A guide to navigating uncertainty head-on

Below, Simone Stolzoff shares five key insights from his new book, How to Not Know: The Value of Uncertainty in a World That Demands Answers. Simone is a journalist. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and on the TED stage. What’s the big idea? You can’t control uncertainty, but you can control how you respond to it. An intentional response to the unknown is what allows growth, innovation, and opportunity. Listen to the audio version of this Book Bite—read by Simone himself—in the Next Big Idea App, or buy the book. 1. Our brains are wired to fear uncertainty. Picture a research study with two groups of participants. Group one was told they had a 50 percent chance of receiving a painful electric shock. Group two was told they had a 100 percent chance of receiving a painful electric shock. Who do you think would be more stressed? You might assume group two—at least group one had a chance of getting off shock-free. But researchers from University College London found the opposite to be true. Participants who had a 50 percent chance of getting shocked felt far more stressed. It’s somehow more comfortable to expect the worst than deal with the worry of not knowing our fate. In another study, researchers found that professional uncertainty takes a toll on our health, similar to that of actually losing our job. We are biologically wired to avoid uncertainty. Think about it evolutionarily: If our ancestors heard a rustle in the bushes, but didn’t know the source of the sound, their uncertainty could have been lethal. But while avoiding uncertainty may have been adaptive in the jungle, today our discomfort with uncertainty can keep us paralyzed. 2. Find your anchors. Certainty in some aspects of your life makes it easier to hold onto uncertainty in others. In your personal life, perhaps your anchors are a commitment to a person or a place. In your professional life, an anchor might be a commitment to your values or to serving a particular custome