👋 Welcome to the 152nd issue of Open Loops, a weekly letter on clarity, growth, and building a life that feels like yours.
My name is Reza, and each week I share what I'm reading, building, and working through to help you turn confusion into conviction in life and work.
☁️ On my mind
You'll always do better work on the project you can't stop thinking about than the one you have to force yourself back to.
When you're genuinely excited, you wake up already in it. You find the time without bargaining for it. You do the parts nobody's watching.
When you're not, every step costs you something. And people can feel that in the process. And in the result.
So if you have to talk yourself into it every morning, you already have your answer.
And if you can't wait to get to it, you have the one thing that's almost impossible to fake.
🔗 4 links
Seven years of medical school sounds impossible at 36 until you notice you'll be 43 either way, and only one of those versions is a doctor. Sahil Bloom
Booking the trip is the easy part. Whatever you were hoping to escape packs itself and comes along, so a new city on its own won't make you a new person. Austin Kleon
Most of us keep waiting for something big enough to deserve our attention while the small thing sits there all week. The Marginalian
A daily news habit works a lot like a cigarette: bad for you, and bad for whoever's across the table when you show up already braced for a fight. Worth asking what the last month of headlines actually changed about how you spent your days. Experimental History
🧵 From Threads this week
📱 From the feed
Prayer and worry can't really occupy the same space, and noticing which one I'm actually doing has been useful.
💬 One quote
Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.
📚 One book
This week's book is How To Love, by Thich Nhat Hanh.
Despite the title, it’s less so about relationships, and more about attention. It's small, almost pocket-sized, and it reads more like a set of reminders.
A few that stuck with me:
You can care about someone deeply and still not understand them. Understanding takes asking what they're actually going through.
Most of us go around like a pot looking for its lid, sure the missing piece is out there. But the empty feeling came with YOU, and it leaves with you too.
When someone treats you badly, it's usually their own pain, not a plan to hurt you. Worth checking before you fire back.
The right people make you more yourself. If you shrink around someone, that's worth noticing.
Check out my full bookshelf note on How To Love.
Wake Up Smarter About AI.
The president of OpenAI. The CEO of Google. The founder of LinkedIn. We talk to the people building AI. Every morning, we put what they told us in your inbox.
What they're actually worried about. What they're betting on. What's coming next. Delivered in five minutes, before your first meeting.
With one email, and only five minutes, you can stay ahead of 99% of the world.
❓ One question
If you met yourself this week as a stranger, would you want more of that person's time?
Till next time 👋
🤝 Should we work together?
This newsletter is where I think out loud each week. The rest of my work is with people at real inflection points: Clarity Coaching for life and career decisions, and GTM advisory for startups that need a sharper story and a launch with more shape.
✨ Get Foundation 33 for free
Foundation 33 is my curated list of 33 books for clarity, identity, and building a life that feels like yours. A good place to start if you want a more intentional reading path.
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