Chris Duffy

And we are back.

Today on the show, we're talking with Simone Stolzow about the value of uncertainty.

Let's start by talking about what's your relationship with certainty?

What has it been in the past?

And what is it like now after writing a book about uncertainty?

Okay, so tell me more about that idea of us trying to find certainty where no certainty could be found.

Sometimes uncertainty can also be the world outside of our choices, right?

Like, I don't know.

I think a lot of people right now are feeling huge uncertainty and like,

I don't know the value of my skills.

I don't know if AI or technology is going to make my entire field disappear or all of a sudden be worthless.

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?