Science & Technology

The Joy of Learning Random Things on Wikipedia | Annie Rauwerda | TED

Writer Annie Rauwerda makes a habit of getting lost among the seemingly endless digital archives of Wikipedia, discovering fake towns, promiscuous tortoises, 19th-century fangirls and so much more. An avid editor of the crowd-sourced platform, she speaks to the joys of exploring niche and humorous subjects, accidentally learning just for fun — and broadening your…

Published

1 year ago

October 19, 2023

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51 Comments

Canonest

October 19, 2023 at 8:30 pm

“shallow learning”

Reply
chas in lakewood

October 19, 2023 at 8:33 pm

I give $21 bucks to Wikipedia every year (can’t remember why that amount).
I have a ‘triviality’ list on Twitter with 9 sources. Yup. I’m that too.

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zuali ralte

October 19, 2023 at 8:52 pm

the joy of watching random videos on the internet ^__^

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Atlantis

October 19, 2023 at 9:01 pm

her clothes are weird

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Trinidad Traxx

October 19, 2023 at 9:54 pm

You had me at DINKUS! 🤣

Reply
Suhel H

October 19, 2023 at 10:40 pm

Over the course of the years, the quality of TED has just downgraded to a point now it’s just random people giving talks about random things

Reply
Sonic gamer

October 20, 2023 at 12:08 am

Wokepidia

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- Robert Davidson
  
  October 21, 2023 at 7:50 am
  
  Why? Because it doesn’t put up with idiotic anti-vax made up conspiracy theories?
  
  Reply
Sonic gamer

October 20, 2023 at 12:11 am

Best propaganda site

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- F
  
  October 21, 2023 at 7:23 am
  
  Second this.
  
  Reply
- Sonic gamer
  
  October 21, 2023 at 7:28 am
  
  @F waaaat
  
  Reply
- Robert Davidson
  
  October 21, 2023 at 7:51 am
  
  Nope. Just evidence based
  
  Reply
- Sonic gamer
  
  October 21, 2023 at 8:50 am
  
  @Robert Davidson according to Wokipedia Man is a woman 🤦
  
  Reply
- Robert Davidson
  
  October 21, 2023 at 9:07 am
  
  @Sonic gamer where?
  
  Reply
JayG

October 20, 2023 at 12:34 am

Wikipedia Random Article Button is addicting, buts it usually random geographical locations or random athletes, eventually u strike gold

Reply
̇frank694

October 20, 2023 at 12:53 am

Service Temporarily Unavailable
Our servers are currently under maintenance or experiencing a technical problem. Please try again in a few minutes
2023.10.20

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m kk

October 20, 2023 at 12:56 am

funny talk curious person love you girl😍

Reply
Arrigo MMXVI

October 20, 2023 at 4:01 am

i LOVE wikipedia 💖been using it since i was a 10 y.o. when i first stumbled upon it for everything 😸 i don’t posses any particular knowledge to significantly contribute but i use it most of the days of my existence as i have always been curious and craved for knowledge 💖 it’s a gift and a blessing for me 🌻

p.s. she def scared me abt becoming unable to access info as i am a russian citizen 🙈downloaded the app immediately

p.p.s. sad that history doesn’t change a bit and they are still burning books and make ppl their slaves by putting them in this windowless box over and over again..i guess some ppl can’t live without dominating over others and playing with their lives 🙈

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Maria Antonietta Montella

October 20, 2023 at 4:39 am

brava🤗😅

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Lil Speed

October 20, 2023 at 5:50 am

I love this girl

Reply
Tim Truett

October 20, 2023 at 7:22 am

Wikipedia is not a reliable source of information. Wikipedia only presents what other people, including ignorant people, unqualified people, and people with an axe to grind, say about a subject. Saying it does not make it true. There have been cases where a real authority on a subject corrected an error on Wikipedia and other people edited the article to change it back to the wrong information.

Wikipedia is not a source of truth. It is a source of what people say.

Reply
Michael Davidson

October 20, 2023 at 9:51 am

Wikipedia has a very left wing bias when it comes to political and many historical subjects. I do like Wikipedia, however, for technical subjects, science, math, movie, and TV information.

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- mk
  
  October 21, 2023 at 5:19 am
  
  the truth does tend to have a left wing bias, yes
  
  Reply
jointco

October 20, 2023 at 11:46 am

wikipedia is a fraud

Reply
Billabonggg2011

October 20, 2023 at 1:27 pm

She reminds me of Annie Murphy 😂❤️

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Erfan Farhadi

October 20, 2023 at 3:03 pm

I find her way of thinking to be fascinating.

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Vito B.

October 20, 2023 at 3:11 pm

Wikipedia is such a fascinating platform to gain knowledge, and i just realized it because, In short, I was being told to not read Wikipedia because it’s not accurate.

Now, I spend about 30-60m for reading and studying from Wikipedia, daily. If i find something interesting, I could easily click the link and if the answer isn’t satisfying to me, I could do more research on Google and YouTube. If the topic is very interesting, I could buy a book of the topic. And I really love improving my foreign language reading comprehension ability as well as my memory of the knowledge I read on Wikipedia.

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- Spayce Ace
  
  October 21, 2023 at 7:44 am
  
  Correct. Its not always accurate
  
  Reply
Kaoutar Arij

October 20, 2023 at 3:37 pm

Free Ghaza 🇵🇸 Free Palestine 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

Reply
Mars Rider One (Official)

October 20, 2023 at 6:36 pm

I love wiki quote of the day

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- Brinax
  
  October 21, 2023 at 6:43 am
  
  What is it?
  
  Reply
James Bruno

October 20, 2023 at 7:41 pm

I know for a fact there are lies on peoples biographies on Wikipedia. And if you try to edit to correct the lie, Wikipedia doesn’t allow you to.

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F

October 21, 2023 at 7:22 am

Wikipedia is brit nat propaganda.

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Priyanshi Gupta

October 21, 2023 at 12:47 pm

if you use wikipedia as your source of information, you’re HIGHLY misinformed about a lot of things

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arquilli1

October 21, 2023 at 7:24 pm

Why was Coleman Hughes’ talk censored based on TED censorship and bunk/irrelevant meta analysis? Why did he receive more scrutiny than others

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Jonathan Byrd

October 22, 2023 at 9:17 am

Loved this talk! Great skills mastered early. Just wanted to correct that pH means “potential of hydrogen.” 🙂

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진수향

October 22, 2023 at 9:39 am

Hummmm this is like a stand-up comedy for TED nerds lol

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Larry

October 22, 2023 at 12:19 pm

Wikipedia….is not valid information and definitely not your friend

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Kin

October 22, 2023 at 1:12 pm

👍

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LaMelo Ball

October 22, 2023 at 3:13 pm

Annie is the perfect example of it’s not about what you say but how you say it. Her passion and enthusiasm shines through her speech.

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Fishing Architect

October 22, 2023 at 8:20 pm

Wiki is interesting but often as wrong as it is right. Never use it as an encyclopedia. The problem is the editors are often opinionated and not factual.

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Vanessa Bernal

October 22, 2023 at 11:39 pm

Is there anyone who wants to learn Spanish and can teach me English?

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DanWi

October 23, 2023 at 10:01 am

Wikipedia is not a good source for information. They cannot help but also offer their OPINION of the information. I understand much of the content is user generated, but until this is fixed, Wikipedia is pretty much worthless as an information source.

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Corance Chandler

October 23, 2023 at 12:20 pm

With Wikipedia on my left hand and chat GPT on my right, I shall rule the world.

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Hannah Friedman

October 23, 2023 at 3:11 pm

the p in pH does have a meaning. It’s referred to as “power of hydrogen” or “partial hydrogen (content)” because pH is calculated based on the hydrogen content of the solution.

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fluffyshanks

October 23, 2023 at 4:38 pm

What a brilliant Ted Talk!!! One of my favourite pastimes is to click on the day’s featured article (regardless of the subject) and read and click on hyperlinks and generally disappear down a Wiki-rabbit hole.

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Geeksmithing

October 23, 2023 at 4:42 pm

Oklahomans don’t know the difference between a fruit and a vegetable. Makes sense.

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TheTrig86

October 24, 2023 at 1:46 am

Countless trials to overcome serial procrastination, then a TED talk appears and brings me back to Wikipedia binges

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Gowes Channel

October 24, 2023 at 6:49 pm

Nice camel toe… very interesting wikipedia…

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basv

October 24, 2023 at 9:39 pm

Wikipedia…? 🤡

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Ömer Faruk Demir

October 25, 2023 at 9:06 am

she is so much fun

Reply