If you had a child (or already do)...

[tapir]

I don't know why nobody mentions it, I would make it conditional on the child being near 5-7d in Japanese, Korean or Chinese as well.

[hyperpape]

I think my real answer is something I'll only be able to say in a few years time. Right now, I'm 27 with an almost 2 year old daughter, and my entire planned out career fell apart last year. So I'm trying to figure out what on Earth to do, and I can't help but think that how it turns out will change my answer.

[gowan]

The situation isn't too different from that of classical music or ballet. To become a professional ballet dancer you pretty much have to start as a child and pursue ballet intensely from then on, even "sacrificing" a traditional education. But the chances of making it big after all that are very slim. Same for classical musicians. Professional classical violinists have to start as children, study and practice intensely for years, go to a conservatory instead of a regular college or university, and when they finish they have only a slim chance of making it as a soloist or a player in a major orchestra. I think most parents would be more supportive of their children in these fields than in go, but there are plenty of parents who discourage their children from careers in ballet or classical music.

The thing about go is that it isn't necessary to sacrifice a regular education to succeed as a pro. For example, in Japan Ishikura Noboru pro 9-dan, graduated from Tokyo University (no. 1 in Japan) and was on track for a job in a major bank when he gave it up to be a go pro. Sakai Hideyuki pro 7-dan(?) qualified as a medical doctor before giving it up to be a go professional. James Kerwin, pro 1-dan, graduated from college in the USA before going to Japan to study and qualify as a professional. There are other examples of professional players in Japan who are university graduates. So I would tell my go-obsessed offspring that he/she could study to become a go pro if there was a genuine talent and passion for it, but that he/she also had to complete a regular college or university education if he/she wanted my help in pursuing a go career. There are many professionals now living in the USA with whom my child could study and strong players on the internet to play with so it could be possible to reach pro level while completing a fall-back education.

[Kirby]

...Right now, I'm 27 with an almost 2 year old daughter, and my entire planned out career fell apart last year...

Was the "fall apart" due to your daughter being born? Anything I should beware of as a soon-to-be parent?

[hyperpape]

No, I think you can't give her much credit. Things were already pretty bad before she was born. I could try and claim that if she hadn't come along, I would have expended superhuman effort and turned everything around, but couldn't because of her. But since I hadn't done that in the years before she was born, I think that would be bull-puckey.

[entropi]

I certainly would not encourage my daughter to become a go pro. But if she wants that by herself I would try to convince her not to do it with the argument that something you like as a hobby may not give you the same taste if it becomes your profession.
If she insists, I would forbid her to eat icecream for a week
But she has a very stubborn personality, that I can tell even now, when she is not even 4. I hope she won't get such ideas.

[Horibe]

I think American parents have a tendency to be afraid to "push" their children in various areas that we percieve are good for them, other than generic academics.

I think this tends to be a mistake - I think we should push our kids to excel in many things, or, at least at minimum, expose them to many things - "force" them to try, and see where it leads.

Then you increase/decrease effort levels depending on the child's interest, talent and value of the activity.

The best thing you can give your child is something they are passionate about. Hopefully it will be something worthwhile, and, while I am not sure go qualifies high on the worthwhile list, I am not sure I would leave it off either.

My support for a pro go career would be cautious, and caliberated by the about of talent and effort the child put in. Combined with language learning - which would be a must, I am confident that other doors would open even if the pro effort failed.

By the way, I should mention that I have been an abject failure thus far in practicing what I preach.

[BaghwanB]

I'd be a mean dad and explain the odds against being able to even make it to pro, much less make a living as a pro but if she seemed like she really, really wanted to for quite a while and made (and stuck to) a backup plan for at least minimal education/career development (even at the level of getting a GED and planning on community college for an education path) I'd be as supportive as I could.

Not to say that there would be annual trips to Asia for "trial runs" or anything like that. I think the music comparison from earlier is quite appropriate. Ask your child:
1) Do you love this?
2) Do you really love this?
3) Are you willing to define your life by this?
4) Will you still be able to eat if it doesn't work out (for any reason, external or internal)?

If all the answers are "Yes" and stay "Yes" for quite a while, then go for it!

Bruce "Bad Dad" Young

[Solomon]

I honestly can't think of a single thing I was truly passionate about when I was a child, unfortunately . Unless Goldeneye counts.

[Chew Terr]

I honestly can't think of a single thing I was truly passionate about when I was a child, unfortunately . Unless Goldeneye counts.

Hmmm. Mayyyyybe I could count camping, fantasy novels, and Final Fantasy 3/vi. I wouldn't want writing to be my profession, and the other two don't really build towards any career I'm sure I'd want.

[hyperpape]

I can think of things that I was passionate about as a kid, but none where I showed dedication.

[SoDesuNe]

I honestly can't think of a single thing I was truly passionate about when I was a child, unfortunately :(. Unless Goldeneye counts.

Well, you know, I almost had a lvl 93 Classic Hardcore Sorceress back then in Dialo 2 1.10...

But yeah, I think a little bit parental pressure isn't a bad thing. Maybe I could play the piano by now like almost my entire family, if my parents hadn't accept a single and not backed up by anything "No".

[mlund]

That's an interesting question. I don't think it is exactly a binary equation. If one of my sons winds up with the discipline, calculation ability, and language skills to actually survive a trip to study in Asia before he's graduated high school I think he's got the chops for college if he washes out as an insei. We've got a few advantages in terms of what we can do along the way. My wife is an educator who can home-school. We have family in the greater Los Angeles area they could summer with if a professional in the So-Cal region would be willing to take one of them as a student.

In those regards it wouldn't really be a burn-your-bridges scenario if either boy had the desire and the discipline to study Go to that level. Then again, that could impede their ability too, but as a parent I'd much rather them have life-skills, values, and fundamental academics in their back pocket no matter what profession they went into.

- Marty Lund

[SoDesuNe]

But yeah, I think a little bit parental pressure isn't a bad thing. Maybe I could play the piano by now like almost my entire family, if my parents hadn't accept a single and not backed up by anything "No".

Or maybe you would have suffered from life long nausea simply from seeing a <censored> piano. Well, it's always nice to be able to blame ones parents. :twisted:

Or maybe I would have had a car accident resulting in the loss of six fingers, two years after learning to perfectly play Beethoven's Rage Over a Lost Penny. But, right, I could blame the driver then - always nice to have anybody to blame ; )

[snorri]

I expect not to have to get into the exact situation, because by the time my daughter is old enough for this to be real discussion, the landscape may have changed so drastically as to make the question irrelevant. (E.g., computers may become so good at go that the occupation withers or disappears, even compared to today. Or, we could be living in some kind of Mad Max dystopia that makes any profession that we'd consider viable/legal today seem silly. Or, most likely, she'll just not show sufficient interest.)

I think some other posters are correct in that American parents tend to be allergic to any kind of early hyper-specialization. In this way, becoming a go professional is just another kind of hoop dream that has to be put in perspective. That being said, I don't think one's youth should be spent doing things that are entirely pragmatic, otherwise we'd all be selling drywall. So I'd try to put her in sufficient contact with actual professionals (especially recent ones) who'd be able to give her a perspective of what she'd be getting into. I don't get the impression that a lot of western pros are exactly encouraging their students to become pros.

All I know is that if it does come up, there are (at least) two opinions that will outweigh mine.