THE EXPERIMENTAL MINDSET
by Tanner Agpoon
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Weekly Read #20, "THE EXPERIMENTAL MINDSET"
When there’s a will, there’s a way.
When there’s a train, there’s a track.
These are two things we can almost always be certain of. Still, the world is constantly giving us reminders that we cannot be certain of anything. It can be hard to accept the fact that the only thing we can be absolutely certain of is that everything changes. With change can come unpredictability; and with unpredictability, stress can be born.
In a world that can be stressful, it is important that we do not place any extra unnecessary stress on ourselves. As first time human beings, we must remember to give ourselves constant grace. This generation that we have been born into, this era of the Earth that we all share, is quite a doozy. We are all tasked with keeping up with the world when the world’s rate of change has been doused in metaphorical jet fuel and lit on fire with a flamethrower. In the past century, the rate of change has accelerated from the speed of a tortoise to the speed of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe at maximum momentum.
We all know that life has been put into 100x speed, but maybe this article can serve as a reminder of that subtle truth. Most of the time, the wisdom we desire lies not in concepts foreign to us, but in the concepts we have already learned and simply need to be reminded of. It is the forgotten levels of Life we have already beaten that we often face again and again until we prove we truly understand the lesson. Life is good about that. We are presented with puzzles that we thought we had left to the horizon in the rearview behind us, but right when it disappears to the skyline, it appears in front of us again in a new wrapping.
Giving myself grace is one of those puzzles that has occurred again and again in my adult life. This particular puzzle sat unsolved in my Life for many years as I took on what I decided to be more pressing tasks and objectives. However, the puzzle of self-grace is one that when successfully completed and applied to one’s Life, can improve all other aspects dramatically. When we give ourselves the space to mess up without getting on ourselves afterwards, we have a better chance of recovering faster and better learning from the experience.
In a recent Big Think video, neuroscientist Anne-Laure Le Cunff explains that the way to have the happiest life amidst this rapidly-changing world is to approach it with an experimental mindset. In the video, she explains that seeing life through an experimental perspective can help us navigate the stress that constant change can bring. Le Cunff states that our mindset is a default frame of how we view the world, and that if we are not aware of the mindset we possess, we are prone to living unconsciously. To be clear, she reminds us that our mindsets are not fixed personality traits. They are fluid and can change based on where we are or the situation we are currently in. In the video, Le Cunff buckets all mindsets into four types: the Cynical Mindset, the Perfectionist Mindset, the Escapist Mindset, and the Experimental Mindset. Of these four frames, the perspective of the Experimental Mindset allows for failure to be seen simply as data points in a lifelong experiment to be learned from. The Experimental Mindset gives us the space to be nimble and adaptable. According to Le Cunff, if we are not failing, we are not experimenting and therefore we are not learning or growing.
“All scientists know that real growth requires both trial and error. It means embracing the fact that you might not have a plan, that you might not know what’s coming. And this is great, it means you can design your life in a way that is conscious and connected.” (7:20, Anne-Laure Le Cunff, You don’t need a 10-year plan. You need to experiment.)
***Side note: after experiencing a “failure” today, I am reminded that it is important to pay attention and learn how to do a better job next time. We do not want to repeat mistakes.***
Le Cunff explains that the Experimental Mindset is centered around the scientific method: Observe, Question, Experiment.
In order to inhabit the Experimental Mindset, one must first commit to their curiosity. For example, you see an individual wearing flip flops and think to yourself, “Wow, I like the idea of wearing flip flops. I’d like to see if I enjoy wearing flip flops, too.” You have now established your curiosity. Then, after determining your current curiosity, you can set a pact with yourself to follow an experiment to the end. “I am going to rent a pair of flip flops and wear them everyday for four weeks.” Not only does this allow us avoid discouragement amongst our journey, like when your cool, fashionable friends meet at your apartment to go to the new hip coffee shop in town and you notice they are all wearing closed-toe shoes, but it also allows for the result to not be tainted by a conclusion of “failure.” Maybe when the four weeks are over, you realize that flip flops aren’t your preferred shoe for cardio day at the gym, so you conclude that you are more of a situation-based flip flop wearer.
When we have purpose in the pacts we make with ourselves, we don’t need a grand purpose or direction in our Life™.
In addition to this Experimental Mindset, another quote springs to mind. “Besides death, all failure is purely psychological."
To me, this means that we are the ones in charge of labeling what is success and what is failure. What success is to me, may be a failure to you. Before comparing which of our metrics is “right” or “wrong,” we can look at it from another angle to see that success and failure is simply a label we are constantly making up.
If it’s difficult to give yourself grace, maybe it’s easier to take yourself out of the equation and just look at the whole thing like an experiment. It is not a failure when something does not go how you expect, but merely another experimental run. Every scientist knows that success requires trial and error. Approaching life with a curious mind and a net of grace to catch us when we fall will allow for the best opportunity to have a lifetime full of experiences.
In a world full of constant change, we must remain nimble. It may be in our best interest to approach the world with a load of grace at our disposal, ready to be applied when shit hits the fan and no one is there to say “it’s okay,” besides ourselves. It takes a lot for someone else to give you the patience you deserve, so we must be persistent about giving it to ourselves. We know best what has led us to this very moment, making this very decision. Give yourself that grace. You deserve it. Keep rocking and rolling.
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