The Power of Knowledge

This week, the Wordville team had “the satisfaction of taking part” in a client’s general knowledge quiz. I emphasise the aforementioned phrase, as people use it all too regularly to make losers feel better about their poor performance. Well I can tell you, the Wordville team gained no notable satisfaction from taking part. We were in it to win it. Who enters a competition with the aim of not winning? Yes, I’m a bad loser but I’m proud of this; I want to win, I want to be the best. What’s wrong with that?

Later that night, my poor sportsmanship got me thinking. In our team of five – and out of a total of 50 questions – my individual performance left a lot to be desired. Not one to sit quietly, I volunteered answers for many of the questions. However, I was probably individually responsible for a correct answer of about… one? Maybe two at a push. The rest of the team seemed to know considerably more than I did. To further add insult to injury, it turned out my specialist subjects (whales, dolphins and vegetables), had not cropped up once. I was left looking like I knew absolutely nothing.

The team offered their support. ‘We’re just full of useless information’, said Polly and Lucy, who seemed to be the best ‘informed’ of all of us.

Is this knowledge really useless, though?  In the case of the above quiz, it would have been distinctly useful. Knowing Henry VIII’s third wife’s first child’s birthday might not help me out when writing a press release, but who knows when that exact question might crop up? One day such knowledge could win me a million pounds or, in the case of this week’s quiz, infinite workplace glory. The point I’m trying to make is that one day, some situation might present itself, where knowing an obscure, some might say useless fact, could have weighty consequences.

Lucy and Polly are so full of ‘useless facts’ that they would stand a much better chance of answering that million pound question.

The conclusion I have come to is this. The more you know, the more power and advantage you have. As long as you don’t compromise on having useful knowledge, there is no harm in filling your head with useless information too. So, from now on, I am going to absorb everything. From memorising the day’s main news agendas, to Steph’s favourite nail varnish. From Barrack Obama’s policies on human rights, to what direction Pema likes her tea stirred in.

Pub quiz teams all over the country should beware… 

By Jessica Matthias