Myths in Go #1 "Joseki"

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Bill Spight
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Re: Myths in Go #1 "Joseki"

Post by Bill Spight »

Bantari wrote:
John Fairbairn wrote:Either way, Bantari's response to Bill is a travesty of what Bill actually said, and in that lies, I think

I don't see it like that. The post Bill was responding to made a statement that, I paraphrase, it is better to play a move you (think you) understand than to play a move you think is correct but which you do not understand (and so cannot logically follow up with appropriate moves.) At least - this is how I understood PP's words, excluding the little word "comfortable", as I said in my previous post.


Well, I think that "travesty" is putting it too strongly. But I do think that Bantari answered something I did not say, and you may be able to say the same for me in my reply to often. ;) However, I think that my example of the game with the 2 dan does show how often and I differ.

Believe me, guys, it used to be worse. When I first started participating in online discussions, and debates arose, it seemed like every other note said, "You didn't read what I wrote!" ;)
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Re: Myths in Go #1 "Joseki"

Post by Bantari »

Bill Spight wrote:Another example. I know I'm tooting my own horn. But hey! why not? ;)

Hey, we're all human. ;)

TTo the rest of your post - disaster can happen either way, this is why we are amas and not pros. And even pros sometimes face disasters. I know I am intimately familiar with this concept myself. As a matter of fact, most disasters I faced over the last many years was after playing textbook joseki sequences, so where does this leave your argument?

I recall one instance, when I was about 1k and was going through my "Takemiya period". I saw Takemiya play a move I have never seen before, and which I absolutely did not understand. Since I was such a big Takemiya fan, I, of course, played this move as well, every chance I got. And each time I got crushed right out of the opening. I looked at my games and i came to the conclusion that I got such poor results because I had no idea what this move meant, and so I had no idea what was appropriate to follow it up with later on. And invariably, I followed it up poorly, and even when by chance I follow-up move was not so bad, the move after than was idiotic. And again - this was because I played without any idea to justify my moves, no solid plan.

This happened to me a few times, and pretty much each time the results were bad. Pretty quickly it downed on me that to make moves like that was not very good. I did not learned much, got crushed, and was still in the dark. For then on I decided that unless I specifically set out to experiment, I will only play moves I think I understand or at least have an idea behind. This meant whenever I saw a pro move I liked, I would not play it until I studied it enough and thought about it enough to have some level of understanding.

The episode with Takemiya move when I was 1k was the turning point for me, and what eventually shaped my strong feeling on this subject.
In case you wonder, I don't recall the exact board position, but the move itself was a one-more-than-common-joseki extension, it went like that:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$c
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X O O . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . 1 , . . . X X , O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |[/go]
- Bantari
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Re: Myths in Go #1 "Joseki"

Post by Bill Spight »

Speaking of Takemiya, in 1976 in Kyoto I took 5 stones from a pro. The game began like this.

Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$W Kosumi response
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . X . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]


Later on, I wondered which of us had priority. ;)
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Post by EdLee »

Aidoneus wrote:I'll now go back to my observatory.
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Re: Myths in Go #1 "Joseki"

Post by oca »

Is working a joseki that much different than doing a life and death problem... or replaying a pro game trying to spot where the next move is ?
To me...well... yes they are different exercises, but all these serve the same purpose that is to develop a better reading.
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Post by EdLee »

Bantari wrote:Of course, understanding is a spectrum not a binary, and I don't think anybody ever can say they "understand" something in its entirety. Not amateurs, and not the pros. And I don't think anybody here meant full understanding in this context, I certainly did not. There is always only understanding of a certain, higher or lower, level. Its more of a philosophical than practical question - can we really say we fully *understand* anything? Can anybody?
Finally. Understanding as a continuum, post 5.

Two ideas of understanding:

  • (C) as a continuum.
  • (B) as binary: either 100% or zero, nothing in between.

Bantari, you seem to mix the two ideas, (B) and (C), at different occasions, and you seem to do it at your convenience and at the expense of the other person.

Examples:

Bantari wrote:
Bill Spight wrote:In short, if amateurs stick to plays that they think that they understand, they are making inferior plays.
So the point you are trying to make is that you think we all should make moves we don't understand instead??
Above: you used (B) here and you forced it on Bill.

Bantari wrote:it still seems to me that if you advocate against making moves we (think we) understand, you are basically saying that you advocate for making moves we don't (think we) understand, or at least for moves where our perceived understanding is not really a factor. This is what I disagreed with. If this is not what you said, as it seems from what you say now, then there must have been a misunderstanding on my part.
Above: indeed it's a misunderstanding in your part, because you are still forcing (B) on Bill.

Bantari wrote:And yet we still have to use whatever limited understanding we have to make the decisions we make.
Above: you meant (C).

Bantari wrote:When you make moves you (think you) understand (1), you can put forth arguments to back up your decisions - even if the arguments are weak or faulty. If you simply make "correct" moves you don't understand (2), you can put no arguments forth,
Above paragraph: you first used (C) for (1), then you used (B) for (2).

Bantari wrote:...implementing ideas of somebody else, ideas you don't know, don't understand, and cannot follow up logically. How is that good, I don't know.
Above: you meant (B).

Bantari wrote:I paraphrase, it is better to play a move you (think you) understand (3) than to play a move you think is correct but which you do not understand (4) (and so cannot logically follow up with appropriate moves.)
Above: again, you used both in the same sentence --
you meant (C) for (3), and (B) for (4).

Bantari wrote:my opinion is that it is better to make moves which you (think you) understand (5) - i.e. ones with some kind of ideas behind them - then moves which you just seen pros play and so suspect might be "correct" (or more correct than your moves, which might or might not be true), but which you have no understanding (6) of and so cannot follow them up in a coherent way.
Above, same habit: you spelled out (C) for (5) "some ideas",
then switched to (B) for (6) "no understanding".

Bantari wrote:I saw Takemiya play a move I have never seen before, and which I absolutely did not understand.
Above: you meant (B). Yes, this is the zero understanding move (B) you played. But this is not what Bill said.

The main flaws in the line of logic is that, although you say
understanding is a continuum (C) and not binary (B):

  • You don't make it clear which of (C) or (B) you mean in a sentence;
  • You routinely mix up (C) and (B);
  • In particular, when you take a positive (C) "I understand it at some level X"
    and you negate it, you don't turn it to "I don't understand it at level X" --
    instead, you collapse it to (B) "I have zero understanding of it."

Example:
Bantari wrote:Now, if we make the pro moves without understanding them,
then we regress to the level of beginners.
Above: this is the central flaw.
The negative of --
  • I understand this move at pro level. (C)
is --
  • I don't understand this move at pro level. (C)
It is not --
  • I have zero understanding of this move. (B)
-- which is exactly how you collapsed it in the above "beginners" sentence.

If I say "I don't understand this move at 4-dan level,"
I don't necessarily mean I have zero understanding of it (although I could).
Rather, I mean my understanding of this move lies somewhere within the continuum
from absolutely zero understanding, to just under 4-dan understanding.

This is my opinion: Bill has never said, in this thread, to play a move where you absolutely have no idea what you're doing, zero understanding -- the (B) sense -- and you kept forcing this (B) onto Bill.
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Re: Myths in Go #1 "Joseki"

Post by RobertJasiek »

John Fairbairn wrote:That's the central flaw in Robert's arrogance that pros like Maeda need to learn his system to become stronger.


This is not what I have been saying. I have said that they should study my method for the relation between territory and influence in josekis to assess that relation well. Playing strength comes from many factors; here I have implied only the specific knowledge-strength, which has a great impact for the evaluation task itself and can contribute to playing strengths. Other approaches to playing strength exist, but AFAIK they have not provided any explanation for the relation as clear as my method. The pros are not required to learn my method, but they would profit from it (maybe not significantly for their playing strengths, but surely for improving their understanding).

It's a good way to become weaker, because the goal of his method is to measure and understand.


Measurement and understanding are means for becoming stronger, provided one wants to become stronger (also) by measurement and understanding.

A pro just wants to be stronger,


When watching or studying stronger amateur or professional play, consistently I notice that they already have a firm knowledge of almost all of what I rediscover. Their knowledge can exist in different forms (explicit, subconscious or other), but regardless of their preferred ways of thinking, they have that knowledge. They cannot teach all their knowledge that they can apply during their games, or cannot teach all as well as they apply it.

Therefore, I very much disagree to your statement. Not only do pros seek very much knowledge, but they are so strong, because they already apply very much knowledge.

There are exceptions: knowledge invented by me, which the pros cannot know and apply yet because it has not been available in their study sources and they have not invented it by themselves. Much of such knowledge invented by me is functionally similar to the knowledge already applied by the pros. Therefore, they could learn and apply also my invented knowledge if only they chose me as another source for knowledge input.
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