Commoncog   Commoncog

“I can’t remember what I read last week!”

You know how it is. You’re a busy professional. Your industry changes rapidly due to new technology and new threats.

You read widely to ensure your career doesn’t get left behind. You devour news articles, social analysis, Medium stories, pithy Facebook posts, long Twitter threads. You want to know how this affects you tomorrow. 👓

But you can’t remember what you read last week!

And how can you? The internet is a battleground for our attention! You can’t remember what you’ve read if you don't process it, and you can’t process it when you have Instagram, and Facebook, and chat. 📱

But what if you could?

I created Commoncog to help you with exactly that.

Every article you read can be highlighted in Commoncog. When you’re done, Commoncog asks you to record your takeaways. 🤔

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Twice a week, you get summaries of your takeaways emailed to you. (You can tell it to stop if you’re done with that particular article.) 📬

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When you want to remember what you’ve learnt, you run a search. 🔍

You may also tag your takeaways with a topic tag, for browsing later. 📖

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Eventually, your collection of links and your takeaways serves as your external brain. You’ll see Commoncog as a log of ideas that you want to remember. 💡

This is why I call Commoncog an idea bookmarking service. 💡📚

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An article with no takeaway is time you’ve just wasted. (Unless you’re reading for fun, that is!)

My name is Cedric. I created Commoncog for myself. This software is how I track ideas for my career growth.

Commoncog’s blog is where I write about building career moats in a world of rapid change. I update it twice a week, and I use Commoncog to track the ideas I write about. Here are the latest posts:

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Commonplace, the Commoncog Blog

The Best Way to Learn From Other People's Experiences

Why bother learning history, when history isn't likely to repeat itself? We take a look at what Cognitive Flexibility Theory tells us about the best way to learn from other people's experiences.

The Dangers of Treating Life as a Game

Game analogies can be helpful when you're playing to win. But there's a limit to how useful they can be when thinking about life.

Take a Simple Idea and Take It Seriously

There's a saying commonly attributed to Charlie Munger that goes 'Take a Simple Idea and Take It Seriously'. Work out all the implications. Seek out all the case studies. Here's a story of two investors who did exactly that.

Graham Duncan on Evaluating Expertise

Notes on the expertise of evaluating expertise, from someone who's obsessed with it.

You may follow the blog here, if you’d like ideas for finding an edge in your career. 🚨

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Thanks for reading! ❤️

Warmly, Cedric