Know What You Know

Ignorance is dangerous. This much has been observed by leaders, educators, and philosophers through the millennia.

American statesman Donald Rumsfeld, who served as Secretary of Defense twice: first, from 1975-1977 under Gerald Ford, and then from 2001-2006 under George W. Bush famously made the following statement during a press briefing…

Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. … But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know.

Let that sink in for a moment. It is a profound observation. Things we don’t know and we know we don’t know are not the problem.

We can learn them. We can prepare for them. We can plan against them. The things, however, that we don’t know, and we don’t know we don’t know them…those are the things that can disrupt, harm, or even kill us.