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Ness Labs by Anne-Laure Le Cunff

A weekly newsletter with science-based insights on creativity, mindful productivity, better thinking and lifelong learning.

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Ness Labs: Your Brain on Uncertainty ⚙️

Edition #257 – January 23rd, 2025A newsletter by Anne-Laure Le Cunff READ ON THE WEB Hello friends, I was stunned by the response to the Curiosity Collective last week. I’m still reading through all the applications – the stories of struggle and courage, the thoughtful questions about ambition, the universal desire for growth and change – and one thing is clear: people reading this newsletter already have the mind of a scientist. For you, just like for me, life is a giant experiment where you...

Edition #256 – January 16th, 2025A newsletter by Anne-Laure Le Cunff READ ON THE WEB Hello friends, If the past year has taught me anything, it’s that collective curiosity is the driving force behind human progress. It’s what makes us learn from each other, connect the dots, and imagine better ideas. And we can all learn to become beacons of curiosity in our communities. That’s why I’m so excited to announce The Curiosity Collective, a free bonus coaching program exclusively for early...

Edition #255 – January 9th, 2025A newsletter by Anne-Laure Le Cunff READ ON THE WEB Hello friends, One of the best parts of creating the Ness Labs community is learning from many smart people with diverse views on science, philosophy, education, relationships, and even the meaning of life. It’s intellectually stimulating and sometimes challenging to discuss ideas that clash with different belief systems, especially those that haven’t been extensively researched yet. Being the scientist of...

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Edition #254 – January 3rd, 2025A newsletter by Anne-Laure Le Cunff READ ON THE WEB Hello friends, Happy new year to you and happy birthday to me! I’m feeling tenderness toward my 15-year-old self who couldn’t have imagined we’d make it to 35, let alone that life could feel this good. To celebrate 35 trips around the sun, I shared 3.5 lessons for anyone younger feeling a bit lost or unsure about this big, beautiful and sometimes scary thing called life. Of course, the New Year is an...

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Edition #253 – December 20th, 2024A newsletter by Anne-Laure Le Cunff READ ON THE WEB Hello friends, I can’t believe this is the final newsletter of 2024. In fact, it’s the last email I’ll send this year. I’m writing to you from Paris, where I’ll be spending the holidays with my family. I have a bittersweet relationship with this time of year. It often feels like a tug-of-war between the desire to make the most of the remaining weeks and the need to rest and recharge. One practice that has...

Edition #252 – December 12th, 2024A newsletter by Anne-Laure Le Cunff READ ON THE WEB Hello friends, I was very excited to see Tiny Experiments featured in Harvard Business Review this week. This unexpected milestone wasn’t something I specifically aimed for, but it feels like a meaningful culmination of years spent distilling research at Ness Labs and crafting this weekly newsletter. This is why I’m such a big advocate for nonlinear goal setting. No, you don’t need to aim for big hairy...

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Edition #251 – December 5th, 2024A newsletter by Anne-Laure Le Cunff READ ON THE WEB Hello friends, This week I finally finished moving houses, although “finished” doesn’t feel quite right — I’m still sleeping on an air mattress, using my desk as a kitchen table, and the living room is missing a sofa. But the previous owner left a big bookshelf, and I got a lot of satisfaction from filling it with my books. Current mood: happy and tired. Fortunately, everything around me seems to be slowing...

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Edition #250 – November 28th, 2024A newsletter by Anne-Laure Le Cunff READ ON THE WEB Hello friends, This is the 250th edition of the Ness Labs newsletter! I honestly cannot believe it myself. This is the most consistent I’ve ever been with a creative project, and I don’t feel tired or bored of it at all. First, I want to say thank you for being part of this journey. It’s no overstatement to say that this newsletter has changed my life. It’s how I’ve made so many new friends. It’s why I was...

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Edition #249 – November 21st, 2024A newsletter by Anne-Laure Le Cunff READ ON THE WEB Hello friends, I just wrapped up an amazing workshop for Yelp where I taught 100 engineers and product managers how to design tiny experiments as a team. Then, I finished packing all of my stuff in time for the checkout inspection with my landlord (I’m moving to a new place, more on that next week). All while staying on top of my academic research. As a writer, entrepreneur, and researcher, people often ask...

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Edition #248 – November 14th, 2024A newsletter by Anne-Laure Le Cunff READ ON THE WEB Hello friends, I thought things would be quieter after completing my PhD, but turns out everybody is scrambling to complete their projects before the world goes into work hibernation until the new year (at least for most knowledge workers). So many little things to wrap up, and it’s been challenging to get into a state of creative flow where I can deeply explore new ideas and do my best writing. I figured,...