My elder son and I both participate in an on-line trivia contest called Learned League. It's a competition held in "seasons" of 25 "matches," six questions a day on each weekday during that time. You compete directly against one other person in the league and you gain points by how difficult your opponent thinks the question will be for you, based on your past record on similar subjects.
The most recent season ended on Monday and my son and I competed in the same group of players for the first time. I wound up in fifth place within that group, and my son was 23d. In discussing that difference, I suggested that it was, in part, a question of age--that there are things I know because of events I have lived through which he has not.
For instance, a recent question asked us to identify the Aswan Dam in Egypt from a brief description: "Name the southern Egyptian city, and capital of its namesake Governorate, near which an embankment dam (at the time, the world's largest) was built in the 1960s?" I knew immediately what they were talking about, because the dam was controversial at the time, not least because it threatened to destroy an ancient temple complex which was relocated to the shores of Lake Nasser (created by the new dam) with international cooperation and donations.
My son had no idea, because the story of the dam and the temples was no longer news worthy and, unless you were studying ancient Egypt in school, not covered by the usual curriculum.
This led to a discussion of whether the age of your opponent should be included in the available information about him or her. I believe it should be. What do you think?
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