2017 I tuned in my master thesis “Dealing with the unknowable”. It was my attempt to articulate a special sate of human affairs that I had observed. That often, human fate rests not on what people know but what they fail to know. This to the extent that it is plausable that there simply are things that one can not know anything about and that these things has a far bigger impact on your life than anything else. Despite of this, an overwhelming majority of the theories and models for dealing with risk and strategy (mitigating and exploiting uncertainty) is dependent on the opposite. Acquiring of knowledge and putting plans into action.

I was super happy with the outcome. I had plans on writing a book and did lectures on the subject to boards and C-suites. All this I packaged under the more accessable “Obrydd”. A Swedish word meaning; Someone that is not worried needlessly.

But all this was also happening all pre Corona and the willingness to embrace the idea that a decade of growth somehow had anything to do with fate was not matched with the same enthusiasm as I had of delivering my new found insights.

When Corona hit, I think that everyone that I had done my speech to the last three years called me asking for my slides. But they also friendly declined when I asked if I could help them making sense of what was happening.

There and then I decided to put Obrydd on pause and focus on other things.

Fast forward to today. I have used my playbook for some years. I would argue with success. I still want to write that book and I am still very much fascinated by the invisible and fiercely powerful domain of the unknowable. And obviously most important how to best deal with it. I also hope that the last few years in hindsight might have made decision makers more open to idea that no one knows what will happen next.

So, I’m giving this a go again. Want to know more on how to deal with the unknowable? Let me know.