Tiny Experiments

How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World

De: Anne-Laure Le Cunff

Narrado por: Anne-Laure Le Cunff

"I loved this profound, practical, and generous book." —Oliver Burkeman

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.


* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF containing the Experimentalist Toolkit, Reflection Guide, Glossary and Acknowledgments from the book.

Unfortunately, painful to listen to

I understand the intention was to “walk the talk” and narrate the book herself, but I couldn’t make it to the end because of the accent. With one hour left, I could hardly focus on the content. And I’m not even a native English speaker. Kudos for the effort, but the final result just didn’t work.

Escape from the tyranny of purpose and linear goals

I’ve done a lot of research and writing and speaking on the topic of goal setting and the emotional impact of the conventional wisdom about goals. I’ve managed to accomplish a fair bit in my life with an unconventional approach. Le Cunff’s prescription here gets as close to and beyond anything I’ve encountered on the topic. Recommend.

Innovative, effective approach to adopting a spirit of inquiry and experimentation

Highly useful approach for developing a more open approach to assessing how and where we can make change that works for us: adopt a scientific mindset, make small, discrete "pacts", assess the result, refine, and design the next pact.

Motivating

The people complaining about the narrators accent need to grow up and meet new people. I found it refreshing. Content was motivating can’t wait to give it a second listen.

The map to sustainable growth that feels like progress. Life changing to say the least!

If you’re growth minded and goal oriented, it’s likely that you need this book like a drink of water on a hot day. You know you’re on a path to burn out, and this book will be the way you reset and reframe. I’m so thankful for the authors curiosity, focus on incremental changes and observation of our own lives to see what’s really working and what we don’t want to continue pursuing, regardless of what society thinks of that. This book has been so empowering, and I have shared it with many of my colleagues and friends. Absolutely brilliant!