1-dan is in my opinion a normal and achievable goal but I would never say it doesn't requiere effort.
Personally, I love to read study journals, how player think about their game, their progress and how they want to tackle their goal. It helps me reflect on my own game and on my own methods. And everytime I read a fully energetic post I'm all "Yay, let's do it!" It's fun. There is by the way no one stopping dan-players from telling about their own roads to improvement, I'm very much interested in them.
Again, Go is my slighty more than appropriate leisure time reducing activity aka my hobby. Why do I have to be all reasonable and serious about it? A good goal (in a hobby) does not have to be reasonable for me. It has to motivate to start walking. If I miss it? Who cares? There are no downsides and I've certainly learnt a lot on the way. Basing my goals in a hobby on some quantified data sure feels like I need to justify everything to the guys from the controlling department =D Except... in Go there is none. I don't have to justify anything. I can dream big and when I fail, I still can dream even bigger because the only person who is affected by it is me. And I don't care as long as it's fun : )

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

It is only through setting myself large, unachievable goals and screaming them from the rooftops that I have ever got anywhere in life. I wouldn't be where I am today without all of the absurd goals I've set myself - each and every one of which I've failed to attain, by the way - because, in trying desperately to attain the unattainable, I've progressed far more so than I ever would have done if I'd set myself cushy, easy goals.

(And isn't this exactly what Hikaru no Go is about? Sai clawing at the kami no itte? Hikaru desperately clambering towards Touya, and Touya pushing back? The Meijin, who bears an embarrassing loss, but uses it as a springboard to climb even higher? Or even Tsubaki, who shows us it's always worthwhile - and never too late - to try? The whole show is about an average kid with average abilities who puts unfathomable quantities of time and effort into something he comes to love. I think that's a fantastic message to give to kids and adults alike.)

Yes, it is, and Hikaru no go doesn't make a secret of the difficulties that arise from such fantastic goals. Tsubaki resigns from his current job to take an exam he will fail. A number of insei quit with a rather sad prospective future due to their sacrified education. Matsuba became a pro but in the end, despite this outstanding success at the exam, he is a low level pro frustrated by his own performance.

As long as you have SoDesuNe's attitude you can do nothing wrong with setting too high goals. But some people try hard, fail and then give up entirely. You can burn out even at free-time stuff when you take it too seriously, I've seen it. I think that's sad, because you can enjoy something without being absolutely brilliant at it. It's not so much about what people think about me, than about what I think of myself, I guess? If I consistently fail at the goals I set for myself, it makes me angry at my bad performance.

That's fine too. Of course, constantly failing at goals is a very discouraging process for some people. Different people work in different ways. I'm just saying that, in my book, setting a goal and only getting 30% or 50% or 70% of the way there is not "failing", compared to being too scared to start. This seems to be SoDesuNe's attitude too.

In any case, I'm sure we're all agreed that naming (and shaming) those who fail at their goals (whether or not that was Ed's intention - I'm not sure) is not at all the same thing as naming (and shaming) those who have failed to progress, and setting overly ambitious goals is not always bad.


Yes, and when he turns up at the exam he's visibly stressed about passing or failing - and he fails. And does he regret it? Not as far as I can see. His attitude changes throughout - he realises that he was never going to pass, and betting everything on passing was a stupid thing to do, but he's glad he gave it one last shot.


Here, I agree - of course, my previous post shouldn't be read as meaning "throw away everything you have on a gamble". I hear lots of people shirking challenges like learning a foreign language, learning to climb a mountain, learning to play chess, and so on - my post is in that kind of context.

Seems like we should ask redundant for his secrets.

Perhaps, but the topic itself (ambiguity and all) has generated a lively discussion. I sort of want to see where it goes without Ed clearing things up for us.

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"This is a game that rewards patience and balance. You must think like a man of action and act like a man of thought."
-Jonas Skarssen

What I mean is, I don't want to judge the appropriateness of this list without knowing what Ed thought he was saying.

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Occupy Babel!

True, I agree.

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"This is a game that rewards patience and balance. You must think like a man of action and act like a man of thought."
-Jonas Skarssen

This thread made me smile

It would have been even better if you had wrote this in late March when my KGS rank suddenly dropped from 3k to 12k - I guess that's what happens when you don't play any serious games for ~8 months.

For the first few months that I worked on the goal, I was quite impressed with how quickly I improved. IIRC I gained 2 stones in 2 or 3 months, and was "on track" as far as I was concerned. Then life got in the way, as it does, and I didn't have time to stick to my study schedule anymore. By the end of the year I reached 3k KGS and played as a weak 2k in my local club. In early 2011 another major event happened and since then I've had pretty much no time for Go at all, aside from lurking on L19 occasionally.

Although I didn't reach 1d, gaining 3 or 4 stones in about six months is not bad... an accomplishment I probably would not have put in the effort for if I hadn't been aiming at something higher. It's true that some of us can underestimate the effort involved in making such a rapid improvement (or perhaps in my case, underestimating the amount of time one can reasonably dedicate to Go). Nonetheless I agree with SoDesuNe, Billywoods, and others that there is nothing wrong with setting high goals especially when compared to doing nothing. The trick seems to be finding satisfaction in your own improvement rather than worrying about hitting the magic number in time. Setting a goal, giving yourself a reason to actively study and improve, is just the spark for the fire.

Or perhaps I am just making excuses
Thanks EdLee for making this. Funny how three years can seem to go by so quickly...

Discussions appart, I think this thread is just bad taste.
I'm not following it any longer.
I suggest people who want to discuss the "achievability" of goals in life to crate a new topic.

If I had to guess, I would say that the point was to make a big list of people that (mostly) didn't achieve their goals. Then hope for a discussion which leads to questioning, "Why didn't these people meet their goals?" Then after enough time has passed, step in and say, "Because they didn't have a pro teacher! If you want to achieve your goals, get a pro teacher!"

Of course, I'm not Ed, so this is just speculation. But I still find it inappropriate to make such a list in the first place, so I feel a little less hesitant about sharing my speculations without restraint... Well, who am I kidding? I always share my speculations without restraint

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be immersed

I hereby announce that my new goal is to get on the list.

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Help make L19 more organized. Make an index: https://lifein19x19.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=5207

If indeed it was Ed's idea to show a list of people who didn't meet their goals, then I'm still on track and not sure why I'm on the list:

otenki. Dec 19, 2012. From KGS 9k to 2k in 1 year (Dec 19, 2013).

I'm now 5 kyu and still have half a year to go. A few of the upcomming months i will spend only studying go in china so I think I have a chance of getting where I set out to be

Fun thread, I'm really curious what Ed intended!

I personly think he did not intend anything, he is just waiting for funny responses... It's like a probe

Cheers,
Otenki

If I don't misread, OtakuViking is also on track.

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Occupy Babel!

Yes, I thought about this too. I even have an idea that would be... well, living up to my username.

If only I weren't so darned lazy...

I have a (perhaps tangential) question:

Around what rank is the distribution of go players normally distributed? Also, how many ranks is the standard deviation?

I've heard 3-4 kyu as being the center of the distribution. The trouble is that for any way to get a number of ranked people, there are many people who are just casual players and have no rank. I suspect that they tend to be weaker rather than stronger, but really, who knows?

For KGS, there is this:
http://senseis.xmp.net/?KGSRankHistogram

On the EGD (EGF rankings database), the overall average numbers are:

Declared Rank:

Total: 11k
Active: 7k

GoR Rank:
Active: 8k

Total includes everyone who has ever played in a tournament in Europe who is from a European country. It's not hugely useful as a number because it includes all the people who played in two tournaments, got to 15k and then quit the tournament scene. Active players are players who meet certain activity criteria, e.g. less than 2 years since last tournament for dan players, 12 months for sdk players, 6 months for ddk players.


Make of that what you will.

Who says it's normally distributed? Why would it be?

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The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

I think where this thread goes is pretty obvious because it seems to already have gone there. Regardless of Ed's intention, which at this moment I cannot imagine.

It polarizes people into two categories:
1. Those who think setting unrealistic goals and then failing is ok, we should give support or at least shut up, and
2. Those who think its ok to finger point and ridicule such goals and maybe even such people
Oh... and also those who do not care, this would be the third 'pole'.

Personally, I am somewhere between #1 and 'don't care', leaning towards #1. I think most of us at some point dreamed of becoming a pro... many of us still do... the only difference being we did not have the guts to actually state this so very publicly. Deep down we knew that such goal was unrealistic and even ridiculous, but it did not stop us, and maybe gave us motivation to improve our skill as we did. I also think that proper attitude towards such 'ridiculous' goals is to support such people so they themselves can get to the point of realization and then decide what to do next.

Pointing fingers and ridicule is just bad taste, as somebody else already said. What that causes, other than a short-term self-gratification on the part of the joker on account of somebody else, is that people will get more reluctant to post study journals and announce their goals. In short - the community will become less friendly and people will become more guarded, feeling public ridicule rather then expecting support.

Having said the above, I would also be very interested what were Ed's motives.

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- Bantari
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WARNING: This post might contain Opinions!!