How to deal with uncertainty

There are so many uncertainties in life and the future, and I thought about how I deal with them in my own situation.

Just accepting, enduring, and responding - I think I felt a lot of uncertainty when one aspect of my relationship changed. I felt like I was entering an unfamiliar world. When I couldn’t continue being close, I thought about what would happen now. These kinds of uncertainties are often too exhausting for me to analyze their true nature, so I give up trying to count the upcoming mental challenges and just let them bother me. I don’t really have a choice. After a while of suffering, it’s refreshing to see myself doing things I couldn’t do in my previous relationship.

**Risk-averse by breaking down uncertainty into small pieces - No one can fathom the full requirements of the software we build. The machine moves forward, fighting uncertainty that can’t be solved by continuing to implement complex behavior. When making product decisions, if you can’t procrastinate, there has to be an answer eventually. Break the problem down into smaller pieces, make each decision have a smaller impact on the product, and choose the best of the bunch as quickly as possible. Some choices will fail. They don’t have a big impact. They are quickly and easily discarded and another choice is made. Like an army of ants breaking down a piece of candy on the ground and taking it home, we break down uncertainty into small pieces quickly.

You make decisions with some level of uncertainty - In stock investing, uncertainty is the risk of losing money. Regardless of technical analysis or fundamentals, I don’t know where the stock price will go in the end. As a relatively small investor, I prefer to keep certain uncertainties in mind whenever I make a trading decision. Even if there’s a high probability win-win scenario, I don’t put everything on the line. It’s better to be prepared than to react when everything is crushed, because then it’s too late. Making too many decisions can also be problematic. The more decisions you make, the more assets you’re leaving to chance.

I think the more uncertainty affects my personal life, the more I want to be proactive. Sometimes it’s because I have to do it for work, but overall, the product or asset that the company is building is more important than my depression or mood.

The more you don’t know what the future holds, the harder it is to make proactive decisions that can reduce uncertainty. With products I can deal with uncertainty because I can find direction or good engineering practices, but with stock investing I have less room to maneuver. I can only do so much with split trades. Maybe I’ll get better with more study, but I’m not sure.

Knowing that I can make active decisions to reduce uncertainty gives me a great sense of security. In life, you need to actively hedge your bets to spread your risk.

In terms of personality, I have a strong aversion to uncertainty. There have been many times when I’ve dismissed uncertain situations out of hand and didn’t handle them well, so nowadays I try to keep my eyes closed and make good decisions.