I recently found myself playing a geography speed quiz on Sporcle, sitting at the back of an academic class that will remain unnamed. For those unfamiliar with Sporcle, it is the self-proclaimed largest trivia website in the world, featuring all sorts of trivia quizzes on any topic you can dream of.
When I was younger and had nothing to do with my life, I used to go on Sporcle and take quiz after quiz, believing that I was boosting crucial trivia knowledge that would one day come in handy, while in reality wasting away my formative years. Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I can’t say that I’ll necessarily be bearing the fruits of my Sporcle labor for years to come.
Most of the trivia quizzes I took were sports-related, largely revolving around random stats of NFL or NBA players in recent history. For example, by the time I reached my peak, I was well antiquated with almost every NBA team’s leading statistical contributors in points, rebounds, and assists from the 2001-2010 NBA playoffs. Truly vital information that will serve me well at some point in my future.
At some point, the limiting factor of Sporcle quizzes became the time more than the actual content. Given enough time I could think of the scoring leaders in the past 30 years, but could I do it in 3 minutes? It turns out more often than not, I couldn’t. But over time, as I took more and more of such quizzes, I still couldn’t.
I’m now reaching the point where I realize that this blog is not a story of progression, or surmounting the insurmountable. There is no hero’s journey, and I have no character development, no redemption arc. As I’m typing these words I’ve come to the sobering realization that I just wasted a bunch of time.
I’ll probably still take quizzes on Sporcle though, especially geography and history-related ones because at least those could come in handy at some point. And knowing random things never hurt anyone. I got distracted while writing this blog and played a 13 colonies bunker quiz, and I got a score well below average, which doesn’t feel great. 
I don’t like the little quip it gives me when I score below average either. Bunker quizzes are basically sudden death, you keep answering these multiple-choice questions until you get one wrong and then you lose. As you can see, I got out on question 4. I will not be revealing my incorrect guess out of fear of judgment. But after further research, I now know the colonial capital of Virginia from 1699-1780, so I’d say I just underwent some growth as a person.
One day I’m confident that I will go to a trivia night somewhere with friends or coworkers or it doesn’t really matter who. A question will be asked, and a lightbulb will go off in my mind. I will shout out my answer while forgetting to hit the buzzer or raise my hand or however they do things, then I will hit the buzzer in accordance with the rules and shout out my answer again, and I will get the question right. And the question will be one I recall from playing Sporcle years ago, a piece of trivia nestled between the crevices of my relatively wrinkle-free brain that rose out of the ashes years later to save the day. And that will be the only question I get right for the rest of the night but the hours I poured into Sporcle will have been worth it. And to Sporcle, I will say: “You are not useless.”
Hey Aditya,
I just wanted to say that your expertise in useless trivia games is certainly not a waste. This may be just me, but I find people who know incredible amounts of random information, to be the most fascinating to talk to. I also think that knowing really random facts is a trait that all middle-aged fathers have, so you clearly have aged rather quickly.
Also, in reference to your last paragraph, I guarantee that you will never encounter a situation like that. I swear on my life, I have NEVER actually seen a work trivia night occur anywhere other than some really awkward, weird sitcom that aired 11 years ago.
Hey Adi!
Thank you so much for talking about trivia!! This is something that I have developed a liking for lately. However, I am pretty rough at it so I’m not the best person to talk about trivia…yet. Hopefully soon, though.
Believe it or not, I have also been involved in playing Sporcle lately. More specifically, I have been playing geography related trivia quizzes, namely Blind Secret Country. I can’t even tell you how much fun I have with this quiz. My family usually considers me as a whiz in geography (believe me, I have never bought that idea), but this quiz just proves how much I don’t know. Blind Secret Country isn’t as easy as I thought it was! I have not tried out any of the other quizzes on Sporcle, however, as I have been mainly involved in trying to improve my accuracy in this quiz. You seem to be playing Sporcle for a long time now; do you have any recommendations on what quizzes I could try out next?
I also appreciated your reflection of trivia and future hopes in the last paragraph of your blog. It really goes to explain the importance of trivia in our lives. Not only is it fun to play with family and friends, but also it is a great way to increase your knowledge. Like Connor said, sometimes the people who know incredible amounts of random information are the most fascinating to talk to.
Great job on your blog!
Great blog, Adi! First of all, I’d like to say that your blog posts are a very enjoyable read. I like your sarcastic and witty style of writing and think you’d make a great comedy man.
I’ll now respond to the meat of your post. I agree with your characterization of pursuing trivia seriously as “wasting away [one’s] formative years” and don’t think that’s at all an exaggeration. While it’s certainly fun, trivia encourages people to build a broad but shallow base of knowledge. I’ve seen this often where people in Scholastic Bowl might know the term “Maxwell’s equations” and the associated buzzwords, but don’t really understand the concept like how the equations can be applied and their significance.
The effect of this is that you are not only building important, specialized knowledge, but you also fail to truly appreciate the beauty of the things that you are learning. Learning is not about knowing a lot of stuff, but it is about developing a deep appreciation for something in particular.
Nonetheless, I’m not suggesting that trivia isn’t fun. I, too, have wasted many hours going through past Jeopardy rounds, for instance. However, I come to the same conclusion as you: trivia is best kept in moderation.