Most of us build our lives around a plan someone else handed us: Get the degree, take the job, and hit the milestones right on schedule. The five-year plan works until it doesn’t, and then it sits there, a fixed target with a growing gap between where you are and where you really want to be. Plenty of people spend years executing a script they never actually chose, and then wonder why it doesn’t fit.
Anne-Laure Le Cunff, a neuroscientist who studies curiosity at King’s College London, lays out a different approach in her book Tiny Experiments. Her research on how the brain seeks, learns, and adapts shaped a method based on small, testable experiments rather than long-term goals and plans. She founded Ness Labs to teach this approach at scale, and her work gives people a concrete way to move forward without knowing the ending in advance.
Practical Tools and Strategies You’ll Gain
- Swap the traditional five-year plan for a circular growth mindset that adapts as you learn and evolve.
- Uncover the invisible scripts quietly running your decisions, and learn how to rewrite them.
- Design small, low-stakes experiments to test your instincts and move forward when the path isn’t clear.
About the Author
Dr. Anne-Laure Le Cunff is a neuroscientist, author, and entrepreneur who studies curiosity both in the lab and in life. Her research at King’s College London explores how our brains seek, learn, and adapt, spanning areas from ADHD to AI and mental health. She founded Ness Labs, a science-based learning platform helping people live more experimental lives. Her bestselling book Tiny Experiments offers a practical guide to transforming uncertainty into self-discovery. Through her research and writing, she bridges science and everyday life, showing how curiosity can help us loosen control, embrace change, and uncover who we truly are.