The Philosophy of Art

So just went to the Mr. brainwash art gallery in Beverly Hills, and I am blown away; it was the most fun, enjoyable, uplifting, playful, inspirational and motivational art exhibit of all time.

why this matters

This is a big deal. Why this is a big deal.

First, life without art would be a mistake. Life without art is not a life worth living.

For example, if you think about all of capitalism and consumerism, I think much of it is predicated on art.

For example, what is clothing in fashion? It is essentially art fabric sculptures for your body, your human body!

What is a car? Moving sculpture, a metal steel based thing which is secondly a piece of transportation.

Has nobody figured out how insanely important cyber truck is; essentially it is the ultimate modernist expression of moving sculpture?

I actually have a vision; gloss red cyber truck, with yellow calipers, or yellow rims… Essentially imagine looking at like a fake Ferrari, but cyber truck.

the best art

A lot of people say art for art sake, but following in the footsteps of Nietzsche, I think actually the purpose of art isn’t art for art say, rather, it is art for the sake of happiness joy, the great stimulus to life!

In fact, I have a theory… When a lot of people become emo, sad dark and rose, is this issue here they are simply not having enough great art in their life?

Even being at the Mr. brainwashing exhibition, they were just playing some great OG classical music on the speakers, and even hearing the great classical music put me in such good mood!

Maybe I’ll start to listen to more classical music?

The best

Classicus,,, the ancient Romans, typically when we think about the word classic we tend to think about old school. But actually… In ancient Rome classicus, the elite class,,, “classicus” or “classic” simply meant “the best”.

So then, what life then becomes about isn’t seeking the old school for the sake of the old school, but rather, seeking the best?

Why the best?

Why not?

Joy!

I think nowadays, to be joyful unhappy in today’s world is a great act of courage? It is easy to be emailed depressed, sad, to opine about how the world is going to explode whatever. It takes much more courage to be joyful, happy and gleeful, to be the gay monster admits all of the emoness?

Choose Joy

I prefer the word joy over happiness. Why? I think happiness is too much of a consumerist merchandised concept now. Troy is a lot simpler, like joy to the world!

Music, what is music? Joy to our ears and to our soul.

What is art, photography, paintings images and sculpture? Joy to our visual brain senses?

Participatory art

I think what is so amazing and what was so fun at the Mr. brainwash art exhibit was how almost all the exhibitions, you could interact with it! And also you are encouraged to photograph and video everything!

A lot of modern art exhibitions and museums is that they are cold and sterile, and it feels like you’re not allowed to photograph or shoot stuff?

In fact, I’m even thinking about doing a photograph workshop in Beverly Hills, maybe we could all go to the Mr. brainwash art museum together, have fun like a bunch of kids, and be inspired together?

My vision of art: my vision is that art should be open to everybody, accessible to everybody, and also, fun for everybody! It should be no, not pretentious, not fake. Also, it should be free, open to the public, accessible to anybody, doesn’t matter if you’re 70 years old or three years old;

I killed that art might be able to solve 50% of the world’s problems, maybe the other 50% can be bitcoin.

Or even a more radical idea; if you combine bitcoin and art, 50% +50% is 100%. Then… Can bitcoin art be the solution to the maladies of the planet?

Maybe! Perhaps I’ll try and pioneer this!

Bitcoin art is the way

Great artist steal.

Also, great artist “up cycle”, recycle, sample, remix, and parody the classics!

This is where our source is so appealing to me; I hate restrictions, I hate copyright in laws; I prefer freedom.

In fact in two days brave new digital world, I’ve ChatGPT and AI… The whole copyright model is broken.

For example, certainly creators need to make money and a profit, but the big issue here is that all the craters are essentially slaves to corporations, and looks like a lot of these new digital slumlords, who control the “content“ of its creators… What they are essentially seeking is a mini of control, within a small mileau, trying to assert control and power in their very small domain?

Nvidia is close to a $4T company??

I was shocked, apparently now that the number two most world’s important company is Nvidia, right after Apple?

In fact, I actually wonder if Nvidia is more valuable than Apple. The only reason why Apple is valuable is because they have the iPhone, but if and when Nvidia creates their own phone, that doesn’t require an iPhone, this will be a big deal?

How to art

There are so many ways you could art.

So one funny idea I have is just taking famous artworks of the past, and copy pasting bitcoin icons on top of it. This is essentially the hilarious parody that Mr. brainwashed with a lot of these classical paintings, and also Banksky, the art of uncovering BS?

the problem about the art world

I think the biggest problem about the art world is everyone is using irony sarcasm and fake big talk to try to inflate their fragile egos, and into control running their mini fiefdoms?

A writer and thinker that I’m kind of into right now is Saifedean — who wrote the bitcoin standard and the fiat standard. I first read his books because I was curious about bitcoin, but what I found very very fascinating was his critiques about art, the art world, and modernism and modern architecture? He’s kind of like NASSIM TALEB in that way (both Lebanese, Lebanese-American) — very outspoken, calls out BS.

If you have ever been to a modern art exhibit, and you see a piece of white paper with a hole in it, and it’s worth $1 million, and you’re scratching your head, I’m with you.

Honestly, more or less all of modern day art is a scam, but that’s OK. You don’t have to participate if you don’t want to! Nobody is strong arming you to do so!

The new art

My personal vision is that I want to disrupt the art world. I certainly have done it for the world of street photography; essentially I killed all of these loser skinny fat anemic notions in street photography of what is considered good or bad, essentially the funny thing with photography is that while it should on paper be the most democratic open and egalitarian form of photography, as the streets are public and should be public and accessible to everybody… Once again, all of these ridiculous ivory towers?

Now what?

Maybe now I have some sort of moral or ethical imperative to make a difference?

ERIC

The Philosophy of Investing

Ultimately when people study Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger etc ,,, what all these guys are searching for is wisdom.

I think this is good and important because principles wisdom, is resistant to time and technology, but at least for myself, I was born in 1988, searching for practical wisdom has always remained elusive for me.

I think difficult thing is that my circumstances were unique. I was born in the states, yet grew up poor; my definition of poor is not being sure whether you would be homeless next month because your dad just gambled away the rent money again, going off to Reno in the middle of the night.

The upside of poverty

I think on two fronts this was useful to me:

First, it taught me self independence at a very young age. I knew that if I wanted anything, I had to work for it. This motivated me to pick up lots of part-time jobs when I was like 13, 14 or 15, tutoring English, through my honors program at school, working at the local community center, getting a $200 a month stipend etc.

In fact, my biggest personal pride and joy; essentially, purchasing my first car with my own money! At the age of 15, getting my drivers permit in California, $1000 or maybe $1200 1991 Sentra XE, 5 door sedan, 5 speed manual transmission car — it didn’t even have a tachometer! I learned how to shift gears simply by hearing and feeling the engine? This began my first love affair with manual transmission cars;

In fact, another point of pride, every car I have purchased my own money has always been a used manual transmission car, never exceeding $2500 USD. In fact, the last car I purchased one in Providence Rhode Island before Seneca was born was a 2002 Subaru outback, five speed manual transmission, listed on craigslist for 1000 bucks, was able to negotiate down to $900, then $800 in cash! Lying out those eight $100 bills was the most obvious decision I’ve made in my life.

Obvious decisions are obvious

In terms of my decision-making philosophy, my unorthodox beliefs; obvious decisions are obvious.

What that means is before making any sort of decision life decision etc., you don’t need to think about it too much.

Obvious decisions are staring you right at the face, and whenever you have to hesitate before making a certain decision, don’t do it. Why? Your brain is still working out the details, whether or not you should do the thing or not.

Obvious trades, obvious financial decisions, obvious investments

For example, buying microstrategy stock, MSTR, to me is a 100% obvious decision. For the traditional markets, it’s literally the only asset worth purchasing.

Why? Essentially they have discovered a free money hack or infinite money hack, which they could leverage their 30-year-old business, which is regulated, and mainstream… And leverage their position, borrowing money at less than one percent to buy bitcoin, which is accretive forever, and continuing the virtuous cycle.

Now is your time to purchase a piece of cyber Manhattan

Bitcoin is cyber manhattan: 256^3

I think the idea of a cyber Manhattan, cyber real estate company is fascinating to me. And the difference between bitcoin, cyber real estate and Cyberman Manhattan is that it is actually backed by real electricity and power. For example, the problems with all these fake virtual worlds is that it is just powered by a computer code, one and zeros, Any nerd can click a button and create a skyscraper in Sim city.

But what if, if you wanted to build a skyscraper in Sim city, you actually had to expand $1 billion of real capital in the real world, before transferring it and transporting it to cyberspace? This is the 1000% paradigm shift;

The bridge between the physical, embodied reality, physical world and realm, to the digital cyber realm… Which is still backed with physical electricity?

It’s a bug, not a feature!

Or it’s a feature, not a bug?

I think what a lot of these goody two shoers don’t get or understand is about real life physics in the game, skin in the game, energy in the game. Everyone wants some sort of hidden upside without any real life downside?

I’ll give you example, everyone wants to rid the world of suffering pain injustice and the like. However, a life without suffering pain injustice and overcoming is not a life worth living.

You cannot have happiness without pain and suffering, nor can you have joy with without sorrow and misery. If we think about this from a Taoist perspective, I think about yin and Yang, you cannot have the good without the bad. You cannot have the virtuous without the evil.

The upsides of downsides

For example, obviously being in poor health sucks, and bad weather also sucks. But, when things get much better, you are 1000 times more joyful grateful and happy when things shift!

This is why funny enough, I think people on the East Coast, New England, Providence Rhode Island are happier than people in LA because the weather shifts are more extreme.

For example, when you’re suffering in the winter time for months on end, no sunshine whatever, and then boom, one day the sun comes out, everyone is overjoyed! It is still 55° and cold, but at least it is sunny; everyone runs out and gets their picnic blankets, And the joy of the sunlight is 1000 times more extreme than in Los Angeles where everyone is trying to hide from the sun, even though they love it?

My simple analogy is everyone in LA is like a solid 7.2 out of 10, in terms of happiness, whereas in the East coast, your happiness goes from a -10 to a +500% when the weather is good!

So I suppose, the philosophical question them becomes, is it better or more favorable to have a steady mediocre thing forever, or more extreme highs and lows, which will be a benefit to your happiness?

Then a simple thought, the reason why I love bitcoin is because of the extremes; I would prefer an extreme life to a steady and boring one.

In search of yield

I think for me my number one principle in investing is yield. I think what a lot of people think is what they’re trying to do with their money is they are trying to securitize it, and make it safe, stored in really really safe assets like treasury bills, bonds, or “safe” investments like Apple Amazon Facebook Google and like.

But, my personal thought is life should not be conservative; the point of life isn’t to just conserve your wealth, but rather, to grow it!

Even the story of Jesus, you don’t just take your wealth and hide it and bury your talents, your gold talents in the ground because you’re afraid of losing it. No, the virtuous thing is to go out and multiply it!

And I also think the same thing is with wealth; the virtuous calling is to multiply it to grow it, not to just bury it, with the fear that it might go down.

How to gain more emotional armor for investing

OK, a lot of these fools, they want quick gains in order to go out and buy the Lamborghini or whatever. But once you find out that only small dick losers drive Lamborghinis, and also, that the useful lifetime value of a Lamborghini might only be three or four years, that is the point in which the maintenance costs and the insurance costs and fixing it up will destroy the price of it in just three or four years, then it becomes obvious; you wish the Lamborghini onto your worst enemy, you don’t desire one for yourself.

My simple thought is take a stoic spartan approach; essentially live like a super super poor person, the only thing you should ever spend money on is weights barbells and weightlifting equipment, and meet… Everything else should be essentially free.

Tips to NOT go broke

This means,

Never eat out: nothing is worth it, not even all you can eat Korean barbecue! My current favorite joint is chubby cattle, but still… The 90 minute time sitting is a bit restrictive.
No weed, no alcohol
Don’t go out for coffee, just brew it and drink it at home. I actually have a new hack; I only drink a lot of coffee at the house first thing in the morning when I wake up, but after the morning, 100% abstinence for the rest of the day. I get the upside of getting a good caffeine buzz first thing in the morning to get me going, without the downside of having it affect my sleep.
Never buy anything, and also… The only “computer“ or device I find worth it is an iPad Pro;
Always buy the cheapest iPhone on the market; only poor people buy iPhone Pros
For camera or digital camera, I recommend getting the most compact, capable Panasonic camera, and the cheapest, most compact pancake lens. Currently the Lumix S9 ($1500) and 26 mm F8 pancake lens ($200). Never buy a loser Leica which is essentially a Panasonic Lumix with a body kit. Especially the Panasonic Lumix Leica Q Cameras. If you want a digital rangefinder just buy a used Leica M9.
Don’t shoot film: I think about a decade ago in 2014 2015, it was affordable, but now it is too expensive. Save your money and buy Bitcoin instead!
Never buy a new car under any circumstances. This is immediately like taking a 30% haircut; the second you drive it off the lot, boom, you’ve already lost 30% of its value. And also, don’t buy electric vehicles, no matter how appealing. It is like purchasing a really really expensive iPhone Pro with wheels; it might be only good for 3 to 5 years, maybe seven years tops… Then after that, a slow degrading. Real rich people buy old used Priuses and drive them– 2010 Prius is the best rich person car.
Stop buying clothes: you probably have enough clothes to last you two lifetimes already in your closet. My suggestion is if you want novelty, just take some scissors and turn your jeans into shorts, or cut off the sleeves off of your shirts to make them sleeve or if you’re cold, just layer up. Only poor people buy clothes.

Essentially, the easiest way to become rich is not go broke.

Einstein’s rule of money

So essentially, I’ve literally I think watch every single Michael Saylor interview that he’s ever done everything that he posted to Twitter or YouTube etc. Maybe about 100 of them.

Anyways, probably the most fascinating thing that I’ve learned about the value of an asset is the value of an asset is essentially the cost of something or the value is something divided by the maintenance cost.

Now I think this is something that people don’t really think about — the maintenance cost.

So for example, now that all of my millennial friends are growing up, I’m 36 now, in four years, I’m gonna be 40 years old, everyone’s trying to think about the future buying a single-family home or a condo or property or whatever. And what beguiles a lot of people or shocks people is when they buy a house, all the maintenance costs! Even talking to my friend Anton (congrats on your new kid!) he told me a story while we were in downtown LA about how he bought a house, but the water heater went out, and him having to fix it, and what a nightmare it was.

Also simple things that we millennials never think about… You need a new roof and boom, that’s $50,000. That’s $50,000 I would rather put into bitcoin.

There are so many things that exist on the planet, in real world, in embody reality which cost a premium in terms of insurance, maintenance, etc. Once again, almost nothing in the physical realm is ever worth it.

If you want a new car, just download some racing game to your iPad, or even PlayStation or whatever; better to spend 50 bucks on a virtual car then drop $50,000 or more on a new one!

Or, just buy an oculus quest, play some racing game, at least this way you want to kill yourself, or another family in a car with two kids or more.

–> The worst thing in life isn’t dying or killing yourself, but it is accidentally killing another family, accidentally killing kids in the car seat of another car, and you having to live with the guilt for the rest of your life.

“But it isn’t real!”

Bitcoin is not real, but, if it costs $800 billion to produce, it’s real!

Let’s again, things must have a stake in the physical realm, if it doesn’t, it is just air coin, or the foundation is just built on cotton candy.

I think we must avoid these fake environmentalists, a bunch of vegan losers. Essentially, if I psychoanalyze a lot of these fake environmentalists; essentially everyone is seeking a new religion, a new godhead which is the “environment“, but ultimately my critical thought is that once again it just comes down to money;

Vegan and plant based stuff is insanely profitable

For example, Al Gore, I wonder… How much money has he collected from doing his talks on an inconvenient truth, ultimately being funded by taxpayer money?

And also, James Cameron, and also Arnold, how much money they have collected from the vegan pea protein powder plant factory, just follow the money. Much more profitable to sell a $50 container of vegan protein powder, than a meat company to sell beef rib or beef liver.

Also a random aside; if you really wanted to be a real environmentalist, you would actually have a 100% organ meat diet, only beef heart beef liver beef kidneys and intestines, because these parts are typically thrown away.

Rich vegans

“Being naked is the ultimate sustainable option. We’re number two.” – Reformation marketing copy

The truth is environmentalism is very profitable. For example a lot of these clothing companies, I think also like the new one “Reformation“, a female clothing company, they talk about sustainability and blah blah blah, but once again, is it just another marketing tactic to sell their mediocre clothes.

For example, people talk that leather in animal products are evil blah blah blah. Yet the truth is, you’re cheap vegan leather jacket which is made out of petroleum is probably 1 trillion times worse for the planet than a fashionable one made out of 100% real leather. A pleather vegan jacket might only last you a few years, a good leather jacket can you last you 50 or beyond.

Because if you critically think about it, things which last, are better for the “environment”. And typically animal products last.

I love leather!

Also nowadays, people talk about Native Americans and stuff like that, don’t you know that historically the way that natives lived off the land was in harmony with animals, like can you imagine a Native American who didn’t use animal power, ride on horses, or eat meat and bison?

Besides maybe virtue signaling America, there is no great civilization that has ever existed without animal products whether food labor etc.

I love risk

Once again I think the biggest issue is in today’s world, nobody likes risk anymore. Risk is seen as something which is dangerous bad and to be avoided.

For example anybody who buys a Mercedes car an Audi, a Porsche a Lamborghini whatever… It is ultimately a risk free option in the sense that no one’s gonna make fun of you for owning those type of cars. So in some ways it is a cowardly act;

For example everyone thinks a Porsche 911 is cool, a Lamborghini is cool, a Mercedes or an Audi is cool. Yet maybe I’m the only one with the big dick in the room, I brag that I drive a Toyota Prius? Everyone is always so shocked and impressed.

Real investors and economists must and should drive a Prius!

Real economics

OK, whenever I discover anybody who’s a professor, who teaches in a business school, is an economist, academic or scholar or whatever… Yet just puts all of their money in a boring mutual fund… Or index fund… It is a signal that they are not a real economist, and they are actually not really connected to reality.

Risk = Happiness

We need some sort of risk exposure to the real world. For example, easy to be the typical fat American who is drinking beer or wine watching sports and American football, giving their opinion on sports teams and players yet they are not actually exposed to the risk of playing real tackle football?

And once again… The more I think about it the more bizarre it is. To watch UFC or mixed martial arts, to watch any sport that you have not yourself played… It kind of like mental masturbation? To sports?

Sports is masculine physical sports masturbation pornography?

Just think about it the average person eats nachos french fries drink beer or alcohol smoke marijuana before watching the big game. But what a athlete who is actually participating in the sport down a beer really quick before putting on their armor and hitting the field? Obviously not!

So why is it that alcohol food beverages is marketed to these individuals, for watching a sport?

It is the new risk free premium hedonism; the joy of seeing people get murdered on a field, or in our arena without any real exposure.

Don’t hate me because I’m so much more physically dominant than you!

People are always so surprised that I played real football real American tackle football in high school, they are shocked to hear that I was linebacker, first outside linebacker then inside linebacker.

I think it is actually racism; you never expect an Asian guy to play linebacker because we are not seen as masculine or aggressive enough. But if I were African-American or black, even though I am on the more lean side — you probably would not be shocked, because in America, athletes are always seen as being African-American, never Asian. Even an Asian professional sports athlete is almost seen as a glitch in the system, not the real deal.

Even when first deadlifted 465 pounds, sumo style off the floor, and everyone was so shocked, I was talking to my friend Jemal and I asked him — “If I was African-American or black, but people will be asshocked or surprised?” He laughed and said no!

So what should we do about things

So I think the first thing you have to think philosophically is what are you really searching for, and why?

My very simple thought is think 300 years ahead, your kids kids kids.

The New Hedonism

The current lifestyle is like the Persian slave lifestyle?

I think the issue we are facing today in today’s world is hedonism — the new hedonism. We seek companionship through humans or dogs, yet we don’t want to have children, we want to preserve our freedom travel the world go to Japan eat good sushi whatever.

But, your dog cannot inherit your bitcoin.

I think maybe in the past life was actually easier and more straightforward people. You got married, you built up a family legacy and empire; this was actually a pretty good strategy in life. And I think people were actually much happier, productive, and joyful!

Think about all the modern day melodies of depression anxiety whatever, they are all modern day sociological ills.

In fact, the ancient Greeks, thinking about the Iliad; certainly things are natural like courage, cowardice, and fear… But depression anxiety was not.

My sociological theory on why so many people are so depressed and anxious is because of YouTube, Spotify, podcast, TikTok Facebook Instagram, Twitter, news, fear porn.

The joy of growth or death & destruction?

Have a theory; a lot of people are secretly waiting and twiddling their thumbs, they actually want to see the world burn to the floor, to be able to have the indignant feeling; “I told you… I was right all along!”

For example, all these people, are during Covid and pre-Covid and post Covid whatever, thought that there was gonna be food riots and blah blah blah, none of it happened. Humans are 1 trillion times more resilient than we make them out to be.

This is where also, philosophically I don’t really believe in short selling; even if you could cop a massive profit.

For example there are certain things that I am certain which will go down to zero, like Ada Cardano and the like because it is fake. But rather than hoping that something is going to burn the floor, better to just bet on things that you think that will go to Mars!

For example, everyone hates Elon Musk, and they are secretly waiting and plotting for him to fail. Yet doesn’t it take more courage to wish and hope and desire to see people succeed?

Even I remember the Tesla model 3; everyone thought it would be impossible, but now, it is certainly the new Ford model T; the coolest, most desirable, most futuristic and affordable car on the road. I personally plan on driving my Toyota Prius until it dies at 1,000,000 miles, but if for one reason or another I was forced to purchase a brand new car, it would definitely be a Tesla, maybe the robotaxi?

Disruption

The reason why I encourage everyone to watch the Robo taxi, Robo van announcement is that it is the ultimate disruptor.

For example, the Robo van, the two door coupe, insanely awesome design, with the butterfly McLaren doors… I find like there is no more reason to ever even want to buy a loser Lamborghini, or McLaren or whatever. And I really really love that rose gold, MATTE Rose gold Color on the Robo taxi, and also the rims look awesome!

Why doesn’t the future look like the future?

Once again, assuming that you’re a futurist like myself, the trillion dollar questions “why doesn’t the future actually look like the future?“

For example, if you really do believe in the digital transformation of things, like you care about Apple Tesla Amazon Facebook digital media whatever… Why would you ever buy analog property like a single-family home or whatever? Wouldn’t you prefer to buy digital property which is bitcoin?

And also, issues with tax, property tax. Also assuming that you’re a libertarian, or some sort of anti-government person, bitcoin makes sense because it is like digital or cyber real estate that can’t be taxed!

And I think the truth is that real rich people, know how to do tax deferment, or to avoid taxes, this is a real reason they become and stay rich.

“My accountant so good I’m practically living tax-free!” – JAY Z

Never buy property in California (you will get murdered from property taxes)

For example, even if you live in the lowest tax jurisdiction place which is Florida, and nobody wants to live in Florida, still… Under a base case scenario you’re still playing at least 1.1% in taxes. And that means then, the life of your asset is only 70 years; within 70 years Assuming you buy a $1 million property, you’re gonna pay $1 million in taxes in 70 years.

Then, if you own a single-family home or whatever, or property the coal is actually trying to rent out your property at a premium, but two people who have never really had experience with property property management… It is a fucking nightmare and headache. Finding good tenants and keeping them; the holy Grail. Too much counterparty risk with properties; people who fuck up your property, end up not paying rent in squatting your place, people who start to grow marijuana inside your property, people who turn your property into a brothel (true story), or just physical wear and tear and decay. Anything in the physical realm in my opinion has too much risk.
And this is where still… In my eyes, Tesla is too much of a risk. Why? Having to build all those cyber trucks, Robo taxis, is just in my opinion, too much of a gargantuan physical task. Even if you automate the whole thing with robots, still, extracting lithium from the Earth, making the cars, delivering the cars, my personal estimate is you won’t see Robo taxis on the road for at least another five or seven years? To me that is too long.

Real world investing

I think the best investment is something that you have a 100% certainty will go up in 30 years, and you just ignore the volatility and the noise on a day-to-day level.

Can it keep going on up forever?

Yes especially if it is digital!

Think the classics

Also the funny thing is; bitcoin was the classic the first only immaculate conception; technically Ethereum from Vitalik was just a bitcoin copycat.

My very very basic suggestion is just download Coinbase to your phone, buy bitcoin from your traditional bank account, and once you’re done buying it, delete the Coinbase app from your phone, and never check prices. And what you doing instead it’s just go to michael.com, watch all the Michael sailor interviews, and read books on economic theory philosophy etc.

I personally believe that the best wisdom is in the past; read Aristotle on economics, Fernandinho Galiani on money Della moneta, the principles of economic theory from Karl Menger etc. you should be able to find free PDFs of all these online, just read it on your iPad.

***

Now what?

Download Coinbase to your phone, start buying those bitcoins
If you have a second car or some sort of asset that you’re not really doing anything with that you really don’t need, sell it, and use the proceeds to buy bitcoin
If you’re stuck in the traditional markets, Ira or Roth IRA, retirement whatever… Very very simple just buy micro strategy stock, MSTR– I think it’s going to 10 X from here. My price target for Michael strategy is $2000 a share. Currently trading at around low $200s.
Do an experiment that the next month, just cook all your food at home, buy meat at Costco whatever… Amazon prime or Amazon fresh food, anything that is cheap; quit alcohol and weed for a month, quit eating out and going out for a month, and just put 100% of that into bitcoin!

so should I buy bitcoin or micro strategy?

You buy the bitcoin, and you never sell it, just keep buying it until you die, and the idea is just give it to your kids kids kids.

And you’re a supreme happiness and joy is through weightlifting, one red maxing, and seeing the numbers go up!

My suggestion is never ever ever sell the bitcoin, for anything. If you need spare cash for living or whatever, better to borrow the money at 7% interest or lower, assuming that bitcoin is going to go up 21% year over a year, compounded rate forever.

I would say only by microstrategy MSTR if you just cannot get access to capital to buy bitcoin directly.

At the end of your life, he or she with the most bitcoin is going to be the winner. Or the corporate entity like micro strategy, who owns the most bitcoin.

The goal is a Nakamoto, which is the mythical 1 million bitcoins. The same amount of bitcoins in Satoshi‘s wallet, which he hasn’t touched. This is currently $60 billion!

What else?

honestly because I live like a poor person, for me, at this point investing is just a new passion, almost like a new hobby. Still for me my critical passion is photography, blogging and like.

So the simple thought; know that investing in money is a means to an end not the in itself.

ERIC

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Hardcore Living

Men should seek to dominate other men, not women!

The Philosophy of Investing

Ultimately when people study Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger etc ,,, what all these guys are searching for is wisdom.

I think difficult thing is that my circumstances were unique. I was born in the states, yet group poor; my definition of poor is not being sure whether you would be homeless next month because your dad just gambled away the rent money again, going off to Reno in the middle of the night.

I think on two fronts this was useful to me:

First, it taught me self independence at a very young age. I knew that if I wanted anything, I had to work for it. This motivated me to pick up lots of part-time jobs when I was like 1314 or 15, tutoring English, through my honors program at school, working at the local community center, getting a $200 a month stipend etc.

Obvious decisions are obvious

In terms of my decision-making philosophy, my unorthodox beliefs; obvious decisions are obvious.

What that means is before making any sort of decision life decision etc., you don’t need to think about it too much.

For example, buying microstrategy stock, MSTR, to me is a 100% obvious decision. For the traditional markets, it’s literally the only asset worth purchasing.

Why? Essentially they have discovered a free money hack or infinite money hack, which they could leverage their 30-year-old business, which is regulated, and mainstream… And leverage their physicians, borrowing money at less than one percent to buy bitcoin, which is accretive forever, and continuing the virtuous cycle.

I think the idea of a cyber Manhattan, cyber real estate company is fascinating to me. And the difference between bitcoin, Sible real estate and Cyberman Manhattan is that it is actually packed by real electricity and power. For example, problems with all these fake virtual worlds is that it is just powered by a computer code, one and zeros, Any nerd can click a button and create a skyscraper in Sim city.

The Bridge between the physical, embodied reality, physical world and realm, to the digital cyber realm… Which is still backed with physical electricity?

it’s a bug, not a feature!

Or it’s a feature, not a bug?

I think what a lot of these goody two shoers don’t get or understand is about real life physics in the game, skin in the game, energy in the game. Everyone wants some sort of hidden upside without any real life downside?

I’ll give you example, everyone wants to read the world of suffering pain injustice and the like. However, a life without suffering Paine injustice and overcoming is not a life worth living.

You cannot have happiness without pain and suffering, nor can you have joy with without sorrow and misery. If we think about this from a Taoist perspective, I think about Jin and Yang, you cannot have the good without the bad. You cannot have the virtuous without the evil.

For example, obviously being in poor health sucks, and bad weather also sucks. But, when things get much better, you are 1000 times more joyful grateful and happy when things shift!

This is why funny enough, I think people on the East Coast, New England, Providence Rhode Island are happier than people in LA because the weather shifts are more extreme.

For example, when you’re suffering in the winter time for months on then, no sunshine whatever, and then boom, one day the sun comes out, everyone is overjoyed! It is still 55° and cold, but at least it is sunny; everyone runs out and gets their picnic blankets, And the joy of the sunlight is 1000 times more extreme than in Los Angeles where everyone is trying to hide from the sun, even though they love it?

In search of yield

But, my personal thought is life should not be conservative; the point of life isn’t to just conserve your wealth, but rather, to grow it!

Even the story of Jesus, you don’t just take your wealth and hide it and bury your talents, your gold talents in the ground because you’re afraid of losing it. No, the virtual thing is to go out and multiply it!

And I also think the same thing is with wealth; the virtual calling is to multiply it to grow it, not to just bury it, with the fear that it might go down.

How to gain more emotional armor for investing

OK, a lot of these fools, they want quick gains in order to go out and buy the Lamborghini or whatever. But once you find out that only small Dick Losers drive Lamborghinis, and also, that the useful lifetime value of a Lamborghini might only be three or four years, that is the point in which the maintenance costs and the insurance costs and fixing it up will destroy the price of it in just three or four years, then it becomes obvious; you wish the Lamborghini onto your worst enemy, you don’t desire one for yourself.

Einstein’s rule of money

So essentially, I’ve literally I think watch every single Michael sailor interview that he’s ever done everything that he posted to Twitter or YouTube etc. Maybe about 100 of them.

Now I think this is something that people don’t really think about — the maintenance cost.

Also simple things that we millennials never think about… You need a new roof and boom, that’s $50,000. That’s $50,000 I would rather put into bitcoin.

“But it isn’t real!”

Bitcoin is not real, but, if it costs $800 billion to produce, it’s real!

Let’s again, things must have a stake in the physical realm, if it doesn’t, it is just air coin, or the foundation is just built on cotton candy.

I think we have to avoid from these fake environmentalist, a bunch of vegan losers. Essentially, if I psychoanalyze a lot of these fake environmentalists; essentially everyone is seeking a new religion, a new godhead which is the “environment“, but ultimately my critical thought is that once again it just comes down to money;

For example, Al Gore, I wonder… How much money has he collected from doing his talks on an inconvenient truth, ultimately being funded by taxpayer money?

And also, James Cameron, and also Arnold, how much money they have collected from the vegan pea protein powder plant factory, just follow the money.

The truth is environmentalism is very profitable. For example a lot of these clothing companies, I think also like the new one “reformation“, a female clothing, they talk about sustainability and blah blah blah, but once again, is it just another marketing tactic to sell more Mediocre clothes.

Because if you critically think about it, things which last, are better for the “environment”.

I love risk

Once again I think the biggest issue is in today’s world, nobody likes risk anymore. Risk is seen as something which is dangerous bad and to be avoided.

Real investors and economists must and should drive a Prius

Real economics

OK, whenever I discover anybody who’s a professor, who teaches in a business school, is an economist, academic or scholar or whatever… Yet just puts all of their money in a boring mutual fund… Or index month… It is a signal that they are not a real economist, and they are actually not really connected to reality.

The biggest we hear is that you need some sort of risk exposure to the real world. For example, easy to be the typical fat American who is drinking beer or wine watching sports and American football, giving their opinion on sports teams and players yet they are not actually exposed to the risk of playing real tackle football?

So why is it that alcohol food beverages is marketed to these individuals, for watching a sport?

It is the new risk free premium hedonism; the joy of seeing people get murdered on a field, or in our arena without any real exposure.

I think it is actually racism; you never expect an Asian guy to play linebacker because we are not seen as masculine or aggressive enough. But if I were African-American or black, even though I am on the side you probably would not be shocked, because in America Athletes are always seen as being African-American, never Asian. Even an Asian professional sports athlete is almost seen as a glitch in the system, not the real deal.

so what should we do about things

So I think the first thing you have to think philosophically is what are you really searching for, and why?

My very simple thought is think 300 years ahead, your kids kids kids.

I think the issue we are facing today in today’s world is hedonism the new hedonism. We seek companionship through humans or dogs, yet we don’t want to have children, we want to preserve our freedom travel the world go to Japan eat good sushi whatever.

But, your dog cannot inherit your bitcoin.

Think about all the modern day melodies of depression anxiety whatever, they are all modern day sociological ills.

In fact, the ancient Greeks, thinking about the Iliad; certainly things are natural like courage, cowardice, and fear… But depression anxiety was not.

My sociological theory on why so many people are so depressed and anxious is because of YouTube, Spotify, podcast, TikTok Facebook Instagram, Twitter, news, fear porn.

The joy of growth or death & destruction?

this is where also, philosophical I don’t really believe in short selling; even if you could cop a massive profit.

For example, everyone hates Elon Musk, and they are secretly waiting and plotting for him to fail. Yet doesn’t it take more courage to wish and hope and desire to see people succeed?

Disruption

The reason why I encourage everyone to watch the Robo taxi, Robo van announcement is that it is the ultimate disruptor.

For example, the Robo van, the two door coupe, insanely awesome design, with the butterfly McLaren doors… I find like there is no more reason to ever even want to buy a loser Lamborghini, or McLaren or whatever. And I really really love that rose gold, Matt Rose gold Color on the Robo taxi, and also the rims look awesome!

Why doesn’t the future look like the future?

Once again, assuming that you’re a futurist like myself, the trillion dollar questions “why doesn’t the future actually look like the future? “

And also, issues with tax, property tax. Also assuming that you’re a libertarian, or some sort of anti-government person, bitcoin makes sense because it is like digital or cyber real estate that can’t be taxed!

PHOTO KAPITAL.

Something I’ve been meaning to write about and think about; capital, photo capital.

So the first question is, what is photo, why does it matter?

My first general thesis is that photography, digital photography, might be one of the most underrated innovations of all time. Let us consider how many domains it crosses, and why it is such a big deal:

First, the digital transformation of photography, from film photography to digital. I think most thinkers and individuals have not yet grafted how and why this is such a big deal;

For millennials like myself, or people who are born a little bit before or after me, I’m 36 and born in 1988, there certainly is an alert and romanticism of the past. Everyone reminisces about the “good old days”, in which “life was simpler” etc.

however, a simple intervention: what if, the number one complication in our lives is not digital technology, not the Internet etc.… But something a little bit more unsuspecting; AirPods, AirPods pros, noise canceling headphones? I would actually make the arguments that noise canceling headphones might be the true menace to society, not iPhones, iPads, or screens.

People talk a lot about screen time, no. She is not screen time, the issue is maybe audio related?

For example, I don’t own a pair of AirPods, I don’t even own a pair of headphones anymore. Cindy has a pair of AirPods pros that my best man Justin got us, and this morning just listening to Michael sailor interview, with just one earbud, with the noise canceling AirPods pros, simply to listen to the interview without waking up my mom. Yet, the bizarre feeling; when I listen to the interview, it kind of put me in a weird alternate universe, in which I truly felt disconnected from the world and reality. It actually made me feel a little bit weird.

Disconnecting their AirPods, out of my ears, actually… I have another theory; isn’t your ears, earlobes, sound, kind of related to your spatial sense surroundings of the environment?

My simple idea; if you want to become a better photographer, a more attuned person, just throw your AirPods in the trash.

Visual?

So Aristotle I think one said that our vision is actually more important than anything else that our first great delight on the planet is visual. Even though I’m a guitar for and visual artist, I would actually make the other case that actually… Your ears, and your hearing, Might be 1000 times more important.

For example, let us consider how human beings learn, how they learn languages, speech patterns and communication, and how natural it is for children. To teach the child the alphabet how to read text, is actually very unnatural, a huge technological feat and innovation. However, for a child to learn how to speak a foreign language, simply by hearing the words intonations, the sing song rhythm, is 1000% natural.

for example, music, music tour ears. Even a one year-old child, who could barely stand, can listen to music rhythms and beats, and start dancing. Even send when he was about a year old, he already learned how to make beats on GarageBand both on the iPhone and iPad! He actually knew and learned how to sample and make beats, far before he was even able to speak!

So my first theory ; music, voice, audio; might be more important than the visual?

Then what?

Advancing this argument; if in fact, audio is more important than visual, then what are we to do as visual artist, photographers?

First, let us return to first principles, first principles thinking. My general idea is that photography and visual things are kind of unnatural. And this is where we make our art.

I think there’s this one saying, maybe Aristotle, what nature fails to complete, man and art completes.

Art should best be stood as a novel invention and innovation technique and tool. For example, art and art making is unnatural. But then again a lot of things are unnatural, but certainly make life 1 trillion times better. For example, can you imagine living without electricity? Even one of my most new favorite inventionsand and innovations; the insane joy of having an in unit washer and dryer? in fact, all the washers and dryers on the planet can probably contribute 100,000 times more to the carbon footprint than all the bitcoin miners on the planet combined and maybe even multiplied by 10. Yet, ain’t nobody rolling to get rid of washers and dryers.

And also something that people don’t understand, I learned this from my architect friend ERIC, is that almost all buildings, made out of concrete and the such, these are all carbon products. It is almost impossible to build a modern day building without carbon derived materials. So unless you like living in a hut, munching on acorns, without running water Wi-Fi or electricity, maybe this faker signaling about reducing carbon emissions might be a wise idea.

The insanely phenomenal innovation of digital photography

OK let us do some simple math. Let us say conservatively, currently a roll of film is about 10 bucks, for Kodak PORTRA 400. Then assuming that you want someone else to process it and scan it for you, let us say that even on the cheap end, it is $10 or $15 for developed plus scan. This is then around $20-$25, for 36 exposures, or assuming you have that new Pentax half frame camera, you can squeeze out 72 exposures for about 20 bucks or 25 bucks.

No you can see how this can easily get expensive. Even if you shoot four rolls of film, that’s around 100 bucks. That is insanely expensive.

And it adds up. Shooting film guitar for you, now that I am becoming wiser, a more keen economist, is the ultimate depreciating asset, and the easiest way to burn through all your money and capital.

It is kind of like purchasing a high performance car or vehicle that runs on premium gasoline; this might be the stupidest decision of all time. Why? Assuming you have a luxury Lexus SUV, you can easily blow $500 a week on gas, which is maybe $2000 a month on gas! Assuming that you put that money into bitcoin, and bitcoin goes from a $1.3 trillion industry to $130 trillion industry, you have at least 10 X gains ahead of you. So your $2000 — $200,000 or $200k a month! That’s $2.4M a year!

Becoming a profitable photographer

Everyone is in chase of profits. If you do not chase profits, you are a fool.

What is the easiest way to get profits? Simple; keep your expenses insanely insanely low, this is the key.

The number one rule in money finance and investing; simple, just don’t lose money!

How does one lose money? There’s 1 trillion ways to lose money;

First, equipment, gear, or never investments. They are the worst thing that causes you to bleed through your money.

If you want a really really great camera that will last you a very very long time, my current suggestion is get the Lumix S9 full frame camera, my personal thought is this body should be able to last you 5 to 10 years, and just get the 26 mm F8 pancake lens which only cost 200 bucks. The body is around 1500, the lens is about 200 bucks, so the whole set up ($1700) should be able to set you up for a long time.

Or, just buy the cheapest smallest most affordable Fujifilm X camera, also just get a interchangeable lens system. There’s a new XM-5 body, I think it’s only about 800 bucks. And just get the cheapest pancake lens, which should be a little bit less than $1000.

If you’re a hobby photographer, on a budget, just get a used Ricoh GR digital camera, whatever generation suits your budget. I have already proven in 2017 that you could take insanely great photos on a Rico GR two camera, which was only $600 at the time. And all the new Ricoh GR 3X cameras and beyond, are also insanely good. All around $999 and below.

What’s your telos?

Ultimately, with enough time meditation reflection and consideration, it all comes down to philosophy. The philosophy of photography, a concept that I pioneered maybe seven years ago.

Why does this matter? Ultimately you have to think about the purpose or end goal of things. For example I was looking at this new meta-quest augmented reality glasses that Facebook just put out, and I just watched it, scratching my head, looking at all this impressive technology advancements, and it just made no sense to me. Somewhat along the line, should have come in with a critical thought, and thought;

Is this something that people need and or want?

Kind of a bad thing is that nobody wants it, and also nobody needs it. Apple Vision Pro is an utter disaster, Steve Jobs would have never ever ever allowed to even go into development. Because Steve Jobs was a master mind and understanding the human psyche, human economics and proportions. Never forget the legend of the original iPhone three; pioneer the iPhone three and the iPhone four and 4S to be used only with one hand, with your thumb being able to reach all sides of the screen without stretching. And then, after his tragic passing, all these greedy apple executives, trying to increase shareholder value, kept making the iPhone bigger and bigger, heavier fatter uglier, compromising design for the sake of “power“, inadvertently causing millions of people on the planet to get extreme carpal tunnel pain in their hands, and also, falling victim to this terrible cycle of constantly upgrading their iPhones, until no end.

In fact, I find Apple to be the new loanshark, the new evil presence, the new bank which preys on poor people.

For example, there’s all these plans now in which you could keep upgrading your iPhone, at a 0% premium, forever. This is terrible; Apple stimulate some sort of fake desire for a fake thing; which doesn’t have any true utility. Everyone knows this, even Apple employees know this. The whole place is a mess.

Even now, just go to any Apple Store, feel the vibes. What was once energetic, happy optimistic and friendly has gone dark, Muros, Molly, unfriendly and cold, terrible to go to.

Back in the day I used to be excited to go to the Apple store like a kid going to a candy shop. Now, I avoid the Apple Store like the plague; even the last time I went to the Apple store, simply to just buy a new iPhone Pro to test it out, I literally had to wait in line for about 30 minutes, Before anyone even attended to me, before I could even purchase my device?

And once again, the biggest benefit to go into a store in real life is you could sense the emotional energy of people. Everyone looked miserable, disgruntled, unhappy.

Choose hope

I think the reason why I am so enthusiastic about bitcoin, Michael sailor, micro strategy and like is that it is full of optimism, hope and happiness. Everyone is happy in the bitcoin community, smiling, optimistic joyful, happy, and everyone is part of the same emotional roller coaster.

And the whole bitcoin network is virtuous because if micro strategy turns into $1 trillion company, the first bitcoin bank or the first bitcoin finances corporation, everyone wins! The price of bitcoin goes to 13 million a bitcoin, everyone wins. The hedge fund managers, the 80-year-old retired person with bitcoin spot ETFs, The individual bitcoin holders, people with the Coinbase account, even the crypto anarchists.

You know the sign of a good investment when both anarchists and traditional corporate capitalist can thrive together.

I actually had a thought, back when I bought bitcoin for only about six or $7000 of bitcoin… A bitcoin could actually benefit photographers and street photographers, in terms of accepting payments in bitcoin, charging services in bitcoin, we’re also figuring out how to use bitcoin, NFT’s and wrapping it, maybe creating some sort of new economy for photography and art?

I also have this big idea, creating the first Satoshi and bitcoin back photo platform. ARS, arsbeta.com was my first stab at it; but the issue at the time was there was no real financial instrument backing it. Now that lightning has been invented on the bitcoin at work, the ideas of micro transactions with the Toshi’s becomes a real reality; assuming that a single Satoshi is real money, but super super small, like a fraction of a penny; things become very interesting because there is a true financial stake here; real skin in the game.

For example, if every single time I liked your photo, but it cost me a single Satoshi, you would probably think twice about it. And if to follow somebody, cost you a Satoshi or gave us Satoshi to the photographer, or creator… This would be a big idea.

And also, the idea of a photo critique community, shout out to my friend Jun Goodhouse Kim, if commissioning somebody for a real photo critique would accept payments institutions, then, a real new economy could arise.

Currently the number one critical issue with Instagram is that it cost nothing, and the whole platform is being run by bots.

TikTok has become an interesting disruption; back to by mainly in China, and spyware, essentially China has been able to disrupt the social media industry of Instagram, essentially taking everything that America did well with vine, Twitter Instagram and Facebook and YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram stories and making it far better. Making it more entertaining addictive, more toxic?

Actually the number one reason I encourage everybody to delete TikTok, is that it might be the most toxic poisonous substance of them all; because they are a century backed by a low-key evil mainland Chinese corporation, there is zero incentive for the company, Bytedance to moderate or to delete dangerous videos concepts and ideas; the amount of conspiracy theories and weird stuff on TikTok is alarming, even to me. And also, I’m a little bit concerned about all of the unregulated things which are happening on TikTok, at least YouTube Google Facebook Amazon and the like try to do some level of content moderation, with TikTok there is none.

Assuming that Donald Trump gets elected president or whatever, the first thing he should do is probably ban TikTok. I almost find this to be a moral imperative; there is a terrible asymmetry here;

Why is it that America allows a Chinese corporation like TikTok to operate in America, but mainland China does not allow any tech company to operate on her shores?

Other stuff which are very scary; all of these video games like RIOT games and like, which once again are all run by mainland Chinese corporations, is essentially China’s plan to indoctrinate the heart the souls and the minds of the youth. The best way to spread bad propaganda is through soft propaganda; soft coercion, through entertainment media and the like. Even a very very weird thing, watch Pacific Rim to the movie; I think they had some financing from a Shanghai backed venture capitalist fund or something; that paints China mainland China in a very favorable light? I recall watching this on an airplane and finding this to be an extremely bizarre thing.

Even apparently, the new Disney Mulan film the live action one, the main actress commended and praised the Hong Kong police for cracking down on the pro democracy student protesters?

And also, let us consider the biggest coward and pussy of them all, John Cena who had to publicly “apologize“, for calling either Taiwan or Tibet a country?

The same goes with any sort of NBA player, because there are so many people in mainland China who love basketball, even this one mainland China governmental official, who I met in Cambodia, super friendly and 100% fluent in English, told me that he named his first son Jordan, after Michael Jordan.

And this is what a lot of people who don’t understand we have never traveled to; the Chinese is the mainland Chinese, the everyday person loves America, American culture, and would honestly prefer to be here than in mainland China. But capital controls, the oppressive government prevents that. And this is once again, why any rich and smart mainland Chinese person will send their kid to an Ivy League school in the states, And or prefer to buy property or homes in Vancouver, because living in China sucks. You don’t want to be a billionaire in Shanghai or Beijing; the pollution itself will kill you.

Back to photography

Life without photography is not a life worth living. Or, a life without photography would be a mistake.

I think for myself, the biggest draw and appeal of photography is that it is the great antidote to things; the great antidote to joy, driving, happiness and the like.

For example, I still do believe that traveling is good for the soul; better to spend $100,000 on traveling to planet, rather than buying a loser Tesla car. Or even a single-family home, I’m starting to think more and more, buying homes in America’s a scam. Better to just buy bitcoin instead, and see your money 100X from here.

If I could tell you that buying $1 million a bitcoin today, which is about 16 or 17 bitcoin, would grow to be 100 million in 21 years, and I could tell you this with 100% certain to you, would you do it? Of course! Only an idiot wouldn’t.

But I think the problem is in America, even for us millennials, now that we’re getting older, having kids etc.… Is that having physical property like a single-family home is the Apex of humanly worldly success in America. But this is a 20th century idea, The baby boomers and before then. Or Gen X. A 21st-century idea, in the year 2024 and beyond, is the digital transformation of property, or digital energy which is bitcoin.

Hope

No no no, the world is not going to explode, there will be no World War III, Bill Gates is not trying to inject 5G into your butthole, and control your soul. And no no no, mainland China is not a threat; I think China only has one military base somewhere in Africa, in America has maybe 1000? The power of the US Navy is maybe 10,000 X to that of mainland China, I think the whole red herring of China as a threat is just a distraction, maybe by the US government to encourage increased spending for military budgets. But we all know that nobody can mess with America, even if they wanted to.

Even Russia, the lame duck with loser Putin running the show, obviously Russia is losing. Putin, with his Shorty guy Napoleon complex, thought he could take over Ukraine, and obviously he cannot. And I think sooner or later the people will overthrow him, exile him, or who knows maybe even hang him? Like Marie Antoinette?

Now what?

Once again, photography might be the most democratizing force. For example, like a Camera is very profitable in mainland China, this is why like a Brazil was forced to take down the Tiananmen Square commercial. But the truth is difficult to hide; once you’re rich mainland Chinese kid oligarch from a billionaire family goes to Harvard Yale Stanford UCLA UC Berkeley, and get access to Google or ChatGPT and Gmail; obviously they’re going to discover the truth, and prefer to be in America than China. The only rich mainland Chinese kids who go back to China because they are strong armed by their rich families to come back to inherit the family business, obviously against their own will.

How to Get Rich

I think I might be the richest millennial I know, or at least anybody who is born in 1988, besides Mark Zuckerberg.

How and why?

First, I think I am the only millennial I know with literally zero debt. Like zero mortgage, which is debt, zero car payments, zero college loans etc. Actually if I think about this in retrospect, growing up poor might have been the most beneficial things: seeing the evils of gambling via my dad, and crushing debt bankruptcy through my mom… Was probably the best indicator or learner that I had in terms of real life experience, in terms of how terrible the evils of debt is.

And also, even going to college… Essentially being able to go for “free”, because my family was poor, I got all these scholarships and grants, and work-study loans, which essentially means that I still have to work, but at least, I had to take on zero debt to pay for my dorm apartment etc.

Voluntary loans

The Only money I borrowed was about $10,000, more for fun; I used that money to backpack through Europe, travel the world in between my junior and senior year etc. But that was optional.

And also, I think the really really big thing; never spending more than $2500 USD on a car? I think that was the sticker price for the last car I purchased which was a 1990 Miata, when I was 21 years old, it might’ve been $3000 USD, getting it used on craigslist, ironically enough because the man selling it had a child on the way, and sold it because it was no longer useful to him having to raise a kid. Funny that I am in similar shoes now, now that Seneca is 3 1/2 years old.

Mindset

I think the number one critical thing is to just change your mindset. One thing which I have learned after the almost 15 years of being self-employed, ever since I was 21 until 36… Is truth be told, nothing in the world is really worth it. No amount of money eating out at a restaurant is ever worth it; purchasing beef ribs at Costco and baking it at home is at least a 100X superior yield than any restaurant, or even all all you can eat Korean barbecue; currently, my favorite spot is Chubby Cattle, but even though they issue there is they have a 90 minute time limit, I think my current record is about 70 plates of beef tongue. I just went to the recent little Tokyo branch which just opened, and the servers, their jaws dropped; asking me whether I was a bodybuilder, given how much I ate, even on the last call I asked for 20 plates of beef tongue, they were skeptical, but I finished it all quite easily.

Spartan is sexy.

True insights ,,, take real risks:

Y’all niggas still taking advances huh? Me and my niggas were taking real chances huh! – Jay Z

The ultimate mindset I suggest is going spartan. Just watch the movie 300, think about King Leonidas. Would King Leonidas blow his money on a Tesla, cybertruck, Lamborghini or Porsche? No! He would know that these things were just for the Persian slaves, those giving fellatio to King Xerxes.

Do you want to be one of the 300 Spartan elite, or do you be one of the million Persian slaves?

There is a motto in the US military, freedom is not free. I would refine this saying; freedom is expensive, very expensive.

The price is sacrifice

True freedom is what you decide to give up, forgo, or sacrifice. This is embodied via the fact that you never eat out, you don’t drink alcohol, you don’t smoke weed or do drugs, you don’t go on trips to Vegas, you don’t watch pornography, you don’t watch any media, you don’t listen to music, podcasts, etc. You don’t watch YouTube, Instagram or TikTok.

People think that being rich means to have millions of dollars, and I want to just spend it all buying stuff. But there is a difference between having $1 million in the bank, and going out and buying a $1 million Bugatti.

Even Kanye West had a funny quote about being a multi billionaire; you don’t want to be a billionaire because if you are worth $1 billion, you go out and you buy a McDonald’s hamburger for a dollar, and now you’re only a $999,999,999-aire.

Investing

You want real real exposure to risk and reward.

For me, certainly there is a great surge of power joy when you see your investments yield. To see the number go up is good and to see it keep going on is a good thing.

For example, very surprising, people are starting to know that I am an investor, or a trader because I walk around super happy, huge grin on my face, like Arnold in his prime. A boyish grin. And smiles all around!

I think people can smell and sense high testosterone, high power and energy. Even though I dress like a homeless person, half of the time I’m not even wearing a shirt, but people they know.

So essentially the first rule on investing is simple: don’t lose money. Never put your money into anything that you think will cause you to lose money.

So for example, a lot of people think that bitcoin is super risky, but actually it is not. It is just very volatile. And funny enough, it’s a feature not a bug!

Higher volatility = higher returns

The volatility of bitcoin is a feature not a bug!

To quote Michael Saylor, volatility is vitality. The more volatile something is, the more energy they have. To quote the recent Bernstein interview that Michael Saylor had, the reason why LeBron James is the most potent force on the court is because he is the most volatile. Also, volatility is good when it comes to Tsunami because it has massive power. Look at the slides here.

Why are the traditional markets closed in the evening and the weekends?

And also, an insight I gleaned is the reason why bitcoin’s price goes up and down all the time, is that it is being traded 24 7, all the time in real time. Maybe the reason we see less volatility in the traditional markets is because they close! But imagine there was a Cuban missile crisis, Friday night, can you imagine the insanity; you’re not able to withdraw your money or sell your stocks until Monday morning?

“Why doesn’t the future look like the future?” – Elon

Currently we are in the year 2024… We are supposed to be so into the future. It still boggles my mind why in the year 2024, the markets close and open? I did some ChatGPT research on this, why this is, and there are some weird notions of work life balance, or maybe because back in day when stocks were actually traded on the physical floor, like the wolf of Wall Street, it is because they literally traded stocks like pieces of paper, and it was in the physical realm?

But now, because it is all digital… And half of the agents trading online are just bots and robots, there’s literally zero sense for anybody to trade anything that is not online.

Well let me give you a better example, we have all these hipsters telling us that film vinyl and analog things are better. But do they use an iPhone which is powered by gasoline? Or film cartridges?

Can you imagine living without the internet?

What’s more important, water or Wi-Fi?

Certainly water is more valuable, but I think the way that people treated nowadays is that Wi-Fi, having internet connectivity 5G is more critical.

I would actually say even with food; you could fast somebody for 40 hours, and even if they have water they will not die. But, if you try doing that with internet, I think the downsides would be much greater.

Easier to fast 40 days without food than to fast 40 days without Wi-Fi.

How I became a trader

My first taste for investing was when I was around 15 years old, it was totally random, learning about stocks, mutual funds, etc. I remember buying about $900 worth of Adobe stock, in writing it up to around $1250, and then later buying some mutual funds. And holding it all in college, maybe it went up to around $1500 or something.

In fact, Dr. Ahmed my science teacher in high school first told me about aggressive mutual funds, and how I should become an emancipated minor and get into trading etc.

Financial freedom at the age of 16?

For me, I think the reason I first got into it was I wanted to feel superior, advanced, ahead of the curve. When most of the kids at school were still begging their parents for a PlayStation, I felt so advanced mature and superior,,, already knowing how to invest in the stock market.

In college, when I was hungry for my own financial freedom, I remember daytrading as a sophomore in college, waking up super fucking early to trade the markets, and note, this is me at around 19 years old. And feeling the hormonal rushes when my money would go up or down. And not being able to concentrate in class because I’m just thinking about the green or reds.

The best lesson of all time

Long story short, I ended up losing all of my money I think my senior year, maybe $3500 worth, because I accidentally misread some of the financials for this one oil company I was invested in (penny stock). I recall, I regretted this so much, and felt so saddened by this at the age of 21, thinking that I would never be able to recover. But now that I am playing with millions of dollars in investing and trading, I learned that it might’ve been the best thing that happened to me, with about 15 years of foresight. Why? I already got rid of the emotional roller coaster as a young child, and as a teenager, and a 21 year-old, which means now, as a 36-year-old man, I am far more calm collected stoic, and unemotional about it.

The stoic investor

My suggestion: don’t get too excited when your gains go up. Otherwise, you will become addicted to the gains. And you might lever up and take foolish financial risks, to see even greater gains.

Good greed, bad greed?

I personally believe there is a difference between good greed and bad greed.

What’s the difference?

Good greed is you’re trying to think 30 years ahead, ahead of the curve, see where the puck is going, not where it currently is. Chasing at least a 10X yield. Or even 100x, or 1000x. But over 30 years.

A foolish greedy person is into professional sports, sports betting, counting cards, playing poker and blackjack, and trying to “time” the market. And make gains in days, weeks, even months.

Michael Saylor and microstrategy has purchased bitcoin 40 times now, every quarter for the last 4 years.

30 years is the reason

If you think 30 years ahead, this cuts through the noise. This is the ultimate razor. ERIC KIM’s razor.

Certainly nobody likes to think 30 years ahead because they want immediate hedonic pleasure right now, through sexual and mental pleasure, physical pleasure, travel and exotic experiences, Omakase sushi, and the pleasure associated with driving a fast high-powered car.

But think about it, even if you have a Porsche 911 GT3 RS, or a Lamborghini with scissor doors, even a Tesla model S plaid, you have no skills. Any skinny fat loser can simply wedge his right foot all the way to the floor, and obviously it will be loud and go fast. This takes no courage besides the foolish fact that you might kill yourself or you might kill somebody else in their car with their kids on board.

Buy weights & bitcoin

My thought is the only true courage is physical courage, weightlifting, powerlifting, one rep Max lifting. The risk of physical injury is high, which motivates you to warm up, be cautious, and set up safeguards. I think one thing that people don’t understand is that weightlifting could actually be the safest activity out there because you could control all of the variables. For example if you’re tired and not in a good mood, the wise thing to do not is not do it. Compare this to professional sports, even when the players are exhausted, they are whipped like cattle to perform, apparently there are stories that back in the day in the NFL, it would be common for lineman to sniff lines of cocaine, before applying to hype themselves up.

One day of victory is not worth a year of pain

For example, one foolish decision that I made doing an extremely heavy floor bench press, six plates, caused me to injure my wrist which has plagued me for a year and a half, the wise thing to have done was just to take the day off, one day of success is not worth a year and a half of misery. The only reason I did it was because it was my “off day”, and I wanted to stunt on other guys at the gym, very foolish.

Whenever you try to impress yourself, you shall succeed. Whenever you try to impress others you will fail.

I also think this is the wisdom of thinking long-term; nobody wants to be a Ronnie Coleman and be a cripple for the rest of his life, even if you win all the accolades.

What I learned from the book “Pumping Iron”

I think this is also where Arnold Schwarzenegger was very wise; he was on the juice and all of his buddies were, but he had the wisdom of getting out of the bodybuilding game in order to do more interesting ventures, like acting business etc. Because he knew that maybe, all of the bodybuilders taking steroids were doing irreversible harm on themselves.

People sometimes talk about the golden days of bodybuilding… But all these guys were on steroids! Now, it is kind of disgusting, the average female women’s Olympia might have been even buffer than Arnold in his prime.

Who is richer?

Talking to some homeboys from the Toyota dealership, when I ask them what is the difference between me and you? One of the guys said, genuinely, “You are free.” Possibly the best compliment of all time.

Even now, people do this big dick measuring contest, like who is richer. But, this is the wrong measurement.

Let us say you are a straight man, and you sell your soul in your butt hole for gay pornography, and you get paid $1 billion a year. Would you do it? Obviously not!

Certainly there is something sacred and profane here; there are certain things that one does not even for trillion dollars.

For example, if you could give me $900 trillion, but I had to sell my firstborn son into slavery would I do it? Obviously not. Not even if you took that $900 trillion and multiplied it by $1 trillion.

NASSIM TALEB Has this funny quote, to the person who says that they cannot be bribed, you’re just not offering enough money.

And I suppose this is the ultimate test, whether your ethics morality and your personal beliefs matter more than money. Or even the approval of your spouse, etc.

And I think the negative risk, the sacrifice, or the potential for downside is what truly dictates your real beliefs. And what you are willing to forgo.

How to get rich with bitcoin

Very simple, just opened up account with the Coinbase app on your iPhone or whatever, link it with your traditional bank, and just keep buying bitcoin, until the end of time. And the goal is to give it to your kids kids kids.

Become insanely Spartan and frugal, sell your second car, maybe remortgage or refinance your house to get more cash on hand, buy the bitcoin, and ride the 55% ARR until the end of time!

ERIC

How to get rich

I think I might be the richest millennial I know, or at least anybody who is born in 1988, besides Mark Zuckerberg.

How and why?

And also, even going to college… Essentially being able to go for “free”, because my family was poor, I got all these scholarships in grants, and work-study loans, which essentially means that I still have to work, but at least, I had to take on zero debt to pay for my dorm apartment etc.

Only money I borrowed was about $10,000, more for fun; I use that money to backpack through Europe, travel the world in between my junior and senior year etc. But that was optional.

Mindset

I think the number one critical thing is to just change your mindset. I sent you what I have learned after the almost 15 years of being self-employed, ever since I was 21 until 36… Is truth be told, nothing in the world is really worth it. No amount of money eating out at a restaurant is ever worth it; purchasing beef ribs at Costco and baking it at home is at least a 100 X superior yield than any restaurant, or even all all you can eat Korean barbecue; currently, my favorite spot is chubby cattle, but even though they issue there is they have a 90 minute time limit, I think my current record is about 70 plates of beef tongue. I just went to the recent little Tokyo branch which just opened, and the servers, their jaws dropped; asking me whether I was a bodybuilder, given how much I ate, even on the last call I asked for 20 plates of beef tongue, they were skeptical, but I finished it all quite easily.

Spartan is sexy.

True insights ,,, take real risks

Y’all niggas still taking advances huh? Me and my niggas were taking real chances huh! – Jay Z

Ultimate mindset I suggest is ghost spartan. Just watching a movie 300, think about King Leonidas. Would King Leonidas blow his money on a Tesla cyber truck, Lamborghini or Porsche? No! He would know that these things were just for the Persian slaves, those giving fellatio to King Xerxes.

Do you want to be one of the 300 Spartan elite, or do you be one of the million Persian slaves?

There is a motto in the US military, freedom is not free. I would actually say the opposite; freedom is expensive, very expensive.

True freedom is what you decide to give up, forgo, or sacrifice. This is embodied via the fact that you never eat out, you don’t drink alcohol, you don’t smoke weed or do drugs, you don’t go on trips to Vegas, you don’t watch pornography, you don’t watch any media, You don’t listen to music, podcast, etc. You don’t watch YouTube, Instagram or TikTok.

People think that being rich means I have millions of dollars, and I want to just spend it all buying stuff. But there is a difference between having $1 million in the bank, and going out and buying a $1 million Bugatti.

Investing

You want real real exposure to risk and reward.

For me, certainly there is a great surge of power joy when you see your investments yield. To see the number go up is good and to see it keep going on is a good thing.

For example, very surprising, people are starting to know that I am an investor, or a traitor because I walk around super happy, huge grin on my face, like Arnold in his prime. A boyish grin. And smiles all around!

I think people could smell and sense high testosterone, high power and energy. Even though I dress like a homeless person, half of the time I’m not even wearing a shirt, but people they know.

So essentially the first rule on investing is simple: don’t lose money. Never put your money into anything that you think will cause you to lose money.

So for example, a lot of people think that bitcoin is super risky, but actually it is not. It is just very volatile. And funny enough, it’s a feature not a bug!

The volatility of bitcoin is a feature not a bug!

To quote Michael sailor, volatility is vitality. The more volatile something is, the more energy they have. To quote the recent Bernstein interview that Michael Saylor had, the reason why LeBron James is the most potent force on the court is because he is the most volatile. Also, volatility is good when it comes to Tsunami because it has massive power.

And also, an insight I gleaned is the reason why bitcoin’s price goes up and down all the time, is that it is being traded 24 seven, all the time in real time. Maybe the reason we see less volatility in the traditional markets is because they close! But imagine there was a Cuban missile crisis, Friday night, can you imagine the insanity; you’re not able to withdraw your money or sell your stocks until Monday morning?

And currently we are in the year 2024… We are supposed to be so into the future. It still boggles my mind why in the year 2024, the markets close and open? I also did some ChatGPT research on this, why this is, and there are some weird notions of work life balance, or maybe because back in day when stocks were actually traded on the physical floor, Like the wolf of Wall Street, it is because they literally traded stocks like pieces of paper, and it was in the physical realm?

But now, because it is all digital… And half of the agents trading online are just thoughts and robots, there’s literally zero sense for anybody to trade anything that is not online.

Well let me give you a better example, we have all these hipsters telling us that film vinyl in analog things are better. But do they use an iPhone which is powered by gasoline? Or film cartridges?

Can you imagine living without the Internet?

What’s more important, water or Wi-Fi?

Certainly water is more valuable, but I think the way that people treated nowadays is that Wi-Fi, having Internet connectivity 5G is more critical.

I would actually say even with food; you could fast somebody for 40 hours, and even if they have water they will not die. But, if you try doing that with Internet, I think the downsides would be much greater.

easier to fast 40 days without food than to fast 40 days without Wi-Fi.

How I became a trader

My first taste for investing was when I was around 15 years old, it was totally random, learning about mutual stocks, mutual funds, etc. I remember buying about $900 worth of Adobe stock, in writing it up to around $1250, and then later buying some mutual funds. And holding it all in college, maybe it went up to around $1500 or something.

In college, when I was hungry for my own financial freedom, I remember daytrading as a sophomore in college, waking up super fucking early to treat the markets, and note, this is me at around 19 years old. And feeling the hormonal rushes when my money would go up or down. And not being able to con stream in class because I’m just thinking about the green or reds.

Long story short, I ended up losing all of my money I think my senior year, maybe $3500 worth, because I accidentally misread some of the financials for this one oil company. I recall, I regretted this so much, and felt so saddened by this at the age of 21, thinking that I would never be able to recover. But now that I am playing with millions of dollars in investing in trading, I learned that it might’ve been the best thing that happened to me, with about 15 years of foresight. Why? I already got rid of the emotional roller coaster as a young child, and as a teenager, and a 21 year-old, which means now, as a 36-year-old man, I am far more calm collected stoic, and unemotional about it.

The stoic investor

My suggestion: don’t get too excited when your gains go up. Otherwise, you will become addicted to the gains. And you might lever up and take foolish financial risks, to see even greater gains.

Good greed, bad greed?

I personally believe there is a difference between good greed and bad greed.

What’s the difference?

Good greed is you’re trying to think 30 years ahead, ahead of the curve, see where the puck is going, not where it currently is. Chasing at least a 10X yield.

A foolish greedy person is into professional sports, sports betting, counting cards, playing poker and blackjack, and trying to “time” the market.

Michael Saylor and strategy has purchased bitcoin 40 times now, every quarter for the last 4 years.

If you think 30 years ahead, this cuts through the noise. This is the ultimate razor. ERIC KIM’s razor .

But think about it, even if you have a Porsche 911 GT three RS, or a Lamborghini with scissor doors, even a Tesla model S plaid, you have no skills. Any skinny fat loser can simply wedge his right foot all the way to the floor, and obviously it will be loud and go fast. This takes no courage besides the foolish fact that you might kill yourself or you might kill somebody else in their car with their kids on board.

For example, one foolish decision that I made doing an extremely heavy floor bench press, six plates, caused me to injure my wrist which has plugged me for a year and a half, the wise thing to have done was just to take the day off, one day of success is not worth a year and a half of misery.

I also think this is the wisdom of thinking long-term; nobody wants to be a Ronnie Coleman and be a cripple for the rest of his life, even if you want all the accolades.

Who is richer?

Talking to some homeboys from the Toyota dealership, when I ask them what is the difference between me and you? One of the guys said, genuinely, “you are free.” Possibly the best compliment of all time.

Even now, people do this big dick measuring contest, like who is richer. But, this is the wrong measurement.

Let us say you are a straight man, and you sell your soul in your butt hole for gay pornography, and you get paid $1 billion a year. Would you do it? Obviously not!

Certainly There is something sacred and profane here; there are certain things that one does not even for trillion dollars.

NASSIM TALEB Has this funny quote, to the person who says that they cannot be bribed, you’re just not offering enough money.

And I suppose this is the ultimate test, whether your ethics morality and your personal beliefs matter more than money. Or even the approval of your spouse, etc.

And I think the negative risk, the sacrifice, or the potential for downside is what truly dictates your real beliefs. And what you are willing to forgo.

The Archimedes Lever Principle to Success

If you know where to put your fulcrum is, then you can and shall move the world!

So I’ve been making some insanely great returns from micro strategy, micro strategy stock, MSTR– for example, in just a month, I was able to take $150,000, put it into micro strategy, and I saw it go up to $200,000! A $50,000 gain, in just a month. Pretty awesome.

Currently reading the Bernstein interview that Michael Saylor has, and the gist of the news is that the general goal strategy is that micro strategy will become the first native bitcoin bank.

The first shall win

So the first thought was, what is the point of a company, continuing to leverage debt, borrowing money at very very low interest rates, to just keep buying more and more bitcoin?

But then again maybe the same question is what is the point of a company or a corporation, buying up scarce in desirable real estate in New York City, in Manhattan…? In fact, assuming that you’re a rich elite New York City family, the goal is to buy as much property as you possibly can on the main island, and you keep accumulating it, forever, and pass it down to your kids kids kids kids kids.

Assuming that bitcoin is the first true digital property, then what that then means is if there is a hard cap on the amount of digital property you could ever buy, let us say that it is 21,000,000 square blocks in Cyberman Manhattan, then once again, also the logical goal right now is to accumulate as much property as humanly can right now… Within your means.

For example, assuming bitcoin is currently trading at around $60,000 a bitcoin right now, if I could’ve told you 30 or 50 years ago that you could buy one square block in Manhattan, on the main island for only $60,000… Wouldn’t you borrow as much money as you possibly could in order to do it, assuming you had 100% perfect foresight, like Bluff from back in the future?

Anyways, big thing I’ve been thinking about is for myself… What is my true our comedian lover? Simply put it is photography. It is the thing that feels like breathing to me, and I think I really do have a gift in a talent for it, which supersede possibly anyone else on the planet?

For example, my ability to see photos scenes opportunities, analyze compositions for photos, to understand things visually… Perhaps this is a gift that I want to share with humanity, the whole planet… I don’t want my insights to die with me when I’m dead.

ERIC KIM AI?

So one fun idea I have is what if I could just create some sort of bot, in which you could just upload a picture to it or a bunch of photos to it, and it could automatically within seconds, analyze the picture, and embed all these compositional Insights to the photos?

Or even another funny thing, assuming that you have an iPhone or iPhone Pro or whatever… And let us say that you’re just walking on the streets, and you could just open up the ERIC KIM photo app, and as your actively real time scanning the scene, the ERIC KIM voice can either talk to you via speakerphone or your AirPods, and encourage you; taking step forward, taking a step back, how to arrange or rearrange the scene.

The reason why I feel that this might be such a great idea is that I guess the future of AI is here. Even the new iPhone, iPhone Pro; maybe now in the year 2024, AI has finally arrived. ChatGPT already right now is fucking amazing, don’t be a cheapo, make sure to get the $20 a month version.

Becoming a publicly traded company

Now that I’m already dumb rich, and also, I’m the most spartan person of all time; I might be the sexiest, most handsome, most intelligent person in terms of being frugal; I only spend money on meat and barbells, nothing else.

Michael Saylor started micro Reggie in 1989, just one year after I was born. Maybe one new school I have is to create my own publicly traded company? Not because I want money or whatever… But interestingly enough, the idea of becoming a publicly traded company, in which being open and transparent is actually a virtue, this is something that actually appeals to me?

VISION AI

So the general premise that I have is becoming some sort of vision AI company. Certainly vision AI is the future, for example, the whole promise of Robo taxi, Tesla, Nvidia and the like is towards vision, AI vision.

Already now, in LA… waymo the self driving car is ubiquitous. Nobody really blinks an eye anymore. I am still waiting for my invitation code… But I would definitely trust it a lot more than some of these distracted Uber drivers; a lot of Uber drivers, especially though starting off, are fuddling around with their phone, getting distracted, getting random WhatsApp notifications etc., I would definitely trust a self driving car a Tesla Robo taxi, or way more car 1000 times more than any Uber driver.

Why this is an imperative

OK, the truth is it kind of is life for a death situation, and only that… Potential life or death situation for you your kids and your family.

Why? Assuming that 99% of LA drivers text while driving… This is effing scary. It just takes one dumb millennial, texting while driving in their lucid car or whatever, to get distracted for half a second, unintentionally killing you your kids your wife etc. And I think also the thing which is a bit scary or concerning is that a lot of these people who text while driving, they are actually not malicious, just foolish.

In fact, if Apple had a true imperative, to save lives or whatever, it would automatically turn on the distracted driving mode do not disturb function when it sees that you are driving a car, and even though this would create a lot of backlash, Apple should have the balls to enforce this, The simple workflow is this:

Apple automatically turns on the Do Not Disturb While Driving function when it detects you are driving in a car, and then afterwards, it gives the driver the option to disable dysfunction, assuming you’re a passenger in a car or whatever.

And actually, it would force the user to click “I am a passenger“, not the driver.

VISIONS

VISIONS, VISIONARY.

so essentially, I think the best way to think about things is when it comes to visions, being or becoming a visionary or whatever… It is simple; it means having a vision! It isn’t about being some sort of genius or whatever, which doesn’t exist, but rather, somebody with a stubborn and creative vision about something, is unyielding, full of balls and chutzpah — the desire to craft the world according to his creative vision, unyielding.

This is going to be the Archimedes lever of the future

Once you have discovered your Archimedes lever in life, just devote 1000% of your energies into it!

ERIC

Self Beautification, Self Beautification of Your Body

I think in fashion, life and beyond, what we are seeking is beauty, beautification of ourselves, our environment, our vehicles and clothes etc.

What I find insanely bizarre is that it is pretty common that people will spend $3.2 million on a home, or $250,000 on remodeling their home, making the interior of their home or beautiful or whatever, yet they spend zero money or concern to beautify their own bodies?

Body thoughts

So I think the critical issue here is that modern day society and capitalism is actually antibody. The body is seen as an afterthought, especially because we have this strange Puritan Quaker Protestant work ethic morality when it comes to work, saving for the future, and essentially that the body is evil.

For example, probably close to 100% of American males watch porn pornography, yet still… Man feel embarrassed about it? Or chuckle about it?

And also, one is not allowed to be sexual anymore? Do you have any sort of sexual desire or drive is seen as bad?

Why capitalism consumerism sends us mixed signals

OK some very bizarre thoughts; we are indoctrinated that it is good to be different, to be remarkable, and to be unique. Yet, everyone is just trying to be different and unique all in the same way?

Example, with clothes and clothing brands. The problem about the democratization of fashion is that anyone could buy the same outfit or sneaker or brand so but it does not make you beautiful.

We must labor to be beautiful!

My personal thought is the only way to become beautiful is simple; through vigorous physical exercise, through weightlifting, yoga or whatever, and also, maximum time spent outside, walking, in the direct sun and elements. Ideally minimum amount of close possible, to best showcase your naked human body.

Why is it that when you look at ancient Greek or Roman statues, they are all naked? It is because man, and woman, is the peak of all beauty, and perfection. For example, no Lamborghini or Ferrari or sports car on the planet is as sublime as an insanely beautiful female human body and face. For example, that one Cuban American actress, the one that was in Blade Runner, and now the new upcoming John Wick ballerina movie, has an insanely beautiful face! Not too sure about her height — but, it is very refreshing to see a beautiful female actress and face, with full lips, bright eyes, a great personality. And also kind of refreshing to see a beautiful female actress in Hollywood without a boob job; for example if she is insanely sexy in that last James Bond movie, when she is about to go into that secret club, and she has that beautiful blue dress, obviously without a bra on top.

And I think this is the big thing is that bigger is not necessarily better. I think for a minute, I think steroids and breast augmentation go hand-in-hand; for a minute the general idea was bigger is better.

For example, bigger muscle muscles, bigger chest, was better? Also with women… Bigger breast, bigger butt, bigger lips or whatever it was better?

Think proportions

I think you cannot really fool the human mind. for example, assuming that you have a relatively short woman, let us say she is 5 foot tall or something, and she is quite petite; and then she has a C cup or a D cup breast size, certainly something will look a bit off.

Natural realistically… Petite healthy beautiful women, they have supple breast, and I think the physiology is that too signal of fertility, the breasts are firm, and also kind of point upwards?

Anyways, what is kind of counterintuitive is that I think man, certainly we are attracted to the female breast. Even in the Emily Wilson translation of the Iliad talking about ”breasts which kindle desire”– it ain’t about having some sort of massive porn star breast. Actually, when female breasts are almost too big, two circular and spherical, too perfect, they look hard instead of soft and supple… It is actually a little bit more grotesque than attractive.

And I think this is where a lot of modern day pornography has things wrong. They assume that guys just want girls with huge tits, so then they will enroll women who have these really tacky boob jobs. Yet I think what men desire to see and witness is to imagine or visualize or fantasize a beautiful woman who is attracted to them, and maybe wants to be seduced?

I also think the bizarre thing in America is that at least with women, it is no longer trendy for a woman to desire to be desired by a man. And then once again this becomes a little bit weird; women then are somehow trying to look sexy to get likes and comments and followers on Instagram? But don’t they know that these are mostly a bunch of 50-year-old, single childless men… With nothing better to do?

For example, let us say that you are a young attractive woman, with 10 million followers on Instagram. But if I waved a magical wand to reveal to you that literally 100% of these followers of yours, were literally a bunch of 55 year-old single childless fat men, would that change your perception or feeling?

Beauty for the sake of what?

So I’m starting to think that beauty is just another product to be marketed to us insult to us. And if you just follow the money it is pretty simple; sooner or later someone is trying to sell you these overpriced caffeine powder supplements, protein powder whey creatine etc, vitamins, etc — or even worse, strange hormone “therapy” or testosterone replacement stuff.

The only influencers and people you should trust are people who encourage you to do a “via negativa” approach — who tell you what NOT to do. For example, people who tell you not to consume protein powder, not to take pre-workout powder, not to take vitamins and minerals etc.

Essentially, somebody who is not either directly or indirectly monetizing their advice, in terms of product services or advertisements.

Maybe the reason you could trust in ERIC KIM is that I am already independently wealthy through bitcoin and photography; so anything that I have to say about diet health and fitness, you know you’re not being played.

Via negativa food & fitness

Once again guys some simple ideas:

First, the real big idea here, which I literally have never ever ever heard anybody else say, is the virtues of intermittent fasting, and fasting, and not eating anything before you lift weights or work out.

For example, some fools say this is dangerous, but come on… I am a 100% all natural weightlifter, and I was able to successfully lift 1000 pounds, that is 10 1/2 plates on each side of the barbell, all while fasting and in a fasted state, consuming nothing but tapwater and black coffee. And I am not some sort of fat dude on steroids; I’m 6 foot tall, 4% body fat, and maybe I weigh around 160 or 165 pounds? I don’t really know because I haven’t weighed myself in about seven years. But I got a penis arrow, which speaks for itself.

Ultimately why does this matter?

What I think is ultimately, sooner or later, people will wake up and learn and realize that they will want to have kids!

99% of these fertility issues of modern day life is due to the fact that both man and woman is infertile, they consume too many drugs alcohol and adopt vegetarian and vegan diet “plant based “diets, which lead to impotence, in terms of both parties.

For example, modern day man their testosterone is so low because they don’t consume enough organ meats, beef liver, beef heart and beef intestines, red meat steak etc.

Also same goes with women. Whenever you see a woman who is a vegetarian or vegan or “plant based”, she doesn’t really look that healthy or attractive.

The Fiat standard

I’m currently reading the field standard by Saif Dean, same author as the bitcoin standard, and I’m actually having a lot of fun! One thing I learned about book reading is that reading a book should be fun and playful! It should make you laugh, question things, and the whole process should be pure joy, not drudgery.

Another thing about modern day life is that somehow we have indoctrinated people that for one reason or another… Reading a book must be arduous and hard and boring and require some sort of overcoming. No. A book should never be boring. If a book is boring it is a failure.

Cyber Spartan

A big deal; October, 2024… Elon Musk uncovered the we robot Robo taxi cyber cab, cyber van future;

The reason why I feel like this is an insanely big deal;

First, it looks fucking cool! Finally, the future actually looks like the future?

Tesla > Apple

First, the great thing is watching the announcement, Elon looks like he is in great shape! He looks 1 billion times happier, cheerful optimistic, and healthy.

And also… Charismatic leader; I think we all need some sort of figurehead to follow. For example, the reason why Apple is a bad bet is there is no longer a face behind it! Tim Cook, kind of boring like granola. Jony Ive has left, so nobody is left.

It’s essentially when we think about Tesla, SpaceX, we think of Elon Musk. Having a face behind a concept is critical.

Same thing goes with Kanye West, and also now Michael Saylor with bitcoin and micro strategies; I am very insanely impressed… Microstrategy stock has gone up 14.4X, over the last four years, which has even outperformed bitcoin!

A random thought; I think the future will belong to those or whom or the entities in which own the most bitcoin. Assuming that bitcoin is digital property, digital capital, the Apex form of property in the universe, then what that then means is assuming that you want to build a dynasty which last forever, call us to maximize your property, digital property right now.

Why?

I think the tricky thing is when do you think about property money wealth power etc.… The question that people often ask is why?

Assuming that property is capital, in capital is more critical than money… In that most US dollars and fiat currency is just credit running on 20th century rails… What that means is we must think digital, we must think cyber.

Why I’m still betting on bitcoin and microstrategy over Tesla

Watching the new announcement has given me an insanely huge wave of motivation and optimism for the future! Essentially the future looks phenomenal; it looks super cool, and with the upcoming cyber car, cyber taxi, and cyber van… Finally… The future will look like the future!

And I also think that the insanely optimistic thing about cyber truck is that finally, a vehicle on the road which actually looks like the future!

I recall, in the year 2020, just a little bit before Covid hit, while in Providence Rhode Island I was meandering ,, it is the year 2020, technically we are living in the super future, why doesn’t the future look like the future? Why does the future look so lame?

Cyber upside

So the reason why bitcoin and micro strategies; even though I am a huge Elon Musk and Tesla fan, laws of physics are really hard. I think Tesla still has about 1 million cyber trucks they need to produce, and on top of that, having to produce all these new cyber taxis and cyber vans, Will be very very difficult. I am very confident that Elon and the Tesla team will pull it off, realistically it might take 10 to 20 years, because the laws of physics are hard. For example, physical manufacturing, lithium ion battery refineries, supply chain etc.

I think what Elon is doing is very admirable because he is currently addressing their real life, physical and bodily challenges we are facing today. for nobody who has never lived in Los Angeles, never being stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic from Pasadena to the west side of Los Angeles, you’ll never know what Carmageddon, traffic will look like.

And also, something I have discovered whenever I drive to East LA, Koreatown and the like — fucking sucks. All of that concrete, no green spaces and trees — during the summer, it felt about 10 to 20° hotter there, and the pollution is practically unbearable now. Gavin Newsom and California trying to get rid of tailpipe emissions is a phenomenally great idea.

For example, the only thing I hit on the planet is maybe cigarette smoke, and the smell of tailpipe emissions, which is fucking toxic, and immediately gives me a headache. I’m currently on a Crusade to tell people who are smoking on the street to not smoking — the text a lot of wits, guts, and quick thinking, because it is something that is insanely important, not only does it immediately give me a headache, but come on come on I have a kid!

These fucking assholes

What I hate about smokers, cigarette smokers is that there are smoking on the street, in public, indignantly like they are not harming nobody else. You fucking assholes. At least you have a filter to smoke your cancer sticks through, but whenever you exhale your secondhand smoke, that shit goes straight into my lungs and my brains!

First, my vision is to just make smoking cigarettes outdoors illegal. In any public space. If you want to hotbox your house or apartment or car with the windows closed, and give yourself lung cancer that is fine; but the rule is to not allow smoking on the street, public sidewalks etc.

I think technically the law is you’re not supposed to smoke within 25 feet of an eating establishment, but my personal vision at least for Culver City and beyond and on the promenade is that it would be illegal to smoke cigarettes, anywhere which is not outside of your house!

why is everyone a bunch of pussies?

Essentially the thing that is insanely annoying to me is that nowadays, everyone is a bunch of pussies and cowards. For example, all of these fat losers with beards, buying guns in ammunition, they feel so tough watching their alternative right conservative media outlets, yet, they don’t even have the courage to speak up against people who smoke cigarettes?

People are often shocked by me because I actually have the audacity to stand up and speak up. Because everyone else is a coward.

I think the number one fear that people have, at least in Los Angeles and beyond is that if you somehow confront a smoker for being an asshole, they will somehow pull up a gun and shoot you?

First, maybe it might happen if you’re in South Central, or somewhere super hood, but very very unlikely if you’re in the west side or somewhere nice like Culver City? Especially since they’re a bunch of cameras around?

There is also a fear that when you tell people in LA while they are driving, to drive more carefully, they once again, they will somehow also pull up a gun and start shooting you up?

It’s tricky because it is true; there are some people with guns, conceal and carry guns, whether in their glove compartment, on their body etc. I suppose this is where trying to distinguish people is wise;

If somebody looks like they’re from the hood, or mentally unstable, better to just play it safe. But obviously if you see somebody who looks affluent, driving some sort of expensive car or whatever, then speak up! The funny irony is at least in America, and in Los Angeles, Rich successful people don’t really own guns. Guns are for poor people from the hood, or people who are from the right marginalized communities —

Well actually a lot of people don’t understand is a lot of right wing conservatives who own guns and live in the Midwest etc., or the south, or Idaho whatever… Actually tend to be poor, below working class?

So for the most part, obviously there is crazy stuff in LA, but I would probably rate Los Angeles much safer than we think it is; honestly, you’re more likely to die getting hit by a car, or dying in a car accident from somebody texting while driving, rather than somebody shooting you with a gun. By a factor of 1 billion?

Cyber soldiers

so one of my great points of optimism is that the future of warfare will not be guns bullet ammunition, not even drones or bombs. I think the future of warfare will certainly be cyber, cyber warfare, economic based.

For example, it seems that economic embargo are effective, because when it comes out to it, technically everybody on the planet wants world peace because more peace means more prosperity, economically. In all of these rich all the guards want to drive their Rolls-Royce, Lamborghinis, McLarens and the like.

For example, even rocket man Kim Jung Un, is apparently a huge connoisseur of fine whiskeys, and I think he owns about 100 high-end Mercedes Maybach cars in his garage?

Anyways, once again, all of these “evil “world leaders, they don’t technically want war either because most people, what they see is luxury, comfort and ease. I cannot imagine any world leader right now, on the frontlines of a war, on some sort of war horse or chariot going head onto battle.

The upcoming cyber war

So a simple way to think about bitcoin is the world‘s ultimate defense system. People don’t really think about bitcoin in terms of cyber security, but it is.

For example, the bitcoin network is defended by many exahash– which means that it is essentially unhackable. And unstoppable!

For example, let us say that you need to send an encrypted safe message to somebody. You could actually send it through the bitcoin network; and it is unstoppable! It cannot be censored.

And also… Assuming that money is freedom, and bitcoin is free; whether you like it or not, even if the other guy is a bad guy or whatever… You cannot stop the exchange, peer to peer of money, between two individuals!

What Bitcoin fixes

A huge one; real estate. Let us say that I have a single-family home, and I want to sell it to you. Cindy‘s mom who is a real estate agent, I see it how tedious it is. All of these forms, regulations, and having to transfer money from the bank, is an insanely tedious and troublesome process.

I am still shocked, also in the year 2024… Like a simple wire transfer via the swift network, like I’m sending my money to my mom in South Korea, why does it take so damn long, why do I have to go to a physical bank branch, I thought we lived in the future?

Even an insane annoyance, about a half a year ago when I just tried to wire myself $125,000 of money to buy bitcoin, I literally had to be on the phone with JP Morgan Chase, three or four times, being rerouted to some random people in the Philippines, having to see a bank teller in the flesh etc., Before having to verify my own damn money?

This is insane!

My vision

Very simple. Let us say that I have a single-family home and you want to buy my single family home. The easiest thing is that you just send bitcoin to me. The final settlement will just take a few hours, instead of a few weeks.

And also, proof of funds. If you show me your bitcoin wallet, I could immediately see how much money you have in real time. Even a funny thing was when we were signing the lease of our new apartment, when our landlord asked for our proof of income or whatever, I just sent him a screenshot of our bank account balance, proving that we could live in his property for about 10 years, just based off of our savings.

Now, I walk around town with a grin, can enter a Lamborghini dealership or Ferrari dealership or Porsche dealership with a grin on my face, and touch and handle all the cars because technically I could afford all of them. And in fact, if anyone gives me shit, I could just show them that I could afford it, and they will shut up.

What’s the point of money?

I think my view on money is that it is defensive; it isn’t to go out and buy yourself bunch of Lamborghinis, but instead, to use it like a war chest, a cyber defense fund.

Truth be told, growing up in poverty, seeing my mom go bankrupt at least twice, I’ve never really ever been that concerned about money. But now, I truly have zero concerns.

This is where money is a via negativa thing; money should be a means to cut or reduce concerns or cares, by reducing your expenses to a bare minimum.

I would actually say the only good use of money is for productive assets (The Fiat Standard book)– essentially buying something that can be productive!

For example, a new iPad Pro, weightlifting equipment for your home etc.

Can it help you produce more?

Cyber digital capitalism and production–

The problem is with a lot of things that you buy, like trophy assets, is that it doesn’t produce anything– unless I suppose like you’re the one guy on YouTube who does all these videos and vlogs with an orange Lamborghini parked behind you, which you are leasing, which helps you indirectly make money? But even so, I think the financial risk isn’t worth the potential upside.

So the problem is with cars, they don’t produce anything. The only productive car I could possibly imagine is like a full self driving Tesla car, but even that isn’t quite productive; it just helps you mitigate pain. Unless maybe of course, you’re allowing your Tesla to do the full self driving, and you’re vlogging on a GoPro or something, and producing things while your car is self driving?

But then, optimal strategy then is to purchase the cheapest Tesla possible, the most based level Tesla model three, while purchasing full self driving.

But then again taking a step further, even more intelligent strategy is to never be inside a car, to just walk, and take the metro!

In fact, a few days ago, before Seneca and I caught a stomach bug, the greatest joy was we were able to walk to the metro line, and take the metro directly to our favorite library! 100% walking, and only two metro stops away!

And this is really my vision of a glorious future city; tons of spaces, trees, parks, recreation centers, and zero to minimum time having to spend inside a car?

Savings?

If we think about it, there is no real reason for anyone to have any incentive to save anymore. Why? As long as legislators continue raising the minimum wage, what that means is your savings is becoming devalued, in real time.

For example, the price of a single-family home skyrocketing is absurd. Even here in Culver City, very common to see single-family homes which are worth $3.2 million, all the while you could buy a condo in Michigan for only $70,000!

I think the critical issue we are having here is a mismatch of politics and fiscal policy.

For example, if you are somebody trying to get elected for office, what do you promise people? An increase minimum wage, because that will get you elected! But the downside is your transferring inflation to future parties; for example, I called this the shake shack incident; There was a really really nice shake shack here in Culver City for a while, but to my great shock, it closed down very recently! I think the big issue was that because they raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour, maybe Shake shack cannot afford to Pay their employees!

Your $3.2 million home isn’t really worth $3.2 million

I think this is also the thing that is difficult to understand; in theory, you see your single-family home price going up, and you think you’re getting super rich and whatever… But if you track that to inflation, in the global M2 money supply, what if in fact, your property value isn’t going up, but simply, The value of each US dollar is going less, and therefore your $3.2 million home isn’t really worth $3.2 million, but only $2 million?

And also the big problem is let us say that you have a really expensive home, you can’t really afford to live anywhere else, because the price of inflation makes it untenable for you to live anywhere else. Therefore I think a critical thing to consider is that You have to be a little bit more skeptical with money, this is where maybe thinking about hard digital assets and property like bitcoin is more interesting to me;

Also, currently we are tracking the value of a bitcoin to the US dollar. Because it is the closest measure we got. But, the more logical idea is equating a bitcoin to a bitcoin.

One bitcoin equals one bitcoin.

So right now for example we are currently valuing a bitcoin to the US dollar, but my radical idea is what we should be doing instead is valuing the US dollar in respect to the bitcoin.

Which means the price of a bitcoin is not packed to the US dollar, the US dollar is instead pegged to the price of a bitcoin.

Why this is fun and exciting

For me, life is all about fun creativity and play. And also for me investing, speculation, bitcoin in the like is all fun and play!

Honestly at this point, there’s nothing really left I want to purchase or buy, besides maybe some weightlifting equipment, steel plates, or a new power squat rack. But besides this, there is nothing left in the physical realm that I really desire. The only desirable truly scarce asset and valuable asset, I desire is bitcoin.

How to make money from nothing

I recently copped around a $50,000 profit, taking about $150,000 of fiat currency, purchasing some microstrategy stock, MSTR, taking my initial investment and growing it to $200,000. I then sold about $50,000 of the micro strategy stock, and then just bought more bitcoin with it.

So an interesting technique or thought is the easiest way to make money out of nothing is to just put it in the traditional stock market, sell the gains in fiat currency, take that fiat currency and purchase bitcoin while you can?

Keep acquiring more and more bitcoin until you die

Assuming that wealth, true wealth is property, and assuming that bitcoin is the first and only property which is digital, and we all know that digital is superior to physical, and I think what is very very interesting is bitcoin crosses the chasm of the physical into the digital. Why? Because it takes real life analog power , proof of work, to convert analog energy and power and electricity into a single bitcoin.

What a lot of these fake environmentalist don’t understand is the only reason why the point has value is precisely because it takes so much energy intensive power to create! All these fake propaganda posters saying that bitcoin is bad for the planet, but you fool… Don’t you know that I think globally, air conditioning or the power for air-conditioning causes about 20% of the carbon emissions on the planet? And bitcoin might be .001%? I could also bet you that your virtual eating of almond nuts might cause more CO2 production than anything else.

Even another funny unorthodox theory; thought experiment, what if in fact producing pea protein plants, vegan protein powders, all these fake juices and sugars and almond nuts etc., caused 1000 times more worse carbon emissions for the planet than meat? If this were the case, would this change your anti-meat eating stance? Or would it not because you still invoke the moralistic aspect of it?

Wealth is a mental thing?

HANDSOMER.

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Now is your time to purchase a piece of cyber Manhattan

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Don’t hate me because I’m so much more physically dominant than you!

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Never buy property in California (you will get murdered from property taxes)￼￼

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I love risk

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Disruption

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Visual?

Then what?

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Hope

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Mindset

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Investing

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Good greed, bad greed?

30 years is the reason

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The Fiat standard

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Your $3.2 million home isn’t really worth $3.2 million