Unknown Unknowns

Someone said something yesterday which to me was very interesting.  They said “you don’t know what you don’t know.”  Donald Rumsfeld made famous the saying, “there are known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns.”
As I say regularly it does not matter where the quote comes from.  What matters to me is if it is true or not.
You don’t know what you don’t know is probably a no brainer.  That is what keeps me learning.  Often it is a desire to know more.  I find a topic I am interested in and embark on a voyage of discovery.
I remember at school getting a better grade than I expected because I was not simply parroting what I had learned, but had done some other study on the subject which I was interested in.  That is probably the modus operandi for many, but not for me.  They reckon interest governs memory.  I know I am all ears when I am interested.  I want to glean everything I can.  What is useful I keep.
For example, yesterday I learned something which really is only useful to me in that I am interested in behaviour.  We have a crow family visit us.  I learned the mum is faithful and the dad is a bit of a wanderer.  They reckon 80% of offspring are his.
I try to take precautions when I need to, based on what I know.  Mostly it is the unknown that can get me.  When I was gardening, I knew how to pull up dead or unwanted trees and plants, but I did not know there was a snake lurking until it fortunately high tailed it out of there.  He could have got me.  I didn’t know what I didn’t know.
Yet I feel it is not just pointless, but counterproductive, to worry about what I do not know.  I reckon I would be even more of a mess than I am if I did.    I will do all I can to be informed but the unexpected is by nature unexpected.  The best I can do is chalk it up to experience.
Sometimes what I need to learn does not excite me.  If I am not going to pull out, I need to give it all I got.  I did a Cert 3 in Project Management.  I did it kicking and screaming (figuratively, not literally).  Yet someone else was so into it they were awarded a Diploma rather than a Cert. 3.  That wasn’t me.  I was just glad to see the back of it.
Even when I am keen to make the unknown known I invariably go though times of asking why?  Nothing it seems is always exciting.  Even when I am totally into something, I need to be prepared to do the hard yards.  At those times I get the occasional inspiration along the way, but the goal always inspires.
This no doubt will be hard for you to believe but I will never be all knowing.  They say we know more and more about less and less.  I don’t mind really.  So far, I have always had enough to keep me interested.