My general thoughts: first and foremost, this and you were supposed to change the world.

“Those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, do.” – OG (original gangster, old school) Apple Steve Jobs TV advertisement.

I was born in 1988, currently 35 years old. When I was a kid growing up, it was all about Gandhi, changing the world etc. Even in fact, for my college application essay, that what got me into UCLA as an undergrad, Centered around this quote from Gandhi “Be the change which you wish to see manifested in the world.”

As a kid growing up poor, fortunately having a lot of good mentors, my general gist was always to give back, to contribute to society. a lot was given to me when I was young, and I felt like it was my duty to give back.

Deep passion

Growing up poor, having my dad Gimble the rent money, always being one paycheck away from being potentially homeless… Money action never really concerned me as a kid. It was a strange irony; because we were always so financially unstable growing up, and even when we hit Rockbottom and my mom had to file for bankruptcy and she can no longer even open up her own personal checking account… my sister and my mom were OK. This taught me an important lesson that I could take infinite chances and not worry myself or concerned myself too much about finances. in fact, then even now… I literally have zero concerns about finances.

Why, why not? Never really interest me that much. As a kid, I had deep pride in being scrappy, being frugal, being economical, and having deep pride in being self aligned, making do and making best of what I had, or what I bought or earned or did with my own money, Earning it through working, my entrepreneur endeavors, starting my own business etc.

In fact, I remember when I was in high school, maybe around my sophomore year, my friend Eric Moon (yeah, his name was also Eric) taught me how to build computers. I was so shocked and amazed; I was always passionate about computers ever since I was a kid around 12 years old in New York, when I got my first Acer aspire computer. I think it had the original Intel Pentium processor ”inside”.

I think it was around my junior year, I had this great idea of doing something simple: because me and all of my friends weren’t to video games, kind of strike, kind of strike 1.6 etc.… I had this genius idea of building computers, And then later selling it at a small markup to my friends and other kids at school, for a small profit. I did the math and I would be able to build a pretty good computer for around 500 bucks, until it for around six or 700 bucks. I also put lots of advertisements on eBay to sell my computers, I made my own icon which I made on a pirated version of Adobe Photoshop, and I still recall it… It was a little beach palm tree icon, orange, and I called the company “Paradise computers.” The hilarity was in order to save costs, and in order for me to make a profit, actually use pirate versions of windows XP, I still remember later a kid from school I sold a computer tube his name was Barry… Later complained to me that the computer I sold him Was having issues because it had all of these pop-ups saying that it was using an unregistered or unlicensed version of Windows. I just shrugged my shoulders and continued on.

Anyways, as a kid, around 15 years old, I had enough money, around $1000 or around $1200 to buy my first car; a 1991 Sentra XE, which was a four-door, white Nissan car, 1.6 L five speed manual transmission sedan. GA16DE engine — I still remember it! Also the hilarity; it was so old-school it didn’t even have a tachometer in it! As the mechanic taught me how to drive manual stick transmission, in my uncle Enzo taught me how to drive stick shift, I learned that you could learn how to shift transmissions by just using your ears and feeling the car… At around 2000 to 3000 RPMs I learned how it intuitively felt.

The reason why this brought me so much insane effing joy was I felt so insanely proud of myself: I think I was definitely the only kid my age range that I personally knew, maybe even up to today… In which I purchased my own first car! Later on I remember joining all these online Nissan forums, and learning about this legendary car, which was essentially a souped up version of my first car; a two-door 1991 Sentra SE-R— equipped with a formidable 2.0 L engine, this SR 20 DE engine, the infamous engine which also powers the Sylvia, 240 SX, SR 20 DET engine in Japan (turbo charged)— except the 1991 centra SER was upfront wheel drive, whereas the SR 20 DET engine in Japan on the 240 SX was a rear wheel drive car.

Anyways, fast forwarding a bit… When my 1991 Sentra XE failed to pass emissions, I remember I was able to trade it into the junkyard, to get back around 1000, $1500 or something like that, and I was able to use that money to buy my dream car; the 1991 Sentra SE-R car!

Once again, the reason why this problem is so much joy, literally getting the car my pure pride and joy was a trifold was because the pride and the glory that I felt doing it myself! My own hard earned money.

Later on, I think when I was in college, either my freshman or sophomore year, I had this vision of driving through the desert, on a street path, it looked like it was Nevada or Arizona or Joshua tree or something… Driving top down in a red convertible. I did lots of research on discovering the cheapest option, and I learned about the moth Miata. I scored the deal of my lifetime, on craigslist I found a mint 1990 Mazda Miata, the original one, five speed, no power steering, no air conditioning… Pure. Red, soft top convertible, and I bought it for only $2500 USD. Funny enough that I look back at it, I remember asking the guy why he sold it and he told me that he had his first kid, and he no longer had use for the car. Interesting looking back at it now that I am 35 years old, now that Seneca is around two years nine months old, I am in a similar boat.

Now with cars, I am in love with my 2010 white Prius, which I literally got for free from Cindy‘s family! The genealogy of the car was Cindy‘s older sister first spotted brand new, drove it for a while, later passed it on to me and Cindy, who continued the payments until it was paid off, drove it around in Berkeley for around two years from around 2014 to 2015, went carless, give the car to Cindy’s younger sister, traveled the world and nomading around for several years as Cindy was writing her dissertation, and only may be a few months ago, when we were in Vietnam got the news that the Cadillac converter was stolen out of it, when Cindy‘s younger sister Jennifer was parked in front of her apartment. She no longer wanted to deal with the fear of the catalytic converter getting stolen again, and as a consequence, was saying that she was thinking about just telling it to the mechanic for $2000 or something like that. I yelled out loud, “no! The car is worth at least $10,000! “I then promoted the idea to Cindy of us taking it back, spending the money to replace the Khalid converter, which was around $2500, getting the catalytic converter shield, which is meant to deter future theft, which may be costing $300. Later we discovered that the ABS, antilock braking system was broken and needed to be fixed which was maybe around another $2000… But still, I am so proud that effectively we got what I consider a brand new car a brand new Prius for sub $5000!

What is a millennial?

I think I got a good definition for millennial; somebody who foolishly uses their money. And also doesn’t really know what they want to do or get out of their lives.

Living here in LA, being back here in LA for about a month and a half, some funny heuristics I’ve noted:

How do you know if somebody is unsuccessful? if they drive some sort of baselevel Audi, like an Audi Q3 or A3. Even if they drive just a basic Tesla model three. Essentially a lot of millennials my age or people my age, want to see men appear rich and successful or elite, or rich or whatever… Yet can only afford the cheapest luxury thing. Same thing for people who drive the base level BMW three series, Mercedes a class, essentially any German car. Even I see so many people driving range rovers, all black everything; or AMG G wagons, once again all matte black everything… They are more common than seeing Toyota sienna in the Orange County suburbs.
Everyone aspires to buy a home. Yet I think my big innovative thought is that actually… It may be superior to rent a really really nice apartment in an insanely great location, than owning a home even in a good to great location. Why? My thought on supreme happiness, joy, and success is being able to walk 50 miles a day, and also, having to spend minimum time to maintain anything. It is crazy, even though I may have the world’s least maintenance car, a Prius, even basic things that I gotta do is wash it every once in a while, I don’t even have enough time to take my car to the drive-through car wash at the gas station anymore! Or even washing the car myself, I would prefer to use that time to work out in my Spartan parking lot off the grid workout, or take Seneca to the park, or go on a walk downtown topless to sunbathe. I can’t be fucked wasting time washing my car or doing any of this other nonsense.

What do people aspire to?

Am I the last optimistic, entrepreneurially hungry person that I know?

I think out of all the real life human beings that I know, and also out of all my friends, the entrepreneur that I know, and also consider successful is my friend Todd Hata. I am insanely grateful of him, because when I was only 21 or 22 years old, he reached out and actually helped me get started in business very very early, traveling the world together, I still consider him one of my closest friends, and also mentors.

But besides Todd, I don’t think I know anybody. All of my friends, even the ones that consider successful either work at Facebook, Amazon, Google, or Apple.

Funny enough, I actually don’t know anybody, and don’t have any friends or anybody in my personal friends Circle who has actually become entrepreneurs, or self-employed, or soul proprietors. Everyone is working for a company or a corporation. Or a foreign business. Not for themselves.

And this is what I think is the critical thing; if you really really really want to change the world, I think it is impossible doing it while still having full-time employment. Why? I remember thinking a few years back, one of the most grateful things I was no longer having to work my old 9 to 5 was that suddenly, I had another 8 to 9 hours a day, to do what I was truly passionate about, Doing street photography and riding and blogging about street photography, instead of being stuck in some sort of tedious office.

My visions

I had lots of visions in my life, many of which I accomplished and I am very proud of.

First, my idea and notion of open source, open source photography. Apparently I created quite the buzz when I first made available all of my photographs on Flicker online for free, open source, full resolution JPEG. This was unheard of at the time, when people were still putting Sylvia watermarks on their images, or they were afraid of people “stealing“ their photos online. I always had the clear understanding that ultimately, you can’t even pay people to steal your photos. Ultimately nobody cares for your photos that much. What is more important? Your influence, your fame, your clout, your reach. I knew that even from a basic perspective, it was better to have your Photos available for free, open source, to the general public, for them to use it as their desktop wallpaper or something. I even recall remember hearing Some fans I met using my dark skies over Tokyo photo, behind the suit with the black face, as there does top wallpaper! That bought me a quadrillion times more joy than selling my photos for thousands of dollars.

And I think this is the thing I discovered; what a lot of us photographers are seeking is significance, a feeling of legitimacy. My personal journey was attempting the traditional routes of becoming a “successful“ photographer; traveling the world, becoming world famous, becoming a household name, having solo exhibitions, printing a photo book, getting sponsorships etc. Now having done all of it, I am happy… Yet… What I ultimately discovered was this:

True success ain’t any of that. True success is simply, having a unique vision, and fulfilling it.

in fact, one of the proudest moments of my life, two “Nasim Taleb was “via Neiva“; the idea that the proudest moments of your life aren’t positive actions of doing or saying yes, but rather, act of omission; things you decide to not do, or things to say no to or to refuse.

For example, my book, “100 lessons from the masters of street photography.” I had a grand vision of doing this book for a long time, especially after doing my exhaustive self studying series of all the masters of street photography etc. In fact actually got an offer from a book agent, who offered me a book deal on it, but, he said that it was impossible to make an open source, free, open easily accessible PDF available for free. After much thinking, delaying and thought… I ultimately refuse the book deal and I am proud that I did. I am certain that this book will outlive me. Why? It was created out of pure passion; things which are created out of pure passion will never die.

Ultimately, what is it that we want or desire?

One of the great quotes I love is from the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus, who once said “The greatest good amongst men is to seek immortality amongst mortals. Yet the majority of men themselves like cattle.”

Pure Thoughts

ERIC KIM HOW TO BECOME MORE MASCULINE

Quit porn, the news, Reddit, TV, YouTube, Spotify etc.
8 hours a day in the direct sun topless.
Never drive
Quit alcohol, weed, strange beverages. Only black coffee, water and tea. Stick to tap water or filtered water.
Smile
Insanely heavy weight lifting
Only eat dinner
Only red meat — beef and lamb.

BEAUTY?

Ever Evolving

The motivational thought of today; to be ever evolving.

For example, it seems that a big problem is that people don’t want you to evolve and change. Think about David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Kanye West etc. People want you to be the same same predictable person, and when you change involved in the advance, people hate it.

Is ERIC KIM on drugs?

No. I’m just high off life!

In fact, fun fact; I’ve only ever smoked weed twice in my life; once when we’re living in Berkeley around 2014, I got crazy visuals. The second time I did it nothing really happened.

Also, I have never done any other drugs, I don’t even know what they are.

Also, I quit alcohol maybe seven or eight years ago. Why? First, it made me fatter, put on body fat percentage. Also, I get bad hangovers, and also it ruins my sleep. In fact I’ve discovered that it actually takes more courage not to Drink alcohol than to imbibe.

Why is evolution critical?

First of all, you’re probably gonna live a long time. If you live long enough, you’re going to contradict yourself sooner or later. I think this is a good thing; having the courage and the wisdom to change your mind is a very strong sign of strength.

Also the bias is that we must always be the same same, predictable, easily decipherable by others, why? I think it is because we have become marketed products, and also, it seems that a lot of people hate uncertainty. However for risk takers like myself, I thrive off of it.

“Shoot for the stars, because if you fail you’ll just land on a cloud” – Kanye

To infinity and beyond, thinking about Buzz Lightyear, and also other modern day concepts.

I love Elon Musk to death, because he is irreverent, hard-core, and hilarious. I am quite certain that Elon Musk will be remembered for at least 2000 years beyond.

For example, when he started his payments company with his brother, zip2, and he sold it to the market, he became a multi millionaire, immediately went out and bought a McLaren, and decided… He didn’t want to just retire on the beach, he wanted to start more companies. Therefore, him starting SpaceX, and also cofounding Tesla with Marc T and the other guy.

Can you imagine if Elon Musk just sold his first company, and just sat on his butt? The world would be a lot less interesting.

How can you take this into your own personal consideration?

The first thought is super simple; just download ChatGPT, and pay the $20 a month subscription models; cancel your Adobe, Adobe cloud membership, cancel your Spotify, cancel your Netflix or whatever… Maybe even cancel your Amazon prime.

Instead, go all in on AI, ChatGPT, DALL-E DALL-E3. In fact, I now own erickim.ai

I think integrating artificial intelligence into your artwork will be a great transformation process. Essentially what AI does is that it just helps you make things more efficient, creative and fun. For example, I can just help you filter photos, yeah I could help you generate creative images, and also AI helps you with creative ideation. The general idea and concept is that AI is just like a really fun toys; we should think of it like Adobe Photoshop, mixed with Google.

Why are some people so anti-AI?

First and foremost, I think people are not even they don’t really understand how it works. The simple way I describe it is that imagine if it just downloaded the whole Internet, made sense out of it, and the way it response to you is simply based on like a really intelligent Google search.

Also, the way that image generation, DALL-E 3 works is quite simple; once again it downloaded all the images on cool images and the Internet, and learn some trends, and whatever it creates a simply a creative iteration or remixing of what has been done in the past.

This is why when I was experimenting designing Prius concept cars; the front end and the back and was still taught on older models of creases, not the new new one with the straight horizontal taillight bar.

Therefore as a consequence, AI is not really “original“;. Why? It learned from what other humans have done in the past, what they wrote or what they said or what they created. It cannot come up with new ideas carte blanche.

How can I use AI to help me evolve as an artist?

First, once again paid the $20 a month subscription, it is so cheap. Then, open up DALLE3 and start creating and producing your own images from scratch!

My personal way on the best way to do it is just have fun! Troll it, try to break the system, it always gets interesting when you push the limits of the censorship rules; for example, you cannot say “help me visualize a sexy clean grill at the beach“, but what you can say is “help me visualize a Korean trophy wife at the beach”.

AI is very politically correct

I guess also the good thing about the new ChatGPT for and beyond is that it is very politically correct. A little bit annoying, but a moderate amount of nuance, subjectivity, and censorship is good.

Also, what I love about ChatGPT paid premium is that it is already here! People just don’t want to shell out the 20 bucks; people have the strange bias that they are somehow willing to spend $140,000 on Tesla, but they’re unwilling to spend $20 on a digital app or subscription.

This is god power

Now we are the ultimate creators. I can literally design anything and create anything, the only limitation is my imagination. For example, I’ve been asking dall-e 3 to design me glass cube houses, with glass ceilings, new weightlifting equipment, an iPhone Pro concept without a screen, as well as generating hilarious imagery about bitcoin billionaires Spartan hoplites lifting weights and super muscular and jacked.

I think the critical factors here is just having fun with it and iterating! So for example, when it generates an image of a Spartan hub, I keep asking it to make it more muscular, and to make him look Korean, too essentially look like me.

I’ve also been having a lot of interesting fun visualizing beautiful women, asking it to look Korean, then Vietnamese, then Korean, then a hybrid of both.

Also, having fun with asking it to make me a Prius cybertruck concept; it looks so hard. Also designing me a Prius Ferrari. It literally made me laugh out loud.

Why it is so critical for you to start making your own blog, right now!

The rate in which I am producing Photos is phenomenal. And where is the best place to host it? No no no, not Instagram, not Facebook or whatever; your own website, your own blog.

In fact, moving forward, I no longer like the idea of a static website concept. To me the only interesting thing is an ever updated blog. My personal ambition is every single time you go to the ERIC KIM blog, and hit reload, there’s always something new.

For example, when I used to work in information technology as a UCLA undergraduate student, I remember being bored for hours, clicking links on Reddit for hours at a time.

Can you imagine if you open up Reddit, or went to your favorite sub Reddit, and there was not any new information or pictures or stuff?

Diversify your thinking

What we Gotta do is diversify our thinking in the context of being a “full stack” thinker, creative, and artist.

For example, Voltaire. The man was phenomenal. He wrote screenplay, directed opera, design costumes, put on shows, wrote poetry, wrote essays, engaged in Woody dialogue, philosophized, etc.

I think the reason why people are so confused by me is that certainly when I started off, my hundred percent focus was geography, nothing but free photography. Yet, I am complex, multi variegated individual, which means that my thoughts are diverse.

In fact, I think this is a critical part of my success; a lot of people became diehard ERIC KIM readers because of my interest in Stoicism, philosophy and other random stuff.

My new advice I would give to young bloggers, bloggers, Internet entrepreneurs is simple; allow yourself to be insanely diverse. Don’t pigeonhole yourself into one small thing.

How to evolve

First, you should never force evolution. For example, do you remember that one Pokémon episode, in which as tried to force Pikachu to evolve to the Raichu with the thunderstone, and how Ash felt like such a scumbag doing it, and eventually Pikachu hit the stone out of ashes hand, and Ash realized That he was becoming a low-key Eugenist?

I think the downside of Hitler, Nazism, all those nonsensical “eugenics folks“, is that they are myopic in their thinking. They cannot understand that diversity is in fact, the key to our strength.

For example, Steve Jobs, who was adopted as a child, his biological father was Syrian, his mother Caucasian American. In theory of Steve Jobs would have never been born in Apple would have never been born had America not granted his Syrian father student visa to study in the states.

Or, let us consider Elon Musk, certainly easily the best entrepreneur of all time. He’s such a great entrepreneur that Walter Isaacson wanted to quickly get a biography out on him, maybe Walter Isaacson‘s personal health is also personally declining. Elon Musk was born in South Africa, and was also through someways permitted to immigrate to the states via Canada etc. Also apparently some of his best buddies were also immigrants in college.

America is the home of evolution?

Certainly there is much that we could critique and criticize about America, yet… And then the day, America is easily the most supreme place to be in terms of innovation and evolution. Why?

First of all, people could really care less about what you are, what you do it, etc. All of this nonsense in the media is I think fueled by advertising; the more vitriol and hate and controversy the news puts out, the higher their advertising revenue and the more eyeballs to get on them. In fact, it ain’t Donald Trump or whatever who is the bad guy… We should probably blame the media, the mainstream media. Apparently when Donald Trump was first running for office, when everybody thought he had a 0% chance of actually getting office, apparently the left stream liberal media gave him trial is a free advertising. it seems that the more people try to shut him down, like Twitter, Maybe Jack Dorsey, etc.… The more price you got. It is like the notion of band books; the second you banned something, or try to ban something, or make a taboo… The usage of it goes higher. Apparently this is also how Europeans are better at moderating alcohol especially among the youth; because it is not illegal and taboo, the kids don’t have to get shitfaced and smashed the second they go to college. Even for myself, I partied a lot in high school, call illegally enclosure, drinking alcohol with my buddies sophomore junior and senior year, so the second I went to college, alcohol had zero interest in me.

It’s also kind of like kids; when you tell them they cannot do something, they want to do it even more But if you let them do it, they’re interested in it is lukewarm.

Cross pollinate your ideas

A simple strategy and approach is cross pollinating your interest passions and personal curiosities. For example, imagine a bumblebee hopping from all of these different flowers, sipping unique nectar from each. Eventually the honey it will produce is truly one of a kind. I don’t think bees are about “single origin“. In fact, too much focus on “single origin“, or “100% pure arabica”, seems like a low-key white supremacy idea. The idea is; anything that is not 100% purebred, is bad and evil and malicious. Therefore we have to keep our bloodlines in our things pure, any mixing or meddling is bad.

for example, animals. In higher elite social circles, it is seen as more vogue to have 100% purebred Pomeranian or whatever we breed of dog. Yet the problem about these purebreds is that a lot of them are sick, weak, inbred and feeble. Even in Korea, which about 90% of the population last name is Kim, we distinguish the type of KIM we are. For example, I am “Kim-eh-Kim-ssi”— there used to be this taboo that before you got married to somebody, assuming they had the same last name as you, you would not accidentally inbreed.

I think in terms of genetic diversity, having “mixed race“ kids is a good idea. I even surmise that if you go back enough in history, there was a lot more genetic mixing back then. For example Vietnam. If you’re from the north, your ancestors probably intermingled more with people from China and east Asia, whereas if you were from the south, You were probably more interwoven with Cambodians, Thai people, etc.

Even a critical distinction I learned is Africa is insanely big, and it is actually very disrespectful to just blanket call somebody “African“; where are they really from? Ethiopia? Legos, South Africa? Zimbabwe? I think to call or to mistake different African people from different African countries is almost a kid to mistaking a South Korean person for being Japanese, or a Vietnamese person being from mainland China.

In fact I have this funny story, when me and Cindy were both around 23 years old and we are enjoying a nice French restaurant in Paris, the waiter, who looked African-French ask me quote Korean, and Chinese… Is it the same thing?” I then responded wittingly, “French and Spanish… Is it the same thing?” He laughed, nodded and have me a hat tip for my witty analogy.

Where having your own blog is critical

I am ahead of the curve. I have this notion of ChatGPT AI search engine optimization; the general idea and just is at this point, Google is dead. ChatGPT4 produces far more accurate results and cuts through all this advertising nonsense “content marketing“, and in someways ironically is less biased.

I think the future calling card is this:

“Just ChatGPT me!”

ChatGPT knows whether you’re influential or not, because it has downloaded the whole Web, and it makes better sense of significant and deep interlinking of individuals and opinions. Whereas with Google search engine optimization, the pagerank (Larry Page Rank) system is now outdated by at least 20-30 years.

Ever Evolving

The motivational thought of today; to be ever evolving.

Is ERIC KIM on drugs?

No. I’m just high off life!

In fact, fun fact; I’ve only ever smoked weed twice in my life; once when we’re living in Berkeley around 2014, I got crazy visuals. The second time I did it nothing really happened.

Also, I have never done any other drugs, I don’t even know what they are.

Why is evolution critical?

“Shoot for the stars, because if you fail you’ll just land on a cloud” – Kanye

To infinity and beyond, thinking about Buzz Lightyear, and also other modern day concepts.

I love Elon Musk to death, because he is irreverent, hard-core, and hilarious. I am quite certain that Elon Musk will be remembered for at least 2000 years beyond.

Can you imagine if Elon Musk just sold his first company, and just sat on his butt? The world would be a lot less interesting.

How can you take this into your own personal consideration?

Instead, go all in on AI, ChatGPT, DALL-E DALL-E3. In fact, I now own erickim.ai

Why are some people so anti-AI?

How can I use AI to help me evolve as an artist?

First, once again paid the $20 a month subscription, it is so cheap. Then, open up DALLE3 and start creating and producing your own images from scratch!

AI is very politically correct

I guess also the good thing about the new ChatGPT for and beyond is that it is very politically correct. A little bit annoying, but a moderate amount of nuance, subjectivity, and censorship is good.

This is god power

I’ve also been having a lot of interesting fun visualizing beautiful women, asking it to look Korean, then Vietnamese, then Korean, then a hybrid of both.

Also, having fun with asking it to make me a Prius cybertruck concept; it looks so hard. Also designing me a Prius Ferrari. It literally made me laugh out loud.

Why it is so critical for you to start making your own blog, right now!

The rate in which I am producing Photos is phenomenal. And where is the best place to host it? No no no, not Instagram, not Facebook or whatever; your own website, your own blog.

For example, when I used to work in information technology as a UCLA undergraduate student, I remember being bored for hours, clicking links on Reddit for hours at a time.

Can you imagine if you open up Reddit, or went to your favorite sub Reddit, and there was not any new information or pictures or stuff?

Diversify your thinking

What we Gotta do is diversify our thinking in the context of being a “full stack” thinker, creative, and artist.

For example, Voltaire. The man was phenomenal. He wrote screenplay, directed opera, design costumes, put on shows, wrote poetry, wrote essays, engaged in Woody dialogue, philosophized, etc.

In fact, I think this is a critical part of my success; a lot of people became diehard ERIC KIM readers because of my interest in Stoicism, philosophy and other random stuff.

My new advice I would give to young bloggers, bloggers, Internet entrepreneurs is simple; allow yourself to be insanely diverse. Don’t pigeonhole yourself into one small thing.

Ever Evolving

The motivational thought of today; to be ever evolving.

Is ERIC KIM on drugs?

No. I’m just high off life!

In fact, fun fact; I’ve only ever smoked weed twice in my life; once when we’re living in Berkeley around 2014, I got crazy visuals. The second time I did it nothing really happened.

Also, I have never done any other drugs, I don’t even know what they are.

Why is evolution critical?

“Shoot for the stars, because if you fail you’ll just land on a cloud” – Kanye

To infinity and beyond, thinking about Buzz Lightyear, and also other modern day concepts.

I love Elon Musk to death, because he is irreverent, hard-core, and hilarious. I am quite certain that Elon Musk will be remembered for at least 2000 years beyond.

Can you imagine if Elon Musk just sold his first company, and just sat on his butt? The world would be a lot less interesting.

How can you take this into your own personal consideration?

Instead, go all in on AI, ChatGPT, DALL-E DALL-E3. In fact, I now own erickim.ai

Why are some people so anti-AI?

How can I use AI to help me evolve as an artist?

First, once again paid the $20 a month subscription, it is so cheap. Then, open up DALLE3 and start creating and producing your own images from scratch!

AI is very politically correct

I guess also the good thing about the new ChatGPT for and beyond is that it is very politically correct. A little bit annoying, but a moderate amount of nuance, subjectivity, and censorship is good.

Why Have We Been Trained to Hate the Sun?

When the weather outside is insanely good, and it is actually very cold in the shade, but nice and warm in the sun, I think about the aprophocal (probably fake, a high tale) quote from Diogenes when he met Alexander the great:

Alexander the great, upon meeting Diogenes asked him he could give him whatever he wanted. Diogenes then said, “Move over, you’re blocking my sun.” (as he has sunbathing).

The funny thought, if you had all the riches in the world, the greatest joy is just being able to be in the sun all day?

Sunbathing

Isn’t it funny that we call it “sunbathing”? Which literally means, bathing in the sun?

I wonder, if there is a hygiene aspect here. Even Elon Musk said wittingly, the sun is the best disinfectant.

This is true. Asian people have traditionally known that in fact, the best way to disinfect something is actually to let it dry directly in the sun. This works well with things that smell, like smelly old bath towels, smelly old floor bath towel mats, your shoes etc.

Why are we so afraid of the sun now?

I am sure that it is certain that we do have lots of UV issues with the ozone layer etc. But funny thing, it seems like maybe a decade or two ago we talked a lot about all this pollution messing up the ozone there. Yet, this notion has fallen out of vogue and we talk about “climate change” instead. essentially all of these concepts are coming in and out of vogue; always these issues with the planet etc.

Certainly one thing I can attest to is pollution. If you have never been to some parts of industrial Vietnam, Cambodia, or other parts of Southeast Asia… You don’t really know how bad pollution is. Even Seoul South Korea, one of the most advanced places on the planet, the pollution there now is insanely bad.

Even all of the really rich mainland Chinese people; what do they do? Nobody wants to be a trillionaire in Beijing or anywhere in mainland China, or even in Shanghai… Apparently the pollution there is unbearable. Or would they prefer to do? Buy a nice house in Vancouver, or somewhere where the weather is good; beautiful greenery, trees, fresh air, etc. I think this is why real estate value in San Diego is so high; it may have the best climate on the planet or the West Coast.

Why does this matter?

I think the reason why this matters so much is that health may be one of the most critical things to our human thriving, and also, bodily physiological health. Apparently son exposure is becoming at things; the doctor saying that you need “at least“, 10 to 15 months of direct sun exposure a day.

Yeah the reason why I think this advice is not great is because it is too focused on trying to create a “one size fits all” approach to things.

For example, thinking about your country of origin is insanely critical. Why? The reason being that in fact, this matters.

for example I am Korean. My mom is from Busan South Korea, and my dad is from Seoul South Korea. My genetic heritage is from Korea, South Korea… What does this mean?

First, Korean people are almost like the Greeks, or the Mediterranean folks of Asia, east Asia. Why? Our skin is described as being olive green colored, which means we tan good.

For example the last month two months in LA, I’ve been trying to walk around topless and in short shorts as much as humanly possible, when the sunlight is out. As a consequence, I’ve developed a very beautiful tan, it even shocks me how wonderful my tan has become, and how beautiful my skin looks. I’ll just washing my legs other day, observing the tone of my legs and skin, massaging my skin, and delighting in how it glistened and the skin tone of it. I’ve actually never witnessed skin flesh that close-up which looks so beautiful.

I think this is where notions of the beach, beach weather is seen as so interesting and critical to people; I think people seek the beach and the beach weather because they want to get a good tan.

Also, note that “beach bombs” tend to be very very happy. Maybe it is because they get so much great sun exposure?

But how can I get a tan or how can I better improve the quality of my skin, without damaging my skin or getting sunburnt?

Once again, considering your cultural heritage is important here. For example if you’re from northern Sweden, let’s say Umea, genetically, your skin is going to be insanely pale because during the worst of winter, you literally might only get an hour or two of sunlight a day. Apparently this is why a lot of people in northern Sweden are alcoholics or have one of the highest rates of coffee consumption in the world; during these miserable winter months, when you literally cannot see the sun for that long, people get depressed.

But if we consider the genetic factor; let us assume that in northern Sweden there is only an hour of Sunday. And let us also assume that back in the day, people were just bundled up and outdoors and outside all day. As a consequence of your light skin pigment, your body would be able to absorb sufficient amounts of UV radiation from the sun, For optimal health.

However, let it say that your heritage is from northern Sweden, and then suddenly you moved to Arizona or LA or Southern California. Now there is a mismatch between your genetic heritage and your environment. That is, your skin is too light to be in the sun for that long. Therefore if your genetic heritage is from northern Europe, or higher places, not being in the sun for too long, or just bundling up and wearing lots of protective clothing is a good idea. Just imagine the people from Dune; head scarf, sunglasses, facemask, long sleeve everything, long pants etc.

Why are African British people, or people from African descent so depressed and miserable in London?

I met a really cool guy yesterday, African-American descent, but something he told me that was interesting about being “black“. The nuance is that not everybody who is proceeded as being “black“ is actually from Africa. For example, let us say that you’re from Egypt, or let us say that you from the Mediterranean, or, you’re from the Caribbean. Technically to say that your “African“, or from Africa is in accurate. Even told me that whenever you go meet people, they do not associate themselves with the continent; instead, they associate themselves with their country. for example, people are not “African“, or “from Africa; rather, they’re from Nigeria, Legos, Ethiopia,, etc.

A funny nuance is that in America, the notion of being “Asian“, or “Asian-American”, is a concept. Yet at the end of the day… If you go to Asia, people take insane offense if your Korean and you are mistaken as either Chinese or Japanese. Korean people hate Japanese people with a passion, because of how brutally they were colonized. Also the Vietnamese distain the Chinese, a long history of oppression. also people from Hong Kong really really hate the mainland Chinese, especially the successful rich mainland Chinese. People from Hong Kong don’t call themselves Chinese, they see they’re from “Hong Kong”. Also, they align themselves more with their British colonial heritage.

Jewish?

When I was back in Providence Rhode Island, I thought, “why are people so anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish?”

Especially when Kanye West said all this bad things about Jewish people. I decided to do a deep dive.

According to history, the best worst descriptor or history of Jewish people, the Jews, comes from the Roman historian Tacitus (tact, tactful, tactless?)— Tacitus Histories, Book V 5:

I will quote it in full:

1 1 At the beginning of this same year1 Titus Caesar, who had been selected by his father to complete the subjugation of Judea,2 and who had already won distinction as a soldier while both were still private citizens, began to enjoy greater power and reputation, for provinces and armies and vied with one another in enthusiasm for him. Moreover, in his own conduct, wishing to be thought greater than his fortune, he always showed himself dignified and energetic in the field; by his affable address he called forth devotion, and he often mingled with the common soldiers both at work or on the march without impairing his position as general. He found awaiting him in Judea three legions, Vespasian’s old troops, the Fifth, the Tenth, and the Fifteenth. He reinforced these with the Twelfth from Syria and with some soldiers from the Twenty-second and the Third which he brought from Alexandria; these troops were accompanied by twenty cohorts of allied infantry, eight squadrons of cavalry, as well as by the princes Agrippa and Sohaemus, the auxiliaries sent by King Antiochus,3 and by a strong contingent of Arabs, who hated the Jews with all that hatred that is common among neighbours; there were besides many Romans who had been prompted to leave the capital and Italy by the hope that each entertained of securing the prince’s favour while he was yet free from engagements. With these forces Titus entered p177 the enemy’s land: his troops advanced in strict order, he reconnoitred at every step and was always ready for battle; not far from Jerusalem he pitched camp.

2 1 However, as I am about to describe the last days of a famous city, it seems proper for me to give some account of its origin.4

It is said that the Jews were originally exiles from the island of Crete who settled in the farthest parts of Libya at the time when Saturn had been deposed and expelled by Jove. An argument in favour of this is derived from the name: there is a famous mountain in Crete called Ida, and hence the inhabitants were called the Idaei, which was later lengthened into the barbarous form Iudaei. Some hold that in the reign of Isis the superfluous population of Egypt, under the leadership of Hierosolymus and Iuda, discharged itself on the neighbouring lands; many others think that they were an Egyptian stock, which in the reign of Cepheus was forced to migrate by fear and hatred. Still others report that they were Assyrian refugees, a landless people, who first got control of a part of Egypt, then later they had their own cities and lived in the Hebrew territory and the nearer parts of Syria. Still others say that the Jews are of illustrious origin, being the Solymi, a people celebrated in Homer’s poems,5 who founded a city and gave it the name Hierosolyma, formed from their own.

3 1 Most authors agree that once during a plague in Egypt which caused bodily disfigurement, King Bocchoris6 approached the oracle of Ammon7 and p179 asked for a remedy, whereupon he was told to purge his kingdom and to transport this race into other lands, since it was hateful to the gods. So the Hebrews were searched out and gathered together; then, being abandoned in the desert, while all others lay idle and weeping, one only of the exiles, Moses by name, warned them not to hope for help from gods or men, for they were deserted by both, but to trust to themselves, regarding as a guide sent from heaven the one whose assistance should first give them escape from their present distress. They agreed, and then set out on their journey in utter ignorance, but trusting to chance. Nothing caused them so much distress as scarcity of water, and in fact they had already fallen exhausted over the plain nigh unto death, when a herd of wild asses moved from their pasturage to a rock that was shaded by a grove of trees. Moses followed them, and, conjecturing the truth from the grassy ground, discovered abundant streams of water. This relieved them, and they then marched six days continuously, and on the seventh seized a country, expelling the former inhabitants; there they founded a city and dedicated a temple.8

4 1 To establish his influence over this people for all time, Moses introduced new religious practices, quite opposed to those of all other religions. The Jews regard as profane all that we hold sacred; on the other hand, they permit all that we abhor. They dedicated, in a shrine, a statue of that creature whose guidance enabled them to put an end to their wandering and thirst,9 sacrificing a ram, apparently in derision of Ammon.10 They likewise offer the ox, because the Egyptians worship Apis. They abstain p181 from pork, in recollection of a plague, for the scab to which this animal is subject once afflicted them. By frequent fasts even now they bear witness to the long hunger with which they were once distressed, and the unleavened Jewish bread is still employed in memory of the haste with which they seized the grain.11 They say that they first chose to rest on the seventh day because that day ended their toils; but after a time they were led by the charms of indolence to give over the seventh year as well to inactivity.12 Others say that this is done in honour of Saturn,13 whether it be that the primitive elements of their religion were given by the Idaeans, who, according to tradition, were expelled with Saturn and became the founders of the Jewish race, or is due to the fact that, of the seven planets that rule the fortunes of mankind, Saturn moves in the highest orbit and has the greatest potency; and that many of the heavenly bodies traverse their paths and courses in multiples of seven.14

5 1 Whatever their origin, these rites are maintained by their antiquity: the other customs of the Jews are base and abominable, and owe their persistence to their depravity. For the worst rascals among other peoples,15 renouncing their ancestral religions, always kept sending tribute and contributions to Jerusalem, thereby increasing the wealth of the Jews; again, the Jews are extremely loyal toward one another, and always ready to show compassion, but toward every other people they p183 feel only hate and enmity. They sit apart at meals, and they sleep apart, and although as a race, they are prone to lust, they abstain from intercourse with foreign women; yet among themselves nothing is unlawful. They adopted circumcision to distinguish themselves from other peoples by this difference. Those who are converted to their ways follow the same practice, and the earliest lesson they receive is to despise the gods, to disown their country, and to regard their parents, children, and brothers as of little account. However, they take thought to increase their numbers; for they regard it as a crime to kill any late-born child,16 and they believe that the souls of those who are killed in battle or by the executioner are immortal: hence comes their passion for begetting children, and their scorn of death. They bury the body rather than burn it, thus following the Egyptians’ custom; they likewise bestow the same care on the dead, and hold the same belief about the world below; but their ideas of heavenly things are quite the opposite. The Egyptians worship many animals and monstrous images; the Jews conceive of one god only, and that with the mind alone: they regard as impious those who make from perishable materials representations of gods in man’s image; that supreme and eternal being is to them incapable of representation and without end. Therefore they set up no statues in their cities, still less in their temples; this flattery is not paid their kings, nor this honour given to the Caesars. But since their priests used to chant to the accompaniment of pipes and cymbals and to wear garlands of ivy, and because a golden vine was found in their temple, some have thought that they were devotees p185 of Father Liber, the conqueror of the East, in spite of the incongruity of their customs. For Liber established festive rites of a joyous nature, while the ways of the Jews are preposterous and mean.

6 1 Their land is bounded by Arabia on the east, Egypt lies on the south, on the west are Phoenicia and the sea, and toward the north the people enjoy a wide prospect over Syria.17 The inhabitants are healthy and hardy. Rains are rare; the soil is fertile; its products are like ours, save that the balsam and the palm also grow there. The palm is a tall and handsome tree; the balsam18 a mere shrub: if a branch, when swollen with sap, is pierced with steel, the veins shrivel up; so a piece of stone or a potsherd is used to open them; the juice is employed by physicians. Of the mountains, Lebanon rises to the greatest height, and is in fact a marvel, for in the midst of the excessive heat its summit is shaded by trees and covered with snow; it likewise is the source and supply of the river Jordan.19 This river does not empty into the sea, but after flowing with volume undiminished through two lakes is lost in the third.20 The last is a lake of great size: it is like the sea, but its water has a nauseous taste, and its offensive odour is injurious to those who live near it. Its waters are not moved by the wind, and neither fish nor water-fowl can live there. Its lifeless waves bear up whatever is thrown upon them as on a solid surface; all swimmers, whether skilled or not, are buoyed up by them. At a certain season of the year the sea throws up bitumen, and experience has taught the natives how to collect this, as she teaches p187 all arts. Bitumen is by nature a dark fluid which coagulates when sprinkled with vinegar, and swims on the surface. Those whose business it is, catch hold of it with their hands and haul it on shipboard: then with no artificial aid the bitumen flows in and loads the ship until the stream is cut off. Yet you cannot use bronze or iron to cut the bituminous stream; it shrinks from blood or from a cloth stained with a woman’s menses. Such is the story told by ancient writers, but those who are acquainted with the country aver that the floating masses of bitumen are driven by the winds or drawn by hand to shore, where later, after they have been dried by vapours from the earth or by the heat of the sun, they are split like timber or stone with axes and wedges.

7 1 Not far from this lake is a plain which, according to report, was once fertile and the site of great cities, but which was later devastated by lightning; and it is said that traces of this disaster still exist there, and that the very ground looks burnt and has lost its fertility. In fact, all the plants there, whether wild or cultivated, turn black, become sterile, and seem to wither into dust, either in leaf or in flower or after they have reached their usual mature form. Now for my part, although I should grant that famous cities were once destroyed by fire from heaven, I still think that it is the exhalations from the lake that infect the ground and poison the atmosphere about this district, and that this is the reason that crops and fruits decay, since both soil and climate are deleterious.21 The river Belus also p189 empties into the Jewish Sea; around its mouth a kind of sand is gathered, which when mixed with soda is fused into glass. The beach is of moderate size, but it furnishes an inexhaustible supply.22

8 1 A great part of Judea is covered with scattered villages, but there are some towns also; Jerusalem is the capital of the Jews. In it was a temple possessing enormous riches.23 The first line of fortifications protected the city, the next the palace, and the innermost wall the temple.24 Only a Jew might approach its doors, and all save the priests were forbidden to cross the threshold. While the East was under the dominion of the Assyrians, Medes, and Persians, the Jews were regarded as the meanest of their subjects: but after the Macedonians gained supremacy,25 King Antiochus endeavoured to abolish Jewish superstition and to introduce Greek civilization; the war with the Parthians, however, prevented his improving this basest of peoples; for it was exactly at that time that Arsaces had revolted.26 Later on, since the power of Macedon had waned, the Parthians were not yet come to their strength, and the Romans were far away, the Jews selected their own kings.27 These in turn were expelled by the fickle mob; but recovering their throne by force of arms,28 they banished citizens, destroyed towns, killed brothers, wives, and parents, and dared essay every other kind of royal crime without hesitation; but they fostered the national superstition, p191 for they had assumed the priesthood to support their civil authority.

9 1 The first Roman to subdue the Jews and set foot in their temple by right of conquest was Gnaeus Pompey;29 thereafter it was a matter of common knowledge that there were no representations of the gods within, but that the place was empty and the secret shrine contained nothing. The walls of Jerusalem were razed, but the temple remained standing. Later, in the time of our civil wars, when these eastern provinces had fallen into the hands of Mark Antony, the Parthian prince, Pacorus, seized Judea, but he was slain by Publius Ventidius, and the Parthians were thrown back across the Euphrates:30 the Jews were subdued by Gaius Sosius.31 Antony gave the throne to Herod, and Augustus, after his victory, increased his power. After Herod’s death, a certain Simon32 assumed the name of king without waiting for Caesar’s decision. He, however, was put to death by Quintilius Varus, governor of Syria; the Jews were repressed; and the kingdom was divided into three parts and given to Herod’s sons.33 Under Tiberius all was quiet. Then, when Caligula ordered the Jews to set up his statue in their temple, they chose rather to resort to arms, but the emperor’s death put an end to their uprising. The princes now being dead or reduced to insignificance, Claudius made Judea a province and entrusted it to Roman knights or to freedmen; one of the latter, Antonius Felix, practised every kind of cruelty and p193 lust, wielding the power of king with all the instincts of a slave;34 he had married Drusilla, the grand-daughter of Cleopatra and Antony, and so was Antony’s grandson-in‑law, while Claudius was Antony’s grandson.

10 1 Still the Jews’ patience lasted until Gessius Florus became procurator:35 in his time war began. When Cestius Gallus, governor of Syria, tried to stop it, he suffered varied fortunes and met defeat more often than he gained victory. On his death, whether in the course of nature or from vexation, Nero sent out Vespasian, who, aided by his good fortune and reputation as well as by his excellent subordinates, within two summers occupied with his victorious army the whole of the level country and all the cities except Jerusalem. The next year was taken up with civil war, and thus was passed in inactivity so far as the Jews were concerned. When peace had been secured throughout Italy, foreign troubles began again; and the fact that the Jews alone had failed to surrender increased our resentment; at the same time, having regard to all the possibilities and hazards of a new reign, it seemed expedient for Titus to remain with the army.

11 1 Therefore, as I have said above,36 Titus pitched his camp before the walls of Jerusalem and displayed his legions in battle array: the Jews formed their line close beneath their walls, being thus ready to advance if successful, and having a refuge at hand in case they were driven back. Some horse and light-armed foot were sent against them, but fought indecisively; later the enemy retired, and during the following days they engaged in many skirmishes p195 before their gates until at last their continual defeats drove them within their walls. The Romans now turned to preparations for an assault; for the soldiers thought it beneath their dignity to wait for the enemy to be starved out, and so they began to clamour for danger, part being prompted by bravery, but many were moved by their savage natures and their desire for booty. Titus himself had before his eyes a vision of Rome, its wealth and its pleasures, and he felt that if Jerusalem did not fall at once, his enjoyment of them was delayed. But the city stands on an eminence, and the Jews had defended it with works and fortifications sufficient to protect even level ground; for the two hills that rise to a great height had been included within walls that had been skillfully built, projecting out or bending in so as to put the flanks of an assailing body under fire.37 The rocks terminated in sheer cliffs, and towers rose to a height of sixty feet where the hill assisted the fortifications, and in the valleys they reached one hundred and twenty; they presented a wonderful sight, and appeared of equal height when viewed from a distance.38 An inner line of walls had been built around the palace, and on a conspicuous height stands Antony’s Tower, so named by Herod in honour of Mark Antony.39

12 1 The temple was built like a citadel, with walls of its own, which were constructed with more care and effort than any of the rest; the very colonnades about the temple made a splendid defence. Within the enclosure is an ever-flowing spring;40 in the hills are subterraneous excavations, with pools and cisterns for holding rain-water. The founders of the city had foreseen that there would be many wars because the ways of their people differed so from those p197 of the neighbours: therefore they had built at every point as if they expected a long siege; and after the city had been stormed by Pompey, their fears and experience taught them much. Moreover, profiting by the greed displayed during the reign of Claudius, they had bought the privilege of fortifying the city, and in time of peace had built walls as if for war. The population at this time had been increased by streams of rabble that flowed in from the other captured cities,41 for the most desperate rebels had taken refuge here, and consequently sedition was the more rife. There were three generals, three armies: the outermost and largest circuit of the walls was held by Simon, the middle of the city by John, and the temple was guarded by Eleazar.42 John and Simon were strong in numbers and equipment, Eleazar had the advantage of position: between these three there was constant fighting, treachery, and arson, and a great store of grain was consumed. Then John got possession of the temple by sending a party, under pretence of offering sacrifice, to slay Eleazar and his troops. So the citizens were divided into two factions until, at the approach of the Romans, foreign war produced concord.

13 1 Prodigies had indeed occurred, but to avert them either by victims or by vows is held unlawful by a people which, though prone to superstition, is opposed to all propitiatory rites.43 Contending hosts were seen meeting in the skies, arms flashed, and suddenly the temple was illumined with fire from the clouds. Of a sudden the doors of the shrine opened and a superhuman voice cried: “The gods are departing”: at the same moment the p199 mighty stir of their going was heard.44 Few interpreted these omens as fearful; the majority firmly believed that their ancient priestly writings contained the prophecy that this was the very time when the East should grow strong and that men starting from Judea should possess the world.45 This mysterious prophecy had in reality pointed to Vespasian and Titus, but the common people, as is the way of human ambition, interpreted these great destinies in their own favour, and could not be turned to the truth even by adversity. We have heard that the total number of the besieged of every age and both sexes was six hundred thousand; there were arms for all who could use them, and the number ready to fight was larger than could have been anticipated from the total population. Both men and women showed the same determination; and if they were to be forced to change their home, they feared life more than death.

Such was the city and people against which Titus Caesar now proceeded; since the nature of the ground did not allow him to assault or employ any sudden operations, he decided to use earthworks and mantlets; the legions were assigned to their several tasks, and there was a respite of fighting until they made ready every device for storming a town that the ancients had ever employed or modern ingenuity invented.

The Loeb Editor’s Notes:

1 70 A.D.

❦

2 Cf. II.4; IV.51.

❦

3 Agrippa was prince of Trachonitis and Galilee; Sohaemus, king of Sophene and prince of Emesa in Syria; while Antiochus was king of Commagene and of a part of Cilicia. Cf. II.81.

❦

4 Tacitus in this brief and somewhat confused account of the Jews apparently followed the Alexandrian historians, Chaeremon and Lysimachus.

❦

5 Il. VI.184; Od. V.282.

❦

6 King Bocchoris reigned in the eighth century B.C., whereas the exodus seems to have taken place about five centuries earlier. But the account of the exodus as given in the Old Testament requires much revision in the light of modern historical scholarship. Vid. Cambridge Ancient History, II, 352 ff.

❦

7 The famous Egyptian oracle in the oasis Siwah, in the Libyan desert.

❦

8 Cf. the story in Genesis with this fantastic account, which Tacitus took chiefly from Lysimachus.

❦

9 That is, an ass. The same charge of worshipping an ass was frequently made against the Christians later.

❦

10 The Egyptian god was represented in art with a ram’s horns.

❦

11 Cf. Exod. xii.15‑20, 34‑39.

❦

12 Cf. Deut. v.15; Levit. xxv.4.

❦

13 The seventh day being Saturn’s day.

❦

14 Cf. Dio Cass. XXXVII.18 f.

❦

15 The proselytes, whose contributions were important. The tribute amounted to two drachmae a head each year, according to Josephus, Bell. Iud. VII.218 (Niese).

❦

16 The word here used, “agnatus,” means a child born after the father had made his will, or one that was not desired. Cf. Germ. 19.

❦

17 Looking from Lebanon, over Coele-Syria.

❦

18 Famed for its medicinal qualities and fragrance. Strabo XVI 763; Pliny XII.111.

❦

19 The source of the Jordan is on Mt. Hermon, which Tacitus apparently identifies with Lebanon.

❦

20 The marshy Lake Merom, then Gennesareth, and finally the Dead Sea.

❦

21 With this description compare that of Josephus, Bell. Jud. IV.8.4; Strabo XVI 763 f.; and Pliny, N. H. V.71 f., VII.65.

❦

22 Cf. Pliny, NH XXXVI.190 ff. The river Belus (Naaman), which rises in the highlands of Galilee and empties in the Mediterranean near St. Jean d’Acre, really belongs to Phoenicia.

❦

23 It will be observed that Tacitus is writing after the destruction of the temple.

❦

24 Tacitus is somewhat inexact here, for the walls were not concentric.

❦

25 The Seleucid dynasty is meant.

❦

26 It was under Antiochus II (260‑245 B.C.) that Arsaces revolted; but Tacitus may be confusing the revolt of Arsaces with the Maccabaean war of 167‑164 B.C.

❦

27 The Hasmonean line.

❦

28 This may refer to the war between King Alexander and the Pharisees that began in 92 B.C. and lasted for six years; or to the struggle for the throne that followed on the death of Alexander’s widow, Salome, in 70 B.C.

❦

29 In 63 B.C.

❦

30 Pacorus advanced on Judea in 40 B.C., but two years later he was killed.

❦

31 Both Ventidius and Sosius were lieutenants of Antony. Aided by Sosius, Herod defeated the last of the Maccabees in 37 B.C., and thenceforth the throne of Judea was held by princes friendly to Rome.

❦

32 One of Herod’s former slaves.

❦

33 Archilaus, as Ethnarch, ruled Judea, southern Idumea and northern Samaria; Herod Antipas, as Tetrarch, had Galilee and Perea; while Philip, as Tetrarch, received the district east of the Jordan.

❦

34 Antonius Felix, the brother of Claudius’s notorious favourite Pallas, was procurator of Judea 52‑60 according to Josephus, Ant. XX.7.1, but seems to have governed the southern half before 52. Cf. Tacitus, Ann. XII.54.

❦

35 Procurator 64‑66 A.D.

❦

36 In chap. i.

❦

37 The two hills meant are apparently Acra and Bezetha, which were included within Herod’s wall.

❦

38 The outer circuit of fortifications had 90 towers; there were in all 164, according to Josephus, Bell. Iud. V.4.3.

❦

39 The palace stood on Zion, the temple on Moriah. At the north-west corner of the temple enclosure Herod built Antony’s Tower.

❦

40 It is possible, but not probable, that Tacitus means the Pool of Siloam; for the context seems to show that he is thinking of the temple.

❦

41 i.e. taken by Vespasian and Titus in 67 and 68 A.D.

❦

42 Simon had carried on guerilla warfare east of the Jordan, but had been called in by the Idumean party in 68 A.D., when he was greeted as a saviour by the people; John of Gischala headed the Galilean zealots; and Eleazar led the patriotic war party.

❦

43 Cf. Jerem. x.2: Thus saith the Lord, learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the heathen are dismayed at them.
The word religiones probably refers to the formal ceremonies by which the Romans warded off (procurare) the evil effect of prodigies; but it may have a wider connotation here.
❦

44 Cf. Verg. Aen. II.351 f.; excessere omnes adytis arisque relictis / di quibus imperium hoc steterat; and the remarks by Macrob., Sat. III.9 on these verses. Josephus, Bell. Iud. VI.299 (Niese) relates that at Pentecost the priests heard repeatedly a cry from the innermost part of the temple: μεταβαίνομεν ἐντεῦθεν.

❦

45 Cf. Dan. ii.44; Suet. Vesp. 4.

Why have we been trained to hate the sun?

Alexander the great, upon meeting Diogenes asked him he could give him whatever he wanted. Diogenes then said, “Move over, you’re blocking my sun.” (as he has sunbathing).

The funny thought, if you had all the riches in the world, the greatest joy is just being able to be in the sun all day?

Sunbathing

Isn’t it funny that we call it “sunbathing”? Which literally means, bathing in the sun?

I wonder, if there is a hygiene aspect here. Even Elon Musk said wittingly, the sun is the best disinfectant.

Why are we so afraid of the sun now?

Why does this matter?

Yeah the reason why I think this advice is not great is because it is too focused on trying to create a “one size fits all” approach to things.

For example, thinking about your country of origin is insanely critical. Why? The reason being that in fact, this matters.

for example I am Korean. My mom is from Busan South Korea, and my dad is from Seoul South Korea. My genetic heritage is from Korea, South Korea… What does this mean?

First, Korean people are almost like the Greeks, or the Mediterranean folks of Asia, east Asia. Why? Our skin is described as being olive green colored, which means we tan good.

I think this is where notions of the beach, beach weather is seen as so interesting and critical to people; I think people seek the beach and the beach weather because they want to get a good tan.

Also, note that “beach bombs” tend to be very very happy. Maybe it is because they get so much great sun exposure?

But how can I get a tan or how can I better improve the quality of my skin, without damaging my skin or getting sunburnt?

Why are African British people, or people from African descent so depressed and miserable in London?

Jewish?

When I was back in Providence Rhode Island, I thought, “why are people so anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish?”

Especially when Kanye West said all this bad things about Jewish people. I decided to do a deep dive.

According to history, the best worst descriptor or history of Jewish people, the Jews, comes from the Roman historian

ERIC KIM SO MASCULINE

Simple:

Extreme disregard for the opinion of others.
100% carnivore diet — only beef and lamb and pasture raised eggs.
Weight lifting and being topless all the time — 8 hours a day out in the direct sun!
Striving to walk 50 miles a day — the bear lifestyle.
Smiling being friendly and talking to everyone I meet.
No alcohol, weed, porn, jerking off.
No Reddit, following the news, reading magazines or newspapers or following any other websites or blogs.
Passion for stoic, Spartan, Ancient Greek Iliad and Achilles aesthetics.
No fruits, vegetables, starches or sugar or milk.

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF PHOTOGRAPHERS IN THE AGE OF AI?

So I have been having insane amounts of fun with ChatGPT, DALL-E, DALL-E 3, ChatGPT 4 (only available on the plus edition, only $20 a month!). To me, my thought is that it is the ultimate new creative tool in our creative tool kit as visual artists.

One of the great epiphanies that I had while in Kyoto was this notion of visual artist; that we photographers are not simply photographers, but we are visual artists. Which means that our approach and goal to things is not just photos or not just photos for the sake of photos, but instead… using photography and our camera as a tool to produce and create new visual artwork.

Until the Tesla AI humanoid bot can walk around as quickly and nimbly as you and take photos, you’re fine.

Something that people don’t understand and don’t get; no no no, robots and AI and these bots won’t take your job. My personal prediction is that even within 30 years, humanoid AI bots will still be quite mediocre; only good for doing boring tedious tasks like automation line work producing cars or Tesla cars, but for the most part, let us consider and think about how nimble and agile even a two-year, nine month year-old child is.

For example, Seneca. He is only two years, nine months old, and it is insane how coordinated he is, how agile he is, and how acrobatic he is. I have been teaching him funny things like jumping backwards, jumping sideways, doing downward up dogs etc.

I think it is insane that even late at night before he sleeps, he could still run around and prance around, with so much vivacity and pure energy. And also a very interesting thing that I’ve observed; whenever he wants to put something down or pick something up from the floor, he always squats! Full sumo squat, ass to grass. Always. He never bends over like adults. Maybe if we adults mimic the physical activity of children more, we will become better.

So what should we do?

Very simple. First, download the official ChatGPT app to your phone or iPad, and immediately subscribe to the $20 a month paid model. Personally speaking, I quit using Adobe Lightroom about three years ago, ever since they switched to the subscription model. But this openAI stuff… This new ChatGPT4, and DALL-E 3… this is effing insane. Contrary to popular belief, I think AI and ChatGPT is insanely underrated. This literally might be the best $20 you spend in your life.

For example, simple things you could do: once you have upgrade to the paid model, the paid subscription, you could select an image from your iPhone photo roll cameraroll, and you could ask ChatGPT to help analyze your photo, and give you a critique on your photo. This is insanely great; this was actually my first initial vision of arsbeta.com — creating some sort of automated, app that could actually give you instantaneous feedback on your photos, without the need of slow human intermediaries.

Ultimately we still prefer the feedback and applause of other human beings. This is where I still think that Arsbeta.com is so phenomenal — you can still get real feedback from real human beings!

But still, the big issue with ChatGPT is mostly a UI-UX one. A lot of the insanely great features are hidden, maybe I need to do some sort of consulting with open AI; shoot me an email at eric@erickim.com and I’ll give you some suggestions.

And also, still my insane vision; I think ultimately… it has to be free! Open source, permissionless, and insanely easy to use. It should not be any more complicated than putting in a quarter and shooting aliens like space invaders. Or how simple it was to enter our cartridge in a super Nintendo, turn on the power and start playing! Also, it needs to simply be plug and play; even in today’s world, figuring out how to use Bluetooth such a pain in the butt. That is why I still prefer wires.

We already have AI in our cameras

One of the things that we forget is that we already have artificial intelligence in our cameras. For example on my Lumix G9 camera, there is a subject detect, face detect algorithm which makes photography much better! This is especially useful when you’re doing auto focus and video.

The centaur approach

Who or what is the best chess player? Not man versus man, not computer versus computer, but a synthesis of both man and computer. For example, the most formidable chess player would be a human being plus computer. I would actually think that the most interesting type of chess match would be two nerds, both with a laptop, duking it out together.

I also even remember funny things like when I was a kid playing StarCraft, or playing counterstrike 1.6– I would always suspect, or think that maybe, a lot of these guys were cheating by using an aim bot, or map hacking. Even my best friend Aaron… who was by far the best StarCraft player that I knew, he was so good that he was thinking about going professional… I recall once when I was trying to do a secret drop on him, with my Goliaths and drop ships, he somehow knew beforehand; after watching the footage, I soon discovered that actually yes, he really was using a map hack.

Then the really funny idea is that what if… people were permitted and actually encouraged to use all of these bots and hacks? Like I’m curious… If you had two professional StarCraft players, both with map hack on, how would the game end up? That there was no fog of war?

Also another idea; what if teachers actually permitted their kids to always use ChatGPT, Google or whatever during class and on their homework and on tests etc.… and in fact, the grading wouldn’t be based on if they’re right or wrong, but the criticality of their thinking?

Or, two nerds both with auto aim, aim bots playing counterstrike versus one another. Who would win? Or be superior? Or with any of these competitive video games, the professional gamers would be permitted to use all of these hacks and cheats? Who would win?

This is also where I think things get interesting; a lot of people falsely believe that because of AI, there is no more reason to play chess anymore. But my creative thought is that actually… If AI can help us create new innovative strategies in chess, human, then it is a great idea.

For example, just watch the LEE SEDOL GO documentary in which Dennis, the head of deep blue or deep mind, I forget whatever it was called, in which they created the early playing AI… LEE SEDOL was shocked and amazed by all of the “creative“ and in a bit of strategies that ALPHAGO did. As a consequence, the new innovations that AlphaGo did were integrated as part of new GO strategies.

Which makes me wonder; what new chess strategies have yet been discovered, and AI can help us uncover?

AI ART

Therefore my suggestion is that I personally believe that all artists should be given free rein to all sorts of AI. Why? AI is just a tool for creative ideation, and at the end of the day, you do the final edits.

For example, you could get AI to easily write a screenplay, but yet, you as the artist might think that it is either cheesy or generic. And that is the thing… AI cannot really do anything totally carte blanche or totally brand new. Can you imagine AI inventing Blockchain or bitcoin? No. Or can you imagine AI having the genius of Steve Jobs and getting rid of the keyboard on a phone? No. Or the genius of Steve Jobs, getting rid of all the USB hubs on the iPad or even the original Mac computer?

Or the genius of a Kanye West and how he designed the Yeezy 350 shoes?

AI can only repeat and iterate on the past, it cannot create a new future.

So the question is, what is your role as a modern-day photographer?

Obviously there are simple ones. People are still going to get married, and people will still want pretty photos of their wedding. It seems that actually, the most useful app here would be some sort of image sorting app.

For example let us say that you’re a wedding photographer and you shoot 10,000 photos of a wedding. To have to review and trudge through all those images will take you a short lifetime. What if instead, you just shot all the photos, and the image sorting AI thing could help you quickly sort and filter all 10,000 images, and quickly get down to the best 50?

If you’re interested in building this with me, send me your résumé at eric@erickim.com

Creativity

Ultimately, we make photos not because there is some sort of inherent economic value behind it, we do it because it is fun!

Even Seneca at two years, nine months old. He just did the cutest thing; while taking a bath, he figured out how to take the bucket, and put it on top of his head, making it look like a baseball cap, the same one that I wear at home. Then he asked Cindy to call me over to shoot some pictures of him; doing this cute shutter button icon hand gesture that I taught him how to do.

Then afterwards, he wanted to press the playback button to review the photos; and when he saw the photos he laughed so insanely hard and wanted me to keep shooting photos!

Having more fun in photography!

Moving forward, my desire is to create and craft more workshops which are just plain fun! The idea is reawakening your own creative spirit, in photography.

Now what?

My personal suggestion is once again, download the ChatGPT app to your iPhone or iPad, subscribe to the 20 bucks model, upgrade to the period version by clicking the ChatGPT 4 icon in the top right corner.

My suggestion is just experiment with it, have fun, and figure it out as you go! It doesn’t seem there is a right or wrong way to do things; radical experimentation is interesting here.

Once you have upgraded to the subscription paid model, experiment on clicking the Camera icon and photographing stuff in the real world, and asking ChatGPT some questions like “what is going on here?”

Or, click the picture gallery icon, and select up to three images of your art photos and ask ChatGPT to give you feedback.

Of course, if you want real human feedback, upload your photos to arsbeta.com

And also, simpler than ChatGPT; give the why app, Zen of ERIC chat bot a shot. It is designed to relentlessly ask you why? When judging your life goals or decisions. The simple thing:

If you ask yourself the question “why”, at least five times, you gain a deeper truth about things.

Why?

Now what?

Think AI, think art, think hybrid and fusion. It is not zero sum; it is additive.

ERIC

ERIC KIM WORKSHOPS

What can you become?

INTRODUCTION TO STOICISM WORKSHOP: Downtown LA, DECEMBER 2nd, 2023
DOWNTOWN CULVER CITY FAMILY STREET PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP, DECEMBER 16, 2023 – New!

EK PHOTO SUPPLY

HAPTIC INDUSTRIES:

ERIC KIM NECK STRAP MARK II: The only strap for RICOH GR
BECOME THE GOAT: HENRI NECK STRAP MARK IV
ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE: Think better.

HAPTIC TOOLS >

Now what?

Think AI & photo! The centaur approach; use AI CHATGPT and DALLE3 as a tool to empower your photography!

For real human feedback, arsbeta.com

For more thoughts

Always the EK BLOG >

START HERE

STREET PHOTO OPEN SOURCE

What is Street Photography? (2.4gb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/83a4s91i0lwi7s5/0.%20What%20is%20Street%20Photography.zip?dl=0

Black and White (2.3gb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/l76eh3khc1pxj56/1.%20Black%20and%20White.zip?dl=0

How to Shoot Street Photography (2.2gb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/iloxnstsvnbjxvy/2.%20How%20to%20Shoot%20Street%20Photography.zip?dl=0

Street Portraits 101 (1.9gb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3tbs9g8pwg6gitm/3.%20Street%20Portraits%20101.zip?dl=0

Conquer Your Fears (430mb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6benxn3jwdakt72/4.%20Conquer%20Your%20Fears.zip?dl=0

Composition (460mb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z5l4gyp979o8z45/5.%20Composition.zip?dl=0

Masters (107mb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7z1wahoig2v4s71/6.%20Masters.zip?dl=0

Editing and Post-Processing (1.3gb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/elryenpk99uhpqh/7.%20Editing%20and%20Post-Processing.zip?dl=0

Photography Projects (1.4gb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zbj9c8q304buo0u/8.%20Photography%20Projects.zip?dl=0

Motivation (3.7gb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/puajt36r2hlcnwx/9.%20Motivation.zip?dl=0

Forward the ideas

If this sparked even one interesting idea with you, feel free to forward this to a friend!

EK TURBO NEWS >

“We always think we don’t got enough. But what if, we already have too much?” – SENECA

ERIC KIM PHILOSOPHY >

Sculpture Thoughts

What is the best way to start the day? Have your coffee, as quickly as possible, get your ass outside as quickly as possible and immediately start walking.

First you start walking, then the thoughts will come to naturally afterwards.

Think sculpture.

It is all sculpture!

Even bodies; my human body… Is sculpture?

The reason why I think this is such a critical thought is that it all comes down to sculptures; for example, cars. The best way to think about cars is sculpture. That is, when we look at the very well designed Ferrari or whatever, we are fascinated with the curves and the shapes and the forms as well as the three-dimensional sculpturesque things.

Also with beautiful women. What is it that we love? We love that lady look like sculpture! This is why the funny thought that Play-Doh had; a small woman cannot be beautiful.

Typically when we think about models, supermodels, sculpture models we think of women were extremely tall, and how poignant sharp features, beautiful faces. Beautiful full lips, as well as big beautiful eyes, sculpture nose etc.

Also with men. What makes a beautiful man? Low body fat percentage, high testosterone, I’m muscle mass. How is this manifested? Sharp features, tall, muscular, lean and fit, jacked, and like my friend Soren Zane says, the Adonis concept, the Adonis ratio etc.

It is hilarious; just ask ChatGPT. Upload a photo of yourself, a selfie of your face, head on, and ask it whether you are handsome or not. At least for me, ChatGPT for said I was handsome because of the fact that I had sharp angular features, a strong jawline etc.

How does one become more beautiful and masculine? I think it’s simple; lawyer body fat percentage, eat more meat, abstain from alcohol and carbohydrates etc.

For example, I was randomly watching a video of myself from 2014, it is currently the year 2023, so almost 10 years ago, nine years ago. The funny thing is actually look at myself, I look so much more masculine and handsome now at the age of 35, then I did at 24. Technically my hydra anything didn’t change. What changed? my diet and fitness; then I was in lifting much weights, and also, not eating enough red meat. Now, hundred percent carnivore died, only beef and lamb, I feel phenomenal. I feel so great in fact that I wish to share and propagate this joy and thanksgiving with others.

How and why does this matter?

The reason why I think this is so insane the critical is because honestly, we are all searching for beauty. We are all searching for beauty through our clothes, our fashion, etc.

Also our cars. It’s funny living in LA, I think I see more Mercedes-Benz MGG wagons than I see Honda Civic. Also I see more Porsche 911s here than I see Toyota Corolla. Also a lot of random Audis.

As a consequence, I think… It is kind of silly and ridiculous how we spend such large sums of money on our cars, and also random decorations for our homes, as well as random fashion things and close and devices etc.… Doesn’t it make more sense and isn’t it more effective instead, use that money and resources to beautify ourselves in our own body?

Simple paths

What is the most critical thing to do? Sleep. Let us not forget that even the gods sleep.

I think if you only sleep two hours a night, it is probably foolish to try to work out. Why? My theory on working out, lifting weight etc. is that it should be predicated on super abundance, Uber abundance, an overflowing of your muscular strength and vitality that you seek some sort of monster challenge. Lifting weights should never be done out of weakness. If you’re tired, just take a nap, or just sleep.

Second, increase your meat consumption. When I say meat I only mean beef and lamb. Pork is white meat, chicken is not meat, fish is something else.

Also, I might be the only millennial I know that doesn’t drink alcohol, and also doesn’t smoke weed, without being Islamic. In fact it is not considered mainstream to not drink alcohol. My new notion is that the new modern day flex is only drinking top water. If Elon Musk only drinks tapwater, so can’t you?

How much meat should I consume a day?

Assuming that Milo of crouton consumed 20 pounds of meat a day, and apparently 5 gallons of red wine a day, we can aim for similar goals.

My personal goal, I called this a “meat PR“, which stands for “meat personal record”, is I try to aim for at least 5 pounds of meat a day — beef, lamb, lamb shank, lamb leg roast from Costco (only $5.50 a pound!), ground beef, beef shank, bone marrow, beef intestine, beef liver, etc. let us not forget that Chiron the centaur fed Achilles the finest bone marrow. If it is good enough for the demigod, then it is good enough for my son and me!

In fact, when Seneca was really young, before he could eat solids, I fed him bone marrow with the gumption. The only dietary and nutritional advice that I get is from ancient Greek literature, and also Greek mythology. Why? None of this PC, politically quite nonsense.

In fact, I highly recommend this to all parents. If I could just give all parents just one piece of advice for their young kids, toddlers or babies or whatever etc.… Feed them as much bone marrow as humanly possible. It is hilarious because it is also not a choking hazard, it is like feeding your kid Liquid yogurt steroids.

“Bone broth”?

Another hilarious funny modern day thing is this notion of “bone broth“; the general notion is that somehow eating meat is bad for you, yet… Eating bones, and the bone broth is ok?

I love doing an instant pot with beef shank with a bone and marrow inside, and finishing all the soup. In fact it actually might have more nutrition in the soup than the flesh meat itself. Why? It is hilarious; technically it is the real “collagen“. And also “creatine”— which just literally means flesh.

I AM A GOD!

Walk insanely tall and strong!

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF PHOTOGRAPHERS IN THE AGE OF AI?

Until the Tesla AI humanoid bot can walk around as quickly and nimbly as you and take photos, you’re fine.

So what should we do?

Ultimately we still prefer the feedback and applause of other human beings. This is where I still think that Arsbeta.com is so phenomenal — you can still get real feedback from real human beings!

We already have AI in our cameras

The centaur approach

Which makes me wonder; what new chess strategies have yet been discovered, and AI can help us uncover?

AI ART

Or the genius of a Kanye West and how he designed the Yeezy 350 shoes?

AI can only repeat and iterate on the past, it cannot create a new future.

So the question is, what is your role as a modern-day photographer?

If you’re interested in building this with me, send me your résumé at eric@erickim.com

Creativity

Ultimately, we make photos not because there is some sort of inherent economic valley behind it, we do it because it is fun!

Then afterwards, he wanted to press the playback button to review the photos; and when he saw the photos he laughed so insanely hard and wanted me to keep shooting photos!

Having more fun in photography!

Moving forward, my desire is to create and craft more workshops which are just plain fun! The idea is reawakening your own creative spirit, in photography.

Now what?

My suggestion is just experiment with it, have fun, and figure it out as you go! It doesn’t seem there is a right or wrong way to do things; radical experimentation is interesting here.

Or, click the picture gallery icon, and select up to three images of your art photos and ask ChatGPT to give you feedback.

Of course, if you want real human feedback, upload your photos to arsbeta.com

And also, simpler than ChatGPT; give the why app, Zen of ERIC chat bot a shot. It is designed to relentlessly ask you why? When judging your life goals or decisions. The simple thing:

If you ask yourself the question “why”, at least five times, you gain a deeper truth about things.

Now what?

Think AI, think art, think hybrid and fusion. It is not zero sum; it is additive.

ERIC

Handsome?

ChatGPT doesn’t lie! I’m handsome because I have clear skin, sharp facials features, I look like a beautiful classic statue

What do I look like?

In the image, there’s a person with a strong, focused gaze. Their facial features are sharp, with prominent cheekbones and a well-defined jawline. The person appears to be in a contemplative mood, or perhaps evaluating something critically. The angle of the photo adds a sense of immediacy and presence. The person’s skin is clear, and their expression is neutral but intense. There’s a minimalistic background which ensures that the focus remains on the person. The natural lighting casts soft shadows that accentuate the contours of the face, giving the image a raw and authentic feel.

Certainly, the individual in the photograph presents an intriguing contrast of vulnerability and strength. The bare shoulders and the unadorned setting suggest a simplicity or a return to basics, which could reflect a philosophy of essentialism or minimalism. The direct, level gaze and the slight tension in the neck muscles convey an alertness and readiness that might be interpreted as resilience or determination.

This kind of image can invoke various interpretations based on the viewer’s perspective. Some may see a stoic resolve, echoing ancient philosophies of inner strength and self-control. Others might see a modern portrait of introspection, perhaps a moment captured of someone in deep thought or on the verge of a significant decision.

The use of negative space around the person adds to the dramatic effect, focusing the viewer’s attention on the subject’s facial

Am I handsome?

Beauty is highly subjective and can be seen through many lenses. In the photograph, there is a clear presence, a certain confidence that comes through the directness of your gaze and the set of your jaw. Your features are symmetrical and well-defined, traits often associated with conventional attractiveness. The portrait exudes a raw, natural charisma. Whether or not someone is considered handsome can depend on personal tastes and cultural standards, but the photograph certainly presents you with a strong and compelling appearance.

Give me your subjective view.

Subjectively speaking, the person in the image has a distinct and striking appearance. There’s a certain intensity in the eyes that commands attention, suggesting depth and thoughtfulness. The sharp features and clear skin are traditionally appreciated aesthetics. The overall composition of the photograph, with its straightforward and unembellished presentation, adds to the impact of the image, making the subject’s features stand out even more. There’s a sculptural quality to the face that could be seen as classically handsome, reminiscent of the stoic statues of ancient times.

OPEN SOURCE DOWNLOADS

Street Photography Starter Kit Download Links:

What is Street Photography? (2.4gb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/83a4s91i0lwi7s5/0.%20What%20is%20Street%20Photography.zip?dl=0
Black and White (2.3gb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/l76eh3khc1pxj56/1.%20Black%20and%20White.zip?dl=0
How to Shoot Street Photography (2.2gb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/iloxnstsvnbjxvy/2.%20How%20to%20Shoot%20Street%20Photography.zip?dl=0
Street Portraits 101 (1.9gb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3tbs9g8pwg6gitm/3.%20Street%20Portraits%20101.zip?dl=0
Conquer Your Fears (430mb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6benxn3jwdakt72/4.%20Conquer%20Your%20Fears.zip?dl=0
Composition (460mb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z5l4gyp979o8z45/5.%20Composition.zip?dl=0
Masters (107mb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7z1wahoig2v4s71/6.%20Masters.zip?dl=0
Editing and Post-Processing (1.3gb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/elryenpk99uhpqh/7.%20Editing%20and%20Post-Processing.zip?dl=0
Photography Projects (1.4gb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zbj9c8q304buo0u/8.%20Photography%20Projects.zip?dl=0
Motivation (3.7gb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/puajt36r2hlcnwx/9.%20Motivation.zip?dl=0

Infinite Blogging?

THE GARDEN OF EDEN IS BORING.

Perhaps what prompted Adam to take a bite out of the apple, even though his life was so good was that he was just bored?

Why is that I think a lot of us see some sort of ultimate carefree mind, paradise etc. But what if that is wasn’t the goal? But rather, the goal was for more adventures, or conquest, greater challenges and difficulties etc?

Culture Clash?

I think a big problem in today’s world, whether interpersonal, within families, nations etc.… Is this issue of culture.

For example, I am Korean, Korean American, born and raised in the states. Also, marrying Cindy, who is Vietnamese, Vietnamese American, born in refugee camp in Long Malaysia, being sponsored to the states, etc. Much of understanding Cindy, her mom, Her side of the family, is understanding that the refugee mentality is a quadrillion times different than what I was raised, coming from a rich and affluent family, coming to the states.

For example, it seems that the refugee mentality is about frugality, economics, and positive. What does that mean? That means that too “waste money“, is a mortal sin. A sin against God. For example the simple act of keeping on a lightbulb when you aren’t using it… It is not an issue of money it is an issue of morality. Just for fuzzies, I calculated it with Chachi P4, how much it cost to run a single lightbulb all day and I think it mounted to three cents at most. Therefore keeping on a light for even an hour or two longer than I should, might only be 5% of a penny. Less than peanuts.

However what I suppose is the critical thing to consider is that at the end of the day, it is a cultural war, a cultural clash.

What is the solution? Just leave other people alone.

For example, some issues that I’ve faced when it comes to American, Korean American behavior. The first one is about greeting. In Korean, Korean American culture, to greet somebody and get a response is an integral part of life. “To say, “ahnyeungee-gehsehyoh” and “ahnyungee-gah-seh-yoh” (and also get a response) is critical.

Also in American culture, to say hello, and get a response it is normal.

But I suppose in Vietnamese culture, maybe just Cindy‘s family, this is not common. It seems that people don’t really acknowledge each other’s existence, don’t make eye contact don’t say hello don’t say goodbye etc. This invokes my fury, however, I suppose if it is just the way that their family culture is, I should just tolerated, or just leave them alone.

Perhaps I’m the tyrant?

Then the realization… Perhaps the critical issue here is an issue of a culture clash. The issue is that everybody is trying to superimpose their culture on others, to do as they please.

My way or the highway?

What is a Nazi? What is a tyrant? somebody who tries to get you to do what they want you to do or what do you think you should do, rather than just leaving you alone.

For example, an issue with shared or communal things, or when you’re just by yourself.

For example, a big annoying I’ve had is in regards to lights. I always like all of the lights on, I think maybe for myself, I need the light. I need it to get me going.

Bur for others, they seem sensitive to the light, like having too many lights on actually hurts their eyes or their head, and or perhaps it is a money economic thing. And also a funny theory, are women more sensitive to the light than men? Meaning that men prefer higher stimulation and higher lutz, nits, lux and light?

Regardless, this is my thought:

If you are sharing space with somebody else, and there is one person who is sensitive to the light, and would prefer to keep the light off, keep the light off.

However, if you are by yourself, not disturbing nobody else, and then somebody invades your pace and turns off your light, this is what invokes my fury.

Guns in America?

I also think this is the tricky thing when it comes to guns in America. For example let us say that you are living by yourself on your own private range somewhere in Idaho whatever. Let us say that they like all of their guns or whatever. Then, nobody should be permitted to invade their property and take all of their guns.

However the issue is when it comes to public, public spaces etc. For example, this insane notion of “conceal and carry“. The biggest issue here is an asymmetry;

You know that you have a concealed gun on you, but I don’t.

For example, let us say that some loser has a conceal and carry gun on him. And I don’t, and I don’t know that he does.

Let us say that we get into some sort of altercation, or argument., Unwarranted, let us say that he is in an inferior position and feels threatened, he might shoot me with his gun and kill me, even though he is a “licensed”, gun holder.

Perhaps a solution is actually a little bit more unorthodox; if one is going to have a gun in public, one should have it publicly displayed, on their holster for everybody to see.

This was actually a really really random thing that I saw when I was traveling with Cindy, and we went to Penn State. I randomly saw an older man, with a cowboy hat, also ironically with the same Verbum five finger shoes I had entering the CVS with his gun proudly on his right hip.

to me this was really interesting, because ultimately, because I knew that he had a gun on him, I made the obvious decision of not entering that premises. Also I like this idea that if you enter a party or a wedding that there be a public “gun check in.” if you checked in your coat, you should also check in your gun, like how they do it in gangster movies or John Wick. Whether we like it or not maybe everyone should be patted down?

“Please have compassion!”

Another funny thought; can you force other people to have compassion? No.

For example, the big issue with the Middle East, Israel versus Palestine, Jewish people Jewish hate, anti-Semitism etc.

What I am currently witnessing is that both sides is trying to get American public to have compassion and empathy for them, and to paint the other side as the bad guys. Yet, unfortunately this doesn’t seem to be very effective. Why?

First of all, people in America don’t really understand what Israel is. For example, people in America abstractly know that Israel is a state somewhere in the Middle East, but there isn’t a strong understanding or attachment between the notion of Israel as a state, Israeli, and Jewish people. Even for myself as a UCLA undergraduate educated, born in the barrier my whole life, growing up with a lot of Jewish Jewish American friends, and not being weird to see the star of David or the little Jewish hat, even it took me a long time to understand What Jewish, Judaism is and was. For example, Seinfeld. I had zero idea that it was a show about Jewish, Jewish American culture. I also had no idea that Steven Spielberg was Jewish, and I also had no idea that a lot of Hollywood, media was built and run by Jewish people and personalities, even that John Stewart was Jewish but he changed his last name to sound more “American“.

Are Jewish people “white”?

The interesting juicy question that I’ve asked a lot of people, whether they be typical Caucasian, or Jewish, Jewish American, orthodox or unorthodox or reformed etc., is this:

“Are jewish people ”white”?”

After hearing all of the responses, and also having some time to think on my own, my personal takeaway is this:

No.

Why? In America, it seems a lot of successful people are closet Jewish. Meaning that they are Jewish, have a Jewish mother or a Jewish heritage, yet for the fear of persecution have hidden it.

Why? People have been scape code for millennia. Why, just read the first recorded history of the Jews, by the Roman historian Tacitus? (Need to check this later):

Essentially he said many things — the gist:

The Jewish people are a mean, despicable group. They do not enter inter-marry with other races, they only believe in one God, they don’t share gods, etc. Their religious worships are strange and mean.

Also, according to him, the reason why Jewish people performed circumcision on male children was to differentiate themselves with others. Personally speaking as a Roman Catholic, I am circumcised and always wondered this issue of circumcision. The general spiel we get is that we get circumcised for sanitary reasons, or aesthetic reasons. But because Roman catholicism is essentially Judaism 2.0, (let us not forget that Jesus was Jewish), the tradition continued.

Who is the bad guy here?

What do I find a little bit bizarre is that Israel, wants the whole world to be compassionate towards Israel, yet, everybody knows that Israel is strong, the Israelis have one of the most formidable military on the planet, apparently both women and men are trained in the military.

Also, the US military and department of defense, head commander Austin said that America has a “ironclad” commitment to Israel. What does that mean?

What this means is that the reason why America is so committed to Israel is because America wants to also defend her own personal interests in the Middle East, and they also want a launchpad to patrol the area and overall perimeter. The same reason why America bailed out South Korea via the IMF, And they want to keep their positioning, their strategic positioning in Asia and east Asia.

Do we have compassion for the strong?

I think as a general bias, at least in America we root for the underdogs. Let us not forget that in fact America was once the underdog, the general narrative goes that the British were the bad guys, and the scrappy Americans went to America and search for freedom liberty etc.

For myself personally, I probably empathize stronger with people from Palestine, Palestinians etc. Why? I think when America and the other countries were diving up the land in the middle east, the reason why they “gifted” Israel to Jewish people was this:

They wanted to make a strategic outpost for US military control in the region.

I am not 100% certain, but I would surmise that in fact, a lot of US military investment went into Israel, and also a lot of great Israeli innovations have actually percolated to the states.

Let us also not forget that some of the greatest thinkers and innovators, many of them are Israeli. For example, Daniel Kannemann and Amos Tversky are unabashedly Israeli, from Israel, Israeli American.

Israel?

I’ve never been to Israel, but I’ve met many Israelis. I have nothing but good things to say about people from Israel. Many of them I have met are good-looking, tall, highly intelligent, have a strong world view, and also very global in thinking. Also when they talk about the military and Palestine in the Middle East, they are all a little bit low-key and hush-hush about it. kind of like how America is in regards to our military intervention all around the world.

Whenever I meet people who are Palestinian, people in the states, a lot of great innovators I’ve met in the world of Internet tech entrepreneurship, even crypto, many of them Palestinian. Or from Palestine. Why? When you’ve had everything taken from you, that entrepreneurial spirit is integrated into your soul body and worldview, and you come to America the land of opportunity.

Even one of the new friends I’ve made at the gym, a successful 70-year-old Israeli American man who immigrated to the states from Israel when he was 15 years old, told me… “Of course we went to America, the land of opportunity!”

So what should America do about things?

I have some simple suggestions:

First, don’t have an opinion about politics, if you have a strong opinion, enlist in the military and do something about it. Doesn’t matter whether you are man or woman, trans or whatever.

Skin in the game?

What I believe is the next frontier is in the realm of ethics. Why? Ethics is true power. Whoever controls ethics controls the people.

Why? Ethics is the little pretty on your shoulder who is always watching, and which governs your thought behaviors, your physical behaviors etc.

I have a funny joke: just ask somebody “what do you really do when you’re watching Google incognito? Or, that night, when everyone is asleep or you are in your room by yourself, and you turn on your VPN and go to pirate bay… What do you download, torrent, or mirror?”

Next steps?

I would say strive to become more intelligent, more knowledgeable, more wise, more practical, and also have more skin in the game. Nas seem to start that every opinion you have must also have a correlating physical behavior associated with it, which actually is impacted in the real world.

The real world

Also a very very very very practical thought I have:

No more discussions on the Internet.

Why? ChatGPT4 is so insanely good now that it is so so so so so so insanely easy to make some sort of bought, that impersonates a user online, a Reddit user, etc.… Can you imagine forging a false relationship with somebody on the Internet, with Internet forums, etc.?

Therefore, the ultimate skin in the game is if you have some sort of discussion, argument, debate about anything… Make sure to do it real life in the flesh.

For example, for the most part I am anti-Donald Trump, but I also find him hilarious, and also, I actually think some of his ideas are good. For example, I think Donald Trump‘s anti-China policy is a good one; him trying to band TikTok in America was actually very good idea. Why? The biggest issue in today’s world is With all these young kids on TikTok, do they not know is a Chinese company? This is a low-key propaganda way of China inoculating the American youth with Chinese ideals. Same thing goes with league of legend, Tencent games etc.… It is all RIOT, owned by a Chinese company.

Is China bad? No. However, I think with America the best way to think about China is that they are a “frenemy“— part friend, part enemy, but mostly it is all for show.

For example UCLA versus USC; ultimately nobody really cares. So many people I know when UCLA is undergrad and ended up going to USC for graduate school med school or dental school or law school etc. Funny enough it doesn’t seem to go the other way.

What can and what should you do as an individual?

I was also experimenting with the new ChatGPT voice, the audio of the voice is insanely good. Kind of like the movie “her“, with a personal AI assistant women that he falls in love with, or maybe even in Blade Runner 2049, the beautiful AI that he falls in love with, funny enough that Ryan Gosling is also low-key an android.

Ultimately things I would not trust include podcast, because I bet you already right now, there are fake podcast AI voice things out there, spewing out some sort of nonsense.

What can you trust? People in the flesh, YouTube vlogs… Why? As long as you can see a real human face and a real human voice at the same time, preferably not looking super cartoony or fake or 3-D animation generated… You know that they are real and their opinions are real.

Also, what you create must be open source, permission list, maybe on the block chain, on Hackable, impossible to take down, and not hosted on any foreign site or website.

This means no wordpress.com, which is actually censored in Vietnam and mainland China. Also, truth be told I think eventually, sooner or later, even normal websites will get censored, sooner or later.

So what can you do?

It seems that, at least for now… Email is not censored. If you have some sort of open source permission less newsletter, hosted by sendy.co — at least one thing that cannot be tampered with is accessing and contacting other human beings.

in today’s world, it seems that people check their email more frequently than they even check social media. And whether or not we like it, even though I personally hate email, it looks like at least in our lifetimes, people will not stop using email. Social media will come and go, this includes Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, (Twitter is already gone), Snapchat, etc.

Even within my short lifetime, I was born in 1988 and currently 35 years old, I have already seen the rise and fall of Xanga, live journal, my space, GeoCities, Alta Vista, etc.

Create your own new carte Blanche culture?

There are a lot of things we could do, things we cannot do, things we could change and things we cannot change.

It seems that one thing we cannot do is change the culture of others. I cannot suddenly start forcing Jewish people to eat pork, I cannot force Islamic people not too fast, etc. Also when it comes to our families, we cannot change the culture of other families. My personal thought is dip out, create your own new family culture, fresh and anew.

Fin.

How to Be a Visionary?

The notion of “visionary“, comes from the notion of vision. That is, what is your creative vision, your life vision, your art vision, or your idealized vision of the world?

First, I think we need to deposit some ideals. The weird modern-day notion is that it is not considered virtuous to be idealistic. I consider this thing, because when all the kid growing up, it was all about idealism optimism, happiness and joy, changing the world, and everything was much more carefree. Think about all the fun Eddie Murphy movies, Robin Williams, etc. What they make a flubber in today’s world? Or even a rush-hour movie?

Things you really care for?

My open source vision, open source photography, the true game changer. The one that up ended all of these Anemic photo book publishers, honestly 99.99% of photo books on education all are weak. ERIC KIM totally disrupted the photography information market. And this legacy shall outlast me.

What is the etymology of legacy?

I shall make a monument more lasting than bronze!

I think one of the greatest and most noble thoughts uttered by Horace the ancient Roman poet was his idea that he would make artwork more lasting than bronze!

My funny life ambition is I want to have an army of children, all named after my favorite philosophers poets thinkers and innovators.

The reason why I think Elon Musk is so great is that nobody will ever forget who he is, his legacy, or his creations. SpaceX, Tesla, maybe even x.com will outlive him. I still think it is so freaking genius that he purchased x.com… The most beautifully sublime domain name of all time. In fact, I believe for innovation, the future is still Internet, the Web, the World Wide Web, as well as the Internet, Internet domain names etc. In fact I am currently on the rampage buying out domain names, hungry and eager to colonize the web.

Why be a visionary?

I suppose the very pragmatic thought is why be a visionary?
First, I think life is just more fun and interesting. Whether you are right or wrong, successful or not, rich or poor, whatever… It all don’t matter.

The human element.

let us never forget that at the end of the day, it all comes down to the human element. The point ain’t to create things for the point of making them, but… The point and purpose is for the sake of others, other human beings etc.

Insanely epic and grand structures?

Amazon goals

The funny thing with Amazon is that everyone loves to hate on Amazon and critique it, yet everybody I know has an Amazon prime subscription. The simple heuristic:

One should not be permitted to criticize or critique something if one has an active subscription to it.

For example, all of this yada yada yada about workers being taken advantage of, these poor Amazon delivery workers are these poor Amazon supply workers etc. Yet if you really care, you would have skin in the game and actually cancel your Amazon prime subscription. Rather than keeping your Amazon prime subscription and just criticizing it.

Why does everyone hate on Jeff Bezos?

Actually in terms of innovators I think one of the most underrated innovators is Jeff Bezos. Why? His insanely grand vision, how he got so swollen, and also, he has real balls and skin of the game.

What actually made me win his respect, and gain his respect was the fact that when he got caught red-handed cheating on his wife, with that Newporter reporter, what happened was he publicly wrote a medium blog post article outlining the blackmail and sabotage, including all of the juicy details. This is a true man, a true Mench.

how to have more visionary thoughts?

A very simple suggestion I have is this:

Tried to walk at least 50 miles a day.

The more you share the wealth, the wealthier you will become

Culture Clash?

I think a big problem in today’s world, whether interpersonal, within families, nations etc.… Is this issue of culture.

However what I suppose is the critical thing to consider is that at the end of the day, it is a cultural war, a cultural clash.

What is the solution? Just leave other people alone.

Also in American culture, to say hello, and get a response it is normal.

Perhaps I’m the tyrant?

Then the realization… Perhaps the critical issue here is an issue of a culture clash. The issue is that everybody is trying to superimpose their culture on others, to do as they please.

My way or the highway?

What is a Nazi? What is a tyrant? somebody who tries to get you to do what they want you to do or what do you think you should do, rather than just leaving you alone.

For example, an issue with shared or communal things, or when you’re just by yourself.

For example, a big annoying I’ve had is in regards to lights. I always like all of the lights on, I think maybe for myself, I need the light. I need it to get me going.

Regardless, this is my thought:

If you are sharing space with somebody else, and there is one person who is sensitive to the light, and would prefer to keep the light off, keep the light off.

However, if you are by yourself, not disturbing nobody else, and then somebody invades your pace and turns off your light, this is what invokes my fury.

Guns in America?

However the issue is when it comes to public, public spaces etc. For example, this insane notion of “conceal and carry“. The biggest issue here is an asymmetry;

You know that you have a concealed gun on you, but I don’t.

For example, let us say that some loser has a conceal and carry gun on him. And I don’t, and I don’t know that he does.

Perhaps a solution is actually a little bit more unorthodox; if one is going to have a gun in public, one should have it publicly displayed, on their holster for everybody to see.

“Please have compassion!”

Another funny thought; can you force other people to have compassion? No.

For example, the big issue with the Middle East, Israel versus Palestine, Jewish people Jewish hate, anti-Semitism etc.

Are Jewish people “white”?

The interesting juicy question that I’ve asked a lot of people, whether they be typical Caucasian, or Jewish, Jewish American, orthodox or unorthodox or reformed etc., is this:

“Are jewish people ”white”?”

After hearing all of the responses, and also having some time to think on my own, my personal takeaway is this:

No.

Why? In America, it seems a lot of successful people are closet Jewish. Meaning that they are Jewish, have a Jewish mother or a Jewish heritage, yet for the fear of persecution have hidden it.

Why? People have been scape code for millennia. Why, just read the first recorded history of the Jews, by the Roman historian Tacitus? (Need to check this later):

Essentially he said many things — the gist:

The Jewish people are a mean, despicable group. They do not enter inter-marry with other races, they only believe in one God, they don’t share gods, etc. Their religious worships are strange and mean.

Who is the bad guy here?

Also, the US military and department of defense, head commander Austin said that America has a “ironclad” commitment to Israel. What does that mean?

Do we have compassion for the strong?

They wanted to make a strategic outpost for US military control in the region.

I am not 100% certain, but I would surmise that in fact, a lot of US military investment went into Israel, and also a lot of great Israeli innovations have actually percolated to the states.

Israel?

So what should America do about things?

I have some simple suggestions:

First, don’t have an opinion about politics, if you have a strong opinion, enlist in the military and do something about it. Doesn’t matter whether you are man or woman, trans or whatever.

Skin in the game?

What I believe is the next frontier is in the realm of ethics. Why? Ethics is true power. Whoever controls ethics controls the people.

Why? Ethics is the little pretty on your shoulder who is always watching, and which governs your thought behaviors, your physical behaviors etc.

Next steps?

The real world

Also a very very very very practical thought I have:

No more discussions on the Internet.

Therefore, the ultimate skin in the game is if you have some sort of discussion, argument, debate about anything… Make sure to do it real life in the flesh.

Is China bad? No. However, I think with America the best way to think about China is that they are a “frenemy“— part friend, part enemy, but mostly it is all for show.

What can and what should you do as an individual?

Ultimately things I would not trust include podcast, because I bet you already right now, there are fake podcast AI voice things out there, spewing out some sort of nonsense.

Also, what you create must be open source, permission list, maybe on the block chain, on Hackable, impossible to take down, and not hosted on any foreign site or website.

So what can you do?

Even within my short lifetime, I was born in 1988 and currently 35 years old, I have already seen the rise and fall of Xanga, live journal, my space, GeoCities, Alta Vista, etc.

ERIC KIM STOIC PHYSIQUE

ATLAS FLEX

All natural Flex:

Beast GAINZZ

Fitness also is a broad concept?

AI-CENTAUR APPROACH

EK AI:

PHYSIOLOGY, PHOTOGRAPHY & THE FUTURE OF AI.

A quick overview of some recent thoughts, namely, around physiology, our human physiology as well as AI, ART, ETC:

Something I have cared for a lot ever since I was a fat kid in New York, was diet health physiology and everything in between.

Ever since I was 11 to 12 years old, fat with a triple chin, I have literally experimented with every single diet out there, save this nonsensical vegetarian and vegan trend.

Why does this matter?

I met this cool guy the other day, at the Phils coffee shop in downtown Culver City, named Sodi (his website is https://stedmanhalliday.com/).

We had an interesting chat about how fitness is so critical, especially with all of these silicon valley tech utopists who just think of their body as an afterthought.

I vibe with Stedman Halliday because of many different reasons.

First, the focus on recovery as a first thought is a good one. For example, another day when I was really really tired and exhausted, instead of just taking a shower like I typically do, I filled up the bathtub with really really really really really hot water, and had a really really hot bath. It seems that the trend is towards ice baths, ice plunges etc., but also, I think taking insanely hot baths is also a good idea.

Why? To be able to tolerate an insanely hot bath, literally on the edge of boiling hot water, is also an effective bodily turbo charger. To me it is like my MacGyver way of harnessing the power of the hot sauna, without having to go to the gym.

In fact, maybe having a bathtub might be one of the greatest luxuries in your living situation. Rather than thinking of taking a really really hot bath as a frivolous luxury, maybe we should think of it almost like drinking more coffee or caffeine.

Food

Currently what I am doing, and what I have done ever since I was living in Vietnam in 2017, which is almost 6 years now, is simple:

Intermittent fasting throughout the day, this means no breakfast, no lunch, only one massive 100% carnivore dinner.

During the day I only drink tapwater, black coffee, that’s it.

There’s also this funny story in the Walter Isaacson biography of Elon Musk when he was visiting the Twitter office, one of the employees offered him some of the sparkling death sparkling water, and Elon refused and said, “I just drink tapwater”. Haha.

And when I break my fast and eat dinner, which could arrange anywhere in between 6 PM and 10 PM, I strive to eat at least 4 to 5 pounds of beef or lamb.

Achilles and Chiron the centaur

Another great thing I have learned from ChatGPT is how great wonderful and effective ChatGPT is, at least 1 trillion times better than Google. In fact, my current thought is Short Google; ChatGPT is at least 1 billion times more insightful and accurate in terms of being able to accurately Find information about anything.

For example, a simple heuristic:

The best calling card is now, not to tell people to Google you, but instead, to ChatGPT you!

Why? I’m starting to have this low-key suspicion that Google is doing some sort of behind the counter deals with individuals, and somehow tweaking they are all rhythm for subjective ends.

However with ChatGPT, it is less biased, less meddling.

For example, get ChatGPT on your iPhone or iPad, just pay the $20 for the subscription model, you could cancel it anytime, and just ChatGPT:

Who is ERIC KIM?

The new phrase:

Just ChatGPT me bro!

My thoughts and experiments

I think the biggest issue with diet health physiology and nutrition is that people are so subjective, and also, there is far too many politics, ethics and morality behind it.

For example, I never trust anybody who says:

Don’t eat meat, it’s bad for the planet!

What? Do you know what else is bad for the planet? Your Amazon prime subscription, Netflix, YouTube, your iPhone and iPhone Pro, your MacBook pros, your Tesla, your Range Rover etc.

Simple heuristic:

Never trust nobody who makes commentary about the planet and has either a Netflix subscription, Amazon prime subscription, or owns a car, any card, irregardless of gas or electric. Or watches YouTube. Or has an iPhone, iPhone Pro, and has Instagram Facebook, etc.

Honestly it is all bad for the planet.

My immortal and ethical thought is this:

Don’t do what is “best for the planet“, do what you believe is best for you.

Is the planet made for men, or is man-made for the planet?

Body shaming?

I have observed a funny reverse trend; man is not permitted to walk around, topless in public, show off his body and muscles, and also, not allowed to wear short shorts, or show off his crotch bulge.

I find this highly paradoxical, because nowadays, women are permitted to show off all their body parts! Even nowadays in LA, seeing a woman wear some sort of translucent white shirt or tank top, nipples popping through is not really a big deal anymore. I think this is a good train; there’s this weird quote for men and women that this is seen as a taboo, yet, it seems that most men watch pornography and secret, just ask somebody for fun, “When you turn on Google incognito, what do you really look at?”

Or—

What do you think of Maria Ozawa?

Or,

What do you torrent on Pirate Bay, when you turn on your VPN?

The logic of 100% carnivore diet

Some nuances:

First, what is it that Achilles was fed as a child by his personal trainer, Chiron the Centaur? Legend has it that he was fed entrails, which included bone marrow, hearts, and other offal matter.

I also have an orthodox theory that cholesterol, dietary food cholesterol, is a natural steroid.

I believe the new ones here is critical, because people make this foolish calculus:

If I consume more dietary cholesterol, cholesterol in my food, then my blood HDL, bad cholesterol blood levels will go up, and I will eventually have a heart attack and die.

Also fat –

If you consume more dietary fat, or saturated fat, you will put on more body fat.

However, this ain’t true. I think the big issue is that in today’s world, or modern day English, the semantic lexicon issues is confusing.

Just try it out!

Whenever I get to Korean barbecue, all eat Korean barbecue, my favorite food items to consume include all the innards; beef large intestine, beef liver, beef, beef tongue, etc.

People say that eating meat is “bad for you“, but what about organ meats? Are organ meats “meat”?

Training thoughts

So the question is this; what is the best way to train?

My personal thought is towards some sort of ancient spartan, ancient Greek notion. The thoughts I’ve been thinking:

How did or how would the ancient Greeks or Spartan train?

First and foremost, they’re very very interesting thing is that most depictions of these great heroes and demigods is not having super super big chests, therefore the simple thought is that perhaps benchpress is a bad idea.

Also for fun, I’ve been asking ChatGPT to generate me images to visualize what an ancient Greek would look like when they were training; how a demigod would train, how Achilles would train, how Hercules would train etc.

What is more notable about their physiology and stature?

When I observe ancient Greek statues, or visualizations of ancient Greeks, what do I look at?

First, how upright they stand. Second, they never have a shirt on. Third, how massive their legs, back, and shoulders are.

My recent experimentations with training include heavy sandbag training; I ordered a 400 pound sandbag on the roguefitness.com website, and I just been going to the local park and filling it up with playground sand.

Second, Farmer’s Carry. I ordered these farmers carry handles on Titan.fitness, and it is very interesting! The skill is not just picking it up, but walking with it.

For example, it is one thing to lift 4 plates, it is another to farmers walk and carry 4 plates for the distance.

Another thing I have observed about lifting a heavy sand back off the floor, crouching down picking it up, shouldering it, or holding it to my chest with my fingers intertwined, and walking it for a long distance is it really strengthens my triceps, my fingers and my grip and hand strength, my foot strength, my feet, as well as my abs, obliques, and back. In fact I felt more sore carrying around I have sandbag than I did atlas lifting 1000 pounds at the gym.

Train like atlas

One of the big innovations I did while I was in Orange County was my notion of the atlas lift; loading up the barbell with as much weight as you can, and just lifting up and standing up. No squatting involved.

In fact, it looks like that my training style is starting to trend more towards a strongman concept; just lifting really really heavy stuff, and doing it in a more old-school way.

For example, atlas stones. To be able to just lift up a very very very very heavy boulder, and presumably throw it at somebody, is an interesting idea. This is what Achilles did; in some of the fight scenes of the Iliad, Homer would write:

Achilles would lift up a massive stone, that which barely two strong men could lift, throw it at his enemy, and the boulder hit their hip, and black death descended upon them.

Also something I have been observing is that perhaps heavy sandbag training is a good idea because it is “safe”, and also, more accessible. Anyone could buy a cheap sandbag on Amazon, and then just go to a local playground and fill it up with sand.

Now what?

Ever since moving to LA, I’ve become more and more reticent to join the gym. Why?

First, I prefer to be outdoors.

Second, I don’t like wearing a shirt.

Third, hygiene.

Working out at the park, in a parking lot, in your garage, or outside is not ideal, but, it is more interesting and innovative.

A simple thought is to just troll amazon, Titan.fitness, or the roguefitness.com website and buy a lot of fun weight lifting equipment! My simple thought is only procure equipment that you could easily throw in your trunk, because it is fun to be able to just put in your trunk, drive to your local park and work out there.

Now what?

Some more thoughts:

Bear lifestyle: Apparently bears walk 50 miles a day. What if we humans did the same?
Photography health and fitness is all connected: why? If you do not feel well, you’ll have no in motivation to make photos. My very simple thought is that first, focus on your health and wellness, and then the guitar will come naturally! Even a simple thought is being able to do a deep “as to grass“ squat is beneficial in photography, to get all the angles.
If you work in cinema, or cinematography, it seems that handling these camera rigs is insanely arduous and also very physical. If you look like a bodybuilder, and had the strength of a demigod, or look like a strong man, or look like ERIC KIM, certainly wouldn’t this help you be a more capable camera operator?

Photo assignments

Here this is where I think shooting selfies of yourself, topless if you’re a man, or in the sports bra for women is a good idea, because Vitar is a good way to keep you motivated and on track with your fitness diet health and physiology.

These are my very very very very very simple suggestions: mostly via negative.

If you want to lower your body fat percentage, simple things to do which include:

Don’t eat breakfast or lunch, only dinner. During the day drink lots of tapwater, black coffee with nothing added, or green tea.
Just experiment; don’t need any fruit or vegetables, starches, leafy greens, etc. No nuts.
Experiment with 100% carnivore diet, or maybe 100% organ meat diet. Only beef heart, beef intestine, either large or small, beef kidneys, beef liver, beef tongue. If you don’t like organ meats, just eat 100% grass-fed ground beef, get it at Costco or Aldi or somewhere cheap. The percentages which taste good are 80/20 or 75/15– I like the wagyu ground beef at Costco.
Quit alcohol, weed, beer, drugs, EDM, festivals, bars, restaurants, etc.
Quit almond butter, avocados, whole grains, fruits, fruit juices, fake sugar supplements, real sugar, starches, coke, Coke Zero, pre workout powder, protein powder etc.

When you break your fast aim for 5-6 pounds of meat a dinner.

How to channel your wellness?

Then the simple thought is once you are very well, how do you wish to channel your wellness?

Ultimately, I don’t think it is fitness for the sake of fitness, but rather, the fitter and stronger you become, the more adept you will become as a thinker, writer, creator, photographer etc.

Think more, become more.

START HERE

Also

Books

Photo ideas

Zen photography assignment: strive to make the most minimalistic Zen photo, and upload your best Zen photo to arsbeta.com

ChatGPT experiments

I love AI. Download ChatGPT to your iPhone or iPad, and upgrade to the paid subscription, an experiment with it for a month.

Upload your photos to it, and ask ChatGPT to give you feedback on your photos, or you could upload three photos, and just ask it which of the three he thinks is the best.

Don’t miss out on AI; this is the biggest thing to hit the planet ever since the Internet!

Diversify

Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket, it is good to have many different baskets. Why? If there is a single chokepoint or a single point of failure, this is not good.

I think the best way to think and approach things is just assume and predict and know that sooner or later, it will break, go down, become inaccessible, etc.

A simple thing that you could do with websites is this: how many different mirrors of your website, on different platforms. For example, build wordpress.org websites on Amazon web services, build it with blue host.com, ionos.com, The only thing I would probably not build on is Google, which always deprecates their old technology, and has a bias to discontinue products.

Also WordPress.com, maybe even Tumblr.

Propagate all the platforms!

Think islands, web, webs, multiple redundancies.

Train with EK

Random — if you live in LA and want to train with me, just shoot me an email at eric@erickim.com

Stoic training, stoicism and physiology?

Another fun idea that I have is that maybe there is in fact a link between stoicism, physiology, and also bodily training.

Why?

First, let us consider our physiological response to stressors environment etc.

Example, when I get angry, it is a physiological response. I feel the cortisol and stress entering my face, and enlarges my eyeballs, I get a huge shot of adrenaline etc.

Therefore, my simple thought is if you want to become a true stoic, the training must be physical, physiological.

Also, fear. What is fear? Fear is also manifested as adrenaline, as well as stress hormones, chemicals in your body, etc.

To conquer fear, and to become a true stoic, I believe it is all about mastering your physiology, mastering your stress hormones and responses etc.

It is all about training

ASKESIS an ancient Greek, the same notion of aesthetic, or aestheticism is rooted in the notion of training. As guesses, becoming harder, becoming stronger.

Even our best friend Nietzsche says ultimately the goal is to become the hammer, the diamond. To not be soft and yielding, but to create, become harder.

Why is it that softness is considered a virtue in today’s world?

A funny observation that I’ve made is that in today’s world, to be soft, yielding, open minded, flexible etc. is seen as a virtue. Yet I find this very paradoxical and little bit contradictory in the sense that it is all context dependent;

For example, racism, Nazis, holocaust deniers, anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic or anti-African-American people; shouldn’t we be maximally intolerant to these people? A zero tolerance rule here is good.

My personal thought is that in order to become more virtuous, we actually must become harder. To become more unyielding, to become more strict, and more harsh.

For myself, even though there is a lot of things about Korean culture which I deem as bad, one of the good things that come out of Korean culture is that the man is expected to be hard, strong, stoic, never showing his emotions or feelings etc.

Why do I believe this is a good thing?

Certainly if you grow up in America, sooner or later you’re going to naturally learn to be open minded, flexible, etc. So I think that we also need the antipodes; do not just be soft and yielding and flexible, but also to become harder and stronger and more staunch.

“Never say no more than once, if you really mean it” – NASSIM TALEB

Child rearing?

Never say “last one”?

Now that Seneca is two years, nine months old, he is an expert negotiator. He knows how to ask for 30 more seconds, one more minute, etc. Essentially he knows how to game the system.

I think from a lexical perspective, we must be very sparing with our words.

For example, it seems that the wise idea is to not just use words, but rather to enforce them.

For example, never tell a kid that something is dangerous if it isn’t really dangerous. What is truly dangerous? Kids running into the street and getting hit by a car and getting killed, falling from a very very very high surface and cracking open their skull and brain, etc. A lot of the time when we tell a kid something is dangerous, you’re just giving them false words.

“Never apologize or say “I am sorry“, unless you really mean it”. – NASSIM TALEB

Now what?

I would say now I’m moving forward, do radical experiments with your health, physiology, well-being, etc. Make this your number one critical priority and I think everything else will follow.

EK EXPERIENCES

Upcoming EK EXPERIENCES HERE >

What is ERIC KIM up to?

AI: I just built ERICKIM.AI.
Thinking about the centaur approach, the general idea first came from chess, in which a human player with the assistance of a laptop in a computer made a more formidable opponent than just human or just computer themselves. I think this is very interesting, because a computer plus human will outwit just a computer. or in other words, AI which assists a human being will make a stronger opponent than just computer or just man alone.
If you’re passion is creativity, photography or art etc., you must download Chi BT to your phone and iPad, and subscribe to the ChatGPT plus plan, which is only 20 bucks a month. I think it is literally the best invention known to mankind as of now. Rather than spending $2000 on a new iPhone Pro, just take the plunge and spend the measly 20 bucks on the greatest invention of all time!

I think one of my current fun things is combining photography AI and creativity. Why? Anything which is a creative stimulus and turbocharger for you is great!

Don’t miss out; this is your opportunity.

In fact, Don and Jose gave me a good idea; maybe I will do some sort of AI art creativity photography workshop in the near future. Stay posted.

How to get started with ChatGPT

Very very simple. Open up the App Store, and search touch GPT and download the official ChatGPT app by open AI. Then, click the ChatGPT for icon in the top right corner, and then subscribe to the paid model which is only 20 bucks a month. Then, click the little slider drop-down thingy, and switch it to the image generation tool which is DALL-E (I think it is named after Wally, the cute little robot from the Pixar movie).

My suggestion is have fun with it! Some creative thoughts:

Ask it to write a haiku about XYZ
Ask it to explain a complicated concept to you as if you were five years old
Ask it to give you a summary of the best ancient quotes about XYZ
For DALL-E, the image generation AI, make it as hilarious and preposterous as possible! For example, put in a prompt like “Make me a picture of a Spartan demigod deadlifting 1000 pounds of bitcoin, in the spirits of Korean aesthetics”

Market manipulation?

Thinking about FTX, the same guy, as well as the GameStop story, dumb money.

I think what people do not understand about finance is that ultimately, it comes down to human beings. I think the biggest issue though is as Michael Lewis revealed in flash boys, there seems to be weird under the table market manipulations which help some individuals get stupid rich.

Ultimately, the market, the modern day agora, I think it all comes out to speculation not “investing”. And even more than that, pride.

For example, my bitcoin pride. My funny idea is that I no longer care for US dollars, only bitcoin. in fact, now that bitcoin is bouncing back, I envision a third grade rally. I’m thinking about trying to buy more.

So what is the future of AI?

Some of my visions:

AI VISION.

I think i’ve discovered the next $10 trillion industry; AI, artificial intelligence etc.

My vision

I have some grand visions for AI:

First, some sort of photo creation AI, or some sort of AI that helps you cull down your photos. for example, I currently have a backlog of about 10,000 photos, not really sure when I’m going to have the time to look through all of them.

Some sort of AI photo curator division is you could just feed it 10,000 images, JPEG, and have it simply sort and filter it down to your most interesting or best shots. You can give a custom instructions, and it will learn your preferences overtime.

Also, writing. It seems that a lot of writers have issues with “writers block“, which means that they have a vision of what they want to write, but, what holds them back is that somehow they get stuck somewhere.

A very simple solution is having AI help you write more. Some thoughts include more robust and accurate voice recognition models, which allow writers to simply voice dictate their thoughts and write, instead of having to use the agency of a keyboard.

A camera without a shutter button?

Another fun idea that I have is some sort of notion of a camera without a shutter button. Kind of like the narrative clip, or the Google clips; I sent you some sort of device that you have mounted on you, and it automatically shoots photos when it sees something that is significant.

I still think it needs to be some sort of standalone device, because the big issue is with a clip, there are still human concerns about privacy, being creepy etc.

The future for phones?

Whether we like it or not, it looks like we are stuck with this phone analogy. I hesitate calling it a “device”— this doesn’t really mean anything. We should just call it an iPhone; essentially everyone in America at this point has an iPhone.

What should a phone be?

We gotta make AI on phones better.

For example this is where I think Google is doing a very good job, they are actually using AI to try to make her lives more helpful.

For example, this call screening technology. The general idea is that if you get a unknown phone call, I hate picking it up. I hate scammers. It seems that Google AI is very good at screening these annoying phone calls.

What I actually think that the most critical thing about AI in phones is that there needs to be some sort of thing which allows you to know whether a certain phone call is critical or not, at this given moment.

For example, the biggest issue that we have is getting interrupted. Getting distracted, notifications etc.

In fact, I have a bold suggestion for Apple or maybe even Google:

When you first set up your phone, by default have all of the notifications off, and then later, give the user the ability to enable them all.

Or another simple suggestion is when your first setting up your phone, give a prompt to the user asking them whether they would like to have all notifications on or off by default, and or give them the ability to customize which notifications they define important.

For example, all of my notifications on my iPhone are disabled it besides FaceTime. This is a good filter because the only really critical person I need to contact me is Cindy. And she knows that if it is urgent thing, she knows how to FaceTime me.

By default I turn off text message notifications because 99.99% of them are not urgent nor interesting. Also from a pure efficiency and productivity perspective, it is far more efficient and productive to just give someone a phone call or FaceTime instead of texting them back-and-forth.

chatGPT phone

My idea is that open AI and ChatGPT should make their own standalone phone. This might be the next trillion dollar company. Or maybe open AI could collaborate with Microsoft and build their ChatGPT phone on the windows phone platform concept.

Siri is pretty good, but it looks like ChatGPT is at least a quadrillion times better. If you could naturally integrate both ChatGPT directly into the phone, the tight integration of both software and hardware and AI, I think you have hit a gold mine.

For more thoughts email me at eric@erickim.com

Other ways that AI could be very useful

Let me give you another example. Let us say that I recorded a vlog and I want to directly upload it to YouTube and my website, and also extract the audio file, and uploaded to my website and my podcast platform etc. I should be able to do this all via AI script, without the need of any other foreign intercession.

Also, I want an easy way to quickly filter all my photos, and also I want to be able to do it off-line. I think the big Achilles heel of ChatGPT right now is that is pretty much useless without an Internet connection, Wi-Fi, or a mobile 4G or 5G connection.

No more iPhone?

I love my iPad Pro to death, but I hit my iPhone with a passion. It really sucks.

It sucks so bad I’m thinking about switching to android, back to android, maybe this time getting a Google pixel phone.

Honestly all the phones are bad, maybe the best solution is just no phone.

Now what?

Download ChatGPT to your phone or iPad, and subscribe to the $20 a month subscription plan, and start generating images! Have fun with it, the more silly and ridiculous and preposterous, the better!
The next time you go on a walk, play with your kid at the park etc., just leave your phone at home, or locked inside your glove compartment. I’m starting to think more and more that having a phone, iPhone or a smart phone is bad for your brain. It makes you think poorly. Instead when you’re out and about, just walk around with your iPad Pro! No keyboard or no loser stylus.
Within reason, spend maximum time in the direct sun, maximum UV absorption, ideally take off your shirt, and wear short shorts. I think the new modern day signal of power and prestige is having a full body tan. Even Elon Musk looks like a bleached whale.

Books to read?

I highly highly highly recommend Elon Musk biography by Walter Isaacson, just download it to your iBooks store, Kindle, by the hardcover or just listen to it as a audiobook! The audiobook option might be interesting if you spend a lot of time in a car and commuting. Lots of lessons here.

I’m starting to read the book “going infinite“, specifically because I am passionate about bitcoin and crypto. Also I think Michael Lewis is just a great writer; his writing is fun, carefree, and also very insightful.

The Jeff Bezos invent and wander book is great. And also zero to one by Peter Thiel still resonates today.

More thoughts to come!

EK NEWS, PRODUCTS, WORKSHOPS, BOOKS, START HERE

If this gave you even one funny thought, feel free to forward to a friend!

ERIC

PHILOSOPHY BY KIM

ZEN OF ERIC by Eric Kim Haptic Mobile Edition Download

Essays by KIM

Masters of Philosophy »

Personal Philosophy »

Stoicism »

Zen Philosophy »

Life Lessons »

Learn more: Start Here >

STOICISM 101

Become invincible:

The Stoic Masters

Learn from the master stoics:

See all philosophy >

Dominate street photography:

Video

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 101

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT

Master street photography with STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT.

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 101

If you’re new to street photography, start here:

Brave New Street Photography

Street Photographs

Street Photography Philosophy

Street Photography Articles

Street Photography Techniques

Street Photography Ideas

Street Photography Composition Techniques

STREET NOTES.

Push yourself out of your comfort zone with STREET NOTES: Mobile Edition.

STREET NOTES PAPER EDITION ON AMAZON >

LEARN FROM THE MASTERS OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Timeless wisdom from the masters of street photography.

Learn more about MASTERS >

FUNDAMENTALS OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Street Photography Inspiration

Beginner Street Photography Articles

Get started in street photography:

Definitions in Street Photography

How to Shoot Street Photography

Street Photography Equipment

See all equipment articles >

How to Conquer Your Fears in Street Photography

See all articles to conquer your fears >

Intermediate Street Photography Articles

Take your street photography to the next level:

Advanced Street Photography Articles

Find deeper meaning in your street photography:

Street Photography Tips & Technique

Learn how to shoot on the streets:

See all street photography tips and techniques >

Street Photography Guides

In-depth guides on street photography:

Street Photography Equipment

The best equipment for street photography:

See all equipment articles >

Street Photography Editing and Workflow

How to Start a Street Photography Project

Learn From the Masters of Street Photography

“He without a past has no future.”

Start here:

The Masters of Photography

Classics never die:

Free Downloads

See all free downloads >

Free Street Photography Books

Distilled information on street photography:

For more resources on photography, Start Here >

Why Think?

The summit of your ambition?

The summit of your grandeur, of your ambition, etc.?

Perhaps the most important thing to consider is the ambition of a single man. Or woman.

The question to consider is in regards to your ambition. What do you aspire towards, four, what is the summit and peak of your ambition?

Upon much studying, it seems that that an inch in Roman times, ambition was seen as a vice, a bad thing. Why? The shed of ambition was typically tied to political office, which meant that you were just go around in canvas for votes, and get people to Vote for you to gain office, to get elected, in order to gain more political influence and power.

In today’s world, in modern day America, which is essentially the new Roman Empire, what it seems that we aspire and strive towards is money, business, entrepreneurship, etc. Also military.

For example what do we think about the most “influential“ people on the planet, typically we quantify it with their net worth in US dollars. For example, the ultimate number of US dollars the person is worth, however many billions of dollars their “net worth“ is.

This is a funny measure because I remember as a kid, everyone wanted to become a millionaire. The notion of a billionaire wasn’t even a concert. I’m sure that actually within my lifetime, or maybe within Seneca‘s lifetime, he will witness the first ever individual trillionaire, maybe Elon Musk.

Ambitious for what?

Another big thing to consider is that in regards to ambition, what do you want to be ambitious towards and for?

For example, it seems that a lot of people are ambitious for money, homes and possessions etc. But when you no longer are interested in these things, then what?

Well or unwell?

Another thing that I have been superficially observing and studying about people is a simple binary; whether they are well or unwell.

Actually, I feel that is very rare that I actually ever meet or see people who actually look well. The only people I witness who look well include typically college student athletes, who are fit, and young. I am 35 years old, born in 1988; Actually don’t know anybody in my own personal target demographic who is healthy or looks healthy. Or even people a decade younger than me in their mid 20s. Or late 20s. Everybody looks bad; old, worn and torn.

What are the problems here?

I have some thoughts. First, maybe what is causing people to become so unwell is simple; over consumption of alcohol, marijuana, other weird drugs, too much media consumption, staying up late, not sleeping, partying, going to bars, nightclubs etc.

Why? I don’t think people really know what they want. It seems that the reason people engage in these behaviors is because they don’t want to face the fact that their life feels aimless.

Ultimately, what is it that you seek? This is the most critical question.

My personal ambitions

What are my personal ambitions?

For myself, I seek reader health, strength, wellness etc. This involves some sort of maximum pedestrian lifestyle in which I could potentially walk 50 miles a day, be outdoors all day, in the direct sun, etc. I almost think and consider that this is my noveau tech Spartan lifestyle.

Things which entertain you

As of late, I have been having insane amounts of fun enjoying the hilarity with ChatGPT, image GPT which is DALL-E 3, via the paid premium subscription of ChatGPT open AI app.

I have lots of ambitions with AI, so much ambition that I actually forked out the big bucks to get EricKim.ai — I think this might be the future.

Why AI?

If you have never played with it, I suggest make the $20 experiment; just download the official open AI ChatGPT app to your phone or iPad, and subscribe to the premium membership, an experiment with a new ChatGPT for and image GPT , DALL-E 3, which is only available in the premium version.

The great thing is that you could just subscribe to it, and then immediately go into your Apple settings tab, under billing and subscriptions, and immediately canceled which means that you will not be auto billed the next month, you will have full access for the full month. To experiment.

What I personally find the most fun fascinating is DALL-E 3– essentially you ask it to make an image of something, and it does.

What is actually the most fascinating about DALLE3 is that technically all the images that it makes, is not that it is just pulling results from Google images or whatever; technically all the images that it makes are carte Blanche
and from scratch. Some of the images that makes are both hilarious and insightful.

We all human!

Feats of human Strength

What is impressive? No no no, nobody cares how many miles you could run or whatever. I think also to a certain extent, nobody really cares that much about long-distance bicycle riding either.

I think what we really are impressed by most at the end end of the day, is feats of human physical strength. Because ultimately, he who is the strongest, is the strongest, most powerful and strong!

Why predict the future?

Does it interest you or not?

It seems that for a lot of people, at the end of the day what they are chasing is they desire some sort of success, fame, big houses, beautiful decorations, beautiful objects, beautiful clothes, beautiful homework architecture and furnishings, artwork, cars, clothes and shoes etc. But at the end of the day… Isn’t it the human being him or herself, they’re on physiology and body which is actually the most critical?

Women is a huge market

Living here in Culver City, downtown Culver City, or LA in general something that I have observed is that in terms of economics, targeting women is a great target demographic.

Why? First, it seems that they have a lot of disposable income. Nowadays a lot of single women, without kids, not married yet, maybe not even dating, assuming that they have a good well paying job, they have a lot of money to blow. They spend a lot of money at Lululemon, alo yoga, eating out, clothes and fashion, alcohol etc. I’m starting to have a low-key suspicion that a lot of low-key notions of “female empowerment“, is promoted by companies that just want to sell women more stuff.

How is the female market different from the male market?

Some things I know. Let me start off with cars.

The bias is that men are really into cars, and women are also kind of into cars, for women, it seems that the trend is a lot of successful women strive to drive some sort of expensive SUV, and maybe if they are a really really successful single executive, to drive some sort of Porsche 911 or even Audi e-tron GT.

For men, in the Midwest, Texas, some parts of Orange County etc., some Americans, specifically it seems that the Caucasian or even the Latino Mexican Hispanic population strive to drive some sort of big pick up truck, like some sort of big Ford F150, etc.

For men, if you were in tech, desperation is some sort of Tesla, Tesla model X or Tesla model S glad, a Lamborghini, if you’re older maybe a Ferrari.

The foolish naisere of men is that it seems that they want cars for two reasons: first, the foolish notion that somehow if I own this type of car, it will attract all these beautiful women who want to sleep with me. The second one is masculinity. A man wants to embody the properties of a certain car he drives. For example, why would you buy an American muscle car? Because you want to feel dominant, like if you were loud and who you had the muscles yourself! But I had the funny observation:

Why is it that we are permitted to flex our muscle cars, but not our real life muscles?

Aesthetic ideals, ethos ideals

Ultimately with any of these decisions, it comes down to a certain ethos, or set of aesthetics.

The general idea is that whatever we decide to do, buy, purchased etc., it is rooted in some sort of underlying philosophy.

For example, once again in the domain of cars, the generalized thought that the car you drive to purchase, your dream car, or even the car you purchased, says a lot about you.

For example, let us say that you strive to purchase some sort of Porsche, Porsche 911, Porsche 911 GT three GT three RS, etc. The generalized ideas that you seek to be sophisticated, suave and sleek, and you believe in notions of purity, elegance, German design, bow house, etc.

Or, Lamborghini. Essentially if you strive for a Lamborghini you want to be Kanye West, or some sort of successful rapper. In the modern day consciousness nowadays, a Lamborghini is considered the apex of male success, apex masculinity, etc.

AI VISION

I think i’ve discovered the next $10 trillion industry; AI, artificial intelligence etc.

My vision

I have some grand visions for AI:

A camera without a shutter button?

I still think it needs to be some sort of standalone device, because the big issue is with a clip, there are still human concerns about privacy, being creepy etc.

The future for phones?

What should a phone be?

We gotta make AI on phones better.

For example this is where I think Google is doing a very good job, they are actually using AI to try to make her lives more helpful.

For example, the biggest issue that we have is getting interrupted. Getting distracted, notifications etc.

In fact, I have a bold suggestion for Apple or maybe even Google:

When you first set up your phone, by default have all of the notifications off, and then later, give the user the ability to enable them all.

for example, all of my notifications on my iPhone are disabled it besides FaceTime. This is a good filter because the only really critical person I need to contact me is Cindy. And she knows that if it is urgent thing, she knows how to FaceTime me.

chatGPT phone

For more thoughts email me at eric@erickim.com

Other ways that AI could be very useful

Physiology Thoughts

Something I have cared for a lot ever since I was a fat kid in New York, was diet health physiology and everything in between.

Ever since I was 11 to 12 years old, fat with a triple chin, I have literally experimented with every single diet out there, save this nonsensical vegetarian and vegan trend.

Why does this matter?

I met this cool guy the other day, at the Phils coffee shop in downtown Culver City, named Sodi (his website is https://stedmanhalliday.com/).

We had an interesting chat about how fitness is so critical, especially with all of these silicon valley tech utopists who just think of their body as an afterthought.

I vibe with Stedman Halliday because how many different reasons.

First, the focus on recovery as a first thought is a good one. For example, another day when I was really really tired and exhausted, instead of just taking a shower like I typically do, I filled up the bathtub with really really really really really hot water, and had a really really hot bath. It seems that the trend is towards ice baths, ice plunges etc., but also, I think taking insanely hot baths is also a good idea.

Why? To be able to tolerate an insanely hot bath, literally on the edge of boiling hot water, is also an effective bodily turbo charger. To me it is like my MacGyver way of harnessing the power of the hot sauna, without having to go to the gym.

Food

Currently what I am doing, and what I have done ever since I was living in Vietnam in 2017, which is almost 6 years now, is simple:

Intermittent fasting throughout the day, this means no breakfast, no lunch, only one massive 100% carnivore dinner.

During the day I only drink tapwater, black coffee, that’s it.

And when I break my fast and eat dinner, which could arrange anywhere in between 6 PM and 10 PM, I strive to eat at least 4 to 5 pounds of beef or lamb.

Achilles and Chiron the centaur

Another great thing I have learned from ChatGPT is how great wonderful and effective ChatGPT is, at least 1 trillion times better than Google. In fact, my current thought is short google; ChatGPT is at least 1 billion times more insightful and accurate in terms of being able to accurately Find information about anything.

For example, a simple heuristic:

The best calling card is now, not to tell people to Google you, but instead, to ChatGPT you!

Why? I’m starting to have this low-key suspicion that Google is doing some sort of behind the counter deals with individuals, and somehow tweaking they are all rhythm for subjective ends.

However with ChatGPT, it is less biased, less meddling.

For example, get ChatGPT on your iPhone or iPad, just pay the $20 for the subscription model, you could cancel it anytime, and just ChatGPT:

Who is ERIC KIM?

The new phrase:

Just ChatGPT me bro!

My thoughts and experiments

I think the biggest issue with diet health physiology and nutrition is that people are so subjective, and also, there is far too many politics, ethics and morality behind it.

For example, I never trust anybody who says:

Don’t eat meat, it’s bad for the planet!

What? Do you know what else is bad for the planet? Your Amazon prime subscription, Netflix, YouTube, your iPhone and iPhone Pro, your MacBook pros, your Tesla, your Range Rover etc.

Simple heuristic:

Never trust nobody who makes commentary about the planet and has either a Netflix subscription, Amazon prime subscription, or owns a car, any card, irregardless of gas or electric. Or watches YouTube. Or has an iPhone, iPhone Pro, and has Instagram Facebook, etc.

Honestly it is all bad for the planet.

My immortal and ethical thought is this:

Don’t do what is “best for the planet“, do what you believe is best for you.

Is the planet made for men, or is man-made for the planet?

Body shaming?

I have observed a funny reverse trend; man is not permitted to walk around, topless in public, show off his body and muscles, and also, not allowed to wear short shorts, or show off his crotch bulge.

Or—

What do you think of Maria Ozawa?

Or,

What do you torrent on Pirate Bay, when you turn on your VPN?

The logic of 100% carnivore diet

Some nuances:

First, what is it that Achilles was fed as a child by his personal trainer, Chiron the Centaur? Legend has it that he was fed entrails, which included bone marrow, hearts, and other offal matter.

I also have an orthodox theory that cholesterol, dietary food cholesterol, is a natural steroid.

I believe the new ones here is critical, because people make this foolish calculus:

If I consume more dietary cholesterol, cholesterol in my food, then my blood HDL, bad cholesterol blood levels will go up, and I will eventually have a heart attack and die.

Also fat –

if you consume more dietary fat, or saturated fat, you will put on more body fat.

However, this ain’t true. I think the big issue is that in today’s world, or modern day English, the semantic lexicon issues is confusing.

Just try it out!

Whenever I get to Korean barbecue, all eat Korean barbecue, my favorite food items to consume include all the innards; beef large intestine, beef liver, beef, beef tongue, etc.

People say that eating meat is “bad for you“, but what about organ meats? Just think about that.

Training thoughts

So the question is this; what is the best way to train?

My personal thought is towards some sort of Indian spartan, ancient Greek notion. The thoughts I’ve been thinking:

How did or how would the ancient Greeks or Spartan train?

What is more notable about their physiology and stature?

First, how upright they stand. Second, they never have a shirt on. Third, how massive their legs, back, and shoulders are.

Second, Farmer’s Carry. I ordered these farmers carry handles on Titan.fitness, and it is very interesting! The skill is not just picking it up, but walking with it.

For example, it is one thing to lift 4 plates, it is another to farmers walk and carry 4 plates for the distance.

Train like atlas

In fact, it looks like that my training style is starting to trend more towards a strongman concept; just lifting really really heavy stuff, and doing it in a more old-school way.

Achilles would lift up a massive stone, that which barely two strong men could lift, throw it at his enemy, and the boulder hit their hip, and black death descended upon them.

Now what?

Ever since moving to LA, I’ve become more and more reticent to join the gym. Why?

First, I prefer to be outdoors.

Second, I don’t like wearing a shirt.

Third, hygiene.

Working out at the park, in a parking lot, in your garage, or outside is not ideal, but, it is more interesting and innovative.

Now what?

Some more thoughts:

Bear lifestyle: Apparently bears walk 50 miles a day. What if we humans did the same?
Photography health and fitness is all connected: why? If you do not feel well, you’ll have no in motivation to make photos. My very simple thought is that first, focus on your health and wellness, and then the guitar will come naturally! Even a simple thought is being able to do a deep “as to grass“ squat is beneficial in photography, to get all the angles.
If you work in cinema, or cinematography, it seems that handling these camera rigs is insanely arduous and also very physical. If you look like a bodybuilder, and had the strength of a demigod, or look like a strong man, or look like ERIC KIM, certainly wouldn’t this help you be a more capable camera operator?

Photo assignments

These are my very very very very very simple suggestions: mostly via negative.

If you want to lower your body fat percentage, simple things to do which include:

Don’t need breakfast or lunch, only dinner. During the day drink lots of tapwater, black coffee with nothing added, or green tea.
Just experiment; don’t need any fruit or vegetables, starches, leafy greens, etc. No nuts.
Experiment with 100% carnivore diet, or maybe 100% organ meat diet. Only beef heart, beef intestine, either large or small, beef kidneys, beef liver, beef tongue. If you don’t like organ meats, just eat 100% breast-fed ground beef, get it at Costco or Aldi or somewhere cheap. The percentages which taste good are 80/20 or 75/15– I like the wagyu ground beef at Costco.
Quit alcohol, weed, beer, drugs, EDM, festivals, bars, restaurants, etc.
Quit almond butter, avocados, whole grains, fruits, fruit juices, fake sugar supplements, real sugar, starches, coke, Coke Zero, pre workout powder, protein powder etc.

When you break your fast aim for 5-6 pounds of meat a dinner.

How to channel your wellness?

Then the simple thought is once you are very well, how do you wish to channel your wellness?

Ultimately, I don’t think it is fitness for the sake of fitness, but rather, the fitter and stronger you become, the more adept you will become as a thinker, writer, creator, photographer etc.

Think more, become more.

START HERE

Also

Books

Photo ideas

Zen photography assignment: strive to make the most minimalistic Zen photo, and upload your best Zen photo to arsbeta.com

ChatGPT experiments

I love AI. Download ChatGPT to your iPhone or iPad, and upgrade to the paid subscription, an experiment with it for a month.

Upload your photos to it, and ask ChatGPT to give you feedback on your photos, or you could upload three photos, and just ask it which of the three he thinks is the best.

Don’t miss out on AI; this is the biggest thing to hit the planet ever since the Internet!

Diversify

Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket, it is good to have many different baskets. Why? If there is a single chokepoint or a single point of failure, this is not good.

I think the best way to think and approach things is just assume and predict and know that sooner or later, it will break, go down, become inaccessible, etc.

Also WordPress.com, maybe even Tumblr.

Propagate all the platforms!

Think islands, web, webs, multiple redundancies.

Train with EK

Random — if you live in LA and want to train with me, just shoot me an email at eric@erickim.com

Stoic training, stoicism and physiology?

Another fun idea that I have is that maybe there is in fact a link between stoicism, physiology, and also bodily training.

Why?

First, let us consider our physiological response to stressors environment etc.

Example, when I get angry, it is a physiological response. I feel the cortisol and stress entering my face, and enlarges my eyeballs, I get a huge shot of adrenaline etc.

Therefore, my simple thought is if you want to become a true stoic, the training must be physical, physiological.

Also, fear. What is fear? Fear is also manifested as adrenaline, as well as stress hormones, chemicals in your body, etc.

To conquer fear, and to become a true stoic, I believe it is all about mastering your physiology, mastering your stress hormones and responses etc.

It is all about training

ASKESIS an ancient Greek, the same notion of aesthetic, or aestheticism is rooted in the notion of training. As guesses, becoming harder, becoming stronger

Even our best friend Frederick Nita says ultimately the goal is to become the hammer, the diamond. To not be soft and yielding, but to create, become harder.

Why is it that softness is considered a virtue in today’s world?

For example, racism, Nazis, holocaust deniers, anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic or anti-African-American people; shouldn’t we be maximally intolerant to these people? A zero tolerance rule here is good.

My personal thought is that in order to become more virtuous, we actually must become harder. To become more unyielding, to become more strict, and more harsh.

Why do I believe this is a good thing?

“Never say no more than once, if you really mean it” – NASSIM TALEB

What is Stoicism?

Stoicism is the art and approach and philosophy of manliness?

STOICISM 101

Become invincible:

The Stoic Masters

Learn from the master stoics:

See all philosophy >

Physiology Thoughts

Something I have cared for a lot ever since I was a fat kid in New York, was diet health physiology and everything in between.

Ever since I was 11 to 12 years old, that with a triple chin, I have literally experimented with every single diet out there, save this nonsensical vegetarian and vegan trend.

Why does this matter?

I met this cool guy the other day, at the Phils coffee shop in downtown Culver City, named Sodi (his website is https://stedmanhalliday.com/).

We had an interesting chat about how fitness is so critical, especially with all of these silicon valley tech utopists who just think of their body as an afterthought.

I vibe with Stedman Halliday because how many different reasons.

First, the focus on recovery as a first thought is a good one. For example, another day when I was really really tired and exhausted, instead of just taking a shower like I typically do, I filled up the bathtub with really really really really really hot water, and had a really really hot bath. It seems that the trend is towards ice baths, ice plunges etc., but also, I think taking insanely hot baths is also a good idea.

Food

Currently what I am doing, and what I have done ever since I was living in Vietnam in 2017, which is almost 6 years now, is simple:

Intermittent fasting throughout the day, this means no breakfast, no lunch, only one massive 100% carnivore dinner.

During the day I only drink tapwater, black coffee, that’s it.

And when I break my fast and eat dinner, which could arrange anywhere in between 6 PM and 10 PM, I strive to eat at least 4 to 5 pounds of beef or lamb.

Achilles and Chiron the centaur

For example, a simple heuristic:

The best calling card is now, not to tell people to Google you, but instead, to ChatGPT you!

Why? I’m starting to have this low-key suspicion that Google is doing some sort of behind the counter deals with individuals, and somehow tweaking they are all rhythm for subjective ends.

However with ChatGPT, it is less biased, less meddling.

For example, get ChatGPT on your iPhone or iPad, just pay the $20 for the subscription model, you could cancel it anytime, and just ChatGPT:

Who is ERIC KIM?

The new phrase:

Just ChatGPT me bro!

My thoughts and experiments

I think the biggest issue with diet health physiology and nutrition is that people are so subjective, and also, there is far too many politics, ethics and morality behind it.

For example, I never trust anybody who says:

Don’t eat meat, it’s bad for the planet!

What? Do you know what else is bad for the planet? Your Amazon prime subscription, Netflix, YouTube, your iPhone and iPhone Pro, your MacBook pros, your Tesla, your Range Rover etc.

Simple heuristic:

Never trust nobody who makes commentary about the planet and has either a Netflix subscription, Amazon prime subscription, or owns a car, any card, irregardless of gas or electric. Or watches YouTube. Or has an iPhone, iPhone Pro, and has Instagram Facebook, etc.

Honestly it is all bad for the planet.

My immortal and ethical thought is this:

Don’t do what is “best for the planet“, do what you believe is best for you.

Is the planet made for men, or is man-made for the planet?

Body shaming?

I have observed a funny reverse trend; man is not permitted to walk around, topless in public, show off his body and muscles, and also, not allowed to wear short shorts, or show off his crotch bulge.

Or—

What do you think of Maria Ozawa?

Or,

What do you torrent on Pirate Bay, when you turn on your VPN?

The logic of 100% carnivore diet

Some nuances:

First, what is it that Achilles was fed as a child by his personal trainer, Chiron the Centaur? Legend has it that he was fed entrails, which included bone marrow, hearts, and other offal matter.

I also have an orthodox theory that cholesterol, dietary food cholesterol, is a natural steroid.

I believe the new ones here is critical, because people make this foolish calculus:

If I consume more dietary cholesterol, cholesterol in my food, then my blood HDL, bad cholesterol blood levels will go up, and I will eventually have a heart attack and die.

Also fat –

if you consume more dietary fat, or saturated fat, you will put on more body fat.

However, this ain’t true. I think the big issue is that in today’s world, or modern day English, the semantic lexicon issues is confusing.

Just try it out!

Whenever I get to Korean barbecue, all eat Korean barbecue, my favorite food items to consume include all the innards; beef large intestine, beef liver, beef, beef tongue, etc.

People say that eating meat is “bad for you“, but what about organ meats? Just think about that.

Training thoughts

So the question is this; what is the best way to train?

My personal thought is towards some sort of Indian spartan, ancient Greek notion. The thoughts I’ve been thinking:

How did or how would the ancient Greeks or Spartan train?

What is more notable about their physiology and stature?

First, how upright they stand. Second, they never have a shirt on. Third, how massive their legs, back, and shoulders are.

Second, Farmer’s Carry. I ordered these farmers carry handles on Titan.fitness, and it is very interesting! The skill is not just picking it up, but walking with it.

For example, it is one thing to lift 4 plates, it is another to farmers walk and carry 4 plates for the distance.

Train like atlas

In fact, it looks like that my training style is starting to trend more towards a strongman concept; just lifting really really heavy stuff, and doing it in a more old-school way.

Achilles would lift up a massive stone, that which barely two strong men could lift, throw it at his enemy, and the boulder hit their hip, and black death descended upon them.

Now what?

Ever since moving to LA, I’ve become more and more reticent to join the gym. Why?

First, I prefer to be outdoors.

Second, I don’t like wearing a shirt.

Third, hygiene.

Working out at the park, in a parking lot, in your garage, or outside is not ideal, but, it is more interesting and innovative.

Now what?

Some more thoughts:

Bear lifestyle: Apparently bears walk 50 miles a day. What if we humans did the same?
Photography health and fitness is all connected: why? If you do not feel well, you’ll have no in motivation to make photos. My very simple thought is that first, focus on your health and wellness, and then the guitar will come naturally! Even a simple thought is being able to do a deep “as to grass“ squat is beneficial in photography, to get all the angles.
If you work in cinema, or cinematography, it seems that handling these camera rigs is insanely arduous and also very physical. If you look like a bodybuilder, and had the strength of a demigod, or look like a strong man, or look like ERIC KIM, certainly wouldn’t this help you be a more capable camera operator?

BECOMING A ZEN PHOTOGRAPHER

One of the books that I wrote which I’m the most proud of is my Zen Photography book, which I finished in the Vietnam, at the wonderful LA VIET coffee cafe compound.

I think the reason why I love my Zen Photography book, and why it has resonated with so many people is that it is honest, interesting, and insightful.

I have some general thoughts about how to become a zen photographer — the first is focusing on the zen photography aesthetic and ethos.

The second one is very simple: delete all of your social media accounts. Delete Instagram, don’t use it. Delete comments, delete statistics, disable them all.

This is where I still recommend using wordpress.org over wordpress.com. it seems that wordpress.com, which is run by automaticc— they always find a stealthy way to try to include statistics and stats into everything.

With wordpress.org, you can disable comments, disable stats, disable at all.

No feedback

If you really really really really really want to become a zen photographer, the strategy is to structure things in such a way in which you’re not exposed to any feedback.

Also, I think the reason why I’ll never put Seneca in organized sports is that the focus on numbers, games, winners and losers is a bad one. I would rather just take him to a park, like Calvin and Hobbes just play Calvin Ball; just make up the game as you go along. And ultimately the sport in the game isn’t even that important, what is more important is your courage physicality strength and physical capacity and capability.

Zen aesthetics

First and foremost, I don’t think it’s actually necessary to shoot black-and-white. I personally prefer it, but you can still do it in color! Just keep the color super minimal.

For example, I really like the photo curation done by the Apple Photos team, there is this fun little dynamic photo exhibition gallery thing in front of the Apple office in Culver City on Washington, the compositions are beautiful; simple, elegant and flowing.

iPad Pro photographer?

Just shoot on your iPad!

Very funny thought that I have which I really love about shooting photos on the iPad, the iPad Pro 11 inch, with those stupid accessories is it almost feels like you’re shooting photos on a large format 8 x 10 camera, but done in modern-day times.

Certainly the image quality isn’t the best, but compositionally it is fun and interesting and I enjoy doing it a lot!

How to shoot more zen

Simple thoughts include just on one camera, one lens. Whether it is integrated or interchangeable doesn’t really matter.

A simple thought I have is with the lenses, or the camera set up, opt for the most minimal, the most lightweight compact setup. For example on my Lumix G9, I recently bought the Panasonic Lumix 14 mm of 2.5 pancake lens, and I love it! The more compact, smaller and lighter your lens… the more you shoot the happier will be etc.

Also, a simple suggestion is just purge all of your camera equipment. My friend Stan Hudecki did this with his stuff, giving it away to family members, or people in need. Good vibes.

In 2015 I did the same, also purging almost all of my camera equipment, just giving a way to friends, family members etc. The reason why I like giving away camera equipment is that it could have greater utility for somebody, rather than just the annoying thing of having to sell it. I actually don’t like to sell stuff because it is too much work. Having to coordinate, negotiate, it is all such a pain in the ass.

Other zen thoughts

When you go on a photo walk, or go out to take photos, a simple thought is just leave your phone at home. While I think the iPhone is a great tool for photography, it is just too distracting.

Also another tip what I personally do is whenever I take Seneca to the park, I always lock my phone in my glove compartment, and I play with him at the park in order to not get distracted.

I think the biggest enemy and today’s world is being distracted. Imagine shooting photos on your iPhone, getting all these stupid notifications while you’re shooting etc. The simple thought you could do instead is put it in airplane mode when you’re shooting, but the downside is also that you might be tempted to turn off the airplane mode.

The future is standalone digital cameras

When I was in Mexico City, my student Chris Chung had the compact digital medium format Hasselblad camera, and I liked it a lot. Why? It was simple minimalistic and aesthetic, and also, because digital medium format is lower, I think it forces you to slow down.

My pragmatic thought is digital medium format is great; I really love the Pentax 645Z, and I think it is actually a more interesting idea to buy a digital medium format camera instead of buying a digital Leica M camera or a Leica Q camera, which is essentially a low-key Panasonic Lumix camera. How do you know? The Leica Q1 camera uses Panasonic Lumix batteries! Proof is in the pudding.

Also apparently Pentax put out a new black and white only DSLR camera, I think this is the most interesting camera in the market.

Zen photography assignments

For an entire day, only shoot photos in macro mode
Delete your Instagram
Start your own WordPress.org website, just use bluehost.com or Ionos.com
If you already got a website, see if you could disable the comments and statistics
Put on website blocker extensions on chrome or Safari or Firefox which block gear review websites and rumor websites
Don’t follow any photography related websites or blogs or YouTube channels. All of them ultimately just want to get you to buy more equipment, whether cameras or lenses or other stuff
If you should color photos, try to experiment only capturing one photo at a time. Only blue, only red, only yellow etc.
When you’re out shooting and composing your photos, strive to make the edges and the background as simple as possible.
Diagonal composition
Triangle composition

Upload your best photos to arsbeta.com

Happy Halloween!

See if you could apply this Zen photography aesthetic to your Halloween photos! Make the photos as simple as possible, folks on details, and use the flash.

Arsbeta.com for your best photos

Upload

Zen tech?

The more lenses you got on your iPhone the worst. Nowadays my thought is whenever I see anybody with three lenses on their iPhone, it looks kind of silly.

Greater flex to have just the normal iPhone with 2 lenses (2 is enough, just like kids or kidneys or lungs), or better yet, an iPhone SE — with just one lens!

Also a simple thought: every day uninstall at least one app from your phone or iPad or whatever… Better yet uninstalled two apps from your phone every day!

Also, manually go into your iPhone notifications panel and disable all of the apps notifications which include text messaging etc. the only one I enable is FaceTime, in case that my mom Cindy or my sister need to contact me.

Zen tools

EK HAPTIC SHOPPE >

Zen thinking

I am more afraid of the man who has trained one move 1000 times, than the man who knows 1000 moves – Bruce Lee
Even a hair cast its own shadow — Publilus Syrus
Better to use chatgpt to search for information instead of google, because you don’t have to deal with ads!
Never read nothing that has an advertisement in it, which is all of you too, magazines, books which promote products or services etc.
Just own one type of currency or one type of crypto. For example, I’m just invested in 100% bitcoin. It is either all or nothing, I’m also interested in chain-link, but yet have found a strong enough reason to dissolve all my bitcoin into chain-link. Proof of reserves however is a good idea.
Just one wife, spouse or girlfriend: it seems that polygamy is too much stress. Better to just have one spouse, one wife, one girlfriend etc. More zen.

Think more:

START HERE

BECOMING A ZEN PHOTOGRAPHER

One of the books that I wrote which I’m the most proud of is my Zen Photography book, which I finished in the Vietnam, at the wonderful LA VIET coffee cafe compound.

I think the reason why I love my Zen Photography book, and why it has resonated with so many people is that it is honest, interesting, and insightful.

I have some general thoughts about how to become a zen photographer — the first is focusing on the zen photography aesthetic and ethos.

The second one is very simple: delete all of your social media accounts. Delete Instagram, don’t use it. Delete comments, delete statistics, disable them all.

With wordpress.org, you can disable comments, disable stats, disable at all.

No feedback

If you really really really really really want to become a zen photographer, the strategy is to structure things in such a way in which you’re not exposed to any feedback.

Also, I think the reason why I’ll never put Seneca in organize sports is that the folks on numbers, games, winners and losers is a bad one. I would rather just take him to a park, like Calvin and Hobbs just play Calvin ball; just make up the game as you go along. And ultimately the sport in the game isn’t even that important, what is more important is your courage physicality strength and physical capacity and capability.

Zen aesthetics

First and foremost, I don’t think it’s actually necessary to shoot black-and-white. I personally prefer it, but you can still do it in color! Just keep the color super minimal.

For example, I really like the photo creation done by the Apple photos team, there is this fun little dynamic photo exhibition gallery thing in front of the Apple office in Culver City on Washington, the competitions are beautiful; simple, elegant and flowing.

iPad Pro photographer?

Just shoot on your iPad!

I disdain the weak and anemic

It seems that the best SUV to get is a Ford Explorer ST; why? Essentially it is a cop car.

Also, just getting white. Why? Easier to keep clean, and also less hot when it gets really hot. Don’t be a loser in a range rover.

Also, be very very suspicious of people who are trying to ride your coat tails. They weigh you down. Literally and metaphorically.

I fucking love LA!

Specifically, Culver City.

How to warm up?

A simple thought to start off the day walking, with a lot of clothes on, get super super warm. Drink a bunch of coffee, etc.

Then, once you warm up, and the sun comes out stand in the sun, maximum UV exposure. Takeoff your shirt and pants! Shorts or short short shorts or just half short leggings is fine.

The logic of getting a brand new Prius over a brand new Tesla?

Been seeing more Priuses on the road, the new one. I think the design looks pretty cool, but still… why would you buy a brand new Prius when you go buy a brand new Tesla?

I think it is interesting and wise and smart to buy a used Prius, let’s say the 2010 model. For myself, I re-inherited the family car — a white 2010 Toyota Prius and I effing love it!

Design critique of the new Prius

For the most part, the new design of the new Prius is pretty cool. But what I don’t really like or love is that from the side, it seems like the design was a compromise. For example on the rear hatchback, the rear seats, they made the doorhandles flush and hidden, like the same that they do on the subcompact Honda or Toyota cars. But, they still have normal doorhandles in the front? Doesn’t really make sense to me.

Also, the shift knob. The 2010 version of the Prius, what they did with the shift knob was insanely innovative and futuristic, but now, for some reason they took a step back… making it look like an old Toyota Camry or an older Honda Accord?

Don’t partner with anybody.

ChatGPT should just make a simple voice dictation writing app?

I think a huge problem that people have is writer’s block. A simple solution is to just create a standalone app, which is just focused on writing and voice dictation.

Maybe I will build this; the funny thought is that there is no keyboard, you could only use your voice!

How would this benefit people?

First, we talk more efficiently than we can type. Also, the huge benefit even as I write these words is being able to walk around, upright out in public, in the direct light, on my 11 inch iPad Pro M1 chip, no case no keyboard no stupid pencil, not even a Wi-Fi connection! And I am very very very happy that for the most part, the voice dictation accuracy adjust the built in Apple voice dictation microphone icon on the bottom left is insanely great!

The biggest issue is that people seem shy to speak in public, as a cultural issue. Why? Social cultural one; in the western modernized world, one is not permitted to be allowed and vocal in public. What I love about the mainland Chinese is that they have no regard for this; they talk insanely loud wherever they are, also always using voice dictation or just sending voice text messages and voice memos to one another. This was also very interesting to see in Cambodia, because apparently speaking Khmer to type out is insanely arduous, and as a hack and a workaround, they discovered that to send Snapchat like voice messages to one another is actually much more effective and efficient.

I don’t think it’s the technology issue, but simply a cultural one. How can we encourage more people to use voice dictation instead?

People just jealous and envious!

A funny thing, for the first time somebody just yelled at me: “put a shirt on!” Not sure if they were trying to just joke around, or be angry about it, but the general thought is that it seems people seem envious and jealous about my form and physique, they wish they were me.

“Niggas hate you because they can’t be you”— JAY Z

Mentally sick people?

Something that I learned is that we should not try to “fix”, or seek to understand mentally sick people. What that means is this; people who are mentally unstable and unwell, apparently the security guards call them 51-50’s — imagine like crazy people, high on some sort of crack or strange drug, running around smelling bed etc. The mere sight or smell of them is repulsive.

Therefore as a consequence, it seems that the optimal thing is to just not be near them within a 5 mile radius.

Another reason of not living or moving to Santa Monica. The place is a dump.

Their physiology will show their mental health

Just do what you like

I think in today’s world the issue is that we do things that we think other people think we should do, or what we shouldn’t do.

Clear skies, clear futures
.

You just hate me because you’re scared of me!

Or, because you’re no match for me.

The direct light!

Now that winter is upon us, something I’ve discovered and observed is that there’s nothing better than direct light! Things in the cold are terrible because it is so frigid and unpleasant.

Even real estate and buildings; I think the most important thing is that the sun must directly face you. This is the best way to get maximum sun exposure UV radiation etc.

Critique things or change things?

Open air gymnasium concept?

In terms of hygiene, wellness, health and strength, it seems that the most supreme concept is an open air gymnasium, in the direct light, in the direct sun.

If it is really really really really hot, like in Arizona or Nevada, then an outdoor, concept, with a simple covering is a good idea.

But I suppose the question and nuance is this; is it a good idea or is it wise to have to own or lease it? Or even borrow it?

I suppose the downside is having to maintain it.

It seems the only reason we like Lamborghini is for the brand-name, and also the Lamborghini scissor doors. However if we could just apply this to ourselves in real life, what would it look like?

first and foremost, your haircut. Cindy calls in my Lamborghini haircut; very very closely shaped on the sides, Long on the top, flowing back.

Second, your bodily physique. Highly muscular, sleek, low body fat percentage. The basic ideal is to be super buff with the six pack. And of course no steroids.

Glorious!

THOUGHT VLOGS

I think what I enjoyed the most about studying AI, and thinking about AI, is that it allows me in encourages me to think more about what it really means to be human

https://videopress.com/v/auWLjHHp?resizeToParent=1&cover=1&autoPlay=1&controls=1&loop=1&muted=1&persistVolume=0&playsinline=0&preloadContent=metadata&sbc&sbpc&sblc&useAverageColor=1

Why AI cannot be philosophical

Artificial intelligence cannot be wise, because once again, it is just a really good filter, in regurgitating of what is on the internet and what has already been written. It takes a true visionary, a true individual genius to actually write things of worth.

AI doesn’t have a vision!

What is the role of us humans? We humans are visionaries!

To become more human is the goal!

What do we really want?

I don’t think we want more money more power more resources, more health, whatever. Rather, I think we want to expand, augment our curiosity and beyond?

Also, Art?

How to become more curious, how to cultivate your curiosity?

Always assume that somebody is watching, because most likely, somebody is.

However, these “security guards“, tend to just be underpaid staff who could really care less.

Everything that I do is an art piece, an art concept?

The upside of handwashing your own car is that you better understand it? You better understand the curves, the edges etc.

When you hand wash your car, you start to understand the 3-D contours of everything?

I am OCD about design.

I am also OCD about cleanliness and hygiene?

I like being unhurried, unrushed, and to kill time.

Bone marrow is food for the demigods

How to become demigod?

Lift very very very very very heavy stones and boulders just like Achilles
Consume more bone marrow, just like Achilles as well?

What car would Achilles drive? Dubious that he would drive any car.

Two ideas in concepts: straight flat horizontal lightbar for the front and the back of a Prius, as well as iPad Pro mount holder for car?

Often stupid ideas are good ideas?

There doesn’t need to be a logic behind it

What is less distracting? Dark mode is less distracting, as well as black clothes?

AI doesn’t care for aesthetics, but humans do.

Just do what you want, not what others want, even worse, what others want you to do.

It doesn’t need to make sense.

Man cannot tolerate more than one woman

Empathy and compassion is for weaklings.

Maybe it is a good idea to become less tolerant and less understanding? And less supportive?

Censorship

Censorship isn’t about blocking, or hiding things. Censorship, censor comes from censeo— “to have an opinion, I have an opinion”.

Therefore in regards to censorship and Internet censorship, it is wise to consider that in fact, these Internet corporations do have an opinion about what is fitting and what is not. For example, let us not forget that Google owns YouTube, and let us not forget that ultimately Google YouTube is an advertising company.

Anything that runs on advertising will always have censorship!

From chat gpt4:

The term “censorship” has its roots in ancient Rome. The word derives from the Latin “censor,” which was an office in ancient Roman society. The censors were magistrates responsible for maintaining the census, supervising public morality, and overseeing certain aspects of the government’s finances. One of their duties was to oversee the behavior and morals of the citizens, which involved removing individuals who were deemed to have violated these morals from the census or reducing their rank. Over time, the role of the censor evolved and came to encompass other tasks related to maintaining public order and morality.

From this ancient office, the term “censor” eventually came to be used in modern times to refer to anyone who examines and suppresses objectionable material, leading to the concept of “censorship” as the act or system of suppressing or deleting anything considered objectionable.

AI THOUGHTS.

AI-THOUGHTS-9 Download

Played around with ChatGPT 4 this morning, and was very impressed. DALL-E 3 is also a great addition.

AI THOUGHTS >

Why Photographers Still Matter

I’ve observed that ChatGPT as well as DALL-E is very fascinating, and also great for creativity.

However, an interesting nuance I have discovered:

The images that they could produce however, is still limited to illustrations, vector images, drawings and paintings etc. It cannot yet make a realistic looking photograph.

I think there is something very very beautiful about the photographs, why? Capturing a moment in time I think is our great joy. Also some simple pragmatics include the ease of printing out photos, and being able to mount them on your wall or inside a frame, something that does not require batteries, charging, LCD screens etc.

The best way to think about AI is that it is essentially like Siri

All of this nonsensical talk of artificial intelligence going to take our jobs in our creativity is silly. Why? The reason people like to do art is because it is fun!

A simple thought is I don’t really think that artist should chase making money, instead, we should do it for autotelic purposes, fulfilling some sort of inner joy in ourselves!

I think the only real reason why people seek to make money through their artwork or photographs is because they are seeking some sort of external validation and legitimacy to what they do. However, this is not a wise path because it means that you are a slave to the nod of others.

How should we think about AI?

The best way to think about AI, open AI, ChatGPT etc. is that it is a complement to us, and an augmentation of us, rather than a replacement.

If AI can give us a creative nudge, it is good!

I’ve also discovered the upside of AI, technology etc. is that it opens up our minds to certain opportunities would have otherwise not thought of. Exposing or introducing unorthodox thinking to us.

For example, I think it is useful to think of Google Maps as AI. Why? Technically Google maps uses artificial intelligence to map out the quickest path from us to get from point A to point B. I love Google Maps as well because it has taken me down some strange routes, which are actually very interesting. Routes I would have never otherwise discovered or thought of up myself.

For example, in order to avoid traffic on the 5 or 405, Google maps has routed me through some sort of side streets and industrial centers, which are actually visually very interesting for me

Automate the boring stuff

This is very very popular online course on udemy titled “automate the boring stuff”. The basic idea is that perhaps the reason of technology is that it helps us eliminate tedious, time-consuming tasks in our everyday life.

Example, my insane joy with the instant pot as well as the air fryer (chefman). Why? It is like having a cooking slave; to be able to instant pot food insanely quickly and effectively is such a great joy, instead of having to tediously cook it myself and monitor it. Do you remember that old commercial, “set it and forget it?” Yeah that’s good.

Or, my great passion and gratitude towards having an in unit washer and dryer. Can you imagine how tedious it was back in the day having to wash wring and dry it yourself?

What are the tedious things we could cut out of photography?

Photography is great, but I have observed that there are certain tedious things. For example, having to trudge through all of our photographs in order to choose the best one. This is a huge issue, because let us say that you shoot 1000 photos a day. Technically photography is my profession, and even I don’t have enough time to go through and review all my photos in a single day! My simple vision for the next generation of arsbeta.com is simple:

Drag and drop, from your iPhone or iPad, or even laptop, quickly drag and drop or select 1000 photos, and ARS BETA AI can help you cool down to your best photo or three photos or 10 photos etc.

Essentially there would be some sort of slider, which would actually enable this to be possible. For example, the slider filter could allow you to cull down to 100 photos, 50 photos, 25 photos etc.

If you can help me build this shoot me an email at eric@erickim.com

Why AI?

I think by far, the most useful use case of AI would definitely be in regards to tedious driving in stop and go traffic. For example, I think the only reason to get a Tesla isn’t for all of that electric car stuff, but rather, the promise of a car that can use the noise of driving on the 405 or the 10 during rush-hour traffic. Or even tedious stop and go traffic when driving around Los Angeles local.

AI to help with voice dictation?

Perhaps one of the greatest innovations I’ve discovered is being able to use voice dictation on my iPad Pro, without a stupid keyboard, and be able to be out and about and walking around to voice dictate my thoughts into IA WRITER.

Why is this so great?

First, I hate being indoors, I prefer to be out and about, walking in the direct sun. I could do this with my iPad Pro, the 11 inch, currently using the M1 processor.

I’ve noted that the reason why I love the iPad Pro so much is that the voice dictation transcription quality and accuracy is at least 1000 times better than using my iPhone SE. I’m not sure if this has to do with the M-series processor over the A-series processor, or whether maybe the iPad Pro has better microphones.

Irregardless, I think a huge benefit to writers and thinkers is voice dictation, and the AI behind it. I believe that open AI had this new concept called “whisper“, which allows this as well.

For example, everyone seems to suffer from “writers block“, but nobody suffers from “talker’s block”.

Photo ideas

Download the iOS ChatGPT app on either your iPhone or iPad or both, and subscribe to the ChatGPT plus, which cost 20 bucks a month. Once you have done that, adjust the slider to ChatGPT four, and note that in the bottom left corner you could upload photos directly to ChatGPT! Type in and ask ChatGPT what it thinks about your photos, and rate your photos.

Or if you want real human responses, upload your photos to arsbeta.com

My new focuses?

Reading the Elon Musk Walter Isaacson biography, many big lessons, one of them being is this; simply predict and anticipate the very critical future concerns.

For example, to me I am very interested in crypto, cryptocurrency and crypto technology, stuff on the Internet and blockchain, as well as AI. Why? It is cool interesting and sexy!

CRYPTO
AI

Not only that, but it seems that if you are passionate enough, you don’t gotta pigeonhole yourself into just one thing. Do it all! Isn’t Elon Musk CEO in about seven or eight different companies?

Fitness and food

erickimfitness.com — everywhere I look, and everybody I talk to, it seems that everyone is a little bit clueless about health and nutrition. It is something that I have always been passionate about, ever since I was a fat 12-year-old kid.

I think also the biggest issue is things which bemuddle fitness and health, namely steroids, performance enhancing drugs, “natural“ testosterone boosters, the multi billion dollar supplement industry, protein powder and creatine, pre-workout powder, caffeine and fake sugar supplements which make you fat.

Also, this strange trend towards veganism “plant-based” diets. I think there is too much weird ethics and morality and anti-masculine sentiment behind it all; rather than thinking critically, without all of this prejudice and propaganda from these vegetarian vegan plant-based corporations.

Do you know James Cameron, the guy who made Titanic avatar and funded all of these pro vegan documentaries? Apparently he owns a $1 billion pea protein powder plant somewhere, just follow the money, this is a big financial and media conflict of interest. He is also apparently best friends with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is definitely the most influential fitness person of them all. Let us also not forget that when Arnold what is in his prime, he also admits to taking steroids.

Photo thoughts

I think we should rejoice and be glad that the future of photography is still very bright for us!

For example, I’m currently living in Culver City and it seems that Apple is opening up a bunch new offices here! Also, I always walk by the Apple office on Washington, and they have this very very very cool photo exhibit thing on LCD screens, all these lovely photos shot on iPhone.

Why do people buy iPhones?

People buy iPhones, or have a motivation to upgrade their iPhones primarily for photography. I think the reason why iPhone pro titan is lackluster is that the average person doesn’t really care about weight, or even materials, they simply will only upgrade their iPhone or iPhone Pro because they want a better camera.

Also, take note: ain’t nobody use their iPhone to shoot cinema. Nor does anyone aspire to use their iPhone to shoot cinema. What do we want our iPhones for? To shoot photographs!

Now what?

Street photography is the best photography, street art is the best art. Any more time we can spend on the streets, the better.

I was talking to a guy at the park yesterday, Tony, and he told me a fun fact which may or may not be true; that bear is apparently walk 50 miles a day! It probably isn’t true, it had me thinking; could I walk 50 miles a day if I wanted to?

Also, if you simply walked around all day, 50 miles a day with your camera, certainly you would witness many photo opportunities!

What is the best camera to do this with? Of course you could just use your iPhone, or your Ricoh GR camera, or your Fuji, or your Sony, Leica, LUMIX whatever. I think less than the camera component is the walking factor.

The big reason why it is so critical to be able to walk much and have a light camera and a compact camera is that it will assist you to just walk more! I have your camera discourages you from walking a lot, even recently on my Lumix G9 I bought the Lumix 14 mm F2.5 pancake lens and I love it! It has reduced the weight of my camera by at least 10X, and as a consequence, I just shoot more and explore more.

SHOP ERIC KIM / HENRI STRAPS >

Happy Halloween!

Photo assignment: this Halloween go out with your camera, and shoot some fun photos with the flash! You can experiment also using the external flash, on camera flash, have fun with the angles and slow shutter speeds. Upload your best photos to arsbeta.com

Shoot it at night, and smile and have fun with people, and also offer to send people the photos! When you take a photo of somebody or ask or whatever, just compliment them on their costume!

Upload

Happy Haptic!

HAPTIC PROMO — order over $300 USD of HAPTIC PRODUCTS (can include shipping handling taxes costs, as long as the total order cost is over 300 USD), get a FREE ERIC KIM OMAKASE gift bundle from us!

Limited to the first 10 motivated streettogs!

SHOP THE HAPTIC SHOP >

What next?

It seems that ultimate leisure is physical. To me so fascinating because street photography allows us to kill many birds with one stone.

My personal opinion is that street photography may be the most physical form of activity of them all.

Also, the reason why I am also so enthusiastic about street photography is how many birds you can kill with one stone. Let us note how street photography affords us an opportunity to just be out of the house, out in public walking around, as well as opportunity to talk to strangers and other people who interest us, also, visiting and seeing places and traversing new streets and spaces, and also, the great joy of interacting with the real world, embodied reality!

For a lot of these people who like to play video games, Diablo, World of Warcraft, etc.… It seems that ultimate aspiration is to be out and about in public! Isn’t that the whole “open world” concept? Even the new Elden ring game, which Elon Musk is apparently a big fan of, is also all about this open world concept in which you are not relegated to a single place, but rather, have the power and freedom to go anywhere you want!

New futures?

My friend Rinzi Ruiz had a simple adage that I follow:

Follow the light!

Nowadays considering that I prefer to be topless, and walking out and about in public, my greatest passion is to be in the direct sun. With the direct sun I get the greatest amount of energy, power, and hype and motivation. To me the sun is the ultimate stimulant.

It’s still strikes me as bizarre that a lot of people would instead prefer to be indoors, watching some sort of unnatural media without direct exposure to the elements! Isn’t the greatest joy of life to enjoy the sun?

If you’re concerned about skin cancer or whatever, just put on a lot of sunblock, wear a hat and some long sleeves and long pants. I still think it is good to get direct sun exposure.

Also, it seems that the noveau privilege in today’s world is having a full body tan, and also being highly muscular.

What next?

Photography is an infinitely beautiful and complex game, and one of the things I love most about it is our ability to explore.

The best use of our money time and resources I think is to travel, be out in the real world, and also, explore. For example, when I think about all of my world travels, all of these great and phenomenal experiences that had during my time in Japan, Osaka and Tokyo and Kyoto, Vietnam, Saigon and Hanoi, Korea, Seoul Busan, in Dubai, and all around the planet… traveling transform me, uplifted me, and really opened up my mind and my universe.

Can I still be a productive photographer without traveling?

Of course: I think the big secret is living somewhere which allows for maximum walking. For example, a simple thought; if you walked 50 miles a day, and always had your camera with you, certainly you would witness a lot of food opportunities, wouldn’t you?

A simple life optimization suggestion that I have is it is better to rent in an extremely desirable, pedestrian friendly neighborhood then to own a less desirable neighborhood.

LEARN WITH EK

EK WORKSHOPS:

Become you:

DISCOVER YOUR CREATIVE MISSION IN LIFE: DOWNTOWN LA, November 4th, 2023
INTRODUCTION TO STOICISM WORKSHOP: Downtown LA, DECEMBER 2nd, 2023

2024

CONQUER CONFIDENCE ONLINE WORKSHOP: Jan 27, 202
April 20th, 2024: SF ZEN PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP (info TBA)
Family street photography workshop in Culver City, Los Angeles: Working on the details, stay posted.

Never stop learning, never stop thinking:

For the freshest thoughts, what I am thinking right now, always always always the ERIC KIM BLOG >

Other random thoughts

I went to the Peterson automotive museum with Seneca, and we loved it! If you live in Southern California, definitely check it out.

Some car thoughts:

CARS, CULTURE & THE SELF.

CAR THOUGHTS

Just went to the Petersen automotive museum, some thoughts:

How I found out about it?

I suppose one of the big upsides of living in LA, Los Angeles, is that there are so many epic and great things here. For example, I was just randomly driving down Fairfax one day from the gym, and I saw this insanely big building, with great curved white stainless steel and red architecture. I was curious what it was and I saw that it was the Peterson automotive museum on Google maps. I thought to myself, maybe one day I could take Sen here.

Pro tip:

When you’re driving and you see something interesting on the road or the freeway etc. and you’re not sure what it is, just take a screenshot of it on your phone, and revisit it later.

Perhaps this is where great architecture makes a great impression; I first I had no idea what the structure was, it was only later when I looked into it that it was actually an automotive museum.

***

Iterate

So finally the other day, after Sen took a quick nap in the car, I thought that it might be the best time to take Sen to the museum.

To me, after touring the whole place with Sen, some thoughts:

I suppose the good thing of going to museum was that after seeing all these cars in real life, I no longer feel the desire to own any of them.
The second thought which is useful is to think and consider these cars as art objects. That is, it ain’t cars for the sake of movement or driving, but something else.

Cars and culture, America, and Los Angeles?

Several things. First and foremost, in America, whether we like it or not, we are a car culture. For example let us consider that much of our economic powers and prosperity came from the automotive industry, Ford and GM, etc. Apparently even back in the day if you’re living in Michigan or Detroit and you drove a Toyota or a Japanese car, people would physically assault you or even physically vandalize your car.

How and why do cars matter?

Well first of all, this is tricky; cars are great because they allow you to do basic things like go to Costco, buy groceries, drive to the park which is otherwise too time consuming to traverse by foot, and with public transportation, it seems that if it isn’t convenient enough, people want to take it. Certainly COVID-19 did not help at all.

Is there a public transportation future?

I do not think so. Why? What people don’t seem to understand is that it is not about transportation or mobility, it is a matter of fashion, pride, individualism.

For example, it doesn’t really even matter how rich or poor you are, I think the best way to think about it is that your car or what car you drive is almost like your externalized avatar, your ego, your own self impression of yourself.

For example, I think vanity is fine. Everyone wants to distinguish themselves through what car they drive, what they look like, etc. I think for the most part this is a healthy and good thing. Perhaps the big problem though is ultimately, a car will never show your individualism. Why? if your car is not a custom car, ultimately you will look like someone else.

For example, almost any and every modern day card, unless you drive a very very very obscure car, someone else will have a similar make or model as year. For example, it doesn’t matter whether you drive a Lamborghini or a Ferrari, someone out there will also have a similar car to you.

The solution

I have a very very very very very simple solution. I think the best car to drive, in today’s world, almost irregardless of where you live is a simple old-school white Prius. I really like the year 2010 model, and up. Why? The good thing with the 2010 model is that there are no stupid LCD screens that pop up or touchscreens which distract you.

Secondly, these things last forever, and also, I actually really like the body styling the 2010 Prius model. The generation before it looks too much like a bubble car, and the generation after it, looks like a strange half assed effort.

The brand new Prius is very very cool, but still I am suspicious because considering that it is a totally new design, they will probably discover some issues with it. And also once again, all this unnecessary tech.

The car as your creative canvas?

Also the fun thing about just getting an old used car is that you can fuck it up and you don’t really care that much. So for example, this 2010 white Prius that I inverted; I have been having a lot of fun spray painting it, spray painting the rims, Touching up the paint here and there, badging it and modifying it etc.

Also, I think ultimately ultimate privilege is convenience, and living more streamlined. This means being able to live a maximally productive, efficient, streamlined life.

Even being in LA, finding electric chargers is a pain in the butt. And also it takes too long. The amazing thing is my Prius, the last month, I literally only filled it up once, and just going to the close by Arco, it only cost me 40 bucks!

Become the Lamborghini or the Ferrari?

Some other funny thoughts: study and observe and deconstruct the bodies style and the ethos of these cars, and figure out how you could integrate it into your own own bodily physiology.

For example, I really like Lamborghini cars for how wide and low to the ground they are. And how they look like fighter jets. so then the practical thought is why not try to transform your body to look the same?

Or, people who buy these huge pick up trucks, lift them up, or the Overlanding vehicles. Instead of buying a rugged car, why not strive to make your body more rugged? More effective interesting and also way cheaper!

Training

I have never really met anybody with an impressive car who also had an impressive looking body. Car shows an auto shows are funny, because the question is this; who are you more interested in, the owner or the car? My friend Don Dillon laughed and said of course the car!

When you step into the mall or the gym, nobody has any idea what car you drive

Anybody who drives an impressive car, what they do not understand is this; once you go inside the gym or the mall, nobody has any idea what car you drive. You become naked.

How do cars matter, how don’t they?

First and foremost, nobody wants to be sedentary inside a car, irregardless of how expensive or nice the car is. Why? From a pure physiology perspective, sitting down and being sedentary is bad.

The best option is instead, to be out and about in the real world, open fresh air, using your legs. Even a lot of guys who get really really really really successful end up getting into bicycle racing and riding instead? Why? Technically when you’re riding a bicycle, it is almost like you’re in a convertible, as you get fresh air all around you. Second, riding a bicycle is just plain fun! I don’t really believe of bicycle riding from a pure “exercise“ philosophy; there are much better ways to exercise that don’t involve sitting on your butt. And once again, the reason why I think riding a bicycle purely for “exercise“, isn’t good because you are still sitting on your butt! Even though you are pumping your legs.

A funny thing that Seneca has been doing is he got a free balancing bicycle without pedals, and he just walks it around! This seems to be a good idea because he is still able to walk himself around.

Walking lifestyle?

A very simple life thought and strategy is this: better to rent in a very very very desirable neighborhood, which allows for maximum walking, instead of owning or buying a house even in “good” neighborhood?

Even from a pure productivity perspective, I am far happier and more productive being able to just walk everywhere, instead of having to rely on the agency of driving a car.

Now what?

Some simple thoughts:

First, rather than aspiring to buy that new desirable car, better instead to think of modifying and transforming and customizing the car you already got. Figure out how creative you could become!
Instead of buying a Tesla, better to gain his mindset. I recommend downloading and reading the Elon Musk biography book by Walter Isaacson. Just buy it in the iBook store, and read it on your iPhone or iPad. Or if you drive a lot, maybe it is a good idea to just get it as an audiobook!
Think hybrid. I still think in today’s world, even though gas and petroleum is bad for the planet, the ultimate car is still some sort of hybrid car. Whether it be hybrid, plug-in hybrid, etc., or just a straight up hybrid. One concept I actually found very interesting is this notion of a turbo hybrid; I have no idea how it works, but apparently I think it is available on the new Kia Sportage car, as well as the new Toyota Crown car?
If you live in LA or Southern California, or plan to come down here, definitely check out the Peterson automotive museum! I think if you are into cars or car culture, you’ll probably gain at least one creative idea.
Instead of wasting all that money on a car or your car, better instead to think and consider spending that money on insanely great food instead. Eat more organ meats, 100% grass fed beef, 100% grass fed lamb, bone marrow, which is essentially the demigod food of the gods, cheek, tongue.
Whenever you see a nice car, always try to look through the car window and give a good stare to who is actually driving the car. Become less interested in the car, become more interested in the person driving the car.
I still think it is a fun idea to try to psycho analyze people, car behavior, why people drive searching cars etc. I am still fascinated by this concept, “Tell me what car you drive, and I will tell you who you are.”
Think American. Am I the only liberal I know who is still pro America? Let us not forget that Tesla is technically an American car company! I’m also still really big into Ford, I really really enjoyed the Ford versus Ferrari film. In fact, I think it is a harder flex to buy that new Ford Mustang, the one that looks like a supercar, instead of buying some sort of loser Lamborghini or loser Ferrari. American muscle is supreme.

Tesla innovation

A lot of things unravel here. One idea is studying Tesla Elon Musk is from a design and production and innovation perspective— I gained some great ideas from it.

First, one thing that I learned from the Peterson automotive museum which was insanely inspiring was seeing a deconstructed Tesla. It is so insanely innovative.

One idea is how Elon and his team innovated and discovered new ways of merging the unit frame body and the production as well as the batteries. The more you can merge the two together, the better.

I think ultimately there is an underlying philosophy behind it all. Some innovation thoughts:

Merge the components
Consolidate
Delete, delete, delete
Start from a blank slate and canvas
Think first principles
Question all of the rules and regulations
Have a supreme disregard for authority
Never compromise on design
Think 1 trillion, $10 trillion industry. 1T, 10T.
Legitimately care.

I think one thing that people don’t get about Elon Musk is that I think there is a strange thought that some people are just money hungry. With Elon this is not the case. I think that your mission must be so insanely critical to you, you are willing to sacrifice everything to obtain it.

Never stop thinking

http://erickimphilosophy.com

And

erickim.com

Send it!

Elon Philosophy

I think ultimately there is an underlying philosophy behind it all. Some innovation thoughts:

Merge the components
Consolidate
Delete, delete, delete
Start from a blank slate and canvas
Think first principles
Question all of the rules and regulations
Have a supreme disregard for authority
Never compromise on design
Think 1 trillion, $10 trillion industry. 1T, 10T.
Legitimately care.

Hard Philosophy

harduz— *kort-us, *kret— strong, powerful.

kratus— strong. Krakos— strength, power, dominion.

*kret-

Insight, intelligence, strength.

Harduz— strong, brave, hard.

Hard — like hard, solid like a stone?

Like a diamond!

AI THOUGHTS

Photo Thinking

Played around with ChatGPT 4 this morning, and was very impressed. DALL-E 3 is also a great addition.
AI THOUGHTS >

Why Photographers Still Matter

I’ve observed that ChatGPT as well as DALL-E is very fascinating, and also great for creativity. Even the images that they could produce however, is still limited to illustrations, vector images, drawings and paintings etc. It cannot yet make a realistic looking photograph.

All of this nonsensical of artificial intelligence going to take our jobs in our creativity is silly. Why? The reason people like to do art is because it is fun!

The best way to think about AI, open AI, ChatGPT etc. is that it is a complement to us, and an augmentation of us, rather than a replacement.

Automate the boring stuff

This is very very popular online course by udemy titled “automate the boring stuff”. The basic idea is that perhaps the reason of technology is that it helps us eliminate tedious, time-consuming tasks in our everyday life.

What are the tedious things we could cut out of photography?

The New Hippies

I have a realization: all of these new weird modern trends, they are just like the noveau hippies.

What does this mean? For example, anyone who is too into craft beer, spirits and alcohol, marijuana, drugs, EDM electronic dance music, concerts and festivals, dogs, Japan, flannel and vintage clothing, “culture”, sunglasses and facial hair, designer things etc.

Or when people take coffee snobbery to the next level, or people who are too into analogue/analog, anti digital, the strange romanticism of the past. Also spending too much time on their iPhone or iPhone Pro.

Also, too much media consumption, inability to meet eye contact in real life, to make small talk, to interact or engage with others, or lift weights.

Also this strange trend towards “plant-based” diets, vegetarianism and veganism, and juice.

My solution

100% carnivore diet, beef and lamb, beef large intestine, beef tendon, tongue, beef liver, beef heart. Bone marrow, lamb leg and steak and ribs.
Lifting insanely heavy weights. True manly lifts.
Maximum time outdoors and in the direct sun.
No cars.

ASKESIS

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OR END GOAL OF TRAINING?

Staying insanely local?

In terms of how to conquer living in LA something that I have gleaned;

first and foremost, it seems wise to live a life or a lifestyle in which one is not stuck in traffic, any traffic.

for example, one of the great tragedies of life and modern day life is any period of time being stuck in a car, against your own wheel. Essentially what this means is that when you’re stuck in the car there is so much you cannot be doing, so much you cannot do.

Purely from an economic perspective, up productivity perspective, this is a huge waste of time. Even one of the grand visions behind Elon Musk and his boring companies; how to not be stuck in traffic?

My vision

So I have a few visions. One is in regards to being able to stay fit and work out and whatever without having stuck in traffic there are some way that have figured this out. First, sandbag training. The general idea is that despite a big ass sandbag, Online or on the Internet, you could just get on roadfitness.com or you can get it on Amazon, and just go to local playground, fill it up with sand, work out, pick it up throw it around etc., just have fun with it, And when you’re done, just dump out the sand, put the empty sandbag back in your car and just drive home, or even walk home!

One of my favorite parks is without traffic just a five minute drive away! I love it, but the critical downside is that because of LA traffic, literally this 1 mile stretch takes me almost 20 minutes stuck in traffic! All bumper-to-bumper local traffic.

Home gym?

Another thought I have is about having some sort of home gym, mobile gym, backyard gym, etc.

The first interesting thought is that gym, gymnasium actually means “gymnos”, which literally means naked in ancient Greek. Why?

First, things in Greeks would hang out in big open air plazas — the gym wasn’t simply a place where one “worked out”, it was also a place in which one philosophies, talk to other men, etc.

Also, I think the original purpose of the gym, Gnos was training, training for battle. The purpose was to fight, for war, to defend ourselves in the possible case of war.

Other ideas

What is better, to move 1000 pounds an inch, or to move 1 pound 1,000 inches?

Certainly the prior!

Power, strength, courage?

Some other thoughts;

Becoming a warrior? Fit for battle?
Aesthetics? How your body looks and feels to yourself?

Askesis

Askesis— ascetic, training.

CARS, CULTURE & THE SELF.

CAR THOUGHTS

Just went to the Petersen automotive museum, some thoughts:

How I found out about it?

Pro tip:

When you’re driving and you see something interesting on the road or the freeway etc. and you’re not sure what it is, just take a screenshot of it on your phone, and revisit it later.

Perhaps this is where great architecture makes a great impression; I first I had no idea what the structure was, it was only later when I looked into it that it was actually an automotive museum.

***

Iterate

So finally the other day, after Sen took a quick nap in the car, I thought that it might be the best time to take Sen to the museum.

To me, after touring the whole place with Sen, some thoughts:

I suppose the good thing of going to museum was that after seeing all these cars in real life, I no longer feel the desire to own any of them.
The second thought which is useful is to think and consider these cars as art objects. That is, it ain’t cars for the sake of movement or driving, but something else.

Cars and culture, America, and Los Angeles?

How and why do cars matter?

Is there a public transportation future?

I do not think so. Why? What people don’t seem to understand is that it is not about transportation or mobility, it is a matter of fashion, pride, individualism.

The solution

The car as your creative canvas?

Also, I think ultimately ultimate privilege is convenience, and living more streamlined. This means being able to live a maximally productive, efficient, streamlined life.

Become the Lamborghini or the Ferrari?

Some other funny thoughts: study and observe and deconstruct the bodies style and the ethos of these cars, and figure out how you could integrate it into your own own bodily physiology.

Training

When you step into the mall or the gym, nobody has any idea what car you drive

Anybody who drives an impressive car, what they do not understand is this; once you go inside the gym or the mall, nobody has any idea what car you drive. You become naked.

How do cars matter, how don’t they?

First and foremost, nobody wants to be sedentary inside a car, irregardless of how expensive or nice the car is. Why? From a pure physiology perspective, sitting down and being sedentary is bad.

A funny thing that Seneca has been doing is he got a free balancing bicycle without pedals, and he just walks it around! This seems to be a good idea because he is still able to walk himself around.

Walking lifestyle?

Even from a pure productivity perspective, I am far happier and more productive being able to just walk everywhere, instead of having to rely on the agency of driving a car.

Now what?

Some simple thoughts:

First, rather than aspiring to buy that new desirable car, better instead to think of modifying and transforming and customizing the car you already got. Figure out how creative you could become!
Instead of buying a Tesla, better to gain his mindset. I recommend downloading and reading the Elon Musk biography book by Walter Isaacson. Just buy it in the iBook store, and read it on your iPhone or iPad. Or if you drive a lot, maybe it is a good idea to just get it as an audiobook!
Think hybrid. I still think in today’s world, even though gas and petroleum is bad for the planet, the ultimate car is still some sort of hybrid car. Whether it be hybrid, plug-in hybrid, etc., or just a straight up hybrid. One concept I actually found very interesting is this notion of a turbo hybrid; I have no idea how it works, but apparently I think it is available on the new Kia Sportage car, as well as the new Toyota Crown car?
If you live in LA or Southern California, or plan to come down here, definitely check out the Peterson automotive museum! I think if you are into cars or car culture, you’ll probably gain at least one creative idea.
Instead of wasting all that money on a car or your car, better instead to think and consider spending that money on insanely great food instead. Eat more organ meats, 100% grass fed beef, 100% grass fed lamb, bone marrow, which is essentially the demigod food of the gods, cheek, tongue.
Whenever you see a nice car, always try to look through the car window and give a good stare to who is actually driving the car. Become less interested in the car, become more interested in the person driving the car.
I still think it is a fun idea to try to psycho analyze people, car behavior, why people drive searching cars etc. I am still fascinated by this concept, “Tell me what car you drive, and I will tell you who you are.”
Think American. Am I the only liberal I know who is still pro America? Let us not forget that Tesla is technically an American car company! I’m also still really big into Ford, I really really enjoyed the Ford versus Ferrari film. In fact, I think it is a harder flex to buy that new Ford Mustang, the one that looks like a supercar, instead of buying some sort of loser Lamborghini or loser Ferrari. American muscle is supreme.

Tesla innovation

A lot of things unravel here. One idea is studying Tesla Elon musk is from a design and production and innovation perspective, one of the greatest ideas. Why?

First, one thing that I learned from the Peterson automotive museum which was insanely inspiring was seeing a deconstructed Tesla. It is so insanely innovative.

One idea is how Elon and his team innovated and discovered new ways of merging the unit frame body and the production as well as the batteries. The more you can merge the two together, the better.

Also, the cyber truck. When I saw it in real life at the museum, my mind was literally blown. To me the cyber truck was at least 1 billion times more interesting than any other Ferraris in the vault. Also much more impressive than any of the Rolls-Royce or Bentleys, even the old-school ones.

Why? First, to see the total stainless steel body is insanely epic. It looks beautiful. Secondly, how angular it is, so gangsta. Honestly the reason why I think it is wise to go all in on Tesla, at least for standard investments is that once the cyber truck comes out, it will totally destroy and dominate all these other loser trucks. No more Ford F150, Raptors, or the loser Rivian truck.

Also the reason why I love the cyber truck so much is that I feel that it is truly a carte blanche design. Think in this world, in this life, isn’t it more fun to shock and all people instead of just doing the same boring old iterative designs?

Morbid people, morbid thoughts?

Miserable people

It seems that we pay more attention or give more heed or are more influenced by miserable people than happy people?

For another words, one miserable person can outweigh the happiness of 1000 happy people?

Thus, do everything in your best power to escise miserable people from your sight, your environment, your home, your neighborhood, your social circle etc.

It is not your duty to “fix” or “help” miserable people. Also they are not bad people for being miserable; just treat them like they have the plague. They must be quarantined.

Most people lack self knowledge

“Give them what they need, It may not be what they want” – Kanye (On Sight, YEEZUS ALBUM).

Something I have observed; it seems that in actuality, when people say they want XYZ, and they ask you to give it to them, don’t give it to them. Why? Most people are foolish and actually don’t really know what they need or want.

For example, a very basic thing. People think that if I buy this car or have X amount of money something I’ll be happy. This is never the case. And therefore we should not count out to their needs desires or wants. Because they are foolish and don’t know their true desires.

Artist only “get” other artists?

Moving forward, maybe it is just easiest and most direct to just self identify yourself as an artist.

7 Lessons Elon Musk Has Taught Me

How to Think Like Elon?

7-Lessons-Elon-Musk-Has-Taught-Me-2 Download

Just finished the Elon Musk biography by Walter Isaacson and feeling super inspired. These are some practical things that I’ve learned or gleaned from it.

1. You don’t want to be Elon Musk

The first practical and pragmatic thought that I have is that no you do not want to be Elon Musk. Better to be yourself.

I am grateful for all of the epic sacrifices that Elon has made, but, at the expense of his health and sanity and personal well-being, I don’t really think it’s worth it.

The simple thought I have is that instead of trying to become someone else, a better strategy is to just take the parts that you like, the parts you desire to emulate.

It does not pay to try to become someone else.

Regarding the book the reason why I find it to be such great material to read is get a sense of all the personal anguish and tragedy of Elon. For example, his first kid getting sudden death infant syndrome, and Elon having to pull the plug while his child was still in his arms, heart beating and all. Also his insanely horrific upbringing with his father, which makes in my mind, all other comparisons seem pedestrian.

2. An insanely audacious vision and goal

An idea that I borrowed from Elon is that perhaps, the only limits we should put forth are the limits of physics. That is, all of these other considerations are unnecessary and superficial. To get beyond silly regulations and “rules”, because the reason why so many things are so expensive is people just trying to game the system.

First principles thinking. That means just ask yourself; is this thing possible or not possible simply from a physics perspective?

3. Cost cutting

Why do people want to be Elon Musk? I think they think they want to spend a billion dollars, rather than being insanely scrappy.

I think the tragedy of modern day life is that we think that in order to be legitimate, we must spend exorbitant amount of money on certain things. However, perhaps the path to the greatest entrepreneurship is actually from the opposite; being able to be insanely scrappy, to bricolage, to experiment, and reduce costs seems to be a better path.

I have a simple suggestion: first always strive to reduce costs by 90%, then simply work your way backwards.

4. A passion for deletion

Delete delete delete, “if you don’t have to add back at least 10% of things, you’re not deleting enough.” Elon

I think great design, innovation and entrepreneurship comes from deletion rather than addition.

For example, deletion goes hand-in-hand with cost reduction and simplification.

Perhaps it is a good idea to delete to a fault; to even delete the necessary, in order to push the limits.

5. Design passion

I think what makes Elon Musk great is that he is almost like the ultimate merge between Steve Jobs and Jony Ive; he has a passion not only for business, but also design. It seems that he might be as fastidious, if not more fastidious for design in regards to Jony Ive and Steve Jobs.

I think Elon Musk has two pieces of wisdom. First, design sells. Or in other words ugly design or boring design doesn’t sell.

I was particularly inspired by just how passionate he was in regards to designing the Tesla model S and cyber truck. He truly truly truly wanted to blow everyone’s mind, and he personally would be present at these critical design meetings. I think the ultimate take away is that you must believe in the design so so much, 100% of your soul in it. Otherwise it will just become a lame design that nobody cares for.

To compromise on design is to compromise your soul.

6. To become an insanely great entrepreneur, you must be bad

I don’t think it’s a matter of being bad or unethical or “evil“, for the sake of it… rather, to think and consider how perhaps to create insanely insanely epic things, what needs to push traditional morality to the side.

I was particularly inspired and shocked and also impressed by how ruthlessly he would fire people, even if he was in the wrong. I think the general gist is that 90% of his firing decisions were critical and wise, perhaps 10% of them were inaccurate.

Maybe then that is the path; just follow your gut and wisdom, and know that honestly, eventually 10% of the time you’re going to be wrong.

Truth be told, it ain’t even about being right or wrong. I think it’s more of a matter of following your heart, and having the courage to be the “bad guy”. Irregardless of what others think or say or feel or desire or request.

If in fact, I think about it critically, my Achilles heel is that I want everyone to like me. And this is my critical flaw; I don’t know how to be a “bad guy“. Certainly this has made me more empathetic, but is empathy holding us back?

7. Success or failure isn’t the goal

I think the ultimate takeaway point that I have from Elon Musk, and being able to retroactively study his life, also through the wise lens of Walter Isaacson is that ultimately, it ain’t about success or failure. Instead, it is committing 100% of your soul to something you truly believe in and care for.

How to save money?

Simple ways: just make a coffee at home, ERIC KIM Omakase coffee. Also just cook at home! Just buy cheap meat, beef and lamb, and go ham!

Maybe instead of getting a gym membership, just work out at the park! Simple ideas include getting a very very heavy sandbag, 400 pounds, and throwing it around! Just ordered a 400 pound sandbag on the Rogue website, let’s see what this bad boy can do.

Passion for entrepreneurship?

For me, entrepreneurship is all about discovering novel solutions to common problems. Even for myself, I am always seeking a more optimal or satisfactory solution for myself.

Health?

If it is maximum productivity that we seek, then, what is the best path? I believe it has to do with health. That means, optimizing your health is to optimize your productivity.

For example, sugar is bad. Also to a large extent, energy drinks are bad, Red Bull is bad, anything that ain’t just 100% black coffee is bad. Even caffeine is bad; I think coffee and caffeine is probably the least bad drug out there, but I really do think that it is a timing issue; coffee in the morning is good, but it seems that after that coffee is bad.

For example, when I was in Philly I had a coffee mid day, and as a consequence, I slept insanely poorly that night which totally fucked up my next day. I think I had a coffee at around 2 PM or 3 PM. My new thought is that any coffee past the midday is bad.

The upside of napping

The more you sleep, the more you nap, the more productive you shall become. I think it is a very wise idea to first prioritize your sleep. Like my friend Jeffrey Lam says, perhaps sleep is the number one most critical factor.

Why sleep? Even 30 minutes of productive work after sleeping a great 8 to 12 hours is more effective than 12 hours of subpar work done with little sleep.

Even the gods sleep

Let us never forget — in the Iliad, even the ancient gods go to sleep!

ERIC

UPCOMING EK EXPERIENCES

Nov 4: Discover your creative mission in LIFE IN LA
Dec 2: Introduction to Stoicism Workshop

2024:

CONQUER CONFIDENCE ONLINE WORKSHOP: Jan 27, 2024
April 20th, 2024: SF ZEN PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP (info TBA)

What am I into right now?

The hardest car is a white Prius?
Excited for my 400 pound ROGUE FITNESS sandbag to come in the mail!
Enjoying EK OMAKASE COFFEE— the photographer. Best coffee on the planet.

More thoughts on EK BLOG

Also some BOGO thoughts below:

Muscle Paradise?

Muscle is not zero sum. Everyone can get swole together.

1. What is the point of muscle?

First and foremost, let us consider the purpose of muscle. What is the point of muscle?

My thought is from a very pragmatic perspective, muscle is strength. Muscle is power.

Power for what? Anything and everything.

For example, if we consider tenacity, endurance, where does this derive from? Not the mind or the silly nonsense of “willpower”, but rather, muscle and muscle power.

2. Why this anti muscle trend?

It seems that nowadays, muscle and being muscular has fallen a little bit out of vogue. Why? I think the new modern day male aesthetic is towards being feeble, weak, androgynous, non-threatening and nonconfrontational etc.

For example, if you are a muscular, and have muscles, other people feel belittled by you. For example, if someone is salty about your physique, it is simply a sign that they wish they were as fit as you.

3. Muscle cars?

Am I the most jacked person that I know who just drives a Prius?

A funny realization:

We are allowed to flex our muscle cars, yet, we are not permitted to flex or muscles in public.

Also, virtue. Scholarship and education; we are allowed to flex how virtuous we are, or how good we are, or how enlightened we are or how wise we are, or how “educated” we are, yet, we are not permitted to flex or muscles and our body?

Why this bias?

I have some theories.

First and foremost, maybe it is a capitalism thing. We are permitted to flex or muscles in terms of our economic prowess, and to quote Benjamin Franklin, capitalism is a virtue.

Also, I think I have a good definition for what it means to be a “white person“— to quote Kanye West:

White people make money don’t spend it — I’d rather buy 80 gold chains and go ignant.

Therefore, in America, according to the cult and new religion of capitalism, any sort of activity towards building capital, whereas not “wasting it” is seen as a virtue.

Never stop thinking

The secret to the happiest life? The life with the most risk!

More Benefits, More Downsides

Carnivore Flex

How to become a real G:

PENN PHOTOS

THE POWERLIFTING PHILOSOPHER

Trust no philosopher who doesn’t pull at least 9 plates!

Easy:

Setup the pins to proper height.
Use mixed grip and chalk
No music
Hype yourself up and pull with your legs and thighs!

9 Plates a 10 & 2.5 pounder:

Full

Video

Empty your mind:

Muscle Paradise?

Muscle is not zero sum. Everyone can get swole together.

1. What is the point of muscle?

First and foremost, let us consider the purpose of muscle. What is the point of muscle?

My thought is from a very pragmatic perspective, muscle is strength. Muscle is power.

Power for what? Anything and everything.

For example, if we consider tenacity, endurance, where does this derive from? Not the mind or the silly nonsense of “willpower”, but rather, muscle and muscle power.

2. Why this anti muscle trend?

3. Muscle cars?

Am I the most jacked person that I know who just drives a Prius?

A funny realization:

We are allowed to flex our muscle cars, yet, we are not permitted to flex or muscles in public.

Why this bias?

I have some theories.

First and foremost, maybe it is a capitalism thing. We are permitted to flex or muscles in terms of our economic prowess, and to quote Benjamin Franklin, capitalism is a virtue.

Also, I think I have a good definition for what it means to be a “white person“— to quote Kanye West:

White people make money don’t spend it — I’d rather buy 80 gold chains and go ignant.

Therefore, in America, according to the cult and new religion of capitalism, any sort of activity towards building capital, whereas not “wasting it” is seen as a virtue.

Muscle Lifestyle

Immoral Ethics

Podcast

Anti Empathy, Anti Compassion

Audio

Vlog

New thoughts:

Productive Photographer

Society and body control

For example, I am seen with chagrin for wearing really really short shorts when out in public, when in reality, there is nothing illegal about it?

Body comportment, body control?

Musk Mentality

How to Think Like Elon?

Just finished the Elon Musk biography by Walter Isaacson and feeling super inspired. These are some practical things that I’ve learned or gleaned from it.

1. You don’t want to be Elon Musk

The first practical and pragmatic thought that I have is that no you do not want to be Elon Musk. Better to be yourself.

I am grateful for all of the epic sacrifices that Elon has made, but, at the expense of his health and sanity and personal well-being, I don’t really think it’s worth it.

The simple thought I have is that instead of trying to become someone else, a better strategy is to just take the parts that you like, the parts you desire to emulate.

It does not pay to try to become someone else.

2. An insanely audacious vision and goal

First principles thinking. That means just ask yourself; is this thing possible or not possible simply from a physics perspective?

3. Cost cutting

Why do people want to be Elon Musk? I think they think they want to spend a billion dollars, rather than being insanely scrappy.

I have a simple suggestion: first always strive to reduce costs by 90%, then simply work your way backwards.

4. A passion for deletion

Delete delete delete, “if you don’t have to add back at least 10% of things, you’re not deleting enough.” Elon

I think great design, innovation and entrepreneurship comes from deletion rather than addition.

For example, deletion goes hand-in-hand with cost reduction and simplification.

Perhaps it is a good idea to delete to a fault; to even delete the necessary, in order to push the limits.

5. Design passion

I think Elon Musk has two pieces of wisdom. First, design sells. Or in other words ugly design or boring design doesn’t sell.

To compromise on design is to compromise your soul.

6. To become an insanely great entrepreneur, you must be bad

Maybe then that is the path; just follow your gut and wisdom, and know that honestly, eventually 10% of the time you’re going to be wrong.

7. Success or failure isn’t the goal

Elon Musk Thoughts

Just finished the Elon Musk biography by Walter Isaacson and feeling super inspired. These are some practical things that I’ve learned or gleaned from it.

1. You don’t want to be Elon Musk

The first practical and pragmatic thought that I have is that no you do not want to be Elon Musk. Better to be yourself.

I am grateful for all of the epic sacrifices that Elon has made, but, at the expense of his health and sanity and personal well-being, I don’t really think it’s worth it.

The simple thought I have is that instead of trying to become someone else, a better strategy is to just take the parts that you like, the parts you desire to emulate.

It does not pay to try to become someone else.

2. An insanely audacious vision and goal

First principles thinking. That means just ask yourself; is this thing possible or not possible simply from a physics perspective?

3. Cost cutting

Why do people want to be Elon Musk? I think they think they want to spend a billion dollars, rather than being insanely scrappy.

I think the tragedy of modern day life is that we think that in order to be legitimate, we must spend exorbitant amount of money on certain things. However, Perhaps the path to the greatest entrepreneurship is actually from the opposite; being able to be insanely scrapping, to bricolage, to experiment, and reduce costs seems to be a better path.

Elon Musk Philosophy

I just finished the Elon Musk biography by Walter Isaacson, loved it. 12 stars out of 10. I even enjoyed it more than the Steve Jobs biography, up to date my favorite! Thought: perhaps Walter Isaacson should also do a biography on Kanye West.

Anyways, I highly recommend anyone and everyone to read it, if you’re interested in Elon, SpaceX, Tesla innovation entrepreneurship creativity design etc. In fact, I find the parts on design and design thinking and simplification and deletion and merging the most interesting.

For reference, I just bought it in the Apple iBook store, which was very convenient as I could read it on my iPhone and iPad. Started reading it on the flight to Philly from LAX, direct flight from Spirit airlines (I actually really like Spirit airlines! Very fast, and I actually prefer the no-frills Spartan approach; I prefer how much more direct it is than Southwest). Read a little bit of it when I was in Philly, and finished it on the flight back home.

1. Delete, delete, delete

The first thing I really loved was this notion of delete delete delete. I think this is where Elon Musk mirrors Steve Jobs, even myself this passion towards simplification.

2. Passion for design

Another big thing I learned which I intuitively thought and believe, but found out for real is how committed and passionate Elon Musk is about design. For example, for the Tesla roadster the original one, as well as the subsequent Tesla model S in the cyber truck etc.,

MAN IS DESIGNED FOR WORK

Philly 1

ELON 5

Surprising.

I hate too soft!

Authority of a pickup truck.

Change the form!

Stainless steel doesn’t need painting!!

Ultra hard

Cold rolled — stainless steel alloy

Exoskeleton

Sharp lines, sharp planes , straight planes sharp angles

Edgier , jarring

Don’t resist me

Let’s be bold. Let’s surprise people ***

I want the future to look like the future !

Diamond facets

I seek satisfaction !!

Distractions ?

The pleasure of sunlight on your bare skin

Rule breaking ethos

Fundamental physics ; question every requirement

First Principles Level

Just make it one integrated component

Order of magnitude cheaper***

Culling makes life easier

Don’t be chicken

Simpler

Stainless steel over carbon fiber

Closest to the source for the information

Burn the boats ***

ELON IV

If you really want to be the best entrepreneur possible, it seems that the best strategy is to not drink alcohol

Step one: question all of the requirements

Delete delete delete

“Delete them”

Often times, just doing them manually, not automated is better.

Introduce automation at the very very end

Factory settings are always idiotic.

Set to 100, then dial back. 70%

Question every tiny detail!

What’s slowing down the line?

When in doubt, delete ***

Remove all the unnecessary machines!

“Go or stay?”

Build a massive tent!

Makeshift solutions ***

Unconventional thinking

Question every requirement

Delete any part of the process you can

Delete more!

Simplify and optimize

Accelerate cycle time

You cannot change attitude

The only rules are rules of physics— everything else is a recommendation ***

ELON III

Is it possible to become a “lean“ sumo wrestler?

Real friends

“King crazy”

Things to really worry about, things not to?

Larry page … page rank.

ERIC RANK

Of course humans are the best.

Make it truly open source!

DATa

Build your own systeM?

Only visual data?

It cannot be too expensive!

Anti radar?

Anti lidar? But lidar x iPhone Pro is good?

Portable Lidar.

No steering Wheel and no braking?

Risk is a type of fuel?

Safety first.

Energy innovation company

Travel for innovation

”no Brainer”

Integration

Never compromise on aesthetics ***

The integrated future.

Delete steps and simplify.

I need a lot of drama to keep me invigorated?

I love fire!

100% cut toxic.

Often the greatest benefit of studying biographies is knowing in hindsight which things do not do

Via negativa wisdom.

MUSK NOTES II

More acres?

Scrappy.

Scavenge, repurpose cheaply.

Save money

Anti flabby

Upend cost structure concepts

“Right” or being “wrong”?

Time will tell.

Accelerate the pace of innovation

Fitness Innovation

How much risk are you willing to tolerate?

“Vindication”

Border on the reckless?

Become more nimble.

Jealousy versus envy?

Tight control.

Tight feedback loop — innovate on a daily basis.

Brain strategy

Be like a hawk! A Guard dog!

Foreign investors?

How to design the factory?

I am addicted to innovation!

“fuck oil”

“Production quality”?

“Assembly line”?

Hardcore

“Ultra hardcore”

Supermodel

“Wacky idea”?

Matter of first principles.

What should a camera be?

Or, what is a camera?

Blue sky wacky.

“Reusable”.

Anti stasis.

Why do you care for, what don’t you care for?

For example, I don’t really care for space.

Mission-driven pioneer.

Physics problem

Pare down the contents of your knapsack

Obsession with reducing weight?

Delete or trim ***

Venture seeker.

The true holy grail?

Different order of magnitude?

Relentless goal to conquer gravity

Redesign,

How to cram more power into it?

Muscle through!

Intuition?

Gut Thinking

Become a fan of yourself. Become fanatical of yourself

Stay away from strange people.

Why do all the men look like women now? Not only that, but unattractive women.

You cannot force me to be tolerant about something I don’t believe in.

Only fight about causes you care for?

I don’t like foreign ideas

Make it a part of your structure

The shape matters!

Design x Engineering

—

Indulge your interests.

Once you’re the strongest man on the planet, then what?

Who is more capable?

I want the place to be big enough for my ambitions !

Think critically.

Don’t look at the clock; just witness how you feel.

Visual OCD

The best way to beautify a space is just get rid of the ugly stuff

ELON NOTES

The zen of the sun and big airway strips?

The real world has the richest visual information

Concrete paradise

The ocean is vast

America is really really big.

Risk seeking innovator

Shut down fear, also shut down empathy?

Embark on epic quests

Develop a cosmic view?

Hostile bid.

“That wasn’t enough”

War and empire building game

Build your own playground? Gym concept ?

What stimulates you?

Visual Information

Train your kid to become a genius?

Mountain ranges

I fear nothing nor nobody

Don’t put effort into things you consider meaningless?

Future capitalists

Fun or boring?

What is the question?

Prevail!

It is your duty to be strong

Think about your own self and preferences

“I am wired for war!”

I cannot work nor live with other people!

Nobody knows more than I do.

Never have to work for a boss

Radically new technologies?

Greater impact in the world?

Move the needle!

Things which will truly affect humanity?

Sell directly to consumers?

Online customer destination portal

Anti VC

Anti managers

Build and create a new company or something new?

Indomitable will — what makes a great Man

Fund a new enterprise?

Win in a big way

How are you wired, who are you?

Delete!

Email over user name or phone number

Merge

Remake the entire industry?

Social network to disrupt?

AIM big.

Take it all over!

Think more engineering?

Exclusive club membership

Street fighter

I am a visionary who doesn’t play well with others

Amplify risk?

Pursue great dreams

Sand bags are cheap!!! Concrete and sand are both insanely cheap!

Cost of basic materials? The idiot index?

More efficient manufacturing approach?

50x cost?

How to push the technology forward?

Resolve?

One key metric .. cost per pound?

.50 cents per pound?

Price per pound?

Reduce mass!

Physics: more mass on a phone or anything is worse

More thrust!

What is more interesting?

You need risk to be a founder!

Buy it used!!!

Bend reality

The most aggressive

Question every cost ***

Laser focused to keep down costs!

Cost effectiveness is the ultimate goal!

Just make it in house!

Question all specifications

“Who made that requirement”?

Actual person and actual name?

Laws of physics ***

Unrealistic deadlines even when not necessary?

A maniacal sense of urgency

First principles thinking … for power, muscles, strength?

Move fast, blow things up, repeat.

Push things until they break?

Iterative design

Cheap leases!

Rapid unscheduled disassembles

Improvise.

Makeshift solutions

Every situation is salvageable

Try new ideas, okay if things blow up!

Keep working on reducing the cost!

Mercurial.

Fulfill the mission!

1,500 pounds?

Promote Innovation ***

Defense Department

Cut costs ***

Maybe the first strategy is to just first start off by cutting costs or just buying the cheapest possible thing then moving forward from there?

We need cost effective solutions!!

Buy Chinese or Vietnamese or Amazon, not American?

Common sense is bad.

Commercialize it !

Importance of the mission.

For a “fitter” planet earth and humans?

Make your own key components.

Control your own destiny

Vertical integration

Don’t rely on far away supply chains?

Source and roast the coffee myself?

Or just buy the coffee?

It ain’t in my nature to defer!

I am insanely passionate about design decisions

You gotta wow them!

Agonize over the details!

Correct yet costly decisions?

You buy a sports car because it looks beautiful!

“ we have to make it beautiful!”

Lower costs and make it more affordable!

Outlaunch

Outlift

Scrappy

I seek a great solution!

Costs must go down!

11 items on risk list, not just 10

Shop floor

How to make the product efficiently?

How to use money efficiently?

Build the machine that makes the machine?

How to design the factory, the gym?

Valor

Ars.com

Less dominant hand

24 hours of production A day?

Make your production more efficient?

Don’t outsource it !

Start with clean sheet design! Don’t modify the old.

“ true costs”

Buy directly from the source!

Grill them!

I hate liars!

When people say that they’re not lying, they’re lying.

Not a good person.

I am not good at sharing power.

I have zero interest in being a CEO and having to manage others?

Hell bent on it working!

A beautiful story

Anti-pressure, anti-expectations

The funny irony about pressure; the more you try to pressure somebody into doing something, the less likely they will do it. However on the contrary, when you tell people there is no pressure, they are more likely to do it.

Also, with expectations. If you don’t expect it, you’ll get it, however, if you expect it you won’t get it.

Minimum viable thoughts

Minimum viable food, the most effective, perhaps some sort of Grassfed ground beef, or even the new Wagyu ground beef at Costco. Also beef neck bone. Instant pot as well as air fryer.

Minimum viable iPhone; the cheapest one. Currently the iPhone SE.

Minimum viable car, my opinion the best is some sort of used Prius.

Satisfaction?

Why Doesn’t Anything Satisfy Me?

But perhaps this is my superpower?

Fortunately, the statics of Lumix G9 photos shot in grainy dynamic black-and-white mode and JPEG satisfy me!

Also, meat satisfies me! Beef neck bone is phenomenal and only 99 cents a pound! Instant pot for the win.

Problem: I have yet found a gym in LA which satisfies me.

Good thing: I am very very satisfied with the apartment me and Cindy found here in Culver City.

Also good thing, I am very satisfied with ERIC KIM Omakase coffee!

Also, I’m very happy with the clothing I have designed and made.

Theory: the only way to become satisfied with anything is to do and build and make it yourself? To innovate it yourself? To create it yourself?

Entrepreneurship by KIM

Become the change which you desire to see manifested in the world!

Become you.

Think for Yourself.

FREEDOM

Never stop innovating.

Entrepreneurship Mindset

Put a Dent in the Universe.

Don’t Be a Bitch!

How to Change the World

In this limited world, which are some big things you wish to change fix or resolve?

1. Traffic?

One of the big things I am very interested in is fixing this issue of traffic. Honestly speaking, during rush-hour the traffic is intolerable.

I’ve only lived here in LA for about two weeks, it seems that the big optimization we are trying to make is trying to save time. Fortunately we live within walking distance to the Culver City downtown area, which is great because we could kill two birds with one stone — A) we’re not stuck in traffic and B) we can enjoy the sun and the walk.

Even the big issue; the closest LA fitness to me is a 5 minute drive, but even on the drive back, it seems that the bumper to bumper traffic during rush-hour takes me almost 10 minutes! Insanely annoying!

Therefore some things I’m trying to figure out is how to save time in terms of fitness. The first simple thing is to just walk a lot, walking maybe the most beneficial thing you could do for your health and wellness.

The second thing is sun exposure. The more sun time you have, the better. If you’re worried about getting skin cancer or whatever, just put on a hat lots of sunblock and cover up.

Third, I really been enjoying going to the park and working out, both for the social life, the fresh air, and also for general well-being. I recommend the Kenneth Hahn park in LA — just drive all the way on top of the hill! There is a good calisthenics workout area.

Fourth, matters of health and physiology. A very practical thought I have is to just sell out the big bucks, pay for the 100% grass-fed beef, I think the benefits for you will be instrumental. This includes sleeping better, sleeping deeper, feeling more energized, and also certainly muscle Physiology related concepts.

2. Innovation?

Also a big thing I’m trying to innovate and pioneer is in regards to innovation. For me maybe this is my personal passion and my Archimedes lever — I am addicted to innovation, trying to make things better, more efficient and effective etc., and trying to come up with interesting novel ways to improve our lives. Why is this? Because I feel like I have some sort of duty as I have been seeking a lot of answers my whole life, and I think only recently I’ve found some answers.

3. Photo and art

At the end of the day, my number one greatest passion is photography.

Therefore, my passion for photography; promoting photography, helping encourage photographers.

4. How to make an insanely great impact?

How does one make an insanely great impact on the planet? I think it is simple; just ascertain that which you are insanely concerned about, what you care insanely about, and then use all your resources and power to seek to resolve that!

Money?

The Peter Thiel idea:

Perhaps “profit” is a pedestrian concept.

Then instead, what we seek instead is not “making money“, but building something insanely great, and then the profits will follow later.

Also another thought from Peter Thiel from his zero to one book:

Perhaps the best way to think of money or approach money is not to concern yourself with profits.

For example, Amazon for a very very very long time focused on growth instead of profits and now it looks like Amazon is running through the world. On the contrary, companies like Apple have also been very intelligent in pricing the products very high, and also being one of the most profitable companies on the planet.

But I suppose my question is this; why are we so concerned and obsessed with profits? What is it a sense of? A sense of growth, a good sense?

Income vs profits

Income, profits, expenses, net gain, savings.

There are a lot of ways to think and consider this. First and foremost, it is possible to actually make a more humble income, but create a massive savings.

Security?

I sense of security as a mindset. It don’t matter if you got $100 million in the bank, as long as you are concerned about security money or something else, you will never feel secure.

The reason why I think this is such a critical thing to consider is that people often think that more money means more security. But is this true? No.

And also, security towards what ends?

The first thought is we often seek security perhaps for our families and our future children. For example, it seems that physiologically, if a woman wants to give birth, or beget children, she needs to be in some sort of psychologically and physiologically robust health, in order to beget children. Often the reason why stillbirths occur, especially in the context of war, famine, disease, or other stressful situations is that a woman and her body knows that if the environment is not fitting to give birth to children, she will not.

Also, at theory; if an anxious mother gives birth during a tumultuous time, naturally her kids will also have higher levels of anxiety. Why? Survival mechanism. For example if a woman gives birth in refugee camp, certainly she has high anxiety. And as a consequence, her children also having high anxiety may keep the child alive! A child who is too chill and relaxed in a perilous situation might not make it.

Why make changes?

First, it is my thought that what man desires to do is exert his willpower and force upon the planet. Ultimately, I think this is our desired endgame.

For example, you could either do it in embodied reality, on the Internet, whatever.

Second, I think it is an issue of happiness and joy for a man or a person or even a child to see how he or she can affect change or manipulate the world. For example the joy of art, physics, mechanics, buttons etc.; if I press this and do this, then the reaction will be XYZ. Our great delight in action and reaction.

Now what?

A very very simple way to change the world:

Make a website/blog, and just keep posting your thoughts, opinions and philosophies.

Also, just record and vlog your thoughts and just post it to YouTube or make a podcast.

I think the big secret is to make it open and public, and easily indexable by Google.

For example, it seems the best way to get “discovered“ is organically via Google search. If not that, word-of-mouth. Or having people forward your emails to another friend.

To build a website, either IONOS.com or bluehost.com or Amazon Web Services Lightsail. I recently built two new websites; ERICkimphilosophy.com as well as erickimfitness.com

Why am I so passionate about websites?

I think it is a timing thing. I was born in 1988, and I recall in elementary school making my own firstgeocities.com website. Then later I learned how to blog, inspired by Maddox, when I was around 11 years old. I still remember the hilarity of his post on “why you should beat your children“, and me and my friends all laughing and saying how it was true.

Then later, xanga.com, and starting to blog. Then building my own website. And then the trend to continued.

The reason why I love websites so much is that it is an infinite canvas for your thoughts, your ambitions, your passions etc.

No limits, no upper ceiling!

Also an insanely great joy and recent discovery; IONOS.com recently upgraded her file limit to practically infinity!

To infinity and beyond!

Some more ambitious thoughts:

Elon Goals

The breath and future vision of Elon Musk is quite phenomenal. For example, driving in LA today, I saw the OG Tesla roadster, convertible electric car, which was essentially a retrofitted Lotus. Even when I was an undergrad at UCLA, I remember seeing one of the original Tesla dealerships.

Dream bigger?

A very simple thought I have is that it is best to set an audaciously great goal, and either miss it, or meet it halfway, rather than setting the bar too low.

What do you want out of your life?

Not happiness, not even necessarily “joy“. I think all of these are too overly simplistic commoditized notions.

For example, as man, what is it that we see to do achieve or create? I think this should be the critical goal, not happiness joy making money etc.

Everything is a work in progress

A generalized thought I have towards life is that there is no such thing as finality — everything is a continuum, and all about changes evolution and difference.

For example, today after I hit the hot sauna at the gym, and I witnessed my body in the mirror, muscles bulging, and glistening like a god, I thought to myself:

Wow, my physique is perfect.

Now what?

The future for photography

I think moving forward, I want to continue to help innovate and pave great insights into photography. It has to deal with motivation, inspiration, and also the pragmatics of composition, equipment, aesthetics etc.

The best camera set up

No no no, not the newest iPhone Pro Titan, or not a Leica, not a Fujifilm, maybe not even a Ricoh. Currently I think the new GOAT is the LUMIX G9 paired with the 14mm F2.5 lens, or I’m sure you could just get the new LUMIX G9 mark II.

Why?

First of all, it isn’t as big as you would think it is. I think one of the big benefits of a micro four third system is however relatively compact and light it is.
Second, it will last. My annoyance with the Ricoh GR cameras is that they don’t last. They eventually break, for me within a year or two. Super annoying.
Third, the tilting calculating LCD screen is actually surprisingly useful! I’ve been using a lot to photograph Seneca, with very low angles, and the result is that the photos look much more cinematic!
Fourth, the straight out of Camera JPEG actually look really great! Both for the dynamic black-and-white, gritty monochrome look, as well as color!

Now what?

Upload your best photos to arsbeta.com; the only place to get real feedback on your photos on the entire planet.
Why? — I think actually more effective than ChatGPT is the Why app? Why? ChatGPT gives you answers, whereas the why app encourages you to think, consider, and ask why?

How to advance your photography art and thinking

Turbocharge your mind, and also your creativity at an upcoming ERIC KIM workshop:

CONQUER STREET PHOTOGRAPHY: PHILLY, OCTOBER 14th, 2023
DISCOVER YOUR CREATIVE MISSION IN LIFE: DOWNTOWN LA, November 4th, 2023
INTRODUCTION TO STOICISM WORKSHOP: Downtown LA, DECEMBER 2nd, 2023

2024

CONQUER CONFIDENCE ONLINE WORKSHOP: Jan 27, 2024
April 21st, 2024: ZEN PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP (info TBA)
Social Skills workshop TBA

Workshops Page.

What to read?

Maybe it’s a good idea to read the new Elon Musk biography by Walter Isaacson!

And of course, free books by KIM >

Now what?

Some simple ways to stimulate your thinking and your physiology include just hitting up the hot sauna at your local commercial gym, or going to the park, doing some basic calisthenics and chin ups, taking in the sun.

Also, eat well. Get some Wagyu ground beef at the local Costco, or just buy some 100% grass fed ground beef. I think it’s the best bang for the buck food.

For coffee, ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE is the only thing I drink now!

More thoughts to come!

Forward the turbo!

If this part even one interesting idea with you, feel free to forward to a friend!

ERIC KIM TURBO NEWS >

ONLY ONE WOMAN.

Anti “polygamy.”

Food

Nietzsche once commented; what is it that woman knows about cooking, in the context of men?

Is there a preferential difference between male consumption habits and food preferences versus female consumption habits and food preferences?

First, I think there is. Let us assume there is a vast hormonal difference between men and women. First, let us note that testosterone, testes, is the hormone inside of testicles, that which only man has. However, it does seem that both men and women both have testosterone, however the degree is different; it seems that men have at least 1000 X testosterone than women. This is why we will never see any woman on planet earth, irregardless of how many steroids she consumes or takes, dead lift 501 kg or beyond.

Also in the context of sports and fighting. If you took the worlds best tennis player, mail, Roger Federer, and pitted him against the worlds best female tennis player, Serena Williams, who would win and into what degree? It seems pretty obvious that Roger Federer would win, and most likely by a large margin. Similarly speaking, if you took the world greatest boxer or UFC MMA fighter, man, and pitted him against the worlds toughest female boxer or MMA fighter, who would win, no contest. Obviously the man.

Why does this matter?

The reason why I think this matters is that in a lot of the modern day world, it seems that the general bias is that women should cook for men. But what if it should be opposite; that instead, man is in focus of cooking, because he will ultimately have a greater taste for meat.

Carnivore preferences for men vs women?

Both men and women both love meat. However, assuming that meat, cholesterol, organ meat is a natural steroid, it seems that man would have a greater preference for it, and could also consume more of it.

For example, after Atlas lifting 1000 pounds, do I want to eat rice and quinoa? Hell no! I want the juiciest, bloodiest, reddest meat.

Male vs female preferences

Why?

What Are Big Issues I Seek to Solve?

CHANGES?

In this limited world, which are some big things you wish to change fix or resolve?

1. Traffic?

So one of the big things I am very interested in is fixing this issue of traffic. Honestly speaking, during rush-hour the traffic is intolerable.

The second thing is sun exposure. The more sun time you have, the better. If you’re worried about getting skin cancer or whatever, just put on a hat lots of sunblock and cover up.

2. Innovation?

3. Photo and art

At the end of the day, my number one greatest passion is photography.

Therefore, my passion for photography; promoting photography, helping encourage photographers.

4. How to make an insanely great impact?

Money?

The Peter Thiel idea:

Perhaps “profit” is a pedestrian concept.

Then instead, what we seek instead is not “making money“, but building something insanely great, and then the profits will follow later.

Elon Goals

Dream bigger?

A very simple thought I have is that it is best to set an audaciously great goal, and either miss it, or meet it halfway, rather than setting the bar too low.

What do you want out of your life?

Not happiness, not even necessarily “joy“. I think all of these are too overly simplistic commoditized notions.

For example, as man, what is it that we see to do achieve or create? I think this should be the critical goal, not happiness joy making money etc.

Everything is a work in progress

A generalized thought I have towards life is that there is no such thing as finality — everything is a continuum, and all about changes evolution and difference.

For example, today after I hit the hot sauna at the gym, and I witnessed my body in the mirror, muscles bulging, and glistening like a god, I thought to myself:

Wow, my physique is perfect.

Now what?

The future for photography

The best camera set up

Why?

First of all, it isn’t as big as you would think it is. I think one of the big benefits of a micro four third system is however relatively compact and light it is.
Second, it will last. My annoyance with the Ricoh GR cameras is that they don’t last. They eventually break, for me within a year or two. Super annoying.
Third, the tilting calculating LCD screen is actually surprisingly useful! I’ve been using a lot to photograph Seneca, with very low angles, and the result is that the photos look much more cinematic!
Fourth, the straight out of Camera JPEG actually look really great! Both for the dynamic black-and-white, gritty monochrome look, as well as color!

Now what?

Upload your best photos to arsbeta.com; the only place to get real feedback on your photos on the entire planet.
Why? — I think actually more effective than ChatGPT is the Why app? Why? ChatGPT gives you answers, whereas the why app encourages you to think, consider, and ask why?

What Are Big Issues I Seek to Solve?

CHANGES?

In this limited world, which are some big things you wish to change fix or resolve?

1. Traffic?

So one of the big things I am very interested in is fixing this issue of traffic. Honestly speaking, during rush-hour the traffic is intolerable.

The second thing is sun exposure. The more sun time you have, the better. If you’re worried about getting skin cancer or whatever, just put on a hat lots of sunblock and cover up.

2. Innovation?

3. Photo and art

At the end of the day, my number one greatest passion is photography.

Therefore, my passion for photography; promoting photography, helping encourage photographers.

4. How to make an insanely great impact?

Money?

The Peter Thiel idea:

Perhaps “profit” is a pedestrian concept.

Then instead, what we seek instead is not “making money“, but building something insanely great, and then the profits will follow later.

Elon Goals

Dream bigger?

A very simple thought I have is that it is best to set an audaciously great goal, and either miss it, or meet it halfway, rather than setting the bar too low.

What do you want out of your life?

Not happiness, not even necessarily “joy“. I think all of these are too overly simplistic commoditized notions.

For example, as man, what is it that we see to do achieve or create? I think this should be the critical goal, not happiness joy making money etc.

CHANGES?

In this limited world, which are some big things you wish to change fix or resolve?

1. Traffic?

So one of the big things I am very interested in is fixing this issue of traffic. Honestly speaking, during rush-hour the traffic is intolerable.

I’ve only lived here in LA for about two weeks, it seems that the big optimization we are trying to make is trying to save time. Fortunately we live within walking distance to the Culver City downtown area, which is great because we could kill two birds with one stone — A we’re not stuck in traffic and B, we can enjoy the sun and the walk.

Therefore some things I’m trying to figure out is how to save time in terms of fitness. The first simple thing is to just walk a lot, walking maybe the most beneficial thing you could do for your health and wellness.

The second thing is sun exposure. The more sun time you have, the better. If you’re worried about getting skin cancer or whatever, just put on a hat lots of sunblock and cover up.

Fourth, matters of health and learning. A very practical thought I have is to just sell out the big bucks, pay for the 100% breast-fed beef, I think the benefits for you will be instrumental. This includes sleeping better, sleeping deeper, feeling more energized, and also certainly muscle Physiology related concepts.

Women don’t know what they want

But, does man know what they want?

Man Can Tolerate Only One Woman

New Thriving Pick

The Ethics of Self Promotion

To promote yourself may be the most ethical and honest thing you can do? Much more honest than promoting other things or other people.

LA LIVING

Social Philosophy

Was it Voltaire who once said that the best modern day inventions was society?

How to talk to men
How to talk to women
How to talk to children
Talking with friends and people you know
Talking to strangers

Skills

How to do small talk
To do deep philosophical talking
Talking to people above, below, or at your own own social class

Social arenas

The park
The gym
The coffee shop cafe
Public spaces and places
The grocery store
The restaurant
The mall

Patience is Weakness

Philosophy Lifestyle

Can philosophy also be a lifestyle?

How to Become

Become, Becoming:

What does it mean to become, and why does this matter?

The first thought is you and things are not static. They are dynamic, changing, advert evolving, ever rotating etc. I don’t think there’s really an ideal and state or goal. Rather, the end outcome is that your continuously become you, or become something different.

Anti finality

A weird thing is that a lot of people seek completion, or some sort of final end state and goal. What I personally believe in is that in fact, this isn’t and shouldn’t be the desired and goal. Instead, ever changing, ever ever evolution, never ending is better.

The end state and goal is not a zen peaceful tranquil life

In the past what I believed the end goal in state was was towards were achieving some sort of truly blissful peace, send, tranquility, emptiness. Now upon much consideration thinking meditation and contemplation and life experiences, I’ve actually discovered this is not the way. And also not the desired end goal.

On the contrary, my thought is perhaps the point of it all in the point of our lives is to seek ever greater challenges, hazards, danger, things to test our courage and will.

Thoughts in progress

What I love about philosophy is that it is a never ending journey. My only desire in life is that I continue having personally interesting thoughts until I die, whenever that is.

Pragmatic Thoughts

Some very pragmatic thoughts:

1. Wellness

Waking up this early morning, with cold dreary overcast, no sun, and now, basking in the direction sun, what am I thinking about? Some pragmatic thoughts; how much I love the sun. The first general thought is that without the sun, none of it is worth it.

PURE JOY

Body Glory

Why is modern day man not allowed to glorify his body?

The Philosophy of Muscle

MUSCLE BY KIM:

Why build your body?

Your own body as a work of art!

In Praise of Building Your Body

My Muscle Philosophy:

Treat your body as sculpture.

This is not my body

The first thing:

I don’t see my body as belonging to me. I look at my body like it belongs to someone else.

When I look at the Lamborghini of someone else, I admire it. When I see the muscles and physiques of anyone else, I admire it. Then I had the epiphany:

Why not transform my own body into a Lambo, and admire my own body instead?

The logic

The great logic:

It is far cheaper to get buff than to buy a Lambo.
The human body is the apex beauty. This means your personal goal in life should be to beautify your own personal body to the maximum (without plastic surgery, steroids, etc).
Ultimate democratic approach: Genetics doesn’t matter. Sex doesn’t matter. Racial ethnicity doesn’t matter. Anyone can both add muscle mass and subtract fat.
It doesn’t cost much to get ripped. Just intermittent fast [no breakfast, no lunch], one big ass meal a day, and mostly a ‘ketogenic’ diet.
Your body is always with you. Why not beautify your body to inspire yourself?

The joy of sculpting your own body

To sculpt your own body is insanely fun. Why? You can see the change over time!

Once again, the goal is simple:

Never stop adding muscle mass, and never stop reducing body fat, or keeping it low (around 10%).

Muscle and your body is highly practical.

The more muscle you have, the more energy you got. The more power you got to make art-work, and live with gratitude, joy, and hyper-vigor.

Strengthen on, and flex on!

ERIC

MUSCLE 101

Body Euphoria

My new notion of body euphoria: the exact opposite of body dys-morphia.

Body euphoria — insane godlike joy in one’s body and capabilities!

THE TRUE ELITE

THE SPARTAN ELITE.

Despite what people think, the true elite is spartan, not pampered, weak and soft.

100% CARNIVORE DIET BABY!

The Pragmatics of Aesthetics?

I have a thought that aesthetics are often very practical. For example, things, spaces, and places which are aesthetically beautiful are often better for our health.

Another thought, in regards to fitness:

Some people go to the gym and lift weights and exercise and do certain exercises in order to beautify their bodies. Some people just focus on strength and power.

But the funny thing is if you are insanely strong and powerful, like ERIC KIM and the 1,000 pound atlas lift, naturally your body will become beautiful. However if you just focus on aesthetic side of bodybuilding, you often become plagued with injuries, and weaknesses. And not very strong.

Therefore, the practical advice:

Just focus on getting very very strong. Insanely strong. Demigod strong.