The philosophy of focus:
So, we are all photographers, thinkers entrepreneurs visionaries etc. To focus, I think at the end of the day, does seem to be a virtue.
First, the ethics of focus, the first big idea is that things which distract us, or rob us of our focus, are third-party distractions, which often have some sort of advertising or marketing or product selling motive.
For example, let us consider all of the ills of modern day life, which is modern media. Essentially anything which is supported by advertising is bad evil and should not be trusted.
For example, anything on YouTube which has advertising or product placements or selling services are bad. Any podcast, Joe Rogan, anybody out there with subscribers, likes, comments, memberships, anyone who has some sort of monetary incentive behind things.
Currently I am promoting bitcoin as a promise that it could solve at least 50% of the world’s problems; that is consider poverty injustice, high cost of living and rent… I actually do believe that these problems could be solved with bitcoin.
For example, even poor spending habits, the issue with inflation is that even if I’m making $20 an hour working at McDonald’s, and the price of everything keeps going up… There is zero too little incentive to save. If my rent cost $3000 a month, and because of inflation in a few years it’ll be worth $4000 a month, incentive is to buy all the capitalistic consumer stuff while I could still afford it, Whether Nike or Jordan sneakers, certain cars, clothes etc.
Also this is where Apple has been intelligent with iPhone; let us say that the iPhone Pro is $1000, or $999. This has been really relatively resistant to inflation; even though minimum wage keeps going up, essentially the price of the iPhone is not changing. Therefore if I am a typical working class poor person, and I’m being paid 16 or $20 an hour, incentive is to go out and purchase the iPhone Pro while I still can; because assuming the inflation keeps going up, in the near future I will no longer be able to afford that new iPhone Pro.
Low prices?
I think for the most part, a lot of the evils and ill society are issues with money, gambling, etc. At least this was the case in my family; my dad just sent you not having a job since I was two years old, gambling away the rent money etc. Assuming that my dad didn’t gamble away the rent money, like he was just a parasite but all he did was smoke cigarettes, watch television and movies, chill out the house… Assuming that were the case, at least he would be kind of a neutral party; but him having to threaten my mom with physical or mental or family violence, holding her at hostage or ransom, Forcing her to give him the rent money with physical force, saying that he was going to pay it himself, and then in the middle of the night driving off to Reno and gambling it away, which means my mom is already three months behind on rent… Certainly this is an evil that happened because of gambling and of course his own problems.
the bad guy?
Ultimately, one cannot point the finger at institution which is the casinos or whatever. Even now as a sober adult, haven’t gone to Vegas a few times, I find it to be very fun! I love going to wicked spoon, and having to all you can eat bone marrow, and all the great foods. But, I don’t have a gambling bone in my body; nor do I have a bone for smoking; essentially seeing all the bad stuff that my dad did, turned me off forever. This is where I have kind of a moralistic and ethical imperative against cigarettes, there’s nothing I hit more than cigarette smoke on the planet; The ultimate evil.
What does focus mean?
So focus, focusing… Assume you have a magnifying glass you could take the raise the sun, pinpointed to one point, and you could burn a hole through paper. Assuming you have a big enough magnifying glass, I wonder if you could even take the sun’s power and even make a hole through steel! Just think about all these James Bond’s movies.
Anyways, I think maybe the focus in society in life should be similar; I am kind of OK fine mediocre and a lot of stuff, but assuming that life is finite, a hard cap of at least 122 years, then what that means is if I know with 100% precision that I will die before 122 years, Then the ethical imperative;
How should I and how must I spend my life in a meaningful way?
Assuming that practically almost all 8 billion of us on the planet have a phone, then what that means is everyone is a photographer because they make photos. Even my new friend Alexey show me an interesting street photo he shot in the hood, somebody who overdosed on fentanyl, ar a bus stop. Somewhere in South Central.
And this is kind of a big deal because assuming that most of us live in cities, or assuming we all live in Los Angeles, anybody with an iPhone is a photographer, a street photographer.
In fact, everything in the haptic shop is open source, free to download share remix four to your buddies or store on unlimited devices. For me this became an ethical imperative; because honestly, 99% of the roadblocks we face in photography has to do with some sort of penis envy for some sort of camera equipment; do you think the day that you could afford to buy the Leica, finally you will have a motivation to shoot or make great photos blah blah blah. Same goes with the iPhone Pro, which is actually, not that great.
Also, objectively … Leica, Leica camera, is an inferior product and tool.  it is true that the craftsmanship is superior, but the overall product is inferior when you compare it to a Panasonic Lumix, or even a Fujifilm camera.
I think what Germany has going for it is good marketing and brand. But everyone knows that any German car whether it be a BMW, Mercedes, Rolls-Royce, which is owned by BMW… maybach which is essentially a Mercedes with a body kit, is probably 1000 X inferior to any Japanese luxury car like Lexus or Toyota. In fact, a Lamborghini is just a Volkswagen Passat on steroids. A Lamborghini Urus SUV is just a Volkswagen touring on steroids. And a Porsche 911, 911 GT three RS is just like a Volkswagen beetle on steroids and a body kit.
I’m currently using the full frame lumix S9 camera, been shooting some video on it… But actually a critical issue right now I’ve been discovering is the reason why micro 4/3, even maybe APSC sensors; or a smaller crop sensors might be superior is because you could focus far closer! Full frame cameras are very very difficult to focus especially up close and personal, and also the bigger issue is that the lenses become bigger heavier, more obtrusive, bulkier, harder to use.
In fact, if you are a filmmaker, still… Getting some sort of micro 4/3 camera some sort of Panasonic lumix GH camera might be your best bet, because you can get the best lenses, with the best close focusing capabilities, the maximum aperture for the minimum amount of weight. And ultimately this is what matters the most; ultimately if you are a videographer photographer or cameraman, it comes down to weight and ease. In fact I think even most videographers especially aspiring filmmakers, maybe they should just get some sort of GoPro creator set up; just set it and forget it!
Because 99.9% of the hurdle that creators face especially new ones is the technical hurdles, the technological issues. Even here may be an iPhone pro without any external accessories might be good for making films. Especially short ones. Anything that is not going to be a Hollywood blockbuster film. This is why I think Apple is trying to do all this marketing that you could shoot cinema on your iPhone Pro is kind of ridiculous; any real professional  Would use some sort of red dragon camera.
I also feel bad perhaps the biggest issue here is everyone is trying to posture and look “pro”? But why?
My thought is everyone has some sort of insecurity bias, a small man complex. Certainly everyone wants to feel big mighty and strong and successful whatever, but I also find this to be a little bit pointless because success, wealth and power, are not zero some; which means that assuming that capital is infinite, not a closed system, then that means that in theory, Anyone and everyone could become a billionaire, assuming that the global market multiplies by 1 trillion.
And also,  because a lot of money is economic fictions, computer code, which means that any nerd with a computer could click a button and inject $1 trillion into the economy, what that then means is the upside for money is infinite!
Certainly there are things which are scarce, like human time, labor, and bitcoin, but everything else… Has an infinite upside in theory?
Why focus?
I just think that it is an intelligent way to strategize life.
I think the number one issue that a lot of people have, especially young folks that we don’t know what we should devote our lives to. As a consequence we just throw our interest at random in a bunch of Market Basket stuff, hoping that one will stick.
But, to diversify our interest, is perhaps not a good idea. For example, if assuming you had a Mozart in your classroom, would you have your student waste his or her time learning Spanish or stuff that he or she would never really use? No! You would put them in one of those funny musical prodigy classes, have them devote 100% of their energy towards music, to become the next prodigy.
I was also doing some research which is kind of funny that the whole idea of homeschooling was essentially invented because you had a lot of these young athletes students, getting ready for the Olympics, and they did not want to waste their time being stuck in the classroom. So the whole ethos was trying to devote most of the kids time and attention to maximize their sports performance, kind of what mainland China does, she is much more shameless than America. And also maybe be more successful.
I think also that is why you see more record breaking Chinese Olympic weightlifters, because there is no stigma about taking steroids, performance enhancing drugs, and also, they don’t really have a egalitarian schooling system like we do in America.
Anyways, I think to focus means to just value your life, your effort, your soul.
Assuming that we believe in immortal soul, which means that once you die, your soul also dies… Why would you waste your life in anything superficial?
