My Voice Notes Summary from Tiny Experiments

Published Articles

Last month I wrote about Why I’m Trading Highlights for Voice Notes. Well, I finished Tiny Experiments by Anne-Laure Le Cunff and thought it would be fun to share the summary of my voice notes.

Methodology

Here’s how it worked:

  1. At the end of each chapter (or sometimes 2 chapters), I’d summarize it and share my takeaways, as well as what it made me think about.
  2. All of those notes were added into Obsidian, in a folder for the book.
  3. When I finished the book, I took all the notes, shared them with Google Gemini, and asked it to summarize my takeaways, thoughts, and what I should do next.

What I’m sharing was fully generated from Gemini based on this prompt:

There are my voice notes from Tiny Experiments. Can you give me my main takeaways, themes, and action items? Please note that they should be ordered by Chapter number, and the file names are “Chapter X” or “Chapters X and Y”

Here they are, lightly edited to correct formal names and remove some personal notes.

Overall Takeaways:

  • You found the book to be practical and insightful, providing new perspectives and prompting self-reflection.
  • A key insight is that procrastination often stems from a lack of clarity on how to proceed with a task.
  • You appreciate the emphasis on output-based goals and not having to always “go to the next level” with experiments.
  • The book confirmed a fear that finding passion could lead to abandonment.
  • You resonated with the idea of distinguishing genuine curiosity from a lack of commitment or laziness.
  • Chapter 9 on dealing with disruption was particularly helpful for you.

Overall Themes:

  • Embracing Experimentation and Flexibility: The core theme revolves around “tiny experiments” as a way to learn, pivot, and try new things, especially when feeling “in flux”. This includes the permission to embrace imperfection.
  • Clarity and Action over Perfection: A recurring theme is the need for clarity to overcome procrastination and the importance of focusing on actionable outputs rather than just outcomes.
  • Self-Reflection and Metacognition: The book emphasizes internal reflection through methods like “fuel notes” and the “plus minus next” framework to understand your feelings and optimize your approach.
  • Managing Disruption and Emotion: A significant theme is the ability to label emotions and consider the broader impact of disruptions, rather than reacting emotionally or trying to control everything.
  • Community and Connection: The book sparked a desire to build a community and offer support, acknowledging the anxiety and challenges involved in this process.
  • Learning in Public: The importance of formalizing and utilizing platforms for public learning is a key takeaway.

Overall Action Items:

  • Refine Your “Pact”: Re-evaluate your “automation every day” pact to be more sustainable, possibly by shifting to “publish five automations a week for a month, or until I get to 30,” using your blog as the primary platform and discussing on LinkedIn. This aims to provide insight for your community and “Automation Friday”.
  • Implement Reflection Tools: Start taking “field notes” in a simple tool like Tot. Incorporate the “plus minus next” framework into your weekly startup routine for easier reflection.
  • Address Procrastination: Use journaling or free stream of consciousness writing more often to gain clarity on tasks and combat procrastination.
  • Cultivate Emotional Awareness: Consider “the year of ‘maybe'” as your next yearly theme to better manage emotional reactions to disruptions. Reread Chapter 9 for reinforcement on dealing with disruption.
  • Build Community Strategically: Focus on acquiring the first 10 members for your community through email and conversation. Consider starting with a simpler platform like Slack to avoid overthinking and being “scrappy”.
  • Formalize Public Learning: Make your blog the central hub for learning in public, with content auto-published to Blue Sky and discussed on LinkedIn and your newsletter.
  • Create a Kairos Ritual: Establish a Kairos ritual using a playlist and find your “Kairos cross” to post about.

Join the Discussion