What does it mean that feedback loops are how systems learn?

Any system that cannot observe its own output cannot improve.

Example: You decide to write for 30 minutes every morning. After two weeks, you feel like it isn't working — but you haven't defined 'working,' haven't measured word count, haven't tracked which sessions produce usable material, and haven't adjusted anything based on results. You are operating in open loop: action without observation. Compare this to a writer who logs time, word count, and a 1-to-5 quality rating after each session, reviews the data weekly, and shifts the routine based on what the numbers reveal. Same 30-minute commitment. One system learns. The other just repeats.

Try this: Choose one recurring activity in your life — a meeting you run, a workout routine, a creative practice, a daily standup. For the next seven days, add a 60-second observation step immediately after the activity: write down one sentence about what the output was and one sentence about what you would change. At the end of the week, review all seven observations. You have just built a feedback loop where none existed. Notice what changed — and notice what you learned that you could not have learned without the observation step.