Maybe it'd do me good to follow this advice, but this is a big change, isn't it? How does one go about changing their philosophy on life?

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be immersed

(My emphases.)Years of (bad) habits cannot be unlearned in a short time.
My time horizon is in years (5, 10, etc.) Of course, your mileage may vary.

I'm not really sure how you interpret what I said as taking "pride in believing in nothing" (I was going more for believing in myself), but I guess I'm supposed to accept what you say now, so... OK!

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be immersed

Note to self: Write one hundred times "you are not stuck at 7k"

@Inkwolf:

Something that hasn't been mentioned yet is to try making some invasions of your own. If you are playing against other 18 kyus, a move you find tough to handle will be tough for them to handle too. It's useful to see invasions from the other side, and it's also important to remember that if your opponents erase some of your territory, it is only fair to return the favor.

Also, it should be said that in the position you posted, there is actually not a single point anywhere on the board which is Black's territory. All but one of black's stones is on the fourth line, and these stones are more oriented for influence and development than for making territory directly. In a sense, when you play all high stones like that, one thing you're hoping for is that white will invade to give you a target to attack.

One of the best ways to learn to attack is to play handicap games against stronger players, so don't be afraid to go to the KGS teaching room and ask for a teaching game.

Good luck!

Thanks for the tip, Moonrabbit, I tried playing lower and had my least crushing loss against the computer in days.

experimenation, experience, time, and effort. with practically all of these you can benefit. The conclusion is just look at the board, and determine from the situation. If you wonder if a situation could be better from a specific set up, ask an experienced player, and they can give you some insight. Time is the biggest thing to allow yourself. You can't expect yourself to be perfect in a matter of weeks. Improvement is something even elderly people can constantly work on every day of their lives. It's a never ending experience, and that's something I like to think of go as as well.

I don't really know what you mean.[/quote] I meant more or less considering someone's opinions always superior to your own--like me and the weatherman. I don't think he's always right, but unless I can look outside and see that he's wrong, I can't improve on his opinion.

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Occupy Babel!

Everyone seems to have already covered the problem but I'll just put in my 2 cents. I like to follow a proverb (when I remember it). "Dont touch your opponent's weak stones." The idea behind this is that doing so will make them stronger. However, this is only a proverb. Dont base your play entirely on proverbs.

As has been mentioned, all invasions are different. White has room to invade here, and can move in any of the directions 'e'. Since white is locally outnumbered, he may also try to play lightly and sacrifice this stone, so that needs to be kept in mind as well. A black play like 'c', already mentioned by anmal, aims to make white heavier and reduce his option of sacrifice, and works well with black's marked stone.

It's definitely a possible invasion and shouldn't be treated as complete overplay. So the first thing is: don't try to get an unreasonable result. You will only feel sad if you thought ahead of time that you were entitled to the entire lower right quadrant or something.

Others have said it is early. I agree. White has a little unfinished business at the top due to his joseki choice, leaving a weakness near 'a' which black can aim at later. The upper right corner 'b' is also open. If black gets stronger through attacking, it is possible to take one of those points or take sente if white defends them, but it depends on how the game develops. If white becomes burdened with a weak group, he could wind up being busy.

So, white's move is suboptimal in theory, but that doesn't mean he deserves to collapse everywhere or that black is entitled to create some unstoppable moyo. White owes a little at the top, and black should not forget that and let white get all the good points.

There is no "containing" this white stone.

Let me show a couple of positions from a couple of professional games, similar locally to the one you have:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W Kobayashi Koichi (W) vs. Kurosawa Tadanao, 1971, Moves 18 to 27
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O . O . . . . . . . . O . . . . |
$$ | . . O , . . . . . , . . O . . , X . . |
$$ | . . O X . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X 7 9 . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . 6 0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 1 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . X . 4 . . . X . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W James Kerwin (W) vs. Inoue Machiko, 1978, Moves 30 to 39
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O O . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . O . X . . . O X X O . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . X O . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . . X . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . 9 . . . . . 4 . . . |
$$ | . . . O . . . . 8 7 . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O , X X . . . X 0 5 . 3 . X . . . |
$$ | . . . O O X . . . . 6 . . 1 2 . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

So we can see a kind of middle game joseki here. It's actually the exact same sequence in these two games, although I'm not saying it would go that way in yours! However, the idea is to reduce white's base and create a target for attack. If you have a game database, you can find the whole games and see how they continue for an idea of what to expect. Black's profit from this kind of thing is not always local.

White is entitled to something and black is entitled to something. No reason to panic!

On another thread, MagicWand mentioned that you are still making some DDK moves that are undoing your stronger moves. Perhaps a good chance to be more open-minded would be to ask "which ones, precisely?" I like problems, too, and I do agree with your approach because I think time is short to improve one's reading, but I do concede from time to time that problems are not extensive enough to catch all the blind spots.