In Times of Uncertainty, Insight Trumps Flow

Why it's OK to look like a befuddled, meandering fool

My work-life is an unfocused mess right now—for good reasons.

I’m trying out more ideas than I should, using more apps and tools than I can handle, publishing on more platforms than people consider wise, and reading more articles than seems humanly possible.

I'm even talking with random people that I normally don't make time for. Imagine that! I’m often teased by my friends—with some envy—for my unwavering focus and relentless discipline, but nowadays I say, “OK, sure,” to various unsolicited requests for coffees and lunches.

People notice it. They ask me about the apparent chaos in my recent work. M3K, unFIX, The Maverick Mapmaker, Harmony, Networked Agentic Organizations—plus a book, a self-paced course, an online cohort, Substack, Circle, Discord, Discourse. I'm juggling more things than a careless circus performer.

The bewilderment among some of my readers is understandable. We're programmed to worship at the altar of focus. Pick a lane. Stay in it. Execute with laser precision. It's the gospel according to every productivity guru and lean-agile consultant. Optimize your flow. Limit your work in progress. Stop starting, start finishing!

But that gospel is wrong for me—at least right now.

Last week, during one of those random Zoom calls (which had no agenda, no goal, and no reason for being on my calendar), one person said something to me that could very well have resulted in the most important insight I had this year. It is changing everything about what I was planning to do this summer.

In times of uncertainty, insight trumps flow.

The Focus Fallacy

When your business environment resembles a well-oiled machine with predictable inputs and outputs, narrow focus makes perfect sense. Your brain's prefrontal cortex—seemingly well-developed in my case—becomes your best friend, methodically suppressing distractions while you execute your master plan. You know what the market wants, so … execute! Strategize, set objectives, steamroll toward the goal while you optimize the value stream. Classic exploitation mode.

This works beautifully when tomorrow looks like today, when your industry follows established patterns, when disruption arrives with a polite knock rather than a sledgehammer through the window.

But I'm not living in that world right now.

The Age of Uncertainty

We're navigating the early stages of an AI revolution that's rewriting the rules faster than we can learn them. The business landscape I thought I understood twelve months ago is unrecognizable now. The strategies that worked, the assumptions that held, the paths that seemed obvious, are all scrambled.

In this environment, my usual laser focus is a cognitive liability. Neuroscience backs this up: when uncertainty spikes, your brain needs to shift from exploitation to exploration mode. Instead of suppressing distractions, you need broader attention spans that can absorb unexpected information. You need cognitive flexibility, not tunnel vision.

In a time of high uncertainty, you need signals that lead to insights.

Think of it this way: when you're lost in a foreign city, stopping to stare intensely down one street won't help you find your way. You need to wander, observe, gather data, notice patterns you didn't expect. The wandering isn't inefficiency—it's gathering intelligence.

Exploration Disguised as Chaos

So yes, my recent work looks scattered. I'm launching experiments, testing ideas, publishing thoughts that might seem disconnected. I'm reading voraciously, learning tools I've never touched, having conversations with people outside my usual circles.

But this isn't the productive equivalent of throwing spaghetti at the wall. It is systematic exploration disguised as randomness. Each project, each post, each new platform is a probe into this transformed business reality. I'm mapping terrain that didn't exist before.

The beautiful thing about genuine exploration is that, at some point, the fog starts lifting. After months of intentional wandering, patterns emerge. Connections become visible. The landscape begins to make sense again.

The Coming Convergence

I'm giving myself a few more weeks of this productive meandering. Come summer, I'll synthesize what I've learned and refocus my energy. M3K, unFIX, The Maverick Mapmaker, Harmony, Networked Agentic Organizations—all these seemingly disparate threads will weave together into something coherent. (I hope.)

By September, I expect new objectives to crystallize. The exploration phase will have served its purpose, revealing which directions deserve deep focus and which were fascinating dead ends.

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Everything is changing about how we work, who we work with, and what work even is. The smart move is to stay ahead. I help you see what’s coming before the rest do. Subscribe to my Substack and stay sharp.

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The Meta-Lesson

The deeper point transcends my personal business strategy. We're all navigating unprecedented uncertainty right now. AI isn't just changing technology—it's reshaping every industry, every role, every assumption about how work gets done.

The leaders and organizations that thrive won't be the ones that double down on yesterday's playbook with today's intensity. They'll be the ones brave enough to look like befuddled, meandering fools while they explore, smart enough to embrace temporary confusion in service of lasting clarity.

Sometimes the most strategic thing you can do is appear to lack strategy entirely.

Until then, forgive my apparent randomness and the inevitable confusion that it generates. It's more intentional than it looks. It will seem like I'm blundering about for a few more weeks, until I can say,

“I can see clearly now.”

Jurgen