Now
Last updated - June 8, 2026
Where I am:
San Francisco, at EO House. I came carrying a question: how does a Korean break into the U.S. market? I didn't bring an answer with me — I'm hoping to get closer to one by talking to as many people here as I can. I'm headed to military service soon. Before I go, I want to absorb everything I can.
What I'm obsessed with:
BRANDS. I believe a well-made brand is a "religion." People don't buy products — they buy belief. So I keep turning the same questions over: How is a religion built? How does a fan community come into being? Where do message and identity diverge?
Apple, especially. I don't think Apple is a hardware company or a software company. It's an IP company — the company itself becomes the IP, and the IP becomes the product. It feels different from the other big tech firms, different from any other brand. How did Apple build this, and what makes them different? (Full disclosure: I'm an Apple fanboy too.)
What I'm torn over
Market vs. Mission.
On one side: the opportunity visible in the market right now, the thing that sets my chest on fire today. On the other: something that might only open up ten years from now, something that feels like a life's mission. Musk, Thiel, Altman — none of their first companies looked like the vision they're known for now. So maybe running the play that's available today is how you earn the right to chase the bigger dream later.
But what if the mission arrives earlier than expected — while I'm still warming up? (For the record, the mission in my head is a consumer-grade whole-brain, real-time, high-resolution BCI device — one that's safe, private, portable, and cosmetic.)
Concepts floating around my head
HABITUS. The idea that there are different kinds of capital, and that taste, too, has a class structure. Personally, I think social capital matters far more than cash capital — and as a builder, I've come to believe that taste itself can now be an asset. A well-defined taste could become Taste as a Service.
(What if I could summon Min Hee-jin's sensibility and wield it at will? What if I could borrow my girlfriend's taste to lean on when making a decision?)
What data would need to be labeled to get there? Preference pairs (A/B), the criteria for tiering, HFRL… what would the layer that turns taste into data actually look like?