The Unknown Unknowns of PPM

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The Unknown Unknowns of PPM

Ian Whittingham, PMP

January 28, 2008






Long after the historical context in which it was uttered has been forgotten, its logical rigor (or lack thereof) will be parsed by undergraduates in philosophy classes, and its rhetoric cited in dictionaries of quotations as the primary--if not uniquely--memorable utterance of its author:
 
“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.”
                                                -U.S. Department of Defense press briefing, February 12, 2002
 
Mocked by the U.K.



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