Certainty Is a Virus In A Digital World
"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." — F. Scott Fitzgerald
Nuance is like a cockroach on the floor—people can't stand it. It makes them uncomfortable. They see it, and instead of engaging with it, they want to crush it, avoid it, or pretend it's not there. It's messy, hard to catch, and it won't die, but no one wants to admit it's part of the ecosystem. Certainty, on the other hand, is clean. Sharp. Easy to hold. Easy to sell. It doesn't squirm—it declares.
And that's the problem. We've always craved certainty—emotionally, biologically. It's adaptive. When you're running from a predator, you don't have time to sit down and debate probability. You decide. Fight or flight. Kill or submit. Certainty helped us survive. But now? We've built an environment—especially through social media—that gives emotional certainty the perfect breeding ground. In a memetic ecosystem where ideas compete not based on truth but on transmissibility, the most viral idea isn't the most reasonable—it's the most emotionally satisfying. Outrage spreads. Simplicity spreads. Us vs. them spreads. Nuance doesn't.
Humans have always leaned toward certainty. But now, we've wired our world—algorithms, platforms, politics—to reward emotional certainty exponentially more than truth. We didn't invent the impulse. We just gave it a godlike megaphone.
The bottom line: We live in a world where nuance survives in the dark corners, under the noise, under the emotional stampede—but it's still there. It won't die. And we need it. Because when certainty collapses under its own weight, nuance will be the only thing left that can adapt.