I have stumbled on this concept in an article. I already have read it but I want to learn more about it.
Here is a good source that sums it up. https://www.theschoolofknowledge.net/p/the-rumsfeld-matrix-explained
The matrix divides knowledge into four categories or quadrants:
Known Knowns: Things we explicitly know such as facts, information or skills we know we possess.
Known Unknowns: These are things we don't know, such as gaps in our knowledge that we have already identified.
Unknown Knowns: Things we don't know that we know.
Unknown Unknowns: Things we aren't aware we do not know.
Using this tool to map out what you know and don't know can enable you to make more informed and effective decisions under uncertainty.
Let's review a basic example from my job this week.
My construction company is undertaking a large hardscaping project at a busy shopping centre. Information as to what existing underground services are in the area is unknown, which puts my team at risk of accidentally hitting a service, causing potential injury, property damage and losses for the shops that will have to temporarily close whilst it's being fixed.
I used the Rumsfeld Matrix as follows:
Known Knowns: I know there has to be underground services within my working boundary, and that a risk assessment has to factor this in and control measures put in place.
Known Unknowns: The extent, type and location of services within my working boundary.
Unknown Knowns: Information that is held 'somewhere' detailing exactly what services are in the area as well as their location and depths.
Unknown Unknowns: Poor or incorrect workmanship and laying of services that could cause potential harm or delays.
From this, the first port of call was to ask the client for any information they had about the existing services– which was zero. The second reasonable step was to contact the energy and data service providers to get what information they had. Which was limited and insufficient. The only 2 reasonable steps left were to either perform an archaeological dig which would slow things down, cause delays and inflate costs or conduct a GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) survey which would take 1 day and would accurately detail every single service in the area.
That was a fairly easy example, but going through the steps from known information, to unknown information, forces you to address the gaps in your knowledge. Typically we skip the step of identifying what we don't know and focus only on what we explicitly do know, especially when facing uncertainty.
The most interesting phenomenon for me:
Unknown Unknowns: Black swan events, emerging competitors, regulatory or client changes that could present opportunities, economic or social change that could create demand, materials that could deliver more efficiency or profitability, hidden market segments that are currently under delivered and novel business models such as the EV boom that has to be facilitated by construction workers installing the infrastructure.
My comment: I try to be rational when it comes to committing suicide. And contemplating suicide involves the consdiration about pros and cons. And you try to make a judgement about your future and whether it is actually worth to continue living.
I was given up by therapists. And I improved. I thought my future was poverty in the worst possible way inevitably. And someone on here told me about a social programm in my country that I wasn't aware of. I tried to get the money and eventually I received it. This was insane. Especially, because they say SaSu would only make people more sucidal and had no actual benefit. My therapist told me my desire to find a significant other is hopeless because I don't have a job. I told her I don't fully believe that. Personally, I am more of a pessimist. And having no job can make it really difficult to find someone. But saying it was actually impossible is really not true. It was the therapist who also tried to ruin me by writing lies in my medical records. And I ran circles around of her and now reported her after I collected all the evidence for her misconduct. I met this quantum physics professor who was an expert in predictions and futurology. And making predictions always involves scenarios and considering probabiltities. Absolute statements in complex environments are difficult. Even though, I have to admit @DarkRange55 once lectured me on that. But I am very interested in black swan events. Things that surprise even the best experts. And I think many people who are suicidal and desperate hope for a positive black swan event in their life. For politicial processes such events and scenarios can also be really fascinating. I find it interesting to think about things you are unware of. And actually we are unaware of many things. Sometimes we are convinced by what is going on in the head of another person. I suffer a lot from ambiguity intolerance. But it also has to do with a lot of projection. And autism/psychosis comes along with so many cognitive biases. I am scared that people who are way smarter than me notice something about me that is very unpleasant. And I have to hate myself before someone else can point at me and call me out for it. I think I can be an ingnorant person. Especially, when it comes to knowledge and science. But thinking about the things you are not aware about. And the systemic blind spots of your thinking is very fascinating. I try to be a rational person. And I try to make rational decisions. Though, I think in the end I use a lot of simple heuristics to come to my conclusions. Most humans work that way. It is often black white thinking. In the end maybe I only have the illusion of being rational. Or I am rational considering the limitation of my knowledge and intelligence. My mind is a weird spot. I know for someone with psychosis and autism I am very self-aware. When I compared myself to other patients. However, I clearly have thinking patterns that are highly skewed. Reading about congitive biases of psychosis patients is really interesting.
I wanted feedback of an AI chatbot to my text on here. And both chatGPT and gemini say there is an issue with the explanation of unknown knowns. I copy paste what AI says but it also coincides with what I read somewhere else in my native language. Here is it: The Critique: Your definition of Unknown Knowns (information held "somewhere" but not by you) is an interesting take, though in original intelligence circles, "Unknown Knowns" often refer to tacit knowledge or things we "know" but refuse to acknowledge (intuition or suppressed data). By defining it as "data that exists but is inaccessible," you've turned it into a logistical problem rather than a psychological one
Here is a good source that sums it up. https://www.theschoolofknowledge.net/p/the-rumsfeld-matrix-explained
The matrix divides knowledge into four categories or quadrants:
Known Knowns: Things we explicitly know such as facts, information or skills we know we possess.
Known Unknowns: These are things we don't know, such as gaps in our knowledge that we have already identified.
Unknown Knowns: Things we don't know that we know.
Unknown Unknowns: Things we aren't aware we do not know.
Using this tool to map out what you know and don't know can enable you to make more informed and effective decisions under uncertainty.
Let's review a basic example from my job this week.
My construction company is undertaking a large hardscaping project at a busy shopping centre. Information as to what existing underground services are in the area is unknown, which puts my team at risk of accidentally hitting a service, causing potential injury, property damage and losses for the shops that will have to temporarily close whilst it's being fixed.
I used the Rumsfeld Matrix as follows:
Known Knowns: I know there has to be underground services within my working boundary, and that a risk assessment has to factor this in and control measures put in place.
Known Unknowns: The extent, type and location of services within my working boundary.
Unknown Knowns: Information that is held 'somewhere' detailing exactly what services are in the area as well as their location and depths.
Unknown Unknowns: Poor or incorrect workmanship and laying of services that could cause potential harm or delays.
From this, the first port of call was to ask the client for any information they had about the existing services– which was zero. The second reasonable step was to contact the energy and data service providers to get what information they had. Which was limited and insufficient. The only 2 reasonable steps left were to either perform an archaeological dig which would slow things down, cause delays and inflate costs or conduct a GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) survey which would take 1 day and would accurately detail every single service in the area.
That was a fairly easy example, but going through the steps from known information, to unknown information, forces you to address the gaps in your knowledge. Typically we skip the step of identifying what we don't know and focus only on what we explicitly do know, especially when facing uncertainty.
The most interesting phenomenon for me:
Unknown Unknowns: Black swan events, emerging competitors, regulatory or client changes that could present opportunities, economic or social change that could create demand, materials that could deliver more efficiency or profitability, hidden market segments that are currently under delivered and novel business models such as the EV boom that has to be facilitated by construction workers installing the infrastructure.
My comment: I try to be rational when it comes to committing suicide. And contemplating suicide involves the consdiration about pros and cons. And you try to make a judgement about your future and whether it is actually worth to continue living.
I was given up by therapists. And I improved. I thought my future was poverty in the worst possible way inevitably. And someone on here told me about a social programm in my country that I wasn't aware of. I tried to get the money and eventually I received it. This was insane. Especially, because they say SaSu would only make people more sucidal and had no actual benefit. My therapist told me my desire to find a significant other is hopeless because I don't have a job. I told her I don't fully believe that. Personally, I am more of a pessimist. And having no job can make it really difficult to find someone. But saying it was actually impossible is really not true. It was the therapist who also tried to ruin me by writing lies in my medical records. And I ran circles around of her and now reported her after I collected all the evidence for her misconduct. I met this quantum physics professor who was an expert in predictions and futurology. And making predictions always involves scenarios and considering probabiltities. Absolute statements in complex environments are difficult. Even though, I have to admit @DarkRange55 once lectured me on that. But I am very interested in black swan events. Things that surprise even the best experts. And I think many people who are suicidal and desperate hope for a positive black swan event in their life. For politicial processes such events and scenarios can also be really fascinating. I find it interesting to think about things you are unware of. And actually we are unaware of many things. Sometimes we are convinced by what is going on in the head of another person. I suffer a lot from ambiguity intolerance. But it also has to do with a lot of projection. And autism/psychosis comes along with so many cognitive biases. I am scared that people who are way smarter than me notice something about me that is very unpleasant. And I have to hate myself before someone else can point at me and call me out for it. I think I can be an ingnorant person. Especially, when it comes to knowledge and science. But thinking about the things you are not aware about. And the systemic blind spots of your thinking is very fascinating. I try to be a rational person. And I try to make rational decisions. Though, I think in the end I use a lot of simple heuristics to come to my conclusions. Most humans work that way. It is often black white thinking. In the end maybe I only have the illusion of being rational. Or I am rational considering the limitation of my knowledge and intelligence. My mind is a weird spot. I know for someone with psychosis and autism I am very self-aware. When I compared myself to other patients. However, I clearly have thinking patterns that are highly skewed. Reading about congitive biases of psychosis patients is really interesting.
I wanted feedback of an AI chatbot to my text on here. And both chatGPT and gemini say there is an issue with the explanation of unknown knowns. I copy paste what AI says but it also coincides with what I read somewhere else in my native language. Here is it: The Critique: Your definition of Unknown Knowns (information held "somewhere" but not by you) is an interesting take, though in original intelligence circles, "Unknown Knowns" often refer to tacit knowledge or things we "know" but refuse to acknowledge (intuition or suppressed data). By defining it as "data that exists but is inaccessible," you've turned it into a logistical problem rather than a psychological one
