Myths in Go #2 "Effort & Results"
Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2014 8:05 am
Let us begin.
So with this, I am referring to the amount of work people put into getting better at Go and the results they expect. This includes study programs/camps/etc.
First of all, let's define rank. Your rank is typically an average of your strengths and weaknesses in Go. You could be a 2k Go player, but that might mean you are a 1k in the opening, maybe a 4k in fundamentals, and a 3k in the endgame. And when you play other people, your strengths and weaknesses are what end up resulting in your victory or defeat in the game. It also is why so many people have games where they say "I started out so bad, but i won" or "i started out great, why did i lose?". Typically it is because they were stronger in the area that you were weak or vice versa.
So how does this apply to "effort and results"?
Well, if you're doing some form of self study, it is very likely that you have no idea where your strengths and weaknesses are. You could very well be putting effort into something that is already at a high enough level but where you are deficient is something else that ends up dragging you down. In this way, simply putting effort into something might not necessarily yield the results you want to see. To add to this, even if someone is pointing out what they think your weaknesses are, if you approach this the wrong way, you still might not see the results you want.
Let's move on to study camps or things like that, such as people who say "i have a few months, i'm going to really put forth the effort to improve"
Here is the problem with that sort of effort. The amount of knowledge you need to really comprehend in Go is pretty vast. What that means is in this amount of time you're putting forth effort, you can only experience so much. The lessons you learn might be useful, but the multitude of situations that you can come across might mean those lessons might not show up for the next however many games you play. Now yes, there are some basic fundamentals that show up quite regularly from game to game, and you can learn those over and over until they start to really take effect in the game, but for a lot of the concepts you learn as you get stronger, they might be more specific things that you might not see all that regularly, let alone remember. In my opinion, a proper amount of time before things start really showing about be closer to the better part of a year.
Which leads me to my next point, actually learning the things that you've been taught.
For the easiest example, let's take a very basic life and death book. If you can go through them and finish them relatively quickly, most peoples approach is to think that you can just go on to the next go book as you've "finished it". Many pros advice is the opposite, which is to go back and start the book once more, until playing the right move becomes instant and second nature. This goes along with an important lessons that you learn from a Go game. It isn't enough to just simply say "oh this is what I did wrong" and get on with playing. You must go back and re-review the review to really understand what you need to do to get better. Without that, the effort you put in usually has pretty poor results.
Also, another issue is the quality of materials learned and time it takes to digest.
A huge issue with a lot of players (myself included) is to tackle very difficult things, be it go problems, books, joseki, etc. However, that typically can give poor results. The simple reason is that you aren't good enough to easily take on these issues. A typical thing my teacher has told me is that if it takes too long to answer a go question, just look at the answer and go to the next question. The reason being that the effort that you're putting in, while commendable, is on something that might very well be out of your league. What's better is to do the things that you can easily understand until they become second nature until you can easily find the answer. This goes along with Joseki (see my previous post for that discussion).
To add to that is how long it takes to digest something new. The brain can typically only learn so much per day (this can be argued for/against, but for the most part lets roll with it). And the amount of time it takes might be a very long time. It is why some people will not really see/feel results from a go camp. The things you learned might not either show up in previous games, or when it shows up again, you've forgotten the lesson.
All in all, this really isn't meant to discourage people, just help people be more realistic about what to expect over time, especially with certain amounts of improvement. Getting better at Go is sorta like training for long distance running. You can't expect to do a months worth of training and immediately be able to easily run a marathon, you have to work up to it.
So with this, I am referring to the amount of work people put into getting better at Go and the results they expect. This includes study programs/camps/etc.
First of all, let's define rank. Your rank is typically an average of your strengths and weaknesses in Go. You could be a 2k Go player, but that might mean you are a 1k in the opening, maybe a 4k in fundamentals, and a 3k in the endgame. And when you play other people, your strengths and weaknesses are what end up resulting in your victory or defeat in the game. It also is why so many people have games where they say "I started out so bad, but i won" or "i started out great, why did i lose?". Typically it is because they were stronger in the area that you were weak or vice versa.
So how does this apply to "effort and results"?
Well, if you're doing some form of self study, it is very likely that you have no idea where your strengths and weaknesses are. You could very well be putting effort into something that is already at a high enough level but where you are deficient is something else that ends up dragging you down. In this way, simply putting effort into something might not necessarily yield the results you want to see. To add to this, even if someone is pointing out what they think your weaknesses are, if you approach this the wrong way, you still might not see the results you want.
Let's move on to study camps or things like that, such as people who say "i have a few months, i'm going to really put forth the effort to improve"
Here is the problem with that sort of effort. The amount of knowledge you need to really comprehend in Go is pretty vast. What that means is in this amount of time you're putting forth effort, you can only experience so much. The lessons you learn might be useful, but the multitude of situations that you can come across might mean those lessons might not show up for the next however many games you play. Now yes, there are some basic fundamentals that show up quite regularly from game to game, and you can learn those over and over until they start to really take effect in the game, but for a lot of the concepts you learn as you get stronger, they might be more specific things that you might not see all that regularly, let alone remember. In my opinion, a proper amount of time before things start really showing about be closer to the better part of a year.
Which leads me to my next point, actually learning the things that you've been taught.
For the easiest example, let's take a very basic life and death book. If you can go through them and finish them relatively quickly, most peoples approach is to think that you can just go on to the next go book as you've "finished it". Many pros advice is the opposite, which is to go back and start the book once more, until playing the right move becomes instant and second nature. This goes along with an important lessons that you learn from a Go game. It isn't enough to just simply say "oh this is what I did wrong" and get on with playing. You must go back and re-review the review to really understand what you need to do to get better. Without that, the effort you put in usually has pretty poor results.
Also, another issue is the quality of materials learned and time it takes to digest.
A huge issue with a lot of players (myself included) is to tackle very difficult things, be it go problems, books, joseki, etc. However, that typically can give poor results. The simple reason is that you aren't good enough to easily take on these issues. A typical thing my teacher has told me is that if it takes too long to answer a go question, just look at the answer and go to the next question. The reason being that the effort that you're putting in, while commendable, is on something that might very well be out of your league. What's better is to do the things that you can easily understand until they become second nature until you can easily find the answer. This goes along with Joseki (see my previous post for that discussion).
To add to that is how long it takes to digest something new. The brain can typically only learn so much per day (this can be argued for/against, but for the most part lets roll with it). And the amount of time it takes might be a very long time. It is why some people will not really see/feel results from a go camp. The things you learned might not either show up in previous games, or when it shows up again, you've forgotten the lesson.
All in all, this really isn't meant to discourage people, just help people be more realistic about what to expect over time, especially with certain amounts of improvement. Getting better at Go is sorta like training for long distance running. You can't expect to do a months worth of training and immediately be able to easily run a marathon, you have to work up to it.
