This is a book to read when you want to mentally wander. It’s heavy on philosophy and conversation, the type of book you read when you want to be intellectually stimulated and have lots of extra time.

I read the introduction and the first two chapters only, stymied by writing that I sometimes found unclear, unnecessarily detailed, and generally frustrating. For example, I question the author’s need to describe researchers’/experts’ physical appearance (e.g., their blue eyes, athletic physique, the particular hat they happened to be wearing etc.) or the precise circumstances under which the author met them. Does it matter to the reader that Jackson waited two hours to interview French visionary/neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene, that he could then only see her for 15 minutes but became so enthusiastic during their discussion that it was ultimately extended? I don’t think so. The text is larded with extraneous detail of this kind. It drained me.

Having said all this, I appreciated some of the points Jackson presented. She observes that the more discombobulated and confused we are, the more likely we are to cling to certainty or to methods that have worked for us in the past but are wrong for the present. Another valuable fact, backed up with good evidence, is that experts of many years often miss unusual details that novices can actually detect. Knowing a lot can make you blind to subtle anomalies. It’s in the bread-and-butter operations, for example, that surgeons perform over and over again that they are most likely to encounter problems.

I feel I gave this book a reasonable test drive. I chose to abandon it because I felt I was being pressed to wade through large amounts of inconsequential detail in order to get to the occasional nugget. Unfortunately the “gold” was encased in excess verbiage. I was certainly interested in the book’s topic, but Jackson’s writing put me off.

I found the aspect of this book very interesting. I like thinking about how its good to take a step back when you aren't sure of what you are doing and to get feedback from others. I like that this uncertainty is showing up at surgical units, schools, politics and AI's where it is important to understand the pitfalls of plowing ahead when one is in doubt of what one is doing, or needs to step back and ask different questions that are more realistic, so that the outcomes will be better.

This is a wonderful book that makes one step back and ponder other aspects of life where we should slowdown and really ask, why are we doing this and is there another way or a better way, especially when we are allowing technology to take over are thinking for us and not examining if its right way to do things. Where slowing down allows us to talk to each other and find common ground and find solutions to tough problems and that it shows we are in this boat together.

I want to thank Globe Pequot, Prometheus and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book that made me ponder more too.

If I wasn't uncertain before, I am now. I can only say that maybe this book was not what I thought it would be. My apologies to the author, but I barely got through the Introduction. I forced myself to keep going, but I did not finish it. I did not find wisdom and wonder in this book, there was just way too much information, way too much writing. I thank NetGalley and Globe Peqout for the advance read.