The Unknown Knowns

Dedicated to completing Mr. Rumsfeld's unfinished business

With this one statement, Donald Rumsfeld became a meme long before memes were a thing. While the concept is not new, he owned it to an extent that he wrote a book on the subject as well.

The subject of Knowns and Unknowns is quite flexible in its adaptability and application. It has been applied a fair bit in various scenarios and concepts like assumption management, leadership mantras, organisational strategy development, strategic approach to pivoting, foraying into diversification, software design, e-commerce, new product development, and a whole bunch of everyday applications. I have looked at the concept from the lens of overall human progress.

Instead of looking at the statement as disparate scenarios, if we look at it as being sequential and interconnected, it opens up altogether new possibilities. To do so, I decided to read the statement by going in the reverse order. It then becomes clear that it’s like a chronology for how things have unfolded over several hundreds of years which has led to all round progress. Let me explain what I mean.

Instead of starting with Known Knowns as mentioned in Mr. Rumsfeld’s statement, suppose we start off with Unknown Unknowns and work ourselves backward.  

Unknown Unknowns

Way back in time, we had a whole bunch of things that we didn’t even know we didn’t know. Our discomfort when faced with such a situation led to some fundamental questioning of things the way they were, and led to some pathbreaking discoveries and inventions. Blessed with curiosity, a congenital habit of not taking anything at face value, and an innate skill of drawing connections between diverse elements, data points, observations, occurrences, phenomena, etc which, on the face of it, don’t seem like they could ever be connected, we were able to put forth hypotheses in some cases and confirmations and conclusions in many others. These are an outcome of scientific rigour, experimentation, philosophising, intellectualising, and what have you. And just when one thinks that all that could be figured out has been figured out, comes someone who thinks up one more Unknown Unknown. Gravity, solar system, combustion engine, nuclear energy, theory of relativity, aviation, telephony, electricity, etc are some of the fundamental discoveries or inventions that, if they hadn’t happened, would see mankind in a very different avatar. However, the process of unravelling Unknown Unknowns is a fairly long drawn one and which brings us to …

Known Unknowns

As I have stated in one of my earlier posts, mankind has always been in a hurry. There are always some eager beavers among us who push the envelope just that wee bit further and challenge those who had addressed the Unknown Unknowns by saying, “Hey thanks for this buddy, but you know … within what we now know, there are still a whole bunch of unknowns lurking!” This led to further discoveries and inventions that furthered our cause and led us towards building a modern society. Accepting that we know there are things that we still don’t know has also been a continuum that has led to our progress. These are what we call Known Unknowns.

To successfully address the Unknown Unknowns or the Known Unknowns requires close to genius level IQ. Because the outcomes of those variables are life altering at a fundamental level. Those outcomes make the world a better place.

Outcomes of Unknown Unknowns and Known Unknowns are usually in the fields of science, technology, humanities, chemistry, biology, anatomy, medicine, physics, etc. These are all intellectually elitist pursuits.

Last, but not the least are the …

Known Knowns

Those of us who are happy about someone else taking on the burden of knowing that there are things we don’t know and doing something about it are the ones who fall in the category of Known Knowns. We are happy to re-skill ourselves once the Known Unknowns are resolved so that we can remain on the hamsters wheel of dealing with Known Knowns.

To the best of my knowledge, all subscribers of this newsletter, bar one (she happens to be a scientist and continues the valiant fight to not only know the unknowns, but also has a deep down passion for unearthing some Unknown Unknowns and hence the rest of this post is not for her), fall into the category of Known Knowns. We happen to be a sample of the disproportionate majority that we have in today’s world. It’s only the degree of how much this majority knows about the knowns that varies.

I hope you are with me so far. Here is an at-a-glance summary that will hopefully clear the fog, if things have been a little fuzzy to comprehend.

I was a bit disappointed on noting that a details-oriented person like Mr. Rumsfeld chose to give the fourth variable a miss. Maybe he had some pressing matters at hand … like waging a couple of wars to please his boss. Me, on the other hand … I did some research on the subject of the fourth variable in the sequence.

That fourth variable is about the UNKNOWN KNOWNS.

As I mentioned earlier, the concept of Knowns and Unknowns has been applied in diverse situations, applications and scenarios. Hence it is but natural that there will be multiple definitions of what Unknown Knowns mean. I am listing below some of the ones that I came across:

• Things we understand, but are not aware of

• Things that we are unaware that we know

• Tacit knowledge

• Intuition

• I don’t know, but somebody does … and they ain’t telling

• Knowing but not wanting to believe and act. Where the risk is underestimated due to judgmental biases, irrationality and wishful thinking

I felt that all of these definitions are inadequate for the purposes of the context of Knowns and Unknowns being sequential/chronological and not siloed. To some extent, the last one comes closest to what I believe in and relate to. These are things that are known by everyone. And yet we don’t fully know the reasons for the way they are. While we are quite content knowing about the knowns, there are times when something still rankles. Doubts creep in whether we know everything that we are supposed to. It is then that we are faced with a lack of any known reason for the Known to exist the way it does. It is quite frustrating to be faced with this conundrum because you know … and yet you don’t.

By their very nature, all the Unknown Knowns are post facto. They happen to be observations that strike you on witnessing something – either once or on repeat exposure. There is little that one can do to change them conceptually to fit them into any of the other boxes. One can only grin and bear them. Or one can only wince and bear them. Or cringe and bear them. But bear them one must. They wield such power that once seen or experienced, it is next to impossible to unsee them.

Unknown Knowns are plebeian, as in there is nothing intellectually stimulating or elitist about them. Being post facto, there is an element of inevitability about them. There is little that one can do but treat them with a sense of resignation or foreboding, and for the sake of our own sanity make light of them by glossing over them.

But unanswered (or is it unanswerable?) questions they are. Unexplainable or inexplicable phenomena they are. Affect us they do. They are quite focused on cutting the outcomes of the Known Knowns down to size. And their all-encompassing power touches every aspect of our daily lives.

To try and identify all the Unknown Knowns is like counting the stars in the Milky Way. So what I have done is that I have focused on only one aspect of life in which many Unknown Knowns have hassled me. And that is Popular Culture.

Because let’s be real - our daily existence leaves very little time for conceptual or fundamental pursuits. But that shouldn’t stop us from questioning certain realities the way they are. Believe you me our lives would be a little less affected if there was some resolution to these Unknown Knowns that have come to my mind. Because these questions really affect me at a visceral level. And unknowingly they must be affecting all of you as well.

After such a lengthy and pretentious preamble, you might be expecting some intellectual stuff to come your way in terms of the examples of Unknown Knowns that keep bothering me. In fact, it’s just the opposite. They are so everyday in nature that I run the risk of losing out a few subscribers for the banality of it. But then I did qualify them as plebeian, didn’t I? And didn’t I also logically extrapolate that an overwhelming majority of us belong to the Known Knowns category? That we are content benefiting from the fruits of someone else’s labour? So drop yourself a few notches from the intellectual high horse that you have mounted, and enjoy the ride.

One thing I can assure you – you will not be able to unsee or unthink them the next time you experience these Unknown Knowns that I have listed out below. Given their post facto nature, the known is implied and hence I have stated only the unknown aspect which are observations that come across as unfulfilled wishful thinking in the form of questions. These are in no particular order of significance or preference. Ready? Read on …

Unknown Known #1

What if Kenny G’s parents hadn’t met? Would malls, seminars, conference rooms, IVR menus, elevators, and sundry other public spaces been rendered silent? Would there be no muzak? If the answer is a resounding no then why are we still subjected to his cringe-y tunes?

Unknown Known #2

Would Amitabh Bachchan have become a lesser actor if he hadn’t acted in Agneepath and hadn’t unleashed ‘haiiin’ onto us? What if he would have realised then that instead of becoming his signature, the ‘haiiin’ would turn him and his hitherto un-mimicable way of speaking into a caricature?

Unknown Known #3

Why is it necessary to show an actor throw up in full frontal close-up? Does it reduce the director’s dedication to their craft if they just cut away from the scene and leave SFX to do the job? Don’t they realise that there are many people among their audiences for whom the act of watching someone throw up on screen induces similar effects on them in real life?

Unknown Known #4

What if Kishore Kumar had not died so young? Would Kumar ‘Nasal’ Sanu have mustered the guts to sing? And would it have reined in Himmesssh Reshammieyyyaaa (maybe that’s the way he spells his name currently … maybe even he doesn’t know anymore) who then took nasality to epic depths?

Unknown Known #5

Similar to the throwing up scene, why is it necessary to have a mandatory tooth brushing scene in close-up in every film or series that deals with a couple? It’s not like audiences would feel short-changed of a significant life changing experience, because so far I haven’t seen any significant plot line shifts happening over brushing teeth.

Unknown Known #6

How is it that morning breath is a turn off in real life, but a huge turn on in reel life? How else can one explain passionate pre-toothbrushing kissing in movies? Is halitosis only a medical condition, and not a post coital one? Is this where the toothbrushing scene in extreme close-up prior to hitting the bed comes in handy?

Unknown Known #7

Don’t accomplished directors realise that by giving Mr. Bachchan a ‘look’ for every movie he acts in they are only making him look like he has had a bad hair-piece day/week/month/life?

Unknown Known #8

Why is it that the ‘bambaiya’ dialect you hear, and the ‘tapori’ look that is depicted in movies can never be experienced in real life? Are Mumbaikars living in an alternate version of their city?

Unknown Known #9

Why is it that all detectives – private or police – have some character trait or some self-destructive mode to define them? Either it’s an OCD of fastidiousness or cleanliness (Holmes, Poirot, Monk). Or it is some vice like drinking (Harry Hole)? Or gluttony (Inspector Montalbano)? Or just plain heavy smoking (Cormoran Strike)? Thank God there is at least one exception to this unknown – Inspector Armand Gamache of the Three Pines Series. Just another regular family man with grown-up married kids, a lovely wife, loves to read, has no quirks or vices, who also happens to be Chief Inspector - Homicide.

Unknown Known #10

How is it that cars in movies are invariably never locked? And if they are never locked then how is it that whenever a carjacking is happening then the perpetrators have to slide in a steel ruler or a wire to unlock them? Why can’t they open the door, hop in, pull down the sun visor from which the key will pop out, and just drive away? Why do they have to pull two wires from under the steering to get the ignition going?

Unknown Known #11

Just like cars, so it is with houses in Hollywood. Everyone knows that the house keys are either under the door mat or under a flower vase in the driveway. Yet when a burglar has to break into, he rarely looks at either of these places to peacefully open the main door, but instead chooses to go round to the rear side of the house, smash a small glass pane with his elbow to open the kitchen door from inside and then go in.

Unknown Known #12

How is it that when they have to show someone washing their face, the water is always splashed all across their face from a height but it never splashes beyond the boundaries of the wash basin? (I tried that once with disastrous results. I spent the next 15 minutes mopping the mini puddles that I had to wade out of. If someone knows the exact, correct way to do it I will gift a face wash to them.)

Unknown Known #13

How is it that singers become world citizens by losing their native accent when they are singing songs in English, but are unmistakably Irish, Brit, American, German, Canadian, French the moment they start normal talking?

Unknown Known #14

Why is it mandatory to show an extreme close-up of someone lighting up? Do they realise that it’s the smoking equivalent of the puke close-up? Or is it that because of the curbs that are being placed on the tobacco industry, the manufacturing majors fear that people will forget what a cigarette is and how it is to be lit up? Is it like a tutorial they are conducting and paying for, instead of the students paying for learning?

Unknown Known #15

In the same vein, why is it that smokers puff away without rolling down car windows in movies? And how come their co-passengers don’t seem to mind? Or have all of them spent a better part of their life in places having polluting factories as neighbours or having car exhausts as their home ventilation system?

Unknown Known #16

Did Sukhbir sing only one song in his entire career?

I have only touched the proverbial tip of the tip of the tip of the iceberg. I am quite sure that each one of you can add endlessly to the list. Unfortunately, unlike its preceding cousins, Unknown Knowns have no tangible value attached to their resolution. The intangible value of their resolution, however, can lead to everlasting peace and sanity for mankind. And that would be no small feat for a hitherto untapped variable.

[Here is an exercise you could do: just the way I have chosen Popular Culture as a category, pick out a category (like technology, politics, war, alternate medicine, etc) of your choice and sure enough you will find enough Unknown Knowns of your own pertaining to that category. It’s fun actually, once you get the hang of it.]

Before signing off, and with a sense of accomplishment, I leave you with the grid that takes care of Mr. Rumsfeld’s unfinished business.

Be braver. Be kinder.

PS: Early on in my career I learnt that when faced with a situation of having no material for presentation to a client, put up some boxes with profound sounding jargon, confuse the shit out of everyone, and quickly exit the room without waiting to discuss.

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As a subscriber you may have felt yourself trapped into reading what I have passed off as my latest post above in the hope that there would be something, at least a line, which would be worth your while. No such luck, right?

Least I can do to redeem myself is to ensure that you don’t fall for some really sub-par content that I ended up watching in the hope that there would be something worth my while that would eventually happen on screen. No such luck for me! But, lucky you. You don’t have to endure.

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Atrocious, appalling, juvenile comedy. Avoid it like the plague. Starring supremely wooden Jennifer Aniston & Adam Sandler. It’s actually a negative 5* if there is a rating like that. And they have a sequel to it as well! Well, I did learn my proverbs well in school - Once bitten, twice shy.

Murder Mystery | Netflix | No rating

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A psychiatrist who has moved into a new locality, accidentally meets up with his secretary in a bar, some feelings get developed. This happens in the first 15 mins of the series and is probably the most pace the storyline has as compared to the succeeding 6 episodes. Sinister happenings from the past which we are never completely let into till the end unfold at a snail’s pace as we meet the psychiatrist’s weird wife with whom we are subjected to extreme close ups of her eyes in an overt hint that it’s her eyes that inspired the title. Oscillating between the current and the past, this series goes all over the place just like the supernatural force reveal that’s the reason behind the happenings. Even the six episodes are a drag.

Behind her Eyes | Netflix | Limited Series (6 eps)