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

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

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

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

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

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

Why not invest in individuals — real life human beings?

Or better yet, why not invest in yourself?

You is the goal

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

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

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

But it’s written in the Bible!

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

How to advance

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

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

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

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

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

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

Think Moses.

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

Religion and politics?

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

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

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

Critical thinking

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

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

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

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

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

Unchaining yourself from religious, ethical, or moralistic thinking

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

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

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

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Why is our thinking still so basic? 

Back in the bitcoin game: 20 bitcoins, matte black. 

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Block.xyz

So Square, the company that you see at every single hipster or coffee shop with the iPad and the little white square payment thingy, the company company is called block now, their website URL is block.xyz

So certain things which are quite interesting:

First, Block, which is now the parent company they own the Cash app, which is very popular in the African-American community, they own Square, which essentially runs all small coffee shops and boutique places, and also, they are heavily invested in bitcoin.

The head honcho Jack Dorsey, one of the most underrated entrepreneurs of all time, who is also the founder of Twitter… is really big into bitcoin. Even the last time I checked his Twitter profile, I think his biography signature was just a bitcoin icon, and maybe a lightning bolt, which signifies the lightning network.

The lightning network for bitcoin, lightning.network, is essentially an additional layer of innovation, I think it may be came out in 2014, that makes bitcoin transactions insanely fast, near instant, and also, for you to buy a very very small fraction of a bitcoin, .00000001 percent of a bitcoin or whatever. 

Bitcoin is the best money? 

First and foremost, bitcoin is not real money. It is fake money. Now that we got that out the way, what can we extrapolate from this?

First, if Jack Dorsey, the head honcho of block, which owns square the cash app etc.… and also they have a partnership with Coinbase, and I think they have connections with Gemini a popular crypto platform, I think what that means is then, bitcoin has viable future.

How to do financial research

For example, ChatGPT 4, the paid premium one, only 20 bucks a month, might be one of the best financial research tools. Why? It is very good and effective at scraping financial data, in seconds, without having to click fucking Google content marketing ad advertising spam bullshit.

For example, do you member for a minute Tesla was accepting bitcoin to buy Tesla cars? Doing some research, apparently Tesla owns 9,720 bitcoins — $300 million dollars USD roughly of bitcoin.

The plot thickens

It gets even more interesting, other entities which own more bitcoin than Tesla: 

Micro strategy, which is based in Virginia, apparently they own 189,000 bitcoin, under the CEO Michael Saylor.

Binance, the infamous CZ, who took down FTX, and also Sam Bankman Fried – their total holdings are over 580,000 bitcoin. That is roughly $18 billion worth of bitcoin. Not only that, but, apparently the largest wallet on their platform holds close to 250,000 bitcoin, which once again, might be worth roughly 9 to $10 billion USD as of this writing. Assuming bitcoin is roughly $32,000 a bitcoin. But, if and when bitcoin pops higher, breaks at $50,000 a bitcoin mark, the $65,000 bitcoin mark, and I am pretty certain it’s going to break the $70,000 or $75,000 bitcoin mark… Once again this number will balloon like crazy.

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Bitcoin whales 

Apparently the Winklevoss twins own an estimated 70,000 BTC — that is a lot. Around $2 billion worth of bitcoin.

Or, Tim Draper who owns around 30,000 bitcoin. Even crazy is when Tim Draper bought all of those bitcoins, which was seized by the US government, I think bitcoin was somewhere at the range of $300-$800 USD a bitcoin?

Shame on me for being a fool, I’m not going to be a fool twice. 

When did I get in the game? 

I personally got into the bitcoin game at around $6000 a bitcoin, which was funny enough considered high at the time. I rode it up 10X, all the way up to 60,000, $65,000 a bitcoin. 

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Ironically enough, bitcoin is actually a very safe investment 

The tricky thing about bitcoin is that it will be more difficult for it to go up 10 X, 100 X, or 1000 X in price. The price increases will be more steady and gradual, you’re not going to see a pop like crazy like a Dogecoin or any of those other meme coins.

The Lucretius fallacy

The fool believes that the highest mountain that exists in the world is the highest mountain he has personally witnessed or climbed himself. – Lucretius, Roman poet philosopher thinker

One of the big problems that we cannot use the past for future predictions. Nor can we use our current position to predict the future.

For example, these fucking idiots who text while driving. The thought is this: “I have successfully driven while driving and text messaging for the last 10 years, and therefore I shall never die.”

But the funny thing is this, one day later, there could be a drunk 18 wheeler, and while you are distracted for half a second, boom you dead.

Once you’re dead, you cannot regret texting while driving.

Also, the big issue is that you could be the worlds best driver, the world’s best texting while driving driver, the best driving while slightly higher or drunk driver or whatever… but even if you were 100% sober and focused, you can still get into a car accident that will kill you, and even potentially kill your kid.

Therefore as a consequence, it is critical to consider and think, don’t do nothing that will potentially cause your own personal death, or the potential death of your own kid.

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The turkey fallacy

Once again, to quote TALEB and his insanely insightful book “Antifragile“, let us consider the turkey fallacy. Let us say that the highly esteemed turkey economist, with double PhD is from Yale and Harvard school economics and business, shows a graph in which the farmer has been steadily feeding him and all the other turkeys well for the last 30 years, and my following this graph chart, will continue to feed the turkeys well.

What the turkey doesn’t know, and the turkey clan doesn’t understand is actually the next day on Thanksgiving, they will all be slaughtered for a delicious Thanksgiving feast.

Never put no faith in any fake bar graphs.

All statistics are fake statistics

Perhaps one of the most useful things about studying sociology as an undergraduate at UCLA was statistics, my statistics class. Even my high school, Castro Valley high school in California, I remember my senior year I had the option of taking AP calculus or AP statistics, AP statistics seemed a lot easier, and I hate math, and it seemed to involve less math, so I decided to do statistics instead. In fact, it was surprisingly one of my most fascinating class and moments, even as a highschooler. Why? I remember I learned about this notion of a “outlier”, in that in fact, if there was an outlier in the data, what some sneaky people would do is just subtly erase it, or get rid of it.

The reason why I found this a bit weird, unethical or strange was this; what if you, you as individual were an outlier, should a statistician just rub you out? 

“But you’re just different!”

Or for example, all of this nonsense about diet health physiology etc.; they say that you have to eat carbs and starches and all this other BS in order to gain muscle, but I have been 100% carnivore for the last five years, making immense gains. No protein powder, no creatine, 100% beef, top sirloin picanha, beef ribs, ground beef, lamb leg roast from Costco etc.; not only that but I don’t consume whey protein powder, and I exercise and lift weights while fasted, I never eat anything before lifting weights. The only beverages I drinking include tapwater, filtered water, and just straight up black coffee. No other BS.

As a result, this is the most demigod my body and physique has looked, at the age of 35. I look far sexier and more beautiful today than I was in my 20s.

And also stronger. I posit it, I might be the strongest person in the world, who doesn’t take steroids, 100% all natural all natty, once not even protein powder!

1,000 pound atlas lift.

Back to Bitcoin 

What I love about bitcoin is that it is legible. Everyone knows what a bitcoin is, even Cindy‘s mom knows what it is! It is easy to remember, it rolls off the tongue easily, and the icon is great; the big ass bright orange icon, with the B and two stripes through it. I can easily spot the logo from a mile away.

How and why marketing matter matters

What about bitcoin is that it is cool and sexy. All of these other crypto losers want their fake alternative coin to become the next bitcoin; but why not just buy bitcoin instead?

Things I don’t trust

I am extremely wary of any alternative coins, coins which are not bitcoin. Why? What I find so interesting is the mythology of Satoshi; yes, a real human being, probably not like Bansky in which he is a distributed entity of several people. It seems that Satoshi is just a real life person, I don’t think he is Japanese because his English is too good. Just look at the email list server email correspondences that he wrote, his English is too good. Having spent some time living in Japan abroad, no real life Japanese person is that fluent in English.

Who is Satoshi? 

I don’t think it really matters. Why? His original bitcoin white paper is so elegant, I think it is only six or eight pages long. This is the simple heuristic:

A good paper must be a short paper.

For example, Thomas Pikkety’s “CAPITAL”– makes for a great doorstop, not a good book. Why? When a book is too long, full of all these fake statistics etc., it is typically a sign that the author their argument is actually not very strong or robust. Why? Most fools think that the more pages, the more information, the more graphs etc. means for a better idea. This is not true. Would you rather have 1000 Honda Civic, or one Ferrari?

Or would you rather have 10,000 Corollas, or one Lamborghini Aventador with the scissor doors?

Economics, finance, etc.

The reason why I put no faith in any economist or constipated thinker is that their theories have zero to no connection in real life with their real life lifestyle or mode of living. 

For example, whenever I meet anybody, whether an economist, business school person, professor etc., I always like to ask them, “What car do you drive”? why? I find this information to be insanely critical, because your car actually says a lot about you.

For example, I put zero to no faith and give no respect to anybody who drives an Audi, either a baselevel Audi like an Audi Q3, or an Audi A3, anybody who drives some sort of SUV, Mercedes SUV, etc. Even anyone who drives a Mercedes car or any German car Porsche etc.

Also, no faith in anybody who drives or owns a Lamborghini Huracan; if your Lamborghini doesn’t have the scissor doors, you’re just driving an expensive Honda Civic.

Why? Real successful people I found drive Ford fusions, if they have a family a white Honda Odyssey, or individual successful people and doctors drive (silver) old beat up peeling clear cost paint Honda Civics, or even seeing the $150 million mansion in Holmby Hills across the Holmby park, just a simple white Toyota Prius. 

In fact, if you really wanted the supreme luxury car, and to be super low-key, the best car is probably a Hyundai Genesis G90; maximum luxury, and nobody has any idea what it is.

Or even more simple, I met  a private security guard who does private security for one guy he quoted as “having more money than God“, and said that he just drives a BMW 7 series. 

Fake rich people in LA

In Los Angeles, car culture of the world, fake rich people seem to drive these cars: mercedes-benz AMG G wagon, all matte black, murdered out, all black everything.

Also, any sort of Mercedes or BMW SUV. 

What is a bitcoin worth?

The tricky thing is that we evaluate the value of a bitcoin based on the price of the US dollar. But this is the tricky thing; if the price of bitcoin goes up or down in ratio to the US dollar, is that a sign that the US dollar is getting stronger or weaker?

And I suppose ultimately the question is this; in the future, what will be the more valuable acid to have? Bitcoin or the US dollar?

8 years from now

There is this phenomenon in bitcoin called the “halving effect”. The idea is that every four years, the mining difficulty to mind bitcoin becomes astronomically more difficult. As a consequence, every four years there is a big shift.

Thinking eight years from now, that is two more halving effects, technically Seneca will only be 11 years old, still very young, I am very certain that the price of bitcoin is going to be higher than it is today.  

But I don’t want to wait! I want to buy the Lamborghini right now!

Lamborghinis are for losers!

Let us note that the word Lamborghini and loser both start with the capital L.

I think the sex and allure of  Lamborghinis is simply from the suicide scissor doors, or the Lamborghini billionaire doors.

Essentially the Lamborghini Countach.

Therefore, the Lamborghini Urus is a fake Lamborghini, it is just an Audi Q8 with a body kit.

The Lamborghini Huracan is also a fake Lamborghini, it is just an Audi R8 with a body kit.

Even the Porsche 911, Porsche 911 GT3 RS whatever, it is essentially a Volkswagen beetle turbo on steroids.

Also Ferrari; even now today, I don’t really understand the appeal. The cars are not designed that interestingly, but it seems the only reason people want it is for the chrome prancing horse icon?  

You will never see a Ferrari without the Ferrari emblem in the back. I would maybe only ever respect a Ferrari owner or driver if they intentionally debadged their car, and really really really tried to make it look not like a Ferrari. 

So ultimately, what is the purpose or value of wealth?

Well, wellness. Health. I think it is actually all the same word in ancient Greek (-hwelh*)– or something.

True wealth is sleeping 8 to 12 hours a night, having a happy family, good bowel movements, maximum time outside in the direct sun, bright and cherry mood, a beautiful muscular body with low body fat percentage, smiling a lot, shooting the shit with random people, joking around, being like a big kid!

Kids don’t care about money

Kids care about playing, having fun, physical exercise and adventures, they have little interest in money they don’t even know what it is. Only society indoctrinates them to care about it. 

Ultimately then, perhaps ultimate goal is to just become like a kid, become like a child! A life of fun, adventure, conquest, bright blue seas, beautiful yellow light, beaches, Malibu, Cabo, Mexico and beyond.

ERIC

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STOICISM 101

STOIC VLOG

Introduction to Stoicism 

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

Consider this a practical primer, cutting through the BS:

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What does stoicism mean? 

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

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

The new stoa? 

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

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

Open air, open sun concept

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

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

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

Cramped indoor spaces promote antisocial behavior.

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

Who is this philosophy for?

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

What is “real” stoicism?

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

So how did I discover stoicism?

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

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

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

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

Who is worth reading?

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

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

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

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

What makes Seneca so good?

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

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

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

Meta– on top of. Or nestled within.

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

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

Personally speaking, I think philosophy must be practical. 

Practical, praxis, practice — to do!

The Spartan, Zen Stoic, demigod ideal

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

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

Trust no thinker who does drugs!

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

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

Simple technique:

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

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

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

Why does stoicism matter? 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stoicism and capitalism?

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

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

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

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

Sex and Stoicism

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

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

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

Stoic strategies 

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

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

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

Monster in face, monster in soul.

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

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

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

Demigod physique. 

What has helped me

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

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

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

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Stoic training

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

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

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

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

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

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

Modern day ailments

Problems in modern day life:

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

Real stoics don’t call themselves Stoics?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stoicism as a technique and tool, not the end

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

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

The future of stoicism?

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

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

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

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

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

Stoicism is all about living with other people

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

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

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

More ideas

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

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

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

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

You just want to stay away from them.

Why so scared?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Weather and mood

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

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

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

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

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

Stoic assignments

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

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

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

True stoics are masculine

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

A real stoic is sexy

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

Why do adults become so dark and morose?

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

At what point or age do people become so emo?

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

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

A real stoic is a carnivore 

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

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

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

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

Why do people care about animals so much?

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

I trust nobody who owns a dog.

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

End goals 

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

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

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

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

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

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The physical

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

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

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

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

Now what?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Editors are bad.

Now what?

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

ERIC

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

ERIC

FIN

Become invincible:

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

The Stoic Masters

Learn from the master stoics:

• Seneca
• Marcus Aurelius
• Epictetus
• Publilius Syrus
• Heraclitus

See all philosophy >

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PHILOSOPHY BY KIM

IDEAS BY KIM

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

Masters of Philosophy »

• Seneca
• Marcus Aurelius
• Publilius Syrus

Personal Philosophy »

• You Are the Light of the World
• Your Soul is a Diamond in the Rough
• Why Live?

Stoicism »

• How to Be a Stoic Street Photographer
• How to Use Photography as Self-Therapy
• How to Free Your Soul From Disturbance

Zen Philosophy »

• How to Be a Zen Street Photographer
• Zen in the Art of Street Photography
• How to Find Tranquility in Your Photography

Life Lessons »

• How to Conquer Your Fears in Life
• Conquer Yourself
• How to Focus

Learn more: Start Here >

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Entrepreneurship by KIM

Change and do, and build or do things differently … based on what you believe the ideal world *should* look like:

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

Think for Yourself.

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

FREEDOM

• On Leaving a Legacy
• I wanna be me!
• Productivity for personal freedom
• How to Purchase your Freedom

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Never stop innovating.

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Entrepreneurship Mindset

• What is Your Dream in Life?
• 8 Blogging Productivity Tips
• Why Be Normal?
• How Much Suffering Are You Willing to Endure to Achieve Your Dreams?

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Put a Dent in the Universe.

• Innovate for the Sake of Innovating!
• Reality is Malleable!
• Stoic Entrepreneurship
• Against Self-Preservation
• The Purpose of Life is to Make New Stuff!

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CINEMA BY ERIC KIM

CINEMA BY KIM

Cinema and film as a great stimulus, aid and teacher for photographers and visual artists alike.

Cinematography and life lessons:

Cinema and Film Reviews

1. BOOK OF BOBA FETT CRITIQUE
2. What *Should* Cinema and Literature Do?
3. MATRIX 4 Critique
4. THE PHILOSOPHY OF “FREE GUY” (Film, 2021)
5. Why DUNE 2021 is So Great
6. INFINITE (2021) Film Review
7. MAD MAX FURY ROAD: Black and Chrome Version Review
8. Why 7 Samurai by Akira Kurosawa is So Great
9. BLADE RUNNER (1982 Original) Cinematography Review & Thoughts vs the New Version (2049)
10. Blade Runner 2049 Film Review + Cinematography Composition Analysis
11. REVIEW: Justice League (Snyder Cut)
12. What Makes a Great Movie/Film?
13. Iron Man (1) Film Cinema Review
14. JOKER FILM REVIEW + Cinematography Composition
15. Ghost in the Shell Anime (1995) Cinematography, Composition, Philosophy Review
16. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Cinematography and Film Review

Space Films

• Ad Astra Cinematography Composition Film Review
• 2001 Space Odyssey
  • Part 5: Epic Cinematography of 2001 Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick
  • Part 4: Epic Cinematography and Philosophy of 2001 Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick
  • Part 3: Epic Cinematography and Philosophy of 2001 Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick
  • Part 2: Epic Cinematography and Philosophy of 2001 Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick
  • Part 1: Epic Cinematography and Philosophy of 2001 Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick

Cinema and philosophy

• John Wick Philosophy
• 300 Cinematography and Philosophy

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GODFATHER

• GODFATHER Part 3 Cinematography
• GODFATHER Part 2 Cinematography
• GODFATHER Part 1 Cinematography

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Gangster Films

• GOODFELLAS Cinematography Lessons
• Scarface
• Part 1: CASINO Film Cinematography Composition

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ACTION FILMS

• John Wick Film Cinematography Composition
• Ghost in the Shell Anime Cinematography Composition

CITIZEN KANE:

• Part 5
• Part 4
• Part 3
• Part 2
• Part 1

Articles on Cinema

• Why Photographers Should Study Cinema

Great Cinema

• Part 1: Throne of Blood Cinematography by Akira Kurosawa
• Part 1: Spartacus Cinematography and Philosophy Lessons from Stanley Kubrick
• Part 1: Philosophy and Cinematography of Full Metal Jacket
• Part 3: MATRIX Philosophy and Cinematography
• Part 2: MATRIX Philosophy and Cinematography
• Part 1: MATRIX Philosophy and Cinematography
• Part 4: Epic Cinematography of 2001 Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick
• Part 3: Epic Cinematography and Philosophy of 2001 Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick
• Part 2: Epic Cinematography and Philosophy of 2001 Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick
• Part 1: Epic Cinematography and Philosophy of 2001 Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick
• Stanley Kubrick: Master Photographer and Film-Maker
• Lessons Ridley Scott Has Taught Me about Life, Art, and Cinema
• Part 2: Cinematography and Composition Lessons from All the Money in the World (2017) film by Ridley Scott
• Part 1: Cinematography and Composition Lessons from All the Money in the World (2017) film by Ridley Scott
• Cinematography Composition Techniques for Photographers
• Rashomon (1950)
• Ran (Chaos) by Akira Kurosawa
• FIGHT CLUB
• FURY (2014)
• THE MATRIX
• AKIRA PART I / AKIRA PART II
• Batman: The Dark Knight
• Dr. Strange
• Suicide Squad
• Kendrick Lamar: HUMBLE.

The best way to change the world, reality everything is first, with thought. Your ideas, you were thinking etc.

How do I start thinking? 

First, start walking in order to think. 

I find this to be such an interesting idea because what we typically believe is that for some reason, we think we could just use our mental power or “willpower”, to stimulate our thought and thinking?

However this is not true. Thought, thinking, thoughts only arise in us in the process of walking and moving around.

Physiologically speaking, the only thing that really exists is our body. Our body as in our cranium, caput, head, brain, eyes, ears, chest and legs and hips, feet, arms, the blood in our bodies, the electrical impulses in our body etc.

The mind doesn’t exist 

The “mind“ is just a fiction. All of the mental ailments we get are simply an offshoot of bodily, physiological issues.

For example, any mental health is simply a body health issue.

For example, anyone with chronic migraines, headaches, tension headaches, etc.… I think the origin of these issues is bodily, skeletal, muscle. If your chain to a desk all day, staring at zoom for eight hours a day, not moving around much, certainly there will be unnatural attention in your neck your jaw and your spine, and because that is all connected to your head and your brain, it might be a trigger for headaches and migraines.

Solutions then include yoga, hot yoga, massages, acupuncture etc. And no, don’t do chiropractors, it is the world’s biggest scam. 

The upside of acupuncture?

Trippy told, acupuncture is a pseudoscience which means all of these nonsensical notions of “meridians” are not critical. However what is interesting is that it works.

Having done acupuncture with Cindy a bunch of times, especially when we were in Providence Rhode Island, half of the benefit of doing acupuncture is that you just take a nap, lie down and do nothing, don’t use your phone or listen to anything, just lie down, in the heated room, with a heated blanket, a chance to do nothing. It is difficult to do anything if you have a bunch of needles sticking into you.

Also, I have a theory about acupuncture is that it is almost like hormesis;  I know that in terms of my bodily physiological response, when people stick those acupuncture needles in certain parts of my legs and my body, I can actually feel my muscles twitching and release. My theory is that a very very small “harm”, is actually stimulating to our bodies? Just like coffee, coffee is a poison, but in certain doses, the poison is a stimulus to us.

The great man is stimulated by poison. 

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Why does thinking matter? 

Something I have had a difficult time finding or discovering is a critical line of inquiry in regards to thinking, thought, the philosophy of thinking. 

Why think, what does it mean to think, why does it matter?

First and foremost, thoughts govern the planet. For example, almost everything in life and in the world, is predicated on notions of thought and thinking. No thoughts, no future. 

For example, it looks like Tesla is about to conquer the planet. The new redesign Tesla model 3 is mind blowing. They made the steering wheel more beautiful, they made the interior design supply me beautiful; an integrated curve, Steve Jobs and Jony Ive would be proud!

Also I think that ambient lighting thing inside the car is super cool. Some people might think it is gimmicky, but I think it is awesome! I remember when I first saw the integrated lighting dash board thing in some Mercedes cars, and I think there is something to be said about light, light therapy; colors affect our mood. Is it James Turrel who does the light art stuff?

For example, anyone who says that colors don’t matter is a fool. Would you want the interior of your house to have bright red walls? Probably not if you don’t want to scream bloody murder inside your home.

Or, for people who say that color don’t matter, would you want to wear an all green outfit, with bright pink fuchsia accents and shoes? Probably not.

Cars run the planet?

Still in 2024, I am still shocked; it looks like cars run the planet. What this means is that it seemed that maybe 60% of our economic activity is around producing cars, selling cars, buying cars, design cars etc.

For example I look at Hyundai, it is insane… also the new Genesis Berlinetta concept car — also, the new Hyundai Grandeur and AZERA— like a futuristic Rolls-Royce for the future!

Genesis X

ART

The other day, it was free! The LACMA, LA Center for modern art, had this really insanely epic art exhibition, imagine like Legos and hot wheels on steroids; it was titled metropolis II, and imagine like a K-NEX erector set, 1100 custom designed mini matchbox hot wheel cars, with this perpetual machine moving all of the cars in traffic and buses and rails, stacked on top of one another. Conjured ideas of that old-school 1920s metropolis film, in the future where everything is that, flying cars etc. or also, a vision of a utopic-dystopic science-fiction future, kind of like Blade Runner, or that one futuristic movie that Bruce Willis was in.

Cinema by KIM

I love this exhibit so much because it’s stimulated my mind, and also, Seneca’s mind was blown! I think I rated as the best art exhibit of all time. I could probably watch it for hours, and not get bored.

If you’re in LA, Southern California whatever, I think it is a critical experience you must go to in person. Also what makes it a great exhibit is that it can be enjoyed by both children and adults, all ages. It is essentially a microcosm of cities, urban living, traffic and cars. The ultimate takeaway point: 

We all think we are so unique and individual, and special, based on superficial things whether we drive an orange sports car or whatever, but in fact, we are all just the same! A bunch of lemmings!

Sociology is great

So I was born in 1988, and I attended UCLA as an undergraduate, I started in 2006, graduated 2010. I wish I got into Bitcoin earlier in 2009, when my roommate Kevin told me about it, I think when he first saw it on Reddit. He said that we should both put about 100 bucks into it and see what happened. I shrugged my shoulders and said “Meh — nah, probably a scam”. If I do the math, 100 bucks, I think at the time somebody spent 20,000 bitcoin to buy a pizza on Domino’s or whatever, the infamous $500 million pizza, basically… What would 100 bucks times a penny be? How many Bitcoin could that have purchased me? And what would it be worth today?

In life it is fine to make a mistake, and make a regret. But not twice. This is why and why I’m going back into bitcoin. Join the 10+ bitcoin club! 

No twice regrets.

Anyways back to sociology, I think the reason why I think it is such a phenomenal framework to understand the world and society is that I think all of this is just a sociological phenomenon. Society, capital, capitalism, living lifestyle whatever… I think about 80% or 85% of it is based on certain sociological principles. 

Also, to understand the market, economics, I think it is all sociology. To understand human fear, scams, fraud etc. 

Also, I think studying sociology has made me unlearn a lot of the BS. To quote Karl Popper, via NASSIM TALEB– the idea of falsification, subtraction, or the general idea that in order to become more wise, you just gotta subtract delete or get rid of foolishness, nonsense.

For example, conspiracy theories. Only fools believe in them. Even if they are real, it doesn’t even really matter.

Therefore a great advancement in ourselves our thinking etc. is subtracting deleting or getting rid of weird conspiracy theories from your brain and your mind. 

Pro tip: kit ChatGPT app on your iPhone iPad, and don’t be a cheapo; subscribe to the paid premium edition only 20 bucks a month, and start doing these type of searches:

Common misconceptions about XYZ

Or

Help me debunk some conspiracy theories about XYZ

For example, common misconceptions about Catholicism, Judaism, Islam etc. Or the Quran.

Or help me debunk theories that Jewish people run the world blah blah blah. Or that Hitler, according to operation paperclip, was in fact never killed or captured, but ended up being shipped to Antarctica to live in a bunker, where he really died.

My overall critique about Google the Internet YouTube, podcast, etc.… Essentially all these fools who think they are so wise… Strange fellows like Alex Jones, even people on the left or the right or the middle or the right, alt left, and anarchists all of them… All of them are fools. 

My simple tip or heuristic is this: trust no man or women on YouTube, Google, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, podcast, etc. Especially if it is supported by advertising or them trying to sell their own products.

In fact, I think the interesting thing is when you actually make your money your fortune from some other random independent thing. For example now, I’m currently building my Empire Fortune and crypto, cryptocurrency. Therefore as a consequence, I have 100% free reign and freedom and independence to just talk about whatever is on my mind, irregardless of whatever. 

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Off the grid thinking

To me the grid is an interesting metaphor for a lot of things. The grid could be standard conventional thinking, “rules” and regulations, a lot of of the modern day BS.

I think primarily my superpower in life is my ability to disdain ignore and find ridiculous all of these “rules”. In fact, at least in real life, I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody as interesting as myself. The only other interesting people I think, or maybe Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Kanye West. To me actually they are very relatable.

The photographer philosopher

Come on… It is 2024, you’re still on Instagram? To me Instagram is like eating McDonald’s hamburgers. Not proper.

Also, I’m still a bit confused… why don’t more people photographers just start their own private websites and blogs? And no no no, do not use squarespace it sucks. Also fun dirty secret, maybe about four or five years ago I got an email from Squarespace, saying that if I converted my whole website and blogging into Squarespace they would give me $15,000 or something. It was the easiest no I ever said in my life. Honestly speaking, I don’t even think I do it for $1 million? Unless there is something the updated which is really good. Maybe I would do it for 100 million?

To somebody who says they cannot be bought out by money, you’re just not offering them enough money (TALEB)

To me the reason why I find the photography so critical is that ultimately we are visual creatures. What sells cars? Design. Design marketing, the idealized concept of something.

Design is God.

Mind blown

Once again the new Tesla model 3, I think it actually looks 500 times cooler than any other Tesla car out there. And I’m glad that I am a late adopter, and I was not one of these unfortunates who bought an early model Tesla model model 3 or any other Tesla car. In fact, a lot of the Tesla cars are already starting to look dated. For example the original Tesla model S is outdated, even the slightly newer Tesla model S cars, that don’t have the yoke steering look very outdated. I feel bad for those people who spent a lot of money on the infamous Tesla P 100 D, to only see it dated by the plaid. And now, I’m pretty certain that sooner or later the plate is going to be replaced and outdated by something else too.

Or even another basic thing; people who bought the Tesla model 3 in the early days, with the chrome trim.

Even the Tesla model X, the newer versions look far better. And have a unique color.

What design is truly critical in a car? 

To me the most important thing in a car is the steering wheel, because you look at it all the time, then the interior and dashboard, and also the back of the car. And also specifically the door side driver side entrance, and also the rear left passenger side door, where I get in and out and load Seneca into his car seat and the car.

Technically the front of the car is not that important, because if you park in a spot like a normal person, you never look at the front of the car. You almost ever look at the back of it.

Also in terms of the car, the steering wheel is the most critical thing because he used it all the time. To me for a Tesla car, either yolk steering or nothing. Even the new Tesla model three the steering wheel looks really cool. Also the new cybertruck the new steering wheel looks very cool. 

Also a subtle thing I learned when researching Ferrari, doing the 3-D modeling tours of inside the car, it is actually very interesting to me that the Ferrari logo is a bright yellow background with the prancing horse in black. Having that emblem on the steering wheel inspires confidence.

Maybe this is why Ferrari is superior to Lamborghini; technically if you think about it, the Lamborghini is just a very expensive Volkswagen Passat. The Lamborghini Urus is just an expensive Volkswagen Touareg.

The Ferrari is interesting because it is still to a certain extent, a purebred. Ferrari is Ferrari, owned by Ferrari, not some other weird parent company. And also I think it is good that Ferrari is its own stock ticker - RACE. Typically I never trust a thing which is just a subsidiary of another thing. 

Sharing your thoughts

A simple way to live life, and to make an impact or whatever is to just share your thoughts. It is funny because people say all this ridiculous things like “That is just your opinion!” The best response: “Of course it is my opinion! That’s why I said it!” Opinion, opine, just means to think.

This is where philosophy is very useful: people think that there are certain notions of “facts“, especially in the realm of statistics, but probably the most useful thing of studying sociology, is understanding that statistics is just a scam. I learned from Cindy (cindyanguyen.com), in her book and dissertation, that the notion of statistics comes from the state. The general idea is that statistics was a measuring tool invented by the state in order to track measure progress, something that the French colonists and colonial administrators did when colonizing Vietnam and her other territories, and also, what the Chinese communists did under Mao Zedong, and also the Vietnamese communists also did. The general idea was this:

In order to track the legitimacy of something and the progress of something (let us not forget that the notion of “progress“ is a feeble modern day notion)– is that we gotta track the growth of something in numbers.

Do you remember in BRAVE NEW WORLD, when in the beginning of the book they talk about how they were able to distill human birth human children in test tubes then said — Progress.

So therefore let us not forget, the notion of “progress“ is not a distinct one. It is a modern one. 

Numbers are boring

I don’t trust nobody who either has some sort of loser Apple Watch, Fitbit tracker, has Instagram, or applies any metrics to their life. The only metric I find useful is maybe increasing your one repetition maximum in your weightlifting, simply as a measure to know that you’re increasing the weight. But besides that, things which are bad include weighing yourself on the scale, because you don’t know how much of that is body fat adipose tissue, how much of that is skeletal muscle mass, and even other things that people don’t talk about… how much of that weight is bones, sinews, blood and water?  

A simple New Year’s resolution is this year, throw your scale in the trash, donate it or whatever, and never weigh yourself.

Both men and women are foolish: they track weight as a measure of their self-worth. But, the goal is to increase skeletal muscle mass, and decrease body adipose fat tissue. This is something that scale cannot do, the closest thing is either a fat caliper, or just look at yourself in the mirror. Pinch your belly fat, or look at the fat in your face, or, you want to get rid of the infamous fat rolls in the back of your neck. Something that I see that Kanye West has.

“It is simple: if it jiggles, it is fat.”- Arnold S

Why are we no longer permitted to be independent interesting thinkers?

It is weird, in today’s world, in America at least… we truly do have the greatest system for independent thinking and thought. Here unlike other countries, you will not get jailed for sharing your opinion. Even the most politically liberal or advanced countries in the world pale in comparison to America.

The problem though here is that all sides, all parties, all individuals are “nudged“ either into the left or the right, even this notion of being apolitical or being an anarchist or whatever is also just another lemming sheep mentality.

Or another words, put zero faith in anybody who watches any news, doesn’t matter if it is NPR, Fox News, Al Jazeera whatever. The simple heuristic is this: if it is being funded by advertising, Google Adsense revenue, it is not to be consumed. 

Only trust things that you are spending your real money on. This means, stop using Google. Google is a “free” service, and the way they make money is by sensationalism and banner advertising. Even nowadays I’m stopping to use Google Maps, having those annoying square advertisements that pop up when I’m driving, I almost feel like that is borderline unethical. Why? It distracts me from driving, I wonder if it will lead me to getting into a car accident one day? Google, whoever did that I google, Google Maps team whatever… Shame on you.

Apple Maps is the inferior product, but at least it is not supported by advertising. Get rid of Google maps use Apple Maps instead. 

No more Android, Samsung etc.

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First, focus on your health physiology exercise and physiological well-being and everything else will follow

The quality of your thoughts are simply an offshoot of the quality of your bodily physiological health.

For example just think; if you only sleep 30 minutes a night, for days or weeks on end, what do you think will be the quality of your thoughts? Optimistic joyful and happy? Or weird, morose, dark?

Or other thoughts, imagine like you’re in heroin addict, or hooked on some sort of meth. What will be the quality of your thoughts?

This is why I trust no thinker or individual who partakes in drugs, alcohol and weed. Although both are quite mainstream now. Why?

A lot of people are alcoholics, and a lot of people also apparently do a lot of writing and production of music and artwork when they’re drunk, which is bad. Even Kanye West, he is a low-key alcoholic on and off, I think he said all the anti-Jewish stuff when he was drunk. And on Twitter. Being drunk and on Twitter at the same time or Facebook, not a good idea.

Also weed– weed is so mainstream now, it is not really seen as a big deal. But I also think it is foolish that some people think that weed has no effect on your thinking. Even Kendrick Lamar, his only vice is maybe Froot Loops and Captain crunch cereal.

“You let the meds talk I let my soul talk ayy!” – Kendrick

The reason why we should not trust any artists, rappers, musicians or whatever who are addicted to drugs any type of drugs, and yes, weed marijuana is drug… their thinking will not be pure. Their thinking will be too overly saturated with the weird effect of drugs, anti-depressants, uppers and downers whatever.

Even Elon Musk, I rate him highly, but if you read the Walter Isaacson biography on him, he will discover that he drinks too much alcohol late at night, and just drinks Red Bull to stay awake. Not good.

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Sober thinkers?

Heavyweight since 1988 — my best man Justin Lee

Am I the only millennial I know who doesn’t drink alcohol or smoke weed or take drugs? And have never been to a concert, EDM thing, etc.?

The only concert ever went to in my life was by myself, to a Yeezus  concert at the Oakland Coliseum, Kanye performing live. The coolest thing of all time.

How alcohol is strange

A very weird trend I have discovered is this weird trend: get a bunch of tattoos, drink a bunch of craft beer, wear sunglasses and some sort of trucker hat, wear flannel, drive some sort of big truck or whatever, and to make the purpose of your life to just drink exotic craft beer?

To quote Chip Wilson, founder of Lululemon, did you go to his personal website and look at his about section, he said he was never into watching sports and drinking beer because it just made you stupid and fat and lazy.

Even the ancient Roman and Greek philosophers thought it was a bad idea to drink wine, too much wine. The Greek Dionysian
God Baccaus was the God of wine drunkenness and the dark.  he was the original Satyr; essentially imagine these weird goblins with goat horns. Or imagine the original “furry“.

Don’t trust alcoholic, drug addicted thinkers, artists, producers whatever.

No more Pollock, Basquiat etc.

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Thoughts and money?

Is the purpose or end goal is to increase the quality of your thoughts, the productivity of your thoughts in order to become richer, to earn more money? No.

I think the ultimate goal is to become wiser, more critical in order to become more powerful. Power is simple.

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Some tools to get you thinking

I have an intervening thought: in order to stimulate your mind, you first gotta stimulate your body. That means, extremely heavy weightlifting to get your blood and your mind flowing.

A very simple one is purchased weightlifting equipment on the internet (Titan.fitness), just work out at home, in your backyard front lawn, even you’re off the grid parking lot in the back of your apartment which I am doing right now.

The very very simple thoughts to exercise and fitness is do exercises and lifts which promote standing. Or walking. Upright exercises. This includes Farmer’s carries, dead lift walk, squat walk, Atlas lift etc. Also, heavy sandbag carries, just order the 400 pound heavy sandbag on roguefitness.com or on Amazon or titan.fitness

Ultimately the exercises need to aid you in your entrepreneurial thinking and your motivation  

The big issue at hand is a lot of these exercises at the gym and in traditional mainstream media has to deal with some sort of sitting or pressing motion. For example bench press, floor press, dump press, decline, seated military press, seated dumbbell press etc. But the critical flaw of these exercises is that they are all done while sedentary or lying on your back. And the big downside of this is that it doesn’t promote your walking or your posture, which might be the two most critical things.

Having a big chest doesn’t really make sense? 

I also thought to myself, what is it that causes the most amount of injuries? Any sort of pressing motion. Once again, bench press, shoulder press military press etc. There is almost virtually no injury that happens with any lifting motion, caring motion, or walking motion.

99.9% of injuries I have witnessed at the gym, other guys including myself typically has to deal with the benchpress, which I think should just be eliminated.

Suggestions

I know a lot of guys who have had injuries, back injuries, upper back lower back spine whatever injuries, from dead lift or other traditional forms of weightlifting. I say:

No more deadlift, only rack pull.

The easiest way to do rack pulls, or any sort of elevated lifting walking exercises is using some sort of power rack, squat rack, or even getting some cinderblocks from Home Depot. Essentially if you’re tall, elevating the barbell off the floor.

Also one big thing that I’ve discovered, the great upside of not going to the gym anymore is that I’ve been exercising more in the authentic and honest way; I’m not lifting weights anymore to impress other people, I’m just there to use weightlifting as a philosophical tool to think better, to think stronger etc.

Ultimately I believe that the goal of weightlifting and all of these exercises is to become stronger, more courageous and more audacious in order to aid you in your entrepreneurial ventures. 

Once again, if we think about all this from a socioeconomic perspective, entrepreneurship is the end goal. 

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So what is the point of philosophy and thinking anyways?

The end goal of philosophy thinking etc is not to make money, but rather, to excel and exceed in life. Also happiness. Everyone wants to become happy, or happier, even Aristotle says happiness is the only thing that men seek for the sake of itself.

People always think that having more money will make them more happy, but this is not true. Often having more money can make you more miserable, as often having more money causes more stress anxiety etc.

Who will watch the watchmen? – Juvenal

The anxieties of a billionaire 

For example, let us say that you had $100 million in your Coinbase account, your bitcoin wallet whatever. You will probably end up using some sort of super secure password to lock and secure your assets. But the stress and the anxiety and the fear of having your phone stolen, your identity stolen etc. is even larger. And also the richer you get, the more you become a target to theft, identity theft, real life theft, even physical violence thread. Never forget the story of when Kim Kardashian tweeted where she was at, in Paris, and abruptly got held up at gunpoint from two mast robbers, demanding her jewelry and her pearl necklaces and diamonds, otherwise they would shoot her.

“What do you want me to do, drive around in a bulletproof car and with some tints”? – Kanye

For example, the one story of a guy who has maybe $200 million worth of bitcoin in a super secure crypto wallet, but he made the password to complicated that he already has two failed attempts, and on the third attempt, if he messes it up, he will lose his bitcoin forever?

And this is actually the funny irony: often times when we try to make things too secure, we actually end up fucking over ourselves. 

This is where I am still all about having simple passwords which are easy to remember, rather than using a third-party password app, because even though these third-party password apps are good, often there are always thinking issues. A good intervention actually is the new Apple secure strong password thing, but still… iCloud doesn’t always work seamlessly. Therefore for your truly critical things, Having some sort of practical strong that you could remember is good.

More security, less freedom?

I think this is where the ethos of being  I still Spartan warrior demigod is that it seems that the richer more successful more famous you become, the more security you end up getting, personal security guards bodyguards whatever… And as a consequence, you end up having less freedom in your life?

For example, I was randomly doing research on David Geffen, and apparently during the Covid pandemic he was just hanging out on his $10 billion yacht, chilling out. Apparently a lot of people were envious about this, but truth be told… I would prefer 1 million times more to be walking out in the real world, off the grid, rather than being stuck on a boat? Because even if you are in the worlds best boat, still, You cannot walk for three hours straight and not get bored.

Living on land is better than living on the sea.

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Empty your mind

The best way to empty your mind is to delete Instagram, delete Twitter, even delete email in Gmail from your phone. Delete YouTube podcasts etc.

Even music, modern day music. Even in music somebody is trying to sell you something. Maybe we should go back to the ancients, the ancient music, the ancient arts. Listen to dead composers, Beethoven and Mozart etc. Why? They’re not trying to sell you Lamborghinis or other nonsense.

For example, as a kid growing up, no kids, nobody in my friend group ever aspire to have a Ferrari or a Lamborghini or a Porsche car whatever. Think the only modern day trend to desire these cars are predicated on what rappers say.

Or other things, do you remember when it was really popular to get “dubz” on your car? Which are essentially 20 inch chrome rims, with spinners attached? Then it was 21 inch rims, 22 inch rims, 30 inch rims whatever. Now the trend is actually going opposite? A lot of these overlanding vehicles, taught to me by my brother-in-law John Narciso one of the head designers at Black rhino and wheel pros is actually, the new trend is for the actual rims to become smaller, and the tires bigger. And more lifted off the floor. And as John told me, Overlanding vehicles are the new rice rockets. 

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Zen the fuck out (Big Sean)

Rather than adding obligations to your life, seem to remove or delete or subtract obligations from your life. This means, don’t take on more work, more contracts, more obligations. Rather seek to subtract all obligations to close to zero, even with the promise of a lot of money.

In fact I almost feel that is easier and better and more straightforward to make the big bucks speculating in cryptocurrency, crypto, and the market rather than just seeking some sort of consulting gigs.

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What am I betting on?

For me, the big advancements I perceive in the future include AI, crypto, chainlink, bitcoin, openAI and Microsoft, ChatGPT and beyond.

What am I anti-? I am short Apple, Google. If you look at Google Bard, the Google ChatGPT competitor, it is at least 100,000x times worse than chatGPT 4. For example I asked Google Bard who ERIC KIM was, and it said that I was a landscape and travel photographer? Terrible. 

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Why does the future matter?

To me, technology and the future is all about optimism, happiness and joy. If we want brighter more glorious future, we need optimism. The hope of a beautiful future, blue skies, clear skies, lots of sunshine, pure joy.

ERIC

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Random thoughts

I just toured equinox, and was very unimpressed. It is like an LA fitness with a better conscience. Also you know it is not a good gym because the barbells suck. 

This is how and why I discovered, ultimately, perhaps the most critical thing with weightlifting is the quality of the barbell. Texas power bar squat bar, or if possible, get the monster squat bar. This is something that will outlast you, and also maybe something you could end up passing down to your children?

My greatest joy and proud moment will be the moment in which Seneca will be able to lift my Texas power squat bar! 

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I almost died, maybe Cindy and Seneca also almost died?

A random story; the other day, now that LA is actually starting to get pretty cold during the winter time, we decided to try to figure out how to turn on the gas furnace heater thing. It is this “cozy” brand, the machine looked at least 20 years old, but we thought that it would be a good idea because our apartment could get pretty cold late at night, and especially early in the morning, considering that I’ve been waking up at weird times like 3 AM, 3:15 AM, 3:30 AM, sometimes a bit later like 4:30 AM, 4:45 AM, or 5 AM.

Anyways, we lit the gas furnace thing, the pilot light whatever and it seem to work OK, but the other day when I woke up at 3:30 AM, and turned on the gas furnace thing, I just went in to take a shower, in order to warm up the apartment while I was taking a shower. My hope and expectation was the moment I would get out of the shower, I would be greeted by a lovely warm apartment.

Then what happened next was the carbon monoxide poisoning alarm thing started screaming, which abruptly woke up Cindy and Seneca, at 3:45 AM. I rushed out of the shower, and smelled all this toxic gas in the air. We rushed to open up the windows, I turned off the heater thing, and also quickly tried to turn off the pilot light in the gas heater machine.

Anyways long story short, we ended up being OK, but still… The super scary thing was that in fact let us say that we did not change the battery for the carbon monoxide poisoning thing. Also as a pro tip, you should definitely change it right now, just order the weird battery on Amazon. It might save your life, the life of your kids and your wife.

A lot of people never change the carbon monoxide poisoning alarm battery thing. Imagine a worst-case scenario if I had accidentally kept on the gas heater thing overnight, which is actually quite common, Cindy Seneca and I would have all died in the middle of our sleep. Therefore after this fucking crazy thing, I feel like I got a second chance at life.

Or even worse, the thought that what if, I had accidentally left on the gas, the carbon monoxide poisoning alarm thing wasn’t set up correctly, and I just left the apartment for my typical walk? That I come back home to a Seneca in the Cindy Who both died peacefully in their sleep?

Anyways, thinking about it… The simple thought is to swallow all the vermin, and chew on the glass shards to avoid saying doing anything bad or harmful, especially to your wife.

Is stoicism for men or for women, or both? 

Stoicism is certainly a philosophy which is beneficial to everybody. But for me, I think ultimately, perhaps stoicism is more tailored for men, a masculine philosophy?

For example, if you’re married or in a serious relationship, a thought is that you as a man, should put on your metaphorical bulletproof vest, and take all the hits. Take all the splash damage, you’re strong enough for it. Assuming that your health points your HP is at 100%, the abuse the verbal abuse from others might only kick you down to 80%. Just think of yourself like a level 99 paladin from Diablo II; you got your legendary armor, your legendary helmet, greaves, body armor, shield, and also you have some healing potions. Apply this mentality to yourself. 

This is where I really like this Diablo II analogy to real life; playing Diablo II as a kid was very influential on me. Maybe it is a good idea that we apply this video game analogy to real life.

Now what?

Currently I am living in Culver City, which I consider the closest thing to Paradise in Los Angeles. And as a consequence, I am at the epicenter of screenland. 

Everyone thinks Hollywood is where all of the action is, but they are wrong. It is Culver City. For example, Amazon prime, Amazon prime studios, Jeff Bezos and Amazon… All of it is produced at the Culver Studios, which is owned by Michael Hackman, And the lot is huge. I walked by it, around it, and it looks like it is at least the size of 10 football fields.

Also, the culver theater, the little cute movie theater next-door, is actually owned by Amazon, Amazon prime, Amazon prime studios, Mr. Jeff Bezos.

Even Apple, Apple TV+ or whatever… They are becoming the new finance years for all of these epic movies. For example the new killers of the flower moon film with Leonardo DiCaprio was being rolled by Apple. The same thing goes with the new released Ridley Scott Napoleon film. 

Make your own media studio and films?

I’ve been randomly doing some research about David Geffen, he is probably the most successful and important figure in both the movie media and entertainment industry. I think his net worth is $10 billion? And nobody knows who he is or what he looks like?

Anyways, the reason why I think he is such a critical figure is that he made his fortune through movies, movie production, DreamWorks, Shrek etc.

Sony is here too

Also, Sony pictures, yes, the same Sony company that makes cameras and TVs and stuff. They own the whole Spider-Man franchise. Both the animated one and I think the other ones? And also the video games? 

The gym is boring?

I got a free three day trial pass at equinox, and several things I find interesting: first and foremost, there is a lot of people who go there. Like, a lot. And, I think they charge $350 a month for membership. Seems like a good moneymaking institution.

Why do people like equinox? Everyone criticizes and critiques how it is so expensive, but, the reality of the matter is that I should load of people have a membership. If you just do some basic math, let us say that equinox has 500 members or so, Maybe 2000 members, all paying $350 a month, that is a lot of money. I wonder if each institution brings in close to $1 million a month just in membership revenue?

Anyways, I think the reason why a lot of these gyms and fitness places are so popular is that a lot of people don’t really know what to do at the gym, and the reason they like to do a class or course is that they show up, and just do something. I think a lot of people lack the knowledge of how to exercise, or maybe the lack some sort of critical philosophy behind the purpose of exercise? And as a result, they just like being told what to do. However for myself, it is antithetical to my nature. I am 100% tolerant to everyone and everything, the only thing that invokes my fury is when people tell me what to do and what not to do.

Never trust a fitness person who cannot lift more than you.

Now that I have achieved my 1,000 pound atlas lift, ain’t nobody can tell me what to do. Nobody has the balls, the chutzpah, the guts to do what I have done. Or even attempt it.

Actually if I really think about it, in the whole world of fitness, the whole planet and internet; am I the one with the most courage, audacity? Even the gold gym Venice Beach, which I already conquered, is supposed to be the bastion and apex of weightlifting on the planet, but even there… all these guys were taking steroids… they’re actually not that strong?

Am I the strongest, non-steroid person on the planet? 

New Year’s fitness resolutions

Very simple ones: get a pair of Vibram five finger shoes, honestly the only reason people don’t wear them is that they look weird. But, the true act of manly courage is to wear your Vibram five fingers probably in publicly, and ironically enough… more recently, I’ve actually got more compliments on my Vibram five finger shoes than I ever did with any of my cool Nike sneakers?

The reason why I find Vibram five finger shoes so critical is that honestly, I wonder if 99.9% of foot pain, knee pain, back pain, and hip pain is simply because people are not going barefoot. Technically the best pair of shoes would just be some sort of reinforced, waterproof socks. The Vibram five fingers is not perfect, but it comes pretty close. 

The best argument I have for using the five finger toe shoes is this: you know all these stupid shoes with these very thick souls, they are essentially like condoms for your feet. And our feet are just like our hands, but on the other side. In fact, I have a theory that our feet actually might have more intelligence than our hands. Have you ever tried to text message during the winter time with gloves on? Imagine doing that with your shoes.

Also a funny thought; you know all these stupid HOKA shoes, or Adidas ultraboost shoes, with 3 inches of foam on the sole… Can you imagine having sex with a 3 inch thick condom?

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Start your own self hosted blog

Everybody is always telling me the virtues of buying a house, a single-family home, owning property, owning your own house whatever. But, I personally think this is some sort of suckers game. Why? Even if you own the property, and you paid it in all cash, you still have to pay property taxes, home insurance and other maintenance things, which could actually cost you close to $3500 a month, the same price as rent!

As of now, especially considering the fiasco that I had with the gas burner furnace thing; I have almost close to zero interest in ever buying a house, single-family house, maybe even a condominium? Why? For me, my true passion and ambition is to live off the grid, to adventure, to explore, and have nothing in my way?

Is your home your slave, or are you a slave to your home? 

As long as you think you have to renovate something whether your kitchen, open up a wall, etc.… you are not free. 

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How to start your own self hosted blog

Ionos.com or bluehost.com and install wordpress.org. I no longer recommend wordpress.com, ever since they somehow deleted my old wordpress.com account, because of some strange policy I violated which I’m not even sure what I did?

People always talk about land ownership, real estate ownership whatever, why doesn’t anybody ever talk about digital content website platform ownership? And no no no, squarespace is bad. You are still a slave to their platform.

Essentially the simple heuristic to know whether you own your platform or not is whether or not you could access the FTP server, via filezilla or any FTP management tool. Whether you could self post your own media files, your own dropbox.

Why?

The two most critical things in the planet include your time, and also your freedom. Most people don’t have access to either.

Anybody who has to be stuck in a car, doesn’t matter if you’re driving all a or Lamborghini, you’re still a slave.

Then, the goal is to unchain yourself from all obligations, all metaphorical grids.

Self-employment is the way. Sole proprietorship.

EK

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START, BOOKS, WORKSHOPS, PRODUCTS

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Things to do

1. Try experimenting with really really insanely hot scalding showers or baths — insanely hot water until you feel like you’re being boiled alive is a good idea! Or just join a LA FITNESS, CRUNCH FITNESS, or any random commercial gym and hit the hot sauna at least once a day, maybe twice a day?
2. Get a Costco membership: The most interesting thing I learned is that Costco doesn’t actually make a profit off of their products, only the memberships. As a consequence, everything you buy at Costco is truly at-cost. Buy meat, red meat; the wagyu ground beef is great, only around 5.70USD a pound, or the lamb leg roast imported from New Zealand (only $5.50 a pound).
3. Get chatgpt plus, paid premium only $20 a month. Make art works on DALL-E, and also,,, experiment with chatgpt 4; a billion times better than the free chatgpt 3.5.

Then, post your findings to your own blog, or upload your best photos to arsbeta.com

More fire incoming!

Forward the fire

EK NEWS >

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He with the most audacity is the happiest!

ERIC

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Funny things:

1. The M2 chip in it is already outdated? M3 chip is already out.
2. External battery 2 hours — actually a very good idea!
3. Seems like a good idea for really long solo flights?
4. Zeiss adjustable prescription glasses … actually a very good idea for eye glass wearers like myself!

Ideas

For marketing — make the marketing content and images *not* images, but animated GIF’s to show what virtual reality really looks like? Static images show nothing.

Also — this thing should be used while standing, *NOT* sitting?

The philosophical

1. Can you use this thing when outside, off the grid… in the real world?
2. Will this thing help you spend *MORE* time outside or *LESS* time outside?

THOUGHTS

1. 7 Lessons Elon Musk has Taught Me
2. Introduction to Stoicism

PDF

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

ERIC KIM NEWS

Don’t be left behind: ERIC KIM NEWS >

EK MIND STREAM.

THOUGHTS

1. THE PHILOSOPHY OF RISK TAKING — PDF
2. Why I Bought Chainlink — PDF
3. How to Become a Philosopher
4. How to Become a Stoic

ART PHOTO BOOKS

1. SUITS

ERIC KIM PODCAST

EK PODCAST ALSO ON SPOTIFY

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MODERN PHOTOGRAPHER

• DOWNLOAD FREE // PDF DOWNLOAD // MIRROR

STOICISM

Delve into the mind of EK:

BOOKS

1. THE PHOTOGRAPHER

NEW CHATGPT BOTS

1. COMPOSITION CHECKER
2. WHY APP?

Crypto

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

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 ERIC KIM CHATGPT BOTS

1. BITCOIN BABE
2. ZEN OF ERIC
3. ERIC KIM BOT

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STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT

Open source:

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

View all >

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PHOTOLOSOPHY

What can you become as a photographer-visual artist?

0. Introduction (830mb)
1. Street Photography (2.6gb)
2. Personal Photography (1.8gb)
3. Entrepreneurship (1.5gb)
4. Motivation: HAPTIC BOOKS (20mb)
5. Audio (100mb)
6. Presets (40mb)
7. Transcripts (29kb)

DOWNLOAD FULL COURSE (7.4GB)

See the full course here.

STOICISM 101

STOIC VLOG

Introduction to Stoicism 

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

Consider this a practical primer, cutting through the BS:

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What does stoicism mean? 

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

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

The new stoa? 

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

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

Open air, open sun concept

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

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

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

Cramped indoor spaces promote antisocial behavior.

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

Who is this philosophy for?

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

What is “real” stoicism?

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

So how did I discover stoicism?

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

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

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

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

Who is worth reading?

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

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

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

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

What makes Seneca so good?

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

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

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

Meta– on top of. Or nestled within.

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

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

Personally speaking, I think philosophy must be practical. 

Practical, praxis, practice — to do!

The Spartan, Zen Stoic, demigod ideal

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

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

Trust no thinker who does drugs!

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

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

Simple technique:

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

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

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

Why does stoicism matter? 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stoicism and capitalism?

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

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

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

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

Sex and Stoicism

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

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

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

Stoic strategies 

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

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

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

Monster in face, monster in soul.

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

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

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

Demigod physique. 

What has helped me

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

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

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

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Stoic training

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

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

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

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

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

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

Modern day ailments

Problems in modern day life:

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

Real stoics don’t call themselves Stoics?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stoicism as a technique and tool, not the end

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

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

The future of stoicism?

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

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

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

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

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

Stoicism is all about living with other people

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

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

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

More ideas

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

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

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

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

You just want to stay away from them.

Why so scared?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Weather and mood

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

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

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

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

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

Stoic assignments

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

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

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

True stoics are masculine

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

A real stoic is sexy

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

Why do adults become so dark and morose?

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

At what point or age do people become so emo?

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

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

A real stoic is a carnivore 

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

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

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

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

Why do people care about animals so much?

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

I trust nobody who owns a dog.

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

End goals 

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

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

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

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

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

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The physical

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

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

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

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

Now what?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Editors are bad.

Now what?

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

ERIC

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

ERIC

FIN

Become invincible:

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

The Stoic Masters

Learn from the master stoics:

• Seneca
• Marcus Aurelius
• Epictetus
• Publilius Syrus
• Heraclitus

See all philosophy >

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PHILOSOPHY BY KIM

IDEAS BY KIM

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

Masters of Philosophy »

• Seneca
• Marcus Aurelius
• Publilius Syrus

Personal Philosophy »

• You Are the Light of the World
• Your Soul is a Diamond in the Rough
• Why Live?

Stoicism »

• How to Be a Stoic Street Photographer
• How to Use Photography as Self-Therapy
• How to Free Your Soul From Disturbance

Zen Philosophy »

• How to Be a Zen Street Photographer
• Zen in the Art of Street Photography
• How to Find Tranquility in Your Photography

Life Lessons »

• How to Conquer Your Fears in Life
• Conquer Yourself
• How to Focus

Learn more: Start Here >

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Entrepreneurship by KIM

Change and do, and build or do things differently … based on what you believe the ideal world *should* look like:

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

Think for Yourself.

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

FREEDOM

• On Leaving a Legacy
• I wanna be me!
• Productivity for personal freedom
• How to Purchase your Freedom

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Never stop innovating.

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Entrepreneurship Mindset

• What is Your Dream in Life?
• 8 Blogging Productivity Tips
• Why Be Normal?
• How Much Suffering Are You Willing to Endure to Achieve Your Dreams?

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Put a Dent in the Universe.

• Innovate for the Sake of Innovating!
• Reality is Malleable!
• Stoic Entrepreneurship
• Against Self-Preservation
• The Purpose of Life is to Make New Stuff!

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CINEMA BY ERIC KIM

CINEMA BY KIM

Cinema and film as a great stimulus, aid and teacher for photographers and visual artists alike.

Cinematography and life lessons:

Cinema and Film Reviews

1. BOOK OF BOBA FETT CRITIQUE
2. What *Should* Cinema and Literature Do?
3. MATRIX 4 Critique
4. THE PHILOSOPHY OF “FREE GUY” (Film, 2021)
5. Why DUNE 2021 is So Great
6. INFINITE (2021) Film Review
7. MAD MAX FURY ROAD: Black and Chrome Version Review
8. Why 7 Samurai by Akira Kurosawa is So Great
9. BLADE RUNNER (1982 Original) Cinematography Review & Thoughts vs the New Version (2049)
10. Blade Runner 2049 Film Review + Cinematography Composition Analysis
11. REVIEW: Justice League (Snyder Cut)
12. What Makes a Great Movie/Film?
13. Iron Man (1) Film Cinema Review
14. JOKER FILM REVIEW + Cinematography Composition
15. Ghost in the Shell Anime (1995) Cinematography, Composition, Philosophy Review
16. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Cinematography and Film Review

Space Films

• Ad Astra Cinematography Composition Film Review
• 2001 Space Odyssey
  • Part 5: Epic Cinematography of 2001 Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick
  • Part 4: Epic Cinematography and Philosophy of 2001 Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick
  • Part 3: Epic Cinematography and Philosophy of 2001 Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick
  • Part 2: Epic Cinematography and Philosophy of 2001 Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick
  • Part 1: Epic Cinematography and Philosophy of 2001 Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick

Cinema and philosophy

• John Wick Philosophy
• 300 Cinematography and Philosophy

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GODFATHER

• GODFATHER Part 3 Cinematography
• GODFATHER Part 2 Cinematography
• GODFATHER Part 1 Cinematography

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Gangster Films

• GOODFELLAS Cinematography Lessons
• Scarface
• Part 1: CASINO Film Cinematography Composition

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ACTION FILMS

• John Wick Film Cinematography Composition
• Ghost in the Shell Anime Cinematography Composition

CITIZEN KANE:

• Part 5
• Part 4
• Part 3
• Part 2
• Part 1

Articles on Cinema

• Why Photographers Should Study Cinema

Great Cinema

• Part 1: Throne of Blood Cinematography by Akira Kurosawa
• Part 1: Spartacus Cinematography and Philosophy Lessons from Stanley Kubrick
• Part 1: Philosophy and Cinematography of Full Metal Jacket
• Part 3: MATRIX Philosophy and Cinematography
• Part 2: MATRIX Philosophy and Cinematography
• Part 1: MATRIX Philosophy and Cinematography
• Part 4: Epic Cinematography of 2001 Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick
• Part 3: Epic Cinematography and Philosophy of 2001 Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick
• Part 2: Epic Cinematography and Philosophy of 2001 Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick
• Part 1: Epic Cinematography and Philosophy of 2001 Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick
• Stanley Kubrick: Master Photographer and Film-Maker
• Lessons Ridley Scott Has Taught Me about Life, Art, and Cinema
• Part 2: Cinematography and Composition Lessons from All the Money in the World (2017) film by Ridley Scott
• Part 1: Cinematography and Composition Lessons from All the Money in the World (2017) film by Ridley Scott
• Cinematography Composition Techniques for Photographers
• Rashomon (1950)
• Ran (Chaos) by Akira Kurosawa
• FIGHT CLUB
• FURY (2014)
• THE MATRIX
• AKIRA PART I / AKIRA PART II
• Batman: The Dark Knight
• Dr. Strange
• Suicide Squad
• Kendrick Lamar: HUMBLE.

First, start walking in order to think. 

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So something I have not really came across yet is the philosophy of thinking. Why think, what does it mean to think, why does it matter?

First and foremost, thoughts govern the planet. For example, almost everything in life and in the world, is predicated on notions of thought and thinking. No thoughts, no future. 

For example, it looks like Tesla is about to conquer the planet. The new redesign Tesla model three is mind blowing. They made the steering wheel more beautiful, they made the interior design supply me beautiful; an integrated curve, Steve Jobs and Jony Ive would be proud!

Also I think that ambient lighting thing inside the car is super cool. Some people might think it is gimmicky, but I think it is awesome! I remember when I first saw the integrated lighting booth thing in some Mercedes cars, and I think there is something to be said about light, Light therapy; colors affect our mood. 

For example, anyone who says that colors don’t matter is a full. Would you want interior of your house to have bright red walls? Probably not if you don’t want to scream bloody murder inside your home.

Or, for people who say that color don’t matter, would you want to wear an all green outfit, with bright pink fuchsia accents and shoes? Probably not.

Cars run the planet?

 still in 2024, I am still shocked; it looks like cars run the planet. What this means is that it seemed that maybe 60% of our economic activity is around producing cars, selling cars, buying cars, design cars etc.

For example I look at Hyundai, it is insane… Also the new Genesis Berlinetta concept car — also, the new Hyundai Grandeur and AZERA– like a futuristic Rolls-Royce for the future!

ART

The other day, it was free! The Lacma, L A Center for modern art, had this really insanely epic art exhibition, imagine like Legos and hot wheels on steroids; it was titled metropolis II, And imagine like a Connex erectors set, 1100 custom designed mini matchbox hot wheel cars, with this perpetual machine moving all of the cars in traffic and buses and reels, stacked on top of one another. Conjured ideas of that old-school 1920s metropolis film, in the future where everything is that, flying cars etc. or also, a vision of a topic science-fiction future, kind of like Blade Runner, or that one futuristic movie that Bruce Willis was in.

I love this exhibit so much because it’s stimulated my mind, and also, Seneca’s mind was blown! I think I rated as the best art exhibit solution of all time. I could probably watch it for hours, and not get bored.

If you’re in LA, Southern California whatever, I think it is a critical experience you must go to in person. Also what makes it a great exhibit is that it can be enjoyed by both children and adults, all ages. It is essentially a microcosm of cities, urban living, traffic and cars. The UltimateUltimate Takeaway point: 

We all think we are so unique and individual, and special, based on superficial things whether we drive an orange sports car or whatever, but in fact, we are all just the same! A bunch of lemmings!

Sociology is great

So I was born in 1988, and I attended UCLA as an undergraduate, I started in 2006, graduated 2010. I wish I got into bitcoin earlier in 2009, when my roommate Kevin told me about it, I think when he first saw it on Reddit. He said that we should both put about 100 bucks into it and see what happened. I shrugged my shoulders and said “meh — nah, probably a scam”. if I do the math, 100 bucks, I think at the time somebody spent 20,000 bitcoin to buy a pizza on Domino’s or whatever, the infamous $500 million pizza, basically… What would 100 bucks times a penny be? How many bitcoin could that have purchased me? And what would it be worth today?

In life it is fine to make a mistake, and make a regret. But not twice. This is why and why I’m going back into bitcoin.

anyways back to sociology, I think the reason why I think it is such a phenomenal framework to understand the world in society is that I think all of this is just a sociological phenomenon. Society, capital, capitalism, living lifestyle whatever… I think about 80% or 85% of it is based on certain sociological principles. 

Also, to understand the market, economics, I think it is all sociology. To understand human fear, scams, fraud etc. 

 also, I think studying sociology has made me unlearn a lot of the BS. To quote Karl Popper, via TALEB– the idea of falsification, subtraction, or the general ideas that in order to become more wise, you just got a subtract delete or get rid of foolishness, nonsense.

For example, conspiracy theories. Only fools believe in them. Even if they are real, it doesn’t even really matter.

Therefore a great advancement in ourselves our thinking etc. is subtracting deleting or getting rid of weird conspiracy theories from your brain and your mind. 

Off the grid thinking

To me the grid is an interesting metaphor for a lot of things. The grid could be standard conventional thinking, “rules” and regulations, a lot of of the modern day BS.

I think primarily migrate power in life is my ability to distain ignore and find ridiculous all of these “rules”. In fact, at least in real life, I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody as interesting as myself. The only other interesting people I think, or maybe Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Kanye West. To me actually they are very relatable.

The photographer philosopher

Come on… It is 2024, you’re still on Instagram? To me Instagram is like eating McDonald’s hamburgers. Not proper.

Also, I’m still a bit confused… Why don’t more people people just start their own private websites and blogs? And no no no, do not use square space it sucks. Also fun dirty secret, maybe about four or five years ago I got an email from Square space, saying that if I converted my whole website and logging into Square space it would give me $15,000 or something. It was the easiest no I ever said in my life. Honestly speaking, I don’t even think I do it for $1 million? Unless there is something the updated which is really good.

To me the reason why I find the photography so critical is that ultimately we are visual creatures. What sells cars? Design. Design marketing, the idealized concept of something.

Design is God.

Once again the new Tesla model three, I think it actually looks 500 times cooler than any other Tesla car out there. And I’m glad that I am a late adopter, and I was not one of these unfortunate who bought an early model Tesla model model three or any other Tesla car.

To me the most important thing in a car is the steering wheel, because you look at it all the time, then interior and dashboard, and also the back of the car. And also specifically the door side driver side entrance, and also the rear left passenger side door, where I get in and out and load Seneca into his car seat and the car.

Sharing your thoughts

A simple way to live life, and to make an impact or whatever is to just share your thoughts. It is funny because people say all this ridiculous things like “that is just your opinion!” The best response: “of course it is my opinion!” Opinion, opine, just means to think.

This is where philosophy is very useful: people think that there are certain notions of “facts“, especially in the realm of statistics, but probably the most useful thing of studying sociology, is understanding that statistics is just a scam. I learned from Cindy (cindyanguyen.com), in her book and dissertation,  that the notion of statistics comes from the state. The general idea is that statistics was a measuring tool invented by the state in order to track measure progress, something that the French colonists and colonial administrators did when colonizing Vietnam and her other territories, and also, what the Chinese communist under Modon, and also the Vietnamese communists also did. The general idea was this:

in order to track the legitimacy of something in the progress of something (let us not forget that the notion of “progress“ is a feeble modern day notion)– is that we got a track the growth of something in numbers.

Numbers are boring

I don’t trust nobody who either has some sort of loser Apple Watch, Fitbit tracker, has Instagram, or applies any metrics to their life. The only metric I find useful is maybe increasing your one repetition maximum in your weightlifting, simply as a measure to know that you’re increasing the weight. But besides that, things which are bad include white yourself on the scale, because you don’t know how much of that is body fat adipose tissue, how much of that is skeletal muscle mass, and even other things that people don’t talk about… How much of that weight is bones, sinews, Blood and water?  

Both men and women are foolish: they tracked weight as a measure of their self-worth. But, the goal is to increase skeletal muscle mass, and decrease body adipose fat tissue. This is something that scale cannot do, the closest thing is either a fat caliper, or just look at yourself in the mirror. Pincher belly fat, or look at the fat in your face, or, you want to get rid of the infamous pet rules in the back of your neck. Something that I see that Kanye West has.

Why are we no longer permitted to be independent interesting thinkers?

It is weird, in today’s world, in America at least… We truly do have the greatest system for independent thinking and thought. Here unlike other countries, you will not get jailed for sharing your opinion. Even the most politically liberal or advanced countries in the world pale in comparison to America.

The problem though here is that all sides, all parties, all individuals are “nudged“ either into the left or the right, even this notion of being a political or being an anarchist or whatever is also just another lemming sheep mentality.

Or another words, put zero faith in anybody who watches any news, doesn’t matter if it is NPR, Fox News, Al Jazeera whatever. The simple heuristic is this: if it is being funded by advertising, google Adsense revenue, it is not to be consumed. 

Only trust things that you are spending your real money on. This means, stop using Google. Google is a “free” service, and the way they make money is by sensationalism and banner advertising. Even nowadays I’m stopping to use Google maps, having those annoying Square advertisements that pop up when I’m driving, I almost feel like that is borderline unethical. Why? It distracts me from driving, I wonder if it will lead me to getting into a car accident one day? Google, whoever did that I google, Google maps team whatever… Shame on you.

Apple Maps is the inferior product, but at least it is not supported by advertising. Get rid of Google maps use Apple Maps instead. 

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First, focus on your health physiology exercise and physiological well-being and everything else will follow

The quality of your thoughts are simply an offshoot of the quality of your bodily physiological health.

For example just think; if you only sleep 30 minutes a night, four days or weeks on then, what do you think will be the quality of your thoughts? Optimistic joyful and happy? Or weird, morose, dark?

Or other thoughts, imagine like you’re in heroin addict, or hooked on some sort of meth. What will be the quality of your thoughts?

This is why I trust no thinker or individual who partakes and drugs, alcohol and weed. Although both are quite mainstream now. Why?

A lot of people are alcoholics, and a lot of people also apparently do a lot of writing and production of music and artwork when they’re drunk, which is bad. Even Kanye West, his a low-key alcoholic on and off, I think he said all the anti-Jewish stuff when he was drunk. And on Twitter. Being drunk and on Twitter at the same time or Facebook, not a good idea.

Also weed, weed is so mainstream now, it is not really seen as a big deal. But I also think it is foolish that some people think that weed has no effect on your thinking. Even Kendrick Lamar, his only vice is maybe Froot Loops and Captain crunch cereal.

“You let the meds talk I let my soul talk ayy!” – Kendrick

The reason why we should not trust any artists, rappers, musicians or whatever who are addicted to drugs any type of drugs, and yes, weed marijuana is drug… They’re thinking will not be pure. They’re thinking will be too overly saturated with the weird effect of drugs, anti-depressants, uppers and downers whatever.

Even Elon Musk, I rate him highly, but if you read the Walter Isaacson biography on him, he will discover that he drinks too much alcohol late at night, and just drinks Red Bull to stay awake. Not good.

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Sober thinkers?

Am I the only millennial I know who doesn’t drink alcohol or smoke weed or take drugs? And have never been to a concert, EDM thing, etc.?

The only concert ever went to in my life was by myself, to a Yeezus  concert at the Oakland Coliseum, Kanye performing live. The coolest thing of all time.

How alcohol is strange

A very weird trend I have discovered is this weird trend: get a bunch of tattoos, drink a bunch of craft beer, wear sunglasses and some sort of trucker hat, wear flannel, drive some sort of big truck or whatever, and to make the purpose of your life to just drink exotic craft beer?

To quote Chip Wilson, founder of Lululemon, did you go to his personal website and look at his new section, he said he was never into watching sports and drinking beer because it just made you stupid and fat and lazy.

Even the ancient Roman and Greek philosophers thought it was a bad idea to drink wine, too much wine. The Greek Dionysian
God baccaus was the God of wine drunkenness and the dark.  he was the original Satyr; essentially imagine these weird goblins with goat horns.  or imagine the original “furry“.

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Thoughts and money?

Is the purpose or end goal is to increase the quality of your thoughts, the productivity of your thoughts in order to become richer, to earn more money? No.

I think the ultimate goal is to become wiser, more critical in order to become more powerful. Power is simple.

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Some tools to get you thinking

I have an intervening thought: in order to stimulate your mind, you first got a stimulate your body. That means, extremely heavy weightlifting to get your blood and your mind flowing.

A very simple one is purchased weightlifting equipment on the Internet, just work out at home, in your backyard front lawn, even you’re off the grid parking lot in the back of your apartment which I am doing right now.

The very very simple thoughts to exercise and fitness is do exercises and lifts which promote standing. Or walking. Upright exercises. This includes Farmer’s carries, dead lift walk, squat walk, Atlas lift etc.

The big issue at hand is a lot of these exercises at the gym and in traditional mainstream media has to deal with some sort of sitting or pressing motion. For example bench press, floor press, dump press, decline, seated military press, seated dumbbell press etc. But the critical flaw of these exercises is that they are all done while sedentary or lying on your back. And the big downside of this is that it doesn’t promote your walking or your posture, which might be the two most critical things.

I also thought to myself, what is it that causes the most amount of injuries? Any sort of pressing motion. Once again, bench press, shoulder press military press etc. There is almost virtually no injury that happens with any lifting motion, caring motion, or walking motion.

Also, using some sort of power rack, squat rack, or even getting some cinderblocks from Home Depot. Essentially if you’re tall, elevating the barbell off the floor.

Also one big thing that I’ve discovered, the great upside of not going to the gym anymore is that I’ve been exercising more in the authentic and honest way; I’m not lifting weights anymore to impress other people, I’m just there to use weightlifting as a philosophical tool to think better, to think stronger etc.

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so what is the point of philosophy and thinking anyways?

The end goal of philosophy thinking etc. is not to make money, but rather, to excel and exceed in life. Also happiness. Everyone wants to become happy, or happier, even Aristotle says happiness is the only thing that men seek for the sake of itself.

People always think that having more money will make them more happy, but this is not true. Often having more money can make you more miserable, as often having more money causes more stress anxiety etc.

For example, let us say that you had $100 million in your Coinbase account, your bitcoin wallet whatever. You will probably end up using some sort of super secure password to lock and secure your assets. But the stress and the anxiety and the fear of having your phone stolen, your identity stolen etc. is even larger. And also the richer you get, the more you become a target to theft, identity theft, real life theft, even physical violence thread. Never forget the story of when Kim Kardashian tweeted where she was at, in Paris, and abruptly got held up at gunpoint from two mast robbers, demanding her jewelry and her pearl necklaces and diamonds, otherwise they would shoot her.

“What do you want me to do, drive around in a bulletproof car and with some tints”? – Kanye

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Empty your mind

The best way to empty your mind is to delete Instagram, delete Twitter, even delete email in Gmail from your phone. Delete YouTube podcasts etc.

 even music, modern day music. Even in music somebody is trying to sell you something. Maybe we should go back to the ancients, the ancient music, the ancient arts. Listen to dead composers, Beethoven and Mozart etc. Why? They’re not trying to sell you Lamborghinis or other nonsense.

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Zen the fuck out (Big Sean)

Rather than adding obligations to your life, seem to remove or delete or subtract obligations from your life. This means, don’t take on more work, more contracts, more obligations. Rather seek to subtract all obligations to close to zero, even with the promise of a lot of money.

In fact I almost feel that is easier and better and more straightforward to make the big bucks speculating in cryptocurrency, crypto, and the market rather than just seeking some sort of consulting gigs.

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What am I betting on?

For me, the big advancements I perceive in the future include AI, crypto, chain-link, bitcoin, open AI and Microsoft, ChatGPT and beyond.

What am I anti-? I am short Apple, Google. If you look at Google Bart, Google ChatGPT competitor, it is at least 100,000x times worse than  chatGPT 4. For example I asked Google Bard who ERIC KIM was, and it said that I was a landscape and travel photographer? Terrible. 

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Why does the future matter?

to me, technology and the future is all about optimism, happiness and joy. If we want brighter more glorious future, we need optimism. The hope of a beautiful future, blue skies, clear skies, lots of sunshine, pure joy.

ERIC

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Random thoughts

I just tore equinox, and was very unimpressed. It is like an LA fitness with a better conscience. Also you know it is not a good gym because the barbells suck. 

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