(You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know is an annoying business term and is just one of the 212 Most Annoying Business Phrases Managers Effuse, Confuse, and Overuse detailed in the hilarious must-have guide for every workplace: The 30,000-Pound Gorilla in the Room. Available right now on Amazon.)

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

Wait, let’s see if we’ve got this straight. You’re saying that we don’t know what we don’t know… is that it?

Hmm, that’s interesting… and very intuitive on your part. Thank you… we suppose.

Ugh, this phrase is annoying both on the surface and in the underlying uselessness. That is, this is one of those phrases that doesn’t really need a replacement because it never needed to be uttered in the first place.

Yes, none of us knows whatever it is we do not know; just as none of us possess whatever it is we do not possess.

Quite Zen on some level.

No, strike that, this is really more of a Yoda saying. Something so simple and unnecessary that only Yoda could repeat it and make it sound important.

Certainly, Yoda would move the words around a bit and utter it like, “You do not know what it is you do not know.”

Of course, since you’re not Yoda, stop saying it in any order.

Replacement phrases: No replacement needed; just please stop saying it.

See also: It Is What It Is

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The 30,000-Pound Gorilla in the Room is available on Amazon