At the heart of personal experimentation are four distinct phases that work together to create meaningful change. They all work together, but every experimentalist tends to have one phase that feels like a more natural starting point.
When I was younger, I badly wanted to live in Japan. Japan is a country with very strict immigration laws, but my university had an exchange program where you could go spend a semester and study in another country. There was only one problem: the Japanese university they had a partnership with was one of … Read More
When I started working at Google, I was quickly introduced to the job ladder that has since become pervasive in the tech industry. Depending on your first job there, you get assigned to a particular ladder, with fixed accomplishments to demonstrate in order to climb to the next level. For example, in marketing, you are … Read More
It’s easy to stay calm when things are under control. But, sometimes, life happens. A deadline is moved up. Your train is canceled. Your luggage gets lost. Then, your heartbeat goes faster. You can feel the tension in your muscles. Your breathing accelerates. That’s it: You’re stressed. Psychologists often say that our freedom lies in … Read More
Imagine two aspiring writers, both with the idea of establishing an online writing presence. The first writer, Alex, sets a fixed goal: they aim to grow their newsletter to 1000 subscribers by the end of the month. Alex has heard that consistency is key, so they choose a topic, decide on a format, block time … Read More
Making your bed in the morning, that first cup of coffee, grabbing a croissant on your way to work, listening to your favorite podcast on the train… As much as we wish for each day to be different, repeating some of the same actions is an important part of our lives. Researchers have found that … Read More
“I’ve decided to take it easy at work this year and focus on myself.” I’ve recently been hearing variations of this sentence over and over again. Magazines are publishing stories about “the end of ambition” and how more people are taking extended sabbaticals. It seems like we need to make a constant choice between our … Read More
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Adults often as this question when chatting with a kid. Maybe it’s because the answer is often endearing (an astronaut!) or surprising (a YouTuber!), or because it’s a way to connect through a topic that speaks to us—work. We keep doing this to each other … Read More
Our culture loves experts. Whether it’s athletes, chefs, or musicians, some of the biggest celebrities are considered masters of their craft, and we admire the long hours they put into practicing over and over again the same skills so they could become second nature. In 2008, Malcolm Gladwell published his popular book Outliers, exploring why … Read More
It’s common to see progress as linear. When thinking about success, many people imagine a ladder or stairs going up. To progress, you need to climb each step one by one and get closer to the top. But that’s not the only model you can apply to visualize personal growth. In a linear model of … Read More