Whenever I try to pitch quizzing as an interest or hobby, the most common question/resistance which I encounter is this: Mmm, all these facts are fine and increase general knowledge; but is it going to be of any help in my daily life? And the answer to this question is an overwhelming yes!
We’ve discussed in a previous article how quizzing is much more than mere fact crunching (you can check that out here). Today we’ll have a look into the utility of quizzing in daily life. I’ll start with a simple example from my life. A couple of years back I decided to get a new car. After a lot of research, the brand, make and model were decided. But then I got stuck while deciding the colour of the car. Everyone pitched in with their favourite colour and put forward their own logic: “Get a brown one, then even if the car is dirty people won’t get to know!”; “Get a black one, black is the sexiest you know!”; “Dude, you need to buy an orange car, orange is the new black”… You get the gist, right? Overall the situation was dire and I was utterly confused about which colour to choose. Amidst all the chaos I suddenly recalled a science quiz question: Which colour absorbs the least heat? The answer is white, since it reflects all wavelengths of light. In India, where temperatures rise to 40 degrees Celsius, this is indeed a big issue. I dug a little deeper, and realised that white colour has a better visibility at night and statistically is less prone to accidents. Moreover, the resale value of white cars is also higher because it is usually correlated with purity and a new-feel. My predicament seemed much less complex now and I decided on buying a white car. In retrospect, I’m really happy with that decision of mine!
Now, this was a very small example of how quizzing can help in your day to day decisions. I can give hundreds of other examples. E.g. If you have read about how the British air force concocted the story of carrots being beneficial for eyesight to keep their radars a secret, you can counter your mom when she tells you to eat carrots (you shouldn’t though, carrots are good for health; moreover you shouldn’t risk getting slapped by your mom ;) ). But the biggest benefit of quizzing is that you’ll never run out of topics of conversation! This issue is not usually discussed, but running out of topics in a conversation is a nightmare! Remember those awkward silences in first dates, or not being able to contribute anything substantial in family discussions? Now quizzing will come to your rescue in all such awkward situations. You can chip in one or two relevant facts in the discussion which will impress your date and your family alike. (Just one cautionary advice: Don’t be a Sheldon Cooper and go overboard with facts. Make the facts a part of the conversation and you’ll be golden!)
We will delve into some other facet of quizzing in the next article.
Till then, #Stay_Tuned.