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

Knowing The Dip Exists is a Heck of an Advantage

The best ideas from Seth Godin's The Dip — which is really about why quitting early and often is so important to success.

How I Do Personal Experiments

How to take ideas from books and blog posts and turn them into effective personal experiments.

Announcing the Commonplace Membership Program

Introducing a new membership program for the Commonplace blog. What's in the offering, how much we're charging, and why.

Using Inversion

The simplest, most useful form of Charlie Munger's 'Inversion' that I've found is to use negative screens in my career. Here's what that looks like.

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

If you’d like to be notified when Commoncog launches, sign up here:

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Thanks for reading! ❤️

Warmly, Cedric