The following extract is from Anne-Laure Le Cunff's new book Small experiments: How to live freely in a fixed world.

When developing new ideas, most entrepreneurs work behind closed doors, detecting their products only when they are polished and perfect. What if there is a more effective approach?

Public learning – by advancing continued progress, asking questions and invitation of feedback throughout the journey – can dramatically accelerate success.

Here's how it works – starting with a lesson from the search world.

A radical experiment in mathematics

Tim Gowers is one of the most obvious minds in mathematics, and in 2009, he was trying to solve a complex combination problem. Then he had a discovery idea: instead of working for this himself, as mathematicians often do, he posted the problem on his blog – and invited his community to contribute ideas to the comments.

In the next month or more, 27 mathematicians presented more than 800 comments. As quantum physicist Michael Nielsen observed in a conversation he gave to the Carnegie council: “This is very soon math.”

Just 37 days after the blog post increased, Gowers announced that not only was the original problem solved, but that a more difficult mathematical problem that included the original as a special occasion was also resolved. “This has been one of the six most interesting weeks of my mathematical life,” he said.

He continued to launch several other projects like this for various unresolved problems, pioneering a model of transparent investigation in his community and furthering himself in the vanguard of open and cooperative mathematics.

Gowers and other members of the open science movement embody a spirit of public exploration. Instead of protecting their work until they can share a polished final product, they openly document the process of folly, mistakes and everyone, and invite other explorers' companions to join their search.

What unites these scientists is the courage to learn in public. This act of radical transparency allows others to build their embryonic ideas much faster and to grow together.

How to use this in business

The spirit of public learning applies not only to mathematics. It also applies to entrepreneurship. When you become a scientist of your life, sharing your experiments along the way provides fuel for your personal growth, leading to fresh discoveries and improving your degree of success.

In the summer of 2019, I started Ness laboratoriesa platform focused on conscious productivity. Until then, the open movement of science had already begun to wave beyond the Academy. The founders were gathering around the open start movement, a group of enterprises that embraced transparency by sharing their progress and knowledge with everyone. Some purely shared images of their latest metrics, while others built direct dashboard and published blog posts with all the lessons they learned on their entrepreneurial journey.

I was inspired by the energy and generosity of this community, and decided to learn in public – opening up my progress as I grew up both Ness Labs as a business and I as a researcher and entrepreneur.

The open start movement was in its infancy and there was no step -by -step manual to follow, but I shared early designs and milestones and asked many questions. Which tool was the best for managing a newspaper? Where should I promote my items? How could I optimize my website for search engines? I experimented with the recommendations I received and then shared the results, creating a public experimentation cycle that someone was welcome to join.

5 advantages to learn in public

Learning in the public unlocks powerful mechanisms to support your personal and professional growth:

1. Get early feedback. Sharing your public work ensures that what you are working on to respond to a current need and allows you to get a more repeated approach.

2. Increase your creativity. By publishing your developing work, you will increase the likelihood of connecting the points between your ideas and other people's ideas.

3 Clarify your thinking. Instead of leaving only work, you will be upset to think about your strategy and execution in a deeper way – another opportunity to practice metacogeny

4. Build your network. Learning in public is a great way to connect with people who are interested in a similar space. May result in finding a mentor or leading to partnerships.

5. Learn faster. By documenting your open progress, including your challenges and questions, you can connect with others who have expertise and may suggest resources to build your skills more efficiently.

Instead of bending your expertise, bend your curiosity. Start small and grow at your rhythm. As Anaïs Nin said, there will be a day when the risk of staying tight in a bud will feel more painful than the risk it needs to flower.

This essay was released from the new Anne-Lare Le Cunff book Small experiments: How to live freely in a fixed world.