👋 Welcome to the 157th 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.
🔗 4 links
A woman built a stable remote job, a nice apartment, and a life with almost no friction, then couldn’t understand why she felt empty. Sometimes the life designed to keep you safe also keeps you from wanting anything strongly enough to feel alive. Ask Polly
Alan Watts describes life as a game of hide-and-seek: we forget what we are, then go looking for it in roles, goals, and other people’s approval. Growth can be less about constructing a better self and more about recognizing who has been there all along. Alan Watts Being in the Way
A Zoom workshop shut off after 40 minutes because the host’s credit card had expired. When 90% of the audience rejoined, he learned something no survey could tell him: they had actually wanted to stay. Jason Feifer
Most artists start by copying the people they admire. Oliver Sacks believed imitation is how we learn the craft; originality comes later, when those influences combine into something of our own. The Marginalian
🎙️ You get about 4,000 weeks. Getting more done is the trap.
I spent years trying to build the system that would finally clear the week. Better lists, inbox zero, stricter calendars. The work always grew back…
In the second episode of the Open Loops podcast, I share five ideas from Oliver Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks that changed how I use time: why productivity can make you more rushed, how to neglect the right things on purpose, where distraction starts, why boredom is often part of the work, and a Sunday list that keeps the week finite.
You can also catch it on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
🧵 From Threads this week
💬 One quote
The curious paradox is that when I accept myself as I am, then I change.
📚 One book
This week’s book is The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran. It reads less like a book of answers and more like a set of reminders about the parts of life we keep trying to simplify.
Again and again, Gibran holds two truths together: joy and sorrow, love and freedom, reason and passion.
The tension is where the book comes alive.
Work is love made visible.
A few ideas from the book
Use pain as evidence. When something hurts, write down what it reveals you care about before you try to make the feeling disappear.
Help without writing the ending. Before giving advice, ask, “What would support look like right now?” Then accept an answer you didn’t expect.
Give one task twenty uninterrupted minutes. If care still feels impossible, decide whether the task needs to change, be delegated, or be left behind.
Let both sides speak. Write what reason is protecting and what desire is asking for, then make the smallest choice that respects both.
→ Check out my full bookshelf note on The Prophet.
❓ One question
If the next year looked exactly like the last month, what would bother you most?
Till next time 👋
🤝 Should we work together?
Outside the newsletter, there are two ways to work together: Clarity Coaching for life and career decisions, and GTM advisory for startups that need a sharper story, clearer strategy, 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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