IMPOSSIBLE TO DESTROY EVEN IF YOU TRIED?

Or better yet, systems which becomes stronger after you attempt to destroy it?

My boxer briefs?

So at our current apartment, we have one of these funny all in one washer units, made by LG, in which the value proposition is really fascinating: typically, historically, the apartment unit we are renting, doesn’t have much room for a washer and dryer, as two separate units. As a consequence, our current landlord had the genius idea of installing these all in one units, which are great because it allows for us to have a washer and dryer in unit, instead of having to use one of those communal laundry things.

In LA, having an in unit washer and dryer might be the most critical thing.

Even one of the grand downsides of a lot of homes, condominium in LA is you still have to use some sort of communal coin laundry, which is a major pain in the ass, especially once you have kids!

Anyways, the way that this washer and dryer works is fascinating, it first washes it, and then it dries the clothes at extremely high heat. However one of the grand downsides is that it destroys your clothes.

For example, last summer, I made a bunch of clothes, I designed and created two silk tank tops, which have now been destroyed by my all in one washer and dryer, and also the linen tank top that I have created, or also starting to slowly fall apart. And almost all of my merino wool clothes have been torn to shreds.

Often when you purchase certain clothing, often there is a sign on it that you have to delicately wash them, maybe hand wash them, air dry them, whatever. Or have it dry cleaned at a local dry cleaner.

But when it comes down to it… sooner or later you’re just gonna get lazy and just throw it all on the washing machine. Ain’t nobody have time for delicate washing of your clothes, especially if you’re a man.

Anyways, as a result, I call it the durability test; ain’t no clothes worth having, if you cannot throw it in that washer and dryer 1000 times, without having it fall apart to shreds.

For example, do not purchase any clothes from tenthousand.cc – I purchased with my own money these “tactical“ shorts, which were supposed to be indestructible, but already, after even a month or so, there are falling apart at the stitching scene in the waistband! Terrible.

Also, even though outlier.nyc fine merino wool t-shirts might be the best T-shirt on the planet, after all several years about going through about five of them, once again all eventually sooner or later getting destroyed in the washing machine, I no longer recommend them. Why? Once again the durability test; sooner or later it will rip apart to shreds, through typical wear and tear.

Ain’t nobody got time for this!

I also visited the family home the other day, and currently my brother-in-law and sister-in-law are on vacation, which means that their cars are sitting down in the the driveway for about two weeks, and it looks like my brother-in-law John had the wisdom to keep one of the cars charging, the 4 runner, with one of those electrical outlet battery charging packs, because I think with certain cars, if you don’t turn on the car every once in a while, if you just let a car sit to Dorman for a month or so, the battery dies.

Also I’m not 100% sure, but apparently the same thing happens with electric cars; if your Tesla is at 100% charge, and you go on holiday for six months, and you come back… Your Tesla might be dead?

I’m not 100% sure, but if you had a Prius or hybrid vehicle, you had a full tank of gas, you left the country for a year, would your car still start up? Not sure.

The best vs the most durable

The other day I was with Seneca, at the local Pickleball court, the mini tennis court, and I was playing and teaching him how to play tennis, and throwing around the football etc., and Seneca wanted to bring over my satchel bag, but I forgot to clip it in, so when he dragged it over, the food container, my Lumix G9 camera, and the key fell out. Seneca said “Uh oh”– and quickly put the things back in, and I realize that he had dropped the LUMIX G9 camera on the hardcourt. I picked it up, it, and realized that it was just fine!

The reason why this is such a big deal is that the thing is built like a tank! I’ve probably dropped it on the floor, even on the concrete from waist level, maybe three or four times, and the thing keeps going!

Lamborghini came out with the Hurucan Sterrato– which at first I thought was a very bizarre chimera —

Isn’t the point of a Lamborghini to be this sleek, typical road vehicle, all shiny and glossy and stuff?

Then if you look at the Lamborghini Huracan sterrato — in military green, the value proposition is fascinating; they lifted it off the floor a little bit higher, to give it greater ground clearance (I find this very innovative, because it looks like the trend of super sports cars, or even the tuner community is to slam your car as low to the ground as humanly possible, to the point that your butt is dragging), and it looks like they armored it up, kind of like an armored vehicle. Essentially, if a Lamborghini were to go to war, and needed steroids or whatever, it would be the sterrato.

Evyn about a month or so, in the Culver City arts district I saw a Porsche 911 the car, which is the Abu Dhabi, off Roading desert Porsche 911; which is intended to be taken off Roading. As a consequence, They also did similar modifications to it, making it a bit taller, putting on beef your tires, roof rack etc.

Anyways, I saw driving down the street, and I had all this luggage on top of it, I thought it was super cool!

Lift your Prius?

If life were a video game, I might do something similar to my Prius. Give it some steroid fender flares, make it look like an armored vehicle. Give it a stainless steel exoskeleton, like a cyber truck, a single blade horizontal tail light, maybe lifted, make it look bulletproof.

And also, one of my great joys about walking around town with my 60 pound weight fest, is not only does it improve my posture, forces me to stand up taller, and move around more (the interesting thing is when you’re wearing a 60 pound weight, to stand static, to stand and not move, it actually causes you pain)– to keep moving, to keep walking, to keep shifting your weight around, doesn’t cause any pain.

In fact, I think it is actually better for you physiologically to just go on a leisurely paced walk, with your 60 pound weight vest, for a mile, rather than run at a medium high intensity or even a high intensity for 10 miles.
In fact, the whole value proposition of running is insanely bizarre. I think people do it because they think it is good “exercise”? Or that they want to “burn calories“?

If this is the case, just drop them with a 60 pound weight vest, and see how they will fare?

Walking is sexier and more manly.

Once again, can you imagine the elite Spartan 300, prancing around town like sick gazelle? Nope. Rather, they’re just chilling, in their Spartan bikinis, tall, proud, chest up, with their crimson leather capes, glorious six packs and all.

Bodies are the future

What is the purpose of a human body, of sex, sexual desire? To have children! The reason why I find all this modern day millennial stuff so superficial is that none of it is around getting married having children etc.

If anything, all of these miserable emo losers have started a war against children, against families, against the marriage.

What is the purpose of biological, including the life of a human being? Super simple; having progeny– replicating yourself! Whenever you look at any sort of biological organism on the planet, even algae; or yogurt cultures, the living strategy is simple: consume resources, consume nutrition, and grow bigger, in whatever shape or form or manner which is most conducive to you.

For mammals, that is to have a totally separate child, which is a lot more startup energy, but has greater long-term benefits.

do you want to be old, alone, no children or grandchildren, when you are 80 years old inside a nursing facility?

I think the greatest things about philosophy, studying philosophy thinking about philosophy etc. is very simple; think of the way backwards, memento Mori, about the last stages of your life, looking back.

Nobody who is eight years old, senile, Alzheimer’s, wishes that they earned more money became more famous or bedded more babes. They wished they had kids, grandchildren, something that would outlast them. You cannot leave anything behind to your dog.

And no, your dog will not outlast you.

Digital durability

What is the hardest thing on the planet? Bitcoin. No matter how hard you try, you cannot destroy it. Even if you took all of the Amazon web services servers, all the Google servers on the planet, and tried to attack the network, you would fail. Even if you had $100 trillion worth of capital, and you tried to attack the bitcoin network, you still would fail.

Once again you have to think at least 300 years from now. What will last 300 years from now? Your children’s children’s children, your kids kids kids. You want your genealogy your lineage to last in theory indefinitely. I think this is the logic of having lots of kids; even if you have two kids, there might be a chance neither of them ever get married, never have kids, and when you are starting to 70 years old, and they are still not married, almost in their 40s, you start to get a bit concerned.

For your Instagram your TikTok account be around 300 years from now? Certainly not. Maybe your YouTube account might; has not been taken down by Google.

I am certain that Google will be around 300 years from now, because at this point honestly, Google is the Internet. also, unfortunately we will still be using e-mail 300 years from now, sending an email to Mars or whatever. And we might still have Gmail.

Maybe the exoskeleton of your cyber truck might still be around 300 years from now, but whether the battery pack or system will still work 300 years from now is a bit dubious;

Will humans still be using fossil fuels 300 years from now? Probably not.

If it ain’t broken, if it hasn’t broke yet… Good sign.

We humans make the foolish mistake of always wanting to upgrade the newest technology the newest homes etc. for example, very doubtful that your iPhone Pro will last 300 years from now.

Also, any sort of fashion trend you embrace in regards to clothes or whatever, this will also not last.

I think theoretically, there is a way that your website can last 300 years from now. I think the overall workflow is to have your payment for your website hosting to be linked to your bitcoin wallet, and just have it set up that indefinitely, your Web hosting fee will withdraw automatically from your bitcoin wallet. in theory this is already possible with Coinbase, and the Coinbase debit Visa card; it is my personal ambition for my website and blog to last at least 300 years!

Censorship proof, censorship resistant?

A random note and thought on nations. What is the best nation? The best civilization in nation is the one that has been around the longest! For example, China; China has been around forever; because I suppose the Chinese dynasty is intelligent enough to think thousands of years ahead; and also the way that the society is structured is that Individual doesn’t matter that much; it is all for the glory of the Chinese empire!

America is funny case– we are certainly the Apex nation state on the planet, by at least 10 X, but we thrive on individualism. But anyways, capitalism isn’t going away anytime soon; certainly there will still be people gambling on the spaceship shuttle casino, on the way to Mars, and there will still be these ridiculous shopping centers on the spaceship, kind of like that space movie with Chris Pratt.

Once again, anybody who is anti-capitalism who owns an iPhone or an iPhone Pro, who uses the Internet, has a Gmail account, has ever watched YouTube, Twitter, Went on a hike, traveled to Japan, been to Paris, etc.; don’t you fools know that this is all due to the glory of capitalism?

Or, ever ordered a coffee at a local café, or red books at a book library, purchase organic foods, gone to a farmers market whatever… This is all capitalism.

Capitalist

I have this notion of Spartan capitalism, in which perhaps the capital, the capital we accumulate and we build is not superficial things, but ourselves, our bodies, our mind etc.

The simple rule here is to think at least 300 years ahead:

Have as many kids as humanly possible
Produce media books literature texts etc. which you think will still be useful 300 years from now
Try to build platforms and things which will last 300 years from now like Amazon, Google, Facebook etc.
Be so insanely frugal that you could live your life to the max without having to “work” for the next 300 years
Don’t invest in or build upon things that won’t be around 300 years from now.

Tesla

I’m pretty bullish that Tesla will be around 300 years from now. Why? if we colonize Mars, and we set up solar panels, probably we will be able to drive the cyber truck around Mars.

Also, maybe we will still be using petroleum 300 years and now, but I’m pretty bullish and thinking that 300 years from now, the battery technology, the charging technology, as well as solar power technology will be so good, there will be no more need for petroleum. Bad news for the Middle East.

Also, I think 300 years from now… I think this notion of communism will just be swept under the rug. Even nation states like China will become more like oligarchies, in which a few rich powerful individuals, or like the new feudalism, individual rich families will control things.

My personal prediction is 300 years from now, Korea will almost become like the new America for Asia– southeast Asians, Vietnamese people etc., in search of a better life will immigrate to South Korea. And also, I think 300 years from now, North Korea will eventually be usurped by South Korea, kind of like how Ho Chi Minh unified the north and the south of Vietnam.

Very certain that America will be around 300 years from now. Maybe Israel will be around 300 years from now, I think much of the Middle East will be a mess; Beirut Lebanon will still be around (the Phoenix), turkey or at least Istanbul will still be around, Paris and New York City will still be around.

Maybe will happen is that these great cities will still be around, like Tokyo, but the borders will become more fluid, or different?

Let us consider, zoning laws are always being changed, either by politicians or companies. Even here in Culver City, there’s this new movement for predicting the next 20 years, and they are proposing new zoning laws. My low-key suspicion is that Apple is trying to create more commercial Real estate, as the new Apple headquarters for media and entertainment is now Culver City.

In fact, I’m sure that Los Angeles will be around 300 years from now, probably a lot hotter, maybe more polluted. People will still be streaming Netflix shows 300 years from now, I think there will still be some sort of iPhone notion around; 300 years from now we will not be walking around with vision pros; even 300 years from now, nobody likes the feeling of anything on their heads, or their eyeballs.

no virtual reality contact lenses, these are a pain in the butt. And I also think that most people will opt not to do an elective surgery to implant a Neuro computer chip inside your brains; maybe this will only be done to labor workers, the new peasants, digital serfs etc.

Maybe 300 years from now, the new digital overlords will all be digital free; still sending their kids to schools with wooden toys, no devices etc., while the rest of these kids in the hood and in south central are still being spoonfed YouTube and Chromebooks?

Last

300 years or nothing baby!
ERIC

The Spartan Way

Some radical ideas:

First, beyond purchasing food, paying rent, gasoline or electricity for your car, perhaps a really insanely innovative idea we could do is the radical opposite of what capitalistic society tries to get us to do:

NOT spend money

I think this is a pretty big idea because all of this is centered around spending money.

Only cowards spend money?

“I promise, I’m so self-conscious, you won’t see me outside with at least one of my watches” – Kanye

Certainly it is very very difficult to earn money, but spending money… is very easy.

Let us first consider the fact that the act of spending money, even a chimpanzee or a three-year-old child could do it! Seneca, ever since he was about a year or two old, already knew how to insert a credit card, chip up, or even use the iPhone with Apple Pay to purchase things? Or even simply, handing off Dollar bills to the other person?

So I think the first idea is typically, maybe the best strategy is to teach our kids, and also maybe yourself, not to spend money?

Propaganda

About a month or two ago, we stepped inside at JP Morgan Chase, opening up a checking account for my mom, and they had these little kids activity coloring books, and one of them was like a book on the idea of saving money in your piggy bank whatever.

However, the reason why this was quite bad was because it was still centered around spending money! The idea was you save up your allowance and your money in order to buy that electric scooter you want or something.

Born into consumerism

I mean let us think about it… ever since a kid is born, they are born into captivity by this capitalist consumerist market. Often society parents and people will bemoan the fact that kids are all addicted to games, video games whatever… iPhones, tablets iPad etc., but who is really at fault here? Of course the parents!

The first thing to note or to ask; if the kids are addicted to YouTube or their iPhone or the iPad or Netflix Netflix or YouTube YouTube kids or whatever… are the parents addicted to it? Yes!

Parents — quit media and your iPhone.

In fact, don’t look at the kids, look at the parents! Typically, kids are just mini versions of their parents.

We like to treat our kids the way we wish we were treated as kids

For example, even a funny thing that I realized, seeing my brother-in-law get my nephew Benji all these cool toys on his birthday, essentially it is interesting, my brother-in-law is buying his son toys that he wished he had as a kid. And this is where I respect my brother-in-law so much; he is essentially like a big kid!

I think in fact, the parents who I really care for or trust or admire are the ones who are the most silly, and also playful with their kids! You could see it in a split second at the playground; I only admire the parents on top of structures playing with their kids! Not the disconnected parents, sitting in the shade, sitting on their butt, doing something stupid on their phones.

When you take your kid to the park, lock your iPhone in the glove compartment in the car!

The matrix

So, let us consider the analogy of the matrix. I think the analogy the matrix is very good here because honestly in fact, we are all living in a metaphorical matrix right now.

For example, think about the battery pack. The battery pack is essentially like us toiling away with our physiological energy, brain power mind power soul power etc., in order to power these batteries. And, toiling away so hard, the funny irony; we work so hard and we sacrifice so much of our health and well-being, in order to purchase things which dull away the pain, but actually in fact… these end up making us sicker and weaker?

For example, marijuana and alcohol; the two biggest depressants we got in modern day society. For an individual who is depressed, or lacking vigor or having poor health… adding more marijuana to their life, or adding more alcohol to their life is a positive detriment. Do people not know that both these substances have physiological mental, and a physical effect on the body, which actually dulls your senses? It is almost like putting a condom on your mind and soul!

Does man live to make money, or does money exist to serve man?

OK, the number one foolish mistake we all make; it seems that we live in order to make money, rather than thinking about this critically and knowing and understanding that in fact, the opposite is and should be true; money should exist in order for us to pursue our own personal needs desires and wants!

In fact, the whole cult around money has become pretty ridiculous. The notion of money has become its own godhead, its own cybernetic metaphor and impetus in life.

Minimum viable income

A very radical idea I have is towards this minimum viable income concept. The general idea is you want to reduce your expenses to the bare bare bare bare minimum, and after that you direct all of your energy power and resources towards augmenting your true life desires, your true true goals in life, rather than money for money sake, which is a slave mentality.

Just watch the movie 300; do you want to be one of those Persian slaves, or the traitor who just wanted to be showered in gold coins and penetrating all these drugged out hallucinating women? Of course not!

Drugs are bad

“Pretty girl with white toes, she like to put it in her nose!” – Playboy Carti

Something which is actually a bit shocking to me; I grew up super sober, I maybe smoked marijuana twice in my life, both instances when I was around 25 years old. I didn’t really like it.

The reason why I am so anti-marijuana is because when I was in high school, I saw all my friends who got hooked on it, and it just made them lazy, dumb, and unmotivated. Just like Elon Musk said on the Joe Rogan podcast; “Smoking marijuana is like the exact opposite of drinking a cup of coffee“. And I love coffee.

I don’t know if marijuana is pretty cheap now, or people using these vape pens or these weed pens or whatever. But, why dull your senses? Why not heighten them instead?

“I’m in love with a V dub engine, it dulls my senses” – JAY Z

“Success sucks, why? Too much stress” – JAY Z

Don’t skip leg day

A funny thought; if you want to maximize your manliness, let us consider that your member, and your testicles are connected to the lower half of your body. And also let us consider that your legs are probably at least five times stronger than your upper body. For example, easy to lift 1000 pound with your legs and your shoulders, very very difficult to lift 1000 pounds with only your arms and your upper body.

Or once again, easy to do a 1000 pound atlas lift, difficult to do 1000 pound benchpress, nay impossible?

Legs = Testosterone

So the very very funny idea I have is maybe, if you want to increase your testosterone and your manliness, every day, work out your legs!

In fact, if I could tell you that by exercising your legs every single day, you could increase your testosterone by a factor of 10 X, or become 10 times manly, more confident, stronger, less tired less petite, more cheerful… wouldn’t you do it?

A life beyond women

In fact, I think the primary mistake that men make is that they only work out their upper body because they want to somehow attract women?

My personal theory is that the primary way for a man to attract a woman is through his testosterone levels, his hormonal levels.

For example, the number one compliment I have been getting by both men and women is my tan, especially my foot, five finger tan. And there is also an ongoing theory that increased sunlight and sun exposure and testosterone manliness have a connection.

To boost your testosterone, spend more time in the direct sun!

Tall dark and handsome

For example, the notion of being tall and handsome, is really a good note here. Even other day I met this one friendly mom, and she told me that she was immediately attracted to her personal trainer, a tall dark handsome man with curly hair named Alejandro, and she ended up having a kid with him. It’s funny because the kid doesn’t look like mom at all and even the mom says I only know his kid because I birthed him!

Why do we desire to purchase certain things?

Let me give you an example: I remember when I worked my UCLA undergraduate job, in IT tech-support, and I literally felt like I just spent five hours a day scrolling through Reddit, killing time on the Internet. And I would also spend a lot of time looking at these camera review websites, gear review forms whatever, and ultimately I think the desire was to just spend more time outside making pictures!

The goal is to shoot more!

And I think this is the insidious thing about the whole camera photography complex; the idea is that we lack the freedom and the time to actually go out and make pictures, which is the desired goal… and we think, if somehow, we purchase XYZ camera or XYZ lens, or XYZ accessory… like a carbon fiber tripod or whatever… suddenly we will have more inspiration motivated and opportunity to actually go out to make photos? But is this true? No.

For example, the very very simple advice I have for any photographer is that the best camera is the maximally small compact one, the imagine like John Wick and his pistol. When shit hits the fan, he is not tooting around and automatic weapon, he just relies on his trusty pistol. Think about that one scene in which he is drifting his car door less Camaro, and picks up his pistol, and shoot the bad guys.

If we consider the Ricoh GR camera, it is like our metaphorical pistol. It is both our precision tool, and also, our general purpose tool.

You cannot hide an M-16 in your front right pocket.

Ways in which I spent a lot of time as a kid, as a teenager playing counterstrike, 1.6. The original one.

The funny thing is that video games, and gun violence doesn’t really have anything in common.

For example, to me as a kid, guns weren’t really a big deal; for example, when I was in Boy Scouts, in one of the summer camps, I got both my shotgun and rifle merit badge, the same camp, as well as my archery merit badge!

Kids aren’t dumb; I remember being shocked as maybe a freshman in high school; the Boy Scouts instructor giving a bunch of kids rifles, at the shooting range, teaching us how to use it. I was a bit shocked as a kid, because even as a kid this seemed a bit dangerous. I remember asking the instructor “…Has anyone ever turned one of these guns around and just shot somebody else?” The adult got very serious, looked at me, and told me “Never say things like that.“ So with extreme caution, we never did anything dumb, and I was actually a quite good marksman! I could hit the target from very very far away, and also I was very good at shotput, in which you use a shotgun to shoot a flying disc in the air!

Your word is your sword

I think the grand difficulty that we have in modern day life is that we no longer have any avenues for physical valor. The only thing which is commoditized is sports; but the reason why sports is bad is that it is too regimented, too constrained, and lacks any sort of real life application.

As NASSIM TALEB has commented; what some fools think is that somehow… a chess master would somehow be a master in military strategy. While this might make a good movie plot, in real life it is not true.

The reason why I am actually anti-chess, and a lot of these board games or whatever… consider how poor it is for your physiology. Sitting on your butt the whole time, stationary, using your brain. It requires no physical valor, or skin in the game. At worst if you lose the match, maybe you feel bad, but beyond this, there is really no downside to losing. This is also where video games are bad; there is no real life downside.

At least with weightlifting, powerlifting, hypelifting, one rep maxing is interesting is that there is some sort of potential physical downside. If you aren’t focused enough, yeah certainly you hurt yourself. And that is the whole point!

And this is where I found the logic to be so bizarre; when these steroided out guys would be so shocked of how much I would attempt weightlifting at the gym, when I would rack up the barbell with seven plates, eight plates, nine plates, 10 plates, 10 plates and hook another 25 on top, they would always tell me… “Be careful”.

Now that I think about this commentary in retrospect, it is really kind of a weakling cowardly side jab;

I am much bigger than you, and you look smaller than me, and also you are built more lean, and also you are Asian… and therefore I am befuddled how you are so much stronger than me, and I want to inform you how you might hurt yourself.

The best compliment

Even I have heard people talking about me at the gym on the side;

You know… there are some guys who are on steroids who don’t look like they’re on steroids (referring to me)

Anyways, what these wimps don’t realize is that they are staring at an Achilles in the flesh, a demigod; half man half god; born from a mortal father, with a goddess mother.

“I am a god”

I think one of the most radical, gutsy things ever uttered in rap music is the Kanye YEEZUS album, in what he put out the “I am a god” song and album.

Note, he did not say that I am the God, but a god (lower case). Even some random stuff that I started to do research in during Covid times is the whole Jay Electronica, the movement of black African-American guys turning to Allah, the fruit of Islam movement, in which the code word for “ALLAH” (arm, leg, leg, arm, head) the general idea in which all humans are born like gods, born in the image and the likeness of God.

“I know I’m not the most high but I’m on a close high.” KANYE, I AM A GOD, YEEZUS ALBUM

In fact, the only concert I have ever gone to my life was seeing Kanye West live at the Oakland Coliseum, for his YEEZUS Tour. It might have been one of the coolest things I’ve ever witnessed, especially when they put the fake mountain in the fake Jesus to come on stage, and also when Kanye put on the sequin covered facemask, they shot a laser on it, and reflected it all around the dome.

Ethics is the future, not technology

Ethics, worldview, philosophy, your own personal code of ethics, the way you decide to approach life, this is the future, not the loser iPhone Pro, or any of these ridiculous virtual reality headsets.

Very very simple; what we desire is real life real world engagement– we desire the embrace and the sweet smell of a woman, no no no… you don’t want to be having virtual reality sex, with your virtual reality girlfriend, or live with your virtual reality dog, driving around in your virtual reality Lamborghini, getting virtual reality head or whatever… Nobody wants a virtual reality babe.

What or which concepts are absent in the past?

In fact, when you think about ancient Greece, philosophy, the ancient Romans etc.… there is almost no focus on women. Women are absent; they are never mentioned, nor discussed or talked about. Certainly not talked about like commodities in today’s world.

The way that a lot of guys get suckered is this strange logic: if I get super super rich, and drive the Lamborghini or the Ferrari or the big truck or whatever, and I’m super super buff, and I have a six pack, suddenly I will attract all these babes, who will want to have intercourse with me, and I can live a super happy playboy lifestyle for the rest of my life, in pure bliss, without any obligations?

Spartan philosophy

The true Spartan way is almost a polar opposite; the goal is to live a maximally frugal and economical life, have kids and beget children, have at least one son to carry on the family name. And the rest of your life is just focused on military training, combat, to be ready to defend your family, your nation when shit hits the fan.

This is where once again, all this fake ass patriotism stuff annoys me; if you’re on Facebook, looking at Donald Trump memes, watch Fox News or Tucker Carlson, make fun of “libtards”, talk about the alphabet gender spaghetti, you are not a true American. Just keep your mouth shut, enroll in military duty. You have nothing to defend yourself against.

Similarly speaking, we liberals also have this bizarre notion of virtue signaling; if you are a true progressive liberal, don’t even say the “Donald Trump” name — don’t talk about the news or politics or whatever. The simplest thing is to just vote against the other party you don’t believe in, get involved in local city politics, attend some sort of city council meeting, vote on issues you care for. Also don’t use Twitter, which might be about 99.9% bots?

***

Men and women must be trained alike

Only Spartan women can birth Spartan men.

Physical training is both critical for men and women. This is also where it is so impressive that Israeli women are also serve military obligations, I think this is a great idea. Maybe also America, there was some sort of obligatory ROTC training in high school, both for men and women, maybe for junior and senior year… this might be a good idea. Good for virtue, physics, the physical element, physical training, building a sense of camaraderie or kinship between our fellow Americans.

In fact, even though I am a Democrat, I have always voted Democrat, and also I consider myself a liberal, I have had nothing but positive interactions with conservatives, Republicans, people on the right. In fact if anything… right wing people to be more friendly, fun, jovial, and happy. Liberals on the left tend to be dark, morose, and fakely-righteous? I remember accidentally walking into some sort of anti-Joe Biden rally, talked with all the friendly people, and was even offered free hotdogs and free ice cream barbecue from the people there!

The reason why social media and the internet is so toxic is that it villainizes other sides, these metaphorical human beings. But if you actually talk to people face-to-face in the flesh, person-to-person, pure to pure; we are about 90% similar, 10% dissimilar.

Quit the internet, talk to people face to face, 1 on 1, in real life.

Only purchase digital things?

A random thought, maybe the way we could curb all of this superficial consumerism is to only purchase digital things, digital goods, digital things.

Digital money: Bitcoin

Digital books, digital movies– Apple TV shop, iTunes Store, iBooks Store. I actually find that purchasing a film is much better than subscribing to a streaming platform. Why? Skin in the game. When you pay the $10 a month or the $15 a month or whatever for that streaming service, you don’t really value any of the films or TV series on it… watching media on streaming platforms is like a sedative; you watch something not because you want to watch it, or learn from it, but instead, just watch it to distract yourself.

Putting your money where your mouth is

The funny thought is the point of purchasing something isn’t to “support“ the producer, but instead, to have a sense of pride that the thing that you purchased is actually something that you believe in or care in?

For example, I have purchased with my own money all the John Wick movies, all of the matrix movies, and now both of the Dune movies. Typically when we actually purchase something with our own money, it is a sign that we actually really really believe in it.

Also, the reason why you never want to trust anybody who is sponsored by anything, is because typically when you are given free things, or sponsored by something, you don’t actually really believe in it, you just accept the advertising and the sponsorship in order to make money or to feel special.

I bought all my Ricoh and LUMIX cameras with my own real money

For example, in the context of cameras, reviews, sponsorships etc.; only trust a photographer who had actually purchased the things with their hard earned money.

For example, I have done collaborations with Fujifilm before, received free cameras in the past, free lenses etc.… And have also been paid money by then. Also I did some free consulting for them, sharing some good ideas like adding a film grain simulation effect filter to their cameras, which they did, in which now you could add green tier digital JPEG photos with the Fujifilm filter, and select either weak, normal, or strong grain.

I am proud that all the Ricoh cameras that I purchased, none were given to me by free from Ricoh. I purchased them all with my own money.

Also kind of a random thing; I think the whole blogosphere was shocked when I purchased a LUMIX G9 camera — it totally seemed like out of left field, because Panasonic Lumix was on nobody’s radar. And currently, now that all my Ricoh GR cameras are dead, my only camera is the Lumix G9 camera and the 14mm f2.5 pancake lumix lens (only $200!). And the only two cameras I think might be worth considering purchasing in the near future is the new Ricoh HDF cameras, or the new Lumix S9 camera with the pancake manual focusing lens.

Trust?

Ultimately, trust nobody, only yourself.

Also with filters; put more trust in dead people than people who are alive. Why?

The difficult thing with following people who are still alive today is that you don’t know how it all ends. With dead philosophers, artists, innovators, you do.

Also, I think the big differences in the past, there was not a profit motive. An artist or an innovator did not need money, because they had the private patronage of some wealthy family like the Medici’s, Leonardo da Vinci etc.

Independently wealthy with Bitcoin

So I’m starting to think more and more… maybe the best true way to be a true artist, visionary, thinker, innovator entrepreneur is to independently make money somewhere, and don’t have to rely on advertising or sponsorships or brands to support your lifestyle.

I would put more faith in the photographer or the weightlifter who makes his living investing in bitcoin, rather than somebody who is always spamming you with advertisements on YouTube or podcasts.

In fact, are there any podcasts which exist which don’t have any advertising? Besides my own?

ERIC KIM PODCAST >

Why bitcoin is the future

Bitcoins, satoshis– this is finally the solution to these annoying online advertisements.

Maybe the true Spartan only cares for in bitcoin and satoshis, but never spends it or touches it, but just keeps accumulating it.

Bitcoin is like our shield – our economic shield and our hedge against the uncertain future.

ARMOR UP!
ERIC

Economic theory

I always thought that economics was stupid, honestly, truth be told, I think when you look at all this fake mathematics behind economic theory, it is all fake, the new hocus-pocus witchcraft, and the number one critical thing I learned about studying statistics both in high school and in college is that statistics is fake metrics that could be gamed however you want.

Therefore, put zero faith in statistics. Better talk to a real human being, face-to-face, person to person, instead of engaging in ridiculous debates on the internet, which again is filled by 99.9% ChatGPT powered bots.

Once once again, if I waived a magic wand, and I revealed to you that in fact, all of the negative comments you read in your life on the internet, these trolls who said mean things to you, if you actually found out that they were all just artificial intelligent ChatGPT bots the whole time… how would you feel? Wouldn’t you feel better?

The next generation of comments on the internet

Several years ago, I had the wisdom to just disable all and delete all comments on my website and blog etc. and also disabling them on YouTube etc. Why? For the most part, comments are useless. Even the positive ones!

When people say nice things about you in the comments, the reason why you could be bad is that it becomes a shackle; you keep publishing stuff that gets good feedback, and as a consequence, you end up staying the same instead of being innovative.

For example, when Bob Dylan went electric; he probably polarized 90% of his fanbase– they booed him off stage (his core audience, his real fans!). Also, everyone likes the old Kanye West in the college dropout album… but I like the new Kanye, I like the new carnival, the newest version of an artist is always the best.

A funny contradiction; everyone always wants the newest iPhone, the newest Tesla, whatever… But everyone wants the older artist, the older music, the older version of a certain thinker? If we stay consistent here, shouldn’t we prefer the new philosophy or the new thoughts or the new approach of an artist or a musician or a thinker versus their old self?

For example, everyone seems to prefer the old ERIC KIM, the old EK, but this is when I was still addicted to Facebook, using an android phone, and I still had my 9 to 5 job.

Sometimes, for myself, I miss my old Vietnam self; but in fact, my best self is my now self with Seneca! Also, sometimes I miss my old ERIC KIM gym self, the HYPELIFTING self, but when I think critically about it, I am 1000 times happier with my new bitcoin self, my new off the grid self, my new walk 10,000 steps a day in the direct Los Angeles sun self.

Then I think the biggest nugget of wisdom:

Prefer the you self right now, not the past self?

Kill your old self!

ERIC

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New books, new media?

Now that everything is becoming so hyper, once again, think about the past.

The Iliad, the Matrix, the 300, John Wick, keep it simple, keep it succinct. I’m very very skeptical of anything new, whether they be new movies, new series, new films etc.

Even this past generation, the last 10 years, the only innovative film created was the John Wick series, nothing else. Even though I was also enthusiastic about the new Mandalorian series, eventually after the first season, it all goes downhill.

With Marvel movies, I think the only good ones was before Disney bought it, for example the original Iron Man, the original Captain America etc.

Why? The problem with Disney is that it is trying to maximize its profits, let us consider it is a publicly treated company, and as a result, the logic is to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Whenever anything is created for the masses, it is bad.

Once again, would you prefer to drive the McLaren, with the butterfly doors, or would you prefer to drive the Toyota Corolla?

Forward the ideas

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The Spartan Way

Some radical ideas:

NOT spend money

I think this is a pretty big idea because all of this is centered around spending money.

Only cowards spend money?

“I promise, I’m so self-conscious, you won’t see me outside with at least one of my watches” – Kanye

Certainly it is very very difficult to earn money, but spending money… is very easy.

So I think the first idea is typically, maybe the best strategy is to teach our kids, and also maybe yourself, not to spend money?

Propaganda

Born into consumerism

The first thing to note or to ask; if the kids are addicted to YouTube or their iPhone or the iPad or Netflix Netflix or YouTube YouTube kids or whatever… are the parents addicted to it? Yes!

Parents — quit media and your iPhone.

In fact, don’t look at the kids, look at the parents! Typically, kids are just mini versions of their parents.

We like to treat our kids the way we wish we were treated as kids

When you take your kid to the park, lock your iPhone in the glove compartment in the car!

The matrix

So, let us consider the analogy of the matrix. I think the analogy the matrix is very good here because honestly in fact, we are all living in a metaphorical matrix right now.

Does man live to make money, or does money exist to serve man?

In fact, the whole cult around money has become pretty ridiculous. The notion of money has become its own godhead, its own cybernetic metaphor and impetus in life.

Minimum viable income

Drugs are bad

“Pretty girl with white toes, she like to put it in her nose!” – Playboy Carti

Something which is actually a bit shocking to me; I grew up super sober, I maybe smoked marijuana twice in my life, both instances when I was around 25 years old. I didn’t really like it.

I don’t know if marijuana is pretty cheap now, or people using these vape pens or these weed pens or whatever. But, why dull your senses? Why not heighten them instead?

“I’m in love with a V dub engine, it dulls my senses” – JAY Z

“Success sucks, why? Too much stress” – JAY Z

Don’t skip leg day

Or once again, easy to do a 1000 pound atlas lift, difficult to do 1000 pound benchpress, nay impossible?

Legs = Testosterone

So the very very funny idea I have is maybe, if you want to increase your testosterone and your manliness, every day, work out your legs!

A life beyond women

In fact, I think the primary mistake that men make is that they only work out their upper body because they want to somehow attract women?

My personal theory is that the primary way for a man to attract a woman is through his testosterone levels, his hormonal levels.

To boost your testosterone, spend more time in the direct sun!

Tall dark and handsome

Why do we desire to purchase certain things?

The goal is to shoot more!

If we consider the Ricoh GR camera, it is like our metaphorical pistol. It is both our precision tool, and also, our general purpose tool.

You cannot hide an M-16 in your front right pocket.

Ways in which I spent a lot of time as a kid, as a teenager playing counterstrike, 1.6. The original one.

The funny thing is that video games, and gun violence doesn’t really have anything in common.

Your word is your sword

Now that I think about this commentary in retrospect, it is really kind of a weakling cowardly side jab;

I am much bigger than you, and you look smaller than me, and also you are built more lean, and also you are Asian… and therefore I am befuddled how you are so much stronger than me, and I want to inform you how you might hurt yourself.

The best compliment

Even I have heard people talking about me at the gym on the side;

You know… there are some guys who are on steroids who don’t look like they’re on steroids (referring to me)

Anyways, what these wimps don’t realize is that they are staring at an Achilles in the flesh, a demigod; half man half god; born from a mortal father, with a goddess mother.

“I am a god”

I think one of the most radical, gutsy things ever uttered in rap music is the Kanye YEEZUS album, in what he put out the “I am a god” song and album.

“I know I’m not the most high but I’m on a close high.” KANYE, I AM A GOD, YEEZUS ALBUM

Ethics is the future, not technology

What or which concepts are absent in the past?

Spartan philosophy

***

Men and women must be trained alike

Only Spartan women can birth Spartan men.

Quit the internet, talk to people face to face, 1 on 1, in real life.

Only purchase digital things?

A random thought, maybe the way we could curb all of this superficial consumerism is to only purchase digital things, digital goods, digital things.

Digital money: Bitcoin

Putting your money where your mouth is

I bought all my Ricoh and LUMIX cameras with my own real money

For example, in the context of cameras, reviews, sponsorships etc.; only trust a photographer who had actually purchased the things with their hard earned money.

I am proud that all the Ricoh cameras that I purchased, none were given to me by free from Ricoh. I purchased them all with my own money.

Trust?

Ultimately, trust nobody, only yourself.

Also with filters; put more trust in dead people than people who are alive. Why?

The difficult thing with following people who are still alive today is that you don’t know how it all ends. With dead philosophers, artists, innovators, you do.

Independently wealthy with Bitcoin

I would put more faith in the photographer or the weightlifter who makes his living investing in bitcoin, rather than somebody who is always spamming you with advertisements on YouTube or podcasts.

In fact, are there any podcasts which exist which don’t have any advertising? Besides my own?

Why bitcoin is the future

Bitcoins, Satoshis– this is finally the solution to these annoying online advertisements.

Maybe the true Spartan only cares for in bitcoin and Satoshi, but never spends it or touches it, but just keeps accumulating it.

Bitcoin is like our shield – our economic shield and our hedge against the uncertain future.

ARMOR UP!
ERIC

Economic theory

Always thought that economics was stupid, honestly, truth be told, I think when you look at all this fake mathematics behind theory, it is all fake, the new hocus-pocus witchcraft, and the number one critical thing I learned about studying statistics both in high school and in college is that statistics is fake metrics that could be gamed however you want.

Therefore, put zero faith in statistics. Better talk to a real human being, face-to-face, person to person, instead of engaging in ridiculous debates on the Internet, which again is filled by 99.9% ChatGPT powered bots.

Once once again, if I waived a magic wand, and I revealed to you that in fact, all of the negative comments you write in your life on the Internet, these trolls who said mean things to you, if you actually found out that they were all just artificial intelligent ChatGPT bots the whole time… Wouldn’t you feel better?

The next generation of comments on the Internet

Maybe the only way we could truly verify whether somebody who is leaving a comment is a real human being or not is to institute the orange check icon, that the individual spent maybe $10 worth of bitcoin or Satoshi’s to verify their humanity. Several years ago, I had the wisdom to just disable all and delete all comments on my website and blog etc. and also disabling them on YouTube etc. Why? For the most part, comments are useless. Even the positive ones!

For example, when Bob Dylan went electric; he probably polarized 90% of his fanbase. Also, everyone likes the old Kanye West in the college dropout album… But I like the new Kanye, I like the new carnival, the newest version of an artist is always the best. A funny contradiction; everyone always wants the newest iPhone, the newest Tesla, whatever… But everyone wants the older artist, the older music, the older version of a certain thinker? If we stay consistent here, shouldn’t we prefer the new philosophy or the new thoughts or the new approach of an artist or a musician or a thinker versus their old self?

For example, everyone seems to prefer the old ERIC KIM, the old EK, but this is when I was still addicted to Facebook, using an android phone, and I still had my 95 job.

Then I think the biggest nugget of wisdom:

Prefer the you self right now, not the past self?

Kill your old self!

ERIC

EK PHOTO SUPPLY

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New books, new media?

Now that everything is becoming so hyper, once again, think about the past.

The Iliad, the Matrix, the 300, John Wick, Tippet simple, keep it succinct. I’m very very skeptical of anything new, whether they be new movies, new series, new films etc.

With Marvel movies, I think the only good ones was before Disney bought it, for example the original Iron Man, the original Captain America etc.

Once again, would you prefer to drive the McLaren, with the butterfly doors, or would you prefer to drive the Toyota Corolla?

Spartan Economics

The Spartan Investor

We knew Spartans, we will inherit the earth.

Some thoughts about investing;

First, I’ve always been interested in passionate about investing, ever since I was in high school. I still remember my high school science math teacher, Dr. Ahmed, reverse told me about mutual funds back in high school, and told me this unorthodox strategy that I should claim being emancipated minor, Being able to borrow some money, in essentially, use that money to invest in an aggressive mutual fund. And this was junior year of high school, I think I was 16.

Somehow I did get my hands on some money, maybe like $1000? Or $1200, or $1600? Anyways, somehow I was able to create an investing account when I was 16, my junior year, and I invested in the one thing that I knew was very important, adobe, which made Photoshop, which I knew was very important because I pirated Photoshop as a kid, and I used it to create all of my images on my computer. I also invested some money into a mutual fund, and even the course of maybe two years, I saw the value of my stock in my mutual fund holding go up? I think I might have realized a $600 or $800 gain, and I was overjoyed!

Fast-forward a bit, into college… I realize when I was in college I was able to take out some student loans, and I use some of that money to invest in the market, while I was still in school, my sophomore year. I suppose I was 19 at the time?

Anyways, very stressful; I will check market prices, on my laptop, note this was before the iPhone existed, and it was very stressful. I would see the price go up a little little bit, and I was overjoyed, full of euphoria, and then I would see the price go down, and I would feel my stomach shrink.

Anyways, from the age of 19, I had to learn how to control my emotions, something part of my early stoic training. And also, getting into trading penny stocks my senior year, in which I accidentally misread the financials for an oil company, that when I thought they were making a profit, they were actually losing money because they would put the financials in parentheses, which I did not know at the time meant to loss. so I suppose my knowledge was good, but I miss read the information, and therefore I saw my life savings of maybe $3200 go to zero. As a 20, 21 year old, this is horrific.

Anyways, I still think I had some good intelligence. I remember during the subprime mortgage meltdown, I saw the price of Ford go almost to five dollars a share, and I saw blockbuster about to go bankrupt. I knew that Ford was a good long-term investment because I knew that Ford would recover in the long-term, and also I knew that blockbuster would go to zero because Netflix was the future. I think the only problem at the time was at the time I didn’t have any access to, as I think I already lost all my money.

Skin in the game

So this is a big thing; being an armchair investor versus being a real Spartan investor, somebody with skin in the game, with their own personal money in the game.

for example, I think being a personal private investor, investing your own harder money is critical here; because that was your soul time energy over many hard hard years of your life.

For example, I think about the decade plus in which I taught workshops, I worked hard to do much research, all the thousands of dollars I spent on Photobooks, writing reviews articles blog posts, videos, etc.… Writing books, making presets giving it away for free etc — essentially the best way to think about money is it is your time force energy energy life soul energy imputed into some sort of concrete things; let us say that it is solidified into a single US dollar.

However the biggest issue here is that Fiat currency, the US dollar, is like an iPhone battery. That slowly but surely, it slowly drains and loses charge.

For example, everybody knows that if you take an iPhone or a laptop, and you just let us sit on your desk for a month without charging it, it will naturally die, even if it was turned 100% off.

Also a problem with batteries and recharging; if you permanently keep it charging all the time, I think also the battery loses the ability to retain charge, and the maximum capacity of the battery loses charges as well.

For example, my 2017 MacBook Pro, 13 inch touch bar space gray, which I bought for about $2000 maxed out refurbished at the time… I think the battery of it only last about five or 10 minutes now before shutting off.

I also heard the same thing with Tesla cars — if you just let it sit, and don’t charge it every single day… Slowly it will lose charge. I suppose this is the upside of having a gasoline powered car, is that oil and petroleum will just sit there, and will not lose charge. Surely there are other things you still gotta worry about like the battery, but still… For the most part oil and gas is more stable than an electric battery and charge.

Anyways, I think the general impetus behind investing is a bit misguided. I think in the past, and also maybe the general idea that people had is “I will invest this amount of money in order for me to gain a return, in order for me to purchase XYZ in the future. For example children are taught of a peaky, you save your allowance and your birthday money in it, so one day in the near future, you could buy a scooter or something.

Butwhat if… We Spartans know that toys are bad? In fact, some things I learned about toys, in raising Seneca:

Superficially legal seem like a good idea, but eventually, Legos are bad. Why? As a parent you got to clean up their mess, and also… When the kid grows up sooner or later you’ll just donate the Legos to another family. The ideal and optimal strategy then is to just play with Legos at the local library on the brick building day, and just leave it there, and go back home.
For Seneca’s entire life, I’ve only bought him two toy cars; I think two Lamborghinis, the small hot wheels style. I think we already lost them.
Almost by osmosis, kids, whether you like it or not, or gain all of these free toys by orbit. For example when they visit their grandma’s home, or play with cousins or whatever… They will pick up random toy cars here and there. Therefore, the simple ideas that you never have to purchase kids any toys, they will naturally get toys from friends and family, on their birthday holidays etc., even if you are a “anti toy household”.

Are toys bad?

I think so.

Essentially the purpose of a toy for the most part, is some sort of thing to distract your kids while you as a parent to do something else.

And also, the problem and issue with toys is that it doesn’t make them anymore physically strong or capable.

When it comes down to it, the best things to prioritize for your kid is their physical strength, height, muscle mass, ability to climb stuff, run around, be out in nature, go on hikes, have a nice tan for actually being in the sun, Ability to pick up heavy stuff and throw them, etc. Even one of the things I’m very proud of is ever since Seneca was very young, he would be really good at throwing rocks into bodies of water!

Weapons & armor & shields

If we think about the ancient Spartans, what were their possessions? Simple: their spear and shield, even their sword was kind of more of an accessory piece.

Also, I think according to Pluto, or some of the ancient historians, there are funny quotes like “why are spartan swords so short?” Spartan response: “So we could get close to the enemy”.

Also, one of the most critical things about being a spartan was your shield; the reason why the hunchback was not allowed to fight along the spartan army was because he could not raise his shield, and the critical thing about being a spartan was the ability to defend the man next to you.

Even when you consider the final duel or fight between Achilles and Hector, I think it comes down to throwing spears, at a distance, and having the other party defend themselves with their shield.

Helmets were also critical because there were many times in which having the right shield actually defended you from death.

Defense?

So my first Spartan economic thought is that the purpose of money is more of an economic shield, barrier, buffer, or armor to prevent you from working like a slave.

The purpose of money isn’t to buy stuff, purchase a home, buy super things, purchase a vehicle etc.… But rather, via negativa; for you not to work.

As long as you got a job, a boss, a steady paycheck… You are not free.

Also, as long as you got a mortgage on your home, payments on your car, and any sort of debt or obligations… Once again you are also not free.

All debt is bad debt

More recently I thought I’ve been towing with is in regards to the notion of debt; for example what some institutional investors do is take on debt to purchase things, property, bitcoin like Michael Saylor and micro strategy, in order to purchase more assets, in the promise that it will grow in the future.

I’m starting to think, maybe could work for the corporations, institutions etc.… But maybe this kind of leverage is not a good idea for us private investors, because it could cause dumb, and also cause you to lose your freedom.

The goal

NOT have a job
NOT have debt
NOT be employed by anyone else besides you (sole, sole proprietor — number of employees is 0– you are your only employee).

Creating your own new Sparta

What is very interesting about Sparta, Kim Leonidas etc.… Is that the point wasn’t to enslave millions and billions of people, rather, it was to think about committing to your own local population… For example, maybe the Spartan populations was only 10,000 Spartans? And they had about 50,000 helots till the land?

A big thought: it seems that the modern day individual loves to complain critique and hate on everything, hit on global policies, politics, individuals, music, media, iPhones and social media, whatever. Whenever people talk about global warming, carbon levels, carbon footprint whatever… Typically I see a lot of these people are either single, maybe they own a dog, certainly children and kids.

In fact, the lamest thought that kids contribute most to the carbon footprint of the planet… My ongoing theory is that these people are just humanity haters; just want to take their dog to the grave with them?

Who knows, perhaps your kid, or some other kid who is born today is going to be the one who solves pollution on the planet; who creates a solar power pan all that is 1 billion times more effective, or invent some sort of nuclear power vision Energy generator that could fit in your back pocket?

Anyways, my simple thought is rather than complaining and critiquing about society whatever… More effective to just become the change in which you wish to see manifested in the world, and also a big thing; have kids! Your own micro society, create your own cultural values, and insanely Spartan, stoic and staunch about it.

For example, I think giving presents and buying toys for kids on their birthday is ridiculous. I believe rather than experiences, tight. Therefore for my niece Amelia and Benji, I don’t think I’ve ever bought them any toys on their birthday or on any holidays. What I do instead is take them rockclimbing with me and Cindy, and also when I’m just with them… I just play with them! I leave my Phone in my glove compartment of my car, and I just run around with them!

I remember Amelia saying a year or two ago saying “I miss Samchon ERIC,… Because he is the only one who plays with me”…

How to raise your kids

I think in today’s world of hedonism and indulgence, the thought is to raise, train, and breed your kid to be craters, in invaders, Spartan Stoics, with maximum physical capability, 100% carnivore died, with extreme vigor, play and joyfulness.

For example, would you give your kid heroin? Certainly not. Then don’t shove kids in front of their face, or Disney+ or whatever when you just want them to stop crying. Let them confront their own emotions, explain things to them, let them cry it out; give them a kiss on their forehead if they fell on their head, and the big thing; don’t let any other loser adults punk your kid around.

In fact, I’m starting to think more and more… Perhaps I should become more aggressive, more of an asshole parent. For example, I’ve been on a bit of a rampage in which to not smoke in public places, when I’m with Seneca. Even though they might give me a dirty look, or even if I might feel bad about it… This is what a true Spartan would do. Essentially you take the brunt of badness, bad emotions whatever… And defend your kid, defend your wife, defend your family.

When to attack?

Also, I think America could learn a thing or two about Sparta; for the most part, think America should just stop meddling in the business of other nations, other nation states, even if we want to maintain some sort of world peace for the interest of America.

For example, America needs to stop waging positive war. The only good use of military is defense. America needs to be well positioned in such a way that if anyone attacks us, we could defend ourselves. But I think ethically, America should not wage preemptive attacks on other nations and other nation states, in order for us to be like Machiavelli’s prince; the idea that often to defend oneself, you have to preemptively attack.

I think this is also the thing that is so ridiculous about gun ownership in America, all these loser notions of “self-defense “. Everyone always wants a gun on them, because they are afraid of being shot or being attacked. And I think some people shoot another person preemptively, because they fear their life is in danger danger or whatever.

But, the law is, you are never allowed to shoot first. The only time you pull out your gun or whatever and start shooting is one the other person has already shot you, or has already shot something in the environment.

Maybe the only new ones is if that person has gunpoint to your kid or whatever… Then you headshot him in the head. But besides this, don’t be a pussy.

The stoic Spartan investing strategy

Lib Spartan. Essentially somebody who glorifies themselves under their own human body, their own physical strength, just think about how your muscles, your shoulders your back and your traps are.

No dogs, no cats, no animals. Only children.

Ensure that you have at least one son to continue the family name.

Perhaps foolishness is a virtue?

I’m also starting to think, being mad, being a madman is a virtue. Anybody who focused is too much on security, safety, prudence and rationality is a wimp.

Good for your wife, do it for your family, be a true mensch.

Throw your cares and concerns into the tailwind, burn all your bridges, burn your ships behind you, don’t look back. Only forward.

what type of money would Spartans prefer?

Historically, the ancient Spartans would abolish money. Because they know that money corrupts.

I think one of the earliest Spartan legislators, Lycurgus, essentially made the law in which he converted all money into huge stone, which were essentially impossible, maybe it was made of iron etc. made accumulation of wealth so cumbersome, people eventually stopped chasing wealth for the sake of it.

Mandatory military duty?

I was always an anti-military, but now as an adult… I’m starting to see the virtues.

For example, in South Korea, all men are required to do a mandatory two year military service, even StarCraft players and BTS members are not exempt.

The good thing about this, as well as Singapore… It built a sense of nationhood and camaraderie between men. Even one of my friends, Andrew, a professor I think he did some sort of part-time Navy officer reserve training when he was getting his PhD… And he said something like “I think if there was some sort of military duty amongst Americans, there would be a lot less divide and conflict”. I also agree.

Probably the most anti-racist training that I ever got in high school was accidentally; playing high school American football. Essentially, I was thrown in all rainbows of races; African-American, Latino, southeast Asian, east Asian, Caucasian etc. There was a strong sense of brotherhood, and everybody supported one another. And for the most part, we put aside all of our differences and our cliques.

For example, I remember some of the white guys who are hefty lineman, I think they were into Cowboys and rodeos and wearing cowboy hats whatever, and African-American kids would just hang out with other African-Americans at school, and the southeast Asians were also part of their own crew etc., all my friends were Korean American, or east Asian… But when we all played football together, did practice, play games etc.… We would all sing the same ridiculous songs on the school bus, breaking Windows, etc.

Also, a very formative thing that I did was Boy Scouts; becoming an Eagle Scout, etc. Also here… All notions of race, religion whatever was erased; I remember that my scoutmaster was Jewish Jewish American, and his two sons were all in scouts with me would wear the little Hat, and I never knew what it really was, but I never really hated on it.

And also, I remember the Levee brothers; also two boisterous Jewish American kids, Ariel and Jamie, And once again, I didn’t even even know what antisemitism was until I went to college?

Anyways, my grand vision is that being American should be more of a nationality, more of a nation state thing, rather than a racial thing.

For example, the genius of Rome, was that as long as you paid taxes, you were Roman. It didn’t matter if you were from Spain, like Seneca the younger, who I named my own son after, Seneca was not a Spaniard — he was a Roman.

Also, I have more in common with Kendrick Lamar grew up to E-40, then I ever did with any Korean person I met in South Korea.

Also some funny nuances; I have far more connections with somebody I meet up in the bay area, in the 90s, doesn’t matter if there are Latino or black or whatever…

Even Southern California, LA South Koreans; they are different from me.

As long as you grew up to underground rap, the Bay Area high E-40 movement, if you know who Keak da sneak is, if you know how to go stupid dumb and hyphy yellow bus retarded, if you over owned a pair of all white case Swiss tennis shoes in high school, and just wore white T-shirts and dark blue denim, and never owned a pair of shorts until you’re late 20s… Then you are with me.

John Wick would like bitcoin

A very interesting scene, and also in the universe of John Wick; it is a world beyond money. For example, in the universe of John Wick, money is just like these gold coins, which are used to gain access, trade favors, clean up messy dead bodies, to protect or guard things, or for people to take a hit at somebody.

For example, when John Wick wants to get into the secret club, he has to insert a single golden coin, very much like putting a coin in some sort of arcade machine.

Also, when John Wick is first seeking revenge in the first film, and he opens up his war chest… It is all guns ammo and gold coins. No US dollars, no Fiat currency.

Why bitcoin is the way

I recently sold all of my Tesla stock, and purchased micro strategy stock instead (MSTR). Why? Some convincing arguments from michael saylor:

first, product cycles. Certainly for the most part, purchasing Apple stock is a good idea, however, who knows if the iPhone 35 pro will be any good?

Also, CEO; let it say that one day, Elon Musk totally left Tesla. And no longer had any affiliations with Tesla. If this were the case, Tesla would not be worth anything.

I think the genius about bitcoin is that it is a religion. Satoshi, is essentially this metaphorical Jesus speaker, the savior, and he disappears forever. With any other crypto asset, Ethereum and Vitalik or even chainlink and Sergey; as long as you have a central spokesperson, a CEO, a president or a leader, a charismatic individual… You will not last.

For example, one of the very interesting things that I learn from my political sociology class at UCLA as an undergraduate with Mark Jepsen was that nations or nation states that are led by charismatic individuals don’t last. Once the leader dies off, there is no longer any vision.

For example the genius of America, is that even if we have a few bad apples, the whole thing will still chug along OK. Let us consider that after Mao Zedong died, after Ho Chi Minh died, both mainland China and Vietnam has slowly and surely started to delve into capitalism… The dominant world system.

In fact, that is consider that seems that 80% of the Chinese economy is still dependent on America. And essentially, the CNY, is pegged to the US dollar; because there are capital controls in order from the Chinese government, in Chinese mainland Chinese individuals cannot take their wealth out of the country, especially when they prefer to buy property and live in Vancouver Canada instead… It is a strong signal that duh , America’s on top.

Even though if you had currency is weak, America is still the strongest Fiat currency on the planet. I recently talked to a woman who just got her green card from Beirut Lebanon, and she told me that the whole lira thing is a mess; that people prefer to just hold and trade US dollars instead.

Even when I visited Cuba, even though they have the local Cuban dollar currency, still at end of the day, things are priced in US dollars.

After the US dollar, all other currencies, nobody wants them. Nobody wants the euro, too much chaos in Europe. Nobody wants the pound, Britain’s isolationist policies make it the next Japan, they will still stagger on but will slowly become irrelevant, nobody wants a Korean won — their population is dying off, and it seems that the greatest market for new Hyundai cars are actually in the states, nobody wants the Japanese yen, once again their birth rate is practically zero now. Nobody wants Chinese yuan — I don’t know any non-Chinese person who would prefer using WeChat, we pay, or a Huawei phone.

As long as rich mainland Chinese people prefer to use an iPhone Pro over a Huawei phone, America will always be on top.

Election cycle predictions

I’m voting for our Kamala Harris, because she has more aligned with my ethical beliefs, even though she will lose. I’m almost 99.99% certain that Donald Trump win.

The good news is that Donald Trump is very pro bitcoin, bitcoin mining etc.; so after Donald Trump gets elected, after the dust settles… Your bitcoin value will blossom.

Even if bitcoin and crypto goes through another bear market, which eventually it will… Still, the US economy will be stronger under Donald Trump than Kamala Harris.

If anything, of Joe Biden stepping down and having Kamala Harris rotten instead is like the final hail Mary – and I have played enough high school football to know that Hail Mary’s never work 99.999% of the time. The only time a Hail Mary will work in an American football game is almost never; you only hear about it when you watch random TV clips, or YouTube videos, but I think the chance of a Hail Mary working is practically zero.

So what is in your locus of control?

So I think the big thing to note here is that the stoic way is simple:

What is in your locus of control, what isn’t?

Politics, climate change, dual politics, etc. are not in your control.

What is in your control? Your own individual behaviors, what you write about to friends family and on the Internet, whether you decide to use social media or not, your own individual actions, and also… Your own individual non-action; what you decide not to do.

For example, it seems that the words you refrain from, what you decide not to say, is more telling than what you decide to say.

Another stoic strategy; when you hear something which is very puzzling to you, restrain responding immediately… It works 99.9% of the time.

silence is golden, speaking intelligently is silver.

Nobody wants silver.

Just focus on one thing?

Spartans only focused on one thing; freedom.

The lame thing about America is you have a bunch of these fake ass patriots, waving Trump flags, we have never done any military service. Freedom is not free, or live free or die.

The general ethos is that it is true… Freedom is not free. But what is the opposite of free? Skin and soul in the game; actually being on the front lines of something.

For example, I have a simple rule; you’re not allowed to talk about freedom or whatever or is some sort of fake ass patriot chest thumping flag waving coward, if you have never served military duty, or at least have done Boy Scouts and know how to properly fold a flag!

Also, if you really want to be conservative or Republican or whatever, the simple news is don’t watch Fox News, or any news.

Could be told, both sides are foolish. The left the right the center the moderates whatever… You gotta think like an individual. This means removing all news from your brain, all news which is run on advertising is toxic.

I have another big idea news agencies, website individual bloggers, magazines etc. except payments in bitcoin and Satoshi, no advertising.

The truth is as long as something is supported by advertising, the low-key bias will be to make it more sensationalist, less connected with reality, in order to get more eyeballs in order to make more advertising dollars.

Are there any newsies which do not run on advertising? No.

As a consequence, trust no news but yourself.

Where to get your news?

ironically enough, maybe the best place to get your news is through intentional propaganda government portals, like going to the official US military defense.gov website, because you could smell the propaganda more critically.

Propaganda, propaganda, propagate just means to spread something. The French use the word propaganda, not in the evil way as we Americans think, propaganda just means to spread something.

and once again, realize that all is toxic, all news is bad. Injecting news into your brain and soul is almost like injecting type two diabetes into a healthy individual.

News is like type two diabetes for your soul.

Spartan theory?

To sum up, the spartan way simple: live like a spartan, like the hungry wolf, invest all of your money and earnings and into bitcoin, have at least one kid, derive your pleasure enjoy another human beings, conversation, love and charity, through physical activity exercise, Risky weightlifting, being outside in nature the greet outdoors, and think exposure;

Unless you got real exposure to something, you aren’t permitted to say nothing.

ERIC

Don’t opine about something you’re not invested in

Put your money where your mouth is, or don’t put your mouth where your money is not.

***

Film club

Required watching for any aspiring Spartan Stoic is all of the John Wick movies, the movie 300, the matrix movie, maybe Blade Runner? I prefer the second one.

EK BOOK CLUB

The sayings of Spartans, just Google it. Also, all of the books have Seneca, all of his letters. Also the meditations by Marcus Aurelius, and honestly all of the stoic thinkers are good.

Nietzsche, all of his books.

NASSIM TALEB– all of his books.

Interview, podcast club

All of the interviews and podcasts in YouTube series by Michael Saylor , michael.com, or hope.com

Economic theory

All economic theory is bad. The best is to just read the Iliad, think about the ancient Greeks about their life before money was invented.

My boxer briefs?

Ain’t nobody got time for this! ￼￼

The best vs the most durable ￼￼ ￼

Bodies are the future

do you want to be old, alone, no children or grandchildren, when you are 80 years old inside a nursing facility?

￼ Digital durability

If it ain’t broken, if it hasn’t broke yet… Good sign. ￼￼￼

Censorship proof, censorship resistant?

￼ Capitalist

Tesla

Last

Only cowards spend money?

Propaganda

Born into consumerism

We like to treat our kids the way we wish we were treated as kids

The matrix

Does man live to make money, or does money exist to serve man?

Minimum viable income

Drugs are bad

Don’t skip leg day

Legs = Testosterone

A life beyond women

Tall dark and handsome

Why do we desire to purchase certain things?

The goal is to shoot more!

You cannot hide an M-16 in your front right pocket.

Your word is your sword ￼￼

The best compliment

“I am a god”

Ethics is the future, not technology

What or which concepts are absent in the past?

Spartan philosophy

Men and women must be trained alike

Only purchase digital things? ￼

Putting your money where your mouth is ￼

I bought all my Ricoh and LUMIX cameras with my own real money

Trust?

Independently wealthy with Bitcoin

Why bitcoin is the future

Economic theory

The next generation of comments on the internet

EK PHOTO SUPPLY

EK WORKSHOPS

New books, new media?

Forward the ideas

Only cowards spend money?

Propaganda

Born into consumerism

We like to treat our kids the way we wish we were treated as kids

The matrix

Does man live to make money, or does money exist to serve man?

Minimum viable income

Drugs are bad

Don’t skip leg day

Legs = Testosterone

A life beyond women

Tall dark and handsome

Why do we desire to purchase certain things?

The goal is to shoot more!

You cannot hide an M-16 in your front right pocket.

Your word is your sword ￼￼

The best compliment

“I am a god”

Ethics is the future, not technology

What or which concepts are absent in the past?

Spartan philosophy

Men and women must be trained alike

Only purchase digital things? ￼

Putting your money where your mouth is ￼

I bought all my Ricoh and LUMIX cameras with my own real money

Trust?

Independently wealthy with Bitcoin

Why bitcoin is the future

Economic theory

The next generation of comments on the Internet

EK PHOTO SUPPLY

EK WORKSHOPS

New books, new media?

The Spartan Investor

Skin in the game

Ain’t nobody got time for this!

The best vs the most durable

Digital durability

If it ain’t broken, if it hasn’t broke yet… Good sign.

Capitalist

Your word is your sword

Only purchase digital things?

Putting your money where your mouth is

Your word is your sword

Only purchase digital things?

Putting your money where your mouth is

Election cycle predictions

Where to get your news?

Don’t opine about something you’re not invested in