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Tiny Experiments
Book

Tiny Experiments

How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World

Anne-Laure Le Cunff
Profile Books, 2025
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It turns out all those SMART goals you’re setting might, in fact, be blocking you from achieving your full potential, according to neuroscientist Anne-Laure Le Cunff. Le Cunff offers insights into the limitations of linear goals and suggests mindset shifts about the nature of success and goals. She suggests taking a meandering, unconventional, authentic career path, letting your curiosity lead the way. Le Cunff's concept of “tiny experiments” can help you embark on a journey of lifelong learning.

Summary

Stop focusing on linear goals and shift to a “growth loop” model.

If you’re struggling to achieve your goals, you might be using the wrong framework. The most popular goal-setting approaches today often focus too much on linear, performance-based goals. For instance, the SMART framework holds that all goals should be “specific, measurable, assignable, realistic, and timely.” But linear approaches to goal-setting don’t fare well outside controlled environments and can even impede creativity and innovation. Linear approaches view growth pathways as ladders — leading in one direction and never changing — and goal-setters operate with the assumption that they ought to follow a predetermined path, marked by measurable achievements and milestones that will lead to a predefined outcome. In reality, life is rarely predictable, and linear approaches can discourage and trigger fears of failure.

Chasing linear goals can result in isolation and competition rather than collaboration, as a fear of failure can prompt you to view achievement as a zero-sum game. Linear goals can also trigger toxic productivity, as you push yourself to hit performance benchmarks. To escape the trap ...

About the Author

Anne-Laure Le Cunff is a neuroscientist at King’s College London, where she studies the neurological basis of lifelong learning and curiosity. She writes the Ness Labs newsletter, helping readers to develop an experimental mindset.

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