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    BECOME A PHOTOGRAPHY ENTREPRENEUR

    Advice I would have given myself in photography, if I started all over again:

    Until You Own Yourself You Can’t Be Free

    Photography Entrepreneurship 101 by ERIC KIM

    De-lamify the future.

    Photography Entrepreneurship 101 Presentation by ERIC KIM


    ENTREPRENEURSHIP by KIM

    eric kim melbourne benjamin thompson
    ERIC KIM x HENRI NECK STRAP

    Enroll in my Udemy Course:

    ‘Ultimate Beginnerโ€™s Guide to Photography Entrepreneurship’: Create Your Own Future >


    Entrepreneurship Ideas

    1. InstaSlaves
    2. How to Become a Vlogger
    3. How to Build Your Own Self Brand
    4. SOLO MEDIA EMPIRE
    5. TIME LEVERAGE.
    6. How to Market Yourself in Photography
    7. How to Become More Ambitious
    8. Crypto Photography
    9. In Praise of Email Newsletters
    10. Propagate.
    11. Make Your Own Street Photography Blog
    12. Create the Information You Seek.
    13. Content over Technology
    14. How to Advertise Yourself as a Photographer
    15. CREATIVE WAYS TO USE YOUTUBE
    16. Photography Branding 101
    17. BUILD YOURSELF.
    18. Bet on Your Own Coin.
    19. The Photographer Should Also Make His/Her Own Music?
    20. Mix Your Photos and Videos
    21. JUST PUBLISH IT.
    22. EMPOWER OTHER PHOTOGRAPHERS.
    23. BECOME OUTSIDE THE BOX
    24. MOVE PEOPLE, MOVE PRODUCTS.
    25. SOCIAL MEDIA IS FRAGILE.
    26. Why Start a Photography Blog?
    27. Once You FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early), Then What?
    28. THE FUTURE IS PDF
    29. In Praise of Solo Photography Business Entrepreneurship
    30. LONGEVITY, DURABILITY AND SUCCESS
    31. Street Photography Philosophy Entrepreneurship
    32. YOU ARE THE PLATFORM
    33. JUST RISK IT.
    34. DON’T OPTIMIZE FOR THE ALGORITHM
    35. Scaleable Photography
    36. What Does it Mean to Become a Successful Photographer?
    37. 20 Photography Marketing, Branding, and Entrepreneurship Tips
    38. Create Your Own Social Media
    39. Individual Entrepreneurship
    40. YOU ARE THE ICON.
    41. BUILD!
    42. What is Success in Photography?
    43. EXTREME VISION
    44. Publish Fearlessly
    45. MAKE DOPE THINGS AND SHARE THEM WITH THE WORLD!
    46. THE AMBITIOUS PHOTOGRAPHER.
    47. PhotoLink
    48. Real World Applications
    49. You Are Your Own Ideal User
    50. What is Your Creative Vision?
    51. A More Dope, Prosperous Future for All Photographers
    52. CREATION & DISTRIBUTION.
    53. THE VALUE OF PHOTOS.
    54. How to Maximize Your Impact as a Photographer
    55. Why the World Needs More Bloggers
    56. DOMAIN EXPERTISE.
    57. The Joy of Speculation
    58. MAKE A NAME FOR YOURSELF.
    59. Propogate
    60. Meaningful Advantage or Not?
    61. PHOTO CREATOR.
    62. NOW IS YOUR DECISIVE MOMENT.
    63. I CANNOT BE IGNORED
    64. Photography Blogs are Highly *UNDERRATED*
    65. What is Your Competitive Advantage?
    66. Why 4K?
    67. Indirect Monetization
    68. The Future of Innovation in Photography
    69. Photography Innovation and Image Selection Idea: Let Google (YouTube) Suggested Thumbnail Pick Your Best Photo? 
    70. How to Identify Your Competitive Advantage
    71. In Praise of Insanely Fast Wifi
    72. DIGITAL PUBLISHING IS KING.
    73. The Stoic-Entrepreneurship Mindset
    74. Marketing Tips for Photographers
    75. STARK DIFFERENTIATION
    76. MAXIMALIST
    77. Visual Entrepreneurship
    78. On Becoming a Full-Stack Visual Entrepreneur
    79. Real Photographers Don’t Use Instagram
    80. Brave New World of Blogging
    81. Don’t Go to Photography School
    82. Mass Success is a Failure?
    83. How to Maximize Your Archimedes Lever in Life
    84. Maximize Your Archimedes Lever
    85. How to Create Value Out of Nothing
    86. The Best Brand is No Brand
    87. What Do We Entrepreneurs *Really* Want?
    88. You Were Destined to Do Great Things
    89. Just Share Your Photos on Your Own Blog
    90. Your Blog is the Ultimate Form of Social Media
    91. The Future of Websites and Blogs
    92. Create a Company
    93. Money Photography Project
    94. WHY IT IS GOOD TO CHARGE MONEY FOR YOUR SERVICES AND PRODUCTS
    95. Google and YouTube SEO (Search Engine Optimization) 101: How Would You Type It?
    96. WHY RIGHT NOW IS THE BEST TIME FOR YOU TO START YOUR SIDE HUSTLE
    97. Digital Photography is the Future
    98. NEVER STOP EXPERIMENTING!
    99. WHAT IS INNOVATION?
    100. A Non-Ownership Future
    101. CONTROL OVER MONEY
    102. Economic Constraints Are Creative Constraints
    103. Become a Sole-Proprietor
    104. Entrepreneurship is a Mindset
    105. How to Master Mac
    106. The Future of Lifestyle
    107. Necessity is the Mother of Innovation
    108. Once We Have an Easy Life, Then What?
    109. Why I Don’t Read Comments
    110. YouTube SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for Photographers
    111. How to Become a Self-Employed Photographer
    112. How to Live Big With Little Money
    113. Why Blogging, Vlogging and Internet Media is More Important than Ever
    114. No Marketing, No Future
    115. Photography Marketing 101
    116. Google and YouTube are King
    117. Why I’m So Suspicious of Everyone Online and on the Internet
    118. How to Become More Notorious
    119. Kaizen Approach to Blogging
    120. How to Master Marketing
    121. CREATE WHAT YOU WOULD LIKE SEE MANIFESTED IN THE WORLD!
    122. Anti Silicon-Valley Thinking
    123. Your Name
    124. In Praise of WordPress
    125. NEVER STOP POSTING
    126. Your Future Portfolio is a Website
    127. Infinite Runway
    128. ERIC KIM ATTITUDE
    129. Financial Independence as a Road to Freedom of Speech?
    130. WHY OPEN SOURCE IS THE FUTURE
    131. Just Post It.
    132. Posts Are Products
    133. Photography Entrepreneurship Ideas
    134. YOU ARE KING.
    135. You’re Always in BETA MODE
    136. Build Your Own Media Empire
    137. WHY I DON’T MONETIZE MY YOUTUBE VIDEOS
    138. Why I Became an Entrepreneur
    139. The Uber-Photographer
    140. Create What You Would Like to See Manifested in the World
    141. Create the Future
    142. Entrepreneurship is Best During Uncertain Times
    143. Photography Entrepreneurship 101 Presentation by ERIC KIM
    144. Your Body is the Brand
    145. Your Name is Your Brand
    146. Create Your Own Social Media Platform
    147. BUILD IT OR BUY IT?
    148. Sell Yourself
    149. Create New
    150. Insta-Slaves
    151. YOU CANNOT FAKE ENTHUSIASM
    152. Why Hybrid is the Future
    153. Donโ€™t Censor Yourself
    154. HOW I MASTERED MARKETING
    155. ERIC KIM BLOGS
    156. If Someone Offers You Help, You’re Stupid to *NOT* Take It.
    157. SEEK GREAT, NOT PERFECT.
    158. How I Became So Famous
    159. Let Reality Mould Itself to You
    160. ANTI ENTITLEMENT MENTALITY
    161. Live Your Life as If You Were a Billionaire
    162. HOW I THINK DIFFERENT
    163. Impact, Influence, Reach: The Three Pillars of Marketing
    164. ERIC KIM SCHOOL
    165. Classicism.
    166. MY PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY
    167. Money is Movement
    168. Elitism 2.0
    169. Mass Market or Luxury Market?
    170. Why You Must Market Yourself
    171. Why You Must Start an Email Newsletter
    172. How Laptops Can Change the World
    173. What Do You Want to Become?
    174. What is Really Holding You Back in Life?
    175. Why I Write: Writing as Meta-Thinking
    176. ADVERTISE YOURSELF
    177. Use Your First and Last Name
    178. How Blogging Can Change the World
    179. In Praise of Liberty
    180. How I Write in Markdown
    181. How I Became So Influential on YouTube
    182. REVERSE FLEX
    183. What a Time to Be Alive in Today’s Brave New World of Photography
    184. HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE YOURSELF FROM OTHERS
    185. YOU CHOOSE YOU
    186. My Life Photography Entrepreneurship Story
    187. WHY I DON’T BELIEVE IN COLLABORATION
    188. My Entrepreneurship Mindset
    189. YOU’RE THE HERO IN THIS GAME OF LIFE
    190. My Money Philosophy
    191. Why Brand and Market Yourself?
    192. PROFESSIONALISM IS FOR SUCKERS
    193. Just Share What Works for You
    194. How to Create Your Own Platform
    195. Living in a Post Monetary Society
    196. In Praise of Blogging
    197. The Entrepreneurial Lifestyle is the Best Lifestyle
    198. Algorithm Slavery
    199. ANTI VIEWS
    200. Entrepreneurship is The Goal
    201. The Art of Blogging
    202. IN PRAISE OF PURSUING YOUR PASSION
    203. How to Make Great Titles
    204. Sole Proprietorship
    205. Just Build It.
    206. VIA NEGATIVA
    207. PROMOTE YOURSELF
    208. Become a Full-Stack Entrepreneur
    209. How to Entertain Others
    210. My Experience Teaching My First Online Photography Creativity Workshop on Zoom
    211. Humans Aren’t Lazy
    212. One Shot.
    213. THE BRAVE SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH
    214. The Brave New COVID Lifestyle
    215. Start Your Own Business
    216. Minimum Viable Income ( MVI)
    217. TRAINING.
    218. WHY VIDEO?
    219. How to Become Bolder
    220. You’ve Always Already Been a Photography Entrepreneur!
    221. The Future is All Digital Everything
    222. Digital Sharecropping
    223. DO IT FOR YOUR PAST AND FUTURE SELF
    224. In Praise of Buffer and Redundancy
    225. ASKING FOR PERMISSION IS FOR SUCKERS.
    226. POST-MONETARY SOCIETY.
    227. Advertise Your Own Stuff
    228. THE FUTURE IS DIGITAL.
    229. Simulated Universal Basic Income
    230. Is Losing Followers a Good Thing?
    231. How to Add to Economic Activity
    232. DIGITAL CAPITALISM
    233. MONEY IS MOVEMENT
    234. Anything is Possible
    235. BRAVE NEW WORLD OF DIGITAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
    236. GENERATE
    237. How to Profit from Calamity
    238. Capitalism 2.0
    239. WHY I’M SO PASSIONATE ABOUT INFORMATION
    240. SOCIETY 2.0
    241. PHOENIX ENTREPENEURSHIP
    242. How to Make Art from Home
    243. BUY YOURSELF
    244. JUST BLOG IT.
    245. MARKET YOURSELF
    246. EXPENSIVE TALK
    247. SOCIAL MEDIA SLAVERY
    248. Who Are Your Ideal Followers?
    249. Why I Blog, Vlog, and Log
    250. Your Perspective is Irrefutable
    251. What are Your Hidden Powers?
    252. IMPACT MAXIMIZATION, not Profit Maximization
    253. Our Desire to Maximize Impact and Change
    254. 10 Rich Tips How to Make Money from Photography
    255. Create What You Would Love to Consume
    256. Publish is Pleasure
    257. Retire Now
    258. Do You Desire to Become the Best?
    259. Solo Entrepreneurship
    260. My Vision of Photography Entrepreneurship
    261. PUT YOUR NAME ON IT
    262. The Desire to Transcend Ourselves
    263. MONEY THOUGHTS
    264. How to Retire
    265. Via Negativa Productivity
    266. Why You Must Make Your Own Website
    267. Individuals over Companies
    268. Build Yourself
    269. Success is Survival
    270. Why You Shouldn’t Go to Photography or Art School
    271. How to Differentiate Yourself as a Photographer
    272. Surpass Yourself
    273. Can You Handle Extreme Freedom?
    274. Boutique or Mass Market?
    275. Proof of Concept
    276. Unified Field Theory for Photography
    277. Build a Company Youโ€™d Never Sell
    278. Play the Long Game
    279. Entrepreneurship and Art
    280. What is the Source of our Strength?
    281. What’s the Future for Photography?
    282. Full-Stack Visual Artist
    283. Why Scale?
    284. What is Your Unfair Advantage?
    285. Substance Marketing
    286. Share Your Dopeness with Others
    287. Frugality is Freedom
    288. Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for Entrepreneurship
    289. Don’t Follow or Predict Trends, Start Your Own Trend!
    290. If You’re Not Busy Growing, You’re Busy Dying
    291. Entrepreneurship born from Superabundance, not Need/Necessity
    292. Photography Entrepreneurship Philosophy
    293. How to Master Marketing in Photography
    294. Photography Entrepreneurship Tips and Ideas
    295. Is Hustle Sufficient Unto Success?
    296. Don’t do it for the money
    297. DIGITAL MARXISM
    298. Zen Entrepreneurship
    299. BOLDER IS BETTER.
    300. Streamers Shall Inherit the Earth

    Photography Blogging

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    The Modern Photographer: Tips, Strategies, and Tactics to Thrive as a Visual Artist in the Digital Age

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    MODERN PHOTOGRAPHER is your new philosophical and practical primer to succeed as a modern photographer in today’s digital world.


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    EURO CAMERA MONEY by ANNETTE KIM

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    How to Hustle.

    Entrepreneurial Principles

    How to be a Full-time Photographer

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    How to Teach Photography

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    MONEY 101

    1. Just Follow the Money
    2. My Money Philosophy
    3. Eternal fame and glory over money
    4. The Trillion Dollar Question: How to Make Money on the Internet Without Advertising?
    5. Entrepreneurship that Doesn’t Involve Money-Making?
    6. Money Ain’t Real
    7. Making Money for Fun, Not to Get Rich
    8. Why Money?

  • Bad Weather


  • BREAK THE SIMULATION.

    Obviously we are not living in a simulation, but if you think about the MATRIX, one of the most interesting things to consider is the interesting metaphor towards life.

    First, I think everyone is running on the same social scripts. As a consequence, people just tend to be very boring. Iโ€™ve actually found that the reason why most people are so boring is that they either lack exposure, or courage.

    Second, we are conditioned by fear. Lot of what holds us back is fear; and also ethics.

    Even one thing I was considering, why is it that sex, erotic matters, nudity etc.โ€ฆ is seen as so bad, taboo and evil? Technically if we can go from purely biologic perspective, it doesnโ€™t really matter. Do we shame animals for being naked all the time or doing it in public, not really.

    Or horses; let us consider stallions in heat, and their behavior.

    I think when I consider my behavior, my thinking and worldview, being raised Catholic, Roman Catholic, and also being born and raised in America, notions of Catholic guilt, and also Confucian guiltโ€ฆ and also Korean Korean American cultureโ€ฆ not the most open-minded worldview.

    I am very happy fortunate and blessed that my mom was very contrarian, very unorthodox, even for being a Korean mom. I would definitely say her ethos was very unique; very independent, solo, self-reliant etc.

    In fact, how did I become who I am? I think 90% of it was the socialization of my mom. She is the one who taught me social skills and not to fear people. Funny enough, sometimes she is too naรฏve to a fault; but ultimately I would prefer my momโ€” better to be happy joyful and naรฏve than to be like a scarecrow, overly suspicious and cold towards the world.

    โ€œBetter to be a gay monster than a sentimental bore.โ€ – Galiani

    Suggestions

    First, become more loud ostentatious, more โ€œratchetโ€œ. Be the big swinging dick (Michael Lewis, Flash Boys).

    Second, throw politically correct vocabulary into the trash, and be maximally suspicious of any โ€œwokeโ€ talk. My heuristic:

    โ€œDonโ€™t trust any woke people who toke!โ€

    Haha. Toke means smoke weed.


    Also, the critical of anybody who has too strong of a political affiliation to any side, spends too much time on Facebook and social media etc. Anybody who consumes media, or gossip, has un-unique thinking. Ultimately my thoughts about people and thoughts is simple; there are interesting people and boring people. No good or bad people. In fact, most good people are insanely boring. A lot of bad people also tend to be boring.

    Just be the real life troll

    Trolling on the internet is bad. However I think trolling in real life is good.

    After becoming a ChatGPT master, Iโ€™m starting to understand that we should literally put 0% faith of anything we see or read on the Internet. Why? It is truly impossible to tell whether something was written by ChatGPT or not, or if the original text was written by ChatGPT, and then a human just edited it afterwards.

    For example for fun, I made two ChatGPT bots, in the spirit of ERIC KIM. It is actually both hilarious and scary how good they are โ€”

    1. Stoic philosophy: ZEN OF ERIC
    2. Photography: ERIC KIM BOT](https://chat.openai.com/g/g-6UuzfnRjq-eric-kim-bot)

    How do you troll people in real life? Joke around, laugh, have fun, talk like a seven-year-old or five-year-old child, never give people a straight answer. Lie about funny things in a playful gist.

    For example, a lot of people try to be friendly by asking me how old Seneca is. Sometimes I will joke and say โ€œHe is six months old!โ€ (He is 2 years, 9 months old). Some people become shocked and their eyes go really wide, and then I just joke that he is on steroids.

    Also, everybody loves a good compliment. Doesnโ€™t matter if man or women etc. I love people, and so whenever I see people having a certain outfit or look that I like, I always try to make it a point to compliment them.

    Just try this out as an experiment: for a whole day: whenever you see somebody that you like, compliment them. Compliment their hair their outfit their look etc. Or inquire about their outfit, where they got it, etc.

    Second, throw your AirPods and airbuds pros into the trash. I think one of the most terrible things for modern day society, which atrophies our social skills is everyone always having AirPods on. Real men donโ€™t use headphones or AirPods or whatever. If youโ€™re going to listen to music, use a Bluetooth speaker or play it off your phone speaker and blast it like a person from the hood.

    In fact, Iโ€™m starting to hypothesize that in fact, it might be music, Spotify, and noise canceling headphones which is the driving cause to have people become more antisocial. Not phones and social media, the headphones.

    Also as an experiment, the next time you go to the gym and lift weights, do it without any music or headphones on. You will actually benefit by naturally trying to block out all the annoying elevator music, and annoying chitchat of other people. Ultimately it makes you more interesting to NOT wear headphones than to wear them.

    Also, how do you know if somebody is actually really interesting or not? When you go to the gym, filter people into two categories:

    People who work out without headphones, and people who do.

    I only trust people who work out without headphones on.


    Other assignments

    1. Street portrait assignment: start a street portrait project in which youโ€™re just trying to capture interesting faces of people in your own city or locale. You can complement people by telling them that they have a beautiful face, or great skin, or if theyโ€™re olderโ€ฆ You could tell them that they have an elegant face and look. PDF
    2. If people ask you what youโ€™re doing, say that youโ€™re starting a personal photography project of the people of the city, and you consider them as integral to your project.
    3. Download some ERIC KIM books, or attend an ERIC KIM workshop.

    Now what?

    The sun is out, the sun is bright! Your future awaits you.

    And also, when in doubt, smile.

    ERIC


    Some more turbo thoughts:


    HOW SHOULD WE LIVE OUR LIVES?

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

    The more I think about itโ€ฆ honestly all these modern day โ€œethicsโ€, โ€œrulesโ€, are bad.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    For example, let us say that I love to eat meat. That I am 100%, unabashed carnivore. That it is against my beliefs to eat vegetables or plants or fruit or grains or anything which reeks of a โ€œplant-based dietโ€œ. Funny enough, nowadays it is 100% fine to show up to a party and tell people that โ€œI donโ€™t eat meatโ€œ, and low-key expect to be served vegetarian or vegan foodโ€ฆ but it isnโ€™t mainstream to show up to a party saying โ€œI donโ€™t eat vegetablesโ€œ, and low-key expect to be fed meat.

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

    However, I havenโ€™t really seen the opposite; when I shame a vegan for being cruel to immigrant farm workers who have to pick almonds all day, and how almonds, their almond butter, their cashews, cashew nut butters etc. is โ€œbad for the planetโ€œ, because of how water hungry these plants are.

    Why donโ€™t we just leave other people alone?

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

    Kingโ€™s Disease

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

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

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


    Who tells us what to do what not to do?

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

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

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

    The chosen people

    A concept I came upon recently, which is very interesting and fascinating to me, is this notion of โ€œthe chosen peopleโ€œ. Iโ€™m curiousโ€ฆ is this zero sum? That some people are chosen, and some are not? Are they chosen based on their blood, their lineage, their parents, their family heritage and background, or something else?

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


    You control you

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

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

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

    Butโ€ฆ Does this matter? I donโ€™t think so.

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

    Also, something that I learned is that not always, but oftenโ€ฆ people entrepreneurs etc. who are born to very difficult childhood situations are the ones who become interesting.

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

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

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

    I donโ€™t wish trauma on nobody

    Just because you have suffered more trauma in your life doesnโ€™t make you more virtuous than me, and vice versa. However, I donโ€™t think we should either use it as a crutch nor a motivatorโ€ฆ We should just pause it our desired life path, and proceed boldly.

    Obstacles are your boost?

    Whenever you witness or experience a certain setback, obstacle, โ€œdownsideโ€œโ€ฆ Think about Mario kart; these โ€œsetbacksโ€œ are like your temporary speed boost!

    In fact, even though not having things a certain way is insanely annoying, I think this is the root of all innovation. For example, my insane frustration with trying to find a good gymโ€ฆ Essentially resulted in me innovating and doing my funny โ€œoff the gridโ€ workouts.

    Similar speaking, starting off in photography, 18-19 years old, not being able to find any good information on the Internet on how to do photography and Street photography and composition is actually what motivated my pursuits to create the information I wish to see manifested in the world.



  • AI BEAUTY?


  • BAD WEATHER IS GOOD WEATHER!


  • Downgrade?

    So the funny thought of the morning; it seems that a lot of us seek to โ€œupgradeโ€ our things; why not the oppositeโ€ฆ to seek to โ€œdowngradeโ€ our things?

    The most manly phone?

    So I had a very funny thought a few days agoโ€ฆ The questionโ€ฆ

    What is the most manly phone?

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

    โ€œRichard mill on the leather bandโ€ โ€” PUSHA T

    Totems of power

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

    For example, this nonsensical trend towards veganism, โ€œplant-based dietsโ€, etc. Where does this stem from? My personal thought is that it has to do with loss of religion. A lot of modern-day people, especially young people, no longer go to church, have a religion, etc. Therefore, what is our new religion? โ€œSaving the planetโ€œ, โ€œanimal rightsโ€œ, etc.

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

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

    Why the iPhone SE may be the most mainly phone

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

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

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

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

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

    So where is the future going to be?

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

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

    Why does this matter?

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

    In fact, the best tip I have for parents, in order to become a โ€œbetterโ€ parent is this;

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

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

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

    And what is the best โ€œupgradeโ€œ, to go offline, think offline.

    Offline Thinking

    What is the ultimate privilege in todayโ€™s world? To be offline, metaphorical airplane mode all the time.

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

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

    In fact, being off-line in todayโ€™s world is ultimate privilege and luxury.

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

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

    In fact, when I was living in Vietnam in 2017, got rid of my phone, and lived off the grid and didnโ€™t check your email or use email for about two yearsโ€ฆ interestingly enough I would have people just attend my workshops just in order to connect with me.

    How to think offline

    A very simple way to do this is when youโ€™re out and about, leave your phone at home, and just take along your iPad Pro to think. Donโ€™t get a data plan. What is the downside of a data plan? First of all, it seems that all data plans, all 5G or 4G cellular data Internet connections on your phone suck. For example, my extreme frustration with T-Mobile, spectrumโ€ฆ The internet connection sucks. If I had to sign up for my own phone service I would just get Verizon.

    Thinking internationally?

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

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

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

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

    Lesson:

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

    Why think different?

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

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

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

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

    Why change the world?

    I personally find it interesting idea to change the world because perhaps this is where our willpower comes from. Our desire to change the world, to โ€œfuck shit upโ€.

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

    The grandeur of the human body

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

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

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

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

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

    No more internet

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

    Like the famous cartoon said โ€œon the Internet, nobody knows youโ€™re a dog.โ€

    Even in ready player one, the main characterโ€™s best friend, who he thought was a guy all alongโ€ฆ was actually a girl.

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


    So now what?

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

    Nobody ever turns off their phone anyways, and in the evenings, we just charge it overnightโ€ฆ And the issue is that Siri is great but nobody is using itโ€ฆ Why donโ€™t we try to just โ€œnudgeโ€ people using Siri more by turning the power button into a Siri button?

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

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

    Downgrade?

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

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

    Thinking about your devices and stuff

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

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

    Why do we think we need more resolution?

    Truth be told, we donโ€™t. I think it is a typical marketing thing; why would I upgrade my phone, my devices, my things if it is not a โ€œupgradeโ€?

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

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

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

    This is the new Spartan elite way.


    Turbocharge your life

    Hungry for adventure? Jump onto a plane, and vibe out with ERIC KIM >


    HAPTIC HAPTIC HAPTIC HAPTIC

    HAPTIC INDUSTRIES, and also, now that I purchased haptic.la (pro tip โ€ฆ instead of getting a.com website, buy a dot LA domain if you live in LA.)

    Why? LA, UCLA, Los Angeles, the LA sign you could do with your hands, is sexy.

    In fact, I personally discovered that all of the beautiful people, all of the beautiful women, even all of the handsome men are all in LA, or move to LA, or aspire to be in LA. Why? It is the center of glamour, Hollywood, film cinema and movies and media and music and entertainment, even hereโ€ฆ In Culver City, the arts district and beyond is the new center.

    Go to the new Culver City steps in downtown Culver City, next to the Philz Coffeeโ€ฆ It is so insanely great.

    HAPTIC PRODUCTS >


    Now what?

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

    AI is our new slave.

    Why? We donโ€™t got to pay it โ€œfair wagesโ€, we donโ€™t got to feed it, let it sleep, or do anything.

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

    It never gets tired, complains, disobeys etc.

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

    For example, you cannot straight up say quote make me a picture of a sexy Korean woman at the beachโ€œ. It will immediately flag the ChatGPT, DALL-E 3 content policy violation thing. Or you cannot say something like โ€œbeautiful Asian woman with big boobsโ€. Also a no go obviously.

    But things you could do is like say โ€œbeautiful Asian woman at Met Galaโ€. Or, beautiful joyful Asian woman in Cabo. Or โ€œbeautiful Korean women in pure joyโ€œ.

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

    I love embodied reality!

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

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

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

    Creative ways to play with AI

    Ultimately, I think you know youโ€™re doing ChatGPT and DALL-E correctly, if you create an image and you literally laugh out loud. The most amazing creation I made recently was โ€œdesigned me a bitcoin purple Lamborghini Prius with scissor doors, with a Spartan driving itโ€. I literally laughed out loud!

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


    AI can help you critique and give feedback on your photos

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

    You could keep pushing it forward, you donโ€™t need to use full sentences. If it gets confused it will just ask you to clarify.

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

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

    Now what?

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

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

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

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


    No more media?

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

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



  • ERIC KIM DALL-E 3


  • SO BEAUTIFUL


  • SENECA ERIC KIM AI ART

    Seneca at age 2 years, 9 months old. Pure prodigy:

    Things he is into:

    1. Ferraris (convertibles, 458)
    2. Fire trucks
    3. The color purple

    Me:

    1. Lamborghini doors
    2. Back view

  • LAYERS


  • LA PARADISE II


  • Tolerance, Intolerance?

    Thoughts on society: first, what should we be tolerant to, what should we be intolerant towards?

    Another thought: in regards to tolerance, should other people tolerate the way you act, perform behave, especially if youโ€™re in public or public places? As long as youโ€™re not breaking any laws?

    Why is this important?

    This is the tricky thing; in America, weโ€™re supposed to have freedom, freedom of speech, free religion, etc. Yetโ€ฆ given all of these different cultures, how can we all get along?

    The first thought is first and foremost, if you live in America, donโ€™t matter if youโ€™re an immigrant or not whateverโ€ฆ we are all American. For example, in the times of the holy Roman Empire, everyone was considered a Roman, it didnโ€™t matter if you were from Spain or Rome, etc.โ€ฆ All Romans were Romans, as long as you were as citizen. Therefore, if youโ€™re American, American citizen, or even if youโ€™re here on the student visa, maybe you should just be considered American.

    Maybe then it is a citizen thing.

    โ€œI am a citizen of the world!โ€ – Socrates?

    Why does citizenship matter?

    Citizen, civic, civic duties, etc. Essentially comes back from the notion of a city. If you live in a certain city, there are certain civic duties one is behelden to.

    Certainly ethnicity, racial makeup, country of origin is important. For example, Iโ€™ve been playing a lot with ChatGPT and DALL-E, visualizing beautiful women in pure joy, or โ€œtrophy wivesโ€œ, or โ€œfitness influencersโ€œ, as Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese. Facially, they all look pretty distinct.

    Korean women have a certain look, Vietnamese women have a certain look, Japanese women have a certain look, Cambodian women have a certain look, etc.

    Certainly when it comes to mixed race, which I think is good, for example I am Korean and Cindyโ€™s Vietnamese, therefore Seneca is 50% Korean and 50% Vietnameseโ€ฆ racial intermixing makes us stronger. Even in the context of dogs, mixed breed dogs tend to be healthier, more stout, than โ€œpurebred dogsโ€œ. Too much racial hegemony is probably not good.

    It would be funny and interesting is if every single American, or you applying for a citizenship, or as a kid or adult, like going to the DMV or whatever everyone had to do one of those free genetic makeup tests, and seeing what your genetic makeup is. I think this would make people less racist, more tolerant of one another.

    Tolerance versus intolerance?

    First, I think in America as long as youโ€™re not breaking any sort of laws? Your behavior should be tolerated. However, the moment you cross that line, it should not be tolerated.

    What is โ€œhateโ€ speech?

    The word โ€œhateโ€, simply means strong emotions. I think in modern day times with tend to think of โ€œhateโ€ as being more about spewing vitriol and bad feelings to other people. But I donโ€™t think this is a good idea because in theory, you could show strong emotions about things you love. For example I have a theory that actually in fact, when people hate something really really hard, they actually low-key love it. For example people who really really hate Donald Trump, I wonder if they are actually secretly in love with him, or fascinated with him?

    For example, I donโ€™t hate Donald Trump, but I am anti-Donald Trump. Overall, I donโ€™t really have any strong feelings about him or towards him.

    What do I have strong feelings about? I hate how people are anti-Jewish, anti-African-Afro-American people, etc. I also feel really bad for Palestinian people, because they have seriously been shafted.

    Essentially, as long as somebody is respectful, I also have love and respect for them.

    What is a Nazi, what makes a Nazi?

    A Nazi is somebody who is intolerant. For example, assuming you live in America, nobody can or should be able to govern the way you think, talk, etc. There should be no thought or speech police, or writing police.

    Also, considering I was born in 1988 and currently 35 years old, the term we used to use was PC, or โ€œpolitically correctโ€œ. The notion of being โ€œwokeโ€œ, is a very recent phenomenonโ€ฆ only within the last year or two.

    For example, if you talk a certain way, nobody should have the right to โ€œcorrectโ€ the way that you talk. Similar speaking, Iโ€™m not going to try to โ€œcorrectโ€ the way that you talk.

    The internet

    The reason why a lot of people are foolish is that they talk about โ€œfree speechโ€ on the Internet. Whoever talks like this is perhaps not critical.

    First, if youโ€™re using Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, etc.โ€ฆ Youโ€™re essentially publishing your thoughts ideas photos and videos on a foreign company corporate platform, which is not about freedom of speech.

    The only real way to have freedom of speech is to have your own self hosted website and blog, using an open source thing like WordPress.org. Nowadays, the only things I trust is open source things, because even if there is a hidden catch, technically you could delve deep into the source code and figure it out.

    Censorship is just filtering

    Also, a lot of people talk about โ€œcensorshipโ€ on the Internet. What is โ€œcensorshipโ€œ? You ainโ€™t really blocking you, rather, filtering you out.

    For example, let us say that I do a YouTube blog about Jewish people, anti-Jewish people, anti-Jewish sentiment, Judaism, or anything which might be flagged as โ€œculturally insensitiveโ€œ. Google and YouTube algorithms are intelligent enough to know that this may not be friendly towards advertisers and sensitive people on the Internet, and therefore, They will โ€œsensor โ€œme by simply not having it show up in the newsfeed or the YouTube feed of others. But technically the video will still be thereโ€ฆ it is just not as easily visible.

    Why free speech?

    A fun thing I have been doing is trolling ChatGPT and DALL-E โ€” trying to see how far I could push the boundaries.

    For example, youโ€™re not allowed to say โ€œmake me a picture of a sexy womanโ€, but you are allowed to say โ€œmake me a picture of a beautiful fitness influencer who is Koreanโ€.

    I think this is fine and good; because honestly there are too many weirdos out there. However, ultimatelyโ€ฆ I think the best thoughts are unfiltered thoughts. Even Nietzsche, in his unpublished book โ€œThe Will to Powerโ€œ, states in the preface that these are simply notes to self.

    Whenever I blog, write, publish anything or say anythingโ€ฆ ultimately it is kind of like an echo chamber for myselfโ€ฆ Iโ€™m doing things because I simply want to create notes for myself, and to flesh out some personal thoughts on my mind.

    Email newsletters

    We all hate email, email is not sexy, but stillโ€ฆ Email is the future and so far much as it cannot be censored. I am starting to become more and more suspicious of Gmail thoughโ€ฆ Because I think sooner or later, โ€œspamโ€œ filters might start filtering out emails which seem โ€œculturally insensitiveโ€, or โ€œracyโ€.

    The reason why this is a bad thing is that it just makes our society much more mediocre, boring, and uninteresting. For me I only care about interesting things, interesting people, interesting thoughts. Iโ€™ve actually found that most rich and successful people are very boring; the people from Beverly Hills are the worst, insanely boring.

    The really interesting people that Iโ€™ve met, are not traditionally employed, therefore they are self owned and could say whatever do whatever wear whatever or think however they want.

    Also another simple heuristic; I never trust anybody who is on Instagram, or YouTube. Why? if youโ€™re still on Instagram, it shows some sort of servile mindset, and if youโ€™re on YouTube, it also shows that youโ€™re being programmed by the algorithm to produce videos which get lots of views, rather than saying whatโ€™s really on your mind.

    Even for me the only reason I still publish videos to YouTube is that it could still be easily indexable on the Internet.

    The future thinkers?

    Another good use case I found for ChatGPT is that it is just a very very effective research tool. For example, Iโ€™ve been studying etymology and the history of words, and the way that ChatGPT explains it to me is much more interesting and useful than going wiktionary.org or even googling it. Google is bad because it is the ultimate distraction tool; because ultimately what Google wants you to do is be infinitely distracted in order to serve you more advertisements.

    So now what?



  • LA PHOTO PARADISE


  • LA PARADISE


  • ERIC KIM ARTIST

    Artists can do whatever they want? Alsoโ€”

    Artists are remembered forever!


  • Content Creator

    1. All content is good content.
    2. Create things you would like to see manifested in the world.

  • Tolerance, Intolerance?

    Thoughts on society: first, what should we be tolerant to, what should we be intolerant towards?

    Another thought: in regards to tolerance, should other people tolerate the way you act, perform behave, especially if youโ€™re in public or public places? As long as youโ€™re not breaking any laws?

    Why is this important?

    This is the tricky thing; in America, weโ€™re supposed to have freedom, freedom of speech, free religion, etc. Yetโ€ฆ given all of these different cultures, how can we all get along?

    The first thought is first and foremost, if you live in America, donโ€™t matter if youโ€™re an immigrant or not whateverโ€ฆ we are all American. For example, in the times of the holy Roman Empire, everyone was considered a Roman, it didnโ€™t matter if you were from Spain or Rome, etc.โ€ฆ All Romans were Romans, as long as you were as citizen. Therefore, if youโ€™re American, American citizen, or even if youโ€™re here on the student visa, maybe you should just be considered American.

    Maybe then it is a citizen thing.

    โ€œI am a citizen of the world!โ€ – Socrates?

    Why does citizenship matter?

    Citizen, civic, civic duties, etc. Essentially comes back from the notion of a city. If you live in a certain city, there are certain civic duties one is behelden to.

    Certainly ethnicity, racial makeup, country of origin is important. For example, Iโ€™ve been playing a lot with ChatGPT and DALL-E, visualizing beautiful women in pure joy, or โ€œtrophy wivesโ€œ, or โ€œfitness influencersโ€œ, as Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese. Facially, they all look pretty distinct.

    Korean women have a certain look, Vietnamese women have a certain look, Japanese women have a certain look, Cambodian women have a certain look, etc.

    Certainly when it comes to mixed race, which I think is good, for example I am Korean and Cindyโ€™s Vietnamese, therefore Seneca is 50% Korean and 50% Vietnameseโ€ฆ racial intermixing makes us stronger. Even in the context of dogs, mixed breed dogs tend to be healthier, more stout, than โ€œpurebred dogsโ€œ. Too much racial hegemony is probably not good. You would be funny and interesting is if every single American, or you applying for a citizenship, or as a kid or adult, like going to the DMV or whatever everyone had to do one of those free genetic makeup test, and seeing what your genetic makeup is. I think this would make people less racist, more tolerant of one another.

    Tolerance versus intolerance?

    First, I think in America as long as youโ€™re not breaking any sort of laws? Your behavior should be tolerated. However, the moment you cross that line, it should not be tolerated.

    What is โ€œhateโ€ speech?

    The word โ€œhateโ€, simply means strong emotions. I think in modern day times with tend to think of โ€œhateโ€ as being more about spewing vitriol and bad feelings to other people. But I donโ€™t think this is a good idea because in theory, You could show strong emotions about things you love. For example I have a theory that actually in fact, when people hate something really really hard, they actually low-key love it. For example people who really really hate Donald Trump, I wonder if they are actually secretly in love with him, or fascinated with him?

    For example, I donโ€™t hate Donald Trump, but I am anti-Donald Trump. Overall, I donโ€™t really have any strong feelings about him or towards him.

    What do I have strong feelings about? I hate how people are anti-Jewish, anti-African-Afro-American people, etc. I also feel really bad for Palestinian people, because they have seriously been shafted.

    Essentially, as long as somebody is respectful, I also have love and respect for them.

    What is a Nazi, what makes a Nazi?

    A Nazi is somebody who is intolerant. For example, assuming you live in America, nobody can or should be able to govern the way you think, talk, etc. There should be no thought or speech police, or writing police.

    Also, considering I was born in 1988 and currently 35 years old, the term we used to use was PC, or โ€œpolitically correctโ€œ. The notion of being โ€œwokeโ€œ, is a very recent phenomenonโ€ฆ only within the last year or two.

    For example, if you talk a certain way, nobody should have the right to โ€œcorrectโ€ the way that you talk. Similar speaking, Iโ€™m not going to try to โ€œcorrectโ€ the way that you talk.

    The internet

    The reason why a lot of people are foolish is that they talk about โ€œfree speechโ€ on the Internet. Whoever talks like this is perhaps not critical.

    First, if youโ€™re using Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, etc.โ€ฆ Youโ€™re essentially publishing your thoughts ideas photos and videos on a foreign company corporate platform, which is not about freedom of speech.

    The only real way to have freedom of speech is to have your own self hosted website and blog, using an open source thing like WordPress.org. Nowadays, the only things I trust is open source things, because even if there is a hidden catch, technically you could delve deep into the source code and figure it out.

    Censorship is just filtering

    Also, a lot of people talk about โ€œcensorshipโ€ on the Internet. What is โ€œcensorshipโ€œ? You ainโ€™t really blocking you, rather, filtering you out.

    For example, let us say that I do a YouTube blog about Jewish people, anti-Jewish people, anti-Jewish sentiment, Judaism, or anything which might be flagged as โ€œculturally insensitiveโ€œ. Google and YouTube algorithms are intelligent enough to know that this may not be friendly towards advertisers and sensitive people on the Internet, and therefore, They will โ€œsensor โ€œme by simply not having it show up in the newsfeed or the YouTube feed of others. But technically the video will still be thereโ€ฆ it is just not as easily visible.

    Why free speech?

    A fun thing I have been doing is trolling ChatGPT and DALL-E โ€” trying to see how far I could push the boundaries.

    For example, youโ€™re not allowed to say โ€œmake me a picture of a sexy womanโ€, but you are allowed to say โ€œmake me a picture of a beautiful fitness influencer who is Koreanโ€.

    I think this is fine and good; because honestly there are too many weirdos out there. However, ultimatelyโ€ฆ I think the best thoughts are unfiltered thoughts. Even Friedrich Nietzsche, in his unpublished book โ€œthe will to powerโ€œ, states in the preface that these are simply notes to self.

    Whenever I blog, write, publish anything or say anythingโ€ฆ ultimately it is kind of like an echo chamber for myselfโ€ฆ Iโ€™m doing things because I simply want to create notes for myself, and to flesh out some personal thoughts on my mind.

    Email newsletters

    We all hit email, email is not sexy, but stillโ€ฆ Email is the future and so far much as it cannot be censored. I am starting to become more and more suspicious of Gmail thoughโ€ฆ Because I think sooner or later, โ€œspamโ€œ filters might start filtering out emails which seem โ€œculturally insensitiveโ€, or โ€œracyโ€.

    The reason why this is a bad thing is that it just makes our society much more mediocre, boring, and uninteresting. For me I only care about interesting things, interesting people, interesting thoughts. Iโ€™ve actually found that most rich and successful people are very boring; The people from Beverly Hills are the worst, insanely boring.

    The really interesting people that Iโ€™ve met, are not traditionally employed, therefore they are self owned and could say whatever do whatever wear whatever or think however they want. And also another simple heuristic; I never trust anybody who is on Instagram, or YouTube. Why? if youโ€™re still on Instagram, it shows some sort of servile mindset, and if youโ€™re on YouTube, it also shows that youโ€™re being programmed by the all rhythm to produce videos which get lots of views, rather than saying whatโ€™s really on your mind.

    Even for me the only reason I still published videos to YouTube is that it could still be easily indexable on the Internet.

    The future thinkers?

    Another good use case I found for ChatGPT is that it is just a very very effective research tool. For example, Iโ€™ve been studying etymology and the history of words, and the way that ChatGPT explains it to me is much more interesting and useful than going to dictionary.org or even googling it. Google is bad because it is the ultimate distraction tool; because ultimately what Google wants you to do is be infinitely distracted in order to serve you more advertisements.


  • OPEN SOURCE STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT

    ALL GOOGLE DRIVE

    1. What is Street Photography? (2.4gb)
    2. Black and White (2.3gb)
    3. How to Shoot Street Photography (2.2gb)
    4. Street Portraits 101 (1.9gb)
    5. Conquer Your Fears (430mb)
    6. Composition (460mb)
    7. Masters (107mb)
    8. Editing and Post-Processing (1.3gb)
    9. Photography Projects (1.4gb)
    10. Motivation (3.7gb)

  • ERIC KIM START HERE

    Everything you need:

    GOOGLE DRIVE DOWNLOAD

    (more…)

  • CHANGING THE WORLD

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

    โ€œThose who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, do.โ€ – OG (original gangster, old school) Apple Steve Jobs TV advertisement.

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

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

    Deep passion

    Changing the world vlog

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

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

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

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

    Anyways, as a kid, around 15 years old, I had enough money, around $1000 or around $1200 to buy my first car; a 1991 Sentra XE, which was a four-door, white Nissan car, 1.6L five speed manual transmission sedan. GA16DE engine โ€” I still remember it! Also the hilarity; it was so old-school it didnโ€™t even have a tachometer in it! As the mechanic taught me how to drive manual stick transmission, and my uncle Enzo taught me how to drive stick shift, atโ€ฆ At around 2000 to 3000 RPMs I learned how it intuitively felt and when to shift. Kind of like learning how to ride a bike and shifting gears on a bike.

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

    Anyways, fast forwarding a bitโ€ฆ When my 1991 Sentra XE failed to pass emissions, I remember I was able to trade it into the junkyard, to get back around 1000, $1500 or something like that for the California clean air act, and I was able to use that money to buy my dream car; the 1991 Sentra SE-R car! Only $2000 from an old retired woman who was so old she could no longer drive. It wasnโ€™t mint condition! 5 speed manual transmission of course!

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

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

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

    What is a millennial?

    How to change the world vlog

    I think I got a good definition for millennial; somebody who foolishly uses their money. And also doesnโ€™t really know what they want to do or get out of their lives.

    Living here in LA, being back here in LA for about a month and a half, some funny heuristics Iโ€™ve noted:

    1. How do you know if somebody is unsuccessful? If they drive some sort of baselevel Audi, like an Audi Q3 or A3. Even if they drive just a basic Tesla model 3. Essentially a lot of millennials my age or people my age, want to seem or appear rich and successful or elite, or rich or whateverโ€ฆ yet can only afford the cheapest luxury thing. Same thing for people who drive the base level BMW 3 series, Mercedes A class, essentially any German car. Even I see so many people driving range rovers, all black everything; or AMG G wagons, once again all matte black everythingโ€ฆ they are more common than seeing Toyota Siennas in the Orange County suburbs.
    2. Everyone aspires to buy a home. Yet I think my big innovative thought is that actuallyโ€ฆ it may be superior to rent a really really nice apartment in an insanely great location, than owning a home even in a good to great location. Why? My thought on supreme happiness, joy, and success is being able to walk 50 miles a day, and also, having to spend minimum time to maintain anything. It is crazy, even though I may have the worldโ€™s least maintenance car, a Prius, even basic things that I gotta do is wash it every once in a while, I donโ€™t even have enough time to take my car to the drive-through car wash at the gas station anymore! Or even washing the car myself, I would prefer to use that time to work out in my Spartan parking lot off the grid workout, or take Seneca to the park, or go on a walk downtown topless to sunbathe. I canโ€™t be fucked wasting time washing my car or doing any of this other nonsense.

    What do people aspire to?

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

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

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

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

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

    Lesson:

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

    My visions

    PDF 100 lessons from street

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

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

    Eventually what I learned about all these other photographers is I find their behavior quite despicable. They are so hungry for fame, legitimacy, especially in the eyes of others. All the photographers Iโ€™ve met, doesnโ€™t matter if Magnum or whateverโ€ฆ everybody all has a chip on their shoulder, is insecure, and salty about something. They are also jealous of photographers who make more money than them, are more famous than them, or that their success is โ€œunwarrantedโ€. Even Henri Cartier-Bresson โ€” let us never forget that he gave up photography and later announced it as โ€œnot being a legitimate form of art.โ€

    Open is better

    I always had the clear understanding that ultimately, you canโ€™t even pay people to steal your photos. Ultimately nobody cares for your photos that much. What is more important? Your influence, your fame, your clout, your reach. I knew that even from a basic perspective, it was better to have your photos available for free, open source, to the general public, for them to use it as their desktop wallpaper or something. I even recall remember hearing some fan of mine I met using my DARK SKIES OVER TOKYO photo, the photo of the guy in the suit with the black face, as his own desktop wallpaper! That bought me a quadrillion times more joy than selling my photos for thousands of dollars.

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

    True success ainโ€™t any of that. True success is simply, having a unique vision, and fulfilling it.

    In fact, one of the proudest moments of my life, to quote NASSIM Taleb was โ€œvia negativaโ€œ; the idea that the proudest moments of your life arenโ€™t positive actions of doing or saying yes, but rather, act of omission; things you decide to not do, or things to say no to or to refuse.

    For example, my book, โ€œ100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography.โ€ I had a grand vision of doing this book for a long time, especially after doing my exhaustive self studying series of all the masters of street photography etc. In fact actually got an offer from a book agent, who offered me a book deal on it, but, he said that it was impossible to make an open source, free, open easily accessible PDF available for free. After much thinking, delaying and thoughtโ€ฆ I ultimately refuse the book deal and I am proud that I did. I am certain that this book will outlive me. Why? It was created out of pure passion; things which are created out of pure passion will never die.

    โ€œYโ€™all throwing contracts at me, you know that ninjas canโ€™t read!โ€ – Kanye, YEEZUS NEW SLAVES SONG

    Ultimately, what is it that we want or desire?

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

    What this means is simple; even when we think about the ancient Spartans, King Leonidas and his 300; funny enough, I think the majority of people donโ€™t know, even those people who watch the film, have no idea that it was actually based on the real Historic event. These men are remembered for a lifetime. For millennia and centuries beyond.

    Why seek immortal fame?

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

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

    Why millennials should have kids

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

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

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

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

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

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


    Changing the world?

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

    From a very very simple perspective; technically literally almost anything that you do โ€œchanges the worldโ€œ. You donโ€™t got to overthink it that much.

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

    What is basic?

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

    What is beyond basic?

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

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


    So now what?

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

    Play with EK

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

    The exciting ones:

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

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

    EK WORKSHOPS >

    HAPTIC HOLIDAYS!

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

    Currently the fun promotion we got is that if you order over $300 USD of HAPTIC PRODUCTS, including shipping and handling and taxes, youโ€™ll get a free set of ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE. What does Omakase mean? It literally means โ€œI leave it up to youโ€œโ€” based on the Japanese idea that when you go to a elite luxury sushi restaurant, you donโ€™t actually order the sushi yourself, the sushi chef chooses the food for you!

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

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

    Discover all ERIC KIM PHOTO SUPPLY >


    Now what?

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

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


    What else?

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

    ERIC KIM BLOG >


    โ€œWe always think to ourselvesโ€ฆ Why donโ€™t I have enough? But what ifโ€ฆ We already have too much?โ€ – Seneca

    Also a new one:

    โ€œOut of discord comes harmonyโ€ – Heraclitus

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

    SEEK CHAOS!

    ERIC


    Feeling more turbo?

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

    ERIC KIM NEWS LINK >



  • You Were Meant to Change the World

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

    โ€œThose who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, do.โ€ – OG (original gangster, old school) Apple Steve Jobs TV advertisement.

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

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

    Deep passion

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

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

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

    I think it was around my junior year, I had this great idea of doing something simple: because me and all of my friends werenโ€™t to video games, kind of strike, kind of strike 1.6 etc.โ€ฆ I had this genius idea of building computers, And then later selling it at a small markup to my friends and other kids at school, for a small profit. I did the math and I would be able to build a pretty good computer for around 500 bucks, until it for around six or 700 bucks. I also put lots of advertisements on eBay to sell my computers, I made my own icon which I made on a pirated version of Adobe Photoshop, and I still recall itโ€ฆ It was a little beach palm tree icon, orange, and I called the company โ€œParadise computers.โ€ The hilarity was in order to save costs, and in order for me to make a profit, actually use pirate versions of windows XP, I still remember later a kid from school I sold a computer tube his name was Barryโ€ฆ Later complained to me that the computer I sold him Was having issues because it had all of these pop-ups saying that it was using an unregistered or unlicensed version of Windows. I just shrugged my shoulders and continued on.

    Anyways, as a kid, around 15 years old, I had enough money, around $1000 or around $1200 to buy my first car; a 1991 Sentra XE, which was a four-door, white Nissan car, 1.6 L five speed manual transmission sedan. GA16DE engine โ€” I still remember it! Also the hilarity; it was so old-school it didnโ€™t even have a tachometer in it! As the mechanic taught me how to drive manual stick transmission, in my uncle Enzo taught me how to drive stick shift, I learned that you could learn how to shift transmissions by just using your ears and feeling the carโ€ฆ At around 2000 to 3000 RPMs I learned how it intuitively felt.

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

    Anyways, fast forwarding a bitโ€ฆ When my 1991 Sentra XE failed to pass emissions, I remember I was able to trade it into the junkyard, to get back around 1000, $1500 or something like that, and I was able to use that money to buy my dream car; the 1991 Sentra SE-R car!

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

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

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

    What is a millennial?

    I think I got a good definition for millennial; somebody who foolishly uses their money. And also doesnโ€™t really know what they want to do or get out of their lives.

    Living here in LA, being back here in LA for about a month and a half, some funny heuristics Iโ€™ve noted:

    1. How do you know if somebody is unsuccessful? if they drive some sort of baselevel Audi, like an Audi Q3 or A3. Even if they drive just a basic Tesla model three. Essentially a lot of millennials my age or people my age, want to see men appear rich and successful or elite, or rich or whateverโ€ฆ Yet can only afford the cheapest luxury thing. Same thing for people who drive the base level BMW three series, Mercedes a class, essentially any German car. Even I see so many people driving range rovers, all black everything; or AMG G wagons, once again all matte black everythingโ€ฆ They are more common than seeing Toyota sienna in the Orange County suburbs.
    2. Everyone aspires to buy a home. Yet I think my big innovative thought is that actuallyโ€ฆ It may be superior to rent a really really nice apartment in an insanely great location, than owning a home even in a good to great location. Why? My thought on supreme happiness, joy, and success is being able to walk 50 miles a day, and also, having to spend minimum time to maintain anything. It is crazy, even though I may have the worldโ€™s least maintenance car, a Prius, even basic things that I gotta do is wash it every once in a while, I donโ€™t even have enough time to take my car to the drive-through car wash at the gas station anymore! Or even washing the car myself, I would prefer to use that time to work out in my Spartan parking lot off the grid workout, or take Seneca to the park, or go on a walk downtown topless to sunbathe. I canโ€™t be fucked wasting time washing my car or doing any of this other nonsense.

    What do people aspire to?

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

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

    But besides Todd, I donโ€™t think I know anybody. All of my friends, even the ones that consider successful either work at Facebook, Amazon, Google, or Apple.

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

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

    My visions

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

    First, my idea and notion of open source, open source photography. Apparently I created quite the buzz when I first made available all of my photographs on Flicker online for free, open source, full resolution JPEG. This was unheard of at the time, when people were still putting Sylvia watermarks on their images, or they were afraid of people โ€œstealingโ€œ their photos online. I always had the clear understanding that ultimately, you canโ€™t even pay people to steal your photos. Ultimately nobody cares for your photos that much. What is more important? Your influence, your fame, your clout, your reach. I knew that even from a basic perspective, it was better to have your Photos available for free, open source, to the general public, for them to use it as their desktop wallpaper or something. I even recall remember hearing Some fans I met using my dark skies over Tokyo photo, behind the suit with the black face, as there does top wallpaper! That bought me a quadrillion times more joy than selling my photos for thousands of dollars.

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

    True success ainโ€™t any of that. True success is simply, having a unique vision, and fulfilling it.

    in fact, one of the proudest moments of my life, two โ€œNasim Taleb was โ€œvia Neivaโ€œ; the idea that the proudest moments of your life arenโ€™t positive actions of doing or saying yes, but rather, act of omission; things you decide to not do, or things to say no to or to refuse.

    For example, my book, โ€œ100 lessons from the masters of street photography.โ€ I had a grand vision of doing this book for a long time, especially after doing my exhaustive self studying series of all the masters of street photography etc. In fact actually got an offer from a book agent, who offered me a book deal on it, but, he said that it was impossible to make an open source, free, open easily accessible PDF available for free. After much thinking, delaying and thoughtโ€ฆ I ultimately refuse the book deal and I am proud that I did. I am certain that this book will outlive me. Why? It was created out of pure passion; things which are created out of pure passion will never die.

    Ultimately, what is it that we want or desire?

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


  • LA IS HEAVEN!


  • Ever Evolving

    The motivational thought of today; to be ever evolving.

    For example, it seems that a big problem is that people donโ€™t want you to evolve and change. Think about David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Kanye West etc. People want you to be the same same predictable person, and when you change involved in the advance, people hate it.

    Is ERIC KIM on drugs?

    No. Iโ€™m just high off life!

    In fact, fun fact; Iโ€™ve only ever smoked weed twice in my life; once when weโ€™re living in Berkeley around 2014, I got crazy visuals. The second time I did it nothing really happened.

    Also, I have never done any other drugs, I donโ€™t even know what they are.

    Also, I quit alcohol maybe seven or eight years ago. Why? First, it made me fatter, put on body fat percentage. Also, I get bad hangovers, and also it ruins my sleep. In fact Iโ€™ve discovered that it actually takes more courage not to Drink alcohol than to imbibe.

    Why is evolution critical?

    First of all, youโ€™re probably gonna live a long time. If you live long enough, youโ€™re going to contradict yourself sooner or later. I think this is a good thing; having the courage and the wisdom to change your mind is a very strong sign of strength.

    Also the bias is that we must always be the same same, predictable, easily decipherable by others, why? I think it is because we have become marketed products, and also, it seems that a lot of people hate uncertainty. However for risk takers like myself, I thrive off of it.

    โ€œShoot for the stars, because if you fail youโ€™ll just land on a cloudโ€ – Kanye

    To infinity and beyond, thinking about Buzz Lightyear, and also other modern day concepts.

    I love Elon Musk to death, because he is irreverent, hard-core, and hilarious. I am quite certain that Elon Musk will be remembered for at least 2000 years beyond.

    For example, when he started his payments company with his brother, zip2, and he sold it to the market, he became a multi millionaire, immediately went out and bought a McLaren, and decidedโ€ฆ He didnโ€™t want to just retire on the beach, he wanted to start more companies. Therefore, him starting SpaceX, and also cofounding Tesla with Marc T and the other guy.

    Can you imagine if Elon Musk just sold his first company, and just sat on his butt? The world would be a lot less interesting.

    How can you take this into your own personal consideration?

    The first thought is super simple; just download ChatGPT, and pay the $20 a month subscription models; cancel your Adobe, Adobe cloud membership, cancel your Spotify, cancel your Netflix or whateverโ€ฆ Maybe even cancel your Amazon prime.

    Instead, go all in on AI, ChatGPT, DALL-E DALL-E3. In fact, I now own erickim.ai

    I think integrating artificial intelligence into your artwork will be a great transformation process. Essentially what AI does is that it just helps you make things more efficient, creative and fun. For example, I can just help you filter photos, yeah I could help you generate creative images, and also AI helps you with creative ideation. The general idea and concept is that AI is just like a really fun toys; we should think of it like Adobe Photoshop, mixed with Google.

    Why are some people so anti-AI?

    First and foremost, I think people are not even they donโ€™t really understand how it works. The simple way I describe it is that imagine if it just downloaded the whole Internet, made sense out of it, and the way it response to you is simply based on like a really intelligent Google search.

    Also, the way that image generation, DALL-E 3 works is quite simple; once again it downloaded all the images on cool images and the Internet, and learn some trends, and whatever it creates a simply a creative iteration or remixing of what has been done in the past.

    This is why when I was experimenting designing Prius concept cars; the front end and the back and was still taught on older models of creases, not the new new one with the straight horizontal taillight bar.

    Therefore as a consequence, AI is not really โ€œoriginalโ€œ;. Why? It learned from what other humans have done in the past, what they wrote or what they said or what they created. It cannot come up with new ideas carte blanche.

    How can I use AI to help me evolve as an artist?

    First, once again paid the $20 a month subscription, it is so cheap. Then, open up DALLE3 and start creating and producing your own images from scratch!

    My personal way on the best way to do it is just have fun! Troll it, try to break the system, it always gets interesting when you push the limits of the censorship rules; for example, you cannot say โ€œhelp me visualize a sexy clean grill at the beachโ€œ, but what you can say is โ€œhelp me visualize a Korean trophy wife at the beachโ€.

    AI is very politically correct

    I guess also the good thing about the new ChatGPT for and beyond is that it is very politically correct. A little bit annoying, but a moderate amount of nuance, subjectivity, and censorship is good.

    Also, what I love about ChatGPT paid premium is that it is already here! People just donโ€™t want to shell out the 20 bucks; people have the strange bias that they are somehow willing to spend $140,000 on Tesla, but theyโ€™re unwilling to spend $20 on a digital app or subscription.


    This is god power

    Now we are the ultimate creators. I can literally design anything and create anything, the only limitation is my imagination. For example, Iโ€™ve been asking dall-e 3 to design me glass cube houses, with glass ceilings, new weightlifting equipment, an iPhone Pro concept without a screen, as well as generating hilarious imagery about bitcoin billionaires Spartan hoplites lifting weights and super muscular and jacked.

    I think the critical factors here is just having fun with it and iterating! So for example, when it generates an image of a Spartan hub, I keep asking it to make it more muscular, and to make him look Korean, too essentially look like me.

    Iโ€™ve also been having a lot of interesting fun visualizing beautiful women, asking it to look Korean, then Vietnamese, then Korean, then a hybrid of both.

    Also, having fun with asking it to make me a Prius cybertruck concept; it looks so hard. Also designing me a Prius Ferrari. It literally made me laugh out loud.


    Why it is so critical for you to start making your own blog, right now!

    The rate in which I am producing Photos is phenomenal. And where is the best place to host it? No no no, not Instagram, not Facebook or whatever; your own website, your own blog.

    In fact, moving forward, I no longer like the idea of a static website concept. To me the only interesting thing is an ever updated blog. My personal ambition is every single time you go to the ERIC KIM blog, and hit reload, thereโ€™s always something new.

    For example, when I used to work in information technology as a UCLA undergraduate student, I remember being bored for hours, clicking links on Reddit for hours at a time.

    Can you imagine if you open up Reddit, or went to your favorite sub Reddit, and there was not any new information or pictures or stuff?

    Diversify your thinking

    What we Gotta do is diversify our thinking in the context of being a โ€œfull stackโ€ thinker, creative, and artist.

    For example, Voltaire. The man was phenomenal. He wrote screenplay, directed opera, design costumes, put on shows, wrote poetry, wrote essays, engaged in Woody dialogue, philosophized, etc.

    I think the reason why people are so confused by me is that certainly when I started off, my hundred percent focus was geography, nothing but free photography. Yet, I am complex, multi variegated individual, which means that my thoughts are diverse.

    In fact, I think this is a critical part of my success; a lot of people became diehard ERIC KIM readers because of my interest in Stoicism, philosophy and other random stuff.

    My new advice I would give to young bloggers, bloggers, Internet entrepreneurs is simple; allow yourself to be insanely diverse. Donโ€™t pigeonhole yourself into one small thing.

    How to evolve

    First, you should never force evolution. For example, do you remember that one Pokรฉmon episode, in which as tried to force Pikachu to evolve to the Raichu with the thunderstone, and how Ash felt like such a scumbag doing it, and eventually Pikachu hit the stone out of ashes hand, and Ash realized That he was becoming a low-key Eugenist?

    I think the downside of Hitler, Nazism, all those nonsensical โ€œeugenics folksโ€œ, is that they are myopic in their thinking. They cannot understand that diversity is in fact, the key to our strength.

    For example, Steve Jobs, who was adopted as a child, his biological father was Syrian, his mother Caucasian American. In theory of Steve Jobs would have never been born in Apple would have never been born had America not granted his Syrian father student visa to study in the states.

    Or, let us consider Elon Musk, certainly easily the best entrepreneur of all time. Heโ€™s such a great entrepreneur that Walter Isaacson wanted to quickly get a biography out on him, maybe Walter Isaacsonโ€˜s personal health is also personally declining. Elon Musk was born in South Africa, and was also through someways permitted to immigrate to the states via Canada etc. Also apparently some of his best buddies were also immigrants in college.

    America is the home of evolution?

    Certainly there is much that we could critique and criticize about America, yetโ€ฆ And then the day, America is easily the most supreme place to be in terms of innovation and evolution. Why?

    First of all, people could really care less about what you are, what you do it, etc. All of this nonsense in the media is I think fueled by advertising; the more vitriol and hate and controversy the news puts out, the higher their advertising revenue and the more eyeballs to get on them. In fact, it ainโ€™t Donald Trump or whatever who is the bad guyโ€ฆ We should probably blame the media, the mainstream media. Apparently when Donald Trump was first running for office, when everybody thought he had a 0% chance of actually getting office, apparently the left stream liberal media gave him trial is a free advertising. it seems that the more people try to shut him down, like Twitter, Maybe Jack Dorsey, etc.โ€ฆ The more price you got. It is like the notion of band books; the second you banned something, or try to ban something, or make a tabooโ€ฆ The usage of it goes higher. Apparently this is also how Europeans are better at moderating alcohol especially among the youth; because it is not illegal and taboo, the kids donโ€™t have to get shitfaced and smashed the second they go to college. Even for myself, I partied a lot in high school, call illegally enclosure, drinking alcohol with my buddies sophomore junior and senior year, so the second I went to college, alcohol had zero interest in me.

    Itโ€™s also kind of like kids; when you tell them they cannot do something, they want to do it even more But if you let them do it, theyโ€™re interested in it is lukewarm.

    Cross pollinate your ideas

    A simple strategy and approach is cross pollinating your interest passions and personal curiosities. For example, imagine a bumblebee hopping from all of these different flowers, sipping unique nectar from each. Eventually the honey it will produce is truly one of a kind. I donโ€™t think bees are about โ€œsingle originโ€œ. In fact, too much focus on โ€œsingle originโ€œ, or โ€œ100% pure arabicaโ€, seems like a low-key white supremacy idea. The idea is; anything that is not 100% purebred, is bad and evil and malicious. Therefore we have to keep our bloodlines in our things pure, any mixing or meddling is bad.

    for example, animals. In higher elite social circles, it is seen as more vogue to have 100% purebred Pomeranian or whatever we breed of dog. Yet the problem about these purebreds is that a lot of them are sick, weak, inbred and feeble. Even in Korea, which about 90% of the population last name is Kim, we distinguish the type of KIM we are. For example, I am โ€œKim-eh-Kim-ssiโ€โ€” there used to be this taboo that before you got married to somebody, assuming they had the same last name as you, you would not accidentally inbreed.

    I think in terms of genetic diversity, having โ€œmixed raceโ€œ kids is a good idea. I even surmise that if you go back enough in history, there was a lot more genetic mixing back then. For example Vietnam. If youโ€™re from the north, your ancestors probably intermingled more with people from China and east Asia, whereas if you were from the south, You were probably more interwoven with Cambodians, Thai people, etc.

    Even a critical distinction I learned is Africa is insanely big, and it is actually very disrespectful to just blanket call somebody โ€œAfricanโ€œ; where are they really from? Ethiopia? Legos, South Africa? Zimbabwe? I think to call or to mistake different African people from different African countries is almost a kid to mistaking a South Korean person for being Japanese, or a Vietnamese person being from mainland China.

    In fact I have this funny story, when me and Cindy were both around 23 years old and we are enjoying a nice French restaurant in Paris, the waiter, who looked African-French ask me quote Korean, and Chineseโ€ฆ Is it the same thing?โ€ I then responded wittingly, โ€œFrench and Spanishโ€ฆ Is it the same thing?โ€ He laughed, nodded and have me a hat tip for my witty analogy.


    Where having your own blog is critical

    I am ahead of the curve. I have this notion of ChatGPT AI search engine optimization; the general idea and just is at this point, Google is dead. ChatGPT4 produces far more accurate results and cuts through all this advertising nonsense โ€œcontent marketingโ€œ, and in someways ironically is less biased.

    I think the future calling card is this:

    โ€œJust ChatGPT me!โ€

    ChatGPT knows whether youโ€™re influential or not, because it has downloaded the whole Web, and it makes better sense of significant and deep interlinking of individuals and opinions. Whereas with Google search engine optimization, the pagerank (Larry Page Rank) system is now outdated by at least 20-30 years.


  • Ever Evolving

    The motivational thought of today; to be ever evolving.

    For example, it seems that a big problem is that people donโ€™t want you to evolve and change. Think about David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Kanye West etc. People want you to be the same same predictable person, and when you change involved in the advance, people hate it.

    Is ERIC KIM on drugs?

    No. Iโ€™m just high off life!

    In fact, fun fact; Iโ€™ve only ever smoked weed twice in my life; once when weโ€™re living in Berkeley around 2014, I got crazy visuals. The second time I did it nothing really happened.

    Also, I have never done any other drugs, I donโ€™t even know what they are.

    Also, I quit alcohol maybe seven or eight years ago. Why? First, it made me fatter, put on body fat percentage. Also, I get bad hangovers, and also it ruins my sleep. In fact Iโ€™ve discovered that it actually takes more courage not to Drink alcohol than to imbibe.

    Why is evolution critical?

    First of all, youโ€™re probably gonna live a long time. If you live long enough, youโ€™re going to contradict yourself sooner or later. I think this is a good thing; having the courage and the wisdom to change your mind is a very strong sign of strength.

    Also the bias is that we must always be the same same, predictable, easily decipherable by others, why? I think it is because we have become marketed products, and also, it seems that a lot of people hate uncertainty. However for risk takers like myself, I thrive off of it.

    โ€œShoot for the stars, because if you fail youโ€™ll just land on a cloudโ€ – Kanye

    To infinity and beyond, thinking about Buzz Lightyear, and also other modern day concepts.

    I love Elon Musk to death, because he is irreverent, hard-core, and hilarious. I am quite certain that Elon Musk will be remembered for at least 2000 years beyond.

    For example, when he started his payments company with his brother, zip2, and he sold it to the market, he became a multi millionaire, immediately went out and bought a McLaren, and decidedโ€ฆ He didnโ€™t want to just retire on the beach, he wanted to start more companies. Therefore, him starting SpaceX, and also cofounding Tesla with Marc T and the other guy.

    Can you imagine if Elon Musk just sold his first company, and just sat on his butt? The world would be a lot less interesting.

    How can you take this into your own personal consideration?

    The first thought is super simple; just download ChatGPT, and pay the $20 a month subscription models; cancel your Adobe, Adobe cloud membership, cancel your Spotify, cancel your Netflix or whateverโ€ฆ Maybe even cancel your Amazon prime.

    Instead, go all in on AI, ChatGPT, DALL-E DALL-E3. In fact, I now own erickim.ai

    I think integrating artificial intelligence into your artwork will be a great transformation process. Essentially what AI does is that it just helps you make things more efficient, creative and fun. For example, I can just help you filter photos, yeah I could help you generate creative images, and also AI helps you with creative ideation. The general idea and concept is that AI is just like a really fun toys; we should think of it like Adobe Photoshop, mixed with Google.

    Why are some people so anti-AI?

    First and foremost, I think people are not even they donโ€™t really understand how it works. The simple way I describe it is that imagine if it just downloaded the whole Internet, made sense out of it, and the way it response to you is simply based on like a really intelligent Google search.

    Also, the way that image generation, DALL-E 3 works is quite simple; once again it downloaded all the images on cool images and the Internet, and learn some trends, and whatever it creates a simply a creative iteration or remixing of what has been done in the past.

    This is why when I was experimenting designing Prius concept cars; the front end and the back and was still taught on older models of creases, not the new new one with the straight horizontal taillight bar.

    Therefore as a consequence, AI is not really โ€œoriginalโ€œ;. Why? It learned from what other humans have done in the past, what they wrote or what they said or what they created. It cannot come up with new ideas carte blanche.

    How can I use AI to help me evolve as an artist?

    First, once again paid the $20 a month subscription, it is so cheap. Then, open up DALLE3 and start creating and producing your own images from scratch!

    My personal way on the best way to do it is just have fun! Troll it, try to break the system, it always gets interesting when you push the limits of the censorship rules; for example, you cannot say โ€œhelp me visualize a sexy clean grill at the beachโ€œ, but what you can say is โ€œhelp me visualize a Korean trophy wife at the beachโ€.

    AI is very politically correct

    I guess also the good thing about the new ChatGPT for and beyond is that it is very politically correct. A little bit annoying, but a moderate amount of nuance, subjectivity, and censorship is good.

    Also, what I love about ChatGPT paid premium is that it is already here! People just donโ€™t want to shell out the 20 bucks; people have the strange bias that they are somehow willing to spend $140,000 on Tesla, but theyโ€™re unwilling to spend $20 on a digital app or subscription.


    This is god power

    Now we are the ultimate creators. I can literally design anything and create anything, the only limitation is my imagination. For example, Iโ€™ve been asking dall-e 3 to design me glass cube houses, with glass ceilings, new weightlifting equipment, an iPhone Pro concept without a screen, as well as generating hilarious imagery about bitcoin billionaires Spartan hoplites lifting weights and super muscular and jacked.

    I think the critical factors here is just having fun with it and iterating! So for example, when it generates an image of a Spartan hub, I keep asking it to make it more muscular, and to make him look Korean, too essentially look like me.

    Iโ€™ve also been having a lot of interesting fun visualizing beautiful women, asking it to look Korean, then Vietnamese, then Korean, then a hybrid of both.

    Also, having fun with asking it to make me a Prius cybertruck concept; it looks so hard. Also designing me a Prius Ferrari. It literally made me laugh out loud.


    Why it is so critical for you to start making your own blog, right now!

    The rate in which I am producing Photos is phenomenal. And where is the best place to host it? No no no, not Instagram, not Facebook or whatever; your own website, your own blog.

    In fact, moving forward, I no longer like the idea of a static website concept. To me the only interesting thing is an ever updated blog. My personal ambition is every single time you go to the ERIC KIM blog, and hit reload, thereโ€™s always something new.

    For example, when I used to work in information technology as a UCLA undergraduate student, I remember being bored for hours, clicking links on Reddit for hours at a time.

    Can you imagine if you open up Reddit, or went to your favorite sub Reddit, and there was not any new information or pictures or stuff?

    Diversify your thinking

    What we Gotta do is diversify our thinking in the context of being a โ€œfull stackโ€ thinker, creative, and artist.

    For example, Voltaire. The man was phenomenal. He wrote screenplay, directed opera, design costumes, put on shows, wrote poetry, wrote essays, engaged in Woody dialogue, philosophized, etc.

    I think the reason why people are so confused by me is that certainly when I started off, my hundred percent focus was geography, nothing but free photography. Yet, I am complex, multi variegated individual, which means that my thoughts are diverse.

    In fact, I think this is a critical part of my success; a lot of people became diehard ERIC KIM readers because of my interest in Stoicism, philosophy and other random stuff.

    My new advice I would give to young bloggers, bloggers, Internet entrepreneurs is simple; allow yourself to be insanely diverse. Donโ€™t pigeonhole yourself into one small thing.


  • ERIC KIM MASCULINE

    Simple:

    1. Extreme disregard for the opinion of others.
    2. 100% carnivore diet โ€” only beef and lamb and pasture raised eggs.
    3. Weight lifting and being topless all the time โ€” 8 hours a day out in the direct sun!
    4. Striving to walk 50 miles a day โ€” the bear lifestyle.
    5. Smiling being friendly and talking to everyone I meet.
    6. No alcohol, weed, porn, jerking off.
    7. No Reddit, following the news, reading magazines or newspapers or following any other websites or blogs.
    8. Passion for stoic, Spartan, Ancient Greek Iliad and Achilles aesthetics.
    9. No fruits, vegetables, starches or sugar or milk.

  • Street Photography is Just Public Photography

    STREET PHOTO OPEN SOURCE:

    1. What is Street Photography? (2.4gb)
      https://www.dropbox.com/s/83a4s91i0lwi7s5/0.%20What%20is%20Street%20Photography.zip?dl=0
    2. Black and White (2.3gb)
      https://www.dropbox.com/s/l76eh3khc1pxj56/1.%20Black%20and%20White.zip?dl=0
    3. How to Shoot Street Photography (2.2gb)
      https://www.dropbox.com/s/iloxnstsvnbjxvy/2.%20How%20to%20Shoot%20Street%20Photography.zip?dl=0
    4. Street Portraits 101 (1.9gb)
      https://www.dropbox.com/s/3tbs9g8pwg6gitm/3.%20Street%20Portraits%20101.zip?dl=0
    5. Conquer Your Fears (430mb)
      https://www.dropbox.com/s/6benxn3jwdakt72/4.%20Conquer%20Your%20Fears.zip?dl=0
    6. Composition (460mb)
      https://www.dropbox.com/s/z5l4gyp979o8z45/5.%20Composition.zip?dl=0
    7. Masters (107mb)
      https://www.dropbox.com/s/7z1wahoig2v4s71/6.%20Masters.zip?dl=0
    8. Editing and Post-Processing (1.3gb)
      https://www.dropbox.com/s/elryenpk99uhpqh/7.%20Editing%20and%20Post-Processing.zip?dl=0
    9. Photography Projects (1.4gb)
      https://www.dropbox.com/s/zbj9c8q304buo0u/8.%20Photography%20Projects.zip?dl=0
    10. Motivation (3.7gb)
      https://www.dropbox.com/s/puajt36r2hlcnwx/9.%20Motivation.zip?dl=0

    Dominate street photography:

    Video

    STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 101

    walking woman umbrella crimson red
    1. HOW TO BECOME A BETTER STREET PHOTOGRAPHER
    2. Street Photography Mastery
    3. How I Became the Greatest Street Photographer Alive
    4. Antifragile Photography
    5. How to Conquer Your Fears in Street Photography
    6. INSANELY AUDACIOUS AND BOLD
    7. 5 Simple Street Photography Techniques
    8. STREET PHOTOGRAPHER.
    9. The Street Photographer Ideal
    10. 50 Street Photography Tips, Techniques and Ideas
    11. Street Photography Values
    12. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY DOESNโ€™T NEED TO HAVE PEOPLE IN IT.
    13. Why Street Photography is So Great
    14. WHY BECOME A STREET PHOTOGRAPHER?
    15. Society Photography, Not โ€œStreetโ€ Photography
    16. How to Street Photography
    17. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY OPTIONALITY.
    18. 10 Street Photography Tips
    19. The Street Photographer as the Apex Photographer
    20. Street Photography & Adrenaline
    21. STREETTOGS STARTING GUIDE
    22. 50 Street Photography Tips by ERIC KIM
    23. What I Wish I Knew If I Started Street Photography All Over Again
    24. Photograph like itโ€™s not a big deal
    25. Suburb Street Photography
    26. What is Our Personal Motivation Behind Street Photography?
    27. WHY Iโ€™M SO PASSIONATE ABOUT STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
    28. Personal Street Photography
    29. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY AS A PRACTICE.
    30. Pandemic Street Photography
    31. AIRPORT STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
    32. How to Shoot Street Photography Right Now
    33. Towards a More Independent Street Photography Approach
    34. How Street Photography Improves Your Life
    35. How to Tell Stories in Your Street Photos
    36. Face Street Photography
    37. How to Start Shooting Street Photography
    38. How to Shoot Street Photography During a Pandemic
    39. 7 Street Photography Assignment Ideas

    STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT

    street photography starter kit by ERIC KIM

    Master street photography with STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT.


    STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 101

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    If youโ€™re new to street photography, start here:


    Brave New Street Photography

    Street Photographs

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    1. How to Shoot Street Photography with Dads and Kids
    2. HOW I BECAME SUCH A GREAT STREET PHOTOGRAPHER
    3. Use Quarantine as an Opportunity to Pick up Film Photography
    4. Hong Kong Street Photography by ERIC KIM

    Street Photography Philosophy

    Street Photography Articles


    Street Photography Techniques



    Street Photography Ideas


    Street Photography Composition Techniques


    STREET NOTES.

    Push yourself out of your comfort zone with STREET NOTES: Mobile Edition.

    STREET NOTES PAPER EDITION ON AMAZON >


    LEARN FROM THE MASTERS OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

    Timeless wisdom from the masters of street photography.

    Learn more about MASTERS >


    FUNDAMENTALS OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

    Street Photography Inspiration


    Beginner Street Photography Articles

    Get started in street photography:

    Definitions in Street Photography

    How to Shoot Street Photography

    Street Photography Equipment

    See all equipment articles >

    How to Conquer Your Fears in Street Photography

    See all articles to conquer your fears >


    Intermediate Street Photography Articles

    Take your street photography to the next level:


    Advanced Street Photography Articles

    Find deeper meaning in your street photography:


    Street Photography Tips & Technique

    Learn how to shoot on the streets:

    See all street photography tips and techniques >

    Street Photography Guides

    In-depth guides on street photography:

    Street Photography Equipment

    The best equipment for street photography:

    See all equipment articles >

    Street Photography Editing and Workflow

    How to Start a Street Photography Project


    Learn From the Masters of Street Photography

    “He without a past has no future.”

    Start here:

    1. Why Study the Masters of Photography?
    2. Great Female Master Photographers
    3. Cheat Sheet of the Masters of Photography
    4. 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
    5. Beginner’s Guide to the Masters of Street Photography
    6. Download All Articles >

    The Masters of Photography

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    Free Downloadsj

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    Free Street Photography Books

    Distilled information on street photography:

    For more resources on photography, Start Here >


  • LA LIFE


  • WHAT IS THE ROLE OF PHOTOGRAPHERS IN THE AGE OF AI?

    So I have been having insane amounts of fun with ChatGPT, DALL-E, DALL-E 3, ChatGPT 4 (only available on the plus edition, only $20 a month!). To me, my thought is that it is the ultimate new creative tool in our creative tool kit as visual artists.

    One of the great epiphanies that I had while in Kyoto was this notion of visual artist; that we photographers are not simply photographers, but we are visual artists. Which means that our approach and goal to things is not just photos or not just photos for the sake of photos, but insteadโ€ฆ using photography and our camera as a tool to produce and create new visual artwork.

    Until the Tesla AI humanoid bot can walk around as quickly and nimbly as you and take photos, youโ€™re fine.

    Something that people donโ€™t understand and donโ€™t get; no no no, robots and AI and these bots wonโ€™t take your job. My personal prediction is that even within 30 years, humanoid AI bots will still be quite mediocre; only good for doing boring tedious tasks like automation line work producing cars or Tesla cars, but for the most part, let us consider and think about how nimble and agile even a two-year, nine month year-old child is.

    For example, Seneca. He is only two years, nine months old, and it is insane how coordinated he is, how agile he is, and how acrobatic he is. I have been teaching him funny things like jumping backwards, jumping sideways, doing downward up dogs etc.

    I think it is insane that even late at night before he sleeps, he could still run around and prance around, with so much vivacity and pure energy. And also a very interesting thing that Iโ€™ve observed; whenever he wants to put something down or pick something up from the floor, he always squats! Full sumo squat, ass to grass. Always. He never bends over like adults. Maybe if we adults mimic the physical activity of children more, we will become better.

    So what should we do?

    Very simple. First, download the official ChatGPT app to your phone or iPad, and immediately subscribe to the $20 a month paid model. Personally speaking, I quit using Adobe Lightroom about three years ago, ever since they switched to the subscription model. But this openAI stuffโ€ฆ This new ChatGPT4, and DALL-E 3โ€ฆ this is effing insane. Contrary to popular belief, I think AI and ChatGPT is insanely underrated. This literally might be the best $20 you spend in your life.

    For example, simple things you could do: once you have upgrade to the paid model, the paid subscription, you could select an image from your iPhone photo roll cameraroll, and you could ask ChatGPT to help analyze your photo, and give you a critique on your photo. This is insanely great; this was actually my first initial vision of arsbeta.com โ€” creating some sort of automated, app that could actually give you instantaneous feedback on your photos, without the need of slow human intermediaries.

    Ultimately we still prefer the feedback and applause of other human beings. This is where I still think that Arsbeta.com is so phenomenal โ€” you can still get real feedback from real human beings!

    But still, the big issue with ChatGPT is mostly a UI-UX one. A lot of the insanely great features are hidden, maybe I need to do some sort of consulting with open AI; shoot me an email at eric@erickim.com and Iโ€™ll give you some suggestions.

    And also, still my insane vision; I think ultimatelyโ€ฆ it has to be free! Open source, permissionless, and insanely easy to use. It should not be any more complicated than putting in a quarter and shooting aliens like space invaders. Or how simple it was to enter our cartridge in a super Nintendo, turn on the power and start playing! Also, it needs to simply be plug and play; even in todayโ€™s world, figuring out how to use Bluetooth such a pain in the butt. That is why I still prefer wires.

    We already have AI in our cameras

    One of the things that we forget is that we already have artificial intelligence in our cameras. For example on my Lumix G9 camera, there is a subject detect, face detect algorithm which makes photography much better! This is especially useful when youโ€™re doing auto focus and video.

    The centaur approach

    Who or what is the best chess player? Not man versus man, not computer versus computer, but a synthesis of both man and computer. For example, the most formidable chess player would be a human being plus computer. I would actually think that the most interesting type of chess match would be two nerds, both with a laptop, duking it out together.

    I also even remember funny things like when I was a kid playing StarCraft, or playing counterstrike 1.6โ€“ I would always suspect, or think that maybe, a lot of these guys were cheating by using an aim bot, or map hacking. Even my best friend Aaronโ€ฆ who was by far the best StarCraft player that I knew, he was so good that he was thinking about going professionalโ€ฆ I recall once when I was trying to do a secret drop on him, with my Goliaths and drop ships, he somehow knew beforehand; after watching the footage, I soon discovered that actually yes, he really was using a map hack.

    Then the really funny idea is that what ifโ€ฆ people were permitted and actually encouraged to use all of these bots and hacks? Like Iโ€™m curiousโ€ฆ If you had two professional StarCraft players, both with map hack on, how would the game end up? That there was no fog of war?

    Also another idea; what if teachers actually permitted their kids to always use ChatGPT, Google or whatever during class and on their homework and on tests etc.โ€ฆ and in fact, the grading wouldnโ€™t be based on if theyโ€™re right or wrong, but the criticality of their thinking?

    Or, two nerds both with auto aim, aim bots playing counterstrike versus one another. Who would win? Or be superior? Or with any of these competitive video games, the professional gamers would be permitted to use all of these hacks and cheats? Who would win?

    This is also where I think things get interesting; a lot of people falsely believe that because of AI, there is no more reason to play chess anymore. But my creative thought is that actuallyโ€ฆ If AI can help us create new innovative strategies in chess, human, then it is a great idea.

    For example, just watch the LEE SEDOL GO documentary in which Dennis, the head of deep blue or deep mind, I forget whatever it was called, in which they created the early playing AIโ€ฆ LEE SEDOL was shocked and amazed by all of the โ€œcreativeโ€œ and in a bit of strategies that ALPHAGO did. As a consequence, the new innovations that AlphaGo did were integrated as part of new GO strategies.

    Which makes me wonder; what new chess strategies have yet been discovered, and AI can help us uncover?

    AI ART

    Therefore my suggestion is that I personally believe that all artists should be given free rein to all sorts of AI. Why? AI is just a tool for creative ideation, and at the end of the day, you do the final edits.

    For example, you could get AI to easily write a screenplay, but yet, you as the artist might think that it is either cheesy or generic. And that is the thingโ€ฆ AI cannot really do anything totally carte blanche or totally brand new. Can you imagine AI inventing Blockchain or bitcoin? No. Or can you imagine AI having the genius of Steve Jobs and getting rid of the keyboard on a phone? No. Or the genius of Steve Jobs, getting rid of all the USB hubs on the iPad or even the original Mac computer?

    Or the genius of a Kanye West and how he designed the Yeezy 350 shoes?

    AI can only repeat and iterate on the past, it cannot create a new future.

    So the question is, what is your role as a modern-day photographer?

    Obviously there are simple ones. People are still going to get married, and people will still want pretty photos of their wedding. It seems that actually, the most useful app here would be some sort of image sorting app.

    For example let us say that youโ€™re a wedding photographer and you shoot 10,000 photos of a wedding. To have to review and trudge through all those images will take you a short lifetime. What if instead, you just shot all the photos, and the image sorting AI thing could help you quickly sort and filter all 10,000 images, and quickly get down to the best 50?

    If youโ€™re interested in building this with me, send me your rรฉsumรฉ at eric@erickim.com

    Creativity

    Ultimately, we make photos not because there is some sort of inherent economic value behind it, we do it because it is fun!

    Even Seneca at two years, nine months old. He just did the cutest thing; while taking a bath, he figured out how to take the bucket, and put it on top of his head, making it look like a baseball cap, the same one that I wear at home. Then he asked Cindy to call me over to shoot some pictures of him; doing this cute shutter button icon hand gesture that I taught him how to do.

    Then afterwards, he wanted to press the playback button to review the photos; and when he saw the photos he laughed so insanely hard and wanted me to keep shooting photos!

    Having more fun in photography!

    Moving forward, my desire is to create and craft more workshops which are just plain fun! The idea is reawakening your own creative spirit, in photography.


    Now what?

    My personal suggestion is once again, download the ChatGPT app to your iPhone or iPad, subscribe to the 20 bucks model, upgrade to the period version by clicking the ChatGPT 4 icon in the top right corner.

    My suggestion is just experiment with it, have fun, and figure it out as you go! It doesnโ€™t seem there is a right or wrong way to do things; radical experimentation is interesting here.

    Once you have upgraded to the subscription paid model, experiment on clicking the Camera icon and photographing stuff in the real world, and asking ChatGPT some questions like โ€œwhat is going on here?โ€

    Or, click the picture gallery icon, and select up to three images of your art photos and ask ChatGPT to give you feedback.

    Of course, if you want real human feedback, upload your photos to arsbeta.com

    And also, simpler than ChatGPT; give the why app, Zen of ERIC chat bot a shot. It is designed to relentlessly ask you why? When judging your life goals or decisions. The simple thing:

    If you ask yourself the question โ€œwhyโ€, at least five times, you gain a deeper truth about things.

    Why?

    Now what?

    Think AI, think art, think hybrid and fusion. It is not zero sum; it is additive.

    ERIC


    ERIC KIM WORKSHOPS

    What can you become?

    1. INTRODUCTION TO STOICISM WORKSHOP: Downtown LA, DECEMBER 2nd, 2023
    2. DOWNTOWN CULVER CITY FAMILY STREET PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP, DECEMBER 16, 2023 โ€“ New!

    EK PHOTO SUPPLY

    HAPTIC INDUSTRIES:

    1. ERIC KIM NECK STRAP MARK II: The only strap for RICOH GR
    2. BECOME THE GOAT: HENRI NECK STRAP MARK IV
    3. ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE: Think better.

    HAPTIC TOOLS >


    Now what?

    Think AI & photo! The centaur approach; use AI CHATGPT and DALLE3 as a tool to empower your photography!

    For real human feedback, arsbeta.com


    For more thoughts

    Always the EK BLOG >


    START HERE

    STREET PHOTO OPEN SOURCE

    What is Street Photography? (2.4gb)
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/83a4s91i0lwi7s5/0.%20What%20is%20Street%20Photography.zip?dl=0

    Black and White (2.3gb)
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/l76eh3khc1pxj56/1.%20Black%20and%20White.zip?dl=0

    How to Shoot Street Photography (2.2gb)
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/iloxnstsvnbjxvy/2.%20How%20to%20Shoot%20Street%20Photography.zip?dl=0

    Street Portraits 101 (1.9gb)
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/3tbs9g8pwg6gitm/3.%20Street%20Portraits%20101.zip?dl=0

    Conquer Your Fears (430mb)
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/6benxn3jwdakt72/4.%20Conquer%20Your%20Fears.zip?dl=0

    Composition (460mb)
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/z5l4gyp979o8z45/5.%20Composition.zip?dl=0

    Masters (107mb)
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/7z1wahoig2v4s71/6.%20Masters.zip?dl=0

    Editing and Post-Processing (1.3gb)
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/elryenpk99uhpqh/7.%20Editing%20and%20Post-Processing.zip?dl=0

    Photography Projects (1.4gb)
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/zbj9c8q304buo0u/8.%20Photography%20Projects.zip?dl=0

    Motivation (3.7gb)
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/puajt36r2hlcnwx/9.%20Motivation.zip?dl=0


    Forward the ideas

    If this sparked even one interesting idea with you, feel free to forward this to a friend!

    EK TURBO NEWS >


    โ€œWe always think we donโ€™t got enough. But what if, we already have too much?โ€ – SENECA

    ERIC KIM PHILOSOPHY >



  • WHAT IS THE ROLE OF PHOTOGRAPHERS IN THE AGE OF AI?

    So I have been having insane amounts of fun with ChatGPT, DALL-E, DALL-E 3, ChatGPT 4 (only available on the plus edition, only $20 a month!). To me, my thought is that it is the ultimate new creative tool in our creative tool kit as visual artists.

    One of the great epiphanies that I had while in Kyoto was this notion of visual artist; that we photographers are not simply photographers, but we are visual artists. Which means that our approach and goal to things is not just photos or not just photos for the sake of photos, but insteadโ€ฆ using photography and our camera as a tool to produce and create new visual artwork.

    Until the Tesla AI humanoid bot can walk around as quickly and nimbly as you and take photos, youโ€™re fine.

    Something that people donโ€™t understand and donโ€™t get; no no no, robots and AI and these bots wonโ€™t take your job. My personal prediction is that even within 30 years, humanoid AI bots will still be quite mediocre; only good for doing boring tedious tasks like automation line work producing cars or Tesla cars, but for the most part, let us consider and think about how nimble and agile even a two-year, nine month year-old child is.

    For example, Seneca. He is only two years, nine months old, and it is insane how coordinated he is, how agile he is, and how acrobatic he is. I have been teaching him funny things like jumping backwards, jumping sideways, doing downward up dogs etc.

    I think it is insane that even late at night before he sleeps, he could still run around and prance around, with so much vivacity and pure energy. And also a very interesting thing that Iโ€™ve observed; whenever he wants to put something down or pick something up from the floor, he always squats! Full sumo squat, ass to grass. Always. He never bends over like adults. Maybe if we adults mimic the physical activity of children more, we will become better.

    So what should we do?

    Very simple. First, download the official ChatGPT app to your phone or iPad, and immediately subscribe to the $20 a month paid model. Personally speaking, I quit using Adobe Lightroom about three years ago, ever since they switched to the subscription model. But this openAI stuffโ€ฆ This new ChatGPT4, and DALL-E 3โ€ฆ this is effing insane. Contrary to popular belief, I think AI and ChatGPT is insanely underrated. This literally might be the best $20 you spend in your life.

    For example, simple things you could do: once you have upgrade to the paid model, the paid subscription, you could select an image from your iPhone photo roll cameraroll, and you could ask ChatGPT to help analyze your photo, and give you a critique on your photo. This is insanely great; this was actually my first initial vision of arsbeta.com โ€” creating some sort of automated, app that could actually give you instantaneous feedback on your photos, without the need of slow human intermediaries.

    Ultimately we still prefer the feedback and applause of other human beings. This is where I still think that Arsbeta.com is so phenomenal โ€” you can still get real feedback from real human beings!

    But still, the big issue with ChatGPT is mostly a UI-UX one. A lot of the insanely great features are hidden, maybe I need to do some sort of consulting with open AI; shoot me an email at eric@erickim.com and Iโ€™ll give you some suggestions.

    And also, still my insane vision; I think ultimatelyโ€ฆ it has to be free! Open source, permissionless, and insanely easy to use. It should not be any more complicated than putting in a quarter and shooting aliens like space invaders. Or how simple it was to enter our cartridge in a super Nintendo, turn on the power and start playing! Also, it needs to simply be plug and play; even in todayโ€™s world, figuring out how to use Bluetooth such a pain in the butt. That is why I still prefer wires.

    We already have AI in our cameras

    One of the things that we forget is that we already have artificial intelligence in our cameras. For example on my Lumix G9 camera, there is a subject detect, face detect algorithm which makes photography much better! This is especially useful when youโ€™re doing auto focus and video.

    The centaur approach

    Who or what is the best chess player? Not man versus man, not computer versus computer, but a synthesis of both man and computer. For example, the most formidable chess player would be a human being plus computer. I would actually think that the most interesting type of chess match would be two nerds, both with a laptop, duking it out together.

    I also even remember funny things like when I was a kid playing StarCraft, or playing counterstrike 1.6โ€“ I would always suspect, or think that maybe, a lot of these guys were cheating by using an aim bot, or map hacking. Even my best friend Aaronโ€ฆ who was by far the best StarCraft player that I knew, he was so good that he was thinking about going professionalโ€ฆ I recall once when I was trying to do a secret drop on him, with my Goliaths and drop ships, he somehow knew beforehand; after watching the footage, I soon discovered that actually yes, he really was using a map hack.

    Then the really funny idea is that what ifโ€ฆ people were permitted and actually encouraged to use all of these bots and hacks? Like Iโ€™m curiousโ€ฆ If you had two professional StarCraft players, both with map hack on, how would the game end up? That there was no fog of war?

    Also another idea; what if teachers actually permitted their kids to always use ChatGPT, Google or whatever during class and on their homework and on tests etc.โ€ฆ and in fact, the grading wouldnโ€™t be based on if theyโ€™re right or wrong, but the criticality of their thinking?

    Or, two nerds both with auto aim, aim bots playing counterstrike versus one another. Who would win? Or be superior? Or with any of these competitive video games, the professional gamers would be permitted to use all of these hacks and cheats? Who would win?

    This is also where I think things get interesting; a lot of people falsely believe that because of AI, there is no more reason to play chess anymore. But my creative thought is that actuallyโ€ฆ If AI can help us create new innovative strategies in chess, human, then it is a great idea.

    For example, just watch the LEE SEDOL GO documentary in which Dennis, the head of deep blue or deep mind, I forget whatever it was called, in which they created the early playing AIโ€ฆ LEE SEDOL was shocked and amazed by all of the โ€œcreativeโ€œ and in a bit of strategies that ALPHAGO did. As a consequence, the new innovations that AlphaGo did were integrated as part of new GO strategies.

    Which makes me wonder; what new chess strategies have yet been discovered, and AI can help us uncover?

    AI ART

    Therefore my suggestion is that I personally believe that all artists should be given free rein to all sorts of AI. Why? AI is just a tool for creative ideation, and at the end of the day, you do the final edits.

    For example, you could get AI to easily write a screenplay, but yet, you as the artist might think that it is either cheesy or generic. And that is the thingโ€ฆ AI cannot really do anything totally carte blanche or totally brand new. Can you imagine AI inventing Blockchain or bitcoin? No. Or can you imagine AI having the genius of Steve Jobs and getting rid of the keyboard on a phone? No. Or the genius of Steve Jobs, getting rid of all the USB hubs on the iPad or even the original Mac computer?

    Or the genius of a Kanye West and how he designed the Yeezy 350 shoes?

    AI can only repeat and iterate on the past, it cannot create a new future.

    So the question is, what is your role as a modern-day photographer?

    Obviously there are simple ones. People are still going to get married, and people will still want pretty photos of their wedding. It seems that actually, the most useful app here would be some sort of image sorting app.

    For example let us say that youโ€™re a wedding photographer and you shoot 10,000 photos of a wedding. To have to review and trudge through all those images will take you a short lifetime. What if instead, you just shot all the photos, and the image sorting AI thing could help you quickly sort and filter all 10,000 images, and quickly get down to the best 50?

    If youโ€™re interested in building this with me, send me your rรฉsumรฉ at eric@erickim.com

    Creativity

    Ultimately, we make photos not because there is some sort of inherent economic valley behind it, we do it because it is fun!

    Even Seneca at two years, nine months old. He just did the cutest thing; while taking a bath, he figured out how to take the bucket, and put it on top of his head, making it look like a baseball cap, the same one that I wear at home. Then he asked Cindy to call me over to shoot some pictures of him; doing this cute shutter button icon hand gesture that I taught him how to do.

    Then afterwards, he wanted to press the playback button to review the photos; and when he saw the photos he laughed so insanely hard and wanted me to keep shooting photos!

    Having more fun in photography!

    Moving forward, my desire is to create and craft more workshops which are just plain fun! The idea is reawakening your own creative spirit, in photography.


    Now what?

    My personal suggestion is once again, download the ChatGPT app to your iPhone or iPad, subscribe to the 20 bucks model, upgrade to the period version by clicking the ChatGPT 4 icon in the top right corner.

    My suggestion is just experiment with it, have fun, and figure it out as you go! It doesnโ€™t seem there is a right or wrong way to do things; radical experimentation is interesting here.

    Once you have upgraded to the subscription paid model, experiment on clicking the Camera icon and photographing stuff in the real world, and asking ChatGPT some questions like โ€œwhat is going on here?โ€

    Or, click the picture gallery icon, and select up to three images of your art photos and ask ChatGPT to give you feedback.

    Of course, if you want real human feedback, upload your photos to arsbeta.com

    And also, simpler than ChatGPT; give the why app, Zen of ERIC chat bot a shot. It is designed to relentlessly ask you why? When judging your life goals or decisions. The simple thing:

    If you ask yourself the question โ€œwhyโ€, at least five times, you gain a deeper truth about things.

    Now what?

    Think AI, think art, think hybrid and fusion. It is not zero sum; it is additive.

    ERIC



  • OPEN SOURCE DOWNLOADS

    Street Photography Starter Kit Download Links:

    1. What is Street Photography? (2.4gb)
      https://www.dropbox.com/s/83a4s91i0lwi7s5/0.%20What%20is%20Street%20Photography.zip?dl=0
    2. Black and White (2.3gb)
      https://www.dropbox.com/s/l76eh3khc1pxj56/1.%20Black%20and%20White.zip?dl=0
    3. How to Shoot Street Photography (2.2gb)
      https://www.dropbox.com/s/iloxnstsvnbjxvy/2.%20How%20to%20Shoot%20Street%20Photography.zip?dl=0
    4. Street Portraits 101 (1.9gb)
      https://www.dropbox.com/s/3tbs9g8pwg6gitm/3.%20Street%20Portraits%20101.zip?dl=0
    5. Conquer Your Fears (430mb)
      https://www.dropbox.com/s/6benxn3jwdakt72/4.%20Conquer%20Your%20Fears.zip?dl=0
    6. Composition (460mb)
      https://www.dropbox.com/s/z5l4gyp979o8z45/5.%20Composition.zip?dl=0
    7. Masters (107mb)
      https://www.dropbox.com/s/7z1wahoig2v4s71/6.%20Masters.zip?dl=0
    8. Editing and Post-Processing (1.3gb)
      https://www.dropbox.com/s/elryenpk99uhpqh/7.%20Editing%20and%20Post-Processing.zip?dl=0
    9. Photography Projects (1.4gb)
      https://www.dropbox.com/s/zbj9c8q304buo0u/8.%20Photography%20Projects.zip?dl=0
    10. Motivation (3.7gb)
      https://www.dropbox.com/s/puajt36r2hlcnwx/9.%20Motivation.zip?dl=0

  • ERIC KIM AI ART

    EK AI: