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Dear friend, a thought on my mind; perhaps the best way to approach life is to consider our life goals, and also for us to become more critical and discerning on how to achieve those life goals.

For example, our creative life goals, and also, what we want to achieve in a single day, in a week, or our lifetimes.

1. Mastering your physiology

I just hit the legendary 975 pound atlas lift, powered by ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE, and a realization for myself:

I have a passion and a lust for ever more.

For example, it seems at least for myself, the direction and path I desire is to always have higher numbers.

For example, when I consider my younger days when I was 16 years old, and I had my 1991 Sentra SE-R, 5 speed coupe, and the joy that I had was always changing the modifications and things on it, do you ever give it more horsepower, torque, improve performance, etc.

However, I was never interested in comparing my car with other people. In fact, I had deep pride in my car, and how unique it was. The Sentra SE-R, the B 13, a unique model built from 1991 to 1993, was practically unheard of, even when I was a teenager. Similar to performance to an old-school BMW M3, and superior performance to the Honda Civic SI, which was also very popular when I was a teenager.

It seems that nowadays, at least in cars and car culture, we are obsessed with having more horsepower, more performance points, etc. It seems that the traditional benchmark in holidays is to have the Tesla model S plaid, 1000+ horsepower etc. I think this is what drives us, both metaphorically and literally, for example the dodge hellcat, SRT, dodge challengers etc., everyone wants to have the mythical 1000+ horsepower. But a funnier life goal and path:

Maybe a better life goal is instead, to desire to lift 1000 pounds.

I am fairly certain that I should be able to atlas lift over 1000 pounds, within the next year or two. I find this to be an interesting pursuit, because the only things I require is courage and time. The courage to attempt it, and time.

Also, focus. I think focus is a critical part of the equation, as the criticality of focus is that before you attempt a certain lift, when you load up over 10 plates on the bar, you gotta focus. You must focus to channel all of your energy, guts, courage, chutzpah into that one single given moment.

Why? Several things. First and foremost, you must focus and hype yourself up in order to have the courage to even attempt it in the first place.

Second, you want to be successful. The courage necessary for the attempt is critical, but technically the desired outcome is to be successful. To succeed.

Truth be told I don’t really care for “failure“, that is not being successful. If I try a given day give it my all, even if I had supreme focus and I was not successful, it doesn’t bother me that much. I’ll just try again in a few days, in a week, and if I have a long enough runway, I know I will eventually be successful.

2. Time

The reason why I believe time to be a critical component is at least in the context of weightlifting, if you attempt a one rep max, consistently, at least once a week, every week, let’s say for 10 years straight, certainly you’ll get stronger in the long term.

Are having a more long-term vision towards the future is a good one. Why?

I’ll give you an example. This summer me Cindy and Seneca spent about a month and a half in Asia, about two weeks in Hadong South Korea, and about a month in Saigon Vietnam. Because I did not have my typical gym, I noticed that my strength went down a little bit, or at least my technique and familiarity went down a little bit. But ultimately in the long term vision of things, I was not really affected. Actually, within about a week of coming back, or two weeks of coming back, I’ve been able to hit greater personal records than I had before I left to Asia. For example my rack pull, before leaving I was able to do eight plates, 25, five, and a 2.5’er. But a few days ago, I was able to supersede that old personal record, by doing a plate and a 35, 845 pounds. Therefore, even though I was gone from the gym for about a month and a half, I was able to achieve a new personal record that was 5 pounds greater than I was before my trip.

Also my atlas lift. 970 pounds was my new personal record before my trip, and after my trip, I was a little bit concerned if I lost too much strength and chutzpah. But even though I am still jetlagged, and I am sure that my strength waned a bit, I’ll be able to hit a new personal record of 975 pounds. That is 5 pounds more than it was before!

Therefore my big suggestion life is this; maybe in terms of vision, it is good to think at the three month, six month, year, 1-3 year, five year, 10 year, 20-30 year spans.

For example, I remember after I graduated UCLA, and I was living in West LA, and there was a tiny Tesla showroom dealership in the area. This is when Tesla was still just the rebranded lotus car. This is one there was only a Tesla roadster. I think Tesla was already IPO’d public at the time.

I think the genius of Musk, Jeff Bezos, etc. is that their vision encapsulates very long periods of time.

For example, SpaceX. Or thinking about colonizing space and mars. Certainly we have to think at the decade, 20 year, 30 year, 40 year time span. To think short periods of time is not useful.

I think the reason why I enjoyed reading Invent and Wander by Jeff Bezos so much, which is just a collection of his shareholder letters is that it is clear that Jeff Bezos had at least a 30 year vision. For example with Amazon prime, it was seen as pure insanity. Now we just take it as an expected thing. Fortunately for myself, I still see Amazon prime as pure magic and phenomenal. The same thing goes with Uber, etc.

3. Photo time

A thought that I’ve been having recently, I love the gym, but in someways, going to the gym eats into my photography time. That is, time it takes me to review my photos, time it takes me to process my photos and upload them, or even time necessary for me to blog, write, send out email newsletters, do more website stuff, backend stuff, building websites, blogs, etc.

Time is a critical component. But the question is, how do we gain more time?

Technically you can’t gain more time in a given day, or even a single lifespan. Let us assume that the maximum possible human lifespan is 120 years, but more realistically it might be around 80 to 90 years. I personally aspire to live to 120 years old, but whether I will be successful or not is uncertain. Why? I don’t know if I will die traumatically in a car accident, if I catch some sort of random cancer or a disease, life is always uncertain. Therefore the consequence is in life, we must always be cautious, in terms of our time and our life.

The first thought I have is it is a good idea to be insanely discerning with your time in your life. That is, do not trade your time or your life for anything else what you do not consider important or critical to you. For example nowadays, the only thing I really care to do is my creative work, spend maximum time with Seneca, etc. Everything else doesn’t really matter to me anymore.

I think in life, focusing on innovation is a good one. Why? I believe the greatest boon to being American is our ethos of innovation.

4. Thinking beyond?

As humans, human beings, what is a good way to think about life in approach life?

I think a basic notion is to think beyond. Do you think beyond our small little bubble, or small town or city or county or state, or even our nation. It seems much more interesting to focus on the planet, the globe, etc.

I think one of the best things of traveling internationally is that it widens our perspective and worldview, that is, we can think bigger, more globally and beyond.

5. Mad max world

I think it is clear that climate, the world, weather temperature and other things are becoming weirder and weirder. My friend Seth calls this “global weirding”— the general idea is that certainly notions of “climate change“ and “global warming“ is too political and misleading. I think more robust concepts include pollution, and weird weather or climate patterns.

For example as I write these words, there is big news that this upcoming Monday or Tuesday there will be a massive hurricane in Southern California. I consider this very weird because currently they speak this, the sun is insanely bright and it’s close to 100° degrees Fahrenheit. That’s around 40°C.

I think currently we’re living in a Mad Max world. What I currently witness is this:

During the day, it is almost too bright, the sun is too strong to go outside in the direct sun. The only solutions include wearing a baseball cap, a wide brimmed hat, long pants and long sleeves, protect your skin.

For myself the heat doesn’t really bother me, but certainly if the UV radiation from the sun is too strong, you can’t really go outside.

I still prefer this insanely hot and bright and scorching sun weather over cold and damp and bone chilling, but still, the climate and the sun is brutal.

I was talking with some people, why California, why southern California, it seems that other states, the climate is not so good. For example Arizona Utah and Nevada, Las Vegas, Texas, Austin is almost too hot. Certainly the east coast has lots of great options, but for some reason people seem reticent to move to the East Coast.

Imagine living in the world in which the pollution and the sun and the climate is too unwelcoming outside. Then what do you do, just live in a mall for the rest of your life? Or live indoors for the rest of your life? Not desirable.

So my general takeaway point is given that climate, outdoors, the world outside everything is shitty, still make the best out of it!

6. Life philosophy?

It seems that the things which need to be beefed up is our thinking and our philosophy towards life, being alive, innovation and beyond. This will be the topic that we continue to work on.

Philosophy by KIM >

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Think better

The promise of ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE — think better.

Drink better, think better >

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New experiences to uplift you and take you beyond

If you’re hungry for a new embodied reality experience to take you beyond, some new workshops which might be interesting to you:

1. Master Street photography in Philly, this upcoming October 14
2. Discover the creative meaning of your life in downtown LA, this upcoming November 4th

Some new workshops I’m currently working on include a visual artist workshop, an introduction to stoicism workshop, etc. Stay updated on the workshops page or the newsletter.

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Now what?

Hugging Face — experiment with AI ART!

Stable diffusion, introduction

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Never stop thinking

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Beefed up and ready to go!

Check out the new beefed up START HERE page!

Also,

BOOKS

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Dear friend, a thought on my mind; perhaps the best way to approach life is to consider our life goals, and also for us to become more critical and discerning on how to achieve those life goals.

For example, our creative life goals, and also, what we want to achieve in a single day, in a week, or our lifetimes.

1. Mastering your physiology

I just hit the legendary 975 pound atlas lift, powered by ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE, and a realization for myself:

I have a passion and a lust for ever more.

For example, it seems at least for myself, the direction and path I desire is to always have higher numbers.

For example, when I consider my younger days when I was 16 years old, and I had my 1991 Sentra SE-R, 5 speed coupe, and the joy that I had was always changing the modifications and things on it, do you ever give it more horsepower, torque, improve performance, etc.

However, I was never interested in comparing my car with other people. In fact, I had deep pride in my car, and how unique it was. The Sentra SE-R, the B 13, a unique model built from 1991 to 1993, was practically unheard of, even when I was a teenager. Similar to performance to an old-school BMW M3, and superior performance to the Honda Civic SI, which was also very popular when I was a teenager.

It seems that nowadays, at least in cars and car culture, we are obsessed with having more horsepower, more performance points, etc. It seems that the traditional benchmark in holidays is to have the Tesla model S plaid, 1000+ horsepower etc. I think this is what drives us, both metaphorically and literally, for example the dodge hellcat, SRT, dodge challengers etc., everyone wants to have the mythical 1000+ horsepower. But a funnier life goal and path:

Maybe a better life goal is instead, to desire to lift 1000 pounds.

I am fairly certain that I should be able to atlas lift over 1000 pounds, within the next year or two. I find this to be an interesting pursuit, because the only things I require is courage and time. The courage to attempt it, and time.

Also, focus. I think focus is a critical part of the equation, as the criticality of focus is that before you attempt a certain lift, when you load up over 10 plates on the bar, you gotta focus. You must focus to channel all of your energy, guts, courage, chutzpah into that one single given moment.

Why? Several things. First and foremost, you must focus and hype yourself up in order to have the courage to even attempt it in the first place.

Second, you want to be successful. The courage necessary for the attempt is critical, but technically the desired outcome is to be successful. To succeed.

Truth be told I don’t really care for “failure“, that is not being successful. If I try a given day give it my all, even if I had supreme focus and I was not successful, it doesn’t bother me that much. I’ll just try again in a few days, in a week, and if I have a long enough runway, I know I will eventually be successful.

2. Time

The reason why I believe time to be a critical component is at least in the context of weightlifting, if you attempt a one rep max, consistently, at least once a week, every week, let’s say for 10 years straight, certainly you’ll get stronger in the long term.

Are having a more long-term vision towards the future is a good one. Why?

I’ll give you an example. This summer me Cindy and Seneca spent about a month and a half in Asia, about two weeks in Hadong South Korea, and about a month in Saigon Vietnam. Because I did not have my typical gym, I noticed that my strength went down a little bit, or at least my technique and familiarity went down a little bit. But ultimately in the long term vision of things, I was not really affected. Actually, within about a week of coming back, or two weeks of coming back, I’ve been able to hit greater personal records than I had before I left to Asia. For example my rack pull, before leaving I was able to do eight plates, 25, five, and a 2.5’er. But a few days ago, I was able to supersede that old personal record, by doing a plate and a 35, 845 pounds. Therefore, even though I was gone from the gym for about a month and a half, I was able to achieve a new personal record that was 5 pounds greater than I was before my trip.

Also my atlas lift. 970 pounds was my new personal record before my trip, and after my trip, I was a little bit concerned if I lost too much strength and chutzpah. But even though I am still jetlagged, and I am sure that my strength waned a bit, I’ll be able to hit a new personal record of 975 pounds. That is 5 pounds more than it was before!

Therefore my big suggestion life is this; maybe in terms of vision, it is good to think at the three month, six month, year, 1-3 year, five year, 10 year, 20-30 year spans.

For example, I remember after I graduated UCLA, and I was living in West LA, and there was a tiny Tesla showroom dealership in the area. This is when Tesla was still just the rebranded lotus car. This is one there was only a Tesla roadster. I think Tesla was already in Public at the time.

I think the genius of Elon musk, Jeff Bezos, etc. is that their vision encapsulates very long periods of time.

For example, SpaceX. Or thinking about colonizing space and mars. Certainly we have to think at the decade, 20 year, 30 year, 40 year time span. To think short periods of time is not useful.

I think the reason why I enjoyed reading Invent and Wander by Jeff Bezos so much, which is just a collection of his shareholder letters is that it is clear that Jeff Bezos had at least a 30 year vision. For example with Amazon prime, it was seen as pure insanity. Now we just take it as an expected thing. Fortunately for myself, I still see Amazon prime as pure magic and phenomenal. The same thing goes with Uber, etc.

BECOME A PHOTOGRAPHY ENTREPRENEUR

Advice I would have given myself in photography, if I started all over again:

Until You Own Yourself You Can’t Be Free

De-lamify the future.

Photography Entrepreneurship 101 Presentation by ERIC KIM

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP by KIM

Enroll in my Udemy Course:

‘Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Photography Entrepreneurship’: Create Your Own Future >

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Entrepreneurship Ideas

1. InstaSlaves
2. How to Become a Vlogger
3. How to Build Your Own Self Brand
4. SOLO MEDIA EMPIRE
5. TIME LEVERAGE.
6. How to Market Yourself in Photography
7. How to Become More Ambitious
8. Crypto Photography
9. In Praise of Email Newsletters
10. Propagate.
11. Make Your Own Street Photography Blog
12. Create the Information You Seek.
13. Content over Technology
14. How to Advertise Yourself as a Photographer
15. CREATIVE WAYS TO USE YOUTUBE
16. Photography Branding 101
17. BUILD YOURSELF.
18. Bet on Your Own Coin.
19. The Photographer Should Also Make His/Her Own Music?
20. Mix Your Photos and Videos
21. JUST PUBLISH IT.
22. EMPOWER OTHER PHOTOGRAPHERS.
23. BECOME OUTSIDE THE BOX
24. MOVE PEOPLE, MOVE PRODUCTS.
25. SOCIAL MEDIA IS FRAGILE.
26. Why Start a Photography Blog?
27. Once You FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early), Then What?
28. THE FUTURE IS PDF
29. In Praise of Solo Photography Business Entrepreneurship
30. LONGEVITY, DURABILITY AND SUCCESS
31. Street Photography Philosophy Entrepreneurship
32. YOU ARE THE PLATFORM
33. JUST RISK IT.
34. DON’T OPTIMIZE FOR THE ALGORITHM
35. Scaleable Photography
36. What Does it Mean to Become a Successful Photographer?
37. 20 Photography Marketing, Branding, and Entrepreneurship Tips
38. Create Your Own Social Media
39. Individual Entrepreneurship
40. YOU ARE THE ICON.
41. BUILD!
42. What is Success in Photography?
43. EXTREME VISION
44. Publish Fearlessly
45. MAKE DOPE THINGS AND SHARE THEM WITH THE WORLD!
46. THE AMBITIOUS PHOTOGRAPHER.
47. PhotoLink
48. Real World Applications
49. You Are Your Own Ideal User
50. What is Your Creative Vision?
51. A More Dope, Prosperous Future for All Photographers
52. CREATION & DISTRIBUTION.
53. THE VALUE OF PHOTOS.
54. How to Maximize Your Impact as a Photographer
55. Why the World Needs More Bloggers
56. DOMAIN EXPERTISE.
57. The Joy of Speculation
58. MAKE A NAME FOR YOURSELF.
59. Propogate
60. Meaningful Advantage or Not?
61. PHOTO CREATOR.
62. NOW IS YOUR DECISIVE MOMENT.
63. I CANNOT BE IGNORED
64. Photography Blogs are Highly *UNDERRATED*
65. What is Your Competitive Advantage?
66. Why 4K?
67. Indirect Monetization
68. The Future of Innovation in Photography
69. Photography Innovation and Image Selection Idea: Let Google (YouTube) Suggested Thumbnail Pick Your Best Photo? 
70. How to Identify Your Competitive Advantage
71. In Praise of Insanely Fast Wifi
72. DIGITAL PUBLISHING IS KING.
73. The Stoic-Entrepreneurship Mindset
74. Marketing Tips for Photographers
75. STARK DIFFERENTIATION
76. MAXIMALIST
77. Visual Entrepreneurship
78. On Becoming a Full-Stack Visual Entrepreneur
79. Real Photographers Don’t Use Instagram
80. Brave New World of Blogging
81. Don’t Go to Photography School
82. Mass Success is a Failure?
83. How to Maximize Your Archimedes Lever in Life
84. Maximize Your Archimedes Lever
85. How to Create Value Out of Nothing
86. The Best Brand is No Brand
87. What Do We Entrepreneurs *Really* Want?
88. You Were Destined to Do Great Things
89. Just Share Your Photos on Your Own Blog
90. Your Blog is the Ultimate Form of Social Media
91. The Future of Websites and Blogs
92. Create a Company
93. Money Photography Project
94. WHY IT IS GOOD TO CHARGE MONEY FOR YOUR SERVICES AND PRODUCTS
95. Google and YouTube SEO (Search Engine Optimization) 101: How Would You Type It?
96. WHY RIGHT NOW IS THE BEST TIME FOR YOU TO START YOUR SIDE HUSTLE
97. Digital Photography is the Future
98. NEVER STOP EXPERIMENTING!
99. WHAT IS INNOVATION?
100. A Non-Ownership Future
101. CONTROL OVER MONEY
102. Economic Constraints Are Creative Constraints
103. Become a Sole-Proprietor
104. Entrepreneurship is a Mindset
105. How to Master Mac
106. The Future of Lifestyle
107. Necessity is the Mother of Innovation
108. Once We Have an Easy Life, Then What?
109. Why I Don’t Read Comments
110. YouTube SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for Photographers
111. How to Become a Self-Employed Photographer
112. How to Live Big With Little Money
113. Why Blogging, Vlogging and Internet Media is More Important than Ever
114. No Marketing, No Future
115. Photography Marketing 101
116. Google and YouTube are King
117. Why I’m So Suspicious of Everyone Online and on the Internet
118. How to Become More Notorious
119. Kaizen Approach to Blogging
120. How to Master Marketing
121. CREATE WHAT YOU WOULD LIKE SEE MANIFESTED IN THE WORLD!
122. Anti Silicon-Valley Thinking
123. Your Name
124. In Praise of WordPress
125. NEVER STOP POSTING
126. Your Future Portfolio is a Website
127. Infinite Runway
128. ERIC KIM ATTITUDE
129. Financial Independence as a Road to Freedom of Speech?
130. WHY OPEN SOURCE IS THE FUTURE
131. Just Post It.
132. Posts Are Products
133. Photography Entrepreneurship Ideas
134. YOU ARE KING.
135. You’re Always in BETA MODE
136. Build Your Own Media Empire
137. WHY I DON’T MONETIZE MY YOUTUBE VIDEOS
138. Why I Became an Entrepreneur
139. The Uber-Photographer
140. Create What You Would Like to See Manifested in the World
141. Create the Future
142. Entrepreneurship is Best During Uncertain Times
143. Photography Entrepreneurship 101 Presentation by ERIC KIM
144. Your Body is the Brand
145. Your Name is Your Brand
146. Create Your Own Social Media Platform
147. BUILD IT OR BUY IT?
148. Sell Yourself
149. Create New
150. Insta-Slaves
151. YOU CANNOT FAKE ENTHUSIASM
152. Why Hybrid is the Future
153. Don’t Censor Yourself
154. HOW I MASTERED MARKETING
155. ERIC KIM BLOGS
156. If Someone Offers You Help, You’re Stupid to *NOT* Take It.
157. SEEK GREAT, NOT PERFECT.
158. How I Became So Famous
159. Let Reality Mould Itself to You
160. ANTI ENTITLEMENT MENTALITY
161. Live Your Life as If You Were a Billionaire
162. HOW I THINK DIFFERENT
163. Impact, Influence, Reach: The Three Pillars of Marketing
164. ERIC KIM SCHOOL
165. Classicism.
166. MY PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY
167. Money is Movement
168. Elitism 2.0
169. Mass Market or Luxury Market?
170. Why You Must Market Yourself
171. Why You Must Start an Email Newsletter
172. How Laptops Can Change the World
173. What Do You Want to Become?
174. What is Really Holding You Back in Life?
175. Why I Write: Writing as Meta-Thinking
176. ADVERTISE YOURSELF
177. Use Your First and Last Name
178. How Blogging Can Change the World
179. In Praise of Liberty
180. How I Write in Markdown
181. How I Became So Influential on YouTube
182. REVERSE FLEX
183. What a Time to Be Alive in Today’s Brave New World of Photography
184. HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE YOURSELF FROM OTHERS
185. YOU CHOOSE YOU
186. My Life Photography Entrepreneurship Story
187. WHY I DON’T BELIEVE IN COLLABORATION
188. My Entrepreneurship Mindset
189. YOU’RE THE HERO IN THIS GAME OF LIFE
190. My Money Philosophy
191. Why Brand and Market Yourself?
192. PROFESSIONALISM IS FOR SUCKERS
193. Just Share What Works for You
194. How to Create Your Own Platform
195. Living in a Post Monetary Society
196. In Praise of Blogging
197. The Entrepreneurial Lifestyle is the Best Lifestyle
198. Algorithm Slavery
199. ANTI VIEWS
200. Entrepreneurship is The Goal
201. The Art of Blogging
202. IN PRAISE OF PURSUING YOUR PASSION
203. How to Make Great Titles
204. Sole Proprietorship
205. Just Build It.
206. VIA NEGATIVA
207. PROMOTE YOURSELF
208. Become a Full-Stack Entrepreneur
209. How to Entertain Others
210. My Experience Teaching My First Online Photography Creativity Workshop on Zoom
211. Humans Aren’t Lazy
212. One Shot.
213. THE BRAVE SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH
214. The Brave New COVID Lifestyle
215. Start Your Own Business
216. Minimum Viable Income ( MVI)
217. TRAINING.
218. WHY VIDEO?
219. How to Become Bolder
220. You’ve Always Already Been a Photography Entrepreneur!
221. The Future is All Digital Everything
222. Digital Sharecropping
223. DO IT FOR YOUR PAST AND FUTURE SELF
224. In Praise of Buffer and Redundancy
225. ASKING FOR PERMISSION IS FOR SUCKERS.
226. POST-MONETARY SOCIETY.
227. Advertise Your Own Stuff
228. THE FUTURE IS DIGITAL.
229. Simulated Universal Basic Income
230. Is Losing Followers a Good Thing?
231. How to Add to Economic Activity
232. DIGITAL CAPITALISM
233. MONEY IS MOVEMENT
234. Anything is Possible
235. BRAVE NEW WORLD OF DIGITAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
236. GENERATE
237. How to Profit from Calamity
238. Capitalism 2.0
239. WHY I’M SO PASSIONATE ABOUT INFORMATION
240. SOCIETY 2.0
241. PHOENIX ENTREPENEURSHIP
242. How to Make Art from Home
243. BUY YOURSELF
244. JUST BLOG IT.
245. MARKET YOURSELF
246. EXPENSIVE TALK
247. SOCIAL MEDIA SLAVERY
248. Who Are Your Ideal Followers?
249. Why I Blog, Vlog, and Log
250. Your Perspective is Irrefutable
251. What are Your Hidden Powers?
252. IMPACT MAXIMIZATION, not Profit Maximization
253. Our Desire to Maximize Impact and Change
254. 10 Rich Tips How to Make Money from Photography
255. Create What You Would Love to Consume
256. Publish is Pleasure
257. Retire Now
258. Do You Desire to Become the Best?
259. Solo Entrepreneurship
260. My Vision of Photography Entrepreneurship
261. PUT YOUR NAME ON IT
262. The Desire to Transcend Ourselves
263. MONEY THOUGHTS
264. How to Retire
265. Via Negativa Productivity
266. Why You Must Make Your Own Website
267. Individuals over Companies
268. Build Yourself
269. Success is Survival
270. Why You Shouldn’t Go to Photography or Art School
271. How to Differentiate Yourself as a Photographer
272. Surpass Yourself
     
273. Can You Handle Extreme Freedom?
274. Boutique or Mass Market?
275. Proof of Concept
276. Unified Field Theory for Photography
277. Build a Company You’d Never Sell
278. Play the Long Game
279. Entrepreneurship and Art
280. What is the Source of our Strength?
281. What’s the Future for Photography?
282. Full-Stack Visual Artist
283. Why Scale?
284. What is Your Unfair Advantage?
285. Substance Marketing
286. Share Your Dopeness with Others
287. Frugality is Freedom
288. Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for Entrepreneurship
289. Don’t Follow or Predict Trends, Start Your Own Trend!
290. If You’re Not Busy Growing, You’re Busy Dying
291. Entrepreneurship born from Superabundance, not Need/Necessity
292. Photography Entrepreneurship Philosophy
293. How to Master Marketing in Photography
294. Photography Entrepreneurship Tips and Ideas
295. Is Hustle Sufficient Unto Success?
296. Don’t do it for the money
297. DIGITAL MARXISM
298. Zen Entrepreneurship
299. BOLDER IS BETTER.
300. Streamers Shall Inherit the Earth

Photography Blogging

• Blogging is Public Meditations
• The Art of Blogging
• Give Me a Laptop and I Shall Move the World!
• The Future is Photography Blogging
• How to Become a GREAT Blogger
• If you can’t code, blog instead!
• Daily Blog of Activities
• How to Monetize a Blog Without Advertising
• How to Publish Yourself
• How to Blog
• The future of photography publishing is photography blogging.
• Why Become a Photography Blogger?
• Why You Must Become a Photography Blogger
• Why You Should Delete Your Instagram and Start Your Own Blog

Money

• How to Use Wealth
• To Become Rich, Don’t Go Broke
• Why Save Money?
• Less Money, Less Problems

Self-Empowerment

• Life is Too Short to Be Negative
• Why You Must Follow Your Passion in Life
• How to Conquer Shyness
• Don’t Ask for Permission
• Onto the Next One
• Why You Must Self-Promote Yourself
• Why You Must Conquer Your Fears in Life

Marketing and Branding

• Why You Must Become a Photography Blogger
• Why Blog?
• Why You Must Self-Promote Yourself
• Create Substance, Not Content
• Photography Marketing and Branding 101
• How to Master Marketing in Photography
• 10 Tips How to Become a More Famous Photographer

Entrepreneurship Lifestyle

• Why Hustle?
• Why Save Money?
• Ascetic is Sexy
• Why You Must Become Self-Employed
• How to Push Yourself Beyond the Limit
• Is Location Independence Overrated?

Entrepreneurship Mindset

• How to Get Discovered
• Financial Independence
• Disregard Success or Failure; Always Attempt More!
• In Praise of Stubbornness
• Success is Personal Bravery
• Why You Must Become an Entrepreneur
• How to Brand and Market Yourself as a Photographer
• How to Conquer Haters
• How to Accumulate Capital
• Why Be Different?
• How to Master Marketing in Photography
• Don’t Play it Safe
• Why Blog?
• How to Be a More Productive Photographer
• How to Hustle
• True Productivity
• What Can Only You Do?
• Love Risk
• What is Success?
• Fill a Vacuum
• Think Big
• What is Your Dream in Life?
• 8 Blogging Productivity Tips
• Why Be Normal?
• How Much Suffering Are You Willing to Endure to Achieve Your Dreams?

---

Photography Entrepreneurship 101

• Don’t Sit Still!
• Bitcoin for Photographers
• Don’t Be Timid
• Why Start Your Own Photography Blog?
• Fill a Void
• 1,000 True Followers: How to Build Your Own Niche in Photography
• Photography Entrepreneurship 101: Why You Must Start Your Own Email Newsletter
• TURBO CREATION: Why a Maxed-Out MacBook Laptop is the Best Investment You Can Make for Photography Entrepreneurship

Life and Productivity Hacks

• My Ultimate Productivity and Life Hacks
• Life/Productivity Hack: Write (Type on a phone) While Walking on a Dynamic Treadmill
• ERIC KIM Life, Creativity, and Productivity Hacks

How to Make a Living from Your Passion

• Digital Nomad Photographer
• Build Your Own Instagram!
• How to Be More Ambitious
• Do It Your Way
• How to Measure Your Progress as a Photography Entrepreneur + Come Up With New Ideas
• How to Make a Living From Your Passion in Photography

Put a Dent in the Universe.

• Fear Disguised as Reason
• Distraction is the Enemy
• Innovate for the Sake of Innovating!
• Reality is Malleable!
• Stoic Entrepreneurship
• Against Self-Preservation
• The Purpose of Life is to Make New Stuff!

How to Succeed as an Entrepreneur

• You Have No Limits.
• Calculated Risk-Taking
• Invest in Yourself
• The Secret of Happiness: Shoot for the Moon!
• Moonshot Thinking
• Why We Should all Be Photography Entrepreneurs
• Memento Mori Entrepreneurship
• Why it is Better to Beg For Forgiveness than Ask For Permission
• How to Become a Digital Nomad
• Why You Must Own Your Own Platform
• First Principle Thinking for Photography Entrepreneurs
• How I Became a Digital Nomad
• Better to Beg For Forgiveness than Ask For Permission!
• Spurn Pleasing Others!
• Create Your Own Niche
• How to Gain More Exposure For Your Photography
• Intense Focus
• How to Conquer Your Fears as an Entrepreneur
• Define Yourself
• Let Dissatisfaction Drive You Forward!
• It Doesn’t Matter if Someone Else Has Done it Before!
• How to Succeed as a Photography Entrepreneur: Be Extremely Resourceful
• Open Source Business Model in Photography Entrepreneurship
• Entrepreneurship 101: Growth and Innovation Over Self-Preservation
• How to Create Value as a Photography Entrepreneur
• Why Become a Photography Entrepreneur?
• Why You Must Ignore Nay-Sayers to Succeed in Entrepreneurship, Business, and Life

---

The Modern Photographer: Tips, Strategies, and Tactics to Thrive as a Visual Artist in the Digital Age

Marketing, Branding, Entrepreneurship Principles For Success

MODERN PHOTOGRAPHER is your new philosophical and practical primer to succeed as a modern photographer in today’s digital world.

• MODERN PHOTOGRAPHER KINDLE EDITION ON AMAZON
• SEE ALL PRODUCTS ON AMAZON

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Business Mental Models

• How to Succeed as a Photography Entrepreneur: Be Extremely Resourceful
• Open Source Business Model in Photography Entrepreneurship
• Entrepreneurship 101: Growth and Innovation Over Self-Preservation

---

How to Monetize Your Photography

• Photography Entrepreneurship 101: INFLUENCE
• Should I Monetize My Passion for Photography?
• 10 Practical Photography Monetization Strategies: Pricing, Google SEO, & Entrepreneurship
• How to Make Money From Street Photography

---

Why Become a Photography Entrepreneur?

Take control of your own photographic destiny:

1. Photography Startup Manual
2. PHOTOGRAPHY ENTREPRENEURSHIP MANUAL
3. On Risk Taking and Entrepreneurship

---

THE MODERN PHOTOGRAPHER

• CREATIVE CAPITALISM
• How to Monetize Your Photography
• 5 Practical Photography Career Tips and Advice
• 10x Thinking
• How to Hustle as a Photographer
• How to Become Your Own Master Marketer
• The ‘T’ Technique of Success
• Go Ahead and Sell Out
• What is Your Unique Voice?
• Why You Must Self-Promote Yourself
• What is Your Unique Angle as a Photographer?
• Photography Content Marketing 101
• Why You Must Become Your Own Publisher
• The Art of Cross-Pollination in Photography

---

Photography Entrepreneurship Articles

• Why You Shouldn’t Trust Your Pictures to Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Flickr
• How to Make Money From Your Photography
• Photography SEO and Blogging: How to Become Number One on Google
• Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation
•  Now is the Best Time to Be a Photographer
• PRODUCERISM
• What Is The Value of a Picture?
• Your Photographic Labor is Not Free

PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOPS 101

• Chapter 1. How to Make a Photography Blog
• Chapter 2. How to Price Yourself
• Chapter 3. How to Find Your Market
• Chapter 4. Why Teach Workshops?
• Chapter 5. How to Build Trust
• Chapter 6. How to Market Yourself
• Chapter 7: Why Should Someone Attend Your Workshop?

---

KEYS TO SUCCESS

• Why You Must Be a “Personality” in Order to Succeed
• THRIVE OR DIE.
• Impatience is a Virtue
• Create Your Own Category
• HOW TO DREAM BIG.
• Will Not or Cannot?
• Why Not?
• How to Think BIG
• How to Stay Ahead of the Curve
• How to Invest in Yourself
• The Two Camera Rule
• MEANINGFUL DIFFERENTIATION
• Advice For College Students
• How to Thrive in Uncertain Times
• CANNIBALIZE YOURSELF.
• DO AND GROW RICH
• Does Fear of Punishment Hold You Back?
• HOW TO GET MORE FOLLOWERS
• How to Innovate
• How to Build Your Own Empire
• YOU ARE ENTITLED TO HARD WORK.
• PICK YOURSELF.
• OWN YOUR PLATFORM
• 10 KEYS TO SUCCESS

Table of Contents

Learn how to make a living from your passion:

• Preface. BRAVE NEW WORLD OF PHOTOGRAPHY
• Chapter 1. How to Create Value
• Chapter 2. ZEN CAPITALISM
• Chapter 3. Scarcity
• Chapter 4. How to Brand Yourself
• Chapter 5. How to Build a True Following
• Chapter 6. The Blueprint to Success in Photography
• Chapter 7. HOW TO BE BOLD
• Chapter 8. How to Sell Out
• Chapter 9. GO AGAINST THE GRAIN
• Chapter 10. EXTREME ABUNDANCE
• Chapter 11. Photography Experience Economy
• Chapter 12. Why You Should Make Money for Your Photography
• Chapter 13. How to Become a Famous Photographer

---

Photography Business 101

• Practical Photography Business Advice

How to Make Money with Photography

• How to Charge More Money in Your Photography
• Why You Should Not Pursue Photography as Career
• Can Photography Make You Rich?
• How I Earn $200,000+ a Year From Photography
• How to earn $10,000 a month as a photographer
• Why you must be an expensive photographer

Photography Marketing 101

• Why Have More Followers?
• Why You Should Do Photography Work For Free
• How I Became an Internet Famous Photographer
• Photography Blogging Ideas
• Why You Should Promote Your Own Name
• How to Build a Following
• How to Stand Out as a Photographer.
• HOW TO GO VIRAL AS A PHOTOGRAPHER.
• How to Master Marketing
• How to Sell Yourself

---

How to Hustle.

• Entrepreneurial Advice to My 18 Year Old Self
• How to Become Insanely Productive.
• 5 Lessons From Hesiod on Hustling

Entrepreneurial Principles

• It is Better to Beg For Forgiveness Than Ask For Permission
• The Free Way to Become Rich
• JUST DO IT.
• 7 Steps: How to Make a Living From Your Passion
• How to Do What You Love for a Living
• How to Create an MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
• How to Fail Big
• How to Invest in Yourself
• How to Be Bold in Photography and Life
• Mission: Cover Your Rent and Food
• 1,000 True Fans
• The “10x Principle”: The Only Difference Between “Success” and “Failure”
• Make More Value Not Money
• We Live in a Photo Utopia

How to be a Full-time Photographer

• How to Make a Living From Photography
• The 3 Principles of Making Money With Photography
• Advice for Aspiring Full-Time Photographers
• Don’t Go Into Debt For Your Photography
• How to Brand Yourself as a Photographer
• Trust: The Most Important Thing You Need to Succeed as a Photographer

Photography Blogging

• How to become rich from photography blogging
• How to Make a Living with Blogging
• 50 Blogging Tips For Beginners
• How to Start Your Own Photography Blog
• A Photographer’s Guide to SEO, Blogging, and Social Media

How to Teach Photography

• How to Become a Photography Teacher
• How to Teach a Street Photography Class
• Why I Teach Street Photography Workshops

Social Media

• Why I Deleted My Instagram
• The Social Media Blackbook for Photographers
• Why Do You Need More Likes or Followers?
• Instagram is Going to Be the Next Facebook
• Don’t Trust “Free” Photography Social Networks

How to Save Money

• How Cindy Saved Us $150,000+
• The Free Way to Become Rich

START HERE >

MONEY 101

1. Just Follow the Money
2. My Money Philosophy
3. Eternal fame and glory over money
4. The Trillion Dollar Question: How to Make Money on the Internet Without Advertising?
5. Entrepreneurship that Doesn’t Involve Money-Making?
6. Money Ain’t Real
7. Making Money for Fun, Not to Get Rich
8. Why Money?

PHILOSOPHY BY KIM

Essays by KIM

1. ‘LUCK’ VS COURAGE
2. ‘SKILL’ VS MERIT?
3. Becoming Antifragile
4. How to “Improve” Men
5. The Art of Virtue
6. How to Dominate
7. JUST SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCES AND WISDOM WITH OTHERS.
8. How to Get More Done in a Single Day – MEMENTO MORI PHILOSOPHY
9. THINK FOR YOURSELF
10. Cruel?
11. GO DEMIGOD.
12. How to Be Happy: Challenge and Danger Philosophy
13. To Become Greater, You Must Become *LESS* Productive!
14. Imperfect Beauty
15. The Philosophy of Pleasure
16. What Interests You?
17. Anti Theory of Everything
18. Become?
19. STRONGER OR NOT?
20. Carte Blanche Ideals
21. CHOOSE JOY
22. Don’t Judge Your Impulses
23. On Becoming Less Human
24. COWARDICE.
25. The Philosophy of Futurism
26. PHILOSOPHY IS VALUE-SETTING
27. PHILOSOPHY IS NOT LIFESTYLE
28. WHY STANDARDIZATION IS BAD.
29. YOUR OWN TABLE OF VALUES.
30. RETRO IS BAD.
31. INSANELY LOFTY THOUGHTS.
32. Strive to *Lose* Weight, Not *Gain* Weight
33. DIABLO II ANALOGIES FOR REAL LIFE.
34. If You Know Your *WHY* You Can Discover Any *HOW*
35. Life is Too Short to Be Miserable
36. What Consumption Takes Skill?
37. OFF THE GRID.
38. REALITY IS CRUEL.
39. Pain is Information
40. WHY REMOVE VULGARITY AND DISORDER FROM OUR EYES?
41. AUTOTELIC.
42. UNPLUG.
43. How to Become a Philosopher
44. SUBOPTIMAL IS OPTIMAL
45. THE LUST FOR MORE.
46. TO DO IS TO BECOME.
47. IN PRAISE OF AGGRESSIVE.
48. THE PHILOSOPHY OF OPTIMISM
49. OUR PHILOSOPHICAL WILL TO EXISTENCE
50. Is Hope a Vice?
51. MOVE MEAN
52. Carte Blanche Ideals
53. One Interesting Thought
54. What Lasts? What Doesn’t Last?
55. A WOUND STIMULATES THE RECUPERATIVE POWERS
56. Children & Purpose
57. Thoughts on Becoming a Parent
58. Where Does Our Desire to Upgrade Come From?
59. WE ALWAYS NEED SOMETHING FURTHER TO ASPIRE TO.
60. Self-Task Yourself an Awesome Mission in Life
61. Differentiation vs Equalization
62. My Passion to *Become* Something More
63. No Aesthetic or Ethos is Forever
64. What is Your Higher Purpose in Life?
65. IT WILL NEVER SATISFY YOU.
66. How to Decide
67. Things You *Want* to Do vs Things You *MUST* Do
68. Towards a More Beautiful Mode of Existence and Future
69. EXTREME GRATITUDE.
70. AMAP (As Much as Possible) or None.
71. Why or How Does it Matter?
72. The Philosophy of Time and Events
73. How *Not* to Resent
74. FORWARD LOOKING
75. DOMAIN FLEXIBILITY.
76. The Miracle of Human Growth
77. EXTREME ADAPTATION.
78. Why Plan?
79. You Don’t Need to Justify Yourself
80. The Philosophy of Ego
81. True vs False Passions
82. How to Achieve Tranquility
83. On Making Your Own Philosophy
84. The Purpose of Life is to Create New Life
85. Think On!
86. The Wisdom of Doing Nothing
87. Congruency
88. My Thoughts on Meditation
89. The Philosophy of Purpose
90. Emulate Yourself
91. Good Fear, Bad Fear
92. For the Betterment of Humanity or Just Yourself?
93. What you *really* believe in and care for is manifested through your actions (or non-actions)
94. Why Culture is Your Enemy
95. YOUR EXPERIENCES ARE KING.
96. LIFE IS INHERENTLY GOOD.
97. Artistic, Physical, and Philosophical Muscles
98. All New Experiences are Good Experiences
99. What is the Purpose of X?
100. UTILITY.
101. Philosophy is a Luxury
102. The Attempt is More Interesting than the Result
103. Joyfulness vs “Happiness”
104. Effectiveness Over Happiness
105. Self Actualization
106. MAXIMAL ENGAGEMENT
107. Life & Pain
108. On Living Every Day with No Regret
109. Learn as if you’re going to live forever, live as if you’re going to die tomorrow
110. Live Every Day Like it Were the Last Day of Your Life
111. Self-Determination
112. FALSE GRATITUDE vs REAL GRATITUDE
113. HOW TO LIVE MORE
114. THE UPSIDE OF TRAGEDY
115. Satisfaction is a Sucker’s Game
116. Supreme Repose
117. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF LIFE? According to ERIC KIM
118. STUBBORN, FLEXIBLE
119. EVERYTHING HAPPENS AS IT *SHOULD* HAVE HAD HAPPENED
120. Good Addiction, Bad Addiction?
121. What is the Best Life?
122. The Philosophy of Thinking
123. The Philosophy of Conspiracies
124. Conspiracies
125. Growth
126. Skepticism.
127. What Do You Really Want Out of Life?
128. Seem or Be?
129. Learn Through Pain
130. Respect Yourself
131. In Praise of Elitism
132. Why Independent Thinking?
133. I Will Never Die
134. Bitter is Better
135. The Genesis of Nihilism and Existential Dread
136. The Ethics of Personal Enrichment
137. Good vs Not Good
138. Punished by Privilege
139. Abstinence Over Moderation
140. Just Leave Others Alone
141. You Can Only Critique that Which You Truly Understand and Love
142. ERIC KIM Critique of Metaphysics
143. Only Trust Philosophers Who Deadlift
144. Heuristic: If Someone Talks Shit About Others Behind Their Back, Most Likely They’re Also Talking Shit About You Behind Your Back
145. Virtue is a Privilege
146. What Are Your Life Goals?
147. Honesty
148. Why I’m Anti Moderation
149. No Spite, No Malice.
150. Ascending Life or Descending Life?
151. Double Edged Sword
152. Ignorance.
153. Why I Don’t Trust “Nice Guys”
154. Why You Must Share Your Opinion
155. Selfish Isn’t Evil
156. Wisdom is the Goal
157. YOU ARE KING.
158. MASTER YOURSELF
159. What is “Good” for You is Often what is Bad for You
160. Care.
161. BITTERSWEET
162. ONE REP MAX
163. Morality and Ethics is the Snare
164. BY HELPING YOURSELF, YOU BEST HELP OTHERS
165. Insanity is Good.
166. Think Deep.
167. PHILOSOPHY IS THE FUTURE.
168. Open Mind vs Closed Mind
169. ENTHUSIASM IS GENIUS
170. Towards a More Critical and Rigorous Line of Thinking
171. How to Encourage and a Foster Independent and Free Thinking
172. What is the Purpose of Life?
173. WHY PHILOSOPHY IS SUPREME.
174. Elitism.
175. I Cannot Form an Opinion About Somebody Until I’ve Met Them in the Flesh
176. ALL GENETICS ARE GOOD GENETICS.
177. Happiness vs Freedom
178. The Birth of a Hater
179. My Way Isn’t the Right Way
180. Walking as an Existential Thing
181. Why I’m So Tolerant
182. Mortal Gods
183. THE HUMAN SPECIES
184. Why I’m So Skeptical
185. Just Follow the Money
186. Why Selfish?
187. WHY WE CANNOT BLAME OTHERS
188. Why Are We So Anti Elitism?
189. What Actually Interests You?
190. How to Become Yourself
191. SELF HATE
192. Optimistic Fatalism
193. Death is the Ultimate Creative Constraint
194. FLUX.
195. How to Think for Yourself
196. FLESH
197. How to Live the Best Life
198. Why Live a Life Without Regrets?
199. Why Plato Ruined Art and Aesthetics for Us
200. Self Respect
201. Hypocrite vs Contradict
202. Ideals vs Reality
203. Spaceship Philosophy
204. What is Your Ideal Life?
205. MY EXTREME GRATITUDE TOWARDS LIFE AND BEING ALIVE!
206. Critique of Utilitarianism
207. Don’t Treat Others the Way You Want to Be Treated
208. The Eternal Recurrence of Tragedy and Joy in Life
209. Elite Asceticism
210. Why I Don’t Like Numbers
211. Action and Reaction, Cause and Effect
212. The Antidote to Nihilism: The Philosophy of Nothingness
213. ERIC KIM Notes on Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
214. EXPLOIT CHAOS.
215. WHY I DON’T BELIEVE IN GENETICS
216. Self-Wisdom
217. The Future Belongs to the Fearless
218. INDIVIDUALISM
219. Why Live Forever?
220. THIS TOO WILL PASS.
221. Why Education?
222. How to Become Yourself
223. Things Shouldn’t Go Back to the Way They Used to Be
224. Why Am I So Cruel?
225. The Great Joy of Existence
226. Virtue for the Sake of Virtue
227. NO DISDAIN.
228. INTELLIGENT IGNORANCE
229. A LIFE WITHOUT PAIN, DIFFICULTY OR TRAGEDY ISN’T A LIFE WORTH LIVING
230. BITTER IS BETTER.
231. EXPLOIT THE BEST FROM TRAGEDY AND LIFE 
232. DISREGARD FOR SELF-PRESERVATION
233. PAIN.
234. WHAT IF EVERYTHING IS NOT GONNA BE ALRIGHT?
235. Tomorrow is Never
236. Life is the Ultimate Creative Constraint
237. EMBODIED REALITY
238. BLACK SWAN
239. THINGS WILL NEVER GO BACK TO THE WAY THEY USED TO BE
240. What are you *really* afraid of?
241. HAPPINESS ISN’T THE GOAL
242. Philosophy is King
243. Why is Selfish Evil?
244. YOU’RE CONSTANTLY IN A STATE OF BECOMING
245. ENTITLEMENT A SIN?
246. NARCISSISM
247. BE BRUTALLY HONEST WITH YOURSELF
248. WHY FREE WILL?
249. OBEY YOUR OPINION
250. EGO IS GOOD.
251. WHY IT IS GOOD TO BE INTO YOURSELF
252. Seek the Good Pain
253. Anti-Perfection in Photography, Art, and Life
254. Can You Become an End into Yourself?
255. WHY I LIVE
256. Why I Hate Decline
257. Why I Eat
258. Why am I So Positive and Optimistic?
259. EFFORT IS ENJOYMENT
260. Never Stop Gaining
261. TRUST YOURSELF
262. A Life of Maximal Personal Independence
263. What Do You Desire to Become?
264. What Do I Want from Technology?
265. Stratified Society
266. Do You Love or Hate Reality?
267. On the Brian, Body and Mind
268. I’m Maximally Happy, Now What?
269. Care over Fame
270. ACTIVE NIHILISM
271. Never Stop Subtracting
272. How to Live a Happier and More Epic Life
273. A Risker Life is a Better Life
274. Only Work on Things You Can Imagine Doing for Eternity
275. How to Maximize Your Happiness
276. Influence
277. The Gladiator Makes His Plans once He Enters the Ring
278. Meditations on Meaning in Life
279. There is Nothing More Interesting than Human Beings
280. Is Hope a Vice?
281. EGO
282. Why Be Unique?
283. Happiness is Metabolism Health and Strength
284. You’re the Hero
285. Is Productivity a Virtue or Vice?
286. Why Do We Prize the Rare?
287. The Joy of Uncertainty
288. How Should I Best Use My Time and Life?
289. A Life Without Pain or Suffering Isn’t a Life Worth Living
290. Free or Unfree?
291. What Do You Really Care For in Life?
292. Anti-Satisfaction in Life
293. Why Think?
294. The Eternal Return
295. Only Do What is Best for You!
296. Truthiness
297. Why Be Happy?
298. Permissionless Living
299. In Praise of Unconventional Wisdom
300. Become the Change Which You Wish to See in the World
301. Happiness
302. Beyond Freedom
303. Idolize People, Not Stuff
304. What Makes You Stronger? What Makes You Weaker?
305. Why Hate?
306. The Secret of Happiness
307. You’re Constantly in a State of Becoming
308. Life is about Choices, Not Obligations
309. Anti-Nihilism
310. First, Do What is Best for You.
311. Live Dynamic
312. How to Prosper
313. Is the Point of Life to Be Satisfied?
314. SUPREME EFFORT OF WILL.
315. How to Become more Idealistic
316. Thrivival 101
317. Create Yourself
318. Non-Small
319. Inspiration
320. How to Live a Heroic Life: Dare the Heights!
321. Human Augmentation
322. Prune
323. Happiness: Do What You Want to Do (And Don’t Do What You Don’t Want to Do)
324. Avoid Vain (Empty) Pursuits in Life
325. Modern Slavery
326. Kill the Leeches
327. Wisdom Augmentation
328. Why We Need Friction in Life
329. Straight Line Philosophy
330. What’s Your End-Game in Life?
331. Create Your Own Happiness Today
332. Desire Both Pain and Pleasure in Life
333. Try the Impossible
334. SELF-RESPECT
335. Anti-Social Extrovert
336. Never Blame Anybody But Yourself
337. Human Flourishing
338. Simpler, Not Better.
339. How to be Free
340. Embrace the Extremes
341. Cultivate Your Own Culture
342. COURAGE.
343. Thrivival
344. Inner Power
345. How to Live a Purposeful Life
346. My Definition of Happiness
347. Why Change is Good
348. Why Work?
349. How to Live the Happiest Possible Life
350. The Two-Pronged Approach to Maximize Joy in Your Life
351. You Always Have Another Option!
352. INFINITISM
353. Never Stop!
354. What is Your Self-Directed Purpose in Life?
355. Live Today Like it Were Your Last
356. Do You Photograph to Live, or Live to Photograph?
357. ARTIST-PHILOSOPHER
358. Live Life to the Fullest!
359. In Praise of Selfishness
360. Why You Must Be a YAY-SAYER to Succeed in Entrepreneurship and Life
361. Why I Love Walking
362. Live Life Like a Video Game!
363. Simple Luxuries in Life
364. Treat Your Life Like a Fun Experiment!
365. Only Prove it to Yourself
366. You Don’t Always Need to Feel Joyful to Live a Fulfilling and Meaningful Life
367. Life is Too Short to Be Bored!
368. Money Cannot Destroy Boredom
369. How to Find Inspiration in Life
370. Why You Must Ignore Haters to Succeed and Win in Life
371. An Active Life is a Happy Life
372. My Simple Joys in Life
373. Never Stop Striving
374. How to Motivate Yourself in Life
375. How to Be Optimistic in Life
376. How to Dictate Your Purpose in Life
377. In Praise of a Dynamic Life
378. PURPOSE.
379. How to Enjoy Life
380. Photography Therapy
381. How to Conquer Regret
382. Take Your Play Very Seriously.
383. How to Prosper
384. Memento Vivere
385. Destroy in Order to CREATE
386. Trust Your Body More Than Your Mind
387. Make Photos to Make Meaning in Your Life
388. Seek Knowledge, Not Information
389. The Purpose of Human Life
390. How to Overcome Impedence
391. Why I Love Death
392. How to Be Centered in the Eternal Now
393. How to Be Happy
394. Why Do You Care What Others Think of You?
395. Why I’m Happy
396. Why?
397. Why I’m So Prolific
398. How to Reduce LAG in Life

Masters of Philosophy »

• Seneca
• Marcus Aurelius
• Publilius Syrus

Personal Philosophy »

• You Are the Light of the World
• Your Soul is a Diamond in the Rough
• Why Live?

Stoicism »

• How to Be a Stoic Street Photographer
• How to Use Photography as Self-Therapy
• How to Free Your Soul From Disturbance

Zen Philosophy »

• How to Be a Zen Street Photographer
• Zen in the Art of Street Photography
• How to Find Tranquility in Your Photography

Life Lessons »

• How to Conquer Your Fears in Life
• Conquer Yourself
• How to Focus

Learn more: Start Here >

STOICISM 101

Become invincible:

1. Stoicism 2
2. Becoming Stoic
3. LEMONADE.
4. Why Arguments and Confrontations Are Good
5. “I’m Over It”
6. How to Deal With Miserable People
7. How to Become a Stoic
8. How to Ignore
9. Pretend like you didn’t hear them
10. Bad Stoic Strategies
11. The Stoic Way of Dealing With Unpleasant or Miserable People
12. HOW TO BECOME A STOIC
13. Stoicism Stunts Our Power?
14. Stoicism is Mental Resistance Training
15. STOIC STRATEGIES.
16. How to Become Fearless
17. Extreme Stoicism
18. Ethics are Aesthetic
19. Indifference to Pain or Suffering
20. When is Stoicism Good? When is Stoicism Bad?
21. Why Others Criticize or Insult You
22. True Difficulty
23. What if Covid Never Goes Away?
24. SUPER STOIC
25. Anti-Hedonism
26. HOW TO CONQUER FEAR
27. ANTI FEAR
28. It is the Duty of the Strong to Help the Weak
29. The Goal is to Become Stronger
30. HYPER STOICISM
31. HYPER HERO
32. TRANSFORM EVERY DOWNSIDE INTO AN UPSIDE
33. STOICISM x Child’s Mind
34. The Art of Manly Virtue
35. Resistance Makes Us Stronger!
36. DON’T LIVE IN FEAR
37. Emotions are Good
38. Conquer Your Anger
39. BLACK EAGLE
40. DIFFICULTY AWAKENS YOUR INNER-GENIUS.
41. STOICISM IS ARMOR FOR THE MIND
42. The Spartan-Stoic Lifestyle
43. How I Conquered Fear
44. HOW TO CURE FEAR.
45. LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL.
46. The Upside of Poverty
47. How I Became Me
48. THE WILL TO POWER, OR THE WILL TO FEAR?
49. ATTACK REALITY
50. Living *THROUGH* History
51. How to Fear Less
52. Fear is the Ultimate Contagious Disease
53. STOICISM FOR DUMMIES
54. Don’t Be Scared!
55. WHAT CAN YOU CONTROL, WHAT CAN YOU NOT CONTROL?
56. HOW YOU CAN CONQUER FEAR
57. YOU’RE STRONGER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE.
58. EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
59. WHY AREN’T THINGS WORSE?
60. My Philosophy on Masculinity
61. A Riskier Life is a Better Life #philosophy #stoicism
62. How to Creatively Flourish in Life
63. Introduction to Stoicism
64. How to Become Stronger
65. How to Conquer Depression With Photography
66. What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger
67. How to Respect Yourself
68. How to Believe in Yourself
69. How to Steer Fear
70. How to Conquer Pessimism
71. How to Conquer Anxiety
72. How to Overcome Your Fear of People
73. How to Be Optimistic
74. Why I Don’t Take My Anger Seriously
75. HOW TO BECOME MORE POWERFUL
76. POSITIVITY.
77. HOW TO BECOME SUPERHUMAN
78. How to Give a Fuck Less
79. ALL IN.
80. Why I Cut My Dad Out of My Life.
81. Your iPhone Only Has 5% Battery Left.
82. How not to give a FUCK about your REPUTATION
83. WHAT IS A HUMAN?
84. HAPPINESS.
85. The Regret Minimization Framework in Photography and Life
86. How to Be a HERO
87. Conquer Your Fears by Making Fear Your Slave
88. Rule Circumstances; Don’t Let Your Circumstances Rule You
89. How to Love Yourself
90. How to Turn Shit into Gold
91. Your Parents Fuck You Up
92. Immortality
93. What Kills You Makes You Stronger
94. How to Be Patient
95. How to Conquer Anger
96. How to Bounce Back in Life
97. How to Overcome Resistance
98. Nothing Unlimited is Good; Nothing Good is Unlimited
99. You Have No Limits
100. Can 1’s and 0’s Hurt You?
101. The Envious Moment is Flying Now
102. Tomorrow We’ll Sail the Wide Seas Again
103. How to Forgive Others
104. Focus on Your Actions, Not the Results
105. Everything Will Be Alright
106. How to Be a Stoic Street Photographer
107. How to Be a Spartan Photographer
108. How to Overcome Your Fears in Life
109. How to Stop Worrying in Life
110. How to Use Photography as Self-Therapy
111. How to Free Your Soul From Disturbance
112. 3 Stoic Techniques that Can Help You Gain Tranquility
113. Can People Weaker than You Hurt You?
114. Does a Doctor Get Angry at a Crazy Patient?
115. Own Nothing

The Stoic Masters

Learn from the master stoics:

• Seneca
• Marcus Aurelius
• Epictetus
• Publilius Syrus
• Heraclitus

See all philosophy >

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ERIC KIM MIRRORS

ERIC KIM HYDRA:

1. erickim.com
2. erickimphilosophy.com
3. erickimthoughts.wordpress.com
4. medium.com/@erickimphoto
5. youtube.com/erickimphotography
6. ERIC KIM PODCAST — ANCHOR

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FREE TURBO THOUGHTS

ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER >

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LEARN FROM THE MASTERS OF ART

1. Joseph Beuys
2. Umberto Boccioni
3. Pablo Picasso
4. Piet Mondrian
5. Leonardo da Vinci
6. Matisse
7. Raphael
8. Vermeer

CRYPTO THOUGHTS

1. Why I Bought More Bitcoin (Again)
2. BULLISH ON BITCOIN.
3. Bitcoin as the Simplest Cryptocurrency

Crypto >

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PHOTO THOUGHTS

1. STREETTOGS STARTING GUIDE
2. What I Wish I Knew If I Started Street Photography All Over Again
3. Why I Photographed the Birth of My First Child

Who is ERIC KIM?

• My Interest in Street Photography, Philosophy and Entrepreneurship

SOCIETY

• Sociology
  • Social Stochastic Resonance
  • How to Live Bravely in Today’s Brave New World and Society
  • Arousal
• Psychology
  • Irrational Exuberance
  • Psychology of the Photographer
  • The Psychology of Hate

WEALTH

• Entrepreneurship
  • Speed Wins
  • The Philosophy of Happiness
  • When to Over-Estimate, When to Under-Estimate?
• Money
  • Via Negativa Wealth
  • Wealth is Mental
  • Money Moves You
• Economics
  • On Making Money from Nothing
  • Save Money Towards What Ends?
  • No Regret Investment

HEALTH

• Muscle
• Diet
  • ERIC KIM DIET PHILOSOPHY
  • Why Eat Meat?
  • Unorthodox Workout and Diet Tips I’ve Learned After 10 Years of Self-Experimentation
• Fasting

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PHOTOGRAPHY

• Street Photography 101
  • 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
  • How to Shoot Street Photography
  • Street Photography as Mental Therapy
• Photography Entrepreneurship 101
  • The Modern Photographer
  • Photography Startup Manual
  • PHOTOGRAPHY ENTREPRENEURSHIP MANUAL
• Learn From the Masters
  • 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
  • Beginner’s Guide to the Masters of Photography
  • Why You Must Kill Your Masters in Photography
• Photography Philosophy
  • HYPER PHOTOGRAPHY
  • The Soul of the Photographer
  • The Photographer as a Vessel
• Cinema
  • Stanley Kubrick
  • Akira Kurosawa
  • The Matrix
• How to Make More Art
  • How to Express Your Creative Instinct
  • Avoid Anything That Makes You Unproductive in Your Art
  • Pictures Should Stimulate Your Life!
• Soul Photography
  • Why Photography is Good for the Soul
  • The Soul of the Photographer
  • How Do Images Affect Your Soul?
• Photography Therapy
  • What is Photography Therapy?
  • Photography is Self-Therapy
  • 5 Photography Therapy Assignments
• Equipment
  • What is The Perfect Camera For You?
  • Why Camera Companies Want You to Be Perpetually Dissatisfied With Your Camera Gear
  • 10 Reasons Why I Shoot With One Camera and One Lens
• Phone Photography
  • Why Computational Photography is so Revolutionary
  • The Zen of Phone Photography
  • How to Take Better Pictures on Your Phone
• Personal Photography
  • The Personal Photography Manual
  • The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Personal Photography
  • THE PHOTOGRAPHER by ERIC KIM
• Motivation
  • The Joyful Photographer
  • The Dancing Photographer
  • The Kaizen Process of Gradual Self-Improvement
• Creativity
  • Ignore Your Haters.
  • You’re on a Winning Streak
  • Ultralight Photography
• Composition
  • Street Photography Composition Lessons
  • 10 Dynamic Photography Composition Tips
  • Composition by ERIC KIM

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PHILOSOPHY

• Ethics
• Masters of Philosophy
  • Seneca
  • Marcus Aurelius
  • Publilius Syrus
• Practical Philosophy
  • How to Find Inspiration in Life
  • Why You Must Ignore Haters to Succeed and Win in Life
  • An Active Life is a Happy Life
• Stoicism
  • How to Become Stronger
  • How to Conquer Depression With Photography
  • What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger
• Zen
  • Zen Photography
  • Walking Meditation in Street Photography
  • How to Be a Zen Street Photographer
• Happiness
  • 10 Tips to Be Happier and More Loving in Life
  • How Much Money Do You Need to Be Happy?
  • 55 Tips to Be Happier in Life

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Portfolio

SUITS

Download PDF >

ONLY IN AMERICA

Download PDF >

CINDY PROJECT

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BOOKS

Buy books, not gear:

PHOTOGRAPHY PDF BOOKS

1. MONOCHROME by ERIC KIM
2. ONLY IN AMERICA by ERIC KIM
3. SUITS by ERIC KIM

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EBOOKS

1. HOW TO SEE: Visual Guide to Composition, Color, & Editing in Photography / Kindle Edition
2. Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Street Photography / Kindle Edition
3. STREET HUNT / Kindle Edition
4. STREET NOTES: Mobile Edition / Kindle Edition
5. MODERN PHOTOGRAPHER / Kindle Edition

FREE EBOOKS

1. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 103
2. Dynamic Composition Manual
3. Photography Startup Manual
4. PHOTOGRAPHY MASTERCLASS
5. PHOTOGRAPHY ENTREPRENEURSHIP MANUAL by ERIC KIM
6. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY MANUAL by ERIC KIM
7. THE PHOTOGRAPHER by ERIC KIM
8. The Art of Street Photography
9. 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
10. Zen Photography
11. Personal Photography Manual
12. Street Photography Contact Sheets Volume II
13. Street Photography Contact Sheets Volume I
14. Street Photography Composition Manual
15. Street Portrait Manual
16. Street Photography 101
17. Street Photography 102
18. Color Manual
19. Monochrome Manual
20. 31 Days to Overcome Your Fear in Street Photography
21. Letters From a Street Photographer
22. Street Photography Aphorisms, Heuristics, and Sayings

See all downloads >

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Photo Book Reviews »

Below are my favorite photo books:

• Josef Koudelka: Exiles
• Josef Koudelka: Gypsies
• Dan Winters: Road to Seeing
• Alex Webb: The Suffering Of Light
• Robert Frank: The Americans
• Martin Parr: The Last Resort
• Trent Parke: Minutes to Midnight
• Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Decisive Moment
• Photographers’ Sketchbooks

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75+ inspirational photography books »

Buy books, not gear.

If you want a quality-education in street photography, I recommend either buying, borrowing, or browsing though some of the books below. Books that are bolded are some of my personal favorites.

1. Magnum Contact Sheets
2. Magnum: Degrees
3. Magnum: Stories
4. Mark Cohen: Grim Street
5. Street Photography Now
6. Bruce Davidson: Subway
7. Bruce Davidson: East 100th Street
8. Diane Arbus: A monograph
9. Helen Levitt
10. Lee Friedlander: Friedlander
11. Elliott Erwitt: Personal Best
12. Richard Kalvar: Earthlings
13. Andre Kertesz (Editions Hazan)
14. Robert Frank: The Americans
15. Garry Winogrand: Public Relations
16. Garry Winogrand: Figments from the real world
17. Garry Winogrand: The Animals
18. Bruce Gilden by Stern Magazine
19. Bruce Gilden: A Beautiful Catastrophe
20. Bruce Gilden: Haiti
21. Bruce Gilden: After The Off
22. Bruce Gilden: Facing New York
23. Bystander: A History of Street Photography
24. Joel Meyerowitz
25. Jun Abe: Citizens
26. William Eggleston: Chromes
27. William Eggleston: Guide
28. William Eggleston: Before Color
29. Stephen Shore: Uncommon Places
30. Daido Moriyama: The World Through My Eyes
31. Alex Webb: Istanbul
32. Alex Webb: The Suffering Of Light
33. Jeff Mermelstein: Sidewalk
34. Walker Evans
35. Fred Herzog: Photographs
36. Vivian Maier
37. William Klein: Contacts
38. Joel Sternfeld: American Prospects
39. Martin Parr: The Last Resort
40. Martin Parr: Small World
41. Tony Ray-Jones: Best Of
42. Josef Koudelka: Gypsies
43. Anders Peterson: French Kiss
44. Anders Petersen: Cafe Lehmitz
45. Zoe Strauss: America
46. Henri Cartier-Bresson: “The Decisive Moment”
47. Josef Koudelka: Exiles
48. Anders Petersen
49. The Education of a Photographer
50. David Hurn: On Being a Photographer
51. David Gibson: The Street Photographer’s Manual
52. Siegfried Hansen – hold the line
53. Matt Stuart: All that Life Can Afford
54. The Photographer’s Playbook: 307 Assignments and Ideas
55. Trent Parke: Minutes to Midnight
56. Trent Parke: The Christmas Tree Bucket
57. Trent Parke: The Black Rose
58. Harry Gruyaert
59. Gus Powell: The Lonely Ones
60. Alec Soth: Songbook
61. Ping Pong Conversations: Alec Soth with Francesco Zanot
62. Constantine Manos: A Greek Portfolio
63. Constantine Manos: American Color
64. Constantine Manos: American Color 2
65. David Alan Harvey: Divided Soul
66. Photographers’ Sketchbooks
67. Harry Callahan: Retrospective
68. Slide Show: The Color Photographs of Helen Levitt
69. Mark Cohen: Frame
70. Saul Leiter: Early Color
71. Saul Leiter: Early Black and White
72. Dan Winters: Road to Seeing
73. Todd Hido: Photography Workshop Series
74. Mary Ellen Mark: Photography Workshop Series
75. The Open Road: Photography and the American Roadtrip
76. Jason Eskenazi: Wonderland: A Fairytale of the Soviet Monolith
77. Kaushal Parikh: “Fragments of a Spinning Rock”
78. Sunlanders by Sean Lotman

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Free Books by Eric Kim

If you love learning, read the books below:

1. 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
2. Street Photography by Eric Kim
3. Photography by Eric Kim
4. Personal Photography Manual
5. Street Photography Contact Sheets Volume II
6. Street Photography Contact Sheets
7. Monochrome Manual
8. Street Portrait Manual
9. Street Photography Composition Manual
10. How to Overcome Photographer’s Block
11. Street Photography 101
12. Street Photography 102
13. Zen in the Art of Street Photography
14. Film Street Photography Manual
15. 31 Days to Overcome Your Fear in Street Photography

Street Notes

Street Notes is a pocket-sized assignment journal to break outside of your comfort zone:

• Buy (Amazon USA) >
• Buy (in our Shop International) >

STREET HUNT: Street Notes Volume 2 Scavenger Hunt Edition

• Buy (Amazon USA) >
• Buy (in our Shop International) >

Photo Book Reviews

• Magnum Contact Sheets
• Josef Koudelka: Exiles
• Trent Parke: Minutes to Midnight

See all reviews >

Recommended photo books

• Robert Frank: The Americans
• Alex Webb: The Suffering Of Light
• Josef Koudelka: Gypsies

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Downloads

Mini Street Photography Starter Kit

If you’re starting in street photography, here is my free and open-source ‘MINI Street Photography Starter Kit’. For more inspiration and dopeness, see the full version: “Street Photography Starter Kit“.

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FREE ERIC KIM EBOOKS

Dropbox Download >

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CONTACT SHEETS by ERIC KIM

• 2GB (very big) Dropbox Download >

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ERIC KIM PHOTOS

• Dropbox: Black and White Photos by ERIC KIM >
• Dropbox: Example Film Photos by ERIC KIM >

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RAW photos

dropbox Raw files >

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ERIC KIM LIGHTROOM PRESETS

Download ZIP:

• .ZIP: ERIC KIM Lightroom Presets

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PDF Visualizations

Made by ANNETTE KIM:

ERIC KIM x Annette Kim PDF Visualizations – HAPTICPRESS

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Black and White Street Photography

See all pictures on Dropbox >

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Contact Sheets by ERIC KIM

See directory on Dropbox >

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EBOOKS

See all Ebooks on Dropbox >

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PDF EBOOK: Street Photography Contact Sheets

Direct downloads:

• Street Photography Contact Sheets Volume I
• Street Photography Contact Sheets Volume II

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Full: STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT >

Buy the full STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT >

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Here are all of the free downloads available to you, with love:

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Dear friend,

I want you to download me — download all these books, articles, and information for free– for you to remix it however you would like.

For you to use these images to illustrate blog posts. For you to look at these full-resolution images to analyze composition.

For you to use these free Lightroom presets to actually make your digital RAW photos look good.

For you to empower yourself. Because I think that information is power. Information is everything.

Information is money and control of the world (just consider that scene from the James Bond 007 Skyfall at the end of the film — the guy who controlled the information controlled the world).

With this information, you can learn how to conquer your fears, find more personal meaning in your photography and life, and seek to empower others through the art of photography.

BOOKS

Download all PDF books:

• Eric Kim Books 2017 (PDF/129mb/.zip)

Photography Series PDF Books by Eric Kim

1. MONOCHROME by ERIC KIM
2. ONLY IN AMERICA by ERIC KIM
3. SUITS by ERIC KIM

Individual PDF books:

1. 31 Days to Overcome Your Fear of Shooting Street Photography
2. 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
3. Color Manual
4. Film Street Photography Manual
5. How to Overcome Photographer’s Block
6. Leica Manual
7. Letters from a Street Photographer
8. Monochrome Manual
9. Personal Photography Manifesto
10. Photography 101
11. Photography by Eric Kim
12. Street Photography 101
13. Street Photography 102
14. Street Photography Aphorisms
15. Street Photography by Eric Kim
16. Street Photography Contact Sheets Volume II
17. Street Photography Contact Sheets
18. The Art of Street Photography
19. The Social Media Blackbook for Photographers
20. The Street Photography Project Manual
21. The Street Portrait Manual
22. The-Photography-Manual
23. Zen in the Art of Street Photography
24. Zen Photography by Eric Kim

Lightroom Presets

Download:

• Eric Kim Presets 2018
• Eric Kim Chroma Tokyo Presets 2018
• Eric Kim Chroma Kyoto Presets 2017
• Eric Kim Lightroom Presets 2017

VISUALIZATIONS & RESOURCES by HAPTIC

• FILM NOTES BLANK WORKSHEETS
• All Visualizations by Annette Kim
  • “How to Overcome Fears of Photographing Strangers“(11/2/2o17)
  • “What to Look For When Shooting in the Streets” (11/8/2017)
  • “What is the Best Camera for Street Photography?” (11/22/2017)
  • “Travel Photography Tips” (12/10/2017)
  • “Introduction to Composition in Photography” (12/18/2017) New!
  • “Zen of Eric: On Life, Photography, Art, and Work” (12/29/2017) New!
  • “New Year’s Photography Resolutions” (12/31/2017) New!
  • “How to Monetize Your Photography” (1/23/2018) New!
  • “10 Visual Challenges to Boost Your Creative Photography” (3/21/2018) New!
  • “Smartphone Street Photography” (4/19/2018) New!
  • “Eric Kim Lightroom Workflow” (5/12/2018) New!
  • “10 Ways to Boost Your Creativity” (5/30/2018) New!

PHOTOS by ERIC KIM

Download:

• ERIC KIM PORTFOLIO 2017 (jpeg/380 mb)
• Medium-format photos by ERIC KIM (.jpeg/174 mb)
• RAW Eric Kim Photos

Open-source

All the information on this site, including photos, images, videos, articles, books, or text is free and open source– meaning you can do whatever you want with it.

You can remix it, translate it, or sell it for a profit.

The reason why I am doing this is to help empower you with information. And I feel that freedom is information, and power.

Be strong,

Eric

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Eric Kim Blog Offline

If you plan on going on a flight, or going somewhere without internet access (and still want access to this blog), you can download this entire blog (offline, without images) as a 1.4GB (yes, very big) direct download. All you need to do is extract this .ZIP file, and open up ‘index.html’ to access the entire site. Have fun 🙂

• Dropbox Download (1.4GB) >

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Articles

My best articles as text files:

• All Articles (Google Drive)
• All Articles (Dropbox)
• All Articles (Direct Download)

See all recent posts >

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Videos

My most popular videos (2GB):

• Download videos (Dropbox)
• Download videos (Google Drive)
• Download videos (Direct Download)

See all videos on YouTube >

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Presentations

1. Composition in Street Photography (PDF, Keynote)
2. 7 Lessons from the Masters of Street Photography (Google Slides)
3. How to Shoot Street Portraits (PDF, Keynote)
4. How to Conquer Your Fear of Shooting Street Photography (PDF, Keynote)
5. Street Photography 101 (PDF, Keynote)
6. Street Photography Projects (PDF)

See all presentations on Slideshare >

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Internet Archive

See more downloads on archive.org >

WHAT IS YOUR PRIME VISION IN LIFE?

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LASER FOCUS.

HYPED UP on ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE— I’m currently drinking the black bag, THE PHOTOGRAPHER, which is 50% fine robusta and 50% liberica. This stuff is seriously liquid gold, gives me more focus, hype, and general good attitude toward life.

Anyways, I thought on my mind is in regards to focus, laser focus. Some thoughts on focus:

How to focus?

The philosophy of focus is tricky; on one hand, in modern-day times it is seen as virtuous to focus. To “not get distracted“.

I know for myself, I am easily distracted by superfluous things. Therefore it is my personal passion to not be distracted.

The first question you must ask yourself is this:

Do I want to focus?

For example, Nassim Taleb writes that contrary to popular wisdom, by him not focusing on a single given subject, he was able to advance his thinking and philosophy.

On the other hand, innovators like Steve Jobs gave advice to Sergey and Larry Page about how focus was critical.

For example, the advice that Steve Jobs gave to Larry Page and Sergey Brin was how Google should just focus on search, their most critical component, and not get distracted by other things like android, etc.

Looking at things a little bit zoomed out, I think Steve Jobs may have been correct. When we look at Android, it is a very sad and poor imitation of Apple and iOS. If Android was never invented, I don’t really think that the world would suffer.

In fact, thinking about things more critically, upon much consideration and thinking, and also personal use of android and android products, essentially it’s Google’s sneaky way of injecting more advertisements into your life. The decade+ plan of android and Google Maps is quite simple; gather more personal preferences of users and user behavior in order to deliver more “relevant“ advertisements.

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Your life

There is certainly a difference between your life, and the life of these corporations. The reason why I think corporations are not a good example is that ultimately, the strategies don’t really pertain much to the individual. It seems more effective to focus on your own personal life and thriving, rather than just look at what companies are doing.

The philosophy of living and life

To think deeply, ultimately what you want to think and consider is that you only have one life, this one given life. So the question is in this life, what do you desire to achieve, attempt, or do? Do you care for your legacy? Do you care for the thriving of other future human beings beyond you? Do you not care? Underlying all of these considerations is a certain life philosophy. And I think that is guiding principles are critical.

In terms of my personal legacy, what I want to leave behind, how I wish to contribute to society, the general thought is I want to help assist empowering other individuals. For example, I just think of my 12-year-old, 15-year-old, 16-year-old, 18-year-old, 19-year-old, 21 year old, 26 year old self, and I think and consider; I thought given point in my life in that age, what advice and wisdom do I wish that other people shared with me?

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No external media?

In terms of laser focus, another strategy and path is no external media, beyond yourself, the vibrations of your own mind, and other embodied reality experiences you have in person with other human beings.

For example, one of the best things that I’ve personally done is go to the hot sauna every single day, religiously. Why? I consider it like my meditation zen focus, chamber, in which I come up with lots of great creative ideas.

There are also some theories that perhaps being in a really really hot sauna, in which the heat and humidity is much higher, which forces your body to sweat, might be positively good for you in terms of your hormones. Hot heat therapy in the hot sauna at the gym, or even doing hot yoga, a form of hormesis.

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Why movies or media?

There are always great new movies coming out, great new TV shows, series, etc. But I think out of all of this, the ultimate goal is towards human thriving, some sort of strengthening, or challenges.

A simple thought:

The time you spend watching media movies or shows, just use that time to go to the gym instead.

For example, I love superhero movies. I love the Marvel movies, the superhero movies, mostly the ones that came out before Disney bought out Marvel. I personally love the hero struggle, the hero narrative, etc. Why? I see myself in their shoes; when I watch a superhero movie, it makes me think that I’m the superhero.

What does a superhero have to deal with? In America, which has Judeo Christian, Protestant, Jesus sacrifice mentality, the general thought is that a hero sacrifices his life for the collective. That is, let us consider all of these heroic movies and films, typically the lead sacrifices his or her life in order to save humanity, people beyond them, etc.

The tricky thing is when we go further back in history, let’s say studying the Iliad, the Odyssey, etc., the narrative is a bit different. For example, let us consider Achilles in the Iliad. He is not sacrificing anything for the collective. Instead, his initial plan was just to go back to his own land, ideally take Breisis with him, stop war campaigning, and just retire and chill out. However it was the death of his best friend Patroclus which drove him to seek revenge. I wonder if John Wick is almost like the modern-day Achilles; some sort of antihero that we are actually rooting for.

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Your goals?

Once again, the tricky thing is that for you, what are your personal goals, or life mission?

Discovering your creative mission

Another critical thing is discovering your creative mission in life. That is, assuming you were a trillionaire, what would you do with your time life and physiological energy?

My general thought is that everyone is unique, and has a diverse range of skill sets they could use to leverage and move the world.

For example, let us say that you’re into cars, photography, and innovation. I think there is an interesting way you can cross pollinate all of these interests.

Or for myself, my passion for photography and coffee. Creating the first photographers blend, the first coffee optimized to help stimulate and motivate photographers.

The traditional wisdom is everyone tells you to stay focused on a single small niche. Based on my life experiences, and thinking more long-term, I don’t think this is the way. Much more effective instead of taking insanely long term.

That is, allow yourself to indulge all of your creative interests.

Focus and diversity

A simple thought is when you are investigating and pursuing all of your diverse interests, just be insanely focused on each one at a time. No need to justify yourself. In the long run, all of these things will dovetail nicely.

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Now what?

Focus on your health, your physicality, and don’t sacrifice your health for anything. Also focus on the health of your wife, your kids, and certainly yourself.

Assuming you want to become more productive in life, the simple path is focusing on your health. If you are insanely healthy, productivity will come naturally.

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White space

Another thought on my mind in regards to design, as well as a mental thing; how white space is critical.

What is white space? Simply put, white space is having buffer, not overloading yourself or your schedule, even for the promise of making more money.

If you’re confronted with the question; should I take on this additional work to make extra money, or should I choose to refuse it in order to maximize my mind space and mental white space, choose your mental white space.

The philosophy of making money

Another thought I had this morning is in regards to money. How to make money, why make money, how much money should we make.

I think the upside of being self-employed, an entrepreneur, is that in some regards, you have some control over this.

Social life is the best stimulus

Another thought; a simple thought I have is that perhaps the best stimulus is other people. That means, being at the gym, being at the park, being at the mall, any opportunity to be around other human beings is good for us.

Why is the modern day man so antisocial?

My theory is that because it is almost seen as a new ethic; to intrude upon other people is considered bad.

For example, when you interact with other human beings, sooner or later you will offend somebody. And this is all part of the game.

This is my theory:

Better to risk a social interaction, be friendly and say hi, and be given the cold shoulder or a bad interaction, rather than not attempt it at all.

I think this might be the cure and panacea for modern day living.

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STREET PHOTOGRAPHY X STOICISM

A great crossover that I personally think about the difference of stoicism, and modern day life, is that stoicism must be practiced, almost like a martial arts.

Typically speaking, our use of stoicism, ethics, modern day ethics, etc. is predicated on opportunities.

For example, other people. If you’re at home all day, don’t have to expose yourself to any real life interactions with other people, you have no need for stoicism.

Also, the Internet is fake. Nowadays with ChatGPT, it is really impossible to know whether the online commentator, troll, Twitter account, etc., is a real human being or not. Therefore my suggestion is to just disable all comments on the Internet, don’t read any comments on the Internet, And only rely on face-to-face interactions.

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Demigod focus

I personally believe that one of the best ways to focus is that there needs to be some Mokadem of danger, that is, there needs to be some sort of downside risk, some sort of risk of life or death.

For example, my 10 plate challenge. The general gist is easy;

Put a barbell on the squat rack, and load it up with 10 plates. Then see if you can successfully lift it up, a little bit off the bar even half a centimeter, once, for even half a second.

It doesn’t really matter whether you are able to successfully lift it or not, what is most important and critical is the attempt, your focus, your courage.

The reason why I find this to be so essential is that before attempting to do this, the courage necessary is phenomenal. There is really no other time in which I truly am afforded the opportunity to focus that much.

I think the reason why this gives me such zen and intense focus opportunity is that if I don’t focus, and give it my 100% effort, who knows, maybe there is a risk of injury? Funny enough though, with the atlas lift, I’ve suffered zero injuries. At worst I cannot budge the bar. But my desire is to move the bar, so regardless, my focus is to get into a zen mode, to tune out all distractions, channel 100% of my strength and courage into that one single moment, and lift the weight with all my might.

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Adrenaline training

I have a theory about focus; it has to do with adrenaline. That is, people often think that adrenaline, fear is a bad thing, but even the notion of “fear“ is misguided. Maybe fear is nothing but adrenaline in overdrive, which is untamed.

I often think about the movie 300, the moment in which king Leonidas and his heroic 300 are preparing to go to battle with king Xerxes and the millions of Persian missionaries. What happens is this— the narrator says something like,

He felt no fear. Simply a heightened sense of things.

Very very interesting, I think I may feel the same sentiment. When I am ready to hype myself up for a godly lift, it isn’t necessarily fear which I feel, rather, a heightened sense of things.

Also interestingly enough, wondering and while doing the lift itself, and the barbell is on my shoulders, my hearing goes deaf. For about a few seconds, I literally cannot hear the music, but the second I put down the barbell, the music turns back on.

Therefore, once again, the interesting thought is that perhaps, adrenaline training is what we need. And this is the focus of my workshops; to help you tame your adrenaline, to train your adrenaline, and for you to learn to turn “fear” and your adrenaline into your slave, your own pet monster, to unleash it when you deem it necessary.

Focus for the sake of what?

I think the difficult and tricky thing is that in modern day times, notions of “focus“ are deemed as some sort of pseudo-virtuous thing in which becoming “focused” is towards money and capital accumulation. That is, the purpose of focusing, being “productive“, is in order to make money, accumulate and accrue more capital, etc.

Call but what if focusing, your own personal desire to focus isn’t for any of these things? Then what?

How to see and look further

Elon Musk vision goals; essentially to see and think beyond.

My simple thought is in regards to your life goals, be laser vision focused on what you consider truly critical, your life mission while you are still on planet earth.

For example, one of my current life goals is propagating fine robusta to the masses. Also I got lots of goals with diet health and fitness, and certainly photography, street photography courage, philosophy stoicism and everything in between.

Also with my workshops, honestly at this point I’m starting to think that I just want to do it because I care, and I have a lot of insane fun doing it! In my mind I see myself as a bitcoin billionaire. Therefore, at this point I almost see things like making money as a hobby.

Prime Vision

To have a prime vision, a primary vision. To find yourself, your entrepreneurial ventures, etc.

It seems that in modern day times, we are always seeking funding, some sort of external externalized funding. But perhaps, this isn’t a good path. Why? If you want someone else to find you, external funding, maybe the thing that you’re doing isn’t really worth doing. That is, true genius is shown through what you are willing to sacrifice, out of your own pocket etc.

For example, I think a lot of people want external funding in terms of traveling, expenses, building something etc. however, while traveling is great, perhaps a lot of trouble is more romanticized than anything.

My thought instead is fund yourself. True skin in the game.

Now what?

Some thought and philosophy assignments for you:

First, the philosophy of money. For you, what is the meaning of finances? Why does it matter to you, and also what does it mean to you?

Second, think about your health. How would you define health for yourself, and also why does it matter to you?

Third, think about your own creativity, your own creative life. What is it that you desire to create as an artist, and towards what ends, why, and also how to best propagate it?

To think these thoughts deeper, have a chat with ERIC KIM AI.

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CONQUER WITH EK

If you’re hungry and ready to conquer, conquer with me:

1. Conquer street photography in Philly, this upcoming October 14, 2023
2. Discover your creative mission in life, my brand new workshop in downtown LA later on this year November 4, 2023 – ALL NEW!
3. Achieve peak creativity in Seattle, next year February 10, 2024

Some new workshops in the making:

1. Introduction to stoicism workshop, later on this year in downtown LA
2. Street photography master workshop
3. Next year, Seoul/Hadong South Korea workshop 2024

Always stay tuned to the ERIC KIM workshops page, or this newsletter.

Now what?

Pursuing your own passion for photography is still a noble goal.

Keep shooting, keep making art, and upload your best photos to ARS BETA >

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Random thoughts on my mind

Prime, primer thoughts. Perhaps the best color or the paint concept is primer flat gray. Why? The promise of infinite opportunities, anything is possible.

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Morning Routine

Just vlog your morning routine! And drink more EK COFFEE!

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Forward the turbo

If this sparked even one interesting thought within you, feel free to forward to a friend!

ERIC

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And when lost,

START HERE

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