Dread Naught

Lessons from Medusa, the Royal Navy, and barnacles

The Fighting Temeraire by Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1839 (public domain - Wikipedia)

“Who lives in fear will never be a free man.” — Horace, 19 BC

There seems to be a pervasive sense of dread going around right now.

For good reason; there’s a great deal of uncertainty, and as we’ve discussed before, the unknown and things outside of our control make us fearful.

In fact, if you’d like to break it down mathematically, it might look like this:

Unknown + Lack of Control = Uncertainty

But dread seems to go deeper than fear. It’s an almost existential fear that is chronic in nature, rather than the acuteness of fear.

I’ve noticed something about dread: it’s contagious.

When someone shares their fears with you, it’s easy to comfort them, dismiss the fears, or rationalize them in some way.

But with dread, it’s rooted deeper in the psyche — and with good reason.

Author David Kessler is one of the foremost experts on grief, and he explains in this Harvard Business Review article that we're fee…