We have access to certain information, so we don’t always pause to think about the information we don’t have. Once we do pause to think about it, we can realize very quickly that there might be a lot we don’t know.
As Donald Rumsfeld said in his wisest and most-disparaged quote: “There are known knowns, things we know that we know; and there are known unknowns, things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns, things we do not know we don't know.”
Even in a mundane situation, such as someone being rude to us, we can ask ourselves “What might we not know?” Perhaps that person is normally very nice, but just having a really bad day or struggling with grief. Or perhaps that person is rude to everyone, and there’s absolutely nothing personal about it.
Don Miguel Ruíz reminds us in The Four Agreements, we should not make assumptions. Unfortunately, that is tricky and even impractical, because we’re not always aware of what we assume. A more practical tip comes from Difficult Conversations, in which the authors tell us to assume that there are things we do not know.

(Read the transcript and find important links on the site: A Beautiful Thought – What We Might Not Know: Episode 454)

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