New year new you.

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/erickim/episodes/NEW-YEAR-THOUGHTS-e2dm64e

Podcast

AUDIO

Something which happened about a year ago —

No more glocks

Vlog

The story

Long story short, some idiot brings his gun to my sister’s wedding, leaves it inside the holster in his backpack in the guest checking room, some random lady at the party who steals a bunch of stuff inside the guest checking room discovers the gun, hides it under my backpack on top of my son’s car seat, and flees the scene.

Simple morales to the story

First and foremost, if you are a registered gun owner, have a conceal and carry license, etc., don’t bring your gun to a wedding. Or any big event or family gathering, where no potential danger is eminent.

Second, if you’re going to get married, or even go to a wedding, etc., kindly ask the host whether the space is a “gun free zone.” Also, if you’re going to plan a wedding, tell your guests that this is a gun free wedding, or a gun free zone, and not to bring your firearms.

Discovering the Glock pistol

Essentially unbeknownst to us, during the wedding, a lady named Ruby, a “friend“ of the grooms mom was invited to the wedding, and the lady has some serious mental issues. I think she was drunk and high off Xanax at the wedding, and during the wedding she actually went to the guest check in bedroom, and rummaged through everyone’s stuff, stole a bunch of phones and cash, stole all of the credit cards and cash out of my wallet, and fled the scene. Apparently she also discovered Joseph’s gun (Joseph is the name of the fucking idiot who brought his gun to the wedding) in Joseph’s backpack, which was left unattended in the guest checking room, which contained his Glock pistol inside a holster. Ruby was able to successfully, even when drunk and high, take the Glock pistol out of the holster, and somehow hide it in between my backpack and my sons car seat.

The bigger ethical issue at hand

Ultimately, I think trying to ascribe “fault” or “blame in the situation is vain and empty. Instead, what is actually a far more critical is to address bigger issues at hand:

Should one be ethically allowed to bring a conceal and carry weapon, a pistol to a wedding party, without anyone else knowing it?

For myself, I have no issue with people owning guns, and I’m also not anti-gun ownership or anti-guns. I’m a Boy Scout Eagle Scout, and I was able to successfully get my rifle and shotgun merit badge, in the same summer, so I know how to properly handle guns. Also truth be told, gun ownership is baked into America’s constitution and law, which means that guns will never go away in America.

For myself personally, I just want to be as far away from people, who have conceal and carried weapons or pistols on them. I have no issue with them owning them, I just don’t want to be around her physically. In the same room, or even the same area.

Takeaway thoughts

Therefore some ideas:

1. Put up signage saying that you are entering a gun free zone. You’re not permitted to bring your gun, or your conceal and carry gun on these premises.
2. If you’re going to get married, and you send out an invite, in the mail or email, say that this is a gun free wedding, please leave your firearms at home.
3. When insane situations arise, just open your iPhone and call 911. Better to report things, suspicious activity, even if there is a .01% chance that it might be fatal or dangerous, than not to. We must prevent another sandy hook.
4. Let us say that you are in a situation, in which potential gun violence can happen. Better to just inform all of the guests, call off the event and the wedding, even at the risk of spoiling your sister’s wedding. For example, my personal regret is after discovering the gun, what I should have done was first call the cops, and then inform all the guests that I discovered a gun in the guest bedroom, and I should’ve called off the wedding.
5. Don’t go to Walmart, or shop at places like dollar tree, or go to places which might have people who have a higher precedents for people carrying firearms. Superficially I have discovered that most people who brandish firearms tend to be lower socioeconomic status. Don’t hang out in bad neighborhoods, or even fill up your gas in dangerous neighborhoods. Perhaps this is a plus one for owning a Tesla or electric car.
6. Whenever you discover a firearm, unattended, just call 911 and call the cops and report it.

MY SOUL DIVINE
FUCK THE SUPERFICIAL AND OUTER
Think the inner, create your own winners.

Stoic zen thought
fight off the bots
Off the tweets and the streams
We on a ultra light beam

No need to squeam or emo in zines
No more magazines or magazines in the guns
Shoot it up with your own mind
No glock to your thoughts.

ERIC

ONLY DOWNSIDE IS TRAFFIC;; BUT BESIDES THAT,,, NO DOWNSIDES!

1. NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
2. UPCOMING LUCAS MUSEUM OF NARRATIVE ARTS [STAR WARS LAND!!]
3. CALIFORNIA SCIENCE CENTER
4. STONEVIEW NATURE CENTER
5. KENNETH HANH NATIONAL PARK

Sooo much to do and see! Barely scratching the surface here;;

Some thoughts on Jewish people:

First, seems that American people are suspicious of Jewish people because they don’t understand Jewish people –their customs their beliefs, their names their clothing, how they talk, their last names, cultural thoughts etc.

For example, Hanukkah. A menorah dreidel etc.… going to the temple? The average Christian, Catholic protestant in America has no idea what Judaism, being Jewish is all about.

I’m speaking from the perspective of being born and raised, baptized Roman Catholic, growing up in a liberal Korean American Catholic circle, and also later becoming Sunday school teacher and even Sunday school principal.

First, at least for Catholic people we don’t really care for Jewish people. We don’t really think about them, nor care, and we don’t criticize or critique them. We don’t even know who Jewish people are what they are, and we really don’t care.

I think for Christian protestants, Lutheran’s Baptists or whatever… also, they don’t really care about Jewish people that much either. There are more interested in leaving Jewish people alone, and trying to proselytize and convert more normal people into their protestant sect.

Catholicism is interesting because we are not rabid religious zealots. We are very tolerant actually; we allow other people to do as they please, even one hot fact that people don’t know, the Catholic Church is actually very open to the LGBTQ community, and being gay. The only thing that the Catholic Church doesn’t like is gay people having intercourse, as the Catholic Church believes the purpose of intercourse is for a man and a woman to get a child, which I get. 

So who is anti-Jewish?

I think actually, the African-American community the “black” community is actually the ones who are anti-Jewish. Why? I think there actually is a history of exploitation or perhaps power dynamic issues between powerful and rich Jewish executives in the music rap industry and poor African-American aspiring rapper kids, who come from the hood.

I heard from this one cool African-American guy that I met who’s been to Nigeria Lagos and traveled a bunch and knows history told me that even a lot of the original jazz divas, jazz musicians, James Brown and all of that music was mostly bankrolled by Jewish media executives, even if you read Henry Ford’s anti-Semitic publication, the international Jew, there is actually a section on which it is mentioned that jazz is a Jewish phenomenon.

A funny thought:

Then is rap music, Jewish music?

Even Ben Horowitz, the great Silicon Valley entrepreneur and venture capitalist, who is also Jewish American, put out a rap album as a kid! Even apparently Kanye West has ties with Ben Horowitz.

Who doesn’t care?

So at least for Asians, Asian Americans, or the new elite rich Asians in Asia, they are unapologetically racist. Also, there is a strict caste system and hierarchy in Asia. Only poor slave like indentured people do the dirty work of sanitation and hygiene, sweeping and mopping at the mall, cooking food, taking care of kids, waiters and waitresses, working at coffee shop etc. The rich just lounge, hang out, drink coffee, wear luxury clothes, and want to be seen. Compare this to funny America where everyone thinks that kind of labor is beneath them — the notion of the benevolent virtue of “work, respect for one’s work” and “career”.

Why so many cultural clashes in America?

America is a very strange hodgepodge of things because in America, we are almost too multicultural. 

For example, let us consider that essentially the first founding fathers of America were British people who didn’t like Britain, and fled. The early American settlers came to America and colonized America because it didn’t like the policies of the British monarchy and king, they were essentially the first troublemakers.

Fast forward to today, cultural vestiges of Quakerism, Protestantism, Benjamin Franklin and the protestant work ethic etc.… the new world order and ethos is towards capitalism. Like Kanye said: 

White people make money don’t spend it. But I’d rather buy 80 gold chains and go ‘ignant’!

How people profit

One of my workshop attendees when I was in New York told me a funny Jewish or a Yiddish thing; one generation makes the money, the next generation conserves the money, the third generation spoils all the money, and thus, the cycle continues.

Jewish people just want to be left alone 

I think the truth is Jewish people just want to be left alone, and like any good immigrant, they were actually very pro assimilation. For example Kirk Douglas, changed his last name because he wanted to “fit in” in Hollywood, and not be stigmatized for his Jewish background. His real name is Issur Danielovitdh. Doesn’t sound as catchy as a good simple “American” sounding name.

Kirk Douglas was the son of Jewish immigrants fro, Belarus, spoke Yiddish growing up and faced poverty and antisemitism early on.

Apparently Walt Disney was very anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish.

Even in today’s world, why is the modern-day American or person so anti-Jewish?

Just look at these podcasts, anybody who has anything bad to say about Jewish people. They tend to be weak, skinny, anemic, probably drink too much vegetable juice or green fruit juice or whatever, don’t eat enough meat, has too low testosterone. 

I have a theory that actually, the higher your testosterone, the more tolerant and open minded you are. It seems only low testosterone men are the ones who blame others, hate, etc.

Scapegoating is a tactic of the weak, meek, powerless and castrated.

---

Solution ideas 

1. First and foremost, I think everybody should do some sort of DNA test, DNA testing or whatever, and find out that their genetic heritage is actually more diverse than they thought it was. For example imagine if you are anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic, and you did a DNA test and you actually found out that you were part Jewish? Even the fun fact, people don’t want you to know this… Japanese people descended from Korean people and the Yayoi people — and also I think Korean people we descended from the Chinese Mongolians? And ultimately if you go back far enough we all came from Africa anyways. 
2. I really do believe that ChatGPT 4, AI can actually make people more tolerant. Why? For example get the paid ChatGPT paid plus premium, and ask it “What are some common misconceptions about Islam“? Or, “What are some common misconceptions about Catholicism?” or, “what are some misconceptions about Judaism?”. To debunk conspiracy theories, myths, and other insane nonsense is critical.

---

It ain’t my fault you’re so poor! 

A lot of people who talk about Jewish people owning the whole banking system international finance whatever, I think these individuals were complaining are because they themselves are poor, in poverty, or have financial problems, and once again they are looking for a scapegoat. Nobody likes to think:

Wow, perhaps I should go back to medical school, law school, become a doctor or lawyer, or do a coding Boot Camp, or go to community college and teach myself computer programming, and get a better pay job as a programmer, etc.

Why don’t people like to take responsibility of themselves?

I think the big issue here is that I don’t know if it is a learned behavior, a cultural behavior or something else?

One of the good things about the immigrant mentality is the ethos, which I think is a good one… That “if you work hard enough“, you will become successful“.

For example just watch fight club, do you remember that scene where Brad Pitt puts a fake gun with no bullets in the barrel against the kids head, telling him to go back to law school or doctor school or whatever? There were no bullets in the gun!  

I think maybe the issue is if you were born in the states, to all occasion family, or maybe something else… And there hasn’t really been a history of struggle in your family or your life, there is this “learned helplessness” which occurs and happens.

Instagram, YouTube is to blame?

OK, if you spend too much time on Instagram, or read it, or Google, Wikipedia, YouTube etc.… Sooner or later you all fall into weird weird conspiracy theories.

In fact, my greatest shock is often, the most intelligent people that I know fall into the conspiracy theories.

For example one of my friends who is a PhD graduate from UC Berkeley, theorized that Kanye West was in fact, and the reason why he was so into fashion and going to Paris was to go see his gay romantic partners, and that Kim Kardashian was just a cover-up for his gayness, and that in fact Kim Kardashian was secretly fly on a private jet to Saudi Arabia or the Middle East to have sex with some princes or whatever, for high sums of money etc.

I was so insanely shocked because here is this area date scholar man, well-versed in history, insanely intelligent and critical, falling victim to these weird conspiracy theories?

Also, some thing I have learned about academics, scholars at the Ivy League schools, Harvard Yale Princeton Brown University, UC Berkeley UCLA etc.… They are all addicted to Netflix, checking their Gmail for too many times a day, not eating enough meat, not exercising enough, drinking too much alcohol (it seems that universally all academic scholar professors are either alcoholics, or smoke too much weed). Let us consider the height in Apex of these intelligent scholars; the ones that shape public opinion and policy… If they themselves are the ones who are also physically and mentally sick, what will the public opinion be?

Have you really met these rich famous people in real life in the flesh?

Spending a lot of time in Beverly Hills Holby Hills, Culver City etc.… I have definitely rubbed shoulders with a lot of famous, notable, “beautiful” people. And truth be told, in the flash when you see them face-to-face are not very impressive.

First and foremost, a lot of them are actually quite short. Isn’t Tom Cruise like 5 foot seven or something? Or 5 foot six?

Kanye West I think is also 5 foot seven.

So a lot of these “Shorty guys”, have Napoleon syndrome here; they try to make up for their insecurity of being short through other weird ways like buying an expensive car, whatever?

Even a lot of these “beautiful women“ in LA; if you look at them up close and in person in the flesh, indirect sunlight, in fact, a lot of them look quite repulsive in the flesh because you can tell that they’ve had some weird Botox lip fillers or face fillers or something, they essentially look like Hyenas who had some sort of allergic facial reaction.

Even something that’s becoming more mainstream now, people injecting stuff in their face? Collagen, other things in their face? Even for men in their 50s and 60s, apparently it is popular to Botox surface as well? I think this is a bad idea.

Who to trust?

First and foremost, don’t trust nobody but yourself. Why? You yourself are the center of all intelligence wisdom and critical thinking. To outsource your intelligence wisdom and thinking is base. 

Also, even when you meet really intelligent people, a lot of them are also not very critical. They can quote all of these boring old French thinkers until no end, as Nassim Taleb calls them “international Association of named droppers“, they themselves have no true original ideas which is vested in themselves. 

Also, it also seems that a lot of these academics spend too much time watching sports – Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors, other sports etc. Into me watching sports on television is almost like the male version of pornography.

Critical thinking

To me critical thinking is being the judge, weighing the information yourself. For example, even if you discover the truth, you gotta ask yourself “Does this even matter?”

“So what?”

For example, let us say all the conspiracy theories are true, we never landed on the moon yada yada yada, Jewish people run the world whatever, you gotta ask yourself:

Does this even matter?

I don’t think so. Why? The joy and the glory of free market capitalism in America is that in theory, you as a sole proprietor can start your business right now, start selling products and services on PayPal, your own woocommerce enabled wordpress.org website, or using Shopify or whatever else —  and you could take a profit.

Actually the benefit of having a day job is you could do very very risky entrepreneurial ventures on the side, while  still being able to pay your rent.

Certainly having to be employed full-time is hiring, but there are very creative ways you could leverage your time. For example, my pragmatic thought is this:

Do the bare minimum of work necessary without getting fired. 

So let us say that you work at a tech company or whatever, Google Amazon Facebook Apple whatever, just show up, click your paycheck, or zoom in, and during all your extra time, build your empire on the side.

Now what?

Just think to yourself, at what point do we scapegoat others?

A funny intervention that I had was thinking; what if in fact I am actually the bad guy? And I was the bad guy all along?

Everyone likes to see themselves as the judicious hero in their own life’s narrative, and everybody else is the bad guy, doing them injustice. 

Personally speaking I witness this with my father; he was always blaming other people for everything. Blaming my mom, blaming my grandfather on my mom‘s side, my mom‘s relatives family members etc., yet, he never blamed himself? 

Also something really weird; he would always blame other people, all the time, yet, ever since I was two years old, he never had a job?

I think as a child, you are keenly aware of things. Kids are 1 trillion times more intelligent than their parents think. Kids are no fools.

Now what?

This is what I say, fuck it!  Lettuce assume that all the conspiracy theories are true, that we never landed on the moon, we never kept it Hitler and he went to some sort of bunker in an article or whatever, and that also, there are some sort of world conspiracy illuminati thing happening. So what? Does it matter?

No. You control your own destiny, you create your own future.

Simple things:

1. Don’t waste money. We waste money by buying new cars, luxury goods and things, going to debt use credit cards etc. I’m even starting to think that the new millennial trap is buying a house, it looks like this is the new modern day trip, because technically even if you buy a house, you yourself don’t really own that house, the bank owns your house! You never really own it until you have hundred percent paid it all off in cash, or if you bought it with 100% cash offer. But even still, the big issue at hand is you still gotta pay property tax on it! This is literally money you’ll never ever see again, money which is essentially thrown in the gutter. And let us say you own expensive house, and you bought it in all the cash, you might have to still pay it around $1500-$2000 month just in property taxes! Just add another thousand dollars and you got rent money! 
2. Start a website a blog posted on wordpress.org and bluehost.com — what is a quadrillion times cheaper than owning property, buying a new car etc.? Starting a website! It is so easy, so chief, so accessible, the barrier to entry is only entering your credit card information. Consider how less tedious this is than having to go through the whole escrow process of purchasing a house, which can often take up to a year!
3. Start publishing your thoughts on anything and everything: to me, all ideas are good ideas, as long as they are personally motivated, something you are genuinely interested in, and also something you genuinely care for. The only crime is when you create something or publish something because you think other people like it. To me this is a sign of cowardice.

---

So what do you want to build? 

“I want to build now!” – Cindy

The greatest muse in my life is my wife and partner Cindy. To me, she is an exemplary figure of somebody who has taken the rain by her arms, her hands, and steered and crafted her own unique future.

cindyanguyen.com and mis-reading.com and also hapticindustries.com — her own brain children!

I think the life the ultimate thing to seek is a great creative partner. Somebody who has your creative compliment, part of your own plan, your own party, your own squad.

For example, the personality of me and Cindy differs greatly, yet we are both still committed to being curious, creative, and we both have a passion for the arts, the world, travel etc.

Also, if you’re a man, I just suggest you to go out and look for wifey material. Ignore everything else.

Either find a wife get married and have kids, or stay a bachelor.

---

Creating your own future

The best way to create your own future is maybe through your art?

The other day Cindy myself and Seneca went to the Getty, in LA, on top of the hill, our minds were blown! Parking is 20 bucks, but admission is free! 

We took the tram to the top of the hill, and marveled at these great architectural wonders of the space, the breathtaking view, and also all the great artwork enclosed in the gallery.

It seems at the end of the day, after all the wealth and riches and whatever, whatever everyone loves and inspires for is art. Art, art production, art Curation whether it be paintings photos videos sculpture, drawings, printed matter, objects etc.

To me anything and everything could be art, what I just think is art is simply something that you create with love and care and attention, and put it out into the world, whether digitally or physically or both.

Art profiteering

To make a profit off your art, not a bad thing, but also not critical. Some people think the typical capitalist way; in order to become a legitimate artist, I must sell my artwork for a lot of money, as money as a metric of success in America and beyond. 

But is this true? No.

McDonald’s might be the most profitable and most consumed restaurant in the world, but is it of the highest grade? No. Also Starbucks is the number one most consumed coffee beverage in the world, but is Starbucks coffee the apex of great coffee? No.  

Technically android is actually more popular than iPhone, there are more android devices in the world than iPhones, but does that make android better than Apple and iPhone? No. The URX of the iPhone is at least 1 trillion times better than android.

Also, iPhone the iPhone camera is the most used camera on the planet, what is it the best quality? No. The best quality would probably be some sort of Rico Pentex camera, or some sort of Panasonic Lumix camera. And let us not forget that Leica cameras essentially used borrow technology from Panasonic Lumix.

The world is inconsistent

I think one of the greatest things I have learned starting sociology philosophy etc. is that the world is very inconsistent. 

For example, we are told that it is virtuous to be meek, humble or whatever… Yet everybody in America wants to flex on how rich successful famous they are, or what part they drive?

For example even Christian theology? Humbleness and meekness is praised, yet people will “virtue flex“, by broadcasting into the world how “good” other person they are?

For example, people who post to social media about donating to some sort of cause nonprofit or adopting an animal or whatever. We’re posting Bible scriptures or whatever. I don’t think this is virtuous at all. In fact, isn’t it Jesus that said, when you give to the temple, or you donate to charity, let your left-hand not know what your right hand is doing?

I wonder if Jesus was alive today he would say:

If you’re going to donate to charity, don’t name the building after yourself or a family member, don’t name the foundation after yourself, never publicly donate money under your name, and never publish it to the news or social media.

In fact, I think the rapper Pusha T actually donated 18 wheelers of freshwater to Flint Michigan, anonymously without telling nobody, he is truly virtuous. 

---

Why so miserable?

If you’re dark depressed and EMO or whatever… Just moved to LA, I recommend Culver City, I especially really like the Culver City arts district. I really like the platform park, the new downtown Culver steps area, in front of the Philz Coffee, the whole area.

I wonder if the reason why a lot of people are so dark and grim is simply because they live somewhere with poor weather?

I know personally that when I was in Berlin, eastern Europe, Prague, Marseille in the winter time, it was some of the most depressive times of my life. 

And on the contrary, some of the happiest times in my life or when I was in Vietnam, in Hanoi and Saigon, in Panam Cambodia, other places with good climate, bright light and sun good weather.

---

Your mind and your body is precious.

Don’t prostitute your mind, your body your soul.

Prostitution is not just sexual, it could be your mental abilities, your physical body whatever.

Prostitution isn’t just about your sexual organs, your penis or vagina your butt hole your mouth your hands or whatever, maybe… the more critical thing is your soul?

Your soul not as some hocus-pocus concept. Rather, your soul is a combination of your personality, your thoughts, your body, your opinions your beliefs your thoughts your abilities your capabilities, your skills etc. 

The mortal soul. That is when your body dies, your soul also dies. 

---

Memento mori

Remember that you must die, and you will die. Death is also also one of our final duties.

Therefore just thinking consider an ask yourself, in this short and cruel life that we live in, how can we discover more more joy, more thanksgiving, more happiness, more Thanksgiving?

How can we contribute more to the world to others to our progeny, our children are friends and communities and the world?

ERIC

---

A funny inverse relationship:

The bigger your car, the smaller your dick size.

Or funnier yet —

The bigger and more menacing your car, the weaker, more meek, smaller, shorter, and lower you have testosterone.

Low-testosterone men drive big cars, or “muscle” cars, because they lack real life muscles. To *purchase* testosterone, manliness, and muscle is their impetus and modus operandi.

PHILOSOPHY BY KIM

Essays by KIM

1. How to Become a Philosopher
2. Deep Vanity
3. Time Will Tell
4. What is Wisdom?
5. LOOK *BEYOND*
6. BECOMING MORE IMMORAL?
7. ‘LUCK’ VS COURAGE
8. ‘SKILL’ VS MERIT?
9. Becoming Antifragile
10. How to “Improve” Men
11. The Art of Virtue
12. How to Dominate
13. JUST SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCES AND WISDOM WITH OTHERS.
14. How to Get More Done in a Single Day – MEMENTO MORI PHILOSOPHY
15. THINK FOR YOURSELF
16. Cruel?
17. GO DEMIGOD.
18. How to Be Happy: Challenge and Danger Philosophy
19. To Become Greater, You Must Become *LESS* Productive!
20. Imperfect Beauty
21. The Philosophy of Pleasure
22. What Interests You?
23. Anti Theory of Everything
24. Become?
25. STRONGER OR NOT?
26. Carte Blanche Ideals
27. CHOOSE JOY
28. Don’t Judge Your Impulses
29. On Becoming Less Human
30. COWARDICE.
31. The Philosophy of Futurism
32. PHILOSOPHY IS VALUE-SETTING
33. PHILOSOPHY IS NOT LIFESTYLE
34. WHY STANDARDIZATION IS BAD.
35. YOUR OWN TABLE OF VALUES.
36. RETRO IS BAD.
37. INSANELY LOFTY THOUGHTS.
38. Strive to *Lose* Weight, Not *Gain* Weight
39. DIABLO II ANALOGIES FOR REAL LIFE.
40. If You Know Your *WHY* You Can Discover Any *HOW*
41. Life is Too Short to Be Miserable
42. What Consumption Takes Skill?
43. OFF THE GRID.
44. REALITY IS CRUEL.
45. Pain is Information
46. WHY REMOVE VULGARITY AND DISORDER FROM OUR EYES?
47. AUTOTELIC.
48. UNPLUG.
49. How to Become a Philosopher
50. SUBOPTIMAL IS OPTIMAL
51. THE LUST FOR MORE.
52. TO DO IS TO BECOME.
53. IN PRAISE OF AGGRESSIVE.
54. THE PHILOSOPHY OF OPTIMISM
55. OUR PHILOSOPHICAL WILL TO EXISTENCE
56. Is Hope a Vice?
57. MOVE MEAN
58. Carte Blanche Ideals
59. One Interesting Thought
60. What Lasts? What Doesn’t Last?
61. A WOUND STIMULATES THE RECUPERATIVE POWERS
62. Children & Purpose
63. Thoughts on Becoming a Parent
64. Where Does Our Desire to Upgrade Come From?
65. WE ALWAYS NEED SOMETHING FURTHER TO ASPIRE TO.
66. Self-Task Yourself an Awesome Mission in Life
67. Differentiation vs Equalization
68. My Passion to *Become* Something More
69. No Aesthetic or Ethos is Forever
70. What is Your Higher Purpose in Life?
71. IT WILL NEVER SATISFY YOU.
72. How to Decide
73. Things You *Want* to Do vs Things You *MUST* Do
74. Towards a More Beautiful Mode of Existence and Future
75. EXTREME GRATITUDE.
76. AMAP (As Much as Possible) or None.
77. Why or How Does it Matter?
78. The Philosophy of Time and Events
79. How *Not* to Resent
80. FORWARD LOOKING
81. DOMAIN FLEXIBILITY.
82. The Miracle of Human Growth
83. EXTREME ADAPTATION.
84. Why Plan?
85. You Don’t Need to Justify Yourself
86. The Philosophy of Ego
87. True vs False Passions
88. How to Achieve Tranquility
89. On Making Your Own Philosophy
90. The Purpose of Life is to Create New Life
91. Think On!
92. The Wisdom of Doing Nothing
93. Congruency
94. My Thoughts on Meditation
95. The Philosophy of Purpose
96. Emulate Yourself
97. Good Fear, Bad Fear
98. For the Betterment of Humanity or Just Yourself?
99. What you *really* believe in and care for is manifested through your actions (or non-actions)
100. Why Culture is Your Enemy
101. YOUR EXPERIENCES ARE KING.
102. LIFE IS INHERENTLY GOOD.
103. Artistic, Physical, and Philosophical Muscles
104. All New Experiences are Good Experiences
105. What is the Purpose of X?
106. UTILITY.
107. Philosophy is a Luxury
108. The Attempt is More Interesting than the Result
109. Joyfulness vs “Happiness”
110. Effectiveness Over Happiness
111. Self Actualization
112. MAXIMAL ENGAGEMENT
113. Life & Pain
114. On Living Every Day with No Regret
115. Learn as if you’re going to live forever, live as if you’re going to die tomorrow
116. Live Every Day Like it Were the Last Day of Your Life
117. Self-Determination
118. FALSE GRATITUDE vs REAL GRATITUDE
119. HOW TO LIVE MORE
120. THE UPSIDE OF TRAGEDY
121. Satisfaction is a Sucker’s Game
122. Supreme Repose
123. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF LIFE? According to ERIC KIM
124. STUBBORN, FLEXIBLE
125. EVERYTHING HAPPENS AS IT *SHOULD* HAVE HAD HAPPENED
126. Good Addiction, Bad Addiction?
127. What is the Best Life?
128. The Philosophy of Thinking
129. The Philosophy of Conspiracies
130. Conspiracies
131. Growth
132. Skepticism.
133. What Do You Really Want Out of Life?
134. Seem or Be?
135. Learn Through Pain
136. Respect Yourself
137. In Praise of Elitism
138. Why Independent Thinking?
139. I Will Never Die
140. Bitter is Better
141. The Genesis of Nihilism and Existential Dread
142. The Ethics of Personal Enrichment
143. Good vs Not Good
144. Punished by Privilege
145. Abstinence Over Moderation
146. Just Leave Others Alone
147. You Can Only Critique that Which You Truly Understand and Love
148. ERIC KIM Critique of Metaphysics
149. Only Trust Philosophers Who Deadlift
150. Heuristic: If Someone Talks Shit About Others Behind Their Back, Most Likely They’re Also Talking Shit About You Behind Your Back
151. Virtue is a Privilege
152. What Are Your Life Goals?
153. Honesty
154. Why I’m Anti Moderation
155. No Spite, No Malice.
156. Ascending Life or Descending Life?
157. Double Edged Sword
158. Ignorance.
159. Why I Don’t Trust “Nice Guys”
160. Why You Must Share Your Opinion
161. Selfish Isn’t Evil
162. Wisdom is the Goal
163. YOU ARE KING.
164. MASTER YOURSELF
165. What is “Good” for You is Often what is Bad for You
166. Care.
167. BITTERSWEET
168. ONE REP MAX
169. Morality and Ethics is the Snare
170. BY HELPING YOURSELF, YOU BEST HELP OTHERS
171. Insanity is Good.
172. Think Deep.
173. PHILOSOPHY IS THE FUTURE.
174. Open Mind vs Closed Mind
175. ENTHUSIASM IS GENIUS
176. Towards a More Critical and Rigorous Line of Thinking
177. How to Encourage and a Foster Independent and Free Thinking
178. What is the Purpose of Life?
179. WHY PHILOSOPHY IS SUPREME.
180. Elitism.
181. I Cannot Form an Opinion About Somebody Until I’ve Met Them in the Flesh
182. ALL GENETICS ARE GOOD GENETICS.
183. Happiness vs Freedom
184. The Birth of a Hater
185. My Way Isn’t the Right Way
186. Walking as an Existential Thing
187. Why I’m So Tolerant
188. Mortal Gods
189. THE HUMAN SPECIES
190. Why I’m So Skeptical
191. Just Follow the Money
192. Why Selfish?
193. WHY WE CANNOT BLAME OTHERS
194. Why Are We So Anti Elitism?
195. What Actually Interests You?
196. How to Become Yourself
197. SELF HATE
198. Optimistic Fatalism
199. Death is the Ultimate Creative Constraint
200. FLUX.
201. How to Think for Yourself
202. FLESH
203. How to Live the Best Life
204. Why Live a Life Without Regrets?
205. Why Plato Ruined Art and Aesthetics for Us
206. Self Respect
207. Hypocrite vs Contradict
208. Ideals vs Reality
209. Spaceship Philosophy
210. What is Your Ideal Life?
211. MY EXTREME GRATITUDE TOWARDS LIFE AND BEING ALIVE!
212. Critique of Utilitarianism
213. Don’t Treat Others the Way You Want to Be Treated
214. The Eternal Recurrence of Tragedy and Joy in Life
215. Elite Asceticism
216. Why I Don’t Like Numbers
217. Action and Reaction, Cause and Effect
218. The Antidote to Nihilism: The Philosophy of Nothingness
219. ERIC KIM Notes on Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
220. EXPLOIT CHAOS.
221. WHY I DON’T BELIEVE IN GENETICS
222. Self-Wisdom
223. The Future Belongs to the Fearless
224. INDIVIDUALISM
225. Why Live Forever?
226. THIS TOO WILL PASS.
227. Why Education?
228. How to Become Yourself
229. Things Shouldn’t Go Back to the Way They Used to Be
230. Why Am I So Cruel?
231. The Great Joy of Existence
232. Virtue for the Sake of Virtue
233. NO DISDAIN.
234. INTELLIGENT IGNORANCE
235. A LIFE WITHOUT PAIN, DIFFICULTY OR TRAGEDY ISN’T A LIFE WORTH LIVING
236. BITTER IS BETTER.
237. EXPLOIT THE BEST FROM TRAGEDY AND LIFE 
238. DISREGARD FOR SELF-PRESERVATION
239. PAIN.
240. WHAT IF EVERYTHING IS NOT GONNA BE ALRIGHT?
241. Tomorrow is Never
242. Life is the Ultimate Creative Constraint
243. EMBODIED REALITY
244. BLACK SWAN
245. THINGS WILL NEVER GO BACK TO THE WAY THEY USED TO BE
246. What are you *really* afraid of?
247. HAPPINESS ISN’T THE GOAL
248. Philosophy is King
249. Why is Selfish Evil?
250. YOU’RE CONSTANTLY IN A STATE OF BECOMING
251. ENTITLEMENT A SIN?
252. NARCISSISM
253. BE BRUTALLY HONEST WITH YOURSELF
254. WHY FREE WILL?
255. OBEY YOUR OPINION
256. EGO IS GOOD.
257. WHY IT IS GOOD TO BE INTO YOURSELF
258. Seek the Good Pain
259. Anti-Perfection in Photography, Art, and Life
260. Can You Become an End into Yourself?
261. WHY I LIVE
262. Why I Hate Decline
263. Why I Eat
264. Why am I So Positive and Optimistic?
265. EFFORT IS ENJOYMENT
266. Never Stop Gaining
267. TRUST YOURSELF
268. A Life of Maximal Personal Independence
269. What Do You Desire to Become?
270. What Do I Want from Technology?
271. Stratified Society
272. Do You Love or Hate Reality?
273. On the Brian, Body and Mind
274. I’m Maximally Happy, Now What?
275. Care over Fame
276. ACTIVE NIHILISM
277. Never Stop Subtracting
278. How to Live a Happier and More Epic Life
279. A Risker Life is a Better Life
280. Only Work on Things You Can Imagine Doing for Eternity
281. How to Maximize Your Happiness
282. Influence
283. The Gladiator Makes His Plans once He Enters the Ring
284. Meditations on Meaning in Life
285. There is Nothing More Interesting than Human Beings
286. Is Hope a Vice?
287. EGO
288. Why Be Unique?
289. Happiness is Metabolism Health and Strength
290. You’re the Hero
291. Is Productivity a Virtue or Vice?
292. Why Do We Prize the Rare?
293. The Joy of Uncertainty
294. How Should I Best Use My Time and Life?
295. A Life Without Pain or Suffering Isn’t a Life Worth Living
296. Free or Unfree?
297. What Do You Really Care For in Life?
298. Anti-Satisfaction in Life
299. Why Think?
300. The Eternal Return
301. Only Do What is Best for You!
302. Truthiness
303. Why Be Happy?
304. Permissionless Living
305. In Praise of Unconventional Wisdom
306. Become the Change Which You Wish to See in the World
307. Happiness
308. Beyond Freedom
309. Idolize People, Not Stuff
310. What Makes You Stronger? What Makes You Weaker?
311. Why Hate?
312. The Secret of Happiness
313. You’re Constantly in a State of Becoming
314. Life is about Choices, Not Obligations
315. Anti-Nihilism
316. First, Do What is Best for You.
317. Live Dynamic
318. How to Prosper
319. Is the Point of Life to Be Satisfied?
320. SUPREME EFFORT OF WILL.
321. How to Become more Idealistic
322. Thrivival 101
323. Create Yourself
324. Non-Small
325. Inspiration
326. How to Live a Heroic Life: Dare the Heights!
327. Human Augmentation
328. Prune
329. Happiness: Do What You Want to Do (And Don’t Do What You Don’t Want to Do)
330. Avoid Vain (Empty) Pursuits in Life
331. Modern Slavery
332. Kill the Leeches
333. Wisdom Augmentation
334. Why We Need Friction in Life
335. Straight Line Philosophy
336. What’s Your End-Game in Life?
337. Create Your Own Happiness Today
338. Desire Both Pain and Pleasure in Life
339. Try the Impossible
340. SELF-RESPECT
341. Anti-Social Extrovert
342. Never Blame Anybody But Yourself
343. Human Flourishing
344. Simpler, Not Better.
345. How to be Free
346. Embrace the Extremes
347. Cultivate Your Own Culture
348. COURAGE.
349. Thrivival
350. Inner Power
351. How to Live a Purposeful Life
352. My Definition of Happiness
353. Why Change is Good
354. Why Work?
355. How to Live the Happiest Possible Life
356. The Two-Pronged Approach to Maximize Joy in Your Life
357. You Always Have Another Option!
358. INFINITISM
359. Never Stop!
360. What is Your Self-Directed Purpose in Life?
361. Live Today Like it Were Your Last
362. Do You Photograph to Live, or Live to Photograph?
363. ARTIST-PHILOSOPHER
364. Live Life to the Fullest!
365. In Praise of Selfishness
366. Why You Must Be a YAY-SAYER to Succeed in Entrepreneurship and Life
367. Why I Love Walking
368. Live Life Like a Video Game!
369. Simple Luxuries in Life
370. Treat Your Life Like a Fun Experiment!
371. Only Prove it to Yourself
372. You Don’t Always Need to Feel Joyful to Live a Fulfilling and Meaningful Life
373. Life is Too Short to Be Bored!
374. Money Cannot Destroy Boredom
375. How to Find Inspiration in Life
376. Why You Must Ignore Haters to Succeed and Win in Life
377. An Active Life is a Happy Life
378. My Simple Joys in Life
379. Never Stop Striving
380. How to Motivate Yourself in Life
381. How to Be Optimistic in Life
382. How to Dictate Your Purpose in Life
383. In Praise of a Dynamic Life
384. PURPOSE.
385. How to Enjoy Life
386. Photography Therapy
387. How to Conquer Regret
388. Take Your Play Very Seriously.
389. How to Prosper
390. Memento Vivere
391. Destroy in Order to CREATE
392. Trust Your Body More Than Your Mind
393. Make Photos to Make Meaning in Your Life
394. Seek Knowledge, Not Information
395. The Purpose of Human Life
396. How to Overcome Impedence
397. Why I Love Death
398. How to Be Centered in the Eternal Now
399. How to Be Happy
400. Why Do You Care What Others Think of You?
401. Why I’m Happy
402. Why?
403. Why I’m So Prolific
404. How to Reduce LAG in Life

Masters of Philosophy »

• Seneca
• Marcus Aurelius
• Publilius Syrus

Personal Philosophy »

• You Are the Light of the World
• Your Soul is a Diamond in the Rough
• Why Live?

Stoicism »

• How to Be a Stoic Street Photographer
• How to Use Photography as Self-Therapy
• How to Free Your Soul From Disturbance

Zen Philosophy »

• How to Be a Zen Street Photographer
• Zen in the Art of Street Photography
• How to Find Tranquility in Your Photography

Life Lessons »

• How to Conquer Your Fears in Life
• Conquer Yourself
• How to Focus

Learn more: Start Here >

https://videopress.com/v/b52ivLbW?resizeToParent=1&cover=1&autoPlay=1&controls=1&loop=1&muted=1&persistVolume=0&playsinline=0&preloadContent=metadata&sbc&sbpc&sblc&useAverageColor=1

In LA— nobody cares! Which means —

You could do whatever the F you want, and nobody will bother you!

This includes bending the rules, breaking the rules, or being socially aberrant.

Greater fates, greater futures.

Force finds a way. 

Nietzsche once said; the secret to the greatest amount of happiness is living the life with the maximum amount of danger! I think this was from twilight of the idols, or maybe from the will to power at the end. 

I think we live in an interesting time. I think currently the world has been hijacked by Internet website advertising, mostly Google and Google ads to blame, as well as pernicious sneaky sponsored advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, Google Chrome etc. Same goes with YouTube.

Also something I have learned from things; I think we are actually much more visually sensitive, image sensitive, sound sensitive then we think we are. Also, the mind is subtle; even if I accidentally see some sort of weird thumbnail image, in fact, it puts me in a bad mood for the rest of the day etc.

I think the big problem here is that the news and information has become so hyper sensationalized. Why? Everyone is trying to maximize their income earning potential of the Internet and media, assuming that whatever they are posting is on a website or blog or news agency leveraged by Google sense, the drive is to maximize eyeball viewing time, and Click through rates, for the publisher to make money.

Also, something that I have learned about solo entrepreneurs in the media space; everyone is trying to search and seek and strive for some sort of “legitimacy”, or, they’re just struggling to pay their rent.

For example, let us say that I am some sort of Internet personality, some sort of fitness influencer, even Fraher. Perhaps the only way I could pay my rent is through some sort of sponsorship or brand deal, in which I am being paid maybe only $500-$1000 a month, and barely maintaining even my expenses.

Also, even some inside intelligence on YouTube; the super fax is that even if my video gets 100 million views, assuming I had advertisements on it I might only make about seven to $8000 USD. That is actually not that much. You’re probably better off Working as an Amazon prime delivery driver, or even Uber driver. And even the best craters, it is very rare that they make a video with so many views.

As a consequence, there is this low-key bias or optimization towards creating videos or things which strive to hit that benchmark. Once again it is things that have to deal with more with the sensational, audacious, the bizarre, even the morose?

Who to trust

Truth be told, in today’s world especially with internet blogs, ChatGPT 4, the funny thing I learned:

Even ChatGPT doesn’t know if ChatGPT wrote it or not!

For example, instead of just googling myself, I have just been ChatGPT’ing myself. For example I have the paid premium version of ChatGPT, which gives me access to the new newest version of ChatGPT which is version 4, which I rate at least 1000 times better than the free ChatGPT 3.5.

So for example I’ll do something like search “ERIC KIM“, and just see what ChatGPT tells me, and I will just copy and paste that into a new blog post on my own personal blog titled “ERIC KIM“, And within a week, ChatGPT indexes that and links back to that. It is almost like a snake eating its own tail, the ourubus. 

As a consequence, let us just think and consider; how today’s media landscape is created within the Internet. Let us say that I am some sort of newsagency or publishers; I will hire writers, and a lot of these writers will use ChatGPT or other artificial intelligence editing and writing and text generation tools. It is impossible to ascertain how much of it was written by human or ChatGPT or whatever whatever; and even so… Assuming that even if 100% of the information was hand typed by human being, it almost doesn’t really matter because a lot of these writers tend to be dark morose and sick people.

Currently speaking I live in Culver City Los Angeles California, where Jeff Bezos Amazon, Amazon prime, Amazon prime studios just least a huge lot of land, the Culver studios, owned by the developer Michael Heckman, apparently even  Jeff Bezos spot out the movie theater, the culvert theater next-door. Also slowly but surely apple is getting in bed with Sony entertainment, producing movies like the new Napoleon movie as well as the new killers of the flower moon with Leonardo DiCaprio.

During this whole period I saw a lot of people from the writer strike, and honestly… A lot of these people look very unwell. Most of them do not look very physically fit, and you could just see; they don’t spend enough time outside, none of them look happy jubilant and gay, and just think simply; if the physiology and health of somebody is poor, what kind of artwork or ideas do you think they will produce? There is this weird bias that we think that somehow the mind is divorced from the body, but in fact, the mind is the body. That is if your body is sick, your mind is sick. However, if your body is strong robust and great, so will your ideas.

How we lose our backbone

I don’t think it’s a modern day trend or shift; my thought is honestly all generations all histories people in the past, seems like everyone has always left a spine or a backbone. I wrote a nice little piece back in Vietnam titled Adamantine Spine;  imagine yourself like wolverine; the best way to imagine things is that you are actually like wolverine, your body is made out of adamantine metal, and what happens is every time that somebody tries to destroy you, you regenerate and you re-heal, I’ll be at a very painful process, you still do it. 

Kind of like Deadpool; the reason why I really love Ryan Reynolds and the Deadpool character is there is a little bit of fun dark humor here; I think when people take things to literally, too seriously, life loses its bigger it’s fun it’s jubilance. 

However a bad example is when you turn the needle too much towards the comedic; for example there is this notion called “Campi“, when things are almost too cheesy, and lame. For example all of the new Thor movies, as well as all the new Disney Marvel movies, they are insanely lame.

What are good examples?

All modern day media is bad. Only good ones I think are actually ancient Greek epics; the Iliad, after that the Odyssey. If you’re curious, I think that the Iliad is at least 100 or 200 times better more interesting and more fun than the odyssey. Whether or not both were written by Homer or not doesn’t really seem to matter; I think the overall storyline of the Iliad is much more exciting and intense whereas the odyssey is a bit boring.

The Odyssey just drags on and on… Odysseus is a good character but not as grand as Achilles. 

---

Greater risks, greater futures

It seems that a lot of modern day humans want some sort of weird free lunch; somehow… We want to live a better more greater more grand life that is more exciting and fun, yet we seem to not desire taking any personal risks.

For example let us think about video game culture. My simple heuristic is this; don’t play no video game in which you have actually not done the real thing yourself. For example, all these grown men playing video games in which they are shooting each other with guns, and they have actually never shot a real life gun seems little bit weird.

Also I have a rule; video games should only be permitted for poor kids in the hood, we have nothing better else to do.

Also a cut off time; no adult over the age of 18 years old should play video games anymore. I think it is fine for highschoolers and middle schoolers video games, but not grown men.

I ended up quit playing video games when I was around 18 or 19 years old, my freshman year of college. Why? I literally had no time! I had a part-time job, working around 20 hours a week as tech-support for the UCLA undergraduate admissions office, I was active in many clubs, having to study, and do other stuff.

I actually think that some weird ways, if you do games are like pornography for the mind-body and soul. The generalize just a most video games is everyone wants to be a hero, take risks, go on quest, obtain some booty whatever. Yet, embodied reality real life doesn’t seem to allow any outlets for this. Therefore, people escape into video games. 

How video games are bad.

The big issue with video games is that ultimately, you are a slave to the platform, the close loop system, the video game producer and publisher etc.

For example, already… It seems that the video game Fortnite which was insanely grand is already being forgotten. Let us say you are a person who devoted 10,000 hours to playing the Fortnite game, but now no longer anybody plays it. All of your time has been wasted.

Even StarCraft, StarCraft professional players; nobody really plays it anymore, let us say that you’re a professional gamer sponsorships making money playing StarCraft tournaments, now you no longer have any sponsors. All of your time was for naught. 

More thoughts

A critical thing I believe for men, us men, is that we require some sort of physical risk, physical challenge, some sort of physical risk taking.

For example, in my mind the only type of weightlifting which is interesting includes some sort of “risk”; for example, when I would atlas lift seven plates, eight plates, nine plates, 10 plates, max out the bar, and then clip on an additional 25 pounder in between and on top of the 10 plates, the jaws of others would drop; and then a few people would actually have the chutzpah to tell me:

“… be careful.”

My thought;

People actually want to see me get hurt, or “fail”. When I succeeded, I have somehow dismantled their narrow worldview.

Is ERIC KIM on drugs? 

another funny bias; when I was doing so much crazy turbo thoughtting while in Vietnam (I was off the grid, got rid of my phone, didn’t communicate for about two years, no email no communication no social media no nothing… People would ask…)

is ERIC KIM okay?

Or,

is ERIC KIM on drugs?

Or–

What happened to ERIC KIM?

Simple; when you are disconnected from the BS of traditional American media thinking… Do you think different. Also, not having a phone, I think this is the 10,000 X secret cheat code to life. Assuming that you were a crypto trillionaire, and you no longer needed other people “opportunities“, or you didn’t really desire to get paid money from other people or corporations… What real use do you have of email anyways?

When people say “opportunities”, I think it is a weird keratin stick; part of it is chasing some sort of legitimacy, part of it is chasing some sort of financial opportunities, brand sponsorships etc.

Something I have personally discovered is this:

brand Sponsorships are a trap. 

Example, if you are sponsored by any sort of company or corporation or whatever… You are not really going to hundred percent say what is really on your mind. This is the same thing that goes with “brand ambassadors”– I find the whole thing a bit base; why? He or she who focuses too much on getting some sort of “ambassador ship is a signal that they are just chasing clout in some sort of mean way.

Once again, if you already have $200 million worth of cryptocurrency bitcoin or chainlink or whatever – why do you need to get some sort of brand “ambassadorship” from anybody? Why do you want free equipment gear or stuff? Why not just buy it yourself?

This is actually something I have discovered with a lot of guys in the photography space; they are already independently wealthy from some sort of other ventures, whether it be business etc. And then they go seek to try to become some sort of “ambassador“, for Leica camera whatever.

That is not forget that Leica camera, the modern day rendition is essentially the brainchild of Dr. Andreas Kaufman– who I discovered is not a “real“ doctor; he got his PhD in philosophy, which I think is a good idea but I think when people talk about him they assume that he has some sort of medical doctor or something.

Would actually find very bizarre about Andrea Kaufman is that there is almost little to no information about him on the Internet. Who is he really?

Apparently his family made its fortune and I think the paper business. Therefore, maybe his like some sort of really rich kid, and like a camera is essentially his passion project, his toy?

Let us not forget that essentially like a camera went bankrupt, and I think what Dr. Andrea Kaufman did was purchased the naming rights of it, and then revive the brand. Similar thing that BMW did with Rolls-Royce; Rolls-Royce went bankrupt, switch tans a few times, and then I think the last 7 to 8 years, the rules Royce brand is essentially an expensive Lexus version of a BMW; even look at any BMW X7 compared with the Rolls-Royce colon; the BMW X7 looks the same. Even the BMW seven series, with the star light stitching in the headliner of the car– same thing as the Rolls-Royce. A Rolls-Royce ghost or phantom or whatever is just an expensive re-badged BMW seven series.

Also, the dirty secret that like a camera doesn’t want you to know is that the like Q camera is essentially a really expensive Panasonic Lumix camera; I think it uses the same sensor from Panasonic Lumix. Therefore if you just want good quality images, just get a Panasonic Lumix camera instead. 

---

What is the point of taking risk?

My personal thought is that in life, risk makes life more fun! Life without risk is like a life without salt. Life has no vigor, no flavor, no interest.



A simple heuristic that I learned from Nassim TALEB; don’t ask people what you should invest in, ask them… What did you invest in? 

For example, I recently swapped a bunch of my bitcoin for chainlink. Why did I do it? My thoughts: 

What is chainlink?

Essentially it is a platform built upon Ethereum, the blockchain… that strives to solve real world problems.

The first critical issue at hand is the notion of the “Oracle problem”, and cryptographic proof and truth.

The general gist of the Oracle problem is that you have all these people purporting to say something… How do you know if someone is really telling the truth or not?

Also, they’re great innovation of a decentralized oracle network. I think anything that is decentralized and can be done offline is a good idea; anything that has to be done when you’re connected to the web is fragile.

For example, the “internet of things”, which includes all of your home devices, your home stuff etc. I think this includes your home speaker things, your Amazon echo or echo dot, your Apple HomePod thing, your ring Amazon nest devices etc. 

Enabling transactional value?

TVE — transactional value enabled?

Chainlink staking?

What is the purpose of technology and these things? A very basic idea is that the point is to help enable commerce and other things. Money makes the world go round, Publilius Syrus.

What is money anyways? Money is movement. Anything that literally physiologically moves human beings in time and space is money.

For example, if you promise somebody $30 an hour, they will walk around, move their bodies to clean toilets, etc.

Also, money movement. The whole global economy to me is so fascinating; because we process and move information so quickly and so globally… how do you link it all together?  

Chain – Link

I find chainlink to be an interesting concept because wherever you go in real life, there are physical chain links everywhere.

Also, technically the internet, the World Wide Web, is a bunch of hyperlinks which link websites together.

My personal thought and prediction is that chainlink could become the next Google; Google indexes the whole internet, and made it easy for you to find any sort of website. What I think chainlink will do is link all of this information on the internet and computers and make them accessible, trustworthy, tamperproof.

Just read it

Only read stuff that you find interesting, skip over stuff you find boring.

About a week or two ago, I reread the original bitcoin white paper, and I was so impressed with how short it was, how minimalistic it was, and how to the point it was. But… reading it… this time around… felt a bit boring.

And this is the big thing: if something bores you, you gotta get out of it.

Therefore, I sold or transferred or converted nine of my bitcoin and put it all into chainlink, at the time it was valued at ~20,800 LINK (CHAINLINK), with bitcoin at around $35,000 a bitcoin.

I think what I try to do is think at least 30 years into the future. 20 or 30 years. It is funny, as I write this at the age of 35, 30 years from now Seneca is only going to be 32 years old, still a few years younger than me. My personal aspiration is to hold onto chainlink for at least 30 years, and then maybe transfer it to Seneca when he grows up. Or I just help him build some sort of company or entrepreneurial venture etc.

Investing in things actually do something?

I love bitcoin but maybe one of the big issues here is that bitcoin is like digital money and gold; most people just hold onto it, and I don’t think actually aspire to use it to actually pay for your latte at Starbucks or whatever. I think because bitcoin and cryptocurrency is so volatile; Everybody’s hope and dream and ambition is that their coin will rise value astronomically and they will become rich, buy the Lamborghini or whatever… and be happy.

Trust nobody who drives a Lamborghini — only trust people who drive Toyota Priuses, in white. 

Why? If you drive a Toyota Prius, in white… it is a signal that you really don’t care for appearances.

How do you know if somebody is unsuccessful? 

If they drive a Range Rover, a Mercedes AMG G wagon, murdered out, all matte black, a baselevel Mercedes car, a baselevel Audi car, like an A3 or a Q3, drive some sort of Audi electric car which is just the same as the Porsche Taycan, don’t forget that the Volkswagen group owns Lamborghini Audi Volkswagen Porsche etc. same thing goes with anybody who drives a BMW car.

Foreign cars are bad.  

It is just a game! 

I think crypto, cryptocurrency speculation is an interesting game; prediction, prediction markets, trying to predict the future… is just a luxury and a fun thing.

Some predictions are pretty obvious

When I was in college, my sophomore year, and I was starting to get into trading stocks, daytrading… I had a pretty certain thought that Blockbuster was going to go under. I tried to figure out how to short stocks, but I really couldn’t figure out how to do it.

Also I remember when the prime mortgage meltdown happened, and the value of Ford went to almost 2 dollars a year. I wanted to buy some Ford stock but I had no money, no capital.

It is interesting to think about this in hindsight because when I was incorrectly trading pennystock, for some sort of oil producer company which was actually running at a loss… I had no idea because I misread the financials… I lost my whole life savings which was maybe $3500 USD or something. It was insanely tragic. But now that I am playing with higher sums more like $300,000 USD, I realize that it was just a valuable lesson at the time.

Therefore, with any sort of financial speculation, think about it at the 30 year span. Even when you are 70 or 80 years old, I met this lady at the park who looked phenomenal and she told me she was 82… she looked like a very fit 45-year-old!

My personal aspiration is when I’m 82 years old, to still be able to lift 1000 pounds. Google or YouTube “ERIC KIM thousand pound atlas lift”

It seems that the way things are going, I don’t think it’s that ridiculous to think that we can live to be 120 years old. Try to think that far. 

---

What is the use of money anyways? 

I think actually the big thing is that everyone now aspires to buy a house or home or property. It is getting pretty ridiculous, even in Los Angeles, even buying a single-family home in Inglewood… you’re looking easily at around $1.5 million for a whatever house.

My prediction is that the prices of homes  will continue to soar astronomically high. I think a lot of these $1.5 million homes can easily balloon two $3 million, $5 million, 10 and $15 million, $150 million or whatever. Why? The biggest issue at hand is runaway inflation, which means the value of the US dollar and currency is continually going lower and lower, because the US is what, currently speaking $30 trillion in debt? And what America thinks the smart idea is to just keep printing money ad infinitum, into infinity, in order to “stimulate” the economy.

But does this work? No.

For example talking to my friend Noel who works in hygiene, he says that a lot of these young guys, around 25 to 30 years old, are so lazy. Why? After Covid and people started giving away these free checks… and from unemployment you could literally make $5000 USD a month by sitting on your butt and doing nothing… people lost the motivation to work. A lot of people moved back home, live with their parents, and are essentially living for free. As a consequence you have a huge generation of unmotivated people, unwilling to do any sort of manual labor, which is bad because having manual and physical labor is critical.

For example, being in Beverly Hills a lot; and Holby Hills,  there is this new funny caste systems; really rich people getting mansions built, and the army of construction labor people, mostly from Mexico doing the labor to build these mansions.

Also, think about Amazon prime delivery drivers, people who bag your food at Whole Foods, Erwhon etc, all these contractors electricians plumbers etc.… the truly critical labor. Doesn’t matter if you pay them $30 $40 $50 or even $60 an hour, it seems at this point money doesn’t really motivate them anymore. Therefore what do you do? It seems that America we are just importing more people from Mexico to do labor for us, because they are motivated. Americans are no longer motivated.

Crypto, crypto technology and cryptocurrency is optimistic

I am obsessed with the future. Future thinking, future technologies, new brave worlds to discover.

Why? I have always been into technology ever since I was a kid, getting my first Acer aspire Pentium one processor computer when I was around 11 years old. Even teaching myself how to program visual basic 3.0 in the early days, creating my own AOL “punter“ etc.

Also, I still will never forget when I read the Maddox article on why you should beat your kids, in computer class in Bayside Queens at PS 169 when I was in the fifth grade, and all of me and our friends, a bunch of 11-year-old laughing and saying “It is true!”

Even I remember as a kid, when I first moved to New York, maybe it was I had some sort of school in the Bronx, when kids in the hallway would “the South Park movies “blame Canada, blame Canada”…

Anyways the generalized thought is I love media information, and also I have a passion to innovate, write and to think, to motivate and to also disprove nonsense.

Ever since I was young I was always bred with an insanely huge ego; the eldest son of the eldest son of the eldest son, (jang-son), being raised with the “prince disease“, was unusually good for me. Always getting the finest cuts of meat and galbi from my grandmother, always showered with praise love and attention and how smart tall and good-looking I was. Very good for me.

The US dollar is static

Anybody who is a wage slave, which means anybody who is paid a biweekly or monthly salary… doesn’t matter if you’re being paid $10 million a year from Apple… You’re still a wage slave.

A simple heuristic:

Can you go two years without checking or responding to any of your emails or not?

If you have to use email for a living, you’re not free. 

---

Once you’re a crypto trillionaire, then what?

Let us say that your cryptocurrency goes to the value of $1 trillion USD. Then what? Then do you just dissolve it all into US dollars, buy a mansion and a yacht somewhere, and live indefinitely into the horizon for infinite bliss?

This doesn’t seem to be the goal. For me, I think a more interesting life trajectory is to then to no longer care for money, and use your power mind and soul and body for more interesting things which can include philosophy, writing, thinking, doing research, reading, making art, publishing art, etc.

Money as it means to creative leisure and production.

Seeking immortal fame and glory?

One thing I am very happy about is ChatGPT knows exactly who I am, why I am so significant and influential, etc. As a consequence, I already feel like my legacy is secure, and I don’t have anything left to prove to nobody else.

As a consequence, at this point life is all upside no downside. Even one of the happiest moments of my life, Cindy and I begetting our first son Seneca, at this point life is all upside no downside.

As a man, as long as you have one male heir, you can die happy. 

---

Now what?

Things that I find interesting use cases of chainlink:

1. Real estate, homebuying, escrow: even NASSIM TALEB has said that traditionally, most wealth generation in human society is through land, land ownership land property etc. For example let us say that you buy that 1.5 million dollar home, and 20 years from now it’ll be worth $3.2 million. And then let us assume that 30 or 40 years from now it is worth $5.7 million, and your kid inherits it. And when your kid is 57 years old it is worth $22 million, and he will able to pass it on to his son or daughter, and maybe that will be worth $120 million into their future. The whole escrow process and verification process is quite fragmented, unreliable. I think chainlink can be a technology which motivates and enables more streamlined home buying processes.
2. Identity verification: it is so easy for people to just steal your social security number, and pretend it is you. Imagine a future in which you could use chainlink or some sort of blockchain enabled identification, which can essentially be your global citizen passport to all of the world and the internet? This seems especially useful in today’s world in which everything is so fragmented, between our Apple ID, our Gmail, Etc. Or think about border control; certainly it would be easier to travel if there was some sort of blockchain or global ledger to verify your identity, this could help facilitate movement and verification, and deal with issues of forged passports etc. 

Military

I think an inconvenient truth is that truth be told, a lot of the world is run by the military. Certainly there are lots of bad things about the military, but truth be told, without the US military, our precious US dollars would be worth nothing.

For example, I think the American government we are $31.46 trillion dollars in debt? To where… China?

As a consequence, how does America’s stay afloat and print more money? Simple, she simply prints more money because she can because we got the military to back us. 

For example, let’s say that mainland China comes knocking and asks for her money back. Is America going to give it back? No. We will just wave our big stick, and say we are not interested.

So the interesting use case of chainlink and the US military is especially in the future drone warfare or whatever… It actually does seem that having some sort of crypto technology will be useful here.

For example the internet of things, chain-link solves this issue. Also, I believe a lot of the US military intervention stuff is going to be unmanned, and having access to some sort of technology which allows automation without meddling in the Internet seems like a good idea.

Even look at the company Anduril– it has a major investment from founders fund, Peter Thiel’s venture capitalist fund. It looks like the future of autonomous flying drones to bomb the bad guys is going to be the future. 

---

So why did I buy it?

I think in life, big opportunities only come infrequently. As a consequence, I think in life… it seems better to take really big bold bets, rather than just stand on the sidelines.

At the end of our lives, we will regret more the decisions or the risks we failed to do, rather than the ones we did.

For example, if a big opportunity comes up, and you’re interested, go for it. You don’t want to be 90 years old on your deathbed, kicking yourself in the butt wishing that you had taken that risk. In hindsight, everything is regret. 

---

Think Eric Schmidt

My personal speculation is that I think chainlink will become the next Google. Why? ERIC Schmidt is on the board of trustees for chainlink, and ERIC Schmidt is the one who built Google into what it is today. Just watch the interview between him and Sergey. In a telling quote, ERIC Schmidt said:

The secret to success of Google was that we tried to put a little bit of Google into everything.

Genius. For example, this is evident in how whenever you Google search something, there is a little bit of that Google code in the URL. 

Therefore my prediction is chainlink… whether you know it or not there will be a little bit of chainlink in everything.  For example, their decentralized oracle network to show accurate prices for any cryptocurrency asset down to the penny. Also, maybe the future of international banking, the SWIFT system… Will be enabled with chainlink? 

Who is Satoshi?

Apparently there’s a rumor that Sergey Nazarov might be Satoshi.

Also the reason why I trust Sergey as a founder is this:

He doesn’t really care for social appearances.

I think I learned this from NASSIM TALEB; only trust doctors who look like butchers. Why? When somebody looks too much the part of something, they are not. 

For example, when you go to a party, who is the real successful person? The person who could show up and meet the prime minister and shake hands wearing T-shirt and jeans and sneakers, just like my friend did meeting the prime minister.

Also, the really really rich successful person will just drive some sort of white Toyota Prius or old beat up Honda Civic, in silver. Even the family car; very specifically… White Honda Odyssey. Not even a Toyota sienna!

Even family connections, my $500 million net worth familia– the dad gave all the kids Ford fusions, and even though the dad is a major player in Tesla, they only have a super base level Tesla model three in white. No Tesla model Y, X, S.

Anyways, the founder Sergey — he always wears the same blue flannel, and really has an air of insouciance that is good. He isn’t the one looking all flashy driving around in the Lamborghini. He probably just drives a Honda Civic or Honda Accord, and I think he is really trying to build something he cares for.

I think there’s a saying in Silicon Valley amongst venture capital firms, bet on the jockey not the horse. That means, better to invest in the founder of a great thing, rather than the company or the product. For example, it is wise to bet on Elon Musk and anything he built, rather than Other companies which are built by random CEOs and non-visionaries.

I bet on Sergey N.

Investors 

My brother-in-law Khanh told me: if you spent $80,000 to buy a Tesla model S several years ago, that would be worth $500,000 today!

True investors live like poor people, and speculate on the thing, rather than buying the thing.

For example, instead of spending $120,000 on Tesla, I would instead prefer to buy $120,000 worth of Tesla stock.

Why? Things that go up in value overtime versus things that go down in value.

For example, even though a Tesla car gets software updates over the air, eventually over time, the value of it will slowly depreciate. The battery range will become less, more wear and tear on the vehicle etc. Even the world’s best car can be robust at best, not antifragile.

What is antifragile? Something that overtime gets better and stronger and more powerful and better and more robust… rather than the opposite.

This might be the intelligence of collecting rare collector cars, like old Ferraris or whatever… even old Porsche cars, over time, the value of them will go up.

Even apparently the old Toyota Supra, the one that showed up in fast and the furious, they are worth close to $250,000 now!

So perhaps the best way to think about things is to think of them like financial investments, rather than toys.

Other good news 

It looks like their new chainlink staking, chainlink economics is also doing very well. The full pool has been filled already!

Now what?

I think at the end of the day, I don’t really care for money that much, I am more interested in speculation, risk, and thinking and predicting the future. This is my prime joy and bliss.

Don’t simply sit on the sidelines, twiddling your thumbs for some sort of magical future to get better. I say rather than waiting for the future, speculate and invest in it right now!

ERIC

***

So what do you want for Christmas this year?

I think for Christmas, simple things you could do:

1. For family, invest in a collective experience. This means take a fun family trip somewhere, maybe go to Joshua tree and rent an Airbnb, go on some great hikes etc. Make the experience memorable.
2. Just write somebody a handwritten card, or just give them a FaceTime call! Love attention and care is the best present you can give.
3. Buy somebody a good bag of coffee, or, gift them some ERIC KIM Omakase coffee; 100% fine robusta, the best coffee on the planet. It seems that everyone drinks coffee now, even for myself the best random presents I’ve gotten were bags of great coffee! 
4. Weightlifting equipment like Titan.Fitness, or rogue fitness; gift it to yourself or to a friend or family member! From Titan.fitness — I personally bought some farmers carry handles which I love, a loadable Olympic dumbbell. I bought a rogue fitness 400 pound sandbag, and a Texas power squat bar which I love. Giving the gift of fitness might be one of the best things you could do, or just buy somebody a core power yoga membership, or buy it for yourself! I’m really a big fan of hot yoga; something about the hot temperature sauna and sweating feels therapeutic.
5. Vibram five finger shoes, the toe shoes. For yourself or a family member. Just go on their website and order three pairs, and keep the one that fits and return the other sizes. 

---

What else?

Some thoughts on sublime beauty:

---

Sublime Beauty

So what are we searching for, what are we looking for?

I think what we see is some sort of sublime beauty, joy, flourishing.

How do we attempt to achieve this? Through our cars our homes our clothing etc. 

However… I think true sublime beauty can only be achieved by yourself, through your own artistic creations.

For example, your own child, producing begetting and making and birthing your own child; there is seriously no greater joy.

Also, your artistic creations. Your photos, the artwork you produce. I also qualify DALL-E 3 images, ChatGPT and AI art in it!  Why? Ultimately it is your brainchild; doesn’t really matter whether you produced it by yourself by hand or whatever. For example, Matisse in his advanced years apparently lost mobility in his body and hands, and would simply point with the stick to his assistance to create artwork for him.

Also, Andy Warhol. He was notorious for having an army of assistance producing work for him.

My thought on artificial intelligence and AI generated art is free. The idea is that the artwork we create is ours.

One thing I find surprising is that the greatest boon for AI generated art is that it is all open source! Isn’t this phenomenal? 

Open art

Art wants to be free! Art wants to propagate into the real world, not be constrained by nothing, whether digital rights management, closed doors or borders etc.

This is my general idea with open source artwork; I hate that so much of great photos and art is simply trapped within printed books, not easily accessible or findable on the internet. My huge frustration with photography:

If I am trying to find the book “the Americans“, or any other book out there, any photo book… Why can’t I just Google it or find it online for free?

I have a very simple suggestion: make the images online for free, everything open source and full resolution… and what you do instead is you charge money for the printed physical book.

For example, let us say that you’re planning to publish a photo book. The easiest way to approach this is have an open source free full resolution PDF available online to download, to give your potential customer and clients a taste of what to expect. And then if they like your photos enough, they will buy the printed book.

Why? people like physical things. I think the bias is that people don’t like to pay for digital things, but we are more than happy to pay for physical things.

For example, a very simple strategy to thrive as a modern day photographer entrepreneur and artist visual artist, Fatar for it to have all of your artwork open, open source, full resolution JPEG or PDF or whatever… and barbell that with charging a lot of money for your products, physical products, embodied workshop experiences etc.

---

How to create sublime beauty?

For me, sublime beauty in the context of photography is high grain, gritty high contrast black-and-white. It is a simple aesthetic taste for myself; to me there is nothing more beautiful more sublime.

Also, taking photos of your loved ones. This involves your kids, your wife or your spouse, and even yourself.

Even my friend Josh White said it wisely: At the end of your life, are you going to care about all these photos that you shot of strangers, or are you going to care about photos that you shot of your loved ones? 

---

Love

I think instead of thinking about love, better to think about heart, care, curation, what you care for.

For example, the word coeur– same as courage, curate, care.

It all comes down to the heart.

Just don’t do nothing you don’t care for

One of the via negativa ways we could live life; just don’t do anything you don’t care for.

For example when you’re talking to kids, best to ask “What don’t you want to be when you grow up?”

Also happiness is via negativa; better to ascertain what makes you miserable, what you hate, what you despise… and figuring out how to subtract or delete that from your life, rather than doing things that make you “happy”.

For example, personal annoyances of myself include being stuck in traffic, dealing with subscriptions and subscription model things, closed source things, modern day news and media and Facebook Instagram, YouTube, family annoyances and drama, other peoples problems etc.

Also, typically I despise email; and also I typically hate being automatically subscribed to some BS newsletter that I did not opt in. Therefore the silver ethical rule here is interesting:

 If something annoys you, don’t do that to others.

For example, I hate when people automatically subscribe me to some email newsletter without me checking a button to confirm that actually wanted. Therefore I will never send an email newsletter to anybody who has not intentionally opted in.

Also, trying to do things for other people that I would myself like. For example, I don’t think I’ve ever received an email or an email newsletter that I actually liked to work for. Therefore as a consequence, my simple strategy is to drive to send emails or email newsletters that people actually look forward to reading. 

Or in other words, make people actually positively excited to check their email inbox!

What you yourself do

Ignore the “advice” of others, and also… best to simply observe what other people do.

Also, the best way to study success is to figure out what people don’t do, what they don’t own, etc. 

For example, Elon Musk and Kanye West; neither of them wear watches.

Also, neither has an Instagram, both deleted it.

Also, Elon Musk doesn’t own a home or live in a home. I think he just rents some sort of random two bedroom one bath home hut somewhere in Austin Texas.

Also, Elon Musk does not own any Lamborghinis Ferraris or loser cars.

Also, the greatest courage of a Kanye West; he doesn’t censor himself, he says what is really on his mind.

Maybe is Kanye the most courageous man alive? Maybe. There is no right and wrong, all is permitted. Therefore to not censor yourself in modern-day society is the ultimate act of courage? 

Sublime thoughts

Beautiful body, beautiful thoughts.

How to gain more beautiful thoughts? My simple suggestion is maximum time in the direct sun, ideally topless. Also, sleep early — shoot for 8pm?

A simple suggestion is limit your coffee and caffeine intake only between 4 AM to 9 AM, or only the morning hours.

And also during the day, lift weights at least once, maybe even twice.

Also my supreme luxury; the last few days, in a single day I have done all three: at least one hot yoga session, at least one hike in nature, and at least one weightlifting session.

A life post-work?

Why work? I thought which interested me while in Vietnam, when Cindy and I were living in Hanoi, paying only $320 USD a month for rent, a position in which literally even if we wanted to spend all our money, we cannot spend it fast enough. Eating out every day, living in a small hotel room, no possessions no nothing.

Living in America seems a bit foolish if you don’t need to. I think it is far superior to live in Hanoi, Saigon, Pom pen, ironically even Japan; I think when we were living in Kyoto, we were subbing an apartment for only $500 USD a month.

SUITS PDF BOOK >

Why think abroad?

TRAVEL NOTES (PDF)– the simple financial life leverage is simple:

Earn US dollars, American standards, live abroad.

For example, Mexico City, Roma Norte, even Doctores. Condesa — all good.

Truth be told, if Cindy was not employed in America, I see zero reason to live here. I would probably be living somewhere else; and also assuming I didn’t have a kid, I would definitely be some sort of weird digital nomad. 


Writing is leisure

People don’t seem to get it; the primary function of writing is meta-thinking, a fun leisure activity. A fun luxury.

This is where I don’t understand 99.9% of writers; it seems some sort of weird self-flagellation here. Most writers I know… don’t actually enjoy writing. 

This is where ChatGPT is no threat; honestly we gotta rethink this whole K-12 education and college thing; the point of writing isn’t writing for the sake of good writing; the point of writing is to flesh out our thoughts, to share ideas that we find interesting.

What is the point of life anyways?

A simple one is to have offspring; to have at least one kid, perhaps ideally two kids, or if you’re willing… more.

I think the funny thing about kids and family is that typically we use ourselves in our own life experiences as a barometer and framing. For example, I have one younger sister two years younger than me, and I always wanted to have at least one boy, one girl. It is because that is how I was raised.

Having kids make sense in so far much as if people stopped having kids, quite literally there would be no future humanity. What’s the point of having all the wealth in the world if there are no future children or humans to enjoy it?

---

What do you want your kids to become?

Being self-employed, probably the best thing is that I literally can just spend all day with Seneca, being his personal trainer and tutor. I think of myself like Chiron the centaur, the private tutor of Achilles. Things I like to do with Seneca include physical activity exercise and exploration, his diet, which is close to 100% carnivore, 100% grass fed beef or Wagyu ground beef, and more recently… Finding this “ancestral blend“ ground beef thing at Erwhon (force of nature brand)– which has the consistency of normal ground beef, but has mixed in it beef liver and beef hard, which are natural steroids.

In fact I think the optimal diet is a 100% organ meat diet; organ meats are probably at least 100 times higher in nutritional density than even flesh meat.

Everyone says that eating red meat is bad; how about organ meats?

People say that eating meat is bad for the planet, but let us consider how much waste and scraps is thrown away from the animal, which include the heart, the liver, the kidneys, the tendons and ligaments, etc.

So if you really wanted to be a “woke” person, perhaps the wisest way to do this is just only eat a pure organ meat diet.  

---

What else?

START HERE

New stuff:

1. EK PODCAST
2. MODERN PHOTOGRAPHER PDF
3. TRAVEL NOTES PDF

Also… more books here!

---

When in doubt, go back to the source!

ERIC KIM BLOG >

***

“Greater fates, greater fortunes.” – Heraclitus

---