Unfortunate for them, yes.

Maybe it was a coincidence, they simply found a much better game to play, and we should be happy for them?

_________________
- Bantari
______________________________________________
WARNING: This post might contain Opinions!!

One thing that I found made a huge difference was keeping my go board on my desk. I used to keep it on a shelf, but it seemed like such a hassle to go get it and set everything up.

Now, if I get bored and start looking for something to do my go board is always ready to go. This makes it very easy to play through a pro game, or just get go on my mind and play online.

It might not work for you, but it's made it much easier for me to get myself to play or study go.

_________________
I came to go through Kawabata and was introduced to a whole new world.

( My emphasis. )Maybe. Yes, more data needed. Did they both continue to play Go, but just not with Bill, or did they stop playing Go all together ?
Either way, rather interesting coincidence.

My interest goes in bursts, too. Go can be so interesting that's its hard to stop thinking about it, so I have to discipline myself to prevent it from disrupting the rest of my life. The act of winding down (and the circumstances that make it necessary to do so) then dampens my interest for a while. Probably the answer lies in having a regular schedule and a goal rather than relying on the primitive pleasure/reward system.

do you really think that schedule/goal is not the same thing as pleasure/reward system?

As for myself. I don't keep myself motivated, I just happen to be motivated. It comes and goes, but then, I get even more pleasure when coming back to go.

Read Borges' "The Zahir" then come back if you still do not understand what I am saying.

Unfortunately I don't get to play go face to face very often. It can be hard to stay motivated because of that, and sometimes I'll just enjoy studying for hours on end rather than actually playing online.
But, when I really don't feel like playing, and haven't played in a while, I try to remember how much fun I had the last time, and usually that gets me to stop being so unreasonable. then I go play.
It's really time consuming and it takes a commitment, but I can't ever remember regretting putting in the time.

_________________
You do not need much territory if your opponent has none.

Though,I should add, if I have an opponent and a board, I'm pretty much playing Go at every waking moment.

_________________
You do not need much territory if your opponent has none.

I'm not sure I understand. I only wanted to make a point that scheduling/making goals is the same old (and 'primitve') reward system. You get (self-)rewarded for achieving a goal you set to yourself, and you get (self-)rewarded for sticking to a schedule. Right, it's banal, and you can say that every (human) activity then can be brought down to the 'primitive reward system' however apparently unrewarding the activity is. But I still believe it is true, at least in large majority of cases.

I think I will, I can't remember it, and I love Borges. But do I know where my copy is in this new house?

In any case, I think I'm going to start using this phrase as a non-sequitur response (not that I'm saying you made a non-sequitur, mind you).

_________________
Occupy Babel!

I really like this answer

From a personal standpoint, I know my desire to study Go goes in waves, usually influenced by:
1) Whether I've been studying a lot of Go recently or not
2) Whether I've been losing a lot of games
3) Whether I have the time/patience for studying or not

These days I've been losing a lot of games, so it's given me a strong reason to study again ,
but I also need to study/read other stuff for my job, so when it get around to Go I already feel "saturated" and prefer to play a game than study. I'm okay with that because I know I'll get around to studying more Go in the near future, and my job is my current priority.

To me this sounds awefully like quantifying my thinking and reasoning process to live a "better" life. There is merit in thinking ahead but there is also the trap of forgetting to live your life in the first place.
It's like the advice to focus on studying hard in the school system to have an easier life afterwards. It's just you will never get back those years and arguably they shape you the most.

My questions would be:
1.) What are my dreams?
2.) What makes me happy?
3.) If I would die tomorrow what unfilled dreams would ache the most?

_________________
My "guide" to become stronger in Go

In this context, I think there are two extreme ways of go through life:

• live in the moment, do what makes you happy now, you might die tomorrow, or
• plan for the future, each sacrifice you make now will pay off later with dividends

The true art is to meaningfully balance those two extremes. As I am sure most of us are doing anyways.

Also - when I hear things like: "focus on studying hard in the school system to have an easier life afterwards" I see it as more of an advice of "don't just party". Studying hard does not mean *only* studying, 24/7, and never doing anything else. It means - apply yourself - which is a good advice in whatever you do. When done right, it leaves plenty of time for other things as well, so you really do not need to 'lose your youth' or something.

_________________
- Bantari
______________________________________________
WARNING: This post might contain Opinions!!

I'm not going to answer in any phylosphical way.

Just a list of what keeps me motivated:

- The go club I go to, lots of fun
- Being able to solve tsumego I could not before is just great!
- Eye opening concepts, unfortunately they come less and less as you got stronger.
- Meeting new friends through go
- Seeing places you have never been through because of go
- Seeing a crazy move (but good) which inspires you to be more creative in your game.


Actually now I think about it, it comes down to 2 main points:

- Social life around go
- Constant understanding that I do not yet understand but I try piece by piece to fix my own puzzle

Oh and of course one more big motivator is this great forum, maybe you have heard of it...

It's called Life in 19 x 19

Have fun and stay motivated !!!

Otenki

I like to play in-person. So for now, my motivation-stopper is a lack of opponents convenient to my location. But I still love the game and practice tsumego in the mean-time, when I can.