What Do You *Really* Want in Photography and Life?

It seems in life, discovering what we want is critical. Once we discover what we want, then everything else falls neatly into place.

For example, let us say that our passion is photography, art, travel creativity, and other things. Then the question is, what is it that we want out of it?

What-Do-You-Really-Want-PDF TEXTDownload

First, I think we want to live a more interesting life. To not just stay in the same bubble or place, but to travel to different places, nomad around, explore new territories, etc.

Traveling is good for us. Why? Traveling forces us to re-challenge our typical way of approaching things, and allows us to innovate new approaches. For example, weightlifting, I discovered all these new techniques and approaches when I was living in Phnom Penh Cambodia, at a different type of gym. For example, I discovered the high handle trap bar, the open hex bar, and also, because the gym was empty and devoid of any other humans, I was able to just focus more and innovate and experiment with new types of lifts.

Also, I think there is some sort of deep connection between man and his environment in so far much as novel environments stimulate us. There is this funny bias and Zen and Buddhism, and maybe Puritan American Protestant ethic that says:

You should be grateful for what you have, instead of what you don’t have.

I am starting to realize that this is a weak and small way of thinking. Instead, to reach our apex of development, we must explore new territories new places etc.

The physical is underrated?

Physics, the physical, the real world. Our bodies are physical, the connections in our body is physical, the electricity and blood in our bodies are physical, the hormones in our body or physical, etc.

Our bodies are physical.

Why is it that in today’s world, there seems to be a bias against the physical? There is this overdevelopment of the “mental“ faculties, for example, the focus on studying, schooling, information, ”work” etc.

And where does this bias originate? My theory is that it is this general Quaker protestant American, western, Judaism, Christian, Islamic thought of an afterlife; the thought that is after we die, our soul and our mind remains, but the body dies.

As a consequence, the negative bias is that the body doesn’t really matter. The general gist that they try to propose is this:

Yeah yeah yeah, the body is kind of important. Just do the bare minimum to maintain it, in order to do more virtuous things, related to good works, the mind, spirituality, “the soul“, etc.

As a consequence, it seems that in today’s modern-day world, 99.9% of our efforts is around optimizing for our mind. In order to be more “productive“, to “work“ more, to make more money, to build more capital, to accumulate more, purchase and consume more, etc.

A more physical life?

What I love most about photography, street photography, traveling, etc. is this: the focus on the physical. This means our ability to walk, use our legs, explore new geospatial spaces, etc.

For example, when you’re traveling in on the world, what is the most essential in critical Tim? Your legs, your body. Your physicality.

This is why I believe that when it comes to traveling, some things which are really important include maximizing your mobility. Vibram five fingers shoes, some sort of athletic pants, shorts, and leggings (I like the lululemon vital Drive compression half short leggings, and the Lululemon license to train shorts, with zippers in the front and the back pocket.) And also, clothing that doesn’t get in your way, as simple as when you’re traveling, just wear a T-shirt, some sort of either merino wool T-shirt, I like the Outlier.nyc merino wool T-shirt, or even the Lululemon “metal vent” t shirt. Or a merino wool blend t shirt — clothing which does not restrict your mobility.

Also, the biggest benefit of traveling insanely light, and not bringing too much stuff is it usually practical one; don’t think of it like some sort of virtuous minimalistic thing, just think practically:

The less stuff you carry with you when you travel, the more mobility you have, the further you can venture without exhaustion and fatigue, the more you could conquer, etc.

Simple ways to travel light is when you are on the road, leave your laptop at home, just bring along your iPad Pro, the smaller one.

Also, with your camera, the most small camera viably possible, currently speaking, the Ricoh GR 3X digital camera. I still think it is a quadrillion times better than any other camera on the market, irregardless of price.

Now what?

Once you have become a bitcoin billionaire, once you have total life freedom, then what?

My personal thought and intervention is that then, you can use your stability and security to simply pursue things which are more interesting to you, and to go bigger.

New epic life goals?

I think the reason why Elon Musk and Kanye West are such a great inspiration and motivation to me is this; it is precisely their “craziness“, or their “detachment from reality“, which is fun and interesting to me.

For example, if a decade or two ago, Elon Musk said that he would start an electric car company, and a space company, people would think he is high on crack. But now that he has done did it, now other people, small people, find other things to criticize him about, simply because they hate that they are no match for him.

Become crazier and more audacious?

So then, the next step is this:

Given your insane uberabundance, what do you want to do?

My epic life goals

Another funny irony is that I have discovered that after achieving all of my life goals and dreams, I no longer really have any life goals or dreams anymore. Simply on a daily, weekly, or monthly level, I simply want to pursue things which are personal interesting to me. Whatever is interesting to me at the moment.

For example, what is currently interesting to me is thinking about the body, physique, powerlifting 2.0, and more strongman-style weight lifting and training.

For example, I just did an atlas lift of nine plates, and a 2.5 pound plate on each side, effectively maxing out the bar, assuming that I’m using clips on each side for “safety“. 865 pounds.

The reason why this is so interesting to me is that currently speaking, I don’t think anyone in the world has had as interesting thoughts and innovative thoughts on weight lifting, diet health and fitness, etc.

For example, I think I am the first and only person that I know, maybe even in the world who does powerlifting style lifts, one rep max while fasted. I never eat breakfast or lunch, only one massive dinner, I typically break my fast around 8 PM. And also for the most part, I am 100% carnivore. I also don’t take any supplements, not even protein powder!

My big innovations:

  1. Everyone says that you need to eat some sort of sugar or carbs, but I have proven that to be false. I consume no carbohydrates, no sugar and no starches, no “vegetables”, no “fruit”, or even “fiber“, And it is fine, I am still able to poop at least once or twice every day.
  2. People always say that you have to eat something before lifting really heavy weights, like a small snack, or even a way protein shake. I’ve also discovered this to be totally false; before I go to the gym, for the whole day I have consumed nothing, the only thing I drank was black coffee and water.
  3. I think I am the only person that I personally know who lifts so heavy, who does one rep max style lifting, who doesn’t use any sort of straps, hand or wrist straps, or weight lifting belt, knee wraps, knee sleeves, etc.

Theory —

The best way to distinguish yourself is on what you do NOT do, rather than what you do do.

Art photography

Recently, my Ricoh GR 3X went kaput, it doesn’t even charge or turn on anymore. Therefore for last month or so, I was just experimenting with my iPhone SE, the built-in camera app, the noir mode, and the photographic styles putting on rich contrast, and also the provoke app.

Typically speaking, I actually do believe that it is possible to make artistic and also beautiful photos on an iPhone, even an iPhone SE. Certainly you could also do it on the iPhone Pro. However, this is what I discovered:

To make artistic and beautiful photos, aesthetically pleasing photos on an iPhone, or a smartphone is more difficult, as it requires more “massaging“ of the images.

For example, when I’d shoot with a Ricoh GR 3 or 3X, in high contrast black-and-white monochrome mode, with the contrast to max, the JPEG images out of camera already look 1000 times better than the iPhone photos. You could make the iPhone photos look beautiful as well, but it requires more post processing, adjusting the contrast and black-and-white points, etc.

Also, third-party camera apps on the iPhone are not well integrated into the iOS. That is from the lock screen, it is very difficult to “quick draw“, the camera app. Even the built-in iPhone camera app, having to push and hold the camera icon on the bottom right corner is another layer of friction. My simple proposal is this:

iPhone “quick draw” camera mode: to have some sort of setting in the camera app that when you just take your phone out of your pocket it automatically opens the camera app.

Also something else I discovered; the benefit of having a standalone digital camera, like a pocketable digital RICOH GR camera in your front right pocket is that when you are using GPS on your iPhone to get somewhere, you can still take pictures.

For example, something that I was doing was when I am driving and I see something interesting while I am stuck at a stoplight, I will shoot a photo by taking my Ricoh GR out of my front right pocket, and just shooting it, or even turning around and shooting photos a Seneca or Cindy on my right.

Black and white

Certainly you can make very beautiful photos in color as well as black and white. But why is it that I prefer black and white? For myself, it is all about option Allotey. That means, I just see more photo opportunities in black-and-white than I do in color.

Color is tricky, especially in the context of high ISO photography. Aesthetically speaking, when you should color photos at a high ISO, the photos look pretty ugly. However if you shoot high ISO photos in black-and-white, the photos still look beautiful.

Also the big things that we do not see the world in black-and-white. Therefore, black-and-white photos are intrinsically interesting, as I did automatically looks different.

Then, perhaps art photography is this; transfigurating the world to look different.

Now what?

Some ideas:

  1. If you want honest feedback on your photos, upload them to arsbeta.com
  2. Start your own blog. Bluehost.com and install WordPress.org
  3. Zen of Eric WHY APP?

EK CONSULTANCY

To turbocharge your thinking, shoot me an email at eric@erickim.com

EK WORKSHOPS

Conquer with EK:

  • May 6th (Saturday): CREATIVE CONFIDENCE ONLINE WORKSHOP (9am-11:30am, Online via Zoom)
  • May 20th: DOWNTOWN LA ART WORKSHOP (Saturday, 11am-4pm) @ Verve Coffee
  • May 27th: Downtown LA turbo thinking workshop, details to be posted soon.
  • July 29-30th: SAIGON VIETNAM EPIC STREET PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP (Details to be announced).

Random thoughts and ideas on my mind

The new Lamborghini Revuelto is terrible.

First of all, it looks like a Corvette. It should be the other way around. Secondly, the design is really boring, it is not extreme enough. The reason why I hate the name so much is that because first of all, I think a scrambled eggs. Also, it is not audacious and bold enough.

Names are insanely important. For example, the Aventador is a great name, because it sounds like adventure, and bullfighter. Huracan is also a good name, because it sounds like hurricane. You want to become the hurricane.

Also, audacity and boldness. I think Lamborghini is no longer interesting to me.

Moral of the story:

You must go more extreme, more insanely bold, more crazy.

Linen is the future?

Linen is 1 trillion times better than cotton. One of my favorite new possessions which I have had for the last few months, even when traveling to Korea, was my new beloved outlier.NYC grid weave linen towel.

Why? At first it originated with this issue that because I take a shower about three or four times a day, my traditional cotton towels were perpetually wet, and smelly. One of the greatest benefits of using a grid weave linen towel is that first of all, it dries insanely quickly, and also doesn’t smell it. This might be my new possession.

Also, I have a linen plug in Korea. I might start producing some linen products. Stay updated.

Manual is the future?

Recently, my Rico GR 3x went kaput. It no longer charges, and doesn’t even turn on, even when I try swapping in and out new batteries.

This is insanely frustrating, because literally every single record your camera have owned, has either broken, or stopped becoming functional:

  1. Ricoh GR 1s film compact camera stops working
  2. I gift my friend Josh White my Ricoh GR1v film camera, and he tells me it eventually breaks and stops working
  3. The first Ricoh GR digital camera I buy, it stops working
  4. The second RICOH GR II digital camera I gift to my friend Mark, it stops working
  5. My Ricoh GR III camera has some sort of critical lens issue, and doesn’t really turn on anymore
  6. My Ricoh GR 3X no longer turns on anymore

Camera longevity?

So I am at kind of at a crossroads —

First, I do genuinely believe that for photography, the Ricoh GR3X is the best digital camera. However, do you really want to keep having to buy and replace it, because the longevity doesn’t last for longer than a year or two?

Secondly, and how important is longevity for a camera anyways? Truth be told, having over two Lamborghinis in the bank, I don’t really need to worry about money, I can technically afford anything. However, I just have to ask myself the question:

Do I value it, is it worth it to me?

What do we want to do with photography anyways?

Moving forward, perhaps what we must consider is this; what is it that we really want out of photography?

I think the answer is we desire to become more artistic, more creative, more motivated more inspired, less obstructed, and also more prolific.

One big thought is I think we want to become more artistic as photographers, and also make more artistic photos.

What is an “artistic” photo anyways? My simple thought is an artistic photo is a photo which does not really resemble reality, we know that it is from reality, but it looks different. Things are made more abstract, more disclear, more difficult to decipher.

Shooting in manual focus mode

I think one of the Achilles’ heel that we suffer as photographers is that we are always trying to nail the focus. However, what if the desired outcome were actually the opposite, in which we were trying to intentionally make things out of focus?

So one of the good benefits of my Ricoh GR 3X breaking is that I rummaged through my camera closet, and I re-discovered my old Ricoh GR3, which is still technically kind of broken, but at least it sometimes turns on.

So this is the big issue with my RICOH GR III: the auto focus no longer works. I turn on the camera, and press the shutter button, and then the camera attempts to focus and the lens starts making a weird retracting sound, and then the display says “lens error“, and turns off.

One funny workaround I have discovered which actually kind of sometimes works is setting it into manual focusing mode, And just keeping it pre-focused at around .3 m, 30 cm, and just not touching it. As a consequence, this is how my shooting behavior has changed:

When I see something I want to photograph, whether it be Seneca or Cindy, or something else, I just instantly turn on my camera, and just start shooting at rapid gunfire, machine gun style, thinking at the back of my head, “Oh if I shoot a lot of photos, a lot, one of these photos are bound to be in focus.”

As a consequence, the interesting advancement is that in a single given day, I was able to shoot around 850 photos. Mostly of Seneca, Cindy, and some other random stuff in the suburbs.

Upon reviewing the photos, I was surprisingly delighted. Why? It was in fact the out of focus and blurry and unclear photos which I actually loved the most. So maybe my Ricoh GR3X breaking was actually a blessing in disguise.

Therefore, as a simple photo assignment, just take your camera, and pre-focus it, then manual focusing mode to the minimum focusing distance, and just shoot everything at that distance.

For example if you have a manual focusing camera, let’s say a Leica M camera, typically most of the lenses have a minimum focusing distance at around .7 m. Spend a whole month only shooting photos at .7 meters.

For RICOH GR camera, put it into “snap focus” mode at 1meter, or manual focusing mode at .3, .5, whatever distance you like.

EK SHOPPE

Become the best photographer:

  1. HENRI SHOULDER STRAP: For the heavyweights
  2. HENRI NECK STRAP MARK IV: Perfected design
  3. HENRI WRIST STRAP PRO: For the pros.

ALL EK EQUIPMENT >

Books for the bold

Good books:

  1. 100 lessons from the masters of street photography // Dropbox // Direct Download
  2. Street photography contact sheets // PDF DOWNLOAD

More books.

What’s on my mind

  1. Jesus as Philosopher?
  2. Getting more people into strongman style lifting, the Eric Kim method of weight lifting, also women?
  3. Really into minivans now, super dad mode. Apparently the Kia carnival fits eight passengers!
  4. Very happy to be back in Southern California, walking around topless all the time.

More thoughts to come

EK BLOG >

John Wick 4?

Really want to watch John Wick 4.

The Philosophy of John Wick

Stoic thoughts

  1. Just leave other people alone. Especially with unpleasant people. And also don’t try to be “nice” to them.
  2. Utilize every single downside and disadvantage to your benefit, as a form of strengthening and becoming more powerful.

Stoicism

Fortune favors the crazy

EK

Share the thoughts!

If there is even one funny thing here which gave birth to new thoughts or wings, feel free to forward this to a friend!

EK TURBO NEWS >

HOW TO CREATE NEW VALUE

It seems that in today’s modern day society and world, we are currently suffering some sort of economic malaise.

What is the solution? Create new value.

How do we create new value?

There are different approaches and strategies. In the context of information technology, you could just create new information and knowledge, for example, blog posts, videos, blogs, books, articles, podcast, audio or video, etc.

What is value anyways?

Valere — hwelh— to be strong, to be of worth, to rule, to be powerful. Also the same notion of being “well”, “wellness”— it means that you are strong, mighty, you rule, you are powerful.

Newsletter

Sendy.co — one of the quickest ways to create new value is through making a list. A list of emails, individual human beings and contacts, and being able to send them information and ideas at scale.

It seems that any sort of new technology or infrastructure or things we could create via Amazon web services, Amazon AWS is good. For example, creating an email newsletter with sendy.co is great, because you could leverage Amazon simple email services to propagate your thoughts.

Also, using Amazon Web services to make a website or a blog or even a website. I think moving forward, maybe just using Amazon Web services to make a website or a blog via WordPress.org is a good idea.

Why media is the future

It seems for the most part, we will never stop making movies. Even in 2023, it looks like movie theaters have been able to survive the pandemic. People love movies, cinema and film.

We humans are still embodied. That is, for a date night, you will still probably want to go watch a movie with your partner, in real life, in some sort of external location, which is not your house.

What is it about movies and media, cinema music that we love? I think it helped spark or imagination, creativity, art, and concepts.

For example, I just watched a quick trailer for the new Ant-man movie on imdb.com, and the visuals were pretty phenomenal. Being able to imagine a different universe, different science-fiction images is awe inspiring to me.

Think it all.

Also a new way to create new value is by innovating and proposing new approaches. For example, my powerlifting 2.0 notion. You don’t necessarily need to change the equipment, just take the pre-existing equipment, and figure out new approaches and techniques to utilize it.

For example, all of the new lifts I propose (rack pull, atlas lift, floor bench press) are all easily accessible at any normal commercial gym.

Also, my concept of the one rep max; this is just a different mindset and methodology to weightlifting.

Or my notion of the 100% carnivore diet, mixed with intermittent fasting, no breakfast, no lunch, and for dinner, striving to eat at least 4 pounds of beef ribs.

Or, creating new recipes. For example, my new “keto taco“ recipe.

Essentially, anything new you propose, even if it is a mishmash of old stuff, is still new value.

Information, news, technology, etc.

For myself, ever since I was a high school junior, around 16 years old, I had so much fun blogging. The good old inspiration from Maddox.xmission.com

In fact, my enthusiasm for blogging actually predates my enthusiasm for photography. I got into blogging when I was 15 or 16 years old, and I got into photography was when I was 18 or 19 years old. Also I got into cars when I was 15 or 16 years old as well. And I have always been into clothes in fashion ever since I was a middle schooler— 12 or 13 years old.

Essentially to share anything you’re passionate or enthusiastic about is good. To share your energy and vibes has much value.

Fighting against problems of modern day society?

For me, I am all about self experimentation, and creating new proposals for new solutions. For me, simply to complain or critique something without offering a solution is vain.

Seeking new solutions?

EK STRATEGY — shoot an email to Eric (at) erickim.com with your problem(s).

Stuff I’m up to and on my mind

  1. Better to be over warm than over cold. My new current outfit that I really like is wearing my long sleeve compression shirt, a workout T-shirt, and a sleeveless down vest on top. If I’m too hot, I could just take off a layer.
  2. Also, feet thoughts. Barefoot is the best, if not barefoot, Vibram five fingers.
  3. What is the best car, and the best modern day flex? Not a Lamborghini, certainly not a Tesla. My ideal would be a matte pink Hyundai genesis G90. That is real cloth talk, real expensive fabrics.

Crypto thoughts

What is one bitcoin worth? One bitcoin. Everyone likes to peg the bitcoin to the US dollar, but the reason why this is not a good idea is because currently speaking, the US dollar is becoming devalued.

For example, I see now that McDonald’s is hiring for around $16.50 an hour! What is the point of going to college anymore?

Also, it isn’t that houses are getting more expensive, it is simply that the dollar is not worth as much. Therefore in order to buy a house or property, the seller wants more US dollars, because the value of each individual dollar is now less.

As with bitcoin, it is still the god crypto. That is that ultimately all cryptocurrencies are pegged to the bitcoin. And therefore the end of the day, maybe the best way to think about crypto and cryptocurrency and crypto technology is in regards to bitcoin. Rather than wondering, how many dollars is one chain-link worth? A better question is, how many bitcoin is one chain-link worth? Or how much chain-link can I get with one Bitcoin?

Maybe into the future, tesla will start accepting bitcoin as payment for their cars, And also, maybe 30 or 40 years into the future, real estate agents will also accept bitcoin to purchase a house.

Invest in yourself

Experiences never die:

  1. Conquer your fears in Boston
  2. Conquer creativity online May 5th
  3. Become a more artistic photographer in Downtown LA May 20
  4. Hadong South Korea— March 23rd

Innovation ideas

1. “Social autism”

It seems that a small dose of social autism, or like how Korean people say it, “Noon-chi uhpssuh” (you don’t have eye sense), it can be one of the greatest advantages onto innovation. Why? For example, I was just able to floor benchpress 5 plates, and a ten on each side, 515 pounds.

For example, there’s this funny bias at the gym, or weightlifting culture that you have to do “proper form“. That means, doing a bench press on the bench, doing the typical deadlift and squat, etc.

I think one of my greatest strengths is I could care less. I am more interested in innovating the form and technique, and approach, in order to maximize my leverage and just push or pull or lift more weight.

For example, it is rare to ever see anybody deadlift over six plates, let alone seven plates. Yet am easily able to rack pull over seven plates and a 25 (725 pounds).

Or, I have never really seen anybody in real life squat six plates or beyond. Yet, I am able to easily atlas lift over eight plates and 20 on each side, I think that is 805 pounds.

Or with benchpress, it is pretty rare to see anyone benchpress three plates on each side, let alone four plates. There’s only one guy at the gym I have witnessed bench press for plates and a 25 on each side, and he is massive. Yet I was able to floor bench press Five plates and a 10, 515 pounds, easily destroying anything I’ve witnessed in real life.

The way I was able to do this is just by maximizing my leverage, technique and form. For example with floor bench press, maximizing your arch, and driving with your legs is key. And also doing it barefoot.

Atlas lift is pretty easy, essentially you just put the barbell at typical squat level, and instead of stepping back and squatting down, you just left the weight up, don’t move, and then just put it down. I think the typical strong guy should be able to do over seven plates or 8 plates, perhaps even 9, 10, 11, 12 plates on each side. I think a really strong power lifter should be able to atlas lift over 1000 pounds.

Why doesn’t anyone else adopt my unorthodox yet effective techniques and form? Because people don’t want to look “stupid“. They don’t want to draw attention to themselves by doing things differently. Also this nonsensical notion of “cheating“.

This is where being intelligent and wise is good, you realize that metaphorically and philosophically, there’s no such thing as “cheating”.

2. Doing things out of personal curiosity

Before Facebook became the multi billion dollar company we know what today, Mark Zuckerberg had no idea what he was building, or how to monetize it. He first built it, and then far later they figured out the monetization.

Also, interesting to note, I remember one Facebook, before we even had a newsfeed. Before there was advertisements. And also when the advertisements were first, just on the right side bar, very unobtrusive. Then later, Facebook adding advertisements to the newsfeed.

Also, with myself, when I was just out of college, a fresh 21,22 year old, I just started blogging on street photography because it was my passion. I legitimately did not think it was possible that I could make a living from my passion, and that’s why I just had a normal tech day job during the day, earning $40,000 a year, and just building up my blog on the side, when I had no work to do at work, or at home blogging before I went into work, etc. Also shooting YouTube videos of me shooting Street photography on the 3rd St., Promenade during my lunch breaks.

It was always my interest to transform my passion into my living, I still remember fantasizing about being able to one day, be able to do photography and street photography full-time. But at that time, the notion of being a “full-time street photographer” was not even a notion. I think I might’ve been the first person to have become a full-time street photographer, earning $200,000.

It wasn’t until my company went public and IPOd, and then the stock tanked, and then I was made redundant from my job, even my boss lost his shirt. It was at that critical moment, that decisive moment that I finally had the opportunity and the moment to pursue my passion full-time for a living. That is when I went super duper hard on street photography, pouring my life and soul into it. And I’m still happy and proud. I am still insanely passionate about it today.

Even nowadays, I am randomly pursuing another passion I have in life for working out, fitness, diet and nutrition, intermittent, fasting, lifestyle, etc. In some regards, I see myself like the next Tim Ferriss. I think Joe Rogan should probably interview me.

I would say, the intelligent strategy in life is to not worry, much about monetization, money, or something as “pedestrian” as profit or income (Peter Thiel). Just pursue your passion and figure out all the details later.

Now what?

  1. Upload your best photos to arsbeta.com
  2. Try to think, carte blanche, or blank slate. If you restarted everything today, how would you approach things differently or anew?

INNOVATE ON!
EK

Share the love!

If this sparked even 1 ounce of interest or motivation within you, feel free to forward to a friend!

EK NEWS >

START HERE // BOOKS // PRODUCTS

When in doubt, just kill it.

ERIC

How to Become Muscular

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

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

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

Back to reality

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

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

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

Muscle quality?

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

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

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

Misconceptions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The ERIC KIM workout plan

I have very simple directions:

1. Intermittent fasting

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

2. One rep max.

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

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

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

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

Red meat or nothing.

3. Why meat?

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

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

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

4. Hypertrophy

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

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

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

5. What not to eat?

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

I find this to be a disintelligent strategy.

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

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

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

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

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

Essentially anything which spikes your insulin levels is bad.

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

8. Fat vs muscle?

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

Why are people so into this cult of weighing yourself?

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

How to Work More

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

What is “work”?

*Werg— it literally means to make.

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

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

What do you want to make?

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

Therefore to work more is to make more.

Is making more better than curating?

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

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

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

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

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

Go to the gym

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

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

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

Why?

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

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

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

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

Things which need to be created:

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

Why do you want to make?

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

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

Produce more

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

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

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

So where do I put my stuff?

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

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

A simple intervention I have is this:

300 die-hard followers is enough.

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

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

Now what?

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

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

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

ADVANCE ON!
EK

New stuff

On EK BLOG

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

ERIC KIM WORKSHOPS

You’re on a new level:

  1. BOSTON
  2. ONLINE
  3. HADONG SOUTH KOREA

EK EXPERIENCES

EK TURBO NEWS

Never run out of inspiration.

ERIC KIM NEWS

BECOME THE ENIGMA.

The tools to conquer:

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

Conquer it all.

Money thoughts?

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

Enable your friends

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

START HERE.

Productivity Thoughts

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

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

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

Pro- forward. Duco- to pull.

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

First lesson:

The ultimate privilege is to be powerful, yet unknown.

Productivity as a slave mentality

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

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

What insanely epic life goals do you have?

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

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

My insanely epic and audacious life goals and plans

In no particular order, and no timeline:

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

Things that last

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

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

Productive assignments

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

What gets in our way or distracts us?

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

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

Publish BEFORE you’re ready

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

Produce to better get to the root of things

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

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

Produce more, think less.

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

ERIC

EK WORK

CONQUER IT ALL:

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

Workout ideas

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

PRODUCTIVITY AT THE GYM?

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

EK SUPPLY

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

Witness it all >

Design thoughts

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

MORE ON BLOG

Share the love!

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

EK TURBO NEWS >

Marketing Thoughts

The future of marketing:

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

Why does marketing matter?

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

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

I think so.

The simple:

Subtract the superfluous, add the critical.

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

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

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

What do you want from life?

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

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

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

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

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

Lamborghini is unimpressive

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

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

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

Then the understanding —

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

So what should I do about this?

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

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

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

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

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

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

But anyways — simply be hard and discerning.

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

Need marketing suggestions?

Shoot an email to Eric [at] Erickim.com

The best marketing

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

EK CONQUERING

Boston // conquer creativity online // conquer South Korea

EK SHOP

HENRI NECK STRAP MARK IV: Become Invincible

Henri Shoulder Strap: Carry Heavier

Think more

Why?

Get constructive feedback on your photos

Arsbeta.com

Think more become more

Entrepreneurship by KIM

Share the love

EK NEWS

Things to read

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