149. Anne-Laure Le Cunff: Cultivating Curiosity and an Experimental Life
Overview
Here on the podcast, one of the areas I explore is how we can live and work differently for more personal success, satisfaction, and sustainability.
And that’s where I’m having us start the year—with the idea that we can shift our mindset, explore and innovate new approaches, and experiment our way into knowing.
This complements my last episode that closed out 2024 where I talked about how approaching uncertainty and complexity with a sense of hope, joy, and wonder can help us embrace our agency over our goals and ambitions even in tenuous times. My conversation today builds on that idea and introduces curiosity as a superpower companion for ambition.
Neuroscientist Anne-Laure Le Cunff joins me to talk about her new book and how bringing curiosity and experimentation to your goals can not only help you to fully embrace your ambition with a new mindset, but also to pursue goals more sustainably and to approach setbacks with more self-kindness.
Rather than set resolutions for this year, instead embrace curiosity, create your tiny experiment, and, with hope, step into joy and wonder as you explore your way to knowing.
Listen below or on your favorite podcast player.
More About Our Guest
Anne-Laure Le Cunff is an award-winning neuroscientist, entrepreneur, and author. Her research at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience of King’s College London focuses on the neurodevelopment of curiosity and learning. She founded Ness Labs, an online learning platform providing evidence-based resources for professional and personal growth. Previously, she was an executive at Google, where she led digital health projects. Her upcoming book, Tiny Experiments, is a call to live a more experimental life.
Listen to the full episode to hear:
How experimental thinking emphasizes opportunities for learning, regardless of the outcomes
Why we need to nurture both curiosity and ambition in our lives
How an experimental mindset can help us explore the questions we face, even when it’s uncomfortable
Designing and implementing experiments for yourself and how this differs from resolutions or forming habits
What to do when your experiments end
Using curiosity to listen better to our internal signals
Learn more about Anne-Laure Le Cunff:
Thanks for Listening!
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