42 things I learnt in 2022
At university, I was in demand by the men’s rugby team for one event only – the pub quiz. The deep love I have for fun facts and trivia was only useful at the pub for a long time.
That is until I joined 42courses.
They’re called 42 because it’s the answer to life, the universe and everything. Every day I’m blessed to learn something new which can be about anything from behavioural finance to body language.
Though I can’t promise the answer to life, the universe and everything below, these 42 things I learnt will hopefully spark some inspiration!
1. Sometimes waiting for inspiration is like waiting for the government to voluntarily give you a tax rebate. It could happen, but it’s infinitely more likely if you go after it.
2. “Not everything that makes sense works, and not everything that works makes sense.” – Rory Sutherland
3. A compelling story increases the value of an item on eBay by over 6,395%.
4. The worst thing you can do when public speaking is stand completely still. Your body thinks you’re either about to fall asleep or be attacked.
5. Stubbs the cat was mayor of the Alaskan town Talkeetna for 20 years.
6. The man who invented the pringles can is buried in a pringles can.
7. The verb "unfriend" first appeared in 1659.
8. A jiffy is a unit of a time equivalent to a 1/100th of a second.
9. "He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career." - George Bernard Shaw
10. Every Dutch police car has a teddy bear in it in case they need to help a traumatized child.
11. The world’s longest Viking longship was found by coincidence underneath Roskilde’s Viking Longship museum in Denmark.
12. A man tried to sell New Zealand on eBay with bidding starting at 1 cent. He was from Australia.
13. A moment is a medieval unit of time equal to 1 and a half minutes.
14. The punctuation mark ?! is called an interrobang.
15. In a meeting, people point their feet towards the person they think has the most authority.
16. Most self-promotion seems to be trying to attribute to skill what was most likely luck.
17. The online focus on “killing it” conveniently omits the fact that someone needs to take the bins out, pay bills and occasionally call their mother.
18. "Net zero targets require emissions to halve by 2030. But corporate emissions, in aggregate, keep rising. There's something fundamentally wrong." – Chris Hohn
19. 40% of the Earth's surface is used for farming.
20. 72% of individuals across 30 countries believe that they will be failing future generations if they do not take personal action to combat climate change.
21. Carbon offsetting hasn’t worked for the 30 years it’s existed.
22. Jellyfish are considered biologically immortal.
23. The living animal biologically closest to the T-Rex is the chicken.
24. Hot baths reduce stress in monkeys.
25. Your brain, if it were a computer, would be capable of holding 300 years of TV shows.
26. The only muscle that never tires is your heart.
27. Humans are the only animals known to cry tears in response to emotions.
28. Melbourne gave 70,000 trees email addresses so people could report any problems. But instead, people wrote love letters.
29. There are roughly 1.4 billion insects for every human on the planet.
30. In 1911 Eduardo de Valfierno stole the Mona Lisa. He didn’t care for the painting, he just wanted to sell forgeries when the real one was reported missing. It worked and he made a huge profit.
31. In 1908 the Russian team arrived 12 days late to the Olympics because they were using a different calendar.
32. Legend has it that Christianity was chosen over Islam in 988 AD as the state religion of Kievan Rus because Volodymyr the Great did not want to give up alcohol.
33. So called “Chinese” fortune cookies were invented in San Francisco in the 1900s.
34. In World War Two, the British disguised the Taj Mahal as a bamboo stockpile.
35. Up from just 2,000 in 2020, researchers counted nearly 250,000 monarch butterflies in California in 2022 due to conservation efforts.
36. 95-year-old Angela Álvarez won best new artist at the Latin Grammys this year.
37. Indonesia and Monaco have the exact same flag.
38. Dragonflies can see in all directions at the same time.
39. The Navy SEAL “Cyborg” who popularised box-breathing used to be an accountant at PWC.
40. There are two gold pineapples on the top of St. Pauls Cathedral.
41. A 2009 study found that anywhere from 90% to 94% of US dollar bills contain cocaine.
42. Queen Elizabeth II holds the record for appearing on more currency than any other person.
