I never really cared for trivia until I met my partner, who is a trivia nut. Now we go out to trivia nights a few times a month. I’ve learned to appreciate the esoteric knowledge some folks have, especially when I actually get to learn something interesting from them (and not just some celebrity’s name or former spouses).
She’s great at the pop culture stuff (zero respect — who cares), geography (cool!), some animals and trees (super cool) and anatomy (very impressive to me, not knowing anything about the human machine).
I hate the sportsball rounds (totally alien subculture to me), tolerate the comic sci-fi/fantasy geekdom ones (it was cool when I was a teenager, I guess), enjoy the history & general interest ones, and particularly love and look forward to any science rounds — but those are exceedingly rare. I get annoyed at the video game and computers ones because the hosts don’t always know what they’re talking about, lol… and it’s hard to argue with them and not come off as a dick when it’s a subject you know a lot about.
Eventually some local groups started themed ones. I went to a wildlife & natural history one and got second place (missed by one question) and was kinda proud of myself… it’s the one time I felt like my college degree in environmental science actually paid off, lol. (I went on to become a computer programmer, sadly).
Now there’s a purely science one that I go to every month, with rounds ranging from electromagnetic radiation to glaciology to Star Trek to quantum mechanics to sci-fi starships to cryptids (Bigfoot, Nessie, etc.). I don’t think I’ve ever gotten more than 40% of the questions right in any given night, but it’s still loads of fun. Now I’m spoiled and don’t think I can ever bear to hear another celebrity name or sports term again…