Maggie Jackson

It's a real game changer when you can begin to see that uncertainty is a wonderful signal that you don't know.

And now you can investigate.

In fact, uncertainty is actually highly related to curiosity.

Great to be with you and your audience.

Well, uncertainty, you're right, gets a very bad rap.

I mean, it's sort of seen as synonymous with weakness and inertia, and yet I'm arguing the opposite.

And science is proving that uncertainty is really a path to flourishing and better decision-making.

But you're right.

It's important to define uncertainty.

We often talk about the uncertainty that is a shorthand for the unknowns out there.

We really don't know if it's going to rain despite all the models and forecasts that we have.

And that's a kind of uncertainty that we've tackled for hundreds of years through mathematical probabilistic kind of tactics that allow us to get likelihood.

I'm talking about our uncertainty, and that is the human response to the unknown.

And so what is, how do we feel or how do we respond when we confront something new, ambiguous, muddy, murky, et cetera?

Sure.

Well, when you perhaps hit the unexpected traffic snarl up and you're in a hurry on the way to a meeting or you're on the first day of a new job, you're faced with something new and unexpected and you don't know what's going on.

And that's precisely the moment when

when you're unsure and that is you've reached the limits of your knowledge.

You suddenly realize that the old ways of life or your old expectations aren't going to be sufficient and you need to update your knowledge of the world.

That's when we are uncertain and the science of what really happens in that unsettling moment is fascinating because it feels uneasy