Becoming Yourself

In today’s fragile uncertain world… what’s real? What’s important?


Think You

The first thought is you are real, you are important. You are the most critical thing in the world.

One of the big issues in today’s world is that nobody is allowed to posit themselves as an end into themselves. What that means is this:

Typically what people believe is that you must sacrifice yourself, all of your resources whatever for the sake of humanity and other people. One is not allowed to invest all your time resources energy and money into advancing and elevating yourself.

For example, venture capitalists. The goal and purpose and telos is to invest money, seed capital or whatever into these foreign, non-human companies. 

However, companies are not real. Even the notion of company companion is somebody you share bread with.

Why not invest in individuals — real life human beings?

Or better yet, why not invest in yourself?

You is the goal

My personal take is that the problem here is religion, ethics, modern-day religious thinking. Most of the planet is governed by a form of Christianity, Catholicism, Judaism, Islam etc.… even a lot of these “atheist“ people are essentially still in line with the Benjamin Franklin, protestant work ethic mode of living and thinking.

For example, if you look a lot of Caucasian Americans, whose family have been here for several generations, even though they’re not religious, they don’t go to church, they don’t believe in “God”, they still have protestant work ethics; they work hard, they save money, they spend a little bit money on themselves here and there, but for the most part they invest towards their kids their families their communities etc.

Even Fernandinho Galliani on his treatsie on money, DELLA MONETA; he talks a lot about God, the creator, the deity whatever. So even we should take the opinion of Galliani with a grain of salt, because anybody who tries to justify their position by invoking God or whatever– it is typically a sign that their opinion is a bit feeble.

But it’s written in the Bible!

And yes, the Bible is just a mishmash of different early Christian father writers, and if you think about critical theology, or philology… You must understand and realize that this was all written by fallible men. 

How to advance

Honestly, I think the number one critical skill in today’s world or in general is critical thinking. Critical comes from Greek KRITIKOS, which essentially means judge, to judge, to weigh. 

So for example, we often get words a little bit confused. We misconstrue different words like “critic”, “criticism” with hate etc.

For example, we talk about criticism, typically we think of criticism like people just saying bad things about us or concepts etc. But, I think you could be a critic, a loving critic. The art of critique is to simply look at something, more objectively, without any hate or vitriol, and to just judge something for what you think it is. 

For example, somebody who is buried in the annals of history; Tacitus on the Jews // Book 5 the histories of Tacitus. Tacitus, one of the early Roman historians, I think reading him is interesting because honestly, he just states his opinion, gives credit where it is due, gives pros and cons, but also speaks his mind. 

For example, when he is talking about the people of Judea, and is trying to outline them, their cultures etc., he says both the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly. He praises Jewish people for their industry their courage and their power, but also obviously is diametrically opposed to their customs, their beliefs, which were weird foreign and anti-Roman.

In fact, I think if we critically think about Judaism, Jewish people, the descendants of Judea, it seems that the only historical thing we could really understand is that these people were the descendants of Moses. So the best way to think about Judaism as a religion, or even thinking about Christianity is to think that it was essentially a religion invented by Moses, to solidify his people, to strengthen them, And for them to persist.

Think Moses. // professor ISRAEL KHNOHL THEORYWIKIPEDIA

And also, Islam. Yeah yeah yeah we are all politically correct and whatever, but I think the critical thing is to understand Mohammed as a real life human being, the visions that he got from God were probably just some sort of hallucinations he had while in a cave, and think that the religion of Muhammad, Islam, is essentially a religion invented from a single man, Mohammed.


Religion and politics?

I remember the kid, I was bit confused; growing up Roman Catholic, Korean American, in the liberal Bay area… I was a bit confused that if there was one God, how is it that there were other gods in the world?

Also things which were very confusing to me; Jesus was Jewish?

Also something that I’ve been discovering and rediscovering more recently, learning that in fact, the Bible starts off with the Jewish Hebrew Torah Bible, I think the first three chapters of the typical Christian Bible is just Genesis and the ones in the original Jewish Bible?

Critical thinking

So the reason why we have so many thinkers who are Jewish Jewish American Israeli etc. is that the Jewish culture is slated towards critical introspection, thinking. For example if you’re curious, whenever you see a famous author writer influencer or whatever, just open up ChatGPT, the premium one, and ask whether they are Jewish or not, or the history of their last name.

In fact in one of these anti-Semitic texts which was sponsored by Henry Ford, and Henry Ford was overly anti-Semitic, there is this article titled “the subtle art of changing last Jewish names”, and in fact, studying the genealogy of last names is super interesting because in fact, a lot of these “Jewish” sounding last names are changed in order for Jewish people to assimilate into America, American culture, different countries etc.

For example, John Stewart I believe is Jewish American, and changed his last name to sound more “American”. The same thing goes with the actor Kirk Douglas, whose family immigrated from I think Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe Jewish people, and also changed his name to sound more “American”.

Also a weird fellow, Bob Dylan, I think his original name is Andrew Zimmerman, he is Jewish American. 

Even things that I didn’t know and understand is that Jerry Seinfeld, the whole Seinfeld show, which I watched a lot as a kid of reruns and stuff like that is essentially a story about Jewish American culture in America?

Unchaining yourself from religious, ethical, or moralistic thinking

Who are the best thinkers? The ancient Greeks, the ones who came before Socrates. But still… we should take the opinion of the ancient Greeks with a grain of salt because even them, were greatly influenced by the “gymnosophists“ – gymnos in ancient Greek means naked, essentially imagine these weird hippie naked Indian people from India, who would share their sophistry or their philosophy and thinking with others.

I think a lot of early Greek thinkers like Heraclitus, Democritus etc. their thinking was hugely inspired by the gymnosophists, from India… that is why a lot of these pre-Socratic thinkers have philosophies which sound very Buddhist in nature.

  1. You never step into the same river twice – Heraclitus
  2. Even a hair cast its own shadow – Publius Syrus
  3. The path up and down is the same – Heraclitus

Why is our thinking still so basic? 

OK, it is 2024– we live in insanely advanced world, how is it and why is it that we still think so basic? 

For example, it’s still befuddles me that people still take religion literally — don’t people understand that religion is all just a metaphor?

Assuming that there are no gods, no afterlife, no “immortal soul”, whatever, then the simple question is how do you wish to live your life? 

And also, what are you doing with your life? How are you using your energy time and metabolic resources, to build something beyond yourself?

Health

Health, wellness. How does it matter and what does it mean? 

The first simple thought is the quality of your thoughts, your ambitions your hopes and your dreams, your entrepreneurial spirit is rooted in your health, your body, the physical. No no no, the “mind“, doesn’t exist, it is just a fiction.

> In mens sano, alma sano.

The “soul“, is simply an offshoot of your body. When your body dies, your soul also dies.

If your body is healthy, your bodily composition your health is healthy, your mind will be healthy. People who have mental disease, whatever, the big issue is that their body is sick.

For example, I think about my father and my dad, and he was a very sick man. I have a low-key suspicion that maybe he caught syphilis somewhere? I actually recall that he had a lot of anal issues, and I still remember when I was pretty young, maybe I was 11 years old or 10 years old or nine years old? Then my mom bought him a douche, to clean out his bowels?

A lot of people who have bodily and physiological disease, end up getting mental disease. I think ultimately, I’m not 100% certain, but ultimately my dad I think either got Syphilis or it might have advanced his schizophrenia? Seeing fake images ghosts and visions, etc?

What is schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia I think in Greek just means split mind. This is an overly simplistic way of thinking about the mind because the mind cannot be “split”, according to these basic notions.

My personal theory is when one catches some sort of disease, syphilis, other ancient diseases whatever, it does weird stuff to your mind. Even Friedrich Nietzsche towards the end of his life descended into madness, he lost his mind his body his soul, was taking care of by his sister until his death.

There are some competing theories on how and why Nietzsche went mad. One theory was he was gay and caught syphilis from another guy, and apparently there is a spurious connection or correlation, not causation, of being gay, syphilis, gay sex and syphilis?

I think this is probably false because apparently Nietzsche was madly in love with this one woman, who did not requite his love, and therefore if you look at his writings, he is very very salty about it… therefore a lot of his anti-women misogyny thoughts maybe is because he couldn’t get the girl of his dreams? 

Philosophers acting badly

The reason why it is important and critical to think about, and consider the personal life of thinkers, their physiology, their muscle mass composition, their body fat composition, their height and stature etc. is that ultimately, the question we must critically think about is this:

The philosopher as a human being… how does his physiology body and mind soul affect his writings? 

For example, Nietzsche apparently had quite poor health his entire life, and I think a lot of his personal writings is for him to personally grapple with his poor health. He apparently traveled around a lot in Italy, Europe, to find an ideal climate for his poor bodily constitution.

Even NASSIM TALEB – the only modern-day thinker philosopher worth following… apparently he always grew up as kind of a fatty boy, and I think a lot of his thoughts on diet health physical exercise etc. should be taken with a grain of salt, because I think he is still addicted to carbs, squid ink pasta? 

Tell me what you eat, how you eat, how frequently or infrequently you eat, and I will tell you who you are

One of the +1s that I give to Jack Dorsey, apparently he is like me! He just eats one meal a day, maybe the difference is that I eat 100% carnivore diet, only beef and lamb, aiming for 4 to 5 pounds of meat every single dinner, and if you look at Jack Dorsey, it doesn’t seem like he lifts weights. 

Look inside their fridge

One of the bad things that I love to do whenever I visit peoples homes is always love to open up the fridges and look inside. Sometimes ask for permission, sometimes I just do it; because… If you see what is inside the fridge or freezer, you get to know a lot about about them.

For example, for the most part, I put zero faith in anybody who shop at Trader Joe’s. Why? Trader Joe’s is just snacks with a good conscience.

Also, I put zero trust in anybody who drinks Coca-Cola, Coke zero, or talks about “calories”. They obviously have no idea about any human physiology. 

Also in terms of how the exercise, how frequently the exercise etc.; I’ve learned to distrust anybody who goes to the gym, or anybody who uses Reddit, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube etc., because… any fitness influencer who uses Instagram, or any social media platform, what they are trying to do is maximize their followers and views, and sooner or later, they’re going to dip into the gummy bears, a.k.a. steroids.

Becoming the ideal version of yourself

I have certain ideas for myself. Essentially I want to look like a Greek demigod, Achilles in the flesh. I think I’m there.

For example, I look like Brad Pitt in fight club but on steroids. Much more muscular, with the same lean low body fat percentage. I’m not sure what my body fat percentage is at right now, but I could definitely see my suspect. This is where measuring body fat percentage is inaccurate, just pinch your belly fat and see whether you could see your abs.

The secret of getting a six pack?

Very simple. Intermittent fasting, no breakfast no lunch, only a 100% carnivore dinner. Quit vegetables, starches, carbs, fruit and fiber, fake sugars real sugars milk dairy etc.

No no no, you don’t need a “balanced diet”. This is just a basic line of thinking for mediocre people who don’t have the courage to experiment and try out the extremes.

The faucet of this notion of calories is propagated by the Coca-Cola corporation, who wants you to keep drinking more their diabetes water, even let us reclassify Alzheimer’s as type 3 diabetes, purely something that you get infected with according to what you eat and what you drink.

Real men drink tapwater

Another really big scam that I’ve discovered, especially living here in LA, is this ridiculous notion of “alkaline water“. Anyone who believes in that nonsense is a fool.

Also talking to a truck delivery driver, he told me that apparently, bottled water is actually more expensive than gasoline?

A very simple thought, for this year or the New Year’s or in general… only drink tapwater or filtered water! And don’t get one of those loser Hydro flask things, I think a simpler solution is to just drink out of the water fountain, just drink tapwater at the house, and if you want a portable bottle get the path water bottles, they are very cheap, Think maybe only $3? And you could reuse them! They are very lightweight, I like it in matte black.

Elon Musk drinks tapwater, and so can you!

The reason why I think it is important to read biographies of people you are inspired by, or learning more about their eating living habits is that a lot of who we are is predicated on what we put into our bodies. 

For example, I am very inspired by Elon Musk but I also take him with a grain of salt because he is too addicted to alcohol, and Red Bull. Also it seems like Elon Musk is a fatty boy, he thinks too “scienticism-y”– which means he doesn’t understand hormones, and that drinking Red Bull and drinking alcohol is a bad idea. I think a real entrepreneur, a true innovator should be quite sober. This means no drugs no alcohol no Red Bulls.

Elon Musk lessons

I also love Kanye West, and also Jay Z, but both of them are out because both are alcoholics.

Alcohol is the worst drug?

When I was in Providence Rhode Island, I randomly met one of my fans on the street, and he told me that he recently returned from Afghanistan the front lines or something, had some sort of PTSD, and street photography was his therapy. He told me he was also addicted to all the drugs, all the bad ones and I asked him… “Which drug is the worst”? He told me: the worst drug is alcohol.

I think the big problem in today’s world is that now in today’s world, anywhere you go besides maybe the Middle East, drinking alcohol is the standard. To not drink alcohol, for some reason you’re the weirdo?

This is why if next time somebody tries to pressure me to drink alcohol, I’ll just tell them I’m Muslim. And also a lot of people ask me about how I’ve been doing my intermittent fasting so religiously the last seven years; I just joke and say for me it is Ramadan every single day!

Let us consider all the people who die from alcohol, either from alcohol overdose, or drinking while driving. I think the reason why alcohol is still legal is because for the most part, people have a good time with it, there’s a lot of advertising money behind it, think about all these fat guys with beards and tattoos who watch football and basketball, drink beer and get fat, and jerk off to other guys being physical and masculine.

Also, the ancient Greeks. Dionysus, Baccaus was the Greek god of drunkenness, and wine.

It seems that wine was a critical part of ancient Greek society, as it was for the Romans. And in modern day times, wine is considered the peak of luxury and success. But don’t forget, wine will make you fat, wine is just sugary grape juice with alcohol with a good conscience. And no no no, all that fake science about reservatrol and one glass of red wine being a healthy thing for you is fake; it is centered around fake science and statistics which I think, was bankrolled by an individual who was trying to sell reaervatrol supplements? 

Why I am anti-vegan anti-plant-based diet

If people want to be vegetarian or vegan for ethical reasons, I think that is fine. But all this fake nonsense about eating meat or being a carnivore as being “bad for the planet”, or “unethical”, I find as nonsense.

For example, all of these fake virtuous folks go to Trader Joe’s and buy all this vegan candy and microwavable food; that is so much trash and pollution for the environment, and I don’t even care about the environment that much, and also I’m a Boy Scouts eagle scout. So don’t get at me with all this fake virtuosity of saving the planet and whatever.  

Environmentalism is the new moneymaking scheme?

Al Gore, didn’t he make a bunch of money from saying that an inconvenient truth and that the polar caps are going to melt and we were all going to die? 

Also, I believe James Cameron, the guy who produced avatar and the titanic and made a bunch of money is also best friends with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and is peddling all this fake propaganda about eating plants is good for the environment whatever, in order to peddle his billion dollar pea plant protein powder company?

***

Own your own opinion

I think a big thing to consider is you must own your own opinion when it comes to diet health fitness etc. How and why?

First, it seems that the big issue here is that nobody has any criticality when it comes to diet health fitness etc. Everyone is just following the same old script, nobody is pioneering, risking, or experimenting for themselves.

For example when I talk to people that I am 100% carnivore, people are more shocked than anything, and I think they’re skepticism is in regards to “sustainability“, and when I tell them I’ve been doing it the last seven years, and also interment fasting no breakfast no lunch, only dinner the last seven years or so… people are shocked. And yet, I am just a mere mortal. 

Think economics

Perhaps one of the most useful things I learned studying sociology was to become more critical of almost everything. Everything that we have in modern-day society, we should consider society like a technology; tekhne in ancient Greek means technique and approach.  

Society is like a well oiled machine which gains from the adherence of its constituents. That means, a big modern day society with a large population can only exist and function if everybody plays by the same rules.

For example, society would probably be very dysfunctional if everyone acted like ERIC KIM, and just disdained everybody else. That is why living different and being different is the privilege of the fuse; 99.99% of people cannot do what I do, nor would they actually desire to do so.

You are your own privilege

The most privileged person to be is yourself. To ignore others, and to just follow your own path.

Why don’t more people do this?

My theory is that it comes down to ethics. To just do yourself, in your own weird way, seems unethical.

For example, to be ignorant is seen as bad and evil, and to ignore “experts“, is also seen as foolish.

Maybe becoming more foolish is a good idea?

One man’s foolishness is another man’s wisdom. We should take this idea to heart. 

For example, the insanity of an Elon Musk starting a SpaceX, or transforming Tesla into what it is today. Or, the insanely radical idea bitcoin, from Satoshi, also, an insanely radical idea.

Or Steve Jobs; then saying audacity of him to create a device with no keyboard, no stylus? 

Become more audacious

My new current life goal and path is to become more audacious, more unconventional, more unexpected.

Life is too short for the basic. Go advanced.

ERIC


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Money Thoughts

“White people make money don’t spend it, I’d rather buy 80 gold chains and go ignant (ignorant)”. – Kanye

Thinking about money:

Why does this matter?

“Money sets the whole world in motion” – Publius Syrus

Do you know when people say that money makes the world go round? This is true.

So what is money anyways?

First, money is fiat, faith-based. Fiat currency.

Currency is an interesting word and term because it evokes the feeling of water, movement, river streams and tide pools.

So first of all, let us consider the notion of “income streams“. There’s this notion of “passive income”, I think first popularized or maybe coined by Tim Feriss, in his four hour work week. But I believe there to be a myth of passive income which means, income is and must be active. You cannot just sit on your butt and collect rent.

Also with rent, rent money is funny because even if you’re collecting rent, there’s a lot of work management you gotta do. For example, you have to fix and maintain your properties, make sure that your tenants pay their rent money, do background checks, deal with vacancies etc. It is one of those things that we as renters feel that the landlords have all the power, but in fact, assuming that you’re already wealthy, you actually might have more power as a renter than a landlord. Why? If you have a very good apartment and it is rent controlled, technically according to NASSIM TALEB you have greater optionality.

What that means is that you have a privilege to live somewhere, not an obligation. In theory you can leave whenever you want, and you’re not behelden to the property.

What would Aristotle, the ancient Greeks think?

In regards to the ancient Greeks, I think they may be the best model because starting from Roman times, their society already started to seep into degeneration, degeneracy. Even during Homer’s time, Homer was already saying that the ancient Greeks were falling into degeneracy, even when he was writing the Iliad. 

I am currently reading Politics by Aristotle, and I find it to be a really fascinating read. Essentially what he says about household economics etc., as well as his thoughts on substantive versus speculative finance, real versus fake finance. He essentially says that real finance has to deal with animals and fruits of the earth, everything else is just imaginary.

Also, his thoughts on slavery. Essentially in ancient Greek times, the ultimate goal was to have the laborers, slaves, craftsman, mechanics do all the dirty work, and the true nobleman and free man would just use all of his time and leisure for building virtue, philosophical thinking, and participating in politics, the politics of the local city state, the polis.

In modern-day times we always think about politics like it pertains to international politics whatever. But the original term politics referred to the polis, the immediate city-state. It was not focused on foreign affairs.

What is the ideal city state?

What I like about Aristotle and his writings is that he’s always talking about the ideal, and talks a lot about studying from the best of the past and the current, in order to formulate his thoughts. Also his writing is straight simple and clear, and very authoritative. For example, he quotes Plato and his Republic, and straight up says: “Plato is wrong.” Almost as hilarious and ballsy as when Nietzsche said: “Plato is boring.”

True financial freedom

Two things: Pay rent money, pay for food and groceries, and basic utilities, like your Wi-Fi, gas and electric, gas for your car etc. Beyond that, what else do you really need? 

Another fun experiment I’m doing is just paying for rent money by using the profit on my cryptocurrency speculations, simply using Coinbase, and profits from chainlink. For personal reference, I am currently 90% invested in chainlink, 10% in bitcoin. I believe this to be an interesting barbell for a risky yet “safe” investment speculation, in thinking the next 30 or 40 years.

Also, in terms of our cryptocurrency assets, we don’t have more than 10% of our whole life savings tied into cryptocurrency. Therefore if it all goes to zero in theory, not really a big deal. But my personal belief:

Bitcoin will never go down to zero.

Decimation

A very interesting thing that I learned from NASSIM TALEB, maybe it was written in his book ANTIFRAGILE, is this notion of decimation. The basic idea is that in ancient Roman times the army, if cowardice was suspected, at random, 10% of the army would be put to death, it was a good way to prevent cowardice, especially one facing an impressive enemy. 

10% is interesting because in theory, if you lose 10% of your army, it is not enough to significantly lose your forces. A 10% loss is more than acceptable. For example let us say that you’re playing StarCraft, and you got an army of zealots, all upgraded with dash and full armor upgrades, if you lose 10% of them, you could still kill the army of zerg maybe if you do good enough micro management of the units. 

Finances is also similar — best to have 90% of your money in insanely secure bonds, CDs or stuff that might be inflation, even a simple savings account at 5%. Then put 10% of your money in extremely speculative cryptocurrency speculations, rather than putting 100% of your money and boring “medium risk” funds.

“Never trust a risk number even if it is right.”- TALEB 


Why we should not trust economists

First and foremost, economics, being an economist, is the new hocus pocus of modern day times. The reason why economists are so highly regarded is that currently speaking the new global religion is capital and capitalism.

Therefore as a consequence, the new modern-day priests are economists, and these fake talking Heads on the TV screen.

The reason why we should trust no economist, is that they use fake numbers statistics and fake math to justify their thoughts and positions. Even Nate Silver, who everyone thinks is some sort of genius, mispredicted Trump getting elected into office. Why? Even if you’re a statistician with 99% accuracy, the one percent of the time you’re wrong, it could cost billions of dollars.

The reason why we should also not trust no economist is that most of them are protected from the real world. Their opinions reports and thought pieces have no connection to reality. A lot of them are getting a fat salary and steady paycheck from their tenured professor positions at Harvard Yale Princeton or whatever, and therefore the predictions thoughts they have, have no bearing on their own personal finances.

Better instead to trust individual individuals who actually have skin in the game, or money in the game. That is that your opinion is tied to your own personal bank account, if your opinion is right, you make the big bucks, but if you’re wrong, you lose your shirt.

Where I am coming from

One of the best things about growing up poor and when you have seen your mom go through bankruptcy twice is that in some funny ways, it makes you more brazen, less fearful. Witnessing my mom go bankrupt, because my dad gambled away the rent money and we couldn’t pay rent, and she would just rack up credit card bills just to pay basic expenses, what I learned is at the end it’s not that bad. My mom got family support, community support, church support, and ultimately she was OK in the very end.

So for myself, the reason why I have such a high tolerance for risk is essentially nowadays, I live like a poor person. My New Year’s resolution is to buy nothing; or close to nothing, or just to not buy stuff that I consider silly or superfluous. Even acquiring free stuff; to me that is just more clutter in my mind in my life and my home; we new elite is about minimalism, even to a fault. 

Also, the American entrepreneurial spirit. Even my dad when he first came to the states, was extremely entrepreneurial. He started his own business when I was very very young, I think selling audio equipment. As he had a passion for music movies and film and cinema. I actually think his great ambition of life was to become a great film director. Even at a young age, I recall him watching Alfred Hitchcock the birds, Schindler’s list, and all these other great avant- garde films.

So now, raising Seneca, he is currently two years, around 11 months old… his training is very simple; simple, physical, Spartan. 99% of the day we are just at the local nature center, hiking on dirt paths, walking around, doing gymnastics at the playground, even now, I bought some wooden gymnast rings which I just hang from my parking spot in the back of my apartment, and he could swing around it, and hang around it! It is pretty amazing.

Another thing I learned from Aristotle’s Politics is that with children and child rearing, the logical order is first physical training and gymnastics, second is nutrition and feeding, third is the intellect. It seems some modern day tides we do the total opposite; we don’t really focus on physical exercise for kids, we just try to make them look smart. But book smarts is bad smarts; real smarts comes from the real world.

As a consequence, I probably literally spent close to no money on him. The only thing that we paid for in the early days were maybe diapers, and buying some random stuff on Amazon like training underwear, etc.

Now, he eats wagyu ground beef well in the air fryer, pro tip just toss a bunch of small broken up pieces of ground beef in the air fryer for 10 minutes, sprinkle it with some salt and pepper and give it to your kid! I think precisely because Seneca was born and fed such a high meat diet, he is the buff strong and tall boy he is today.

What should we use money for? 

What is the proper use of money?

For myself, Costco. Funny enough it looks like out of all of my normal stock investments, Costco is doing the best! Why? As inflation goes up, food gets more expensive etc., everyone likes to think that they’re not being “ripped off”– nobody likes to think that they are overpaying for anything. Costco is funny because it is almost like Walmart but with a good conscience; a lot of middle-class even rich people have thought of Walmart as akin to the devil; whereas Costco has warm fuzzy feelings. Half of the fun even myself as a kid going to Costco was getting the hotdogs at the food court, and also getting all the free samples! Costco is almost like going to Disneyland, with benefits.

Meat

To me, the only real food substance is meat. You could thrive on 100% carnivore meat red meat diet, good luck with lentils beans and potatoes. That is poverty food. 100% red meat beef lamb diet is fit for the gods.

Let us consider, the nonsenseness of veganism; the etymology and history of vegan comes from vegetarian, vegetarianism. Essentially the vegans were the more hardcore vegetarians; the word “vegan”, essentially is the word vegetarian with fewer letters.

Why do people even go vegan in the first place?

Honestly I think being vegan is more of an ethical thing rather than a physiological concern. This is where vegetarians are more honest than vegans; a lot of people who are vegetarian do it for religious regions, for example people from India or south Asia, or some people just don’t really like the taste of meat or flesh, prefer to eat cheese eggs dairy and fish instead. 

Thinking historically

What I also love about studying ancient history, Rome, the Iliad, thinking about Homer is that back then, there was none of this nonsensical being “woke“, or political correctness. The Greeks were a hard and simple race; you were either Greek or a barbarian. Even the word barbarian is originated from the notion of “bar-bar”– anyone who did not speak Greek, their language sounded like somebody saying “bar bar bar”.

And also this is where notions of “white supremacy“, or being “white”, is nonsensical. Were the ancient Greeks “white”? No. They were olive skinned, very tan.

We acknowledge and understand that the ancient Greeks were probably the peak human and society of its time; maybe it makes sense for us to go back to the fountains, and for us to seek to imitate the best of the best, the crème la crop of the past.

How did the ancient Greeks think about money?

First, in the time of Homer, the Iliad the odyssey etc.; there was no notion of coins, or coined money or currency. The notion of coin is actually pretty good, like bitcoin, because the original minted money was actually coins, not paper money.

Also, gold. Gold was always highly valued throughout all of history, even during the time of Homer and the Iliad. For example the greed of king Agamemnon, what did he want? More gold, more women, more land, more slaves, more power.

Even as a sidenote; an Achilles was told by his father figure that king Agamemnon was the superior man, because he lorded over more men. 

During the time of Homer, and the Iliad; wealth was concentrated in food and meat, oxen; the notion of a “hectacomb” was the generalized notion that if you wanted to appease the gods and make a sacrifice, you had to sacrifice 100 oxen, which was a lot. Why? An ox is interesting because you could eat it, and also you could use it as manual labor. Maybe back in the day, having one ox was almost like the modern day notion of having a Lamborghini; can you imagine sacrificing and burning 100 Lamborghinis to appease the gods?

What did Achilles want?

If I ever had to rename myself I would just need myself Achilles. Why? He is nearly invulnerable and invincible; what is it that he wanted in the Iliad? Honestly he was tired of war and conquest and battle; he just wanted to chill out, retire, enjoy his land and pastures, and enjoy Breisis his prize.

Even Achilles said wisely; No amount of wealth in the world is worth a life, my life. Not if you took all the wealth of the world, all the gold of the world, and multiplied it by 65. Once you’re dead, you’re dead forever.

Even in today’s world, I don’t think sacrificing your life your own personal life is worth anything; I would only ever ever ever sacrifice my life it was for the sake of Seneca’s life, or Cindy‘s life, or both. Otherwise, I have zero interest in being drafted to go to some sort of senseless war, in order for America to procure more oil or whatever.

And this is where I believe that war is so superficial; would you be willing to send your own personal blood son, your first born son, to fight in the front lines of Afghanistan or whatever, for some sort of strange political advantage? No.

Buying a house?

Things are starting to get ridiculous. In LA and Culver City, you can’t find a good single-family home for less than $2 million. Even a $2 million or $3 million home, it’s not really in the best neighborhood either which is 100% pedestrian friendly. I was looking at this brand new $3 million house, which is pretty nice, but it’s kind of in the middle of nowhere, I cannot enjoy my lovely morning walks as I do just walking from my apartment from the arts district.

Renting is superior?

I wonder if renting is actually superior than owning because you got more optionality, less obligation. 

“You work for a living, I live for a living” – Jay Z

Ultimately what is it that we really seek to do, our desired activity?

I think what we really desire to do at the end of the day is physical activity, vigorous activity, to be physical. Physics, human physics, our own human body.

We want to walk around, go on hikes, be in nature, go to the beach, swim around, walk around mountain paths, pick up heavy things, throw around rocks, do fun gymnastics things, hot yoga, lift weights etc.

The ultimate luxury in today’s world is the human body. It all matter if you own 100 Ferraris, if you are obese, old and fat, none of it is worth it.

Even I was randomly doing some research about Hugh Hefner, the big issue is that apparently he just lived in his Holmby Hills mansion for his whole life, wearing nothing but silk pajamas, taking weird hallucinogen drugs and Viagra, in poor health, having sex with all of these random women, forcing them to do drugs, get plastic surgery etc. 

I think the weird notion is a lot of men, they seek to become some sort of playboy? To grow a beard, buy a bunch of guns, have sex with all these women, massive orgies with all these beautiful women, for the sake of what?

The merchandising of women

In today’s modern day capitalistic society, women are the new objects, the new products being sold. The strange promise is this; you get rich successful and famous, you get the Lamborghini or the Ferrari, and then suddenly all these beautiful women will flock to you, want to have sex with you, fulfill all your weird sexual fantasies, etc., and suddenly you’ll be happy for the rest of your life?

It seems the weird sexual perversion we have in today’s world is that maybe… the trend is we want some sort of 100% subservient female sex bot, 100% obey us, and fulfill our sexual desires? 

But let us not forget, the purpose and function of sex is for us to beget children; the hormones and the good feelings associated with it is to promote bonding between the man and woman, and to solidify the family relationship. This is where I am pro monogamy; even Zeus was married to Hera! Although he did sleep around a lot. 

Buy nothing?

One of the greatest things that was born out of Covid was the Facebook buy nothing groups. Essentially close to 100% of all the baby stuff we got for Seneca was for free from the buy nothing group. Cindy would just message other moms, get a bunch of free baby hand-me-down stuff, and we literally paid close to nothing for all of his baby stuff. I estimate that from the buy nothing group, Cindy might’ve saved us close to $15,000.

It takes more skill to buy nothing?

Ultimately I think money is like some sort of game; the game of not spending money seems to be more interesting than spending money.

There is nothing morally or ethically wrong about spending money, the only issue at hand is when people spend money in some sort of boring way, they go into debt, credit card debt or whatever, and as a consequence, they lose their freedom?

***

Via negativa money new year resolutions?

The simplest way to become rich is not to spend your money on superfluous things. This include the new iPhone iPhone Pro or whatever; real rich people either use an iPhone mini, like my friend Don Dillon or Todd Hata, or Cindy, or an iPhone SE like ERIC KIM.

Also, only poor people buy cars new cars. Real rich people just drive old Prius, white Honda Odyssey if you have a family, and all the silver Honda Civics. Even my brother-in-law whose family is super rich, a major investor in Tesla, just has the super base Tesla model 3 for the family! 

Real investors in Tesla don’t own the expensive Tesla model S or X or even Y; they only own the cheapest Tesla model 3. 


Join the buy nothing group?

Just go on Facebook and find the nearest “buy nothing” group close to your city. It is a fun game.

Also, if you really want to save money and stop buying so much stuff, just cancel your Amazon prime subscription.

Also, as much as I love Costco, technically Costco is a trap; it is easy to drop $600 on a simple Costco trip, maybe if you want to save money and just buy meat, go to the local butcher, meat market, Halal market, Mexican meat market, the local Carniceria.

The problem with Costco is that there are too many random temptations.


Do the labor yourself?

Another New Year’s resolution that I got is maybe I just want to do all the labor myself. Even though it is far less efficient and time-consuming. Even changing your oil, maybe we could just enjoy this is our new leisure. I recommend getting the full synthetic mobile 1 oil, the best.

Contest it?

Funny story: I just got a $555 speed camera traffic ticket for doing a rolling right turn through a red light. I watched the video in truth be told, I was at fault.

Maybe next time, I will just contest it and show up to court, as a fun leisure activity.

Ultimately after you become wealthy, the ultimate luxury is killing time in local city politics etc.

Now what?

The first priority is your physical health, your sleep your food your diet your exercise etc.

Quit alcohol, quit weed, quit pornography, quit sugar, whether real or fake, quit dairy, quit vegetables, quit fruit, quit starches.

Quit Netflix, any TV streaming show, stop watching movies that were produced within the last 5 to 10 years.

 Quit the news, social media, quit YouTube.

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY SOCIOLOGY

Street photography is just applied visual sociology!

Quotes

Eric Kim’s quotes on the intersection of sociology and street photography highlight the role of sociological understanding in his approach to photography:

  1. “Street photography is just applied sociology — with a camera. A visual sociology” oai_citation:1,The Sociology of Street Photography – ERIC KIM.
  2. “I loved learning all of the ways that people interacted, communicated, and collected in groups. It really opened up my eyes to the world around me… all these things I have learned in Sociology… would apply so much to street photography” oai_citation:2,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.
  3. “People react more similarly than dissimilarly when it comes to street photography” oai_citation:3,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.
  4. “Most people when you take photos of them will at worst get upset, yell at you, and ask you to delete their photograph. Rarely do people become physical or confrontational, so shoot with confidence” oai_citation:4,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.
  5. “When you shoot street photography in a group, your courage skyrockets” oai_citation:5,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.
  6. “93% of communication was nonverbal… If you show via your body language that you are not threatening or harmful, people won’t suspect you when you are shooting on the streets” oai_citation:6,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.
  7. “You can easily resocialize yourself into thinking the opposite—that you are doing a good thing by capturing the beauty of a person through street photography” oai_citation:7,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.
  8. “Having a camera in your hand gives you authority and power… Speak confidently and with authority” oai_citation:8,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.
  9. “Sometimes the meanest looking people can be the nicest” oai_citation:9,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.
  10. “To become a better street photographer, it is crucial to have a community helping and supporting you” oai_citation:10,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.
  11. “Street photography is a lot like swimming. You can read a hundred books on it, but until you jump into the water—you will never learn anything” oai_citation:11,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.

Through these quotes, Kim encapsulates how sociology informs and enhances his practice of street photography, providing insights into human behavior, communication, and societal norms.

Eric Kim’s perspective on the intersection of sociology and street photography is quite insightful. He views street photography as a form of applied sociology, using it as a medium to explore and understand human behavior and society. Here are some of his key thoughts:

  1. Sociology’s Relevance to Street Photography: Kim acknowledges his sociology education as a significant influence on his street photography. He appreciates the insights gained from studying human interaction and group behavior, which he finds applicable to street photography oai_citation:1,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.
  2. Similarities in Human Reactions: Traveling and shooting street photography worldwide, Kim observes that despite cultural differences, people’s reactions to street photography are more similar than dissimilar. This realization comes from his sociological understanding of human nature oai_citation:2,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.
  3. Non-Confrontational Nature of People: Kim notes that people are generally non-confrontational, a concept he applies to street photography. He rarely encounters aggressive responses, even when shooting close to his subjects, which aligns with his sociological observations oai_citation:3,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.
  4. Group Dynamics in Photography: Shooting in groups can build confidence in street photography. Kim explains that this is because people perceive the group as part of a class or project and are thus more receptive to being photographed oai_citation:4,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.
  5. Importance of Non-Verbal Communication: He emphasizes that non-verbal communication, like facial expressions and body language, plays a crucial role in street photography, similar to its importance in sociology oai_citation:5,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.
  6. Resocializing Perceptions: Kim discusses the idea of resocializing oneself against societal norms, such as the notion that taking photos of strangers is inappropriate. He encourages street photographers to adopt a positive mindset about their work oai_citation:6,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.
  7. Authority and Photography: Reflecting on experiments like the Stanford Prison Experiment, Kim draws parallels to street photography, where holding a camera gives a sense of authority, influencing how subjects respond oai_citation:7,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.
  8. Expecting the Unexpected: His experience in sociology experiments taught him that people’s reactions can be unpredictable, a lesson he finds valuable in street photography oai_citation:8,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.
  9. Appearances vs. Reality: Kim has learned not to judge people based on appearances, a principle he applies in his photography, finding that sometimes those who look intimidating can be quite friendly oai_citation:9,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.
  10. Community Importance in Photography: He stresses the importance of community in improving as a street photographer, advocating for constructive feedback and engagement with fellow photographers oai_citation:10,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.
  11. Learning by Doing: Finally, Kim compares street photography to learning how to swim – emphasizing the importance of practical experience over theoretical knowledge oai_citation:11,10 Things Sociology Has Taught Me About Street Photography – ERIC KIM.

Through these reflections, Kim illustrates how sociology provides a framework for understanding and engaging with the world, significantly enriching his approach to street photography.

MASTER THE STREETS:

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  2. Black and White (2.3gb) / Download
  3. How to Shoot Street Photography (2.2gb) / Download
  4. Street Portraits 101 (1.9gb) / Download
  5. Conquer Your Fears (430mb) / Download
  6. Composition (460mb) / Download
  7. Masters (107mb) / Download
  8. Editing and Post-Processing (1.3gb) / Download
  9. Photography Projects (1.4gb) / Download
  10. Motivation (3.7gb) / Download

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Video

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 101

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  1. How to Become More Stealth in Street Photography
  2. HOW TO BECOME A BETTER STREET PHOTOGRAPHER
  3. Street Photography Mastery
  4. How I Became the Greatest Street Photographer Alive
  5. Antifragile Photography
  6. How to Conquer Your Fears in Street Photography
  7. INSANELY AUDACIOUS AND BOLD
  8. 5 Simple Street Photography Techniques
  9. STREET PHOTOGRAPHER.
  10. The Street Photographer Ideal
  11. 50 Street Photography Tips, Techniques and Ideas
  12. Street Photography Values
  13. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY DOESN’T NEED TO HAVE PEOPLE IN IT.
  14. Why Street Photography is So Great
  15. WHY BECOME A STREET PHOTOGRAPHER?
  16. Society Photography, Not “Street” Photography
  17. How to Street Photography
  18. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY OPTIONALITY.
  19. 10 Street Photography Tips
  20. The Street Photographer as the Apex Photographer
  21. Street Photography & Adrenaline
  22. STREETTOGS STARTING GUIDE
  23. 50 Street Photography Tips by ERIC KIM
  24. What I Wish I Knew If I Started Street Photography All Over Again
  25. Photograph like it’s not a big deal
  26. Suburb Street Photography
  27. What is Our Personal Motivation Behind Street Photography?
  28. WHY I’M SO PASSIONATE ABOUT STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
  29. Personal Street Photography
  30. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY AS A PRACTICE.
  31. Pandemic Street Photography
  32. AIRPORT STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
  33. How to Shoot Street Photography Right Now
  34. Towards a More Independent Street Photography Approach
  35. How Street Photography Improves Your Life
  36. How to Tell Stories in Your Street Photos
  37. Face Street Photography
  38. How to Start Shooting Street Photography
  39. How to Shoot Street Photography During a Pandemic
  40. 7 Street Photography Assignment Ideas

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT

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Master street photography with STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT.


STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 101

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


Brave New Street Photography

Street Photographs

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  1. How to Shoot Street Photography with Dads and Kids
  2. HOW I BECAME SUCH A GREAT STREET PHOTOGRAPHER
  3. Use Quarantine as an Opportunity to Pick up Film Photography
  4. Hong Kong Street Photography by ERIC KIM

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.

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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

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How to Conquer Your Fears in Street Photography

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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:

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Street Photography Guides

In-depth guides on street photography:

Street Photography Equipment

The best equipment for street photography:

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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:

  1. Why Study the Masters of Photography?
  2. Great Female Master Photographers
  3. Cheat Sheet of the Masters of Photography
  4. 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
  5. Beginner’s Guide to the Masters of Street Photography
  6. Download All Articles >

The Masters of Photography

Classics never die:


Free Downloads

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Free Street Photography Books

Distilled information on street photography:

For more resources on photography, Start Here >

ERIC KIM PHOTOGRAPHY START HERE ARCHIVE

PDF

  1. LEICA MANUAL PDF // MIRROR
  2. TRAVEL NOTES
  3. ZEN OF ERIC
  4. MASTERS VOLUME 1
  5. Photography Composition Manual v1
  6. Zen Photography
  7. STREET PHOTO CONTACT SHEETS
  8. STREET PHOTO CONTACT SHEETS VOLUME II
  9. Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Street Photography
  10. The Street Portrait Manual
  11. 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
ERIC-KIM-AI-CHATGPT-ART-DALL-E-3-GENERATIVE-ART-

EK MIND STREAM.

THOUGHTS

  1. THE PHILOSOPHY OF RISK TAKINGPDF
  2. Why I Bought ChainlinkPDF
  3. How to Become a Philosopher
  4. How to Become a Stoic

ART PHOTO BOOKS

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ERIC KIM PODCAST

EK PODCAST ALSO ON SPOTIFY


MODERN PHOTOGRAPHER

STOICISM

Delve into the mind of EK:

BOOKS

  1. THE PHOTOGRAPHER

NEW CHATGPT BOTS

  1. COMPOSITION CHECKER
  2. WHY APP?
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Crypto

  1. BACK TO CHAINLINK, EVERYONE SHOULD OWN *AT LEAST* ONE BITCOIN, AI IS NEXT $100T, 1000T INDUSTRY?
  2. Bitcoin Babe

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  1. BITCOIN BABE
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STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT

Open source:

  1. What is Street Photography? (2.4gb) / Download
  2. Black and White (2.3gb) / Download
  3. How to Shoot Street Photography (2.2gb) / Download
  4. Street Portraits 101 (1.9gb) / Download
  5. Conquer Your Fears (430mb) / Download
  6. Composition (460mb) / Download
  7. Masters (107mb) / Download
  8. Editing and Post-Processing (1.3gb) / Download
  9. Photography Projects (1.4gb) / Download
  10. Motivation (3.7gb) / Download

View all >

CRYPTO BY KIM

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Brave new world for photographers and crypto:

  1. The Philosophy of Crypto
  2. BITCOIN SHALL BE THE LAST CRYPTO STANDING.
  3. Bitcoin Price Prediction
  4. Trust chainlink for the most accurate prices for bitcoin or any other crypto
  5. BITCOIN
  6. There is No Web 3.0
  7. 2 cents to 2 dollars?
  8. Crypto.com?
  9. Speculation vs Investing
  10. Building with Bitcoin
  11. DYNAMICS VS STATICS.
  12. How Do You Know if the Timing Is Right?
  13. BITCOIN IN THE NEWS
  14. BITCOIN & UNCERTAINTY
  15. Fake Money
  16. Why I Bought More Bitcoin (Again)
  17. How I Made Money with Crypto
  18. Better to buy Dogecoin then buy a Tesla
  19. NO LIMITS.
  20. ALL DIGITAL FUTURE.
  21. Digital over Physical Possessions
  22. DIGIBYTE.
  23. CHAINLINK.
  24. The Excitement of Starting from Zero
  25. HAPTIC INDUSTRIES NOW ACCEPTING CRYPTO AND BITCOIN
  26. In Praise of Crypto
  27. JUST BUY IT.
  28. Why I’m So Bullish on Bitcoin
  29. Bitcoin as the Simplest Cryptocurrency
  30. Why I bought (more) bitcoin
  31. Once You Become a Crypto Billionaire, Then What?
  32. Why Crypto is Under-Hyped
  33. The Joy of Speculation
  34. BITCOIN AND CRYPTOCURRENCY FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS
  35. Why I Bought Bitcoin
  36. Crypto Photography
  37. Crypto Thoughts
  38. On Making Money from Nothing

Soul Photography

Learn how to photograph with your soul:

POEMS by KIM

YOU’RE THE BOSS

POEMS

ESSAYS

Street Photo 101

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STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT

Open source:

  1. What is Street Photography? (2.4gb) / Download
  2. Black and White (2.3gb) / Download
  3. How to Shoot Street Photography (2.2gb) / Download
  4. Street Portraits 101 (1.9gb) / Download
  5. Conquer Your Fears (430mb) / Download
  6. Composition (460mb) / Download
  7. Masters (107mb) / Download
  8. Editing and Post-Processing (1.3gb) / Download
  9. Photography Projects (1.4gb) / Download
  10. Motivation (3.7gb) / Download

View all >

BECOME A PHOTOGRAPHY ENTREPRENEUR

Advice I would have given myself in photography, if I started all over again:

Until You Own Yourself You Can’t Be Free

Photography Entrepreneurship 101 by ERIC KIM

De-lamify the future.

Photography Entrepreneurship 101 Presentation by ERIC KIM


ENTREPRENEURSHIP by KIM

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ERIC KIM x HENRI NECK STRAP

Enroll in my Udemy Course:

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Entrepreneurship Ideas

  1. InstaSlaves
  2. How to Become a Vlogger
  3. How to Build Your Own Self Brand
  4. SOLO MEDIA EMPIRE
  5. TIME LEVERAGE.
  6. How to Market Yourself in Photography
  7. How to Become More Ambitious
  8. Crypto Photography
  9. In Praise of Email Newsletters
  10. Propagate.
  11. Make Your Own Street Photography Blog
  12. Create the Information You Seek.
  13. Content over Technology
  14. How to Advertise Yourself as a Photographer
  15. CREATIVE WAYS TO USE YOUTUBE
  16. Photography Branding 101
  17. BUILD YOURSELF.
  18. Bet on Your Own Coin.
  19. The Photographer Should Also Make His/Her Own Music?
  20. Mix Your Photos and Videos
  21. JUST PUBLISH IT.
  22. EMPOWER OTHER PHOTOGRAPHERS.
  23. BECOME OUTSIDE THE BOX
  24. MOVE PEOPLE, MOVE PRODUCTS.
  25. SOCIAL MEDIA IS FRAGILE.
  26. Why Start a Photography Blog?
  27. Once You FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early), Then What?
  28. THE FUTURE IS PDF
  29. In Praise of Solo Photography Business Entrepreneurship
  30. LONGEVITY, DURABILITY AND SUCCESS
  31. Street Photography Philosophy Entrepreneurship
  32. YOU ARE THE PLATFORM
  33. JUST RISK IT.
  34. DON’T OPTIMIZE FOR THE ALGORITHM
  35. Scaleable Photography
  36. What Does it Mean to Become a Successful Photographer?
  37. 20 Photography Marketing, Branding, and Entrepreneurship Tips
  38. Create Your Own Social Media
  39. Individual Entrepreneurship
  40. YOU ARE THE ICON.
  41. BUILD!
  42. What is Success in Photography?
  43. EXTREME VISION
  44. Publish Fearlessly
  45. MAKE DOPE THINGS AND SHARE THEM WITH THE WORLD!
  46. THE AMBITIOUS PHOTOGRAPHER.
  47. PhotoLink
  48. Real World Applications
  49. You Are Your Own Ideal User
  50. What is Your Creative Vision?
  51. A More Dope, Prosperous Future for All Photographers
  52. CREATION & DISTRIBUTION.
  53. THE VALUE OF PHOTOS.
  54. How to Maximize Your Impact as a Photographer
  55. Why the World Needs More Bloggers
  56. DOMAIN EXPERTISE.
  57. The Joy of Speculation
  58. MAKE A NAME FOR YOURSELF.
  59. Propogate
  60. Meaningful Advantage or Not?
  61. PHOTO CREATOR.
  62. NOW IS YOUR DECISIVE MOMENT.
  63. I CANNOT BE IGNORED
  64. Photography Blogs are Highly *UNDERRATED*
  65. What is Your Competitive Advantage?
  66. Why 4K?
  67. Indirect Monetization
  68. The Future of Innovation in Photography
  69. Photography Innovation and Image Selection Idea: Let Google (YouTube) Suggested Thumbnail Pick Your Best Photo? 
  70. How to Identify Your Competitive Advantage
  71. In Praise of Insanely Fast Wifi
  72. DIGITAL PUBLISHING IS KING.
  73. The Stoic-Entrepreneurship Mindset
  74. Marketing Tips for Photographers
  75. STARK DIFFERENTIATION
  76. MAXIMALIST
  77. Visual Entrepreneurship
  78. On Becoming a Full-Stack Visual Entrepreneur
  79. Real Photographers Don’t Use Instagram
  80. Brave New World of Blogging
  81. Don’t Go to Photography School
  82. Mass Success is a Failure?
  83. How to Maximize Your Archimedes Lever in Life
  84. Maximize Your Archimedes Lever
  85. How to Create Value Out of Nothing
  86. The Best Brand is No Brand
  87. What Do We Entrepreneurs *Really* Want?
  88. You Were Destined to Do Great Things
  89. Just Share Your Photos on Your Own Blog
  90. Your Blog is the Ultimate Form of Social Media
  91. The Future of Websites and Blogs
  92. Create a Company
  93. Money Photography Project
  94. WHY IT IS GOOD TO CHARGE MONEY FOR YOUR SERVICES AND PRODUCTS
  95. Google and YouTube SEO (Search Engine Optimization) 101: How Would You Type It?
  96. WHY RIGHT NOW IS THE BEST TIME FOR YOU TO START YOUR SIDE HUSTLE
  97. Digital Photography is the Future
  98. NEVER STOP EXPERIMENTING!
  99. WHAT IS INNOVATION?
  100. A Non-Ownership Future
  101. CONTROL OVER MONEY
  102. Economic Constraints Are Creative Constraints
  103. Become a Sole-Proprietor
  104. Entrepreneurship is a Mindset
  105. How to Master Mac
  106. The Future of Lifestyle
  107. Necessity is the Mother of Innovation
  108. Once We Have an Easy Life, Then What?
  109. Why I Don’t Read Comments
  110. YouTube SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for Photographers
  111. How to Become a Self-Employed Photographer
  112. How to Live Big With Little Money
  113. Why Blogging, Vlogging and Internet Media is More Important than Ever
  114. No Marketing, No Future
  115. Photography Marketing 101
  116. Google and YouTube are King
  117. Why I’m So Suspicious of Everyone Online and on the Internet
  118. How to Become More Notorious
  119. Kaizen Approach to Blogging
  120. How to Master Marketing
  121. CREATE WHAT YOU WOULD LIKE SEE MANIFESTED IN THE WORLD!
  122. Anti Silicon-Valley Thinking
  123. Your Name
  124. In Praise of WordPress
  125. NEVER STOP POSTING
  126. Your Future Portfolio is a Website
  127. Infinite Runway
  128. ERIC KIM ATTITUDE
  129. Financial Independence as a Road to Freedom of Speech?
  130. WHY OPEN SOURCE IS THE FUTURE
  131. Just Post It.
  132. Posts Are Products
  133. Photography Entrepreneurship Ideas
  134. YOU ARE KING.
  135. You’re Always in BETA MODE
  136. Build Your Own Media Empire
  137. WHY I DON’T MONETIZE MY YOUTUBE VIDEOS
  138. Why I Became an Entrepreneur
  139. The Uber-Photographer
  140. Create What You Would Like to See Manifested in the World
  141. Create the Future
  142. Entrepreneurship is Best During Uncertain Times
  143. Photography Entrepreneurship 101 Presentation by ERIC KIM
  144. Your Body is the Brand
  145. Your Name is Your Brand
  146. Create Your Own Social Media Platform
  147. BUILD IT OR BUY IT?
  148. Sell Yourself
  149. Create New
  150. Insta-Slaves
  151. YOU CANNOT FAKE ENTHUSIASM
  152. Why Hybrid is the Future
  153. Don’t Censor Yourself
  154. HOW I MASTERED MARKETING
  155. ERIC KIM BLOGS
  156. If Someone Offers You Help, You’re Stupid to *NOT* Take It.
  157. SEEK GREAT, NOT PERFECT.
  158. How I Became So Famous
  159. Let Reality Mould Itself to You
  160. ANTI ENTITLEMENT MENTALITY
  161. Live Your Life as If You Were a Billionaire
  162. HOW I THINK DIFFERENT
  163. Impact, Influence, Reach: The Three Pillars of Marketing
  164. ERIC KIM SCHOOL
  165. Classicism.
  166. MY PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY
  167. Money is Movement
  168. Elitism 2.0
  169. Mass Market or Luxury Market?
  170. Why You Must Market Yourself
  171. Why You Must Start an Email Newsletter
  172. How Laptops Can Change the World
  173. What Do You Want to Become?
  174. What is Really Holding You Back in Life?
  175. Why I Write: Writing as Meta-Thinking
  176. ADVERTISE YOURSELF
  177. Use Your First and Last Name
  178. How Blogging Can Change the World
  179. In Praise of Liberty
  180. How I Write in Markdown
  181. How I Became So Influential on YouTube
  182. REVERSE FLEX
  183. What a Time to Be Alive in Today’s Brave New World of Photography
  184. HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE YOURSELF FROM OTHERS
  185. YOU CHOOSE YOU
  186. My Life Photography Entrepreneurship Story
  187. WHY I DON’T BELIEVE IN COLLABORATION
  188. My Entrepreneurship Mindset
  189. YOU’RE THE HERO IN THIS GAME OF LIFE
  190. My Money Philosophy
  191. Why Brand and Market Yourself?
  192. PROFESSIONALISM IS FOR SUCKERS
  193. Just Share What Works for You
  194. How to Create Your Own Platform
  195. Living in a Post Monetary Society
  196. In Praise of Blogging
  197. The Entrepreneurial Lifestyle is the Best Lifestyle
  198. Algorithm Slavery
  199. ANTI VIEWS
  200. Entrepreneurship is The Goal
  201. The Art of Blogging
  202. IN PRAISE OF PURSUING YOUR PASSION
  203. How to Make Great Titles
  204. Sole Proprietorship
  205. Just Build It.
  206. VIA NEGATIVA
  207. PROMOTE YOURSELF
  208. Become a Full-Stack Entrepreneur
  209. How to Entertain Others
  210. My Experience Teaching My First Online Photography Creativity Workshop on Zoom
  211. Humans Aren’t Lazy
  212. One Shot.
  213. THE BRAVE SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH
  214. The Brave New COVID Lifestyle
  215. Start Your Own Business
  216. Minimum Viable Income ( MVI)
  217. TRAINING.
  218. WHY VIDEO?
  219. How to Become Bolder
  220. You’ve Always Already Been a Photography Entrepreneur!
  221. The Future is All Digital Everything
  222. Digital Sharecropping
  223. DO IT FOR YOUR PAST AND FUTURE SELF
  224. In Praise of Buffer and Redundancy
  225. ASKING FOR PERMISSION IS FOR SUCKERS.
  226. POST-MONETARY SOCIETY.
  227. Advertise Your Own Stuff
  228. THE FUTURE IS DIGITAL.
  229. Simulated Universal Basic Income
  230. Is Losing Followers a Good Thing?
  231. How to Add to Economic Activity
  232. DIGITAL CAPITALISM
  233. MONEY IS MOVEMENT
  234. Anything is Possible
  235. BRAVE NEW WORLD OF DIGITAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
  236. GENERATE
  237. How to Profit from Calamity
  238. Capitalism 2.0
  239. WHY I’M SO PASSIONATE ABOUT INFORMATION
  240. SOCIETY 2.0
  241. PHOENIX ENTREPENEURSHIP
  242. How to Make Art from Home
  243. BUY YOURSELF
  244. JUST BLOG IT.
  245. MARKET YOURSELF
  246. EXPENSIVE TALK
  247. SOCIAL MEDIA SLAVERY
  248. Who Are Your Ideal Followers?
  249. Why I Blog, Vlog, and Log
  250. Your Perspective is Irrefutable
  251. What are Your Hidden Powers?
  252. IMPACT MAXIMIZATION, not Profit Maximization
  253. Our Desire to Maximize Impact and Change
  254. 10 Rich Tips How to Make Money from Photography
  255. Create What You Would Love to Consume
  256. Publish is Pleasure
  257. Retire Now
  258. Do You Desire to Become the Best?
  259. Solo Entrepreneurship
  260. My Vision of Photography Entrepreneurship
  261. PUT YOUR NAME ON IT
  262. The Desire to Transcend Ourselves
  263. MONEY THOUGHTS
  264. How to Retire
  265. Via Negativa Productivity
  266. Why You Must Make Your Own Website
  267. Individuals over Companies
  268. Build Yourself
  269. Success is Survival
  270. Why You Shouldn’t Go to Photography or Art School
  271. How to Differentiate Yourself as a Photographer
  272. Surpass Yourself
  273. Can You Handle Extreme Freedom?
  274. Boutique or Mass Market?
  275. Proof of Concept
  276. Unified Field Theory for Photography
  277. Build a Company You’d Never Sell
  278. Play the Long Game
  279. Entrepreneurship and Art
  280. What is the Source of our Strength?
  281. What’s the Future for Photography?
  282. Full-Stack Visual Artist
  283. Why Scale?
  284. What is Your Unfair Advantage?
  285. Substance Marketing
  286. Share Your Dopeness with Others
  287. Frugality is Freedom
  288. Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for Entrepreneurship
  289. Don’t Follow or Predict Trends, Start Your Own Trend!
  290. If You’re Not Busy Growing, You’re Busy Dying
  291. Entrepreneurship born from Superabundance, not Need/Necessity
  292. Photography Entrepreneurship Philosophy
  293. How to Master Marketing in Photography
  294. Photography Entrepreneurship Tips and Ideas
  295. Is Hustle Sufficient Unto Success?
  296. Don’t do it for the money
  297. DIGITAL MARXISM
  298. Zen Entrepreneurship
  299. BOLDER IS BETTER.
  300. Streamers Shall Inherit the Earth

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Table of Contents

Learn how to make a living from your passion:


Photography Business 101

How to Make Money with Photography

CAMERA MONEY USD by ANNETTE KIM
CAMERA MONEY USD by ANNETTE KIM

Photography Marketing 101


How to Hustle.

Entrepreneurial Principles

How to be a Full-time Photographer

Photography Blogging

How to Teach Photography

Social Media

How to Save Money

START HERE >

MONEY 101

  1. Just Follow the Money
  2. My Money Philosophy
  3. Eternal fame and glory over money
  4. The Trillion Dollar Question: How to Make Money on the Internet Without Advertising?
  5. Entrepreneurship that Doesn’t Involve Money-Making?
  6. Money Ain’t Real
  7. Making Money for Fun, Not to Get Rich
  8. Why Money?

PHILOSOPHY BY KIM

Essays by KIM

  1. How to Become a Philosopher
  2. Deep Vanity
  3. Time Will Tell
  4. What is Wisdom?
  5. LOOK *BEYOND*
  6. BECOMING MORE IMMORAL?
  7. ‘LUCK’ VS COURAGE
  8. ‘SKILL’ VS MERIT?
  9. Becoming Antifragile
  10. How to “Improve” Men
  11. The Art of Virtue
  12. How to Dominate
  13. JUST SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCES AND WISDOM WITH OTHERS.
  14. How to Get More Done in a Single Day – MEMENTO MORI PHILOSOPHY
  15. THINK FOR YOURSELF
  16. Cruel?
  17. GO DEMIGOD.
  18. How to Be Happy: Challenge and Danger Philosophy
  19. To Become Greater, You Must Become *LESS* Productive!
  20. Imperfect Beauty
  21. The Philosophy of Pleasure
  22. What Interests You?
  23. Anti Theory of Everything
  24. Become?
  25. STRONGER OR NOT?
  26. Carte Blanche Ideals
  27. CHOOSE JOY
  28. Don’t Judge Your Impulses
  29. On Becoming Less Human
  30. COWARDICE.
  31. The Philosophy of Futurism
  32. PHILOSOPHY IS VALUE-SETTING
  33. PHILOSOPHY IS NOT LIFESTYLE
  34. WHY STANDARDIZATION IS BAD.
  35. YOUR OWN TABLE OF VALUES.
  36. RETRO IS BAD.
  37. INSANELY LOFTY THOUGHTS.
  38. Strive to *Lose* Weight, Not *Gain* Weight
  39. DIABLO II ANALOGIES FOR REAL LIFE.
  40. If You Know Your *WHY* You Can Discover Any *HOW*
  41. Life is Too Short to Be Miserable
  42. What Consumption Takes Skill?
  43. OFF THE GRID.
  44. REALITY IS CRUEL.
  45. Pain is Information
  46. WHY REMOVE VULGARITY AND DISORDER FROM OUR EYES?
  47. AUTOTELIC.
  48. UNPLUG.
  49. How to Become a Philosopher
  50. SUBOPTIMAL IS OPTIMAL
  51. THE LUST FOR MORE.
  52. TO DO IS TO BECOME.
  53. IN PRAISE OF AGGRESSIVE.
  54. THE PHILOSOPHY OF OPTIMISM
  55. OUR PHILOSOPHICAL WILL TO EXISTENCE
  56. Is Hope a Vice?
  57. MOVE MEAN
  58. Carte Blanche Ideals
  59. One Interesting Thought
  60. What Lasts? What Doesn’t Last?
  61. A WOUND STIMULATES THE RECUPERATIVE POWERS
  62. Children & Purpose
  63. Thoughts on Becoming a Parent
  64. Where Does Our Desire to Upgrade Come From?
  65. WE ALWAYS NEED SOMETHING FURTHER TO ASPIRE TO.
  66. Self-Task Yourself an Awesome Mission in Life
  67. Differentiation vs Equalization
  68. My Passion to *Become* Something More
  69. No Aesthetic or Ethos is Forever
  70. What is Your Higher Purpose in Life?
  71. IT WILL NEVER SATISFY YOU.
  72. How to Decide
  73. Things You *Want* to Do vs Things You *MUST* Do
  74. Towards a More Beautiful Mode of Existence and Future
  75. EXTREME GRATITUDE.
  76. AMAP (As Much as Possible) or None.
  77. Why or How Does it Matter?
  78. The Philosophy of Time and Events
  79. How *Not* to Resent
  80. FORWARD LOOKING
  81. DOMAIN FLEXIBILITY.
  82. The Miracle of Human Growth
  83. EXTREME ADAPTATION.
  84. Why Plan?
  85. You Don’t Need to Justify Yourself
  86. The Philosophy of Ego
  87. True vs False Passions
  88. How to Achieve Tranquility
  89. On Making Your Own Philosophy
  90. The Purpose of Life is to Create New Life
  91. Think On!
  92. The Wisdom of Doing Nothing
  93. Congruency
  94. My Thoughts on Meditation
  95. The Philosophy of Purpose
  96. Emulate Yourself
  97. Good Fear, Bad Fear
  98. For the Betterment of Humanity or Just Yourself?
  99. What you *really* believe in and care for is manifested through your actions (or non-actions)
  100. Why Culture is Your Enemy
  101. YOUR EXPERIENCES ARE KING.
  102. LIFE IS INHERENTLY GOOD.
  103. Artistic, Physical, and Philosophical Muscles
  104. All New Experiences are Good Experiences
  105. What is the Purpose of X?
  106. UTILITY.
  107. Philosophy is a Luxury
  108. The Attempt is More Interesting than the Result
  109. Joyfulness vs “Happiness”
  110. Effectiveness Over Happiness
  111. Self Actualization
  112. MAXIMAL ENGAGEMENT
  113. Life & Pain
  114. On Living Every Day with No Regret
  115. Learn as if you’re going to live forever, live as if you’re going to die tomorrow
  116. Live Every Day Like it Were the Last Day of Your Life
  117. Self-Determination
  118. FALSE GRATITUDE vs REAL GRATITUDE
  119. HOW TO LIVE MORE
  120. THE UPSIDE OF TRAGEDY
  121. Satisfaction is a Sucker’s Game
  122. Supreme Repose
  123. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF LIFE? According to ERIC KIM
  124. STUBBORN, FLEXIBLE
  125. EVERYTHING HAPPENS AS IT *SHOULD* HAVE HAD HAPPENED
  126. Good Addiction, Bad Addiction?
  127. What is the Best Life?
  128. The Philosophy of Thinking
  129. The Philosophy of Conspiracies
  130. Conspiracies
  131. Growth
  132. Skepticism.
  133. What Do You Really Want Out of Life?
  134. Seem or Be?
  135. Learn Through Pain
  136. Respect Yourself
  137. In Praise of Elitism
  138. Why Independent Thinking?
  139. I Will Never Die
  140. Bitter is Better
  141. The Genesis of Nihilism and Existential Dread
  142. The Ethics of Personal Enrichment
  143. Good vs Not Good
  144. Punished by Privilege
  145. Abstinence Over Moderation
  146. Just Leave Others Alone
  147. You Can Only Critique that Which You Truly Understand and Love
  148. ERIC KIM Critique of Metaphysics
  149. Only Trust Philosophers Who Deadlift
  150. Heuristic: If Someone Talks Shit About Others Behind Their Back, Most Likely They’re Also Talking Shit About You Behind Your Back
  151. Virtue is a Privilege
  152. What Are Your Life Goals?
  153. Honesty
  154. Why I’m Anti Moderation
  155. No Spite, No Malice.
  156. Ascending Life or Descending Life?
  157. Double Edged Sword
  158. Ignorance.
  159. Why I Don’t Trust “Nice Guys”
  160. Why You Must Share Your Opinion
  161. Selfish Isn’t Evil
  162. Wisdom is the Goal
  163. YOU ARE KING.
  164. MASTER YOURSELF
  165. What is “Good” for You is Often what is Bad for You
  166. Care.
  167. BITTERSWEET
  168. ONE REP MAX
  169. Morality and Ethics is the Snare
  170. BY HELPING YOURSELF, YOU BEST HELP OTHERS
  171. Insanity is Good.
  172. Think Deep.
  173. PHILOSOPHY IS THE FUTURE.
  174. Open Mind vs Closed Mind
  175. ENTHUSIASM IS GENIUS
  176. Towards a More Critical and Rigorous Line of Thinking
  177. How to Encourage and a Foster Independent and Free Thinking
  178. What is the Purpose of Life?
  179. WHY PHILOSOPHY IS SUPREME.
  180. Elitism.
  181. I Cannot Form an Opinion About Somebody Until I’ve Met Them in the Flesh
  182. ALL GENETICS ARE GOOD GENETICS.
  183. Happiness vs Freedom
  184. The Birth of a Hater
  185. My Way Isn’t the Right Way
  186. Walking as an Existential Thing
  187. Why I’m So Tolerant
  188. Mortal Gods
  189. THE HUMAN SPECIES
  190. Why I’m So Skeptical
  191. Just Follow the Money
  192. Why Selfish?
  193. WHY WE CANNOT BLAME OTHERS
  194. Why Are We So Anti Elitism?
  195. What Actually Interests You?
  196. How to Become Yourself
  197. SELF HATE
  198. Optimistic Fatalism
  199. Death is the Ultimate Creative Constraint
  200. FLUX.
  201. How to Think for Yourself
  202. FLESH
  203. How to Live the Best Life
  204. Why Live a Life Without Regrets?
  205. Why Plato Ruined Art and Aesthetics for Us
  206. Self Respect
  207. Hypocrite vs Contradict
  208. Ideals vs Reality
  209. Spaceship Philosophy
  210. What is Your Ideal Life?
  211. MY EXTREME GRATITUDE TOWARDS LIFE AND BEING ALIVE!
  212. Critique of Utilitarianism
  213. Don’t Treat Others the Way You Want to Be Treated
  214. The Eternal Recurrence of Tragedy and Joy in Life
  215. Elite Asceticism
  216. Why I Don’t Like Numbers
  217. Action and Reaction, Cause and Effect
  218. The Antidote to Nihilism: The Philosophy of Nothingness
  219. ERIC KIM Notes on Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
  220. EXPLOIT CHAOS.
  221. WHY I DON’T BELIEVE IN GENETICS
  222. Self-Wisdom
  223. The Future Belongs to the Fearless
  224. INDIVIDUALISM
  225. Why Live Forever?
  226. THIS TOO WILL PASS.
  227. Why Education?
  228. How to Become Yourself
  229. Things Shouldn’t Go Back to the Way They Used to Be
  230. Why Am I So Cruel?
  231. The Great Joy of Existence
  232. Virtue for the Sake of Virtue
  233. NO DISDAIN.
  234. INTELLIGENT IGNORANCE
  235. A LIFE WITHOUT PAIN, DIFFICULTY OR TRAGEDY ISN’T A LIFE WORTH LIVING
  236. BITTER IS BETTER.
  237. EXPLOIT THE BEST FROM TRAGEDY AND LIFE 
  238. DISREGARD FOR SELF-PRESERVATION
  239. PAIN.
  240. WHAT IF EVERYTHING IS NOT GONNA BE ALRIGHT?
  241. Tomorrow is Never
  242. Life is the Ultimate Creative Constraint
  243. EMBODIED REALITY
  244. BLACK SWAN
  245. THINGS WILL NEVER GO BACK TO THE WAY THEY USED TO BE
  246. What are you *really* afraid of?
  247. HAPPINESS ISN’T THE GOAL
  248. Philosophy is King
  249. Why is Selfish Evil?
  250. YOU’RE CONSTANTLY IN A STATE OF BECOMING
  251. ENTITLEMENT A SIN?
  252. NARCISSISM
  253. BE BRUTALLY HONEST WITH YOURSELF
  254. WHY FREE WILL?
  255. OBEY YOUR OPINION
  256. EGO IS GOOD.
  257. WHY IT IS GOOD TO BE INTO YOURSELF
  258. Seek the Good Pain
  259. Anti-Perfection in Photography, Art, and Life
  260. Can You Become an End into Yourself?
  261. WHY I LIVE
  262. Why I Hate Decline
  263. Why I Eat
  264. Why am I So Positive and Optimistic?
  265. EFFORT IS ENJOYMENT
  266. Never Stop Gaining
  267. TRUST YOURSELF
  268. A Life of Maximal Personal Independence
  269. What Do You Desire to Become?
  270. What Do I Want from Technology?
  271. Stratified Society
  272. Do You Love or Hate Reality?
  273. On the Brian, Body and Mind
  274. I’m Maximally Happy, Now What?
  275. Care over Fame
  276. ACTIVE NIHILISM
  277. Never Stop Subtracting
  278. How to Live a Happier and More Epic Life
  279. A Risker Life is a Better Life
  280. Only Work on Things You Can Imagine Doing for Eternity
  281. How to Maximize Your Happiness
  282. Influence
  283. The Gladiator Makes His Plans once He Enters the Ring
  284. Meditations on Meaning in Life
  285. There is Nothing More Interesting than Human Beings
  286. Is Hope a Vice?
  287. EGO
  288. Why Be Unique?
  289. Happiness is Metabolism Health and Strength
  290. You’re the Hero
  291. Is Productivity a Virtue or Vice?
  292. Why Do We Prize the Rare?
  293. The Joy of Uncertainty
  294. How Should I Best Use My Time and Life?
  295. A Life Without Pain or Suffering Isn’t a Life Worth Living
  296. Free or Unfree?
  297. What Do You Really Care For in Life?
  298. Anti-Satisfaction in Life
  299. Why Think?
  300. The Eternal Return
  301. Only Do What is Best for You!
  302. Truthiness
  303. Why Be Happy?
  304. Permissionless Living
  305. In Praise of Unconventional Wisdom
  306. Become the Change Which You Wish to See in the World
  307. Happiness
  308. Beyond Freedom
  309. Idolize People, Not Stuff
  310. What Makes You Stronger? What Makes You Weaker?
  311. Why Hate?
  312. The Secret of Happiness
  313. You’re Constantly in a State of Becoming
  314. Life is about Choices, Not Obligations
  315. Anti-Nihilism
  316. First, Do What is Best for You.
  317. Live Dynamic
  318. How to Prosper
  319. Is the Point of Life to Be Satisfied?
  320. SUPREME EFFORT OF WILL.
  321. How to Become more Idealistic
  322. Thrivival 101
  323. Create Yourself
  324. Non-Small
  325. Inspiration
  326. How to Live a Heroic Life: Dare the Heights!
  327. Human Augmentation
  328. Prune
  329. Happiness: Do What You Want to Do (And Don’t Do What You Don’t Want to Do)
  330. Avoid Vain (Empty) Pursuits in Life
  331. Modern Slavery
  332. Kill the Leeches
  333. Wisdom Augmentation
  334. Why We Need Friction in Life
  335. Straight Line Philosophy
  336. What’s Your End-Game in Life?
  337. Create Your Own Happiness Today
  338. Desire Both Pain and Pleasure in Life
  339. Try the Impossible
  340. SELF-RESPECT
  341. Anti-Social Extrovert
  342. Never Blame Anybody But Yourself
  343. Human Flourishing
  344. Simpler, Not Better.
  345. How to be Free
  346. Embrace the Extremes
  347. Cultivate Your Own Culture
  348. COURAGE.
  349. Thrivival
  350. Inner Power
  351. How to Live a Purposeful Life
  352. My Definition of Happiness
  353. Why Change is Good
  354. Why Work?
  355. How to Live the Happiest Possible Life
  356. The Two-Pronged Approach to Maximize Joy in Your Life
  357. You Always Have Another Option!
  358. INFINITISM
  359. Never Stop!
  360. What is Your Self-Directed Purpose in Life?
  361. Live Today Like it Were Your Last
  362. Do You Photograph to Live, or Live to Photograph?
  363. ARTIST-PHILOSOPHER
  364. Live Life to the Fullest!
  365. In Praise of Selfishness
  366. Why You Must Be a YAY-SAYER to Succeed in Entrepreneurship and Life
  367. Why I Love Walking
  368. Live Life Like a Video Game!
  369. Simple Luxuries in Life
  370. Treat Your Life Like a Fun Experiment!
  371. Only Prove it to Yourself
  372. You Don’t Always Need to Feel Joyful to Live a Fulfilling and Meaningful Life
  373. Life is Too Short to Be Bored!
  374. Money Cannot Destroy Boredom
  375. How to Find Inspiration in Life
  376. Why You Must Ignore Haters to Succeed and Win in Life
  377. An Active Life is a Happy Life
  378. My Simple Joys in Life
  379. Never Stop Striving
  380. How to Motivate Yourself in Life
  381. How to Be Optimistic in Life
  382. How to Dictate Your Purpose in Life
  383. In Praise of a Dynamic Life
  384. PURPOSE.
  385. How to Enjoy Life
  386. Photography Therapy
  387. How to Conquer Regret
  388. Take Your Play Very Seriously.
  389. How to Prosper
  390. Memento Vivere
  391. Destroy in Order to CREATE
  392. Trust Your Body More Than Your Mind
  393. Make Photos to Make Meaning in Your Life
  394. Seek Knowledge, Not Information
  395. The Purpose of Human Life
  396. How to Overcome Impedence
  397. Why I Love Death
  398. How to Be Centered in the Eternal Now
  399. How to Be Happy
  400. Why Do You Care What Others Think of You?
  401. Why I’m Happy
  402. Why?
  403. Why I’m So Prolific
  404. How to Reduce LAG in Life

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STOICISM 101

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Become invincible:

  1. Introduction to Stoicism
  2. STOIC FLEX.
  3. Becoming Spartan
  4. MAKE IT ENTERTAINING FOR YOURSELF!
  5. Stoic Aesthetics?
  6. The Philosophy of Ugliness
  7. Bad Stoicism
  8. Stoicism 2.0
  9. Becoming Stoic
  10. LEMONADE.
  11. Why Arguments and Confrontations Are Good
  12. “I’m Over It”
  13. How to Deal With Miserable People
  14. How to Become a Stoic
  15. How to Ignore
  16. Pretend like you didn’t hear them
  17. Bad Stoic Strategies
  18. The Stoic Way of Dealing With Unpleasant or Miserable People
  19. HOW TO BECOME A STOIC
  20. Stoicism Stunts Our Power?
  21. Stoicism is Mental Resistance Training
  22. STOIC STRATEGIES.
  23. How to Become Fearless
  24. Extreme Stoicism
  25. Ethics are Aesthetic
  26. Indifference to Pain or Suffering
  27. When is Stoicism Good? When is Stoicism Bad?
  28. Why Others Criticize or Insult You
  29. True Difficulty
  30. What if Covid Never Goes Away?
  31. SUPER STOIC
  32. Anti-Hedonism
  33. HOW TO CONQUER FEAR
  34. ANTI FEAR
  35. It is the Duty of the Strong to Help the Weak
  36. The Goal is to Become Stronger
  37. HYPER STOICISM
  38. HYPER HERO
  39. TRANSFORM EVERY DOWNSIDE INTO AN UPSIDE
  40. STOICISM x Child’s Mind
  41. The Art of Manly Virtue
  42. Resistance Makes Us Stronger!
  43. DON’T LIVE IN FEAR
  44. Emotions are Good
  45. Conquer Your Anger
  46. BLACK EAGLE
  47. DIFFICULTY AWAKENS YOUR INNER-GENIUS.
  48. STOICISM IS ARMOR FOR THE MIND
  49. The Spartan-Stoic Lifestyle
  50. How I Conquered Fear
  51. HOW TO CURE FEAR.
  52. LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL.
  53. The Upside of Poverty
  54. How I Became Me
  55. THE WILL TO POWER, OR THE WILL TO FEAR?
  56. ATTACK REALITY
  57. Living *THROUGH* History
  58. How to Fear Less
  59. Fear is the Ultimate Contagious Disease
  60. STOICISM FOR DUMMIES
  61. Don’t Be Scared!
  62. WHAT CAN YOU CONTROL, WHAT CAN YOU NOT CONTROL?
  63. HOW YOU CAN CONQUER FEAR
  64. YOU’RE STRONGER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE.
  65. EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
  66. WHY AREN’T THINGS WORSE?
  67. My Philosophy on Masculinity
  68. A Riskier Life is a Better Life #philosophy #stoicism
  69. How to Creatively Flourish in Life
  70. Introduction to Stoicism
  71. How to Become Stronger
  72. How to Conquer Depression With Photography
  73. What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger
  74. How to Respect Yourself
  75. How to Believe in Yourself
  76. How to Steer Fear
  77. How to Conquer Pessimism
  78. How to Conquer Anxiety
  79. How to Overcome Your Fear of People
  80. How to Be Optimistic
  81. Why I Don’t Take My Anger Seriously
  82. HOW TO BECOME MORE POWERFUL
  83. POSITIVITY.
  84. HOW TO BECOME SUPERHUMAN
  85. How to Give a Fuck Less
  86. ALL IN.
  87. Why I Cut My Dad Out of My Life.
  88. Your iPhone Only Has 5% Battery Left.
  89. How not to give a FUCK about your REPUTATION
  90. WHAT IS A HUMAN?
  91. HAPPINESS.
  92. The Regret Minimization Framework in Photography and Life
  93. How to Be a HERO
  94. Conquer Your Fears by Making Fear Your Slave
  95. Rule Circumstances; Don’t Let Your Circumstances Rule You
  96. How to Love Yourself
  97. How to Turn Shit into Gold
  98. Your Parents Fuck You Up
  99. Immortality
  100. What Kills You Makes You Stronger
  101. How to Be Patient
  102. How to Conquer Anger
  103. How to Bounce Back in Life
  104. How to Overcome Resistance
  105. Nothing Unlimited is Good; Nothing Good is Unlimited
  106. You Have No Limits
  107. Can 1’s and 0’s Hurt You?
  108. The Envious Moment is Flying Now
  109. Tomorrow We’ll Sail the Wide Seas Again
  110. How to Forgive Others
  111. Focus on Your Actions, Not the Results
  112. Everything Will Be Alright
  113. How to Be a Stoic Street Photographer
  114. How to Be a Spartan Photographer
  115. How to Overcome Your Fears in Life
  116. How to Stop Worrying in Life
  117. How to Use Photography as Self-Therapy
  118. How to Free Your Soul From Disturbance
  119. 3 Stoic Techniques that Can Help You Gain Tranquility
  120. Can People Weaker than You Hurt You?
  121. Does a Doctor Get Angry at a Crazy Patient?
  122. Own Nothing

The Stoic Masters

Learn from the master stoics:

See all philosophy >

The Philosophy of Happiness

Happiness thoughts:

  1. What Will Make You Happier?
    BOLD LIVING.
  2. HAPPINESS IS ALWAYS ASPIRING FOR MORE.
  3. How to Boost Your Mood
  4. How to Maximize Your Happiness
  5. Life Without Photography is Not a Life Worth Living
  6. 10 Tips to Be Happier and More Loving in Life
  7. How to Find Happiness in Your Photography
  8. How to Find Satisfaction in Your Photography
  9. 30 Tips to Conquer G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome)
  10. 55 Tips to Be Happier in Life
  11. On the Shortness of Life
  12. Small is Beautiful
  13. Photography (and Life) is About Subtraction, Not Addition
  14. Why Envy Any Other Photographer?
  15. How to Be Happy in All Circumstances
  16. Desire the Life You Already Have
  17. Should You Shoot if You Don’t Want To?
  18. Live a Life of Leisure
  19. Good Enough
  20. 28 Lessons I’ve Learned From Life
  21. 27 Lessons I’ve Learned About Photography and Life
  22. 26 Lessons Life Has Taught Me About Street Photography
  23. Desire
  24. Good Enough
  25. Things I Am Grateful For
  26. How to Die Without Regrets
  27. 12 Scientifically Proven Ways to Have More Happiness in Street Photography
  28. Having No Choices is the Ultimate Freedom
  29. How to Be Grateful For What You Have

ETHICS by KIM

Your own personal code of ethics:

  1. Stubborn Geniuses
  2. Avoid Misery
  3. What We Hate
  4. HOW I DEAL WITH RACISM
  5. How to Become a Great Man
  6. BETTER TO FOLLOW YOUR GUT AND BE WRONG THAN DISOBEY YOUR GUT AND BE RIGHT
  7. “I CAN’T BE FUCKED.”
  8. Carte Blanche Ethics
  9. Toxic People
  10. Why Are We So Into Other People
  11. Just focus on yourself and your own life
  12. Perfect morals and ethics is following your own gut
    WHY ETIQUETTE?
  13. NO BLAME, JUST CAUSE AND EFFECT.
  14. Ignorance Takes Courage
  15. TREAT OTHERS CARTE BLANCHE
  16. Don’t give people what they want or what you *think* they want, give them what you think they *should* have.
  17. Anti Small
  18. Disdain or Admiration?
  19. Beware Those With Good Intentions
  20. STUBBORN x FLEXIBLE
  21. ETHICS ARE VIA NEGATIVA
  22. OBEDIENCE & DISCIPLINE
  23. The Motive of Criticism
  24. Ethics are Social
  25. Anti Role Models
  26. What is Greed?
  27. On Having the Courage to Make Your Own Decisions
  28. How *NOT* to Get Duped or Suckered
  29. Why Help Others?
  30. The Duty of the Strong
  31. Why I’m So Intolerant Towards Intolerance
  32. The Ethics of Criticizing Others
  33. Consult Your Own Conscience
  34. The Ethics of Shit Talking
  35. The Ethics of Personal Enrichment
  36. I’m Easily Distracted
  37. On Forming Your Own Opinion
  38. ERIC KIM Philosophy of Tolerance
  39. Tolerance
  40. Aesthetics are Ethics
  41. Morality and Ethics

DESIGN THOUGHTS

hand red black macro ERIC KIM
  1. INSANELY LIGHTWEIGHT
  2. MORE AGGRESSIVE DESIGN
  3. COMPROMISE DESIGN.
  4. ‘WASTEFUL’?
  5. Tight vs Loose
  6. Thick vs Thin
  7. Why Lamborghini is No Longer Interesting to Me
  8. DESIGN PHILOSOPHY IS AN ETHOS.
  9. LESS SURFACE AREA.
  10. ANTI IN-BETWEEN
  11. CLASSIC/TIMELESS IS BORING.
  12. Photographers are Designers
  13. Why Perfect?
  14. Beautiful but Boring
  15. AGGRESSIVE DESIGN.
  16. DESIGN IS KING.
  17. WHY DESIGN?
  18. THE RAGING BULL.
  19. BARE BONES.
  20. The Best Car for Thinking
  21. Zen Aesthetics
  22. Why Minimalism?
  23. SPARTAN DESIGN.
  24. Generic Design
  25. An Elite Aesthetic
  26. Not Hateful Design
  27. New Forward Facing Design vs Retrospective and Nostalgic Design
  28. Depressing Design vs Uplifting Design
  29. The Best Design Towards What Ends?
  30. Exciting or Boring Design?
  31. On Design & Photography
  32. A Designer Desires to Design and Create Things!
  33. Delightful Technology and Design
  34. Dynamic Aesthetics
  35. Design vs Brand Prestige
  36. Classic Proportions, Modern Design
  37. Why Does Design Matter?
  38. The Best Design
  39. MUSCULAR DESIGN.
  40. Camera Design
  41. Watch Design

SOCIOLOGY by KIM

Red selfie crimson ERIC KIM icon
  1. Sociology vs Philosophy?
  2. SOCIAL DOMINANCE THEORY
  3. FLAT SOCIETY
  4. National vs Individual Pride
  5. Dystopia is a Utopia
  6. A NEW SOCIETY.
  7. THE DEEP INDIVIDUAL.
  8. Why is It So Hard for Us To Follow Our Gut and Instinct?
  9. Sociology of Comparison
  10. Mimetic Desires
  11. Interest in Humans or Objects?
  12. Social Stochastic Resonance
  13. How to Live Bravely in Today’s Brave New World and Society
  14. Arousal
  15. Is Humanity on the Decline?
  16. Social Innovations
  17. Society *Shouldn’t* Be Fair
  18. Why Society Doesn’t Want Free Thinkers and Free Livers
  19. Our New Soft Society
  20. HARD SOCIETY

Sociological Theory


Photography and Sociology

MOTIVATION BY KIM

Become more:

  1. PHOTOGRAPHY INSPIRATION IDEAS
  2. Setbacks are a motivator, a turbocharger
  3. THERE IS SO MUCH OF THE WORLD TO PHOTOGRAPH!
  4. The Philosophy of Optimism
  5. What Slows You Down?
  6. Meta Editing
  7. Move Mass
  8. What’s “Cool”?
  9. No In-Between
  10. Independent Aspirations
  11. COMPULSION.
  12. *BEYOND* PERFECT.
  13. BUY BOOKS WHEN YOU WANT TO BUY GEAR.
  14. How to Make More Photos
  15. JUST MAKE MORE PHOTOS.
  16. MY DESIRE TO CAPTURE IT ALL.
  17. VISUAL DETOX.
  18. Photography is Our Addiction
  19. A BILLION PHOTOS
  20. THE MOTIVATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER.
  21. CURIOUS.
  22. PROVOKE.
  23. How to Do More Photography
  24. PRACTICE.
  25. TURBOCHARGE YOURSELF, TURBOCHARGE OTHERS.
  26. LIFE IS ALL UPSIDE, NO DOWNSIDE.
  27. PHOTO TURBO THOUGHTS
  28. No Such Thing as Good or Bad; Simply Stimulating or Not Stimulating
  29. The Best Genre is No Genre
  30. The Key to Photographic Motivation
  31. Pacifying Media, Motivational Media
  32. Our Hunger for New Experiences
  33. Mental Motivation
  34. ALL ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY.
  35. The Photographer as Creator
  36. Create *BEYOND* Yourself
  37. Let Your Curiosity Drive Your Photography
  38. LOVE YOUR PHOTOS.
  39. Abstract Monochrome Photography
  40. SHOOT WITHOUT THINKING.
  41. Just Have Fun With Photography
  42. Wu-Wei Effortless Motivation
  43. CONSISTENCY x NOVELTY
  44. Easily Bored?
  45. Face Photography
  46. How to Become More Self-Motivated in Your Photography
  47. YOUR OWN PHOTOS ARE THE BEST PHOTOS.
  48. On Sharing Your Favorite Photos
  49. UBERABUNDANCE.
  50. Peak Photographic Productivity
  51. When to Review Your Photos
  52. Serotonin and Photos
  53. The Photos You Have Yet Shot are Your Most Important Photos
  54. 3 Tips How to Master Photography
  55. Do You Like Your Own Photos?
  56. The Beauty of Mundane, Everyday Moments
  57. Reasons Why to Be Optimistic About the Future
  58. A Photography-Full Future
  59. The More You Shoot, the Better
  60. How Many Photos Should You Shoot Everyday?
  61. Why Do We Love Motion?
  62. Now is Your Chance to Shoot History in the Making
  63. Photo by Photo
  64. How and Why Photography Remains So Interesting to Me
  65. How to Conquer Your Inner Photographic Critic
  66. Thoughts on HDR Photography
  67. New Year, New Photos
  68. Why Exhibit Your Photos?
  69. Photography is Visual Poetry
  70. What’s the Purpose of Art?
  71. Why Do We Photographers Have Such a Hard Time Staying Inspired and Motivated?
  72. On Becoming a More Optimistic Photographer
  73. Philosophy of Weather
  74. How to Become a More Optimistic Photographer and Human
  75. You Are a Creative Photographer
  76. JUST SHARE YOUR ARTISTIC PROCESS WITH OTHERS.
  77. What Motivates Me to Shoot?
  78. How to Maximize Yourself to the Fullest
  79. HOW TO MOVE AND MOTIVATE PEOPLE
  80. Autotelic Photography
  81. The more I go out and photograph the world, the more interesting and beautiful the world becomes
  82. Why Photographers Have Such Low Self-Esteem
  83. ERIC KIM MOTIVATION
  84. Why Am I So Unmotivated?
  85. EVERY DAY IS A NEW DAY
  86. WHY ARE YOU SO UNMOTIVATED?
  87. Movement is Motivation
  88. How to Motivate Myself to Make New Photos
  89. Never Stop Optimizing
  90. How to Help and Motivate Others
  91. Feed On Your Own Photos; Let Them Nourish You!
  92. Competition is for Suckers
  93. A Future Without Travel
  94. How Google Can Improve Your Photography
  95. DEVELOP YOURSELF.
  96. NEVER STOP MOVING!
  97. How I Self-Motivate Myself
  98. Every Day the Sun is Birthed Anew
  99. A Life Without Photography Isn’t a Life Worth Living
  100. WIN.
  101. 8 Practical Photography Assignments for You
  102. Tabula Rasa, Blank Slate, Carte Blanche
  103. RELENTLESS
  104. LIFE IS THE ULTIMATE RPG
  105. HYPER VIGOR
  106. FRESH AIR PHOTOS
  107. WHO IS GONNA THRIVE IN TODAY’S BRAVE NEW WORLD?
  108. ARTISTIC OPTIMISM
  109. PASSION, not Discipline
  110. Better Bad Photos than No Photos
  111. The Empowering Feeling of Failure
  112. To Be Human is to Move
  113. Enjoy the Process
  114. Better Bad Photos than No Photos
  115. Why Keep Making New Art and Photos, Indefinitely?
  116. Photography Motivation: What if There is Nothing Interesting to Photograph?
  117. Move First, Motivation Later
  118. Motivation Follows the Action
  119. In Praise of Heroes
  120. 5 Tips How to Boost Your Creativity
  121. How to Have Inspiration to Take Photos in the Suburbs
  122. Anything that Motivates You to Move is Good!
  123. The Productive Photographer is the Happiest Photographer!
  124. Make Today Count!
  125. How to Break Through Photographer’s Block
  126. The Joyful Photographer
  127. The Dancing Photographer
  128. The Kaizen Process of Gradual Self-Improvement in Photography
  129. It is Your Duty to Make Beautiful Pictures!
  130. Making Pictures IS Happiness!
  131. NO EXCUSES.
  132. The Pomodoro Photography Technique
  133. The ABC of Photography
  134. Just Shoot It.
  135. How to Change the World With Photography
  136. How to Find Inspiration in Photography and Life
  137. How to Overcome Resistance
  138. Create Against the Past
  139. How I Motivate Myself to Make Photos
  140. Wear Your Camera Like a Necklace or Bracelet
  141. Have Your Photos Come to You
  142. How to Level Up in Your Photography
  143. How Not to Give a Fuck of What Others Think of You
  144. How to Overcome Procrastination in Your Photography
  145. How to Reinspire Your Photography
  146. What is Your Mission in Photography and Life?
  147. How to Overcome Photographer’s Block
  148. Be a Photographer Now
  149. How to Overcome Boredom with Photography
  150. Never Stop Growing as a Photographer
  151. Why Do You Need “Inspiration” to Shoot?
  152. Just Shoot.
  153. 5 Things to Do If You’ve Lost Your Passion for Photography
  154. How to Have Unshakeable Confidence in Yourself
  155. Don’t Give Up On Your Dream
  156. Don’t Waste Your Potential
  157. Unlock Your Potential
  158. Empower Others With Your Photography
  159. Why You Shouldn’t Follow Your Passion in Photography

See all articles >

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 101

walking woman umbrella crimson red
  1. How to Become More Stealth in Street Photography
  2. HOW TO BECOME A BETTER STREET PHOTOGRAPHER
  3. Street Photography Mastery
  4. How I Became the Greatest Street Photographer Alive
  5. Antifragile Photography
  6. How to Conquer Your Fears in Street Photography
  7. INSANELY AUDACIOUS AND BOLD
  8. 5 Simple Street Photography Techniques
  9. STREET PHOTOGRAPHER.
  10. The Street Photographer Ideal
  11. 50 Street Photography Tips, Techniques and Ideas
  12. Street Photography Values
  13. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY DOESN’T NEED TO HAVE PEOPLE IN IT.
  14. Why Street Photography is So Great
  15. WHY BECOME A STREET PHOTOGRAPHER?
  16. Society Photography, Not “Street” Photography
  17. How to Street Photography
  18. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY OPTIONALITY.
  19. 10 Street Photography Tips
  20. The Street Photographer as the Apex Photographer
  21. Street Photography & Adrenaline
  22. STREETTOGS STARTING GUIDE
  23. 50 Street Photography Tips by ERIC KIM
  24. What I Wish I Knew If I Started Street Photography All Over Again
  25. Photograph like it’s not a big deal
  26. Suburb Street Photography
  27. What is Our Personal Motivation Behind Street Photography?
  28. WHY I’M SO PASSIONATE ABOUT STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
  29. Personal Street Photography
  30. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY AS A PRACTICE.
  31. Pandemic Street Photography
  32. AIRPORT STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
  33. How to Shoot Street Photography Right Now
  34. Towards a More Independent Street Photography Approach
  35. How Street Photography Improves Your Life
  36. How to Tell Stories in Your Street Photos
  37. Face Street Photography
  38. How to Start Shooting Street Photography
  39. How to Shoot Street Photography During a Pandemic
  40. 7 Street Photography Assignment Ideas

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT

street photography starter kit by ERIC KIM

Master street photography with STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT.


STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 101

Hearts. Hollywood, 2011 #flash

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


Brave New Street Photography

Street Photographs

ERIC KIM layers hong kong
  1. How to Shoot Street Photography with Dads and Kids
  2. HOW I BECAME SUCH A GREAT STREET PHOTOGRAPHER
  3. Use Quarantine as an Opportunity to Pick up Film Photography
  4. Hong Kong Street Photography by ERIC KIM

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:

  1. Why Study the Masters of Photography?
  2. Great Female Master Photographers
  3. Cheat Sheet of the Masters of Photography
  4. 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
  5. Beginner’s Guide to the Masters of Street Photography
  6. Download All Articles >

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 >

Entrepreneurship by KIM

Become the change which you desire to see manifested in the world!

Become you.

  1. Why Doesn’t Anything Satisfy Me?
  2. ZERO FINANCIAL CONCERNS
  3. How to Gain Ascendancy
  4. Business vs Entrepreneurship?
  5. TAKE REAL CHANCES
  6. Making Money as a Hobby
  7. The Best Exercises for Entrepreneurs
  8. INCOME VS EXPENSES MONEY LIFESTYLE PHILOSOPHY
  9. Entrepreneurship is the privilege of being able to attempt something new
  10. How to Become More Influential
  11. The Point of Life is Entrepreneurship?
  12. How to Think Like an Entrepreneur
  13. Become the Outlier
  14. Self Reliance
  15. How to Extend Your Reach
  16. NEWS: How to Think Like an Entrepreneur
  17. PVP (Player vs Player)
  18. How I became so influential
  19. WE LOVE THE *SENSATION* OF RISK-TAKING
  20. WHY HIGH PROFIT MARGINS?
  21. INNOVATION THOUGHTS
  22. OVERCONFIDENCE IS GOOD.
  23. GARAGE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
  24. PERHAPS IT IS GOOD TO BE “DELUSIONAL”
  25. USE YOUR WEALTH TO BUY STUFF, OR TO BUILD AND INNOVATE STUFF?
  26. HOW TO THRIVE
  27. Target Demographic
  28. Ambition Over Happiness
  29. Anti Collaboration
  30. The Will to Economy
  31. Why New?
  32. CHOOSE ADRENALINE.
  33. No Looking Back.
  34. 1000x Different
  35. BECOME SPENDTHRIFT
  36. THE BENEFIT OF JUST ONE.
  37. EXTREME INNOVATION.
  38. Practicality is Boring
  39. BECOME YOUR OWN STANDARD.
  40. NEVER STOP ITERATING.
  41. CONDENSE.
  42. Take Lots of Small Financial Risks
  43. Control Over Convenience
  44. Why Are Chinese Companies So Innovative?
  45. INSANELY DIFFERENT.
  46. Why Doesn’t Anything Ever Satisfy Me?
  47. THE GREAT PASSION.
  48. Perhaps Dissatisfaction is Good
  49. ONE REP MAX.
  50. WHAT DO YOU *REALLY* WANT IN LIFE?
  51. LIFE IS ABOUT STRIVING FOR MORE.
  52. NEVER STOP LINKING.
  53. THE GREATEST.
  54. WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!
  55. THE BEST IS YET TO COME.
  56. ERIC KIM CRITIQUE OF ROMANTICISM
  57. COMPLACENCY.
  58. JUST BUY IT.
  59. ALL ABOUT YOU.
  60. MOVE THE WORLD
  61. Boring or Not Boring?
  62. What if Your Past Self were Inferior to Your Present Self?
  63. THE PHILOSOPHY OF PROGRESS
  64. CULTURE IS YOUR ENEMY.
  65. Difficulty & Interest
  66. The Will to Expansion
  67. What is Work?
  68. SOUL IN THE GAME.
  69. JUST START IT.
  70. Not Boring
  71. PRIDE IN YOUR OWN NAME / BRAND
  72. AS MUCH AS YOU CAN TOLERATE.
  73. Speed is Paramount
  74. TAKE IT BACK TO THE BEGINNING.
  75. A Life With No Risk Taking is *NOT* a Life Worth Living
  76. Dissatisfaction is Good
  77. GREATER STRENGTH, GREATER CHALLENGES.
  78. In Praise of the New
  79. Uncorrupted Desires
  80. You Cannot Fake Passion
  81. SELF-OVERGOING
  82. FORM YOURSELF.
  83. Personal Entrepreneurship
  84. RELENTLESS.
  85. PUT YOUR NAME ON IT.
  86. A Life of Expansion
  87. SELF-ENTREPRENEURSHIP
  88. YOU ARE THE EXCEPTION.
  89. Use Your Life as an Experiment to Self-Develop Yourself to Heights Never Seen Before
  90. Invest in New Developments
  91. Investing Towards What End?
  92. The 90%/10% Principle in Entrepreneurship
  93. Speed Wins
  94. The Philosophy of Happiness
  95. When to Over-Estimate, When to Under-Estimate?
  96. Never Stop Iterating
  97. Money as a Tool for Life and Artistic Experimentation
  98. Less But More Premium
  99. Mainstream vs Low-Key Success
  100. Why Dissatisfaction is Good
  101. SEEK YOUR OWN PERSONAL MAXIMAL BENEFIT INSTEAD OF COMPLAINING
  102. Manifest Your Destiny
  103. Is it Best to *Not* Communicate Your Inner Thoughts or Ideas With Others?
  104. CREATE THINGS YOU WISH TO SEE MANIFESTED IN THE WORLD
  105. How to Do More Work
  106. CONTROL.
  107. Competition is for Losers
  108. Change.
  109. Your Competitive Advantage with Insanely Fast Wifi and High Speed Internet
  110. Pseudo Individualism
  111. Natural Internal Promoting vs External Promptings

Think for Yourself.

  1. Survival vs Thrivival
  2. Become Rich
  3. SECRETS.
  4. Why it is Better to Beg for Forgiveness than Ask for Permission
  5. Thinking About the Past Prevents You From Thinking About the Future
  6. How to Predict the Future
  7. Tools of Mass Distraction
  8. So What?

FREEDOM


Never stop innovating.


Entrepreneurship Mindset


Put a Dent in the Universe.

Introduction to Stoicism 

Something I have been meaning to write or create or do is like some sort of book, ebook, pamphlet, or introductory primer to stoicism. I really think that stoicism is probably one of the most useful and philosophical models to live normal every day real life. Yet, I haven’t really found a good instructional guide on it, especially when I was self teaching it to myself.

Consider this a practical primer, cutting through the BS:


What does stoicism mean? 

Stoicism, stoic, the stoa in ancient Greece– essentially the stoa was like some sort of portico, patio, pillar, outside, essentially a spot where guys would just hang out, talk shop, talk philosophy, etc.  

I think about the show “Hey Arnold” in which I was raised with… the notion of “stoop kid“, the notion of a stoop is that in a lot of cities, especially the east coast in New York, you have this little stoop or porch, stairs that go outside your front door… and you could just hang out there, engage in social and neighborhood life etc.

The new stoa? 

One of my happiest moments was when I was living in Providence Rhode Island, and then COVID-19 hit. Everything was closed, besides the park. I can still go to the park, hang out, workout, do chin ups– I learned how to do muscle ups, more bodyweight calisthenics stuff, and also… I had a lot of fun with this “rock toss“ challenge and workout… in the middle of the park was a huge ass rock and huge ass stone, and every single day I would go there pick it up, and then eventually work out with it; throwing it around for fun, doing overhead presses with it, clean and jerks, squats, and eventually I would just throw it around for fun. Funny enough it might have been the most fit I was in my life… this was the true “functional” fitness.

The inspiration — Hector lifting an insanely massive stone (barely 2 strong men could lift it)… using it to break down the door of the ships of the other side.

Open air, open sun concept

Anyways, the reason why that period of covid was so good is that it was in the middle of beautiful Providence Rhode Island summer, so nice and bright and warm and lovely… and one of the good things was going to the park was like an open forum, a new anatheum for a lot of really cool guys to come, hang out, talk shop, go topless and shirtless, workout and hang out.

I met some really interesting people during that period of time. I met some guys who were really cool. For example, one guy I met was in the US military Navy, I think he was training to be a Navy seal or Delta force or something. Another guy in some sort of ROTC training, another cool guy from the hood, and also I would say I probably met half a dozen friendly drug dealers there. And of course a lot of people who believed in conspiracy theories; really friendly, a little weird, but overall good guys.

Anyways, one of the biggest benefits of hanging out at that outdoor park, open air, nothing but green grass, the beautiful sun and the fitness equipment was that I think having this sort of open air environment is actually very conducive to socializing, thinking and thought, and pro social behavior. My theory about a lot of modern day antisocial behavior has to do with the structures which enclose us. For example, almost universally most guys at the gym are extremely antisocial. Why? My theory is that because most gyms have closed, cramped narrow ceilings, and do not have access to natural light, or outside space.

Cramped indoor spaces promote antisocial behavior.

The only good gym I went to which was interesting was the golds gym in Venice, which has this really big outdoor workout area. I think this is much more natural and more fun and better; to be able to work out directly outside outdoors, with your shirt off.

Who is this philosophy for?

Stoics, stoicism — it was originally I think codified by this guy named Zeno, and over time he picked up some followers. Essentially the whole thing happened organically; Zeno would first share his thinking on philosophy ethics and pragmatic ways to deal with other people and the downsides of life, he built a following, and then his followers would propagate the thoughts and start their own little schools of thoughts, their own little stoic clubs.

What is “real” stoicism?

Would I like about stoicism is how loosey goosey it is. It is kind of like zen, or taoism… it is not really quantified as a religion, or a strict moral order. In fact, a lot of the ancients stoics would meditate on random stuff like cosmology, natural sciences like Seneca, how volcanoes worked or whatever. I think nowadays in today’s world, we focus primarily on the pragmatic side; how to deal with fear, uncertainty, downsides etc.

So how did I discover stoicism?

I think I might’ve first learned about stoicism from Nassim Taleb and his ANTIFRAGILE book. I was curious, and my curiosity went to deep. To quote NASSIM TALEB and the Venetian saying “The ocean goes deeper, the deeper you wade into it.”

I literally consumed every single book I could find on stoicism, even the obscure ones. Funny enough, a lot of the stoic thinkers tried to claim other philosophers as being stoic, like Seneca did with Diogenes the cynic. 

Cynic, cynicism, actually comes from the word canine, the dog. Diogenes was considered the “dog” philosopher, first used as a pejorative, but ultimately Diogenes reappropriated that title for fun! He saw dogs as tough, almost like wild wolves, rather than seeing them as a negative thing.

Even Achilles when he was raging against king Agamemnon, he called him “dog faced“ as a heaping insult.

Who is worth reading?

First, Seneca. Seneca the younger, his dad was called Seneca the elder.

In fact, this is such a big deal because Cindy and I named our first son, Seneca, directly after the stoic philosopher. This is true soul in the game; if you name your kid after your favorite philosopher, certainly it is a sign that you really liked that philosopher, or found them impactful.

The reason why I really like Seneca the stoic philosopher is because he had real connections to real reality. What that means is he wasn’t just on the sidelines; he actually existed in the real world, engaged in real politics, was even advisor to the emperor Nero, the bad one, who eventually low-key coerced Seneca to commit suicide, in a manly, dignified manner.

I think this was because maybe… there was actually a plan to overthrow Nero, and essentially Nero found out. 

What makes Seneca so good?

I really like Seneca because his writing is accessible, practical and pragmatic, and interesting.

A lot of thinkers tend to lack connections to real reality, I have no tolerance for boring philosophers to talk about metaphysics, which is things which are not physical. Like thoughts ideas, the universe, electricity and energy, strange phenomenon and conspiracy theories on ghosts, “energy” whatever.

For a long time, I would hear the term “metaphysics” being thrown around, and I had zero idea what it actually meant. 

Meta– on top of. Or nestled within.

Physics — the physical, physical phenomenon like gravity, first principles.

The reason why metaphysics philosophers tend to be a bunch of losers is that they are all weak and anemic, nerds or geeks or weaklings who seem to have some sort of physiological degeneracy, which encourages them to opine or talk or think about impractical things, superficial things.

Personally speaking, I think philosophy must be practical. 

Practical, praxis, practice — to do!

The Spartan, Zen Stoic, demigod ideal

I have a very funny ideal; the general idea is that your body looks like a demigod, and your physiology is out of control. The general idea is one must be tall, strong, highly muscular, low body fat percentage, I’m not exactly sure what my body fat percentage is, but maybe it’s around 5%.

Also, physical fitness is critical to any stoic. My ideal is to walk 50 miles a day, eat 20 pounds of meat like Milo of Croton a day. And also, abstinence from silly things like media, alcohol, drugs, marijuana etc.

Trust no thinker who does drugs!

Even our best friend Nietzsche said that coffee was bad, because it would make people dark and gloomy. He encouraged 100% cocoa powder instead. 

You let the drugs talk I let my soul talk ayy! – Kendrick Lamar

Simple technique:

First, look at a picture or a portrait or a full body shot, ideally topless of the artist, philosopher or thinker or individual… then judge their thoughts later.

Why? My theory is this: the thoughts of an individual is hugely affected by their bodily physiology.

For example, an extreme example: if somebody is locked inside a solitary confinement cell, and not permitted to go outside for years, but, he had a pen and pad and would jot down some thoughts… Would be the quality of these thoughts? Certainly dark and morose.

Why does stoicism matter? 

In today’s world, why does it matter, what is the significance of stoicism, etc.?

First and foremost, I think we are living in a troubling time, especially with the advent of modern day internet based media and advertising. I think 99% of what is propagated on the internet is fear mongering, and what is hate? Hate is just fear.

The first thought on stoicism is that it is just fear conquering. What I discovered about street photography, is that 99% of it is conquering your fears. Conquering your fears of upsetting other people, getting in some sort of verbal or physical altercation etc. In fact my bread and butter workshop is my conquering your fears and street photography workshop, the workshop which is still interesting to me even after a decade.

Why is this so important? I think it is rooted in almost everything; conquering your fears is rooted in entrepreneurship, innovation, risktaking and real life.

Even my speculation in crypto. 99.9% of crypto speculation is just balls. Having the balls to make big bets, and when things go south, knowing how to master your emotions.

A simple extra I have is this: just imagine it will all go down to zero.

It was useful because when I was in college, my sophomore year I got really into trading stocks, and I eventually lost my whole life savings, maybe around $3500 USD, and some bad penny stock which I actually misread the financials… the whole time I thought the company was making a profit, but actually it was taking a loss. I actually didn’t know that if profits are written in parentheses, it means a loss.

It was funny because my initial start as an investor was back in high school, I bought some Adobe stock when I was a high school junior, and also some mutual funds, which both went up after about 4-5 years.

Also I remember in elementary school computer class, when I was in the sixth grade in Bayside Queens, there was some sort of stock stimulation trading game, and actually it was funny… the kids who made the most money and were the most successful just put 100% of everything into Apple, note this is when we were only 12 years old, and I was born in 1988.

Stoicism and capitalism?

Funny enough, it seems that stoicism actually plays well with capitalism. Why? According to modern day capitalist thinking, the best way to approach life is to be objective, strong, stoic, unemotional, logical and rational.

Also, with modern day media there is so much fear mongering in the news, about some sort of global armageddon, global financial ruin, etc. I call it “fear porn”.

Therefore stoicism as a mindset is useful to think and position your mind in such a way that you could consider that life is all upside, no downside.

In fact, if I could summarize stoicism in one sentence, it is that life is all upside, no downside. Inspired by NASSIM TALEB.

Sex and Stoicism

So, is stoicism useful to you if you’re a man or a woman? Does it matter?

The good thing is I think it could apply to both sexes. Conquering sexism and social pressures is useful if you’re woman, and also if you’re a man.

Also, gender is social. Lot of the expectations set on us by society is socialized and gamed to a certain degree.

Stoic strategies 

First, we got to unchain ourselves from modern day ethics and morality. I believe that all modern day philosophy and thinking and ethics and religion is bad.

For example, the notion of turning the other cheek is a patently bad one. Why did Jesus turn his cheek? It is because he lacked on army.

Also, philosophically I think we should put no trust in Socrates. I thought which has puzzled me for a long time was this “Why was Socrates so ugly?

Monster in face, monster in soul.

I think Socrates was a degenerate, and he lacked any sort of real power. Therefore he turned logic and rationality into his terrorizing weapon (via Nietzsche). Back in the day, you didn’t need logic or rationality to have things your way, you simply was able to dictate that which you wanted to pause it, because you had a military force behind you. Just think about Machiavelli and IL PRINCIPE– the reality of being a mercurial prince, king, and military leader is hard, stoic, “immoral”. But ultimately it all comes down to war, conquest, the military.

Trust nobody who uses rationality or logic as their tyrannizing weapon. 

In fact, I believe that all should have the body and strength of some sort of super soldier. Essentially look like all the guys from the movie 300, this is our ideal.

Demigod physique. 

What has helped me

  1. Allow yourself to be a bad, immortal, “evil” person. When you decide to adopt an unorthodox way of thinking and living, you’re going to rub some feathers the wrong way. And truth be told, even if you act in a strange vibrant way… At worse you’re only “mildly” annoying other people.
  2. For good inspirations, I think the best stoic writers and thinkers include Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius and also the humor of the cynic philosopher Diogenes. I would even posit the idea that one could consider Alexander the Great as a stoic. Why? When you’re trying to create an empire, and you always have your life on the line, certainly this takes a stoic mindset. Also, let us think and consider that Alexander the Great had a copy of the Iliad by his bedstand, it was the only book he traveled with during his military tours.
  3. Imagine the worst possible case scenario, and backtrack: Apparently even NASSIM TALEB would do this when he was a trader; every single day when he would go to his trading desk, he would assume that his investments would all go to zero, and if that wasn’t the case every single day, it was just upside. Therefore for myself, I just think to myself very simple; imagine like I got zero dollars, zero money, and literally all I need is meat, a Wi-Fi connection and I’m good. 
  4. Live like a poor person: The notion of “debasing“ the coin or the currency is the general idea that you are not a coward in regards to money. The best way to think about money is like a social tool; I think money is actually just codified labor. If you want people to clean bathrooms, run the cashiers stand, you have to promise them money. Even Seneca said the upsides of simulated poverty; essentially living like a poor person, or even a homeless person when you don’t need to… is the ultimate position to be in. Why? True freedom of spirit and soul; as a philosopher thinker writer or whatever… you cannot be “canceled”, because there is nothing to cancel. As long as you could pay your rent, buy meat at Costco, and publish your thoughts to your own self hosted website blog, and pay your server fee, you have 100% freedom. And also, still… America is the best place to be because there is true freedom of speech and expression, you don’t want to be a trillionaire but not be able to say what’s really on your mind. And I think this is the big issue with entertainers, actors, media people… as long as you’re signed to a contract, you don’t run your own production company, or, you’re still a slave to money… you’re not really going to see what’s really on your mind. Why is it that the Rock cannot say anything bad about China, or Tibet? Because he is still enslaved by the media corporation. New slaves by Kanye West.

And this is the true courage of Kanye West; he literally put everything on the line, and even lost his spouse and I think maybe his kids? All for the sake of revealing inequities. 

“I throw these Maybach keys fucking c’est la vie! I know that we the new slaves.”- Ye


Stoic training

The fun thing about stoicism is that you could just make it up as you go, devise your own strategies and whatever.

“Fucking c’est la vie!” My favorite Kanye West line.

Essentially the general idea is that in life, one should not take things too seriously. Laughter is golden, I forget the philosopher who was called the laughing philosopher… Democritus?; better to laugh about the follies of human beings rather than to be dark and morose about it.

Also, thoughts from the Odyssey; if you look far enough  into the future, everything becomes comedic and hilarious.

So when you’re in some sort of bad situation, just think to yourself “Perhaps one day, 20 or 30 years from now… I will look back at this and just laugh!” It will just be humorous.

Honestly, laughter, and kind of being able to joke about things might be the best way to live life and deal with setbacks. 

Modern day ailments

Problems in modern day life:

  1. Too much time spent indoors, not enough time out in the sun. Perhaps it is better to be out outside all day, and joyful, even with the risk of getting skin cancer or whatever… rather than to be indoors, scared, weak and anemic. Differences between if you’re a man or a woman, but still… the most beautiful skin has a sunkissed, olive color tone; the true privilege is having a full body tan. 
  2. Get chatGPT, the paid premium one. And use the image generation AI art tool DALL-E. People pay therapists to just speak their mind, and get some sort of sounding board. I actually think it’s much better to chat with AI instead; because it will not judge you, and ultimately what is a therapist anyways? A therapist is just a mirror, a sounding board for you to verbalize and flesh out your thoughts. Often when we talk about our problems, 90% of the issues go away because once we verbalize it, we feel much better about ourselves. The next thing I’m going to do is build some sort of therapy bot. 
  3. Not enough walking: I have never met anybody who walks 30,000 steps a day and is depressed. Even my friend Jimmy, who works as a US postal worker delivering the mail, he walks around 30,000 steps a day and is always bright cherry and jovial. I think this is also where people who hike a lot or walk a lot in nature are so happy; when you’re able to walk around a lot, and zen out… you just feel much better. My simple suggestion is when you go on a hike or a walk in nature or even in the city… leave your phone at home, or locked inside your glove compartment, and don’t bring any headphones or speakers or Apple watches or whatever. Just bring along your camera, and enjoy. My personal ideal is the bear lifestyle; walking 50 miles a day. 

Real stoics don’t call themselves Stoics?

A funny thing I have learned is that when you call something something, it isn’t that.

For example, if someone calls something a “luxury car”, it ain’t. For example, a true modern day luxury car is maybe a Tesla, but Tesla never calls itself a luxury car. Also the ultimate luxury technology company is probably Apple… but Apple is very intelligent and not calling themselves a luxury brand.

A pro tip is when it comes to websites, read the alternative text, the header text, the stuff that shows up in the tab of your browser window. If the website, the automotive retailer tries to market themselves as a “luxury” brand, typically it is actually a sign that it isn’t a luxury brand it isn’t luxury brand.

Thought: what are some good examples of true luxury brands which don’t overly calls itself luxury? 

In someways, we can think and consider stoicism as our new luxury. In fact, having luxury, luxury of mind and soul… and luxury of freedom of speech, isn’t this the ultimate luxury?

When somebody asked Diogenes the cynic; “What is the best human good”? He said “Freedom of speech, speaking your mind, having the power to see whatever is on your mind.”

In fact, my current joy is becoming more and more free talking, and free riding. What that means is this; I’m ain’t going to censor myself no more, even if I might be politically incorrect insensitive or whatever. 

Also, I would prefer to speak my mind and seriously hurt the feelings of others, rather than soften it for the sake of the other person. 

Similarly speaking, when people call themselves “influencers”, they are not influencers.

Stoicism as a technique and tool, not the end

Ultimately I think we should think of stoicism just like having another tool inside our tool kit. For example, if you’re a chef, you’re going to have different knives for different purposes. If you’re going to cut a big piece of meat, you probably want a big ass meat cutting knife, not something you would use to slice an apple with. Similarly speaking, if you’re going to scoop out the insides of an avocado, better to use a spoon rather than using a fork, or a knife. 

I think the problem is when some people get too into stoicism (I prefer writing stoicism with a lowercase), they think that everything needs to be consistent, and must fit into this nice little neat box of what is considered “stoicism“. This is a bad line of thinking… let us consider that Marcus Aurelius never even mentioned stoicism in his writings, his collections of thoughts, which we moderns call THE MEDITATIONS… it was just essentially his personal diary, to help him conquer his own personal fears and thoughts, I don’t think he ever intended it to be published publicly. I think he just wrote it to himself as self therapy. And I think the only stoic philosopher he even mentions is maybe Epictetus.

The future of stoicism?

For myself, I just come out with certain to work out thoughts and techniques because it helps me, and when I find these tricks or techniques or secret hacks or cheat codes… My passion is to simply share it with others. 

And ultimately, things are ever in flux and evolving and changing and adapting.

For example, I’ve discovered the quality of my thinking is different when I am in Culver City Los Angeles, compared to being in the boring suburbs of Orange County.

Also depending on my social environments… my stoic thoughts are different when I am in a gym, vs just working out by myself in my parking spot in the back of my apartment.

Also, the quality of my thoughts is different when living with family members or other people versus just living with myself Cindy and Seneca.

Stoicism is all about living with other people

Assuming you’re not growing your own vegetables and living in the middle of nowhere… you probably have some interaction with other human beings. As long as you have an iPhone, an Android phone, a smartphone, a 4G or 5G internet connection, wifi, a laptop, have to buy groceries somewhere… you’re still going to have to interact with other human beings.

And this is good. There is no other greater joy than other human beings.

In fact, modern-day society is strange because in someways, the ethos is to be antisocial and to be cowardly. But in fact, the best way to think about things is that real life is interaction with other human beings, and social conquest. One can imagine a lot of modern day entrepreneurship as simply a big dick swinging contest. He who is the most masculine confident tall and strong and stoic shall win.

More ideas

Assume that everyone is mentally insane: Have you ever been out in public, and you see some sort of crackhead or strange homeless person who acts radically, smells terrible, and is obviously mentally ill? Do you hate them for it? When they say something weird to you… do you take it personally? No. Why? They are crazy. Perhaps we should just adopt this stoic mindset towards other people; some people are actually physiologically ill, mentally unwell… don’t trust the opinion of nobody.

A lot of people are trying to actually deal with their own inner demons: For example, becoming the successful photographer and street photographer I am today… I’ve dealt with some individuals who would say anonymous bad things about me, and later I found out that their mom just died or something. I cannot imagine what it feels like losing a mother… therefore if somebody spew some hate on me because something bad happened to them, I’m not gonna take it personally.

Self-flagellation: I think a lot of people who are sick, mentally or physiologically self flagellate themselves. Essentially the way that they deal with other people or themselves is some sort of metaphorical self-flagellation.

For example… you know those strange individuals who have the whip and whip themselves, and inflict pain on themselves? I think some people do this metaphorically to themselves and others.

You just want to stay away from them.

Why so scared?

My personal theory on fear is that a lot of it is tied to morality and ethics. I think the general idea is not necessarily that we are afraid of anything… I think the true fear is that we’re afraid that we are some sort of bad evil unethical immoral person.

For example in street photography, the general ethical thought is that it is immoral to take a photo of somebody without their permission, because there is some sort of it inherent evil behind it. Is this true? No. Taking photos and not really a big deal.

Why do people make such a big deal out of small things?

I think it is because some people are just overly sensitive, which once again comes from some sort of physiological weakness.

For example, if you’re a weightlifter who could lift 1000 pounds, assuming you’re not taking any steroids or anything… are small things going to bother you? No. But let us assume that you are a skinny fat man, all you do is drink alcohol and smoke marijuana and watch Netflix, and you spent too much time on Reddit… you are 40% body fat, and have never lifted in your life. And also your testosterone is low and you never go outside. Certainly the quality of your thoughts is going to be different than if you’re a happy gay monster, lifting weights outside in the direct sun, laughing and having fun. 

In fact, I’ve actually personally discovered that the reason why a lot of people hate me is because I am so happy jovial and gay. They are secretly suspicious or envious of me? 

Weather and mood

Probably one of my worst experiences was this jarring transition; I was super happy insanely happy being in Vietnam in 2017; with a beautiful weather, the beautiful light, the happy people the great amenities etc.… and then that winter Cindy and I went to Europe, in Marseille Berlin and Prague, and maybe London… seriously the worst winter of my life. Why? I wonder if so much miserable feelings and thoughts simply comes from the darkness and lack of light. a lot of Europe is actually quite miserable; dark, unhygienic, morose.

Even Nietzsche had a thought about Schopenhauer; How much of these emo European philosophers came from the fact that it was just complaining about the cold weather in Germany etc.?

For myself, my ideal weather is Southeast Asia; I love being in Phnom Penh Cambodia, Vietnam etc. In the states, am I the only one who loves living in Los Angeles? Dr. Dre and Kendrick Lamar said that LA was the best for women weed and weather… I would definitely say the biggest upside of living in Los Angeles is the light, the sunlight. It actually does get quite cold here, but usually most reliably even in December during the winter time, the sun will always come up. As long as there is bright sunny light, I will be happy. And I think maybe for myself, considering that I am a photographer, and photography means painting with light… light for me is critical.

I also wonder how much of it is a physiological thing and a genetic trait; for example I could even recall being a young child, and my mom telling me that the most critical thing in finding a home or an apartment was light and natural light. Even now… 90% of my happiness comes from being able to have access to natural light, ideally floor to ceiling windows facing directly the sun, having some sort of modern temperature regulated apartment and home. Even living in our tiny studio minimalistic luxury apartment in Providence Rhode Island, where it was always 75° warm and cozy, and not frigid and damp and cold and dark and humid… I was always good. But moving to an older house, where it always felt damp and cold… this literally lowered my happiness by 1000%.

Therefore, if you’re feeling miserable sad or whatever… I say spend three months living in Hanoi or Saigon in Vietnam, or go to Phnom Penh Cambodia. I wonder if 90% of peoples misery is simply due to the weather.

Stoic assignments

”Better to be a gay monster than a sentimental bore!” – Fernandino Galliani, via Nietzsche

My stoic ideal is somebody who is happy, gay, smiling, no headphones or AirPods on, no sunglasses on, no hat, no facial hair, no baggy oversized clothing, no tint in their car. Somebody who makes great eye contact, laughs, stands up upright, jokes, and fools around. Like an overgrown child.

Also, lift weights at least once every day, ideally in the direct sun. Just buy some weightlifting equipment on Titan.fitness, I like the farmers carry handles, the Olympic loadable dumbbell, and also the Texas power squat bar. Just buy some cheap weights, and or buy a heavy 400 pound sandbag, and just have fun throwing it around.

True stoics are masculine

A true stoic should look something like Hercules or Achilles. Or like ERIC KIM; I have the aesthetic and the physique of Brad Pitt in FIGHT CLUB except with a lot more muscle. Like my friend Soren says, the Adonis physique and proportions.

A real stoic is sexy

I think a real stoic is sexy, happy and fun. Who doesn’t take life too seriously; and think of everything like a fun game. A real stoic would be joyful and cheery like three-year-old child without any adulteration from the outside world.

Why do adults become so dark and morose?

I don’t like talking with or hanging out with adults, uninteresting.

At what point or age do people become so emo?

Typically, highschoolers are very optimistic. Even college students. But I think at least in maybe college in high school nowadays… the bad trend is towards “over concern”, about the world the planet ethics animals etc.

I find a lot of this thinking superficial, performative, and uncritical. I think “animal rights“, “saving the planet” is this new pseudo world religion; which is just capitalism 3.0. I find the whole pet industry the whole dog industry to be insanely bizarre, and I trust nobody who talks about “saving the planet“ who owns an iPhone, owns any sort of car, or has an Amazon prime subscription. Certainly not any vegans.

A real stoic is a carnivore 

Animals are animals. They are lower on the hierarchy and totem pole on earth. Man is the apex predator, the apex bully and the apex tyrant.

Should we care for animals or “animal rights”? No. Animals are our slaves.

If you consider even dogs and pets… they are essentially our emotional slaves. People talk a lot about the virtuosity of dogs being loyal or whatever… and giving you unconditional love. This seems like some sort of emotional slavery.

The only dogs I respect are some sort of canine dogs, some sort of attack or defense dogs, or hunting dogs. For example, John Wick 3; Halle Barry and her dogs. An animal should either be a weapon, or nothing.

Why do people care about animals so much?

Essentially it looks like men no longer have a backbone. No more spine.

I trust nobody who owns a dog.

Let us not forget; they call it dog ownership, or “owning a pet”. There is no more concept of “human ownership, or “owning a human.”

End goals 

What is the end goal of humanity? To me it is towards entrepreneurship, innovation, art and aesthetics, philosophy etc. Design.

Stoicism should be considered a tool which could aid you in these things.

For example, I think 99% of entrepreneurship is courage. Stoicism could help you with that.

I also think with design, great design is also 99% courage, having the courage to attempt something that won’t sell or be received well… stoicism is all about practical courage. The only designers with courage include Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Elon Musk, Kanye West. 

Also, weightlifting. To attempt to lift a certain weight you have never attempted before takes great courage. For example, me atlas lifting 1000 pounds; that is 10 plates and a 25 on each side, this is true stoic training. Why? The fear of injury is what holds most people back; if you had successfully conquered this fear and not injured yourself, this is pure stoic bliss.


The physical

I think the only and the only proper way to lift weights is one repetition maximum training. That is; what is the maximum amount of weight you’re able to successfully lift or move, even half an inch?

To me, the courage is the success. Even if you had the courage to attempt it… that is what is considered success. 

Simple exercises to do include the atlas lift, innovated by ERIC KIM, or a one repetition max rack pull.

Or, a high trap bar deadlift, heavy Farmer’s walks, or heavy sandbag carries. Or even a simple thing you could do is go to the park or to the local nature center, find the biggest rock there and just see if you could pick it up.

Now what?

If you’re interested in stoicism, and have had some interesting thoughts on stoicism, one of the most noble things you could do is start your own blog. I think blogs are 1000 times more effective than publishing some sort of static printed book; I think the problem in today’s world is that everyone is seeking some sort of legitimacy by being picked up by some sort of legitimate publisher and getting “published“, and seeing your printed book at Barnes & Noble whatever.

I say it is better to be open source, free and permissionless, decentralized. Just publish your thoughts and book as a free PDF, and just host it on dropbox, Google Drive, or your own web server. Share the link freely, and also just publish the raw text as a big blog post. 

Even Sam Bankman-Fried wisely thought; 99.9% of books could just be summarized as big blog posts.

Don’t trust any modern day published book which isn’t free, because… there is some sort of hidden clout chasing somewhere. 

Even one of the worst compromises that led to the demise of Ray Dalio was the fact that he took his Principles book, which was essentially a free ebook PDF on his website, and then took it off, because I think he got a book deal with Simon and Schuster. After he did that, he lost my respect.

If you’re already independently wealthy, and you don’t crowd source your self-esteem… why would you need to externally validate yourself by getting some sort of constipated publisher and annoying editor?

Editors are bad.

Now what?

Start your own blog and start blogging your own thoughts on stoic philosophy, and even start a YouTube channel and start vlogging on it. My generalized thought is simple: if your thought your idea your blog post your video or whatever could even impact the life of one other human being on planet earth… it is worth it.

ERIC


What is the secret to the maximum amount of happiness in life? The maximum amount of danger. (Nietzsche).

ERIC


Why Doesn’t Anyone Have American Pride Anymore?

Why is it that people prefer to buy a Lamborghini or Ferrari over a Shelby Cobra? 

Simple heuristic:

Don’t trust nobody who owns, or bought a foreign car; this includes BMW, Mercedes, Audi, AMG, Lamborghini Volkswagen, Ferrari, Land Rover, Range Rover, anything produced by the Volkswagen group or Tata group, Porsche, etc.

The funny thing is it seems in today’s world, having a Toyota or a Honda is almost like having an American car?

Simple rule:

If you want to be a true American, if you want a sports utility SUV car, just by a Ford Explorer ST, which is essentially a cop car. 

If you want some sort of sports muscle car, ultimate flex… Buy some sort of Ford Mustang Shelby Cobra car, or even… the Ford GT. I think Brad Pitt owns one. Mustang GTD

Buy FORD

Anti-American sentiment?

In America, if you only care about money, I don’t think you’re a true American. What does a real American care for? Diversity, access, democracy, egalitarian values, and meritocracy which means the goods you are delivered is based on merit, hierarchy and ranking.

The diversity myth? 

Apparently when Peter Thiel was an undergraduate in college he wrote a book called The Diversity Myth… I think he wrote it when he was at Stanford as an undergraduate, something about how too much focus on diversity is bad. I haven’t read the book, but I think what it means is that trying to do things like affirmative action in his eyes is bad.

My personal thought is it is obvious; obviously if you have a kid from the hood, a kid from Compton, certainly his or her GPA or SAT score is not going to be as good as a kid who went to some sort of elite private school in Beverly Hills. Therefore there needs to be dynamic weighing here.

For example, if you’re the Valevictorian or the top #1 student in a ghetto school… your application to college should be weighed higher than a kid who went to an elite private school, who is only the top 100.

Therefore it isn’t necessarily “affirmative action”, but rather, wisdom in evaluating someone’s social economic status as part of their application.

Diversity should not be forced

Certainly diversity is good, but it is not good when you try to force it.

For example, trying to force more gender equality or racial equality when it isn’t really warranted seems like a bad idea.

This is where the philosophical thing matters; we must ask ourselves and consider… does it really even matter in the first place? If so, why?

Guns?

Discovering a gun at my sister’s wedding.

Being an American or a true American has nothing to do with gun ownership. I’m not anti-guns per se; I did Boy Scouts and shot a rifle and a shotgun, got both my merit badges and also an archery merit badge when I was a high schooler.

I think the strange notion is that somehow… if you own a gun, or have a gun somewhere at home or whatever… it makes you more manly? (It does not).

Jewish people are super wise

I wonder… Is it that people hate Jewish people because they’re so smart wise and good with money?

Also, I don’t really trust any Christians, or God-fearing people especially in the news and mainstream media, even underground media etc.

For example, I really enjoyed the Kanye interview on info wars, but the guy who hosts the show… seems like a strange guy. Anybody who takes the Bible literally is not to be trusted.

How did Jewish people become so successful? Simple: they make money don’t spend it.

Also, I think Jewish people, that is consider how much trials and tribulations and anti-Jewish sentiment and bad things happened to them throughout their whole existence. If they were able to survive it all, probably a good sign.

America is more Jewish than you think 

One of the funniest things that my friend Daniel Schaeffer told me he was… “I’m Jew…ish”.

I might be wrong here, but I think that there is a huge list of really really famous and influential Jewish people in America, which include I think, Gal Gadot, Joseph Levitt, Scarlett Johansson, Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David etc.

Also, Steven Spielberg, Kirk Douglas (changed his last name to blend into Hollywood), a lot of really famous people in Hollywood.

Also I think John Stewart, he changed his last name.

I think a simple strategy what you could do is just Google it, famous Jewish people who changed their last names or famous Jewish people in the media.

I think even Lenny Kravitz is Jewish?

Apparently there is “Jewish” sounding last names, anything related to Gold or Goldsmith, because a lot of Jewish people were once gold merchants back in the day, or anything with “itzh” or “Horowitz” etc… “itz”. Ben Horowitz.

Also a lot of really mainstream American words are actually Yiddish! For example, “chutzpah”, “schlep”, “schmuck”, etc. 

I didn’t know… But my friend Janae told me “I’m such a bad Jewish American, I had no idea that Seinfeld was a TV show about Jewish American culture”. I then responded, in shock, “It is??”

It doesn’t really matter

I have a theory that everyone is looking for some sort of scapegoat. My personal thought on why people believe in conspiracy theories is because nobody likes to think that they themselves are the cause of their own pain suffering etc., and they think of it like some sort of virtuous task and duty to uncover all the “evils” or “injustices” in the world.

For example, I’ve actually met a lot of Palestinian Americans who fall victim to conspiracy theories. Why? To psychoanalyze; they have been seriously fucked over. Even the whole conflict right now in the Gaza Strip, it really does seem that the Palestinians are the victims here. Israel, funded by the American government in military, America is really the bad guy here. 

Even China; China is not a threat. When I was in Phnom Penh Cambodia, I would keep reading these newspapers on how mainland China would complain that they only have one military base somewhere in Africa, whereas America has thousands. As long as Americas military powder is 1000X that of everyone else in the world, America is fine. 

Even Russia, not a threat. I think people just like to paint Putin as the devil, because once again, people like having some sort of devil figure, some sort of Adolf Hitler to see as the enemy.

Ideas?

In South Korea if you’re a man, you’re required to have at least 2-3 years of military duty. I think it’s a good idea if America did the same. Or if they instituted more ROTC programs in high school, optional.

And also, I think having some sort of part-time army reserve officer military training programs for normal civilians like myself is a good idea. Even my friend Andrew, became a part-time naval officer, more for pride. Harvard undergraduate graduate, professor now.

Apparently Westpoint is a really good institution. Maybe if Seneca gets a full ride there I will send him there. 

So what?

I think people are actually low-key praying and wishing for some sort of global armageddon. Why? Once again, a lot of people who are miserable in life want to see the world go into shambles. 

I am highly dubious of a World War III, or some sort of true international military demise. Why? Rich mainland Chinese oligarchs don’t want nobody to take their Rolls-Royce, or their mansions in Vancouver Canada.

Also, Americans like their consumerism, and capitalism.

Whether America likes it or not, it seems that they are in bed with China. As long as Apple still produces iPhones in China, ultimately… economically we will not see any real antagonism between both countries.

Economics is the new world religion

Money, capital, economics is the new world religion. Everybody globally… the only thing that people seem to really care for is to continue to self richen themselves. 

As a consequence, I think we will see a decline in military intervention and deaths, and other bad world issues.

People want to see the ones and zeros and commas increase in their bank account, not more deaths and casualties.

So what should we really be concerned about?

Simple things: 

  1. Pollution: nobody wants to be a billionaire in Beijing or Shanghai, the pollution and the air there is so toxic.
  2. Health diet and fitness: this trend towards “plant based” diets is a bad one, all this vegan nonsense is bad for the planet. Maybe more sustainable animal, beef or lamb production is a good idea. For example at Erwhon I discovered this new “ancestral blend“ — FORCE OF NATURE ground beef which is made with 100% grass fed ground beef, and beef liver and heart actually grinded it in; it is the new only thing that I’m feeding Seneca, it is his natural steroids. Let us not forget that organ meets, beef liver is a natural steroid, the more cholesterol you consume, the stronger you will become and the more testosterone will go up. So a novel thought; addressing the issue of food waste, particularly with beef kettle and cows in America; consume more of the scrap meat. Beef tongue, heart, head, liver, intestine etc.
  3. Media? My personal belief is that the real bad guys here is the media and advertising corporations; let us not forget that Google is an advertising company. Same thing goes with Facebook. And let us not forget that Google owns YouTube, and Facebook also owns Instagram. The reason why online advertising companies are so bad is that media thrives on the sensational, anger, fear, and all of these base human emotions. My personal thought is a lot of racial antagonism is actually stirred up by the media which is run on advertising. For example, it seems that the new clickbait is anything to do with “anti-Semitic“, or “anti-Semitism“; both on the Jewish, African-American front, and mainstream media, a lot of which is run by Jewish families. The more people who click “anti-Semitic” new stories and see more Google AdSense advertisements, the more money that Google makes. Also Facebook, Instagram, the more sensational things are posted, the higher the advertising revenue for them. 

Why I am uncancellable

I am already independently rich and wealthy from my savings and cryptocurrency, and I also live like a poor person, which means that I’m making more money than I could spend it. Because I don’t even like spending money in the first place.

In fact, besides myself and maybe NASSIM TALEB… I don’t think I really know any other free thinkers? Everyone is either hooked to some sort of algorithm, social media platform, YouTube… or podcast… no freedom. This is where I don’t really put any trust in anything that Tim Ferriss says, or even Joe Rogan, because they are run by advertisers.

Who not to trust? Anybody and everybody on YouTube, or has any sort of podcast which is supported by advertisers.

So how can you make money?

Maybe it is a good idea to make money elsewhere, for example, I think I’ve made more money in cryptocurrency speculation than I have in my whole decade plus of teaching photography workshops.

Also selling products is a good idea  because… especially if it is your own products, have more faith and leather than information. HAPTIC INDUSTRIES — in the world of AI and artificial information, having physical leather products is a good idea because it will outlast you. HENRI x ERIC KIM STRAPS.

ART?

Ultimately after you’ve made your trillions of dollars, what is it that people really care for? Art.

How many Jackson Pollocks, Basqiats, or Picassos do you own? 

Art collection

It is wise to understand a Ferrari as an art object, not as a car. Just go to the Peterson automotive museum and go into the vault; these cars are art objects.

Art is the main disruptor here; this is where I am so into [AI art](). Maybe I will do some AI art workshops in the near future.

EricKim.ai


Now what?

Trust ChatGPT more than you trust Google or weird Internet conspiracy website forums. Also, delete Reddit and stop using Reddit; I legit think it is the worst thing for humanity, perhaps even worse than pornography.

Quit reddit, not porn.

In fact, maybe it is best to just think about pornography like entertainment. Men who watch sports, drink alcohol or smoke weed, without having actually ever played the sport, sports is like some sort of domestication of the modern day human, a modern day pornography for men. At least sexual pornography is a positive motivator, drinking beer, eating french fries and watching football if you have never played football yourself in real life… seems worse.

Even basketball; my simple heuristic is if you decide to watch basketball, maybe one should play real life basketball at least once a week.


Assignments

  1. Start your own blog. Ionos.com or bluehost.com and install WordPress.org
  2. Subscribe to ChatGPT plus, start creating your own AI generated art via DALL-E 3. Post on your own blog or arsbeta.com — I want ARS to also be a home for not just photos, but AI generated art. 
  3. Make your own ChatGPT bot, once you have subscribed to the premium model. For example, I re-created the Y app on ChatGPT, it is great. 
  4. Fitness: Buy weightlifting equipment on titan.fitness– and start lifting weights in your own parking lot garage. I recently picked up the Titan fitness Farmer’s carry handles, I like them, and also maybe the best 500 bucks I’ve ever spent in my life was the Texas power bar squat bar, my most prized possession.  Lift weights every day at least once, maybe even twice a day; the upside of doing it in your own backyard, your own parking lot is that you will just save a lot of time. If you want ghetto squat rack or rack, just go to Home Depot and buy cinderblocks. I was able to stack three cinder blocks on top of one another, and I have been able to successfully rack pull over seven plates with it. Cross leg deadlift good idea.
  5. Maybe dabble in crypto? Just get a Coinbase account, link it with your traditional bank, I think everyone should own at least one bitcoin. Personally I just swapped or traded or converted nine of my bitcoin into chainlink (20,800 chainlink)– my personal prediction is within the next three years to five years, it should be above $50 a link, maybe even 100 or 200 bucks a link. Currently speaking I am anti-Ethereum; it is just too complicated and complex. Then also now that they are offering Ethereum for enterprise (private ethereum)… A bad sign. Also try bitcoin babe.
  6. Organ meats? Everyone says that eating meat, red meat is bad for the planet blah blah blah. But what about organ meats? Nobody really says anything bad about organ meats, beef liver, beef heart, beef intestine, beef kidney. As a fun experiment just try out 100% organ meat diet; the true demigod diet. Also bone marrow. Just pick up organ meats at Whole Foods in the frozen freezer, they sell 100% grass fed frozen beef liver and beef heart and beef kidney there, even beef tongue. Or just go to the local Halal market, the local market and get it there.

Now what?

EXPERIENCE EK— unlock your true potential.


HAPTIC HOLIDAYS!

As a special holiday promo: order over $300 USD at the HAPTIC SHOP, and get a free 3x set of ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE (three bags designed to awaken your creative senses). While supplies last.

HAPTIC SHOP >


Experiments

  1. Try to troll AI and ChatGPT for; once you get the paid version, see how far you could push it until you invoke some sort of content moderation issue,
  2. Have ChatGPT disprove some sort of strange conspiracy theories. In fact, I think the biggest benefit of ChatGPT is that it doesn’t get suckered by conspiracy theories.
  3. Actually, ChatGPT is pretty factual. For example, just ask whether George Floyd was in a pornography film (he was). ChatGPT answers truthfully. 

Now what?

Going on a hike. Leave your phone in the car and just enjoy a nice walking nature, just walk slowly. Do it in vibram five finger shoes or even barefoot. 

Order some weight lifting equipment on titan.fitness and have fun at home.

FaceTime a loved one. The best gift to give somebody is just a simple phone call!


What do you want for Christmas this year?

  1. Ask somebody to gift you a gym membership, or even a yoga, CorePower membership. Investing in your health is perhaps the best thing you could do as a gift.
  2. In terms of gyms, I really like crunch fitness, LA fitness is OK, or whatever commercial gym is close by. Even golds gym is good.
  3. Costco gift cards; to buy more meat.
  4. Ask somebody for airline fare; to go fly somewhere and travel somewhere for the holidays. 
  5. Vibram 5 finger shoesELX KNIT.
  6. Texas power bar squat bar
  7. 400 pound roguefitness.com sand bag
  8. Money to purchase a website hosting domain
  9. iPad Pro (small one)

What else?

Infinite ideas on the ERIC KIM BLOG: Some new thoughts:

  1. It is better to rent in an insanely great neighborhood and location then to even own a $5 million home in a good location
  2. Physiology hack: take insanely hot baths at home, at the verge of boiling your skin. Very refreshing.
  3. Drink robusta coffee, not arabica. Even Costco sells the Deathwish coffee now, which I assume is robusta coffee. Otherwise get ERIC KIM 100% fine robusta coffee. 
  4. The best clothing to wear in winter is down, merino wool, cashmere. Layer up!
  5. Milo of croton ate 20 pounds of meat a day, let us use that as our benchmark.
  6. A life goal: read the Iliad by Homer front to back. Just download free PDFs online, and keep looking for a good translation until you find one that you like.

Book list

  1. Invent and wander by Jeff Bezos
  2. Zero to one by Peter Thiel
  3. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, also the new Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson 
  4. Going Infinite – Michael Lewis. Also flash boys.

START HERE

  1. Books
  2. Products
  3. Downloads

Forward the thoughts

If this part even one interesting thought within you, feel free to forward to a friend!

ERIC KIM NEWS >


#savemoney collective

The new life goal should be to save money, not to waste it.

Instead of wasting money, better to use that money towards buying meat at Costco, weightlifting equipment, plates and bars and barbells, iron etc. Physical fitness is the ultimate luxury.


Stay lit!

ERIC KIM BLOG

***

BARBELLS & BITCOIN.

Either have a full manual transmission car, five speed or six speed manual shifting transmission, or, or have a fully automated self driving car, or some sort of minimalistic automatic car.

Also with design aesthetics, I really really really hate automatic shifting knobs and cars. Aesthetically it is so ugly and unnecessary. Good to look at the design of Hyundai, Genesis, Acura and Honda which has gotten rid of the silly automatic shifting stock, and instead, turned it all into buttons.

“Get rid of the stalks!” – Elon Musk

I really think that Elon Musk is like Steve Jobs 4.0. By comparison he makes Steve Jobs look unambitious.

Why Elon Musk? I think what people don’t understand or appreciate is how obsessed Elon Musk is with design, design thinking, design principles. For example, his obsession with designing a Tesla without any steering wheel, shifting mechanisms, stocks, etc. In fact, Elon Musk is almost like an extreme minimalist.

What I personally love about Tesla and Tesla cars is the Spartan luxury, extreme minimalism. For example, I still marvel at the Tesla model 3; first, I’m just so happy and excited and proud and amazed that Elon Musk pulled it off. I remember before it was put into production and before I saw any on the streets… it was just a rabbit hole fantasy. Now it is live!

What I find so insanely innovative about the Tesla model 3 is the extreme simplicity, the extreme minimalism. To make the dashboard so sublimely simple is a design masterpiece.

Personally, I really dislike the Tesla model Y; my general thought is that any sort of crossover vehicle, or even sports utility vehicle is some sort of a design compromise. Even the Tesla model X is almost like a Tesla model S on steroids.

Why is it so difficult to minimize?

I think the reason why it is so difficult to minimize is that there seems to be some sort of trend or market desire for their to be new features, new products, new additions to motivate people to buy something. But, from a zen capitalism perspective, perhaps this is not a good idea.

Why? I’m more effective way to think about things is figuring out what to get rid of, what to reduce, what to delete. For example, let us never forget the pure genius of Steve Jobs getting rid of the keyboard on the smartphone, and also getting rid of all these silly ugly ports. If it wasn’t for Steve Jobs and his insane design vision, we wouldn’t have the beautiful minimalistic smart phone that we have today.

Would it have eventually happened or not?

I think a lot of people think about technology and think that it is all inevitable… given enough time resources and people… these things will magically get invented anyways. I don’t think this is actually the case. You actually need a few insane individuals to bring these things into fruition.

Once again, read Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson and also Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson. You find that both these individuals have an insanely epic and grand life mission… is what drives them.

Idea:

Walter Isaacson should write a book or a biography on Kanye West?


Other things you can barbell in life

  1. 90% of your savings and money in boring bonds, high yield interest CD’s or high yield savings account (5%!) and 10% in insanely speculative crypto (imagine losing it all). Best advice I got from NASSIM TALEB in ANTIFRAGILE.
  2. Often, 90% of your annoyances in life come from 10% of the people in your life. Get rid of these 10%.
  3. 90% of your joy and happiness and life come from 10% of the things. Try to determine and ascertain what this 10% is.

How to think better:

  1. ZEN OF ERIC BOT
  2. ERIC KIM BOT: For photo
  3. Bitcoin Babe: speculate in crypto

Have fun with EK!

Super fun workshops in the pipeline:

  1. INTRODUCTION TO STOICISM WORKSHOP: Downtown LA, DECEMBER 2nd, 2023
  2. DOWNTOWN CULVER CITY FAMILY STREET PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP, DECEMBER 16, 2023

2024

  1. CONQUER CONFIDENCE ONLINE WORKSHOP: Jan 27, 2024
  2. March 2nd: ERIC KIM CREATIVE AI & PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP (New!)— Culver City, LA
  3. April 20th, 2024: SF ZEN PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOPNow Live!

EK WORK


HAPTIC

HAPTIC PRODUCTS >


What is EK up to?

So I just finished the book going infinite by Michael Lewis on the rise and fall of Sam Bankman Fried and FTX. Super fun and fascinating read. My personal suggestion is even if you have a tiny interest in crypto, bitcoin or whatever… It is definitely worth a read.

A quick summary is that Sam isn’t the evil villain that everyone wants him to be. He is almost like an uber genius autistic mathematical servant, who seems to just lack common sense.

Also on a positive note, I think the great upside to consider here is that if bitcoin was able to bounce back after the fall of FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried… a very bright future ahead of us in crypto. My personal price projection is I am quite certain that bitcoin will bounce back to at least $65,000 a bitcoin by next year. Therefore if you want a quick 2X profit, seems like a fun speculation. and no no no, don’t bet your house on it. Once again our financial thinking is simple:

Never put more than 10% of your life savings into anything. Irregardless of how good.

Also for funsies, a fun little essay I’ve written on the philosophy of crypto:


The Philosophy of Crypto

“Greed is good” – Gordon Gecko

So it seems and appears that a lot of people seek getting really really rich, really really fast, in order to buy a bunch of stuff. For example, I think the general idea is that you want to make a ton of money, feel good, buy a Lamborghini or whatever… And then what?

Crypto, cryptocurrency, crypto technology to me is fascinating because it is new, sexy, unorthodox, and interesting.

It seems that a lot of people are interested in crypto, bitcoin etc because they want to get really rich. But the tricky thing with crypto is that essentially you are really rich on paper, but typically most crypto speculators never actually dilute or convert their crypto to US dollars, which means that crypto money is not liquid, it is locked.

Crypto is intrinsically optimistic?

Crypto to me is interesting because it is edgy, optimistic, radical, and bold. Also a bit reckless.

The general idea is that with crypto, people are seeking a new revolution, something to up and the old system. Definitely a lot of anarchy vibes here, and a lot of people who are typically distrustful of big organizations, big government, etc.

Honestly I have nothing against the government, I am very happy paying my taxes, I still consider myself a bay area, liberal, open minded, at heart. I love democracy, democratic thinking. Why? It was mostly about how I was raised, how I was supported. If I did not get all of these government aided resources, like going to UCLA as an undergraduate, I would have never been able to become who I am today.

Also, simple organizations that I am grateful for include the Boy Scouts, Boy Scouts of America. I am forever grateful to my troop, my troop leaders, who helped me become an Eagle Scout, and helped me become the citizen that I am today.

Growing up, I grew up thinking that conservatives, Republicans were the devil. Why were they so greedy, if they had so much money, why don’t they help more poor people or people in need?

Irregardless, I think the promise of crypto is a more brilliant future. A lot of people seem to disdain the volatility of crypto, but I love it. With traditional stocks, you will never see a 10X gain, a 100X gain, or even a 1000x gain. Also with crypto, you could win it all, or you could lose it all. My general strategy towards crypto and cryptocurrency speculation is this:

Only put money into crypto, assuming that it will go to zero.

Perhaps the best piece of advice that I got from Nassim Taleb in his antifragile book is the idea that to maximize your gains, better to put 90% of your money in maximally boring funds, like bonds, yield savings account etc.… it is pretty crazy even now Cindy and I have a bunch of money just locked in a simple 5% APR savings account, and we get close to $2000 a month in “passive income” interest. Then, what I did was I put 10% of our savings into crypto, maximally speculative bets, initially investing in digibyte and bitcoin, later swapping it all to chainlink, along the way getting some Dogecoin, later transferring it all 100% back into Bitcoin.

All of the gains were mental. And along the way more recently, I’ve been drawing out some money from bitcoin, $5000 USD here US$5000 there… Simply to cover up moving expenses to LA.

The zen of crypto?

Ultimately what I find interesting is that crypto, people who speculate in crypto all tend to live kind of a more monastic Zen monk lifestyle. Even this one guy that I met who first got me into chainlink, revealed to me that he was a crypto whale in chainlink; apparently he first put his life savings in it, maybe $10,000 USD or so when it was worth about $.70, and then he saw it rise all the way up to $50 USD.

It was funny, because I would just see him at the local LA fitness working out, thinking and meditating, we would engage in some lively conversation, and he just drove his mom‘s old Honda Accord, I think he later told me that he was moving to Puerto Rico or something in order to avoid taxes on his crypto or some other regulatory aspects. Apparently even Sam Bankman Fried moved his corporation to the Bahamas, in order to avoid US regulation.

So what do you want to do with your wealth?

So once you are worth $20 billion, or $150 billion or whatever … then what?

Ironically the best use of money is simply peace of mind. That means money is not really a tool or a mechanism to buy a bunch of stuff that you like, but rather, being able to live a more zen, tranquil, more focused life.

For example, I think the reason why people are so addicted to email is that people are always desiring new “opportunities”, it is predicated on the fact that somehow other people will give you an afford you new opportunities and also, does predicated on the fact that somehow new opportunities will rise in which other people give you money.

But… assuming that no human being who messages you in your email inbox will give you money… would you still be interested in working with them?

For myself personally, I have close to zero interest in money. I am more interested in new opportunities, fun, new novel experiences. The things that I am proud of, or interested in, or grateful for is all of the cool interesting and sexy opportunities that I’ve had and done. Some of the people that I met, etc.

But ultimately, is there a human being more interesting than you?

Future trends

I’m currently reading the book “Going Infinite” by Michael Lewis, which chronicles is the life of Sam Bankman Fried and FTX and I find it insanely fascinating read. It seems that the same guy isn’t really the super evil guy that a lot of people in the media make him to be; the kid seems to be like a prodigy genius, mathematical minded, who really didn’t care for money or wealth. My personal theory is that he got suckered too much into this utilitarian “effective altruism“, concept… that he misused customer funds in order to “maximize“ his abilities for effective altruism.

I think effective altruism is a bad idea. Why? First of all, I think the general idea of altruism is bad; I think it puts other people in an inferior position, which I personally find is disrespectful. I think a better thing to do instead is on a day-to-day basis, instead of donating money to charities or whatever, to help empower other human beings on a one-to-one basis.

A simple thing; whenever I go to the park with Sen, and I see all these kids running around, who don’t really seem like they get much attention or love from their parents, I try to give them a little bit of that love and attention by talking to them, entertaining them etc. Perhaps this is a more effective way to “change the world“, than anything else.


The future of crypto?

Try to think about things on a 30 year basis. That means, the simple question; in 30 years, are people going to be using crypto more or less? Or, in 30 years, is the price of bitcoin going to go up or down? It seems pretty obvious that it will go up.

Also, the notion of a “digital wallet”. The general idea is that for the future, we ain’t gonna use cash money anymore. Why? I see more and more restaurants in institutions not except paper cash money. Why not? Because it is difficult to track, and I think there are also issues with employees at restaurants stealing money it etc. Even at my mom‘s old sushi restaurant where she worked at for a long time, she later found out that one of the head managers, a guy that we thought was a super good guy… Was secretly stealing money the whole time.

I think into the future, we will see less and less of “under the table“ payments; why? Because it is not trackable.


What else?

Some personal thoughts:

First, I don’t really like Ethereum. Why? It is kind of like android; maybe it is the better technology, but it isn’t sexy, only nerds know about it and use it, it ain’t mainstream and sexy like bitcoin. Bitcoin is like Apple, having the newest iPhone, iPhone Pro etc.… Ethereum is more like android, having an ugly Google pixel or some sort of generic Samsung smartphone.

Another analogy, bitcoin is like having the Lamborghini Countach, with the scissor doors, whereas Ethereum is like having the Toyota Corolla?

Altcoins?

Don’t trust old coins, or alternative coins. Why? Everyone just wants to become the next bitcoin, but ultimately… There is too much meme culture behind alt coins, like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu.

I am very dubious that the price of these Altcoins will ever go up; it seems that a lot of people in the crypto world simply over hype certain crypto technologies and coins, in order to pump it up, sell it, and make money.

Chainlink

Besides bitcoin, only other crypto I find interesting is chainlink. I’ve read all the white papers, and been following the chainlink blog for a long time. Currently the only reason that I’m still committed to bitcoin is that my gut feeling is that even though chain-link is really great, the issue is that it is going to be difficult for it to become mainstream.

First and foremost, it is difficult to explain what it is. The technology is good and great, but I don’t think the general market will understand it.

Also, the fact that there was a chainlink version two is not a good sign. Anything with a version two is probably a bad sign; same thing with Ethereum.

Also, the logo in blue is not very attractive. And the name isn’t that catchy.


Now what?

I recommend reading going infinite by Michael Lewis, it is an insanely fascinating read, if you’re interested at all about financial markets, how it is all gamed by bots etc. My first revelation reading Michael Lewis was flash boys… Learning the truth behind these hidden high frequency trading firms.

And also, I think the sign of good writer, like Michael Lewis is at the Rita’s fun entertaining and also insightful. It seems that the best way to kill two birds with one stone is simple; make it both entertaining to read, and also interesting knowledge.

Think more, walk more

My simple suggestions on living a better life:

  1. Walk 50 miles a day
  2. Maximize your direct sunlight UV exposure radiation
  3. Just build a simple home gym: Titan.fitness equipment seems fine. Ideally work out outside in the direct sun, like an ancient spartan would do.
  4. Start blogging! bluehost.com and install WordPress.org. If you’re more nerdy you could also set up WordPress with lightsail— I did this for erickimphilosophy.com and also erickimfitness.com

Now what?

The world is yours! No drugs, no alcohol, no weed… just joy, bright light, weight lifting and exercise, walks in nature .. we the new zen stoics!

EK


Start Here

Some good freebies:

  1. Ultimate beginners guide to street photography PDF
  2. Street portrait manual
  3. 100 lessons from the masters of street photography

BOOKS BY KIM >

Forward the thoughts

If you feel like you even got one fun thought here… feel free to forward this to a friend!

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Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Street Photography

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Dear friend,

If you’re new to street photography and want a definitive guide and primer to master the fundamentals of street photography, Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Street Photography is for you.


Distilled Wisdom in Street Photography

Why did I write Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Street Photography when I’ve already written over 3,000 blog posts on street photography and over 20 eBooks on street photography?

For me, it was a chance for me to respire my “beginner’s mind” in street photography– asking myself: “If I started street photography all over again, what advice would I give myself?”

Like all of us, I deal with difficulty staying inspired and motivated in street photography. In writing this book, I was able to “take it back to basics”, and ask myself the fundamental questions:

  • Why is street photography so enjoyable?
  • What is the best equipment for street photography?
  • How do I get closer and more intimate with my subjects, and hesitate less?

Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Street Photography is all killer, no filler. In these 165 pages of practical and philosophical knowledge, you will learn how to master the fundamentals of street photography: all the way from the ideal camera equipment and technical settings for street photography, to conquering your fears and creating more beautiful and dynamic pictures of everyday life.

This book is also unique because it isn’t just a manual on how to shoot street photography — it is also part photobook which includes the best photos from my “Suits” and “Only in America” series.

Empower Yourself by Mastering the Fundamentals of Street Photography

In Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Street Photography you will learn:

  1. What is best camera for street photography?
  2. Practical tips and guidance how to start shooting street photography
  3. Overcoming hesitation and fear to capture “the decisive moment”
  4. Confidently interacting and engaging with your subjects
  5. Capture authentic moments in the streets, either with or without permission
  6. Boldly get closer in street photography to capture the soul of your subject
  7. Starting your own street photography project that is personally-meaningful to you
  8. Discover your own personal aesthetic and style in street photography
  9. Harnessing the power of the flash to make street photographs that pop
  10. Never running out of inspiration in street photography

If I’m not a beginner street photographer, is this book for me?

If you’re an intermediate-advanced street photographer, and have already mastered the fundamentals of street photography, I think you can still profit from Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Street Photography.

In Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Street Photography, we also cover more intermediate-advanced street photography concepts such as:

  1. Discovering your own unique style and voice in street photography
  2. Staying true and authentic to your own photographic vision
  3. Shooting with a flash in street photography
  4. Is street photography subjective or objective? Making social commentary through your photos.
  5. Building the boldness to engage with your subjects, and to hesitate less
  6. Crafting dynamic multi-layered and multi-subject street photographs
  7. Misconceptions about “The Decisive Moment”
  8. Staying inspired, and staying fresh in street photography
  9. Unorthodox techniques and places you can shoot street photography
  10. The Cherry on Top: What differentiates a mediocre and great street photograph?

Inspirational Assignments to Push You Outside of Your Comfort Zone

Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Street Photography will help push you outside of your comfort zone with 37 empowering chapters, and 12 of the best street photography assignments to hone your skills.

This book is like your own personal street photography workshop, that is always with you — in your phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop.

Freedom and Flexibility of Open Source: This Book Belongs to You

Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Street Photography is non-DRM (Digital Rights Management).

You have the freedom to copy the book and transfer it to as many devices as you desire, with no limit.

Also, you are more than free to share the book with friends, family, or loved ones. Once you purchase the book, you own it, and you can remix it, share it, or distribute/store it however you desire.

Buy Books, Not Gear

Even if you are an intermediate-advanced street photographer, Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Street Photography will help re-spark your passion for street photography, and help you reflect again on the fundamentals of street photography. This book will refresh your perspective on street photography, and help return you to your “beginner’s mind”, when you were fresh, excited, and infinitely curious about street photography.

Become the Best Street Photographer You Can Be

Ultimately street photography is up to you. You decide how to shoot street photography for yourself, what style suits you, and what your own artistic vision is in street photography.

Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Street Photography will be a guide, and give you practical tips and suggestions to point you in the right direction.

Don’t miss your opportunity to gain all of the practical wisdom, knowledge, and information to take your street photography to the next level.

BE BOLD,
ERIC & CINDY
Lisbon, 2018


Table of Contents

The Joy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Start Shooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Authenticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Fear. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Assignment 1: 10 No Challenge . . . . . 10
Assignment 2: Shoot Yourself . . . . . . 12
Assignment 3: Admit Your Fears . . . . . 14
Engage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Assignment 4: Work the Scene . . . . . 18
Get Close . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Assignment 5: Diagonal . . . . . . . . 32
Always Be Prepared . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Assignment 6: Take your camera for a walk 36
Aesthetics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Set it and Forget It! . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Surrealism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Assignment 7: Don’t make eye contact . . 58
Tell Lies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Work the Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Assignment 8: Shoot 25% More . . . . . 64
Assignment 9: Overlay . . . . . . . . 66
Forbidden Places . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Assignment 10: Elevator . . . . . . . . 70
Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Mystery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Juxtaposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Hands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Emotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Dynamic Composition . . . . . . . . . . 92
The Cherry on Top . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Assignment 11: Love . . . . . . . . . 96
Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Dramatic Light . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Social Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 108
Urban Landscape . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Decisive Moments . . . . . . . . . . .130
Eyes Are the Windows to the Soul . . . . .132
Assignment 12: Eye Contact. . . . . . .134
Lenses & Focal Length . . . . . . . . . .136
Blur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138
Don’t Chimp . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
LCD vs Viewfinder . . . . . . . . . . 142
Editing (Select) Your Best Photos. . . . . 144
Post-Processing . . . . . . . . . . . 146
How to Stay Inspired . . . . . . . . . 148
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . .150
Learn More . . . . . . . . . . . . . .152


The Future of Photography and AI

What is the future of photography and AI? The question at hand.

First, my personal creative vision is that the future of AI and photography should be a hybrid of using AI to actually motivate you to be more creative. No no no, AI is not going to “take your job“, or “take over the world“. is going to take your job? Is Google search going to take your job? No.

What is AI good for?

AI, ChatGPT, DALL-E, DALL-E 3 is like a personal echo chamber; you could use it to flesh out your ideas, to think more critically, and just ask yourself the question… why?

My first take and attempt at creating my own artificial intelligence chat bot was the WHY APP? Essentially the idea was motivated by the notion; if you just ask yourself the question “why?” five times… you gain a deeper truth or insight about something.

The difference between human feedback and machine feedback

Arsbeta.com is all about human feedback. You upload a photo, and you randomly get a real human being giving you feedback on your photos, in a constructive and critical way.

My next vision is to integrate AI into it; which means you upload a photo to the AI, and then it could give you some sort of interesting critical feedback on your photos.

What you could do right now is subscribe to ChatGPT plus, only 20 bucks a month, and upload a photo to it, and ask it for feedback on your photos, how you can improve etc. Some of the feedback is interesting… it makes you think more.

AI as a mirror

AI is a mirror. A white mirror.

AI can only think as deeply as you do; there’s no real right or wrong here. Typically the questions you ask it is simply a reflection of what you’re personally interested in.

Also with DALL-E, DALL-E 3… the name of the game is how funny and aberrant are your ideas?

Creative ideas

Once you got the paid ChatGPT subscription, you can upload up to three or four images, and then just ask ChatGPT to help you choose your best photo.

AI can help you give photography tips. For example, ask ERIC KIM BOT, or ERIC KIM AI for photography tips, photography assignment ideas, street photography tips etc. It is very smart because what it essentially does is just scrape my blog, and gives you interesting ideas in a conversational way.

The integration between camera and AI

Rather than upgrading your iPhone, just use the iPhone you already got, and pay for the ChatGPT subscription, and finally… your smartphone actually becomes smart.

For example what you could do is open up the ChatGPT app, click the camera icon, take a photo of something, and help you analyze the scene. Also, you could even take a photo of a collage that you’ve made in real life and ask it to analyze the image. Recently Cindy and I printed out a bunch of photos, and framed them nicely, and I’ve been having fun asking it to analyze the collages and making sense of it.

AI ART?

Is AI art “real“ art? Of course! The better question is whether you like the photo and the image or not.

What is art? Art is anything that you create. Art can be manifested however you interpret it.

My thought is now with AI, and it being so easy to generate images… What is more critical is actually your ability to filter. The art of choosing your favorite photos is a really important thing here.

Why photographers should use DALL-E

DALL-E is the specific component of ChatGPT which creates images from scratch, purely based on your own imagination.

It is phenomenal. For example, once you subscribe to the Chi PT plus, open up DALL-E on the sidebar, and things you could ask it to design you:

  1. Bitcoin babe driving a Lamborghini Countach in ancient Sparta
  2. Peter Pan with samurai sword in zombie apocalypse
  3. Spartan stoic philosopher lifting bitcoin weights
  4. Beautiful Korean woman at Met Gala in bitcoin dress

DALL-E truly becomes magical the more ridiculous and ostentatious you make it. Make it as ridiculous silly and random as possible; the more ridiculous, the better.

Where should I post all of my images?

Your own blog.

Ionos.com and WordPress.org or bluehost.com

Why? The reason is you’re going to create lots of AI generated images and artwork, and also your photos.

I like the idea of artistic and creative double dipping; the idea is that now that you’re a visual artist, you’re not constrained to just one medium. It is not mutually exclusive; you could do both! You could shoot photos and make AI art!

Make yourself laugh

Cindy has been enjoying watching me how much fun I have been having with ChatGPT and DALL-E. For example a recent thing that I did which made me laugh out loud was asking DALLE to make me a hardcore Spartan image, and then I keep asking it “more muscular”. There is a certain point in which it becomes hilarious and I laugh out loud where the limits of muscularity just become preposterous. It makes the incredible Hulk look like a twig.

Content moderation

One good thing that ChatGPT has integrated is the notion of content policies to prevent bad behavior. The fun thing to do is actually see how you could work around it; rather than asking DALL-E to make you a picture of a “sexy Korean girl“, which it will refuse… use the word “babe” instead, and instead of calling it “sexy”, you can say “beautiful” or “gorgeous”.

The word babe is funny… I got the word from Calvin and Hobbes, because Hobbes was always so fascinated by the babes.

So I think the real fun thing about ChatGPT is actually finding creative ways to subvert the content moderation policies. See how far you could push it and nudge it.

Brave New World of AI

I made a ChatGPT bot called “Bitcoin Babe”. My personal creative vision was in the spirit of fun; how you could use an AI chat but to help you be more zen, stoic, and calm about crypto… given how volatile it is.

For example, I never checked the price of bitcoin or any of my crypto acids. I only ever know the price if I stumble upon it on accident, if it is in the headlines of a newspaper, on the television at airports, in magazines at the airport etc. I never seek it out.

Why, why not and why am I glad that I didn’t do this? Because I know myself and how sensitive I am… I used to actually daytrade when I was in college as a sophomore, and I realize that I was too emotional. Essentially what I did was I thought a long time about my decision, went 100% into bitcoin, and I just never looked at it or touched it, did other stuff instead. The hilarious thing is that I actually avoided and I actually didn’t even know about the whole FTX meltdown and the Sam Bankman-Fried guy. And I’m glad that I intentionally made myself ignorant of all the modern day news… Bitcoin is bouncing back, and since the last time I bought more bitcoin for the third time, everything is totally in the green.

But anyways, I think 99% of crypto, cryptocurrency speculation is all about having a zen and stoic mindset. Essentially not to let emotions perturb you.

I specifically programmed Bitcoin Babe in such a way that it tries to help you think more critically about things, and not get suckered by hype.

Also, ZEN OF ERIC and also ERIC KIM BOT— zen of ERIC is all about stoicism and philosophy, and ERIC KIM bot is all about photography.

No more Google

I am starting to think that Google is the bad guy; this whole system we got which is predicated on advertising is a positively bad one. Why? The more sensational and crazy the news, the more advertisements get viewed or clicked on. As a consequence, the nature of the news and media is becoming too outlandish.

Also my critical analysis is that a lot of this stuff on racism, race riots, anti-Jewish sentiment etc.… the real bad guy here is Google and Facebook. Why? Google which owns YouTube, makes money off of these hot button topics. Not only that but Facebook owns Instagram, and once again… the more sexual, overt, and loud something is… the more attention and advertising money is made.

Actually one thing that made me very anti-Instagram… I don’t even have a daughter but I’m starting to realize… When I watched the Kanye West interview on info wars, Kanye West commenting that Instagram is essentially like pornography; a lot of these “fitness influencers”, or women… are essentially selling their bodies for attention and money.

But now that ChatGPT and DALLE can make you your own beautiful women, photo realistic, all which are virtual… There is really no more need for these models or “influencers“.

Short Google and Facebook/Meta/Instagram.

Now what?

The other days when I was at Philz coffee, I saw a guy order a croissant and a coffee and spend $17 on it. Do yourself a favor and just buy the ChatGPT premium subscription, and spend the best $20 of your life.

Play with it, have fun, create your own ChatGPT bots, and also, see how far you can push it.


Think with EK

ERIC KIM WORKSHOPS FOR LIFE!

STACK IT WITH HAPTIC

HAPTIC TOOLS — create your own visual jewels!


How to Become a Professional Street Photographer

Am I the first and only street photographer who has actually made a good living from street photography? I think so.

Even when we consider Henri Cartier-Bresson, he was essentially like a rich trust fund kid, I think his family owned a very successful textiles company. Therefore he never had to worry about money, he was already funded and bankrolled by his family.

Simple approach

  1. Teach street photography workshops
  2. Sell street photography products
  3. Street photography consulting
  4. Street photography exhibitions and art shows
  5. Street photography books, pamphlets, information

Does it matter if you are self-made or not?

I think I knew weird obsession we have in America is this notion of being “self-made”. The general idea and gist is that we don’t want handouts, we want to make it on our own.

But also, I think this is also a superficial thing. If you were born to a good family, doesn’t it make more sense to just leverage the resources you were were born with, and strive to maximize it, instead of trying to “prove yourself” to the world in a more superficial manner?

In fact, I’ve actually discovered that often times, when we try to prove ourselves to others, we end up actually hurting or harming or injuring ourselves. Or putting ourselves into really bad situations.

For example, let us say that you are born rich, you’re a rich kid, you have a trust fund or whatever. No need to try to prove yourself to others, better to instead… use the money and resources intelligently to build cool stuff.

Think solo.

Another issue that I’ve been having is that I am so easily distracted, by everybody and everything. As a consequence, I think a lot of my time is wasted, I love making small talk and talking to strangers but often it is a bad crutch for me because instead of just focusing on my supreme life task at hand, I often waste it just talking nonsense.

Ways you can save time:

First, no email, no text messages, no phone conversations. The simple heuristic is when you’re gonna talk to somebody, either FaceTime them or talk to them face-to-face. No electronic communication or messaging services.

Also, no media. Produce your own media, if you’re going to consume media, consume the really really old stuff. For example, I think the only piece of literature worth reading is the Iliad by Homer, and the only philosophy worth reading is either stoic, Seneca, pre-Socratic like Heraclitus, etc.

Even with cinema and film; maybe just only watch black-and-white films, seven samurai, Akira Kurosawa, etc. Why? Typically movies which has been around for a long time are good because they last. Any modern day movie that just came out today or recently tends to not be good because you don’t know whether they will last or not.

Just Google ERIC KIM cinema, and look at my best film analyses.

My personal opinion on the only good cinema which has been produced recently include the matrix, the movie 300, and John Wick. Besides that, all of these other films are bad.

How to thrive creatively and artistically

My grand vision is that each and every single human being can thrive creatively and artistically on planet earth. This is my end game; to leverage all my resources money and tools to help other human beings thrive.

This is where I am so insanely enthusiastic about ChatGPT, AI, generative AI art, DALL-E, DALL-E 3 etc. I want an envision people to unshackle themselves from traditional media, and instead create their own media their own artwork.

How much human potential is squandered on people binging Netflix shows, series, or dulling their senses with Spotify and noise canceling headphones?

Why muscles?

What is the point of muscles, becoming more muscular etc.?

My first thought is that if you want to make really great art, you need really great muscles. Artwork, making photos etc. is actually a very physically taxing endeavor. Even if we think about photography and street photography; it actually requires much muscular strength and agility.

For example, squatting, sprinting around, running around and playing with your kid etc. This all requires great muscular strength.

Also, I personally discovered that the more muscular I become, the greater and more muscular my thoughts.

My critique about a lot of modern-day thinkers, even the past ones… They had degenerate bodies. Degenerate bodies, degenerate thoughts.

For example, even a lot of these early Christian writers… I think a lot of them were emaciated, unwell, physiologically degenerate. Especially the ones that self flagellated.

Put zero trust in anybody who self flagellates; they are seriously mentally and physiologically sick.

Modern day self-flagellation?

How do people self flagellate in modern day times?

First, they poison their bodies with alcohol, drugs, marijuana etc.

Secondly, I think a lot of people destroy their bodies, through what they eat, what they read, what they watch.

Becoming more robust

My personal encouragement for you to start becoming stronger more muscular more robust is that I think as a consequence, all parts of your life will thrive. Not only will you be happier, you’ll be stronger, more productive, a better provider, etc.

Your duty is strength, strengthening, becoming stronger more muscular.

ERIC