“When a scientist conducts an experiment and they don’t get the results they expected, they don’t go, ‘Oh, shame! I’m such a failure!’ They go, ‘Huh…interesting! What is going on here?’ And that’s what got me interested in exploring: how can we apply this experimental mindset to our daily lives and work?” ~ Anne-Laure Le Cunff

Anne-Laure Le Cunff is a Choose to Be Curious trifecta: researcher, theoretician — and practitioner. A neuroscientist and deep thinker about the personal and social implications of our curiosity, she conducts tiny experiments to focus closely on how we use our time and energy to best effect.

Anne-Laure is the founder of Ness Labs, a collective platform for curious people, where “ambitious knowledge workers come together to achieve their goals without sacrificing their mental health.”

Ness Labs offers content, coaching, courses and–perhaps most importantly–a community for learning in public together.

I am excited to see how her vibrant and collective study-and-practice culture shapes how we think about curiosity in the years ahead.

We can gain a lot from inhabiting those spaces — those moments of transition — with curiosity instead of with fear and anxiety…Those liminal spaces, if we approach them with curiosity, can turn into a playground for self-exploration and self-discovery.

Listen to Choose to Be Curious #241: Curiosity, Tiny Experiments & Liminal Space, with Anne-Laure Le Cunff

Join me in making Anne-Laure’s “Curiosity Prayer” your own: “Grant me the curiosity to explore the things I do not understand, the courage to question the things I do, and the wisdom to never stop learning.”

Learn more about Anne-Laure Le Cunff. I think you’ll enjoy her latest paper, Systematic Curiosity as an Integrative Tool for Human Flourishing: A Conceptual Review and Framework

Check out Ness Labs – “a mindful productivity school for knowledge workers”

If you enjoyed this conversation about curiosity theory, try these C2BC Classics: Curious Minds: The Power of Connection, with Perry Zurn & Dani S. Bassett; How Curiosity Can Transform Your Life & Change the World, with Scott Shigeoka; & Capturing the Bandwidth of Curiosity, with Todd Kashdan.

Theme music by Sean Balick; “Discovery Harbor” by Cloud Harbor, via Blue Dot Sessions.

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