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Chiara Cokieng

📍 Berlin, Germany

Thinking Like a Player in a Job Market (Not Just a Job Seeker)

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it really means to be a “player” in a job market — not just someone applying to jobs, optimizing their CV, and hoping for the best, but someone who understands that they’re operating inside a market with supply, demand, competition, and

Torturous Chaos, Until It Isn’t

Jason Cohen is talking about bootstrapping startups here, but it might as well be about job searching in this market. These things mean you haven’t yet succeeded, but neither do they prove that you’re failing. It’s always like this until it isn’t. It’s like this

Is building a business supposed to consume your life - even when you do everything right?

I’ve been thinking about why work still consumes founders even when they prioritize well, automate, and build great systems. This post explores whether that pattern is inevitable.

Letter to Josh Doody: On Building a Luxury Business and Learning the Business and the Craft

Hi Josh, I originally started writing this as an email reply to your email newsletter. But I’ve been enjoying writing public letters lately, so I thought: why not make this one public too. I also want to share your 2025 Year in Review with a few friends who are

Update for the week ending Fri, 9 Jan, 2026

First week back after the holidays: first client interview, onboarding reset, one new client, and outcome goals met despite missed KPIs.

On love as a competitive advantage and making profit the right way (after reading Jason Cohen)

Typical advice in business and negotiation is to charge as much as you can. Don’t leave money on the table. Some even say it’s your moral imperative to do so. This never sat well with me. I’ve always valued the long-term relationship over short-term profits. I always

The kind of product I want to build (and why I’m not pursuing a sensible opportunity)

One thing I want to write more of is how I actually make decisions as a founder. Not just the outcomes, but the tradeoffs, doubts, and reasoning behind them. This question about Jobcenter vouchers and AZAV certification comes up repeatedly in my business. What if I partner with the Jobcenter

Control is caffeine for your relationship with reality

I was researching how to fix my circadian rhythm. One of the main levers is to have your last coffee by 2pm. Not because caffeine makes it impossible to fall asleep, but because of how it works: even when you can fall asleep, drinking coffee too late quietly degrades sleep

Letter to Oli: On How I Consume Podcasts and Take Notes (Zettelkasten)

Hi Oli, It was so nice to read your letter replying to mine. It makes me feel so grateful for this downtime during the holidays, that we have the time and space to do fun stuff like this. Thanks for checking out David Senra’s podcast. It seems like it

Letter to Sopha: On Job Searching, Not Feeling Enough, and The Inner Game

Hi Sopha, Happy New Year! Wow, I was delighted to see that you actually wrote me a letter, mere hours after I texted you about my new interest in writing public letters. First of all, I’m happy to hear that meeting the ‘BER Crew’ in Lagos last May/Jun