How Little We Know (and This Week’s Coupon)

“… as we know, 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. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones.” – Donald Rumsfeld

Last week I refreshed my Project Management foundation. Project Management is a formalized system of methodically planning what we need to do, and then executing on that plan (“Plan your work, work your plan”, as Nick Krul more informally reminded me.)  A lot of the emphasis was on the fact that we will never think of – or - more importantly – KNOW all the details of what we’re trying to do. There are KNOWN UNKNOWNS – the things that we know MIGHT happen, and that we can pseudo plan for. But there are always the UNKNOWN UNKNOWNS – the things that we don’t have a clue about except to know that they’re out there, and so we try to prepare for them as best we can.

Murphy’s Law summarizes this wisdom as “Whatever can go wrong will”, and although most people nod their heads and spout their own corollaries (“Murphy was an optimist”), the fact is that human beings have a tendency toward arrogance.

We think of ourselves as rulers of all we survey, and think WE KNOW EVERYTHING (after all, we were made in the image of an ALL KNOWING GOD, so why not?)

The fact is, no matter how much we think we know, we will never know it all. Physicists keep finding smaller and smaller particles, and the further they go with their explorations, the more the laws they’ve declared break down. TRUE SCIENTISTS KNOW that the unknown is the bigger part of life.

“The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.”
― Albert Einstein

This is a healthy realization of our limitations, and acknowledging this allows us to update our understanding (and even scrap our previous theories) as more evidence appears. It is unhealthy arrogance to hold to a theory as evidence to the contrary continues to pile up – Anthropomorphic Global Climate Change adherents being one of the latest iterations of this failing.

On the social and psychological front, we like to think we know what’s going on inside other people’s heads – their thoughts, motivations, desires – and we’re quick to declare our certainty of this knowledge, usually to support our worldview (“Racially motivated” is a big one in this arena.)

Thinking we know the heart and mind of another human being is foolish if you are willing to admit that most of us DON’T EVEN KNOW OURSELVES that well (often, when asked why we do something, we rationalize as plausible an explanation as possible – but ultimately, we made the decision based on feelings.)

We assign reasons and labels to things as quickly as we can because we NEED an explanation – it helps us feel that everything is predictable and that we’re in control. But it’s foolish to stick to our unsubstantiated assumptions as their basis falls apart.

We can’t ever really know it all – the best we can do is live in the real world – see things for what they are (i.e., don’t ignore the evidence in front of us) and do our best to know (and admit) what we don’t know.   

Just saying…

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This is week two of “The Body” as our couponed feature (Yes, it’s a little creepy, but in a fun, Ambrose Bierce kind of way.) Here’s the smashwords.com link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/295815?ref=NoTimeToThink

Use coupon code VM27N to save 50% off the list price at check out at smashwords. The coupon will be good through Monday, April 20^th. Enjoy!

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For those of you who have access to the Kindle Owners Library through various Amazon programs,  “Look Both Ways” is now available out there for free – check it out at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VWEG5IO

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William Mangieri’s writing can be found in many places, such as:

• His Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008O8CBDY
• Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/william-mangieri?store=book&keyword=william+mangieri
• Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/NoTimeToThink
• Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=william+mangieri&sitesearch_type=STORE

Connect with him on Facebook at:   http://www.facebook.com/NoTimeToThink

Or on his goodreads author page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6893616.William_Mangieri