Is there anything that you don’t know something about? Everything you comment on, you seem to be an authority (and without coming off like a know-it-all).
What is your education level? Where and what did you study? If you were have to list 5 categories where you feel your knowledge is lacking, what would they be?
(I suppose that this could be taken as mean-spirited, which it is not at all intended to be. I am completely sincere and curious here.)
I think that his secret is that there’s actually a lot of things he doesn’t know, but he just stays out of those discussions. Also, he’s second only to Cecil in his research skills (hmm… Could it be?); most of his ability seems to come from skillful use of libraries and search engines.
OK, so I’ll admit it, I’m just jealous 
+ :o = 
:rolleyes: :wally
My vast education extends to a B.A. in Philosophy with another year of general study in Europe and a later 8-month technical school romp to get into computers (since my degree enabled me to say “Would you like fries with that?”).
I am a data junkie. There are very few subjects in which I have no interest.
I spend a fair amount of time just reading informational stuff and I have a pretty good reference library at home. (I do also enjoy fiction.)
My parents had two complementary habits: if asked a question, my mom would start off like James Mitchener at the creation of the world and work forward to why we were having lima beans for supper that night; my dad responded to a lot of questions with “Let’s look it up.” and the two of us would dig out the dictionary or other reference and look up the answer. (I’m sure my dad knew most of the answers ahead of time, but he got me into the mode of research.)
I inherited both traits: my first response to a question is to go look it up, myself, and my second response is to go find someone to bore to tears with the answer.
I have one thing going for me for which I can take no credit: I have a very good memory that works through association. When I learn a new fact I immediately associate it with other similar facts and identify the connections which, in turn, helps me remember all those related facts as related facts.
And, of course, Chronos is entirely right. When I am clueless on a subject, I try to keep my head down. You will rarely see me wander into a cosmology thread, and probably never into a math or physics thread. (I’m actually pretty weak at a lot of popular culture, as well.)
The research skills are based on the memory. Anyone can use Google, they really can!
Where I get lucky is in having a velcro memory. For example, a question about national abbreviations will call to mind a project I had as a programmer, six years ago, that involved tying in to the ISO3166 table (memory gives me that “ISO3166”) so I have something other than “national abbreviation” to use as a search key (since “national abbreviation” would probably return 50,000 entries without actually getting me to National Country Codes).
I’m also not really very young, (currently pushing very hard on 50), so I have had time to read and store up all this stuff.