A Love Affair With The Unknow

Rating: 4.5/5

I picked up this book during a stretch where I was feeling a lot of uncertainty about what AI is going to do to marketing, to jobs, to everything. Not panic-level stress, but that low-grade background noise of not knowing what comes next.

Deacon is a Toronto-based CBC broadcaster who went through her own period of intense uncertainty when she developed a mysterious, debilitating illness (later diagnosed as long COVID). Instead of writing a straightforward memoir, she used that experience to explore why uncertainty makes us so uncomfortable and what happens when we stop fighting it.

The part that stuck with me most was her argument that we're actually built for uncertainty. She compares it to jazz and improv comedy. The best stuff happens when there's no script. I keep thinking about that in the context of my own career. Nobody has a playbook for what AI is going to do to marketing. And maybe that's fine. Maybe the people who do well will be the ones who get comfortable improvising.

It's a short, calming read. Not preachy. Not self-helpy. Just honest and thoughtful.

I'd recommend it to anyone going through a career shift, a health scare, or just a phase where things feel unsettled. It won't give you answers, but it might make you more okay with not having them.