How Tiny Experiments Lead to Big Breakthroughs with Anne-Laure Le Cunff

This week, I’m bringing back one of our most popular episodes—my conversation with neuroscientist, writer, and Ness Labs founder Anne-Laure Le Cunff. When we first spoke in 2024, she was deep in her PhD, balancing academic rigor with writing for a broad audience, all while sharing her journey in public. Now, she’s releasing her new book, Tiny Experiments, which explores how small, intentional experiments can unlock personal growth and creativity. Anne-Laure’s approach to navigating uncertainty, following curiosity, and designing an intentional life is something I deeply align with. And I wanted to revisit this conversation because it’s packed with insights on how world-class creators forge their own paths—without a roadmap. Whether you’re familiar with Anne-Laure’s work or hearing from her for the first time, this episode is a must-listen. Let’s get to it!

In this episode:

• [00:00] - Intro
• [01:59] - Liminal moments and navigating life's crossroads
• [05:41] - Lessons from neuroscience on embracing the in-between
• [10:44] - The power of intuition in decision making
• [30:07] - Cultural roots and identity
• [40:03] - Learning from failure
• [46:38] - Ness Labs
• [48:34] - The journey of learning and growth
• [49:22] - The power of authenticity and community
• [50:07] - Embracing personal evolution
• [51:35] - The impact of public learning and mistakes
• [53:00] - Exploring inner growth through psychedelics
• [54:47] - Ayahuasca experiences
• [57:42] - The significance of ancestral pain and healing
• [01:09:41] - Creative process and the virtue of writing in public
• [01:15:44] - Navigating between academic research and public engagement
• [01:19:30] - The personal content diet and the anti-library concept
• [01:27:53] - Envisioning the future and reflecting on personal growth

Key Takeaways

• Embrace Liminal Moments: Life is full of transitions where the path forward is uncertain. Rather than rushing through them, take the time to sit with the discomfort, listen to your intuition, and make decisions that align with your true values, not just external expectations.
• The Power of Small Experiments: Growth and creativity don’t come from grand gestures but from small, intentional experiments. Anne-Laure’s approach—writing 100 essays in 100 days—helped her refine her voice and build Ness Labs. Testing ideas in small, low-risk ways can lead to major breakthroughs.
• Trust Your Intuition in Decision-Making: While logic and planning are important, some of the best decisions come from following what feels right. This applies to career moves, relationships, and creative pursuits. When making big decisions, give yourself space to reflect on what aligns with your deeper aspirations.
• Let Go of Unnecessary Burdens: Many of us carry past traumas, societal expectations, or generational burdens without realizing it. Learning to release what no longer serves us, can create a lighter, more intentional way of living.
• Build in Public and Learn Along the Way: Success often comes from being open about the learning process. Anne-Laure’s transparency about her journey—including her mistakes—helped her build a thriving community at Ness Labs. By sharing your work and evolving in public, you create opportunities for connection, growth, and impact.

Quotes

“I think from a neuroscience perspective, it's just interesting to keep in mind that we are designed to try and reduce uncertainty as much as possible. Our brains are pattern-matching machines that are really trying to understand what is a signal in the middle of the noise and trying to make predictions, and it's trying to make the best predictions possible, really. That's how we survive. We evaluate risks. We decide, do I turn right? Do I turn left? Do I start running? Do I stay here? This is what we do. And we make those calculations all the time.” ~ Anne-Laure Le Cunff

“I'm very excited about this idea of creating a citizen lab where anyone could come and design their own experiments and learn about neuroscience and really getting all of that research out of just universities and having it in the world where anyone could access it and understand how it works.” ~ Anne-Laure Le Cunff

“I really admire other creators who have a very organized system. There was a point in my life where I tried to copy some of those systems and use them for myself, and it just didn't work. And I had to accept that I am a messy creator. This is a metaphor that I use in my writing, but I'm less of an architect and more of a gardener when it comes to exploring and generating ideas.” ~ Anne-Laure Le Cunff

“I think all of us carry things with us that we don't realize we do. And because we've been carrying these things for so long, we don't know that there's another way to live, that there's a lighter way to live, where we're not carrying this pain, this trauma, those painful memories.” ~ Anne-Laure Le Cunff

Links 

• Tiny Experiments by Anne-Laure Le Cunff
• The School of Life - Untranslatable Words
• Steph Smith
• Eunoia
• Curious Humans podcast with Anne-Laure Le Cunff
• The Painless Path podcast with Anne-Laure Le Cunff
• Building an antilibrary: the power of unread books
• Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy
• Tiago Forte
• Marie Denis
• Women Make
• Google
• Matter

Connect with Anne-Laure

• Website: https://anne-laure.net/ 
• X / Twitter: https://x.com/neuranne 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alecunff/ 
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/TellMeMoreAnneLaure 
• Anne-Laure’s newsletter: https://newsletter.nesslabs.com/ 
• Ness Labs: https://nesslabs.com/ 

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