Imagine you own a large personal library (containing thirty thousand books). If you ever have any friends over, they might ask you: “how many books have you read?”. Some friends could view this as ego-boosting library.
The real point of a library like that is to be used as a research tool. Books that are already read are far less valuable than unread books. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, etc. You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books will look at you menacingly.
This concept is known as an antilibrary.
We tend to treat our knowledge as personal property to be protected and defended. It allows us to rise in the pecking order. So, this human tendency to offend the concept of an antilibrary and focus on the known is a human bias that extends to our mental operations.
People don’t walk around with anti-resumes telling you what they have not studied or experienced.
Note that the Black Swan comes from our misunderstanding of the likelihood of surprises, those unread books, because we take what we know a little too seriously.
(Ideas from Nassim Nicholas Taleb)
-BH
The Black Swan Blog 
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