Uncertainty as a Lie: These Are Not 'Uncertain' Times

Every night before my Dad left his office, which was an hour away from our home, he would call my mother and let her know he was on his way home.

Then, we’d go about our lives, getting ready for dinner, setting the table, finishing up homework. And waiting.

We’d wait for his arrival in the space of not knowing – not knowing when he would arrive, or where he was along the way.

If he was delayed, we just had to guess he had encountered bad traffic or been delayed in leaving.

We could use our imagination, and logic, and trust he was soon to arrive.

The same was true when my brothers and I went out at night, or when friends or family were coming to visit from another state. We’d go to the airport with the hopeful understanding they would be on the plane, since that’s what they had told us the day before. (And most times, they were!)

I chatted about this recently in a conversation with a friend. The topic was how much things had changed during our lifetimes, and the realization for me was something else.

“We talk about this being a time of uncertainty now,” I said, “but actually we know more than ever – our lives were full of uncertainty before technology. It was normal, and accepted. It was life!”

Today’s technology allows us to report on, share, send photos of, and track every single second and movement of life – for us, for the people we love, and for strangers a world away we have never even met. Our devices, our connections, our interconnectivity, provides unrelenting information, certainty about small details and exclusive glimpses into huge moments.

How is this uncertainty?

Technology has so drastically reduced the kind of uncertainty that used to be normal that we’ve managed to flip it all around – painting the past as a time of certainty and today as a time of uncertainty when the opposite is true.  

Instead of these being uncertain times – they are more filled with certitude and verification than ever.

I believe there are two things that have happened to cause this tremendous loss in perspective.

First, we’ve become avariciously addicted to certainty, and so we bemoan every little uncertainty that presents itself. We feel we need to know and can know in seconds, any missing detail our brains may fixate on: were Katharine Hepburn and Audrey Hepburn related (no), what time will our favorite team play tonight (5 p.m.), how hot will it be tomorrow (109 degrees), where is my daughter right now (downtown at her volunteering job). We are flush with information. We can be certain.

And yet, this “knowledge” causes us to doubt, to churn, to question and our egos drive us to know more. As I like to say, the ego’s favorite number is more.

Second, the world’s marketing machine has sunk its talons into the idea of uncertainty, fully aware of our addiction to certainty, to information, to needing to know, and it has realized that uncertainty is a great business model. So, it harps and repeats and reminds us of the wobbliness of the world. It exaggerates what we don't know.

It takes what we are truly experiencing – unprecedentedness – and equates that with uncertainty. And then it tries to sell us something.

As someone who experiences life emotions first, all of this is a lot to process. It’s overwhelming. It can be exhausting. It contributes to what I have written and spoken about before as The Muchness. It has fatigued me so greatly over the years, I’ve taken major steps back from the time I spend online outside of email and Zoom for work, text to friends and family, reading articles from trusted journalistic sources, and booking travel (which is a lot and plenty). And I find myself more able to stay grounded in myself, more able to connect with my spirit and my soul. I ride emotional rollercoasters less than when I spent more time consuming other people’s digital realities.

The tradeoff here is less certainty about what others are doing or experiencing, which is a gap I have resolved I can make up for with in-person time, conversations and connection (more fulfilling for me), for more of my own emotional health, presence and less anxiety. It’s a good tradeoff.

As an entrepreneur, the constant idea of uncertainty has made being grounded and staying the course difficult.

Uncertainty constantly being thrown in my face does not make planning easier. It does not make leading easier.

It does not make bringing a team together in a safer space easier.

It does not make financial management easier.

It also sets up a paradigm wherein entrepreneurs (naturally very driven and competitive) try hard to position themselves as the one who has conquered that perceived uncertainty and knows what to do next.

This flies in the face of everything I know to be true as an entrepreneur: though we have a grand, well-developed plan in mind, most of us are simply making it up as we go.

The concept of uncertainty is distracting from all of the things I can influence and do well for my business, my team and my clients.

As a brand strategist, I eschew the narrative of uncertainty. It's why my team and I dig deep with our clients into what they know for certain, including what are the set of deeply held beliefs they can rely upon.

Sadly, this addiction to certainty has cost us.

We’ve given up the many gifts of uncertainty.

Uncertainty is not a bad thing.

Uncertainty is required for so many beautiful things.

It is required to foster a beginner’s mind, to invent, to imagine, to wonder, to be uplifted by awe.

Uncertainty is necessary to build up patience and fortitude.

It is often essential to solving a problem in a creative way.

The most groundbreaking scientific discoveries were made with uncertainty as part of the finding: and usually revised later as more research is conducted, and more discoveries are made. Uncertainty gives way to progress, to discovery.

Einstein or Curie weren’t certain. They were experimenting with uncertainties. Until they found something unprecedented.

It’s time to tune out the manipulative language of uncertainty. It’s time to stop believing this is a time of uncertainty.

It’s time to honor all of what we are certain of – and be enthralled with all we don’t yet know for sure.

Emily Soccorsy is owner and lead brand strategist of Root + River, a brand strategy team that believes brand is how others experience your soul. Root + River provides brand messaging, language, positioning and catapult content for brands, leaders and teams who want to change the world, their industry or their community with their brand. She's also a speaker, and an award-winning writer, who feels most alive when creating word alchemy or visual art. Emily is the co-author of Rooting Up: Essays in Modern Branding and is the author of the newsletter, Thought Cookie. Emily has been a lifelong empath, and a daughter, mother, partner, sister, mentor, creator and sometime baker and runner.

She is an advisory board member of Ellivate Alliance, The W Source®, and a contributor and guest of the EntreArchitect™ community. She is a cohost of Reclaiming Ourselves podcast and a participant in Love and Healing Work.