Joe PreviteJoe PreviteSee all posts

Tiny Experiments - Live like a Scientist

Last updated:

I recently finished reading Tiny Experiments by Anne-Laure Le Cunff and felt excited to share a few thoughts. Specifically:

  • The core themes that stood out
  • Experiments and reflections I plan to revisit regularly
  • A “Curiosity Shelf” of topics I want to explore further

I’m posting this for two reasons:

a) I want to spread the word about Anne-Laure’s work—she’s fantastic, and I’ve followed her on Twitter/X for years.

b) The book includes several exercises and prompts I found valuable, and I want a place to easily revisit them without digging through my Kindle.

Quick disclaimer: this isn’t a sponsored post or affiliate plug. That said, I am biased—I’ve been a longtime fan of Anne-Laure’s writing since her work at Ness Labs first made waves in my indiehacker circles on Twitter many years ago.

Core Themes

Summarizing an entire book can be challenging. Instead, I want to share a few core themes that stood out to me as I revisited my notes and highlights. For each theme, I’ll include a sentence or two from the book along with my personal reflection and why that stood out to me. Hopefully this will give you just enough of a taste of the book for you to pick up your own copy.

And if you do, let me know! Books are more fun when they’re read and discussed amongst friends :)

Thinking like a scientist

Let’s start with this quote from the book:

What experiment could I run on my own life that would bring me an intrinsic sense of fulfillment, whatever the outcome?

This line stopped me from turning the page. I thought, “Huh, I’ve never considered running experiments on my own life—like a scientist.”

It’s funny because, in my day job as a Growth Engineer, experiments are my bread and butter. We run A/B tests constantly. But I had never considering applied that mindset to my personal life.

It also reminded me of Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins, a book a copywriter friend once recommended. Before reading it, I only associated experiments—A/B tests, split tests, etcs—with business. The idea of treating my own life that way? Completely foreign!

That quote opened my eyes to a new mental model. What small experiments could I try in my everyday life? And they don’t have to be big or complicated. Lately, I’ve been grilling a lot of meat, and I’ve started testing things like:

  • What happens if I use indirect heat by placing the meat on the top rack?
  • What if I cook at 350°F instead of 400°F?
  • What if I prop the grill open slightly with a rock?

Tiny changes, a new element of curiosity. Makes me feel like a kid in science class again!

What I love about this framing is how it shifts the focus. Goals are great—they push you to prove something to yourself. But they’re focused on outcomes.

It’s like that cliché saying, “It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey.”

When you treat the same activity as an experiment, the outcome becomes secondary. The emphasis moves to the process, the learning. With goals, it’s easy to get stuck in an endless cycle: I hit 2,000 followers—how do I get to 3,000? I got a raise—how do I do it again?

And just like that, you’re back on the hamster wheel. As Anne-Laure later points out, that path is a ticket to burnout.

It reminded me of something Shaan said in an episode of My First Million—about escaping the rat race of chasing money and success. That quote led me to underline another line from the book:

I’m playing a different game: a game of noticing, questioning, and adapting.

Another mental shift. The “game” stops being about results and starts being about discovery.

It also brought to mind How Children Learn by John C. Holt. The whole book is basically field notes—Holt observing kids to understand how they think, act, and explore the world.

This theme of observing, questioning, and adapting your own behavior feels aligned with that scientific spirit. It’s about noticing the patterns of your life and testing ways to reshape them, like you’re the author of your own story.

It’s meta-awareness in action—running small experiments to test your hypotheses about what brings meaning, joy, and growth. And that mindset, more than anything, brings a sense of wonder back into life.

Liberating yourself from scripts

I like to think of this theme like a movie script.

Unlearn your scripts. Since childhood, internalized patterns form cognitive scripts that subtly guide our actions in relationships, work, and education.

The main idea is that much of how we view ourselves —how we speak, act, and feel—is shaped by scripts we absorbed in childhood. These patterns come from parents, caregivers, teachers, and others. And for many of us (myself included), we’ve never paused to question or unlearn them.

Lately, I’ve been exploring this through podcasts focused on autoconocimiento—self-understanding and introspection.

I’ll admit I don’t have as much to say here as I did with other themes. This one feels a bit more abstract and harder to act on, at least for now. Hopefully, I’ll have more to say on this down the road.

Mindful productivity

As someone who’s read a ton of self-help books and prioritized productivity—sometimes to a fault—this theme struck a chord.

Embracing Kairos means letting go of the Taylorist ideal of maximizing every minute and instead appreciating the unique qualities of each moment that make up life.

I had to look up Kairos again, but this idea of not trying to maximize every minute and instead appreciating the present felt like an important shift. It made me want to stop obsessing over being “productive” and just be. More present. More in the moment.

For me, that shift has looked like:

  • sitting and playing with my kids instead of obsessing over chores
  • checking my watch less, even wearing it less
  • being flexible with my schedule
  • picking up my phone less
  • embracing more “unfocused” moments—like driving with the windows down, no music or podcasts, or simply sitting and watching the kids play

I used to meditate every day for years. But I fell off the wagon when my first child was born. Ever since then, I’ve felt this constant pressure to maximize my time—because time alone feels rare and precious now.

This chapter reminded me that life doesn’t always have to be optimized. I have to remind myself it’s okay to loosen the grip and just let things unfold.

Community

If you read my recent blog post on Overcoming the Friendship Recession, you know community is one of my top themes for 2025.

“Seek fellow explorers. The world is not just changing; it’s becoming increasingly complex. Leverage the power of social flow by being an active participant in communities. Cultivate your existing relationships with intention.”

Anne-Laure highlighted two communities that really stuck with me—Tea with Strangers and Men of Folkestone. Both are international, both have themes. One is centered around having meaningful conversations over tea with strangers; the other explores manhood, fatherhood, and friendship.

I’ve built my own local communities—including Cowork With Friends and a bilingual family playgroup—but something still feels missing.

My wife is probably tired of me bringing up living near friends, but it’s something I deeply want: to find my people and intentionally invest in those relationships. And ideally, live near them! It’s a work in progress, but I’m optimistic. I know it’ll take time and effort—but I believe it’ll happen.

Experiments and Reflections

I reserved this section for reminders of actions I can take on a regular basis to apply what I learned from Tiny Experiments.

Experiments and Pacts, Not Goals

I will [action] for [duration].

What makes a pact so effective is that it focuses on our outputs (e.g. “publish 25 newsletters over the next 25 weeks”) rather than your outcomes (e.g. “get 5k newletter subs in 25 weeks”).

The format of the pact provides a simple mechanism to commit to action, a way to rely on momentum instead of motivation.

What part of this pact can be adjusted so I can keep learning and growing despire changing circumstances

Field Notes

Create a new note on your phone so you can jot down thoughts as you go about yoru day. Call it “Field Notes” or another title that feels playful or meaningful. Then, whenever soemthing crosses your midn, write a timestamp and a few words.

Ideas to inspire field notes

  • insights: moments of curiousity, new ideas
  • energy: shift in energy levels, give vs drain
  • mood: emotions during or after an experience

You may notice categories for things that give me joy and thing that drain me or for what I want more of and what I want less of.

Energy Level Assessments

For a week or two, make a note of your energy levels at different times of the day so you can identify your energy peaks and trough.

Plus Minus Next

Plus Minus Next is what binds action with reflection. It’s the feedack after practice, the thinking that comes after doing.

Curiosity shelf

I can’t claim credit, ChatGPT came up with this title but I loved it too much to think of something else. These are things that made me go, “Huh, I’m not sure what that is. Maybe I should look it up later?”