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What if the plan you're clinging to for safety is the very thing keeping you stuck?
Alice is joined by Anne-Laure Le Cunff — neuroscientist, founder of the newsletter Ness Labs, and author of Tiny Experiments — who was thriving at Google until the morning she woke up to find her entire arm had turned purple. A blood clot threatening to travel to her lungs. Her first reaction in the ER? "One second, I need to check my calendar." That was the life quake that made her question everything — and eventually walk away from the job her immigrant mother saw as the family's hard-won safe spot in society.
Anne-Laure's reframe: certainty is a survival instinct, not a strategy. Our brains haven't changed much in a few thousand years, so we still cling to the illusion of control and quietly close doors to growth, connection, and self-discovery. Her answer isn't another blueprint — it's an experimental mindset: small, time-boxed actions run out of curiosity, measured by what you learn rather than the outcome you demanded.
She's honest that she didn't handle the uncertainty gracefully — she bolted back into old patterns and started a startup "for all of the wrong reasons," just to have something impressive to say. It was only when that startup failed, which she calls one of the best things that ever happened to her, that she admitted she was lost — and found it liberating.
Whether you're stuck in a job that pays the bills but doesn't fulfill you, or already mid-leap into the unknown, this is a candid, science-grounded reframe of what uncertainty is actually for.
In this episode they explore:
The purple arm and the calendar — the health scare that exposed a life built on saying yes to everything
Why "I work at Google" was an identity, and what losing it does to your sense of self
Why your brain treats uncertainty as a threat to survival
The startup she started for all the wrong reasons, and why its failure was liberating
The hero's journey as a mental model for real life — and why we live through it more than once
Tiny experiments explained — starting from a hypothesis, not a blueprint
Measuring inputs over outputs, and why changing a million things at once tells you nothing
Intentional imperfection — why running at 100% everywhere is a recipe for burnout
The one conversation with your partner that prevents pointless conflict
Self-compassion over self-awareness in "do it all" culture
Toxic productivity vs. mindful productivity, and Peter Drucker's fiftyfold stat
Becoming "an anthropologist of your own life"
Connect with Anne-Laure Le Cunff:Website: nesslabs.comInstagram: @neuranneBook: Tiny Experiments, https://www.amazon.ae/Tiny-Experiment...
Chapters:
00:00 "One second, I need to check my calendar" — the purple arm
00:43 Meet Anne-Laure Le Cunff, author of Tiny Experiments
01:04 The yes girl at Google — imposter syndrome
02:00 The blood clot, the ER, and quitting
03:40 Life quakes and shifting priorities
05:17 Why the brain treats uncertainty as a survival threat
06:47 Clinging to the illusion of control
07:29 Losing the Google identity
09:02 The startup that failed — and why it was liberating
10:18 The hero's journey, explained
12:12 Why we live through multiple hero's journeys
13:09 Tiny experiments as the tool for climbing back up
14:32 Measuring inputs, not outputs
16:13 Intentional imperfection and executive function
18:53 Self-awareness vs. self-compassion
20:39 Toxic vs. mindful productivity
22:02 Anthropologist of your own life — where to find Anne-Laure
