Life In 19x19

Go helped me realize the futility of trying to get better at something.

I think that if we let go teach us it will. If that is not something we are looking for then it won't impose itself upon us. That's, in part, what I love about go. I for one know that go has changed me and continues to do so. It is the reason I can't stay away even when I can't afford to spend time on it.

Yes it is fun and it is addictive, or can be. For me, it is also gently, patiently instructive. I have learned to recognize some of my weaknesses through go. These weaknesses appear regularly on the goban but they also appear in other aspects of my life. Go lets me choose to ignore them and continue with my mistakes. However, if I follow my desire to improve at go, this game reminds me that I must overcome my weaknesses. I work to overcome them on the goban and as I do so I find that I am working through them in other areas of my life as well. (Perhaps the reverse is also true.)

The best example for me is the weakness of greed or perhaps it a lack of patience (for me these are the same). As I've progressed with my go, I've had to learn to make subtle, indirect moves that none-the-less have real purpose. This has required me to learn patience. Over the years I've learned to do this more in my life. Ha, my wife even admitted this morning that I'm more patient in traffic these past years. Proof enough! Less road rage is just the beginning for me! It has also affected the way I approach the unfulfilled desires in my life.

I studied with Mirel Florescu online for a bout year at one time. I learned a lot, but wasn't ready to let go teach me at that time. But I remember a quote from the home page of his go school's site. I believe it is a quote from his sensei:

"The great desire of knowing more or getting stronger can be fulfilled only if we can detach from human greed and selfish desires." My teacher Saijo Masataka (8 Dan) once told me this. He said, "If I think 'I have to win! I have to win!' I will surely lose." Go is not just a game but a way of knowing yourself, and getting stronger means overcoming your weak points as a human being. There are subtle "filters" that are hard to pass during our ascension, but each one of them purifies us.

I for one am mystified at how someone can play go as a 3 dan but live life in a complete unbalanced manner. But, as I said, go does not demand that we learn from it. It only offers.

Good to see you here, RazorBrain.

Thanks Kirby. Nice to be back. Hopefully, learning balance in go and life means I'll be more careful about overloading and disappearing. Sigh . . . But altering our nature is probably impossible and trying to alter it is at best foolish. Taming it perhaps is possible though

I am not really sure how true it is but I often used to say that go made me a much more patient person.

I'd say it has shown me the importance of having some humility. How much I actually apply that to the rest of my life is pretty debatable, but at least I can say I've had it pointed out to me. Kind of like how I'm finally starting to believe the people with experienced opinions when they say things like "Don't eat spicy foods for a week after this operation".

That and life lessons of "Sometimes you pound, sometimes you get pounded" and "One mistake CAN change everything".

Bruce "Know it all" Young

Well it has done a lot of things for me. For instance, I'd like to think that it got me into the uni I wanted to get into. I actually applied there twice. The difference between the two applications I sent was just the essay portion; all the test scores, GPAs, extracurriculars, etc. etc. remained the same. The first time I sent my app (the one that got rejected), I wrote some very generic essay on Asian-American culture. The second time I sent my app, I wrote about the different cultures I witnessed through Go, mentioning experiences like the Go'n'Games China trip, USGCs, etc.

Stable wrote:(And enough of this "Go doesn't help me I just like it..." rubbish. We all know that, it's why you're here. In what way HAS it helped you?)

I am sorry but it really didn't. Maybe it did but I don't know, maybe I subconsciously deny it, but I don't see a reason to believe that way. I don't feel it helped me in any way more than drinking beer helped me. Both go and beer occasionally help making friends and are fun, but that's it.

I read all the answers given here to check whether I overlook something that could apply to me but could not find anything. Sad but true, sorry for not being able to come with a non-boring answer

Nonetheless, I hope it will help me to teach my daughter being patient and thinking in a more disciplined way. But that's just a hope for the moment.

You can ask "if it didn't help you, why do you think it will help your daughter?". That's a good question for which I don't have an answer. Maybe because she is so young that her way of thinking can still be manipulated. Feelings, hopes, etc etc etc

At a minimum, I think go helps you see examples of how your actions have consequences, even over a long period of time. I see aji in the everyday world around me, and I'm aware that certain actions are joseki and others aren't. While in my work I'm not involved in many "competitive" activities, I am sometimes involved, on the sidelines, in negotiations, and I see how the best defense is offense, for example, along with other techniques I've learned from go.

I agree with Dr Straw that go has made me a bit more patient, but above all, I think it has honed the analytical parts of my brain.

kirkmc wrote:At a minimum, I think go helps you see examples of how your actions have consequences, even over a long period of time. I see aji in the everyday world around me, and I'm aware that certain actions are joseki and others aren't. While in my work I'm not involved in many "competitive" activities, I am sometimes involved, on the sidelines, in negotiations, and I see how the best defense is offense, for example, along with other techniques I've learned from go.

I agree with Dr Straw that go has made me a bit more patient, but above all, I think it has honed the analytical parts of my brain.

Same for me. It has made me more analytical. I think more deeply about any subject than before.

I learned a life lesson from ko - never accept a total loss. When I don't get what I want, to always ask for a compensating alternative.

Go mainly keeps my hyperactive mind busy. If I'm not learning something I go crazy (and I usually get bored fast, so I switch topics quickly. I'm an expert at not being any good in a wide range of topics, including about ten languages). For some reason go doesn't bore me, so while I'm focused on it I'm not getting so distracted in the other, less entertaining aspects of my life. Like work.

Go has prevented me from playing many bad games of chess.

Joaz Banbeck wrote:Go has prevented me from playing many bad games of chess.

I think I split my sides laughing while reading this one... I too have been prevented fro playing many bad games of chess

Because of go, I went to Beijing last summer! And now that I've just come back, I'm contemplating going back there because I like the craziness of that city. Maybe I will even try living there in a few years, which would make go genuinely life-changing for me .