🤯Unknown Unknowns #48 - Certainly Uncertain
Thursday night, I hosted a webinar on Creating a Newsletter System with my friend Louie. Â It only came together a few days ago, or I would have told you about it. Â We're also doing another webinar tomorrow, Sunday 10AM ET, this time covering the upside of newsletters. Â Apologies for the late notice, if you want to see the replay, let me know and I'll send the recording. Â And if you have any questions, feel free as always to drop me a line.
Giving the webinar reminded me why I left finance. Â The biggest driver was that it's a zero sum game. Â Zero sum games are about beating other people, not about adding anything to the world. Â The Creator Economy is about helping other people letting karma happen.
At the beginning of the webinar, my throat was dry, my heart was pounding. Â But all of the nervousness went away when people started asking questions and I started sharing what I knew and what I thought is possible.
I stayed in finance for 18 years because I was afraid and I didn't see any alternatives. Â I believe that the Creator Economy is that alternative. Â Newsletters are the easiest way to get over the fear and explore this new world. Â And it's not about leaving your job necessarily. Â It's about freedom, the knowledge that you can create value, that you are not dependent on your job.
Discoveries:
A large part of why I didn't leave finance for so long is because I hate uncertainty. Â I am hard-wired to have as much certainty as possible. Â I know eliminating randomness is impossible, but it doesn't stop me from wanting to.
I know this feeling affects a lot of people. Â And we all try to cope with it in different ways. Â I've tried gamification, probabilistic thinking, mindfulness, among many other strategies. Â Lately, I've tried to go past coping mechanisms, instead thinking about the underlying reasons of why I fear uncertainty.
I still haven't come to a conclusion but I think it has to do with being raised with a scarcity mindset and my ego.
I don't know why other people have difficulties with uncomfortableness, I would love to hear your take.
Is uncomfortableness with uncertainty just part of the human condition? Â Or if we come to terms with our uncomfortableness, will we be able to be at peace with uncertainty?
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"Certainty is boring." - Paul Millerd
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Humans really do not like the discomfort of uncertainty, the paradox of choice, presented by a life that is largely messy and outside of our control. And therefore we want frameworks and rules so that we constrain the universe of things that we need to think about... [It] can be very, at least for me, destabilizing, just to have this universe of infinite options and potential decision making at the same time. I think, well, if we are accepting religion, because it is this pervasive not to make it bad, but almost universal instinct of humankind, which it seems to be like myth making. I’m not saying that’s what religion is, but meaning making is through stories and religion in some fashion.
=> Tim Ferriss Podcast with Cal Newport
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Some people keep asking for more information and what they’re trying to do is drive uncertainty to zero so that there’s really not a question on the right course of action because you know everything. But you can’t do that. It’s not achievable. So they become hesitant. They become tentative, and they become focused on getting more and more information to ratchet the uncertainty out of the situation and they don’t act.
=> Farnam Street Podcast with Stanley McChrystal
Questions, suggestions, complaints? Â Email me me at [email protected]. Â Feedback welcome.
If you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with a friend or two. Â And feel free to send anything you find interesting to me!
Leaving you in peace,
Chris