Never have I turned down a healthy portion of knowledge, a tasty morsel of information to feed my stimuli-weary yet always-craving brain. I am thrilled to see a growing number of self-proclaimed geeks and science junkies. People are traveling cross country this month to camp out and watch a solar eclipse, for Pete’s sake…in sweltering August!! Now those are some serious nerds. And have you noticed who the coolest guests are on the talk show circuit lately? Guests like Michio Kaku, Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson seem to be in high demand. Though I’ve been a fan of Tyson for a while, I was recently introduced to his latest mission to #MakeAmericaSmartAgain as part of his “Star Talk” podcast series and began listening to past broadcasts. I was immediately turned on by the likes of actual show topics such as The Science of Game of Thrones, Pitching Physics with Ron Darling and Science Literacy in the Misinformation Age.
It is also no secret that I love games that sharpen the mind — words games like Boggle, Suduku and Words with Friends — and most of all, mining the useless bits of interesting information socked away in crevices of the cranium. Sigh. Trivia. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Six wedges worth, to be exact.
I’m a Trivial Pursuit junkie, a game show watcher, and now, I think I’m hooked on the spirit of bar trivia competition, too. Last night, the fam and I sat in an Applebee’s to demonstrate our own knowledge with a handful of other bar trivia teams. Last time, we won one of the two rounds. This time, we took second both times and lost by only a few points each round. I have only taken part in bar trivia on a few occasions, but much like the roulette wheel in a casino, if you present me the opportunity, I will play, and I will flipping love it! And probably be sitting at your table for hours and hours at a time.
I feel the same way about learning. For me, anything new learned is exciting. Sure, sometimes the path leading up to that enlightenment can be tiring, confusing and even headache-inducing. I had one of those days yesterday. But when that eureka moment strikes… aaaah. It is an amazing feeling to cross over into understanding, isn’t it? That moment you realize that something you once did not comprehend has now become part of your basic knowledge base… it is quite an underappreciated transition, I think.
Learning new things is fun and yeah, I won’t lie — demonstrating what we know is even more fun. I am thrilled that game shows have experienced a renewed popularity and love hearing feature stories about kids getting lost in science, math or recreational activities to challenge the brain and show off their know-how such as chess and bot-building. This may be the closest we have ever gotten in the modern era to intelligence and the thirst for knowledge being viewed as sexy. I always hoped this day would come, said the nerd to well,…just herself usually.
How hungry are you to learn more? Are you willing to commit yourself daily to testing your wit in some way? Will you put in the effort to find a credible source of knowledge and glean a new nugget of information every day?
We can run in place, sit or lie down. Or we can pace ourselves to carry our minds forward to gain new ground and learn more about the world around us…and about ourselves. How hungry are you? Thanks for reading. x0 ~ Chris K.
Hungry enough to find out what you learned, my friend! 🙂 I’m all about getting my learn on and think it’s great when people keep seeking new knowledge and experiences. And oh, the discoveries! I believe enthusiasm and appreciation for the “cross over into understanding” can be a powerful thing ~ in various ways that can be beneficial to the world.