Potential for improvement

[topazg]

I seem to be good at evasive answers on these questions (mostly because I agree with Kirby, I don't think the question has a clear answer), but here's my 2p:

What are you playing for? What are you hoping to improve for? Is it the sense of achievement / satisfaction of eventually reaching X grade? Will that still satisfy you looking back at the time you spent achieving it instead of millions of other things?

I know it's not really answering the question, but I play Go because I enjoy it, and I miss it when I don't for extended periods. When I've wanted to improve my game, I've bought books, watched reviews, practiced life and death, mostly because I want to feel like I understand it a bit more. As my understanding has grown, so has my rank. Will I ever reach 5d? I've no idea, nor do I particularly care or strive for it. Certainly with the lack of games and time I commit at the moment I consider it highly unlikely, but it doesn't bother me - when I do get the chance to play, I enjoy myself. Occasionally I play enough and have enough fun that I get that niggling Go bug and study to learn a bit more, which from time to time ends up reflecting back on my playing strength, and so the cycle continues.

If you enjoy the game, and want to play it more, just play. If you want to understand more, ask people, get books on the subject confusing you, and I think the chance that the combination of playing and doing that will push you into SDK ranks eventually is very high.

[Kirby]

So you're saying the one CS programmer that became good regardless of the education system proves that people should consider the possibility of eschewing teachers... right.

No, I'm simply saying that people learn in different ways. What's important is the learning. For some people, when this is wrapped within a teacher, it works well for them. But I don't believe that a teacher is some sort of silver bullet for learning. Teacher can help, books can help, experience can help... Many things can help.

But I think people are different, and one particular thing isn't the best for everybody.

When I read your post, it sounds like you believe that having teacher is the most efficient way for improvement for all people. I agree that having a teacher can be helpful in many cases. But I don't agree it's the best for all people, all the time.

Saying it takes 5-10 years to become dan unless you have a teacher sounds to be a bit "propaganda-ish" to me