Anne-Laure Le Cunff built a 100,000-reader newsletter while studying neuroscience, then spent two years writing Tiny Experiments, a book about adopting an experimental mindset to change your life. She left a linear career to test these ideas in courses and workshops before writing.
Questions this video answers
Tiny Experiments.
Anne-Laure Le Cunff.
More than 100,000 readers.
Every single week for three years.
The past two years.
Chapters
Am I ready for this? I have a big announcement to make. I've been writing a book. This is the biggest project I've ever worked on. The book is called Tiny Experiments. It's about how to live a more experimental life. A life that's creative, curious and connected. When I was younger, I tried to do everything right. I tried to do well in my studies. I got a good job at Google. And I set out to diligently climb the corporate ladder. Check, check, check. I believed that by staying focused and productive, I would eventually get to that elusive place, that place of success and happiness. But the truth is, I wasn't feeling curious and excited. I was feeling empty and burned out. This is such a common experience in today's world. Being successful on the outside, but lost on the inside. You understand how the game works. You know what you're supposed to do. You have a plan and stick. Still, there's this little voice wondering what else could there be out there? I had always been fascinated with understanding how the brain works. Why we think the way we think and feel the way we feel. So one day I decided to listen to this voice and I went back to university to study neuroscience. I had to start from scratch. I had to embrace the fact that I had no idea what I was doing, but I was still going to do it. It was a bit like being a child again. Curious, open, adventurous. And it's in this phase of undirected growth that I discovered the power of having an experimental mindset. I went from living a linear life with clear end goals and a traditional definition of success, to living an experimental life with moving targets and constant redefinition of what success meant to me. I went from trying to do everything perfectly to falling in love with problems, from trying to hide my mistakes to learning in public, from climbing a ladder to designing growth groups. Once I started following my curiosity, I was hooked. I read hundreds of research papers about how to make the most of your mind, how to develop more flexible thinking, learn from your emotions and approach problems creatively. And I wrote about everything I was discovering in the weekly Nest Labs newsletter, which, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around, this number has more than 100,000 readers today. Of course, that didn't happen in one day. I sent that newsletter every single week for three years. It was a labor of love and curiosity. And every new reader rewarded me with even more opportunities to learn and connect. Until one day, an email popped into my inbox. It was an editor at a big publishing house who basically said, hey, have you thought of writing a book? Yes. Yes. This sounded like the perfect way to synthesize everything I had learned. All those papers I had read, the hundreds of newsletters, the thousands of conversations, all of this distilled in one place. And so I got to work. I spent the past two years pouring my energy into this book, translating research into practical tools to create a simple, flexible system for living an experimental life. And to make sure the system worked, I extensively tested these tools in courses and workshops that have helped thousands of people figure out their own definition of success. If you've been like me, doing everything you've been told, but something still doesn't feel right, this book is for you. It includes references to the latest scientific research and real world case studies of fellow curious minds who have embraced an experimental mindset. What I think makes it so powerful is that it's not a book telling you exactly what you should be doing. Your life, your past experiences, your ambitions for the future. All of these are unique to you. So instead, this is a flexible toolkit for you to design your own system. After reading this book, you'll have all the tools you need to be comfortable in uncertainty. Despite your brain screaming for certainty, you'll be able to discover your true ambitions through conducting tiny personal experiments and to reframe anxieties around lives in betweens as opportunities for growth. You'll dismantle harmful beliefs about success that have kept you stuck potentially for years. And you'll overcome the fear of what others think by learning in public. Overall, this book is for anyone who's tired of trying to find their purpose and who wants to start living instead. By starting living, I mean exploring things you've been curious about, learning that new skill, imagining that new career, putting yourself out there, making mistakes, and growing through experience rather than feeling stuck. You can pre order your copy now from anywhere where books are sold. You may be thinking, I'll just wait until the book is out. But there are a few reasons why you may want to order your copy today. First, I've put together exclusive resources that will only be available to those of you who pre order a copy. As a thank you for supporting the launch, there will be workshops, an audio guide, my entire mindful productivity system for you to download, and much more. And if you order now, you'll get everything that's available today, plus all future bonuses. The second reason is, frankly, just to support my work. I think this is my best work ever. It's not just the synthesis of my past work. There's so much new material in there ideas I've never explored in such depth. I would love for as many people as possible to read it. And for that, I need your help. The way most bestselling lists work is that any book that's pre ordered counts for the first week of sales. By pre ordering, you're helping increase my chances of getting on one of those lists, which would mean a lot more people potentially reading the book. So if you have any intention whatsoever of reading it, at some point, it would mean the world if you could pre order. Ultimately, I truly think that reading this book is an investment in yourself. It's the book I wish existed when I felt stuck because I was too focused on the conventional path to success. This is a book for anyone who knows deep down that there are alternative paths to explore. For anyone who knows that success doesn't have to be linear and who wants to approach life in a more experimental way. This book could not exist without the amazing community in this little corner of the Internet. A community of people who are curious, ambitious, and generous. And I'm so grateful to have been able to learn from all of you and to have the opportunity to translate some of that wisdom into a book. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. The link to pre order the book is just down there in the description. I cannot wait to see what big things you achieve by running your own tiny experiments.
