How to Become Muscular

Muscles — I was studying the etymology for the word, and apparently it meant “little mouse“, that somehow, muscles look like little mice? *muhs

Apparently when you flex your biceps, ancient Romans thought it looked like a little mice were running under your skin?

Also, apparently mussels (the clam looking things) looked like little mice to some ancient Romans, and thus the name was born.

Back to reality

So when we think of muscles, we tend to think of skeletal muscle. The fleshy bulging thing.

Over the years, the hilarity is that certain ways to describe physique were invented.

For example, I was born in 1988, and as a kid growing up, into college and beyond, certain phrases included being “jacked“, swole, ripped, massive, etc.

Muscle quality?

I was once hearing an interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger and he was critiquing the modern-day bodybuilder, that their physique was totally out of proportion, and also, the “quality” of the muscle went down. For example, some people quote later years Ronnie Coleman, as not having “quality“ muscle, albeit he was an over 330 pound mass monster with a 6 pack!

When people talk about muscle quality, I think it is not precise enough. I think typically when people talk about muscles, this is what they think:

I want to augment the mass of my skeletal muscle, and decrease my body fat percentage to a minimum, in order for me to see my six pack.

Misconceptions

I think the new modern-day racism is towards “genetics“. That when people say that some people have “good genetics” and others have “bad genetics”, it is a new form of low-key racism. I think of “genetics” as racism 2.0.

There is no such thing as “good genetics.” When you see upper echelon bodybuilders, at the top, it is not because they have “good genetics,” but they are just really good at taking steroids. And also, intelligent enough and knowledgeable enough to know which types of steroids, performance-enhancing drugs, testosterone boosters, hormone inhibitors, etc. to take in a “stack“.

Apparently I was very naïve; of course I knew that the really really high-end bodybuilders all took steroids, but, apparently even 18-year-old high school kids take steroids, in order to get that college football scholarship etc.

Why are you should never compare your physique with anybody else, why superhero movies are a scam, why you should not go on YouTube or social media

Everyone is 100% “natty (natural)”, until they are busted.

For example, apparently there is this guy named the beef liver king, who ate nothing but beef liver, and said that he was 100% natural, and the way he was able to get so jacked and muscular was because he lots of beef liver. This is hilarious because independently I came up with a thought, that beef liver, and cholesterol is a natural steroid, because beef liver has the highest concentration of cholesterol in any meat food item, And that cholesterol is a natural steroid. And no, cholesterol will not give you a heart attack. Also the hilarity is that consuming more dietary cholesterol, let’s say eating beef liver, will not necessarily increase your LDL or HDL cholesterol levels, all these “scientific” studies about cholesterol and heart attacks is all about correlation, not causation. All observational studies, which is not real science. And no, don’t trust Bill Gates, just look at his “boner killer“ beer gut, as tweeted by Elon Musk.

The only way you could maybe do a scientific study is to take two children at birth, twins, both boys, and keep them in test tubes from birth until death, and feed only one 100% beef liver, and the other a “balanced“ “Mediterranean“ diet. Even if you did this, it might not be significant, because your sample size is not big enough. You might have to do this with at least 1000 kids, which ain’t gonna happen, not even in mainland china.


The ERIC KIM workout plan

I have very simple directions:

1. Intermittent fasting

That means no breakfast, no lunch, only one massive 100% carnivore dinner. I have done this seven years religiously, and also the fun thing; I think I might be the only one who lifts insanely heavy weights at the gym, without having consumed anything before! The only things I consume before working out might be normal filtered tap water, and espresso with no BS added.

2. One rep max.

That means, what is the maximum amount of weight you are able to move, successfully once. Also a new innovation is towards “nano reps.” The basic idea is this: increase the weight, decrease the range of motion.

The hilarity is that a lot of people tell me to “be careful“, and that I might “hurt myself“, or that I might “hurt my back“. Anyone who tells me this is a coward. Why? When they tell you to be careful, or that you might hurt yourself, what they are essentially saying is that,

“I am so bewildered that you are able to move that insanely heavy weight, without any straps, belts, knee wraps, etc. I am flabbergasted how you are so strong and how you were able to do that. Certainly your method is a foolish one, and if you keep doing that, you’ll end up injuring and hurting yourself, because what you do is illegitimate. I want to see you hurt yourself so I could feel better about myself, about how weak I am.”

Zero issues here. And also for your personal reference, no, I do not take any weird drugs or steroids or hormones. I don’t even consume protein powder or creatine! Just 100% beef, beef neckbones, beef ribs, beef liver, beef brisket. If beef is not available, pork belly and pork ribs. But it is my theory that beef is superior to pork, because beef has more myoglobin red blood cells in it, more oxygen, which may be assists in muscle building.

Red meat or nothing.

3. Why meat?

Currently speaking, I think there is an anti-meat conspiracy going around. Note that apparently people like James Cameron, Bill Gates, etc., a lot of them on much farmland in America, or on some sort of weird pea protein powder companies, so this is the thing:

People want to seem more benevolent, care about “humanity“, “the planet“, “animal rights“, etc., in order to advance their personal image, their “legitimacy“, and also make money from it.

I believe that if we really want to think scientifically, or, think critically about muscle building, let us not talk about ethics, “the planet“ etc.

4. Hypertrophy

Hyper means “over,” tropia” means nutrition, or nourishment in Ancient Greek.

When a lot of people talk about “hypertrophy“ in regards to muscle building, I think what they are talking about is doing lots of repetitions, at a lower or moderate weight, in order to maximize “muscle size“. But the reason why this etymology is misleading is that actually, hypertrophy really means “over nourishment.”

As a thought experiment, let us say that I lift insanely heavy weights, over seven or eight plates at the gym, even for a single repetition. And then I go home, and I eat 5 pounds of beef ribs. Let us say I continue this pattern for a year. Certainly I will accumulate muscle mass and size, and strength.

5. What not to eat?

Another funny notion is nowadays guys want to do something called a bulk, and “bulking up,” and then later on, cut their carbs and sugars, and starches, in order to “lean up“.

I find this to be a disintelligent strategy.

You do not need any sugar, carbs, starches, rice or potatoes, protein powder, creatine, etc. in order to augment your muscle size. Also as a fun fact, you do not need to even consume food, or whey protein powder a “golden hour window“ after you’re done working out. For example, I typically go to the gym and lift weights at around 1 PM, and then I don’t eat dinner until 6 PM, I have still been able to meet some demigod gains. Sometimes I don’t break my fast or eat until 10pm, no problems here!

6. Do you need to eat anything, or drink a protein shake, or take pre-workout powder before your workout?

No. Just do it fasted. If you’re going to have a stimulant, why not just drink black coffee? These new pre-workout caffeine cocaine looking powder things I think are bad because they make you fat. 99.9% of them, if not 100% of them have some sort of sucralose or artificial sweetener added to it. Similar to these “0 cal“ energy drinks, just read the ingredient list, any sort of artificial sweetener will make you fat.

7. You do not need to put on fat in order to augment muscle.

Eating meat will not make you fat. Also, eating fat will not make you fat. The only things which make you fat include vegetables, fruit, starches, rice and potatoes, sweets, Coke zero, Stevia, monk fruit, honey, almonds, nuts, legumes, sweetened or flavored water, milk, dairy, almond milk, oat milk, oatmeal, etc.

Essentially anything which spikes your insulin levels is bad.

No no no, it is not this silly “calories in calories out” nonsense. Even “zero calorie“ beverages, let us say a Coke zero, has artificial sweetener added to it. You cannot fool your hormones or your biology. If you drink a Coke zero, and you taste the sweetness, and your body senses this sweetness, I am quite certain it will start injecting insulin into your body, which acts as a fat storage mechanism.

8. Fat vs muscle?

Also, the reason why you should never weigh yourself, irregardless if you are a man or a woman is that it is a foolish metric. It is impossible to ascertain how much of the weight on the scale is fat versus muscle mass, versus bone weight, sinew weight, blood weight, etc.

Why are people so into this cult of weighing yourself?

I first blamed the doctors. The doctors tell the patients that they should “lose weight“. No no no. What they should say is, to lose fat. Also changing up the lexicon; don’t call people overweight, call them overfat.

How to Work More

It seems that in today’s cult of work, we all want to work more. Why? And towards what?

What is “work”?

*Werg— it literally means to make.

Therefore, I think the most pragmatic way we should think and approach work is about making. Building, creating.

Therefore if you want to work more, it isn’t answering more emails, or checking more things off your to do list. Rather, work is making.

What do you want to make?

There are lots of things you could attempt to make. For example, you can make blog posts, you can make articles, you can make essays, you can make videos, you can make photos, you can make music, beats, audio, podcasts, video podcasts, make illustrations using Procreate on iPad or iPhone, You can make a lot of stuff.

Therefore to work more is to make more.

Is making more better than curating?

Another funny bias I have discovered is that it looks like a lot of these pseudo woke, superficially conscientious people is all about —

It is all about quality, not quantity. I myself am working on some insanely great thing, yet, I am still in the process of thinking it through.

Something I have observed about the modern day bohemian, artistic, millennial is this:

They are very creative, artistic and ambitious, yet lack courage.

For example, when is the last time you smiled at a stranger millennial, and they made eye contact and smiled back?

Go to the gym

I don’t know about you, but I get most of my best creative thoughts when I’m at the gym, working out, getting a quick pump.

Why is this? Some thing which is productive about the gym lifestyle is that when you go to the gym, often you have this massive indoor or outdoor place, with lots of humans, physical activity, and lots of hormones and endorphins in the air. Therefore, a simple thought:

If you want to work more, just bring your iPhone, iPad, or laptop to the gym, and after you get a quick pump, do some work at the gym.

Why?

For myself, before the pandemic, I loved going to coffee shops to do creative work. There was something about the environment, the low-key stochastic resonance of all of the background noise and chatter, the activity and flurry of people, the sound of coffee grinding, the smells and aromas in the air, being around other people makes us more productive.

Thus, I have this concept of a space, imagine part powerlifting gym meets coffee shop meets daycare meets creative collaborative space.

Can you imagine a place where you could do some quick powerlifting, a quick one rep max deadlift or squat, rack pull, or at atlas lift, and then enjoy some nice coffee, and do a standing desk with your laptop and do some creative work with the free gigabit speed Internet Wi-Fi? That would be awesome.

I would also have this funny challenge that if you could successfully lift 600 pounds off the floor, you’ll get a free pound of beef ribs or coffee.

Things which need to be created:

  1. Some sort of all you could eat 100% carnivore meat buffet, in which literally only meat is served.
  2. Some sort of gym or space which has no stupid cardio equipment, no machines, no treadmills, etc. Only power racks and barbells.
  3. A co-working space which is part gym, and also part daycare for your kids. For example as a new parent, I like this idea that you could just drop off your kid with you at the gym, and you could get a quick pump, while your kid is close by.
  4. Also a fun ideas create some sort of gym for kids, not those stupid indoor playgrounds, but the space in which kids could lift heavy weights, and challenge one another to epic feats of strength.

Why do you want to make?

Assuming that to work is to make, the question is; why do you want to make more? Why do you want to make more stuff?

The first thought is that perhaps there’s something in our human DNA in which we love to make and create. That for optimal human thriving, we must make more, attempt more, in order to become more.

Produce more

Having met a few successful folks in Hollywood and beyond, the interesting thing that I’ve discovered is that what does a producer care for? Not to sit on their laurels, but instead, to keep producing.

The joy of the producer is to produce, to make new things, to make new movies or shows, etc.

And thus, money finances and resources is simply a means to keep producing more grandiose shows films etc. To fulfill their artistic and creative vision, not to just augment their fame or their money, etc.


So where do I put my stuff?

I think this is the more interesting philosophical question; what is the significance of the things you make?

For example, do you want 1 billion views? A billion dollars? 1 billion followers? If so, then what?

A simple intervention I have is this:

300 die-hard followers is enough.

What is the best way to accumulate followers? Your own blog, or your own email newsletter.

  1. The best email newsletter to start is via sendy.co
  2. The best way to start your own blog is by registering your own domain via bluehost.com, and installing wordpress.org
  3. You can also start a YouTube channel, and just link back to your own website and blog

Now what?

So let us assume that you already have 300 diehard followers. What do you want from them? Do you want to make a bunch of money? This seems to be the goal of a lot of people.

Or, if you just want to turn your passion into a living? Then, if you do so, then what?

I then say that the final goal is to innovate for the sake of advancement. Advancing yourself, advancing ideas, advancing philosophy, advancing entrepreneurship, and advancing the human race.

ADVANCE ON!
EK


New stuff

On EK BLOG

  1. Investing vs Speculation
  2. How to floor bench press 4 plates
  3. Unorthodox life strategies
  4. Muscle “quality”?

ERIC KIM WORKSHOPS

You’re on a new level:

  1. BOSTON
  2. ONLINE
  3. HADONG SOUTH KOREA

EK EXPERIENCES


EK TURBO NEWS

Never run out of inspiration.

ERIC KIM NEWS


BECOME THE ENIGMA.

The tools to conquer:

  1. Street Notes Mobile
  2. HENRI SHOULDER STRAP: STAY HEAVY.
  3. Street Notes Print

Conquer it all.


Money thoughts?

  1. Now may be a good opportunity to buy Chainlink
  2. Still bullish on Bitcoin: It may not be a hedge against fiat currency or inflation, but it is still sexy to me!
  3. Bearish on Ethereum — it is an insanely great innovation, but it still seems lame to me?
  4. TESLA still a good standard stock investment! Just bought some more for my ROTH IRA
  5. Better to buy Tesla stock than a (real) Tesla.

Enable your friends

Feeling a bit more enabled? Feel free to forward this to a friend!

START HERE.


Productivity Thoughts

When is the last time somebody has given a critical line of thinking towards productivity?

“The point of life isn’t productivity, said all unproductive people.”

First of all, what does it mean to produce? To lead forth. Produco— lead + draw.

Pro- forward. Duco- to pull.

Metaphorically speaking, a producer is somebody who leads, and get something creative. For example, some thing I’ve learned is that in Hollywood and show business, it is actually the producer who is the head honcho, not the actor, nor even the director. And also the intelligence of producers is that they all have the intelligence to keep a low profile, yet they are the most powerful. They draw attention away from themselves by creating a scapegoat of the main famous actors, even the directors. The producers enjoy their power, their privacy, and their ability to do and make things. For example, the intelligence of the Wachowski brothers; everyone gave all the attention to Keanu Reeves, yet the Wachowski brothers remained elusive, nobody even knew who they look like. Therefore they could go out in public, buy groceries etc without having anybody know who they are.

First lesson:

The ultimate privilege is to be powerful, yet unknown.


Productivity as a slave mentality

Let us consider ancient Greece. Did Achilles derive his self-worth by how efficiently he would send and receive emails? Of course not. All he cared was the lust of battle, and ultimately what he really wanted to do was just take Breisis, and retire to one of his low-key towns.

Or, let us consider if you were some sort of ancient Greek patriarch. Essentially you would just have a massive villa, some sort of private compound, in which you had a squadron of slaves and servants, all doing the household work, even the modern-day notion of economics comes from ancient Greek, which literally means management of household affairs. Even the accountant and the money keeper in ancient Greek was a slave.

What insanely epic life goals do you have?

I am fortunate enough to have advanced in life beyond the average American. I have only been employed for 10 months of my life, after I graduated college, and beyond that, from age 22 now to age 35, I have been self-employed, a sole proprietor. I have not waking up to an alarm for over a decade, unless I have to catch an early flight.

Perhaps the reason why Elon Musk is the most interesting human being on planet earth is the layers of his ambition. Given that this is your only life on earth, don’t you want to use your life on earth to attempt something insanely epic?

My insanely epic and audacious life goals and plans

In no particular order, and no timeline:

  1. Start a technology company
  2. Start a camera company, or some sort of photo company
  3. Maybe start a car company with Seneca — he loves cars!
  4. Innovate and pave great new advancements in thinking, philosophically, knowledge and information. In the realms of photography, creativity, motivation, entrepreneurship, design and aesthetics, product design, life and lifestyle, child rearing, life goals, health diet and fitness.
  5. Start a clothing company?

Things that last

Let us consider, at an towards the end of your life, what will you have cared for? What will have lasted? What would NOT have have lasted?

To me, true productivity is investing your time energy and power towards things you care for, and things which will last.

Productive assignments

I feel that in order to become more productive, start off by just making more photos, producing more photos. Get a Ricoh GR 3X digital camera, and shoot extra high contrast black-and-white, extra small JPEG.

What gets in our way or distracts us?

Another reason why I am so pro GoPro mini is that because you don’t have the LCD screen distracting you, you could shoot more and be more productive.

Reduce distractions, become more productive, do and produce and create more.

Publish BEFORE you’re ready

A huge productivity tip when it comes to blogging is publish it before you’re ready. Whenever you have even a small idea, just hit publish it AS you’re fleshing out the thought.


Produce to better get to the root of things

One of the big upside of being more productive is that the more you produce and work on something, the better you understand the thing itself.

For example photography, the more I shoot, the more I understand photography, the more of the photography compositions I see and witness, the more I could integrate composition into my photos, and the more joy and delight I should get from photography.


Produce more, think less.

The ultimate takeaway point is simple: produce more, think less.

ERIC


EK WORK

CONQUER IT ALL:

  1. BOSTON: ERIC KIM CONQUER YOUR FEARS IN STREET PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP 2023 (March 25th, 2023 (Saturday))
  2. May 5th: Creative Confidence Online Workshop (9am-11:30am)
  3. May 20: DOWNTOWN LA PHOTO WORKSHOP (info TBA)
  4. June 19-23rd, HADONG SOUTH KOREA ZEN PHOTO RETREAT

Workout ideas

  1. Rack pull, one rep max style. Big tip — use your legs!
  2. How to get fit
  3. ERIC KIM WORKOUT PLAN

PRODUCTIVITY AT THE GYM?

As a fun idea, take your phone, your iPad, or your laptop to the gym, and after you get a quick pump, do your work at the gym. More dynamic than even a coffee shop!


EK SUPPLY

  1. CONQUER YOUR MUSE
  2. CONQUER STREET PHOTOGRAPHY: HENRI NECK STRAP MARK IV
  3. STREET PHOTO STARTER KIT

Witness it all >


Design thoughts

  1. Love the new tail lights on the new Range Rover. Iconic and understated.
  2. Love the tail lights and end of the new Honda Accord. Looks very futuristic and like the new Prologue, which looks like a mini Range Rover Velar
  3. It is the year 2023… why are we still producing and selling and driving gasoline cars?

MORE ON BLOG


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If this sparked any fun ideas within you, feel free to forward to a friend!

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Marketing Thoughts

The future of marketing:

  1. Simpler language
  2. More visual, more photos and autoplaying (mute) videos
  3. More about inspiring, motivating people — aspirational marketing language.

Why does marketing matter?

We live in a capitalist society. Zen capitalism is my concept. My wonder—

Can we live and thrive in a capitalist and consumerist world, in a meaningfully productive way?

I think so.

The simple:

Subtract the superfluous, add the critical.

For example, if you live in LA, your life is made superior by owning a car. The nuance—

Simply having A car makes life better, you don’t need a certain type of car.

Note my 2009 Hyundai Sonata I got from my mom for free, and got it tuned up at Pacific Tire Autoworks in Redondo beach for only $2,000 and now the car runs like new. Essentially I got a brand new car for only $2,000 and she runs like a champ!

What do you want from life?

Do you want a fur coat, a rolls, or a Diamond chain?

Or do you want an iPhone Pro, a Tesla Plaid, a house, a Richard Mille, a Lamborghini (Urus Performante) or Aventador or Hurucan, etc?

My general thought after becoming the new GOAT at Golds Gym in Venice Beach —

Ultimately once you step into the arena… it don’t matter who you are, how rich you are, how famous you are, what you drive etc … the only thing which matters is your strength, courage, self audacity, self confidence, muscles, whether you have a good tan or not, and your health.

Without even knowing it, I went viral three times over.


Lamborghini is unimpressive

I saw an orange Lamborghini Aventador, drop top convertible coupe in the parking lot of the Golds gym in Venice beach parking lot, with the top down, and I was shocked —

In real life, up close and personal, it is actually very unimpressive.

First of all, it looks really small. Like smaller than a Honda Civic.

Then the understanding —

The Lamborghini is 100% marketing. Lamborghini more as a concept, an ideal towards masculinity, dominance, ego, daring, sexiness, valor, success.


So what should I do about this?

First, understand that everything is marketing. Also understand that marketing has a stronger impact on us than we would like to think.

Marketing works. It works on you, it works on nerds etc.

Do you want to buy it for the marketing or the thing itself?

I think it is okay to want to buy stuff for the marketing ideal of it. I’m also starting to think short Tesla

The concept of the Tesla is superior to the thing itself.

Spending a lot of time in the Tesla dealership — the cars themselves feel pretty cheap. The paint looks and feels pretty basic and cheap, the materials feel pretty cheap, etc. Personally speaking I would prefer having a Hyundai Genesis G90 over any Tesla.

But anyways — simply be hard and discerning.

Do I care for the physical materials of the thing, or the concept of the thing?

Need marketing suggestions?

Shoot an email to Eric [at] Erickim.com


The best marketing

  1. Rolls Royce Spectre
  2. BMW (BMW owns rolls Royce)— prepare for power.

EK CONQUERING

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Henri Shoulder Strap: Carry Heavier


Think more

Why?

Get constructive feedback on your photos

Arsbeta.com


Think more become more

Entrepreneurship by KIM

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Things to read

  1. The Iliad by Homer
  2. Zero to One – Peter Thiel

How to Become More Creatively Confident

Some simple thoughts towards creative productivity:

MEDIA

  1. Video
  2. Audio
  3. Podcast

First of all, I think it is wise to be irrationally prideful of yourself, your artwork, what you do make and share. 

Why? Honestly speaking, there are no measures of what is “good“ or “bad“ art. Art is a social and sociological phenomenon in which notions of good and successful are predicated on the confidence in the marketing ability of the author. 

For example the genius of Picasso — his genius self marketing ability. 

No objective good or bad

A huge thing:

There is no such thing as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ art.

Honestly, all ‘successful’ art work is predicated on some sort of sociological phenomenon. 

Whether you become ‘successful’ or not is based on how well you can sell yourself, a bit of randomness and chance, your audacity and chutzpah, and also, how well connected you are.

Your network is your net worth (via some random UC Berkeley Undergraduate student, told by my friend Peter Phan)


Why boost your creative confidence?

Honestly, it seems that in order to creatively innovate, you must have a stubborn creative vision.

Note Steve Jobs— the only reason he was able to make Apple so phenomenally great is because of how stubborn he was. But now, after he died and Jony Ive left, Apple has lost her creative way. Why?

Apple no longer has a stubborn creative/design vision. Rather, she only cares to maximize profits and share-holder value.

Lesson:

Become insanely stubborn in regards to your creative vision.


You don’t need approval

Ars Beta is a great place to get honest feedback on your photos and art work, yet ultimately, what you gotta care for is this:

What do YOU think about your own art work?

First step:

Like your own art work.

Then the second step:

Share that art work (in which you like yourself) with others.

What holds us back?

Social media. The reason why I am anti social media is because it ‘crowd sources‘ and externalizes your self esteem.

True art work is not predicated on the value of dollars, followers, likes or comments. The true measure of worth in art:

How long will it and the legacy and memory of you last?

The best way as an artist:

Become an anti social extrovert.


How to care less

“I used to give a fuck, now I give a fuck less, what do I care about success, sucks, too much stress.” – JAY Z

After having gone viral (several times) etc, ultimately the takeaway:

It doesn’t really matter that much.

Also, after making $250,000 in crypto:

It doesn’t matter that much.

What is more important and critical? 

Your own personal creative thriving and blossoming.

New creative directions for yourself

Create your own gallery, your own creative online calorie, via your website. bluehost.com and install wordpress.org. The future of artwork is digital, online, exhibit and publish and future your own work in your own self online. 

Simple thoughts include designing a website which your artwork and your photos can be featured as full resolution JPEG images, full screen, the full width of the screen. 

Produce yourself

Something I have learned about the entertainment business, Hollywood, LA, etc.: 

The real people who have power are the ones who are the producers. 

Not the actors, not even the directors. The producers. 

This is very interesting, because producers are smart, they are extremely low-key, and nobody knows who they are. But, this is their strength and privilege. Producers are intelligent enough to know that widespread fame is actually a bad thing; for example, if you were Brad Pitt, you can’t just walk around the block, or go to the gym and work out, without being harassed. Funny thought— could Brad Pitt just go to equinox and work out, without attracting insane amount of attention? 

Even myself, even though in someways I am an attention whore, I also like my privacy and being able to stay low-key. For example when I’m weightlifting at the gym, when I have too much attention drawn to me it actually disrupts my focus in a bad way. Apparently I went viral a few times when I was doing my atlas lift over seven plates. And now whenever I go to the gym, everyone stares at me and all, I kind of like it, but I also kind of don’t.

Even more recently, housesitting for a friend in Santa Monica, the last two weeks, I have been frequenting the golds gym in Venice Beach. Recently I attracted a lot of attention being able to atlas lift over eight plates, even this regular powerlifter at the gym who could easily deadlift over seven plates off the floor asked me with curiosity, “If you don’t mind me asking, what was the purpose of you lifting eight plates?” My thought:

In order to become stronger. 

Attention is fun and glamorized but if it gets in the way of your focus, it is bad. 

Why do you make photos?

Why do you make photos? Or why do you do … anything?

Once you get to the root of things and why you do them, how can you run out of motivation?

ERIC


Conquer confidence

Conquer it all:

  1. Conquer street photography in Boston March 25th
  2. New- Conquer Creative Confidence Online May 5th
  3. Conquer Zen: HADONG SOUTH KOREA June 19-23rd

Confidence exercises

  1. Start vlogging. Just buy a GoPro mini, record in 1080p, 24fps, and vlog yourself on any thoughts you have in life! And just upload it to YouTube, your own blog, or start your own podcast at anchor.fm. Why vlog yourself? It takes confidence to start ‘street vlogging‘, just walk around and have the confidence to vlog yourself talking to yourself.
  2. Whenever you see someone you like or are attracted to for any reason, start chatting with them and compliment them on why you find them so fascinating! Also, as a fun pro tip– ask them for their first and last name. There is no sweeter sound in the world than your own first and last name. Use your own first and last name as your own self branding mark!

Creativity exercises

  1. I talked with a guy at the Philz Coffee shop today, and he told me something amazing that South Park is able to produce a single show in only six days! This is impressive because a typical animation studio will take 6 to 9 months for a single episode! Therefore the simple take away is when it comes to your artwork, make it quickly, iterate quickly, and publish and promote it quickly and iteratively. Applied to your photography and art, just shoot extra small JPEG, and simply share and publish your things online to your own website, don’t think about it too much or over analyze it.
  2. Download Procreate on your iPhone or iPad, and start sketching your own images. The easiest and most fun way to do this is to just experiment and have fun like a child.
  3. Don’t take it too seriously, and when you create, do it in the spirit of fun.

Create more every day

Creative every day print editiondigital edition

Become the modern photographer

Think future. 

The best way to become a modern day photographer is to think digital, to think online, and also, to understand that the future of technology is on the Internet.

I also think what holds back a lot of people is that they are stuck in old analogies of the past, in the context of feeling like they need to become a successful artist through the traditional Parisian measures of success, which include having a solo exhibition gallery, selling expensive prints, publishing a solo book, a monograph, etc. But my personal thought is the future of photography and also the future of art is digital. Thinking online, google, Google images, making your artwork easily accessible, indexable by Google, and hopefully living forever.

One of my personal challenges being a website domain host is keeping an archive of my images on the Internet, which lasts. A big issue with a lot of things digital is that there is no longevity. Most websites come and go, and I think 80% of the links on the Internet are now broken. 

Think longevity. 

Do you want to be remembered, and if so, how long?

Our best friend Friedrich Nietzsche once said that the number one good on earth is longevity and durability. 

Personal question you must ask yourself is whether you care to be remembered or not. If you care to be remembered, perhaps it is a wise idea to structure your life in such a way which will allow that.

Conquer on! ERIC


That which does not destroy you only makes you stronger. – Nietzsche


EK TURBO NEWS

Never run out of motivation: EK TURBO NEWS

If this sparked even one ounce of motivation, feel free to forward this to a friend! 

Other random stuff on my mind

The other day at golds gym Venice, I saw an orange Lamborghini Aventador, roadster, convertible droptop, and truth be told, I was shocked of how small and unimpressive it looked. For us car guys, once we have killed the notion of even desiring a Lamborghini, or thinking that it is impressive, then what?

Currently speaking, the car I am most fascinated by is either the Hyundai genesis G90, the Rolls-Royce killer, or even a matte black Hyundai sonata. 

I think currently speaking, the most impressive cars, and car designs are all coming out of Hyundai. 


Random Fitness stuff on my mind

Apparently I’ve been going viral a lot, even at golds gym fitness for lifting the legendary 330 pound dumbbells. I’ve been very interested in strongman styled weightlifting, and strength building. 

Other ideas which I am interested in include the farmers carry, atlas stones, lifting and throwing heavy rocks, suitcase walk, etc. Anything that has to do with lifting up heavy weights, standing, or walking. 

EK FIT

If you cannot tell, diet health and fitness has been a new passion of mine, actually, an old passion of mine, which stems all the way back in the day from when I was a fat 12 year old kid. Stay tuned for more of this kind of stuff. 

For fitness consulting, shoot me an email at Eric [at] Erickim.com


Creative assignments

I am starting a new photography project, I call it “stuck in traffic.” I’ve been driving a lot in LA lately, been spending a lot of time stuck in traffic at stoplights. I’ve been just keeping my Ricoh GR 3X digital camera in my front right pocket, and snapping photos from my driver seat car window whenever possible. This is actually been a very productive way to make more photos, I recommend it. 

Upload some of your urban street photography, or your urban landscape street photography, or your own stuck in traffic photos to Arsbeta.com

New things to research

Really into stone lifting.

The development of physical power, Arthur Saxon.

Text book of weight lifting by Arthur Saxon

Also, the worlds strongest man competitions

More to come on EK BLOG.


Photo, Video, and the Future

Just spent the last two days in LA, at UCLA, and I’m feeling insanely inspired. Why? Some thoughts:

The first observation that I have made is that it looks like media, entertainment, shows, cinema film vlogs, are the future. Why? Let us just look at all of the advertising and the new products; all of the new interesting digital cameras are all centered around video and vlogging, and also making cinema. Think about the new compact canon cinema camera, and also the new Panasonic Lumix cameras which are phenomenal for vlogging and video. And cinema.

What do nerds and everybody share in common?

It doesn’t matter who you are, it looks like everybody loves media. For example, all nerds like to watch TV shows, cinema, films, entertainment etc.

Also if you think about all age groups, whether it be newborn kids, kids, toddlers, teenagers, adults, middle-age people, the elderly, etc.; everybody watches YouTube, and or Netflix or something like that.

What can you do about it?

Everyone has different life goals and different life pursuits. For myself, I am interested in directing our energies towards things that we can actually do ourselves, with no gate keepers, no restrictions, 100% freedom and control.

It seems that the most straightforward answer then is having the ability to record videos, and just upload them online, whether it be to YouTube or your own self hosted videopress.com account (linked with your WordPress.org Website Blog) via WordPress.com

Why self hosted video instead of YouTube?

First of all, the simplest and most straightforward way to build your own solo media empire is just making a website blog via bluehost.com and installing wordpress.org. Own your own domain. Ideally your first name last name .com, or you could just make it your first name last name photo .com, or your first name last name photography .com.

For example, I own Erickim.com, Erickimphotography.com, as well as Erickimphotography.com/blog.

In the very long term, your domain name, and your website name, and the .com domain will be critical.

Why .com? To me it is the only legitimate domain name, something that everyone can actually remember. Let us consider google.com, facebook.com, twitter.com, apple.com, amazon.com, etc.


What is the goal?

The reason why I am more interested in using smaller and lower resolutions, for example 720 P, 24 FPS or 30 FPS, smaller file sizes is this:

Your video files will upload and process 100 times faster than in higher video formats, even compared to 1080P, 4K, 5K, etc.

And the question is this; in the context of the video you create, are you creating it for the pleasure and entertainment of others, or, is it for your own benefit, to propagate your own thoughts?

I say the primary motive should be for your own benefit. The fact that others may watch it is just an added benefit. The number one critical factor is that you yourself enjoy publishing it.

The equipment

Currently speaking, the best equipment to have included the Ricoh GR 3X,