The ocean is infinite– infinite energy, power, waves… forever into the distance:

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Only Slaves Use Phones

Creating the most sublime human body?

A turbo thought about phones —

Only slaves use phones?

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Vietnam experiences

Probably the big takeaway point I got from Vietnam, living in Vietnam without a phone, only iPad is this: 

You don’t need a phone.

In fact, let us consider… If you’re walking around in the real world, looking at how big it is, it is such a great tragedy that so much of our human existence is centered around a tiny 4.5 inch screen.

Also, the problem with phones, you can’t be that productive with phones. Most people text with their thumbs, which is maybe 40 words per minute at best. Very slow. On the laptop I can type close to 140 words per minute, and now using iPad Pro with voice dictation, maybe 200 words per minute. 

I think perhaps what is exciting about the new Apple intelligence and AI in the future, is actually ironically not the AI generating text, or giving me information, but the simple thing, which is actually centered more around accurately representing the words I actually want to voice dictate.

For example, often when I’m doing voice dictation with the iPad Pro, the built-in keyboard, the little microphone button… the big issue I have here is that a lot of the typos certain words in the English language which sound like something else, but are not.

Consequence, perhaps the greatest upside of artificial intelligence would be quickly scanning the nuance of the whole sentence, while I am actively voice dictating, and through this process, discover what I am really trying to say. 

AI & photo curation

Another interesting use case for artificial intelligence is simply being able to help me curate my images, help me go through them quicker.

For example, I have lots of visions for image curation; the big issue we are having in todays world is we shoot too many images, too quickly, and we haven’t the time the techniques or the skills to view them quickly enough. 

For example, currently I average 1000 to 2000 photos a day. I think this is generally a good thing, because it signals that I am living a grand life. However the downside is that I seem to have a difficult time finding the opportunity or the time or the chance to review these many photos a day.

The basic person might say, “Shoot less“; but I find this to be too flaccid of a solution. What we need instead is more effective image creation tools, devices, or things.

More convenient film developing, processing etc?

Also as a random nuance, now that Pentax just put out that new film camera, wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was either a free or practically free solution to image processing, etc.?

Or, the upside of film without the downside; perhaps this is the main upside or the intrigue with the new Ricoh HDF camera ? The idea that your digital photos could look like film photos without the hassle of developing film photos? 

Why film?

For example, there is no doubt that film photos, especially color film photos, are far more aesthetically beautiful than the often too perfect digital photos. Yet, at the end of day, the inconvenience of shooting film is what makes it the loser. Sooner or later, no matter how dedicated of a film photographer you are, it still seems that the tide eventually makes its way back into digital. 

Some nuances:

First, if you perhaps live in Vietnam or some sort of developing country, where labor costs are cheap in which you could just give somebody else your film photos, and have them cheaply develop process and scan it for you. However it seems that now in America with the $20 an hour minimum wage at McDonald’s, labor costs in America are too prohibitive.

As an example I remember when living in Hanoi, there were some scrappy kids who would develop a rule of film, and also scan it for you for only five dollars a roll! In America this is almost $20-$30 a roll. 

Convenience is key

Even if you’re stupid rich, millionaire or billionaire level, then once again, the inconvenience is what makes it bad. For example, I still have about 50 rolls of Kodak PORTRA 400, and Kodak Trix which I shot maybe three or four years ago, which I still haven’t yet had the impetus to send it off to go process it, even though I could easily afford it. I just got too many other things on my plate at the moment.

Therefore a consequence, the realization is once you’re very wealthy, costs no longer become a problem, it is more of a time energy mental space, time space thing. 

Elon?

For example, if you’re Elon Musk, do you have the time convenience or the leisure to simply stroll into a Costco, browse the products, and spend about three or four hours checking out? No.

I think this is where Amazon and Amazon prime is so great for people both rich and poor alike; rich people still use Amazon prime because it is so convenient. Once you’re rich, a lot of people don’t have time to go places or to physically purchase the products. They would prefer to order it in just a few seconds from their phone. And then poor people like Amazon prime because they get prices; and end up “saving” money.

Visions for the future

Some simple visions:

First, a phone free future. I think one thing that really annoys me about a lot of these new modern cars is that you somehow need a phone in order to unlock it, to open the door of your car, access it, etc. I think with Tesla cars, as long as you have your Tesla phone in your pocket, you could access your car, but also you could access it if you have the Tesla valet key thing.

Funny enough, one of the upsides of my glorious 2010 Prius is that it still has the key fob; which means when I go to the park with Seneca, I could just lock up my phone inside my glove compartment, just take my keys and Prius car with me, and lock up my car. 

New productivity?

I have some radical new ideas for productivity:

First, it seems like a very very very simple one is ironically “via negativa” approaches and technology. 

For example, ironically one of the best ways you could be more productive is by not having a Wi-Fi enabled device. For example, maybe if you’d like the smaller form factor of an iPhone, just have two phones; one with Internet cellular data, the other as a Wi-Fi only device. Maybe this would be a good idea for who just prefer shooting photos using an iPhone, but don’t like getting interrupted by text messages.

I think the reason why this is such a good idea in Asia, and a lot of the world… many people have multiple devices with them at once. For example my friend Chu Viet Ha, because he is often testing out so many new phones and phone cameras, often has five or six phones with him.

The hybrid approach

In fact, if you really wanted to be the ultimately productive person, having the best world of both android and iPhone iOS is a good idea. 

For example, my friend Darren Wong — impressed me when he had both a Google pixel and an iPhone in each of his front two pockets. Truth be told, almost every single iPhone user I know has a Gmail account. And Gmail works for better on android in Google pixel then on iOS. As a consequence, using a Google pixel, which is the ultimate expression of android, should be optimal for doing Google related things; Google calendar, Gmail etc. Even Google maps.

What is iPhone, iOS good for? FaceTime, iMessage, Apple photos, iA Writer, etc.

Road trip down to San Diego

This weekend had a quick trip to San Diego, and something that was so impressive to me was the upside of having a Prius and a hybrid car:

First, driving from LA to San Diego, only consumed about 3 ticks of gasoline. And the other day we spent all day driving around, going to Torrey Pines and the beach, seeing the ocean and the waves etc.… and in total we have only consumed about 40 to 50% of gas. We’re going to head out later today, and technically I still have half tank of gas and I could make it all the way back to LA if I wanted to.

However if I had a Tesla or a long range Tesla or electric vehicle, maybe even a cyber truck, I would probably have to stop by a supercharger somewhere along the line, or find a supercharger back home in LA… given that my apartment doesn’t have an electric charging port station, so the moral the story is simple:

If you truly do want to live a more adventurous life, Prius and Hybrid is the way. 

Autopilot is the killer app

The only thing I really wished on the drive down is having some sort of auto pilot or at least lane keeping assist distance being; some sort of super basic self driving thing. The future which allows you or allows your car to cruise control itself, but also maintaining the distance with a car in front of it, and also staying within the lane. And the optimal strategy is just having your car drive itself down from LA to San Diego, while staying in the second to left lane. 

I don’t know yet… but certainly there must be gasoline or hybrid cars that already allow this? 

---

The upside of movement

So I’m about eight months in living in Los Angeles, kind of figuring out how to live there. But still not 100% settled yet.

Hitting the road again, just going on a road trip down to San Diego has been great; walking along the downtown San Diego waterfront, going to Torrey Pines State Beach and dipping my legs in the water with Seneca, and staring into the deep ocean, having the waves crashed directly towards me, has been extremely inspiring.

Also even checking out some parts of old San Diego has been super inspirational because it taught me and show me that there is still so much of the world left to explore.

I think this is where I am inspired by my friend Tim Flanagan — he is still traveling the world, nomadically, South America, Asia and beyond; did the wise and brave thing of taking an early retirement. People often tell him that “I wish I could do that, but I cannot because XYZ”. Tim is a good example, because he already has two grown sons, a handful of grandchildren, and some obligations back here in the states, but still… is doing the courageous and wise thing of traveling the globe.

I also think a lot of people often say is that I need more money in order to do that. But Tim, choosing an early retirement certainly does not have a fat pension like a lot of other teachers or administrators; but still… perhaps the best way to travel the world in the globe is through this intelligent frugality time and money leveraging; the wise, hard spartan approach.

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Capital thoughts 

I think one of the hardest things that people have to do is to think about cyberspace because it is so intangible.

For example, I’m currently 36 years old, and I think most of my technological beliefs have been embedded into me ever since I was 18 years old, maybe 21 years old. So assuming that I graduated from college around 15 years ago, I’m almost 2 decades in the game.

First, maybe this is where I am such a wise bitcoin investor. I know how to think in terms of bitcoin and digital and cyber things, because technically I started all of my capital in my website, which is a cyber digital commodity. Or cyber real estate.

Also, conservation of time energy space and power.

Life leverage

I didn’t the reason why I quit email is because it doesn’t scale well.

For example, now that I am such a notable and famous entity… I simply do not have enough time units in a day or a lifetime to respond or continue any sort of conversations of anything that comes in my inbox.

I also suppose this issue is with generative AI… It is kind of impossible to know whether the email you are receiving is from a real human being or not.

Maybe this could be a great filter in brave new digital world; some sort of “orange check” from a given email address, to prove humanity. A simple thing or more radical thing… Have an email address verified by a certain bitcoin wallet or balance, some sort of cyber digital ation, which could prove that is a human being, and how much worth they have. 

Public bitcoin balances?

Imagine this cyber future world in which you could meet people glance at people, or maybe even ask… making it socially acceptable to ask people how many bitcoins they own. And from this information you could tell how wealthy they really are.

For example, the shortcut we have about this is maybe the car people drive, where they live, their clothes accessories etc. But technically this is not a very good indicator, because every dime you spend on material things is actually capital and money you have invested in something else, or more bitcoins.

For example if I had any financial advice to young rappers, is for them not to buy any car just Uber around everywhere… And all that money they would blow at the strip club or on cars, just buy bitcoin.

Also, instead of them blowing all that money on jewelry, buying bitcoin instead. I wonder if in the near future, instead of wearing diamond chains and necklaces… Young rappers will simply have bitcoin icons tattooed into their body?

Bitcoin on wheels?

For example, whenever you some see somebody pull up in a cybertruck, a Lamborghini Ferrari or Porsche or whatever… Let us say the car is worth $200,000 — irregardless of how rich you are,  assuming you could have 10x’d, 100x’d or even 1,000x’d that money …. anybody who invests money into things which will not accrue and value over time is a fool.

For example, that $200,000 car could be a $2 million investment vehicle, a $20 million investment vehicle, or $200 million investment vehicle. Something that appreciates in time forever!


The true investor and capitalist is actually very frugal and economical?

Once again, if I told you with 100 precision today that any money you put into bitcoin would multiply itself by a factor of 1000… wouldn’t this change your purchasing behaviors today?

Of course! Even if you time-discount things, if you knew your money would 10 X, 100 X, 500 X  within a year, two years, five years, 10 years or 20 years… the most rational or wise people would just put all of that money US dollars or fiat currency into bitcoin. 

For example, if you knew that your $1000 invested in that thing you purchased today might be worth $100,000 10 years from now… then make that decision–

“Is it really that worth it to you?”

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Now what?

I still believe Zack Snyder‘s magnum opus thus far has been the movie 300. This is when he was still a young scrappy director, still with a limited budget, and made one of the best films of all time. I think in terms of courage, manliness, and overall valor, this film has not yet been reached by any other film. Not even the steroid infused Rock comes close. 

Re-watching the film, now as a 36 year-old adult with a 3 1/2 year-old son,  similar to the fictitious age of King Leonidas, and the movie… some interesting observations: 

1. One of the greatest blessings of man is to beget a son. If you have birth your first born child as a son, consider yourself infinitely blessed. The greatest blessing that reality could bestow you with. For the most part, I think the more kids, the jollier the better. In fact, nowadays whenever I see families with 3 kids, 4 kids, 5 kids… I think “Wow… that family is grand”. Then what that signals is not that the family is “rich“ in the traditional sense, but has their priority in their future generations, and cares more about begetting children than their “career”.
2. The best clothing is no or minimal clothing. The whole film, all of the actors and the Spartan hoplites and King Leonidas are simply wearing loincloths, or reinforced speedo’s. Therefore, the best pants are short shorts. And the best shirt or top is bare chested, no shirt. I suppose the nuance is back then, they wore a cape– a crimson cape. Is there such thing as a modern day cape?
3. Ultimately, it comes down to physical valor and courage. Note, in movie 300… all the Spartan hoplites what they had — their muscles, their courage, their helmets, their sword spear and shield. No vehicles.

The Spartan way

I then suppose if you want to become a true Spartan, have at least one son, to carry on your name. In the movie 300, king Leonidas confirms with all of his 300 Spartan hoplites whether they had at least one son to carry on their name, because they all essentially knew that it would die in combat.

So it seems to me that the logical strategy in life is to beget at least one son, and then direct all your money resources time and power to raise that son with the greatest of benefits. 

Before I had a son, before I had Seneca… I would look at all these guys who looked super rich and drove all these expensive cars as being some sort of “competition” with me. But now, they are all invisible to me. Why? a lot of them are single bachelors not even married, no kids. When they die, their whole lineage is dead. So to me I look at them like the walking (to be) dead.

Then I look at more older richer “successful“ looking parents in LA; and then I look at their kids, and I weigh Seneca against them; Seneca is much stronger, bigger, taller, more handsome, more muscular, more physically adept then them. The Spartan warrior boy who eats picanha at Fogo de Chão, with a carnivorous diet, versus all of these emaciated feeble looking children who are fed on grain and Cheerios.

So now, the only comparisons I do is looking at young boys around Seneca’s age, and looking at Seneca. Everything and everyone else is invisible to me.

The role of a father?

I think the simple role of a father is to simply raise, train, and battle ready your child. 

Simply put, I think the best strategy of raising your son is maximum time outdoors, in the direct elements, maximum time with physical activity exercise and the great outdoors, climbing, being in the water, throwing rocks in the water, eating meat etc. All this nonsense about “education” is overrated.

Just ask yourself:

What would king Leonidas do?

Howard King Leonidas raise his son?

“Education”?

If your kid is born in America, and has two educated parents… certainly whether you like it or not, they will learn how to be fluent in English, learn the English language, without even trying.

In fact, the ultimate education and learning happens in the real world.

I have the ultimate pride in Seneca, from a via negativa perspective:

1. Since he was born, he has never watched any YouTube, Disney+, YouTube kids, Netflix etc.
2. Since he was born he has never been put into preschool, daycare, “Montessori” school etc.
3. He has never eaten candy, ice cream, desserts or cake, etc.
4. He has never been exposed to movies films TV shows Marvel etc.

Then the irony is to privilege your kid, it isn’t about “adding“ activities or extracurricular activities for them; but rather what not to give them or what not to allow them to do.

Life?

I think the ideal life is not being employed, being self-employed and being a sole proprietor. If you see people who have to make zoom calls for a living, go to any office, or send emails for a living… they are not free. Freedom is the goal, not wealth. 

During the day, the ideal is to just be outside all day. If you are worried about the sun, just wear a lot of sunblock, wear a hat, baseball cap, or one of those funny wide brimmed hiking hats. I used to think that they were really lame, those hats which are really really big and long in the front, and really really long in the back to protect your neck. But now, I understand the rationale. And if you want to protect your body just wear long pants and long sleeves. 

An epiphany I also had about weather; even the most glorious of weather, not that the sun is in full blast in Los Angeles, the big issue is now the sun is almost too strong — even wearing SPF 60 sunblock, the UV rays of the sun feels like pins and needles on my shoulders and on top of my forehead. And also watching the Dune movie, all of the fighters of Arrakis essentially look like Middle Eastern people, all covered up, besides the eyes – Paul Atriedes at the very end, full battle gear, head and face covered besides the blue spice-infused eyes.

Then what that also means is when it is cold or the winter… Dress intelligently. Lots of layers. If you get too hot just take off layers. Just like when it is too hot, just keep taking clothes off until there are no more clothes to takeoff. 

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What else?

If you have the privilege, hit the beach! Just go barefoot in the sand and the water, just dip your feet and your legs and your body into the ocean. And then just stare into the deep ocean, with the waves crashing directly into and at you.

The big epiphany I had about the ocean is this:

Infinite power and horizons, never ending … forever.

I even thought, maybe the best bitcoin mining rig would just be a mega computer in the middle of the ocean, harnessing the forever power of the ocean, gravity and the solar system.

Now what?

If you want a simple trip that is not too difficult, just go on a hike in nature, or just hit the beach! I think there is a grand connection between man his environment and nature; he spent too much time in a cramped city, I think your horizon narrows. Even the simple action of staring into the sea… You know that your future is infinite. 

ERIC

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INCOMING!

Conquer the planet and beyond at upcoming ERIC KIM WORKSHOP:

1. SF: Conquer your fears, October 26, 2024
2. DOWNTOWN LA– the OG: Conquer your fears in street photography and beyond November 16, 2024

For the insanely bold–

CAMBODIA 2025 ANGKOR WORKSHOP EXPERIENCE

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Now what?

Never stop shooting!

ERIC

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Start here, Books, News

Also for fun —

Upload your best photos to arsbeta.com

Upload Your Photos Here >

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The more you shoot, the happier you will be!

ERIC KIM BLOG

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What is my ultimate goal? To help improve the lives or the meaning of life of others or for others?

I think one of the greatest privileges of having everything, becoming everything, and also the privilege of buffer. Is that once you have everything you want, everything you need and desire, and also you have great clarity on life and things, then the simple question is What do you want out of your life, for your life, from your life?

The first very basic thing is that I think, after all of this, the ultimate goal is to help empower the lives of others.

I think this is where is so fascinating and critical to me because ultimately, everything comes down to a philosophical question.

For example, I look at all of these, unmarried, men, working hard at their tech jobs, working hard from home, etc.… All for the sake of what?

I think it’s all society. It seems that the real carrot and the cure is capitalism and consumerism in general.

For example, it seems the obvious answer here is children, be getting children, having children etc. Yet it seems like the critical flaw here is that people no longer want to have kids, it is a not a desired thing.

People would prefer to have dogs, they would prefer to go out and drink alcohol and go to festivals and do strange drugs, smoke or consume marijuana, or buy some sort of expensive car, to feel superior and dominant?

Or, to purchase clothes, all for the sake of what? 

Problems?

I think the first obvious corporate here is Instagram, now I suppose TikTok, maybe also YouTube.

YouTube is a little bit less at fault because most real life individuals don’t actually have their own YouTube channels; I think people approach YouTube as entertainment, whereas everyone has their own individual Instagram account, maybe even a few having a TikTok account? 

Instagram issues

I saw on the other day at the public library, a Wall Street Journal headline showing that effectively, the algorithm of Instagram or whatever promotes sexual behaviors activities and exhibitions.

I think this is true and also very concerning. For example, I think Mark Zuckerberg has to make a critical decision here; now that he is a father. Effectively, what is Instagram? I think it is promoting young girl child pedophilia; let us think, if you are young girl, what things will get the most likes? Things tend to be pseudo sexual and nature, showing off your body parts etc.

Even a lot of these 20 year olds, 20-year-old female women, the reason they become influencers is that there are lots of photos of them looking sexy and beautiful and bathing suits at the pool, living a glamorous life etc.

Also problematic for men and boys etc., strange images of men with beards, sunglasses, facial hair, with guns, and a bunch of babes around them?

Regardless, I think my simple parenting idea will be this:

I will never purchase or give Seneca his own phone iPhone smart phone etc.

In fact, no social media.

Allowing your kitties social media, or getting on it, or giving them their own phone is almost like a smoking parent, who is already addicted to nicotine, offering their kids to smoke.

If anything, social media, phones, Instagram, etc. might actually be 1000 times worse for kids than smoking, as social media now leads to depression, or strange dopamine hits to be programmed in a strange way.

My first suggestion is for parents, all parents, to just delete their Instagram, and also delete YouTube from their phones. And also unsubscribe from all of these silly subscription services, Spotify, Disney, Disney plus, Netflix whatever.

The new matrix?

What a lot of fools don’t understand is that technology improvements only happen when you get rid of stuff.

For example, I’ll step in the right direction is one Apple promoted the fact that you could use the Apple Watch to make phone calls, or send messages while just leaving your phone at home. Any technology which could allow you to leave your iPhone in your car or at home is a good thing.

And yes, let us stop calling it a smart phone, just call it an iPhone. In America, Essentially 99.9% of people use iPhones. The only people who don’t use iPhones are either poor people, working class people, or a few stragglers who still use Google Pixel.

Even internationally, any rich person will either desire or use an iPhone Pro; any influencer who is using a Samsung phone or maybe even a Google pixel phone is either being sponsored or paid. I don’t know any human being who would actually spend over $500 to purchase either an android phone or Google pixel or a Samsung. Spent any money. My working theory is that almost everybody who has a smart phone made by Samsung either got it for free by signing up for some sort of cell phone plan.

New worlds

What is happiness in human flourishing? Simple, moving around, being dynamic, being outside.

For example, any sort of activity which encourages dynamic movement in the elements is good. This includes hiking at a nature preserve,  walking around the neighborhood, going to the beach, riding the subway, essentially anything which is not indoors or inside a car. 

The privilege of fitness

Fitness and exercise is the new modern day privilege. If you have the privilege to work out, exercise, ideally outside… You are the new top 01%.

For example, my new intervention realizing that actually, working out outside, in the direct on topless, is 1 trillion times more enjoyable than working out inside an enclosed stuffy gym.

In fact, I’ve been seeing a lot more people working out outside either in parking lots, at the beach etc.

Unsubscribe

Cancel your memberships and your subscription plans. 

I think migrate pride is that I don’t have any subscription services. I am not subscribed to Netflix, Spotify, Disney Disney+ whatever.

Also, I think for the most part if you have a close by gym that you like, and you go every day this is good. But, if you’re in a position in which it is too cumbersome to go to the gym, and you don’t go, just cancel your gym membership and work out from home.

Titan.fitness is a godsend — you can get the independent squat rack trees for only 300 bucks! And it can handle about 1000 pounds. Just purchase some cast-iron weight plates to save money.

The more I think about it, simply put, the best thing you could use money on is to buy weightlifting equipment, whether it be a barbell, a squat rack, weight plates etc.

Why? A big issue here in Los Angeles is that gyms will cost you an arm and a leg. On average even the ghetto LA fitness will cost you maybe around $70 bucks a month.  multiply that by a year; you’re almost paying $1000 a year for your gym membership. Invest instead to just buy $1000 worth of weightlifting equipment, and in theory assuming use every single day for the next 10 years, you will actually save a lot of money. 

Food

For beverages all you need is top water or filtered water from home. Actually do you think about it and do the math, if you are one of those fools who consume “alkaline water“; it costs more money per gallon than gasoline. 

Anyone who drinks alkaline water or promotes it, is patently a fool. If anything, real men drink tap water. 

Probably one of the most useful nuggets I’ve learned from the Walter Isaacson biography on Elon Musk is that Elon Musk drink tapwater. If the world’s most genius richest man drinks tap water, so should you. 

For coffee, fine robusta is the way. Either get some ERIC KIM Omakase coffee, or, my friends sisters coffee and tea Company CLEO– fine robusta is the way. 

For example, my preferred way to consume coffee is espresso. I find that for myself, two shots of fine robusta coffee from Vietnam gives me an insanely good buzz, three shots for god-level buzz … whereas it might take me nine or 10 shots of light roast arabica Ethiopia yirgafheffe to get me in the same mood. 

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Build things which you wish to see manifested in the world

Currently, my primary moneymaking profession is through crypto cryptocurrency and bitcoin. And also, when I think about all my great innovations that I came up with while living in Vietnam, for only $300 a month, all the things that I came up with, and created or things that I genuinely believe that the human race would benefit from.

For example arsbeta.com — essentially my first stab at replacing Instagram. A double blind experiment photo sharing platform, without the need of intermediaries.

My next vision for RSV; if you want to “like a photo, essentially what you have to do is you zap them with a Satoshi – the smallest fraction of a bitcoin. And the great thing is that a single Satoshi is infinitely small, but ultimately does have some real monetary value. I think a single Satoshi is only worth 100th of a penny– but in fact, if I really created this new economy, this would be world changing.

The problem right now with likes on social media is that it doesn’t cost anything. You can mindlessly scroll in like 1 trillion things. But, if it actually cost you a single Satoshi to like a photo, then there is true skin in the game.

Another way to fix email; make it a required thing for people to pay a single Satoshi before sending an email.

Anyways, if you want to build the future email me at eric@erickim.com — ideally I am looking for bitcoin developers, who could essentially build this thing. Very very simple thing, it would look like Instagram, be connected with a bitcoin lightning wallet, either the cash app or the Coinbase app, and users can make their own account whatever– and the core functionality is that the idea to like a photo will be instead a lightning bolt (⚡️) or a 🔥, in which you have to pay a single Satoshi either “like” a photo of somebody.

And, building up on the concept of ours; if you want a famous photographer to give you feedback on your photos, there will be a messaging app, and a request critique function in which you asked there is a bid functionality of how many Satoshi‘s you will charge and accept for a critique on a certain photo.

***

Spread wealth and prosperity

The general promise of capitalism is to spread prosperity, happiness, joy, freedom, liberty and justice for the greatest number of people across the planet.

People like to critique and criticize America and capitalism, but, even the Chinese, the Chinese yuan, the CNY is effectively pegged to the US dollar. In fact, all of the global currencies are pegged to the US dollar. 

The troubling thing is even the worlds strongest currency of the US dollar is losing 7 to 10% of its value, year over year. And the money supply is expanding at an alarming rate.

As a consequence, the whole world economy is not doing too hot, but, it’s still seems that the refuge is America. You’ve been in Korean, the word for America is “mi-gook” which means beautiful country. (Mi — beauty, good – country).

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So now what?

Simply put, devote dedicate an investor time energy and resources in doing and building things you actually care for. Assuming that you’re a bitcoin billionaire, and you no longer have any money needs — just build it!

ERIC

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Ideas

1. Make your own website or blog. Ionos.com and install WordPress.org
2. Start an email newsletter; sendy.com
3. Delete your Instagram, we all congratulate people for quitting heroin or cocaine or smoking cigarettes; shouldn’t the same attitude be done or addressed in the context of Instagram? And let us not call it social media; call a spade a spade. Instagram is the real bad guy here, not social media.

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Photo ideas

Pentax just put out the new film camera which is really cool. And has a flash! It is essentially the new Ricoh GR for the next generation.  and it is genius! Because it has a half frame concept, which means that you could shoot twice the number of photos on a single roll of film, 72 pictures instead of the typical 36.

And it does seem that even in today’s world with iPhones, kids young kids highschoolers etc. still prefer to shoot film! My working theory is that people still prefer to have standalone cameras, they actually want to spend less time on their phones.

Also what is very interesting about generation Z is that they are actually the most self-aware generation; they know that phones and social media and Instagram is bad they also know that alcohol is bad and causes cancer, and also marijuana is also bad for you, Z is a good generation because they prefer sobriety and being sober.

A fun question I like to ask people:

Has anybody ever enjoyed burning man, going to a festival, going to an EDM rave that was 100% sober? No drugs, no alcohol?

And even though Elon Musk is definitely the greatest entrepreneur of all time; the issue here is that he still drinks Coca-Cola, Red Bull, and alcohol. 

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Other ideas

Another new camera which got released recently is the new Ricoh GR highlight diffusion filter — I think the ideas genius; essentially emulating the film aesthetic and look but the convenience of shooting digital.

28mm

Now that Seneca is getting older, the age of three years, three months… Having a 28 mm lens in focal length is very good here, because he is getting really into climbing, climbing at the parked rock climbing etc.… A 28 mm lens is great at exaggerating Ingles, perspectives, epic action.

Think 28mm.

Travel!

Some incoming workshops include my next year insanely epic Angkor Wat Cambodia travel photography workshop experience,  in some upcoming workshops both in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

You know that Covid is over, I think it is a great thing that we are all hungry to travel again. Yet we are still stuck in a bog in Malays; because there was so much friction that got us stuck during Covid, now is your chance to travel!

Also some good places to travel include Japan, where you could essentially get a transit pasmo card, directly on your Apple iPhone wallet! Insanely easy, and also because the Japanese yen is collapsing because of the population decline, that means that our US dollars have stronger purchasing power there.

Also, Istanbul and Turkey might be good because the Turkish lira is also collapsing, which is good for you if you are paid in US dollars.

Also good times to go to Korea, Vietnam, anywhere in the world. For example just booked my mom ticket round-trip from South Korea to LAX, round-trip, only $500 USD!

To find cheap flights just use kayak or Google flights.  

---

Now what?

The two fields which are developing extremely quickly in an exciting rate is both cryptocurrency, bitcoin, and artificial intelligence.

If you want to be the future, ensure that you have the paid ChatGPT app subscription, and also, ensure that you have some bitcoin. Even my friend Natalie told me a few years ago, “every intelligent person I know in the Bay Area has at least some bitcoin!”

I think the simplest thing to do is just buy some bitcoin with the Coinbase app; my simple thought is there’s no reason why bitcoin will not 10 X, hundred X, or even thousand X in our lifetime. That means the thousand dollars you spend on an iPhone Pro might become $10,000, $100,000, or maybe even $1 million!

As a consequence, I have been becoming even more frugal with my money, and continuing to buy bitcoin with any dime I could lay my hands on! 

People still think bitcoin is too expensive, but 20 years from now, one bitcoin is $10 million a coin… Won’t you wish that you bought it right now at a discount?

I think the best way to learn about bitcoin is just binge watch and listen to all the Michael Saylor interviews and podcasts– Michael.com and hope.com

Currently, I am self studying some Austrian economics from Carl Menger — Principles of Economics PDF on my iPad Pro.

Also , if you do not currently own an iPad, or just have a really really old one that doesn’t work that well, definitely get the new M4 iPad Pro the small one; The only Apple device currently worth purchasing! Good job Apple team here.

---

What else?

For shoes, Vibram 5 finger shoes (Vibram.com) and if you have access, go to the beach! Beach people tend to be happier.

Currently Ocean Park in Santa Monica is my new favorite joint!

---

What else? 

Think fun, not fitness. Even go to the local park, breathing some air from the fresh trees, and have fun!

ERIC

---

What is the ultimate mobile human device or vehicle? The human body.

First, once again… I think we spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about our cars our vehicles etc. Also kids are endlessly fascinated by vehicles, especially construction vehicles, if you have ever seen a huge excavator up close in personal, it will amaze you.

We are wow’s by  vehicles, of all shapes sizes and forms. For example, any luxury or foreign or exotic car, we are impressed by it. Why? It is a token of how rich or successful you are.

But this is the grand irony; any time you spend on a vehicle, is money you could otherwise put into bitcoin, which has historically been going up 50% every year. That means the $100,000 Tesla you buy today, could be worth $1 million in the near future.

Or even worse, let us say the $250,000 Lamborghini nearby today, that could be worth $2.5 million just a few years from now.

Why?

One of my turbo thoughts of this morning is towards the telos of living a good life: 

1. First, having at least one kid.

I think especially as a man, we all desire at least one male heir. Therefore, if your first born child was a son, consider yourself infinitely blessed. After that, life is all upside no downside.

I think the reason why this is so critical is having a kid is almost like having an expansion pack; imagine if we had to be stuck in the original StarCraft for our entire lives without Brood war. Or if we had to spend our entire lives playing Diablo, the first one, without Diablo two, or without any expansion packs. Or if your entire life you had to be stuck with the original iPhone 3GS.  or if your entire life you had to be stuck on Windows Vista.

I think the grand joy of having a child is that you have the ultimate extension of yourself. Often when you look at kids, they are essentially a mini embodiment of their parents. There features, their physiological features, their behaviors, addictions etc. For example, whenever we lament the fact that all their kids are on YouTube and iPhones all day, just look at the parents; they are on their phones and watching YouTube all day as well. 

Anyways, people want to change the world blah blah blah, reduce their carbon footprint blah blah blah, built a coin dollar company whatever. Better to build $1 trillion kid.

2. Your body doesn’t lie

I think the big thing is in regards to theories, theories don’t really matter, the physics of your body your human human body is what matters the most.

For example, all these people say that running or whatever is healthy for you, but look at all these people who run, they essentially look like dying gazelle.

Even guys who into CrossFit, truth be told none of them actually look that fit; they have some level of fitness, but most of them look like a bunch of skinny kinda fit involuntary celibate guys who spend way too much time on Reddit, being formed Nazis, trying to explain to the worldwide they power clean form is superior to yours, and why you’re dead lift and squat form sucks, yet they have skinny hairy legs, and have never even seen 10 plates before. 

Assuming the person is not taking steroids or other weird hormonal shifting stuff, if somebody is doing something, which may seem unorthodox or contrary to your worldview, but it looks like it is working in real life, they are probably onto something.

3. Movement is medicine

One of these funny Lululemon shirts that I got has this motto printed on the inseam that says movement is medicine. Sounds kind of cheesy, but I think it is true.

The purpose of the human brain is to move. To coordinate movement. Therefore a human body which does not move, has no need for a brain. My personal theory on why people get all these mental brain diseases and the depression etc. because they don’t move. They do two Critically detrimental things: first, they are sitting on their butt all day, doesn’t matter if you’re sitting on your butt in a Lamborghini or a Ferrari, you are essentially amended child, a man baby in a stroller with lots of horsepower. They are also on their chairs when in the office or at work. or even if you are using a standing desk, the problem with standing desks is that you are also static. Certainly standing is better than sitting, but walking is 1 trillion times superior to being static.

If you think about it, what is K-12 education? Forcing kids not to move around and to be dynamic, as kids naturally are.

In fact, I’m starting to notice that a lot of activities which include even arts and crafts are bad and so far much as when kids are doing it, they are typically indoors, which is bad for their health, and also, they are static.

Even my critique about Legos; people say that Legos are good for your creativity but not quite; much of the ethos of Legos nowadays it’s just being really really good at following directions, and building the prepackaged model.

Better to just give a kid a bunch of random bricks and have them build whatever they want; but even this, isn’t it better for your kids to get really good at climbing, being physical, and physical strength instead of just being really creative?

4. Opportunity cost

There are lots of practical optimization we must make in modern day life. One of them is driving.

For example, probably one of the greatest blessings to marry is Amazon, Amazon prime, same-day delivery etc. Even apparently Costco does it now too! 

I think the big issue here is that 30 minutes of driving, one hour driving, is otherwise time you could be spent walking, thinking, moving in a multi directional plane.

For example, one thing that nobody ever talks about is the benefit of walking that you could just go wherever you please. Go up the curb down the curb, into a random street and alley etc.  The downside of driving is that you must just drive one direction, and stay on the path. No freedom.

5. Just snap your fingers and zap it

It is 1 billion times more difficult to sell some thing or get rid of something then to buy or purchase it.

For example, very very easy to buy a car, very very difficult to sell car. Especially a used one. 

I think this is where bitcoin is so appealing to me, because of how portable instantaneous and easy it is; one of the big issues with objects homes real estate in general is that first, it takes a very very long time to sell some thing, there is a lot of arbitrage back-and-forth, a lot of hidden costs, And also, headaches and annoyances.

Also, like my friend Don Dylan told me about his Porsche 911 GT3 –

I think we like the idea of owning something more than we actually do having and owning it. 

Let me give you examples; I love cyber truck, to me, it is the best vehicle ever created up until now. To me it is the most revolutionary vehicle ever created. It is by far the most dominant vehicle on the road, even more than any loser Ferrari or Lamborghini; it is all American, And it destroys almost any other vehicle in stature, height, design, the stainless steel XO skeleton body, and also the 2.6 second zero to 60 time.

At the Culver city Toyota dealership in which I live, there is a brand new cyber truck that somebody traded in, apparently the guy traded it in for a Toyota Sequoia instead. Anyways, part of my daily morning walk and routine, I always walk by it, and it always puts a smile on my face. But, the great joy is that I don’t need to actually purchase it or own it to glean the delight from it. 

In fact, sometimes I wish that I could just snap my fingers, and automatically just have a different vehicle based on my mood my schedule etc.

For example lately I’ve been doing a lot of family trips with my niece and nephew, and Cindy‘s mom, and sometimes I wish I had seven seats. But I don’t need seven seats all the time.

Therefore in this situation, I wish I could just snap my fingers in that my Prius would magically transform into a minivan, or if I could also snap my fingers and it would be a really good sports car or whatever.

Anyways, with cars and vehicles, unless you have over two kids, unless you have 3, 4, or 5 kids, maybe still for now… It is best to stick with a 2010 Prius. 

Monetary vehicle?

I’ve been contemplating on purchasing real estate, but the big issue is that real estate is not a vehicle, it is not mobile.

For example, I cannot take my $2 million Culver City Los Angeles property, single-family home, snap my fingers and then suddenly take it with me to Cambodia.

Similarly speaking, once again, the downside of purchasing any electric vehicle whether it be a Tesla or whatever is that it is a sinking ship. Batteries do not hold their charge very much, I think the half-life is about 2% or so. Therefore, if you also consider the overall battery health, the big issue here is that it loses overall battery charge capacity overtime. Kind of like your MacBook Pro laptop from 2017, which only lasts for about 30 minutes.

 I think this is where it is still intelligent to have a hybrid vehicle like a Prius; given the fact that the overall battery health will die overtime slowly, at least you could still rely on the gasoline engine. And whether we like it or not, at least for the next 20 or 30 years, I am still certain there will be gas stations on the road.

Why?

One of the thoughts that I have about work, their economy capitalism etc. is that essentially your sacrificing your body, your bodily health and freedom and exchange for money.

For example, really matter whether you working at McDonald’s, whether you work at Amazon or Apple, typically you are confined and send some sort of chicken cage, with fancy LED uploading and what not, enforced to use your brain in your muscles in your body in order to perform some sort of work which has economic value. as a consequence, any minutes spent indoors and stuck within a cage is positively bad for you; Silicon Valley I think this is the new “digital handcuffs”– yeah yeah, you want to stop working, but that $500,000 salary a year from Amazon is too good for you to let go. And therefore you will be enslaved for the rest of your life.

I had this thought about two years ago, I’ve just converting all your currency into bitcoin. If you are blessed enough to receive some sort of high salary, I still think this is the best strategy.

---

What’s the purpose of a human body?

I think the critical question no one ever thinks or considers is what is the ultimate purpose of a human body, your human body. 

Everywhere I look, everyone is in denial about the human body. Either we fall into some sort of religious fallacies about the afterlife, the idea of an immortal soul (I believe in a mortal soul — when you die, your soul also dies). Or even worse, these Silicon Valley fools who want to just upload their consciousness to the cloud or whatever. 

I watched a really bad movie with Keanu Reeves on the plane ones, in which Keanu Reeves is some sort of genius scientist was trying to figure out human cloning, and his whole family tragically dies in a car accident, and he tries to bring them back to life. But essentially the big issue he confronts is that without a human body, you cannot clone a consciousness. And also, an individual consciousness is inextricably connected with a certain human body. As a consequence, no body, no mind. 

What is AI anyways?

erickim.ai

I think people lack the critical understanding of what AI, artificial intelligence actually is. My simple suggestion is download ChatGPT to your iPhone or iPad, get the paid premium subscription, use the newest model, currently GPT 4o– and just go on a roll. 

To me, I consider ChatGPT and artificial intelligence just like a really intelligent Google search. And the more you use it, the less it impresses you.

In fact, I think what people do not understand is that now that openAI and ChatGPT is partnering with Apple, this is very bad news for Google. I think over a long enough time horizon, Google will die, and will be usurped by Apple and ChatGPT/OpenAI. 

In fact, for myself personally, I never touch Google anymore. Far superior for me to just ChatGPT it; first, no advertisements. Now that we have bitcoin, and the incoming of the bitcoin lightning wallet and Satoshi’s, and once Apple or iOS built a native bitcoin or crypto wallet to her devices, The future of payments and money will just be trapped in the Apple ecosystem. Even now, I find using Apple Pay 1 trillion times more convenient than having to take out my physical card. Even an innovation which works insanely well is at Whole Foods with the Amazon one hand scanning thing; it works really well, I think the big Has a chance of people using it is that they don’t know how well it works.

I think on a long enough time horizon, convenience is inevitable and will always win.

***

So what do you want to do with your human body? 

As a man, what is the most precious life force? Your semen.

Your semen is the seed of life, seminal. No seed no tree. No seed, no human beings.

I find a very very bizarre thing of all these weird modern day people and millennials who no longer want to have children because they say it is bad for the planet and bad for the carbon footprint. But let us assume that overnight, everybody decided not to have children because it was bad for the carbon footprint… what would happen to the human race? 

I think a very simple life impetus for the human body is to procreate, have children and be got children. And for this, both man and woman is critical.

In fact, it seems that the optimal strategy here is to conserve all of your money and economic energy possible, and have as many children as humanly possible in this lifetime. 

---

Thinking about capital, capitalism, capital recruitment, stacking capital capital etc.

Bitcoin is digital capital

The first thought: bitcoin is true digital capital.

Wealth is a mental thing?

The second thought:  assuming that bitcoin is the first true digital money and capital, then what that means is money and wealth becomes a mental construct.

For example, let us say that I have 1 million, 1.2 million, 10 million, 100 million worth of bitcoin in my personal crypto wallet. Intelligent thing is to buy and hold it forever, as the value of it will go up indefinitely for the next 1,000 years.  in fact, the wise goal is to use bitcoin like digital real estate; imagine owning a block in the middle of Manhattan or Tokyo, you will never want to give it up. You will fight to the nail to hold it, because you’re thinking very very long-term; thinking your kids kids kids.

According to Michael, optimal strategy is to actually use your bitcoin as collateral, to borrow against your bitcoin, at a low interest rate, and use that to finance your lifestyle which means just paying rent your food etc.

Money

This is a big thing I’ve been thinking about a lot; more and more, I’m becoming even more financially conservative, conserving my money and wealth, not spending it.

The makes is in regards to muscle. Let us see that I am 160 pounds of pure muscle, with a 5% body fat percentage, six pack and all. The worst thing for a weightlifter or a bodybuilder is to lose muscle mass.

Let us say that you buy that thing. Or the thing or whatever; imagine like losing 5 pounds of muscle mass, 10 pounds of muscle mass, or even worse, 20 pounds of muscle mass.

The goal of the weightlifter and bodybuilder is accretive; to continue to accumulate muscle mass, indefinitely.

For example if I am 160 pounds of muscle, ideally I would want to become 165 pounds, 170 pounds, 175 pounds, 180 pounds, eventually 200 pounds, 220 pounds with a 6 pack. 

Certainly there are limits to growth; for example, me at 5‘11“ tall, I think the laws of physics prohibits me from becoming 400 pounds with the 5% body fat, assuming I don’t inject my eyeballs with steroids. Even with steroids it might be impossible. 

Even some of the greatest bodybuilders of all time like Ronnie Coleman; even if he took all the steroids in the world, he cannot become 1000 pounds of muscle mass with a 6 pack.

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Limits of growth?

I think this is a primary fallacy in Silicon Valley and beyond; people assumed that all growth is good, and that growth is a good progression.

However the problem here is that often when things become too big, they become fragile, and a positive detriment to your life and lifestyle.

For example, let us say that you buy an eight bedroom eight bath mentioned somewhere in Malibu. Can you imagine trying to clean all those toilets yourself?

Even if you had an army of housekeepers, the constant fear that they’re stealing your stuff, not working hard enough, or being sloppy.

Even the thought yesterday when vacuuming my house with my new Dyson, even in our relatively small two bed one bath apartment, keeping things clean and vacuuming daily is a full-time job. Let alone imagining having to mow the lawn deal with landscaping etc.

Lifestyle “upgrade”?

Don’t think lifestyle think bodystyle.

What is my vision of body style?

First, what your body looks like. There are certain things you cannot change like your height; but beyond that everything is fungible.

For example, your body fat percentage and your muscle mass percentage. These are things you could control.

The easiest way to lose body fat is to start fasting intermittent fasting; breakfast no lunch, only dinner. One insanely massive dinner a day, aim for 3 to 4 pounds of meat.

The greatest thing about this approaches that is free; intermittent fasting is free! It doesn’t cost anything, and also, you save money!

Also, beyond that you save time. For example, the time having to prepare breakfast and lunch, cleaning up, even going out and having to pay seems like a bad idea.

If you are a true Silicon Valley entrepreneurial nut like myself, intermittent fasting makes sense because you remain in peak physical and physiological energy throughout the whole day, without the drowsy food, downside of eating lunch.

In fact, whenever I tell people that I do interment fasting that I don’t eat breakfast or lunch, only dinner, it is actually a very impressive thing to most people. And then people say that it is not “sustainable”, and then I tell them that I’ve been doing it the last six years. And that is very easy. Then people say that it is not possible for them, which essentially means “I don’t want to do it.” But it is a physical, physics based fact that any human being, who is beyond the age of 18 and full adult maturity, would benefit from intermittent fasting. Even the elderly. I think the only people who should not do intermittent fasting is children under the age of 18.

Intermittent fasting could get rid of most people with Alzheimer’s, chronic elements, obesity and weakness etc. And also getting into intermittent fasting could actually get rid of type two diabetes.

And the hilarious thing is there is no risk to intermittent fasting. Like you won’t die. The average human being could probably go 90 days without food, as long as they drink water, you won’t die.

Fat is an organic battery supply for the human body. As long as you have belly fat, fed on your stomach or thighs or whatever, your body will be able to drop on that energy. The human body is not like an automobile gasoline car– no, you do not need to eat something to “fuel” your work out or your physical activity. You could just actively draw it from your fat supply. 

Why stack capital?

Rich people stack capital don’t spend it?

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

The ethos of the capitalist and capitalism is to keep accumulating capital for the sake of capital, and the whole ethos of the thing is to keep stacking capital indefinitely.

Stay humble and stack sats (Satoshis, the micro division of a Bitcoin) – Michael Saylor

This seems bizarre to most people. Why? I think for the average worker bee or plebeian in capitalist American society or the western world is to work hard, save money in order to invest it, or in order to spend it.

For example, even to the average “responsible” person, the ethos is to “save up” money to buy a house, etc.

But I wonder how much of this line of thinking is just propaganda that people have not given a critical think about?

Power accumulation?

My personal thought is perhaps the goal here is actually power accumulation.

If we take a “Will to Power” Friederich Nietzsche approach, the sake of power is to use your power to keep accumulating it.

For example, the ethos of the powerlifter is to keep accumulating more and more power, which is typically personified through his or her one repetition maximum, the maximum total weight he or she could lift for a certain lift. 

We also see this in the realm of cars. For example, for men it seems like a big dick measuring contest; whose car has more horsepower? Whose car goes from 0 to 60 faster? Whose car is bigger? Whose car is more lifted off the ground? Whose car is louder?

Obviously the cybertruck is the big swinging silver dick in the room. 2.6 second 0-60 speed for cyber beast. For example, even the Porsche 911 Turbo hybrid has only a measly 2.9 second 0 to 60; the cyber beast can crush it.  not only that, but the cyber truck is bigger, better, more dominant, more impressive.

What is more impressive than a cyber truck? Nothing.

Even kids, they love the cybertruck above everything else. Lamborghini is done. 

---

For what

The first general thing is freedom. Freedom of time, schedule, mind space etc. What is a simple heuristic of whether you are free or or not? Whether you could go 2 years without checking your email or using email. Or whether you can live without owning a phone.

Also, when you’re in a position in which you no longer need to accept money. 

What loser Marxists don’t get 

For the most part, I think Karl Marx was a loser, and anybody who followed him is also a loser. 

It seems that it is the imperative of the week in powerless to spite and hate those with power. For example, the sheep in the land will forever resent the eagle, whereas the eagle doesn’t really care; the eagle simply enjoys feasting on those delicious little lambs. 

Constructive and positive change

The world is big enough and tolerant enough, for almost everything. Rather than trying to tear things down, far better to be constructive of things.

For example, just leave other people alone, and focus on building what you got.

For example, I find this whole notion of repatriation a bizarre one. Certainly land has been stolen from anyone and everyone; but for the victor to give land back to the defeated, is a law that doesn’t work in physics. 

Personal goals

For example, nobody’s putting a gun to your head and forcing you to work that job you hate, or forcing you to subscribe to Netflix, Spotify, Disney, Disney+, Hulu, etc.

Also, nobody is putting a gun to your head and forcing you to spend money on shoes, clothes accessories etc.

Nonnegotiables in life like paying rent, buying food. But nobody is forcing you to purchase and smoke marijuana, or having to consume alcohol.

People know that it is option that you don’t have to drink alcohol? That even if you meet up friends for a bar, you could just order a sparkling water or a Perrier, or maybe even a cup of coffee instead? 

Also, nobody is forcing you to live in America. People always love to complain that the cost-of-living is too high that rent is too expensive. But don’t you know that you could live in a very nice apartment in Vietnam or Cambodia or Thailand for only $300 USD a month? And most people who don’t have children, and also maybe not married, you have a choice to leave.

Choices

So some simple thoughts:

1. The most critical capital is your body capital.

Let us also not forget that the word comes from the notion “caput”– cap, head. That back in the ancient days of the Iliad and king Agamemnon, a head of cattle was the sign of wealth.  even when describing Athena, and she is described as having hundreds of golden tassels, each tassel being worth 100 head of cattle, you can get a sense of what real wealth was. 

My very simple thought is the most critical thing to build or invest in is your body. Using money for health fitness dietary stuff, food, gym membership or yoga membership etc. Even purchasing your own weightlifting equipment. This is by far the best use of money.

2. Location

Also, the biggest privilege in Los Angeles is which neighborhood you live in. For example living in Culver City, my extreme privilege and joy of having the ability to just walk everywhere without having to jump into a car. This is why we pay $3200 USD a month for rent.

Cybertruck Body?

A funny thought; ultimately, our bodies are supreme. But for us in our modern day capitalistic consumer society, we purchased vehicles which we believe to be an externalization of our own bodies and selves.

For example, why is it that you see so many middle-aged, or older men purchase muscle cars, Corvettes etc.? It is because they have lost their potency, their own real physiological muscle, and they convert their economic energy (money) into these cars.

Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful

I suppose one of my great joys of living in Los Angeles is this idea of social theater and social performance.

What that means is this; if you live in Los Angeles, and walk around, essentially the way you walk, engage on the streets is assigned of who you are.

For example, when we think about fashion, in someways it is some sort of social armor; most people take the cowardly stance and just cover themselves up, limo tinted sunglasses, so nobody could see their eyeballs. Also, they plug up their ears with noise canceling headphones, another point of cowardice, the cover up their heads in their faces with baseball caps, another point of cowardice, and maybe where from close to hide the silhouette of their skinny fat bodies.

Stainless steel exoskeleton

An interesting thought I cleaned from Michael Saylor is that in superhero theory, the best super power is indestructibility. What that means is if your enemy could shoot to an atomic nuke at you, and it cannot kill you, in theory you could just walk around with a machine gun until everyone else dies.

I also suppose this was the appeal of Superman, not necessarily that he could fly, but that theory, he is indestructible. This is why they call him demand of steel; from a metallurgical sciences perspective, apparently steel is the apex metal.

Maybe now it is titanium, but for the most part titanium is too expensive.

Cybertruck goals

I love what cyber truck represents, I love Elon Musk and Tesla, the cyber truck is the baddest, best, most superior and supreme car on the road, may I say, car or automobile which has ever been created in all time.

First, it is practically indestructible. A car made out of stainless steel? You could probably take an AK-47 to it in the hood, people attack it with baseball bats or sledgehammers, and you and your family inside will be safe. I’m not sure what the crash safety ratings are yet, but in theory, I would feel very safe driving my most precious assets in the car inside, which is Cindy Seneca and theoretical other children.  

Second, the height. I think one of the greatest things about cyber truck is the height. First what is actually very interesting is that it is quite high up, but not that high. Not ridiculously high like some of these lifted trucks. In fact it in real life, it is quite impressive in size, but not too big. You could probably park it anywhere.

Third, the geometric shapes, the impossible angles. I think the reason why whenever you see a cybertruck on the road, the reason why it turns so many heads is that it seems to defy physics and reality. Typically in the past we have always thought that the cars were the most aerodynamic had curves, but in actuality, the most superior and the most supreme shapes are perfectly angular, pointed. 

Also a random point about cars, I think for the most part, we could think about feminine versus masculine aesthetics in cars.

For example, for guys who are into cars, they always like to talk about the “curves” of a car, likening it to a female body.  This is where the Porsche car becomes so bizarre and fascinating to me; on one hand, it seems to be a desirable body shape because it has curves that simulate a woman’s body, note that the Porsche Carrera in the car movie, was the girl/woman of the movie. Put on the other hand, it seems to be the prototypical signal or status simple of success for men in LA, to drive a Porsche 911. Not the Porsche 718, I say if you want a Porsche, either get the 911 or nothing. And none of the Porsche SUV cars, or the fake electric cars, they are all essentially fakes; rebranded Volkswagen Toureg cars, or rebranded Volkswagen ID Cars (apparently these cars suck). Volkswagen which produces Audi, Porsche, even Lamborghini… They really do not understand electric nor Hybrid. Let us also consider the whole diesel gate incident with Volkswagen; it seems that the Germans are good at doing is just taking the same old thing, and making a little better, kind of like the Japanese and the whole kaizen process. But the problem with the Germans is that they like radical innovation like their Americans; no way in hell a cyber truck been approved by the Volkswagen automotive group.

Truth be told whenever I go to Germany and Berlin; people feel a little bit stifled there, entrepreneurs hit an upper limit and upper ceiling. They would prefer to be in America instead. 

Even in Sweden, I’ve met a lot of entrepreneurs, but one thing I learned is apparently the tax structure there is too repressive, it makes it too difficult for sole proprietors and entrepreneurs to start off. 

Stainless steel

What is really fascinating about cyber truck is when you see it driving on the road, in full bright sun in Los Angeles. The way it refracts light  is really fascinating; it is really really shiny, but muted at the same time. Not like chrome which is too cheesy, stainless steel is a bit more matte, and subtle.

By the Culver City steps downtown, I actually met a dude who had a brand new cyber truck with the mat black rep street from the factory. It was cool, but I think I prefer the stainless steel;  from a Japanese craftsman aesthetic ideal; the materials must be honest. To wrap some things simply with a vinyl wrap is dishonest because the underlying nature of the material underneath is obscured. And also, the durability of even the best three vinyl car wrap is very poor; maybe three years tops. In theory with stainless steel, and the cyber truck, it will outlast you. 

The ultimate utility?

I like to troll Zillow for fun, looking at home prices, simply for fun and kicks. I don’t actually have any serious plans of purchasing any home for real.

I think a very funny thought is that in theory, cheaper and more efficient and effective to just live in your cyber truck, then purchase a home. It seems that the trunk is big enough.

 the only thing I can predict that might go bad is the battery overtime. But everything else should last practically forever.

Early adopter versus late adopter?

When is it useful to be an early adopter or a late adopter?

Well with bitcoin, or a lot of cryptocurrencies or crypto securities, having been an early adopter was a very good idea. For example, I still remember when I was in Vietnam in 2017, at one of my favorite coffee shops in Saigon; in the Japanese district, on zerohedge looking that bitcoin was $300 and $600 a bitcoin. Then I remember some funny headlines of a guy saying that he would eat his balls live on TV if bitcoin did not hit at least $1000 a bitcoin. 

I got into the game still pretty early, I think 2018, when bitcoin was still only about $6900 a bitcoin.

It’s never too late

People always be on the fact that it is too late to get into stuff; fitness, a new hobby, investing etc. But actually, today is always the best day.

For example, people now think that bitcoin is too expensive, they wish they bought it when it was cheaper. But then again, the people who bought it cheaper wish they bought it cheaper.

Health and fitness; not true. Even my 69-year-old mom started doing hard-core daily yoga with Cindy for a month, and she did it consistently every single day for 30 days straight, and it looks like my mom is not in the best shape of her life.

Also, I’m 36 years old, to my infamous thousand pound atlas lift at the age of 35; I feel like I was 100 times stronger at the age of 35, then even when I was in my mid 20s.

Apparently, when King Leonidas did his last stand against king xerxes and the Persians, he was in his 40s? 

There are also Spartan sayings, real Spartans sayings of Spartans with gray hair in their 60s, still putting on their helmet to go to war.

***

The passion of man

The sea is deeper, the deeper you go into it 

Economics; work.

The first question:

Work for the sake of what?

1. Rent

Ultimately, you need somewhere to sleep. Having some sort of home, habitation, apartment.

I think the big thought, perhaps something that a lot of Americans don’t know is that if you live abroad, in a developing country, let’s say somewhere in Southeast Asia, Thailand, Vietnam Cambodia etc., what that means is you could rent a brand new apartment, very very nice, furniture and everything and all utilities included, in the range of $320 a month, $300 a month in Phnom Penh Cambodia. 

I think Americans like to complain; do you like to complain about the price of rent, the cost of living etc. However, don’t people realize that you have the power and the ability and the freedom to dictate wherever you live, how to live, went to live, went to live, when not to live?

2. Food

The second one is food. Food is a funny new one; it could be insanely expensive, or it could be insanely cheap.

For example, just go to any local Mexican meat market, and you could buy a pound of beef liver for only $1.99! Because beef liver might have 10 the amount of nutrition as typical meat or flesh meat etc., what that means is you can’t eat as much of it, even if you wanted to. For example, I could eat maybe 4 1/2 to 5 pounds of ground beef, 8020. However with beef liver, I might only be able to eat about 2 1/2 pounds of it.

Let us say that you’re the average person, you could maybe eat what, a half a pound of it? A quarter pound of it?

If you did the math, theory you could feed yourself on $.50 to a dollar a day! And this is in America!  that is $15 a month, or $30 a month. And for beverages, if you just drink tapwater or filtered water, which is essentially free, and let us assume the only luxury drink is coffee, but even coffee could be insanely cheap, if you get coffee on sale etc.

So let us assume that in the states only $30 a month.

3. How do people blow money?

It seems to be 100,000x to conserve money than spend it.

However, the trillion dollar question is still; one should one conserve money, for the sake of what, towards what ends, and one should one spend money, also for the sake of what?

4. The true scarce desirable thing

Time and energy, physiological power and energy.

Essentially the true idea of wealth is maximum time, maximum freedom of time as well as maximum physiological energy. 

For example, even if you had all of the wealth in the world, all the time in the world, but let us say that I do sleep deprivation torture on you, and you might only sleep 30 minutes a night. Certainly nothing will be worth it.

---

5. Leverage is the key

I think ultimately, if you consider leverage, economic leverage; this is the key.

For example, let us say that you’re being paid in US dollars, with the typical American salary, and let us say that you’re living abroad in southeast Asia, Vietnam Cambodia Thailand, Bangkok, Hanoi, Saigon, Phnom Penh etc — only $300 a month in rent. If this were the case, even becoming self-employed, it is very easy to earn $300 a month. To just cover your living expenses.

So the more I think about it, the more I’m curious, is it primary issue here a knowledge gap one? People don’t know that this is an option?

6. We are getting suckered?

Certainly there are certain things being marketed to us, some sort of superficial desires. For example, is the iPhone 77 going to be any good? Your Tesla not going to get some sort of design upgrade in the next 100 years?

I think thinking long-term is more clarifying. For example, let us consider the digital Leica M9, which retail for $7000 USD, when it came out. It could barely shoot at ISO 800 without noise! Now any thousand dollar digital camera can blow it out of the water. 

So I suppose the secret then is to give a deep critical thought about superficial things, and to not get suckered by superficial things.

---

A simple line of thinking, towards living the best and most virtuous life:

Just get your ass outside!

Thinking heroes

The first thought is in regards to heroes; what would a hero do, what would a hero not do? 

First, no hero in their right mind would just stay at home.

Perhaps the primary issue we have at hand is that simply, we are wearing the wrong clothes. Clothing is akin to armor; I think myself I have made this mistake many many times.  I think the optimal is to consider this:

Better to over-pack, better to over-prepared, better to wear lots of layers, and simply take it off, when you get too hot.

Better to be over hot than under cold?

In regards to heat temperature and humidity; the funny thing is in the Iliad, weather climate is almost never mentioned. The only thing really mentioned is when the rosy morning wakes up, and then when the sun goes down, and then everyone retreats back to the camp, to feast.

Maybe this is what made the Mediterranean so ideal in terms of military combat and to conquest– it never really gets that hot, and also, it never gets that cold.

Living in Los Angeles, is often very confusing because it is very difficult to predict how to dress. Sometimes it is insanely cold, and then suddenly sometimes out of nowhere, the sun comes up.

Perhaps then, the ideal wardrobe is to just wear a lot of clothes and lots of layers, and when it gets too hot, just throw it back into your backpack. 

Visions

Lots of recent turbo thoughts: 

1. Bitcoin is a really big deal:

Honestly at this point, now that bitcoin has stabilized at around $70,000 a bitcoin, and it has been already around for over a decade, I’m pretty sure it’s here to stay. I was recently looking back at my accounting and finances, and I’m very happy that I first got into bitcoin at $7000 a coin, back in 2022. Honestly at this point, I consider it a very low risk investment, and it is only going to go uphill from here.

Also, bitcoin is the first native digital currency for the internet. I think the greatest innovation is thinking about the satoshi; the very very small fraction of a bitcoin, which can be used for micro, and also nano transactions. I’m actually currently formulating some ideas of creating the first bitcoin backed photography sharing platform; if you’re interested in collaborating shoot me an email at eric@erickim.com

2. Tech thoughts

Some technology thoughts I’ve been working through include the following:

First, the human joy and delight in the environment. I think all weightlifters, bodybuilders, photographers, human beings will benefit from nature, hiking, the mountains. I think one of the greatest blessings of living in Los Angeles is that there are lots of mountain hikes, so close by. Plus you got Malibu, the Pacific Palisades, and the Huntington library and botanical Gardens are just a stone throw away! 

First, I think there is a deep connection between men and the environment. For example, no one would want to be a trillionaire, if you were forced to live inside the hood, or worse, live in a parking lot garage for the rest of your life.

Still… it looks like we like greenery, blue skies, blue oceans, the sun!

ALO (air, land, ocean)

I think the reason why Los Angeles is so appealing to many is that in theory we have everything. The water, the ocean, the sky, the ideal climate.

Truth be told, it gets very dark and gloomy here and cold… but still, compared to the rest of the world, Los Angeles is paradise.

People complain about the traffic, but people often have the wrong analogy; the reason why it is so trafficky is that everyone wants to be here, because it is the best. Kind of like living in London, London traffic etc. 

I think the very very simple way to live virtuously in Los Angeles is to plan your life around traffic. The upside of being self-employed, just drive during off peak hours; and also, upside of being a weekend warrior, mixture you use the weekend to drive out further, to go exploring, go to hikes, etc.

3. Movie analogies for real life?

I finally watched Dune part II, and I loved it! Definitely top five new favorite movies of all time. The worm riding scene was phenomenal; Denis V is a genius!

Follow the director, not the actors nor the series.

I think what is so fascinating about Dune is the pseudo religiosity embedded within it. Notions of the Lisan-al-gaib, prophecies, etc.… the metaphors of Christianity, the prophet, the Messiah, Middle Eastern cultures etc. is really fascinating. 

First, let us consider Paul Atriedes. I’m quite certain that Paul was named after Saint Paul the apostle. Similar themes in the Matrix movie, NEO, the one, Trinity, the holy Trinity etc.… Lots of Christian, christianic themes here. 

Perhaps the reason why so many millennials and yuppies are so into these weird moon and horoscope stuff is that they’re lacking religion in their life. 

And perhaps, a sociological insight; maybe having some sort of religion in your life is critical, otherwise you fall victim to weird other consumerist religions, like the cult of Apple, the cult of Tesla Elon Musk and going to Mars, the cult of money, the cult of capital etc.

Let us consider even the ancient Greeks, religion or their notion of religion and the gods was a critical part of their being.

I suppose the nuance is that the way the ancient Greeks thought of religion and the gods was very very different than the modern Judeo Christian notion we have of religion. Perhaps I’m going to study a little bit more about ancient Greek notions of the gods etc.

4. Lowered cybertruck?

The other day, I saw a funny sight; somebody traded in a cybertruck at the Culver City Toyota dealership, and I was able to inspect it up close in real life.

The first thought I had was if you think about the roof line, the fastback design in the back, and overall proportions, it is almost like a modern day Lamborghini Countach, the ultimate wedge design. And then a funny thought; if you took a cybertruck, and you lowered it, and you slammed it, in theory it is the ultimate sportscar design. 

Anyways, still… the cybertruck is the best thing to have happened in car design perhaps the last hundred years. Even when I went to the Peterson automotive museum with Seneca, seeing an original Bugatti from the 1920s, in all black blew my mind. They were able to engineer phenomenal things over 100 years ago, why is it that all the modern car design is so lame? 

Anyways, if I were to get any modern day car, it would definitely be a cybertruck, maybe I would do a matte orange wrap on it. 

Also the good thing about the cyber truck, seeing it compared to all these other pick up trucks, it is actually not that big; I was a bit dubious, but I think it would be manageable to park in Los Angeles!

5. Other tech thoughts

So it looks like Apple Vision Pro, the initial enthusiasm and the novelty factor has died off. A bad sign; meeting some head directors of video game companies, they haven’t even bothered to try it out!

I think video games are a fascinating analogy for real life, because I think essentially… video games are a true metaphor for what we would really like to do in real life, our ideals.

For example, the new assassins Creed is out on iPad and iPhone Pro; I think in someways, people like the idea of becoming the assassin. To just explore the real city, to parkour around, to do real life world exploration.

Let us consider, if you were the assassin of assassin’s creed… Would you just be at home all day, watching Netflix, and staying inside your apartment? Probably not.

6. So What’s the point of life?

I think what a lot of people think is what is the point of life.

When you say point, the point of life… do you mean to say purpose, telos?

First, the reality is that you were born, you had a mother and father, you are alive. And ultimately it is up to you how you decide to direct your biological energy and power, to do what you desire to do.

The very very simple thought is the purpose of sex, sexual intercourse, men and women is to procreate and have children.

It seems that out of all this nonsense about gender and sex politics, nobody is talking about the kids! 

I think overall, modern day consumerism, nobody really wants to have kids anymore. They would just prefer to have dogs, travel to Japan, eat sushi or whatever. But I think this type of hedonistic living actually making people sad and miserable. People do not have purpose to living in life, and I think this is actually what gives people existential dread. Once you have a kid, life becomes very very straightforward and simple, and improved. There is no longer any sort of existential dread, raising your kid is the ultimate joy.

7. The ultimate tragedy?

I think the ultimate tragedy is when you have the elderly, older men, older women, without any kids, or with kids but no grandchildren… to me this is very sad.

For example, I think generally speaking, the notion of generational wealth, generational power, or to extend your power, across centuries, across generations… this is what people desire.

I think the reason why people invest in real estate property… Is that they want to build generational wealth.

“Generational wealth, that’s the key. I started off with shit so that shift started with me“– JAY Z

Why generational wealth?

Thinking centuries ahead is difficult; and also, a little bit novel in the sense that you think the question:

What’s the point of the purpose of building up wealth, for future generations, when you yourself cannot enjoy yourself?

For example, a lot of individuals live their lives, make money in order to spend it. They want to spend money, like buying a Lamborghini and giving themselves driving pleasure or whatever. Once again, much modern capitalism and consumerism is focused on hedonism:

The more money you make, the more money you spend on things, the more pleasure it will give you.

I think the reason why this line of thinking is a bit wrong is that if you think about your bodily synapses, there is a certain upper limit of hedonistic pleasure one can have. I think this is where people get into really weird drugs, in order to heighten their hedonistic pleasures.

In fact, pleasure is not the purpose of life. I think the purpose of life is to augment power, your power. How does one do this?

1. Having kids:

In the will to power, Nietzsche has this vision that in the future, families with multiple male children will be given benefits. I think the reason why so many men desire to have at least one son is that they want a new patriarch, a new king of the family to continue their lineage. I think a lot of people make the foolish optimization of earning a bunch of money, during their lifetime… but ultimately the best custodian of your economic power and wealth is your children, not some strangers or committee.

2. Physical, physiological power:

If you looked at all the marketing material for cars, objects and stuff… typically they tend towards the more muscular, the more aggressive, etc. For example, I think the reason why it is so fascinating to study the psychology of men who desire certain cars is that it shows the ideals they have for themselves. Example, people want to be louder, more aggressive, the appeal of loud exhaust or tailpipes. Or they want to feel more big and dominant, if you think about the lifted trucks, overlanding vehicles etc.

However, my personal thought and belief is that instead of wasting all that money in an external avatar which is your car, or vehicle… Don’t you recognize that your own human body is the ultimate vehicle? The ultimate thing to upgrade? 

The simple thought is if you want to expand your wingspan, your stance, your fenders, fender flares or whatever… just eat more meat, eat more steak, more beef, more dietary cholesterol, more organ meats, more beef liver etc.

In terms of height, unfortunately you cannot make yourself taller, but what you could do is stand more upright. For example, a 5 foot 5 man who stands upright, chest up actually looks more confident and dominating than a 6 foot 2 men, who is hunched over. therefore I suggest, the first thing you could do is fix your posture.

How do you fix your posture? I think it comes down to practice, and also maybe your shoes. Just buy some Vibram five finger shoes, and practice standing really upright, walk a lot, quite a lot of hiking, don’t use your phone.

Also, practice doing exercises which are about standing upright, and walking. For example, Farmer’s walks, deadlift walk, squat walk, yoke walk etc. Any sort of exercise which involves walking and standing upright is good.

3. Economic power & wealth

If I think about money, what exactly is money? It is your human labor, your physiological power embedded and imputed into a thing.

For example, the genius and brilliance of bitcoin is that there is so much energy and power imputed into a bitcoin.

People for a while was saying all this nonsensical stuff about bitcoin is bad for the planet blah blah blah, but what is really bad for the planet? Air conditioning, washing machines. The electricity output of air conditioning alone is at least 100,000 times worse than bitcoin production.

Also, most of the bad news about bitcoin mining was from mainland China, in which bitcoin miners, would use cheap coal to fuel bitcoin production, but the nuance is this–

Why do Americans care that mainland China was using coal to pollute her own environment?

For Americans who have never been to developing countries… We have never actually smelled or tasted pollution… You start to think and realize:

The upside of being an American is that all of your lovely iPhones are produced elsewhere, which pollutes a foreign country and a foreign place, while you yourself enjoy your beautiful devices and your clean air.

Even consider, really rich mainland Chinese families, none of them want to live in Beijing or Shanghai, even if they had all of the Rolls-Royce’s in the world. They all eventually buy a house in Vancouver somewhere with clean green air, and the aspire their children to start a life in America.  

I think the difficult thing is getting your wealth out of the country. For example, China, mainland China knows that the smart and rich mainland Chinese people want to take their wealth out of the country, and eventually go to America or somewhere else. Let us consider; that all the rich mainland Chinese people send their kids to study at American universities? The opposite does not happen; rich Americans do not send their kids to study Beijing or Shanghai, no. Rich mainland Chinese people want their kids to study at Harvard or Yale, maybe even UCLA.

---

Travel

I still haven’t come up with a good definition of traveling, maybe world exploration is a better analogy.

For example, if you thought about real life like a video game, Angkor Wat is such a fastening place. Angkor Wat is essentially the environment and landscape of tomb raider; even the locals in siem reap call the second temple “tomb raider”; I think they film the movie there. 

Anyways, something I’m very excited about is that next year, Cindy Seneca and I will be living in Cambodia for about six months; and I’m also doing an Angkor wat workshop there. 

Essentially I’m starting to become more and more interested in man-made environments, and having this question in my mind:

If your real life was a video game, a real world MMORPG, how would you live life? 

1. No car: no true epic video game warrior has a car. Maybe at best of horse, but even that is not necessary. If you are thinking about your life like Diablo, your main character, you just run around.
2. Character building? What then is the purpose or ethos of video games, RPGS, MMORPGS? The general idea is towards character building, leveling up, building up your statistics, your strength and your abilities, unlocking new armor weapons, engaging in even greater boss battles. Certainly much of real life is not like that, so then I suppose a bit question at hand is how can you transform your real life to mimic that of a video game?

---

ERIC KIM CAMBODIA ANGKOR WAT TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERIENCE 2025

Adventure beckons you:

ERIC KIM TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY ANGKOR WAT WORKSHOP EXPERIENCE (April 24-27th, 2025)

If you desire new frontiers, new adventures, a new you — this experience is for you.

ERIC KIM WORKSHOPS >

---

Assignments

1. Upload your best photos to arsbeta.com
2. Make your own photo blog (bluehost.com) and install WordPress.org
3. Buy 60 pound weight vest on Titan.fitness, and go on a long hike with it
4. LUMIX S9 looks cool — get it with the new pancake f8 lens?

Films

1. DUNE II– watch the extras, buy it in iTunes Tv store.
2. Cinema BY KIM

---

Now what?

Start your own blog, email newsletter ,,, and start publishing the future!

What to study?

Michael Saylor— his website url is brilliant (Michael.com)

Also Bitcoin — hope.com

I’m literally watching all Michael Saylor interviews and podcasts, the man is a genius!

---

Forward the money

Feeling fire? Forward the turbo!

EK NEWSLETTER

---

Beginners mind is best

START HERE, BOOKS

---

He who owns the spice (Bitcoin) shall own the universe

ERIC KIM BLOG

---

A simple line of thinking, towards living the best and most virtuous life:

Just get your ass outside!

Thinking heroes

The first thought is in regards to heroes; what would a hero do, what would a hero not do? 

First, no hero in their right mind would just stay at home.

Perhaps the primary issue we have at hand is that simply, we are wearing the wrong clothes. Clothing is akin to armor; I think myself I have made this mistake many many times.  I think the optimal is to consider this:

Gutter to overpack, better to overprepared, better to wear lots of layers, and simply take it off, when you get too hot. 

Better to be over hot than under cold?

In regards to heat temperature and humidity; the funny thing is in the Eliott, weather climate is almost never mentioned. The only thing really mentioned is when the Rosie warning wakes up, and then when the sun goes down, and then everyone retreats back to the camp, to feast.

Maybe this is what made the Mediterranean so ideal in terms of military combat and conquest conquest– it never really gets that hot, and also, it never gets that cold. 

Living in Los Angeles, is often very confusing because it is very difficult to predict how to dress. Sometimes it is insanely cold, and then suddenly sometimes out of nowhere, the sun comes up.

Perhaps then, the ideal wardrobe is to just wear a lot of clothes and lots of layers, and when it gets too hot, just throw it back into your backpack. 

Visions

Lots of recent turbo thoughts: 

1. Bitcoin is a really big deal:

Honestly at this point, now that bitcoin has stabilized that around $70,000 of bitcoin, and it has been already around for over a decade, I’m pretty sure it’s here to stay. I was recently looking back at my accounting and finances, and I’m very happy that I first got into bitcoin at $7000 a coin, back in 2022. Honestly at this point, I consider it a very low risk investment, and it is only going to go uphill from here.

Also, bitcoin is the first native digital currency for the Internet. I think the greatest innovation is thinking about the Satoshi; the very very small fraction of a bitcoin, which can be used for micro, and also nano transactions. I’m actually currently formulating some ideas of creating the first bitcoin backed photography sharing platform; if you’re interested in collaborating shoot me an email at eric@erickim.com

2. Tech thoughts

Some technology thoughts I’ve been working through include the following:

First, the human joy and delight in the environment. I think all weightlifter, bodybuilders, photographers, human beings will benefit from nature, hiking, the mountains. I think one of the greatest blessings of living in Los Angeles is that there are lots of mountain hikes, so close by. Plus you got Malibu, the Pacific Palisades, and the Huntington library and botanical Gardens are just a stone throw away! 

First, I think there is a deep connection between men and the environment. For example, no one would want to be a trillionaire, if you were forced to live inside the hood, or worse, live in a parking lot garage for the rest of your life.

Still… It looks like we like greenery, blue skies, blue oceans, the sun!

I think the reason why Los Angeles is so appealing to many is that in theory we have everything. The water, the ocean, the sky, the ideal climate.

Truth be told, it gets very dark and gloomy here and cold… But still, compared to the rest of the world, Los Angeles is Paradise.

People complain about the traffic, but people often have the wrong analogy; the reason why it is so trafficky is that everyone wants to be here, because it is the best. Kind of like living in London, London traffic etc. 

I think the very very simple way to live virtuously in Los Angeles is to plan your life around traffic. The upside of being self-employed, just drive during off peak hours; and also, upside of being a weekend warrior, mixture you use the weekend to drive out further, to go exploring, go to hikes, etc. 

3. Movie analogies for real life?

I finally watched Dune part two, and I loved it! Definitely top five new favorite movies of all time. The worm riding scene was phenomenal; Denis V is a genius!

Follow the director, not the actors nor the series.

I think what is so fascinating about Dune is the pseudo religiosity embedded within it. Notions of the Lisan-al-gaib, prophecies, etc.… The metaphors of Christianity, theprophet, the Messiah, Middle Eastern cultures etc. is really fascinating. 

First, let us consider Paul at treaties. I’m quite certain that Paul was named after Saint Paul the apostle.  similar themes in the matrix movie, Neil, the one, Trinity, the holy Trinity etc.… Lots of Christian, christianic themes here. 

Perhaps the reason why so many millennials and yuppies are so into these weird moon and horoscope stuff is that they’re lacking religion in their life. 

And perhaps, a social logical inside; maybe having some sort of religion in your life is critical, otherwise you fall victim to weird other consumers religions, like the cult of Apple, the cult of Tesla Elon Musk and going to Mars, the cult of money, the cult of Capital etc.

Let us consider even the ancient Greeks, religion or their notion of religion and the gods was a critical part of their being.

I suppose the new ones here is eon, at least the way the ancient Greeks thought of it was very very different than the modern Judeo Christian notion we have of religion. Perhaps I’m going to study a little bit more about ancient Greek notions of the gods etc.

4. Lowered cybertruck?

The other day, I saw a funny sight; somebody traded in a cyber truck at the Culver City Toyota dealership, and I was able to inspect it up close in real life.

The first thought I had was if you think about the roof line, the fastback design in the back, and overall proportions, it is almost like a modern day Lamborghini Countach, the ultimate wedge design. And then a funny thought; if you took a cyber truck, and you lowered it, and you slammed it, in theory it is the ultimate sportscar design. 

Anyways, still… The cyber truck is the best thing to have happened in car design perhaps the last hundred years. Even when I went to the Peterson automotive museum with Seneca, seeing an original Bugatti from the 1920s, in all black blew my mind. They were able to engineer Phenomenal things over 100 years ago, why is it that all the modern car design is so lame? 

Anyways, if I were to get any modern day car, it would definitely be a cybertruck, maybe I would do a matte orange wrap on it. 

Also the good thing about the cyber truck, seeing it compared to all these other pick up trucks, it is actually not that big; I was a bit dubious, but I think it would be manageable to park in Los Angeles!

5. Other tech thoughts

So it looks like Apple Vision Pro, the initial enthusiasm in the novel T factor has died off. a towing sign; meeting some head directors of video game companies, they haven’t even bothered to try it out!

I think video games are a fascinating analogy for real life, because I think essentially… Video games are a true metaphor for what we would really like to do in real life, our ideals.

For example, the new assassins Creed is out on iPad and iPhone Pro; I think in someways, people like the idea of becoming the assassin. To just explore the real city, to parkour around, to do real life world exploration.

Let us consider, if you were the assassin of assassin’s creed… Would you just be at home all day, watching Netflix, and staying inside your apartment? Probably not.

6. So What’s the point of life?

I think what a lot of people think is what is the point of life.

When you say point, the point of life… do you mean to say purpose, telos?

First, the reality is that you were born, you had a mother and father, you are alive. And ultimately it is up to you how you decide to direct your biological energy and power, to do what you desire to do.

The very very simple thought is the purpose of sex, sexual intercourse, men and women is to procreate and have children.

It seems that out of all this nonsense about gender and sex politics, nobody is talking about the kids! 

I think overall, modern day consumerism, nobody really wants to have kids anymore. They would just prefer to have dogs, travel to Japan, eat sushi or whatever. But I think this type of hedonistic living actually making people sad and miserable. People do not have Purpose to living in life, and I think this is actually what gives people existential dread. Once you have a kid, life becomes very very straightforward and simple, and improved. There is no longer any sort of existential dread, raising your kid is the ultimate joy.

7. The ultimate tragedy?

I think the ultimate tragedy is when you have the elderly, older men, older women, without any kids, or with kids but no grandchildren… To me this is very sad.

 for example, I think generally speaking, the notion of generational wealth, generational power, or to extend your project, across centuries, across generations… This is what people desire.

I think the reason why people invest in real estate property… Is that they want to build generational wealth.

“Generational wealth, that’s the key. I started off with shit so that shift started with me“– JAY Z

Why generational wealth?

Thinking centuries ahead is difficult; and also, a little bit novel in the sense that you think the question:

what’s the point of the purpose of building up wealth, for future generations, when you yourself cannot enjoy yourself?

For example, a lot of individuals live their lives, make money in order to spend it. They want to spend money, like buying a Lamborghini and giving themselves driving pleasure or whatever. Once again, much modern capitalism and consumerism is focused on hedonism:

The more money you make, the more money you spend on things, the more pleasure it will give you.

I think the reason why this line of thinking is a bit wrong is that if you think about your bodily synopsis, there is a certain upper limit of hedonistic pleasure one can have. I think this is where people get into really weird drugs, in order to heighten their hedonistic pleasures.

In fact, pleasure is not the purpose of life. I think the purpose of life is to augment power, your power. How does one do this?

1. Having kids:

In the will to power, Nietzsche has this vision that in the future, families with multiple male children will be given benefits. I think the reason why so many men desire to have at least one son is that they want a new patriarch, a new king of the family to continue their lineage. I think a lot of people make the foolish optimization of earning a bunch of money, during their lifetime… But ultimately the best custodian of your economic power and wealth is your children, not some strangers or committee.

2. Physical, physiological power:

If you looked at all the marketing material for cars, objects and stuff… Typically they tend towards the more muscular, the more aggressive, etc. For example, I think the reason why it is so fascinating to study the psychology of men who desire certain cars is that it shows the ideals they have for themselves. Example, people want to be louder, more aggressive, the appeal of loud exhaust or tailpipes. Or they want to feel more big and dominant, if you think about the lifted trucks, over landing vehicles etc.

However, my personal thought and belief is that instead of wasting all that money in an external avatar which is your car, or vehicle… Don’t you recognize that your own human body is the ultimate vehicle? The ultimate thing to Upgrade? 
Simple thoughts is if you want to expand your wingspan, your stance, your fenders, fender flares or whatever… Just eat more meat, eat more steak, more beef, more dietary cholesterol, more organ meats, more beef liver etc.

In terms of height, unfortunately you cannot make yourself taller, but what you could do is stand more upright. For example, a 5 foot five man who stands upright, chest up actually looks more confident and dominating than a 6 foot two men, who is hunched over. therefore I suggest, the first thing you could do is fix your posture.

How do you fix your posture? I think it comes down to practice, and also maybe your shoes. Just buy some Vroom five finger shoes, and practice standing really upright, walk a lot, quite a lot of bikes, don’t use your phone.

Also, practice doing exercises which are about standing upright, and walking. For example, Farmer’s walks, dead lift walk, squat walk, yoke walk etc. Any sort of exercise which involves walking and standing upright is good.

3. Economic power & wealth

If I think about money, what exactly is money? It is your human labor, your physiological power embedded and imputed into a thing.

For example, the genius and brilliance of bitcoin is that there is so much energy and power imputed into a bitcoin.

People for a while was saying all this nonsensical stuff about bitcoin is bad for the planet blah blah blah, but what is really bad for the planet? Air conditioning, washing machines. The electricity output of air conditioning alone is at least 100,000 times worse than bitcoin production.

Also, most of the bad news about bitcoin mining was from mainland China, in which bitcoin miners, would use cheap coal to fuel bitcoin production, but the nuance is this–

Why do Americans care that mainland China was using coal to pollute her and environment?

For Americans who have never been to developing countries… We have never actually smelled or tasted pollution… You start to think and realize:

The upside of being an American is that all of your lovely iPhones are produced elsewhere, which pollutes a foreign country and a foreign place, while you yourself enjoy your beautiful devices and your clean air.

Even consider, really rich mainland Chinese families, none of them want to live in Beijing or Shanghai, even if they had all of the Rolls-Royce’s in the world. They all eventually buy a house in Vancouver somewhere with clean green air, and the aspire their children to start a life in America.  

I think the difficult thing is getting your wealth out of the country. For example, China, mainland China knows that the smart and rich mainland Chinese people want to take their wealth out of the country, and eventually go to America or somewhere else. Let us consider; that all the rich men land Chinese people send their kids to study at American universities? The opposite does not happen; rich Americans do not send their kids to study Beijing or Shanghai, no. Rich mainland Chinese people want their kids to study at Harvard or Yale, maybe even UCLA.

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Travel

I still haven’t come up with a good definition of traveling, maybe world exploration is a better analogy.

For example, if you thought about real life like a video game, encore what is such a fastening place. Angkor Wat is essentially the environment and landscape of tomb raider; even the locals in siem reap call the second temple “tomb raider”; I think they film the movie there. 

Anyways, something I’m very excited about is that next year, Cindy Seneca and I will be living in Cambodia for about six months; and I’m also doing an Angkor wat workshop there. 

Essentially I’m starting to become more and more interested in man-made environments, and having this question in my mind:

If your real life was a video game, a real world MMORPG, how would you live life? 

1. No car: no true epic video game warrior has a car. Maybe at best of horse, but even that is not necessary. If you are thinking about your life like Diablo, your main character, you just run around.
2. Character building? What then is the purpose or ethos of the game, the video game etc.? The general idea is towards character building, leveling up, building up your statistics, your strength and your abilities, unlocking new armor weapons, engaging in even greater boss battles. Certainly much of real life is not like that, so then I suppose a bit question at hand is how can you transform your real life to mimic that of a video game?

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A very simple idea; for a lot of people who are wasting money on clothes, cars, homes etc.… The best fashion to have, to fashion yourself is your muscles, your body.

Conspiracy theories screaming illuminati, they cannot imagine this much power and muscle inside a human body – he 6 2 how he fit inside a new Bugatti? Ha ha you got me (JAY Z)

Economic problems

So in theory, any skinny fat loser could purchase a Bugatti, a Lamborghini, McLaren, whatever. And in theory, any man can simply push his foot against the pedal, and it will make loud sounds, and go fast.

However, what most men cannot do is at the gym, or even in public, scream really loud, a primal roar, and, lift at least seven, eight, nine, 10 plates and beyond.

Risk of injury?

I think people missed the point; people always say, “Be careful“– when they see me stack up the bar with over 10 plates.

This is precisely the idea; it is actually the risk of injury which makes one create courageous and brave. If you knew with 100% certainty before you would lift an astronomical amount of weight; it wouldn’t really mean anything.

Skin, muscle in the game, your body in the game. I think also why war, hand to hand combat is so noble is that you’re putting your own life, your own body, your own soul on the line. If you do something, without any potential risk to damaging or hurting or harming your human body, it is not real courage.

For example, thinking about the Iliad; I think the proper way to consider things is that you can only trust somebody who actually looks like a Achilles to translate the thing. You cannot have old flabby skinny fat guys translating heroism; they will never understand. 

This is also why I find it extremely bizarre when women write or opine on manliness or masculinity; if as a woman you have never experienced testosterone, or if you do not have testicles… Or testes, you will never understand the physiological effects of being a man. Similarly speaking a man who never has to go through a menstrual cycle; he will also never understand the plight of women. Same goes with childbirth.

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How to feel insanely good?

Waking up today, after sleeping like a person, feeling like $1 trillion; what is the idea?

First, the night prior; eating insanely well. 2 pounds of brisket, maybe 3 pounds of ground beef? 8020.

Sleeping very deeply, very long. Maybe sleeping 10 hours?

1. Currently, it seems that the optimal strategy to coffee and caffeine is just drink a lot first thing waking up, very very strong. Like a one rep Max coffee attempt. But then at the end of the day, after the morning, 100% abstinence. I think if we consider that sleeping well for the gods, then actually sleeping well might be the number one most critical thing to optimize. If this is the case, one should not have any caffeine after 8 AM?
2. Eating enough, eating well: I’m starting to think that 99.9% of the issues of modern day life, modern day humans and physiology has to deal with nutrition. Even Nietzsche said that the great men of the future would become more carnivorous. The more carnivorous become, the more powerful you become. Certainly you could survive on other things; but what would you prefer to be; Hercules, or serf? Or would you rather be a drone or an Archon?

Money thinking

One of the ironies in the western world, America is that people want to make a bunch of money in order to spend it, and in order to purchase and things. But what if, the goal was actually to stack and conserve your money —

I bought every V 12 engine, wish I could take it back to the beginning – JAY Z

I thought about this line from Jay Z a lot; it could be interpreted in two ways:

1. First, ideas that when you’re starting off, the beginning, when you’re hungry and poor and striving, this is the best position to be in. Because once you’re already successful, super rich, and purchase everything, there is nothing left to aspire towards.
2. The second interpretation: Jay Z regrets wasting all this money on buying all these expensive cars, instead, he wishes that he put that money towards property.

“I could’ve bought a place in Dumbo when it was Dumbo, it was worth $1 million, now it’s worth 20 million. Guess how I’m feeling, Dumbo.”

“Life is a game of monopoly, go ahead, go outside and cop yourself some property” – Migos

Property?

I’ve been listening to and studying a lot for Michael Saylor, and I think right now, the best way to think about bitcoin is crypto property, rather than a cryptocurrency.

Currency is useful, in order to buy coffee, espresso, groceries at Costco etc. Or getting some great all you can eat Korean barbecue (Randomly, my sister-in-law Jennifer found this really really good all you can eat Japanese barbecue place called chubby cattle; with A5 Wagyu, and M9 Australian beef, which is insanely good). And according to Michael, real well, really wealthy people have, own, or have purchased property in the past.

For example, all of those stories you hear in the area of people who once purchased some apartment building or Square block in the mission district in San Francisco for only $20,000, and now it worth $20 million or whatever.

Or can you imagine if the SARS pandemic, purchasing some real estate in the middle of hong kong, when everyone was trying to run away?

Generations?

99 generations from now?

I think also I think that is very difficult to consider in daytimes is thinking about generations, generational wealth, the future.

For example, we recently went to the Huntington library, which has this very impressive house called the Shoyo house, which was an adult. House, which was around for 300 years, and had 50 or so generations of families live inside of it.

And then I thought; thinking about the future; not just your kids, but your kids kids kids. Kids kids kids kids kids.

It is still hard to imagine; the great great great great grandchildren of Seneca; and beyond.

Even thinking about my own family, how futuristic I seem today. My grandfather on my mother side, who was essentially a poor tea farmer, who grew up in a hut in the countryside of Korea, becoming a doctor, building a lot of wealth, handing it down to his children etc.

And that one of his grand children (me)– being born in America, in the states, becoming an Internet entrepreneur, and now investing in Bitcoin, it is insanely crazy to think about how much has changed even within one or two generations. 

Out there?

Thinking about Cambodia, Phnom Penh, Angkor Wat, Siem Reap and the future; very exciting news; Cindy and I are going to be in Cambodia for about six months next year, starting around March.

I was thinking about Angkor Wat, how insanely huge is, how phenomenal all of the stonework is, the brick, etc. 

First of all, thinking about this insanely huge stone fortress, if you get a Birdseye view of in cad, it is simply astounding to consider it. The scale is beyond your imagination; you could only really feel it or experience it, when you experience it in embodied reality.

And then I think about modern day times, creating your own citadel, your own fortress.

Even the Huntington Gardens, the library, and the ground; if you live in LA or Southern California California or California in general, you must visit it. The brand new Chinese garden, the Japanese garden and beyond; the pure acreage of it will blow your mind.

Economic photo power?

Some economic, philosophical thoughts on photography:

 if we go back to first principles, and think about the digital photograph, the image of a photograph; what is it? It is you capturing some living force, and imputing it into an image, which will theory last forever.

If you think about a digital image, a JPEG image, whatever… In theory, it is infinitely applicable, it cannot die.

I think the reason why I love JPEG so much, is with indexing, the Internet, images or whatever; it will never die. Especially when you make it open source, packages, have multiple downings for it, it will always be accessible somewhere, on the Internet and beyond, or hard drive.

Certainly nothing is going to last forever. I am quite certain that my website will not be around 300 years from now, and I’m sure 1000 years from now, it will probably be very difficult to access any of my photos or whatever. I don’t really mind that much. Nothing is meant to last forever, nor should anything last forever. Whenever I’m out in public, going to random places, and I see people caring around Rico GR cameras, I know that my work has already been done and completed.

All street photographers, whether they know it or not, are acolytes of ERIC KIM.

Last?

The other day, I met a random UCLA undergrad kid, was from Hong Kong, and I wanted to show him this really really funny digital rev, Kai Min Wong video that I did, I tried to find it on YouTube and I couldn’t, and then I googled it, And then I saw that I think the official digital rev page took it down?

It’s crazy, I’m only 36 years old, but I guess I’ve been in the game for a while now. Ever since I was 21; I guess I’ve been around for at least 15 years?

Since then, I’ve already seen so many photographers come and go– am I the only one left? 

Some more recent ideas is the idea that perhaps durability is indeed the most critical and important things; durability as metaphorical, to last.

For example, steel over carbon fiber; carbon fiber is brittle, breaks easily, and doesn’t last. Even if you’re starting to look at some of the older Tesla performance edition; the little carbon fiber spoiler wing is already starting to peel clear coat. Or when you see people who wrap their car, it never last. When you see vinyl car wrap starting to disintegrate into the sun, it is really ugly. This is why having real pain is better. It seems in terms of maximum durability at least if you live in Southern California, The optimal is to either a white or silver car, which reflects the maxima amount of light, and just wax it every once in a while, to keep the paint durable. This is where I am still more for paint than wrap; I think if you wrap a vehicle, at best with good maintenance it might last about three years. But good paint, at least 30 years.

Cybertruck?

The only real stock I own besides bitcoin is Tesla. Why? Not to make money; I’m already rich enough. But for me, it is a testament of faith, what I believe in, what I love.

I’ve been seeing a lot more cyber trucks on the road, especially in Los Angeles. It might be the most beautiful thing the most beautiful architectural marvel I see in embodied reality or real life.

I just had the realization that if you think about the proportions of a cyber truck, especially how angular it is, stainless steel… Essentially has a proportions of a Lamborghini; for example if you took a cyber truck and you lowered it, very low to the ground… That when you close the trunk, and you think about the overall proportions, it is very awesome and menacing looking.

Also, when it is really really bright and sunny outside, when the sun in Los Angeles is strong, to see the light refract off of the stainless steel is a true marvel. Also watching the Dune part two movie recently; cannot fake the sun.

So what should you do?

Some simple life goals: 

1. If possible, try to have at least one kid. If you’re a man, strive to have at least one son. If your first child is a son, consider yourself infinitely blessed. After that, life is all upside, no downside.
2. Realize that being rich and wealth is probably more of a mental thing than anything else; why? If the whole point of money and wealth in general is to conservative, to stack it, to not spend it; the irony is the true path towards maximum riches is in fact maximum Economic conservativism and building. That is the overall point of Is to keep stacking it, to not spend it.

What this means then is being rich, being wealthy is just driving a maximum economy car, like a Toyota Prius, and not wasting any of your money on gas, and saving the maximum amount of money humanly possible.

Also, I’m starting to think more and more there’s really no good reason to purchase or owner home or property. Why? There is too many defects of property, owning property, owning real estate.

First, taxes, property taxes will bleed you dry. Second, the physical laws of entropy; no home, no matter how well you build it will let you 300 years. Rust, mold, termites whatever; only the granite or the asphalt beneath your house will last, every hundred years or so you’ll probably have to tear down the house, and build a new one. I suppose you could build one out of steel, but even steel, you keep painting, or else it will rust away.

So now what?

Think, if you could live like a king in Vietnam, Hanoi or Saigon, Phnom Penh Cambodia paying rent for only $300 USD a month, doesn’t this change everything? 

I think what we Americans or what people don’t understand is this:

You choose.

For example, there is nothing really holding you to live in America, the states, California whatever. People often make these excuse that your family is here or whatever; you decided to stay… That is your decision. You can easily leave.

Or, if you have the blessing of being a tech worker, and you could work remote. Isn’t the optimal strategy to collect your American salary, in a developing country? 

I think once you realize that you will never run out of money, even if you wanted to, this changes everything. This was my primary awakening, or my enlightenment moment in Vietnam; when I realize that I would never run out of money, because the cost-of-living was so cheap, it changed everything.

Are there any really good reasons to live in America anymore?

Freedom of speech. If you are a super active political journalist or person, the number one benefit of living in America is freedom of speech. But if you’re not really political, or you don’t care for politics much; I don’t see any compelling reason to live in America.

Freedom of property?

I suppose the second thing is property rights, freedom of property, not having the government just seize your stuff.  I suppose this is the upside of bitcoin, if you think about bitcoin as digital property. You could just take it with you everywhere you go, and not be held down by anything.

Bitcoin is perfect for digital nomads.

Buying a home or property is a scam?

I’m starting to think more and more, to own a single-family home, physical property, where does the brainwashing come from?

First, I would much rather own $1 million worth of bitcoin, rather than on a single-family home being worth $1 million. Why?

First, your property value of your bitcoin will appreciate at a much faster pace than your single-family home. I think your single-family home, the value of it will only probably meet that of inflation; when people are happy to see there; don’t you know that this is simply the same rate in which The US dollar money supply is expanding as long as government have the ability to print out currency at will like a Xerox machine; home values seem a bit like a scam.

Your roof?

The great joy of renting the other day our hot water went out. We just texted the landlord and literally the same day, he said some maintenance people to fix it. I cannot be fucked having to do home maintenance.

Hidden expenses and headaches?

Another downside of owning the property your home; let us see you buy a really really nice house for property, and then your roof goes out. Boom, that $70,000 down the drain.

I think the main problem about home, homeownership is that there are just too many unknown expenses that will hit you at the most inconvenient times. I think it doesn’t matter how rich you are, doesn’t even matter what you could hire other people or not, other people are unreliable, Contractors are a huge pain in the ass, they always take too long, too much money, and make your life worse.

Let us see that your life was like DUNE; is the purpose of Paul Atreides to stay at home, and fix his plumbing? Or to rule over the universe? 

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Incoming!

The current world of photography is a mess. All the new cameras suck, and I guess now everyone is on TikTok. It looks like nobody even uses Snapchat or Instagram anymore. 

arsbeta.com — the only good place to do any sort of photography related things is currently ARS. The only place on the internet i think we could post photos and share photos, without advertisements. if you want to join the our development team, send me a pdf of your résumé to eric@erickim.com —

My next vision for ARS is to build in some sort of bitcoin, or satoshi or sat functionality. I envision this insanely grand new future in which ARS will be the first bitcoin enabled photo sharing platform. If you want to invest, join the board, share the vision, email me eric@erickim.com

Why Bitcoin?

Stay humble and stack sats – Michael Saylor

I think for most people, a single bitcoin is just too expensive now. But what is very underrated is the satoshi, the sat, the sub division of a bitcoin.

Satoshi’s actually make Michael transactions possible. For example, imagine like you want to sell an e-book or something, and somebody could pay you with just a single Satoshi. A single Satoshi is only worth a fraction of a penny, but still; it is some sort of real skin in the game.

I think for most artist, we don’t really want to get rich for our photography; having people pay us money for our photos or our services simply assign of respect for us in our photography; if somebody is willing to send you real money for one of your Products or services, it is a signal of your economic value and worth.

Honestly, now that McDonalds is paying a $20 minimum wage, assuming you work an eight hour shift,  that means you could earn $160 USD a day for just flipping burger patties! Apparently also you could get a job as a CHP officer earning $120,000 a year!  I think if I know what I know now, instead of just going to college and getting a boring tech job, I might have opted instead to become a cop, join the military, become a firefighter or something more physical and active; just imagine becoming a CHP officer, you get paid a ton of money to essentially become the law, And drive a really high-powered horsepower car for a living. 

Imagine being given 1000 hp car, a cop car, and earning $120,000 a year! Sounds pretty cool.