Universally Challenged

Sore Butt and Groin (it's 'Sourbut' and 'Groyne', actually)

I recently appeared on University Challenge. Our team had a lot of fun, and won the match! I wrote something about the experience, focusing on the challenges faced in a competitive buzzer quiz format, as well as how these apply to reasoning generally and how we can do better. I managed to sneak in a reference to Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, which didn't go unnoticed by my friend Mark, the culprit who must be held responsible for introducing me to that most excellent novel. I also mentioned Bayes Rule, uncertainty, calibration, logical uncertainty, time constraints, and cost-functions. All good fun.

We don't get the opportunity to pause time after every question syllable, pull up a notepad, run some supercomputer evaluations, compute exact Bayesian posteriors, estimate our teammates' and opponents' credences and likely buzzing behaviour, and so on. Cruelly, time flows at one second per second and the quizmaster keeps quizmastering. So too in life!

So too, indeed.

Twitter/X and YouTube had fun, as some friends were eager to point out to me. There were some more flattering remarks, but I think my favourite was

Sourbut combs his hair with a toffee apple #universitychallenge

As I anticipated, people also enjoyed it when I said 'groyne'. I know it sounds like 'groin', and yes, my name is 'Sourbut' and it's pronounced how you think.

It's 'groyne', actually

The editors actually cut the bit where I said, 'Never thought I'd say, "groin" on TV'. As I cryptically hinted in the Hertford, Sourbut post,

(As we may find out, there are also secretly other options, like '(-1000) say something embarrassing on national TV'.)