The Boring Work https://romankalugin.com Evidence-based self-improvement that works. No fireworks. Mon, 05 Oct 2026 14:39:01 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.2 https://romankalugin.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/tbw-icon-cutterhead-150x150.png The Boring Work https://romankalugin.com 32 32 Slow Productivity by Cal Newport: Sound Advice for People Who Own Their Calendar https://romankalugin.com/slow-productivity-newport-book-notes/ Mon, 05 Oct 2026 14:39:01 +0000 https://romankalugin.com/?p=10482 TL;DR Verdict Read it, especially if you have some control over what you agree to. Slow Productivity is a short, practical argument whose main recommendations match research on task switching, interruptions, long hours and burnout. Its weaknesses are a reliance on famous lives as evidence and a blind spot about who gets to work this […]

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]]> Tiny Experiments: Good Tools, and Goals Were Never the Enemy https://romankalugin.com/tiny-experiments-le-cunff-book-notes/ Mon, 05 Oct 2026 14:38:58 +0000 https://romankalugin.com/?p=10480 TL;DR Verdict Read the notes. Tiny Experiments repackages several well-supported tools (time-boxed commitments, learning goals, weekly reviews, naming emotions) in a gentle and appealing frame. Its argument against goals overstates the case, and its promise that personal experiments produce knowledge about yourself needs a large asterisk. The tools are good; the philosophy around them is […]

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]]> Influence by Robert Cialdini: Real Principles, Smaller Than the Stories https://romankalugin.com/influence-cialdini-book-notes/ Mon, 05 Oct 2026 14:38:55 +0000 https://romankalugin.com/?p=10478 TL;DR Verdict Read it. Influence is built on real experiments and has aged better than almost anything else in popular psychology from its era. Read it knowing that several of its signature demonstrations have since produced smaller or no effects in other hands, and that the principles describe tendencies that shift behaviour by a few […]

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]]> Can’t Hurt Me: The Mind Quits Early, but Not at 40% https://romankalugin.com/cant-hurt-me-goggins-book-notes/ Mon, 05 Oct 2026 14:38:53 +0000 https://romankalugin.com/?p=10476 TL;DR This page discusses training through exhaustion. It is not medical or training advice. Pushing past the signals your body sends can cause serious injury; anyone planning extreme exercise should talk to a doctor first. Verdict Read it for the story, and read the notes for the method. Goggins’s life is remarkable, and his central […]

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]]> The Mountain Is You: Right About Why We Sabotage, Less Right About the Way Out https://romankalugin.com/mountain-is-you-wiest-book-notes/ Mon, 05 Oct 2026 14:38:50 +0000 https://romankalugin.com/?p=10474 TL;DR Verdict Read the notes. Wiest’s reframing of self-sabotage as protection rather than self-hatred is useful and partly supported, and it may take shame out of a familiar struggle. Her method, digging for a hidden subconscious need and releasing old emotion, rests on ideas that have either never been tested or have been tested and […]

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]]> Don’t Believe Everything You Think: One Sound Idea, Wrapped in Metaphysics https://romankalugin.com/dont-believe-everything-you-think-book-notes/ Mon, 05 Oct 2026 14:38:48 +0000 https://romankalugin.com/?p=10472 TL;DR This page discusses anxiety, depression and rumination. It is not medical advice. If thoughts you cannot step away from are affecting your life, a qualified clinician can help. Verdict Skip it, and take its one good idea from a better source. The advice to notice thoughts without wrestling with them is sound and well […]

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]]> The Courage to Be Disliked: Trauma Exists, but the Second Half Holds Up https://romankalugin.com/courage-to-be-disliked-book-notes/ Mon, 05 Oct 2026 14:38:45 +0000 https://romankalugin.com/?p=10470 TL;DR This page discusses trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. It is not medical advice. If past events are affecting your life now, a qualified therapist can help, and seeking that help is not a failure of courage. Verdict Read the notes, and skip the first night. The book is a philosophy of responsibility and community […]

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]]> Situated by Angela Duckworth: The Grit Author Changes the Room https://romankalugin.com/situated-duckworth-book-notes/ Mon, 05 Oct 2026 14:38:43 +0000 https://romankalugin.com/?p=10467 TL;DR Verdict Read the notes, and expect smaller effects than the book’s tone suggests. Situated is a more careful book than Grit, built on a principle that has been tested and holds up: shaping your surroundings tends to beat fighting yourself. What the studies do not support is the hope that the right setup will […]

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