Feb 3, 2009

The end of trivia?

I'm getting to really hate wikipedia and google.

It used to be that a person with a good memory for random facts could occasionally impress people by whipping out something like "The hundred years war actually lasted 116 years," or "Light takes 8.3 minutes to get from the sun to the earth," or reciting entire passages from "The Princess Bride." I used to fill my brain up with facts like these from the kind of books that you can open to any page and start reading (bathroom readers, Guinness Book of World Records, etc.) or by watching the movie over and over again.

But now, anyone can find this kind of info faster and more accurately (or at least with citations) with a quick google search, which usually lands you on wikipedia. And with the prevalence of iPhones and the like that can access google from anywhere, we're not even safe in bars anymore.

Tell me, is there a place for an old-fashioned trivia buff anymore?

I guess I'm not the only one

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