I noticed something at game night last night: About the third time I started a sentence with, “Did you know…” and inserted some random bit of trivia, I suddenly became aware of just how much I give tangentially related factoids. Which then caused me to wonder just how much I was saying that in my everyday life.

Past Experience

Dan and I have played trivia on cruise ships twice. We won both times. The first was Urban Myths and Legends, the second was just a general one. Both times I felt like my love of various information and strange facts was finally being put to good use.

Of course, I also managed to pull some right answers out of my ass, which I still haven’t figured out. What is the chemical symbol for sodium? Na, of course! No idea how I even knew that, but my brain told me the answer and I wrote it down.

Jeopardy Champ

I listened to a recent People I (Mostly) Admire with a former Jeopardy Champ. He talked about how people who are good at trivia generally are interested in a lot of different subjects and find it fun to collect facts. I found this interesting because one reason I thought I would never be good at trivia was because I know nothing about sports and that is a common topic. My lack of interest runs so deep I sometimes can’t match teams to the sport they play.

But I have lots of other interests! Whether it’s about royal history, serial killers, or obscure 2000s girl bands, I am interested in learning all of it.

All my favorite things in one

I feel like trivia is the perfect intersection of so many things I love. First of all, it’s about accurate information. I love accuracy! It takes knowing a little bit of everything. Also, being able to listen critically and make sure you understand exactly what is being asked. Sometimes you can use the question to help form your answer. This is especially helpful as there are always trick questions.

Finally, I find it fun to pull a random fact out of the air and not even be sure why you know it. There are many things rattling around in my brain. Who knows what might become useful while you’re at trivia?