The Three Ways We Escape Uncertainty

I observe there are three main ways people attempt to eliminate and escape the discomfort of not knowing.

First, the avoidance group.

The discomfort of uncertainty leads people to pursue things they never intended to do. They buy items they don’t need. They stay with friends they no longer align with. They continue moving in the same misaligned direction, believing that if they avoid the discomfort long enough, the feeling will eventually disappear.

Second, the overanalyzing group.

They use every possible epistemological tool to eliminate uncertainty. They examine their biases. They ask AI to analyze different possibilities. This can look like progress, especially when they eventually take action after exploring countless scenarios.

Yet, the problem of uncertainty returns the next day. The discomfort grows heavy in one’s chest.

Uncertainty is like an octopus. You cut off its tentacles, but they grow back.

Third, the submission-to-authority group.

They become exhausted and want to surrender everything to someone who appears to have certainty: a priest, a yoga teacher, a successful entrepreneur. The seemingly all-knowing nature of these authority figures gives them a sense of security. If they simply follow, perhaps uncertainty will disappear forever.

This group is the most vulnerable to joining cults.

Are there problems with these three approaches?

Not necessarily.

The danger comes when we remain in situations that are unhealthy or surrender ourselves to authority figures because we are desperate to escape uncertainty.

If we want to develop agency in dealing with discomfort, the path forward is to see uncertainty for what it truly is.

Uncertainty feels like the ground is slipping beneath our feet.

Dealing with uncertainty means accepting that the ground never existed in the first place.

What do you mean there’s no ground?!

All social constructs, communities, and authority figures are human attempts to create a sense of ground. To create safety.

Community is essential for wellbeing. But a strong sense of self allows us to leave situations that no longer serve us. That boundary can only be created when we learn to befriend the discomfort of uncertainty.

To deal with uncertainty is to sit with the feeling of flying, of being rootless, of not knowing.

From this place, a deeper sense of grounding emerges from within.

The ground we’re looking for was never outside of us.

It was always within.