I’m starting to think that if we apply the black-and-white art photography aesthetic to real life, maybe the idea of “preserving the midtones“ is a bit boring.
The general notion of crushing the blacks is when you’re processing or post processing your photos, you dragged the black slider all the way to 100, and you also crank up the contrast to 100.
Aesthetically, I think this makes for much more striking and interesting images.
First, midtones are boring. Almost universally, the more you increase the contrast of something or the photos, the better.
For example, even when we design our homes. What is the best way to design a home? Very very simple, use white and black accents.
For example in my eyes, the ideal home exterior paint color is not a matte black, but rather, a pure clean white, with black trimming.
Also, with cars… I think we’ve discovered is the apex is both a shiny white with shiny black accents — gloss, not matte.
I think matte, matte black, the whole matte aesthetic is centered around jet stealth fighters, which desire to escape enemy detection. So typically when you try to matte black your car and murder it out… aesthetic you’re going for stealth bomber, or jet fighter aesthetic?
But the irony that I find… nobody would ever matte black or murder out their Prius, to escape detection from the police or the other party. We typically do it to our sports cars, our Teslas, etc. 
Put the strange inconsistency I see here is on one hand, we want to be seen and to show up, on the other hand, we want to be fake low-key, and be “humble”?
Bitch be humble?
A few years back, the song HUMBLE by Kendrick Lamar went triple maxi viral. It was the most viral song of all time, maybe even more viral than the recent “They Not Like Us” song.
The song was very bizarre to me. Because I’m not sure what Kendrick was really trying to say. Two interpretations —
First, he is calling the counterparty a bitch, and telling them to sit down and be humble because I am so much greater than you
Or, trying to remind everybody to be humble in general.
But the weird inconsistency in modern day life is we are centered around Christian Jesus ethics, or some sort of quaker Protestant morality which is centered around notion of humility, being humble, close to the ground etc. This is why you will never ever ever meet a rich person in America called themselves rich, they will call themselves “fortunate“, or “lucky”.
Also another bizarre thing in the world of bodybuilding… you almost never ever ever see bodybuilders proud to flex unabashedly, like Arnold in the documentary Pumping Iron, back in the day. It is very uncommon for you to see self-confident men at the gym, working out topless, in booty shorts, 3 inch short shorts, flexing their muscles in the mirror, not trying to hide it etc.
The big issue with the typical bodybuilder is that they are trying to become dominant, but be humble about it? Really weird?
Lord Achilles 
I am currently reading the Iliad by Emily Wilson, I am always always happy to see a new translation or a fresh take on the classic.
Anyways, also an interesting thought… I like the idea of reading a female woman translate the most manly literature of all time. I think the problem when I was talking to my friend Kelly, is that traditionally in the past, it was a bunch of impotent old men who would translate great classics like the Iliad or the Odyssey, using their own fake impotent machismo, to translate it.
For example, a lot of the misogyny, misogynistic language from 100 years ago or so, was actually very inaccurate.
Anyways, something worth noting is how artful, succinct, beautiful, and unlike English ancient Greek was. In fact, I definitely want to get Seneca on the classics, get him into Latin and ancient Greek, and mathematics like NASSIM TALEB recommended.
If you think about it long enough, what are the least harmful majors which exist? Classics, math, physics.
Classics is almost like the superior form of sociology, physical theory, it is the pillar of the humanities. Either classics or history.
Math, it will never hurt nobody. There are simple binary rules of math, it is either right or wrong, but then again the problem with a lot of mathematicians math teachers or people who are too into math, they seek some sort of rationality behind real life, society and people… but the true wise man knows that humans are not mathematical equations, ones and zeros. Humans are messy, even the Ancient Greek gods — they are all flawed! They are a bunch of petty, incestuous, sibling rivalry, family drama folks.
What to focus on?
My friend Anton (congrats on your new kid!) told me something interesting… it was his general observation that individuals like me, who diversified themselves, and did not just focus on street photography were the ones that succeeded, and won in the long run. 
For example, I bemoan the death of digitalrev it was literally the best thing since Top Gear for photography and street photography. But also here, I think the cautionary tale of digital rev is critical, because whenever you build an empire on a foreign platform, it is like building your castle in a marsh or quicksand. 
Even something which shocked me ,,, the infamous video of me shooting street photography in Hong Kong with Kaiman Wong,  I think was either taken down or deleted by digital rev? Really weird, I guess it was too controversial?
Anyways, once again, I think the rational thing is whenever you post something, know that it is built on a cotton candy foundation, whether it be Facebook Instagram YouTube TikTok etc.… Even Twitter… Know that it is destined to die. 
I even heard some kids at the mall yesterday talk about myspace, so funny… nobody has any idea what that is. Or xanga, Friendster, live journal?
Sooner or later whenever you build something on a foreign platform, two things are inevitable to happen; either your account will eventually get deleted, taken down, blacklisted, grey listed, banned shadow banned real banned, or just made obsolete. 
First – make a new filter, call it extreme monochrome. The general idea is that you want to make a black-and-white filter so hardcore, so extreme, it will blow the Ricoh GR strong monochrome out of the water! 
I really love the Fujifilm cameras, for the color filters, before some reason, they really lack a good black-and-white filter mode. The acros filter on it sucks. 
A simple idea: make a neopan black and white film simulation, and make it extreme high contrast, like neopan 1600! Or like the effect of taking neopan 400, and pushing it two stops to 1600!
Right now, the only real competition to Fujifilm is Ricoh Pentax. And it seems that Leica is dying a slow death. 
First, it seems that the Leica Q is only cash cow keeping Leica alive. Also, it seems that Leica is desperate to maintain her clutches on her film film photography heritage, resurrecting the Leica M6, the like etc.
But I think the critical issue here is that in someways, what the Germans do is kind of like kaizen; they take the existing model, and they just keep iterating it, making the new version maybe 3% better… There is never a 100% revolutionary new product, like what Elon did with cybertruck etc. 
Once again, the glory of cybertruck is that when it is on the road, it is literally impossible to ignore! You could pretend like you didn’t see it, but you did see it! And if you did not see it, definitely your 3 1/2 year-old kid will see it!
And this is where I am still Tesla and Elon… As long as the kids love it, the future is bright!
Even Lamborghini… It isn’t cool anymore. And nobody even knows what a Ferrari is.
I think things will go bananas when Tesla puts out a mini cyber truck, imagine a Tesla model Y, but a baby cyber truck version?
The best car is the car not yet innovated invented or released.
I’ve always loved cars, car culture etc. I feel bad for anybody whoever purchases any brand new car, because the sad reality is that it will become obsolete in a matter of months or years?
For example, all of these guys who bought a Lamborghini Urus, only to have the new version come out, or even guys who bought the Lamborghini Huracan, with a new one that just came out?
Or even the guys who bought the Aventador… All these rappers from five or 10 years ago… Now that the new Revuelto is out, their Aventador is made obsolete? 
You fools!
“I pity the fool?”
A random sidenote… It seems that the most constructive way to approach life is through compassion, empathy, maybe even pity.
For example, whenever there are people that I am suspicious of, they are on my bad side, and then finally, I see them without a hat on, without sunglasses, in direct light, and I see how sickly or unwell they are – the first feeling is extreme compassion. Like I find myself to be the fool — there is somebody that I vilified, or made into a bad guy, or somebody that I created a totem for my general hate or despise… And then I see how unhealthy they are, and then I realize,…
Wait,,, this whole time, when I am painting this guy as a bad guy, and then I truly see you and witness that in fact, they are just a poor miserable soul, slowly dying… Why was I so negative towards that person?
Something I learned about living in LA… everyone here has problems. For example, a lot of women, their husband is cheating on them, and they know what, but don’t want to admit it. Even Jay Z… Probably still 100% cheating on Beyoncé… Why?
And all these assholes who honk at you in the road…  spending a lot of time out of a car, just walking around now, observing traffic politics, if you actually get a really good look at the driver, they are either miserable looking Uber drivers, food delivery people, or just very very unwell sickly looking people, insanely poor health, who may be just want to get home because they were stuck in traffic for two hours? 
When to be compassionate, when not to be a pushover?
It seems that the primary issue here is the strange bifurcation of ethics. First, we are taught to forgive, turn the other cheek etc., but then you have all these assholes honking at you from behind. So in this case, what are you supposed to do, take it up the ass, because you’re afraid that they might have a gun and shoot you? Or the other person may commit road rage, and do something dangerous? 
I think the issue here is why should you live your life in fear that some asshole some pussy coward might have a gun, and pop you?
Obviously, I do not want to get shot by some random coward, because I have my son to live for. But still… Isn’t the real role of a man to stand up for his child, and to never ever ever see your father get pistol whipped around?
Stand up
I think this is also where manly masculine ethics are different than feminine ones. For example, if you see some asshole smoking in the park, and you’re there with your kid… Obviously the correct strategy is to tell them to please stop smoking. I have a new line that I’m experimenting with–
“No smoking,,, pleeeease!”
For example, two assholes in front of the Apple campus on Washington in Culver City… Apple 10, 8777 Washington — One fat guy wearing some sort of blue Greek food T-shirt, I think he might be an Apple employee… I was walking with Seneca down Washington, on the Apple side, and this asshole is smoking Indignantly on the side, blowing his secondhand smoke all the way down the block.
I came up to him, and I said, no smoking… pleeeease
And this asshole has audacity to tell me that “I’m on my break…” And then I stopped, looked at him and eyes, and I said, “that’s why I said please”. He had no response, his jaw dropped. And like an asshole he kept smoking.
Anyways, fortunately there was some security guards down the block, and I asked them to tell the guy to stop smoking. Maybe next time this happens, I’ll just record him or take a picture of him on my iPhone, shame him.
Extreme ethics
I think the big issue is in today’s world, ain’t nobody have a backbone or ethics anymore.
In actually… The big issue here is that it seems at 99.9% of people just become passive aggressive, and never confront– we are a non-confrontational society, yet we hide behind our cars and honk at people? Because we are shielded from recompense?
For example, I think this is also where people become keyboard warriors… You would never talk smack about me face-to-face, because you will see how much stronger, taller, more charismatic, and dominant I am than you. In fact, some of the things that I’ve discovered after meeting some of my “haters“– were in fact, they were my greatest lovers! The biggest issue here was actually… Unrequited hate or love.
What is worse, unrequited hate or unrequited love?
Once again, some bizarre inconsistencies here; I’ve never hated anybody. Why? Because I’m not that interested in anybody else, nor do I really desire the affection of somebody else that much?
And also, the reason why a lot of men become misogynists, and hate women is because of unrequited love. Then the unrequited love becomes hate.
Everything starts off as love, then evolves to hate?
An alternate theory; maybe hate is just a more exaggerated or extreme version of love? 
Super facts
The internet is a toxic place. Don’t let your kids go on it.
Why? I even have this kind of shocking memory, when I was a 12-year-old kid in Bayside Queens, New York. I was connected to the Internet, AOL 3.0, on my 38.8 K modem… and I was randomly in this chat room, and then I was chatting with this guy, who then instant messaged me, (IM) via AOL instant messenger, AIM, and then eventually started to say weird stuff like pedophile stuff like it feels really good to get your dick sucked by another guy?
Anyways, obviously I got super scared and just banned him.
And I think the issue is in today’s world, I think the safe strategy in assumption is that 100% of people on the internet are just malicious bots. And it’s starting to get scary… If you could program a bot to be malicious, and to create more malicious bots, ad infinitum — shit starts to get scary.
For example, Michael Saylor was talking about how whenever he tweets something, and somebody responds to it in a very malicious way… almost 100% it was a bot! And actually the big problem then is there are real life human beings having back-and-forth inflamed debates with these malicious bots.
Think about it… Let us say that you are interacting with someone on Twitter, and you have no idea that it is a bot you assume it is real person… Who is going to win in the long run? Obviously the bot!
As time goes on, I’m starting to think of bitcoin like a more ethical idea.
For example, Michael Saylor has an incredibly genius idea of fixing all of this toxicity on the internet, just adding a little bit of monetary, bitcoin or Satoshi friction;
For example, if it cost $10 worth of US dollars, or satoshis to create an account on Twitter or some social media account, then, overnight practically 100% of the malicious bots will be made obsolete or deleted from the platform.
Why? Right now it cost only a nickel to spin up 100,000 bots, to troll your worst enemy on Twitter. But, if it cost $10 a bot, it cost you $1 million to cyber bully somebody, you probably wouldn’t… because it is too expensive and you don’t hate them that much. 
I think it is Chris Rock or Chris Tucker who had this funny comedy bit about making bullets super expensive. Then the ideas that if you really really hate somebody, and let us say that one bullet is worth $100,000, then if you really want to kill them, or even with multiple bullets, you might think twice.
Financial friction and consequences is a good idea
Maybe the greatest use of money is physical friction, monetary friction, consequences.
Fines work, monetary penalties, like getting $500 traffic tickets for turning red on a red light and not stopping. This has certainly changed my driving behavior.
So I suppose the critical intelligent thing to consider is want to make things free, and want to make things cost money, to direct human behavior.
For good behavior, make it free.
For bad behavior, make it very expensive.
ERIC
Funny experiments
Some very very simple things to consider:
First, make things expensive, don’t make them free.
For example, let us say that you dip into the pr0n– but you don’t want to do it anymore, for whatever reason. Maybe make it a thing that if you want to watch it, you have to go to an adult DVD store, and pay $20 bucks to buy the CD or whatever. 
Or, for activities… I think often signing up and paying for an activity is a good idea because it creates sense of ownership, responsibility, or follow through. Or commitment.
For example, perhaps the intelligence of paying money for a trainer or a personal trainer is that you you know that if you don’t show up there is a fiscal penalty.
But the new ones is you don’t want to breed fake virtuosity for the sake of fake virtuosity. 
For example, there is this weird notion in American culture that pain and suffering and overcoming is virtuous. No. Fools!
Exercise workout or whatever is not virtuous, it is something that you do because it is fun enjoyable and something that you like!
For example, would you bribe your kid money to play at the playground? No! So why do this for yourself? 
I’m starting to think that if we apply the black-and-white art photography aesthetic to real life, maybe the idea of “preserving the midtones“ is a bit boring.
The general notion of crushing the blacks is when you’re processing or post processing your photos, you dragged the black slider all the way to 100, and you also crank up the contrast to 100.
Aesthetically, I think this makes for much more striking and interesting images.
First, midtones are boring.  almost universally, the more you increase the contrast of something or the photos, the better.
For example, even when we design our homes. What is the best way to design a home? Very very simple, use white and black accents.
For example, my eyes, the ideal home exterior pin color is not a matte black, but rather, a pure clean white, with black trimming.
Also, with cars… I think we’ve discovered is the Apex is both a shiny white with shiny black accents — gloss, not matte.
I think Matt, Matt Black, the whole met aesthetic is centered around jet stealth fighters, which desire to escape enemy detection. So typically when you try to Matt Black your car and murder it out… Aesthetic you’re going for stealth bomber, or jet fighter aesthetic?
But the irony that I find… Nobody would ever matte black or murder out their Prius,  to escape detection from the police or the other party. We typically do it to our sports cars, our Teslas, etc. 
Put the strange inconsistency I see here is on one hand, we want to be seen and to show up, on the other hand, we want to be fake low-key, and be “humble”?
Bitch be humble?
A few years back, the song HUMBLE by Kendrick Lamar went triple maxi viral. Like  it was the most viral song of all time, maybe even more viral than the recent “They Not Like Us” song.
The song was very bizarre to me. Because I’m not sure what Kendrick was really trying to say. Two interpretations —
First, he is calling the counterpart a bitch, and telling them to sit down and be humble because I am so much greater than you
Or, trying to remind everybody to be humble in general.
But the weird inconsistency in modern day life is we are centered around Christian Jesus ethics, or some sort of quaker artist morality which is centered around notion of humility, being humble, close to the floor etc. This is why you will never ever ever meet a rich person in America called themselves rich, they will call themselves “fortunate“, or “lucky”.
Also another bizarre thing in the world of bodybuilding… You almost never ever ever see bodybuilders proud to flex on the bash Lee, like Arnold in the documentary pumping iron, back in the day. It is very uncommon for you to see self-confident men at the gym, working out topless, in booty shorts, 3 inch short shorts, flexing their muscles in the mirror, not trying to hide it etc.
The big issue with the typical bodybuilder is that they are trying to become dominant, but be humble about it? Really weird?
Lord Achilles 
I am currently reading the Iliad by Emily Wilson, I am always always happy to see a new translation or a fresh take on the classic.
Anyways, also an interesting thought… I like the idea of reading a female woman probably the most manly literature of all time. I think the problem when I was talking to my friend Kelly, is that traditionally in the past, it was a bunch of impotent old men who would translate great classics like the Iliad or the odyssey, using their own Fake impotent machismo, translate it.
For example, a lot of the misogyny, misogynistic language from 100 years ago or so, was actually very inaccurate.
Anyways, something worth noting is how artful, succinct, beautiful, and unlike English ancient Greek was. In fact, I definitely want to get Seneca on the Classics, get him into Latin and ancient Greek, and mathematics like NASSIM TALEB recommended.
If you think about it long enough, what are the least harmful majors which exist? Classics, math, physics.
Classics is almost like the superior form of sociology, physical theory, it is the pillar of the humanities. Either classics or history.
Math, it will never hurt nobody. There are simple binary rules of math, it is either right or wrong, but then again the problem with a lot of mathematicians math teachers or people who are two into math, they seek some sort of rationality behind real life, society and people… But the true wise man knows that humans are not mathematical equations, ones and zeros. Humans are messy, even the Ancient Greek gods — they are all flawed! They are a bunch of petty, incestuous, sibling rivalry, family drama folks.
What to focus on?
My friend Anton (congrats on your new kid!) told me something interesting… it was his general observation that individuals like me, who diversified themselves, and did not just focus on street photography were the ones that succeeded, and won in the long run. 
For example, I bemoan the death of digitalrev it was literally the best thing since Top Gear for photography and street photography. But also here, I think the cautionary tale of digital rev is critical, because whenever you build an empire on a foreign platform, it is like building your castle in a marsh or quicksand. 
Even something which shocked me ,,, the infamous video of me shooting street photography in Hong Kong with Kaiman Wong,  I think was either taken down or deleted by digital rev? Really weird, I guess it was too controversial?
Anyways, once again, I think the rational thing is whenever you post something, built something on a cotton candy foundation, whether it be Facebook Instagram YouTube TikTok etc.… Even Twitter… Know that it is destined to die. 
I even heard some kids at the mall yesterday talk about myspace, so funny… nobody has any idea what that is. Or xanga, Friendster, live journal?
Sooner or later whenever you build something on a foreign platform, two things are inevitable to happen; either your account will eventually get deleted, taken down, blacklisted, grey listed, banned shadow banned real banned, or just made obsolete. 
Neopan 1600
Some suggestions to Fujifilm:
First – make a new filter, call it extreme monochrome. The general idea is that you want to make a black-and-white filter so hardcore, so extreme, it will blow the Ricoh GR strong monochrome out of the water! 
I really love the Fujifilm cameras, for the color filters, before some reason, they really lack a good black-and-white filter mode. The acros filter on it sucks. 
A simple idea: make a neopan black and white film simulation, and make it extreme high contrast, like neopan 1600! Or like the effect of taking Neilan 400, and pushing it two stops to 1600!
Right now, the only real competition to Fujifilm is Ricoh Pentax. And it seems that Leica is dying a slow death. 
First, it seems that the Leica Q is only cash cow keeping Leica alive. Also, it seems that Leica is desperate to maintain her clutches on her film film photography heritage, resurrecting the Leica M6, the like etc.
But I think the critical issue here is that in someways, what the Germans do is kind of like kaizen;  they take the existing model, and they just keep iterating it, making the new version maybe 3% better… There is never a 100% revolutionary new product, like what Elon did with cybertruck etc. 
Once again, the glory of cyber truck is that when it is on the road, it is literally impossible to work! You could pretend like you didn’t see it, but you did see it! And if you did not see it, definitely your 3 1/2 year-old kid will see it!
And this is where I am still Tesla and Elon… As long as the kids love it, the future is bright!
Even Lamborghini… It isn’t cool anymore. And nobody even knows what a Ferrari is.
I think things go bananas when Tesla puts out a mini cyber truck, imagine a Tesla model Y, but a baby cyber truck version?
The best car  is the car not yet innovated invented or released.
I’ve always loved cars, car culture etc. I feel bad for anybody whoever purchases any brand new car, because the sad reality is that it will become obsolete in a matter of months or years?
For example, all of these guys who bought a Lamborghini Urus, only to have the new version come out, or even guys who bought the Lamborghini Huracan, with a new one that just came out?
Or even the guys who bought the Aventador… All these rappers from five or 10 years ago… Now that the new Revuelto is out, their Aventador is made obsolete? 
You fools!
“I pity the fool?”
A random sidenote… It seems that the most constructive way to approach life is through compassion, empathy, maybe even pity.
For example, whenever there are people that I am suspicious of, they are on my bad side, and then finally, I see them without a hat on, without sunglasses, in direct light, and I see how sickly or unwell they are – the first feeling is extreme compassion. Like I find myself to be the fool — there is somebody that I vilified, or made into a bad guy, or somebody that I created a totem for my general hate or despise… And then I see how unhealthy they are, and then I realize,…
Wait,,, this whole time, when I am painting this guy as a bad guy, and then I truly see you and witness that in fact, they are just a poor miserable soul, slowly dying… Why was I so negative towards that person?
Something I learned about living in LA… everyone here has problems. For example, a lot of women, their husband is cheating on them, and they know what, but don’t want to admit it. Even Jay Z… Probably still 100% cheating on Beyoncé… Why?
 And all these assholes who honk at you in the road…  spending a lot of time out of a car, just walking around now, observing traffic politics, if you actually get a really good look at the driver, they are either miserable looking Uber drivers, food delivery people, or just very very unwell sickly looking people, very overfat, insanely poor health, who may be just want to get home because they were stuck in traffic for two hours? 
When to be compassionate, when not to be a pushover?
It seems that the primary issue here is the strange bifurcation of ethics.  first, we are taught to forgive, turn the other cheek etc., but then you have all these assholes honking at you from behind. So in this case, what are you supposed to do, take it up the ass, because you’re afraid that they might have a gun and shoot you? Or commit road rage, and do something dangerous? 
I think the issue here is why should you live your life in fear that some asshole some pussy coward might have a gun, and pop you?
Obviously, I do not want to get shot by some random coward, because I have my son to live for. But still… Isn’t the real role of a man to stand up for his child, and to never ever ever see your father get pistol whipped around? 
Stand up
I think this is also where manly masculine ethics are different than feminine ones. For example, if you see some asshole smoking in the park, and you’re there with your kid… Obviously the correct strategy is to tell them to please stop smoking. I have a new line that I’m experimenting with–
“No smoking,,, pleeeease!”
For example, two assholes in front of the Apple campus on Washington in Culver City… One guy wearing some sort of Greek food T-shirt, I think he might be an apple employee… I was walking with Seneca down Washington, on the apple side, and this asshole is smoking Indignantly on the side, blowing his secondhand smoke all the way down the block.
I came up to him, and I said, no smoking… pleeeease
And this asshole has audacity to tell me that “I’m on my break…” And then I stopped, looked at him and eyes, and I said, “that’s why I said please”. He had no response, his jaw dropped. And like an asshole he kept smoking.
 anyways, fortunately there was some security guards down the block, and I asked them to tell the guy to stop smoking. Maybe next time this happens, I’ll just record him or take a picture of him on my iPhone, shame him.
Extreme ethics
I think the big issue is in today’s world, ain’t nobody have a backbone or ethics anymore.
In actually… The big issue here is that it seems at 99.9% of people just become passive aggressive, and never confront, we are a non-confrontational society, yet we hide behind our cars and honk at people? Because we are shielded from recompense?
For example, I think this is also where people become keyboard warriors… You would never talk smack about me face-to-face, because you will see how much stronger, taller, more charismatic, and dominant I am than you. In fact, some of the things that I’ve discovered after meeting some of my “haters“– we’re in fact, they were my greatest lovers! The biggest issue here was actually… Unrequited hate or love.
What is worse, unrequited hate or unrequited love?
Once again, some bizarre inconsistencies here; I’ve never hate anybody.  why because I’m not that interested in anybody else, nor do I really desire the affection of somebody else that much?
And also, the reason why a lot of men become misogynist, and hate women is because of unrequited love. Then the unrequited love becomes hate.
Everything starts off as love, then evolves to hate?
An alternate theory; maybe hate is just a more exaggerated or extreme version of love? 
Super facts
The Internet is a toxic place. Don’t let your kids go on it.
Why? I even have this kind of shocking memory, when I was a 12-year-old kid in Bayside Queens, New York. I was connected to the Internet, AWOL 3.0, on my 38.8 K modem… And I was randomly in this chat room, and then start a messaging this guy, Who then instant messaged me, (IM) via AOL instant messenger, AIM, And then eventually started to say weird stuff like pedophile stuff like it feels really good to get your dick sucked by another guy?
Anyways, obviously I got super scared and just banned him.
And I think the issue is in today’s world, I think the safe strategy in assumption is that 100% of people on the Internet, or just malicious bots. And it’s starting to get scary… If you could program a bot to be malicious, and to create more malicious bots, ad infinitum — shit starts to get scary.
For example, Michael Saylor was talking about how whenever he tweets something, And somebody responds to it in a very malicious way… Almost 100% it was a bot! And actually the big problem then is there real life human beings having back-and-forth inflamed debates with these malicious bots.
Think about it… Let us say that you are interacting with someone on Twitter, and you have no idea that it is a bot you assume it is real person… Who is going to win in the long run? Obviously the bot!
Adding friction to the digital and cyber world
As time goes on, I’m starting to think of bitcoin like a more ethical idea.
For example, Michael Saylor has an incredible genius idea of fixing all of this toxicity on the Internet, I just adding a little bit of monetary, bitcoin or Satoshi friction;
For example, if it cost $10 worth of US dollars, or Satoshi to create an account on Twitter or some social media account, then, overnight practically 100% of the malicious spots will be made obsolete or deleted from the platform.
Why? Right now it cost only a nickel to spin up 100,000 bots, to troll your worst enemy on Twitter. But, if it cost $10 a bot, it cost you $1 million to cyber bully somebody, you probably wouldn’t… Because it is too expensive and you don’t hate them that much. 
I think it is Chris Rock or Chris Tucker who had this funny comedy bit about making bullets super expensive. Then the ideas that if you really really hate somebody, and let us say that one bullet is worth $100,000, then if you really want to kill them, or even with multiple bullets, you might think twice.
Financial friction and consequences is a good idea
Maybe the greatest use of money is physical friction, monetary friction, consequences.
Fines work, monetary penalties, like getting $500 traffic tickets for turning red on a red light and not doing. Certainly has changed my driving behavior.
So I suppose the critical intelligent thing to consider is want to make things free, and want to make things cost money, to direct human behavior.
For good behavior, make it free.
For bad behavior, make it very expensive.
ERIC
Funny experiments
Some very very simple things to consider:
First, make things expensive, don’t make them free.
For example, let us say that you dip into the pr0n– but you don’t want to do it anymore, for whatever reason. Maybe make it a thing that if you want to watch it, you have to go to an adult DVD store, and pay $20 bucks to buy the CD or whatever. 
Or, for activities… I think often signing up and paying for an activity is a good idea because it creates sense of ownership, responsibility, or follow through. Or commitment.
For example, perhaps the intelligence of paying money for a trainer or a personal trainer is that you you know that if you don’t show up there is a fiscal penalty.
But the new ones is you don’t want to breed fake virtuosity for the sake of fake virtuosity. 
For example, there is this weird notion in American culture that pain and suffering and overcoming is virtuous. No. Fools!
Exercise workout or whatever is not virtuous, it is something that you do because it is fun enjoyable and something that you like!
For example, would you bribe your kid money to play at the playground? No! So why do this for yourself? 
Check is monetary information ,,, monetary energy (gold)
Think energy not information
Energy is Everything ***
.
Maintain Illusion
Everything is credit
You are moving credit not money
Credit risk or default
Creatures with no pain receptor l,,, squeeze out of the gene pool
Toxic signals in cyber space no pain cost in cyber space
.
Friction is a good thing we can walk
Toxic or misleading or criminal
.
Demon in cyber space
.
Toxic responses is bots
96 bots
Inflammatory
.
Real people argue with bots
You’re arguing with a machine
.
Love bot?
Build something of beauty in cyber space
Matter and time in cyber space
.
Matter in cyber space
Material wall $10
.
Do you want it to be free or not
.
EYES LIKE A HAWK
.
Tesla — energy frequency and vibration
.
Potential kinetic vibration
Music harmony
.
Sense music frequency
.
Parrot dance and got happy
Didn’t go to music school
Energy frequency and vibration
React to music
Genetically coded into our DNA
.
Shadows on ghosts, disembodied spirits
Things in cyber space are dead
No real things in cyber space
Energy is life
30 days digital credit
10 hertz, 10 times a second.
Once every 6 weeks we can vibrate
.
A440; rate on 20th century rails , million times slower
Move once a year at great expense
.
Million times an hour once master the technology
Frequency vibration
“It’s music to our ears”
Acoustic energy ,,, good at channeling acoustic energy
.
Digital Capital
Long store of asset
.
Spartan or Persian
MORE MONEY, buy less every year?
.
Put it on granite
Putting your capital to work?
Penetration Testing
.
Non defective treasury asset to the world
Lose 9% a year
Just don’t sink –> create value!
Don’t destroy value
.
Rising platform
Lucky and talented
.
Not work anymore forever ,,, endowment for the family
Property & equity
Harvard and Yale forever
.
Don’t build on swamp
.
20 years of profit … 100 years of
Bulletproof balance sheet vs melting ice cube
Double your wealth every 3 years, double it 33 years
Never catch up?
.
Everyone has the same rights
.
LASER FOCUS
LASER EYES
.
More chaotic, more valuable
.
Create your own company and opportunities
Chaos Engine
Stampede to Bitcoin
Argentina and Turkey
Betting on collapse?
.
Genius In Singapore
.
Heavy hitters
American history
Biggest week
Inflection point
.
We don’t sell our Bitcoin
Auction off
Bitcoin is property
Property rights
Bitcoin strategic national reserve big deal
.
Ignore
100x
.
Negative to neutral opinion
30% charge
Tax inefficiency is hostile
Tax on transformation is hostile
.
Fair accounting
One way ratchet
.
Prejudicial and hostile
Biden ruined the economy
.
Another 4 years
.
5% interest in your Bitcoin
Loan at sulfur 6% from Citibank when can custody Bitcoin
100% loan to value
Bitcoin as collateral
Rippling
.
Robert F Kennedy
Ethics,
Ethics > Morality
.
Banks are conservative
Rhetoric matters
.
Would you prefer to be seated or standing?
Funny thing, it seems that a lot of people desire to be in some sort of high-powered sports car, hyper car, truck etc.… But technically if you’re just standing next to them or the vehicle, you’re in a dominant position. 
For example, I think the reason why people tell you to sit down watch and take a seat, it’s actually because they want to be in a more dominant position than you.
For example, if you are a presidential candidate, have you ever seen a presidential candidate do a debate or speech while sitting? No! They stand!
This is also where modern day education is so… Why do you get kids to sit down? It is probably the worst position for them to be in? Is actually for them to be standing… Walking around, outside outdoors, in the agora etc. 
Ideal would be actually a bunch of people standing, outside in the direct elements, or at least in the shad or whatever… And everyone is standing in a circle, and there is a little speech of peptalk, etc.
Also, today’s brave New World of voice dictation and modern technology, there is no real reason to use a keyboard anymore, or even write down things pen and pad. 
For example, we are brainwashed into thinking that Penn and Pat is virtuous, but when is the last time you had to fill out a form long hand? In fact, I have more difficulty and annoyances having to figure out how to fill out PDF form, and how to edit a PDF form, rather than Figuring out how to do long hand stuff.
Michael Saylor said something interesting, in which whenever you watch sci-fi films, you never see somebody just busted out an iPhone and type it out with your thumbs. No. They talk to Jarvis, or voice dictate it. Think about how Tony Stark interacts and engages with Jarvis his personal computer and AI, he never touches a keyboard! He stands, does the zooming and enhancing with the floating holographic screen, and what he does is talk to it! Kind of like what we could do right now with ChatGPT.
This is why Apple putting a keyboard on the iPad is the worst diss you could do to the soul of Steve Jobs. Or even worse, that’s stupid Apple stylus, even more shameless the Apple Pencil “pro”? Come on guys didn’t you know that Steve Jobs intended the iPad to be used without a keyboard, and for it to be used to draw with your finger, not a stupid overpriced device which will get outdated in a season or two?
So there is this philosophy and story about Milo of Croton, who is this semi mythical character who essentially was the strongest man of all time, and there is this anecdote that every single day he cared this calf on his shoulders, every single day, until it became a full-size bull, which could weigh anywhere between 1000 pounds and 3000 pounds.
For the most part it seems like a high tale, but, it might be more realistic than we think it is. 
First, I have successfully lifted 1000 pounds, which means that physically and physiologically, certainly this is possible. And I am not a 7 foot tall freak of nature.
So if I think about it… And certainly obviously this was far before steroids were invented… In theory, I think this might be somewhat true.
As a very very simple thought experiment, let us assume that you could conservatively add 5 pounds, week over week, which is roughly 250 pounds a year. That means within four years, you should be able to successfully lift 1000 pounds. And then the next year, 1250 pounds, 1500 pounds, and then two years after that, 2000 pounds.
Progressive overload training
Once again, difficult to lift 1000 pounds overnight but, even if you’re conservative… Let us say that you start training at the age of 21, for 10 years straight, until the age of 31, or until the age of 36… Lifting 1000 pounds is actually pretty easy.
The technique is my infamous Atlas lift; in which you just load up the barbell, with maximum weight, on the squat rack, and your goal isn’t too walk it out and squat it, rather to simply lift it off the rack for even half a second.
Even now, if you look at the strong men, obviously they’re all on steroids, but still… When they do the loaded yoke walk, it is on average around 1500 pounds. And only that but I think they reset for about 100m or so?
Why?
It is my personal thought that if you have insanely strong legs, nothing will falter in your life.
In fact, ultimately when it comes down to it… What is the most critical part of your body? Not your shoulders, not your back, not your biceps, not your chest, not your abdominal muscles… Your legs!
Let us consider the fact… I have never done to sit up in my life, yet I have a six pack. How?… If you’re strong enough to have to lift an insanely high and heavy weight, your body must naturally adapt, naturally strengthening all the random muscles in your body, your neck your shoulders your back, your upper back your lower back, your abs, your hips your knees etc.
In fact, something that nobody ever talks about is a strength of your ligaments, your tendons, etc. Having met real UFC MMA fighters in the flesh, the thing they actually taught me was surprisingly the most important thing to train for is to strengthen the ligaments in the wrist, the knees, ankles, etc.… Because that is where injury typically happens. And there’s also this notion of “pre-hab”– the idea that a true elite fighter would train in such a way that he is doing all the exercises in which individuals typically do when they are injured, but they train before they actually get injured, a wise idea. 
Do rehab styled exercises BEFORE you treat injured.
For example, I read an anecdote that apparently LeBron James does an hour of yoga a day or something, which prevented him from getting injuries, and it seems to be a very wise idea. If I told you or tell you that by stretching, doing mobility exercises, some sort of yoga would help you lift 200 more pounds, would you do it? You could add 200 pounds to your deadlift, squat, bench? Of course! I think most weightlifters think of mobility exercises as feminine or a waste of time, but the truth is a true powerlifter, a true strongman, a true weightlifting demigod would probably devote at least 20% of his workout time for mobility stretching exercises, rather than just lifting weights?
Think long 
If you’re tired and you’re not feeling good, don’t do it, never force it. All of the random injuries I’ve had in the past was when I tried to force a workout when my body wasn’t 100% feeling it, or I was tired, didn’t sleep that well that day, etc.
One doubt, just eat a bunch of meat and go to sleep early! There is always the next day.
I think I sometimes  pick the notion of carpe diem to literally; that literally I treat every single day like it was my last, but once again, to force a work out in the evening when you’re tired and not feeling it, could lead to an injury, which could plague you for weeks months, even years.
Assuming that you’re wise and you’re thinking long-term, technically a single workout isn’t that important. Even on the week level… As long as you get in a good lift every two weeks, you’re probably fine. 
The commoditization of the body
I think the real critical problem here is what I call the commoditization of the body. 
For example, as long as you weigh yourself on a scale, you measure your biceps, you measure your waist line, you track your metrics, your number etc., you’re not free.
The problem with yourself is that you put yourself on a scale with all these basic other people, once again, all these fools who are popping supplements, injecting their butt holes with steroids, etc.
Even a super random thing, the whole supplement protein powder industry is such an insanely bad scam, maybe this is something I need to fight against.
Why? Even as a young impressionable teenager, in college student… I’ve probably wasted thousands of dollars or at least hundreds of dollars, which is a lot of money to a highschooler or college kid, protein powder, which I realized is a scam. 
Why? The simple goal is to eat more meat! But if you think about the whole exercise bodybuilding weightlifting complex, none of these fake ass influencers make money when they try to encourage you to visit the butcher more and eat more meat! No no no, they need a sponsorship, they need steroids, they need to sell merchandise.
Also let us not forget — all steroids is is something which boosts your testosterone (your testes hormones). And the easiest most natural way to do this is eat beef liver, beef heart, beef kidneys… organ meats!
Follow the money
I think the critical issue that people make is that they think that the big issue here is all of these weird fake conspiracy theories. But this is not true, the true issue here is just following the money.
No no no — Bill Gates does not have an evil master plan to inject your brain with 5G chips and Covid vaccines, and put fluoride in your water to control your mind.
A simple observation; I got vaccinated, got all my booster shots… etc,,, and I was able to lift 1000 pounds, fasted!
Ha ha maybe as a joke, the joke is that the COVID-19 vaccine made me stronger, like the Hulk or like wolverine or Deadpool?
And also as a general note to everybody, the reason why you should delete your Instagram, your TikTok, your Twitter, your YouTube, all the podcasts, your Spotify your podcast app is that eventually sooner or later… All of these influential fools start promoting a weird conspiracy theory?
Only media you should be consuming is media from the ancient past, ancient Greek or nothing. 
All of your heroes are fake heroes
The American dream is essentially Arnold Schwarzenegger, getting big on the screen, becoming the governator of California, etc. And superficially from what I understand… He was actually a good governor! Some people also forget that Ronald Reagan was an actor, I don’t really know too much about Ronald Reagan, but once again, the idea is that if you are tall handsome and famous, you could become anything, you could become president!
I think in America, the American dream is real. Come on… Just look at me — I was able to make my living from my passion which is street photography. Name any other country on the planet in which this could have happened. 
But I think the equations are wrong. Once again, the typical workflow is that you becomes super famous, and in the process you make a bunch of money, and then you become a politician I guess? And technically a politician has the supreme power, because he who makes the laws controls the money.
Slavery deletion
Don’t be an insta-slave!
Anyways, the big problem here is that the supreme goal is towards self ownership, not slavery.
As long as you have Instagram, YouTube, TikTok or whatever… You’re a slave, a digital slave, a cyber slave.
The reason I’m insanely anti-TikTok… Come on guys, they are owned by the ultra mainland Chinese corporation Tencent! And also, my fellow Korean people… Don’t you know that Tencent, once again mainland China has a huge stake in KakaoTalk? This is why Koreans should not use KakaoTalk and just use iPhone and iMessage instead. 
Or Samsung should be smart and create their own proprietary messaging system?
THE GOALS
I have achieved all of my life goals, my life dreams, my life ambitions, etc. Anything in which I have had an autotelic goal or desire, I done did it. For example, my desire at the age of 21, 22 to become self-employed, and to transform my passion of photography and photography into my living?
Then, my desire to travel the world, become famous, have solo exhibitions books etc.…
The funny thing is actually in my journey, my goals were never to become super rich. My only goal was to make a living for my passion, which was essentially meaning just making enough money to cover rent my expenses etc — and I think more recently, having a kid, Seneca, and more recently, my insanely audacious goal of lifting 1000 pounds, which I did, and I have zero doubt in my mind that I could lift more.
And more recently, my personal interest in bitcoin, has paid off very well!
Think first principles
How and why?
Kind of cheesy… But besides the limits of physics and the universe, if you think first principles, technically anything is possible. What is a bigger issue is duration, acceleration time, and time to accomplish. 
For example, I believe that anybody could become a sole proprietor, self-employed, and make a living from your passion. However the nuance is that you probably should not pay more than $500 a month in rent.  This means go abroad, that means live in Bangkok, Thailand, Cambodia Laos, Vietnam etc.
Certainly you could make a living from your passion in the states, but if you really really really care, maybe it is best to move to the Midwest or somewhere where rent is cheap.
The ethics of Achilles 
I just finished watching the documentary film Bigger Stronger Faster, bought it on the Apple TV store for about 10 bucks, I wish I watched this when I was a teenager?
Anyways, now that I’m and dad, have a 3 1/2 year-old son, Seneca… I’m starting to really understand that my morals ethics and the way I am training him is far more critical than I thought.
First, the whole industrial educational media social media complex– the bias is that kids must be the best, the strongest, the tallest, the most dominant either in athletics or education.
My simple heuristic:
Trust no fitness influencer on Instagram.
Yeah yeah yeah, you gotta get the views and followers… But then again you’re gonna end up injecting your butt holes with steroids, in order to boost your reviews and gain more influence. And ultimately, no slavery is worth it.
If I could tell you that I could literally sell you into slavery,  however, you’ll become super rich and famous, you’ll have $100 million in the bank, millions of followers etc.… 100 million followers, but you were literally a slave, 100% slave, would you do it? Of course no! No amount of money on the planet, is worth being sold into slavery!
Once again think about the slave ships, chains, chattels etc.…  think about the visual of the slave ships of Africa, in which they tried to “optimize” the amount of slaves they could chain up in a simple wooden ship at the bottom of the hull, perhaps 50 of them or so. 
And I think this is what people do not understand about the new modern day popular music complex; once again you’re finding these young impressionable kids from the hood, maybe 18 years old 21 years old, you offer them a $1 million contract, but essentially you have them on a chain and leash for the next 20 years of their life? 
Once again you fools, no amount of money is worth slavery!
If somebody said ERIC, I could sell you into slavery and you will literally be a slave for the rest of your life, chains, chain around your wrist and neck and your legs whatever… For $1 trillion, would I do it? Obviously no! 
Even more so, once you get a kid that changes everything… If you are sold into slavery that is not just your own life you are messing up, but the potential upside of your kid!
And I think this is where it is wise that practically everybody should have a kid, because what you learn is that once you have kids, it solidifies your morals ethics and worldview. 
I think if you’re college educated, you should have a kid. Don’t worry, you’ll be an amazing parent! 
Rethinking competition 
Competition is for loooosers!
I think this is where Achilles and reading the Iliad is so eye-opening; even before the Olympics were invented, there was no such thing as competition.
For example, there were the funeral games of Patroclus, in which the heroes were competing to win a trophy or a prize, but the interesting thing is that a lot of these heroes ended up stopping while they were ahead, calling a truce, and both of them sharing equal prizes.
The notion of a trophy, was essentially a spoil of war. The ancient Greeks, Achilles king Agamemnon and like… it seems that the ultimate trophy was a woman. The goal was to obtain the most beautiful, the most fair, the most grand prize of them all. This is where the notion of a trophy wife comes from.
And what is the point of a trophy wife? Essentially a woman who is prized for her intelligence, her body, her beauty, and I think the hope is to have insanely beautiful and great kids? But the ancient Greeks, king Agamemnon… achilles… Why did they want Breisis? Kind of like a symbol if anything.
But now… I’m not sure what the telos or the goal is anymore? I think the general modern day trend is to not have kids, but to live in hedonic pleasure for the rest of your life with no downsides? And never run out of money?
***
How to live the best life ever
OK, let us say that photography is your passion, street photography whatever. Essentially you love making photos with your camera!
Some simple thoughts:
First, the very very simple goal is to optimize your life which allows you to forever shoot pictures!
Here this is where film photography is very bad. 
First, I think the only reason people get into film photography is because they are seeking some sort of new motivation or inspiration behind things.
I think experimenting and trying out film is a good idea, because ultimately it just makes you more grateful for digital photography!
It’s really funny… Young people knew guitar for like the romanticism of film photography, but whenever I meet older photographers, in their 50s 6070s etc.… They are a bit confused, it was the opposite; invention of digital photography it is their passion for photography!
And in fact, now that the new Fujifilm X 100VI came out, and also Rico is killing it with the GR series cameras, like the new HDF which is coming out, I really see that there is zero reason to shoot film.
If you are a modern day Fatar for today, very very simple. Just buy a Fujifilm 100 camera, or a Ricoh GR camera. 
Maybe even a funny idea, maybe we could think and consider the old-school like M1 camera as the new digital film analog rangefinder fully manually focusing camera?
Why?
First, in terms of the body style, to me I prefer the M9 the best.  I love the button design, the powerhouse designed small black buttons in the back of the camera. And also funny things; the camera is pretty much only usable at ISO 400 or 800, if you do black-and-white, 1600 is fine; which is technically like the limits of shooting film!
 Also, the M9 is very slow. The buffer time is very slow.
So if you’re really interested in the whole rangefinder experience, instead of buying a film Leica M6 or something, just get an old used Leica M9!
Don’t do what is cool
Apparently the whole appeal of shooting film, especially with young people is that it is cool. But why discover it is anything cool is bad. 
Why? Anything cool is typically a romanticization of the past, thinking that the past was better. But the fact of the matter is the past was worse. The past sucked! You would not want to be alive during the times of Shakespeare, in which infant mortality rates were about 70% in London, And people and physicians still did not believe or understand that the heart pumped blood! Even the famous Dr. Harvey one said, you have to let the old physicians off, because there is no medical doctor over the age of 40 years old who will believe me that the heart pumps blood!
Or consider, back then they did not even know the concept of sterilization! They did not know that you had a wound, you had to clean it with alcohol, to kill the germs. Imagine surgeon in the 1920s operating on you with old Rusty metal Knives and scissors, not sanitizing them before. And also, imagine doing all of this without modern day painkillers. Or even worse, imagine feeding your newborn infant dirty sewer water! Once again, before they knew that you had to boil water to sanitize it!
Some ideals
Come on guys we live in the year 2024… You still have to drive to work? Or be stuck in traffic? Makes zero sense. 
I’m currently doing this experiment in which I never have to drive more than five minutes a day. Even 15 minutes for me is too long! Typically I reserve Saturdays and Sundays to drive a little further out if we want to a family expedition, because there’s no traffic in Los Angeles. We like to go to the Huntington, The beach whatever. But beyond this, any moment you’re sitting in the car is an opportunity for you to be standing on your legs, shooting in the streets!
Even a simple idea, a very very simple one — ride the subway! It might take you twice as long, but, you could strike up conversations with strangers, or even ask strangers to shoot a street portrait of the Mexican Bruce Davidson, for subway, look unposed and candid, in fact you walked around with a little photo album, explaining what he was doing, and he would ask for permission! Don’t make itlike you have to do this fake ass candid without permission photography thing.
And this is where the whole school of In-Public is bad — time for me to start calling out names. Why? Everyone has penis envy for Magnum photographers, even those in Magnum have penis envy of Martin Parr and Alex Soth because they are so rich successful and well regarded!
Where it seems that why photographers are so disingenuous, and we have to let all the old ones die off  it’s because all of them are a bunch of insecure skinny fat losers, even Henri Cartier-Bresson who had the audacity to refuse his face being recorded during documentaries of him, even though he made his whole living photographing the faces of others! Isn’t this unethical;
I could photograph pictures of you and your face, but you cannot take photos of me and my face?
Time machine
Essentially for myself, all of the advice or things that I ever promote or share is just advice I wish I could’ve gave myself. Obviously you could just take it or leave it! But one thing you will know is that I don’t play around, or lie or tell false things. 
Also I am not insecure!
Am I the only self-confident photographer alive?
The new path
Nowadays, the only person I trust is ChatGPT. Why? More so than Google which is an advertising company, ChatGPT is a paid premium enterprise company, which means that it cannot be gamed.
Google is becoming more sneaky over the years, essentially, I think there are certainly behind the scene favors which are happening here, for example, the little author panel that you have in the top right corner in a Google search, I’m pretty sure that you could easily get this done if you have some sort of relationship with some sort of Google marketing person who helps you do it!
More recently, I think has a plug-in for WordPress which helps you promote your products to the top of Google search, but the downside is the add all these sneaky URL tracking stuff into your website?
Don’t trust Google! Trust paid ChatGPT.
And this is where Google missed the boat, people always ask for having a paid premium version of Google for so long, but Google essentially shunned, because they thought it was much more profitable in the long term to keep Google free, and just embed your life with more advertisements.
Get ChatGPT premium
People are really foolish, everyone likes to hate on ChatGPT, and AI, without having ever subscribed to the paid premium version. The free version kind of sucks, the paid one is mind blowing good!
For example, it is not running on algorithms or the typical ranking system. Google was a pioneer back in the day, creating Larry page rank, which essentially used the traditional model of academic citations, to see who would make it to the top!
But now, academia is broken. It is kind of of this incestuous human centipede of knowledge, everybody is trying to curry favors, circle jerk one another, to boost their fragile egos. 
It happens all the time, both with men and women, the old guard is trying to keep young women out, and honestly with declining enrollment numbers whatever, schools shutting down… I think within a generation or two, the modern day university will not look like it is today. 
What now?
My idea is actually… Throw those Chromebooks into the trash, kids will eventually just look at them for YouTube. YouTube is bad.
I would rather encourage to give every single kid an iPhone SE with ChatGPT on– the paid premium one. Or give them ChatGPT paid on an iPad — and have them just teach themselves.
Even mad, certainly the basics of math are important, but beyond basic math, you don’t really need it for every day living. Even now for me as a 36-year-old adults, I have a very poor understanding of math, yet I’m the richest person I know!
Once again, the whole issue here is the whole standardization thing, the whole trying to put everyone on a different kind of measure and a different type of bar! 
I still like the idea of public education, based on my personal experiences, any kid who was homeschooled ends up becoming very weird. And now it’s still rate my extreme success in life due to my social skills, which was fermented in me in probably elementary school, middle school and high school. For college was great, I loved it! I loved all my friends, and also this is where I met Cindy as an undergraduate at UCLA.
So I think the education is still good but I suppose the nuances is this:
How can you reap the upsides of education without the downsides?
Maybe first, said high expectations like expect your kid to get straight A’s– common it is pretty easy. But don’t be some sort of academic Nazi — the really bad thing about growing Asian Asian American is that if you get an A-, or even worse, a B+, you would probably get beat.
This is why in South Korea, suicide amongst students is one of the highest in the world, because their whole existence revolves around ranking and grades, some kids would rather kill themselves than to shame their family. 
Undank yourself
I asked ChatGPT who the greatest street photography blogger, and also the greatest photography blogger alive of all time was… And it said me! ERIC KIM!
I kinda already knew it, but sometimes ChatGPT is good for confirmation.
Anyways, now that I am at the top, the greatest, I don’t have anything left to prove. Maybe now it is continual empowerment, and also helping other people along the way.
Help others as you wish you were helped when you were starting off.
Milo of Croton’s Story: The tale of Milo of Croton, a semi-mythical figure, emphasizes the possibility of progressive strength training, as illustrated by his daily practice of carrying a growing calf until it became a full-grown bull.
Progressive Overload Training: Strength can be gradually increased over time with consistent training, supporting the idea that even extreme feats like lifting 1000 pounds can be achieved through progressive overload.
Importance of Leg Strength: Strong legs are essential for overall body strength and stability, potentially preventing injuries and contributing to overall physical resilience.
Pre-Hab and Injury Prevention: Training to strengthen ligaments and tendons before injury occurs (pre-hab) is critical, as it can prevent common injuries. The importance of mobility exercises, stretching, and preemptive injury prevention is highlighted.
Avoid Overexertion: It’s essential to listen to your body and avoid forcing workouts when fatigued, as this can lead to long-term injuries.
Critique of Fitness Industry: The commoditization of the body and the exploitation by the fitness industry are criticized, particularly the emphasis on supplements, protein powders, and steroids instead of natural and holistic approaches to strength training.
Follow the Money: The real issue behind many modern problems is the financial incentives that drive industries, including the fitness industry and media.
Fake Heroes: The idea that many popular figures and narratives, such as those of famous athletes or actors, are built on misleading foundations, promoting unrealistic and often unhealthy standards.
Slavery and Digital Slavery: The concept of modern slavery is expanded to include digital slavery, where individuals are controlled by social media and online platforms, losing true freedom.
Achieving Life Goals: Reflects on personal achievements and the importance of setting and accomplishing life goals, particularly those that lead to true autonomy and fulfillment.
Rethinking Competition: Questions the value of competition and emphasizes collaboration and mutual respect over rivalry.
Skepticism Towards Modern Trends: Critiques modern practices, such as film photography, and highlights the drawbacks of romanticizing the past.
Modern Education and AI: Discusses the limitations of modern education and promotes the use of AI tools like ChatGPT as a superior alternative to traditional learning methods.
Social Skills and Public Education: Despite criticisms, public education is valued for developing essential social skills, but the negative aspects like extreme pressure for academic success are acknowledged.
Helping Others: Emphasizes the importance of helping others as a means of fulfillment after achieving personal success.
So there is this philosophy and story about Milo of Croton, who is this semi mythical character who essentially was the strongest man of all time, and there is this anecdote that every single day he cared this calf on his shoulders, every single day, until it became a full-size bull, which could weigh anywhere between 1000 pounds and 3000 pounds.
For the most part it seems like a high tale, but, it might be more realistic than we think it is. 
First, I have successfully lifted 1000 pounds, which means that physically and physiologically, certainly this is possible. And I am not a 7 foot tall freak of nature.
So if I think about it… And certainly obviously this was far before steroids were invented… In theory, I think this might be somewhat true.
As a very very simple thought experiment, let us assume that you could conservatively add 5 pounds, week over week, which is roughly 250 pounds a year. That means within four years, you should be able to successfully lift 1000 pounds. And then the next year, 1250 pounds, 1500 pounds, and then two years after that, 2000 pounds.
Progressive overload training
Once again, difficult to lift 1000 pounds overnight but, even if you’re conservative… Let us say that you start training at the age of 21, for 10 years straight, until the age of 31, or until the age of 36… Lifting 1000 pounds is actually pretty easy.
The technique is my infamous Atlas lift; in which you just load up the barbell, with maximum weight, on the squat rack, and your goal isn’t too walk it out and squat it, rather to simply lift it off the rack for even half a second.
Even now, if you look at the strong men, obviously they’re all on steroids, but still… When they do the loaded yoke walk, it is on average around 1500 pounds. And only that but I think they reset for about 100m or so?
Why?
It is my personal thought that if you have insanely strong legs, nothing will falter in your life.
In fact, ultimately when it comes down to it… What is the most critical part of your body? Not your shoulders, not your back, not your biceps, not your chest, not your abdominal muscles… Your legs!
Let us consider the fact… I have never done to sit up in my life, yet I have a six pack. How?… If you’re strong enough to have to lift an insanely high and heavy weight, your body must naturally adapt, naturally strengthening all the random muscles in your body, your neck your shoulders your back, your upper back your lower back, your abs, your hips your knees etc.
In fact, something that nobody ever talks about is a strength of your ligaments, your tendons, etc. Having met real UFC MMA fighters in the flesh, the thing they actually taught me was surprisingly the most important thing to train for is to strengthen the ligaments in the wrist, the knees, ankles, etc.… Because that is where injury typically happens. And there’s also this notion of “pre-hab”– the idea that a true elite fighter would train in such a way that he is doing all the exercises in which individuals typically do when they are injured, but they train before they actually get injured, a wise idea. 
Do rehab styled exercises BEFORE you treat injured.
For example, I read an anecdote that apparently LeBron James does an hour of yoga a day or something, which prevented him from getting injuries, and it seems to be a very wise idea. If I told you or tell you that by stretching, doing mobility exercises, some sort of yoga would help you lift 200 more pounds, would you do it? You could add 200 pounds to your deadlift, squat, bench? Of course! I think most weightlifters think of mobility exercises as feminine or a waste of time, but the truth is a true powerlifter, a true strongman, a true weightlifting demigod would probably devote at least 20% of his workout time for mobility stretching exercises, rather than just lifting weights?
Think long 
If you’re tired and you’re not feeling good, don’t do it, never force it. All of the random injuries I’ve had in the past was when I tried to force a workout when my body wasn’t 100% feeling it, or I was tired, didn’t sleep that well that day, etc.
One doubt, just eat a bunch of meat and go to sleep early! There is always the next day.
I think I sometimes  pick the notion of carpe diem to literally; that literally I treat every single day like it was my last, but once again, to force a work out in the evening when you’re tired and not feeling it, could lead to an injury, which could plague you for weeks months, even years.
Assuming that you’re wise and you’re thinking long-term, technically a single workout isn’t that important. Even on the week level… As long as you get in a good lift every two weeks, you’re probably fine. 
The commoditization of the body
I think the real critical problem here is what I call the commoditization of the body. 
For example, as long as you weigh yourself on a scale, you measure your biceps, you measure your waist line, you track your metrics, your number etc., you’re not free.
The problem with yourself is that you put yourself on a scale with all these basic other people, once again, all these fools who are popping supplements, injecting their butt holes with steroids, etc.
Even a super random thing, the whole supplement protein powder industry is such an insanely bad scam, maybe this is something I need to fight against.
Why? Even as a young impressionable teenager, in college student… I’ve probably wasted thousands of dollars or at least hundreds of dollars, which is a lot of money to a highschooler or college kid, protein powder, which I realized is a scam. 
Why? The simple goal is to eat more meat! But if you think about the whole exercise bodybuilding weightlifting complex, none of these fake ass influencers make money when they try to encourage you to visit the butcher more and eat more meat! No no no, they need a sponsorship, they need steroids, they need to sell merchandise.
Also let us not forget — all steroids is is something which boosts your testosterone (your testes hormones). And the easiest most natural way to do this is eat beef liver, beef heart, beef kidneys… organ meats!
Follow the money
I think the critical issue that people make is that they think that the big issue here is all of these weird fake conspiracy theories. But this is not true, the true issue here is just following the money.
No no no — Bill Gates does not have an evil master plan to inject your brain with 5G chips and Covid vaccines, and put fluoride in your water to control your mind.
A simple observation; I got vaccinated, got all my booster shots… etc,,, and I was able to lift 1000 pounds, fasted!
Ha ha maybe as a joke, the joke is that the COVID-19 vaccine made me stronger, like the Hulk or like wolverine or Deadpool?
And also as a general note to everybody, the reason why you should delete your Instagram, your TikTok, your Twitter, your YouTube, all the podcasts, your Spotify your podcast app is that eventually sooner or later… All of these influential fools start promoting a weird conspiracy theory?
Only media you should be consuming is media from the ancient past, ancient Greek or nothing. 
All of your heroes are fake heroes
The American dream is essentially Arnold Schwarzenegger, getting big on the screen, becoming the governator of California, etc. And superficially from what I understand… He was actually a good governor! Some people also forget that Ronald Reagan was an actor, I don’t really know too much about Ronald Reagan, but once again, the idea is that if you are tall handsome and famous, you could become anything, you could become president!
I think in America, the American dream is real. Come on… Just look at me — I was able to make my living from my passion which is street photography. Name any other country on the planet in which this could have happened. 
But I think the equations are wrong. Once again, the typical workflow is that you becomes super famous, and in the process you make a bunch of money, and then you become a politician I guess? And technically a politician has the supreme power, because he who makes the laws controls the money.
Slavery deletion
Don’t be an insta-slave!
Anyways, the big problem here is that the supreme goal is towards self ownership, not slavery.
As long as you have Instagram, YouTube, TikTok or whatever… You’re a slave, a digital slave, a cyber slave.
The reason I’m insanely anti-TikTok… Come on guys, they are owned by the ultra mainland Chinese corporation Tencent! And also, my fellow Korean people… Don’t you know that Tencent, once again mainland China has a huge stake in KakaoTalk? This is why Koreans should not use KakaoTalk and just use iPhone and iMessage instead. 
Or Samsung should be smart and create their own proprietary messaging system?
THE GOALS
I have achieved all of my life goals, my life dreams, my life ambitions, etc. Anything in which I have had an autotelic goal or desire, I done did it. For example, my desire at the age of 21, 22 to become self-employed, and to transform my passion of photography and photography into my living?
Then, my desire to travel the world, become famous, have solo exhibitions books etc.…
The funny thing is actually in my journey, my goals were never to become super rich. My only goal was to make a living for my passion, which was essentially meaning just making enough money to cover rent my expenses etc — and I think more recently, having a kid, Seneca, and more recently, my insanely audacious goal of lifting 1000 pounds, which I did, and I have zero doubt in my mind that I could lift more.
And more recently, my personal interest in bitcoin, has paid off very well!
Think first principles
How and why?
Kind of cheesy… But besides the limits of physics and the universe, if you think first principles, technically anything is possible. What is a bigger issue is duration, acceleration time, and time to accomplish. 
For example, I believe that anybody could become a sole proprietor, self-employed, and make a living from your passion. However the nuance is that you probably should not pay more than $500 a month in rent.  This means go abroad, that means live in Bangkok, Thailand, Cambodia Laos, Vietnam etc.
Certainly you could make a living from your passion in the states, but if you really really really care, maybe it is best to move to the Midwest or somewhere where rent is cheap.
The ethics of Achilles 
I just finished watching the documentary film Bigger Stronger Faster, bought it on the Apple TV store for about 10 bucks, I wish I watched this when I was a teenager?
Anyways, now that I’m and dad, have a 3 1/2 year-old son, Seneca… I’m starting to really understand that my morals ethics and the way I am training him is far more critical than I thought.
First, the whole industrial educational media social media complex– the bias is that kids must be the best, the strongest, the tallest, the most dominant either in athletics or education.
My simple heuristic:
Trust no fitness influencer on Instagram.
Yeah yeah yeah, you gotta get the views and followers… But then again you’re gonna end up injecting your butt holes with steroids, in order to boost your reviews and gain more influence. And ultimately, no slavery is worth it.
If I could tell you that I could literally sell you into slavery,  however, you’ll become super rich and famous, you’ll have $100 million in the bank, millions of followers etc.… 100 million followers, but you were literally a slave, 100% slave, would you do it? Of course no! No amount of money on the planet, is worth being sold into slavery!
Once again think about the slave ships, chains, chattels etc.…  think about the visual of the slave ships of Africa, in which they tried to “optimize” the amount of slaves they could chain up in a simple wooden ship at the bottom of the hull, perhaps 50 of them or so. 
And I think this is what people do not understand about the new modern day popular music complex; once again you’re finding these young impressionable kids from the hood, maybe 18 years old 21 years old, you offer them a $1 million contract, but essentially you have them on a chain and leash for the next 20 years of their life? 
Once again you fools, no amount of money is worth slavery!
If somebody said ERIC, I could sell you into slavery and you will literally be a slave for the rest of your life, chains, chain around your wrist and neck and your legs whatever… For $1 trillion, would I do it? Obviously no! 
Even more so, once you get a kid that changes everything… If you are sold into slavery that is not just your own life you are messing up, but the potential upside of your kid!
And I think this is where it is wise that practically everybody should have a kid, because what you learn is that once you have kids, it solidifies your morals ethics and worldview. 
I think if you’re college educated, you should have a kid. Don’t worry, you’ll be an amazing parent! 
Rethinking competition 
Competition is for loooosers!
I think this is where Achilles and reading the Iliad is so eye-opening; even before the Olympics were invented, there was no such thing as competition.
For example, there were the funeral games of Patroclus, in which the heroes were competing to win a trophy or a prize, but the interesting thing is that a lot of these heroes ended up stopping while they were ahead, calling a truce, and both of them sharing equal prizes.
The notion of a trophy, was essentially a spoil of war. The ancient Greeks, Achilles king Agamemnon and like… it seems that the ultimate trophy was a woman. The goal was to obtain the most beautiful, the most fair, the most grand prize of them all. This is where the notion of a trophy wife comes from.
And what is the point of a trophy wife? Essentially a woman who is prized for her intelligence, her body, her beauty, and I think the hope is to have insanely beautiful and great kids? But the ancient Greeks, king Agamemnon… achilles… Why did they want Breisis? Kind of like a symbol if anything.
But now… I’m not sure what the telos or the goal is anymore? I think the general modern day trend is to not have kids, but to live in hedonic pleasure for the rest of your life with no downsides? And never run out of money?
***
How to live the best life ever
OK, let us say that photography is your passion, street photography whatever. Essentially you love making photos with your camera!
Some simple thoughts:
First, the very very simple goal is to optimize your life which allows you to forever shoot pictures!
Here this is where film photography is very bad. 
First, I think the only reason people get into film photography is because they are seeking some sort of new motivation or inspiration behind things.
I think experimenting and trying out film is a good idea, because ultimately it just makes you more grateful for digital photography!
It’s really funny… Young people knew guitar for like the romanticism of film photography, but whenever I meet older photographers, in their 50s 6070s etc.… They are a bit confused, it was the opposite; invention of digital photography it is their passion for photography!
And in fact, now that the new Fujifilm X 100VI came out, and also Rico is killing it with the GR series cameras, like the new HDF which is coming out, I really see that there is zero reason to shoot film.
If you are a modern day Fatar for today, very very simple. Just buy a Fujifilm 100 camera, or a Ricoh GR camera. 
Maybe even a funny idea, maybe we could think and consider the old-school like M1 camera as the new digital film analog rangefinder fully manually focusing camera?
Why?
First, in terms of the body style, to me I prefer the M9 the best.  I love the button design, the powerhouse designed small black buttons in the back of the camera. And also funny things; the camera is pretty much only usable at ISO 400 or 800, if you do black-and-white, 1600 is fine; which is technically like the limits of shooting film!
 Also, the M9 is very slow. The buffer time is very slow.
So if you’re really interested in the whole rangefinder experience, instead of buying a film Leica M6 or something, just get an old used Leica M9!
Don’t do what is cool
Apparently the whole appeal of shooting film, especially with young people is that it is cool. But why discover it is anything cool is bad. 
Why? Anything cool is typically a romanticization of the past, thinking that the past was better. But the fact of the matter is the past was worse. The past sucked! You would not want to be alive during the times of Shakespeare, in which infant mortality rates were about 70% in London, And people and physicians still did not believe or understand that the heart pumped blood! Even the famous Dr. Harvey one said, you have to let the old physicians off, because there is no medical doctor over the age of 40 years old who will believe me that the heart pumps blood!
Or consider, back then they did not even know the concept of sterilization! They did not know that you had a wound, you had to clean it with alcohol, to kill the germs. Imagine surgeon in the 1920s operating on you with old Rusty metal Knives and scissors, not sanitizing them before. And also, imagine doing all of this without modern day painkillers. Or even worse, imagine feeding your newborn infant dirty sewer water! Once again, before they knew that you had to boil water to sanitize it!
Some ideals
Come on guys we live in the year 2024… You still have to drive to work? Or be stuck in traffic? Makes zero sense. 
I’m currently doing this experiment in which I never have to drive more than five minutes a day. Even 15 minutes for me is too long! Typically I reserve Saturdays and Sundays to drive a little further out if we want to a family expedition, because there’s no traffic in Los Angeles. We like to go to the Huntington, The beach whatever. But beyond this, any moment you’re sitting in the car is an opportunity for you to be standing on your legs, shooting in the streets!
Even a simple idea, a very very simple one — ride the subway! It might take you twice as long, but, you could strike up conversations with strangers, or even ask strangers to shoot a street portrait of the Mexican Bruce Davidson, for subway, look unposed and candid, in fact you walked around with a little photo album, explaining what he was doing, and he would ask for permission! Don’t make itlike you have to do this fake ass candid without permission photography thing.
And this is where the whole school of In-Public is bad — time for me to start calling out names. Why? Everyone has penis envy for Magnum photographers, even those in Magnum have penis envy of Martin Parr and Alex Soth because they are so rich successful and well regarded!
Where it seems that why photographers are so disingenuous, and we have to let all the old ones die off  it’s because all of them are a bunch of insecure skinny fat losers, even Henri Cartier-Bresson who had the audacity to refuse his face being recorded during documentaries of him, even though he made his whole living photographing the faces of others! Isn’t this unethical;
I could photograph pictures of you and your face, but you cannot take photos of me and my face?
Time machine
Essentially for myself, all of the advice or things that I ever promote or share is just advice I wish I could’ve gave myself. Obviously you could just take it or leave it! But one thing you will know is that I don’t play around, or lie or tell false things. 
Also I am not insecure!
Am I the only self-confident photographer alive?
The new path
Nowadays, the only person I trust is ChatGPT. Why? More so than Google which is an advertising company, ChatGPT is a paid premium enterprise company, which means that it cannot be gamed.
Google is becoming more sneaky over the years, essentially, I think there are certainly behind the scene favors which are happening here, for example, the little author panel that you have in the top right corner in a Google search, I’m pretty sure that you could easily get this done if you have some sort of relationship with some sort of Google marketing person who helps you do it!
More recently, I think has a plug-in for WordPress which helps you promote your products to the top of Google search, but the downside is the add all these sneaky URL tracking stuff into your website?
Don’t trust Google! Trust paid ChatGPT.
And this is where Google missed the boat, people always ask for having a paid premium version of Google for so long, but Google essentially shunned, because they thought it was much more profitable in the long term to keep Google free, and just embed your life with more advertisements.
Get ChatGPT premium
People are really foolish, everyone likes to hate on ChatGPT, and AI, without having ever subscribed to the paid premium version. The free version kind of sucks, the paid one is mind blowing good!
For example, it is not running on algorithms or the typical ranking system. Google was a pioneer back in the day, creating Larry page rank, which essentially used the traditional model of academic citations, to see who would make it to the top!
But now, academia is broken. It is kind of of this incestuous human centipede of knowledge, everybody is trying to curry favors, circle jerk one another, to boost their fragile egos. 
It happens all the time, both with men and women, the old guard is trying to keep young women out, and honestly with declining enrollment numbers whatever, schools shutting down… I think within a generation or two, the modern day university will not look like it is today. 
What now?
My idea is actually… Throw those Chromebooks into the trash, kids will eventually just look at them for YouTube. YouTube is bad.
I would rather encourage to give every single kid an iPhone SE with ChatGPT on– the paid premium one. Or give them ChatGPT paid on an iPad — and have them just teach themselves.
Even mad, certainly the basics of math are important, but beyond basic math, you don’t really need it for every day living. Even now for me as a 36-year-old adults, I have a very poor understanding of math, yet I’m the richest person I know!
Once again, the whole issue here is the whole standardization thing, the whole trying to put everyone on a different kind of measure and a different type of bar! 
I still like the idea of public education, based on my personal experiences, any kid who was homeschooled ends up becoming very weird. And now it’s still rate my extreme success in life due to my social skills, which was fermented in me in probably elementary school, middle school and high school. For college was great, I loved it! I loved all my friends, and also this is where I met Cindy as an undergraduate at UCLA.
So I think the education is still good but I suppose the nuances is this:
How can you reap the upsides of education without the downsides?
Maybe first, said high expectations like expect your kid to get straight A’s– common it is pretty easy. But don’t be some sort of academic Nazi — the really bad thing about growing Asian Asian American is that if you get an A-, or even worse, a B+, you would probably get beat.
This is why in South Korea, suicide amongst students is one of the highest in the world, because their whole existence revolves around ranking and grades, some kids would rather kill themselves than to shame their family. 
Undank yourself
I asked ChatGPT who the greatest street photography blogger, and also the greatest photography blogger alive of all time was… And it said me! ERIC KIM!
I kinda already knew it, but sometimes ChatGPT is good for confirmation.
Anyways, now that I am at the top, the greatest, I don’t have anything left to prove. Maybe now it is continual empowerment, and also helping other people along the way.
Help others as you wish you were helped when you were starting off.
