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Navigating Uncertainty: Simple Scientific Insights for Everyday Life
In a world defined by rapid change and mounting uncertainty, it's easy to feel unmoored or unsure of how to move forward. This book offers scientific and experiential insights to navigate such times through the interconnected domains of mind, body, and world.
Grounded in the emerging science, this book explores active inference and the free energy principle-concepts that foster cohesion through the ongoing interplay of sensing with our bodies, predicting with our minds, and adapting to our environments. Developed in conversation with one of today's most cited scientists, Karl Friston (the originator and often called the "grandfather" of these principles) these ideas are translated into everyday language. They are brought to life through relatable stories and illustrations, making cutting-edge and robust research both accessible and deeply practical.
Each short chapter offers insights and tools to help recognize patterns, respond with greater clarity, and reconnect with what matters most. The result is a book that is both intellectually stimulating and personally transformative. Approachable, engaging, and rooted in science, this book will leave readers with a renewed sense of possibility and a practical foundation for moving through life's complexities with greater ease.
Grounded in the emerging science, this book explores active inference and the free energy principle-concepts that foster cohesion through the ongoing interplay of sensing with our bodies, predicting with our minds, and adapting to our environments. Developed in conversation with one of today's most cited scientists, Karl Friston (the originator and often called the "grandfather" of these principles) these ideas are translated into everyday language. They are brought to life through relatable stories and illustrations, making cutting-edge and robust research both accessible and deeply practical.
Each short chapter offers insights and tools to help recognize patterns, respond with greater clarity, and reconnect with what matters most. The result is a book that is both intellectually stimulating and personally transformative. Approachable, engaging, and rooted in science, this book will leave readers with a renewed sense of possibility and a practical foundation for moving through life's complexities with greater ease.
354 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 15, 2025
3 people are currently reading
4 people want to read
About the author
Anna L Pereira
1 bookAnna L. Pereira, PhD, MS, is a research scientist, author, advisor, and speaker whose work explores how we navigate uncertainty in a rapidly changing world. With a background in human factors, research, and design, Anna’s career bridges perceptual science, embodied cognition, and the physics of life.
After more than a decade leading human-centered research at major technology companies including Google, Microsoft, and Valve, Anna stepped back to examine the deeper patterns behind how we sense, adapt, and thrive. That exploration led her to write her debut book, Navigating Uncertainty, which I am thrilled to have had the privilege of working with her on as her editor. Guided in part by informal advisership from neuroscientist Karl Friston, Anna’s work translates the principles of active inference and the free energy principle into accessible, real-world insights for everyday life.
After more than a decade leading human-centered research at major technology companies including Google, Microsoft, and Valve, Anna stepped back to examine the deeper patterns behind how we sense, adapt, and thrive. That exploration led her to write her debut book, Navigating Uncertainty, which I am thrilled to have had the privilege of working with her on as her editor. Guided in part by informal advisership from neuroscientist Karl Friston, Anna’s work translates the principles of active inference and the free energy principle into accessible, real-world insights for everyday life.
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November 10, 2025
I read Karl Friston's "Active Inference" and it changed my life. As my background is in history, however, I was left with questions that Pereira's book answered. A lucid work illuminating an otherwise advanced theory, Dr. Pereira successfully demonstrates how the "free-energy" principle is applicable to our lives, and society, in way common readers can understand and implement.
To know yourself, minimize unnecessary stress and confusion, and thrive both collectively and as individuals is the goal. A daring undertaking, to extend this contemporary neuroscientific knowledge concerning human nature to the masses, one necessary towards a more harmonic, healthier and enjoyable future.
We should applaud this work.
To know yourself, minimize unnecessary stress and confusion, and thrive both collectively and as individuals is the goal. A daring undertaking, to extend this contemporary neuroscientific knowledge concerning human nature to the masses, one necessary towards a more harmonic, healthier and enjoyable future.
We should applaud this work.
Displaying 1 of 1 review