You Don't Know What You're Missing: The science of what’s lost, and how to find it

by Kit Yates

We all like to think we're making decisions based on reality, but in fact, we're almost always working from incomplete information. And when 'you don't know what you don't know', it can be impossible to navigate successfully.

In You Don't Know What You're Missing mathematician Kit Yates explores the blind spots, gaps in our knowledge and how we make sense of the world given we usually have an unfinished picture. From avoiding common traps and pitfalls to filling in the gaps without guessing, it shows us how to turn our misses into hits.

417 pages, Hardcover

Published June 4, 2026

About the author

Kit Yates is an author, broadcaster and academic specialising in the role of mathematics in everyday life; a speaker who can explain scientific material in layman's language with wit as well as wisdom.

He is the author of three books, The Maths of Life and Death (a Sunday Times Science Book of the Year) and now How to Expect the Unexpected and You Don’t Know What You’re M ss ng.

Kit completed his PhD in mathematics at the University of Oxford and is now Professor of Mathematical Biology and Public Engagement at the University of Bath.

He is a prominent commentator on the role of mathematics/science in society writing regularly for the Guardian and the Independent and a range of other media outlets. He regularly appears on radio shows like the BBC’s More or Less, and Inside Science as well as on TV news shows and documentaries.