The Question · the flagship piece
One Answer, and No Room to Argue
A question with two defensible answers is broken, however interesting it is. How ambiguity creeps in through tense, scope and unstated assumption, and the discipline of closing every door but one.
Written from the back room. Every piece is about how a question is built, checked and calibrated rather than about answering one, and the house rule is that a question with two defensible answers is a broken question.
Specimens
The same fact, once broken and twice repaired
A question is a machine with one moving part. Anything that lets a second answer through has to be closed by hand — usually by pinning a moving fact to something that does not move.
Facts with a shelf life →Illustrative phrasings, not a set to play.
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Broken
“Who is the world’s tallest person?”
Present tense, no anchor — the answer moves without warning.
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Repaired
“Who held the Guinness world height record in 1990?”
Past tense, named year.
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Repaired
“According to the 2011 census, what was England’s population to the nearest million?”
Named source and year locked in.
The Question
One answer, and no room to argue.
One Answer, and No Room to Argue
A question with two defensible answers is broken, however interesting it is. How ambiguity creeps in through tense, scope and unstated assumption,…
Write the Answer First
Setters start from the fact and construct backwards. Why that order prevents the most common failure, and what it does to the shape of the finished…
The Second Answer Is Usually True
When a team argues, they are usually right that their answer also fits. What that reveals about the question rather than about the team.
Sourcing
Two sources or it is not a fact.
Two Sources or It Is Not a Fact
The setter's minimum standard, and why a single source — however authoritative — is not enough.
The Reference Shelf, and Why It Survives
Printed reference works still matter to setters in an era of instant search. What a fixed edition gives you that a live page cannot.
Facts With a Shelf Life
Records, populations, tallest and fastest. How setters handle facts that will be wrong within a year, and the phrasing that makes them safe.
The Room
Difficulty is a property of the room.
Difficulty Is a Property of the Room
There is no absolute difficulty — only difficulty for these people, tonight. How setters read a room, and why a question that works in one pub dies…
The Shape of a Round
Opening gently, peaking, and finishing on something everybody can attempt. Why sequencing matters as much as content.
The Tie-Break
A question nobody can know but everybody can estimate. The specific craft of a good numeric guess.
Formats
The pub quiz borrowed its shape from television.
The Pub Quiz Borrowed Its Shape From Television
The rounds, the jokers and the picture sheet all descend from broadcast formats. How the traffic went, and what the pub added back.
The Picture Round
Why almost every quiz has one, what it does for pacing, and the rights problem sitting underneath it.
Why Teams
The social design decision that made the pub quiz durable, and what it does to question difficulty.
The Trade
Millions play it. Almost nobody writes it.
Millions Play It. Almost Nobody Writes It.
The strange economics of a form with an enormous audience and a tiny profession. Who actually writes questions, how the work is bought, and why it…
House Style
Every quiz has one, most are unwritten: length, register, how a question announces its own difficulty.
A Setter's Week
Where material comes from, how it is stockpiled and how a set is assembled — the unglamorous rhythm of the job.
