Friday 29 October 2010

Known knowns and unknown unknowns

A nice quote that BillyColless posted online (who stole it from a Donald "Duck"...) and rather appropriate, given the events of my day...

  • "There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know."
    -Donald Rumsfeld, NATO Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, June 6, 2002

8 comments:

KitchenSlut said...

"To know that we know what we know and that we do not know that we do not know, that is knowledge" - Confucius paraphrases Donald Rumsfeld from a clipping posted to my fridge with a magnet.

Billy Colless said...

I really like this quote, when you break it down, it shares the ability to be taken into many contexts. Although Rumsfeld was looking specifically at the absence of evidence linking the government of Iraq with the supply of weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups. ( context to your day... someone in power vs someone that has invisible weapons (known as a blog?...)

I believe that even if he was criticised as having poor language, Rumsfeld is reflecting a profound, almost philosophical truth in a creative manner....

Maybe the cairns post could learn from him !

kate said...

And there are things we would all be better off if we didn't have to know. i.e. the overly complex (and disempowering) workings of the uniform civil procedure rules.

KitchenSlut said...

I made a typo sorry! A 'that' should have been a 'what'! Regardless the responses here are interesting?

Strwaberry Mango appears to be on some kind of blame time warp and incapable of objectivity in current contexts! Kate? Who knows what planet she prefers?

Billy Colless has it right! Donald Rumsfelds statement was regarded as a reason for ridicule and KS is no admirer of his policvy and method .... however!

He was ridiculed for all the wrong reasons as this was maybe the highlight with a genuine contribution!

kate said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
kate said...

Hey KS,
Well, rather coincidentally as it happens, lately I have been seriously thinking about taking the one way trip to Mars - currently on offer.

But FYI: Last Friday, MM was lost and disoriented on Planet "Cairns Court House". Helplessly overcome by noxious UCPR fumes...

:Kevin-John: Morgan. said...

Rumsfeld was only repeating what he possibly just remembered from standard issue Grade 5 stuff.
It's titled the 3 steps to Education and was used by teachers of the Old-School.
I remember our Miss Scott, with her silver hair pulled back in a bun. The side-saddling, fixed-wheel, pushbike-riding monolith, who taught us never to begin or end sentences using prepositional-phrases and told us there are 3 levels of education in your life.
1. First you don't know what you don't know.
2. Then you know what you don't know.
3. Then you finally know what you know.
This only works if the brain is engaged first.

Colin Riddell said...

Mike blogger russ parker seems too have hit the nail on the head .
Does anyone else think kevin john morgan fixes his victa with a commodore manual ?
I for one believe russ is spot on .
I also think every nut in Australia lives in north queensland.
Can we have poll running while you are in the shaky isle on kjms value to the blog site ?
eg is kjm mad
is kjm an ex school teacher
is klm christoper skase
is kjm right is klm a victa mechanic