It's NOT about Memory!

So i figured out today it is not about having a quick mind, a quick mouth whatsoever, it is about being familiar with the thing.

If i know the subject as well as i know my own objects, e.g., the favourite book i have read, the software or web tool i feel most at home with, the TV show i like the best, etc.

The idea is to create an information asymmetry. That is, if the judge know more about the subject than me, i have no chance of winning, but if otherwise, i will definitely control the whole thing. This is not that impossible, just see how i beat T on the reviews of the texts. With the same amount of information, i can be better than her, so if i know totally more about the subject than the judges, the game is mine.

If i don't know much about the subject, i feel insecure before i am confronted with it. I go through the whole process without confidence. When i meet with it, i draw a blank within my mind. Words rushing out without order and trigger words repeat themselves in every sentence. People think i can't speak English well, and my mind is in a shambles, i don't have logic, i am not "quick" enough, etc, etc. And before i realized the truth tonight, i would think that way, under their influence, and thought that is what i need to work on, say my memory, my "quickness" of the mind, but those things are among which that are already determined before birth.

Things are totally different outside the vicious circle. If i am familiar with enough things as to cover any questions the judges will come up with, i will walk up to the stage with confidence, self-belief. When the question is uttered, i will smile and think to myself all is under control. I see what the judge is thinking about, i can predict what he might want to say next, what he already has in mind, what i might say might inform him of something new...

All i need to do is to weigh them down with what i know and see.

Since i know these college professors to be mostly...lame, i can see myself reach that point within a short time. But it is not a time to drift and wait, but to hold on something essential and fight. Fight!

Possess the question, do not let the question possess me. Then i have to be bigger than the question. Don't let the stage, the crowd, the judges consume me.

So this is the idea behind the whole thing: i will figure out what the competition and every part of it is about, what is my ultimate perfection, and how can i reach that perfection.

Another lesson i drew from the competition was that a concise and witty answer which addresses right to the heart of the problem is 100 times better than a premeditated or calculated "theory" which fails to disguise itself. The former is much much harder than the latter because it requires an exhaustive thinking experience, while the latter is dealing mainly with...nonsense.