Knowns, known unknowns, unknown unknowns

Donald Rumsfeld was hammered for botching his handling of the situation in Iraq. He was also laughed at for his comments about how he and his staff considered information. The press made him out to be a loon. Maybe he is a loon, and laying the "known knowns" commentary out there didn't help. The quote was an odd thing for the public to digest. It seemed to suggest that he was dizzy or something.

I remember hearing it and thinking that it made perfect sense. I thought he was stating the obvious, and that maybe that was why people made faces. Here's what he said.

"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."

Okay. What's the problem here? Not only are the three positions stated clearly, they are also described for those of you who need a little more of the picture. In any situation, particularly in business - you have to be aware of what you know and what you don't know. If you aren't considering this, you'll need to be lucky to win. These three categories represent the universe of information. You should not be confused or amused by the concept. Think about it a little more. It's accurate and correct. Donald Rumsfeld may have botched his assignment. Maybe his cheese has slipped a little off his cracker, but his description of information awareness (knowns) is fine.