Life In 19x19

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

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).

Kirby wrote:

DrStraw wrote:This is probably not the answer you want to hear. Motivation mostly comes from within and if you don't have it then maybe it is not for you. As you said, you wish you were still obsessed but you are not. Perhaps there is a reason. Just go with the flow and if it is meant to be then you will regain your motivation.

I disagree with the idea to "Just go with the flow". Maybe it was Socrates that said, "The unexamined life is not worth living". To just go with the flow seems to be just that - living life without examination.

On the contrary, one should examine their life and when it comes to go ask:
1.) What do I want to achieve?
2.) Do I want to study go?
3.) Why?

If the answer upon deliberate thought is, "Yes, I want to study go", then the reasons identified in this period of self-reflection can be used as motivation.

Maybe e answer, after careful thought, is "No, I do not wish to study go", but it's at least worth analyzing.

If life is lived just going with the flow, I doubt many things would be achieved that did not bring immediate benefit.

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.

Kirby wrote:

DrStraw wrote:This is probably not the answer you want to hear. Motivation mostly comes from within and if you don't have it then maybe it is not for you. As you said, you wish you were still obsessed but you are not. Perhaps there is a reason. Just go with the flow and if it is meant to be then you will regain your motivation.

I disagree with the idea to "Just go with the flow". Maybe it was Socrates that said, "The unexamined life is not worth living". To just go with the flow seems to be just that - living life without examination.

On the contrary, one should examine their life and when it comes to go ask:
1.) What do I want to achieve?
2.) Do I want to study go?
3.) Why?

If the answer upon deliberate thought is, "Yes, I want to study go", then the reasons identified in this period of self-reflection can be used as motivation.

Maybe e answer, after careful thought, is "No, I do not wish to study go", but it's at least worth analyzing.

If life is lived just going with the flow, I doubt many things would be achieved that did not bring immediate benefit.

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?

SoDesuNe wrote: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?

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.

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.