In an era of terrifying unpredictability, we race to address complex crises with neat algorithms, bullet points, or hurried tweets. How could we find the clarity and vision so urgently needed today by being unsure? Uncertain is about the unsung triumph of doing just that.

A scientific adventure tale set on the front lines of a volatile era, this paradigm-shifting book by award-winning author Maggie Jackson shows us how to skillfully confront the unexpected and the unknown, and how to harness not-knowing in the service of wisdom, invention, mutual understanding, and even resilience. Long neglected as a topic of study, the newly discovered gifts of uncertainty now fascinate the greatest cognitive scientists – and offer a remarkable antidote to the narrow-mindedness of our day.

In laboratories, operating rooms, boardrooms, and on the frontiers of Artificial Intelligence, Uncertain unlocks the secrets to a state of mind that is critical to human achievement yet treated as a shameful flaw. Understanding when to be unsure distinguishes a superior expert from one who is merely good enough. An ambivalent executive is more resourceful in a crisis than ultra-decisive leaders we admire. Far from luring us into inertia, uncertainty is the mindset most essential in times of flux.

Each chapter examines a mode of uncertainty-in-action, from creative reverie to productive dissent. Step by step, we discover the art and science of being unsure as a skill set for incisive thinking and as a state of being that ushers us to the fertile edge of what we do not understand.

An unpredictable world has been with us all along. Liberating ourselves from the mistaken belief that life could be otherwise offers a startling new vision of human progress and of what it means to know.