By Katia Del Rivero

The Certainty Myth
Maybe you think you are privileged because science has gone a long way. We’ve decoded the human genome. We know that only 4% of our DNA distinguishes us.
Probably you believe we understand the world and the matter because in 2012 the Higgs’ Boson was identified (an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics). Or because we’ve found water in Mars, created artificial life, or discovered Ardi — the oldest hominid known so far — .
The “triumph” of men over knowledge, made us believe that if we know, we are in control.
The Myth That Has Spread To the Organizations
Maybe you work in a company where you deal with data and statistics. You talk about the certainty of numbers and decisions based on trustworthy information. Perhaps, you think you control the result, that you know the process, that you manage the factors that lead you to success or allows you to be “good leaders.”
We live in a world where we believe we know everything with certainty. In an era where we believe knowledge gives us safety.
We have focused our training and skill development processes towards knowledge: in data, information, and understanding you can get from those references.
It seems true that today we know so much more — and at a faster pace — than in any other previous stage.
Is It Really Like This?
If we consider that science can’t still seem to agree in simple subjects like: “Which is the best diet for human beings?”, “Why we need to sleep?”, or “What’s the ‘right’ way to raise a child?”, maybe we’ll start to doubt.
Even when there are several theories to explain life’s origin and how it is formed, we aren’t capable of explaining what makes an organism stay alive or why particles establish certain relations to allow it.
We know what brain areas “lighten up” facing certain processes (which is proving of how much we’ve learned about that complex organ, with what we call “neurosciences”), we haven’t seen how a thought “is formed” or if it’s different or similar to the one a different person gets from the same stimulus.
So, Where Are We?
In my perspective, in a myth: the myth of control. In other words, the myth of knowledge, of certainty. And it seems that no matter how much we know, no matter how hard we try to control, the only certain thing in life is uncertainty.
The focus point of our educational system is focused on generating knowledge, not in generating capability facing uncertainty.
So when an executive makes a choice and it doesn’t turn out how he expected it, he feels powerless and shouts to his team. When the secure investment they recommended us turns out to be not that safe and we lose our money, we throw ourselves through the window. When the girlfriend we thought was in love with us, leaves us for another guy, we go crazy and get drunk.
The Greatest Challenge
From my point of view, the greatest challenge we, human beings, have, in this “knowledge society” is realizing that knowledge doesn’t generate capability facing life. unless we know how it works, how it is used, and feel capable of using it.
Sadly our society never educates us for that, we are not trained to face uncertainty; actually, we are trained for certainty. Then the true challenge is learning to sail confidently in the sea of uncertainty life is.
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