Tiny Experiments

Description

A transformative guide to rethinking our approach to goals, creativity, and life itself from a neuroscientist and entrepreneur, and the creator of the popular Ness Labs newsletter

Life isn’t linear, and yet we constantly try to mold it around linear goals: four-year college degrees, ten-year career plans, thirty-year mortgages. What if instead we approached life as a giant playground for experimentation? Based on ancestral philosophy and the latest scientific research, Tiny Experiments provides a desperately needed reframing: Uncertainty can be a state of expanded possibility and a space for metamorphosis.

Neuroscientist and entrepreneur Anne-Laure Le Cunff reveals that all you need is an experimental mindset to turn challenges into self-discovery and doubt into opportunity. Readers will replace the old linear model of success with a circular model of growth in which goals are discovered, pursued, and adapted—not in a vacuum, but in conversation with the larger world.

Throughout the book, you will ask hard questions and design simple yet meaningful experiments to find the answers. You will learn how to break free from the invisible cognitive scripts that shape your life, how to harness the power of imperfection, and how to make smarter decisions when the path forward is unclear.

This is a guide to:

• Discover your true ambitions through conducting tiny personal experiments
• Dismantle harmful beliefs about success that have kept you stuck
• Dare to make decisions true to your own aspirations
• Stop trying to find your purpose and start living instead
  
  Tiny Experiments offers not just practical tools to make sure our most vital work gets done, but a guide to reawakening our curiosity and drive in a noisy, busy, disaffected world, so that we can discover and pursue our most authentic ambitions while making a meaningful contribution.

Review

I really enjoyed this book and resonated with a lot of points.

Some of the ones that resonated the most with me include:

• Outputs, not outcomes - Focus on the output when setting goals. Create and focus on the now rather than being overwhelmed in trying to control the outcomes.
• Metacognition - Pause and take time to evaluate your thoughts and experiences about what went well, what didn't, and evaluate what the next steps are.
• Dance with disruption - I really enjoyed the parable this chapter started with and puts things into perspective. Our lives and the world are constantly shifting. Rather than trying to control it or label it, surrender and enjoy the ride.
• Learning in public - Let curiosity lead you. You don't have to be an expert. Learning in public frees you up to explore new ideas and also build community along the way.

I also appreciated Anne-Laure narrating her own book and being honest and vulnerable this was not something she was comfortable with at first. Regardless, I really enjoyed the narration and as an active reader of the blog provided another way to connect with the author.