We live in a world that rewards certainty—the confident answer, the five-year plan, the decisive take. But what if our discomfort with not knowing is costing us something essential?
In How to Not Know: The Value of Uncertainty in a World that Demands Answers, journalist and author Simone Stolzoff makes the case that uncertainty isn't a problem to be solved but a skill to be practiced—one tied to creativity, open-mindedness, and a kind of wonder that certainty tends to flatten. Drawing on psychology, history, Zen philosophy, and conversations with people who've made peace with the unknown—including an economist who founded a "Department of Doubt" and a death doula who sits with families in life's most uncertain moments—Stolzoff offers a way of thinking about ambiguity that feels less like a burden and more like an invitation.
Stolzoff will be in conversation with Dr. Emily Anhalt, clinical psychologist, cofounder of Coa (the gym for mental health), and author of Flex Your Feelings, a data-driven, step-by-step plan for building the seven essential traits of emotional fitness—often described as Atomic Habits for your mental health. Together they'll dig into why professional life pressures us to project certainty we don't actually feel, what it costs us individually and collectively, and what it might look like to build the emotional flexibility to live with not having all the answers—especially in a moment defined by change.
Your ticket includes:
- A moderated conversation between Simone Stolzoff and Dr. Emily Anhalt
- Book signing and Q&A
- A glass of wine and good company, Book Society–style