It Ain’t What You Know That Gets You Into Trouble. It’s What You Know for Sure That Just Ain’t So.
Think. Know. Prove.
In the 1993 “And The Band Played On,” the movie told the story of a CDC epidemiologist’s efforts to track down the HIV epidemic. To be able to convince political leadership about what they had found the CDC team divided things into “What do we think? What do we know? What can we prove?” They had to do this as the story of HIV was not politically popular at the time. The team had to maintain its credibility in the face of opposition at all costs. I can’t think of a better way to divide up the massive amounts to information coming towards us today.
What we think are the things we come to believe from observations. Everyone has a pair of eyes and can observe the world around us. We try to understand what we see and why it happened. Still, we only get part of the picture and each of us has our biases. What we think can change as our view of the world changes.
What we know are the things we trust and accept to be true. These are widely accepted facts or histories about the world around us. It’s not just us who believe these things. For example, we know that in the US we drive on the righthand side of the road. Sometimes what we know turns out to be wrong. When the life shows us something new, it can shake our world view.
What we can prove are the things we can trust the most, but often the hardest to understand are data from research that has withstood scrutiny. Facts are hard to come by, but if something is proven it cannot be dismissed. It is true all by itself, regardless of belief or understanding.
In this blog and on this website I will separate what we think, what we know, and what we can prove to establish and maintain credibility with you. I wish to give you a better understanding of the world around you and help you with the decision you must make in your life.
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