Photos from the life of Seneca, ERIC, and Cindy:

It is man which sets values on things, and all beauty goes back to man. Ultimately, all value is deeped in the social, in relationship to one another, with man being the judge.

Therefore, the more that we could optimize and design around human beings, the better.

If you want motivation to make photos, just go on a hike. Or make photos at home, or go on a walk around your neighborhood.

Anything you could invest in, which allows you to walk more in a given day is good.

Minimalist shoes, hiking, mobile lifestyle. Living in a downtown city area. The luxury of not owning a car, and being able to walk everywhere, and even walk to buy groceries.

In life, the best optimization to do is optimizing your lifestyle to walk more. The truly privileged person is the individual who can walk the most. Also, maybe it is better to brag about your daily step count, than your bank account or your possessions.

What is a Luxury, and what is not? Simple: everything is relative to another. What seems like a luxury today is because what we compared to the past. For example, fast and free Wi-Fi and high-speed Internet is a luxury, but we no longer consider it a luxury because it is so wide spread and ubiquitous.

Having clean tapwater is a luxury, especially after spending a lot of time in Mexico City. Yet nowadays, we take it for granted. Same goes with stable electricity and power, as I observed in Beirut Lebanon also, the luxury of having trash pickups.

For example,

Are you truly unique, or just a subtly different iteration of others around you?

The best way to become more unique is creative isolation. turning a blind eye to social media, current events, views, and the concerns and desires of others.

In life, vanity is good, but only if the vanity is deep. Shallow and superficial vanity is a detractor and a distraction.

For example, pride in one’s possessions is a very superficial form of vanity. A better source of vanity is the vanity you get from your artworks, your character, or your own personal innovations.

Pride in your physical strength is a good thing. Also pride in your personal courage.

Make it easy and simple. Why? Things which are more easy to use or do will be used more. Easy things have greater utility.

How do you make things easier? Make it simpler. Fewer options, make it more intuitive, and make it more automatic.

Also, better interoperability. The reason why I really like coin base as a platform for buying, selling and trading crypto is because it is so easy. It automatically linked to my bank accounts super easy, buying and selling is easy, albeit there is a fee.

Once you got perfect, then what?

Our goal is we must go beyond perfection.

Not hunger but the desire to consume more is the motivator.

Once you’re perfectly satisfied, then what?

Or once you got everything perfect, then what?

Not “does the world need it”, but “do you need it”, or do I need it?

And if you care badly enough, be the one to make and create it.

Something that I am actually very personally curious about, in which I do really care for, is figuring out how that we could maximally thrive.

What does it mean to thrive? For us to have the maximum peak health and motivation, the maximum strength, the maximum uplifted mood, and energy, and the best gratitude towards life. And hopefully channel this great healthiness for your artistic, philosophical, and personal ends.

Some quick thoughts:

1. Sleep is godlike

Even the gods sleep, as we witness in the Iliad by Homer. One of the worst modern trends, perhaps since industrialization, it’s a slave mentality that sleep is for the weak, and sleep is bad because it prevents us from working more and laboring more. It has become the strange badge of honor by bragging about how little you sleep, ever since college.

Before I got addicted to coffee, believe it or not, I made it all through college without drinking a single drop. In fact, I did not start drinking coffee or espresso until after college, when I first went backpacking with Cindy through Paris, where I had my first (what I considered overpriced) espresso (“that’s it?? For 2 euros!!”)

My first realization is that in college, optimizing for sleep was wise. The worst mistake I made was my first quarter as a freshman, trying to pull an all nighter before my calculus midterm, and drinking some sort of energy drink to prevent myself from sleeping, in order to study more throughout the night, before the day of my big test. But, it was one of the worst physiological pains I felt, where maybe I had two hours of very troubled sleep. When I did finally show up to my 8 AM test, my brain did not function correctly. I could not add and subtract without the aid of a calculator.

This was my very first lesson in college, that pulling all nighters was actually huge anti-counterproductive. Needless to say, I bombed and failed the test.

Even one of my mistakes being a new parent was trying to force myself to be productive, even though I was massively sleep deprived. Also, trying to force myself to exercise and workout even when I was massively sleep deprived. I’ve actually discovered that as a new parent, the best skill to pick up is napping. To always sleep a nap when the baby naps, and to prioritize your sleep above everything else. To care less about productivity is wise.

Therefore, assuming that you’re single, or do not yet have a baby, I’ve discovered that in the long run, prioritizing sleep over productivity is the best course of action. Why? Funny enough sleeping more and better will actually make you more productive in the long run.

2. No longer working for a foreign entity

I can speak for myself. In order for maximum human thriving, I actually deem it necessary to no longer work or labor for some sort of foreign entity, boss, company, or Board of Directors. Even if you’re the CEO and make $1 billion a year, but as long as you still have to show up to the office, or report to a board, you’re still not free.

For example, we all love Elon Musk, but, he is still not 100% free. Why? Because Tesla is a publicly traded company, and he is the CEO, that means that he is still beholden to shareholders, and the Board of Directors. Once you IPO, you lose your freedom.

3. What is the Silicon Valley dream?

Upon much thought and reflection, this is what I’ve discovered: startup thinking is actually really bad. Why? If you even use the term “startup”, it implies this very Procrustean bed approach to things, in which you follow Silicon Valley dogma, and the ultimate goal is to IPO for $1 billion. Whether people like to admit it or not, it seems that everyone wants to create $1 billion unicorn, sell it off, and then use the money to retire forever, and for them to pursue their personal solo individual pursuits.

Besides studying the life of Elon Musk, and reading Peter Thiel “zero to one” book (which I love, because I consider it more of a philosophy entrepreneurship book), it seems that all this other Silicon Valley ideology that I’ve personally read, is bad. why? If you really do want to innovate, you cannot study the success of others who have come before you, and then think that by emulating their habits or approach, you will also succeed.

The best is actually to think first principles and start carte blanche, and just follow your own gut. Let us consider that Elon Musk or Steve Jobs has never been part of a start up incubator, and also has not probably read many business books, nor went to business school. And if I even think about it, all of my friends who studied business economics in college, none of them became successful entrepreneurs. They all became boring consultants. My real entrepreneur friends (Todd Hata), either dropped out of college, and have failed at least 10 business attempts, and were not able to successfully work a 9-to-5 job.

Even when looking at my very successful silicon Valley friends, who have either successfully sold off their companies for millions of dollars, what is it that they next seek? It seems that they all prefer living more nomadic lifestyle, they sell their house and their possessions in their car, and they start traveling the world, leapfrogging from place to place, and just focusing on their photography. Some of them strive to build their legitimacy as photographers, and some of them are perfectly content to just pursue their own personal interest, without the concern of others.

4. Impact

It seems that regardless of what field you are in, everyone wants to make an impact. And it seems, the deeper and the greater the impact we can make, the better.

Steve Jobs called this putting a dent in the universe. It is a good idea. That what we strive towards is making an impact, changing things, moving things around, creating new things, reconfiguring old things, innovating, etc.

Above all, we do not like the static, and we like to be active. And the best way to be active is by actively creating, and doing.

Therefore it seems that the last component is striving to maximize your impact. Figuring out how you can best leverage your strengths, your position, and your resources to maximize your impact.

Think Archimedes

Entrepreneurship by KIM

Become the change which you desire to see manifested in the world!

Become you.

1. Target Demographic
2. Ambition Over Happiness
3. Anti Collaboration
4. The Will to Economy
5. Why New?
6. CHOOSE ADRENALINE.
7. No Looking Back.
8. 1000x Different
9. BECOME SPENDTHRIFT
10. THE BENEFIT OF JUST ONE.
11. EXTREME INNOVATION.
12. Practicality is Boring
13. BECOME YOUR OWN STANDARD.
14. NEVER STOP ITERATING.
15. CONDENSE.
16. Take Lots of Small Financial Risks
17. Control Over Convenience
18. Why Are Chinese Companies So Innovative?
19. INSANELY DIFFERENT.
20. Why Doesn’t Anything Ever Satisfy Me?
21. THE GREAT PASSION.
22. Perhaps Dissatisfaction is Good
23. ONE REP MAX.
24. WHAT DO YOU *REALLY* WANT IN LIFE?
25. LIFE IS ABOUT STRIVING FOR MORE.
26. NEVER STOP LINKING.
27. THE GREATEST.
28. WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!
29. THE BEST IS YET TO COME.
30. ERIC KIM CRITIQUE OF ROMANTICISM
31. COMPLACENCY.
32. JUST BUY IT.
33. ALL ABOUT YOU.
34. MOVE THE WORLD
35. Boring or Not Boring?
36. What if Your Past Self were Inferior to Your Present Self?
37. THE PHILOSOPHY OF PROGRESS
38. CULTURE IS YOUR ENEMY.
39. Difficulty & Interest
40. The Will to Expansion
41. What is Work?
42. SOUL IN THE GAME.
43. JUST START IT.
44. Not Boring
45. PRIDE IN YOUR OWN NAME / BRAND
46. AS MUCH AS YOU CAN TOLERATE.
47. Speed is Paramount
48. TAKE IT BACK TO THE BEGINNING.
49. A Life With No Risk Taking is *NOT* a Life Worth Living
50. Dissatisfaction is Good
51. GREATER STRENGTH, GREATER CHALLENGES.
52. In Praise of the New
53. Uncorrupted Desires
54. You Cannot Fake Passion
55. SELF-OVERGOING
56. FORM YOURSELF.
57. Personal Entrepreneurship
58. RELENTLESS.
59. PUT YOUR NAME ON IT.
60. A Life of Expansion
61. SELF-ENTREPRENEURSHIP
62. YOU ARE THE EXCEPTION.
63. Use Your Life as an Experiment to Self-Develop Yourself to Heights Never Seen Before
64. Invest in New Developments
65. Investing Towards What End?
66. The 90%/10% Principle in Entrepreneurship
67. Speed Wins
68. The Philosophy of Happiness
69. When to Over-Estimate, When to Under-Estimate?
70. Never Stop Iterating
71. Money as a Tool for Life and Artistic Experimentation
72. Less But More Premium
73. Mainstream vs Low-Key Success
74. Why Dissatisfaction is Good
75. SEEK YOUR OWN PERSONAL MAXIMAL BENEFIT INSTEAD OF COMPLAINING
76. Manifest Your Destiny
77. Is it Best to *Not* Communicate Your Inner Thoughts or Ideas With Others?
78. CREATE THINGS YOU WISH TO SEE MANIFESTED IN THE WORLD
79. How to Do More Work
80. CONTROL.
81. Competition is for Losers
82. Change.
83. Your Competitive Advantage with Insanely Fast Wifi and High Speed Internet
84. Pseudo Individualism
85. Natural Internal Promoting vs External Promptings

Think for Yourself.

1. Survival vs Thrivival
2. Become Rich
3. SECRETS.
4. Why it is Better to Beg for Forgiveness than Ask for Permission
5. Thinking About the Past Prevents You From Thinking About the Future
6. How to Predict the Future
7. Tools of Mass Distraction
8. So What?

FREEDOM

• On Leaving a Legacy
• I wanna be me!
• Productivity for personal freedom
• How to Purchase your Freedom

Entrepreneurship by KIM

Become the change which you desire to see manifested in the world!

Become you.

1. Target Demographic
2. Ambition Over Happiness
3. Anti Collaboration
4. The Will to Economy
5. Why New?
6. CHOOSE ADRENALINE.
7. No Looking Back.
8. 1000x Different
9. BECOME SPENDTHRIFT
10. THE BENEFIT OF JUST ONE.
11. EXTREME INNOVATION.
12. Practicality is Boring
13. BECOME YOUR OWN STANDARD.
14. NEVER STOP ITERATING.
15. CONDENSE.
16. Take Lots of Small Financial Risks
17. Control Over Convenience
18. Why Are Chinese Companies So Innovative?
19. INSANELY DIFFERENT.
20. Why Doesn’t Anything Ever Satisfy Me?
21. THE GREAT PASSION.
22. Perhaps Dissatisfaction is Good
23. ONE REP MAX.
24. WHAT DO YOU *REALLY* WANT IN LIFE?
25. LIFE IS ABOUT STRIVING FOR MORE.
26. NEVER STOP LINKING.
27. THE GREATEST.
28. WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!
29. THE BEST IS YET TO COME.
30. ERIC KIM CRITIQUE OF ROMANTICISM
31. COMPLACENCY.
32. JUST BUY IT.
33. ALL ABOUT YOU.
34. MOVE THE WORLD
35. Boring or Not Boring?
36. What if Your Past Self were Inferior to Your Present Self?
37. THE PHILOSOPHY OF PROGRESS
38. CULTURE IS YOUR ENEMY.
39. Difficulty & Interest
40. The Will to Expansion
41. What is Work?
42. SOUL IN THE GAME.
43. JUST START IT.
44. Not Boring
45. PRIDE IN YOUR OWN NAME / BRAND
46. AS MUCH AS YOU CAN TOLERATE.
47. Speed is Paramount
48. TAKE IT BACK TO THE BEGINNING.
49. A Life With No Risk Taking is *NOT* a Life Worth Living
50. Dissatisfaction is Good
51. GREATER STRENGTH, GREATER CHALLENGES.
52. In Praise of the New
53. Uncorrupted Desires
54. You Cannot Fake Passion
55. SELF-OVERGOING
56. FORM YOURSELF.
57. Personal Entrepreneurship
58. RELENTLESS.
59. PUT YOUR NAME ON IT.
60. A Life of Expansion
61. SELF-ENTREPRENEURSHIP
62. YOU ARE THE EXCEPTION.
63. Use Your Life as an Experiment to Self-Develop Yourself to Heights Never Seen Before
64. Invest in New Developments
65. Investing Towards What End?
66. The 90%/10% Principle in Entrepreneurship
67. Speed Wins
68. The Philosophy of Happiness
69. When to Over-Estimate, When to Under-Estimate?
70. Never Stop Iterating
71. Money as a Tool for Life and Artistic Experimentation
72. Less But More Premium
73. Mainstream vs Low-Key Success
74. Why Dissatisfaction is Good
75. SEEK YOUR OWN PERSONAL MAXIMAL BENEFIT INSTEAD OF COMPLAINING
76. Manifest Your Destiny
77. Is it Best to *Not* Communicate Your Inner Thoughts or Ideas With Others?
78. CREATE THINGS YOU WISH TO SEE MANIFESTED IN THE WORLD
79. How to Do More Work
80. CONTROL.
81. Competition is for Losers
82. Change.
83. Your Competitive Advantage with Insanely Fast Wifi and High Speed Internet
84. Pseudo Individualism
85. Natural Internal Promoting vs External Promptings

Think for Yourself.

1. Survival vs Thrivival
2. Become Rich
3. SECRETS.
4. Why it is Better to Beg for Forgiveness than Ask for Permission
5. Thinking About the Past Prevents You From Thinking About the Future
6. How to Predict the Future
7. Tools of Mass Distraction
8. So What?

FREEDOM

• On Leaving a Legacy
• I wanna be me!
• Productivity for personal freedom
• How to Purchase your Freedom

Never stop innovating: “Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Photography Entrepreneurship“.

Entrepreneurship Mindset

• What is Your Dream in Life?
• 8 Blogging Productivity Tips
• Why Be Normal?
• How Much Suffering Are You Willing to Endure to Achieve Your Dreams?

Put a Dent in the Universe.

• Innovate for the Sake of Innovating!
• Reality is Malleable!
• Stoic Entrepreneurship
• Against Self-Preservation
• The Purpose of Life is to Make New Stuff!

What actually interests you, and why?

Does it actually mean to be interested? And where does this come from?

I suppose we are interested in that which we are curious about. and what are we curious about?

In someways, we are curious about novelty and the new. I know when I was personally in college, and I got into photography, and I will look at all these famous Street photos from history, I was curious what it was like to travel the world, and live this romantic photographic lifestyle.

Photograph what interests you?

A thought on my mind:

When it comes to finances, time, design, etc … how much buffer is enough buffer?

For example, with liquid cash (USD in your checking or savings account) — how much is enough?

For example, it seems wise to get to the airport early. People say get to the airport at least an hour early for domestic flights, at least 2 hours for international flights. But for myself, I add at least an hour of buffer for each — 2 hours early for domestic flights (even though I got TSA pre-check), and at least 3 hours for international flights (also, we don’t check in luggage or baggage — only carry on). And the upside is that I actually like hanging out at airports — so I am able to get the upside of both. But a big lesson:

When in doubt, spend extra money to *NOT* have to go on that early-morning flight.

I prefer flights in the afternoon, so I don’t need to sacrifice my sleep in order to get to the airport early.

Back to the financial buffer thing

A simple thought:

If you don’t think you got enough financial buffer, you probably don’t.

And also with finances, when in doubt, add more buffer. Because having additional cash lying around can be a very good thing, for example, when Bitcoin dips you can buy more at a discount.

Because black is so impractical.

We are in motion, even when sleeping, resting or napping. Why? Our bodily chemicals are always moving.

What is death? When our bodies no longer move — either internally or externally.

White, translucent, hyper orange.

1. For camera, RICOH GR III.
2. For laptop, maxed out MacBook Air space grey
3. For phone, the newest iPhone Mini
4. For mirrorless strap, HENRI NECK STRAP MARK IV in PHANTOM BLACK. For Ricoh GR, ERIC KIM NECK STRAP MARK II.
5. For wallet, ERIC KIM WALLET