— Donald Rumsfeld “There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.” Like many of my American friends, I was livid with Mr. Rumsfeld’s statement about the handling of the Iraq war. It just felt like hand waving and letting go off of his responsibility in planning. Irrespective of my feelings towards the Iraq war, I came to appreciate the underlying meaning of his quote. And it has helped me become a better professional. You see, we get promoted for the increase of efficiency in . Like becoming an even better programmer or a designer over a period of time. known knowns We get accolades and rewards when we plan and solve for — things we know that we don’t know. Like, I want to learn the quadrillionth javascript framework that got released this last picosecond. Or our website’s performance is slow when it’s accessed by two people from Antarctica and we need to an optimization strategy to fix it. known unknowns find But, the real growth comes from discovering — things we don’t know we don’t know. Like, Copernicus’s discovery of the Earth revolving around the Sun and everyone saying — “ ” unknown unknowns Revolve? Earth!? Around the Sun!? Seriously? Whatcha you smokin’ Cooper! I believe one of the things that could help you differentiate from your peers and put your career trajectory on fire is building a routine to discover . And the best part is- it helps you avoid getting inflicted by the . unknown unknowns Peter Principle And to get into that , we need to take off our blinders to uncover the blind spots. Be insanely curious. And have our ego take a back seat and admit that there is so much that we don’t know. routine of learning And then find structured time in our daily routine to learn more, know more, and become more. Or even seek the guidance of people who have been there in a given field. There is an infinite wisdom that can be harnessed from their experiences. One could talk to them to understand their patterns of success and then follow that golden trail of knowledge to learn more. Well, sometimes you would find answers to questions, sometimes you would find new questions to seek answers to. Just like when we were children. Life was one roller coaster of knowledge when we were young. One joy of discovery led to another. And we never stopped ourselves in seeking surprises. And then, , we grew up! inevitably But does it have to be the end? Certainly, Not! In his book, , Blaise Pascal has quoted that there are four kinds of persons- Pensées Zeal without knowledge; knowledge without zeal; neither knowledge nor zeal; both zeal and knowledge. The more zeal and knowledge you gain in life, you’ll move closer to discover and convert them to . unknown unknowns known unknowns And before you start cursing me in the for all the banter, I will sign this off. parseltongue known-unknown More power to you. 👏 Liked what you read? Please click the below so others can find it! This is the 17th edition of our weekly newsletter . Here’s our archive if you would like to check out the previous editions before signing up below.
