”Should”?

HOW SHOULD WE LIVE OUR LIVES?

First, unshackle yourself from superficial ethics, morality, uncritical religious edicts, etc.

The more I think about it… Honestly all these modern day “ethics”, “rules”, are bad.

Especially in America, which is a strange chimera of thinking.

Why do people try to superimpose how we should or how we should not live our lives?

For example, when we think and consider the difference between shared, co-living spaces and places, versus communal things, versus the common.

For example, let us say that I am living with you, and you prefer things a certain way, and I prefer things a certain way. Who should have the ultimate say?

A simple heuristic: if I am by myself, you should not intrude on my space and do things differently, tell me what to do or what not to do.

Second, if we are sharing the space and you prefer things a certain way, and your request seems reasonable enough, I will acquiesce to you, and I will simply leave the space.

I think the big issue is when we try to superimpose our will upon others.

For example, let us say that I love to eat meat. That I am 100%, unabashed carnivore. That it is against my beliefs to eat vegetables or plants or fruit or grains or anything which reeks of a “plant-based diet“. Funny enough, nowadays it is 100% fine to show up to a party and tell people that “I don’t eat meat“, and low-key expect to be served vegetarian or vegan food… But it isn’t mainstream to show up to a party saying “I don’t eat vegetables“, and low-key expect to be fed meat.

Also, I kind of get the low-key feeling that a lot of vegetarians or zealous vegans are trying to get everyone to stop eating meat, to become like them, become vegan etc. That they try to guilt or shame meat eaters like myself that what we do is bad evil and is “bad for the planet“.

However, I haven’t really seen the opposite; when I shame a vegan for being cruel to immigrant farm workers who have to pick almonds all day, and how almonds, their almond butter, their cashews, cashew nut butters etc. is “bad for the planet“, because of how water hungry these plants are.

Why don’t we just leave other people alone?

For example, I think one thing I have discovered about myself is that I am a little bit of a tyrant. I attribute this to my upbringing; I was the oldest son of the oldest son of the oldest son, and as a consequence, being raised, I was treated like the king. Whenever I would go to my grandma, she would always acquiesce to my needs and desires and shower me with endless praise, brag about how handsome and successful I was in front of all of her friends, etc.

King’s Disease

So the big issue that I have is that myself, I see myself as king, emperor, and I expect other people to treat me a certain way. I expect and demand and find a critical that other people greet me, when I enter, when I leave, and to treat me with High respect and royalty. When they do not do this, it infumes my anger.

But the biggest issue is that you cannot force other people to treat you a certain way, or to greet you a certain way. For example, if I show up, I cannot demand other people to address me a certain way, or to greet me, etc. Similarly speaking, When I leave, I cannot demand other people say goodbye to me or greet me goodbye. That is tyranny.

This is where I think modern day stuff is little bit bad; you cannot force me to talk to you a certain way, to greet you a certain way, to address you a certain way, etc. If you don’t like the way I talk to you or about you… You just walk away or don’t interact with me. Doesn’t this make more sense?

Who tells us what to do what not to do?

First and foremost, who was Confucius? Essentially he was a petty governmental official, and I believe it was later the scholar bureaucrat Mencius who codified his belief system, just kind of like how Paul did for Jesus… And they create this new pseudo, strange, hydra of a world view and order.

For example, Confucianism, the state mandarin examinations, and all of these pseudo religious rules that Confucius put forth, like Philly pie, respect for elders, etc.… The main purpose was a form of social control and order and harmony. It was a useful tool for the king emperor or the aristocracy to keep the commoners in check.

Similarly speaking, St. Paul, was a very strange case. Just read about him from Nietzsche and his book “The Antichrist”. The general gist is that Saint Paul was a tormented soul, and he was seeking salvation somewhere else. He discovered Jesus, the teachings of Jesus, and bastardized them in a strange, miss mashed way. He almost escaped coated Jesus for his own downings and faults, and could not come to ends why things happened a certain way they did.

The chosen people

A concept I came upon recently, which is very interesting and fascinating to me, is this notion of “the chosen people“. I’m curious… Is this zero sum? That some people are chosen, and some are not? Are they chosen based on their blood, their lineage, their parents, their family heritage and background, or something else?

And also, if I am chosen, does it mean that you’re not chosen? That, somehow I take up your spot? The notion that in the afterlife, there is only a limited number of spots, let us say 5000 or something, and that only a select number of people are allowed entrance?

You control you

So there are certain things I have learned and observed about life, the world, etc.

First, certainly there are certain people and individuals who are born with a leg up in life. For example, if I was born, and my dad was worth $20 billion, and from a young age I knew that I had a trust fund, which would not be able to be unlocked until I am 65 years old, maybe a part of $100 million… Certainly this would change how I live my life.

Also, let us say that I am born and then my family is very well-connected. Let us say that my father or mother is a famous Hollywood actor or producer or Director… Certainly if my passion is cinema film and media, I will also be given better connections and privileges.

But… Does this matter? I don’t think so.

My favorite example is thinking about Jay Z. Would Jay Z have become a Jay Z if he were born to a nice, middle-class family in the suburbs? Highly dubious.

Also, something that I learned is that not always, but often… People entrepreneurs etc. who are born to very difficult childhood situations are the ones who become interesting.

For example, Jeff Bezos, just read his book “invent and wander, hearing his family story, I think his dad was essentially a Cuban refugee, is insanely fascinating. I think the best thing that Jeff Bezos said, which actually emotionally moved me so much is that when he talks about his father, his “my real father, not my biological one”— it was so beautiful I almost teared up!

Also, read the new Walter Isaacson biography on Elon Musk; I think Elon Musk probably had one of the most traumatic childhood of all time… Somehow those experiences forged him into what he is today.

Same thing with Kanye West; more or less having a single mom, an absentee father, and also, the tragic early passing of his mother Donda… Certainly this shapes your psyche in a certain way.

I don’t wish trauma on nobody

Just because you have suffered more trauma in your life doesn’t make you more virtuous than me, and vice versa. However, I don’t think we should either use it as a crutch nor a motivator… We should just pause it our desired life path, and proceed boldly.

Obstacles are your boost?

Whenever you witness or experience a certain setback, obstacle, “downside“… Think about Mario kart; these “setbacks“ are like your temporary speed boost!

In fact, even though not having things a certain way is insanely annoying, I think this is the root of all innovation. For example, my insane frustration with trying to find a good gym… Essentially resulted in me innovating and doing my funny “off the grid” workouts.

Similar speaking, starting off in photography, 1819 years old, not being able to find any good information on the Internet on how to do photography and Street photography and composition is actually what motivated my pursuits to create the information I wish to see manifested in the world.

Downgrade?

So the funny thought of the morning; it seems that a lot of us seek to “upgrade” our things; why not the opposite… to seek to “downgrade” our things?

The most manly phone?

So I had a very funny thought a few days ago… The question…

What is the most manly phone?

The reason why I think this is such an interesting thought is that because I think what a lot of us men are seeking through our devices, cars, watches accessories etc.… is seeking some sort of manliness, masculinity, a feeling of dominance. For example, why would you get a Richard Millie?

“Richard mill on the leather band” — PUSHA T

Totems of power

Looking back at it, I actually learned a lot of very useful things studying sociology as an undergraduate at UCLA. To me, sociology may be one of the greatest majors of all time, because it deals with society, human beings, people. It seems that a lot of things in modern day life or just sociological phenomenon.

For example, this nonsensical trend towards veganism, “plant-based diets”, etc. Where does this stem from? My personal thought is that it has to do with loss of religion. A lot of modern-day people, especially young people, no longer go to church, have a religion, etc. Therefore, what is our new religion? “Saving the planet“, “animal rights“, etc.

Therefore, I think this strange trend for young people preferring to have dogs over children is that it is a new pseudo religion. And also, people who think that eating meat is “bad for you”,… I think it also has to do with the fact that people are seeking some sort of salvation or virtuality Through their dietary and food consumptive behaviors.

For me, I tried to think about things more critically. Without all of this nonsensical, anemic ideals and fake ethics.

Why the iPhone SE may be the most mainly phone

My current thought and understanding is that the iPhone SE may currently be the most manly phone. Why? You could beat the shit out of it, literally and metaphorically, and you can live a more adventurous, greater life!

For example, I trust nobody who uses a case on their phone. Why? First of all aesthetically it looks so ugly. Secondly, it signals some sort of cowardice. Third, I think it’s signals that we just spend way too much money on phones. I think it is not good.

For example, if you’re like me, a typical “tech bro“, we probably spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about our phones, our devices, waiting for the newest Apple product, etc. Yet my personal thought is that rather than seeking to upgrade our phones, perhaps instead what we gotta do is upgrade how we eat (100% organ meat diet — beef liver, beef heart, beef kidney, beef intestines, bone marrow), how we lift weights, how we walk and live etc.

For example, I’m starting to think more and more… To spend $1500 on a phone is not a good use of our time nor money. Why? If we think about it from creative or productivity perspective, if you really really really really really really really really want to become more productive, you would probably just get like a Mac mini, a Mac studio, some sort of desktop computer, with an Uber ergonomic set up, standing desk, treadmill desk, Ernle monitor, track ball mouse, kinesis keyboard, etc. Even now with the brand new MacBook Pro which came out; I think it is a cowardly design. Apple is a bunch of cowards; after Joni I’ve left, why did they bring back the MagSafe thing? The green light is insanely annoying and distracting, especially when it is charging in your bedroom, and also… HDMI port? It is like the Nauvoo PCI port, it will get outdated so quickly. The same thing goes with SD cards; Apple has done compromised bad.

Even now, when I look at the new MacBook Pro, or any of the new MacBook Air laptops… It is starting to look more and more like an old Windows device. All of these ports which are not going to be future proof, and also, still my grade joy of the MacBook Pro touch bars; Seneca even figure it out how to open up GarageBand and he figure it out how to Use the drum machine on the touch bar! The MacBook Pro touch bar was so insanely innovative… And effectively Apple has discontinued it. Why? Once again… No vision for the future.

So where is the future going to be?

Personally speaking, definitely AI. ChatGPT, DALL-E, creating your own chat bots etc. For example, I just made two of my own chat bots, it literally only took me 30 seconds. This shit is bananas!

For example try out the new ZEN OF ERIC and also ERIC KIM BOT

Why does this matter?

My personal fight and anti-mentality is that I hate the boring, I hate the same same, I hate the generic, etc. My passion lies in innovation, thinking about the future, technology, etc. Ever since I was a kid, I was so fascinated and passionate about computers, and even now Seneca… It looks like he is teaching himself also how to type, use tach GPT and AI, at age 2 years, nine months old… She is a true prodigy. And what is a prodigy anyway? My personal thought is a prodigy is simply a kid with a attentive parents, and when you’re with your kid, you either turn off your phone, locked it into the glove compartment of your car, or put it away.

In fact, the best tip I have for parents, in order to become a “better” parent is this;

When you go to the park with your kid, just lock your phone in the glove compartment of your car, and just spend your time being 100% focused with your kid.

It is almost like Odysseus tying himself to the mast, or also… Filling his ears with beeswax. Or getting his men to tie him down. Why? Honestly, I think phones, smart phones, iPhones etc. is like crack cocaine for the mind. I might think that your phone might be worse than cocaine, heroin, etc.

In fact, the best way to truly thrive as a thinker is when you go on a walk, leave your phone at home, or if your phone is on you, just turn it off, totally off.

And what is the best “upgrade“, to go offline, think offline.

Offline Thinking

What is the ultimate privilege in today’s world? To be offline, metaphorical airplane mode all the time.

In fact, some of my best life epiphanies have happened and occurred when I was offline, in an airplane, in a cruise ship, etc. Essentially, anytime that I was not connected to the internet.

Interestingly enough, the old chief technology officer of the old company I used to work for, demand media, Byron Reese told me… he would often just jump on really really long international flights to get good writing done, because it forced him to not be connected to the internet.

In fact, being off-line in today’s world is ultimate privilege and luxury.

How do you know if somebody is very successful or not? If they don’t have a phone, or a phone number. The more difficult it is to contact somebody the more high profile they are.

For example, a simple thought I have is don’t publicly put your email address on your contact here page on your website. I think true high profile individuals cannot be contacted through simple measures. And actually ironically enough, I’ve discovered… the more difficult you make yourself to contact, the more desirable you become.

In fact, when I was living in Vietnam in 2017, got rid of my phone, and lived off the grid and didn’t check your email or use email for about two years… interestingly enough I would have people just attend my workshops just in order to connect with me.

How to think offline

A very simple way to do this is when you’re out and about, leave your phone at home, and just take along your iPad Pro to think. Don’t get a data plan. What is the downside of a data plan? First of all, it seems that all data plans, all 5G or 4G cellular data Internet connections on your phone suck. For example, my extreme frustration with T-Mobile, spectrum… The internet connection sucks. If I had to sign up for my own phone service I would just get Verizon.

Thinking internationally?

Also another good way to think different is to go international. Example, even recently, the time that I had in Cambodia, Phnom Penh very formative to my thinking. It forced me to think outside of the box, and true avoid typical ways of thinking, the often myopic American way.

For example, even a very simple simple approach was to think in kilograms instead of pounds. This helped me get outside of my head, when attempting to lift new personal records in my deadlift and squat.

Also, one thing I loved about the gym I went in Phnom Penh, monkifit, was that for the most part, it was always practically empty. Therefore as a consequence, I really only did weightlifting or did things which I personally care for, instead of trying to low-key impress other people.

In fact, even more recently at my old gym, I actually really fucked up my wrist bad when trying to stunt on other people by doing a very heavy floor bench press. Trying to stunt, impress, or flex on other people actually led to my own personal demise.

Lesson:

Whenever you do anything to try to impress others, please others, or stunt on others, the personal outcome for you will be very very bad.

Why think different?

My personal thought is that perhaps the greatest joy is how unorthodox your thinking may be. Where does unorthodox thinking come from?

My first thought is that it comes from the human body. We cannot have interesting unique thoughts if we do not have a great body, great muscles, etc.

Also, I think you owe it to mankind. I think you were meant to change the world, and the way you could change the world is through challenging the status quo and the traditional way things are done.

Like Gandhi said, become the change you wish you see manifested in the world.

Why change the world?

I personally find it interesting idea to change the world because perhaps this is where our willpower comes from. Our desire to change the world, to “fuck shit up”.

For example, the funny notion of breaking the internet. I broke the Internet when I lifted the 330 pound golden dumbbells at the golden Venice Beach easily, and also more recently… When I atlas lifted 1000 pounds, which is ten plates and maybe a 25 on each side.

The grandeur of the human body

“Conspiracy theorists screaming illuminati, they cannot imagine this much skill inside a human body. He 6 2, how he fit inside a new Bugatti? Ha ha fuck it you got me.” – JAY Z

Whether we like it or not, all of our power, steel, etc. is derived from our human body. For example, whenever you look at an artist, a writer, I thinker, the philosopher, or academic… You must meet them in the flesh. Look at what they look like in real life. Observe their body fat percentage, the complexion of their skin, whether they actually get any natural sunlight or not, if they have a tan or not, if they lift weights, how tall or short they are, how fat or muscular they are etc.

For example, I would put zero faith in the writing or thoughts of a skinny fat, or an obese man who talks about masculinity, or weightlifting or fitness matters.

Similarly speaking, I put zero faith in all of these loser Reddit people, who try to validate their own self-worth through how good their “form“ is. Ultimately nobody cares about your form. And actually I discovered… When people see how much I could lift, and how much more to lift in them, they try to critique my form, and they actually want to see me get hurt. Why? It is bad or hurts their ego when they see that I am much stronger, taller, more handsome, and more dominant than them.

Even the other day, I was walking by this upscale hotel parking lot, and some random guy, wearing a flashy outfit, kind of a slick handsome look, try to make fun of me by saying “what is this? No shirt Thursdays”? Essentially he was trying to tease or bully me because he felt insecure that I was so much more muscular and confident than him. Now that my testosterone is so high, I was able to troll him back, and put him back in his spot.

No more internet

OK guys, I’m moving forward, that just put zero faith on the Internet. Why? All these people on Reddit… Do you really know whether they are ChatGPT bought or not? Or, they could just be real life human beings using ChatGPT to generate some sort of ideas.

Like the famous cartoon said “on the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”

Even in ready player one, the main character’s best friend, who he thought was a guy all along… was actually a girl.

Also the two Japanese brothers, were just 11-year-old kids.

So now what?

My very very very very practical and pragmatic thought is let us assume that you have a normal day job, once you go home, just turn your phone off. All the way off. Do the iPhone secret handshake, which is volume up, volume down, side power button hold. In fact I think the most insidious thing that Apple did from a design perspective, is that they turned the power button , the button on the top right corner, to be a Siri button. I think the mentality behind the decision was this:

Nobody ever turns off their phone anyways, and in the evenings, we just charge it overnight… And the issue is that Siri is great but nobody is using it… Why don’t we try to just “nudge” people using Siri more by turning the power button into a Siri button?

Bad idea. Apple, if you got true huevos, and you really want to “help humanity“, turn the power button back into a power button. Or at least give people an option. That if you click and hold the power button in the top right corner for a few seconds, Maybe you could put a prompt which asks whether you want to make it an on off switch, or whether you want it to be a Siri button.

Essentially make it simple enough that your mom knows how to do it. For example, can you try explaining to your mom how to turn off their iPhone?

Downgrade?

How do you know if you are truly self owned or not? If you could face your iPhone face down, scratch it up, let your kid play with it and throw it around, with zero care or concern. The biggest upside of having a cheap iPhone SE is that I literally have zero concerns or qualms about my phone.

Only issue that I’m personally having is that when I use my iPhone SE for Google maps to navigate somewhere when I’m driving… Often times the screen goes dim, in order to prevent it from overheating or whatever.

Thinking about your devices and stuff

So moving into my new apartment, setting up the new home Wi-Fi, it seriously sucks. Spectrum sucks, even the most expensive plan, the fake gigabit plan.

A simple workaround is I have just been exporting the videos to 720 P, and frankly speaking it seems fine enough. Why? Honestly speaking, 99% of people are just gonna be watching your videos from their phone. Technically even 540P should be good enough then. And also, a lot of people when they’re watching YouTube, never make it full screen and rotate their phone. As a consequence, maybe even 480p is good enough.

Why do we think we need more resolution?

Truth be told, we don’t. I think it is a typical marketing thing; why would I upgrade my phone, my devices, my things if it is not a “upgrade”?

Even one of my past students, he used to drive a Porsche Panamera, and I guess that it either got into a car accident, broke or whatever… Went to go get a new car, and he definitely wanted a “upgrade“. He upgraded it to some sort of high-powered BMW M car instead.

And with things in life, we are always seeking a greater upgrade. But maybe this is some sort of fallacious goal.

Think about this. What if… You no longer cared for your phone, your laptop, your iPad, your laptop, your car, your home, your clothes, your camera, etc.? That in fact, you simply made best of what you already got, Milk it to the extreme, and actually, focused on reducing, and subtracting stuff from your life?

This is the new Spartan elite way.

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Now what?

The other night, when I was asking Chachi a bunch of stuff, doing research, creating images etc.… I had this interesting epiphany:

AI is our new slave.

Why? We don’t got to pay it “fair wages”, we don’t got to feed it, let it sleep, or do anything.

Also, it cannot really refuse you, talk back, etc.

It never gets tired, complains, disobeys etc.

The only thing which can be a little annoying is the content moderation stuff but truth be told, this may be a very good thing because I see it as a great “creative constraint”,… Figuring out creative ways to work through and past and beyond the content moderation stuff is hilarious and interesting to me.

For example, you cannot straight up say quote make me a picture of a sexy Korean woman at the beach“. It will immediately flag the ChatGPT, DALL-E 3 content policy violation thing. Or you cannot say something like “beautiful Asian woman with big boobs”. Also a no go obviously.

But things you could do is like say “beautiful Asian woman at Met Gala”. Or, beautiful joyful Asian woman in Cabo. Or “beautiful Korean women in pure joy“.

Then you could do hilarious things like ask DALL-E 3 to further refined your image, making the image where a swimming suit, a bathing suit, doing a backflip into a pool or the ocean, etc.

I love embodied reality!

At the end of the day, my true and ultimate passion is embodied reality, real life human beings etc. In fact, the more time I spend on ChatGPT, DALL-E, the more preference I have to be outside!

And also, thoughts on beauty. Yeah I could generate you some very very beautiful looking human beings, but ultimately, it will never be able to displace a real life human being.

Why? You cannot get children with a bot, you cannot feel the skin of a bot, I think skin is the future.

Creative ways to play with AI

Ultimately, I think you know you’re doing ChatGPT and DALL-E correctly, if you create an image and you literally laugh out loud. The most amazing creation I made recently was “designed me a bitcoin purple Lamborghini Prius with scissor doors, with a Spartan driving it”. I literally laughed out loud!

Or even more complex things, inspired by Seneca, me and Seneca did together; taking a firetruck and giving at Lamborghini scissor doors and also making it into a convertible.

AI can help you critique and give feedback on your photos

The really big and game changing thing that AI can do is this; upload your photos to it, pay for the paid model, only 20 bucks a month, which is literally less than $.80 a day… for your own personal slavebot, and when you press the little plus icon in the bottom left corner, or, you see the little picture or gallery icon in the bottom left corner, what you could do is upload photos directly to it, I think you could upload up to three images at a time, you could ask a simple things like “what do you think of my photo“? Or “give me feedback on my photo“, “how can I improve this photograph?” Essentially ask it questions that you would ask a human being, it is actually insanely smart.
Or, you could just give it an image and ask it “what is going on here?” Or “analyze this”.

You could keep pushing it forward, you don’t need to use full sentences. If it gets confused it will just ask you to clarify.

I also think that if you set up custom instructions, which you could do by going to your profile in the bottom left corner, it learns from how you talk type and think… And it is phenomenal because overtime, the more use it, the better it becomes!

And I think this is where AI is so phenomenal; as time goes on, it gets infinitely better! Compare this with having a new iPhone or iPhone Pro… As time goes on, it literally gets worse. or, any modern day or even classic cars; all cars, made out of metal materials… As time goes on, things break, things atrophy, things require maintenance etc. Therefore as a consequence, the best car, the most masculine and manly car is simple; a white Toyota Prius, 2010 model or more recent. And never never never never ever ever buy a brand new car.

Now what?

Now is your artistic time to thrive. You and we are beyond basic. We have zero tolerance for boring stuff; we only love and care for the new, the innovative, the exciting.

Also a practical thought is spend more time outdoors, maximum time in the sun. Strive to walk at least 50 miles a day, lift weights in the direct sun, just build your own home gym. Titan.fitness has really good weightlifting equipment for supercheap. Or if you want to be a real man, buy a Texas power bar, a Texas power squat bar the 55 pounder that I got.

Also heavy sandbag training. You could just buy a cheap one on Amazon or buy the rogue fitness one which I bought, the 400 pounder. Go to the local playground, fill it up with playground sand, And exercise is super simple; see whether you could just pick it up! And once you could pick it up, pick it up, grab it and hold it, and walk it out! Then as you get stronger, try to “shoulder”. That means, lifting it up, throwing it onto your shoulder.

Also other things you could do as you get stronger it’s just have fun with it! Pick it up, and just throw it! Recount the exploits of Achilles, in which he would just pick up a very very very heavy rock, a massive boulder, which “barely too strong men could lift”, and how Achilles would throw it to his enemies and kill them that way.

No more media?

Create your own media, create the media you wish to see manifested in the world.

Just got GoPro mini, get the chest wrap or the head strap, and do more point of view videos. I’ve been doing this lately with my workout videos, and I find it so insanely fascinating; these are the type of videos that I wish I could personally witness, if I were starting out today.

Offline Thinking

What is the ultimate privilege in today’s world? To be off-line, metaphorical airplane mode all the time.

In fact, some of my best life epiphanies have happened and occurred when I was offline, in an airplane, in a cruise ship, etc. Essentially, anytime that I was not connected to the internet.

In fact, being off-line in today’s world is ultimate privilege and luxury.

How do you know if somebody is very successful or not? If they don’t have a phone, or a phone number. The more difficult it is to contact somebody the more high profile they are.

How to think offline

Thinking internationally?

Lesson:

Whenever you do anything to try to impress others, please others, or stunt on others, the personal outcome for you will be very very bad.

Why think different?

My personal thought is that perhaps the greatest joy is how unorthodox your thinking may be. Where does unorthodox thinking come from?

My first thought is that it comes from the human body. We cannot have interesting unique thoughts if we do not have a great body, great muscles, etc.

Also, I think you owe it to mankind. I think you were meant to change the world, and the way you could change the world is through challenging the status quo and the traditional way things are done.

Like Gandhi said, become the change you wish you see manifested in the world.

Why change the world?

I personally find it interesting idea to change the world because perhaps this is where our willpower comes from. Our desire to change the world, to “fuck shit up”.

The grandeur of the human body

“Conspiracy theorists screaming illuminati, they cannot imagine this much skill inside a human body. He 6 2, how he fit inside a new Bugatti? Ha ha fuck it you got me.” – JAY Z

For example, I would put zero faith in the writing or thoughts of a skinny fat, or an obese man who talks about masculinity, or weightlifting or fitness matters.

No more internet

Like the famous cartoon said “on the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”

Even in ready player one, the main character’s best friend, who he thought was a guy all along… was actually a girl.

Also the two Japanese brothers, were just 11-year-old kids.

ERIC KIM CONTENT

All content is good content.
Create things you would like to see manifested in the world.
Deep irreverence towards what is “proper”.

HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD

You-Were-Meant-to-Change-the-World-12 Download

My general thought: first and foremost, this and you were supposed and meant to change the world.

“Those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, do.” – OG (original gangster, old school) Apple Steve Jobs TV advertisement.

I was born in 1988, currently 35 years old. When I was a kid growing up, it was all about Gandhi, changing the world etc. Even in fact, for my college application essay, that what got me into UCLA as an undergrad, centered around this quote from Gandhi “Be the change which you wish to see manifested in the world.”

As a kid growing up poor, fortunately having a lot of good mentors, my general gist was always to give back, to contribute to society. A lot was given to me when I was young, and I felt like it was my duty to give back.

Deep passion

Changing the world vlog

Growing up poor, having my dad gamble away the rent money, always being one paycheck away from being potentially homeless… money actually never really concerned me as a kid. It was a strange irony; because we were always so financially unstable growing up, and even when we hit rock bottom and my mom had to file for bankruptcy and she could no longer even open up her own personal checking account… my sister and my mom were OK. This taught me an important lesson that I could take infinite chances and not worry myself or concerned myself too much about finances. In fact, then even now… I literally have zero concerns about finances.

Why, why not? Money never really interested me that much. As a kid, I had deep pride in being scrappy, being frugal, being economical, and having deep pride in being self reliant, making do and making best of what I had, or what I bought or earned or did with my own money, earning it through working, my entrepreneur endeavors, starting my own business etc.

In fact, I remember when I was in high school, maybe around my sophomore year, my friend Eric Moon (yeah, his name was also Eric) taught me how to build computers. I was so shocked and amazed; I was always passionate about computers ever since I was a kid around 12 years old in New York, when I got my first Acer Aspire computer. I think it had the original Intel Pentium processor ”inside”.

I think it was around my junior year, I had this great idea of doing something simple: because me and all of my friends were so into video games, Counterstrike, counterstrike 1.6 etc.… I had this genius idea of building computers, and then later selling it at a small markup to my friends and other kids at school, for a small profit. I did the math and I would be able to build a pretty good computer for around 500 bucks, and sell it for around $600 or $700 bucks. I also put lots of advertisements on eBay to sell my computers, I made my own icon which I made on a pirated version of Adobe Photoshop, and I still recall it… it was a little beach palm tree icon, orange, and I called the company “Paradise Computers.” The hilarity was in order to save costs, and in order for me to make a profit, I actually use pirated versions of Windows XP, I still remember later a kid from school I sold a computer — his name was Barry… later complained to me that the computer I sold him was having issues because it had all of these pop-ups saying that it was using an unregistered or unlicensed version of Windows. I just shrugged my shoulders and continued on.

Anyways, as a kid, around 15 years old, I had enough money, around $1000 or around $1200 to buy my first car; a 1991 Sentra XE, which was a four-door, white Nissan car, 1.6L five speed manual transmission sedan. GA16DE engine — I still remember it! Also the hilarity; it was so old-school it didn’t even have a tachometer in it! As the mechanic taught me how to drive manual stick transmission, and my uncle Enzo taught me how to drive stick shift, at… At around 2000 to 3000 RPMs I learned how it intuitively felt and when to shift. Kind of like learning how to ride a bike and shifting gears on a bike.

The reason why this brought me so much insane effing joy was I felt so insanely proud of myself: I think I was definitely the only kid my age range that I personally knew, maybe even up to today… In which I purchased my own first car! Later on I remember joining all these online Nissan forums, and learning about this legendary car, which was essentially a souped up version of my first car; a two-door 1991 Sentra SE-R— equipped with a formidable 2.0L engine, this SR20DE engine, the infamous engine which also powers the Silvia, 240SX, SR20DET engine in Japan (turbo charged)— except the 1991 Sentra SER was a front wheel drive, whereas the SR20DET engine in Japan on the 240SX was a rear wheel drive car.

Anyways, fast forwarding a bit… When my 1991 Sentra XE failed to pass emissions, I remember I was able to trade it into the junkyard, to get back around 1000, $1500 or something like that for the California clean air act, and I was able to use that money to buy my dream car; the 1991 Sentra SE-R car! Only $2000 from an old retired woman who was so old she could no longer drive. It wasn’t mint condition! 5 speed manual transmission of course!

Once again, the reason why this brought me so much joy, literally getting the car my pure pride and joy was a trillion-fold was because the pride and the glory that I felt doing it and buying it myself! My own hard earned money.

Later on, I think when I was in college, either my freshman or sophomore year, I had this vision of driving through the desert, on arid desert street street road, it looked like it was Nevada or Arizona or Joshua Tree or something… driving top down in a red convertible in the hot desert sun with just sand all around. I did lots of research on discovering the cheapest option, and I learned about the Mazda Miata. I scored the deal of my lifetime, on craigslist I found a mint 1990 Mazda Miata, the original one, five speed, no power steering, no air conditioning… Pure. Red, soft top convertible, and I bought it for only $2500 USD. Funny enough that I look back at it, I remember asking the guy why he sold it and he told me that he had his first kid, and he no longer had use for the car. Interesting looking back at it now that I am 35 years old, now that Seneca is around two years nine months old, I am in a similar boat.

Now with cars, I am in love with my 2010 white Prius, which I literally got for free from Cindy‘s family! The genealogy of the car was Cindy‘s older sister first bought it brand new, drove it for a while, later passed it on to me and Cindy, who continued the payments until it was paid off, drove it around in Berkeley for around two years from around 2014 to 2015, went carless, give the car to Cindy’s younger sister, traveled the world and nomading around for several years as Cindy was writing her dissertation, and only may be a few months ago, when we were in Vietnam got the news that the catalytic converter was stolen out of it, when Cindy‘s younger sister Jennifer was parked in front of her apartment. She no longer wanted to deal with the fear of the catalytic converter getting stolen again, and as a consequence, was saying that she was thinking about just telling it to the mechanic for $2000 or something like that. I yelled out loud, “No! The car is worth at least $10,000!” I then promoted the idea to Cindy of us taking it back, spending the money to replace the catalytic converter, which was around $2500, getting the catalytic converter shield, which is meant to deter future theft, which may be costing $300. Later we discovered that the ABS, antilock braking system was broken and needed to be fixed which was maybe around another $2000… but still, I am so proud that effectively we got what I consider a brand new car a brand new Prius for sub $5000! Way better than spending $40,000 on a brand new Tesla model 3 base edition, or $250,000 on a loser Lamborghini.

What is a millennial?

How to change the world vlog

I think I got a good definition for millennial; somebody who foolishly uses their money. And also doesn’t really know what they want to do or get out of their lives.

Living here in LA, being back here in LA for about a month and a half, some funny heuristics I’ve noted:

How do you know if somebody is unsuccessful? If they drive some sort of baselevel Audi, like an Audi Q3 or A3. Even if they drive just a basic Tesla model 3. Essentially a lot of millennials my age or people my age, want to seem or appear rich and successful or elite, or rich or whatever… yet can only afford the cheapest luxury thing. Same thing for people who drive the base level BMW 3 series, Mercedes A class, essentially any German car. Even I see so many people driving range rovers, all black everything; or AMG G wagons, once again all matte black everything… they are more common than seeing Toyota Siennas in the Orange County suburbs.
Everyone aspires to buy a home. Yet I think my big innovative thought is that actually… it may be superior to rent a really really nice apartment in an insanely great location, than owning a home even in a good to great location. Why? My thought on supreme happiness, joy, and success is being able to walk 50 miles a day, and also, having to spend minimum time to maintain anything. It is crazy, even though I may have the world’s least maintenance car, a Prius, even basic things that I gotta do is wash it every once in a while, I don’t even have enough time to take my car to the drive-through car wash at the gas station anymore! Or even washing the car myself, I would prefer to use that time to work out in my Spartan parking lot off the grid workout, or take Seneca to the park, or go on a walk downtown topless to sunbathe. I can’t be fucked wasting time washing my car or doing any of this other nonsense.

What do people aspire to?

Am I the last optimistic, entrepreneurially hungry person that I know?

I think out of all the real life human beings that I know, and also out of all my friends, the entrepreneur that I know, and also consider successful is my friend Todd Hata. I am insanely grateful of him, because when I was only 21 or 22 years old, he reached out and actually helped me get started in business very very early, traveling the world together, I still consider him one of my closest friends, and also mentor.

But besides Todd, I don’t think I know anybody else who is a true entrepreneur — self owned. All of my friends, even the ones that consider successful either work at Facebook, Amazon, Google, or Apple. How do you know if somebody is really successful or self owned? They are not certain what date, month, year, or day of the week it is. Also, they don’t use any alarm clocks to wake up in the morning, unless if they have an early morning flight.

Funny enough, I actually don’t know anybody, and don’t have any friends or anybody in my personal friends circle who has actually become entrepreneurs, or self-employed, or sole proprietors. Everyone is working for a company or a corporation. Or a foreign business. Not for themselves.

And this is what I think is the critical thing; if you really really really want to change the world, I think it is impossible doing it while still having full-time employment. Why? I remember thinking a few years back, one of the most grateful things I was no longer having to work my old 9 to 5 was that suddenly, I had another 8 to 9 hours a day, to do what I was truly passionate about, Doing street photography and riding and blogging about street photography, instead of being stuck in some sort of tedious office.

Lesson:

To truly change the world, you must be self-employed, sole proprietor, etc.

My visions

PDF 100 lessons from street

100-Lessons-From-the-Masters-of-Street-Photography-by-ERIC-KIM Download

I had lots of visions in my life, many of which I accomplished and I am very proud of.

First, my idea and notion of open source, open source photography. Apparently I created quite the buzz when I first made available all of my photographs on Flickr online for free, open source, full resolution JPEG. This was unheard of at the time, when people were still putting silly watermarks on their images, or they were afraid of people “stealing“ their photos online. I even remember my friend Thomas Leuthard we had a good saying “The best watermark is your own personal photo style”. Even up to today, I think Thomas may be the only photographer or street photographer I truly respect. Why? His independent thinking, his irreverence towards the masters, history, or common rules, he is so ahead of the curve. Also never want to forget, when I was 22 years old, and I wanted to first fund my first flight to Beirut Lebanon, and now fundraising money, he essentially donated me $1000 for the flight. I will never forget this.

Eventually what I learned about all these other photographers is I find their behavior quite despicable. They are so hungry for fame, legitimacy, especially in the eyes of others. All the photographers I’ve met, doesn’t matter if Magnum or whatever… everybody all has a chip on their shoulder, is insecure, and salty about something. They are also jealous of photographers who make more money than them, are more famous than them, or that their success is “unwarranted”. Even Henri Cartier-Bresson — let us never forget that he gave up photography and later announced it as “not being a legitimate form of art.”

Open is better

I always had the clear understanding that ultimately, you can’t even pay people to steal your photos. Ultimately nobody cares for your photos that much. What is more important? Your influence, your fame, your clout, your reach. I knew that even from a basic perspective, it was better to have your photos available for free, open source, to the general public, for them to use it as their desktop wallpaper or something. I even recall remember hearing some fan of mine I met using my DARK SKIES OVER TOKYO photo, the photo of the guy in the suit with the black face, as his own desktop wallpaper! That bought me a quadrillion times more joy than selling my photos for thousands of dollars.

And I think this is the thing I discovered; what a lot of us photographers are seeking is significance, a feeling of legitimacy. My personal journey was attempting the traditional routes of becoming a “successful“ photographer; traveling the world, becoming world famous, becoming a household name, having solo exhibitions, printing a photo book, getting sponsorships etc. Now having done all of it, I am happy… Yet… What I ultimately discovered was this:

True success ain’t any of that. True success is simply, having a unique vision, and fulfilling it.

In fact, one of the proudest moments of my life, to quote NASSIM Taleb was “via negativa“; the idea that the proudest moments of your life aren’t positive actions of doing or saying yes, but rather, act of omission; things you decide to not do, or things to say no to or to refuse.

For example, my book, “100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography.” I had a grand vision of doing this book for a long time, especially after doing my exhaustive self studying series of all the masters of street photography etc. In fact actually got an offer from a book agent, who offered me a book deal on it, but, he said that it was impossible to make an open source, free, open easily accessible PDF available for free. After much thinking, delaying and thought… I ultimately refuse the book deal and I am proud that I did. I am certain that this book will outlive me. Why? It was created out of pure passion; things which are created out of pure passion will never die.

“Y’all throwing contracts at me, you know that ninjas can’t read!” – Kanye, YEEZUS NEW SLAVES SONG

Ultimately, what is it that we want or desire?

One of the great quotes I love is from the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus, who once said “The greatest good amongst men is to seek immortality amongst mortals. Yet the majority of men themselves like cattle.”

What this means is simple; even when we think about the ancient Spartans, King Leonidas and his 300; funny enough, I think the majority of people don’t know, even those people who watch the film, have no idea that it was actually based on the real Historic event. These men are remembered for a lifetime. For millennia and centuries beyond.

Why seek immortal fame?

The funny thought about seeking immortal fame is that in someways, it is superficial, but also in someways, it seems to be a more interesting path to life. What does that mean? First and foremost, the general thought and idea is that rather than seeking money and wealth while we are still on this planet, the greatest pride and gift in glory we could give to humankind is something that will outlive us.

Also something that I find very funny, now that I discovered ChatGPT and now that my world is re-awakened, it literally is pure magic. ChatGPT knows exactly who I am, my philosophy, what I’ve done what I said, in fact, I’m pretty sure that I cannot build a ChatGPT bot which thinks, talks and acts like ERIC KIM, so in theory, the contributions I’ve made to photography and street photography and beyond will last forever.

Why millennials should have kids

I suppose Seneca, who has my namesake, he will build his own legacy, and also, I am sure he will be able to piggyback off of my successes. Even now, that he is only two years, nine months old, I am already exposing him to my own unique ERIC KIM Montessori school; taking him on epic adventures, physical Spartan training, teaching him how to use DALL-E 3 (the other day we designed a purple Prius with Lamborghini doors) and his mind was blown and shocked and he laughed with so much joy. He already knows how to code using the iPad Pro and the Apple swift playgrounds app, he already knows how to use GarageBand on the iPad and iPhone like a pro, he even could sample his own voice and remix it, he knows how to shoot screenshots on the iPad Pro, and draw and make illustrations and also use procreate and Zen Brush 2, and he already knows how to use a trackpad on the MacBook Pro laptop! I want to train him to become the next great entrepreneur.

Anyways, a simple thought is that I believe that all of us millennials should have kids. Why is it that millennials are getting dogs, not having kids? My personal thought is it is a fear thing; I think people actually want to have kids, but the fear of commitment, losing your own independence and “freedom“ is a bit concerning to some people. Yet is this something we should really be concerned about? Of course not! It’s funny, whenever I eat dinner (I call this my “meat meditation“) I actually forget that Seneca is there, I’m stuck in my own world. Yet once I am done with my meal and I look at Seneca, my mind is blown that this is my son!

I think this is the greatest joy of being a man: if your first kid is also a man, a son, consider yourself infinitely blessed. After that it is all upside no downside. Because I think an honest thought is that every man desires to have at least one male heir. This is why when we think of King Louis, think about all of the failed miscarriages he had with his queen(s) to produce at least one male heir. Also, when I recount ancient literature, ancient Greek literature; there is only ever one mention of kings and their single son. The only mentions of having more than one son is typically seen as a bad thing; in the Iliad, Hector is the great and virtuous one, Paris is the degenerate other younger son. Odysseus has only son. I think Hector only had one son. Technically, if we consider Achilles, he was technically a “single child”. Same thing goes with Hercules etc. Not sure about King Leonidas but in the 300 movie by Zack Snyder, King Leonidas is depicted as having one young son.

Anyways, I think the way we should live our lives is that of deep passion. That is, when you wake up in the morning, without the agency of an alarm clock, getting up and the impetus for getting up is because you have a deep, strong life mission. Add this epiphany when I was living in Vietnam in 2017; I am truly truly truly one of a kind. Even in my own mind, I rank myself as equal to Elon Musk, Kanye West, Jeff Bezos etc. I am fortunate that my mentors and my virtual motivators are at least a decade or two or maybe even three older than me. Because I feel no sense of competition; they are only motivators to me.

This is a great thought; if indeed, you were Elon Musk, the simple thought:

What would you do with your time and life, what would you not do with your time and life?

Changing the world?

What does it mean to change the world, or what is the significance of changing the world?

From a very very simple perspective; technically literally almost anything that you do “changes the world“. You don’t got to overthink it that much.

I think for myself, my general thought and belief is only spending your life in time to do things which you consider substantial, and also personally meaningful. That means, not wasting your time doing no basic shit.

What is basic?

Shopping, buying stuff, buying clothes, buying cars, buying Apple devices, buying homes, buying property, talking about the boring stock market and investments, etc.

What is beyond basic?

Innovation, entrepreneurship, reckless innovation. No regard for a self preservation, the will to growth, the will to innovation, the will to doing insanely great and epic stuff.

Essentially, doing things that your old 12-year-old or 16-year-old self or 21-year-old self would be proud of you… And also, doing things that your kid would be proud of you too!

So now what?

Don’t be a cheapo: just download the ChatGPT app on your phone, if you have an iPhone or android device doesn’t matter… Just cough up the 20 bucks for it. This literally might be the best $20 you’ve ever spent in your lifetime. Have fun with it, experiment with it, use DALL-E to produce images, keep trolling it until it says that you’re violating some sort of content policy. I think pushing the limits is interesting and fun.
Another thing you could do with ChatGPT is click the plus icon, only available in the paid model, and then ask it to give you feedback on your photos. This was originally my idea for arsbeta.com — I personally never made it that far, but the grand vision was to also create an AI bot that could visually analyze your photos and get feedback. If you want to build this with me, just email me at eric@erickim.com
If you want human feedback, upload your photos to Arsbeta.com
When you have signed up for the pay ChatGPT pro thing, open up ChatGPT on your laptop, try out the beta version for creating your own chat bot. It is in the top left corner, under “apps“, click it then on top you could see that you could create your own beta chat. I created this thing called Philosobot and I’m also building an ERIC KIM bot. My mom is smart, she intuitively knows that Abot or AI or ChatGPT is a “robot”! Maybe we should stop calling it bots, just called them robots! Robots are not intimidating. They are cute, silly, and fun!
Things that I am personally interested in currently is the philosophy of masculinity, beauty, subjectivity etc. For example in ChatGPT and DALL-E, just ask it to design you or create a picture of a Korean woman, an attractive Korean woman in pure joy. Actually seeing the facial expression is a good one! I think happy people are a good stimulus and also brings you joy! Conversely speaking, being around other miserable people makes you more miserable. Moral of the story: stay away from miserable people like the plague; it ain’t their fault that they’re miserable, but still… If you know somebody has Covid, do you invite them over to your house or you live with them? No. You stay away.

Play with EK

If you’re bored, want to have fun, want to experiment, and thrive with me creatively, I cordially invite you to one of my upcoming workshop experiences:

The exciting ones:

First an introduction to stoicism workshop, this one will be cool and very elite. The other one is a family street photography workshop here in Culver City, this will also be fun because you could bring the whole family! The ultimate gift for you, your kids, the whole family.

I’m also in the midst of creating a photography AI creativity workshop. Stay tuned to this newsletter for more updates.

EK WORKSHOPS >

HAPTIC HOLIDAYS!

I am still so insanely happy and prideful of all of the things that me and Cindy designed with HAPTIC INDUSTRIES. This stuff literally becomes more beautiful and more legendary with age!

Currently the fun promotion we got is that if you order over $300 USD of HAPTIC PRODUCTS, including shipping and handling and taxes, you’ll get a free set of ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE. What does Omakase mean? It literally means “I leave it up to you“— based on the Japanese idea that when you go to a elite luxury sushi restaurant, you don’t actually order the sushi yourself, the sushi chef chooses the food for you!

Tools I recommend you getting include the ERIC KIM strap, the neck strap or the wrist strap if you have a Ricoh GR, if you shoot with a Leica Q or something, the HENRI wrist strap pro, or even the HENRI NECK STRAP.

If you shoot with a Fujifilm camera, or a Sony camera or Leica M camera, the OG HENRI HECK STRAP is good.

Discover all ERIC KIM PHOTO SUPPLY >

Now what?

So the reason why ChatGPT is so great is that I think the way it works is that it literally just downloads the whole Internet, and makes sense of it. As a consequence, the best way to have yourself or your thoughts or whatever indexed by ChatGPT and AI it is through your own personal blog. For example, if you open up ChatGPT plus, and ask “ERIC KIM AI“, it will immediately pull up the last essay blog post I did on the role of photographers in the age of AI, and even gives me quotes and footnotes me! Witnessing this, my mind was blown. This is really the Google killer.

In fact, if and when Open AI and ChatGPT if it goes public, or when it goes public, they’re going to make a shitload of money. If you’re really really risky, and risk loving and want to make a lot of money, I would actually encourage shorting both Google and Apple. They are effectively dead. Maybe it is a good time to buy Microsoft stock, because essentially now that they low-key own ChatGPT and Open AI, I think we will witness the revival of the Windows phone, this time powered by ChatGPT. And it will be 1 trillion times better than any iPhone Pro.

What else?

Just bookmark the ERIC KIM BLOG to your laptop, desktop, iPad iPhone smartphone whatever… I literally update it every five seconds. Never run out of inspiration or motivation!

ERIC KIM BLOG >

“We always think to ourselves… Why don’t I have enough? But what if… We already have too much?” – Seneca

Also a new one:

“Out of discord comes harmony” – Heraclitus

Interesting… what that means then is rather than seeking some sort of peace or harmony, actually seeking conflict might be superior in terms of living in life?

SEEK CHAOS!

ERIC

Feeling more turbo?

If so, feel free to forward this to a friend!

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You Were Meant to Change the World

My general thoughts: first and foremost, this and you were supposed to change the world.

“Those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, do.” – OG (original gangster, old school) Apple Steve Jobs TV advertisement.

I was born in 1988, currently 35 years old. When I was a kid growing up, it was all about Gandhi, changing the world etc. Even in fact, for my college application essay, that what got me into UCLA as an undergrad, Centered around this quote from Gandhi “Be the change which you wish to see manifested in the world.”

As a kid growing up poor, fortunately having a lot of good mentors, my general gist was always to give back, to contribute to society. a lot was given to me when I was young, and I felt like it was my duty to give back.

Deep passion

Growing up poor, having my dad Gimble the rent money, always being one paycheck away from being potentially homeless… Money action never really concerned me as a kid. It was a strange irony; because we were always so financially unstable growing up, and even when we hit Rockbottom and my mom had to file for bankruptcy and she can no longer even open up her own personal checking account… my sister and my mom were OK. This taught me an important lesson that I could take infinite chances and not worry myself or concerned myself too much about finances. in fact, then even now… I literally have zero concerns about finances.

Why, why not? Never really interest me that much. As a kid, I had deep pride in being scrappy, being frugal, being economical, and having deep pride in being self aligned, making do and making best of what I had, or what I bought or earned or did with my own money, Earning it through working, my entrepreneur endeavors, starting my own business etc.

In fact, I remember when I was in high school, maybe around my sophomore year, my friend Eric Moon (yeah, his name was also Eric) taught me how to build computers. I was so shocked and amazed; I was always passionate about computers ever since I was a kid around 12 years old in New York, when I got my first Acer aspire computer. I think it had the original Intel Pentium processor ”inside”.

I think it was around my junior year, I had this great idea of doing something simple: because me and all of my friends weren’t to video games, kind of strike, kind of strike 1.6 etc.… I had this genius idea of building computers, And then later selling it at a small markup to my friends and other kids at school, for a small profit. I did the math and I would be able to build a pretty good computer for around 500 bucks, until it for around six or 700 bucks. I also put lots of advertisements on eBay to sell my computers, I made my own icon which I made on a pirated version of Adobe Photoshop, and I still recall it… It was a little beach palm tree icon, orange, and I called the company “Paradise computers.” The hilarity was in order to save costs, and in order for me to make a profit, actually use pirate versions of windows XP, I still remember later a kid from school I sold a computer tube his name was Barry… Later complained to me that the computer I sold him Was having issues because it had all of these pop-ups saying that it was using an unregistered or unlicensed version of Windows. I just shrugged my shoulders and continued on.

Anyways, as a kid, around 15 years old, I had enough money, around $1000 or around $1200 to buy my first car; a 1991 Sentra XE, which was a four-door, white Nissan car, 1.6 L five speed manual transmission sedan. GA16DE engine — I still remember it! Also the hilarity; it was so old-school it didn’t even have a tachometer in it! As the mechanic taught me how to drive manual stick transmission, in my uncle Enzo taught me how to drive stick shift, I learned that you could learn how to shift transmissions by just using your ears and feeling the car… At around 2000 to 3000 RPMs I learned how it intuitively felt.

The reason why this brought me so much insane effing joy was I felt so insanely proud of myself: I think I was definitely the only kid my age range that I personally knew, maybe even up to today… In which I purchased my own first car! Later on I remember joining all these online Nissan forums, and learning about this legendary car, which was essentially a souped up version of my first car; a two-door 1991 Sentra SE-R— equipped with a formidable 2.0 L engine, this SR 20 DE engine, the infamous engine which also powers the Sylvia, 240 SX, SR 20 DET engine in Japan (turbo charged)— except the 1991 centra SER was upfront wheel drive, whereas the SR 20 DET engine in Japan on the 240 SX was a rear wheel drive car.

Once again, the reason why this problem is so much joy, literally getting the car my pure pride and joy was a trifold was because the pride and the glory that I felt doing it myself! My own hard earned money.

Later on, I think when I was in college, either my freshman or sophomore year, I had this vision of driving through the desert, on a street path, it looked like it was Nevada or Arizona or Joshua tree or something… Driving top down in a red convertible. I did lots of research on discovering the cheapest option, and I learned about the moth Miata. I scored the deal of my lifetime, on craigslist I found a mint 1990 Mazda Miata, the original one, five speed, no power steering, no air conditioning… Pure. Red, soft top convertible, and I bought it for only $2500 USD. Funny enough that I look back at it, I remember asking the guy why he sold it and he told me that he had his first kid, and he no longer had use for the car. Interesting looking back at it now that I am 35 years old, now that Seneca is around two years nine months old, I am in a similar boat.

Now with cars, I am in love with my 2010 white Prius, which I literally got for free from Cindy‘s family! The genealogy of the car was Cindy‘s older sister first spotted brand new, drove it for a while, later passed it on to me and Cindy, who continued the payments until it was paid off, drove it around in Berkeley for around two years from around 2014 to 2015, went carless, give the car to Cindy’s younger sister, traveled the world and nomading around for several years as Cindy was writing her dissertation, and only may be a few months ago, when we were in Vietnam got the news that the Cadillac converter was stolen out of it, when Cindy‘s younger sister Jennifer was parked in front of her apartment. She no longer wanted to deal with the fear of the catalytic converter getting stolen again, and as a consequence, was saying that she was thinking about just telling it to the mechanic for $2000 or something like that. I yelled out loud, “no! The car is worth at least $10,000! “I then promoted the idea to Cindy of us taking it back, spending the money to replace the Khalid converter, which was around $2500, getting the catalytic converter shield, which is meant to deter future theft, which may be costing $300. Later we discovered that the ABS, antilock braking system was broken and needed to be fixed which was maybe around another $2000… But still, I am so proud that effectively we got what I consider a brand new car a brand new Prius for sub $5000!

What is a millennial?

I think I got a good definition for millennial; somebody who foolishly uses their money. And also doesn’t really know what they want to do or get out of their lives.

Living here in LA, being back here in LA for about a month and a half, some funny heuristics I’ve noted:

How do you know if somebody is unsuccessful? if they drive some sort of baselevel Audi, like an Audi Q3 or A3. Even if they drive just a basic Tesla model three. Essentially a lot of millennials my age or people my age, want to see men appear rich and successful or elite, or rich or whatever… Yet can only afford the cheapest luxury thing. Same thing for people who drive the base level BMW three series, Mercedes a class, essentially any German car. Even I see so many people driving range rovers, all black everything; or AMG G wagons, once again all matte black everything… They are more common than seeing Toyota sienna in the Orange County suburbs.
Everyone aspires to buy a home. Yet I think my big innovative thought is that actually… It may be superior to rent a really really nice apartment in an insanely great location, than owning a home even in a good to great location. Why? My thought on supreme happiness, joy, and success is being able to walk 50 miles a day, and also, having to spend minimum time to maintain anything. It is crazy, even though I may have the world’s least maintenance car, a Prius, even basic things that I gotta do is wash it every once in a while, I don’t even have enough time to take my car to the drive-through car wash at the gas station anymore! Or even washing the car myself, I would prefer to use that time to work out in my Spartan parking lot off the grid workout, or take Seneca to the park, or go on a walk downtown topless to sunbathe. I can’t be fucked wasting time washing my car or doing any of this other nonsense.

What do people aspire to?

Am I the last optimistic, entrepreneurially hungry person that I know?

But besides Todd, I don’t think I know anybody. All of my friends, even the ones that consider successful either work at Facebook, Amazon, Google, or Apple.

Funny enough, I actually don’t know anybody, and don’t have any friends or anybody in my personal friends Circle who has actually become entrepreneurs, or self-employed, or soul proprietors. Everyone is working for a company or a corporation. Or a foreign business. Not for themselves.

My visions

I had lots of visions in my life, many of which I accomplished and I am very proud of.

First, my idea and notion of open source, open source photography. Apparently I created quite the buzz when I first made available all of my photographs on Flicker online for free, open source, full resolution JPEG. This was unheard of at the time, when people were still putting Sylvia watermarks on their images, or they were afraid of people “stealing“ their photos online. I always had the clear understanding that ultimately, you can’t even pay people to steal your photos. Ultimately nobody cares for your photos that much. What is more important? Your influence, your fame, your clout, your reach. I knew that even from a basic perspective, it was better to have your Photos available for free, open source, to the general public, for them to use it as their desktop wallpaper or something. I even recall remember hearing Some fans I met using my dark skies over Tokyo photo, behind the suit with the black face, as there does top wallpaper! That bought me a quadrillion times more joy than selling my photos for thousands of dollars.

True success ain’t any of that. True success is simply, having a unique vision, and fulfilling it.

in fact, one of the proudest moments of my life, two “Nasim Taleb was “via Neiva“; the idea that the proudest moments of your life aren’t positive actions of doing or saying yes, but rather, act of omission; things you decide to not do, or things to say no to or to refuse.

For example, my book, “100 lessons from the masters of street photography.” I had a grand vision of doing this book for a long time, especially after doing my exhaustive self studying series of all the masters of street photography etc. In fact actually got an offer from a book agent, who offered me a book deal on it, but, he said that it was impossible to make an open source, free, open easily accessible PDF available for free. After much thinking, delaying and thought… I ultimately refuse the book deal and I am proud that I did. I am certain that this book will outlive me. Why? It was created out of pure passion; things which are created out of pure passion will never die.