From FastCompany Magazine.

“Uncertainty is when you’ve defined the variable but don’t know its value. Like when you roll a die and you don’t know if it will be a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. But ambiguity is when you’re not even sure what the variables are. You don’t know how many dice are even being rolled or how many sides they have or which dice actually count for anything.” Businesses that focus on uncertainty, says Patnaik, “actually delude themselves into thinking that they have a handle on things.

The article is about rapid change and adaptation, but honestly, it sounds like FastCompany has not changed a bit in 15 years. Still breathless. Still Chicken Soup for the middle manager’s soul, much as I described it in 1998.