224: Unabridged Interview: Anne-Laure Le Cunff

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Aug 29, 2025

Anne-Laure Le Cunff is a neuroscientist, entrepreneur, and author of *Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World*. She shares her journey from relentless achievement to embracing a more experimental mindset. The conversation highlights how tiny experiments can redefine success and alleviate overwhelm. Anne-Laure explores neuroscience's role in curiosity and the importance of self-reflection. She encourages listeners to accept intentional imperfection as a path to personal growth, showcasing the transformative power of adapting goals.

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ANECDOTE

Calendar Before ER

Anne-Laure discovered a life-threatening clot in her arm while working at Google and checked her calendar before reacting.
That absurd moment seeded her decision to reassess priorities and later leave Google to pursue curiosity-driven work.

INSIGHT

Courage To Be Curious

Curiosity requires courage because it admits uncertainty and embraces learning from unknown outcomes.
That mindset shifts success from certainty to growth through exploration.

INSIGHT

Curiosity Is Biologically Rewarding

Curiosity activates the brain's reward (dopamine) pathways similar to food and sex.
Modern information overload makes curiosity feel risky despite its biological reward role.

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This is our unabridged interview with Anne-Laure Le Cunff.

When Anne-Laure Le Cunff—then a high-achieving Google executive—was told to go to the hospital for a life-threatening blood clot, she found herself first checking her calendar. Her bizarre response told her something was wrong with her life and priorities. She left Silicon Valley, earned a degree in neuroscience, and wrote Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World.

In this conversation with Lee C. Camp, Le Cunff explores the neuroscience behind procrastination, perfectionism, and burnout. She introduces a radical yet practical shift: replacing rigid goal-setting with small, curiosity-driven experiments. Drawing from her research at King’s College London and her work at Ness Labs, she explains how embracing uncertainty and intentional imperfection can unlock personal growth, reduce anxiety, and spark creativity.

You’ll learn how to redesign your relationship with productivity by experimenting with tiny experiments, explore the psychology of goal-setting, and discover how tiny experiments can help rewire your mental scripts. For anyone struggling with burnout, toxic perfectionism, or simply feeling stuck, this episode offers a science-backed path toward a more adaptive, joyful life.

Show Notes, Resources and Transcript⁠⁠

No Small Endeavor: Exploring what it means to live a good life, with thought provoking conversations about human flourishing, theology, politics, faith, social sciences, search for meaning, meaning and purpose, practices, common good, truth beauty and goodness, productivity, habit formation, neuroscience, science and religion, social justice, cardinal virtues, how of happiness, theology and culture, self development, happiness, virtue theory, being human, moral philosophy, community

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