Unknown Unknowns

During a press conference on February 12, 2002, i.e. during the months leading up to the Iraq War, then US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld gave remarks in a response to questions about evidence for weapons of mass destruction. Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tends to be the difficult ones. Wikipedia article There are Unknown Unknowns, retrieved May 15, 2026. The phrasing in those remarks was both amusing and insightful. I don’t love that this is the context in which I learned about the concept and that I will probably forever associate it with that. But, here we are. For better…