When my children took their first steps, they were tentative. They were quick to grab the nearest object to keep their balance. However, it didn’t take long before they started acting like they were invincible. Seemingly overnight, my children went from hanging on my legs to running across the room.
Based on my own very small sample size, it seems children move very quickly from uncertainty about walking to absolute certainty they can run everywhere. Even when they trip or lose their balance, their memory of the event appears fleeting. Luckily for children, this sense of certainty, and their willingness to forget the falls, helps them get better at walking and eventually, running.
But this certainty that we admire in children can become a problem for adults. The author Nassim Taleb, in a recent interview with James Altucher, referred to this as the illusion of certainty.
Read the rest of the article on The New York Times.