For success:
- Know who knows what
- Reach out to those who know
- Share what you know
First, if you revel in playing games and haven’t yet discovered Wits and Wagers then check it out now on Amazon. Wits and Wagers is a quickly learned, quickly played game for all ages that rewards those who are aware of the knowledge base of their fellow players far more than rewarding those who actually possess their own wealth of trivia.
In short, everyone provides a (numerical) answer for a given question—anything from a date an event occurred to the distance a field goal was kicked. Once all the answers are in, they are arranged from the lowest to the highest value and each player can bet on any answer. The players who bet on the closest answer without going over win the round.
There is no reward for being person who wrote down the closest answer (aside from patting yourself on the back and feeling foolish if you didn't bet on your own answer), only for betting on the answer that is closest. Typically, the most successful players are the ones who know the most about what their competitors know. For instance, does the question involve knowing about Canadian provinces? Well, if you’re aware that one of your players lived in Canada, then odds are her answer may be the best bet. Or if the question is on the number of companies in the Dow Jones, then who follows the ups and downs of the stock market daily? How many black keys on a standard piano? Any chance there’s a bona fide musician in the group? You get the idea.
Even if you’re not a game player, if you can be successful at Wits and Wagers you may well be successful in life. In 2013 there are new medical discoveries, environmental impacts, economical theories, political shifts, athletic achievements, parenting pronouncements, artistic feats daily—need I go on? The sheer quantity of knowledge, not to mention the exponentially greater quantity of data, available in the world today cannot be adequately described numerically.
So what’s the shortcut to possessing that knowledge? Knowing where to find it. Many may say— “hey, that’s the value of Google.” Well while Google certainly strives to return results that have been vetted by the fact they are the results most frequently referred to, it's not always straightforward. The searcher not only needs to know the best words to use in a query, but needs to have awareness of, you guessed it, who knows what. And if you know who knows what, you can more quickly pinpoint your query. You could even actually ask a knowledgeable person directly. I know, that eliminates the safety net of the anonymity of the internet, but you are likely to receive much more personalized responses.
The simple principle of Who Knows What can be applied every day. Have a new medical condition? Why not call the friend you know who was diagnosed with the same condition four years ago. Debating what to wear to on a date? Any chance you have a fashionista friend or a local business you trust with clothing advice? Where should you send your children to camp? How can you develop a communications strategy? Where to start on financial aid forms? How to set a budget, prepare for an interview, make a presentation? Know who knows. Reach out. Share what you know.
