The Stoic Masters

Marcus Aurelius statue — Marcus Aurelius

Learn from the master stoics:

Social Skills

How to improve your social skills:

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Why?

Something I believe deeply in is the future for social skills. Why? First and foremost, the prime consideration for humans is social. Without having other embodied humans around us, nothing is worth it.

This is where modern day capitalism and consumerism is weird; rather than putting the emphasis on other human beings, it puts the emphasis instead on objects, nonhuman things. For example, we become obsessed with watches, cars, clothes, homes, etc. But the ultimate goal is instead, direction maximize our real life face time with other humans.

Even zoom is bad. Why? To communicate with another human being that is not facilitated in the flesh is jarring.

Even something that is interesting in regards to other human beings men and women, when I see them on the screen, versus in the flesh. Why in the flesh you could see subtle things like height. Height matters.

For example, you could see pretty girls on Instagram or social media, or showing off their body parts. Yet, if you see them in real life, and they are very short and small, like 5 feet tall, or 4 foot 11, it is different. Even Aristotle once said, ”Is there such thing as a beautiful small woman?” Or for men,

Short men are never a threat.

For example, I am very fortunate that I am quite tall, around 5 foot 11 if I exaggerate. Realistically I’m more 5 foot 10, maybe 5 foot 10 1/2. But I always like to round up. I think in Korea I’m 180 centimeters, the golden standard.

At the gym, I don’t really care if anyone is more buff or muscular than me, as long as I am taller than them, I still feel dominant.

Why does height matter?

Something that I have realized is there is a link and a connection between height and social class. Richer and more affluent people, higher class people tend to be taller. More poor working class people, or recent migrants are immigrants tend to be short.

Why is this? My theory:

In the past, there was an evolutionary benefit to height.

For example, not always but often times taller men tend to be bigger and stronger. Therefore, a woman would find a tall and strong man as more powerful and strong and beneficial.

Even for men, a trend that I see is that shorter men, or even medium sized men like the idea of marrying and having children with really really tall supermodels.

Therefore my theory:

A lot of short men tend to have a lot of money, and have the ability to attract really really tall super model women, and therefore their children and future generations of children keep getting taller and taller.

How to stand taller

You cannot change your height, but, you can change your posture. To stand upright, tall, shoulders back, chest up, chin up.

For example, even a lot of taller guys who are very very tall I see hunched over, with very poor posture. This looks very unattractive.

I also have another theory is that naturally, when your testosterone and muscle mass is high, and your body fat percentage low, your body will actually naturally assume a more dominant, upright posture.

Even another funny thing that I say is in regards to ego; when I see my testosterone insanely high, when I’m about to hit myself up before a one rep max, let’s see my 940 pound atlas lift, and my half legging compression short short tights are rolled all the way up, exposing my bare demigod thighs, and also my compression shirt is rolled up showing off my midsection and my nipples, and I am in the zone, other men around me… I see their egos deflating. When your testosterone and ego is high, and other men witness this, maybe it is a zero sum thing in which their ego also deflates.

Actually, maybe this is false. Instead, maybe only insecure men find me as a threat to their own masculinity. My new friend at the gym Taylor, insanely buff dude, always congratulate me after a successfully heavy lift. Theory:

If you are a self-confident man, and you witness great feats of strength from other men, you will always congratulate them, rather than feeling small.

Height Matters

WHAT DO MEN WANT FROM WOMEN?

Not for sex, or objects of ‘domination’, but rather as objects of fascination and fellow play-mates?

How to Become a More Powerful Photographer

At the end of the day, perhaps it is photography which is my Archimedes lever. I am just so insanely good at it, it is intuitive to me, and also, I am endlessly fascinated by it.

A random musing on my mind when I was just randomly driving, what is this:

It isn’t more money, more wealth that we desire, but more power.

For example, whenever you see somebody in some sort of really big SUV, the sports edition, let’s say a BMW X6M, what they are trying to really do is assert their power and dominance. However, does driving a powerful car make you more powerful? It might make you feel more powerful, but does it make you more powerful? No.

I think I got it figured out; the reason why Americans love cars so much is because they are democratic. A car is like your external avatar, and you could assume any sort of avatar you desire, as long as you’re willing to spend the money on it, whether it be purchasing it in all cash, financing it, leasing it, renting it, etc.

For example, when you see people in some sort of high end muscle car, what is it that they desire to assert? Their manliness, their dominance, etc. However, a fun activity I like to do is whenever I see some people driving a high end sports car, I’m always curious to see who the driver is. Typically, I see them trending to be kind of younger men, trying to look hard. Or sometimes old fat dudes.

The reason why I think cars are so cowardly is because typically, even if you drive a really really loud sports car, a hyper car, a Lamborghini, a Porsche 911 GT3 RS, some sort of high-end muscle car, it looks like the trend is that everyone tints their front windows so dark, almost to limo. Therefore you cannot even see who the driver is. And they also tend to drive with sunglasses on, and often a hat. So you really cannot determine their identity.

I asked my friend Don Dillon, whether we are more interested in the car or the driver, and he laughed and told me, “of course the car!”

Be hidden or be seen?

Thus the strange paradox:

We want to show off, be loud, assert ourselves and our ego and our dominance, yet, we want our identity to be anonymous? And we don’t want other people to look us directly into the eyes?

Murdered out Teslas?

Another trend I’ve seen a lot in Southern California is people buying black on black on black Teslas. It could be a “murdered out“ Tesla Model Y, 3, X, S, etc. also a new trend with the black license plate with a yellow lettering, and also the trend for people to apply a matte black wrap to their cars, making it look like some sort of stealth bomber.

The hilarity is whenever I see people step out of their Teslas. I’ve actually seen a lot of men with murdered our Tesla model Y’s, complete with the black license plate and yellow lettering, typically they tend to be skinny fat Asian American men, often with a baby or some kids. And also I think it was my friend Elsa Morgan who told me that in the bay area and in Silicon Valley, a Tesla model X is essentially a glorified minivan for men, who still want to feel masculine, without the stigma of driving a minivan.

My funny thought is better to just fully lean into it; if I buy a new car, it will just be a white Honda Odyssey.

Back to photo

Let’s take it back to photography. What is it that we desire in photography, and out of our photos?

The first I think is we want more power and potency in our photos. The photos we make is our artwork. And what is our artwork? Or artwork or almost like our children; they are some sort of external manifestation of ourselves.

Show me your photos, and I can see who you are.

The aesthetic of the photographer is often a reflection of themselves

For example, my aesthetic. I much love extremely high contrast, black-and-white photos, complete with a lot of grit and grit. Perhaps this is some sort of reflection of my own personal mentality of things.

Crush the blacks.

Physiological power and photography

Another big thing that I’ve noticed; I can only effectively review my photos, when I am in great superabundant physiological health. For example, if I only slept two hours last night, certainly I would have no power nor desire to review my huge backlog of about 10,000 photos. However, today, I am great physiological health, I have lots of energy and power, and therefore I was able to quickly review through around 7 to 8000 photos.

Therefore, I think it is critical for us photographers to gain more physiological power. This includes going to the gym, going to yoga, doing hot sauna, taking icy cold showers, sleeping 10 to 12 hours a night, and during the day, allowing yourself to drink both green tea and black coffee. I like green tea from Hadong South Korea, and either arabica coffee from Ethiopia or just robusta coffee from Vietnam.

Also, I think the best way to gain a much bigger physiological rush is through one rep max lifting. Do this with atlas lift, rack pull, one rep max farmers carry’s.

Photo assignments

A new discovery that I found is that you could actually build a very robust WordPress.org blog through Amazon web services, through Amazon lightsail. I did this after my website went down as an experiment, successfully registering erickimphilosophy.com — and apparently you can also do this through Google cloud too.
Get an iPad Pro, the 11 inch, and just review all your photos as small JPEG‘s.
Upload your best photos to arsbeta.com
Take your camera with you everywhere you go, and always have it in your front right pocket. Also shoot photos from your car, safely when at a stoplight, when at a red light.
The other day Cindy showed me this interesting new Photoshop AI completion image tool. I thought it was very cool. However, ultimately I discovered that at least for us photographers, we just like making photos! There is no end of photography.

Power up your photography

Become a more powerful photographer:

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Other things on my mind

Ultimately, I think it is health and well-being that we seek. Not to own or drive a more expensive or a luxury car. When in doubt, just hit the gym.
The more I think about it, the more I think that homeownership is a scam. For example, even if you fully pay off your house, or, you buy it 100% in cash, often times in California property taxes can still range from $1500 a month to $2000 a month! Also, I am starting to think that condos are also a strange thing; having to pay an HOA, a homeowners association fee, every month forever, also seems like a trap.
My personal pride is that I have never spent more than $2500 USD on a car. Even my last car, the one I currently drive, a 2009 Hyundai sonata which I inherited from my mom for free, I got it for $0 and 00 cents. It cost me about $2000 to fix it up at the mechanic, and another thousand dollars and registration fees, and more or less I have a brand new car for only $3000! I think that anybody who buys a brand new car, seems like a foolish decision. Considering that even a basic car nowadays cost $30,000 USD, doesn’t it make more sense to simply use your money on going to the gym, lifting weights, and buying meat?
I have a theory that it is not protein, but consuming dietary cholesterol, like the dietary cholesterol in beef liver and beef organ meats, which acts as a natural steroid to promote your muscle growth.

Things to ponder

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Why Money?
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Why Manliness?

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Power ideas

Learn more: BOOKS BY KIM >

Philosophy by KIM

Stoicism 101 >

Greater dangers and risks, the more beautiful and glorious life!

Lessons from Heraclitus >

How to Become a More Powerful Photographer

At the end of the day, perhaps it is photography which is my Archimedes lever. I am just so insanely good at it, it is intuitive to me, and also, I am endlessly fascinated by it.

A random musing on my mind when I was just randomly driving, what is this:

It isn’t more money, more wealth that we desire, but more power.

I asked my friend Don Dillon, whether we are more interested in the car or the driver, and he laughed and told me, “of course the car!”

Be hidden or be seen?

Thus the strange paradox:

We want to show off, be loud, assert ourselves and our ego and our dominance, yet, we want our identity to be anonymous? And we don’t want other people to look us directly into the eyes?

Murdered out Teslas?

My funny thought is better to just fully lean into it; if I buy a new car, it will just be a white Honda Odyssey.

Back to photo

Let’s take it back to photography. What is it that we desire in photography, and out of our photos?

Show me your photos, and I can see who you are.

The aesthetic of the photographer is often a reflection of themselves

Stoic

One of my current interest in passions, actually for a long time, is regarding stoicism, philosophy, etc.

Why? I think in the realm of philosophy, stoicism may be the only school of thought which actually is useful in every day living. For example, conquering fear doubt and hesitation, how to advance through setbacks, how to deal with other people etc.

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Conquer it all:

Stoicism 2.0?

I think ever since Nassim Taleb, stoicism has gained a new renaissance. Stoicism is now quite mainstream, and interesting to a lot of people.

First and foremost, we must interact with other people. No no no, even if you were a monk in the mountains, you will still make friends with villagers etc. No man has his own island.

I think it is a good idea to be honest here — and we love people. Everybody loves people. The new ones is which types of people we like and we don’t like.

Why?

Having the courage to ask why I can be one of the most courageous things we can ask in modern day times. Why? I think in modern-day times, to ask people why is seen as a threat. Or like you’re being critical or judging them in a negative way.

However for me, I am simply curious. I’m curious why people engage in certain behaviors and activities, and it really isn’t from a space of judging, it is more my personal curiosity about human nature, society, sociology etc.

Even in Vietnamese, one thing I learned which was insightful was that the question, “Tại sao?“, (在牢?) is seen as an affront.

tại (“because of; for; to blame”) +‎ sao (“why; how”)

Therefore, when you ask somebody “Why?” You’re seeking someone to blame?

Also in Korean, the funny thing, when a parent calls upon their child, and the kid is slightly annoyed, they respond by saying, “왜?” Weh (왜) means “why?” or “what do you want?” When I was in college, and I would teach English to kids in Korea over the summer, I remember finding it so striking that when I will try to call the attention of a Korean kid, they would respond by saying, “Why?” Instead of the standard English, “What?”

Tai can also mean “…because”.

Why is to exist?

I think sooner or later, a lot of people, once they retire, achieve all these accolades in life, etc., will often meditate on the meaning of their existence, why they exist, the purpose of their life, etc.

However, to meditate on the purpose of your life is simply a steppingstone. It is not the final goal. The final goal is to gain some sort of deeper clarity about the purpose and why of your life, and then, dedicating all of your strength, balls, chutzpah, audacity and courage to attain those goals.

“For the man who knows the why of his life, he will easily discover the how.” – Nietzsche

Being disliked or hated?

The funny thing is in life, it seems that everyone desires to be liked. Yet, what if actually, the opposite word to be desired? To become more heated, fear, or disliked?

For example, I might be one of the most hated photographers, street photographers, or photography personalities on the internet. Why? People are befuddled by me. People ask me, “what is up with all of these flexing videos?”

The funny thing is people become indignant when you publish things which are not to their liking. However, this is a funny thing,

It is all free. Also, you have the power to unsubscribe, or just not click on it or look at it.

This is this bizarre sense of entitlement people have with the internet:

“How dare you do things which are against my own personal interests!”

The simple strategy is to stoutly proceed, and keep marching on, just imagine like juggernaut from the X-Men movie, busting through the walls.

Or, another visual is imagine the spartan 300, in the movie 300, pushing the Persians off the cliff.

Why is this all so critical?

A lot of people follow me and look up to me. A lot of creators look up to me. I feel like it is my duty, my mission, my missionary duty to empower other people and creators.

I was randomly musing this morning, currently I am 35 years old, born in 1988. When I started traveling the world and doing all this street photography stuff, back in 2010, 2011, I was only 21/22 years old. This means if I do the math, I’ve been in the game for almost 14 or 15 years. Soon this will be 20 years plus.

Also funny enough, I am lucky enough to see the Internet change and evolve. For example when I was just in high school, a sophomore junior in high school, it was all about Xanga in my space. Then I saw the rise and fall of Flickr, and now, The Fall of Facebook, and the overshadowing of TikTok over Instagram.

I was in the car with Cindy, and I was randomly thinking, besides Facebook and Instagram, where else can people share their photos?

arsbeta.com was my first grand mission—

Creating a proof of concept, a double blind experiment in the realm of photography, that is, if the poster of the photo is anonymous, and the commentator is also anonymous, what type of behavior will this facilitate?

What I discovered is that it actually promotes good behavior. Why? People are more genuine and honest.

For example ARS COIN, and ARS BETA RELEASE.

WHY BECOME A MISSIONARY?

One of the great ideas that I got from Peter Thiel from “zero to one” — this notion, missionary or mercenary?

A mercenary mean somebody who works, fights, or labors for some sort of market-determined price for labor. A missionary is somebody who is on a mission, it doesn’t have to be religious. And you don’t have to be some sort of Friar monk with a bald shaved head.

One of the things which is really inspiring of watching Sergey Nazarov when it comes to his lectures and interviews and presentations is he really doesn’t seem to care for money, he really does care to create something that will change the world for the better.

Compare Sergey with a lot of these other fake entrepreneurs, who simply want to cash out, buy a Lamborghini, and retire on some sort of desert island.

My mission?

Life goals I have had, and done did —

My curiosity ever since I was a teenage kid, not to “work for the man“, become “my own boss“, and earn $100 an hour… and just work a few hours a week (my desire as a 16 year old kid)
When I was around 20, 21 years old: would it even be possible for me to transform my passion, street photography, into a living?
Gain financial independence — FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE RETIRE EARLY, also, gain location independence, becoming a digital nomad. Traveling the world, becoming famous, having solo exhibitions and books etc. Purchasing your freedom. Life post-retirement?
Make money through bitcoin and crypto — three Lamborghinis in the bank.
Have a kid
Atlas lift 935 pounds — 9 plates and a 35 on each side, and rack pull 815 pounds — eight plates and two tens. For reference, I am certain within a short period of time I shall be able to atlas lift at least 10 plates. Can you imagine seeing somebody on the squat rack, getting ready to squat 10 plates on each side? Also, my mythical rack pool; can you imagine seeing somebody about to deadlift eight plates, and 210s on each side of the barbell? I am certain within a year, I will be able to successfully rock pull over nine plates.
Now what?

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Stoic training

For the next month, only take icy cold showers. The best way to do this is start off by taking a really really hot shower, until you get really really hot, and then finish cold. Slowly overtime adjust the duration and tempo, until you go only go cold full-time. I’ve been doing this religiously for the last seven or eight years, ever since the cold Michigan winters in East Lansing.
Whenever something bad happens to you in life or you gaining some sort of setback, just say to yourself, “Fuck it!”, then hit the gym, and churn out a new one rep max for your atlas lift or rack pull
For an entire month, whenever you randomly cross paths with somebody in the street or sidewalk, make eye contact, smile and just wave at them.
Don’t use headphones, AirPods, air buds for a month. This includes the gym.
Practice driving without any music, radio, podcast, on. Drive mute.
As a nighttime routine, don’t read nothing but stoic philosophy. Read the meditations by Marcus Aurelius, and also the letters of Seneca.

Stoic Consulting?

Email eric [at] erickim.com

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Stoic Films?

Cinema >

A stoic platform?

Perhaps my next enterprise.

In the meanwhile, Stoicism 101 >

Thoughts, ideas, random stuff on my mind

What does it mean to gain more power? Is feeling more powerful the same as actually being more powerful?
How to deal with bullshit: just ignore?
The market is stupid. Otherwise, how does Pepsi sell Mountain Dew?
To improve your website, disable bullshit
An upgrade means having less
Don’t do anything to “benefit others“, rather, only do things to benefit yourself.
People want to murder out their cars, but instead, better to just murder out yourself.
Real masculinity versus fake masculinity?
Just do as you please, deal with the consequences later.
Just buy a cop car: for example, the Ford explorer ST?
A good reason to wear all black clothing; let’s distracting to yourself when you drive?
Visibility is critical in cars
Patience.
Always anticipate the worst case scenario traffic.

Always new thoughts on the EK BLOG >

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www.Erickimphilosophy.com

Forward the power

Feeling a little bit more stoic and motivated? If so, feel free to forward this to a philosophical friend!

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Philosophy 101

ZEN OF ERIC PDF

To learn more, start here >

Becoming Stoic

One of my current interest in passions, actually for a long time, is regarding stoicism, philosophy, etc.

Stoicism 2.0?

I think ever since Nassim Taleb, stoicism has gained a new renaissance. Stoicism is now quite mainstream, and interesting to a lot of people.

First and foremost, we must interact with other people. No no no, even if you were a monk in the mountains, you will still make friends with villagers etc. No man has his own island.

I think it is a good idea to be honest here — and we love people. Everybody loves people. The new ones is which types of people we like and we don’t like.

Why?

Even in Vietnamese, one thing I learned which was insightful was that the question, “Tại sao?“, (在牢?) is seen as an affront.

tại (“because of; for; to blame”) +‎ sao (“why; how”)

Therefore, when you ask somebody “Why?” You’re seeking someone to blame?

Tai can also mean “…because”.

Why is to exist?

“For the man who knows the why of his life, he will easily discover the how.” – Nietzsche

Being disliked or hated?

The funny thing is in life, it seems that everyone desires to be liked. Yet, what if actually, the opposite word to be desired? To become more heated, fear, or disliked?

The funny thing is people become indignant when you publish things which are not to their liking. However, this is a funny thing,

It is all free. Also, you have the power to unsubscribe, or just not click on it or look at it.

This is this bizarre sense of entitlement people have with the internet:

“How dare you do things which are against my own personal interests!”

The simple strategy is to stoutly proceed, and keep marching on, just imagine like juggernaut from the X-Men movie, busting through the walls.

Or, another visual is imagine the spartan 300, in the movie 300, pushing the Persians off the cliff.

Why is this all so critical?

A lot of people follow me and look up to me. A lot of creators look up to me. I feel like it is my duty, my mission, my missionary duty to empower other people and creators.

I was in the car with Cindy, and I was randomly thinking, besides Facebook and Instagram, where else can people share their photos?

arsbeta.com was my first grand mission—

Creating a proof of concept, a double blind experiment in the realm of photography, that is, if the poster of the photo is anonymous, and the commentator is also anonymous, what type of behavior will this facilitate?

What I discovered is that it actually promotes good behavior. Why? People are more genuine and honest.

For example ARS COIN, and ARS BETA RELEASE.

WHY BECOME A MISSIONARY?

One of the great ideas that I got from Peter Thiel from “zero to one” — this notion, missionary or mercenary?

A mercenary mean somebody who works, fights, or laborers for some sort of market determined price on labor. A missionary is somebody who is on a mission, it doesn’t have to be religious. And you don’t have to be some sort of Friar monk with a bald shaved head.

Why?

Announcing Why App?

Try out ZEN OF ERIC on Facebook Messenger.

The “5 why?” challenge

To gain deeper personal truths about why you do anything, or why you feel a certain way … the Zen of Eric Facebook Chat bot isn’t intelligent. It is not AI. It is rather a sounding board for your own thoughts. It won’t tell you anything you don’t already know in your own heart. ZEN OF ERIC (“Why App”) is a chance for you to ask yourself the big ‘why?’ questions in life, to discover a deeper truth for yourself.

If you have Facebook and Facebook Messenger, send ZEN OF ERIC a message here.

How it works

Essentially we programmed it the following way:

You start chatting with it and saying hello, then you can have the chance to introspect and think about certain things in life.

Once you start chatting, the ZEN OF ERIC chatbot will keep asking you “Why?” until you type: “stop“.

Why did we build this on Facebook messenger?

My friend Stoytcho built this on Facebook Messenger for the practical purpose that the Facebook Messenger app is a robust platform for chat bots and chat applications. Also, you can use it on your laptop, desktop, phone, or tablet. You can interact with it wherever, whenever.

Is there a ‘proper’ way to use Zen of ERIC?

No. Just play around with it. No need to use it if you don’t want to. Rather, see ZEN OF ERIC as a personal mirror or sounding board for yourself, if you just want to flesh out your own thoughts, and to type out and explicate your thoughts.

How to use ZEN OF ERIC in my everyday life

When you’re bored at home, shoot a message to ZEN OF ERIC CHAT BOT to just say hello, to get your creative juices flowing.
When you’re stuck on the toilet, instead of checking Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/News/Snapchat, start an introspection session with Zen of Eric.
If you’re stuck in line at the grocery store, open up Facebook Messenger and say hello to Zen of Eric.
When you wake up and feel unmotivated, instead of scrolling through email, shoot a message to Zen of Eric
When you read the news and you feel really disappointed and afraid, send a message to Zen of Eric.
Use Zen of Eric when you’re happy, bored, sad, depressed, anxious, or anything else!

Privacy concerns

Truth be told, we cannot put 100% faith in Facebook, or Facebook Messenger. It is quite unfortunate we had to build it on Facebook Messenger, but there is really no other better alternative (for now).

I (ERIC KIM) and my friend Stoytcho did not build this to extract any of your dirty secrets for ourselves. It is simply a tool I asked Stoytcho to build for me, for my personal reasons. Even I use it for myself and my sister Annette used it to discover deeper meaning in her life.

So my simple suggestion:

Don’t tell ZEN OF ERIC anything hyper-personal. We don’t really know what Facebook does with all our data.

All the conversations are not saved to a database. In other words, we (Eric, Cindy, and Stoytcho) can’t see what you write. Only you see your conversations with the Zen of Eric.

Also note:

Zen of ERIC is NOT Eric Kim! It is just a soul-less Facebook messenger chat bot, which is programmed to ruthlessly bombard you with “why?’s” to give you deeper philosophical truths about your own personal life.

Example ideas with ZEN OF ERIC

You can start off with an example prompt to get your creative juices flowing, or you can say “no” and simply ask it any question on your mind.
Some example questions include:
1. Why do I feel so down?
2. What is the purpose of my life?
3. What should I do today?
4. Why do I care about x, y, z?
Keep asking it questions until you get bored, then type “stop“. Just use it enough for your own personal benefit.

What now?

So let us say you used ZEN OF ERIC, and you discovered some very interesting truth about your life. Now what?

My suggestion:

Write a blog post about your introspection, and share it with your friends and family!

Other ideas on how to make your introspections “actionable”

After your introspection session with Zen of Eric, here are some things you can do and actually ACT upon your newfound insights:

Write yourself an email (send it to yourself) with your introspection.
Write your introspection (just for yourself) on a piece of paper, or in your personal journal/diary.
Talk with your friend/family member over dinner about your philosophical inquiry, and also ask them lots of “WHY?” questions as well.

Try ZEN OF ERIC FACEBOOK CHAT BOT NOW >

URL: https://www.messenger.com/t/ZenOfEric

Dear friend,

The most powerful 3-letter word is “Why?”

Why is why important?

Hanoi, 2016 eric kim street photography hanoi — Hanoi, 2016

It is one of the first words we learn as a kid, yet is beaten out of us when we are young.

To be honest, when a kid always asks you, “Why?” it can get a bit annoying.

But that is where all of our creative energy, insight, and curiosity comes from.

To never be satisfied with answers, and to always keep asking:

Why?

How vs Why

I am a “how” person. I want practical skills, on how to do more stuff, to be more productive, how to be more rich, etc.

But more robust is the “Why?” question.

For example, don’t ask yourself how to make more money, but why make more money.

For me, I ask myself that all the time.

Why do you want to make more money, Eric?

Because I think if I have more money, I can help more people. I can help support my sister, my mom, myself, Cindy, and eventually have enough money to help my friends and local community in need.

Why do you want to help your family, friends, and others?

Because I believe they have so much untapped creative potential, yet their wages and dependence on money is holding them back.

Lesson: I want to empower everyone. To do the best creative work possible. To ultimately, empower all of humanity.

Blessings on blessings on blessings.

eric-kim-photography-Cindy-Project-berkeley,xlarge.1476245681 — Berkeley, 2015 #cindyproject

I’m lucky enough that I have enough. Enough– I have the one all black outfit I wear everyday that I am satisfied with, that I think makes me look cool.

I don’t currently write on a laptop; all is done on an iPad on IA WRITER– it helps my carpal tunnel in my right thumb, from typing too much. I also prefer the 1 pound weight, even compared to the lightest laptops. I returned my 12-inch MacBook laptop recently, because I thought it was a waste of money for $1800. If I need to process photos or use Lightroom, I just borrow Cindy’s laptop. Or I might try to figure out how to use Lightroom on the iPad.

tokyo eric kim street photography-0000789

I don’t have a car, nor do I want a car. I don’t want to do stupid DMV payments, pay for insurance, fix and maintain the car, change the tires, change the oil, or have it take space. I prefer renting a car, or riding Uber.

I have a Ricoh GR II camera: the best digital camera ever made, for $600. If I lose or break it, I can easily buy another. I frankly think it’s a better camera, even compared to $7,000 digital Leica’s.

If I’m bored of photography, I have my film Leica. And ultimately, film will always look better, and be cooler than digital photography.

I don’t like owning a phone. So no more lusting after a new iPhone or android phone. Thousands of dollars, and stress saved.

I don’t need anything else

cindy project - in and out - kettleman city

I like having bundles of cash sitting in the bank, doing nothing. Giving me some financial cushion, to sleep at night. I like not wasting money in stupid restaurants, with confusing names, and I always end up leaving hungry. I prefer eating cheap Vietnamese food anyways, and I can always eat my 5-6 egg snacks in the evening to assuage my hunger.

I have access to all the books of history via project Gutenberg, and I can read them for free as .epub files, or PDF, or text. No more books I need to buy.

eric-kim-street-photography-tokyo-0000358-1 — Tokyo, 2016

I like living in a small studio apartment, or cheap hotel. I don’t like owning furniture, too much stress. I don’t really wanna own a home: too much taxes, stress of fixing broken toilets, and shit falling apart.

I don’t want to own an office space. Less freedom to travel to coffee shops and do creative work.

I used to want to live in a fancy city like SF, NYC, or Tokyo– but I don’t like paying a lot of money for rent. I prefer to live in LA, Saigon, or any city with a lower cost of living. Less stress about rent, more freedom to buy more espresso, and play.

I don’t want to have a lot of responsibilities or burdens in life. I just want maximum freedom to write, read, think, philosophize, share, teach, and explore. I want to be a child, forever.

I’ll always desire more.

eric kim self portrait dalat — Dalat, 2016

Obviously, I am still a sucker for technology, materialism, consumerism, and shit I don’t need. It’s in my American DNA.

eric kim street photography - the city of angels - black and white-5-nails-sweat-downtown-la

But whenever I feel stressed about money, worried about the future, or concerned– I always ask myself the question:

Why?

I feel that so much of us would be a lot more happy if we just asked ourselves “Why?” more often.

eric kim photography wedding - black and white - ricoh gr ii-5

For myself, I always desire to buy more shit I don’t need, or feel anxiety, because of the following reasons:

Desire to impress others
Fear of homelessness, bankruptcy, death.
Fear of living a life not to the maximum
Fear of looking dumb in front of others
Fear of regret dying with unfulfilled dreams

But honestly, I got everything I need. I got Cindy, my family, friends, internet, coffee, and my camera. I got this blog, and a mind that can create things from nothing. I got inspiration from living life on planet earth, and I’m alive.

eric kim photography wedding - black and white - ricoh gr ii-7

What greater blessing is there than being alive, and being grateful of being alive?

For me, it is to create more. To me, affirming life is to create poetry, photos, art, words, ideas, thoughts, and products that can uplift you and others.

So friend, when in doubt in life, always ask yourself:

Why?

Be STRONG,
ERIC

PHILOSOPHY >

eric kim cindy project wedding garden grove

WHAT IS THE POINT OF LIFE?

Vlog

To innovate!

INNOVATION THOUGHTS

Breathe new life into yourself!

Becoming Stoic

One of my current interest in passions, actually for a long time, is regarding stoicism, philosophy, etc.

Stoicism 2.0?

I think ever since Nassim Taleb, stoicism has gained a new renaissance. Stoicism is now quite main stream, and interesting to a lot of people.

ERIC KIM BOOKS

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Invent and Wander by Jeff Bezos // Lessons I’ve Learned

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Photo Book Reviews »

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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.

Free Books by Eric Kim

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If you love learning, read the books below:

Street Notes

Street Notes is a pocket-sized assignment journal to break outside of your comfort zone:

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Becoming Antifragile

Probably the best modern-day book I’ve read in the last 10 years is Antifragile by Nassim Taleb. The basic gist is this;

When things threaten to destroy you, how can it be used as fuel to make you stronger?

In case you missed it

No fear.

What does it mean?

Essentially the basic idea is that in life, painful, bad, even violent aggressions from others are not to be avoided, but rather, maybe even desired.

For example, if somebody ask for interacts with you in an aggressive, negative way, consider it as a good thing; after the incident, you have become more robust, stronger, and more impervious to outside aggressions.

Let me give you example. About a week or two ago at the gym, I was doing my typical atlas lift and a random guy asked me, how much longer I was going to be. Realistically it might’ve been 20 minutes, but I didn’t want to rush myself so I added some buffer. I told him, around 40 minutes. As a result, he started cussing and cursing and saying that what I was doing was “fucking ridiculous.” Fortunately because I was having a good adrenaline rush from doing my lifts, about five minutes later I calmly approached him and asked if he wanted to working with me. He shook his head, and said he wasn’t interested.

Moral of the story: that incident in which somebody acted bad manners towards me, I actually responded with very good manners. As a consequence, I no longer fear any negative interactions at the gym. If anything, I am quite proud of how magnanimously I was able to respond to such a petty encounter.

Stoicism is the way

Stoicism isn’t a perfect technique, but it is certainly useful. I think in the context of manliness, and becoming a “real man”, I think stoicism is one of the best ways to become stronger.

There are lots of different stoic techniques and stoic tips.

Essentially, the basic gist:

When in doubt, delay reaction.

I suppose I am pretty dedicated to Stoicism, after all, I did name my first son after Seneca.

Becoming more invincible to fate

The new topics and directions is combining stoicism, street photography, and entrepreneurship to life:

June 17th, Saturday, 2023: DOWNTOWN LA CONQUER YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY AND LIFE
July 15-16th: ERIC KIM SAIGON VIETNAM TRAVEL STREET PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERIENCE 2023
Oct 14th (Saturday) PHILLY CONQUER STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Essentially, I believe that street photography is the supreme form of photography, as it requires the most courage and guts.

One rep maxing

Another way to become more anti-fragile or essentially to become stronger is through the one rep max school of weightlifting. The basic notion is this:

What is the maximum weight, you can lift successfully, once, even moving the barbell half an inch?

Note —

One rep max atlas lift: 925 pounds
One rep max rack pull: 810 pounds
One rep max floor benchpress: 595 pounds

ERIC KIM POWERLIFTING 2.0

Antifragile emotions

This is another big thing. It seems nowadays, everyone is too hyper sensitive. This means,

Do not say, do, or interact with me in such a manner that there is even a .001% chance I might take it the wrong way.

For example, it seems that in modern-day times, it is not permissible to talk to strangers, to make small chat, to approach strangers, to joke, offend people, joke around, etc. Also it is not permitted to make eye contact, smile or say hello.

I say,

It is better to risk a social interaction, even if there is a 99% chance of a negative consequence.

For example, in my every day life, I am surrounded by very unpleasant people. Yet regardless, I am ruthlessly friendly. I will always ask how they are doing, even if 99% of the time they might snub me in a bad way. But I say fuck it, better to be courageous and friendly than to be cowardly and standoffish.

No Fear

Just loaded up my Texas squat power bar at the gym, 925 pounds in total, that is nine plates, 25, and a five pounder taped on top. The interesting thing:

No fear.

The goal?

To me, courage is everything. Curiosity and courage actually mean the same thing; couer means heart. Same also goes with curate.

Whenever I max out the barbell, attempting to lift over 900 pounds, people are always befuddled and ask me why I do it, what the purpose of it is, etc. I never have a quick enough or witty enough response. Typically I just say,

To fulfill a personal curiosity.

The personal curiosity of the limits of a human body, my human body, how much I could lift, without taking steroids etc.

But perhaps, a better way to think about it is actually, I do it as a means to conquer fear. To me a perfect lift is a lift in which your approach it, give it your all without any hesitation or fear.

In fact, I believe that 99% of street photography is simply conquering your fears. To not let hesitation get in your way.

What do we regret?

I think I’d like, typically our biggest regrets or regrets related to cowardice, or fear. For example, you wanted to ask that one girl out on a date, but, you were afraid of getting rejected, and you never did. Or you were fearful for asking her to get married, and you never asked, because you were fearful.

I know for weightlifters, powerlifters, people like me who enjoy doing one rep max lifts, I think the biggest regrets we have is when we want to lift a certain weight, but fear and hesitation gets in our way, and instead, we lift a lesser amount, afraid that we may “hurt“ ourselves.

However, an interesting thing that I’ve learned is the fear of hurting yourself is actually a good motivator to force you to focus.

For example, now at the gym, I’m laser focused. I don’t fuck around. I don’t rush my warm-up routine, and I’ve also been going harder in my warm up, stretching, yoga routine before I lift.

Greater danger, greater fates

I forget if it is Heraclitus or Democritus who said this, but essentially the gist:

In life, the more that a man attempts, risks, and exposes himself to danger, the greater his legacy and fate.

Fortuna adiuvat Fortis, the tattoo on the back of John Wick. The basic ideas that lady Fortune favors those who are strong, brave, and maybe perhaps a little bit reckless.

Foolish versus wise fear?

There is some fear which is wise. For example, I am fearful of dying in a texting while driving accident, and therefore I never text message while I drive, let alone ever text message. I have all notifications turned off on my iPhone.

Also, with Seneca, I let him do superficially do “dangerous“ stuff, but when it is actually really really dangerous, I tell him. Fear of critical or irreversible injury to Seneca is a fear which is wise.

What is entrepreneurship anyways?

I think “to entrepreneur” should be seen as a verb. To risk, to attempt. Even the modern day notion of an essay, comes from the French assay, which literally means attempt. When you write a written essay, it isn’t some storehouse of irrefutable truth. Rather, it is an attempt for you, the writer, to gain a deeper truth about something.

Success or failure is trivial

For example, what do you think about king Leonidas and his spartan 300, they are not remembered because they beat the Persians, but rather, their courage.

However, Homer puts both Achilles and Hector on equal footing. In the eyes of Homer, both fighters, irregardless of their lethality, are both seen as equal.

Your life?

I think modern-day life, it may not be fear which holds us back but uncertainty. For example, last summer before me and Cindy went to Phnom Penh Cambodia [thoughts on Phnom Penh Cambodia vlog], I was simply a little bit on the fence, I didn’t know if it would be good or bad. I was may be a little bit indifferent.

Therefore the simple heuristic;

If something is even a little bit marginally interesting to you, or might be interesting, just do it.

If I think about my travels, I don’t think I’ve ever really had an experience in which traveling was a “net negative” experience for me. There has always been good which comes out of every travel experience, irregardless of how difficult it might have been, or some annoyances along the way.

For example, going to South Korea last year, I got massively annoyed by all of these backwards Confucian moralizing and ethics. But, much good came out of it, because it forced me to do a deep dive on the history of Confucius, Confucian teachings, in order to undermine it.

Often things which make you angry can be very productive.

Your life goals?

I think honestly speaking, I am the most encouraging person that I know. Even my mom said it was a dream of hers that I became some sort of motivational speaker or something.

Even when I think about my workshops, my passion and my goal is to encourage every single participant in person who attends. To not be a nay sayer, but to be an enabler.

Other people?

I have a theory about modern-day society and capitalism and consumerism; it is all predicated on making you feel small and inferior, and the promise of capitalism and consumerism is this:

If you work really really hard, and earn enough money, you can buy your happiness, your self-worth, your self-esteem through cars, jewelry, things, homes and possessions, commas and zeros in your bank account etc.

For me, what are my greatest enjoyment is going to the gym, simply going there as a sociologist, and analyzing people, their behavior, their speech patterns, etc.

Something I have discovered is when people tell you to be “careful“, they are simply crowdsourcing their own fear onto you.

For example, when people first started to see me Atlas lift over seven plates, eight plates, nine plates etc. even the really really strong guys would tell me in a hushed tone—

… but be careful.

When people tell me this, essentially what they are saying is,

I would never attempt that, because I am afraid that I would hurt myself if I tried.

Simple lesson: when other people crowd-source their fears onto you, it is simply a signal that they are the cowards, not you.

Now what?

I think in life, the best way to live is to always have something greater to aspire towards. For example, it is the joy of the weight lifter to indefinitely increase his or her one rep max, in any given lift. Also it is the joy of the entrepreneur to keep innovating, taking on new ideas, new creative paths, new risks.

[How to take more risks in life]

This is where a lot of people are foolish; they dream of the day that they could cash out their Silicon Valley unicorn for $1 billion, and then just chill on the beach for the rest of their lives. No. The true entrepreneur perhaps would actually never sell their company; For example, mad respect to Mark Zuckerberg for not selling out Facebook. The deep regret of Instagram and WhatsApp founders to selling to Facebook, and also the regret of the oculus founders for selling to Facebook.

Missionary or mercenary?

One good framing that I got from Peter Thiel in 0 to 1 is figuring out whether other people are missionaries or mercenary’s. Missionaries do it because their soul is in the game (Nassim Taleb), mercenaries simply do it for a fat check and a bonus and a salary.

In fact, the truly great entrepreneurs in history like a Steve Jobs and Elon Musk were actually quite ascetic.

For example, Steve Jobs lived like a weird homeless person, and even Musk first built x.com with his brother, sharing the same office space, sleeping in sleeping bags, showering at the local YMCA, and feeding himself on two dollars a day with nothing but hotdogs and spaghetti. Maybe this is where Kanye West is a bad entrepreneur; I think he cares too much for expensive and fancy things.

Legacy?

A lot of philosophers have thought about this, but the more I think about it, seeking immortal fame amongst mortals (Heraclitus) actually seems like a good idea. Why? Granted that you have kids, legacy and your fame after death is the only thing which could outlive you, and aid future humanity.

I think deep down, all humans are altruistic to a certain point. Thinking about legacy isn’t really considering your fame and notoriety after death, but rather, how your life has impacted those who are currently alive, and also people who are not yet born.

What are you capable of?

See what you can do, become or achieve with EK:

June 17th, Saturday, 2023: DOWNTOWN LA CONQUER YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY AND LIFE – New!
July 15-16th: ERIC KIM SAIGON VIETNAM TRAVEL STREET PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERIENCE 2023 – New!
Oct 14th (Saturday) PHILLY CONQUER STREET PHOTOGRAPHY – New!

Fear conquering consulting

Email Eric [at] EricKim.com

Now what?

Portable thinking: I still strongly believe that a semi nomadic life is probably the best approach of living. Therefore, never buy, purchase, invest in anything which is not portable with you. For example when you travel and live abroad, you can’t take your house, you can’t take your Tesla, you can’t take your Lamborghini etc. This also means that with your devices, make sure they are super portable.
Why bitcoin is the future, not Ethereum: the new BRC-20 ordinal theory with Bitcoin — the new ethereum killer. Don’t trust anything built on top of the Ethereum network. Further skepticism towards chainlink.

Now what?

Chat GPT is cool, WHY APP ZEN OF ERIC KIM is better. Chat GPT is like a very efficient Google. Why app, Zen of Eric, is more interesting because it forces you to do the thinking in philosophizing, not amalgamated intelligence scraping off of Google. I think for now Google is safe, because it has been embedded within chrome, and Safari, and it is now in official verb. But, maybe as open AI, ChatGPT continues to expand, google will become less and less useful. Bad News For Google.
I think the future is social spaces. For example, building new gyms which are social experiences, and also let us consider the massive success of an Irvine spectrum, in terms of all the foot traffic they can get.

Antifragile technology?

The new thoughts:

Building an anti-fragile website or web platform?
Can chain.link be used perhaps to facilitate more anti fragile things online, via the blockchain?
CRYPTO THOUGHTS

Forward the turbo thoughts!

Feeling a little bit of wind in your wings? Feel free to forward this to a friend or family member who could use the turbo!

ERIC KIM NEWS >

START HERE // BOOKS // WORKSHOPS

What is the maximum weight you could lift successfully, once?

Becoming Antifragile

Probably the best modern-day book I’ve read in the last 10 years is Antifragile by Nassim Taleb. The basic gist is this;

When things threaten to destroy you, how can it be used as fuel to make you stronger?

In case you missed it

No fear.

What does it mean?

Essentially the basic idea is that in life, painful, bad, even violent aggressions from others are not to be avoided, but rather, maybe even desired.

Stoicism is the way

Stoicism isn’t a perfect technique, but it is certainly useful. I think in the context of manliness, and becoming a “real man”, I think stoicism is one of the best ways to become stronger.

There are lots of different stoic techniques and stoic tips.

Essentially, the basic gist:

When in doubt, delay reaction.

Becoming more invincible to fate

The new topics and directions is combining stoicism, street photography, and entrepreneurship to life:

June 17th, Saturday, 2023: DOWNTOWN LA CONQUER YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY AND LIFE
July 15-16th: ERIC KIM SAIGON VIETNAM TRAVEL STREET PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERIENCE 2023
Oct 14th (Saturday) PHILLY CONQUER STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Essentially, I believe that street photography is the supreme form of photography, as it requires the most courage and guts.

MAN IS ONLY HAPPY IF HE FEELS HIS POWER IS AUGMENTING

My Joyful Photos

No Fear

Just loaded up my Texas squat power bar at the gym, 925 pounds in total, that is nine plates, 25, and a five pounder taped on top. The interesting thing:

No fear.

The goal?

To me, courage is everything. Curiosity and courage actually mean the same thing; couer means heart. Same also goes with curate.

To fulfill a personal curiosity.

The personal curiosity of the limits of a human body, my human body, how much I could lift, without taking steroids etc.

But perhaps, a better way to think about it is actually, I do it as a means to conquer fear. To me a perfect lift is a lift in which your approach it, give it your all without any hesitation or fear.

In fact, I believe that 99% of street photography is simply conquering your fears. To not let hesitation get in your way.

What do we regret?

I know for weightlifters, powerlifters, people like me who enjoy doing one rep max of times, I think the biggest regrets we have is when we want to lift a certain weight, but fear and hesitation gets in our way, and instead, we lift a lesser amount, afraid that we may “hurt“ ourselves.

However, an interesting thing that I’ve learned is the fear of hurting yourself is actually a good motivator to force you to focus.

For example, now at the gym, I’m laser focused. I don’t fuck around. I don’t rush my warm-up routine, and I’ve also been going harder in my warm up, stretching, yoga routine before I lift.

Greater danger, greater fates

I forget if it is Heraclitus or Democritus who said this, but essentially the gist:

In life, the more that a man attempts, risks, and exposes himself to danger, the greater his legacy and fate.

Fortuna adiuvat Fortis, the tattoo on the back of John Wick. The basic ideas that lady Fortune favors those who are strong, brave, and maybe perhaps a little bit reckless.

Foolish versus wise fear?

What is entrepreneurship anyways?

Success or failure is trivial

For example, what do you think about king Leonidas and his spartan 300, they are not remembered because they beat the Persians, but rather, their courage.

Also interestingly enough, in the Iliad, in the duel between Achilles and Hector, Hector knows that Achilles is the superior fighter, and also, Achilles is a demigod, whereas Hector is a mere 100% human.
However, Homer puts both Achilles and Hector on equal footing. In the eyes of Homer, both fighters, irregardless of their lethality, are both seen as equal.

Your life?

I think modern-day life, it may not be fear which holds us back but uncertainty. For example, last summer before me and Cindy went to Phnom Penh Cambodia, I was simply a little bit on the fence, I didn’t know if it would be good or bad. I was may be a little bit indifferent.
Therefore the simple heuristic;

If something is even a little bit marginally interesting to you, or might be interesting, just do it.

Often things which make you angry can be very productive.

Your life goals?

I think honestly speaking, I am the most encouraging person that I know. Even my mom said it was a dream of hers that I became some sort of motivational speaker or something.

Even when I think about my workshops, my passion and my goal is to encourage every single participant in person who attends. To not be a nay sayer, but to be an enabler.

Other people?

I have a theory about modern-day society and capitalism and consumerism; it is all predicated on making you feel small and inferior, and the promise of capitalism and consumerism is this:

If you work really really hard, and earn enough money, you can buy your happiness, your self-worth, your self-esteem through cars, jewelry, things, homes and possessions, commas and zeros in your bank account etc.

For me, what are my greatest enjoyment is going to the gym, simply going there as a sociologist, and analyzing people, their behavior, their speech patterns, etc.

Something I have discovered is when people tell you to be “careful“, they are simply crowdsourcing their own fear onto you.

For example, when people first started to see me Atlas lift over seven plates, eight plates, nine plates etc. even the really really strong guys would tell me in a hushed tone—

… but be careful.

When people tell me this, essentially what they are saying is,

I would never attempt that, because I am afraid that I would hurt myself if I tried.

Simple lesson: when other people crowd-source their fears onto you, it is simply a signal that they are the cowards, not you.

Now what?

Missionary or mercenary?

In fact, the truly great entrepreneurs in history like a Steve Jobs and Elon Musk were actually quite ascetic.

Legacy?

What are you capable of?

See what you can do, become or achieve with EK:

June 17th, Saturday, 2023: DOWNTOWN LA CONQUER YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY AND LIFE – New!
July 15-16th: ERIC KIM SAIGON VIETNAM TRAVEL STREET PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERIENCE 2023 – New!
Oct 14th (Saturday) PHILLY CONQUER STREET PHOTOGRAPHY – New!

Fear conquering consulting

Email Eric [at] EricKim.com

Now what?

Portable thinking: I still strongly believe that a semi nomadic life is probably the best approach of living. Therefore, never buy, purchase, invest in anything which is not portable with you. For example when you travel and live abroad, you can’t take your house, you can’t take your Tesla, you can’t take your Lamborghini etc. This also means that with your devices, make sure they are super portable.
Why bitcoin is the future, not Ethereum: the new BRC-20 ordinal theory with Bitcoin — the new ethereum killer. Don’t trust anything built on top of the Ethereum network. Further skepticism towards chainlink.

Now what?

Chat GPT is cool, WHY APP ZEN OF ERIC KIM is better. Chat GPT is like a very efficient Google. Why app, Zen of Eric, is more interesting because it forces you to do the thinking in philosophizing, not amalgamated intelligence scraping off of Google. I think for now Google is safe, because it has been embedded within chrome, and Safari, and it is now in official verb. But, maybe as open AI, ChatGPT continues to expand, google will become less and less useful. Bad News For Google.
I think the future is social spaces. For example, building new gyms which are social experiences, and also let us consider the massive success of an Irvine spectrum, in terms of all the foot traffic they can get.

Forward the turbo thoughts!

Feeling a little bit of wind in your wings? Feel free to forward this to a friend or family member who could use the turbo!

ERIC KIM NEWS >

START HERE // BOOKS // WORKSHOPS