Brian JohnsonChairman & Philosopher in Residence at Heroic

+1: #925 C.A.N.O.E-ing

17 Dec 2025 · 3 min

Episode

17 Dec 2025 · 3 min

0:00

Podcast episode (+1 micro-episode) by Brian Johnson (Optimize series) promoting the practice of small, continual experiments for self-improvement. Introduces and defines the acronym C.A.N.O.E (constant and never-ending optimizing experimentation), frames experimenting as playful and joyful ("canoeing" metaphor), and closes with a promotional P.S. describing an upcoming Optimize 2020 event (five-day program featuring 101 luminaries, online and offline tickets available).

Questions this episode answers

Constant and never-ending optimizing experimentation.

Kaizen (Japanese for improvement) and Tony Robbins' 'Kanai' (constant and never-ending improvement).

+1: #925 C.A.N.O.E-ing.

October 17, 2019.

Five days; 101 world-class luminaries; one million people (target); online and offline tickets available at Optimize Me 2020.

Chapters

You're listening to Optimize with Brian Johnson. More wisdom in less time. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. One of the core themes of our work together in these plus ones and in our coach program, et cetera, is the power of constantly experimenting as we find little ways to optimize all day, every day, repeat again and again and again, all done with a big eudaimonically joyful smile as if we're playing the greatest game ever created. Which of course we are. So we've called it a bunch of things. In a business environment, the whole idea of Kaizen is super popular. Kaizen is Japanese for improvement, synonymous with optimize. While Tony Robbins calls it Kanai. C A N I as in constant and never ending improvement. We actually combined those two in a one we linked to a year ago. So I'm riffing on that basic theme during our fundy session on sleep, reminding us all of the power of chipping away and looking for marginal gains as we have fun with the whole can I thing. Only I suggested we swap out the I for E and make it constant and never ending experimenting rather than improving. I then made the weak suggestion that perhaps we could pronounce it Kenny, to which Michael Balschan, my right hand guy with our coach program playfully suggested we call it Canoe. As in C A N O E, short for constant and never ending optimizing experimentation. He shared that as he made some side to side canoeing motions to which I said perfect canoeing, constant and never ending optimizing experimentation. That's today's +1. What's one little experiment you can run today? Let's grab our canoes and hop in the optimizing river of flexibility. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Optimize with Brian Johnson. To find out more, go to Optimize Me. Hey guys, this is Brian with a quick little P.S. i'm really excited to let you know about an event we're working on. Plan is to make it the premier self optimizing event of 2020. We're calling it Optimize 2020. You the modern hero. Basic idea. Five days, 101 world class luminaries. One million people. You can learn more and get your tickets to the online and offline event at Optimize Me 2020. Again, that's Optimize Me2020. Hope to see you there.