What Is Tiny Experiments, the Book by the Creator of Ness Labs?
Tiny Experiments is a book by the neuroscientist, entrepreneur, and creator of the Ness Labs newsletter, described on the Ness Labs site as "a transformative guide to rethinking your approach to goals, creativity, and life itself." Its subtitle is How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World. It is the book-length extension of the same experimental mindset that Ness Labs is built around: instead of chasing goals at any cost, you treat your life as a laboratory and run small experiments.
What the book is about
According to the description on nesslabs.com, the book is a guide to rethinking three things:
- Goals — how you set and relate to them
- Creativity — how you explore ideas and projects
- Life itself — how you live day to day
The framing is a direct contrast to what the subtitle calls a "goal-obsessed world." Rather than assuming more effort and more goals are always better, the book argues for an experimental approach: try small things, observe what happens, and adjust.
How it connects to Ness Labs
The book is not a separate project from Ness Labs — it grows out of the same philosophy. The Ness Labs homepage states the core idea plainly: "Want to achieve more without sacrificing your mental health? All you need is an experimental mindset."
That mindset shows up across everything Ness Labs offers:
| Ness Labs offering | What it is |
|---|---|
| Newsletter | One weekly email with simple tools to become "the scientist of your own life" |
| Article library | Hundreds of free articles on curiosity, creativity, and mindful productivity |
| Learning community | Thousands of members running tiny experiments |
| Online courses | Programs to develop an experimental mindset and design your own mindful productivity system |
| The book | Tiny Experiments, the long-form treatment of the same ideas |
The site describes Ness Labs as "a playground for curiosity – a place where you can learn how to experiment with ideas, explore creative projects, make better decisions, and reflect on your progress." The book takes that same promise and develops it at book length.
The idea behind "tiny experiments"
The name is the method. Instead of committing to a large, all-or-nothing goal, you run small, bounded experiments — the kind the Ness Labs community is described as running — and use what you learn to decide what to do next. This is what the site means by building "a laboratory for your mind," and it is the same logic behind the newsletter's promise to help you become "the scientist of your own life."
The connection to mindful productivity is direct: the goal is to "achieve more without sacrificing your mental health," not to work more. The site's own summary of the philosophy is "Don't work more. Work mindfully."
Who it's for
Based on how Ness Labs describes itself and its audience, the book is aimed at knowledge workers and anyone who feels stuck in goal-driven overwork. The site's testimonials point at the same reader:
- Steph Smith: "The consistency and thoughtfulness of Ness Labs inspire me to question the ordinary and iterate towards being a better version of myself."
- Kelly Miller: "This was the resource I didn't know I needed – so badly. Bite-sized but in-depth insights into my brain. Ness Labs has changed the way I approach work."
If that description of the newsletter and community resonates, the book is the same material in a longer, more structured form.
How to get it
The Ness Labs site links to the book under "Order the Book," alongside a "Learn More" link for details. The site also offers a bonus: subscribing to the Ness Labs newsletter gets you the first chapter of Tiny Experiments, plus one weekly email. If you want to sample the ideas before buying, that is the lowest-commitment route — and it mirrors the book's own advice to start small.