Becoming the Bull

Manly Thoughts


Who Has the Biggest Dick in the Room?

I think for us men, much of life, modern day life is just a massive dick measuring contest. But the question is, if indeed and in fact, you do have the biggest dick, so what?

The first question is, is your joy or your desire to just swing it around, and joy in throwing it all around? Probably one of the hottest moments of my life was when some guy at the gym, tried to pump me, when I was stretching my leg saying that I look like Jackie Chan or almost kicked him and made some kung fu sounds, I approached him afterwards, and I pretended to swing my dick at him, and then I just joked around with him and had a chat with him.

Cyber truck

This is where cyber truck is so fastening to me, truth be told, it seems that out of all of the cars in LA, if you’re driving a cyber truck, you certainly have the biggest dick in town, the biggest, the most grand, the most stainless steel dick on the planet. 

I think this is where the whole Overlanding movement and trend is so fascinating; the name of the game is who could be the tallest, the most dominant on the road? So it seems like on a basic trend, he is tallest, shall win.

This is where things become funny because there are lots of inconsistencies here.

First, it seems that traditionally, if you live more in a cosmopolitan area or city, Apex and manliness, having the biggest dick is having some sort of Lamborghini, or Ferrari, or maybe Porsche close to the ground. This is where the cyber truck is so disruptive; You just break out of the whole categories, you break out of the segment. You’re no longer trying to flex your sports card, but you have a whole new invention and concept; a truck.

I think what is so fascinating about cyber truck, if you look at the overall profile, it almost looks like a Lamborghini cage, but even more angular.

Also, I’ve seen a handful of cyber trucks now, out in the wild, in the real world, and what is so impressive is that the stainless deal when you see it in the bright Los Angeles light is actually very very impressive.

No more loser Rivian

For a hot minute, it looks like the hot car to have in Los Angeles is the Rivian R1 S SUV– honestly I think it’s a really cool car. Essentially it’s almost like the new Range Rover of Los Angeles; it seems that both men and women like to drive it.

First, I think it is built on a similar chassis to the R1 truck, which means that it has superior height, which seems that everyone in Los Angeles loves. I think the whole ethos is you want to treat your car like an armored vehicle, or a tank. The general idea is that in Los Angeles, because the place is such a concrete cluster fuck, people feel protected in their armored vehicles, a.k.a. their Mercedes-Benz AMG wagons, and even the whole notion of getting all black everything murdered out car with full tents is that people want to feel like Batman, Ready to take on the world.

How to get that big D energy

I think there is a meme going around on the Internet, something like big energy, big D energy, whatever. The basic ID I think is that he who has really really high levels of testosterone, essentially big dick confidence energy, is calm, masculine, Tall and strong, dominant, and cheerfully confident. ERIC KIM.

I think the reason why I am so disruptive is that typically people do not equate masculinity with Asian, Asian American guys. In the past, I think an Asian American man or an Asian man, was never masculine per se; he was kind of more of a sorcerer. For example, if you think about Bruce Lee, maybe even Jackie Chan, their strength and their power is almost comedic, and is based on meta physical principles like Kung fu or knowing some sort of magical trigger point, which would cause their heart to explode or something.

However, ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be masculine, a tank, like or no Schwarzenegger, with seeing the huge muscles, indomable. In fact, when I was a kid back in New York, Bayside Queens, certainly I was known as being the strongest out of all my friends, and then growing up, I continued this trend. in high school, I wanted to take on the most hard-core manly sport, which in America is currently American football. So I join the team, my sophomore year I was outside linebacker, and then junior year I became middle linebacker. Essentially in defense, the middle linebacker is the head honcho. We called the calls, and we are also the last line of defense.

What women will never understand about men 

I think nowadays the modern day trend is for me to understand woman… But, there doesn’t seem to be any effort either way, woman seeking to understand man.

It is true… Man is dominant in society, man holds the power, the true power. Even if you put the clog forward 1 billion years, as long as men are physically and physiologically taller, more muscular and dominant, you’ll never see women becoming superior to man.

So the philosophical question:

Should those empower seek to understand those with less power, or vice versa?

In other words, the trend is according to Christian modern day ethics, notions of equality, the overall trend is that those who are privileged, rich, upon high should seek to understand the poor, the lowly, the disenfranchised. Yet there is not an opposite case in which the poor the lonely the powerful made to understand the rich and the powerful.

My case?

So my case is unique and interesting and so far much as technically I come from a family of privilege, on both sides–

Yet, having both my family members, my dad and my mom coming to the states, was almost like a hard reset. As a consequence, even though we had a lot of social economic support back home in Korea, in the states we were quite poor.

Fast-forward a bit, now that I am now 36 years old, being born in 1988, then moving back to LA… I’m an interesting position, I guess I’m a full-blown adult now. As a consequence, there becomes a new battle, a new Contest for manliness and masculinity, which has to do more with social economic power. For example, who is the richest in the room, whose Ferrari has the biggest dick? 

Cases

A few months ago, I was walking around Culver City, near one of the fancy hotels, is that always do, topless. And a dude at the hotel checking up on his Ferrari comes out to me, in his Playboy looking Paisley flower dress shirt, noticeably shorter than me, Comes up to me and tries to jab at me and says “What is this, no shirt Thursdays?” — essentially, signifying in highlighting the fact that he indeed was insecure about his own masculinity, and he felt bad that he saw a dude way more jacked than him, his own body being much more impressive than his loser Ferrari. Of course, I didn’t let this loser guy punk me, and then actually stepped closer to him, showing him in the flesh that I was indeed much taller bigger stronger and more dominant than him, and then I started to tease him about his loser Ferrari. 

So in LA, I’ve actually found that most of the successful guys, the rich guys, are all pretty short. They all look like actors in the face, strong piercing eyes, masculine looking forehead and eyebrows, strong jawline, big head, but once they pop out of their loser Range Rover or their loser AMG G WAGON,  they are like 5‘6“ tall. For reference I am about 5‘11“ tall– 180, 182cm.

The contest for dominance

 I recall, back in middle school, even a little bit of high school… Some of the kids were the biggest bullies were actually very very small and short, but for some reason had a lot of self-confidence?

Something that never really made sense to me was that they would punk on kids almost 2 feet taller than them, and may be also weighing about 100 pounds more than them. If they both gone to a fistfight, certainly the bigger, fatter, heavier kid would be able to take on the shorter and smaller bully. But, they didn’t. Why not?

I think nowadays, despite what you see in these fake movies, bowling is not predicated on physical size or dominance, but rather, some sort of coolness clout? Like who is richer, who comes from crater social privilege etc.

For example, in high school, the really cool brand was Ecko– they were really expensive, I think a T-shirt was about 35 $40, and a hoodie was almost maybe 70 or $80! No way in hell I could afford that. 

So anyways, it seems that modern day times, masculinity is measured by dollars. He who has more money is considered more masculine and more dominant. 

The body as the ultimate toy?

This is where weightlifting, powerlifting, bodybuilding is a little bit productive; it posits that the body, the human body is the ultimate thing of admiration and worth.

But obviously the number one issue is taking steroids, injections, weird hormonal things testosterone etc.

But, detaching yourself from nonsensical supplements, steroids, whether they be “natural, or not… The body is the ultimate toy, the ultimate tool and instrument. 

“Life without music would be a mistake” – Nietzsche 

The human body could be seen as music, a musical instrument and dance. In fact, to dance in public, or to dance in front of other people might be wanting the most courageous things that one could do. 

Pet peeves?

I don’t like making eye contact with emasculated, emasculated, low testosterone men.

If anything I wonder… man with low testosterone, or with no masculinity… is he even a man anymore? 


Perhaps I am the great hater and tyrant?

Sometimes, I have this moral indignation that somehow I’m the good guy, and that whenever I treat people nicely and they do not reciprocate, it infuriates me. But maybe a more productive way to think about this is that actually impact, I am the bad guy, I’m the tyrant, I’m the asshole, and I act… Maybe I should delight in being the bully or the bad guy?

The notion of the bull, bully it literally comes from the notion of bull, typically seen as the strongest, the most dominant animal with the most strength. Even Lamborghini, what is the logo and emblem? The raging bull. 

Become more bull-like 

Also in regards to finances, maybe a simple fitness soft shift is that we should only be long or bullshit about certain things, instead of being bearish, or shorting things.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong about shortselling, I think it is another market dynamic which makes the market work. There needs to be short sellers, and also sellers, or buyers and sellers, some people who are bullish and optimistic about things, and other individuals who are bearish or pessimistic about things.

But maybe in terms of philosophy, a good idea is to become more like a bull — insane, extreme optimism!


What else?

The mass and the strength and the power and ferocity of the bull? 

“I’m a bull just like the hometown!” – Ye

Why is it that Michael Jordan, the Chicago Bulls, the Bulls will always be number one in history?

First, the colors. I think the color red is and will always be the most dominant color. For example, when it comes to looking at traffic lights, what is the most important color? Red. They call it a stoplight, not a “go” light.  Also, there’s a reason why really really important critical things are in red, stop signs, the color of blood, firetrucks, etc.

Also, if you think about this long-term, apparently the Apex outfit or dress for anybody to wear is all red. For example the woman with the beautiful red dress, or even better yet in modern day times, if I ever buy a new tuxedo or outfit, I will want an all red blood red tuxedo. Or think about the infamous red leather jacket of Tyler Durden and Brad Pitt fight club.

This is also why Ferrari will always be superior to Lamborghinis, because the official color of a Ferrari is red, whereas Lamborghini is yellow. Yellow is good, and also very attractive, but red is better. 

Ultra red

Sometimes I think I spend a lot of time thinking about nonsense, superficial things, but ultimately, I think this all matters.

For example, cars. What is the best car color? The new Tesla ultra red is phenomenal. If you see in real life, on the new Tesla model three, or even the Tesla model S plaid, ultra red is the most attractive, brilliant and beautiful color.


AI IS DIGITAL

Think Digital

Unlocking value

I don’t want my thoughts to be derailed


I think the reason why I like to wake up early, before anyone else does, and then drink coffee, thing, walk around, either Vlog or jot down notes is because I don’t want my thoughts to be derailed by an external issues at hand.


You know best; never do anything to just make other people happy or make them feel at peace or restful;


Financial Thoughts 

Some finance, financial thoughts on my mind; how and why does finance matter?

What is the etymology of finance?

First of all, it seems that the etymology for the word finance is centered around the notion of a fine, the end, “finis”–

If you take this metaphorically, maybe finance, personal finance is all about the banks, these credit unions, issuing debt, and if you don’t pay the monthly payments, the ransom, the settlements, you will be charged a penalty.

Also taken more artfully; perhaps we should consider the end of finance, the end of money etc.

Money for the sake of what? 

Recently I listened to the interview of Michael Saylor with Lex Fridman, I both watched the video YouTube podcast recording, and then ultimately I just read the transcript. One of the big takeaways was this:

Money is solidified labor, solidified energy and power.

For example, all of the money value that created over the last that give herself, traveling the world doing workshops, creating and selling products etc., ultimately all this money end up becoming solidified and codified into money.

Bitcoin as the most exciting thing since PayPal?

The reason why I have been very grateful to be alive at the time that I was, when I first started teaching workshops, I was easily able to create a PayPal payment by it now, in order to collect money from teaching workshops. The very very nominal 2.9% transaction fee to me was nothing; Essentially if PayPal did not exist, I would collect zero dollars, 0%. So 2.9% out of 100% to me is nothing. As long as the fee is less than 10%, I am happy.

One thing which is really cool about Coinbase, and I suppose a lot of these mainstream crypto market fund platforms is that you can easily purchase corn or whatever crypto with your US dollars or traditional bank account money, and also if you wish to, cash it out back into Fiat currency, if you want.

Even more interesting is the new Coinbase debit card visa card, in which you could essentially just use it to draw from your crypto reserves, to buy groceries at Costco or whatever. I think that I have yet been able to do is figure out a workaround or hack to have the Coinbase debit Visa card pay for rent; but beyond this, it is pretty phenomenal.

Why is it so damn hard to move money?

OK, some simple things; if I want to send money, either to myself from a different bank account, a simple wire transfer, whether domestic or international, why does it require me talking to a bunch of random people on the phone, wasting about 3 to 5 hours of my life, sometimes on the phone or sometimes in person, and sometimes having my money stuck in arbitrage, with some random person in the Back door of an office in the Philippines in Manila, “reviewing” my case, ensuring that my wire transfer is not a scam or fraud, before the transaction actually goes through?

Banks are the new gatekeepers, the new DRM digital rights management

OK, I have always been passionate about this open source notion, open source information, open source knowledge etc. Even what Saylor.org — Michael Saylor is doing with his open source information knowledge wisdom, is very admirable.

I think a huge point of enthusiasm and reinvigorated passion that I got from the Michael Saylor Lex Fridman  interview is Moores law, the immense power of the dematerialization of things. 

For example, when it comes to aviation, rockets to the moon, whatever… Why is this all the same same? The fundamentals materials of aluminum hasn’t changed for almost 40 or 50 years, in the general shape of airplanes have not changed at all either. The only really big innovation that I think we’ve had during my lifetime is Tesla, and electric vehicles; but still if you think about it, the overall shape of cars, even the Tesla cars are pretty similar to what we already got, albeit much better. 

Also a grand dismay that I have in regards to homes, real estate, etc.; why is it that homes have not really changed, even the new constructed ones? Maybe the only big innovations I’ve seen in house and home design is having your kitchen door patio thing open up directly Into the backyard or whatever, maybe have a pool or whatever, but that’s it. Why not any sort of Buckminster Fuller, geodesic, or even my own personal vision, a glass cube on top of a hill?


How bitcoin benefits from Moore’s law

I think a really big thing about bitcoin and Moore’s law is that anybody with the $50 smart phone or device can handle it, storage, in essentially the custody or the ownership of your money or your keys or whatever is a simple password that you can memorize in your brain. Or another thing which is good with Apple ID, your thumbprint, biometric data is that it is pretty difficult to fake a thumbprint; iron vision that a thumbprint is actually more secure than Face ID ID.

For example, I currently have an iPad Pro M1 chip, and already, the Face ID is busted. However compare this to my $299 iPhone SE; the thumbprint is secure. So even as much as I like to like the new iPhones, maybe just sticking to thumb ID is a better idea in terms of security. 

Once again, digital property, materials cannot increase at a rate of 2X year over year or whatever more law is. Yet, bitcoin, crypto, digital money can.

Or even some other basic good things; crypto could be treated every second, every day, doesn’t matter if weekend or weekday. Isn’t it strange that even in 2024, today’s capital markets, the markets are closed on Saturday and Sunday? Come on, we live in the world of self driving cars, robots, Artificial intelligence, ChatGPT etc.; why are we still in the stone ages in terms of finance?

Are you going to use your gold bars to buy a home?

It seems that one of the great real assets that people eventually aspire to have our own or procure is a home, property, ideally a single-family home. It also seems the truth is any people whose first homes a condo, secretly hopes that they had bought a single-family house, or they’re just saving up more money in order to buy a single-family house.

Owning a condo is like glorified renting 

I suppose one of the benefits being raised the way I was, I never was really into this idea of owning a house or owning home. Maybe this is because my family and my mom only ever rented our whole lives, part of it is that we were just broke, And part of it also, we moved around too much.

It seems that currently the American dream is all about owning a home, owning a single-family home. Perhaps this was just the postwar ideal or something; but maybe the new dream, the new Millenial dream should be to own (at least one) Bitcoin?

My simple math behind it is I equate one bitcoin to only one single-family house, or one piece of property. But the great upside of bitcoin and digital property is that I don’t have to maintain it, I don’t have to check for mold, I don’t have to worry about changing the roof, I don’t have to worry about bad tenants up the house, etc. And also, a big scam I think I’ve discovered about homeownership is property taxes;

Even if you buy a $3.5 million house all in cash, into perpetuity, you got it paid like $3000 a month in property taxes alone? That is essentially free money that you’ll never ever see again, that goes straight to the city and the government.

Even if I was worth 100 M, maybe because the way I was raised, I wouldn’t want to pay $3000 a month Justin property taxes, indefinitely? Especially considering that my rent is only $3200 a month right now, if the price of property taxes is equivalent to the price of renting, real estate really makes no sense.

The future of bitcoin and digital property?

Also another reason I found an interview with Michael Saylor and Lex Fridman so enlightening was not even the bitcoin stuff, but, how Michael Saylor cross pollinate his genius in sciences, history of science, engineering, mechanics and applies it to money finance in the world in general.

Especially the notion of energy.

For example, the reason why I am so grateful every single time I have a good cup of coffee is that there are people in Vietnam, in the Highlands, growing your coffee, tending to it, eventually picking it and sorting them, then you have an expert person like Hana Choi from 96b coffee roaster in Saigon Vietnam roasting it, and then ultimately delivering some great product like 100% fine robusta, ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE, delivered straight to you.

What is a college degree, a PhD, a masters or a bachelor is worth today anyways?

If I think about it, if I think about it, cart blonde, Sukha today, if you didn’t want to go to college, or get a higher degree, I wouldn’t really mind too much. Why?

First, his parents, a.k.a. me and Cindy are already super educated. We both went to UCLA is undergraduates, Cindy got her PhD at Berkeley, and now is a full-fledged professor.

So why do we need more education in the family?

What is education for anyways?

Assuming that your family already has wealth, having a higher degree is only a legitimacy thing.

For example, if your family empire is already worth $500 million, and you have a bunch of kids, you just want them to graduate with at least the bachelors degree to “prove “that they’re not dumb.

If you’re doing any sort of business transactions, or just networking in general, eventually someone’s gonna ask you where you went to school, a.k.a. where you went to college.

Even now when I meet people, and ask them why they went to school or whatever, and they say UC Davis or something, I think that it is OK, and I tell them that I want to UCLA, I can already see their face and countenance change, That they feel a little bit made small by the fact that I went to UCLA and they went to a second tier school.

However, the reason why this is so bad is that why would you take your own self-esteem based on an institution?

This is also where brands, are so silly. For example everyone is so gaga over Louis Vuitton, but just Google image the actual founder of Louis Vuitton, a fat obese man with a funny mustache and beard; do you want to look like that guy?

Building the future, upgrading the planet?

The final words of Michael Saylor was quite poetic interesting and simple; “upgrade the world“, upgrade the planet, upgrade the human race.

“Uh-up-uh-upgrade complete!” – StarCraft

What does it mean to upgrade things, the planet, the human race?

First, maybe it is to first apply a fresh, gigabit Internet like mentality to our brains. For example everyone is so quick to just upgrade their iPhone or devices or their car or whatever, isn’t the more important fact to upgrade your mind?

For example, I just got rid of loser spectrum Internet, they still don’t get them, and upgraded to team gigabit fiber Internet which is 1 trillion times better. Even when trying to cancel my old spectrum thing on the phone, it was so damn annoying, just like trying to cancel your AWOL membership back in the day.

Anyways, maybe we gotta think about this like gigabit Internet Wi-Fi. Upgrading your mind is like going from 56K dial up modem to gigabit fiber Internet.


Grand Visions

I follow the Peter Thiel model here:

Better to risk boldness than to risk triviality. 

Or another words, better to go insanely bold and big, and fail, rather than two go and bet same same, and succeed.

Even one of the random things that I am insanely proud about myself, is successfully lifting 1000 pounds; the infamous ERIC KIM Atlas lift. 

I think it is more interesting to lift 1000 pounds, my unorthodox way, which is 10 plates of 25 and I think a five and a 2 1/2 are on each side, rather than even squat five or six plates the standard way, or even dead lift seven or eight plates the standard way.

Bigger always wins.

Once again, the ultimate flex in the ultimate interest is how many plates you have on the bar. When you stop counting, that is when you know you are strong.

For example, typically the reason why people like to dead lift, or do sumo deadlifts or whatever is that you could put more plates on the bar. For example a reasonably strong person can let’s say squat for plates, but for dead lift do five or six plates. And the upside to switching to sumo dead lift is that you could go from 5 to 6 plates pretty easily; if you’re doing conventional, Because the biomechanics are not as efficient, you cannot lift as much. 

Lifting more is more important

Once again, to lift more is more impressive.

To do things, the conventional or standard way, is boring.

Or even taken into a greater extreme; what is more impressive, to lift 2000 pounds, or two benchpress 300 or 400 pounds? Lifting 2000 pounds is far more interesting.


Bitcoin developer

The funny thing is with real estate, your $1 million house cannot certainly become $100 million house in 10 years. But you’re $1 million worth of bitcoin can become $100 million a bitcoin in 10 years.

A funny rebuttal that people say about bitcoin is that it is not “worth” anything; but then again, owning property is not really “worth“ anything either; to own a few square meters of concrete somewhere is not as glorious as you might think it is, especially considering you got a pay property taxes etc. Not only that but maintenance cost, hidden cost, things breaking things gotta be maintained etc.

Even simple things, like gardening, cleaning up dead tree leaves etc.; then all of this additional labor.

Even if you hire somebody to do it, you still gotta put in the labor to manage them.


What new innovations have yet been created?

Bitcoin is interesting because it is still in the early infancy.

First, people have no idea what it is. Even amongst the bitcoin and crypto maximalists, nobody has anyone unified idea on what it is or what it should be.

For example, some people think that bitcoin should be digital money, other think that it should be digital property, other people think it should be digital gold. But maybe because there is not a consensus on what it should be, this is a feature, not a bug. 

In terms of what technology you could build on top of bitcoin, it seems that the level 2 layer — the bitcoin lightning network is probably the most useful innovation thus far, that which Jack Dorsey has integrated into the cash app, and let us not forget that Jack Dorsey who is a huge bitcoin advocate also owns and runs square, the infamous and notorious little card reader thing that you use to buy your $10 cappuccino at any hips or coffee shop.

The philosophy of money and finances

I think money and wealth is all an attitude thing, which means wants to feel rich, to feel strong, to feel abundant. Nobody wants to feel broke, and poor.

Even Aristotle written in his economics, Oeceonomia in Greek said the very powerful and simple thoughts, which still rings today:

One’s expenditures should never exceed one’s income.

Live like a very poor person

Even now that I am super rich, I still use the cheapest iPhone, an iPhone SE. Why? Even though I could afford thousands of iPhone pros?

I think the simple heuristic that I’ve learned is that irregardless of how rich you are, it is always better to live like a very very poor person. Why? Honik and lifestyle creep; sure you make a little money here in there, and get some gains, get a bonus or whatever, you buy the Tesla, buy more expensive things, etc.… But the problem is that often, we think we are much richer than we actually are. The same thing with gains;

We always overexaggerate our gains, we always underplay our losses. 

Additional things which are worthy of consideration include having to pay taxes, capital gains taxes, etc. Therefore, if you think about things a little bit more critically, always best to think and act rich, but live poor.

How does one live poor?

  1. Don’t drink or purchase or buy bottled water or filtered water: just drink tapwater, or filtered water at home
  2. Don’t drink alcohol, don’t consume alcohol, whether at home or at the bar, don’t smoke weed, waste money on weed and drugs
  3. don’t go to festivals, don’t go to Vegas, don’t listen to EDM music, a funny thought: has anyone ever gone to an EDM concert or gone to burning man and enjoy themselves sober? Without taking drugs? No.
  4. For a car, the best car is just a 2010 Prius; I love Tesla, I love Elon musk, I own a lot of Tesla stock, yet I don’t really want to buy one right now, yet. If I were to buy a Tesla, I might hold out for the cyber truck. And actually, in LA, the greatest flex is to drive around in the cyber truck; even more than driving a Ferrari or a Lamborghini!
  5. Never buy any new clothes
  6. Build your own home gym, work out at home: or just buy a 60 pound weight vest, and just go walking or hiking in the nature areas, in the woods etc.  For example in LA, I really love this Baldwin Hills hiking area stairs area.
  7. The best entertainment and leisure activities are free! Nature, hikes, state recreational parks etc.

Now what?

I always find the quote now what”? Question the most fascinating. Why? After all of this, what is the point of it all? What should I do with my life and time?

A very simple one is exercise fitness and health. Movement, exercise, fitness is the ultimate leisure. There is no greater leisure than the human body.

Second, there needs to be some sort of creative output publishing that you do. I think this is the best way we could enact an impact on the planet; information, it is universal, a random person in a small village in India on the $50 android device could easily access your website and blog, or even a random kid in the Philippines.

Third, think technology, Moore’s law and scale: once again, I think the problem why real estate, land development, construction is so tapped out is that it is still so inefficient, and it does not follow more law. In the year 2024; why can’t I just 3-D print a house in an hour? Why does it still require a litany of annoying contractors, hold ups, and trillions of other problems?

Building digital properties

Maybe it is best that we think about websites and digital properties like real estate.

Something that nobody appreciates is that you could erect a website in 30 seconds, good luck doing that with the skyscraper or even a single-family home.

Second, domains, domain names. This is still a field which is very very important and untapped.

For example there is this thing called ES, Ethereum name network or system or something, owning your own crypto address in cyberspace seems like a good idea.

For example, currently playing around with a new Coinbase web3 wallet, and there is an ability to create your own username on it. Kind of like Venmo. Or PayPal. This is interesting and useful because if I want to just send bitcoin or crypto to somebody, rather than having to copy and paste a really really long Crypto address, it is easier to just punch in their “@“ user ID– it is easier to remember, much more secure etc.

Why Coinbase?

Coinbase is the goat. The most beautiful UIUX, it feels the most ethical, and it just works insanely good. Coinbase is like the new paypal for crypto. 

You can just buy $100 worth of bitcoin

Everyone wants to own at least one bitcoin, but the beauty is you could just buy $100 worth of bitcoin, you could just do it in the cash app, or on Coinbase or whatever. An exchange I don’t really trust, but at least it is mainstream is crypto.com, I think they are Singaporean based, And they bought out the name rights for the Los Angeles Lakers Staples center, and it also looks like they are doing a good job marketing across sports and television channels.

Finance also looks pretty good, but I would still kind of stairway from it, because of the old controversies with the ex founder, CZ.

Now what?

I think the beauty of bitcoin, crypto is that we can all get rich together. Assuming that the value of it all collectively goes up, if I buy bitcoin, and you buy bitcoin, the value of all of it goes up. Only people who “lose”, are people who get into the game too late.

Rethinking economics, money and wealth

We humans are bad at metaphors, math, digital thinking, etc. As a consequence, it seems interesting to try to upgrade your mind, or rethink things from a blank state.

For example, being born in 1988; the idea of having to pay for information and knowledge always seemed ridiculous to me. But to the old-school people, the old guard, it seemed natural.

Even in the world of Atari, film photography, doing exhibitions and shows, printing out hardcover books, these are all old antiquated Parisian notions which must be re-examined especially in the year 2024; in which I could design and create a PDF photo book in minutes, publish it for zero cents, and essentially share it to all 8 billion people on the planet for nothing.

Consider the typical artist who has to sell out $20,000 of their own money, in order to print their book, and attempting to sell it, and eventually not being able to do so, still having hundreds of copies and storage, unsold.

The great upside of digital products and digital books is that there is no such thing as “stale“ inventory, no such thing as dead stock, or unsold inventory.

Think Digital!


The Key to Happiness?

Quick thoughts:

First, happiness it is a physiological phenomenon. What that means is happiness should not be seen as related to money, external goods and objects, cars homes etc. Rather, climate, sunlight, exposure to the sun, I wonder if a lot of these people who experience seasonal affected this disorder is just this bad Modern day phenomenon in which everyone is just stuck indoors, or at home all day.

The problem with working from home

Observing some of my apartment mates, and other people I witness working from home, or just the modern day office worker, the big problem in issue here is that when you work from home, people become strange.

For example, I know one of my apartment maids, spending too much time at home he becomes strangely weird, suspicious, almost like the typical scared person who lives in the suburbs.

Also, just peering into the apartments of others, they spent too much time sedentary, too much time sitting on the couch, on the laptop, long back on the couch on their phone, watching baseball and hockey and football, essentially, watching other people be active.

The panacea

My intervention and idea is very simple: perhaps everyone should just have an iPhone Pro, an iPad Pro, with some sort of 5G connection, preferably Verizon, and everyone should just work off the grid. This means people could just work in the great outdoors, at the local nature center or park, And also I think people should have the courage to do boring zoom calls while going on a hike.

I was at the Baldwin Hills overlook hike path on the top, and actually saw a girl walking her dog and practicing her lines for some sort of actress script. Very good idea.

SAD?

Essentially seasonal effectiveness disorder is a phenomenon in which one is lacking contact with the direct sun and UV rays. The strange bias in two days world is that somehow, we are all afraid of the sun, afraid of getting sunburnt, skin cancer, all these harmful UV rays etc. But I think these concerns are over warranted; certainly you spend 12 hours in the direct sun, in subsea in Africa, totally naked, that is probably not a good idea. The visual I get is the emperor in the Apple TV series foundation, in which he does his funny pilgrimage, in the desert planet, and his body totally becomes all red and toasted.

My practical thoughts; maybe it is better to live a shorter life, get skin cancer or whatever, and be happy during that duration, rather than living a long and miserable life. 

Natural vs not natural?

I am still a little bit suspicious of sunblock and sunscreen. Maybe it is good when you spent all day at the beach, but for typical every day activities, maybe not a good idea. I wonder if the downside of sunblock and sunscreen is that it actually positively prevent your body from absorbing positive UV radiation from the sun.

I suppose if one is really really concerned you could just buy one of those funny hiking hats from REI, put on a facemask and totally cover up your whole body.

Skin face?

Another bias between men and women; traditionally in a lot of cultures in the world, especially Asia and Korea, whiteness is perceived as superior. Why? It was a status thing; the poor peasants had to work in the fields, while the royalty were able to stay indoors out of the sun.

In fact, many cultures around the world see the same; in India and south Asia, the elite area Indians on top, more light skinned, and seen as more more good. The darker, untouchables… were seen as bad, evil, base.

If you read the book of man who, the way that he talks about the untouchable; pretty bad. The idea is that  they are only permitted to bathe in unclean waters, they could only eat with their left hand, and they are only given rotten food, onions to eat. In ancient Hindu text, and the cast system in India; they are very mercurial about it, no hard feelings.

Aryans are on top, untouchables on bottom.


Back to the sun

Being here in LA, I find that the happiest people are the “beach buns “. What is a beach bomb? Somebody who lives in Malibu, and just spend all day surfing at the beach. Even about a week or two ago, we saw a bunch of students, Undergraduates girls and guys, all at the beach, having a great and jolly time, and all eventually stripping down to their swimwear and running into the water together. It was actually a very beautiful sight. 

LA people can be happier

One thing I love about LA is for the most part, the sun is up all year round. I suppose the upside of LA versus Arizona and Nevada is that while LA has a lot of sun, it never gets too hot. Apparently in Arizona and Nevada during the summer months, it is literally untenable to be out in the sun. Therefore you become the more people, staying indoors with air-conditioning.

Why were the ancient Greeks so productive and happy?

I think the ancient Greeks were so productive and happy because their climate was perfect. With a mild Mediterranean weather, it never gets too hot nor too cold. Apparently in the mountainside it could get pretty cold, but never like Minnesota.

If you think about it, all of the barbarian races from the past, the goths, visigoths etc — there are barbarism comes from the fact that they had to deal with such cruel weather. Also think about the Germans, the dramatic tribe; if you have ever spent a winter in Berlin, you will know how miserable it is. That is why the rent is so cheap.

How to live happy in LA

I think Peter Thiel moved down to LA, and actually one of my great gratitude and life was moving to LA, getting into UCLA as an undergraduate. Why?

First, students are just way happier. I still remember when I was maybe a freshman or a sophomore, walking around and down Bruun walk, in the middle of December, and you see all these girls and booty shorts and tank tops and spaghetti strap tank tops.

As a guy, this is great! And also, typically when the sun is out, people are happy and in a good mood.

Why are college students so happy?

My theory on why college students are so happy is that for the most part, most undergraduates don’t own cars, and their lifestyle is 100% pedestrian. Being in university is like a pseudo Utopia; you meet new friends, you hang out, you feel unhurried and unrushed, and you are also not yet corrupted by the external world, no concerns about making money and paying rent, etc.

Therefore first, I believe the secret then is to spend maximal amount of time walking. I think the real hack to living a happy life in LA is simple; spend minimum amount of time ever, being inside a car. In fact, the ultimate privilege living in LA is a 100% pedestrian lifestyle, in the direct sun. It don’t matter if you drive the rules, Bentley, Lamborghini or Ferrari; as long as you are stuck in traffic, sedentary, and not on your two legs walking, you are underprivileged.

The new elites?

My new modern day flex is that I have a full body tan, when I takeoff my shirt, my body is chiseled, beautiful, it looks like I got a spray tan.

One of the big problems even in the entertainment industry is that even if you are Kim Kardashian, the big issue is that because you are indoors all day, doing screenings and filming and stuff, you don’t actually have a chance to get a real tan. Therefore they put on a spray tan, to look more beautiful?

Having tanned skin is more beautiful 

I do not believe that beauty is subjective. I believe that there are degrees.

 For example, if you have somebody with pale and paste the skin, and spends 99% of their time indoors in the cave, the reason why it is not beautiful is that it is a sign and the signal that they are sick and unwell. For example, Consider the modern day office slave, stuck in doors all day, with that ugly ass fluorescent lighting. That is positively bad for your physiology health and mental being.

Mental health is physical health 

In a healthy body lies a healthy mind.

What these uncritical people don’t realize is how the root and origin of all “mental health“ problems derives from the physical. 

For example, certainly if you are addicted to meth, heroin, cocaine, weed and alcohol, to Netflix and Reddit, sleep maybe one to two hours a night, and are popping pills all day… Certainly your mental health will be poor. Why? Because your physical health is poor.

However, let us say that you sleep 8 to 12 hours a night, spend your whole day outdoors in the direct sun, hiking, lifting weights topless, smiling and chatting with people etc.… Certainly there might be some sort of opportunities for sadness in your life, let us say that your mom passes or something, but for the most part you should be pretty OK. 

Therefore, I really think that 90% mental health issues could be alleviated simply from physical training. Focusing on our physicality.

Some extreme measures include just flying to Vietnam, spend some time in Hanoi and Saigon, or even a new favorite place of mine, Phnomh penh Cambodia. 

Why do I love Cambodia so much, especially phnomnh penh?

First, I think that Buddhist countries are just way happier. Same thing goes with Thailand and Bangkok.

One of the big issues in Vietnam is that it is becoming too much like a mini America; too much focused on being productive work making a bunch of money buying the Rolls-Royce whatever. Even seeing some of my Vietnamese friends, they look like they are all grounded out. whereas in Cambodia, people take their time, or happy, and it seems that they just enjoy life better. To me the only people who seem a little bit miserable are  maybe the foreigners who live there; and please, do not go to siem reap. I hate that place. Too many degenerate ex patriots who live there.

Money for the sake of what?

Currently one of my greatest joys in the world is being very very very happy to pay rent to live in an extremely desirable neighborhood, in which I could literally just walk around everywhere all day. The reason why this brings me so much joy is that for me, happiness is just walking and being out in the sun and in the direct elements. The funny thing is I never really thought of myself as a nature person, even though I did Boy Scouts, became a Boy Scout eagle gut etc.… But as time has progressed, I enjoy more and more the privilege of just being outside and outdoors.

A pro tip: if you’re currently living somewhere very cold, I recommend getting some military grade clothing. Tennier industries — for example the famous military digital camo cold weather parka that I’ve been wearing in my videos the last six years is a legitimate cold weather camouflage jacket that I got from my brother-in-law Khan, when he served in Afghanistan. The reason I love the code so much is that it is literally built to withstand anything. The long length makes it ideal for all weather, I never get hot in it, nor do I get cold in it. Therefore the great upside is that I could just spend maximum time outdoors in the direct sun.

Now what?

Honestly I think the world just needs more joy and happiness. There’s too much doom and gloom in the world. Perhaps, my new focus should be simple — be the first truly happy philosopher, the jolly gay monster philosopher, and share this happiness and joyful thoughts with others?

EK


Sun meditation, sun therapy

One of the great things I like about being outside outdoors and in the sun is that it is free! It doesn’t cost you anything.

People have this nonsensical notion of just trying to spend 15 minutes a day outside in the drug sun. I would say better yet think about eight hours.

Even my mailman friend Jimmy, he spends all the time outdoors delivering the mail, he is one of the most joyful and happy people that I know.

But, I wonder if more people would be happy to do these “blue-collar“ jobs, like being the mailman, firefighters, police, military etc.

I don’t know any happy tech workers?

When I think about it, I don’t think I know any happy type workers. None of my friends who work at Facebook, Google or Amazon. Even Apple.


Now what?

Happiness begets happiness. My simple thought and suggestion is maybe try to spend more time focused on just becoming happier, and sharing your happiness with others!

ERIC

Happy exercises

  1. If you have the option of watching TV, a movie, a series or whatever… Better to just hit the gym or work out at home instead or outdoors. Or better yet, if you want to watch a movie or media, downloaded off-line to your iPhone or iPad, And watch it immigrant outdoors while you’re taking a hike!
  2. Do all of your zoom calls outdoors and or hiking.
  3. In the evening, when you come home, at five or 6 PM, just turn off your phone, on iPhone that is up down power button hold. Then switch your phone 100% off. 
  4. Sleep is the number one most critical thing to happiness. I don’t think it matters who you are, alcohol and marijuana is bad for your sleep. Same thing goes with caffeine coffee and also caffeinated tea. Typically I think when people have troubles sleeping, it is because they did not engage in enough physical activity during the day. I say that you should work out or exercise at least once a day, maybe even twice a day… And also if the weather is becoming very cold, just sign up for a local hot yoga studio, and do hot yoga at least once a day. I find this to be very beneficial.
  5. Smile and wave at people: just say hi, or just wave your hand. It doesn’t cost you anything!
  6. If you have the option, don’t drive. I think 90% of the misery of living in Los Angeles is because people are stuck in traffic all day.
  7. Vibram 5 finger shoes — EL-X model. Better connection with the ground will increase your joy!

VIBE WITH EK

ERIC KIM WORKSHOP EXPERIENCES >


Happy products?

The funny thing is that when it comes to consumerism, products and things, I think actually it is true that spending some money on certain things can make you happier. For example, purchasing your own weightlifting and exercise equipment to just work out at home, preferably outdoors is good.

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HOW TO BECOME HAPPIER

Simple — mostly via negativa:

  1. Quit reddit– I actually wonder if reddit is worse for you than porn. Funny thought — don’t quit porn, quit reddit instead.
  2. Quit alcohol and weed: just drink black coffee — EK 100% fine robusta. Also another pro tip — don’t drink arabica, just drink 100% robusta. Why? Less sugar content and sugar molecules and sweetness flavors — robusta also has more caffeine!
  3. For coffee — only drink it first thing in the morning — a lot; allow yourself unlimited coffee first thing waking up in the morning. But for the rest of the day… strict abstinence.
  4. Don’t go to the club, the mall, the strip club whatever. Just go on a (free) hike and start your own home gym instead! Titan fitness independent squat rack— I love it. Also rogue fitness 400 pound sandbag. Texas power squat bar.
  5. Visit the local museum — LACMA, THE GETTY, GETTY VILLA IN MALBU ETC. The Getty in LA is free!
  6. Read the classics — Plutarch, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Diogenes, Epictetus, Heraclitus, the philosophers who came before Socrates.

Happy exercises and activities

  1. Buy vibram 5 finger shoes, just black. I like the EL-X model. Just make this your everyday shoe. Wear it to the gym, to work, grocery store, go hiking whatever. Theory — there is more intelligence in your (bare) feet than your hands?
  2. Intermittent fasting: no breakfast no lunch, only one insanely massive dinner a night. I prefer 100% carnivore diet — aim for 5 pounds of beef/lamb a night. Costco Kirkland boneless lamb leg roast only $5.50 USD a pound, the new Costco wagyu American ground beef also very good– only $5USD a pound.
  3. Get a Costco membership: buy all your meat, clothes there.
  4. Stop using Google (free service)– also stop using Gmail. Register your own email (like eric@erickim.com) and no more Gmail. Use the Apple Mail client on your phone or laptop. Better yet,,, uninstall email from your phone. Remember once upon a time it was seen as insanely strange to have work email on your personal private phone?
  5. Get paid premium ChatGPT — only $20 a month– I get at least $10,000 USD a month of metaphorical value from it every month!

Finances

  1. Stop buying USD DOLLARS, buy Bitcoin instead. Coinbase.com is easy or the Cash app– owned by Square and Jack Dorsey. Block.xyz as parent company.
  2. For clothes buy lululemon we made too much clothes — maximum quality, minimal price. Men’s shorts. Also this new ten thousand brand seems cool. Surplus sale.
  3. Quit going to the gym, go on hikes or just workout at home instead.
  4. Watch the movie FIGHT CLUB— Tyler Durden — “I don’t have a car!”

Thinking

  1. When in doubt, delay. Obvious decisions are obvious and should habe ZERO ounces of hesitation! For example with life, lifestyle things, finding a place to live and home — or investing speculations etc — you should have .00000 hesitations before doing something.
  2. Quit social media, medium, reddit whatever — publish all your comments, reviews etc to your own personal blog!

HOW TO BECOME HAPPIER

Simple — mostly via negativa:

  1. Quit reddit– I actually wonder if reddit is worse for you than porn. Funny thought — don’t quit porn, quit reddit instead.
  2. Quit alcohol and weed: just drink black coffee — EK 100% fine robusta. Also another pro tip — don’t drink arabica, just drink 100% robusta. Why? Less sugar content and sugar molecules and sweetness flavors — robusta also has more caffeine!
  3. For coffee — only drink it first thing in the morning — a lot; allow yourself unlimited coffee first thing waking up in the morning. But for the rest of the day… strict abstinence.
  4. Don’t go to the club, the mall, the strip club whatever. Just go on a (free) hike and start your own home gym instead! Titan fitness independent squat rack— I love it. Also rogue fitness 400 pound sandbag. Texas power squat bar.
  5. Visit the local museum — LACMA, THE GETTY, GETTY VILLA IN MALBU ETC. The Getty in LA is free!
  6. Read the classics — Plutarch, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Diogenes, Epictetus, Heraclitus, the philosophers who came before Socrates.

Happy exercises and activities

  1. Buy vibram 5 finger shoes, just black. I like the EL-X model. Just make this your everyday shoe. Wear it to the gym, to work, grocery store, go hiking whatever. Theory — there is more intelligence in your (bare) feet than your hands?
  2. Intermittent fasting: no breakfast no lunch, only one insanely massive dinner a night. I prefer 100% carnivore diet — aim for 5 pounds of beef/lamb a night. Costco Kirkland boneless lamb leg roast only $5.50 USD a pound, the new Costco wagyu American ground beef also very good– only $5USD a pound.
  3. Get a Costco membership:
  4. Stop using Google (free service)– also stop using Gmail. Register your own email (like eric@erickim.com) and no more Gmail. Use the Apple Mail client on your phone or laptop. Better yet,,, uninstall email from your phone. Remember once upon a time it was seen as insanely strange to have work email on your personal private phone?

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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Becoming Yourself

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

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 MONEYA; 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. 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 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.

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 tour 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 change his last name to sound more “American”. The same thing goes with Dr. 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?