US politician Donald Rumsfeld actually popularized this one back in 2002 when he answered a reporters questions
like this:
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 donāt know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we donāt know we donāt know.
Iām steering clear of
the politics related to the message, letās just crystalize the mental model which includes three main components:
1. Known Knowns
Things we are aware of and understand. In other words knowledge thatās weāve identified we have.
2. Known Unknowns
Things we are aware of but do not understand. Or gaps in our knowledge that weāve identified we have.
3. Unknown Unknowns
Things we are neither aware of nor understand. These are the blindspots we have - we havenāt identified the knowledge we donāt have.
Tweet
Share