Understanding

[EdLee]

Hi skydyr, Bill, thanks for the updates.

I first heard that it takes around 9,000 hours to become an expert in the late 1960s.

Inflation is infectious...?

[EdLee]

In any case, the burden of expectations placed on western go teaching
is far too high because too many people want go in cartons now.

This is good stuff; this is good understanding.

[schawipp]

Hi EdLee,

A dan-level teacher may find it pretty obvious that these groups are weak
and can not imagine that a beginner still struggles in recognizing that obvious fact.

Hi schawipp,

Remember understanding is a continuum.
[...]

Yep, I agree. However when sitting on the lower orders of magnitude on a logarithmic scale, the higher orders become somehow indistinguishable (and maybe also vice versa). When I speak of "Dan-level players" it means that I will always get a decent crushing when playing them without handicap. Maybe the crushing from a 7d would be even more subtle than from a 1d but the overall result would be pretty much the same - at least for me from my current point of view .

[EdLee]

when sitting on the lower orders of magnitude on a logarithmic scale,

Your understanding is not bad here.

I will always get a decent crushing when playing them without handicap.

Indeed. But taking 6H from a 1d (you have a chance) versus a pro (no chance),
you can feel the difference, I suspect.

[EdLee]

Culture and Etiquette

I don't go to the movie theater much these days.

Here in the US, they usually show some previews before the main attraction.
Somewhere in there is a message to the audience: please refrain
from talking or using their phones.

They also make similar announcements before live stage performances ( plays or musicals, etc.).

In Japan, the situation is slightly different.
Even on crowded subway trains, buses, or in public restaurants, you don't hear
the incessant beeps, chimes, rings, or chatting on phones.
All phones are either off, muted, or on silent vibrate.
If a call must be answered, the patron quickly exits the restaurant.
Nobody needs to be told, before every movie or performance, to be courteous to others.

I wonder what's the situation in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy,
and other European countries ? ( I seem to recall Dame Helen Mirren, during a recent play --
where she reprised her role as QE2 -- she had to break character
to tell someone to turn off their phone ? )

Someone ( I think it was Bill ) recently noted that a Go club is not a dojo.
This is true. However, there are some nice things we can share.

I like these:

• Begin with rei and end with rei ( 礼 ).
  This translates to a simple Hi, a greeting, Have a nice game, onegaishimasu, or a gentle nod.
  At the end, thank the opponent for their time and effort.
  Accept the result, win or loss, with grace.
  Don't gloat, and don't be a sore loser.
• I take responsibility for my moves. Every move. No undo.
  I find it respectful to Go, to my opponent, and to myself not to take back any moves.
  ( Sure, if both players agree beforehand to allow infinite takebacks, it's their privilege.
  And of course, it's different when helping complete beginners. We are not fascists. )
• The Golden Rule. ( Don't act like a jerk. )
• Don't be annoying -- examples:
  Don't play with the stones in the bowl excessively ( too much clacking ).
  Don't make otherwise annoying distractions.
• Sit nicely. Sit still. Don't fidget -- don't shake your legs.
• Some postures exude grace and elegance.
  Others... don't.⁽¹⁾ Choose wisely.
• Place each stone nicely on a point. If it's way off, fix it.
  ( It's a continuum and we find the balance. One extreme is very sloppy placements, always off the mark.
  Another is OCD tendencies, touching every stone, even the opponent's.
  Find a good balance, just like in Go itself. )
• No kibitz. ( If both players enjoy discussing the moves
  during the game, hey, more power to them. Find a good balance. )
• Learn when to resign. ( A toughie, a perennial favorite topic here. )

A wise friend, a history professor, reminded me just yesterday:

• Virtue: public good before self-interest.
• Corruption: self-interest before public good.

_____
⁽¹⁾

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[Aidoneus]

It has been 40 years since Robert Pirsig discussed the Greek concept of areté in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974). What he understood then may still resonate with some of you youngsters.

See http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_M._Pirsig

IMHO, this book is a classic, but de gustibus non est disputandum.

[EdLee]

Hi Aidoneus,

Thanks for the reminder. I've wanted to read that book for years now... some day I'll get to it.

[Aidoneus]

Hi Aidoneus,

Thanks for the reminder. I've wanted to read that book for years now... some day I'll get to it.

Ed, I really think that you would enjoy taking the ride with Pirsig. (Perhaps not so much his follow-up book, Lila. The difference between pointing at the moon and giving a chemical analysis, if you follow my meaning.) As I came from a mathematical background, Pirsig's discussion of the philosophical ideas of Henri Poincaré (a hero of mine) in relation to the concept of quality inspired in me a much deeper appreciation of Eastern ideas and led me to take a long random walk through translations of Chinese literature. Of course, like most everything, I am a mere dilettante.

[EdLee]

Henri Poincaré (a hero of mine)

Hi Aidoneus, I'm sure you can appreciate Poincaré, Perelman,
and Wiles' math infinitely more than I can.
That's very nice. One of mine is Feynman.


YouTube has a lot of nice stuff: Poincaré Conjecture -- Numberphile

[EdLee]

Culture and Etiquette, 2

Disclaimer: yes, over-generalization is bad,
and we have to be careful of anecdotal evidence.

(a)

First-hand observations: reactions of people when introduced to a Go pro:

• In the US: blank stare. ⁽¹⁾
• In China: "Oh, hi. You must be pretty smart." ⁽²⁾
• In Japan: ( *gasp* ) ⁽³⁾

I wonder what's the situation in European countries ?
_______

⁽¹⁾ My experience from 2003 to now. About Go, in general.
I guess this is about 99+% of the general public ?
Of course, we're not talking about at a US Go Congress.
⁽²⁾ General impression, not necessarily those exact words.
⁽³⁾ 2011, Kyoto. Two teenage brothers, one in university, the other in high school.
Their actual reaction probably included some audible "ええ...!" or "へへ...!"
2011, Japan Consulate, Los Angeles.
Maybe no "ええ...!" from the Japanese woman official,
but something like, "You are a professional Go player? Wow."

(b)

Please re-read Disclaimer at top of this post.

I heard this story just tonight:

One pro's impression of some adults' reactions when
the pro said, "This move is bad; don't play it." --

• German students: "OK." They actually followed the advice in their future games.
• French students: "OK." But they continued to play their own moves in subsequent games.
• US students: "Wait a minute -- you mean to tell me...?!"

[EdLee]

Sir Ken Robinson: Changing Education Paradigms

[topazg]

Sir Ken Robinson: Changing Education Paradigms

That is one of the best videos I've seen in years Ed, thank you very much for sharing...

[EdLee]

Hi topazg,

You're very welcome. I like it a lot, too,
and every now and then re-watch it and/or forward it
to friends.

[Bill Spight]

Sir Ken Robinson: Changing Education Paradigms

Robinson's ideas are in the humanistic tradition of John Dewey, A. S. Neill, Carl Rogers, and Abraham Maslow. They run counter to the thrust of most education reforms of the current day (in the US, anyway). New recruits for Teach for America, for instance, are taught to run their classrooms more like prisons than factories. As in my day, children are trained to be still, be quiet, be on time, know their place, and conform. But now, under the banner of "No Excuses", they are put in more rigorous straitjackets, especially if they are minorities. Sometimes the teacher in my classes would tell a student to stop looking out the window. Now students get demerits if their eyes are not glued to the teacher at all times.

There is a kind of war going on in public education, with the humanistic side in retreat. Take Weather Woman, for instance (a meteorologist featured in another video). She would like fifth graders to do arithmetic computations almost as well as calculators, if not as fast. But what happens when divergent thinking meets third grade arithmetic? In our schools, divergent thinking loses, as a rule. Weather Woman wants kids to learn not just the right answers, but also the right ways to get those answers. She poo-poos textbooks that ask kids for different ways they can find the answer (an attempt to foster divergent thinking). That does not make them good little calculators. Real mathematicians are creative, akin to poets. When John Conway visits third grade classrooms, kids have fun. Unfortunately, we cannot have a Conway in every elementary classroom.

I came to humanistic education by way of teaching English conversation in Tokyo to adults. My training was in the behaviorist tradition. My students had learned to be quiet. But conversation requires talking. Well, I knew how to get them talking. Reward any speech. And that means to reward mistakes. Within a few weeks they were talking. So far so good. Now was the time to shape their behavior by differential reinforcement. So I began correcting errors. Wrong! They clammed up. OK. Back to rewarding everything. When their errors were such that I did not understand them (to keep to our theme) I asked questions so that I could understand. After a few more weeks I noticed something strange. They were making fewer errors. That was not supposed to happen. So I gaily continued to make my classes rewarding for my students, without trying to shape their behavior. That is how I started to come around to student centered education.

[Aidoneus]

I've never been quite sure what to think of Dewey. Often he wrote about educating the whole person for a life as a citizen in a democracy rather than just training children to become workers, yet he was a strong supporter of William Wirt's Gary Plan (Dewey, Schools of To-Morrow https://archive.org/details/schoolsoftomorro005826mbp). Applauded by Carnegie for producing malleable industrial workers, the Gary Plan involved the implementation of rigid subject rooms and school bells, as well as a strong emphasis on "shop" classes (wood working, metal working), drafting, and other skills useful for industry.

A disclaimer. I graduated from William A. Wirt H.S. in Gary, though by the early 1960s it had fully implemented a tracking system. Some of us took lots of math (geometry using Euclid (!), algebra, trigonometry, calculus), science (biology, chemistry, physics), U.S. and world history (context, not just dates), English (yes, reading classics), foreign languages (Latin, in my case), etc. While the non-college track students were forced into shop classes, home education, consumer math, minimal non-rigorous science, little-to-no reading assignments, history as indoctrination, no extra languages, etc.

So, I just cannot reconcile Dewey's support for Wirt with his vast writings on educational theory.

A couple further references:

Noam Chomsky, Education is Ignorance, http://www.chomsky.info/books/warfare02.htm

John Taylor Gatto, Chap.9, The Underground History of American Public Education, http://www.lewrockwell.com/2010/09/john ... anagement/