How to Find Out Anything: 7 Tips
September 12, 2008 – 6:35 amBy Tamim Ansary
• When was punctuation invented?
• What countries don’t use the metric system?
• Who are five successful diabetic female Hispanic athletes?
• How many people go through the Vatican each day?
• How long does it take a cowboy to break a horse? Back when I was editing textbooks, I had to answer questions like these all day long. I’m proud to say it never took me more than two hours and 10 minutes, thanks to my secret two-step research technique. Step 1: Spend two hours at the library searching fruitlessly.
Step 2: Ask a librarian.
• What countries don’t use the metric system?
• Who are five successful diabetic female Hispanic athletes?
• How many people go through the Vatican each day?
• How long does it take a cowboy to break a horse? Back when I was editing textbooks, I had to answer questions like these all day long. I’m proud to say it never took me more than two hours and 10 minutes, thanks to my secret two-step research technique. Step 1: Spend two hours at the library searching fruitlessly.
Step 2: Ask a librarian.
Only once did I stump a librarian (it was one of the questions above). But if librarians were my secret, what was theirs?…(read more)
