0:00 So you click the button.0:01 You know the one.0:03 On the side of Wikipedia, it just says “Random article.” And for a split second, anything is possible.0:11 You could land on a forgotten battle, a deep-sea microbe, or a third-tier politician from the 1970s.0:18 It’s a little shot of pure, uncut discovery.0:22 Last week, we talked about Eadweard Muybridge, who used a wall of cameras to prove a horse could fly.0:30 Just for a moment.0:31 He was using the absolute peak technology of his day to see something new.0:37 And it made me wonder… what’s our version of that?0:41 I think it’s that little button.0:43 Special:Random.0:45 That’s the actual technical name for it.0:48 It’s our portal to the unknown.0:50 But here’s the thing I found out… it might be the worst way to find something amazing.0:57 Okay, so stay with me here.0:59 The "Random article" link does exactly what it says on the tin.1:04 It pulls one of the more than six million articles on the English Wikipedia and just… serves it to you.1:12 No logic, no preference.1:14 It’s true chaos.1:15 And that’s cool!1:16 But it also means for every incredible story of a guy who survived being shot through the head with a tamping iron — that’s Phineas Gage, by the way — you’re gonna get ten articles about a specific road junction in rural Ohio.1:34 Or a list of mayors for a town with three hundred people.1:38 It’s random, alright.1:40 But it’s not necessarily… good.1:42 It’s like prospecting for gold by just digging holes anywhere.1:47 You might strike it rich.1:49 But you’re probably just gonna get a lot of dirt.1:53 So what’s the alternative?1:55 What if you had a map?1:57 What if someone, or rather, a whole community of someones, had already done the prospecting for you?2:05 This is where it gets good.2:07 Because they have.2:08 Wikipedia has a page that is NOT an encyclopedia article.2:12 Its only purpose is to be a list of other articles that the community has decided are… unusual.2:20 They have a few names for it.2:22 WP:WEIRD.2:23 WP:STRANGE.2:24 But the main one is just “Wikipedia:Unusual articles.” And this page is one of the most wonderful things on the entire internet.2:34 It’s a curated museum of things that make you go, "wait, WHAT?" This isn’t an algorithm.2:41 It’s a group of people arguing, debating, and finally agreeing that yes, an article belongs on the list.2:49 There are criteria!2:50 Things like… the subject is a notorious hoax.2:54 Or the subject has a bizarre, unplanned cult following.2:58 Or the subject is just… distinct.3:01 It’s a human-curated directory of wonderful nonsense.3:05 And the stuff on this list is just… magnificent.3:08 You’ve got Umbral Calculus.3:11 This was a whole branch of mathematics.3:14 People used it for over a HUNDRED years.3:17 It gave correct answers.3:19 The only problem?3:20 No one on Earth knew how or why it worked.3:23 They just knew it did.3:25 Can you imagine?3:26 Building bridges with math you can’t prove, but it seems to hold up?3:31 Or how about the book Fly Fishing by J.3:35 R.3:35 Hartley.3:35 It was a fake book, by a fake author, invented for a TV commercial in the UK.3:41 People started going into bookstores asking for it.3:45 So many people, that eight years later, a real author was hired to write the fake book under the fake name to satisfy the demand.3:55 A piece of fiction willed itself into reality because of an advertisement.4:01 And my favorite might be the story of Alan MacMasters.4:05 For ten years, Wikipedia had a beautifully written article about the Scottish scientist who invented the electric toaster.4:15 It was reported in newspapers.4:17 People cited it.4:18 The only problem?4:20 He NEVER existed.4:21 The article was a hoax, written by a college student, and it fooled everyone for a decade.4:28 This is what you miss with the random button.4:32 You miss the stories about the stories.4:35 The hoaxes, the happy accidents, the things so weird they have to be true.4:40 So the real discovery engine isn’t the random button.4:45 It’s not the algorithm.4:46 It's the combined, collective curiosity of millions of people, filtering the universe of information down to the truly strange.4:56 It's the realization that sometimes the most interesting thing to find isn't a random fact, but the human-made map that leads you to all the weirdest places.5:09 That’s the real treasure.
