Some innovative thoughts about you, modern-day notions of success?
Rent forever, buy Bitcoin?
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A world beyond email, email newsletters?
How to reach people
How to reach Eric Kim?
The death of email
At this point, I think I have an allergy or an aversion to email. I first had the epiphany when I went wholly off the grid in 2017, living in airplane mode, got rid of my phone, my phone plan for about two years, and spent about two years without checking my inbox or using email. I didn’t even have a phone! The only device I had was an iPad Air — and essentially I just spent all day going to coffee shops, drinking black coffee, zenning out, reading philosophy, thinking, writing, listening to music, making poetry and art, etc.
Essentially at this point… It seems that the “sales funnel” for marketing has to do almost 100% entirely with email, an email newsletter, etc.
But, the problem here:
But, if we imagine a future, beyond email… By the time Seneca is an adult… I doubt he will be using email or would care to use it?
For example, email might be one of the worst, antiquated technologies which exist. It was around since I was a kid, it was AOL 3.0, and getting the infamous “You got mail!”
I’m currently reading Frog and Toad, the audiobook that I got at the LA Public Library with Seneca and we listen to it in the city in our 2010 Prius, and also… We’ve been reading the Frog and Toad friends book that my sister Anna got us… there’s a story in which every single day, Toad is waiting for mail, and he is sad that he never gets it.
Fast forward to today… On average, I think the average American household might get an Amazon Prime delivery every one or two days, some families in the suburbs get one to three packages a day!
And with email, it is a nightmare. People still treat it like text messaging, and now that we have all these millennials, around my age, mid-30s, late 30s, early 40s whatever… who would prefer to text message over just doing a 30-second FaceTime call… All this technology and communication is getting ridiculous.
Even I remember… In the early days of me trying to get to the infamous inbox zero, becoming a Gmail ninja warrior… Email sucks.
First, it is an infinite mind trap. I’ll give you an extreme example… Let us say that you are Taylor Swift, and you get on average 100,000 emails a day, because everyone knows that your email is Taylorswift@gmail.com. If this is the case… How do you advance and proceed in life?
First, can you imagine Taylor spending eight hours a day, just checking her Gmail, and trying to answer every single email? Of course not! We imagine that she has a manager, who does all the dirty work for her.
The problem is, a manager, being signed into a label or whatever… Still, there are some fetters on your freedom.
First, in theory, it is a good idea that you check your own email because you become the ultimate filter; an irony is that even NASSIM TALEB tells a story about meeting a super successful guy, and when asking about the secrets to success, his was a simple one: “Don’t have a personal assistant.” Why? A personal assistant essentially “optimizes” your schedule, kind of like a Kaiser doctor, in 15-minute intervals, ad infinitum, until it squeezes out the maximum productivity out of your sad constrained life.
No, what is the ultimate mark of success for us young millennials? I think it is actually to retire early, the whole financial independence, retire early notion.
Technically, you could already do it probably right now… You’re probably already rich enough. For example, if I told you that rent is only $300 a month in Hanoi, Vietnam… in a brand new studio apartment everything included, and assuming that eating street food, good street food is only a dollar or two a meal… Which means that you could feed yourself on two bucks a day, which is 60 bucks a month, and assuming that coffee is about a dollar a coffee, and let us say that your rough monthly expenses are $200 a month. So let us say that all included, food and rent included is only $500 a month… If you do the math, that means that you could live in Vietnam as a “digital nomad” for only $7000 USD a year!
What if you have kids?
I’m speaking to single people, without kids yet. But even if you had kids, assume you’re living abroad… You could probably send them to the best Montessori or private school, maybe only paying about 50 bucks a month, or 100 bucks a month? For the extreme luxury ones, maybe 200 bucks a month? Or $500 a month? Which is still a deal or a bargain compared to the States, I think some private schools for kids in America could cost $5000 USD a month.
Economic leverage
The other day, I met this very, very cool guy, Justin Atlan, the funnel guy, very smart and great human being and master marketer. Was chatting with him about bitcoin and future prices… Which had me thinking,
Maybe the next step for me to do things is to promote bitcoin, financial independence, freedom, etc.?
I told him that I’m currently 100% invested and vested in Bitcoin, and I told him very blank-faced that when bitcoin hits $10 million a bitcoin or $21 million a bitcoin in 20 years… My face didn’t even flinch.
The very simple economic strategy
Michael Saylor has this notion of being a “triple maxi”– triple (Bitcoin) maximalist. The basic idea is to pour 100% of your money, your income, your life savings into bitcoin, and enjoy the ride!
For myself, my simple economic strategy is this:
Retire today, by becoming so insanely frugal, Spartan, sexy style.
I’ll give you an example… What is the best outfit? Being naked! Second best, being shirtless and topless. Third best, being topless just in the speedo at the beach, Venice Beach muscle Beach, lifting like Arnold in his prime.
Who did Arnold want to become?
I thought that I always think to myself, is whenever there is somebody that you look up to, or somebody you desire to emulate or whatever… Seeking their heroes.
For example, I know that Steve Jobs looked up to Edwin Land, the inventor of the Polaroid camera. Also, Steve Jobs really loved the music of Bob Dylan, he had all the bootleg copies in the early days.
Jay Z was inspired by Afrika Bambaataa. Kanye was inspired by Lauryn Hill and André 3000.
“I wasn’t inspired since Lauryn Hill retired, and three stacks (a stack means a thousand, so three stacks is 3000– Andre 3000), man you’re speaking to the choir!” – Kanye
Everything you heard about me is true and legendary
NASSIM TALEB also has a notion when it comes to quotes. Reading his short book on aphorisms, The Bed of Procrustes, essentially, if you think about ancient literature in the past, there are tons of things that are quotable. But, nowadays, nothing or nobody is quotable anymore.
I’m starting to think… Maybe the true mark of success of a thinker, philosopher, innovator, entrepreneur, etc. is thinking on a 20, 30, or 40-year timeline… whether this person will be quoted or not anymore.
I’ll give you an example… When I was starting off in photography and street photography, there was a bunch of other famous photographers around me, none of them has lasted besides me. Their problems:
- Not owning their own platform
- Being almost 100% reliant on Flickr, which is now effectively dead (this is what is going to happen to Instagram, already right now with TikTok and other weird stuff coming on.)
- Chasing abstract notions of legitimacy, in the real world in the art world etc. All of them are a bunch of insecure losers.
So now what?
The reason why I am all about the 100% pedestrian lifestyle is that when you are in the flesh, a flesh-bound human being, face-to-face with another human being, you can weigh yourself better.
For example, when you are stuck on the 10 or the 405 or local traffic… any skinny fat loser in a loser Range Rover or loser AMG G wagon can honk at you from behind. And it doesn’t matter if they are 4 feet tall, and they weigh 500 pounds. Or they are handicapped in a wheelchair, driving a Rolls-Royce or a Lamborghini. You never know until they pop out of the car!
In fact, typically what I have observed is people who drive very, very impressive cars, tend to be old, weak, some sag on their skinny pale legs, old and fat, baseball hat, etc.
And not to berate anybody but, ultimately, you want to look like Brad Pitt in Fight Club but on steroids… Like the ERIC Kim aesthetic — Adonis style.
Your body don’t lie
Some observations:
First, don’t trust any older bald guys. Why? The big issue here is that a lot of guys who look really, really buff and jacked and muscular, with swole biceps, and a swole chest, but bald and older… Or maybe they are bald but have an impressive beard, are either on steroids or have used steroids, or they are injecting their butt hole with exogenous testosterone etc.
Now the problem here is the truth be told, we always weigh ourselves comparing ourselves to other human beings. Whether we like it or not.
For example, when it comes to weightlifting, weights and numbers… It is all relative. The same goes with height. And wealth. Everything.
For example, is it better to be the person with the cheapest home in Beverly Hills, or is it better to be the richest person living in Inglewood?
Or, is it best to be the richest person in Malaysia, or a semi-successful person in America?
I used to think that 4 plates was a lot. Then 5 plates, then six plates, then seven plates, then eight plates,… actually the seven plate limit is the critical one here, then the nine plates, then the 10 plates, then my infamous thousand-pound lift, which is 10 plates in a 25 and I think a five strapped on each side.
But technically, if I then compare myself with these 7 feet steroided-out monsters, in the strongman competitions, like Hafthor and the like… Lifting 502kg deadlifts, which is 1200 pounds… then my numbers are very, very small. But if I compare myself with any typical gym-goer, even a powerlifter… I am a god in the flesh.
So why does this all matter?
What is the most valuable thing on planet earth? Ideas. Ideas are weightless, not bound by the laws of physics, and infinitely antifragile.
Even some interesting thoughts are that ideas, when they catch on like wildfire, or like a virus, and people remember the ideas inside their head… This is something you cannot strip out of them.
What is it all we desire?
When I was reading a lot of Nietzsche, he used this word a lot called “desiderata” or “desideratum”– I can never really figure out what it meant, but I think what it means is the thing desired.
Like an object, or a concept or an idea that you desire.
Now this is important because this is what shapes a lot of our lives. For example, what is the new modern-day desire, at least the new modern-day millennial desire? Maybe to own a single-family home, to be super-rich, travel the world, go to Japan, eat good omakase sushi etc — and or maybe, having no children, maybe or maybe not getting married, having a dog, etc.
Or, being this weird playboy traveling the world, no obligations, just sleeping with beautiful babes, no pregnancies or STDs, driving around in your Lamborghini with the scissor doors, being a super cool guy, etc.?
True desires vs artificial desires
So my general notion of a true desire versus an artificial one has to deal with maybe media, marketing, societal pressures, etc. For example, let us think about the notion of the desire to own property, a single-family home, or worse, a condo. Where does this desire come from, how did it get propagated, etc.?
First, we think historically… I think the whole American notion of having a single-family home that you own is kind of a post-World War II concept. The basic idea was after our boys came home from the long war, they deserved to have a nice home in the suburbs, purchase their dream Mustang or Corvette, or Stingray… Whatever it may be, and then live a happy family life, picket fence, nice lawn and green grass, 2.2 kids, a dog, a nice garage, etc.…
Certainly, if we think historically, this is a modern-day shift because if we think about ancient Greece, we think about Hector versus Achilles, the Iliad, etc. — or even the Odyssey, and Odysseus — the desires were different.
For example, what is it that Achilles desired? To take Briseis, his prize, and sail back to his fertile lands, and essentially just chill out and retire from war. What is it that Hector wanted? Simply defending Troy, his people, his wife, and his newborn son, which apparently after the fall of Troy, it might’ve been Odysseus or Ajax or one of the Greek heroes who, afraid that one day the child of Hector would avenge his father’s death, threw this poor baby boy off the walls to his untimely death.
Pitiless bronze, the ancient Greeks were cruel
Something which is very shocking to read in the Iliad, the ancient texts of Homer, is how cruel and pitiless they were.
For example, we modern, we have too much sympathy, too much empathy, too much pity. For example, the modern-day American soldier, assuming he kills a bad guy somewhere in the Middle East, might feel bad about it and it might haunt his nightmares in his dreams. Because the average American is still raised on notions of Christian Protestant Jesus morality. That killing anybody, even if you are “in the right” is bad and evil.
However, the ancient Greek heroes and champions had no pity, and would in fact after killing people or about to kill people… Taunt them, boast, brag, and do really terrible things. For example, even Hector wanted to chop off the head of Patroclus and feed his head and his body to the dogs of Troy. And even Achilles, after he avenges Patroclus, does one of the most disrespectful things of all time, which is taking the body, the dead body of Hector, maybe piercing or tying his back legs to the back of his chariot, and just essentially doing laps around Troy, dismembering the dead body of Hector.
No more goals?
I’m starting to think… Perhaps the whole notion of a goal is bad.
For example, if you think about sports… Do you think about soccer, what is it that people seek? To score a goal!
But the problem is in the context of the real world, there is no such thing as a goal. Or a goalie, or a striker.
“Just because there is a goalkeeper doesn’t mean you can’t score!”
For example, I’m starting to think the notion of records, goals, personal records, etc., is bad.
Why? All competition is bad competition. What is it that Achilles wanted? Not competition… He already knew he was the strongest! And everyone else knew it!
Also Hector… Very simple, defending his people! Super simple.
What would Achilles do
Also, what wouldn’t Achilles do?
Radical ideas
OK… Assuming that this might be the most interesting email newsletter on the planet… Some interesting radical ideas:
First, let us assume that I snapped a finger, and I could predict with 100% accuracy that in 20 years, by the time Seneca becomes 21… There will be no more email. Obviously, we will have it, but no one will really check it… Kind of like letters in the mail, 99% of it is spam.
Nobody likes physical mail anymore… And even now… Nobody likes electronic mail, digital mail.
I have a very simple solution, just make it cost a single Satoshi to send an email, or a message or digital message, as a consequence, people will think twice about sending a message to you or not.
This is really the secret to fixing spam, getting rid of spam, etc. We don’t need more Gmail or Gemini in our lives… We just need a new system, a new node, a new paradigm shift.
Satoshi is the way
So are you buying bitcoin yet?
Keep stacking them sats (Satoshis).
Maybe I should become the first bitcoin rapper?
Bitcoin rap
Don’t wrap your stacks
Don’t buy the Maybach, the fake Benz
See laser eyes, Michael Saylor vision lens.
Haha so fire, so lit!
Send emails, email newsletters that you would like to read!
Nobody ever opens up their inbox and says wow, I am so glad that I opened up my inbox, and I am so happy that I read that thing.
The problem is with email… Everyone is trying to sell you something or funnel you into one day buying something. But what if the creator, once they become independently wealthy bitcoin millionaires, and they’re just having fun, they just want to send you messages because they want you to have fun too? Maybe this is the ERIC KIM effect.
ERIC KIM
As an experiment, I’m gonna just start introducing myself like James Bond. Kim, ERIC KIM.
I believe this forever, that your first name and last name is your ultimate asset. For example, the genius that Cindy helped me purchase erickim.com, for about $1000 in 2017… I’m sure that name is now worth at least $100,000. Even my email eric@erickim.com — so clean, so succinct!
Your first and last name
Ryan Holiday — such a good name! Tim Ferriss, Tony Robbins, Guy Kawasaki — all these very successful modern-day entrepreneurs, all first and last names!
ELON MUSK, KANYE WEST, JAY Z, BEYONCÉ ETC.
Even impressive… You know that Beyoncé is influential once the Apple keyboard automatically adds the accent mark to Beyoncé.
Think telos
A new thought I am having in regards to weightlifting… I should be all about every single time, superseding my previous personal record. That every single time I lifted, my simple goal was to increase my one repetition maximum, 2.5 pounds on each side of the barbell, every single time.
Now, my new thought is just every single day, just lift something, just do something. No more need for there to be a plan, even an ethos; the goal is to just do something. No more optimization!
ERIC
Success?
My articles on the philosophy of success via ChatGPT 4o:
- The Philosophy of Success
This article challenges traditional views of success, arguing that chasing success for external validation is a trap, and instead promotes self-fulfillment through personal growth.
Read more oai_citation:4,The Philosophy of “Success” – ERIC KIM. - The ‘T’ Technique of Success
Eric Kim shares insights on how to build success by developing a unique voice and mastering self-promotion in the creative field.
Read more oai_citation:3,The ‘T’ Technique of Success – ERIC KIM. - The Philosophy of Time Economics
This article explores how time should be viewed as the most valuable asset and how individuals can maximize their life’s worth by focusing on meaningful experiences.
Read more oai_citation:2,The Philosophy of Time Economics – ERIC KIM. - The Philosophy of Happiness
Kim reflects on happiness beyond material pleasures, encouraging a pursuit of high achievement and fulfillment through meaningful, impactful work.
Read more oai_citation:1,The Philosophy of Happiness – ERIC KIM.
Best entrepreneurship articles
Here are some of Eric Kim’s best entrepreneurship articles that offer valuable insights into his approach to building a successful, self-reliant career:
- How to Think Like an Entrepreneur
This article emphasizes the importance of mindset over business strategies. Kim highlights taking risks, learning from failures, and balancing passion with financial security.
Read more oai_citation:4,Most influential eric Kim entrepreneurship articles and links – ERIC KIM. - The Point of Life is Entrepreneurship?
In this piece, Kim explores entrepreneurship as a tool for lifelong self-development and innovation. He stresses the importance of risk-taking and continuous growth.
Read more oai_citation:3,Most influential eric Kim entrepreneurship articles and links – ERIC KIM. - On Risk Taking and Entrepreneurship
Kim shares his journey of transitioning from a full-time job to full-time entrepreneurship, offering practical advice on reducing expenses and the importance of taking risks.
Read more oai_citation:2,On Risk Taking and Entrepreneurship – ERIC KIM. - 20 Photography Marketing, Branding, and Entrepreneurship Tips
A collection of practical strategies for building a sustainable photography business, including advice on personal branding, marketing, and creating unique content.
Read more oai_citation:1,20 Photography Marketing, Branding, and Entrepreneurship Tips – ERIC KIM.
Keep learning:
PHOTOGRAPHY ENTREPRENEURSHIP 101 >
STRIKE TODAY!
ERIC
