26 at 26: Q for QI
A Letter to the Elves
Late last year, I turned 26. So, in the tradition of the great panel show QI, for the first half of 2014 I will be running through an alphabetical view on 26 things in my world so far.
Dear QI Elves,
I suppose this really was inevitable, wasn’t it? An alphabet-based project inspired by QI hits the letter Q… what else would you go with?
Surprisingly, I’m hardly the most immersed in or obsessed with the QI universe. True, I’ve seen just about every episode (most of them on YouTube, I’m afraid) enough times to annoy my roommate with the opening jingle. But, for example, I don’t partake in the forums whatsoever. I’d probably never take the trip to be in the audience.
And worse off, I don’t partake in the philosophy.
I know, I know.
I do my best to be curious. Like most other insufferable geeks, I spend far too much time on Reddit and the like, absorbing anything and everything that even vaguely resembles interesting information. But of course, it’s Reddit. It’s Hacker News. It’s mostly rubbish, gossip, and tripe. (And cats, but who can complain about cats?)
I’ve never been very good at being a terribly critical thinker. I’m more of a logical thinker; given one piece of information, I try to work out what naturally follows. If what naturally follows is false, then perhaps the information is false.
But you know, and I’ve increasingly learned, that the universe is illogical. Intuition is fairly useless. Pretty much everything we know is wrong. That’s why Alan gets the klaxon so much. Since I started watching QI in earnest, I’ve never had more information nor felt more profoundly stupid.
So, one, thanks for that.
Still, I can’t help but watch the show and listen to the podcast. I want to know more. I graduated highly from all of my schooling, people generally consider me fairly sharp, but I need more data. QI gives me data. (So does idly browsing Wikipedia, for that matter, which I’ve done less and less. It doesn’t give me entertainment on top.)
It doesn’t quite stick around, though. In one ear, out the other. Good for repeatability, I suppose, but ultimately I wind up disappointed in my own brain. It must be tough work being an Elf; that, or the constant treadmill of information leads to the same effect.
It’s like the Facebook effect. I know, from the behind-the-scenes special (yep, watched that too), that Stephen isn’t that all-knowing. And the panelists probably aren’t that clever; it’s all editing. But damn if they don’t make me feel insufficient from time to time. Like my university degree isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on, or that stereotypes about American intelligence are completely valid.
So, two, thanks for that.
But I don’t mean to be totally hard on you guys. QI sort of represents what I aspire to be — broadly educated, curious, cultured, funny. And if one is to trust the Manifesto, I can see why I’m not there yet. I’m too embarrassed to ask questions. I write very little (outside of this series). I’m impatient and fearful.
I’ve been thinking a lot about personal improvement. I have a lot of room to improve, on a lot of metrics. And I believe that trying to bring myself more in line with the QI philosophy is the best option for improving my own mental strength. I don’t care about pursuing a Ph.D. I don’t want to be a specialist. I want to be interesting.
So, I’ve tried to look for interesting things that I didn’t just pick up from QI in the first place. I haven’t exactly come up with much, though, and most of it’s common knowledge in the circles I run in. But still, in the interest of being interesting (and maybe making this worth your time), a few random bits:
- Portland, Oregon was named by coin flip
- Dr. Gay Hitler was an Ohio dentist
- “Bear”, as in the animal, was a euphemism
- “One Headlight” by The Wallflowers contains no crash cymbal
They’re not massively interesting. One or two might be complete rubbish. But, I’m trying. I’m a long way from Elf caliber, or panel caliber, but at least I have that notion in my head and a few little points to nudge me in its direction.
So, honestly and sincerely, thanks for that.
— A fan
And now, a moment of zen:
“Whatever is interesting we are interested in. Whatever is not interesting, we are even more interested in.”
