‘Persist nonetheless’: The best way to handle uncertainty
Simone Stolzoff has a gift for asking questions that slice the soul. In his first book, The Good Enough Job, he asks how work came to be so central to our identities, and what we can do to rebalance our lives. He’s a journalist whose writing on the intersection of work, identity, and relationships has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Wired, and National Geographic. Now he’s back with a second book: How to Not Know: The Value of Uncertainty in a World that Demands Answers. This time around, he unpacks why uncertainty generates so much anxiety, and what we can do about it. In a world where climate change is reshaping the actual landscape, politicians are throwing out new policies at the roll of a dice and then walking them back again, and AI is changing reality as we know it, Stolzoff offers answers. Not on what’s going to happen—but how to cope better. Stolzoff sat down with Fast Company to discuss what he learned while writing his book. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. Something that struck me about your book: Not knowing if something will happen is more painful for most people than a bad experience actually happening. Can you explain why uncertainty feels so painful, and walk us through the research? Our natural tendency is to see it as a threat: If you think about an ancestor of ours in the jungle hearing rustling in the bushes, not knowing the source of that noise could potentially be lethal. Our brains are wired to feel safe and secure when we are certain, and to feel anxious or worried when we are uncertain. One of our brain’s natural tendencies is to try and get out of uncertainty as quickly as possible. The problem is often this means opting for the safe bet, which isn’t always the right bet. [Studies have found that] for women facing a potential breast cancer diagnosis, the period of time between when you get a biopsy to when you get the results tends to be the hardest part of the entire journey—more stressful than che