Book review of The Upside of Uncertainty by Nathan Furr, Susannah Harmon Furr

This is a review of The Upside of Uncertainty by a couple who are scientists, researchers, and professors, and I read this book as an audiobook.

I have much to say on it, so here's the meaty part right away. It gets a solid 9.5 from me, which is the most I'll give to almost all books, and it could have gotten a perfect ten, except for some issues. And issues, it has quite a few. But its strengths overpower its weaknesses significantly.

The upsides first: the book is a detailed study, and a how-to guide on dealing with uncertainty. Why are we afraid of it? How do we value it? What ways do humans usually try to avoid those? Why is our approach often wrong? What are the upsides of uncertainty? How do we leverage it for our cause? How do we feel comfort in not knowing, in the unknown? How have others dealt successfully in such situations. Over several hundred lengthy but detailed pages, the authors give us a whirlwind of a ride into all of these issues and so much more. Their writing is brilliant, the fact that they are not shying away from making themselves vulnerable and sharing their personal experiences on the matter, including family issues made me like this book a lot more. It's never a dry diy book, there's so much human element to, and that's one of its major strengths.

Okay, now that we're done, let's pick out the niggles.

First, the book is kinda wordy, and could have been edited more tightly, but that's the issue with this whole genre, so that could be let go, one imagines.

Second, the authors are quite besotten by unethical, clearly immoral silicon valley types, and didn't even do a basic surface research on those characters before using them as example of hard work and dedication whereas they are anything but. The frequent references to elmo the supervillain who's now a card-carrying pointy-hood wearer were jarring and disappointing. They should really have researched.

Third, and it goes back to the lack of research, quite a few parts of the book don't have enough scientific rigor, which takes away a decent chunk of credibility the rest of the book builds up. This is not a paragraph from a book, but the book goes in the lines of 'einstein said everything is relative', which it is not, and no he didn't say it. The references to other books and scientific works are many, but it's clear the authors haven't completely gotten the messages right. It's a pity, this one a brilliant book and the editors should have caught those issues.

Recommend this book extremely strongly.