You don’t know what you don’t know
By Nick Jacobs
When one of my former bosses, who was filled with both hackneyed phrases and horse pucky, tried to regain control of any given situation, he would often say, “You don’t know what you don’t know.”
He didn’t use those words as a source of profound insight into the nature of basic human knowledge, or to offer some deep information about the mysteries of human existence. His only desire was to confront our limitations and shut us up.
Whenever anyone would hypothesize about some topic, he used the phrase simply to imply that we lacked the necessary knowledge to comprehend a complex situation, a topic about which he declared himself to be an expert.
Let’s admit that the greatest of life’s adventures often start with the realization that there’s always more to learn. For example, I was once responsible for launching a multimillion-dollar building project at work. Unfortunately, I had never previously been in charge of providing oversight into the construction of even a portable restroom.
Consequently, when the organization’s head of maintenance appeared in my office to tell me that a key player who was working on commission was attempting to drive up his fees by unnecessarily increasing expenses on the project, I was disappointed. Then, a few days later, when I was told that a subcontractor was adding inadequate amounts of concrete to support the rebars in the foundation of the building, all I could think was, “We need a contract manager because clearly, I don’t know what I don’t know.”
In the maze of life, this profound phrase often goes unnoticed but is patiently waiting to be revealed because it encapsulates the essence of both human knowledge and human ignorance. Although it may seem like a simple recognition of our limitations, it’s also a reminder of the incredible amount of information and knowledge that is beyond our grasp.
If you look into the James Webb Space Telescope or an electron microscope, you will see infinity at both extremes, an infinity that even our greatest minds struggle to comprehend.
In our ever more complex world, it seems easy to fall into the trap of believing that we sometimes have all the answers. Even if you’re extremely well-prepped or highly skilled in specific fields, the vast majority of the time there are things that we either don’t know or have not even been permitted to know. Times when only the “gang of eight” has been exposed to the facts.
We often encounter situations where our ignorance becomes painfully apparent. In these moments we can either face our limitations and approach the topic with some open-minded introspective humility or, as is most popular in today’s society, we can act like an ill-informed jackass, double down, and proclaim that our stand is the only right stand. Thus, we attempt to position ourselves as having “Cheers”‘ Cliff Clavin-like superior knowledge over the common folk.
From a purely objective perspective, “You don’t know what you don’t know,” is either a standing invitation to attempt to dig more deeply into a topic to learn about and explore more, or it is an invitation to simply embrace the unknown and know that life is filled with mysteries.
We can look for new ideas, experiences, and perspectives, or conversely, we can stop spouting off bogus information regarding topics about which we are ill-informed. There is often a vast difference between what we think we know and what the facts are, and that chasm is where we find ourselves immersed today.
With twisted explanations, unexplained truths, distorted data, and deepfakes, we often hear self-proclaimed experts quoting topics about which they are absolutely clueless.
Sometimes, it’s good to simply listen, to make sure you’re hearing things correctly, and then to calmly and thoroughly test your sources. The other option is to do as my sweet old Italian grandma used to say, “Nicola, Stai zitto.”
Nick Jacobs is a Windber resident.