Shows
The Front Row Podcast#43- Cedric Chin: The Secrets Of Asian Business EmpiresCedric Chin is the CEO & Founder of Commoncog. Commoncog is a publication dedicated to accelerating business expertise.Commoncog asks two questions: a) what is business expertise? b) what do we know about accelerating it?In this conversation, Cedric and I dive into how Asian tycoons are made and the essential skills business operators must master in Southeast Asia. TIMESTAMPS:00:00 Trailer & Intro01:10 Understanding Business Expertise 05:33 The Triad of Business Expertise 10:49 What Business School Misses Out 14:52 Why Are There So Many Conglomerates in SoutheastAsia? 20:11 Not Everything Is About Corruption ...2025-06-241h 07
In the ShellSteve JobsSteve Jobs is often hailed as a visionary who reshaped the technology and entertainment industries—from humble beginnings and Apple’s meteoric rise, to the creation of Pixar, and the legacy he left behind.Don't just host your podcast, own it🟡 Yellowball is a podcast hosting service I built to give podcasters more control and less nonsense. Whether you’re starting fresh, moving your show over, or just curious, check it out at https://yellowball.fm.Referenceshttps://www.biography.com/business-leaders/steve-jobshttps://e...2025-05-1213 min
Commonplace ExpertiseLia DiBello and Neil Sahota on Human-AI SymbiosisDr. Lia DiBello is the Chief Science Officer of ACSILabs, Inc, which makes the FutureView Platform — a virtual reality training platform used by the US military and by certain large businesses to accelerate expertise. I last talked to Lia about her groundbreaking work explicating the mental model of business expertise, and in fact created this podcast to interview her. She’s back today to talk about her use of AI to accelerate expertise. Neil Sahota is the CEO of ACSILabs. Neil was part of the original IBM Watson team that won the Jeopardy challenge. After that challenge, he wa...2025-01-131h 20
The Dan Barrett ShowThe Life-Changing Magic of Understanding Variation, with Cedric Chin, Part 2Today, continuing the conversation with Cedric Chin, we’ll challenge your understanding of language and reality through Alfred Korzybski's groundbreaking philosophy, General Semantics. Discover how the notion that "the map is not the territory" can revolutionize your approach to business and life. We'll also share cutting-edge techniques for data analysis using XMR charts, and explore how these tools can provide clarity amid the chaos. For deep philosophical insights and actionable business strategies together — listen now! Show Highlights: This is why measuring and ranking people is useless [03:46] Why do Japanese companies reward loyalty and s...2024-12-2533 minThe Dan Barrett ShowThe Life-Changing Magic of Understanding Variation, with Cedric Chin, Part 1In today’s episode, I'm joined by Cedric Chin, a leading voice in business writing and the developer of XMrit, a revolutionary tool for business data analysis. We'll explore the secrets behind mastering skills and leading effectively, and how progress is a marathon, not a sprint. Cedric shares his journey of turning frustrations with Excel templates into a game-changing tool, and we discuss why understanding variation could be your hidden superpower. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by data or struggled to make meaningful improvements in business, this conversation is for you. Let’s get started...2024-12-1832 min
CHURN FME272 | Activating Growth through Data-Driven Insights with Crystal Widjaja on Retention FunnelsToday on the show, we have Crystal Widjaja, Executive-in-Residence at Reforge and angel investor and advisor to several startups.In this episode, Crystal shares her expertise on activating growth through data-driven insights, focusing on the importance of well-structured retention funnels. She explains how to design impactful onboarding experiences, track the right metrics, and identify key points of abandonment to improve user activation and engagement.We then delve into the power of segmentation and discuss how understanding user behavior and traits can unlock exponential growth. Finally, we explore actionable tips for avoiding common data pitfalls and...2024-11-2242 minCommonplace ExpertiseStan Slap on the Art of Building Effective Employee CulturesStan Slap is the founder and president of SLAP, an international consulting firm that helps organisations get maximum commitment from their manager, employee, and customer cultures. SLAP has worked with the who's-who of the Fortune 500, companies that you've heard of like Costco, Oracle, HP, Caterpillar, Microsoft, Amazon, General Electric, Intel, Viacom, Tesla, Glassdoor, Warner Music Group — and some companies that you haven't; all told, SLAP has worked with companies doing business in 44 countries. Stan is also the author of two books: Under The Hood and Bury My Heart in Conference Room B.This podcast dives into Slap's id...2024-11-201h 27
The Analytics Engineering PodcastData as an assembly line (w/ Cedric Chin)Cedric Chin runs Commoncog—a publication about accelerating business expertise. He joins Tristan to talk about the analytics development lifecycle, how organizations value (or misvalue) data, and why “data teams are not some IT helpdesk to be ignored.” For full show notes and to read 6+ years of back issues of the podcast's companion newsletter, head to https://roundup.getdbt.com. The Analytics Engineering Podcast is sponsored by dbt Labs.2024-11-1751 min
Trigger Strategy is now Tentacles075: Effectual thinking vs causal thinkingWe recorded this one on a whim and we didn't have our microphone with a little hat on it, so the wind noise makes a guest appearance. Apologies – return to quality sound soon.Corissa grabbed a snippet from an article:Over at one of my favourite blogs, Common Cog, Cedric Chin writes that there is a style of thinking that is reliably exhibited by successful entrepreneurs. It is called effectual thinking, and it's the type of improvisatory, reality based thinking that follows the question, what effects can be produced with the spread of...2024-09-2032 minTrigger Strategy is now Tentacles075: Effectual thinking vs causal thinkingWe recorded this one on a whim and we didn't have our microphone with a little hat on it, so the wind noise makes a guest appearance. Apologies – return to quality sound soon.Corissa grabbed a snippet from an article:Over at one of my favourite blogs, Common Cog, Cedric Chin writes that there is a style of thinking that is reliably exhibited by successful entrepreneurs. It is called effectual thinking, and it's the type of improvisatory, reality based thinking that follows the question, what effects can be produced with the spread of...2024-09-2032 min
The Wisepreneurs PodcastThe Reality Check: Testing Business Ideas Against the Real World with Cedric ChinAsk Nigel Rawlins a question or send feedback, click the link to text me.In this episode of the Wisepreneurs Podcast, I spoke with Cedric Chin, the founder of Commoncog, to explore his unique approach to accelerating business expertise. Cedric shares his journey from leading a startup in Vietnam to establishing Commoncog, a platform that rigorously tests business ideas against real-world scenarios. The discussion delves into key concepts like cognitive agility, Lia DiBello's triad model of business expertise, and the challenges of mastering business skills quickly. Cedric also draws parallels between his...2024-08-231h 10
Elevating ConsciousnessCedric Chin - Learn How to Go from Novice to Expert in 90 MinsCedric Chin is a business operator, programmer, and writer. He is also the founder of Commoncog - a publication that explores the models of business expertise and how to accelerate the acquisition of that expertise. His approach to writing and learning is finding interesting ideas, trying them out in his life, and then sharing the results. Over the years he has compiled an extensive knowledge base on how to think and learn better in business and beyond. In this episode we speak about the limits of mental models, Ray Dalio & believability, three approaches to expertise, why you should read...2024-08-171h 38
The Furious Curious135. FAILED FUTURES | Lessons from the Amazing Innovations that Didn't Change AnythingEveryone loves a success story. But what about tales of failure?
This week Alex, Alexander, and Chase unpack some of tech’s most marvelous misses. Th en we'll ask ourselves, as creators, what can we learn from history’s almosts.
Because if failure is the best teacher, may these disasters be our Yoda.
TIMESTAMPS:
00:50: Intro
03:30: Failed Future #1: Nuclear-Powered Cars
13:36: Nuclear-Powered Cars - Lessons for Creators
19:10: Failed Future #2: General Magic Smartphone
31:08: General Magic Smartphone - Lessons for Creators
33:30: Failed Futu...2024-07-301h 08
The SaaS Academy PodcastHow To Build A Data-Driven Business (with Cedric Chin) | Ep. 28"If you're asking for swimming advice, you don't go and talk to someone who has never swum before. You go talk to an Olympic swimmer."Join Johnny (@johnnypage13) and Matt (@mattverlaque) as they sit down with Cedric Chin, the genius behind Commoncog.com - an industry leading blog that helps founders accelerate business expertise.in this episode, Cedrics breaks down the concept of believability and its importance in decision-making, as well as the process of becoming data-driven in business. He also shares his insights on scaling businesses, working with data...2024-05-281h 27
Monday Morning Data Chat#168 -Cedric Chin & Sam Taylor - Communicating Sophisticated Stuff to StakeholdersCedric Chin (CommonCog) and Sam Taylor join us to chat about communicating sophisticated stuff to stakeholders, statistical process control, XmR charts, and a ton more.
CommonCog: https://commoncog.com/
XMRIT: https://xmrit.com/2024-04-021h 11The Wisepreneurs PodcastMichelle Kvello Navigating the Corporate to Consulting TransitionAsk Nigel Rawlins a question or send feedback, click the link to text me.Michelle Kvello, founder of Lantern Partners and creator of the "Corporate to Consultant" course, shares her insights on the critical role of a CFO in driving SME growth and the key factors for successfully transitioning from a corporate career to consulting. Drawing from her experience, Michelle discusses the importance of understanding business finances, defining your purpose, financial planning, pricing strategies, and building a strong support network when making the leap to running your own consulting business.As mentioned in this...2024-03-2151 min
Infinite LoopsCedric Chin — Accelerating Business Expertise (EP. 207)Cedric Chin is a writer, researcher and operator whose Commoncog newsletter is dedicated to finding useful, practical ways to accelerate business expertise. He joins us to discuss some of the most potentially transformative concepts he’s uncovered, from the business expertise triad to naturalistic decision making. Important Links: Cedric’s Website (Commoncog) Are You Ready for the Great Reshuffle? The Naturalistic Decision Making Podcast Wisdom Unleashed Show Notes: Commoncog’s Rabbit-Holing Origins The Business Expertise Triad Quality Engineering & Process Control The Effectiveness of Naturalistic Decision Making Expectancy, Intuition & Investing How to Stay Open-Minded Trial & Error...2024-03-141h 26Commonplace ExpertiseColin Bryar on the Practice of Amazon's Weekly Business ReviewColin Bryar joined Amazon really early in its life and spent twelve years as part of Amazon's senior leadership team.For two of those years he was 'Technical Assistant' to Jeff Bezos, as known as 'Jeff's shadow', during which he spent each day attending meetings, traveling with, and discussing business and life with Jeff. After Amazon, he and his family relocated to Singapore for two years where Colin served as Chief Operating Officer of e-commerce company RedMart, which was subsequently sold to Alibaba. Along with his ex-Amazonian colleague Bill Carr, Colin is co-author of Working Backwards, a...2023-11-161h 11
Searching For SaaSQuick takes on Categories, WOM and FrameworksOn the show this week we share our quick takes on category creation (Christopher Lockhead), word of mouth, abandoning business frameworks and Google Podcasts shutdown.
Links
- Lenny’s Podcast (https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/podcast)
- Category creation - https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-become-a-category-pirate-christopher#details
- WOM - https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-to-drive-word-of-mouth-nilan-peiris-cpo-of-wise/
- Frameworks - https://commoncog.com/reality-without-frameworks/
This is episode 922023-10-2541 min
The Work Item - Real Talk on Tech's Toughest Career Choices#61 - Career Moats And Beyond, with Cedric Chin
Welcome friends to the fourth season of The Work Item podcast. I am starting the yearly series with some fantastic guests, and today is no exception.
To start us off, I am chatting with Cedric Chin - the founder of the CommonCog blog and business series. You might've read some of Cedric's writing on career moats before (I know I have). Cedric has a wealth of experience in managing engineering teams and has embarked on a quest to build a deep understanding of business and development principles from the ground-up.
We're glad you're here, listening...2023-10-0954 min
StickyGoing viral with thought leadership - Cedric ChinIn this episode, Cedric Chin shares how “earned secrets” are at the core of creating viral, thought leadership content. He shares his process for writing long-form articles and stresses how consistently publishing on a schedule can help build readership.Key timestamps:0:30 – Who is Cedric Chin?1:45 – What is Commoncog about?9:59 – Definition of “going viral” and thought leadership11:07 - Four types of thought leadership according to Ryan Law12:25 – Example of a viral “Yes, and” article Cedric wrote 15:14 – Example of a viral article challenging a truism21:48 – The “ripple...2023-09-041h 00Commonplace ExpertiseEric Nehrlich on the Art of Executive Coaching and ForecastingEric Nehrlich is an executive coach, and was formerly the chief of staff on the Google Search Ads team. Before becoming chief of staff, Eric was part of the team that got Google's revenue forecasting down from an error rate of 10-20% to an error rate of around 0.5%. We open up with some wild stories of Google's early attempts at revenue forecasting, and then dig into how that forecasting success happened. Along the way, Eric explains how he, his boss, and his team developed a fingertip feel for variation in data. We then switch gears to talk...2023-07-251h 27Commonplace ExpertiseLesley Sim on Skill Acceleration in UltimateLesley Sim coached the Singaporean Ultimate Women's World Championship team in 2020. We open with an introduction to the sport of Ultimate (sometimes known as frisbee), her experience coaching the women's team in late 2019, and then move on to her remarkable approach to pedagogical development and skill acceleration in the game of Ultimate.Along the way, we talk about desirable and undesirable problems in training, playing to play vs playing to win, and how she used a training method originally designed for dolphins and dogs and adapted it to humans — with great success!Lesley's Twitter — https://twit...2023-05-151h 28
Memetic Hazardmemhazs05e0033: Finepix and CoolpixAlso, read Adam’s blog and Josef’s blog.
This week we talk about:
Apps and phones
Technology and:
importance
superstition
the law
Jethro Tull
Shareware
HCI Intuitions
The Zombo-com Era
The rise and fall and rise of search trash
web comics
news paper cartoons
"I don't want my writing to just be marketing for something else" blog post
the oat meal
Falling on and off media
There Is A Season
Prequel Shuttles
Star Wars Ring Theory (which I somehow remembered as a video, even though it doesn't seem to be)
Decline Of The Nerds
Sonic Prestig...2023-04-2200 min
Hambrientos#43 Aprende a aprender IHablamos de aprender. Y lo hacemos con Woody Allen y Osama Bin Laden, entre otros.
1. Cómo funcion la memoria.
2. Entornos de aprendizaje VS estrategias de aprendizaje.
3. Cómo elegir tu estrategia.
RECURSOS
Ética para Amador: https://amzn.to/3AkiNhA
La Fatiga del Amor: https://amzn.to/3vY9C3V
Gravedad Cero: https://amzn.to/3w0otKY
Enlaces al blog que tiene a Charly loco:
https://commoncog.com/accelerated-expertise/
https://commoncog.com/an-easier-method-for-extracting-tacit-knowledge/
https://commoncog.com/putting-mental-models-to-practice/
DÓNDE ESTAMOS...2023-01-131h 22
Liberty's HighlightsCedric Chin: What Operators can Teach Investors, the Study of Expertise, Knowledge Shields, and More (Podcast #10)This is an interesting one that goes in many directions! (starting with the Earth sandwich.. 🌏 🥪)Cedric (💚 🥃 🇸🇬) is an operator who specializes — obsesses? — in learning how to extract knowledge from experts and businesspeople, the people in the trenches actually doing stuff.In this conversation, we discuss how traditional Chinese businessmen without formal education structure deals, cognitive flexibility theory (it sounds fancy, but it’s quite practical), cognitive transformation theory, and why some people can reach mastery in their fields while others cannot (I really like the “knowledge shield” concept🛡 🤯).There’s a discussion on keeping an open mind on crypto (are...2022-05-121h 22
The Andy PodE3: Tiger Shen Reality is the best teacher.
__
4000 Weeks book: https://smile.amazon.com/Four-Thousand-Weeks-Management-Mortals/dp/0374159122
Top 2 Things essay: https://brettcvz.com/posts/53-managing-product-requests-from-customerfacing-teams-top-2-things
Oliver Burkeman: https://www.oliverburkeman.com/
Interact Community: https://joininteract.com/
Graham Duncan article - What’s going on here, with this human?: https://grahamduncan.blog/whats-going-on-here/
Seth Godin on emotional labor: https://seths.blog/2017/05/emotional-labor/, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgFf-CvoIJc&t=36s
Cedric and his -isms: https://commoncog.com/blog/start-here/
Welcome Virtual Events: https://www.ex...2022-02-0831 min
Move With Deb the PodcastMove With Deb - Episode 41, Embodied AHA, Tacit Knowledge and You in 2022Episode 41, I discuss how I've integrated new mindbody experiences into my life at different times and what that Embodied AHA looks and feels like. I share a concept called Tacit Knowledge which is about how we can use something someone else has learned and apply that as a skill in our own life, which is very relevant for the mindbody process. https://commoncog.com/blog/tacit-knowledge-is-a-real-thing/? Wishing you so well in 2022. I am looking forward to continuing to connect, share and grow with you in the coming year.
Please feel free to...2021-12-3117 minCommonplace ExpertiseDavid MacIver on Life Skills for ProgrammersDavid MacIver is most known for pushing the adoption and ergonomics of property testing in software with his testing library Hypothesis. Hypothesis is well regarded and widely used in the Python programming language community, and it introduced a handful of innovations that are now quite widespread in the practice of property testing. You’ll hear more about Hypothesis during the podcast, as we talk about what he’s learnt pushing the boundaries of a domain. Then, we shift gears to talk about his coaching practice. David specialises in helping programmers with self improvement, more effective learning, and developing soft skil...2021-09-061h 17Commonplace ExpertiseLia DiBello on The Mental Model of BusinessDr Lia DiBello is the CEO, President, and Director of Research of WTRI (Workplace Technology Research Inc), and Senior Scientist at Applied Cognitive Sciences Labs Inc. She is a cognitive scientist as well as a businessperson. In the late 2000s Dr DiBello discovered in an NSF-funded study that all great businesspeople share a common mental model of business, and that mental model can be used for all sorts of interesting things, including the assessment of business expertise, which she did — she was the principal inventor of something called the FutureView Profiler. In more recent years, Dr DiBello is...2021-08-241h 28Commonplace ExpertiseWhat's This Podcast About?A short trailer for Commonplace Expertise, the new podcast from Commonplace https://commoncog.com/blog/2021-08-1400 min
Info Under The RadarShortcast | First Principles Thinking and why Elon Musk is obsessed with it?Welcome to another short episode of Info under the radar, the show where we deconstruct everyday ideas, concepts, and subjects that surround us.
In this episode, Devendra and Vishwajeet discuss the concept of First Principles Thinking. First Principle Thinking has gained quite a bit of traction in pop culture due to usage by people such as Elon Musk or Reed Hastings.
We have covered the origins of the term, its practical application, when to use the first principle, how to use it, what is analogical thinking and how it differs from the first principle thinking...2021-05-2617 min
Machine Learning EngineeredHow to Get Ahead in Machine Learning with Zak Slayback (1517 Fund)Zak Slayback is a principal at 1517 Fund, a venture capital fund that prioritizes working with dropouts. He wrote the excellent book "How to Get Ahead", one of my most recommended books on careers, and runs Get Ahead Labs where he teaches how to write outstanding cold emails. Learn more about Zak:
https://zakslayback.com/ (https://zakslayback.com/)
https://www.1517fund.com/ (https://www.1517fund.com/)
Every Thursday I send out the most useful things I’ve learned, curated specifically for the busy machine learning engineer. Sign up here: http://bitly.com/mle-newsletter (http://bitly.com/mle-newsletter)
Follow Charlie on Twitter: ht...2020-11-171h 42
Todd Nief's ShowCedric Chin (Commoncog) on Tacit Knowledge and Learning from ExpertsCertain clusters of nerds on the internet can find it very frustrating when successful people say a lot of incorrect stuff ("Just focus on your passion and be yourself!") about how they found success in their field. To be clear, I am such a nerd. Cedric Chin has researched and written extensively about the academic literature on skill acquisition and expertise—and has made these concepts extremely practical for knowledge workers looking to improve their career skills at his Commonplace blog. Through Cedric's writing, we can build a better model of how experts bu...2020-11-161h 27