Cedric 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 biographies, overcoming information overload and so much more.

🔗[Links & resources] 🔗

• Commoncog (Cedric’s blog)
• Follow Cedric on Twitter/X
• Farnam St
• Charlie Munger
• Principles by Ray Dalio
• The Fund by Rob Copeland
• Less Wrong
• Sources of Power by Gary Klein
• Daniel Kahneman
• Jean Piaget
• High Output Management by Andrew Grove
• You Have a Choice by Eric Nehrlich
• The Seven Secrets of the Prolific by Hillary Rettig
• Accelerating Expertise (book)
• Milton Hershey
• Warren Buffett
• The Engines that Move Markets by Alasdair Nairn

📝[Show Notes]📝

0:00 - Intro
2:54 - What led Cedric to study expertise (limits of mental models)
8:05 - The Problem with Deliberate Practice
10:05 - What is Commoncog?
12:48 - Ray Dalio & Believability
21:03 - Sensemaking Less Wrong (Epistemic vs Instrumental Rationality)
25:11 - How “Irrational” people can be successful
26:39 - Gary Klein VS Daniel Kahneman
29:44 - Three approaches to gaining expertise
34:20 - What is tacit Knowledge?
38:38 - The Recognition Primed Decision Making Model
47:30 - Cognitive Task Analysis
49:49 - The most important questions to ask experts
52:10 - Accelerating expertise in meditation & transmission of mind
56:48 - How to actually learn from books
1:00:50 - Cognitive Flexibility Theory & ill-structured domains
1:06:55 - Integration (noticing sameness & difference)
1:09:31 - Using case studies to become an expert in cult dynamics
1:13:21 - Why you should read biographies
1:16:52 - How to overcome Information overload
1:21:48 - Mindful social media use
1:25:22 - Luck vs skill in success
1:30:48 - Cedric’s opinion on Crypto
1:33:54 - The best and worst thing about living in Singapore
1:34:59 - Building the biggest storehouse of business expertise