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.
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:
- Start a technology company
- Start a camera company, or some sort of photo company
- Maybe start a car company with Seneca — he loves cars!
- 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.
- 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:
- BOSTON: ERIC KIM CONQUER YOUR FEARS IN STREET PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP 2023 (March 25th, 2023 (Saturday))
- May 5th: Creative Confidence Online Workshop (9am-11:30am)
- May 20: DOWNTOWN LA PHOTO WORKSHOP (info TBA)
- June 19-23rd, HADONG SOUTH KOREA ZEN PHOTO RETREAT
Workout ideas
- Rack pull, one rep max style. Big tip — use your legs!
- How to get fit
- 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
- CONQUER YOUR MUSE
- CONQUER STREET PHOTOGRAPHY: HENRI NECK STRAP MARK IV
- STREET PHOTO STARTER KIT
Design thoughts
- Love the new tail lights on the new Range Rover. Iconic and understated.
- 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
- It is the year 2023… why are we still producing and selling and driving gasoline cars?
Share the love!
If this sparked any fun ideas within you, feel free to forward to a friend!