October 1, 2026 - Issue #160 - read online
👋 Welcome to Pursuit, a weekly practice in personal growth, inner clarity, and self-discovery. I'm Amir, and every week I bring you four ideas from people I've been reading, two quotes worth sitting with, occasionally a personal reflection, one question to take with you, and music I'm listening to.
This week's ideas:
The promise of a perfect day
You finish the work, clear the calendar, make the room comfortable. Then something still feels wrong, and you start looking for the part you failed to fix. Watts says we can push life toward the good end of the scale, but we cannot remove the other end. The painful expectation is that, with enough effort, we could arrange a life in which nothing unpleasant happens at all. That expectation can turn one difficult hour into a verdict on everything around it. You can make your life better without calling it broken each time a hard hour arrives.
🎥 This Will Change How You See Reality Forever, Alan Watts on the hope that life could be arranged without discomfort.
The same run, a different season
A run before dawn can make the day feel like yours. Then winter arrives, and the same alarm sends you into air so cold you begin to dread what you once loved. You try warmer clothes, a later hour, then a treadmill. None feels quite like the summer run. If you insist on preserving the dawn run exactly as it was, you may lose running altogether. The treadmill is hardly romantic, but it lets you keep running until the mornings are warm again. Sometimes the most loyal thing you can do for a habit is let its shape change.
📄 Deep Laziness, Sarah Perry on adapting a routine without losing what made it yours.
Glad to be invited, glad to stay home
You spend the week hoping someone will invite you out. When the message arrives, you look at your evening and wish you could stay home. The contradiction makes you question yourself: did you really want company, or just the comfort of being wanted? Perhaps both. Being included and being alone can answer different needs, and the arrival of one doesn't erase the other. You don't have to invent an excuse or decide which desire is the "real" you. You can thank your friend, turn down the plan, and still let the invitation mean something. Not every truth about you has to fit in the same evening.
📄 On Contradiction, Madeleine Dore on making room for the different selves you meet from day to day.
Give them a way to get it right
At dinner, the person across from you checks their phone again. You want to say, "You're never really here with me." That tells them how much it hurts, but it also gives them a verdict to argue with. What you want is smaller and more possible: "Could we put our phones away until we've eaten?" Now there's something they can answer, and something the two of you can change before dinner is over. When you tell someone only what's wrong, they have to guess what would help. Ask for the evening you want while there's still time to have it.
📄 #158: who brings you back to yourself, Reza Saeedi on feelings, needs, and concrete requests in hard conversations.
From me
I was walking through Sarajevo when the call to prayer echoed through the streets. It brought Tehran back to me at once. I thought about where I came from and where life had taken me, and I felt deeply homesick.
For a moment, I could feel both places together: the Sarajevo street I was walking through and Tehran in that familiar sound. The distance between them had not changed. But hearing something I knew from home made me feel that distance, and how much of Tehran I still carry with me.
One question for you
What sound brings you back to a place you still carry with you?
Music I'm listening to
You'll find mostly Ethnotronica, Organic House, World, Disco, and Organic Electronic here:
If you appreciate the music I carefully select and haven't followed my Spotify playlists yet, now is the perfect time to hit that follow button and join me on this musical journey!
Pano: Danceable and electronic obscure songs
Sisy: Ethnotronica and organic house
Berghain: Dark, minimal techno and tech house
Heide: Groovy soul and disco house
Sonntag: Afterhours shit
Slow rave: Sleepy techno for tired dancers
World: From Latin jazz to Turkish psych
Super Slow: For your intimate moments
If this post brightened your day, let me know by tapping the ♥️ below! Enjoy a fantastic weekend and catch you next week.
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Amir 👋
the phones at dinner example is really practical. asking to put them away until you've eaten is a small enough request that the other person can just say yes, and you still get the rest of the evening.