When we don't know what we don't know ...

"One of people's biggest problems in life is that they don't know what they don't know."

About a month ago this was my status on Facebook, to which my cousin appropriately replied: Is there any other way it could be, could you not know what you do know? That's a really good question, because this 'not knowing' business can seem a bit confusing at first.

If you don't know what you do know you more or less are just forgetting. Perhaps you could say, deep down you actually know it (whatever), but superficially you have forgotten it and you think you don't know it. Alternatively, you could be suppressing it (an undesirable memory, a traumatic event). On the other hand, if you do know what you don't know, you're probably making something up (fabricating, confabulating). You essentially have a false belief.

Of course there's more to say about all that above, but that's not the point of this post. My point concerns when you don't know what you don't know. Put simply, this is when you are ignorant (lacking knowledge or information) about something, and you aren't even aware of your ignorance. Let me illustrate:

Two groups of student are prepping for a test that has two review sessions the day before. Group Win studies well but still hasn't figured everything out. The students come to their review session, and when the teacher asks for questions, all delighted people raise their hands! On the other hand, students of Group Lose don't study at all, hoping to learn everything at their review session (funny how common this actually is). And, when the teacher asks for questions, they all just sit there and twiddle their thumbs. Now, would the teacher be correct to assume Group Lose students must know everything? No way. In fact, they know so little they can't even formulate a question! They can't ask about the things they need to learn, because they don't know what they don't know.

I think this ignorance of igorance perpetuates so many problems because it fosters a false sense of security and psychologically traps us in complacency. We think we understand, when in fact, we may not. And with this attitude, we're self-restrained from the opportunity to grow and develop. We first must realize what more we have to learn. Then we need to learn it.

So ...

Simply, learn.

Learn about anything.

And everything.

Expand our minuscule world.

Just begin somewhere.

That may be the essence of this blog.

"I am the wisest man on Earth, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing."  -- Socrates

Just a few thoughts.

Peace.