It’s easy — just learn everything

‘Jeopardy!’ star Paolo Pasco ’22 on right (and wrong) answers

Jacob Sweet

Harvard Staff Writer

Deep into Paolo Pasco’s audition process for “Jeopardy!,” his mother revealed to him a bit of “mom lore.” Decades earlier, she, too, had auditioned for the quiz show.

Back then, all auditioning took place in person. In his 2006 book “Brainiac,” Ken Jennings recalls driving 12 hours from Salt Lake City to Sony’s Los Angeles studios just to take a preliminary test with a friend. Later, they repeated the drive for screen tests. (Jennings, now the show’s host, went on to win 74 straight games and $2,520,000, easily covering gas money.)

Much has changed. Pasco, a 2022 College graduate, is fairly sure he took his assessment in a mall food court, alongside three friends, on separate phones, who were also taking the test. “We might as well do it now,” he thought to himself.

Pasco later won seven straight games before dominating the show’s Tournament of Champions. In August, he’ll return with other members of the uber elite for “Jeopardy! Masters.”

Though his work as a crossword creator helped build his knowledge base, Pasco was struck by the expansive world of online quizzing he discovered as he prepared for the show: competitions like Quizzing in Progress, LearnedLeague, and Online Quiz League; communities that offer tips and organize practice games; and troves of flashcards that contain nearly every “Jeopardy!” question ever asked.

Part of his preparation resembled that of past contestants. Knowing his weakness at identifying bodies of water, he drilled the subject until he considered himself passable. Online resources helped. His girlfriend even made a website of curated quizzes, the Triviary, to hone his aquatic identification skills. (Pasco notes that other contestants who have appeared on the show have also made use of the site.)

As a lifetime puzzle fan, he’s seen the same growth in crosswords. “That community has really blown up,” he said, “especially in a post-Wordle world.”

“At least for me, the best way to learn something is getting it catastrophically wrong somewhere else.”

Enrollment numbers for this year’s American Crossword Puzzle Tournament were so large that organizers cut off registration two months before the event. Next year, the competition will move from Stamford, Connecticut, for the first time in its nearly 50-year history, to accommodate more competitors.

Pasco’s crossword timing couldn’t have been better. As Wordle surged to mainstream popularity, Pasco was grinding out puzzles for the biggest crossword publishers. “Suddenly, all of the outlets saw the potential in short and casual daily-style games,” he said. He’s ridden the wave to postgraduate jobs at The Atlantic, LinkedIn, and TED Conferences, where he now serves as games editor.

Among trivia competitors, he said, he’s still in the “dewy-eyed, new-to-the-world phase.” A few weeks ago, he dragged himself in front of the computer in the early morning to answer 240 rapid-fire questions for the World Quizzing Championships. Though he improved considerably from two years ago (from 71 correct answers to 118), he expressed awe at the range and depth of the knowledge required — and admiration for seasoned quizzers such as fellow “Jeopardy!” champion Victoria Groce, who scored 191.

“The back half of the quiz was things that were completely new to me,” he said. “They had never come across my desk before.”

(If you can identify the vulture named after a 19th-century German naturalist considered to be the world’s highest-flying bird, consider competing next year.)

Reaching that level of mastery may require plunging further into the trivia depths, with failure as a prod: “At least for me, the best way to learn something is getting it catastrophically wrong somewhere else.”

As he prepares for the markedly more difficult questions asked on“Jeopardy! Masters,” he takes solace in the idea that the only solution “is just to learn everything.” He knows that there are levels to the obsession. However invested he is, he said, “There are people who are five times more in the paint than you.”

And if his latest “Jeopardy!”endeavor falls short, he’ll always have crosswords.

Jacob Sweet

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