#90: intensely interested

May 02, 2024

👋 Welcome to the 90th issue of Out of Curiosity, a weekly newsletter promoting ideas to help get 1% better everyday.

My name is Reza, and every week, I go through nearly 100 pieces of content (from books and podcasts to newsletters and tweets), and bring you the best in this newsletter.

Hey hey! 👋 It’s been a minute since you heard from me, but I’m back!

This is the second time I've taken a break from writing this newsletter since I started it back in May 2020 (almost 4 years ago, crazy!).

I needed to focus on the thing that takes up most of my work life: helping grow early-stage startups and their founding teams.

Even though I haven't been actively sending the newsletter, I've still been reading stuff, curating, and sharing, just not through this medium.

I can't guarantee there won't be more breaks along the way, but one thing's for sure - I'll keep inspiring daily, consistent growth and sharing that drive through this weekly newsletter.

You'll notice some formatting changes. As always, let me know what you like or not by replying to this email.

Pumped to be back, let’s dive into this week’s ideas!

📝

Let people tell you no. don’t make the decision for them.
If you don’t have consistent scheduled time for your top goals, you don’t have top goals.
What were you thinking about in the shower?

→ lifehacks

⏩

What I like in other people, what I like in him, is movement. I like people who are willing and able to change. I love intention, direction. I love my friends because they sincerely try to fix the problems they encounter. That feels like the only path to real joy.

→ Expansion

📌

A neat visual summary of Paul Graham’s How To Do Great Work by Jason is pretty amazing. 10k words in a mind map.

💭

Exercise solves most of the problems that my mind is convinced it needs to solve itself. Simply forgetting myself through intense exercise, extreme hot or cold, stretching, walking, or hot yoga melts away most of my mind’s worries. Because instead of being stuck in the mind, I instantly drop into my body. And when I’m in my body, I can see that the world is beautiful and there is time.

→ Get out of your head

🚀

You’ll be most successful where you’re most intensely interested. Another thing that I found is an intense interest of the subject is indispensable if you are really going to excel. I could force myself to be fairly good in a lot of things, but I couldn’t be really good in anything where I didn’t have an intense interest.

→ How to live a life that really works