Sounds True: Insights at the Edge Maggie Jackson: Being Uncertain as a Form of Wakefulness
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Aug 12, 2025 
Maggie Jackson, an award-winning journalist and author exploring technology and attention, discusses the emerging science of uncertainty. She contrasts fear-driven shutdown with curiosity-driven wakefulness. Conversations cover practices to build tolerance, how uncertainty boosts attention and collaboration, and real-world examples like open-water swimming that sharpen presence.
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Uncertainty Produces Wakeful Attention
- Being open to uncertainty sharpens attention, working memory, and receptivity to new data.
- That arousal produces a wakeful state similar to mindfulness and improved performance in acute situations.
Open-Water Swimming As Daily Practice
- Maggie began open-water swimming during COVID and found it made her feel vividly alive.
- She realized the activity also bolstered her tolerance for uncertainty through daily practice.
Prediction Errors Create Opportunity
- Our brains operate on predictive processing, so prediction errors create the gap we label uncertainty.
- That gap signals opportunities for learning when we move from assumptions to curiosity.
