The Uncertainty Mindset 2019-2020

A newsletter project by Vaughn Tan (book | homepage | Twitter | Instagram).

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precautionary principle

Vaughn Tan3rd January 2021 at 6:45pm

An approach to action that advocates caution (instead of assuming clear causality) when there is uncertainty. This showed up in the newsletter a lot in the context of coronavirus, especially in relation to how the precautionary principle (and the uncertainty mindset) would have been much more appropriate than the delusional idea that the risk mindset was appropriate for a situation of great uncertainty where the enormous costs of not being precautionary rapidly became apparent.

See also: complexity, control, innovation, interconnected, interdependent, knowability, long-term view, negative capability, not-knowing, open-endedness, realistic imagination, stacking the deck, strategy, tradeoffs, uncertain futures.