially free! It is 1 trillion times cheaper and faster then printing photos in person.
How did ERIC KIM become such an innovative thinker in photography?
Ultimately at the end of the day, photography is my Archimedes lever. It is the thing I love the most, I am the most passionate about, and thing which is indefinitely fascinating to me.
Ultimately for myself, it is simply personal curiosity which has led me this far. As I write these words I am currently 35 years old, and I started my blog and my website at the age of 18 years old! Just give me three more years and I’ve been in the game for two decades!
Child’s mind
Perhaps the biggest way you can reinspire yourself in photography is have a kid, and just hand them your camera at a young age, and see what they could do with it. As early as I could remember, maybe even nine months old, I would let Seneca play with my Ricoh GR three, and then later my Ricoh GR 3X. Now at the age of two years and four months old, I am so surprised that he could pick up my Lumix G9 and shoot photos with ease.
Also, some thing that I have let him do it ever since he was insanely young was take the SD cards out of my cameras, take the batteries out of my cameras, and teach them how to import photos into my iPad using the USB-C to SD card reader for my iPad.
Kids are highly underrated. I think people would be 1 trillion times happier if they had kids instead of dogs.
Why so uninspired?
Truth be told, a lot of modern day life sucks. If you’re stuck in the office all day, or in zoom meetings all day, not only is this bad for your health and soul, it is also bad for your photography.
A simple solution is just travel every once in a while. Even as I voice dictate these words into my iPad Pro, walking around in the mountains of a Hadong South Korea, I love being here.
People waste too much money on their homes, their cars, other silly things. My personal thought is just devote 90% of your money to travel, live nomadically, live abroad, or just shake up things every once in a while. The simplest solution to re-inspire yourself as a photographer is just get your ass into a plane.
Even the airport, an insanely dynamic place which breathed new life into me.
Life goals?
Life goals are important. Why? To dream big and audaciously is not only fun and interesting, but also very creative and imaginative!
For example my new life goal is to inspire the creativity of every single human being on planet earth, all 7+ billion of us. Photography may be the path, as it is the easiest most accessible form of art creation in today’s world. All you need is an iPhone SE and you’re good.
So where should I go?
So many opportunities.
Some places that I have been to which have been insanely inspiring to me include Saigon and Hanoi in Vietnam, Phnom Penh in Cambodia, Dubai, Stockholm, and also Seoul South Korea. Japan is also great, Osaka Tokyo in Kyoto, just watch the new John Wick 4 movie and see the sequences in the Osaka intercontinental hotel. Stunning.
Honestly any place that you go to, any place you travel to which is not your home is good.
Also it doesn’t need to even be a big city. Even retreating to the countryside or the mountain side is good!
All you need is a Wi-Fi connection
As long as you have a website and Wi-Fi connection, what else do you need!
ERIC
Where will you go next?
Travel with me:
CONQUER SAIGON (only one day left for the early bird discount!)
One of the richest places to gain inspiration as a photographer is film and cinema. Why? I find the compositions in great films and movie to be much more inspiring than even looking at photos or photo books. Why? The cinematographer and the director has all the time in the world to set up their shots, which means that the compositions they produce are so so so so beautiful and fascinating.
Even John Wick 4– just buy it on Apple TV, and watch the extras. It is so inspiring.
Some sequences that I personally love in John Wick 4 include the Osaka scene, the cinematography of the high-rise office building in New York City, and the sequences in Paris.
Other places to get inspiration
I have a simple thought; if you walk 30,000 steps a day, it doesn’t even matter where you go, and assuming that you have a camera in your front right pocket, or even an iPhone, how can you not be inspired?
A simple solution is get the lululemon license to train shorts, the one with the big front zipper pockets, and just put your camera whatever it is in your front right pocket. If it cannot fit, it is no good.
Now what?
I think philosophically, a lot of us seek deeper meaning with our art and creativity. In today’s modern day capitalistic world, it seems that the only measures of success include notions of “progress“, growth, increased numbers, money, human heads etc.
For example, a lot of people think that they are progressing in their photography if they’re getting more followers on social media or more likes. Or, monetary gains.
However all of this is in accurate, as the algorithms which govern social media are slanted towards arbitrary measures.
I say, as long as if every single day you’re shooting your photos, reviewing the photos that you shoot, and having fun, you’re perfect!
ERIC
Share the motivation
If you have a fellow photographer friend or family member that needs a shot of inspiration, feel free to forward this to them!
If you could lift over 960 pounds with your legs, certainly is this will help your photography.
Also, a lot of photographers as well will benefit from just doing basic yoga stretches, like downward up dog, three legged dog, pigeon pose, scorpion pose, mermaid pose. Why? The more agile you become and easier you can squat down all the way to the floor, the more creative and innovative compositions you can make.
The genius is in your legs!
Every day is leg day
Other exercises which can benefit you include very very heavy Farmer’s walks, with the heaviest dumbbells you can muster, whether it be 100 pounds or 150 pounds, lift it up with chalk and see how far you could walk it out.
Or just do very very heavy rack pulls, sumo deadlift form with the mixed grip. Just YouTube or Google “ERIC KIM rack pull” and find out.
The general idea is that any exercise that you do while standing is good for you. Any exercise in which you are lying on your back or sitting is bad.
The super super basic thought is just put an iPad in the hands of every single human being. Certainly there will be lots of people who squander its potential, yet, if used intelligently, you can unlock wonders.
For example, the Procreate app, Zen Brush for calligraphy, and also all of these abilities to create using voice dictation, writing without this nonsensical keyboard, which I feel like was a very disingenuous move from Apple. It was the ambition of Steve Jobs for the iPad to never have either a stylus or a keyboard; it was only after the death of Steve Jobs when these sneaky executives like Tim Cook approved it.
It is all good
Photo, video, audio, music, podcast, video podcasts— there are a trillion opportunities for you. There is really no good or bad way to do it; to simply create it is the goal.
I think the great thing about free is that it unlocks opportunity. Even a 99 cent entry will close off a lot of people.
Travel, being somewhere else?
I think also another big thing is traveling, and being somewhere else which is not “home“.
Why travel?
Even a simple super simple thing of transitioning to an airport, seeing the airport, and all the dynamic activity around it is insanely creatively stimulating for us.
Another thought is great cinema and film; I personally rate John Wick 4 as a perfect 10 or 10, maybe even a 12 out of 10.
Why? To me a great film inspires you, motivates you to keep traveling, seeing the world, and creating art. Even seeing the scene of the Osaka intercontinental hotel was so inspiring to me, it makes me want to go back to Japan. Also the pride of knowing that me and Cindy actually did spend some time living abroad in Osaka as well. Osaka photos >
Digital is the way
I am the first photographer who said that digital is actually superior than film, and actually means it.
Also I think it is a good idea to innovate for yourself and by yourself. To get rid of traditional notions of “success“, and instead, seeking to create new models of success for yourself.
For example for myself, my new definition of success as a photographer is to simply stay motivated to keep making photos. The second you lose motivation to make photos, consider yourself dead.
What is “creativity”?
Creativity — the propensity to create.
If you derive your primary joy in life from creating, you are a “creative“ person.
Becoming more “creative”?
Then it seems that our goal is to become more creative. How does one become more creative? Some thoughts:
1. First and foremost, think and create like a child.
For example, child’s mind is the most pure. Even Seneca at two years and four months old, she creates without hesitation, no self doubt etc.
Also what is very fascinating about Seneca as a photographer is that he loves to shoot photos, but he doesn’t really care to see them. Perhaps it is the joy of the shooting which he loves the most.
2. Second, steal inspiration from anywhere.
It doesn’t matter where you steal from, as long as it inspires you it is good.
Third, know that even the most “low brow“ places can be the sources of the richest inspiration. For example, I am 1 trillion times more inspired by John Wick than any other film at there combined. Even a fun fact, apparently in the whole film, John Wick only says 200 words. That is gangsta.
One of my favorite things to do with Sen and myself in general, is this notion of “adventure time“. That is, anything that involves getting out of the house!
I first thing to consider is that the basic notion of adventure time is super simple; just getting your ass out of the house.
Why “adventure time“?
What is it that we desire? I think ultimately, we desire and hunger for more adventure, more escapades with danger, things to test or courage etc.
However, I think modern day life has us much more cowardly. That means, one is not permitted to be adventurous.
What is one permitted to do in modern day society? We are permitted to go to the mall and buy stuff, we are permitted to buy a new car, we are permitted to buy a house, and every once in a while we are permitted to go on vacation, or travel.
It seems that the closest thing that we got to adventure in modern day times is travel. Traveling to foreign places is the closest thing that we got to adventure. Why is this? What is an adventure anyways?
I think in the general sense, adventure, towards what I think is to go towards something. Ad + venture (venture, to attempt).
“Venture” capitalist?
What is a VC, a venture capitalist? I think a venture capitalist is somebody who wants to go on some sort of metaphorical adventure, in terms of attempting to build something. If you think about it, being a venture capitalist is very very positive and optimistic. Why? It insinuates some sort of potentially very good outcome, that’s the right investment in the thing will yield a positive return!
Becoming more optimistic in life?
Currently speaking, I think America and the world is going through a weird time. There is no optimism.
For example, Joe Biden. Nobody likes Joe Biden. Not even liberal Democrats. I only voted for him because he wasn’t Donald Trump.
I am still very very confused how Joe Biden even got elected. Conspiracy theories aside, I think honestly 99.9% of people just voted for him because he wasn’t Donald Trump.
Maybe the reason why Donald Trump lost was because he caved in and also signed the stimulus bill. Maybe this was a sign of weakness?
The future
Some optimistic thoughts:
Assuming that America continues to increase her debt ceiling, and also, as the US dollar inflation is getting out of control, I think there will be renewed interest in bitcoin and other crypto and crypto currencies. My personal target price for bitcoin currently in the interim is at least $100,000.
At least one of the good things about TikTok is that it shows that there is still room for competition with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube etc. Also the future of video podcast, super easy to do with anchor.fm which is currently owned by Spotify.
Time to go all in on Tesla: every single day, here in Southern California, I see more and more Tesla‘s on the road. It is simple; Tesla is the only electric car. All electric other cars suck. Also considering that California is going to soon been purchasing of gasoline cars in the future, everyone is going to go electric. also, consider the power of over the air updates on Tesla; as time goes on, Tesla cars will keep getting better and better. And also day by day, the Tesla super charging network continues to grow. Also, I think ultimately people want a Tesla because it is like owning the new iPhone. in fact the truth is owning a Tesla is actually more inconvenient than owning a gasoline or hybrid car, but people want a Tesla for the sexiness factor. Because objectively speaking, I personally believe the ride quality in the Tesla model three to be very poor, and even though the minimalism of the interior is beautiful and sublime, the quality of the materials actually feel very cheap. I went to a Lexus experience center recently, and I was shocked; the materials in the Lexus feel at least 1000 times or 10,000 times better than any Tesla car, even when compared to the Tesla model S and Tesla model X plaid.
Travel. Go to Mexico City, go to Roma Norte. Go to Phnom Penh Cambodia. Go to Hanoi Vietnam or Saigon Vietnam. Go to South Korea. Go to Seoul, and stop by and say hi to my mom in Hadong.
Have a kid, at least one. The funny millennial trend is towards not having kids, but owning cats or dogs instead. Why this trend? My personal theory is that people see kids, having a kid as a net negative on their life and happiness; they are afraid that having a kid will limit their freedom, ability to travel, eat good food, etc. Yet having a kid can be by far the most optimistic thing you can do. Why? having a kid is naturally optimistic; every single day they continue to grow physically and mentally, and they learn new abilities and tricks. For example, Seneca is currently only two years and three months old, and he is a genius. He already knows how to make beats on the iPhone, iPad, GarageBand on the laptop as well. And he knows how to do computer programming with swift playgrounds on the iPad and even on the laptop. I think a simple life goal, assuming that you are a man, is to have at least one boy. Then after that, all the additional kids are just upside.
The optimism of the gym and weightlifting. I personally believe that the upside of Jim, gym culture and gym life is that you see steady improvement and gains in the gym. For example, assuming that you go to the gym every single day, can you lift very very heavy, one rep max style, you will continue to see your muscles grow, and also your testosterone self-esteem etc. to go up. Also, assuming that you go to the gym at least once a day, even twice a day; you’re going to make new friends. And I think there is something very positive about being around other human beings, both men and women, both male and female. why? When you witness a beautiful woman, I think this increases your testosterone. Also, I think if you see other muscular men lifting heavy weights, this also increases your testosterone. Also the extreme joy of just chatting with strangers at the gym, making new friends. at worst, you can always just go to the gym and take a nap in the hot sauna, it is very rejuvenating and restorative. Also, just sign up for a local yoga membership, at a local yoga studio, whether it be CorePower or raw yoga, etc. I think being in a hot steamy and sweaty room with other human beings with hormones in the air is somehow good for us.
My personal theory behind weightlifting and the gym;
It is only fun and worthwhile yes there is a great deal of risk, danger, and courage required.
For example my insane 940 pound atlas lift. 99.99999% of the population has never even seen over nine plates on a bar. For reference, that is nine 45 pound plates, a 35, a clip, and an additional 2.5 pounder clipped on the barbell.
Once I hit over 1000 pounds, I’ll have a little celebration. Then continue onto 1200 pounds.
I personally believe that physical danger, physical courage is the only real type of courage. Sure, we can be metaphorically courageous in regards to our thoughts, beliefs, freedom of speech etc., but I think when it comes down to it, you cannot fake physical courage at the gym.
Also the nice thought is that ultimately, it doesn’t even matter whether you can successfully lift it or not. To me, if you even have the courage and the hype and the self-confidence and the audacious insanity to even attempt it, you are a hero.
Street Photography is an adventure
Even with Street Photography, the reason why I find it so insanely fascinating is because of the fact that it requires insane amounts of courage. I truly believe that street photography is 99.99% courage.
Also, with street photography, it is like an adventure. To travel to foreign places is an adventure. Also, to put yourself in situations which require courage is also an adventure.
There is no end limit to photography and street photography, given that you will continue to travel intermittently for the rest of your life.
Exercises and assignments to make you more courageous?
How does one become more courageous, more daring, and also more adventurous?
Some simple thoughts and assignments.
First, if you see somebody that you’re interested in for one reason or another, attempt to make small talk with them.
Another thought, go to the gym at least once a day.
Also, travel somewhere. It doesn’t even have to be far. Just something or somewhere which is outside your own sphere.
There seems to be a while since there has been a good adventure movie, like Lord of the rings. I like the notion of adventure movies because life is an adventure. Or think about the original Star Wars.
I like the idea that your life could be like a real life adventure movie. That means, think of yourself like the protagonist.
Certainly real life is like not like a movie but, we can technically we can try to think of it like it.
For example if you were Frodo, would you just stay inside your hole and your hobbit hole? Or if you were Luke Skywalker, would you simply stay on Tatooine?
Hero yourself!
Hero Books?
The original book of Enkidu. Or, the Iliad. Or the odyssey by homer.
Now what?
Create your own heroic future for yourself!
Forward the power!
If this gave you even one good or motivational part, feel free to forward this to a friend or family member!
One of my favorite things to do with Sen and myself in general, is this notion of “adventure time“. That is, anything that involves getting out of the house!
I first thing to consider is that the basic notion of adventure time is super simple; just getting your ass out of the house.
Why “adventure time“?
What is it that we desire? I think ultimately, we desire and hunger for more adventure, more escapades with danger, things to test or courage etc.
However, I think modern day life has us much more cowardly. That means, one is not permitted to be adventurous.
What is one permitted to do in modern day society? We are permitted to go to the mall and buy stuff, we are permitted to buy a new car, we are permitted to buy a house, and every once in a while we are permitted to go on vacation, or travel.
It seems that the closest thing that we got to adventure in modern day times is travel. Traveling to foreign places is the closest thing that we got to adventure. Why is this? What is an adventure anyways?
I think in the general sense, adventure, towards what I think is to go towards something. Ad + venture (venture, to attempt).
“Venture” capitalist?
What is a VC, a venture capitalist? I think a venture capitalist is somebody who wants to go on some sort of metaphorical adventure, in terms of attempting to build something. If you think about it, being a venture capitalist is very very positive and optimistic. Why? It insinuates some sort of potentially very good outcome, that’s the right investment in the thing will yield a positive return!
Becoming more optimistic in life?
Currently speaking, I think America and the world is going through a weird time. There is no optimism.
For example, Joe Biden. Nobody likes Joe Biden. Not even liberal Democrats. I only voted for him because he wasn’t Donald Trump.
I am still very very confused how Joe Biden even got elected. Conspiracy theories aside, I think honestly 99.9% of people just voted for him because he wasn’t Donald Trump.
Maybe the reason why Donald Trump lost was because he caved in and also signed the stimulus bill. Maybe this was a sign of weakness?
The future
Some optimistic thoughts:
Assuming that America continues to increase her debt ceiling, and also, as the US dollar inflation is getting out of control, I think there will be renewed interest in bitcoin and other crypto and crypto currencies. My personal target price for bitcoin currently in the interim is at least $100,000.
At least one of the good things about TikTok is that it shows that there is still room for competition with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube etc. Also the future of video podcast, super easy to do with anchor.fm which is currently owned by Spotify.
Time to go all in on Tesla: every single day, here in Southern California, I see more and more Tesla‘s on the road. It is simple; Tesla is the only electric car. All electric other cars suck. Also considering that California is going to soon been purchasing of gasoline cars in the future, everyone is going to go electric. also, consider the power of over the air updates on Tesla; as time goes on, Tesla cars will keep getting better and better. And also day by day, the Tesla super charging network continues to grow. Also, I think ultimately people want a Tesla because it is like owning the new iPhone. in fact the truth is owning a Tesla is actually more inconvenient than owning a gasoline or hybrid car, but people want a Tesla for the sexiness factor. Because objectively speaking, I personally believe the ride quality in the Tesla model three to be very poor, and even though the minimalism of the interior is beautiful and sublime, the quality of the materials actually feel very cheap. I went to a Lexus experience center recently, and I was shocked; the materials in the Lexus feel at least 1000 times or 10,000 times better than any Tesla car, even when compared to the Tesla model S and Tesla model X plaid.
Travel. Go to Mexico City, go to Roma Norte. Go to Phnom Penh Cambodia. Go to Hanoi Vietnam or Saigon Vietnam. Go to South Korea. Go to Seoul, and stop by and say hi to my mom in Hadong.
Have a kid, at least one. The funny millennial trend is towards not having kids, but owning cats or dogs instead. Why this trend? My personal theory is that people see kids, having a kid as a net negative on their life and happiness; they are afraid that having a kid will limit their freedom, ability to travel, eat good food, etc. Yet having a kid can be by far the most optimistic thing you can do. Why? having a kid is naturally optimistic; every single day they continue to grow physically and mentally, and they learn new abilities and tricks. For example, Seneca is currently only two years and three months old, and he is a genius. He already knows how to make beats on the iPhone, iPad, GarageBand on the laptop as well. And he knows how to do computer programming with swift playgrounds on the iPad and even on the laptop. I think a simple life goal, assuming that you are a man, is to have at least one boy. Then after that, all the additional kids are just upside.
The optimism of the gym and weightlifting. I personally believe that the upside of Jim, gym culture and gym life is that you see steady improvement and gains in the gym. For example, assuming that you go to the gym every single day, can you lift very very heavy, one rep max style, you will continue to see your muscles grow, and also your testosterone self-esteem etc. to go up. Also, assuming that you go to the gym at least once a day, even twice a day; you’re going to make new friends. And I think there is something very positive about being around other human beings, both men and women, both male and female. why? When you witness a beautiful woman, I think this increases your testosterone. Also, I think if you see other muscular men lifting heavy weights, this also increases your testosterone. Also the extreme joy of just chatting with strangers at the gym, making new friends. at worst, you can always just go to the gym and take a nap in the hot sauna, it is very rejuvenating and restorative. Also, just sign up for a local yoga membership, at a local yoga studio, whether it be CorePower or raw yoga, etc. I think being in a hot steamy and sweaty room with other human beings with hormones in the air is somehow good for us.
Once I hit over 1000 pounds, I’ll have a little celebration. Then continue onto 1200 pounds.
I personally believe that physical danger, physical courage is the only real type of courage. Sure, we can be metaphorically courageous in regards to our thoughts, beliefs, freedom of speech etc., but I think when it comes down to it, you cannot fake physical courage at the gym.
Also the nice thought is that ultimately, it doesn’t even matter whether you can successfully lift it or not. To me, if you even have the courage and the hype and the self-confidence and the audacious insanity to even attempt it, you are a hero.
