> The thing about subject matter experts is that they’re so good at their subject, they often aren’t aware of what they know.
It isn't quite the same thing, but "tacit knowledge"[1] is similar to this concept.
The difference is that the author is talking about things you don't know you know, where tacit knowledge is for things you know that you may have self-awareness but have difficulty conveying.
My favorite example of tacit knowledge is knife sharpening. Even with hundreds of 4k videos of it on YouTube, it's still very hard to teach because so much of the skill rests on the sense of pressure while you're sharpening, which can't be conveyed in video.
the author might be talking about "expert embarassment", which is very different than tacit knowledge.
The expert knows that there is a hole in his domain knowledge, but is exasperated because he can't say for sure what it is! That's quite a legit unknown unknown. Even an expert needs the Beginner-Mind to deal with such situations (as author hints towards end of TFA)
Not according to the people that coined the phrase "radical ignorance".
"While there are different types of knowledge and many ways to make it visible, there are also several types of ignorance and different ways in which it might escape the subject's consciousness. For example, while many instances of ignorance fall into the category
of unknown unknowns, where an agent is not only ignorant about something but also about her/his state of ignorance, other instances of ignorance fall into the category of ignorance in disguise, where an agent is not only ignorant about her/his ignorance, but also mistakes his/her misbeliefs for valid knowledge, i.e. the ignorance is disguised by misbeliefs accounted as knowledge. Radical ignorance is exactly a phenomenon of this last type. It is very difficult to explore radical ignorance; nevertheless, the so-called Dunning-Kruger effect (Kruger and Dunning 1999) is an example of how such a phenomenon might manifest itself in everyday life."
It appears that the phrase has multiple uses/meanings, with priority of definition going to Dunning & Kruger as far as I can find.
This is the earliest clear definition in the sense I was recalling that I can dig up:
"In its place would be substituted the concept of partial radical ignorance. The adjective “radical” is here meant to distinguish this kind of ignorance from the neoclassical concept of rational ignorance, which refers to a state of affairs in which knowledge exists that would improve our situation but that the expected cost of acquiring it exceeds the expected benefit. We thus choose not to know what is not in our interests to know. In contrast, radical ignorance refers to our unawareness of even the existence of relevant knowledge that we could know at zero cost."
I'll concede that this usage is highly niche and lesser known, but I'll have you know that I'm wholly incapable of appreciating irony and will never fully acknowledge my error.
There are also things that you don’t know that you know—muscle memory, habit, trauma—you know how to walk but you don’t remember how you figured it out for the first time.
Cognition is like an iceberg and the unconscious is the part that is under the surface—it has vast and unseen depths.
Yeah, I was going to say that but I wasn't sure how receptive HN would be to such a direct reference to psychoanalytic thought when I could express it without that reference.
It isn't quite the same thing, but "tacit knowledge"[1] is similar to this concept.
The difference is that the author is talking about things you don't know you know, where tacit knowledge is for things you know that you may have self-awareness but have difficulty conveying.
My favorite example of tacit knowledge is knife sharpening. Even with hundreds of 4k videos of it on YouTube, it's still very hard to teach because so much of the skill rests on the sense of pressure while you're sharpening, which can't be conveyed in video.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacit_knowledge
The expert knows that there is a hole in his domain knowledge, but is exasperated because he can't say for sure what it is! That's quite a legit unknown unknown. Even an expert needs the Beginner-Mind to deal with such situations (as author hints towards end of TFA)
There is a name for it. It's called "radical ignorance".
"While there are different types of knowledge and many ways to make it visible, there are also several types of ignorance and different ways in which it might escape the subject's consciousness. For example, while many instances of ignorance fall into the category of unknown unknowns, where an agent is not only ignorant about something but also about her/his state of ignorance, other instances of ignorance fall into the category of ignorance in disguise, where an agent is not only ignorant about her/his ignorance, but also mistakes his/her misbeliefs for valid knowledge, i.e. the ignorance is disguised by misbeliefs accounted as knowledge. Radical ignorance is exactly a phenomenon of this last type. It is very difficult to explore radical ignorance; nevertheless, the so-called Dunning-Kruger effect (Kruger and Dunning 1999) is an example of how such a phenomenon might manifest itself in everyday life."
One of us experiencing irony...
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342250736_A_working...
This is the earliest clear definition in the sense I was recalling that I can dig up:
"In its place would be substituted the concept of partial radical ignorance. The adjective “radical” is here meant to distinguish this kind of ignorance from the neoclassical concept of rational ignorance, which refers to a state of affairs in which knowledge exists that would improve our situation but that the expected cost of acquiring it exceeds the expected benefit. We thus choose not to know what is not in our interests to know. In contrast, radical ignorance refers to our unawareness of even the existence of relevant knowledge that we could know at zero cost."
https://departments.gmu.edu/rae/archives/VOL16_1_2003/4_Iked... (digital reader page 5)
I'll concede that this usage is highly niche and lesser known, but I'll have you know that I'm wholly incapable of appreciating irony and will never fully acknowledge my error.
Cognition is like an iceberg and the unconscious is the part that is under the surface—it has vast and unseen depths.