Читать книгу Your Brain on Facts - Moxie LaBouche - Страница 7

Foreword

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Humans are weird. I am raising two small humans, and they remind me of this fact on a daily basis. But aside from the obvious idiosyncrasies we all have, humans are also weird because we are the only species that questions the world around us.

Cats don’t stop to wonder why they land on all fours. They just do it and move on.

But humans couldn’t just accept that as fact. We questioned it for hundreds of years, probably to the detriment of many cats who were unwilling participants in these trials. It wasn’t until we had new technology that we were finally able to watch a cat using what’s now known as his Righting Reflex to maneuver his body so he can land on all four paws.

And we, weird humans that we are, probably celebrated this new knowledge while the first cat ever to be recorded on video went along his day probably thinking to himself, “Humans are weird!”

But that’s what makes us human. Some doctors even think our ability to wonder “why?” about the world around us separates us from every other species.

And that’s amazing! (And a boost to our egos, who are we kidding?)

Until you remember that ignorance exists. And that there are people in the world who are blissfully living in it.

Another funny thing about humans is even though questioning the world around us is something we naturally are inclined to do, it’s often frowned upon and many of us are trained at a young age not to question what we’re taught.

Luckily, Moxie LaBouche probably never listened to that and even if she heard it, she probably questioned it right away.

We also have a tendency to avoid our “weirdness,” and follow the crowd, maybe mirroring the actions, language, or even thoughts of others around us. Anything so we can blend in until we can figure out how our own personal brand of “weirdness” fits into the world.

We also tend to surround ourselves with those who share many of our same thoughts, ideas, and values, which might give us the false impression that the rest of the world is just like us.

It might not even be on a large scale—it may just be that your favorite social media app adjusted its algorithm to your liking so much that you’ve inadvertently surrounded yourself with an echo chamber of those who post things similar to things you’ve already liked and posted yourself.

Anyone who has studied history can back me up on that. Some pretty terrible things have happened in the world when humans decided that “weird” was no longer good and it was decidedly better to be like those with the most power or money or who come from a particular region or speak a certain way.

Ignorance may be bliss, but it’s not necessarily good.

Maybe no one will ever give the Nobel Peace Prize to someone for their contributions to bar trivia as we know it, but I do think that trivia can lead to great conversations.

Trivia can be a wake-up call from the past. In the not-so-distant past, for example, bacon was “doctor-approved” as a healthy breakfast. Cigarettes, which were seen as patriotic for men to smoke but unladylike for women to be seen with, got a marketing makeover when a far-fetched Freudian theory was used to spin them into a symbol of feminism. But going deeper into those stories—which Moxie does in this book—you may start questioning what products today have used similar advertising tactics. As soon as you begin to question that, you are no longer a victim of ignorance.

One of the most intelligent statements someone can make is admitting that they don’t know what they don’t know. Sometimes just admitting that can be intimidating, but it also means you’re open to learning more. And, as many historians will tell you, we can’t hope for a better future unless we learn from the past.

So tickle your brain, but don’t forget to share your knowledge with others! Trivia isn’t meant to stay with just one person—not only can it be used as a tool for learning from the past in order to help shape the future, but it can also be used to connect with one another. And if you’re socially awkward at parties like me, sometimes trivia was the only thing I felt comfortable talking about.

When Moxie started her podcast, I was intimidated by her. I had already been doing The Story Behind for a while, and I didn’t know many other hosts in the trivia and fun facts area, and certainly not a lot of females.

I also began to realize I was not the trivia buff I thought I was. I liked it and could research it, but Moxie ate, breathed, and slept trivia. She was the trivia podcast host I wanted to be, to be honest.

You would think that would make us “competitors,” but that’s not quite how podcasting works. I happily listened to her show, I got to know her online, shared her and her show with my audience, and roomed with her at a podcasting conference. I liked her instantly. She’s a weird human, just like me. Probably just like you, if you bought this book.

So, hello, fellow, weird human! If you are hungry for trivia and fun facts, I know you’ll enjoy feeding your curiosity with Your Brain on Facts, as I have.

—Emily Prokop, author of The Story Behind and host of The Story Behind podcast