How to become smart? Television quiz-finalist Max Terpstra explains
Max Terpstra, a reporter at BNNVARA, rose to national fame at just 25 when he made it to the final of the quiz show De Slimste Mens. Folia asked him: how do you become the smartest student?
Watch TV
“Well, how did I acquire all that general knowledge? I just watched endless hours of television for years: the Dutch programmes De Wereld Draait Door, 3 op Reis or just I Love Holland. Watching quiz shows in particular makes you good at games on TV. For example, I watched the Dutch quiz show 1 tegen 100 every week. As a student, I just spent half the day feeling a bit hungover on the sofa in front of the television. Then you pick up all those facts automatically.”
Not studying
“I started studying law because I love acting and thought that as a lawyer you could also act, but in a courtroom. I found the program boring, so I dropped out after six months; it wasn’t for me. After that, I did a bachelor’s degree in media and culture. I found it interesting to look at films from an academic perspective. For example, I had to link the Korean film Parasite to the communist ideas of Karl Marx. But most of the time I watched lectures on demand, occasionally attended seminars and mainly streamed films myself. So secretly I was always cheering when there was a film round on De Slimste Mens (The Smartest Person).”
Following the news
“I’m interested in everything. If there’s a review of a play in the newspaper, I go and see it; if there’s 3x3 basketball on TV, I get completely absorbed in it. It helps that I don’t really play sports myself, so I have more time to watch the Olympics.”
“And I’ve been working on talk shows at BNNVARA for three years; if you follow current affairs, you pick things up automatically. But I don’t think that has anything to do with IQ. Don’t ask me anything about physics or maths or anything like that, though.”
Chess
“Unfortunately, I had a gambling addiction for a while during my student days. It started with winning a little at a casino during a night out, but at a certain point I was gambling online all day long. Eventually, halfway through a holiday in Lisbon, I had to admit to some friends that I couldn’t spend any more money because I had gambled it all away. I was lucky to have friends and family who could help me kick the habit. I also started playing chess online and got better and better. It gives me the same kind of thrill without losing money. But it also makes you smarter, which feels good.”
Don’t think
“After my bachelor’s degree, I applied for a job at BNNVARA and was hired. Although my gambling addiction was already improving at the end of my studies, that’s when the big change came. Instead of doing nothing all day and hanging out in front of the TV, I was distracted from my addiction by having to make TV. When I released a documentary series about young people addicted to gambling (Verslaafd aan Verliezen, ed.), I realised: if you ever gamble again, you’ll have fooled everyone who watched that series. That’s why I’m now certain: I’ll never gamble again. Although, in the end, I lost the final of De Slimste Mens (The Smartest Person). Maybe I would have won that cup if I had gambled a little with the answers.”
