UNCERTAINTY

Itʼs a boon to humanity.

- A. V. R. Rao

Understanding uncertainty

Uncertainty is ubiquitous, the only certainty in life and cannot the avoided by anyone, no matter how knowledgeable he or / she is. One of the best definitions, an all-inclusive one at that, is in a business dictionary and reads “Decision making: Situation where the current state of knowledge is such that (1) the order or nature of things is unknown, (2) the consequences, extent, or magnitude of circumstances, conditions, or events is unpredictable, and (3) credible probabilities to possible outcomes cannot be assigned. Although too much uncertainty is undesirable, manageable uncertainty provides the freedom to make creative decisions”.

There is no intelligent being who has not faced situations of uncertainty and thrown himself or herself into a disturbing state of mind engulfed by a host of negative feelings including ambiguity, ambivalence, anxiety, bewilderment, concern, confusion, conjecture, contingency, dilemma, disquiet, distrust, doubtfulness, skepticism, suspicion, trouble, uneasiness, unpredictability, vagueness, wonder, worry and so on. But, amidst this cloud, we should not fail to see and understand the positives of uncertainty.

Gains of uncertainty

Though the shape of things to come is shrouded in mystery; it adds meaning to human effort and hope. Just imagine these situations of uncertainty and ponder over the questions that follow.

You, as a student, know for certain that you are sure to fail in your examination. Would you then put in any efforts to study hard and prepare?

You are about to invest a huge sum of money in a business, but you get the knowledge that you are going to lose all the money in it. Would you ever take the first step?