“I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong. If we will only allow that, as we progress, we remain unsure, we will leave opportunities for alternatives. We will not become enthusiastic for the fact, the knowledge, the absolute truth of the day, but remain always uncertain … In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar.”
― Richard P. Feynman
The post below is from several years back and deals with my constant uncertainty, a theme that has ran through my life. I added the Feynman quote above because I like the idea of uncertainty opening the doors to new possibilities and futures that would not even be imagined if we held too tightly to our beliefs and saw them as absolute. Here’s that post:
I don’t know…
I would guess that I’ve said that phrase a couple of hundred thousand times in my life. Or maybe even a million times.
But then again, I don’t know.
As years pass, I am constantly fascinated by how little I know despite consciously trying to obtain more knowledge. It turns out that there are an awful lot of things out there that I will never know.
That doesn’t make me happy but I have learned to live with it and take some comfort in knowing that I am not alone. I don’t think any of us really knows as much as we let on. Oh, some speak with absolute certainty and and an air of confidence but that’s just bravado or a simple failure to recognize their lack of knowledge.
I do know that.
From personal experience, unfortunately.
So I cringe a bit now when I spot that arrogant certainty in the declarations coming from myself or others. Then I cast a doubtful eye towards these claims, my own included.
What does this have to do with the price of a gallon of milk in Kokomo?
I don’t know. I’m just blabbing in order to set up a song from the Irish singer Lisa Hannigan and is titled, fittingly, I Don’t Know. I particularly like this version shot in a Dingle pub. Lovely.
Have a good day and be wary of those who seem a bit too certain. Or not.
I don’t know.
Redtree Times 
Along these lines, my most common comment to my children and grandchildren is, what part of I don’t know don’t you understand. The frustration of telling someone of your failure to know the answer to their question is probably only made worse by their asking the question again as if your answer could change. But that’s just the dad, and granddad in me speaking… But then again, I don’t know…
I don’t know if you meant to but you make a good point, Gary. How do you teach kids that it’s okay to not know, that it’s okay to admit the things we don’t know? That not knowing doesn’t mean not caring? That all certainty is not strength? If you figure it out, let me know because I don’t know.
Good post, reminds me of this quote by Rumsfeld “There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.”
I remember this very well. It has the feel of a word salad but once you get it straight it makes sense.
yes, for example, i know i know how to drive. i know i don’t know how to play a saxophone. Then there is that last realm, things we don’t even have a clue about. Not even an inkling, can’t even fathom a placement in the known or the known unknown basket, that is until that moment we say to ourselves a profound, “oh” or “ahha.” things that form out of the ether before our very eyes it seems.
Once I came to understand the difference between knowledge and wisdom, all that I don’t know — or can’t know — became less important.
That is so true. My main concern is those who have such certainty without the benefit of either knowledge or wisdom.