Life In 19x19

Since the thread was necromancered and I'm bored I might as well comment on the zombie-posts:

It's not exactly clear to me what the intention of this thread is, but I'm not sure if it's the kindest thing to do to point out people's failures in achieving their goals so explicitly like this.

I've ...

This introduction video :'D
"I have no particular strengths. Opening, middle game, late game, I'm mediocre in all of them" => 9D on Tygem.
I want this kind of mediocrity in my endeavors then I guess?

I hAAAAAAAAAAAttttttttttteeeee these type of people. I am completely aware it is my fault that I didn't notice what would happen but it is so insulting and infuriating for people to play like that. I really only see it online, but have seen it in a tournament before in mid-dan level playing which ...

Korean players who played many many years in go club usually know all the trick plays even if they are weak kyu.
They certainly have advantage over new players who just started playing.
after they reach dan level such advantage becomes meaningless.

also there are many many sandbaggers in Korean ...

Good points. Communicated myself badly, too. Playstyle was more what I was after. What I was trying to get at is that things have different strength at different levels of play. Starting Tengen may be a bad idea at the pro level, but we're not pros. Likewise, in lower-level Starcraft, people can ...

Lots of lovely advice here <3

Always, always remember: The only gauge of "is this move good right now" is "does it win". Being proper or beautiful doesn't have anything to do with it. You try to kill me with a beautiful sword stroke, well sorry, you're just as dead if I hit you in the head with a ...

Yes, I meant originality/creativity for it's own sake seen as somehow intrinsically valuable.

"I have fun playing this way" = fine. Everyone derives their fun differently.
"At least I built my deck myself unlike someone" = not fine. This is basically saying people who just enjoy playing good decks ...

One thing that ought to be noted is how creativity has been slowly but surely bastardized (at least in the West), where people think it's about self-expression, to the point where some people think of doing inane things as being creative. Whatever has been done before once is worthless, and so on ...

@jts, afaik, 33% of everything totally at random in RPS should be the "optimal" strategy. A non-exploitable one, at any rate (nothing can win against that, but it doesn't really win either). If the opponent plays imperfectly, you can then exploit his range and actually win at the game.

One of the ...

Some notes on Magic:

To beat a good deck, you need a good deck unless the opponent is a drooling moron, and occasionally even then. Good decks are usually expensive in the traditional formats. This is not always the case, though, where a cheap deck might be in good position to attack the current ...

Not just the fertile crescent. Greece and Italy. The American Dust Bowl. Jordan.
A thousand years is a pretty short view, all told. Still way better than what we have now.

This short of a term, yes. Surprisingly recent, too, last 100 years or so. But for the most part it's still just acceleration and intesification of the basic urge that drives civilization onwards - growth, conquest, control, destructive use of the landbase.

Civilization is built like that. It's based on short-term exploitation, industrialization just makes it worse. It won't change until it absolutely has to.

Fertilizer in a nice poisoned monocrop field that is slowly desertifying and killing the local bee population <3
Industrial farming accelerates it, but conventional agriculture achieves the same results in the end. Then we will have nothing to eat but the short-term fiat money profits that inflation ...

Where are the Hadoukens? :O

In other news, I'm laughing like a madman and I believe my head contains a giddly little santa-elf with an axe that's excitedly shouting "Blood!"