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STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT
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- Street Portraits 101 (1.9gb) / Download
- Conquer Your Fears (430mb) / Download
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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 x HENRI NECK STRAP Enroll in my Udemy Course:
‘Ultimate Beginnerโs Guide to Photography Entrepreneurship’: Create Your Own Future >
Entrepreneurship Ideas
- InstaSlaves
- How to Become a Vlogger
- How to Build Your Own Self Brand
- SOLO MEDIA EMPIRE
- TIME LEVERAGE.
- How to Market Yourself in Photography
- How to Become More Ambitious
- Crypto Photography
- In Praise of Email Newsletters
- Propagate.
- Make Your Own Street Photography Blog
- Create the Information You Seek.
- Content over Technology
- How to Advertise Yourself as a Photographer
- CREATIVE WAYS TO USE YOUTUBE
- Photography Branding 101
- BUILD YOURSELF.
- Bet on Your Own Coin.
- The Photographer Should Also Make His/Her Own Music?
- Mix Your Photos and Videos
- JUST PUBLISH IT.
- EMPOWER OTHER PHOTOGRAPHERS.
- BECOME OUTSIDE THE BOX
- MOVE PEOPLE, MOVE PRODUCTS.
- SOCIAL MEDIA IS FRAGILE.
- Why Start a Photography Blog?
- Once You FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early), Then What?
- THE FUTURE IS PDF
- In Praise of Solo Photography Business Entrepreneurship
- LONGEVITY, DURABILITY AND SUCCESS
- Street Photography Philosophy Entrepreneurship
- YOU ARE THE PLATFORM
- JUST RISK IT.
- DON’T OPTIMIZE FOR THE ALGORITHM
- Scaleable Photography
- What Does it Mean to Become a Successful Photographer?
- 20 Photography Marketing, Branding, and Entrepreneurship Tips
- Create Your Own Social Media
- Individual Entrepreneurship
- YOU ARE THE ICON.
- BUILD!
- What is Success in Photography?
- EXTREME VISION
- Publish Fearlessly
- MAKE DOPE THINGS AND SHARE THEM WITH THE WORLD!
- THE AMBITIOUS PHOTOGRAPHER.
- PhotoLink
- Real World Applications
- You Are Your Own Ideal User
- What is Your Creative Vision?
- A More Dope, Prosperous Future for All Photographers
- CREATION & DISTRIBUTION.
- THE VALUE OF PHOTOS.
- How to Maximize Your Impact as a Photographer
- Why the World Needs More Bloggers
- DOMAIN EXPERTISE.
- The Joy of Speculation
- MAKE A NAME FOR YOURSELF.
- Propogate
- Meaningful Advantage or Not?
- PHOTO CREATOR.
- NOW IS YOUR DECISIVE MOMENT.
- I CANNOT BE IGNORED
- Photography Blogs are Highly *UNDERRATED*
- What is Your Competitive Advantage?
- Why 4K?
- Indirect Monetization
- The Future of Innovation in Photography
- Photography Innovation and Image Selection Idea: Let Google (YouTube) Suggested Thumbnail Pick Your Best Photo?
- How to Identify Your Competitive Advantage
- In Praise of Insanely Fast Wifi
- DIGITAL PUBLISHING IS KING.
- The Stoic-Entrepreneurship Mindset
- Marketing Tips for Photographers
- STARK DIFFERENTIATION
- MAXIMALIST
- Visual Entrepreneurship
- On Becoming a Full-Stack Visual Entrepreneur
- Real Photographers Don’t Use Instagram
- Brave New World of Blogging
- Don’t Go to Photography School
- Mass Success is a Failure?
- How to Maximize Your Archimedes Lever in Life
- Maximize Your Archimedes Lever
- How to Create Value Out of Nothing
- The Best Brand is No Brand
- What Do We Entrepreneurs *Really* Want?
- You Were Destined to Do Great Things
- Just Share Your Photos on Your Own Blog
- Your Blog is the Ultimate Form of Social Media
- The Future of Websites and Blogs
- Create a Company
- Money Photography Project
- WHY IT IS GOOD TO CHARGE MONEY FOR YOUR SERVICES AND PRODUCTS
- Google and YouTube SEO (Search Engine Optimization) 101: How Would You Type It?
- WHY RIGHT NOW IS THE BEST TIME FOR YOU TO START YOUR SIDE HUSTLE
- Digital Photography is the Future
- NEVER STOP EXPERIMENTING!
- WHAT IS INNOVATION?
- A Non-Ownership Future
- CONTROL OVER MONEY
- Economic Constraints Are Creative Constraints
- Become a Sole-Proprietor
- Entrepreneurship is a Mindset
- How to Master Mac
- The Future of Lifestyle
- Necessity is the Mother of Innovation
- Once We Have an Easy Life, Then What?
- Why I Don’t Read Comments
- YouTube SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for Photographers
- How to Become a Self-Employed Photographer
- How to Live Big With Little Money
- Why Blogging, Vlogging and Internet Media is More Important than Ever
- No Marketing, No Future
- Photography Marketing 101
- Google and YouTube are King
- Why I’m So Suspicious of Everyone Online and on the Internet
- How to Become More Notorious
- Kaizen Approach to Blogging
- How to Master Marketing
- CREATE WHAT YOU WOULD LIKE SEE MANIFESTED IN THE WORLD!
- Anti Silicon-Valley Thinking
- Your Name
- In Praise of WordPress
- NEVER STOP POSTING
- Your Future Portfolio is a Website
- Infinite Runway
- ERIC KIM ATTITUDE
- Financial Independence as a Road to Freedom of Speech?
- WHY OPEN SOURCE IS THE FUTURE
- Just Post It.
- Posts Are Products
- Photography Entrepreneurship Ideas
- YOU ARE KING.
- You’re Always in BETA MODE
- Build Your Own Media Empire
- WHY I DON’T MONETIZE MY YOUTUBE VIDEOS
- Why I Became an Entrepreneur
- The Uber-Photographer
- Create What You Would Like to See Manifested in the World
- Create the Future
- Entrepreneurship is Best During Uncertain Times
- Photography Entrepreneurship 101 Presentation by ERIC KIM
- Your Body is the Brand
- Your Name is Your Brand
- Create Your Own Social Media Platform
- BUILD IT OR BUY IT?
- Sell Yourself
- Create New
- Insta-Slaves
- YOU CANNOT FAKE ENTHUSIASM
- Why Hybrid is the Future
- Donโt Censor Yourself
- HOW I MASTERED MARKETING
- ERIC KIM BLOGS
- If Someone Offers You Help, You’re Stupid to *NOT* Take It.
- SEEK GREAT, NOT PERFECT.
- How I Became So Famous
- Let Reality Mould Itself to You
- ANTI ENTITLEMENT MENTALITY
- Live Your Life as If You Were a Billionaire
- HOW I THINK DIFFERENT
- Impact, Influence, Reach: The Three Pillars of Marketing
- ERIC KIM SCHOOL
- Classicism.
- MY PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY
- Money is Movement
- Elitism 2.0
- Mass Market or Luxury Market?
- Why You Must Market Yourself
- Why You Must Start an Email Newsletter
- How Laptops Can Change the World
- What Do You Want to Become?
- What is Really Holding You Back in Life?
- Why I Write: Writing as Meta-Thinking
- ADVERTISE YOURSELF
- Use Your First and Last Name
- How Blogging Can Change the World
- In Praise of Liberty
- How I Write in Markdown
- How I Became So Influential on YouTube
- REVERSE FLEX
- What a Time to Be Alive in Today’s Brave New World of Photography
- HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE YOURSELF FROM OTHERS
- YOU CHOOSE YOU
- My Life Photography Entrepreneurship Story
- WHY I DON’T BELIEVE IN COLLABORATION
- My Entrepreneurship Mindset
- YOU’RE THE HERO IN THIS GAME OF LIFE
- My Money Philosophy
- Why Brand and Market Yourself?
- PROFESSIONALISM IS FOR SUCKERS
- Just Share What Works for You
- How to Create Your Own Platform
- Living in a Post Monetary Society
- In Praise of Blogging
- The Entrepreneurial Lifestyle is the Best Lifestyle
- Algorithm Slavery
- ANTI VIEWS
- Entrepreneurship is The Goal
- The Art of Blogging
- IN PRAISE OF PURSUING YOUR PASSION
- How to Make Great Titles
- Sole Proprietorship
- Just Build It.
- VIA NEGATIVA
- PROMOTE YOURSELF
- Become a Full-Stack Entrepreneur
- How to Entertain Others
- My Experience Teaching My First Online Photography Creativity Workshop on Zoom
- Humans Aren’t Lazy
- One Shot.
- THE BRAVE SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH
- The Brave New COVID Lifestyle
- Start Your Own Business
- Minimum Viable Income ( MVI)
- TRAINING.
- WHY VIDEO?
- How to Become Bolder
- You’ve Always Already Been a Photography Entrepreneur!
- The Future is All Digital Everything
- Digital Sharecropping
- DO IT FOR YOUR PAST AND FUTURE SELF
- In Praise of Buffer and Redundancy
- ASKING FOR PERMISSION IS FOR SUCKERS.
- POST-MONETARY SOCIETY.
- Advertise Your Own Stuff
- THE FUTURE IS DIGITAL.
- Simulated Universal Basic Income
- Is Losing Followers a Good Thing?
- How to Add to Economic Activity
- DIGITAL CAPITALISM
- MONEY IS MOVEMENT
- Anything is Possible
- BRAVE NEW WORLD OF DIGITAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
- GENERATE
- How to Profit from Calamity
- Capitalism 2.0
- WHY I’M SO PASSIONATE ABOUT INFORMATION
- SOCIETY 2.0
- PHOENIX ENTREPENEURSHIP
- How to Make Art from Home
- BUY YOURSELF
- JUST BLOG IT.
- MARKET YOURSELF
- EXPENSIVE TALK
- SOCIAL MEDIA SLAVERY
- Who Are Your Ideal Followers?
- Why I Blog, Vlog, and Log
- Your Perspective is Irrefutable
- What are Your Hidden Powers?
- IMPACT MAXIMIZATION, not Profit Maximization
- Our Desire to Maximize Impact and Change
- 10 Rich Tips How to Make Money from Photography
- Create What You Would Love to Consume
- Publish is Pleasure
- Retire Now
- Do You Desire to Become the Best?
- Solo Entrepreneurship
- My Vision of Photography Entrepreneurship
- PUT YOUR NAME ON IT
- The Desire to Transcend Ourselves
- MONEY THOUGHTS
- How to Retire
- Via Negativa Productivity
- Why You Must Make Your Own Website
- Individuals over Companies
- Build Yourself
- Success is Survival
- Why You Shouldn’t Go to Photography or Art School
- How to Differentiate Yourself as a Photographer
- Surpass Yourself
- Can You Handle Extreme Freedom?
- Boutique or Mass Market?
- Proof of Concept
- Unified Field Theory for Photography
- Build a Company Youโd Never Sell
- Play the Long Game
- Entrepreneurship and Art
- What is the Source of our Strength?
- What’s the Future for Photography?
- Full-Stack Visual Artist
- Why Scale?
- What is Your Unfair Advantage?
- Substance Marketing
- Share Your Dopeness with Others
- Frugality is Freedom
- Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for Entrepreneurship
- Don’t Follow or Predict Trends, Start Your Own Trend!
- If You’re Not Busy Growing, You’re Busy Dying
- Entrepreneurship born from Superabundance, not Need/Necessity
- Photography Entrepreneurship Philosophy
- How to Master Marketing in Photography
- Photography Entrepreneurship Tips and Ideas
- Is Hustle Sufficient Unto Success?
- Don’t do it for the money
- DIGITAL MARXISM
- Zen Entrepreneurship
- BOLDER IS BETTER.
- Streamers Shall Inherit the Earth
Photography Blogging
- Blogging is Public Meditations
- The Art of Blogging
- Give Me a Laptop and I Shall Move the World!
- The Future is Photography Blogging
- How to Become a GREAT Blogger
- If you canโt code, blog instead!
- Daily Blog of Activities
- How to Monetize a Blog Without Advertising
- How to Publish Yourself
- How to Blog
- The future of photography publishing is photography blogging.
- Why Become a Photography Blogger?
- Why You Must Become a Photography Blogger
- Why You Should Delete Your Instagram and Start Your Own Blog
Money
Self-Empowerment
- Life is Too Short to Be Negative
- Why You Must Follow Your Passion in Life
- How to Conquer Shyness
- Don’t Ask for Permission
- Onto the Next One
- Why You Must Self-Promote Yourself
- Why You Must Conquer Your Fears in Life
Marketing and Branding
- Why You Must Become a Photography Blogger
- Why Blog?
- Why You Must Self-Promote Yourself
- Create Substance, Not Content
- Photography Marketing and Branding 101
- How to Master Marketing in Photography
- 10 Tips How to Become a More Famous Photographer
Entrepreneurship Lifestyle
- Why Hustle?
- Why Save Money?
- Ascetic is Sexy
- Why You Must Become Self-Employed
- How to Push Yourself Beyond the Limit
- Is Location Independence Overrated?
Entrepreneurship Mindset
- How to Get Discovered
- Financial Independence
- Disregard Success or Failure; Always Attempt More!
- In Praise of Stubbornness
- Success is Personal Bravery
- Why You Must Become an Entrepreneur
- How to Brand and Market Yourself as a Photographer
- How to Conquer Haters
- How to Accumulate Capital
- Why Be Different?
- How to Master Marketing in Photography
- Donโt Play it Safe
- Why Blog?
- How to Be a More Productive Photographer
- How to Hustle
- True Productivity
- What Can Only You Do?
- Love Risk
- What is Success?
- Fill a Vacuum
- Think Big
- What is Your Dream in Life?
- 8 Blogging Productivity Tips
- Why Be Normal?
- How Much Suffering Are You Willing to Endure to Achieve Your Dreams?
Photography Entrepreneurship 101
- Don’t Sit Still!
- Bitcoin for Photographers
- Don’t Be Timid
- Why Start Your Own Photography Blog?
- Fill a Void
- 1,000 True Followers: How to Build Your Own Niche in Photography
- Photography Entrepreneurship 101: Why You Must Start Your Own Email Newsletter
- TURBO CREATION: Why a Maxed-Out MacBook Laptop is the Best Investment You Can Make for Photography Entrepreneurship
Life and Productivity Hacks
- My Ultimate Productivity and Life Hacks
- Life/Productivity Hack: Write (Type on a phone) While Walking on a Dynamic Treadmill
- ERIC KIM Life, Creativity, and Productivity Hacks
How to Make a Living from Your Passion
- Digital Nomad Photographer
- Build Your Own Instagram!
- How to Be More Ambitious
- Do It Your Way
- How to Measure Your Progress as a Photography Entrepreneur + Come Up With New Ideas
- How to Make a Living From Your Passion in Photography
Put a Dent in the Universe.
- Fear Disguised as Reason
- Distraction is the Enemy
- Innovate for the Sake of Innovating!
- Reality is Malleable!
- Stoic Entrepreneurship
- Against Self-Preservation
- The Purpose of Life is to Make New Stuff!
How to Succeed as an Entrepreneur
- You Have No Limits.
- Calculated Risk-Taking
- Invest in Yourself
- The Secret of Happiness: Shoot for the Moon!
- Moonshot Thinking
- Why We Should all Be Photography Entrepreneurs
- Memento Mori Entrepreneurship
- Why it is Better to Beg For Forgiveness than Ask For Permission
- How to Become a Digital Nomad
- Why You Must Own Your Own Platform
- First Principle Thinking for Photography Entrepreneurs
- How I Became a Digital Nomad
- Better to Beg For Forgiveness than Ask For Permission!
- Spurn Pleasing Others!
- Create Your Own Niche
- How to Gain More Exposure For Your Photography
- Intense Focus
- How to Conquer Your Fears as an Entrepreneur
- Define Yourself
- Let Dissatisfaction Drive You Forward!
- It Doesn’t Matter if Someone Else Has Done it Before!
- How to Succeed as a Photography Entrepreneur: Be Extremely Resourceful
- Open Source Business Model in Photography Entrepreneurship
- Entrepreneurship 101: Growth and Innovation Over Self-Preservation
- How to Create Value as a Photography Entrepreneur
- Why Become a Photography Entrepreneur?
- Why You Must Ignore Nay-Sayers to Succeed in Entrepreneurship, Business, and Life
The Modern Photographer: Tips, Strategies, and Tactics to Thrive as a Visual Artist in the Digital Age
Marketing, Branding, Entrepreneurship Principles For Success
MODERN PHOTOGRAPHER is your new philosophical and practical primer to succeed as a modern photographer in today’s digital world.
Business Mental Models
- How to Succeed as a Photography Entrepreneur: Be Extremely Resourceful
- Open Source Business Model in Photography Entrepreneurship
- Entrepreneurship 101: Growth and Innovation Over Self-Preservation
How to Monetize Your Photography
- Photography Entrepreneurship 101: INFLUENCE
- Should I Monetize My Passion for Photography?
- 10 Practical Photography Monetization Strategies: Pricing, Google SEO, & Entrepreneurship
- How to Make Money From Street Photography
Why Become a Photography Entrepreneur?
Take control of your own photographic destiny:
THE MODERN PHOTOGRAPHER
- CREATIVE CAPITALISM
- How to Monetize Your Photography
- 5 Practical Photography Career Tips and Advice
- 10x Thinking
- How to Hustle as a Photographer
- How to Become Your Own Master Marketer
- The โTโ Technique of Success
- Go Ahead and Sell Out
- What is Your Unique Voice?
- Why You Must Self-Promote Yourself
- What is Your Unique Angle as a Photographer?
- Photography Content Marketing 101
- Why You Must Become Your Own Publisher
- The Art of Cross-Pollination in Photography
Photography Entrepreneurship Articles
- Why You Shouldn’t Trust Your Pictures to Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Flickr
- How to Make Money From Your Photography
- Photography SEO and Blogging: How to Become Number One on Google
- Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation
- Now is the Best Time to Be a Photographer
- PRODUCERISM
- What Is The Value of a Picture?
- Your Photographic Labor is Not Free
PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOPS 101
- Chapter 1. How to Make a Photography Blog
- Chapter 2. How to Price Yourself
- Chapter 3. How to Find Your Market
- Chapter 4. Why Teach Workshops?
- Chapter 5. How to Build Trust
- Chapter 6. How to Market Yourself
- Chapter 7: Why Should Someone Attend Your Workshop?
KEYS TO SUCCESS
- Why You Must Be a โPersonalityโ in Order to Succeed
- THRIVE OR DIE.
- Impatience is a Virtue
- Create Your Own Category
- HOW TO DREAM BIG.
- Will Not or Cannot?
- Why Not?
- How to Think BIG
- How to Stay Ahead of the Curve
- How to Invest in Yourself
- The Two Camera Rule
- MEANINGFUL DIFFERENTIATION
- Advice For College Students
- How to Thrive in Uncertain Times
- CANNIBALIZE YOURSELF.
- DO AND GROW RICH
- Does Fear of Punishment Hold You Back?
- HOW TO GET MORE FOLLOWERS
- How to Innovate
- How to Build Your Own Empire
- YOU ARE ENTITLED TO HARD WORK.
- PICK YOURSELF.
- OWN YOUR PLATFORM
- 10 KEYS TO SUCCESS
Table of Contents
Learn how to make a living from your passion:
- Preface. BRAVE NEW WORLD OF PHOTOGRAPHY
- Chapter 1. How to Create Value
- Chapter 2. ZEN CAPITALISM
- Chapter 3. Scarcity
- Chapter 4. How to Brand Yourself
- Chapter 5. How to Build a True Following
- Chapter 6. The Blueprint to Success in Photography
- Chapter 7. HOW TO BE BOLD
- Chapter 8. How to Sell Out
- Chapter 9. GO AGAINST THE GRAIN
- Chapter 10. EXTREME ABUNDANCE
- Chapter 11. Photography Experience Economy
- Chapter 12. Why You Should Make Money for Your Photography
- Chapter 13. How to Become a Famous Photographer
Photography Business 101
How to Make Money with Photography
CAMERA MONEY USD by ANNETTE KIM - How to Charge More Money in Your Photography
- Why You Should Not Pursue Photography as Career
- Can Photography Make You Rich?
- How I Earn $200,000+ a Year From Photography
- How to earn $10,000 a month as a photographer
- Why you must be an expensive photographer
Photography Marketing 101
- Why Have More Followers?
- Why You Should Do Photography Work For Free
- How I Became an Internet Famous Photographer
- Photography Blogging Ideas
- Why You Should Promote Your Own Name
- How to Build a Following
- How to Stand Out as a Photographer.
- HOW TO GO VIRAL AS A PHOTOGRAPHER.
- How to Master Marketing
- How to Sell Yourself
How to Hustle.
- Entrepreneurial Advice to My 18 Year Old Self
- How to Become Insanely Productive.
- 5 Lessons From Hesiod on Hustling
Entrepreneurial Principles
- It is Better to Beg For Forgiveness Than Ask For Permission
- The Free Way to Become Rich
- JUST DO IT.
- 7 Steps: How to Make a Living From Your Passion
- How to Do What You Love for a Living
- How to Create an MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
- How to Fail Big
- How to Invest in Yourself
- How to Be Bold in Photography and Life
- Mission: Cover Your Rent and Food
- 1,000 True Fans
- The โ10x Principleโ: The Only Difference Between โSuccessโ and โFailureโ
- Make More Value Not Money
- We Live in a Photo Utopia
How to be a Full-time Photographer
- How to Make a Living From Photography
- The 3 Principles of Making Money With Photography
- Advice for Aspiring Full-Time Photographers
- Donโt Go Into Debt For Your Photography
- How to Brand Yourself as a Photographer
- Trust: The Most Important Thing You Need to Succeed as a Photographer
Photography Blogging
- How to become rich from photography blogging
- How to Make a Living with Blogging
- 50 Blogging Tips For Beginners
- How to Start Your Own Photography Blog
- A Photographerโs Guide to SEO, Blogging, and Social Media
How to Teach Photography
- How to Become a Photography Teacher
- How to Teach a Street Photography Class
- Why I Teach Street Photography Workshops
Social Media
- Why I Deleted My Instagram
- The Social Media Blackbook for Photographers
- Why Do You Need More Likes or Followers?
- Instagram is Going to Be the Next Facebook
- Donโt Trust โFreeโ Photography Social Networks
How to Save Money
MONEY 101
-
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. Iโve 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.โฆ is seen as so bad, taboo and evil? Technically if we can go from purely biologic perspective, it doesnโt 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 guiltโฆ and also Korean Korean American cultureโฆ 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.
โBetter to be a gay monster than a sentimental bore.โ – Galiani
Suggestions
First, become more loud ostentatious, more โratchetโ. Be the big swinging dick (Michael Lewis, Flash Boys).
Second, throw politically correct vocabulary into the trash, and be maximally suspicious of any โwokeโ talk. My heuristic:
โDonโt 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, Iโm 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
- Stoic philosophy: ZEN OF ERIC
- 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 โHe 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. Doesnโt 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 donโt use headphones or AirPods or whatever. If youโre 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, Iโm 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
- Street portrait assignment: start a street portrait project in which youโre 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 theyโre olderโฆ You could tell them that they have an elegant face and look. PDF
- If people ask you what youโre doing, say that youโre starting a personal photography project of the people of the city, and you consider them as integral to your project.
- 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 itโฆ honestly all these modern day โethicsโ, โrulesโ, 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 โplant-based dietโ. Funny enough, nowadays it is 100% fine to show up to a party and tell people that โI donโt eat meatโ, and low-key expect to be served vegetarian or vegan foodโฆ but it isnโt mainstream to show up to a party saying โI donโt eat vegetablesโ, 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 โbad for the planetโ.
However, I havenโt 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 โbad for the planetโ, because of how water hungry these plants are.
Why donโt 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.
Kingโs 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 donโt like the way I talk to you or about youโฆ You just walk away or donโt interact with me. Doesnโt 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 Jesusโฆ 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.โฆ 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 โThe 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 โthe chosen peopleโ. Iโm curiousโฆ 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 youโre 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 millionโฆ 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 directorโฆ certainly if my passion is cinema film and media, I will also be given better connections and privileges.
Butโฆ Does this matter? I donโt 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 oftenโฆ 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 โinvent 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 โmy real father, not my biological oneโโ 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 timeโฆ 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 Dondaโฆ Certainly this shapes your psyche in a certain way.
I donโt wish trauma on nobody
Just because you have suffered more trauma in your life doesnโt make you more virtuous than me, and vice versa. However, I donโt think we should either use it as a crutch nor a motivatorโฆ 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, โdownsideโโฆ Think about Mario kart; these โsetbacksโ 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 gymโฆ Essentially resulted in me innovating and doing my funny โoff 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.
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AI BEAUTY?
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BAD WEATHER IS GOOD WEATHER!
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Downgrade?
So the funny thought of the morning; it seems that a lot of us seek to โupgradeโ our things; why not the oppositeโฆ to seek to โdowngradeโ our things?
The most manly phone?
So I had a very funny thought a few days agoโฆ The questionโฆ
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.โฆ is seeking some sort of manliness, masculinity, a feeling of dominance. For example, why would you get a Richard Millie?
โRichard 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, โplant-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? โSaving the planetโ, โanimal rightsโ, 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 โbad for youโ,โฆ 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 itโs signals that we just spend way too much money on phones. I think it is not good.
For example, if youโre like me, a typical โtech broโ, 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, Iโm starting to think more and moreโฆ 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 Iโve 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 alsoโฆ 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 laptopsโฆ 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 innovativeโฆ And effectively Apple has discontinued it. Why? Once againโฆ 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 Senecaโฆ It looks like he is teaching himself also how to type, use tach GPT and AI, at age 2 years, nine months oldโฆ 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 youโre 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 โbetterโ 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 alsoโฆ 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 โupgradeโ, to go offline, think offline.
Offline Thinking
What is the ultimate privilege in todayโs 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 meโฆ 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 todayโs world is ultimate privilege and luxury.
How do you know if somebody is very successful or not? If they donโt 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 donโt 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, Iโve discoveredโฆ 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 didnโt check your email or use email for about two yearsโฆ 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 youโre out and about, leave your phone at home, and just take along your iPad Pro to think. Donโt 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, spectrumโฆ 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 โfuck 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 recentlyโฆ When I atlas lifted 1000 pounds, which is ten plates and maybe a 25 on each side.
The grandeur of the human body
โConspiracy 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 academicโฆ 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 โformโ is. Ultimately nobody cares about your form. And actually I discoveredโฆ 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 โwhat 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, Iโm moving forward, that just put zero faith on the Internet. Why? All these people on Redditโฆ 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 โon the Internet, nobody knows youโre a dog.โ
Even in ready player one, the main characterโs best friend, who he thought was a guy all alongโฆ 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 overnightโฆ And the issue is that Siri is great but nobody is using itโฆ Why donโt we try to just โnudgeโ 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 โhelp humanityโ, 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 Iโm personally having is that when I use my iPhone SE for Google maps to navigate somewhere when Iโm drivingโฆ 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 theyโre 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 donโt. I think it is a typical marketing thing; why would I upgrade my phone, my devices, my things if it is not a โupgradeโ?
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 whateverโฆ Went to go get a new car, and he definitely wanted a โupgradeโ. 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 ifโฆ 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 โฆ 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 hereโฆ 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 Coffeeโฆ It is so insanely great.
Now what?
The other night, when I was asking Chachi a bunch of stuff, doing research, creating images etc.โฆ I had this interesting epiphany:
AI is our new slave.
Why? We donโt got to pay it โfair wagesโ, we donโt 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 โcreative constraintโ,โฆ 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. It will immediately flag the ChatGPT, DALL-E 3 content policy violation thing. Or you cannot say something like โbeautiful Asian woman with big boobsโ. Also a no go obviously.
But things you could do is like say โbeautiful Asian woman at Met Galaโ. Or, beautiful joyful Asian woman in Cabo. Or โbeautiful Korean women in pure joyโ.
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 youโre 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 โdesigned 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 dayโฆ 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 โwhat do you think of my photoโ? Or โgive me feedback on my photoโ, โhow 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 โwhat is going on here?โ Or โanalyze thisโ.You could keep pushing it forward, you donโt 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 thinkโฆ 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 Proโฆ As time goes on, it literally gets worse. or, any modern day or even classic cars; all cars, made out of metal materialsโฆ 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 โshoulderโ. That means, lifting it up, throwing it onto your shoulder.
Also other things you could do as you get stronger itโs 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 โbarely 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. Iโve 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.
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ERIC KIM DALL-E 3
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SO BEAUTIFUL
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SENECA ERIC KIM AI ART
Seneca at age 2 years, 9 months old. Pure prodigy:
Things he is into:
- Ferraris (convertibles, 458)
- Fire trucks
- The color purple
Me:
- Lamborghini doors
- Back view
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LAYERS
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LA PARADISE II
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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 youโre in public or public places? As long as youโre not breaking any laws?
Why is this important?
This is the tricky thing; in America, weโre supposed to have freedom, freedom of speech, free religion, etc. Yetโฆ given all of these different cultures, how can we all get along?
The first thought is first and foremost, if you live in America, donโt matter if youโre an immigrant or not whateverโฆ we are all American. For example, in the times of the holy Roman Empire, everyone was considered a Roman, it didnโt matter if you were from Spain or Rome, etc.โฆ All Romans were Romans, as long as you were as citizen. Therefore, if youโre American, American citizen, or even if youโre here on the student visa, maybe you should just be considered American.
Maybe then it is a citizen thing.
โI 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, Iโve been playing a lot with ChatGPT and DALL-E, visualizing beautiful women in pure joy, or โtrophy wivesโ, or โfitness influencersโ, 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 Cindyโs Vietnamese, therefore Seneca is 50% Korean and 50% Vietnameseโฆ racial intermixing makes us stronger. Even in the context of dogs, mixed breed dogs tend to be healthier, more stout, than โpurebred dogsโ. 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 youโre 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 โhateโ speech?
The word โhateโ, simply means strong emotions. I think in modern day times with tend to think of โhateโ as being more about spewing vitriol and bad feelings to other people. But I donโt 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 donโt hate Donald Trump, but I am anti-Donald Trump. Overall, I donโt 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 โpolitically correctโ. The notion of being โwokeโ, is a very recent phenomenonโฆ only within the last year or two.
For example, if you talk a certain way, nobody should have the right to โcorrectโ the way that you talk. Similar speaking, Iโm not going to try to โcorrectโ the way that you talk.
The internet
The reason why a lot of people are foolish is that they talk about โfree speechโ on the Internet. Whoever talks like this is perhaps not critical.
First, if youโre using Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, etc.โฆ Youโre 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 โcensorshipโ on the Internet. What is โcensorshipโ? You ainโt 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 โculturally insensitiveโ. 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 โsensor โme by simply not having it show up in the newsfeed or the YouTube feed of others. But technically the video will still be thereโฆ 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, youโre not allowed to say โmake me a picture of a sexy womanโ, but you are allowed to say โmake 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, ultimatelyโฆ I think the best thoughts are unfiltered thoughts. Even Nietzsche, in his unpublished book โThe Will to Powerโ, states in the preface that these are simply notes to self.
Whenever I blog, write, publish anything or say anythingโฆ ultimately it is kind of like an echo chamber for myselfโฆ Iโm 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 stillโฆ Email is the future and so far much as it cannot be censored. I am starting to become more and more suspicious of Gmail thoughโฆ Because I think sooner or later, โspamโ filters might start filtering out emails which seem โculturally insensitiveโ, or โracyโ.
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. Iโve 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 Iโve 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 youโre still on Instagram, it shows some sort of servile mindset, and if youโre on YouTube, it also shows that youโre being programmed by the algorithm to produce videos which get lots of views, rather than saying whatโs 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, Iโve 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?
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LA PHOTO PARADISE
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LA PARADISE
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ERIC KIM ARTIST
Artists can do whatever they want? Alsoโ
Artists are remembered forever!
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Content Creator
- All content is good content.
- Create things you would like to see manifested in the world.
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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 youโre in public or public places? As long as youโre not breaking any laws?
Why is this important?
This is the tricky thing; in America, weโre supposed to have freedom, freedom of speech, free religion, etc. Yetโฆ given all of these different cultures, how can we all get along?
The first thought is first and foremost, if you live in America, donโt matter if youโre an immigrant or not whateverโฆ we are all American. For example, in the times of the holy Roman Empire, everyone was considered a Roman, it didnโt matter if you were from Spain or Rome, etc.โฆ All Romans were Romans, as long as you were as citizen. Therefore, if youโre American, American citizen, or even if youโre here on the student visa, maybe you should just be considered American.
Maybe then it is a citizen thing.
โI 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, Iโve been playing a lot with ChatGPT and DALL-E, visualizing beautiful women in pure joy, or โtrophy wivesโ, or โfitness influencersโ, 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 Cindyโs Vietnamese, therefore Seneca is 50% Korean and 50% Vietnameseโฆ racial intermixing makes us stronger. Even in the context of dogs, mixed breed dogs tend to be healthier, more stout, than โpurebred dogsโ. 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 youโre 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 โhateโ speech?
The word โhateโ, simply means strong emotions. I think in modern day times with tend to think of โhateโ as being more about spewing vitriol and bad feelings to other people. But I donโt 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 donโt hate Donald Trump, but I am anti-Donald Trump. Overall, I donโt 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 โpolitically correctโ. The notion of being โwokeโ, is a very recent phenomenonโฆ only within the last year or two.
For example, if you talk a certain way, nobody should have the right to โcorrectโ the way that you talk. Similar speaking, Iโm not going to try to โcorrectโ the way that you talk.
The internet
The reason why a lot of people are foolish is that they talk about โfree speechโ on the Internet. Whoever talks like this is perhaps not critical.
First, if youโre using Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, etc.โฆ Youโre 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 โcensorshipโ on the Internet. What is โcensorshipโ? You ainโt 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 โculturally insensitiveโ. 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 โsensor โme by simply not having it show up in the newsfeed or the YouTube feed of others. But technically the video will still be thereโฆ 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, youโre not allowed to say โmake me a picture of a sexy womanโ, but you are allowed to say โmake 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, ultimatelyโฆ I think the best thoughts are unfiltered thoughts. Even Friedrich Nietzsche, in his unpublished book โthe will to powerโ, states in the preface that these are simply notes to self.
Whenever I blog, write, publish anything or say anythingโฆ ultimately it is kind of like an echo chamber for myselfโฆ Iโm 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 stillโฆ Email is the future and so far much as it cannot be censored. I am starting to become more and more suspicious of Gmail thoughโฆ Because I think sooner or later, โspamโ filters might start filtering out emails which seem โculturally insensitiveโ, or โracyโ.
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. Iโve 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 Iโve 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 youโre still on Instagram, it shows some sort of servile mindset, and if youโre on YouTube, it also shows that youโre being programmed by the all rhythm to produce videos which get lots of views, rather than saying whatโs 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, Iโve 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.
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OPEN SOURCE STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT
- What is Street Photography? (2.4gb)
- Black and White (2.3gb)
- How to Shoot Street Photography (2.2gb)
- Street Portraits 101 (1.9gb)
- Conquer Your Fears (430mb)
- Composition (460mb)
- Masters (107mb)
- Editing and Post-Processing (1.3gb)
- Photography Projects (1.4gb)
- Motivation (3.7gb)
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ERIC KIM START HERE
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CHANGING THE WORLD
My general thought: first and foremost, this and you were supposed and meant to change the world.
โThose 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 โBe 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 gamble away the rent money, always being one paycheck away from being potentially homelessโฆ 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 accountโฆ 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 nowโฆ 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 โinsideโ.
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.โฆ 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 itโฆ it was a little beach palm tree icon, orange, and I called the company โParadise 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 Barryโฆ 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 didnโt 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, atโฆ 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 todayโฆ 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 bitโฆ 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 wasnโt 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 somethingโฆ 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 conditioningโฆ 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 Cindyโs family! The genealogy of the car was Cindyโs 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 Cindyโs 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 Cindyโs 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, โNo! 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 $2000โฆ 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?
I think I got a good definition for millennial; somebody who foolishly uses their money. And also doesnโt 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 Iโve noted:
- 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 whateverโฆ 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 everythingโฆ they are more common than seeing Toyota Siennas in the Orange County suburbs.
- Everyone aspires to buy a home. Yet I think my big innovative thought is that actuallyโฆ 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 worldโs least maintenance car, a Prius, even basic things that I gotta do is wash it every once in a while, I donโt 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 canโt 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 donโt 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 donโt use any alarm clocks to wake up in the morning, unless if they have an early morning flight.
Funny enough, I actually donโt know anybody, and donโt 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
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 โstealingโ their photos online. I even remember my friend Thomas Leuthard we had a good saying โThe 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 Iโve met, doesnโt matter if Magnum or whateverโฆ 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 โunwarrantedโ. Even Henri Cartier-Bresson โ let us never forget that he gave up photography and later announced it as โnot being a legitimate form of art.โ
Open is better
I always had the clear understanding that ultimately, you canโt 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 โsuccessfulโ 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 happyโฆ Yetโฆ What I ultimately discovered was this:
True success ainโt 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 โvia negativaโ; the idea that the proudest moments of your life arenโt 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, โ100 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 thoughtโฆ 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.
โYโall throwing contracts at me, you know that ninjas canโt 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 โThe 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 donโt 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 Iโve done what I said, in fact, Iโm pretty sure that I cannot build a ChatGPT bot which thinks, talks and acts like ERIC KIM, so in theory, the contributions Iโve 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 โfreedomโ is a bit concerning to some people. Yet is this something we should really be concerned about? Of course not! Itโs funny, whenever I eat dinner (I call this my โmeat meditationโ) I actually forget that Seneca is there, Iโm 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 โsingle 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 โchanges the worldโ. You donโt 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 youโฆ And also, doing things that your kid would be proud of you too!
So now what?
- Donโt be a cheapo: just download the ChatGPT app on your phone, if you have an iPhone or android device doesnโt matterโฆ Just cough up the 20 bucks for it. This literally might be the best $20 youโve 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 youโre violating some sort of content policy. I think pushing the limits is interesting and fun.
- 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
- If you want human feedback, upload your photos to Arsbeta.com
- 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 โappsโ, click it then on top you could see that you could create your own beta chat. I created this thing called Philosobot and Iโm also building an ERIC KIM bot. My mom is smart, she intuitively knows that Abot or AI or ChatGPT is a โrobotโ! Maybe we should stop calling it bots, just called them robots! Robots are not intimidating. They are cute, silly, and fun!
- 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 ainโt their fault that theyโre miserable, but stillโฆ 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 youโre 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.
Iโm also in the midst of creating a photography AI creativity workshop. Stay tuned to this newsletter for more updates.
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, youโll get a free set of ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE. What does Omakase mean? It literally means โI leave it up to youโโ based on the Japanese idea that when you go to a elite luxury sushi restaurant, you donโt 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 โERIC KIM AIโ, 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, theyโre going to make a shitload of money. If youโre 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 whateverโฆ I literally update it every five seconds. Never run out of inspiration or motivation!
โWe always think to ourselvesโฆ Why donโt I have enough? But what ifโฆ We already have too much?โ – Seneca
Also a new one:
โOut of discord comes harmonyโ – Heraclitus
Interestingโฆ 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!
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You Were Meant to Change the World
My general thoughts: first and foremost, this and you were supposed to change the world.
โThose 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 โBe 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 homelessโฆ 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 accountโฆ 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 nowโฆ 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 โinsideโ.
I think it was around my junior year, I had this great idea of doing something simple: because me and all of my friends werenโt to video games, kind of strike, kind of strike 1.6 etc.โฆ 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 itโฆ It was a little beach palm tree icon, orange, and I called the company โParadise 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 Barryโฆ 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 didnโt 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 carโฆ 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 todayโฆ 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 bitโฆ 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 somethingโฆ 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 conditioningโฆ 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 Cindyโs family! The genealogy of the car was Cindyโs 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 Cindyโs 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 Cindyโs 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, โno! The car is worth at least $10,000! โI 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 $2000โฆ 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 doesnโt 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 Iโve noted:
- 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 whateverโฆ 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 everythingโฆ They are more common than seeing Toyota sienna in the Orange County suburbs.
- Everyone aspires to buy a home. Yet I think my big innovative thought is that actuallyโฆ 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 worldโs least maintenance car, a Prius, even basic things that I gotta do is wash it every once in a while, I donโt 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 canโt 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 donโt 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 donโt know anybody, and donโt 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 โstealingโ their photos online. I always had the clear understanding that ultimately, you canโt 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 โsuccessfulโ 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 happyโฆ Yetโฆ What I ultimately discovered was this:
True success ainโt 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 โNasim Taleb was โvia Neivaโ; the idea that the proudest moments of your life arenโt 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, โ100 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 thoughtโฆ 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 โThe greatest good amongst men is to seek immortality amongst mortals. Yet the majority of men themselves like cattle.โ
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LA IS HEAVEN!
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Ever Evolving
The motivational thought of today; to be ever evolving.
For example, it seems that a big problem is that people donโt 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. Iโm just high off life!
In fact, fun fact; Iโve only ever smoked weed twice in my life; once when weโre 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 donโt 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 Iโve discovered that it actually takes more courage not to Drink alcohol than to imbibe.
Why is evolution critical?
First of all, youโre probably gonna live a long time. If you live long enough, youโre 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.
โShoot for the stars, because if you fail youโll 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 decidedโฆ He didnโt 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 whateverโฆ 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 donโt 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 โoriginalโ;. 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 โhelp me visualize a sexy clean grill at the beachโ, but what you can say is โhelp 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 donโt want to shell out the 20 bucks; people have the strange bias that they are somehow willing to spend $140,000 on Tesla, but theyโre 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, Iโve 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.
Iโve 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, thereโs 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 โfull 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. Donโt 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 โeugenics folksโ, 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. Heโs such a great entrepreneur that Walter Isaacson wanted to quickly get a biography out on him, maybe Walter Isaacsonโs 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, yetโฆ 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 ainโt Donald Trump or whatever who is the bad guyโฆ 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.โฆ 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 tabooโฆ 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 donโt 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.
Itโs 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, theyโre 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 donโt think bees are about โsingle originโ. In fact, too much focus on โsingle originโ, or โ100% 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 โKim-eh-Kim-ssiโโ 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 โmixed raceโ 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 youโre 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 โAfricanโ; 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 Chineseโฆ Is it the same thing?โ I then responded wittingly, โFrench and Spanishโฆ 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 โcontent marketingโ, and in someways ironically is less biased.
I think the future calling card is this:
โJust ChatGPT me!โ
ChatGPT knows whether youโre 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.
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Ever Evolving
The motivational thought of today; to be ever evolving.
For example, it seems that a big problem is that people donโt 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. Iโm just high off life!
In fact, fun fact; Iโve only ever smoked weed twice in my life; once when weโre 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 donโt 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 Iโve discovered that it actually takes more courage not to Drink alcohol than to imbibe.
Why is evolution critical?
First of all, youโre probably gonna live a long time. If you live long enough, youโre 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.
โShoot for the stars, because if you fail youโll 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 decidedโฆ He didnโt 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 whateverโฆ 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 donโt 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 โoriginalโ;. 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 โhelp me visualize a sexy clean grill at the beachโ, but what you can say is โhelp 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 donโt want to shell out the 20 bucks; people have the strange bias that they are somehow willing to spend $140,000 on Tesla, but theyโre 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, Iโve 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.
Iโve 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, thereโs 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 โfull 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. Donโt pigeonhole yourself into one small thing.
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ERIC KIM MASCULINE
Simple:
- Extreme disregard for the opinion of others.
- 100% carnivore diet โ only beef and lamb and pasture raised eggs.
- Weight lifting and being topless all the time โ 8 hours a day out in the direct sun!
- Striving to walk 50 miles a day โ the bear lifestyle.
- Smiling being friendly and talking to everyone I meet.
- No alcohol, weed, porn, jerking off.
- No Reddit, following the news, reading magazines or newspapers or following any other websites or blogs.
- Passion for stoic, Spartan, Ancient Greek Iliad and Achilles aesthetics.
- No fruits, vegetables, starches or sugar or milk.
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Street Photography is Just Public Photography
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
Dominate street photography:
STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 101
- HOW TO BECOME A BETTER STREET PHOTOGRAPHER
- Street Photography Mastery
- How I Became the Greatest Street Photographer Alive
- Antifragile Photography
- How to Conquer Your Fears in Street Photography
- INSANELY AUDACIOUS AND BOLD
- 5 Simple Street Photography Techniques
- STREET PHOTOGRAPHER.
- The Street Photographer Ideal
- 50 Street Photography Tips, Techniques and Ideas
- Street Photography Values
- STREET PHOTOGRAPHY DOESNโT NEED TO HAVE PEOPLE IN IT.
- Why Street Photography is So Great
- WHY BECOME A STREET PHOTOGRAPHER?
- Society Photography, Not โStreetโ Photography
- How to Street Photography
- STREET PHOTOGRAPHY OPTIONALITY.
- 10 Street Photography Tips
- The Street Photographer as the Apex Photographer
- Street Photography & Adrenaline
- STREETTOGS STARTING GUIDE
- 50 Street Photography Tips by ERIC KIM
- What I Wish I Knew If I Started Street Photography All Over Again
- Photograph like itโs not a big deal
- Suburb Street Photography
- What is Our Personal Motivation Behind Street Photography?
- WHY IโM SO PASSIONATE ABOUT STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
- Personal Street Photography
- STREET PHOTOGRAPHY AS A PRACTICE.
- Pandemic Street Photography
- AIRPORT STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
- How to Shoot Street Photography Right Now
- Towards a More Independent Street Photography Approach
- How Street Photography Improves Your Life
- How to Tell Stories in Your Street Photos
- Face Street Photography
- How to Start Shooting Street Photography
- How to Shoot Street Photography During a Pandemic
- 7 Street Photography Assignment Ideas
STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT
Master street photography with STREET PHOTOGRAPHY STARTER KIT.
STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 101
If youโre new to street photography, start here:
- The Ultimate Street Photography Tutorial
- Street Photography 101 Tutorial
- 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
- How to Shoot Street Photography
Brave New Street Photography
- 10 Lessons Iโve Learned from Street Photography
- SKIN IN THE GAME: STREET PHOTOGRAPHY ETHICS
- The Beauty of Mundane Happenings
- Humans and Environments
- Define Street Photography for Yourself
- Street Photography of People You Know
- Street Photography Composition Ideas
- How to Shoot Political Photography
- Social Photography
- Street Photography Lifestyle
- Why Street Photography is So Fun
- Street Photography for Mental Health
- How to Become a Street Photography Sharpshooter
- How to Shoot Kid Street Photography
- STREET PHOTO MANUAL
- Street Photography is an Approach, a Technique, and an Ethos
Street Photographs
- How to Shoot Street Photography with Dads and Kids
- HOW I BECAME SUCH A GREAT STREET PHOTOGRAPHER
- Use Quarantine as an Opportunity to Pick up Film Photography
- Hong Kong Street Photography by ERIC KIM
Street Photography Philosophy
- Brave New Street Photographer
- How to Talk to Strangers
- How to Shoot More Dynamic Street Photographs
- WHY I LOVE ARCHITECTURE AND STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
- Why Street Photography Brings Me So Much Joy
- How to Shoot Street Photography Video
- How to Shoot Street Photography in the Brave New COVID World
- The Future for Street Photography
- ALL STREET PHOTOGRAPHS ARE GOOD PHOTOGRAPHS.
- AMERICA by KIM
- Street Photography in a Non-Travel World?
- How to Shoot Street Photography During COVID-19
- You’ve Never Shot Photography Until You’ve Shot Street Photography
- Xenophilia: Love of Strangers
- My Street Photography Philosophy
- Why Street Photography is Important for Society
- HOW STREET PHOTOGRAPHY CAN CHANGE THE WORLD
- STREET PHOTOGRAPHY IS ABOUT LOVING ALL PEOPLE
- Real Life People vs Abstract People
- Is it OK to Piss Off or Annoy People in Photography?
- ANTI PURISM IN STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
- Street Photography of People You Know
- Street Photography is Courage
- MY STREET PHOTOGRAPHY PHILOSOPHY
- Street Photography Motivation from ERIC KIM
- I AM STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
- WHY TALK TO STRANGERS?
- Why Street Photography is Supreme
- How to Make Great Street Photos
- Street Photography Ideas by ERIC KIM
- Why Street Photography?
- The Street Photographer’s Soul
- How to Become a Fearless Street Photographer
- Black and White or Color for Travel Street Photography?
- Street Photographers are Adrenaline Junkies
- How to Master Street Photography
- Almost Anything and Everything is Street Photography
- Advice for Aspiring Street Photographers
- Street Photography Sociology
- Why There’s No Right or Wrong Way to Shoot Street Photography
- The Street Photographer as a Soldier-Artist
- Why Street Photography is the Best Photography
- Street Photography is a Way of Life
- How to Conquer Anxiety
- Street Photography is Art with People
Street Photography Articles
- How to Edit and Sequence a Photography Project
- Practical Street Photography Tips
- 5 Simple Street Photography Assignments
- Street Photography Composition Ideas
- 10 Advanced Street Photography Tips and Techniques
- Daredevil Photography
- Lingering Technique: How to Work the Scene in Street Photography
- Why Photograph People?
- No Guilt in Street Photography
- Street Photography is Hard.
- Street Photography Inspiration
- 5 Simple Tips How to Shoot Better Street Photos
- 10 Super Simple Street Photography Tips
- How to Shoot Head-On in Street Photography
- The Decapitation Technique in Street Photography
- Be Brazen in Street Photography
- How to Shoot Better Street Photographs
- Drive-By Technique in Street Photography
- How to Shoot a Wedding Like a Street Photographer
- Street Photography is 80% Risk Taking!
- 10 Simple Street Photography Principles
- 5 Fundamental Street Photography Principles
- 10 Street Photography Assignment Ideas
- How to Tell Stories in Street Photography
Street Photography Techniques
- How to Shoot Head-On Street Photography
- Street Photography Composition Tips
- In Praise of Street Vlogging
- How to Shoot Video Street Photography
- Street Photography Technique: The Stalker Technique
- Photography Technique: Take Photos While Walking!
- New Tokyo GoPro Fusion POV Street Photography YouTube Videos
- ERIC KIM Street Photography Tips and Technique
- The 360 Degree Technique in Street Photography
- How to Work the Scene in Street Photography
- How to Shoot Layers and the Bookend Technique in Street Photography
- Street Photography Technique: GET CLOSE & FILL THE FRAME + GOLDEN DIAGONAL COMPOSITION
- Street Photography Techniques: The 3D Scan/360 Degree Technique (Shooting Head-on) and Holding Your Camera High in the Air and Point Downwards (and Use Your LCD Screen to Frame the Scene)
- The Walking Alongside Someone and Shooting Until They Notice You Street Photography Technique
- SUPER INNOVATIVE NEW GOPRO STREET PHOTOGRAPHY POV EXPERIENCE: Cutoff Technique, Shooting Head-on with Flash, and Slow-Motion on RICOH GR II at 28mm
- How to Shoot a Street Portrait: Tips, Technique, and GoPRO POV Tutorial
- Street Photography Technique/Composition: Leading Lines and Crouching Down Low
- How to Shoot Layers in Street Photography: GoPRO POV Video Composition Tutorial
- How to Shoot Street Photography with a 24mm Lens
- The Cutoff Technique in Street Photography
- THE CUTOFF TECHNIQUE IN STREET PHOTOGRAPHY: GOPRO POV KYOTO ERIC KIM
Street Photography Ideas
- Street Photography is Like Fishing
- Why Do We Feel Nervous Shooting Street Photography?
- Street Photography Philosophy
- Everyday Street Photography
- Why Street Photography?
- Why You Must Follow Your Own Voice in Street Photography
- How to Overcome Guilt in Street Photography
- 5 Dynamic Off-Center Street Photography Compositions
- 5 Night Street Photography Composition Tips
- How to Talk to Strangers
- How to Overcome Fear in Street Photography
- Street Photography Empowerment
- Eric Kim’s Top 30 Street Photography Tips
- How to Shoot Street Photography on a 35mm Lens
- 7 Tips How to Conquer Your Fears of Shooting Street Photography
- Street Photography Lifestyle
- How to Use Tactful Flattery in Street Photography
- How to Conquer Social Anxiety With Street Photography
- Street Photography Secrets Debunked
- 10 Dynamic Street Photography Tips
- The Benefits of Shooting Street Photography
- The Street Photography Manifesto
- My Experience Shooting Digital Medium Format in Street Photography
- Why Do You Feel Guilty Shooting Street Photography?
- Improvise in Street Photography
- Ethics in Street Photography
Street Photography Composition Techniques
- 10 Inspirational Sergio Larrain Compositions
- 5 Henri Cartier-Bresson Photography Composition Lessons
- Street Photography Technique: Overlap
- Street Photography Composition Lesson: Chunking
- The Fishing Technique in Street Photography
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.
FUNDAMENTALS OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
- The Psychology of Street Photography
- Fundamentals to Street Photography
- How to Conquer Fear in Street Photography
- Street Photography Secrets
- NEO STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
- Street Photography Lenses
- Street Photography Settings
- Street Photography Techniques
- Street Photography Ideas
- CLOSER.
- CLEAN BACKGROUND
Street Photography Inspiration
- How to Enter the Street Photography Zone
- Simple Street Photography Tips
- How to Defuse Confrontations in Street Photography
- How to Make Controversial Street Photographs
- Street Photography Project Ideas
- How to Make Good Street Photos
- Is Defining โSTREET PHOTOGRAPHYโ a Good Thing?
- STREET PHOTOGRAPHY “RULES” TO BREAK
- Walking Meditation in Street Photography
- 10 COMMANDMENTS OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
- Street Photography is Improvisation
- In Praise of Randomness in Street Photography
- How to Become a Fearless Photographer
- How to Make Better Street Photographs
- 12 ERIC KIM Street Photography Assignments
- Meaningful Street Photography
- 25 Street Photography Tips by ERIC KIM
Beginner Street Photography Articles
Get started in street photography:
Definitions in Street Photography
- Visual Sociology Street Photography
- Why Street Photography?
- What is Street Photography?
- Why Shoot Street Photography?
- The History of Street Photography
How to Shoot Street Photography
- How to Shoot Street Photography
- Street Portraits 101 by ERIC KIM
- The Ultimate Beginnerโs Guide to Street Photography
- 70 Street Photography Tips for Beginners
- 15 Street Photography Techniques and Tips
- A Letter to My 18 Year Old Self: If I Started Street Photography All Over Again
Street Photography Equipment
- What is the Best Camera for Street Photography?
- What is the Best Lens for Street Photography?
- What to Consider When Buying a Camera
How to Conquer Your Fears in Street Photography
- How to Conquer Your Fears in Life
- Shoot What Youโre Afraid Of
- How to Channel Your Fear into Bravery
See all articles to conquer your fears >
Intermediate Street Photography Articles
Take your street photography to the next level:
- How to Become a Stoic Street Photographer
- The 10 Principles of Good Street Photography
- 7 Tips How to Capture โThe Decisive Momentโ in Street Photography
- The Importance of Social Skills in Street Photography
- The Street Photography Code of Ethics
- โTakingโ vs โMakingโ Photos in Street Photography
- Follow Your Gut in Street Photography
- 10 Reasons Why You Should Never Chimp While Shooting Street Photography
Advanced Street Photography Articles
Find deeper meaning in your street photography:
- How to Master Street Photography
- How to Be a Zen Street Photographer
- Personal Street Photography
- The โBookendโ Technique in Street Photography
- Street Photography is Self-Therapy
- Zen in the Art of Street Photography
- Taoism and Street Photography
- How to Find Your Style in Street Photography
- Follow Your Gut in Street Photography
Street Photography Tips & Technique
Learn how to shoot on the streets:
- 70 Street Photography Tips for Beginners
- 15 Street Photography Techniques and Tips
- Flash Street Photography Guide
- Take More Risks
- Don’t Think About Composition When You’re Shooting Street Photography
- 7 Tips How to Capture โThe Decisive Momentโ in Street Photography
- 7 Tips How to Make a Great Street Photograph
- Tokyo Street Photography Contact Sheets
- Video: Why it is Important to โWork the Sceneโ in Street Photography
- Shoot Less, Better
- Make Shitty Photos
- Shoot Effortlessly
- 10 Tips for Candid Street Photography
- 103 Lessons Iโve Learned From Street Photography
See all street photography tips and techniques >
Street Photography Guides
In-depth guides on street photography:
- How to Shoot Candid Street Photography
- How to Shoot Street Portraits with Permission
- How to Shoot Black and White Street Photography
- How to Shoot Color Street Photography
- How to Shoot Street Portraits with Permission
- How to Shoot Layers in Street Photography
- How to Shoot Urban Landscapes
Street Photography Equipment
The best equipment for street photography:
- What is the Best Camera for Street Photography?
- What is the Best Lens for Street Photography?
- Why I Love Cameras with Non-Interchangeable Lenses
- The Ultimate Beginnerโs Guide for Cameras in Street Photography
- What to Consider When Buying a Camera for Street Photography
- In Street Photography, The Smaller the Camera, the Better
- Why Sharpness is Overrated in Street Photography
- How to Shoot Street Photography on a DSLR
Street Photography Editing and Workflow
- Video: Introduction to Editing, Processing, and Workflow in Lightroom
- How to Edit (Choose Your Best Photos) in Street Photography
- How Studying Contact Sheets Can Make You a Better Street Photographer
- Debunking the โMyth of the Decisive Momentโ
How to Start a Street Photography Project
- Free E-Book: The Street Photography Project Manual
- How to Start Your Own Street Photography Project
- How to Come Up With a Personal Photography Project Idea
Learn From the Masters of Street Photography
“He without a past has no future.”
Start here:
- Why Study the Masters of Photography?
- Great Female Master Photographers
- Cheat Sheet of the Masters of Photography
- 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
- Beginner’s Guide to the Masters of Street Photography
- Download All Articles >
The Masters of Photography
Classics never die:
- Alfred Stieglitz
- Alec Soth
- Alex Webb
- Alexey Brodovitch
- Anders Petersen
- Andre Kertesz
- Ansel Adams
- Araki
- Blake Andrews
- Bruce Davidson
- Bruce Gilden
- Constantine Manos
- Daido Moriyama
- Dan Winters
- David Alan Harvey
- David Hurn
- Diane Arbus
- Dorothea Lange
- Elliott Erwitt
- Eugene Atget
- Eugene Smith
- Fan Ho
- Garry Winogrand
- Gordon Parks
- Helen Levitt
- Henri Cartier-Bresson
- Irving Penn
- Jacob Aue Sobol
- Jeff Mermelstein
- Joel Meyerowitz
- Joel Sternfeld
- Josef Koudelka / Part 2
- Josh White
- Lee Friedlander
- Lisette Model
- Magnum Contact Sheets
- Magnum Photographers
- Mark Cohen
- Martin Parr
- Martine Franck
- Mary Ellen Mark
- Rene Burri
- Richard Avedon
- Richard Kalvar
- Robert Capa
- Robert Frank
- Saul Leiter
- Sergio Larrain
- Sebastiรฃo Salgado
- Shomei Tomatsu
- Stephen Shore
- The History of Street Photography
- Todd Hido
- Tony Ray-Jones
- Trent Parke
- Vivian Maier
- Walker Evans
- Weegee
- William Eggleston
- William Klein
- Zoe Strauss
Free Downloadsj
Free Street Photography Books
Distilled information on street photography:
- STREET PHOTOGRAPHY MANUAL by ERIC KIM
- The Art of Street Photography
- 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
- Street Photography Contact Sheets
- Street Photography 101
- Street Photography 102
- Film Street Photography Manual
- The Street Photography Composition Manual
- The Street Portrait Manual
- 31 Days to Overcome Your Fear in Street Photography
- Zen in the Art of Street Photography
For more resources on photography, Start Here >
- What is Street Photography? (2.4gb)
-
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 insteadโฆ 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, youโre fine.
Something that people donโt understand and donโt get; no no no, robots and AI and these bots wonโt 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 Iโve 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 stuffโฆ This new ChatGPT4, and DALL-E 3โฆ 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 Iโll give you some suggestions.
And also, still my insane vision; I think ultimatelyโฆ 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 todayโs 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 youโre 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 Aaronโฆ who was by far the best StarCraft player that I knew, he was so good that he was thinking about going professionalโฆ 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 ifโฆ people were permitted and actually encouraged to use all of these bots and hacks? Like Iโm curiousโฆ 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.โฆ and in fact, the grading wouldnโt be based on if theyโre 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 actuallyโฆ 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 AIโฆ LEE SEDOL was shocked and amazed by all of the โcreativeโ 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 thingโฆ 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 youโre 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 youโre 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 doesnโt 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 โwhat 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 โwhyโ, 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
ERIC KIM WORKSHOPS
What can you become?
- INTRODUCTION TO STOICISM WORKSHOP: Downtown LA, DECEMBER 2nd, 2023
- DOWNTOWN CULVER CITY FAMILY STREET PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP, DECEMBER 16, 2023 โ New!
EK PHOTO SUPPLY
- ERIC KIM NECK STRAP MARK II: The only strap for RICOH GR
- BECOME THE GOAT: HENRI NECK STRAP MARK IV
- ERIC KIM OMAKASE COFFEE: Think better.
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=0Black and White (2.3gb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/l76eh3khc1pxj56/1.%20Black%20and%20White.zip?dl=0How to Shoot Street Photography (2.2gb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/iloxnstsvnbjxvy/2.%20How%20to%20Shoot%20Street%20Photography.zip?dl=0Street Portraits 101 (1.9gb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3tbs9g8pwg6gitm/3.%20Street%20Portraits%20101.zip?dl=0Conquer Your Fears (430mb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6benxn3jwdakt72/4.%20Conquer%20Your%20Fears.zip?dl=0Composition (460mb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z5l4gyp979o8z45/5.%20Composition.zip?dl=0Masters (107mb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7z1wahoig2v4s71/6.%20Masters.zip?dl=0Editing and Post-Processing (1.3gb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/elryenpk99uhpqh/7.%20Editing%20and%20Post-Processing.zip?dl=0Photography Projects (1.4gb)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zbj9c8q304buo0u/8.%20Photography%20Projects.zip?dl=0Motivation (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!
โWe always think we donโt got enough. But what if, we already have too much?โ – SENECA
-
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 insteadโฆ 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, youโre fine.
Something that people donโt understand and donโt get; no no no, robots and AI and these bots wonโt 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 Iโve 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 stuffโฆ This new ChatGPT4, and DALL-E 3โฆ 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 Iโll give you some suggestions.
And also, still my insane vision; I think ultimatelyโฆ 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 todayโs 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 youโre 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 Aaronโฆ who was by far the best StarCraft player that I knew, he was so good that he was thinking about going professionalโฆ 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 ifโฆ people were permitted and actually encouraged to use all of these bots and hacks? Like Iโm curiousโฆ 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.โฆ and in fact, the grading wouldnโt be based on if theyโre 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 actuallyโฆ 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 AIโฆ LEE SEDOL was shocked and amazed by all of the โcreativeโ 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 thingโฆ 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 youโre 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 youโre 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 doesnโt 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 โwhat 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 โwhyโ, 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:
- 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
- What is Street Photography? (2.4gb)
-
ERIC KIM AI ART
EK AI: