Kirby's Study Journal

Create a study plan, track your progress and hold yourself accountable.
User avatar
ez4u
Oza
Posts: 2414
Joined: Wed Feb 23, 2011 10:15 pm
Rank: Jp 6 dan
GD Posts: 0
KGS: ez4u
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Has thanked: 2351 times
Been thanked: 1332 times

Re: Kirby's Study Journal

Post by ez4u »

Kirby wrote:
Charles Matthews wrote:...

So, maybe I'm saying you are concentrating on some parts of your game you already know about; and you have too many "unknown unknowns" for your level, which is quite good, of course. I'd like to be helpful, naturally. A way I have put this in the past is that players should "try to get into better positions" rather than "try to play the positions they currently get into somewhat better".



Interesting! I agree that there are many "unknown unknowns" that I have. However, it seems natural to me that, when I do a self-review of the game, I can't comment on these "unknown unknowns", since they are "unknown" to me. For that, I thank those that have contributed on this thread.

However, perhaps I'm stubborn sometimes. What I mean by this is that, supposing there are "unknown unknowns" that one of you guys reveal to me, it is difficult for me to blindly accept it as correct. Usually, I have to interpret the advice in a way that is consistent with what I already think I know.

So it is certainly a dilemma that I have these "unknown unknowns", since I cannot determine them myself, and am even perhaps reluctant to accept them when they are pointed out to me.

Maybe I should tone down my internal filter for rejecting ideas that aren't consistent with what I already know...?

I think that this question of 'unknown unknowns' is very important for all of us. It interferes with our every attempt to improve. I have literally hundreds of Go books. But when I think about it, all my thematic books (as opposed to player collections for example) were purchased with the idea that they would help me with some 'known' that I should improve or a known (i.e. recognizable) unknown that I should learn. Any book that is about my unknown unknowns is still on the bookstore shelves because after all why would I buy that book? It doesn't have any (known!) connection to my Go. :)

So what to do? How do we study what we don't know that we don't know?
Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21
User avatar
Loons
Gosei
Posts: 1378
Joined: Tue Apr 20, 2010 4:17 am
GD Posts: 0
Location: wHam!lton, Aotearoa
Has thanked: 253 times
Been thanked: 105 times

Re: Kirby's Study Journal

Post by Loons »

I am occasionally seized by go nihilism.

"This is the correct move in this situation!" Unless it is incorrect, in which case the correct move would be correct instead. Also this other move would be more or less equally correct but lead to a different game.

So what to do? How do we study what we don't know that we don't know?

Clearly statistical analysis of patterns in our losses. How hard could that be to do?
Revisiting Go - Study Journal
My Programming Blog - About the evolution of my go bot.
Boidhre
Oza
Posts: 2356
Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2012 7:15 pm
GD Posts: 0
Universal go server handle: Boidhre
Location: Ireland
Has thanked: 661 times
Been thanked: 442 times

Re: Kirby's Study Journal

Post by Boidhre »

ez4u wrote:So what to do? How do we study what we don't know that we don't know?


This is where other people come in? Through great effort you might be able to re-invent the wheel yourself but in general for most improvement comes from being exposed to how others do it. It's still a lot of work though, just passive exposure only gathers the low hanging fruit.
Kirby
Honinbo
Posts: 9553
Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2010 6:04 pm
GD Posts: 0
KGS: Kirby
Tygem: 커비라고해
Has thanked: 1583 times
Been thanked: 1707 times

Re: Kirby's Study Journal

Post by Kirby »

I mentioned it a little bit earlier, but it is bothering me now that this study journal is only comprised of my games, lately. If I'm only posting games and reviewing... Well, I am "studying", but it's more of a "playing" journal, with some brief review.

So I guess I'll continue the same format, but add a study plan each week. What a better time to start than the beginning of the week? I'll try to play a couple of games each week, as usual, because I have enjoyed the discussion that has come about from the review so far.

Week of April 12, 2015
1. Pro games - A few posts ago, it became clear that I neglect pro games. Why not try memorizing a few? I aim to memorize three games this week. I will post saying whether or not I memorized them.
2. Go problems - I want to focus on some problems that I haven't done before. I've gotten quite familiar with a couple of go books, so I recognize the shapes easily. This week, I will start on "The Profound and Mysterious", Book 1, translated by Cho Hye-yeon. I will indicate how many of these problems I successfully solved.

I look forward to having more formal go study once again. Maybe it will help me recover from my recent episode of craziness :-)
be immersed
Kirby
Honinbo
Posts: 9553
Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2010 6:04 pm
GD Posts: 0
KGS: Kirby
Tygem: 커비라고해
Has thanked: 1583 times
Been thanked: 1707 times

Re: Kirby's Study Journal

Post by Kirby »

Progress Report

Today, I did I solved the first 5 problems from "The Profound and Mysterious" during my commute to and from work. I'm still working on Problem 6. They are harder than I thought. Up until now, I typically do easier problems. But why not try some more difficult ones?

I also "memorized" a pro game. The white player is Dosaku. The reason I use quotation marks here is because I realized while transcribing to SGF that there were a few parts that I didn't remember properly. I'd get to a variation, and think, "no, he played here first, didn't he?" So I'd back up and try again. I did this process without looking back at the SGF, but as you can see, there are several variations where I screwed up. I think one of them is close to correct.

Here it is:
Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go];B[hm];W[hn];B[gm];W[jn];B[im];W[jo]
;B[le];W[ld];B[ke];W[kl];B[ml];W[ol];B[mj];W[mm];B[cm];W[qm];B[pl];W[nl];B[oj];W[kd]
;B[je];W[hf];B[hg];W[fh];B[bf];W[bg];B[be];W[ch];B[bb];W[er];B[gc];W[hd];B[gb];W[hc]
;B[mb];W[lb];B[da];W[fb];B[ca];W[ea];B[dr];W[pm];B[gr]
(;W[gg];B[lp];W[lo];B[ko];W[ln];B[ig];W[kj];B[jm];W[km];B[kp];W[kn];B[li];W[nd])
(;W[ok];B[pj];W[rj];B[rk];W[rg];B[rh];W[qg];B[qh]
(;W[gg];B[lp];W[lo];B[ko];W[ln]
(;B[jm];W[km];B[kp];W[kn])
(;B[ig];W[kj];B[jm];W[km];B[kp];W[kn];B[li];W[nd];B[qb];W[rb]))
(;W[bl];B[qb];W[rb];B[pa];W[gg]
(;B[ig])
(;B[lp];W[lo];B[ko];W[ln]
(;B[jm])
(;B[ig];W[kj];B[jm];W[km];B[kp];W[kn];B[li];W[nd];B[ra];W[sb];B[sg];W[sf];B[sh]
;W[sd];B[ne];W[qs];B[os];W[bn];B[rm];W[rn];B[bm];W[am];B[bo];W[em];B[en];W[cn];B[dn]
;W[pk];B[qk];W[el];B[gj];W[ba];B[aa];W[ff];B[fe];W[fg];B[af];W[hi];B[fm];W[jh];B[kg]
;W[sm];B[ej];W[sk];B[qj];W[dj];B[la];W[ka];B[ma];W[jb])))))
[/go]

And here is the original game:
Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go];B[hm];W[hn]
;B[gm];W[jn];B[im];W[jo];B[le];W[ld];B[ke];W[kl];B[ml];W[ol]
;B[mj];W[mm];B[cm];W[qm];B[pl];W[nl];B[oj];W[kd];B[je];W[hf]
;B[hg];W[fh];B[bf];W[bg];B[be];W[ch];B[bb];W[er];B[gc];W[hd]
;B[gb];W[hc];B[mb];W[lb];B[da];W[fb];B[ca];W[ea];B[dr];W[pm]
;B[gr];W[ok];B[pj];W[rj];B[rk];W[rg];B[rh];W[qg];B[qh];W[bl]
;B[qb];W[rb];B[pa];W[gg];B[lp];W[lo];B[ko];W[ln];B[ig];W[kj]
;B[jm];W[km];B[kp];W[kn];B[li];W[nd];B[ra];W[sb];B[sg];W[sf]
;B[sh];W[sd];B[ne];W[qs];B[os];W[bn];B[rm];W[rn];B[bm];W[am]
;B[bo];W[em];B[en];W[cn];B[dn];W[pk];B[qk];W[el];B[gj];W[ba]
;B[aa];W[ff];B[fe];W[fg];B[af];W[hi];B[fm];W[jh];B[kg];W[sm]
;B[ej];W[sk];B[qj];W[dj];B[la];W[ka];B[ma];W[jb]
C[UC: Moves after 188 not recorded \
UC: White wins by 4 points
]
)
[/go]

In going over the game, I thought it was easy to memorize, but clearly, there are some issues with ordering that I had while transcribing.

---

Regarding the problems, I won't post them all, but my favorite is this one:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . X X X . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O O . X . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . O X . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . X O O O . X . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O X O . X . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]


I solved the problem with the correct answer, which is this:
Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . X X X . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O O . X . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . W X . . O X . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . X O O O . X . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O X O . X . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]


However, I spent the most time thinking of this variation:
Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . X X X . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O O . X . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . B O X . . O X . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . X O O O . X . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O X O . X . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]


Whereas the given solution given in the book only focused on this one:
Click Here To Show Diagram Code
[go]$$
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . X X X . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . B X O O . X . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O X . . O X . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . X O O O . X . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X O X O . X . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]


And that variation seemed easier for me. It might be because I saw this shape before. It is hard to say.

Anyway, let's see how tomorrow goes. My goal is to memorize two more pro games, and to keep chugging through this book.
be immersed