Probably the best modern-day book I’ve read in the last 10 years is Antifragile by Nassim Taleb. The basic gist is this;

When things threaten to destroy you, how can it be used as fuel to make you stronger?

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In case you missed it

No fear.

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What does it mean?

Essentially the basic idea is that in life, painful, bad, even violent aggressions from others are not to be avoided, but rather, maybe even desired.

For example, if somebody ask for interacts with you in an aggressive, negative way, consider it as a good thing; after the incident, you have become more robust, stronger, and more impervious to outside aggressions.

Let me give you example. About a week or two ago at the gym, I was doing my typical atlas lift and a random guy asked me, how much longer I was going to be. Realistically it might’ve been 20 minutes, but I didn’t want to rush myself so I added some buffer. I told him, around 40 minutes. As a result, he started cussing and cursing and saying that what I was doing was “fucking ridiculous.” Fortunately because I was having a good adrenaline rush from doing my lifts, about five minutes later I calmly approached him and asked if he wanted to working with me. He shook his head, and said he wasn’t interested.

Moral of the story: that incident in which somebody acted bad manners towards me, I actually responded with very good manners. As a consequence, I no longer fear any negative interactions at the gym. If anything, I am quite proud of how magnanimously I was able to respond to such a petty encounter.

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Stoicism is the way

Stoicism isn’t a perfect technique, but it is certainly useful. I think in the context of manliness, and becoming a “real man”, I think stoicism is one of the best ways to become stronger.

There are lots of different stoic techniques and stoic tips.

Essentially, the basic gist:

When in doubt, delay reaction.

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Becoming more invincible to fate

The new topics and directions is combining stoicism, street photography, and entrepreneurship to life:

1. June 17th, Saturday, 2023: DOWNTOWN LA CONQUER YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY AND LIFE
2. July 15-16th: ERIC KIM SAIGON VIETNAM TRAVEL STREET PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERIENCE 2023
3. Oct 14th (Saturday) PHILLY CONQUER STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Essentially, I believe that street photography is the supreme form of photography, as it requires the most courage and guts.

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Just loaded up my Texas squat power bar at the gym, 925 pounds in total, that is nine plates, 25, and a five pounder taped on top. The interesting thing:

No fear.

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The goal?

To me, courage is everything. Curiosity and courage actually mean the same thing; couer means heart. Same also goes with curate.

Whenever I max out the barbell, attempting to lift over 900 pounds, people are always befuddled and ask me why I do it, what the purpose of it is, etc. I never have a quick enough or witty enough response. Typically I just say,

To fulfill a personal curiosity.

The personal curiosity of the limits of a human body, my human body, how much I could lift, without taking steroids etc.

But perhaps, a better way to think about it is actually, I do it as a means to conquer fear. To me a perfect lift is a lift in which your approach it, give it your all without any hesitation or fear.

In fact, I believe that 99% of street photography is simply conquering your fears. To not let hesitation get in your way.

What do we regret?

I think I’d like, typically our biggest regrets or regrets related to cowardice, or fear. For example, you wanted to ask that one girl out on a date, but, you were afraid of getting rejected, and you never did. Or you were fearful for asking her to get married, and you never asked, because you were fearful.

I know for weightlifters, powerlifters, people like me who enjoy doing one rep max of times, I think the biggest regrets we have is when we want to lift a certain weight, but fear and hesitation gets in our way, and instead, we lift a lesser amount, afraid that we may “hurt“ ourselves.

However, an interesting thing that I’ve learned is the fear of hurting yourself is actually a good motivator to force you to focus.

For example, now at the gym, I’m laser focused. I don’t fuck around. I don’t rush my warm-up routine, and I’ve also been going harder in my warm up, stretching, yoga routine before I lift.

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Greater danger, greater fates

I forget if it is Heraclitus or Democritus who said this, but essentially the gist:

In life, the more that a man attempts, risks, and exposes himself to danger, the greater his legacy and fate.

Fortuna adiuvat Fortis, the tattoo on the back of John Wick. The basic ideas that lady Fortune favors those who are strong, brave, and maybe perhaps a little bit reckless.

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Foolish versus wise fear?

There is some fear which is wise. For example, I am fearful of dying in a texting while driving accident, and therefore I never text message while I drive, let alone ever text message. I have all notifications turned off on my iPhone.

Also, with Seneca, I let him do superficially do “dangerous“ stuff, but when it is actually really really dangerous, I tell him. Fear of critical or irreversible injury to Seneca is a fear which is wise.

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What is entrepreneurship anyways?

I think “to entrepreneur” should be seen as a verb. To risk, to attempt. Even the modern day notion of an essay, comes from the French assay, which literally means attempt. When you write a written essay, it isn’t some storehouse of irrefutable truth. Rather, it is an attempt for you, the writer, to gain a deeper truth about something.

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Success or failure is trivial

For example, what do you think about king Leonidas and his spartan 300, they are not remembered because they beat the Persians, but rather, their courage.

Also interestingly enough, in the Iliad, in the duel between Achilles and Hector, Hector knows that Achilles is the superior fighter, and also, Achilles is a demigod, whereas Hector is a mere 100% human.
However, Homer puts both Achilles and Hector on equal footing. In the eyes of Homer, both fighters, irregardless of their lethality, are both seen as equal.

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Your life?

I think modern-day life, it may not be fear which holds us back but uncertainty. For example, last summer before me and Cindy went to Phnom Penh Cambodia, I was simply a little bit on the fence, I didn’t know if it would be good or bad. I was may be a little bit indifferent.
Therefore the simple heuristic;

If something is even a little bit marginally interesting to you, or might be interesting, just do it.

If I think about my travels, I don’t think I’ve ever really had an experience in which traveling was a “net negative” experience for me. There has always been good which comes out of every travel experience, irregardless of how difficult it might have been, or some annoyances along the way.

For example, going to South Korea last year, I got massively annoyed by all of these backwards Confucian moralizing and ethics. But, much good came out of it, because it forced me to do a deep dive on the history of Confucius, Confucian teachings, in order to undermine it.

Often things which make you angry can be very productive.

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Your life goals?

I think honestly speaking, I am the most encouraging person that I know. Even my mom said it was a dream of hers that I became some sort of motivational speaker or something.

Even when I think about my workshops, my passion and my goal is to encourage every single participant in person who attends. To not be a nay sayer, but to be an enabler.

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Other people?

I have a theory about modern-day society and capitalism and consumerism; it is all predicated on making you feel small and inferior, and the promise of capitalism and consumerism is this:

If you work really really hard, and earn enough money, you can buy your happiness, your self-worth, your self-esteem through cars, jewelry, things, homes and possessions, commas and zeros in your bank account etc.

For me, what are my greatest enjoyment is going to the gym, simply going there as a sociologist, and analyzing people, their behavior, their speech patterns, etc.

Something I have discovered is when people tell you to be “careful“, they are simply crowdsourcing their own fear onto you.

For example, when people first started to see me Atlas lift over seven plates, eight plates, nine plates etc. even the really really strong guys would tell me in a hushed tone—

… but be careful.

When people tell me this, essentially what they are saying is,

I would never attempt that, because I am afraid that I would hurt myself if I tried.

Simple lesson: when other people crowd-source their fears onto you, it is simply a signal that they are the cowards, not you.

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Now what?

I think in life, the best way to live is to always have something greater to aspire towards. For example, it is the joy of the weight lifter to indefinitely increase his or her one rep max, in any given lift. Also it is the joy of the entrepreneur to keep innovating, taking on new ideas, new creative paths, new risks.

This is where a lot of people are foolish; they dream of the day that they could cash out their Silicon Valley unicorn for $1 billion, and then just chill on the beach for the rest of their lives. No. The true entrepreneur perhaps would actually never sell their company; For example, mad respect to Mark Zuckerberg for not selling out Facebook. The deep regret of Instagram and WhatsApp founders to selling to Facebook, and also the regret of the oculus founders for selling to Facebook.

Missionary or mercenary?

One good framing that I got from Peter Thiel in 0 to 1 is figuring out whether other people are missionaries or mercenary’s. Missionaries do it because their soul is in the game (Nassim Taleb), mercenaries simply do it for a fat check and a bonus and a salary.

In fact, the truly great entrepreneurs in history like a Steve Jobs and Elon Musk were actually quite ascetic.

For example, Steve Jobs lived like a weird homeless person, and even Musk first built x.com with his brother, sharing the same office space, sleeping in sleeping bags, showering at the local YMCA, and feeding himself on two dollars a day with nothing but hotdogs and spaghetti. Maybe this is where Kanye West is a bad entrepreneur; I think he cares too much for expensive and fancy things.

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Legacy?

A lot of philosophers have thought about this, but the more I think about it, seeking immortal fame amongst mortals (Heraclitus) actually seems like a good idea. Why? Granted that you have kids, legacy and your fame after death is the only thing which could outlive you, and aid future humanity.

I think deep down, all humans are altruistic to a certain point. Thinking about legacy isn’t really considering your fame and notoriety after death, but rather, how your life has impacted those who are currently alive, and also people who are not yet born.

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What are you capable of?

See what you can do, become or achieve with EK:

• June 17th, Saturday, 2023: DOWNTOWN LA CONQUER YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY AND LIFE – New!
• July 15-16th: ERIC KIM SAIGON VIETNAM TRAVEL STREET PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERIENCE 2023 – New!
• Oct 14th (Saturday) PHILLY CONQUER STREET PHOTOGRAPHY – New!

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Fear conquering consulting

Email Eric [at] EricKim.com

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Now what?

1. Portable thinking: I still strongly believe that a semi nomadic life is probably the best approach of living. Therefore, never buy, purchase, invest in anything which is not portable with you. For example when you travel and live abroad, you can’t take your house, you can’t take your Tesla, you can’t take your Lamborghini etc. This also means that with your devices, make sure they are super portable.
2. Why bitcoin is the future, not Ethereum: the new BRC-20 ordinal theory with Bitcoin — the new ethereum killer. Don’t trust anything built on top of the Ethereum network. Further skepticism towards chainlink.

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Now what?

1. Chat GPT is cool, WHY APP ZEN OF ERIC KIM is better. Chat GPT is like a very efficient Google. Why app, Zen of Eric, is more interesting because it forces you to do the thinking in philosophizing, not amalgamated intelligence scraping off of Google. I think for now Google is safe, because it has been embedded within chrome, and Safari, and it is now in official verb. But, maybe as open AI, ChatGPT continues to expand, google will become less and less useful. Bad News For Google.
2. I think the future is social spaces. For example, building new gyms which are social experiences, and also let us consider the massive success of an Irvine spectrum, in terms of all the foot traffic they can get.

Forward the turbo thoughts!

Feeling a little bit of wind in your wings? Feel free to forward this to a friend or family member who could use the turbo!

ERIC KIM NEWS >

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START HERE // BOOKS // WORKSHOPS

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For myself, it all comes down to courage.

How can you encourage yourself more?

The first thought, I think it means to allow yourself to become more ratchet, less civilized, more savage.

The second thought, maybe it means to think to yourself, “I was not born for the basic. I was born and destined to do, attempt, and create great things.” When I think about myself, my greatest benefit is being born in America in 1988, growing up in the open minded liberal bay area, and also, having the most encouraging mom of all time.

Ultimately, I think 99% of a child’s future is predicated on a combination of how they were trained, parented, and the standards. For example, Seneca is only two years old and three months old, yet I treat him like he’s 12 years old. As a consequence, he rises to the occasion.

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Encouragement and courage for the sake of what?

I think a lot of us have certain dreams, aspirations, and things we would like to do, achieve, make or build. Yet, when we share our ideas with others, other people tell us how we will fail or how our ideas are stupid, rather than actually helping us strategize how to make those dreams a reality.

Therefore, maybe the first step is this: simply edit out people who are naysayers. You know who those people are. Family, extended family, “friends“ etc.

The difficult thing is that to brutally edit out people, especially when they are family members, extended family etc., is seen as evil and immoral. No.

The tall poppy syndrome

One of the most interesting things that my friend Simon taught me when I was in the UK is that there is the notion of something called a “tall Poppy syndrome” in the UK. That is, when you see the guy driving around in the Lamborghini, you try to discount his or her success by saying, oh, he probably has a small dick, or, that’s probably her boyfriends car.

America is interesting, because when you see the person who is super rich and successful on TV, it is mostly an aspirational thing:

Oh wow, if I work as hard as that guy, maybe I could become as successful and rich as that guy.

Think of a Mark Cuban on TV, Shark Tank.

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Is it good idea to have dreams?

I think so. When you have certain dreams and aspirations is good in so far much as you have something to aspire towards.

For example, myself, I had a lot of dreams. When I was in high school, my friend Eric Moon taught me how to build custom computers, and as a side hustle, I started a side business building custom computers, ordering the parts on Newegg, building them, and selling them to friends family and other people at school for a small profit, maybe around $200 to $300 in profit.

I also had a dream to go to UCLA, it was my dream school. And therefore I hustled hard in school, maxed out all the AP and honors classes, even though I only got B’s in all of them, and also I knew that becoming an Eagle Scout was a good idea, and loading up on extracurricular activities. I think that’s what helped me get into UCLA as an undergrad, even though my GPA was only at 3.9, and my SAT might’ve only been a 1950 out of 2400.

Later dreams

Also, some of my dreams being able to become my own boss, being able to transform my passion of photography into a living, traveling the world, etc.

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What do you do once you achieve your life goals?

I think the final stage is towards philosophy, and entrepreneurship. Also innovation. Why?

Philosophy is interesting, because it gets to the deeper root of things. For example in America, it seems a lot of people aspire to become more “successful”, but nobody actually has a really critical definition of “success” in America.

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Health

I think the best way to encourage and motivate yourself is focusing on your health.

For example, sleeping 10 to 12 hours a night, investing your money buying meat and beef at the Costco business center, going to the gym at least once a day, lots of time outdoors in the light, as little time at home as possible.

The point of life isn’t about maximizing your happiness or well-being?

A transformative thought that I had recently; perhaps the point of life isn’t to maximize your happiness or your well-being. But rather, using your life as an innovative tool to simply innovate!

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INNOVATE WITH KIM

Think new, innovate new, become new:

1. June 17th, Saturday, 2023: DOWNTOWN LA CONQUER YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY AND LIFE – New!
2. July 15-16th: ERIC KIM SAIGON VIETNAM TRAVEL STREET PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERIENCE 2023 – New!
3. Oct 14th (Saturday) PHILLY CONQUER STREET PHOTOGRAPHY – New!

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Other thoughts

1. When we are dissatisfied with our clothes, our possessions, etc., maybe it is us a sign that we are simply dissatisfied with ourselves?
2. If you had infinite money, maybe it is not a good idea to want to have a super flashy car. Why? Too much unwanted attention.

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Fitness thoughts

1. Buy a Texas power bar, I really like the Texas power bar squat bar, black zinc with chrome sleeves. The best $500 I’ve ever spent.
2. Any type of weightlifting exercise which requires you to sit down or lie on your back is a bad one. Therefore, no more benchpress, no more lying dumbbell press, no for bench press, no seated shoulder press exercises, etc.
3. Farmer’s carries are surprisingly an insanely good exercise. For example, just chalk up, and pick up the 150 pound dumbbells off the rack and see how far you can walk with it.

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Cameras?

1. Leica Q2 monochrom might have decent longevity.
2. I am still very surprised that my lumix G9 and the Leica Lumix 12 mm F1.4 lens has had such great longevity.

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Life thoughts

1. A current issue and problem that I’m currently having is that there are just not enough hours in a day. Therefore, I’m still on the quest to ruthlessly prune and subtract the superfluous. To gain more time simply means cutting out more things. Some possible ideas include not going to the gym every day, or maybe building my own garage gym.
2. Hyperthreading lifestyle; also another funny thought and strategy is trying to concurrently do things together. For example, chilling in the car with Seneca, as I’ve vlog or write like on the iPad with IAwriter. Being able to kill two birds with one stone.
3. It still seems that we are happiest when we are around other people. For example, apparently a lot of professional bodybuilders, like Ronnie Coleman, even though they have a full on gym at home, they still prefer to go to an external gym, outside of their house. Why? My theory is that there’s something about a semi public gymnasium, being able to see other human beings which stimulates us.

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Suburban thoughts

Funny enough, the more I think about the suburbs, the more appealing it is to me. Why? The possibility of building your own home gym, also being able to set up that fast home charging thing for your electric car Tesla etc.

Maybe the ideal life and approach is being able to use your money and resources to build property and build things, not to simply rent from a slumlord.

Why are people so anti-suburbs? Certainly life in the suburbs is 1 trillion times more boring than life in the city. Yet the nuance, I think it actually takes more skill and creativity to live a virtuous life in the suburbs, rather than live an exciting life in the city.

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Entrepreneurial thoughts

1. If you want to maximize your ability as an entrepreneur, I believe that your fitness and exercise is critical. I believe that the best exercises for entrepreneurs essentially is powerlifting 2.0, the Eric Kim school of one rep maxing. This means, no boring repetitions, no benchpress, no exercises in with your sitting or lying on your back.
2. Also, I think your diet as an entrepreneur is actually critical. My theory is towards a 100% organ meat diet; organ meat is a natural steroid and testosterone booster.
3. Also, to maximize your productivity, intermittent fasting is good. I think as entrepreneurs, we are seeking every sort of hack and approach to maximize our productivity. I have been religiously following intermittent fasting for the last 5 to 7 years, and it is simple; no breakfast no lunch, only one massive dinner a day. Ramadan every day. And when you break your fast, try to eat at least 4 to 5 pounds of beef. And no, chicken is not meat. Also pork is bad because pork is white meat. Fish is not anything.

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Consult with EK

ERIC [at] ERICKIM.COM

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Now what?

It looks like tech is dead. Is AI even tech? Not really.

I think still, the next frontier is media. Let us consider all the people who went bananas for John Wick 4, how Michael Bay keeps coming out with new transformers movies, and how everyone is not hooked on Netflix and Disney+. Our appetite for media is insatiable.

Then I say as an entrepreneur, media is a good idea. Why? You’ll need to know how to code. Anyone could produce media, as long as you have a GoPro, an iPhone, an iPad etc.
And what is the best platform? You.

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Forward the turbo!

If you feel that this sparked even one creative idea with and you, feel free to forward this to a friend!

EK NEWS LINK >

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New? START HERE.

Fortune favors the insanely (crazy) and bold!

EK

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BOOKS // WORKSHOPS // SUPPLY

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After all of my world travels, nomading around, experimentation with lifestyle etc … this is what I have discovered:

Honestly, all places suck.

Even more,

I don’t even think there’s any place which is more “optimal“ for anything.

What do you care for?

The first thing to address is first, critically think about what you really care for. For me, I care for the gym, weight lifting, hypelifting, the Costco business Center for meat, thinking, blogging, vlogging, etc. Also traveling and entrepreneurship.

I think with a lot of people try to do is chase some sort of lifestyle, mode of living, or place which they consider “successful”. For example, think about all these people who moved to the Bay Area, San Francisco, the city, New York, Brooklyn, London etc.

With a lot of these cities, it seems that people desire this:

I desire to become a more interesting, influential, and more important person. If I move to more important cities, I shall become more important.

But is this true? No.

I forget which great Greek philosopher said, “I would rather turn my own city into an Athens, instead go to Athens.”

Back in the day, Athens was essentially the New York City in ancient Greece. All of the happening things were in Athens.

However in terms of mentality, I do find it much more interesting and noble to strive to turn your shitty city into an Athens, instead of just moving to Athens.

THE NEW ATHENS?

How can you create your own new Athens?

I’ve found my paradise?

Maybe instead of wasting time and meandering around, just set down your feet, fuck it, and just start getting shit done.

Don’t wait for optimal.

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Critical lifestyle thinking?

Once again, what we need to critically think and consider is this:

What is it that I really desire out of my life?

For more critical thinking, have a chat with WHY APP? ZEN OF ERIC KIM.

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The ideal life?

Some more critical thinking:

What is the ideal life, for me?

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Physics Experiments?

A turbo thought I had while giving Seneca a bath/shower, and running the showerhead water, and letting him play with the mobile showerhead, and also letting him play with all these buckets of water, buoyancy, etc;

For Seneca, it seems that one of his supreme joys is physics experiments.

For example, we are taught that it is “bad“ for kids to “waste water“. Yet, what if having kids waste water, and natural resources is actually one of the best ways for them to learn?

Another thought that I had about just things in general;

What if all of life and existence were simply experiments in physics?

For example, physical strength. Physical, physics, it is the same thing. For example, I am actually still pretty shocked that I could atlas lift over 900 pounds on my shoulders. And so is everyone else at the gym.

Also, I just did a rack pull today of 795 pounds — and I overheard one of the guys talking, to his friend, and astonished that I kept adding more plates onto the rack.

Maybe also entrepreneurship is simply physics experiments. In real life.

For example if you think about Elon Musk, what is Elon Musk? I think he is a designer, and also a mastermind in physics. Considering that more or less he self-taught himself rocket science to start spaceX. Also Tesla, and his ideas on the supercharging network was simply applied physics in reality. Also building the grasshopper space ex rocket ship that automatically land itself; physics. Same with the Boring company.

Physics vs “Science”?

Perhaps physics is empirical, science is soft.

Science simply means knowledge. And what we know as the “scientific method“ is not 100% objective.

Physics is interesting; much of it as a binary. Can you lift it off the ground or off the rack even half an inch, or not?

Where to live?

Another thought that I had, just walking around the portion of Cindy‘s mom‘s house that we are renting;

We are simply renting some square cubic meters of space, on the earth, and it is amazing that other places might charge $3500 a month for this. Fortunately, to rent more or less three bedrooms and two bathrooms and Cindy‘s mom‘s house, we are only paying $500 USD a month.

The tricky thing is we are moving to LA, which means trying to figure out a novel living solution.

Living?

Ultimately you need somewhere to live and sleep.

There are different ways to do this. First of all, you can rent, you could rent either a apartment unit in an apartment complex, you could rent a townhouse, you could rent a unit in a luxury condo building, you can buy a condo within a shared condominium structure, you can buy a standalone house, etc.

These are the tricky things I have discovered;

1. Property tax. Also HOA fees. Let us say that you buy a house for $1.3 million, or you buy a condominium. Still, assuming you paid it all in cash and you have it 100% paid off, you still gotta pay property tax, which often is around $1500 USD a month. And assuming you live in a condo or you buy a condo, and you have a fully paid off, HOA fees can range from $500 USD to even 5000 USD a month. This seems like a massive rip off. also, you got a pay for property insurance, and also, sooner or later things will break, and you got a pay money to fix it, pay for the part if you do it yourself, or do you gotta pay a contractor or someone else to do it, which often takes forever and has lots of problems. And lots of headaches.
2. The remodeling trap; from what I have observed, funny enough one of the downsides of homeownership is that there will always be things you will want to fix, remodel, redo, etc. And it seems like a never ending Sisyphean trap.
3. How renting seems interesting; at least here, there is no “gotcha“ fees. Rent, while it can seem high, at least it is transparent and everything is on the table.
4. Another problem about buying a house, assuming you do not buy it 100% in cash, and also assuming you don’t just have $2 million in hard cash sitting around, or in the bank: interest rates, even if you have a small interest rate of around 3.5%, it seems that almost the first decade or two of your house, you aren’t even paying off the house, you were simply paying the interest. And it is insane. Assuming you’re down 40% in cash for a $1.3 million house, I think you still end up spending around $700,000 USD in additional interest in fees over the course of the 30 years.
5. If you have the option; honestly it seems the wisest thing to do is not live in America if you have the option. Mexico City, you can rent an insanely nice apartment or studio for only around $1300 USD a month. Also when me and Cindy were living in Vietnam in Hanoi, I think we only paid around 350 USD a month for a brand new studio apartment. We’re also in Phnom Penh Cambodia, lots of new buildings to live in, super nice. Or also in Saigon, a lot of these brand new apartment complex buildings are insanely nice, they look like the brand new structures in Hong Kong. Some of them even have a Starbucks attached to it!

Should we strive to earn more money, to live in a nicer place, or should we seek something else?

It doesn’t hurt to do both; striving to earn more money, as a means to have more buffer in life. At the same time I think what I am principally interested in is lifestyle innovations, in regards of how to live, where to live, etc.

Perhaps some sort of minimalist approach seems wise here.

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Travel?

Another funny thought I had in regards to lifestyle is this:

Maybe an interesting life strategy is to barbell it; live in the super boring suburbs, where it is slightly cheaper, and then during the summers, you travel to exotic places in Asia, Seoul, South Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia etc.

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Why lifestyle?

The difficult thing about lifestyle is that it has just become a marketed concept, in regards to clothing. For example, you think this:

I desire to have a certain lifestyle, and in order to become that lifestyle, I must purchase clothing or watches or designer objects or cars associated with that lifestyle concept.

For example, let us say that I really like doing yoga. Sooner or later I will feel pressured to buying Lululemon clothing, Lululemon leggings, etc., in order to fit the “yoga” lifestyle. And also other silly things like becoming vegan, buying more plant-based things, etc.

Or let us say that I am really into rap, hip-hop culture, etc. Sooner or later I might be pressured into buying insanely expensive athletic sneakers, Nikes, Jordans, supreme clothing, Bape, Adidas, Yeezy etc.

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Creating your own lifestyle?

My concept is EK — the EK LIFESTYLE. Simply put, maybe the best idea is to just transform yourself into a lifestyle concept.

For example, it can be in regards to everything about you. What you wear, what you eat, what do you think, how often eat, how frequently or infrequently you eat, what you decide not to eat or consume, what you believe in what you don’t believe in, your philosophy, your photography, your blogs, your art, your platform, etc.

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How your lifestyle is efficient

It is in lifestyle for the sake of lifestyle; rather, it is simply this:

Figuring out what you truly desire in life, and then figuring out the living strategy which best suits that end.

For example, I am insanely passionate about weight lifting, hypelifting, and discovering new truths about my body and the human body through insanely epic one rep max lifting. Therefore for my lifestyle, going to the gym every single day is critical.

Therefore, in terms of my lifestyle, or living situation, I simply want to be close to a good gym. It doesn’t even have to be even the worlds best gym; as long as it has sufficient enough equipment, good enough for me.

Also another tip, if you feel that the equipment or the bars in your gym are insufficient, simply ask the general manager whether you could bring in your own equipment, or just leave your own bar at the gym. This is what my gym manager Chris suggested to me; to buy a Texas power bar, and just leave at the gym and use it whenever I wanted. And this is what I did.

Purchasing things?

Once again, figure out what your truly truly care for life and what you don’t, is critical. For example, all in all I probably spent around $500 USD which includes shipping for my Texas power bar, and it was literally the best $500 I’ve ever spent my life. It is half the price of an iPhone, and I think a quadrillion times more valuable.

Also, an interesting experiment; I just leave it at the gym, on the weight lifting rack that I typically use at the gym. And the funny thing, it is 55 pounds which is about 10 pounds heavier than the standard 45 pound bar. And therefore when I am just watching people lived with it, I’d love to see how confused they are, because it feels so much heavier than what they are used to, and they are not sure why.

Also another fun thing, even seeing the staff touch the bar, and see how phenomenal that the grip and knurling feels, and also commenting on how thick the sleeves are.

Therefore this is a big lifestyle concept I have;

Quasi-ownership, quasi-communal things.

For example, I just leave my Texas power squat bar at the gym, for anyone to use. But ultimately when I move to LA, I’m taking it with me. So from efficiency perspective, I like the idea that 99% of the time during the day when I am not at the gym, someone else can be using it well in place of me. Kind of also like Uber, 99.9% of the time people just park their cars in the garage, or at home. If your car could semi autonomous they just drive itself everywhere, while you’re not using it, this seems like an interesting idea.

It is also kind of like the idea behind Airbnb, assuming you have a spare bedroom, or you’re traveling during the summer, being able to simply have somebody else rent that while you’re gone is an intelligent efficiency thing.

Apparently there’s also this new funny service that you could even rent out space in your garage, for other people to store their stuff in.

Maybe this is also how banks work; most people when they just put their money in the bank, they’re not doing anything with it. And therefore the banks try to make it more efficient by reinvest in your money into other speculative things, earning a net positive for both you and the bank.

Even in terms of cryptocurrency, apparently now you could even lend your crypto, you become a bank, and you simply lend out your crypto at a certain interest rate, allowing you to earn “passive income“.

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Curating your inner circle

Maybe in terms of social relationships, it should also be seen as an ikebana thing;

You don’t try to “keep in touch“ with people and friends and family, but rather, you ruthlessly prune, until you get to what is truly core and critical.

For example for myself, when it comes down to it, it is Seneca Cindy and me. Nothing or nobody else. Pretty simple.

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Prioritizing yourself

Also what is truly critical is prioritizing yourself. If you don’t prioritize yourself, you cannot help anybody else.

Photography, creativity and art?

Ultimately when it comes down to it, I think the end goal for most people is this:

Focusing on their artwork.

Artwork can be anything. For example, I think philosophy is simply the art of thinking, and also producing and sharing and publishing your own thoughts. Or the art of bodybuilding, thinking of your body as sculpture. Or photography video etc.

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How to innovate your own lifestyle concept

I suppose the art of building your own personal self brand is this:

Proposing a new mode of living, a new lifestyle, a new way of thinking of things.

For example, let us consider how innovative Tim Ferriss was when he published the four hour work week. His notions of the “new rich“, and also, some pretty innovative thoughts on how to use your time in your life.

Authenticity.

Ultimately, there is not a better lifestyle or worse or lifestyle. Rather, whatever you propose; just be authentic.

ERIC

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How to prioritize to do more of what you want to do?

Once you have gained the precision of knowing what you want in life, then, it seems that you could better strategize on how to achieve what you want in life.

1. Being insanely selfish?

To pursue what you truly desire in life, you must become more “unethical”.

For example, this is the funny thing;

Apparently it is “evil“ to be “selfish“.

However, when people call you “selfish”, what they’re really saying is

How dare you act in such a way which is contrary to my personal belief system!

Therefore the first thought; become more selfish, bad, “evil”.

2. What does it mean to think different?

One of the quotes coined by Steve Jobs is “think different “. Yet…

We are only permitted to think different in the same old ways.

For example, let us consider how surprisingly intolerant liberal or left-leaning people are.

For example, I am not permitted to like meat, and I am also not permitted to openly say that I don’t really care about the environment.

Also, I am not allowed to be masculine, or even propose notions that the more masculine you are the better.

Or, even though I am a liberal and I did not vote for Donald Trump, I am not allowed to say as a liberal, I think Donald Trump is hilarious.

3. The new thought police?

One of the biggest things that I’ve learned from George Orwell’s 1984, and also Brave New World, is the notion of the thought police. This is that you are not permitted to think differently.

I think a free society should be permitted to think however one wants to think. I suppose this is the nuance;

How to promote free thinking without promoting hate?

What is hate anyways? Hate is strong emotions, and that is fine. However, I think what is not permissible is when you incite or provoke some sort of physical or verbal violence.

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Stagnant thinking?

Why travel, move around, live in different places, live in different living situations, experiment with lifestyle, etc.? This is why I have observed; when you stay in one place for too long, your thoughts start to stagnate.

I believe there is a strong bond between man and his environment and his thoughts. For example, the type of thinking and thoughts which come to me while living in Orange County Southern California is different than the thoughts I get one I am in downtown LA, different when I am in LA, different when I am in Saigon, Phnom Penh, Seoul South Korea, Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Dubai, etc.

Insane tenacity?

There are a lot of things that we cannot control in life, yet one thing we can control is our tenacity.

Tenacity means to simply hold on, to grip hard.

This is an interesting thought, because at least in matters of the gym, and weightlifting, grip strength is strength. Which means, the stronger your grip strength, it is a great indicator I just how strong you are period.

I have another funny thought, perhaps in order to become more mentally and metaphorically tenacious in life, you must become physically more tenacious, that is, to literally improve our grip strength. How do we do that?

First and foremost, it seems wise to not use wrist wraps, or hand straps at the gym. These prevent you from building your grip strength.

Instead, just use liquid weightlifting chalk, just buy it for super cheap on Amazon. And at least with some types of weightlifting with a barbell, at the higher weights, use the mixed grip, which means one of your hands is overhand and the other one is under hand, so the bar doesn’t rotate and slip away.

Some simple exercises include doing one rep max rack pulls, or also one rep max farmers carries. For example, chalk up, and just find the heaviest dumbbells at the gym, lift it off the rack, and just see how far you can walk it out. For me and my gym, that is 150 pound dumbbells.

In the beginning, my grip strength wasn’t even strong enough to lift up to 150 pound dumbbell off the rack with my left hand. Now I can lift it off, and actually walk it out a little bit.

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The philosophy of travel?

One of the huge upsides that I’ve discovered about teaching workshops is that it is hugely beneficial to myself as well. How? When I am teaching a workshop in a new place, whether foreign or domestic, essentially anywhere which isn’t typically seen as “home” to me, it is always an advancing opportunity.

For example, when I am in southern California, not on the road, typically me Cindy and Seneca are just squatting Cindy‘s mom‘s house, in the boring orange county suburbs. So the times that I go to downtown LA to teach a workshop, it is always such an insanely great experience, because it resparked my enthusiasm for life. Ultimately I would prefer to live in downtown LA than I would Orange County.

Another example, I am very lucky that I married Cindy, because she is an academic, it affords me and gives me the opportunity to travel, and also live in places that I would have never even imagined visiting or living in in the first place.

For example, if I had never met or married Cindy, I don’t think I would have ever even gone to Vietnam, let alone live there for about a year. The same goes with last summer, her research took us to Phnom Penh Cambodia, which initially, I was indifferent towards, but after going there and after the experience of being in Cambodia and Phnom Penh, it totally transformed me. Because almost a decade ago, I want to see siem reap, but the same place where Angkor Wat is, and I really didn’t like it. Yet Phnom Penh the capital city of Cambodia was such a phenomenal eye-opening experience to me.

What do you want out of life anyways?

I think the foolish and naïve life aspirations and dreams you had when you were younger is wise. For example, when I was still a tenderfoot green thumb in college, my insane life ambition was to become self-employed, essentially not “work for the man“, travel the world, shoot photos, etc. And funny enough beyond a decade later, it still seems to be the case.

Also, a fun thing I like to do often on my iPad, is using Apple Maps, just zoom out and look at the whole world. See how much you have yet explored or been to.

The ideal mode of living?

I do not think there is a universal mode of living which is supreme to everybody. But some philosophical thoughts:

1. Self employment. In modern-day capitalist society, I think this might be the most critical. Why? It doesn’t matter if you’re being paid $5 million a year from your company as CEO, if you don’t have any personal freedom, it ain’t worth it. For example, a simple heuristic from Nassim Taleb on whether you are self-owned or not, “When you want to, can you just take a nap?”
2. Quasi nomadic; that is, you are not perpetually on the road, which is energy expensive. I think being semi-nomadic is best, which means maybe in the summer, you just live in a foreign place for about three months or so, and then you might have a homebase elsewhere. Or, if you can, Every year or two, spend a year or two living in a new foreign city or place which interests you.

Embark on an insanely epic and life transforming experience

Respark your passion for living and life!

1. June 17th, Saturday, 2023: DOWNTOWN LA CONQUER YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY AND LIFE – New!
2. July 15-16th: ERIC KIM SAIGON VIETNAM TRAVEL STREET PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERIENCE 2023 – New!
3. Oct 14th (Saturday) PHILLY CONQUER STREET PHOTOGRAPHY – New!

EK EXPERIENCES >

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CONSULT WITH EK

Get the thoughts — eric@erickim.com

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EK SHOPPE

Elevate what is possible:

1. MUSE YOUR IMAGINATION
2. CONQUER THE WORLD WITH HENRI MARK IV
3. CARRY HEAVIER WITH HENRI SHOULDER STRAP

Dream on >

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Things I’m into

1. Just buy a Texas squat power bar, either for your own home gym, or for your own local commercial gym. Buy it, it literally shipped to me within three days, it got here so insanely fast. Assuming you just go to a local gym, just bring it in, and say that the general manager allows you to just leave it there. Just leave it at your local commercial gym, and let anyone use it when you’re not there.
2. Balenciaga — crypto shirt. Mind blown — the B for Balenciaga and Bitcoin are both “ B’s”? Get the hoodie.
3. Maybach.
4. Death wish coffee, also the NGUYEN coffee brand. Robusta is the future?

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Forward the turbo!

If you feel that this turbocharger thinking even in one tiny way, feel free to forward this to a friend!

EK TURBO NEWS >

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Things I still gotta do

1. Start my own streetwear company, gym attire, lifestyle apparel and clothing brand
2. Watch John Wick 4

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Creativity is our lifeblood. Typically when I think about creativity, I think of aberrant thinking, and doing things differently from what is considered traditional.

Some thoughts:

1. Ignorance is good

Something I have discovered is that going to art school, studying art history, etc. might be one of the worst things for your creativity. Why? Honestly a lot of it is so fake; a lot of artists tend to be insecure introverts, and I think that all people seek some sort of supremacy. Therefore, if you are a young insecure artist, or even a more mature insecure artist, you will seek external validation for your art.

Therefore, I think some knowledge of the past is useful, in so far much as it can help expand your thinking. For example, the reason why I really like Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, studying cubism and other forms of abstract art is so interesting because it teaches us:

Art does not need to be photo-realistic to be legitimate.

For example, even people don’t know that Jean Michel Basquiat really knows how to paint, photo realistic paintings. The same thing with Jackson Pollock, Picasso, Matisse, all of them. Also the same goes with other surrealist’s, and abstract painters.

Typically this is how it goes:

1. The artist will get a traditional painting education
2. The artist will make really really great photo realistic paintings
3. The artist will eventually get bored of this and seek some sort of innovation
4. The artist then figures out a more unorthodox form of visual expression

Even when you think of an artist like Kanye West in the context of art, he started off as a traditional producer, making music and beats for other artists. Then he wanted to get into rapping. And got in. Then he wanted to go to fashion, and then he did. And also if you think about his more innovative albums like 808s & Heartbreak, and also his Yeezus album, Kanye West was at least 20 or 30 years before his time.

2. What is creativity?

I think the best definition of creativity is having the propensity to create. That is, you like to create and make stuff.

Therefore, I think a creative person is somebody who derives joy from creating things. Creating, modifying, customizing, painting, drawing, making photographs, making videos, etc.

Whenever you transfigure something, or the world, you create something new.

3. What gets in our way?

My personal thought is so much of the difficulties behind art is that everyone is trying to put us down.

For example, I can speak from my personal experiences. When I got started in photography, street photography, started traveling the world and meeting all this famous people, etc., at the ripe age of 22, this is what I have discovered:

When other people see you as a young rising star, they feel small compared to you, and they feel less bad about themselves, when they try to put you down.

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4. Think different

To become more creative means to think differently. What does it mean to think different?

First, I think there is a moralistic ethical perspective behind things. That is, one is not permitted to think differently, in modern day society. Also, it seems that the modern left-wing liberal bent is becoming more intolerant.

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5. Insane audacity

Another thought I have is when it comes to creativity, insane audacity is a good idea.

For example, Who are some of the most creative geniuses we have witnessed on planet earth? Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Kanye West, Elon Musk, etc.

“Name one genius that ain’t crazy!” – Kanye

I think in order to become a creative genius, you need some sort of level of insane audacity.

“A genius is just a kid with good parents.” – Kanye

What is a genius anyways? I think all kids are geniuses, and are born geniuses. The problem:

Typically, when most kids go through the traditional K-12 education system, their genius like curiosity is beaten out of them.

When I think about Montessori education, it isn’t a perfect system, but, I think that general bias is that they indulge more creativity in their kids.

6. Kids are smarter than you think

Something that I have discovered with Seneca, him only currently being 2 years two months old, he is 1 billion times smarter than I think he is.

And I think this is the secret,

Just talk to your kids as if they were 12 years old.

Kids are so much more capable than we think they are. I think the bias in America, also eastern schools of thought is that kids are not that intelligent. However, I think the geniusness of your child will rise to the occasion. This means:

If you treat your kids like a genius, they will become a genius.

However,

If you treat your kid like a baby, they will remain a baby forever.

This is also age independent. It doesn’t matter if you are two years old, three years old, 35 years old, etc., I think maturity is a mentality thing.

7. Do you even desire creativity?

I think 99.9% of creativity had to deal with courage. That is, having the courage to be different, act different, and approach things differently.

For example, do you have the courage not to have an Instagram?

I think in terms of creativity, the downside is that often when you are more creative, you are actually praised less. I don’t think one should pursue creativity for the sake of being praised. The trap is when you seek to be praised, you’ll actually not to do creative things, you’ll just do the same old boring thing as everyone else, and be praised for that.

For example, in the context of art, kids who could draw or paint more photo realistically are praised more than kids who draw abstract. Yet ironically enough, at the upper echelon of things, like if you think about the end works a Picasso and Matisse, their ultimate works are indeed, childlike. Consider the beautiful sublime simplicity of Matisse and his Turkish blue cut outs of the silhouettes of women. Literally any kid with cardboard paper and scissors could do it. I think the ultimate hybrid of an artist is this:

Have the intelligence of adult, but create like a child.

8. The genesis of creativity?

Something I am personally curious about is where does creativity come from?

My thought is perhaps the genesis of creativity is dissatisfaction with things. The deep desire to change, transfigure, modify things and the world.

For example, let us consider a Steve Jobs, one of the most creative human beings who has ever lived. If you read the Walter Isaacson biography on him, this is what I learned:

The genius of Steve Jobs was that at heart, he was like a child, and ultimately was a creative tyrant.

You cannot bend.

For example, it would have been impossible for Steve Jobs to have started Apple Computer without Steve Wozniak. But ultimately, Steve Wozniak was simply a steppingstone. Why? Steve Wozniak wanted to add ports, and all of this hacker like things to the Apple OS. But Steve Jobs knew that this was not the way. And this is why no one will remember Steve Wozniak, only Steve Jobs.

Even Jony Ive, who is pretty much the design mastermind of most things at Apple. I think the problem of Jony Ive is that she is almost too soft-spoken, too nice, not enough of an asshole like Steve Jobs.

In fact, when someone calls you an asshole, what does that mean?

How dare you talk to me in a non-nice way.

But like Kanye said —

“I’m not mean, I’m just focused!”

Even in Steve Jobs‘s told Jony Ive that in fact, Jony Ive was the dishonest one. When Jony Ive retarded angrily about this, Steve Jobs told him:

“The reason why you’re the bad guy is that you just want everyone to like you. Therefore you don’t tell people what you really think.”

To say what you really think, takes much courage, and also, a healthy dose of being “unethical”, and “immoral”.

Also for myself, and I consider myself a “nice guy“, this is what I have discovered:

I just want everyone to like me.

But the problem is ultimately, I’m starting to think that this is a little bit disingenuous. Why? When you want everyone to like you, you often bend yourself in dishonest ways.

Therefore, my simple thought:

Better to be honest and “bad“, than to be dishonest and be “good”.

9. Why be creative?

I think the ultimate end goal is creativity for the sake of advancing humankind.

There are lots of ways to be creative. For example, a simple one is just to be more creative in your thinking. To think more creatively. To think more aberrantly, to think more unorthodox, and ultimately, to publish share and propagate your thoughts.

Simple ways to do this is on your own blog, your own email newsletter, YouTube, podcast etc.

The best way to build a blog is through bluehost.com and install wordpress.org, for email newsletter I like sendy.co, and for podcast anchor.fm which is now owned by Spotify (search ERIC KIM on Spotify).

10. Creative assignments

I think ultimately, the best way to achieve creativity is through creative restrictions, or creative constraints.

1. Only shoot macro mode for a whole week
2. Only shot jpeg for a year
3. If you shoot with a manual focusing lens, only shoot the minimum focusing distance for a month. For example, if you have a like a rangefinder M camera, pre-focus to .7 meters. LEICA MANUAL // FREE PDF

Upload your best creative photos to arsbeta >

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Now what?

1. EK CREATIVITY SHOP// CREATIVE EVERYDAY PRINT // MOBILE
2. Just create something. Use your iPhone, your iPad, the Procreate app. Install Zen brush 2, do calligraphy.
3. Deleting and getting rid of stuff is also a creative act: maybe even a simple idea is get rid of all the unwarranted clothes in your wardrobe, and just donate it to the local Goodwill.
4. My friend Stan Hudecki did something good, when he moved houses, he purged all of his camera equipment, and gave it to friends and families and kids in need/people who would use it better than he could. He is now part of the Ricoh mafia, Ricoh GR 3X

CONQUER WITH EK

Fulfill your creative potential:

• June 17th, Saturday, 2023: DOWNTOWN LA CONQUER YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY AND LIFE
• July 15-16th: ERIC KIM SAIGON VIETNAM TRAVEL STREET PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERIENCE 2023 – New!
• Oct 14th (Saturday) PHILLY WORKSHOP (details TBA)

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Things on my mind

1. What is the best car? The greatest flex? Maybe a murdered out, all black matte Prius prime. Or a matte pink genesis G 90, with Tonka neon green rims. Or a rolls Royce spectre in Morganite (blush pink)/ customize
2. The Texas power bar, the Texas power squat bar is totally worth it. I just lifted 895 pounds with it, and I feel great.
3. Seek the more clever solution: in life, I think my passion is discovering novel solutions to things. Don’t do basic.

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Forward the turbo!

If you feel like you even got one creative thought from this, and you have a friend or family man number who will also benefit from it, feel free to forward this as an email to them!

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Fortune favors the insanely creative!

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