Teaching Epistemology To The Masses “As we know, there are known knowns; there a

Teaching Epistemology To The Masses

“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.— Rumsfeld

I was at a meeting of about twenty five senior staff at a leading technology company talking with them about their (failing) strategy, and stating along similar lines that “some things know, some unknown, some are knowable, and some are unknowable”. Meaning that they could attempt to quantify their strategy in order to justify their decisions, or they could just try consistently to know by experiment as much as to obtain revenue. But in no case was empirical data going to provide them with predictability in the market on the time horizons they were seeking to finance.

Silence. Then a (woman) criticized me for using these terms.

Sigh. How do we get out of high school without knowing the very basics of thinking like a human being instead of a serf.

IF IT CAN BE QUANTIFIED IT IS NO LONGER OF MARKET VALUE