Quote:
Concepts that spring to my mind: peep-connect, peep-resist, can resist if Black is strong around so that the two strings live independently, the two stones are weaker than the four ones so need to be defended, pay attention to their liberties, b threatens d next, the exchange c-d-e is often useful to make life, the sequence comes from a 3-3 invasion, probably the answers are on josekipedia.
All of those, but... I think we must remember we are talking here about amateur responses, and amateur responses are a mixture of head and heart.
If I saw this position and was focused/alert/in a good mood/whatever so that I was thinking with my head, I would say to myself things like, "OK, connection can't ne made - it's an empty triangle but he's lost a cutting point and made a daft peep. So connection can't be bad in efficiency terms. But he's got sente and I've got the initiative - I'm the one who decides were the game goes from here. Maybe there's something better. And so on. All technique/theory/board related. I suggest the end result of thinking like that is that I will see several moves that are all at least close to satisfactory. I have used my intuition (my gut feeling based on experience). I think Gomoto is mixing up instinct and intuition. If it were a blitz game I would just connect - instinct.
My underlying point is that my intuition has got me to a point where I have palette of moves. I'm like a water-colour painter. I have all the right colours to paint a landscape, but where do I start. My instinct tells me it doesn't matter. My experience tells me it does. My intuition tells me to start with the ground. My observations tell me that pros usually start with the sky. I don't know whether to trust my instinct, my experience, my intuition or my observations. I have no hierarchy in my head that tells me which one is most trustworthy.
If I am trying hard to improve (gosh, that takes me back 50 years!) I might go through a phrase of copying my observations, hoping enlightenment will creep up on me. But (and I think this is typical amateur behaviour) I will trust my heart over my head. So I will look at this position in a different way, depending on, say, the day's testosterone levels. I might say, "He wants me to connect? Hell, no. I'll tenuki." Or "I'll show him something fancy." Or I might say, "Ha! He's copying the bots, but there's no way he knows why they play that. I'll connect here but hit him with a shoulder hit over there - show him two can play at that game." Or some such drivel.
Drivel, but seductive drivel. The point there is that it creates a hierarchy, or perhaps better a mindset, in my head which not only tells me how to play here but in the rest of the game. If I choose the "ha, he's a bot copier" mindset, every time thereafter that I come up with a slew of candidate moves I will know straightaway what to play - the one that's a Direct 3-3, shoulder-hit, a weird attachment, a centre move, a tenuki... I am in control! Or so I think until I count up and find I lost by 40 points. Yes, well, I wasn't really trying, was I?
In more reflective moments, of course I realise what is needed. I need to concentrate on theory and technique. I might be weak enough to need to add to my arsenal of techniques, but most mateur dan players have actually already seen just about every tesuji or theory. OK, there may be a few tricks or hametes we haven't seen, but look at soccer - not every millionaire pro is a Ronaldhino or a Messi. What we amateurs need is just more control, to know when to pass, when to shoot, when to bunt, when to hit for the fences, when to run or when to go for a touchdown pass - or even a Hail Mary.
It is my belief that you can't get that from books, or lists, or video lessons with a teacher. You get it only from hard work - the infamous 10,000 hours - to build up your intuition. To be more precise, you need to play, or play over, a HUGE number of games so as to provide data for your subconscious to make the enormous mass of associations that turn into probabilities, which in turn turn into intuition. Intuition where you can't explain why you did something but your subconscious could, if it could talk. It would tell you things like "in this kind of situation technique A works most often" or "in that sort of shape you need to watch out for a sneaky B." In fact, your go brain will already be working that way. And working well. You shouldn't be trying to swamp that smoothing-working function by piling on theories (or emotions). You need to keep taking the pills - adding more and more game positions to the database in the brain.
Sounds easy on paper. The problem, for me at least, is that my instinct, my intuition, my experience and my observations all tell me that that sort of hard work is PAINFUL. And I have a low pain threshold.
This is, of course, where books, videos and teachers come in handy. One the one hand, provided they are treated as mainly entertainment or encouragement - mild painkillers or mild tranquillisers rather than opioids - they can make the 10,000 hours seem to fly by. But their main use can be to help you measure your intuition: to help you realise which muscles need extra reps.