“Why should I pour my precious salves into the sea?” – Nietzsche

I think a certain ideal which is fascinating is this whole idea and notion of forever. It seems that we are seeking forever as a generalized concept, but why, for the sake of what? 

You must die

As I thought experiment, if an angel or demon came down to you, and told you that you would live forever, it might be considered the worst curse of all time. Why? Sooner or later, you’re probably going to get bored of life, and you will want to die.

To live forever might be the worst curse of all time.

The first general philosophical Stoic thought that I have is that the truth is, having things which are limited is a positively good thing. Why?

First, when things are limited, you actually appreciate it more. For example, my mom is currently visiting from Korea, and because we know her time here is limited, I feel that we are living and spending time with her much more intentionally, savoring every single moment with her. This means never taking any moment for granted; each and every moment is infinitely precious, and is to be made grateful.

I’m sure if I always have my mom with me, forever, most likely I would not be as grateful.

Also having a kid, having a son, having Seneca; I appreciate each and every moment with him. Literally by the day, every and each single day he wakes up, he is a transform boy, a transformed man. Each and every day he’s becoming more cognizant, he is talking better, he’s becoming more intelligent, more aware, More funny and silly and hilarious, stronger taller more muscular, more capable.

I think the big problem is that they don’t have enough pride in their kids. Traditional jail Christian moral ethics say that pride is a bad thing, to brag about your kid and to show off your kid is a bad thing… But what is the opposite? Being humble and not having pride in your kid, which leads to parents just being on their iPhones all day, while their kid is playing at the park. People often lament the fact all these parents are on their phones all the time, watching YouTube or on Facebook, or on Instagram or TikTok or whatever, while their kids are playing at the park… my personal read on this is that most parents just don’t find their children fascinating; they are not impressed by their kids. And that is fine, let mediocre parents raise mediocre kids, it is none of our concern.

Our concern is to elevate our own children, to glorify them, to them with praise, and to lock away your loser iPhone, and devote 1000% focus on your kid. 

In fact, a single tip I have for parents and new parents is this:

No iPhone Pro

Instead, just get an iPhone SE or an iPhone mini.

---

Is your body forever?

Certainly sooner or later, we will and we must die. It is possible to die from a traumatic death, which means getting hit by a car, while you are texting while crossing the crosswalk, or, dying in a car accident when you were texting while driving. I saw an advertisement other day that apparently 50% of people don’t survive if they are hit by a car going at just 30 mph. Living in Los Angeles, I often see cars blasting by 50 mph!

I’m in the best shape of my life

People often lament the fact that they are no longer in their prime. People always think of their prime as behind them, never in front of them.

This typically has to deal with age, biologically aging or whatever.

However the really interesting new ones is apparently the ancient Greeks thought that the future was behind them, and the past was in front of them. Why? I think the general idea was that we could see the past with 100% clarity, but we are blind to the future.

 for example, at the age of 36, I feel like I’m in the best shape of my life. The most confident, tall, handsome, the best full body tan, my biceps shoulders and arms, my legs and thighs, my overall confidence etc.

At the age of 36, I’m in peak shape. Much better than when I was 28, 22, 16 or whatever.

The best is yet to come?

I think the critical issue we have here is when we think about aging, what we tend to think about is bodily decay and degeneration. The scientific term for this is “senescence”.

 However, I’ll never forget… One of the guys I met at my old crunch gym, insanely great shape, look like a super healthy fit dude in his 40s, told me that he was actually 72 years old, I was amazed! Also when hiking near Stoneview nature center, I met this one really really fit African-American lady, also who look like a really fit 45 or 47-year-old, wearing Lululemon leggings, all with silver hair, also told me she was in her 70s!

The problem in Korea, America and beyond, the general thought is as we get older, it is inevitable that we degenerate and decay. 

Certainly sooner or later we will die. Whether that be 122 years old, 110 years old, 100 years old, 90 years old, 80 years old or whatever. But it seems that in two days world, being in your 80s is like the new 50s, and being 50s is the new 30s.

And actually ironically enough, now at the age of 36, I’m starting to feel like the new Brad Pitt. I think I’m about his height, I’m 5 foot 11, and my body fat levels are similar to Brad Pitt and fight club, except I have much more muscle mass and I am much stronger. And I have the coolest haircut of all time, courtesy of Cindy.

What to do?

Some techniques, tactics, ways of thinking: 

1. The past you was the worst you: Why do we always think that somehow, the past version of ourselves was a superior version of ourselves?
2. Thank God for America: if you’re reading this and you’re living in the states, have access to Amazon prime, Titan.fitness, you can purchase bitcoin on Coinbase or whatever, consider yourself blessed. I still remember simple things like trying to buy an SD card in Japan or Korea, it was like 50 bucks for just a simple 64 GB card! On Amazon I think you get it for like 10 or 15 bucks. Also, according to my mom, apparently clothing and shoes is insanely expensive in Korea. For example, a T-shirt is like 50 bucks! Something you could easily buy on under Armour website in the states for only 20 bucks! Everything is cheaper in the states.
3. Censorship resistance: if you’re an American, and you have never traveled outside the states, consider yourself myopic. The typical conceited, self indulgent, fake patriot American is all about talking about how the government is trying to censor them or whatever, but until you have gone to Vietnam, mainly in China, Cambodia, etc. in which you literally try to type in gmail.com and you cannot open it, or you cannot download the ChatGPT app in the App Store, or you cannot use Google, Access your Coinbase account, whatever… You don’t know what true censorship is. And can you also imagine, tweeting or posting negative things about Donald Trump or the president or political candidates, and randomly having the secret police knock at your door, incarcerate you without trial, four years? This will never happen in America, consider yourself blessed. as an example, there were often times that I could not even access wordpress.com in Vietnam! And also during one of the student protest, the Vietnamese government shut down all of Facebook, Facebook messenger, Instagram for a whole day; really bad news because 99% of Vietnamese commerce happens over Facebook messenger, consider All of the millions or billions of dollars of economic activity which could not happen that day.

Fitness & food?

Time to dispel some myths:

1. Fiber is fake: no no no, you do not need fiber. I follow 100% carnivore diet, and I go to the bathroom regularly every morning. My personal theory about this whole fire thing is probably propaganda or political lobbying from the wheat and bread group in America.
2. Fruit is candy with a good conscience: Traditionally, if you look at fruit in the Levant, oranges were very very small, bitter, 99% pulp. If you look at a modern day orange, nectarine, cutie, tangerine, apple or whatever… They are genetic monstrosities. Essentially like a solidified Coca-Cola can.
3. You don’t need vegetables: certainly dark bitter green like colored greens, kale or whatever has a pleasant bitter taste, but you don’t need it.
4. Alcohol causes cancer: according to the national Canadian health organization, any amount of alcohol is toxic, and will give you cancer. Even two drinks a week is bad for you. And let us consider there is no downside of not drinking alcohol.
5. Marijuana makes you stupid
6. Running is for losers: either walk around town with a 60 pound weight best, at a leisurely pace, or engage in Usain Bolt like sprinting. Running at moderate or even moderate high or even high intensity is bad.
7. Meat is not bad for you

So what should one do instead?

1. Buy a 60 pound weight vest: I think the critical issue that everyone has in regards to fitnesses nobody has time for nothing. I say just go to Titan.fitness, and buy the 60 pound weight vest. When you wake up and after you have your morning coffee, just drop it on and just walk around the block! Or if you’re a tech worker, just wear it at the office, your standing desk! Or if you’d like to do the treadmill or whatever, just drop it on and walk on your treadmill with it! The upside is I’m quite certain it could act as a bulletproof fest. Or like some sort of modern day body armor; if somebody tried to punch you or kick you with your 60 pound weight vest on, they would most likely fracture their fists or bodies.
2. Build your own home gym? Titan.fitness, just build your own home gym. Now living in Los Angeles, no more gems. Literally even driving local, you’re gonna be stuck in traffic going 15 minutes one way, not worth it. However if you do have access to a good gym, just go to the gym! at least once every day, maybe even twice a day!
3. Insanely hot bats: the hot sauna at the gym, or if you have a bathtub at home, take insanely hot baths!
4. Consume organ meats, beef liver, beef heart, beef kidneys, intestines, just go to the local grocery store or meat market. If you have access to Costco, get the beef ribs, or the Wagyu ground beef, or get the frozen 100% breast-fed ground beef. Beef is better.

Why is this whole weird plant-based diet trend?

My theory is it has to deal with virtue signaling; misinformation, lack of religion. To be a plant based person is seen as a new religion of sorts; maybe you have a dog, dogs, a cat or multiple cats, perhaps you don’t have kids or whatever. I also think it is a virtuous annoying thing; it is seen as morally evil and bad to consume, because apparently it is bad for environment, the planet, cruel to animals or whatever.

Inside, the hilarious intervention is if you really want to be an ethical person? Only consume or meet, the leftovers in the scraps. For example in Orange County, you go to the local super king, you could buy beef liver for only $1.99 a pound! Typically people throw away the liver and the organ it is not desirable by the American public.

> Stop eating plants, eat organ meats.

The best food in Japan

Motsu-nabe

A very interesting thing that Cindy and I learned while living in Japan, is Motsu Nabe the history of it. 

Motsu just means soup, Motsu is innards, intestines, the like. 

The history of Motsu nabe is super fascinating; essentially the really poor Koreans who immigrated to Japan as labor workers, would just take the throwaway scraps from their wealthy Japanesecounterparts, and just boil and make a soup out of it. The Japanese would throw away the innards. And now the hilarity is now Motsu-nabe is the new elite food; foe the rich and privileged. Kind of similar like how former slaves in the south would make gumbo, jambalaya, with pig intestines, which was scraps from the slave masters. Now everybody loves it!

Also what is super fascinating is the Korean and Vietnamese word for liver, “gan” means gold, or something of great worth. Apparently back in the days, the liver was only reserved for the super rich and privilege, the emperor. Even my mom knows that when a wolf kills the prey, the first thing it eats is the liver, then intestines, etc. and it leaves the flesh meets for the scavengers.

Also another interesting thing, pate, duck liver mousse or pate is seen as the Apex of sophistication for the French. It is essentially liver.

Why liver? It has the highest nutritional density. 

And the funny thing; is liver even “meat“?

More thoughts

I guess my thoughts on bitcoin was right. Now that bitcoin is currently hovering at around $70,000 at bitcoin, it looks like I was right all along.

Some things that I learned from Michael Sailer which seemed really really useful and practical:

1. The real rich and wealthy people only keep one percent of their net worth in Fiat currency, the US dollar. No rich person will brag to you that they have $1 billion of US dollar currency in their JP Morgan chase checking account. The real rich people will typically have their wealth tied up in Capital like land or real estate. For example, owning a square block in Manhattan or Hong Kong or in the middle of Tokyo. The problem with Fiat currency, the US dollar, is that the value of it is slowly bleeding at 7 to 10% a year. That means if you hold $1 million of cash in your checking account, your purchasing power will diminish by 7 to 10% every single year.
2. The easiest thing to do is store one percent of your money in paper currency, the US dollar, and use 99% of your excess money to just buy bitcoin. Even a year or two ago, I had the thought that the optimal strategy is to just convert all your fiat currency into bitcoin!

What about ethereum and other stuff?

“There is no second best”- Michael Saylor

My new favorite thinker is Michael Saylor, his knowledge of history, science is astounding, just listen to the three hour podcast interview with Lex Fridman — better than any college course or degree I have ever gotten!

Anyways, I think this sentiment that there is no second best is a good one. Nobody ever remembers those who won second place or the silver.

Even more nuance, we often forget those who are number one, or the gold. Let alone second place.

Nobody cares about second place

Apple is number one, iPhone number one, android is number two. Nobody cares about android

Globally, America’s number one, China’s number two. Nobody cares about China. Maybe in terms of field currency, the US dollar is strongest, and then maybe after that it might be the pound, the euro, or maybe the CNY, but the truth is there is no second best fiat currency after the us dollar.

 nobody wants the euro, because my personal prediction is in the next 30 years, Germany will probably break off from the European nation, and reinstate her own Deutschmark. Why? Seems that Germany is the last and only productive nation and all of Europe; the rest of all the other nations are just dragging her down. 

The British are dying a slow debt. I think it is a good idea that they broke off from the EU, but still… The value of the British pound is slowly dying.

Japan is in a severe crisis, and also Korea.

China seems to be doing OK, but even China, nobody wants the CNY. No matter how much China tries to coerce Cambodia, Cambodia, Cambodians would still prefer the US dollar.

Even Vietnam, the Vietnamese would prefer $100 US dollars, brand new Benjamins over the local Vietnamese dong.

However critical downside is even though that the US dollar is the most supreme currency on the planet, it is still flawed. The purchasing power of the US dollar is falling rapidly, at an alarming rate. Even in Los Angeles, average gas prices are over five dollars a gallon, 6 dollars a gallon in some places.

And also, the new minimum wage for McDonald’s has jumped from $16 an hour, to $20 an hour overnight! This means the inflation has gone up 30 to 40% overnight, and I think that within the next two or three years, you will slowly see the price of everything creep up by 20 to 30%, rent prices, The price of buying a single-family home etc.

What to do?

I feel like we have several options:

First, leave the states. Honestly if Cindy didn’t have a job in the states, I would personally see zero reason to live in here. I would prefer to live in Panin Cambodia, live in Hanoi or Saigon in Vietnam, maybe Bangkok in Thailand, etc. I prefer Southeast Asia the states. Why? America’s too expensive, your purchasing power here is very weak.

Second: become insanely frugal, and just intelligently funnel your access US dollars into bitcoin. And keep your living expenses low, as you see the value of your bitcoin go up!

---

Now what?

At the end end of all this, once you become a millionaire, a bitcoin millionaire or billionaire or whatever… Then what?

Michael tells us to keep stacking those satoshis, I see that there is probably a certain point in which it is good to just be content, and be focused on other things like your photography, artistic production, your philosophical production, etc.

I still believe with all my heart and soul blogging, websites, email newsletters are the future.

Why? It is permissionless, open, censorship resistant. Anybody who is still using Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, even YouTube is a loser. 

Build the future

In America, and a lot of the world, you have the right to build. Building things physically in the physical world is often too expensive, too cost prohibitive. This is where I think building websites, blogging, vlogging or whatever is good. 

First, certainly it cost your time labor, but the raw materials of digital things is free!  if you do not have a personal website, you’re missing out. Honestly I practically think it is free, just making a simple wordpress.org website with blue host.com is maybe what five dollars USD a month? Cancel all of your Spotify subscriptions, your Netflix and whatever… And funnel that money into your own website instead.

Let us say that your own property or house, and your mortgage is like four to $5000 a month. Digital real estate is superior; it is 1000 times cheaper, or 100,000 X cheaper . The most obvious economic leverage!

Ideally your website and your domain name should just be your first and last name. I think the genius of Michael Saylor is he owns michael.com, as well as hope.com. Very impressive.

Even Elon Musk, the genius of him purchasing.com; genius.

It looks like all of the bitcoin domains have been gobbled up, I still think there is great opportunities to be had in the online domain world. 

OK, now that the bitcoin ETF, the spot ETF has been approved… truth be told, I don’t think there is really any more risk in regards to bitcoin, owning bitcoin, or the like. 

1. Before, it was really really hard to acquire and buy bitcoin

For me, acquiring bitcoin in around 2017 2018, I suppose around four or five years ago, the only practical option was using something like Coinbase, beautiful user interface and experience, to buy my bitcoins. At first I think I bought bitcoin around 6000 or $7000 a bitcoin… around $25,000 worth of it.

Even today, the thing that is really insanely annoying is that making wire transactions to purchase more bitcoin has been horrific. Simple wire transfers of around $120,000, I had to go into the bank at least three times, sign a bunch of things, Talk to real life being tellers, and then having to be stuck on the phone for an hour or two talking to some outsourced customer support labor and the Philippines or Manila, and then having to call back another week later, figuring out why my damn wire transfer had not gone through yet.

The more street for workaround has been using the built-in plaid integration with Coinbase, purchasing daily maximum of $50,000 USD worth of bitcoin at a time.  every time I do this it is insanely anger-fying, because when I have the right opportunity to buy, because I have this lame restriction put on me, I lose opportunities and I also lose the ability to purchase more bitcoins.

For example, when I wanted to buy bitcoin when it was low, when it dipped down a bunch, because the wire transfer took me about a week or two, I think finally when the money was available, or finally when the purchase went through, bitcoin up at least $10,000 a bitcoin, which means that I was able to purchase few bitcoins than I wanted to. 

Anyways, I’m so grateful that the technology even exist in the first place for me to purchase bitcoins at all. Sometimes I limit at the fact that me and my friend Kevin do not buy $100 worth of bitcoin, back in 2009, when my roommate Kevin told me about the bitcoin pizza incident. I will never forget how I shrugged my shoulders, and I said we should not, because I thought it was a scam. I think if we had bought hundred dollars worth of bitcoin the time, both of us would have owned thousands if not 10 and thousands of bitcoins, making both of us hundred millionaires, or potentially maybe even billionaires.

2. It is never too late 

So I think the main issue that we have is we always lament the fact that we are “too late”. This applies to almost everything in life, finding a life partner, getting married, having kids, getting into shape and doing fitness, investing whatever.

But, as I speak these words, it is still early! Apple has not yet integrated bitcoin support into their iOS or iPhone, once Apple does this, the price of bitcoin will explode.

3. Do you remember blockbuster? 

One thing that I’ve learned in life, it is easier to predict what will fail, rather than what will succeed.

For example, I think I’m really lucky that I was born in 1988, because I recall life before the Internet, in life after the Internet. And also the Internet came out around a formative time for me, when I was living in New York, and I got my first computer with AOL 3.0, a 38.8k dial up modem,  I think when I was around 11 years old. Maybe the fourth or fifth grade?

Anyways, back in the day, I recall how we used to go to Blockbuster to rent VHS tapes to watch movies. I remember in college, when I got really into investing in stocks and stuff,  blockbuster was still a publicly traded company. I remember my roommate Kevin, our freshman year, having a Netflix subscription when they still use to send DVDs in the mail. I knew with great certainty that blockbuster would go bankrupt and go under, and I wanted to short blockbuster stock, but I had no idea how to do it. my prediction was right. Blockbuster went bankrupt, I could’ve made a good profit had I done this.

Or on the other hand, if I had invested in that in college, in 2007 or 2008, this would have also been good.

Anyways the big pot was dematerialization. The fact that in my short life, I have already seen the transition from the materialized world of going in person to choose a blockbuster VHS tape, to rent or borrow or to watch, I actually used to do this with video games too… It actually made a lot of sense, Instead of paying $50 for the Nintendo 64 video game, which I would eventually beat, I rented for only like five or $10, and then try to beat it really fast, so economically as a kid, it made a lot of sense.

4. YouTube premium

I really random thing that my mom has been getting into lately has been tai chi, Cindy’s mom got my mom into it. It has been great every morning my mom has been practicing it, but no matter how many blockers I tried to install, google is smart enough to figure out how to disable the ad blockers. 

I suppose the genius of getting a YouTube premium family plan, whether it is $20 a month or whatever, then intelligence is you think about it… It might be the new most important utility that we got.

Even random things, like me preparing to change the oil in my 2010 Prius, watching YouTube videos on how to do it, is 1 trillion times better than written tutorials.

Even whenever I talk about house construction or maintenance or whatever, all the handyman I know tell me to just watch it on YouTube.

So if you think about the economics of it, assuming that having a studio membership for Pilates or yoga $200 a month, and technically you could just stream it on YouTube for $20 a month, economically it is extremely intelligent.

Anyways what is very interesting about the whole YouTube premium thing that is how it has dematerialized so many different things. 

And this is what I think is the genius of bitcoin, it has the materialized money. Yes bitcoin is money, even as time goes on I put less than less faith on field paper currency. To me it is like cotton candy.

---

5. Money philosophy

So I just finished watching the whole Michael Saylor series on money, and I feel like I just got a new PS in economics, economic theory, as well as corporate finance and accounting.

The main takeaways are the following: 

a) Inflation

The basic idea is because the money creation rate in America and beyond is expanding 7 to 10% a year, because the price of minimum wage keeps going up, out of thin air, this is what drives inflation, or another words, the price of everything going up. 

For example, I’ll never forget this moment; when me and Seneca bought  our typical single burger patty, just the patty nothing else, just a month ago for $1.50 at Patty, it going up over 90 to $2.50 just for a single patty! This was because minimum wage was raised from $16 an hour to $20 USD an hour.

The reason why this decision was bad is because honestly, it just seems like a political ploy, for politicians to get elected or reelected. The reason why this is a scam is this:

I want to get elected, and I promise you that I will raise your minimum wage. Vote for me!

And then, the real after effects of inflation is going to happen when I am out of office.

b) History of money

Some of this is a rehashing of Michael Saylor quoting the book, the bitcoin standard, which I find really fascinating not because of the whole bitcoin thing, but about the history of money.

Long story short, bitcoin might be the best money and asset because it is infinitely durable and will last forever, because it is so intensive to create it has value, it has a hard cap of 21 million bitcoins, which will be certain even 1000 years from now, And also… it is money perfected. 

---

6. My thoughts

I am very very happy and grateful that I did not study economics formally. I’m sure that I would have fallen into the same pitfalls as a lot of these loser economic peoples who has never done business in the real world.

I’ll give you examples; when I went to UCLA as an undergraduate,  we didn’t have a formal business major, only a Hybrid business – economics major. Out of all the people that knew who studied business economics, none of them became entrepreneurs, self-employed, none of them started their own companies, none of them worked for themselves, and none of them became successful. They all ended up just becoming low or mid-level managers at some company, probably clocking in the typical $80,000 thousand dollars a year to $120,000 a year salary. 

In fact, what made me so successful in my realm of Farsi, entrepreneurship, etc.… It totally up ended any traditional economic theories. For example my open source vision; it would probably had been deemed as heresy by any traditional school of economic thought.

Also as a side thing; I am very very happy that I did not study photography formally, and I am also grateful that I did not go to art school. Why? Once again, you get stuck in these loser ways of thinking, these incestuous ways of thinking about photography and the art world is quite filthy.

Anyways, as a general thought, true innovation and entrepreneurship comes from expertise domain expertise outside of that certain domain. For example, let us note that flight was invented by the weight brothers, who I believe were actually bicycle mechanics. 

I feel that I am well positioned to talk about money, economics, economic theory because I grew up poor, single mom working minimum wage jobs, also, becoming a successful self-employed sole proprietor, having zero debt, and applying my economic theories to real life.

Also, I am also moderately booksmart, and my wife has a PhD. And then helping Cindy get her PhD, I feel like I got a PhD.

And also other things which I have done which I consider very intelligent: I have never spent more than $2500 USD on a car, in my whole life, from age 15 to at age 36.

1. 1991 Nissan Sentra XE (5 speed, manual transmission, $1000)
2. 1991 Nissan Sentra SE-R (5 speed, manual transmission $1500 USD)
3. 1990 Mazda Miata, five speed manual transmission, no air conditioning no power steering, $2500 USD
4. 2002 Subaru outback, five speed manual transmission, $800 USD
5. Current, 2010 Prius, free. ($0.00)– free 99

I put zero faith in any individual who has ever purchased any brand new car. It is a true signal that they are economically a fool.

Doesn’t matter if you bought the new Tesla or whatever, all fools.

7. Why does this all matter?

Whether you like it or not, our whole life revolves around money.

There are certain things which are negotiable, certain things which are not negotiable.

Nonnegotiable include paying rent, gas and electricity, Wi-Fi, food, coffee etc.

Negotiable things include purchasing any sort of clothing, eating out, drink alcohol or smoking marijuana or doing drugs, cars, purchasing a home or property etc.

Also, unfortunately I think 99.9% of the photography industry is predicated around purchasing your cameras, lenses, accessories etc. Was the first to start the anti-gear movement, by books not gear, and being the first to really make the Ricoh GR camera mainstream? 

So I’ve been thinking a lot about life, money wealth, power property, digital physical etc. After all of the thinking and considerations, and also having my mom here at the moment, some thoughts:

The first big thought is health is prime. The other day I accidentally drink way too much coffee, and I had the worst splitting headache of all time, maybe in terms of pain…. a 9 out of 10. Still functional, full of energy, but the headache made everything bad.

And this is the funny thing, even if you have $100 million, $100 million worth of property, value stocks bonds, bitcoin crypto, yachts, private jets, Lamborghinis or whatever… No amount of wealth, beautiful women, beautiful scenery or things or food will alleviate your pain.

2. Body power

During the short period of time here, probably my greatest joy is having Cindy take my mom to yoga, hot yoga, doing a bunch of classes with her, barre etc. Also the great upside of having my own backyard garage gym is that I’ve already been able to do some weightlifting with my mom as well.

I think at my mom, I think the most important thing I value share for is for help. As being strength, vitality, high muscle mass and low body fat, posture, tenacity, diversity, bigger, ability to walk longer time without fatigue or having to sit down etc.

In fact, I think the tragedy of modern life, especially in culture is the thought that as one gets older, one should pamper people who are older by always having them sit, to move as little as possible etc. In America, I think the general idea is you want to get super rich, and all of these Assets you got have to do with something about sitting on your butt. I call it the pampered butt syndrome. 

For example, let us say that you want the Rolls-Royce the Bentley or Mercedes or whatever… What is it? Just a really good seat butt cushion.

And this is the thing I’ve realized about sports cars, hyper cars or whatever… Everyone admires your car, not you. In fact, and skinny fat loser, or old fat guy can push accelerator button on his foot, and make loud noises and go fast, This requires zero skill and also zero courage. A simple intervention I have is this:

Silent car, be insanely loud at the gym.

Or better yet,

Drive a Prius, and be loud and audacious in real life. 

In fact I was walking the other day, and I saw a guy pull up in a silver all electric Porsche Taycan car, now I realized… there’s not really much different from an electric car and driving a Prius. 

Cybertruck vision

I think the only interesting car currently in the universe is the cyber truck. It is like a wet dream out of all of my video game fantasies.

Anyways, probably the most interesting thing is the towing capacity. But, rather than shelling out the big bucks for it, I think it’s a better idea to try to transform your body into the cyber truck. A simple suggestion is buying a 60 pound weight vest at Titan.fitness, or trying to lift 1000 pounds in the ERIC KIM atlas lift Fashion. 

Body shaming

This is my: in American Society, modern day Puritan American Society, the body is a thing to be ashamed of,.

What I realize is the reason why people hate me, and really really feel upset at seeing me walk around topless, with my full body beautiful sun kissed olive oil skin tan, looking like an ancient Greek or Mediterranean person, is that most people hit the way they look naked. I think this goes with both men and women.

Truth be told the only issue here is,. This includes alcohol, which causes cancer, weed and marijuana, and real milk, fake and real sugar, etc. I think the only things to consume is flush meat, or meat, ideally red, ideally grass fed, pasture raised, Pasture raised eggs whatever.

Batteries

I’ve been on a really big Michael Saylor kick lately, this man is insanely insightful, and I trust him because  he has experience skin exposure and real life experience in the game. He has run Michael strategy SCO company, a software company for over 30 years, so I think he knows a thing or two about business economics money etc.

One of the big ideas he talks about is how body fat, human battery. I think if you take the average over fat person, you can essentially have them just run off of their bodies fat reserves for certainly at least 40 days without food. Only water and maybe coffee.

This is intermittent investing makes sense, eating only is the optimal strategy. It might be different for young children, and women going through a menstrual cycle, but for men, it should be defacto. 

.

Fitness?

I think the big thing that nobody has really given critical thought about is the philosophy of fitness. What does it mean, why does it matter, etc.

I think a very very level, a very very basic level, some simple thoughts on fitness include:

1. Sleeping 8 to 10 hours a night, and feeling great in the morning and during the day
2. A zest and passion for life
3. Great energy to play, wrestle, run around with your kid
4. No bodily pain, aches, etc.
5. High muscle mass, low body fat percentage
6. Ability to move great weight, impressive.

Perhaps, fitness is best made manifest through one’s demeanor, and gay upbeat demeanor.

The gay monster

“Better to be a gay monster than a sentimental bore.” – Galiani

Being here in Los Angeles, LA for the last maybe five or six months… Some observations:

First, looks like a lot of people here are sad, lonely, listless and aimless. You could see it on their faces.

Most people here seem gloomy, morose, sick?

For example, men. I think the guy in LA, maybe around my age, a little bit older or younger, the typical look is this:

Some sort of decent job, drive some sort of base car, an Audi A3 or Q3, maybe single, maybe dating, maybe has a dog (foster), doesn’t work out, if you work out he works out ironically, spends almost all his time indoors or at the office, always hides his eyes by wearing fully tinted sunglasses, covers his head or maybe his bald or balding spot with the cap or baseball cap, hides his face with facial hair or some weird Hitler mustache, hides his body shape with baggy oversize flannel and baggy pants, and tries to show off his distinctness by wearing some sort of irregular trainer shoes?

Also, the typical guy in LA always has AirPods on, doesn’t make eye contact, never smiles, is a coward?

Women in LA are much better class, but still, I just got the sense of everybody is lonely.

People in LA are actually not that fit?

My joke is this, when I ask people, what food do people in LA eat, my joke is that people in LA don’t eat food, they just drink $15 juices, and alkaline water. 

Spending a copious amount time here in Los Angeles, the very funny irony is that even though we are at the self centric image conscious center of the world, people here are actually very very unfit. Even the people who go to the gym every day, or maybe do yoga every day… They don’t really look that well.

In fact, I found that in the suburbs of Orange County, at least the men are much more muscular, more weightlifting and powerlifting, but also the problem in there is that a lot of those guys take steroids.

If you exercise every day all the time, and you’re still miserable, something needs to change.

Being friendly is free?

A very very simple suggestion I have is make eye contact with people, smile, wave, give them the thumbs up give them a head and not, a fist bump, or a peace sign. Better to risk being friendly and get ignored, or rejected, rather than be the typical Standoffish loser.

Once again, being standoffish is cowardly and unmanly. Real men, real alpha men are all friendly gay and joyful, and will always greet you. I think it is only the beta men who are so self-conscious that when you wave high to them, they pretend like they didn’t even see you? Really weird.

Back to nature

The other day I was spent all day walking around town with my mom in Seneca, a lot of walking. And the truth is there is no greater privilege in the world than to simply walk around all day. Why?

First, what is the purpose of human being? To, move around!

Second, the best way to engage and talk is via walking. Even Steve Jobs was famous for enjoying walking meetings, even Nietzsche said that the best thoughts always come to you while walking!

Walking life

What is the supreme privilege of man?

I think the supreme privilege of man is to walk, walking, moving around, being upright.

The other day I saw a bunch of losers drive by me in red Ferrari, checking me out walking around in my 60 pound weight vest. They were stuck in traffic like the typical LA, and I just gave them ahead and odd, and they pretended to not see me and look away.

I realize when you’re walking, walking on the sidewalk or whatever… Technically you’re higher up than anybody who is sitting on their butt in the car. Maybe the only other nuance is seeing those guys in those lifted trucks, but this is my observation:

Big car, small man

In fact a lot of these guys to drive these trucks, who seem to like to wear trucker hats, tinted sunglasses, lots of facial hair, tend to be fat with a bunch of tattoos, when they pop out of there lift a truck tend to be pretty short. I suppose you could add to your suspension, but not your own bodily frame and soul.

Nobody is your match

Never judge or another man until you have stood straight up, next to next to him, in real life, to toe eye to eye, seeing the height differential.

I suppose the reason why I’m so grateful and happy is that I’m quite tall at around 5‘11“. And as time has gone on, and as I have been wearing around my 60 pound vest, doing more upright the grid workouts in my backyard garage, my backyard LA parking lot, my posture has improved. It has given me at least an inch of height.

I suppose you can help your genetics in terms your height, but you could help your posture.

In fact, I see a lot of testosterone and confidence, even if they are short, because they walk upright, chin up, chest up, shoulders back.

I think the first way to fix her posture is never set. Either stand up, walk around, or lie down on your back.

Suggestions, treadmill, or even easier, just walk around town with your iPad Pro and voice dictate like I am doing now.

Or, if you’re some sort of successful executive who needs to be on FaceTime, zoom, or phone calls, just walk around with your iPhone pro and take calls that way, not some depressing, doesn’t matter if you are at the Apple Amazon or Google office, go outside!

The privilege of nature

The best financial investment you could probably do is get some sort of annual parking pass, Cindy just bought one for us and all of Los Angeles County for about 100 bucks for the whole year, best investment of all time, especially considering that a lot of these national parks cost about $15-$20 in just one entry parking spot.

My mom has cooperated with me is that you nature, surrounded by trees there is more oxygen in the air, which is good for your brain your body and your soul.

Also, uneven surfaces, elevations. The reason why I enjoy walking or hiking in the mountains is that each and every step is different. We recently went to this place called Vasquez rocks, where I think the last Star Wars movie was filmed, and we scrambled up these rocks, it was the real life rock climbing, 1 trillion times more interesting than any stuffy indoor climbing gym. And also, on the stone path, each and every step was different, variety and the environment is the best stimulus for your brain.

***

Can you invest money into health? 

.

How to gain more power How to gain more power and ascendancy?

In America and much of the western world, we make the wrong mistake and we have the wrong idea that more US dollars currency means more power. 

In truth, US dollars, currency is only an intermediary to other stuff.

Real estate?

It seems that the traditional person, the baby boomer, the millennial, the General why whatever, the thought is that real estate is true wealth. However, there are many downsides of real estate:

First, taxes. Property taxes. I think the problem is you never really own the land; rather, it is more like a privilege loan or borrowing or leasing from the government or the local city municipality.

For example, let us say that I buy a house or property for $3 million or $5 million. Whether I’d like it or not, I must pay $7,000-$8,000 in property taxes, month, perpetuity, even if I don’t do anything with it. 

Liability or real asset?

Michael Saylor talks about “trophy assets”; your Picasso, your classic Ferrari, whatever.

However, all these things are not appreciating assets, rather they are liabilities.

For example, let us say that you get that brand new Lamborghini with the scissor doors, and you accidentally get a flat tire. Boom, you’re out $12,000.

Or, let us have that expensive; slowly overtime, the value of that thing bleeds; and also, maintenance costs.

Physical laws

Also a big consideration is physical laws; rust, erosion, mold, termites ants whatever.

Another big downside of physical property, owning a house or whatever or a home, regardless of how good the materials you build it with, slowly overtime, the thing will slowly rust and rot away.

I think if you think about the laws of entropy, it is simple; as time goes on, the durability of the thing goes down.

For example, any home sooner or later, will get some sort of mold, and will be needed to be torn down and reconstructed. I’m shocked even in the year 2024; a lot of wood actually is going into building these homes.

If you have your ideal glass, it seems like a pain to keep all of the windows clean! 

---

Life?

Philosophers have grappled with issue of the purpose or the end of life, for millennia.

I think for me, the most interesting set of ideas comes from Nietzsche in his unpublished manuscripts, “The will to power”. The wheel to power, is not a true book in the sense that he didn’t want it to be published, it was just like a set of his ideas started down, and eventually he brought up the project at the very end. I believe that I read a footnote that You found out that his concept of the world to power was flawed, as it was an all encompassing idea, ended up just using the last pages of his manuscript to write out a shopping list of groceries or whatever.

However, I think the basic concept ring is true. What is it that man desires? More power, more ascendancy, more dominance.

In today’s world, what is the most dominant for economic power. Perhaps above that is military power, as it is the underlying asset which supports economic power, but for most of us typical individuals, it is monetary economic wealth and power.

Quit buying those dollars

In Los Angeles, if you work in McDonald’s the minimum wage is now point dollars USD an hour! This is insane. It seems that economically rational thing for most people to do is quit their traditional minimum wage jobs, and never to just get a job at Shake shack, In-N-Out, or McDonald’s. Maybe even Taco Bell?

The reason why I find this so alarming is that slowly but surely, we are going to see a massive devaluing of the US currency. Truth be told,  globally, the US dollar is still probably the most valuable currency, worth 1 trillion times more than the Chinese yuan, the euro or whatever… But still, this is scary.

For example, a shock now if you just want to get a single hamburger patty, just a patty no bun no nothing, a shake shack it is $2.50! This is insane, literally two weeks ago it was only $1.49.

Mathematics economics perspective the price of this food commodity has almost doubled!

What this means is that in the long run, I think we will see the prices of everything close to double in terms of rent prices, food prices, even Costco and Amazon and Amazon Amazon prime and Whole Foods is trying their best to keep prices down, but still… This inflation is getting out of control.

I was just doing some basic math in my head, let us say that you work at McDonald’s for $20 an hour, and you work eight hours a day. That is $160. Let us say that after taxes you’re making about $120 a day. Let us say that, you’re working 30 days a month, your take-home salary might be close to $4000! For working at McDonald’s?

Solutions?

First, a paradigm shift. I think the first to big realization that I made is that currency, US dollars is not money. 

For example, Fernando Galliani wrote his treatsie on money, nearly 500 600 years ago, talking about the history of money,ducats, gold, silver and the like. 

Some interesting things:

First, there have been periods of history in which silver was actually worth more than gold! Also I wonder, in the past, in that infamous scene in the Iliad in which may be Ajax and the other hero on the Trojan side exchanges arms and armor, apparently They trade golden shield for a bronze shield, and apparently the value of the gold shield was worth 100 times more than the bronze shield. But I wonder if maybe… even back then, bronze was worth more than gold? Because of war?

I think most Americans are stupid with money

It seems that 99% of the fascination of Americans has to deal with automobiles and cars and vehicles.

For example, it don’t matter if you’re in the Midwest, the coasts, if you’re liberal, support Donald Trump or whatever… Everyone is being suckered by some sort of car and vehicle.

For example, let us say that you are a true patriot, you’ll probably want to buy some sort of Ford or Chevy truck, and wave some sort of American or confederate flag from it.

Or let us say that you’re a proud American liberal, you might drive a Tesla because Teslas are sexy and cool and they are built in America. This is where I find cyber truck to be so fascinating and disruptive because traditionally we think about people who drive trucks is being some sort of hillbilly rednecks Republican from the south, not liberal. Elon Musk has disrupted all of this; now it is cool to drive a truck, because it literally looks like something out of a video game, Like a cyberpunk universe. Maybe for marketing purposes, the new cyberpunk video game should make the cybertruck the official vehicle. 

Economic power?

After World War II, in the toppling of the Hitler Nazi regime, I think for most practical purposes, Germany has been castrated. I think America has position things in such a way that even if shit hits the fan, Germany will never have enough military power to overtake or even challenge America.

So what did Germany do instead? She shifted all of her power resources and energies towards economic production, economic might. A consequence, Germany now has become a economic powerhouse, on the planet. It seems that even Americans now, we are still obsessed with German good; much of the American population still desires to drive “foreign“; which is some sort of Mercedes-Benz, AMG, BMW, Rolls-Royce, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, etc. And let us not forget that almost all these luxury car brands are owned by the Volkswagen VW group.

Are people stupid? Don’t they know that a Porsche 911 is just a Volkswagen beetle on steroids? And that a Porsche 911 GT 3 RS is just a turbo beetle with a body kit? 

Or that an Audi is just like an upgraded Volkswagen Passat? 

And that a Rolls-Royce Cullinan is just a BMW times seven with a facelift, and that even a Rolls-Royce ghost is just a BMW seven series with different doors.

Power for the sake of what?

Power wars?

Going back to ancient Greece, I still find the Iliad to be the best book and cultural document, of all time.

 for example, what was the power struggle in the Iliad? King Agamemnon, just wants to keep gobbling up more land, whereas the hero Achilles, just wants to retire from battle, take Breisis his prize, and just chill out on his own home pasture. 

The second best book, the Odyssey with Odysseus as the hero, what does he want? He just wants to sell home back to his wife, back to his kingdom, take back the throne with his son, and just chill out.

Modern day society is much more greedy? 

It seems like a lot of people, either people are foolish, or greedy.

I don’t necessarily think greed is a bad thing, maybe it’s just a foolish thing?

For example, people just want to keep accumulating more property, more cars, more cash dollars, whatever… For the sake of what? Nobody gives this anycritical thinking. 

Jobs?

A big realization: also job are bad because they are closed ecosystems.

For example, let us say that you work at Apple or whatever, and it seems that the impetus of your whole life is to keep climbing the corporate letter. But the critical problem and the flaw here is that it is all a closed ecosystem.

For example, that one position that you want, to get that upgrade, that salary bump or whatever… If you are in a corporation or a company, it is very zero sum.

Think the open free market?

Free enterprise!

Free enterprise means freedom enterprise.

I think the only real way to thrive today’s modern day capitalist world is to build your own capital, for you to become a capitalist, and to start your own company, your own corporation, your own sold for prior ship or whatever.

Also a new ones; I wonder if it is actually superior to be a private corporation, rather than a public one.

It seems that the big problem about being a publicly treated company, even though you might get more flows of capital, the major downside is that you lose control, you have to sit on the boring board of trustees or whatever, you become enslaved to boring meetings.

If you’re private corporation, you could just do whatever you want and not have to report to anybody.

Solo, sole proprietor?

My ambition for Seneca is for him to build his own capital, for him to do his own thing, learn how to wisely leverage economics in his favor, and not be be bedridden to any BS in modern day society. 

Free school

Seneca is currently three years, one month old, and this is my great pride:

For his whole existence, from conception until now, he has never watched any YouTube, Netflix Netflix, Disney Disney+, etc.

He really has no idea what Spider-Man or Batman is, he has no notions of superheroes, he has never watched Moana or whatever.

My sister Anna always jokes that “We must not send him to public school, or private school, because all these kids are bad!”

It is true. Even private school kids, they all get hooked on weird designer drugs, etc.  

Not only that, the parents are bad. It doesn’t matter if they’re rich and affluent, or poor and or working class. It seems that all modern day parents are foolish.

Have I ever met another wise parent? No. Only myself.

Power and kids? 

I am 36 years old, born at 1988. It seems that for my generation, the new modern day flex is children. Having children, kids, and to some extent, the more kids you got, the more successful.

For example, seems that the majority of people nowadays either have zero kids or one kid. They would rather have dogs, go to festivals, engage in degenerate things. 

Even amongst my real friends, I think I’m the only one who is married and has a kid, and at most, the most kids I have witnessed is maybe two kids. Three kids in my age group is almost unthinkable. Four or five kids? Forget about it.

I think the reason why kids were the number of kids you have is the new social status is that the number you got is kind of a proxy of how rich you are. 

For example, the traditional family must go to work, send their kids to daycare or whatever. This is very expensive.

Also part of it, not really sure why people pursue career; for the sake of what?

Still at the end of the day, I think the duty of the parent is to take care of the kids. And also maybe the duty of a grandparent is to help take care of the grandchildren?

Lineage?

I think when you think about it long enough, eventually you want to live a life and do things which is beyond yourself. Which means that after you die, some part of you will remain and continue and ideally last into perpetuity?

For example, a simple one is your kids, thinking about your kids kids kids.

Most Americans don’t think this way because the typical Americans is too individualistic; they think only about themselves, their own personal life etc.

I think the reason why a lot of people don’t have kids anymore is that they think it will positively happiness. That is if you have a kid, your life will positively become negative happy.

But is this true? No. There is literally no breeder joy and happiness on planet earth and beyond then seeing the face in the laughter of your own blood child.

Grandparents without grandkids?

Another very very sad side; seeing the elderly without either any children or grandchildren?

I should find a really really sad, I see this already my family is that my cousins don’t want to have kids, and now that my uncles and aunts are older and they’re 70s, they are Baron and don’t have any grandchildren. Seneca is almost like proxy grandchild for them; and the amount of happiness and joy he brings to them is astounding.

Even me, I’m quite certain that that will decide to have kids, but if I was a grandparent in my 70s or 80s, and Seneca didn’t have his own child, or even worse he said that he’ll never have kids… This might be the most sad and miserable thing of all time.

Maybe this is also why people or parents decide to have multiple kids; the chance that one of your kids will not procreate?

Bitcoin and economic power

The more research I do on bitcoin, the more I think about it so yet and philosophies about it, the better and better of an idea it seems.

First, I spent a lot of time thinking about it by myself, solo. Then I started listening to a lot of interviews and lectures and writings from Michael Saylor, one of the great bitcoin proponents. I really delight in the wisdom and experience of Michael Saylor, as he ran his own software company for over 30 years, I would probably trust the opinion of a CEO, who has real life world experience, rather than the average guy on the street. 

Trust no man over the age of 40?

I’m currently at 36, I’m going to be 40 years old soon.

Apparently the guy who discovered that blood was pump through your heart and recirculated back into your heart, when he discovered this, he famously said that no doctor over the age of 40 would believe him. Because they were too set in their ways of thinking. 

Even amongst my age group, I’m starting to see the nihilism in the blaze kick in. The ones optimism hope joy and foolish knives optimism has become overshadowed by drugs, festivals, marijuana, sports, video games, etc. Living towards no ends.

This is even happening in the “zillenial” or “Gen Z” age group — the world is inequity injustice whatever, so what is the point of all of it? Do a bunch of drugs, go to festivals, lose yourself in nonsense.

---

The feeling of power?

What is power? I think ultimately, power is a feeling — a physiological feeling.

For example, it don’t matter if you got $1 billion, if the guy next to you has $1 trillion, and has 10 yachts while you only have one yacht, you might feel poor by comparison.

Therefore the first idea is wealth power abundance whatever is all comparative.

For example, it is very different to own $1 million in Culver City, than own $1 million in Cambodia.

Portable wealth

You cannot take your Lamborghini with you to Cambodia. But, you could take your bitcoins with you!

Also, you cannot take your single-family home in Los Angeles with you to Thailand. But you could take your digital property, a.k.a. your bitcoin to Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam Korea etc. 

Human capital

Out of all the forms of capital, certainly there is no greater wealth than human capital, let us not forget that the notion of capital comes from the notion of “kaput“, or “caput” or “cap”– which literally means head. 

For example, back in ancient Greece, before money was invented, you would actually count your wealth by how many heads of oxen you had. For example, if if you wanted to make a libation or a sacrifice to the gods, to Zeus, he would sacrifice the heads of 100 oxen and cattle,… Certainly a very expensive endeavor considering that oxen are useful for many things; plowing the land, and also, food. Let us say that the average male ox is at least 2000 pounds… 2000 pounds of meat, that is a lot.

Even if you do modern economics, 2000 pounds of meat, assuming that meat is five dollars a pound… That is $10,000 a head of oxen? 

Then, 10,000×100 … 1,000,000–  I had to come was like 1 million bucks?

Anyways, I think the most enlightening thing about going to Asia Southeast Asia etc. is how cheap labor is. In America, I think the great downside is that labor is so expensive, and the people are so lazy and entitled.

Also, the thing which is really bizarre America is that a lot of these men labor jobs, are being run by adults… Whereas they could easily be run by teenagers, or college kids. Even apparently back in the day minimum wage was a means of pink highschoolers to do random Jobs like restaurant work, fast food work, coffee shop barista. Imagining a 35 year old man working at Shake shack, or a coffee shop to pay rent and support his family… Seems bizarre?

Keep stacking those bitcoins 

20 bitcoins matte black 

Is bitcoin a gamble? Probably. But, if you have a once in a 10,000 year lifetime opportunity, don’t you want to seize it?

ERIC

---

Science Life

Thinking beyond—

LA THOUGHTS

1. Being antisocial is anti manly?
2. Where are all of the real men in LA?
3. Transform and turn your body into the cybertruck !
4. Your car shows who you truly are

Bitcoin innovations?

The more people who join the bitcoin ecosystem better; like institutions and institutional investors.

How long until Harvard or Yale will put some of their endowment into bitcoin?

Bitcoin messaging? To send verifiable messages, inscribed with a Satoshi?

Bitcoin Photos,,, ordinals?

Is bitcoin open source?

Quality of market data — chainlink

Exaggeration of trading volumes?

Big deal:

every Bitcoin trade is added to the blockchain ledger and that entire ledger, including the history of every transaction ever made in the ledger, is available to any user running a node on that network.

Issues solved?

Bitcoin cons solve issues of money laundering?

Think B’s

You gauge danger and risk by yourself

4 year time stamps

Always think four years ahead

The North Star

Signal vs Noise

Think about yearly snapshots, just check prices once a year; a lot less noise, better signal.

Traditionally year over year, 73% of the time it will always go up

100 Bitcoins

Economic thoughts

Stimuluses, stimulus checks don’t work!

What is the big problem here?

It seems that the big problem is people sign up for jobs, but they don’t show up for work!

Market capitalization

the market capitalization of Bitcoin hit $1 trillion on February 19, 2021, whereas gold’s market capitalization was approximately $10 trillion.

Market cap for bitcoin is now higher than that of gold? 

---

Property?

OK, some basic observations:

First, it looks like the desire of most Americans or many Americans is to one day own property, own a home, a single-family house, property, a condo or whatever, or like my British friends like to call it… “flats”–

Some problems here:

1. First, this issue of property taxes:

Let us say you buy that $2.99 million house, all in cash, one thing you forget is that for the rest of your life, into perpetuity, you’re going to have to pay property taxes on that! This might be around $6000-$7,000 USD a month, just in property taxes… which goes all to your local city government, which is essentially lost money. 

Call me naïve, but, I had no notions of property taxes before –. for example, already renting a really really nice apartment in Culver City California is $3200 a month,… assuming property taxes could be in the four to $7000 range a month, doesn’t it make better financial sense to just rent?

2. Maintenance?

Another big property issues; the physical laws of where in tear, rust, mold, things breaking.

For example, the other day I spent maybe 30 minutes just cleaning up my bathroom, scrubbing the bathtub, wiping the floors, cleaning the toilet bowl etc.… I cannot imagine having to maintain more space!

Also, looks like all of my millennial friends who have purchased homes end up secretly regretting it; they never realize how big of an issue it is to change the hot water boiler, replacing the roof, which could easily cost you $50-$70,000 USD, Price of a cyber truck, or other things breaking, having to call the plumber, etc.

I think the hard thing about us millennials, or people like me, we were born in 1988… we like to live, we don’t like to maintain. We prefer going out, being nomadic, traveling to Japan and stuff like that.

I think there is a big cultural shift.

You could take your bitcoins to Mars!

I was randomly watching the Elon Musk talk about to making earth an interplanetary species, the most recent video on spacex.com. Very cool.

I think maybe the interesting thing is once we humans colonize mars and other planets… Yeah, you could take your bitcoins with you! Assuming that there will be some sort of really slow rudimentary Internet on Mars or in space… The transfer speeds for bitcoin don’t need to be that fast.

Can you imagine, buying Mars property for a bitcoin?

Why?

People say bitcoin is not real money, this is true. But neither is the US dollar, fiat currency, or the little green and blue Benjamin’s in your wallet. Neither are the ones in zeros in your JP Morgan Chase bank account, or your checking or savings account.

Commerce? 

Somebody big news here in Los Angeles or California; the minimum wage for working at a restaurant or shake shack or McDonald’s is now $20 USD an hour! This is a massive jump from the previous $16 USD an hour, almost 4 dollar increase out of thin air overnight!

To me this is a really really big deal, underlying idea of helping people pay rent is a good one, but the financial monetary policy is a bad one.

For example, the other day Seneca and I just went to Shake shack, to get our iconic single burger beef patty, which used to only cost $1.49 USD. When we ordered it, and I handed Seneca two one dollar bills to pay, the guy working there said it was $2.50.  I told the guy that he clearly must be mistaken, maybe he punched something in wrong, because it is always $1.49. He then told me, about the minimum wage increase, is a consequence, the businesses all raised the cost of the food items on the menu to accommodate the increased cost. 

No this is very bad because it is going to discourage me from eating out now. Which is also bad news for the minimum wage workers go there, and work there. Because more people are going to get laid off, or more robots and automation is going to be innovated, because businesses don’t like paying high wages for workers. I am pretty certain that you will start to quickly see a lot more innovation in terms of robots at McDonald’s flipping your burgers etc. Maybe the business will be insulated in and out, which people don’t seem to mind paying higher prices for.

---

What are we truly searching for?

First, I think the average person would prefer not to have a job, not to work. It’ll matter if you work at Apple, Facebook, Amazon whatever… It don’t matter if you’re being paid $1.2 million a year, nobody likes to have to show up for work.

First desire is freedom, freedom from a boss, freedom from work, freedom to have to check our email in our phones, freedom of schedule time life and focus.

If anything, my new definition of success:

Name no man successful until he go two years without checking his email!

---

Brand — we buy the brand, we buy the brand name

Bitcoin has the best brand

**

1000 bitcoins?

Becoming a bitcoin whale?

Blackrock — #1 asset manager

.

> Sentiments such as those expressed by billionaire investor Bill Miller of Miller Value Partners in an investor letter dated January 21, 2021 may draw even more traditional investors into the Bitcoin domain. He writes that “almost every long-term holder of Bitcoin has earned a higher rate of return in Bitcoin than in anything else, and those that understand it see little reason to put their excess marginal liquidity into other assets at this point. The world is ruled by fat tail events, or seemingly improbable occurrences that have an outsized impact, and all indicators so far point to Bitcoin as being one.”138

..

The funny thing with graphs and data is that you could always make it tell whatever story you want, based on the day, month, or the year trend

.

What really is Bitcoin?

In my line of thinking, perhaps what bitcoin really is is optimism for the future! Also, long-term thinking, and obvious thinking.

For example, even Fernando Galliani said on money –

True money … the materials which are used to make it must be scarce.

Like gold!

21 million… A number which is easy for anyone to remember, 21, like being 21 years old before you legally drink alcohol or whatever… If there will only be ever 21 million bitcoins, it is almost like if there were only 21 million humans That will ever be in existence for the rest of existence?

Imagine if there was a mass extinction, and only 21 million people on the whole planet earth, out of around 8 billion… Will be saved. Wouldn’t you want to be one of them?

1 Bitcoin = 1 Child?

Thinking about this further; once you enter the 10+ bitcoin club, maybe you could think to yourself that if you wanted to, you could have at least 10 children. When your kids grow up, each kid will receive one bitcoin as an inheritance. Like each kid Inheriting a house, or $1 million or whatever.

*

stable coins?

I wouldn’t be surprised if the US government will start adopting US dollar coin?

governments and crypto

One grand thought is that perhaps, if governments end up  adopting crypto or bitcoin or whatever for their balance sheets, taxes, expenditures or whatever… It would build a lot of public trust. For example, imagine just being able to look up the wallet, the online Blockchain wallet address of the US military and see what she really spent money on.

It could be good for nonprofit organizations, if I donate $100 to a charity cause, how do I know that that money is really being provided to help poor kids in Africa some office manager spending $100 for a new office chair?

*

I have never met a woman taller than me?

We gotta make moving money easier!

Currently, moving money is a huge pain in the fucking ass. Especially with larger mountains, Zelle ain’t good enough.

Why do these banks make it so hard to wire moderate money amount like $100,000, $125,000 etc.?

My personal theory is they want to make it difficult because they are currently hoarding your US dollars to invest it for them to make more money. Rather than release her funds to you the rightful owner.

digital yuan?

a world without borders?

I love America, but, the US government will not last forever. It will probably last for Seneca‘s lifetime, maybe after his kids, but beyond that, I am very very dubious. I think America will be around for 300 years, but I doubt America will be around 1000 years from now. As a consequence, The funny thought though is bitcoin will continue to last, forever? 

.

All graphs and diagrams are fake, don’t trust them

The funny thing with graphs and diagrams that when we look at them, we assume that they are real because they are a graph or a diagram. But in truth, they are not real.

becoming a bitcoin bum in Thailand?

Imagine that you could live in a really really nice apartment or hotel in Thailand, by the beach or whatever, only for a few Satoshi a day. You could live there forever for the rest of your life, without ever spending a single bitcoin.

Burn the tokens for Bitcoin? 

Eventually, bitcoin is the endgame, the final thing you really want, not the USD.

*

The philosopher Schopenhauer once remarked that “All truth passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Second it is violently opposed. Third it is accepted as being self-evident.”

Keep buying those bitcoins

.

How much can you tow?

become a bitcoin troll?

Manly Thoughts

---

Who Has the Biggest Dick in the Room?

I think for us men, much of life, modern day life is just a massive dick measuring contest. But the question is, if indeed and in fact, you do have the biggest dick, so what?

The first question is, is your joy or your desire to just swing it around, and joy in throwing it all around? Probably one of the hottest moments of my life was when some guy at the gym, tried to pump me, when I was stretching my leg saying that I look like Jackie Chan or almost kicked him and made some kung fu sounds, I approached him afterwards, and I pretended to swing my dick at him, and then I just joked around with him and had a chat with him.

Cyber truck

This is where cyber truck is so fastening to me, truth be told, it seems that out of all of the cars in LA, if you’re driving a cyber truck, you certainly have the biggest dick in town, the biggest, the most grand, the most stainless steel dick on the planet. 

I think this is where the whole Overlanding movement and trend is so fascinating; the name of the game is who could be the tallest, the most dominant on the road? So it seems like on a basic trend, he is tallest, shall win.

This is where things become funny because there are lots of inconsistencies here.

First, it seems that traditionally, if you live more in a cosmopolitan area or city, Apex and manliness, having the biggest dick is having some sort of Lamborghini, or Ferrari, or maybe Porsche close to the ground. This is where the cyber truck is so disruptive; You just break out of the whole categories, you break out of the segment. You’re no longer trying to flex your sports card, but you have a whole new invention and concept; a truck.

I think what is so fascinating about cyber truck, if you look at the overall profile, it almost looks like a Lamborghini cage, but even more angular.

Also, I’ve seen a handful of cyber trucks now, out in the wild, in the real world, and what is so impressive is that the stainless deal when you see it in the bright Los Angeles light is actually very very impressive.

No more loser Rivian

For a hot minute, it looks like the hot car to have in Los Angeles is the Rivian R1 S SUV– honestly I think it’s a really cool car. Essentially it’s almost like the new Range Rover of Los Angeles; it seems that both men and women like to drive it.

First, I think it is built on a similar chassis to the R1 truck, which means that it has superior height, which seems that everyone in Los Angeles loves. I think the whole ethos is you want to treat your car like an armored vehicle, or a tank. The general idea is that in Los Angeles, because the place is such a concrete cluster fuck, people feel protected in their armored vehicles, a.k.a. their Mercedes-Benz AMG wagons, and even the whole notion of getting all black everything murdered out car with full tents is that people want to feel like Batman, Ready to take on the world.

How to get that big D energy

I think there is a meme going around on the Internet, something like big energy, big D energy, whatever. The basic ID I think is that he who has really really high levels of testosterone, essentially big dick confidence energy, is calm, masculine, Tall and strong, dominant, and cheerfully confident. ERIC KIM.

I think the reason why I am so disruptive is that typically people do not equate masculinity with Asian, Asian American guys. In the past, I think an Asian American man or an Asian man, was never masculine per se; he was kind of more of a sorcerer. For example, if you think about Bruce Lee, maybe even Jackie Chan, their strength and their power is almost comedic, and is based on meta physical principles like Kung fu or knowing some sort of magical trigger point, which would cause their heart to explode or something.

However, ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be masculine, a tank, like or no Schwarzenegger, with seeing the huge muscles, indomable. In fact, when I was a kid back in New York, Bayside Queens, certainly I was known as being the strongest out of all my friends, and then growing up, I continued this trend. in high school, I wanted to take on the most hard-core manly sport, which in America is currently American football. So I join the team, my sophomore year I was outside linebacker, and then junior year I became middle linebacker. Essentially in defense, the middle linebacker is the head honcho. We called the calls, and we are also the last line of defense.

What women will never understand about men 

I think nowadays the modern day trend is for me to understand woman… But, there doesn’t seem to be any effort either way, woman seeking to understand man.

It is true… Man is dominant in society, man holds the power, the true power. Even if you put the clog forward 1 billion years, as long as men are physically and physiologically taller, more muscular and dominant, you’ll never see women becoming superior to man.

So the philosophical question:

Should those empower seek to understand those with less power, or vice versa?

In other words, the trend is according to Christian modern day ethics, notions of equality, the overall trend is that those who are privileged, rich, upon high should seek to understand the poor, the lowly, the disenfranchised. Yet there is not an opposite case in which the poor the lonely the powerful made to understand the rich and the powerful.

My case?

So my case is unique and interesting and so far much as technically I come from a family of privilege, on both sides–

Yet, having both my family members, my dad and my mom coming to the states, was almost like a hard reset. As a consequence, even though we had a lot of social economic support back home in Korea, in the states we were quite poor.

Fast-forward a bit, now that I am now 36 years old, being born in 1988, then moving back to LA… I’m an interesting position, I guess I’m a full-blown adult now. As a consequence, there becomes a new battle, a new Contest for manliness and masculinity, which has to do more with social economic power. For example, who is the richest in the room, whose Ferrari has the biggest dick? 

Cases

A few months ago, I was walking around Culver City, near one of the fancy hotels, is that always do, topless. And a dude at the hotel checking up on his Ferrari comes out to me, in his Playboy looking Paisley flower dress shirt, noticeably shorter than me, Comes up to me and tries to jab at me and says “What is this, no shirt Thursdays?” — essentially, signifying in highlighting the fact that he indeed was insecure about his own masculinity, and he felt bad that he saw a dude way more jacked than him, his own body being much more impressive than his loser Ferrari. Of course, I didn’t let this loser guy punk me, and then actually stepped closer to him, showing him in the flesh that I was indeed much taller bigger stronger and more dominant than him, and then I started to tease him about his loser Ferrari. 

So in LA, I’ve actually found that most of the successful guys, the rich guys, are all pretty short. They all look like actors in the face, strong piercing eyes, masculine looking forehead and eyebrows, strong jawline, big head, but once they pop out of their loser Range Rover or their loser AMG G WAGON,  they are like 5‘6“ tall. For reference I am about 5‘11“ tall– 180, 182cm.

The contest for dominance

 I recall, back in middle school, even a little bit of high school… Some of the kids were the biggest bullies were actually very very small and short, but for some reason had a lot of self-confidence?

Something that never really made sense to me was that they would punk on kids almost 2 feet taller than them, and may be also weighing about 100 pounds more than them. If they both gone to a fistfight, certainly the bigger, fatter, heavier kid would be able to take on the shorter and smaller bully. But, they didn’t. Why not?

I think nowadays, despite what you see in these fake movies, bowling is not predicated on physical size or dominance, but rather, some sort of coolness clout? Like who is richer, who comes from crater social privilege etc.

For example, in high school, the really cool brand was Ecko– they were really expensive, I think a T-shirt was about 35 $40, and a hoodie was almost maybe 70 or $80! No way in hell I could afford that. 

So anyways, it seems that modern day times, masculinity is measured by dollars. He who has more money is considered more masculine and more dominant. 

The body as the ultimate toy?

This is where weightlifting, powerlifting, bodybuilding is a little bit productive; it posits that the body, the human body is the ultimate thing of admiration and worth.

But obviously the number one issue is taking steroids, injections, weird hormonal things testosterone etc.

But, detaching yourself from nonsensical supplements, steroids, whether they be “natural, or not… The body is the ultimate toy, the ultimate tool and instrument. 

“Life without music would be a mistake” – Nietzsche 

The human body could be seen as music, a musical instrument and dance. In fact, to dance in public, or to dance in front of other people might be wanting the most courageous things that one could do. 

Pet peeves?

I don’t like making eye contact with emasculated, emasculated, low testosterone men.

If anything I wonder… man with low testosterone, or with no masculinity… is he even a man anymore? 

---

Perhaps I am the great hater and tyrant?

Sometimes, I have this moral indignation that somehow I’m the good guy, and that whenever I treat people nicely and they do not reciprocate, it infuriates me. But maybe a more productive way to think about this is that actually impact, I am the bad guy, I’m the tyrant, I’m the asshole, and I act… Maybe I should delight in being the bully or the bad guy?

The notion of the bull, bully it literally comes from the notion of bull, typically seen as the strongest, the most dominant animal with the most strength. Even Lamborghini, what is the logo and emblem? The raging bull. 

Become more bull-like 

Also in regards to finances, maybe a simple fitness soft shift is that we should only be long or bullshit about certain things, instead of being bearish, or shorting things.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong about shortselling, I think it is another market dynamic which makes the market work. There needs to be short sellers, and also sellers, or buyers and sellers, some people who are bullish and optimistic about things, and other individuals who are bearish or pessimistic about things.

But maybe in terms of philosophy, a good idea is to become more like a bull — insane, extreme optimism!

---

What else?

The mass and the strength and the power and ferocity of the bull? 

“I’m a bull just like the hometown!” – Ye

Why is it that Michael Jordan, the Chicago Bulls, the Bulls will always be number one in history?

First, the colors. I think the color red is and will always be the most dominant color. For example, when it comes to looking at traffic lights, what is the most important color? Red. They call it a stoplight, not a “go” light.  Also, there’s a reason why really really important critical things are in red, stop signs, the color of blood, firetrucks, etc.

Also, if you think about this long-term, apparently the Apex outfit or dress for anybody to wear is all red. For example the woman with the beautiful red dress, or even better yet in modern day times, if I ever buy a new tuxedo or outfit, I will want an all red blood red tuxedo. Or think about the infamous red leather jacket of Tyler Durden and Brad Pitt fight club.

This is also why Ferrari will always be superior to Lamborghinis, because the official color of a Ferrari is red, whereas Lamborghini is yellow. Yellow is good, and also very attractive, but red is better. 

Ultra red

Sometimes I think I spend a lot of time thinking about nonsense, superficial things, but ultimately, I think this all matters.

For example, cars. What is the best car color? The new Tesla ultra red is phenomenal. If you see in real life, on the new Tesla model three, or even the Tesla model S plaid, ultra red is the most attractive, brilliant and beautiful color.

---

Perhaps the best way to think about an approach life is towards radical and insane abundance; idea that you’ll never run out.

I think this is mostly the appeal of Tesla, digital things; is that it is infinite.

---

Zeiss lens wipes?

OK, some funny random things:

First, my beloved Zeiss lens wipes.  they are truly pardoned on the best. I have not discovered anything even halfway good.

It’s super annoying because I always run out of them. And having to re-order them is always a pain in the butt.

However, fortunately they come in a pack of around 200, sometimes even 400.

 Then very much to our surprise, the other day on our front door came another pack of 200! I think Cindy did the Amazon subscribe and safe thing about half a year ago, for the small discount, and forgot to unsubscribe. Now I have enough Zeiss Lens wipes to last me a small lifetime. 

ECO 80oz hair gel?

Another scam in the world is hair gel, hair wax, hair products.

For men, in which we are all striving to become more masculine manly dominant etc.… one of the biggest scams out there is in regards to hair products. 

For example, why is it that a little shitty tiny hair wax paste thing could cost $20 $30, 40 even $50!?

My best discovery is discovering on Amazon, you can get this insanely huge top up hair gel, 80 ounces, this brand called Eco — which lasts you an insanely long time! And I think the huge tub is only about 25 bucks.

My only personal desire is not to be one of these LA losers who’s always wearing a baseball cap. I only ever wear my baseball cap when I run out of gel, but otherwise, I hate the look and aesthetic because you just end up looking like everybody else. 

Why think infinite? 

I’ve been through the whole game; doing everything and in between in photography.

One period that I went through which was super annoying was Fatar, even though I love the process and the aesthetic to death, the notion of film, 35 mm film, and log film that runs out, that you had to buy money to purchase, and also pay for processing, pay more money to get this scanned etc.… Now that I look back at it, it is such a scam.

Why?

It is not infinite!

Compare this to digital photography, now that I am 36 years old, I’m starting to look back at it and I’m starting to appreciate digital photography more and more. 

First of all, it is infinite. At this point pretty much storage is free, if you use Google Drive, Google photos, WordPress, Flickr, your own website whatever. It is so cheap it is effectively infinite.

I am shocked, even on my antiquated Lumix G9 camera, the original one, it has still held up very well, and is built like a tank! 

The photos that it produces our great, I have gotten so many great photos out of it, with Seneca growing up, videos and beyond.

Infinite food and coffee?

In terms of real goods, a practical one is coffee. I’d like this idea of having infinite coffee, very much like the joy wonder living in Vietnam, especially in Saigon; that is Center of great coffee and coffee roasting.

The reason why I love it so much is that it is the freshest coffee of all time. And not only that,  it is closest to the source, some of the finest fine robusta beans grown in the central Highlands.

Anyways, when I run out out of my own good coffee, what I do instead afterwards  is either go to Whole Foods, which often has good deals on the coffee selections, or Cindy just orders a 5 pound bag of coffee on Amazon prime, which lasts forever essentially.

Also with food, The reason why I love Costco so much is because you essentially know that at in regards to meet, you’re paying rock-bottom prices. We may still complain that meat and food is too expensive, but truth be told, this is just the reality of inflation. Which means, when your beloved beef ribs used to only cost you 199 a pound pound, and I’ll cost you 499 a pound, essentially the value of the US dollar has the value valued by half, because everything is two times more expensive, not because things are actually more expensive, but because the US dollar is worth less.

Let us consider, people 20, $25 an hour to be a janitor, and people are still not fighting… This is a bad sign. I think even the other day I saw that McDonald’s was hiring for $18 USD an hour. That is what I earned Graduating from UCLA as an undergraduate, a four-year college degree!

Which makes me think, for Seneca’s generation, will he need to go to college? Probably not.

***

Why?

Thinking about abundance, radical abundance, I think the reason why this is so good and important is because when you think unlimited, you become unlimited.

Who likes feeling constrained? Nobody that I know.

The secrets?

Something which is still very very shocking to me, looking at Seneca, at three years one months old… He essentially has infinite energy more or less. Typically his workflow is when he wakes up, he rubs his eyes, uses the bathroom and rinses off, and then starts his slow waking up process by stepping into the bathtub, turning on the hot water, and slowly booting up underneath the Faucet of the hot tub.

---

People have the wrong thought and assumption that somehow… having more money will make them live a “more” better life. This is not the case.

Here this is where critical thinking, physiology, practical thinking comes into play. I think if your true goal is to live a better life, you gotta think about physiology, environment, life in general, not money. 

The sun?

Probably the greatest realization and discovery that me Cindy and Seneca had recently was the discovery of the California science center, taking the metro, and being able to access it all simply while jumping on the metro, not having to drive at all. The reason why this is such a big deal is that Truth be told, this life workflow has brought 1 million extra joy to my life.

Why?

First, there is all this talk about cities of the future etc., and the truth is taking the metro, will indeed provide you with a “better” life.

How and why? 

First, contrary to the traditional antisocial behavior modernist line of thinking, the truth is people are actually much happier when they are kind of surrounded by people, or at least adjacent to other people.

For example, when you’re on the metro, being able to just be surrounded by other human bodies is actually strangely comforting, fun, and even the last few times that we have all taken the metro together, we had discovered some really cool people! Small talk, meeting new folks has been extremely uplifting.

Second, physiology. Thought to myself; we know that is bad, and that is good… I thought of this invention of a standing car. We have standing desks, walking treadmill desks, why not the equivalent for transportation?

Surprisingly, it exists! The metro!

When you’re riding a metro, you could be straight up, and even walk around the cabin. The reason why this is so useful is that your physiology has improved by 1 billion x.

Also, thinking about your kids; kids love the metro! Actually which is funny; adults, we all dream about owning a certain type of car, but, kids don’t really care about ownership; they care more about experiences.

For example, the first time we jumped on the metro from the Culver City station, it was probably the most joy I’ve ever seen in Seneca’s face and his life.

Why? When we are walking around the metro, he always sees the metro going around, but I don’t think he actually really knew you could actually go on it. And once he is on it, it is so exciting and fun!

First, it is actually really really fast. A lot faster than driving, even if there is no traffic, which is an impossible in Los Angeles, even on Saturdays and Sundays.

Second, you get a really really cool elevated view of Los Angeles. I find it actually really exciting to jump on the metro, because what we have going for us in Los Angeles, is that our metro is above ground, which means that we are not trapped underground like the mold people in New York City. I think the reason why people don’t like the metro in New York City is that you have to go underground, in Los Angeles, it is all above ground, which means that you get lots of natural light, and great view of the city.

what is the purpose of human beings?

I think this is the question which has pled flossers for thousands of years. The truth is that we are here, this is a fact. Now what?

A lot of these loser existential philosophers wonder, why are we here? 

I believe that this line of thinking is a waste of time. Much more productive to consider, now that we are here, what should I do with my life?

I think most people approach life the following way:

How do I progress through life with a minimal amount of pain, sorrow, and suffering… and maximize my base pleasures? 

For example, people do the pain in the sorrow of modern day living with painkillers, antidepressants, marijuana, television and media, music, podcast, going to festivals, going to burning man, psychedelics, alcohol, drugs etc. Modern day soma. 

Ideas

First, the simple thought is in regards to transit, getting around, tried to figure out whether you could do it all while standing, or walking, etc.

Even my critique about riding a bicycle is that it forces you to sit. Anything which forces you to sit is bad. 

Second, think the sun. I watched this insanely inspiring IMAX film at the California science center with Santa and Cindy, called deep space, and the general thought about it was that the sun was the epicenter of all life at least in our galaxy.

And then the turbo thought I had:

Think Heat.

We also saw the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit, and he attempted to create a perpetual machine, but as we all know, it is impossible and it doesn’t work and it feels because much of motion is actually lost to heat.

Which made me think, is motion, power, life, just heat?

Even one of the easiest modern day ways to make your life better is to crank up the heat! I find that people have this foolish optimization in life in which they subject themselves to terrible cold in order to “save money”. But don’t these fools realize that converting your money into heat, for your home is probably the wisest trade?

Therefore, ways to heat up your life include creaking up the heat at your house, doing hot yoga, or investing in insulation for your home, or just wearing insulated clothes. For example set up buying a new BMW or Tesla, just buy a brandnew Canada goose jacket! 

Food?

The difficulty with prices is that it is all framing.

For example, the big issue with apps, digital things that nobody wants to pay money for an app. Or a game. Because it is digital, we all think and hope and wish that it should be free. Why? The reproduction of digital things are technically free, but The big issue here is that the cost of production and maintenance is high. As a consequence, nobody likes to pay for digital things.

This is here where the subscription model has become interesting; I think people are actually more willing to pay for a subscription than to actually pay for a digital good.

The halving!

The bitcoin halving is happening very very soon, on April 20. Don’t be left behind.

---

Finance thoughts?

What is it that people in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, California, or whatever like to complain about or comment on? The cost of living.

For example, rent, rent prices, as well as buying a house, homeownership, single-family homes, condos etc.

As of now, I still think it is wiser to rent a more expensive place in an insanely desirable neighborhood, with the ultimate 100% walk ability score, then on a home, even a very good home in a non-walkable area.

Why in terms of your personal happiness, walking is insanely positive for your happiness. The more you walk the happier you will be.

Food

Grass fed beef, grass fed ground beef, they sell them at Costco for really cheap! Get the grass fed ground beef patties, in the frozen owl at Costco. Probably the best deal on the planet. Why breast fed beef? From a practical perspective, naturally cattle consume grass, not corn. Therefore, the real thought is if you consume cattle that was naturally fed grass, as nature intended it, shouldn’t it have superior nutrition, which will better nurse issue in terms of your overall health, well-being, how will you sleep, your energy levels etc.? Don’t be like one of these foolish people “calories “, consuming 2000 cal of Twinkies is different than consuming calories of ribeye steak or bone marrow.

Scientism

True science is critical thinking and first principles thinking.

For example, a true scientist is not foolish enough to believe calories in calories out, the insanely foolish idea that somehow the average human being “burns” 2000 cal a day, and if one keeps their calorie consumption to below 2000 a day, somehow he or she will not get fat.

The reason why most scientists are foolish is that they think scaler, numbers in numbers out, rather than dynamics.

The truth about that, getting fat, pudding on post fat tissue is it has to deal more with hormones, insulin levels, sugar and starches then it does with calories.

Also, I think the whole thing about protein overblown. I think actually, if you’re true goal is to put on muscle mass, and to become more muscular and dominant, the true goal is actually cons more dietary cholesterol, and beef liver, organ meats, etc.

 For example, loser Bill Gates is trying to get all of us to eat less meat, to consume more of a “plant based” diet“. But let us consider what he looks like, just google it, Google images what Elon Musk tweeted “the quickest way to kill your Boner”– (picture Bill Gates, with his obese morbidly obese stomach jutting out. )

Sleep

What is my definition of maternity, or the modern day man?

Somebody who trades his or her health for money and productivity. 

For example, anybody who sacrifices their sleep in order to finish their work relay tasks, or to be more productive, is a slave to this system.

My very very very simple suggestion is when you get home after work, or when the sun goes down or whatever, turn off your devices 100%. Turn off your phone, all the way off, turn off the iPad etc.

Instead, the best way to wind down in the evening is take a really really hot bath, or take a really really hot shower, read a book or whatever. Try to hit a new meat PR, a new meat personal record, how many pounds of grass fed ground beef can you consume in one sitting? 

Media is toxic

I’ve also found that one should have a strict cut off time for consuming media. My funny thought is actually the best time to consume me any sort of media, watching a movie or Netflix is actually first thing in the morning. Why? Media is insanely stimulating, and will disturb your sleep, Because a lot of these plot lines in these shows and boobies keep your brain running even late at night.

If you want to watch a movie or show, do it while drinking or consuming your morning coffee.

Anti screens?

The other day Cindy Seneca and I visited the Tesla store in Santa Monica, and some thing I never realized:

Looking at the touchscreen LCD display in a Tesla at nighttime really hurts your eyes.

That alone made me think, because sensitive to light, never buy a Tesla. 

Even one surprising thing that I personally love about my 2010 Prius is that there is no glaring LCD screens. And also you could easily turn off the display if you want to. I am a tech whiz, but I couldn’t intuitively figure out how to dim the screen of the Tesla LCD screen; Not good.

iPad is bad for kids?

Send because now three years, one month old, and I am actually very very happy that ever since he was born, he has never watched YouTube, any of these dumb shows or whatever. As a consequence, he is not subjected to any media.

The only apps I consider good for the iPhone or the iPad is GarageBand, switch playgrounds on the iPad, and more recently, I’m a big fan of the poly bridge 2 app; Seneca loves the physics. 

However ultimately, at times I’m considering just throwing away my iPad Pro in the trash. Why? Even when he is doing something “educational”, like learning about physics on the iPad, he is static and still, and actually a big problem about kids on an iPad is when they are so focused on it, they will often pee in their pants, they forget their bodily controls.

Airport, my suggestion is if you’re going to be a new parent or whatever, the simple thoughts:

1. Never buy your kid an iPad, a stupid Amazon tablet, whatever.
2. on your iPhone, never install the YouTube app, uninstalled it immediately. It is like giving your kid heroin.
3. On the iPhone, the only app you should let them play with is GarageBand.

The real world

At the age of 36, looking back at my childhood, my only regrets is how much time I wasted watching TV, and playing video games. The truth is only reason why I played so many video games to watch so much TV was that my mom was at work all day, and my dead dad was just watching TV all day, so I had no parental supervision, overseeing, Nobody to guide me in real life.

As a consequence, my number one tip is the best way to be a good parent is when you’re with your cat at the park, turn your phone all the way off, and just lock it in the glove compartment before you go out to play. Or when you’re at home, once again turn your phone all the way off.

One idea I am actually very committed to is I will never buy Seneca an iPhone, not even in high school. If you ever wants one, I’ll just tell him to get a job and buy one himself.

Maybe if he somehow doesn’t need a phone down the line, I will buy him a phone. Or just try to schedule in such a way that he doesn’t need a phone.

The future is physical

 whenever Seneca plays well at the park, is running around good, going on hikes with me etc.… I feel overjoyed. The days I feel bad is when it is raining outside, and we can’t go out.

Ultimate privilege of any child or human being or adult is the privilege of being physical. The privilege of walking 30,000 steps a day, the privilege of interacting in the real world. Let us think, if you’re real life was an RPG, would you want to be stuck in your apartment all day, or conquering the real world?

ERIC

---

So a really really cool thing that I got and downloaded for Seneca, currently him at three years old, one months old… This came and physics app called “Poly Bridge 2“.

first, it is super cool because there is the sandbox mode, which he loves, and I also find pretty incredible. 

Essentially it is a physics simulator; and it is real. For myself, I have very very fond memories of discovering this game as a child, I think initially on Windows 95, on my first Acer aspire computer which was called I think “the incredible machine”.

Anyways, what I find so fun in the sandbox mode is that you have unlimited money, unlimited resources, an unlimited budget, and the whole joy of the game is just doing these physics experiments, to see what will happen!

Real life is also just physics experiments? 

Surprisingly, my most memorable and favorite class of all time in high school, I will still never forget it… Was my honors physics class. It was probably the most difficult, mathematically arduous class I’ve ever taken, because it was honors class, I think I might’ve gotten a B or B minus in the class, which still counts as a “A”–

Also pro tip strategy for any highschoolers out there; it is better to take all AP honors classes, and get straight B’s, rather than getting straight A’s in normal classes. 

Anyways, I really really loved physics, and also my geometry class. Why? I found it very very useful to real life, tied to reality. Almost all other mathematics and science had zero relevance to me, my personal interests, etc. 

What is the big problem here?

I think the reason why Seneca loves the Poly Bridge 2 game constructor game,  is that it is tied in with real physics. It is everything that he loves; planes, bridges, physics, cars, elevations ramps etc. Even with his off the grid balancing bike, one of his favorite things to do is to go up steep ramps, and also up in cross bridges. Real life, real physics is the ultimate fun thing for a kid. 

Kid fun

I was born in 1988, and I suppose I grew up in the 90s. Something that got really really popular out of the sudden was rollerblading, in-line rollerblading, in-line skating, and I was really really good at it. I was insanely good at rollerblading, and I eventually got into what they call “aggressive in line skating”– imagine Tony Hawk or skateboarding but for rollerblades.

Anyways, it also tied into the fact that surprisingly, I am also insanely good at ice-skating, which is very uncommon, I am very happy and grateful that when I was a kid, my mom actually took me to go ice-skating a lot. As a consequence, I can get backwards, Skate backwards on my toes, do 360s, backwards, etc. I can essentially do a lot of stuff like Michelle Kwan.

Also, I’m actually really really good at skiing. Even as a young kid, Aussie able to do black diamond, double black diamond, no problem. I only backtrack when suddenly snowboarding got really cool, and I felt lame doing skiing, and I tried to switch. Worst decision of my life. The same thing goes with trying to get into skateboarding, it never really made sense to me, I can never really do an Ollie or anything. 

---

Think Physics

A quadrillion fold, the most important thing to consider with physics, thinking Aristotle, first principles thinking, etc.;

The first principles line of thinking — beyond basic social norms is this: “is it possible from a physics perspective? Is there anything about the rules of physics which prevents this from happening or becoming or manifesting as reality?

 The more I look and consider cyber truck, and the reason why I find it so insanely innovative is that it seems to defy all the rules of physics, but, it still works just fine.

Disrupt reality 

I’ve been seeing a lot more cyber trucks in reality, in the wild, and whenever I see it, the more I look at it, the more I see it, the more I love it!

The basic thinking and logic is that I really think it is the most innovative, most beautiful, greatest and the most grand creation I have ever witnessed in my whole life. I think it might be the only car I will ever consider purchasing, now that I am a bitcoin millionaire.

I think the reason why it is such a big deal is that it really disrupts reality. Think visually, we have been trained and indoctrinated, and accustomed to the fact that cars must be round, curved, whatever. I think this is why the Lamborghini Countach Was such a big deal  was it seemed to defy physics and reality. If anything the way I look at cyber truck is that it is a Lamborghini Countach on steroids. 

Buy cybertruck, not a loser Lamborghini 

Break necks

A phrase that get from my brother-in-law John Narciso, one of the head designers for black rhino, wheel pros, all the cool off roaring overland vehicles is this notion of “breaking necks.”

The general idea is when you have a car that is so hot sexy or whatever, people will break their neck turning around just to catch a glimpse of it. This is cybertruck. 

Reality applied

Even with weightlifting, one rep max weightlifting, etc.… My principal concern and interest was essentially, like a glorified physics experiment:

How much can a human body lift?

Certainly without steroids.

ERIC KIM breaks the Internet?

My 1000 pound Atlas lift, so thing I think which will be talked about for years:

1. First, I do not take steroids. I don’t even consume protein powder or creatine!
2. Second, I lift weights fasted, which means the only thing I consume before lifting weights or working out or whatever is black coffee, and water.
3. I use no weightlifting belts, straps, or other accessories. Only chalk.
4. I am 5‘11“ tall, with a more lean build; I got a six pack, maybe my body fat percentage is around 5%, and I also follow a 100% carnivore diet. I am not one of those fat steroid guys.

Anyways, at my old beloved crunch fitness gym in Garden Grove, I was able to successfully lift 1000 pounds, which is my beloved Texas power squat bar, with 10 plates, a 25, and I think a five and 2.5er on each side. 

The regimen was super simple:

Every week, just add 2.5 pounds to each side of the barbell. 

Super easy. A very simple straightforward “kaizen” approach. 

Back to physics

I think in the early days, they actually called sociology “social physics”. To me this is super interesting because it is true. For example, sidewalk politics, sidewalk confidence: when you’re walking on the sidewalk, there is a certain politicking which happens, whether people make eye contact or not, etc.

A simple suggestion:

You’re walking on the sidewalk in public, always give a head to people who stare at you, or throw up the peace sign.

---

More physics thinking 

Another very simple way to think about things is think body physics. For example, the position of sitting, in terms of pure physics, it is really bad for you. Your metabolism shuts down, your spine compresses, etc. In fact, I believe that the worst modern day melody is Trying to think that sitting is a virtue and a good thing.

Let us consider the Apex capitalist desire: to be seated, sitting down on your butt, in the Lamborghini or whatever. But once again, a true man is standing.

Never rate anybody successful, dominant or strong until you have seen them standing straight up. 

How to improve your posture

Probably my new favorite discovery and invention innovation is discovering this 60 pound weight fest that I purchased on Titan.fitness

The reason why it is great is that actually, it has forced me to improve my posture. Because the weights are in the front and the back, it forces me to stain straight up. In fact, instead of all these silly people, “running”– I actually think it is a far more effective exercise to just wear the 60 pound weight vest and just walk around. Better for your muscles, heart rate or whatever etc.

Real life?

Certainly real life is not like a sandbox in the video game. You cannot build a bridge in 30 seconds, you cannot erect a skyscraper in a minute.

What is your control what is not in your control?

To me I think the most interesting and disruptive notion of bitcoin, and crypto is that it is like dematerialized digital property, assets, wealth and capital. I think as of right now, my best definition of bitcoin is digital capital. 

What is the best use of capital?

Certainly the first is for your own physiological greatness and grandeur. Any portion of your life and which you have to sit on your butt stuck in traffic, is patently bad. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the Rolls-Royce, a self driving Tesla, or even in a cybertruck. 

What is the secret to happiness, or living a happy life in LA?

Never spend more than five minutes driving a day in LA.

I can easily rate my overall physical health, happiness levels based on the amount I drive every single day. The days I never have to jump into my Prius, I am the happiest.

So what should I do?

 I think the best way to approach life is to just effort, just try it out, take the small financial risk or whatever, try it out, and figure it out as you go.

For example, I think now I’m living here in LA, Culver City for now five months… In the first two or three months, even now… Figuring out how to live a virtuous life here has been novel.

I think the slow transition from life in the suburbs to life in a cosmopolitan city has been tricky; I’m figuring it out good things and bad things, good strategies bad strategies on the way.

Difficulties and annoyances are good information

Typically when things annoy you, make you angry or whatever… Treated like good information. I think often the big problem we face is when we just let these annoyances grate us,  without actually doing anything to change it.

So a simple life strategy:

When something annoys you in life, use that information to switch things up!

I think the loser mentality of life is to keep sitting on your button and complain about things, without actually changing anything your physical reality.

---

How to think like a winner?

Destroyer versus creator 

Choose fun

Come up with your own new economic theories —

I love the LUMIX G9– this thing is built like a tank!

Invest in more tank-like things!

TANK

1. Don’t look at things literally — look at them figuratively and metaphorically
2. Don’t make it look “true to life”— the role of the artist is to *transfigure* and *change* reality, not to show how things really and truly are, but how things *should* be—

Your body matters

Why Your Body Matters 

In modern daytimes, we believe there to be a divorce between the body, the mind, the soul whatever.

For example, we have this foolish idea that somehow, you could just be stuck in bars all day, and somehow have beautiful thoughts, beautiful ideas, etc.

Also other weird things; we tend to praise all of these artists, and creators who are all hooked on alcohol drugs methamphetamines etc.

For example, we all go gaga over Jean-Michel Basquiat, or Jackson Pollock artwork, but, don’t you know that Jackson Pollock was a severe alcoholic, I think he died in a car accident while driving under the influence of alcohol. Bad.

Also, Jean-Michel Basquiat, I think was hooked on cocaine or some other weird drugs. Therefore what we consider “innovative”, in terms of artwork is simply drugs manifesting in strange ways visual art imagery words etc.

Can you be innovative without drugs alcohol etc.? 

Am I the only sober millennial alive? The only person who was born in 1988, currently 36 years old, that doesn’t drink alcohol, any alcohol, smoke weed or do any drugs? I’ve only smoked weed maybe twice in my life, I wasn’t really into it that much. And I quit drinking alcohol not out of ethical reasons, but simply I didn’t like the way you made my body feel. The big realization was when I would track my sleep, and actually discovered that after drinking alcohol, even a small amount, didn’t actually help me to sleep, but ruined my sleep by 500%.

Why are all academics either low-key alcoholics, and also a lot of them are hooked on weed? 

Another strange thing with higher up elite society, a lot of them think and assume that for some reason wine is associated with elites, fanciness, whatever. Little do they know that wine is just sugary grape juice that makes you fat, with a good conscience. To know all this constipated knowledge about so-and-so wine grower and so so region, another way that people could feel big in grand for being fat, lazy, and alcoholics.

In modern-day America, it is not permitted to be anti-alcohol, or even anti-weed? 

First, I actually think that marijuana is a lot less bad than alcohol. Alcohol might be worse than marijuana by 1000 X. It is true that nobody ever died while smoking too much weed, but a lot of people do die from drinking too much alcohol. Alcohol might be one of the most toxic Substances on the planet, even Plutarch in his “Morals” mentions how the real serious soldiers, one day were at war, or in war, would be very wise to abstain from alcohol. Blue tart said that only slaves would drink alcohol, but actually in fact, if masters were smart, they would prevent their slaves from drinking alcohol, because it would make them wanton, and change their behavior in poor ways. 

Unlocking value

I don’t want my thoughts to be derailed

---

I think the reason why I like to wake up early, before anyone else does, and then drink coffee, thing, walk around, either Vlog or jot down notes is because I don’t want my thoughts to be derailed by an external issues at hand.

---

You know best; never do anything to just make other people happy or make them feel at peace or restful;

---

Financial Thoughts 

Some finance, financial thoughts on my mind; how and why does finance matter?

What is the etymology of finance?

First of all, it seems that the etymology for the word finance is centered around the notion of a fine, the end, “finis”–

If you take this metaphorically, maybe finance, personal finance is all about the banks, these credit unions, issuing debt, and if you don’t pay the monthly payments, the ransom, the settlements, you will be charged a penalty.

Also taken more artfully; perhaps we should consider the end of finance, the end of money etc.

Money for the sake of what? 

Recently I listened to the interview of Michael Saylor with Lex Fridman, I both watched the video YouTube podcast recording, and then ultimately I just read the transcript. One of the big takeaways was this:

Money is solidified labor, solidified energy and power.

For example, all of the money value that created over the last that give herself, traveling the world doing workshops, creating and selling products etc., ultimately all this money end up becoming solidified and codified into money.

Bitcoin as the most exciting thing since PayPal?

The reason why I have been very grateful to be alive at the time that I was, when I first started teaching workshops, I was easily able to create a PayPal payment by it now, in order to collect money from teaching workshops. The very very nominal 2.9% transaction fee to me was nothing; Essentially if PayPal did not exist, I would collect zero dollars, 0%. So 2.9% out of 100% to me is nothing. As long as the fee is less than 10%, I am happy.

One thing which is really cool about Coinbase, and I suppose a lot of these mainstream crypto market fund platforms is that you can easily purchase corn or whatever crypto with your US dollars or traditional bank account money, and also if you wish to, cash it out back into Fiat currency, if you want.

Even more interesting is the new Coinbase debit card visa card, in which you could essentially just use it to draw from your crypto reserves, to buy groceries at Costco or whatever. I think that I have yet been able to do is figure out a workaround or hack to have the Coinbase debit Visa card pay for rent; but beyond this, it is pretty phenomenal.

Why is it so damn hard to move money?

OK, some simple things; if I want to send money, either to myself from a different bank account, a simple wire transfer, whether domestic or international, why does it require me talking to a bunch of random people on the phone, wasting about 3 to 5 hours of my life, sometimes on the phone or sometimes in person, and sometimes having my money stuck in arbitrage, with some random person in the Back door of an office in the Philippines in Manila, “reviewing” my case, ensuring that my wire transfer is not a scam or fraud, before the transaction actually goes through?

Banks are the new gatekeepers, the new DRM digital rights management

OK, I have always been passionate about this open source notion, open source information, open source knowledge etc. Even what Saylor.org — Michael Saylor is doing with his open source information knowledge wisdom, is very admirable.

I think a huge point of enthusiasm and reinvigorated passion that I got from the Michael Saylor Lex Fridman  interview is Moores law, the immense power of the dematerialization of things. 

For example, when it comes to aviation, rockets to the moon, whatever… Why is this all the same same? The fundamentals materials of aluminum hasn’t changed for almost 40 or 50 years, in the general shape of airplanes have not changed at all either. The only really big innovation that I think we’ve had during my lifetime is Tesla, and electric vehicles; but still if you think about it, the overall shape of cars, even the Tesla cars are pretty similar to what we already got, albeit much better. 

Also a grand dismay that I have in regards to homes, real estate, etc.; why is it that homes have not really changed, even the new constructed ones? Maybe the only big innovations I’ve seen in house and home design is having your kitchen door patio thing open up directly Into the backyard or whatever, maybe have a pool or whatever, but that’s it. Why not any sort of Buckminster Fuller, geodesic, or even my own personal vision, a glass cube on top of a hill?

---

How bitcoin benefits from Moore’s law

I think a really big thing about bitcoin and Moore’s law is that anybody with the $50 smart phone or device can handle it, storage, in essentially the custody or the ownership of your money or your keys or whatever is a simple password that you can memorize in your brain. Or another thing which is good with Apple ID, your thumbprint, biometric data is that it is pretty difficult to fake a thumbprint; iron vision that a thumbprint is actually more secure than Face ID ID.

For example, I currently have an iPad Pro M1 chip, and already, the Face ID is busted. However compare this to my $299 iPhone SE; the thumbprint is secure. So even as much as I like to like the new iPhones, maybe just sticking to thumb ID is a better idea in terms of security. 

Once again, digital property, materials cannot increase at a rate of 2X year over year or whatever more law is. Yet, bitcoin, crypto, digital money can.

Or even some other basic good things; crypto could be treated every second, every day, doesn’t matter if weekend or weekday. Isn’t it strange that even in 2024, today’s capital markets, the markets are closed on Saturday and Sunday? Come on, we live in the world of self driving cars, robots, Artificial intelligence, ChatGPT etc.; why are we still in the stone ages in terms of finance?

Are you going to use your gold bars to buy a home?

It seems that one of the great real assets that people eventually aspire to have our own or procure is a home, property, ideally a single-family home. It also seems the truth is any people whose first homes a condo, secretly hopes that they had bought a single-family house, or they’re just saving up more money in order to buy a single-family house.

Owning a condo is like glorified renting 

I suppose one of the benefits being raised the way I was, I never was really into this idea of owning a house or owning home. Maybe this is because my family and my mom only ever rented our whole lives, part of it is that we were just broke, And part of it also, we moved around too much.

It seems that currently the American dream is all about owning a home, owning a single-family home. Perhaps this was just the postwar ideal or something; but maybe the new dream, the new Millenial dream should be to own (at least one) Bitcoin?

My simple math behind it is I equate one bitcoin to only one single-family house, or one piece of property. But the great upside of bitcoin and digital property is that I don’t have to maintain it, I don’t have to check for mold, I don’t have to worry about changing the roof, I don’t have to worry about bad tenants up the house, etc. And also, a big scam I think I’ve discovered about homeownership is property taxes;

Even if you buy a $3.5 million house all in cash, into perpetuity, you got it paid like $3000 a month in property taxes alone? That is essentially free money that you’ll never ever see again, that goes straight to the city and the government.

Even if I was worth 100 M, maybe because the way I was raised, I wouldn’t want to pay $3000 a month Justin property taxes, indefinitely? Especially considering that my rent is only $3200 a month right now, if the price of property taxes is equivalent to the price of renting, real estate really makes no sense.

The future of bitcoin and digital property?

Also another reason I found an interview with Michael Saylor and Lex Fridman so enlightening was not even the bitcoin stuff, but, how Michael Saylor cross pollinate his genius in sciences, history of science, engineering, mechanics and applies it to money finance in the world in general.

Especially the notion of energy.

For example, the reason why I am so grateful every single time I have a good cup of coffee is that there are people in Vietnam, in the Highlands, growing your coffee, tending to it, eventually picking it and sorting them, then you have an expert person like Hana Choi from 96b coffee roaster in Saigon Vietnam roasting it, and then ultimately delivering some great product like 100% fine robusta, ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE, delivered straight to you.

What is a college degree, a PhD, a masters or a bachelor is worth today anyways?

If I think about it, if I think about it, cart blonde, Sukha today, if you didn’t want to go to college, or get a higher degree, I wouldn’t really mind too much. Why?

First, his parents, a.k.a. me and Cindy are already super educated. We both went to UCLA is undergraduates, Cindy got her PhD at Berkeley, and now is a full-fledged professor.

So why do we need more education in the family?

What is education for anyways?

Assuming that your family already has wealth, having a higher degree is only a legitimacy thing.

For example, if your family empire is already worth $500 million, and you have a bunch of kids, you just want them to graduate with at least the bachelors degree to “prove “that they’re not dumb.

If you’re doing any sort of business transactions, or just networking in general, eventually someone’s gonna ask you where you went to school, a.k.a. where you went to college.

Even now when I meet people, and ask them why they went to school or whatever, and they say UC Davis or something, I think that it is OK, and I tell them that I want to UCLA, I can already see their face and countenance change, That they feel a little bit made small by the fact that I went to UCLA and they went to a second tier school.

However, the reason why this is so bad is that why would you take your own self-esteem based on an institution?

This is also where brands, are so silly. For example everyone is so gaga over Louis Vuitton, but just Google image the actual founder of Louis Vuitton, a fat obese man with a funny mustache and beard; do you want to look like that guy?

Building the future, upgrading the planet?

The final words of Michael Saylor was quite poetic interesting and simple; “upgrade the world“, upgrade the planet, upgrade the human race.

“Uh-up-uh-upgrade complete!” – StarCraft

What does it mean to upgrade things, the planet, the human race?

First, maybe it is to first apply a fresh, gigabit Internet like mentality to our brains. For example everyone is so quick to just upgrade their iPhone or devices or their car or whatever, isn’t the more important fact to upgrade your mind?

For example, I just got rid of loser spectrum Internet, they still don’t get them, and upgraded to team gigabit fiber Internet which is 1 trillion times better. Even when trying to cancel my old spectrum thing on the phone, it was so damn annoying, just like trying to cancel your AWOL membership back in the day.

Anyways, maybe we gotta think about this like gigabit Internet Wi-Fi. Upgrading your mind is like going from 56K dial up modem to gigabit fiber Internet.

---

Grand Visions

I follow the Peter Thiel model here:

Better to risk boldness than to risk triviality. 

Or another words, better to go insanely bold and big, and fail, rather than two go and bet same same, and succeed.

Even one of the random things that I am insanely proud about myself, is successfully lifting 1000 pounds; the infamous ERIC KIM Atlas lift. 

I think it is more interesting to lift 1000 pounds, my unorthodox way, which is 10 plates of 25 and I think a five and a 2 1/2 are on each side, rather than even squat five or six plates the standard way, or even dead lift seven or eight plates the standard way.

Bigger always wins.

Once again, the ultimate flex in the ultimate interest is how many plates you have on the bar. When you stop counting, that is when you know you are strong.

For example, typically the reason why people like to dead lift, or do sumo deadlifts or whatever is that you could put more plates on the bar. For example a reasonably strong person can let’s say squat for plates, but for dead lift do five or six plates. And the upside to switching to sumo dead lift is that you could go from 5 to 6 plates pretty easily; if you’re doing conventional, Because the biomechanics are not as efficient, you cannot lift as much. 

Lifting more is more important

Once again, to lift more is more impressive.

To do things, the conventional or standard way, is boring.

Or even taken into a greater extreme; what is more impressive, to lift 2000 pounds, or two benchpress 300 or 400 pounds? Lifting 2000 pounds is far more interesting.

---

Bitcoin developer

The funny thing is with real estate, your $1 million house cannot certainly become $100 million house in 10 years. But you’re $1 million worth of bitcoin can become $100 million a bitcoin in 10 years.

A funny rebuttal that people say about bitcoin is that it is not “worth” anything; but then again, owning property is not really “worth“ anything either; to own a few square meters of concrete somewhere is not as glorious as you might think it is, especially considering you got a pay property taxes etc. Not only that but maintenance cost, hidden cost, things breaking things gotta be maintained etc.

Even simple things, like gardening, cleaning up dead tree leaves etc.; then all of this additional labor.

Even if you hire somebody to do it, you still gotta put in the labor to manage them.

---

What new innovations have yet been created?

Bitcoin is interesting because it is still in the early infancy.

First, people have no idea what it is. Even amongst the bitcoin and crypto maximalists, nobody has anyone unified idea on what it is or what it should be.

For example, some people think that bitcoin should be digital money, other think that it should be digital property, other people think it should be digital gold. But maybe because there is not a consensus on what it should be, this is a feature, not a bug. 

In terms of what technology you could build on top of bitcoin, it seems that the level 2 layer — the bitcoin lightning network is probably the most useful innovation thus far, that which Jack Dorsey has integrated into the cash app, and let us not forget that Jack Dorsey who is a huge bitcoin advocate also owns and runs square, the infamous and notorious little card reader thing that you use to buy your $10 cappuccino at any hips or coffee shop.

The philosophy of money and finances

I think money and wealth is all an attitude thing, which means wants to feel rich, to feel strong, to feel abundant. Nobody wants to feel broke, and poor.

Even Aristotle written in his economics, Oeceonomia in Greek said the very powerful and simple thoughts, which still rings today:

One’s expenditures should never exceed one’s income.

Live like a very poor person

Even now that I am super rich, I still use the cheapest iPhone, an iPhone SE. Why? Even though I could afford thousands of iPhone pros?

I think the simple heuristic that I’ve learned is that irregardless of how rich you are, it is always better to live like a very very poor person. Why? Honik and lifestyle creep; sure you make a little money here in there, and get some gains, get a bonus or whatever, you buy the Tesla, buy more expensive things, etc.… But the problem is that often, we think we are much richer than we actually are. The same thing with gains;

We always overexaggerate our gains, we always underplay our losses. 

Additional things which are worthy of consideration include having to pay taxes, capital gains taxes, etc. Therefore, if you think about things a little bit more critically, always best to think and act rich, but live poor.

How does one live poor?

1. Don’t drink or purchase or buy bottled water or filtered water: just drink tapwater, or filtered water at home
2. Don’t drink alcohol, don’t consume alcohol, whether at home or at the bar, don’t smoke weed, waste money on weed and drugs
3. don’t go to festivals, don’t go to Vegas, don’t listen to EDM music, a funny thought: has anyone ever gone to an EDM concert or gone to burning man and enjoy themselves sober? Without taking drugs? No.
4. For a car, the best car is just a 2010 Prius; I love Tesla, I love Elon musk, I own a lot of Tesla stock, yet I don’t really want to buy one right now, yet. If I were to buy a Tesla, I might hold out for the cyber truck. And actually, in LA, the greatest flex is to drive around in the cyber truck; even more than driving a Ferrari or a Lamborghini!
5. Never buy any new clothes
6. Build your own home gym, work out at home: or just buy a 60 pound weight vest, and just go walking or hiking in the nature areas, in the woods etc.  For example in LA, I really love this Baldwin Hills hiking area stairs area.
7. The best entertainment and leisure activities are free! Nature, hikes, state recreational parks etc.

---

Now what?

I always find the quote now what”? Question the most fascinating. Why? After all of this, what is the point of it all? What should I do with my life and time?

A very simple one is exercise fitness and health. Movement, exercise, fitness is the ultimate leisure. There is no greater leisure than the human body.

Second, there needs to be some sort of creative output publishing that you do. I think this is the best way we could enact an impact on the planet; information, it is universal, a random person in a small village in India on the $50 android device could easily access your website and blog, or even a random kid in the Philippines.

Third, think technology, Moore’s law and scale: once again, I think the problem why real estate, land development, construction is so tapped out is that it is still so inefficient, and it does not follow more law. In the year 2024; why can’t I just 3-D print a house in an hour? Why does it still require a litany of annoying contractors, hold ups, and trillions of other problems?

Building digital properties

Maybe it is best that we think about websites and digital properties like real estate.

Something that nobody appreciates is that you could erect a website in 30 seconds, good luck doing that with the skyscraper or even a single-family home.

Second, domains, domain names. This is still a field which is very very important and untapped.

For example there is this thing called ES, Ethereum name network or system or something, owning your own crypto address in cyberspace seems like a good idea.

For example, currently playing around with a new Coinbase web3 wallet, and there is an ability to create your own username on it. Kind of like Venmo. Or PayPal. This is interesting and useful because if I want to just send bitcoin or crypto to somebody, rather than having to copy and paste a really really long Crypto address, it is easier to just punch in their “@“ user ID– it is easier to remember, much more secure etc.

Why Coinbase?

Coinbase is the goat. The most beautiful UIUX, it feels the most ethical, and it just works insanely good. Coinbase is like the new paypal for crypto. 

You can just buy $100 worth of bitcoin

Everyone wants to own at least one bitcoin, but the beauty is you could just buy $100 worth of bitcoin, you could just do it in the cash app, or on Coinbase or whatever. An exchange I don’t really trust, but at least it is mainstream is crypto.com, I think they are Singaporean based, And they bought out the name rights for the Los Angeles Lakers Staples center, and it also looks like they are doing a good job marketing across sports and television channels.

Finance also looks pretty good, but I would still kind of stairway from it, because of the old controversies with the ex founder, CZ.

Now what?

I think the beauty of bitcoin, crypto is that we can all get rich together. Assuming that the value of it all collectively goes up, if I buy bitcoin, and you buy bitcoin, the value of all of it goes up. Only people who “lose”, are people who get into the game too late.

Rethinking economics, money and wealth

We humans are bad at metaphors, math, digital thinking, etc. As a consequence, it seems interesting to try to upgrade your mind, or rethink things from a blank state.

For example, being born in 1988; the idea of having to pay for information and knowledge always seemed ridiculous to me. But to the old-school people, the old guard, it seemed natural.

Even in the world of Atari, film photography, doing exhibitions and shows, printing out hardcover books, these are all old antiquated Parisian notions which must be re-examined especially in the year 2024; in which I could design and create a PDF photo book in minutes, publish it for zero cents, and essentially share it to all 8 billion people on the planet for nothing.

Consider the typical artist who has to sell out $20,000 of their own money, in order to print their book, and attempting to sell it, and eventually not being able to do so, still having hundreds of copies and storage, unsold.

The great upside of digital products and digital books is that there is no such thing as “stale“ inventory, no such thing as dead stock, or unsold inventory.

Think Digital!

---

A thought: perhaps the best way to live life is to broaden your horizons– both metaphorically and literally.

Horizon Chase 

So a funny game on the iPad I’ve been playing with Seneca is a game called Horizon Chase. It is like a pixelated, old-school retro racing game in which year racing and driving into the horizon.

The horizon is an interesting metaphor because it is a metaphor of that which is just above and beyond the horizon. Nobody is 100% certain where the horizon is, but chasing it, into broaden it seems like a good idea.

A panopticon view to life

One of the things I love most about going to the hills and the vistas, going on top of the hill and looking out out it is super epic pen optic con view I have of the world, LA and things.

When you’re on top of a vista, with a total Panopticon view of the world, it is great because you feel elevated, more powerful, inconquerable, indomitable.  in fact this is why I prefer the mountains in high up vistas rather than the beach.

The beach is great and amazing everything, but still, the feeling of being higher up, you literally do feel greater, grander, more powerful, more all encompassing.

In fact, the insanely elevated feeling that I had while living in Vietnam was that I was also literally on top of the world, so beyond everything, once again, only paying $320 USD a month for rent, living in a tiny hotel room or tiny studio apartment, everything paid for, Eating at all my meals and drinking unlimited coffee, and having supreme time to focus and think, this was true paradise. Also no phone, no distractions, no nonsense.

How and where to broaden your horizons?

So the first very basic idea is that you could broaden your horizon by just not restricting yourself to one small category of things. For example for myself, even though I’m most famous for photography and street photography, my interests are infinite. Design, physiology, the body, philosophy, aesthetics, bitcoin and cryptocurrency etc.; it is all infinitely fascinating to me.

I think this is why people are so confused by me, because I refuse to stay in a small box. Even some thing that I am starting to realize more and more, being Asian American, queen American in America; everybody is secretly low-key racist towards Asian, Asian American men in America. Why? Typically, Asian Asian American guys are seen as short, not for muscular, meek, more feminine, introverted and quiet spoken, lacking social skills, and not in tune with hip-hop and rap culture; E-40, keek da sneak, too short, Kanye, Jay Z etc. 

 so when I pull up, super loud and boisterous, smiling and happy, handsome and good looking, with a really cool slick back Brad Pitt fury haircut, topless, highly muscular, full body tan, people are just a little bit befuddled by me.

It kind of goes a lot of ways, we are not allowed to be loud, boisterous, ratchet, etc. 

Don’t allow yourself to be stuck in a tiny bubble

I think the reason why there’s a trend that we must be so small narrow focused and niche is because of fear.

It looks like the modern day person is very afraid of unpredictability. We don’t like people who are unpredictable, I think in fact, we prefer people to follow a basic social script; any sort of behavior or activity which is off script, off the rails is seen as scary for a lot of individuals.

However, the extreme irony:

in real life, we hate making iContact with strangers, conversing with strangers, we always have our sunglasses on, full tents in our cars, we are afraid of social engagement and interaction. However at the same time, when we watch media TV shows, movies etc.; we love the outlandish, the ratchet, etc.

The reason why I see media  consumption is so fascinating is because I think that is what people truly desire, truly want, but, are too afraid to go get it in real life.

The same thing was a video game; then I think video games, video game culture etc. is fascinating because once again it also shows some sort of deeper human Aires, however people in real life are afraid to go get it in real life.

So what is the big issue here? 

I see several issues at play here:

First, the sociological one, and second, the ethical one, and third, the physiological body one.

Social logically, society is not equipped or optimized for free thinkers, free spirits, free individuals etc. Let us consider that essentially, we are the new mole people.

Consider the average kid, the average suburban kid, or even the average American kid, who is raised in captivity. They are born indoors, inside a hospital or whatever, since they are small, they are always indoors; in a house, in a daycare, in a preschool, in a “Montessori“,  in a car, it may be at most they are permitted 30 minutes to an hour of fresh outdoor sun and play, but all of these overprotective parents always cover them up with long sleeves, long pants, hats and sunglasses, sunblock etc., preventing them from getting all this beneficial upside from the sun and UV radiation.

Taking further, think about K-12 education. Why is it that all these institutions are indoors? I kind of prefer a more hippie Spartan approach; I would prefer classrooms that were all just outdoors.

Or beyond that, why have school at all? Honestly I think for a lot of parents, it is just seen as free daycare.

Not only that, but even once you get to university and school, college etc., you’re pretty much indoors all day. You’re indoors all day when you’re studying in the classroom, your indoors all day when you’re studying in the library or your dorm room, and when is it that students are the happiest? we are happiest when we are at the beach, hanging out with our friends, at the beach bonfire etc.

Different directions and life paths?

Assuming that you no longer need to work” for a living, then what? What do you want to become, what do you want your kids to become?

 First of all, nobody wants their kids to just become good worker bees. Because that is still the trend today.

I’m also starting to realize more more, it don’t even matter if you get the worlds best job at Apple Google Facebook or whatever; the huge downside is all these offices are still indoors. Another thought I had while in the parking lot garage;

Would you be a trillionaire if you had to live the rest of your life in a subterranean, fluorescent lit parking lot garage? Even if you had all the billions of Lamborghinis in the world? No!

Back to nature?

If we think about video games, Final Fantasy, riding around in Chocobo etc.; what is it all about? Real world, free world exploration!

I think for example, video games are good for poor kids. Why? If you’re a poor kid, and you have no money, your world is limited. Maybe besides owning a bicycle, there’s nowhere you could really go and explore.

Actually, one of my favorite memories and point of gratitude spending my formative childhood years in Bayside queens, New York was just how open freedom it was, hang out with my best friends, riding around our bikes all around town, going fishing at the pier, playing roller hockey together etc. PS 169.

---

The best thinking and horizon broadening happens when and while you’re just walking around. 

I think about this very literally, and also, very practically.

The big problem in today’s world is that we are so cramped. That is consider, we are just sitting on our butts all day. In fact, I’ll lead the desires that we have are just glorified butt sitting.

For example, are strange and bizarre desire to own and drive all these exotic cars, technically you’re not really doing anything. To simply approach your Lamborghini, unlock it, pop up this is your doors, hop on in, turn on the large engine, make it loud, drive really fast, spin around, Pop out, with the scissor doors going up again, looking at this beautiful design object, what is the point?

For example, a lot of people fantasize about driving the PCH, along the Pacific Coast Highway, in some sort of luxury sports car, convertible or not.

What they don’t understand is on the weekends, there are lots of cops. There are maybe four or five highway patrol just waiting to capture you and only that but most of the time it is trafficky.

Something to do which is actually much more pleasurable is just drive your whatever car to the mountains, and just going to hike and walk around! Or even more fun is just going to the gym, showing off, being loud, lifting heavy ways, and instead of revving your sports car or your muscle car, Scream really really loud in real life.

Another funny thing I have discovered:

Why are we allowed and permitted to rev the engine of our sports car and also cars, but we are not allowed to rev up our voices, and roar our voices?

For example let us say that you have some sort of Lamborghini Ferrari or Porsche or whatever; you are allowed to accelerate really quickly, posting the loud engine. And the sound of the exhaust whatever. Some people call this sound beautiful. 

But, modern day man is not permitted to be loud, scream, talk loudly in public. The modern day loser man is only permitted to wear AirPods, AirPods pros, noise canceling headphones, fully tinted out sunglasses, and stay to himself.

Real world training 

Some simple suggestions I have include simple things:

If you see a beautiful person, doesn’t matter if male or female or whatever, compliment them. Compliment their look, their face, their style their demeanor etc. whatever. One of the good things about living in LA is that to a large degree, everybody is very image-conscious. Assuming that you’re just not the typical tech nerd who always wears the company hoodie or sweater, people spend lot time thinking about their outward appearances. Their jewelry, their fashion, their clothing, their fashion sense, their car, their accessories, etc. Anything that is perceived by the outside world. 

Show me your screenshots, and I shall tell you who you are

A funny suggestion that I have is if and when you go on a first date with somebody, a simple thing and strategy you could do is either with permission or without, pull up their screenshots in their iPhone. A lot of people I see will often screenshots stuff they want to buy, stuff on Amazon, stuff on other e-commerce websites etc.

A screenshot is funny because it is almost like a public private memory log; typically we screenshot things we want to remember, or things we value, things we want to buy etc.

Once again, if you have ever shopped for clothes yourself or bought your own shoes or your own car or whatever, you two are also image punches. In fact I don’t know one human being, one modern-day human being who is not image conscious to a certain extent. 

---

Now what?

 so the trillion dollar question is this: let us see you brought in your horizons, you do it all well, what is the point?

First, you as an individual, the human spirit thrives on expansion. Soul expansion is a good desired outcome. The more you could expand your soul, the better.

This means expanding your ambitions, your hopes your dreams etc.

Second, exploration, our passion for novelty. For example, Seneca is currently three years, one or two months old. He really really loves and is excited whenever we discover and uncover a new playground park. We have this hand motion we invented called “ttang ttang ttang”– which is essentially a hand motion that I invented which is putting both your hands into fifths, and being them together, whenever we are excited or having fun.

Cheviot Hills playground park — we went there the other day, in Los Angeles, he loves it!

Expansion packs 

Can you imagine a world and the universe in which we never had any sort of expansions? For example, I’m grateful that we had a Diablo two expansion pack, also a StarCraft expansion pack.

---

Keep it easy!

Another weird thing in American society, we glorify the hard, the difficult, the painful, the arduous, the toilsome. Why? 

I have the theory; modern day society tries to indoctrinate you with the slave like, servitude mentality. If you are praised for working a lot, working hard, certainly this will benefit society. But will it benefit you? Often not.

Let us consider the foolish optimization we do: we work hard, we toil, we sacrifice our bodies our health our soul in order to make more money or whatever, buy the nicer house, the nicer car the nicer clothes, etc., we work more… But as a consequence, we sleep less, we spend more time sedentary, we become weaker sicker etc. All for the sake of what? 

Broad shoulders?

Go broad! 

---

What do we humans really want? 

Upon much thinking and consideration, the true feeling in my heart and my soul is gratitude, being grateful to everybody. Doesn’t matter how much they annoyed me in the past or irked me; ultimately even if it is for the .0000000001% of the times they were insanely helpful and or useful ,,, the only feeling in my heart and soul is gratitude!

PHILOSOPHY BY KIM

IDEAS BY KIM

1. EVERYTHING HAPPENS AS IT *SHOULD HAVE* HAPPENS
2. *Beyond* Individualism
3. MAN & WOMAN, LIGHT & DARK
4. A LIFE WITHOUT PAIN, DISCOMFORT OR (LIMITED) SUFFERING IS NOT A LIFE WORTH LIVING?
5. BIGGER IS WEAKER.
6. How to Become a Philosopher
7. Deep Vanity
8. Time Will Tell
9. What is Wisdom?
10. LOOK *BEYOND*
11. BECOMING MORE IMMORAL?
12. ‘LUCK’ VS COURAGE
13. ‘SKILL’ VS MERIT?
14. Becoming Antifragile
15. How to “Improve” Men
16. The Art of Virtue
17. How to Dominate
18. JUST SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCES AND WISDOM WITH OTHERS.
19. How to Get More Done in a Single Day – MEMENTO MORI PHILOSOPHY
20. THINK FOR YOURSELF
21. Cruel?
22. GO DEMIGOD.
23. How to Be Happy: Challenge and Danger Philosophy
24. To Become Greater, You Must Become *LESS* Productive!
25. Imperfect Beauty
26. The Philosophy of Pleasure
27. What Interests You?
28. Anti Theory of Everything
29. Become?
30. STRONGER OR NOT?
31. Carte Blanche Ideals
32. CHOOSE JOY
33. Don’t Judge Your Impulses
34. On Becoming Less Human
35. COWARDICE.
36. The Philosophy of Futurism
37. PHILOSOPHY IS VALUE-SETTING
38. PHILOSOPHY IS NOT LIFESTYLE
39. WHY STANDARDIZATION IS BAD.
40. YOUR OWN TABLE OF VALUES.
41. RETRO IS BAD.
42. INSANELY LOFTY THOUGHTS.
43. Strive to *Lose* Weight, Not *Gain* Weight
44. DIABLO II ANALOGIES FOR REAL LIFE.
45. If You Know Your *WHY* You Can Discover Any *HOW*
46. Life is Too Short to Be Miserable
47. What Consumption Takes Skill?
48. OFF THE GRID.
49. REALITY IS CRUEL.
50. Pain is Information
51. WHY REMOVE VULGARITY AND DISORDER FROM OUR EYES?
52. AUTOTELIC.
53. UNPLUG.
54. How to Become a Philosopher
55. SUBOPTIMAL IS OPTIMAL
56. THE LUST FOR MORE.
57. TO DO IS TO BECOME.
58. IN PRAISE OF AGGRESSIVE.
59. THE PHILOSOPHY OF OPTIMISM
60. OUR PHILOSOPHICAL WILL TO EXISTENCE
61. Is Hope a Vice?
62. MOVE MEAN
63. Carte Blanche Ideals
64. One Interesting Thought
65. What Lasts? What Doesn’t Last?
66. A WOUND STIMULATES THE RECUPERATIVE POWERS
67. Children & Purpose
68. Thoughts on Becoming a Parent
69. Where Does Our Desire to Upgrade Come From?
70. WE ALWAYS NEED SOMETHING FURTHER TO ASPIRE TO.
71. Self-Task Yourself an Awesome Mission in Life
72. Differentiation vs Equalization
73. My Passion to *Become* Something More
74. No Aesthetic or Ethos is Forever
75. What is Your Higher Purpose in Life?
76. IT WILL NEVER SATISFY YOU.
77. How to Decide
78. Things You *Want* to Do vs Things You *MUST* Do
79. Towards a More Beautiful Mode of Existence and Future
80. EXTREME GRATITUDE.
81. AMAP (As Much as Possible) or None.
82. Why or How Does it Matter?
83. The Philosophy of Time and Events
84. How *Not* to Resent
85. FORWARD LOOKING
86. DOMAIN FLEXIBILITY.
87. The Miracle of Human Growth
88. EXTREME ADAPTATION.
89. Why Plan?
90. You Don’t Need to Justify Yourself
91. The Philosophy of Ego
92. True vs False Passions
93. How to Achieve Tranquility
94. On Making Your Own Philosophy
95. The Purpose of Life is to Create New Life
96. Think On!
97. The Wisdom of Doing Nothing
98. Congruency
99. My Thoughts on Meditation
100. The Philosophy of Purpose
101. Emulate Yourself
102. Good Fear, Bad Fear
103. For the Betterment of Humanity or Just Yourself?
104. What you *really* believe in and care for is manifested through your actions (or non-actions)
105. Why Culture is Your Enemy
106. YOUR EXPERIENCES ARE KING.
107. LIFE IS INHERENTLY GOOD.
108. Artistic, Physical, and Philosophical Muscles
109. All New Experiences are Good Experiences
110. What is the Purpose of X?
111. UTILITY.
112. Philosophy is a Luxury
113. The Attempt is More Interesting than the Result
114. Joyfulness vs “Happiness”
115. Effectiveness Over Happiness
116. Self Actualization
117. MAXIMAL ENGAGEMENT
118. Life & Pain
119. On Living Every Day with No Regret
120. Learn as if you’re going to live forever, live as if you’re going to die tomorrow
121. Live Every Day Like it Were the Last Day of Your Life
122. Self-Determination
123. FALSE GRATITUDE vs REAL GRATITUDE
124. HOW TO LIVE MORE
125. THE UPSIDE OF TRAGEDY
126. Satisfaction is a Sucker’s Game
127. Supreme Repose
128. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF LIFE? According to ERIC KIM
129. STUBBORN, FLEXIBLE
130. EVERYTHING HAPPENS AS IT *SHOULD* HAVE HAD HAPPENED
131. Good Addiction, Bad Addiction?
132. What is the Best Life?
133. The Philosophy of Thinking
134. The Philosophy of Conspiracies
135. Conspiracies
136. Growth
137. Skepticism.
138. What Do You Really Want Out of Life?
139. Seem or Be?
140. Learn Through Pain
141. Respect Yourself
142. In Praise of Elitism
143. Why Independent Thinking?
144. I Will Never Die
145. Bitter is Better
146. The Genesis of Nihilism and Existential Dread
147. The Ethics of Personal Enrichment
148. Good vs Not Good
149. Punished by Privilege
150. Abstinence Over Moderation
151. Just Leave Others Alone
152. You Can Only Critique that Which You Truly Understand and Love
153. ERIC KIM Critique of Metaphysics
154. Only Trust Philosophers Who Deadlift
155. Heuristic: If Someone Talks Shit About Others Behind Their Back, Most Likely They’re Also Talking Shit About You Behind Your Back
156. Virtue is a Privilege
157. What Are Your Life Goals?
158. Honesty
159. Why I’m Anti Moderation
160. No Spite, No Malice.
161. Ascending Life or Descending Life?
162. Double Edged Sword
163. Ignorance.
164. Why I Don’t Trust “Nice Guys”
165. Why You Must Share Your Opinion
166. Selfish Isn’t Evil
167. Wisdom is the Goal
168. YOU ARE KING.
169. MASTER YOURSELF
170. What is “Good” for You is Often what is Bad for You
171. Care.
172. BITTERSWEET
173. ONE REP MAX
174. Morality and Ethics is the Snare
175. BY HELPING YOURSELF, YOU BEST HELP OTHERS
176. Insanity is Good.
177. Think Deep.
178. PHILOSOPHY IS THE FUTURE.
179. Open Mind vs Closed Mind
180. ENTHUSIASM IS GENIUS
181. Towards a More Critical and Rigorous Line of Thinking
182. How to Encourage and a Foster Independent and Free Thinking
183. What is the Purpose of Life?
184. WHY PHILOSOPHY IS SUPREME.
185. Elitism.
186. I Cannot Form an Opinion About Somebody Until I’ve Met Them in the Flesh
187. ALL GENETICS ARE GOOD GENETICS.
188. Happiness vs Freedom
189. The Birth of a Hater
190. My Way Isn’t the Right Way
191. Walking as an Existential Thing
192. Why I’m So Tolerant
193. Mortal Gods
194. THE HUMAN SPECIES
195. Why I’m So Skeptical
196. Just Follow the Money
197. Why Selfish?
198. WHY WE CANNOT BLAME OTHERS
199. Why Are We So Anti Elitism?
200. What Actually Interests You?
201. How to Become Yourself
202. SELF HATE
203. Optimistic Fatalism
204. Death is the Ultimate Creative Constraint
205. FLUX.
206. How to Think for Yourself
207. FLESH
208. How to Live the Best Life
209. Why Live a Life Without Regrets?
210. Why Plato Ruined Art and Aesthetics for Us
211. Self Respect
212. Hypocrite vs Contradict
213. Ideals vs Reality
214. Spaceship Philosophy
215. What is Your Ideal Life?
216. MY EXTREME GRATITUDE TOWARDS LIFE AND BEING ALIVE!
217. Critique of Utilitarianism
218. Don’t Treat Others the Way You Want to Be Treated
219. The Eternal Recurrence of Tragedy and Joy in Life
220. Elite Asceticism
221. Why I Don’t Like Numbers
222. Action and Reaction, Cause and Effect
223. The Antidote to Nihilism: The Philosophy of Nothingness
224. ERIC KIM Notes on Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
225. EXPLOIT CHAOS.
226. WHY I DON’T BELIEVE IN GENETICS
227. Self-Wisdom
228. The Future Belongs to the Fearless
229. INDIVIDUALISM
230. Why Live Forever?
231. THIS TOO WILL PASS.
232. Why Education?
233. How to Become Yourself
234. Things Shouldn’t Go Back to the Way They Used to Be
235. Why Am I So Cruel?
236. The Great Joy of Existence
237. Virtue for the Sake of Virtue
238. NO DISDAIN.
239. INTELLIGENT IGNORANCE
240. A LIFE WITHOUT PAIN, DIFFICULTY OR TRAGEDY ISN’T A LIFE WORTH LIVING
241. BITTER IS BETTER.
242. EXPLOIT THE BEST FROM TRAGEDY AND LIFE 
243. DISREGARD FOR SELF-PRESERVATION
244. PAIN.
245. WHAT IF EVERYTHING IS NOT GONNA BE ALRIGHT?
246. Tomorrow is Never
247. Life is the Ultimate Creative Constraint
248. EMBODIED REALITY
249. BLACK SWAN
250. THINGS WILL NEVER GO BACK TO THE WAY THEY USED TO BE
251. What are you *really* afraid of?
252. HAPPINESS ISN’T THE GOAL
253. Philosophy is King
254. Why is Selfish Evil?
255. YOU’RE CONSTANTLY IN A STATE OF BECOMING
256. ENTITLEMENT A SIN?
257. NARCISSISM
258. BE BRUTALLY HONEST WITH YOURSELF
259. WHY FREE WILL?
260. OBEY YOUR OPINION
261. EGO IS GOOD.
262. WHY IT IS GOOD TO BE INTO YOURSELF
263. Seek the Good Pain
264. Anti-Perfection in Photography, Art, and Life
265. Can You Become an End into Yourself?
266. WHY I LIVE
267. Why I Hate Decline
268. Why I Eat
269. Why am I So Positive and Optimistic?
270. EFFORT IS ENJOYMENT
271. Never Stop Gaining
272. TRUST YOURSELF
273. A Life of Maximal Personal Independence
274. What Do You Desire to Become?
275. What Do I Want from Technology?
276. Stratified Society
277. Do You Love or Hate Reality?
278. On the Brian, Body and Mind
279. I’m Maximally Happy, Now What?
280. Care over Fame
281. ACTIVE NIHILISM
282. Never Stop Subtracting
283. How to Live a Happier and More Epic Life
284. A Risker Life is a Better Life
285. Only Work on Things You Can Imagine Doing for Eternity
286. How to Maximize Your Happiness
287. Influence
288. The Gladiator Makes His Plans once He Enters the Ring
289. Meditations on Meaning in Life
290. There is Nothing More Interesting than Human Beings
291. Is Hope a Vice?
292. EGO
293. Why Be Unique?
294. Happiness is Metabolism Health and Strength
295. You’re the Hero
296. Is Productivity a Virtue or Vice?
297. Why Do We Prize the Rare?
298. The Joy of Uncertainty
299. How Should I Best Use My Time and Life?
300. A Life Without Pain or Suffering Isn’t a Life Worth Living
301. Free or Unfree?
302. What Do You Really Care For in Life?
303. Anti-Satisfaction in Life
304. Why Think?
305. The Eternal Return
306. Only Do What is Best for You!
307. Truthiness
308. Why Be Happy?
309. Permissionless Living
310. In Praise of Unconventional Wisdom
311. Become the Change Which You Wish to See in the World
312. Happiness
313. Beyond Freedom
314. Idolize People, Not Stuff
315. What Makes You Stronger? What Makes You Weaker?
316. Why Hate?
317. The Secret of Happiness
318. You’re Constantly in a State of Becoming
319. Life is about Choices, Not Obligations
320. Anti-Nihilism
321. First, Do What is Best for You.
322. Live Dynamic
323. How to Prosper
324. Is the Point of Life to Be Satisfied?
325. SUPREME EFFORT OF WILL.
326. How to Become more Idealistic
327. Thrivival 101
328. Create Yourself
329. Non-Small
330. Inspiration
331. How to Live a Heroic Life: Dare the Heights!
332. Human Augmentation
333. Prune
334. Happiness: Do What You Want to Do (And Don’t Do What You Don’t Want to Do)
335. Avoid Vain (Empty) Pursuits in Life
336. Modern Slavery
337. Kill the Leeches
338. Wisdom Augmentation
339. Why We Need Friction in Life
340. Straight Line Philosophy
341. What’s Your End-Game in Life?
342. Create Your Own Happiness Today
343. Desire Both Pain and Pleasure in Life
344. Try the Impossible
345. SELF-RESPECT
346. Anti-Social Extrovert
347. Never Blame Anybody But Yourself
348. Human Flourishing
349. Simpler, Not Better.
350. How to be Free
351. Embrace the Extremes
352. Cultivate Your Own Culture
353. COURAGE.
354. Thrivival
355. Inner Power
356. How to Live a Purposeful Life
357. My Definition of Happiness
358. Why Change is Good
359. Why Work?
360. How to Live the Happiest Possible Life
361. The Two-Pronged Approach to Maximize Joy in Your Life
362. You Always Have Another Option!
363. INFINITISM
364. Never Stop!
365. What is Your Self-Directed Purpose in Life?
366. Live Today Like it Were Your Last
367. Do You Photograph to Live, or Live to Photograph?
368. ARTIST-PHILOSOPHER
369. Live Life to the Fullest!
370. In Praise of Selfishness
371. Why You Must Be a YAY-SAYER to Succeed in Entrepreneurship and Life
372. Why I Love Walking
373. Live Life Like a Video Game!
374. Simple Luxuries in Life
375. Treat Your Life Like a Fun Experiment!
376. Only Prove it to Yourself
377. You Don’t Always Need to Feel Joyful to Live a Fulfilling and Meaningful Life
378. Life is Too Short to Be Bored!
379. Money Cannot Destroy Boredom
380. How to Find Inspiration in Life
381. Why You Must Ignore Haters to Succeed and Win in Life
382. An Active Life is a Happy Life
383. My Simple Joys in Life
384. Never Stop Striving
385. How to Motivate Yourself in Life
386. How to Be Optimistic in Life
387. How to Dictate Your Purpose in Life
388. In Praise of a Dynamic Life
389. PURPOSE.
390. How to Enjoy Life
391. Photography Therapy
392. How to Conquer Regret
393. Take Your Play Very Seriously.
394. How to Prosper
395. Memento Vivere
396. Destroy in Order to CREATE
397. Trust Your Body More Than Your Mind
398. Make Photos to Make Meaning in Your Life
399. Seek Knowledge, Not Information
400. The Purpose of Human Life
401. How to Overcome Impedence
402. Why I Love Death
403. How to Be Centered in the Eternal Now
404. How to Be Happy
405. Why Do You Care What Others Think of You?
406. Why I’m Happy
407. Why?
408. Why I’m So Prolific
409. 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 >

Follow the yellow brick Road!

---

How to move the world

“Give me a spot to stand, and I shall move the world!” – Archimedes

The notion of a lever, leverage is one of the most critical notions of all time. Why? It is all about strength leverage, levers.

For example, I find it personally more interesting to move 1000 pounds half an inch, rather than move 1 pound for 100 miles.

The bad thing is in modern day times, we have been suckered into thinking that more it’s better. More repetitions is seen as more virtuous and more better for us.

However, think about this:

What is more important, to do 10,000 bodyweight squats consecutively, or to lift 2000 pounds, once?

Of course the second!

Don’t trust the nerds

The big problem is in today’s world, the nerds run the show. The nerds are now the computer scientist, the CEOs of the big tech companies, etc., or once nerdy bullied kids in high school. In fact, my personal thought is your personality gets fully formed by the time you graduate high school. The person you are in high school, Remains with you for the rest of your life.

This is why when I meet people nowadays in LA, I just asked them: “Where did you go to high school?”

NASSIM TALEB also has a thought and a theory that in fact, where you go to high school is actually more important then where you go to college or university.

Therefore, let us think about how critical high school is.

---

The psychology of money

OK now that I am a cryptocurrency millionaire, betting big on bitcoin, now what?

First, I like the idea that we could all become rich together. To me what is not zero sum; everyone could gain $1 million in their wallet, me gaining $1 million doesn’t mean the subtraction of money from your pocket.

For example, let us say that we all buy bitcoin. And let us say that the price of bitcoin continues to balloon. If this is the case, then we all suddenly become millionaires all at once!

I think the loser mentality is that my financial gain is your financial loss. What is this true? No. Anyone who thinks this has zero understanding of how finance works.

Money is a made up thing

Perhaps the most insightful thing that I learned from Fernando Galliani‘s treatise on money is how money is just a social invention. 

Money is faith, money is people. 

In fact, when it comes down to it, the ultimate valuable thing is just humans, human beings, human labor, human power.

For example, eventually when it comes down to it, let us say you want to buy a house build a house renovated etc., sooner or later you need a real life human being in the flesh to actually build and put things together. Or if you want to create your own minimalistic dream House, you need a lot of laborers to actually build it. Often Mexican or Latino Spanish-speaking construction workers.

Who is going to dig your hole?

Most of us don’t like digging holes for ourselves, and I think most people would prefer not to build their own house, or renovate their own house all by themselves. It just takes far too long, takes too much time, most people would prefer doing something else.

In Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Holmby Hills I have observed this funny new caste system or bifurcation of people: 

Insanely rich people who are never at home, and their army of immigrant construction workers who are building their mansions.

This micro economy which is built is super fast in me because there are bunches of these taco trucks which hang out in these $10 million mansion neighborhoods, $50 million mansion neighborhoods, just chilling and hanging out, and you could tell who the immigrant workers are because they all drive old Nissan Pick up trucks.

A very very dark thing about going to Asia is how cheap labor is. For example I think there are some people in Asia who work these menial labor jobs who might only get paid $10 USD for a whole day of labor in a restaurant kitchen or a bar or café? In America, it is insane; for menial labor work, we pay people almost $20 an hour?

---

How and why media is the future 

I have this habit on my iPad and which I always go to the App Store, and I’m always curious about what the top performing applications are. One of the things that I have learned is that it looks like all the top five apps on the iPad store are all Media streaming apps. Disney, Disney+, Netflix Hulu etc. Also a fun thing I learned other day is that Hulu is owned by Disney.

Anyways, it looks like innovation for technology has been tapped out, and now there is a mad scramble for media. Even Apple is dead, in terms of innovation. In one last attempt, what they are trying to do is get into the media entertainment, TV music business; it seems that they are doing very poorly even though they have trillions of dollars to throw at it.

---

Free exercise

A new experiment I’ve been doing is I bought a 60 pound weight vest from Titan dot fitness, and I’ve just been wearing it during the day, when I go on hikes with Seneca, or even while working out. I call it like Goku in the gravity chamber, Dragon Ball Z.

What super interesting is I guess 60 pounds is actually pretty heavy. Just having it on me and not doing anything, I already feel my heart rate going up. Also what I love about it is it is well balanced; the weights are in the front and the back.

Also, I found that it may be one of the most effective ways to exercise in so far much as you could just keep it on while doing calisthenics, chub dips push-ups whatever, I even had a funny thoughts; if you want to one of those funny fitness classes and just wore a 60 pound weight vest on you the whole time, certainly it would augment your work out.

How tech nerds could get stronger? 

A simple idea is that everyone should buy the 60 pound weight vest, and just wear it all day while you’re at work. And just stand all day and walk around.

Even all of the silly runners, maybe they should just buy one. It is better to just walk around with a white vest on, at slow pace rather than jogging at a “moderate pace”, for no good reason.

Also a very interesting innovation that I’ve made is that while wearing the 60 pound weight vest, concurrently doing my weightlifting exercises with it on. This involves farmers carry, rack pull, atlas lifts squats etc. 

The general idea is anything that increases the force of gravity on your body will make you stronger.

What I learned after lifting 1000 pounds

Just Google or YouTube it; ERIC KIM thousand pound lift. I think I am the first non-steroid person on the planet to have done it.

Super super easy; gradual progressions, the Kaisen process. Just adding 2.5 pound “potato chip“ mini weights to each side of the barbell, week over week. That is if you just add 5 pounds to your maximum lift, week over week, within a year or two years or three years, any able bodied person or man should be able to lift 1000 pounds.

Can a woman lift 1000 pounds?

Probably. There are some of these Viking women from Sweden or some thing who are like 7 feet tall and 200 pounds, I’m sure they could do it.

Certainly for maximum strength, there will never be a woman who has as much strength as a man. You will probably never have a woman on planet earth as strong as Eddie Hall, or Hafthor Bjjorsen.  Even if you gave the strongest woman in the world all the steroids in the world, I am very dubious that they would be able to deadlift 501 kg. 

Or if you go on YouTube, search the 1 ton lift. One of the strong fat steroid using strong men was able to successfully lift 2000 pounds half an inch, which is 2x of how much I was able to do.

What I have found is ultimately, anything that you really really really really want to do, and you have a ridiculous passion for, or interest or goal, you can achieve. I think the subtle nuance is that it must be autotelic, which is you want to accomplish it for the sake in itself.  

For example, trying to lift 1000 pounds, was this funny silly cute cold that I said for myself, without the aid of anybody else. No ridiculous notion of a “personal trainer“, “coach”. To me only unknowledgeable people, people who seem to lack self direction end up investing in these external coaches, because they like the motivation to do it themselves, because for their whole lives, they have never been encouraged to just follow themselves.

Am I the only rare bird?

Truth be told, I’ve never met anyone in real life quite as interesting or fascinating as myself. Only other people that have met why find fascinating, not in real life include Jeff Bezos, Elon musk, Kanye West, maybe Jay Z.

---



LIVING

LIFE IS A PUZZLE?