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