TenPoundHammer wrote: ↑Sat Feb 10, 2018 10:43 am
I have found that, even when I do learn something that might be useful, I never seem to have that feeling of "that's cool, I learned something today" even when it's something within my interests. I never feel any "gain" even in the event that I actually do learn something interesting. And I guess I'm just feeling disillusioned over the concept of learning in the first place because it never seemed to be "worth it" to learn at all. So maybe that's the rub.
Here's the thing. It's not that this type of attitude is necessarily wrong, but it's something I'd expect from someone who is utterly not curious about the world or trivia at all. But you clearly watch the show, and you engage with other people on a message board. That's a use of your time that could be better spent elsewhere if you really didn't like trivia. The very term "trivia" means details or pieces of information of little importance.
So which is it? Do you want to get better at trivial matters or just claim that all this stuff is "useless" information, because it mostly is in the real world.
twelvefootboy wrote: ↑Sat Feb 10, 2018 11:27 am
Just curious - are you familiar with different musical modalities? (Dorian, Myxolidian, Ionian, etc..) This is an example of very specific and very useless information that I find fascinating.
I am because I've encountered them in several hymns in my other job as a church organist. And since I have perfect pitch, I can detect things like that in other songs.
There are also a very few popular songs that are modal -- for instance, "Sweet Home Alabama" is Mixolydian, "Country Girl (Shake It for Me)" and parts of "Fancy" (the Vicki Lawrence/Reba song, not the Iggy Azalea one) are Dorian, and so on.
twelvefootboy wrote: ↑Sat Feb 10, 2018 11:27 am
Just curious - are you familiar with different musical modalities? (Dorian, Myxolidian, Ionian, etc..) This is an example of very specific and very useless information that I find fascinating.
I am because I've encountered them in several hymns in my other job as a church organist. And since I have perfect pitch, I can detect things like that in other songs.
There are also a very few popular songs that are modal -- for instance, "Sweet Home Alabama" is Mixolydian, "Country Girl (Shake It for Me)" and parts of "Fancy" (the Vicki Lawrence/Reba song, not the Iggy Azalea one) are Dorian, and so on.
Next time you get your dobber down about your success with different dimensions of the trivia games, just try to relate to the average chump's relationship to musical minutiae. I've been playing the D/C/G chord progression for Sweet Home Alabama a few decades and never connected it to my academic interest in modes. Much like your shortcoming at connecting dots sometimes, I can never figure out the fourth chord in a song. I'll take a shot at the VI minor chord and I'm pretty much cooked.
So, I was exposed to useless, irrelevant information today. Thank you sir, may I have another?
Disclaimer - repeated exposure to author's musings may cause befuddlement.
1stlvlthinker wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2018 8:21 pm
You don't get to complain that you don't know stuff that's on Jeopardy! while simultaneously complain that it's useless information. A lot of stuff on Jeopardy is useless in my day to day life. But I'm here because I enjoy trivia games. Why are you here?
Because I want to learn something actually useful, not pointless garbage that will never come up again.
Says the guy who learns obscure facts about country music stars, how to win at Wheel of Fortune, and facts on obscure malls.
As was pointed out if you’re looking to learn useful things, you’ve come to the wrong place. Jeopardy! is a trivia show. Trivia is, by definition, useless. I’ll admit (as will you) there are useful things to be learned from J! but there isn’t much of them. So don’t argue that we’re not learning useful stuff because you won’t get an argument.
(Btw, there’s about the same ratio of useful to trivia (maybe more to the useful side) in your beloved Uncle Johns too.)
"Jeopardy! is two parts luck and one part luck" - Me
"The way to win on Jeopardy is to be a rabidly curious, information-omnivorous person your entire life." - Ken Jennings
TenPoundHammer wrote: ↑Thu Feb 15, 2018 2:29 am
So this is how I managed to not get FJ!:
I know when I was looking up what song was #1 on my birthday, a coworker asked me what song was #1 on hers, and it happened to be "Maria Maria" by Santana and some other group no one's heard of. In checking the list of #1 songs, I was surprised that Santana reigned for 10 weeks with that song, and then also had a 12-week #1 with "Smooth" around the same time. These findings were quite surprising to me, since I always thought Santana was more of a 70s and 80s act, and even among people who actually were listening to pop music in the 90s, I've found that both "Maria Maria" and "Smooth" seem pretty obscure now. And "Maria Maria" did seem to fit the combination of Latin act, also a name, and big hit, but it didn't quite seem to fit the clue. So I kept going.
Let's see. There was also "Livin' la Vida Loca", and I seem to remember my mom already being into Enrique Iglesias when "Hero" was a hit, so maybe he had something out that was a big hit before then? I know the "Latin Invasion" was a thing, after all, so let's keep going. Jennifer Lopez. Lou Bega.... uh... Rick Trevino? Time's up, I got nothin'.
Basically, by starting in completely the wrong direction, I managed to think of nearly every popular Latin act from that era BUT the right one.
Even though you didn't get to the correct response, this is a pretty solid chain of reasoning. Maybe you have a little more background knowledge in this area, but if you could start expanding this process of deduction to other categories you'll be well on your way.
TenPoundHammer wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2018 7:27 pm
How was I supposed to know that Table Tennis for $200 was referring to China and not any other big country? Or maybe a small country? I saw no TOM at all in that clue.
The US's table tennis diplomacy with China was a minor plot point in Forrest Gump. Admittedly it was a bit on the tough side for $200.
TenPoundHammer wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2018 7:27 pm
How was I supposed to know that Table Tennis for $200 was referring to China and not any other big country? Or maybe a small country? I saw no TOM at all in that clue.
The US's table tennis diplomacy with China was a minor plot point in Forrest Gump. Admittedly it was a bit on the tough side for $200.
That's what gave it to me, but there was also a country that Nixon was most famous for opening relations with. The opera "Nixon in China" has been referenced on the show, as has the PRC taking Republic of China (Taiwan)'s seat in the UN around that time too because the US under Nixon said the PRC wasn't that bad.
"Jeopardy! is two parts luck and one part luck" - Me
"The way to win on Jeopardy is to be a rabidly curious, information-omnivorous person your entire life." - Ken Jennings
TenPoundHammer wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2018 7:27 pm
How was I supposed to know that Table Tennis for $200 was referring to China and not any other big country? Or maybe a small country? I saw no TOM at all in that clue.
The US's table tennis diplomacy with China was a minor plot point in Forrest Gump. Admittedly it was a bit on the tough side for $200.
Not if you were alive then, since it was huge news...now I feel a bit like Forrest Gump myself...
TenPoundHammer wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2018 7:27 pm
How was I supposed to know that Table Tennis for $200 was referring to China and not any other big country? Or maybe a small country? I saw no TOM at all in that clue.
"Thawing of relations" in 1971 suggests a country with whom we had frosty relations before then. This is likely a Communist country, and towards the end of the Vietnam war, so China (who supported the Viet Cong) is a good candidate.
China has also historically been good in table tennis. Moreso than other communist countries, probably?
Plus, as people mentioned, the Forrest Gump connection. And it was a foreign policy thing in the 1970s (which is why it was included in the Forrest Gump movie). And notable that during the Nixon presidency, our relations with China were thawed. ("Only Nixon could go to China" is a saying I've heard before.)
Without the Forrest Gump connection, this probably wouldn't be $200 clue, but it would still be a reasonable one.
TenPoundHammer wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2018 7:27 pm
How was I supposed to know that Table Tennis for $200 was referring to China and not any other big country? Or maybe a small country? I saw no TOM at all in that clue.
The US's table tennis diplomacy with China was a minor plot point in Forrest Gump. Admittedly it was a bit on the tough side for $200.
In hindsight, the thawing of relations with China is arguably the biggest accomplishment of what is otherwise an infamous presidency. It was also a big deal at the time - or at least it was to this pre-teen.
If one were to make up a flash card of things to know about the Nixon presidency to use when studying for Jeopardy!, ping-pong diplomacy with China would certainly make the top ten. Probably the top five.
TenPoundHammer wrote: ↑Tue Feb 20, 2018 8:28 pm
Me: "hmm, I have friends pressuring me into learning tech support. Maybe I should watch this video series about A+ certification."
Two minutes later: "what the *%#!+ is a motherboard? I'm screwed, forget this."