Category: Uncategorized

  • “Bad boy”?

    Old and fat guys?

    What Can Benefit All 8 Billion Humans On The Planet?

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    New aesthetics?

    Revival

    Antisocial media club

    I want to create a new photography club… The only prerequisite is simple; you don’t have an Instagram, and you’re right of initiation is deleting your Instagram Instagram.

    A funny thought… How much money do I need to offer you in order for you to delete your Instagram?

    .

    Mistakes in which you are paid in flesh?

    Flesh in the game 

    Danger focuses us

    Mafia Street mafia

    Urethane

    RICOHMAFIA

    Don’t buy a loser iPhone Pro, buy a Ricoh

    It comes down to price… Ricoh GR is still cheaper than a Fujifilm X100?

     what is the best street photography camera, at the best price?


    .

    1,000 pound club

     a new thought: the new 1000 pound club, being able to lift a barbell off of the squat rack, 1000 pounds, even half a centimeter?

    No belt, no wraps, no accessories. Just chalk and your bare feet.

    .

    Why my next car will be a truck… To be able to transport barbells and weights?

    .

    Can you take it with you?

    I think what I like about my independent squat rack stand is that it is very easy to transport and move around!

    .

    Surfing and skating is interesting… When the waves are good you serve, but if the waves are not good, you just stake?

    a hybrid approach?

    When the weather is not good, you just do this other thing

    “On concrete”–

    Concrete Paradise – Walter Margerison

    .

    Putting your hand in the wave… Copying that on the ground?

    redefine the idea of what could be done on a surfboard? 

    .

    First do no harm… But then even being alive and breathing the air you’re doing a bad thing

    Harming others is fine

    Low pivotal position in surfing 

    Always touch and feel the pavement

    Who do you idolize, who is your idol

    How to make a change: just get rid of graffiti and stickers

    Devotion to style

    How to become more famous

    Fame is more important than money 

    Look good looking good

    How to discover your style in photography and street photography

    Mostly via negativa; delete Instagram, delete social media, and just shoot whatever appeals to you 

    Good style, bad style?

    Stinky style?

    ,

    Street photography style?

    The philosophy of style

    The hilarious thing… Everyone encourages individuality and uniqueness when it comes to style… The second you do something that is anti-style or anti-mainstream, or even, anti underground… You become berated.

    Also, probably the most formative thing I did was I became anti-underground hip-hop… Because it eventually came down to who could say the bigger words, or who could rhyme better… Without style or substance? Therefore my introduction to Jay Z and Kanye.

    Ugly form or lame form is the way

    Lame is good   

    Gay is good 

    Self-respect versus respect from your peers

    The second you become a threat, or people don’t like you… Is a single or a sign you are becoming more dominant than them

    .

    Start a fashion company 

    CULVER CITY

    “Over the light”

    Never done before, no such thing

    .

    Street photography and flash… It was just never done before?

     anti-car lifestyle

    .

    True innovation is via negativa; would you get rid of, what you don’t do? 

    The thrill

    Concrete warfare

    Create a crowd

    Be king for a day, being a king forever?

    Actual player

    Just start light

    You don’t know what’s possible, because it has not been done before

    No Precedence


    gravity chamber

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    Cyber house cyber gym

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    Urethane wheels,,, new terrain?

    Upright classic form vs super low form ,,, switching up a form?

    I hate sickness, weakness

    .

    Paradigm shift ,,, 60s vs 70s

    1975

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    ADONIS BODY

    .

    ADONIS

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    How to avoid financial problems

    Velocity

    Extreme curiosity

    Who will last,, how to last?

    Whose names shall remain?

    A brand new world?

    .

    Don’t trust anything you see in media or TV or the movies

    Movies are toxic?

    Create art?

    .

    Didn’t seem like having as much fun, too serious like a job?

    Too much tension?

    Drugs and partying is bad

    Why fake emotion and drama in documentaries?

    .

    Good role models bad role models?

    Let your skating, lifting do the talking

    World champion, best in the world

    All about “attitude”

    .

    Never speak no evil about anybody! Even the bad ones!

    Never do anything which feels like “work”

    True success is longevity

    .

    Don’t use iPhone or social media — it is a trap!

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    Good influences bad infuences

    Never talk about the good old days, don’t think about being like an old guy reminiscing on the old times… Rather, think of yourself as the hungry 21-year-old self again

    .

    Why all role models are flawed

    Let the jabronis be jabronies

    1977

    Nobody did it with style

    Create a history of yourself?

    Extension of society… See it as a social logical movement?

    Sometimes sickness could just be a soft reset?

    Art form?

    .

    Size everybody up

    Augment and focus what you’re good at… Let others take care of the other details?

    How to become yourself

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  • STREETTOGS HISTORY, ETYMOLOGY & MEANING

    One thing I’m very interested in is the etymology words, the origin… History etc.

    For example, Dogtown and the legendary Z boys… Just finished watching the documentary produced in 2001, insanely interesting in terms of innovation, entrepreneurship, and something which has probably touched all of us as young adolescence and teenagers; the Genesis of skateboarding as we know it today?


    Dogtown

    Long story short, essentially in 1976, a bunch of the early skateboarding Pioneers would skateboard inside this drained swimming pool in The north side of Santa Monica, and there was a bunch of dogs hanging around the empty swimming pool, and they were just called the dog bowl.

    And apparently one day, one of the guys when it was really hot, said wow… It is really a “dog day” isn’t it? We live in Dogtown!

    Anyways, the genesis of words is often funny random, and unpredictable.

    The Genesis of streettogs

    So anyways, similar story for myself… I think it was the year 2010, I just graduated college at UCLA as an undergraduate in sociology, and this is the early days of Facebook and Twitter… And there was this guy on Twitter named @photojack and whenever he would post tweets related to photography in order to maximize the 140 character limit, he would post #togs

    I thought this was a good idea, and therefore whenever I posted anything street photograph related, I would just post it, #streettogs (taking the “togs” notion, and just adding the word street to it). I then use that as my moniker, whenever I would do a YouTube video… Once again I started my YouTube channel in 2010, because it was literally the only place that you could upload videos to! And I would shoot random videos on the original GoPro, and just post them there! And therefore whenever I started a video I would say “What’s up streettogs, this is ERIC KIM from the ERIC KIM street photography blog…” and this is essentially became my intro. 

    I think the reason why motto, catchphrases, or introductions are important is when you do a video, a blog or a blog etc.… In order to just get the creative juices flowing, having some sort of introductory motto is very useful!

    Also as an unintended consequence, the upside is because I always promote my blog, people would always google my blog! And this is the ultimate idea; you don’t mud ties directly off of your videos by putting in annoying advertisements… What you do is you intentionally use these free hosting platforms like YouTube, to promote your own website, your own blog, your own platform, Not some foreign third-party platform!

    Even now… YouTube reigns supreme, but, I feel a foreshadowing… That once chatGPT makes the video sora production thing live… This might be the undoing of YouTube?

    If we fast-forward a bit… videoGPT– I could easily predict a future in which he just opened up the ChatGPT app on your phone, and you just spit a few words of the type of video you would like to see, and within seconds, ChatGPT or video GPT will be able to produce a video exactly to your own liking! And the reason why this will be such a big deal is that you don’t have to go through YouTube, and deal with annoying advertisements, or having to click through things.

    Nobody likes ads

    So YouTube currently has that premium thing, I think it’s like 10 bucks or 15 bucks for the whole family. A good deal! Especially if your mom is addicted to youtube, and you don’t like her watching stupid advertisements.

    Kids are not dumb… Seneca is not. When he grows up, he will have zero interest in watching ad advertisements, as he has never watched television, YouTube, Disney Disney+ or Bluey in his life.

    Also the reason why I think the video GPT thing will be such a game changer is because when it creates the video… Technically, you will be able to own it! No copyright is an insanely big deal… I think people have not really really really understood how insanely innovative ChatGPT is that it produces text, With zero copyright infringement, which you could just post to your own blog, and boost its value!

    Killing many birds with one stone 

    Even now, there is so many things I am curious about, and the great upside of ChatGPT is that I could kill many birds with one stone… First, fulfill my own curiosity about the subject, to my blog just in case other people are curious about it… And then it ends up getting indexed by Google and ChatGPT!

    Anyways, this is also my funny… Instead of looking at sexy photos of sexy girls on your phone of real life human beings, maybe it is better more effective and interesting to produce your own pretty ladies, using ChatGPT DALL-E. Or better yet… If you really want to see pretty girls, go to the beach, go to the gym, and actually talk to them! Compliment them, chop it up with them, no desire to bed them, I think there’s actually something good for men to just talk to women, just for fun! 


  • Risk Reduction in Entrepreneurship 

    I think a good strategy is to assume you will fail, but fuck it, to do it and try it anyways.

    And therefore, the strategy is position yourself in such a way that your potential failure, will not bankrupt you.

    Ideally, there would be zero financial risk endeavor… I suppose the upside of having a website and online digital hosting only cost about $10, signing a lease on the expensive physical place, which might cost you $10,000 a month?

    ..

  • Money & Physics: Monetary Physics

    OK I think I finally got it figured out; money is potential energy, when you actually put it to work, and enact force upon it… money then becomes kinetic energy?

    Don’t hate me because I have more money than you!

    Bitcoin is the first and only true hard money on the planet, therefore… If I have more bitcoin than you, and I have not spent it… That means I am richer than you, I have more money than you

    I think which has boggled my mind for a very long time is money. The philosophy of money, economic theory, practical economic theory, etc.

    For me, I have zero interest in theoretical notions of money. To me, money is practical, and also, thinking about physics, monetary physics is useful.

    I should have majored in physics? 

    Apparently, in the early days of sociology, they called it “social physics”

    For example, I remember in high school… Surprisingly my favorite class was my honors physics class, I think I might’ve got B- in it or something… Our teacher I think he graduated from Stanford or Caltech or something… Super genius guy, at Castro Valley high, and I loved physics because it was science and math made practical, fun, and real!

    I still will never forget, we did this experiment, in which we built this catapult, and actually used real physics math, to calculate the dropping projectile, and a shooting kinetic projectile, and after a few sessions of class, after we did all the math, and we shot it… It truly did collide mid air! It was magical! 

    Movement is magical

    What is the greatest tragedy in today’s world? When your movement is restricted, thwarted. 

    As an example, what is it that we all hate in Los Angeles? Traffic! I think it is literally one of the first English words that Seneca learned by heart. 

    For example, consider how cruel it is to force adults and humans to drive in their automobile car, stuck in traffic for about an hour one way, and then going into a depressing office building, indoors, lack of natural light… And force an individual to remain stationary, not moving, in front of a cubicle a desk, an open concept thing; doesn’t matter if you’re sitting or standing or even using a treadmill… It is like you are a glorified hamster on glorified hamster wheel! 

    Injecting money into your legs

    Living in Culver City LA about 10 months now… What is the ultimate way that you could rank yourself? By what neighborhood you live in!

    Funny nuances, the second that you meet somebody outside of Culver City, who discovers that you actually live in Culver City, and how much more expensive your rent is than theirs, the attitude of people change.

    For example, $3200 a month for two bedroom one bath Culver City, versus only $1800 for one bedroom, maybe in Palms or Overland.

    Anyways, what I find personally interesting is thinking about the basic privilege of walking. In Los Angeles, the ultimate and Apex privileged is how much you could walk a day… The insanely rich and successful people that have met in LA, I can judge by how beautiful in bronze there are suntan skin is, how much time to spend outdoors, and how many steps they could put in a day!

    In fact, you could probably separate people into two camps; people who stand and walk for a living, and people who are outside for a living, versus office slaves who have to be stuck inside a glass cube cage all day. Would you rather be a spartan, or a bubble boy? Or in Blade Runner that one girl who is forced to live in that little ecosystem chamber cell, because she likes immunity to the real world? 

    What is happiness

    To me happiness is walking. Having the privilege to all, having the strength to walk, you never really realize how grateful you are to walk, until you see a loved one in a wheelchair, otherwise healthy, because of type two diabetes and sciatica.

    Or, I’ll never forget when I ruptured my tendon either in my ankle or my knee playing basketball in college, being stuck in crutches for almost 6 months, the worst.

    Injuries

    I’ve had many injuries of the years, fortunately never broke a bone in my life. Maybe it’s because I ate so much meat as a kid, and drink so much milk as a kid.

    Anyways, I am really into this notion of healing, and not that the new Deadpool Wolverine films out… The theory and philosophy of healing, superhero powers etc.

    I was watching an interview with Michael Saylor, which he talks about superhero theory, and the very very funny idea is the thought that the ultimate superpower is actually immortality, being invincible, like you cannot die. Because it would be very very simple, you just take a machine gun, step into the room and kill everybody, or you could just walk into a room with a nuke, nuke everybody, and everybody else dies but you.

    Anyways, what I find so fascinating about wolverine, is that his mutant superpower is healing, and also… The fact that he has a skeleton made out of adamantine, but the nuance is every single time he takes out his claws, it literally causes him pain, wolverine is not immune to pain, he feels pain greatly; it’s just that he cannot die from the pain. 

    So imagine a life, in which you are practically invincible, you cannot be killed… But, you feel pain like a typical normal human being, would you take this trade?

    Money

    Taking it back to money, what is money, why is this significant, what does it mean?

    Recalling before I join finances with Cindy, the work was simple: you work hard, you earn money, and then you spend it. As a consequence, before marrying Cindy, I don’t think I ever saved more than $500, or thousand dollars, because I would spend the money as quickly as I earned it!

    My justification was that I was “investing”, the general idea is that the purpose of money is that you earn it, you invested, you spend it… To continue the cycle all over again indefinitely.

    However, one which was never instilled in me was the ethos of saving. The more radical ideas that you work hard, you earn money, but you never spend it… You either put in the market, buy bitcoin, buy real estate, buy property etc. Essentially, you earn income, continue to drive your 2010 Prius, forever, never eat out, never buy new things, never buy a loser iPhone pro, etc. and also you never eat out at a loser restaurant, you quit alcohol and you never pay for $20 cocktails, you never smoke weed, you never go to a festival, you don’t go to concerts, you don’t blow your money at Vegas.

    How I learned this

    One thing I’m grateful for is that my dad was a chronic gambler, he would always gamble away the rent money, go off to Reno in the middle of the night, not come back for a week… Empty-handed. Even as a teenage kid, working really really hard as a boy at the sushi restaurant my mom worked at, maybe saving about $3000 USD in cash, and my dad saying that there was a business opportunity in LA, and that he needed the money… And then me giving that money to my dad, hoping that he would actually invest it to change his life, but once again… Him coming back, empty-handed.

    I suppose I am lucky that I was a stoic ever since I was a kid, my adamantine soul & carcass — this is how I became so tough as a kid. Anyways, it first taught me the virtues of not being foolish with money, and learning firsthandley… gambling was a positive evil. 

    Energy conservation

    Matter is not created nor destroyed, and assuming that there is a connection between Madrin and energy… Maybe the best way to think about money is monetary energy, human capital, solidified into ones and zeros.

    For example, I think the true use of money is not really materials, but human labor. For example, when you pay somebody $20 for an overpriced sandwich, you’re not really paying for the materials… The materials for your sandwich might cost you only about a dollar or two, but to get a human hand to assemble the sandwich is what causes or cost a lot of money?

    So I think when we pay for stuff, but we are really paying for is labor. Paying for human labor, and also space?

    For example, when you’re wasting money at a gym membership… What you are paying for is the privilege of being around other human beings, kind of like a private club, and also the privilege of using the equipment and space.

    I think this is where building your own home gym is so disruptive… it kind of changes everything. 

    For example, reoccurring costs is the killer here. 

    Depending on where you live, the prices of a gym membership can vary. When I was back in Orange County, crunch fitness was super cheap… I think like $30 a month? Practically free. But when you come here to LA… It looks like the average gym membership is about $120, even $200 a month? Even if you do the simple math… If you spent $200 a month in weightlifting equipment for yourself… Every month 200 bucks… This would be a better use of your money. Because when you purchased the equipment, it is your property, and has infinite potential.

    Property

    Life is a game of monopoly, go outside and cop yourself some property — MIGOS

    Historically, Nas seem to laugh also mirrors this… Most of wealth creation was from owning property. For example, if your dad bought property in Palos Verdes, 100 years ago… You would inherit a lot of wealth.

    Or those funny stories in which your great great grandfather, once upon a time purchased property in San Francisco for about five acorns, and now it is worth $5 billion… Similar story.

    I think this is gonna be a similar thing with bitcoin, right now a bitcoin is worth about $55,000 a bitcoin… And 100 years, will be worth $21 million a bitcoin. And then 300 years from now, I wouldn’t be surprised if one bitcoin will be worth $1 trillion or something.

    Generational wealth is the key

    I think the big problem in today’s world is the cult of the individual. There has been a new modern day death to the family structure, the general ideas you never want to have kids.

    Having a kid is very eye-opening in a good way. Why? Once you have a kid… Technically this augments your power. Assuming “The will to power”– the will to having children, many kids, is also the will to power. Why? When you have kids, multiple kids, you augment your power.

    In the past, the general idea was children was like free labor. For example, we had a farm, having 10 kids would be useful in terms of managing the family farm. Even now, my brother-in-law and their family, having four boys for grown men… Tons of free intellectual and labor capital. They are currently building up a fine art gallery, And having intelligence and the human labor of for grown adults is great.

    The logic

    Assuming that you want to become super rich, but never have any kids… It is almost like shooting your semen into a black hole. When you’re dead, that sucks.

    I think if you’re 90 years old on your deathbed, and you have no heirs, no children no grandchildren, no great grandchildren, the ultimate tragedy.

    Body Pride vs body shame?

    An interesting observation that I’ve made in the past; why is it that you’re allowed to flex your car, but not flex your body?

    Even bodybuilders… Whenever they flex, they do it with a tint of shame?

    Certainly there is a hierarchy of bodies, more desirable bodies, less desirable bodies. 

    Generics is fake

    A big intervention: genetics is fake. Certainly there are genetic things like height, facial morphological features, etc.

    For example, if both of your parents are 4 feet tall, probably unlikely you’re going to be 7 feet tall. But your parents are 7 feet tall, unlike you’ll be 4 feet tall.

    Obviously people from different genetic heritages look different. But, if we think about the plasticity of human gene expression — obviously there is a lot we can stretch!

    Racism 2.0

    For example, I don’t really think there is such a thing as muscular strength geneticism. For example, I think the reason why there is so much African-Americans and Caucasians in sports is because there is higher steroid use amongst them… vs Asians who have a culture of studying. 

    However, even now, I’m starting to see this change. I’m seeing a lot of Asian guys, dipping into steroids, and they are insanely jacked. And I think the difference between the media and the real world is that the observation I met is when you go to the gym, a lot of the African-American guys are actually pretty skinny, typically guys  with the most mass or not the African-American black guys, but the Caucasian white guys– and once again… Steroid use amongst the white Caucasian population is very high, just watch the documentary on the bell Brothers, 2/3 of them taking steroids. If you ever grew up to an Arnold Schwarzenegger or Rambo Sylvester Stallone film… You see the glorification of steroids. Also baseball, wrestling etc.

    I only trust Prius drivers 

    A new thought: who is the real rich people or the real smart people? The Prius drivers!  For example, I’ll never forget… At the $150 million mansion in Holmby Hills, seeing a white Prius pull out of the driveway! 

    And also, real rich families… all of the kids just drive Ford fusions? And even a major Tesla investor that I know, with over $100 million worth of Tesla stock, his family has base level model 3’s?

    Therefore, my great intelligence is not seeing stuff on… Would rather, how real rich people behave. Especially how they don’t waste their money. 

    Why are rich people so cheap

    This is also another hilarious irony; real rich people are actually very frugal. The hilarious irony:

    You’re so rich… Why don’t you spend money to buy that Lamborghini?

    The reason why they are rich because they did not buy the loser Lamborghini, but bought a Honda Civic instead!

    Also… The irony that people tell me:

    ERIC, why don’t you eat some of the cake?

    I tell them, “Because I don’t want to get fat.”

    And then they tell me:

    But you’re so skinny!

    And then I laugh and I tell them– “The reason I am so skinny is because I don’t eat cake!” Haha.

    And this is the great paradox, if you really want to become rich, like have a lot of money… The true goal is simple: Spartan living. 


  • NOT.

    You not like them!

    I’m cut from a different cloth, forged from steel not clay!

    Marble

    One thing I’m really into is marble. You cannot fake it. Even the fake marble stuff, although aesthetically pretty nice, there is always an uncanny valley in which you could tell us something that is fake, which makes you feel uneasy.

    For example, fake wood trim, especially in cars, I hate this. I think this is why I would never purchase any Tesla automobile with a fake wooden dash– pure ugliness.  Here I am very happy that the new Tesla model three car, especially in black, they have made the dash, a lovely monochromatic thing. 

    In Japanese aesthetics and woodworking, there is a general notion of honesty of materials; if something is plastic, don’t try to pretend that the plastic is something else! Just let it be plastic!

    Don’t try to make some thing into something that is not!

    Maybe also, the metaphor to humans is, if you are cut from a different cloth, if you are a different material… don’t try to transmute yourself into being something you are not! 

    For example, if you are bronze, no matter how hard you try… You cannot become gold! And the virtues of bronze is it is relentless, and brings black death. And Achilles preferred bronze over gold — bronze makes better weapons and armor. Gold is only for looking pretty on the battlefield, Looking like little girls, who die promptly.

    My primary sociological intervention is your personality characteristics, no matter how bad or immoral they may seem… our virtues should be amplified, rather than tamed or changed. 

    For example, for myself, I was always the ratchet, loud, high energy personality– an ego and a head bigger than life, always wanting to be the center of attention. I think society try to squeeze me into being something different, more decipherable, more predictable, etc. I think from the get-go, my personality was always more adapted to entertainment focused, media personality stuff, rather than just being another quiet programming worker bee. In fact, now that Silicon Valley is effectively dead, I am so happy I did not study computer science or programming, and just become another drone at Apple, Amazon Facebook or Google, rather, I transformed my primary passion, blogging into my living. 

    Am I the first millionaire blogger? Maybe. Certainly the first millionaire street photographer, or the first millionaire street photography blogger!

    New analogies

    I think a big issue is when we try to copy a design, something which has succeeded in the past, rather than giving it a cart launch, fresh from scratch approach.

    For example, I’m a huge fan of the Fujifilm cameras, but the big critical design issue is that with the Fujifilm X100 series cameras, they try to make it look like a Leica M rangefinder camera!

    Panasonic lumix is the way

    Perhaps a more intelligent idea and thought, is like the new Lumix S9 camera, in which Panasonic Lumix had the intelligent idea:

    If we pared down a camera, an interchangeable lens camera, a body, and made a maximally small compact and easy to use… what would it look like? 

    Et voila! The first really really small, good interchangeable lens full frame camera! I think the grandeur of Panasonic LUMIX is they are smart —

    1. First, essentially borrowing her technologies, in lending her talent to Leica Camera AG. And I think also, Panasonic Lumix gained good insight from the German Leica engineers.
    2. Let us consider the Leica Q, essentially it is like a Panasonic Lumix camera on steroids.
    3. In terms of longevity, it seems that overtime, the most robust cameras, which have lasted are the Lumix cameras. For example, the Lumix G9 camera that I got in Japan around 2017 2018, is still chugging along fine today!

    Let us not be suckered, durability is the number one critical thing on the planet.


    Durable humans, durable bodies

     One of my curiosities is watching all these bodybuilding films, because I was sucker by all this stuff, back in the day when I was a teenage kid, trying to get super jacked and muscular etc. I probably spent hundreds of dollars on protein powder and muscle milk as a kid, Money which was probably better spent on buying stocks etc.

    Something that people don’t know is that I only picked up for you when I was about 18 years old, as a high school senior graduation present before going to college, and technically I was blogging ever since I was in high school, I recall my first “Xanga” blog — and also building my own website blog my sophomore junior year in high school.

    I started blogging around 2 years before I started shooting photos.

    I suppose looking back, timing was good. Blogging was still in its infancy, and also, photography and street photography was still nascent– the early days.

    Anyways, the funny thing with timing is that the timing of things is always most beneficial to you during your own generation in years.

    For example, Seneca at 3 1/2 years old, already knows what bitcoin is! And when he was about 2 1/2, he was already creating images on DALL-E, we made a lot of funny bitcoin school buses, even before he could barely talk! 

    I think this is the reason why entrepreneurship and innovation is tricky; the principles change, the ideas change, the methods and techniques change. And we always need to give it a first principles, carte blanche approach.

    The American way

    Perhaps the first true approach is to do a blank sheet, a clean sheet, a carte blanche approach. A white paper, a blank white paper approach.

    For example, the reason why cyber truck is the best thing of all time is that Elon and his head designer, rather than just taking that Ford F150 and trying to make it look like a Tesla car, they just literally thought the whole thing from scratch, and thought:

    If we designed a truck ,,, TODAY,,, with the apex of all materials and technologies, what would it look like? And also what design elements would it not have?

    I think this is also where bitcoin is so innovative; rather than just thinking about how currency worked in the past, isn’t the more intelligent thing to leverage the Internet, computer, math, and modern day cryptography, to create a new type of “imaginary” money (all money is imaginary)?

    I think studying history is useful, don’t just blindly give fellatio to the past. Often the past was far worse.

    For example, anybody who over romanticizes vinyl records, classic cars, or even film photography… I think it’s signals insecurity in oneself, And what they do is they see some sort of godhead or legitimacy from the past.

    Also the thing with film photography, which people get suckered by that because most people cannot do it, it is seen as more valuable! But just because the photo is showing on films not making more virtuous or interesting.

    This is where the photography world, film photography, art photography world is ridiculous; it is a bunch of insecure people trying to circle jerk off one other, to augment a bunch of insecure egos?  to justify how you wasted $250,000 on a foolish private arts education, assuming your family is not a billionaire?

    Any education or higher education in which you have to go into debt to do it is never worth it.

    Back to ideas at hand

    Once again, the intelligence of a clean slate approach; with practically everything…

    1. If we could hard reset the whole world of bodybuilding, weightlifting, and fitness… What would it look like?
    2. if we erased everything about the past, and truly designed a car for the year 2024 and beyond… What would it look like?
    3. ChatGPT and bitcoin is already here and is certainly the future… how should we rethink or reimagine the whole K-12 education system?

    Searchgpt

    I would say the future of education is simply critical thinking… Just let the kids use unlimited ChatGPT, the paid premium one in the classroom and beyond, and the true goal of the future is how to be critical or how to judge and assess the veracity of things that you find on ChatGPT or Google.

    Impact, I have not used Google for almost a month now, my new experiment is just used ChatGPT whenever I am curious about something, and it is a quadrillion times superior in every single shape shape and form.

    The last bastion of hope for Google is maybe YouTube — but even the big issue is once chatGPT video, sora comes out…  and you could have ChatGPT produce infinite media, for a nickel, and also, you do not have to pay the creator…  then what?

    Also pornography; I have not opened up the terrible Pandora’s box of ChatGPT,DALL-E, virtual reality AI generated pornography… Or hentai or whatever… But certainly it seems that the hilarious irony that pornography might be more ethical;  no humans are harmed, either mentally spiritually morally ethically… The only weirdos are the guys who may be created, and consume it, or… Release their seminal fluid to it? 

    And also… Come on… How many single tech dies, who spent $4000 on Apple Vision Pro have used it at least once to try out virtual reality pornography? No shame or issues here… But certainly, it makes you rethink and reconsider the whole thing.

    What is the purpose of humans?

    On a very very basic level… Reading the new translation of the Iliad by Emily Wilson is very very useful, because the telos was very simple then; you wanted to find a beautiful wife, and have kids! No weird modern day hedonist playboy who wanted to stay single forever kind of notion. No loser George Clooney type.

    Let us not forget that Hugh Hefner, who invented the whole playboy idea, was an impotent man, a twig of a man, who was just injecting Viagra to his penis all day? Not a sign of virility.

    So first, my simple intervention is that the purpose of humans is to produce beautiful offspring. And to find yourself a beautiful mate, a beautiful wife.

    The future for your kids

    Every parent wants a more glorious future for their children! This is the impetus of every new immigrants to America and beyond. The Chinese and the Koreans, and also even the Vietnamese call America, the beautiful country!

    Ngoi my~

    Mee-gook

    Mee-gwwuh

    China means the center country, like the center of the universe. But America is the beautiful one.

    Doesn’t everyone want beauty?

    Men

    Man, what is it that we seek? A beautiful wife, a maximally beautiful wife, the most beautiful wife of all time, within our means, to produce the maximally beautiful, maximally powerful and superior children?

    And if you think about it… Man we are not so different from Peacock; we do different societal behaviors and norms, certain meeting dances and calls, in order to attract that made, once again, hoping to marry her, and have beautiful children with her?

    Hector, also had a son. And I think Achilles, if he had the chance would also desire a son. 

    Each and every man desires at least one male heir.


    Breeds of dogs & breeds of humans?

    One of the greatest things about the planet is genetic diversity. If you lived in the planet without any genetic diversity, it would be the most miserable planet of all time.

    Let us consider all the diversity there is, in terms of food, animals, climates, plants bugs etc.

    The funny thing is that on one hand we promote diversity, but on the other hand, we shun it. 

    Be different! No… not like THAT!

    Everyone looks different in the same way?

     I remember in high school… The weird goth emo kids who would wear all black, even in the hot summer, I don’t understand how they were able to wear black hoodies in the summertime at school, and it seems that they all would shop at hot topic.

    And also, kids who are into skateboarding… Why did they all look to see? Why have I never seen a kid into skateboarding who just wore Lululemon tights?

    The good thing is, there is a blurring of everything, you could literally be anything you want to be. And nobody cares. I think this is a very good thing.

    However the new ones; I think the notion of being different be predicated on assessing others, and then literally trying to be different, but rather, trying to critically assess who you are, and then, just focus on your own personality.

    For example, a sociological curiosity I’ve always had is how much of our personality is genetic or biological versus societal? Now that Seneca is 3 1/2, I have a partially good answer.

    Based on my observation, considering that also, I’ve literally almost been with Seneca 24 7, since he was born…  I think one personality is maybe 65% of the equation, and the rest of it is socialized.

    For example, Seneca in terms of his personality is very unlike me. He is more reserved, critical, and I think wiser. I am a little bit too foolish, too loud, too trusting. I think his personality is a carbon clone of Cindy.

    The nuance is that a lot of the things that I’ve been teaching him, is kind of like a social technology, like giving people high-fives, fist bumps, etc. Also, the fact that we are essentially outside all day, not in some sort of grid system.

    Cyber Beach, beach school? 

    Beach school? Kids would be a lot happier? 

    Ethics?

    Something which is not allowed to be talked about… we could talk about breeds of dogs, but not humans. 

    OK… let us apply a line of thinking to dogs, different breeds of dogs. For example, certainly a canine or pitbull would be a much better and ferocious fighter than a pug or a hotdog wiener dog.

    But the funny thing is I think all breeds of dogs could procreate with one another, irregardless of breed? 

    Genetic differences 

    Certainly with human beings, there are some families which are naturally taller, some families which are naturally shorter. And certainly there has been some sort of genetic diversification on the planet and beyond, especially when it comes a different parts of the planet.

    For example, in certain places certain humans have more bodily hair, possibly to dissipate the heat. For example, the physiology of somebody from ancient Greece would probably be a lot different from somebody from Sweden.

    Other places, we adapt to gain darker pigments to fight off the sun. It makes sense, if your family genetic heritage is from sub-Saharan Africa, logically the human body will produce more pigment to fight off the sun then if your genetic heritage was from northern Sweden, in which during the winter time you might only get 30 minutes of sun.

    Why others are confused by me

    I’m starting to feel more and more… maybe other people, they’re just a different breed than me. For example, I think of myself kind of like a canine, a K9 attack police dog, and everyone else is just a wiener dog? Or annoying poodles?

    And so then… when other people try to punk me around, I have zero tolerance for it.

    For example, let us say that you were a ferocious fighting dog, and there’s a random annoying poodle that starts barking at you! Or tries to bully you around? How would you respond? Obviously you would just want the damn poodle to shut up!

    Or I am the Gerardos, everyone else is like a Diglett or a Magikarp?

    Thinking about Achilles

    In my mind, I see myself like an Achilles. I see myself like the most handsome, powerful, dominant, ultra being out there. And perhaps it is precisely my oversized ego is where I get my power.

    I think there are a lot of sissy philosophers and thinkers who somehow think that ego is a bad thing. I think this is not the case. Your ego is almost like your balls and your testicles… would you castrate yourself because sometimes it makes you too angry– having big balls and a lot of testosterone is almost like overpower.

    For example, we think about Dragon Ball Z, Goku going super Saiyan etc.… Obviously you want the golden flaming flowing hair, and the ultra power of going super Saiyan! But let us say that with the ability to go super Saiyan, there were also some downsides like sometimes you cannot tolerate the power? Would you sacrifice it? Of course not!

    Niagara Falls would make a great bitcoin mining rig 

    Kind of like a raging river, Niagara Falls; would the point be to simply cut it off … or wouldn’t a more intelligent strategy to be to harness it like putting a water electricity damn thing on it, harness the hydropower, not to cut it off?

    And this is my critique about modern day times, it seems like a lot of people are trying to do is to castrate the source, rather than channel that energy for positive constructive good things!

    Don’t castrate yourself!

    For example, the ego should be something augmented, amplified and magnified, but also concurrent channeled in such a way which could be empowering and useful for others?

    How?

    So can we use the ego in a constructive or positive way?

    First, a non-competitive spirit… just compliment everybody you see! Even if somebody is taller, more good looking, handsomer, richer, more successful, buffer than you! When you see somebody with a great physique, the correct strategy is to compliment them and acknowledge them!

    Second, to harness and channel your ego and your energy and your physiological power towards writing, producing text, making videos, podcasts etc.… Sharing ideas, irregardless of how unethical they may seem.

    If anything… I’m starting to think more and more, the only interesting ideas are the unethical ones. Or the ones which are shunned by mainstream modern day society.

    To me, the only good ideas are the bad ones. When an idea seems right, and it seems to make sense, typically it is bad and or wrong.

    Follow your values

    When it comes to values, there is no right or wrong, there are simply authentic to yourself, or not.

    For example, my values and beliefs in open source, entrepreneurship, and empowerment through photography are true. Why? I grew up poor, single working mom waiting tables at Japanese sushi restaurant for nearly 20 years, and also almost went homeless twice. A lot of your own personal narrative forms who you are.

    As a consequence, I think the idea is not too shroud who you are, your own personality etc., but rather to magnify it!

    Magnify your personality!

    For example, I’m a very inquisitive, curious person, and I’d like to chop it up! I like to be friendly!

    Funny enough… I try to be friendly to everybody, but people who are standoffish, or bizarro, they react to me in very bizarre ways. But should I suddenly shut down my friendly personality because other guy is a cowardly poodle? No!

    ERIC KIM PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT

    Ever since I was a kid, what was my great gift? Being a great entertainer! I am literally the most entertaining person that I know, I’ve only met maybe two people in the flesh who outperformed me.

    Maybe it is a form of social conquest, trolling around, having fun etc.! Maybe it is that I seek to be the biggest dick in the room? 

    But it’s supposed to question is, why do I care? Why do I care to be the biggest dick in the room?

    Not sure? Maybe the desire to dominate is in my DNA?

    How I became the street photographer 

    Whether you like it or not, all street photographers, especially young ones are disciples of ERIC KIM. How and why? I essentially created a metaphorical Bible or textbook or encyclopedia and ultimate resource for anything revolving around street photography. Why?

    100 lessons from the masters of street photography

    It was always my number one goal to be the number one street photographer on Google, to become number one in street photography. As a consequence, my laser like eyes and focus was insanely simple; do everything I could do to become number one on Google for street photography. And the strategy was very very simple, create the most in-depth articles blog posts and information for everything street photography! It took me nearly a decade, but I did it! After that, other domains to conquer.

    But the funny thing is in today’s world… certainly Google is relevant, but now that ChatGPT is coming out with their own search engine, which is in my opinion at least 1000 X more intelligent, google should be scared, very scared. 

    What is the future?

    Obviously it will be ChatGPT and AI, open AI.

    Let us consider… AI and cars. Besides the vanity object, the ideal is for your car to be 100% self driving, and this is where Tesla is a great bet; one should think of Tesla like artificial intelligence company with wheels.

    Because the truth is, if you compare the ride quality of any Tesla car and any Toyota, the Toyota is superior and almost every single shape and form, besides speed. A Tesla is very very uncomfortable, the springs are too harsh, the ride quality is inferior to even my 2010 Prius!

    For example, if you wanted a car with the ultimate ride comfort, you would probably purchase a Lexus vehicle, or maybe a Mercedes? 

    Even though I love Tesla and Elon Musk to death, the cars feel pretty cheap. If you wanted the best car, probably get a Lexus LS.

    Autopilot is the killer feature

    But anyways, the really intelligent strategy is to purchase the cheapest base level Tesla car, with the most basic options, and just purchase auto pilot. I think auto pilot for about $8000 is the best deal of all time; it is like having your own personal driving slave that doesn’t need to be fed, paid, never gets tired, is always ready.

    Even the new Google pixel that comes with the new pro Gemini AI… If your life runs on Gmail, it is kind of the game changer.

    If you can’t beat them join them 

    Even Apple is lagging behind in artificial intelligence, the new Apple Intelligence looks pretty lame. Super smart that the Apple team decided to integrate with open AI to integrate ChatGPT into her services; if you can’t beat them, join them. 

    Rather than Apple trying to create a ChatGPT copycat, simply to integrate or offer ChatGPT services on the iPhone is the smart way.

    I guess Google has had a bit of a headstart; she was in the AI game for a very long time. And this is where Google to pivot to focus on AI is a good idea. 

    So what will be the purpose of humans now?

    In a brave New World of ChatGPT, AI etc.… What is the purpose or the significance of humans?

    The first step is to transfer all of the tedious tasks from humans to ChatGPT. Or AI.

    For example, the greatest innovation of TurboTax is having that new AI that automatically has you categorize all of your expenses. Oh my god, this was literally the most hateful thing about doing my taxes, having to categorize all of my different deductions. But now, what would otherwise take me about eight hours, takes me about eight seconds when you connect TurboTax with your bank accounts.

    I love TurboTax!

    And this is where the future of things become interesting; all these things in the past which we had to do inefficiently slowly and begrudgingly… we should just let AI do it, and we humans do more meaningful things. 


    Slave Work, Master Work?

    I think this is the future; let AI be the new slave, and you, the flesh bound human being, you do the human creative work!

    The ultimate disruption 

    ChatGPT is one quadrillion times more productive than you. This is a big deal. Why?

    What that means is that the purpose of us humans is not productivity. We can finally unchain ourselves from the leashes of this ridiculous notion of productivity. 

    How do the gods of mount Olympus live?

    The gods, who live at ease. 

    You fools, the point of life is not to give fellatio to hard things, hard lives, etc. We should be like Zeus, with the mighty thunderbolt, the gods lived in supreme ease.

    This is also the funny thing is that when a lot of people retire, make a bunch of money or whatever they are lost… they don’t know how to embrace or live a life of ease; they’re still trying to grind their nose against the grinder, because for their whole life, that is what their life was? 

    I would say emulate the gods of the Iliad, ancient Greece. Read the new Iliad translation by Emily Wilson, I purchased it in the iBooks store, reading on my iPad Pro and I love it!

    Ethos

    I suppose that the primary thing here to consider is the ethos of human humanity, reasons of living etc.

    I think for too long, the whole ethos of humanity was to maximize productivity, income income earning potential, money and capital and capitalism etc.… but once again, if bitcoin, AI and ChatGPT can do it better than you, by 1 billion fold,,, what is your new life ethos?

    Risk free returns

    Assuming that you’re a big contractor, and you’re building a new skyscraper or commercial real estate or whatever, what is the goal? To create income producing property, and to eventually cop a profit?

    However the great issue here is the cost to capital; the startup costs and the initial investment is too high! As a consequence, let us say that you invested $1 billion to build this new commercial real estate… You eventually have to find all these tenants to sign a lease, occupy it, pay the lease or the rent, and maybe in 20 or 30 years you can make a positive profit? 

    Assuming that bitcoin is digital capital, digital land, digital real estate… The cost of capital is practically zero, you just have to sit and vest, I can almost guarantee you that you have a 0% risk over 30 years. And I can almost guarantee you with 100% clarity that bitcoin will go up in the next 30 years. 

    I also like the notion of bitcoin being digital real estate because nobody checks their home price on Zillow 10 times a day, reacting to short term increases or decreases or volatility.

    Why is bitcoin so volatile?

    It is a feature, not a bug!

    First, you could trade bitcoin 24/7, 365, every millisecond. 
    Let us consider how insane this is… It is the year 2024, we live in the future, and traditional markets are closed on the weekends? This is 1 trillion times bizarre.

    Assuming that the real world was like a science fiction film… Can you Which economic trading doesn’t happen on the weekends?

    So this is why bitcoin is so volatile and always goes up and down, almost randomly because it is always trading! I wonder if the volatility of other assets and stocks are a lot less because simply you can’t trade it on the weekends.


    Flesh future

    I’m pretty sure that almost 99.9% of men, assuming that they have an iPhone, probably watches porn every single day, almost 100% certain at least once a week or once a month etc. Or better yet, if you want to see whether your friend watches porn or not, ask to see his laptop, and to see whether they have a torrenting or VPN application installed on their MacBook laptop– utorrent, Trasmission etc.

    Or, if they have the brave browser on their phone, Google Chrome incognito etc.

    Almost every single person I know who works in tech, knows how to program or code whatever, all use pirate bay.

    Anyways, once again another bizarre thing; one would never watch pornography which is centered around ideas, souls, personalities, etc. It is always the flesh, the human body!

    Why did it in modern day times, we are trying to deny the human body, and trying to promote instead, one’s “personality” and “mind” and “soul”– ?


    Build your body

    Become a body – builder ,,, obviously without the steroids!

    ERIC


    All injected hormones are bad hormones

    Unless you have cancer, HIV aids, and is literally a life or death thing.

    EK


    Things to learn

    I think for myself, I have a passion for learning. Why?

    First, lot of things about life and society are confusing to me; for example, a recent thing I learned about the Z boys, in the drought during the 1970s caused everyone to not have water in their pool, so these kids who would just jump fences and skateboard in the empty pools of people in Venice Beach or whatever… this is where the pipe, skateboarding thing came from? 

    Also from a random Jay-Z interview that I learned… why is it that in hip-hop culture, guys would wear beanies, baggy jeans, and wear Timberland cold weather work boots? I think he said that it was for drug dealing, in the cold New York winter… And also probably would bag your pants you could hide a gun. 

    Black timbs all on your couch again!

    Also… The reason for the Lamborghini scissor doors on the Lamborghini Countach, was originated by the fact that the early models of the Lamborghini, because the reversing ability was too dangerous, they invented the scissor door mechanism so you could put up the scissor doors, and reverse your car, without hitting it! But now that we have reverse cameras and stuff etc.… there’s really no more reason to have scissor doors anymore. 

    So maybe, the next Lamborghini you buy… forgo the scissor doors!

    Don’t trust fashion

    Also why is it that yoga leggings became a fashion trend for women in LA? Simple… You never know when you want to do yoga, so the optimal strategy is to just always wear yoga leggings, so you could jump into class whenever you want to!

    Also, I think a lot of the fashion trends for gay guys were simply a signaling thing; let us say I am gay and I am not sure whether you are gay or not… Therefore I would adopt a certain fashion style, talking style, or bodily gesticulation ideas so I could signal that I am gay and you’re also gay. 

    Code words.

    Documentaries

    1. Pumping iron, the classic documentary with Arnold I think it’s on Amazon prime TV?
    2. Stronger better faster, documentary about steroids, watch it on Apple TV+ just pay the 10 bucks
    3. The legendary Z boys documentary of skateboarding

    What to experiment with?

    There is literally no downside to fasting or intermittent fasting. About 90% of modern day metabolic diseases can essentially be fixed by fasting. Type two diabetes, type three diabetes (Alzheimer’s), obesity, exhaustion, etc.

    My simple suggestion: stop eating breakfast and lunch, and if you’re hungry just drink some water, black coffee with nothing in it, or green tea.

    What is the best time to break your fast? Treat it like Ramadan… Only ever eat after the sun goes down. This makes for a dynamic workflow; because certainly the sun changes during the winter or the summer. 

    Also, assuming that it is not against your religion… I also recommend everyone to do 100% carnivore diet, and besides meat, red meat, goat lamb beef, pork is also good (achilles roasted a hog to feed his guests), bone marrow, beef ribs, backbone, etc. for greens just eat arugula, kale, watercress.

    Quit sugar

    Quit all sugar, the real stuff that fake stuff, even the fake “good” sugar.

    There is no biological reason you need to consume fruit, fruit is just candy with a good conscience.

    Also start vegetables, it is just poverty food; people would eat starchy vegetables or rice or white rice to avoid dying.

    Also a theory… Perhaps the reason why in Asia white rice was so prized was if the rice was white… It was a hygiene thing; you knew that there was not any maggots, or insect in it, or things which could cause you to get sick and die.

    60 pound weight vest

    Titan.fitness , and just walk around all day! Just buy a cheap sun hat on Amazon for 10 bucks, and sun block up! 

    Also, I believe every single man, each and every single man should own at least one great barbell. Buy the Texas power squat bar, if I did it all over again I would buy the monsters Squat bar!

    IPad Pro

    I think Apple should do a commercial with me, just using the iPad Pro, no case no pencil (eric@erickim.com)–

    I’ve become an icon in Culver City, I’m the dude who just walks around all day, with his iPad Pro. Most people have never seen me even use an iPhone. 

    Voice dictation is the future, there is no reason to text message or use your thumbs in the year 2024, the only reason people don’t use voice dictation is that they feel it is socially weird?  But why should you care?

    This is where the next new wave of innovation is simply conquering social expectations, social fears. Allow yourself to be aberrant and different. 


    What to read

    1. The bitcoin standard
    2. The Iliad by Emily Wilson
    3. The Odyssey by Emily Wilson

  • JUST FIX IT, JUST MOD IT.

    Some capital thoughts:

    OK, it seems that what a lot of us seek is maybe fulfilling a curiosity gap, purchasing something because we think it will boost our happiness, etc. But is this ever the case?

    No!

    At the age of 36, I’ve achieved all my life goals, pretty much purchased everything I’ve ever really wanted, and this is my big lesson:

    No matter how good the stuff you purchase, sooner or later, you will quickly tire and bore of it. 

    Perhaps it is human nature. And this is how we were hardwired.

    However, I think the pernicious effect of consumerism and maybe capitalism is that we have this false belief, this false reality that purchasing XYZ will make us “happy”, or give us everlasting bliss. 

    Or, that having ex amount of income or money in the bank or whatever will make us “happy“, or give us a feeling of security? 

    Male vs Female capital

    This is what I generally observed; through money in capital, women seek a sense of security, belonging, or to be appreciated or desired?

    For example, if you look at all these sexy girls on Instagram or whatever… Or women who spend too much money on clothes, what is it that basic? Acceptance, to be perceived as beautiful, to be desired or desirable.

    Also it seems that with women, the desire of purchasing a home, a single-family home a condo whatever, is a sense of security.

    For men, it seems that we think of as a form of power, power augmentation, and maybe what we conflate is power with happiness?

    What if… power and happiness were not the same thing? But different? 

    What if the fact was in order to become more powerful, you had to become more unhappy? Or conversely… That the most people were actually the least powerful?

    Question; would you rather be the unhappy dragon, or the happy cow?

    How to switch things up

    My neighbor, successful Silicon Valley, google employee, about my age, single, no kids, not yet married, has a girlfriend, seems that he just treated out his old Audi S3 sport for a Porsche 718 sport. And it is funny… Although the engine or the exhaust of the Porsche sounds way cooler, in terms of aesthetics, not much of a difference.

    Actually, the more I look at the Porsche 718,  the more I hate the design. The rear end of it looks terrible!  and assuming that you’re a normal human being who always parks their car nose in, butt out, what that means is almost 100% of the time, you’re going to be staring at your car from behind.

    My personal thought is the best designed Porsche car from behind is certainly the Porsche 911 with the singular blade light. And it also seems that the new Porsche 911, which I think might have a hybrid in it, has a more aesthetic looking tailpipe design.

    Anyways, the problem with design is as good as the design is, it will never less. For example, even my film Leica MP, black paint, fully mechanical, mechanical perfection, with the Leica 35mm f2 Summicron Lens — yeah it is super nice, and essentially the design is perfect ; it is probably the perfect design because it is 100% mechanical, you don’t need a battery for it to take pictures, or operate. The only battery thing in it is the light meter, which is insanely useful. The film Leica M-A does not have a light meter, which almost seems more like a aesthetic exercise, not a practical one. Having a built-in light meter is insanely useful.

    Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler.

    This is why I still think that the film like a MP camera is the most best, the most supreme, because you don’t want to be taking the light meter out of the camera, very much how Rico foolishly got rid of the built-in flash. The Ricoh GR II with the built-in integrated flash is still probably the best one, I think about all the great photos I saw with it, using the built-in flash. The Ricoh GR III/X also insanely great, but still… It seems that the wise optimization is making a little bit bigger, and put back in the flash, rather than just trying to make it super super small, but getting rid of an insanely useful thing, like the built-in flash.

    Kind of like if you’re a man, and you’re trying to “lose weight”, and you decide to chop off your penis in your balls in order to “lose” a pound. Not a good idea.

    Simple ideas

    I think what we humans have a joy in is change over time, or before and afters.

    For example, who is happier? The guy who starts off with the salary at $40,000 a year, and gets a pay raise to $80,000 a year? Or to the guy who makes $1 billion a year, and then his income is reduced to only $10 million a year? Obviously the person in the second scenario is in the far superior economic financial position, but will probably feel miser miserable compared to the guy with a more modest income, who had a massive jump!

    And this is also the funny thing… It is all relative! For example, when I was in college, $3000, $5000, $7000, $10,000, were an unfathomably big number to me. But now, I’m chasing 1.2 million, 2.5 million, $10 million and beyond.

    Also, I guess it’s good that I’ve built a more stoic mindset when it comes to money, for example, if I randomly see my bitcoin balance dip $200,000 or $300,000 down, it doesn’t really bother me that much, whereas in the past, even seeing my money go down $500 or $1000 dollars was like being kicked in the balls. 

    Wise economics

    Very very simple, if you want shits and giggles, never buy anything, either rent it, test drive it, maybe even leasing it might be a better idea. Why? Instead of dropping $80,000 on a brand new car, to just lease it for two or three years, and get it out of your system, might be a better bet than Pissing away all that money that you could otherwise put into bitcoin, and have it 1000X from here. 

    Also, I think one of the joys I have on living very very close to two car dealerships is that I always walk by the cars, and the funny joy is I don’t really feel like I have the need to actually own it; because I could just look at it, it feels like I metaphorically own it!

    For example for a while there was a cyber truck here, and I will look at it every single day, and even the cyber truck, as much as I love it, I eventually bored of it. Even now, I used to be super super excited when I would see a cyber truck on the road, And now, even though it brings a small to my face, it doesn’t bring me the insane excitement that it did before.

    All

    I think this applies to cars women, your bank account account balance balance etc.

    No matter how good grand perfect or whatever… Sooner or later you will bore of it. 

    For example, in regards to women… No matter how beautiful the woman is, sooner or later, assuming that you only got with the woman only for her beauties… Assuming that you just wanted to bet her indefinitely, I could almost guarantee you 100% that After a few fun nights, you will tire and bore.

    Same thing with owning that Lamborghini; I actually had the realization, now that the Hurucan and the Aventador has been outdated and replaced… None of the new Lamborghinis have any appeal to me, practically zero. What I then realize is the whole time, I didn’t really care for the Lamborghini so much, as for what it stood for,  ultimately the only reason why Lamborghini was cool in the first place was because of Kanye West. And as much as people like to ignore, all modern day rappers are all disciples of Kanye West. Even Travis Scott, who was the most raging success, was discovered by Kanye and promoted by Kanye.

    Even apparently Adidas,,, who apparently asked their contract with Kanye because of Kanye‘s controversial “antisemetic” remarks, they are now selling his Yeezy sneakers at a 70% discount!  it shows that I guess then Adidas… They are a bunch of scumbags, and they don’t really support anti antisemitism, – if they really really cared, they would just throw all of the unsold Yeezy supplies into the furnace, because it would be unethical to in for a profit. So ultimately, guys, all corporations and companies, and publicly treated companies have no morals and ethics, why?  if Adidas truly truly did support the Jewish community and if Adidas was truly anti-Kanye West for his anti-Semitism they would never ever ever continue to sellthe Yeezy sneakers, even to  sell off the unsold supply. The ethical thing would have been to either burn or shred the unsold Yeezy supply. 

    How to switch it up

    Very very simple thoughts: first, before selling your car or trading it in for something new, just wash your car, and wax it! Also a very very simple modification you could do to your car is to purchase some Matt Black paint primer, rust oleum, or a shiny glass black paint, and just spray paint your rims either a mat black, gloss black, or satin black. 

    Also ironically, the best mod you could do is removal! For example, just buy some goo gone,  and the debadge your car, get rid of all the emblems! This is what I did to the 2010 Prius that I inherited, and aesthetically I love it so much more without the emblems! 

    Also if you have an old car, get rid of the tent. You know sometimes the older cars when you have the low quality tent, in the tent becomes purple and starts to bubble? Yeah I get rid of that. Also that you really do have a race car or sports car, if you wanted to go faster, get rid of the power steering, air conditioning, And also the radio. And if you really really wanted to be a race car, get rid of all the sound deadening, interior stuff, rear seats, etc. And you could tidy up your engine bay just clean it up!

    If you want a very very simple modification, just purchase some 3M matte black vinyl wrap, and just wrap your car! To wrap your car is very easy, it is just like a big sticker! My suggestion is just do it over some accents and small parts, not the whole car. Why? Even if you purchased the best car wrap on the planet, and have it installed by the best person on the planet, you take care of it with the best sprays cleaning supplies and products, and always keep apart in the garage whatever… Lifetime on these things are maybe 3 to 7 years tops?

    And this is where I’m still a bigger fan of real automotive paint; assuming that you take care of care of a good paint job it might last maybe 20 years? Even 30 years? Assuming also it is a white paint job? And also don’t be a fool; black paint, even the best black paint never lasts, even if you have the best Mercedes car, or BMW or Lexus, sooner you will get the paint scratches, and when it is 100° in LA, you’re going to wish that you did not have that car. And if you do a simple physics test; let us say you live in Arizona or Las Vegas, if you have a black car in the dark sun it will probably not last you 20 or 30 years.

    Then I suppose the question is how long do we want these things to last anyways? Do we really want them to last forever, or are we secretly waiting for it to break, either intentionally or unintentionally, to give us an excuse to “upgrade”?

    Upgrading is a scam

    Some low-key unethical behaviors from Apple; she wants you to trade in your old iPhone, at an 80% loss, to upgrade to her newest most mediocre device, which will also probably be outdated in a year or two? 

    Typically what I see a lot of people do is that they will find a reason to “upgrade” their phone by giving their old phone to their sibling, parents, etc.… But once again guys, this is a very foolish decision.

    My simple thought is the only purpose of an iPhone is for FaceTime and Google maps. This, the iPhone is really quite a mediocre device. 1000,000,000,000 times better to have a iPad Pro, if you really want to be productive.

    In fact, what is the modern Day iPhone Pro? Not a camera, if you really cared for photography you would purchase a standalone digital camera. If you really wanted to increase your productivity you would just buy an 11 inch iPad Pro. Maybe the iPhone, iPhone Pro, is just a mobile pornography device or perhaps a mobile distraction device? 

    True happiness

    My recipe for happiness is simple; sleep 8 to 12 hours a night, walk 30,000 steps a day, maximum time outside all day, never be stuck in doors, to play with your child with full vigor, to lift weights at least once in the day, to have a loving family, too fast all day and to only break your fast right before it is time to sleep, and to essentially have strength vicar and power all day long!

    “Heem”

    In Korean, there’s this notion of “heem”– which just means vigor or strength.

    Also, the notion of getting sick, like the common cold “gam-gee” is meaning that you lost your “gi” (the Chinese call it your “chi”).

    The significance of it is that when you catch a common cold, it essentially you lose your strength, your power.

    To me, the only thing I hate in the world is feeling tired, exhausted, weak, without vigor.  And even a simple thought; I think for a lot of men, the goals to get super super buff, super jacked, insanely muscular arms, whatever… Or to hit a certain inches for your biceps, your arms, to hit certain numbers for your lifts, to hit a certain weight, to hit a certain body fat percentage, whatever… But ultimately, the most critical thing here is having insane vigor, audacity, strength, and power! Physiological power. Nothing else matters.

    This is where that takes away from your physiological is bad. For example, would you eject your seminal fluid, immediately before attempting to lift 1000 pounds? Probably not.

    Also — no boxer would smoke weed, consume alcohol, taking any drugs or downers, immediately before the big fight! Even something I’m not sure… I don’t even think a boxer would drink coffee right before the fight? Why? Even something I discovered with public speaking, the worst thing you could do is to consume caffeine or an upper or a downer right before a big speech. Better to just drink a bunch of water and do it sober. Why? I’ve had an espresso before giving a public talk, or doing a workshop, or drinking coffee before workshop… And once I actually get into action, I become too stimulated, too much adrenaline. 

    Apparently there are a lot of musicians, orchestra people, people in the band or whatever who all take these muscle relaxants, or these downers, or calming drugs before getting on stage to deal with stage anxiety… But this is also a bad idea because it will make you a bit slower, and you will lose your edge.

    Water is best.


    What if everything you believed in was false?

    After watching the bigger stronger faster documentary on steroids, very eye-opening. Everyone is on some sort of steroid or drug! Even jetfighter, in the Air Force, “go pills”– they take it like candy! Also, an interesting history of science book and medicine, “Blitzed”– outlined how the panzer Blitzkrieg nazi tank operators, were essentially all high on cocaine and meth, in order to drive their tanks straight for three days without food rest or stopping. Even apparently, Adolf Hitler was high on all these drugs, and even had his own private doctor prescribe him all these anti anxiety pills and medicines —

    And you see this in show business all the time — all of these super successful media personalities end up overdosing on heroin cocaine, or end up committing suicide? Anthony Bourdain, Robin Williams?

    All media is bad.

    This apparently happens a lot to child actors, think of Degrassi Drake — i’m sure being part of the whole whole factory of Nickelodeon at such a young age, was probably traumatizing. I would not be surprised if the truth was even the rapper Drake was sexually abused as a child.

    This is where it is wise to assume that all show business is evil; never let your kids get into it, not for any sum of money or fame!

    Facts

    Let us do some simple mathematics, calculations, and thought experiments: let us say that for living, you depend on YouTube advertising. And you want to maximize your views your clicks, your walk-throughs, etc.… Certainly it will be your best interest to create things which are maximally controversial, Crazy, insane, as well as bad.

    Also this is where we could consider Instagram for young girls almost like child pornography; if you are a young teenage girl, or even in your 20s, what maximizes views clicks followers etc.? Obviously things which are more sexual in nature. Very very creepy, let us see your daughter is on Instagram, and you have single 50 or 60-year-old men  calling her watching her videos, looking at her pictures, certainly you will not like that.


    Physique is overrated

    I’m starting to think, perhaps physique is overrated.

    Why? Men and women who chase physique, will sooner or later do weird stuff.

    For example —  men who see physique will eventually start injecting their butt holes with steroids. Women who seek physique will eventually start injecting their lips, their faces, also their butts.

    Why do we care for physique so much?

    Curious question… Why is it that we seek physique so much? 

    Physique is the same thing like the exterior of your car, “All show, no go”.

    I think my theory is that appearances physique is marketable. For example, let us say you have a sports car, and you have done no exterior modifications, and you have a “sleeper” car. 

    Now a lot of people, they would spend all their money to modify the exterior of their car. Why? Because it is the only thing that will help you get likes on social media. Also, when you are on the road, it is the only thing that people could see. 

    But the reason why when I was really into modifying my car, I only cared for engine mods was because when you’re driving your car, you could only feel the “butt dyno”– for example, change over time, let us say you install a new short ram intake, headers, exhaust etc.… You will feel a difference in performance, but if you do some sort of exterior modification, you cannot enjoy it while you are inside your car driving.

    The correct strategy

    I think in life, the best and the most correct strategy is it is better to take a $2000 sports car, and slowly modify it, rather than already purchase a $100,000 vehicle. If your end objective is to maximize your pleasure happiness, and fun, this is the best bet. 

    For example, don’t buy the loser Porsche 911 convertible, just buy an old Mazda Miata, 1990– 5 speed, manual, no air conditioning no power steering – and feel free to thrash it around as you like!

    This is why I’m so happy with the 2010 Prius I got; I feel zero recompense on spray painting the rims, changing it up, and fucking around with it!

    I suppose this is where the upside of cheap and free is; for example if you really wanted to become a fashion designer, just buy some insanely cheap clothes or free clothes, and take some heavy duty scissors and cut off the sleeves, make it a crop top whatever. Even apparently nowadays, the trend is jean shorts, ”jorts”– which is very very easy to do if you just took your old jeans and just cut off the legs!

    Fashion?

    Fashion means how you make yourself.

    Facere– to make.

    The simple bifurcation of fashion:

    With clothing and fashion, are you trying to highlight your beauty, or hide your ugliness? 

    For example, it seems that the whole genius of LA girls just wearing leggings all the time, especially when they just wear white leggings, is for them to show off all their body parts, legally. 

    If you’re a man, legally you do not need to wear a shirt when you’re out in public. So if your man, spend zero money on T-shirts, shirts, etc. I think the best thing to wear is a tank top, assuming you have to be somewhere indoors or whatever… But a simple thing you could just do is just take your old T-shirt, and just cut off the sleeves! 

    Crop top it?

    Even a simple idea; I see women do this all the time, is wearing a crop top, showing off their belly and belly button. 

    A simple thing you could do as a man is to to make your own crop top! It seemed that when I was a teenager growing up, everyone was so anti-gay, only gay guys were crop tops, to signal that they were gay. But now, You could do anything you want!

    If anything, more interesting for a straight guy with a kid  to be wearing a crop top in public, obviously signaling he is not gay — assuming that the kid is biologically his, assuming that she has a wife,

    Even something funny and disruptive I did at my old gym, was when I was about to lift a really really heavy, I would roll up my shirt, and expose my belly button, and even my nipples, and nobody ever said anything! And I think some guys at the gym might’ve thought I was gay, but then when I would chop it up with the women at the gym, they would be confused?

    The best life

    It is my personal belief that the best life involves and revolves around being outside all day, walking around all day, on your two feet all day,  without having to sit down or be indoors

    And also, what is heaven on earth? A happy family!  

    Assuming you’re trying to maximize your happiness joy and pleasure in life, the obvious strategy is to have at least one kid. Ideally two; ideally a boy and a girl, in order to maximize and augment your human experiences. Certainly raising a boy and a girl is different.