Translator: Nadine Hennig Reviewer: Peter van de Ven
Thank you so much. Good afternoon.
Thank you for having me. It's a great honor and pleasure.
So, let me start by asking you a simple quiz question:
what is the capital of Rwanda?
Some are laughing here, some are a bit irritated.
What is this guy doing here?
Some are scared, and some look knowledgeable.
That's great.
Now, I won't do a quiz with you, but keep that question in mind.
It's one of those thousands, of millions of questions
I'm supposed to answer, give the correct answer to,
without googling.
And why should you, and how can you?
This is basically what I'm talking about.
I'm a professional quizzer.
I turned my passion into a profession.
I'm a reigning European quizzing champion.
There is something like European Quizzing Championships,
if you ever wondered.
It sounds nerdy. Yeah, it's a bit nerdy.
But I also star
in one of Germany's most successful and public quiz shows,
and it's called "Gefragt-Gejagt," internationally known as "The Chase,"
and there, my stage name is "the know-it-all."
So, my job is to destroy candidates dreams of winning money.
Sounds mean, it is mean, but I love it.
(Laughter)
It's the most fun job I can imagine.
It's my dream job, and I hope to do it for a long time.
So, I get asked not only factual questions.
When people approach me, they wonder, How do you do this?
How do you remember all of that, and how do you know this?
So, from winter sports to classical music to biochemistry.
The second question, equally as interesting, I think, is,
Why do you know this?
I mean, we're living in an age where everything can be googled.
You probably all own some of those things here,
fittingly named smartphones.
So, all you have to do is type it in,
and there's Wikipedia or Google answering for you.
So, I do it too.
So, everybody should do it, but you shouldn't only rely on it.
And so, that's my question.
First, I want to show you how to do it,
and second, why you should do it.
So, the first basic assumption
whenever you want to try to learn something
seems a bit trivial.
It's about genuine interest.
You have to develop genuine interest
because that's the way you're going to focus and pay attention to.
Without any attention, you won't remember anything.
You can't fake that.
So, the basic question here rather is, How to develop that interest?
Because I don't think I've got a better memory than you. Really.
[Inaudible] I don't have that.
What I have though, I think, I'm more interested.
I've got an appetite for all of that.
And that's what you got to develop in order to form your general knowledge,
in order to know more.
There are basically four keys to develop that interest.
The first one? It's emotion.
We're not this rational being, right?
Social science wanted to betray us,
wanted to make us believe we're Homo Economicus -
we're not.
We are rather emotional beings.
Everything we learn
has some kind of emotional value or emotional attachment.
So, if you got vivid memories,
probably it's connected to somebody you like,
somebody you love, your friends, your family.
That's all up there.
Or it has some kind of practical value for you,
personally or professionally.
And that's where you got to start.
Not everything, obviously, is connected to it,
but you can, in your head, do certain mental journeys.
You can give a narrative to it.
Everything you want to know more about
and don't have that connection,
try to imagine it, try to put it in a story.
Think about going on a journey with your friends to that country.
Maybe you're not geographically interested in it,
but think about in your mind, how you go there with your friends
or what do you want to experience there.
The second key is deeply connected to this.
It's about senses.
So again, it's all about emotion, and this is deeply connected to senses.
We've got five of those.
There's one of utmost importance,
which is, obviously, vision.
So, science confirms,
if you want to remember something, you have to visualize it.
Sometimes that's quite easy to understand.
You read a biography;
if you don't have any pictures in there, you probably won't remember.
So, every time you read something about people,
try to picture them, try to find a picture.
It's the same thing: why do we have those PowerPoint slides?
It's about visualization.
If you got numbers, you put them in pie charts.
But use it to your advantage.
Sometimes it's quite hard. What do you do with abstracted ideas?
You should do mind maps.
Try to put them, link them, and even sometimes draw a picture to it.
Draw, that helps. It all stays in there.
What about the other senses?
There are four left, right?
The auditive one is super important, you know.
Maybe you're that learning type: you learn by looking at things.
But don't neglect the other ones.
So, what I do -
and you might laugh, but it really, it really works -
I self-talk, you know.
I talk to myself and sometimes quite loudly.
Be careful where you do it.
But I do it, and it might seem weird,
but every time I say things, names or dates or stories,
I just know it's better for my memory
because it goes into a different brain area.
If you look at your brain -
There are all sorts of things; neurologists can locate things.
You've got your visionary center,
you've got your auditive center,
and the more centers you activate, the better it is connected.
So, use all of them.
So what about the other three?
Okay, sometimes it gets difficult.
You can't touch everything.
Go to the Louvre and try to touch Mona Lisa -
I won't advise you to.
You can't taste everything, all right.
But if you want to learn something about the history of India,
why not go to an Indian restaurant?
I mean, it sounds cheesy, but I do this.
Because you get like a feeling for something,
and that helps to remember.
And if you think, well, this guy talking here,
Does he really practice what he preaches?
I do.
A couple of weeks back, I was in Poland at a World Heritage Site,
UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It is a salt mine.
So, Poland is quite culturally rich, and I went there.
And how do I remember that salt mine?
(Laughter)
And if you ever wanted to know how a salt mine tastes,
salty and quite gross.
But I do it, yeah. There is the proof of it.
So, I wouldn't advise you to do it.
Well, there are other options to taste things and try to remember it.
The third one is linkage.
You know, really, it's part of the emotional game.
You're linking it to people but it can be broader.
You've got fields.
Maybe you're interested in music but not geography.
Maybe you're interested in sports but not literature.
But the key here is to link it,
and then all of a sudden,
a different field becomes more interesting.
And I assume all of you already have done this unintentionally.
Because I've done it,
and many of my friends have done it.
For example, I had a close friend in school,
and he was not interested in history at all.
I couldn't understand it, but he didn't care.
He didn't care about grades,
and he didn't care about the history.
And all of a sudden, after summer break, it was much better.
How did he do it?
Was he reading about it?
Was he watching documentaries? No.
He played video games.
Actually, he linked it -
some of you see a link -
and he played "Age of Empires" and other games.
So, all of a sudden, he developed an interest through the games -
that was the start -
and then he started watching documentaries
and reading books,
and he was specializing in school in history.
So, the same thing as here.
Why are people, lots of German people, so good in U.S. geography?
Because they traveled there?
Because they're looking at maps?
No, they watch U.S. sports.
So, the Seahawks, the Eagles.
So, or if you're not into sports,
think about how you got your knowledge about U.S. geography?
Maybe at "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air."
Where was he born and raised?
In West-Philadelphia.
So, all of a sudden, you've got knowledge about those things.
And for me, when I was six, I knew the Roman numerals.
And it's not that special,
but I wasn't interested in Roman history;
I knew it through WrestleMania.
They use those Roman numerals; I had to know that.
I was collecting the VHS, if you still know that.
I had to, you know, understand it.
So, this is obviously often happening unintentionally.
You all have your personal experience with that, I bet.
But you can do this intentionally.
If you want to know something about something
you're not interested in at all, try to mix it,
try to mix it with something you are deeply interested in.
I'm not interested in cars but in business,
so I was reading the business part of cars,
and all of a sudden, I went out and saw all those car models.
I basically primed my view about what I see around there
because I developed an interest
when I started going over the business part of it.
The fourth pillar, the fourth key is identity.
If I had to basically give you an explanation of my life,
how I became who I am in a nutshell,
it's all about identity.
So, I was a shy kid.
I was afraid of people, low self-esteem.
Nobody would have ever expected me
to stand in the red circle in front of you, let alone on TV.
But I found a role, like a niche,
and that was - you can name it the knowledgeable one.
There was the first source of self-esteem for me,
and I liked that role.
Personally, I got noticed, and it was a nice role.
So, I wanted to be that person,
and all of a sudden, that was my motivation,
and every time I didn't act according to that role,
well, it felt weird, it didn't feel good.
So, I tried to be that.
And we all have certain roles,
and we all have a certain idea of who we are,
and not only one-dimensional,
I mean, you know, punctual, non-punctual,
charming, funny, good-looking.
But the most important thing, if you want to be more knowledgeable,
you have to think of yourself being knowledgeable
because every time you don't act accordingly, it doesn't feel good,
it's like cognitive dissonance.
And all you just tell yourself is "I want to become more,"
and then you sense every time you're struggling with it.
The other way around,
if you tell yourself, "I'm not knowledgeable,"
well, that's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
You won't be.
If you can't find a solution, you will never find a solution.
And there are many, many great examples out there.
I mean for example this gentleman.
I love boxing,
and when you read like in the 50s, 60s,
people didn't expect him to become, you know, a good or great boxer.
Muhammad Ali wasn't billed as a champion,
but he told himself - what did he tell himself? "I'm the greatest."
So, he wanted to be like that.
That's the story for most people who are successful.
It's their idea of who they are.
So, if you want to be,
you have to try to tell yourself you are that.
So, it all boils down to those four keys, to the interests.
Try to find an emotional attachment,
incorporate all your senses,
link it to different fields,
and in the end, try to incorporate it in your own identity,
as one part of your identity.
So far, so good.
But what if you just don't want to become that person.
I understand, you've got a lot to do.
You've got other goals in life.
So, there are three levels
where I would wish to convince you
that it might be worthwhile.
First, it's the individual one.
So, would you google your values too?
Probably not.
I mean, your values are basically your navigation tools, right?
You want to know what is good, what is bad,
what is right, what is wrong.
You've got an idea of that.
But it's similar with knowledge.
All prior knowledge we already got, we use to navigate in this world.
It helps us categorizing things,
even seeing things.
If we can't name it,
we probably have difficulties even recognizing it.
So, the more knowledge you've got,
the easier it is to navigate in this world;
it's basically like your glasses.
And also interestingly, the more knowledge you've got,
the easier it is to acquire new knowledge
and locate it somewhere.
Think about it like a web.
And all those neurons are basically connected,
and the tighter it is knit, the less things fall through.
So, if you outsource your general knowledge,
you will have a hard time acquiring new knowledge,
and you will have a hard time looking around you.
For me, basically, I see a lot of things people don't see
because I locate it to stuff I already know.
Other people don't see it.
There's another level, which is the social level.
Most of you have, basically, a business background
or studying business here.
So, certain skills are expected from you.
You have to interpret business figures.
You have to construct great PowerPoint slides
or give all those elevator talks and pitches.
But there are other skills too, like social skills, networking skills.
How do you learn that, and what is important there?
Imagine going into a party,
and then you meet Gurdeep.
And the first thing you talk about - you know, he introduces himself.
The name, you already get that, and the occupation.
Then he tells you he is from Bangalore.
And if you've never heard of that city -
what kind of, you know - he will notice it.
And what's his impression of you?
Probably not the best.
Maybe he is, in a way, used to it
that European people don't know that city of almost ten million people in India.
That's all right.
But imagine you knew it,
and imagine you could ask a smart question about that,
with your prior knowledge.
He will like you in an instant.
He will remember you.
And I made many great friendships
just by having an interest in different cultures
and having some knowledge to ask smart questions.
In fact, one of my most enduring and best friendships started like that.
That's Takefumi Ono.
He's a great friend of mine.
I met him 10 years ago, and the first thing I asked him was
whether he was also interested in sumo wrestling.
I know a couple of sumo wrestlers, and he was so flattered by that.
A European guy showing interest in Japanese culture.
And from that on, basically a friendship evolved.
But be careful.
There's one important rule in the know-it-all club,
if you want to join it:
don't show off.
You can destroy everything in an instant,
and believe me, I learned that the hard way.
(Laughter)
Yeah. Enough about that.
And that's the third level here.
It's the societal one.
Coming back to the initial question I asked,
What is capital of Rwanda?
I bet you all have been dying to know that now.
It's Kigali.
Kigali is the capital. You might still think, So what?
Well, but I guess some people knew it here.
And those people knew it,
I guess, they know a little bit more about that country,
the history, the geography, culture there.
Maybe, for example, also the fact
that 64% of the MPs there are female - a world record.
The least that information about the country could give you
is the conviction
that this is most definitely not a shithole country.
I'm a political scientist by training.
There are lots of trends which deeply concern me,
and I'm deeply convinced
that in an age of fake news,
in an age where lots of threatening trends
are threatening what we take for granted,
like democracy,
the best antidote to that
is a citizenship which is equipped with a broad and deep general knowledge
because then you ask smarter questions and make smarter decisions -
decisions about things
you might probably don't know yet that you have to make a decision on.
So, please equip yourself with knowledge as well
in order to save what we have built, our culture.
Thank you so much for your attention.
(Applause)