16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, November 22, 1911: Am trying to recover what I do not know that I missed during the month. I am pretty far behind and it is going to take some studying.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
I love the line Grandma used in this entry—“Am trying to recover what I do not know that I missed during the month.”
It reminds me of the mastery matrix.
The worst quadrant to be in is the one where you don’t know what you don’t know—but at least you are comfortable there in your ignorance.
I think that Grandma was in the most frustrating quadrant. She knew that she didn’t know something—but she couldn’t quite get a handle on what it was.
Reminds me of Donald Rumsfeld’s quote: [T]here 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.