Most of us were raised to think that smart people always know the right answer. From gold stars in grade school to performance reviews in the office, we’re rewarded for certainty.

Yet as Bidhan ("Bobby") Parmar, professor at the UVA Darden School of Business, argues in his new book, Radical Doubt, clinging to certainty is precisely what derails us when the stakes are highest. “The only thing that spoon-feeding teaches us,” he quips, “is the shape of a spoon”. His point is unsettling: The very habits we rely on to feel smart—rushing toward closure, simplifying complex problems, rationalizing our first instincts—are the ones that keep us from making wise choices when it matters most.

The hardest problems we face in life, whether in careers, relationships, or society, rarely come with single right answers. They’re what Parmar calls “moments of doubt”: multi-criteria choices that involve competing

© Psychology Today