RichardKennaway comments on Open Thread June 2010, Part 4 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: Will_Newsome 19 June 2010 04:34AM

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Comment author: SilasBarta 28 June 2010 01:50:33PM *  7 points [-]

About the Rumsfeld quote mentioned in the most recent top-level post:

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 now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. These are things we do not know we don’t know.

Why is it that people mock Rumsfeld so incessantly for this? Whatever reason you might have not to like him, this is probably the most insightful thing any government official has said at a press conference. And yet he's ridiculed for it by the very same people that are emphasizing, or at least should be emphasizing, the imporance of the insight.

Heck, some people even thought it was clever to format it into a poem.

What gives? Is this just a case of "no good deed goes unpunished"?

ETA: In your answer, be sure to say, not just what's wrong with the quote or its context, but why people don't make that as their criticism instead of just saying, ha ha, the quote sure is funny.

Comment author: RichardKennaway 28 June 2010 03:07:59PM *  1 point [-]

Heck, some people even thought it was clever to format it into a poem.

I am surely not the first to recognise the similarity to this poem.

ETA: no, I'm not.

Comment author: SilasBarta 28 June 2010 03:11:18PM 0 points [-]

Hm, those are superficially similar, maybe, but I'm glad that someone, at least, was asking "er, what's the deal with the Rumsfeld quote?" back in '03.