“The sole problem was the terrible unawareness” – Edmund S. Phelps. Most people are ignorant of their own limits. They become too desperate for something that they can’t achieve; too deep or involved in their belief that they could reach their goal, that they become unaware of what could go wrong or what already went wrong. 

This represents unknown unknowns, which is the idea that people don’t know what they don’t know(The One Thing). In other words, people are oblivious to their bounded knowledgeability. Say, for example, that you are in a conversation with a friend. You guys are arguing about dogs, which you know a lot about. In fact, you even own that dog that you two are talking about. He confidently mentions something that trips you up; makes you go “uhhh” and makes you wonder if you should correct him. Obviously you know more than him and he knows that you own that dog, yet he is confident because he thinks he’s knowledgeable in this subject. When you do correct him, he denies it, further justifying his argument. As mentioned before, he might be ignorant of his own ability to explain this topic. Still, he is so deep into the argument that he doesn’t want to accept the truth. This example applies to many people; those who think they are right when they are wrong, yet they don’t know it.

In Othello by William Shakespeare, Othello, manipulated by Iago, the main antagonist, becomes fixated in the belief that his wife is cheating on him, desperately trying everything he can to either prove it wrong at first, or prove it right, and eventually truly believing that she had an affair and wanting to kill her. Iago escalates the situation so well that Othello becomes very tangled into the drama, forgetting that he doesn’t know anything about this to make a valid statement. Othello was too involved in this belief, even though he had no clear proof but only what he heard from a “friend;” this leads to his downfall and failure. In other words, Othello grew too desperate for something that was so out of pocket and he knew nothing about, unaware of the consequences that he might face since he is focused on finding the truth. 

Even when ignorant about the subject matter, some people tend not to question anything. This relates to the idea of unawareness or ignorance because people are too afraid to ask questions about the subject, leading to them to think that they are correct and becoming close-minded to only one idea. It’s difficult to converse with these people as they are too deep in their solution because they don’t ask questions. And when confronted by a question, they still refer back to that one idea instead of expanding to new ones.

I think the main thing about goals is that you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself. Goals are tasks that you intend to accomplish by a certain amount of time. If they are made impossible, due to desperation, the goal is not achievable. When I started running, I began to desire speed, and the only way I knew how to be fast was to train harder. This desperation in this goal would lead to me getting so injured and fatigued that I wouldn’t be able to run faster for any time soon. I became unaware of what could go wrong and became too dependent on accomplishing this goal. You must be aware that you don’t know everything, so you really can’t do everything.