That’s me too! If there’s any trivia I’m better at than the average bear, it’s music trivia (as long as that music was made in the good decades). Yet it isn’t hard to find someone who knows a lot more about it than I.
I’m a good couch-Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit player. It impresses people, but they’re assuming I have additional skills or depth, which I do not.
I am a Cinephile that cannot name a single Academy Award winner. That knowledge is beneath me. Ask me about a quote, about the cast, about the story. Ask me about the art, not about what the art won.
You’re right, it is silly. I say that as someone who once knew a lot of comic book trivia but whose knowledge is now decades out of date. Many years ago, I came to the conclusion that a lot of things I enjoy are silly, but I don’t get the impression you think of someone who knows a lot of trivia about comic books with disdain.
I can’t think of any trivia expertise is something I’d like at with disdain. I would look at someone who abrogated their responsibilities with their trivial pursuits with disdain though. If you bought #4 of the limited issue Wolverine run from 1982 by Frank Miller instead of buying diapers for your kid, I’m going to be disdainful.
Oh, and we all know Hulk would pound Wolverine into the ground or send him into orbit. No way could Wolverine win that fight. I don’t care about Old Man Logan, so don’t even bring that up.
Similar to an above poster, I disdain a lot of sports trivia when it is merely statistical memorization: “Which shortstop has never had a prime number of hits in a season?”
But I like it if it is truly novel or distinctive: “What was the first professional sports event that an athlete performed while wearing Crocs?”
No, I don’t mock people who like things I don’t like. I can even stifle a yawn when someone shares all their assorted trivia with me. I’m sure others might find my trivia-filled interests silly. Doesn’t mean we have to come to blows! 
Almost half of those I wouldn’t be able to tell you.
The kinetic energy one… I don’t even remember what that’s for or what it means. The meter I know, temperature I would have to sit for a minute or so with some paper to remember where the 32 goes and whether it’s 5/9 or 9/5, but to what purpose is there in remembering this? And I don’t know where in my life I’ve ever had to know atmospheric pressure is 15 psi, and certainly not that it’s 100,000 N/m^2. To me, that’s orders of magnitute removed from knowledge like “2+2=4.”
I wouldn’t call it “trivia,” though.
Yeah, but the only reason they’d be fighting is because Logan drank all of Dr. Banner’s beer, and he’d consider that a victory.
I too suck at Scrabble despite an extensive vocabulary. You are not alone. And yes, it vexes me.
I can do jumbles fairly well; IMO that’s a very different exercise. But I can’t explain how it’s different. Which vexes me.
What’s jumbles?
But that’s like asking an illiterate person when they’ve ever needed to read a book. On one hand, it’s true–they’ve survived this long, so sure, it’s not strictly necessary. But on the other: how would they possibly know?
Basic knowledge like this is needed to make sense of lots of science reporting. Take this random example:
So they can allegedly suck >1 MPa. Is that a lot? Well, since I know atmospheric pressure is 100 kPa, I know this is 10 atmospheres, which is definitely a lot of suction.
So much suction that it makes the entire report somewhat questionable. Normally it’s impossible to suck more than one atmosphere–more than that and you get a vacuum! So either it’s wrong, or there’s something unusual going on that makes this not like ordinary suction. Capillary action? Internal pressure of the xylem? Who knows!
Either way, it makes the report much more interesting than a totally out of context number. Oh, and this basic scientific knowledge does mean the article is definitely wrong in one way–this line:
They note the force is strong enough that the little insect could suck the water out of a cup at the base of the Statue of Liberty while perched on its crown.
Well, that’s just not possible. The most you can ever suck water (at sea level, and with other minor caveats) is 32 feet. More than that and you just generate a vacuum.
You’re assuming I’m interested in reading that. I’m not.
Your argument really seems to boil down to: “I pity people who have different interests than me.”
You know, I figured out a long time ago that you can’t know everything. So I focus on stuff that interests me. Physics, as a general rule, does not. If I read an article or book and don’t understand something well, there is the internet. Or maybe I know someone.
But this whole STEM rules! Humanities drools! reminds me way too much of a dick measuring contest.
Look, if it makes you feel better, about 7 billion other people have my pity, so your personal share of it is very small.
Nah, doesn’t bother me.
Amazing that within living memory it was the other way around.
A big heap of who gives a shit from me. I can’t even get past the first sentence without first looking up three words (froghopper? Sibarial? Xylem? Ok, maybe I’ve seen that one before but I couldn’t tell you what it means out of context), so unlikely for me to care about. If it is, then I look it up.
Where a word’s letters are scrambled (jumbled) and you need to figure out what the word is from a clue and a picture and then find a final word(s).
I have respect for factual knowledge: history, geography, sciences, math; economics, physics
Much less for pop culture, literature or fantasy.
Just how my brain is wired
No offense intended
As a middle school math teacher, the most important thing I tried to teach students was that it’s possible to develop an interest in almost anything. I learned a bit about how pencils are made and some details of their design and variation. I feigned an obsession, but just enough to make it clear that I was enjoying knowledge of a sort. I tried to cultivate an acceptance of individual enthusiasms.
I’m another who knows a little bit about “everything.” It almost infuriates my wife that I can whip out a background understanding of almost any topic that comes up at a socal gathering.
I’m good at trivia, and I appreciate that sort of knowledge. There’s a point of diminishing returns, though. If you’ve gone past that on a given subject, I’ll still humor you if you can make it interesting.
There’s only two areas that I can’t care less. Celebrity “gossip column” stuff and high fashion.
Sports trivia is a curious thing. I like and understand statistics, but the trivia is like memorizing how long everything in your house is, when I’m just interested in how a measuring tape works.