You could
pick from a ridiculous number of examples to prove that I’m a geek. I was a math major. At MIT. (It should be noted that the only time I wasn’t a math major from MIT
was on spring break in
Anyhow, my
point is/was that I would have better luck trying to get a date with Angelie
Jolie (a long-time goal by the way) than trying to argue that I’m not a
geek.
High on the list are some of the books I’ve read and movies I’ve seen – Word Freak is about competitive Scrabble players. And when I say “competitive,” I mean “good.” Not about you and me playing and being competitive, but about players who consistently score over 500 points per game.
“Wordplay” is a documentary about crossword
puzzles. It introduces several folks, including the editor of the NY Times
crossword puzzle (who by the way is the only person in the world to hold a
degree in Enigmatology – the study of puzzles), and shows interviews with Jon
Stewart, Bill Clinton and Mike Mussina. The
documentary builds towards the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament where in
2005 a 20-year old becomes the youngest ever to win (he wins again in 2006 in
the bonus scenes on the DVD).
And then
most recently, I just finished reading Prisoner of Trebekistan, which
is, not surprisingly, about Jeopardy. The author is Bob Harris who is a comedian who tried out for the show
numerous times, and when he finally made it, he became a 5-time champion and
then appeared on various tournaments they had. Several things stood out for me in this book.
- 5-time champions aren’t usually just smart folks who play the game. They study their tails off. Bob Harris did. Ken Jennings (74-day winner) did. They all seem to. Harris used mnemonics to help remember from the state birds to the kingdom-phylum-species ordering to the books of Henry James. Just like the amazing abilities and commitment of Scrabble players (who memorize, amongst other things, all the 2-, and 3-letter words, words that begin with “Q” but are not followed by a “U”) – just like these folks, these Jeopardy champs are students of their game. Even how Harris described thinking ahead when he saw the categories (for the category, “Playing President” before the game even started, he began going thru all the people who have played president in a movie or TV show – Michael Douglas, Martin Sheen, among others) and I have to say that the next time I watched the game, I began doing the same thing (or at least tried to).
- I was also impressed by the camaraderie shared by the champions. Harris describes them all as super-nice people, who while they may be competitive, really are just wickedly-curious folks. After meeting at the champions’ tournaments, many of them stay in touch. That seems pretty cool.
- While Alex Trebek can seem somewhat cocky on the show (in his pronunciation of words, how he corrects folks when they are incorrect, etc.), Harris claims, and I’d heard the same from an interview with Ken Jennings, the Trebek really is a genuinely nice guy who roots for everyone.
- Finally, while at times the acquisition of knowledge seems like a nice-enough goal in and of itself, Harris talks about a transformation that occurred, where by learning all these cool things, he now has a greater appreciation for the world. His natural curiosity has made him take in more of the world around him. That seems like a great result of this obsessive quest for knowledge and learning.
I like spending
my time with books and movies like these because it gives me an appreciation
for how others think. The reason I’ve
always liked being around smart people is that they are smart for a reason – I often
learn something from them, whether it is simply humility or more often it is a
new or different way of looking at something (such as pre-thinking the
categories on Jeopardy as Bob Harris did).
No doubt
about it. One of the best ways to get better at something is to interact with
people who are better than you are. They’ll
make you better.
Comments