——Even if Einstein wanted to waste his time and brain power learning trivia, being able to ring in on time and spurt out the correct answers on a clock is entirely different from researching and developing theories over years and years.——
Right. Either your brain works a certain way that makes you good at Jeopardy!, or it doesn’t. You can’t really train yourself for it if your mind doesn’t already work that way. Meaning: Retaining facts you may only be exposed to once or twice, and being able to recall those things immediately.
One of my successful Daily Doubles involved identifying the father of Hester Prynne’s baby in “The Scarlet Letter”. I got it right, even though I hadn’t read the book since 9th Grade. Don’t ask me how I remembered the man’s name. I just did. Shrug.
My goofy brain works much the same way. I am often able to quickly recall very strange things that I might not have seen in decades, I always say: I have an innate ability to remember useless crap.
However, I also tend to get "over-excited" under pressure, and fear I would not be able to quickly read the clues faster than Alex. If you can't do that, you have no chance.
It's easy on the couch.... where I routinely CRUSH everyone! :-)