# Favorite thing Commoncog has "given" you?
**URL:** https://forum.commoncog.com/t/favorite-thing-commoncog-has-given-you/3829
**Category:** Meta
**Created:** [October 12, 2026, 1:17pm UTC](https://forum.commoncog.com/t/favorite-thing-commoncog-has-given-you/3829 "2026-10-12T13:17:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jonathan](https://forum.commoncog.com/u/Jonathan)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2026, 1:17pm UTC](https://forum.commoncog.com/t/favorite-thing-commoncog-has-given-you/3829/1 "2026-10-12T13:17:51Z")
I recently got my 6 year (!) anniversary badge on this forum, which has me feeling sentimental. What’s your favorite thing you’ve gotten out of Commoncog?
Mine is very much the introductions to a number of thinkers I may never have otherwise intersected:
- Deming
- Ryan Singer
- Bob Moesta
- Asian business tycoons
There’s undoubtedly a lot more, but that’s all I can conjure up on a Monday morning
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### Author:  [@cedric](https://forum.commoncog.com/u/cedric)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2026, 1:57pm UTC](https://forum.commoncog.com/t/favorite-thing-commoncog-has-given-you/3829/2 "2026-10-12T13:57:29Z")
I must say, Asian business tycoons is a hilarious thing to include in the list. 😅
Because I blame you for it, and because my daughter vomited an hour ago and I have to put her to sleep (and thus can’t write a longer response), this community has given me Dungeon Crawler Carl and I hate you all for it.
PS: when is the next book out, @Jonathan?
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### Author:  [@Jonathan](https://forum.commoncog.com/u/Jonathan)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2026, 2:17pm UTC](https://forum.commoncog.com/t/favorite-thing-commoncog-has-given-you/3829/3 "2026-10-12T14:17:39Z")
You are quite welcome!
No line on the next book yet. He dropped a couple chapters to Patreon members over the summer but has been largely silent.
My hypothesis is because he has two books worth of planning to do, there’s going to be a longer gap than usual. He has far less runway to say “I’ll figure it out in a future book” so he’s being very judicious about releasing anything. There have been a few fun cold readings by Jeff Hays at some of the conventions, but that’s usually not more than a few paragraphs.
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### Author:  [@eric](https://forum.commoncog.com/u/eric)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2026, 2:52pm UTC](https://forum.commoncog.com/t/favorite-thing-commoncog-has-given-you/3829/4 "2026-10-12T14:52:01Z")
I appreciate the frameworks, because I’m a framework guy.
- Expertise as Sensemaking, and the idea that it is uncommon common sense, helped me understand the value of the experience I have accumulated: I have different frames I can bring to situations which allow me to see “obvious” possibilities that are invisible to others. And, incidentally, it also helps me continue to break the idea that value only comes from hard work - an insight can eliminate the need for weeks or months of work.
- I still refer people to the Be Good To Your Mentors the idea that menteeship is earning the right to continue asking questions.
- The Demand series was super helpful to me in understanding the skill I was missing. I still haven’t undertaken the work to improve at the skills (despite buying the 30x500 course, I only completed a few lessons) but am clearer on the gap.
- The Idea Maze and Effectuation thread has been interesting to follow as Cedric unwinds the idea that there is a single path to product market fit. Instead, the key is to have the capital to keep experimenting.
- Speaking of capital, the business triad has also been helpful in understanding why successful businesses can continue to adapt. It doesn’t necessarily explain how to excel at each leg, but it is a useful lens to understand why many businesses fail, failing to navigate a change in demand or skill needed to offer supply, or running out of capital for various reasons e.g. over expansion or macro conditions changing.
There are probably others but those are the ones that immediately come to mind.
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### Author:  [@ellen](https://forum.commoncog.com/u/ellen)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2026, 3:54pm UTC](https://forum.commoncog.com/t/favorite-thing-commoncog-has-given-you/3829/5 "2026-10-12T15:54:32Z")
My favorite part of Commoncog is the forum. I love reading and occasionally being part of a bunch of smart, educated, friendly, and civil people making sense of the business world.
In terms of content and concepts, my favorites include
- The business triad as a neat way to organize knowledge and my understanding of business
- The recent sense-making series and more generally, the accelerated expertise cluster of writing
- The intro to effectuation as an alternative to goal-oriented planning in more early-stage contexts
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### Author:  [@mgoodrum](https://forum.commoncog.com/u/mgoodrum)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2026, 9:28pm UTC](https://forum.commoncog.com/t/favorite-thing-commoncog-has-given-you/3829/6 "2026-10-12T21:28:20Z")
> [@Jonathan](#):
>
> What’s your favorite thing you’ve gotten out of Commoncog?
- A well considered set of cognitive approaches that are working alternatives to ‘mental models’ discourse (why I joined)
Plus:
- The Case Library
- The business triad and the Lia DiBello podcast
- The Asian Tycoon series (yep), especially the material on the Kuoks
- Outcome Orientation
And of course: the people who contribute to this forum, who fulfill the promise of the internet
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### Author:  [@Brian\_Knoles](https://forum.commoncog.com/u/Brian_Knoles)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2026, 11:05pm UTC](https://forum.commoncog.com/t/favorite-thing-commoncog-has-given-you/3829/7 "2026-10-12T23:05:09Z")
Fun question! The most useful things I’ve gotten thus far are:
- I clawed my way out of burnout after reading the Commoncog guide
- The data-driven series gave me concepts to improve our project delivery process. I used exactly zero of the techniques in the series (they just weren’t relevant for me), but phrases like “management is prediction” really helped me orient to our particular problems
- I use the 7 Powers framework every time I see interesting news about a company
- “Tacit knowledge” put words to something I sensed but could not describe
- I’m currently fascinated by strategy, psychology, and demand… why do people do the crazy things that we do? I found many threads to pull on here.
- The forums. I particularly appreciate the folks with finance skill (since I have the least experience with that leg) and the conversations, like the Heart of Innovation, where people can’t seem to agree (because that signals to me there are still interesting things to discover). Also, I’ve hopped on calls with a handful of people here and found you all delightful in conversation.
That’s a long list, and it’s probably incomplete!