Epistemology in Workplaces

Donald Rumsfeld, when he was asked if there was an evidence of Iraq owning weapons of mass destruction, said,

"there are things that we know,

there are things that we know that we don't know

and there are things that we don't know that we don't know"

This is an interesting statement from the viewpoint of epistemology.

It seems like every knowledge falls into one of those categories.

We know the speed of light.

We don't know what exists outside the universe.

But we cannot tell what it is that we don't know that we don't know because we just don't know it.

I know that this kind of theoretical and philosophical argument is generally disliked because it is not useful. It does not generate money.

Right?

But working as a manager in a company, I find this framework of thinking quite useful.

By expanding the reach of known knowns, we can be experts.

But this is not good enough.

To be a good manager, we need to be aware of known unknowns too.

This is to say that we need to know what it is that we don't know.

Since the required knowledge for managers is broad, ranging from IT to law to marketing to finance, it is almost impossible to know all of them.

What's important is to know what you don't know and who knows what you don't know.

And the third category?

I think this has to do with our world view.

Though it is impossible to estimate the portion of this category by definition, if you think this area is not too big, you might have an organized world view.

Your world is filled up with known knowns and known unknowns.

With this world view, one might think that you can grasp the overall image of how the world works.

However, if you think that unknown unknowns share the majority of portion in the world, you might have a chaotic world view.

Nothing is predictable and everything can happen.

Which world view do I have?

Needless to say.