NYU Livewire News Service, Mar. 10, 2004

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Mental Floss Make Your Brain Minty Fresh
By Christine Lee

While some people collect stamps or rocks, Will Pearson, 24, collects trivia facts. His unusual hobby led him to co-found mental_floss, a magazine devoted to quirky facts like how Pin the Tail on the Donkey started. With more than 50,000 people reading this two-year-old glossy, the Birmingham, Ala. native reveals his ongoing love affair with useless but interesting information and why he loves doing business in New York.

You've been collecting trivia tidbits since the sixth grade. How did this obsession start?

Out of nowhere I suddenly became interested in learning so many different things. I started collecting the names of world capitals and presidents. I just got fascinated with knowledge. Then I started talking to [Mangesh Hattikudur, the other co-founder] and we saw that there were no magazines out there that were like mental_floss.

How did your parents feel about your idea to turn your trivia habit into an occupation?

They always encouraged me to pursue my own interests. When I came home [from Duke University] as a college junior and told them that I wanted to start a trivia magazine, although I had no journalism experience whatsoever and 95 percent of magazine start-ups fail, they said to give it a shot instead of just laughing at me.

Where did you get the idea for mental_floss?

The idea came at the height of the original Who Wants To Be a Millionaire craze. People like to feel smart. They crave information and like to throw out useless trivia at cocktail parties or use it as a conversation starter. The magazine is actually a selfish endeavor because it has allowed me to keep collecting.

How did you come up with the name mental_floss?

[The three other founding members of mental_floss — Hattikudur, Neely Harris, Lisako — and me] were sitting around trying to think of a name that would communicate two things—smart and quirky. Someone had heard about a Canadian comedy group called mental_floss and we thought it [conveyed that message]. When someone sees [our] name, we want it to bring a smile to their face.

How much money did you have to start the magazine?

We started the magazine on funds we had raised through part time jobs and summer jobs and generated $30,000 for two pilot issues.

How do you find the trivia knowledge that triggers story ideas?

When we started, ideas came from bookstore browsing. Now we depend largely on our loyal readers, who send in plenty of great ideas.

Is this what you thought you'd be doing after graduation?

I never thought this is what I'd be doing after graduation. I thought I'd be a clinical psychologist.

What do you like to do when you come up to New York every month for business?

I'm a huge fan of musicals, so I enjoy going to Broadway shows. I'm also a huge fan of Indian food. My goal is to go to every Indian restaurant in Manhattan, even though I know it's impossible, Even if I went to a different Indian restaurant each night, a new one would pop up. Tamarind is definitely one of my favorites, although there are tons of other great Indian places in New York City. I just love being in the city.

What quirky or weird things have happened to you in New York?

Every trip has been eventful and fun. The way you get attention in this city is to be as normal as possible, because when you try to be weird, no one pays attention to you. For example, my two friends and I were all doing a different dance and singing a different tune when we were walking in a subway station together. Not a single person looked at us. To fit in, you have to be as bizarre as you can.

What's your favorite thing about being in New York?

There are so many interesting people crammed into a small area in Manhattan, whether it's stumbling into people at coffee shops or meeting friends of friends in the area. There's nothing better than having a poet, a physics professor, a journalist, and a few mental_floss staffers sitting around debating whether Stegosaurus was sexier than the Velociraptors.

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