Xavier Roy reviewed Tiny Experiments by Anne-Laure Le Cunff
Loved it
5 stars
Book review is at my knowledge garden.
Hardcover, 304 pages
English language
Published March 4, 2025 by Penguin Publishing Group.
5 stars
(5 reviews)
"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 …
"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.
andbenn reviewed Tiny Experiments by Anne-Laure Le Cunff
Tiny Experiments ... to work better and be a better person
4 stars
File this under self-help, which is an absolutely huge category with all sorts of famous and nearly famous authors, creators and academics trying to sell their methods to us.
Enter Anne-Laure Le Cunff's Tiny Experiments, as a neuroscientist. I don't know how I came across this - perhaps in a recommended reading list on the psychology side. While starting the book, I wasn't sure about it after getting through the Introduction. The section titled Pact though, immediately hit home with why goal setting is broken, drive for purpose can limit our growth potential and learning, and pacts, which seem similar to habits but are much heavier.
Being a neuroscientist makes this book stand out. Not only does she tell us why we might look at or do something in a particular way, but she adds her inputs on how to overcome the issues.
I plan to reread this book in …
File this under self-help, which is an absolutely huge category with all sorts of famous and nearly famous authors, creators and academics trying to sell their methods to us.
Enter Anne-Laure Le Cunff's Tiny Experiments, as a neuroscientist. I don't know how I came across this - perhaps in a recommended reading list on the psychology side. While starting the book, I wasn't sure about it after getting through the Introduction. The section titled Pact though, immediately hit home with why goal setting is broken, drive for purpose can limit our growth potential and learning, and pacts, which seem similar to habits but are much heavier.
Being a neuroscientist makes this book stand out. Not only does she tell us why we might look at or do something in a particular way, but she adds her inputs on how to overcome the issues.
I plan to reread this book in 1-2 years to learn more as I change. I really liked it.
The back cover has quotes from Adam Grant, Nir Eyal, Cal Newport, Ali Abdaal, Ryder Carroll, and Tiago Forte, all serious authors in the knowledge management / productivity space.
I don't think I can really read more self help books to get something new out of them. At most, it's probably a good review. However, I really liked the approach and content of this book. I'll be re-reading this for sure.
Subjects
- Nonfiction
- Psychology
- Productivity
- Personal Development