Donald Rumsfeld

United States Secretary of Defense Donald Henry Rumsfeld, most famous in these pages for Rumsfeld’s taxonomy of knowns and unknowns.

The Jolly Contrarian’s Glossary The snippy guide to financial services lingo.™ →Go uptown Index — Click the ᐅ to expand: Glossary Tell me more Sign up for our newsletter — or just get in touch: for ½ a weekly 🍺 you get to consult JC. Ask about it here.

There are six types of known.

The Rumsfeld three:

• Known knowns: Things you do know you know;
• Known unknowns: Things you do know you don’t know;
• Unknown unknowns: Things you don’t know you don’t know;

And the Jolly Contrarian three:

• Unknown knowns: Things you don’t know you do know.
• Not officially known: Things you know but the general public can’t prove.
  
• Knowable unknowns: Things you don’t know, but think you do know, for the time being, because computers.

See also

• Unknowns