Chris Duffy

I don't know if I'll keep my job.

I don't know if the country that I live will continue to be peaceful or whether it will be unstable and chaotic.

I don't know whether the money that I've been saving for retirement will be enough, like all these outside questions.

So how can we think about that kind of uncertainty, too?

Or how do you think about that kind of uncertainty?

Don't sign up for the study, for example, if they say, we're going to shock you.

You could say, hey, actually, I'm declining to participate in this study.

Is it your opinion that we are uncomfortable with uncertainty because we are like unrealistically poisoning our idea of the future and also like stressing over the present because we just haven't made these plans so that we feel like if things don't go out, there are other options?

Why do we have that like depth of discomfort with uncertainty?

Let's also talk about that other kind of uncertainty that's not the acute uncertainty.

I love that you brought that up because this was one of my favorite passages in the whole book about finding your anchors.

You say this on page 191.

Being certain about some aspects of our lives allows us to hold uncertainty in others.

Certainty anchors can be a routine ritual or unwavering relationship.

But perhaps the most important anchor is our values.

In spite of the swirling winds around us, values are the steadfast boulders that remain.

I love that writing.

And I think that is such an incredible framing.

I never thought of it like that.

And I found that to be really helpful and profound.