Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World

Any uncertainty or curiosity can be turned into a pact, from exploring a new hobby to learning a new skill, gauging a potential career path, or trying out a new routine.

three profound shifts in how you navigate the world: From Response 1 to Response 2. Response 1 is automatic and rooted in the anxiety of uncertainty. Response 2 is autonomous and based on a strong sense of agency. We all oscillate between the two responses, but the more we flex our curiosity muscles, the more uncertainty transforms from something t

Kairos moments, like pêche à pied, are what I call magic windows: those periods of creative flow that often occur when we are immersed in activities that capture our full attention, when we spend time with loved ones, or when we are engaged in self-reflection.

personal and professional growth: Get early feedback. Sharing your work in public ensures that what you are working on answering an actual need and allows you to take a more iterative approach. Increase your creativity. By publishing your work in progress, you will increase the likelihood that you will connect the dots between your ideas and other

Fear of failure causes us to endlessly stop and start, resulting in an uneven path where we keep going back to our comfort zone before trying to progress again. Toxic productivity leads to burnout, creating ups and downs. Working in isolation means we lack the support networks to help smooth the way. Following that wild, twisted path with its inten

To live in Kairos time, we need to shift the focus from what we do with our time to how we experience each moment—what you might call mindful productivity. It’s a simple idea, that making the most of our time isn’t about doing more but about being more: more present, more engaged, and more attuned to the quality of our experiences.

When your aim is to learn, quitting is not an admission of failure. It’s an exercise in adaptability. There is no point in rigidly clinging to an obsolete path when everything else has changed. Pausing is the appropriate move when the data you’ve collected strongly indicates a new course of action, when your efforts are negatively affecting your ph

We were all born with this sense of adventure. It’s in children’s nature to experiment and explore the unknown.

Because they conflate ambition with the single-minded pursuit of an end destination, traditional methods of pursuing goals have an effect counter to their intent: they create a discouraging perspective where we are far from success. Our satisfaction—the best version of ourselves—lies somewhere in the future.