How did ERIC KIM become so strong?

Becoming stronger, my goal.

Search Eric Kim 1,000 pound lift

Eric Kim’s achievement of a 1,000-pound atlas lift is highlighted as a significant milestone in his fitness journey. He views the thousand-pound club not just as an achievement but as a starting point for aiming at even higher goals, such as joining the 2,000 and 3,000-pound clubs. Kim’s approach to reaching these impressive feats includes innovative exercises like the rock pool, atlas lift, and floor bench press. By the time of these achievements, his atlas lift was close to 800 pounds, with his rock pool over 700 pounds, and his floor bench press around 500 pounds, totaling approximately 2,000 pounds. His philosophy emphasizes challenging conventional limits and striving for continuous personal growth and breaking barriers oai_citation:1,Eric Kim Thousand Pound Lift. – ERIC KIM.

Eric Kim detailed his regimen for achieving the 1,000-pound lift, which includes consistent incremental increases in weight, intermittent fasting, abstaining from supplements like steroids or creatine, and ensuring ample sleep. He also stresses the importance of a substantial meal of beef or lamb after fasting periods as part of his strategy oai_citation:2,HOW DID ERIC KIM LIFT 1,000 POUNDS? – ERIC KIM.

For more insights on Eric Kim’s fitness philosophy and journey, you might find it interesting to visit the detailed blog posts where he shares more about his approach and future goals oai_citation:3,ERIC KIM 1000 POUND ATLAS LIFT – ERIC KIM oai_citation:4,1,000 POUND ATLAS LIFT – ERIC KIM oai_citation:5,1000 POUND ATLAS LIFT – ERIC KIM.

Eric Kim attributes his strength to having an “insanely high level of self-belief and self-confidence.” He mentions specific achievements such as a 255 kg (562 pound) deadlift attempt, indicating that his physical strength is a result of dedication and confidence in his abilities oai_citation:1,How Did ERIC KIM Get So Strong? – ERIC KIM – ERIC KIM PHOTOGRAPHY.

HOW TO BECOME HAPPIER

Simple — mostly via negativa:

  1. Quit reddit– I actually wonder if reddit is worse for you than porn. Funny thought — don’t quit porn, quit reddit instead.
  2. Quit alcohol and weed: just drink black coffee — EK 100% fine robusta. Also another pro tip — don’t drink arabica, just drink 100% robusta. Why? Less sugar content and sugar molecules and sweetness flavors — robusta also has more caffeine!
  3. For coffee — only drink it first thing in the morning — a lot; allow yourself unlimited coffee first thing waking up in the morning. But for the rest of the day… strict abstinence.
  4. Don’t go to the club, the mall, the strip club whatever. Just go on a (free) hike and start your own home gym instead! Titan fitness independent squat rack— I love it. Also rogue fitness 400 pound sandbag. Texas power squat bar.
  5. Visit the local museum — LACMA, THE GETTY, GETTY VILLA IN MALBU ETC. The Getty in LA is free!
  6. Read the classics — Plutarch, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Diogenes, Epictetus, Heraclitus, the philosophers who came before Socrates.

Happy exercises and activities

  1. Buy vibram 5 finger shoes, just black. I like the EL-X model. Just make this your everyday shoe. Wear it to the gym, to work, grocery store, go hiking whatever. Theory — there is more intelligence in your (bare) feet than your hands?
  2. Intermittent fasting: no breakfast no lunch, only one insanely massive dinner a night. I prefer 100% carnivore diet — aim for 5 pounds of beef/lamb a night. Costco Kirkland boneless lamb leg roast only $5.50 USD a pound, the new Costco wagyu American ground beef also very good– only $5USD a pound.
  3. Get a Costco membership:
  4. Stop using Google (free service)– also stop using Gmail. Register your own email (like eric@erickim.com) and no more Gmail. Use the Apple Mail client on your phone or laptop. Better yet,,, uninstall email from your phone. Remember once upon a time it was seen as insanely strange to have work email on your personal private phone?

Becoming Yourself

In today’s fragile uncertain world… what’s real? What’s important?

Think You

The first thought is you are real, you are important. You are the most critical thing in the world.

One of the big issues in today’s world is that nobody is allowed to posit themselves as an end into themselves. What that means is this:

Typically what people believe is that you must sacrifice yourself, all of your resources whatever for the sake of humanity and other people. One is not allowed to invest all your time resources energy and money into advancing and elevating yourself.

For example, venture capitalists. The goal and purpose and telos is to invest money, seed capital or whatever into these foreign, non-human companies. 

However, companies are not real. Even the notion of company companion is somebody you share bread with.

Why not invest in individuals — real life human beings?

Or better yet, why not invest in yourself?

You is the goal

My personal take is that the problem here is religion, ethics, modern-day religious thinking. Most of the planet is governed by a form of Christianity, Catholicism, Judaism, Islam etc.… even a lot of these “atheist“ people are essentially still in line with the Benjamin Franklin, protestant work ethic mode of living and thinking.

For example, if you look a lot of Caucasian Americans, whose family have been here for several generations, even though they’re not religious, they don’t go to church, they don’t believe in “God”, they still have protestant work ethics; they work hard, they save money, they spend a little bit money on themselves here and there, but for the most part they invest towards their kids their families their communities etc.

Even Fernandinho Galliani on his treatsie on money, DELLA MONETA; he talks a lot about God, the creator, the deity whatever. So even we should take the opinion of Galliani with a grain of salt, because anybody who tries to justify their position by invoking God or whatever– it is typically a sign that their opinion is a bit feeble.

But it’s written in the Bible!

And yes, the Bible is just a mishmash of different early Christian father writers, and if you think about critical theology, or philology… You must understand and realize that this was all written by fallible men. 

How to advance

Honestly, I think the number one critical skill in today’s world or in general is critical thinking. Critical comes from Greek KRITIKOS, which essentially means judge, to judge, to weigh. 

So for example, we often get words a little bit confused. We misconstrue different words like “critic”, “criticism” with hate etc.

For example, we talk about criticism, typically we think of criticism like people just saying bad things about us or concepts etc. But, I think you could be a critic, a loving critic. The art of critique is to simply look at something, more objectively, without any hate or vitriol, and to just judge something for what you think it is. 

For example, somebody who is buried in the annals of history; Tacitus on the Jews // Book 5 the histories of Tacitus. Tacitus, one of the early Roman historians, I think reading him is interesting because honestly, he just states his opinion, gives credit where it is due, gives pros and cons, but also speaks his mind. 

For example, when he is talking about the people of Judea, and is trying to outline them, their cultures etc., he says both the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly. He praises Jewish people for their industry their courage and their power, but also obviously is diametrically opposed to their customs, their beliefs, which were weird foreign and anti-Roman.

In fact, I think if we critically think about Judaism, Jewish people, the descendants of Judea, it seems that the only historical thing we could really understand is that these people were the descendants of Moses. So the best way to think about Judaism as a religion, or even thinking about Christianity is to think that it was essentially a religion invented by Moses, to solidify his people, to strengthen them, And for them to persist.

Think Moses. // professor ISRAEL KHNOHL THEORY – WIKIPEDIA

And also, Islam. Yeah yeah yeah we are all politically correct and whatever, but I think the critical thing is to understand Mohammed as a real life human being, the visions that he got from God were probably just some sort of hallucinations he had while in a cave, and think that the religion of Muhammad, Islam, is essentially a religion invented from a single man, Mohammed.

Religion and politics?

I remember the kid, I was bit confused; growing up Roman Catholic, Korean American, in the liberal Bay area… I was a bit confused that if there was one God, how is it that there were other gods in the world?

Also things which were very confusing to me; Jesus was Jewish?

Also something that I’ve been discovering and rediscovering more recently, learning that in fact, the Bible starts off with the Jewish Hebrew Torah Bible, I think the first three chapters of the typical Christian Bible is just Genesis and the ones in the original Jewish Bible?

Critical thinking

So the reason why we have so many thinkers who are Jewish Jewish American Israeli etc. is that the Jewish culture is slated towards critical introspection, thinking. For example if you’re curious, whenever you see a famous author writer influencer or whatever, just open up ChatGPT, the premium one, and ask whether they are Jewish or not, or the history of their last name.

In fact in one of these anti-Semitic texts which was sponsored by Henry Ford, and Henry Ford was overly anti-Semitic, there is this article titled “the subtle art of changing last Jewish names”, and in fact, studying the genealogy of last names is super interesting because in fact, a lot of these “Jewish” sounding last names are changed in order for Jewish people to assimilate into America, American culture, different countries etc.

For example, John Stewart I believe is Jewish American, and changed his last name to sound more “American”. The same thing goes with the actor Kirk Douglas, whose family immigrated from I think Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe Jewish people, and also changed his name to sound more “American”.

Also a weird fellow, Bob Dylan, I think his original name is Andrew Zimmerman, he is Jewish American. 

Even things that I didn’t know and understand is that Jerry Seinfeld, the whole Seinfeld show, which I watched a lot as a kid of reruns and stuff like that is essentially a story about Jewish American culture in America?

Unchaining yourself from religious, ethical, or moralistic thinking

Who are the best thinkers? The ancient Greeks, the ones who came before Socrates. But still… we should take the opinion of the ancient Greeks with a grain of salt because even them, were greatly influenced by the “gymnosophists“ – gymnos in ancient Greek means naked, essentially imagine these weird hippie naked Indian people from India, who would share their sophistry or their philosophy and thinking with others.

I think a lot of early Greek thinkers like Heraclitus, Democritus etc. their thinking was hugely inspired by the gymnosophists, from India… that is why a lot of these pre-Socratic thinkers have philosophies which sound very Buddhist in nature.

  1. You never step into the same river twice – Heraclitus
  2. Even a hair cast its own shadow – Publius Syrus
  3. The path up and down is the same – Heraclitus

Why is our thinking still so basic? 

OK, it is 2024– we live in insanely advanced world, how is it and why is it that we still think so basic? 

For example, it’s still befuddles me that people still take religion literally — don’t people understand that religion is all just a metaphor?

Assuming that there are no gods, no afterlife, no “immortal soul”, whatever, then the simple question is how do you wish to live your life? 

And also, what are you doing with your life? How are you using your energy time and metabolic resources, to build something beyond yourself?

Health

Health, wellness. How does it matter and what does it mean? 

The first simple thought is the quality of your thoughts, your ambitions your hopes and your dreams, your entrepreneurial spirit is rooted in your health, your body, the physical. No no no, the “mind“, doesn’t exist, it is just a fiction.

> In mens sano, alma sano.

The “soul“, is simply an offshoot of your body. When your body dies, your soul also dies.

If your body is healthy, your bodily composition your health is healthy, your mind will be healthy. People who have mental disease, whatever, the big issue is that their body is sick.

For example, I think about my father and my dad, and he was a very sick man. I have a low-key suspicion that maybe he caught syphilis somewhere? I actually recall that he had a lot of anal issues, and I still remember when I was pretty young, maybe I was 11 years old or 10 years old or nine years old? Then my mom bought him a douche, to clean out his bowels?

A lot of people who have bodily and physiological disease, end up getting mental disease. I think ultimately, I’m not 100% certain, but ultimately my dad I think either got Syphilis or it might have advanced his schizophrenia? Seeing fake images ghosts and visions, etc?

What is schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia I think in Greek just means split mind. This is an overly simplistic way of thinking about the mind because the mind cannot be “split”, according to these basic notions.

My personal theory is when one catches some sort of disease, syphilis, other ancient diseases whatever, it does weird stuff to your mind. Even Friedrich Nietzsche towards the end of his life descended into madness, he lost his mind his body his soul, was taking care of by his sister until his death.

There are some competing theories on how and why Nietzsche went mad. One theory was he was gay and caught syphilis from another guy, and apparently there is a spurious connection or correlation, not causation, of being gay, syphilis, gay sex and syphilis?

I think this is probably false because apparently Nietzsche was madly in love with this one woman, who did not requite his love, and therefore if you look at his writings, he is very very salty about it… therefore a lot of his anti-women misogyny thoughts maybe is because he couldn’t get the girl of his dreams? 

Philosophers acting badly

The reason why it is important and critical to think about, and consider the personal life of thinkers, their physiology, their muscle mass composition, their body fat composition, their height and stature etc. is that ultimately, the question we must critically think about is this:

The philosopher as a human being… how does his physiology body and mind soul affect his writings? 

For example, Nietzsche apparently had quite poor health his entire life, and I think a lot of his personal writings is for him to personally grapple with his poor health. He apparently traveled around a lot in Italy, Europe, to find an ideal climate for his poor bodily constitution.

Even NASSIM TALEB – the only modern-day thinker philosopher worth following… apparently he always grew up as kind of a fatty boy, and I think a lot of his thoughts on diet health physical exercise etc. should be taken with a grain of salt, because I think he is still addicted to carbs, squid ink pasta? 

Tell me what you eat, how you eat, how frequently or infrequently you eat, and I will tell you who you are

One of the +1s that I give to Jack Dorsey, apparently he is like me! He just eats one meal a day, maybe the difference is that I eat 100% carnivore diet, only beef and lamb, aiming for 4 to 5 pounds of meat every single dinner, and if you look at Jack Dorsey, it doesn’t seem like he lifts weights. 

Look inside their fridge

One of the bad things that I love to do whenever I visit peoples homes is always love to open up the fridges and look inside. Sometimes ask for permission, sometimes I just do it; because… If you see what is inside the fridge or freezer, you get to know a lot about about them.

For example, for the most part, I put zero faith in anybody who shop at Trader Joe’s. Why? Trader Joe’s is just snacks with a good conscience.

Also, I put zero trust in anybody who drinks Coca-Cola, Coke zero, or talks about “calories”. They obviously have no idea about any human physiology. 

Also in terms of how the exercise, how frequently the exercise etc.; I’ve learned to distrust anybody who goes to the gym, or anybody who uses Reddit, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube etc., because… any fitness influencer who uses Instagram, or any social media platform, what they are trying to do is maximize their followers and views, and sooner or later, they’re going to dip into the gummy bears, a.k.a. steroids.

Becoming the ideal version of yourself

I have certain ideas for myself. Essentially I want to look like a Greek demigod, Achilles in the flesh. I think I’m there.

For example, I look like Brad Pitt in fight club but on steroids. Much more muscular, with the same lean low body fat percentage. I’m not sure what my body fat percentage is at right now, but I could definitely see my suspect. This is where measuring body fat percentage is inaccurate, just pinch your belly fat and see whether you could see your abs.

The secret of getting a six pack?

Very simple. Intermittent fasting, no breakfast no lunch, only a 100% carnivore dinner. Quit vegetables, starches, carbs, fruit and fiber, fake sugars real sugars milk dairy etc.

No no no, you don’t need a “balanced diet”. This is just a basic line of thinking for mediocre people who don’t have the courage to experiment and try out the extremes.

The faucet of this notion of calories is propagated by the Coca-Cola corporation, who wants you to keep drinking more their diabetes water, even let us reclassify Alzheimer’s as type 3 diabetes, purely something that you get infected with according to what you eat and what you drink.

Real men drink tapwater

Another really big scam that I’ve discovered, especially living here in LA, is this ridiculous notion of “alkaline water“. Anyone who believes in that nonsense is a fool.

Also talking to a truck delivery driver, he told me that apparently, bottled water is actually more expensive than gasoline?

A very simple thought, for this year or the New Year’s or in general… only drink tapwater or filtered water! And don’t get one of those loser Hydro flask things, I think a simpler solution is to just drink out of the water fountain, just drink tapwater at the house, and if you want a portable bottle get the path water bottles, they are very cheap, Think maybe only $3? And you could reuse them! They are very lightweight, I like it in matte black.

Elon Musk drinks tapwater, and so can you!

The reason why I think it is important to read biographies of people you are inspired by, or learning more about their eating living habits is that a lot of who we are is predicated on what we put into our bodies. 

For example, I am very inspired by Elon Musk but I also take him with a grain of salt because he is too addicted to alcohol, and Red Bull. Also it seems like Elon Musk is a fatty boy, he thinks too “scienticism-y”– which means he doesn’t understand hormones, and that drinking Red Bull and drinking alcohol is a bad idea. I think a real entrepreneur, a true innovator should be quite sober. This means no drugs no alcohol no Red Bulls.

Elon Musk lessons

I also love Kanye West, and also Jay Z, but both of them are out because both are alcoholics.

Alcohol is the worst drug?

When I was in Providence Rhode Island, I randomly met one of my fans on the street, and he told me that he recently returned from Afghanistan the front lines or something, had some sort of PTSD, and street photography was his therapy. He told me he was also addicted to all the drugs, all the bad ones and I asked him… “Which drug is the worst”? He told me: the worst drug is alcohol.

I think the big problem in today’s world is that now in today’s world, anywhere you go besides maybe the Middle East, drinking alcohol is the standard. To not drink alcohol, for some reason you’re the weirdo?

This is why if next time somebody tries to pressure me to drink alcohol, I’ll just tell them I’m Muslim. And also a lot of people ask me about how I’ve been doing my intermittent fasting so religiously the last seven years; I just joke and say for me it is Ramadan every single day!

Let us consider all the people who die from alcohol, either from alcohol overdose, or drinking while driving. I think the reason why alcohol is still legal is because for the most part, people have a good time with it, there’s a lot of advertising money behind it, think about all these fat guys with beards and tattoos who watch football and basketball, drink beer and get fat, and jerk off to other guys being physical and masculine.

Also, the ancient Greeks. Dionysus, Baccaus was the Greek god of drunkenness, and wine.

It seems that wine was a critical part of ancient Greek society, as it was for the Romans. And in modern day times, wine is considered the peak of luxury and success. But don’t forget, wine will make you fat, wine is just sugary grape juice with alcohol with a good conscience. And no no no, all that fake science about reservatrol and one glass of red wine being a healthy thing for you is fake; it is centered around fake science and statistics which I think, was bankrolled by an individual who was trying to sell reaervatrol supplements? 

Why I am anti-vegan anti-plant-based diet

If people want to be vegetarian or vegan for ethical reasons, I think that is fine. But all this fake nonsense about eating meat or being a carnivore as being “bad for the planet”, or “unethical”, I find as nonsense.

For example, all of these fake virtuous folks go to Trader Joe’s and buy all this vegan candy and microwavable food; that is so much trash and pollution for the environment, and I don’t even care about the environment that much, and also I’m a Boy Scouts eagle scout. So don’t get at me with all this fake virtuosity of saving the planet and whatever.  

Environmentalism is the new moneymaking scheme?

Al Gore, didn’t he make a bunch of money from saying that an inconvenient truth and that the polar caps are going to melt and we were all going to die? 

Also, I believe James Cameron, the guy who produced avatar and the titanic and made a bunch of money is also best friends with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and is peddling all this fake propaganda about eating plants is good for the environment whatever, in order to peddle his billion dollar pea plant protein powder company?

***

Own your own opinion

I think a big thing to consider is you must own your own opinion when it comes to diet health fitness etc. How and why?

First, it seems that the big issue here is that nobody has any criticality when it comes to diet health fitness etc. Everyone is just following the same old script, nobody is pioneering, risking, or experimenting for themselves.

For example when I talk to people that I am 100% carnivore, people are more shocked than anything, and I think they’re skepticism is in regards to “sustainability“, and when I tell them I’ve been doing it the last seven years, and also interment fasting no breakfast no lunch, only dinner the last seven years or so… people are shocked. And yet, I am just a mere mortal. 

Think economics

Perhaps one of the most useful things I learned studying sociology was to become more critical of almost everything. Everything that we have in modern-day society, we should consider society like a technology; tekhne in ancient Greek means technique and approach.  

Society is like a well oiled machine which gains from the adherence of its constituents. That means, a big modern day society with a large population can only exist and function if everybody plays by the same rules.

For example, society would probably be very dysfunctional if everyone acted like ERIC KIM, and just disdained everybody else. That is why living different and being different is the privilege of the fuse; 99.99% of people cannot do what I do, nor would they actually desire to do so.

You are your own privilege

The most privileged person to be is yourself. To ignore others, and to just follow your own path.

Why don’t more people do this?

My theory is that it comes down to ethics. To just do yourself, in your own weird way, seems unethical.

For example, to be ignorant is seen as bad and evil, and to ignore “experts“, is also seen as foolish.

Maybe becoming more foolish is a good idea?

One man’s foolishness is another man’s wisdom. We should take this idea to heart. 

For example, the insanity of an Elon Musk starting a SpaceX, or transforming Tesla into what it is today. Or, the insanely radical idea bitcoin, from Satoshi, also, an insanely radical idea.

Or Steve Jobs; then saying audacity of him to create a device with no keyboard, no stylus? 

Become more audacious

My new current life goal and path is to become more audacious, more unconventional, more unexpected.

Life is too short for the basic. Go advanced.

ERIC

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Health Is Not a Scale?

So you know how you can more or less indefinitely increase your total amount of $USD dollars in your bank account ,,, can you also do that with health?

For example you can make your bank account go from $0 to $100, $1000, $10,000, $100,000 to $1,000,000 to $10,000,000 to $100,000,000 to $1,000,000,000 etc…

Maybe health ain’t a spectrum from 0-10, but can be increased indefinitely?

For example your health can be like debt — -$10,000 in health, or -5,000 in health, or 0 health, or positive — $1,000 in health, $10,000 in health, or $100,000 in health or beyond?

Or you can become worth $1M, $10M, $100M, $1T, $100T in terms of health and beyond?

The grand vision.

Health 101

rock toss ERIC KIM

Health is the Ultimate Wealth

side face selfie ERIC KIM muscle flex 00026-resized

Become the best version of you

  1. Metabolism
  2. Diet, Health, and Fitness for Photographers
  3. My Experience Eating Only One Meal a Day
  4. How to Get Cut.

MONEY IN THE GAME.

Money Thoughts

“White people make money don’t spend it, I’d rather buy 80 gold chains and go ignant (ignorant)”. – Kanye

Thinking about money:

Why does this matter?

“Money sets the whole world in motion” – Publius Syrus

Do you know when people say that money makes the world go round? This is true.

So what is money anyways?

First, money is fiat, faith-based. Fiat currency.

Currency is an interesting word and term because it evokes the feeling of water, movement, river streams and tide pools.

So first of all, let us consider the notion of “income streams“. There’s this notion of “passive income”, I think first popularized or maybe coined by Tim Feriss, in his four hour work week. But I believe there to be a myth of passive income which means, income is and must be active. You cannot just sit on your butt and collect rent.

Also with rent, rent money is funny because even if you’re collecting rent, there’s a lot of work management you gotta do. For example, you have to fix and maintain your properties, make sure that your tenants pay their rent money, do background checks, deal with vacancies etc. It is one of those things that we as renters feel that the landlords have all the power, but in fact, assuming that you’re already wealthy, you actually might have more power as a renter than a landlord. Why? If you have a very good apartment and it is rent controlled, technically according to NASSIM TALEB you have greater optionality.

What that means is that you have a privilege to live somewhere, not an obligation. In theory you can leave whenever you want, and you’re not behelden to the property.

What would Aristotle, the ancient Greeks think?

In regards to the ancient Greeks, I think they may be the best model because starting from Roman times, their society already started to seep into degeneration, degeneracy. Even during Homer’s time, Homer was already saying that the ancient Greeks were falling into degeneracy, even when he was writing the Iliad. 

I am currently reading Politics by Aristotle, and I find it to be a really fascinating read. Essentially what he says about household economics etc., as well as his thoughts on substantive versus speculative finance, real versus fake finance. He essentially says that real finance has to deal with animals and fruits of the earth, everything else is just imaginary.

Also, his thoughts on slavery. Essentially in ancient Greek times, the ultimate goal was to have the laborers, slaves, craftsman, mechanics do all the dirty work, and the true nobleman and free man would just use all of his time and leisure for building virtue, philosophical thinking, and participating in politics, the politics of the local city state, the polis.

In modern-day times we always think about politics like it pertains to international politics whatever. But the original term politics referred to the polis, the immediate city-state. It was not focused on foreign affairs.

What is the ideal city state?

What I like about Aristotle and his writings is that he’s always talking about the ideal, and talks a lot about studying from the best of the past and the current, in order to formulate his thoughts. Also his writing is straight simple and clear, and very authoritative. For example, he quotes Plato and his Republic, and straight up says: “Plato is wrong.” Almost as hilarious and ballsy as when Nietzsche said: “Plato is boring.”

True financial freedom

Two things: Pay rent money, pay for food and groceries, and basic utilities, like your Wi-Fi, gas and electric, gas for your car etc. Beyond that, what else do you really need? 

Another fun experiment I’m doing is just paying for rent money by using the profit on my cryptocurrency speculations, simply using Coinbase, and profits from chainlink. For personal reference, I am currently 90% invested in chainlink, 10% in bitcoin. I believe this to be an interesting barbell for a risky yet “safe” investment speculation, in thinking the next 30 or 40 years.

Also, in terms of our cryptocurrency assets, we don’t have more than 10% of our whole life savings tied into cryptocurrency. Therefore if it all goes to zero in theory, not really a big deal. But my personal belief:

Bitcoin will never go down to zero.

Decimation

A very interesting thing that I learned from NASSIM TALEB, maybe it was written in his book ANTIFRAGILE, is this notion of decimation. The basic idea is that in ancient Roman times the army, if cowardice was suspected, at random, 10% of the army would be put to death, it was a good way to prevent cowardice, especially one facing an impressive enemy. 

10% is interesting because in theory, if you lose 10% of your army, it is not enough to significantly lose your forces. A 10% loss is more than acceptable. For example let us say that you’re playing StarCraft, and you got an army of zealots, all upgraded with dash and full armor upgrades, if you lose 10% of them, you could still kill the army of zerg maybe if you do good enough micro management of the units. 

Finances is also similar — best to have 90% of your money in insanely secure bonds, CDs or stuff that might be inflation, even a simple savings account at 5%. Then put 10% of your money in extremely speculative cryptocurrency speculations, rather than putting 100% of your money and boring “medium risk” funds.

“Never trust a risk number even if it is right.”- TALEB 

Why we should not trust economists

First and foremost, economics, being an economist, is the new hocus pocus of modern day times. The reason why economists are so highly regarded is that currently speaking the new global religion is capital and capitalism.

Therefore as a consequence, the new modern-day priests are economists, and these fake talking Heads on the TV screen.

The reason why we should trust no economist, is that they use fake numbers statistics and fake math to justify their thoughts and positions. Even Nate Silver, who everyone thinks is some sort of genius, mispredicted Trump getting elected into office. Why? Even if you’re a statistician with 99% accuracy, the one percent of the time you’re wrong, it could cost billions of dollars.

The reason why we should also not trust no economist is that most of them are protected from the real world. Their opinions reports and thought pieces have no connection to reality. A lot of them are getting a fat salary and steady paycheck from their tenured professor positions at Harvard Yale Princeton or whatever, and therefore the predictions thoughts they have, have no bearing on their own personal finances.

Better instead to trust individual individuals who actually have skin in the game, or money in the game. That is that your opinion is tied to your own personal bank account, if your opinion is right, you make the big bucks, but if you’re wrong, you lose your shirt.

Where I am coming from

One of the best things about growing up poor and when you have seen your mom go through bankruptcy twice is that in some funny ways, it makes you more brazen, less fearful. Witnessing my mom go bankrupt, because my dad gambled away the rent money and we couldn’t pay rent, and she would just rack up credit card bills just to pay basic expenses, what I learned is at the end it’s not that bad. My mom got family support, community support, church support, and ultimately she was OK in the very end.

So for myself, the reason why I have such a high tolerance for risk is essentially nowadays, I live like a poor person. My New Year’s resolution is to buy nothing; or close to nothing, or just to not buy stuff that I consider silly or superfluous. Even acquiring free stuff; to me that is just more clutter in my mind in my life and my home; we new elite is about minimalism, even to a fault. 

Also, the American entrepreneurial spirit. Even my dad when he first came to the states, was extremely entrepreneurial. He started his own business when I was very very young, I think selling audio equipment. As he had a passion for music movies and film and cinema. I actually think his great ambition of life was to become a great film director. Even at a young age, I recall him watching Alfred Hitchcock the birds, Schindler’s list, and all these other great avant- garde films.

So now, raising Seneca, he is currently two years, around 11 months old… his training is very simple; simple, physical, Spartan. 99% of the day we are just at the local nature center, hiking on dirt paths, walking around, doing gymnastics at the playground, even now, I bought some wooden gymnast rings which I just hang from my parking spot in the back of my apartment, and he could swing around it, and hang around it! It is pretty amazing.

Another thing I learned from Aristotle’s Politics is that with children and child rearing, the logical order is first physical training and gymnastics, second is nutrition and feeding, third is the intellect. It seems some modern day tides we do the total opposite; we don’t really focus on physical exercise for kids, we just try to make them look smart. But book smarts is bad smarts; real smarts comes from the real world.

As a consequence, I probably literally spent close to no money on him. The only thing that we paid for in the early days were maybe diapers, and buying some random stuff on Amazon like training underwear, etc.

Now, he eats wagyu ground beef well in the air fryer, pro tip just toss a bunch of small broken up pieces of ground beef in the air fryer for 10 minutes, sprinkle it with some salt and pepper and give it to your kid! I think precisely because Seneca was born and fed such a high meat diet, he is the buff strong and tall boy he is today.

What should we use money for? 

What is the proper use of money?

For myself, Costco. Funny enough it looks like out of all of my normal stock investments, Costco is doing the best! Why? As inflation goes up, food gets more expensive etc., everyone likes to think that they’re not being “ripped off”– nobody likes to think that they are overpaying for anything. Costco is funny because it is almost like Walmart but with a good conscience; a lot of middle-class even rich people have thought of Walmart as akin to the devil; whereas Costco has warm fuzzy feelings. Half of the fun even myself as a kid going to Costco was getting the hotdogs at the food court, and also getting all the free samples! Costco is almost like going to Disneyland, with benefits.

Meat

To me, the only real food substance is meat. You could thrive on 100% carnivore meat red meat diet, good luck with lentils beans and potatoes. That is poverty food. 100% red meat beef lamb diet is fit for the gods.

Let us consider, the nonsenseness of veganism; the etymology and history of vegan comes from vegetarian, vegetarianism. Essentially the vegans were the more hardcore vegetarians; the word “vegan”, essentially is the word vegetarian with fewer letters.

Why do people even go vegan in the first place?

Honestly I think being vegan is more of an ethical thing rather than a physiological concern. This is where vegetarians are more honest than vegans; a lot of people who are vegetarian do it for religious regions, for example people from India or south Asia, or some people just don’t really like the taste of meat or flesh, prefer to eat cheese eggs dairy and fish instead. 

Thinking historically

What I also love about studying ancient history, Rome, the Iliad, thinking about Homer is that back then, there was none of this nonsensical being “woke“, or political correctness. The Greeks were a hard and simple race; you were either Greek or a barbarian. Even the word barbarian is originated from the notion of “bar-bar”– anyone who did not speak Greek, their language sounded like somebody saying “bar bar bar”.

And also this is where notions of “white supremacy“, or being “white”, is nonsensical. Were the ancient Greeks “white”? No. They were olive skinned, very tan.

We acknowledge and understand that the ancient Greeks were probably the peak human and society of its time; maybe it makes sense for us to go back to the fountains, and for us to seek to imitate the best of the best, the crème la crop of the past.

How did the ancient Greeks think about money?

First, in the time of Homer, the Iliad the odyssey etc.; there was no notion of coins, or coined money or currency. The notion of coin is actually pretty good, like bitcoin, because the original minted money was actually coins, not paper money.

Also, gold. Gold was always highly valued throughout all of history, even during the time of Homer and the Iliad. For example the greed of king Agamemnon, what did he want? More gold, more women, more land, more slaves, more power.

Even as a sidenote; an Achilles was told by his father figure that king Agamemnon was the superior man, because he lorded over more men. 

During the time of Homer, and the Iliad; wealth was concentrated in food and meat, oxen; the notion of a “hectacomb” was the generalized notion that if you wanted to appease the gods and make a sacrifice, you had to sacrifice 100 oxen, which was a lot. Why? An ox is interesting because you could eat it, and also you could use it as manual labor. Maybe back in the day, having one ox was almost like the modern day notion of having a Lamborghini; can you imagine sacrificing and burning 100 Lamborghinis to appease the gods?

What did Achilles want?

If I ever had to rename myself I would just need myself Achilles. Why? He is nearly invulnerable and invincible; what is it that he wanted in the Iliad? Honestly he was tired of war and conquest and battle; he just wanted to chill out, retire, enjoy his land and pastures, and enjoy Breisis his prize.

Even Achilles said wisely; No amount of wealth in the world is worth a life, my life. Not if you took all the wealth of the world, all the gold of the world, and multiplied it by 65. Once you’re dead, you’re dead forever.

Even in today’s world, I don’t think sacrificing your life your own personal life is worth anything; I would only ever ever ever sacrifice my life it was for the sake of Seneca’s life, or Cindy‘s life, or both. Otherwise, I have zero interest in being drafted to go to some sort of senseless war, in order for America to procure more oil or whatever.

And this is where I believe that war is so superficial; would you be willing to send your own personal blood son, your first born son, to fight in the front lines of Afghanistan or whatever, for some sort of strange political advantage? No.

Buying a house?

Things are starting to get ridiculous. In LA and Culver City, you can’t find a good single-family home for less than $2 million. Even a $2 million or $3 million home, it’s not really in the best neighborhood either which is 100% pedestrian friendly. I was looking at this brand new $3 million house, which is pretty nice, but it’s kind of in the middle of nowhere, I cannot enjoy my lovely morning walks as I do just walking from my apartment from the arts district.

Renting is superior?

I wonder if renting is actually superior than owning because you got more optionality, less obligation. 

“You work for a living, I live for a living” – Jay Z

Ultimately what is it that we really seek to do, our desired activity?

I think what we really desire to do at the end of the day is physical activity, vigorous activity, to be physical. Physics, human physics, our own human body.

We want to walk around, go on hikes, be in nature, go to the beach, swim around, walk around mountain paths, pick up heavy things, throw around rocks, do fun gymnastics things, hot yoga, lift weights etc.

The ultimate luxury in today’s world is the human body. It all matter if you own 100 Ferraris, if you are obese, old and fat, none of it is worth it.

Even I was randomly doing some research about Hugh Hefner, the big issue is that apparently he just lived in his Holmby Hills mansion for his whole life, wearing nothing but silk pajamas, taking weird hallucinogen drugs and Viagra, in poor health, having sex with all of these random women, forcing them to do drugs, get plastic surgery etc. 

I think the weird notion is a lot of men, they seek to become some sort of playboy? To grow a beard, buy a bunch of guns, have sex with all these women, massive orgies with all these beautiful women, for the sake of what?

The merchandising of women

In today’s modern day capitalistic society, women are the new objects, the new products being sold. The strange promise is this; you get rich successful and famous, you get the Lamborghini or the Ferrari, and then suddenly all these beautiful women will flock to you, want to have sex with you, fulfill all your weird sexual fantasies, etc., and suddenly you’ll be happy for the rest of your life?

It seems the weird sexual perversion we have in today’s world is that maybe… the trend is we want some sort of 100% subservient female sex bot, 100% obey us, and fulfill our sexual desires? 

But let us not forget, the purpose and function of sex is for us to beget children; the hormones and the good feelings associated with it is to promote bonding between the man and woman, and to solidify the family relationship. This is where I am pro monogamy; even Zeus was married to Hera! Although he did sleep around a lot. 

Buy nothing?

One of the greatest things that was born out of Covid was the Facebook buy nothing groups. Essentially close to 100% of all the baby stuff we got for Seneca was for free from the buy nothing group. Cindy would just message other moms, get a bunch of free baby hand-me-down stuff, and we literally paid close to nothing for all of his baby stuff. I estimate that from the buy nothing group, Cindy might’ve saved us close to $15,000.

It takes more skill to buy nothing?

Ultimately I think money is like some sort of game; the game of not spending money seems to be more interesting than spending money.

There is nothing morally or ethically wrong about spending money, the only issue at hand is when people spend money in some sort of boring way, they go into debt, credit card debt or whatever, and as a consequence, they lose their freedom?

***

Via negativa money new year resolutions?

The simplest way to become rich is not to spend your money on superfluous things. This include the new iPhone iPhone Pro or whatever; real rich people either use an iPhone mini, like my friend Don Dillon or Todd Hata, or Cindy, or an iPhone SE like ERIC KIM.

Also, only poor people buy cars new cars. Real rich people just drive old Prius, white Honda Odyssey if you have a family, and all the silver Honda Civics. Even my brother-in-law whose family is super rich, a major investor in Tesla, just has the super base Tesla model 3 for the family! 

Real investors in Tesla don’t own the expensive Tesla model S or X or even Y; they only own the cheapest Tesla model 3. 

Join the buy nothing group?

Just go on Facebook and find the nearest “buy nothing” group close to your city. It is a fun game.

Also, if you really want to save money and stop buying so much stuff, just cancel your Amazon prime subscription.

Also, as much as I love Costco, technically Costco is a trap; it is easy to drop $600 on a simple Costco trip, maybe if you want to save money and just buy meat, go to the local butcher, meat market, Halal market, Mexican meat market, the local Carniceria.

The problem with Costco is that there are too many random temptations.

Do the labor yourself?

Another New Year’s resolution that I got is maybe I just want to do all the labor myself. Even though it is far less efficient and time-consuming. Even changing your oil, maybe we could just enjoy this is our new leisure. I recommend getting the full synthetic mobile 1 oil, the best.

Contest it?

Funny story: I just got a $555 speed camera traffic ticket for doing a rolling right turn through a red light. I watched the video in truth be told, I was at fault.

Maybe next time, I will just contest it and show up to court, as a fun leisure activity.

Ultimately after you become wealthy, the ultimate luxury is killing time in local city politics etc.

Now what?

The first priority is your physical health, your sleep your food your diet your exercise etc.

Quit alcohol, quit weed, quit pornography, quit sugar, whether real or fake, quit dairy, quit vegetables, quit fruit, quit starches.

Quit Netflix, any TV streaming show, stop watching movies that were produced within the last 5 to 10 years.

 Quit the news, social media, quit YouTube.