the ego and memory

So I think the ego anchors itself on our memories. To past numbers, past performances, or past states.

I think the reason why a lot of sports athletes like Michael Jordan gets so depressed is once you have reached the pinnacle, and you’re still alive… It must be insanely depressing, knowing that you’ll never reach that peak or summit ever again? And therefore they start to turn their efforts elsewhere, but, often not reaching the same level of mastery as they did in their first domain. For example, Michael Jordan and baseball golf, etc.

why does the ego matter?

The ego is our sense of self, kind of an operating system, which binds us together. Without it, nobody could function and live. And contrary to what other people think, I think that that you go is a sublimely, beautiful thing and vehicle, but I suppose it’s all about how you steer it.

the Antifragile ego

So if you think about the eagle, like some sort of biological organism, it experiences, wounds, injuries, maybe like a weightlifter or bodybuilder or sports athlete. Like when we have proper form or we don’t warm up or whatever… You could tear ligaments, dislocate things, break bones, etc. And in order to get back to your old state, requires interventions, healing, steroids, surgery, physical therapy, and a lot of time. Like if you are Kobe Bryant in your prime, think about all the ankle and ligament knee surgeries he has had over the years.

I think the way in which people quantify their ego is different based on their domain expertise. For example, artists in terms of their creative productivity, critical exclaim, etc. Actors and their roles, money managers, and their performances, sports athletes, and their wins and losses.

My theory is each, and every eagle seeks growth. And if it can no longer find growth in one domain, perhaps branches elsewhere?

Like for example… My first grand life mission was to become number one on Google for street photography, and I did it. And there’s a sense of gratification, knowing that I hit my target, and once you hit that target, it actually is not that important for me to maintain that goal, and then I could comfortably put my energies elsewhere if I want.

Probably one of the best things I did for my ego and self-esteem is deleting Instagram and social media, because once again… I demetricated my self worth and self esteem to arbitrary numbers.  and social media is really problematic because, it’s all kind of fake because you don’t know how many followers or likes are AI bots anymore, and the truth is having more social media numbers doesn’t mean that your ones and zeros in your bank account are going to go up.

Popularity and famous is also problematic because… You might see headlines and stuff, but it’s kind of an arbitrary thing. A lot of people have attempted to create scoreboards and ranking charts, but, I think fame is kind of more of an arbitrary thing in which individual has some sort of general self assessment of him or herself.

hormones and the ego

I think when your ego is wounded, it probably does something down for your hormones. It might affect your sleep, your physical, physiological health, certainly your mood, your general feelings.

Also, the tricky thing is… I think it is physiologically impossible for you to be super super up all the time, I think the human body requires fasting and waves, recovery, deep sleep, etc.… And also the general idea is you need some downs in order to go up higher.

I think the big intervention we are trying to do that is shortening the duration of being down, to perhaps close that negative feedback loop, and make it positive again? And how do we do that?

The first theory is, maybe identifying it. Like is your ego the issue? Are you quantifying your ego with some arbitrary measure? And or, is it a social issue in which it’s about how you’re treated and interacted with other human beings? Or some sort of social hierarchy?

Or is it capital or monetary or property related?

Or is it more of an existential thing in terms of your photography, creativity and art? 

Reformatting to zero

A child is not born with an ego, a child does have some sort of genetic programming which does dictate some stuff but, based on my observation at least with Seneca… Maybe 60 to 80% of how he interacts and how he talks is learned, socially through playgrounds and parks and school, other kids, friends, etc. And I think this idea of ranking or comparing or even quantifying is kind of a toxic thing that we teach kids early on in school. Like ideas of better or worse or having favorites is kind of more of an American first world thing. 

My first idea is, maybe it is a good idea to flush out your ego or reformat it every once in a while, kind of like how you do a deep flushing out of your pipes at home, reformatting your computer or your devices, taking it back to zero. One way you could do that is maybe think of your 12 year-old, 16-year-old, 18 year-old, maybe even your 21-year-old self before you were corrupted by the world and others. Because in terms of self assessment, we are trained to assess ourselves based on their opinions or the feelings of others.

distancing yourself more from others

I think this is a practical one is to distance yourself from other people, even the ones that you love. Why? I think a lot of of the expectations that other people even your loved ones have of you… will often cause you to go astray,  and taint your purity in terms of your own self motivation, your own self inner drive, etc. To be able to identify this and prune this is the first step to wisdom.

Physiology

My personal theory is 80% of depression is kind of a physiological one. Which means, much of physical depression could probably be overcome through intensive physical activity and exercise and weightlifting, hot yoga, long hikes in the great outdoors, feasting on beef, ribs and beef liver and juicy organ meats, deep sleep, and also disconnecting from media news and social media. It won’t fix everything but most of it.

the motivational ego

This is also a tricky one… I don’t think maybe the goal is to have a perfectly still tranquil and peaceful, serene Zen ego. But rather, ululations of difficulty which actually help you strengthen develop and augment your ego? So then… Ego tranquility is not the goal, but rather… Ego growth?

Seeking the good challenges

I’ll give you an example… To weightlifter or bodybuilder, our greatest Joy is waking up the next morning feeling sore, knowing that we had a good workout the day prior. And or, exerting our muscles to like 150%, and knowing that we gave it our all for a new one repetition, maximum personal record attempt. And then success and failure doesn’t even matter, but the joy of the full exertion.

wounds, which could be beneficial for growth?

If I think about my weightlifting journey, all of the injuries I’ve had whether minor or major, have helped calibrate me to refining my form technique, my warm-up, my methodology, etc. Taking it back to carte Blanche, ignoring all this nonsense on the Internet, and rather, kind of a more rigorous self experimentation, which has led me to lifting more than 2900 pounds.

tragedy as a fuel

Another thought about tragedies, they are not to be avoided or unexpected, but rather, developing some sort of godlike stoic disposition in which we could suffer the greatest of wounds, but after the supreme tragedy comeback stronger than ever?

Like for example, one thing which is actually quite puzzling or interesting to me is… Seeing how Donald Trump essentially lost maybe over $1 billion worth of properties, but even through that worst of tragedies, seems to be mostly unaffected? And then of course people will call him a psychopath and whatever… But I almost wonder… If having some sort of detached from reality mind could be a virtue? 

Even if you think about the stuff that Elon Musk has built, it is all from science fiction, and it seems impossible until he does it. Then it becomes a new normal and people will find another reason to berate him.

The ego on the deathbed

I think everyone wants to be on their deathbed, at peace, knowing that they lived a good life or a meaningful life. But maybe even on the contrary, perhaps I disagree? To die, satisfied, or totally at peace, is perhaps not the goal?

Because your legacy is not going to be remembered in terms of how your ego felt precisely at the moment of your death. Like you could be the most miserable person alive before you die, but if everyone remembers you as being a great individual with great contributions to society, and praises you, then your fleeting feelings, will not even really matter? The greater knowledge is knowing that you have children who will continue your legacy, hopefully grandkids, your writings, your artistic creations, whatever.

So then my thought is, focusing too much on your ego is not really that important? But rather, to simply delve deeply into your meaningful activities is what matters more?

I’ll give you an example… Elon Musk might be one of the most miserable people on the planet because he put so much pressure on himself to make humans interplanetary. That is like the world’s greatest task and attempt which is very uncertain. To put that level of pressure on yourself, is quite unhuman?

Miserable, but motivated?

Often setbacks can make us miserable… But they could also make us more motivated. More motivated to act, do, produce create, etc. and perhaps this is the greatest gift of all?

ERIC

what the Buddhists get wrong

So according to the Buddha life is all suffering, blah blah blah, but I kind of disagree. Certainly there were some stages in my life in which I had zero suffering, zero thoughts on my mind, zero problems, and issues… And while pretty fantastic, a bit empty, it’s actually not the desired and goal, I think the desire and goal is to simply be innovative, creative, motivated, to build, and make new things.

complacency is the only thing to avoid

I’ve been thinking a lot about life and time, the general idea is that time is the only truly valuate resource that we go on the planet because… Time slips away from your fingers so quickly. Your kids grow up so quickly, the days pass quickly, and think about how much time we devote to our jobs are occupations or whatever, or even our mind space towards certain things, which might end up seeming to be insignificant in the long run?

motivated for what?

So interesting thought is a god doesn’t require motivation, he or she simply does. A god doesn’t need motivation in order to do something, perhaps a god IS motivation. And when I speak about god, it is not with a capital G, I’m thinking kind of more of the pagan Roman Greek gods. 

There are certain things that you just do

Some of us call it “autotelic”, but maybe a simpler way to think about it is… We simply do it for the sake of doing it, we do it because we enjoy it, we simply do it because it is part of our being? And I also even wonder… We almost don’t do it necessarily to be “happy,” or even something we don’t think about, almost like breathing?

For me making photos is the same, I don’t really think about it. I see something, and there is this inner urge or compellation to shoot it. I tried to compose it well, and also get the exposure, right, and the right angle… But it’s not for the sake of getting likes on social media because I don’t use social media anymore, but rather, it’s kind of like my creative play thing, which is also part of my soul and being?

things that you do that don’t bring your joy, but you do anyways?

This is a very interesting idea, the idea of certain things that we do, for the sake of doing it, not because we are forced to do it, or must do it, but simply we do it? 

There is a certain feedback loop I think which motivates us to do certain things like, there is a desire of reward, perhaps some sort of hormonal uplift, and then the pattern is repeated. But how about… There’s a certain desire or thing that you want to do or acquire, you do it, it doesn’t give you that dopamine or serotonin hit, but for some reason, you keep doing it? I almost wonder if that’s a more honest way of approaching things?

It’s kind of like photography, I remember back in the day when I would make what I thought was a really really great photograph and I would get super excited to upload it and get a bunch of likes or whatever, but now, because I don’t upload my photos to social media, when I make a photo that I am pleased with, there’s more of like sort of inner joy or excitement that I have to review it for myself later, but not for the sake of getting some sort of external like from some other entity but simply from myself?

Gains without the joy?

I almost wonder if investing and trading is like the same thing, in which… There’s a typical thought that when you get gains, it gives you a hormonal uplift, but, assuming you trade and invest for a living or as a passion, or some sort of autotelic thing, if you get a bunch of gains, and you don’t feel anything whether good or bad… Maybe that apathetic state is actually a good thing? that you are not motivated simply by the hormonal rush, but rather something else? And that might be more rational and more intelligent?

The Stoics saw apathy as a virtue, apatheia–> The general idea is to not be too joyful when things are good, but simply to not also get two down when things are down. I mean for the most part, certainly Joy is a virtue, to feel joyful, get joy from things and people in society around you is a good thing! And I think most people what they desire is to feel joyful all the time, 24 seven, all the waking moments, and also feeling joyful and grateful before they sleep?

I’m probably one of the most joyful and cheerful persons that I know, but even when things are ideal and optimal, it’s physically impossible to be joyful, 100% of the time, and also… Assuming you want to augment your feeling of joy, even greater, ever higher… You probably need some sort of antipode, or the exact opposite of Joy, in order to maximize the high that you get from Joy?

For example, if you eat three square meals a day, never feel hunger, never fasted, or felt true hunger, the joy or the dopamine that you get from eating food is probably not that much. But assuming that you fasted for a week, and finally was able to save her the taste of food, the Joy that would bring you is probably multiplied by 1000.

Also, the interesting thought is, I think that people who typically undergo really, really deep depression, tend to actually be people who have not suffered that much adversity in their lives, or early on in their lives. This is why I think a lot of kids from wealthy families, often tend to suffer from depression and all these other bad feelings even more so than kids who grew up in a tough background?

It’s almost like can you imagine being a boxing fighter who has never been knocked out or punched in the face before? Certainly you would be a lot more fragile than a season boxer has gotten punched and knocked out a lot, but was able to keep getting up 100 times.

legacy

Typically, when we think about the heroes narrative, certainly there must be some sort of grand adversity, or downside that the hero experiences, and then overcomes like Odysseus in the Odyssey, John Wick, in the John Wick series, or the humiliation and tragedy of Achilles. In fact, the tragic heroes are often the most glorified because, our admiration for them, being able to conquer adversity, and as a result, become stronger from it?

Like can you imagine watching a superhero film in which the protagonist has never suffered any tragedy or downside or trauma, it would probably be a pretty boring movie. And I also think that with us humans, it doesn’t matter how rich powerful or successful you are, each, and every single one of us on the planet has probably experienced at least 123 extremely terrible tragedies in our lifetimes? And also… The really successful people at the top, have probably experience maybe at least 20 really really deep tragedies in injuries and terrible things?

Like for example, Elon Musk, has probably suffered at least 12 tragedies in each of the successful companies that he built. Perhaps on the road to extreme success at the pinnacle… You must also stomach more tragedy? 

infinite optionality, infinite capital 

OK, so I thought: ultimately I think what we see from capital is optionality. For example, the more capital You got, the more optionality you have.

I think typically speaking, everyone wants more optionality. Nobody likes to feel restricted.

unlimited resources

I think nowadays, things can feel scarce because the cost of everything is going up, but still… Do you think about it, at this point everything is practically unlimited. For example, with beef liver, which is only $2.99 a pound, and even myself I was barely able to eat one and a half pounds of liver last night, and assuming that you’re the average person who doesn’t lift 3000 pounds, you could probably easily feed yourself on like three bucks a day.

At this point, water is also unlimited. And free.

Gas gas prices could be higher, but assuming you drive a Prius, the prices are negligible still… And or, if you have an electric vehicle.

why infinite

So I think the concept of infinite is really fasting because, it doesn’t really matter how much you got. For example, then it’s not about reaching certain goals or milestones, whether it be $1 million, $2 million, $3 million, $4 million, $5 million, 678 9,10 100 and beyond.

Infinite physiological energy

You got infinite sleep, wouldn’t that mean that you have infinite physiological energy? I mean, there are certain things which are harder to control, like if you have a newborn child… But, besides that, if you don’t have kids, or your kids are older or whatever… Being able to control how much you sleep is totally in the realm of your control. I think like 95% of humanity would really benefit if they had a strict 6:30 PM or 7 PM bedtime.

What do you desire to do with unlimited?

Then the goal isn’t to just go out and buy unlimited Lamborghinis or whatever, because even with unlimited resources, your time is still limited. If anything, time is the only limited resource on the planet. You could always produce more energy, make more food, whatever… but time is the ultimate constraint. 

no ceilings

So assuming that you’re an investor, then your time horizon is forever, and, your goal isn’t to lock in gains in order to just purchase more trophy goods but, you just want to see the number keep going up infinitely forever. That is your hope and joy.

If you’re an artist or a writer or a creator, then you’re only desire, hoping goal is to never run out of creative energy, power, and ideas. Even if you were like a trillionaire artist, but you ran out of creative ideas, that would probably cause you terrible anguish.

I was even thinking, assuming you’re an actor… They’re only probably really happy when they’re acting… But when they’re not acting or maybe they no longer get any more roles… That is their deepest depression? 

Then the goal doesn’t matter

So once again, the idea of infinite is such a powerful idea because, your goal is not to hit a certain goal target, and also it doesn’t really matter how much you have, but what truly matters is, your forever striving towards that infinite?

Like even being weightlifter, your goal is to keep infinitely lifting more weight, devising of more clever ways to move your leverage, or innovating, new approaches, and techniques to lift have your weights, and of course, no steroids.

Also being a bodybuilder… Is also perhaps much about indefinitely, increasing your testosterone, with more beef, liver, organ, meats, beef, ribs, etc., and I don’t think it’s actually about consuming more food, like it’s probably more beneficial for you to eat 1 pound of beef liver than 10 pounds of potatoes, so then it’s all about nutritional density. Trying to figure out ways to consume more deeper, nutrient dense foods?

Once again, back to the organ, meat example, i’m quite certain that if you’re a weightlifter or a bodybuilder or fitness person, eating a pound of liver might be better for your testosterone in your muscle building than even eating 3 pounds of beef steak? And also the upside of consuming eggs, including the yolk, because in terms of pound for pound it may be the most nutrient dense food on the planet?

spacecraft

Other day went to the opening exhibit at the California science center seeing the US spaceship endeavor. I think what was really shocking to me. Was the scale just how big it was in person, especially the fuel tanks. And I was thinking, wow… If you could condense all of that human inspiration and motivation into those fuel tanks in the spacecraft, that is truly phenomenal.

infinite ambition

I think the biggest inspiration from Elon Musk is, he really is uncapped by nothing. Only the laws of physics.

Even devising the idea of being able to create a spacecraft, a starship that could takeoff and re-land vertically with some sort of catching mechanism blows my mind?

Think 20-30 years

I think this is a really difficult thing because we like to see big results really immediately. However, the truth is, in order to create some paradigm shifting things, will take at least 10 15 20, 30 40 years, perhaps even longer?

Then that means, life is like an ultra extreme endurance race? So then you’re only measure of success in life is range durability and longevity, let’s keep going infinite baby!

ERIC

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Additional thoughts on my mind as of now:

If you know you could afford everything then what?

Infinite power 

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infinite optionality, infinite capital 

OK, so I thought: ultimately I think what we see from capital is optionality. For example, the more capital You got, the more optionality you have.

I think typically speaking, everyone wants more optionality. Nobody likes to feel restricted.

unlimited resources

I think nowadays, things can feel scarce because the cost of everything is going up, but still… Do you think about it, at this point everything is practically unlimited. For example, with beef liver, which is only $2.99 a pound, and even myself I was barely able to eat one and a half pounds of liver last night, and assuming that you’re the average person who doesn’t lift 3000 pounds, you could probably easily feed yourself on like three bucks a day.

At this point, water is also unlimited. And free.

Gas gas prices could be higher, but assuming you drive a Prius, the prices are negligible still… And or, if you have an electric vehicle.

why infinite

So I think the concept of infinite is really fasting because, it doesn’t really matter how much you got. For example, then it’s not about reaching certain goals or milestones, whether it be $1 million, $2 million, $3 million, $4 million, $5 million, 678 9,10 100 and beyond.

Infinite physiological energy

You got infinite sleep, wouldn’t that mean that you have infinite physiological energy? I mean, there are certain things which are harder to control, like if you have a newborn child… But, besides that, if you don’t have kids, or your kids are older or whatever… Being able to control how much you sleep is totally in the realm of your control. I think like 95% of humanity would really benefit if they had a strict 6:30 PM or 7 PM bedtime.

What do you desire to do with unlimited?

Then the goal isn’t to just go out and buy unlimited Lamborghinis or whatever, because even with unlimited resources, your time is still limited. If anything, time is the only limited resource on the planet. You could always produce more energy, make more food, whatever… but time is the ultimate constraint. 

no ceilings

So assuming that you’re an investor, then your time horizon is forever, and, your goal isn’t to lock in gains in order to just purchase more trophy goods but, you just want to see the number keep going up infinitely forever. That is your hope and joy.

If you’re an artist or a writer or a creator, then you’re only desire, hoping goal is to never run out of creative energy, power, and ideas. Even if you were like a trillionaire artist, but you ran out of creative ideas, that would probably cause you terrible anguish.

I was even thinking, assuming you’re an actor… They’re only probably really happy when they’re acting… But when they’re not acting or maybe they no longer get any more roles… That is their deepest depression? 

Then the goal doesn’t matter

So once again, the idea of infinite is such a powerful idea because, your goal is not to hit a certain goal target, and also it doesn’t really matter how much you have, but what truly matters is, your forever striving towards that infinite?

Like even being weightlifter, your goal is to keep infinitely lifting more weight, devising of more clever ways to move your leverage, or innovating, new approaches, and techniques to lift have your weights, and of course, no steroids.

Also being a bodybuilder… Is also perhaps much about indefinitely, increasing your testosterone, with more beef, liver, organ, meats, beef, ribs, etc., and I don’t think it’s actually about consuming more food, like it’s probably more beneficial for you to eat 1 pound of beef liver than 10 pounds of potatoes, so then it’s all about nutritional density. Trying to figure out ways to consume more deeper, nutrient dense foods?

Once again, back to the organ, meat example, i’m quite certain that if you’re a weightlifter or a bodybuilder or fitness person, eating a pound of liver might be better for your testosterone in your muscle building than even eating 3 pounds of beef steak? And also the upside of consuming eggs, including the yolk, because in terms of pound for pound it may be the most nutrient dense food on the planet?

spacecraft

Other day went to the opening exhibit at the California science center seeing the US spaceship endeavor. I think what was really shocking to me. Was the scale just how big it was in person, especially the fuel tanks. And I was thinking, wow… If you could condense all of that human inspiration and motivation into those fuel tanks in the spacecraft, that is truly phenomenal.

infinite ambition

I think the biggest inspiration from Elon Musk is, he really is uncapped by nothing. Only the laws of physics.

Even devising the idea of being able to create a spacecraft, a starship that could takeoff and re-land vertically with some sort of catching mechanism blows my mind?

Think 20-30 years

I think this is a really difficult thing because we like to see big results really immediately. However, the truth is, in order to create some paradigm shifting things, will take at least 10 15 20, 30 40 years, perhaps even longer?

Then that means, life is like an ultra extreme endurance race? So then you’re only measure of success in life is range durability and longevity, let’s keep going infinite baby!

ERIC

capital, capitalism as a fantasy? 

So the big carrot, and the stick that we are indoctrinated with is… Once you have amount of capital, or money or whatever… You will be happy in order to purchase XYZ. Whether that be a home vehicle, renovations, traveling trips, good food, something else? Or even a sense of Security, peace of mind, etc.

So the first tricky thing is… Once you hit a certain target number, there might be a slight elevated Joy, a hormonal rush, but frankly speaking, it is very short-lived, until you set your eyes on the next goal, Lilly pad or prize.

It’s kind of like weightlifting and bodybuilding, everyone dreams of hitting a certain number for any of their lifts, or their physique numbers, etc.… But once you achieve it, once again, it’s onto the next goal, the next target.

what to do about this

So I have this idea of carpe diem capital, basically the very very simple idea is… Assuming that you’re only living for today, what are you actually missing or lacking today right now in this current moment, in terms of whatever?

So for example… Your food, your meat supply, like a simple question: will you be able to feed yourself enough meat to feel grand and satisfied today?

Carpe diem fitness

To be able to exercise do fitness go a hike lift with whatever… This is like the ultimate privilege. I think people have it wrong, they think that exercise and fitness is some sort of hateful obligation in order to fit some sort of physique or numbers, but the truth is, ultimate privilege is actually having the time the opportunity or even the energy and power to exercise. We should see fitness as our play thing and and our fun, rather than a hateful obligation.

Carpe diem creativity

I think we humans are a creative species, in terms of being innovative and clever, and also having a desire to create things from our own imagination. Certainly we need to consume a certain amount of food and resources to keep going, but consumption is not the end goal of life, it is simply the vehicle to get us to where we desire. My thought for us as artist creator conquerors:

all we need is our meat and our art, nothing else. 

Fantasy is good if it is linked with creativity

So my first idea is… Fantasy like science fiction or whatever, is extremely helpful and beneficial in terms of imagining some sort of different reality in terms of helping us innovate brand new things. Like self driving cars, high-powered smartphones, digital money, digital capital, bitcoin, space, travel, different modes of societal living (think dystopia films), electric cars, digital cameras, the internet etc.

what’s the point of all these innovations?

I think the first one is removing some sort of economical or time barrier to doing things that we desire to do. For example, our passion is photography, assuming digital photography and The Internet and computers were never invented, I think it would be very, very expensive and time-consuming, if everyone was still stuck in film photography.

Another very simple one is… My passion with weightlifting. Because of the Internet, digital payment rails, I have the privilege of purchasing my own weightlifting equipment, so I don’t have to go into a gym in which I am limited by the equipment, and also the time in order to even get a squat rack, let alone finding parking.

desired end goals

Once you hit a certain number in terms of your capital, sure it might make you feel good, physiologically and hormonally… But it actually may not make a real difference in terms of your lifestyle in terms of what you eat and what you do on a day-to-day basis.

think activity

The ideal outcome with capital is to simply free up your time your attention, your focus, the schedule of your day. Like not having to go into an office and go on a hike instead, being able to lift weights, garden, photography, review and publish your photos, or even the time to do creative writing, thinking, reading, etc.

Therefore, my first simple thought is, I suppose life is all about activity, in terms of what you do with your time and energy, not in terms of what you purchase? And I think a lot of capitalism has to be about having the capital power in order to purchase something. 

The privilege of riding a bike

One of my greatest joys is simply being able to ride my bike, take Seneca to school on a bike, etc. I think like 90% of a lot of people’s attention in America is towards vehicles, in terms of what vehicle they drive, or what they want to dream of in terms of a fantasy car. Whether a Bugatti, a Lamborghini or something else.

But the true insight is, the ultimate privilege is to simply not own any cars, and never having to drive. Let alone drive yourself. In Asia, nobody drives themselves, they have personal drivers. So if you think about having the ultimate privilege in America, it would probably be like a full self driving Tesla. And then a vehicle simply like a trophy instrument rather than something that is actually desirable? 

Bad fantasy?

So I suppose that fantasy could be very harmful if, you are always tethered or anchored to some sort of future outcome, like in terms of your monetary power, your physique, your weightlifting numbers etc.

Yesterday I went to a Zen meditation sound bath, and I had this insight or this visual of like this centered, brass gong or circle, the idea that everything emanates from this circular central thing, and vibrates, expands, and contracts.

So in terms of capital… Maybe it’s a good idea to think of this centered, circular capital… Which ebbs and flows, expands and contracts, never stays the same. And then the insight is, it’s going to get bigger or smaller, expand, and shrink overtime, but it kinda does what it does… I think the optimistic thing is it expands in contracts, but overall grows overtime… And I also suppose that is where patience is a virtue.

Maybe life is the same thing… It expands and contracts, but ultimately favors long-term growth?

ERIC

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chaos.

A brass band.

A stranger dancing.

Ancient architecture.

A face illuminated by impossible light.

A procession.

A quiet doorway.

A surreal interaction.

A moment that exists for three seconds—

and then disappears forever.

THIS IS WHY WE PHOTOGRAPH.

New Orleans rewards the photographer who walks.

Who wanders.

Who looks.

Who gets lost.

Who follows curiosity instead of Google Maps.

Who notices the strange detail.

Who approaches the interesting stranger.

Who sees life unfolding and has the courage to move toward it.

For a street photographer—

NEW ORLEANS IS A VISUAL FEAST.

THE CITY IS THE WORKSHOP.

Forget fluorescent lights.

Forget sitting in a conference room watching PowerPoint slides.

Our classroom is the street.

Our teachers are strangers.

Our curriculum is reality.

Our exercises are real encounters with real human beings.

Our material is light, movement, faces, gesture, architecture, coincidence and chaos.

The city itself becomes the creative laboratory.

WE WILL LIVE INSIDE THE PHOTOGRAPH.

For two days, your mission is simple:

Walk.

See.

Approach.

Photograph.

Take risks.

Follow your instinct.

And keep moving.

A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME STREET PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERIENCE

Think about it.

There will never again be January 9–10, 2027 in New Orleans.

The people we encounter will never stand in exactly the same places.

The light will never fall in precisely the same way.

The crowds will be different.

The conversations will be different.

The gestures will be different.

The weather will be different.

Every photograph we make will be the record of something that existed—

ONCE.

Then vanished.

That is the magic of street photography.

You are not manufacturing reality.

You are hunting reality.

You are collecting fragments of existence before they disappear.

And there may be no better city in America to experience this than New Orleans.

NEW ORLEANS IS BUILT FOR STREET PHOTOGRAPHERS

Texture everywhere.

Characters everywhere.

History everywhere.

Movement everywhere.

Mystery everywhere.

The visual possibilities are almost ridiculous.

You can photograph:

faces.

hands.

architecture.

street performers.

reflections.

shadows.

signs.

crowds.

loneliness.

joy.

eccentricity.

elegance.

decay.

beauty.

absurdity.

human connection.

New Orleans contains contradictions on almost every block.

Old and new.

Sacred and profane.

Joy and melancholy.

Beauty and grit.

Stillness and movement.

Order and chaos.

CONTRADICTION CREATES GREAT PHOTOGRAPHS.

This is precisely what makes the city so visually powerful.

THE GOAL IS NOT TO COME HOME WITH 10,000 PHOTOS.

The goal is to come home CHANGED.

More courageous.

More curious.

More decisive.

More visually awake.

More comfortable around strangers.

More confident trusting your intuition.

More willing to take risks.

More capable of turning an ordinary walk through any city into an adventure.

The photographs are the evidence.

THE REAL ARTWORK IS THE PHOTOGRAPHER YOU BECOME.

DAY ONE — DESTROY HESITATION

The first enemy of street photography is hesitation.

You see the moment.

You know it’s interesting.

And then—

you freeze.

You start calculating.

Should I photograph this?

Will they notice me?

Will somebody say something?

Is the composition perfect?

Should I move closer?

And suddenly—

THE MOMENT IS DEAD.

Day one is about breaking that hesitation.

You will learn to move faster.

Think less.

Trust yourself.

Approach.

Shoot.

Smile.

Engage.

Move forward.

We will work directly on courage.

Not theoretical courage.

PHYSICAL COURAGE IN THE STREET.

The courage to raise the camera.

The courage to get closer.

The courage to make eye contact.

The courage to speak.

The courage to risk rejection.

The courage to follow your curiosity.

DAY TWO — GO DEEPER

Once fear starts disappearing—

we can create.

Now we become more ambitious.

More experimental.

More intuitive.

We hunt for:

stronger compositions.

deeper layers.

more interesting gestures.

better backgrounds.

visual tension.

juxtaposition.

emotion.

mystery.

moments that make you stop and stare.

We begin moving beyond simply photographing what something looks like.

We begin photographing what something FEELS LIKE.

THAT IS WHERE STREET PHOTOGRAPHY BECOMES ART.

I WILL PHOTOGRAPH ALONGSIDE YOU

I am not going to stand on the sidewalk with a clipboard telling you what to do.

I will be in the streets with you.

Photographing.

Approaching.

Exploring.

Experimenting.

Failing.

Discovering.

You will see exactly how I operate.

How I move through crowds.

How I approach strangers.

How I sense opportunities.

How I work a scene.

How I decide when to get closer.

How I interact with people.

How I transform uncertainty into action.

LEARN BY WATCHING.

LEARN BY DOING.

Then develop your own approach.

The goal is not to turn you into Eric Kim.

The goal is to help you become MORE YOU.

ONLY SEVEN PEOPLE.

Not 20.

Not 30.

Not 50.

SEVEN.

Why?

Because I want this to feel more like an expedition than a seminar.

Seven people can move.

Seven people can talk.

Seven people can actually get to know each other.

Seven people means I can pay attention to everyone.

Seven people means we can disappear into the city instead of becoming a giant photography tour group.

I want:

A CREW.

A tiny band of photographers entering New Orleans together with cameras around our necks and curiosity turned to maximum.

Seven people.

Two days.

One city.

THAT’S IT.

Once the seven places are filled—

the doors close.

YOU DO NOT NEED AN EXPENSIVE CAMERA.

Bring what you love.

Leica.

Ricoh.

Lumix.

Fujifilm.

Sony.

Canon.

Nikon.

iPhone.

Whatever.

Nobody cares.

The greatest camera in the world cannot compensate for fear.

And the simplest camera becomes powerful in the hands of somebody with courage.

COURAGE > CAMERA.

The equipment is secondary.

The human being holding it is everything.

BEGINNERS ARE WELCOME.

You don’t need decades of experience.

You don’t need to understand every technical setting.

You don’t need an impressive portfolio.

You need three things:

Curiosity.

Energy.

Courage.

Everything else can be learned.

EXPECT TO WALK.

Street photography is physical.

We will move.

We will explore.

We will wander.

We will follow whatever looks interesting.

Bring comfortable shoes.

Travel light.

Carry as little as possible.

One camera is enough.

One lens is enough.

You don’t need a giant backpack of equipment.

LESS GEAR.

MORE WALKING.

MORE SEEING.

MORE COURAGE.

COME TO NEW ORLEANS FOR THE PHOTOGRAPHS.

Leave with something bigger.

Imagine arriving in New Orleans on the first morning.

Camera charged.

Shoes on.

Seven photographers assembling.

Everybody slightly nervous.

Everybody excited.

Then we start walking.

An hour passes.

Two hours.

You forget about yourself.

You stop worrying about whether people are watching you.

You become absorbed by the city.

Suddenly every block becomes potential.

Every stranger becomes mystery.

Every patch of light becomes possibility.

Every corner asks:

WHAT IS OVER THERE?

This is the state I want.

Total visual curiosity.

Your mind becomes quiet.

Your eyes become hungry.

Your body moves instinctively.

You are no longer thinking about photography.

YOU ARE PHOTOGRAPHING.

THIS IS WHY YOU TRAVEL.

Not merely to consume another destination.

Not merely to say:

“I’ve been to New Orleans.”

But to enter a place deeply enough that it changes your perception.

To experience a city through your own feet.

Your own eyes.

Your own conversations.

Your own photographs.

Years later—

you may forget the hotel.

You may forget what restaurant you ate at.

You may forget the flight number.

But you will remember:

the face of a stranger.

the strange afternoon light.

the photograph you almost didn’t make.

the moment you forced yourself to get closer.

the image that surprised you.

the laugh after somebody noticed your camera.

the streets.

the people.

the feeling.

THOSE EXPERIENCES BECOME PART OF YOU.

THE ULTIMATE SOUVENIR IS A PHOTOGRAPH YOU MADE YOURSELF.

Anybody can buy a postcard.

Anybody can buy a print.

Anybody can scroll through photographs of New Orleans online.

But there is something fundamentally different about looking at an image ten years later and knowing:

I WAS THERE.

I saw this.

I walked toward it.

I raised my camera.

I made this photograph.

It exists because I HAD THE COURAGE TO MAKE IT.

That is priceless.

THE DETAILS

ERIC KIM NEW ORLEANS STREET PHOTOGRAPHY EXPERIENCE

New Orleans, Louisiana

January 9–10, 2027

TWO-DAY STREET PHOTOGRAPHY IMMERSION

MAXIMUM 7 PARTICIPANTS

Normal admission:

$2,500 USD

Early-bird admission:

$999 USD

Early-bird pricing ends:

DECEMBER 9, 2026

After December 9, admission returns to $2,500 USD, assuming spots remain.

AFTER YOU REGISTER

Once registration is confirmed, you will receive the additional workshop information, including:

meeting points,

meeting times,

what to bring,

logistics,

recommended areas to stay,

and everything else you need to prepare for our New Orleans adventure.

SECURE YOUR PLACE

PAYPAL REGISTRATION

https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/FBEKMPSDZDK74

ONLY SEVEN SPOTS.

Think about the opportunity.

Two days completely dedicated to photography.

No emails.

No office.

No normal routine.

You.

Your camera.

Seven photographers.

And one of the most extraordinary cities in America unfolding around you.

NEW ORLEANS.

Go somewhere strange.

Photograph people you’ve never met.

Walk streets you’ve never walked.

See things you’ve never seen.

Make photographs you could never make at home.

Become more courageous than you were before you arrived.

LIFE IS SHORT.

Your photographs are waiting.

Your adventures are waiting.

Your courage is waiting.

COME TO NEW ORLEANS.

WALK THE STREETS.

MEET STRANGERS.

MAKE PHOTOGRAPHS.

CREATE MEMORIES.

BECOME FEARLESS.

ERIC KIM

NEW ORLEANS.

JANUARY 9–10, 2027.

ONLY SEVEN PEOPLE.

REGISTER NOW:

https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/FBEKMPSDZDK74

But for the sake of what?

Capital & motivation?

Maybe the carrot and stick in modern-day capitalist society is… The promise of future gain and capital, capital growth is what keeps us going?

Therefore, inherently, capital capitalism is both motivational and also optimistic? 

Capital for the sake of what?

Once you got your basic living, needs an expenses covered, why have additional capital?

Number go up is what brings us joy?

So the first idea is… Just seeing the number go up, whatever your account or metric is… Is highly joyful because the signals to you again a strength and power.

It’s kind of like weightlifting… The joy of any weightlifter is to see his or her numbers go up in terms of his or her personal record in terms of his or her one repetition, maximum, personal record of how much he or she could lift.

goals?

This is the bigger thing… Honestly hitting a goal is kind of a little bit overrated. For example, for dead lift, do you want to hit four plates or five plates or six plates or seven plates, 400 pounds 500 pounds 600 pounds 700 pounds 800 pounds,

I think this is also why a lot of people who are no longer at their prime or peak get so depressed because, they remember the past version of themselves in which they could lift 1000 pounds, but now they could only lift 500 pounds.

Also, this is probably the problem of bodybuilders because a lot of guys who take steroids and whatever… Often rate their self-worth by how much they weigh, like I used to be 300 pounds with a six pack, but now I’m only like 160 pounds.

anchoring yourself to your past self?

I think it’s human nature to anchor ourselves with numbers or stuff. Like for example… If you’re once a billionaire and now you’re only worth 500 million or 100 million… Certainly you’re going to be much more depressed than somebody who started off poor and finally gained $1 million.

This is also where competition with others is not a good idea because it doesn’t make sense to increase yourself with to somebody else, and you have no idea if they’re taking steroids or whatever.

anchoring to your past self?

So then the big idea is… If you have once reached a certain summit,,, is it useful or a good idea to increase yourself to that past summit?

 my general idea is, perhaps it is only useful if it is motivational, and encourages you! But… Becoming detached to whether you actually retain that past version of yourself or not.

Like for example… Let us say once upon a time you lifted 2000 pounds, but 10 years later, you still want to do that, even if you come close like 1900 pounds,,, you’ll still be insanely happy?

“feeling good” is a hormonal thing?

Autotelic capital

Capital for the sake of capital? Is this a good idea?

Hormonal epiphanies?

Like after the high you get off of one rep Max lifting attempt,,, … the clarity or epiphanies you get are true and great?

Dopamine and hormones, we delight in change?

Perhaps change over time is what brings us joy? 

How much value can you create?

Value creation, not wealth creation?

being wealthy

The Interesting irony about wealth is when you are wealthy, and you know it… It doesn’t really bring you, happiness or pleasure, would rather, simply the absence of displeasure or annoyance?

Via negativa emotions, with wealth?

So the privilege of being wealthy and wealth, is simply absence of annoyance?

The time of the highest danger

Everything bad about you is good about you 

Detached from results, but loving the process?

More volatility, greater life?

why do we want more capital?

so this is a big question to consider… Why have more? Like hitting a certain Personal record, and going beyond? For the sake of what?

I suppose the same question has to be with weightlifting… Why strive for new personal records, new heights? Perhaps, it is an affirmation of life, of optimism for the future, the supreme Joy?

ERIC

Treat capital like a not too serious game

Detached from the results, loving the thrill of the ride?

EK

Capital as the vehicle but not the end destination

Perhaps the best way to think about it also is capital as the vehicle to get to your end destination, not the end in itself?

Similarly, speaking, your vehicle your car is not the point in itself… It is simply a vehicle to get to your final destination. So to obsess about your car rather than your destination seems foolish.

ERIC

START HERE, BOOKS, NEWSLETTER, WORKSHOPS

Rest up!

A new thing I’ve been trying to do inspired by Cindy is like a mild coffee and caffeine detox on the weekends. Either cutting back or eliminating coffee and caffeine sources, allowing your body to do some sort of soft reset. I think the best thing is to just accept the fact that you’re gonna feel super sluggish and uninspired for the weekend, but that’s OK… As long as you’re ready to conquer Monday.

routines?

I think the big idea is you want a routine that you love! A routine in which, you essentially streamline doing more of what you love doing?

I think we are not foolish. You’re not going to be motivated to do something that you don’t want to do. I think this is a big secret in life… All motivation in life must be autotelic, self motivated, and also self directed and directional.

it’s all in your hips

Also, a big thing that I’ve been doing with my fitness stuff is first always prioritizing my hips. To prioritize exercise exercises which strengthen mobilize stretch out and warm-up the hips. For example, most yoga related stuff, ninja poses, pigeon, pose, sumo squat, and this is a big idea… When you are stretching and warming up your hips, adding weights! For example, throwing on your 60 pound weight vest and doing a pigeon pose with it, or grabbing 105 pound kettlebell by the horns and using that to stretch out your hips, or two 45 pound plates stacked together, just have fun and be creative with it!

The benefits are, the more hip strength and mobility you got, essentially, you will be able to lift more, and also, less likely for injury? I actually think that most injuries with weightlifting, especially leg related stuff is simply because our hips are not strong enough?

Also most knee leg foot ankle Achilles tendon issues and even lower back issues tend to originate from the hips because it is the first fulcrum and lever in terms of walking movement and mobility. So I wonder… Are most mobility issues, simply hip related? And it doesn’t matter if you’re a man or woman… I think it affects us all the same. 

Assuming the concept of motivation is related to movement like walking or lifting weights or whatever… Physically and physiologically moving your body, the more you oil up your hips, the more that you’ll walk and move? With greater strength and mobility?

motivated to do what?

I think the great savior of AI is… For what, 20 or $30 a month, do you have this cyber you that is like 1 trillion times more productive than you? And the good thought is… That means that you actually don’t need to work on being productive anymore. That your purpose in life is not productivity, most people think about motivation for the sake of being productive. But once again… If we could offload all of our productivity to the AI… Doesn’t that mean we could simply focus on better things?

Like do you remember back in the day, also thinking about Tim Ferris’s 4 hour work week… isn’t the goal to only work four hours a week? And just let AI do the rest of the dirty work?

I think the trap is… You could either let the AI do all the work, and you maximize your mind space and creative leisure, or you have AI fill in the gap, actually extending your work week in order to produce more?

I think one thing that does not scale well is human attention and time. Like for example… Even though you might listen to podcasts on 2X or 4X speed, you cannot listen to 1000 podcast a day, irregardless of how disciplined you are. Also, there’s really no virtues to reading 1000 books a day either.

Once again, it’s a via negativa thing –> actually the ideal is to read little to no books, listen to very few podcasts if none, and spending more of your day to let your mind go empty, and channeling that mind space in order to write more, think more, maybe vlog more?

Mind space 

One of the best ideas that I got for my friend Jeffrey Lam is this idea of mine space. The idea that, it’s not about the total numbers of hours that we got in a day to think, but rather, having the privilege to let your mind go empty and fallow in order to have the privilege to have an empty mind.

obsessions

For the most part, I think obsessions are good if they motivate you, perhaps not so good if they do the opposite.

don’t check don’t measure

Probably one of the most useful things that I discovered almost like a decade ago is… In order to be more motivated and productive as a creator is to simply disable and never look at any metrics, because then you start to attach self-worth to these arbitrary numbers. Especially in the age of AI… Algorithms almost don’t really matter anymore. Because the AI simply sidesteps the algorithm, and AI becomes the new middleman, replacing the algorithm. So it’s not about gaming the algorithm anymore, it’s about gaming the AI.

I actually think, the new way to be successful on the Internet is, making all of your websites and Web presence optimized for AI, ChatGPT, Grok, x search. The big question is how to monetize this right now cause nobody is clicking on websites anymore which means no Google ad revenue or upselling?

I think having an email newsletter is still very useful but even that is starting to get filtered by the AI? For example, in today’s world, the intelligent strategy is to use an AI bot to scan your email and do the dirty work for you. So I suppose then, it’s trying to become creative and think beyond the filters. 

The magic of photography

Cindy recently just got us a brand new Ricoh GR 4 HDF, highlight diffusion filter. It’s quite magical essentially what it does is… Especially when shooting high contrast, black-and-white, any part of your frame, which has bright highlights, or what would typically be blown highlights, become soft diffused, like some sort of dreamy, fairy glow, which looks absolutely amazing and dreamlike. It’s almost like having the upside of the softness of film, paired with the harsh contrast and sharpness of a modern day digital camera?

Chasing that glow or simply my curiosity on how the highlight diffusion filter will work on different scenarios is actually what motivates me to shoot more photos. Because I’m genuinely curious how the photos will manifest. The same thing goes with the Ricoh monochrome, my curiosity and using the red filter, turning it on and off to see how that changes how the photos turn out.

Also, if anything, my fascination with black-and-white photography was simply because I was curious on how you take reality and reinterpret it into monochrome, and how that changes how the scene or thing looks?

I suppose that’s the magic, the magic trick, not knowing with certainty how things will turn out. And maybe this is also the motivation or the self motivation for scientist and experiments, the joy of doing an experiment is precisely… You’re curious how the outcome will be, and you’re not 100% certain? Like Jeff Bezos said, if you already know what that’ll come of an experiment is going to be, it’s not an experiment. And perhaps that’s what being an inventor is all about, the uncertainty, joy, and delight of trying something new that you’re curious about?

ERIC

ERIC KIM VISION AI

Insanely excited to share ERIC KIM vision AIA new thing that I am vibe coding with grok build. Essentially upload your photos, and automatically have it show compositional lines on top of your photos, and also suggest different versions of your photos.

Super cool try it out >

START HERE, BOOKS, NEWSLETTER, WORKSHOPS

Rest up!

A new thing I’ve been trying to do inspired by Cindy is like a mild coffee and caffeine detox on the weekends. Either cutting back or eliminating coffee and caffeine sources, allowing your body to do some sort of soft reset. I think the best thing is to just accept the fact that you’re gonna feel super sluggish and uninspired for the weekend, but that’s OK… As long as you’re ready to conquer Monday.

routines?

I think the big idea is you want a routine that you love! A routine in which, you essentially streamline doing more of what you love doing?

I think we are not foolish. You’re not going to be motivated to do something that you don’t want to do. I think this is a big secret in life… All motivation in life must be autotelic, self motivated, and also self directed and directional.

it’s all in your hips

Also, a big thing that I’ve been doing with my fitness stuff is first always prioritizing my hips. To prioritize exercise exercises which strengthen mobilize stretch out and warm-up the hips. For example, most yoga related stuff, ninja poses, pigeon, pose, sumo squat, and this is a big idea… When you are stretching and warming up your hips, adding weights! For example, throwing on your 60 pound weight vest and doing a pigeon pose with it, or grabbing 105 pound kettlebell by the horns and using that to stretch out your hips, or two 45 pound plates stacked together, just have fun and be creative with it!

The benefits are, the more hip strength and mobility you got, essentially, you will be able to lift more, and also, less likely for injury? I actually think that most injuries with weightlifting, especially leg related stuff is simply because our hips are not strong enough?

Also most knee leg foot ankle Achilles tendon issues and even lower back issues tend to originate from the hips because it is the first fulcrum and lever in terms of walking movement and mobility. So I wonder… Are most mobility issues, simply hip related? And it doesn’t matter if you’re a man or woman… I think it affects us all the same. 

Assuming the concept of motivation is related to movement like walking or lifting weights or whatever… Physically and physiologically moving your body, the more you oil up your hips, the more that you’ll walk and move? With greater strength and mobility?

motivated to do what?

I think the great savior of AI is… For what, 20 or $30 a month, do you have this cyber you that is like 1 trillion times more productive than you? And the good thought is… That means that you actually don’t need to work on being productive anymore. That your purpose in life is not productivity, most people think about motivation for the sake of being productive. But once again… If we could offload all of our productivity to the AI… Doesn’t that mean we could simply focus on better things?

Like do you remember back in the day, also thinking about Tim Ferris’s 4 hour work week… isn’t the goal to only work four hours a week? And just let AI do the rest of the dirty work?

I think the trap is… You could either let the AI do all the work, and you maximize your mind space and creative leisure, or you have AI fill in the gap, actually extending your work week in order to produce more?

I think one thing that does not scale well is human attention and time. Like for example… Even though you might listen to podcasts on 2X or 4X speed, you cannot listen to 1000 podcast a day, irregardless of how disciplined you are. Also, there’s really no virtues to reading 1000 books a day either.

Once again, it’s a via negativa thing –> actually the ideal is to read little to no books, listen to very few podcasts if none, and spending more of your day to let your mind go empty, and channeling that mind space in order to write more, think more, maybe vlog more?

Mind space 

One of the best ideas that I got for my friend Jeffrey Lam is this idea of mine space. The idea that, it’s not about the total numbers of hours that we got in a day to think, but rather, having the privilege to let your mind go empty and fallow in order to have the privilege to have an empty mind.

obsessions

For the most part, I think obsessions are good if they motivate you, perhaps not so good if they do the opposite.

don’t check don’t measure

Probably one of the most useful things that I discovered almost like a decade ago is… In order to be more motivated and productive as a creator is to simply disable and never look at any metrics, because then you start to attach self-worth to these arbitrary numbers. Especially in the age of AI… Algorithms almost don’t really matter anymore. Because the AI simply sidesteps the algorithm, and AI becomes the new middleman, replacing the algorithm. So it’s not about gaming the algorithm anymore, it’s about gaming the AI.

I actually think, the new way to be successful on the Internet is, making all of your websites and Web presence optimized for AI, ChatGPT, Grok, x search. The big question is how to monetize this right now cause nobody is clicking on websites anymore which means no Google ad revenue or upselling?

I think having an email newsletter is still very useful but even that is starting to get filtered by the AI? For example, in today’s world, the intelligent strategy is to use an AI bot to scan your email and do the dirty work for you. So I suppose then, it’s trying to become creative and think beyond the filters. 

The magic of photography

Cindy recently just got us a brand new Ricoh GR 4 HDF, highlight diffusion filter. It’s quite magical essentially what it does is… Especially when shooting high contrast, black-and-white, any part of your frame, which has bright highlights, or what would typically be blown highlights, become soft diffused, like some sort of dreamy, fairy glow, which looks absolutely amazing and dreamlike. It’s almost like having the upside of the softness of film, paired with the harsh contrast and sharpness of a modern day digital camera?

Chasing that glow or simply my curiosity on how the highlight diffusion filter will work on different scenarios is actually what motivates me to shoot more photos. Because I’m genuinely curious how the photos will manifest. The same thing goes with the Ricoh monochrome, my curiosity and using the red filter, turning it on and off to see how that changes how the photos turn out.

Also, if anything, my fascination with black-and-white photography was simply because I was curious on how you take reality and reinterpret it into monochrome, and how that changes how the scene or thing looks?

I suppose that’s the magic, the magic trick, not knowing with certainty how things will turn out. And maybe this is also the motivation or the self motivation for scientist and experiments, the joy of doing an experiment is precisely… You’re curious how the outcome will be, and you’re not 100% certain? Like Jeff Bezos said, if you already know what that’ll come of an experiment is going to be, it’s not an experiment. And perhaps that’s what being an inventor is all about, the uncertainty, joy, and delight of trying something new that you’re curious about?

ERIC

Cut out things which MESS UP your self confidence

I think the first big thought is… via negativa. That is… Identifying that which reduces or messes up yourself of self-confidence, typically with numbers, whether it be finances and the market, social media numbers, etc. Making yourself blind to this is good.

separation between yourself and “reality”

The second idea is… Disconnecting yourself a bit from reality, creating your own “reality distortion field“. If you want a truly antifragile self esteem and self ego, it cannot be dependent upon others. You must think of your own self-directed virtues, what you yourself are proud of, following your own inner scorecard.

aesthetics

Ultimately, being handsome, beautiful, aesthetically, beautiful whatever I think it’s the ultimate pursuit in terms of your body. Like it’s better to have a demigod physique and live life mean, rather than being a super fat guy in a Porsche or Ferrari. Or in other words, better to look like a Spartan rather than a Persian.

hormonal self esteem and self confidence?

I also have this idea that, assuming that your hormones are out of whack, you cannot sleep, or you do not sleep, you don’t lift weight exercise every day, you don’t eat beef liver… You have chronically low testosterone and chronically high elevated cortisol levels… perhaps like Elon Musk, I don’t think you could actually feel self-confident?

And I think this is the interesting thought… Based on how physiologically unwell Elon looks in his interviews, I would actually probably make the case that his self-esteem self ego and has happiness and joy levels are actually super low?

Which makes me wonder… You could be the richest most powerful man on the planet… But if you’re not self-confident and you’re like chronically, unwell… Is it worth it? Perhaps not. 

Being a little self-delusional is a virtue.

Reality is subjective anyways.

How to keep improving or increasing your self esteem and ego?

My thought is… Perhaps ego self-esteem is limitless. Assuming that you could demetricate yourself from attaching self-esteem to the external world of numbers… Then in some ways… Being able to independently augment your self esteem and ego indefinitely seems like a virtue?

START HERE, BOOKS, NEWSLETTER, WORKSHOPS

Thus the irony… he or she who is the most cheerful, unhappy, and optimistic, has typically survived or overcome, or have gone through the worst tragedies?

Therefore, life isn’t about hoping or wishing that you’ve never gone through bad things, or not wishing bad things for others or your kids… But rather to have the courage, mental and physical fortitude to get through the other side stronger? 

the happiest person, as once the most tragic person?

Cut out things which MESS UP your self confidence

I think the first big thought is… via negativa. That is… Identifying that which reduces or messes up yourself of self-confidence, typically with numbers, whether it be finances and the market, social media numbers, etc. Making yourself blind to this is good.

separation between yourself and “reality”

The second idea is… Disconnecting yourself a bit from reality, creating your own “reality distortion field“. If you want a truly antifragile self esteem and self ego, it cannot be dependent upon others. You must think of your own self-directed virtues, what you yourself are proud of, following your own inner scorecard.

aesthetics

Ultimately, being handsome, beautiful, aesthetically, beautiful whatever I think it’s the ultimate pursuit in terms of your body. Like it’s better to have a demigod physique and live life mean, rather than being a super fat guy in a Porsche or Ferrari. Or in other words, better to look like a Spartan rather than a Persian.

hormonal self esteem and self confidence?

Being a little self delusional is a virtue.

How to keep improving or increasing your self esteem and ego?

My thought is… Perhaps ego self-esteem is limitless. Assuming that you could demetricate yourself from attaching self-esteem to the external world of numbers… Then in some ways… Being able to independently augment your self esteem and ego indefinitely seems like a virtue?

But for the sake of what?

Capital & motivation?

Maybe the carrot and stick in modern-day capitalist society is… The promise of future gain and capital, capital growth is what keeps us going?

Therefore, inherently, capital capitalism is both motivational and also optimistic? 

Capital for the sake of what?

Once you got your basic living, needs an expenses covered, why have additional capital?

Number go up is what brings us joy?

So the first idea is… Just seeing the number go up, whatever your account or metric is… Is highly joyful because the signals to you again a strength and power.

It’s kind of like weightlifting… The joy of any weightlifter is to see his or her numbers go up in terms of his or her personal record in terms of his or her one repetition, maximum, personal record of how much he or she could lift.

goals?

This is the trigger thing… Honestly hitting a goal is kind of a little bit overrated. For example, for dead lift, do you want to hit four plates or five plates or six plates or seven plates, 400 pounds 500 pounds 600 pounds 700 pounds 800 pounds,

I think this is also why a lot of people who are no longer at their prime or peak get so depressed because, they remember the past version of themselves in which they could lift 1000 pounds, but now they could only lift 500 pounds.

Also, this is probably the problem of bodybuilders because a lot of guys who take steroids and whatever… Often rate their self-worth by how much they weigh, like I used to be 300 pounds with a six pack, but now I’m only like 160 pounds.

anchoring yourself to your past self?

I think it’s human nature to anchor ourselves with numbers or stuff. Like for example… If you’re once a billionaire and now you’re only worth 500 million or 100 million… Certainly you’re going to be much more depressed than somebody who started off poor and finally gained $1 million.

This is also where competition with others is not a good idea because it doesn’t make sense to increase yourself with to somebody else, and you have no idea if they’re taking steroids or whatever.

anchoring to your past self?

So then the big idea is… If you have once reached a certain summit,,, is it useful or a good idea to increase yourself to that past summit?

 my general idea is, perhaps it is only useful if it is motivational, and encourages you! But… Becoming detached to whether you actually retain that past version of yourself or not.

Like for example… Let us say once upon a time you lifted 2000 pounds, but 10 years later, you still want to do that, even if you come close like 1900 pounds,,, you’ll still be insanely happy?

“feeling good” is a hormonal thing?

Autotelic capital

Capital for the sake of capital? Is this a good idea?

Hormonal epiphanies?

Like after the high you get off of one rep Max lifting attempt,,, … the clarity or epiphanies you get are true and great?

Dopamine and hormones, we delight in change?

Perhaps change over time is what brings us joy? 

How much value can you create?

Value creation, not wealth creation?

being wealthy

The Interesting irony about wealth is when you are wealthy, and you know it… It doesn’t really bring you, happiness or pleasure, would rather, simply the absence of displeasure or annoyance?

Via negativa emotions, with wealth?

So the privilege of being wealthy and wealth, is simply absence of annoyance?

The time of the highest danger

Everything bad about you is good about you 

Detached from results, but loving the process?

More volatility, greater life?

why do we want more capital?

so this is a big question to consider… Why have more? Like hitting a certain Personal record, and going beyond? For the sake of what?

I suppose the same question has to be with weightlifting… Why strive for new personal records, new heights? Perhaps, it is an affirmation of life, of optimism for the future, the supreme Joy?

ERIC

So the first thought is, what is it that we all desire and want? I think it is to feel insanely great. In terms of mood, physiology, health, wealth, power, a sense of ascendancy, physical, and physiological figure in your legs, your body, having slept insanely well last night. Ready for the mysteries of the day.

wealth is wellness and health

So I think if you study the Proto Indo European, for wealth it’s like “hwelh”,  which means well, wellness, wealth. To be well, as the opposite of being unwell.

From from a physiological and hormonal perspective, to be and become physiologically well is actually quite simple. No drugs, no alcohol, no stimulants no uppers no downers, our only vice is a single cup of coffee first thing in the morning. If anything, the real path to wellness would be not drinking any coffee or caffeinated beverages.

Also… Bedtime. Even the ancient heroes of the Iliad, once the sunsets, everyone retires their weapons, retreats back into the camp, feasts, and joins and song and dance with their compatriots, nobody “ pulls an all nighter”,  and keeps on fighting out of virtue when the sun is down. No they are not stupid. They know their ability to fight at their maximum potential is seriously a disadvantage at night, so they retire.

And this is also the truth, I really don’t think any productive work happens after 3 PM. Ideally, you would just stop working at 3 PM, turn off all your screens and devices, feast on beef liver, whole eggs, anything that maximizes your testosterone production, close your blinds and try to get to bed at like 5:30 PM or 6:30 PM. Then if you gotta work, waking up early naturally instead.

Society vs you

The biggest issue here is a societal, sociological one. The big idea is, in terms of everyone trying to work, work schedules, etc.… It is very unfortunate that it is based on this arbitrary 9 to 5, Monday through Friday, etc. The truly sovereign man would dictate his own schedule, every day, and never have to schedule anything in advance. 

Certainly, this makes it difficult to do traditional business, but we are not in traditional times, come on… We got AI we got bitcoin, we have digital capital that runs 24 seven, 365. In some regards, I think the best way to make money in wealth in today’s world is actually not dealing with other humans, but rather with AI and bitcoin. Digital digital capital. The brave New World of digital capitalism. 

Fitness

So one thing that AI cannot do for you is go on wonderful walks and hikes in the great outdoors, to lift 16 times your body weight, to give you physiological and hormonal rushes associated with one rep Max lifting. Also, AI cannot get you a good nights sleep. 

The reset

I think the big idea is, just try to give yourself a hard reset like doing a hard reformat of your computer, but you’re doing it with your body instead. And I suppose a big question is how much do you care? I care a lot.

So the simple thing is quit, partaking in marijuana related things before sleep, quit drinking alcohol, dopamine secreting things in the evening related to electronic stuff, and during the day just spending maximum time outside in the direct sun, trying to ride a bike instead of a car, and lifting weights at least once every day.

Numbers

I think a lot of people have a lot of goals, which are number related. Whether it comes to finances capital, weightlifting, your body physique, etc. Why do we use numbers or rulers or benchmarks or framing? I think it is to track a certain amount of progress, in terms of being able to scientifically in mathematically track and measure your progress, as if a sense of progress or growth is what brings us joy?

I supposed this is the problem… Like if you don’t measure yourself, but technically, you’re still growing, is it worth it? Of course! I think even if you’re not aware that you’re growing, you probably are.

enjoying the process

Each and every day and morning without fail, after dropping off Seneca at school, I go on a little morning walk and hike. I don’t track my steps or distances, I simply do it because I love it! It’s almost like integral to my well-being? A day that I don’t hike, I feel less joyful? 

Also, when I get back home, the first thing I do is lift weights before do anything. And this is a big idea, don’t do anything work related or external related until after you’re done lifting weights.  why? Because the state of your body, your physiology, your hormones, your blood flow is drastically and dramatically different before you lift weights and after you lift weights. So the ideal is, assuming that you want to do your work related stuff at maximum performance, it only makes sense to do it after you’re done lifting weights, and you have this positive hormonal rushes of power and well-being.

Also, this is another interesting thing I’ve noticed… There could be certain up days or down days in the market, but if you’re not well rested and you’re physiologically, unwell… It almost doesn’t matter? Like if your body feels terrible, even making a monster gain in a single day, doesn’t bring you any joy and delight? So then, what’s the point of doing all this finance stuff anyways?

I think that is why the body is the starting point of all things, wisdom related, and once again, hormones are highly underappreciated.

Even fat gain is an adipose tissue game, it’s probably more of an insulin hormonal response to sugar starches, artificial sweeteners, even zero calorie sweetened stuff because, it ain’t about calories, it is your bodies sensitivity to sweet things, and the insulin rush on hormonal, rush that accompanies it.  this is why even if you run at a calorie deficit on a daily basis, but 90% of your diet is sugar and starches, you’ll get fatter and fatter. But if you do the inverse, abstaining from all starches and sugars and sweet things, feasting only on beef, liver, beef, ribs, whole eggs, etc.… You’ll get a six pack in no time.

why does this matter?

The truth is, when you’re on your deathbed, you’re not going to care about how many ones in the zeros you have in your bank account, not even how many bitcoins you own. You’re probably not gonna really care that much about how much capital you have. Because no matter how hard you work, you’ll never be richer than Elon Musk. And perhaps that is a good thought because then… The game isn’t to become the wealthiest man on the planet, but rather something else?

What is it that all men desire?

Eternal fame, glory, legacy.

Like for example, think about all the people who are remembered in history, we don’t remember any of them based on how wealthy they were, but rather their contributions to humankind and humanity. Like all the great philosophers, most of them had a pretty meager living, and even the great innovators, entrepreneurs, and technologists, how to experience one if not many terrible tragedies and downturns in their career. And frankly speaking nowadays, I really don’t think it’s about successfnornfailure, or whatever… But instead, health wellness, aesthetics, philosophy, thoughts, the human body, and your hormones? 

But for the sake of what?

Capital & motivation?

Maybe the carrot and stick in modern-day capitalist society is… The promise of future gain and capital, capital growth is what keeps us going?

Therefore, inherently, capital capitalism is both motivational and also optimistic? 

Capital for the sake of what?

Once you got your basic living, needs an expenses covered, why have additional capital?

Number go up is what brings us joy?

So the first idea is… Just seeing the number go up, whatever your account or metric is… Is highly joyful because the signals to you again a strength and power.

It’s kind of like weightlifting… The joy of any weightlifter is to see his or her numbers go up in terms of his or her personal record in terms of his or her one repetition, maximum, personal record of how much he or she could lift.

goals?

This is the trigger thing… Honestly hitting a goal is kind of a little bit overrated. For example, for dead lift, do you want to hit four plates or five plates or six plates or seven plates, 400 pounds 500 pounds 600 pounds 700 pounds 800 pounds,

I think this is also why a lot of people who are no longer at their prime or peak get so depressed because, they remember the past version of themselves in which they could lift 1000 pounds, but now they could only lift 500 pounds.

Also, this is probably the problem of bodybuilders because a lot of guys who take steroids and whatever… Often rate their self-worth by how much they weigh, like I used to be 300 pounds with a six pack, but now I’m only like 160 pounds.

anchoring yourself to your past self?

I think it’s human nature to anchor ourselves with numbers or stuff. Like for example… If you’re once a billionaire and now you’re only worth 500 million or 100 million… Certainly you’re going to be much more depressed than somebody who started off poor and finally gained $1 million.

This is also where competition with others is not a good idea because it doesn’t make sense to increase yourself with to somebody else, and you have no idea if they’re taking steroids or whatever.

anchoring to your past self?

So then the big idea is… If you have once reached a certain summit,,, is it useful or a good idea to increase yourself to that past summit?

 my general idea is, perhaps it is only useful if it is motivational, and encourages you! But… Becoming detached to whether you actually retain that past version of yourself or not.

Like for example… Let us say once upon a time you lifted 2000 pounds, but 10 years later, you still want to do that, even if you come close like 1900 pounds,,, you’ll still be insanely happy?

“feeling good” is a hormonal thing?

Autotelic capital

Capital for the sake of capital? Is this a good idea?

Hormonal epiphanies?

Like after the high you get off of one rep Max lifting attempt,,, … the clarity or epiphanies you get are true and great?

Dopamine and hormones, we delight in change?

How much value can you create?

Value creation, not wealth creation?

being wealthy

The Interesting irony about wealth is when you are wealthy, and you know it… It doesn’t really bring you, happiness or pleasure, would rather, simply the absence of displeasure or annoyance?

Via negativa emotions, with wealth?

So the privilege of being wealthy and wealth, is simply absence of annoyance?

The time of the highest danger

Everything bad about you is good about you 

.

Detached from results, but loving the process?

So I have a pretty big idea: the general idea is that, more so than we know it… We are heavily motivated by hormones, whether hormonal responses to the direct sun, sun exposure… Maybe to the extreme heat and cold, hormonal responses being around other human beings, hormonal responses from films media video games music and even art artwork colors… also from photography street photography? Also responses from AI, market news and price movements, etc?

Why this matters

I think trying to crack the motivation code is very very interesting and tricky, like for example… I’ve discovered one of the greatest epiphanies is… In any sort of insight or clarity that I get after one rep Max lift attempt… is perhaps the best way to approach things. For example, I try to avoid doing any market or bitcoin related stuff, until after my workout and lift. why?

First, in terms of market movements whether up or down or whatever… Market sentiment… I almost feel like it is 99% hormonal. And perhaps the secret of longevity as an investor is… Not letting hormones hijack your investment strategies or tactics. 

For example, if you are a Zen investor… In the ideal world, if the price goes up or down you are mostly indifferent or unchanged. And the tricky thing is, and this is a stoic principle,,, to both… Not to become too dismayed when the price goes down, but also… Not feeling too much joy or euphoria when it goes up. Why? Then the hormonal trap becomes this:

you become an emotional and hormonal slave to the markets.

In some ways ideally you almost never look at market news or prices… And you just dedicate your time and your efforts to weightlifting, philosophy, writing reading and thinking etc. And your investment strategy could just be “set it and forget it”. 

Why this matters

I think, everything we know about hormones in terms of motivation and reward what not… Is probably very oversimplified. For dopamine serotonin cortisol whatever. I’m sure like 300 years from now, we’re going to discover and uncover there’s like at least 1000 more hormones involved to motivation movement, being outside etc.

Anyways, the first principle I think is, bodily movement and engagement with the world, the desire to lift weights, be happy joyful and gay, to be affable and Social, to love the company of others and being around others, to be a productive happy artist, writer and pinker… To always feel glad and full of vigor during the day, sleeping deeply at night, waking up the next day feeling refreshed.

hormonal foods

My new thought is, in terms of how we prioritize our food and diet… It seems like the only logical strategy is to prioritize foods which boost your hormones like testosterone, which is probably beef liver, to essentially consume more organ meats, dietary cholesterol etc. And to not consume anything which hijacks your hormones like sugar, simple starches, fake artificial sweeteners, other weird stuff.

sleep and rest

If you think about your body like you’re a cyber truck or an iPhone… Perhaps the best way to recharge is, to just take a power nap and prioritize your sleep! For example, I wonder if the big idea is sleeping well and deeply, and also napping, is just genuinely uplifting for your hormones, and your body?

***

Enthusiasm and hormones?

Hormone, hormone training, hormone re-training:

Fix your hormones, fix your life?

More thoughts to come!

ERIC

START HERE, BOOKS, NEWSLETTER, WORKSHOPS

So I have a pretty big idea: the general idea is that, more so than we know it… We are heavily motivated by hormones, whether hormonal responses to the direct sun, sun exposure… Maybe to the extreme heat and cold, hormonal responses being around other human beings, hormonal responses from films media video games music and even art artwork colors… also from photography street photography? Also responses from AI, market news and price movements, etc?

Why this matters

I think trying to crack the motivation code is very very interesting and tricky, like for example… I’ve discovered one of the greatest epiphanies is… In any sort of insight or clarity that I get after one rep Max lift attempt… is perhaps the best way to approach things. For example, I try to avoid doing any market or bitcoin related stuff, until after my workout and lift. why?

First, in terms of market movements whether up or down or whatever… Market sentiment… I almost feel like it is 99% hormonal. And perhaps the secret of longevity as an investor is… Not letting hormones hijack your investment strategies or tactics. 

For example, if you are a Zen investor… In the ideal world, if the price goes up or down you are mostly indifferent or unchanged. And the tricky thing is, and this is a stoic principle,,, to both… Not to become too dismayed when the price goes down, but also… Not feeling too much joy or euphoria when it goes up. Why? Then the hormonal trap becomes this:

you become an emotional and hormonal slave to the markets.

In some ways ideally you almost never look at market news or prices… And you just dedicate your time and your efforts to weightlifting, philosophy, writing reading and thinking etc. And your investment strategy could just be “set it and forget it”. 

Why this matters

I think, everything we know about hormones in terms of motivation and reward what not… Is probably very oversimplified. For dopamine serotonin cortisol whatever. I’m sure like 300 years from now, we’re going to discover and uncover there’s like at least 1000 more hormones involved to motivation movement, being outside etc.

Anyways, the first principle I think is, bodily movement and engagement with the world, the desire to lift weights, be happy joyful and gay, to be affable and Social, to love the company of others and being around others, to be a productive happy artist, writer and pinker… To always feel glad and full of vigor during the day, sleeping deeply at night, waking up the next day feeling refreshed.

hormonal foods

My new thought is, in terms of how we prioritize our food and diet… It seems like the only logical strategy is to prioritize foods which boost your hormones like testosterone, which is probably beef liver, to essentially consume more organ meats, dietary cholesterol etc. And to not consume anything which hijacks your hormones like sugar, simple starches, fake artificial sweeteners, other weird stuff.

sleep and rest

If you think about your body like you’re a cyber truck or an iPhone… Perhaps the best way to recharge is, to just take a power nap and prioritize your sleep! For example, I wonder if the big idea is sleeping well and deeply, and also napping, is just genuinely uplifting for your hormones, and your body?

So I was thinking about this morning… I do not envy the life of any big tax CEO because they simply have no control over their lives. Like for example, the Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk wanted to go on like a 5 hour hike in the middle of the day, not attend any meetings, they certainly could not. Maybe Jack Dorsey could, but I’m sure he even he has some sort of obligations.

First, if you run some sort of publicly treated corporation, you cannot have ultimate freedom because… Once again you are at the whims of your shareholders. Ideally, is best to run like a private company or enterprise, in which perhaps you cannot scale and grow as large, but… You have control over your life.

the ethics of self-development

So I think the equation that we currently have in modern society is, it is virtuous to focus on self-development for the sake of empowering other people. I think that’s like a pretty good idea… However, one is not permitted to simply focus on self-development for the sake of self-development. For example, if you wanted to hike and work out for like eight hours a day, and not benefit anyone else but yourself, this is seen as “ selfish”, perhaps excessive, and or a waste of time.

why this makes sense

To focus on your own self development, and to do things to develop yourself with your mind body your soul whatever… seems to be the most honest way that you could focus on autotelic use of your time your life and your energy. Why? I think most of us have enough self wisdom and self knowledge to guide ourselves, in terms of what is good for us what isn’t good for us, how to protect our time our energy our attention etc. And I think what happens is… When 90-95% of your energy your time your focus is spent dedicated on serving others, you are truly missing out on the most important asset which is yourself. 

Does and or can the self scale?

Maybe with AI… ChatGPT or grok, if you are feeding the machine with the digital view… And having reinforcement learning on itself, then maybe, but I don’t think that’s really the goal.

For example, you can max out on eating beef liver a day, getting your 10 hours of sleep, hiking and working out for five hours a day, doing hot yoga, riding your bike whatever… And your daily activity will certainly not help 1 billion people. But is that the goal?

Yourself and your family

I think the simple clarity of once you have a child is, any and every ounce of time resources or whatever dedicated to the development of your child is indefinitely worth it. Same thing goes with empowering your spouse, and your own household. My honest thought is, to simply even take care of your household it is enough time and work and effort and resources… Let alone yourself.

Therefore I think the simple self reinforcing loop is this:

Max out helping yourself, developing yourself, growing yourself and prioritizing yourself.… And then that energy will naturally flow to your kid your wife your household.

Then, that flywheel will percolate to others the rest of society etc. 

Acting upon enthusiasm not fear

So I think the first big idea is, with anything in life… Always follow enthusiasm, only do that which you are enthusiastic about, ignore or do not do things that you are unenthusiastic about. 

My general idea is, the world is big enough in which all of the social economic needs of everybody will be met through mutual cooperation if everyone simply followed what they were enthusiastic about. That is, everybody unlocking their own archimedes lever in terms of what they are enthusiastic about, rather than follow some sort of external measures of something else?

anti-success

Having reached all of the external markers of success in modern day society, I could say that… At the end of the day, the only thing which truly matters is your own autotelic sense of self motivation, and for me, my ultimate pleasure is waking up every single day with a strong sense of enthusiastic imagine a life in which, to go to sleep every single night, extremely grateful for the day, and you go to sleep excited for the next day, like a kid going to sleep before the night of Christmas.

where does enthusiasm come from?

My first idea is, typically… You must spend more time subtracting external sources of information and media, no matter how good or bad. Typically I think the only things worth reading are at least 100 years old, ideally 200 300, or 2000 years old. The Iliad and Odyssey by Homer, might be the only useful manuals in terms of human nature?

I also suppose that, spending intermittent time living abroad from your own mother country is always useful because you start to realize how ridiculous a lot things are back home, and when you open up a novel perspective, there always seems to be some good clarity that comes about.

each and day is different 

The best plan is no plan. Especially once you have kids, to treat each and every single day like a blank slate day is wise because, you unlock infinite scalability in terms of your day. 

The privilege of being spontaneous only comes around if you have nothing planned.

To have a plan beforehand is seen as prudent and wise, however it is not because you truly understand the nature of reality and the universe, you will know clearly that, with chance randomness and chaos, a lot of unforeseen things arise whether opportunistic or not, at the most random moments. Therefore, to cultivate emptiness is wise.

the body and sleep and food and fitness

To be enthusiastic involves other people being part of society, because… You always have to be enthusiastic towards somebody towards a concept that involves other humans. Enthusiasm is sociological.

Also… Maximum physical and physiological activity during the day, even if you’re like a high-powered tech CEO, the best role model is like a Jack Dorsey, who essentially is like an off the grid Zen digital monk, like the ideal idea is if you have to do meetings or phone calls or whatever, to just do them all day while hiking around in the mountains, and also… Being very selective on not getting disturbed?

don’t follow rationality

We have targets I think is also not a good idea because… You’re inquiring your measure of success and enthusiasm based on something external that you cannot control. Even enthusiasm itself, is very elusive because you cannot force yourself to be enthusiastic. But perhaps you could force yourself to not engage in things you’re not enthusiastic about? 

My general recipe is, especially on the weekends, do like a digital detox, only use your phone for like Google Maps, maximum time in the great outdoors wilderness, tending to your garden, weightlifting outside in the open sun etc. I mean it’s pretty simple, most people suffer from insomnia not because they are insomniacs, but because they are simply not engaged in enough arduous outdoor physical labor. Like on Saturday or Sunday just experiment, spend the entire day hiking or working out outside or at the beach or in the mountains or whatever… You’re going to sleep better that night.

the body and productivity

My formula is simple: better to do 30 minutes of insanely productive work when you are fit and well rested, rather than 12 hours of sleep deprived work.

In fact, the greatest blessing of AI is, if done correctly… You can selectively reduce the amount of work that you do, not increase it. I think the negative trend is, now that a lot of people have AI… They keep filling in their gaps with more AI related work rather than simply engaging on their own bodies?

In fact, the ideal is you have your AI slave working for you eight hours a day, and then you just use the whole day, walking around working out thinking, being artistic and philosophical, being social, grateful towards life?

enthusiasm channeled into your work

Have I ever met a happy painter artist or photographer? No. Therefore, the artwork they produce is like… Extremely dark and negative not even in a good way. And this is infectious, it is like painting COVID-19 on a canvas, and having other people exposed to it, catching their own negative soul?

surrounding yourself with positive souls

This also seems obvious, if your job is a trash collector, you’re probably going to smell like trash all day, or if your job is sewage, same thing.

Assuming you do not like the smell of trash sewage it is probably wise not to engage with individuals or places or societies or clubs or Internet places which are metaphorical sewage plants. Like for example, social media… Is like everyone consuming feces, and complaining about how sick they are and how much they hate consuming feces, but they are addicted to it like dopamine and keep doing it. 

Filters

Assuming that you’re an investor, certainly some connection to outside news and information is critical, and a little bit of this is where you’re using AI could be useful as a filter because at least you have some agency over it, not all. 

What’s also difficult is… You could have insight and foresight about something, and be correct… But the time span might be like 4 to 10 years. So then, being a short term trader… doesn’t seem worth it in terms of the payoff because, there is so much macroeconomic things you cannot control? Not even AI could predict black Swan events. 

Enjoying the process rather than outcomes

I’ll give you example… Some people get into hiking and walking or whatever because of a fitness but I do it simply out of an existential way, like… My body and soul genuinely loves hiking? And I do not desire any sort of outcome from it?

The same thing goes with weightlifting… To lift weights is almost like clearing out my bowels on daily basis, it will always be advantageous and feel good.

the hormones of enthusiasm

If you’re simply munching on sod all day, certainly your hormones will be depressed, and your body will not find any enthusiasm or motivation. enthusiasm comes from your stomach and your leg legs. 

Beef, pork ribs, fatty chicken, beef liver and organ meats, beef ribs, eggs including the yolk, fatty salmon avocados and things which deeply nourish you, will certainly help power your enthusiasm towards life.

empowering the human race

It doesn’t matter if you are a hermit, a philosopher, an entrepreneur etc.… I think what we all strive towards is creating tools information and ideas to empower the human race.

Even with AI… All of the negative commentary is not useful because… Once again it is like fire… You could use it to cook your beef brisket, or you could use fire to burn down your house. Those who can most intelligently learn how to use the fire are the ones who shall thrive. 

Infinitely scalable growth?

I think the ultimate optimism in life is, assuming that maybe every day, you can grow one percent, or even half a percent, every single day, indefinitely? Like an infinitely scaleable kaizen approach? 

Success and progress is highly subjective, and I suppose it is injured through your own judgments. So maybe… The best way to judge yourself is not through numbers and metrics but, your own personal self assessment, like Warren Buffett says your inner scorecard?

ERIC

BUILD ON!

Time to conquer the world.

What if we thought, that the contented were of little worth? - nietzsche

I wonder… If we thought about life like battle, life as war… I wonder if actually… This would prime us in a more positive way to live life?

to be contented in life is actually quite easy

So there are certainly have been periods in my life in which I was like definitely 100% contented, 100% Zen, 100% drink well, no troubles in my mind no regrets, no concerns no nothing. Should be told, it’s pretty awesome… But, I don’t think that’s the purpose of life.

what does life want?

Life wants growth, desires challenges to overcome… But maybe the nuance is, being able to do it in a cheerful, joyful, gleeful type of way?

a plant or a tree is never content

A tree a weed a plant whatever… You do not lecture it to become content, and expected to stop growing at a certain point. Look at the California redwoods, I’m sure there’s a certain point in which they reached an extreme height, but it doesn’t stop growing, they keep going. And they keep competing with the other trees for ascendancy, because that which is closest to the top gets the most sunlight and opportunities to grow.

sustainable growth

I think the subtle nuance is, how do we keep growing in the sustained way, that is infinitely scalable, the gradual one percent to 3% Kaizen approach? 

I think habits in rituals are a good idea. Why? Like my friend Jeff says, there’s often a lot of “activation energy”, that goes into trying to do a thing, or to establish a new routine. For certain habits and routines which are conducive to your life, like biking your kid to school every day, going for a hike every day at the same time, lifting weights at around the same time, having certain rhythms of the day makes sense. Depending on where you live, and your schedule, there are certainly times which are more conducive to hiking, walking, lifting weights, etc.

sleep is sacred

I think we often sacrifice our for “opportunities,” or even things we are interested in. However it seems that the trade-off is almost never worth it. Whether good food, good fun, good company etc. A thing to note: even the gods sleep. 

Warrior training

It is impossible to think about going to war without having a warrior body. Like that one guy said, stronger people are harder to kill.

Also I had a thought that, the more physically and physiologically strong you are, actually… You tend to have more resilience when it comes to mental things. Inside a strong body is a strong mind. 

Even I think, Elon Musk would benefit highly by intermittent fasting, cutting out all alcohol and sedatives and stimulants, just sticking to black coffee, and going on the finest 100% carnivore organ meat beef liver diet.  if I was his personal trainer I will tell him to just do 15 minutes of heavy rack pulls a day, or my patented God lift. Observation that I make is after a good pump session, and I got all of these great hormonal activation in my body, I become more courageous, less fearful, more excited and joyful to take on anything.

life is a battlefield marathon

You don’t want to be that one Greek runner who ran quickly and just died. Assuming that you’re going to live another 80 years or so, how do you pace your training in your fitness and your health, your mind soul body to strengthen yourself to the maximum?

your greatest physique is yet to come

It’s kind of ridiculous how much money we spend on our phones, our vehicles, even our homes, and our clothing accessories etc.… And how little attention we put on our body. Even purchasing simple weightlifting equipment on titan.fitness is probably the best ROI for money. That and beef liver.

the human body of capitalism

I truly wise capitalist would consider that, his body is the ultimate bank account and investment vehicle. In fact if you want to become a better investor or trader, assuming that you have the most sublime physiology and body, you will make better decisions, more rooted on rationality, less on fear and loss aversion. 

I mean just think about it, let us assume that you only slept two hours last night and feel terrible… Versus you got a glorious 12 hours of sleep, got your morning weightlifting pump in… and you got a big decision to make in terms of trading or invest investing, which version of yourself will make the better decision?

I think the reason why we spend millions on Ferraris but nothing on our ourselves is because… We do not treat our body as a respectful, noble, worthy vehicle. I still think it is funny that in American Society, it is OK to flex your muscle car or your Lamborghini Ferrari, but considered poor manners to flex your topless muscles in public. It shows that we have more fetish for wealth and object objects than we have the human body.

The deception of shapes and forms

If you’re on the freeway and you see a guy in Lamborghini or Ferrari, you might think to yourself, wow that guy is probably way more happy and joyful than I am. But what if he just lost $300 million that day, he actually might be the most miserable man in the whole city or state, but you don’t know it.

And this is why I’m starting to think about… in Terms of life competition, are we trying to compete in order to become the happiest person alive?

Like I’ll example… Elon Musk is the wealthiest person alive but he actually might be the most miserable person alive. Or you could have modest wealth, and be the happiest person alive. And contrary to what Buddhist monks may say, it is better to be a free Spartan with moderate wealth, rather than a 100% free monk, with no wealth. 

The body is the source of all wisdom

What are thoughts and ideas? Perhaps vibrations and electrical impulses and hormonal shifts in our body blood our brain our legs etc. This is why after lifting an insanely heavyweight towards your maximum, you’re always going to be flooded with interesting thoughts:

lift first, get the ideas after.

This is also what I find interesting about hiking, walking on uneven surfaces, in nature… Your first start doing the hike, and then the thoughts come to you. It’s not you have ideas and then you want to go on a hike.

promoting better thinking

Getting around a city I really like riding a bike, especially a manual one because more blood flow to your legs means more blood flow to your brain? Once again, assuming you think, trade or invest for a living, then, prioritizing your physiology makes the most sense. Better to be a billionaire on a bicycle, rather than driving around in a loser Ferrari.

let your mind go fallow

I think ultimately in order to have interesting thoughts, let your mind go fallow. Subtract the news, stimulants, foreign ideas … start every day new and afresh, and see what thoughts come to you!

ERIC

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If this even gave you one interesting thought, feel free to forward to a friend!

ERIC

you weren’t meant for an easy life?

So, ,,, in this glorious life of ours, what do we do? How do we utilize it?

First, the point of life isn’t to die with the most ones and zeros in the grave. In fact, in theory… The best life is in which you die with zero? Zero dollars? And that while you were alive… The most intelligently leveraged your capital, towards the most noble ends?

the market as a battlefield

If you are a market participant, an investor a trader money manager, hedge fund manager whatever… The markets are our economic life blood. There is kind of a ridiculous amount of hormones and euphoria and blood and physiology which goes into the markets, my general thought is 99.999% of the population is not fit for it.

In fact, the best physiology for being an investor or trader or whatever is a life in which you sleep 12 hours night, free of anxiety… Kind of this cool calm stoic zen approach, almost like being an AI… In which you are taking intelligent risk calculations, pricing in potential failure, and also… The philosophy of risk, danger and reward?

dying on the battlefield

So for King Leonidas and his 300… Successor failure were not the markers of being a noble Spartan. Rather, it was about doing your duty, showing no cowardice or fear, and whether you lived or died, you left that up to the gods.

Now the problem is, considering the most investors and traders are men, we seem to stake our self-esteem our manliness, our self-worth on these numbers. Yet, the reason why this is not always a good idea is because nobody could control the markets, and courage and conviction and insight is all you got. Also nobody could time the market, not even God could time the market.

why even participate in the markets?

Market, marketing, the markets, technically, in terms of society… Society cannot function without a market, marketplace, metaphorical or literal. Grocery market, financial markets, etc.

 but the deeper philosophical question… Why even play the game, assuming the markets is a game, our play thing, etc.?

Investing as an autotelic thing?

So there are certain things that you do, for the sake of it, autotelic, auto like doing it for the self… telic like telos like why are you doing in the first place?

I suppose the first thought is, you gotta love the markets, rather than dread it? Like… You just enjoy doing the thing? And that the numbers isn’t really about becoming richer or poorer, and also not tied to self-esteem, but rather, inputs and outputs, and become more detached from the results?

living for today

I think what is built into investing is this baked incense of optimism for the future. Nobody would invest their money if they did not imagine a positive gain into the future.

Yet once again… I’m starting to think that investing is less about gains, and once again… More of an autotelic thing that you do for the sake of it? And because you’re playing long game, decades, like enjoy this game for the next 50 years… With a great cheerful mood and being able to sleep at night, how do you best approach this?

Taking control

So I think the problem is a lot of external things are designed to manipulate our emotions, rather than give us critical information. For example… News bitcoin news global politics, the more sensational and dramatic, the more engagement it gets. But that’s not good for you because… You’re just playing with your emotions.

One thing I realize with bitcoin prices, is that whenever I looked at the price it would negatively emotionally de calibrate me? Therefore I built bitcoin Zen, bitcoinzen.grok.me –> using GROK build, and I tried to design it in such a way that it still gives you critical information like the price, without all of the emotional manipulations? Some insights:

1. Precise numbers are not useful, round numbers are better
2. To write the numbers like written out long form rather than numbers is less emotional. For example “eighty thousand” rather than “80,000”
3. Don’t show red and green or colors, keep it all monochrome because colors manipulate us
4. Don’t show percentage gain or loss, once again these are anchors which manipulate us
5. Don’t read the news, all of the critical news information is already baked into the price of the commodity or asset. Typically prices are an indicator of current market heartbeat and pulse, how all of the market participants are currently feeling about the markets or a thing. And reading more news doesn’t necessarily give us more insight. In fact it’s probably the opposite… The less news you read, ideally none, will give you greater insight.

Physiology, fitness & finances

 I’m like probably the most straightedge person out there, no alcohol no medication no painkillers no sleep aids, no weed, etc. And I also hike every single day, ride my bike around a lot, lift very heavy weights every day, and still… In terms of physiology… Even I have the hardest time to remain Zen and calibrate myself? I have no idea how other people do it.

So the first idea I have is, before you do any finance related stuff… Make sure you get a good pump. Like, get your morning hike walk bike ride, weightlifting session, hot yoga in before you dive into anything capital related.

 this is my insight: assume like you slept a glorious 12 hours, you ate well, you have great mood lots of overflowing strength in your muscles, when you finally do jump into the markets, you could remain a little bit more cool and detached.

Also… If you did not sleep well the night prior, or your health feels poor or off… my great suggestion is force yourself not to do anything finance related that day. Instead, just try to get your fitness back in, eat 2 pounds of beef liver in the evening, a dozen eggs, maybe do some hot yoga or an ice bath, no stimulants or downers during the day, and try to get 8 to 12 hours of sleep. If you’re like a hard-core investor or traitor, the deal would actually be to sleep every single day at 6:30 PM, always get in your 12 hours of sleep, and be ready for the next day.

I think it is also wise to have a strict cut off time for market related activities. Maybe it is noon, 1 PM, 2 PM, or 3 PM your time? Giving yourself enough time to unwind before going to sleep?

identity, self-worth.

Your net worth is not your self-worth. I think the best way to judge yourself is, how great you feel in terms of your health, mood, physiology, and how great your body feels, and also how beautiful you look like in the mirror. My general thought is if you allocate 99% of your attention to your body, everything else will fall into place.

ERIC

Own yourself

To zen out, or get personal stoic EK training –> seek perhaps booking a 1:1 investment consulting session with me via this google form. If we are a good fit, I will reach out back to you. 


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Now what?

Philosophize on your body and physiology, … then all shall follow.

ERIC

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changing up your perception

So one thing you could do is change up your perception about things. What that means is, your sense of growth is often predicated on subjective measures. If you switch up how you judge yourself, then, there’s a greater sense of growth.

Every day is a new day, every day is day one?

Each and every day is new – Heraclitus

To always adopt this Zen like line of thinking is perhaps quite advantageous. Jeff Bezos said every day is day one.

I think naturalist it probably is not natural for humans to start each and every single day without anchoring yourself to the past. However if you look at kids, I think they are better at treating each and every single day as an exciting new day, without concern of the past the future, they really truly do cherish the present moment.

I think also what gets and keeps us human beings going is the sense of hoping optimism for the future. The general idea that the future will be a little bit more prosperous, well off, and abundant.

Certainly thinking optimistically is a huge benefit, but isn’t it perhaps more strategic to think of abundance in the present moment right now?

gratitude

Sometimes I’m a little bit on the fence about the gratitude practice. In some ways, gratitude towards life in a general sense is one of the greatest ways to live. The artist paints his joy and his respect for life on his easel, and also, the life affirming philosopher does the same thing with his or her thoughts.

Certainly to promote life is a virtue, in terms of getting married having kids, spreading love joy and abundance with others, also perhaps it is useful to think about life as a generalistic thing, to apply the idea of gratitude towards life in a general sense.

gratitude for your body

Perhaps the greatest measure of all things is your body your human body. If you are unwell unfit, sleeping two hours a night, I think it is physiologically impossible to feel happy joyful or optimistic about things. And this is the greatest challenge, how can a truly great entrepreneur remain joyful, gay, happy, retain his or her mental clarity, Zen, sleep 8 to 12 hours a night, exercise much every single day, lift weights, feast on beef liver, not feel any sort of dread, anxiety or stress or fear…?

the gay monster

better to be a gay monster than a sentimental bore – galiani

To choose happiness Joy optimism, joy, gaiety in the midst of even the most dark in troublesome things, with a grim smirk, dark humor is perhaps a virtue?

weightlifting is your Nirvana

Certainly a modern day times you are not at the front lines of a Spartan phalanx , and almost none of our physical virtues carryover into socio economic ones. Like generally speaking, being insanely fit and strong and beautiful doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to earn more income. In fact, it is kind of the opposite… To deny your body of natural things like water sunlight, walking movement, being in the great outdoors, eating while sleeping well, not medicating yourself, in order to just make yourself more productive and efficient like a machine, are all the antithesis of modern day society.

Perhaps the critical thought I have is, is this simply a byproduct of capitalism or is it simply something else?

the Tao of capital

Assuming that you’re not the slave of your job your company your capital… Capitalism could be the most beautiful thing in terms of liberating yourself with your own individual freedom and liberty. The ancient Spartans and most philosophers believed that truly, freedom, freedom of your mind body and soul were the greatest virtues. Not necessarily how much you could invent or contribute to economic progress.

economic progress for the sake of what

This is the really hard thing to think about… It is not more capital for the sake of capital… But, capital as it means to an end or toward something else… Like for example, Elon Musk is funneling and channeling all of his capital in order to get us to Mars and beyond, he’s not just building this company for the sake of building companies.

grand life task or mission?

I think for myself… Perhaps my grand life task is, to devote my intelligence my brain my body my soul towards uncovering new philosophical insights and discoveries about the body soul, life in general? To innovate and to experiment and to come up with practical tactical and strategic things which can help other others as they have helped myself?

ERIC

that which attempts to destroy me only makes me stronger – nietzsche

Some encouraging optimistic and motivational ideas:

First, it seems that the principle of life is to become stronger. And it seems that the most practical pragmatic idea of strength, is physiological, getting your 12 hours of sleep in a night, setting a strict 6:30 PM bedtime, and also… Maximizing your physical physiological activity during the day.

My idea of Nirvana is on a daily basis, going on at least one hike, one weightlifting session, and hot yoga. I think this is the holy Trinity of fitness.

why physiology?

Certainly without a body we don’t got nothing. The mind is a fiction, anything that the mind experiences is simply an offshoot of what the body is experiencing?

Example… Being about a month without my gym, physiologically I started to get super depressed. Physiological depression as manifested through not wanting to get out of bed, sleeping a lot but still not really having any desire to do anything during the day, I’m going to sleep, not really motivated for the next day or looking forward to the next day?

a physiological reset

I do not envy astronaut, who do not even have the privilege of experiencing gravity, being able to walk on the beautiful earth, see the sun, feel the warm UV rays against your bare skin, night and day cycles.

If you thinking about  fear anxiety depression, loneliness all of the main emotions, certainly they are based in the physiological. All of the hormones, I think maybe like 80% of it could be solved from physical activity, once again, the holy Trinity of fitness.

Now the problem is most people do not have the privilege of doing such a thing. Then my simple idea is, rather than revolving your life around work, revolve your work around fitness.

That could mean, try to go on a walk or a hike if you have a lunch break, early in the morning either do your weightlifting or your hot yoga, or after work in the evening, using that chance to do the weightlifting or the yoga.

capital goals

I’ve been thinking about the Odyssey, and how… Odysseus, suffering the worst ills of any mortal man, being separated from his Kingdom, his wife his son, his fertile land, his status and position, Ithaca, and his cattle wealth.

What’s really funny about ancient Greek times is, their measure of wealth was capital in terms of cattle, head of oxen. The big issue that Odysseus had was, being away for like 10 years, crying every single day at the shore, longing to go home… Suitors or essentially feasting on all of his cattle and auction every single night, and finally when he gets back to Ithaca, kills all of the suitors with his son, and realizes that he has essentially run out of cattle and his capital, then, he realized that he has to go on more raids with his son, in order to restock the cattle capital supply.

transform your body into the Bugatti

Seeing the new Bugatti, probably the most extreme and the most elegant beautiful car made of all time… Has kind of plunged my interest into Lamborghinis and even Ferraris to nil. The general idea is that it has the most extreme proportions of any car made, and is even lower to the ground, and even wider than the track only Bugatti bolide.

Menna had me thinking about the human body, what if we could create and craft our own human body like the ultimate sculpture, the ultimate extreme elegant beautiful powerful proportions, as well as gaining the most physical physical psychological strength, aKin to horsepower and torque in a car?

My new extreme challenge is to lift either 3000 kg or 3000 pounds, whichever I hit first. What I love about weightlifting is that, 100% of the result is within your realm of control, unlike investing in which market forces is something you cannot really control.

what do men desire

A simple thought is, probably the greatest marker of success in America as Amanda is to own a home, have a loving wife, and loving kids. Beyond that, truth be told I don’t think you really need anything else.

Even if you’re a lonely single man, I think the goal of trying to find a wife, and have kids, is probably the most meaningful goal. The house thing is actually a little bit optional, but having a wife and kids, I think is a simple antidote to male loneliness or purpose in life.

physiological Joy

Everyone wants to feel joy and happiness and whatever, but the truth is all of that Joy is stemmed in the physical. The physical realm.

People want financial gains, but maybe what they really want is the physiological high that you get, which is accompanied by a financial gain. And therefore my insight is, even with monetary capital gains, it isn’t about the goal target number, but rather, the joy of seeing change overtime? And this is where maybe it’s better think about percentages and percentage gained rather than the actual dollar amount?

The same thing goes with weightlifting, I think with weightlifting, the joy isn’t actually how much you could lift but, steadily seeing your personal records go up.

What’s funny with weightlifting is everyone has these goals in terms of like hitting two plates three plates four plate plates five plates, six plate seven plates, etc. Kind of like with investing, the goal to save up $250, 500 bucks, thousand dollars, 10,000, 100,000, 200,000, 500,000, 1 million 2 million 5, million 10 million etc.

But once again, and this is where kaizen capital and kaizen approaches are interesting –>

the goal is not to hit a target round number, but rather once again, steadily overtime seeing a regular but consistent tiny incremental growth?

So in terms of physiological Joy, it’s probably better to see your portfolio go up 5% every single day, rather than a sudden 200% gain in a single day.

Maybe also the same thing with weightlifting, the goal isn’t to lift 1000 pounds it is to see that you have no limits?

ERIC.

Why so serious?

Actually, if you look at it… To be too serious about things, is perhaps like some sort of thing we are taught and socialize to be? To become grown-up or “adult“, is, to become morose,  dark, emo, taking things and life too seriously.

study children, and kids

If you look at kids, they don’t take anything too seriously. To them, life is simple, play, and opportunity! Even when kids get upset, they get upset for short periods of time, then quickly get over it, and it escapes their consciousness. It does not linger.

recovery

If you think about games, like video games, points, etc.… If your character dies, or whatever, we don’t take it too seriously, it might be a little bit, annoying that we sunk so much time into it, and that we have to start over again… But often, there is a simple joy to start a new character, a new class, a new something? 

A game without points?

If you think about Calvin and Hobbes, “Calvin ball”–> the general idea is… The game in which we played… Not to keep track with points, or numbers or whatever… But just to simply enjoy the game?

The philosophy of creation

The purpose of life to create?

The philosophy of wealth & power?

Wealth simply as a means to creation? And once you create something… You feel a surge of power? 

Always make it ever more, even more extreme?

Make it into its own character? Story telling

Scenarios?

The new Bugatti destrier–> Bugatti or nothing >

Whatever motivates you, irregardless of how strange, is good?

Every day, try to save a little bit more time

It’s just part of the routine, the same old routine,,, is good… doesn’t even matter the routine will always be a little bit different?

The invincible god

The goal!

ERIC

After-thrusters

Keep practicing, never stop practicing?

Life

To simply create one thing a day and share it every day… Maybe this is the purpose of life?

ERIC

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Why so serious?

Actually, if you look at it… To be too serious about things, is perhaps like some sort of thing we are taught and socialize to be? To become grown-up or “adult“, is, to become morose,  dark, emo, taking things and life too seriously.

study children, and kids

If you look at kids, they don’t take anything too seriously. To them, life is simple, play, and opportunity! Even when kids get upset, they get upset for short periods of time, then quickly get over it, and it escapes their consciousness. It does not linger.

recovery

If you think about games, like video games, points, etc.… If your character dies, or whatever, we don’t take it too seriously, it might be a little bit, annoying that we sunk so much time into it, and that we have to start over again… But often, there is a simple joy to start a new character, a new class, a new something? 

Health, chronic health & investing?

So, if I could promise you $600 million, but the strings attached are chronic depression, physiological depression, no desire to leave the house in the morning, no excitement or joy of waking up in the morning, going to sleep at night not knowing what the point of tomorrow is… Also aimless loss without a sense of purpose in life, would you take it?

the link between health physiological health and investing?

So I think a big connection that people do not make is the link between health physiological health and invest investing. Honestly, I might think that close to 99% of investing is simply physiological? 

For example, I’m sure there’s like 1 million cocktails of hormones that exist in your body when it comes to investing in terms of dopamine, serotonin, cortisol, and certainly there are a lot of things that does to your heart rate, adrenaline levels, etc. I think that’s also why the majority of investors and traders tend to be men… More testosterone, greater sensitivity to risk taking? 

Zen spartan stoic

So it seems that the truth is, in America and the Western world… We worship capital, capital is our new god. Even one way you could think about it is bitcoin as a digital god. 

If we take it back to ancient times, ancient sport times, it seems that the ancient Spartans only cared for freedom, individual liberty, and pride and glory in themselves. There were strict laws prohibiting amassing too much wealth and capital, and even each Spartan was restricted to just one plot of land, nothing more nothing less.

the nature of man

The desire to always want more, maybe it is a feature not a bug?

The more I get involved in wellness, Buddhist, Christian circles… Too much focus on gratitude gratitude practices, saying that desiring more is the root of all evil blah blah blah, I’m starting to get more and more suspicious of this line of thinking.

I think actually… It is a virtue to desire more. Otherwise, we would not have self driving Teslas and Waymo’s, and we would all still be munching acorns in a cave somewhere.

with greater upsides come greater downsides?

Nietzsche has an interesting idea–> in order to make man more “good”, you must also conversely make him more evil? Do you think that, we could have one without the other is nonsense?

Similarly speaking, I had a painful thought:

what if in order to maximize or Joy happiness, gratitude to life etc.… We must also conversely increase our suffering pain, all the bad stuff?

And that actually, if used correctly, maximizing your anxiety depression, and the depressive downward physiology things, we’re actually necessary for a greater upside?

life is all comparison and framing

What is more painful? Going from $1 billion down to $100 million, we’re going from $1 million down to $600,000?

Also, what’s a better situation? Going from $100 million down to $10 million, or, going from earning 60,000 a year to $120,000 a year?

We humans tend to always frame everything, and pin success or failure based on past anchoring numbers and or experiences. 

Making health your prime focus 

I think everyone has a different definition and or, way to health… What that means to them or how it is manifested in them, therefore, it seems… If you just prioritize your health, and then get your health in order… Everything else will take care of itself?

ERIC

So, if I could promise you $600 million, but the strings attached are chronic depression, physiological depression, no desire to leave the house in the morning, no excitement or joy of waking up in the morning, going to sleep at night not knowing what the point of tomorrow is… Also aimless loss without a sense of purpose in life, would you take it?

the link between health physiological health and investing?

So I think a big connection that people do not make is the link between health physiological health and invest investing. Honestly, I might think that close to 99% of investing is simply physiological? 

For example, I’m sure there’s like 1 million cocktails of hormones that exist in your body when it comes to investing in terms of dopamine, serotonin, cortisol, and certainly there are a lot of things that does to your heart rate, adrenaline levels, etc. I think that’s also why the majority of investors and traders tend to be men… More testosterone, greater sensitivity to risk taking? 

Zen spartan stoic

So it seems that the truth is, in America and the Western world… We worship capital, capital is our new god. Even one way you could think about it is bitcoin as a digital god. 

If we take it back to ancient times, ancient sport times, it seems that the ancient Spartans only cared for freedom, individual liberty, and pride and glory in themselves. There were strict laws prohibiting amassing too much wealth and capital, and even each Spartan was restricted to just one plot of land, nothing more nothing less.

the nature of man

The desire to always want more, maybe it is a feature not a bug?

The more I get involved in wellness, Buddhist, Christian circles… Too much focus on gratitude gratitude practices, saying that desiring more is the root of all evil blah blah blah, I’m starting to get more and more suspicious of this line of thinking.

I think actually… It is a virtue to desire more. Otherwise, we would not have self driving Teslas and Waymo’s, and we would all still be munching acorns in a cave somewhere.

with greater upsides come greater downsides?

Nietzsche has an interesting idea–> in order to make man more “good”, you must also conversely make him more evil? Do you think that, we could have one without the other is nonsense?

Similarly speaking, I had a painful thought:

what if in order to maximize or Joy happiness, gratitude to life etc.… We must also conversely increase our suffering pain, all the bad stuff?

And that actually, if used correctly, maximizing your anxiety depression, and the depressive downward physiology things, we’re actually necessary for a greater upside?

life is all comparison and framing

What is more painful? Going from $1 billion down to $100 million, we’re going from $1 million down to $600,000?

Also, what’s a better situation? Going from $100 million down to $10 million, or, going from earning 60,000 a year to $120,000 a year?

We humans tend to always frame everything, and pin success or failure based on past anchoring numbers and or experiences. 

Never stop stacking:

So I thought that I have with capital… What does capital want? It wants to keep indefinitely stacking. It is like the principle of growth.

I suppose the tricky thing is, thinking and considering… It is best to make micro gains indefinitely, rather than longer duration intermittent big gains?

Capital gains and physiological gains?

When you have a capital gain… You also feel a physiological gain? 

Then perhaps the inside is… It isn’t the capital gain we are seeking but the physiological high and gain? 

First do the physiological stuff, THEN do the financial stuff?

So there is a big hormonal surge which happens when you’re kind of doing anything financial money related whether it be investing stocks checking bitcoin prices whatever, there are two components: first, the technological issue and designed issue, if you see red on the screen, you’re going to feel the danger response. Red is the color of blood.

Pro tip, whenever you do anything finance or financial related, I always turn my iPad or iPhone into mono chrome mode so I am less affected by the physiological response of seeing red or green numbers.

Bitcoin zen

So a very very interesting use of grok build,,, essentially this amazing game changing feature in which, with Grok, the $30 a month version, you can instantly build and deploy a website that runs directly in your browser!

I built this bitcoin Zen website app, and the general idea is, certainly knowing the price of bitcoin and or your stocks is useful… but how to get the upside of knowing what the price is, without the emotional toil?

Check it out >

Zen capitalism, zen capitalist

Unaffected by losses or gains? 

Perhaps the principle of being a Zen investor or Zen capitalist is, you become unaffected by losses or gains, … and then the question becomes, what’s the point of stacking capital in the first place?

physiological happiness and wellness is the goal?


What’s the point of having $100 million in your capital stack if physically and physiologically you’re not joyful and happy?

Therefore it seems that the simple goal is physiological happiness over all!

ERIC

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So I thought that I have with capital… What does capital want? It wants to keep indefinitely stacking. It is like the principle of growth.

I suppose the tricky thing is, thinking and considering… It is best to make micro gains indefinitely, rather than longer duration intermittent big gains?

why do we have brains?

So… The purpose of having a brand isn’t too “think“… Rather, to coordinate movement. Being a biped , having two eyes for depth perception, balance, etc.

a hike a day keeps the doctor away

Now that I’m back in LA… I almost tried to religiously do my daily morning walk hike. To me it’s almost essential and critical?

to start thinking, start hiking

Assuming that thoughts, having interesting thoughts is our supreme joy and passion, then… Hiking and walking seems critical.

I’ve discovered for myself, walking around the block on flat surfaces is insanely boring, going on a walk in a slightly hilly area, with natural dirt and rocks, windy paths and elevation is 1 trillion times more interesting.

Even with homes, assuming you want to buy a house or something, it actually seems that the best piece of property is to buy it on a small hill or a small slope or elevation, it doesn’t need to be like super high up on top of the hills, but, living on a slightly windy road, with a bit of a elevation and a view seems preferable

Why? I think there is this uncanny Valley, of flat things surfaces elevations without any irregularity. Nothing in nature is 100% flat, if you’re on a hike even if you’re on a relatively flat surface, each step is a little bit different. With flat concrete, each step is the same.

Wellness?

A big thought I’ve been thinking about is in regards to wellness.

First, nobody on the planet wants to be unwell. So it seems that as a general tactic, trying to eradicate wellness from your mind body and soul seems to be the first step forward. However, the big thought is: once you are well, then what?

A useful thing to do is once you are well, helping other people who are unwell, which seems to be like Christian Jesus ethics.

More interesting on orthodox I have is, assuming you are 100% well, then, is the goal to become super well? Like… Rather than thinking about wellness as like a scale from 0 to 10, thinking of it like wellness… Like you could stack it indefinitely?

For example, let us say that zero is misery and unwellness, and 10 is at a point in which you have a clear mind, happy thoughts, you feel joyful, glad and clear… No mental disturbances or issues etc. Like some sort of perfect Zen tranquility. Then once you reach this goal… Could you then, increase your wellness level to hit 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 30 and beyond?

Like if you’re thinking about a video game… Like if life were like Diablo, you start off at level zero or level one, and the ideas you do not max out at level 10. That you can indefinitely increase your levels?

Never stop growing:

A very simple way to think about life is about growth. Like very very simple… getting married having kids, growing your kids growing your family etc.

I also had this idea of completion of being the goal. For example… When is nature ever “complete”? She keeps growing, no matter what.

Your body

I think one of the greatest virtues of building your body is it is more or less 100% in your control. You’re gonna decide what to consume what not to consume, whether to partake in physical activity weightlifting every day, hiking, putting on a weight vest etc. Sleep is a difficult one… But also, certainly there are certain things that you could do like turn off your phone or devices after 3 PM, if you have insomnia, reading paperback books, or in the evening, maybe getting into swimming or hot sun or cold plunges etc., sugar starches carbohydrates alcohol marijuana etc. Even this is an interesting idea, I think the reason why we are so into coffee and caffeine is we feel like we must always be productive, but now that we have the AI… And AI will be 1 trillion times more productive than us, then, we treat coffee and caffeine more like a luxury, rather than a stimulant to be productive. 

Feedback

Very simple idea, lift weights every single day, go heavy, one repetition maximum, and eat a shit load of meat beef, beef liver organs etc.… And try to sleep 8 to 12 hours a night, certainly you will see your muscles and your vascularity improve.  and the reason why this is so joyful is because, you’re essentially staring at yourself in the mirror all day, so any improvements you’ve seen in your body are immediate and rewarding.

Life as a video game

Typically we think that video games are bad. And for the most part, any sort of media or thing which discourages you to move and forces you to sit for long periods of time or certainly detrimental. Maybe an only type of video game which might be good is like having some sort of virtual reality goggles or augment to reality goggles on,.. and running around being fully physical in the real world?

Anyways… I think we tend to think of capital, capital accumulation also like a game. And certainly our self-esteem does get tied to this game.

Also what I discovered is… Maybe with capital, the goal is not to have a certain target and hit it, but rather, slowly, “kaizen capitalism” or “kaizen capital”–> it is more rewarding and motivating to slowly stack your stack indefinitely overtime, forever?

Like if you had 300 bitcoins, and then suddenly you lost it all, or you sold it all too early and now it is worth a lot more than it was in the past, certainly you will feel some regret. Or even imagine if you had 1000 bitcoins and you were reduced to 500 bitcoins 300 200 or 100 etc. The percentage loss is extremely painful and traumatic.

We are humans are tricky because we always anchor things to the past present and future, and everything is relativistic. Like for example it’s better for an ordinary person to slowly but surely and indefinitely keep growing their stack, forever… rather than a billionaire losing 80% of his stack, even though the billionaire would still be more financially well off being only worth $100M or $200M.  And I think this actually happens a lot.

No form is the best form

Be water – Bruce Lee

Do you think about water, it does not remain static it keeps flowing, taking whatever shape you put it into, and also changes form from gas to water to solid back to liquid etc. Or it fits whatever cup or vase you put it into.

A lot of people tried to pigeonhole Bruce Lee into some sort of martial art arts form or philosophy, but once again, this is bad because if people pigeon hold you into a certain style, whether karate or whatever… Then, you cannot evolve and change forms.

Therefore as a rule… When people ask me what I do or whatever, I think actually it’s kind of wise to be vague about things, rather than having some sort of pre-rehearsed answer each and every time. Because once you put on a new identity and suit, and circumstances change, you suffer extreme self identity loss, because you were tied to that certain identity.

And interesting thing is, assuming you live to be 120… It is impossible for any human being on the planet, all 8 billion of us, to not at least suffer one extreme tragedy in our lifetime. It is almost part of the contract:

you are promised at least one or two or three or several extreme deep tragedies in life… yet, you will also experience several extremely euphoric experiences.

Nietzsche had a similar idea: his idea was, if out of all existence, you just had one insanely joyful or happy moment, all of existence was worth it.

The upside of extreme tragedy is extreme clarity?

Easier said than done, but the good idea is, extreme tragedy could be very very welcome if it actually gives you extreme clarity in life?

For example a lot of people in your death experiences, claim it to be the most grateful event ever, because it gave them extreme clarity but what is important in life and what isn’t. And assuming that your time your focus your attention is the most limited scarce desirable asset in existence, the magic trick we kind of need to do is try to think or give ourselves time to understand how extreme tragedy could be transmuted into our supreme benefit.

More turbo thoughts to come,
ERIC

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