Episode description

Award-winning author Maggie Jackson joins us to discuss her latest book “Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure.”

In an era of terrifying unpredictability, the swift, sure answer often seems right. We race to address precarity and complexity with neat algorithms, crisp bullet points, or hurried tweets. Who has time to dally in the wilderness of being unsure? How could we find the clarity and vision so urgently needed today by not-knowing? This book is about the unsung triumph of doing just that.

Far from luring us into inertia or defeat, uncertainty powers good judgement, cognitive flexibility, creativity, curiosity, and even resilience. A state of mind critical to human achievement yet until recently little understood, uncertainty is the portal to finding the humanity in your enemies, the lynchpin of superior teamwork, and the mindset most needed in times of flux.

A scientific adventure tale set on the front lines of a volatile era, this book explores uncertainty's positive role in the life of the mind and in contemporary society. What is a good daydream? Why is being unsure now seen as a healthy form of stress? Why do AI's top leaders see uncertainty as the key to keeping humanity safe from increasingly unstoppable AI?

By learning to wield uncertainty with skill and care, we can recapture realms of good thinking sidelined in an era of push-button thought. We can discover all that the human mind can do at the peak of its powers in the most difficult predicaments, and learn how uncertainty is not weakness, but wisdom.

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