By Julie Lays

Jeopardy! America’s favorite game show was the backdrop to the Legislative Staff Luncheon Wednesday at the Legislative Summit.                                                                   

ANSWER: He won more games than anyone else and lasted six months on the show.

QUESTION: Ken Jennings, Jeopardy’s most-winning contestant of all time.

Legislative staff received all kinds of awards today, so what could be more fitting than to have Jennings be the keynote speaker. “Live your life in the form of a question,” Jennings told the crowd. Winners, he said, are curious about the world around them. They question everything, and they know what to ask.

A self-declared nerd, Jennings watched Jeopardy! as a kid and idealized the contestants on it. It paid off, that’s for sure. His winnings totaled more than $2 million.

Funny and engaging, Jennings told the lunch crowd how, after his six-months of fame on the show, IBM called. They asked him to help develop a computer that could win every question: Watson. Watson needed competition, and Jennings was the man. But even Jennings was no match for Watson. Despite answering one question under the “U.S. Cities” category with “What is Toronto?” Watson was just too fast for Jennings.

But fast isn’t everything. The problem with Watson, Jennings said, was that despite being good at answering questions he was not good at asking questions. Which brought him full circle back to his point: Be sure to phrase life in the form of a question.

Julie Lays is the editor of State Legislatures. Email Julie.