Photo by Patrick Tomasso

Domains of Ignorance

Glen FreddoMar 8, '21
We discussed in class the other day the subject of the “domains of ignorance”.

These are the things we know. And the things we don’t know.

I’ve come across a lot of people in life who are “know-it-alls”. And that’s all well and good when they’re an expert in a specific field and they are obsessed with that subject. They live and breathe it.

These people fascinate me.

On the other end of the spectrum are people who fall well within the definition of suffering from the Dunning Kruger Effect.

To the left we have those that “know their shit” and on the right are those that “don’t know they’re shit”.

I like to admit when I don’t know something. It gives the opportunity to learn, unencumbered by pride and ego. It annoyed the shit out of my first wife though, who didn’t like the fact that I would admit when I’m wrong, because in her view, I always wanted to be right.

Whereas she always wanted to be right, especially when she was wrong.

At a February 12, 2002, news briefing, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld explained the limitations of intelligence reports: "There are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know."

"What do we know? What are the unsolved problems? What have we failed to consider?"

It was presented to us in class the addition of an extra position, the unknown knowns.

In a future blog I'll break this down as it relates to me. I just need to chew on it for a bit.