Blog - Louis Shulman

30 Mini Essays on Self-Improvement and Happiness in The Modern World

An exploration of productivity, technology, and personal thriving

All of my essays from the January 2021 Ship 30 for 30 Challenge

Borrowing Awesomeness

Does Free Leverage Exist?

Many successes are often explained as the consequence of adding one improvement to a pre-existing, awesome concept.

4 Ideas For Deliberate Improvement

Input Management, Happy Habits, Truth Seeking and Abundance

Systems rarely “get better” by accident. Instead, progress is usually a product of intentional efforts aimed at positive change.

Leverage, Environment, and Books

Three Short Lessons From Hosting an Interview Podcast while Still In College

Our goals for the show were simple: grow an audience, learn about entrepreneurship, and gain access to incredibly smart mentors.

Graph Databases, RoamResearch, and PKM

How RoamResearch Uses New Database Technology To Bring Life To An 80 Year-old Idea

In this short article, I explain the (very) basics of graph databases and use RoamResearch’s note-taking software as an example of an early and powerful mainstream application of this new technology.

Trust The Process & Workout Like A Boomer

5 Lessons From Completing The 75HARD

The 75HARD is an internet challenge dubbed as the “tactical guide to winning the war with yourself.”Andy Frisella, the host of the MFCEO podcast, created the 75HARD to teach listeners how to cultivate discipline, integrity, and physical and mental toughness.In this post, I share the five most significant lessons I learned from completing the challenge this summer.

Skipping The Line In Life

9 Takeaways from The Third Door

What if he could ask the world’s most successful people for guidance in this phase of life? What if Bill Gates taught him entrepreneurship, Lady Gaga taught him music, and Warren Buffet taught him finance?

21 Rules For Getting Your Shit Together

It’s my 21st birthday — I wanted to write something

After bombing a math test in my first month of college, I overreacted so dramatically that I developed an obsessive and vague drive to “get my shit together” that continues to this day.

Computers Broke the Old World

Why I Want To Start The Accelerated Masters Program at The University of Alabama

Zero marginal-cost economics, instant digital delivery, globally accessible talent pools, international communication networks, and computational power have completely redefined modern life.

The Power of Positive Constraints

Making one decision to simplify thousands of future decisions.

Whenever I need to take something more seriously, I come up with a challenge to guide me into action.

Make Failure Suck

The Silver Bullet of Accountability

Leverage external consequences to win internal battles.

Pointers for Starting Your Company

Lessons from Yishai Goldstein — CTO and Co-Founder of AutoLeadStar

Hard skills alone aren’t enough. Founders need to be very flexible, focused, and fast learners.

The Torah and Deep Work

How Shabbat Subsumes Mainstream Self-Help and Productivity Advice

Through Deep Work, the secular community is coming to terms with facts that have been known to the Jewish community for millennia.

Rules for Distraction Free Work

Five Positive Habits for Consistently Overcoming Resistance

Don’t let laziness limit your potential. Build a system, automate self-discipline, and execute. Let the results speak for themselves.

Asymmetries, Batching, and Constraints

Productivity Lessons from the Four Hour Workweek

Challenge basic assumptions you hold about what is possible, and learn rules and techniques to enable a lifestyle with abundance in time.

The Power of Mindset

Lessons Learned from Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck

Individuals, empowered by Dweck’s research can manipulate their own reality in their favor by embracing the appropriate mindset.

Who Is Cal Newport?

Why Am I Obsessed With His Work?

Newport is an incredibly prolific academic, author, and blogger and he reached this level of professional success with stunning speed.

Take Control of Your Education

Five Books Every College Student Needs to Read

In my first year of school, I read the following books. Without a doubt, I would not have achieved a fraction of my goals otherwise.