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

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

Economic problems

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

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

Risk of injury?

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

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

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

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

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

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How to feel insanely good?

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

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

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

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

Money thinking

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

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

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

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

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

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

Property?

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

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

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

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

Generations?

99 generations from now?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Out there?

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

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

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

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

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

Economic photo power?

Some economic, philosophical thoughts on photography:

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

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

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

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

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

Last?

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

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

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

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

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

Cybertruck?

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

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

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

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

So what should you do?

Some simple life goals: 

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

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

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

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

So now what?

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

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

You choose.

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

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

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

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

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

Freedom of property?

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

Bitcoin is perfect for digital nomads.

Buying a home or property is a scam?

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

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

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

Your roof?

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

Hidden expenses and headaches?

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

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

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

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Incoming!

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

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

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

Why Bitcoin?

Stay humble and stack sats – Michael Saylor

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

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

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

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

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

What do we really want and desire? 

Most people are lonely?

Interesting thing about video games, media, the have to deal with other human beings, other fictional beings. For example, people who watch TV shows movies etc.… It is impossible for this all to happen and exist without some sort of human drama, human actors, human agency etc. As a consequence, things in life which we are exposed in around other human beings, this is what we feel the greatest joy?

For example, spending time working out at my own personal home gym, versus being in a physical real life gym. I think honestly half the fund of working out at a gym is being around other people! Other people motivate us, give us more energy and power, stronger motivation.

Also, I think one of the greatest upsides of having a child is you have a strong motivation to live for. I think life for at least one child is meaningless, base, a void.  This is why I think people throw themselves into drugs, sex, travel, consumers in shopping, cheap thrills etc. It is that they have nothing greater to live for.

Perhaps this is why people are the most miserable on Sundays, typically when it is the most quiet, people are at home by themselves. Especially for people who don’t go to church anymore or go to church at all.

Ideas

Some basic ideas:

First, I remember my great joy of living in Saigon Vietnam, in which Cindy and I just lived a very simple life in a hotel. I personally loved it because I would be able to interact with the staff, Vietnam is bustling with tons of life and street life! I think also the reason why street photography is so great for us is that it deals with other human beings. I think people Often spend too much time trying to define street, in context of what it is, and what it is not. But however, to me this is all a bit off points; the more critical thing is that sooner or later, all of us street photographers have a shared passion for other humans and humanity; so anything that could bring us closer to other human beings is a good thing.

Also in terms of people who do yoga and the like, I really do think it is that people like being around other human beings! I think what we have learned through Covid is the greatest human joy is being around other human beings. Even though we don’t have to directly interact with them, we love being around other people! For example for us technology workers,  that is why a lot of us like to do work at coffee shops; we feel more safe secure and happy when we are adjacent to other human beings. Even though we don’t have to directly interact with them, I think we like having other “non-playable characters” around us!

Why we love travel so much

My theory on why we love traveling so much is that it leads us to interact more with other human beings, whether directly or indirectly. For example, even the simple act of transit; jumping in an Uber, going to the airport, flying, going to new places etc. I think the average American spends too much time alone, when you go elsewhere you’re constantly surrounded by other human beings. This is why I think typically speaking I am happier in Southeast Asia; More time around other human beings. And also very happy Culver City friendly lifestyle I enjoy, because in Los Angeles, it is one of the very few places that I could actually see other human beings walking around, etc.

Solutions

I think we often underestimate the amount of agency and control we have over our lives. Everything you do in your life is your own choice.

For example, I wonder if 90% of your life, your own personal life enjoy is actually centered around your local, where you decide to live, how do you decide to live etc.

For example very basic things; if you don’t want to work anymore, it is very easy for you to retire right now, move to Cambodia or Vietnam, live a simple life for only $300 USD a month for rent. For example, I credit living in Vietnam for a year And going off the grid to have some deep philosophical introspection; I think this is a very beneficial idea for almost anybody, who is seeking to “find themselves “, or to seek greater clarity in their lives.

Phnom Penh Cambodia, Hanoi, Saigon, Mexico City etc.

What do you want from and out of your life?

How to live, what to live for, critical things to consider.

If you’re on the fence about having a kid or not, just do it. Having a child is the single best innovation you could do for your life. It is literally going from zero to one.

I cannot speak for having multiple children yet, as currently I only have one kid. But certainly having Seneca has brought me the ultimate joy in life, the ultimate direction, ultimate purpose. It is very simple;, my personal life. I don’t even have to blink twice.

For people who are just living for themselves, I think is actually very empty. 

Even as a kid, it seem to make a lot of logical sense; the purpose of a parent was to sacrifice for their children. For example, seeing how much my mom sacrificed for me, was ultimate example, a blueprint which I embedded for Seneca.

Now what?

I cannot speak for everybody, but for me, I think getting married but not to have kids, is like dating 2.0; after getting married with Cindy, certain things become a little more serious like combining finances, our commitment to another etc.… But the true test in the true meaning is having a child together, raising the child together.

Certainly not everyone has to have a kid if you don’t want to. People have metaphorical children through their artwork; even Nietzsche said:

Either kids or books (lubricant aut liberi)

Nietzsche was essentially doing a funny Latin pun, saying that women either give birth to books, or children, never both. I am impressed that Cindy has done both.

Futures

Now that Covid is essentially over, I think a very simple way to live life is to treat your life like dune. I think watching Dune part two has had the strongest most recent effect on me; imagine that you were Paul Atrides– and that your life was as grand epic. Live your life like it.

I actually had a funny thought, that if you are a father, and you have birth at least one male air, assuming that your firstborn kid was actually a son… You as a father should consider yourself infinitely blessed. For example, I imagine myself like the Duke of Baracus, and that my son was Seneca.

I also suppose that I’m in a very privilege and unique position in which that I am self-employed, might have been the only child ever been raised, by his father, from birth until now. Never having to be put into daycare, preschool, etc. As a consequence, The most capable kid of all time, at the age of three years, two months.

If you have the option, you should be the one to raise your child, not strangers. 

Writing

The hilarious irony; I’ve made my living from writing, yet I have never considered myself a writer, nor do I think it is a big deal. In fact, when I was in school, I never did that well in English; it was simply pragmatic.

For me, writing is simply probably the most direct, simple and effective means for communication.  for example, writing and reading to me is at least 10,000 times faster, more effective than listening to things. For example, with interviews I would always prefer to read the transcript instead of listening to the whole thing, the information intake of reading is 1 trillion times more effective for me.

And also writing for the same thing; I could output at a much higher and faster rate than 

Capital runs everything around me

“The point of life isn’t money, said all poor people.”

4am– and I’m zoning.

Lately, I’ve been on a bit of a Bitcoin kick. Actually, ever since 2017, 2018, ever since I’ve gone into bitcoin at around $6,000… $7000 a Bitcoin.  now with bitcoin hovering at around $70,000 a bitcoin… it looks like my initial thought and prediction was right. I’ve more than 10x’d my money, and now that I’m in milli territory, lots of interesting new thoughts.

The primary thought revolves around capital. I think the funny irony is that even though we all live in a capitalist society, nobody ever gives a deep and critical thought about capital, capitalism.

For example, the first question; what exactly is capital, and why does it matter?

Capital & money 

I think superficially, we think about money, money as in cash money, fiat currency, the ones and zeros in your bank account, or cash paper money Fiod currency. Hundred dollar bills, etc.

However at the end of it, I’ve come to realize that in actuality, capital is the goal, not “money“ in the traditional sense.

So in short what is capital? Capital actually comes from Ancient Greek, caput, kaput, head, cap. And this original idea was from the past idea that wealth was not in coinage as the ancient Greeks did not have coin money. They had gold, and heads of cattle. 

Or if you look back far enough, what the greedy king Agamemnon seemed to desire is more land, resources, women, slaves, gold, etc. 

Even the war weary Achilles wanted to just retire, retire from war, to stop putting his life at risk for more gain, and to simply retire back to his own lands, with Breisis, his prize.

Modern day times

I’m starting to unravel more and more about the inadequacies of capital, capitalism in general.

First of all, in a general sense, and capitalism is good. If it weren’t for capitalism, you would not enjoy your Wi-Fi, your iPhone, digital photography, etc. I think objectively speaking, capitalism is a single ruling force which has uplifted the lives of billions of people on this planet.

I think the difficult thing for a lot of people to understand is that with greater upsides also comes greater downsides.

For example, greed, love of money, comes with the growth of capitalism. But then again, the greed of others is sometimes beneficial because it helps the poor and impoverished.

For example, poor, my definition of being poor is knowing that as a high school student, when your mom was driving her old Nissan Maxima with old tires, in the ring, with the risk of dying in a car accident, we could not afford $300 to change the tires. Or, your dad gambling away the rent money again, or maybe the fourth or fifth time, and your mom telling you in the middle of the night to be prepared that you and your sister might be homeless. And might need to get into a shelter.

Growing up in this world of parity, and now that I’m rich, it certainly changes many of my perceptions about money in general.

Saving money

I think the irony of capital and capitalism is in regards to saving versus spending money.

Technically, the path to becoming rich is just driving an old Toyota Prius, and saving up all your money, and converting that money into capital, property, bitcoin etc.

In the road to poverty is drinking alcohol, going out, eating at restaurants, using the yelp app, using Instagram and social media, traveling to Japan etc.

There seems to be two forces that place; intelligent people who preserve, and accumulate and stack their capital, and the foolish people who squander their money in capital, and are essentially living paycheck to paycheck.

What or who is the top 1%?

First, debt. Debt is the exact opposite of wealth.  

All debt is bad, even the “good“ debt. This includes your mortgage, student loans, credit card bills, car payments, any sort of debt.

The simple first wealth strategy is via negativa;

1. Unlearn the insane notion of getting a 30 year home mortgage loan, being enslaved to a piece of property, kind of like a modern day sharecropper, for that long seems insane
2. The best car is no car, the Tyler Durden, the fight club way. My simple wealth strategy has been very simple; in my whole adult life, I have never spent more than $3000 USD on a car.
3. Groceries and food; Amazon fresh, Amazon prime Whole Foods discounts, meat markets, El super, super king, Costco. Ironically enough if you do it right, a 100% carnivore diet is 1000 times cheaper than eating vegetables fruits etc.

What to splurge on?

I think the only thing which is worth splurging on is paying high amounts of money to live in an insanely great neighborhood and area, as time and space constraints are real.

For example, living in our very nice two bedroom, one bath apartment in Culver City, darts district, for $3200 a month. Might be the best use of money, as it allows for maximum mobility, walking, wandering, a five minute walk to the metro, a better life for Seneca.

However truth be told, if Cindy‘s job wasn’t based here in LA, I would see zero reason for living in the states. Instead I would prefer to live in Cambodia, Vietnam, Bangkok or Thailand somewhere else; for example, you live in a very very nice brand new studio apartment in Hanoi Vietnam for only $320 USD a month. Speaking, you could rent a two bedroom apartment in Cambodia for only $300 USD a month!

With my bitcoin and capital Mensching at a fantastic rate, I could probably live 10 lifetimes in Cambodia or in southeast Asia somewhere; and some of the upsides of living abroad the purchasing power parody; you got at least 1000 X economic leverage in developing countries, in America, common … even a McDonald’s or in and out worker earns $20 an hour! 

Capital accumulation

I suppose the tricky thing — the trend is capital, capital accumulation… but for the sake of what?  

“Why should I pour my precious salves into the sea?” – Nietzsche

I think a certain ideal which is fascinating is this whole idea and notion of forever. It seems that we are seeking forever as a generalized concept, but why, for the sake of what? 

You must die

As I thought experiment, if an angel or demon came down to you, and told you that you would live forever, it might be considered the worst curse of all time. Why? Sooner or later, you’re probably going to get bored of life, and you will want to die.

To live forever might be the worst curse of all time.

The first general philosophical Stoic thought that I have is that the truth is, having things which are limited is a positively good thing. Why?

First, when things are limited, you actually appreciate it more. For example, my mom is currently visiting from Korea, and because we know her time here is limited, I feel that we are living and spending time with her much more intentionally, savoring every single moment with her. This means never taking any moment for granted; each and every moment is infinitely precious, and is to be made grateful.

I’m sure if I always have my mom with me, forever, most likely I would not be as grateful.

Also having a kid, having a son, having Seneca; I appreciate each and every moment with him. Literally by the day, every and each single day he wakes up, he is a transform boy, a transformed man. Each and every day he’s becoming more cognizant, he is talking better, he’s becoming more intelligent, more aware, More funny and silly and hilarious, stronger taller more muscular, more capable.

I think the big problem is that they don’t have enough pride in their kids. Traditional jail Christian moral ethics say that pride is a bad thing, to brag about your kid and to show off your kid is a bad thing… But what is the opposite? Being humble and not having pride in your kid, which leads to parents just being on their iPhones all day, while their kid is playing at the park. People often lament the fact all these parents are on their phones all the time, watching YouTube or on Facebook, or on Instagram or TikTok or whatever, while their kids are playing at the park… my personal read on this is that most parents just don’t find their children fascinating; they are not impressed by their kids. And that is fine, let mediocre parents raise mediocre kids, it is none of our concern.

Our concern is to elevate our own children, to glorify them, to them with praise, and to lock away your loser iPhone, and devote 1000% focus on your kid. 

In fact, a single tip I have for parents and new parents is this:

No iPhone Pro

Instead, just get an iPhone SE or an iPhone mini.

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Is your body forever?

Certainly sooner or later, we will and we must die. It is possible to die from a traumatic death, which means getting hit by a car, while you are texting while crossing the crosswalk, or, dying in a car accident when you were texting while driving. I saw an advertisement other day that apparently 50% of people don’t survive if they are hit by a car going at just 30 mph. Living in Los Angeles, I often see cars blasting by 50 mph!

I’m in the best shape of my life

People often lament the fact that they are no longer in their prime. People always think of their prime as behind them, never in front of them.

This typically has to deal with age, biologically aging or whatever.

However the really interesting new ones is apparently the ancient Greeks thought that the future was behind them, and the past was in front of them. Why? I think the general idea was that we could see the past with 100% clarity, but we are blind to the future.

 for example, at the age of 36, I feel like I’m in the best shape of my life. The most confident, tall, handsome, the best full body tan, my biceps shoulders and arms, my legs and thighs, my overall confidence etc.

At the age of 36, I’m in peak shape. Much better than when I was 28, 22, 16 or whatever.

The best is yet to come?

I think the critical issue we have here is when we think about aging, what we tend to think about is bodily decay and degeneration. The scientific term for this is “senescence”.

 However, I’ll never forget… One of the guys I met at my old crunch gym, insanely great shape, look like a super healthy fit dude in his 40s, told me that he was actually 72 years old, I was amazed! Also when hiking near Stoneview nature center, I met this one really really fit African-American lady, also who look like a really fit 45 or 47-year-old, wearing Lululemon leggings, all with silver hair, also told me she was in her 70s!

The problem in Korea, America and beyond, the general thought is as we get older, it is inevitable that we degenerate and decay. 

Certainly sooner or later we will die. Whether that be 122 years old, 110 years old, 100 years old, 90 years old, 80 years old or whatever. But it seems that in two days world, being in your 80s is like the new 50s, and being 50s is the new 30s.

And actually ironically enough, now at the age of 36, I’m starting to feel like the new Brad Pitt. I think I’m about his height, I’m 5 foot 11, and my body fat levels are similar to Brad Pitt and fight club, except I have much more muscle mass and I am much stronger. And I have the coolest haircut of all time, courtesy of Cindy.

What to do?

Some techniques, tactics, ways of thinking: 

1. The past you was the worst you: Why do we always think that somehow, the past version of ourselves was a superior version of ourselves?
2. Thank God for America: if you’re reading this and you’re living in the states, have access to Amazon prime, Titan.fitness, you can purchase bitcoin on Coinbase or whatever, consider yourself blessed. I still remember simple things like trying to buy an SD card in Japan or Korea, it was like 50 bucks for just a simple 64 GB card! On Amazon I think you get it for like 10 or 15 bucks. Also, according to my mom, apparently clothing and shoes is insanely expensive in Korea. For example, a T-shirt is like 50 bucks! Something you could easily buy on under Armour website in the states for only 20 bucks! Everything is cheaper in the states.
3. Censorship resistance: if you’re an American, and you have never traveled outside the states, consider yourself myopic. The typical conceited, self indulgent, fake patriot American is all about talking about how the government is trying to censor them or whatever, but until you have gone to Vietnam, mainly in China, Cambodia, etc. in which you literally try to type in gmail.com and you cannot open it, or you cannot download the ChatGPT app in the App Store, or you cannot use Google, Access your Coinbase account, whatever… You don’t know what true censorship is. And can you also imagine, tweeting or posting negative things about Donald Trump or the president or political candidates, and randomly having the secret police knock at your door, incarcerate you without trial, four years? This will never happen in America, consider yourself blessed. as an example, there were often times that I could not even access wordpress.com in Vietnam! And also during one of the student protest, the Vietnamese government shut down all of Facebook, Facebook messenger, Instagram for a whole day; really bad news because 99% of Vietnamese commerce happens over Facebook messenger, consider All of the millions or billions of dollars of economic activity which could not happen that day.

Fitness & food?

Time to dispel some myths:

1. Fiber is fake: no no no, you do not need fiber. I follow 100% carnivore diet, and I go to the bathroom regularly every morning. My personal theory about this whole fire thing is probably propaganda or political lobbying from the wheat and bread group in America.
2. Fruit is candy with a good conscience: Traditionally, if you look at fruit in the Levant, oranges were very very small, bitter, 99% pulp. If you look at a modern day orange, nectarine, cutie, tangerine, apple or whatever… They are genetic monstrosities. Essentially like a solidified Coca-Cola can.
3. You don’t need vegetables: certainly dark bitter green like colored greens, kale or whatever has a pleasant bitter taste, but you don’t need it.
4. Alcohol causes cancer: according to the national Canadian health organization, any amount of alcohol is toxic, and will give you cancer. Even two drinks a week is bad for you. And let us consider there is no downside of not drinking alcohol.
5. Marijuana makes you stupid
6. Running is for losers: either walk around town with a 60 pound weight best, at a leisurely pace, or engage in Usain Bolt like sprinting. Running at moderate or even moderate high or even high intensity is bad.
7. Meat is not bad for you

So what should one do instead?

1. Buy a 60 pound weight vest: I think the critical issue that everyone has in regards to fitnesses nobody has time for nothing. I say just go to Titan.fitness, and buy the 60 pound weight vest. When you wake up and after you have your morning coffee, just drop it on and just walk around the block! Or if you’re a tech worker, just wear it at the office, your standing desk! Or if you’d like to do the treadmill or whatever, just drop it on and walk on your treadmill with it! The upside is I’m quite certain it could act as a bulletproof fest. Or like some sort of modern day body armor; if somebody tried to punch you or kick you with your 60 pound weight vest on, they would most likely fracture their fists or bodies.
2. Build your own home gym? Titan.fitness, just build your own home gym. Now living in Los Angeles, no more gems. Literally even driving local, you’re gonna be stuck in traffic going 15 minutes one way, not worth it. However if you do have access to a good gym, just go to the gym! at least once every day, maybe even twice a day!
3. Insanely hot bats: the hot sauna at the gym, or if you have a bathtub at home, take insanely hot baths!
4. Consume organ meats, beef liver, beef heart, beef kidneys, intestines, just go to the local grocery store or meat market. If you have access to Costco, get the beef ribs, or the Wagyu ground beef, or get the frozen 100% breast-fed ground beef. Beef is better.

Why is this whole weird plant-based diet trend?

My theory is it has to deal with virtue signaling; misinformation, lack of religion. To be a plant based person is seen as a new religion of sorts; maybe you have a dog, dogs, a cat or multiple cats, perhaps you don’t have kids or whatever. I also think it is a virtuous annoying thing; it is seen as morally evil and bad to consume, because apparently it is bad for environment, the planet, cruel to animals or whatever.

Inside, the hilarious intervention is if you really want to be an ethical person? Only consume or meet, the leftovers in the scraps. For example in Orange County, you go to the local super king, you could buy beef liver for only $1.99 a pound! Typically people throw away the liver and the organ it is not desirable by the American public.

> Stop eating plants, eat organ meats.

The best food in Japan

Motsu-nabe

A very interesting thing that Cindy and I learned while living in Japan, is Motsu Nabe the history of it. 

Motsu just means soup, Motsu is innards, intestines, the like. 

The history of Motsu nabe is super fascinating; essentially the really poor Koreans who immigrated to Japan as labor workers, would just take the throwaway scraps from their wealthy Japanesecounterparts, and just boil and make a soup out of it. The Japanese would throw away the innards. And now the hilarity is now Motsu-nabe is the new elite food; foe the rich and privileged. Kind of similar like how former slaves in the south would make gumbo, jambalaya, with pig intestines, which was scraps from the slave masters. Now everybody loves it!

Also what is super fascinating is the Korean and Vietnamese word for liver, “gan” means gold, or something of great worth. Apparently back in the days, the liver was only reserved for the super rich and privilege, the emperor. Even my mom knows that when a wolf kills the prey, the first thing it eats is the liver, then intestines, etc. and it leaves the flesh meets for the scavengers.

Also another interesting thing, pate, duck liver mousse or pate is seen as the Apex of sophistication for the French. It is essentially liver.

Why liver? It has the highest nutritional density. 

And the funny thing; is liver even “meat“?

More thoughts

I guess my thoughts on bitcoin was right. Now that bitcoin is currently hovering at around $70,000 at bitcoin, it looks like I was right all along.

Some things that I learned from Michael Sailer which seemed really really useful and practical:

1. The real rich and wealthy people only keep one percent of their net worth in Fiat currency, the US dollar. No rich person will brag to you that they have $1 billion of US dollar currency in their JP Morgan chase checking account. The real rich people will typically have their wealth tied up in Capital like land or real estate. For example, owning a square block in Manhattan or Hong Kong or in the middle of Tokyo. The problem with Fiat currency, the US dollar, is that the value of it is slowly bleeding at 7 to 10% a year. That means if you hold $1 million of cash in your checking account, your purchasing power will diminish by 7 to 10% every single year.
2. The easiest thing to do is store one percent of your money in paper currency, the US dollar, and use 99% of your excess money to just buy bitcoin. Even a year or two ago, I had the thought that the optimal strategy is to just convert all your fiat currency into bitcoin!

What about ethereum and other stuff?

“There is no second best”- Michael Saylor

My new favorite thinker is Michael Saylor, his knowledge of history, science is astounding, just listen to the three hour podcast interview with Lex Fridman — better than any college course or degree I have ever gotten!

Anyways, I think this sentiment that there is no second best is a good one. Nobody ever remembers those who won second place or the silver.

Even more nuance, we often forget those who are number one, or the gold. Let alone second place.

Nobody cares about second place

Apple is number one, iPhone number one, android is number two. Nobody cares about android

Globally, America’s number one, China’s number two. Nobody cares about China. Maybe in terms of field currency, the US dollar is strongest, and then maybe after that it might be the pound, the euro, or maybe the CNY, but the truth is there is no second best fiat currency after the us dollar.

 nobody wants the euro, because my personal prediction is in the next 30 years, Germany will probably break off from the European nation, and reinstate her own Deutschmark. Why? Seems that Germany is the last and only productive nation and all of Europe; the rest of all the other nations are just dragging her down. 

The British are dying a slow debt. I think it is a good idea that they broke off from the EU, but still… The value of the British pound is slowly dying.

Japan is in a severe crisis, and also Korea.

China seems to be doing OK, but even China, nobody wants the CNY. No matter how much China tries to coerce Cambodia, Cambodia, Cambodians would still prefer the US dollar.

Even Vietnam, the Vietnamese would prefer $100 US dollars, brand new Benjamins over the local Vietnamese dong.

However critical downside is even though that the US dollar is the most supreme currency on the planet, it is still flawed. The purchasing power of the US dollar is falling rapidly, at an alarming rate. Even in Los Angeles, average gas prices are over five dollars a gallon, 6 dollars a gallon in some places.

And also, the new minimum wage for McDonald’s has jumped from $16 an hour, to $20 an hour overnight! This means the inflation has gone up 30 to 40% overnight, and I think that within the next two or three years, you will slowly see the price of everything creep up by 20 to 30%, rent prices, The price of buying a single-family home etc.

What to do?

I feel like we have several options:

First, leave the states. Honestly if Cindy didn’t have a job in the states, I would personally see zero reason to live in here. I would prefer to live in Panin Cambodia, live in Hanoi or Saigon in Vietnam, maybe Bangkok in Thailand, etc. I prefer Southeast Asia the states. Why? America’s too expensive, your purchasing power here is very weak.

Second: become insanely frugal, and just intelligently funnel your access US dollars into bitcoin. And keep your living expenses low, as you see the value of your bitcoin go up!

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Now what?

At the end end of all this, once you become a millionaire, a bitcoin millionaire or billionaire or whatever… Then what?

Michael tells us to keep stacking those satoshis, I see that there is probably a certain point in which it is good to just be content, and be focused on other things like your photography, artistic production, your philosophical production, etc.

I still believe with all my heart and soul blogging, websites, email newsletters are the future.

Why? It is permissionless, open, censorship resistant. Anybody who is still using Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, even YouTube is a loser. 

Build the future

In America, and a lot of the world, you have the right to build. Building things physically in the physical world is often too expensive, too cost prohibitive. This is where I think building websites, blogging, vlogging or whatever is good. 

First, certainly it cost your time labor, but the raw materials of digital things is free!  if you do not have a personal website, you’re missing out. Honestly I practically think it is free, just making a simple wordpress.org website with blue host.com is maybe what five dollars USD a month? Cancel all of your Spotify subscriptions, your Netflix and whatever… And funnel that money into your own website instead.

Let us say that your own property or house, and your mortgage is like four to $5000 a month. Digital real estate is superior; it is 1000 times cheaper, or 100,000 X cheaper . The most obvious economic leverage!

Ideally your website and your domain name should just be your first and last name. I think the genius of Michael Saylor is he owns michael.com, as well as hope.com. Very impressive.

Even Elon Musk, the genius of him purchasing.com; genius.

It looks like all of the bitcoin domains have been gobbled up, I still think there is great opportunities to be had in the online domain world. 

OK, now that the bitcoin ETF, the spot ETF has been approved… truth be told, I don’t think there is really any more risk in regards to bitcoin, owning bitcoin, or the like. 

1. Before, it was really really hard to acquire and buy bitcoin

For me, acquiring bitcoin in around 2017 2018, I suppose around four or five years ago, the only practical option was using something like Coinbase, beautiful user interface and experience, to buy my bitcoins. At first I think I bought bitcoin around 6000 or $7000 a bitcoin… around $25,000 worth of it.

Even today, the thing that is really insanely annoying is that making wire transactions to purchase more bitcoin has been horrific. Simple wire transfers of around $120,000, I had to go into the bank at least three times, sign a bunch of things, Talk to real life being tellers, and then having to be stuck on the phone for an hour or two talking to some outsourced customer support labor and the Philippines or Manila, and then having to call back another week later, figuring out why my damn wire transfer had not gone through yet.

The more street for workaround has been using the built-in plaid integration with Coinbase, purchasing daily maximum of $50,000 USD worth of bitcoin at a time.  every time I do this it is insanely anger-fying, because when I have the right opportunity to buy, because I have this lame restriction put on me, I lose opportunities and I also lose the ability to purchase more bitcoins.

For example, when I wanted to buy bitcoin when it was low, when it dipped down a bunch, because the wire transfer took me about a week or two, I think finally when the money was available, or finally when the purchase went through, bitcoin up at least $10,000 a bitcoin, which means that I was able to purchase few bitcoins than I wanted to. 

Anyways, I’m so grateful that the technology even exist in the first place for me to purchase bitcoins at all. Sometimes I limit at the fact that me and my friend Kevin do not buy $100 worth of bitcoin, back in 2009, when my roommate Kevin told me about the bitcoin pizza incident. I will never forget how I shrugged my shoulders, and I said we should not, because I thought it was a scam. I think if we had bought hundred dollars worth of bitcoin the time, both of us would have owned thousands if not 10 and thousands of bitcoins, making both of us hundred millionaires, or potentially maybe even billionaires.

2. It is never too late 

So I think the main issue that we have is we always lament the fact that we are “too late”. This applies to almost everything in life, finding a life partner, getting married, having kids, getting into shape and doing fitness, investing whatever.

But, as I speak these words, it is still early! Apple has not yet integrated bitcoin support into their iOS or iPhone, once Apple does this, the price of bitcoin will explode.

3. Do you remember blockbuster? 

One thing that I’ve learned in life, it is easier to predict what will fail, rather than what will succeed.

For example, I think I’m really lucky that I was born in 1988, because I recall life before the Internet, in life after the Internet. And also the Internet came out around a formative time for me, when I was living in New York, and I got my first computer with AOL 3.0, a 38.8k dial up modem,  I think when I was around 11 years old. Maybe the fourth or fifth grade?

Anyways, back in the day, I recall how we used to go to Blockbuster to rent VHS tapes to watch movies. I remember in college, when I got really into investing in stocks and stuff,  blockbuster was still a publicly traded company. I remember my roommate Kevin, our freshman year, having a Netflix subscription when they still use to send DVDs in the mail. I knew with great certainty that blockbuster would go bankrupt and go under, and I wanted to short blockbuster stock, but I had no idea how to do it. my prediction was right. Blockbuster went bankrupt, I could’ve made a good profit had I done this.

Or on the other hand, if I had invested in that in college, in 2007 or 2008, this would have also been good.

Anyways the big pot was dematerialization. The fact that in my short life, I have already seen the transition from the materialized world of going in person to choose a blockbuster VHS tape, to rent or borrow or to watch, I actually used to do this with video games too… It actually made a lot of sense, Instead of paying $50 for the Nintendo 64 video game, which I would eventually beat, I rented for only like five or $10, and then try to beat it really fast, so economically as a kid, it made a lot of sense.

4. YouTube premium

I really random thing that my mom has been getting into lately has been tai chi, Cindy’s mom got my mom into it. It has been great every morning my mom has been practicing it, but no matter how many blockers I tried to install, google is smart enough to figure out how to disable the ad blockers. 

I suppose the genius of getting a YouTube premium family plan, whether it is $20 a month or whatever, then intelligence is you think about it… It might be the new most important utility that we got.

Even random things, like me preparing to change the oil in my 2010 Prius, watching YouTube videos on how to do it, is 1 trillion times better than written tutorials.

Even whenever I talk about house construction or maintenance or whatever, all the handyman I know tell me to just watch it on YouTube.

So if you think about the economics of it, assuming that having a studio membership for Pilates or yoga $200 a month, and technically you could just stream it on YouTube for $20 a month, economically it is extremely intelligent.

Anyways what is very interesting about the whole YouTube premium thing that is how it has dematerialized so many different things. 

And this is what I think is the genius of bitcoin, it has the materialized money. Yes bitcoin is money, even as time goes on I put less than less faith on field paper currency. To me it is like cotton candy.

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5. Money philosophy

So I just finished watching the whole Michael Saylor series on money, and I feel like I just got a new PS in economics, economic theory, as well as corporate finance and accounting.

The main takeaways are the following: 

a) Inflation

The basic idea is because the money creation rate in America and beyond is expanding 7 to 10% a year, because the price of minimum wage keeps going up, out of thin air, this is what drives inflation, or another words, the price of everything going up. 

For example, I’ll never forget this moment; when me and Seneca bought  our typical single burger patty, just the patty nothing else, just a month ago for $1.50 at Patty, it going up over 90 to $2.50 just for a single patty! This was because minimum wage was raised from $16 an hour to $20 USD an hour.

The reason why this decision was bad is because honestly, it just seems like a political ploy, for politicians to get elected or reelected. The reason why this is a scam is this:

I want to get elected, and I promise you that I will raise your minimum wage. Vote for me!

And then, the real after effects of inflation is going to happen when I am out of office.

b) History of money

Some of this is a rehashing of Michael Saylor quoting the book, the bitcoin standard, which I find really fascinating not because of the whole bitcoin thing, but about the history of money.

Long story short, bitcoin might be the best money and asset because it is infinitely durable and will last forever, because it is so intensive to create it has value, it has a hard cap of 21 million bitcoins, which will be certain even 1000 years from now, And also… it is money perfected. 

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6. My thoughts

I am very very happy and grateful that I did not study economics formally. I’m sure that I would have fallen into the same pitfalls as a lot of these loser economic peoples who has never done business in the real world.

I’ll give you examples; when I went to UCLA as an undergraduate,  we didn’t have a formal business major, only a Hybrid business – economics major. Out of all the people that knew who studied business economics, none of them became entrepreneurs, self-employed, none of them started their own companies, none of them worked for themselves, and none of them became successful. They all ended up just becoming low or mid-level managers at some company, probably clocking in the typical $80,000 thousand dollars a year to $120,000 a year salary. 

In fact, what made me so successful in my realm of Farsi, entrepreneurship, etc.… It totally up ended any traditional economic theories. For example my open source vision; it would probably had been deemed as heresy by any traditional school of economic thought.

Also as a side thing; I am very very happy that I did not study photography formally, and I am also grateful that I did not go to art school. Why? Once again, you get stuck in these loser ways of thinking, these incestuous ways of thinking about photography and the art world is quite filthy.

Anyways, as a general thought, true innovation and entrepreneurship comes from expertise domain expertise outside of that certain domain. For example, let us note that flight was invented by the weight brothers, who I believe were actually bicycle mechanics. 

I feel that I am well positioned to talk about money, economics, economic theory because I grew up poor, single mom working minimum wage jobs, also, becoming a successful self-employed sole proprietor, having zero debt, and applying my economic theories to real life.

Also, I am also moderately booksmart, and my wife has a PhD. And then helping Cindy get her PhD, I feel like I got a PhD.

And also other things which I have done which I consider very intelligent: I have never spent more than $2500 USD on a car, in my whole life, from age 15 to at age 36.

1. 1991 Nissan Sentra XE (5 speed, manual transmission, $1000)
2. 1991 Nissan Sentra SE-R (5 speed, manual transmission $1500 USD)
3. 1990 Mazda Miata, five speed manual transmission, no air conditioning no power steering, $2500 USD
4. 2002 Subaru outback, five speed manual transmission, $800 USD
5. Current, 2010 Prius, free. ($0.00)– free 99

I put zero faith in any individual who has ever purchased any brand new car. It is a true signal that they are economically a fool.

Doesn’t matter if you bought the new Tesla or whatever, all fools.

7. Why does this all matter?

Whether you like it or not, our whole life revolves around money.

There are certain things which are negotiable, certain things which are not negotiable.

Nonnegotiable include paying rent, gas and electricity, Wi-Fi, food, coffee etc.

Negotiable things include purchasing any sort of clothing, eating out, drink alcohol or smoking marijuana or doing drugs, cars, purchasing a home or property etc.

Also, unfortunately I think 99.9% of the photography industry is predicated around purchasing your cameras, lenses, accessories etc. Was the first to start the anti-gear movement, by books not gear, and being the first to really make the Ricoh GR camera mainstream? 

A thought and observation: perhaps bitcoin is the best investment because it is the new religion.

For example, that is consider that in modern day times, capital, capitalism, money is the new religion. Let us consider how much we sacrifice in our lives in order to accumulate more money, more capital, and we deify money above all.

For example, one self-worth is based on their capital worth. Their net worth is based on how much property they own, the amount of stock they own, bonds, CDs, investments, appreciating assets, power and influence etc.

However perhaps the problem about all of this is that money and things becomes the new carrot and stick.

For example, I’m a huge fan of cyber truck, cars in general, but the savvy investor and real rich person will always think:

Why spend $100,000 on a car, when I could invest that money into something else, and my money, instead of bleeding it?

For example, no matter how expensive your car is, it will always be a depreciating asset.

For example, even if you have a rare Ferrari or Porsche or whatever, the maintenance and upkeep cost for it are horrendous. Even if the market value of your car goes up overtime, maybe at your breaking even, most likely you’re actually bleeding money because of all the expensive parts maintenance cost, labor, having to run your car every once in a while, keep it clean etc. And therefore these trophy assets become toxic assets, negative liabilities:

You’re bleeding a slow death, your like a bathtub with a half working stopper, you have to keep filling up the water to just keep it even.

Stop the bleeding?


Apparently the first thing that you learn in medical emergencies is first, stop the bleeding. As long as the person doesn’t bleed to death, what that means is even if they suffer broken bones or whatever, with enough time healing and recovery they will be OK, but once a person has lost a critical amount of blood, they’re dead forever.

Going back to money in general, I look at all these people, and they’re all slowly bleeding themselves to death, being hooked on drugs and methamphetamines and painkillers and other weird things in order to just keep self flagellating themselves to produce.

Money as religion?

I wonder if in someways, we could actually think about the modern day government as almost some sort of religion. Consider taxes, it is like tithing. 

Death & taxes are the only two certain things in life.

Cash rules everything around me

A few weeks ago, the priest that my Korean Catholic Church did something very very funny, for Mother’s Day, during his homily, took out $100 bill, and said that he would give it to the mother at church with the most amount of children, which was five kids.

Everyone left in good spirits, because it almost felt slightly sacrilegious for a priest to talk about money, or bust out money, or even present money as a good thing.

However, the truth is all these institutions, churches etc. all rely on donations. A church cannot survive without donors, nor can your local pickle ball club.

Messiah figure?

Something which is actually really baked into Christian Catholic, Judeo Christian ethics morality and storytelling is  the notion of a savior, Messiah figure. Most likely crucified, or sacrifices their life for some greater cause. This is a common trope ever since Greek notions of Dionysus, maybe Egyptian notions of life after death, or whatever.

Basically the idea is one individual, one man, comes to save humanity or whatever. And he must sacrifice his life in order to give immortal life to everybody else.

So in the case of bitcoin, this becomes really really fascinating because Satoshi was a metaphorical messiah figure, who ended up disappearing into thin air, a picture perfect ending.

I think maybe Banksky is similar; somebody to essentially troll and reveal the ridiculousness of the art world, through his anonymity.

Death & immortality 

The other day my mom Cindy and Seneca we all went to the Broad Museum in downtown LA, insanely epic! Then infinity room is totally worth it, and the whole space is an architectural marvel and masterpiece. It makes me so proud to be a Los Angeles citizen.

Anyways, we stumbled onto this one room, and I was shocked… I saw the famous skull painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat, one of my favorite paintings of all time. I said really loud, in shock “wait… Is that real?” a friendly fancy looking York artist appreciating woman to my right, laughed, and said, yes it is! I was more shocked that we had in Los Angeles, instead of it being in New York or New York City, which I imagined it should be. 

Anyways, I really appreciate it, but my mom was horrified. She said something really funny that the artwork and paintings of Jean-Michel Basquiat was “disturbing”. I said that was true, because he was addicted to heroin cocaine and all these other weird drugs, and eventually died because of a drug overdose.

My sister Annette something interesting, which was that the theory is if Bard didn’t die so early, he probably would have eventually been demoted, from the art world, because of his overreliance on drugs, partying, and like in order to produce artwork. Any sort of art which is produced based on an artist being overly reliant on drugs alcohol, etc. is degenerate bad art. Even Jackson Pollock, he was notoriously an alcoholic, and the truth that a lot of art critics and collectors try to hide and obfuscate is the fact that he died because he was drinking and driving, under the influence. We should mark then Jackson Pollock as a bad one; sure he killed himself, but what if while drunk and under the influence of alcohol while driving, he killed a little kid running in the road, or even worse, a full car full of other human beings?

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Limits & value

Anyways, my personal take on why Jean-Michel Basquiat ended up becoming so famous was he died early, and even my sister said that because he died so early, his stock of paintings is limited, and no more will ever be produced. This is what makes them so valuable.

This is where bitcoin gets so fasting, because everybody on the planet  knows that only 21 million bitcoin will ever ever ever be produced in eternity.

This is a big deal because with traditional fiat currency, the government could keep printing cotton candy paper fiat money currency forever. 

In fact, about a week ago, after tipping my masseuse a $20 bill, and I knew that I had to go to the ATM to withdraw more cash money currency, in case of emergency or tips or whatever, I paused and stopped, the thought:

Whenever I pull out paper currency or cash money, eventually it all eventually disappears, and have to keep refilling my wallet with more paper currency.

And this is actually the funny thing about holding paper currency and cash money; simply by having it on you, you will end up losing it. Why? To put a $20 bill in the church basket, to give it to a friendly waiter, to use it on silly things, etc.

So I suppose the tricky thing is this:

All of this, capital accumulation etc.… for the sake of what?

Kids

So the first thought I have is the prime obvious one: if you want to have the supreme amount of happiness in life, the true meaning and joy in life, I think you gotta have at least one kid. Two, maybe 2.2 kids to re-populate the planet or whatever. 

I think we’re going through a weird time, in which capital, capitalism is running a milk. Which means that I think the reason why a lot of people don’t wanna have kids anymore is because in some funny way it seems anti-capitalistic.

For example, if you’re a woman, and you get married, become a stay at home mom no longer work… Who is going to buy all of this Louis Vuitton clothing and whatever? Let us consider the capitalist dream is a single working career woman… All of this disposable cash and income they have to buy Subarus, Mercedes, Porsches, designer handbags, etc.

 Certainly there is still a big industry for people who sell kids stuff, but this is a super tiny market compared to the market for the average consumer.

Why this is a big deal

For myself personally speaking, I would not be shocked if we see a $1 million bitcoin, a $3 million bitcoin, maybe even a $10 million bitcoin or $50 million bitcoin price our lifetime. I still remember very vividly as a kid, being in becoming a millionaire was The dream! But now… Even if you’re a millionaire, it might buy you a mediocre condo in LA, the new ethos is being a billionaire.

Also, I will not be shocked if within a few years or decades we will see Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos or somebody become the worlds first trillionaire.

Spending money?

Certainly there are things that we must spend money on. Spending money on rent, food, gas, etc. Alao certain truisms I’ve discovered while living in Los Angeles is that owning a car is better than owning no car in Los Angeles, even if you live in a walking paradise like Culver City.

However, in terms of practicality, owning a 2010 Prius might be the superior option and decision then owning any Tesla car, any gas or electric vehicle.

People slowly bleeding themselves to death?

Now that gas prices are universally five dollars a gallon and above, I am very very certain we will never see us ever again at three dollars a gallon, two dollars a gallon, etc. Once the price goes up, it will never go back down to what they used to.

For example, minimum wage for fast food workers went from $16 an hour to $20 an hour, which means the rest of the economy must adjust to this new $20 an hour benchmark.  I’ve been talking to a lot of fast food workers, laborers, security guards, people at Shake shack etc. and I wondered to myself and asked them:

“Isn’t the optimal strategy for everyone to just get a job at McDonald’s and earn $20 an hour?”

One of the security guards at the Huntington Gardens and library laughed and said “That is true… But then you gotta work at McDonalds!”

The smell of money?

Apparently as a plumber, you can easily make a salary of $120,000, $200,000, $250,000 a year. But, the downside is you have to smell the horrendous smell of human excrement, and sewage in general for the rest of your life.

To me, no amount of money is worth that.

Also I saw an advertisement on the 405 or La Cienega that apparently starting salary for a CHP California highway police officer is $120,000 a year! Once again, not worth it.

People often make the wrong decision in life, choosing the bad job in order to get a higher salary. Even hearing to young Asian American 20 something-year-olds at the Huntington Gardens: a nerdy skinny Asian American guy, saying that he did not want to get a job at Amazon, but, he was tempted because the salary was so good… At least $200,000 a year!

The problem is this:

$200,000 a year ain’t what it used to to be. 

So what should we do about all this?

 if you own an iPhone or a smart phone, we are all implicated in this capitalist system. So the question is this:

How do we maximize the upside of living in a capitalist society, while clipping the downsides? 

1. Intelligent living

The first very pragmatic one is living intelligently. Being moneywise.

A very simple one is stopping the bleeding.

How do we bleed money? We bleed money by All of these stupid subscription services. They are all bad, mass unsubscribe to all of them. 

This includes your Disney+, Hulu, YouTube premium, Spotify, deliver services apps, Netflix, hbo max, etc.

My simple thought is this: 

There has never been a streaming TV series which has ever been created which is worth it.

Only good things which have been produced our movies and cinema, so if there is really really really a movie or something you want to watch, just pay money and watch it in the theater, or purchase it on Apple TV+.

Also let us consider and think, truth be told, in terms of overall value I think there have only ever been maybe three or four movies which had any real big impact on my worldview. Therefore the hard thing is trying to filter all of it.

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