Life In 19x19

I have a regular source of motivation to study more: losing.

Subotai wrote:...without having people around you to play often?

Unless you live near people you enjoy to play regularly face to face,
you'll always have this situation (even if you are in Asia).

As Boidhre said, online Go (for 24/7 opponents; not for motivation, that's another issue.)

EdLee wrote:

Subotai wrote:...without having people around you to play often?

Unless you live near people you enjoy to play regularly face to face,
you'll always have this situation (even if you are in Asia).

As Boidhre said, online Go (for 24/7 opponents; not for motivation, that's another issue.)

I disagree, I find in person opponents to be demotivating for studying, because many opponents don't want to study or don't learn quite as fast as I do, which becomes a problem. Online, you can just rank up without any social problems.

SmoothOper wrote:

EdLee wrote:

Subotai wrote:...without having people around you to play often?

Unless you live near people you enjoy to play regularly face to face,
you'll always have this situation (even if you are in Asia).

As Boidhre said, online Go (for 24/7 opponents; not for motivation, that's another issue.)

I disagree, I find in person opponents to be demotivating for studying, because many opponents don't want to study or don't learn quite as fast as I do, which becomes a problem. Online, you can just rank up without any social problems.

It takes all kinds. And its good so. Would be boring if we were all the same, no?
I would say - it surely depends what one finds 'motivational'.

SmoothOper wrote:Online, you can just rank up without any social problems.

Unfortunately, I have had two people stop playing me when I gained a stone on them. Hmmm. Actually, in both cases it was after gaining two stones on them by winning 6 games in a row.

Bill Spight wrote:Unfortunately, I have had two people stop playing me when I gained a stone on them.

Unfortunate for them, yes.

EdLee wrote:

Bill Spight wrote:Unfortunately, I have had two people stop playing me when I gained a stone on them.

Unfortunate for them, yes.

Maybe it was a coincidence, they simply found a much better game to play, and we should be happy for them?

One thing that I found made a huge difference was keeping my go board on my desk. I used to keep it on a shelf, but it seemed like such a hassle to go get it and set everything up.

Now, if I get bored and start looking for something to do my go board is always ready to go. This makes it very easy to play through a pro game, or just get go on my mind and play online.

It might not work for you, but it's made it much easier for me to get myself to play or study go.

Bill Spight wrote:Unfortunately, I have had two people stop playing ME when I gained a stone on them.

( My emphasis. )

Bantari wrote:Maybe it was a coincidence, they simply found a much better game to play, and we should be happy for them?

Maybe. Yes, more data needed. Did they both continue to play Go, but just not with Bill, or did they stop playing Go all together ?
Either way, rather interesting coincidence.

My interest goes in bursts, too. Go can be so interesting that's its hard to stop thinking about it, so I have to discipline myself to prevent it from disrupting the rest of my life. The act of winding down (and the circumstances that make it necessary to do so) then dampens my interest for a while. Probably the answer lies in having a regular schedule and a goal rather than relying on the primitive pleasure/reward system.

snorri wrote:My interest goes in bursts, too. Go can be so interesting that's its hard to stop thinking about it, so I have to discipline myself to prevent it from disrupting the rest of my life. The act of winding down (and the circumstances that make it necessary to do so) then dampens my interest for a while. Probably the answer lies in having a regular schedule and a goal rather than relying on the primitive pleasure/reward system.

do you really think that schedule/goal is not the same thing as pleasure/reward system?

As for myself. I don't keep myself motivated, I just happen to be motivated. It comes and goes, but then, I get even more pleasure when coming back to go.

musai wrote:

snorri wrote:My interest goes in bursts, too. Go can be so interesting that's its hard to stop thinking about it, so I have to discipline myself to prevent it from disrupting the rest of my life. The act of winding down (and the circumstances that make it necessary to do so) then dampens my interest for a while. Probably the answer lies in having a regular schedule and a goal rather than relying on the primitive pleasure/reward system.

do you really think that schedule/goal is not the same thing as pleasure/reward system?

As for myself. I don't keep myself motivated, I just happen to be motivated. It comes and goes, but then, I get even more pleasure when coming back to go.

Read Borges' "The Zahir" then come back if you still do not understand what I am saying.

Unfortunately I don't get to play go face to face very often. It can be hard to stay motivated because of that, and sometimes I'll just enjoy studying for hours on end rather than actually playing online.
But, when I really don't feel like playing, and haven't played in a while, I try to remember how much fun I had the last time, and usually that gets me to stop being so unreasonable. then I go play.
It's really time consuming and it takes a commitment, but I can't ever remember regretting putting in the time.

Though,I should add, if I have an opponent and a board, I'm pretty much playing Go at every waking moment.

snorri wrote: Read Borges' "The Zahir" then come back if you still do not understand what I am saying.

I'm not sure I understand. I only wanted to make a point that scheduling/making goals is the same old (and 'primitve') reward system. You get (self-)rewarded for achieving a goal you set to yourself, and you get (self-)rewarded for sticking to a schedule. Right, it's banal, and you can say that every (human) activity then can be brought down to the 'primitive reward system' however apparently unrewarding the activity is. But I still believe it is true, at least in large majority of cases.