“There are unknown unknowns”, said Donald Rumsfeld, the United States Secretary of Defence, apropos the existence of WMD in Iraq.
This became the sound bite that would define the sophistry around the illegal invasion of that devastated country in 2003.
Ironically, the terms “known unknowns” and “unknown unknowns” are often used in project management.
Essentially, things you didn’t initially envisage when you started can occur.
For example, the term was used in evidence given to the British Columbia Royal Commission of Inquiry into Uranium Mining in 1979:
Site conditions always pose unknowns, or uncertainties, which may become known during construction or operation to the detriment of the facility and possibly lead to damage of the environment or endanger public health and safety. The risk posed by unknowns is somewhat dependent on the nature of the unknown relative to past experience. This has led me to classify unknowns into one of the following two types: 1. known unknowns (expected or foreseeable conditions), which can be reasonably anticipated but not quantified based on past experience as exemplified by case histories (in Appendix A) and 2. Unknown unknowns (unexpected or unforeseeable conditions), which pose a potentially greater risk simply because they cannot be anticipated based on past experience or investigation. Known unknowns result from recognized but poorly understood phenomena. On the other hand, unknown unknowns are phenomena which cannot be expected because there has been no prior experience or theoretical basis for expecting the phenomena.
I think this might explain the potential seriousness what might have been uncovered at the building site that John Brown played for.
Today, I learned from a very well-placed source that only THREE people at the Ibrox Dig are fully in the loop.
Unsurprisingly, one of the dignified trio is the Transcendental Chairman, and another contributes to the quintessentially British conclave from across the Pond.
Even their ever-helpful brethren on the 6th floor at Hampden don’t know why they can’t play with three stands until the work-whatever it is-has been completed.
At this stage, anyone who believes the “delay in a materials shipment from Asia” narrative might be interested in a bridge I have for sale.
Just what did Big Mike’s property guy uncover at Ibrox back in late 2014 that made him have a WOW moment?
This silence from the Sevco High Command, especially on the time scale, hints that there is something other than a supply chain issue.
For the avoidance of doubt, the usual succulent suspects in the Stenography Corps will maintain an obedience silence until they’re spoon-fed some spin.
Of course, they should be trying what is REALLY going on at Edmiston Drive.
That’s why David Low’s tweet, as the featured image, hits the spot.
The professional investor, no stranger to the world of finance or complex projects, was Fergus McCann’s guy on the ground in 1994.
For the record, he doesn’t believe the supply chain story either.
So, why the high level of insecurity?
That’s a question that the local media should be asking.