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Chiara Cokieng

📍 Berlin, Germany

True learning requires doing

True learning requires actual doing and deliberate practice. When learning “soft” or knowledge-based skills, e.g. customer development or doing user interviews, it’s easy to delude ourselves that we’ve “learned” something merely by reading about it. This is why learning a new language or a new sport is

How I organize my commonplace book in Notion

Fri, 12. Feb 2021 Update: I now use Craft and wrote about why I prefer it over Bear, Obsidian, Roam Research, and yes, Notion [https://chiaracokieng.com/why-i-replaced-bear-obsidian-and-roam-research-with-craft/] . While I still have a BASB-inspired folder structure, my main ‘organizational system’ for my ‘commonplace book’ is now more akin to densely

How strongly does business leadership correlate with extraordinary financial success?

Something I’ve always been suspicious about: Does good leadership really correlate with “breakthrough” financial success in business? I’ve worked with some pretty good managers and leaders. We’ve done great work together, but obviously not “unicorn” level success. Don’t get me wrong, practicing good leadership has served

Book Review and Notes: Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by Cathy O'Neil

Book: Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by Cathy O'Neil My rating: 5 of 5 stars The subtitle says this book is about how big data increases inequality and threatens democracy. And it is exactly that. It’s a good overview for

Is the altMBA worth it?

I took altMBA24 (batch) in October 2018. A lot of people ask if the altMBA [https://altmba.com/] is worth it. This is my answer. tl;dr: It will lay a good business foundation, help you create a new network of support and friends, and help you “get reps” in

Predicting Your Future by Believing in Statistics + The Hallway Test

Summer in Hamburg [http://photos.chiaracokieng.com/hamburgsummer/]I want to share two mental models that have been helpful to me. One is to believe in statistics. The second is to do the hallway test. Together, they help me predict likely futures for me and choose actions that tend to

Confidence

You need enough to know you can learn anything. At the very least, up to the level of the average person doing the thing you fear you are too stupid to learn. Be it driving, programming, or rocket science. Not even the best, just average.Not too much that you

What are business and self-help books for?

Many people shit on business and self-help books. They say you should think for yourself. That you should trust yourself and do what feels instinctual. This is bullshit. If you’re doing something new, you have no right to trust yourself. You have no knowledge or experience with regards to

Should you stay at home and take care of your parents, or move out and live independently?

[http://chiaracokieng.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/1_uQMLK-zRA-27nFl-mDYrfg.jpeg] She’s leaving home by Linh Nguyen One of the hardest issues for Asians if deciding to leave home is who will take care of their parents. Here are three ideas on the issue. First, you are not responsible for

Joining a New Team: When to Move Fast, When to Wait

There is a popular idea that says to curtail your urge to immediately contribute and change things when you are new to a job. That your job is to first listen and get context. I agree. I’d also like to add some nuance. It is not so much, “Don’