Tiny Experiments

Another book review, this time Tiny Experiments

Writing about Tiny Experiments

This book is about endless curiosity, creating learning loops by creating an infinite series of tiny experiments.

I first heart about Anne-Laure Le Cunff's book from other authors and academics like Adam Grant and Oliver Burkeman. Grant's TED talks, writing and books are constant sources of information and inspiration. And Burkeman's Meditations for Mortals and 4 Thousand weeks help me keep things in perspective in an every changing world.

In Tiny Experiments, Le Cunff describes in great detail what a PACT is. PACT stands for:

Purposful

Actionable

Continuous

Trackable

The way she frames it is I will [insert action] for [insert duration].

Spotify includes the book on Spotify Premium, but after listening to it twice, I bought a hard copy so I could write in it, refer to pages and remind myself of the nuances.

My only criticism (or observation) is that a large part of her audience is tech and startups. And while I find that interesting, I am not looking to start a tech company with thousands of users. My happy place is creating analog paper systems that make learning how to play and teach piano and music easier and more enjoyable.

I've already started a few PACTs. One is arranging 2-4 bars of music for Deceptive Cadence, my girl band, every day for 15 days.

Another one is texting my husband one thing I like about him every night before I go to bed for 14 days. He's in Norway at the moment, so it makes the distance seem not so much.

At the end of a tiny experiment you evaluate how it went and decide if you want to persist- keep going doing the same thing, pause- take a break, pivot-move in another direction altogether. Regardless of the direction you take, it's thoughtful and deliberate.

Of course, I can't resist the opportunity to run tiny experiments with my students. So here are some examples:

Teenaged student: I will play 2-4 measures of music every day for 14 days.

Adult student: I will play around the circle of 5ths transposing the opening of Coldplay's Clocks in all keys for 7 days

Adult student: I will play around the circle of 5ths on 7th chords in every key for 7 days

Parent of young child: I will sit next to my child at the piano for 3 minutes every day for a week and the only thing I can say is, "I love listening to you play."

I'm in the process of creating tracking sheets for these kinds of experiments. One beautiful thing about this is it focuses on outputs rather than outcomes, so failure isn't in the picture. And, because these are tiny experiments, they don't require a huge commitment.

In the book Le Cunff talks about what these experiments are not; resolutions or habits. There's no destination, but a continuous path of discovery leading forward.

One last PACT.

I will be writing one blog post a week on Tiny Experiments for the next 3 months.

At the end of the 3 months I will share my observations on what I am learning on this journey, and follow up with a Persist, Pause, or Pivot.

Interested in joining me?