See http://www.rattlesnake.com/notions/known-unknown.html
Unknown unknowns: a five year old child does not know that he does not know calculus. For him or her, calculus is an `unknown unknown'.
Known unknowns: an older child knows that he does not know calculus. For him or her, calculus is a `known unknown'.
Unknown knowns: a high school student starts to study calculus. He or she does not yet understand calculus. For him or her, it is an `unknown known'. (You will note that the focus of the first `unknown' shifts here from lack of knowledge of the general to lack of knowledge of the specific.)
Known knowns: after learning calculus, it becomes a `known known': it is both known to exist and understood.
A part of life: after learning calculus and using every day, a person may forget how much he or she knows.
Sometimes I think I have forgotten everything I have ever learnt but I know how to know these things again and that's the important thing.
Also I think that "unknown unknowns" can be exciting because they have the potential to become 'known knowns' and when this happens they are real discoveries. This is the process which keeps everything moving forward, isn't it?
12 comments:
omigosh....that's awesome!
I'm so cutting and pasting this.
Now you appear to have four or even five categories of "knowingness". Are you sure you can stop there, how do you know there aren't more?
I'm still sticking with just two thanks!
I don't think I want to be limited by what I think I know or don't know. (Can I confuse things further by saying that sometimes it is better to suspend what think you know, in order to see things in a new light.)
I'm not sure I know anything at all to be honest. :-)
There must be so many things waiting to be discovered by each and every one of us, and we have no idea what those things may be.
i love discovering 'unknowns' i'm a process girl not exactly results-oriented. i believe if the process was good, the results should not be too far off. even if so, at least i enjoyed the process :)
I believe if the process was good, the results should not be too far off
Ah! That is so true, Boo.
Hey Kat, you said: I'm not sure I know anything at all to be honest. :-)
Even though you said it with a smile, I'm sure it's not true.
I just look at the rattlesnake thing, and I see muddly American thinking. If you read it and it inspires you to do great things, then that's great.
It doesn't particularly inspire me, Lobster. I just think it is true. Little children, for instance, have no idea what they are going to discover and when they do discover something you can see the surprise in their faces. The first time my child saw a waterfall, for instance - "Let me out of this god damn pram" :-)
I dunno....I used to work with a woman who was a PITA. Her Unknown Unknowns were anything BUT exciting.
I had an acronym on her extension button on my phone, just for her: DAOPT. Nobody knew what it meant except me. It meant "deficient airhead on a power trip". Seriously, this woman was so stupid, but thought she was smarter than everyone else. She was too stupid to know how stupid she was. God help me, she was a first class PITA.
And now you've blown my post for today, where I lament my inability to snark anymore. So much for that. LOL
DAOPT
Hee hee, I'll remember that. :-)
I looked over some other parts of rattlesnake's site. Curious to note that he too is very much a warmonger.
Ouch. You just broke my brain (well, maybe only bruised). Thank you for the relation to Calculus. It illustrates the point rather well.
BTW, for me, Calculus is a known unknown.
(I never claimed to teach/like Math)
Arthur - I remember doing Calculus at school and enjoying it but it is largely forgotten now - or is it?
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