Warning to Harper: The Unknown Knowns

[August1991]

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.

Donald Rumsfeld

Stephen Harper once confided during an interview that what keeps him awake at night is not the business of government so much as the surprises of politics.

Greg Weston - CBC

There are the known knowns, and the unknown unknowns. The known unknowns make for sleepless nights.

But what of the unknown knowns? These are the events that, after the fact, make us wonder "what was I thinking?" ("I knew about it but I didn't see it coming... ")

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I fear that Harper, like Rumsfeld, is an unknown/known style manager. IOW, their greatest fear is ignoring something that they already know.

American Leftists would probably disagree but IMHO, Rumsfeld was arguably a good manager. But he would have been a bad leader.

Edited September 16, 2011 by August1991

[Topaz]

What about KNOWING something was going to happen but looking the other way for other reasons. I can't see how anyone in government can sleep at night KNOWING something was about the happen that would kill or hurt people and not do something about it. What kind of people can/could do that?

[Michael Hardner]

Some examples I believe are right:

Known knowns:

Things we know and that we know we know.

Known unknowns:

Things we know, but don't know the details of:

There will be hurricanes next year, not sure when, where, how many or how big.

There will be Bank of Canada interest rate, but not sure what.

Unknown unknowns:

Unexpected things that we don't know anything of beforehand:

Perhaps, the Arab Spring, or a giant meteor hit.

These are things you're not expected to plan for, except that we know the future brings strange gifts.

[cybercoma]

Can someone more fully explain this unknown known concept? If something is unknown, by definition, it is not known.

I think this speaks to the current trend of those in power feigning ignorance or incompetence, when indeed they know exacttly what they are doing. There may be unintended consequences to particular actions; however, when the vast majority of academia informs you that your policy decisions are going to have particular ramifications, you cannot actually say those results are unintended.

[Michael Hardner]

I don't think 'unknown known' is a commonly used term, and I don't know what it would refer to. I think I first heard of it on this thread.

[mentalfloss]

This is the first time I've seen someone quote Rumsfeld without the hysterical fit of laughter afterward.

[fellowtraveller]

The only two known knowns that I know are that the Leafs are not winning the Stanley Cup again, and that it is impossible to make any money off that knowledge.

Edited September 22, 2011 by fellowtraveller

[capricorn]

I don't think 'unknown known' is a commonly used term,

Trying to figure out what all these "unknowns" and "knowns", in their interchangeable positions, quickly gave me a headache, so I gave up.

[Oleg Bach]

Who ever has sustained control over the flow of large amounts of money eventually become the controllers of all - Canada is corporation...a huge company ...a very large neo-colonialist estate - and the lord of the manor had better learn benevolence and forget the use of corporate contempt for the average person as a means of justification of crimminality and common usery of the public...time for our real bosses to mature into social beings and stop being crazed and cold auto-crats,

[Keepitsimple]

Unknown unknowns. That's something I didn't know.

In life, that equates to "sometimes, sh*t happens",

[Oleg Bach]

Unknown unknowns. That's something I didn't know.

In life, that equates to "sometimes, sh*t happens",

All power is conducted in secrecy - if it was not - there would be no power - others would counter the powerful and render them cancelled...so all policials have to use stealth and secrecy and be very skillful liars.. That is the unknown - just like the code of silence that is used to control the issues within orgainized crime..politics is a game of sneak and attack - retreat and deny..then sneak up and give the opposition another sucker shot.

[August1991]

I don't think 'unknown known' is a commonly used term, and I don't know what it would refer to. I think I first heard of it on this thread.

MH, I think you're right.

I went back and checked Rumsfeld's quote. There's no mention of it, despite its mathematical logic. I stand corrected.

Can someone more fully explain this unknown known concept? If something is unknown, by definition, it is not known.

It is the after-the-fact, "what was I thinking?" problem.

Unknown knowns? Why did I agree to an outside wedding when my mother-in-law two years ago told me that she hates umbrellas?

Unknown knowns? Why did I buy the US tech stock when I knew that the US dollar would tank, and US tech was overpriced?

Unknown knowns? Why did I marry this bastard/bitch? Everyone told me he/she was an idiot - and I knew it. "What was I thinking?"

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More broadly, I think Harper is a Rumsfeld kind of manager/politician. Harper worries about the unknowns.

Edited October 12, 2011 by August1991